the SQUEEZE

Drama; Don't Do It

2009-07-08T08:30:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite shows on TV is Top Chef. Through watching it over the last several seasons, I've learned that there is a difference between people who can cook really well and a Chef. You've got folks with real talent that can't get it all together in the time allotted and certainly can't work with other people. They are the ones yelling, running, and cussing up a storm down to the last second. It makes for good TV, but these guys never win. Its the contestants that, sure - may stress - but do it with purpose and with little if no drama.

Back to business...

If you find that business is theater, you're in the wrong building.

Business is about accomplishing objectives together for a purpose. Drama is about bringing attention to yourself (as seen on TV).

I have certainly been guilty of drama, especially when there's the risk (AKA stress) of not getting to that business objective. But it is not a helpful tool. If anything, it spends your energy and the energy of those around you on something that distracts from the real chance to maybe, just maybe hit that goal.

So here's the question that you've got to honestly answer to yourself...do you thrive on drama? A few easy ways to tell:

Does every task you work on come down to the last possible minute - with you cranking it out mere seconds before catastrophe strikes?
Are you beating up those around you with your stress as you barrel your way down to a last-minute result?
Does the end product reek of lackluster quality, due to steps skipped as you cranked out your last-min result?

It really doesn't have to be last min...really. Just a little planning, communication, and thinking more than just for today. That'll mean you've got to say goodbye to drama though. Either that, or you can seek out the next spot on reality TV.

Different Kind of 4 Letter Word

2009-06-17T09:00:00.000-04:00

Over the last 4 weeks, I found myself in the Squeeze to the point where blogging about it seemed like a distant dream - and no where close to a reality. On the good side of that, I witnessed a multitude of things that will be making an appearance in the weeks ahead....

Amidst that stress and the friction, one thing emerged as the topic of choice for my first entry, post-squeeze: HELP.

Many times it seems that you've got to go it alone, especially when everyone around you is juggling as much as they can handle. Its the American ideal to pull your bootstraps up and man your post. But you can't always man your post if you're running solo.

We in the middle have to reach out for help. Although it may not seem it, being able to ask for help is just as important a trait as being able to handle a lot of responsibilities.

Admit when you're stretched to what feels like your limit and may need some help to get it all done. Of course, this can be risky. You have to be able to accept that you may in fact not be at your limit, and simply feel like you are.

No matter. Admit this anyways. It will challenge you, alert those around you that you are struggling, and enlist the help of your team to get through it to the other side.

Breathe

2009-05-19T09:30:00.006-04:00

Ah, the stress of management. Projects with intense deadlines piling up, internal conflict, external conflict, sales down, bills not being paid on time, people not returning your calls/emails - the intensity of managing any group of people or body of work can get your blood flowing and your head spinning.

Seems I have two more common & immediate reactions to the crunch. Either...

I get myself pumped up with adrenaline and just start moving. This feels like the catalyst to pull you through the trench. But just like a caffeine boost or a sugar rush - its temporary. WARNING: burn-out will eventually ensue.
If not adrenaline, the fear of keeping it all in the air will hit me like a punch in the gut and completely paralyze me from any action. WARNING: this is a fast track to a pink slip.

Both are polar extremes.

I find the best, 1st action is to just stop for a second and take a breather.

Yeah, pretty cheesy sounding. But even so, this is what we juggling managers need to do. Stop moving forward, stop trying to consider all the fear-inducing possibilities of failure. Stop thinking about it all. Take a minute, see all of the things before you and all the things you're afraid of, accept them, and then just breathe for a second.

Only after pausing first should you let yourself think about it - but even then it should just be in terms of what really needs to get done right now. Then come up with your plan of what you've got to work on first, second, tomorrow, etc. And don't forget about help. You need it - don't be afraid to ask for it.

Now its time to move forward - but not with the adrenaline "hyper-action" or the fearful "no-action". Instead, you've accepted the worst, you've asked for help, and you've got some form of a plan.

Happy Juggling.

Time to Stop the Rambling

2009-05-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

Ah, the long call. The conversations when you talk about your week, ups and downs, and then realize 45 min has passed, you're out of time, and didn't accomplish anything?

Happens to everyone.

I find that two things work well to incentivize people to be personal, sure, but also accomplish what you need to while not running out of time.

First and foremost is the agenda. Go ahead and let it be known what you're going to be talking about and what you need to accomplish before you get on the call. Try and do it by email the day before. Then recap it again right when you're getting the call underway. Keep your goals in front.

The next best help is setting an end time. Go ahead and set the end time for your call when you're scheduling it - "I can talk at 3:00 and will have until 3:45". That way everyone on the call knows when the chit chat has to end and you need to get down to business.
*And side-note - anything over a 1 hr call is pretty ineffective. People will start waning after an hr and do other tasks while on the call. Keep it at an hour or shorter.

Don't get me wrong, chit chat is good, but it just has to know its limits.

Redemption of Conference Calls

2009-04-28T09:30:00.002-04:00

Last week it was emails...so why not talk about a close second in the difficulty rankings for communication - the dreaded conference call. There have been a couple of recent posts out there in the blog world recently on the topic:

Sasha talked about how to run your team on one end of the call
Godin talked about adding a chat/presentation tool to the call

I'd like to add in one more part to the conversation - the group conference call. These are those calls you have with multiple organizations (1+) that brings another team to the the table.

So let's say you've got your team in place using Sasha's techniques above, and are using the chat/presentation feature Seth suggests - how do you wrangle in the folks from all sides? On calls like this, you've probably experienced people talking on top of each other, cell phone interference, speaker phone traffic, no leadership, people afraid to speak up...and those are just the ones I could think of in a quick 10 seconds.

There are solutions, but its up to us managers of the world to tackle these and bring some order to the chaos. We can run a good one...here's how:

Be clear about who the leader is on the call. If there are multiple teams, there may be multiple leaders, but the lead org should take the lead (meaning the organization that is the ultimate stake-holder). If there's no lead org, you've got bigger issues to solve first.
Be on time (even early) and start on time. If someone else is more than 5 min late to the call, start without them. If its mission critical for them to be on the call, step away from the conf call for a min and try calling them direct on their cell AND emailing them to let them know you're waiting on them. If 10 min passes and still no-show (again - only for the mission criticals), apologize and tell the group you'll have to reschedule.
Send all info BEFORE the call (not during...). This includes things like documents you'll be reviewing, login info, etc. If something needs to be reviewed before the call and you expect to hear concise feedback (not blink reactions), make sure you send it hours in advance (if not a full day). Don't expect a smooth call if you're wasting the first 20 minutes trying to get things in front of people.
Send a reminder about the call the same day (even if you've done a calendar invite) along with critical details (dial-in info, etc). It sounds weird, but also include timezone info in your reminder. I've been shocked at how many conference calls were missed because someone said "noon" to someone in a different timezone.
Whittle down large groups to the critically necessary folks (sorry interns). This is much easier to do for your team (see Sasha's entry). Much harder to tell someone else's org to do. But go ahead and make the suggestion anyways. Everyone will be glad you did in the end.
And whatever you do DO NOT use speaker phone. Use conference party lines that allow everyone to get on their own horn and chat. This one step alone will reduce 75% of your problems.

Try it out.

Blasted Email

2009-04-23T03:12:00.000-04:00

Lately, I've been increasingly bothered by inaction....

Emails, more than anything, seem to spark this fervor of frustration inside of me. Sometimes I send an email, I know its received, and then nothing ever happens in response...ever. Did it fall off the face of the web-earth? And please don't tell me it went into Spam...that's a totally lame excuse (even if its true). With all the ways we communicate with people, Email has just lost its value as a MUST-RESPOND-TO item. You get email notifications about Facebook messages, comments on your status, Twitter followers, random emails that don't really need a response, mass forwards, and on. To make matters worse, we take our email on the road and then sync it with our computers at work...so if I've read a message quickly on the go, its certainly been taken care of...right?

Actually...that's almost never the case.

A good rule of thumb I try to employ across the board is to make sure that not one email that warrants a response slips through the cracks...not one. I do this by marking all my email messages as unread that still require a response. My boss Craig uses a different method - leaving all email messages that require action to remain in his inbox, while those that do not need a response get moved elsewhere. The point isn't to use a specific method, rather, its to have a method.

In addition, I also use a 24 hour rule. If I've received the message during the work week, I've got to get back to that person within 24 hrs. Same day is really what I'm shooting for, but the ultimatum is 24 hrs.

Getting a handle of your emails is something few do well - especially if you're someone who receives large numbers of them on a daily basis. Manage them well and people will notice. You will standout from the masses.

And if you get tired of email, you can revert back to the original medium...

Process to Innovate

2009-04-16T09:00:00.000-04:00

I've been reading The Designful Company by Marty Neumeier this past month. Early on, Marty tells a quick story about what innovative companies look like:

“Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is famous for a crazy video in which he yells, I-LOVE-THIS-COMPANY. With Apple, its the customers who shout that.”

Steve Jobs saw problems consumers dealt with and found unique and stylish ways of combating those everyday problems. He designed his solutions.

So if we want to be like Apple and innovate real, needed, and wanted solutions - where do we start?

My thought...we start with our dreams. But in order to do that, we've got to first admit, acknowledge, and share the things that prevent our dreams in the first place...our realities.

Looking at how to get to this result with a business team, I came up with a 3 step process that helps facilitate a group to think together about what could be (its best to do it on a board of some kind):

Constraints
We start out with the least fun part, but the part that gets everyone a little more comfortable with being able to dream - we deal with the everyday Constraints. Constraints are those sticky things that keep you from easily moving about within your business. Its the barriers that box you in to certain decisions. Things like budgets, deadlines, current service offerings, development costs, competition, etc.

This list can get long, but its important to let all your Constraints be spoken outloud to give them all the attention they deserve. Afterall, most of us spend the majority of our days trying to jump these hurdles, avoid them, and figure out how to manage them. These are the things that keep us from really engaging our imagination. We assume our Constraints are largely immovable, so we resign ourselves to a worklife of working around or within them.
Ideals
After everyone has given voice to every constraint you can possibly think of, its time to get everyone engage in their dreams or Ideals. Ideals are those things you wish were true about the projects you work on, the amount of profit your company makes, the types of companies you work with, and so on. This list may be shorter and you may need to encourage everyone to speak up, but this is a huge step toward the process of innovation.

With your board chalked full of all your Constraints in sight, your team won't will feel the need to say things like, "we can't do that...think about how little we get paid for that service", etc. Everyone will know the ugly Constraints aren't being ignored, so they will feel increasingly comfortable letting them go (at least in the moment) and thinking about what they really wish was true about your business.
Innovation
Now comes the fruition...its time to look at all you've written on your board and consider all of the Constraints you currently deal with as well as all the Ideals you wish were true. You'll begin the process of designing solutions to accomplish your Ideals while considering your Constraints. Don't get caught up on the idea that this is a matter of ignoring the Constraints to just engage the Ideals, or even vice versa. Rather, this is about asking yourself questions like,

"Can this Constraint be adjusted to accommodate this Ideal?"
"Will this Ideal increase our ability to serve our customers?"
"If we can't adjust any Constraints to accomplish this Ideal, how can we accomplish this Ideal through another means?"
"Is this Constraint even necessary?"

You'll be surprised to see the speed at which real, tangible, ideas start going up on the board - ideas that are feasible and have a real shot of seeing the light of day.

Even the oldest, most set-in-their-ways of companies can employ this and get to real innovative solutions to offer to the marketplace.

Give it a try...and let me know what your team came up with. And if you'd like to give it a try, but don't feel like trying to lead it yourself, give me a shout...I'd be happy to help lead a session with your team.

Signs of Decay

2009-04-08T10:30:00.000-04:00

A friend and colleague sent this to me the other day. Not sure exactly which building, but its from one of the memorials in D.C.

This sentiment is also very true for the economic climate we find ourselves in today. Companies have failed to remember the dust they started from, have gotten large and seemingly "too big to fail", and deemed themselves invincible. No one is invincible, nor should they be.

Bringing it down to an even more intimate level, this can also be said for those of us in roles as managers. If we think we're insulated, too much depends on us, we're doing our jobs, and so on - we're wrong. The same rule that applies to deeply entrenched companies also applies to deeply entrenched employees right now - its about how excellent and remarkable you are. Companies like Google and Apple are weathering the storm while companies more far removed from their "hard beginnings" are failing (ex: GM).

The application for us as managers is to get back to the roots of when we first started our jobs - the hungry, idea-filled, optimistic start that captured the attention, appreciation, and respect of our co-workers, customers, and boss. Don't let the decay set in.

Caring is Step 1

2009-04-02T09:35:00.000-04:00

Its a cheesy thing to say, but often good management starts with something as simple as just caring.

This isn't the completely altruistic sense of the word - part of this is actually caring about being successful both for yourself and your company.

But it is largely outward focused. Good project management is about caring who it is you are working for, caring for the success of the company or idea you are serving, caring about the needs of the person - for their deadlines, budgets, etc. On a baseline level, this IS effective management and will extend and evolve as you practice it.

On the inverse side of caring, another motivating factor can be fear. But if fear is gripping you to the point that it is driving your actions, you'll get tripped up in the defense or protection of yourself and your own interests - and that will almost always steer you toward the wrong decision.

Fear led GM to the debacle they find themselves in today, as it did with the real estate brokers who were trying to protect their lifestyles and assets. But caring motivates you to make a different decision for yourself and your client, one that considers more factors than just your climb up the ladder and your finances.

So how do you do something as vague as care? Start with some of the most simple acts and let it grow from there. Get to know your client (personally), their business, their product and services - find something worthwhile, something remarkable about who they are and what they do - and find something to genuinely care about. Your management decisions will mature in impact and effectiveness as you do.

Ride Out

2009-03-19T15:40:00.000-04:00

Big companies tend to breed fear into others. If they are large and are perceived to have big market presence, its easy to feel intimidated by their sheer size. You'll hear this from folks in the boardroom all the time: "well, it is Hugo Co. - we better not step on their toes" | "guess who we just did a big project for".

Managers of big corporations tend to act like they have these enormous armies behind them giving them power, dominion, and demanding respect. You'll often see folks in this position of power talk down to other companies. Or, on the flip side, you'll see managers afraid of being talked-down to hold their tongues when they would normally speak up. Scope is ignored, people jump at the slightest wimper from the big time co., and I would argue the results are many times thwarted and watered-down because of this tension between the shark and the minnow.

It reminds me of a scene from Braveheart when the English and Scottish are first facing each other for battle. The Scottish nobles see the large, so-called invincible British army, and considering their own small unrefined troupe, are ready to call a truce. Then Wallace rides in and changes the equation. He picks a fight. And the Scottish win.

When you put everything else aside, any project or business relationship really just boils down to two people working together. We need to forget about the size of the army behind. Stop being afraid to ride out. Don't kiss ass, don't shrink back, and if you're on the other side, don't come in with an inflated view of yourself. Relate, be yourself, and let your personality show.

Bottom line - stop worrying about the army and focus on the individual.

For related entries, check out previous blogs: Let Your Personality Show & Personality Matters.

Direct is Key

2009-03-12T09:30:00.000-04:00

We've all had someone try and tell us something funny they saw on the Office or 30 Rock. Its almost never that funny in the retelling. Somethings you just have to hear and see yourself.

Business communication is not too dissimilar. Just like in-person communication is preferred to phone, and phone communication is preferred to email, communicating directly with a client is to be preferred over communicating via a third party.

It doesn't matter how good of notes someone takes, hearing it directly from the speaker can never be replaced by someone trying to re-communicate the facts. Nuance, tone, style, relationship - there is depth to communication that is only understood by hearing it directly from the source. Good listeners ask questions, and good questions can elicit right responses that provide the right solutions. If someone is merely acting as a 3rd party and just an intermediary of information, they are less likely to even ask questions, let alone get the right info.

People hate this mentality. The Business model of the 20th century said, "Be big, be an expert at a lot of things, and tell everyone you can do it all. Then, at the end of the day, the client will say - look who did it ALL!". Problem is, no one believes this anymore.

Be real, be honest, and if someone else is doing the work as a sub, let that fact be known. Even better, let the sub be a part of communication with the end-client so that they can get the real nitty-gritty details - the kind of details that take a project from acceptable to unbelievably good.

And while you're at it, enforce this with the 3rd parties that may be acting as your own intermediaries.

Prioritizing...really

2009-03-04T10:00:00.000-05:00

Everyone says prioritize..."We've got to keep our priorities straight.", "What's our number one objective as a company?", "You're not juggling your responsibilities effectively.". What specifically do they mean?

I find that managers, including myself, struggle to define what we mean by what is really a pretty cliche biz term. We may have an innate ability to part through a sea of responsibilities to determine what is most important, and even more likely, we may find it easy to define priorities because we determine what's a priority for those around us. But how do we actually train someone else to prioritize competing responsibilities?

I want to communicate this effectively to someone else in a better manner than just - that's not a priority, but this is. Studying this further, I came up with a few questions that helped me put structure around the prioritizing cloud:

What has an actual delegated deadline?
Meaning, did someone else determine a task had a specific deadline (date/time) vs did I just tell myself a task had to be done by a specific date or time? The actual deadline should always trump the internal deadline.
What is the most essential for our company?
Meaning, what is actually turning good profits? Whatever project or task is producing revenue or has the potential to produce revenue for our company should be the next highest priority.
What is Relationship-building?
Meaning, what is providing a service to our clients that is building our good name in their eyes vs completing internal projects or work?

This is less than an exact science, so these do have to be re-shuffled. You obviously don't want to only put deadline projects and profit-generators in the front seat every time, or you'll become a selfish, hard-edged company no one wants to work with (nor should they). But in an effort to begin the conversation of what is meant by prioritizing, I found this a helpful matrix.

Use this as a beginning point as you're working with those around you to determine how to prioritize your own work internally. This is definitely an evolving art - so realize that these are questions you'll have to tackle every day and probably redefine multiple times.

If you're not having these conversations, you're probably not prioritizing as a team. So take a stab at it and see what happens...

More on Doodlers

2009-02-28T10:42:00.005-05:00

In the last post - Doodles - I talked about the merit of innovation through chaos and a quick exercise by the act of drawing/doodling.

I heard a piece on NBC Nightly News Fri night about doodling. There was a recent study performed that discovered actual benefits to doodling...apparently it keeps your mind sharp. Full Article.

Try it out the next time you're in a long meeting!

Doodles

2009-02-24T10:30:00.001-05:00

Reading The Designful Company: How to build a culture of nonstop innovation, has definitely gotten the rhombus (i.e. not square) side of my brain pumping. Its led me to consider how ideas are generated that follow non-method based formats. I'm talking about Flux Capacitor ideas - those ideas that come when you bump your head in the middle of the night. Ideas that you have to immediately write it down or they are lost forever.

If you can't sit down and force those ideas out by sheer willpower, can you at least give them more opportunities to surface?

I believe so.

I've noticed two main things that seem to fuel these types of ideas in me - frustration (even sometimes anger) & chaos. Let me explain...

Frustration is usually birthed out of someone presenting me with a problem that goes completely contrary to a deeply held belief or ideal. Out of fear, I want to immediately reject the opposing idea, considering its failure to altogether recognize key flaws. And here's where things get tricky...if I will stop myself from immediately rejecting the idea, and pause for even 10 minutes - quieting my internal mental arguments - a funny thing starts to happen...I start to see a new side of the issue I never saw before. Its not that I change my mind, or even give up my original opinion. It merely causes me to explore one side of the issue I had never even known existed previously. And when I explore that new angle, and then revisit my original ideal, the compounding result is that a solution emerges that both addresses my previous concerns as well as stretches beyond them.

Chaos is the second place where I see new ideas begin to emerge. Sitting in the midst of competing priorities, limited time, budgets...colliding constraints, stress starts to set in. Stress can do a lot of things to you, but if you stick with it for a minute, I find many times you start to see patterns take shape in the midst of the choas. You stop seeing lines on a page and start seeing musical notes. You can actually give this one a try in a simple exercise...

Draw a series of random, disconnected lines all over a page (you can also just draw a number of dots). Start connecting those lines or dots randomly until you have about 5-6 connecting lines. Now stop, put down your pen, and look back at the lines you just connected. Don't stare at the lines individually, but look around them and in between them. See it yet...a shape, a person's face, a dog, a car?

This is not magic eye; its merely your eye ordering the lines into some recognizable pattern. Your mind can do the same thing with the chaos around you.

So the take-away is this - as a Middle Manager, let the frustration and chaos act as a catalyst toward truly innovative solutions. Resist letting them shut you down.

There will be more thoughts coming in the weeks ahead on this topic...so stay tuned.

The Deteriorating Art of Email

2009-02-18T10:30:00.001-05:00

The Pony Express, Morse Code, 2-Way Radios, FedEx, Certified Mail, Email, Facebook, Twitter. The speed at which communication changes is increasing - and will continue to - and so goes the question everyone (especially old people) asks: "Is it for the better?".

Email can be a great tool, but it is not always the best form of communication. Confrontation by way of email never works; explaining a new process to someone via email is a bad idea; discussing sensitive information by email is risky. Email is great for quick, on-demand communication, but it is not THE communication platform to rely on. So as MMs, we're left with the task of determining when we should email and when we should actually pick up the phone and call someone, or even meet in person.

Then there is the challenge of actually managing emails. All emails should be responded to in some form or fashion - whether by email or a phone call. But an email should never be ignored.*
*Speaking of email management, I have to mention that Blackberry users can be some of the worst when it comes to response rate. It is hit or miss...people either get an email via Blackberry and respond immediately or not at all. It can be a totally unreliable way of keeping up with emails. It keeps you, the user, informed - but does not reciprocate back to the sender. Blackberry users - beware of this bad habit.

And last, there's the issue of tone. Emails can leave much to be translated on the part of the recipient - so if you are not absolutely clear, you may unintentionally cause someone to read between the lines. A great way to avoid the unintentional email miscommunication is to read through your email at least twice before you send it. How positive does it sound? Does it do more than just communicate facts...does it communicate the right tone, style, and personality?

Email is not Morse Code...there is more of an art to it than "send message A to person B", and it requires more than a quick type and send.

Don't be lazy with email...manage it, leverage it, and pick up the phone every now and then.

Curve Ball Index

2009-02-10T12:30:00.000-05:00

I love it when things go along at a predictable pace. Not too much work, not too little; projects that are challenging, but too much so; information that takes some problem solving, but not straining effort. Basically, I like to be comfortable. Nothing earth-shattering about that.

The problem with that mentality is that it assumes that anything can ever be truly comfortable. No matter what, the pasture will always be greener, there's always that one issue, that one project we're waiting on to end, that one pending catastrophe that looms out there. Its the curve balls we get thrown in most areas of life, including in our roles as Managers, that trouble us.

I like to call our ability to respond to these issues our CBI (Curve Ball Index). Do we expect it, do we anticipate it, or do we get angry, frustrated, and fearful when they head our way? Depending on the situation, I'm probably higher and lower at times, but I'm never fully ok with the unexpected shake-ups.

I think the simple thing we can do is accept that this is a reality we all face, and allow ourselves to embrace it the more we are confronted with it. This isn't something we can manufacture, but it is something we can allow to shape each of us the longer we Manage and the longer we learn.

Accept the curves.

Speak Up

2009-01-27T12:30:00.000-05:00

Good Middle Managers (MMs) risk a little in being bossy in order to get the job done.

Extremes are never good, so going too far in this direction is a bad idea. But it is better to be on the assertive side than the "wait and see" side of the table.

Its the difference between a.) telling a client you need something once, and then waiting around for them to get it back to you, and b.) telling them a week in advance a specific time and date you need an item from them, and then reminding them consistently up until that point. It also means having consequences for failing to meet those milestones - "if we don't get said materials by said day & time, project delays of one business week will occur", etc. Its the difference between a.) telling your boss you "don't know what to do" in a certain situation, and b.) telling him/her a problem and the three current solutions you are considering. Its also the difference between a.) asking someone when they can meet, and b.) telling them you'd like to meet on Wed the 12th @ 3:00 EST.

Don't tip toe around. Tell people - your boss, clients, colleagues - what it is you want them to do. Tell them how much it'll cost, what the best practices are, when you really should have that meeting, and how long it needs to take. Even if they are busy, speak up.

People want to be led - so lead.

[ For more thoughts on this, check out a previous posting on Drill Sergeant ]

Why?

2009-01-20T14:30:00.001-05:00

The more we look at and consider all that's taking place in our economy with increasing lay-offs and business failures, it becomes even more evident that its time to shake off some of our habitual tendencies.

Whenever we begin our approach with the status quo we assume that the existing methods are good ones, if not even great ones. But many times those methods just happen to be the ones that everyone has silently (or even loudly) agreed to.

This makes me start to question all types of things I do...Why do we email the way that we do, have meetings when we do, talk to clients as frequent/infrequent as we do? Why do we wait till clients ask us for help, have the systems in place that we do...you get the idea. Its time to poke holes in our assumptions.

We need to change things up - maybe try to have regularly scheduled and recurring meetings with your clients, suggest exact start & stop times for phone calls and meetings, let people know what you're doing when they can't reach you. It'd be great if this even reached the hallowed halls of corporate America. (Side-note: I'd love to see insurance companies giving rebates for proactive clients - clients are preventative with their health care through regular exercise, clients that do more than get their oil changed when taking care of their cars, clients that will have trees cut down to prevent storm damage to their homes, and so on.)

We all need to throw out the status quo. Work from the ground up and then evaluate where we are and where we really need to be.

[For more thoughts on this, check out a previous posting on Tried...and True?]

Full Circle

2009-01-14T12:30:00.002-05:00

Companies spending less is definitely having its ripple effects across the business world. Its unfortunate, but a lot of the lessons being learned right now are things we just don't consider when all is well and the cash is flowing.

When business is good and demand is high, we all have a tendency to act like customers are privileged to have our time. But when the reverse is true, we suddenly become the ones wanting the time and attention.

No matter how busy we may think we are, we always need the work, and none of us are above certain projects, clients, size or scale of projects.

Bottom line: we need our customers. We need to treat them like we are the privileged ones. It shouldn't matter how busy or slow we may be. Resist the stress-induced, "I don't have time for this" and the fear-induced, "I'm desperate for work" extremes.

Schemers

2009-01-06T12:30:00.000-05:00

"They're schemers....schemers trying to control their little worlds..."
- From one of my favorite scenes in The Dark Knight | the Joker talking to Harvey Dent.

While watching The Dark Knight again over the holiday, I was reminded about an aspect to management that I often forget about - plans go awry. Schedules fall apart, projects are canceled, clients go bankrupt, and this all happens to the best of managers - managers that are putting together solid Gantt Charts, are regularly updating clients, doing an excellent job of scope management - great managers.

This certainly doesn't mean we bail on squeezing out every ounce of effort we can into maintaining the integrity of deadlines, expectations, etc. Rather, it means that as a good manager, we can deal with failure.

In fact, we should anticipate it. Be ready for our management plans to fall apart. We need to make the blueprints to build the house, and then plan for weather delays and budget pitfalls. Not every project will be this way, but our control does have its limits. Embracing that before it happens is a trait that needs exercising.

Plan for failure.

Why the Middle Matters

2008-12-30T12:30:00.000-05:00

Being in the Middle of the management ladder is not a place that most people fight for, and for that very reason its a place that has room for great growth and opportunities for success. Think about it - if everyone is fighting their way to the executive level, competition, and therefore excellence, is lacking in the middle.

Seth Godin has a lot of great insights worth the read in his books as well as his blog. His latest post got me to thinking about the type of person we need to be in the middle. Check out an exerpt below (and check out the full posting at Seth Godin's Blog):

"Back in 1999, every internet marketer was a genius. And well paid, too. A lot of those marketing geniuses brought hubris to their work. They acted big, spent big and never looked at or learned from their mistakes.

Others, just a few, approached their work with a sense of gratitude. They realized that the good times wouldn't last forever and they tried to develop skills and insights and connections for the future.

It's interesting--years later, very few of the arrogant guys have done much of anything. They never developed perspectives or attitudes that extended beyond, "hey, shut up, I'm here, we're winning," and so they failed once they left the mother ship.

This is why you should hesitate to hire a marketer or salesperson who comes from a successful big company marketer (like Apple or Microsoft). Sure, they 'contributed' to the growth of a great brand, but how much? What did they learn? What will they do when they don't have a one in a million brand and the wind at their back? Or in the case of P&G alum, what will they do when they don't have billions of dollars to spend on advertising?

Confidence is often a self-fulfilling prophecy, particularly in marketing or investing. Arrogance, on the other hand, is hard to reward. My favorite combination is the quiet confidence of knowledge, combined with the humility that comes from realizing that you're pretty lucky and that you have no idea at all what's guaranteed to work tomorrow. "

Thanks Seth. Let's keep pushing what happens in the middle.

A Return to the Three

2008-12-23T12:30:00.002-05:00

Going back to the Rule of 3...

As consumers, we're almost always focused on one of three characteristics in our buying decisions: Quality, Time, or Price. Its rare when we can find an instance that all three of these are equally catered to.

A colleague of mine saw this sign the other day that re-iterated the point.

I would go one step further and argue that its unlikely for two of the three to exist in equal measure. Your company will probably focus on one more than the other two. And by focus, I don't mean words, I mean results. McDonalds may say they produce quality food, but at the end of the day people go there first for price, then for time, and last for quality. On the other hand, most people go to Whole Foods first for their quality - with their pricing and speed a distant 2nd and 3rd.

Don't try and sell yourself and/or your company as producer of all three. Focus on one and speak to your strengths.

Accept you are one of the three, weave it into everything you do, and be unapologetic about it.

Myths of Impossible People

2008-12-16T12:30:00.000-05:00

I'm tired of the fault game. I am guilty of playing this and certainly see it all the time in the world of client | manager relationships. As MMs, we've got to put a stop to it.

The bottom line is this, if someone is paying you to do a service and you are within the terms of your contracted agreement, the details of delays, mis-information, etc don't really matter. If your customer is upset, and feels the job hasn't been done right, well, on time, etc - then they are right. Even if you can prove you have fulfilled your duties, if they are not satisfied, we've failed to meet obligation #1 - meet their needs.

I know, I know, some people are impossible. But guess what - that doesn't excuse this obligation. It just means we've got our work cut out for us that much more.

Accept the fact that you will fail with some people, but consider it a failure, and not the client's fault. The minute we start assigning fault to our clients, is the minute we start making them out to be the bad guy. And they are not the bad guy - they are the ones paying our salaries. I can tell you from experience, even the most difficult of clients knows somewhere inside that they are difficult. And when you stay the course and don't let them get the best of your patience, they will notice. Think about it - if they are truly that difficult, then they are probably that difficult with everyone they work with and are no doubt used to a certain type of response. By bucking the status quo, you might just be the one person that stands ahead of the rest.

Know in advance that you'll probably never hear a so-called "difficult client" directly acknowledge that you've done a good job, but I bet you'll hear it via Word of Mouth. It happens all the time.

Resist: Don't let your frustrations get the best of you.

Turn Into the Spin

2008-12-10T12:30:00.000-05:00

Reaction is natural. Similar to driving on ice - when you slide out of control your immediate response is to correct the spin. But as we all learned in Driver's Ed, that only makes the spin worse. The right response is to do what feels insane at the time - turn into the spin.

With the economy taking its steady dip, we're seeing reactions more and more as managers...

You fear losing clients you have, so you try and protect those relationships by amping up the face-time; you worry about money, so you cut back on spending in areas you consider "non-essential" to making your business run; you get desperate in your approaches to drumming up new work and start the cold calling - you get the idea...we react.

Slowly, this reactionary mindset works its way down into our actions to a point where we start to look and sound kind of pathetic. Whether psychological or not, this does effect people's desire to do work with us. Not to mention, cutting on spending can often mean cutting back on things that are actually generating profit in the long-term.

Its not easy, but we've got to fight against our desire to react, even if its just in our mindset. It'll not only help us make better decisions, it'll also separate us from the pack.

A Good Long-Term Offense

2008-12-02T12:30:00.003-05:00

In spite of my leanings to not draw from a sports analogy, I can't resist this one. I'm a life-long Alabama fan, and watching them play Auburn this past weekend for a 36-0 win gave me plenty of fodder.

But there were three main strategies going on during the game that really grabbed by attention - their focus on the game at-hand, their look-ahead toward the SEC Championship game next weekend against Florida, and the plays they ran with their second string players (players that will not play a role until the 2009-10 season).

All of these were potentially competing strategies and could have risked too much distraction. But the greater risk would have been to not juggle all 3, which may not have cost them in the Auburn game (the short-term) but most certainly could have cost them next week against Florida.

So while considering a head coach's approach toward a successful football program I was led to this - as MMs, we've got to do more than just focus on the one thing in front of us. If we're not focused on what may be competing priorities for next month's, next quarter's, as well as next year's goals, we're not going to be consistently successful. And the greatest attribute of a successful manager is not just one who gets the big one-time results, but the manager who performs consistently.