Let’s Give it to the Agency
February 24, 2010
It’s important to seek out and utilize resources that have more experience in a particular field than you do. But what happens when their expertise is…well, wrong?
Yesterday, I was on a consulting webinar call with one of our Business Self-Defense Gold Coaching members. He had sent in some of the various marketing pieces he was working on so I could make some suggestions that would help improve their effectiveness and response.
While we were both viewing one of the samples on our respective screens, I pointed to an entire section at the bottom of the page where there were logos of the various organizations and associations his company belonged to.
I suggested that these were not necessary, since they added nothing to the message that would encourage the desired response from the reader.
I heard laughter on the other end of the call, followed by, “Yeah, I didn’t even put them there. I had someone helping out with the design, and he actually tracked down the logos and added to the page without checking with me first.”
The person helping him was, by all accounts, a “design professional,” trained to produce attractive, pleasing ads. Here’s the problem: nowhere in that description did I use the words, “Trained to produce ads that will get people to jump out of their seats, visit a web site to request information; pick up the phone to call; or pull out their credit cards to buy something.”
Oh, the ad looked nice, but the logos and several other “design elements” took up valuable space that could have been much better utilized with testimonials, descriptions of value, and calls to action.
Unfortunately, most staffers at ad agencies are nothing more than artists pretending to be business people. Who do you want handling your marketing materials? Make sure anyone you entrust with even the smallest piece of your budget can deliver tangible, measurable results.
The Ball is Always Right
December 3, 2009
Life is always interesting because you can learn profound lessons in the most unlikely situations. In this case, it was from a tennis lesson during a corporate retreat.
My company offers a wide variety of programs to help organizations improve their performance and effectiveness. By far, my favorite is the “Learning to Fly” corporate retreat, where we introduce leadership and customer skills in the morning and reinforce them in the afternoon on the flying trapeze at Club Med.
During a program I held there a few weeks ago, I arrived a day early to make sure everything was set up properly for the attendees who would be arriving later in the day. When that was done, I headed over for the tennis workshop to try and resurrect a tennis game that has seen very limited action for the last few years.
As luck would have it, I was the only person there, so I got a 45-minute private lesson. As fate would have it, the instructor was a tyrant. No, really, he was! He ran me all over the court because he claimed that I wasn’t shuffling my feet enough when he hit the ball right to me; that I wasn’t shifting my weight properly; and that I was off balance when I hit the ball. (I can assure you that none of these claims were true.)
After a few minutes, I got with the program so he began hitting the balls closer to where I was standing so I could work on the mechanics of my stroke. By mistake, he hit one ball farther away then the others, and I watched it go right by me.
He got annoyed at this (remember, he was a tyrant) and asked me why I didn’t go after the ball. I told him that he didn’t hit the ball where he was supposed to. He laughed at this and said, “No matter where it’s hit, the ball is always in the right place. If it doesn’t come where you expect it to, then you need to move to the ball, otherwise you’ll lose the point!”
And although he was only talking about tennis, his statement had implications that reached far beyond the game.
How many times in life are we faced with a situation where things don’t go the way we expect them to? Where a situation at work unexpectedly complicates our jobs? Where we’re thrown a curve that dramatically impacts our personal lives?
And when this happens, our initial reaction is to just stand and watch, dumbstruck, as it happens, complaining that this wasn’t the way it was supposed to turn out, just as I stood and watched as the tennis ball passed by me just out of reach.
Mistake or not; intentional or not; fair or not; when the ball is hit out of reach you have two choices: you can stand there and do nothing, or you can adapt your strategy to the situation and move to where the ball is and give it your best shot.
Remember, the ball is always in the right place. Whether you win or lose depends on how you meet the ball.
What Are You Thankful For?
November 25, 2009
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve gotten out your Tricks & Tales newsletter, but it’s been a very hectic two weeks. My mother recently passed away after a few months of deteriorating health.
We had to cut short a birthday-weekend getaway and drive 750 miles to be with her during her last hours. Thankfully, she went peacefully with her family by her side.
Something like this makes you stop and think about everything you have to be grateful for in your own life, particularly as we’re celebrating our Thanksgiving holiday. For us, we’re grateful for our family, for our health, and for living in a world where we can influence our situation by our thoughts and actions.
We’re also incredibly grateful for you – our members and subscribers – who allow us to share our style of marketing to help you get fantastic results in your own business lives.
Things can be here one day and gone the next – whether a brand of automobile or a loved one – so it’s important to recognize what you have and appreciate its value in your life.
As we enter the holiday season with all the hustle and bustle and distractions, take time out to be thankful for the things you have, and for your ability to influence the outcomes of many other situations in your life.
Team Scrabble
February 19, 2009
With all the talk about working in teams, a quick examination of most compensation and recognition systems reveals that it is still individual effort—not teamwork—that gets recognized and rewarded.
With a slight adjustment in attitude, teams could turn this around.
A few months ago, I wrote an article about a former colleague who adapted his company’s traditional review process to focus on team versus individual results. I received several interesting replies to this. The most interesting of these was not related to work, but was centered around a family situation at home.
This person wrote about how his family spent time together playing different types of board games. Of course, most board games are designed to be competitive—with one person winning and the others fighting for second, third, or fourth place.
The game of Scrabble is no exception. This family, however, added an interesting twist to the scoring: instead of each person trying to maximize his or her individual score, the goal was to place the letters on the board in such a way that the family—working as a team—would get the highest possible total score.
What a great way to learn about the value of teamwork—while having fun!
Instead of trying to accomplish everything on your own, try to find opportunities in your organization to leverage the capabilities of your team. In most cases, you’ll accomplish more—and do it more effectively—working in teams than you will working individually.
Passion Makes the Difference—James Taylor vs. The Who
February 10, 2009
Being passionate about your work makes the day go by quicker, helps you be more productive, and generally makes you more fun to be around. When you lose your passion for your work, everyone around you knows it!
We can see an excellent example of this in the music industry. Growing up in New York City in the ’70s I had the opportunity to see many concerts. Two stand out as contrasting examples of passion. In 1975 I saw James Taylor at Tanglewood in the Berkshires and The Who at Madison Square Garden.
The Who was really at its musical peak, and the band’s leader, Pete Townsend, was the driving force. During an interview, he commented that when he was performing, he was on the stage physically, but he was somewhere else mentally. Once he even punched out a policeman who came on stage to tell him that there was a fire in the theater; he was so caught up in the music he really didn’t know where he was. Needless to say, this concert was memorable.
James Taylor, at that time in his life, was heavily into drugs so his passion was probably more focused on feeding his drug habit than it was on performing. His concert was good, but not great.
Jump forward 22 years. It’s the summer of 1997 in Raleigh, NC, and both The Who and James Taylor are coming to town. I was really excited about these two concerts. The Who was performing Quadrophenia, the great “concept” album they released in 1972, which we listened to constantly as teenagers. James Taylor’s new CD, Hourglass, contained his best material in 20 years, and, arguably, some of his best ever.
What I experienced was a flashback to the 1975 concerts—and now the roles had reversed. It seemed like The Who was just going through the motions. The band members put on an adequate show, but there was no real depth to their performance. James Taylor, on the other hand, was amazing. He looked as if he was having the time of his life. He interacted with the audience, joked around with his band, and played about ten more songs then he had planned on because he was having so much fun.
Maybe he was in such a great mood because he’s originally from nearby Chapel Hill. Maybe it was because we were sitting third row center. Or maybe he was really passionate about what he was playing. In any case, it was one of the best concerts I’ve ever attended, and his passion for his music, for performing, and for connecting with the audience left everyone in a great mood.
If a performance can have that kind of effect on an audience at a three-hour concert, imagine what kind of effect your own passion for your work can have on people you see for forty or fifty or sixty hours a week! Identify and understand the areas of work that you and your staff are passionate about and try to channel your efforts into those areas. You will be amazed at the results.
Random Acts of Kindness
February 5, 2009
Every so often, I see bumper stickers that say something like, “Commit Random Acts of Kindness!” To be honest, I normally dismiss these as a bit over-idealistic. The level of work we have to do—both inside and outside of our jobs—can leave us with precious little time to entertain such noble and altruistic thoughts.
But I had an interesting and encouraging experience a few weeks ago that helped to somewhat restore my faith in human nature.
My 11-year-old son and I will be riding in the MS-150 later this month. The MS-150 is a 150-mile bike ride to help raise funds for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. As you might imagine, biking 150 miles over two days requires a fair amount of preparation.
My son and I were on a training ride when another cyclist rode up and joined us on our ride. We talked about bicycles and good bicycling routes in the area. Then I mentioned that my son and I were in training for the MS-150 and had to raise a minimum of $150 each. He was impressed that an 11-year-old would do something like that.
Then, while we were riding, he opened up his “handlebar pack,” handed a $5 bill to my son, and said, “Here—now you only need $145 more!” Needless to say, my son was thrilled. The cyclist then rode on ahead.
About ten minutes later, he doubled back and joined us again. He asked my son if he had any bike shorts. (He didn’t.) A cycling jersey? (No.) He then told us that he used to own a bike shop, and he had a lot of inventory left over. If we wanted to stop by his house, he might have some clothes my son could wear.
When we arrived at his house, he took us into his garage and proceeded to hand my son three beautiful cycling jerseys, two pair of padded shorts, two pair of gloves, and a seat pack for storing tools and an extra tube. All of this was brand new—well over $250 worth of clothing and equipment.
He commented that he had loved to ride when he was a child; and if my son enjoyed riding and was willing to ride 150 miles for such a good cause, then the clothing would be more useful with my son than it would be in his garage.
Weeks later, I’m still amazed at this person’s generosity. And my son has learned a valuable lesson about “giving.”
Helping other people for no other reason than being nice makes both the giver and receiver feel great. Try to find something you can do that might have a similar impact on someone in your organization. It’s infectious, and it can have a profound impact on an organization’s culture.
