world-gratitude-day-21-09-2021

World Gratitude Day: The Moral Case for Gratitude, especially in uncertain times

By / / Blog, Common Ground, covid-19, Ethics & Values, Gratitude, Life Skills, Remote selling, Resilience, Sales Psychology, Self Development, Value Based Selling

Tuesday 21 September 2021, is World Gratitude Day

In March 2019, I published my first paperback book: 142 Days of Gratitude that changed my life forever 

It is part memoir, part self-help, part business book all underpinned by science and philosophy.

In it I wrote a chapter about the moral case for gratitude. Given we are living in uncertain times I thought we could reflect for at least a few minutes, the time it takes you to read this article, on the power of gratitude to change our lives for the better.

So here’s my contribution to World Gratitude Day.  

The Moral Case …

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7 things you can do immediately to sell better now plus some extras

By / / Blog, Business Acumen, Collaboration, Common Ground, Gratitude, Opportunity, Sales System, Strategy, Success, Trust

In September 2019 I wrote an article “7 things you can do immediately to improve your sales results in challenging markets” and while a lot has happened since, the core elements of this advice remain true. However, given the advent of Covid and the many lessons learned since, I’d like to include and emphasise the virtues of Trustworthiness, Cooperation and Gratitude because they underpin good business.

Many people’s perspectives and priorities have shifted in the last year beyond the mere matter of making money. They are closely examining their relationship to work, careers, each other …

7 things you can do immediately to sell better now plus some extras Read Post »

Storytelling for Better Sales & Enriching Relationships

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Call Reluctance, Communication, Ethics & Values, Gratitude, Self Development, Self Promotion, Vision, Mission & Purpose

The truth is we all tell stories every day in a myriad of ways in varieties of situations for a variety of reasons.

In ancient times, oral storytelling was the original way we passed down our knowledge and wisdom to the next generation.  Here in Australia, First Nations people call it The Dreamtime.

Storytelling is inherent in human nature. Storytelling is inherent in sales.

Stories told and aligned to the organisation’s purpose and principles, enrich, transform and sell.

Storytelling like Selling, is ubiquitous. 

How well we tell stories, the right stories at the right time for the right reasons to the right people well that’s a whole other story.

This is what I would like to focus on here, especially as it relates to selling.

But I have to set the scene with you first.

Over 10 years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Sandy McDonald, an author, TEDx speaker, and a clarity and storytelling trainer and coach. I was presenting to a group of people at a public seminar on The Psychology of Call Reluctance and the Fear of Self Promotion. Sandy was in the audience. The reason I remember Sandy so well is that a few days post this session, she sent me a blog she had written about me, my topic and the stories I shared and the positive impact it had on her. This had never happened to me before and I was very moved by her narrative.

We connected on Linkedin, chatted every now and then but it wasn’t until early 2019 that we reconnected again on a much deeper level. You see I had just released my book ‘142 Days of Gratitude that changed my life forever’ and posted a chapter excerpt which explained what prompted me to write the book. Sandy reconnected with me again posting her story about what my story meant to her.

What became clear is that our relationship was being forged on storytelling and that storytelling is at the heart of every human relationship. Which is why we are now working together to help other people develop their craft in storytelling to build meaningful connections and forge better relationships that drive better business and create better outcomes personally and professionally.

I’m a storyteller by default because I have never studied the craft of storytelling like Sandy has. For instance, Sandy’s been working with us to Barrett to help us further develop our stories. She’s been working with us on how we tell the story of our 25 years of evolution at Barr

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Why we prioritise Virtues over Values in our work at Barrett

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Ethics & Values, Gratitude, Life Skills, Optimism

As a consulting and education firm, we go into many organisations and they inevitably have a set of values i.e. integrity, honesty, passion, customer centric/obsessed, courage, and so on.

That’s nice on one level, but how are these values practised every day? How are they demonstrated and enacted?

This is usually the missing piece, which is why my preference is to be virtues driven rather than values driven.

Values and virtues are often seen as synonymous, however, they are quite different.

Simply put, values are goals or ideals or even opinions.

Virtues are behaviours showing high moral standards. Virtues are how we practice and demonstrate …

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Gratitude and Materialism

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Buying, Common Ground, Emotional Intelligence, Environment & Sustainability, Ethics & Values, Gratitude, Life Skills, Sustainability & Environment

Practising gratitude has made me focus on other matters and much less on material things. I have found that I am far less worried about ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ or experiencing FOMO (fear of missing out). I think less about things and more about people.

There is a place for materialism in our world. I appreciate nice things. I am not an ascetic who disavows material goods or worldly possessions. But I don’t feel the need to strive for them madly. I also understand and appreciate how materialism works as a driver for so much of …

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Debunking myths for the Common Good

By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Common Ground, Environment & Sustainability, Ethics & Values, Gratitude, Resilience, Sales Strategy, Selling Better, Success, Sustainability & Environment

If you had to put a percentage weighting on the following questions what would your answers look like?

  • How much of your individual success so far is solely down to your own efforts?
  • How much of your individual success so far is as a result of the success of your community – where you were born, what family you were raised in, what school you went to, networks, friends, government support, infrastructure and the era in which you live?

    • It’s probably impossible to give definitive answers to these questions; however, I suspect, like me, you are aware that much of our individual success …

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    Engaging with words and stories to find common ground

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Collaboration, Common Ground, Environment & Sustainability, Ethics & Values, Gratitude, Opportunity, Sustainability & Environment, Trust, Wellbeing

    Using words & stories to find common ground & progress towards a better future together

    As mentioned previously, finding common ground is indispensable to our progress, especially if we are to move forward as communities and solve the most pressing issues we have to deal with as humans inhabiting an abundant but vulnerable and finite planet.

    In this article we explore how words, language and the stories we tell can help us find common ground or tear us apart, and look at some examples to demonstrate how things can go either way.

    Have you ever shared a story or anecdote that sounded perfectly …

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    Why ‘Coaching with Compassion’ leads to healthier coaches

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Coaching, Education in Sales, Emotional Intelligence, Ethics & Values, Gratitude, Resilience, Sales Coaching, Sales Culture, Wellbeing

    At Barrett we are very mindful of our coaching approach and the well-being of the coaches and coachees. Read what Jens Hartmann, our head of Learning and Development has to say about this.

    ‘Coaching with Compassion’ not only is better for the coachee, it has health benefits for the coach as well

    Let’s say you’re a sales leader, and you have the opportunity to coach a salesperson who has a decent track record. This has been their week:

    Some big deals are taking more effort and time to close than expected; there’s pressure to close deals before the end of the …

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    2019 Sales Trends Event  – Trust me, I’m in Sales

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Brand & Reputation, Business Acumen, Collaboration, Environment & Sustainability, Ethics & Values, Gratitude, Innovation, Opportunity, Optimism, Procurement, Sales Consulting, Sales Leadership, Sales Pioneer, Sales Research, Sales Trends, Selling Better, Strategy, Success, Sustainability & Environment

    On 27 March 2019 we hosted our 7th Sales Trends Business Breakfast celebrating the 10th edition of the Barrett Annual 12 Sales Trends Report with Trust as our central theme.

    Over 120 people attended the event, mostly business people but we also had the Year 11 International Baccalaureate Student Representatives of the Melbourne Montessori School attend to further their knowledge and education as they study Business Management.

    The attendees heard from our special guest speakers, Suzanne Paynter, Strategy and Policy Advisor for the Future Business Council, and Andrew Smith, Head of Business Customer at Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, and myself, where we …

    2019 Sales Trends Event  – Trust me, I’m in Sales Read Post »

    It all starts with Opportunity

    By / / Attitudes & Behaviours, Communication, Ethics & Values, Gratitude, Opportunity, Optimism, Resilience, Success

    Life is all about opportunity.

    It’s about the choices we make on a daily basis.

    We are all presented with opportunities every day whether we see them or not.

    Some people are lucky enough to have opportunities served up to them on the platter of life not having to work very hard for them. And even then, these people may not realise their opportunities and let them sail away.

    While others are given very little or nothing by way of opportunity, yet they are determined to make the most of their abilities and surrounding circumstance to create and realise opportunity where none may have …

    It all starts with Opportunity Read Post »

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