My presentation, Pursuing Your Leadership Potential, featured concepts that I’ve shared here in the past including The Skills Curve and The Execution Box, And I unveiled The 5 Secrets of Effective Communication, which the audience rated the most valuable part.

Thanks also to my photographer, Kevin Lemanski who took a break from his own MBA studies to attend.

Why Don’t We Execute?

Organizations typically hire for skills and knowledge, then fire and promote on the basis of attitudes and habits.  Upon terminating people, they start the process over again. Are skills and knowledge needed for job success?  Of course!  Yet, how many times have we seen skillful, knowledgeable people fail to fit with their new job or organization?

Introducing “The Execution Box”

The graphic below gives us an illustrated model and explanation for execution shortfalls. When most organizations attempt to improve performance, they spend time and money both seeking and developing skills and knowledge (left side of the model below). However failures and terminations typically result from factors on the right side of the model: Attitudes and Habits.

For committed execution of goals that support your strategy, you need people to WANT TO.  This applies both to large organizations, teams, and to individuals.

The Knowing Side of The Execution Box

Most organizations focus their attention and resources on the left half of the diagram. They seek to recruit and enhance skills and knowledge.  Does it make a difference?  Sometimes.  Yet we often struggle to make a business case for training and development. How do we gain return on our investment of resources when measurable, tangible results are often elusive.  What if we broadened our focus to consider…

The Doing Side of The Execution Box

Most shortfalls, failures and terminations result from deficiencies in the right side of The Execution Box.  Despite the fact that we know, we don’t always do:  Unless our attitudes and habits are developed, we struggle to close the execution gap.

Consider the typical shortfalls:

• Remakes/re-dos
• Late deliveries
• Lost customers and opportunities,
• Delayed execution / missed deadlines
• Stagnant innovation
• Reluctance or slow termination of poor performers

Can these be attributed more to lack of knowledge or lack of execution? Are knowledge and skills of your workforce critical to success? Of course! But, what are we doing to address the real cause of the typical shortfalls?

When it comes to developing productive attitudes and habits, most managers don’t know what they don’t know. Performance and execution suffer and everyone wonders: How do we change this? All too often, we restart the same cycle. We fire, recruit, hire and ramp-up new people while hoping their attitudes and habits will improve.  Shouldn’t we do more than hope?

 Knowledge alone is not power. Only applied knowledge is power.

Closing The Gap

Closing your execution gap requires a focus on developing attitudes and habits to concert with enhancing skills and knowledge. At Chicago Executive Coaching, we believe that a holistic approach to closing your execution gap is the key to more effective goal achievement.   Knowing is nice. Doing is where the action is.

“People’s minds are like parachutes – they only function when they are open.”

If I asked you to rate your open mindedness on a 1 to 10 scale, what number would you give yourself?

Do I Lose My Dignity or My Sanity?

Before you answer, let’s look at the other side of the open minded coin. Who among us wants to be considered closed minded? There’s an indignity connected to being perceived as indignant. You don’t want to be that person. So if your mind isn’t closed, it must be really open to any and all possibilities. Right? But how realistic is that?

We all face the growing challenge of idea and information overload. Blame it on the internet and all the media connected to it. The reality is that we have more information to process from more sources than ever before. Is it any wonder we get overwhelmed? What does all this do for our attitude for openness? It’s enough to make you leap from your airplane without a parachute.

Is is possible to stay open to it all? Won’t we either suffocate or drown? Our solution is to filter what we take in and eventually choose to adopt.

Open Mindedness: Is it an Attitude or a Skill?

The answer to that question is “yes”.  To address our information overload challenges, we need to filter or limit our information intake and then work to prioritize the most valuable. Being indignant is an extreme expression of an attitude for closed mindedness. Overcoming an unproductive attitude requires development of new skills driven by an awareness of the attitude’s damaging effects. You also need a renewed focus on the desired results to make more effective filtering decisions.

Packing Your Parachute

So here’s my quick checklist for maintaining an open mindset.

• Stay focused on your goals and our purpose
• Embrace the belief that possibility thinking is the best path for innovation and problem solving
• Develop and maintain a circle of diverse, trusted sources and advisors
• Develop your skills for enhanced filtering and time management

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Related Articles:

Social Marketing Insight from Kris Kringle

In case you were wondering, Thomas Dewar is more famous for his work as Scottish whiskey distiller.

• “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 own procrastination term or stall tactic 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

The book: I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 by Douglas Edwards

vs.

Zappos

The Book: Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh

All Calls Barred

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, the on-line footwear retailer, is not your ordinary internet company. Not only can you call them, they actually call their customers to gain insight and rapport.  Superior Customer relations is a Zappos differentiator.

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

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?