The Finger of Blame
Unfortunately it is common for people that fail at something to point the finger of blame at anyone but themselves. Recently a salesperson who was failing at a job with one of my most successful clients resigned. Rather than admit to his inadequacy for the job, he blamed the company, the system, the product and anything else he could think of short of himself.

Do It Now!
Quitting a job where you are not succeeding is fine, even honorable. We all hate to see someone quit and leave, but it’s worse when they quit and stay. Listening to the sour grapes of this particular person made it clear that he had “quit” long before saying, “I quit.”
Everyone can be successfull when on right job, and staying on the wrong one, just to get the money delays future success.

Talk to the Boss
When struggling to succeed at anything, look in the mirror and have a serious talk with the boss. Ask yourself what you could be doing better. Hold yourself accoutable for your results. After all, it’s your future.

It’s Free and Easy
Masae and I learned a very valuable lesson walking down Kalakaua Avenue after dinner the other night. We were with Pamela and Hamo Alualu. Kalakaua Avenue is lined with “flyer people” handing out all sorts of leaflets and advertising. I have over the years developed a pretty good “waive-off” motion as they reach out to me. As we passed one of them, Hamo accepted his hand-out, and as we walked away Pamela asked him, “Why did you take that?” His answer had impact. He casually said, “Just to be nice.” Wow! Think about that. Masae and I found ourselves talking about that the rest of the evening. “Flyer folks” take a lot of rejection and hear some pretty abusive comments. After all, they are just doing their job, and the pay isn’t that great, what’s wrong with being nice? You can just as easily throw the ad flyer away once you are out of site, but in the process you made someone feel successful, even if it’s for a moment. 
Mahalo Hamo for the lesson. I will be much nicer from here on.

Glad to Have YOU HOME Son
When our son Gilbert saw my Blog post on the guy with the pink shorts, he sent me these photos along with this note:

Hey Dad,
I read your blog about Afghanistan. Believe it or not, that’s where I was last year, over in Kunar Province Afghanistan. That picture was taken in the Korengal Valley AKA “Valley of Death.”
That is the worst place in all of Afghanistan. There are more deaths in that Valley than in any where else in Afghanistan.
That’s where I was man.
-Gil

U.S. Army Spc. Zachary Boyd in the Pink
When I first saw this photo in today’s paper I laughed, thinking it was an example of dereliction of duty. I began forming a Blog post in my mind about how important dress codes are. But as I looked at it further and read the story, my eyes watered up; they still are. Here we see a 20 year old boy hunkered down in a fox hole, exchanging deadly fire with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Young Zachary was sleepng when the shooting started. He leapt from his bed and grabbed his helmet, vest and rifle, but not his pants and shoes as he took his station behind sandbags. His comrads didn’t seem to see any difference.
I found myself thinking, “This kid should be on the beach somewhere, or out on a date with his girlfriend, or having dinner with his family back in Fort Worth, Texas.” All of that was far from real for this young MAN, and this photo truly does bring home the reality of the serious dangers being faced in Iraq and Afghanistan. 
His mom was contacted and she said she hopes to see her son back home by the Fourth of July. She was asked if he would he be wearing pink boxers in any Independence Day parades? “Don’t challenge him,” she said, laughing. “He just may do it.” I too hope that he is home as well as all of the others, and I don’t care what they are wearing. 

Mahalo to Cindi Williams
I had a great time at the WHFA Conference on Maui the past three days. This is a First Class organization. Cindi Williams and the entire WHFA staff made something very complicated look very easy.

Congratulations to Naturwood Home Furnishings
The awards dinner on the final night was quite an event and everyone was happy to congratulate Naturwood Home Furnishings on being named Retailer of the Year. This is quite an honor.

Speaking of Honored…
I had the priveledge of addressing this fine group of furniture store owners from all over the country in two sessions; one on managing people and the other on dealing with the media and their negative spin on the economy; a favorite topic of mine these days.

Brad Huisken and Me
I especially enjoyed the time I was able to spend with fellow speaker Brad Huiskin of IAS Training. We were able to swap some great tales from our mutual experiences helping people be all that they can be.
This was my second opportunity to participate in a WHFA Conference and I am already looking forward to the next one.

Mahalo to all. 

ABC News
“NEW YORK — General Motors Corp. on Friday told about 1,100 dealers, or nearly 20 percent of its U.S. network, that they will be fired by the automaker late next year because their sales are weak.”

I had to wonder… “How long have sales been “weak” and what have they been doing to strengthen them?”

The Bearer of Bad News
The article said that the bad news was delivered by way of a FedEx letter to GM franchises around the country. Can you imagine losing your business by mail? I suspect the same form of poor communication existed before the firings came. It’s far too common for businesses and managers to overlook shortcomings until after it’s too late. Then they react dramatically, and in case cowardly.
Managers have a responsibility to point to problems and seek solutions early in the game.

“Have I got a deal for you?”
Selling cars is a tough business, and car salespeople are known for their less than desirable approach. It’s time to overhaul this industry from the bottom up. Fewer dealerships doing things the wrong way is not the answer to the problem. People buy people before they buy what they sell.

June 21; Plan Ahead
I was at the mall last night watching all of the last minute Mother’s Day shopping. I couldn’t help but wonder how many selling opportunities were missed in recent weeks. Shoppers tend to put things off, probably more because of fotgetfulness than anything else. 
Retailers miss a big opportunity by being reactive to shopper’s habits rather than proactive to their needs.
Mother’s Day is always bigger than Father’s Day for some reason, but dad does get some attention. Why not start now to think about dad this year? Father’s Day is always the on the 3rd Sunday of the month. June starts off on a Monday this year, so there is three full weeks before Father’s Day.

It’s Tough These Days
I was amazed this week when I ran an ad on Craig’s List for a successful client of mine that is hiring. The ad broke on Sunday and I was immediately bombarded with inquiries. By the end of the day on Monday the number totaled over 50. What amazed me more than anything were the sloppy e-mails and horrible resumes I got. You would think that someone looking for work would realize the importance of the first impression made via e-mail. I saw such things as blank subject lines, empty text boxes, attachments without labels, basic misspelling and poor grammar with no sense of punctuation rules. Most amazing of all were the college students and even graduates that were among the poorly worded applications.
Besides the bad imagery and poor wording, I had people applying for a clearly defined retail selling job with absolutely no relative experience. I got the feeling that they were just responding to every ad listed. I wanted to send most of them a copy of E-Mail Etiquette Made Easy, but I doubted if it would ever be read.

Diamond Diving
I have always been willing to dig through the garbage (not literally) to find the occassional diamond in the rough, and that was the case here. Out of the 50 responses, by Wednesday evening we found eight great prospects for three jobs.

Different Strokes…
We’ve all heard that old saying, “Different strokes for different folks.” Truer words were never spoken. Sales managers are always looking for the right “hot buttons” to get their salespeople motivated. Selling is a tough profession. There are always dissapointments and potential discouragements. Nobody likes rejection and salespeople live with it daily. That’s why commissions, contests and other incentives are so prevelent in the world of selling.
Not everyone however is motivated by money. The assumption that commissions are enough to cause people to do their best leads to a lot of management frustration. Basically there are three things that motivate people to try harder.

Desire for Gain
People who are driven by success will see every possibility as an opportunity, and continue to “go for it.” They are in it for the money and want all they can get. These people are focused on betterment and need very little outside motivation. It comes from within. Their mantra is, “Give me the money.”

Fear of Loss
Then there are those people that are fine with mediocrity and not motivated to do more until they are about to lose what they have. When that happens and they decide they want to keep it, they get going. My desire for gain was strong when I started my own business in the 60’s. Starting a business is tough, and I was willing to do whatever it took to get it going. However, once things got going I became complacement and content. I began to slack off and fell behind in my obligations. It wasn’t until I got a phone call threatening to take away my Cadillac that I started moving again. Read that story in Success Made Easy. I was never the same after that phone call. Some people need to lose a job (or business) or come close to it in order to start doing it better.

Recognition
It’s been said, and I believe it, that some people will work harder for recognition than for money. These are the people that welcome competition and like to win. “Winning” could be a prize, a trophy, or just some praise from the boss. One of our goals with the Morning Report is to institutionalize recognition. We make certain that good performance is known by all, and it’s not uncommon to see the same names on the Stars Page day after day and month after month.
As a manager you owe it to yourself and your staff to determine what motivates each of your employees and press those hot buttons. If you are the employee, you owe it to yourself, your customers and your company to do your best. Think about what motivates you and be sure to put yourself in a position to get the motivation you need. And, if it turns out to be fear of loss, welcome the “heads up” and get going, you’ll be glad you did.