A short Freedom Friday Focus video by Kenny Chapman arguing that process should be a personal choice and that authenticity matters when implementing business processes. Using an anecdote from training in the trades (plumbing, heating, air conditioning, electrical), Chapman urges managers to train frameworks that allow team members to be themselves to improve customer connection and results.
Hey, everybody, Kenny Chapman here, coming to you with this week's edition of Freedom Friday Focus. And today I want to talk to you a little bit about process. And the fact of the matter is process is a choice. And here today, I'm on the road once again, training and traveling. I'm training in one of the best companies in the country, in my opinion, of doing what they do in the plumbing, heating, air conditioning, electrical world. And this morning, we're doing an exercise talking about what really worked for us in 2000 2012, so we can leverage on that. And of course, we talked about some of the biggest challenges we had in 2012, so we can minimize those and deal with those straight on, because there's a reality. If our team members have it in here, let's draw it out, let's get it on the table so we can really discuss it and talk about it. So we did that. As I was leading this exercise and having a great connection with this team that I trained with, an ongoing engagement here, one of the senior technicians came out and said, you know, one of my biggest challenges is defining my own process. And I said, well, tell me more about that. What do you mean? And he said, well, the fact is, you know, we do a lot of different training and we watch different information, and I do some of my own educating myself, watching YouTube videos and training different things. And for me, it's a challenge to really nail my own process, and I love it. And I said, you know what? I get it. And that's what I'm talking about. As many of you know, I've been writing and recording a lot about authenticity lately, and this completely ties together. You must be authentic. I can't force a process on you. Any other sales trainer or coach in the industry can't force a process on you. This is about you, and the process becomes a choice. Okay? So I want you to really think this coming week about how does this affect your team. Certainly, we all, as business owners have processes and procedures and certain things that we want implemented into our companies in a specific way. But we can't create dummies, we can't create robots. We need people to be themselves and be more of themselves within any given process. And guess what? Your results are going to improve exponentially. Okay? Now, assuming that the minds aren't correct and your video screen blows up as soon as I'm done recording this video for you here today, good things are going to happen in 2013. And I want you to just really challenge your own processes in your company. What's the training you're doing that allows your team members to be themselves within a given framework. Of course we've got to have process. Of course we've got to have certain ways that we do things, but this is about them being more because when they are better connected with themselves, they will be better connected with our customers. And the better connected they are with their customers, the more products and services people will invest in with us. Have a better than fantastic week and I'll see you next time after you realize process is a choice.
