To modify actions to advance the firm's position beyond that of the competitions, to embrace change as a competitive advantage

• Recognizing and adequately explaining the business reasons for change
• Demonstrating an interest in others' ideas
• Demonstrating a willingness to consider and try new or different approaches to solve problems
• Proposing a variety of ideas to help solve problems
• Accepting challenges to own opinions without becoming defensive

To plant one's idea into another's mind and allow the other person to take personal ownership of that idea

• Explaining own ideas in such a way that others adopt ideas as their own
• Allowing others to state opinions regarding what needs to be done, then integrating their thoughts into his/her own plan
• Responding to others' objections and excuses with restatements of his/her own suggestions to further reinforce and assert his/her ideas
• Persistently requiring others to provide input and to commit to plans for improvement

• Fill in for the manager during absences or when scheduling conflicts occur. Help other account representatives by responding to their questions. Prepare notes of experiences and discuss with the manager.
• Facilitate an office meeting, including planning the agenda and anticipating audience questions and objections.
• Volunteer to coach a less experienced team member to perform some aspect of your job. Discuss your experiences with your manager.

To disburse work and then follow up to see that the work has been accomplished to expectation

• Explaining clearly the goals and recommended steps involved in accomplishing the delegated work
• Encouraging the exploration of options and ideas, allowing others to determine actual methods for achieving objectives
• Establishing a realistic, useful system for communicating difficulties in attaining objectives

• Write out the action steps that you would take when delegating an activity to an inexperienced representative. Discuss the plan with your manager.
• Create performance standards for your job function, identify two critical skills then list at least five behaviors that define each skill. Meet with your manager and describe how you would expect someone at an 'expert' level to perform these behaviors. Then describe how you would expect someone at the 'entry' level to perform these behaviors.