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Shoot the Messenger

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by Patty Azzarello

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are-you-a-reporter

Who is helping?

One of the CEO’s I am working with on a business transformation said to me about one of his managers, “No, he won’t actually help solve the problem, he is more of a reporter.”

Ouch!

Think about your behaviors.

Are you at any risk of being a reporter?

Do you often highlight things that aren’t working?
Do you study things and point out what is wrong?
Do you regularly play devil’s advocate?

Oops!

What adds value?

I always talk about the importance of adding value to the business.

When it comes to reporting trouble, many people confuse what adding value actually means. They think that identifying and exposing problems is adding value. Or that doing analysis and providing insightful commentary about what is broken is adding value.

It is not.

So, you may be thinking…but you have to identify problems if you want to solve them. Or you need to know about issues if you want to fix them. Surely the person who raises these issues is adding value because the business “needs to know”.

Talking vs. Doing

The big, BIG difference for adding value is between talking and doing.

It is the difference between describing the current state or moving something forward. …Between exposing a problem and fixing it, or at least proposing a solution.

Do you have reporters on your team?

You can find them — talking.

Sounding smart, playing devils advocate. Raising important issues. Figuring out what is wrong. Telling people about it.??Do you have solvers on your team?

The solvers are the ones that show up and say, nervously, “I hope it’s OK, but I did this.”

Or, “I found this nasty issue, but here is what I have done to resolve part of it. Can I get your thoughts on these two options to fix the rest of it?”

When solvers run into an impossible problem they say to themselves, “Man this is screwed up, what is the first thing I am going to fix? What will I propose that will move us forward?”

The reporter is the one that gets to “Man, this is screwed up”, and thinks “I have to come up with the most compelling way to communicate how big of a problem this is so that people will get sufficiently worried about it, and I will get credit for exposing it.”

Reporting vs. Solving – the behaviors


Example: An organization that is chronically late delivering.

The reporter might analyze root causes and talk about lack of definition, poor test plans, poor communication, lack of accountability. All may indeed be real issues, but the reporter will expect someone else to lead and to act.

The solver will think through what actions might actually help. Even if it won’t solve the whole problem, they will endeavor to at least move something forward.

In the case of something like chronic late delivery a solver might say, “I am going to create a sign-off document that defines what finished looks like. This will help all of us clarify what specific actions must be completed to reach the deadline. It might not solve the whole problem, but it will make things better and we will learn something by doing it.

Another example: Sell higher

If an organization is not selling strategically enough, a reporter might present information about background and revenue and current sales skills, and recommend kicking off further study.

A solver will find someone in another organization inside or outside the company who is an expert and learn from them. They will experiment. They will try a new sales process. They will tune it until they hit on what succeeds. They will propose specific changes to share the learning.

What is your proposal?

You want to send a clear message that being a reporter is not good enough.

In every organization I have ever led or consulted with, I have found that merely responding to every single news report with the question, “What is your proposal?” goes a long way to solving this. Consistently doing this changes the culture and separates the solvers from the reporters.

The people who come back with a proposal will rise in the organization. Next time and forever after, they will start with a proposal.

The people who get annoyed by this and say things like, “I just thought it was important to make you aware of this”, (by the way, even typing this makes me cringe – I can still picture the specific people who regularly said this to me).

These people will never be significant contributors to the success of the business.

What do you think?

Please leave your thoughts in the comment box!

—–
Patty Azzarello is an executive, author, speaker and CEO-advisor. She works with executives where leadership and business challenges meet. Patty has held leadership roles in General Management, Marketing, Software Product Development and Sales, and has been successful in running large and small businesses. She writes at Patty Azzarello’s Business Leadership Blog. You’ll find her on Twitter as @PattyAzzarello. Also, check out her new book Rise…

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5 People Who Can Turn Your Community into a Focused Influence Network

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It More Than What Naturally Occurs

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I sat at Brogan’s Roast earlier this month and the thought struck me how much we depend on each other. No one would question that our friend, Chris, enjoys the friendship of thousands of folks who would stand by him and help whenever he needs it. All you had to do was be there to feel the expanse of love in the room coming from the countless people who are in his massive network of colleagues, friends, coworkers, family and people who consider him their teacher.

Numbers like that can provide a huge pool of energy when you want to help a cause, make something happen, or move an idea across the internet. Certainly that’s true. But knowing a lot of people and even having a lot of people who know you is not the same as having a strategic network. To be strategic, we have to look how we the sort of individuals in our networks into groups. How we sort our networks into groups can support or thwart our goals. Our choices in mentally forming those groups inform our decisions about who we listen to and what we do.

Most people consciously or unconsciously group their community in an outward fashion. If you ask, they can see how the community becomes part of what they do. Who are the people in your community groups?

  • Chris will always have people who are like him, those who aspire to be like them, and those who can’t or won’t ever do the work to get where he is or is going to..
  • Cult leaders see their community as those who spread the message, those who follow the message, those ready to be converted.
  • Builders see their community as those who provide resources and funding, those use the tools, and those who buy and use what they build.
  • Financial analysts see their community in three groups: those who can count and those who can’t. (and the rare group who notices that was only two.)

That sort of grouping naturally occurs in any community group.
It takes more — 5 particular types of people — to turn that community into a focused influence network.

5 People Who Can Turn Your Community into a Powerful Influence Network

Strategy looks at building something with thought and opportunity to strengthen the network and build a well-rounded group. Rather than looking who shows up in an outward fashion. Strategy builds with a plan of action. Strategy chooses five types of people who can provide infrastructure and stability that power the network with information and communication when we want our networks to help that cause, make that something happen, or move that idea across the internet.

Look at successful leaders — people you think of as influencers and people who enjoy repeat success. They’ve gone past community to developed information channels. They have skills at collecting and managing their contacts. They also include five kinds of people in their networks to keep the systems working fluidly and with balance. Can you spot these five in the successful communities you know?

  • Leaders – Leaders exemplify the vision and clearly articulate the mission. In a company or community, they live the brand. Leaders know where we’re going and what to do when the unforeseen appears. Leaders are masters at integrating information into a whole picture and communicating how nuance of a small change might or might not affect an overall plan.
  • Scouts and Guides – Scouts know the terrain that must be covered. They keep an eye on the competitive ground. They understand and translate new territories. They know where the shortest paths can be found. They see the possible opportunities, pitfalls, and possibilities for ambush.
  • Sleuths and Spotters – Sleuths are fascinated by changes that dicrupt and catch fire. They stay close to the competitive edge, monitoring what is becoming popular. They’re first to know that a new tool is gaining traction and the first to try it. More than early-adopters they gather the global intelligence of the group to report on the fever behind the trend.
  • Insighters – Insighters are the perceptive and well-connected people who can give you the inside scoop and insight into how an influencer or decision-maker might view a situation. Their skills are particularly useful when someone’s decision or response to your actions might affect you in significant ways.
  • System Pros – Systems pros know every detail of a particular system and every role that make it work. They ensure fluid, efficient operation and tend to potential breaks before they occur. Systems pros are driven to tweak the system to constantly and consistently meet and exceed the goals of the network to reach out in connection and communication and gather information to improve performance overall.

It takes a focused team to manage the firehouse flow of information that comes at us from every direction. It takes that same kind of focus to deliver on a promise of service that will scale beyond the one Chris Brogan or even that brand team that might want to be everywhere doing everything in the best way we know. The people who celebrated this guy we all admire and love came in many types and play many roles in the community that is Team Brogan. We’d all be wise to find a few of those types to support us too.

If you look in your community, I bet you’ll find that you’ve got a few of them already there. How will you introduce yourself and invite them into your brand?

Be Irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

7 Ways to an Attractive, Authentic Relationship … With Yourself

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About this time each year, new folks discover the energy, the community, and the benefits of being online.
About this time each year, folks who’ve been here often get back that “new blogger feeling.”
And some folks even start looking back at where they’ve been to figure out where they might be going.

I do all of that.

And today finds me thinking of what makes successful and lasting online relationships.
The longer I look it, the more I realize it relies on how well we relate to ourselves.

So rather than talk about how to be visible to people you want to meet, how to attract people who care about what you’re doing, why not take a minute spending time on what it takes for you to get to know you?

Top 7 Ways to an Authentic Relationship … With Yourself

If you read down this list, it’s fairly obvious that the same seven apply to relationships with other people as do to the relationship you might want to build with you. The advantage of taking the time to reflect on these seven and yourself is that knowing who you bring to those other relationships is foundational to forging something valuable and lasting at every turn.

Do you treat yourself as well as you expect yourself to treat other people?
Do you give yourself the respect that you deserve?
Do you keep your promises to yourself and value your input?
All of these will build a better relationship with yourself and with other people.

  1. Show up whole and human. Do you see yourself as a person or a worker? Do you hold yourself up to some superhuman standards? Isn’t it unfair (and maybe a little snobby) to set one standard for yourself and another for everyone around you? Show up for everyone. Give yourself the time — and the you — you would give your best friend.
  2. Talk in your authentic voice. A good part of authenticity is knowing when we’re hiding behind our history. Another good part is seeing and admitting when we’re feeling one thing and saying that we feel something quite different. Choose the authentic kind words that express who you are now and what you are feeling. Know when to share them and when to keep them near you. But trust your “self” and your voice to know the authentic life you’re living.
  3. Tell your own truth.We all grew up with “tape recordings in our heads” that contradict what we know is true about ourselves. Why do we talk as if those are the reality? Stop long enough to gather the skills you’ve built. Reflect for the time it takes to appreciate why you might want to be friends with you. Learn what it is you are uniquely good at doing and don’t be afraid to tell the truth about who you are. The world didn’t hold a meeting to decide only one kind of person can be here.
  4. Have room for folks to tell theirs too. Hear the truth when it hides inside what other folks are saying. Ask until you know, believe, and feel that you’re communicating. Make it easy for them to share what might be weighing on their heads and their hearts with you. What you’ll find by listening to their truth with all of your being is that knowing the their truth deeply enough to understand it won’t hurt you. It opens us up to accept our own humanity.
  5. Don’t try to tie ideas up in a bow. Life doesn’t come in boxes that organize well with single labels. It’s rare that one occasion will summon up only one word or emotion. Enjoy the depth and live the kaliedoscope changes. Each breath of color and dimension adds new meaning that will get shut off and cut off if you try to categorize or define every minute. We aren’t meant to define our lives so completely. We’re meant to live them.
  6. Half the show is in the comments. Now and then take a moment to stop, reflect, and collect your own opinion on who you are without outside influence. Sit with yourself in your personal invisible comment box and have a conversation about who you are and where you’re going. If you don’t like the goals and the destinations, change them. If you don’t like the design of your life, get a new one.
  7. Be helpful, not hypeful. . . . Make everything about them not you. Default to what generates energy. Help yourself by helping other people. It’s not natural for a human to be a hermit. When the dark weather settles around you, reach out to help someone who is facing a far worse climate. Don’t think about how people treat you – those who get it wrong, don’t “get” it. Be your own model of how it should work and enjoy being it.

And when you make that relationship with yourself, you’ll find you’re the kind that attracts other people. They’ll see that you value what you bring and that what you offer is real.

So go ahead, what could be wrong with being someone you like, respect, and want to be with?

Be irresistible.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

See also:
Top 10 Ways to Start Living Your Life

Inside out vs. Outside In: Choosing the Right Approach for Your Online Business

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A Guest Post by
Rahil Muzafar

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Which Is Best for Your Business?

When you are looking to setting up an online business (or any other business for that matter), there are two, totally different approaches that you can choose from, commonly known as “Inside Out” and “Outside In” approach.

Going Inside-Out:

You should know that you are taking the “Inside Out” route when you are trying to build on a business plan that you ‘think’ is profitable. Normally, it’s not a plan that you have laid out after careful research and assessment, but merely an imitation of what other successful businesses are doing. In other words, you try to get hold of a plan, which has worked for someone else, and then try to replicate the exact same model while hoping for the similar success (or should we say, hoping against the hope).

Choosing Outside In:

On the other hand, an online entrepreneur with “Outside In” approach will start from the market, or customers to be more precise. They will start from trying to decipher what exactly the customers want, and then finding a way to bring exactly that product or service on table. Therefore, it wouldn’t be wide off the mark if we say that a business with “Inside out” approach is basically a follower, whilst a successful “Outside in” approach will make you a trendsetter, which is an accomplishment in itself.

However, when we look at all of those new businesses popping up in the cyber world, we will see that more businesses are taking the Inside out approach, whilst very few are daring to opt for the Outside In. But before we disapprove of those businesses, let’s have a well-rounded discussion about the pros and cons of both these approaches.

Finance and Budgeting:

As you can make out from the aforementioned descriptions, Inside out approach is more feasible when it comes to finances and budgeting, for the reason that you can easily go through different “success stories” and choose the one that suits your budget.

On the other hand, Outside In will require a more flexible budget, because your main objective is to fulfill the customers’ need and come up with a product or service that doesn’t fall short of their expectation. In an Inside Out approach, you will be more concerned about your own resources and restricted while taking business decisions, whereas Outside In approach wouldn’t even allow you to start until you have arranged for enough resources that will let you deliver a good enough product.

Risk:

Outside In might come across as the more risky one, but then high profits are always a product of risky ventures. Besides, you are not really shooting in the dark. This approach merely requires you to try and comply with the customers’ demands, so it is far from being a gamble but a well calculated risk, which will eventually pay off.

Convenience:

Inside out approach is clearly the easier route, especially on internet, where replicating a business is fairly simple and doesn’t require much thinking. Lured by this handiness (that later turns out to be a trap), many people invest their time and resources in copying some successful business, which is precisely the reason why we see so many failures in the cyber space. In contrast, outside in requires research, lots of thinking, creativity, and problem solving skills to set the wheels in motion … quite difficult but then long term success is never an easy feat.

Long Term vs. Short Term:

Inside out doesn’t always end as a failure, but even when you’ve achieved something, that is going to be a relatively short term success. You might seize some profits but you will hardly make it big, and as Dale Carneigi once wrote “The surefire boat never gets far from the shore”. Outside In is the approach that promises long term success, mainly because you are required to continuously get back to the customers and adjust your business according to their demands and requirements.

Security:

Inside out businesses are the most vulnerable in the wake of some adversities like recession, or maybe in case of Internet businesses, an update in Google’s algorithm. Outside in businesses are less susceptible because they always have their eyes on the external factors and they are ready to fine tune well in advance of some inevitable change.

Which approach have you seen used most often?

Rahil Muzafar

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This post was contributed by Rahil, who is currently working for sell a Marriott timeshare and cancel wyndham timeshare .

Thanks! Rahil!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Why avoiding conflict avoids success

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by Patty Azzarello

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Clarity Causes Conflict

As I work with management teams who want to successfully execute a change or be more strategic, they often tell me, “This is not a new idea, but we need to make it stick this time”.

I have been thinking a lot about this lately – Why is it so hard to for an organization to do something new?

Here’s the thought: Clarity is the secret sauce for execution. You can’t GO without real clarity. But real clarity reveals conflict, and most people don’t like conflict.

Therefore execution stalls so people can avoid being uncomfortable.

Comfort with conflict

You need to be comfortable with the fact that creating real clarity is going to expose disagreements. It’s going to expose gaps. It’s going to expose things that you need to deal with.

It can be much more comfortable to just leave everything fuzzy so you don’t actually have to address these things. This is one of the key reasons why so many change initiatives fail.

Clarity gives you the trail of bread crumbs to success

Any successful business agenda or initiative needs a tremendous amount of clarity to succeed. First you need to be really clear about the desired outcome. What is expected?

Then:

  • You need to break that big goal down clearly into smaller, concrete parts
  • You need to be clear about who is responsible for each piece
  • You need to be clear about how each piece is resourced
  • You need to be clear about what doing something different in each case means to the old way of doing something
  • You need to be clear about how the roles of specific people change
  • You need to be clear about not only what the new tasks and deliverables are, but what are the new behaviors and values that are expected at each level
  • You need to be clear about how the success of each role will be measured
  • You need to be clear about what the consequences are for not doing the new thing
  • You need to be clear about what will be communicated.


But getting clarity on any one of these points opens the door to conflict.

For example if you say: We need to improve the quality of our products. The priority of the next product release is quality.

That may sound like a clear statement, but…

  • Does that mean that you will hire new people for testing?
  • Does that mean that you will include customer testing earlier in the process?
  • Does that mean that you will measure the performance of the engineers differently? How so?
  • Will you re-rate the priority of all the bugs in the system? Or just some of them? Under what criteria?
  • Does that mean that you will stick to your quality plan when the sales force is clamoring for new features?.

Or if you say: We need to sell higher up in organizations

  • Does that mean that you expect every rep to spend some time on strategic deal making? How much time? Doing what, exactly?
  • How will you engage customers differently? Are people trained to do that? Who will be trained?
  • How will you measure if it is happening? What will you do it if isn’t?
  • Or does that mean that you will split the team into tactical and strategic teams?
  • Will you change the comp plans of the sales team?
  • Will you create new product/solution offers to appeal at a higher level?.

Discussing the answer to all these kinds of questions out loud, with your team, opens the door to conflict.

Once you get really clear, people will not agree.

But that’s the important part.

That means you are doing it right

As I bring teams through this process of getting real clarity, taking the time to hear the opinions and debate, we reach a point where everyone can see what to do differently, specifically.

It becomes clear what everyone needs to do personally to achieve the big goal. Everyone leaves knowing exactly what is expected, and how they will be measured on what they do moving forward.

Being Fuzzy – the comfortable hazard

If you are not clear enough to cause and then work through conflict, I call this being fuzzy. Being fuzzy may be more comfortable in the moment but it causes several problems.

  • Nothing changes.
  • People go back to whatever they were doing before because they clearly know what that is. They don’t know specifically what they need to do, to do the new thing.
  • When the outcome doesn’t happen, you can’t put your finger on what isn’t working, because you never defined exactly what “working” looks like.
  • If people are not performing you can’t do performance management because you haven’t defined the expectations clearly enough to show the gap.
  • If you can’t show the gap, you can’t get people to cross it.

Don’t settle for shallow team pleasantness, or avoid performance management at the expense of getting your business strategy implemented.

As a leader you need to create clarity and navigate through the conflict it causes, if you want to get anything important done.

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Patty Azzarello is an executive, author, speaker and CEO-advior. She works with executives where leadership and business challenges meet. Patty has held leadership roles in General Management, Marketing, Software Product Development and Sales, and has been successful in running large and small businesses. She writes at Patty Azzarello’s Business Leadership Blog. You’ll find her on Twitter as @PattyAzzarello. Also, check out her new book Rise…

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A Good-Bye from Terez

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By Terez Howard

Passion, Reason and Success: An Impenetrable Triad

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“If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.” — Benjamin Franklin

In the blogging business, do you think that passion should make your business decisions? Probably not. But should it be the motivating force behind your work? No harm there.

I have a confession to make. I have a passion. That passion has been alive for 5 years. During that time, I’ve read, researched and learned a plethora of information. I’ve hungered for more information and found myself starved. I desired to give people what I had been craving. More information.

I spent a few months writing more than 35,000 words on the topic of black natural hair. I spent April designing a website and compiling all of this information into an organized manner to give other naturals a whisper of the information we yearn for. This whisper will transform into a shout because my passion still burns and will grow.

What does this mean for me?

I’m not going to go into great detail about why I decided to write about natural hair. I’m not going to tell you my personal story with natural hair because I doubt that you care. What I want you to know is that this passion of mine has taken hold of my time and energy. Since I’ve always been one to keep my writing business hours at a part time level, that means letting some things go.

My guest blogging here is one of those things. Jael Strong too will cease guest blogging and focus on pursuing creative writing, her passion.

What does this mean for you?

Maybe nothing.

But, it might make think about evaluating your circumstances, including your work schedule and productivity. Are you working your passion? If you are, are you spending enough time to develop it? Are you spending too much time on it? Are you being reasonable?

Benjamin Franklin put it so well. “If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins.”

Please be honest with yourself. There’s no sense in lying to yourself.

As for me, if you’re interested in the natural hair scene, you will see me around.

If not, know that I’m very grateful to have been here. Thank you, Liz, for the opportunity to know you and learn from your great wisdom. Thank you, readers, for checking in, commenting, tweeting and driving me to success.

And yes, I do think I’m successful, even though I’ve just recently started this endeavor.

I believe in what Pablo Picasso once said, “Action is the foundational key to all success.”

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Terez Howard operates TheWriteBloggers, a professional blogging service which builds clients’ authority status and net visibility. She has written informative pieces for newspapers, online magazines and blogs, both big and small. She regularly blogs at Freelance Writing Mamas. You’ll find her on Twitter @thewriteblogger.

Thanks, Terez, for sharing yourself and your insights on my blog!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!