Clutch, Shift, Repeat

I found a new blog this morning. Thanks to a share on Google + I picked up this great read from Jeff Sass. Sounds like we have a few common interests so I'll be checking Jeff out again in the future.

Pause while you read Mr. Sass' great work.....................................


Did you enjoy it too? I know, it's a great analogy to getting your day/life started and we all wish we had written it first. Jeff's post really isn't anything profound, but the presentation helps to spotlight a common issue in a person's professional life. And it's one that we'd like to bring to the 2-Pros community.

I won't spend much time reiterating what he says in the post, but what things do you do to get your inertia moving at the start of a task? This can easily tie back to previous posts here about Hero and Legend Responses. Are you more driven by the emotional response to be victorious? Or are you motivated to conquer the challenge to display your dominance?

Unemployment-proof

Over the summer we've been mostly vocal about sales and sales process. We've even shown a bit of our geeky side with some posts about social media. But in light some recent events we felt it was time to bring up the topic of career process again.

Just this week we've been bombarded with more recession defense talk, criticism for Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, and reminded of woes in Europe. Things were apparently so stressful at a Charlotte, North Carolina news station that they re-posted a March report announcing branch closures and layoffs for Bank of America, essentially doubling the damage and reminding us all of the difficult legwork many companies and the affected employees have in front of them.

While we are not interview or job hunting specialists, we do feel that the mantra at 2-Pros is relevant here. Build a career process. A career process is different from a company process. It is different from personal branding. It is different from education. Career process incorporates all of those things and more, and it uses your own personality and experience do it. People who diligently build their career process can quickly convert it to new opportunities when current ones change.

There's maybe a few of you doing a systems check right now. You may be between jobs or just conscious of the possibility. If you haven't considered your career process before, what do you do now? It's not too late. Follow this abbreviated checklist and you'll get an idea of what you can offer employers.

1) Check your motivators. What gets you going on a task? Do you use emotional energy? Or do you get energized by executing strategies?
2) Check your networking. Do people really understand what you bring to the table or does your work only get noticed for its completion. The "how" is just as important than the "what" in your career.
3) Check your mind. It doesn't matter if you're a part time barista at a coffee shop, if you're not learning, you're not ready for tomorrow. From social media, to the blogosphere, to books and magazines there is an infinite source of information for your field, soak it up.

How did you score? Is your career process defined enough to take you from job to job? Can you confidently explain how you do what you do to your current or prospective boss? Once you know who you are and what you offer its time to bring that to the battlefield. Whether your battlefield is tomorrow's interview or another day at the grind its time to deliver yourself.

Google vs Facebook

The normal, lightning-fast, overwhelmingly-heavy rash of social media hubbub has dealt with extra fuel of late. A couple weeks ago, I couldn't resist and threw my hat into the ring with a post about Google +'s intriguing new approach to geo-tagging. After all the sharing was done it was one of the most popular post of the summer here for the 2-Pros team.

Inevitably, one of the resulting conversations had readers asking us about this whole Google vs Facebook idea. Being interested in the topic enough to stray from our normal topic already, we couldn't resist putting our two cents in on this subject.

 I'll admit that I probably use enough Google products to qualify as a fanboy. Its just that they make my life so darn easy. So, when Google says that they don't have designs on becoming the next big thing in social media and going after Facebook, I believe them.  I believe both that there are many other ways to be successful on a social internet than copying Facebook and that there's room for two giants in that arena anyway.

Here's what I think is interesting though. Google truly has built a different animal with G+. Certainly if you want to pull all of your friends from Facebook or wherever you can create your own Facebook clone on G+ using large circles and private status updates. But for people who do that you're only using a small fragment of what G+ truly offers.

Consider these:

1) One-way sharing - It brings the openness of other popular social sites like Twitter to the table and allows a user to acquire and spread news from chosen sources. One user this morning called G+ his morning newspaper, others have pointed out how much more open sharing is compared to other sites.

2) Sparks - Still a bit of a fail from the development end, Google can really flex it's search muscle here and integrate Reader and News into Sparks. This will go above and beyond the offerings from one-way sharing and bring even more content into the Circles.

3) Google Integration - Yes, Facebook does do some of this, but Facebook is very slanted towards holding information within the Facebook community. With G+, there are obvious paths to connecting calendars, email, chat, contacts, documents, and much more with a wider breath of personal digital services. And of course, to Android.

So do I feel that Google is a threat to Facebook? Yes. I don't think that it will beat Facebook from the standpoint of private circle sharing. I think G+ does a better job at that, but it will need a significant amount of time to reach the user-base needed to really win in that arena. Where Google will win is in two places.

1) Time. No matter how awesome each Google and Facebook are, they are still competing for the same hours in the day that each of us have already decided to dedicate to online activity. I really don't feel that very many people will drastically increase their time spent online to use both G+ and Facebook. In the end, one site will win over the other for each person with the biggest factor likely being network preference. Those trying to meet new people and network publicly will choose G+, those who prefer to only share privately will stick with Facebook. I feel that G+ wins this battle simply because they offer both, and users who pick G+ will help to migrate their friends to minimize time spent online.

2) Mobile. Its no secret that mobile units are flying off the shelves from every carrier under the sun. Those devices are only going to get faster, more efficient, and more integrated. And we'll keep carrying them with us wherever we go. Facebook seems to have released more updates in the last two months than in the two years prior, but I can't get past their sluggish attitude. Facebook's mobile apps seem to always be the most barebones version of the online experience and Google won't stop on that level. While the G+ app is still very young, it's already easier in a number of ways. If you're the type to go social on the fly I just don't see how you can choose the Facebook app over the G+ app.

For me personally right now I'm on both. I know that it will take a year or more to really draw enough of my inner circle from Facebook and get them to stay up to date with me over on G+ so I will invest the extra time. I have nothing against Facebook, but in having to pick one, I have found that G+ is much better integrated with everything I need to do. Check me out here and Circle me up.

Let's keep some of this conversation flowing. I would like to talk about advantages for businesses on G+ as those pages become available.

Recommended Read from a Sales Guru

As many of you know we don't do a lot of plugging of other blogs here on the 2-Pros space, preferring to share those nuggets through other methods. But I found an article today that I felt needed to be shared via the blog.

For anyone unfamiliar with Michael Port, he is marketing and sales guru and author of Book Yourself Solid. He is highly motivational and has even more great advice on how to kickstart yourself to enhance your personal brand. You can check out more about Michael here. While you're there make sure to check out his Thinking Big Revolution, I haven't had the opportunity to join as much as I'd like, but some really good information is shared there.

His post today hits home about how to sell yourself. Honestly, it's not groundbreaking stuff from Michael, he promotes the same attitude and focus in every message I have heard him deliver, but this one I thought was especially clear. Check it out here.

It was encouraging for us here at 2-Pros, because even though we feel like we're coming out of the woods with the direction we want this thing to go, we lack the track record to fortify ourselves with credibility. But Michael's point about just selling yourself is perfect and one that we have been taking to heart. Even more than a great product you have to sell a prospect on the fact that you can meet their needs. It doesn't matter if you've never had the opportunity to meet that need before, you just have to show how confident and prepared you are to do it now.

Google + for Local Networks

On June 28th, Google cracked the doors to its newest attempt to social networking and began the process of drawing folks into Google +. Since then it's grown like crazy, becoming the fastest such network to hit the 10 and 20 million marks. There's been a lot of talk about what it will become and how long it will take to gain enough users to be relevant, but that's not quite what I'm going to talk about today.

As a quick note on my feelings there, I don't think that Google necessarily is trying to "kill"' Facebook, Twitter or any other social network. At 750 million users Facebook is all but unkillable anyway. I really think that Google's primary goal here is to build a network that will hold enough relevance to become mainstream, hopefully gaining as much usage as Facebook - though more would be nice - and in the end get two things: social relevance in search and of course advertising revenue. We can talk about those another time if it's of interest to you.

Today, I want to talk about local networking. Location-based posting has been available for longer than most of us probably realize. The feature that Four-Square popularized and Facebook offers mainstream has always been an interesting tool to me. However, I'll say that I have never once used it on either of those services. With Google +, however, I see it as a clear-cut advantage. Why? Because with Google + I have an opportunity to post publicly and link that by location. Now every single Google + user in my same geographical location can see my post and determine if they want to connect with me on that topic or others. But isn't that the same?

Why is this better than Four-Square? Because Four-Square really only dominates destinations. It's awesome for those people who are looking for local, popular destinations for just about anything from dining, to drinks, to entertainment, or even to get your hair done. But it lacks a network of people sharing knowledge about non-destination topics.

Facebook misses the boat here because you're only sharing with those people whom you have already mutually-befriended. It's impossible to build your network by only interacting with your existing network, and as a result, many Facebook location tags end up as little more than a destination tag. 

On Google +, users can add hobbies and professions on the top of the list for things they can connect on publicly and locally. These types of connections could lead to training groups for runners or cyclists, business ventures and partnerships, and of course good old local events fit in there too. Other than the reasons above I can't put a finger on why Google's offering makes this so much more obvious than the other two, perhaps it is just presentation. I do feel though, that this could be a very powerful tool for anyone looking to make new relationships for many purposes. 

My word of encouragement... use Google + like crazy, especially with public, geo-tagged posts. Even though the site is set up well to connect this way. There are a lot of bad habits and learning that has to go on before it will be obvious to everyone. It will be important to keep those posts clean of white-noise and to aggressively connect with others when they show interest. Similar to my last post, you never know what kind of seeds those networking efforts will sow for your future.

Opportunity Tirade

A non-themed thought from me today. Why are so many people unwilling to listen to a sales pitch?

I know a lot of the excuses. There are people who say I'm too busy. There are people who feel they weren't looking for anything. There are people who just can't afford to purchase something that they hadn't already planned on. But really, why not listen?

Both consumers and businesses carry this same attitude. And to a degree, I can identify with the above excuses. After all, I've skirted the island stand people at the mall, avoided eye contact with a representative in a department store, and politely told telemarketers to move on to the next dial.
As a salesperson though, this is frustrating. The product I'm pitching is designed to help them and I know it provides a strong Return on Investment. So why won't they listen to the offer before making a buying decision. If they knew the ROI wouldn't it then make logical sense?

I will probably write more about this when I get my head around more if it, but today I'm thinking about the networking aspect of meeting salespeople.

Suppose you're a business owner. You wear more hats than you can count on a daily basis. Ultimately you went into business because you had a passion for the product, but to make it work you have to run a company. You're smart, ambitious, and possess a solid work ethic, so you've managed to figure out enough to get it all done. But you know that you'll never do it perfectly, you're not a financial advisor or a marketing buff, and there's a new product out like every 3 min that you have to check against your current line. Some days you just wish you had VPs of those departments to handle that stuff.

In walks a salesperson. They may be a banker, media consultant, distributor, landscaper, or just about anything else. This is the person who you need to make friends with. They are there to sell you something sure, but in the end they'll pitch you an idea the same as your VP of Product would, you'll make a call and if you buy it, it costs what you would pay if you had scoured the internet and found it yourself. AND you save the VP salary because this guy gets paid by someone else.

I'm not saying that you need to take time to deliver your entire business plan to everyone who walks through the door with a "padfolio" in their hand, but you couldn't get hurt making friends with a few from each line. Even if you aren't looking for that service today, what if 6 months or 18 months down the line you are? Now you have to do all of your own homework.

This same argument can be made for consumers. So they're not out of this. How could you be worse off by learning about a product that a company spent millions of R&D dollars on to make sure it provided good value for you?

OK, a bit of a soapbox, but I feel its a good question. Why are we afraid of opportunities?

Selling to Decision - The Counterpoint

Last week I wrote about Selling to Decision to benefit the efficiency of both the salesperson and the seller. The most common argument that I hear from salespeople against this method, especially those who delay decision, is that they are afraid that selling to decision will harass or push the prospect. They tell me that this will almost inevitably lead to the prospect saying "no" to assert themselves and stay in the power position of the conversation.

There are a two main clarifications that can be made to show how this is not the case.

1. Selling to Decision is not about backing the prospect into a corner and demanding agreement.  Instead, Selling to Decision is about leading the sales process. When we maintain control of the sales process we reveal ourselves as professional sales people rather than retail store representatives. Whichever sales process you are using, you picked it for a reason, and leading a prospect through that process will allow them to progress through the stages and ultimately make a buying decision. Relinquishing that power to the prospect, in an effort to avoid pushing them, leaves them in some sort of limbo because they don't know what is supposed to happen next. 
2. Selling to Decision is not a on-the-spot ultimatum. At a glance, this one can sound a little hypocritical. Every sales process is comprised of stages, and just like any other process, each prospect will progress through those stages at different speeds. Perhaps they have made a poor buying decision in the past and want to due their due diligence. Perhaps they just don't trust themselves and have made a habit out of reviewing decisions like these with a third-party. Whatever the reason, sometimes today is just not going to be the day. That doesn't mean that departing the meeting and scheduling a follow-up is failing to sell to decision. By "bookmarking" the stage of the sales process at that first meeting the salesperson can still continue guiding the prospect through the stages at the subsequent meeting(s). 

Today we took some of the wrappings off the elephant in any sales discussion by mentioning the importance of sales process. Those of you who have followed us for a while know how passionate 2-Pros is about process, and an in-depth review of our take on sales process is coming on the horizon.

A Review of our Capabilities

We took a short hiatus and plan to promote a little differently in coming back to writing so if you're new to reading 2-Pros, please see our disclaimer here.

We are two professionals with experience in sales, finance, management, and marketing. We're students of those games as much as anyone else, but we get a kick out of talking about our experience and meeting more of your who do too. You'll find out a little more about that by checking about our fancy About the Author page, you'll find out a lot more about it by checking out our awesome posts. We enjoy social media and you can check us out at +Dave and +Charles.

Aside from qualifications we expect that you will agree our ideas and topics are significantly better than our writing. We make this apology now for all offenses made towards the English language by our blog.  We respect all of the great authors, journalists, copywriters, and all in the writing industry, and it's from that respect that we chose to work outside of it. We would detail some of the common errors we already know we will make, but that would just be self-depreciating.

Striving to end on a high note, we really hope that you enjoy what you find here. The online world of blogs and other social media gives today's professionals an incredible edge in that we can network with like-minded professionals around the globe in just minutes a day. Those networks both share and produce ideas that can accelerate even the most successful of careers/businesses/industries. And for that reason we say why not?

Sell to Decision

A one-off topic - Sell to Decision - is about getting a prospect or existing client to make a decision on whether or not to buy from you. Let's set this up, and because I like to work with what we can control, let's look at the facts:

1) You have products and services for sale.
2) You make your living (salary, commission, or biz revenue) from selling these products and services.
3) Nope, no 3 here, it's just as simple as above.

To be successful, you must present your wares to prospective clients. Depending on your industry this may happen at the prospect's location, at yours, or over the phone/internet, but it always must happen. And as every salesperson has experienced, as you present your products and services to your prospects you get three answers. You get yes, no, and maybe.

But wait a minute, remember that day when you were young? Perhaps you were laying on the living room floor counting holes in the popcorn ceiling of your parent's home while Saturday Morning Cartoons played in the background... maybe it was something else... but you shouted out to your passing mother, "Mom, can we go to the ______ today?" The answer was one you had heard before, "Maybe." This time however, it clicked, "Maybe" didn't really mean anything, while in fact it often resulted in "no," it wasn't unthinkable to earn a "yes" by trying another attempt. "Maybe" was some sort of meaningless limbo that meant your request had fallen on deaf ears which was about as effective as not asking at all.  You still had no idea what the result would be. Wanting to know if your day would be spent watching re-runs you follow your mother into the kitchen, repeat the question, and get an answer.

Presto, you just sold to decision. When salespeople take a "maybe" and head out the door the entire presentation was wasted. You're no further ahead than if you had skipped meeting the prospect. Sure there are times when a decision must practically be placed on hold while budgets are reviewed or board meetings are held. All-in-all however, a decision must be made for both the prospect and the salesperson to move forward. The prospect must know if their needs will be met by agreeing to purchase the product or if they will pursue other options. The salesperson must know if they need to deliver the goods or move on to the next prospect.

In this way, selling to decision, is a key component to any sales process. Without it you risk incredible inefficiency as you revisit indecisive prospects over and over. As you examine your sales process you should always check how your selling to decision is working. Are you clearly asking to do business today?

Next time, we'll talk about the counter-argument to Sell to Decision, which is the fear of forcing a no, when a yes seems possible through time.

Hi There

I know there aren't a ton of you out there yet, but Hello.

I apologize for the hiatus, things have been in a little bit of transition here at 2-Pros.  Yes I know we just started and I know that we didn't have much to transition from.  That's why 2-Pros really didn't change much.  We did though.  So here's an update of the pertinent details.

I moved from my financial industry job into a sales/marketing position.  The change was reasonably intense with a 3-week training program out of state and a whole new corporate culture to embrace.  I took the lead from a existing employee though and am convinced that it will greatly benefit 2-Pros.  It's the type of sales culture that will allow me to act much more like I have my own franchise and that sales/relationship experience is crucial to what we're doing here.

Other changes are in the mix as we continue to work on building the life experiences meant to bring greater clarity to the topic at hand here and eventually, the idea of taking directly to you through dedicated training programs.

I'm going to recommit to writing once a week as I work my way into a comfort zone in the new day-job and we'll continue to put out some thoughts for you.

The plan for the blog remains the same, we're most interested in two things.  1) Just write.  We need to put our thoughts into clear, teachable thoughts.  So must we write.  2) Gain users.  We want to create our own following so that we really know who is most interested in our topic, and so that we can create some conversation with you.

That's it this week, but we'll be back sooner this time.

Heroes & Legends Pt 3 -- The Hero

The last time we talked about Heroes and Legends we worked through some of the differences and worked out some of the kinks between the two.  Now I want to really start to dive in and work on the Hero by itself.  The Hero, as I've stated in previous posts, is generated from a motivated effort.  To really understand that I want to begin to dig into the definitions of those words.

Motivation
One definition given for motivation is: the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior.  That's pretty cut and dry.  It also speaks directly towards the point I'm trying to make with the Hero Response.  The Hero is aroused to action toward a desired goal.  As with any force in nature, something must initiate that movement.  


A focus area for the 2-Pros team around motivation has been to discuss intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.  Now there is much research available on this topic, but I'll leave that to other experts.  Where we feel that intrinsic and extrinsic motivations come in to play is that we feel understanding what is motivating is key to initiating motivation.

For the Hero this is especially important.  Whether we are seeking to initiate a Hero Response within ourselves or in a staff member that we are coaching, we will need to provide the spark.

Effort
A definition offered for effort is: a series of actions advancing a principle or tending toward a particular end.  The iconic trait of a Hero is effort.  Because with a Hero we don't just limit effort to "tending toward a particular end." Rather, with Heroes, we associate maximum effort, such as an athlete with intense facial expressions pumping down the field or a firefighter barreling through a fiery doorway to save a trapped child.  Sometimes it's more subtle, like a parent who persevered job loss and health issues to raise us , but it still associates enormous effort.


In this way, effort is a requirement for a Hero.  A Hero who didn't give it their all would be something less.  So as with motivation, effort is a key piece to breaking down the Hero.


In brief, then, our Hero is someone who is aroused to utilize herculean effort to accomplish a task.  Later this week, I will share a couple stories of heroic stories so that we can put some application to the Hero Response.

Why I Believe My World Is Flat

I was reading a more than average post on the Careerealism Blog today (here) and it got me thinking.  The post is great, covering the topic of identifying and dealing with a passive-agressive boss.  The post makes a number of great points and you should read it.  People get promoted to management positions for all sorts of reasons, and most unfortunately leadership is only one of them.

As you might have guessed, this topic stoked another fire within me.  I don't currently have a passive-aggressive boss, but I do know a number of people who do.  What I can identify with though is hierarchical obstacles in the workplace.  In nearly every multi-person company you will find some form of hierarchy.  No matter how flat a company wants it to be, from the top-down perspective it must exist on some level.  If I'm the CEO I can't be accountable for every single person in my company, so I create a management team, as we grow so will those levels, it's inevitable.  And that's OK... from the top.  But what about the folks who are looking up at the hierarchy?

To those people I say, make it flat.  There's a fair difference between respect and worship.  I've held various positions on sales teams, from the new kid, to the star, to the manager myself, but never did that change the fact that the manager's cog spun just like the rest.  Sure, the manager has a different list of responsibilities and expectations, but they are still just a member of team.  The most successful teams that I have observed have all understood that.  Team members treated management with respect and showed understanding of the authority that management had for making team decisions, but also showed that they had expectations of management.  Likewise management remained transparent to the staff, relaying reasoning behind decisions, and ensured the team completed it's mission by holding everyone accountable.

Now there's a few ground rules to this type of thinking:

Respect

• Team Members - I mentioned it above and it's first on the list here for a reason.  Flattening out a hierarchy isn't the same thing as a rebel takeover.  Viewing management as part of the team is about being inclusive.  A flat hierarchy will not overrule a manager's leadership, company or industry knowledge, big picture thinking, or any other skill-set that made them managers in the first place.
• Managers - Including yourself into your team's natural "society" can make you feel like one of the gang. Keep in mind that you still need to have a healthy respect for what's left of the natural barrier between your responsibility and that of your staff.  i.e. it might be OK for them to chuckle about the company's promise to upgrade technology by the end of the next fiscal year, but you're not allowed to cross that line.  

Ownership

• Team Members - Now that you've flattened things out, you need to show your equality by owning your job.  Escalations are inevitable, but the more of a task you complete before turing to management for assistance the less separation you show between the positions.  This isn't about showing a manager that you don't need them, but about taking responsibility for tasks assigned to team members that are now more equal.
• Managers - As your team takes better ownership of tasks you need to resist the urge to micromanage them with your newfound free time.  If they asked for the responsibility to do the job as a respected team member, let them work it to natural checkpoints before reviewing their work.  Instead, use your new time to excel in those areas of planning and leadership that you longed for when you accepted your management position.  After all, that's your role on this team.

Communication

• Team Members - Communication is always a high priority for teams.  In a flat hierarchy you do not report to your manager, you converse.  There is a finer line there than I think most people realize.  In a conversation you openly share information about the subject.  That might mean honest feedback on challenges or results, or a new idea that you have to improve production.  An important stance to have in these conversations is that you are conversing with the member of your team who has the most need to know, since they are the team member responsible for future strategies.
• Managers - A large pitfall of managing is that we sometimes become demanding.  As a member of the team we can't allow power to get the best of us.  We need to encourage open and honest communication.  Two excellent ways to promote this are by becoming more transparent to the reasoning behind our planning, and reminding team members why it's important for us to have accurate information.

There's probably a bunch more to this idea, but this is what jumped in my head today reading the passive-aggressive manager post.  Any thoughts?  Feel free to post away in comments.

Update for Heroes and Legends

It's a bit longer than I planned since my last post here. So, just reminding you that we're still here and hard at work.

Over the last two weeks I have been writing more about the connections and contrasts between Heroes and Legends. As that exploration tightens up a bit more you will see those results here.

A key area that I've been working on has been to more clearly define the Hero. The Legend has always been an area of interest to me and I'm much more prepared to share those pieces in this space, however I will not do that without having both sides to present.

But conversation around Hero has been strong these last two weeks and we're beginning to get the framework built. For anyone lucky enough to already be following our work, expect a post on advanced Hero topics by Friday. And I can promise some more regular posting as we move through that into Legend.

Heroes and Legends Pt 2

On Monday I wrote about my Heroes and Legends Theory and how it ties into the work that we're doing now here at 2-Pros.  You can find that post here.

In Part 2 -- I want to clarify some of what I wrote about their differences.  

As a Response

I look at Hero and Legend both as responses by which to complete a task.  By response I am thinking of a call to action.  Either you "muscle up" and do it the Hero way through max effort, or you go cerebral and use the Legend.  An important distinction here is that Hero and Legend Responses are not mutually exclusive.  It is possible to utilize both methods at the same time to accomplish a task.  However, I have found in my experience in leading different sales and service teams that many people, especially those with low career maturity, gravitate towards the Hero Response and simply try their hardest.  A much smaller percentage of people will consistently use the Legend Response and systematically approach tasks.  Finally, a select few people effectively use both Hero and Legend Responses to maximize effort and a process.

The Pitfalls

As I've mentioned, the Hero Response tends to lead toward inconsistency.  There are many factors ranging from energy levels, to stress, to competition, to understanding, that can affect a person's ability to reach or maintain maximum effort during a task.  When a person consistently chooses the Hero Response, but fails to consistently maximize their effort due to exterior circumstances, they achieve results inconsistently.

The Legend, on the other hand, puts processes in place that nearly run themselves.  Missing from the machine though can be a human element.  When someone chooses the Legend Response, but fails to impart any energy, success is capped at best.

The Benefits (aside from the obvious)

Heroes are inspiring.  Watching a colleague or competitor pour it all out to meet a goal makes us want to join in the fun.  And true to that point, Heroes are often the charismatic leaders of our respective fields.  Their efforts don't only meet goals, they light a fire in our hearts that inspires us to join the mission.  

Legends are marvelous.  We look at the success of Legends and marvel at their ability to produce consistent results without the typical charisma that we see from Heroes.  We marvel at their efficiency, their calm, and their detailed plans.  Then we seek to imitate them.

--

In coming posts on this topic I will begin to explore deeper into the Hero Response and Legend Response independently so that we can begin to really identify what makes each work, where the pitfalls occur, and how to integrate both Responses into our daily process.

A Plug for Narratives

This will be the first time I am linking to and plugging another blog and I have to say its a pretty great post to kick it off with.

Mark Suster posted on his Both Sides of the Table blog this morning about using narrative to make your point. Check it out here.

This post really got my wheels spinning about sales process. The most meaningful word that Mark uses in his post is "connection". It's so important to cross that line when presenting an idea (or selling a product for you sales folks out there). Making an emotional connection with the audience you are speaking to helps them buy into your message and builds irreplaceable rapport.

Mark's narrative on narrative's (loved the set up of that too) details how to build your pitch and does a really good job of it.  He leaves the implementation of it, however, to our own imaginations.  Naturally, having been progressing along with sales process here at 2-Pros I made the instant connection.

The five pieces of narratives that Mark details are:

• Start with a thesis
• Have supporting evidence
• Use analogies
• Keep it human
• Reinforce the storyline at the end

And really, what sales pitch is not enhanced by adding these narrative components?  Even to the most persistent, number-crunching CFOs the addition of a story that includes a human element will help to better connect them to the idea.

Heroes and Legends Pt 1

Perhaps we already share a professional experience.  The best question I have ever been asked in any job interview was “Are you a sprinter or a marathoner?” The question caught me off guard at the time, but my knee-jerk response to it has left me on a path of increasing obsession with systematic process ever since.  In observing myself and others in professional settings I have found that those regarded as most successful are often the most consistently successful.  And those people almost invariably have a process that allows them to respond to all of their goals and challenges.  They are unflappable in the face of ambiguity, and they graciously accept praise for the meeting goals they always knew they would meet. My answer?

“Taking that question into professional context, I would say that it’s about effort. And in that way I feel that ‘Sprinter’ and ‘Marathoner’ are interchangeable with ‘Hero’ and ‘Legend’. The Hero provides awe-inspiring effort, they are the benefactors of epic victories and the recipients of crushing defeats.  They give a task everything they have in hopes of that victory.  The Legend is systematic.  They use foresight to prepare and plan to overcome obstacles.  The most accomplished Legends begin to seek obstacles just to diminish them.  I think there’s a little bit of both Hero in Legend in all of us, but the Legends have the better track records.”

Now I have nothing against sprinters or heroes.  I feel that Heroes display the 100% emotional, physical, even spiritual efforts that humans are naturally drawn to. That's the definition of a hero to me... and when presented with the opportunity, don't we all aspire to be the hero? And truly, heroic actions are often the defining moments for careers even the histories of entire corporations.

My observations in the business world, however, are that the Hero is often inconsistent. Their ability to overwhelm a challenge with pure effort can be parried by stress, peer pressure, misunderstanding of the challenge, or even just a greater, opposing effort.

This is where Legends prevail. The Legend is not susceptible to variance in the way that the hero is, because the Legend has already accounted for secondary obstacles. The Legend, conversely to the Hero is nearly emotionless, they are all system. My observations of Legends are that they are significantly more consistent because they maintain a steady approach to challenges as they happen.

In subsequent parts of this post I will be delving a little deeper into Heroes and Legends to begin to develop a framework for strategic planning.

Book Review: Five Dysfunctions of a Team

One of the ways to keep your process both honed and up to date is to continue your learning.  The master of creativity, the great Pablo Picasso once said, "Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself, and to copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others. It leads to sterility."  So in light of learning from the insight of others, 2-Pros brings you our first book review.


The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni is perhaps the best professional book I have read to date.  In it Lencioni discusses the dysfunctions of Absence of Trust, Fear of Conflict, Lack of Commitment, Avoidance of Accountability, and Inattention to Results.  He really does a phenomenal job of showing how each of these dysfunctions impact one another and how suffering from one can escalate up the list and cause issues in later areas.  He ties the whole thing together with a short story that is simplistic in nature, but provides the right amount of color to really help you absorb the depth of his concepts.


In reading this book I really felt like Lencioni helped me to determine who my teams were in the workplace.  First my management peers at other offices, next my management team in my office, and finally my team of subordinates that I lead.  In my line of work, that concept really got me thinking as to how important it is to ensure that teams operate effectively down the priority scale to ensure that corporate messages are delivered consistently at all levels by ensuring that I don't lead my team in a direction that all other teams are not headed in.  Thus avoiding a separate topic of discerning the fine line between motivated innovation and disregard for corporate branding.  


Once I was able to identify my teams, I was quickly able to start putting the litmus tests together to gauge where each team stood in regards to the five dysfunctions.  Lencionci's concepts were evident and several levels and I'm happy to have been able to define them and put things in place to start pull together those teams for even better performances in the future. 


These additions to my existing team-building structure will largely impact my processes in that area and greatly assist me as I continue to work with teams in the future.  With the exception of those of us who live on deserted islands, who doesn't need a little more focus on team as part of their process?


If you are looking for a great read, I strongly suggest picking this one up.  Because of the short-story nature it is a reasonably quick read, and once you begin to connect the concepts to the teams that you're a part of you will not want to put it down. 

Georges St. Pierre - and preemptive process

I don't intend to inflicting my hobbies on all of you too often as make observations about process and other career development pieces - but last night watching UFC 129 I couldn't help but admire the process of Georges St. Pierre in comparison to many of his colleagues in mixed martial arts.

The fight last night itself is irrelevant here, but in watching GSP's approach to fights leading up to and during his reign as Welterweight champion I have always noticed his approach.  He approaches each fight with a new play designed to exploit his opponents weaknesses and neutralize their strengths.  Now you might say, "wait, doesn't this mean that his approach is inconsistent, reactive, and even lacks process?"  Therein lies the subtle secret ingredient of his process.

GSP doesn't spend weeks in training camp preparing a predetermined combination of strikes and take-downs.  His process isn't self-centered thus using only the knowledge of himself to prepare for the fight.  His process is intentionally designed like a road map to navigate one particular opponent at a time.  His preparations include knowing where he wants to fight his opponent and then preparing himself to make that happen.  Granted, this is all possible because GSP is a gifted athlete who possesses immense strength and endurance, he is also well trained in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, Karate, and wrestling.  But his process of preparing for an opponent sets him apart from his colleagues.

Now I don't assume that all other mixed martial artists prepare using only a knowledge of themselves for a fight.  They study tape of their opponent's previous fights, even their own and work to exploit weaknesses they find there.  But GSP seems to be one step ahead with this.  Take last night's fight as an example: the challenger, Jake Shields, would have fared far better in a fight on the canvas than in a striking match with GSP, but despite all of the work he probably put into his jiu-jitsu and conditioning training, he never came close to securing the kind of take-down that would push GSP into Shield's comfort zone.  Meanwhile, GSP, knowing that his opponent could only win on the ground was razor sharp when it came to maintaining distance and stuffing take-down attempts.

In this way GSP's process cut off the process of Shields before it ever came to fruition.  The result was exactly as GSP had hoped for in his retaining the welterweight championship.  While the fight itself was likely boring for many to watch, it was, in many ways, a textbook lesson in process.

Things often look clearer for me when I look at them happening in sports.  So how does GSP's "preemptive process" look in the business world?  Well it might be in a salesperson setting a outbound call block for an afternoon when there isn't likely to be heavy foot-traffic.  Or a nurse taking time in the morning to ensure that a hall closet is properly stocked with emergency tools in case something goes awry with the late-morning surgery.

What activities are part of your process that preemptively block out obstacles that you know you will likely face today?

Testing autopost to Twitter

Checking to make sure that the feed to Twitter is sent up to post automatically correctly.

(crosses fingers)

Process

Process has really been Subject of the year here at 2-pros. We talk about it as it applies to sales, individuals, even teams. The conversation most often centers on the creation and growth of a process and how focus on that process is integral to success.

That begs the question, what exactly is a process at it applies to career development?

Process in this context, we believe, is the approach that a person takes to their professional responsibilities. It is organic. It lives and breathes. It encompasses the person's personality, talents, experiences, motivation, education, and capabilities. It accounts for environmental obstacles. It incorporates the needs and expectations of the organization. Process then becomes the person. A well defined process defines the person's career.
With this understanding, we feel that the cultivation and development of a process needs to be a top priority for any career to reach new levels.

Questions of the day - what is your process? How well defined is your approach to your day? How well do you direct your daily calendar to systematically meet daily objectives? Can you describe your process to someone who doesn't understand the efforts required to meet those objectives?

Hello World

Hello out there.  We're mostly just posting tonight so that we have a post showing on the blog and can continue to play with the formatting.  Since we know how crazy anticipated you must be for us to produce real content, we will be ending this post now and completing the necessary blog agenda so that we may resume musing.

Dave/Charles