While a very simple act on the face of it, none is more important. If you fail to demonstrate this act to your people be that family, employees, customers and the like you will succumb to the potential of negative results. No matter how good your talk is, if you don’t match it with your walk, you will earn no respect and find it increasingly difficult to get results.

Setting an Example is where you show your values. When you demonstrate values, and that your character has integrity, that is, if who you are the same person all the time then you will accomplish far more than you might imagine. For this kind of leader, they have those actions returned in kind and in results.

It may be more difficult under some circumstances to set a positive example, but that shouldn’t stop you! Setting an Example is where your actions are centric to your values.

When you constantly set an  example, you will get the results you want as a leader.

There are countless different ways to make resolutions and change.

I would strongly recommend you take time to write a letter to your future self.

Doing this exercise is a very insightful experience. Just imagine writing a letter to yourself based on 1 year from now, then opening it at that exact moment 1 year from now to see how much of it you achieved. Writing your Dear Me letter helps crystallize exactly how you anticipate yourself to become over the next 12 month period. 

At the very moment you are writing your letter, your conscious is captured and stored within the words. Upon opening your letter you get to compare your writings with reality. What was really important to you will have been remembered and achieved. The letter lets you see in totality how much things have changed over the past 12 months – in itself this is an intriguing experience. It’s interesting to just see how much you have grown/changed since you wrote the letter.

No longer will a Year just drift and unaccountable.

You begin by writing Dear Carey (in my case) and summarising the year that has just past. An honest assessment of how you saw the year through your eyes.

Then select your headings – mine are:

            Family            Health            Work            Financial  

The writings should be totally written to yourself describing what you want to achieve in your selected headings.

The writing should not be over 2 pages.

Once you have completed your writing sit quietly and read over them a minimum of 5 times.

Then it is time to seal up your letter and either place in a secure area or give your letter to a trusted friend to be handed or posted back at year end.

I know many people who now write a personal letter to themselves every year. It has made a consistent change process for me with a path to follow.

I am more than happy to provide help with your personal letter or to hold any letters in safe keeping. 

For more information of goal setting please visit Dwayne Alexander web site at

http://www.livemygoals.com/

My best wishes to you for a successful 2011 and beyond.

KiwiNation is an audio and video podcast of conversations with interesting and inspirational New Zealanders. Hosted by Glenn Williams from wammo.co.nz and Ben Young from bwagy.com, the aim is to expose stories and inspire not only Kiwis but also the rest of the world. Jump in a take a look around our KiwiNation! The first season contains 4 episodes which are released weekly. In 2011 Season 2 will be released.

In a recent example we conducted a secret shopper campaign within our company.  We undertook over 100 open homes of salespeople from within our business and also from other real estate companies.  An open home is when an individual comes into contact with a salesperson, who then generally has to follow up to be able to make more of that potential business.  When there is no follow up the business is lost at that point.  When there is follow up the business continues to be available and, depending on the skills, can be converted to more business.

The reason why questions are so important is because there is one space in business you don’t want to be – and maybe this is also a part of our life experience – and that is the space of “don’t know”.  It is the bearer of a lot of thought and allows possibility and options but if the “don’t know” space is where you end then you are unlikely to be the converter of any business.  There are two responses that you get when you ask for business; you get a ‘yes’, which is great and allows you to continue to build and grow with your contact; or you get a ‘no’, which either generally ends that association or gives you a reason to find a different solution.

When I look at the recent results of the secret shopper campaign I can only determine that there are a lot of people who should be good at sales who are not because they sit in the space of “don’t know”.

I would suggest if you don’t ask questions and don’t follow up, you will reside in the unsuccessful space of “don’t know”.  A ‘yes’ is great; a ‘no’ is disappointing; a “don’t know” is a waste of time.

]]> http://www.careysmith.com/who-knows/feed/ 0 http://www.careysmith.com/environmental-change/ http://www.careysmith.com/environmental-change/#comments Sat, 09 Oct 2010 10:27:51 +0000 Carey Smith http://www.careysmith.com/?p=2615 On a global scale we understand what is meant by environmental change.  It requires all of us to be conscious and to play a small role together which makes a big impact collectively.

In the industry that I work in salespeople have an environment choice.  They work on commission only and so unlike any other industry there are always jobs available in real estate, it is just a matter of where and who with.  In business leaders have a certain degree of attraction and people join individuals first, but they also look at the environment around them – where are they going to be spending the majority of their working hours and how will it impact on their ability to maximise their own personal productivity?  I see many real estate offices, a better description would be real estate office environments.  Some are very good, some are average and some are tired and lack energy.

If you can make an environmental change to your business it can be done in such a small way, positive livery, ensuring significant light into your work areas and having where possible a reception area that reflects the standards of your business.  I thought about this because recently I was in a real estate office that was tired and a customer came in and was looking at the displays and you could see them looking around and making a visual judgement on this business, then they walked out.  The environment of that real estate office was not friendly and was due for a business environmental change.

What small changes can you make in your business to make it environmentally attractive and productive?