Making Business Matter (MBM)

How Embracing Nervousness and Understanding Human Factors Can Transform Your Deals

In this podcast with negotiation expert Derek Chevalier, we dive into the secrets of mastering negotiations and transforming your approach from amateur to pro. Discover how to leverage your own nervousness to your advantage with the surprising strategy of "rope-a-dope," and learn why understanding the human element in negotiations is crucial for success.

With insights that go beyond mere tactics, Chevalier's advice reveals how to effectively manage complex negotiations, understand the hidden roles of all participants, and craft strategies that make you the master of your negotiation game.

Ready to up your negotiation skills and walk away with better deals? Read on to uncover the key strategies that will give you the upper hand and turn every negotiation into a win.

View this episode on YouTube by clicking the image below.

Click the image to watch the podcast on YouTube

 

You Can Read the Full Kantar Market Share Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

Alright, alright. Welcome to the world stickies. Learning my name is Darren Smith and my guest is Derek Chevalier. Now Derek and I were just having a great conversation because I was saying how do you pronounce your surname? And you were telling me it's French and it means nice. Is this right? Wow.

Derrick Chevalier:

OK. Yes, yes, that's it's actually a title, right, a Chevalier or knight.

Darren A. Smith:

You said so much better than me.

Derrick Chevalier:

Ha ha ha.

Darren A. Smith:

And also we were discussing Smith and I was saying how boring it is and I love your surname. I love it, I love it. But let's get down to why we're here. Derek, you're an expert on negotiation. I'm going to ask you a question which will be a little bit tough, but I know you'll take it in the right way. Why should our listeners listen to you when I ask you questions about negotiation? Right. Have you been doing it a while?

Derrick Chevalier:

Ha. I've been doing it awhile and I think the benefits that can come from the experience that I have is that people can transform their interactions with other human beings.

Darren A. Smith:

Nice.

Derrick Chevalier:

It's a process that can be adapted to virtually any element or aspect of both personal and professional life, child rearing to business, yeah.

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah, yeah. I mean I always say in negotiation, I can negotiate with anyone. But my kids, you know, they just win. But you know, we both know that.

Derrick Chevalier:

Exactly.

Darren A. Smith:

Now I've got.

Derrick Chevalier:

The younger they are, the more true that is.

Darren A. Smith:

Oh, I want a lolly. I want a lolly. I want a. Oh, come on. You've worn me down. Have 4 lollies, alright? So you and I were talking about this a couple of weeks ago and I said well, let's ask the questions that people are asking on Google, which I've got here. And you said, yeah, you can answer those questions. So that's what we're going to do. We're going to ask you the questions that the folks are mostly asking on Google, like 10,000 hits a month, alright.

Derrick Chevalier:

OK. Sure.

Darren A. Smith:

So let's start with the first one. Nice easy one to get us going. What do you mean by negotiation, that's what the folks are asking.

Derrick Chevalier:

Sure. So it's a formal or informal process of either conflict resolution or problem resolution. Essentially. That's as simple as it is, you know, a process for resolving.

Darren A. Smith:

I like it.

Derrick Chevalier:

Either issues or questions or conflicts.

Darren A. Smith:

Alright, nice. Nice. Alright, nice and simple. For folks watching or listening to this show and they're thinking I can't negotiate. I don't like negotiating and I avoid it. Just a couple of thoughts for them before I move on to our second question.

Derrick Chevalier:

Right, sure. Quick disclaimer, everything that I'll talk about is based upon the proprietary ne...

Dive Into Whole Brain Thinking

In this episode of "The World's Stickiest Learning," hosts Darren A. Smith and George Araham engage in a deep dive into Whole Brain Thinking with expert psychologist Johan Olwagen.

The discussion revolves around the HBDI (Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument) model, exploring its applications and insights. With Johan's extensive experience since the late '90s and the hosts' own encounters with the model, the conversation delves into the value and impact of Whole Brain Thinking.

Get a comprehensive understanding of HBDI and its relevance in leadership development and personal growth with this podcast!

View this episode on YouTube by clicking the image below.

 

Watch the video if you're more of a visual person

 

You Can Read the Full Kantar Market Share Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

Welcome to the world. Stickiest learning. I am absolutely pleased that this title will be a deep dive into whole brain thinking with our psychologist, Johan. Johan, how are you?

Johan Olwagen:

I'm very well and thank you for the opportunity guys.

Darren A. Smith:

And we're here with George as well. Hi, George. You good?

George Araham:

Hello. Hi, good and you?

Darren A. Smith:

All right, so we'll ask these guys to introduce themselves in a moment. What we're looking to do here for the next 30 to 40 minutes is a real deep dive into HBDI whole brain thinking to understand this thinking preference tool. And we've got our expert here. And George and I are going to grill Johan to within an inch of his life about HBDI because he's been using it for about 500 years.

Johan Olwagen:

Excellent. Looking forward to the challenge.

Darren A. Smith:

All right. Well, let's start with George. George, would you just tell us 30 seconds about you? So our listeners know who you are before we get stuck in.

George Araham:

Sure. So I'm actually NSO blog writer and I've been collaborating with Darren on HBDI. Which is a fascinating assessment tool. I also have my masters in marketing, but that's boring stuff so I don't really like to talk much about it. I did write an international best selling book on relationships, so yeah, that would be me in a in a nutshell.

Johan Olwagen:

Trans.

Darren A. Smith:

Well done. Well done. Thank you, George. Very welcome. Johan, would you just give us 30 seconds about you? And also I'm going to ask you that tough question, but in the nicest possible way, why should we listen to you when you talk about HBDI, please?

Johan Olwagen:

Well, first let me introduce myself. I'm a clinical psychologist in South Africa. I have been working in the field of leadership development since 1995, went through a number of iterations in my career. Why should you listen to me? Passion, excitement and impact? I really am passionate about getting people to change and working with people so that they can thrive and grow in whatever they intend in life and purpose in life.

Darren A. Smith:

Fabulous. Fabulous. Thank you. Thank you.

George Araham:

Hmm.

Darren A. Smith:

And how many years have you been, Johan working with HBDI whole brain thinking.

Johan Olwagen:

Well, in the late 90s, we had discovered it. A colleague of myself and we wanted to get a hold of the HBDI and it was provided to somebody else to run the business in Africa. And so I haunted this person down in 2001, made-up with her. She was the CEO of Herman International Africa and just said, I need to talk to you. We need to get together. We need to. Utilise this tool because I found absolute value in it so since 2001. In a couple of decades now.

Darren A. Smith:

And I didn't know that before we started this, but I had my first profile done when I worked for Sainsbury's, a supermarket here in 2001.

Johan Olwagen:

There we go. Fantastic.

Johan Olwagen:

Again.

George Araham:

Interesting, that's a similarity.

Johan Olwagen:

Absolutely. Yeah.

Darren A. Smith:

So we've got about 50 years between this of Herman th...

It Can Be Loney at the Top - But C-Suite Coaching Cards Can Help

Join C-Suite Coach, Kim Randall and our very own Darren Smith, as they talk about support for C-Suite (executive-level managers). Face it, sometimes it gets lonely at the top, especially when everyone is rushing to you for support. Explore Kim's passion for delving into the human side of leaders, helping them to connect with who they are as a person as well as a leader. If you're a leader or want to offer support, make sure to check out this podcast.

You Can Read the Full C-Suite Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

Hello. You're at a podcast. Welcome to the world's stickiest learning. We're with Kim Randall and also Pudding who you're stroking there.

Kim-Adele Randall:

I am to try and get him to not join in. I think he might be the more vocal of the two of us this morning.

Darren A. Smith:

It's probably true. That's probably true. The title of our podcast is where Do C-Suites go to for support now? I'm joined by Kim, who is a C-Suite coach. Is that right?

Kim-Adele Randall:

It is.

Darren A. Smith:

OK, now in the nicest possible way. Kim, I'm going to ask you, why should we listen to you about this?

Kim-Adele Randall:

Great question, Darren. So I guess for me, I started off as in C-Suite and was there for a number of years. And then when I became a mum, I decided that I could have a bigger impact by coaching of the C-Suite leaders. Having been there and realised that it might be lonely at the top, but it's certainly not quiet. Everyone is looking to you for the answer. Everyone expects you to always be on your game. People forget that our cease suite leaders are people 1st and leaders second and we are all perfectly imperfect. We have things that go wrong in our lives. We don't always know the answer.

Darren A. Smith:

True.

Kim-Adele Randall:

We're not always feeling like we're firing on all cylinders and so if we can, when we understand the human side of that C-Suite, that was one of my passions as part of my purpose, which is how do we help those C-Suite leaders connect with who they are as a person as well as who they are as a leader and give them that support? Because no human being in the world can survive without support for long. And it's this way you think the phrase comes from lonely at the top. I think so, yeah. Because when you get to the top, you both from. From my own experience and also from, you know, coaching at hundreds of other C-Suite leaders, one of the things that is so common throughout is we all fear becoming irrelevant.

Kim-Adele Randall:

And when you get to the very top, you know that everybody wants your job. You're doing one of you, so there's nowhere to go. So actually all you are is hanging on for dear life until somebody comes to step into those shoes and that is that plays in, in their head. It's that, you know, am I still adding value? Am I still relevant? Am I still doing stuff? Cause where do you go for your help? You can't. If you have those moments of doubt, we all have them. You know, in Process syndrome hits us all at some point in our life, you kind of go well, where, where, where do I go?

Darren A. Smith:

True. True again.

Kim-Adele Randall:

So I'm having this moment of doubt and I can't go to my direct reports because they're one looking to me for support and equally looking for any element of weakness so that they might be able to take and I can't go to the board because they might doubt my confidence or credibility and therefore you know that might have ramifications. So where do I go in those moments? Where I need to get out of my own head and we all know that we all have blind spots for the reason we're blind to them.

Kim-Adele Randall:

So no amount of looking at ourselves in the mirror is going to highlight those blind spots. What we need is a sometimes a sounding board, sometimes a trusted advisor, sometimes just a safe space where I don't know if you've ever had these moments, Darren,

Cultivating a Culture of Belonging

Join us as we explore Chelsea Kirk's profound perspective on EDI (equity, diversity, inclusion) and, above all, the significance of belonging. Discover how these principles can transform workplaces into vibrant ecosystems where every individual feels valued, heard, and empowered to contribute their best. Also, we talk about the EDI Coaching Cards and how valuable they can be.

So get ready for a journey that goes beyond the surface, into the heart of creating workplaces that truly reflect the diverse tapestry of the world we live in.

You Can Read the Full Kantar Market Share Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

Welcome to the world's stickiest learning. I am absolutely over the moon to have Chelsea Kirk with us. Hello.

Chelsea Kirk:

Hello, thank you for having me.

Darren A. Smith:

Hello how are you doing? It's Friday weekend soon.

Chelsea Kirk:

Absolutely super excited.

Darren A. Smith:

Good, good, good, good. Now we wanted to ask you to come to our podcast because you're an expert on EDI, is that right?

Chelsea Kirk:

That is.

Darren A. Smith:

OK. So Chelsea, would you tell us what you do and in the nicest possible way, why should we listen to you when you talk about EDI?

Chelsea Kirk:

Yeah, of course. So my current position is head of equality, diversity, inclusion at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kings Lynn been in that post for around 2 1/2 years and done EDI for probably near enough four years.

Darren A. Smith:

Wow.

Chelsea Kirk:

And kind of a generalist for about 8 years in HR prior to EDI. I suppose in terms of listening to me, I've got kind of a lot of experience in sort of that HR field in the EDI sort of field and landscape and.

Darren A. Smith:

OK.

Chelsea Kirk:

We're quite well connected with different sort of professions and different EDI leaders, and I think as well sort of keeping yourself current. It's really important that you know, as the landscape evolves constantly, it is around, how do you kind of keep yourself current? So you know, well connected, you know, net networking with different individuals. It is really important as well. So I would say in a roundabout way that that to sort of summarise. Yes.

Darren A. Smith:

Alright, alright, cool. Cool, cool. So EDI is something that's relatively new to most people, although it's becoming, dare I say, on trend, it's becoming more topical, which is a good thing. So if I new to EDI, would you just summarise for us what is this thing and why should we start understanding it better?

Darren A. Smith:

Run.

Chelsea Kirk:

Why is really important one? I think creating that sense of belonging in the workplace, having that safe space to be their true authentic selves and bring their whole selves to, you know, the workplace. And I think that for me is really, really important. And I think as you know, EDI has really sort of grown over the last sort of few years. I think there's a few topics that have really elevated that. So I think you know the Me Too movement, the Black Lives Matter.

Employees who feel welcomed contribute to a healthy workplace environment

 

Chelsea Kirk:

Have really sort of pushed the dial and organisation.

Darren A. Smith:

There.

Chelsea Kirk:

Sort of. You know, waking up to some of that and, you know, EDI is becoming quite a top priority in organisations and now becoming that golden thread through it all really.

Darren A. Smith:

Yeah, and what about organisations that are still sort of we're too busy, we've got too much on, we're just not going to think about this now, does it matter? Why should they really start thinking about it and caring about this stuff?

Chelsea Kirk:

Yeah, I think it is really, really important. I think because you know similar to what I've said, it's about how do we ensure that our workplace is safe for people to be there, to authentic selves, but also what is creating organisations, EVP, what is making me want to join your organisation.

Use HBDI to Get Your Prospects to Reply

Are you fed up with not getting hold of your prospects? Learn to use the HBDI quadrant to your advantage and get prospects to reply. Join us in this fourth instalment of this HBDI series with Darren Smith and George Araham.

You Can Read the Full HBDI Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith

Hi and welcome to the world's stickiest learning. I'm here with George Araman. George, how are you?

George

Hi Darren, I'm good. How are you?

George

I'm sure it won't be.

Darren A. Smith

Hey, I'm good. I'm good. I'm excited about our next podcast, so I'm gonna read out the title 'cause. It's a bit of a mouthful, but I think it works. I can't get my prospects to reply. Use HBDI to get your prospects to reply. So that's the title of our 4th podcast on HBDI. George is going to be excited for the next 20 minutes. What do you think about that title?

Finally, get prospects to reply

 

Darren A. Smith

That's certainly the plan.

George

Well, show me the money like they say so I'm pretty sure people are gonna like our audience are really gonna love it.

George

Yes.

Darren A. Smith

Fantastic. Fantastic. So let's do a few minutes bringing people up to speed on HBDI so we don't want to make an assumption they know now you've kindly lent us your profile for HBDI. So HBDI is the Herman brain dominance instrument. It's a way of understanding how people think. And this is your profile. It's split into four quadrants as everyone's is now. George, what does the left brain normally mean?

George

So the left brain is more of the rational brain. It's more of the logical brain. Whereas the right side of the brain is more the emotional side of the brain or more, the idea, the onceptualising side of the brain.

Darren A. Smith

Fantastic. So HBDIL, Hermann, asks us to understand our thinking preferences. Now, Hermann. Ned. Herman back in the 70s, split it also into the top half of the brain in the bottom half of the brain, giving us these four quadrants. Now, Herman, colour them as well. Obviously, they're not coloured in our head, but they are coloured here. So the further your profile goes towards this outer circle, the more you prefer to think in that way. But you can do all four of these.

George

Yes.

Darren A. Smith

Alright, now let's see from our other podcasts. George, what does the Blue quadrant mean?

Darren A. Smith

Yes.

George

So the blue is analytical side of things. This is the part where I don't really enjoy doing for me. Facts tend to be more boring, very flat, and very not imaginative. I'm more into the imagination side of things. The creativity. I think Leonardo da Vinci would agree with me somehow. Yeah.

Darren A. Smith

I think he was. I think he worked and you're in good company. Alright. So this is the fax. The fax quadrant will use an F just to make it easy. This is the future quadrant. And you talked about creativity. Entrepreneurs love this quadrant and this is where you are. You're quite creative. Lots of ideas. Then as we come down here, the Red Quadrant. Let me quiz you. What's the red quadrant?

George

So the Red Quadrant is more about the relational side of the quadrant. It's more like we liked how we relate with others. It's more about the passion we bring into it. It's about like you mentioned in one of our podcasts that for example, the red is very important because they tend to bring the team together and it's so even if sometimes people might think they're not really actually adding value, they are in the back scenes and they're really. Only the team together in a very efficient and effective way and even energising others to have better and more efficient results.

George

Yeah.

Darren A. Smith

You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. And it's the Red Quadrant that largely gets to dismissed by people because it's emotional and particularly as a British man, I'm not supposed to show any emotion. I get that. The thing is, it's the red that drives us.

Use HBDI to Manage Conflict at Work

Looking to manage conflict at Work? Well, you can use HBDI, the Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument. Join us in this third instalment of this HBDI series with Darren Smith and George Araham.

You Can Read the Full HBDI Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

Hi, you're at the home of the world's stickiest learning. My name's Darren Smith, and this is George Araman. George, how are you?

George:

I'm great, Darren. Thank you. How are you today?

Darren A. Smith:

I am good. I'm good. I'm keen to share with our listeners about HBDI. This is the third in our series of podcasts and I'm just going to read the title out to make sure I get it absolutely right. It says I really don't know how to manage conflict at work. Use HBDI to manage conflicts at work, so that's the title of our podcast. And George has kindly allowed us to share his HBDI. Herman brain dominance instrument profile. So this is a profile. It's a bit like Myers Briggs is a bit like disc. It's a bit like insights. The reason we favour Herman is it's lovely and simple, simple to use and it really just has four colours and it's a it shows the thinking preference.

Conflicts are a natural part of life

 

Darren A. Smith:

So there are blue, yellow, red, green and this shows almost the thinking preference of George's brain. So what this tells us is he likes to think in the big picture, creative. He likes to think in the people feelings area. But when it comes to facts, struggles a bit and when it comes to form and structure. Plan he struggles with that as well. Now the thing to say is we can do all four colours, we can do all of this. My metaphor is that George does yellow and red in 5th gear and maybe blue and green in second gear.

George:

Spot on.

Darren A. Smith:

All right. So that's a really quick summary and an overview of HPDI for anyone who hasn't seen it before. George, what have I missed on there? Your news HBDI, what have I missed that people would want to know?

George:

So far, like from what you mentioned, it seems great. We already talked a lot in our previous podcast like how we can overcome the differences and how we have like I think what would be really interesting for us to delve into is with regards to conflicts, how what is the best way to like manage conflicts from different perspectives.

Darren A. Smith:

OK. OK. Well, let's, let's start with conflict hard now. I've been doing soft skills as a training provider for 20 years and I've come to 11 absolute fact on conflict. It's hard. It really is. It's exhausting. It takes energy, it consumes our brain. It's those things that we lay down at night and think, oh, how did that happen? How did I get to that place? So conflict is not easy. And what I read a lot lately about is people. Let's avoid conflict.

George:

OK.

Darren A. Smith:

Just can't you imagine there's seven 8 billion people on the planet. With all these microcosms of banging together and they're gonna bang together, they're going to have conflict. They're not going to think all the same way. And do you know that's all right. We don't have to agree.

George:

Yeah. And it's a good thing, or else with the own robots. If I'm thinking the same way.

Darren A. Smith:

Well, we would, we would. Well, let me give you an example. So George, what's your favourite food favourite meal?

George:

Depends on the like. I would say sushi or pizza or.

Darren A. Smith:

OK, so you love sushi. I mean, I happen to as well, but let's say you love sushi and I didn't. And I liked only fish and chips. That's OK. Now we have a small conflict there. We don't have to disagree, but let's take that into the more passionate disagreements that we might have. It's still OK. It's still OK that you have a different perspective to me. And maybe that's a good thing that you have a different perspective to me.

George:

Yeah.

Darren A. Smith:

OK, so conflict is hard.

George:

I was just like,

Use HBDI to Build a High-Performing Team

My team is not performing well, so what can I do? Well, you can use HBDI to Build a High Performing Team. Our second video in this HBDI series is all about building high-performing teams. Join Darren and George as they explore ways you can super-boost your team for success.

You Can Read the Full HBDI Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

Hi, my name's Darren Smith and I'm here with George Araman. George, how are you?

George:

Hi Darren, how are you?

Darren A. Smith:

Very good, very good. We're at the home of the world's stickiest learning MBM, and we're talking about HBDI now the 2nd in our podcast on HBDI. And I'm going to read out the title because it's taken George and I a while to get an absolutely cracking title. My team is not performing well. What can I do? And this is based on feedback we've had from other people, OK, what can you do? And the second part is use HBDI to build a high performing team. So this podcast is all about HBDI and teamwork. And high performing teams, George, why did we come up with this as our second in our range of HBDI podcasts?

George:

Today, there's a lot of problems around the world with Teamwork and team working together or not working together. So we found out like around 15 to 16 topics around that and we want to delve into them and discover how can we tackle each one of them using HBDI and how HBDI can take team performance to the next level. Love it. Yeah.

Here's how to use HBDI if your team is not performing

 

Darren A. Smith:

Brilliant. Love it. So for a couple of minutes, let's do a recap on HBDI is, we'll share a profile just so the viewers can see what we're talking about in case they're new to HBDI. And then let's get straight into Team conflict, team dynamics and all that good stuff. All right, all right. So let's check in with you HBDI Hermann brain dominance instrument. That's all well and good, but what does it mean? What's your take on? What is HBDI?

George:

As in the title.

Darren A. Smith:

What does it mean to you?

George:

Well, it's a profile. An assessment profile type that helps you navigate into your like understanding or discovering your thinking style. If you're more left-brained right-brain conversion, divergent feeler or thinker, all those types of sorts of things and to help you to help guide you to use your best assets and your best tools as well as improve the areas that you need in certain circumstances to develop better work. And work better in teams as well. Yeah, indeed.

Darren A. Smith:

Brilliant. Brilliant. Brilliant. I put George on the spot of there a little bit because we did a podcast last time, and I'm just bringing back his memory of what he retained. I've been working with HBDI for about 20 years. George, you're relatively new to it. And we did your profile, didn't we? So you did. You did 80 questions and then this thing pops out. Is that right? Yeah. OK.

George:

Yeah, yeah.

Darren A. Smith:

And what George was referring to is the left half of the brain, the right half of the brain, which most people know. This is largely logical. This is largely creative, but what Ned Herman said was there's a top half and a bottom half of the brain as well, given US 4 quadrants. So the four quadrants, if I do it as four FS fax. So this is a thinking preference for retaining lots of facts. If you've got a mate who's good at pub quizzes, brilliant.

Darren A. Smith:

This is future, so this is me. It's not my profile, but I do have a tendency to think more in the yellow quadrant, which is big picture creativity type, then we've got.

Darren A. Smith:

It is.

George:

That's what we that's why we get along very well. I love yellow and red.

Darren A. Smith:

Yes. And we're gonna come back to that. That's why we make a good team. And the red is F, which is feelings. So these people make good nurses, good teachers, particularly vocational and the greens are our form. They like structure.

Use HBDI to Understand Your Opponent to Avoid Stalemates

Does your negotiation always get to an annoying stalemate? Well, today's podcast will explore using HBDI to avoid a negotiation stalemate. Join Darren Smith and George as they tackle this exciting topic.

You Can Read the Full Negotiation and HBDI Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

Hi, my name's Darren Smith and you're the home of sticky learning.

We are with George Harran. George, hello.

George:

Hello, how are you, Darren?

Darren A. Smith:

Hello. Hey, I'm good. I'm good. So I'm Darren, this is George. And we're here today to talk with you about HBDI and negotiation. In fact, the title of this podcast. I'll read out my negotiations. Always get to an annoying stalemate. Use HBDI to understand your opponent to avoid stalemates. So George, we're talking about negotiation and HBDI. The reason you're here is your what we would call naive results. You've just completed your HPDI profile, is that right?

George:

Yay, correct.

Darren A. Smith:

OK. Fabulous. Fabulous. So you're gonna ask me lots of probing, challenging questions, particularly around HPDI and how we can use it with negotiation. All right, all right, so let's do a couple of minutes on your understanding of HBDI and what this profile meant to you.

The HBDI brain is split into four coloured sections

 

George:

Love it.

Darren A. Smith:

What did it mean to you doing your profile?

George:

It's interesting because I found a couple of like things.

It was interesting. I discovered things I was aware of, some I wasn't really aware of.

Darren A. Smith:

Mm hmm mm.

George:

A couple of the so when I was asked to anticipate the results, I actually nailed it in a way I got all my 4 quadrants more or less precisely the same. I was surprised though, by stressful flow. What's it called? This. Yeah, exactly. The results were a bit different than I was expecting, but like, it is what it is, I guess.

Darren A. Smith:

That's not. OK, alright. Well, let me give you and the viewers a quick summary of my understanding of your profile here it is. I'm sure you don't mind me showing it. So what Ned Herman said was that we all know that the brain is split left and right. So let me ask you, George, what's the difference between left and right of the brain?

George:

Yeah. No. The conversion side of the brain and the right side is more like the creative, intuitive side of the brain, or the diversion.

Darren A. Smith:

Perfect, perfect, perfect. OK. And this was discovered now probably 50 years ago now. Not what Ned Herman said was actually left and right. Absolutely. But he also said there's top and bottom given US 4 quadrants to the brain. Now, Ned, Herman or HBDI, which is the Herman brain dominance instrument, measures how we prefer to think. And there are four quadrants in how we prefer to think we've got the blue Quadrant, which is all about facts. So if you've got a mate who's very good down at the pub quiz.

Darren A. Smith:

He's probably a blue loads of facts. The yellow. This is the creative, the entrepreneurial, entrepreneurial type. People who have got a million ideas and might be described as having their head in the clouds. We've got the red people. These are the touchy feely people. People what I love about the Reds is if you walk into a room they normally come over and touch your elbow and then we've got our greens, who are our structured plan. Next project managers. All right. So this just describes how you prefer to think.

George:

Interesting.

Darren A. Smith:

You can't get it wrong. You can't get it right. This is George.

George:

Hello.

Darren A. Smith:

So if having understood that you have a tendency to think more in the right side of the brain, your creativity, your big picture thinking's fairly high.

George:

Yeah.

Darren A. Smith:

Your people skills, your feelings fairly high, but your ability to do facts in the blue is quite low and your green is,

Mastering the Art of Service

Join Darren A. Smith and Andrew Stotts from the Weird Human podcast, as they explore customer service with the useful tools of coaching cards.

You Can Read the Full Customer Service Transcript Below:

Andrew Stotts:

So first of all, welcome back. This is a actually very special edition of the Weird Human podcast. Just to remind you about why we exist. We exist really to kind of shed light on the extraordinary. Once again I am joined by a truly extraordinary chap Mr. Darren Smith from Sticky Learning. Again when Darren reached out to me a few weeks ago and he asked me whether I would kind of partner with him in it on a small project. We kind of thought that we would just talk a little bit about that project today with you guys and get down, kind of ask me a few questions. Primarily it's around exceptional customer service. So Darren tell us about the project.

Darren Smith:

Well, the project is mainly about four years ago we looked at coaching cards, little playing cards like, you know, with the ACEs spades and that on. We thought there'd be a great learning tool if we could turn into 80 questions per topic. This one's about customer service that would help a manager with a report to coach that person to be fabulous at customer service. We also have coaching cards on negotiation skills and others, and each time we find an expert who rock and rolls on the topic like you do on customer service, we ask you to write the questions, and then we put it online as a cheap resource and tool to use.

Read our return policy

 

>> Customer Service Coaching Cards <<

Andrew Stotts:

I have to say that the, well, first of all, the coaching cards I use them regularly in coaching. They are absolutely on the money, really fantastic. Slightly my kind of my kind of, I suppose my imposter syndrome kind of gets in the way around you explaining how amazing the customer service cards are. But I do believe that the collaboration between Darren and myself around customers are particularly is absolutely excellent. So I'm actually going to just sort of like switch the coin today. So Dan was going to ask me a few questions just around kind of customer service. I'll let you into a little secret. I don't really know the answers. I don’t know what he can ask me. So I'm slightly apprehensive, but hey I'll do my best to, to answer his questions.

Darren Smith:

That's fabulous. Well, we all know, and the people watching that you know your stuff. So I'm going to throw a few questions your way. Let's talk about customer service. We're going to do a shameless plug for one or 2% of the cards, but 80-90% of this is about helping people to be rock and roll at customer service. Alright.

Andrew Stotts:

It sounds like an absolute plan. I mean, it's always been a deep kind of like, passion of mine. Where I like to start it, if you don't mind, Darren, the reason it's been such a strong passion of mine is it's because I suppose I'm quite selfish, really. When I went to work as a very young man about 400 years ago, I suppose I kind of learned really quickly that if I gave people—I started my job as a waiter. Well, actually I started slightly more junior than the waiter. But as a waiter though the few moments at the beginning of my career as a waiter were absolutely critical.

Andrew Stotts:

I always say that because, you know, for me, I learned very quickly that if I gave people what they needed and I understood what they needed usually that translated into them giving me what I needed, which was a big tip. Yeah. Simple. So that's kind of how I learned the art really, of customer service. The better I got at it and it wasn't unusual for me. I mean, I think it's quite funny these days, and people would laugh at this, but I think my weekly salary was about four pounds a week.

Andrew Stotts:

It kind of gives my age away a little bit. But it wasn't unusual for me to be able to get a hundred pounds a day in tips.

Discover the Personal Rule Book

Join Clare Walker - a practise leader at Vodafone, an expert in personal values, and Darren Smith - the chief executive officer at MBM, as they explore the exciting topic of personal values. Discover the trick to finding your number one value with Clare using a special tool - personal values coaching cards.

Our new addition to our set of cards is Personal values coaching cards. Unlike other cards, these are not questions, but rather one word. There are about 70 cards in this exciting new pack! Check out the podcast to learn more!

You Can Read the Full Personal Values Share Transcript Below:

Darren A. Smith:

Hi and welcome to another podcast or video depending on whether you're watching on YouTube or on our podcast platforms. We're here with Claire Walker. Claire, how are you?

Clare Walker:

I'm very well. Thank you, Darren. How are you doing?

Darren A. Smith:

I'm good. I'm good. We're sitting here on Thursday afternoon. It's hot. Is it hot where you are?

Clare Walker:

It has clouded over a little bit, but I'm very fortunate. I've got an ever-changing view outside my window because I live in the Lake District. So yes, it may change to hot in a moment's time. It may rain.

Darren A. Smith:

Lovely. Lovely. I'm jealous. We're here talking with Claire because you are an expert on personal values and we have just collaborated on some coaching cards. So we have a bunch of coaching cards. I'll grab some here like this. But these are premium grow coaching cards and we've collaborated on some personal values and we want to talk to you about personal values and coaching cards. All right, so.

More about our expert on values

 

Clare Walker:

Indeed.

Darren A. Smith:

Claire, what do you do at the moment? What's your day job?

Clare Walker:

My day job is that I am the coaching community of practise leader at Vodafone and I'm very fortunate with that. I have a wonderful team of internal coaching coaches who are both certified and credentialed. There's about 100 of them.

And it's great and a coach will pull within Vodafone of probably in the region of about 80,000 people. So we have a lot of work to do here.

Darren A. Smith:

Wow. OK, alright. So you working for a very big company. You're doing coaching all day long and you've got a whole bunch of people who coach with you for you around you. Alright. Fabulous. Fabulous. So before we get started on personal values, would you tell us a little bit of something weird and about you?

Clare Walker:

Ohh gosh. It's gonna start with. I'm very modest, but that's really hard when you ask that question, isn't it? What do I what's where do wonderful about me? I'm a member of the local acting group and I recently played a 75-year-old woman who finds her neighbour's ecstasy tablets and proceeds to take them with some very interesting consequences.

So I love doing that. That's really good fun. And I think actually I really enjoyed playing her because I think one of my life's quotes is that you don't stop playing because you get old, you get old because you stop playing and. And so I think I love playing her because of that. And I think that kind of leads to the fact that I love practical jokes. One of the things I really miss about working from home is that you don't get to do them quite similarly anymore. So yeah, probably the weird thing about me is my little practical joking.

Darren A. Smith:

Lovely. Lovely. Wow, wow, wow. OK. And in the nicest possible way I'm gonna ask this question, but particularly for our viewers. Why should we listen to you about personal values? What do you know about it?

Clare Walker:

I think because I can speak from experience about how values have changed my life and my relationships, but also about what I've witnessed within my coachees and colleagues and within teams that we run this session with as well. So I can tell lots of really good stories in confidence about those experiences of what I've seen and real...