There may be a way to tastefully educate your prospect and open their eyes to any misinformation/misrepresentations, but my experience is that when you step into this dialogue, you’re usually the one who comes out looking bad. My strong advice is to focus on your prospect and your product/service, and helping them understand why you are the perfect solution. Provide examples and use customer references — especially people your customer may know in their industry.

How do you feel when someone else speaks poorly of his or her competitors? Have you ever made a sale by bad-mouthing a competitor? I would love to hear about it.

We highly recommend incorporating a reading program into your daily routine. It is amazing what a difference it can make in expanding your knowledge base and broadening your view. We are currently reading a book about the pre- and post-Depression eras, called Forgotten Man. The similarities between FDR and President Obama are amazing. We have come to realize that there may, in fact, be nothing new under the sun.

We would recommend starting by reading about something you are interested in. There are some really cool books on leadership, written by great coaches, for example. Just do it!

You can find my book list(.docx) on the resources page.

On about the fourth day of our vacation, despite the fact that the sole purpose of the trip was relaxation, I decided to call the owner of the shuttle service. Due to our driver’s strong encouragement, I thought it would be the right thing to do. And what was the owner’s reaction? You guessed it. She was very defensive, and cut me off several times. I finally terminated the call. When I got off the phone, I was angry, frustrated, and offended. After all, I was just trying to help a fellow businessperson.

How do you and your associates respond to legitimate service complaints? Are you willing to listen? We believe world-class businesses convert these situations into opportunities to create loyal customers/clients.

p.s. I didn’t say it is easy. If you click this link (http://www.doescheradvisors.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Having-Effective-Difficult-Customer-Conversations.pptx power point), you will go to a December presentation on Having Effective Difficult Customer Conversations.

So what’s the point? Our posts on April 3 and April 10 encouraged you to “hire owners.” As you build your teams, look for clues to each individual’s personality and attributes and strive to develop associates who have entrepreneurial skills. Some of them may leave to start their own companies, but if you treat them right, most will stay.

We probably all have janitors (or seemingly less-important team members) in our companies. Do we take the time to appropriately recognize them?

If you have a way of getting uncensored feedback from your younger team members, I would love to hear about it. If not, I would highly encourage following the lead of Ahrendts, Jobs, and Klososky in developing a similar process that will fit in with the character and culture of your company.

Do you have advisors (the right number, the right people) who complement your skills and knowledge, or do you suffer from “advice overload”?

Can you articulate your goals as clearly as VW does?

I recently discovered in Bill Ury’s book, “Getting to Yes” (which I would highly recommend), that this is a common problem in business. Let’s say we have a disagreement. While you are expressing your position, I am crafting my rebuttal — not listening carefully to what you are actually saying. Needless to say, the chances of us resolving our differences are pretty slim.

My question to you is: How good are your listening skills? I believe to be a Level 5 leader; you must be a great listener. You may want to ask one or two of your senior team members, who you believe will tell you the truth, what they think of your listening skills.

Some of you either remember the Watergate scandal or have read about it. Most would say that it was the elaborate cover-up that caused President Nixon’s resignation, not the break-in itself.

So, what is the business application? It’s simple: Tell the truth. We all make mistakes and bad decisions, we say things we regret, and so on. If you want to build credibility with your team, admit it when you are wrong. Avoid sugar-coating problems and making excuses.

Recently I experienced a great example of this ideal. I have a client who is an Air Force major reservist pilot. She invited me to go on a KC-135 refueling exercise (someone had to go with her, might as well be me), and I sat in the cockpit right behind her and her boss. I had my own set of headphones, so I could listen to their communications. They were taking turns at the controls and, at one point; my client determined the aircraft was off course. Her boss, a colonel, was quick to admit it was his fault. So there I was, listening in, and I heard a military superior telling his subordinate he had made a mistake. Wow! Later, my client told me the colonel is a great boss and leader.

My question to you is this: Do you admit your mistakes? Do you have a culture where your team members take responsibility for their mistakes? This is a trait we observe in the best companies.

p.s. For those of you with children, I would say this is one of the best things you can do to build a strong relationship with them.

*Disclaimer: We are not picking on someone when they are down!