There are several crucial skills necessary to the success of any activity within the supply chain; from building and maintaining rapport to joint business planning and everything in between. Read on to discover more details on these necessary skills and how we can help you to put them to use.
Building and maintaining rapport.
Rapport is the essential foundation for effective commercial relationships.
You are much more likely to buy something from someone you like, than someone you don’t like – and you naturally have a rapport with people who are like you and who you like. The problem is you often have to work with and influence people who are not like you, and sometimes people you don’t like.
We can help you to build and maintain rapport with individuals and groups –and show you how and when to break rapport.
Establishing Realistic and Ecologically Sound Objectives
Effective objective setting is crucial to the success of any activity within the supply chain.
SMART objectives are often introduced on development courses as a good way of setting goals – and it is.
The problem with SMART objectives is that it is a very logical, analytical process that doesn’t take into account the unconscious, emotional drivers that affect our decision and we can often find that we don’t achieve, or even sabotage the achievement of objectives.
These objectives can also sometimes be said to be ecologically unsound and have a negative, knock on effect across other activities.
We can show you how to set objectives in a way that aligns the analytical and emotional thought processes to ensure that these objectives are achieved and that they have minimal negative impact.
Creating and Sustaining Supplier Relationships
Sustainable relationships with both Suppliers and Customers help make it easier for a Procurement function to add value over time.
The most important part of creating and maintaining a relationship is having a shared purpose that everyone buys in to.
There is a famous story of President Kennedy visiting NASA and meeting a Janitor sweeping a floor. In that timeless way of famous people, Kennedy asked the worker “and what are you doing?” The Janitor looked at his brush, looked back at the President and said “I’m helping put a man on the moon”.
A shared purpose is extremely motivating, helps ensure quality of service and creates added value on an ongoing basis.
We can show you how to create a shared purpose. This was the ‘difference that makes the difference’ with Andy’s laparoscopic project, and continues to add value to his team with everything they do.
Strategic Thinking and Planning
It is often difficult to think in a big picture, strategic way when we are used to working in an operational context.
This causes problems over time as a strategic approach is crucial at a senior level in any organisation.
We can show you how to ‘chunk up’ to the big picture, think more creatively and plan strategy quickly, accurately and effectively.
Advanced Presentation Skills
The ability to present information in the most effective and appropriate way is critical to the success of the whole supply chain, and to the organisation as a whole.
You need to be able to utilise the most effective way to plan a presentation, prepare effectively and deliver the information in the best way to gain mutual understanding and buy in from all stakeholders.
We can show you how to use the 4-MAT structure, use specific and non-specific language and metaphor and carefully chose words, tone of voice and body language to ensure successful communication.
Joint Business Planning
Changes in the Supply Chain environment are creating both major problems and major opportunities.
These opportunities will be limited if supplier and customer look at their sales and revenue results in isolation.
If organisations are going to perform effectively in this new environment they need to push collaboration to new levels putting the supplier and customer at the centre of the business planning process.
This approach is certainly being adopted by major retailers, and it will be extremely effective in all sectors where there is value in understanding the impact of collaboration.
To make an effective Joint Business plan, there is a whole range of interpersonal skills needed – some of which have already been mentioned.
Other interpersonal skills include getting into the suppliers shoes, creating internal alignment, handling deadlock, flexing style, rehearsing, resilience, trading variables and working with non-verbal clues.
We use NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) tools and techniques which have been proven to be extremely effective in the area of interpersonal influence.
We have adapted and applied these tools in a Supply Chain environment over a number of years and have honed their effectiveness to ensure they will work for you and help you to be called ‘god like’ by your key stakeholders.
Contact us for more information