I often talk about this, but realized that I have not written about this on my blog, so I wanted to share a few thoughts on growing your network.

Meeting new people

This is the part of networking that many people find difficult, if not paralyzing.  Enjoying the challenge of meeting new people is a strength that the vast majority of people don’t have!

And to make matters worse, many people in addition to being generally uncomfortable with meeting people, feel like building a network is a selfish, shallow, or disingenuous activity.  

Sincerity not Numbers

Instead of thinking about networking success in terms of the number of people you meet at networking events, or getting big numbers on LinkedIn or twitter, think about Authentic Networking as making real connections with people that you would actually like to meet. 

Then stay in touch with them because you share a real reason to be connected.  This is the way to both grow and build real value into your network.

What do you actually care about?

Set out to meet just one person based on something that genuinely interests or inspires you.  Then you have an authentic connection, and you already have a built-in topic for the discussion. 

You won’t get that uncomfortable feeling of engaging a stranger in small talk, or feel like it is shallow or hollow.  And, more importantly, you leave with a real connection that you can build on over time.

I have grown my network significantly over the years, a few people a year, in a very authentic and high value way, by reaching out only to people who have done something that has genuinely interested, impressed, or inpired me, and telling them that they had done so as my way of contacting them. 

Here’s how this goes…

You contact them and say:

I [read an article, saw a panel discussion, listened to a webcast]  where you [did something, said something].
I was very interested in [a comment about something you were actually interested in].
The reason I was so impressed was [insert a real reason].
I thought I would connect with you and let you know you had [some sort of positive impact on me]. If there is ever anything I can do to be of service to you, please let me know.

Then once you make a genuine connection, make sure you stay in touch.   Staying in touch with people is the most important part of neworking.  That is how you put value into your network.  Meeting someone new has no value if you then don’t stay in touch! 

This is the aspect of networking that I talk most about.  You can read some prior posts on staying in touch:

• The Power of Weak Connections
• 10 things to give your network
• High Value Online Behaviors

A note on networking events

This authentic networking approach also can work well at networking events.  Instead of just showing up, figure out ahead of time who is going to be there, do some research, and then set out to meet specific people for specific reasons that actually interest you. 

You will be way more comfortable at the event because you will have a sense of purpose, some goals (find and meet these three specific people), and will be armed with something to talk about once you meet them. 

More Resources on Networking

Browse Webinars on Building Your Network

Members:  Download webinar podcasts & worsheets for free
Non Members: Purchase individual podcasts or Join to get access to all webinars

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The big trick is to refuse to let most of your time get used up by things that are not so important.  Take control of your time back.

1. Primetime

When are you brilliant?

Primetime is that time of the day when you are most brilliant.

It is when you are most creative, focused, energetic – when you can think really clearly and make things happen.

Figure out when your prime time is, and then don’t waste it doing email or going to bad meetings!  Schedule it for yourself, protect it, and get real work done.

You get important stuff done more quickly when you do it in prime time.  So you make even more time than if you try do important work with less horsepower, when you are not at your best.

2. Hide

Just take it.

If you are over-booked you just need to take some time back. Schedule it.  And HIDE.  The hiding is the crucial part.  It doesn’t work if you don’t hide.  The activity knows where to find you.

Stay home, sit in your car, go to a different building.  Do your important thinking and planning work in peace.  You’ll get more done and you’ll probably think of ways to save even more time.

3. Fail More

If you have 100 things to do, you are only going to do 70 of them, so instead of failing at 30, why not fail at 40?  Is there a big difference?  Since you are not going to get everything done anyway, set the bar a little lower!   And give yourself more breathing room to do the most important stuff.

4. In-between Time

In-between time is those times where you might have a meeting or phone call scheduled every hour on the hour, but they don’t all last an hour.  So you end up with  9, or 12, minutes before your next meeting.

Most people fall into the trap of thinking that the work they need to do is bigger than will fit into that small amount of time, so it’s not worth it to get started.

Oops. I really did have more time.

Many times, after you have browsed the internet or doodled for 12 minutes waiting for a phone call, the other person is late or cancels.  Damn! you actually could have had 30 minutes, but now you’ve wasted the first 12!

This didn’t take as long as I thought

You’ll be surprised at what you can finish in 7 minutes if you just get started.  Recently I started what I thought was a 15-20 minute task when I had 4 minutes before a phone call just to prove the point to myself that it’s worth getting started.  I actually finished it.

What were those quick things I needed to do?

There are worthwhile things you can do that only take a few minutes. Keep your task list handy for when you get some in-between time, highlight the quickies, and address one each time you get a few minutes.

Or get started on a bigger task.  Even small amounts of time are well used if you work on something important.

5. Quick Networking

People often tell me that they wish they did more networking but they just don’t have time.  Here is a challenge to that.

How many emails can you send in 5 minutes?

When you have a 5 minute block of time before a meeting, send as many emails as you can to people on your list.  It might be one, it might be 5. It helps to keep your networking contact list handy.

It’s been a long time.  I was thinking about you and wanted to say Hi.  Things are good here. I am in the same job.  My daughter just starting school at NYU, and I’m taking surfing lessons.  How are you?

How long does that take?  Don’t you smile when you get one of these?

None vs. 500

If you did this twice a day with two five minute “in between time” windows, and sent two emails each time, that would be 20 emails per week where you could be reaching out, saying hello, and generally connecting with your network.

That’s about 80 emails per month.  Even if you cut that in half, how much better is 40 emails per month – almost 500 per year –  than “not having any time for networking”?

Membership Update

There’s less than one week left to get 3 months FREE Membership to Azzarello Group.

Click here to learn more and check out your options.

or Join Now.

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I was so lucky through-out my career to have great mentors and lots of smart people who cared about me.

I often say, (because it is true!) that the single thing that had the biggest impact on my success outside my own effort was mentors.

There was not a close second. Mentors helped me make the big leaps in my career and I am very grateful to each one of them.

Teaching

Now, much of what I do in my business is to pass on learning, insights and ideas to others.

I wanted to use this one blog post to make you aware of a resource I offer to share the benefits of what I have learned throughout my career with others – Membership to Azzarello Group.

My goal for the membership program is to coach and mentor as many people as possible through monthly Webinars, live Coaching Hours, and other resources.

I’ve been doing this for almost 2 years, and over 1000 people have participated.

My request of you

If you know anyone who wants to invest time and energy in building their success on purpose – please pass this on, and recommend that they join.

If you have high performers in your organization, and you want to provide a unique, personal development program for them, sign them up.

What you get

Members get access to me.  Each month I choose a topic on creating success in your career and business.  I deliver a Webinar, and provide live Q&A, as well as worksheets and templates for members to put their learning into action.

Some of the topics have been on Personal Brand, Ruthless Priorities, Building Credibility & Relevance, Networking Online & Offline, Making More Time, Business Strategy, and Managing your Boss.  A few times a year, I interview a special guest star who is an industry leader, key topic expert or author.

Next month our Webinar will be a member requested topic of
How to Upgrade your Team, based on a recent blog article Average isn’t Enough, which got a lot of discussion.

A Personal Resource

I have been told that membership to Azzarello Group provides a very useful monthly reminder, a reason to focus, and the inspiration to make your career and business goals actually happen.   It helps you:

• Step back, and rise above the day to day activity
• Clarify those few things that will make the biggest difference for YOU
• Take action with practical and specific ideas you can do right now

Take control of your success!

Learn more about membership
Join Now (3 Months free if you join by Nov 7)
Contact Me to sign up your team as a group

Thank you!

I really do appreciate your continued interest, support, feedback and referrals.

I will be back on the blog next week with more ideas and insights for your success!

Thanks for your indulgence and help this week in helping me share the Membership program.

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INTERVIEW WITH
BOB KAPLAN ON STRATEGY

HERE ARE 10 IDEAS BOB SHARED WITH US IN
THIS MONTH’S MEMBER WEBINAR

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You need to support 30 percent more products or customers and your budget is flat or down.

The level of quality demanded is higher.
The business is more complex.  But you have less money…

It’s important to remember:

• This is not a unique situation.
• Every leader in every company is in this same boat at one time or another.
• This is what your job actually IS

Any smart person can do more good stuff with more money!

That is not what your job is. Your job is to do great stuff no matter what the budget.

If you walk around saying “I can’t do as much as I did last year because my budget is smaller” you are putting a bulls-eye on your chest.  The most effective leaders don’t worry about how much money they don’t have and how much harder the job is, they just get to work making the right, few things happen.

“Do Less with Less”

The goal is not to do “More with Less”.  More with less just doesn’t work.

Just piling more work on with less resources and telling everyone to deal with it, is not a formula for success.

At one point in my career I had to cut my annual budget from $140M to $60M.  The details are not necessary.  That is a cut!  My mantra became “we are going to do LESS with LESS”!

I learned that when you are faced with less budget you need to do less stuff, but you need to make sure what you do now, is  better stuff than what you used to do!

Do less, but achieve more

That’s where the leadership comes in. Here is when you personally need to step up to drive change.

It’s about challenging yourself and your team to do things in new and different ways to achieve better results with the same or fewer resources. This is what I refer to as “Better with Less“.

Your job as a leader is to find a way forward when expectations don’t match  resources.

It is to find different ways of working that accomplish more.  It is to:

• Make your team less busy on things that don’t matter
• Make trade-offs on purpose
• Decide things with less study
• Emphasize a few key things over everything
• Make cuts without being asked

Focus on key outcomes, then make cuts to make room

So many managers get into the mode of trying to take on everything without enough budget, and don’t think of making cuts on their own unless they are forced to do so from above.

You need to step up and take the ownership and initiative to make cuts to make room for the most important stuff, whether or not you are asked to do so.

Avoid across the board cuts.

Another sign of whether you are doing your job as a leader is that some things get less money and some things get more money.

This shows you have chosen things to emphasize to drive the business, and that they will succeed because they are well funded.  If everything gets cut equally, you are not doing your job.

For more ideas see Better with Less.

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How do you deal with people that are average performers?

The nice, loyal employees, who are not capable of stepping up to do what the job requires in the future?

You can’t really fire them for poor performance, because they are not problem employees, but you also know they are not what you really need in your business. 

They can’t help you enough to get where you need to go.

This is a very common situation, and as a leader you have two choices.

1. Average leadership behavior would be to let it ride, and wait until you can hire an additional new person, who is a top performer into a NEW role, and leave the average performer there.

2. Stand-out leadership behavior would be to change your organization, and build it UP.

Draw the ideal blank-sheet org chart

1. Start with the Desired Outcome for the Business

Get really clear about what business outcomes the company needs, and what the role is that your team needs to play in driving them.

Really understand and articulate the specific work, strategic problem solving, and outcomes that your team, and the specific individuals on your team, need to deliver to drive those business outcomes, not just now but in the future.

2. Draw your ideal org chart

Create a picture of the team that can do what you really need done.

Start with a blank sheet of paper. 

Don’t consider the current roles or who you already have on the team at all.  Just think about what the BUSINESS really needs, what outcomes you are on the hook for, and what the ideal team would be to make sure you can do it.

3. Create and clearly define the specific NEW roles

When you define the new roles, focus on outcomes, objectives and deliverables, not just “responsibilities”. 

List the long term objectives and short term work for each role on your ideal team.  Articulate the level of skills for decision making, strategic thinking, communicating, leadership, influence, and support which are required of someone in the role.

4. You have just created a clear and actionable picture of your goalIt is your job to make that picture come true.  It is likely that your current team does not fit into that structure.  It is your job to change your team over time so it does.

Two things will likely become clear at this point:

1. Some of your current people will people obviously map into the new roles.  Put them there.

2. You will end up with both some empty boxes AND some extra people.

The hard part

The real leadership comes in when you need to fill the empty boxes, and deal with the extra people.

This is a straightforward, and business focused way to move average or unmotivated performers off your team when you can’t fire them for being poor performers.  You make it clear what the business needs, what the new roles are, and what the requirements are for those roles.

It’s not personal

Their role does not exist any more.  The roles that do exist are new and different.  They are welcome to interview.   If they don’t make the cut, either give them a new role a level down in your organization, move them to another organization, or lay them off.

Your job is not to take care of people who are not up to the job you need to get done.  Your job is to build a team that can drive the right business outcomes.

This seems harsh. Is this really necessary?

Sure you can look around you, and see lots of average performance and other leaders not acting on this and not doing what it takes to build the right team. 

There can be a wide-spread tolerance for mediocrity in your company. 

Maybe you won’t lose your job if you just tolerate average performance and muscle through most of the hard stuff personally.

But just be clear maintaining the status quo is not stand-out, high value behavior as a leader.

This is not the kind of leadership experience that will set you up to advance. This is opting out as a leader.

This does not make you a bad person

If you have to eliminate jobs to build a stronger team, that also doesn’t prevent you from helping people you let go, get into their next job.  It wasn’t a performance issue, you needed different roles and this person was no longer a fit.  You are still in a position to help and provide referrals.

I have found that when people are struggling in the wrong roles and not doing well enough, taking them out of the role, gives them a new opportunity to move to a role where they can thrive and excel.  After getting over the initial shock and disappointment, they are often happier.

I acknowledge that right now is not a great time to be putting people out of work, but you can’t let that keep you from building the right team.

The other way to look at it is that you may be putting your whole team and your own job at risk, by not stepping up to do what the business needs.

The tougher the business challenges, the stronger the team you need.

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Is it:

1.  To get better & more efficient?

2.  To get people off your back?

What are you trying to do?

Of course you need to do some of both, but it’s really helpful to be clear about which one you are doing at any point in time.

For example, I have made the mistake of simply taking all of the internal success measures for my function,  putting them on charts, and giving them to my peers and management.  This, as it turns out, is a bad idea!

Be Relevant

No one really cares about what you do.  See also  Be More Relevant.  And no one ever really wants to see the guts of what you measure to do it better over time.

By all means, measure away when it comes to improving your operational effectiveness and efficiency, just don’t torture everyone else with the details.   Even if it’s really impressive, and you’ve done remarkable things, they won’t really understand it anyway.

It’s about communicating

Understanding why those measures matter is part of your expertise.  Keep those charts inside your function with the people who know what it all means.

When it comes to reporting measures outside your function, find a way to measure and report on things that are important to your stakeholders.  Remember, when you are talking outside your function…

It is not about improving operations, it is about communicating.

How to impress people

Outside of your organization, your goal is that people be favorably impressed with your results.  That allows you to defend your honor and your budget.

So you need to come up with a new set of measures, or at least a new set of reports for your stakeholders.  These reports will portray your results in a way that relate to things the already care about, in terms they already understand.

Their Measures, Their Vocabulary

If you are in marketing don’t deliver graphs about impressions, reach, or cost per lead.  Find out what the hot buttons are and report on those.

Business relevant measure: 50% more sales people report we have moved to the top competitive position when they walk into an account.

The fact that you delivered this through PR and SEO only matters to you.

If you are in IT don’t show charts about network availability, or data center upgrades.

Business relevant measure: Talk about the fact that you were able to decrease days sales outstanding (DSO) by providing online payment capability.

The fact that you did this by creating new applications and infrastructure improvements is secondary.

Measures people care about

Here is the way to establish your set of measures that the business will care about

Interview your business stakeholders about what they believe drives the business and what the most important business initiatives are.

Listen for 2 things.  1. What the list is, AND 2. the words they use to describe the things on the list.  This is your secret weapon.

(This is really magic…  Do this, it works.)

Now when you create the dashboard or scorecard to communicate your results outside your function, use only THEIR words to create the labels for the measures.

That way when they see what you are measuring, they see a list of highly relevant things they already understand and care about.

If you report your team’s performance and success based on those things, you win.

Get it on one page

You can still have your whole binder full of backup details, that you use to actually run your operation, but when it comes to communicating the value of what your operation delivers to the business, make sure you fit it on one page.

That way, you give a concise, positive impression that you are delivering on the things the business cares most about, and because it is on one page, they will be willing to take it in, and you’ll get the recognition you deserve.

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You can download the Podcast
Make More Time

Take control of your time

1. It’s up to you. No one other than you has any motivation whatsoever to make YOU less busy.  Your boss, your team, and your peers only benefit from your endless output.

2. Pick the right FEW things to do, and do them really well.  Don’t get overwhelmed by the activity of your job. Choose your activities to be the ones that support the most critical business outcomes.

3. Delegating: You can’t get there without delegating.  Think about delegating not as just assigning work, but as freeing yourself up to add even more value.

Create More Time – Do More Smart Stuff

4. Just take some time back. Schedule time for yourself and HIDE to think and work on the most important things.  If you don’t hide the activity will know where to find you.

5. Shift some time from activity/working to thinking/planning time.  Work ON your business not just IN your business.  Thinking of improvements and efficiencies helps make even more time.

Clear the Deck – Do Less Stupid Stuff

6. Seek and Destroy Chaos: deal with bad meetings, bad communications, and bad working habits.  Make the container smaller and time-box low value activities.

7. Resist temptation to solve and resolve things that don’t matter.  Don’t use time on things that don’t achieve critical business outcomes, even if they are more fun to work on.

Optimize the Time You Have

8. Manage your energy: Deal with being overwhelmed, get over disappointment quickly, make things easier on yourself not harder.

9. Improve working habits: Get better at using “in between” times, and don’t spend “prime time” on low value activities.

10. Magic: If you can align your FEW Priorities with where you have natural strengths it’s magic. You can and get more done, have a big impact, and you’ll make time because you can go fast when you are doing things you are really good at.

Download the Podcast Make More Time to learn more.

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Feel Free to forward it to others!

DO Better

Are you working on the right things?

• Can you explain how your company makes money?
• Can you show specifically how your work is adding value to the business?
• What percentage of time do you work on key initiatives, vs. stay busy with tactical activity?  What should it be?
• Do you have the ability to stop doing things that have a lower payoff?

Are you working in the right way?

• Are you a work-horse? Does the work just keep getting piled on because you do it so well?
• How much time do you schedule for yourself to think?  How much should you?
• What things do you do things specifically to make more time and make room?
• What do you do to manage your energy?

Are your working at the right level?

• Do you delegate well?  Do you jump in and do work for your team?
• Do you ever “cover” for work your team does that is not good enough?
• What are the top 3 critical leadership tasks to be done at your level?
• How do you measure if you are creating value in the business or just delivering work?
• Do you find ways to reduce the cost of doing what you did last year?
• What are you learning about this year on top of your job description?
• What are the learning goals you have set for your team this year?
• Do you have the right team?  Do you need to upgrade your team?
• What do you do on purpose to build trust through your behaviors and communications?

LOOK Better

• How do you create positive visibility for the work you and your team do?
• Do you know who all of your stakeholders and influencers are?
• Who are the people who have a say in what happens to you (even if you don’t interact directly)?
• Do you know what you are known for?  Is it what you want?  Do you know why?
• Do you do things to build your credibility on purpose?
• How well do you know your boss’s boss? Your boss’s peers?
• How do you learn what is most relevant to your business stakeholders?
• Do you know how they would describe it?  What words would they use?
• Do you focus as much effort on how you sell your ideas as the ideas themselves?
• What is your process to regularly communicate with people outside your organization?

CONNECT Better

• Do you have mentors?
• What sort of mentors are most necessary to help you meet your goals?
• Are you a mentor?
• Do you regularly GIVE things to people in your network?
• Do you do networking naturally?
• How much time do you spend doing proactive networking? How much should it be?
• Do you have relationships with people who challenge and fuel your imagination?
• Do you regularly interact with people in other organizations an industries to get fresh perspectives?
• Do you tend seek out help when you need it?
• What is your strategy to grow your network?
• What kind of network is expected for the next job you want?
• How many people who don’t work for you, would do work for you if you asked?

Want some help with all this?

If you’d like to get some more insight and support for how you can attack this list to position yourself better, be more effective, and get a bigger payoff in your career, I offer a unique opportunity to a small group of people to spend a day with me.

We work on building your personal plan to grow your career, raise your game as a leader, create your Personal Brand, increase your influence, and grow your network.  It’s a small group, so it is personalized to you.

I can’t do many of these workshops any more, due to the rest of my business commitments, so I do only two public sessions per year now.   

I have only 6 seats left in my next session on October 22 in San Mateo.

If you come I guarantee you will get at least one life-changing idea, and dozens of practical things you can start doing tomorrow to get more of what you want out of your work.

I share, from my personal experience, and everything I learned from smart people along the way, what things will have the biggest impact on your success, and which things are a waste of time and will get you stuck.

It’s been wonderful to hear the stories about the big promotions, and the career and life changing events that people have been able to create for themselves as a result of this workshop.

If you are interested, don’t wait.  Sign up Now.

There are only 6 seats left and the next session will not be until April or May of next year.

If you can’t make it to San Mateo, you can also get this workshop on DVD.

Thanks,

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Unless of course, the “lead” is ready to buy.

Sales people only like HOT leads

I don’t say this to take a shot at sales people.  Effective sales people do a heroic job of cultivating their own business, and getting their own leads based on personal outreach, account development and referrals.

So, warm or cool leads generated by marketing are just not helpful.

They become “action items”, which get in the way of developing the business they are working on.

So why bother generating leads for sales at all?

If you are in the marketing role, generating leads is built into the DNA of your job description.  It’s also makes for a clear measurement:  How many leads did you generate and how much did it cost?

The standard goal is to spend the right amount of money and generate high quality leads that sales people use and turn into business.

Joint Marketing & Sales Approach

The real goal should be a joint sales and marketing goal where the leads are of high enough quality (and Hotness) that the sales force actually is motivated to work them.

I have seen two very basic practices make a huge difference.

For Sales: Actually use your CRM system

In so many companies, the CRM system becomes a “write-only” database for leads.  The information in it gets stale and out of date because it is not used as a day to day tool for developing business.

One time as a CMO, I investigated the leads that were in stage one of my company’s CRM system with people from sales, field marketing and corporate marketing.  “Stage one” is where leads that have been fully qualified were supposed to live.

In an unusual a fit of honesty from all involved, I got some real answers.

* A small percentage of the stage one leads were actually stage one leads.  They were being worked by sales people who had qualified them and moved them to stage one.  This was the minority.

* Some leads were there because the sales people were getting measured on qualifying leads, so they just moved them to stage one to meet that objective then just ignored them.

* This point was also good for marketing which also being measured on stage one, “qualified leads”, so it mutually re-inforced useless behavior and inflated success measures all around.

* Some leads were there because even though the deal had moved forward into later stages, no one updated the leads in the system.

* Some leads were there because the sales rep left the company and they were never reassigned.

* Some leads were there because the sales rep thought THEY had generated the lead, not marketing, so they entered a duplicate that they would get credit for directly.

* Some leads were there were actually worked and found to be not qualified, but no one bothered to close them out.

…You get the picture.

The way around this is to actually use your CRM system.

Have Lead Review Meetings

Sales teams have weekly order or revenue review meetings.  The most effective sales teams also have lead review meetings.

Imagine each week, if every sales team was looking at their assigned leads in the CRM system and every sales rep had to report on progress on each and every lead that was assigned to them.

This is not just about forcing sales to use the system, so everyone can have a nice neat system.

This is about developing business and making sales.  This is how the sales teams turn leads into business. This works.  I’ve seen this produce dramatic results from every sales team that does it.

The more focus sales teams have on the development of leads the more business they get.  It’s pretty black and white.

For Marketing: Don’t throw away warm leads

This qualifies as some of the oldest “news” on earth.  I bring it up again only because it is one of the most well studied AND most ignored marketing practices.

Companies spend money to generate leads and have a process to qualify them.  The HOT leads get worked on and the rest get thrown away.  Then you do another marketing program to get a whole new crop of leads, work the new HOT ones, and throw the rest away….

This is very expensive and also, it is well proven that the few hot leads have far less value long term than the warm & cool, but qualified ones.  (the ones you are throwing away.)

For starters, the warm and qualified cool list is a much larger list.  And people who expressed interest once are much more likely to buy eventually, then a brand new crop of unqualified leads from your next marketing program.

Think about this.  Only deliver HOT leads to the sales force.  Keep the rest in marketing and keep marketing to them until they are HOT.

Keep building your warm list and keep marketing to them.  You will get more HOT leads coming out of that group over time than from your new campaigns alone.  And they will be even HOTTER because they will have a longer term familiarity with you as you’ve been consistently marketing to them

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