What Tiger Woods Teaches Us

Tiger 1

Congratulations to Tiger Woods for winning the U.S. Open today-with great drama.

But more importantly, here's what Tiger Woods teaches us:

  1. Every success contains some elements of failure.
  2. Number one should produce humility.
  3. You want your competition to be at their best.
  4. You get what you put into it.
  5. Luck follows the devoted and dedicated.
  6. Everyone needs a coach.
  7. Enjoy the ride more than the destination.
  8. Know your value.
  9. Prepare for the second lifetime.
  10. Don't just watch me (Tiger), do from me.

What Does Your Organization Believe?

I dig Lois Kelly's insights, so no surprise that I would link here.  Her Bloghound blog brings some thought around beliefs-specific to an organization.  The post's title; Beliefs more useful than mission statements, says it all.

Take notice of the list from Google.  Their number one is so easy to write and say, but very difficult to live out.  I see Google doing a good job at thinking of me, the user, first.

The Value in Your Organization’s Social Network

Social networks are not new.  The explosive growth of external social networks is rather breathtaking.  There's more going on than a business plan though.  Social networks reveal a lot about an organizations employee base. 

It's smart business to do what Bank of America and Whole Foods have done with their customers by creating an online community specific to their brand.  But more should do it internally.  Losing a customer because you were not connecting through a blog is one thing (loss of revenue, cost of acquiring a new customer).  It's even more frightening when it's an employee.   

The alarming part, for some organizations is when the discovery is made around their own social network.  I mean the employee base.  There are a number of companies that think social networking is translated into LinkedIn, Twitter or Digg.  But as great as those tools are, they're not as powerful as your organization's own internal social network.

Some might say; "we don't need to have an intranet site for social netowking."  You have a community and it's ebbing and flowing before your very eyes, whether you know it or not. Could be organizaed or could be fragmented.  My friends over at Webbed Marketing specialize in building online communities, but they can't create what your leadership can't see-vision.

The take-away is; your people crave community.  And they'll find a way to connect.  The question is whether you (the organization) want to be out front in providing the path.

Why Meet?

Seth Godin posts on The new standard of meetings and conferences.  The piece provides practical approaches to making meetings/conferences work.  But I’m most intrigued by the implication of how organizations accept the status que.  The practice of pretending that yesterday’s dinner is really not left-overs.

I know many people who work in organizations that have meetings and interactions without knowing why.  Maybe it falls under blind allegiance, maybe a desire to hold onto what once was. 

Ever sat in a conference or meeting and found yourself more interested in your watch? 

Acknowledged or not, many leaders are under the hypnotic spell of being ok and satisfied.

Time for some creative discomfort and dissatisfaction.

Advice for Those in Sales

If you’re still in sales (you make your living by what revenue you bring in for the organization) and haven’t moved into creating lasting value, then this post is for you.

Here are my suggestions for salespeople in our age of constant change:

  1. Stop thinking about yourself.  If you didn’t notice, it shows.  Your prospective and existing customers want you to think about them.
  2. Stop assuming that your doing me a favor by introducing your product/service to me.  Arrogance has only one reward-NO.
  3. If you are not creating real value (the customer defines this, not you), then start.  You find out by asking.  Knowledge flows when you do that.
  4. Make your customer a priority.  That means responding to their emails or phone calls on the same day they send/call.  When a customer doesn’t feel like a priority they leave.
  5. If you’re with a company that sees customers as a means-to-an-end, leave.  Customers will breathe a sigh of relief that they won’t have to deal with being treated like cattle.
  6. Learn the art of subtlety.  Listen to Puccini or have a glass of 2000 Barolo as a start.
  7. Stop seeing yourself as a salesperson.  Customers are tired of being sold.

We need more people willing to be striking and brilliant in the discipline of creating value, while generating revenue.  Anything less is robbery.

Why Leaders Must Hold Their Followers Accountable

Earlier we spoke of how leaders must love people.  It’s a very true statement.  Leaders must also hold their followers accountable. 

Holding another human being accountable (expecting an outcome and carrying out a consequence for the behavior manifested) is tough.  Many leaders avoid this like a plague.  The best leaders see accountability as an integral part of wanting the best for those that follow.  They also know the follower won’t grow without accountability.

As I outline some solid reasons for holding followers, in career and out, accountable, please remember that motivations are everything.  If you’re not really for the person, then don’t bother with this.  Maybe you should ask whether you and/or the person you’re not for should be in the position they’re in.

Here is a brief list of why leaders must hold their followers accountable:

  • Assuming a bond has been formed, it will increase the chances that the follower will desire to hit the mark of what has been asked of them.
  • True growth (financial, mental, innovation) occurs where some one is lovingly checking to see how things went.
  • See the subprime mess to get an example of an accountability vacuum.
  • No accountability will lead to a lack of respect from your most faithful followers.  By the way, these folks might not say a word to you about a loss of respect.
  • Committed people want and need accountability.

What Management Doesn’t Get: Leading People Implies Responsibility

I had a mind blowing thought today as I was driving.  We humans are a masterpiece.  I’m speaking specifically to the way we’re made.  The sheer complexity of our DNA and how our body knows what to do without any outside assistance. 

The above thoughts sent me thinking about what an AWESOME responsibility it is to lead other human beings.  And at the end of the day, this is what most managers don’t get.  It’s like someone who throws diamonds into the garbage disposal right along with yesterday’s leftovers.  You’d call that insane.

I learned the hard way about the responsibility in leading.  You get fame and fortune (relative to the stage you walk on) and almost inevitably you forget-forget about who is looking to you for direction.  Believe me it wasn’t the mirror.  It wasn’t until I observed the hunger and scars of the people in my last stint (about 10 years ago) in corporate America, that I began to see my AWESOME responsibility.  They hungered for someone to do the right thing and care.  The scars were from the deep wounds of managers who didn’t care about anything except their agenda and or ladder.

I’ll never forget a meeting I was participating in where a mission statement was being crafted.  Everyone agreed that serving our customers was an important part to have in the statement.  But there was a block. as 11 executives attempted to create something inspiring.  I then suggested that we add verbiage around serving our employees.  Silence.  More silence.  The idea was rejected and never adopted.  A few minutes later I leaned over to one of my colleagues and asked him how we could serve our customers, but not serve our employees?  Silence, with a shrug.

The issue comes back to management-senior and otherwise-not understanding their responsibility.  They don’t get it.

In the coming days we’ll unwrap how to overcome the confusion and how to move to leading from responsibility. Who knows, maybe we’ll start a rehab clinic for managers. 

Another Year, Another Annual Performance Review, Another Yawn

I know its early, but annual performance reviews/appraisals are just around the corner.  What fond memories I have of these dances-not!

I heard once that Steve Jobs had a habit of going around to Apple employees and asking them to justify their existence in the organization.  I don’t know if this is true or not, but I think there are a number of managers that would benefit from an interaction like that one. 

What value does the employee gain from the experience of annual performance reviews?  Not much if they work for an organization that allows managers to do it only once a year.  In fairness to a number of managers, they’re so overwhelmed with meetings, reports and power point presentations, that effectively leading their people is nothing more than an afterthought.  Sort of like our physical and mental health; we don’t have time to strengthen our bodies because we’ve got a career to manage. 

Annual performance reviews should be reinforcement of what has been discussed and inspired over the previous year.  A former business partner (direct report in corporatese) and I had some of the quickest annual conversations you could imagine.  Since we communicated on a regular basis (at least three times per week), we knew what the state of the State was.  Some may ask how I had the time to do this.  It was hard and yet simple; know what’s important and be allegiant to that person, event, project, etc.  That meant that all the other stuff would have to wait.

Here’s how to make your annual performance review effective and inspiring:

  • Do your annual reviews every week.  This makes the final one clear on your part and the person you’re leading.
  • Don’t insult the intelligence of your people by pretending your interested, if you haven’t been all year. 
  • Inject some humility into your management/leadership blood if the second bullet describes you.
  • If you’re on the receiving end of an unprepared or a never-spoke-much-in-the-previous-year type review, then start asking yourself some hard questions about your employer and/or boss.
  • The review should add fuel to the fire of the organization’s and the employee’s vision.  It should not be a dance-for-bonus charade.

If you’re the employee who received a poorly executed review, just remember that IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT.  Trust me, it is not your fault.  Corporate America has some serious issues here and you may be like a former colleague I saw over the holidays; he fired his boss.

Career Trends

Penelope Trunk posts this piece on The End of Work As We Know It.  It reveals much on future trends in the work place.  I’ve written and many of you have heard of the changing demographic that is the American work scene.  Penelope gives us some very futuristic thoughts on how it will all play out. 

Do you think people (workers and senior management) are preparing for what might occur in the next 5 years?  Judging by the way many manage their health and money, the answer would be "no preparation in progress."  Not to mention, the spell of fear and greed that many organizations are currently under.

A changed environment for work would be a good thing.  But a changed work place without changed people would be disastrous.

Here are some tips on how to be ready for a new work environment:

  • Know thy self well.  In other words, take an inventory of what you have to offer, write it down and act on it.
  • Embrace change, because it is a sign of your learning.
  • Distrust comfort (specifically mental).  Comfort is the place where die and don’t get buried.
  • Deal with your insecurities.  This might be your greatest challenge.  Let’s face it, dealing with our baggage can be painful.  Just the same, deal with your insecurities.
  • Surround yourself with people who want to see you win.  Let other people hang around the critics and nay-sayers.
  • Learn the art of vision (your preferable future).  Failure in this area will leave you vulnerable to someone else’s dogma.