How do you carry the load?

I saw an interesting quote from former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holz this week that got me thinking:

“It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it.”

I think that is very true from a few, important perspectives:

Perception

• Once upon a time, I worked with a product manager who always seemed overwhelmed.  He hurried from meeting to meeting, walked a bit hunched over, didn’t make much eye contact, and just sounded “down” when you tried to talk with him.  His product was doing “OK, but not great” and you could say the same about him.  The way he acted did not give me or others in the company the confidence that he was the one to help us drive great success in the market.  In short, he didn’t seem to be able to carry his load very well.
• In contrast I have worked with people who, even when everything is hitting the fan, come across as “in control” and exhibit a “can do” attitude.  They are better able to bring people into their world and get them to help create a successful outcome.
• Remember – people want to be part of a winning team’s success.  Does your team feel like a winning one?

Attitude

• Are you a “glass half empty,” “glass half full,” or a “you could do with a smaller glass” kind of person?  Your outlook and attitude will color your actions, so the better your attitude the better your results (in my experience).
• To go back to the product manager example, I have also had the pleasure of working with product managers who sought opportunity at every turn – even competitive losses – and managed to drive a successful business against the odds.  How?  A great attitude, hard work, and a compelling vision.  If that’s doesn’t describe you, maybe you’re in the wrong role.

Belief

• Underlying all of this is whether you believe you can succeed or not, which is rooted in whether you believe in yourself.  Do you?  It’s OK to be afraid, but you need to be on your own team – no matter what.
• If you believe in yourself but don’t believe in what you’re doing, it’s time to switch to something you do believe in.

Remember:  when you interact with people, you typically either add energy or drain energy during the interaction.  Which describes you?  What can you do to recognize when you’re draining the energy from the room?  What can you do to up the level of positive energy you emit?

If you aren't in the game, you'll never win

A friend of mine shared a video with me on "famous failures" (see below, or click this link).  As many of us move into setting goals for 2010, I found it to be very inspiring.

Some things to think about for this year:

• How are you allowing others to limit you or keep you from achieving great things?
• What risks can you take that would tap into your passion and strengths?
• Are you being ambitious or persistent enough?
• Who can coach or mentor you to help you bring out your best?
• What things are you doing now that feel like a waste of your time and talents, and how can you stop doing them?

Happy new year!  And make sure you are in the game in 2010.

Nail it or fail it?

"A small thing you nail can be better than a big thing you fail."
-- James B. Johnson

I was in a meeting the other day and we were discussing some objectives for a new team that is forming, and Jim (my CEO) said the line above.  He has been quite effective in getting our company to increase our success in both large and small things, so I tend to listen to what he says.  As many of us begin to make plans and set lofty goals for 2010 (personally and professionally) I thought this quote was worth sharing.

The balance can be tricky - I know of many times when I have set some seemingly impossible goals, only to one day discover I've achieved them.  But I can think of many more lofty goals that I never got done.

Making the impossible happen

So what's the difference?  I'd say the successful "impossible goals" that were accomplished in spite of their 'impossibleness' had a few things in common:

• Heartfelt commitment.  Each of the impossible goals that got done was something I deliberately committed to, far beyond just lip service and platitudes.
• Sustained passion.  These goals also tended to be things I could not only get excited about, but I could stay passionate about.
• Engaged others.  I think this is linked to the sustained passion - I am good at evangelizing the things I'm passionate about, and that's when I recruit others to my cause.
• Clarity of desired outcome.  This is not always what it seems - these outcomes are specific, but not in a checklist sort of way.  For me, the best outcomes are framed in terms of what it will feel and 'be' like when we are successful.
• A good idea of how to get there.  It's kind of like David Allen talks about in his "Getting Things Done" model - you won't be successful until you can see yourself doing it.  That doesn't mean you have all the answers, but it does mean you have a good idea of some of the things you need to do to get the answers.

Get your wins along the way

The interesting aspect of Jim's quote above is that you need to feel like you can win.  The art here is to set at least some goals that are challenging, but that have a high probability of getting done.  If you never win, you never feel like a winner, and you can create an unhealthy dynamic within your team.

I've seen lots of sports teams where it took one good win to turn the tide from a losing record to a winning one - there is something very powerful in the psychology of even a small win.

This is true at many levels:

• As managers, part of our job is to help our teams feel challenged, but to have enough wins along the way that they feel like winners. 
• As team members, we need to hold our teams accountable to blending the possible with the impossible.
• As parents, we need to help our kids learn to set goals that stretch them but allow them to taste success on a regular basis.
• As individuals, we need to set our own goals with the same philosophy. 

It's a delicate - but very important - balance.

How do you approach this challenge?  Any best practices (or hard-won lessons) to share?

The Market Has Changed. Have You?

If you're involved in selling anything in today's economy, you know that priorities, business drivers, and competition are very different than they were a year or two ago.  So, what's a sales professional to do?

Author Paul D'Souza knows where you're coming from.  As an experienced sales guy he has done a lot of the analysis for you and his book, "The Market Has Changed - Have You?" is just what you might need to develop your own strategy to adapt to the new market dynamics.

Paul's book takes you through 25 steps exemplifying what he refers to as the "Wha-Do" sales philosophy (apparently, "Wha-Do" means "The Way of Harmony" in Japanese).  This philosophy is all about creating leverage through people (relationships) and applying repeatable principles and business practices.

(Paul has more on the Wha-Do philosophy on his site)

A solid foundation

A lot of the concepts Paul brings to bear are rooted in things you've heard before - setting goals, understanding your motivation, setting out a plan, developing discipline in how you execute, etc.  But a couple of aspects are different in this book.

First, Paul comes at this from the perspective of a sales person.  If you're involved in selling, you know that you hear "no" more often than you hear a "yes" so it's vital that you have clarity of purpose and a compelling reason to keep driving until you get another "yes."  The methods Paul exposes in this book will "snap in" to your selling workflow pretty easily without feeling unnatural or fluffy.

Second, this is as much a workbook as it is a reading book.  The book is filled with worksheets, cues, and examples to enable you to go from a cerebral understanding of the material well into the next step of documenting and personalizing the content.  In other words, if you really follow the process and use the worksheets provided in the book, you'll have your own plan - not just a bunch of new ideas.

It's about what you bring to the table

I think Paul's methods work because they tap into your inner strengths and motivations, but they are also anchored in creating clear and compelling value for your customers.  By design, this will drive you to better understand your customers and why they buy so you can increase the odds that your approach and message will resonate with them.

They also help bring you beyond your "one against the world" view and tap into your colleagues, your mentors, and even your customers themselves to increase your success.

This is a compelling read and well worth your time if you're a sales or marketing professional looking for an advantage. 

But this book is not just for hardcore sales people.  It will also help anyone who relies on relationships in their job, such as doctors, dentists, personal trainers, retailers, investment bankers, business development, alliances people, and more.

Check it out, and start adapting to the new reality of the market.

Be Careful with (and accountable to) your customers

Recently, someone shared a video with me from a guy who traveled on United Airlines but had his guitar broken by their baggage handlers.  He tried to get them to resolve it but they wouldn't.  So, he created a catchy song and video called "United Breaks Guitars" and put it on YouTube.  It has now been viewed over 6 million times as I write this (and the sequel, "United Breaks Guitars Song 2," has been viewed over 500,000 times).

The moral?  Be good to your customers - and, when you screw up, take responsibility for it and try to make it right.

By the way - if you want the "back story" on this incident, the guy has also put it on his blog.  It sounds like United eventually came around (somewhat) from the saga told here, but it could have been much better for their image if they'd just paid to have the guy's guitar fixed after they allowed it to be broken during the baggage handling process.