Time to Think

Between now and January 4th I will not be posting to my blog because every year I use the week between Christmas and New Year's Day to think. In today's world to simply sit and think has become so difficult for most of us because we feel the need to be in constant motion. To sit, think and contemplate at length about decisions, directions and desires for one's business doesn't often happen but I've found the wisdom that comes out of my week has contributed more to my personal and professional success than any other time.

I hope you enjoy your holidays and I implore you to take some time to think about important decisions you will face in the coming year.

10 Obsolete Products and Ideas. Is Your Business Obsolete?

Over the last decade a number of things have become obsolete or are virtually on life support. It’s easy to spot in other people’s products and services that are obsolete, but what about your own? After reading this list, reflect on your business. What are the products, services, habits, marketing approaches, and managerial methods that are obsolete in your business. We are about to start a new decade, is your business ready?

1. The busy signal

Phone technology has advanced so much we rarely hear a busy signal any more. Call waiting and voice mail have made hearing the busy signal obsolete. Ask a young person what does a busy signal sound like, and watch the look they give you.

2. Dial up modem

Once again a sound that you hardly hear anymore is the electronic gurgling of a dial up modem searching then making a connection. 10 years ago this was the common Internet connection, today it is pretty much gone from existence.

3. The “Blind” date

Once upon a time when you were fixed up on a blind date you had no clue who the person was or anything about her other than what your friend told you about her. Today with Google, Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter there is an encyclopedia of knowledge you can obtain before actually meeting in person. Which begs the question: Are you using these tools to learn about prospects before calling on them?

4. Poor TV reception

No more rabbit ears and tin foil to find the best channel reception. We have more than 4 stations to pick from as well. CBS, NBC, ABC and PBS were about all the choices you had and getting them watchable was an exercise.

5. Waiting to get photos developed

Photo technology has changed from waiting a few days to get back vacation pictures to having them on your computer in five minutes. Almost unlimited capacity and no waiting are the code words of the photo industry today.

6. Answering machine

Along with the busy signal the small answering machine box has all but disappeared in its short lived life span. This product was being replaced almost as fast as it was invented. It had a very short life cycle.

7. A calculator watch

We no longer need watches with tiny button to do basic calculations on. In fact, we no longer are in need of wrist watches to tell time. Good thing the industry decided to market them as status and jewelry accessories.

8. Floppy disk

Ten years ago portable memory was on 3.5 inch disks that held so little memory capacity; most current programs wouldn’t fit on ten of them. Today, thumb drives, and portable hard drives the size of transistor radios (remember them?) make memory capacity readily available. Expect these devices to go the way of floppy disks in the near future as well with the advance of cloud computing.

9. Car cigarette lighters

The ubiquitous cigarette lighter was on the dash board of every car. Who knew that penny-sized hole would transform into an electronics charging port? The lighters don’t even come with the port anymore as the transformation from lighter to charger port is complete.

10. Getting an AOL disk in the mail

Monthly I was getting a disk of free minutes for AOL. Snail mail spam as it were. When was the last time you saw one of those? AOL the pioneer of online connection is lost in the vast number of ways to access the all important information highway.

2009: It Wasn’t Pretty

Let's face it, be real and call it what it was: 2009 was a bad year. No need to list the negative news the business world kept getting pounded with all year. Most every industry took a punch in the gut at some point. Some industries got hit a little harder and were dropped to one knee. Would you say this was one of the worst years in decades? Yes, I think that would be accurate. Now that that is out of the way...

What happens next?

Global competition didn't stop. Your national competitors are putting their brain trust to work on finding the solution to emerging stronger. 2010 is not the year to cut budgets, sit by and lick your wounds so you can consider it a year of getting back on your feet. That is what January is for. The rest of the year you need to have your track shoes laced up and double knotted for the race that will determine your next five years of growth.

Define your path to point B

Sure 2009 was a curve ball and your plan for getting from Point A to Point B no longer works because you no longer can see Point B. I hear many executives so confused with their organization's direction because of the turmoil of this year, they seem ready to just idle until the fog lifts and the picture gets a little clearer. The fact is, we are going to be traveling in foggy times for quite a while and no one can afford to just idle. Point B is still out there, granted the road to getting there has changed.

Map a different path to reach your destination.

Might it take longer? Yes, it probably will. Will it be a tougher road? I think over the last 15 years the path to business success has shifted dramatically and become much tougher. So have most avenues to success, but people still achieve tremendous accomplishments.

Use the beginning of the new year to prepare for the success you owe it to your organization to achieve. As long as you know the path, believe in the path and are willing to put in the leadership effort to walk the path, 2010 can become a much different story than 2009.

The All or Nothing Business Model

What happened to the middle ground? The extremists have taken over and executives need to avoid falling into the trap of all or nothing. How many public figures make a mistake and someone is calling for their heads? Politicians, athletes and other public figures are one misstep from being called to resign. In fact, this is going on in our corporations as well and it is a very dangerous way to manage.

I have client executives who told me a year ago how valuable a particular employee was to the success of the organization only to hear twelve months later the executive is considering firing that same employee. I asked the executive what significant errors had this employee made over the last year? His response? Nothing significant, I’m just not as impressed as I was a year ago. When I pressed for more details the executive told me the once superstar had taken time off for some minor surgery and was gone during a critical time of the year.

There is nothing wrong with challenging employees to step up. There is nothing wrong with setting high expectations. There is nothing wrong with striving for excellence. But, when someone can go from the best to being considered for termination because of one failed attempt or one questionable event (surgery, really?) the work environment is caustic.

All or nothing employment will create disastrous consequences. Consider these three effects of an all or nothing environment.

1. Us against them

Look at our government right now. There is no collaboration and the fight between the parties is so caustic that the country suffers as a result. Right now the Democrats are enjoying their majority and passing legislation in the face of Republican protest. As always happens in politics the tide will turn and the Republicans will do the same thing in response, and the battle continues it just keeps getting nastier and nastier. Is this anyway to operate a successful organization? Once lines are drawn people will fight to the end even at their own detriment. Think this doesn't happen in business? Ask the leaders of General Motors and the Autoworkers Union how their loggerhead mentality has prospered?

When you create divisions in the workforce and set up a one mistake and gone atmosphere sides will be drawn and factions will try to take control and the focus of energy will be on winning the internal battle as the bigger picture sinks. Collaboration is a better path to success than combating factions.

2. CYA

When you place every employee on a one mistake tight rope suddenly people become much more interested in adopting a cover-your-ass style of thinking than in a how-can-we-get-better type of thinking. Survival is the most basic of instincts and teamwork, profits, and innovation will be abandoned in such circumstances. All or nothing makes everyone more interested in blame focus than in solution focus. It a blame-focused work place really the work environment you believe produces the best results? Think again.

3. The Fear Freeze

Imagine The University of Kentucky basketball team is playing a big game against the University of North Carolina and one of the coaches is fed up with all the personal fouls his team has been having so he tells his team over the noise of the crowd just before the tip off, "If anyone gets one foul they will be pulled from the game. No fouls or you are gone from the game. Got it?" What possible chance do they have of winning? The players will be frozen in fear every time the ball comes down the court for fear of being pulled out of the game.

If you have been laying off employees, creating fearful announcements in your workforce or making extreme comments to try to inspire your work force you are probably witnessing some of these effects of the all or nothing managerial approach. It’s time for leaders to avoid the extremes and return to middle ground where employees can make mistakes in the effort to improve, grow and innovate.

Whispers are Now Broadcasts

My parents' generation barely wanted to talk about sex with doctors let alone in public, and today with social media and phone technology we are so open with our thoughts we have a new word: sexting. What was once whispered is now considered broadcast worthy.

Between twitter, facebook and texting millions of people feel the need to express their every emotion, thought and circumstance. That behavior is slopping over to the real world too. Recently I was in a poker tournament and the young man beside me started just going off about what he was going to do based on my actions. It is rude to talk about a hand while it is still in play so I asked him what he was doing. He told me he was talking to himself. Another person immediately chimed in, "We can hear you!"

This is where we are in society -- out loud, unbuffered thinking and communicating. Is this the transparency we really need? Social media is becoming the self-help group therapy session for millions of people and it is changing how society interacts. The lines are blurring of what is considered professional, confidential and appropriate.

Had a bad meal at a restaurant? Tell everyone and take a picture of the food to post. Dealing with a rude customer service person on the phone? Tell the world.

People are creating hate blogs, corporate bashing websites and editorial commentary on anything and anyone. This is changing business interaction and creating ethical questions for organizations.

Can an executive read an employee's posts and take action based on what was posted? Can an employer read a prospective employee's twitter postings (tweets) before the interview? Can a business file a suit against a customer for false reporting of a negative situation? How does an executive handle a negative thread of posts on their corporate facebook page? Is that censorship or good business?

These questions and many others are raising the stakes on the open communication in social media. Executives need to crate policies to deal with these broadcasts from employees, customers and cowardly bashers who have been given a forum to vent.

As we've seen with the Tiger Woods story, a person can go from role model to pariah in a matter of hours as people heap opinions upon opinions in open communication. In the age of instant communication and unvarnished baseless opinion organizations need to be ready to handle a firestorm that was once whispered but now is an open broadcast. The rules of communication have shifted dramatically in the last 12 months. Businesses need to create the proper response within the next 12 months or risk the loss of control on your brand, business message and information.

The End of Year Sorting… Through Your Mind

It's that time of year when many people decide to sort through files, desk drawers and office shelves getting ready for the new year. The annual office cleansing ritual is a way to prepare for a fresh beginning. But are we clearing out the right things to truly prepare for a fresh start?

I believe the files and desk clutter are not the most important cleansing needed to start a new year with a fresh start. Take one day for your physical clutter removal and spend the rest of a week removing the mental clutter because this is where the greatest obstacles exist for starting anew.

Remove the mental pain

"Sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me" may have been true in simpler times, but in today's world words cause much greater lasting damage. Remember the crushing remarks your boss make in the heat of emotionally-fueled conversation? Of course you do. How about the argument with a fellow executive where snide comments were made that still hurt? And that hundredth phone call that never got returned from a prospect? That was the day the phone became too heavy to pick up again.

This is the clutter that is a much greater obstacle to a fresh start than old files will ever be. Take the time to cleanse these memories if you truly want to make a fresh start on the coming year. To renew your vigor for the job and refresh the excitement for coming to work this is the right time to wipe this mental pain from your memory. If only it was as easy as washing a blackboard.

Cleaning office clutter is mindless work. Cleaning your mental clutter is intense work, and the payoff is well worth the effort. What are the memories you need to get beyond? What are the words that were said in the heat of the moment that have been given much greater credibility than they ever should have been given? What is still a thorn in your brain that triggers unwanted emotions? By working to clear this clutter you will return to the excitement you once had for your work.

Ask yourself 4 deep questions

When I do my annual end of year mental check list I find it best to ask myself questions to gain clarity to see if I am ready to take on a new year totally stoked and ready to hit it..

1. Do I still love what I do as much as when I started this business? If not, why not? And what am I going to do to restore that? Side bar: I hear so many executives tired this year, fed up with the negatives, concerned with the rapid changes that are happening, this may be the most important question you could ask yourself to prepare to be successful in the coming year.

2. Do I have the energy required to create a successful year? If not, what habits do I need to adjust in order to have that energy? (I'm not talking resolutions, I'm talking behavioral shifts!)

3. Where is my excitement level for the work I see coming in the new year? Base this on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 meaning I'd rather be anywhere else but here to 10 meaning my work is more enjoyable than vacation.

4. What areas within me are holding me back from delivering the ultimate performance in the coming year? What do I plan on doing about that?

I take the week between Christmas and New Year's Day to work on my mental de-cluttering and strengthening. It's the perfect time of year to cleanse, refocus, and clear the air in preparation for a running start to another great opportunity.