Effective Organization Management and Leadership Blog by Dr. Alan Zimmerman

11:26 am | 0 recommendations | 2 comments

How to Build Trust & Develop Relationships with Clients and Employees That Last a Lifetime

When it comes to customer loyalty, nothing is more important than the trust you develop with your customers.  Research from Texas A & M University says if customers see you as being trustworthy and reliable ... and if customers see you fulfilling your promises … then they will become enthusiastic customers for life.
 
The same is true with your co-workers. If your employees see you telling the truth, even when it's not easy or comfortable to do so then you'll build an incredible bond of trust with them.  And with that bond of trust will come more cooperation and motivation. 
 
The lesson is clear.  If you want your customers to remain loyal, you must earn and keep their trust.  If you want a stronger team at work, you have to build a foundation of trust. 
 
So trust is your ultimate competitive advantage.
 
Now, how do you build or re-build trust?
 
4 Ways to Build Trust, Gain Loyalty & Retain Employees and Customers for Life
 
1. Assume the best about your employees and customers
 
When something goes wrong, or when the other person disappoints you, start by assuming the best. Don't immediately jump into the fray, pound your desk, froth at the mouth, and demand to know why your employees or customers did something so stupid.
 
Instead, honor the other person. Rather than focus on WHO's to blame for what went wrong, focus on WHAT can be done about it. That takes the focus off the past and off the other person. It puts the focus onto the future where the two of you can work together.
 
Besides, if you jump in too quickly, blaming someone for what happened, you'll often embarrass yourself. You may find out that you're really the one to blame for the problem that occurred. 
 
2. Stick up for your customers or employees when they're in the right
 
You build trust when you speak out on someone's behalf, especially when it's not politically popular or interpersonally comfortable. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "In the end we will not remember the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends."
 
I'll never forget the time I chaired the task force of a charitable organization. Over a period of time, it came to my attention that the organization had misused funds on several occasions. My task force members urged me to confront the Board and document my findings. They would be there to back me up.
 
I did that, but not one of the task force members backed me up when the top leaders lashed out in defense and aggression. If nothing else, I learned that Dr. King was right. It was the silence of my "friends" that I remember the most today.
 
3. Refuse to gossip
 
There's something very alluring, and maybe even a little satisfying, about sharing a negative tidbit.  It may make you feel a bit superior, but you've got to fight the urge to add to the gossip and the people bashing that may go on in the company cafeteria or behind a customer's back.  You just can't do it.
 
The reason is simple. 
 
Negative gossip almost always gets back to the person you are discussing.  That's just the nature of juicy, negative, sensationalized news.  And to make matters worse, the version that gets back to the person you discussed is almost always worse than the version you shared. 
 
4. Keep your promises
 
Nothing destroys trust faster than failing to keep your promises.
 
Think about it. No one ever forgets a promise. You tell your child you'll take her to the amusement park, and she'll remind you fifteen times that "you promised."
 
You tell a colleague that you'll get back to him, and he sees it as a promise. You tell a client, that an assignment will be finished by tomorrow and she sees it as a promise. And it doesn't work to go back to them and say you forgot or you got busy. In their minds, you broke your promise, and the trust between the two of you is damaged.
 
So, if you want to build trust, the solution is simple. Keep your promises.
 
A final thought
 
Don't get discouraged, if you're in the process of building or re-building trust in a relationship. Trust takes time.
 
Just as it takes more than one block to build a fortress, it takes more than one action to build trust. It takes a lot of blocks, put down … over time … to get the results you want. It works the same way when you're building trust.  Go ahead and use the four trust building blocks I've just given you and you will:
 
- Become a better leader and manager
- Retain your employees – (Don't forget … high employee turn-over  = higher costs)
- Keep your customers who want to buy from you over and over again for life
- Achieve more than you ever thought possible 
 
And, it's all because trust is the "ultimate competitive advantage."
 
Best-selling author and Hall of Fame professional speaker, Dr. Alan Zimmerman has transformed more than a million people into better managers and leaders in the office and in the marketplace.  For even more tips on how to build relationships with employees and customers that last a lifetime go to http://www.DrZimmerman.com and get his free e-book that's filled with his most popular articles.

11:23 am | 0 recommendations | 1 comment

How to Achieve Your Goals with 100% Success Every Time

In the movie, "A League of Their Own," the baseball coach talked to his dispirited team, saying, "Of course it's hard.  If it wasn't hard, everybody would do it!"

That's the way it is with success.  It can be hard.  But there are four sure-fire ways to achieve success at almost anything every time without failure.

4 Ways to Achieve Your Goals & Succeed Every Time Without Failure

1.  Work hard.

There's no substitute for hard work.  Simply put, there "ain't no free lunch."

When I look at highly successful people, I think, "It's no wonder they're doing so well.  Look at everything they're doing."

Could the same thing be said about you?  If someone were to follow you around for a week and painstakingly record everything you did to advance your career, would that person walk away with a long list of all the things you're doing to get ahead?  Or would that person have a long list of the excuses you gave and the time you wasted?

Sometimes people fool themselves into thinking they're putting out a 100% effort … when in reality, they're not.  For example, many people are out of work these days, and I've often heard them say, "I sent out 100 resumes, and I didn't get any response.  I did everything I could." 

One hundred percent effort means that you've exhausted every possible opportunity for reaching your goal.  If you're looking for a job, 100 percent effort would include researching individual companies you want to work for, sending these companies personalized letters, calling to follow up, calling other people in the industry, and networking.

One hundred percent effort means telling a potential boss, "I'm sure you've got a lot of applicants here.  But I believe so strongly in my ability to meet your needs, I'll work for you for 30 days with no pay.  Let me prove to you my ability.  In 30 days, evaluate my performance.  If it's not up to par, let me go.  But when I prove myself to you, I expect to be given the job and paid for the 30 days of work."

Now that's putting in 100% effort!  And that's what you need to do to succeed in any area of life … because success is more often the result of hard work than the result of talent. 

2.  Practice endurance. 

To many people, "endurance" is a nasty word.  They would like to come by success the "easy" way.  They want it to fall into their laps. 

But that's an extremely rare occurrence.  99.99% of the time, success comes AFTER you "endure" awhile.  And all the greats in every field of endeavor have learned how to "endure."

As professional tennis player Bjorn Borg noted, "My greatest point is my persistence.  I never give up in a match.  However down I am, I fight until the last ball.  My list of matches shows that I have turned a great many so-called irretrievable defeats into victories."

Could the same be said of you? 

Or do people ... secretly behind your back ... say you bail out when things get a little tough?  Do they say you give up way too easily or throw in the towel too quickly?  Do they point out the fact that you seldom finish what you start?

If you answer "yes" to any of these latter questions, remember the words of John Quincy Adams.  He noted, "Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."  In other words, there's power in perseverance.

3.  Keep on believing.

Believe in yourself.  Believe in a power bigger than yourself.  Believe in success.  And believe you can be successful.

That's what Lee Iacocca, the former chairman of the Chrysler Corporation did.  When the world told him to let his debt-ridden company die, Iacocca refused.  He didn't wait for the economy to change or for a government bailout to rescue him. 

Iacocca kept believing in himself, in his company, in his products, and in his workers.  He pronounced, "So what do we do?  Anything -- something.  So long as we don't just sit there.  If we screw it up, start over.  Try something else.  If we wait until we've satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late."

 4.  Stay committed.    

Everything else being equal, commitment wins every time.  So fight back any feelings of discouragement that might get in your way.  Don't allow yourself to hang it up when things get rough.

If you're going to be successful, you've got to remember the letters M.I.H. It stands for... Make It Happen.

As you pursue your goals, as you strive towards excellence and success, follow these four points and you're sure to win.  After all, most people don't fail.  They just give up.

Dr. Alan Zimmerman has taught the 12 keys to peak performance and incredible success to more than one million people.   Now you can get a FREE guided tour of the 12 keys in his life-changing "JOURNEY TO THE EXTRAORDINARY" program simply by visiting: http://www.journey-to-the-extraordinary.com