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Comment on HBR blog article Why Some People Have All the Luck

We thought a high value great article written by Anthony Tjan and would like you to visit the site on

http://blogs.hbr.org/tjan/2011/07/why-some-people-have-all-the-l.html

Anthony Tjan is CEO, Managing Partner and Founder of the venture capital firm Cue Ball. An entrepreneur, investor, and senior advisor, Tjan has become a recognized business builder. Some business builders just seem to have more luck than others. In fact, many of the entrepreneurs and business builders I know say luck is a driving factor in their success.

Over the course of now hundreds of interviews, collaborations and interactions with entrepreneurs, my co-authors Richard Harrington and Tsun-yan Hsieh and I found that, while there are certain types of luck which you cannot affect (deterministic or probabilistic or elements such as where you were born, or which card you draw from a deck of 52), there is absolutely a lot of luck that you can meaningfully influence. Arguably, most of "business luck" can be influenced — i.e. you can increase your propensity to be lucky in business if you understand how.

How? Being "luckier" in business is fundamentally about having the right LUCKY ATTITUDE. As it turns out, luck is as much about attitude as it is about probability.

We have found in our research that people who self-describe themselves as lucky in their entrepreneurial profile with us tend to be luckier because they have the right attitude. Their secret towards a lucky attitude — whether consciously or unconsciously- stems from three traits:

1. At the foundation of a lucky attitude is humility. Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, helped identify humility as one of the key traits of the high performing leader. Having a lucky attitude begins with humility and open vulnerability towards your own limitations. You need enough self-confidence to command the respect of others, but that needs to be counter-balanced with knowing that there is much you simply don't know. Humility is the path towards earning respect while self-confidence is the path towards commanding it. But it is humility that humanizes leaders and allows them to be luckier. It is at the root of self-awareness, and creates the openness for one to take on our next lucky attitude trait — intellectual curiosity.

2. Intellectual curiosity is an active response to humility. Humility gives people the capacity to be intellectually curious. Conversely, people who are fully confident or arrogant are less likely to question their personal assumptions and outlook of the world. Business builders who are intellectually curious hold a voracious appetite to learn more about just about anything. They devour reading, listen to suggestions, and explore new ideas at a much higher rate than others. They are more frequently asking questions than trying to answer them. Ultimately they become luckier because they are more willing to meet new people, ask new questions, and go to new places.

3. Optimism is the energy source to allow for positive change. If humility is the foundation for intellectual curiosity, then an optimistic disposition gives one the belief and energy that more, better, faster is always possible. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy: more luck tends to come to those who believe in possibility — to those who see the good in something before they see the bad. Optimists are givers of energy rather than takers of it. By having a positive disposition, such individuals are more likely to have a greater number of seemingly "surprise" encounters with good fortune. They are also more likely to act on what they find through their intellectually curious pursuits because they believe — always believe — in the potential for better.

The basic equation of developing the right lucky attitude therefore is quite simple. It starts with having the humility to be self- aware, followed by the intellectual curiosity to ask the right questions, and concluding with the belief and courage that something better is always possible (optimism). The luckiest people in the business world are those who hold all three elements of this lucky attitude equation of humility, intellectual curiosity, and optimism. They are the people who say to themselves: I am humble enough to say I don't know how to make better/perfect happen on my own; I am curious and courageous enough to ask questions that might help make something closer to perfect; and finally I embrace the "glass half-full" optimism that the end result can always be improved, so let me act towards that objective. That is the mindset of the lucky business builder. It is one that most people can have if they are just willing to believe.

Tweeting Talkselling just got easier

Forgive me everyone but this message is only intended to make sure I am fully Web 2.0 compliant and that my blog posts get tweeted and noted on Facebook too. Look out for more interesting posts, tweets and Facebook messages to follow shortly. All the bestDave

Does Twitter drive sales for you

I have started using Twitter and was wondering what people's experience has been from the point of view of driving sales. I'd really appreciate your thoughts and comments.

LinkedIn training that gets results

I have just spoken to a customer and as a result of my Linkedin training delivered earlier this year, he has just won a £700 k order with a new customer which will increase to £1.5M.

I am currently researching more advanced techniques on LinkedIn as I believe with this success I can deliver even more value to my clients in helping them grow their organisations.

HBR Great Salespeoples "their_seven_personality_traits"

Talkselling,com think this is a great article in Harvard Business Review by STEVE W. MARTIN,

Steve W. Martin teaches sales strategy at the USC Marshall School of Business.
His latest book on sales linguistics is Heavy Hitter Sales Psychology: How to Penetrate the C-level Executive Suite and Convince Company Leaders to Buy.

We would recommend you read the full article as they have a great deal or experience and many thoughts we would agree with.

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/06/the_seven_personality_traits_o.html

The test results from top performers were then compared against average and below average performers. The findings indicate that key personality traits directly influence top performers' selling style and ultimately their success. Below, you will find the main key personality attributes of top salespeople and the impact of the trait on their selling style.

1. Modesty. Contrary to conventional stereotypes that successful salespeople are pushy and egotistical, 91 percent of top salespeople had medium to high scores of modesty and humility. Furthermore, the results suggest that ostentatious salespeople who are full of bravado alienate far more customers than they win over.

Selling Style Impact: Team Orientation. As opposed to establishing themselves as the focal point of the purchase decision, top salespeople position the team (presales technical engineers, consulting, and management) that will help them win the account as the centerpiece.

2. Conscientiousness. Eighty-five percent of top salespeople had high levels of conscientiousness, whereby they could be described as having a strong sense of duty and being responsible and reliable. These salespeople take their jobs very seriously and feel deeply responsible for the results.

Selling Style Impact: Account Control. The worst position for salespeople to be in is to have relinquished account control and to be operating at the direction of the customer, or worse yet, a competitor. Conversely, top salespeople take command of the sales cycle process in order to control their own destiny.

3. Achievement Orientation. Eighty-four percent of the top performers tested scored very high in achievement orientation. They are fixated on achieving goals and continuously measure their performance in comparison to their goals.

Selling Style Impact: Political Orientation. During sales cycles, top sales, performers seek to understand the politics of customer decision-making. Their goal orientation instinctively drives them to meet with key decision-makers. Therefore, they strategize about the people they are selling to and how the products they're selling fit into the organization instead of focusing on the functionality of the products themselves.

4. Curiosity. Curiosity can be described as a person's hunger for knowledge and information. Eighty-two percent of top salespeople scored extremely high curiosity levels. Top salespeople are naturally more curious than their lesser performing counterparts.

Selling Style Impact: Inquisitiveness. A high level of inquisitiveness correlates to an active presence during sales calls. An active presence drives the salesperson to ask customers difficult and uncomfortable questions in order to close gaps in information. Top salespeople want to know if they can win the business, and they want to know the truth as soon as possible.

5. Lack of Gregariousness. One of the most surprising differences between top salespeople and those ranking in the bottom one-third of performance is their level of gregariousness (preference for being with people and friendliness). Overall, top performers averaged 30 percent lower gregariousness than below average performers.

Selling Style Impact: Dominance. Dominance is the ability to gain the willing obedience of customers such that the salesperson's recommendations and advice are followed. The results indicate that overly friendly salespeople are too close to their customers and have difficulty establishing dominance.

6. Lack of Discouragement. Less than 10 percent of top salespeople were classified as having high levels of discouragement and being frequently overwhelmed with sadness. Conversely, 90 percent were categorized as experiencing infrequent or only occasional sadness.

Selling Style Impact: Competitiveness. In casual surveys I have conducted throughout the years, I have found that a very high percentage of top performers played organized sports in high school. There seems to be a correlation between sports and sales success as top performers are able to handle emotional disappointments, bounce back from losses, and mentally prepare themselves for the next opportunity to compete.

7. Lack of Self-Consciousness. Self-consciousness is the measurement of how easily someone is embarrassed. The byproduct of a high level of self-consciousness is bashfulness and inhibition. Less than five percent of top performers had high levels of self-consciousness.

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"The Blame Game"

As many of you know I have been doing a great deal of research on failure/ success and how we can move from one to the other. In linkedin this week there was a fantastic article from Harvard Business Review called “3 tips for responding to failure” http://web.hbr.org/email/archive/managementtip.php?date=062211. On further investigation this is linked to the April 2011 edition of Harvard Business Review on failure. One of the articles was very interesting because it dealt with the research on blame and failure http://hbr.org/2011/04/managing-yourself-can-you-handle-failure/ar/1?cm_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-management_tip-_-tip062211&referral=00203&utm_source=newsletter_management_tip&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tip062211 The researchers have done a book called “The Blame Game” which looks very good for further reading http://books.simonandschuster.com/Blame-Game/Ben-Dattner/9781439169568  Much of this has been based on the work done the psychologist Saul Rosenzweig in the 1930s, which were based on a tests that he had developed to assess anger and frustration This is an example of Rosenweig’s work Recognize Your Type The 11 personalities below have dysfunctional reactions to blame. These types represent roughly 70% of the U.S. population. Blames Others Extrapunitive Excitable: “Volatile Guardian” Overreacts to minor mistakes Determines failure prematurely Cautious: “Sensitive Retirer” Expects failure to occur Is too defensive to learn from feedback Skeptical: “Wary Watcher” Believes he will be unfairly blamed Sees only criticism in constructive advice Leisurely: “Rationalizing Blamer” Looks for and offers up excuses Often blames whoever assigned the task Denies Blame Impunitive Bold: “Big Person on Campus” Becomes angry or hurt when blamed Ingratiates herself with her superiors in the hope of avoiding blame Mischievous: “High-Wire Walker” Denies his role in failure; may deny that failure has even occurred Distorts information to avoid blame Reserved: “Indifferent Daydreamer” Ignores potentially helpful feedback Seems not to care about failure or blame Colorful: “Thespian” Expects forgiveness for any and all failures Would rather be blamed than ignored Imaginative: “Assertive Daydreamer” Offers complex explanations for failures Seems anxious about being blamed in the future but indifferent in the present Blames Oneself Intropunitive Diligent: “Micromanager” Criticizes himself for even minor errors Is so concerned about failure that he may suffer “analysis paralysis” Dutiful: “Martyr” Accepts more blame than she deserves in order to preserve work relationships Blames herself so harshly that others typically refrain from criticizing her

Harvard Business Review tips

I have really been enjoying these tips from Harvard Business Review that have been on linkedin example

http://web.hbr.org/email/archive/managementtip.php?date=061411

They have had some great ideas and insights over the last couple of weeks which has triggered some ideas for myself to implement...

Blog update

We are just working on Orange Business Services Conquest 2015-2nd year planning they have done so much in 1 year fantastic, great company I think they have done so well. Also completed a training program in Monaco for UNITE who have an extremely talented team who are very good phone new clients. Gave them a great deal but learned a lot too.

Currently working on some references and show reels for Keynote speaking after the global tour which was very exciting. Can someone comment on the book "The Exceptional Presenter and the exercises" which I find very useful.

Skype sibbo01

Web site http://www.peopleachieving.com

Linkedin http://uk.linkedin.com/in/davesibley

Blog www.talkselling.com

Off to Monaco have been researching and rehearsing my Keynotes can't wait very excited!!

Skype sibbo01

The Exceptional Presenter: A Proven Formula to Open Up and Own the Room

I have now finished the book on my trip to deliver a keynote in KL and really enjoyed this book t. I think the evaluations and rehearsal improvement techniques are very good and I put them to good use in my work. I liked the structure of the book and where it is coming from i.e. to be an exceptional presenter rather than average. The one thing it stresses is working at it especially comparing yourself with greats along with videoing yourself and making constant adjustments. For any serious keynote speaker this book is a must. Keynote speaker David Sibley People Achieving

Exciting new training course: It’s OK or What IF your choice!

Exciting new training course: It’s OK or What IF your choice!

Worked with a fantastic group on the new “Failure It’s Ok our view of don’t try to Success What if their real potential “ training course. Using well founded set of questions challenged the delegates thinking and views on themselves. So much of this is done with NLP and motivational speakers but very little in the corporate space.
I am so delighted with their performance and the changes they recognized potentially within themselves. They have all produced a real committed plan of action and already have seen some of the results.

Nancy Duarte Resonate “The audience is the Hero not the presenter”

I am currently re reading this book as I have been doing so much presenting recently and I have to say this book is an inspiration and pulls together many ideas and strategies for creative thinking. The art of story telling and engaging the audiences where in the modern day we substitute the campfire for the projector bulb is a great concept. I am revisiting many of my presentations and applying lessons learned from the book.

Never forget a customer's name again and remember business/ technical specs

This fantastic new blog, is a great place to visit that can seriously improve your skills. How do the very best minds remember? Click and learn. Memrise.com is the world's smartest learning community. Memrise was created by science grads from Oxford, Harvard and Princeton. Our vibrant community of learners have been enjoying learning up to 500 words per week. And every day, those same users are creating and sharing hundreds of new mnemonics, videos and word-lists. The best way to understand how Memrise works is to start playing. Email us at info@memrise.com.

Success and Failure and the choices we make

We have been working with some clients recently on a new course we have developed on Success and Failure and the choices we make. The essence of our course is that we help the candidate leverage their failures and organise their resources to become more successful and consistently get the kinds of results they want to achieve in their lives. The results we have been getting so far have been amazing and rewarding for both the delegates and ourselves.

During our initial research we reviewed many books and articles and we thought we would like to share our top choices with you

Success is a journey by Jeffrey J Mayer

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Success-Journey-Steps-Achieving-Business/dp/0070411298/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296722158&sr=8-1

Feel the fear and do it anyway Susan Jeffers

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Feel-Fear-Anyway-Anniversary-Indecision/dp/0091907071/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296722231&sr=1-1

Change your attitude Bay/Macpherson

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Change-Your-Attitude-Creating-Success/dp/1564143783/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296722346&sr=1-4

First things First Stephen R Covey

http://www.amazon.co.uk/First-Things-Stephen-R-Covey/dp/0684858401/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296722486&sr=1-1

Unlimited Power Anthony Robbins

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unlimited-Power-Science-Personal-Achievement/dp/0743409396/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296722863&sr=1-1

Article on decision making and cognitive bias

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases

Our details

Web site http://www.peopleachieving.com

Linkedin http://uk.linkedin.com/in/davesibley

Blog www.talkselling.com

Resonate: Present Visual Stories That Transform Audiences, a new book to be released by Nancy Duarte

The slide creator for Al Gore's Oscar winning An Inconvenient Truth reveals the underlying story form of all great presentations that will not only create impact, but will move people to action.

Presentations are meant to inform, inspire, and persuade audiences. So why then do so many audiences leave feeling like they've wasted their time? All too often, presentations don't resonate with the audience and move them to transformative action.

Make the difference to your sales pitch with PowerPoint 2010

I have recently done a number of presentations to large audiences where I have used PowerPoint 2010. I must say, that is a significant improvement over older versions of PowerPoint and delivers a much more impressive presentation.

What I can't understand, is whether salesperson has to present possibly one of the most convincing presentations to make the deal and is using PowerPoint 2003 or 2007 which is running on some old tired laptop. Having just finished a large conference I would say most of the presenters used PowerPoint 2003 and stood there reading out their bullet points.

People Achieving’s view on Success

What are the common things we all witness in successful people?

1. they have a dream

2. they have a plan

How well do you qualify - eliminating biases

Getting an improvement in your qualification process will obviously lower your overall cost of sale and improve your chances of success. McKinsey have looked a lot into the cognitive biases that appear in the decision making process in general and I am sure their thinking can be applied to improve qualification.

Working with the Gatekeeper - Accessing senior execs - Part 2

Getting access to CxO and other senior level staff is vital to a successful sales campaign. One of you main allies or obstacles can be the exec's PA. In this video - the second of two we continue the interview with a senior PA to get the inside track on what works and what doesn't in terms of gaining access to those CxO's.