by Helena Escalante | Accountability, Collaboration, Goals, Growth, Leadership, Mindset, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 44 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Extreme Ownership
— From Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
The ultimate test for a leader is whether the team succeeds or fails. Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, retired U.S. Navy SEALs and experts in building high-performance teams, say that there are only two types of leaders: effective and ineffective.
“Effective leaders lead successful teams that accomplish their mission and win. Ineffective leaders do not.” In our path through leadership, we can all be effective leaders, yet at times, we will be ineffective. Mistakes will be made and things will go wrong. However, as long as we keep in mind the principle of Extreme Ownership, we will be able to move forward along with our team and get another chance at being effective.
The principle behind Extreme Ownership is that “the leader is truly and ultimately responsible for everything… all responsibility for success and failure rests with the leader. The leader must own everything in his or her world.”
While this may be very simple, it certainly is not easy.
As leaders, applying Extreme Ownership requires humility and courage. We must check our ego at the door and always remember that, “it is all about the Team. The sum is far greater than the parts.” Note that team here is loosely defined to suit your particular case: it could be a small business team, a large corporate team, a sports team, a school team, a military team, a non-profit organization, a country, etc.
Extreme Ownership is about responsibility and ultimate accountability. It requires looking at all the details and making sure that everything is covered, checked, communicated, empowered, enabled, etc., for the team to be able to perform at its highest and best.
Team members that see Extreme Ownership in their leaders “emulate Extreme Ownership throughout the chain of command down to the most junior personnel. As a group they try to figure out how to fix their problems –instead of trying to figure out who or what to blame.” There is a sense of camaraderie and joint desire to fulfill the mission the best way possible.
Extreme Ownership, although it sounds wonderful, is not an easy prize. The leader can never take his/her eye off the goal, there is no time for the leader to coast along, and there is never a moment to rest (figuratively speaking).
Here’s an example of what owning everything means:
“When subordinates aren’t doing what they should, leaders that exercise Extreme Ownership cannot blame the subordinates. They must first look in the mirror at themselves. The leader bears full responsibility for explaining the strategic mission, developing the tactics, and securing the training and resources to enable the team to properly and successfully execute.
If an individual on the team is not performing at the level required for the team to succeed, the leader must train and mentor that underperformer. But if the underperformer continually fails to meet standards, then a leader who exercises Extreme Ownership must be loyal to the team and the mission above any individual. If underperformers cannot improve, the leader must make the tough call to terminate them and hire others who can get the job done. It is all on the leader.”
Think about this last sentence for a second: it is all on the leader. Extreme Ownership can feel overwhelming at first. But think again: doesn’t it give you a sense of relief that success is dependent on you and not on an outside factor that is out of your control? By adopting the Extreme Ownership mindset, you already have (or are resourceful enough to find) the resources to win, or pivot, or fix and move forward, or do whatever you need to do to ultimately succeed with your team. This changes everything (at least for me): overwhelm is gone and empowerment reigns supreme.
Cheers to your success in Extreme Ownership!
ACTION
TODAY: Think about the projects that you are working on now. What is going well? What is not? Take Extreme Ownership of your projects and the teams you lead, and focus your energy on figuring out what you need to do today (apply Extreme Pareto!) to equip and empower your team to succeed.
FUTURE: Adopt the Extreme Ownership mindset and combine it with Extreme Pareto. As you move along, determine what is the one thing that you need to be doing right then to move your team forward to succeed.
Know someone who’s leading a team and could benefit from Extreme Ownership? Please share this post with that person via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Celebration, Creativity, Leadership, Mindset, Opportunity, Planning, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes.
TODAY’S IDEA: WOW! All business is personal
— From The Book of WOW: A practical and inspirational guide for driving extreme client loyalty by John L. Evans
We’ve all heard the saying, “life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” (Uncertain author) And this gets compounded if we add the words of writer and Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez, who said, “Life is not what you lived, but what you remember and how you remember, so as to tell it.” *
With this in mind, if you want to surprise your customers or clients with acts of thoughtfulness, that are truly meaningful and memorable, you have to create a “WOW” experience for them. This means the kind of experience that makes the clients go “WOW!” and blows them away because it shows them that you know what they care about.
“The essential premise underlying the WOW concept is that all business is personal.”
By reinforcing the personal aspect in client interactions, you de-commoditize your business and separate yourself from the competition, because “a merely satisfied client is not loyal—a satisfied and emotionally engaged client is.”
To make it personal, first and foremost, the Platinum Rule needs to be applied: “Do unto others as they would want done to them.”
“When doing something extraordinary for your clients, use the talents, resources or connections that are available only to you or through you, whenever possible.” This way you will ensure that the experience becomes memorable, indelible (and not repeatable by your competitors), causing your clients to talk about it to others and to recommend you. That’s why “the best WOWs bounce around—they get shared in the form of enthusiastic retellings [via] positive word-of-mouth.”
WOW moments are as varied and creative as the nature of each business. The openness and attentiveness to recognize when the opportunity arises is in the eye of the beholder. However the one underlying thread is that, to be able to imagineer (blend of imagination + engineering) the best possible WOW moments for your clients, you have to have as much information as you can about them. Get to know them in as much depth as your business will allow.
Also, while the WOW moments or experiences don’t necessarily have to be unique to each client, they do have to feel that way to the recipient. You can always “operationalize, but don’t [ever] DE-personalize.”
Above all, keep in mind that “WOWs don’t have to be complex or worthy of a world record to produce the desired effect. Some are. But most are smaller in scope. When left to accumulate over time, they can end up having an enormous impact.”
ACTION
TODAY: Think of someone who has wowed you during this past week. What did that person do that made you feel special? Now turn it around: who did you wow this week? A client? A loved one? How did you let them know that you care about them? Start imagineering how you can WOW your customers, clients or loved ones with the resources that you have.
FUTURE: Think of ways in which your business can get more info about what makes your clients tick. This will naturally give way to ideas for WOW moments. Make a list of every touch point in your client’s journey to see how you can personalize those interactions. How can you elevate them from the ordinary to the extraordinary and memorable?
Create a WOW moment for your friends and colleagues by sharing this post via email, Facebook and Twitter. Thank you!
* Original quote in Spanish: “La vida no es lo que uno vivió, sino lo que recuerda, y cómo la recuerda para contarla.”
by Helena Escalante | Goals, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Networking, Tools
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 22 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Networking for non-networkers
– From Work It: Secrets for Success from the Boldest Women in Business by Carrie Kerpen
Why does networking evoke such dread? Probably because we picture ourselves in a room full of strangers, eating chicken satay from a stick, and talking about the weather to pass time. Yes, that scenario is absolutely dreadful.
But it doesn’t have to be.
Carrie Kerpen in her book Work It says, “There are different ways to network. Ditch the perception that it’s clunky or awkward and do it in a way that works for you.”
Further, Carrie shares some networking tips from “non-networkers” who have been successful at growing their network in a meaningful and beneficial way for all involved. What these non-networkers have in common is that they were all intentional in terms of the groups that they wanted to belong to or the contacts they wanted to target. However, this involves a disciplined approach: “don’t view networking as a nice-to-have,” but as an indispensable part of your professional career.
“Networking shouldn’t be something you do when you have extra time. It’s something that you have to prioritize.”
If you wait to start building a network when you need one, it’s too late, because relationships take time to nurture and grow. Plan now and plant the seeds for tomorrow.
While online and social media networking are wonderful tools, nothing substitutes for in-person networking when you can. The book mentions a research study on firefighters by Cornell University that showed “that firemen who eat meals together are better at their jobs. It turns out, eating together allowed for more conversation, which led to stronger connections, which led to greater team performance.”
A suggestion then, is to take your networking offline with those connections that you can nurture in person. If time is an issue (as it is for all of us), “dedicate two hours—just two hours in your week—to connecting with people offline. Have coffee, have a chat, go back to the watercooler. You’ll be amazed how much more connected your network actually becomes—your relationships will be stronger, as will your communication skills.”
One last thing that Carrie mentions—which is brilliant—is to invite people at a high level to connect with you (on the basis that they are someone whom you admire and respect, needless to say). Nowadays all your professional crushes have public profiles and are accessible somehow. “When reaching out to someone at a very high level, you want to establish a sincere personal connection and accept that it may or may not work out. By expecting nothing in return, you avoid disappointment and often end up being pleasantly surprised.”
On this last one, I can vouch for its effectiveness and for the most pleasant surprises it brings. Years ago I wanted to attend a conference with a steep high price that I couldn’t afford. I reached out to the organizer, asked if I could volunteer in exchange for a ticket, and not only did I get the ticket and enjoyed the conference, but also by virtue of volunteering I became friends with the conference organizer and his wonderful team, and they invited me back for the following year’s conference. Another time, I learned that one of my favorite thought leaders was going to be speaking at an event. I reached out to him, told him that I was going to attend the event and offered to drive him to the airport afterwards. He agreed. We had a wonderful conversation in the car on the way to the airport, and I became friends with someone whom I deeply admire and respect to this date.
If I could do it, you can too! Networking is best done in a way that fits you and in an environment where you can bring value to your new contacts. That way it becomes a win-win and forges real bonds.
ACTION
TODAY: Think of a goal you want to achieve. Make a list of the people and groups that can help you achieve it. Think of ways you can become involved. Think of ways in which you can offer help. Think of ways you can create value for them. Make an honest assessment of the time that you can devote to this endeavor. Once you’ve thought this through, then reach out to them. Remember that you’ll get out of it as much as you put into it, so be intentional with your time and your involvement, and make it worth your and their while.
BONUS ACTION FOR TODAY: Connect with me via email, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter! I would really love to connect with you, or simply touch base and catch up if we are already connected. I like to think of myself as a resource and would love to provide book recommendations (of course!), or ideas and resources to help you reach your goals. Really looking forward! 🙂
FUTURE: Repeat today’s action for the rest of your goals. Budget your time according to what’s most important to you, making time for both online and offline networking. Schedule the time for networking activities in your calendar and honor those activities.
P.S. – Another tip for great networking is to share valuable content that you think might be of interest to someone. How about sharing this post with friends and colleagues? You can do so via email, Facebook or Twitter. Thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Creativity, Leadership, Marketing, Planning, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 55 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Own a word in the prospect’s mind
— From The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk! by Al Ries and Jack Trout (read a sample or watch an animated video summary of the book).
In The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Ries and Trout say that one of the most powerful concepts in marketing is to “own a word in the prospect’s mind.” Not a complicated one—on the contrary—the simpler, the better. “You ‘burn’ your way into the mind by narrowing the focus to a single word or concept.” This is the idea behind their Law No. 5: The Law of Focus.
“Federal Express put the word overnight into the minds of its prospects because it sacrificed its product line and focused on overnight package delivery only.” You too can put this law to the test by doing a simple word association exercise: what comes to mind when you hear the words “copier, chocolate bar and cola? The [three] most associated words are Xerox, Hershey’s and Coke.”
Owning a word in the prospect’s mind is so strong of a foothold, that the word becomes a generic name—and sometimes even a verb—for the category.
As examples of this, we have Kleenex for facial tissues, Chapstick for lip balm, Post-its for sticky notes, and Google for Internet search. (Here’s a fun list of generic and genericized trademarks that you can use to amuse your friends at your next cocktail party.)
Further, you can solidify your position in the prospect’s mind if you isolate the most important attribute of your product or service. Heinz owns the word ketchup, yet the most important attribute it also owns is slow (“Slowest ketchup in the West”), because it takes very long to slide out. This has generated lots of tips and tricks to be able to get this beloved condiment out of the bottle and onto our food… to the tune of 10+ million results (!) if you Google how to get ketchup out of the bottle. (Did you notice I just used Google as a verb? That’s the Law of Focus at your service.)
As an added bonus, there’s the halo effect that comes with the word you choose. “If you strongly establish one benefit, the prospect is likely to give you a lot of other benefits too. A ‘thicker’ spaghetti sauce [Prego] implies quality, nourishing ingredients, value and so on [so much so, that big brands will go to court to defend their chosen words]. A ‘safer’ car [Volvo] implies better design and engineering.”
Now that you know this, what word will you choose to apply the Law of Focus in your prospect’s mind?
ACTION
TODAY: Think of the words that represent your product or service—or even the words that represent yourself if you are looking at creating a brand for you. Start making a list. Make a second list of the attributes that go with those words. These two lists will take a bit of time to develop, as you want to get the best word to represent you.
FUTURE: Get together with some of you colleagues or friends, and brainwrite to add to the lists that you had started. Besides the dictionary, a book that can help enormously with this is Words That Sell by Rick Bayan, as well as its sequel, More Words That Sell. Then vote on the words and select the one word + attribute that will differentiate you from your competition and position you solidly in your prospect’s mind.
Know someone who needs to find the one word? Please share this post with that person via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Creativity, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Tools
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 6 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Exchange an AND for a BUT to open up possibilities
— From The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life, by Rozamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander.
Let’s assume that you are trying to escape the cold winter and you take a vacation to a nice, warm beach. But once you get there, instead of sunshine, you have non-stop rain. Ugh! What to do?
Whether professionally or personally, when things don’t go as planned, we tend to react either with “hopeless resignation” or “spluttering resistance,” or we get upset somewhere in between that spectrum. Roz and Benjamin Zander suggest, instead, developing the practice of “being present to the way things are, including our feelings about the way things are.”
But what exactly does that mean?
“Being present to the way things are is not the same as accepting things as they are” with utmost resignation and hopelessness. Neither does it mean “you should drown out your negative feelings or pretend you like something you really can’t stand.” Much less that “you should work to achieve some ‘higher plane of existence’ so you can ‘transcend negativity’.”
“It simply means being present without resistance: being present to what is happening and present to your reactions, no matter how intense. And to get this done, merely exchanging an and for a but may do the trick.”
Look at these two ways of seeing the same thing differently:
(1) We are at the beach BUT it’s raining. This isn’t what we planned; it’s very disappointing. BUT, this is the way things are.
In this scenario, we’re stuck at the beach and stuck in our minds too, and we can’t help but resist, protest, complain, and huff and puff.
Now compare it to:
(2) We are at the beach AND it’s raining. This isn’t what we planned; it’s very disappointing. AND, this is the way things are.
In this other scenario, we’re at a rainy beach, yet we are not stuck in our minds, nor is there a need to complain. We let the rain be without resisting and thus, “are now free to turn to the question, ‘What do we want to do from here?’ And then all sorts of pathways begin to appear: the possibility of resting; having the best food… reading or conversation; going to the movies or walking in the rain; or catching the next flight [out].” Exchange an AND for a BUT to open up possibilities.
When things go wrong, or simply not as planned, we can throw a fit, curse our bad luck, or decide to find an easier path with less resistance and struggle. When you come to terms with what’s ahead of you and move on, you start walking down a path filled with possibility.
ACTION
TODAY: What didn’t go as planned? What are you struggling with? What is the story you’re telling yourself? Where can you exchange an AND for a BUT to lower resistance and open up possibility? We submitted a proposal AND didn’t win the contract. Or I needed to talk to my colleague AND he didn’t have time. Or I placed the order AND the shipment did not arrive on time. Remember that there’s no such thing as a shortage of ideas when you look for possibilities after you ask What do we want to do from here?
FUTURE: Take this one step further when you are feeling afraid or challenged. Seth Godin in his book Footprints on the Moon gives this example: “I want to write a new article, BUT I’m afraid,” versus “I want to write a new article, AND I’m afraid.” By acknowledging the fear, you take the first step towards dancing with it, and figuring out the many possibilities of what you want to do next.
Know someone who could use more ANDs and less BUTs? Please share this post with that person via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!
by Helena Escalante | Collaboration, Growth, Habits, Leadership, Mindset, Planning, Resources, Tools
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 50 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Launch a search party for the opportunity
— From Do Over: Rescue Monday, Reinvent Your Work, and Never Get Stuck by Jon Acuff
Change is hard. Change is uncomfortable. Change brings an unknown factor into the equation. Most of us don’t like or accept change easily. Jon Acuff, in his book Do Over, rightly says that “upon being confronted with change, our first reaction is to brainstorm reasons it won’t work: I’m too old. I don’t have enough money. It’s too risky. I’m not qualified enough. Someone has already done that exact same thing. There are worse jobs than the one I currently have…” and the litany of excuses goes on and on.
“For minutes or maybe even lifetimes, we do our best to rally the troops around why we shouldn’t do something. And this tends to be the approach we take for ourselves and even other people.” For example, say that you ask a friend to do something that he really doesn’t want to do. Your request is met with resistance, so what’s the next thing you do? Very likely you’ll find yourself asking, “Why don’t you want to do that?”
As common as that question is, Acuff says it’s the wrong one to ask. He cites the book Instant Influence, by Michael V. Pantalon, PhD, where Pantalon says, “when you ask someone a question like this, you unknowingly invite them to brainstorm new reasons they don’t want to do something. That question is an invitation to sit in the no and work yourself up even more than you were before.” By asking a negative question we use our imagination in a negative way.
This applies to any scenario, personal or professional, from asking your boss why you can’t work from home one day a week, to asking a service provider why they can’t give you a discount to… Ha! Remember when you asked your parents why you couldn’t go to that party or why you couldn’t hang out with that particular group of friends? Now we know why and how they came up with all those reasons at lightning speed!
What should we do about this?
Acuff says the solution is to ask the opposite. “Instead of launching a search party for opposition to an idea, you launch a search party for the opportunity.” In the example above where you encounter resistance from your boss to work from home, ask instead: ‘‘what’s one reason you could see me working from home as possibly a benefit to the company?”
You don’t need lots of reasons. Once you have a good one, you’ve succeeded at establishing a positive foothold in your or the other person’s mind, and you can start to build from there.
ACTION
TODAY: Identify one area or one task where you’ve been asking negative questions. Where have you been building up a reservoir of negative reasons as to why you don’t want to do something? Or where have you given someone the opportunity to nurture reasons why not to do something? Flip that around and launch a search party for the opportunity. What question will you ask yourself or someone else that will shed some positive light in favor of doing something?
FUTURE: Keep this tool handy and make a habit of asking a positive question versus a negative one. Your life and that of the people who surround you will be all the better for it, as there will be less friction and less stress when facing any kind of change.
Do you know someone who is finding a myriad reasons why not to do something? Please share this post with that person via email, Facebook or Twitter!
