Welcome to the March 26, 2008 issue of The Total View

Published by Success Performance Solutions, Written by Ira S. Wolfe

Visit our Human Resources Blog and Perfect Labor Storm Blog where we can post daily (and more often) human resource updates, news, and Perfect Labor Storm facts. 

What's Inside this issue of The TotalView:

1.  When Is It Time To Tune-Up or Turn-In An Underperformer?

     A Manager's Tool Kit:  Sales Personality Tests

Once upon a time there was a manager named Dick.  Dick employed two salespeople, Tom and Harry. With apologies to Aesop, what follows is our sales fable of Tom, Dick and Harry.  

Tom had an ambitious sales goal: personal revenues of $750,000, a 20 percent increase over last year.  His strategy was simple: to make more sales to his current customers and add one new customer per month to his account base.  

Tom's cohort was Harry.  Harry was also responsible in a neighboring territory to grow his sales by a similar amount and to extend his territory.  Like Tom, Harry had set the following "stretch" goals: make more sales, get more customers.  

Harry was what everybody called a "go-getter."  He was always on the run, juggling phone calls and e-mails between meetings.  Harry was ALWAYS busy, doing something  His customers said he "blew in like the wind" and then just as quickly was gone.  Harry simply didn't waste time - or so he thought.  He moved quickly from saying hello to getting down to business.  "Let's just get to the point" described Harry to a "T."   

Unfortunately, Harry often scheduled one meeting on top of another, forcing him to reschedule appointments several times per week.  When speaking with one customer, Harry was already thinking about his next appointment. Back in the home office, nobody ever really knew where Harry was although everyone knew he was either in a meeting or on his way to see another client.  No one could ever accuse Harry of sitting still.  

Tom, on the other hand, was a different story.  For every action Tom took, he had a purpose. Tom simply didn't rush anything.  Life was far too important to rush through, and that's exactly how Tom approached his work: deliberate, methodical, steady.  His co-workers fondly described him as the "tortoise," comparing him to Harry the hare.  Tom's favorite saying was, "Yes, but slow and steady wins the race!"   

Unlike Harry, everyone knew where Tom was every minute of every day - it was right on his calendar. Tom was habitually on time and always allowed enough time to make sure his customers felt they had his undivided attention. Tom stated quite simply, "my clients are too important to overlook or rush."   

Dick, Tom's and Harry's boss, was a bit confused by the disparity between his salespersons' approaches and subsequent performance.  

Tom's performance was exceptional: He had been awarded the President's Award several years in a row- and received his maximum bonus for being the top performing salesperson two years running.  Dick thought, "if only we could figure out how to light a fire under Tom, he'd be unbeatable.  

To find out if lighting a fire under Tom would work, continue reading about Tom, Dick and Harry here.   

To learn more about sales personality tests, call us at 800.803.4303 or 717.291.4640 or continue reading.  

2. Perfect Labor Storm Warnings   

Subscribe to the Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 blog and receive skilled

worker shortage updates like this:

Maintenance Worker Crisis Song: An Workforce Anthem?

With a very clever song and "karaoke-like" powerpoint presentation, the people at MPACT Learning Center, a training center for maintenance workers, tell a story of their skilled worker shortage woes that should make every one of us to take pause.  The song and presentation says it all....so I'll stop typing.  To view and listen to "The Maintenance Crisis Song," click here or go to www.mpactlearning.com and look for the button in the bottom right corner of the page.  (You'll need to click "open" and not "save" to hear the music.)

Read more about skilled worker shortages in the NEW Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 (soft and hard cover versions)

Now on Sale!  Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 (soft and hard cover versions)  

Order today and save 25%.

NEW Chapters!  Generational Conflicts in the Workplace, Managing the Future Workforce, Attracting Young Employees in a Seller's Job Market plus hundreds of new facts, trends and stats.

View Table of Contents  

Save 25% off retail by ordering now.

Hard Cover: $29.99         Soft Cover: $19.99  

Your Price: $22.49           Your Price: $14.99

To order Perfect Labor Storm 2.0, call 800.803.4303.  Discounts for orders of 10 or more.  Specify hard or soft cover.

3.  Managing to Excel - The Best Supervisory Training

A manager's time is precious. Too often, formal training tries to accomplish too much. Managing to Excel works from the premise that if training is to succeed, learning objectives need to concentrate on just a few key behavioral change goals.

Managing to Excel is a collection of 12 half-day off-the-shelf workshops, each dedicated to the development of a single critical competency. 

Learn more about Managing to Excel.

4. Sales Personality Tests

What makes top performing salespeople tick?  Recent validation studies and thousands of empirical experiences prove that behavioral styles and personality traits give managers a leg up in hiring salespeople who can meet and exceed expectations. Success Performance Solutions offers sales personality and skill tests to screen, hire and develop high potential salespeople from the hourly retail associate to global account managers and sales managers.

Read more about our easy-to-use, online sales personality tests or call us at 800-803-4303.

5.  The Leader Within

Best-selling authors and Fortune 100 consultants, Dr. Drea Zigarmi, Dr. Ken Blanchard, Dr. Michael O'Connor and Dr. Carl Edeburn reveal the results of an in-depth, seven-year statistical study of leadership in Corporate America. Their new book, The Leader Within, Knowing Enough About Yourself To Lead Others, shows how leaders exert influence and how disposition, values, beliefs, and persona contribute to their very success-or failure.

What's the difference between Managers and Leaders?  

Purchase "The Leader Within" Today.

6. Speaking Schedule: Ira S Wolfe

2008:

April 2 - Wachovia Bank, Philadelphia PA - Flashpoint: When Boomers and Younger Workers Collide  

May 16 - Sovereign Benefits Solutions HR Conference, Hershey PA

October (tentative) - American Staffing Association Annual Meeting - Workforce Trends That Change The Way You Will Do Business  

Call 717.291.4640 to schedule Ira for your next meeting or conference.

7.  Hot Off The Press!  "Coming Job Boom" - Buy Today! 

Ira recently collaborated with Bonnie Kerrigan Snyder on a new book, The Coming Job Boom.  Bonnie is the author of The Public School Parent's Guide to Success. The Coming Job Boom is the "ying" for the "yang" of The Perfect Labor Storm.  While the Perfect Labor Storm is beginning to make managers feel like storm chasers looking for qualified workers, high school and college students must be smiling at this Upcoming Job Boom. For those young workers with the right skills and motivation, the job market will make these kids feel like  - well, like kid's in a candy store! 

Order Coming Job Boom today - only $10.95  

Save $2 and shipping costs - download the Coming Job Boom e-book now.  

8. Quotes from Hire Authorities

"Chess is like life in that you need to see three moves ahead."

Permission is granted to consultants, managers, business owners and HR professionals to reproduce content from this newsletter for your internal publications, or to distribute copies to your workforce, on the condition that you reproduce the credits and contact information as follows: "Reprinted with permission from Ira S Wolfe and Success Performance Solutions. Copyright 2008 Ira S Wolfe."  We also hope you will forward the newsletter in its entirety and recommend to others that they subscribe.

Ira S. Wolfe Copyright 2007 - All Rights Reserved. Reprints and other distribution by permission