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Having clear customer strategies can accelerate the pace in developing new relationships and securing new business. It can provide a greater understanding of current and potential customers, and what is required to secure future business. It helps to identify whether they are an ‘ideal’ customer to work with; do they have, or the ability to have, a need for our products and services, people willing to engage who share similar values, and have the financial means and available budgets. Are they based in an acceptable geographical location, and can they open doors to new markets and industries and other customers.

Taking a disciplined approach to creating customer strategies can potentially maximise the value of our time spent in securing new business. It can create efficiencies where everyone understands their role and their contribution in securing and servicing the customer and it does not stop us from being opportunistic, when new customers continue to approach us directly. Creating good customer strategies is not just about new customers, it also focuses on retaining current customers, ensuring we continue to focus on their current and future needs, whilst increasing the chances of them providing referrals and recommendations.

A good customer strategy considers the whole customer lifecycle – the steps we will go through from researching, approaching and engaging the customer, through to securing new business and delivering the solution / products. Understanding the customer needs, can force us to look at our own offering and our routes to market. It helps us to question and refine our operating model, including the skills, capabilities, ways of working and behaviours to successfully meet our customers’ needs. It can facilitate a fresh approach and innovation in our own business.

In creating a successful strategy and approach for a customer, it is vital to understand their big picture, our relationship with the customer, as well as the links, connections, levers and drivers within business and the market in which they operate.  This will involve a good level of understanding at both a global and local level. Questions need to be asked including:

• Who is the customer – what is their vision, mission, goals and overall business agenda?
• What is their current strategy to deliver their vision and what are their key strategic priorities?
• How is their financial performance (past, present and future predictions) and their positioning in the market place?
• Do we understand the market in which they operate? Are there any subtleties that we need to understand?
• What are the core strengths and limitations of their brand and is this a brand that we wish to associate with?
• What differentiates them in the market place?
• Who are the key people in the organisation? Who are our key stakeholders? Who are the decision-makers? How is the business is structured and governed at a global and local level?
• How far up the value chain can we go?
• How do we approach them? Do we know anyone already in the organisation? Can we be introduced to them?
• Are there key systems and processes that have a fundamental impact on how the business operates?
• How can we demonstrate our ability to add value to their business?
• What is the customer experience that we wish to create?
• Do we have the people, skills, capabilities, ways of working and behaviours to deliver the customer offering and exceed their expectations?
• Do we need to refine our business / operating model?

In co-creating a customer strategy, the outputs include:

• Determining our key goals for / with this customer (financial and non-financial)
• Creating a key stakeholder map
• Defining the offering (products and services) for the customer
• Agreeing the connections we need to make and the conversation we need to have to approach and engage the customer and potentially move up the value chain to achieve our goals and objectives
• Identifying the skills we can use immediately and those skills and competencies we will need to develop
• Identifying the additional resource / skills we will need to source
• Creating an action plan and identifying any quick wins
• Agreeing clear accountabilities in our team to bring the strategy to life and move forward

 

It’s Fantastic and Elastic!

We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. – Aristotle

Neuroplasticity or brain plasticity is a term used to describe lasting change to the brain throughout the course of an individual’s life. We already know that the brain can adapt following trauma or disease but recognising that the brain is an elastic organ that can be retrained, grown and repaired now challenges the saying ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’.

How amazing to now know that we can literally think ourselves happier, into being better, nicer, more adaptive, more supportive, resourceful and content, enriching both our environment and ourselves. In this age where business and creative challenges demand that we become more adaptive and brilliant with our solutions this is surely momentous.

We don’t always succeed first time and not all of our learning will be permanent unless our brain judges the experience to be worthy of retention and only then when we have fine tuned, made small adjustments and improvements. Our brains are more receptive when we are in the mood for change, when we are most motivated and try hard and when we are alert and focused. We must also maintain our brain health and practice our learning.

Unfortunately, as many people age, the natural loss of brain cells and neural connections happens faster than their formation, resulting in mental decline.

But it doesn’t have to be this way…

Physical exercise keeps our bodies and our brains in shape. Neuroplasticity is physical exercise for the brain, it promotes new brain cell formation and new neural connections, while protecting against mental decline.

It is proven that people who meditate have stronger neural connections throughout the brain and one study even demonstrated that meditation can reduce both the experience of pain and pain-related brain activity. So mindfulness really does matter and, you don’t have to be a monk to meditate!

Have you a fixed or a growth mindset? One believes that talents and intelligence cannot be changed and one understands that we can continue to develop abilities and increase mental capacities throughout our life. Simply ask yourself this question and consider accepting the concept of brain plasticity and ‘growth’, it will make a difference.

So do you fall into the “can’t teach an old dog new tricks” camp? Why not go for ‘growth’, learn some new tricks and start your journey to building a better brain. Lets leverage neuroplasticity!

Use it or loose it? It’s never too late to change your mind!

Are you a business owner and can see real growth opportunities for your business? Are you feeling a lack of clarity and confusion as to what this means for you personally? Are you frustrated as to why your team are not fully engaged and committed to grasping these opportunities and appear to be simply focused on delivering their day-to-day workload?

To help move to the next level and overcome these feelings of challenge and confusion, we at Udell Group recommend the following framework and approach:

Step 1 Be very clear as to what is your personal vision, what are your real aspirations, what success and fulfilment looks like for you and whether your values, beliefs and behaviours are truly aligned behind these. If you start from a place of aspiration, desire and intent to identify your vision, it will enable you to make more conscious choices across your whole life.

Step 2 Understanding your role in the business and the key competencies and behaviours that are required to successfully lead your business and maximise your value in your role. This will require you to look at your strengths (and how to play to these strengths) and gaps (and how to close these gaps through your own personal development and coaching or using the skills and competencies of others in or outside of the business).

Step 3 Identify the vision for the business (which is aligned behind your own personal vision and values). When it comes to identifying the vision for the business, whilst it is critical that this is co-created by you and your team together, you will personally need to have already done the thinking and be a step ahead, as this gives you a far better chance of leading your team at your pace and succeeding with the outcomes, impacts and results required. By aligning them behind your vision, ambition and aspirations, will help them to visualise the future of the business, how they fit in, what it means to them and how they can contribute. To be able to achieve this, you will need to understand their own vision, ambition, personal needs and wants. Unless you have a level of alignment across these relationships, you will not have buy-in and this could result in everything taking longer and at worst, strong challenges and resistance in delivering your vision.

Some of the team will quickly be engaged by the vision and be ready to step up and come on the journey with you. Others will want to see and feel more evidence as to what it will take and what it means to them, with a small number of individuals recognising that they may not possess the values, beliefs, behaviours, intent or capabilities to come with you and move to the next level.  With a clear framework in place in co-creating the vision and plan, clarity can be gained on who falls into which category. Then in dealing with this will require tough decisions to be made by you and the individual(s) concerned.

Step 4 It is for the reason above that the next step must be for the you and your team to co-create, engage and align behind a framework that identifies the goals, values, strategic challenges, roles and accountabilities, behaviours and ways of working required to achieve the vision. This will help the team, individually and collectively to understand their role, contribution, the value they can add and what it ultimately means for them.

Step 5 To create the environment where the team can be successful in their roles, and maximise their contribution for the benefit of the business, today as well as the transition to the vision, requires a ‘One Team’ approach, where you and the team are operating together as a fully integrated team, performing at the highest level both individually and collectively, engaging stakeholders throughout the business and beyond and co-creating solutions together that are aligned behind the business’s needs. Your role is to lead the team and maintain the thinking, doing and decision-making at a strategic level, whilst holding them to account in delivering their role. Your team’s role is to continue the thinking, doing and decision-making at an operational level, co-creating and executing the strategy of the business.

This approach creates an environment for people to grow and be creative in their own right, for the benefit of clients, colleagues and you as the leader and business owners in delivering your vision.

 

1. Meaningfulness and Purpose

Our Meaning and Purpose is the light that guides us through the mist and miasma that obscures the way. It is the inner compass that points to true north. Finding meaning and purpose is critical to living a life full of happiness and fulfilment, despite the ever-changing world. Linking what we are doing to our meaning and purpose, touching our soul, gives us a ‘turbo’ boost to do whatever it takes to achieve our goals, outcomes and impact. Having meaning and purpose in our personal and professional lives, gives us greater clarity and direction.

Without meaning and purpose we can feel overwhelmed by the small things, which in turn affects our performance. Knowing that there is meaningfulness and purpose increases our unconscious awareness, our motivation, engages our soul and spirit and hence our commitment, drive, determination, passion and ultimately our performance. Having that meaningfulness and purpose also engages and ignites others and hence has an even greater effect.

2. Mind-Set

Our mind is more open when we are happy. When we are happy, we are in a loving state, we feel more open, lighter, fluid, flexible, calm and excited. We see the world and our own issues, challenges and unknowns as an Adventure. When we are being Authentic we are more calm, and this brings our innovative, creative and ‘anything is possible’ core ‘enabling’ beliefs to the surface: I am utterly safe; I am great at my job; I am loved; I am being the best I can be; I live in a world of known and unknown opportunities

When we are not happy, our mind is closed. We become more judgemental and critical. Noise quickly comes into our heads and some of our ‘limiting’ beliefs enter our minds: I am not loved; I am not in control; I can’t do this; I am not good enough. Fear enters our whole being: mind, spirit, heart, soul and body.

The potential for fulfilment, health, happiness, impact and performance resides first in the mind, tuning into our spirit and soul. We work harder when we are happy. We go the full nine yards or that extra mile. We use time more effectively, which increases our pace without sacrificing quality and also increases our performance.

3. Awareness

Everything on the outside starts with something on the inside. How we react to situations is influenced by our brain; from our past experiences, from our current consciousness and openness for all possibilities, and hunger for the unknown. Our perception of the world, and how we make sense of it, will stem from our awareness / consciousness. This Awareness determines who we are. When we align our minds with our heart, soul, body and spirit, we feel a strong sense of ‘Alignment’ that enables us to experience and understand the core of who we are, and therefore provides that sense of happiness or fulfilment, and we are in our ‘quiet power’. With this awareness of what we are feeling and how we are feeling, knowing how those feelings are driven by our mind, we can then be proactive in ‘how I want to be’ and perform from this place. We then feel in charge, focused, bold and courageous, enabling us to perform at our very best and beyond what’s expected.

4. Behaviours

When we are living our values, are aligned with our soul, are being who we really are and feeling happy, our behaviours will drive the results, outcomes, impact and performance that we aspire to have. We feel a deep sense of Authenticity. Our behaviours (spoken and unspoken words, body language, energies and presence) will have a direct impact and influence on others. Positive behaviours are engaging. They create energy, respect and collaboration – a coming together of intellectual minds, values, and activities behind a common goal or purpose, which again lead to increased performance. When others acknowledge such behaviours through positive reinforcement, even greater and faster performance can be achieved. True exponential growth and performance will be achieved versus linear growth and expected performance.

The environment in which we operate can affect our behaviour, if we are not aware and don’t take charge. When we experience negative, low energy, or undesirable behaviour from others, and are not aware, it is easier to blame the other person’s behaviour than to look at the environment, or our own behaviour, that could have caused that behaviour. Creating the right environment will generate better energy and satisfaction, will encourage high performing behaviour and therefore much greater performance.

5. Chemical Effects

There are four key hormones that have a positive effect in boosting the feelings of happiness and emotional well-being: Dopamine, Serotonin, Endorphins and Oxytocin.

Dopamine stimulates happiness and excitability, whilst also having a positive impact on other areas such as memory, sleep, concentration and motivation. Serotonin impacts our mood, with too low a level being linked to illnesses such as depression. Endorphins act as the body’s natural painkillers and are known to be released through exercise, therefore helping to relieve stress and tension. Oxytocin is known as the ‘love hormone’ and is associated with feelings of pleasure.

Having a healthy life style; the food we eat, the quality of our sleep, the connections we have with others and our environment, the amount of exercise we do etc. are all triggers that release and regulate these hormones and help to provide us with a sense of happiness. When we have these things in balance we are aligning ourselves at a chemical, emotional, physical and spiritual level.

Our clients insights into why happiness and knowing who you are, increases performance:

Alistair McGeorge – Business Leader

Helen Normoyle – Chief Marketing Officer, DFS PLC

Executive Director, Business Services

Lloyd Ansermoz, Business Owner and Managing Director, Fidelis Group

Senior Executive, Global Entertainment & Media Company

Senior Executive, Global Broadcast Organisation

Courage is defined as “the ability to control your fear in a dangerous or difficult situation” and “to be brave and confident enough to do what you believe in”. (http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/courage)

Personal Courage takes you to the boundaries of your comfort zone. As human beings we want to feel as though we can speak the truth in potentially dangerous, fearful situations where we want to get our message across. The possibility that this could elicit an adverse reaction and ultimately cause conflict, however, more often than not stops us from doing so.

As human beings we need to develop skills and learn to become more competent in how to deliver our message. In order to do this we need to understand ourselves better i.e. our beliefs, our behaviours and our values. We need to question who we are and understand the values of our honesty, bravery and authenticity. In understanding our behaviours we will be able to develop our skills in handling conflict – do I become defensive and exhibit attacking behaviour or do I avoid conflict at all costs? At the heart of this is our personal reaction to fear, and what we need to achieve in order to move from fear to freedom.

Personal, Physical and Moral Courage

Personal courage can be split down into physical courage and moral courage. Physical courage represents how we are on the outside which then inverts into the body, whereas moral courage represents how we are on the inside which then emanates out. They are interconnected. If, for example, you want to climb Mount Everest and you have the physical skills to do so, the only thing stopping you is your mind-set (external factors notwithstanding). You have the physical courage, but you also need the moral courage to live your dreams. Personal courage can be triggered by both internal (moral) and external (physical) influences.

By continually expanding our Personal Courage ‘muscle’, this will naturally take us down the path of becoming more authentic and speaking our truth. We are encouraged to explore and discover our truth. This will take us deep inside ourselves, where we get to know who we are, increase our self-awareness and honesty and help us to understand our limitations, which in turn fuels our passion and enables us to become more compassionate. If we are more honest with ourselves we will in turn become more honest with those around us. We will have a greater ability to inspire others, and be more flexible in leading others, as we have stretched our own boundaries and understand our own limits for compassion. If you can’t manage yourself, how could you hope to be able to manage and lead others?

A desire, as a human being, to continually strive to expand who you are is a fundamental aspect of being a great leader. Great leaders can make decisions, ask probing questions to understand issues and have the ability and personal courage to take responsibility for their actions. It is not enough, however, to just have personal courage. A great leader is open to continual development. Personal courage is a core ingredient, but they still require decision making and technical skills, vision and strategy. Personal courage helps to expand these components, taking a great leader deeper into themselves to know who they are. The more you understand who you are, the more powerful life you are able to live – ‘meaningful lives deliver powerful results’.

Shifting Your Fear Mind-Set

At the beginning of this article, courage was described as “the ability to control your fear in a dangerous or difficult situation”. Fear does not derail personal courage; in fact it is the key ingredient in developing personal courage. If you allow fear to dominate you it will keep you small. Shifting your fear mind-set is the key to developing your personal courage. This may appear to be counter-intuitive both intellectually and emotionally. We naturally run from fear, however fear is a fantastic ingredient to spur on personal courage. If you can learn what fear means to you, and how it impacts on you in respect of your thoughts, feelings and behaviours, you can control and celebrate it instead of falling back into the fight, flight or freeze response.

Personal Courage and the Next Level

There is always a next level in our pursuit of personal courage. It is in our psyche to keep developing ourselves. If we hold the mirror up to reflect on our behaviour, we build the desire to know ourselves better. This is a lifelong journey – once we have woken up to it we can continually empower ourselves and live more of our potential.