Monthly Archives: December 2013

Michael Bolton and the Art of Brand Destruction

Humor, ,

Were the Honda Corporation executives prescribed a diet of magic mushrooms? I wonder as I try to determine why they would turn their holiday commercials into a non-stop promotion of the frozen-faced shrieker named Michael Bolton. If I stepped on a cat’s tail I’d produce a similar, but better-quality sound.

honda-happy-honda-days-skis-featuring-michael-bolton-large-9I’d thought we’d get relief after Christmas, but Honda showed no mercy. It forced me to rediscover where the mute button was after years of not needing it. And maybe that is the reason why Honda latched on to this AARP lounge lizard: You simply can’t tune him out if the sound is on. And the impression he makes, while he appears to be passing a kidney stone, is indelible. Try as you might, you can’t make it go away.

I realize some people like his music and this fact reinforces my belief that there is NO accounting for taste. A friend let me know that Bolton once sang with Pavarotti and he was wonderful. And the “he” she was referring to was Bolton. That’s like taking the kid who the dogs don’t even like and tying a pork chop around his neck. All of the sudden dogs of all types find him more appealing.

So what is Bolton gaining for Honda? Buzz, I suppose. I’m talking about him and so are others. But the buzz words it’s producing are all bad: embarrassing, excruciating… I recently checked to see if my ears had an on-off switch. 

I’m sure they’ve researched it, but Bolton just dated the Honda brand, cheapened it, and made it one I would never consider owning. It would be like rewarding someone who entered my living room on a daily basis and mugged me.

[My apologies in advance to the die-hard Bolton fans. Just some humor before the New Year. Have a Happy New Year!]

MBTI and Career Management Interview With Jane Kise

Business, Job Search, , ,

The following is a link to an interview with Dr. Jane Kise on Myers-Briggs and its application to career management. If you know Jane, then this interview is what you would expect. It is both insightful and filled with entertaining stories. You can download the free podcast, or listen to the recording, by clicking on this link.

http://bit.ly/1bzWtyE

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Universal Applications: Stories

Business, Job Search, , ,

Words are power, not knowledge. If knowledge was power, then the most knowledgeable people would be the most powerful, and they aren’t. That is because the knowledge in our heads is not always expressed. Xerox developed a treasure trove of knowledge–the mouse for computers and the Graphical User Interface–and they did nothing with it. But Apple and Microsoft did.

Words have moved nations to war and reconciliation. Martin Luther King did not have the money to buy his way into power. He had no standing army. But his oratory touched the conscience of a nation and he wielded great power.

Words are power and stories make them more powerful. Corporations have figured this out and at Nike, the sporting goods company, all of the senior executives are designated corporate storytellers. Kimberly Clark offers two day seminars in how to develop stories. Proctor and Gamble has hired movie directors to train its executives on how to lead better through telling stories that inspire and connect with their teams.

Stories are a universal application. Well-crafted stories work well in corporations, at parties, during job interviews, you name it. But like most universal applications we fail to give this one its proper due. We might use it during a job interview, be awed by the results it produces, and then never use stories again.

The following is a true story about someone who harnessed the power of stories at work:

There was an employee named Jamie who was somewhat robotic at work. He believed he was at work to get his job done and not make friends. Then, when he went to a new job, he decided he would reach out to people and develop relationships that were less superficial, but after a year he knew his colleagues didn’t much care for him.

One day, at an anniversary celebration, the CEO of the company said, “I’d like everyone to tell us something about themselves, as much or as little as you’d care to share.”

When Jamie’s turn came he told the story of his younger brother, Steven, who had undiagnosed bipolar disorder. At the age of 19, Steven finally reached the point where he could not take his uncontrolled highs and lows and got in a car, drove until he crossed two state lines and ran out of gas, and then shot himself in the head. He drove as far as he could because he did not want his parents to be the ones who found him.

Jamie said that though this experience was extremely painful, it taught him to never take things for granted. And he started to volunteer at suicide prevention organizations as a way to honor his brother.

When he finished his story half the room was weeping, others came by and gave him a hug. His expression of vulnerability had a profound effect on his audience and on him. The once robotic Jamie was immediately humanized. As one worker put it, “All of the sudden Jamie had depth.”

This improved his ability to lead. His direct reports now cared about him and stopped watching the clock, working until needed projects were finished. [1]

The power of words is amplified when they appear in a story. When an application is as universal as this it pays to master it, and then use it throughout your life.

[1] Jamie’s story is adapted from Paul Smith, Lead With a Story: A Guide to Crafting Business Narratives that Captivate, Convince and Inspire (New York, AMACOM, 2012), pp. 83-85.

Universal Applications: Good Questions

Business, Job Search, Problem Solving, , , , , , , ,

question markThere are certain techniques and strategies that are universal in their application. They work in business, in job search, in daily life, and yet we tend to forget about this and take advantage of their versatility.

Something as simple as asking good questions is an example of a universal application. Asking good questions is very different from merely asking questions. For example, I remember interviewing a person for a sales position and she asked if the job would require working over 40 hours a week. That was not a good question. I also remember a salesperson who asked customer after customer if he had some products that he could bid on. No one said yes, because he was asking them to generate a lot of extra work for very little return.

Unlike the above, good questions can have a favorable impact that helps you sell your product, win the job, or improve communications in your daily life, because it is one of life’s universal applications. The above-noted person who was floundering in sales by asking dumb questions soon produced double-digit revenue gains by asking good questions.

I taught him to ask the next customer we were seeing, 3-M, questions to uncover problems they may have been experiencing in the world of packaging. For example, “Are any of your packaging products failing and causing you to quarantine them?” After asking several more questions of this sort the 3-M engineer looked at me and said, “No one’s asked me these questions before.” He then turned to the salesperson and said, “Here is who you need to see.”

Asking good questions can change the way you are perceived by customers, friends, interviewers, everyone. But if it is such a powerful technique, then why don’t we spend more time refining this skill?

Strengths-ImageI was coaching someone who was working in real estate, not enjoying it, and looking to find a job outside of this area. During the coaching process he learned what his strengths were, how to articulate them, how to present his accomplishments in stories, and so on. Suddenly his real estate work became more successful and now he is going to re-engage himself in this area. He did not realize it but he was benefiting from some of the universal applications he had learned during job search.

Before he left I taught him one more, a good question that is itself universal in it application. I told him to start his conversations with potential real estate clients by asking one question, “What are your goals?” Because once he knew their goals he could craft a plan to help them achieve them. It would change their perception of him. He would transition from being a realtor to being a member of their team who was trying to help them achieve their hopes and dreams.

He was excited about using this technique, and then I reminded him of some of the other ones he’d learned in job search and how they applied very powerfully to his world of real estate, because they were universal applications. The next one we covered was stories, which I will cover in the next post.

 

The Disabled and Job Search

Job Search, , , , , , , ,
Job search is tough for the sighted; imagine how much more difficult it is for the blind, or others with disabilities.
Job search is tough for the sighted; imagine how much more difficult it is for the blind, or others with disabilities.

Job search is tough, but for a very large, growing percentage of the population it is even tougher. I am referring to those who have disabilities. About one in five people–a whopping 20%–have disabilities that require some special consideration during work. But as my interview with Kerry Obrist indicates, the extra work required to successfully integrate people with disabilities into their job is more than worth it, because they can be incredibly productive workers. Please click on the following link to download a podcast of this interview, or to play it right now.

http://bit.ly/1kjb16K

Kerry’s own story is quite impressive and interesting. She was thirty years old, working as a school psychologist, when a degenerative disorder made her legally blind. She is now the CEO of a company that assists other companies in integrating the disabled into their work force.

Coaching Notes: Keep Fishing or Cut Bait?

Business, Coaching, , , ,
Problem solving is unlocking the secrets of the maze we are in.
Coaching is problem solving. Your problem solving approach can determine success or failure.

He was over sixty, very hard of hearing, spherical in shape… and LOSING MAJOR CUSTOMERS AND BEING BANNED FROM HOSPITALS. He was the first person I’d met who had been banned from hospitals, and the last person I would have picked to achieve this distinction. For he was kind, friendly, likable…what the heck was happening?

His numbers were never great before I came on board and now they were getting worse. At a company that seemed only to fire convicted felons, I was surprisingly given a green light to fire Joe. He was losing too many large, long-term, influential customers. But I didn’t want to. He was nearing the end of his career and I did not want it to be with me pulling the rug out from under him. So, I had one option. Coach him, make him better.

I have a simple coaching philosophy: Subtract the most egregious behavior, if there is one, and add the most important, missing behavior.

To locate what is missing and what’s needed you must keep quiet, let people do what they normally do, and watch like a hawk. The egregious behavior appeared quickly. A nurse asked a reasonable question and Joe responded, “Do you really think that would be a good idea?” I kept quiet to see where this was going. I thought his belittling response must have been an anomaly since it was so unlike him.

The next day he was asked a question by another nurse and he said, “Now that really doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it?” Now I had a pattern forming and the nurse’s visceral response confirmed I had found the bad behavior that needed to be removed.

After he was made aware of what he was doing, and its impact, he stopped doing it. I never heard of another problem about him.

As for the behavior that needed to be added I chose the most powerful sales technique I know: differentiation. [If you are interested in the subject of differentiation, please click on the following link  http://bit.ly/19jQ9Gy.] I taught him how to do it and–to this day it amazes me–he was an instant master of the technique. The very next day he delivered a differentiation presentation and closed a large piece of business. You could have knocked me over with a feather. Two years later I was delighted to present Joe with the Region Manager of the Year award. As I stated to all present at the awards ceremony, there was no one I was more proud of in the entire company than Joe.

Coaching can be tough for the coach and the person being coached, but there are few career satisfactions greater than turning a person around when everyone, including the coach, believed the company should probably cut bait.