Be Different or be dead

September 17, 2018

How to use overkill to beat your competitors and win

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How to use overkill to beat your competitors and win.

“More than what is needed. In gross excess of what is reasonably expected. An excess of something beyond what is required or suitable for a given purpose.” — Definition of overkill

The definition of overkill seems to answer the question of whether there is anything wrong with it. It implies that to solve a problem with a solution that is more than is required is wrong — is inappropriate.

Of course the definition is silent on what is excess and more to the point, who gets to decide on what the “reasonably expected” solution is.

Overkill takes a bad rap

It suggests that:
— going above and beyond what is required is wrong
— creating an enormous solution to a simple problem is wrong
— thinking in volume rather than increments is unproductive
— appropriate solutions do only what is required and no more
— to do anything in excess is essentially a squandering of resources; wasting time and money
— extremes are to be judged with suspicion
— being excessive as an individual is an undesirable trait; if you’re not spot on with what everyone expects, you’re weird and are to be avoided

Excess is awesome

Hogwash! I love the concept of excess. It makes sense. It should be respected. It has immense rewards to people and organizations.

Excess is the notion that organizations need to apply in order to stand apart from their competitors and gain long term competitiveness. And it’s a concept that should be employed by people wanting to enrich their careers and lives.

As consumers though, we face a business environment where excess isn’t employed but deficiency — by minimalist organizations — is.
We call our airline or financial institution and we wait in the call queue for 20-30 minutes for a service rep to take our call.

We relentlessly search the floor of our favourite retail store to find a clerk that can help us.
And we waste much of our precious time wandering around the voice answering system of the businesses we engage with trying to talk to the right person.

Technology isn’t the answer

Self serve technologies are being introduced to try and shift demand away from people intensive activities in an effort to solve this problem as well as to reduce operating costs.

But they won’t solve the entire problem. In fact many technology intensive companies offer sophisticated self serve applications to their customers but there still is a huge wait problem on their traditional people-based queues.

It seems that despite attempts to substitute higher cost people based processes with technology, consumers are slow to adapt and accept self serve. And the situation is exacerbated by the fact that it is virtually impossible to create self serve algorithms that define the variety of questions people have when they engage with an organization.

When rising consumer expectations for more and better treatment meet the organizational minimalist mentality, something has to give.

Smart organizations will accept that unless they get on the overkill train their performance and long term profitability is at risk. Consumers will naturally gravitate to those that provide MORE — not less — of what they want. They don’t care that a company may have a cost problem. They expect leadership to go figure it out!

As an aside, organizations that can’t deliver excess service and still have attractive margins are not giving their customers strong enough reasons to do business with them.

The minimalist attitude must go

These 5 actions will give your journey to move from minimalist to overkill a kick start:

1. Leadership — Recruit overkill leaders. Change starts with new decision makers; don’t expect a right angle turn to happen with the leadership team that sponsored a ‘do less’ culture.

Appoint new leaders in those areas where excess thinking is required; be guided by customer feedback. With this action it won’t take long to send the message that the winds of change are coming.

2. Customers — Gather customer feedback on your self serve applications. Are they being used? Do they meet customer expectations? This information is invaluable for setting priorities for operations areas where change is immediately required — must do’s — as opposed to action that can be taken later when resources permit.

3. Technology — Shift some technology spending to more people centric functions as a way to fund new initiatives. Ideally you want to avoid adding cost to fund excess activity; if you are able to shift expenses from one bucket to another it’s a zero sum game with no impact on operating profits.

4. Best in class — Benchmark overkill organizations to see how others apply excess thinking. Don’t merely copy the best organization; look for opportunities to go beyond them and establish some strategic advantage. Use your customer feedback as a guide.

5. Profitability — Be prepared to take a possible short term earnings hit. Going excess may require additional funds to make it happen even if you are successful in shifting budgets from technology to people. Consider this the ante that needs to be paid now for gains tomorrow.

Overkill isn’t a negative. People who claim it is are proclaimed advocates of tradition and the status quo. Why listen to them?

Overkill is a secret ingredient to securing loyal customers and long term competitive advantage.

Funny how a ‘kill’ concept can be a key to survival.

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

• Posted 9.17.18 at 02:18 am by Roy Osing
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August 27, 2018

Why an amazing marriage over 50 years can predict business and career success

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Why an amazing marriage over 50 years can predict business and career success.

Recently my wife and I celebrated 50 years of marriage and close to 60 years of hanging out together. Pretty rare, right?

Let’s face it, maintaining long term relationships and finishing what you started are formidable feats and challenging to say the least particularly in today’s world of uncertainty and unpredictability that cause immense stress and strain on people.

I have learned that there is a great deal of commonality between maintaining a healthy “productive” relationship for over a half century and achieving success whether it be in a career or business.

What works to develop person-to-person sustainability tends to be an accurate predictor of what will work in any environment where building strong relationships is critical.

These are my top 5 takeaways:

1. Success requires an all-in attitude

If you’re not in it mentally for the duration you’re not likely going to be able to endure the struggles of the journey.
If you don’t start out with the sole purpose of giving it everything you’ve got to make the relationship work despite the odds, then it probably won’t.

My observation is that many partnership casualties result from giving up when the going gets tough; when the energy required to make it work is more than what people are prepared to invest — they don’t see that the return is worth it
To be successful in anything dictates that you can’t be sorta in. If you’re not 100% committed nothing remarkable happens and your goal alludes you.

You either take on the challenge with the sole purpose of achieving what you stepped up to or you don’t.
A journey with a half baked or casual commitment never gets completed; being in for 50% doesn’t cut it. It’s too easy to walk away. And it leaves casualties behind.

2. The most workable way forward is never a binary choice

Nothing is black or white. There isn’t a formula that says if you do this you will have a successful relationship and if you do something else you won’t (one of the reasons I never listened to the relationship “experts”).
What works for one relationship does not mean it will necessarily work for another. And what works for one person will not necessarily work for another.

Success is rather characterized by shades of grey that blends the needs of a broader audience and a broader purpose. Meaningful progress requires a compromise of minds to yield a variety of perspectives and opinions.
Failure to compromise and appreciate the needs of more than oneself normally results in dysfunctional relationships, minimal progress and eventual failure.

3. Imperfection must be embraced

As I have witnessed in my own life, there is no such thing as a perfect partnership (and I must confess I don’t understand who ultimately is the author of perfection); it is often laced with the extremes of euphoria and sorrow.
And it certainly doesn’t follow any textbook theory on what it “should” look like.
Partnerships work because of what the partners say, not on what the textbooks say.

Success in anything is based on trying what you think might work and learning whether it does by trying to execute it on the run. It’s not determined by what you THINK will work but rather on whether it DOES when it stands raw naked in the face of real world forces.

It’s a function of the number of imperfect tries you make; the more tries you make the greater the likelihood a winning way forward will be discovered.
In addition, success requires keeping expectations of others real; not expecting them to always precisely live up to a predefined set of expectations.
Amazing results happen when people are allowed to express their “imperfect” individuality and creativity.

4. Heads up and be alert with tingly spider senses for the unexpected

Positive momentum is achieved. Things are stable. Life is good. Then WHAM! Just when you think things are running smoothly, the unexpected hits with vengeance out of left field to set your world on its heals.
A setback on the job, medical issues or family school grades performance descend upon you and threaten you and yours.

We live in a chaotic world where we have little control over much that affects us. So to move forward we must be able to accommodate the occasional body blow that disrupts our original plan and continue to move ahead.

We must be alert to the tipping points that await to lure us to the “dark side” from the shadows to push us off course.

And we must stay nimble and resilient to take a punch and still move forward with our end game in mind.

5. Stay with your mission

Be focused, true and resilient. It’s easy to get distracted and think another goal or purpose is better than the one you are currently pursuing.
Another person looks like an attractive alternative. Another career has a mouth watering pull. Your current business plan doesn’t seem to be working so look elsewhere for a more attractive option.

You might discover a different route to your goal; that’s perfectly ok. But to be enticed off track and throw the baby out with the bath water results in rigour mortise setting in; no decisions are made and no actions are taken.
Be loyal and committed to your destination; find any means to reach it.

A relationship is an amazing teacher for what it takes to be successful in a career, business or any facet of life.

Pay attention to the ones you have.

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

• Posted 8.27.18 at 05:01 am by Roy Osing
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August 9, 2018

What being a mom teaches you about leadership

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You won’t find better leaders than moms. After all, there’s no leadership boot camp quite like rearing a child or children! To affirm just how great moms are, we’ve picked the top 4 things that motherhood imparts about leadership below. The great news is that these are the kinds of qualities which would be valued in any social situation, including the professional workplace.

#1. Sheer and Utter Selflessness

People often stereotype leaders as bossy and self-interested types. Motherhood, though, is the very definition of selfless leading. As a mother, you’ll make decisions every day – probably every 10 minutes – to put the interests of your child before your own. The fourth trip to ballet for the week, cooking dinner every night… you’ll get used to doing things for everybody else before yourself.

This kind of 24/7 service can be exhausting and feels even more like work when it goes thankless – but the ability of a strong mom to persevere and serve in spite of these downsides is a true testament to their character as a selfless leader.

#2. Faking it Till You Make It

Any woman who’s faced motherhood has asked herself the same question: but how will I do it? Maybe you still remember the feeling you had when you first found out you were pregnant – the feeling that kept reminding you just how much of a kid you were yourself, despite being about to usher in a new life to look after.

As your child grows up though, and the need to “act like an adult” becomes ever more pressing, you’ll quickly get your head around one of the most essential of leadership skills: the ability to act in whichever way a particular situation demands, regardless of how you really feel – because this, flexibility, is what parenting demands.

From tough talks to those awkward PTA gatherings, you’ll have to wear a variety of roles each given day. This isn’t a bad thing! Moms just come to appreciate their own adaptability that much more, and to get to know their new talented selves that motherhood has afforded them.


Image source: Unsplash

#3. Seriously Prioritizing Self-Care

When you put others’ needs before your own daily, you’re bound to burn out. No leaders recognize this as quickly as moms do – after all, parenting is an unpaid full-time job with hours of unpredictable overtime: even billionaire CEOs get more hours off!

Moms are smart leaders because they appreciate the importance of self-care and how precious such time is! Whether it’s regular exercise breaks in the fresh air, or taking a lunch-break out to enjoy a bite to eat with fellow grown-up friends, moms appreciate that to best take care of their kids, they need to look after number one.

#4. Neither You – or Your Child – Has to Be the “Best.”

When you take on such a massive a task as parenting a child, you commit to what’s essentially 17 or 18 years of preparing a human for the adult world. As a mom, you’re bound to want to ensure your kid the best future possible – however, being a leader means championing your flock when they win and when they lose.
Material things like sports trophies or academic prizes don’t prove your child’s achievements (and, by extension, your worth as a mom). The real rewards of your parenting journey are the measurable improvements that you help your child to make in their pursuits.

At the most fundamental level, it’s about the kind of person your child becomes, not how good a competitor they are. Moms know that it’s impossible to completely control somebody – least of all a free-willed kid – so they extend all the assistance they can reasonably give and leave the rest up to their son or daughter to work out for themselves. Now that’s the stuff of a true leader.

— Cloe Matheson is a freelance writer from Dunedin, New Zealand who grew up in a very tight-knit family. She is extremely close with her Mum – her greatest role model. You can discover more of Cloe’s work on Tumblr.

• Posted 8.9.18 at 04:11 am by Roy Osing
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August 6, 2018

How a simple grin from someone can ruin your career

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How a simple grin from someone can ruin your career.

You can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig.

A grin is a funny thing; it can kill your career if you are unaware.

I hate grins because I saw the effect they could have on people; in some cases a grin was the cause of a career that never had the opportunity to develop and flourish.

A grin is not a smile; it’s not a grimace. A grin lingers somewhere in between these extremes demonstrating neither joy nor annoyance.

This is the real danger lurking beneath the grin. You never know the real intention behind the grin; is the grinner genuinely happy or displeased in some way.

The grin is a very difficult read.

But it’s consequences can be swift and destructive to the innocent person who incorrectly interprets it.

The grinner has a number of intentions behind their art. Each action they take is a precursor to a clandestine act they intend to play out in the future with their victim.

They use a grin to hide their envy

A colleague looks like they are progressing faster and further. The grin is really a faked expression of good will and well wishes that really means “OMG! that person is on the move and I could be behind. “The “envy grin” is most commonly spotted when the grinner congratulates the person who is promoted or is publicly recognized for some achievement.

They use a grin as a mask

The mask is used to hide their true feelings. It’s a baked on look because they are afraid that their real feelings will show through if they respond honestly. And they don’t want that to happen. The grinner doesn’t want to overtly display negative emotions like disgust, anger and jealousy because others will see them for who they really are; their real agenda will be exposed and their strategy to undermine others will be at risk.

They use a grin to deceive

The grinner uses the weapon to falsify their intentions and lull another person into believing they have the grinner’s full support. That way the grinner is perceived to be a member of the crowd that will stand behind and do to the wall to defend another’s plan or proposal. When a colleague falls victim to the “deception grin”, they focus on gathering support from others and assume the grinner’s loyalty; they let their guard down and provide a sliver of entry for the grinner’s eventual surprise attack.

The favourite ploy of the grinner who has deceived you is to wait for the perfect moment to shoot you down. To put their hand up when you are presenting your proposal to the decision making group and raise a “minor concern” or picky point that just might cause risk for the organization.

They put it forward as well intentioned, in the spirit of achieving the best solution possible, but it is nothing more than an attack meant to discredit.
They want to be seen as the “white knight”; you the pawn.

They use a grin to fake

It’s a classic basketball move. Lean to the left and move to the right. The grinner loves the ploy to lull everyone into thinking they know what they’re all about. What they think and how they will likely act.
Fake grinners never want to be predictable; they see it as a weakness and a window through which others will discover their true motives.

A grinner colleague of mine was a master of this technique. He would declare to one and all that he intended to propose a major capital investment to support marketing — I was CMO at the time and he was VP Technology — and when the time came to play his cards and make the call, he always found some vague reason to not do it. The “fake grin” was his way of displaying support for marketing but doing exactly the opposite.

They use a grin to suck you in

The grinner wants others to believe they are sincere; that they are honest and above reproach. They use the “suck you in grin” to lull people into thinking they are that person. But they’re really driven by narcissism and insincerity. They only care about their own personal needs and wants.

If you get hooked by this grin, you basically won’t believe anything negative that is said about the grinner. You believe their motives are sincere; there must be something else going on that would explain any negative behaviour you witness. In this state they can get away with almost anything and you are unlikely to tag them as harmful to those around them.

My story — “the snake”

“The snake” plagued me for many years of my executive life. He was a classic grinner who used his talent to effectively sideline many talented people only to suddenly appear in a higher more influential position in the organization.

He was a calculated grinner who I believe had a pathological streak. Many times he would shoot me down in an executive meeting and then would appear surprised when I called him on it. One of many examples: as president of our data and internet organization, I needed capital to expand internet service; he would argue against it saying we should place the priority on regulated services — even though outside the executive room he was gushing over developing new innovative internet based services.

And when I called him out on his two faces, he would grin in amazement over my reaction.
My story has a happy ending though. He was eventually discovered for what he was and was unceremoniously terminated — much to his surprise — but unfortunately leaving many casualties in his wake.

Don’t be paranoid when you see a grin, but be aware that it may not be an expression of honesty one way or another. It may be a disguised act of war.

Look for people who wear their hearts on their sleeves; who laugh out loud or scream their displeasure.

At least you will know where these people are coming from.

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

• Posted 8.6.18 at 04:18 am by Roy Osing
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