Rocks Are Hard

The Golden Rule At Work

"Treat others as you would like others to treat you." 

The Golden Rule -- taught in schools and in houses of worship around the world. Often forgotten in the workplace. And a standard of interaction -- a modus operandi -- that builds teams, eliminates confusion and creates a positive, productive work environment.  And as importantly a standard that fosters a great client-agency relationship.

How does this show up?

• Always Provide Context With Instruction: Always provide reasoning and context for instructions, due dates or projects so people understand what they're doing and why, this allows them to better do the work you've assigned.  You probably don't like it when you don't know why you have to do something, so:
  • a) make sure you always provide context -- especially if the instruction is different than orginally discussed;  and
  • b) ask for context if you don't have it.   
•  Always Give the Whole Picture: Most of us operate better when we understand the ultimate goal (see above bullet). When working together under deadlines, make sure your teammates have all the information they need (what else will preclude you from helping? what is your schedule? what resources do you need to accomplish your task?) so that project leads can plan accordingly. Nothing is more frustrating than adjusting a schedule to find out that that schedule won't work either because you didn't have the all the information.
• If You Have An Issue With Someone Tell Them First. He said, she said. She said, she said. He said, he said. Not constructive. If you have an issue with someone, find a quiet place to talk it out RESPECTFULLY. If you aren't getting to a good resolution, bring in someone else to moderate. The Reasonable Person Theory is put to test here. Be reasonable. Be respectful. Treat the other person like you want to be treated and resolution will come. 
• Tell People When They Do Well. AND When They Can Improve. 'nuff said.
• Tell OTHER People When Someone Has Done Great Work. 'nuff said.
• Answer every inquiry with "How Can I Help You?" What if every time you needed something from somebody they said "How can I help you?" and they meant it? What if you said it every time someone came to you? What a difference this question makes.
• Never Say No. No immediately puts up a defense. If you think 'no" evaluate what you're thinking. Say, "let me get mull it over and get back to you." Say "interesting. Let me think about how to accomplish the goal." Say "cool idea. Let's knock it around the team and we'll come back to you with a plan."   The answer might be "no" to the question presented. But there is usually a way to get to the goal that is actually YES to the intent and NO to the immediate action plan. Think Yes.

If we can treat our team mates and our clients the way we'd like to be treated, we will be so far ahead of the game that no one will be able to touch us -- in client service or in the workplace.

Artificial Boundaries

For a while now the 4 guiding principles for selecting clients has been

1. is someone other than Lee interested in working with this company? (Based on the premise that you're more effective working on things that interest you)

2. Are we the right fit for a client? Service mix + style + ability to listen + expertise.

3. Can they pay us? Because we like to eat.

4. Are they good people? Or better said are we sure they're NOT assholes. Because who likes to be beat up everyday? This does NOT preclude, have high expectations which I think is mutual exclusive to the asshole who usually has impossible expectations.

Of course 2 and 3 will always be important -- because if you take on a client you're not a good fit for, that relationship is doomed from the start and you know you'll have to churn it soon (or it will churn you) and of course cash is king - getting paid allows us to pay our employees, etc.

1 and 4 though are TOTALLY ARTIFICIAL boundaries to the business. We've all worked on business we could care less about and we've all worked for assholes. By choosing to adhere to 1 and 4, we artifically constrict the business.

And there is value in that -- in very low employee turnover. In very low client turnover. In a pretty good deal in terms of work.

Imagine what we could do if we stretched just on number 1? I'm not sure I want to ever stretch on number 4 as an independent business.

mmmmmmm -- gets the wheels turning.

Politics in the Office

My whole career, I've thought it was imporant to separate my personal political & religious views from my professional life. We don't do lobbying (in the political sense but hey I'll lobby you any day about coffee and energy bars and .... you get the idea.)

In the last presidential election, frankly there was too much going on in my life to think twice about this rule, rubrik, thought (my mother was dying, my partner was leaving the business to pursue life long passion that was/is not what we do, my son was diagnosed with multiple disorders).

This time around, the political arena -- the communications strategies surrounding the candidates has pushed me to the edge of declaring myself professionally.

And Facebook is what has pushed the issue.  I love Facebook and I manage it pretty tightly. But at this age I have lots of friends from different parts of life professional and personal -- and on Facebook I let them mingle. 

At Double Forte we've decided that Facebook is personal and it's up to each person to manage it well. How that impacts the business we've yet to see. But I think we're at a whole new decision tree on personal and professional collision now.

Doing What's Right For the Client...ouch

Last week we went to see a client to tell them NOT to spend some money with us this year. OUCH (hello as we go into the last 4 months of the year)

But the money was earmarked for a program this client can not deliver the critical success factors for us to hit it out of the park.  It's not like they can NOT, but we don't think they will given recent history.

I think they were a little surprised -- it's not insignficant to us or them -- but quickly I think we proved again that we are here to SERVE them the best we can.

I've always tried to hold onto 2 principles here:

1. do what's right for the client first and the business will follow.

2. find and hire the best and most talent you can and the business will follow.

On paper, hard to see. Over time the difference between long term relationships and churn.

The Filter

People always ask -- what business/industry does Double Forte specialize in?

HA!

Well -- we specialize in each of our clients' businesses ... really.  We weren't coffee experts before we worked with Peet's, energy bars before CLIF, nano-technology before Nano-Tex, soap and cleaning agents before Woodward -- you get the idea. (The only thing that is not true is that are experts in videogames and ecommerce and toys.)

Here's what all of our clients have in common.

1. Their business is interesting to us.  Really. This is the first level of discernment when we evaluate new business opportunities.  Is this interesting? Will a team here be able to sink their teeth into the situation? Do we have passion for the opportunity.

2.  We can help them.  If we can't help them -- no matter how lucrative, no matter how sexy -- we need to walk away. Sometimes that means we don't have the right skill set. Sometimes that means they aren't helpable -- they won't listen or change their behaviors to change their outcomes.  Either way -- if we can't help them, we don't take their money.

3.  Are they solvent/Do they pay their bills on time.  Yes. Because we like to eat.

4.  Are they good people...or the corallary...Are they Assholes?  We only want to work with good people.  People who have high standards and expectations and who are fair. (OK truth be told, lower expectations would be nice.) People who always tell us the truth. People who treat us with the respect that we have for them.  Life if too short.  We're not saving the world from terrorists, or discovering the cure for cancer (and even if we were, we'd probably have the same rules), so it's not worth it to us to have to live with "bad" people -- or people who act bad. 

Part of having a career inside a life is articulating how that career will manifest itself -- and who will be in it with you.

So we're experts in a lot.  We know how to help good people we're interested in who we can help and can pay their bills communicate to drive their businesses.....

it just doesn't sound good as a tagline.

 

Focus in Our Friend

How to say no. The holy grail in any execution -- not trying to do everything, or be everything to all people -- saying no to interesting ideas that don't get you to your goal.

Of course the first art here is discernment of the goal.  What do you want to achieve? How will you know you achieved it? What is required to create the conditions for success?

The best Big Bangs (I guess beyond the first one if you believe that creation story) are carefully laid plans that build support and capacity for the effect you wish to achieve.  Where EVERY action lays more of a foundation towards supporting the goal. This is FOCUS.  It is your Friend. It helps you get where you want to arrive.

Call your friend into the room before you say yes, before you greenlight a project, before you commit.  Call your friend in EARLY in the process! (Do NOT wait until all the deck chairs are arranged to call Focus in discern that the ship should not sail!)

Focus is your friend. Keep it close and it will treat you well forever.

Tell People They Matter

It's a simple thing to do -- an even simpler thing to forget....tell people they matter.  Matter to you, matter to a group, matter to the world.

Some people "tell" people they matter by riding their asses so hard, it feels like they might break.  They drive, and poke, and prod, and scold, and guide and advise -- constantly moving the other person to a higher place. For some people, that's how you know they care... you can see when these people don't care about someone, because they don't "see" them or don't bother to give advice or "ride" them.  It is the strong person indeed who can be on the recipient end of such attention...when you understand that it is because the "advisor" cares and believes and trusts, it changes your perspective a bit -- makes it easier to take, but it's still hard.

Other people "tell" people they matter by not telling them they suck. We all know these people. I think we are ALL this person.  Speaking for myself, I assume the other person knows that if I'm not saying anything, it's all good.

But -- it's not that hard to tell people they matter.  Take the thought bubble out of your head and say it out loud.

"Good job, thank you."

"I trust you."

"You must be the hardest working maitre d' in San Francisco and I appreciate it."

"If you need to take some time, take it. Be well."

"I'm proud of you."

"Fantastic."

I know when I get positive comments, I am buoyed. I see the smiles on people's faces when I take my positive inside voice and make it my outside voice (the trick is to keep the inside voice inside for not so positive things :) ). 

It doesn't take much to tell people they matter. That they make a difference.  Because they do. 

Say It Out Loud

The best relationships are among and between people who can say what they're thinking out loud -- with respect -- and not worry that they won't be heard or appreciated. Or that their words won't be understood or taken with the right attitude.

That's why there are so few good relationships!

Saying it out loud is hard.  Gearing up for it takes thought and care. 

How to tell the high achiever that his/her attitude is getting in his/her way. How to say "Snap out of it!" in a way that doesn't require Cher's slap across the face, but has the same effect. How to say "no, you're crazy" without making the other person feel like an idiot.

Not saying it out loud seems easier but actually is more draining.  More and more time spent "dealing" with a tough personality.  More and more storytelling going into imagining how the other person will react.  More and more waster energy on imagining instead of solving.

So when rocks are hard and water is wet -- SAY IT OUT LOUD ... FIRST! So you can get the issue on the table and move forward. So you can help the other person be better at what they're doing or more effective in their presentation, or more productive in their efforts.

More often than not the other person will appreciate the candor, and assuming you show up with solutions (say it out loud DOES NOT MEAN whining!), the help -- and together you can move forward towards the common goal.

When we tell it like it is to our clients -- and to their faces -- we do them and ourselves a favor by moving actively from the problem to the collective solution.

Character Consists of What You Do On the Third and Fourth Tries

Today in my Real Simple Daily Thought, this came through

Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.
-John Albert Michener (www.realsimple.com)  (and truthfully I've googled this guy to see who he is as I assume he's not James Michener the author, but I can only find referneces to the quote and that's not the point.)

I am re-reading 7Habits -- again -- I found myself with things falling off the calendar, beinglate to everything, and not being supported well and realized I needed to go back to the beginningto get it all in line again. And of course I don't want to be alone in this, otherwise no one will know what's going on so I assigned it to  everyone here :)

In Part I Covey talks about Character v. Personality which was a great reminder and today this great quote pops up -- --which backs up my perennial favorite -- Do or Do Not Do, There is No Try.

Yoda doesn’t mean don’t try. Yoda means stick it out and figure out HOW to get to the end – the willingness to admit we didn’t get it right the first time, that the destination is attainable and we need to shift to get there is what will save us all headache, time and disappointment.

I'm back on the train!

Mindreaders are Psychics Not Employees

"I'm really disappointed that I didn't get the result I wanted from Jane - she should have known better."

Nothing wastes more time than counting on people to read your mind. More times than not you won't get what you need from your team mates and you will need to go back and fix it or churn hours to complete the task at hand.

In many ways it's a sign of disrespect not to tell people what you need, by when and how UP FRONT, begore they get started.

Being Explicit is the easiest timesaver on the planet.  Driving clarity into every interaction drives wasted time out of your day.  Helping people achieve the FIRST TIME is the fastest way to gain trust and respect. 

You might find Mindreaders using their psychic powers to predict the future or advise you on what trip to take, but you probably won't find them at work.

If you're disappointed -- look to see where you enabled the disappointment.

If you're disappointed, you are probably disappointing someone else, becuase you aren't driving clarity into your own responsibilities and making sure you know what is expected by when in what way.

NO ONE WANTS TO DISAPPOINT. Operate from this belief and you will make sure you don't get disappointed unintentionally.