Do you take the time to think?

Do you take the time to separate yourself from the day to day to give yourself time to think?  I am not talking about a minute here or a minute there, or seconds you have walking from your car into the office, I am talking about a set amount of dedicated time away from the hectic life, away from the calls, away from the email, away from the interruptions.  Do you give yourself that time?  If not, why not?  Do you have too much to do?  Step back for one moment and think about what, as a leader you are getting paid for.  Are you getting paid for work that in all likelihood someone else could do or your thoughts?  Hopefully, the answer is your thoughts, and if so why aren't you taking the dedicated time to develop them?

Who do you hire first?

Who do you hire first? Talent or personality? If for the sake of this blog post you think about great personality and great talent as two ends of a continuum, where a 10 in personality means you are hiring someone who is always giving, passionate, dedicated to the cause, but lacks skills in the specific talent you are looking for and a 10 in talent is a person who is a amazing in a specific area you need, but is only looking out for themselves, which would you hire first? Assuming all other things are equal, unless I am hiring someone like a sprinter who runs 100 meters or a novelist who writes entirely alone, I would hire the personality.  Why? Because a bad personality can destroy an entire team, can destroy the key asset of passion, while a great personality will have the passion and dedication to find a way to get the job done. Of course, a continuum is too simple a way to look at this, but still a helpful context when you are hiring.  

One other aspect of that should factor in to the decision, is that everyone has some expertise, or as Seth Godin says, everyone can be a linchpin.  

Who evangelizes for you?

I have written previously about the need to find evangelists to spread your message, and how you should not beg people to be your evangelist, but finding evangelists is actually a two way street.  Your evangelists should not be a part of your organization, but they should hold  and espouse your same values, and make your customers glad that you have the association.  A person who is out shilling for 100 companies is not an evangelist and may well not be someone with whom you want to be associated.  An evangelist lends their most valuable thing to you, themselves, and you are borrowing from them, you need to make sure it is a positive return.   

How the present ties to your history

I wrote earlier about the need to document your story and of how important it is to be great at storytelling, but there is more to it than those two aspects.  It is important to tie a direct line of how the great people and efforts of the past tie directly to the great people and efforts of today.  Even if your organization is only a year old, start telling stories related to your past, "Your action reflects perfectly what we were founded to do." or "What you did reminds me of when so and so did X..."

This is not just about putting employee of the month plaques up on the wall, there is research showing that the happiest families are those with strong ties to their family history,

After a while, a surprising theme emerged. The single most important thing you can do for your family may be the simplest of all: develop a strong family narrative.

I would try developing the family narrative at home first and then developing your work narrative...

Who are you talking to?

In open new markets, I talk about the idea of taking your product to new markets to help drive growth.  The first step in opening new markets is to consider who you are talking to.  How often do products find amazing success in markets other than the original intent?  Twitter in the Arab Spring, Skype as a tool for grandparents, Post-It notes, WD-40...here is a list of products that found success beyond their original purpose. 

You may be in technology, so you don't spend the time speaking with your grandfather or younger kids, instead looking for the big score with some tech guru.  That could be a huge mistake.  For instance, as of July 24, 2013 Facebook has 100 million monthly users of its low tech feature phone app. 

In an effort to improve the Facebook experience on the simple, cheap “feature phones” prevalent in emerging markets, a pair of Facebook researchers spent most of last July conducting user research in Indonesia, India, and Nigeria. After a month of navigating cell phone markets, visiting homes, and watching locals use Facebook in these countries, the researchers, Mateo Rando and Lufi Paris, brought back several insights that helped inform a revamp of Facebook’s feature-phone experience.

They sent researchers to Indonesia, India, and Nigeria to find out how to improve the app.  That is a long way from Silicon Valley.  So who are you talking to?

Someone is going to want to stop you...

When you produce your brilliant idea, you should expect that someone is going to want to stop you.  Who?  Your competitors, the status quo, those who don't like change etc... The reality is that there is nothing you can do about it, but to continue on, to do what you do best.  Why do they want to stop you? You are exposing them, you are exposing that they do not have the best interest of the customer at heart.  Never forget that, never forget that their desire to stop you is coming from weakness, use their failings as motivation to do better for your customer.  The more brilliant your accomplishment the greater the opposition.

I had that idea...

It is a horrible feeling, someone gets rich or famous on the great idea you had years ago. Do you have something brilliant you are working on? You need to get it out there and let people know.  That half written book, the blog you started with a few postings but no traffic, the business plan sketched out in your notebook, find a way to finish and announce it.  When you finish, make sure you announce it boldly.  Creating brilliance and not letting people know is worse than coming up with an idea and never working on it.  Why? Because you put the effort in to developing the product, writing the book, posting to a blog, but your fear of letting people know means just as many people benefit from your work as if you had done no work on it at all.  Zero.  Wasted time, wasted energy, time that could have been spent with friends, family, etc...

If you don't speak about your work, no one will.  If you aren't producing work that you want to speak about, then stop producing it. 

What applies to good fortune applies to bad fortune as well

Perhaps it goes without saying, but my two posts from the past two days about accepting good fortune and great work breeds good fortune,  apply to bad fortune as well.  When bad fortune comes to your business (and it will), you can't ignore it, but you also can't let it occupy your every thought.  View it as an opportunity to become stronger and an opportunity to improve.  You have no idea what road you are headed down, all you know is that you need to do all you can do, do your best, think smarter, and enjoy the day.  That's it.  Remember the best stories are written about those who overcame difficulties to win.  

Great work often brings good fortune

In Jim Collins book "Good to Great" he writes about the fact that many of the Good to Great leaders felt like a good portion of their success could be attributed to luck. Not that they were lucky enough to be in industries that just took off due to technology or marketplace changes, actually none of the Good to Great companies achieved their success in that fashion, it was that the leaders felt they had good fortune in many aspects of their companies' transformation. So they were doing great work and good luck came to them. I think that is a lesson for most of us as well, great work breeds good fortune.  

Accept good fortune for what it is

You can't plan your business around good fortune, but when it comes accept it and be thankful. Two common reactions to a fortunate situation is to expect it going forward or to question it too much.  If you question it too much you are bound not to make full use of it and if you expect it you are bound to fall short in the future.

Have you taken the time to write your story?

Your organization's history is important, important enough to take the time to document it.  To many it probably seems like a very low priority, but how many companies still look back to how they were founded as an inspiration and guide for today?  The list is long and contains many of the most successful companies of the era.  Any guesses to which companies Thomas Edison and Henry Ford help found?  

Only one thing is needed...

I am just finishing up "Good to Great" by Jim Collins and in it he outlines the "Hedgehog Concept" which Wikipedia summarizes as:

• Hedgehog Concept: Three overlapping circles: What lights your fire ("passion")? What could you be best in the world at ("best at")? What makes you money ("driving resource")?

It is actually a little more than that, fundamentally it is about focus on one crystal clear strategy, that is defined by answering the questions in these three overlapping circles.  

Here, your vision, the vision for your customer, is the hedgehog concept.   You need to relentlessly pursue that vision first.  It is the only thing needed for you to pursue.  Pursuing many things will simply mean you do not accomplish any of them.  

Come on, Flanders, there's gotta be something you hate.

I know many businesses find it distasteful to speak of enemies, but is there nothing in this world you would like to get rid of?  Poverty? Injustice? Illiteracy? How about some smaller items? Bad customer service, prices that are too high, bad user experiences....eliminating these things can provide motivation and define your organization.  Beating those organizations that practice them is a likely outcome.  For those who avoid organization who avoid the discussion of enemies, I am reminded of the Simpsons episode Hurricaine Neddy.

Homer: Come on, Flanders, there's gotta be something you hate. What about mosquito bites?

Flanders: Mmm mmm! Sure are fun to scratch! Mmm! Satisfying!

Homer: What about, uhhhhh, florescent lights?

Flanders: Oooh, they hum like angels! You're never lonely if you've got a florescent light!

Flanders: I don't like the service at the post office. You know, it's all "rush rush! get'cha in, get'cha out!" Then they've got those machines in the lobby, they're even faster, no help there. You might even say, I hate the post office. That, and my parents. Lousy beatniks.

One last quote from the episode to close,

Homer: [directly towards mirror] Aw that's it, you just can't insult this guy. You call him a moron and he just sits there, grinning moronly.

Flanders: [to mirror] Hi, neighbor!

Homer: You know what your problem is, Flanders? You're afraid to be human.

Flanders: Ho ho, now why would I be afraid of that?

Homer: Because humans are obnoxious, sometimes. Humans hate things.

Flanders: Well, maybe a few of them do... back East.

Emotions are an important part of life, you should care for your customers and their success, and that very well may mean making an enemy of those things that do not enable their success.  Don't be afraid to care, to be human. 

Don't change your product to open new markets

If you have created an offering based upon the vision recommendations outlined on this site and then followed the branding thoughts then you should have an offering that will be well received in other markets as is.  Your messaging may change but the core offering should be the same, because you have developed based on what the customer actually needs.

Some questions: What new markets should we target? How do you define a new market? When do you take it to a new market?

Your price must be free at first...

As I have stated previously, it is true that people will be willing to the pay the price for your offering, but first you must let them gain some exposure, some benefit, some usage for free.  Of course many reading this will say I sell X product, how can I just give it away for free? To that I say is your offering really just X? Is there nothing else you bring? If your offering is just X, then you probably need to take a close look at your vision. It seems likely that you may have bigger concerns than just the price of your product.   Look at Amazon.com they sell goods online and yet they do give part of the offering away for free.  What do they give away for free? Reviews, how tos, manuals, price comparisons etc...The offer should always be be bigger than just the product you are selling.

What stories do you want to be associated with?

What story do you want to associate with? The scrappy new comer who battles the odds to win or the established behemoth who can't win on the merits so resorts to cronyism and lawsuits? Do  you want to associate with the company devoted to its customers or the one that basically tricks customers for the quick sale?  At the end of the day results are what matters, even if you have the best story with a bad offering you are going to lose, but to grow, a great story helps.

Consider the case of t-shirts offered by Nike and Reebok mentioned here

" The average consumer's relationship with Reebok was much shallower. Sure, Reebok had a story (Cybill Shepherd wore them to the Emmys!), but that story didn't amount to anything substantial or meaningful. Despite its strong sales, the Reebok brand lacked meaning.

To get that story point across to Reebok, we devised a simple test that we called "The T-shirt Test." We put two stacks of identical gray T-shirts on a folding table on a Manhattan sidewalk. The only difference between the two stacks was the logo on the shirts: the Nike logo was on one stack, Reebok the other. We put a sign on the table, "Free T-shirts, One Per Customer," and retreated to a safe distance to film the result. One by one, as pedestrians saw the sign, stopped, and examined the T-shirts, they went for the Nike stack. When those were all gone, the Reebok shirts went, too.

People didn't hate Reebok. But when given a choice, they were quick to show their allegiance to Nike because its story was clearer, and therefore more useful for helping people express themselves and their beliefs. A Nike T-shirt signaled membership in the Nike tribe — a tribe that believed in something bigger than shoes or apparel. Nike was fast becoming a religion. Reebok was just a shoe company." 

Was it Nike's story the key factor in its growth?  No, certainly not, but to have this example repeated on a huge scale across the consumer universe is a huge advantage to Nike.  These principles never operate in isolation, but   it possible to be great at one and horrible at another. 

Would You Wear That Company's T-Shirt in Public? - Passion and Inspiration to Fuel Greater Success

Would You Wear That Company's T-Shirt in Public? - Ty Montague - Harvard Business Review

I think this is a critical notion is building your organization's success, the key quote, "A Nike T-shirt signaled membership in the Nike tribe — a tribe that believed in something bigger than shoes or apparel. Nike was fast becoming a religion. Reebok was just a shoe company." This is so much more than just visual branding and it leads to passionate employees and customers which will in turn fuel success.

What would it mean to go beyond word of mouth?

Of course, many, many companies create word of mouth campaigns, but what would it look like to create something beyond a campaign?  To actually have your business structured around customer participation.  What if your customers were no longer passive participants, but active players in your success?  Imagine how dynamic your organization could become with active customers.  Actually is probably pretty hard to imagine,  because it has rarely been done.

A few questions:

What would it look like to have a fully involved customer?

Why would they participate at that level?

Has any company developed a structure with customer participation being a key component?

You shouldn't have to beg people to become evangelists

If you are doing the other things right you shouldn't need to beg influencers to become evangelists, you should only have to ask. What they are giving you is even more valuable then the space or ink, they are giving you a part of themselves, they are attaching their name to you.  What sort of organization are you willing to give a piece of yourself to?