Tag Archives: Leadership

There is More Than One Way to Listen

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how-to-be-a-good-listenerHad a very interesting day today, one filled with a number of moments of mentorship.  As a part of all the learning, there was a lot of listening… and most of the listening really wasn’t about the words people were saying.

What someone is saying is only about half of what they are saying:

What’s being said in a conversation is important, don’t get me wrong, but the ability to understand the context of what was happening and the emotion behind each conversation topic is so important.  We were in the midst of solving the world’s problems, you know because that’s totally what we were doing… and there was a moment when a mentor of mine was asked to deliver an explanation of his idea.  Watching him work was a learning moment – initially delivering the information slowly while he taught the room to understand his point of view, then speeding the pace of his speech he began to develop a concept of urgency behind what he was talking about, finally after some back and forth he stopped explaining things in detail and transitioned to a very high level summation of his thoughts.  In the end, it was the high level concept that ended up in the PowerPoint deck.  The learning moment wasn’t how the idea was present with detail and eventually thru conversation was brought down to a simple two sentences… any good business book could tell you to do that… the learning was in the way in which each stage was presented.  When educating speech patterns were slow, eye contact was very focused, and each new sentence of information was followed by a pause to give the opportunity for questions.  As the conversation moved from education to debate, the quicker pace and use of emphasis on certain words really hit home the point of urgency.  I realize these things seem pretty trivial, but a quality presentation combined with the right idea goes a lot further than just a good idea.

The context of what is said, is often more important than what is said:

Later in the day I got a phone call to help with this idea that was going to solve the world’s problems.  Immediately the person on the other side of the phone could identify the stress in my voice. (I realize this now, but not at the time)  Realizing my stress they took a supporting role as the context from which they were speaking.  Calmer speech patterns followed.  The conversation covered the same information it would have no matter the context each of us was talking from, but because of the context the conversation was in we were able to build to a larger plan.  In this scenario, it was me playing the role asking questions and starting ideas and my counterpart of the phone offering answers and presenting new ways to unlock/accomplish the task at hand.  It’s important to understand who you’re talking to in terms of the context of your conversation, it often makes all the difference in productivity and a wasted 30 minutes.

Words are Words are Words… so don’t use so many of them:

Body Language, Pace of Speech, and the Context of a conversation are important… but also are the words you use, especially the amount you use.  If you can’t tell by this and all of my posts, I struggle with the concept of less is more when it comes to my words.  People don’t want to learn every piece of information about a topic, that just shows you “know” something.  People want you to take all that information and summarize it to its most important points, that shows you “understand” something.  Even one step further, when you’re asked a question that clearly should get a response that is one word… just answer in one word.  (This happened like six times today, I promise one day I’ll answer a question “Yes” or “No”.)

Thanks for Listening,

Zach West

 

Parallels of the Industrial and Internet Revolutions

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The two greatest tech booms in recent history have been the Industrial and Internet Revolutions.  While both are amazing stories in their own right, I’d like to focus on a few individuals that have and are defining these periods with almost the same strategies.

Industrial Revolution:  Andrew Carnegie created an empire in Steel.  He started with very little… but over time came to own his own steel company.  While his technology innovations in steel creation helped make his company successful, it was his business sense that made his company into an empire.  As Carnegie’s company became a leader in steel, he began to purchase the mines where his steel company purchased its iron-oar.  Then as he saw another year of record profits he purchased the major railroads that his company used to send its finished steel product around the country.  What Carnegie did was called Vertical Integration, where a company buys out its supply chain to cut its cost and maximize the profits.

Internet Revolution:  Steve Jobs created and empire of access.  Apple under the leadership of Steve Jobs is a perfect example of modern vertical integration.  Apple created the iPod to allow you to listen to all of your music, any where.  Then they created iTunes a place to manage all of your music.  Next came the iTunes Music Store where you could buy all of your music.  This then developed into a larger library of content coupled with bigger and better products such as the iPhone.  All of these offering have evolved into the Apple we know today… a company that has both “vertically and horizontally integrated” the personal electronics experience.  You buy your content through Apple, you buy the product that you consume that content on through Apple, and then to top it off you’re content is part of a “cloud” that rewards you for having multiple products from Apple.

Industrial Revolution:  John D. Rockefeller’s strategy with Standard Oil wasn’t too complicated.  He realized that there was one limited resource that would drive his revolution… OIL.  He grabbed as much of it as he could, creating a position of power in the total revolution.

Internet Revolution:  Mark Zuckerberg had a very simple idea that evolved into Facebook.  (That is all him)  What he realized along the way was something that Rockefeller learned.  Zuckerberg controls by far the most of the one limited resource that drives the internet revolution… TIME.  Mark has a very strong grip on the vast majority of time spent on-line.  As anyone in the internet business can tell you… if you have eye balls on your website you are king.  (also “Time is Money”)

There are more connections than the one’s above… but what I’m most interested in is the aftermath of these periods… what’s next?

Thanks for Listening,

Zach West

Beating the Other Guy – Be First or Don’t Play

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Don’t you just hate losing?

Since joining the “business world”, I’ve noticed there is a big value in beating the other guy.  You just can’t afford to lose.  Whether it’s because your execs understand beating a rival better than your numbers, or just a matter of getting the brand presence to control a new market, you’ll find the winning formula is being different.

Easy Ways to Differentiate

Be first to enter a market – Does it matter if the first store that shows up in your town is a Walmart or a Target?  Well if both of them are able to offer good first customer experiences the first one in town will have a huge advantage.  When you’re second you have to pay more for your first customers than the guys who showed up first.  If Walmart is first, and I go there and it is a good experience… I’ll probably keep going back.  If Target opened up across the street, I’d still go to Walmart unless Target somehow talked me into shopping them.  (Coupons, Grand Opening Sales, Lower Prices, Better Quality…. all these things require communication… which isn’t free.)  Now in a retail situation there are other factors such as location and national brand value… but in a conceptual context (all other things being equal) the store that is first is best because to the customer ignorance is bliss.

Be first to enter an emerging market with a quality product – So who owned an Apple product in 1999?  And who owns one now?  The MP3 player wasn’t a new idea, but one with 20GB of memory was.  Enter the iPod the greatest thing ever invented for music super-listeners. (Those people who actually have 20GB of music that they listen to.)  The memory combined with a clean design and most importantly a very easy to use music management tool was by far the highest quality product in the emerging market of MP3 music.  When you’re the first to do something that is quality, you become the flagship brand of the market.  Since 2000 Apple has continued to follow this strategy of finding the emerging market and building the product that is by far the highest quality customer experience.  (not that I’m in love with Apple but seriously, iPod, iPhone, and iPad are the first real players in their category and are the standards by which others are measured)

Don’t be a copy cat - When you’re the second brand someone hears about doing something… well how do I say this… while you’ll get a good ROI and some form of repeated success… you’ll have also just become the Burger King to someone else’s McDonald’s.  The first brand gets the press and the initial customer praise for the idea.  But only if you copy what that brand does do you give them the most valuable thing they could possibly earn from being first.  When you copy what another brand does, you declare them the winner, the innovator, and the better of the two of you.  Being the only company that does something is cool… but it’s nothing like being the company that customers identify as the innovator who leads your brand category.  Every leader needs a follower, don’t be the follower in the market.

Pick your battles - My mother used to say that to me all the time, but it took reading it in “The Art of War” to realize what it means.  When you get a chance to win big (don’t follow this thinking when gambling) you need to go all in.  When you are first, when you are truly best (listen to learn if you are), and when others are publicly chasing you… that’s when you fight with everything you have.  When you’re the one chasing… don’t waste your resources on it, 3 months later you may need those resources to get something you can lead off the ground.

Now while I know that the above may seem like the same basic lesson over and over again, it is.  Be first if you’re going to be there at all.

Thanks for Listening,

Zach West

I can figure out the point of anything – Leadership from William of Normandy

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“I can figure out the point of anything”

That quote is something I believe many successful leaders have used to push themselves, beyond the “huh?”.  When I was in High School I had a science teacher who used to always say, “you have to get past the ‘huh?’”.  Her point was that intelligence often requires a little bit of stubbornness.  Every question in science, she would point out, eventually got your brain to a point where you would get lost.  (the “huh?”, the moment when you don’t understand.)  She would always tell us, that is where you have to trust yourself to find a the answer, you have to want to get past it.  You had to be willing to keep pushing, because eventually you’d figure out the point of it.  Now I don’t claim to be a scientist, but props to Dr. Reed, that attitude has been a big part of who I am.

So that’s the idea, now here is an example.  I’m a history nut, so I thought a great example would be William of Normandy.  He’s the last person to successfully invade England, it was in 1066.  His story is one of pushing beyond the “huh?” and stepping forward to take the crown.  Enjoy.

In the time prior to 1066, William of Normandy was told he would be the next King of England.  He was promised this by King Edward the Confessor, who at that time was king.  (He had documentation and everything.)  And when the King died, before William could go to England to be crowned, and man named Harold seized the throne.  The first problem was in front of William: how to take what is rightfully his.  He didn’t have the army to win England alone.  He got past the “huh?” by use of the documents I spoke of earlier.  He recruited other lords (and their armies) to his side under the banner of what was “right.”

So now he had the troops, and set sail for England.  They landed at the beaches, and as luck would have it, there wasn’t an army waiting for them.  As the boats were unloaded, as the story goes, descent began to come through the troops… “why are we fighting for this mans quarrel?”  The second problem: how do I rally these men to truly want to win?  (Okay so disclaimer here, this is overkill as a business.)  William, Duke of Normandy, ordered ever boat on the beach to be burned.  He literally addressed his troops as the boats burned behind them and said simply: “We will not retreat, there is only victory or death for us here.”  Now every man to the last was fully focused on the campaign at hand.

As the armies of Harold were poised to meet, William faced yet another problem.  Harold was revered throughout the land as one of the finest military leaders.  His presence was going to be very impactful on the battle field.  Here again William was willing to think outside himself for a solution.  He called on his archers to join him on the beach.  He positioned two coins standing up on their sides on a log, stepped back and asked which of his archers felt they could hit a coin.  Two men stepped forward, and sure enough, perfect shots.  In the early hours of the battle (the Battle of Hastings took most of the day) these archers moved in extremely close to the Saxon (Harold was a Saxon) line and shot two arrows, each into one of Harold’s eyes.  He was dead instantly.  (Interesting to note: Harold only fell to his knees in death, not all the way to the ground.)  After the battle Harold was laid to rest with those two gold coins over his eyes.

Harold was gone, but his troops still held the high ground.  They were situated at the top of a ridge, and Williams troops having tried multiple times but couldn’t get up the hill and break their front lines.  Then the moment of genius that won William of Normandy the crown came forward.  He brought his archers into to range and used a tactic not before seen.  (He had the stubbornness to know he could eventually solve the question of how to win his throne, and here that solution was.)  His archers aimed high in the air, getting as much arch on their shots as possible.  Creating the effect of arrows raining down on Harold’s troops.  Then while their shots were airborne, the archers would quickly reload and shoot a second arrow on a straight line at Harold’s troops as they lifted their shields to defend against the first wave of shots.  This tactic broke Harold’s troops and as the Duke of Normandy pushed his army forward and cleared the battlefield, he became King.

Getting past the “huh?” isn’t rocket science.  (Although I’m willing to bet it helped lead to rocket science.)  It is about having the belief in yourself to find the answer.  Would I suggest what William did… not today.  I would however focus on how you came to those decisions.  What he did was believe, then shared that belief, and raised the impact of those around him by pushing forward.

Thanks for listening,

Zach West

*Feel free to correct my history.  The stories above of the accounts of William of Normandy that I have read and heard over the years, and are meant to prove the point that believe is something a leader must have.

**Also thanks again Dr. Reed, truly one of the best life lessons I’ve ever taken from a classroom.