I read with great interest Eric’s post of January 31, 2012 entitled Do things when you should … not when you have to. I agree with what he wrote, and it really got me going about something I’ve been mulling over in my head for several weeks: An educated and knowledgeable client is better than an ignorant one – especially if you want to help them do things at the right time.

I have a day job, but I do consult with small businesses and nonprofits on a regular basis. When I started consulting, I would do most of the work and not show anyone how to do for themselves or why I did what I did.

While I understand some clients want and need someone to just do for them, I found I really liked teaching, and those to whom I took the time to explain things responded quite well. After consulting gigs where I taught the client in more of a mentoring-like setting, I found the experience exhilarating. Teaching allowed me to have a positive impact in someone else’s efforts by giving them confidence they could maneuver around marketing technologies.

Even better, those people now had the knowledge to make better and informed decisions about strategy and tactics in their online efforts. This actually makes my work a lot easier.

Recently, I was helping the owners of a restaurant in a touristy part of Texas. They wanted to get some social media going, but had no idea where to start. For our first meeting, I put together a presentation which introduced concepts and gave suggestions on where to begin their efforts. After they digested the information and were ready to proceed, we met again. This time, I sat behind them at their computer as we walked through setting up accounts on social sites, claimed their name and location on those sites and even set up “check in” discounts.

While I know it may have been overwhelming at first, they soon got the idea and by the end of the afternoon they were claiming their spaces and setting up deals without much input from me. We’ll need to meet again to go over more advanced concepts, but I knew I did well when they emailed me the next day with the great news that several customers had already checked in and took advantage of their 10% off deals. That gave me (and I’m sure them, too) a great sense of accomplishment.

By taking a teaching/mentoring approach, my clients have become smarter. They have the confidence to move forward, to work online for their business as well as they do offline. They are learning how to “adapt and overcome” to the constant change of the online landscape.

To get back to Eric’s idea: How do we get clients to do things when they should rather than when they have to? We teach them. If we’re going to expect our clients to make those timely decisions, we have to equip them to do so. We have to give them the background knowledge to be able to look at what’s going on around them and be able to ask the smart questions. We have to develop trust with them and establish that we are the experts in whatever field we consult on – and if we can do that before the first time the client calls, all the better.

“How do I do that?” you may be asking yourself. Here’s your tip on doing something when you should: If you just asked yourself that question, then follow Eric’s (and my) lead, start a web site and start sharing some of your knowledge. Go! Do it now! If you want some advice on how to do it, ask in the comments and I’ll show you where you can get information to get going. Read the post I linked to in the preceding paragraph and see how someone else established credibility in their field to the betterment of their business.

As you take on the role of coach/mentor/teacher, both you and your clients will benefit.

Elmer Boutin is a Marketing Technologist and has worked in web marketing for almost 15 years. His first experience was as a free-lancer doing web sites for local businesses such as car dealerships and an art gallery. Later, he ran an online rental property referral web site aimed at assisting military people find homes before they moved. He’s currently Webmaster at a Texas-based decorative surfaces manufacturer. You can read more articles by Elmer at http://www.crossingmarketingandit.com.

Image Credit: education By Sean MacEntee on flickr

• Facing Reality by David Brock on Partners in EXCELLENCE Blog — Making A Difference

  Quote: Facing reality is tough.  We may discover things we don’t want to confront.  We may not be as strong as we had hoped we were.  We may discover we need new skills to improve our ability to compete.  It may tell us we’re spending our time with the wrong customers–that we may have to find new customers.

• Scars by Jason Cohen on A Smart Bear

  Quote: So even if you know your scars, embrace them, and have perfectly tight rationalization of why every decision is the correct one for you, it still might be wrong.

• An endless series of difficult but achievable hills by Seth Godin

  Quote: The craft of your career comes in picking the right hills. Hills just challenging enough that you can barely make it over. A series of hills becomes a mountain, and a series of mountains is a career.

• Report Shows Marketers Less Confident in Measurement of Efforts by Frank Reed on Marketing Pilgrim

  Quote: Marketers struggle with proving what they feel in their gut and this will likely be a growing problem rather than a shrinking one. Why? It’s because the marketing rules change constantly while the tools used to measure success often can’t keep pace. Even worse these tools can’t measure some of the more important areas of any marketers’ efforts. Marketers get stuck in between the proverbial rock and a hard place. No wonder most CMO’s last less than two years in a position.

• Death by RFP: Don’t let it happen to you by Jeff Cram on The CMS Myth

  Quote: … don’t hide behind a procurement office. I realize this is a policy at many organizations, but it’s one that will almost ensure that you get a poorly scoped proposal from vendors who aren’t the best fit. Make the key stakeholders available for conversations

• Technology is 90% Psychology by Holly on NTEN

  Quote: If you want people to own their jobs, you have to give them the freedom to do it. Not only is it the right thing to do, it’s the best thing to do. When staff don’t have to run an email through four supervisors to answer a public inquiry, you’re more responsive. And being responsive is extremely important nowadays.

• On the Utility of Thinking in Terms of Jobs-to-Be-Done By Hutch Carpenter on CloudAve

  Quote: The jobs-to-be-done approach is incredibly useful for generating ideas that are relevant and actually have potential. You’re plumbing the depths of what people really feel and what they actually want to accomplish. A powerful head start on innovating.

• Listen to Your Community, But Don’t Let Them Tell You What to Do by Jeff Atwood on Coding Horror

  Quote: Community feedback is great, but it should never be used as a crutch, a substitute for thinking deeply about what you’re building and why. Always try to identify what the underlying needs are, and come up with a sensible roadmap.

• Strategy for Nonstrategic Leaders by John Bell on LeaderLab

  Quote: Accept the fact that Strategy takes Courage. Without courage you will always “fold” when the going gets tough.

• Synchronicity by Sameer Patel. on Pretzel Logic – Social and Collaborative Business

  Quote: To be clear, I’m not advocating that you throw these process systems out. They are your systems of record. I’m saying you need to cut through them with people engagement layers.

This is a  Double-Crested Cormorant caught at White Rock Lake with a Canon 7D and Canon 500mm f/4 IS USM.

See more photos in my flickr photostream and/or my 500px portfolio. If you like my photography, feel free to support my addiction habit by visiting Adorama (affiliate link) to purchase new or used photographic gear. Or, if you are interested in renting gear before buying, try out my favorite camera, lens and gear rental site -  Borrowlenses.com (affiliate link) - the folks at Borrowlenses are awesome.  All proceeds from clicking the above affiliate links go to more photographs. 

Sometimes, I’m paid to provide strategic options and then my client decides to implement those options themselves. Other times, I provide the options and help execute those options.

I prefer those clients that hire me to develop and implement over those that just want a report on what their options are.

Why?

Because – for the most part – those clients that want me to implement the recommended strategic options are the clients that do the things that they need to do when they need to do them.

We’ve all seen organizations who hire consultants, pay a good bit of money for  ’strategy’ and then do nothing after the strategic plan is created.  What’s worse, we’ve all seen organizations pay for that strategic plan and then wait until they ‘have’ to implement their strategic plan.

When you (or an organization) wait till you have to do something rather than doing something when you can or should, you’ve put yourself in a bad spot.

Waiting till you have to do something forces you to work from a position of weakness rather than one of strength. Doing something when you have to do it causes corners to be cut and shortcuts to be created.

Doing something when you should…or at least when you can…is a much better proposition.  Doing something when you should gives you the ability to think things through, build a good plan and execute without pressure. Doing things when you should also allows you to  get a couple of false starts under your belt and even fail once or twice…but you should have time to recover.

When i get a call from a client asking if I’m interested in working on a project that has a 3 month deadline and is ‘uber-urgent’, I always ask for background. I want to know why its ‘so urgent’.  Is it because they’ve waited to long to initiate the project and are doing it because they ‘have’ to or is it because they want to get a jump on their strategy and do things when they should?

The answer to that always guides my thinking in whether to take the work or not.  I’d rather work with the clients that do things when they should.

What about you? Are you doing the important things when you should or only when you have to?

Image Credit: should what? By 416style on flickr

• Bringing Your Strategy to the Front Line by James Allen on Harvard Business Review

  Quote: Strategy is less about the new, new thing than it is about actually delivering on the goals you set. A successful strategy must be translated into front-line activities that are delivered well, everywhere, every day.

• CIO advice for CFOs by Martha Heller on CFO.com

  Quote: The consensus among all the CIOs with whom I’ve spoken is that IT is oriented toward change and finance is all about consistency. Once something is locked down, finance is loath to change it. That may make for sound cost management, but it can be a barrier to innovation.

• If Not Now, When? by Whitney Hoffman

  Quote: What will you move off your some day list, where your dreams are waiting for the stars and planets to align, and move it onto the front burner, where you have to work to make it happen?

• How To Deliver Exceptional Client Service By Jeremy Girard on Smashing Magazine

  Quote: Exceptional client service is about going beyond what is realistically expected of you. It is about surprising, and often delighting, customers, turning them into enthusiastic referral sources and lifelong clients who stick with you not only because you do great work at a fair price, but because the value you bring to them goes far beyond just your products.

• Knowing the business by Tom Catalini on People & Technology

  Quote: Knowing your function, understanding your project’s goals, and delivering on your specific role – all of this is critical. Putting it in the context of a really detailed understanding of the business, however, is the key to real excellence.

• Keep the Faith. Demand Proof. Relentlessly by Valeria Maltoni on Conversation Agent

  Quote: There are two aspects to doing business — believing in what you’re doing, and verifying that it works for your customers and clients….To succeed, you need to do both, relentlessly.

• Give me spark by David on 37signals

  Quote: Regardless of how you do it, find people with enough spark to care, fight, and campaign for what they believe in. What pushes you and makes you question your beliefs will make your company that much better.

• The Least Important Question in Leadership by David Burkus on LeaderLab

  Quote: The answer to the least important question in the world is both – born and made. So let’s stop debating it and start finding those with natural abilities and developing them into great leaders. Let’s also develop those without abilities into better leaders.?log=out

See more photos in my flickr photostream and/or my 500px portfolio. If you like my photography, feel free to support my addiction habit by visiting Adorama (affiliate link) to purchase new or used photographic gear. Or, if you are interested in renting gear before buying, try out my favorite camera, lens and gear rental site -  Borrowlenses.com (affiliate link) - the folks at Borrowlenses are awesome.  All proceeds from clicking the above affiliate links go to more photographs. 

EXIF: 1/1250sec, f/4.0, 500mm, ISO 1000, +1/3EV

Its fun to talk to new people…especially when they are receptive to the story you are telling and when that story is authentic.

When the story is real and right, people listen. When the story has holes or isn’t backed up by facts and experience, people tend to stop listening – or worse – never start to listen.

I sat through quite a few meetings this week and it was clear after about 30 seconds that the story that we were telling was interesting.  We were peppered with questions. We were asked about deliverables, schedules and processes.

Contrast that with other meetings where the story isn’t heard.  You spill out your story to blank faces and glazed-over eyes.  You try to connect with the people in the room but nothing works.  You continue talking but never connect. Why? Well…it could be that you suck at storytelling and presentations…or your story sucks.   Or…you are presenting to a room full of mannequins.

How can you know that your story is right?  How will you be sure people will listen?

You can’t be sure…but with practice and refinement, you can get close. Ask for feedback from friends, neighbors, colleagues and clients.   You’ve also got to take the time to make sure that you story is worth telling.

That said, I think most stories have an audience. One of the hardest things to do is find that audience…but once you do, practice the story.  Get the story right and people will  listen.

But…be careful to not take advantage of that audience. Make sure you can deliver on that story. Make sure you don’t change the story in mid-stream either.  There’s nothing worse than believing in a story (or person) and then finding out half-way toward the destination that it was a big fat lie.    Remember…you want to tell a story of truth…not one of fiction.

Once people listen, watch out…because things will start lining up in your favor then. Whether you;re selling SEO services, photography, technology consulting or widgets…get the story right and people will listen.

Image Credit: listen closely By twenty_questions on flickr

• The Danger of Imitation by Kevin Eikenberry

  Quote: Observe and learn from others who have been where you are going. But don’t lose yourself on that journey. Who you are is far too important for that.

• It’s Always About Leadership by Art Petty on Management Excellence

  Quote: If you’ve been given the responsibility and the title, you better be prepared to act selflessly when the time comes. Anyone can float through their days showboating and blowing their own horn. It takes a real leader to step up when the ship hits the rocks. (HT: Wally Bock)

• The Business Must Be a Partner in IT Transformation by Steve Romero on Romero Consulting Blog

  Quote: IT and the business are partners in their enterprises. When that partnership is not working, neither faction can fix the relationship alone. IT and the business must fix their ‘relationship’ problems together, as opposed to simply transforming IT. Following the couples’ advice above will cause each organization to reflect on their role in the success, or failure, of the relationship. When they do, they will certainly find the need for transformation does not rest solely on IT.

• Amplifying the enterprise: the 2012 CIO Agenda by Mark P. McDonald on The Gartner Blog Network

  Quote: We need a new way of thinking because the nature of Technology has become greater than the nature of traditional IT. CIOs, IT leaders and others may want to consider how their IT strategy, plans and actions support amplifying performance – turning up the value of technology without creating distortion or negative feedback.

• What is the definition of “innovation”? by Jeffrey Phillips on Innovate on Purpose

  Quote: Here’s a really simple tip for any firm trying to become more innovative:  create your own definition of what innovation should be for your business – and not just for an initiative, but an overarching definition for innovation.  Then, ensure you have the commitment to follow through on the definition and that the people responsible for carrying out the definition understand it, and the vision, strategy and goals behind the definition.  Otherwise, like a rowboat with only one oar, you’ll find your team constantly circling.

• Do You Build the Right Messages for Your Customers? By Frank Eliason on Time to be Frank

  Quote: In this new world of @YourService it is important to know the message you are sending to your own employees and Customers. Their interactions are what define your brand. This handwritten memo is an example of this message. Have you seen message like this? As a Customer how do they make you feel?

• We need to talk about piracy (but we must stop SOPA first) by danah boyd on apophenia

  Quote: As we go deeper into an information age, I think that we need to have serious conversations about what is colloquially termed piracy. We need to distinguish media piracy from software piracy because they’re not the same thing. We need to seriously interrogate fairness and equality, creative production and cultural engagement. And we need to seriously take into consideration why people do what they do. I strongly believe that when people work en masse to route around a system, the system is most likely the thing that needs the fixing, not the people.

• Let end-user freedom reign, but at the cost of rogue technology? by: Christina Torode on TotalCIO

  Quote: But as CIOs begin to build the next foundations in an age of cloud computing, shared IT services and the consumerization of IT, I wonder whether they are potentially adding a weak foundational layer, at least in terms of controlling rogue technology. Are they adding to the problem as they accommodate the age of people-centric computing?

• The Four Personas of the Next-Generation CIO By R “Ray” Wang on BusinessWeek

  Quote: Most of today’s CIOs fit squarely in the Chief Infrastructure Officer persona, dedicating their time and resources struggling to keep the lights on. Shifting into the Chief Integration Officer role will be a smooth transition for most of them, but only a few with a business bent will grow into the Chief Innovation Officer role. On the flip side, many business leaders with a technology bent will evolve into the Chief Innovation Officer and Chief Intelligence Officer roles.

• Digital Trends: Strategies for Reaching and Influencing Connected Consumers by Brian Solis

  Quote: Your job in 2012 is to not embrace new technology with arms wide open, but instead understand it and learn which disruptive technologies separate you from existing and potential customers.

Captured with Canon 7D with Canon 400mm 5.6 L.

See more photos in my flickr photostream and/or my 500px portfolio. If you like my photography, feel free to support my addiction habit by visiting Adorama (affiliate link) to purchase new or used photographic gear. Or, if you are interested in renting gear before buying, try out my favorite camera, lens and gear rental site -  Borrowlenses.com (affiliate link) - the folks at Borrowlenses are awesome.  All proceeds from clicking the above affiliate links go to more photographs. 

EXIF: 1/3200sec, f/5.6, 400mm, 400ISO, 0EV

In one of the first few chapters, Dr. Kahneman describes the “invisible gorilla test” popularized by psychologists Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris. The test consists of a team of 3 people dressed in black and a team of 3 people dressed in white passing a basketball to their teammates.

Watch for yourself…and really really focus on counting the passes between the white-shirts. (If you are reading this via RSS and don’t see a video, please click here to view it).

Did you get the number of passes correct? How about the gorilla…did you see the gorilla the first time?

Whether you saw the gorilla while watching the video or not…research shows that about half of the people that watch this video and focus on counting passes, do not see the gorilla. Pretty amazing huh? Half the people don’t see a gorrilla walk through the scene, pound its chest, turn and look at the camera, then stroll off.  Half the people.

From this test (and many other tests by other psychologists), we’ve learned that its very easy for us mere humans to get deceived, to miss things and/or just not pay attention that well. The ‘invisible gorilla’ phenomenon isn’t just some theoretical phenomena…Its something that happens in the real world every day. It happens to me and to you everyday.

The invisible gorilla shows up in many workplaces too.  With so many people and organizations focused on “doing more with less” (or whatever other buzzworthy terms you want to use here), we tend to miss some of the very important details that might change our outlook and approach towards those things we are so focused on.

Take a step back in your job/life and look for that invisible gorilla.  Maybe your gorilla won’t be as easy to see as the one in the video above…but i bet there’s one there…if you look hard enough.

PS: If you want to learn more about The Invisible Gorilla phenomenon, Simons and Chabris have written many papers on the subject and have even released a book titled The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us (amazon affiliate link). 

Image Credit: Gorilla By Kris Elshout on flickr