We've taken a deviation from the latest series of topics (which have been focussed on sales pitches and presentations using the engagement techniques we've promoted).
The reason is that there are no techniques, no presentations, no silver bullet to sales, and the development of your small business in the professional insurance, financial planning and financial services space if you do not have the motivation and well-being suited to managing your work efforts and direction.
Richard Sisely, New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 35(2), 28-40, looked at the issue of motivation and the facilitation of autonomous motivation and its impact on well being.
Sisley wrote that intrinsic motivation had a high connection with relationships built on trust, empathy and stability.
Hang on a second. Isn't that what you are trying achieve as a professional financial planner and insurance adviser?
Tell me more!!
Sisely also then expanded and suggested that striving for self-determined goals (such as your plans for 2012 in your business) is connected with well-being and a determinant of a daily positive mood.
I'm liking the sound of this especially in the current economic climate!
Because this has implications for your business and in turn your clients.
First in your business this has implications for staff selection and for the assignment of roles/tasks in your business.
If you've read the E -Myth, or done a sticky note exercise where you look at all the tasks in your business and who does them.....and who should be doing them...then you understand where this is heading.
You need with these tasks as Sisely describes to assign a value identification with them. You need to take your staff on the journey of the validity of the task and the impact on the client.
This leads to better client engagement and outcomes.
What about you and your motivation and your passion?
Passion according to Sisley has a correlation with work satisfaction, well-being, and less stress.
Passion is critical. What in 2012 are you passionate about? Share it. Document it. Write it on a wall (or whiteboard). Share it with your clients. Make yourself accountable to your passion.
Flow, or the optimal experience (read effectiveness and efficiency) brings with it positive moods. You are far more likely to take on those tasks that you already have attached validity to and that are assigned correctly when your passion is driving you. It's that feeling of, well for want of a better word....flowing.
Meaningfulness. My favourite of Sisely's writings, meaningfulness depends on your own values and that also means having a high enough emotional intelligence quotient that you can respect others values. EI is that ability to not only be aware of your own feelings and emotions but to then use that information to guide your actions (Hur et al, 2011).
And that's where a transformational leader can create a service climate of exceptional quality.
It is a palpable feeling that you get when you walk into a business that delivers excellence in the customer experience.
Can you learn EI? Yes there are courses. Maybe you can improve. It is said it improves with age...so you can wait I guess.
But if EI houses the qualities of empathy, motivation, self-awareness, trust, emotional stability and these are all qualities of a transformational leader then there is one thing you need to do.
Get up, walk to the mirror and ask yourself a few questions.
- what are you passionate about?
- are you ready to share that passion?
- what are your values?
- do you live them?
- what are the values of the people around you?
- do you know - do you ask them?
- do you act in a way that is true to your values?
- what can you do daily to develop empathy, motivation, self-awareness, trust, emotional stability
But most of all - get passionate!
Back to the presentation pitches next time
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