Validity Coaching

You may wonder why I would pose a question like this.  Over many years I have trained, led, run and managed numerous sales forces.  I've enjoyed a long and successful selling career, and now do more than my share of sales coaching with our team across our numerous clients' sales forces.  So please allow me to explain.

On the home front, it has been decided that a replacement oven is now on the agenda.  This decision has arisen as a result of a gradual upgrade of all those domestic appliances - the dishwasher, the range hood, the cook top.  The choice of brand was arrived at after careful investigation, research and many discussions with numerous friends and identities on whose experiences we can easily and reliably draw.

So, this one carefully selected brand has formed the basis of our decisions and we have purchased each item carefully and methodically.  Therefore the choice of oven follows the same process.  The make has already been firmly established and the decision now concerns specific model features and availability.

I read with interest the following points in some recent articles:

• PC shipments fell in another 10.7% in third quarter of 2011

• According to Morgan Stanley, by next year there will be more smartphones sold worldwide than desktop and notebook PCs combined

For years we have heard the mantra that change is inevitable.  I myself have been presenting similar themed messages to groups and seminars since the 90's.  Originally it was intended to get people used to the idea of change.  Now that is no longer necessary.  They get the fact that change is here and here to stay.  They may not like it, and many don't.  Some are exhausted by it, and trudge along waiting and wondering what will hit them next.  Others look expectantly and hopefully for the next change; the next feed of excitement and potentially opportunity.  It is now a matter of encouraging thought in regard to responding to change.  And not just thought, but action.

These two points above demand that a number of organisations respond to change.  Their success or failure depends upon their interpretation of these changes and the potential responses that they can engineer.  If sales of PC's and Notebooks continue to decline, then what happens to a software supplier such as Microsoft, as well as all the hardware manufacturers and support systems?

I have often spoken with our clients about Personal Branding.  One of our team members runs a workshop on this subject, to great success.  In today's market, having clarity on your personal brand, what you stand for, what you bring to the table ensures that you have ownership.  And more importantly - can speak clearly and precisely about who and what you are.

I recall very clearly when Tom Peters released his books - and yes the videos too - on A Passion for Excellence and In Search of Excellence.  It was the same Tom Peters who in the late 1990s, in an article titled The Brand Called You, raised the concept of personal branding.

He coined the phrase "personal branding" because he clearly saw that employment, careers and work were being impacted by technology and, as a result, would change forever the corporate landscape.  His claim was that personal branding was "...what it takes to stand out and prosper in the new world of work" and that it was "the promise of the value you represent".