A leadership three-pack

“The leadership instinct you were born with is the backbone. You develop the funny bone and the wishbone that go with it.” – Elaine Agather

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

“Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.” – John C. Maxwell

When your product or service sucks

“I believe that marketing is what you do when your product or service sucks … in truth not one of our top performing companies had a marketing budget in their initial business plan. … in my talk at Harvard Business School, I said “Early in a startup, product decisions should be hunch driven. Later on, product decisions should be data driven”. I’ve seen that line tweeted a thousand times since then. Clearly people like that rule. Here’s another.

Early in a startup you need to acquire your customers for free. Later on, you can spend on customer acquisition.

… For the consumer/free part of the web, there are some obvious things you will want to do: ….” – Article

 

Good Debt?

“Conventional wisdom states that borrowing money for education or a home is “good” debt. Unlike using a credit card or borrowing to buy a car, schooling and your home are things that stand the test of time. No one can take your education away from you. It’s unlikely that a cargo truck will clip your home and “total” it. Theoretically, both education and a home will appreciate in value. Since 2008, we know all too well that we can’t take that value appreciation for granted. Who would have predicted that borrowers could become underwater in their homes? The students who graduated just as the economy took a nosedive do not necessarily feel like the money they borrowed for their education is going to see a return on the investment. So does that mean we need to rethink the idea of good debt?

What Makes Good Debt Dangerous

The idea that it is worth it to go into debt to further your career and own a house is not a bad one. The alternative would be to work for years at a low-paying job so you could set aside the money for college, or to live in an apartment for thirty years to save up for a house. Clearly that’s insane. Borrowing money to do these things before senility sets in is definitely in your best interest. The problem lies with the scope of what you borrow. ….” – Article

A typical money fight

“Girl Ninja and I are pretty different. She’s reserved, I’m obnoxious. She’s beautiful, I’m not. She’s a “hope for the best”, I’m a “prepare for the worst.” Typically, our differences compliment each other, but every once in a while, we butt heads. This is especially true when it comes to money. I love personal finance, I know significantly more about personal finance than Girl Ninja, and I’m a horrible communicator. Those three characteristics create some pretty interesting financial conversations. Here’s an example of what one such conversation might look like….

Girl Ninja: I saw this really cute duvet cover at West Elm that would look great on our bed. I think I’m going to get it.

Me: No you’re not.

And that, my friends, would be the extent of our conversation. Girl Ninja usually stops talking to me, and I usually don’t want to be talked to. … I admit fault. I often say things in a way that don’t represent the love and respect I have for her. Instead of saying “No, you can’t buy that duvet cover”, I should have said “Do you think the $70 that duvet costs is worth it?” You see what I did there? Instead of TELLING Girl Ninja what she can and can’t do (like I even have that authority), I created an opportunity for dialogue. …

I’ve put together a short list of things I need to remember next time we talk money….” – Article

10 Legal myths you need to know

“Since legalese can be intimidating, here’s a plain-English list of legal myths you should know about because they may save your butt somewhere along the line. Keep in mind that state laws may vary.

1. Incorporating or forming an LLC will protect your personal assets. While it does provide some limited protection, from a practical standpoint, it really doesn’t. If you do something illegal that results in considerable damages, you can definitely expect the damaged party to go after your personal assets and potentially win.
2. Attorney-client privilege is absolute. There are all kinds of requirements for the privilege to apply, exceptions to the rule, situations where the privilege is at some point extinguished, and cases where courts have ruled to pierce the privilege.
3. CEOs and CFOs are not civilly or criminally liable for misleading or untrue statements in SEC documents. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act changed all that. Not only are they civilly liable, but they can and have been criminally prosecuted for knowingly providing false information to investors. How about that?
4. Bloggers and commentors are protected by the first amendment against libel claims. ….

7.  Patents and NDAs will keep others from stealing your ideas. ….”

- Article

Get out of your cave

“You may not know this, but I wrote an award winning book in 2008 — Awake at the Wheel. It’s all about what it takes to originate, develop, and implement bold new ideas. It’s a fable, a toolbox, and a guide to the creative process — a great way to get out of the cave of your own limiting assumptions.” – Article

Apple without Steve Jobs

“I am continuously asked what would happen if Steve Jobs left Apple, or as he sometimes put it, if he “got hit by a bus.” I tell people that Steve is not replaceable as a charismatic, visionary leader of a consumer-product-centric company, but that he can be replaced by a triumvirate to carry on his legacy. Apple will have a new CEO but he, or she, will fill only one part of Steve’s role.

Jonathan Ive, the modest Brit who breathed life into the designs of the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad, will continue to dream up designs for products everyone wants to use and own. Phil Schiller will continue to dream up product concepts, laying the path for the future of technology. One of several contenders will take over Steve’s role as the driving force over the unsung teams who translate the visions into software, hardware components, and the other elements that bring the concepts to life. COO Timothy Cook is clearly the leading contender to take the reins of the company, as he has now done; he has proven himself in this role since he has already so successfully kept all the separate pieces functioning during Steve’s absences. …

A new age company has to be product-centric and operate every day as if it were a startup. So Apple is the new standard in organizational operations. All the principles of product development, leadership, talent, and sales, are on display at Apple, and I do not see that changing without Steve.

It has been very unusual for a Founder of a company to still be in charge over 30 years later, but some prominent ones are examples of the past that have all the characteristics of Apple. When Walt Disney left Disney, when Akio Morito left Sony, David Packard & Bill Hewlett left HP, all these leaders had put very strong organizations in place to keep their companies on course, and it worked.” – Article

Pipeline or Pipedream?

Source

I’m Not a Boss, I’m A Servant

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A pedestrian hit me and went under my car

“Psychologists call this the self-serving bias–the tendency to see ourselves as responsible for our successes, but to see other people or the circumstances as responsible for our failures. We reason this way to protect our self-esteem, and to protect our image in the eyes of others. We also do it because it really feels right. Think of an actor on stage–as a member of the audience, you are focused on what he is doing, but if you’re the actor, you see everything but yourself. You see your fellow actors, the scenery, the audience, but you can’t actually watch you. Because of what’s called the actor/observer difference …

… some very amusing examples of the self-serving bias, taken from a San Francisco Sunday Examiner and Chronicle article on the explanations drivers gave to their insurers after an accident. You’ll notice that some of these people went to remarkable lengths to deflect blame:

As I approached the intersection, a sign suddenly appeared in a place where a stop sign had never been before. I was unable to stop in time to avoid an accident.

The telephone pole was approaching. I was attempting to swerve out of its way when it struck my front end.

A pedestrian hit me and went under my car.

My car was legally parked as it backed into the other vehicle.

Studies show that in fact, nearly us fall victim to this kind of bias (though we tend to think that only other people do–yet another example of the bias at work.)” – Article

Living under a dictator for 40 hours

Source

User-centric – bullshit and hot air

User-Led Innovation Can’t Create Breakthroughs; Just Ask Apple and Ikea

“The user is king. It’s a phrase that’s repeated over and over again as a mantra: Companies must become user-centric. But there’s a problem: It doesn’t work. Here’s the truth: Great brands lead users, not the other way around.

The Apple and IKEA way

Take Apple. One evening, well into the night, we asked some of our friends on the Apple design team about their view of user-centric design. Their answer? “It’s all bullshit and hot air created to sell consulting projects and to give insecure managers a false sense of security. At Apple, we don’t waste our time asking users, we build our brand through creating great products we believe people will love.”

Another hyper-growth brand, IKEA, has the same belief. One of us had the privilege of working closely with IKEA’s global brand and design leaders; at IKEA the unspoken philosophy is: “We show people the way.” IKEA designers don’t use user studies or user insights to create their products. When I asked them why, they said “We tried and it didn’t work.”

Of course, neither Apple nor IKEA will say this publicly since they are both extremely closed companies and would risk offending users (and the design community) by speaking out against user-centeredness.” – Article

You first

“Some clichés are clichés because they’re true. “Aim at nothing and you’ll hit it,” is one.

You first

Tolstoy wisely said, “Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself.” Think of changing you before you think of changing others. Habitual complainers usually have more goals for others than they have for themselves.

First base

Goal-setting conversations that begin with goals are off target. All personal goal-setting conversations begin by asking, “What are my values?” Create targets that express who you are. You may require help uncovering your values. They lie hidden under behaviors. Find someone that asks probing questions and restates the obvious.” – Article

I’ll pay you to hire me

Source

With these tools, everyone is an equal

“Medtronic, the world’s largest medical-device maker, has created devices to stimulate the brain and the heart, pump drugs, monitor blood sugar, repair valves, and stabilize the spine. The company needs a constant influx of new ideas to improve its products, and these ideas traditionally come from physicians. …

Materials scientists and engineers working in different states and countries—the company employs about 5,000 scientists and engineers in R&D across the globe—pose questions to one another and find out if another group has already grappled with a particular problem … The company has developed community pages centered on specific topics, similar to fan pages on Facebook. “When new people come into the organization or a project area, they have some knowledge to tap into” …

wiki-like and social-networking tools are slowly changing the hierarchy within organizations. “In traditional companies, knowledge is hoarded and protected within a particular group as a source of power within that organization,” he says. But with these tools, “everyone is an equal. It deconstructs the natural organizational hierarchy to a more level playing field.” To tap expertise outside the company, Medtronic uses a tool called Innocentive …” – Article

Ten hardcore realities

“1). Unemployment is still rising. Forget what the government says. …

2). You must continue to “do more with less.” Yes, there are mega-corporations who are immorally raking in the profits on the backs of their employees. But this isn’t the vast majority of American companies. Most employers in America are small to medium sized businesses, not the soulless and amoral mega-corps. And we’re struggling to keep you on payroll and pay your skyrocketing benefits. This means that you will continue to be asked to “do more with less.” It isn’t because we’re nasty and greedy. It is because we’re trying to hang on so we all (including you) can keep our jobs and pay our bills.

3). Don’t quit. Until you have another job lined up, it is probably foolish to quit your current position. …

4). Don’t get fired for cause. Behave yourself. If you get fired for cause you’ll be out a very long time. ‘Nuff said.

5). Don’t burn bridges. If you are laid off (or quit), make sure that you act with class. …

6). There is no more “work/life balance.” I get nasty comments every time I tell this truth. The fact is that, if you want to keep your job, stop whining about working long hours, giving up vacation time and not having time with the kiddos.

7). Your primary responsibility to your family is a paycheck. Keeping your kids fed, clothed and housed trumps going to a recital, school play or soccer game. …

8). You’re a fool if …” – Article

….” Article

Customer service “is” marketing

“Remember the old small business customer service mentality?  Where pleasing the customer came FIRST, and the need to delight them was “a given” not an option?   Great news – it’s back (or at least on its way back)!

The democratizing nature of social media has returned power to the customer, making Brand Advocates one of our strongest marketing assets.  If we want to share their power (not take it!), we need to adopt customer service as the new way of marketing – or “unmarketing,” a term mentioned by Brian Solis in the introduction to his book Engage, and Scott Stratten details extensively in his blog and book UnMarketing. …

So here’s your new 4-word marketing strategy for 2011: Guess Less, Ask More… and always start with “How can I serve you?”” - Article

Try – fail – complain

Source

Special enough to demand a premium

“When we are young, we learn new skills by mimicking others. In fact when you think of child prodigies you think of the expertise of a child appearing to be as good as an adult….therefore copying the skill of the adult.

But as people develop, the difference between achieving the ultimate recognition and remaining at a fixed level…is learning that

“mimicking helps you gain those basic skills but it is the way that you express your own individuality that creates that special talent”

Whether a brand, a leader, a company, a manager, a service…..never forget the originality is the difference between mimicking averageness and something special enough to demand a premium.” - Source

Now let me get this straight

“Let me get this straight. We’re going to be “gifted” with a health care plan we are forced to purchase and fined if we don’t, written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn’t understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn’t read it but exempts themselves from it, to be signed by a president who also smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, and financed by a country that’s broke. Now, honestly just ask yourself, what could possibly go wrong?” - Source

Words managers are afraid to say

“When is the last time you said words like these to the people who work for you?

“I don’t know.”
“I was wrong.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Would you help me?”
“What do you think?”
“What would you do?”
“Could you explain this to me? I’m not sure I get it.”

No one, boss or not, likes to admit error or ignorance. But an inability to recognize and admit openly when you lack knowledge or make a mistake will make you less effective as a manager in two ways. ….” – Article

Your body language tells everyone

“You have no doubt heard the proverb—Actions speak louder than words.

It’s true. Your body is a crucial part of communicating your thoughts and inner feelings.  … between 60 and 70 percent of all meaning is derived from our body language. What is body language? It’s a form of non-verbal communication consisting of facial expressions, eye movements, gestures, and posture. Here are a few examples:

• Face: smiling shows happiness; frowning shows disapproval.
• Eyes: attentive gaze shows interest; rolling the eyes shows disgust.
• Gestures: nodding the head shows agreement; tapping fingers on table shows boredom or impatience.
• Posture: leaning forward shows eagerness, acceptance, or interest; slumped over shows discouragement. …

What makes this disturbing is the fact that the signal we give off through our body language creates lasting images of who we are and it influences people’s opinions of us without a conscious thought. If you harbor hard feelings or have a bad attitude, you don’t need to wonder if people know. They do and it never reflects well on you. If you are pouting because your idea wasn’t accepted, you can be assured that everyone in the office knows and it’s impacting their judgment of you.” - Article

Leaders for the first time

“Lately as I spend time with leaders in transition –  especially those becoming leaders for the first time — I have become acutely aware that a major part of this transition is a transition of perspective. We see and experience different things and we have different expectations placed on us from every direction. While we may deal with those shifts relatively quickly, the five perspectives below don’t come automatically, and they don’t come in some sort of secret leadership rite-of-passage manual either.

• More future, less past. As a leader you are trying to move yourself, your team and your organization towards a desired future.  Yes, we can learn from the past, but we can’t relive or wallow in it.

• More positive, less negative. Everyone believes that enthusiasm is contagious. Here are the twin truths that come from that fact: The opposite of enthusiasm is also contagious, and people tend to “catch” their attitude more easily from their leaders than most others. Unless you want your team working in a negative environment, you must lead from a positive perspective.
  
• ….

- Article

They always find a way

Three Tips for Becoming an Energizer

“Some people become leaders no matter what their chosen path because their positive energy is so uplifting. Even in tough times, they always find a way. They seem to live life on their own terms even when having to comply with someone else’s requirements. When they walk into a room, they make it come alive. When they send a message, it feels good to receive it. Their energy makes them magnets attracting other people. …

Three things characterize the people who are energizers.

1. A relentless focus on the bright side. Energizers find the positive and run with it. …

2. Redefining negatives as positives. Energizers are can-do people. They do not like to stay in negative territory, even when there are things that are genuinely depressing. …

3. Fast response time. Energizers don’t dawdle. Energizers don’t tell you all the reasons something can’t be done. They just get to it. They might take time to deliberate, but they keep the action moving. …”

- Article

Combating Cannibalization

“Cannibalization. It’s an awful word, isn’t it? …It’s a critical topic for many companies. I bet many readers have had a project shut down or seriously altered because of corporate fears of cannibalization — the idea that a lower-priced product might eat away at the market of a higher-priced one. It’s not that the fears are ungrounded. After all, what company would want to replace a high-priced product with a low-priced product? That’s a good way to end up on the corporate chopping block. But companies must come to grips with their cannibalization concerns, because getting overly defensive can curtail powerful growth strategies.

The topic came up on the panel I moderated in Singapore the other week. Shamik Desgupta, the head of Medtronic’s CRDM division in Asia, noted how he has to deal with a strange but real challenge: Medtronic’s core business is, well, amazingly profitable. The company’s gross margins are around 75%, and its net margins after taxes are about 20%. Almost anything looks bad in comparison. So how do you combat cannibalization concerns? Three ideas emerged from the panel discussion. …” – Article