Compose Your Mantra

In trying times, any of us can have our confidence jarred. The cause could be loss of employment, a temporary setback in a current position, failure of a project, a disappointing performance evaluation, or just random feelings of uncertainty or inadequacy. Instead of beating yourself up, try centering your thoughts through positive self-affirmation. Compose a mantra that is meaningful to you, and use it as your own personal pep talk. It could be something like this:

I am as smart and capable as anyone else
My experience has unique value
I will not be defeated by temporary setbacks
What I know can be applied to many circumstances
There is work out there that will feed my passions
He who hires me will be fortunate
I have important work still to accomplish
I will continue to learn and grow
The best is yet to come
 
Do you have a mantra?  Sing it out loud and often!

Data + Information = Power

Do you realize that there is a difference between data and information? Data doesn't become information without the perspective of analysis and knowledge. For example, data may tell you that 500 calls came into your support center today. But when compared with the average for that day of the week and time of year, was that normal? Were you properly staffed to handle 500 calls? What percentage of those phone calls generated new tickets? Data versus information.

As a manager, knowing your data - numbers and statistics - is a vital foundation for building your reputation for competency. Of course, you can look up anything. But what do you know about your area of responsibility off the top of your head? How large is your gross budget? How many FTE's do you have on your staff? How many calls do you handle per month? How many customers do you serve? What were your net sales this month compared to the same month last year? Do you have information that allows you to quantify your department's productivity?

As a friend of mine says, "You can torture data to tell you anything you want to hear". It's true that you can often make data or statistics into information that is very misleading. Obviously, that will not serve you well. When doing data analysis, you may have a hopeful result in mind, but if the data doesn't cooperate without undue "torture" or manipulation - don't go there. You want to be able to explain your results and defend them with a clear conscience.

When embracing the possibilities for what data can tell you, think about what you want and NEED to know. What data will provide the input for the answers you need? Make sure you are collecting the data you need to produce actionable information.

Finally, data - and even information - is not enough. Whatever you learn needs to be converted into action in the form of continuing improvement of your operation. Learn so you can do things faster, smarter, cheaper, better!

Data + Information = Power... only because you can get a grip on where you are so you can navigate to someplace better. In the meantime, your obvious competency will keep others who may be critics off your back so you can continue to enhance your position of success.

GIVE and GAIN

Much of our life experience conditions us to expect to gain something in return for what we give. We give – we get. What is sown in a work environment is reaped over long periods of time, in subtle ways. Give, be patient, and have faith that you will gain in the long run.

GIVE A FULL DAY’S WORK FOR A DAY’S PAY

Project management professionals assume 6 to 6.5 productive hours a day when scheduling manpower and estimating the duration of tasks. Start with an 8 hour workday, then factor in reasonable meal and bio breaks, and that number sounds about right. Add personal phone calls and email, surfing the internet, and your social networking updates; and your actual work time erodes alarmingly. Get back to work. Gain a reputation for being productive.

GIVE OPPORTUNITIES TO YOUNG PROFESSIONALS

When feeling under the gun, it often seems easier to do things yourself. Instead, work with your inexperienced team members. Give them responsibility and guidance. Implement accountability. Gain an experienced, valuable employee.

GIVE A HAND TO A CO-WORKER

A corporate environment is a team environment. You can be successful on your own only to a point. Reach out to others when they need support. Gain the prospect of help repaid in kind.

GIVE YOUR BOSS YOUR TRUE OPINIONS
Strong teams are made up of people with diverse experience and viewpoints. Don’t be a “yes man”. When you feel strongly about something, fight to have your opinions heard. Gain respect for having your own mind.

GIVE HONEST FEEDBACK TO YOUR EMPLOYEES
Provide praise when earned, and coaching when warranted. Be honest, specific, straightforward, and consistent with your feedback. Gain productive behavior from your team.

GIVE OTHERS IDEAS CONSIDERATION
I don’t care how smart you are. Often someone else will have a better idea. Stop talking and start listening and sharing. Pay attention and be open-minded. Gain value from a team effort.

GIVE “CRAZY” IDEAS A CHANCE
Brainstorm liberally. Your next stellar success could start as a “crazy” idea. Be sure your team feels safe to throw thoughts out into the wind. Gain excitement and creativity.

GIVE EMPATHY TO EMPLOYEES IN PERSONAL DISTRESS
When personal issues encroach into someone’s work life, be sure you understand what is going on. Be considerate, generous, and fair to allow a valued employee to overcome a temporary challenge. Gain trust and loyalty.

GIVE THE BENEFIT OF YOUR WISDOM TO A PROTÉGÉ
You won’t be around forever. Share the lessons you’ve learned and counsel someone eager to learn from your experience. Someone surely helped you early in your career. Now you are in a position to help. Gain the satisfaction of paying it forward.

No Crystal Ball Required

I’ve learned a thing or two in the course of a long corporate career and survived a handful of business cycles. Thirty-plus years of experience sometimes outweighs the value of a bright, shiny Ivy-League MBA when it comes to making common sense decisions. It's not all about the balance sheet and short term profits, friends and colleagues.

This fortune-teller knows that no crystal ball is required to predict exactly what is going to happen as a result of recent misguided business decisions being made by a real corporation that I prefer to leave unidentified. I can tell you what is going to happen and how. Alas, it’s a curse to be able to see the future…

THE SITUATION
Several years ago, an infamous private equity firm (“The Firm”) acquired a renowned publicly-traded company (“The Company”), and took it private. Based on The Firm’s track record and M.O., it was understood that The Company would be reorganized, downsized, squeezed mercilessly for profit, and either sold or re-introduced into the market as a whole, or in surgically-fragmented parts. The big guys stand to make mega-millions this way, although it may take a little longer than planned considering that The Firm paid top dollar during financial heydays.

THE DECISIONS
Select service functions, managed successfully within The Company for years, are now seen as undesirable corporate expense and are being outsourced. It looks better in The Company’s financials to have fewer “head count” and lower labor-related expense (i.e. pesky costs like employee health care and payroll taxes). Scores of jobs with The Company were eliminated and large contracts with external vendors were executed. Most notably, several IT support functions were outsourced to vendors, with current middle-management tasked with implementing the decision dictated by senior executives.

MY PREDICTION

1. Customer satisfaction will erode with the quality of support provided by the call center(s). The vendors will resist providing metrics that facilitate apples to apples performance comparisons to obfuscate that fact, but the truth will come out.
2. Call volume will drop, because customers will begin to realize that they won’t get the help they need if they call. Why waste time trying? Vendors and senior IT management will declare the reduction in call volume a sign of success. When coupled with the reduction in cost, they will consider themselves geniuses for their outsourcing decision.
3. Dissatisfaction with support services will foment into serious complaints to senior business management outside the IT/support arena. When challenged, senior IT management will respond by torturing the middle management responsible for implementing their outsourcing strategy, demanding that they “Make it work”.
4. When flogging middle-management fails to improve the situation, other support functions will pop up within the business, outside of IT, to compensate for the lack of effective support provided by IT. Support expenses will rise, but they will be hidden by their distribution within the business, and by creative naming of the new business functions.
5. The relationship between IT and the rest of the company will deteriorate. IT will revert to its natural status of corporate Whipping Boy.
6. Finally and eventually, at least some support functions will be brought back in-house. Having dismantled a mature, successful organization, senior IT management will have to find someone willing to build a new one from scratch (an expensive undertaking). Seriously now, did that save any money? (Of course, “The Firm” won’t care if they are able to stall until The Company is sold.)

OUT ON A LIMB
One last thought that is more a risk management consideration than a prediction: Support costs are being reduced and systems development has all but halted. Customers are not receiving the product enhancements to which they have become accustomed and are entitled – to which a substantial portion of their maintenance fees has historically been allocated. The Company’s maintenance expenses are substantially lower. Support was never defined as a revenue center. Are the fees charged to customers being reduced accordingly? Savvy customers could unite and demand an accounting and/or file a class-action lawsuit. I’m just sayin’…

10 More (Proven) Ways to Screw-Up in LinkedIn

My original “10 Ways to Screw-Up Your LinkedIn Presence” article has had hundreds of readers internationally since its posting on 10 June 2009. If you haven’t read it, you can get to it via this link: http://habaconsulting.blogspot.com/2009/06/10-ways-to-screw-up-your-linkedin.html

Over the past 15 months, I have continued to witness glaring issues with how people disrespect their own online profile in LinkedIn. Since so many people are still being lazy or foolish, or simply stubborn procrastinators, it’s time to add more cautionary advice about what NOT to do when maintaining your LinkedIn presence.

1. SKIP PROOFREADING FOR SPELLING/GRAMMAR, especially for your title or headline. This makes a very bad impression on the legions friendly with the Spelling and Grammar Police. No, LinkedIn doesn’t have a facility to help – do your homework yourself.

2. PASTE YOUR RESUME INTO YOUR PROFILE, because you’ve already spent a lot of effort crafting your resume. It’s lengthy, structured, full of technical language specific to your industry, and… woefully devoid of your personality. The purpose of LinkedIn is to connect and interact with all sorts of people, so be more personally engaging in how you present yourself so that people will be interested in getting to know you.

3. LIE ABOUT YOUR EMPLOYMENT STATUS. Some who are unemployed leave their previous employment information in, perhaps because they don’t know how to represent a status of being unemployed. This is not simply lazy; it’s lying. There are many pointers available for truthful alternatives. Search Answers in LinkedIn for creative solutions.
4. INAPPROPRIATE OR TOO FREQUENT STATUS UPDATES drive some people (like me) to hide all of your status updates, forever, out of irritation. I don’t need my LinkedIn page to be “Starring You” every day.
5. SPAM FELLOW LINKEDIN MEMBERS with relentless promotion of yourself or your business. When you need to ask for something, always counterbalance your request by giving a gift of information or assistance.
6. DUELING LINKEDIN & FACEBOOK PROFILES. Prospective customers or employers are going to Google you to find out more about you. When your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles make it seem as though you are two separate people, searchers will wonder who you really are. Are you the experienced and grounded entrepreneur, or the neurotic and scattered hedonist?
7. HIDE YOUR PERSONALITY behind techno-speak and bullet points. Without going too overboard, make sure your profile information reflects your personality. Your headline should be succinct, but attention-getting. Read your summary aloud and consider whether it sounds like how you would speak, or if it is too stilted. Ask a trusted friend/mentor for objective input.
8. CONNECT WITH ANYONE WHO SENDS YOU AN INVITATION merely to pump up the number of people to whom you are connected. Connect only with people you know and respect, through positive face-to-face or online interaction. What good is it to either of you to be connected to a stranger?
9. LET YOURSELF GO STALE. You have a profile in LinkedIn, but haven’t developed it or kept it current. You never log in, and don’t reach out to make connections. Make a decision. You are either all in or all out. You’re not doing yourself or anyone else any favors with halfhearted participation.
10. DISREGARD LINKEDIN RULES AND GUIDELINES as detailed in their User Agreement (which is legally binding).

Now go review your LinkedIn profile again.

Talkin' About a Revolution

Last Thursday, I attended a seminar in Chicago hosted by best-selling author Seth Godin (http://www.sethgodin.com/). My ticket was a generous gift from a long time friend and colleague. (Thanks, Carolyn.) The following is Mr. Godin’s teaser for his session:

You don’t need more data. What you might need, though, is a different way of seeing, an immersion in an alternative approach to:
     --creating work that matters
     --spreading ideas
     --interacting with people online

     --approaching the digital world with generosity

     --realizing that small things have more leverage than ever before

I am still processing what I heard in this session. I’m also reading Godin’s latest book, Linchpin. He is introducing very important thoughts about how we are in the midst of a revolution of work, original ideas, and emotional engagement. The call to arms is that in order to be indispensable in today’s business world, individuals need to “invent, lead (regardless of title), connect others, make things happen, and create order out of chaos” (from the dust cover of Linchpin). Otherwise, we are replaceable cogs in the machinery of an old fashioned organization. A scary and challenging perspective, no?

During the seminar, Godin made a comment I am paraphrasing here: “I can’t tell you how many people I am meeting, between the ages of 55 and 60, who have retired early and now say they want to do something creative – something that matters.” My mouth must have dropped open, because I felt he was speaking directly to me (although I won’t be 55 until next month…).

The only regret I have from my corporate career is that I played it a little too safe. I didn’t rock the boat often enough, challenge the status quo, argue with my boss when I knew he was wrong, or fight to implement my wildly creative ideas. This is an overly-harsh self-assessment; but I know I ratcheted back my performance to fit the mold that was in place. The result? I was successful – to a point. I achieved a position of some respect, was well-compensated, and able to retire early. The problem? The work I did rarely fed my soul or made a lasting difference. I left the company before the new wave of Ivy League-educated, private equity “cogs” decided who was dispensable. The writing was on the wall.

Are you indispensable? Have you unleashed your creativity to produce work that matters? Do you spread ideas, take risks, and engage with the digital world with a generous spirit?

Let’s get swept up in the revolution.

Are Shifting Consumer Values Changing Retail?

Is it merely the weak economy that is changing consumer buying behavior, or is the shift due to something more fundamental to our values?

Recent retailing research is indicating that we are moving from “conspicuous consumption” to “calculated consumption”. The trend is that people are saving more and spending less; buying more with cash and less with credit. Smaller homes are gaining in popularity over “McMansions”. Conspicuous consumption is becoming passé, causing some high end shoppers to request unmarked brown bags for their merchandise instead of incurring the guilt of strolling down the avenue carrying Gucci and Armani-emblazoned bags. (It’s tough to enjoy being well-to-do when unemployment is high and people are being evicted from their foreclosed homes.)

People are clearly seeking more value and long-term satisfaction from their carefully-considered purchases. It’s more satisfying to have the experience of a cruise vacation than to cuddle up with a new fall wardrobe that will be out of fashion next season. Cooking lessons that enhance at-home dining have long-term payback. Seeing Paul McCartney in concert creates a memory that lasts a lifetime. “Staycations” can be very thrifty, and also conducive to family bonding. Activities that build relationships and cherished remembrances deliver more happiness than material possessions.

Assuming that consumers continue with this modified behavior, the challenge is on the table for retailers to create binding loyalty through experiential retailing and customer service. If people find out that they are happier spending this way, this shift may be permanent.

There’s an exciting opportunity for retailers to act on this trend and break away from the pack in terms of sales, loyalty, and profitability. Retailers that really know their customers and engage them in buying experiences that break the old-fashioned mold will be the big winners. When was the last time you saw an Apple store that wasn’t mobbed? Why does Sephora have department store cosmetic counters frantically re-tooling? Why do we shop at Whole Foods even though it’s more expensive?

Critical components of success in this new world:
• A brand identity that stirs the emotions of customers
• Unique offerings aimed with laser-like precision at target consumers
• Sophisticated integration between web sites and brick and mortar stores
• Strategic partnerships that deliver special experiences and exclusive products
• Responsive and interactive application of business intelligence
• Personalized customer service that binds us to brands and products

Acknowledgements: Thanks to Mary Gendron for posting the New York Times article that inspired this blog: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/business/08consume.html?_r=1