success
Diamonds or just Shiny Rocks?
During a candid review years ago, my boss at the time (the company’s CEO) made a surprising comment. During an executive meeting, he called a break and invited me to get a coffee with him. He said, “Good ideas can be like diamonds – drop them occasionally, and they have a lot of value. But sprinkle them everywhere you go, and they just become a bunch of shiny rocks.” This wasn’t the kind of feedback I expected, but it turned out to be both insightful and valuable.
For a long time, I have held the belief that there are four types of people at any company: 1) People who want to make things better; 2) People who are interested in improvement but only in a supporting role; 3) People who are mainly interested in themselves (they can do great things, but often at the expense of others); and 4) People that are just there and don’t care much about anything. This opinion is based on working and consulting at many companies over a few decades.
A recent Gallup Poll stated Worldwide only 13% of Employees are “engaged at work” (the rest are “not engaged” or “actively disengaged”). If true, this is a sad reflection of employees and work environments. Since it is a worldwide survey, it may be highly skewed by region or industry and, therefore, not indicative of what is typical across the board. Those results didn’t completely align with my thinking, but they were interesting nonetheless.
So, back to the story…
Before working at this company, I ran my own business for nearly a decade and consulted for 15 years, working with large corporations and startups. I am used to taking the best practices learned from other companies and engagements and incorporating them into our business practices to improve and foster growth. Efficiency was the key to growth and profitability.
I take a systemic view of business and see the importance of optimizing all components of “the business machine” to work harmoniously. Improvements in one area ultimately positively impact other areas of the business. From my naive perspective, I thought I was helping everyone by helping those with “easily solved problems.”
My perspective lacked one important thing. These were not easy problems to the other business leaders. They were struggling and asking for help. By providing an answer off the cuff, it made them look and feel bad in front of the rest of the team.
I learned that while trying to be helpful, I was insensitive to the fact that my “friendly suggestions based on past success” stepped on other people’s toes, creating frustration for those I intended to help. Providing simple solutions to their problems reflected poorly on my peers.
Suggestions and examples that were intended to be helpful had the opposite effect. Just as bad, it was probably just as frustrating for me to be ignored as it was for others to have me infringe on their part of the business. The resulting friction was very noticeable to my boss, which led to our unscheduled coffee break.
Those ideas (“diamonds”) may have been considered had I been an external consultant. But as part of the leadership team, I came across as someone only interested in myself (leaving “shiny rocks” lying around for people to ignore or possibly trip over).
Perception is reality, and my attempts to help were hurting me. Luckily, I received this honest and helpful feedback early in this position and was able to turn those perceptions around.
What are the morals of this story?
First, engaged people have the greatest potential to make a difference. Part of being a business leader is making sure you have the best possible team and creating an environment that challenges, motivates, and fosters growth and accountability.
Disengaged employees or people who are unwilling or unable to work with/collaborate with others may not be your best choices, regardless of their talent. They could actually be detrimental to the overall team dynamics. Understanding what drives someone from one category to another is a great first step in being sensitive while still staying effective.
Second, doing what you believe to be the right thing isn’t necessarily the best or right way to approach something. Being sensitive to the big picture and testing whether your input is being viewed as constructive was a big lesson for me. If you have good ideas but are ineffective, consider that your execution could be flawed. Self-awareness is very important.
Third, use your own examples as stories to help others understand potential solutions to problems in a non-threatening way. Let them connect the story to their own problems and find their own solutions. This helps them become more effective and allows them to save face. It is not a competition. And, if someone else has good ideas, help support them through collaboration. In the end, it should be more about effectiveness, growth, and achieving business goals than about who gets the credit.
While this seems like common sense now, my background and personal biases blinded me to that perspective.
My biggest lesson learned was about adaptation. There are many ways to be effective and make a difference. Focus on understanding the situation and its dynamics to employ the best techniques, which is ultimately critical to the team or organization’s success.
Acting Like an Owner – Does it matter?
One of the biggest changes to my professional perspective on business came when I started my own consulting business. Prior to that, I had worked as an employee for midsize to large companies for ten years and then as one of the first hires at a start-up technology company. I felt that doing hands-on work, managing, selling, and helping establish a start-up (where I did not have an equity stake) provided everything needed to start my own business.
Well, guess what? I was only partially correct. I was prepared for the activities of running the business but really was not prepared for the responsibility of running a business. While this seems like it should be obvious, I’ve seen many business owners whose primary focus is on growth/upside activities and not the day-to-day. That type of optimism is important for entrepreneurs – without it, they would not bother putting so much at risk.
People tend to adopt a different perspective when making decisions once they realize that every action and decision can impact the money moving into and out of their own wallets.
Even in a large business, you can usually spot the people who have taken these risks and run their own business. I was responsible for a Global Business Unit with $60+ million in annual sales and ran it like a “business within a business.” Having P&L responsibilities meant the decisions I made mattered to my success and the success of my business unit.
It’s more than just striking out on your own as a contractor or sole proprietor. I’m talking about the people who have had employees, invested in capital equipment, and gone all-in. These are the people thinking about the big picture and the future.
What do these people do differently than those without this type of experience?
One of the biggest things is they view business as “good business” and “bad business.” Not all business is good business, and not all customers are good customers.
There needs to be a fair commercial exchange where both sides receive value, mutual respect, and open communication. You know this works when your customers treat you like a true partner (a real trusted advisor) instead of just a vendor, or at least do not try to take advantage of you (and vice versa).
A business is in business to make money, so if your work is not profitable, you should not do it. And, if you are not delivering value to an organization, it is very likely that you would be better off spending your time elsewhere – building your reputation and reference base within an organization that was a better fit. While that may not be true for all business endeavors (think how long it took Amazon to become profitable and where they are now), it generally is true for employees at all levels.
For example, “bad” salespeople (who may very well regularly exceed their quotas) typically do the following:
- Only care about the sale and their commission – not profitability, fit, customer satisfaction, or the effort required to support that customer.
- Selling products and services people don’t need.
- Making promises they know will not be met is a typical sign of a person who does not think like an owner.
- Their primary focus is on personal short-term benefit, and not on growing accounts or the success of the business.
These are examples of someone who does not think or act like an owner.
How you view and treat employees is another big difference. Unfortunately, even business owners do not always get this right. I believe that employees are either viewed as Assets (to be managed for growth and long-term value) or Commodities (to be used up and replaced as needed – usually treated as fungible and easily replaceable). Your business is usually only as good as your employees, so treating them well and with respect creates loyalty and results in higher customer satisfaction.
Successful business owners usually look for the best person out there, not just the most affordable person who is “good enough” to do the job. On the flip side, you need to quickly weed out people who are not a good fit. Making good decisions quickly and decisively is often a hallmark of a successful business owner. The saying about hiring slowly and firing quickly makes even more sense when you are running a lean operation that requires every person to contribute to the company’s success.
Successful business owners are generally more innovative. They are willing to experiment and take risks. They reward that behavior. They understand the need to find a niche where they can win and provide goods and/or services tailored to those specific needs. Agility can be a significant competitive advantage. My company often contracted with Fortune 100 companies for this very reason. We could attempt something faster, for less money, and with less scrutiny than could be done internally. Those companies were outsourcing innovation.
Sometimes, this means specialization and customization, and sometimes, it means personalized attention and better support. Regardless of what is different, these people pay attention to the small details, understand their target market, and are good at defining a message articulating those differences. These are the people who seem to be able to see around corners and anticipate both problems and opportunities. This can be a learned skill, developed out of necessity.
Former business owners are usually more conscientious about money. I created a “my money” policy on expenses. If someone felt something was important enough for their success that they would spend their own money on it, then they had my blanket approal to move forward. This approach created understanding and accountability.
Every dollar in the business provides safety and the opportunity for growth. Most owners are not the people who routinely spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on business meals or who take unnecessary or questionable trips to nice places. Money saved on unnecessary expenses can be invested in new products, features, or marketing for the benefit and growth of their company.
While these are common traits of successful business owners, you can develop them even if you have never owned a business. Hence the title, Acting like an Owner.
When selling, are you focused on delivering value, developing a positive reputation within that organization and with your customers, and profiting from long-term relationships? When delivering services, is your focus on delivering what has been contracted – and doing so on time and within budget? Are your projects used as examples of how things should be done within other organizations? When leading, are you being fair and transparent with your team? Are you spending money on the right things – not wasteful or extravagant things?
These are things employees at all levels can do. They will make a difference and help you stand out. That opens the door to career growth and change. And it may get you thinking about starting the business you have always dreamed of.
Awareness and understanding are the first steps towards change and improvement.
What’s the Prize If I Win?
In consulting and in sales, there is a tendency to believe that if you show someone how to find that proverbial “pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,” they will be motivated to do so. Seasoned professionals tend to ask, “What problem are you trying to solve?” to understand whether there is a real opportunity.
Sometimes a mere pot of gold just isn’t enough to motivate. Usually the motivation is something very personal. What’s in it for them? Not what’s in it for me?
The skill is determining what matters most to the decision-maker and in what order, then showing how the proposed solution will bring them closer to achieving their personal goals.
Case in point. Several years ago, I tried to sell a packaged Business Intelligence (BI) system built on our database platform to the customers most likely to need it. Qualification performed – check. Interested – check. Proof of value – check. Quick ROI – check. Close the deal – not so fast…
This application was a set of dashboards with 150-200 predefined KPIs (key performance indicators). The premise was that you could quickly tailor and deploy the new BI system with little risk (finding and validating that the needed data was available to support their KPIs was the biggest risk, but one we could identify up front). The business impact and ROI were there, and we could deliver tangible value at half the cost of a typical similar implementation. Who wouldn’t want that?
I spent several days onsite with the prospect, identified areas of concern and opportunity, and used their data to quantify the potential benefit. By the end of the week, I could show the potential for an 8x ROI in the first year. Remember, I estimated this using their data, not random or industry figures. Being somewhat conservative, I suggested that even half that amount would be a big success. Look – we found the pot of gold!
Despite this, the deal never closed. This financial services company had a lot of money, and the CIO had a huge budget. Saving $500K+ on this project would be nice, but it wasn’t essential. While the impact was there, the urgency was lacking.
I later learned he was pushing forward an initiative of his own that was highly visible. The new system I proposed could have become a distraction, and he did not need that reputational risk. Had I made this determination sooner, I could have easily repositioned the offering to better align with and support his agenda.
For example, the system could have shifted its focus from financial savings to project and risk management for his higher-priority initiative. The KPIs could be on earned value, scheduling, and deliverables. This probably would have sold, as it would have been far more appealing to this CIO and supported what was important to him (i.e., his prize if he wins). The additional financial savings initially identified would be the icing on the cake, to be reinvested later.
Several lessons emerged from this effort. In this instance, I focused on my personal pot of gold (based on logic and common sense) rather than on my customer’s priorities and prize for winning. That mistake cost me this deal, but it is one I have not made since – helping me win many other deals.
The Power of Simplicity
“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” – Albert Einstein
In the first part of my career, I didn’t care much for consultants. My experience was that they would come in, tell you what to do, and then leave victoriously while we were stuck trying to implement something that just wouldn’t work. They seemed to make everything seem so complex—often to justify their cost.
Then, I met an amazing consultant who shared something valuable with me. He explained what he believed differentiated a true consultant from a contractor (something I wrote about a decade later in a Tech Republic article). He then made me aware of the Einstein quote above. This was one of those pivotal moments in my career.
For many years, I have met many interesting people. Some seemed to try to intentionally obfuscate even the easiest things to make themselves seem brilliant. Others took such a circuitous route that you sometimes forgot what you were trying to understand and fix. And sometimes explanations were just so tangential that the main point was lost entirely. There are likely many reasons for these experiences – some intentional and many not. The real lesson learned is that it wasn’t just consultants who can be incomprehensible, and that clear, comprehensible communication is critical to effectiveness.
Just think about the power of a well-crafted “elevator pitch” when you meet someone new or the ability to quickly explain how your company differentiates itself from the competition (piquing their curiosity, making you the more interesting, or helping your company become the better/safer choice in your prospect’s mind).
Or being able to articulate your business strategy in a way that people understand (and can explain to others). That understanding can create interest, leading them enough to want to learn more and become part of making that happen.
The best consultants, as do the best employees/managers/executives/business owners, have this ability to explain something simply. While this is only one attribute of success (likability, powers of persuasion, integrity, knowledge, and skills are others), it is something that can be taught, developed, and consistently applied.
The power to “explain it simply” is the power to make a difference through better understanding, and that is what communication is all about!
The People Who Move the Dial
Whether you are a business owner, a manager, or a parent, finding the right way to motivate your team is important to maximize performance and results. Each person is a little bit different and is looking for something a little different, and once you figure out what is important, you can help increase their impact. Not everyone wants to be a star – which is usually OK (as long as they have the right attitude, skills, and work ethic and add value).
Then there are those exceptional people who want to be the best, are willing to take risks, work hard, and “think differently” in order to succeed. These people are self-motivated and continue to raise the bar for the entire team as part of a high-performance culture. These are the people who move the dial.
I’ve had the pleasure of being taught by people like this, working with people like this, managing people like this, and helping a few become people like this. Occasionally, you have a few special people working together, which is when amazing things happen. These people are generally curious and wonder, “Why not?” They are confident (not arrogant), intelligent, and passionate about success.
Back when I was funding medical research projects, I had a trip scheduled to Philadelphia. I asked a friend at a local hospital to make an introduction to meet someone from “CHOP” (the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia). They were ranked as a top hospital and research facility, and I wanted to learn why. She made the introduction, and we scheduled a lunch meeting. I was looking forward to the meeting but had no real expectations (other than being asked for money).
To my surprise, a half-dozen people in a large conference room with a catered lunch greeted me. They presented on their various projects (such disclosures were unusual, as they did not know me and, even riskier, knew I was involved with research projects at other facilities). Everyone in the room was amazing, and the department head (Dr. Terri Finkel) was one of the most impressive people I had ever met.
After lunch, I told Dr. Finkel I appreciated the lunch, but wondered why she went to so much trouble when I never promised to do anything in return. She smiled and replied, “We love what we do and love having the opportunity to talk about our projects and passions to people with similar interests.” That made a huge impression on me, and within a few months, we were funding projects using a unique new approach that Terri suggested. The approach was in response to my question about getting the most “bang for my research dollars” (thinking more like a businessperson than a researcher).
Over the next few years, this team did incredible things that had a tangible impact on Pediatric Rheumatology and the quality of life for children with Juvenile Arthritis. Many great researchers were involved, but two of them really stood out (Drs. Sandy Burnham and Randy Cron – both continue to do amazing things to this day). The results of this team were so much better than everyone else we supported. They provided a huge return on my investment, and I can take pride knowing that I made a difference through these efforts while helping launch their careers.
To me, it came back to the basics. Intelligent people who were passionate about making a difference, confident enough to be challenged, and led by a visionary person who saw an opportunity to motivate her team and help me achieve my goals. It’s the best type of win-win scenario possible.
These people moved the dial back then and continue to move it today. It is a thing of beauty to watch stars like this perform. These people shine twice as bright as they guide others toward success. And you can find them in every industry and every walk of life – you just need to look.
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