The Keys to Self-Acceptance

By: Brian Tracy

Psychologists today generally agree that your level of self-esteem, or how much you like yourself and consider yourself to be a valuable and worthwhile person, lies at the core of your personality. Your level of self-esteem determines:

your level of energy and the quality of your personality how much you like other people and, in turn, how much they like you your willingness to try new things and to venture boldly where perhaps you have never gone before the quality of your relationships with others-your family, your friends and your coworkers and how successful you are in your business, especially if you are in sales.

But before you begin enjoying the wonderful effects of high self-esteem in your life, you have to learn to accept yourself unconditionally. And even before you achieve self-acceptance, there are other steps you have to take.

Self-acceptance begins in infancy, with the influence of your parents and siblings and other important people. As a child, you have an overwhelming need for love and approval and acceptance from the important people in your life. A developing child requires this emotional support the way roses need rain. Healthy personality growth is absolutely dependent upon it. A person grows up straight and strong and happy to the degree to which he receives an abundance of nurturing in his formative years, prior to the age of five.

Someone once said that everything we do in life is either to get love or to compensate for the lack of love. Almost all of our problems, as both children and adults, can be traced back to “love withheld.” There is nothing more destructive to the evolving and emerging personality than being unloved or unaccepted for any reason by someone whom we consider important.

As adults, we always strive to achieve what we felt we were deprived of in childhood. If you grew up feeling, for any reason, that you were not totally accepted by your parents, you will be internally motivated throughout your life to compensate for that lack of acceptance by seeking it in your relationships with other people. To the growing child, perception is reality; reality is not what the parents feel toward the child, but what the child feels that the parents feel. The child’s evolving personality is shaped largely by his perception of how he is seen and thought about by his parents, not by the actual fact of the matter. If your parents were unable to express a high degree of unconditional acceptance to you, you can grow up feeling unacceptable-even inferior and inadequate.

It’s quite common for a youngster to grow up in a household where he or she feels a lack of acceptance by one or both parents, especially the father. When the young person becomes an adult, the psychological phenomenon of “transference” takes place. The individual goes into the workplace and transfers the need for acceptance from the parents to the boss. The boss then becomes the focal point of the individual’s thoughts and feelings. What the boss says, how the boss looks, his comments and everything that he does that implies a feeling or an opinion about the individual is recorded and either raises or lowers the individual’s level of self-acceptance.

Your own level of self-acceptance is determined largely by how well you feel you are accepted by the important people in your life. Just as the Law of Correspondence says that your outer life tends to be a reflection of your inner life, your attitude toward yourself is determined largely by the attitudes that you think other people have toward you. When you believe that other people think highly of you, your level of self-acceptance and self-esteem goes straight up. However, if you believe, rightly or wrongly, that other people think poorly of you, your level of self-acceptance will plummet.

The best way to begin building a healthy personality involves understanding yourself and your motivation. Toward this end, I’d like to introduce what is called the “Johari window” and explain its effect on your personality.

The Johari window provides a view into your psyche. According to this theory, your personality can be divided into four quadrants, like a square divided into four smaller squares.

The first part of this window is the box in the upper left-hand corner. It represents the part of your personality that both you and others can see. This is the open part of your personality. The lower left-hand box of this window into your psyche represents the part of your personality that you can see but that others cannot see. It is a part of your inner life.

The upper right-hand box of this window represents the parts of your personality that others can see but of which you are unaware. You have somehow blocked these parts from your consciousness.

Finally, the lower right-hand box represents that part of your personality that is hidden from both you and other people. It’s the deeper, subconscious part of your personality that represents urges, instincts, fears, doubts and emotions that are stored away below a conscious level, but that can exert an inordinate impact on the way you behave, often causing you to feel and react in certain ways that sometimes even you don’t understand.

One of your goals is to develop a fully rounded personality, to become a fully functioning human being with a sense of inner peace and outer happiness.

A measure of your maturity is often manifested in the way you treat different people. When you are at your very best and your self-esteem is at its highest, you’ll find that you are genuinely positive and friendly toward everyone, from the taxi driver to the corporation president. When your personality is completely together, you treat everyone with equal respect.

The way to move toward a higher level of personality integration and, therefore, a higher level of peace and personal effectiveness, is to expand the area of your personality that is clear to both you and others. And you do this through the simple exercise of self-disclosure. For you to truly understand yourself, or to stop being troubled by things that may have happened in your past, you must be able to disclose yourself to at least one person. You have to be able to get those things off your chest. You must rid yourself of those thoughts and feelings by revealing them to someone who won’t make you feel guilty or ashamed for what has happened.

The second part of personality development follows from self-disclosure, and it’s called self-awareness. Only when you can disclose what you’re truly thinking and feeling to someone else can you become aware of those thoughts and emotions If the other person simply listens to you without commenting or criticizing, you have the opportunity to become more aware of the person you are and why you do the things you do. You begin to develop perspective, or what the Buddhists call “detachment.” You can stand back from yourself and your past and look at it honestly. You can “disidentify” from the intense emotions involved and view what has happened to you with greater calmness and clarity.

Now we come to the good part. After you’ve gone through self-disclosure to self-awareness, you arrive at self-acceptance. You accept yourself for the person you are, with good points and bad points, with strengths and weaknesses, and with the normal frailties of a human being. When you develop the ability to stand back and look at yourself honestly, and to candidly admit to others that you may not be perfect but you’re all you’ve got, you start to enjoy a heightened sense of self-acceptance.

One of the keys to happiness is to “live in truth” with yourself and others. And one of the ways to live in truth is to stop trying to be perfect and to see yourself honestly, as you really are. Attempts to achieve needless perfectionism, and an intense, often unconscious desire to impress people with how good you are, are real time wasters and energy killers.

There is a joke that cuts to the heart of this issue: “When you are in your 20s, you are very concerned about what people think about you. When you are in your 30s, you don’t really care that much about what people think about you. And when you get into your 40s, you discover the real truth: Nobody was even thinking about you at all.” A valuable exercise for developing higher levels of self-acceptance involves doing an inventory of yourself. In doing this inventory, your job is to accentuate the positive and minimize the negative. The real difference between optimistic people and pessimistic people is that optimists are always looking for the good in every situation, the opportunity in every problem, while pessimists are always looking for the down side and the problem in every opportunity. When you honestly analyze yourself during this inventory, you will be amazed at how extraordinary you really are and how incredible your potential is for accomplishing the things that you really desire.

Begin your inventory by recalling your accomplishments. Think about all the things that you have achieved over the course of your lifetime. Make a list of them. Think of the subjects you passed and the grades you received. Think of the awards and prizes you won. Think of the people you have helped and the kind things that you have done for others. Think of the adversities that you have triumphed over. Think of the goals that you have set and achieved. Look at the material parts of your life; think about all the things that you have managed to acquire as the result of hard work and disciplined effort.

Now, to increase your level of self-acceptance, think of your unique talents and abilities. Think of your core skills, the things that you do exceptionally well that account for your success in your profession and in your personal life right now. Think of the results that you have achieved by applying yourself to the challenges of your world. Think of your earning ability and your ability to accomplish your goals. Think of your ability to make a contribution to your company and to your family and to the world around you. Think about all the things that you have to offer to your world.

Finally, to boost your level of self-acceptance, think about your future possibilities and the fact that your potential is virtually unlimited. You can do what you want to do and go where you want to go. You can be the person you want to be. You can set large and small goals and make plans and move step-by-step, progressively toward their realization. There are no obstacles to what you can accomplish except the obstacles that you create in your mind.

Here’s an important fact to keep in mind when it comes to self-acceptance. What we work for more than anything else is respect. The British author E. M. Forster once explained, “I write to earn the respect of those I respect.” Almost everything that we do, or refrain from doing, is somehow associated with gaining, or at least not losing, the respect of the people whom we respect the most. And only when we feel that we are respected by those we respect do we accept and like ourselves to a great degree.

One way to raise your level of self-acceptance, then, is to pick a role model, someone you admire and look up to and want to be like, and then pattern your life and your work after that person’s. Many businesspeople have become top executives by selecting a role model who had already reached the top and then patterning their lives along the same lines. Everything you do that you feel is consistent with what someone you admire would do increases your level of self-acceptance.

A second way to assure a higher level of self-acceptance is to develop good work habits and to work efficiently and effectively toward the accomplishment of high-value results. The most respected people in any organization are those who can get the job done. Your level of self-efficacy, in other words, your belief in your ability to do what is expected of you, has an incredible effect on how much you accept yourself as a good and valuable person.

A third way to increase your level of self-acceptance is to be very aware of your image and the way you appear to people. If you want to be respected and admired by others, you need to act like a person who is worthy of respect. And remember, everything counts. Everything you do or don’t do can either contribute to or take away from your image and the impression you are making on others. When you know that you look absolutely excellent on the outside, your level of self-acceptance shoots up.

A fourth way to raise your level of self-acceptance is to take complete responsibility for the various parts of your life. Refuse to make excuses or to blame other people. Never complain; never explain. Volunteer for assignments and responsibilities, and then carry them out without comment.

The key to achieving a feeling of mental well-being is having a sense of control, a sense of self-determination and internal mastery. This sense of self-control is tied directly to your willingness and ability to accept full responsibility for every part of your life. When you criticize others, or you make excuses for things that you did not do well or complete on time, you actually feel more negative about yourself, and your sense of self-acceptance declines. When you take charge of every part of your life, you feel terrific about yourself, and your level of self-acceptance and self-esteem goes up. A fifth way you can build up your level of self-acceptance is by interpreting events in a positive way. Dr. Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania calls this your “explanatory style.” He concludes that high-performing men and women have a tendency to talk to themselves in a positive way and to explain things that are happening to them and around them in a way that allows them to stay optimistic.

Look for the silver lining in whatever cloud may be hanging over your head right now. Look for the lesson or opportunity in each obstacle or setback. Look for reasons to excuse others and let them off the hook, rather than becoming angry or upset. Play mental games with yourself to keep your thoughts on the things you want and off the things that you fear or that make you unhappy.

A sixth way to raise your level of self-acceptance is to become a habitual goal setter. Write down clear goals and a plan for what you want to accomplish and then work your plan every day. Develop of clear sense of direction for your life. Work on track and on purpose. Know exactly who you are and where you are going. Each step that you take toward the accomplishment of a predetermined objective raises your self-esteem and improves your level of self-acceptance at the same time.

Finally, a seventh way to raise your level of self-acceptance is to practice the Law of Indirect Effort, or reverse effort, and realize that everything you do or say to another person rebounds and causes the same effect on you. Whenever you are warm and friendly and courteous to another, you improve your own level of self-respect and self-acceptance. Whenever you do something nice for another person, you tend to feel better about yourself. Whenever you do or say anything that causes another person to like himself more, you find yourself liking yourself more as well.

One of the great riches of life is the self-acceptance that leads to self-esteem and maximum performance. By being aware of and practicing these recommendations, you can increase your self-acceptance to the point where you can confidently move forward toward the realization of your full potential.

Setting Priorities

In 1970, sociologist Dr. Edward Banfield of Harvard University wrote a book entitled The Unheavenly City. He described one of the most profound studies on success and priority setting ever conducted. Banfield’s goal was to find out how and why some people became financially independent during the course of their working lifetimes. He started off convinced that the answer to this question would be found in factors such as family background, education, intelligence, influential contacts, or some other concrete factor. What he finally discovered was that the major reason for success in life was a particular attitude of mind.

Banfield called this attitude “long time perspective.” He said that men and women who were the most successful in life and the most likely to move up economically were those who took the future into consideration with every decision they made in the present. He found that the longer the period of time a person took into consideration while planning and acting, the more likely it was that he would achieve greatly during his career.

For example, one of the reasons your family doctor is among the most respected people in America is because he or she invested many years of hard work and study to finally earn the right to practice medicine. After university courses, internship, residency and practical training, a doctor may be more than 30 years old before he or she is capable of earning a good living. But from that point onward, these men and women are some of the most respected and most successful professional people in the United States. They had long time perspectives.

The essential key to success in setting priorities is having a long time perspective. You can tell how important something is today by measuring its potential future impact on your life.

For example, if you come home from work at night and choose to play with your children or spend time with your spouse, rather than watch TV or read the paper, you have a long time perspective. You know that investing time in the health and happiness of your children and your spouse is a very valuable, high-priority use of time.

If you take additional courses in the evening to upgrade your skills and make yourself more valuable to your employer, you’re acting with a long time perspective. Learning something practical and useful can have a long-term effect on your career.

The key word, then, to keep in mind when you’re setting priorities is sacrifice. Setting priorities usually requires sacrificing present enjoyment for future enjoyment. It requires giving up a short-term pleasure in the present in order to enjoy a far greater and more substantial pleasure in the future.

Economists say that the inability to delay gratification-that is, the natural tendency of individuals to spend everything they earn plus a little bit more, and the mind-set of doing what is fun, easy and enjoyable-is the primary cause of economic and personal failure in life. On the other hand, disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem and personal satisfaction.

So setting priorities begins with your deciding what you want most in life and then organizing your time and activities so that everything you do is the most valuable use of your time in achieving those objectives.

With your larger, long-term priorities in order, you can much more easily decide upon your short-term priorities.

You can say that the process of setting short-term priorities begins with a pad of paper and a pen. Whenever you feel overwhelmed by too many things to do and too little time in which to do them, sit down, take a deep breath, and list all those tasks you need to accomplish. Although there is never enough time to do everything, there is always enough time to do the most important things, and to stay with them until they are done right.

Peter Drucker once said, “Efficiency is doing things right, but effectiveness is doing the right things.” And this requires thought. Once you have listed your tasks, ask yourself this question: “If I were to be called out of town for a month, and I could finish only one thing on this list, which one thing would it be?” Think it through, and circle that one item on your list. Then ask yourself: “If I could do only one more thing before I was called out of town for a month, what would it be?” This then becomes the second thing you circle on your list.

Perform this exercise five or six times until you have sorted out the highest priorities on your list. Then number each according to its importance. With these priorities, you are now ready to begin working effectively toward the achievement of your major goals.

Another popular method for setting priorities on your list, once you have determined your major goals or objectives, is the A-B-C-D-E method. You place one of those letters in the margin before each of the tasks on your list.

“A” stands for “very important; must do; severe negative consequences if not completed.”

“B” stands for “important; should do; but not as important as my ‘A’ tasks, and only minor negative consequences if not completed.”

“C” stands for “nice to do; but not as important as ‘A’ or ‘B,’ and no negative consequences for not completing.”

“D” stands for “delegate, or assign to someone else who can do the task in my place.”

“E” stands for “eliminate, whenever possible.”

When you use the A-B-C-D-E method, you can very easily sort out what is important and unimportant. This then will focus your time and attention on those items on your list that are most essential for you to do.

Once you can clearly see the one or two things that you should be doing, above all others, just say no to all diversions and distractions and focus single-mindedly on accomplishing those priorities.

Much stress that people experience in their work lives comes from working on low-priority tasks. The amazing thing is that as soon as you start working on your highest-value activity, all your stress disappears. You begin to feel a continuous stream of energy and enthusiasm. As you work toward the completion of something that is really important, you feel an increased sense of personal value and inner satisfaction. You experience a sensation of self-mastery and self-control. You feel calm, confident and capable.

Here are six ideas that you can use, every day, to help you set priorities and to keep you working at your best:

1. Take the time to be clear about your goals and objectives so that the priorities you set are moving you in the direction of something that is of value to you. Remember that many people scramble frantically to climb the ladder of success, only to find that it is leaning against the wrong building.

2. Develop a long time perspective and work on those things in the present that can have the greatest positive impact on your future. Maintain your balance in life by setting priorities in the areas of your health, your personal relationships and your financial goals.

3. Make the commitment to improve those aspects of your life that are most important to you. If you’re in sales, learn how to be an excellent salesperson. If you’re a parent, learn how to be an outstanding mother or father. The power is always on the side of the person with the best practical knowledge.

4. Be sure to take the time to do your work right the first time. The fewer mistakes you make, the less time you will waste going back and doing it over.

5. Remember that what counts is not the amount of time that you put in overall; rather, it’s the amount of time that you spend working on high-priority tasks. You will always be paid for the results that you obtain, not merely the hours that you spend on the job.

6. Understand that the most important factor in setting priorities is your ability to make wise choices. You are always free to choose to engage in one activity or another. You may choose a higher-value activity or a lower-value activity, but once you have chosen, you must accept the consequences of your choice.

Resolve today to set clear priorities in every area of your life, and always choose the activities that will assure you the greatest health, happiness and prosperity in the long term. The long term comes soon enough, and every sacrifice that you make today will be rewarded with compound interest in the great future that lies ahead for you.

“Earlier there was a nation looking for a land, Now there is land looking for a nation”.

There appears to be a lot of controversy amongst all walks of life, right from Indus to Himalaya, as to the topic of future of Pakistan. Thought sharing on this topic in different intellect levels reveals a lake of wisdom apprehending to conclusion of day to day incidental basis. If a bomb explodes, people turn out to skeptic, if an armed movement happens, people exhibit discomfort. If a political statement varies from norms, speculations of hazardous nature develop. To sum up, the whole nation with varying intellect level, in different walks of life, having segregated ethnicity, different socio-economic behaviors…all have one thought in common….nothing is happening in the best interest of people of Pakistan to make them act as a nation.

But, but, but, the question is…why do we seek some one to come forward and tell us ‘how to become a nation?’…why don’t we step forward to impart our role as a nation?

To this many reflect arrogance, few smile and shrug it away and very few accept but with out showing any intention to step forward in doing so.

Pakistan, since independence, has faced turmoil over turmoil of dishonest leaders, corrupt politicians, heartless feudals, and black sheeps but its Allah who is being so merciful that Pakistan still exists.
Its well said that “earlier there was a nation looking for a land, Now there is land looking for a nation”.
In South-East Asia, a number of countries became exemplary in the growth and development, though they got independence later than Pakistan. Such examples include, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and most specifically Malaysia where they not only grew but became a nation to follow.

“God helps those who help themselves”.
Lets part in the development and up-growth of Pakistan with all our available resources. Lets help ourselves to at least starting thinking like a nation and soon we will be acting like a nation.

A Guide For Creative Thinking

By: Brian Tracy

Einstein once said, “Every child is born a genius.” But the reason why most people do not function at genius levels is because they are not aware of how creative and smart they really are.

I call it the “Schwarzenegger effect.” No one would look at a person such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and think how lucky he is to have been born with such tremendous muscles. Everyone knows that he, and people like him, have worked many thousands of hours to build up their bodies so they can compete and win in bodybuilding competitions. Your creative capabilities are just the same. They actually grow as they are used.

But you don’t need to spend thousands of hours to increase your creative-thinking abilities. By practicing a few simple exercises and applications, you can start your creative juices flowing, and you may even amaze yourself at the quality and quantity of good ideas that you come up with.

Let’s start off with the definition of creativity. In my estimation, after years of research on this subject, the very best definition of creativity is, simply, “improvement.” You don’t have to be a rocket scientist or an artist in order to be creative. All you have to do is develop the ability to improve your situation, wherever you are and whatever you are doing. All great fortunes were started with ideas for improving something in some way. In fact, an improvement needs to be only 10 percent new or different to launch you on the way to fame and riches.

It has been estimated that each year, driving to and from work, the average person has about four ideas for improvement, any one of which could make him or her a millionaire. The problem is not that you don’t have the ideas you need to accomplish anything you want but, rather, that you fail to act on those ideas. Most people dismiss their own ideas because they think that those ideas cannot be very valuable if they were the ones who thought of them.

Thomas Edison, arguably the most successful creative genius in human history, once said that creativity is 99 percent perspiration and only 1 percent inspiration. Extensive research on creativity tends to bear him out.

There are four generally accepted parts of the creative process: There is preparation, where much of the work is done. There is cerebration or rumination, where you turn the matter over to your subconscious mind. There is realization, where the idea or ideas come to you. And finally, there is application, where you work out the creative idea and turn it into something worthwhile. Of the four, preparation seems to be the most important, and it involves gathering the right data and asking the right questions.

Your success in life will be determined largely by the quantity of ideas that you generate. It seems that the quality of ideas is secondary to the quantity and that if you have enough ideas, one or more of them will turn out to be prizewinners.

You can begin building your creative muscles with focused questions. Some that you might think of are the following: What are we trying to do? How are we trying to do it? What are our assumptions? What if our assumptions are wrong?

All improvements begin with questioning the current, existing circumstances. If you are not making progress for any reason, stop and think, and begin asking yourself the hard questions that will stimulate your mind to consider other possibilities.

When they were doing the research to land a man on the moon, scientists were stumped for months and even years. They could not figure how to send a rocket to the moon with enough fuel to land on the moon, blast off, break the moon’s gravity and come back to earth. The problem was that if the rocket had that much fuel to start with, it would be too heavy to take off from the earth in the first place. Finally, they began to question the assumption that the lunar rocket ship had to land on the moon. When they questioned that assumption, the scientists concluded that a main rocket could orbit around the moon while a smaller module dropped to the surface of the moon and then rejoined the orbiting rocket for the trip back to earth. The mental logjam was broken, and the rest is history.

Asking focused questions-hard questions that penetrate to the core of the matter-is the real art of the creative person. The next step is to have the courage to deal with all the possible answers. Once you have come up with a possible solution, ask yourself, “What else could be the solution?” If your current method of operation were completely wrong, what would be your backup plan? What else would you or could you do? What if your current procedure or plan turned out to be a complete failure? Then what would you do? And what would you do after that? All of those questions will force you to think further and come up with better answers.

The second way to build your mental muscles is with intensely desired goals. The more you want something and the clearer you are about it, the more likely it is that you will generate ideas that will help you to move toward it. That is why the need for clearly written goals and plans for their accomplishment is repeated over and over. Any intense emotion, such as desire, stimulates creativity and ideas to fulfill that desire. And the more you write down your goals and plans, and review them, the more likely it is that you will see all kinds of possibilities for achieving those goals.

The third generator of creative-thinking muscles is pressing problems. A good question to ask is “What are the three biggest problems that I am facing in my life today?” Write the answer to this question quickly, in less than 30 seconds. When you write the answer to a question in less than 30 seconds, your subconscious mind will sort out all extraneous answers and give you the three most important ones.

When you have your three most pressing problems, ask yourself, “What is the worst possible thing that can happen as a result of each of these problems?” Then ask yourself, “What are all the things that I can do, right now, to alleviate each problem?” If you have a problem that is worrying you for any reason, think about what you could do immediately to begin alleviating that concern. This is a prime use of your creative powers.

So a key to success in creative thinking is clarity. Take the time to think through, discuss and ask questions that help you to clarify exactly what you are trying to accomplish and exactly what problems you are facing at the present moment. Just as fuzzy thinking leads to fuzzy answers, clear thinking leads to clear answers.

A second key is concentration. Put everything else aside, and concentrate single-mindedly on focusing all your mental powers on solving one single problem, overcoming one particular obstacle or achieving one important goal. The ability to concentrate on a single subject without diversion or distraction is a hallmark of the superior thinker.

A third key is an open mind. The average person tends to be rigid and fixed in his thinking about getting from where he is to where he wants to go. The creative thinker, however, tends to remain very flexible and open to a variety of ways of approaching the problem. The average person has a tendency to leap to conclusions and determine that there is only one way to achieve a particular goal. The superior thinker, on the other hand, tends to be more patient and willing to consider a variety of options before moving toward a conclusion.

There is one other creative concept that can be very helpful when it is used in combination with what we have already discussed, and it is called the “limiting step.”

Between you and any goal that you want to achieve or any problem that you want to solve, there is almost invariably a limiting step or a “choke point” that determines the speed with which you move from where you are to your destination. This limiting step may be another person, a particular obstacle, a specific difficulty, or even a lack of some information or skill. Invariably, there is a particular factor that determines how fast you get there. Your job is to think about it and decide what it is, and then go to work to remove it.

For example, if you are in sales, your limiting step may be the number of prospects you have. If this is the case, then your job is to do everything possible and to use all your creative capacities to increase your number of prospects until it is no longer a problem. Then, of course, there will be another limiting step, and your job is to go to work on that.

If you have a business, your limiting step may be the number of qualified people who are responding to your advertising. If this is the choke point that hinders the amount you sell and the speed at which your company grows, it behooves you to concentrate your mental powers on relieving that bottleneck. You must concentrate the very best thinking abilities of yourself and others on increasing the number of qualified prospects that your advertising and promotional efforts attract.

In relationships and misunderstandings between people, there is almost invariably a sticking point or subject area that needs to be resolved in order to bring about harmony again. Your job is, first, to identify this limiting step and then, second, to find a way to alleviate the difficulty to the satisfaction of everyone involved.

You are a genius, and you were born with the potential for exceptional creativity. But creative abilities are latent. They are like muscles that grow with use. You can increase your creative powers by using them, over and over, in every situation, deliberately and specifically, until creativity and a creative response to life is as natural to you as breathing in and out is. There are very few things that you can do that can have a more powerful positive impact on your entire life than becoming excellent in creative thinking. And you can if you think you can.

VARIABLES INFLUENCING SALES MANAGER’S PERFORMANCE

Coping with the changing complexity of the every day sales situation.

Change is an important factor in every business day the ability to master and deal with change has become an important factor in sales management. The sales manager is faced with the dilemma of how to sell maximum product volume at maximum profit and yet control the cost of distribution, while building the company image and product reputation. Sales managers must achieve their objectives through individuals, through effective control mechanisms, and through organizational leadership. Certainly they are faced with comprehensive, stimulating, and challenging circumstances. The newly appointed sales manager soon recognizes that he must change by developing new skills, because the jobs of selling and managing are not of the same competence as a salesperson is no guarantee of management success.

There are essentially four variables that will influence a sales manager’s performance. First, there are personal skills which have been developed before the individual is promoted to sales manager attains through the normal education and socialization processes. These skills originated in early life and have been developed and reinforced throughout the life of the individual. What is often thought of as one’s general attitude towards, life, such as enthusiasm, initiative, loyalty, integrity, and perseverance, are included under the category of personal skills. It is within the range of personal skills that the sales manager brings to his job the knowledge of the business as a whole, personal integrity, the ability to lead and inspire, basic intelligence, a sense of purpose and direction, selling ability, sympathetic understanding, enthusiasm, tact, and faith. A sales person observing the sales manager in action develops insight into the personality of the sales manager. This insight greatly influence the salesman’s willingness to obey and follow the direction of the sales manager, and because of this, third, there ae task skills which include behavior that deals specifically with the sales and technical competence of the sales manager. To be fully effective, the manager must have a high degree of expertise in those tasks that the salesperson must perform. It follows that the closer a manager must have a high degree of expertise in those tasks that the salesperson must perform. It follows that the closer manager must interact with salespersons, the higher their degree of expertise must be.

In addition, they cannot operate solely as leaders of a sales group but must function as a linking pin between the sales group and the next higher structure. Some of these task skills include: maintenance of quality standards required of salesmen; selection and training of the sales force; implementation of company plans and policies; maintenance of a feedback system on accomplishment and plans for improvement; supervision through direction, motivation and control; administration of the office and sales force; and related general duties agreed upon.

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Clearly stated objectives, to measure the quality of the task skills, must be coordinated not only with the development objectives of the sales manager, but also with the overall developmental objectives of the organization. Controls must be established so that the sales manager can periodically review his own development process and accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the responsibility of upper management to identify task skills and behavior which are critical to the success of the sales manager’s performance. One these task skills and the standards of performance are understood and agreed upon the sales manager can function in a very desirable climate.

Fourth, there are organizational skills, which include knowledge and abilities, that allow the sales manager to function efficiently within the organization. The Organizational system operates within a given boundary which separates it from its environment. Therefore the organization, corporate and subsidiary, must collect information about its market, its competitors, etc. and analyze this information. Based on the quality of this information, decisions are made about eh quality, quantity, price, strategy, tactics, etc. and are passed on t the sales manager. In order to succeed, the manager must understand the meaning, place, and utility of each decision as thy apply to the manager and to the total environment.

Upper management must recognize that the best salespersons do no necessarily make the best sales managers. Selling and managing require different skills and abilities. There seems to be limited significance, or correlation, between the level f education and sales success/ m the case of the manager, he must attempt to update his forma education to strengthen his needs, drives and characteristics which contribute to the overall success of the organization sales effort. This education should be directed towards understanding the quantitative methods used in business today; discovering the social and behavioral sciences necessary to work with people and to better understand subordinate behavior; understanding the other functions of the business like finance and production.

No sales management effort can be successful without taking into account all fur factors or variables. An understanding of the philosophies and concepts practiced within the organization leads to harmonious relationships and confidence in achieving organizational objectives.

THE TRANSITION TO PROFESSIONAL MANAGEMENT


Introduction

The field sales managers job is to provide guidance and direction to his team so they can work effectively to gather towards a common objective. To do this he engages in a special kind of physical and mental work.

This is much miss-understanding about Field Sales Manager and Field Sales Management; what are they, what they do, how they do it. We define field sales manager as a person who specializes in the work of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling a group of trained people and does so through the systemic use of specialized knowledge skills and attitudes. A field sales manager supervises others. He achieves economic results through other people. In addition to getting results through other people a field sales manager also has to do some non management or operating work. Operating work that logically could be performed for the field sales manager by others of his team. It includes routine and repetitive task e.g. planning daily itineraries for the M.R., crunching sales statistics for a monthly report.

In moving from non management to a management position a predictable behaviour and series of changes is often seen. In this phase the new or natural manger is trying to learn, to become a knowledgeable professional. We will call this man the natural manager.

The Transition from M.R. to the Natural Manager
When first promoted from M.R. to a Field Sales manager the man will tend to do those things that come naturally to him. He will use his natural aptitude and personality characteristics as he attempts to manage his team.

Focuses on himself
The natural manager tends to put his personal interest above those of the group as a whole. He concentrates on himself. Typically, he sees other members of the group as working for him. He focuses on his own financial and psychological needs. He answers questions on the criteria of “What is good for me” not “What is good for my team?”

Operational Emphasis
The natural manager tends to spend most of his time and effort doing work that is much the same as that done by the people he supervises. (The Sales supervisor tend to spend much of his time and effort in selling). The natural manager operates in this fashion because he prefers to do so. His preference is natural one - to be involved in his area of previous experience. Here he is familiar, expert and assured. In this early stage of his new job the natural manager gets his greatest satisfaction from achieving results that are immediate and visible, for which he can receive personal credit. He secures little satisfaction from managing others so that they achieve results.
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Concentrated decision making
The natural manager tends to make most of the decisions for his group. He makes not only the decisions he alone can make abut also those his team can quite adequately make on their own. Independence in his team is not an attribute the natural manager likes.

Intuitive actions
The natural manager tends to act first and think later. When problem arises, his tendency is to assess it on the surface and plunge into the corrective course of action he can think of. The problem of intuitive action is that although sometimes it is effective, it is also short lived and does not anticipate long term consequences.

One way communication
The natural manager is concerned primarily with making others understand him. His form of communication consists of telling others what he wants them to do and also how to do it. He does little listening and even loss understanding of team and individual needs.

One way communication
The natural manager is concerned primarily with making others understand him. His from of communication consists of telling others what he wants them to do and also how to do it. He does little listening and even loss understanding of team and individual needs.

Control by inspection
An effective manager must ensure that the work is properly done and the right results are achieved. This calls for control and for the natural manager this means inspection. He wants to see and approve everything himself. He evaluates what is done in terms of his own standards. This type of control tends to be destructive - it minimizes the opportunity for initiative.

Summary
The success of natural manager tends to be limited to his own personal strength and capacity. He does not know how to multiply his efforts through effective use of people. Operating within a frame work of short term actions and results he has not learned how to master the future, he reacts always in the present. Frequently f he does not change the company out grows him.

THE TRANSITION FROM NATURAL MANAGER TO PROFESSIONAL MANAGER


Just as the child matures and the changes in behavior can be described, the changes in the manager as he moves from operating specialist to natural manager to semi-professional manager to professional manager can be described. We have described above the actions of the natural manager. We have described above the actions of the natural manager. We will look at the behavior of the manager in transition from natural to professional manager.

One problem of natural Field Sales Manager is that he is unable t let go of the reins. He is an expert in selling but not an expert in management. He does not know how to manage outside of his personality characteristics. He has not learned to work through other people, and multiply his efficiency. A stage is often reached that if the natural manager does not change, people become dissatisfied. Some symptoms are listed below.

- Dissatisfaction of people.
- Reduced creativity.

The Professional Manager
The professional manager specializes in the work necessary to achieve the desired results through and with other people. In many ways these new skills may conflict with the personality skills. But once mastered and applied they can multiply results many fold. Let us look at some of the behaviour as the natural manger moves to become professional manager.

Promotes Group Interest
The professional manager’s orientation is to the task, the group and the individual. He knows the greatest results come from each team member accomplishing his personal objectives. The manager gets result through motivating his people to do it for them selves, rather than doing it for them. He puts the interest of the t3eeam before his own. He exercises the leader-ship which is the most effective and will produce the required results.

Management Emphasis
The professional manger is a specialist. To get the best results he specializes in the work of planning, leading, organizing and controlling.

Decentralized Authority / Delegation
The professional manager knows the decisions only he can make and those that are better made by others. He establishes a sound system of delegating.

Logical Futuristic Action
The professional manager thinks through what he wants to accomplish and plans to take rational steps to accomplish objectives. He proceeds with plans and a purpose, making the best use of resources. He is in other words proactive rather than reactive.

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Communication through understanding
The professional manager devotes time and effort to understanding the needs and desires of his people and making sure these are to the best of his ability within the company framework.

Control by Exception / MBO
The professional manager sets objectives and limits, so his people know what is expected f them and can decide for themselves whether or not they are achieving the desired result. He can then concern himself with the areas which uniquely require his attention. Thus he can exert maximum and effective control with minimum effort. Members of the team achieve the greatest job satisfaction from their work, but the boss is freed fr more creative and productive aspects of his own job.

When a Field Sales manager is working as a professional he can achieve the most useful economic results for the company and its people.

THE JOB OF FIELD SALES MANAGER

The Field Sales Manager is responsible for getting things done through other people towards economic objectives.

- getting tings done - Implies being task oriented
- through other people - Implies he can’t do all the job himself.
- towards economic - Implies that the manger must be aware of financial objectives impact of his decisions and actions.

Financial Responsibilities
The Field Sales Manager is not just responsible for the net sales line of the P&L but also for the profitability of customer channels, e.g. A Government customer buying once a year at low prices with expensive servicing and lengthy payment terms may generate less channel profitability than a self-dispensing doctor buying at list price, with low servicing and prompt payment.

The Field Sales Manager is responsible for his own expense budget.

The Field Sales Manager is not totally responsible for sales, cost of goods sold (cogs), expenses and profit as he does no have absolute control over all elements which make up these lines of the P&L. However, he must be aware of the financial implication of this actions. His prime focus will be sales revenue guided by product profitability, and channel profitability i.e. mix of products and mix of customers.

Profit checklist
Unit volume x selling price = Sales revenue
Sles revenue – cogs – field expenses = Profit

Improve profit
- improve sales volume at current prices, cogs and expenses.
- hold sales volume at increased prices,but at existing cogs and expenses.
- hold sales volume, prices and cogs, but reduce expenses.
- hold sales volume but change product mix to sell more of higher profit products.
- hold sales volume but change customer mix to sell more volume to higher profit customers.

Improve sales on capital employed
- increase sales volume using existing capital employed, i.e. inventories, assets, receivables.
- hold sales volume but reduce existing capital employed i.e. inventories, assets, receivables.


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Basic Functions of the Field Sales Manager
In order to do his job effectively, he Field Sales manager must perform the following tasks;

- Plan the objectives, strategies and tactics for his department, himself and his team.
- develop and organization structure to achieve he objectives.
- Recruit and select people who can do the jobs laid down in the organization
structure.
- train and motivate the people to work to he best of their abilities.
- evaluate and control his people to ensure the objectives are achieved.

Special problems facing a Field Sales Manager
In performing the above functions the Field Sales manager faces problems.
Unlike any other job in the Company, the Field Sales Manager is faced with the problem of geography. His people are widely spread. The Field Sales Manager can’t supervise closely. The leads to problems of communication, leadership and control.

The M.R. feels isolate because; the M.R. (unlike any other person in the company) spends his time with physicians (and not other company employees). This causes attrition of M.R. knowledge and skills as the physician’s view point is not that of the Company.

The M.R. is often of psychological make up which can’t cope with an isolate and demanding life.

Because of these special problems, the key requirement of M.R. is leadership and training. The training must be strong enough and continues to breed effective work methods despite the lack of supervision. Leadership must be strong to keep M.R. working at a high level.