“What Your Boss Really Wants From You: 15 Insights to Improve Your Relationship” by Steve Arneson, (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, $15.95).
From the get-go, Arneson frames the boss-employee relationship as one where the employee takes on the responsibility of managing the interaction. That doesn’t mean managing the boss. It means figuring out how the boss acts and reacts to various situations and adapting employee actions, reactions and interactions accordingly.
His process for doing what’s in an employee’s best interests has three interrelated processes: 1. “Study your boss.” 2. “Consider how your boss sees you.” 3. “Take responsibility for the relationship.” Here’s what’s entailed:
1. Study the boss deals primarily with how the boss works and manages staff. Your boss has preferences for handling various tasks (e.g. launches, updates, details, issues, outcomes, priorities, etc.) just as you do. Identify them. Compare them with your preferences. Where preferences synch, you’ll find the basis for working with, as opposed to for, your boss.
Where they don’t synch, ask the boss why he/she approaches some things in certain ways. It can be a learning experience for both of you.
2. The boss’s view of you deals with your value in achieving goals. The boss sees aspects of your skill set as more vital than others. While you may believe you are underutilized, the boss’s lens sees that certain skills aren’t required in your role.
What can you do? Look for ways to demonstrate your capability. Those include contributions on project teams and at meetings, presenting your ideas to improve processes and working ad hoc with peers. All of these things will expand your value to the boss.
A corollary: Ask the boss about areas where you need improvement. Discuss assignments that deal with those areas. Keep the boss posted on progress; ask for assistance when you encounter obstacles. Execution increases value.
3. Your success in managing the relationship depends upon your attitude. People invent stories that support their view. They tell the stories to themselves over and over. They ignore the fact that their view isn’t the only view.
Summary: If you’ve done 1 and 2, you’ve begun your attitude adjustment from victim to valued employee by modifying your story of the relationship.
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“Duct Tape Selling: Think Like a Marketer — Sell Like a Superstar” by John Jantsch (Portfolio/Penguin, $27.95).
The lines between sales and marketing have blurred. Marketing now creates messages for prospects/customers based upon feedback from customers obtained through the sales relationship and market-direct feedback from online sources. Sales must choose the right message to deliver to prospects to make a sale, and to customers to build the relationship.
When it comes to message delivery, the salesperson adds value by finding and sharing content that’s relevant to prospects/customers. This boosts a salesperson’s credibility with the client because it shows that he/she does their homework. It also provides prospects/customers with relief from information overload.
By providing relevance on an ongoing basis, salespeople become subject matter experts because they are acutely aware of competitors’ offerings and what’s happening in their industry — and those of prospects/customers. This information also helps the marketers to hone the company’s message.
Jantsch suggests sending weekly email newsletter “information snacks” to package content. Tools like AllTop, Feedly, Newsvine and Popurls make it easy to find quality content. Find a few articles, group them by topic, condense them into short abstracts and include a link to the entire article. Most importantly, add your comments about “why the content is good or important or wrong — whatever view you take makes the content more useful,” and shows you’re always doing your homework.
The bottom line: To add value to relationships as a knowledge-sharer, today’s sales professional must gather information, filter it and disseminate messages continuously.
Jim Pawlak is a nationally syndicated book reviewer.