What are you reading?

Seriously. What are you reading? If you want to grow professionally, you need to read books. Yes, blogs can be great and articles can be good, but nothing helps the mind consider new things like books.

I was not huge fan of reading for fun or growth after college until a friend of my wife introduced me to  Nelson DeMille. Then, I re-learned to love reading - like I did when I was a child.

Then, after I started my company, I started to read a lot of business related books - until it became a habit. The audio books were my addiction for a time - starting with tapes, then CDs and finally on my iPod. Hard cover books are still great, but my new favorite way to read is on my iPad.

DeMille and John Grisham are two fiction writers I go to for vacation reads, but there are many others too. As for business writers, I like Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, and Patrick Lencioni.

Read The Tipping Point, Outliers or David & Goliath by Gladwell. Or, read Permission Marketing by Godin…or any of his other stuff. Start with 5 Temptations of a CEO by Lencioni - and you don't have to be a CEO to learn a ton from it.

My current favorite book is by Jay Baer, and it's called YoUtility. If you are in marketing, own a business or want to sell anything from today on - it is MUST read.

So, I'll ask again. What are you reading right now?

How to make people care.

Many have written about this topic and the issue is not solved evidenced by an example I witnessed while traveling recently. Here's the short version: Flight was oversold in an airport full of people who had been delayed by weather, so there is a standby list. Gate agent continually begs people to give up their seat, so they can get down to the number. I'm not sure if anyone bit or not. Regardless, boarding goes on as normal.

An adult son of one of the standby passengers is on the plane. He calls Mom and says they are about to close the door and there are 5 seats available. Mom goes to gate agent saying, "Hey, please get me on that plane. My son on the plane says there are 5 open seats." Agent was about to close the door says, let me check. Turns out there were 6 seats available, so most of the stand by passengers got to go - thanks to the son.

I understand that in this situation there are MANY moving parts. Stress is huge for all involved. The airline wants to be 'on time.' However, I was struck by how little the airline staff seemed to care. They had 6 open seats on a plane leaving an airport PACKED with people and they didn't appear to be acting to fill them. Wow!

Again, I realize it is crazy for airline staff in situations like this, but what a perfect time to really care about the people standing there waiting to go - wherever they planned to go.

This situation caused a discussion among our traveling party about how to make people care. Of course, there are no quick fixes and even caring people can have a bad hour or two.

So what can you do to instill caring as part of your company culture? Here are some things to consider.

     1. If you have the chance, hire to this skill. Make it one of the skills you MUST have. Department doesn't matter.

     2. Make sure you model caring to your staff. Help people. Show compassion. Let them know this is who you are as a company.

     3. Make your expectations clear and give them permission to fix a problem. You might need limits, but keep them general.

     4. Reward employees who consider customer experience - before or during a problem.

Regardless of your industry, caring employees matter. Your company will thrive because of them while others wilt.

What are your favorite ways to make employees care?

Joyous impatience

My Mom gave me a cup for high school graduation that said "God grant me patience...and HURRY!" I didn't yet recognize just how impatient I was. But she knew and I soon learned.

As a marketer or product developer, always remember: impatience can KILL your chance for success in so many ways.

For starters, you need patience to create ownership in ideas or strategy. Then, you need patience to allow the plan to work. And you need still more patience dealing with staff when they say things like "do something different because this idea hasn't worked" when results are not immediate.

Over the years, I've learned how to manage my impatience (mostly). I even have found ways to use it to help me create urgency when needed - without going overboard. A sense of urgency is good, and in many companies dearly needed, but impatience is not.

Try these three things if you're impatient:

1. Go slow when you want to go fast. This works for talking and actions. Try it. Obviously this is scaleable based on the situation or magnitude of the matter at hand.
2. Find a healthy distraction to save you from yourself. Maybe it is a walk around the office, chewing a piece of gum or 10 push ups. Back when I could count my clients on 1 hand and worked in a home office, I would mow my lawn or take a quick bike ride rather than pester my clients. Almost always, after that 30 minute break - I'd have the email reply I needed to move the project along.
3. Work on something you are curious about. If you need some help, check out Ted Talks.

Seth Godin talks about impatience in his Seven Marketing Sins post and in his interview below. Enjoy. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sknuiFywKLM?feature=player_embedded]

What is your story?

Many have written about storytelling as a way to have an impact with your marketing message. Seth Godin has. So has Drew McLellan, and I am sure many others have. Please share others in the comment section, as I love to learn more.

I think they are correct and so do others with which I speak. Therefore, I wonder, why don’t more of us market by storytelling?

Of course I can only speak from the experiences and discussions I have had. What those two things tell me is that getting to the core of what your own story is can be difficult. Time to think and the ability to articulate your ideas are real barriers for some.

Beyond that, finding an effective way to tell your story is also a barrier. Although communications options abound, so do the filters people use to shield themselves from messages, however well intentioned.

What it comes down to then is getting others to participate in your story or maybe to retell it – or in today’s terms ReTweet your story. They need to connect to your story in a real way…to feel it. Your story has to be compelling enough for them to relate to it or, even better, to feel like it is happening to them.

So, how do you distill your story down so you can figure out how to tell it in a compelling way? That will certainly be different for different companies and people.  A starting point however is knowing what you (or your company) are passionate about AND what you are NOT passionate about. It is hard to tell a good story without passion.