Don't Be That Boss

How Great Communicators Get the Most Out of Their Employees and Their Careers

Mark Wiskup

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9780470549643
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Communication
• Index: Business

An executive coach shows you how better communication leads to productivity and profitability

Communication is the key to success when you manage other people. But it's not enough to just communicate; you have to communicate in the right way to get the results you want from your people and teams. In Don't Be That Boss, renowned executive coach Mark Wiskup shows you how to communicate effectively with colleagues and workers to create a healthy, productive, happy work environment.

The story follows two leaders through a typical workday and all their typical communications-including meetings, conferences, one-on-one discussions, break room banter, phone calls, and even emails. Based on real situations you'll probably recognize, you'll watch as two committed, intelligent people take different approaches to communication and reap very different results. Along the way, you'll realize what good communication is, how it works, and how it makes your business better in virtually every way.

• Written by an experienced communications coach who works with Fortune 500 clients, CEOs and managers across the country
• Shows that how you communicate in the office is just as important as what you communicate
• Explains why excellent communication skills are vital to individual and organizational success
• Effective communication is vital for the success of both large and small businesses
• Mark Wiskup is also the author of The It Factor and Presentation S.O.S.

Whether you're an executive, manager or small business owner, this book will show you how to improve your communication skills to better your business.

1:00 PM

Vendor Negotiations: Winning When You Don’t Have the Strongest Hand

1:03 Mike Preps Kim and Himself

Mike jumps into his car in the parking lot of the restaurant where he just finished the successful lunch with Colleen. He turns the ignition but leaves his car in park. He pulls out his BlackBerry and uses his thumb to turn the power back on. He had turned it off as he saw Colleen enter the restaurant and put it in his suit coat breast pocket during the lunch.

He lowers the volume on the Phil Woods sax solo he was listening to on his way over to meet Colleen and begins to check his messages. Both Kim and Jonathan—the vendor he is meeting—had called him back. They both received his calls explaining he would be late. The meeting is still on track. He relaxes some and decides to call back Kim to go over the game plan one more time.

“Hi Kim, this is Mike, thanks for letting me know you got the message.” Mike holds his BlackBerry up to his ear. It’s not very comfortable, even when he isn’t driving. For months he’d been admiring Chad’s Jawbone earpiece, but he had never gotten around to picking one up or even ordering one online.

“That’s fine, Mike. Did you have a successful lunch with Colleen?” Kim, like all of the managers in the department, knows whenever Mike is about to add to the team. He keeps them abreast of not only his hires, but also his off-site meetings throughout the day. He wants his staff to know where he is and what he’s doing. That way, they can judge whether or not to disturb him with a phone call.

“Yes, I did. She’ll be on board with us the week after next. It was a great lunch,” Mike says. “Listen, I want to go over the game plan for our presentation to Jonathan one more time.”

“Oh, I’m ready, Mike,” Kim says. He preps his managers for all of their presentations thoroughly to raise their chances of success. Kim continues, “I’ll keep the numbers to a minimum and the pictures and stories in which we describe how we are growing to a maximum.”

Mike has been working with Kim to dump her “just the facts, ma’am” communication approach, which hurt connections with employees and vendors. It has been a struggle. Kim continually defaults to numbers, charts, and graphs. She told Mike it is frustrating to her that if she takes the trouble to lay everything out, those listening should at least be able to “put two and two together.”

“You’re right about that,” Mike would assure her. “But sticking to being right instead of being good is standing in the way of you becoming a stronger leader. You’ve obviously worked hard at the numbers. Now, work a little more and tell them what the numbers mean. That’s the difference between being right and being good.”

Kim would scoff, “I hate all this feel-good stuff,” but she understood. Mike would lay on a little harder, “Kim, please don’t look at it as ‘feel-good stuff.’ It’s not. It’s the type of work real leaders accept as the price of building connections and achieving greater performance from those they rely on.”

For the first five or six times, Kim would often respond with “whatever,” but she would still follow through on Mike’s specific instructions. However, in the last month or so, she had accepted the coaching without the sarcasm. Mike is pleased at Kim’s progress.

“I’m going to let you lay everything out,” Mike says into his BlackBerry, “then I’m going to take the lead and ask Jonathan about what his plans are for his company. Feel free to join in along the way during my part.”

“I will,” says Kim. “I’m not shy, and I like how Jonathan has positioned his business. See you in a few.”

“Great, see you in a few,” says Mike. He clicks off the call and turns the audio on Phil Woods’s saxophone back up just a little while he goes over in his head what probing questions he will ask Jonathan. Even though Mike is a powerful communicator, he once again takes time to prepare mentally for his upcoming meeting.

1:10 Chad and Randy Unveil Their Request

Chad pulls up into the parking space next to Randy’s car and rolls down his passenger window, “Hey, Randy, how long have you been waiting?”

“Just a minute or two,” Randy says. “I was going over the final stuff that Phil sent. He did a good job of getting his stats in. The numbers are now complete,” Randy reports. Chad is relieved that he made peace with Phil. This meeting now has a better chance of succeeding.

“How do you handicap our chances of success with Tracy?” Randy asks as the two head toward the main entrance of their vendor’s building.

“It’s going to be tough with her, based on what we’re going to present. But, no matter what, we’ll emphasize to her that we’re a player in the industry. Eventually, she’s going to have to cut us a break,” Chad explains. “I think we’ve got a fifty-fifty shot at getting something out of her today.” Chad’s insight is good, and his response to Randy is clear. Even if they don’t get what they want today, he is smart to stay in front of her.

Tracy’s company is the leading vendor of the suppliers critical to the success of Chad’s division. Everything they do is superior: top-notch production, on-time delivery, and a small but innovative R&D department. Tracy’s company keeps Chad’s division looking good with its customers every quarter.

But there’s a problem. Chad’s division is smaller than many of its top competitors, who wind up getting more attention and preferred treatment from Tracy’s team. Mike and Randy have set up the meeting with Tracy in hopes of seeing a faster turnaround time on shipments and a slightly lower price.

Last quarter, Chad spent a good deal of time on the phone with Tracy; but he couldn’t get her to budge an inch. “Listen, Chad,” Tracy explained, “I love you guys. You’re good to work with and you process our invoices promptly. And you are one focused son of a gun, Chad. But look at it from my point of view.” She made a powerful argument that she had to keep her priorities on her highest volume customers. “If you ordered more,” she says, “I could move you up in the production pecking order and even look at our pricing. But you’re not there yet.”

Both Chad and Randy like the fact Tracy doesn’t play games. She’s direct and professional. She’s also fair. Tracy agreed to look everything over again once Chad had his purchasing budget set for next year.

Now, three months later after Chad’s last plea for a better delivery schedule and lower pricing, the two of them are sitting in Tracy’s office, ready to go over the numbers and plead their case. Chad has a lot more confidence in their presentation with Phil’s West Coast numbers in his reports.

“Guys, I hear you’re weathering the storm out there pretty well. Congrats.” Tracy isn’t one for small talk, but she is always polite. Chad notices she started out with a sincere compliment that demonstrates she is following the market. She puts them at ease, even though she’s in the driver’s seat at this meeting.

“Yes, we are, Tracy.” Chad jumps in. “We’re not growing as quickly as a type A personality like me would like, but we are holding our own.”

“All you Ivy League guys are type A, aren’t you Chad?” Tracy turns to Randy, “But mere foot soldiers like us,” Tracy nods at Randy, “who don’t carry the weight of the world on our shoulders, will live longer, won’t we Randy?” She smiles at both of them.

Yikes! This is a pretty good jab at Chad. While Randy mutters, “Sure, I guess so,” Chad resists the urge to correct her—his alma maters, Williams and Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Business, are not Ivy League institutions—and instead smiles weakly, wondering why Tracy is giving it to him. What did he do to offend her so quickly?

Randy doesn’t nod or wink to Tracy. That would be breaking ranks. But he knows why she’s poking at Chad, who never seems to catch on that his not-so-subtle self-promotion is irritating. Chad is always giving himself labels that sound like he just came from a self-affirmation seminar. Today Chad called himself “type A personality”; but it just as easily could have been “leader of the ‘go-to’ team,” or the guy who believes that “failure is not an option.”

Randy feels that Tracy is indeed a pretty smart cookie. She knows that Chad and he are sitting there, mutual hats in hand. She doesn’t want to start the meeting letting Chad get away with his promotional crap. Randy also finds himself wondering what it would be to like to work for someone as insightful as Tracy.

1:21 Mike Lets Kim Take the Lead

“Thanks for your flexibility, Jonathan. I got behind and I couldn’t catch up,” Mike says to Jonathan as he and Kim got settled in their supplier’s small office.

“That’s okay, Mike, I understand. It gave me a chance to do a few extra things,” Jonathan says.

Kim marvels once again at Mike’s leadership and skill. It would have been easy for him to throw that new hire under the bus. After all, it’s Colleen’s fault that Mike was running late. Instead, he just simply apologized and didn’t trouble Jonathan with the reasons. Elegant, Kim thinks. It’s an elegant way to get back on track quickly.

“Jonathan, your products are critical to our success with our clients. We want more of them, faster, and we want to pay less for it. We’re here to ask you for a couple of things,” Mike says. “First, we want a shipment schedule of 14 days instead of the 21-day schedule we’ve been on with you for a year or so. Second, we are looking for a price cut of 5 percent. We’ve done our homework and we hope to get you over to our way of thinking. Both requests will be good for your company, as well as ours.”

Jonathan smiles. “Boy, Mike, you don’t mess around, do you? Okay, I knew you were going to ask for something; but I didn’t know it would be so specific. Well, I’m not agreeing to anything yet, and I won’t promise that I will, either. But I’m willing to listen. And thanks for admitting you need us. Most of our customers would never say something like that when they’re asking for a price break,” Jonathan says.

Kim is again amazed at how quickly Mike gets Jonathan’s attention and starts a negotiation with such positive vibes—even after he was late for the meeting. She makes a strong mental note: Mike is a great boss because he rarely, if ever, blames others for his problems, even when others affect his performance.

“Then I’m happy we’re off to a good start,” Mike says. “And now it’s going to get even better. I’m going to have Kim take over and present our plan for the next couple of years.”

“Thanks, Mike,” Kim says. “Jonathan, we plan everything we do around what our customers need to make their customers happy. We say that our mission, vision, and values are determined by whether we’re succeeding in helping our customers to be in great shape with their customers. As long as we do that, we figure we’re going to stay in the picture and grow for a long time.”

Kim goes on to explain to Jonathan how all their growth opportunities focus on a detailed examination of their customers’ growth opportunities. She uses five different examples in five different market sectors to demonstrate how this plan led to steady increases in sales and gross margin in the last two years. Then she talks about what they were doing this quarter—and had planned for the next quarter—to come up with several new market segments to go after once they understood their future customers’ customers.

While Kim did include several critical sales figures and buying projections along the way, they were all there to punctuate the happy ending to another customer story. She would have been much more comfortable beefing up this report with at least three times as much data justifying her conclusions, but she knew Mike would have told her to take it all out. She had the data memorized, though, just in case Jonathan questioned anything.

It’s an unusual presentation for Jonathan to sit through. Usually, customers and suppliers came in for meetings with lots of spreadsheets and charts regarding market expansion or contraction, costs per unit of production, and quality control figures. Kim only talks about her customers, using a simple PowerPoint presentation that featured a single clear text headline or main idea on each projected slide and minimal graphics. It’s easy to follow, especially as Kim becomes more and more excited about the success her customers are having.

Mike sits quietly but attentively. He never takes his eyes off Kim and her presentation slides. He knows that if he concentrates on what Kim was saying, it will set the tone and also a visual tableau for Jonathan to stay tuned in as well. Mike coaches all of his managers to focus attention on the speaker in all customer meetings, despite the intense urge to peruse their notes or even glance at an incoming e-mail on a BlackBerry.

He’s taking mental notes along the way. He realizes that Kim has come a long way in the last year. She’s really connecting with Jonathan. As a result, Jonathan is gaining a clear and compelling insight into what Mike’s division is up to and why it’s ...