• “Later”
• “Tomorrow”
• “Next week”
• “After tax season”
• “Next quarter”
• “When I get around to it.”  I’ve provided one on the right!
• Or insert your procrastination term here: __________________

Here are 3 simple steps to move that project forward:

1. Examine your motives for pushing it off. Is this really important to you or are you just being lazy … doing things as you’ve always done them and expecting different results?
2. Is the project in alignment with your goals, your values, your dreams? Has this task passed the Important/Urgent test?
3. Allocate 5 focused minutes to get the job started. You’d be amazed how just those 5 minutes can motivate you to tackle the rest of it.

Apply these three techniques to that project or tough task that keeps re-appearing on your “to do” list, and you’d be amazed at how much better you feel! It really is just as easy as 1, 2, 3!

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Related Posts & Articles

• Time is Money What does that really mean?
• Relief from the Procrastination Blues: From David Herdlinger’s Unlimited Potential

I’m old enough to remember the days when the phone company would charge extra for customers who wanted unpublished phone numbers. That was when people actually used phone books. I also remember when businesses would NEVER have unpublished phone numbers.  Then came the internet where some companies have grown mightily despite not publishing their phone numbers.

I recently completed studying two very successful Internet companies with two vastly different approaches to customer interaction. As part of my self directed curriculum at the Automobile University, I recently listened to the audio books that detail the internal workings and cultures at…

• Google: I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 by Douglas Edwards
• Zappos: Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh

If you have ever interacted with Google as a customer, it is unlikely that you have ever had a live conversation with a real person. From the book, it is clear that Google’s founders believe in that line from Field of Dreams; If you build it, they will come. Through their technical superiority they’ve succeeded in becoming a verb in the search world and monetizing their free search service with ads and other services.  But they’ve always had unpublished phone numbers and still do. Here’s their contact page, sans phone numbers.  They have an unwritten contract with their customers: Don’t call us. We won’t call you.

As a consumer of both their Adwords and Checkout payment services, I’ve painfully experienced their cumbersome troubleshooting systems that arrogantly ignore the possibility that my problems could exist or that I would want them resolved in less than 48 hours.  So much for either instant gratification or crisis remediation.

If you consider the tortuous path of today’s corporate phone menu systems (dial 1 for English) perhaps we’re better off without trying to use the phone.

In contrast, Zappos is not your ordinary internet company. Not only can you call them, they actually call their customers to gain insight and rapport.

Based on the success of both Google and Zappos, it’s fair to say that either approach can work.  That is, if you choose your approach and assure that it works for your customers.

In addition to being web based businesses, the two have one other common trait.  Both made the top 20 of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For.  Google is #1, Zappos is #11. Happy employees remain a key to delighting customers whether you can have a phone conversation or not.

Editorial

In Google’s case, they transitioned from solely providing free search to the world to having paying customers for advertising and financial services.  But their unpublished phone numbers prevailed. To add to customer frustration, Google takes pride in hiring students with no less than 4.0 grade point averages.  The result is their virtual communication is haunted by The Curse of Knowledge. Their non-wiz-kid paying customers are often tortured by confusing menus and limited feedback forms that make us long for Zappos-like telephone support.  Is it possible to maintain customer loyalty without really trying?  Stay tuned.

Value Proposition Challenge

The Curse of Knowledge¹ is a condition that comes from knowing so much about your topic that you struggle to connect with your audience.  It’s easy to become cursed. When you’re a subject matter expert, you naturally assume others have a similar frame of reference.  But, how could they?

In order for you to become an expert, you’ve had to immerse yourself in the details with what you do and how you do it.  It can be really rewarding when you share. Rewarding for you.  But maybe not for your listeners or readers.

Tuning in to the Right Frequency

Your listeners’ or prospective customers’ favorite frequency is WIIFM: “What’s in it for me?” If you want the potential “buyers” of your ideas, products or services to share your enthusiasm, you need to communicate their successful outcome before getting into what and how.  Or why would they care?

Understanding Buying Process

Whether you’re selling an idea, a product or a service to another person, it helps to understand how a buyer’s mind works. Let’s first understand that buying decisions are inherently emotionally based. We typically seek to rationalize what our emotions have already decided for us. This explains the proven sequence that occurs when people make buying decisions. For a sale to be made, a person must, in sequence, buy:

1. The sales person or presenter
2. The organization behind that person
3. The idea, product or service

To pass that #1 test of anyone’s buying process, they must buy you. If you don’t clear that first hurdle, the other two won’t matter.

The Expressway to Their Hearts

What is the best way for others to buy you?  Simon Sinek, author of the book Start With Why believes that “People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.”

I believe that this is true whether your selling an idea or a transaction. Why?  Because I “buy” what Simon Sinek believes.  While his video is 18 minutes long, it is a potential game changer if you can learn to apply it.

Are You Cursed? Can You Become A Believer?

It depends on how you start.  And you well you’re able to tune in to the ever popular frequency: WIIFM.

Credits and Related Articles

• Where there’s no why, there’s no way.
• The Value of Core Values: Lessons from Andersen
• Cutting Through Marketing Clutter How can you find your silver bullet?
• What Do You Do?  What’s your answer?

1. The Curse of Knowledge concept comes from the book Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

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Business-To-Business Social Marketing

I recently heard author Paul Gilln speak on the topic of social media’s emerging role in business to business marketing.  He came to Chicago to promote his latest book: Social Marketing to the Business Customer. Having benefited from his 2007 book on blogging, The New Influencers, I seized the opportunity to hear him speak in person and gain his current insight on B2B applications and best practices.

Paul opened his presentation by siting the dramatic decline in subscription statistics of traditionally strong print media brands. He also noted that the average age of a newspaper reader is 57.  The average viewer of the network nightly news is 63.  Paul himself authors a blog titled Newspaper Death Watch.

“The Trust Gap”

Paul got a laugh from the audience when he asked if anyone is starved for information today.  He then noted that while information has reached overload status, the over abundance of sources combined with the decline of traditional sources has created a trust gap.

There is an old joke that’s on a death watch of its own.  It’s that sarcastic statement: If it is printed in the newspaper, it must be true. Today we renew the statement’s relevance by replacing the word newspaper with internet or Twitter.  So Gillian asks: As consumers of information, “where do we go for trust?“  All too often, Google is our new source of trust.  The top ranked, search results get the most creditability.  From there, today’s information consumers seek to filter further as they view content. They also look at rating and ranking systems, when they exist.

As a business-to-business marketer, your site’s “About” page is critical for answering credibility questions.  And beyond the “About Us” page, business shoppers observe how you interact with your audience over time.

Social Marketers’ Challenge

As purveyors of information about our services or products, how do we gain a reputation as a trusted source? Gillian suggests that today’s marketers take care to put the interests of their customers and prospects ahead of their own. When a customer has a need that is better served by someone else, send them there.  How novel is that?

Send ‘em to Gimble’s?

While it may seem new to some, we can go back to that seasonal favorite, 1947 film, Miracle on 34th Street for an early example.  Macy’s store Santa, Kris Kringle, sent customers to Gimble’s when Macy’s couldn’t fill their needs. The loyalty and trust from that selfless gesture did wonders for Macy’s customer loyalty in the movie.  If we really want to put a date on the idea of advocating others’ interests, how old is The Golden Rule?  Yet over centuries, we forget to appreciate its power enough to habitually apply it.

Time Tested Social Marketing Advise

In 2011, it is more challenging than ever to become a trusted source of information. The media are new and evolving.  Are the fundamental rules really different? Just remember to ask yourself:

What would Kris Kringle do?

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Related Posts:

• Social Media and the Moth Effect
• From Vinay Kumar’s Blog: 8 Business Lessons from Santa!

I’ve shared Life “On The Train” at the start of every holiday season since 2005.  As with It’s A Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street, its message is timeless.

I urge you to view this video and take it to heart. Then ask yourself: What will I do differently to enhance my important relationships?  Write down your intentions. You will then be more inclined to make them happen.

I wish you the very best of the season and feel honored to have ridden, however briefly, on your train.

“It takes a lifetime to build a good reputation, but you can lose it in a minute.”

And so it is for the iconic coach and benefactor, Joe Paterno. He built a “great” reputation by both winning football games, positively shaping young lives and generously contributing to the building of the university’s campus.  After all of those good deeds, he may most be remembered for the scandal that left him saying: “In hindsight, I wish I would have done more“.

Closer To Home: A “Paterno Moment”

A friend came to my office last week and arrived somewhat shaken.  While driving over on I-294, he witnessed a large aluminum ladder fall off the top of a service truck and into the fast-moving traffic that followed. While my friend did not know the full extent of the consequences, it is fair to assume that there were victims of the truck driver’s rigging carelessness. While my friend did get the license number of that truck, he felt conflicted about what to do next. We discussed the pluses and minuses of reporting the truck’s identity to the authorities until I asked: “How is this situation different from the one that Joe Paterno faced?”

You might argue that ignoring a falling ladder isn’t the same as ignoring ongoing child sex abuse. Perhaps. But where to you draw the line?  When is it OK to ignore wrong-doing and allow the responsible party to escape unscathed?

Of course, my friend did do the right thing by reporting the number of the truck. Ignoring the incident didn’t affect his employment status.  But might there be a subtle, indirect effect?  As we make doing “the right thing” a habit, we’re less likely to expose ourselves to potential reputation damage. We thereby fortify our careers. In the words of Aristotle:

“We are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.”

Responding to Your “Paterno Moments”

We are all faced with what I now (sadly) call “Joe Paterno moments“. They occur when we face fork-in-the-road decisions to either take action or ignore. Our reputations rise and fall on how we respond.  Is there a better way to protect your reputation than repeatedly practicing doing the right thing?  If we don’t, we can be left uttering the regrettable words of Joe Paterno:  “In hindsight, I wish I would have done more“.

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Related Article: Score Another Error for Charlie Hustle

Effective delegation begins by understanding the difference between assigning a task and delegating responsibility. I’d like to make General George Patton responsible for helping me describe the difference, While he’s no longer with us, this quote is up to the task.

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.”

I love the film Patton. I occasionally dust off my DVD to revisit his other great quotes like: “I hate paying for the same real estate twice”. And, George C. Scott’s Oscar winning performance is always worth revisiting.  The driven General Patton and I agree that, when delegating, sharing “what” is better than “how”.  To take your delegation skills to an even higher level, let’s consider key concepts from two leadership thought leaders:

• Stephen Covey: “Begin with the end in mind” from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
• Simon Sinek: “Start With Why?“

Delegation has the most potential when you  go beyond how and what to unleash the power of why.

Why Ask “Why?

Whys turn tasks into causes.  As you consider the ongoing leadership challenge of motivating others, remember that the root word of “motivate” is motive. To be a truly effective leader and motivator of others, you must align your initiatives with the motives of your followers. They own their attitudes, not you.  Another legendary WW2 leader, Dwight D. Eisenhower, sums it up:

“Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.“

That “want to” comes from motive ownership. Motive ownership comes from “why alignment”.  It can work for both menial and complex initiatives.

Finding a Common Motive

How do you create that “want to”? Let’s look at the common task of sweeping the floor. Here are three different approaches to getting it done with, how, what and why:

1. How: “Here’s a broom and dust pan. Sweep all the dust and debris into this dust pan and dump it in the trash can.”
2. What: “You are in charge assuring that our floors are clean. Let me know what you think is needed to make that happen.”
3. Why: “Our customers are the people who make our pay checks possible and help us provide for ourselves and our families and secure our futures. When our customers feel good about visiting our environment, they usually spend more money with us.  When they they do, we all win. Can we count on you to maintain our floors to assure that our customers always have a positive impression of us?”

Which of these approaches would Commander-in-Chief Eisenhower endorse?  How can you improve your ability to unleash the power of WHY and get others to “want to” do the important things you need done?

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When it comes to effective communication, I believe that less is more. With a clear, concise message, fewer words are misinterpreted. Less noise is easier to consume than more noise. You get it.

One notable exception is the use of acronyms. As acronyms proliferate an industry, an organization or a department, new sub-languages arise. We reach a point where we need translators to decode the messages. When less becomes less, we get more communication SNAFUs.

Case Study

The topic of acronyms came up at a recent event for Human Resources Executives. I chatted with the Vice President of Employee Relations for a large communications company. For the sake of clarity, I just spelled out three potential acronyms:

1. HR
2. VP
3. ER

While HR and VP are commonly understood in the corporate world, use of the ER acronym led me to question it. If we were at a meeting of health orientated professionals, working in ER translates to a much different job enviromment.

I admit I was briefly confused. I shared my translation challenge with that Telcom ER VP. He acknowledged their organization has an ongoing challenge with acronym ambiguity. They have over 100,000 employees. They address this challenge with an internal website where employees can post and seek translations for their growing list of acronyms and company specific terms. It is a virtual English to Company dictionary. An internal decoder tool.

Digesting Acronym Laced Alphabet Soup

What do you do when you hear an acronym you don’t understand? When we hear or read a foreign term, do you ignore it or question it? Many of us ignore these lapses in communication and hope they go away. There are two popular motives:

1. It’s about me: You seek to avoid appearing ignorant or uninformed.
2. It’s about them: You avoid appearing rude by interrupting the other person. (see Should Interruptions be Pardoned?)

In either case, we defeat the purpose of communication: The effective exchange of information. If you’re not serving this purpose, why do it?

Blame Free Interactions

Communication participants need to take responsibility in your roles of both information sender and information receiver. When you take this responsibility seriously, sweeping your acronym ignorance under the rug is irresponsible. As a responsible listener, you fail in your role when you blame the sender for using foreign terms and avoid clarification. The idea exchange fails.

Citizen’s Arrest

I my industry-diverse practice, I regularly hear acronyms I don’t understand. I confess that I used to sweep my acronym ignorance under the rug by nodding without knowing. But I grew to realize that pleading ignorance is critical to overcoming it. I gradually gained enough self-assurance and courage to question foreign terms. Acronym questioning has become a habit and a skill for me. I’ve become a self-deputized acronym policeman. I regularly make citizen’s arrests.

Skillful Arrests

So, I believe that it’s OK to interrupt for the sake of clarification. But it is important that your intent is clear. Avoid any perception of police brutality. If your arrest is a veiled attempt to expose or demean the “sender”, you will shoot yourself in the foot. I am pleased to report that my inquiries are well received. People do respect you when you show the extra effort to understand.

Responsible Sending

How do you feel when two members of a group suddenly begin speaking in a foreign language so they can conduct a private discussion in your presence? Do you remember when your parents would spell words in front of you before you learned to read? How did you feel? Consider that feeling before using acronyms or jargon among others who are unable to translate.

To Serve and Protect

In public service announcements, we’re told to drink responsibility. As a service to yourself and others, I suggest that you communicate responsibly:

• Avoid using terms that could need translation by providing the translation instead of speaking in code.
• Ask for translation when needed

To serve and protect responsible communication everywhere, I invite you to join my Acronym Police Force. You are hereby deputized to make citizen’s arrests. Be part of he solution. If you’re arrested yourself, give the acronym police the respect and information that they deserve. And, be advised that calling this the APF is both a communication SNAFU and an arrest-able offense.

Finger Fix?

As with any habit that needs to change, you first need to be aware that it’s happening. Then you need to understand how damaging it is.  Then, you have a chance to make a lasting change.  So if you can admit that you occasionally point that incriminating finger of blame, there’s hope for you.  Now we can consider why you should stop.

Scoring “Points”

If you believe that others should be accountable for their responsibilities, you must hold yourself to a platinum standard.  There’s a time-tested warning about directing the finger of blame at others.

Whenever you point your finger at someone, there are always three others pointing back in your direction.

While you may not physically point the finger, you get yourself sucked into playing The Blame Game whenever you proclaim “it’s not my fault“.

Are You A “Creator” or A “Victim”?

There is a school of thought that we can place people’s attitudes in one of two categories: creators or victims.  Whose who play The Blame Game fall into the victim category. Here are the contrasting differences in the language of these two attitudes.

1. Victims make excuses. Creators seek solutions.
2. Victims blame others. Creators accept responsibility.
3. Victims complain. Creators take action.
4. Victims repeat ineffective behavior. Creators do something new.
5. Victims “have to” do things. Creators “choose” to do things.
6. Victims are part of the problem. Creators are part of the solution.
7. Victims pretend their problems belong to others. (They say “you” when they mean “I.”). Creators own their problems. (They say “I” when referring to their own problems.)
8. Victims “try.” Creators commit and follow through. Victims give up. Creators take control of their choices and their lives

How many of these words and mindsets are part of your routine?  How many negative points are you scoring in The Blame Game?

It may be true that “it’s not your fault.”  But before you say so or point that frail finger of victim-ship, consider the choice you’re about to make.

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Related Post: Don’t get mad, get…

Footnotes: Conceptual credit goes to:

• David Herdlinger who shared the creator-victim contrasts in a keynote to the RAC Network Conference around 2005.
• Skip Downing who published similar thoughts in On Course, Strategies for Creating Success in College and in Life

Aligning The Three P’s

Triple Bottom Line Leadership is a term for strategic sustainability initiatives that  seek to align people, profits and the planet. While I’m an inherent optimist, I don’t envision the concept reaching critical mass in the near term future.

Do profits come easier when you align all three P’s? How do you prove that paradox? That proof provides the WHY. Only if the WHY is strong enough, will we begin to figure out HOW.  As I’ve previously discussed, when there’s no why, there’s no way.

To gain critical mass, aligning the 3 P’s needs to achieve “must have” status as opposed to a “nice to have”. Decision makers/leaders first need their WHY (successful examples or case studies) then “the how” (proven methodologies).

Significant obstacles prevent a positive prediction for “when” this alignment can occur. Pardon my pessimism. Here’s part of what’s getting in the way.

Aligning people, profits and planet will require epiphanies for a lot of unenlightened leaders who struggle connecting just the first two P’s. Southwest Airlines has successfully connected people and profit. But in a copy-cat world, their competition has failed to replicate either their intangible value system or their tangible profits. Would adding a third “P” make it easier or more challenging? What is the common perception?

Who Will Lead and Why?

C-Level positions are predominantly held by Results-Driven leaders. This strong utilitarian value eventually conflicts with altruism and ecology in the decision-making process. For an epiphany to occur within a predominantly utilitarian mindset, leaders must first discover that People and Planet are critical means to their end: Profit. Then they need a (revamped balanced score card type) methodology/strategy to pursue this.

When Will We Want It?

Another obstacle is the focus on short-term results at the expense of the long-term bigger picture. With the quarterly focused time-line of most publicly traded companies, the planet has a difficult time getting to the top of the list. Their shareholders could/should demand more. That institutionally dominated group is far from reaching critical mass.

What’s In A Name?

When addressing a C-Level, utilitarian dominated audience, I’d be careful about using the label “triple bottom line“. Unless you can demonstrate genuine potential for 300% profit improvement it could be easily misconstrued. You risk immediately losing them with the perception of false bravado. Unless you can demonstrate it’s proven to benefit all of your stakeholders.