Every week as SmallBizLady, I conduct interviews with experts on my Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat. The show takes place every Wednesday on Twitter from 8-9pm ET. This is excerpted from my recent interview with @KevinAllenEI. Kevin Allen is Founder & Chairman of employee engagement company Planet Jockey, which specializes in gamified learning and collaborative mentorship platforms, and re:kap, a business transformation company which counts Burberry, Verizon, Smythson, and Rolls-Royce among its global clients. He is recognized as one of the world’s most accomplished growth professionals. For more information, visit planetjockey.com
SmallBizLady: How do you establish a direction for your company?
Kevin Allen: Establishing direction in business is not a numbers game. It’s what I call establishing a Real Ambition, creating something amazing that didn’t exist before. This emotionally charged idea is what inspires people to get behind you. A “We will” statement is a powerful tool.
SmallBizLady: How do you create a common culture?
Kevin Allen: A common belief system is a business’s most precious asset. A belief system can be codified in what I call a credo, which is Latin for “I believe”. Imagine an emotionally charged expression of your value system- short, pithy, and emotive and short enough to fit in a card in your wallet!
SmallBizLady: How do you create a following in both your customers and your people?
Kevin Allen: When faced with things that are new, common to any entrepreneur, you will face four distinct types of people- catalysts, followers, observers and resistors. Your task is to ignite your catalysts; people who are by definition forward leaning, entrepreneurial, and will be instantaneous believers in where you are going. When you do this, slowly but surely, the rest will fall into line. While you’re doing this, spend equal time converting resistors- remember, an objection is the first step to a sale. Giving resistors a reason to support you can be utterly galvanic.
SmallBizLady: Is your company a brand?
Kevin Allen: Some people have confused a brand with a thing, or a product feature. A brand is what I call a brand citizenship- a community of people inside and outside the company. Customer and company united by a common belief system. So while what you make today may well change tomorrow, the reasons your customers and people love and believe in you endure.
SmallBizLady: How do you understand what your customer really wants?
Kevin Allen: People do not buy with their heads; they buy or choose to be with you with their hearts. What keeps your customers and people up at night? When you understand the deep, visceral, emotional motivation in the hearts of your people and your buyers, and connect yourself to these powerful emotions, people will follow you anywhere. I call this the Hidden Agenda.
SmallBizLady: How do you accomplish so much with so little?
Kevin Allen: Entrepreneurs face a challenge and an opportunity at the same time. Compared to the corporate giants, the entrepreneur is inevitably resource strapped, but the corporates are bureaucratically calcified. The people in your community, both employees and associates, can be ignited through your ability to uncover the rich talents of everyone in your community. By inviting them to the table, giving them confidence that their special gifts are so desperately needed, creating a culture of interdependence allows the entrepreneur to bring vast talents to bare far beyond physical numbers.
SmallBizLady: How do you deal with setbacks?
Kevin Allen: One of the most important qualities of an entrepreneur is creating a culture of experimentation. This risk-reward environment is what separates the entrepreneur from slow moving corporate giants. But there has to be a method to apply when a setback occurs, which I call the ACTION Model. Most important is to engender confidence; come what may that success will be derived in any setback you experience.
SmallBizLady: How do you create an elevator pitch?
Kevin Allen: The content of your business is 50% of the game. The other 50% is putting yourself and what your company creates across in a clear, highly compelling manner. So it’s not a linear recitation- think like a litigator. In doing so, you put forward a compelling argument with a central theorem, evidence before the court, and a rousing benefit laden summary that’s guaranteed to make them vote for you!
SmallBizLady: Is listening a skill?
Kevin Allen: Listening is the number one skill and asset of an emotionally intelligent leader. But it means not listening for facts, but listening with emotional antennae. The way to do this is to form questions not on the basis of functional business facts, but to ask questions of your people and prospects with emotional import; what keeps you up at night? Where do you dream of being 5 years from now? And then during your questioning, when you hit an emotional hot button, use a technique called laddering to mine the deep emotional motives that are at work.
SmallBizLady: How does an entrepreneur avoid isolation?
Kevin Allen: It has often been said that the captain is the loneliest person on the ship. An entrepreneur who is blazing trails never been thought of before can find themselves profoundly isolated often without the answers or the right question to ask. Establish a “kitchen cabinet” of deeply trusted individuals, each of whom offer a unique perspective but are bound by one very important common trait: they are all found members of your fan club and want only to see you succeed. You’ll never feel lonely again!
SmallBizLady: How do you signal early success?
Kevin Allen: Positioning your company as a success is creating the perception that it is. You can do this through the technique of modeling. This is taking an early success and with your advocate’s approach, create an argument of your company’s successful performance and through the art of storytelling, be able to consistently recite this dramatic recitation of your company’s performance. Remember, your catalysts need one thing and one thing only: a reason to believe!
SmallBizLady: What’s the best way to communicate?
Kevin Allen: A thing that has often worried many entrepreneurs who oft times are competing with organizations many, many times their size feel the need to create a persona in the hopes that they will be “taken seriously”. My advice to you is this… be yourself. People will bond with you, join with you, and support you because they have encountered the real you, as you are. Genuineness and your true self is what people will judge you by, so let it rip!
If you found this interview helpful, join us on Wednesdays 8-9 pm ET; follow @SmallBizChat on Twitter. Here’s how to participate in #SmallBizChat: http://bit.ly/1hZeIlz
For more tips on how start or grow your small business subscribe to Melinda Emerson’s blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com.
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