Rockstars, Rebels and Rogues

The business environment is moving so quickly today it is often difficult to identify where focus and discipline need to be applied to achieve the organizations vision. Throughout my experience, in my career, speaking to mentors and gaining insight from gurus there are three types of professionals in any organization today – Rockstars, Rebels and Rogues. These archetypes are not necessarily new, but understand that two of the three have both positive and negative characteristics.
If you are not one of these archetypes then you are on the periphery and not realizing your full potential. Let’s start by looking at the apex archetype – Rockstars.

“You have to have a big vision and take very small steps to get there. You have to be humble as you execute but visionary and gigantic in terms of your aspiration. In the Internet industry, it's not about grand innovation, it's about a lot of little innovations: every day, every week, every month, making something a little bit better”.
- Jason Calacanis

Rock stars in music, business and in life are constantly evolving and challenging themselves to realize their full potential. They are the future leaders and visionaries that will help innovate the organization. Their focus is not just on themselves they are focused on developing others as well as themselves. Rockstars tap into experts across and outside their own sphere of influence, or organization, to help fuel new ideas and serve as sources of inspiration.


Their curiosity helps drive different perspectives and understanding of burgeoning technology and how that applies to trends impacting them personally and organizationally. They creative personal narratives of taking in new information and technology to drive personal goals and behaviors. Be and stay tech current or be passed by, no one has time to catch people up on what is driving technology – you have to fight to stay current.


We all know that early in our lives we learn how to be good at school – in the real world, we quickly learned that you have to over deliver on the assignment - You need to blow the freakin’ doors off expectations. It is about volunteering for things to stretch your comfort zone and imagination. Rockstars challenges themselves to perform at a higher level – it is not about the competition it is about them competing against themselves. They know what success is and they are constantly challenging convention.


In this type of environment, most employees don’t raise their hands to offer suggestions or new ideas “out of turn” because they fear they will be branded as troublemakers. Those brave enough to do so anyway are often burned in the process, become dispirited, and/or resort to bad rebel behavior.

Perspectives on Rockstars and Key Qualities
What is it that makes a Rockstar high achiever? Is it luck, looks, intelligence, talent, dedication or bone crushing hard work? All of these things figure into the equation – they all make a difference. But we all know intelligent, talented, hard-working people who do not consider themselves very successful or even happy. And we know people who are not exceptionally bright but seem happy and successful right?

You have the power to change your habits – to acquire new skills and fully use the skills you now have. You can improve your performance, your productivity, and feel the reward in what you accomplish. While some people gravitate to the monetary elements of success there is so much more out there - if the monetary aspect is your only focus then the feeling of accomplishment will slowly dissipate. If you want to maximize your talents and pure potential - get unreasonable with yourself and get out of the comfort zone. The only way to do this is through small steps in learning how to use your talents.

So there must be something else, some secret to success. Actually there are several secrets to achieving your peak performance – being a Rockstar.  The number one secret is attitude:

• Rockstars have indelible positive attitudes. I have always hired for attitude first, agility then aptitude. One of the most important steps you can take toward achieving your greatest potential in life is to learn to monitor your attitude and its impact on your work performance, relationships and everyone around you.
• Elevate their Personal Brand - Bringing their best self to the role every day.
• Willpower - succeed at just about anything they try – is largely determined by their own self-image.
• Mindset - Attitude is critical as it shapes the way you perceive the world and the way the world perceives you. Everyone has a choice each day they wake-up to be a motivator of yourself and others or fall into the victim pit where everything and everyone is against you. The mind plays a serious role in your attitude and outlook on life itself. Many of us have behavior patterns today that were programmed into our brains at a very tender age. The loudest and most influential voice you hear is your own inner voice, your self-critic. It can work for or against you, depending on the messages you allow. It can be optimistic or pessimistic. It can wear you down or cheer you on.

What’s your perspective?
What are other differentiators of high performers or Rockstars – let me know?

Release the Hounds

Why do people limit themselves through anxiety and fear? Too many people limit themselves through fear, through your opinions and actions.  Anxiety in contrast arises purely from our own thoughts, not external reality.  

 

Limitations are both physical and mental, mostly mental – your mindset governs your potential and unfortunately people often relegate themselves to negative thoughts.  These emotions are self-limiting your potential and our mind plays a significant role as negative thoughts keep us from doing what we really want. I am susceptible to negative thoughts, just as everyone is, they are hounds constantly hunting to expose your anxieties or weaknesses at the most inconvenient times.

 

Changing your perspectives and your mindset influences your attitude and outlook.  Self-limiting, negative behaviors to avoid in your pursuit of shaping your ethos are the following:

1. Stop Using Hope as a Strategy – There is no substitute for action, hope and wishful thinking cannot be mistaken for action.  Start to start, do something that drives outcomes by looking at the entire process to achieve the objective or goal. People need to detach from fantasies that may relieve them momentarily in a guise of action, but there is no basis for achieving the desired outcome set forth. I have written before that massive goals require massive action, I cannot take credit for that phrase, but it has resonated with many of the people I speak with.  It’s critical to take bold action toward your visions, in order to create success.  This can only be accomplished if you are grounded in reality – breaking down these large goals into digestible chunks.  Spend each morning to contemplate your short-term and long-term goals identify one action you can immediately take today to realize those goals.
2. No Free Rides – Seeking for easy answers and entitlements is a negative mindset high performing professionals avoid.  They know how to keep negativity out of their mindset, they figure out how to get the help they need without entitlements.  There is a reciprocity that exists in any relationship – these people do not expect something for nothing.  They have an objective approach to anything or anyone they come into contact with - they treat others impartially and fairly and know they expect the same.
3. Stop the Victim Mentality – People view the world in limitations and barriers versus an opportunistic outlook on life and new ways to solve problems.  This type of thinking is can be summarized simply that the world is not fair and why is this happening to me. Being a victim lends itself well to the concept that everyone that is happening to you is outside your control and everyone else’s fault. High performers look at the world with eyes wide open and understand the challenges associated with what is going on with their goals and objectives.  High performers fail fast and learn from the mistakes. Personal accountability comes into play where you must anticipate variables and be quick to address having a plan.

 

Release yourself from hell hounds of anxiety - While we can’t always control how we feel, we do have the power to choose how we think and act.

 

What are other sources that “limit personal potential”?

Battle Cry - Charge

“Charge” – Creating your own battle cry to discover your personal potential.

The One Thing is a repetitive concept in my vocabulary – “holding yourself accountable”. How will you activate or action your purpose on a daily basis? Finding your own battle cry to charge yourself up activating your goals and purpose.  How can this be accomplished with conflicting priorities in your own life – discover your personal potential.

 

Understanding what your purpose is in life is a journey of self-discovery that encompasses both personal and professional goals. The concept has been the topic of movies, articles and a myriad of other media platforms. While many people relate the concept of One Thing to the City Slicker movie of the 1990s, it is more than finding your purpose. 

 

People instinctively know what matters most. The objective is to get out of your comfort zone and stretch. Ask for help in your journey from family, friends and colleagues.   Planning does not require a great deal of time, just the discipline of holding yourself accountable for your own success or failure.  I have used the phrase start-to-start as a catalyst to get moving.  

 

Think about this, if you have a goal short-term or long-term what is the ONE THING you can do today to advance that goal forward?

 

Start in the morning, the weekend prior and plan out your actions – be consistent in your planning time.  Quiet your mind from all of the racing thoughts that percolate throughout your life.  This time is truly for you and seeing yourself for what you have the potential to become.  This is not the time for anxiety to come knocking at your door, where second-guessing sends you streaming for your old comfort zones. People who doubt themselves, lack trust in their own intuition find themselves far from where they want to be. 

 

Many people often confuse a big checklist or to-do list as a plan of attack (well actually it is part of it), but it starts with your mindset. I’m not concerned with avoiding distraction every minute of every day.  Your focus does not mean perfection, perfection is elusive – search for excellence and the discipline to drive your actions on a daily basis.

 

 

Baby Powder

George Bernard Shaw said that “People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it”.

There are some wake up calls that people have throughout life – and it is a signal to take accountability for action be it mental, physical or spiritual.  It is not about being ultra-organized and over-committed to a task list – but rather it is truly about holding yourself accountable for your own goals.  If you are not on that path take out some baby powder douse some on your hand and smack yourself into reality.  The baby powder is meant for effect since the talc will cause a prolonged sting on the skin.  The reference can also be compared to an infantile view of your own personal potential and perceived limitations.

 

We have all experienced ruts, now is the time to get out and hold yourself accountable. If you can’t get anything done, you need to confront these seven harsh truths that reveal why you procrastinate.

 

Shiny Objects -  Toys and technology interrupt you constantly. People like to complain about how “distracted” they are, and most of them aren’t willing to accept that they are responsible for that reality.

Whether it is texts, the number of to-dos on a list somewhere or the number of emails you need to respond to – you need to take prioritize based on your goals at work or life in general.  No time make time through prioritization and communication. If you feel overwhelmed, you need to deal with the fact that it is your fault – stings a little I know, I have been guilty of that and I know many of friends, family and co-workers face the challenge daily. 

I knew a person a long time ago who had Sunday Night Syndrome, freaking out about what she needed to do during that week. After some level of venting she moved from complaint to commitment in less than thirty minutes. With that story it is a great idea to get quiet with yourself, no cell-phones or television, and pre-game your day or week – what do I need to do in order to achieve my goals this week.  Take stock in yourself by holding a high level focus session at a set time every week and every day if possible.

 

Feats of Strength - You consume your headspace with things you have no control over.  You create more stress in your life by falling down this slippery slope.  The self-inflicted anxiety it causes will only lead to regret and more energy spent on things you have zero control over.  If you do have some modicum of control over the situation – do something, don’t complain do something – anything.

 

Camaraderie versus Focus - Everyone needs friends, co-workers and family to feel valued and part of a something larger than themselves. While it’s great to have camaraderie, you can’t expect to achieve anything worth talking about if you spend all of your time with other people. Highly productive people know they must spend the occasional day or night working alone if they want to achieve their goals.  Stop avoiding what needs to get done and plan your day with and without other people.

 

Another distraction Multi-tasking - Focus is a skill that is in short supply especially today where alerts are common place, emails are rampant and now smart-watches will steal even more mindshare from the day, if you let it. Everyone is so obsessed with doing more things that they never stop to consider the fact that it might be more productive to do fewer things more effectively. One question I had for my son, just this week, how efficient is it to stop writing your essay every five minutes to answer a text that isn’t urgent? How successful do you think you will be if you’re so accustomed to distraction, that you don’t even know what concentration feels like? During your weekly focus session with yourself try to define what concentration feels like.

 

Random Acts of Mental Sabotage - Other random excuses why you cannot get anything done - your problems were caused by other people.  While some aspects of this could be true based on work and your personal capacity to accomplish new tasks and asks, you need to employ your daily and weekly prioritization and communicate.  If you get upset when another person gets ahead instead of you, then I am not sure if any of this post will help or even a larger container of baby powder.  Look — even if you deserved the position, how productive is it to gossip about another person and how does that impact your personal brand or ethos?  Look for different ways of making other people successful every day and you will be investing in your own personal potential.

 

Accountability and action are inextricably linked whether you like it or not.  I believe venting in certain situations has a purpose, but just really wastes a great deal of energy – your personal energy.  Hold yourself accountable, by keeping focus on the actions below and a proverbial container of baby powder at the ready.

 

• Get Quiet - Take stock in yourself by holding a high level focus session at a set time every week and every day if possible.
• Wasting Energy and Feats of Strength - If you do have some modicum of control over the situation – do something, don’t complain do something – anything.
• Get out of Your Comfort Zone - Stop avoiding what needs to get done and plan your day with and without other people.
• Stop Multi-tasking – Define and experience what concentration feels like
• Don’t Sabotage Yourself - Look for different ways of making other people successful every day and you will be investing in your own personal potential.

 

If anyone has other ideas to stay focused and hold yourself accountable, I would welcome your contribution.

 

Call the Ball - Career aspirations start with being authentic

Managing your career is based on a combination of aspiration, inspiration and attitude.  You are charged with manifesting your own destiny.  All our lives are products of the many small decisions we make. How you spend a minute can dictate how you spend an hour and eventually how you spend your hours determines whether you will reach your goals. An opportunity lost is lost forever and ultimately, self-control lets you relax because it removes stress and enables you to conserve willpower for the important challenges.

 

More and more people are looking for their purpose in the world and in the workplace looking for validation as a sign of life. People want to be heard, but more importantly they want to know that their contributions are being noticed and not taken for granted.  Not for the sake of attention, but more so because they want to know that their skill sets are still relevant and useful and that they are making a difference to advance the organizations they serve.   With training and professional development budget cut-backs in recent years, people have had to start investing in themselves as concerns grow about where their capabilities best fit in their organizations and what their futures hold.

 

At the same time, leaders are trying to make their people feel more secure in order to maintain consistency, conscious that if too much disruption leaks out into the workplace, there is risk of losing high-performers which is challenging to replace from the impact of time, lost intellectual capital and cost. In this ever changing “war on talent”, landscape, leaders need to think differently about how to keep their teams on track. 

 

They must become more intuitive, diverting from the traditional ways of leading that have become too predictable and uninspiring. Many leaders are out of touch and disconnected from their employees, focusing solely on their own personal agendas.  

 

Where it becomes most apparent, are when leaders try to use a “one-size-fits-all” approach to earn trust, build loyalty and inspire team and individual performance. Leaders must understand that in today’s new workplace, there does not exist a single formula to inspire employees to perform better.   Rather, it’s about how to maximize all the components in order to create hundreds of formulas that provide long-term value, continuity and impact, but are most importantly authentic.    Organizations have a responsibility, but so do the people who comprise  the organization.  The mutually beneficially relationship between employer and employee has gone by the wayside like work life balance.  These are semantics and you need to be authentic and true to yourself, leading your own career, in order to realize your full potential in any organization.

     

 

Inside Out - The haze of commoditization

Inside Out - Breaking through the Haze of Commoditization

The business of professional services is to take away problems and or capture benefits.  At the center of professional services is that they work to prepare clients for the future, identify new opportunities, anticipating adversities controlling what can be controlled.

 

The main objective of any professional service marketing organization is to establish a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship with their clients.  This is where experience based marketing and positioning comes into play.  The level of interactions through a number of different endpoints and platforms need to be consistent in order to break through the haze of commoditization.

 

Firms Need Differentiated Strategies for Their Brand to Stand Out - One of the biggest challenges for professional service firms is category parity. Surprisingly many firms lack differentiation not because of their brand necessarily, but because they all have virtually the same business and operating model, the same strategies, and the same mission. The root of the problem with professional services is not brand differentiation but business differentiation.

 

Success of professional services is based equally on the quality of the client relationship and on the quality of the solution to a performance, regulatory or legal issue. But most of all the challenge lies in the fact that advice is often intangible. While it may appear as self-serving, the role of marketing plays a significant role in the context of standing out. Professional services are intangible by the nature of services, so they must excel at branding, marketing and such other processes as business development and knowledge management.

 

Successfully branded organizations base their brand on a core positioning that is uniquely own-able and represents a distinct attribute or capability. This clear definition is supported and reinforced by everything the firm does – requiring all professionals and staff to live the brand every day. This internal dimension of branding is critical to product, services and professional services is becoming top of mind with many organizations.

 

Operationalizing the brand, may appear to be a lofty management consulting term, but think about the implications.  What does it mean to operationalize the brand, to live the brand? It involves the alignment of the brand and its values, long-term strategy, human resources, operations, internal communications, and more, to ensure the right behavior is in place. Obviously branding cannot solve every business performance issue and cannot be applied in all situations, but the transformation of the brand must start from Inside Out.

Buckle Up - Breaking through Legacy Perceptions

Evolving Legacy Perceptions & Future Expectations of the Professional Services Marketing

The contemporary CMO and marketer can no longer be just a brand ambassador and storyteller; they must also have a deep understanding of marketing technology.  There are several market and psychological shifts occurring in professional services and I would dare to say that globally were are evolving towards a services based economy:

 

Creative Storytelling – Too many brands, specifically professional services brands continue to fail at persuasively placing what they have to offer inside the lives of the people and operations of people within organizations they are trying to reach. A lot of that seems to come down to a simple gap in the alignment of priorities: while marketing teams contemplate data and speak energetically about really understanding their buyers as individuals, those interests are not reflected as clearly as they should be in what they end up saying.

 

So while organizations focus on what they are doing and think about that quantitatively and in terms of deliverables (because that is how they are judged internally), clients focus on how the brand or experience makes them feel and which of the many brand options available to them feels most like them (because that’s how they make their decisions). The role of the CMO is evolving at a rapid rate and equally for marketing professionals – the shift in digital, emotional space of your brand, developing conversations and experiences.

 

Integrated Experience - We can debate functions but in a hyper-connected digital world, everything that a business does — the entire “experience that it delivers” from internal employees to suppliers and customers — is now the scope of marketing. How are we as marketers shaping the conversation and our positioning in the marketplace? 

Technology is saturating the discipline—Marketing has more software intertwined in its mission today than any other profession.  Many CMOs have larger technology budgets than CIOs due to managing every interaction the brand has with customers. Using these capabilities requires new approaches to brand management and marketing strategy — as well as new competencies across the Marketing organization.

Branding is not linear anymore — it is not just what you say to your clients, but what your clients are saying to each other about your brand. Most importantly we must ensure brand strategies must be authentic with the audience whether it is transactional, strategic or ethereal.

When are we going to start to demand the professionalization of the Marketing discipline?

 

 

Kickstart - In Search of Personal Motivation

Kick Start - In Search of Personal Motivation


Everyone wants a happy beginning and ending in their journeys and activities, but guess what – life is not perfect.  The subtle art of KICKING A** is about kicking your own a** with a personal smack down.  Not about negative speak to yourself, but about committing yourself to a broader plan of attack.  Complaints and venting are often cathartic, but you need to move from “complaint to commitment”. There are times where we get so caught up in what everyone else is doing and telling us that we need to do that we stop listening to the signals that our bodies are sending us. If something feels wrong, it probably is.  Sometimes the stress that we place on ourselves for results, in and of itself, is enough to make us sick and unsuccessful in our pursuits. We get so obsessed with trying to ‘feel’ something that we can actually create that effect or symptom.

I’ve done it to myself and I see it over and over again in the misguided and futile attempts of people who are not committed – this is small stuff and obsessing about it is sucking the life out of you. It’s not okay to spend your life caught up in the idea that life stinks because you are not making the right amount of money, have a specific title, weigh a certain amount or because you look a certain way, have this number of friends on social media platforms. Until you start to know yourself – where you are and for who you are – you aren’t going to find happiness.

 

So the fine art of KICKING A**, is about motivating yourself to live and be the best you that you can be – because that’s enough.

 

It is true that that hard work doesn’t always equal success. Some people work really hard, but fail. They tried and didn’t succeed.  The simple fact is that people tried and there is a subtle difference in what I just referenced – “hard work doesn’t always guarantee success, but working harder than anyone else opens unique opportunities and insights if you are paying attention”.

 

While it may not appear to many people that know me that my confidence is not based purely on my innate talents, it is based  on the fact that I try to work harder than anyone else.  No one is going to come out of the shadows and hand you things. A good friend and associate joked around with me that he would have to get up at 3:45AM to get a jump start on me – get ahead of my morning emails, rants, celebrations and personal expectations.  The fact is he was as passionate about the day as I was! It is about passion and jumping, crawling, careening out of sleep to meet the day represents an opportunity. Kicking A** is about sucking the marrow out of life and realizing that every day you have an opportunity to be at your personal best – seize it as fortune favors the bold.

Early riser or night owl doesn’t really matter it is about finding the morsel of motivation – if you can’t find a way, make one!

Differentiation – Waiting for the Perfect Solution

The concept of being unique of different is far more important today than it was ten years ago. The key to successful marketing and competing is differentiation. Our global economy is in a constant state of disruption based on advances in technology, speed of the consumer, changes in regulations and socio-economic and political instability. All of these changes are signaling that the shape of the global market is moving towards a services based economy.

With the enormous competition markets today are driven by choice - your targeted clients and customers have too many choices, all of which can be fulfilled instantly. Choosing among multiple options is always based on differences, implicit or explicit, so it is paramount to differentiate in order to provide the reason and factors to select your product or service. Differentiation is one of the most important strategic and tactical activities in which companies must constantly engage and shape to outperform your competition.

 

Your differentiation strategy is an integrated set of action designed to produce or deliver goods or services that customers perceive as being different in ways that are important to them. It call for you to sell non-standardized products to customers with unique needs.

 

This requires challenging convention and thinking creatively to yield a focused differentiation strategy. It requires BREAKINGTHROUGH!

Breaking through requires creativity and curiosity – the ability to explore beyond the normal confines of linear thinking.  This means going outside traditional barriers of expected ideas and solutions that have already been brainstormed or developed. 

• Just do it – Take a lesson from Nike’s mantra and have the courage to do what’s needed. 
• Being creative ultimately is about being resourceful in thought, mindset and execution.
• Creativity is, and had been a resourceful tool for getting out of tight spots, and it undoubtedly had a place in the lives of artists looking for their next inspiration.  

Waiting for perfect – I frequently learned that in a world of titles, tools and all kinds of other associations, there is accepted convention that unless you have permission then trying to share creative ideas with others may meet with disapproval. 

Don’t wait for perfect - Consider the unspoken conditions to choose between feeling that permission and approval must be sought before deciding how to create something in 5 Steps (Reserve 30-minutes to quickly drive a process and do not get caught up in looking for perfect).

 

• Background and Context – take 2-3 minutes to frame the problem
• Context – What is the Reason or Relevance in solving the problem?
• Define – The information to include
• Hypothesis – Outline three solutions and considerations
• Conclusion - Follow-up or Questions you expect to be asked or that you might ask

 

This simple approach can drive creative solutions by forcing yourself to think differently.  New ideas are not produced in the confines of traditional or conventional thinking.  In order to breakthrough – don’t wait for permission frame out the problem and drive multiple solutions.

Everyone Wants to Rule the World

Everyone wants to rule their own world and have control. Everyone wants a happy ending, but guess what – life is not perfect.  The subtle art of influence is about kicking yourself into gear to inspire movement and motivation.  It cannot be about negative commentary to yourself, but about committing yourself to a broader plan of attack.  

Complaints and vetting are sometimes cathartic, but you need to move from “complaint to commitment”.  Commit to a plan and execute using other friends, advocates and stakeholders in the process. Sometimes we get so caught up in what everyone else is doing and telling us that we need to do that we stop listening to the signals that our bodies are sending us. If something feels wrong, it probably is.  

Sometimes the stress that we place on ourselves for results, in and of itself, enough to make us sick and unsuccessful in our endeavors. We get so obsessed with trying to ‘feel’ an effect from something that we can actually create that effect or symptom. I’m not joking. I’ve done it to myself and I see it over and over again in the misguided and futile attempts – this is small stuff and obsessing about it is sucking the life out of you. It’s NOT okay to spend your life caught up in the idea that life sucks because you are not making the right amount of money, have a specific title, weigh a certain amount or because you look a certain way. Until you start to truly value yourself – where you are and for who you are – you aren’t going to find happiness.

 

So the fine art of influence is about motivating yourself to live and be the best you that you can be – because that’s enough. What about working harder than anyone else? While it may not appear to many people that know me, my confidence is not based purely on my innate talents, it is based on fact that I try to work harder than anyone else.  A good friend and associate joked around with me that he would have to get up at 3:45AM to get a jump start on me – get ahead of my morning emails, rants, celebrations and personal expectations.  The reality is that is when everything kicks into gear for me.  Let me reiterate the concept “for me”.  This is about motivating yourself to suck the marrow out of life and living every day like it is your last or think of living one life in one day.  

 

It is true that that hard work doesn’t always equal success. Some people work very hard, but fail for a myriad of reasons. They tried and didn’t succeed.  The simple fact is that people tried...and there is a subtle difference in what I just referenced – “hard work doesn’t always guarantee success, but working harder than anyone else opens unique opportunities and insights if you are paying attention”.

Happiness Quotient - Art of is,policies when faced with complexity

Good discussion with a person I mentor this morning. Focus was on the complexity or simplicity of happiness in search for the perfect career and life. 

 

Happiness isn’t about where you live or the things you do. It isn’t about being on an impossible mission to do everything, see everywhere, and accomplish everything you ever dreamed - Happiness is a state of mind.

 

How you achieve it is by building a life and finding ways in which to enjoy “the moment” rather than dwelling on all the things you could be doing or the places you could be visiting.  Remember that all we ever have is right now. Forget about the past. Don’t worry about the future. Take each day as it comes, and most of all, stop thinking that the grass is greener, because it never really is.

You own your your life and live each day with focus and passion - stay and focus on the moment.

Commitment to simplify and improve professional services marketing

How are you breaking through the legacy perceptions of professional services marketing or business development? If organizations are redefining their roles in a disruptive market why aren’t you?

Organizations are in a continual state of reflection, looking for new ways to inspire, lead and shape the right team members to bring the organization's strategy to life battling against a market in near-constant disruption. Audiences are short for time and overloaded with data. A shorter attention span means that brands will need to reflect on the quality of the conversations - these audiences both internal and external want less talk and more quality.

 

Businesses are defining and redefining their marketing focus, responding to the changing role digital, social, marketing technology and content plays in the development and presence of a brand. As a result, professional services marketers are seeing an increasing amount of specialists carving out a niche, but that will require a significant influx of creativity.

 

Professional Services Marketing is in a phase of massive transformation led by empowered clients.  To the extent that marketing knows the client and the market, my personal opinion marketing should be in the forefront of driving the change. Perhaps it’s not yet happening across peers and competitive organizations. Some organizations insist they’re different, but they’re deceiving themselves. They’re worried about the future and trying to avoid change. It is happening in the marketplace, so if it hasn’t touched you yet, it will.

 

Thought out many discussions the role marketing is changing as well. Marketing requires imagination and community – I have defined the role of Marketing, as, “creating and extending relevant conversations and experiences that build a halo for the brand while deepening relationships and revenue growth”.  The biggest challenge for any organization is to consider the multitude of business priorities across all product or service lines – take into account that many have competing priorities, then simplify and improve your focus.  

 

How fast “knowledge” is processed, redistributed and employed throughout organization is one of the key differentiators for any professional services firm. You need to harness the collective knowledge of the entire firm then systematically drive this knowledge into every conversation with the markets, market segments and client.  While this is paramount for professional services it provides a framework in structuring conversations around product marketing as well.

 

1       What are the three ideas you have to simplify and improve the most common daily activities?

2       What is the one activity you can need to start doing differently tomorrow to realize one of your ideas?

3       What are the ways in which you can collect and deploy knowledge more effectively in your organization?

4       How can groups articulate marketing value to internal constituencies? Marketers, business development and knowledge support professionals need to stop telling people how good they are at what they do and start solving problems in order to provide value to the organization.

 

Evolving Professional Services Marketing

Professional Services Marketing is in a phase of massive transformation led by empowered clients and knowledgeable markets.  To the extent that marketing knows the client, marketing should be in the forefront of driving the change.  While some may disagree, who else should be aligned to how the brand and organization touches markets, organizations and individuals?

Perhaps it’s not yet happening across peers and competitive organizations. Some organizations insist they’re different, but they’re deceiving themselves. They’re worried about the future and trying to avoid change. It is happening in the marketplace, so if it hasn’t touched you yet, it will. Thinking different about what you can do to break through or become more agile is simply about focus.

 

While it is critical to understand,  the what, why and how things are changing in the market, it is equally critical to understand what is not changing and the rationale supporting.

The four things marketing has always been responsible for haven’t changed:

• Knowing your clients, future targets and the capital markets you serve
• Define what to market and how to market it
• Creating and extending conversations to elevate the brand
• Owning the brand promise

 

The Brand - Great brands make measured choices in four areas:

• What is the brand’s enduring idea?
• What makes the brand different?
• How is the brand primarily experienced?
• Who does the brand serve?

 

Marketing requires imagination and community – I have defined the role of Marketing, as, “creating and extending relevant conversations and experiences that build a halo for the brand while deepening relationships and revenue growth”.  The biggest challenge for any organization is to consider the multitude of business priorities across all product or service lines – take into account that many have competing priorities, then simplify and improve your focus.  multitude of business priorities across all product or service lines – take into account that many have competing priorities, then simplify and improve your focus.  

 

Three questions for Marketing Professionals

• Does anyone know what your organizational brand actually stands for? 
• Do you know what you stand for? 
• Marketers should ask, who are we and what do we want to be?

 

Get Excited about Something!

How are you building optimism in your life day after day.

Waking with dread and negativity only erodes your energy and in not so many words your soul and purpose.  I have used a statement that has served me well in many situations "we need to move from complaint to commitment".  Rather than the random acts of complaining start making a commitment to do something different!

Get charged up about the art of the possible, the fuel of true potential. It is not about another PowerPoint slide presentation it is about action.  The art of influence, urgency and action has alluded many people today and it leads to frustration, stress and illness

Positive Thinkers Cope Better With Stress - When faced with stressful situations, positive thinkers cope more effectively than pessimists. Rather than dwelling on their frustrations or things that they cannot change, positive thinkers will devise a plan of action and ask others for assistance and advice. Pessimists, on the other hand, simply assume that the situation is out of their control and there is nothing they can do to change it.

Optimism Can Improve Your Immunity - We have all seen the research in recent years that your mind can have a powerful effect on your body. Immunity is one area where your thoughts and attitudes can have a particularly powerful influence.

Positive Thinking Is Good for Your Health the Mayo Clinic reports a number of health benefits associated with optimism, including a reduced risk of death from cardiovascular problems, less depression, and an increased lifespan. While doctors are not entirely clear on why positive thinking benefits health, some suggest that positive people might lead healthier lifestyles. By coping better with stress and avoiding unhealthy behaviors, they are able to improve their health and well-being.

Optimism Can Make You More Resilient - Resilience refers to our ability to cope with problems. Resilient people are able to face a crisis or trauma with strength and resolve. Rather than falling apart in the face of such stress, they have the ability to carry on and eventually overcome such adversity. It may come as no surprise to learn that positive thinking can play a major role in resilience. When dealing with a challenge, optimists typically look at what they can do to fix the problem. Instead of giving up hope, they marshal their resources and are willing to ask others for help.

Get excited about the day!

Fight and resist going immediately to your email or social media channels.  If you do that then your day will be dictated by the priorities of others and social media maelstrom that is omnipresent.

Start asking yourself different questions:

What are you excited about doing today or what can you create excitement around?

What are you looking forward to do with a goal and objective something that you are passionate about?

Think about this, the art of influence is more than just about you. Influence - raising people's ambition of who we can be together "true potential of the outcome".  start asking and acting upon questions that build excitement in you and others.

Embrace the Chaos and Fear

Dare to imagine – when you allow yourself to start down the path there will be fear and self doubt.

Henry David Thoreau’s famous quote,  “If one advances confidently in the direction of one's dreams, and endeavors to live the life which one has imagined, one will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

You need to start-to-start and do the thing that you fear and although it may be imperfect and slightly ugly you will have transgressed your limitations.

 

Start small, but start

Identify your fear, let it into your life, just a fraction of it. Allow it to sit there awkwardly and watch as the person you think you are feel it out, back away, circle warily and the re-engage.  Go slowly. Allow yourself to feel intense discomfort, as well as the pleasure personal growth. Approach the chaos with an attitude of self-care, not lack of caution.

Then plan your next move knowing you’ll take care of yourself every step of the way.

While some people say I create chaos, you have to invite it into your life to breakdown the limitations and wall you have set for yourself.  You can discover who else you could be and you are.

 

Life is not the problem, expectations are

I was thinking about a friend of mine who is so incredibly talented and creative, but has yet to focus on the right things.  Through this conversation I finally realized, looking back at my life, that every time I struggled to deal with the hand I’d been dealt, it was because my expectations were clashing with reality. I had created a picture in my head of how life should be and when things didn’t turn out, I didn’t cope.

It wasn’t life that was the problem; it was my unrealistic expectations. This is not to say that you should not set big bold hairy goals. I had thought that being idealistic and striving for a goal was a good thing, but it wasn’t leading to a contented and fulfilled life. It is never a straight line, much like creativity the journey is more important than the destination.

The only way to resolve them is to face up to the situation you are actually in and accept it. This does not mean you should not have any expectations but if we want to be content, we need to accept what is occurring during hard times while trusting for something better in the future.

Instead of trying to change the world, change your focus. When we are faced with the challenges of life we are predominantly configured at seeing what is not there versus all of the things that are present.  Do you ever catch yourself in only seeing one side of life?  If you focus on the things you don't have in life you will never have enough - I think I may be channeling my parents a with this last statement.

Understand that being grateful is difficult if you are focus on the wrong things in life. You and only you can discover that and I am by no means dictating what you should or should not do - I am speaking from the wisdom and guidance of multiple influences in my career and life.

No pain no gain, well... Perhaps in certain situations. Embrace the pain and then take control and focus. Embrace the entire experience, both the good parts and the gaps.  We have the ability to choose a more empowering set of beliefs and meaning for what was happening to you. This will allow you to discover new possibilities that may have been elusive before.

The irony about accepting the situations we find ourselves in is that once we have, we are able to make decisions and take action that moves us toward the place we truly want to be. We stop feeling like a victim of circumstance and more like we own our destiny.

A little bit of Column A a little bit of column B

The disruption in today's market environment is not a comforting thought, but it is the reality. So this requires a little from column A. "creativity" and a little from column B "strategy".

Focusing on creating solutions requires the practicality of being creative and collaborating - single contributors beware! Creativity is complex bringing different concepts together to fuel a hypothesis or weave a story. You can't do it on your own and if you believe that it is possible then guess again.

The scary part is shifting your perspective and getting out of your proverbial comfort zone. I know that many people are absolutely polarized in any type of change. Shifting your mindset that anyone can be creative may require a huge leap - jump!

Today challenge yourself, identify and act in the one thing you can do to make the impossible...possible?

Welcome to the Jungle - Meetings

While many of the images surrounding this title focus on the 80’s metal band, the MTV video illustrated an individual downfall into imagery of the city’s decay and debauchery. We let me take into another world of inertia and one of the biggest productivity killers – meetings.

People need forums to make decisions in today’s organizations – yes a gross generalization, but you hear it all the time…”I am slammed with meetings today”, “have to run to a meeting”.  Modern meetings have devolved based on a myriad of things and the cultural dynamic of different organizations.  There are books on this topic and it is curious that we still don’t get it.  Hey I don’t practice this as much as I should and I understand the dynamics.

Meetings and planning for meetings have turned into psychological warfare – planning strategies, key messaging, end results and action plans.

There are several basic elements to any meeting

• Why is this meeting necessary – what’s the purpose?
• What decision needs to be made during this meeting or immediately following?
• Everyone in the meeting should have a definitive role
• The agenda should be crystal clear and a narrative to get to the decision that needs to be made
• Supporting materials should support the agenda

 

It’s a Trap! - Ask that materials that would typically have been presented during a meeting be sent out to participants at least 24 hours in advance so people can familiarize themselves with the content. Here is the trap…does everyone read the material before they get to the meeting?  Eliminate the presenting and get into the discussion.  Decks, Presentations and other fun descriptions can be used for the reliance on “PowerPoint or Slideware”.  The build and they will come is not a reality.

 

It’s all about the PreGame – Although people are most likely nauseated by my repeated reference of preparation, what are the alternatives, “going in cold”? Ask yourself what you can do better based on knowledge of the audience, key messages, focus on the narrative, what?  Yes it’s about the pregame,. But also raising the game!

 

Key Practices:

Define the objective of the meeting - Asking one simple question at the onset of the meeting, "What is the objective of this meeting," can prove invaluable in terms of ensuring everyone is on the same page and focused on keeping the meeting on point, rather than allowing it to devolve down endless rabbit-holes unrelated to the matter at hand.  Restate the five basic components above

 

Facilitate – “One person drives” - The primary role of this point person is to ensure the conversation remains relevant, that no one person ends up dominating the discussion, and that adjunct discussions that arise during the course of the meeting are taken offline.

 

Simplicity in Language - Take the time to define semantics (and first principles). It never ceases to amaze me how often meetings go off the rails by virtue of semantic differences. Words have power, and as such, it's worth investing time upfront to ensure everyone is on the same page in terms of what certain keywords, phrases, and concepts mean to the various constituencies around the table.  Preparation to keep things simple and straight-forward.

 

Chapter 2 - Assign someone to take notes - This should not be the equivalent of a court stenographer documenting every word uttered, but rather someone who is well versed in the meeting's objectives and who has a clear understanding of context that can capture only the most salient points. This not only avoids multiple people recalling one event in multiple ways, but also creates a plan of record for what was discussed and agreed to. This can also be particularly valuable for invitees who weren't able to make the meeting.

 

Immediate Follow-up 24 Hours - Summarize key action items, deliverables, and points of accountability. Don't end the meeting without summarizing key conclusions, action items, and points of accountability for delivering on next steps. This summary is usually the first thing to suffer if the meeting has run long and people start running off to their next scheduled event. However, it's arguably the single most important thing you'll do at the meeting (and is ostensibly the reason for the meeting to begin with). Have the discipline or don’t have the meeting in the first place.

Start to start having better meetings today

 

 

 

Start to Start or you can just wait for Perfect

"Start to Start" -  Start your journey, your education today, if you are not moving and learning you are stagnating.

Every success story in history can be traced back to a small first step. So many people look for the perfect and the reality there is no such thing.  Starting small makes you very likely to start, and good things happen when people start.

Then repeat then...

• Practice
• Practice
• Practice

Consider the knowledge you already have — the things you really know you can do. They are the things you have done over and over; practiced them so often that they became second nature. Every normal person knows how to walk and talk. But he could never have acquired this knowledge without practice. For the young child can’t do the things that are easy to older people without first doing them over and over and over.

Most of us quit on the first or second attempt. But the person who is really going to be educated, who intends to know, is going to stay with it until it is done.

Just start and stop the procrastination - the repeat and practice, practice, practice.

Click, Click, Boom!

Click, Click, Boom! - If you are not creating new problems or opportunities what are you doing?

Every year comes a healthy dose of anticipated anxiety. Will I reach my goals? What are my goals and why are they my goals? Goals and resolutions I treat one in the same. Go big and bold and never stop pushing yourself. How can you make your resolutions a reality?

 

Is there anything we can do to “guarantee” that our resolutions stay alive and eventually come true? The short answer is yes -but requires creativity, discipline and focus. Write them down every day, list the actions needed and just do it. Need help ask for help, buddy up, and hold each other accountable for your actions.

 

Kevin this is for you - no matter how much complaining and variations of excuses why something couldn't get done - it's all on you, your actions, and your behaviors.

 

• Focus - Select the goal, break them down into smaller objectives and tasks and measure your progress.
• Creativity - There are so many different ways to address opportunities and challenges in front of you. What are three different ways you can address the task at hand? Write them down and select one.
• Discipline - Write your goals down every day and reserve time in your schedule.

 

While people have said and will probably keep saying "it's not that easy", why not? Are you making more excuses?

 

Believe in your own potential and crush your own negativity. My buddy Kevin finally did.