Be Different or be dead

May 7, 2012

Why a successful career requires your hands to get crazy dirty

Source: Pexels

Why a successful career requires your hands to get crazy dirty.

Succeed.

Achieve your goals. Hit your targets. Nail your objectives.

Achieving anything substantial in my experience is an ugly matter.

Rarely do things go as originally planned. Stuff happens as they say.

The unpredictable rears its head. You have to scramble to get back on track. People sometimes don’t cooperate with you or keep their promises to you. It’s messy.

Achieving anything, really is a dirty affair.

The reality is, though, if you are NOT prepared to get dirty, chances are you won’t reach your desired destination.

What does ‘get dirty’ look like?

▪️ Make fast decisions.

▪️ Have Plan B ready-to-go.

▪️ Embrace imperfection. Live it.

▪️ Do it. Try it. Fix it.

▪️ Work late hours.

▪️ Work outside your comfort zone. If you’re not uncomfortable you are playing it too safe and are likely to be called Mr Clean.

▪️ Bend the rules that prevent you from getting it done. Find someone who will protect your back.

▪️ Do what needs to be done. Forget the job description and formal position responsibilities.

▪️ Eat lots of burgers and fries. Fast food fits your personal situation and you need all the comfy food you can get.

▪️ Make mistakes. Lots of ‘em but make sure you learn something from each and every one of them.

Clean hands typifies someone who conjures up pristine theoretical solutions but has difficulty delivering.

Dirty hands describes the practical person who is prepared to dive into the grunge to deliver.

Want to succeed?

Take a look at your hands.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 5.7.12 at 08:44 am by Roy Osing
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May 5, 2012

3 important priorities to have when you’re out of time

Source: Unsplash

3 important priorities to have when you’re out of time.

There is never enough time to do everything possible.

Successful organizations are brilliant at focusing on the critical few things they need to get done right.

They don’t get caught up chasing possibilities. There are many things you COULD do (are fun and comfortable) but there are usually only a handful of things that really matter to your success.

People can only really do three things well at the same time (ok maybe four but NOT ten).

Here are three things that I have found really matter if you are challenged with limited resources and time:

Rule #1 - BE mindlessly focused on your loyal customers

Know who they are. What they desire. Ask them to get involved in your business. Ask them for advice. Treat them special. Help connect them with each other and with you. NEVER offer a special promotion or deal to try and entice new customers; offer the best deals to your loyal customers first.

Your success is a function of how well you treat people who are loyal to you. Take care of them and they will return the favor.

Rule #2 - BE the ONLY ones who do what you do

If your business doesn’t have an ONLY Statement, you don’t have a competitive position. And you will be indistinguishable from the herd. And you will be invisible. And you won’t attract business. And you will most likely fail and die.

It’s a tough job, but spend whatever time it takes to build your ONLY: “We are the ONLY ones that….”. Pure uniqueness in the market gets rewarded. A member of the faceless herd does not.

Rule #3 - Create VALUE for your fans and be more than a product play

Flogging products is what the herd does. Competing on product features is what they do. Offering discounted prices. Copying best of breed (the best cow is still a cow, right?).

Change the rules of engagement. Break out of the herd. Create stuff that delights people. Leaves them breathless. Excites them. Surprises them. Makes them happy. Honours them.

When you illicit these feelings you have created value for them. Package stuff together with a single value proposition: you’re not in the moving business; you “move lives” and you could bring together many services under that umbrella.

Look for the impact your product has on people. Don’t simply push the technology or narrow features.

Fans, uniqueness and value. All you need when you know time is running out

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 5.5.12 at 09:40 am by Roy Osing
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April 30, 2012

Why my BE DiFFERENT Quiz will know of you’re unmatched among others

Source: Unsplash

Why my BE DiFFERENT Quiz will know of you’re unmatched among others.

There is no silver bullet to being different.

No single thing you can do that will vault you to a relevant and unique value provider. No one act that will bring you into focus and separate you from the competitive herd.

Rather, it’s about doing a lot of the right things. The little things that are really uncommon sense — if it were common sense more organizations would be doing them and they wouldn’t be different.

My work is pretty basic. Simple uncommon sense.

I have discovered and successfully implemented practices that propel an organization to achieve a commanding competitive position in their markets.

My supporters comment how straightforward my work is; it focuses on ground zero tactics that actually work.

ARE YOU DIFFERENT?

What is your IQ on the things that need to be put in place to be different?

Take my BE DiFFERENT quiz to discover what you think you are doing right and where progress needs to be made.

My quiz is an opportunity to sort out where to focus your priority to expedite your progress.

The quiz promotes honesty. Take in a private place where ‘no one is watching’. Be brutal with your answers. Only then will you be able to make productive moves.

Take the quiz with your team. Use the process to build a broader honest view of where you are. And be prepared for team spirit to soar.

Just do it — Begin — Stay focused — Execute — Enjoy the success — Reap the rewards.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 4.30.12 at 10:31 am by Roy Osing
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April 26, 2012

Why a ‘strategy hawk’ is absolutely necessary for leadership

Source: Unsplash

Why a ‘strategy hawk’ is absolutely necessary for leadership.

The true success of any business plan lies not in it’s intent but rather in it’s execution

Give me a strategy that is just about right that I can flawlessly execute over a pristine one that can’t be executed any day.

Execution is forever drawing the short straw; there are entire departments charged with developing strategy; it’s about time execution gets a fair shake.

So who owns execution?

Generally since many functions share in the responsibility to execute the plan it rests with an executive team. But it needs a specific owner.

It needs single finger accountability to ensure that it gets done. Shared responsibility, however noble, is simply not up to the task.

You need a voice for execution — the strategy hawk — in an organization to ride herd on execution.

To monitor progress. To kick ass when things are not proceeding as planned.

Someone who has currency in your organization. Who is tenacious. Who has a high pain tolerance.

Here are 3 reasons you need the hawk:

◾️Your progress towards your strategic goals won’t be as effective without the role.
Execution requires a pusher. No pusher, little progress, as everyone regresses back to business as usual rather than focusing on the new journey.

◾️You will waste tons of money due to mis-aligned activities and false starts.
The hawk ensures synergy among all the projects and activity going on. Keeps everyone on the same page. Dissipated energy is avoided.

◾️Your competitive position will erode as others who choose to have a hawk role will eat your lunch.
Lack of execution precision allows your competitors a window to attack you and win business from you. And they will.

The job description of the hawk looks has these essential elements:

— Follows up on commitments made by people to deliver components of the strategic plan;

— Questions and determines the reasons for any results that fall short of expectations;

— Reports on the status of the execution of the plan to the leadership team;

— Challenges project owners to understand why commitments are missed;

— Pushes for actions that remedy missed execution milestones;

— Encourages, harasses, cajoles and nurtures people on how to fulfil their obligations to the plan;

— Doesn’t accept any other responsibility than the above; there is no higher priority than executing the strategic plan.

Not a role for the faint-of-heart!

Strategies get executed because there is someone with fire in the belly who is constantly in the faces of the deliverers

It doesn’t happen naturally. People are too busy?

Accept this reality and appoint your hawk to ensure your strategy gets executed. Dedicate your hawk to the task.

Give them no other responsibilities. Pay them only on how effectively they perform this role and achieve plan progress.

Pay them handsomely when they succeed. Honour them among their peers.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 4.26.12 at 09:18 am by Roy Osing
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