Resiliencia es un sustantivo muy usado en la actualidad, aplicable a determinadas personas que superan situaciones dificultosas o traumáticas. Sin embargo, como a veces ocurre, todo término que por determinadas circunstancias propias o del entorno
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to watch a video TEDx by Professor Franc Carreras, entitled “The Secret to Online Influence “, in which he gives a great example of how generosity has a clear impact on our results and the cadence of results after us. This story is called the tale of the two seas, the Galilee and the Dead Sea, which, despite being fed by the same source, the Jordan River, behave very differently, since the first receives water ut also, he pours it, while the second only receives it. The result is that while the Sea of Galilee is a garden of life and vegetation, the Dead Sea is simply a dark body of water and nothing else.
For some time now we have realized that, in order to position our products or services and that our clients choose us despite the growing and better offer by our competitors, something else must be done. Obviously, the first thing is to have a competitive product, with adequate technical features, at a price consistent with the solutions it provides, but then, what else can we do? Having clear this core of what the product should be, and that must be perfectly taken care of, we have two factors that will define the success (or the failure) of our proposal.
“At the end, either you’re different … or you’re cheap”. This quote of the expert in computer science, marketing and writer Guy Kawasaki contains one of the most important keys to achieve success, not only in business, but also in our personal lives. In the business world, either you are different (and you are recognized as different) or you have no choice but to compete for price, which always means “low price”. However, it is very common that we do not apply this differentiation in the appropriate direction, and this can have a significantly different result than expected.
keys to success
Claves para el éxito
From our childhood we are subjected (and submit) to a constant comparison with those we consider better. We are encouraged to behave better because this or that person stands out for their good behavior, to study more because we have to overcome the schoolmates who obtain the best qualifications, and when we reach our professional life, the reference are the competitors in the market that obtain the highest sales ratios, the best stock market valuation or the best references in specialized publications. However, with this methodology of differentiation we lose focus on the essential; ourselves.
It is important to clarify that everything said above is not wrong, since improving is always good, and trying to be better and approaching the best is always commendable. What I want to emphasize is that the true reference on which we must focus in order to differentiate ourselves must be ourselves and look inwards before looking outside. We must reflect deeply to know ourselves and discover our true strengths, those things that we are able to do extraordinarily well, surely better than the average, and that this is the true engine of change and improvement.
Starting from our interior and improving individually, we will be better people, and only then can we be more competent and obtain better results in our relationship with others, both personally and professionally. If we always keep the focus outside of us, the result may not be adequate, since we cannot be who we are not, and we will probably try to develop on weak points, which will not allow us to reach the proposed goals and may lead us to feel frustration, obtaining a result absolutely contrary to what we aimed to.
This Japanese expression implanted in Toyota, recognized as the best managed company in the world, hides the necessary procedure to have the necessary information and be able to make decisions effectively; however, and given the apparent simplicity of its meaning, is something that it is very difficult to apply, even more the bigger the size of the organization on which it is necessary to decide.
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and be more, you are a leader”
These words of the British writer Simon Sinek masterfully summarize what an authentic leader should be and how he should exercise his leadership.
The leader must earn the denomination through the results obtained, but not only by the objective data of the financial statements of the company, but by the results obtained through the influence exercised on the rest of the team, the rest of the staff, and in the company’s set of stakeholders.
“Every leader is a boss, but not every boss is a leader”
Every leader is a boss, but not every boss is a leader, and this must be kept in mind. If we want to limit ourselves to making decisions, to mathematically objective valuations and to results that qualify us as an efficient executive in the achievement of business objectives, we will be giving the boss profile. This can be perversely attractive, since we will have a good feedback in the short term and we will be well valued by those who pay us the salary, for which, it seems difficult to think that we should leave all this aside to do things differently.
Leadership in times of change
However, we are in times of change, and this change must also be made in our management style.
It may seem that everything said above must be abandoned because the present has changed, and things should be done differently. It is true that we must do things differently, but let us be clear that, if there are no objective results, if the company does not earn money and is not able to produce more efficiently and effectively and in a sustainable manner, everything else will be useless.
Having clear then that the results are essential, how we arrive at those results is what differentiates the real leader from the usual boss.
Be a source of inspiration for collaborators, transmit your passion, your vision and join with you adding instead of obeying, be consistent so that your actions do not contradict your indications, that your team wants to go where you go and not where you tell them to go, … in summary, and as Simon Sinek states in the sentence that opens this text, if you inspire them to dream, to learn, to do and to be more, YOU are a leader.
Become a leader to admire
Become someone to admire, to follow, to imitate; We all have references that have transmitted all this to us, thus we all have examples of what we want to transform ourselves, whereby there are no excuses. YOU decide if you want to be a boss and command or be a leader and transform.
Arturo Gálvez – Business Counselor
http://ajgalvez.com/
Current relationships, especially in professional relationships, what we say, transmit and the results we obtain are preceded by our behavior, which has two components; normative and spontaneous.
Normative behavior
The normative behavior is that which is clear, that we all know that we “must” do and that basically confers the minimums that we are expected of.
Dress in an appropriate dresscode to a specific situation, act with the appropriate standards of courtesy and education, go conveniently uniformed according to the regulations or corporate image of our work or our company, give the appropriate technical or specific answers to the request of another person, etc. they combine everything that has to be done and that our interlocutor interprets as expected, and failure to do so as established, as it is normative, will bring with it negative consequences previously established for the “offender”.
But there is something else that moves us from what is expected to what is desirable, that transforms a correct behavior into an excellent one and that takes our valuation of people to another level, and that is what these people do simultaneously and naturally to normative behavior. It depends to a large extent on the correct motivation and that they feel happy and fulfilled with what they do.
When the motivation is not correct, and people do not feel happy, the result will be opposite, taking us from the expected to the undesirable, with disastrous consequences in the sustainability of the objectives we want to achieve. This is spontaneous behavior.
Spontaneous behavior
Having perfectly motivated campaign workers and aligned with our objectives implies a deep knowledge of them, because only through knowing them perfectly and knowing what their values, expectations and circumstances are we can work in the right direction to be leaders for them instead of bosses, to make them feel part of a team instead of subordinates who fulfill orders, and who naturally accompany their normative responses of spontaneous nuances that carry their work, and therefore our results, to excellence.
Details as simple as they smile while speaking, discuss in a correct register and objectivity or feel enough confidence and control in what they do to make certain decisions that solve certain situations effectively will have a very important positive impact on our results.
The Importance of Spontaneous Behavior
Times have changed, and the economic recognition of the work done, even though it is essential, is no longer enough because our collaborators also expect spontaneous behavior from us to create a favorable and motivating work environment. We work with people and the right personal relationships require a deep knowledge and a permanent performance in the right direction in a vertical descending and transversal way.
Incorporating this type of management of people as part of the values of our company and our corporate social responsibility will cause a positive differentiation with respect to our competitors. I cannot find a single reason why should not do it.
Arturo Gálvez
http://ajgalvez.com/
“There’s only something worse than training your employees and leaving. Do not train them to stay, ” Henry Ford.
Following this quote of the American industrialist Henry Ford is one of the biggest dilemmas that certain employers are facing today, and I say certain, because fortunately more and more are (I include myself among them) those who are convinced that better to achieve the objectives is to be surrounded by the best, the most and best trained, to the extreme of, as Steve Jobs said:
“It does not make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what they have to do. We hire smart people to tell us what we have to do. “
The importance of company training
Only through the best, those who are most up-to-date and capable of adapting to the changes of the current professional environment, can we, working as a team and doing an adequate leadership, take our companies to an unstoppable position and growth, and if we fear that our collaborators leave, maybe we should look inside ourselves to find the reason.
A happy, motivated and recognized person does not feel tempted to change; generally good collaborators are going to change bosses, not to change jobs.
Training as a key factor
Bearing in mind that the formation of people is a key factor of success for companies, the reality is that it is common for lack of resources, or worse, for lack of strategic vision, in many organizations the training is not part of the fundamental budgets of the management, which is not only fatal for said company, but it is an important prejudice for the people who compose it.
This leads us to assess the possibilities of self-training. In the same way that managers must have the training of their teams as something inexcusable, people have to worry about being perfectly trained and updated to be able to choose among the best options that come our way.
Not too long ago the attendance to courses, lectures, etc., depended on a source of external funding that gave us the opportunity to take advantage of these opportunities, but today and thanks to the internet we have at our disposal how many materials, conferences, texts, etc., created by the best in any specialty that we are capable of imagining, with which we have no excuses for not being trained.
Training is essential in the personal and professional career
In the same way that companies have to be convinced about training is essential, people must take care to always be at the forefront of their skills and abilities, and there are no excuses for not doing so.
Of course, we must bear in mind that being formed is vital for our personal and professional careers, and that it is not only the responsibility of our employers, but of each and every one of us.
Arturo Gálvez.
http://ajgalvez.com/