Passion, People and Principles
post # 209 — October 9, 2006 — a General post
This week’s podcast episode, entitled “READY SET GO: Fast-Track Strategy“, presents a simple but effective process to move any professional business ahead strategically.
In this podcast I explore:
- The 4 key objectives of any winning business strategy
- The critical role of “the coach” in putting your strategy into action
- What makes this process unique — and effective
Click on the podcast player below to listen to the full discussion:
You can receive new seminars automatically with iTunes or other podcast players. (Click here for step-by-step instructions on how to subscribe.) My Business Masterclass audio seminars are always downloadable at no cost.
post # 208 — October 7, 2006 — a General post
Here are the Top 5 most popular posts of the month.
Help Me With My Strategy Please
If past blog posts are any guide, you folks seem to enjoy giving me advice as much as I like giving it to you, so now it’s your turn again.
Screening for Character
How do you really tell if someone is good with people? Is a team player? Is honourable, has integrity and is trustworthy?
How to Get Ahead: Lie and Cheat?
What happens if, in school and in the first job, we raise a generation of people who think lying, cheating and stealing are the ways you get ahead?
The Secret of a Great Marriage Is
This post is short, so click through to read my thoughts and the great answers shared by readers.
The Best Manager I Ever Had
Think back to the best manager you have ever experienced. Someone who got the best out of you, and the rest of your group, to stretch and to accomplish more, while also enjoying it more.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to these stimulating discussions.
If you still have ideas or opinions to add in to these or any other discussions on the blog, please join in!
post # 207 — October 5, 2006 — a Client Relations post
Here’s a simple test for any marketing idea you might be discussing with your colleagues: how would the client react if he or she were sitting in the room, right now, listening to us debate this idea?
If the client’s reaction were to be “Wow, that’s going to be really helpful to me†then you’re going to get a lot of positive reactions and you know you’re on to a money-making idea.
But if the thought of having the clients listen in to your planning has you worried, then , indeed you should be worried. Your nervousness at having them hear you means that you’re trying to mislead, misdirect, con them or fool them in some way. Otherwise, why don’t you want them to hear you?
And the odds are you’re not going to pull it off. Customers and clients aren’t that dumb (although we often make our plans as if they were.) And when we make that mistake, we’re the ones being dumb.
If we want to succeed, we’ve got to start marketing and selling as if we were dealing with smart, adult intelligent people. We’ve got to stop acting as if we have something to hide.
post # 206 — October 4, 2006 — a Client Relations post
Something happens to me whenever I give speeches. At some point, when I am doing what I was hired to do and explaining how the people in my audience could perform their roles better, someone always sticks their hand up and says: “It’s not us, it’s them!â€
I have hundreds of these examples, but a few will make the point. They can be very dramatic.
Once, I was (as instructed) explaining to a group of middle-level people what professionalism meant, and how they might handle themselves in dealing with clients and with others. We were using the anonymous voting machines that I like to use.
“The question I’d like to pose to the group†one person said, “is how many people here think that those who are senior to us role model these behaviors?â€
I was young and dumb enough to let the vote proceed. Barely 15% of the audience thought that those ahead of them in the organization “lived the values.â€
To prove how REALLY young and dumb I was, I thought I would be praised and congratulated with gratitude for having uncovered a barrier to improvement. Instead, I was accused of agitating the troops against the interests of the people who hired me. I never got hired by them again.
Although I did make the mistake again — many times. (I’m a slow learner)
I remember, years later, being with the senior partners of a major consulting firm, talking about investing in current client relationships (This was just after The Trusted Advisor had been published.). Again, someone interrupted to say “This is all fine, but there’s no incentive for us to do that — all our incentives around new clients.â€
The top management was in the room. I waited for them to jump in and reconcile the contradiction. After all, these were the same people who had hired me and assigned my topic.
I waited. They stayed silent. I waited a little bit more.
The eyes of the audience were not on them, but on me. Everyone wanted to know what the outsider would say about the contradiction between the assigned topic and the incentive scheme.
And you know what? I said it was a contradiction. The audience agreed. Management scowled. We talked about what changes would be necessary to get everyone in the room willingly participating in the behaviors management wanted to see.
I was never re-hired. I had not stuck to the assigned topics. I even got a call from the secretary of one off the bosses to ask “How do we get more of this Trusted Advisor stuff without having to have you?â€
Come to think of it, it’s amazing that over the years I have managed to earn a living!
So, what are the lessons? Well, I’d love to hear some advice about how to handle these situations better. They happen ALL the time — to this day. In fact, I’m coming to believe that the very reason top management hires speakers is to talk about things that they can’t get their people to do, and hope the speaker will convince the crowd for them.
So, it’s gonna happen. It’s probably gonna happen to you. Someone’s going to say to you “It ain’t our fault, it’s THEIRS — meaning management.†How are you going to handle it , then and there, in front of , say, 50 to 300 people?
Advice?
post # 205 — — a General post
Both Stanford and Yale have recently announced new curricula for their business schools, and in both cases the reports I’ve seen suggest that both elite institutions have missed the point.
In both cases, what they have redesigned is the subject matter or course content of what they will study. However, it’s not the content which develops you as a student. Reading about and discussing managing people doesn’t make you any good at all at DOING it until you have had the chance to try it out in practice, with guided feedback.
Knowledge by itself is actually not what’s crucial in our success. It’s half-life is very short, and in today’s world knowledge is readily accessible for free. So any institution that tried to build its success on transmitting knowledge would be doomed to irrelevancy.
The key topics in education are not knowledge but two issues that straddle knowledge: ATTITUDES (which come before knowledge in determining your future) and SKILLS (meaning can you actually do anything.) Educational institutions do not give nearly enough thought to their power to shape attitudes and develop skills.
In this blog and elsewhere, we’ve complained that people are badly prepared for work life and that our educational institutions are no up to the job we really need them to perform.
So, let’s get constructive here. If you were going to design an educational institution that really prepared someone for a professional working career, and helped them develop the key skills, what elements would you put in place?
How would you design things so that we develop people with the right attitudes? What about expelling people with the wrong attitutdes?
Should educational institutions be either screening wrong attitude people or developing right attitude people? If so, how?
Similarly, what are the key skills that educational institutions should be building in people who are destined for professional work careers, and how can these skills be developed?
A couple of examples to get you started. When was the last time someone was expelled from an MBA program for being “not very good at getting people to trust him/her?†If winning and earning trust is so key to success in life, why do we graduate people who cannot do it?
If honor and integrity are so important, why don’t all educational institutions have and enforce an honor code (“I will not lie or cheat and will not tolerate those who do.â€)
If communicating is so important, why don’t we give prizes to the people who have learned the most about their fellow students’ (IE were the best listeners?)
Why don’t we have special counseling programs for those students who seem unable to develop a circle of friends? (Not to help them socially, but to help them develop a crucial skill.)
OK everybody — let’s get creative here. Let’s offer some really good processes and practices for the educational institution truly designed to help prepare people for professional life. Ideas?
(By the way, this is not an idle exercize. As regular readers know, I gave a speech last Friday to 150 business school professors from central and eastern Europe. I have their email addresses. I PROMISE you they will receive the ideas you post here. Let’s change the world! )
post # 204 — October 3, 2006 — a General post
It’s time to express my thanks to each and every one of you who played a part in our conversation during the month of September. As you can see, we are becoming a sizeable community here, and I hope we all continue to interact.
Come back regularly and join in — there are some really smart (and good) people posting comments and trackbacks here.
This month’s participants were:
Comments
Lora Adrianse, Andreas, C Anon, Deepa Balaji, Chris Barrow, Jim Belshaw, Kent Blumberg, Larry Bodine, Eric Boehme, Leo Bottary, Thomas M. Box, Breakingranks, Paul Brown, Duncan Bucknell, James Bullock, Nigel Burke, Tim Burrows, Travis Carnahan, Robert Edward Cenek, Prem Chandavarkar, James Cherkoff, Chris, Geoff Considine, Petri Darby, James Davidson, Jennifer Davis, Todd Defren, Lance Dunkin, Joanne Dustin, Judy Erickson, Ron Evans, Brad Farris, Douglas Ferguson, Lindsay Fikowski, Doug Fletcher, Dr. Leonhard Fopp, David Foster, David Frey, Jordan Furlong, Ed Gabrielse, Ganesh, Dave Glynn, Michelle Golden, Marcel Goldstein, Phil Gott, Peter Gwizdalla, Ted Harro, Ken Hedberg, Hejustlaughs, Markus Herzog, Joseph Heyison, Gl Hoffman, Dennis Howlett, Laura Hunter, Kami Huyse, Lori Iwan, Patrick Jacques, Jennifer, David Koopmans, Greg Krauska, Patrick J. Lamb, Ron Lamb, Van Lanier, Ed Lee, Karen Love, Peter Macmillan, Steve Matthews, Moray McConnachie, Pat McGee, Bob McIlree, Malcolm McLelland, Ann Michael, Mike, Warren Miller, NancyRoggen, Justin Patten, Paughnee, Steve Pearce, Bill Peper, David Phillips, Lars Plougmann, Deborah Crawley Quinn, RJON, Prem Rao, Ric, Nick Saban, Abram Serotta, Peter Shaw, Paul Shillam, Steve Shu, Shuchetana, Carl A. Singer, Johan Sleegers, Andrew Smith, Sonnie, Constantinos Stavropoulos, Brit Stickney, Kathleen OBrien Thompson, Tim, Todor, Tom “Bald Dog” Varjan, Liam Wall, Warren Miller, ASA, CPA, Neha Wattas, Curt Wehrley, Clyde Willis, Vicky Wright, Hyokon Zhiang
Trackbacks
Adam Smith, Esq.
Amitai Givertz’s Recruitomatic Blog (also here)
Antitrust Review
Bag and Baggage
Balanced Life Center
Blawg Review
BrainBasedBusiness
Breaking Ranks
Bruce Lewin
Bryan C Fleming (also: here)
Central Desktop Blog
CollegeRecruiter.com Blog
Communications Overtones
Creating a Better Life (also: here)
Crossroads Dispatches
Cyberlaw Central
DennisKennedy.blog
Evan Schaeffer’s Legal Underground
Golden Practices (also: here)
HUMAN LAW
Infamy or Praise
Information Overlord
Innovation Zen
Kent Blumberg
LawSourcing Blog
Lee Iwan, Bits and Pieces of Accumulated Experience
Legal Blog Watch
legal sanity
LexBlog Blog
Manage To Change
Managing the Professional Services Firm (also: here, here)
My 1st Million At 33
New Media in Australia
PointOfLaw Forum
Purple Slog
rmic.be
Steve Shu’s Blog
tech law advisor
The Agonist
The Bell Curve Scar
The Business of America is Business
The Business of Information
View From a Height
What About Clients?
Zmetro.com
post # 203 — October 2, 2006 — a Managing, Strategy post
Both management and front-line employees today are overburdened by time-consuming and often conflicting roles due to the complex structures of departments, industry teams, major account teams and geographic locations.
That’s why in modern businesses, the organization IS the strategy: if the organization functions smoothly, the firm will excel. If it creates barriers, the firm will stumble continually.
This week’s free audio seminar, Competing through Organizational Functioning, discusses the diagnostic tools for a smoother functioning organization:
5 Imperatives to structure your organization for success
- Examine structure, process and people
- Recognize shifting priorities in structural design
- Establish mandates for each group
- Clarify agreements within the groups
- Choose the right group leaders
I also discuss how to create your own customized solution for managing a complex firm that goes beyond the motions of establishing “theoretically correct†structures and obtaining “false consent†from key players to effect real change.
A slightly modified version of this podcast (with the same title) will be posted as a new article on my website later this week. [Update: the article version of Managing the Multidimensional Organization is now available on the site as both a screen version and a downloadable PDF.]
You can receive new seminars automatically with iTunes or other podcast players. (Click here for step-by-step instructions on how to subscribe.) My Business Masterclass audio seminars are always downloadable at no cost.
post # 202 — September 28, 2006 — a Managing post
Think back to the best manager you have ever experienced. Someone who got the best out of you, and the rest of your group, to stretch and to accomplish more, while also enjoying it more.
What did this person DO, that made them so effective in raising your performance? (Specifics, please.) What was it about them as a person (if anything) that contributed to the effect they had on you and your colleagues?
Let’s not include any generalizations, theory or principles here. I’m looking for real stories about real people.
What do effective managers actually DO that makes them effective?
post # 201 — — a Managing post
Ted Harro, a regular participant in the conversations on this blog, has submitted this topic for us to react to (These are Ted’s words):
Many people serve as internal consultants or advisors. The more they act with the same intensity as outside providers, the more value they will bring to their company, the better they will get, and the more fun they should have.
Internal consulting is a bit different from being an external consultant. You have a very limited market, and you can’t fire your clients. Since prophets are rarely celebrated in their own land, you are positioned differently with your ‘clients,’ and must engage with them differently
One of the challenges is figuring out the right metrics to use in monitoring and managing internal consulting groups (or any other staff advisors.)
A few obvious metrics used by outside providers still apply to in-house providers: client satisfaction (post-engagement surveys, internal referrals) and staff (employee satisfaction surveys, skill development monitoring)
You could also try to monitor “market positioning†– share of core capability work done in-house, share of overall capability work ‘under management’ (for example, acting as a broker for outside resources, such as the in-house legal department managing the outside law firm providers.)
The most difficult area is financial performance. Most internal groups are cost centers. Few companies still use “internal pricing and bill-back†systems anymore because it turned into an administrative nightmare.
A few initial thoughts:
Measuring the utilization of in-house staff (hours engaged/people hours available) still works, though it is a hygiene measure and does not describe effectiveness.
Leverage could work (ratio of total people to senior practitioners, defined by credentials and pay grade)
It would be tough to use a margin measure. I suppose you could do a ratio of overhead cost to employee cost.
Rates are the real question. If in the outside world rates are the market’s perception of your unique value, how do you do that in the inside world? Overall department budget? ROI/hours invested?
(but ROI can be a tricky number for a lot of internal consultants)?
Clearly, if it could be measured, ‘value’ is the ultimate measure for internal consultants.
In many firms, internal groups generally track it by how much budget they get, but this seems incomplete to me somehow.
(End of Ted’s Question)
Ted has posed so many questions that I’m going to ‘hold my fire’ until all of you have the chance to jump in. (Also, I’m traveling in Europe and I’m a bit jet-lagged!)
However, I would extend the challenge by pointing out that, in these days of outsourcing, internal groups probably will need to develop metrics that are at least part-way comparable to those being used by the outside providers pitching your management for YOUR job!
So, what metrics are used where you work to measure internal consulting / advisory / staff work?
post # 199 — September 26, 2006 — a General post
While most professional businesses, from banks to ad agencies to accounting firms, want to grow multidisciplinary relationships with key accounts, their attempts to create one-stop shopping strategies usually stumble, and even those firms implementing modern client relationship management (CRM) programs are still struggling to make them work.
This week’s free audio seminar, More Things in More Places, addresses what it takes to implement any multidisciplinary and/or geographic expansion strategy successfully.
The key ingredient:
Expansion is not what you do in order to achieve excellence – it’s what you are allowed to do after you have achieved it.
To explore why this common and much-desired strategy is so hard to pull off, I examine expansion strategies from the buyers’ perspective, including:
- Cross-selling vs. coordinated teams: the client-centric distinction
- What a client wants from a project coordinator
- How to tell when geographic expansion makes sense – and when it doesn’t
My Business Masterclass audio seminars are always downloadable at no cost. You can download More Things in More Places or sign up to receive new seminars automatically by subscribing to my Business Masterclass podcast series with iTunes or other podcast players. (Click here for step-by-step instructions on how to subscribe.)
This seminar was based on my 1997 book, True Professionalism, as well as the following resources available for free on this website:
Again I want to know: if one-stop shopping and premature geographic expansion have just dismal track records (and they do, in industry after industry, profession after profession), why are so many firms, small and large, still eagerly pursuing this? I’m ready to admit they may be right and I’m wrong, but what am I missing?
