You Are The Institution

It has happened twice now.  It’s a similar conversation each time.  It’s a good reminder of the programming we allow in our brains.

Each time the conversation goes something like this:

Gen Y Guy – I worry about where to look for a job.  I can’t go work for a big company because people of my generation don’t trust the institution.

Me - What are your career goals long term?

Gen Y Guy – I’d like to be a manager.

Me - Then, Poof.  As soon as you are a manager, you are the institution.

Gen Y Guy – Huh.  I hadn’t thought of it like that.

Companies are not humans. They are made of humans. Naming it “the institution” is another way of skirting accountability for taking personal actions to improve a situation.

So next time you hear someone talking about the institution, the man, or corporate America…help them think about the story lines they tell themselves.

How to Make Your Personal Brand Stand Out

This week’s interview is with Michael D Brown.  He is an MBA, best selling author, and professional speaker.  Michael has motivated hundreds of individuals and entrepreneurs through his program Get a Brand or Die a Generic ®.  With his program, people learn to move from a stage of mediocrity to an exciting place where they achieve both continuous and exponential success.

LISA: You wrote a book called Fresh Customer Service. What simple lesson do we all need to learn about customers?

MICHAEL: We all have our customer service “war stories.” Guess what? Customers have their own customer service war stories. The plots of these stories revolve around businesses with lazy, incompetent staff, uncaring and misinformed managers, missing and misplaced products, and prices that do not match the ones advertised, or even marked. And they tell these stories a lot more frequently and with much more enthusiasm than they do stories about the times they experienced customer service that left them smiling.

The best way to cool off an angry customer and turn a potential nightmare of lost business and bad word-of-mouth into a daydream of regular return visits and free advertising is by providing them with some Fresh Customer Service. Throughout your organization’s entire process of selling, serving, marketing, cleaning—you name it—the only way you can hope to deliver a World-Class customer service experience is by listening to, equipping, empowering, involving, and valuing the feedback and expertise your Frontline Employees can offer.

LISA: You say “Get a Brand or Die Generic.” If someone has no idea where to start with building a personal brand, what are the first steps?

MICHAEL: Your personal brand is that solid and consistent impression that comes to mind when people think of you. The first step in creating a personal brand is identifying your target audience/market. Is it your company who can award you with a job with six figure potential, is it a future employer who will appoint you to your dream role? Whatever the case, figure out who you are targeting.

Now find out what this person or organization’s needs and wants are and then quickly realize if you can meet the needs or wants that they have. After which, you will need to create reasons why people should believe you will deliver the results that your brand promises.

In short figure out the pain (needs/wants) that exists with the person or organization show how your brand can solve their pain via the brand that you possess. Now here is the competitive part- figure out what makes you different from your competitors. When you create this personal brand identity you will be sought after as the person who can meet the particular needs of a company. YOU HAVE TO STAND OUT.

LISA: You’re an MBA and an entrepreneur.  In fact, your first company was a candy business in high school.  What drives your start up spirit?
MICHAEL: It started in fourth grade when I took a job working as a handyman and house-cleaner for a lady from a wealthy neighborhood on the other side of the tracks, Norma. My employee-boss relationship with Norma was by no means an easy one. This crotchety, high-society, Miss Havisham-esque woman was extremely demanding and could become physically violent if her every whim was not fulfilled. It seems the harder I worked, the more she demanded.

Leaving was not an option—I enjoyed and needed this job’s financial compensation. I was one of 10 siblings being raised by my widowed mother, and we were living in Holmes County, Mississippi, the fourth poorest county in the country. After two years of slaving away for Norma, I found another job so I could finally leave her. But working for Norma was not without its lessons. I learned that setting clear expectations, providing feedback (be it good or bad), a simple thank-you, and respect must to be the foundation of an employee-employer relationship. I also learned that when you are both employee and employer, that foundation can be much easier to build!

LISA: For those preparing to make an entrepreneurial leap, can you share one of the surprises you experienced when you started your current business?

MICHAEL: I was surprised by the need to quickly and effectively change my operating model in a seamless manner. I mean the whole enchilda: marketing, branding, client support and customer services.  As the economy proves it can change drastically without warning, you need to have robust contingency plans in place that allow you to quickly reduce your operating cost while increasing the level of service and value you provide to your customers.  When the economy struggles, consumers quickly start to look for low cost quality solutions and will pay little attention to a business that isn’t adjusting their pricing without sacrificing quality.

LISA: What are one or two of your “passion principles” for having a six figure career?

MICHAEL: While I was in college, I articulated my methodology for creating a successful personal brand. I called it Fresh P.A.S.S.I.O.N., which stands for Preparation, Aspiration, Staying laser focused, Selling like you are crazy, Invigorating yourself, Omitting the negative, and Nailing the brand. And you won’t achieve success if you employ an outdated, stale approach to your career, which is why I make sure to put “Fresh” first!

It’s hard to pick just one or two principles, but I’ll briefly review Aspiration and Staying laser focused. “Aspiration” means having particular ambitions and then setting out to achieve your goals – Aim at nothing and you’re guaranteed to hit it! Aspiration is really a two-part entity: it is something that must be found and then realized.

Staying laser focused is key to realizing your aspiration. Let’s think in military terms for a moment – the most firepower on the smallest target wins. A tiny laser burns through thick steel walls. You need to apply this same intense laser focus to achieving all the aspirations you hold for your professional and personal life. And by applying and maintaining that laser focus, you will build a brand that can compete internally and externally.

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Michael is a sought after motivational speaker, management expert, and consultant.  He is the author of the best-selling book Fresh Customer Service®. Through Michael’s signature programs and commitment to delivering results both through and with people, he has helped a number of Fortune 500 companies create and deliver world-class experiences that led to double-digit growth to their bottom lines.

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Five Ways to Blitz The Career Ladder

After twenty years of the corporate life, Todd Rhoad decided to write a book to help others get ahead in business.  As a fellow MBA, he knows the challenges we face as we climb the career ladder.

I’ve met several MBAs recently who graduated and didn’t have a targeted original purpose for their studies.  They were left thinking, “I can do any role now.”  It’s true that business school equips us with a broad range of skills, yet successful career moves rarely come with an unfocused goal.

In this week’s interview, Todd offers awesome advice for those of us who want new ways to get ahead at work.  The tips are straight from perspectives he offered in his book Blitz The Ladder.

LISA: For MBAs wandering aimlessly through their careers, where do you start if you want to gain purpose and focus?

TODD: Over the years, I’ve found that students have acquired the MBA for five reasons: to make a career change, credentials for a consulting job, knowledge for entrepreneurship, improve upward mobility in their current company and learning new skills for future use.   Graduates often fail to gain momentum after they graduate because they had no plan for utilizing their MBA.

To gain your purpose and focus:

1. Define your direction. Figure out what interests you most that you can do with your MBA.  This can be done by learning what others have done.  Join an association.  Network with alumni groups.  Contact a career coach. Research MBA-related websites.
2. Create a support group.  Once you’ve found resources that are willing to share information with you, network with members to create an informal support group.  These people can help you paint the image of your career; that is, where you want to go, what you need to do to get there and what resources you need.
3. Keep moving forward.  Career success is achieved by making plans, performing tasks, and accomplishing goals.  Create short term tasks that you can achieve fairly quickly.  This will maintain focus and motivate your spirit.  In short, you must continue to “get things done.”

LISA: In Blitz The Ladder, you recommend developing a team of supporters.  Tell us a little about this team.

TODD: We all know Michael Jordan was probably the best basketball player to ever play the game.  Imagine what it would be like if he had to play his opponents alone; that is, Michael Jordan versus 5 professional basketball players.  One man against five others.  While MJ is good, he isn’t that good.  Now imagine you battle the competition in the workplace using a team of go-getter professionals, like yourself.  That’s many of you versus a single employee.  You have a broader vision to see what you need to improve upon, what you do well, and what opportunities are available.

You have more ears to hear what others think of your abilities.  You have more hands to accomplish tasks that could improve your career mobility.  You have more voices to manage the perception others have of you and market your skills throughout the organization.  Just as the team helped MJ practice his skills and become a better player, your team can help build your career into what you want it to be.
LISA: You have a method of career blitzing for upward mobility.  Can you give us a sneak peak?

TODD: Career success can be defined as the intersection of preparedness and opportunity.  For many of us, we can prepare our whole lives but never get an opportunity to excel.  If you look at today’s corporate landscape, you may not see a lot of opportunity floating around. That’s because opportunities are rarely handed out.  They are made. Just as manufacturers have learned to make us want their products, you’ll use your team to make management want your skills and talents.

Research has shown that most managers know very little about their constituents.  So, they must base their perceptions of your performance on information received from others.  This information is filtered and often captured from indirect exposure.  But what if you could control the information the company’s decision-makers obtain about you?  This is where your team comes in.  They help you develop and implement a marketing plan that goes on display at the front of the store.  Management can’t help but see and like you.

LISA: While MBAs pursue a big role, what are a few tips for staying motivated when the process seems stalled?

TODD: Maintaining continuous momentum is difficult for most everyone. However, the successful see periods of limited mobility and success as opportunities to engage in new methods.  If your methods aren’t working, don’t continue to rely on them.  Find new ones.  Here are a few to consider.  Once you gain a little success from these, use this energy to fuel your drive for achieving more.  As you consider each method below, ensure that each is in line with your overall goals.

1. Give your knowledge away.  Becoming an expert starts with being an expert. To do that, you should seek opportunities to share what you know.  Create a website or blog, write articles to other sites or give free talks to companies and colleges.  Anywhere you can, give to others.  Oprah Winfrey attributes her success to “putting herself in the service of others.”
2. Use your team.  Too many times when we try and fail, we tend to avoid taking more risk.  By using a team of supporters, you can reduce your risk of failure by gaining multiple perspectives of your issues and possible resolutions. Improving your ability to effectively evaluate and overcome a situation improves your confidence and stimulates your creativity.
3. Have fun.  Failure has a tendency to draw us into a spiral where we feel we must continually focus on overcoming it.  We dwell on it. Nothing else matters.  We make all of our tasks a win or lose situation.  Let go!  Break the trend by learning to do something you enjoy.  Take your mind off of your career goals for a while.

LISA: Tell us a few of the pros and cons of using your informal network to advance your career.

TODD: Informal networks comprise the communication, trust and advice frameworks of an organization.  They represent how information really flows through the company.  The advice network is made of the prominent players whom others rely on for problem solving and technical information.  The trust network outlines the transfer path of delicate political information and the individual support during a crisis.   Lastly, the communication network reveals those who discuss work-related matters on a continuous basis.

Tapping into these networks can generate numerous advantages for those seeking to improve their career such as increasing the speed of influence on key members of the company, problem solving, developing professional skills, sharing knowledge and marketing your abilities.  For example, if you want to be seen as an expert in a specific area, you can demonstrate your skills to those in the advice network.  Once they see you as worthy, you’ll be drawn into the trust network, as others will come to rely on you.  Then, you can tap into the communication network to let everyone know you’re an asset to the organization, providing a strong value statement to management.

Informal networks are powerful tools.  Important considerations in using them are that they are held together by personal relationships, which must be managed.  Once there is little need for the relationship, ties will break.  You must nurture it to build it.

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Thanks for the interview Todd.

If you would like to learn more about Todd’s company Blitz Team Consulting, check out his website.  You can purchase your own copy of Blitz The Ladder: A Team-Based Approach to Getting Ahead in Business on Amazon.

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Do Work Life Balance Programs Really Work?

This interview is written by MBAs for MBAs. This week, I interviewed Lisa Sansom. She’s an MBA, a leadership coach, and an expert speaker. She even facilitates the team building process for new MBA cohorts at the Queens School of Business. As a fellow student of organizational behavior, I couldn’t wait to get started.

LISA C: You’re an MBA in Organizational Behavior and an expert on interpersonal communications. Give us a tip or two for increasing our self-awareness at work.

LISA S: When you encounter a frustrating situation or conversation, the first thing to do is take a disempassioned deep breath and ask yourself “How am I contributing, intentionally or unintentionally, to this situation?” Take a minute, ponder, and then the next thing that comes out of your mouth should be a question that will honestly help you to understand the other person’s point of view – a meaningful and open inquiry. Spend some time, as Stephen Covey says, seeking first to understand the other person. Set your own ego and opinions aside – just for a moment. you don’t have to relinquish them entirely, but ask a few questions to turn on your own light bulb first.

LISA C: You’ve facilitated 360 reviews. What can be gained from participating in a 360 process?

LISA S: 360 reviews provide two very interesting opportunities – one is for you to receive feedback from other sources in an honest fashion, and the second is for you to compare your own perceptions with those around you. It is important in 360s to remember that this is all about perceptions. Often, the 360 recipient, when seeing the results, focuses on the negatives and says “What can I do differently?” I would suggest that there are two alternative questions that would enrich the 360 experience: 1. “Where are my strengths that I can leverage?” and 2. “What are the perceptions that I can change?” The second question is subtly different in that it focuses your attention on the perceptions of the other person, rather than your own actions. It may be that your actions are fine, but you are not managing the relationship well enough that the other person is clear on your actions and intentions.

LISA C: As a writer for Your Workplace magazine, you’ve touched a lot on change management and work-life balance issues. What’s your take on work-life balance? Can it be done? If so, what does success look like?

LISA S: Work-life balance is highly individual and the challenge comes when an organization decides to make this a corporate value or to impose work-life balance requirements across the board. For some, working 35 hours per week is work-life balance, preferring more “life”. For others, believe it or not, 70-80 hours per week is work-life balance, preferring to shift the emphasis to “work”. Neither of these are wrong, and it is difficult, if not impossible, for a corporate strategy to accommodate and support both. The best way to tackle work-life balance, I believe, is through individual attention. It is incumbent upon the management and leadership of a company to somehow craft a method through which managers are empowered to enable work-life balance for each individual team member. This is often not done because of the perception of unfairness – that someone who is working 35 hours is “getting off easy” compared to the person who is working 70, but if the work is getting done to high standards, and communication is clear across the team that there is organizationally-approved individual choice at play, then the discomfort with the apparent “unfairness” should be minimal.

LISA C: When a new, ‘big thing’ gets implemented in the workplace, how can we use early adopters to support change management success?

LISA S: Turn your early adopters into Change Champions. And cultivate early adopters who are the informal leaders in the organization – the people who work next to your potential change recipients, the people who are respected and recognized, the people who are good communicators and represent the organization professionally. Give those Champions training on how to be Change Champions – teach them about the project, seek their input and feedback, help them craft messages to send to the larger population.

LISA C: At the Queen’s School of Business, you facilitate the process of new MBA students becoming a team. When these teams are ‘norming’, what’s the most interesting dynamic you see?

LISA S: At the QSB, we have teams actually create norms documents – what are the guidelines or rules by which they will operate as a team in the MBA program. So, when teams are writing their norms in the MBA programs, there tends to be a great deal of harmony and alignment – most students come into the program as professionals with a certain work ethic, and so the norms creation process tends to be smooth, if a little wordy. However, what truly distinguishes the “high performing teams” from those that are just average is how the teams make use of their norms. The higher performing teams not only live their norms, but they openly and intentionally discuss the norms. They create times to actively review the norms documents that they created, and the team members intentionally refer to the team norms during debriefing sessions, working meetings and individual conversations with other team members. For these strong teams, the norms are meaningful and incorporated into the team’s DNA. For less effective teams, the norms are, at best, words on a page and, at worst, ignored entirely after their creation.

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Thank you Lisa for participating in our interview series.

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MBAs are Only As Good As The Person Holding The Degree

So what do you think? Is an MBA or a PMP certification enough to impress executives at your company? Look for one compelling argument in this blog post.

This week’s interview is with Chris Pope, a dynamic New Zealander who founded The Valde Group. Chris has been published in Fast Company and CIO Magazine. If you want practical tips for making your projects more successful, read on.

LISA: You’re an expert on “projectizing.” Tell us what that means and how it helps organizations take focused action.

CHRIS: Many executives go through the “strategic planning” exercise, however the organisational strategy is nothing more than vague statements of aspiration without any real-world application. By “Projectising” the strategy, we bring it from a “big idea” into operational reality by treating it like a project. We break strategic goals down into tangible outcomes, then identify the deliverables and activities that are required to achieve them. The key is to always ask the question – “What does ‘achievement of your organisational strategy’ look like, and what does it take to make it happen?“

LISA: When it comes to strategic planning, what is an area that companies need to spend more energy on?

CHRIS: I think that companies need to spend more time on three things:

• Defining the tangible / measurable success factors
• Aligning operational activities and projects to strategic objectives (Asking “How well does this project or activity help us achieve our strategy?“) In fact, this should be the criteria upon which Projects are approved and prioritised.
• Establishing strong executive review and performance management processes throughout the year.

LISA: You have a PMP certification in Project Management. Many of our MBAs debate about whether to attain additional certifications. What is your opinion on the value of professional certifications – both the learning process and the perceived value by clients and employers?

CHRIS: My experience is that the certification is only as good at the person holding it. Success calls for strong leadership, decision making and communication skills and no professional exam has been able to certify these. As for the PMP, I have found that it a good indication of someone’s dedication to the project management profession. It requires significant knowledge and experience in the profession in order to attain it. It is also respected by employers – professional project management certification (PMP or PRINCE2) has become a pre-requisite for many positions.

LISA: When a project team is thrown together quickly, how do you go about building team dynamics for healthy interactions?

CHRIS: That is a great question! I do several things to build a strong team:

• I respect the team’s knowledge and skills – I make it clear that as a project manager, my job is to facilitate the best result from the team – I am not the technical expert – they are.
• Keep the team focused on the goal of the project and how it will add value to the organisation! By focusing on the goal of the project and the benefit to the organisation, this gives the team clarity and purpose, while keeping their morale high as contributors to something great.
• Clearly communicate – Open, clear, and honest communication is key to winning the trust and respect of your team.
• Be Pragmatic – I always ask two questions – What is the Goal? And What is the most efficient and effective way to achieve it? Projects are all about delivering benefits to the organisation – not following process. If an activity does not add value or deliver the benefits – why are we doing it.
• Encourage risk-identification – Too many people try to avoid raising risks, and by doing so make them worse. I always encourage my team to raise risks early so that we have more time to mitigate them.

LISA: We’re a global group, and we love learning about doing business in new places. Tell us something unique about the culture of New Zealand.

CHRIS: New Zealand is a great place to live and work. Generally, people in business are pragmatic. They are willing to give something a try and if it does not work, try something else. Many Kiwis work overseas in larger companies and then bring that experience back to New Zealand.

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Thank you for the interview, Chris. I know my next project will be better if I use these tips.

Chris Pope is known for helping organizations in crisis and for rescuing failing projects. To learn more about Chris, check out his articles or his company, The Valde Group.

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