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Boring Or Soaring? Great Performers!
BORING OR SOARING? GREAT PERFORMERS! by Mike Manes IMMS Consultant Mike Manes strives to facilitate change, communication, learning, and positive results. To that end, Manes has written this powerful, substantial document that will help you build your skills and achieve your goals. PREFACE You’re a leader. You own or manage a business. You’re responsible for results success. Your role is multifaceted visionary, organizational architect, environmental engineer, coach, and cheerleader. You love what you do and you’re great at it. Unfortunately today you’re in a funk sad, frustrated, and confused. Usually you’re the bright light on dark days in your organization, but today you feel blue. You can remember the enthusiasm of your first day on the job the dreams, the passion, the hope, and the energy. Today you’ve discovered that you’re an administrator. The system is now managing you; you’re not leading it. You’re the head of a bureaucracy. You’d promised yourself you’d never let this happen. Why? What went wrong? What can be done to bring the fire back to your belly? More importantly, how can you transform your bureaucracy into an entrepreneurial venture? Reflect for a few moments. Rewind your personal life history. Go back to yesterday. Yesterday. You remember. You were too excited to sleep. Today’s the day the circus! You, your sister, your mom, and dad are going to the circus. You can remember the tent. It was huge. The smell of popcorn, the taste of cotton candy, the sounds the crowd, the animals, the clowns. The sawdust under your feet enhanced your experience. In the language of your youth, it was “cool.” Today you realize it was, in contemporary terms, the ultimate multisensory experience. Your heart was beating so fast! You’re in the bleachers when you hear, “Ladies and gentlemen and children of all ages, look to the center ring and focus your eyes to the top of the tent. On the high wire the greatest with no net “Your mouth was wide open; your eyes were even wider. You don’t remember breathing. She made it. No net! It was the most exciting thing you’d ever seen. You’ll never forget it. This was the greatest show on earth, and she was the greatest performer. You loved your parents. Your mom was a teacher. Dad was a carpenter. You knew what they did. It was boring! You’d watched your friends’ parents the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker. They were doctors, lawyers, and Indian chiefs. They were boring. You vowed that day to join the circus. This is what would make your heart beat fast. You never wanted to be boring. You shared your dream of a life under the big tent with your parents they laughed. You knew your life would be spent soaring, not boring! Fast forward to today. Today. On the way to work you passed the circus. They were raising the tent. You flashed back to yesterday. Now you’re at your office only to realize that you’ve settled in. Worse than not joining the circus, you’ve become your parents. You’re as boring as they were. You know you’re successful; you own the business (or you’re running it). You can remember the day you started the business (or the day you took it over). It was so exciting. Although you weren’t in the circus, you were operating without a net. What happened? Why? You rock back in your chair and remember the enthusiasm of your youth. You close your eyes. You’re on the tightrope; you’re balanced. You hear the crowd but can’t look down. You can’t lose focus on your goal: the landing at the end of the wire. The sounds, the sights, the smells, the lights, the energy! This is your second chance. You’re not working; you’re performing! Today you promise yourself that you’ll soar. Never again will you settle. No more boring only soaring! The door and your eyes open simultaneously. You rock forward in your chair and stare at your assistant. “Are you OK?” she asks. “I’m fine, I’m fine!” you respond. You realize your heart is beating fast for a good reason. Frustration has accelerated its pace in the recent past, but this is positive. This is great. Now the only question is, How? Tomorrow. No, you’re not selling the company or quitting your job. But you’ve committed to creating the greatest show on your Earth. You’re going to convert your team into great performers. You’re going to breathe life into this “dinosaur” that you call your organization. Don’t take this personally. Yours might be an excellent company, but that won’t help you tomorrow. The world and the marketplace are moving faster than you are. As a committed leader your first role is to define reality. The fact is that your once “lean, mean production machine” has evolved into a bureaucracy too sleepy and self-serving to survive in the fast-moving world of tomorrow. It needs resuscitation. What follows is the process the questions you must answer to become a great performer. HOW HIGH WILL YOU FLY? The first and most important is, “Are you willing and able to change to compete?” The truth about the high wire is that people only pay to see performers who do things they can’t do better themselves. Good performers can walk high above the ground. The great ones work without a net. To continue our tightrope metaphor, consider the possible scenarios: Boring. This is the equivalent of your child’s preschool circus. Your daughter walked across a rope on the ground, and you applauded wildly. She was pleased. Only other moms and dads noticed. Results weren’t even an expectation. In business only results count; efforts are immaterial. If you’re not getting results, you’re losing ground. Boring means you lack the willingness or ability to compete and change. Snoring. The tightrope is actually a parallel beam about two feet above the ground and four inches wide. Though practice was required, success was virtually guaranteed. And there was zero risk. Again parents cheered, and no one else cared. In business this means that you’re holding your own and could probably make it if the competition went away. Unfortunately that’s not going to happen. Even though you’re able to change, willingness is the issue. Soaring. This is the professional high wire artist who will walk any wire, anytime. This person gets paid to perform and is acknowledged as a professional. You’re a professional, with a successful business. You and your team are comfortable. You’ve reached most of your goals. You’ve worked hard. You’re tired. Its time to rest. You’ve built infrastructure the layers of management, policies, and procedures needed to guarantee future success. You’ve got great technology, your staff is technically competent, and you own the market. Your ability is never questioned. However, you’re concerned that some members of your team are reluctant to change to venture beyond their comfort zone. The net is an asset that’s creating a liability. You’re afraid the safety net is becoming a hammock. Adoring. This is “best of class”: the person revered by other members of the group, who will outperform any professional and always without a net. Removal of the net ensures excellence. There’s no margin for error. In spite of being No. 1, you wake up scared to death every day. You love the trappings of success, but you’re motivated more by a fear of failure. You’re willing and able to change to the future, as well as change the future. You refuse to get comfortable. You know there’s no net. You need no other motivation. Michael Manes can be reached at Square One Consulting, 8674 Quarters Lake Rd., Suite 10, Baton Rouge, LA 70809, (225) 922-9138, fax (225) 922-9106, e-mail [email protected], or Web site www.squareoneconsulting.com.

Practice Makes Perfect
IMMS Consultant Mike Manes strives to facilitate change, communication, learning, and positive results. To that end, Manes has written this powerful, substantial document. The IMMS Management Center will post it in three installments. Used singly or in combination, these documents will help you build your skills and achieve your goals. The organization, you the leader, and the team will now begin practice. The reason? It’s the price you pay to become a great performer, and someday each of you will be there without a net. Each performer has a specific task that contributes to the whole. The separate tasks complement each other and create synergy — a whole greater than the sum of its parts. The expertise, experience, style, and substance needed in each task is different. The impact of success varies. The reality is, however, that even the simplest task done wrong can create a failure for the entire system. What specific teams do you need? Infrastructure — Administration, IT, Finance, Accounting, Human Resources Relationships — Sales, Marketing Innovation — Research, Development, Communications What specific results do you need from each team? Do the members of each team understand this? Have the team members committed to the plans you developed earlier? Are they passionate about new things? Are you and all of your team members vigilant? Are you certain that no one will consciously or unconsciously try to sabotage the plans in order to protect the status quo? We use turnbuckles to tighten the wire on either end or both ends. These are the monitoring and adjustment processes. Too much tension and the wire could break; too little and we could loose balance and fall. It must be just tight enough. The wire and the turnbuckles aren’t just things; they’re critical processes that you must manage and maintain. On the starting platform is today: the status quo. This is about internal, organizational issues. On the finishing platform is tomorrow — a changing environment — the marketplace you serve. You need tension to balance the wire. Become too aggressive and you’ll stress the systems — demanding more than your team can handle. Become too passive and you’ll fail to challenge and motivate your team to achieve excellence; they won’t be competitive. You can adjust each turnbuckle. The lower the number, the easier the initiative: one is passive, two is moderate, and three is aggressive: Efficiency — a change in the things you do (infrastructure) Effectiveness — a change in the people doing things (relationships) Innovation — doing new things, or old things in new ways (change) You can tighten the wire to a total of four. If you want to be conservative on one side of the wire (a one), you must be aggressive on the other end (a three). As the leader, you must challenge your team and the system, while simultaneously giving them some freedom and control over their destiny. Remember that they’re on the wire and at risk; they need to be involved and committed. Since they’re all at serious risk, trust is critical. THE PROCESS Each unit has specific responsibilities for internal issues (infrastructures) and external issues (relationships, marketing). Each unit must establish a goal to maximize its contribution. Once the units, the leader, and the entire organizational team agree on a desired result the units can begin their practice — their processes. Their first task is to tighten the wire. Be passive on one end and aggressive on the other. Which two results (one internal, one external) do the unit members believe will provide the greatest contribution to the organization and all of its constituencies and stakeholders? Are they within the vision, values, and mission of the organization? Do these complement and supplement the results contributed by other units? Are you utilizing the turnbuckles properly? Did you make it across the wire? If no, what went wrong? Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start over again. If yes, what went right? Were the unit members conscious of the process, or has it become unconscious? Once you know the results and you’ve consistently performed the process to perfection, remove the net! THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW The net is down and you’re halfway across the wire for the first time. The spectators are holding their collective breath. The silence is awe-inspiring. You’ve become unconscious of your competence. You don’t want to be distracted from the flashbacks you’re enjoying. Your mind is racing back and forth — from that first circus of your youth, to that day in your office when you committed never to be boring again. You’ve traded 'snoring' for 'soaring and adoring.' The applause brings you back to reality. You grab the hand awaiting you on the landing platform. You look down and see the crowd standing, wildly acknowledging your accomplishment. You hear the ringmaster say, 'Ladies and gentlemen! Let’s hear it for this great performance!' You built the system by asking questions; you’ve earned the right to answer them! Are you meeting the needs of constituents, stakeholders and your community? Yes Are you making money and having fun? Yes Was it a challenging process? Yes Was it worth the effort? Yes You’ve arrived. You’re the Best of Class. Congratulations!

Corporate Branding: How To Stay Original
Unfortunately, no matter where you look, there's an abundance of communication vehicles suffering from poor design. You'll see billboard signs that are too small to read from even a short distance, newspaper ads with muddied photos, and Web page images so large and out of scale that navigation nightmares seem inevitable. But amateur designers aren't the only ones guilty of miscommunication. Seasoned professionals are also part of the problem. Overdesigned annual reports and brochures can distract the reader so much that important points in the copy are lost or seem to be secondary to the visual aspects of the piece. Corporate identification development involves logos, tag lines, typeface choices, and other subtle communication elements. A focus on identity can build brand awareness for a firm and differentiate its business to key audiences. If done well - think of names like BMW, The Gap, AOL, AT&T, and Nike - identification will play an important role in supporting business growth and future success. Whether you're working with a freelance designer, supervising in-house graphic artists and art directors, or functioning as one yourself, the following guidelines can help you along the way: Watch for red flags. The design should reflect your firm's personality, not the designer's. If you're hiring someone from outside, make sure they ask a lot of questions about your business early on. Original ideas and creativity should be developed after the information-gathering phase. If new hires aren't learning as much about you as they can, beware of how appropriate the final product will be. Know your audience. Brand identity development is for prospects, customers, employees, vendors, affiliates, partners, and everyone else who's part of your business today and tomorrow. Throughout the entire process, don't forget about any of them. And don't be swayed by internal politics, personal views, and less-than-objective involvement by others within your firm. Don't be afraid to change. Have you seen the McDonald's logo lately? Take a closer look at the fast-food giant's current ads and store signage. After opening 20,000 restaurants in 100 countries and selling burgers for more than 50 years, the Golden Arches logo now sports a smile. There's always a time and a place for change. Think 'big picture' about small detail. Whether you're embarking on a corporate identification program, a brand identity initiative, or logo development (for a firm, a division, or a product), the visual image you create must pass the ' big picture' test. Always assume that what you create will appear in a variety of communication vehicles. Never approve the 'look' until you've seen it reproduced in every possible environment. Here's a case in point. A real estate firm created a new logo that used a metallic ink as its signature color. The look received rave reviews when the business card and letterhead were initially proposed. Only after fully committing themselves to the new design did the firm learn that none of the 20 publications in which they regularly advertise uses that particular ink; instead, they substitute various other 'similar' colors. Not only did the firm lose consistency in their branding, but the metallic ink increased their letterhead costs considerably. Use a competitive analysis to gain a competitive advantage. Do your research. Find out who your competition is. Learn what they look like and how they market their products and services. Learn from their mistakes. Then create a unique and compelling look and image for your business based on who you are and what you do. Keep true to what makes you unique. Own your corporate look before someone takes it. Make it a priority to trademark or copyright what is yours, now. Take the necessary steps to make sure you're protected. Illustrator Katherine Walter, doing business since 1978 as Pearl Beach, used a small shell and pearl logo on her business cards, ads, and promotional postcards. In 1998, Mattel, Inc. used the name Pearl Beach Barbie for its 'pool and beach' Barbie. Walter brought a suit against the toy maker, yet despite the similarity of name and 'sandy print with large seashell' logo, a court ruled for Mattel because Walter hadn't trademarked her business name. Pepperidge Farm, which has made gold-colored fish-shaped cheese crackers since 1962, sued Nabisco over trademark dilution and won. Apple Computer wasted no time in filing a lawsuit when personal computer manufacturer EMachines introduced the eOne computer with an iMac-inspired design. Ringling Brothers Circus' trademarked slogan 'The Greatest Show on Earth' was protected and won a court decision when the Utah Division of Travel used the tag line 'Greatest Show' to promote tourism. Support your sales force. Salespeople talk about benefits and confidently outline what's different about their firm's services and products. They're on the road promoting a unique selling proposition, reinforcing a 'we're the only one' statement to customers and prospects. Be sure your corporate identification and accompanying materials and messages are consistently doing the same. Use design to brand your business with your audience's needs in mind. Stay original, dare to be different, and don't lose your focus on who you are and what business you're in.