Be Different or be dead

February 12, 2018

7 easy steps to take when you are the new leader

As the new leader, the first 90 days is your “get ready” period when employee fears are assuaged, your values are declared and the picture of the journey you intend to take the organization on is painted for everyone.

It’s a vital time for you to get traction.

Here are some waypoints to guide you.

Be seen

Your office time should be no more than 25-30% of the time you have available. Employee expectations of you are high; they will have trepidations of how well you will fulfill your role.
You have to be on stage; you need to make an appearance. You don’t have to be perfect and have it all figured out. Just show up; be forthright and honest.

Spend a disproportionate amount of time with the frontline

They are the experts on customer service issues, product defects, broken brand promises and systems problems that prevent customers from being delighted with the organization.
Their feedback should guide you in the priorities you set.

Hold as many employee communications sessions as you are able

Make it a HUGE priority. Have a conversation about your leadership plan for the organization. Get feedback; listen and take notes.
“Fingerprint” the values you hold sacred; leave no doubt in anyone’s mind who you are and what you stand for.

Go it alone

This is 90 days in the trenches to reach your own conclusions, not conducting state visits. Leave your entourage with their biases at home. You can’t afford to have them around you.
Empower people to tell you the way it is without existing management being an influencing factor.

Conduct your own informal audit on how your strategy is being executed

Review the current business plan of the organization and conduct your own informal audit on how effectively it is being executed.
Where are the weaknesses? Where is performance lacking? Your leadership will be judged on how well you advance the strategic intent of the organization, so get data that will point you in the right direction.

Analyze how top line revenue is trending

Revenue is a market indicator of how customers value your products and services. Revenue trends tell whether you are growing or declining in customer relevance.
Take the analysis to a detailed level in order to have a firm understanding of opportunities and vulnerabilities.

At the end of the 90-day period, announce your intention to formally review the current business plan of the organization

Base your decision on the feedback you have received from employees and other performance diagnostics you uncovered. Make the business plan review theme a response to what you’ve learned during the 90 days and employee feedback; the challenges THEY have expressed.

As the new leader you will never get your first 90 days back.

Make them count.

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

• Posted 2.12.18 at 02:56 am by Roy Osing
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February 5, 2018

1 proven way your new idea has a chance of success

Source: Pexels

1 proven way your new idea has a chance of success.

Chances are, your new business venture will fail; your brilliant new idea will never see the light of day.

That’s a fact. Over half of all startups don’t make it beyond 5 years if they get off the ground at all.

Think about it. Stew over it. Worry about it and lose sleep over it because this statistic alone should be the motivating fact that drives entrepreneurs to beat the odds of success.

My experience is that most eager young professionals approach the challenge of launching their business the same way; it’s almost like they follow the rulebook as promulgated by the startup ‘experts’ who advocate that they have the magic formula — at a 50% failure rate its hard to conclude that they should be listened to at all!

In addition, many of them have no more than academic training which gives them a theoretical platform but no real practical credentials to prove what they say actually works.

My advice to startup leaders is to find, follow and heed people with practical experience and a proven track record of success rather than a long string of academic accomplishments.

That said, how does the CEO entrepreneur get their idea moving forward and have a fighting chance of survival?

Spend time on these

There are a number of activities they spend their time on.

— finding investors willing to support their idea;

— drumming up interest in the community for their solution to a real problem;

— developing a business plan for their new venture;

— recruiting people with a passion for their idea and the competencies needed to get to market;

— creating a value proposition for their idea and product that is unique and different from other solutions in the market and that answers the question “Why should my prospective customers buy my solution as opposed to those being offered by other competitors?”

Each of these startup activities is important but the last one represents THE tipping point in the evolution of any bright idea from a concept to a working revenue generating product.

Unique value claim

And it should be the one that consumes 100% of the startup initial action plan.

The development of an incomparable value claim amongst competitors is the prerequisite to every other action the entrepreneur takes.

For example, investor interest will only be piqued if the new idea is compelling (satisfies a real demonstrated customer need) and materially different than what the competition is doing. If the product value is similar to other offerings why should they be compelled to make an investment?

And a business plan is meaningful only if the new product has been defined complete with demand assumptions given its competitive position in the market.

Success in today’s markets is based on meaningful and real differentiators. Look-a-like solutions either get no traction at all, or they are relegated to commodity status and soon disappear as startup carnage.

Ironically, I find this requisite for success is rarely given the focus and attention it deserves by startup CEO’s. They have a tendency to spray their attention across matters such as raising capital, public awareness, technology development and lead generation without having clearly thought through what makes their solution standout from other competitive offers.

How a new idea is unlike any other in the market is THE critical issue to spend time on. Upfront. BEFORE engaging with investors and potential customers spell out exactly why someone should want the new product and not one of the many other alternatives cluttering the marketplace.

If it is unclear how the new idea stands out, interest will be insipid and startup efforts will be ineffective and costly.

Nothing is more important than investing whatever time and energy it takes to create the ONLY statement for a new idea.

If it is done well success may be the reward; if not, the enterprise will struggle to get traction and will likely join many fellow startups as a statistic for a failed new business venture.

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

• Posted 2.5.18 at 04:33 am by Roy Osing
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January 29, 2018

3 tested ways a leader can give an amazing speech

3 tested ways a leader can give an amazing speech.

Why do some presentations bore you to death and leave you in agonizing pain while others take your breath away and amaze you?

It starts by approaching the task as a marketing challenge. What do your customers expect, and how can you deliver in a way that no one else does?

As a minimum, your audience wants to learn something new and they want to enjoy the learning experience. But if that’s all you do, you satisfy them and no more.

If you want to ‘take their breath away’ you must give ’em what they DON’T expect; that you surprise them and make their experience unforgettable in a way that only you do

There are 3 essential elements of a speech platform that will leave audiences breathless.

1. The content – what you say

— Know your audience and give them compelling and relevant material that they CARE about. Personalize and make it intimate for THEM; if you are merely flogging your boilerplate stuff, you will put them to sleep.

— Lace your flow with surprises along the way; something they don’t expect to hear like your own concepts with language that is edgy and will be remembered.

I use cut the CRAP as a call to eliminate the stuff that was no longer relevant in an organization as opposed to “eliminate non-strategic” activities, and kill dumb rules as a way to reduce the internal rules, policies and procedures in an organization that make no sense to customers.

— Make your material practical; give your audience ideas they can use when they leave your presentation. Avoid devoting all of your time to discussing high level helium-filled concepts that are anchored in theory and impossible to implement easily.

2. The delivery – how you say it

— Be passionate and emotional about what you are sharing with them and keep it extremely informal. This is a performance so lose the platform and podium barricades that separate you from your customers. Design the area so you can get out and walk among the folks; get close to them as you engage with them.

— Tell stories to breathe life into your material, and make it personal to show that you are human, believable and that you can be trusted. Use visual aids; people can’t relate easily to words and numbers. Have fun; they will too. Avoid techno-speak; the experience can’t be memorable if they don’t understand you.

— When in doubt be simple; you may be impressed with your ability to speak in complex terms, but it will turn your audience off. Make a point at your own expense; they will love you for it.

3. The distinction – how you are different

— Study other speakers; have a detailed understanding of how they perform in terms of their approach to content and style. Analyze what they do well and what they fall short on.
But remember, you are not evaluating their approaches with the objective of copying what works for them; your end game is to determine how you can separate yourself from them in some meaningful way.

— Create your ONLY Statement: “I am the only speaker that…” as the way to define how you are different from others who are also trying to command the attention of audiences.

Your only statement will define your speaker brand that you live by. It is critical that you not be mesmerized by the experts on public speaking who all espouse a more academic approach to getting your message across. Following their route merely means that you and the thousands of other speakers will all look alike with little individuality.

Awe-inspiring performers who are memorable to their audiences are different than anyone else in some way and they constantly constantly hone their art

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

• Posted 1.29.18 at 02:47 am by Roy Osing
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January 22, 2018

Why successful leaders change their minds on decisions they make

Source: Pexels

Why successful leaders change their minds on decisions they make.

Some leaders show two faces (and some show many more) when it comes to dealing with a challenging and contentious issue.

They strongly declare and advocate their position to various audiences, but after “selling time” takes its toll with a barrage of dissenting views, they change their mind.

They decide that expending the emotional energy to convince others of their position isn’t worth the effort.

Politicians do it all the time; they switch positions on the run when they learn that their original stance is either unpopular or was ill thought through in the first place.

The many faces of leadership displays acquiescence in its finest form; the end game is not necessarily based on principles the leader is passionately and emotionally invested in, rather the objective is to try and appease as many people possible with the hope that dissent among the masses is minimized and a short term advantage for the leader is gained.

It may be the case that few feathers are ruffled, but the leader achieves little progress as they spend all their time selling, defending and switching their position.

The fallout is that the leader is branded indecisive, weak and one who flits about without landing on anything.

They live in the moment; they have no tomorrow in sight.

Leaders need to be able to flex given the varying circumstances they face during the process of trying to gain support for their idea.

New information that affects the decision taken comes to light

Facts that were unknown when the position was formulated present themselves and cannot be ignored. This could be characterized as insufficient analysis or incomplete study of all the relevant information that should be considered in taking a position.
That said, the intent should not be to lay blame but rather take the new information and integrate it into the decision making process and not dismiss it because “it is too late to incorporate it into the mix”.

Employee feedback is loud and compelling

In terms of implementation challenges as well as uncontemplated impacts on individuals and their lives.
If, for example, frontline employees give the decision a thumbs down in terms of their ability to implement it, pay attention and take a second look. A bold decision which may be theoretically sound but which cannot be executed in the real world must be reconsidered. Always listen to the “warriors” who are in the field who know what is possible and what is not.

‘The unexpected’ rears its ugly head

A random and unpredictable event suddenly occurs, forcing a reconsideration of the direction on the table.  In the uncertain and unpredictable markets organizations face today, there will always be unanticipated factors that make themselves visible and which challenge the wisdom of the original decision. These forces need to be taken seriously and should always create a pause to reassess any declared position.

A decision to tweak the leader’s original position is always the better path to take as opposed to steadfastly sticking to a decision which is at risk given new events that have emerged.

Under circumstances like these, a switch in position may be required.

Strategically schizophrenic leaders change their minds with purpose.

They ‘flex with purpose’ and weave their morphed proposal through the organization with the singular purpose of achieving their intended outcome as best they can given the changes they made to it.

There are many potential routes to a destination despite the forces that prevent it from being achieved the original way it was intended; the standout leader is willing to strategically change HOW they arrive at the prescribed destination.

Mindlessly adhering to a position even though in light of feedback it’s success is highly in doubt, is irresponsible.

On the other hand, progress is not served by a constant stream of reactive tweaks or adjustments that shatter the picture of the journey’s end.

As a leader, pick a destination you believe in and be strategically schizophrenic in seeking the outcome that best suits the conditions of the time.

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

• Posted 1.22.18 at 05:41 am by Roy Osing
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