Get It Done

What happens when you create vitality, energy, and buzz in an organization? Well, you are certainly more visible, and you have more of a voice than others.

Your ideas will carry more weight and have more influence on the business. That means you have a better shot at getting other people to rally around your ideas.

Whether it’s calling to check in from a different time zone in the middle of the night, going the extra mile to research an issue, filling in when you are short staffed. Or connecting you to significant others in their network, people will give you more of their discretionary time and energy.

The best of the best will want to work with you, because thoroughbreds like to run with other thoroughbreds. People seek out people who energize them.

That means you have a better shot at putting together project teams that win. Do this enough and BOOM – you will build a reputation as someone the organization can trust with bigger or more important assignments.

Do you bring the same level of energy and passion to the game as those you admire – or envy?

Here are some things to consider if you want to become a “buzz agent” and bring more life to others and infuse more energy into the organization.

Give people a voice. When you create room for people to “weigh in” with their ideas, you value them – even if you disagree with them. When we are valued, we feel more vital to the organization. One of the greatest ways we can energize people is by asking for their insight, listening without distraction, and acting upon what we learn.

Build momentum. Have you ever arrived at the end of an extremely busy day and felt as though you accomplished nothing? We all want to know that we are making a difference. People get energized when they are going somewhere. You can help this along by being action oriented – by creating a sense of urgency.

Break the back of entitlement – banish it from your thinking. Entitlement is grounded in the belief that if I make a sacrifice for you or for the organization – guess what? – you owe me, baby! At some point each of us has to wake up to the fact that society is better served and we are better served when we stop claiming rights that we haven’t earned and step up to the plate of meritocracy.

You stand a much better chance of making a difference when you recognize that you earn your way into more responsibility, more autonomy, higher visibility, bigger jobs, more important roles, and better pay.

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Leaders Strengthen Society

When we’re fortunate enough to come into contact with someone who lives his or her values, we can’t help but feel blessed. Author John Gardner said, “Some people strengthen society just by being the kind of person they are.”

Have you been fortunate to know someone like that in your life? Has there been a manager, coach, parent, or professor you felt blessed to know? Have you worked for or around someone who was a quality person, through and through? Who is that person? How would you describe their long-lasting influence on you?

As a leader, you are what you say, you are what you do. The biggest mistake any leader can make is to talk out of both sides of their mouth, to voice one opinion to one person, but an opposite opinion to another. Remember, words never die. If you can’t follow through, don’t put it out there.

Nobody’s perfect, but when somebody does something wrong or something goes bad, as a leader you need to take the appropriate action. It’s not always easy, but for the sake of the team, organization, and all those involved doing the right thing is a must.

Zero tolerance is extremely important. It’s the foundation that holds everything that is good about a company together. It helps keep your core values intact. Action always speaks louder than words, whether it’s doing what’s right or fixing a situation that went wrong.

Are you facing a challenge right now? Are you waiting for someone to come along and rescue you? Could you figure out how to resolve it, all by yourself? Doing so will not only build your own resourcefulness, it will role-model for your employees and/or children that when we’re in trouble, we should first look to OURSELVES to resolve the situation, instead of standing by, helplessly, wringing our hands.

Charles Schulz, creator of the famed Peanuts cartoon strip, said, “Life is like a ten-speed bike. Most of us have gears we never use.” As Al pointed out, leaders don’t shirk challenges, they welcome them. Vow to yourself that you will gear-up and face your next challenge head-on. You will probably discover, as Al did, that when you do, you will discover you have resources you never knew existed.

The attitude of leadership transcends titles, positions, race or gender. There is no special difference between the attitudes required to lead a company, organization, or individual.

Leadership is leadership.

Taking the lead and keeping it, however, will require you to embrace an attitude of love , and an attitude of continuous improvement. It requires change, and change produces growth, but as Dr. Dollar quotes often, “Change is not change until you change.”

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Branding Unbound

If you’re in marketing, advertising, or branding, consider this: While it used to take three television spots for a product to register with its intended audience, it can now take as many as seventy. Are people simply tuning out marketing messages?

No. They’re simply choosing which messages to tune in. Thanks to wireless technology, customers now have the luxury of responding (or not responding) to advertising when, where, and however they like.

Leading companies such as Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Kellogg’s, MTV, Procter & Gamble, and others are already reaching millions of customers, one at a time, wirelessly. The technology gives these companies an unprecedented view of buying patterns, and the ability to identify and market specifically to the most likely customers.

In the wireless marketing era, your brand can enjoy whole new levels of differentiation and customer recognition, while consumers benefit from on-the-spot convenience and a message individually tailored to their needs. Branding Unbound shows just how to harness the virtually limitless power of this amazing convergence of advanced technology and progressive business strategy to create the truly remarkable experience that will keep customers’ attention and win their loyalty.

This book reveals how your business can emulate some of the most powerful and successful branding strategies in the world.

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Who is Anywhere Today?

To help clarify each of these distinct consumer segments, we’ve named the five groups to create intuitive impressions of each segment and how to reach it.

1. Analogs

In this revolution, the best way to describe them is to say that they are uninterested in digital technology. Analogs cannot even be called slow followers of our Anywhere trend, since they make the choice to avoid advanced technology altogether. Much of their reluctance may be the result of age; the Analogs are, in terms of average age, the oldest segment.

2. Technophytes

This is a group of consumers who aspire to be considered cutting edge when it comes to technology. In reality, though, they are late followers of digital media and connected devices. Why? Because while they are interested in these technologies, they don’t have the disposable income available to buy them until there are mature and more affordable. Technophytes want their Anywhere connections; they just can’t afford them until they are mainstream.

3. Digital Shut-ins

This is the group of consumers who have a great interest in digital media in their own homes, but less so when they are away from home. While these consumers enthusiastically embrace digital media, they aren’t as aggressive in adopting connected devices. Educating this segment remains important because Shut-ins often fail to equip their devices, such as HDTV, with all the services they support, like HD channel programming from their providers.

4. Outlet Jockeys

Along with consumers in our final segment, Outlet Jockeys own the latest and greatest portable devices and thirst for more of them. These mobile consumers enjoy cutting-edge portable applications as well as using their hand sets to e-mail, instant message, and engage in social networking.

5. Actualized Anywheres

Actualized Anywheres may be the smallest segment, comprising only 5 percent of the population in North America and Western Europe, but they are the most important. They enthusiastically buy Anywhere products and services for their mobile lifestyles, and, unlike Outlet Jockeys, they apply those devices and services at home. Actualized Anywheres bring the concept of a ubiquitously connected consumer to life.

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Tools to Keep Tabs on Competitors

On the flip side, it is easier than ever to track how your competition is doing on the Web if you know what you are doing. Here are seven different ways you can track yourself relative to your competitors:

1. Website Grade – Go to WebsiteGrader.com and run your website alongside your competitors’ web sites to see how well you do. Pay special attention to upstart competitors who might be more focused on leveraging the Web than some of the more traditional players.

2. Delicious – Delicious.com is an online version of someone’s browser bookmarks, so if many people have your site bookmarked, it means you have remarkable content. If your competitors’ bookmarks grow rapidly, it means the marketplace is starting to respond to something they are saying or doing.

3. Inbound Links – An increase in the number of links to a site can indicate that a competitor is getting more traction with its products.

4. TwitterGrade – Go to Twitter.Grader.com and run your company’s Twitter profile through and compare it to each competitor. You should track this metric over time.

5. Facebook Fans – Go to Facebook.com and see the number of fans your company’s web site has relative to your competitor’s web site. You will have to search around to find the company page in facebook. This number is worth tracking over time – if your competitor starts to gain a lot of fans, then it means their customer loyalty is increasing.

6. Compete – Go to Compete.com and compare their estimate of the traffic your site is getting versus your competitors.

7. Buzz – Go to Google and do a search on “your brand” and look at the number of results in the upper right hand corner. Do the same for each of your competitors. The number of results shows the number of pages on the Web where the brand is mentioned. This metric is worth tracking over time as it will let you know how your “buzz” is relative to your competitors’. You can do the same thing in blogsearch.google to see how your buzz is going relative to your competitors in the blogosphere.

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So You Have Talent. Now What?

New York Times best-selling author Dr. John C. Maxwell has a message for you, and for today’s corporate culture fixated on talent above all else: TALENT IS NEVER ENOUGH.

People everywhere are proving him right. Read the headlines, watch the highlights, or just step out your front door.

Some talented people reach their full potential, while others self-destruct or remain trapped in mediocrity. What makes the difference?

Maxwell, the go-to guru for business professionals across the globe, insists that the choices people make – not merely the skills they inherit – propel them to greatness. Among other truths, successful people know that:

• Belief lifts your talent.
• Initiative activates your talent.
• Focus directs your talent.
• Preparation positions your talent.
• Practice sharpens your talent.
• Perseverance sustains your talent.
• Character protects your talent… and more!

It’s what you add to your talent that makes the greatest difference. With authentic examples and time-tested wisdom, Maxwell shares attributes you need to maximize your potential and live the life of your dreams.

You can have talent alone and fall short of your potential. Or you can have talent plus, and really stand out.

When I Get To The Top, Then I'll Learn To Lead

Leadership is very similar. If you want to succeed, you need to learn as much as you can about leadership before you have a leadership position.

Good leadership is learned in the trenches. Leading as well as they can wherever they are is what prepares leaders for more and greater responsibility.

Becoming a good leader is a lifelong learning process. If you don’t try out your leadership skills and decision-making process when the stakes are small and the risks are low, you’re likely to get into trouble at higher levels when the cost of mistakes is high, the impact is far reaching, and the exposure is greater.

Mistakes made when you’re at the top cost the organization greatly, and they damage a leader’s credibility.

How do you become the person you desire to be? You start now to adopt the thinking, learn the skills, and develop the habits of the person you wish to be.

It’s a mistake to daydream about “one day when you’ll be on top” instead of handling today so that it prepares you for tomorrow. As Hall of Fame basketball coach John Wooden said, “When opportunity comes, it’s too late to prepare.”

If you want to be a successful leader, learn to lead before you have a leadership position.

A position gives you a chance. It gives you the opportunity to try out your leadership. It asks people to give you the benefit of the doubt for a while.

But given some time, you will earn your level of influence – for better or worse. Good leaders will gain in influence beyond their stated position.

Bad leaders will shrink their influence down so that it is actually less than what originally came with the position. Remember, a position doesn’t make a leader, but a leader can make the position.

To think that life “at the top” is easier to think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Being at the top has its won set of problems and challenges.

In leadership – no matter where you are in an organization – the bottom line is always influence.

You do not need to be the top dog to make a difference. Leadership is not meant to be an all-or-nothing proposition.

If being someplace other than the top has caused you great frustration, please don’t throw in the towel. Why? Because you can make an impact from wherever you are in an organization, even if you face additional obstacles.

Being a leader stuck in the middle brings many challenges. You can learn to navigate them.

Becoming an effective 360-Degree Leader requires principles and skills to lead the people above, beside, and below you in the organization. You can learn them.

Individuals can become better leaders wherever they are. Improve your leadership, and you can impact your organization. You can change people’s lives.

You can be someone who adds value. You can learn to influence people at every level of the organization – even if you never get to the top. By helping others, you can help yourself.


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