Arlene Johnson on why even a dynamite strategy without effective execution fizzles

Arlene Johnson has just launched a new online resource, The Connector, that combines her own material with material contributed by others. I urge you to check it out and sign up for a subscription by clicking here.

Meanwhile, here is a brief excerpt from one of her articles.

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When challenged to earn a coveted promotion, succeed with an important business project or to win a quota busting business opportunity, we get charged. With a vision for what the change can bring, our energy kicks in and our mind gets focused on mapping a strategy to accomplish what we want.

So, let’s say you have a new business opportunity that if won not only makes your year but also has significant strategic value to your company – a much needed win for everyone. As you assess and develop your win-strategy, you ask yourself: Which decisions and actions give us a competitive advantage and best ensures our winning this important customer relationship?

With input from others, questions answered and a dynamite strategy in hand, you’re ready to take action. It’s time to conduct a brilliant execution of your strategy. STOP. Before moving forward, you, and any team member, should know the answers to this question: With each planned customer conversation in my win-strategy, how do I get the information and gain the customer agreements to strengthen relationships and differentiate myself and our solutions?

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To read the complete article, please click here.

Arlene Johnson, founder and president of Sinequanon Group, Inc. (SGI), is an internationally known speaker, author and consultant with more than two decades of experience in executive leadership, change management and performance coaching. Through her efforts, major corporations as well as small and mid-sized companies create a results-oriented and competitive difference in demanding, radically-changing business environments. She has advised Fortune 500 clients such as Arco Pipeline (Corporate and Jakarta, Indonesia), American Express (Mexico), Hewlett-Packard, (Hong-Kong), Hill-Rom, Southern Methodist University, Bombardier Aerospace, Fidelity Investment, Equifax (Canada), Blue Cross and Blue Shield, BDO Seidman, Koch Chemical Group, Alcatel-Lucent, Lockheed Martin and numerous other fast-growing, entrepreneurial companies. Arlene has just published the second edition of her brilliant book, Success Mapping: Achieve What You Want . . . Right Now!

Victor Frankl provides something to think about this weekend.

For most of us, weekends provide an opportunity to take a rest from thinking about weekday concerns and consider less urgent – but perhaps more important – issues.

For example:

“Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked…and his behavior, not his words, is his response.” – Victor Frankl

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Viktor E. Frankl (1905-1994) was Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at the University of Vienna Medical School and Distinguished Professor of Logotherapy at the U.S. International University. He is the founder of what has come to be called the Third Viennese School of Psychotherapy (after Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis and Albert Adler’s individual psychology) — the school of logotherapy.
Born in 1905, Dr. Frankl received the degrees of Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Vienna. During World War II he spent three years at Auschwitz, Dachau and other concentration camps.

Dr. Frankl first published in 1924 in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis and has since published twenty-six books, which have been translated into nineteen languages, including Japanese and Chinese. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard, Duquesne and Southern Methodist Universities. Honorary Degrees have been conferred upon him by Loyola University in Chicago, Edgecliff College, Rockford College and Mount Mary College, as well as by universities in Brazil and Venezuela. He has been a guest lecturer at universities throughout the world and has made fifty-one lecture tours throughout the United States alone. He was President of the Austrian Medical Society of Psychotherapy.

Man’s Search for Meaning is probabky his most famous work, first published in 1993. My copy was published in 2006.

Interview: Paul Spiegelman

Paul Spiegelman

Paul  Spiegelman co-founded The Beryl Companies with his two brothers in 1985. As CEO, he oversees strategic planning and business development for the nation’s thought-leading company in health care customer interactions and relationship management, and is the leading provider of outsourced telephone and Web-based communications in the health care field. Beryl was ranked #2 among the best medium-sized companies to work for in the USA by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Spiegelman earned a B.A. degree in history from UCLA and a law degree from Southwestern University. He is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and mentors MBA students at Southern Methodist University and Texas Christian University. He is the author of Why Is Everyone Smiling? The Secret Behind Passion, Productivity, and Profit, published in 2007.

Here is a brief excerpt from my interview of Spiegelman.

Morris: Do those who call a Beryl client think that they are speaking with someone employed by the client? If so, doesn’t this create pressure on Beryl employees to be a worthy representative of each client?

Spiegelman: Yes, every caller believes they are calling into a hospital, so it is imperative that we create a seamless, positive experience for them. Our call advisors understand that the bar for customer service has been set extremely high. They have to appear local, knowledgeable and empathetic. That pressure is what drives the systems and processes we put in place to give our call advisors everything they need to succeed. The additional challenge is that a call advisor’s next call could be one of any of the 450 hospitals we work for across the country, so they have to change hats very quickly. The key is preparing them through a combination of information in the database and ongoing training in partnership with our clients.

Morris: Please explain how you train new hires for what they are expected to do when processing inbound calls.

Spiegelman: It all starts with the recruiting process. We learned long ago that our call advisors were at the top of our organizational chart, and we needed to apply great discipline and patience to make sure we had the right people representing our customers. We like to say that we are “hiring the heart and not the head.” In other words, we are looking for people with the innate compassion and desire to help others. We can teach them the system and the computer skills, but they’ve got to bring the goods when it comes to their attitude – you can’t teach that. We hire less than 5% of our applicants and put them through a rigorous recruiting and interview process. Once they make the cut, they go through a 5-week, interactive training program that is a combination of classroom training and on-the-job training where they are mentored and coached by their peers. They must pass multiple tests along the way, but they understand that we are preparing them for the job ahead. We also immediately bring them into our culture, and build a fun and engaging environment around them to support what is otherwise a very challenging job.

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To read the complete interview, please click here.

Paul invites you to visit Beryl’s website. To do so, please click here.