"Top" Sales Presentation - Gerber Products Co.

I was working on a project to launch some products for a sister company at our site. I needed to order some parts and materials but as the project engineer, did not have an appropriation request or budget to do so. The sister company did not want to order the items because they don't deal with the vendors and my supervisor did not want to order the items from his budget due to the amount needed to be expended. I was frustrated and bewildered on how to solve this dilemma. I took a Magic Moment and decided via PDF that these folks were unable or unwilling to help me out. I discussed the dilemma with my buddy. I decided to be the more maneuverable ship and I went to our Purchasing Manager and asked if this manager would temporarily pay for the items. This also called for using the Recipe to resolve the problem. I was able to persuade the Purchasing Manager to buy the parts and my buddy to help charge the costs back to our sister company when complete. This allowed me to move forward with the project and stay on time on a critical schedule. The delay could have cost approximately $2-3 million in lost sales if the project was delayed. With her and my buddy's help, the Recipe worked toward a successful conclusion. Schering-Plough

Leading through Listening

Just after attending the Pathways to Leadership course, I discovered an immediate opportunity to use some of the tools I had learned. The month had been very hectic, and I and an associate were preparing to visit a very important customer on a Friday afternoon. In addition, I had a sales meeting coming up and my associate was responsible for compiling the report prior to that meeting. I was beginning to become frustrated with his seeming inability to get this report done. It certainly seemed to be taking him a long time to get it to me for my review. Pressure started to build up as I saw we were not prepared while other people were sending in their reports.

I learned in Pathways that you can only focus on one thing at a time, so in the meeting with our customer that Friday, I decided to concentrate on that and forget about the overdue sales report. As the client visit ran late, and I had had a very difficult week, I was not in the mood to discuss with my associate the overdue report we had to present by next Monday. I thought to myself that I would have to work over the weekend to have something of real value and that my associate was not really capable of doing it.

As we walked to our cars outside the customer's facility, my associate asked if we could discuss the outcome of the meeting and sales strategies in general. I took a magic moment and realized that we had not had any time to talk lately as I had been out of town on a business trip. I thought he deserved the time to discuss his performance and some other business matters.

As we started to talk, he took out his notebook and began writing down some of the ideas we were discussing. This triggered a thought - why not use some of the tools I had learned in my recent training and see if they really worked. I used the 5 Tool Sequence to encourage discussion. We focused on sales issues and my associate came up with a lot of great ideas. I concentrated on listening. Every time he would ask me what I would do, I would make him aware that he was capable of responding that specific question. Based largely on his creativity, we developed a great sales strategy to share in the Monday meeting!

The 3 S's of Yeses was a helpful tool as I congratulated him for the significance and value of his ideas. After a couple of well-invested hours, he was excited about preparing the report for my review on Saturday. It's no surprise that I got the report on time with no modifications needing to be made. But the most satisfying part of all was that he left a message on my cell phone thanking me for the time we spend together. I knew I had made a real difference in his attitude and dedication to our goals.

Productivity vs. Activity

What are the key ingredients that differentiate those teams that are highly productive from those teams that are simply very active?

We think a recent breakthrough for one of our clients, Sabroso, might shed some light on the question. This company is skyrocketing in the growth of its culture and is enjoying some real personal and productivity breakthroughs.

They are typically very busy in late summer...very active in the fruit processing industry. But something has happened that has catapulted them from "very active" to "very productive." Their entire management team has now gone through Pathways to Leadership® training and they have wasted no time in implementing the tools for the benefit of the front line folks.

What's happening is that these front line people have reconnected with their passion to serve and are coming alive with ideas. Production alone in one department has increased 33%. We'll let the Director of Manufacturing tell the story in his own words. It sure is worth the read.

As you are aware we had some major challenges getting a juice line up and running. (Pathways to Leadership tools) were very beneficial in getting through that critical time. In fact, after my crew had worked very hard for two weeks with little success, one of the leads volunteered comments about how well I had done to keep looking for the positives and how much he appreciated my staying cool-headed under conditions that in the past could have been very uncomfortable for us all. I was surprised that he brought this up because this is not a normal conversation string for him. He mentioned that other team members had noticed how much easier it was to stay motivated under the circumstances even though they were frustrated with the progress of the project. In the end we were able to accomplish the project and everyone had more self-satisfaction from hanging in there to get the job done.

Much of the management team that I talk with about the culture shift are observing more cooperation between groups and when times are tense the level of frustration is much less. This has become contagious in many groups and into the work force that have not attended the seminar. For instance, I have some cooks and leads that are beginning to pickup on the terminology and will make comments about the Hi Road or Forward Focus, etc. I have also seen changes in how employees respond to the forward focus questions. In the past, we haven't done well at searching out solutions to problems. It was more common to ask 'Why didn't you do it this way or that?' It is now more common to hear supervisors asking 'What do you think will help solve the issue?'

Several examples of how this redirection of questioning has helped us:

• Last winter we were processing about 12 batches of strawberry puree per day and feeling pretty good about it. As we got better at enlisting ideas from the production group, we found out what some of the blocks to throughput were and we acted on them. All of these ideas came from suggestions and brainstorming sessions with line workers and they worked. Now we regularly process 16 to 17 batches per day.
• Workers are proud of their accomplishments and really thrive on recognition. One of our best cooks was identified this spring as a trainer for our new hire seasonal cooks. This recognition ignited him and he came up with many ideas as to how to maximize his efforts in the training program. Along with his personal ownership of the program I watched him gain more confidence and begin to develop solutions to more and more problems in his normal daily routine. He shared his desire to take on more responsibility and wants to manage people. Last week when his shift supervisor was called home on an emergency, he stepped in and took care of the shift for the day and did a fine job. He overcame new fears and found out he really enjoyed the challenge of orchestrating the bigger picture. His positive attitude and his ever-present smile make him a natural to lead. He works hand in hand with people and they can't help but respond to him.

Momentum is gaining and I think we are developing a much more pleasant work environment where employees feel more important and good about themselves and their peers. We have just seen the tip of the iceberg of our potential!!

Staying "In the Game

I've been reminded a number of times lately of an experience from my life that is a wonderful metaphor for Pathways to Leadership®.

I am by nature the type of person who likes to contemplate things before taking action or speaking up. At that time, the only thing better than thinking was riding a bike and thinking at the same time. And as long as I was riding, I figured I might as well step it up a notch and make it "training". The only way to make training meaningful was to have some goal to be reaching for, and the only way to make the goal meaningful was to make it a doozy!

One particular summer, the goal was to ride 100 miles solo in less than 5 hours. Over the summer I would work a construction job all day and then ride until dark. On the weekends I would often ride all day. After a summer of training in this way, the big day arrived.

The course was 120 miles total, to allow about 20 miles to get fully warmed up before the clock started ticking. Once the clock started ticking, the course would be about 20 miles of rolling hills, then 25 miles of climbing the shoulder of a mountain range to a turn around point, then 25 miles back down the mountain followed by 30 miles mostly along a river valley towards home.

As with many things in life, getting to that turn around point on the mountain was the key. I hoped that if I could break the mountain instead of it breaking me, that I would have enough left in me to hold the pace for the last 30 miles.

I should define a term I'm sure to use. "Attack" is a cyclists term that refers to jumping up off the saddle and hitting the road with everything you've got. Sometimes there's nothing harder than "going on the attack". You start to think "I'll just stay at this comfortable pace a little longer, THEN I'll attack" or "I'll climb this hill slowly, THEN I'll attack". Of course the result is that you never really attack. In those days I used to say that the difference between the good and the great (cyclists) is that the good would attack IN SPITE of being tired, but that the great would attack BECAUSE they are tired.

As I started the clock I said aloud "Once more into the breach dear friends, once more" (from Shakespeare's Henry V) and the race was on.

The rolling hills were difficult, but I kept pace. Climbing the mountain was a different story. It was punishing and relentless. All the while, I was watching my cycle computer and one thing was becoming abundantly clear, every mile was putting me further and further behind the pace, I was failing.

It's hard to describe the emotions that you experience as exhaustion grips you, and anything I do write here is sure to pale in comparison to the experience itself. As the miles wore on, I was feeling desperate, I started looking down and talking directly to my legs, saying "just keep me in the game" and "get up this hill and I promise that I'll take care of the rest by force of Will alone". That is the dichotomy athletes face, the limitations of the body versus the force of Will. This is what you see in the eyes of an athlete who has used up every ounce of energy and finally fallen to the ground. It's like you're being ripped in half because your body has failed to carry you where your mind's eye is still determined to go.

If the mountain could be described as relentless then the ticking clock should be described as remorseless. I was transfixed by the moving numbers, watching in horror as it all slipped away before my eyes. Each attack was shorter lived and weaker than the one before, but I kept attacking. I couldn't help but entertain the thought that every mile of training was just wasted effort of a wasted summer and that 100 miles solo in under 5 hours was something reserved for the elite, and who was I to think I could join those ranks? I started an attack chant "STAY IN THE GAME, STAY IN THE GAME, STAY IN THE GAME". For miles I chanted it, "STAY IN THE GAME, STAY IN THE GAME, STAY IN THE GAME", endlessly, just like the endless movement of numbers on that damned remorseless clock.

The road, like many in that area was narrow with no shoulder, so the 25 mile climb was like riding inside a tunnel of trees. The chant continued until I reached a very special spot on the road where the trees suddenly broke away from the road and the view opens up spectacularly upon the mountains of New England. Because of the sudden view after such monotony, this spot is known simply as "Oh My God corner".

"Oh My God corner" was my turn around point in the road, literally and figuratively. I had chosen the spot in advance, and yet I was so focused on each turn of the crank that I didn't see it coming. The moment of reaching that spot will always define for me what having a "quiet mind" is all about. I could see the road in front of me, and the road behind me. I knew what I had accomplished, and I knew what I had left to do, and I did it. There is no dramatic finish the story of my 100 mile ride, and there's really no mystery in how I struggled through the last 30 miles, I simply did what I knew had to be done, I attacked... Final time: 4 hours, 42 minutes, 58 seconds

"Top" Sales Presentation - Gerber Products Co.

Today we had an appointment at a major account. A couple of weeks in advance of the meeting, I met with my director for this account to review the Top-to-Top presentation - we exchanged the topics to be discussed, flow of the information, and goal of the meeting. During the next two weeks, we continued to exchange ideas, but stayed on the path.

The night before the call, we reviewed the presentation and I was impressed with the outcome. Before Pathways to Leadership® , I would have checked and double checked before the appointment to make sure all was perfect, but I had confidence he had it nailed.

This account has always been a challenging one and we have made great progress this last year, but our client has controlled the set. I am pleased to report that in this meeting, this account agreed to let us do a "live" test set and be a resource for consumer insights, schematics, Hispanic opportunities, display programs, market place trends, pricing, and to use our vision to help them grow.

• We jointly created the best path for the account presentation, but the work was done by the region associates. Each time we talked, I would praise him for his team's efforts and reinforced that I had 100% confidence the presentation would be great.
• We opened the meeting with exciting comments from all Gerber associates. I really feel it helped the meeting get moving.
• Before we closed the meeting, we asked each of the retailer associates how we could improve our position with them and how we would help them win in this ever changing market. Each person took the opportunity to talk about how we have really made progress with them this last year and a few minor things that could really help them develop. Then we asked to be table captain and help them implement a new schematic at retail. They agree to do the "live" test store. It was a great way to close.

Direct Line to New CEO

I just returned from a business trip and was greeted by some inquisitive co-workers first thing this morning. We now have a new CEO. He invited us to send some questions for his first official company meeting. I took the opportunity to send two forward focused questions, and low and behold, he started off his meeting (which took place when I was out of town) by acknowledging and then answering both of my questions!

I am now a semi-celebrity in Memphis and all my co-workers want to know my secret of getting the CEO to notice my questions in a company that has 30,000 employees. His email to me indicated he is a proponent of Pathways to Leadership principles.

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