January 25, 2012

Guest Blog - Frankly Speaking / Do You Have the Guts to Do What it Takes?

Do you Have the Guts to do What it Takes?
What Keeps You up at Night?
Are You Staring at a Blank Canvass?
The Power in Saying Hello

Thanks to Frank Palmer for this fourth selection from the “Weekly Messages” he sends to his team at BBD Canada.

“Do You Have The Guts to Do What It Takes?

Do you have the guts to do what it takes to get ahead, to set yourself apart, to something that scares you, to quit your job, to jump out of a airplane, to speak up, to start your own business…..? 

Have you ever challenged yourself to do something that sets you apart from everything and everyone else? Have you ever stepped out from the rest of the crowd or do you always want to be part of the crowd? 

Choosing to be part of the crowd is OK and it’s respectable because not everyone wishes to stand out. The basic facts are that it’s tough to stand out. It takes a lot of hard work and perseverance to set yourself apart from the crowd.
There’s really not that many people or companies that achieve it or even risk to do it.  There’s a number of reasons for this is, some of them are personal but one of the reasons is that there’s lots of people that want to hold you back and want you to fail. Why? they are too lazy to go for it themselves.
So do you have the guts to stand up and out for what you want for yourself in life or do you find it easier just to succumb and accept what others have in mind for you? I found out that if I always followed the rules I would have been stopped or shut down 100% of the time. I started following the rules and someone higher in rank said no, so I stopped asking for permission.

It’s not that I’m a unreasonable person or a rebel, (well maybe a just a little) it’s just that I believed that I was making the correct decisions for the company overall. What I found out is that some small minded people can’t handle some other peoples decisions that prove to be positive ones.

I found out early in my career that the best way to grow a company is to hire better and smarter people than yourself. But most managers can’t do this! Why? They simply do not have the courage to let others get the glory or praise.

These people are usually self-centred emotionally distraught losers. They have had very few ideas of their own but are jealous of others getting the spotlight with their ideas.
If you have a dream to do or start something, just do it! Don’t have others tell you that you can’t or you might fail. The only person that will be failing is you if you don’t go for it.

Step out of your comfort zone and just go for it!  I promise that you will feel great!

Frank”

Posted 1.25.12 at 05:58 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 23, 2012

11-Questions To Ask a Job Hunter

You are about to interview a candidate for a job with your organization. Doesn’t matter what job.

Here are 11 questions you should ask to determine if he has what it takes to help you build a Unique and Distinctive organization.

1. Tell me about a Project you led where your Execution was brilliant. What did you do to make it so? The words passion, clear vision, shared purpose, recognition and relentless focus on the goal should be sprinkled through his answer.

2. Define Marketing. Make sure his answer contains the following words: Value Creation. Fans. Packages. Personalization. Unique Wants and Desires. Give him the heave-ho if he constantly references Marketing 101 stuff like The 4 P’s and customer needs.
3. Define Leadership. Listen for the concept of “Serving People”. If you don’t hear it, wave to him as he leaves your office.

4. How much CRAP have you eliminated in your previous jobs? If he doesn’t understand the question, you could be looking at a good candidate for someone else.

5. Do you like Human Beings? Watch for a confused look on his face like he knows it’s a trick question but doesn’t know where you are leading him.

6. Tell me a Story that would prove that you DO love Humans He will either leave you cold with his answer or he will give you goosebumps. If he gives you goosebumps you have a winner.

7. Have you ever developed a Service Strategy? What did it say? Listen for words like Experience, Memories, WOW and Dazzling.

8. Define Sales. If he says anything that resembles the Flogging notion AND if he doesn’t talk about building deep relationships, throw him out!

9. Have you ever worked for a company that had Dumb Rules - Rules or Policies that made no sense to customers? If he says “no” he’s lying. What did you do to help eliminate them? If he doesn’t say he was instrumental in changing them stop the Interview. It’s over.

10. What would he do to help you make your organization Remarkable, Unique, Distinctive and Gaspworthy? Look for stuff done to serve customers. Ignore technology answers.

11. How are YOU DiFFERENT from anyone else? What makes you special? If he can’t define how HE stands out from the Herd, what makes you think he will be able to so it for your organization?.
Anyone who gives thoughtful answers to these questions is a keeper. Send the others packing.

P.S. Notice there are no questions on education. Formal learning credentials are irrelevant. Table- stakes really. Earns you the right to have the interview. Value to an organization is MUCH more.

Cheers,
Roy
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Posted 1.23.12 at 05:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 18, 2012

Guest Blog - Frankly Speaking / What Keeps You up at Night?

What Keeps You up at Night?
Are You Staring at a Blank Canvass?
The Power in Saying Hello

This is the third “Weekly Message” from Frank Palmer , Chairman and CEO of DDB Canada. 

“I’m absolutely sure that the answer to this question is very different for all of you. It’s usually a question that’s asked in a interview with a highly accomplished or talented person. The interviewer I’m guessing is that they believe that these business people or movie stars have all the answers we are all searching for or wanting to know? For me I’m always interested in hearing the answers from both business people and individuals. If I was front of a judge and asked under oath I’d have to be truthful with my personal and business answers. When the judge asked: “What keeps me up at night?” Thinking that I will end up living under a bridge in a cardboard box, broke!  I believe that all of us are only two mistakes away from poverty.
In other words, what worries you about your career or your personal life is very different from the next person. 

What worries me and keeps me up at night in business is different than it is in my personal life. But somehow they are both connected. In my career at the agency I’ve always worried about a vast number of things. I worry about losing accounts, I worry that we didn’t get our work in front of the right people who make the final decision.  I worry about not having enough interesting business or career opportunities for our people for their career growth. I worry about why there isn’t enough brave clients that will take a small risk in going with our strategy and creative recommendations. I worry that I failed to deliver the closing lines in a new business presentation that might have made a difference.
I’m sure that each of your have your own anxieties that cause you loss of sleep. I think that the answer to the advertising agency question of “what keeps you up at night?” for the most of us are:  Why didn’t they hire us? Why don’t they like me or us? Why don’t they see our point of view? Or simply, “Why don’t they love us?”
 
I read in a article a super answer to the question of “What keeps you up at night.”  “It was not wanting to die with their music locked up inside them”. Isn’t that a great answer?  It was about people who have a tremendous talent or gift yet allowed it to remain locked safely inside them and they remain locked in a miserable job. They are desperate to escape but can’t make the first step.

I believe that the questions above are the ones that we ask ourselves the most! When we win a new account the client sees something in us that they must have. Our excitement, our passion and our commitment to perform for them shows.  Isn’t our job is to get our clients more sales results through the best sales and marketing strategy’s and creative execution that excites the consumer to purchase their services or products?

Of course it is. When we win they have seen wonder in our eyes and actions. What keeps me up at night is not seeing us win enough and the potential client missing something that I know that we all have.
Frank”

Posted 1.18.12 at 05:44 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)

January 16, 2012

3 Ways to “Bloody-Up” Your Plan

6 Mistakes Business Start-ups Make
Guest Blog - Frankly Speaking / The Power in Saying Hello.
3 Ways To Be An Un-Perfectionist

Your Strategic Plan document is NOT to look pretty. Pristine. Like the pages have been bleached and ironed. Like you haven’t looked at it since it was created. Probably a year ago.

Rather, the document should look like it has been used. Used a lot. To record what you have learned while trying to execute your Strategy.

How to make your Plan an Execution Learning Guide?

1. Record Results Constantly. As you implement your strategy, what worked? What didn’t? Why? Write it down: in RED if the outcome was NOT on Plan; in BLACK if things worked out as planned. Clarify the implications of falling short of your objectives so you can take corrective action. Evaluate what worked well with reasons so it can be repeated.

2. Work in the document Daily. Refer to your Plan everyday. Make a point of commenting on some aspect of it. Study your notes. Call a meeting with colleagues to problem solve an important matter.

3. Shout out the Negatives. Executing any Plan is neither nice nor tidy. It’s a messy business. Progress is extremely Inelegant. People get hurt. They get frustrated. They sometimes get stressed out. That’s the way it is. And it needs to be told that way. People can’t go along that The Plan is going along well and that there are no bumps being encountered. Keep it real and honor those Heroes who been relentless in squeaking out progress in the face of painful odds.

And, after religiously adhering to these 3 tasks you have not messed up the Plan Document - blood stains from paper cuts, coffee stains, dog-eared pages and barely legible notes on every page - THEN it’s clearly of no value to you and you are getting nowhere implementing it.

Get Bloody!

Cheers,
Roy
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Posted 1.16.12 at 05:00 am by Roy Osing | Permalink | Comments (0)