Great Things Accomplished in Small Steps

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.                                                  ~ Vincent van Gogh

We often set out to do great things.  In our mind's eye, at the threshold of a big project, we envision ourselves landing the big contract, tackling and resolving a long time problem, hitting the walk-off home run in the 9th inning of the 7th game of the World Series or creating a product that transforms the company.

The reality is often different.

The reality is that our victories, when we have them, are often small.  Almost unnoticeable.  And we usually don't achieve those victories, great or small, by ourselves.

The reason this is important is that if you are only focused on the big win, the home run, you miss a lot of victories.  More importantly, the infatuation with big wins is one of the reasons our society has such a short term focus.  If you believe in big wins, why invest in plodding research.  If you only celebrate the "big wins," what incentive do people have to keep doing the work that is almost always behind those big wins?

If we only laud and praise the relay race runner who crosses the finish line, what incentive do the first three runners have to run hard?  If a softball player only plans to hit home runs, what incentive does she have to learn how to run the bases?

A surefire way to destroy a business is to focus singularly on new customers, especially big new customers.  Every organization celebrates when a new customer comes on board, but if you don't also appreciate and celebrate current customers and all that they do for the organization, you will find them quickly become former customers.  Small customers make up the lion's share of business for most companies.

Smart companies find ways to support, nurture and grow their relationships with small customers.  Absolutely the goal is to grow them into larger and larger customers.  I am not suggesting that we should be AGAINST large customers, but that we should pay attention to HOW we treat customers who are not.

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The Forgotten Sales Team

Often, as companies try to pump up their sales volume, they forget to turn toward one of the most valuable and cost effective sales tools they have, their employees. By making sure your staff is engaged and interested in the company's operations and goals, you activate a powerful tool in your sales tool belt. There are a couple of reasons that this helps your sales efforts.

First, an engaged and motivated workforce tends to do a better job. They care more about the job they are doing because they better understand their role in the overall success of the organization. This always translates into fewer mistakes and more delighted customers. That translates into positive word of mouth, the holy grail of marketing.

Second, a staff that knows and understands the companies goals, can articulate those when they engage with others. When a customer or a prospect hears about the benefits of a product or services line from everyone she interacts with, and not just the sales manager, she is much more likely to accept the message and act on it.

So engage your entire workforce to get the most out of your sales efforts!

Language

The words we use matter.  If we are careless in the language that we use, it indicates a carelessness in thinking.  The language we choose reflects our thinking.  Similarly, the words we use can subtly change our thinking.  Consider the following:

• When we travel, we aren’t travelers in a foreign land but foreigners in a traveled land.
• An employee or a customer who is wheelchair bound isn't a handicap or a handicapped person, but a person with a handicap.
• When we are addressing a customer service issue, we are not dealing with a soon-to-be former customer with a complaint but a customer who was not satisfied.  Or if you are a glass half full kind of person, we are dealing with a customer who is giving us a chance to improve.

To some extent we are talking about semantics.  But how we label things makes a difference in how we think and act toward those things.  In a recent blog, I shared a quote by Abraham Lincoln: "We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses."

Would you rather deal with problems or opportunities?  Would you rather be managing a response or leading your team to the answer?  Would you rather be a disruptor or a change agent?

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Empathy

I had the pleasure of being interviewed on the radio last night on Harvard Community Radio.  The show, The Creative Life with Erin Denk, is a show about creativity in all walks of life.

In our discussion, the host and I were talking about marketing, and what makes for good marketing.  "Empathy," I said tersely.  Terseness does not make for good radio.

Erin pushed back initially at my answer.  She has a therapy background and has a different view of empathy AND of marketing.

Empathy, I explained, is the ability to view things from another's perspective.  If marketing is primarily about developing and maintaining relationships (an assertion I had made earlier) then it makes sense that being able to view the product or service from the prospect's perspective will make for stronger marketing.  With empathy, you can make value propositions that address the needs and desires of the prospective customer.

Empathy, I would argue, is a more important skill than the ability to write, design, produce or edit.  Empathy is were all the great marketing messages start.

Can you see my perspective?      

The Creative Life with Erin Denk can be found on Harvard Community Radio at www.harvardcommunityradio.com or at AM1610 or 

on TuneIn Radio and serch for Harvard Community Radio.   

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Working with Millennials

My son recently started his first post-graduation job.  On the way to that job he interned and Skyped and networked and conference-called like a pro.  He worked hard to get the chance to work hard.  My son is a Millennial.

My daughter has worked the whole time she has been in college.  She has worked during the summers and is one of the hardest workers I know.  She takes on physically grueling tasks without batting an eye.  She volunteers, tutors and is involved in numerous committees and projects at school.  My daughter is a Millennial.

The friends and acquaintances of my daughter and my son, as well as my nieces and nephews, and the children of several friends and neighbors, are following similar paths that involve work, college, graduate school, entrepreneurship or some combination of those.  They are all Millennials.

According to Wikipedia, authors William Strauss and Neil Howe were the first to coin the term "Millennials," which generally refers to people born in the late 1970s or early 1980s through the early 2000s.  Millennials have also been called Generation Y, the ME generation and the echo boomers. By next year, Millenials will be more than a third of the work force.  By 2020, they will be almost half of all workers.

A lot has been written about this generation.  Many authors have written about their sense of entitlement and their lack of commitment.  That does not sound like the Millennials I have had the pleasure to know!  Based on what I have seen from my son and daughter and their friends, there is no lack of initiative or drive. Based on what I have personally observed and experienced, Millenials as a whole are no more or less inclined toward hard work, commitment and team work than any other generation.

There are a few "differences" that make this generation unique.

• Unsurprisingly, this generation is very comfortable with technology.  They utilize technology more often and in more ways than their parents, especially social media.  For a generation that grew up with PCs in the home and cellphones in their hand since they were young, how could we expect less?
• Millennials are not tied to a location.  71% would like to work abroad at some point in their careers.  I suspect the same could have been said of Baby Boomers when they were young, especially if working abroad for so many didn't mean being drafted to serve in Viet Nam.
• This generation is highly entrepreneurial.  More than 90% of Millennials in their early 20s feel that entrepreneurship education was "vital in the new economy and job market."  This may explain why more than a third of them have started side businesses.  In an economy when computing is inexpensive and common and jobs are rare, new technology-based businesses are likely to spring up.
• This generation likes to get real time feedback on the work they are doing, a work environment that encourages them to "contribute without fear of being criticized," and to collaborate, especially when the group's goals and purpose are clear.  Who doesn't?

This generation came of age as concepts of job security and company loyalty were dying.  They came of age in this new economy and are more comfortable with the concept of mobility in the job marketplace.  Almost half expressed confidence that they could find another job easily and more than two thirds plan to switch jobs or careers when situations improve.  This generation is tech savvy and mobile.  This generation is more diverse and more tolerant than any that has come before them.  They are not as motivated by long term benefits as their parents, the Baby Boomers.  

In the end, every employer will need to work with this generation.  But it seems to me that the "challenges" of working with Millennials are really, in fact, the same challenges that an older generation ALWAYS has when it is time to start integrating the younger generation into the workplace and especially into the management of the workplace.  I do think that there are differences between Millenials and Baby Boomers, just as there were differences between Baby Boomers and the Greatest Generation.  

In the end, there are Millennials that work hard, and those who are lazy.  There are those who will work with one company their whole career and those whose resume will be much more varied and colorful.  There are tech-savvy, entrepreneurial Millennials and those who won't own a cellphone or laptop.  

In the end, we don't end up working with a generation.  We end up working with people.  Individuals.  While some of the countless articles and blogs like this one on how to work with this up and coming generation may provide useful insights, my advice is look at the individual in front of you.  Hire, fire, motivate and promote based on the people on your team, not the generations to which they belong.  

And if you happen to be the current or future employers of my kids, let them call home every once in a while.

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Black Friday

Welcome to Black Friday.

This is a "day" that means different things to different people.

• To the bargain hunter, it is nirvana.  
• To the retailer, it is a harbinger of how profitable the holiday season will end up being.  
• For the store manager, it is mostly a headache.  
• To some store employees, it is a family holiday lost.  
• To the Michigan police officers who coined the term "Black Friday" because the crowds of holiday shoppers and the crowds of hunters on the same weekend often made for a lot of problems and a huge crowd control issue, it was not something they looked forward to.
• To many of us, it is a day to go to the movies.

I have nothing against the concept of a big day of sales to kick off the holiday shopping season.  I understand the concept of retailers taking a loss on a few items to draw the crowds into their stores in the hopes they will buy more things.  I have no problem with that.

I do have a problem that Black Friday has morphed into Black Thursday evening or even Black Thursday AND Friday.

One of the things that I love about Thanksgiving is that it is one of the few holidays that has remained largely uncommercialized.  As retailers enter into an arms race as to who can open earliest and longest, and offer the most outrageous deals, Thanksgiving is threatened.  Or at the very least, disrespected.

I understand that retailers jobs are to make sales and sometimes you have to do things to attract shoppers into your store. What I don't understand is why Black Friday has become so popular among retailers.  I have talked to a couple managers of big box stores and they admitted that they lose money on this day.  Between the deeply discounted sale items and the extra staff hours and the huge amount of advertising, I think most retailers count on customers coming back into the store in December so they can make up the money they lose on Black Friday.  

I much prefer some of the corollary days that have sprung up around Black Friday.  My favorite is Shop Local Saturday.  It is not an organized thing in most communities.  You won't be able to get 50" televisions for $99.  But you will be able to find unique gifts and will support small, local businesses, which are the lifeblood of most communities.  

So if you missed the Thursday evening kick-off of Black Friday, or you didn't feel like camping out in front of your electronics store of choice to get a deal on an iPad, or you don't want to fight someone over the latest Furby, consider taking today off.  Go shopping tomorrow.  Go shopping locally.  

At the Movies

I love movies.  I always have and probably always will.  While I have always watched movies, the way I watch them has changed dramatically.

It used to be there were really just two ways to see a movie, catch it when it first ran in the theater or wait for it to be replayed on TV (if it wasn't too racy or violent) often years later.  My kids will never understand the importance of seeing a movie in the theater during its run, because you might never see it again if you didn't.  My kids, who are now adults, will never understand the way the annual broadcast of movies like The Wizard of Oz became an important community event.

These days, I am considered old fashioned because I still get movies delivered in little red envelopes.  In addition, I can stream movies any time I want on my TV, iPad or phone (does anyone REALLY watch a whole movie on their phone?)  I still go to the movie theater, but less than I used to.

When you think about it, the way movies are distributed has changed dramatically, but movie theaters, by and large, are still operating on the same model.  You wait in line to buy your ticket to the movie, wait in line again to by an obscenely large cup of soft drink and tub of popcorn, stumble into a theater that is already dark because they are showing advertisements, hope to find a seat that isn't broken or too sticky or trashed, hope that the person sitting next to you or behind you will remember they are in a theater and not their living room, and that the person on the other side of you will eventually let you share the arm rest.  And that's all before the previews.

Why would anyone continue to go to the theater when for the cost of two tickets and popcorn you can get unlimited movies for a month in the comfort of your home?  In the December issue of Fast Company, they profile several movie theater operators who are trying to answer that very question.

Their solutions are creative and diverse.  Some are looking to make going to the theater a more social experience.  They do this by locating theaters near where young professionals work, adding bars and creating reasons for people of like interests to gather at the theater before and after the film.  Others are doing it by increasing the luxury of the movie going experience with leather seats and food delivered to your seat or by improving the sound systems in the theater (George Lucas says audio is 50% of the theater experience).  One theater owner is offering monthly subscriptions that allow patrons to see one movie a day, and they are seeing their daytime and midweek business grow significantly.  Others are addressing the issue by looking at what is on the screen.  By offering smaller films targeted to specific demographic groups or other types of theater experiences such as live simulcasts of concerts, operas and sporting events, these theater operators are attracting new and more diverse crowds.

As Hamid Hashemi, Founder and CEO of iPic Entertainment says, "It used to be a year before movies made it to DVD.  Soon, you'll be able to see a movie on the big screen, iPad, iPhone, and TV on the same day, around the world.  It's the evolution of the business.  But that doesn't mean the theaters are going to go out of business.  They're just going to have to be more experimental.  This is just the start."

See you AT the movies!