Extracts from David Freemantle's books

EXTRACT FROM THE BUZZ

(50 little things that make a big difference to delivering world-class  service)

  by Dr David Freemantle

 published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing, London Uk, 2004

 Chapter  24     WORK YOUR VOICE

Give voice to your positive feelings for customers

The voice is multi-faceted and with the exception of opera singers, stage actors and public speakers much ignored as an instrument for connecting with customers. Most of us rely on our ‘default’ voice without thinking whether there are better options in the way we use our voice to express ourselves to customers.   This ‘default’ voice is a product of our upbringing and one most people pay little attention to.  We are unaware of how we sound and the impact this has on others.  Tone, pace, clarity, intensity and intent as well as vocabulary and idiom are vital factors in determining the way we express ourselves to customers.  In other words to ‘tune in’ to customers we have to fine-tune our voices.

The variety of options in working a voice is vast and correctly chosen will greatly enhance the prospect of influencing and delighting a customer. Thus the skill of persuasion is not just a matter of the words selected but of the way the words are voiced.  Articulation is one of the arts of customer service requiring the exercise of vocal nuance for maximum impact.  It is the little things an individual does with his or her voice that can make a big difference in communicating with a customer. 

Modulation of the voice requires energy and a high degree of consciousness of how we sound to another person.  In working our voice we need to be sensitive to the effect of our words on the other person.  We need to be asking ourselves questions such as:  “Have I really connected with the customer?  Is she listening or just hearing? Can I adjust my voice to secure a more effective engagement with the customer?”

Each customer is different and the key skill in communicating is to select expressions which maximises the probability of commanding the customer’s attention and engaging him.  Thus if the customer is not fluent in English we should speak at a slower pace with full attention being given to clear articulation. The same applies if the customer is a senior citizen who is a little hard of hearing. 

Emotional tone is significant here.  The amount of feeling pumped into any one word or short phrase will register with a customer who will interpret an employee’s sincerity or disinterest accordingly. As such the voice can almost ‘sing’ with ‘melody’ as opposed to sounding flat.   Some people’s voices are a ‘drone’ whilst others allow their happiness to infiltrate every sound.  Equally some people have voices which are abrupt or clipped and thus alienate whilst others have soft, warm and rounded voices which reassure and attract.

Summarily in connecting with customers the voice has to be worked upon and this means becoming conscious of how it currently sounds and all the little things that can be done to modulate it and enhance its sound.

EXTRACT FROM THE BIZ

(50 little things that make a big difference to motivation and team- leadership)     

by Dr David Freemantle

published by Nicholas Brealey Publishing 2004

Chapter 4       HIRE THE BEST

The best people to hire are those motivated to be the best in their chosen field

 It starts at the beginning. Unless you hire the best people you will be in trouble for many months if not years to come.  When you hire second or third rate people you lock yourself into performance troubles and you will waste time trying extricate the company from all the problems these laggards create.  Poor performers are time wasters. They waste everyone’s time on problems.

When you hire people one little thing you should do which will make a big difference is to look for motivation. This will be reflected in:

• the best track record       – the candidate is motivated  to achieve great results
• the best skills/talents       – the candidate has a high degree of self-awareness and is motivated to focus on and develop what he or she is best at in life and at work
• the best experience         – the candidate is motivated to develop his or her career by gaining new experiences
• the best knowledge         – the candidate is motivated to learn and become an expert in his/her chosen field
• the best behaviour           – the candidate is motivated to create the best personal approach
• the best relationship skills   – the candidate is motivated to work well with people
• the best potential              – the candidate is ambitious and is motivated to do even better than in the past
• the best energy levels     – the candidate is motivated to work hard to achieve personal goals at work
• the best attitude                – the candidate is motivated to be positive, helpful and a good team-member
• the best imagination        – the  candidate is motivated to find creative ways of overcoming problems and creating a bright new future for the team and the company
• the best qualifications     – the candidate is motivated to demonstrate formally, through qualification, that he or she is exceptionally well educated
• the best employers          – the candidate is motivated to work for only the best employers
• the best pay           – the candidate sees pay as a barometer of success and therefore has always been paid the best

 These factors apply whether you are hiring a Chief Executive or a bus driver.  For example it is far better to hire a bus driver who is motivated to have the best safety record, who is motivated to learn about customer service than a hire a bus driver who is just there to earn money by driving a bus from ‘A’ to ‘B’.

It can often be a struggle to find the best. Even so if the market is tight this is no reason for selecting second best.   There are many enlightened and progressive executives who, on encountering a person who is the best will hire them irrespective of whether or not there is a job vacancy.  When you find the best people hire them irrespectively.

Summarily if you want to do the biz and the best for your company, customers, shareholders and employees then you have no option but to recruit the best people. Anyone else will drag the company down.

This means that for every little step of the way in the recruitment and selection process you have to qualify each decision with the word ‘best’ (the best advertisement, the best selection methodology, the best interviewers – and the best candidates).

Chapter 1   BE THERE FOR YOUR PEOPLE

 As a boss if   you are not there for your people then they will not be there for you when you want them.   Be there now

On the very first day and during the very first hour John Hayes took up his appointment as Managing Director of the John Lewis store in Newcastle he was there at the partner's entrance (employee's entrance) to welcome everyone who worked in the store.   He was there for his people.   He devoted most of his first day on the shop floor, meeting people, listening carefully and finding out what they thought.

Too many bosses are nowhere to be seen.   They are distant. They spend their time in meetings leaving front-line employees unaware as to what is going on.

In fact the only time you see some managers is when things go wrong - and then they are there   - to find fault, to criticise, to punish and to instruct on a better way.   These bosses always know a better way - after the event.   They are driven by hindsight and specialise in reacting to the negative.   They are experts in poor performance and the inevitable lapses in operational efficiency (which happens inevitably when they are not around).

The best managers are there for their people, not because they do not trust them but because they want to help them succeed.   These managers trust their people implicitly but recognise that there is no one person who is the sole custodian of wisdom and experience and there are few people who can sustain exceptionally sustain high levels of motivation and performance in the absence of the occasional motivational shot in the arm from the boss.

The reality is that your team need you. If they did not need you then you should not be there. Equally you need the team to deliver the goals your company holds you accountable for achieving. You are there to add value to the team's efforts, to guide and direct, to support and encourage, to reward and praise, to appraise and coach, to inform and communicate as well to listen and learn.   You are there to help the team address any of the multitude of problems that can arise day by day.

Effectively a key role for any boss is a supportive one.   She is there to provide the help, the problem resolution, the additional resource, the know-how and from to time the direction when teams are up against it.

In real time to be there for your people means having a visible presence periodically on the shop floor or at least within easy range of communication.   It does not mean breathing down people's necks, or constant interference, or excessively tight control. It means making yourself available for people when they need you.   As asserted in Section 25 being there for your people does not mean a permanent physical presence - in fact there is good reason for you to be away from the shop floor from time to time.

Extracts from:

HOW TO CHOOSE - Why our greatest successes are a reflection of our small everyday choices (published by Prentice Hall Business 2002)

by Dr David Freemantle

published by Prentice Hall Business 2002

•  EXTRACT 1

The evolution of choice from microbehaviors

Most so-called big decisions can be traced back through an evolution of very small choices relating to microbehaviors.

A big decision is just a figment of the imagination.   It reflects a small choice we make at that moment following an evolutionary series of   previously small choices. For example we might consider buying a new expensive house to be a big decision. It is not. It is small decision.   We choose to feel dissatisfied with our current home, we choose to dream about a new home, we choose a location, we choose the specifications which appeal to us,   we choose to examine our savings account, we choose to feel secure with the salary we currently earn, we choose to take out a mortgage, we choose to consult a financial adviser, we choose to look in the windows of realtors (estate agents).   These are all microbehaviors. Then it is easy. We choose a new house.   It is a simple emotional choice following an emotion we felt a few months before.   It is not a big decision.   It is the exercise of a simple emotion we have chosen for ourselves.    If we knew we could not afford that house we would have not chosen that emotion, we would have put up with our lot and at worst chosen occasionally to moan about it.

•  EXTRACT 2

Big outcomes from small choices

Human beings have the greater ability to conceptualise a future event and therefore set goals. "We will build an ant-hill"   or "We will build a Millennium Dome" or a company called "Boo.com". However the act of conceptualision (a microbehavior)    is but one small choice which emerges into a potential outcome through the actualisation of many other small choices.   If the outcome materializes then it can be viewed as big, but it is the evolution   of a series of small choices   that lead us there. In other words   all the small choices we make en route will determine the actualisation of a potential outcome, and this includes the original choice of what to conceptualise.    Few people forecast that the Millennium Dome in London would be a failure or that Boo.com would collapse within months of its launch.

•  EXTRACT 3

Random microbehaviors

In producing a plan to move from conceptualisation to actualisation it is virtually impossible to determine all the macro- and microbehaviors necessary to make it happen.    The random behaviors that occur whilst implementing any plan will determine the outcome.   Nobody planned for RailTrack in the UK to fail.   It did, mainly because some unforeseen random microbehaviors threw a train off the rails and caused a major accident.   Nobody planned for Enron to collapse nor Swissair for that matter.

What we view as big decisions are often undermined (or conversely enhanced) by such random macro- and microbehaviors.   All big events can be traced to a series of small behavioral choices with randomness playing a major part in their eventual outcome.

•  EXTRACT 4

A pattern of choices

I challenge any reader to give me an example of a so-called big decision that is actually NOT conditional on a whole set of evolutionary macro- and microbehaviors and random events. Everything perceived as big can be traced back to small things.   The image on the screen of my   PC here can be traced to 789504 pixels (1028 x 768) and the minor choice of each word and each tap on the keyboard.   When I want to communicate an idea I am choosing a macrobehavior.   Microbehaviors are my choice of words for expressing this idea.    When I have chosen the ideas I want to express together with 60,000 words these macro- and microbehaviors hopefully will emerge into what you and I describe as a book.   A pattern emerges from all these small choices.

My choice in writing this book followed an 'idea' that emerged in my head a few months ago. I then chose to ask my editor Rachel Stock for a meeting to discuss   the 'idea'.   She chose to agree to that meeting.   We chose to discuss the idea in a certain way and what evolved from that discussion was a modified idea.   Rachel then chose to consult her colleagues and they then chose to offer me a contract which I chose to accept.   From that evolved the book.   At that point of time September 11 th had not happened, Jac Nasser had not been fired and Rod Eddington had not had to scale back on operations at British Airways.   This book has evolved from a whole series of emerging events. It started with the micro-choice of an idea and has been actualised through a series of other micro-choices made by myself and others.    It is your choice whether or not to read it and   learn from it.   Every thing we do can be related to such small choices and microbehaviors.   At any one point of time we can fixate on a pattern of these choices and label them as a big decision.

•  EXTRACT 5

Strategic decisions

I have been a board director of a major company.   A board likes to think it makes major strategic decisions.   For example a board might have to decide how many aeroplanes to purchase and   whether to select Airbus or Boeing.    These are not major decisions. They are based on a 'set' of   much smaller choices relating to financial arithmetic, specifications, commercial projections and past experience. The final choice also evolves out of previous choices we have made about the information we need to collect, the people we need to consult, the way we interpret information and overall how we feel.   All these small choices add up to what appears to be a big decision. However what appears to be a big decision is actually driven by these small choices.   By the time the purchasing proposal reaches the board the decision has effectively been made as a result of preceding macro- and microbehaviors.    Most boards merely rubber stamp decisions.   The small choice of 'rubber stamping' is a microbehavior.   It merely means saying "Yes" and putting your signature to a piece of paper.   That is a microbehavior, not a strategic decision. Similarly if a board director protests against a proposed decision that protest is no more than a chosen microbehavior.   If another board director calls for more information, or more time, or a second or third opinion these again are microbehaviors. Attending the board meeting and choosing to contribute are the macrobehaviors.

•  EXTRACT 6

The hard and soft side of business

The assertion in this chapter that there are no such things as big decisions, only an accumulation of small choices emerging into a pattern of events might come as a shock to some people.   This is because traditional management thinking has focused on task and targets as opposed to behavior.   It has focused on the 'hard' side of business as opposed to the 'soft' side.    The 'hard' side of business is easy.   It is quantifiable, tangible and relatively impersonal.   It is thus easy to focus on tasks and targets using systems to obtain the numbers and track the task.    However we delude ourselves if we believe that   this emphasis   will lead to our future success.  

In front of me I have a textbook for students of business studies.   It is a heavy large format book with 553 pages of which the last 23 are an index comprising approximately 1800 references.     A simple scan reveals that most of these index references relate to hard issues such as 'assets'   or 'balance sheets' or 'best practice benchmarking' or   'cost based pricing'.    However there are NO index references to (i) emotion   (ii) attitude   (iii) behavior   and (iv) values.    Even the chapter on 'human resources' deals mainly with issues such as incentive schemes, selection techniques and application forms, training methods and performance appraisal systems. In other words only about five per cent of the text book covers 'soft issues' and then not at all about individual managerial behavior.

This textbook and much of modern management thinking and practice is a product of the scientific school of management which focuses on numbers, measures and systems as opposed to the soft side of emotions, attitudes, behavior and the essence of those human relationships which lead to long term business success.

•  EXTRACT 7

Managing tasks vs. managing behavior

By designating a person in an organization structure as a 'manager' he is led to believe that he is there to 'manage a team of people'.    In doing so he manages targets and tasks using numbers, measures and systems.   The whole process of management becomes highly impersonal and is perceived as such.   It is not deemed appropriate to 'manage behavior' as behavior is highly personal.   However it is behavior that determines success, not tasks and targets which are a mere product of behavior.

The most progressive executives today are those that concentrate many of their energies on this soft side of   emotion,   attitude and behavior.   That was why Jack Welch was so successful.

These executives focus on choosing microbehaviors which will positively energise the microbehaviors of others.   In this way the tasks will be undertaken and the targets more likely to be met. Those who choose to ignore the impact of behavior and focus   solely on tasks, targets, numbers, measures and systems are those who are likely to fail.

•  EXTRACT 8

Automated decisions

Any business decision is no more than a behavioral choice - and a small choice at that.   As soon as you attempt to automate decisions, for example as banks do with credit-scoring, or insurance companies do with claims, then effectively there is no decision because there is no behavioral choice at that point in time.   The behavioral choices were made earlier in the design and construction of the automated system.

The popular fashion for empowerment is no more than an assertion that employees can make behavioral choices when situations are presented to them. They have to choose rather than automatically follow the procedure or the manual.

Such choice is always emotional and relates to deep-seated feelings about what makes a person feel good or feel bad.     Experience is a mere conduit to these emotions.   It is experience that 'tells us' what to do in a given situation

to make us feel good.   Experience is no more than an automated program secreted in our subconscious which we can choose to draw upon to direct our behavior.   

•  EXTRACT 9

Experience, energy   and choice

We thus choose which experiences to remember as well as choosing our interpretations of these experiences.   Experience is a set of tracks routed on a memory map. These tracks have been laid down as a result of past learning.   We therefore have to choose the route   through these tracks of learning and thus choose the experience which guides us to a decision.   The choice is deep and is vested in our emotions and feelings about what makes us feel good and bad.

Ultimately these choices are reflected in our small behaviors.   There is nothing   else in life except these microbehaviors.  

The biggest thing you will do today is expend a lot of energy. This might be   physical energy (digging a large ditch), emotional energy (giving a passionate performance on stage), intellectual energy (completing the crossword) or spiritual energy (praying for people's   souls).    There is nothing bigger that you will do.   Your day is no more than an accumulation of these expenditures of personal energies,   and such energies are very small relative to the energies of nature and the impersonal machinery of mankind's invention.   The energy required of a pilot to fly an aircraft is infinitesimally small compared with the actual energy required of the fuel to put the plane in the air.

•  EXTRACT 10

The accumulation of small microbehaviors into patterns of success

To make progress in life and at work therefore we have to minutely study the small microbehaviors we make every minute of the day and how these accumulate into a pattern of events which we and others interpret as success.   This does not mean following a predetermined route but in fact exploring many different routes, many at random.   It means experimenting continually throughout life with various microbehaviors to determine those which are more likely to be effective.

When we stop experimenting we effectively become trapped within ourselves, trapped within our own fixed rigid thinking patterns and the predictable behaviors that result.   Such predictability makes us very vulnerable to the predation of competitors.    Even behaviors based on morality and legality have to be challenged from time to time.   I will leave it to your imagination for an illustration of what I am writing about, but today's morality can be   yesterday's immorality - and vice versa to be honest.  

•  EXTRACT 11

Institutionalization

Total reliance on tried and tested past behaviors is almost a predictor of failure. Look around you. You will see it everywhere.   Everything changes all the time.   It has to change to survive and if you do not change you will not survive.   At best you will end up in an institution where everything is mind-numbingly predictable.   Institutionalization is the outcome.

Thus you have no option. You have to change and this means choosing to change, not the big things in your life (whatever they are) but choosing to change your own microbehaviors together with   your thoughts and feelings.

•  EXTRACT 12

The difference between robots and human beings

Robots do not make choices for the simple reason they have no emotions. No matter how sophisticated the robot every move it takes is a pre-programmed response to an external stimulus.  

Conversely as human beings we are able to make choices because we have emotions which balance our reasons and vice versa.   All our choices derive from emotions and are therefore subjective.   If there is no emotional component to what we think as a choice it is not a choice at all but a pre-programmed response to an external stimulus.  

In other words there is no such thing as 'a totally objective choice'.   We might pretend there is but the mask of objectivity we like to present merely hides the subjective influences upon the choices we make every day.

Most of our behaviors, especially microbehaviors,   are pre-programmed responses and contain no element of choice.   Logic, rationality and objectivity at best moderate the emotions which influence our conscious choices in life.    Reliance on logic alone would lead to the same decision a robot would make if it had the same software programmed into its brain.

Not only do robots have no hearts nor any souls but they   have no consciousness either. They are therefore unable to make choices.   They are just programmed to react to stimuli.   We are programmed to react too by way of the powerful but intricate mechanisms vested in our subconscious.   Such pre-programmed subconscious reactions can only be overridden by a conscious process of choice powered by our emotions and moderated by reason. The logics we espouse are rooted in our subconscious programming, not in the emotions. In fact as revealed below we have to use emotions to choose our logics or rationales.   Frequently our reasons are no more than   justifications   for the emotions which drive our choices.   The two influence each other: our emotions drive our reasoning whilst our reasoning can moderate our emotions. Any choice we make therefore includes an emotional component.

•  EXTRACT 13

Behaviors driven by the conscious and the subconscious

Choice is   a conscious process. It is difficult to imagine making a choice without being aware of the options from which we are choosing.   Consequently choice cannot be a subconscious process even though many of our behaviors (of which we are unaware) are driven by our subconscious.   These 'automatic' behaviors are pre-programmed responses activated by various external and internal stimuli.   

When we blink automatically no emotions are involved.   However when we wink at a child   emotions are definitely involved. That wink is a conscious behavioral choice driven by emotions and moderated by reason. Both blinking and winking are microbehaviors.

•  EXTRACT 14

Randomness, luck and high performance

High performance is function of randomness. So is luck. The more you, as a manager, expose yourself to random opportunities the luckier you will become and the higher your performance will be.   The key theme in this chapter is that to perform well you have to create randomness of choice rather than restrict it.

If you select just one set of six numbers your chances of winning the lottery will be minimal, the probability is you will have little luck.   However if you randomly select    one thousand sets of six numbers then the probability is you will have more luck in winning.

Similarly if you limit yourself to one tried and tested routine at work the probability is you will have little success.   Conversely if you go beyond the routine and expose yourself to a thousand random improvement opportunities your chances of a win will be increased greatly.

One of England's greatest soccer stars   David Beckham does not score with every free kick he takes at goal.    In the match with Greece in which England qualified for the 2002 World Cup Finals   he took eight free-kicks.   Only one, in the very last minute of the match, led to a   goal.   There could have been eight goals as a result of these free kicks, there could have been none. In fact there was only one.   It was random.   Furthermore it was a random event that led to this goal, one of the Greek defenders fouling one of the English forwards.    

What makes soccer so exciting is that random events play a big part in the overall result, no matter how high performing each team is.   The business of management is no different.   By precluding random events no manager can win.   Conversely by exposing himself to random events there is an increased probability of succeeding.

•  EXTRACT 15

The random illusion of success

Life is full of these turning points based on random events.   In fact Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a trader in financial funds based in New York would assert that "a large section of businessmen with outstanding track records will be no better than randomly thrown darts."   Winners tend to be visible whilst losers are given little attention. Thus if randomness throws up one successful CEO out of 1,000 we tend to focus on him rather than on the 999 who did less well.   We then try to correlate his skills with success so that we copy his skills.   This is the same as saying   "What are the skills that helped you win the lottery? - so that we can copy them."

The fashion for scientific management and the concomitant proliferation of   rules, regulations, systems and procedures restricts randomness and the ability of any one individual to succeed.    It leads to compliance and convention as opposed to challenge and creativity.

•  EXTRACT 16

Village mentality

If you spend your whole life working and living in the same village,   without setting foot outside it, the probability is you will marry someone from that village.    Should all villagers do this then the community will become inbred and die.    Conversely if you go beyond your village and travel the world the probability is you will marry someone from outside your village and possibly from another country.     Should everyone do this then all communities will thrive.   The more random encounters you have with people outside your village the more successful you will be.

I am writing this on a Wednesday evening.   Tomorrow I fly to South Africa to run two seminars.    During my stays in Johannesburg and Cape Town I   know that I will enjoy random encounters with people I do not know today because I have yet to meet them.   Furthermore I know that these random encounters will lead to long-term relationships which will be mutually beneficial.   I do not know who I am going to meet but I do know that by putting myself around and chatting to as many people I can in a room of 200 that some positive good will come out of it.  

I know this for a fact because there are some people I am scheduled to meet on this visit who I met, at random, on my last visit three months ago and with whom I now have a business relationship. They were chance encounters as a result of chance events.    If I had kept myself to myself and just confined my South African connection to the one person who approached me six years ago I suspect I would not be visiting the country tomorrow.   

The chosen macrobehavior of   "putting myself around" comprises a series of chosen microbehaviors relating to whom I initiate contact with and how I strike up conversations with people, as well as how I respond to people who initiate contact with me.

•  EXTRACT 17

Unpredictability and the law of unintended consequences

Related closely to the randomness of choice is the principle of unpredictability and the law of unintended consequences.  

We like to comfort ourselves as managers by believing that if we follow an established procedure the probability of success is higher than if we acted randomly without procedure.   We like to believe that the successful outcome we desire is more likely to occur if we follow procedure than if we do not.  

Whilst procedure is essential in operating equipment (such as aeroplanes and trains) it is far from essential in dealing with people and managing relationships.   Too much procedure in relationships can lead to customs and conventions which stifle creativity, minimize risks and therefore reduce the probability of success in a competitive world.   

•  EXTRACT 18

An analogy with nature

There is an analogy with nature in the theory and practice of randomness.     Animals and plants readily adapt when they are exposed to random changes in the environment.   That is evolution.    Similarly companies and individuals that energetically expose themselves to the randomness of external events are more likely to adapt and evolve successfully than those that shut the lid on the box and seek the protection of the known.   The lack of random stimuli will cause them to shrivel up and die.

In practice   this means 'doing things at random and seeing what happens' as opposed to 'doing predetermined things and expecting something to happen.'   It means undertaking experiments, taking risks and doing the opposite of what everyone (especially your competitors) should be doing. It means flying economy when you normally fly business class, it means doing the opposite of what your merchandising manager says and experimenting at random with different types of window displays,   it means   randomly selecting a price as opposed to calculating it and it means random marketing initiatives. This flies in the face of convention albeit it is totally predictable that some of the most successful companies today (such as Ryanair, EasyJet and Virgin) have flown in the face of convention.

The risks are high and there is no guarantee of success if   you choose to   expand the randomness of your approach. However there is an increased probability of failure should you restrict yourself to tried and tested ways which preclude randomness.

•  EXTRACT 19

Encouraging people to 'chance' upon improvements

You must encourage your employees to think in random ways and thereby to 'chance' upon improvements to your business.   You must encourage your sales people to engage with customers in random ways and thereby 'chance' upon increased sales.   Do not stand behind the counter (that is inside the box). Go outside the counter and randomly engage customers.    Do not wait for customers to call you.   Call them at random.   Discuss anything at random.   Choose a colour at random and experiment with that, try not to be too scientific in choosing anything.   

The underlying principle in this chapter is that you should harness the randomness of the external world to your advantage by expanding the range of   options presenting themselves to you   and choose from this expanded range at random.  

The principle of unpredictability and the law of unintended consequences is more likely to fall in your favour by doing so than if you restrict yourself to a much narrower range of known opportunities.   In other words do not confine yourself to choosing between Options A and B because you know a lot about each, but expose yourself to Options A, B..Z, even if you do not know much about X,Y and Z.   For example when selecting candidates for a vacancy do not rely on the predictable stereotypes who conform to that boring old person specification but go looking for candidates who do not conform.   Take a risk. It might not pay off but by acting at random there is an increased probability it will.  

•  EXTRACT 20

The nature of behavior

We tend to talk loosely about behavior. My   Oxford dictionary defines behavior as "the way in which an animal or person responds to a situation or stimulus".   Behavior relates to conduct and the activities we undertake throughout our lives.   It is what we do and how we do it.   Good behavior is helping a blind person cross the road whilst bad behavior is ignoring someone who solicits your attention.   Good behavior is writing 'thank you' letters whilst bad behavior is swearing at people who upset you.

We all know this.   Behavior is obvious, it is what we see others do and what we do ourselves.   As explained in the previous chapters much of our behavior is automatic, being driven by our subconscious whilst a minority of our behaviors are well-chosen following conscious deliberation.

Behavior is personal.   It belongs to us.   It is what we do in response to internal and external stimuli.   Other people can tell us how to behave but in the end it is our choice.

•  EXTRACT 21

The impact of behavior on performance

It is behavior which leads to high or low performance and thus success or failure.   Because of the personal nature of behavior most managers neglect it,   preferring to focus on tasks and results in pursuit of their business objectives.   Tasks are impersonal.   Anybody can do them providing they have been trained.   Even robots can undertake tasks. So can computers and dish-washing machines.   You set the task, the program runs and the task is completed. That is the task and that is what most managers attempt to concentrate on.

When it comes to people it is slightly different. Behavior intervenes.   The differential between high and low performance, between winning and losing, between success and failure is much more than setting the task and running the programme.   The differential relates to people's behavior on the task.

•  EXTRACT 22

Macrobehaviors and microbehaviors

Behavior can be split into two levels. The first is 'macrobehaviors' which describe 'high level' behaviors and the second is 'microbehaviors' describing 'low level' behaviors.

The central thesis in this book is that the major determinant of success in life and work is our choice of microbehaviors.   

Microbehaviors are all the contributing components to any one macrobehavior. Microbehaviors are the subsidiary activities that comprise a major activity.    They are what goes into doing anything. Microbehaviors are the nuances and minutiae of our observed behaviors.

Whilst there is a clear danger that we fail to choose effective macrobehaviors there is an even bigger danger that we totally neglect microbehaviors.   However macrobehaviors are a product of microbehaviors, so the latter cannot be ignored.

•  EXTRACT 23

Microbehaviors and reading small signals

All species of animals, including human beings, excel at reading small signals. It is how we survive.   A dog will carefully watch his master's eyes and listen carefully to his tone of voice to gauge the signals. The dog will respond as appropriate, wagging its tail or shivering with fear according to these microbehaviors.

The same will apply in any human situation.   We can tell whether or not a person is confident from his or her microbehaviors,   we can tell whether or not they are serious or having us on.   We make these judgements all the time.   It is easy to say that we should take people at face value but in fact most of us rarely do this.   Invariably we use our 'nous'   to determine what is really going on inside another person's head and heart.    That 'nous' is our innate intelligence for reading and interpreting other people's microbehaviors.   We see the look in their eyes (a microbehavior) and know instantly what is going on.   We take a call and know instantly from the tone of voice (a microbehavior) that there is a problem.  

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Character patterns and microbehaviors

These microbehaviors add up to establish a pattern which characterizes the type of person we are. People judge us on this, they form opinions on our pattern of microbehaviors.   Our character is not just based on macrobehaviors (picking a phone call some one) but on our microbehaviors (how we apply energy to the microbehaviors which formulate the call).

The outcomes which we experience in life and at work are thus determined to a high degree by these microbehaviors. It is not through the activities we take (like working hard and studying intensively)   but through the microbehaviors we put into these activities.

As stressed in a previous chapter there is no guarantee that any one set of microbehaviors will generate the outcomes or successes we desire in life.   Randomness and luck have a huge part to play.   However we can increase the probability of our success by focusing on our microbehaviors, which are oft neglected, to determine those which are positive and most effective. We can also increase the range of microbehaviors we adopt,   for example using different words for improved effect, or for example trying different ways such as a more cheerful tone of voice.   Gradually these changes will add up to something significant. The process is evolutionary.    We do not see a person ageing, we do not see the gray hairs growing, we do not see the widening of the waist-line - but we do know that after a year or so that person is that much older, grayer and fatter. In other words if you weigh yourself before and after eating a chocolate bar you will detect no difference in weight.   However if you eat one thousand chocolate bars in a year you will see and measure a difference.

Indulging in   a chocolate bar is a microbehavior and forms one of many that goes into the overall macrobehavior of eating.   The pattern of eating leads to the type of person we are and by which other people perceive us.   The same applies to every little thing we do at work.   Our tone of voice, our demeanour, our attitude, our choice of words all evolve into a pattern which influences our future direction.

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Choosing more effective microbehaviors

Thus to improve we have to examine the pattern and choose microbehaviors which are more likely to achieve the outcome we desire: being a more effective person.

In the multitude of self-help books available in this day and age too much attention is given to macrobehaviors and prescriptions for these.   For example many of the books I have studied recently focus on the importance of such steps as (i) establishing a purpose or vision (ii) becoming self-disciplined (iii) sustaining focus (iv)   controlling one's destiny (v) developing great teams and (vi) learning from adversity.    The self-help book I have open in front of me lays out seventeen principles of success.   However each is defined in terms of   macrobehaviors.   They are behaviors like "communicate effectively" and "inspire your team".  

Every single manager in the world knows that he or she must "communicate effectively" and "inspire his or her team."   It sounds so easy it is amazing that so few managers practice this. The reason relates to a lack of attention to choosing effective microbehaviors.   It is the build-up of microbehaviors that determines whether communications are effective or not, or whether teams are inspired or not.   Communication and inspiration are merely the high level macrobehaviors and thus easy to proclaim, as most textbooks and teaching courses do.

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The infinite range of microbehaviors

The difficulty comes with the minute miniscule microbehaviors. There can be no specific prescription for these no more than we can specify in detail what "the perfect human being" does.   The range of microbehaviors available to us is infinite and the intention of this book is NOT to prescribe a perfect set of seventeen microbehaviors which will guarantee success for any manager.

To improve our performance we constantly need to challenge our microbehaviors and to determine whether there are more effective ones from which we can choose.   In doing so we submit ourselves to an evolutionary process by which ineffective microbehaviors become discarded whilst building upon those that are more effective.   The one thing we must do, and perhaps this is a prescription, is to become conscious of these microbehaviors and the impact they have in determining the outcomes and experiences we desire.   We cannot allow ourselves to lapse into a low-energy approach in which our subconscious drives us all the time.   In this way we become brain-dead, mediocre and creatures of habit.