The Knowing-Doing Gap

Got something in your life that you really really wish you were doing more of, or better right now? Do you wish you could get to the gym more, eat better, be more productive at work, but for some reason you just can’t make yourself get there or do it? You’re probably experiencing a very human flaw ‘the knowing-doing gap’. We all have these gaps in our lives. The difference between what we intellectually know we should be doing versus what our actual behaviour is in practice. Here’s a simple formula to work on overcoming those gaps, our ‘bad habits’ for want of a better term.

Firstly, you have to have awareness. This means having an accurate sense of where your gaps are. What you really do need to be doing, versus an honest picture of how your behaviour actually is in reality. If you don’t truly have awareness, then overcoming is problematic if not impossbile.

Secondly, you have to work on a strategy. Decide what you need to do and put a realistic action plan in place. Get to the gym a bit more is less effective than committing to going three times per week. Saying ‘I need to have more one-on-ones with my team’ is less effective than committing to have those meetings on a Friday once a month.

Lastly and most importantly, is accountability. Stephanie Burns in her seminal work on the emotional experience of adult learners found in her study that around 90% of adults ‘give up’ when learning a new skill or trying to begin or break a habit. Early success is critical to longer term success. The idea of a quick win if you will. However, accountability goes much deeper than that. Who will hold you accountable if you don’t go to the gym three times this week? Your husband or wife? Your mum? Your kids or your pets? I doubt it. Mostly, it’s going to be you. However, it doesn’t need to be like that. Most quit smoking programs will make you declare publicly and loudly that you are giving up, so that everyone around you knows you are quitting. Public accountability goes a long way in ensuring longer term viability of creating new and more effective habits.

As a sales trainer and coach, I often train and coach sales processes to others in sales roles. What constantly interests me when I speak with small business owners is the response I normally get when I ask the question “What is your Sales Process?

”I’m often met with either a blank look, or a hastily put together answer that might sound something like, “Well, it depends on the type of client I’m with, everyone’s different and I need to adjust my style to them”. There’s no denying that fact, however, sales is not an accident, sales IS a process.

Your sales process doesn’t have to be elaborate, as long as you HAVE a process. It can be as simple as the one below where you make sure that you truly understand the client’s current state (i.e. their real needs) and where they’d like to be, their desired reality. More importantly is what you can do to help, or what products or services that you’ve got that can get them there.

If you can honestly say that every time you are in a client facing interaction that you follow that process (whatever it may be), then you’ve got a much better chance of getting more honest feedback from yourself by asking some standard self-reflection questions each time such as:

• How do I rate the quality and outcomes of my last sales or networking call? (Make up a rating scale and use it every time – overall BE HONEST!)
• Did I ask a number of appropriate rapport building questions and was I really genuine?
• Were my qualifying questions hitting the mark?
• Did I learn at least one to two things that are ‘keeping my clients awake at night’?
• Is my client relationship at an appropriate level of: amount of business, relationship, or even future prospects (given the time I have been putting into it?)
• Did I try and close a sale?

Your personal plan should be a living, breathing document that you revisit on a regular basis. It might be monthly, it might be quarterly, or it might be every time you kick a goal, or perhaps need some inspiration. Visual reminders are a simple yet effective way to ensure that you are getting to where you want to go. I wish you the best 2010!

I re-read a great article a few weeks ago by Locke and Latham on some essentials in goal setting that will facilitate us more successfully achieving them:

1. Clarity. We’ve mostly all heard of the S.M.A.R.T goal setting acronym but can you truly say that you apply this methodology robustly? Can you read your goals and know instantly the moment you’ll have achieved them, or are they vague?

2. Challenge. Challenge yourself to new heights and you’ll be more likely to want to reach them. If you aren’t going forward then, some say, you’re going backwards. However it’s important that you don’t overdo it and set something unrealistic. You want to get it done right?

3. Commitment. Which leads us to where the rubber hits the road. How many times have you set yourself a goal or started a project only to give up? I read an article recently that stated up to 90% of personal goals that adults set are not reached Why? Not because they don’t want to, but more because they set them too high, too lofty and stumble at their first milestone so give up. A wise man once said to me “Small steps, but lots of them”. Happy trails!

Click here for this fantastic quote that I received from one of my learners this week. Feel free to print it out and put it somewhere prominent.

About Nick Mills

Director and principal consultant of Eureka, Nick has been involved in the business of people, training and sales for well over 20 years. He is a passionate but commercial savvy facilitator, designer and coach with a unique skillset covering sales, leadership, property investor education, coaching and communication skills. Nick believes that a big part of learning involves encouraging his participants to explore, test, question and have fun with his material. He loves nothing more than seeing people ‘become their best’ and believes in making his training as ‘learner centric’ as possible.