Welcome to KM's Blog: Hitting The Dart With Maximum Arrows - An Art of T...

Welcome to KM's Blog: Hitting The Dart With Maximum Arrows - An Art of T...: What makes a successful person? Creative ideation , intellectual stimulation ,business acumen are all important  ingredients . Even mor...

Hitting The Dart With Maximum Arrows - An Art of Trying

What makes a successful person? Creative ideation , intellectual stimulation ,business acumen are all important ingredients. Even more critical are his willingness to take risk,his ability to call it quits,and confidence to try again and again without losing hope.

If we ponder into the life of any successful individual and we would find that one of the traits that makes him stand out is - The Art of Trying.

An up, close and personal counter with the successful individual will reveal that he may make 100 attempts in a particular period; the unsuccessful person makes 20 attempts. The successful person is not bothered by  the result - he keeps on trying - 90 out of 100 attempts fail but there are 10 that promises success.

It is like Thomas Watson said ; ‘ Would you like me to give you a formula for success ?It’s quite simple,really. Double your rate of failure.’

On the other hand the unsuccessful person makes 20 attempts and going by the same logic, he has just 2 attempts that promise success - he spends majority of time in cursing his luck and makes half-hearted attempts and over a period of time, he does less and less attempts.

The successful person by virtue of the absolute number of success attempts i.e. 10 - grows in confidence and he improves his striking ratio. The unsuccessful person, since he has less number of success attempts gets frustrated over a period of time and spends more time in cursing. 

I think Shah Rukh Khan ( in his film - Om Shanti Om ) was not wrong in saying that when you try from your heart, nature conspires in terms of helping you with a series of favorable events.If you fall behind,run faster .Never give up,never surrender and rise up against the odds.

So, moral of the story is if we want maximum arrows to hit the dart, we have to throw as many arrows as we can on the dart. If we miss the center of the dart, it is okay but it is not okay if we don't make the effort of throwing the dart at all .........

Random Thoughts : Extending Locus of Control and Influencing The Decision Making Capability of The Customer

We live in a world of rapid change, whether it is consumers, their tests or the environment in which we operate. In addition, the companies are facing stiff competition in market place. To succeed, businesses have to recognise that change is the new normal and strive to find a way to address it.

The rapidly changing times put an even higher premium on an organisation’s ability to embed consumer and customer centricity in everything that it does.

The single minded focus on constant customer engagement and better customer experience helps the brand deliver better consumer value and win the customer’s confidence, ultimately resulting in developing strong relationship with them.

Business is not about hitting the clients over the head with big stick and dragging them to your cave. It is a delicate act. To me one must romance and develop personal rapport – relationship with their clients. The reason being, it has extraordinary persuasive power and it will give you an unfair advantage in attacking more clients and retaining existing one. Because every successful business needs loyal customers.

When you have personal relationships with your clients, rather than just ‘strictly business ‘, you end up closing more deals.

Here comes the theory of ‘Locus of Control: What do we mean by Locus of Control? It is the extent to which one can exert influence decision making capability of the customer. In today’s scenario when there are many entities out there to ‘seduce ‘ your existing customer with killer price, it is all the more imperative that we ensure that we extend the locus of our control.

The locus of control can be extended by ensuring that you are meeting your customer on regular basis and that you are engaging him meaningfully. You also have to be an entertainer – you have to cuddle his thoughts with your ability to talk about any subject (beyond the scope of your natural expertise i.e. selling product or selling services).It demands an intellectual rigor.

Research says that while price plays an important factor in executing sales – customer buys from a sales person not because he gets impressed by the knowledge of the sales person but because he ‘likes ‘the sales person. You have to be likable and for that you would need to work on your soft skills .Those small courtesy gestures, those mannerisms – cumulatively play a vital role in cracking a deal.

I understand that a real sales person must not go to sleep without going on at least one call in a day – take it as a stubble message to sharpen your skills – If you shy away from it today, you may not have better change tomorrow and if you embrace it ,chances are you would be a better sales person tomorrow.

These are some random thoughts on Customer Service and I looking forward to have your feedback on what exactly you think on influencing the decision making capability of a customer by engaging them meaningfully.

Stories That Coach : Celebrate Uniqueness and Revolutionize Your Life

One day not too long ago the employees of a large corporation in Germany were returning from their lunch break.

They were greeted with a sign on the front door. The sign said: "Yesterday the person who was hindering your growth in this company passed away. We invite you to join the funeral in the room that has been arranged in the gym."

At first everyone was sad to hear that one of their colleagues had died, but after a while they started getting curious about who this person might be. The excitement grew as the employees arrived at the gym to pay their last respects. Everyone wondered: "Who is this person who was hindering my progress? Well, at least he's no longer here!"

One by one the employees got closer to the coffin and when they looked inside it they suddenly became speechless. They stood over the coffin, shocked and in silence, as if someone had touched the deepest part of their soul.

There was a mirror inside the coffin: everyone who looked inside it could see himself. There was also a sign next to the mirror that said: "There is only one person who is capable to set limits to your growth: it is YOU.

Remember - Your life does not change when your boss changes, when your friends change, when your parents change, when your partner changes, when your company changes.

Your life changes when YOU change, when you go beyond your limiting beliefs, when you realize that you are the only one responsible for your life.

You are the only person who can revolutionize your life. You are the only person who can influence your happiness, your realization and your success. You are the only person who can help yourself."The most important relationship you can have, is the one you have with yourself."

There is a world for each one of you, where you shall reign as king /queen by just being yourself. Find that world... in fact, that world will find you. What water can do, gasoline cannot and what copper can, gold cannot.

The fragility of the ant enables it to move and the rigidity of the tree enables it to stay rooted. Everything and everybody has been designed with a proportion of uniqueness to serve a purpose that we can fulfil only by being our unique self. You as you alone can serve your purpose and I as I alone can serve my purpose. You are here to be you... just you.  

Let us be the best we can be.  Don't miss yourself and let the world not miss you. 

   

Celebrate your Uniqueness!!!!

Diversity: A Craft Of Thinking Independently Together

It is always considered better to work in a team rather than working alone – this is the key to success when it comes to working on a project and otherwise also.The real power comes from the people around us. With the right team, we can change the face of business.

It is generally observed that when everyone in the team is alike, it is much easier to get along. But than it does not give you diversity in thoughts, skills, perspectives and exposures.

Stephen Covey has rightly said “Strength lies in differences, not in similarities “

We exactly live and breathe in a diverse world but we often tend to forget to take a moment and appreciate on how many opportunities and possibilities such an environment offers us. In life it is natural.

To me workplace means a lot and a workplace with a diverse team means much more than that.In professional life, to build a diverse team in workplace, an amazing thing is that it requires conscious thought, persistent efforts and focused action .The leaders are supposed to have deliberate thinking process to select the qualities they prefer and put the systems in place to make it happen. One has to deliberately assemble an unusual crew to have diversity.

If you throw a lot of people at the problem with an electric and unusual background, you are more likely to come up with different answers. Diversity brings innovation. It is well acknowledged that diversity drives high performance in the team.

To build a successful team, one needs thrill seekers, risk takers, doers and most importantly diverse thinkers. A leader, to encourage and to take maximum advantage of diverse teams, should ensure cool, open and caring work culture with policy , of pushing people to pursue their passion .Here ensuring greater harmony among the group of people of diverse background plays an important role.

A benefit of a diverse workforce throws an opportunity to tap in to the many talents which employees from vivid backgrounds, different perspectives, abilities and disabilities bring in to the workplace. A diverse body of talent with fresh ideas, unique thinking and different views act as one of the essential ingredients to a company’s long term success. 

Organisations world over are increasingly dependent on diverse teams for developing innovative products and services, making decisions and improving efficiency.It becomes a crucial aspect for long term cultural agility and it makes the workplace most enjoyable and interesting place for an employee to work.

In this era of mounting complexity,with more people,systems and products ,entwined in a bewildering web of global networks - diverse teams and diversity at workplace emerge as an enormously valuable tool to lead an organisation to greater success.

What are your plans and diversity strategy?