Remember when Jack Welch and GE were all the rage with the system of ranking employees and firing those at the bottom of the pile? Does it really work?

Essentially, you may remember, the system involves ranking employees according to grades on their performance reviews. For instance, the top 20% of employees are considered hot commodities, and are of course safe from the ax. The next 60% are middle-of-the-roaders – adequate performers that the company would like to hang onto. And then there’s that bottom 20%. They have a bull’s-eye on them. If they don’t improve, they’re gone.

You probably can see right away that the practical effect of the system is that one in five employees will be let go each year – since you’re always going to have a lower 20%. Some call it “efficient”; others call it “ruthless.”

Use of the system peaked in 2009, when the Institute for Corporate Productivity reported that 42% of employers were using “rank and yank.” This year, the figure is down to 14%.

Does that mean it’s out of favor? Not necessarily, according to the Wall Street Journal. Some companies may have just changed the name of the system or modified it a bit so that it doesn’t seem so stark and cruel.

Should you use it? Performance experts say it can work , with some modifications to prevent destroying morale and unfair decisions. For example:

• Instead of using the rankings to determine who gets fired, use them to determine the amount of bonuses or merit pay. Certainly, some poor performers will get fired, but their terminations can be based on a set of performance standards for the job, and not on ranking against other employees.
• Managers should have to justify rankings. One of the major complaints about the system is that some managers fall prey to favoritism or that standards tend to vary among managers. One manager with high standards might give low rankings, while another manager might be a little softer. To prevent that, companies that use the system, or some form of it, have roundtables at which managers have to explain and justify their rankings to other managers, as well as to the boss. That takes away the unilateral, and dictatorial, aspect of the rankings.

Note: GE no longer uses the system. The company dropped it shortly after Welch retired as CEO.

We’ve all heard about the benefits of exercise. Now, one study maintains that benefits extend to the people who work for a boss who exercises, even if it’s just a little.

In a study in the Journal of Business and Psychology, “Supervisor Workplace Stress and Abusive Supervision: The Buffering Effect of Exercise,” researchers asked 98 employees to rate how their supervisors treated them, by responding to statements like “puts me down in front of others.” The researchers then had supervisors of the 98 workers fill out a different survey on the frequency of exercise and the levels of stress the bosses experienced.

Here’s what came out of the two surveys:

• The less exercise a boss got, the more employees felt belittled by the boss
• Bosses who got less exercise reported feeling more stressed, which of course could lead to the bosses’ belittling of employees, and
• The type and amount of exercise a boss needed to get better marks from employees wasn’t varied and often not all that much; included in the types of exercise were yoga, cardio and weightlifting, and in some instances the activity took place only once or twice a week.

That last finding is a real revelation to students of wellness, because for years we’ve been told the real benefits of exercise kick in when the activity is performed on an almost-daily basis. Certainly, fitness improves in proportion to how often one gets exercise. But the study shows that even a minimum frequency of exercise appears to lower stress levels and produce a better overall outlook.

These come from Ted Barrows, a top sales trainer and consultant:  

 1. They get to work early each day. It allows them to plan their day without distraction. Customers usually appreciate salespeople who work hard and don’t give the impression they have all the answers.

   2. They maintain personal touch with their customers. Customers want to do business with salespeople who are interested in them. They like salespeople who listen and learn about them, their problems and their goals.

   3. They prioritize everything. They break things down in order of importance. They don’t waste time on mundane tasks so they can concentrate on the ones that get results. They realize that customers expect quick replies to requests for information, especially when problems arise.

   4. They provide solutions. Customers want salespeople to present solutions to problems. They look for responsiveness and creativity. They want salespeople who know products thoroughly and are able to offer technical support.

   5. They hold themselves completely accountable for everything that happens to them and make no excuses for poor performance. They view themselves as completely in charge of everything that happens to them. If they don’t like what’s going on, they decide it’s up to them to change it or improve it in some way.   

In his book Profits Aren’t Everything (They’re the Only Thing), business expert George Cloutier reinforces one basic premise time and time again –  the bottom line speaks the loudest.  Cloutier, a consultant who BusinessWeek once dubbed the “Turnaround Ace,” offers these five rules for turning excuses into profits:

1. Live and die by an “official plan”: Have a set of precise goals and a step-by-step plan for achieving each of those goals. Constantly gauge employees’ progress (as well as your own) and adjust to meet each goal on time.
2. Develop a performance-based compensation plan: Update your comp so employees are amply rewarded (or penalized) based on how much value they bring to the organization. Offering generous base salaries based solely on experience or past achievement gives staffers an excuse to rest on their laurels. It also breeds resentment among the ranks. When employees are paid more based on performance, they become highly motivated to achieve their goals.
3. Delegate, delegate, delegate: Make a list of responsibilities you can delegate and pass them on to senior members of your team. Giving employees more responsibility empowers them, and it frees you up to deal with big-picture issues.
4. Measure success by profit margins: Ultimately, managers have one objective – help the company increase its profitability. If you’re not accomplishing that, no other metric really matters.
5. Take full accountability: Whether it’s the economy, price or competition, great leaders pinpoint the problem, develop a solution, and rally their troops onward to victory.

You can have the whole package — one that screams success — and still drop the ball.  So says Sydney Finkelstein, a Dartmouth College management researcher who looked into the failure of several companies and published the results in a report titled “Why Smart Executives Fail.” Finklelstein listed five major flaws of the smart managers who failed:

1. They see themselves and their companies as dominating their environment.  Domination and control can be good in business. What’s bad is the illusion of domination and control. That is, some managers falsely believe they can control circumstances all the time. That belief usually is based on some degree of early success — which leads to the seeming certainty that more control and success will follow. Stuff happens, however, and the better managers know it.
2. They identify so completely with work and the company that there’s no clear boundary between personal interests and business interests. Commitment is good. Believing that a company or work is your private empire is bad. Failed executives tend to see everything in the company as an extension of themselves. Remember, you’re a manager, not a king.
3. They think they have all the answers — right away. Some managers are captivated by the  image of a dynamic leader making a dozen decisions a minute, dealing with many crises simultaneously, and taking only seconds to size up situations that have stumped everyone else for days. That person doesn’t exist in real life. It takes time and sometimes help from others to come up with good decisions.
4. They think you’re either with me or against me. This isn’t about gaining buy-in from others. It’s about demanding buy-in from others. And woe to those who don’t get on board immediately with this manager’s plan.  The approach is good for avoiding problems or flaws. It’s a bad way to fix problems or uncover flaws.
5. They rely too heavily on what worked for them in the past. Sometimes, the tried-and-true does work. But it doesn’t work all the time. Even the smartest manager will on occasion fall back on what worked in the past, even though times and circumstances have changed drastically. They disguise a lack of innovation as “sticking with the  basics,” which they ride straight to the bottom.

Ted Higgins, VP for the Forum Corp., a sales-training firm, lists the 10 that have worked for him:

1. Be bold. Increase your success in retaining and growing current customers by focusing your efforts on calling on the right people in the right accounts with innovative and unique ideas. Offer innovative ideas and insights. Customers are so busy dealing with their own competitive pressures that they don’t have time to discuss tired ideas. What have you learned from others customers with similar issues that can relieve your present customer’s pain immediately. Packaging these insights creatively is key to increasing your business with this customer.
2. Be a true consultant for your customer. Talk business strategy with your customers. Show how your offering advances their strategy. Create solutions that solve your customer’s problems. Customers expect solutions that support and drive their central business strategies.
3. Talk results with customers. Show how your product or service can positively affect the customer’s performance. Identify the appropriate needs and create a compelling case for your solution.
4. Be innovative. Increase credibility as a trusted advisor by bringing to the table innovative, highly differentiated solutions that respond to customers’ unique business challenges. Customers view new ideas and insights from your experience with issues they may be facing. 
5. Do your homework. Focus on both results and the relationship. New conditions demand new strategies. Know more and turn that knowledge into value. Customers want insight. Go beyond asking good questions about the customers’ situation. Before getting in front of the customer, know the answers to questions about the customer’s own customers, competitors, strengths and weaknesses.
6. Resist the pressure to just sell something. Overpromising to customers is a frequent trap that some salespeople fall into. Gaining the sale in the short term may create havoc downstream. The outcome is predictable. Customer trust is eroded, business what should have been won is lost, and entire relationships are jeopardized when needed them most.
7. Focus on results and relationships. Show commitment to your customer by adding value, Conduct periodic account reviews to summarize the value you’re providing and pinpoint areas for improvement.
8. Go to school on your competitors, They have never been more aggressive or more vulnerable than right now. Develop defensive strategies and points of view. Help your customers develop strategies for dealing with their competitors. Be proactive in providing advice and insight.
9. View each customer’s company as a market. Focus efforts on segmenting and capturing a share of this market. Leverage successes and relationships.
10. Achieve customer loyalty. Because customers are continually changing, the factors on which they evaluate sales organizations are changing also. Achieving customer loyalty is a job that’s never done. Customers are always evaluating you to see how well you’re meeting their current needs.

1. They no longer confide in you. When personal issues or office politics are having a negative impact on a salesperson’s ability to do his/her job, management is generally the first place a rep will turn for help. If you notice reps are no longer darkening your doorstep, or perhaps even avoiding you at all costs, it’s a clear sign either they have something to hide, or they have very little faith in your ability to help them overcome the problem.
2. They show blatant disrespect for office policy. It seems like the better salespeople are at their job the more prone they are to feel an unspoken sense of entitlement. Regardless, rules apply to everyone, and managers who go soft on A-players not only send a negative message to the rest of the team, they lose considerable respect in the process.
3. They ignore warnings. Salespeople will only test managers when they don’t fear any real consequences for their actions. If salespeople ignore your warnings about negative behavior, follow up swiftly, and follow through on whatever you said you were going to do. They may throw a fit in the short-term. But long-term, they’ll know you mean business.
4. They skip meetings. Sometimes you need the meeting, sometimes the meeting needs you. Salespeople who want to support management show their solidarity by showing up to all department meetings and functions, if for no better reason than they know skipping those meetings is a poor example to set for rookie salespeople.
5. They go over your head. Generally speaking, salespeople only bypass their manager entirely if: A) They want to file a complaint about the manager, or B) they have absolutely no faith in the manager’s ability to resolve issues effectively. Either way, it’s not a good sign, and the manager needs to take control of the situation and prove to salespeople he/she is an advocate with their best interests at heart.

In his book Dumbing Down Our Kids, author and educator Charles Sykes offers these “11 Rules You Won’t Learn in School”:

1. “Life is not fair – get used to it.” The more time you spend complaining about the things you can’t control, the less time you’ll devote to the things you can.
2. “The world doesn’t care about your self-esteem.” Respect is earned, not given. You need to achieve something on your own in order for others to stand up and applaud your contribution.
3. “You won’t earn $60,000 right out of high school.” You’ll need to work your way up, and – in many ways – the lessons and failures you experience along the way will serve as your real education.
4. “If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.” In many cases, it’s your tuition that’s paying the teacher. In the business world, it’s the teacher who’s paying you.
5. “Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity.” When your grandparents were young, flipping burgers was an opportunity to learn.
6. “If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault … It’s yours.” Don’t waste time blaming others. They’ll resent you, and it doesn’t earn you any real respect.
7. “Take responsibility for your own contribution, rather than waiting for others to place opportunities in front of you.” Don’t waste years of your life waiting for someone to show up on your doorsteps and hand you the roadmap to success. Go out and grab it.
8. “Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not.” Hard work is often its own reward. And consistent hard work leads to greater rewards.
9. “Life is not divided into semesters and you won’t have the summers off.” Make time for yourself, but devote yourself to being focused and equal to the task on a daily basis.
10. “Television is not real life.” You need to step outside your comfort zone to really experience life.
11. “Be nice to nerds … Chances are, you’ll end up working for one.”

It happens. That new recruit who looked so good now has you wondering whether you made a mistake. Here are some sure warning signals.

Mr./Ms. Sociable: During work time, this newbie likes to visit others, or maybe spend a lot of time on the smartphone – talking, updating a Facebook profile, other important stuff like that. If someone who’s new on the job doesn’t know better, the situation is unlikely to get better.

Tardy Tom/Tina: Scads of studies show that an employee who is late or absent within the first few weeks of being hired will often be chronically late or absent. Yes, there are exceptions – sometimes someone really does get a flat tire on the way to work. Just be careful that what you’re seeing is, in fact, an exception and not a pattern.

More, more, more: The employee who starts out complaining about a lack of resources or using a perceived lack as an excuse for poor performance is trouble: “My workstation is in a bad spot.” “My equipment is old.” “It’s too noisy.” Expect this employee to keep blaming something or someone else for failure.

Assertive on steroids: Of course, you want employees to give their opinions, ideas and reasons – even new employees, to a point. Watch it, though, if the newbie is a bit too loud, argumentative or even confrontational. We’re usually talking about someone who wants to change the system, without yet knowing what the system is. Ask yourself if you’re prepared to put up with years of that type of behavior.

The good, ol’ days: You often hire people based on their experience. Some of those people can’t get past their experience. Every time there’s a problem or challenge, you hear, “When I was at Ajax, we used to …” At some point, the employee is supposed to make the transition to your business and what you’re doing.

These are adapted from a piece by comedian Constantine Von Hoffman in Inc. magazine:

1. Recruit aggressively. To build up the North Korea film industry, in 1978, Kim kidnapped a leading South Korea director and his actress wife. They produced seven films in North Korea before escaping, er, uh, transferring back to South Korea.
2. Communicate selectively, and only for the purpose of praise. Kim made one national broadcast during his 21-year reign in which the only words he said were “Glory to the heroic soldiers of the Korean People’s Army!” And he didn’t even use Powerpoint.
3. Have your own style. The hair, the leisure suit, the oversize sunglasses — well, just about everything was oversize for the 5-foot-1 Kim.
4. Stay busy and productive. Despite a schedule packed with trying to figure out how to annihilate his enemies and any countrymen who wanted a square meal, Kim found time to write at least 1,500 books, compose six operas, and direct several movies. According to his official biography, he once managed to squeeze in a round of golf in which he shot 38 under par and bagged 11 holes in one.
5. Work your way up from the bottom. It took a full 10 years from the time Kim joined the Workers’ Party to his ascension as the nation’s leader, shortly after the death of his father.
6. Go to any lengths to satisfy customers. Kim allegedly forced waitresses at restaurants frequented by foreigners to have cosmetic surgery in order to appear more “western.”
7. Work hard, play hard. The Dear Leader had live lobsters airlifted daily to his train when traveling, and his annual cognac bill was $700,000.
8. Don’t hesitate to break a few eggs when making a management omelette. A reported two million North Koreans died of famine during Kim’s tenure.

Half the battle in winning over workers is knowing what they value and what scares them. One study addresses both.

More and more workers worry about their benefits, and especially about retirement accounts, according to a nationwide eight-year study by benefits consultant Mercer. The corollary is that more and more workers are loyal to an employer whose benefits package addresses worker concerns.

Here’s a snapshot of what came out of the Mercer poll:

• Retirement. The number of workers who said they were worried about saving enough for retirement jumped by about 50% between 2008 and 2011. Even among workers under age 50, the number who said they’d probably delay retirement went up by about 50% during the same period. Reflecting their concerns, workers this year expect to put an average of $7,763 into their retirement accounts in 2011, up from $6,440 last year.
• Job security. Even during just the last year, the number of employees who expressed worry over their job security went up by about 25%. It appears that in 2010, a lot of workers thought the economy would get better by now. Because it hasn’t, they’re more worried about whether they’ll have a job tomorrow.
• Importance of benefits. Almost four out of five employees (79%) in 2011 said benefits are one of the main reasons for choosing and staying with an employer. That’s a 4-percentage-point jump over an already high number who had the same response in 2010. As you might expect, respondents were especially tied to the importance of employer-provided health benefits; 86% said what they pay out-of-pocket for their health benefits, including premiums, is probably or definitely worth it for the coverage they get.

What it all means

Based on the data, employees clearly put a lot of stock — and a lot of loyalty — in employers that offer:

• Good retirement plans, via 401(k)s or other accounts
• An environment in which management makes decisions based not just on generating short-term profits but also on the long-term financial security of the company, and
• A solid — if not lavish — benefits package that’s attractive enough that workers won’t dwell on missed pay raises or other salary concerns.

Related story: Do you offer this in your 401(k) mix? Why you should.

During Season Five of Seinfeld, Jerry and George are sitting at the coffee shop with Elaine when Jerry encourages George to make a life-altering change.

“Here’s your chance to do the opposite,” Jerry explains. “If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right.”

Words to live by.

Harvard Business Review blogger Scott Edinger uses the Costanza method to prove a point. That point being research has conclusively shown that while no employee is flawless, what separates great staffers from average ones is the abundance of strengths they have. In other words, they bring so much value to the table, colleagues and managers are willing to excuse whatever baggage comes with them.

So what do you, as a manager, do when you come into contact with an employee whose flaws run so deep and threatening, there’s simply no way to expect that others will accept that person into the fold?

These types of employees are usually hired because they have the appropriate experience and/or skills to get the job done. The only problem is after a few weeks on the job, management starts to get a feel for what they couldn’t see on paper or get to the heart of in an interview.

In most cases, it means the employee does not work well with others. That he/she isn’t a perfect fit, so to speak. That the focus is always on something that has little or nothing to do with the job they were hired to do.

That’s where the Costanza method comes into play.

From a managerial perspective, if you’ve been:

• Talking to the employee: Spend several coaching sessions during which you ask questions and listen.
• Avoiding the employee: Do a 180 and spend some one-on-one time determining what would motivate the employee, and what — if any — challenges he/she is struggling with in terms of fitting in (There’s a chance some employees simply haven’t given the new hire a chance to fit in).
• Focusing on results: Ease up on that and start reinforcing the positive behaviors that eventually lead to results (The employee may be feeling tremendous pressure to produce results, despite the fact he/she’s never really learned the process).
• Hearing a lot of complaints about the employee: Play up all the positives, emphasizing the skills he/she brings to the table. Managers are often surprised how much more employees are willing to give someone a chance after they’ve heard a ringing endorsement, or learned something about the new hire they never knew before.

Source: “The George Costanza Approach to Fixing Fatal Flaws,” by Scott Edinger, Harvard Business Review Blog Network, 10/25/11.

After the death of Steve Jobs, stories leaked out — mainly in a biography — about his genius and his cruelty. Does one go with the other?

The question has been analyzed by several authors, including Walter Isaacson, who wrote the best-selling biography of Jobs. Isaacson told of Jobs’s genius, as well as his extraordinary insensitivity. For instance, according to Isaacson, Jobs routinely parked his Mercedes in handicapped spots and seemed to delight in publicly humiliating employees while taking credit for their ideas, too.

Of course, Jobs also engineered one of the biggest business successes of the century. So, we come to the question again: Does being a jerk boss lead to success?

A Stanford professor of management, Robert Sutton, examined the question in his book (crude-language alert!), The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t.

Sutton found that a lot of managers, in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, firmly believed in what they saw as Jobs’s secret to success: The bigger the jerk, the better it is for business.

Except Sutton found it’s not true. He maintains in his book that there’s really no correlation between being a jerk and being a success — “success” being defined as “making a lot of money” or “running a company that makes a lot of money.”

Sutton notes that for every Apple Corp., headed by a jerk, there are the Googles, the Virgin Atlantics, the Procter & Gambles and Southwest Airlines, which are successful and, according to most accounts, aren’t headed by jerks, but rather by sensitive people who put their employees’ interests ahead of their own.

So, the good news is that you don’t have to be a jerk to be a success. We assume you think that’s good news, too.

1. The ability to consistently connect rewards and incentives to corporate goals: Most managers understand the value of providing incentives that motivate employees to constantly raise the bar on their own performance. But the key is finding ways to tie those incentives to a company’s mission and goals. Example: The Ritz Carlton, previously rated No. 1 in PeopleMetrics‘ Buyer Loyalty Survey, awards additional bonuses and incentives to employees who constantly go out of their way to let guests know how much their business is appreciated. Do you provide rewards for employees who endorse the company’s values? Do staffers have incentive to promote the company’s values and mission?
2. Follow up and follow through: Great leaders use goalsetting as a way to encourage consistent performance and keep employees focused on improvement. But what’s just as important (if not more) is having a system in place for following up on goals and adjusting based on each employee’s progress. One way to overcome that: Meet with staffers once a quarter (as opposed to once a year) to review previous goals and adjust accordingly.
3. The ability to set quantifiable goals based on key metrics: Things that get measured are things that get done. Even though certain goals are qualitative, there should always be an agreed-upon means for measuring an employee’s progress. Metrics help managers pinpoint where a staffer may be falling short, which is the first step in overcoming the problem.
4. The willingness to consistently update and adjust processes: The business world is constantly changing, as are the incentives that motivate employees. Consider these tips for providing stronger incentives for staffers to close more than ever: Update your comp so it reflects the way your business has changed, and ask individual employees what other incentives would motivate them to close more business.

The late Apple co-founder will be remembered for a number of things, including his ability to attract and captivate audiences and the media. An analysis shows he used the same formula — one that anyone else can employ.

What made Jobs’s presentations so intriguing? In many cases, it boiled down to a combination of these five traits:

1. His presentations were always based upon a central theme: Sometimes Jobs would repeat a slogan, other times he’d double back to a common idea. But Jobs was always sure to plant a seed in prospects’ minds early, and reinforce it often. The common theme was almost always associated with a vision of how Apple’s products could help customers achieve their goals.
2. He made a clear connection between each of his major selling points: Jobs once said, “The great thing about Apple products is that they’re innovative and they work … and when you buy more than one, they work even better.” Much like his products, Jobs was an expert at connecting each benefit to a need. He didn’t simply present features, he backed them up with everyday examples customers could relate to.
3. He sold the experience: Steve Jobs’s presentations were all about showing buyers the future of technology, and the simplicity of embracing it. He empowered people by showing them how much simpler or unique their lives would be by simply using the product he was promoting.
4. He used strong adjectives: Jobs used language to excite the people in his audience. His enthusiasm was a major driving force behind each product.
5. He knew how to create a “Wow” moment: Jobs always surprised his audience by offering stats or demos that drove home the extreme value and “wow” factor of Apple’s products. His presentations were billed as must-see events, with the media rushing to summarize (and advertise) all the major bullet points.

Based in part on “How to Deliver a Great Presentation Like Steve Jobs,” a BNET video presentation.

You know it’s bad when company leaders don’t have high hopes for an economic turnaround in the near future.

In fact, a recent report out of The Conference Board shows a huge drop in confidence among top bananas across the country. CEO optimism is at its lowest level in two years. At the end of the third quarter, only 11% of chief execs said conditions were better than they were six months ago. That’s a 33% drop from those with that bleak attitude a quarter ago.

New research shows the people in charge of the purse strings are awash in uneasiness as well.  A full 14% of CFOs say they’d characterize the current level of economic uncertainty facing their business as “very high.” Another quarter regard it as “high,” reports Adaptive Planning’s Business Volatility & Variables: Q3-2011 survey.

Pessimism is one thing. But it turns out all this uncertainty is wreaking havoc with companies’ business plans.

Could it be doing the same to yours?

86% of companies reforecast, replanned in the third quarter of 2011

You’d certainly be in good company. A whopping 86% of CFOs said they were forced to replan, reforecast or create new what-if scenarios in the third quarter, thanks to — you guessed it — the economy.

We’re not talking about a one-time adjust, either. One in four (24%) businesses replanned on a monthly or more frequent basis – at three least times! – last quarter.

That has the potential to throw not only those businesses, but their suppliers and customers into a tailspin. Which means you’ll want to stay in touch with your key business partners to keep communication open. That way if they have to make adjustments that impact your business, you won’t be the last to know.

Unfortunately the worst may not be behind us. Prepare for more unrest ahead – 52% of your peers expect to have to do even more revisits this quarter.

This is the time of year when people are thankful for family, friends and pants with elastic waistbands. But how about what companies are thankful for?

Granted, many may be grateful to be in business after these past few years. But by taking the time to show employees you appreciate their efforts you can boost morale at a time it may need some serious boosting.

So think about how often you offer thanks. No doubt a “thank you” passed your lips when Sara handed you that report you’d been waiting for.

But we’re talking about a broader show of appreciation for the job your people do, day in and day out.

It’s worth the effort: A full 60% of employees say a little thank-you would make them work harder. If you have younger folks on staff, your appreciation goes even further – 68% of workers aged 18-34 say more thanks would make them step up.

Make it mean more

The trouble? Most managers aren’t as good at it as they think they are – at least in employees’ eyes.

To get more mileage out of those two little words, remember:

• It doesn’t have to be in person. A face-to-face interaction is best, but employees say an e-mail is better than no thanks at all. So if you’ve been holding out for that magic moment when you and a given staffer have a “moment,” you may not want to.
• Try an unexpected time. After your year-end financial close or after your busiest season are important times to show appreciation. But why not say thank you to a specific staffer on his or her birthday? That offers a more personal touch.
• Be creative. You could print up a bunch of Dilbert cartoons with a note saying “Thanks for doing such a good job despite all the wackiness.”

Given the chance, these three types of people will destroy your company. Most times, the only choice is to fire them.

These come from G. Michael Maddock, author of the upcoming book Brand New: Solving the Innovation Paradox—How Great Brands Invent and Launch New Products, Services, and Business Models:

The victim. This is the person who sees problems as occasions for persecution rather than challenges to overcome. The persecution apparently comes in the form of you-name-it — humans, processes, and inanimate objects with equal ease. And if there isn’t a problem, the victim will find one. The victim is often angry, usually annoyed, and almost always complaining. Note to HR: After termination, the victim will no doubt look for someone like you for sympathy and agreement that the world is against him.

The nonbeliever. This person lives by the Henry Ford quote: “If you think you can or think you cannot, you are correct.” Winners really believe they can do it; losers (nonbelievers) always doubt it’s possible. The link between believing and succeeding is powerful and real. So is the link between nonbelieving and failure.

The know-it-all. The best innovators are learners, not knowers. The same can be said about innovative cultures; they are learning cultures. Those who think they have nothing to learn will invariably be overtaken by learners, or will drag down an organization and let the competition overtake the organization. They never see new things coming because they think there are no new things. That’s how it is when you think you know everything.

Maddock’s advice: A lot of managers will convince themselves that they can turn around the three harmful types and make them productive, reliable employees. Experience and history show that’s usually a pipe dream and just a reason for delaying the inevitable.

In the interview, Novartis CEO Joseph Jimenez admits that years ago when he was the division president for another company, he learned a valuable lesson about why expectations often don’t meet reality.

At the time, Jimenez was brought in to determine why results weren’t nearly up to snuff, and how to put the division back on track. He brought in a consulting company that determined the problem was a lack of unifying processes in both Sales and Operations.

Based on that assessment, the firm started monitoring a whole new set of metrics, and it also realigned its selling model to reflect the new direction. What type of impact did all that have? Almost none.

That is until several months later, when Jimenez bought in a behavioralist to assess the situation. It was only then that he and his team were able to attack  the root of the problem — everyone in the organization was more focused on appeasing management than they were about being honest.

In other words, the reason nothing was changing was that front-line managers would walk into meetings every month, and do their best to tell C-level execs exactly what they wanted to hear, despite the fact they knew it was unrealistic.They did this out of a sense of fear, not wanting to be frowned upon by the C-suite for pointing out they didn’t have the resources or the freedom to really make the necessary changes.

Once Jimenez and other top execs started encouraging more honesty (as well as accountability), they found they were able to identify and address more root causes of major problems in the department and turn the tide.

The takeaway: It’s often more valuable to encourage an open exchange of ideas with managers than it is to simply tell them to “get the job done.” In many cases, it may be the system itself, and not the managers, that’s presenting an obstacle.

Source: “Fix the Problem, And Not Just the Symptoms,” New York Times, 10/9/11.

Outstanding salespeople:

1. Think differently than their less successful colleagues. Their success is rooted in the mindset that they must understand their products and services, the value of their solutions and how they guide their customers to understand that value.
2. Prioritize. They keep their accounts in order, giving projects deadlines. They have a game plan for expanding their businesses without ignoring present customers. They block everything else out. Regardless of what’s going on around them, they go after their own personal benchmarks.
3. Visualize. They visualize their sales goals and how they’re going to achieve them. They think of the prospects they need to call or see to help get their sales moving in the right direction. Like a chess move, this initial visualization of the next step allows them to rearrange actions to avoid mistakes. They create a week by week plan to achieve overall goals.
4. Create added value. Product parity creates price wars. Why should someone buy their product or service instead of a competitor’s? What makes their company different? What does their product or service deliver that’s unique? They think of ways to stand out in a positive way, making their sales efforts pay off in the long run.
5. Push the limits. They are never completely satisfied with their performance. They push themselves on a daily basis to outperform the previous day. Pushing themselves harder is what keeps them on top. They recognize that true growth comes from sacrifice and maybe a little pain. They make more calls each week. They spend more time on customer follow-up to ensure results. They set their sights a little higher. Taking these steps propels them forward and provides the energy and enthusiasm to fuel each day.
6. Move beyond their circle of activity. Breakthroughs happen when they leave their comfort zone to go after new business. They create a top 10 list of new businesses they’d like to close and aggressively go after them. As they close each account, they are always ready to move on to another prospect.
7. Have a high tolerance for pain. No matter what crosses their path, they can handle it. No matter how hard they fall, they always get up and learn from the experience. If they lose key customers, they work harder to get them back. If they make a mistake with a customer, they try their best to resolve it. Instead of whining, they act. Instead of placing blame, they take responsibility.
8. Have no fear of rejection. They recognize that rejection is an attitude issue and can be overcome by strengthening other attitudes, such as confidence, self-belief, trust and self-image.
9. Control the sales process. They recognize that control is one of the key elements for success in sales. They understand that control is not manipulation but it is in the best interests of the prospect. They pay attention to early signals and what their prospects want and need. They realize that every time they make a presentation to a non-decision maker, they risk losing control.
10. Have high levels of empathy. The ability to put themselves in the customer’s shoes and respond accordingly is a key quality of top salespeople. They become indispensable when they demonstrate an understanding of customer problems and goals, and have the ability to solve and fulfill them.
11. Believe in their company and products. They believe in the benefits the products or services they sell or provide. Learning about their product or service — every facet, every strength and every weakness — develops self-confidence and positive enthusiasm.
12. Believe everything is possible. Truly successful salespeople find ways to abandon biases that may hold them back. They believe great things are possible and assume that they can be done. They hone their skills in order to achieve their true potential in terms of creating sales. They recognize that a truly positive outcome depends on the whole package: skills, mindset and preparation.
13. Hold themselves accountable. The best salespeople assume responsibility for their outcomes. They never hid behind the organization and don’t make excuses to themselves or to prospects or customers. They make promises to themselves first and then follow through on those promises. It’s their dedication to their own standards that makes it possible for them to follow through when they make commitments to customers.
14. Always put customers first. Real sales leaders adopt a completely customer-focused mindset. They internalize the same things customers internalize, worry about the same things customers worry about and experience the same emotions their customers experience.
15. Capture information and sharing accumulated knowledge. Top sellers recognize the opportunity to gain knowledge and develop expertise as the result of working with customers. They know customers need sound advice on cost reduction, ways to operate more efficiently and ideas on increasing productivity. They recognize that people who buy from them need what they know, not just what they sell.

Adapted from the book The 12 Cliches of Selling and Why They Work by Barry Farber, who has taught thousands of individuals and corporations how to break through barriers to achieve sales goals.