Passion, People and Principles
post # 158 — August 10, 2006 — a General post
We anticipated when we upgraded the site this week that we might feel some growing pains. Unfortunately, the major “pain” to show up so far is a bug in our new comment system that is cutting comments off.
I want to let readers know that we’re aware of the problem, my team is working to resolve it, and we apologize for the inconvenience.
If you encounter any other growing pains that affect your enjoyment of the site, please feel free to contact the tech team directly at support@davidmaister.com. I appreciate your feedback and they will do their best to take care of you as quickly as possible.
Thank you for your forbearance!
post # 157 — — a Careers post
One of the frustrations of life is that we can’t always do what our heroes are able to do. In fact, that may be the very reason that why we admire them and pick them out as heroes. They can do (or be) things that we cannot. If we could do it, we might admire it less!
When I was a teenager, my best friend was the natural center of attention because of his ability to sing and play both guitar and piano. I could do none of these, and every attempt to do them led to embarrassment rather than success. It took me a long time to stop trying to copy my hero (and to develop my own ways of getting attention).
Later in life, I came to admire people who could remain calm and self-composed when dealing with troublesome situations, and also people who could be trusted advisors, truly counseling those they dealt with, rather than lapsing into energized problem-solving (“Oh, I have an idea! Let me tell you about it!”)
I co-wrote a book about being a trusted advisor not because I was or am a natural at that skill, but for the very reason that I wanted to understand it better and try – try – to build more of it into my repertoire.
The problem for me is that the very reason I admire such people – their controlled, interpersonal “emotional balance,” is something that I have to work very hard at. By nature, I’m an exuberant, reactive, “wow, look at what just happened” kind of person. It’s not a bad thing – it’s just the base, the raw material, on which I am built – and it would be foolsh (or impossible) to deny it.
What I’ve had to do – what I think all of us have to do – is kind of a dual approach.
On the one hand, I do work at trying to learn from those I admire, attempting to adapt some of the things they can do into my own terms. I try to take “slices” of what they can do or be, rather than try to copy the whole person, which can be discouragingly impossible.
On the other hand, I’ve learned that self-acceptance and building on one’s own “natural” strengths and aptitudes are important.
Rather than ask “How do I change who I am?” or “How can I be more like those I admire?” I have had more success through a (conscious or unconscious) “self-acceptance” – This is who I am, so how do I find a way to be that? How do I make it work for me and for others?
The hard part is not just the advice that we should build on our strengths. That’s very true, but only part of the story. Another important part is “Know – and accept –thyself.”
post # 159 — — a General post
We are pretty sure the glitch with the comment function is fixed, so come on back and join in the conversational fun.
post # 156 — August 9, 2006 — a Managing post
Patrick McKenna, my co-author on the book First Among Equals, has written a fabulous new 23-pagee-book called FIRST 100 DAYS: Transitioning A New Managing Partner.
Here’s an outline of Patrick’s step-by-step recipe:
1. Begin Before The Handoff (during the countdown before you officially take office)
- Position yourself as a leader who is eager to listen to the opinions of your peers.
- Build a working relationship with the departing Managing Partner.
- Create constructive dialogue with key thought leaders and power brokers within your firm.
- Tie up loose ends with key clients.
- Try to deal with sensitive problems before you take office.
2. Plug Your Gaps
- Figure out what you need to know and learn it as rapidly as you can.
- Establish your advice network.
3. Establish Performance Standards
- Negotiate your specific metrics for success.
4. Seize Your Day
- Pay attention to personal habits.
- Make symbolic gestures.
- Convey basic information.
5. Set Your Agenda
- Identify your one burning imperative.
- Get critical partner buy-in.
- Develop an action plan to implement your initiative.
- Launch a pilot project.
6. Exploit Early Successes
- Identify something that would not have happened had it not been for your burning imperative.
Patrick’s monograph is made up of 11 pages of his advice, followed by 11 pages of direct quotes from law firm managing partners reflecting on their experience. I showed Patrick’s monograph to some clients of mine outside the legal profession, and they agreed that it’s incredibly useful and well-written.
post # 155 — August 8, 2006 — a General, Strategy post
This week’s podcast episode, the fourth in my 14-part series on strategy, is entitled “Strategy Means Saying No.”
Based on my article of the same name , it points out that most businesses in an industry end up looking the same because they offer the same services to the same key clients, and stress the same client benefits.
They do so because they don’t have the courage to accomplish a true differentiation by saying no to off-strategy work.
The podcast includes a discussion of:
- The key to strategic distinction: the courage to turn away business.
- Why saying No is hard – and how to get past the excuses
- The sincere leader’s challenge: convince people you really want change
You can listen to this week’s seminar with the player just above this paragraph or download this episode. You can also subscribe to the podcast at my podcast page, or with iTunes, Yahoo! Podcasts or Podcast Alley.
The podcast also draws from ideas I discuss in these 3 previous conversations on my blog:
Have you ever had the experience of working with a leader who had the courage to say no? Do you have any insight to offer as to how an individual OR an organization finds the “courage to stay the course?”
In medicine, there’s a long tradition of the concept of “triage” – quickly dividing emergency room or battlefield patients into groups so you can decide where your efforts as a doctor are best spent.
The word itself comes from the Latin (or is it Greek?) meaning three groups, but along the way a scheme was evolved which put people into four groups:
(a) the sick (who really need you but can be hard to help),
(b) the early sick (who you can usually help),
(c) the worried well, (who don’t really need you but want to hire you) and
(d) the well (who don’t need you).
This is a very handy scheme to use in other environments. For example, if you are a manager in charge of a group of people, the scheme can help you decide how much personal time to allocate to each of the individuals in your group.
It can also apply to customer groups. In some businesses, including consulting, the economics of these different groups vary wildly. The sick, since they cannot really be cured, are often unprofitable. The early sick are reasonably profitable.
As long as they’ll pay for your time, the “worried well” can be a source of very high profits – there’s nothing really wrong with them, but they keep coming back for one more reassuring examination or study.
Of course, this is not all good news. There’s an ethical issue here – do you really want to make your income from people who don’t really need or benefit from your services ?
In addition, unless you have the pricing right, the worried well can choke up your delivery capacity, making you unavailable to those who really need you.
Who are the worried well in your business life? How do you deal with them?
post # 153 — August 6, 2006 — a General post
Very shortly, I’ll be rolling out a major upgrade to my website.
Most of the changes relate to the engine that drives this site – the “under-the-hood” part of the website. However, visitors will also be able to notice a few changes, including:
Popular Posts – the blog will now include a list of the most popular posts, based on the number of comments, in the hopes of keeping this site’s liveliest conversations alive and accessible to new visitors;
Blog Comments – a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) editor will let you add basic formatting to your comments, including hypertext links; and, the new 2-click commenting process will help us remove the lag caused by comment moderation, keep the conversation on the blog more up-to-date, and at the same time keep comment spam in check;
Subscription Options – in addition to being able to subscribe to specific media on the site (such as blog posts or podcasts), I’ve now added RSS feeds to the 5 resource libraries, so that if you are interested in a specific topic, you can subscribe for notification of new materials anywhere on this site related to strategy, managing, client relations, careers, or other;
Feedback – the new feedback section on the podcast page lets you write a review of the podcasts on iTunes or Yahoo, or cast a monthly vote for the podcast at Podcast Alley (all of which I greatly appreciate).
As with any beta project, there may be some minor bugs at first, so I ask for your understanding as we work through any initial technical difficulties.
The end result should be a much more technically efficient site at my end and a much more pleasant experience, I hope, for you, the readers.
Thank you to the many readers whose input, feedback and suggestions are reflected in the coming site changes. Keep the good ideas coming. And I hope you enjoy the new version of the site.
post # 152 — August 5, 2006 — a Careers post
What do you think I ought to cover in my next podcast series?
I intend it to be, like my past series, about 14 or so 20-minute presentations, exept this time the topic will be advice to individuals in building their careers.
I’ll draw on previous articles of mine (like It ‘s Not How Much You KNow, But How Much You Want It, Cultivate the Habits of Friendship , and the many career blog posts we have discussed here.
But I’d love your input on which topics would really be useful to cover.
If you were going to give advice to someone at the early stages of life as a professional (in any business or industry) what would would you try to help them understand early?
post # 151 — August 4, 2006 — a Client Relations post
Rick Telberg, who writes a great blog (CPA Trendlines) about the accounting industry (profession?) has an interesting post , based on research, about who decides when companies choose a new audit or accounting firm. He reports that:
“(outside) CPAs are apparently under the impression that company owners are the Dudes of Decision….Only seven percent thought the CFO, controller or internal auditor makes the decision. Just five percent said it’s the CEO, and only two percent thought the board of directors decides.”
“But when we asked corporate accountants who makes the decision, we got a whole ‘nother point of view. CFOs seem to think that they, the CFOs themselves, make the decision. At least 56 percent of them think so. Only 26 percent said it’s the owner.”
It’s been my experience that everybody makes the mistake of thinking that THEIR project is so important to the client enterprise that it must be the client CEO who not only makes the buying decision, but wants to meet all the possible providers (i.e. them.)
Even for a relatively small company, this becomes a ludicrous proposition once you start looking at how many different service providers are competing for the CEO’s attention. A typical company might, on a regular basis, need to buy:
- Legal advice from more than a few law firms (different firms for different issues and jurisdictions)
- Advertising advice from an ad agency
- Public relations and public affairs advice from one or more PR firms
- Accounting services (audit plus) from one or more accounting firms
- IT services from a technology firm
- Executive Training from an HR consulting firm
- Executive search for a new top officer from a headhunter firm
- Financial or merger, acquisition advice from an investment bank
- Asset reallocation in pension plan restructuring from either a money management firm.
- Real estate strategy for office, manufacturing, distribution, retail operations from a real estate firm
- Supply channel (logistics) advice from either a possible partner or third-party advisor.
What’s amusing to me about this list is that examples of ever single one of these firms has asked me to conduct seminars for their people about how they can become their clients’ key TRUSTED ADVISOR , focusing on the CEO. But they can’t all be, simultaneously!
It seems that everybody wants (to use the American terminology) to date the prom queen and the star quarterback, and, as a result, is probably negelecting or treating badly someone else who might really want a relationship!
The problem is, of course, that most CEOs don’t want this number of close personal advisors, so, they delegate the details, the relationship and hold their subordinates accountable.
The neglected, less glamorous people around the beauty queen and the captain of the team may actually be the very people who can give you what you want!
Providers who are still trying to meet (and sell to) the CEO probably overestimate their own importance and misunderstand the priorities of a CEO.
(Thanks to Dennis Howlett for directing me to Rick’s post.)
post # 150 — August 3, 2006 — a General post
I am thrilled to announce that my podcast series, David Maister’s Business Masterclass, is included in the final voting slate of nominated podcasts for the 2006 People’s Choice Podcast Awards contest as one of the five finalists in the Best Business Podcast category.
In the preliminary nominations round, a review committee selected the finalists based on the criteria of sound quality, delivery, show format, and show content, as well as 50% of the score allocated to the number of nominating votes.
So, I must give my heart-felt thanks to the friends and listeners who have surprised me by voting for the podcast during the nomination process. Given that I only launched the podcast series six months ago, I didn’t expect to even be nominated for the Podcast Awards, let alone find myself a finalist!
I’m NOT asking you to vote for my podcasts in the final round – I fully expect another to win, and don’t believe in futile activity.
What I hope you will do is to support the cause of podcasting (and yourself) by checking out the other nominees for Best Business Podcast:
I’d also love any feedback in my planning for the future: If you are already a podcast listener, what do you look for in a podcast? And if you don’t listen to podcasts yet, what would it take to make podcasts enticing for you?
