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Passion, People and Principles

Ending the relationship

post # 523 — April 8, 2008 — a Careers post

A reader asks:

“I think it’s time to leave my job (where I have been for a number of years) and move on. I don’t have anything lined up; I’m just burned out.

“Do you have an (unconventional) advice for how to leave on “good” terms? I want to make this as positive of a resignation as possible. The firm tends to take these things personally.”

***

I’m not sure whether my advice is unconventional or not, but I’d try to draw on what we know from relationships in the non-work environment. If you wanted to withdraw from a personal relationship (a marriage?) that you had been in for many years, how would you do THAT?

Here are a few of the rules I’d try to apply:

  1. Don’t use your announcement as a basis for bargaining. Once you’ve told the others, don’t go back. (But be prepared for vigorous attempts to get you to stay) Make it a clean break. Set a specific date for your last day.
  2. If you don’t want it to come across as personal, rehearse your exact words so that you remove any personal references from them (“It isn’t you, it’s me”)
  3. There’s no point trying to re-interpret history. Refuse to get drawn into a discussion of the past, and who could have done what (and to whom) differently. It’s about your individual future not your mutual past.
  4. Be prepared to apologize – a LOT. No matter how you look at it, you will be letting them down and causing substantive problems for them. There’s no avoiding that. Don’t try to minimize the real and emotional hurt you will cause.
  5. Do everything you can to help them find your replacement.

***

What do the rest of you think? How do you end a relationship ?

eplace this text with your post.

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Do You Kindle?

post # 522 — April 7, 2008 — a General post

A couple of weeks ago I received my Kindle from Amazon – an electronic book.

I love it already.

I love the fact that if I want a book, I can have it within less than a minute or two, downloaded wirelessly. No longer do I have to wait for overnight delivery.

If I’m doing some research, I can download four or five books that seem to be relevant, quickly skim them (the machine is GREAT for skimming) and then only order (if at all) the hardback or paperback that I want to have on my shelf. (My shelves are already saying Thank You)

I can set the type size to what I find easiest, rather than what the book publisher chose.

I can get on a plane or be stuck in a hotel room with a wide variety of reading matter, ready (like my iPod) to switch to something else according to mood. No more last-minute scurrying to wonder what I’m going to pack for the trip, and no more buying trash at the airport bookstall because that’s all they have.

I have subscribed to the Kindle version of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, so I have my own copy, even if the hotel I’m stuck in on the road either doesn’t stock them or has run out.

I’m hooked!

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My worst habits

post # 521 — April 4, 2008 — a Careers post

In my previous blog post, you were invited to say what the worst habits of partners in porofessional firms are.

But you know what? It’s always easier, as someone very important once said, to see the speck of dust in someone else’s eye than the plank in your own.

So, it may be a more meaningful (and honest) question to ask “What are YOUR worst habits?”

I’ll go first. I plead guilty to

a) Procrastination (leaving everything to the last minute)

b) Failing to show as much interest in other people as I should (it’s not bad intentions, just bad habits – I forget to call and check in as to how things are going)

c) Blowing hot and cold on ideas, thereby confusing people who work with me

Anyone else want to join in on this one? What bad habits do YOU have?

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Bad Habits

post # 520 — April 2, 2008 — a General post

One of my correspondents asked this question:

“I am looking for the top 10 bad habits partners within professional services firms display – and hopefully some answers on how to correct them”

Anybody want to propose some suggestions?

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Strategy and The Fat Smoker – New podcast episode available now

post # 519 — March 26, 2008 — a Strategy and the Fat Smoker post

The seventh episode of my new podcast series, Strategy and the Fat Smoker, is now live and available for download.

The series is dedicated to exploring the themes found in my new book by the same name. Each chapter will be accompanied by an executive summary ebook covering the same material. I encourage you to forward these to friends and associates who may be interested in the topics covered. If you are already a subscriber to my podcast feed, this pdf will be available in your itunes.

This seventh episode, “The Friendship Strategy”, looks at the parallels between building trusting relationships in business and building friendships in personal life. All too often, it seems that when people come to work, they leave behind everything they know about interacting with other humans.

We will look into the reasons why people neglect to use these lessons and what it takes to improve your personal and professional relationship-building skills.

.

NOTES FOR THE EPISODE:

00:14 – Introduction

00:43 – Understanding business relationships through personal life

02:03 – Conversation and trust

06:54 – Socializing in business relations

10:21 – How do they feel about you?

15:30 – Being supportive

18:30 – Initiate relationships

You can download The Friendship Strategy or sign up to receive new Business Masterclass seminars automatically with iTunes or other podcast players. My seminars are always available for download at no cost.

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Merchandizing

post # 518 — March 16, 2008 — a Client Relations post

I just received a complementary copy of a new book(let) by David Cottrell called “Leadership Energy (E=m x c squared).”

It’s a 100-page large-type (very clever) packaging of some key management lessons, using Einstein’s famous equation. In this case, the energy is the organization’s output, the m is the mass of the people and the c is the leader’s impact on energy.

What caught my attention was this sentence: “To help you facilitate teaching these concepts to your team, a Powerpoint slide presentation is available at www.CornerstoneLeadership.com

What you discover when you click is that the slide presentation sells for $99.95, compared to $14.95 for the booklet. And I bet it generates training and consulting opportunities.

Very clever! Are any of you merchandizing yourself (or your business) this way? What’s been your experience?

I wonder what would have happened if, starting 25 years ago, I had been charging for slide presentation versions of my material?

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“Give a Copy to Management” Campaign Closing

post # 517 — March 13, 2008 — a General, Strategy and the Fat Smoker post

Due to the overwhelming success of my “Give a Copy to Management” campaign, I wanted to let everyone know that I am closing the offer, and will be taking no more requests.

I received MANY more requests than the initial 100 I planned to offer, and from all corners of the globe! Since I don’t want to disappoint anyone who wished to circulate my ideas in their workplace, I’ve made the following decision:

I will be sending out 100 books as hardbacks, as offered. Beyond that, for the many other people who have requested a book, I’m going to send a copy of Strategy and the Fat Smoker in its ebook form, totally free (I normally sell this for $11.99).

The books will all be shipping out over the next couple of weeks, and everyone that submitted will be receiving their special preview copy of the executive summary ebook.

Many thanks for your participation.

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Strategy and The Fat Smoker – New podcast episode available now

post # 516 — March 12, 2008 — a Strategy and the Fat Smoker post

The sixth episode of my new podcast series, Strategy and the Fat Smoker, is now live and available for download.

It is dedicated to exploring the themes found in my new book by the same name. Each chapter will be accompanied by an executive summary ebook covering the same material. I encourage you to forward these to friends and associates who may be interested in the topics covered. If you are already a subscriber to my podcast feed, this pdf will be available in your itunes.

With “Do You Really Want Relationships?” we will start to look at Fat Smoker principles in the realm of client relations. Businesses regularly claim to have a strong sense of “client focus” yet more often than not their client relations plans are in actuality, only sales plans, designed to get business. We will look at ways companies can build true client relations plans and ways to build and nurture the asset that is a long-term, trust based relationship.

Timeline:

00:39 – Introduction

02:28 – The benefits of trusting relationships

07:44 – Relationship building within the firm

10:10 – Relationships vs. Transactions pt.1

14:36 – Special Announcement: The “Give A Copy To Management” Campaign.

15:06 – Relationships vs. Transactions pt.2

16:17 – Expert or Advisor: Which are you and which do you seek?

23:11 – Converting the firm

You can download Do You Really Want Relationships? or sign up to receive new Business Masterclass seminars automatically with iTunes or other podcast players. (Click here for step-by-step instructions on how to subscribe.) My seminars are always available for download at no cost.

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Finland’s Best Place to work

post # 515 — March 10, 2008 — a General post

Hannu Terävä writes: “Our company, Reaktor Innovations, just won the Great Place to Work competition in Finland last month. It means that we are, according to this survey, the best work place in Finland. It was the first time we attended and we got the best points ever in Finland.

“What you might find interesting is that we operate very much the same way as you teach (again, based on books and the blog). If I remember correctly, “Practice What You Preach” was one of the first eye-openers for me that we might be actually doing things properly. In the book I found many things about successful companies familiar from Reaktor.

“So my point was to let you know that there’s one more successful company (and happy people) in the world that is pretty much aligned with your thinking. Of course, we don’t just follow your books but think ourselves what’s best for the people and the company in the long run. Not forgetting the customers.

Oh yes, it’s financially wise too. We have now about 90 employees and are doing excellent.”

Congratulations, Hannu and Reaktor!

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Recession Responses

post # 514 — March 7, 2008 — a Strategy post

So now comes the test. You’re a professional firm, with a variety of pracrice areas or target industries. Due to turmoil in the markets, business is down (or is forecast to be down) in one or more of our major areas. What do you do?

Choice One: Lay off some of the junior staff, thereby cutting costs to keep them in line with declining revenues.

Choice Two: Have the partners take a “haircut” (ie reduced profitability) and continue to show loyalty to the juniors by keeping them busy with whatever work we *do* have (ie delegating as much as possible) and using the relative underutilization of partner time to free them up to go out and and work against the weak year (ie client service, marketing and selling.)

  • Guess which one most firms are going to do?
  • Guess which approach builds a more profitable firm over time?
  • For extra points: how much is this decision really going to be affected by firms declared programs for retaining scarce staff in the war for talent?

Get ready for a dropping of the facade of idealism and principle, and a return to the pragamatics of sustaining short-term earnings at all cost.

As always, I have to stress that this is not a moral issue but one of pragmatics. If one of your key competitive issues is attracting and retaining key staff, how can you have a policy of laying them off (or “asking them to re-apply to another part of the firm”, as one firm describes it) at the first sign of trouble?

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