What then transpires due to these and other challenges? Cliques are formed, feuds happen and morale is down. This then results in lower performance levels, a lack of productivity, and general negativity which, ultimately, causes the teams to fall apart.

How to keep teams intact? Trust. Trust is the backbone to teamwork.

..the most critical, foundational building block of a team is trust. Without trust most teams are really disparate collections of individuals called groups. The element that creates or erodes trust is your individual behaviour. Charles H. Green, Trusted Advisor Associates

Business team leaders therefore need to build trust, by behaving in a trustworthy manner. The team members won’t trust them for the sake of trusting. It is too risky. Therefore, the team leaders need to lead and exhibit the traits and characteristics that create trustworthiness. It is up to the leaders to drive two of the following Trust Principles:*

Collaboration: To work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavour. (Merriam-Webster)

A few examples:

Team leaders need to demonstrate trustworthiness by constantly involving the team member. Don’t speculate about what your team is thinking – ask them.

Value meetings over phone calls and phone calls over emails. Make it personal.

Practice putting all issues on the table for joint discussion.

Transparency: The art of being transparent. Transparent: 1) free from pretense or deceit: frank 2) easily detected or seen through: obvious 3) readily understood 4) characterized by visibility or accessibility of information especially concerning business practices. (Merriam-Webster)

Nothing destroys trust faster than the team leader who appears to be withholding information or trying to control the team member. Be willing to be open about your practices.

Most organizations recognize that trust is an important consideration in their company’s success, but many employees don’t feel it is being nurtured internally. The main culprit? Top management… Charles H. Green, Trusted Advisor Associates

Trust drives relationships which drives teamwork, therefore team leaders need to set the example and drive trusted relationships… to keep the teams together.

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

*The Four Trust Principles, Charlies H. Green, Trusted Advisor Associates

The leaders who work most effectively have trained themselves not to think “I.” They think “we;” and they think “team.” They understand that their job is to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it. But “we” get the credit. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done. Peter Drucker.

So how do you measure the ROI on personal relationships?

And why invest in personal relationships?

Personal relationships drive business, no doubt. Personal relationships are also one of the most powerful tools in the executive’s tool kit, although executives rarely admit it, because it is soft and tough to measure.

You can see a direct affect on business, but from a metrics perspective, it may be difficult. But, we all know that it works. It works because companies do invest in means of building personal relationships. They invest a large amount in personal entertaining- dinners, drinks, sports games, etc. All for building personal relationships.

So why not invest more on skills and mindsets to cement those ever-so-powerful personal relationships?

As my third grade teacher, Mrs. Drake, used to say, “Sometimes I wonder.”

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

What is this? Suggestions on building powerful business relationships from the get-go?

Nope.

These are tips for hostage negotiators. Hostage negotiators have an insane job which is to save the life of a hostage from an irrational hostage taker.

Wow.

Sales people and executives also have tough jobs- winning over both internal and external clients. Similar to the hostage negotiator, but one makes the difference between life and death.

So why can’t executives and sales people consistently exhibit these traits? Shouldn’t they do it naturally- like the hostage negotiator?

The problem is focus. Lack of focus. Business people are too focused on the business, themselves, their numbers, the outcomes, the sale, Etc. This is detrimental. It does not build the relationship needed to be successful.

Think about it. The hostage negotiator HAS to be focused. It is a matter of life and death.

So, sales people and executives have to think like the hostage negotiator. Think of it as a matter of life and death- not for the hostage in this instance, but for themselves.

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore.

Gen Y.

Smart.

Technically astute.

Global.

Diverse.

Distracted.

Interesting…..

Ready? Equipped? Are they prepared to face the tough world ahead?

Recent studies by Trusted Advisor Associates shows that when it comes to what many consider to be the most powerful tool in your business and personal tool kit, (relationships) they are not prepared. Let’s look at the four levels of internal and external business relationships:

Expertise based

Needs based

Relationship based

…and trusted advisor based

Being a trusted advisor is the highest level one can attain, and, of course, the most valuable.

The studies show that as age increases, the level of trustworthiness increases. There is approximately an 18% difference in trustworthiness between the ages of 20 to 70. The downfall to lacking trustworthiness and struggling in relationships for younger workers, most likely,  is a lack of life and business and life experience. Can trustworthiness be accelerated in an individual?

Accelerating them ahead

“Going against conventional wisdom: trust CAN be taught. Some business leaders make the case that to improve performance, people and businesses should leverage their strengths rather than concentrating on fixing their weaknesses. This makes a great deal of sense in areas of skills mastery. But when it comes to trust, the opposite is demonstrably true. By focusing on their weaknesses, individuals can make disproportionately large and rapid improvements in their trustworthiness, because improving weaknesses has the effect of lowering standard deviation, thereby increasing perceived integrity. By becoming aware of an imbalance in their trustworthiness strategies, individuals can strengthen their overall trustworthiness. By focusing on even minor improvements in their weak components, they can see a major impact on their overall ability to build trust.” (From “Think More Expertise Will Make You More Trusted? Think Again” by Trusted Advisor Associates)

Is your new workforce ready for the onslaught? Probably not. It may be time to address the imbalance.

(For more on the Trusted Advisor Associates study, see What Really Builds Trust. And, for an interesting snippet of Gen Y see We are Gen Y)

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

Many reasons for low employee engagement and high employee turnover are given by companies, from unhappiness about having to accept lower pay during the downturn, to high career expectations. These may play a part, but often the perception of employees by management as being less important in creating a competitive advantage than product or service innovation and marketing strategy, is bound to send the wrong signals.

When management and senior leaders recognise that in today’s tough business environment, it is their people who have the potential to create that critical competitive edge that will see companies through this crisis, only then will they change their practices.  Changing practices means honouring the untapped potential in all your people, maintaining training and development initiatives, and creatively coming up with ideas on how to place employees at the centre of your strategic plan.

Only then will businesses find that the tough times can be managed and overcome.

James Irvine, Team Egyii, Singapore

Today, connecting is a difficult proposition. It is even tougher when you prospect.

There is no doubt that people are overly busy with their day to day personal and business tasks- and even worse, they are being “contacted” in more ways than ever: email, SMS, social media, and by phone (by “pesky” telemarketers to say the least).

It is a virtual flood out there.

How to prospect today? Differentiate in your approach

Even with all the technology and distractions today, people appreciate a real person and voice behind the attempts to connect. It just has to be done right. When was the last time you got a call from a bank with an un-targeted, sloppy approach? I got one the other day.

“Sir we can arrange a loan for you.”

“I don’t need a loan. And how can you make a promise like that- I might not even qualify?”

I challenged the caller with those questions- she had no response. Yes, I know it is her job. She is not to blame- it is management. She is following orders.

This is a  great example as to why people are being “bothered” by prospectors today, as this is an untargeted, “spray and pray” technique. There were also a lot of assumptions in this approach.

What really works? In order for the conversation to be successful, it needs to:

Achieve a goal

Satisfy a need

Solve a problem

What tools/skills does one need? The caller needs to:

Use the right opening statements, vocal techniques and rapport building skills to create interest and capture attention

Utilise conversational bridging statements to keep the customer engaged during the call

Ask effective questions in a logical order to discover the customers current situation, their stated needs and their hidden needs

Listen actively and accurately to capture relevant information first time and recognise the input and contributions received from the customer

Pick up on and respond to customer buying signals and clues that indicate the interest level of customer

Explain and link  the benefits of a product or service to meet customer needs, create interest and secure commitment versus relying on product features

Handle common customer objections by using the APART approach to keep the customer involved in the conversation and focused on the value the product will bring

Use a conversational close to ask for permission to proceed

Professionally close the call to leave a positive, lasting impression in both successful call outcome situations and when the customer declines to proceed

Yes prospecting is difficult…but it can be done. It is all about the approach.

For more, see Connect Through High Impact Sales Conversations

Andrew Sidwell, Team Egyii, Singapore

Four ingredients that turn any client interaction into an opportunity for exceeding expected results while simultaneously building trust. For more, click here.

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

In today’s overly competitive markets, where products tend to look the same and many companies struggle with their image, it is commonly believed that the key differentiator is your people.

It is now ever so important that your client-facing individuals (sales, product experts, leaders, marketing, and so on) establish a genuine rapport with clients, to help dispel rumours and differentiate your organisation from the competition.

The way to succeed with clients is through trust; being trusted by developing trustworthiness. Although the concept of trust is not innovative or new, the actual application is new, as it is rarely fully recognised or taught (and being trustworthy can be taught).

Some business leaders believe that trust-based business relationships are the single best route to corporate and personal success……..

For more see “A Question of Trust” from Human Resources Online, an article written by Team Egyii.

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

Ok so this book is about 5 years old. Maybe I am a bit slow getting to it. Doesn’t matter. After about a half dozen people recommended it, I bought it “used” on Amazon.

It is the best book on meaningful connecting and networking I have yet to encounter. There are no voodoo tactics. It is all real. OK, so Keith is smart- he is extraordinary. Doesn’t matter, he is real.

Read it early in your career. Read it when you near the middle or end of your career. Read it. Please.

The following quotes sum the book up better than I can. Why reinvent the wheel?

Ferrazzi grew up in rural Pennsylvania, the son of a steelworker and a cleaning lady, yet his ability to connect with others led to a scholarship at Yale, a Harvard MBA, and a prestigious partnership at Deloitte Consulting. His skills at creating and maintaining a network of contacts are nothing short of those of a serious presidential contender. All business hopefuls seek to enter a sphere of players more powerful than themselves, and Ferrazzi says that sometimes all it takes is asking. The book is dense with suggestions. Seek out mentors to guide you and introduce you to the people you need to know and then become a mentor yourself. Use your initial conversation to show the other person what you have to offer them, and never keep score. Make others feel important by remembering their names and birthdays. And don’t be afraid to open up and show vulnerability–it’s a great icebreaker. Ferrazzi presents a whirlwind of ideas to widen your circle of contacts that goes way beyond the usual stale concepts of “networking.” David Siegfried
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

The youngest partner in Deloitte Consulting’s history and founder of the consulting company Ferrazzi Greenlight, the author quickly aims in this useful volume to distinguish his networking techniques from generic handshakes and business cards tossed like confetti. At conferences, Ferrazzi practices what he calls the “deep bump” – a “fast and meaningful” slice of intimacy that reveals his uniqueness to interlocutors and quickly forges the kind of emotional connection through which trust, and lots of business, can soon follow. That bump distinguishes this book from so many others that stress networking; writing with Fortune Small Business editor Raz, Ferrazzi creates a real relationship with readers. Ferrazzi may overstate his case somewhat when he says, “People who instinctively establish a strong network of relationships have always created great businesses,” but his clear and well-articulated steps for getting access, getting close and staying close make for a substantial leg up. Each of 31 short chapters highlights a specific technique or concept, from “Warming the Cold Call” and “Managing the Gatekeeper” to following up, making small talk, “pinging” (or sending “quick, casual” greetings) and defining oneself to the point where one’s missives become “the e-mail you always read because of who it’s from.” In addition to variations on the theme of hard work, Ferrazzi offers counterintuitive perspectives that ring true: “vulnerability… is one of the most underappreciated assets in business today”; “too many people confuse secrecy with importance.” No one will confuse this book with its competitors.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore (go get ‘em, tiger! 虎 )

The following is an article from the Singapore Business Times, January 13, 2010, written by the Managing Director and Head of Private Banking Southeast Asia and Australasia for Credit Suisse, Dr. Francois Monnett.

He gets it, but do they really “walk the talk?”

Retaining clients, rebuilding trust

The sustainability of the private banking business model comes under scrutiny in the wake of the massive industry shake-up. In the aftermath of the massive industry shake-up which has taken place over the last 18 months, we are confronted with a very different operating landscape in private banking. Together with a significant loss of trust and confidence in the markets and industry, clients are also expecting higher standards of service and advice, as well as greater transparency and disclosure over products and services. There is also a shift towards safer, simpler and more liquid investment solutions.

One major implication is the critical question of the sustainability of the private banking business model. During the boom period, many institutions built their private banking model primarily based on the assumption of continued growth and perhaps a certain belief in its immunity to economic cyclicality. The infrastructure that many private banks have put in place to deliver value to clients and the fact that much growth has been built through expensive acquisition of bankers have also resulted in a costly model.

Revenue generation in private banking, particularly in the Asia-Pacific, has been very much volume-driven with a heavy reliance on a sales culture. With slowing revenue generation and increasing cost-income ratios in the past 18 months, the sustainability of this business model has been seriously tested. Much of the pressure is also coming from outside, namely from regulators and clients, that will propel the industry towards more radical and dramatic changes to the business model.

In the rapidly changing regulatory environment, investment suitability is here to stay and investor protection will become an even more important dimension in this business. There is also a lot of discussion on offshore banking, capital requirement and bankers’ compensation.

But the most important driver for change is the disillusioned clients. There has been a significant loss of investors’ trust and confidence in the markets, in regulators, in the financial institutions as well as their advisers. We have also observed among clients a flight to safety and quality, a shift from risk aversion to loss aversion, and a back-to-basic type of appeal for more direct and liquid investment vehicles.

Very importantly, there is a much greater need for transparency and disclosure. This is not just about the products, but also the service levels that clients pay for, fee structures, performance of their investments, as well as transparency regarding business partners and counterparty risk.

Client segmentation

For private banks to reclaim and reaffirm their critical status as trusted advisers, we need to enhance our value proposition on a few levels. First and foremost, we need to focus on client segmentation and differentiation to significantly lift service levels.

To put the client at the centre of a segmentation strategy is the only way to avoid the ‘one size fits all’ approach, which doesn’t work to lift service levels. This requires a disciplined, systematic and structured approach to defining client segmentation that goes well beyond assets under management. It has to consider the source of the client’s wealth – is it inherited or built? It has to consider the investor’s behaviour – is he or she a delegator, a participator or self-directed?

We also need to understand better the investor’s knowledge, experience, sophistication as well as domicile. Once these dimensions are clearly mapped out, the resulting value proposition has to deliver a tiered service offering in a disciplined and consistent way that will define different access to product specialist or management as well as the depth and breadth of the service offering.

Eventually, we will be measured as well in terms of the level of transparency and interaction we achieve with our clients. Risk management has to be an integral part of the advisory process and an investment suitability framework is the ultimate transparent guide to portfolio construction.

This involves the profiling of clients – the detailed and structured assessment of their knowledge and experience vis-Ã -vis the complexity of the portfolio solution, and their risk and loss tolerance. This profile is used to build a portfolio which is simulated in terms of asset allocation and is fully disclosed to the client.

Consistent client experience

The private banking business is all about execution. We need to deliver on the promise of being a trusted adviser in a consistent way. A major pre-requisite for a consistent client experience lies in the bank’s IT-based processes. From the relationship manager (RM) accessing an open architecture platform with thousands of solutions for the client, implementing a common advisory process, to utilising portfolio construction tools that build asset allocation against the client’s profile and analyses of risk scenarios – this level of consistency can only be achieved through a control process.

The re-engineering of processes is critical not so much for productivity gains, but has enormous impact on how much time the RM is able to spend with clients and the quality of the client experience. A recent study shows that RMs spend as much of their time marketing services to new clients as solving and dealing with administrative matters. If we are not able to free RMs from the loss in valuable client-interacting time, we will not live up to the promise of being a trusted adviser.

From a client perspective, there is also a constant request for better, more consolidated and comprehensive client reporting. They also want more direct access to almost real time data through client portals.

As private banking continues to grow in the Asia-Pacific, automation, IT systems and the re-engineering of processes will increasingly become the backbone of the business. How good a bank’s infrastructure is will be the cornerstone in delivering quality client experience. It will optimise relationship management time with clients and ensure a culture of consistency throughout the firm.

Re-skilling of RMs

If we want to differentiate ourselves in terms of providing an advice-centric operating model to clients, we will also have to consider the extent to which we need to re-skill our RMs. The permanent education of RMs is of paramount importance. Particularly in Asia-Pacific where the industry is still young and fast-growing, there is an immediate need to make sure that the culture of a firm is being consistently instilled into the new joiners that all bankers interact with their clients through a consistent and structured advisory process.

Eventually, as front organisations continue to expand, we also need to enable RMs to grow in their roles over time, from a junior level adviser, to an expert RM or a manager and leader. This requires a long-term, modular and state-of-the-art training curriculum and development model that captures the career cycle of each RM. It is also important to align reward systems with the clients’ satisfaction. When we measure performance, we need to focus not only on ‘What financial performance did you achieve?’ but also the ‘How did you achieve it?’ metric. This softer side of performance measurement has to be benchmarked against the values of the bank and how it wants its RMs to run the business, and against the client’s satisfaction. This will involve tracking the degree of adherence to the sales and advisory process, risk management tools and control standards, as well as client satisfaction surveys.

This greater alignment is a condition for regaining and earning more trust with our clients in the new landscape, acknowledging the new landscape, refining and sharpening the value position and eventually delivering on a bank’s brand promise.

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore