Business DNA Insights

Know Your Client's Trust Levels

2010-03-25T14:46:00.000-07:00

Last week I was working with one of our Certified Business Transformation Consultants with my role to offer some behavioral insights on some difficult client cases. The cases were difficult because of the clients attitudes not only to business decision-making and leadership but also to life. These cases reaffirmed to me how much trust is core to all dimensions of every client situation. This is why when we redeveloped our DNA personality system in the past year we made trust a new stand-alone personality factor.

Often when we talk about trust it is in the context of our role as trusted advisor and building open relationships with clients. Certainly, this is an important dimension. Talking about trust in this way is fine. However, the heart of truly understanding trust and to knowing our clients is to know where trust comes from. There are a number of very important dimensions to trust that we all need to know. Let me ask you the question: How much do you trust yourself? Trusting your self is the starting point of building sound relationships and also making sound decisions. Your own level of personal trust will determine whether you will trust others and then whether others will trust you. So, if you want to know whether your clients will trust you, reflect on your own level of self trust and then learn about their self trust.

We all have a natural level of trust which comes with our natural DNA behavioral style and then there are life experiences added on top which deepen or reduce our trust levels. The more we know who we are and have personal confidence then the more likelihood that we will trust.

In one of the client cases I was referring to the client was 60 years old with a very successful business and over $10 million to his name and annual income of over $2 million. However, he was personally unhappy, not prepared to let go of the iron grip on his business or prepared to create a succession plan his family or company management could know about or be involved in. Does this sound familiar? This is a client who has very low personal trust levels and it transcends every part of his life. It will be very hard for this advisor to get close and really provide the advice he needs and on the other side the advisor will find it hard to meet expectations. A no win situation.

Have you seen people make fear based decisions and not be transparent? This starts from low personal trust levels. As a service provider you want to know your clients trust levels early if you are going to have a close and profitable relationship. You will never be able to help this type of person until you can discover the source of the fear. The difficulty is getting them to tell you. I do find that when you can get a client to talk about their strengths and passions you have a much greater chance of unlocking the fear, and trust grows from there.

Do You Know Who Your Customers Are?

2010-01-27T15:01:00.000-08:00

No matter the industry, providers of products and services are always saying something to the effect of: "You are blind as to who is going to walk in the front door for their first meeting with you. As you work with the client a bit you have a greater collection of knowledge but still not the whole picture. It can still take 10 years or more to really know who you are dealing with". Do you truly know the life and financial motivations of your clients? Their deepest desires? Do you know their risk tolerance? Do you know what types of products and services they want?

The reality is that most providers of products and services know very little about their clients. For the first few hours from meeting the client research shows that less than 10% is known about the client and in the medium term less than 20%. How much better off would the client and the provider be if more was known earlier?

The question I have is: why don't product and service providers seek to find out more about their clients? One reason is that it is hard and we do not have the time. So, the key is finding a way to quickly and non-invasively get the information you want and make the client feel understood. The process must be mutual.

Our "inside out" process for serving clients is below. Most providers start at step 3 - the product providing point. Whereas starting at step 1 is key - understanding the client's life and financial motivations. Step 2 is to demonstrate empathy by communicating on the client’s terms, and then step 3 is to match the DNA of the client to the right product. Finally, step 4 is to guide the client to make the right choices.

(Click to expand)

If you want to get started on this process, please go to www.dnabehaviormarketing.com and take our complimentary Communication DNA profile. Then you can see how to bring this process into your business to get to know your clients at a deeper level much more quickly for a more productive outcome.

Business Transformation

2010-01-21T08:47:00.001-08:00

In recent weeks we have strongly focused our messaging around "business transformation". In particular, the need to address the customer experience that is being provided in order to transform. So often, leaders regularly talk about getting the right people on board, developing the team and the leadership, having the right product, focusing the business plan, improving execution etc. These are all important dimensions; however, they are not all of it.

The key to business transformation is increasing the level of engagement of both your customers and employees. This is regardless of what business you are in or the nature of the service being provided. In 2009, there was some very compelling Gallup Research supporting this approach. This is illustrated by the graph below and the following key points:

(Click Graph to Expand)

When we interview businesses, so many readily admit they know less than 20% about their customer. What would happen if they knew more than 50% about their customers? So, from an implementation perspective we believe it is key to know more about your customers. Then deliver a customer centered experience by aligning your products and services to the customer and then having employees who are customer focused. This transformation in the alignment of your customers, employees and products can be achieved through predictive DNA behavioral insights. This is the fundamental purpose of our DNA Behavior Marketing system and Business DNA programs.

Improving the Connection with Your Prospects and Customers

2009-11-02T14:58:00.000-08:00

Have you considered what is going to propel growth in your business in the coming months and years? Schwab conducted a research study in March 2009 which shows the greatest 3 enablers of growth are:

1. Closing the deal with prospects - 75%
2. Maintaining quality service - 73%
3. Adding new technology for scalability - 67%

So what is your strategy for closing more prospects more quickly and improving customer service? How are you going to maintain and enhance your client service? Success comes back to the old adage "know thy client". People pay lip service to this, but do they really do it? And how well?

My view is that you will not know the motivations of your prospects and customers and how to communicate with them until you objectively know their DNA behavioral style. Once you know their DNA you can more quickly build a deeper relationship and also match them with the right choices for purchasing your products and services. Trust will be developed very quickly and your sales will increase.

This is the foundation of our DNA Marketing system (go to www.dnabehaviormarketing.com). Our DNA Marketing system provides you with an online behavioral marketing system whereby all of your prospects and customers can complete a profile online on your website. From there you will be able to seamlessly communicate with the prospects and clients on their terms and also customize your product and service offerings based on who they are. Using this system will deepen and scale your marketing. Also, this approach addresses one of your greatest barriers to growth which is not having enough time for business development and marketing.

Bringing Children Into The Family Business

2009-09-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

In my work with entrepreneurs and family business owners there are quite divergent views about whether to bring children into the family business when they are young adults, or even at any stage. Some say never and others have a desire to perpetuate the family association with the business. There are cases for both. Of course, rationality plays into it and the family legacy.

In my own case, I had to work through many of the issues because our family had a pastoral (cattle ranching) business which I eventually managed for a number of years. I enjoyed it from a business perspective but ultimately did not have the passion to make it a life long endeavor. My brother was not interested at all.

The big issue is, do the children want to be involved in the business? Then importantly, what is their passion for the business?

On one side it is wrong to force the children into something they do not want to be part of. However, is it wrong to deny them the opportunity? Often parents do not want the children in the business to avoid family problems by not mixing family and business.

I believe each case needs to be looked at on its merits. The starting point should be the DNA of the family members and also the DNA of the family and the DNA of the business. By looking at the question from the inside out, the answer will soon be apparent. If the children have a very strong passion for the business then the next issue of how they are involved should be looked at. Who can blame them if the business has been discussed around the dinner table every night for 20+ years?

In considering the involvement of the children, their aptitudes and abilities need to be examined. Passion is one important aspect, having the capability is another. Often this will come down to the role they play - certainly at the start. Thrusting them into a leadership role without experience and knowledge could be a disaster. Protocols need to be put in place for evaluation and determining their place on merit.

Overall, a family governance structure will be needed which properly regulates decision making. The decision making structure needs to be separate for each of the family, investments and business. They are all quite different areas. A key part of this will be the involvement of children in the business.

Dream Bigger Than You Can Think

2009-08-12T10:53:00.001-07:00

In recent times I have done a lot of talking about your "success impediments". What is getting in your way to success? A lot of the time it is our own mind. We allow negative thinking to get in the way. This will be true at any time particularly when times are tough and we are fearful. Or it will happen because we have limited experience or a lack of confidence. However, we should never let the big thoughts go away. These big ideas could be a genuine opportunity that is being thrown your way. To start growing you need to firstly not throw the idea away. At least write it down in a journal or talk to a friend or associate about it. You never know what they too have been thinking or how they will provide you with another thought or idea which will liberate your thinking.

To grow you must think big. In my own case, whenever I have taken a big step or pursued a big idea it is because I have taken that dream and not allowed myself to get in the way. I am doing something right now in our DNA business with an idea which I would never have thought possible. Interestingly, the idea came to me on how we could use technology differently and within weeks I have seen futurists talk about this as the future and industry specialists talk about these types of delivery concepts. While I have the vision, I can also see from those around me who have the talents to implement it. So, I will not be the barrier.

Sure, thinking big takes courage but we can all do it if we want to. What dreams or big ideas do you have that could change your life? Would you be a fool to let them go?

The Big Question

2009-08-05T08:38:00.001-07:00

Last week I participated in a learning program for fast growth businesses conducted by Verne Harnish (founder of Gazelles, Inc) who is world renowned as "The Growth Guy". Verne has run training workshops for and coached many great entrepreneurs all over the world. He has a very straightforward approach to helping an entrepreneur stay focused.

After listening to Verne for a while, and I have been in his workshops before, it became very clear to me that the Big Question we need to ask ourselves is: What is your success impediment? That is, what is getting in the way of your success? I believe we can continuously ask ourselves this question in every area of our life, at whatever stage we are at. In many instances, it is "you". So, the question becomes what are you going to do to get out of your own way? Are you self-aware of what is in the way? A lot of this is about your DNA. A lot of the time, we are not aware of what our natural blind spots are which are a core part of our behavior. Ultimately, people succeed or fail because of their behavior. Taking this further into a business or a family, the behaviors of the team or family member will also be important.

This is why coaching is very important. If you are an entrepreneur, Verne will certainly endorse that a coach is critical to your success in business. The same is true in life generally - a good life coach can really help your quality of life. If the coach starts by asking the big question every time then your feet will truly be held to the fire and the right focus will come.

Importance of Private Businesses to Business

2009-07-30T13:12:00.001-07:00

When one looks at business, it is easy to miss or not appreciate the importance of private businesses and entrepreneurship. How often do you look to the larger public companies for opportunities, marketing and jobs? Probably a lot. This is what many first think of doing.

I would like to suggest that you change your thinking and focus on private companies. Information from the recent G8 Summit in Italy shows that 70% of the world's jobs are provided by private companies and 100% of job growth. This would mean the energy forces are with entrepreneurship for many business opportunities.

Think about this next time you hold a strategy session for your business.

Effective Board Behavior

2009-07-15T07:33:00.000-07:00

In recent months I have written a few blogs about corporate governance and business risk management. I have expressed the view that many of the corporate problems we have today are related to ineffective board governance. It has been interesting being in Europe for the past 2 weeks where this subject has come up in many discussions with business leaders and in the press. Clearly, the topic of corporate governance is high on the agenda. It needs to be because this is the source of so much corporate damage.

The 2 business problems related to corporate governance getting mentioned the most are executive remuneration and then acquisitions. In both of these areas, executives have allowed their own greed to take over at the expense of the company. This is where the business leaders have really lost sight. The key point then is that the Boards have been too weak to stop them. This gets back to the structure of the board, in particular separation of chairman and CEO/President, majority of non-executives, minimal conflicts of interest and then importantly the right mix of non-executives who have the right behavioral styles to oversee the executives.

Remuneration is a hot topic because it is visible and generally reported in some way by public companies. However, acquisitions are a major issue because of the high potential for destruction. Of course, there are executive remuneration motivations by expanding the company. How many acquisitions really work? Not many and there are plenty of stats to show that. Although, some do. The business integration and financing issues are very difficult. From a governance perspective how much are the boards really looking through these transactions? To what degree has management pushed them through? What is the Financial DNA of the leaders? What is motivating them?

As we move through these turbulent times I hope that more companies will start to look at their board behavior and make changes. This is the first step to true leadership development. Investors also need to look at these issues when making long-term investment decisions.

Identifying the Human Behavior Risks in Your Business

2009-06-24T08:35:00.000-07:00

Back in March of this year, I wrote a blog about managing the human risks in your business. This issue has not gone off the radar screen. Identifying the human behavior risks in your business is critical to success. Every person has natural "blind-spots" which, if they go unchecked, can lead to individual performance failures, team failures, leadership failures and ultimately significant business problems. Regardless of the size of your business, the behavior of your people will influence the result. The influence will be higher the more senior the person is in the business. Look at why some major companies have failed in recent years - it is not the poor economy or financial markets, rather they have exposed the fundamental issues, particularly the behavior of leaders.

Some of the blind-spots may not seem that bad - e.g. uncomfortable to confront a problem, lack of patience, emotional decision-maker, poor planner, too driven and so on. However, these problems easily compound themselves at the individual level, then escalate when combined with others’ blind-spots.

Do you know where the blind-spots in your business are?

We have recently launched the Business Risk Management Report from our Business DNA profile which specifically identifies these risks. Please click here for an example.

New DNA Behavioral Solutions to Accelerate TRUST and Your Relationships

2009-06-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

At the moment, more than ever, the whole notion of trust in every aspect of our lives is important. For many, trust is very low, if not shattered, with our leaders, advisors, partners and family members. Furthermore, trust in ourselves is low, which is the core of the issue. If your business and personal relationships are not working as well as you would like, or your performance could improve, see whether it is because your trust is low. “Relationships of trust depend on our willingness to look not only to our own interests but also to the interests of others.” – Peter Farquharson

My starting point with trust is always to ask 3 questions: How much do you trust others? Do you feel others trust you? Importantly, do you trust yourself?

When you reflect on these questions, the foundation of trust comes back to whether you trust yourself. The answer to the other 2 questions will be determined by the answer to this question. Firstly, trusting yourself is a foundational life issue. Trust impacts your level of confidence to be who you are, to perform to your maximum potential and then how positively you relate to others. Importantly, when relating to others, your level of personal trust will impact the ability to be open, transparent, mutual and generally act in their best interests. If you act with a low level of trust (even though you may not be aware of it), you will trigger distrust from the other person.

There are many factors that contribute to whether a person trusts themself. Let me be clear, when I am talking about trust, I am not just referring to character or integrity. Our research has shown that your propensity to trust is influenced by both natural “hard-wired” behaviors and learned behaviors developed from life experiences.

This is why our firm, DNA Behavior International, has launched a new series of behavioral development tools focused on accelerating trust:

LeadershipTRUST for business leaders and managers
AdvisorTRUST for financial and professional services professionals
FamilyTRUST for family members and their advisors

The approach we are adopting through these innovative tools to help you build trust is to firstly uncover your natural propensity to trust, based on your natural “hard-wired” behavior. This behavior is the core of who you are, and was shaped from birth to when you were approximately 3 years old. For some, high or low levels of trust are relatively ingrained. Therefore, the challenge becomes to work on trusting yourself more. Then our TRUST tools are used to help discover your ability to build trust in specific areas based on:

Communication
Achieving Results
Building Relationships
Emotional Intelligence
Trust Building Skills
Values
Competence

These TRUST tools have a 360 rating system, enabling you to assess yourself and have others rate you as well. This will help uncover your blind-spots, which we all have. In the end, with greater self knowledge your personal confidence will increase and so will your trust. If you want to learn more, please email us at inquiries@businessdnaresources.com.

Changing Lives with Powerful Questions

2009-04-30T08:51:00.000-07:00

Today, I listened to a great presentation by Tal Ben-Shahar who teaches positive psychology at Harvard University. Interestingly, his 2 courses have been rated the most popular in the university. No wonder, he is so motivating.

The message he delivered was that if you want to change the reality of people's lives then you need to change the questions you ask them. The right questions can change people's lives. This is when miracles happen.

Think about when your life changed or you made a major change in your life. Was it because someone asked you a great question? Very often it is. I know many of my significant life choices have been prompted by a great question. Furthermore, I remember the people who asked me these life changing questions.

How do you ask these life changing questions, or what we call in our business powerful questions? They must be positive or what is often referred to as appreciative. Always come from a positive angle or the person's strength, regardless of what the situation is.

If you want to be more structured or scientific about it, then you can have the person complete a behavioral profile first. Then you know their areas of strengths and interests to which the questions can be directed.

The same approach can be followed with a person in any area of your life: whether it be clients, team mates or family members.

Redeploying Your Talents

2009-04-16T07:30:00.000-07:00

The current financial crisis is bringing to light a huge workplace shift. For many baby boomers, they only had one career or expected to have one career. The thinking of this generation was that upon getting your qualifications you had one career - working up the ranks often in the same company. Today, it is expected that the Gen Y's will have 10 or more careers. They will job hop. Although, this may be more difficult to do in the current circumstances.

With the financial crisis many people of every generation are having to re-evaluate their career to survive. Some career paths will simply go. What happens to the talent? How do people change careers? For many the big issues will be financial by being locked into the "debt trap" and being faced with relocation.

The first step for re-evaluation is going to be mindset. People will have to look inwards to themselves and see how their talents can be redeployed. Coaching or mentoring may help because we all have blind-spots and will need a confidence boost from another person's wisdom. The point is that many of us are capable of changing careers and still getting paid a reasonable income. The truly wealthy person is one who can confidently see that they have the potential for 2 or more careers. Of course, when there is financial pressure it is harder to see this because of the emotions that get triggered from panic. So, the key is to get people to take a step back and look at their talents which are the greatest source of their wealth.

As an example, I was talking with a friend of mine not long ago who is a leader in a bank. After some thought and discussions he has come to see that with his business knowledge and leadership experience he could successfully work in other companies. These other companies may not be in banking, but he can nevertheless redeploy his talents and make a great contribution. Even this week I have talked to 2 different groups of entrepreneurs about how they can re-examine their roles in their own businesses taking a similar approach. For some of them, it could positively change their business as they will get back in touch with their talents which are the real source of their productivity.

So, I really encourage you to look at your talents and see how by redeploying them you may find new opportunities. Be prepared to think creatively and beyond where you are now. A key part of this is not to let money be an immediate barrier. Look at the potential redeployment opportunities first. Then when you have your list, the economic denominator can be brought in as part of the decision-making process. The experience of doing this will be nothing short of liberating and powerful. You may even work in a job you are truly passionate about for the first time!!

Fix Corporate Behavior... Fix the Board

2009-03-31T14:11:00.001-07:00

I have had some interesting discussions in the past few weeks with business leaders from many different industries and backgrounds in the United States. One of the areas that consistently comes up is poor corporate governance. As mentioned in my last blog most of the economic problems we have right now are due to the behavior of our leaders.

Being direct, alot of leadership behavior is not properly monitored. So, a key step towards fixing the problems we have today would be to change the corporate governance structures in publicly traded companies. In particular, I believe that the roles of Chairman and Chief Executive/President must be separated. You cannot have the Chief Executive of a company also its Chairman. This places far too much power in the hands of one person. Decisions for the company will largely be made by that person – and while that leader may have many great strengths, he or she may also have alot of blind-spots and biases which will go unchecked. Further, that leader may be tempted to make decisions out of self-interest - whether it be remuneration, selling the company or make any decision which benefits him or her.

You only need to look at the evidence out there to see how many great companies have been destroyed in the last 10 years because there has been a leader who is too dominant and acted out of self interest which has gone unchecked through proper board governance. I do not believe investors should invest in companies who do not have the right corporate governance structure. Having the Chairman and CEO being the same person is very risky and at some point could mean the company is seriously endangered. So, as businesses restructure and investors start looking for good opportunities sound corporate governance should be one of the main factors considered. Taking this point further, the remuneration levels of the CEO's should be reviewed. Frankly, in many companies they are way out of line compared to the value brought to the table by that person.

Manage the Human Risks in Your Business

2009-03-19T14:21:00.001-07:00

At the moment there is alot of talk about the collapsing business and financial environment. For everyone it is having an impact in all sorts of ways. Of course, we all look at the numbers side of the equation; but what about the people side? What are the human risks in your business? How are your people behaving in these times? Then, also, how do you want them to behave to handle the crisis and then build your business going forward?

We have been working with many companies all over the globe on managing and developing their human capital. In this regard, we have been using our Business DNA Business Risks Matrix. Please click on the link to review a summary.

Have a look at the balance of human behavioral risks in your business versus the environmental business risks. You can see alot of attention needs to be given to the employee and leadership behavioral risks. This is where businesses win or lose.

Being very frank, the current financial and business environment has been caused largely by poorly managed human behavior. Poor financial and business circumstances do not entirely happen themselves. Look at the leadership of the companies around you. How we move out of it will depend on all of our behavior. How are you going to be a leader and manage your human capital?

Recently, we launched our new Business DNA behavioral profiles. The insights from these profiles will be outstanding predictors of how your business is going to develop and where many of the roadblocks are. For more information visit: www.businessdnaresources.com

Living a Quality Life at Work

2008-09-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

In today's world not everyone comes to work for the highest pay packet. Although, being well and fairly remunerated is important. People come to work for meaning as well, and if they are not, then they should be. Otherwise, why spend 8 or more hours a day at a place and with people you do not enjoy?

So, if you are an employer take a look at your retention and remuneration policies. Perhaps there are some non-financial benefits you can throw in which will mean more to the "bottom line" than financial benefits? Think about what you can do.

In our business we have defined some polices so everyone gets:

A company paid trip each year to a different place so they can fulfill a life dream - of course this has to be approved by the team
Community service days off - so each person can help others in the community in an area of interest
Quarterly company outings to local places that provide a unique but meaningful life experience, and of course is fun.

What I have found is that it is not just providing the policy which is important; it is the bonding experience around discussing each others dreams and passions. This is what builds the connection and makes everyone feel valued and involved. If you want an easy way to do this go and buy the Dream Manager by Matthew Kelly.

Matching Talents to Roles

2008-08-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to help many firms with their hiring and a key part of my work is to review the job description. In my experience an aspect which is not paid enough attention by the employer is identifying the specific talents required for a role. That is those natural behaviors which the candidate can repeatedly do with ease. Examples of talents include communicating with others, being detailed and organized, making fast decisions and dealing with change, building relationships or innovating.

So often the employer will focus on defining the skills, knowledge and experience required for a role. Whilst important, these are all learned behaviors which can in many cases be taught on the job. However, the talents cannot generally be taught because they are ingrained or "hard-wired" behaviors from very early in life. In some cases, the talents can be learned to some degree but it is difficult, stressful and energy sapping. Unless the candidate also has the right talents then he or she is unlikely to perform well in the role over the medium and long term.

Therefore, I really encourage you to critically analyze the specific functions the role requires and match it to the talents required. Who were those people that have successfully performed the role in the past? What were their talents? Why did they succeed in the role? Normally, there is a common set of talents. These are then the talents that the candidate you are hiring should have. Of course, passion is vital as well. When you have both the right talents and passion then the chances of you hiring a "winner" are greatly enhanced.

Behavioral Interviews...Getting Beyond the Party Manners

2008-07-30T10:08:00.000-07:00

Why do people come across well in an interview and then not perform when in the role? Do you actually know the right questions to ask a candidate? How well have you actually prepared for the interview?

Like anything in life or business, success comes from being well prepared. When you are hiring candidates for any role in your business being well prepared for the interview is critical. What I advocate is that you prepare your self to conduct a full behavioral interview. To do this properly, the candidate needs to complete a behavioral assessment before the interview. Then the key step is to use that behavioral information to design an interview agenda. This will then mean you have written down the specific behavioral questions you want to ask knowing their innate strengths and struggles. As a result you will have a much better capability to discover the candidate's true talents and get a better prediction of how they will perform over the long term.

What this type of interviewing means is that there will be different questions for each candidate depending on their behavioral style. This is why I have written a "Hiring for Talent" Powerful Questions book so that there is a readily accessible pool of behavioral questions to ask. To learn more go to www.hiringfortalent.com.

I have found that by staying focused on the behavioral questions you will get beyond the party manners which are on show during the interview and the sales talk. I will emphasize it is crucial that you get below the surface to the key performance issues. If you are not well prepared to ask your questions, then all you have had is a nice conversation and the truth has not been revealed.

If you are a candidate you should also get yourself ready to be asked these behavioral questions and also ask them of the prospective employer. For more information go to www.gettinghiredtips.com.