Peter Tennis

Posts Tagged ‘Performance’

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Be More Successful -> More ‘Professional’

In Career, How-To on October 12, 2010 at 5:53 am

Over the past twenty years, there has been an occasion where I have been accused of not being professional (usually when someone is suffering deep emotional problems). Worse, I have myself thrown the term out to describe someone else’s behavior (I have always been mentally stable). I don’t even know what ”professional” means. I do get paid – isn’t that professional? Let’s put it this way: In the good old days, I wouldn’t have been able to go to the business olympics – only amateurs were allowed (and while my performance may be amateur, I have been paid on numerous occasions for my athletic acts of business which is a clear violation of both old-school olympic and current NCAA standards. Though I don’t have enough tattoos to make any NCAA team nowadays, even women’s soccer.).

Let’s face it: appearance matters. And while I do mean the way you look, I don’t just mean the way you dress and do your hair. The way you appear to others makes a difference. (oh yeah, I finally found a description for ‘professional’).

Back in the tumultuous aftershock of 9/11, I was stuck trying to save my own business and looking for work at the same time. I got pretty good at interviewing (either for a new client or a new job), and learned a valuable lesson: It’s not so much what you say, but how you say it. In other words, my verbal appearance made a huge difference when interviewing. Time after time I was able to win positions or contracts (before they were frozen due to the economic hit) by my ability to answer questions freely, non-chalantly, and completely. It was my ability to communicate that made others think, “This guy is sharp, we should seriously consider him” (suckers).

Now obviously, you have to be able to produce good work for your charade to be fruitful in the long run. If you’re interviewing, you need to have the right resume in the first place to get very far, but in the end, I believe its one’s ability to communicate effectively that determines, to a large extent, where their career goes.

Communicate with words. Communicate with physical appearance. Communicate with personal style and with business results.

Photo by S. Diddy

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The Impact of Clear Purpose

In Culture, Leadership, Performance on December 17, 2009 at 9:54 pm

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Losing the King’s Wallet Actually MAKES Money!

In Marketing on December 3, 2009 at 10:56 pm

via eventmarketer.com

Ever found one of the King’s Wallet’s?

Burger King and agency Legacy Marketing Partners dropped 14,000 plus wallets in Chicago, Orlando and Phoenix. Complete with the King’s driver’s license, a royal ID card, phone and email info, the wallet also contained gift cards and maps showing all the local restaurants.

That’s aligning to the performance that you desire. You create a pleasant find for someone, with money to use inside and a map to help them show up and spend it.  Why do we have to complicate things when it can be that simple?  Apparently the campaign cost around $500k, and drove quality social interaction, and of course, coupon redemption and revenue from food sales.

Not a bad day’s work for losing a wallet, even if you are a king.

Ingenious. I love it. I hope I find one.

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The Great Questions of Leadership

In Alignment, Culture, Leadership, Performance on September 2, 2009 at 5:01 pm

For those who might wonder just how effective their leadership is in their organization, let me introduce you to “The Great Questions”.  I work with a lot of leaders who are doing everythingquestion-mark-dice they know how to stay on top of the responsibilities that rest on their shoulders: from being great managers of work, to great managers of people, to making an impact and getting things done. And often, in the heat of the moment, with the pressure on, it’s easy to begin to fall into common leadership traps such as complacency (not really leading at all anymore) or naivete (not knowing what a leader is supposed to really do in the first place).

So every time I sit down to work with a leader, no matter what the chief complaint or symptom is that brought us together, I always begin with the “The Great Questions”:

  1. What is the purpose and/or mission of your organization, department, etc.?
  2. Are you accomplishing it?
  3. How do you know?

Let’s talk about the power of those three simple questions, from both the inquirer’s and the receiver’s side.

What is the purpose and/or mission of your organization, department, etc.?

This first question is meant to take all of the things competing for a leader’s time and attention, all of the distractions and all of the small stuff that has become big, and blow it away by regaining context of what this whole thing is about in the first place: why are we here and what are we supposed to be doing in the long run? Asking this question helps calm the seas, focus on what matters most, and quickly tells the interrogator how well the leader understands why the organization even exists in the first place. By doing so, we frame the important conversation and throw anything not directly related to it out the window, off the plate, persona non grata, etc.

Are you accomplishing it?

This is the point where leaders either have an immediate answer or pause to think.  If they have an immediate answer, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are or are not on target, it just means that they think they are.  This question is not meant to be debated, it’s really a set-up for the next question by getting them to answer yes or no, and then slapping question number 3 on there for gut check time.

How do you know?

How do you know is a question about awareness, about measurement, about active inquiry into the ultimate question of “are we successful or not?”  It tells you so much about the manager or leader before you, and what may or may not be missing in their organization.  It also is a question about knwoledge vs. conjecture:  We are asking if they KNOW.  Often, it is difficult to really know, but we want to find out how they are framing their paradigms of the organization.  in 9 out of 10 organiztions, I will bet that the manager never really asks that.  Instead, it’s, “Am I doing what I need to do to keep my boss off my back?  Am I doing what I need to do to look good?”  Those aren’t wrong questions, rather they are more likely indicative of what the real organizational mission may be, rather than what the framed poster in the break room or company banner claims.

How do you know lets the interrogator see if the leader and their organization is measuring their purpose and mission – if not, then it probably is not being fulfilled, and the activities, systems, processes, people and focus within the organization are almost certainly out of alignment, are fragmented and disjointed.

Leaders who lead by “The Great Questions” tend to do less managing and more actual leading and torch bearing, thanks to the vision and clarity that working within the big three allow you to achieve.

So go on, ask them, of your self, of your direct reports and of those you report to.

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Got a Tough Problem? Take a Nap.

In How-To, Performance on August 6, 2009 at 7:00 am

Costanza

For me, brilliant flashes of clarity and genius happen in the shower.  Honestly, the shower has come to be my holy of holies, and if my increasing water bill wasn’t such a liability, I’d be much further ahead in life.  But the research has come to show that creative problem solving is enhanced with REM sleep.  So maybe Costanza wasn’t that far off after all, building a bed below his desk and sleeping there.  Tapping into your circadian rhythms and finding out your peaks and valleys in daily productivity and thinking, you might want to start scheduling a nap in your day before those big brainstorm sessions or campaign kickoffs.

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Hey Interviewers, Here’s a Gut-Check for You: “Interview Illusion”

In Uncategorized on July 30, 2009 at 9:10 pm

“…We all think we’re good at it. We are Barbara Walters or Mike Wallace, taking the measure of the person. Psychologist Richard Nisbett calls this the “interview illusion” — our certainty that we’re learning more in an interview than we really are.”

I love this. So true. I was a part of a great organization that actually did learn how to interview, and I learned a lot from them. Unfortunately, most don’t.

http://ow.ly/7GoF

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Marketing in Social Networks is not Network Marketing

In Marketing, Performance, Uncategorized on May 6, 2009 at 10:07 am

My wife is part of a group of ladies that gather monthly to play a game of Bunco. There is nothing to the game – no skill or feats of strategery can win it.  And they

Marketing in social networks is about the network, not the marketers.

Marketing in social networks is about the network, not the marketers.

really don’t get together to play the game – they get together to simply get together.  Its their time to pursue a little something outside of the mainstream mom-hood.  And they enjoy it.  That is, until someone starts using the gathering to pitch them their latest networking marketing scheme.

Yes, there is a member of the group who isn’t necessarily a regular participant any more, and when they do show up, they end up talking all about their new business and how much money you can make and by the end of the evening have gone from covert to overt and uncomfortable.  Every time that happens, I hear all about how it ruined the evening and everybody was so turned off by it.  I can’t help but think of our current drive to market using social media.

In a great op ed piece written recently by Gareth Kay, he brought up the perspective (albeit semantic) that we ought not to be talking about social media, but about social ideas.  The media has been around and is really nothing new.  People getting together, collaborating, building networks, etc. – that’s nothing new either.  But to focus on the social media aspect is dangerously close to focusing on the means, and not the ends – the technology and not the results.  Marketing within the increasing waves of online social circles means that marketers will have to actually learn to 1. communicate and 2. listen, neither of which modern point-and-click directors have excelled at.

Marketing within the ‘social’ context includes active contribution, focusing on something other than one’s self and, instead of soliciting sales, soliciting collaboration towards a bigger purpose that fuels the social network itself.  When you show up to Bunco night and start pitching your wares, you’re not only way out of line, you’re way out in left field – nobody is there to get sold on your products or services.  They are there for the bigger purpose, THEIR PURPOSE, and you need to tie into that quick or you’re going to be the one not getting invited back to Bunco.

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The Secret Sauce of Transformation

In Uncategorized on January 4, 2009 at 6:45 pm

“Right, we get the right tools and processes, but how do I know we’ve transformed?” asked the leader of one very large IT organization that I was working with. 

As I watched the consultants stumble to answer, he continued, “But you’re not telling me anything different from anyone else. I just don’t see the secret sauce. Where’s the secret sauce to this whole thing?”

It may not be the same words, but I guarantee you that this same conversation has been had over and over, in office after office, between endless sets of senior managers, management staff and consultants – all over the world. 

 

How do we know if we've transformed?

How do we know if we've transformed?

“Yeah, we know all this change stuff, but how do we make it stick? Where’s the secret sauce?“

 

The funny thing is, I’d bet that if I told you what the secret sauce is, you still wouldn’t be able to use it, let alone taste it. In fact, I’d bet that most transformation efforts are ended before they’re fully implemented. Why? Because, and legitimately so, the business imperatives change. 

In the space of just a few years, we go from “Customer First” to “Nothing but Quality” to “Best in Class” to “Innovation” and on to “Cost-Effective Operations”. And its not that we have business-initiative-attention-deficit. Or maybe we do. But the environment, customers, regulations, wall street, etc. – continuously flux and change. And so we respond with … whatever seems to be the “urgency-dejour“.

However, like the latest fad diet on on any given New Year’s day, we say we’re going to do it, but we never address the heart of the matter: change. A new diet isn’t about recipes, exercise, ingredients, intake or losing weight. Its about changing behavior that will lead to changes in the other things we are seeking: the results. 

While we proclaim the “new me” for the new year, we fail to address the issues that are made redundant in nearly every large business – that change is not made up of proclamations. Change is made up of behaviors. And unless we get our transformation efforts out of the strategic planning sessions and into what Mintzberg calls the “operating core”, then it doesn’t matter what we call them, because we’ll get the same results from every one: nothing of real substance.

“So what about the Secret Sauce?”, you ask? 

There is no secret sauce. Transformation is no secret. But there is a sauce, and its ingredients are Leadership (consisting of equal parts Humility and Discipline), accountability and flat-out Hard Work. That’s it. No surprises, no secrets, no spying on the Colonel to see what he puts in his chicken. Its all there on the table. 

You need to create leadership by having the humility to face your own shortcomings and recognize the need to change yourself and your leadership core before you ask your workforce to change. Thicken the leadership paste with the discipline required to work on that individual change in yourself, day after day after day. Hold yourself and others accountable, regularly and often. Then add working hard to the mixture, to do the right things, not the easy things, to lay the foundation for the future changes to take place.

No secrets. No proclamations. No mission-statements. No banners, t-shirts, laminated cards, no guiding principles. No way. You don’t get great change by talking – you get there by doing.

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Accountable Accountability

In Uncategorized on September 26, 2008 at 10:35 pm

I’ve been looking at a lot of blogs tonight. There are a lot of people with a lot of great ideas, insight, experience, things to say, etc. How come work is still lame for most people ? Why do we keep doing the same ridiculous things in our businesses and other organizations? How come all of these geniuses (such as myself) have so much to say but nothing to do? Harold Geneen (sp?) once said, “

“It is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises but only performance is reality.”

Why can’t we execute? There are books upon books on change, leadership, the right way to do things, and even a few with the word “execution” in their titles, but what makes it so dang hard?

I think our corporate cultures, maybe even societal norms, have gotten the best of us. Perhaps our overwieght, entitled society has finally taken over the office en masse. Things don’t seem to be really based on performance. I have personally witnessed in many companies that the best path to promotion is to come up with the next greatest idea, begin implementation, and get promoted before it fully goes through (and fully falls apart). 

In the end, I think there are very few business people that are committed to the longevity of their organizations - most executives are on the personal compensation success path, which uncannily enough, is not tied to organizational success.

Perhaps its time for simple, good ole’, basic accountability. And maybe we ought to start with being accountable for accountability – that is to say, how about holding organizations, businesses, leadership teams, and just ordinary people, accountable for simply practicing accountability in the first place? Forget following-up with them on fiscal responsibility or whatever some brilliant manager said we should put our thumb on; lets just start with making an accounting of how much we are held accountable, and how much we hold others accountable. 

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It’s About Time

In Uncategorized on September 15, 2008 at 4:56 am

If I had all of my monetary needs taken care of, I would probably spend my time working on organizational alignment and effectiveness issues within our school system. There is something about working to align the systems and people that have the most impact on the future: Parents and Teachers and those who support them.

That said, I think merit pay can be an important tool in the effort to improve the quality of education in our school systems.  As the President of a School Board (in my off time… right – like I get any off time), I would love nothing more than the budgets to reward our teachers at least to the level of other business professionals.

Nonetheless, its about time we consider these things here in Utah.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,700259115,00.html

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