Manndatory Listening

Welcome back to Manndatory Listening! It has been a minute since you’ve heard from The Mann Group, and you may be wondering what these folks have been up to. Join Dan Mann, Ryan McCarty, and the rest of The Mann Group team for this recording of Dan Mann’s recent virtual book talk discussing his newest release, Leading Change: How to Achieve Superior Results with Gentle Pressure Relentlessly Applied - now available everywhere! And be sure to stay tuned for upcoming episodes of Manndatory Listening. Thank you for listening! Pick up your copy of Leading Change on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Bookshop! Please leave a review for Dan’s Leading Change on Amazon: Hardcover: https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?asin=B0C2WPY56F Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?asin=B0C2K4SCPH Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?asin=B0C1TKP5PJ

Kent and Dan talk with Ian Hughes, founder and managing director at Vielo Sports, a boutique bicycle company in the UK. The guys discuss Ian’s interesting and varied background in the bicycle trade, in marketing, and in establishing his own brand starting in 2017. Ian also talks about the COVID-19 situation in the UK and how businesses are coping there.

Kent and Dan recognize some unsung retail heroes—some of The Mann Group’s clients who are doing whatever it takes to keep going and keep innovating during the pandemic. During the worst economic crisis of our (or maybe any) time, these leaders and business owners are staying positive and coming up with new and novel ways to keep in touch with their customers, keep offering their goods and services, and to keep their spirits up.

Kent and Dan continue their coping with COVID-19 discussion, focusing on the importance of staying active and continuing to set goals. Something as simple as writing a “to do” list and methodically accomplishing those tasks keeps the mind focused on the positive and helps to tamp down stress and anxiety. Despite the gravity of the situation, it’s not only possible but crucial to think positively and to be grateful for the good things in life and business.

Dan and Kent look back to 9/11 for lessons learned from that tragic time that business owners and leaders can apply today to help get through the COVID-19 emergency. The main lesson: take care of your people. Host a video conference call to touch base, make sure that your team members are doing OK, and to discuss plans and strategy looking ahead. As Dan and Kent discussed in the last podcast, it’s important for leaders to set the tone for their teams by taking the situation seriously while also remaining optimistic and thinking about new opportunities that may emerge in the aftermath of the current crisis.

In the first episode of the 3rd season of Manndatory Listening, Kent and Dan Mann discuss our new, locked-down reality and what businesses, and especially business leaders, can do to weather the storm and emerge even stronger than before when things return to something like normal. A key for leaders is to practice and demonstrate self-discipline and self-care. Projecting calm and making insightful decisions, even when you’re feeling less than calm and even scared, is crucial for boosting your team’s morale and positioning your business to not merely survive but to stand strong during these difficult times.

We’re wrapping up Season Two and our GPRA series with a look at cultures of accountability. Dan and Kent discuss how to create a culture of accountability (the key is in following up), cultivating transparency through metrics, and how accountability is both the beginning and end of the GPRA cycle.

Matt Powell, retail sage and VP & senior industry advisor in sports at The NPD Group, talks through the evolution of our industry, including topics like the transition from omnichannel to blended retail, customization versus personalization, brand and retailer partnerships, and investing in technology and people.

Once you’ve gotten an agreement from your employees and established metrics to measure the results, it’s time to train. But the trick lies not just in comprehensive training, but in watching what’s happening and providing live feedback—or coaching. Learn how to implement both in the third episode in our GPRA series.

The only way to ensure you’re getting results is through intentional, numerical tracking. In the second podcast in the Gentle Pressure Relentlessly Applied series, Dan and Kent talk through how to define the metrics of your goals, how to measure your business’ and employees’ results, and why it matters.

It takes more than training to effectively implement change, and it begins with Agreement on Approach. Dan and Kent talk through why it’s important to get alignment before you train your employees, hope versus causal management styles, and one entertaining story involving a millionaire and a bathroom.

Self-employment requires a whole host of skills familiar to entrepreneurs like self-disciple and self-awareness (yup, lots of "self"). Emily shares lessons learned from the freelance road on productivity, prioritization, and when to say "no" that are applicable to leaders, business owners, and entrepreneurs.

Everyone’s different, especially when it comes to communication styles and approach to tasks. It takes a savvy leader to set aside judgements and emotions in order to hire and coach with those individualities in mind—Leslie and Kent help you learn how to do so in the latest episode of Ma

Whether you’re connecting with customers or leading your team, cultivating an authentic connection begins with one person: yourself. Leslie and Kent riff on cultivating personal awareness and avoiding judgement in order to foster empathy and true connection with the world around you.

The first step to hiring the right person for the job is to define it. Leslie and Kent chat about how to craft a job description that goes beyond words—including expectations, competencies, and priorities—in order to hire well, plus discuss how to avoid the perils of hiring with urgency and assumptions.

We’ve heard all the excuses why you’re not hiring high schoolers: they’re not responsible, they don’t have the experience, they’re on their phones, they can’t focus. But what about the reasons why you should hire high schoolers? Eileen Urtz of A Runner’s Mind shares the many pros—like cultivating diversity and encouraging community—of hiring young, and dismantles those false cons, too.

Do you know what your customers think of your business? Unless you’ve cracked the mind-reading case, the best way to accurately understand the perspective of your customers and how to make them happy is the Net Promoter System. We talked with Steve Beheler of Spokes Etc. on how they’ve used and adapted NPS to receive precise and applicable feedback from their customers.

He’s back, and even wiser than before. Uriah Standish of Asheville butchery The Chop Shop lends his spry but experienced insight on specialty retail—like how to level the playing field and offer feedback as a Gen Xer, incentivize lackadaisical employees, and wow first-time customers—in this episode with Kent