If your email and social media feeds are like mine, they were jammed with encouragement and advice on how to make 2019 a great year. So many options and approaches can have the opposite effect, creating stress and frustration. I am always impressed with people who seem to have their stuff together and hit the ground running on January 1. I try to be one of them. Some years I do pretty well, some years not so much.
One week in, there’s a decent chance you fall into one of these categories to one degree or another:
Made resolutions. Already in the toilet.
Have goals in head. Didn’t write anything down.
Tried somebody’s approach. It seemed to make sense, but not really feeling it.
What’s the use? Resolutions are stupid. Life’s a train wreck.
Overwhelmed. Can’t decide how to plan for the year.
Haven’t decided and think it’s too late.
Anxious, guilty, or otherwise nagged with negative feelings about lack of focus.
If that’s you, it’s OK. Sometimes social media lies – you are only seeing a curated image of people, not reality. Don’t let the filters fool you; we all suck sometimes. (Here’s a suggestion for a worthwhile goal – trade 30 minutes a day of Facebook time for 30 minutes of reading time…you’d be amazed…) Maybe Arthur Ashe’s perspective will help soothe you as it does me from time to time.
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe
Little Things Add Up
“Inch by inch, life’s a cinch. Yard by yard, it’s really hard” – Coach Morgan Wootten
If your mind explodes at the thought of some big master plan, can you start with just one thing? One thing you know would make a difference. One thing you really want. Imagine what a person who has accomplished that thing looks like. How do they act? What do they do from day to day? If you know anybody like that, ask them how they got there. Reverse engineer the goal and figure out what tiny steps you can take to eventually get there. Write it all down. Do those tiny, incremental things, one at a time. Track your progress. Celebrate your victories. Keep showing up. If you fall down…no, WHEN you fall down, re-read Arthur Ashe and get back up.
As with all things in life, the journey turns out to be more important than the achievement of a goal. The late Jim Rohn loved to remind his audiences, “Don’t choose a goal for what you will get. Choose a goal for what it will make of you.”
If you decide to make that reading for Facebook trade, you might want to pick up Atomic Habits by James Clear. He does a nice job explaining how to work with yourself to develop systems instead of fighting with yourself.
The whole idea is to move in a purposeful direction. I noticed more and more writers using specific words to help them. Here are three that might resonate.
If you want more, Jeffery Gitomer uses a four-word approach for two different areas. Sorry, I can’t share a link for this. I got it by email. If you are interested, shoot me an email and I would be happy to forward it to you.
“Success Requires a Bias For Action”
That is one of my favorite quotes from Tom Peters. It applies in so many ways. Doing something, almost anything, is better than nothing.
Most people I meet are what Zig Ziglar would have called “wandering generalities.” They have hopes and dreams, but they haven’t thought about how to move in a direction towards them. Or they are afraid to try and fail. Or they just don’t know how. Becoming a “meaningful specific” (Mr. Ziglar’s contrasting term) is a big deal.
Big things happen from taking small, manageable steps. Whatever works for you, pick a direction and start walking.
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Gratitude spreads through my thoughts as I stare out onto the ocean and ponder the year gone by. Of course, 2018 didn’t go as I thought it would, reminding me that having a purpose can be more useful than having a plan. My purpose of sharing content is to give away all the good things I’ve been fortunate enough to collect. This would not have happened without you blog readers and followers on our business social media platform. I am grateful to so many who have inspired me, supported me, pushed me, put up with me, corrected me, encouraged me, taught me, challenged me, put up with me some more, and set an example for me. One way or another, all of them made my work better and helped me grow as a person. Thank you one and all.
I also thought about the authors that influenced me most this year. Some books were read this year. Others were read years ago and keep showing up in my presentations, blogs, teaching, mentoring, and day-to-day conversations. They have shaped the way I do business. So as a way to thank those influencers who I’ve crammed into my cranium and possibly give you a few ideas for books that might make a difference for you, I offer this year end blog. It’s a long one, but I have a lot of people to thank (and value to give, hopefully)!
T-Rex’s Top Ten Influential Authors in 2018
Leaders-Strategies for Taking Charge by Warren Bennis & Burt Nanus – This was hugely influential when I first started studying leadership in the mid-’80s. The lessons are insightful and the fundamentals are rock solid. I also found his Organizing Genius, Geeks & Geezers, and Reinventing Leadership with Robert Townsend to be outstanding. Dr. Bennis is missed, but his work lives on. It’s woven into every board orientation/tune-up session we share with clients.
Little Golden Book of Yes! Attitude by Jeffrey Gitomer– It’s hokey (Gitomer says so himself), but it’s practical and very real. I keep coming back to it when I need a checkup from the neck up. A few years after studying this book, I did a co-presentation with Shannon Polly and became exposed to the discipline of positive psychology. It turns out the hokey stuff has a clinical backup!
Start With Why, by Simon Sinek – I’d been frustrated for a long time with managers, management companies and board members who seemed determined to stay in the weeds and miss the point. I was always encouraging folks to drill down and get to The Why. I stumbled across a Sinek TED Talk. I bought the book and immediately began stealing from him. His Leaders Eat Last is also very good.
Good to Great, by Jim Collins, including the monograph Good to Great and the Social Sectors– I find myself referring to “Level 5” leadership, the “hedgehog concept” and “pockets of greatness” with frequency. Pockets of greatness will be woven into our work with community associations and management companies in building intentional culture in 2019.
The Speed of Trust by Steven M.R. Covey – I’ll always be indebted to John Byers of Townside Management for introducing this one to me. The general concept plays out all the time in community associations: When trust is present, things go quickly and it’s less expensive. When trust is absent, things take forever and it costs more. I referenced the book at one board consulting session and was tickled to hear that the management company bought copies for all the board members as a gift afterward.
Driven to Delight, by Joseph Michelli – This book helped me to refine how I looked at and taught customer service for community associations. The story of how Mercedes Benz learned to morph from a product-centric to customer-centric mindset is fascinating and applicable to our work. Helping managers, volunteer leaders, and all front line team members, to get out from under their perspective (typically their version of “product-centric”) and think and feel like the members hey serve has been a game-changer.
To Sell is Human, by Daniel Pink – Great research as always by this author. All his work is very good, but this one is still my favorite. I’d known (from Zig Ziglar and others), that sales is essentially service when it’s done right. But I still held negative connotations. This book helped me to put the pieces together and get rid of some mental deadwood. Leaders sell. Salespeople lead. It’s all just part of the human experience.
The Leadership Challenge, by Jim Kouzes & Barry Posner– I have no idea why it took me so long to discover Kouzes & Posner. Model the way, inspire a shared vision, enable others to act, and encourage the heart. Simple in concept, brilliant in application. They are constantly fine-tuning their work based on one of the most impressive collections of data I’ve ever seen.
Who Do You Want Your Customer to Become? by Michael Schrage – Seth Godin mentioned this ebook on a podcast, so I looked it up. Great companies make change for a living. If Association Bridge ever stops making change, we’re quitting the business.
The Excellence Dividend – Meeting the Tech Tide with Work That Wows and Jobs That Last, by Tom Peters – I saved the best for last. Mr. Peters has been a major influence on my business thinking for a long time. Along with Bennis’ Leaders, Peters’ 1982 In Search of Excellence created a foundation for my thinking on organizational dynamics and leadership. The eight principles of In Search still hold up; a bias for action, close to the customer, autonomy & entrepreneurship, productivity through people, hands-on/value driven, stick to what the company knows best, simple form/lean staff, and simultaneous loose-tight properties. The 2018 edition to his long list of titles (most of which still also hold up) goes back to the well on these core principles and applies them to the realities of today and tomorrow. Dividend is packed with meaty content, the result of the author’s 30+ years of experience and incredibly voracious study habits. He’s done the work and he’s clearly trying to give it all away. Even if all you did was use this book to compile a reading list by culling the 7 quadrazillion books he references and quotes from, it would be worth it. I will be re-reading and studying this book well into 2019.
Plus One – A Special Place for Seth
I’ve enjoyed all of Seth Godin’s books. Tribes was particularly insightful in helping to see the context of humans, digital interactions, companies, and relationships. What Does it Sound Like When You Change Your Mind is still about the coolest gift anyone ever gave me.
If all you have is a few minutes to chew on something, you might want to try reading his daily blog. You have the time. Some of his blogs are two sentences. But they’ll get you thinking. I am also getting a lot out of his Akimbo podcast.
Honorable Mentions From the Past & Very Useful 2018 Reads
Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell – There is lots of debate about the validity of the 10,000 hours to mastery idea. Whether that’s a magic number or not, who cares? The principles of showing up and sticking with it work.
Team of Teams by Stanley McChrystal – Practical leadership models to deal with a lightning-fast, complex world, with some pretty insightful myth-busting to boot.
The Culture Engine by S. Chris Edmonds – Provides a useful framework to help organizations develop intentional culture. This is going to be a big theme for us in 2019.
The Advantage, by Patrick Lencioni – Another one recommended by Mr. Peters and also by my friend Jim Fisher. Good insights into organizational culture.
If You Made It This Far, You Are DA BOMB…Final Thoughts
Well, that’s it for 2018. I hope the T-Rex Blog has given you some ideas, perhaps even a little inspiration. Thank you for reading. Thank you even more for your input. And thanks even more than that for passing forward any great ideas that you collect from any source to benefit others.
Final ponderings (thanks for indulging me…). This is just a business blog. Though it’s easy to get things out of whack, please remember that business isn’t life, it’s just a part of it. As such, the way we decide to do our business matters. Be serious about how you do your business, but don’t take yourself too seriously. Care enough to make a difference. You can’t fix the world, but you can make a little difference in someone’s life every day. Sharing love can take many forms. Please share. Take care of others. Take care of yourself. Remember who, and what, is most important, and do your business in a way that honors that.
Sunrise 12/31/18
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Change is hard. New is hard. Fear makes bad news hard to take. Is it any wonder that from time to time community association managers, advisors and volunteer leaders find themselves at odds with community members or each other? Sooner or later, they all will find themselves duty bound to share a message someone won’t want to hear.
Money Hurts
This happens a lot when money is involved. People hate to spend money especially when they cannot see the value of the expense. Here’s where community associations remind members of the government, either consciously or subconsciously. I recall hearing a quote from the Wall Street Journal along the lines of, “People have the same warm emotional connection to their homeowners association as they do the Internal Revenue Service.” Ouch!
Drill down a little and it makes sense. Citizens expect infrastructure and services, but they may chafe at paying the taxes that make them possible. Why? In a word, trust. Governments, with their inevitable bureaucracies, have complicated, enormous budgets that the average citizen cannot comprehend. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to tell how well utilized those taxes are. The end result? Distrust and an assumption of waste…or worse. Association Fees are a community association’s tax. If members are not clear that their money is being spent wisely, it’s tough to take. Members may well default to their assumptions of waste…or worse.
See The Enemy
If you are going to ask for higher fees, spend a wad of cash, or change anything people are familiar with, you need to be ready to explain why. You may need to combat distrust. Fortunately, this is much easier to accomplish on the micro level of a community association than is it for the Federal Government! The information might be somewhat complicated, but it can be available and explainable.
If the direction is sound, it’s based on sound data. But members may not be aware of the data they need to trust the messenger. And until the messenger is trusted, the message is lost.
There are two insidious enemies that can erode the trust of your members:
The Law of Omitted Data: The concept is that if a person has some knowledge about a subject but does not have all the facts, it is likely that person’s degree of misunderstanding will grow exponentially over time. The impact of the law can be devastating in the group dynamic, especially when the Telephone Game factor gets added to the mix. I’ve seen this blow communities apart.
Theoryworld: The absence of experience or real life information doesn’t stop people from trying to be experts. We imagine scenarios and responses and all kinds of possible permutations and combinations of things that might happen. Discussion and arguments in Theoryworld last for-EV-er! They have an annoying tendency to bear little resemblance to reality and waste valuable time and energy. Theoryworld is exhausting and leads to regrettable decisions.
When data is bad or missing, misinformed opinions and fear can set in and emotions can run high. It gets personal. People mistakenly see each other as the enemy. The real enemies, the Law of Omitted Data and Theoryworld, are hiding just under the surface.
How can you vanquish these enemies? How can you fill in the blanks and bridge the gap between theory and reality? How can your group make good decisions and actually get things done?
Fight the Real Enemies
Your first reaction to manifestations of the Law of Omitted Data or Theoryworld may be to correct or defend. Don’t. That adds fuel to the ego-driven fire, even if you are 100% right. Rather than counteracting bad data, seek to fill in the gaps of understanding with good data. Your goal isn’t to win an argument. Ego is a major part of the problem. Elevate the dialogue from ego-based to principle-based– from emotional opinion-based to fact-based. In so doing, you create a space in which the data can drive the discussion.
The presentation of the data requires more than logic. It means acknowledging ego and emotion, both yours and others’. This is another real life scenario where gobs of emotional intelligence will make a massive difference. Here are a few strategies to get there:
Find trustable outside experts. A message from a disinterested third-party can have an impact. Share their information or let them do the talking.
Show and tell. A picture really does paint a thousand words. And seeing it up close and personal makes things real. Cruddy pipes, scary boiler rooms, a mudslide behind the pool. You don’t have to sell it. Just allow people to see reality.
Show your work like doing arithmetic in the third grade. Even if the level of detail seems excessive, the fact that the research was done and you are willing to show your process can build bridges and confidence.
Conversely, make it clear the presentation of detailed data isn’t a snow job. Bullet point summaries, charts and graphs– anything that aids visualization is good. The supporting materials can be in the back.
Accept all options and ideas at first, even if every bone in your body tells you they never work. Instead of saying “no” up front, let the group decision making process say “no.”
Don’t worry about making a case. Create a space where the case makes itself. Trust the process. Be patient – time will tell the truth. Let the data drive the discussion.
What strategies have you used to defeat the Law of Omitted Data and Theoryworld?
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It ain’t about you. How many times have we heard that? And yet, we silly old humans forget. It’s understandable. Things go wrong, we feel before we think (a biological fact), and we react. Those reactions are egocentric. The chemicals jetting through our bodies are some powerful stuff! Managing this process so that our outward manifestations take into consideration that we are not the center of the universe requires practice, self-awareness, and perhaps a ton of self-control. Mastering ourselves can be a huge factor in job satisfaction, not to mention peace of mind.
Me, Me, Me – Oops!
The word “context” keeps popping into my head. When our context is insular, it’s flawed. We miss things. We make mistakes. We hurt others. We create drama. There are serious consequences when we fail to recognize others’ experiences, ideas and cultures.
I recall my reaction once in dealing with a particularly egocentric community association member. After trying to appeal to reason in every way I could imagine, I gave up. I changed gears and said, “The thing is, there’s only one sun in the solar system for a reason. If a person tried to be the center of the system, all the gravitational fields would get messed up and the planets might crash. It just wouldn’t work!” It was so random she actually had to stop and think about it. I’m not so sure I would recommend such a facetious approach as one of the “magic beans” of communication, but it actually worked. At least I didn’t get fired.
Finding Context
One antidote? Slow down. See the context of things, events, people and the complicated intersections in between. Perhaps most importantly, find the underlying principles that can apply to the situation. If we want help to create solutions and have a ghost of a chance for happiness and peace, we have GOT to get outside of ourselves. The chart of the universe shown above makes us laugh. But unless we see ourselves, our experience and our attitudes in the context of the larger world, the chart is accurate to one degree or another.
“Sometimes you have to give yourself away to get yourself back.” – tw
Yes, the prospect can evoke fear. The impulse to react from our own standpoint is a form of self-defense. The willingness to release self-interest for a moment might make us feel vulnerable. I also see some irony here. The tighter we hold onto a myopic perspective in order to protect ourselves, the more we put ourselves at risk to our detriment. We are less likely to be effective in working with others, less likely to adjust our course to work with changing circumstances, and less likely to find a deeper satisfaction in work and in life. It is vital to develop and grow emotional intelligence.
As you see yourself and your circumstances more clearly in the greater context of what and who are around you, things start to click. And you grow. I love the way the late Jim Valvano put it, “A person doesn’t become whole until he becomes part of something bigger than himself.”
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A long time ago, my wife and I decided to do a Fall weekend getaway at a lovely bed and breakfast in Scottsville, Virginia. That part of the country is gorgeous when the leaves turn. We even sprang for a “vintner’s dinner,” something WAY outside my experience at the time.
The Best Meal Ever
The weekend was wonderful. The B&B was delightful, and WOW was the dinner awesome! We sat in rapt attention as Luca, the winemaker and general manager of nearby Barboursville Vineyards explained how each wine was produced. He helped us to appreciate the nuances in the flavor of each one and why the pairing worked so well with each carefully selected, delicious course. The order and timing of the offerings were perfect. By the time the food or wine touched our tongues, we were eager to enjoy it. Three or four hours into the meal, Aprell and I realized that the couple we had become immersed in conversation with were the only other guests left in the dining room. We were certain we’d never had a better meal.
Looking back, there is no doubt in my mind that the food was exquisitely prepared and was truly delectable. It wasn’t until years later that I learned to appreciate that there is so much more to taste than the food itself. Restaurateurs know that if patrons enjoy the whole experience, the food tastes better. The total experience primes the palate, and the food becomes exquisitely memorable.
What’s This Got to do With Magic Beans?
Communication, like food, is more than the mechanics of the activity. Yet, in today’s hectic and stressful business environment, it is frequently rushed, poorly prepared, and shoddily served. As a result, opportunities for meaningful connection and memorable messages are lost. Have you ever sent a message to prepare residents for an upcoming event, and the day of the event you get angry calls because they were never told? Have you ever gotten questions in response to your communication that you thought you had already addressed? Or have you fallen into the trap of your own self-fulfilling prophecy thinking, “They’ll never read anything I write, so there’s no use in putting a lot of time into this?” Maybe it’s not what you are trying to communicate. Maybe it’s time to think about how to prepare your audience so they can receive your message. Better yet…create a space where they WANT to receive your message.
Consider The Whole Experience & Serve Up A Tasty Message
When delivering a message, whether verbally or in written form, think like a restaurateur. How would she present her work to her patrons? Are there some lessons you can curate from excellent dining experiences to help make your message nice and tasty?
What is their level of experience with the subject matter you are trying to convey? Would a little background or explanation make the message more palatable? Break it down and be patient. What the heck is foie gras, anyway? Will a picture help? Can the server describe it in a way they can imagine what it might taste like?
How can you frame the experience to build anticipation? Can you help your audience see they should care about your message IN THE FIRST 5 WORDS? Why is this beneficial to THEM? Do your words convey positivity and empathy? “Ohhh, I love the ambiance of this place! It’s so comfortable and everyone is so welcoming. I can smell the bread! This is gonna be great!”
How would your specific audience like to receive what you are communicating? Is this message most effective as a formal letter, email, newsletter blurb, phone call, or face-to-face conversation? ”Would you like your appetizers first, or together with your main course?” “Would you prefer your dressing in the salad or on the side?”
Are you sure they understand the message? Confirm understandings as soon as possible. “Alright, so that’s a New York Strip medium rare, reddish pink in the middle, with mashed potatoes and green beans?”
In which order should you present the elements of the message? How will you organize it in a way to enhance their comprehension/understanding and keep their attention? Preparation is huge. Organize your thoughts. Present the main points. Make it easy to see the overall picture, then get into the details. Never underestimate the value of a professional presentation. You hold the menu in your hands…you notice the feel of it in your hands, the attractive font and formatting. As the waiter walks you through the offerings, you can almost taste how the light appetizer will prime your palate for the main course. You are so ready for your meal and a new experience! Later, the light dessert wine is the perfect complement to the dense pasta. You leave the restaurant full and happy. And you have a new favorite dish!
How can you prepare each thought to prime the mind so that they can “taste” it? Using connectors or transitions between main points create flow and connect ideas. If there are many individual pieces of data, bullets points make them easier to digest. The fruit slices in between each course give you just enough time to savor the previous course and anticipate the next one. And it gave you time for pleasant conversation. It subtly made everything come together.
How can slight details in the delivery of your message reach the heart so that the important points are memorable? “The waiter was so friendly, calling us by our names. And she seemed to anticipate our needs, but she didn’t hover too much. She helped make this such a great time. She’s getting a big tip!”
Communication is an opportunity to create an experience bigger than the sum of its parts. When it really counts, when you really need to be understood, or when your message can have a lasting impact on your audience, take a little time to think about the whole experience before diving in. Then execute like Luca. It will make all the difference.
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I read yet another formulaic, extremely detailed performance evaluation the other day. It was everything I detest about human resource management these days. Oh sure, it had lots of buzzwords and high sounding aspirational phrases – pages and pages of them. And it was devoid of any substantive clarity…or hope. It did such a great job covering the supervisor’s butt that I suggested he write a book called Toasty Buns: How to Completely CYA by Managing Without Leading. It set up the organization to have the flexibility to take whatever action it wanted to without getting itself in legal hot water, while simultaneously leaving the employee confused and demotivated. In my opinion, it was a complete waste of a perfectly good tree.
Welcome to your annual review, Mr. Simpson…I’ve been asked to co-present with lawyers for the Community Association Institute on employment practices three times now. Before that, I thought insurance and risk management were the most challenging areas in community association management. Not anymore. Employment law is one of the most complicated and landmine-ridden areas in business. It can be intimidating and it is very easy to run afoul of the law with no malice whatsoever in our heart. Documentation of performance evaluations is a big deal. I get it.
Here’s the problem. Evaluations like the one I just puked through can easily become a vicious cycle and part of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The process breeds defensiveness, which kills motivation. It demoralizes team members. It reinforces bureaucracy and cripples leadership. It protects the organization against lawsuits while simultaneously protecting it against a workforce ever reaching its potential. It discourages staff from helping the organization to become wildly successful, which then requires more negative comments on evaluations, thus completing the cycle. Essentially, the process of evaluating and documenting performance can actually work against what the exercise was supposed to achieve in the first place – optimal performance! The lawyers are the ONLY ones who are happy.
Welcome to your annual review, Mr. Simpson…
Is it any wonder that, according to Gallup, upwards of 70% of American workers are classified as either “not engaged” or “actively disengaged”?
Evaluations, as we’ve known them, are EVIL. Hence, the title of this blog.
Can We Get This Right?
I think so. I think you can protect an organization and benefit it by setting the stage for team members to be at their best, thereby contributing to the success of that organization.
Here’s the Cliff’s Notes version of one way to accomplish the task:
Have an intentional culture.
Memorialize the values and the culture in writing. Make it the FIRST part of your butt-covering, legalese-saturated personnel manual. Explain The Why, and how it’s an awesome thing.
In the FIRST paragraph of every position description, memorialize how each team member contributes to those values and the culture, and ultimately to the success of the organization in a win-win paradigm.
Make sure every new hire has a goal list of time-sensitive and key ongoing deliverables that relate to values and culture in order to create a metric and mutual expectation. Help everyone to see what success looks like.
Engage in regular discussion about how things are going. Find people doing things right and reward it. Set dates in your calendar to make it happen. MBWA (look it up).
Plan to have a conversation about how team members are doing, based primarily on the stated values and culture, and highlighting goal list items or other specific, clearly communicated deliverables. Everybody writes down some talking points so they can remember them.
Have a conversation, NOT an EVILuation. Reach areas of agreement on areas of success and celebrate them. Note opportunities for improvement and set a new metric. The goal of the collaboration is agreement, a plan, and ownership. If there are disagreements in some part of the assessment, allow the team member’s dissent to be recorded. Just make sure the expectation moving forward is clear and included in the plan.
Type it up. Review it together for accuracy. Everyone signs off.
Execute the plan.
Rinse, repeat.
Performance evaluation by discussion and collaborative action plans make sense when it’s in the context of culture. It makes sense when that culture is founded in shared values with personal and group accountability. Culture and the other best practices that set the framework for this model will be the topic of other blogs. But you don’t have to wait to get those things lined up perfectly to change the way you think about and execute your evaluation process. Do that now. The process can help to kickstart an intentional culture.
This is NOT fluffy feel-good stuff. This is hard. And it works. As Tom Peters comments in The Excellence Dividend, “Effective evaluations emerge from a series of loosely structured, continuing conversations, not from filling out a form once every six months or year.” PREACH, Mr. Peters, PREACH!
It’s not a Pollyanna. It’s about getting things done and being grown-ups. You’ll still be able to figure out if people are working out or not. And the written part will keep the lawyers happy. Most importantly, the evaluation process will actually do what it is intended to do – make sure everyone is clear about the organization’s goals and their role in achieving them.
Let’s get this done!
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What happens when the fecal matter makes impact with the circular air-moving device? How individuals and organizations react in this moment of truth will say a lot about individual and group emotional intelligence and the culture of the organization. The secret lies in the questions asked when a mistake is made and the order in which they are asked.
What Are You Really Made Of?
Here’s how effective people and healthy organizations approach every mistake:
1. WHAT? Exactly what happened? Do we have all the facts? Only when this is clear, go to question #2.
2. HOW? How did the error happen? Have we identified the root cause, differentiating them from the symptoms? After diagnosing the mechanics of the issue, it’s time for question #3.
4. WHO? Time to talk about the lessons learned – a constructive follow-up with whoever may have been involved (INCLUDING BOSSES!). Now we are all a little smarter.
Post mortem, the healthy organization will make adjustments to address root causes. It will improve systems. And it will take opportunities to learn from mistakes. Look for patterns. If all the other questions are addressed and the same “who” keeps popping up, only then is a tough personnel action warranted.
Is that what you and your organization do? Or…
The Flip Side
Guess what question unhealthy organizations and ineffective leaders ask first? ”WHO DID THAT?” Sadly, every single time I’ve shared this concept, the people in the room give me the answer before I have to say it. They’ve all seen it at some point. The problem is that starting with “Who?” makes it difficult, if not impossible, to accurately answer any of the other more crucial questions.
I know that might sound ridiculous, but it’s true. Everyone will err from time to time. In the human condition, all mistakes are opportunities to learn. There’s a classic business tome about an IBM exec from the sixties whose ill-fated decision cost the company dearly. Upon being summoned to CEO Thomas Watson’s office, he prepared for the inevitable firing. Watson reportedly asked, “Do you know why I’ve asked you here?”
The executive replied, “I assume I’m here so you can fire me.”
“Fire you?” Watson replied, “Of course not. I just spent $10 million educating you.”
There are two choices. You can hold everyone to an unrealistic standard, punish imperfection, drive people into butt-covering cocoons, encourage bare minimum performance and build a culture that will aspire to mediocrity at best. Or you can embrace mistakes as opportunities for learning and find that error rate actually decreases as you build a culture of empowerment, personal responsibility, trust and growth. Only one of these is a sustainable model for profit and customer service success.
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“Tom, aren’t there any good management companies out there?”
That was the question posed to me by a condominium association board member circa 1988. I was in my formative years in the management business. That client knew me in my first incarnation of self-employment. I had completed a very successful plastering and painting project. I had only begun to venture into part-time, on-site management services the year before. That one question helped me to crystallize an Aha! Concept. Let me explain.
The Devil’s In The Details
I really enjoyed working with this group, even though they were rather “high maintenance.” They were enthusiastic, dedicated, and genuinely nice folks. They had an older building, the logistics of which amplified the inequity of scale faced by most small associations. They had a central HVAC plant to serve less than 30 units. The units were large and spread through only four stories, so even the cost per unit for roof maintenance and eventual replacement was much higher than most buildings.
There were other factors that added to this condominium’s challenges. Most units were owner-occupied. There was a seven person board, and there were several active committees. In a way, this was the perfect condominium – it seemed like every unit owner was involved! But this led to an unintentional consequence. At only 20+ units, they didn’t seem to justify much of an on-site maintenance or management presence. All that active participation meant that volunteers were in the details of every facet of the operation, which led to innumerable questions and a desire for fast and detailed response. Off-site “cost-effective” management and engineering services were always going to be reactive. This group was never going to be satisfied with the status quo. I knew a little about the history of that condominium, and knew they had already fired most of the companies I would have recommended at the time.
The Aha! Concept – System or Performance?
I’ll always remember this client because it helped me to formulate a frame of reference that became a core issue for much of my consulting work ever since. I noticed that most boards defaulted to a common position when something was wrong. They tended to conclude that they were getting lousy results because somebody wasn’t doing their job. This was one of the first clients to help me realize that you have to figure out if you’ve got a system problem, a performance problem, or a combination of the two. Until you figure that out, you are always answering the wrong question. It is unlikely you will get the results you seek. My 1988 client needed to find a way to get more proactive attention (and pay more), or lower their expectations. Status quo approaches were never going to give them what they wanted.
It’s Not Easy
It can be tough for volunteers serving on a board to see things clearly to determine the root of their dissatisfaction. There are a myriad of potential reasons why.
It’s not their full-time job. They may lack the time or expertise needed to accurately diagnose the situation.
They may be too close to the situation to see it clearly.
They may have been fortunate to have had an excellent manager or other service providers who regularly exceeded the specifications of their agreements. Great performance can mask a deficient system. God help the next good, but not great, manager…
They may be resistant to the idea that it might cost a little more to get what they need, exacerbated by a market flooded by management companies inclined to over promise and roll the dice.
They may not recognize that all associations have life cycles. The systems that met yesterday’s expectations may not be able to handle today’s realities, much less tomorrow’s. Of if only I had a dime for every time I heard “Well we’ve done just fine with x for the last ten years, we shouldn’t need it now.”
There may not be many free thinkers out there prepared to offer creative solutions, or companies geared up to offer those customized services, especially to a smaller association.
Fresh Eyeballs
It may be time to take a fresh look. Seek out and listen to innovative ideas. Take advantage of opportunities to network with other volunteer leaders. See if your city, county or state facilitates programs for board members. The Community Associations Institute is an excellent resource for any community association. CAI Press includes a hugely diverse library of material. Professionals in the field and volunteers contribute articles and educational seminars through CAI National and local chapters. An underutilized feature of CAI membership for volunteers is the networking aspect that is available through participation in local and national programs
If nothing seems to be working, don’t give up or settle. Maybe most importantly…don’t assume. Dig a little deeper. Look a little harder. You might just find what you really need.
Was that an idea worth spreading? Then please do...and thank you!
Whether you are an employee of a management company, an onsite manager of a community association, or a professional service provider, odds are at some time in your career you will be involved in a business relationship that for one reason or another reaches the end of its useful life. You shake hands, wish each other well, and move on. But in reality, doing business is a human endeavor and damage can be done if you don’t recognize and address the mental and emotional toll that can sometimes linger from a business “break-up.” You can be technically proficient in handling transitions without always giving full consideration of the human factors that might be involved.
Over the years it has pained me to watch managers, in particular, come away scarred from difficult client or employment relationships. Those who throw themselves into their work are hit hardest. Despite what they may view as Herculean efforts in less-than-favorable circumstances, they come away feeling unappreciated and often abused. Professional detachment to the point of uncaring, over-defensiveness, diminished standards of performance or conduct, and profound cynicism are only a few of the telltale signs of unhealthy scarring.
I’ve been so fortunate to have had the opportunity to reflect on these things with people of uncommon wisdom. They have shared with me pearls that have proven valuable in professional and personal life. I care about all you dedicated professionals working in the community association field. I want you to be healthy and happy. So then, since sharing is caring…
Lesson #1: Learn
“When the Devil says fire is hot, he knows what he is talking about.” Credit for this one goes to my primary professional mentor, Arthur Dubin. He shared this with me some years ago while we were working with a particularly unreasonable board president. Though I have to state for the record that the statement assumes certain theological concepts that I personally believe to be rather spurious, the words create a picture that makes an important point: While being deluged by unfair and possibly irrational attacks, it is very easy to miss a salient and accurate critique. You may feel compelled to defend yourself as if you were perfect or minimize shortcomings in the face of intense scrutiny. It might seem like your client or employer expected you to be perfect. Well, you weren’t. And that’s OK, but even minor issues, if not identified and corrected quickly, can become major issues. As painful as it might be to admit mistakes, it’s way more painful to repeat them. If a criticism is true, it is true regardless of the identifying source. The challenge is hearing it. So, be brutally honest…could you have done anything better?
Lesson #2: Eyes Forward
It turns out being a lousy driver was one of the best things that ever happened to me…. “Glance in rear-view mirror anytime you apply the brakes.” I got that one in a driver improvement class many moons ago. The lesson literally saved the instructor’s life one day on the beltway. He glanced in the mirror as traffic slowed and noticed that the truck driver behind him wasn’t paying attention. He took corrective action, changed lanes, and avoided the deadly rear end collision that befell the driver that had just moments before been in front of him. When things stop in front of you, like the end of a business relationship, it pays to look behind just long enough to learn the lessons necessary to avoid getting rear ended (Lesson #1)— and then it‘s got to be eyes forward. You are smarter now. Focus on what’s in front of you. Take action to get where you need to go. It doesn’t pay to beat yourself up over the past. If you keep staring into the rear view mirror, you’ll wreck. Once Lesson #1 is done, move on.
Lesson #3: It’s Your House
This one is courtesy of the late “Uncle Mike” Gilmore. He had a well-earned reputation as one who had seen it all in this business. He was a great sounding board. One afternoon he let me whine on for several minutes about a situation. And then…
“Tommy, what’s the most valuable real estate you own?”
“I guess it’s my house.”
“Wrong. It’s here (points to his head). Let’s say you owned a house and decided to rent it out. Would you let just anybody move in?”
“Of course not. I’d qualify them to make sure they’d pay the rent and wouldn’t trash the place.”
“Right. So if you’d go through all that for a house, why would you do the same with the most valuable real estate you own? Never let negative people rent space in your mind.”
Whoa. Of course he was right. Even if you successfully apply lessons one and two and have done everything you should do, sometimes those negative comments might play back in your memory. A new comment might trigger an old memory. There is no benefit to dwelling on them. You can’t control others, you can only control yourself. Why give up any of that control by allowing others’ negativity to reside in your head? Lock the door.
“Never let negative people rent space in your mind” – Mike Gilmore
It’s not easy to maintain a dedication to excellence in a balanced, healthy way. But you have to. It is the best way to be good to our clients and good to ourselves at the same time. Imagine that—a win-win.
If things don’t work out sometimes, it’s OK to hurt. Just not too long. It sounds trite, but it’s true – every experience can make you better and stronger. Please don’t burn out. And please don’t sell out. We need you.
Was that an idea worth spreading? Then please do...and thank you!
I did a lot of curation in the early days of trying to figure out how to set up my digital platform. Through Twitter, I stumbled upon Shonali Burke, the Queen of Measurement in the public relations field. Her Waxing Unlyrical blog became one of my resources. I noticed Shonali frequently retweeted Mark Schaefer. At the time, a good amount of it was a bit over my head. She convinced me to attend a conference in Washington D.C. at which Mark was a speaker, despite the fact that I was a fish out of water. I was glad that I left my comfort zone and showed up. Mark was an excellent teacher. He went deep without sacrificing pragmatism. I could tell he was an introverted fellow with a passion for sharing thoughts and ideas. I got the sense he dug into subjects and let the data lead him to his conclusions. My kind of guy!
Flash forward to 2018. My platform was finally starting to take shape, but I knew I wasn’t doing it very well. Mark had published Known: The Handbook For Building And Unleashing Your Personal Brand In The Digital Age. I have a general aversion to “how to” books, but I decided maybe this was the time to learn from Mark (see note on “Krios” below). It was a good decision. I will never be an internet superstar, nor do I want to be. But I am much clearer on how I can use the medium in a useful way as I take my professional mission farther and deeper.
The Summary
Known is a “how to” book done right. The lessons are taught through research, personal experience, and by the experience of others who have mastered their digital brand in distinctive ways. All the lessons are founded in the fundamentals of life and business, and that’s why they can work. Mark sticks to The Why and stays grounded. He is a humble myth buster. He is also a master of realism, tackling the challenges of the human condition in a balanced and thoughtful way.
He breaks the task of digital branding into four steps– place, space, fuel and finally, creating an actionable audience. Along the way he dismantles the “follow your dream” Kool Aid and integrates the principles of grit into the process of engaging in any meaningful endeavor. He provides invaluable advice on content development. He also explains how you might fit other media, such as book writing and public speaking, into your platform. In each section, you’ll find real-life practical tips. (Spoiler Alert: Tip #20 for content creation is to “drink a beer.” (114))
I was especially impressed with Chapter Three – “Finding Your Sustainable Interest.” Mark introduces seven exercises that he has used at his seminars. They are more than marketing exercises; they are valuable for anyone looking to find or clarify their career path.
Finally, Mark introduces you to “Stars of Known,” actual case studies that show how all this can come together for distinctively different people and situations.
The Gold
There’s so much gold in here that it’s hard to pick. Here are some of my personal favorites:
Page 12: “Passion without a plan is a hobby.”
Page 23: “The key to success isn’t necessarily a passion, it’s finding a sustainable interest…”
Page 30: “Everybody has the chance to be known and realize their goals and dreams, but not everybody will succeed. Some will listen to the gurus and ‘follow their dream’ into oblivion without the plan they need to give them a chance to succeed. Some will grow impatient and give up too soon. Many will be unwilling to devote the time and consistent hard work needed to make it happen.”
Page 40: “Passion…that’s common. Endurance is rare.”
Page 69: “Becoming known is probably a multi-year journey. But the journey must start. You must begin, even if it’s not perfect.”
Page 107: Practical steps to answer the question, “What kind of content is right for you?”
Page 110: Awesome advice to help answer the question, “How do you find time for this?”
Page 151:The description of the “Alpha Audience” was an Aha! moment for me.
Chapter 9: The five inspiring stories of Known . Yes!
Page 194: Application of 2 Greek words for time, Chronos (chronological time) and Kairos (“the right time”). So insightful.
Page 199: Overcoming fear and the imposter syndrome.
Page 219: “Consistency can heal a multitude of faults – and maybe it eventually turns into talent.” – Anna Blake
Page 223: “It’s your job to make that fire (your content) worth gathering around.” – Chris Brogan
Page 225: “Provide value with the expectation that you’ll never receive anything in return. Serve your audience with your arms wide open, not with a hand extended.” -Shawn Van Dyke
Was that an idea worth spreading? Then please do...and thank you!
If your email and social media feeds are like mine, they were jammed with encouragement and advice on how to make 2019 a great year. So many options and approaches can have the opposite effect, creating stress and frustration. I am always impressed with people who seem to have their stuff together and hit the ground running on January 1. I try to be one of them. Some years I do pretty well, some years not so much.
