A different way to think

A lot has been written about the different style of learning and how people approach thinking in different ways.  Sir Eric Robinson touched on this in his popular TED talk about how schools are killing creativity.  In the talk, he refers to a famous dancer and choreographer who finally find other people who thought like her (through movement) when she joined a dance class in elementary school. 

Others of us think by creating.  Some of us build physical models or like to get hands-on.  Others of us think by drawing.  Or by writing. 

This week, think about how you think and experiment with some different approaches to see what new ideas emerge.

How to Market "Marketing": a primer for business people who market

I just returned from a Frost & Sullivan marketing conference in which I participated in discussions around the alignment of sales and marketing.  The mere mention of the topic brought out emotions on both fronts and it was clear that done poorly, the relationships devolve into a Dilbert cartoon (or “sock puppet theater” as one presenter noted), with both parties suspecting the others of subterfuge and buffoonery. Marketers are often left wondering how they can better market “marketing” within their organizations and to their leadership teams.  

Let’s face it, many companies de-value marketing.  Some consider it the department that makes pretty pictures or that it is simply the administrative support for the sales team.  Others strongly value the strategic involvement of marketing in product strategy, branding, strategic planning, and industry leadership.  I am blessed to work for an organization that models the latter, but I certainly am familiar with the former.

Usually, this lack of respect or understanding for the role of marketing in the organization takes two forms:

• Exclusion from decision making and strategic conversations (a focus on tactical execution only, often exemplified by only having junior marketing staff who report up into another function like sales or G&A)
• Lack of adequate resources to do high-quality marketing work (budget, time, or resource limitations that keep the work tactical and reactionary)

This topic is a big one (worthy of more than one post).  To get the conversation started among follow marketers, here are four key questions that you can ask yourself to help you answer the question of how to market “marketing” in your organization.

1. Can you express your motivation for wanting to market marketing in terms of overall business results?

Do you think that investing in a marketing automation system and nurturing campaigns will generate 20% more revenue next year?  Do you believe that improving the brand consistency across the organization will lead to higher customer perception of quality and improve gross margins by 2% for the next product launch?  Do you believe that developing a new interactive platform for sharing product benefits with your sales channel will reduce the sales cycle by 2 months resulting in a 13% increase in revenue with the same effort?  Do you believe that having a seat at the decision making table would improve the company results or employee engagement demonstrably? Can you describe, in plain English or in understandable data, the financial benefits and returns of marketing investments? These are the types of questions you should be asking, when you are thinking of advocating for anything in a business environment.  What is the business impact for the change you are advocating?

If you don't know how to answer these questions, it could be an indication that you are not yet ready to advocate for a larger and more impactful role for marketing in your company... and that you should get ready.  That in itself, should be a call to action to learn more about your business, your drivers of value in the market, your customer problems, your solutions, revenue or customer attribution models, and overall business strategy...and how score is kept financially in your business.  You must strive to be a business person, as well as a marketer.  And today, those should be distinguishable.

And don’t be lured into advocating that there is no ROI on marketing investment.  That is an archaic way of viewing the world and simply isn’t true.  Sure, people have wasted money in “marketing activities” (I’ll get to that below).  Sure, some data is just too expensive to get reliably in marketing (and I would argue, in every other function of a business), so business decisions must be made based on the limited information available. But you can describe the financial impact of nearly every decision of your business and marketing is no exception.  If you find yourself defending "marketing" without data, go watch the movie Moneyballand see yourself reflected in the dialogue between the salty sports recruiters and Brad Pitt’s character.  It’s a new era for business people doing marketing, with more transparency and accountability than ever before, and you must be leading the charge.

2. What is the perception of your brand and that of "marketing" in your organization? What should it be?  What is the gap?

Before you would embark on a brand building campaign, you would always begin with data to identify the "as is" state and to quantify the "to be" state.  And to identify the gap between these states.  Often this accomplished with surveys, voice of the customer, share of voice analysis, or other tools.  Why not do the same thing within your organization to gauge how far away the organization is from what you envision as the ideal?  

It is also important to know whether your brand is strong enough in the organization to lead that charge?  What are you known for, personally, in your organization?  Why do people come to you?  Does that align with what you need it to be to advocate the change you are advocating?  What can you do to change the perception and reputation, if necessary?  Are there projects that you need ot delegate to others (ie, the company holiday party, responsibility for the receptionist, etc) to improve the perception of marketing as strategic in your organization?  Who else do you need to advocate on your behalf?

3. What "marketing" does your customer really need?

This should probably be the first question, as anything (besides that which is required for regulatory, legal, or financial compliance) that isn't seen and appreciated by customers, probably isn't worth doing.  It is the definition of waste and the hallmark of bureaucracy.  But coming back to my point, what value does the customer perceive in the marketing you do?

Are your customers able to make better and faster purchase decisions because of their access to technical information?  Are your resellers able to sell more because of the sales tools you provide?  Are they able to reduce their costs with more accurate quoting resources?  Are they able to achieve business results because of the value proposition of the products you provide?  Does your marketing help set your company and brand apart in measurable ways?

Some service firms have found that dedicated sales and marketing staff is not nearly as effective as sending their consultants right out to their clients to share expertise directly and we their appetite for more (a topic covered extensively in Patrick Lencioni's book Getting Naked).  Some technical engineering firms, web site developers, or agencies find that their engineering teams are best equipped to sell and market to their technical buyers and that all that is needed from marketing is some communication tools to help facilitate these conversations, as learned from colleagues at a recent event held by the Technology Association of Oregon at which I presented on this topic.  In our business at Planar, there is a lot of "marketing" that happens in customer conversations with account managers and technical sales professionals in the field.  This is good and necessary for our technical, system-style products.  Part of the marketing team’s role in this case is to equip their sales colleagues to have these conversations and to aim them at the right targets for best success.  Each business will be different, but successful marketing begins with an understanding of the customer.

and finally...

4. What is the winning formula that is worth repeating?

Like any system, it is important to look and inputs and outputs.  If you want to answer questions 1-3, a good place to start is your wins.  Where are some situations that have gone well that you think are worthy of replication?  Go back and analyze a big order, a design win, or project award and ask everyone involved how it came to be, the touchpoints with the organization, what sales tools or marketing resources were used, and what made the difference.  There is no sense automating or "improving the efficiency" of things that are not effective.  Said another way, finding faster ways to lose money is to find a better way to drive yourself out of business.  But, if you focus on what is going right, you will find a platform from which you can advocate smart change and gain the respect of the organization and the resources to replicate what is working.  And chances are, if you know it is a winning example that can be replicated, others in the organization will as well, and you will have a common foundation to build trust and understanding.

Special thanks to Lisa Cole, Allison Cerra, Leilani Brown, and Mark Wilson for helping to refine these lessons learned.

In the News

The article "5 Things I Wish I Knew..." appeared in the Oregon Business Report this morning. Excited to see this article getting so much attention.

I had a chance to deliver a presentation based around this article at a meeting of the Women in Leadership at Planar this week.  My colleagues gave me some fantastic feedback and shared with me what they liked and thought could be improved.  I can't wait to present it again to integrate that feedback.  It is wonderful to have a room full of mentors!

Love Your Product: What Butterfly Grove taught me about being visionary? Part 1

Some children have imaginary friends.  I had an imaginary town.  It was called Butterfly Grove.  Between 2nd and 4th grade, I worked on this multi-faceted project in which I envisioned the life and times of an entire city. 

Taking a fairly comprehensive design approach, I laid out the city (even built a clay model at one point), wrote the town newspaper (The Butterflyer) and envisioned the businesses that would be in the town.  The pet shop was named after my sister, who loved animals.  There was a local branch of the Bank of America.  I designed a book store and coffee shop combo (decades before Starbucks had the idea) called the “Book and Bagel.”  I even have a coupon book from the “Welcome Wagon,” I drew up to promote these businesses.  It was a consuming project that I think back with fond memories to this day.  It is just the kind of thing that I’d probably still enjoy doing.

In those formative years, Butterfly Grove taught me a lot and allowed me to experiment with innovation in ways that I have applied since then.  The first is this:

Love Your Product

Butterfly Grove was a city that I would have wanted to live in.  It had a small town feel, but modern amenities.  I designed all the buildings and decided where they were located. I even got to pick the name of my street. It was the perfect town for my purposes.

In product development circles, there have been experts on both sides of this issue for decades:  should product managers and entrepreneurs be data-driven, maintain passive attachment to their businesses, and keep an open mind with regards to customer feedback to see where to take their products or should they design things for themselves to use?  Those in favor of the dispassionate approach, note the success of professional managers building conglomerate businesses without direct involvement in the business propositions of any one product line.  Biz Stone, a co-founder of Twitter and author of Things a Little Bird Told Me: Confessions of a Creative Mind, falls squarely on the “you have to love and use your product” side of this argument.  So does, Jason Fried, the founder of 37Signals and author of Getting Real, Remote, and Rework.

I had an experience with Jason 10 years ago that illustrated this well.  I had contacted the support group at 37Signals whose produce Basecamp I have used to manage a variety of projects over the years. I had been highly recommending this tool and I knew they are always developing new offerings. I suggested to them that they develop a new interactive, collaborative scheduling service. The idea would be that it would allow a person to set up a calendar of events and allow people to RSVP. However, it would be more than an Evite (which is another tool I love and use all the time). The innovation that I was suggesting was that the tool would allow multiple events to be managed from one interface and that it would include an element of capacity planning. Let's say, a hair studio wanted to use a tool like this to accept online appointments. They could enter the number of stylists available throughout the day and the software would prevent people from overbooking, perhaps suggesting alternates that might work or managing a waiting list. I thought this would be cool for a variety of their small business customers and I knew that I could use it right away for a project I was working on for a non-profit “mothers of preschoolers” group.

But, I digress. I sent the idea to them in some detail. I received a response back that surprised me. I thought that I would get a "thank you and we appreciate your submission" generic email and that would be that. Instead, I got a personal email back from Jason at 37Signals that read "We will not be building the software you suggested. We only build things we can use and we wouldn't use this."

Needless to say, I was a little taken back. Jason is known for his strong opinions and, perhaps, email missives of this type are common in their organization. But, the whole thing got me thinking.

Here is a company that is very well-respected and builds great tools. They got a suggestion for what would be a great product (in my humble opinion) and they said, "no." No, because it wasn't something they were passionate about. No, because they wouldn't personally use it.  If they had been running a pet grooming salon, a community center, or a doctor’s office, perhaps they would have seen the value.  Since then, others have developed online scheduling tools for various purposes (from SignUpGenius to Doodle), but there still isn’t a great single tool that I know of for scheduling.   So, my "collaborative scheduling" idea is out there for someone to develop!

Thinking back to those days spent on Butterfly Grove, I was certainly an amateur city planner in every sense of the word.  The definition of “amateur” is someone who engages in an activity for pleasure, instead of financial benefit. The root of the word is the same French-Middle English word for "love."  Someone who is motivated by the love of something.  It has been said that if you do something you love, you will never have to work a day in your life.  Butterfly Grove didn’t feel like work.   I think this is a powerful lesson for innovation.  Work like an amateur and build something you love.

Come Bloom With Me

Your lasting legacy won't be your accomplishments, but the accomplishments you enabled in others.

How To Get Promoted in Four Easy Steps

There is a ladder, if you will, that you must climb to be qualified and recognized to take on more responsibility (in exchange for more authority, more compensation, and more influence that may come along).  There are many rungs to the ladder, but today I want to talk about the first four and how you can give yourself a promotion and grow as a leader.  In short, you should be secure on each rung before you could expect to climb to the next.  Together, you can give yourself a promotion in four easy steps.  Let’s begin.

Rung 1: You can manage your time

Most individual contributors (that is, people who are not managers, but responsible for their own work) have one main resource that they alone can allocate: their time.  We all have the same 24 hours a day and how people choose to allocate those hours makes a huge difference in their results.  A lot of experts have written tomes on this subject (some of my favorites are Getting Things Done, the classic 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, the provocative 4 Hour Work Week, and the insightful Better Than Before), mobile apps have been written to help track and monitor time allocation, and there is no shortage of life hack websites that will walk you through best practices for time management.  But if you can not manage your own time and get work done in a reasonable timeframe with reasonable effort, no one will consider you ready for more.  If you don’t know how you spend your time or feel like you are chronically under-estimating the amount of time things will take, missing deadlines, or letting down your team mates, this is a place to start.  To be a manager, you must first manage yourself.

Rung 2: You can optimize your potential

Once you have mastery over your deadlines and tasks, you can build upon that to make the most of your capabilities and interests.  You start with an understanding of your style, approach, and thinking processes (using tools like Myers-Briggs, StrengthFinders, Kolbe, and others that I have blogged about in the past).  You get feedback from worthy mentors.  You seek out professional development opportunities.  You strive to get better and to outgrow your current assignment.  You broaden your perspective beyond how you spend time today to apply yourself in new ways to new problems.  You know what you need to inspire and drive you and you make sure your environment is right (which is described in detail in the book Triggers).  You never stop managing your time and you never stop growing, of course, but you have reached this rung of the ladder when you have a vision of your best self and understand yourself well enough to play from your strengths and propel yourself to new heights of performance.  If you want to be a leader, you must first lead yourself.

Rung 3: You can manage other people’s time

The first supervisory job that most people have involves managing other people’s time.  You make sure people show up for their shift.  You make sure the phones get answered as expected and the call queues are not too long.  You make certain that there is adequate coverage to handle expected traffic at a trade show or retail environment.  You sign time cards.  You help them know what to do between punching in and punching out.  You offer up work instructions and on-the-job training.  In many cases, you can help others reach the first rung of their ladder by managing projects and allowing more capable people to manage their time towards the good of the project.  This is where basic employee engagement comes into effect.  Good managers have employees that have the time and resources to achieve the goals at hand.

Rung 4: You can unlock other people’s potential

This is the run where leaders emerge from among the sea of managers.  Their employees not only want to use their time better, but they want to be better.  Using both encouragement and discipline, they realize that honestly, delivered respectfully, is a gift and can help high potential individuals achieve more than they thought possible.  Identifying latent talents.  Probing for unrealized motivations.  Describing hidden possibilities and bringing those to light.  Establishing new standards and enabling people to do more than what is required so that they can feel pride in their work. Helping individuals bloom, where they are planted and to find new landscapes to explore.

These first four rungs on the ladder illustrate a great truth about getting recognized and promoted: most things are within your control.  

Whether or not you want to be a manager of people (that is not everyone’s ambition), these same principles apply.  As I have said before, you don’t have to wait for someone’s permission to get the experience you want and need to further your career in whatever direction you wish to direct it.   You, alone, can effectively manage your time for maximum results.  You alone can be curious about your own potential.  And without a job change or a fancy title, you can help others do the same.  From whatever role you are in today.  It won’t be long before you are ready for the next challenge and that will be recognized by others. You’ll be doing a bigger job already when the opportunities come your way.

Know Thyself: The Toolbox

I must start out with a confession.  I am a self-assessment junkie.  I love analysis tools that help me better reflect on my strengths, style, and effectiveness and how I relate to the world and approach problem-solving.  I understand that not everyone does.  But even more so, not everyone even knows that tools like this exist or how to use them. This post is meant to remedy that.

Below is a round up of some of the best assessment tools that I have used in the past.  With a short description of each (not exhaustive or complete by any means) and a link to where you can learn more or take the assessment.  I'd love to hear your thoughts on your favorites (or these or others that I might not have heard of before).

They are in rough alphabetical order.  I have no professional relationships or affiliations with any of these organizations, although I have taken all of these assessments over the years.

DiSC: This personality assessment might be one of the best known.  It is administered by hundreds of consultants (chances are your own HR team might have a certified trainer) and can be accessed online for less than $40 (and there are plenty of free "knock offs" out there as well).  It identifies people's dominant dimensions (Dominance, Influence, Stable, Compliant) and graphs individuals and groups into different combination profiles like "Promoter" or "Counselor".  This is a simple tool to help people understand each other better.

EQ-i: This is a measurement of emotional intelligence, thus EQ-i stands for Emotional Quotient Inventory.  It is administered by lots of professional coaches and trainers and can be accessed online for less than $40.  It provides composites along several factors includes self-perception, self-expression, interpersonal, decision making, and stress management.  I have been told that a high EQ score is more important than any other single factor (IQ, etc) for professional success, but I do suspect that is subject to the field and role of the individual.  However, there is no denying the impact of interpersonal relationships on success.  

The Flag Page: The Flag Page was developed in cooperation with the marriage expert, Mark Gungor (Laugh your Way).  Although it is used by organizations, it is an inexpensive tool ($10) designed first for individuals.  It uses the language of citizenship to identify which "country" is dominant in your style (Fun, Control, Peace, Perfect). This is very accessible assessment and they even have one for children to use for family dynamics.

Harrison: The Harrison Assessment is a complex tool administered by trained professionals often as part of a team workshop.  It is based on paradox theory, which illustrates how individuals can act in seemingly contradictory ways, especially under stress.  It highlights 12 paradoxes that relate to the workplace (things like diplomacy and frankness or organization and flexibility) and plots each individual in a default position and indicates what behaviors they might demonstrate when under pressure.  The resulting individual assessment is over 20 pages long and the team assessment is equally as rich.  I understand the assessment is relatively expensive (over $300 per person), but I have never personally purchased it, so I am not certain.  It is much more complex and requires more work to understand and apply the insights than the other assessments.

Kolbe: Designed based on the research of Karen Kolbe,  the Kolbe Cognition Survey looks at how individuals approach problem solving and rates them on four dimensions (Fact Finding, Follow Thru, Quick Start, and Implementor).  The individual assessment is $49 and available on their website (a Kolbe A index).  They also have a series of products for determining job fit (managers complete a Kolbe C to develop a profile for a job and the employee completes a Kolbe B to identify their perceptions of the job requirements and when compared these B and C indexes show areas of gap or opportunity).  It can be used for recruiting and job fit analysis.  There is a youth version (Kolbe Y) as well.  This assessment is easy to digest, but allows for nuance and discussion than some of the more simple tools.

Myers-Briggs:  This is probably the most popular and extensively used "personality test" given.  Myers-Briggs is administered by thousands of practioners and is available online for less than $50 (and there are a number of free knock-off versions out there as well).  The survey gives back a score along four criteria (covering interpersonal styles, structures, decision making, and information) and sorts people into one of 16 personality types based on their responses. This is used in casual and in-depth coaching settings with success.

OAD: The Organization Analysis and Design survey is administered by an independent consultant or trainer certified by the organization.  It measures individuals along several constructs including assertiveness, extroversion, pace/patience, detail orientation, versatility, emotional control, and creativity.  Doing this as a group can reveal patterns and organize individuals into four profiles (architects, builders, experts and facilitators).  I have seen this used effectiveness to identify general patterns in groups.  It can be explained fairly easily (it is more complex than Kolbe and less than Harrison).

Clifton StrengthsFinder: This survey (developed by the "father of strengths psychology" Donald O Clifton and Gallup Organization) came free with my copy of Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham.  It allows you to self-identify your top 5 strengths and identifies how we can use those talents.  

There are many other assessments that one can do individually and in facilitated conversations with executive coaches or consultants, which I can cover in future posts.  

Which are your favorites and why?

No One Knows

Since your potential is unknown, and as a result is virtually limitless, use your imagination, ask your friends and mentors, and believe in yourself.

Blogging for Technology Association of Oregon

You can read about "Five Things I Wish I Knew in the First 5 Years of My Career" on the blog for the Technology Association of Oregon.

Eavesdropping on Success

You learned your native language largely through eavesdropping.  Listening in on conversations.  

The language that might be critical for your career success will likely be learned in the same way.  Whether it is insight about how work gets done in your organization or the vernacular of your industry, you will pick it up by proximity.  If you want to accelerate your learning, how can you do that?  I don't suggest spying on meetings or lurking on conference calls (who has the time anyway?), but there are ways you can get this access in other ways.  

• Reading trade publications,
• reaching out to executives at your companies and offering to take them to coffee to ask questions,
• researching your company's financial filings and analyst coverage,
• following an influential blogger in your space,
• by studying the moves of competition,
• by talking to your sales team regularly.  

These are all ways in which you can, with intention and integrity, eavesdrop on success and learn the language through immersion.

How have you accelerated your own learning?  Share your success stories here.

The Not-So-Civil War of Self-Confidence

Each one of us is fighting a battle of self-confidence.  No matter how many years you have under your belt or how established your reputation in your industry, there are still things you are learning  (at least I hope) and things about which you are not on sure footing.  You are very aware of these areas and each of us have our own coping mechanisms.

And some of us are very critical of ourselves about these discrepancies.  About the things we could be doing better.  About the things we didn't say or do.  About the things we did.  About what we have yet to do.  It can take the form of worry, guilt, or stress.  And it can mount a full-blown attack on our ability to approach the future with calm assurance.  This not-so-civil war is raging constantly under the surface.  And we often are quite violent with ourselves, over-playing our failures and inadequacies and under-playing our strengths and abilities.

Somehow it is easier knowing that everyone is feeling this, at least to some extent.  Whether it is articulated or not. And I find comfort in our ability to change our perceptions, and the confidence with with which we bring to our work, by changing our mindset.  Of course, we should never finish working on our skills, our experience, and trusted counsel from advisers we trust.  And in the meantime, we have it in our power recognize that the internal battles we are fighting are just that.

And it is critical to be encouraging to folks on your team, to your boss, to your peers, and even to your customers.  Not to whitewash skills gaps or performance concerns, but to give people an opportunity quiet their self-critic and apply their strengths to the problems at hand and see success.

Question of the Week

You can always find reasons to be more conservative, be smaller, and sit back.  But what if you didn't?  What do you lose by being bolder?  What do you lose by not being bold?

Jennifer Davis Joins the Board of Marathon Scholars

Last night, I attended my first board of trustees for Marathon Scholars.  I am excited about what this organization has accomplished and what we can do to further the mission of making the dream of college a reality for talented and low-income kids.  They identify high-potential students in the 4th grade and walk with them, providing them mentoring and a college scholarship, until they complete their bachelor's degree.

I first learned about Marathon Scholars, when their executive director spoke at an iSing Choir concert as the beneficiary.  I was attracted to several things about the organization.

First, they measure and hold themselves accountable to the right thing: college graduations. Not college enrollments.  The statistics around low income and first generation college student graduation rates are deplorable and often these same students, with great potential and good intentions, cut their college careers short of a degree (and the earning potential and opportunity that brings), but take with them student loans that can further burden their lives in the future.  Marathon Scholars takes seriously their commitment, and that of the student scholar and their parents, to complete college.

Secondly, they start at the right time: 4th grade.  They select students in the Portland Metro and SW Washington area through an application progress and pair them with mentoring resources to help with individualized guidance, advising, and college prep programming for the next 12 years.  In addition, they receive the first of their college scholarship, totaling $12,000 donated month-by-month over by a sponsor who also partners in their potential.  4th grade might seem like too early to be talking about college, but it seemed to me to be the perfect time.  Before they must persevere through advanced math and English classes.  Before they start making life-impacting decisions that would later affect their college readiness.  Before they are told that they are not college material, Marathon Scholars reminds them that they are!

I welcome you to join me in this good work.  You can participate in many different ways.  We are in need of some scholarship sponsors that would commit to donate every month or quarter to fund the scholarships of one of our 2015 cohort of 4th graders.  A one-time gift could also help with operational plans, including helping to off-set the cost of the Annual Summer Celebration happening on June 20th.

At this family friendly event, we will be serving up ice cream and stories of hope and accomplishment.  All are invited and you can learn more and RSVP here.  I hope you can come.

You can also follow Marathon Scholars on Twitter, Facebook, the blog, and via their email newsletter which you can access on their home page.  While you are there, you can also check out the great video of what mentoring means to these scholars!

Message to Working Mothers (and Dads)

This quote is from a powerful article by Jean Batthany, the executive vice president and creative director at DDB Chicago in her article in Advertising Age entitled "The Touch Reality Facing an Advertising Mother of the Year" (May 2014).

5 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do

I have had the privilege of doing a number of different functional roles in my career and throughout all of them, I have have found the following five skills critical in all of them:

1. Gather Requirements

Of course, you'd expect those in product management or market research would need to know this skill, but frankly, it is critical across all functions and in all organizations.  Being able to understand the needs of the customers (internal or external) and identify success metrics is absolutely critical to every role, even those in executive leadership where resources are allocated and capital is obtained to fund the work.  This requires the ability to ask good question, perceive needs, and broker ideas from one part of the business to another.

2. Identify Decision Makers

Professional sales people make their living by understanding what, but more critically who, stands between them and a sale.  They understand how to work with champions, financial buyers, and other profiles to achieve results and make certain that the customer is getting full value for their purchases. But in my experience it is not just account managers who need to have this skill.  Knowing this avoids wasted time and effort convincing people with no purchase power or decision making authority on the merits of your offer.  Whether you are advocating for an internal proposal or influencing key suppliers, everyone should know how to determine who the real decision makers are.  Often this is achieved through a combination of observations and questions.  The best sales people are ones who can tactfully ask who needs to be involved in the decision and process by which decisions of this type are made.  Those are good questions for everyone to be ready to ask.

3. Tell the Truth (in love) 

I consider the truth a gift and regularly remind my staff that I rely on them for their candor.  I sincerely hope they take me up on the offer to listen to their complaints or suggestions with an open mind and a willingness to change, if necessary.  Being able to receive the truth is a made a lot easier when the truth teller is gifted in this area.  The effective truth teller strikes a balance between frankness and concern for the individual.  They speak the truth in love, as the writer of Ephesians penned.  

And it is easy to lose that balance.  Taylor Swift's song "All Too Well" poetically describes the person who emphasized truth over love:

Hey, you call me up again just to break me like a promise.

So casually cruel in the name of being honest.

Being able to deliver a tough message in a tender way is a very useful skill for any professional.

4. Advocate for Yourself Resourcefully

We often employ our full range of resourcefulness on tasks at worth, without taking stock on how we might marshal the same energy to advocate for ourselves.  No one else will do it for you (no, really, it is true).  It's up to you.

5. Identify Opportunities for Personal Growth

And part of advocating is knowing what to advocate for.  This is why it is critical that people continue to grow and be on the look-out for professional opportunities.  They don't have to cost money or take a lot of time.  They can be as simple as asking the advice of people you admire or reading a blog or book on a topic of interest.  Being intellectually curious is one of the things that sets the the high performers and high potentials apart from the crowd.

5 Things I Wish I Knew in the First 5 Years of My Career

In my career in technology, I have helped many customers create wayfinding systems—the touchscreen-enabled systems that allow people to chart where they are and where they are going as they navigate a shopping center or college campus. Wayfinding is a lot like the lifelong effort of shaping a career.

The first step is to identify where the “You Are Here” pin might be and to determine what direction might be a good next step. Unlike the touchscreen map in the shopping mall, however, one’s entire career landscape typically isn’t visible. This is because people create their careers as they go, and the total career map is only available in hindsight.

As my own career approaches two decades (and spans two millennia), I have been reflecting on the things I wish I better understood in the early years of my career. Here are some of the top insights:

1. Don’t wait for permission to get the experience you want.

Finally, you don’t need to wait for a specific job opening or opportunity to get the experience you want. In today’s world, it’s easier than ever to proactively develop your experience.

Do you want experience planning a highly visible event even though your company doesn’t have that need? Volunteer for a non-profit that puts on a fun run or festival.

Do you want to put your journalism degree to work even though your current job doesn’t require writing?Start a blog.

Do you want to learn a new skill, like programming iPhone apps? Take a class, read a book or join a local hack-a-thon group.

Are you not getting what you need from your manager to help you take your career to the next level? Join a professional development organization or seek out a mentor.

2. Whom you know isn’t as important as who knows you.

Knowing a lot of people and building a network is key, but it is also critical that they know you—to allow people to get to know you including what you’re good at, what you’re curious about, what you’ve done and what you’d like to do. This puts other people in a position to help you.

One way to get people to know you is by developing a special area of expertise. As an appreciator of artistic talent, I am often struck by how many famous artists get known for a particular style of art even though they can often paint in a variety of styles. Vincent van Gogh built his brand on the rough brush stroke style depicted in his Sunflowers and The Starry Night paintings, not his more realistic paintings of potato farmers. The artists who achieve prominence do so by getting known for doing one thing. They have talents and interests outside of that focus, but they develop a signature style. The same thing is helpful in your career.

When the industrial design firm IDEO hires new staff members, it looks for “T-shaped people”—individuals with a broad span of curiosity and experience (the top of the T), but a deep expertise in a single area (the base of the T). Think about your own experience and interests. Decide what your T looks like and reinforce it in your communications with other people.

Another way to get people to know you is to ask for advice. There’s nothing that makes you look smarter than asking smart people for their counsel. So put yourself out there to learn more from others on both small and big things. Ask the Excel expert in your office to show you her most useful tips and tricks. Ask someone in your circle his advice for graduate school programs. And even after you land a position, continue the informational interviews and other networking techniques you learned in college. An ongoing curiosity will serve you well. Not only will you learn, but the people you meet will get to know you on a deeper level.

3. What you know isn’t as important as whom you know.

Everyone has heard this maxim before and it is generally true: You are more likely to hear about a job or be given an opportunity from someone you know. But it goes further than that. Second-degree connections are of critical importance as well.

Early career individuals often seek to build a network of people who are hiring managers or executives, and as a result, they might miss the networking opportunities that exist with their peers. When I was in graduate school, I found that I often learned more and had more relevant professional connections with my classmates than my professors. The same is true in the business world. If you go to graduate school, join a company or volunteer for a non-profit, pay special attention to those whom you will be working alongside and attach yourself to the talented, smart, high-potentials in that group. You can grow your future network in this way.

4. Nothing is a life sentence.

It’s common for college students to feel like their selection of a major is setting them on a career path that’s more defined than it actually is. And many new college grads bemoan getting a job “outside their major.” But this is not a tragedy. Instead, it illustrates how fungible one’s career path and choices actually are.

In your lifetime, you may have several distinct careers. You will likely work for multiple companies, or at least multiple groups and managers, and although there will be skills gained from one assignment that you will use in others, the path will only be clear in hindsight. Don’t be afraid to take a leap and do something new, pursue your interests and have those take you in a different direction. Don’t be afraid to take on new responsibilities.

I often hear early career professionals say they feel pressure to pursue a defined career path despite not fully knowing what they want to do. The truth is you will always have additional choices and nothing you start doing today has to be forever.

5. Know how the score is kept and lead with it.

Any business—whether it’s a services firm, technology manufacturer or even a retailer—uses a common scorecard for measuring success: financial results. Sure, some organizations are starting to track triple-bottom line results in recognition of their impact on the community and the environment. But those factors typically supplement the traditional financial statements and metrics that allow all organizations to measure their results. It is critical that you understand how the score is kept.

If you want to obtain more responsibility in the organization, lead with the financials when making a proposal, explaining an initiative or presenting alternatives. Overall, you will be more strategic.

Career Wayfinding

In my career in technology, I have helped many customers create wayfinding systems—the touchscreen-enabled systems that allow people to chart where they are and where they are going as they navigate a shopping center or college campus. Wayfinding is a lot like the lifelong effort of shaping a career.

The first step is to identify where the “You Are Here” pin might be and to determine what direction might be a good next step. Unlike the touchscreen map in the shopping mall, however, one’s entire career landscape typically isn’t visible. This is because people create their careers as they go, and the total career map is only available in hindsight.  

Wayfinding your career is more like this sign (below) I saw posted at a hotel in which I recently stayed which mistakenly read "You are Her."  I liked the misspelling.  It isn't about being "here".  Wayfinding is about self-discovery.  About being "her."

As my own career extends two decades (and spans two millennia), I have been reflecting on the things I wish I better understood in the early years of my career. My article entitled "Top 5 Things I Wish I Knew in the First 5 Years of My Career" was just published with Women on Business.  Read article.

Sending the Elevator Back Down

The other night I watched the talented actor, Kevin Spacey, on David Letterman and he quoted his late friend and mentor, Jack Lemmon, who said that once you acquire a level of success in your field it is is your duty and privilege to "send the elevator back down" for others who could benefit from your mentoring or support. 

I would say that it is necessary, not only for those in the top of their fields, but everyone along the way.  Generosity is a value that is worth cultivating throughout your life.  If you want to be mentored, be a mentor.

Photo courtesy of Gideon Tsang.

The Aptitude of Attitude

This was a quote from a Star Wars book which is very fitting to a number of situations that people face in life and business.  In my experience, it is best to have both: a plan and an attitude of abandon that makes the results possible.