Smelling Flowers

Through the pandemic, I have gotten a lot more reflective. I'm not suggesting I've climbed that mountain or executed the billion dollar idea that has made me rich beyond my wildest dreams, but it has given me pause about a lot of things about life. I did make a career significant career shift which turned out well but I haven't ordered the Bugatti just yet. I can honestly say my mind is clearer or at the very least more inquisitive than it has been in years. It has given pause to whether I'm utilizing my time well. 

I was running late for a client meeting last week and found myself getting angry at the audacity of other drivers being on the road slowing me down. Then I took a deep breath and laughed out loud. By myself in my car. If the roads had been clear, I may have made it to my destination four minutes earlier. 

Take a breath

It's those moments where I seem to be taking a longer pause to discover what really is important. Countless books have been written about being present now and not fretting so much about the past or future. If we could only be more like my cat. She does not worry that she purred wrong yesterday or that she's sleeping on my good sweater. She just lives in the moment. 

We spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about stuff we can't change, won't happen, or has happened. Why do we do that? It usually works out and even if it isn't exactly how we envisioned it would turn out, it's fine. 

Did nothin'

The Sunday before last, I got up early, had a coffee, read some news, had a nap, got up, had some breakfast, watched a Formula 1 race, had a nap, watched a show, made some dinner, watched another show, went to bed. And you know what? The sun came up the next day. Nothing terrible happened because I took a day off.

I think it's been accredited to the great philosopher Confucius who apparently said; "Life is simple; we choose to make it complicated." So I was four minutes late for my appointment. As it turned out, my client was 15 minutes late. We laughed about it over a spectacular cup of coffee.  

Cherishing every moment remains excellent advice.

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Is Money the Object?

A large portion of the planet measures profits over people. To some, what you make, what kind of car you drive, how much money you have in your investment portfolio has become more important than embracing relationships and experiences.

I was recalling a situation with a client a few weeks back with regards to compensation. She is doing very well in her current role and from all evidence it appears she’s being groomed for a big promotion. She is a sharp, talented, authentic leader, but she’s stuck on the number on the bottom of the page.

It’s Not the Paycheck

We talked about her new role and she kept coming back to her salary. She was excited about getting a big raise so she and her husband can get a bigger house. That’s great, we celebrated her hard work. But the deeper issue is her motivation.

She realized that the reason she wanted the new role and responsibilities was because it’s going to give her more time to coach and lead an expanded team and it’s not really about the money. We celebrated even more. That was it! She wasn’t ruled by money or stature or position, her passion was being a great leader and continuing to improve.

Living by Numbers

I told my client about a time in my career when I was offered an exciting new opportunity. It was the culmination of a decade of hard work and I was about to be rewarded for my efforts. But I had it in my mind that I wanted to make a certain amount as a signal of my success.

Two months into the new role, I thought to myself, the extra money didn’t make me feel any different. In fact, I was more focused on the expanded responsibility. The number was some self-fabricated yardstick which eventually meant nothing.

The Real Bottom Line

If we focus on money, it will become our only measure of achievement. Business needs to see black ink but there are three motivating factors at play – to make a name, to make a living, and to make a difference. Making a name for ourselves doesn’t seem quite as important as making a living while making a difference in others’ lives.

If the focal point of all we do is profits, we may lose the opportunity to spend time with some remarkable people.
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Kneale Mann | Leadership and management consultant helping leaders, teams, and companies get clear on their goals and results.

shutterstock

Why Meetings?

Let’s book a meeting. Let’s talk about it on the conference call. Let’s reconvene at next week’s meeting. Let’s discuss the next time we have a team call. Here’s a thought, let’s figure out why we have so many meetings and calls in the first place.

I have a colleague who attends an all-day full team status meeting once a week. Once a week?! Full day!?! I am a huge supporter of collaboration and teamwork. It’s critical that your company is strong inside before it can be strong outside, but an entire day in a meeting? I challenge there could be a better way.

Do you know why you are attending your meetings today?

Has the reason for each been clearly articulated? Is there an obvious summary of desired outcomes? Will a decision be made on who does what by when? Will the call start and end on time? Do you know why you’re in the meeting at all?

I work with a guy who never has a phone call last more than 10 minutes. We get a ton accomplished in that time and move on. If we realize we've missed something or an item needs more clarification, we get back on the phone. Each of us has our agenda ready, action items listed, and we get to work.

Try this for a week

Cut the time allotted for each meeting and conference call by 50%. Then in a few weeks, cut them in half again. So the one-hour session you have this afternoon would become 15 minutes. You may claim that’s impossible. Have you tried it?

More meetings do not mean more efficiency or alignment. In a matter of a few short weeks, you will realize you are giving everyone more time to think and create rather than prepare and attend meetings and calls. You will see more collaboration, more impromptu discussions, and more ideas being shared.

Or you could stop reading and get to you next meeting.
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Kneale Mann | Leadership and management consultant helping leaders, teams, and companies get clear on their goals and results.

gometro

Springing Forward: Does it Help?

The debate over daylight saving time – which affects much of the planet – has been going on for a couple of hundred years. Does it save energy? Does it give us more time to do things? Does it help our lives? Governments can’t get more than a third of the registered voters to cast a ballot in any election, so the chances of the entire planet agreeing on this issue would be zero. So we can move on.

We know our most precious resource is time yet how often do we spend it unwisely? Discussions about the pros and cons of moving our clocks an hour happen twice a year. The rest of the time we grumble about how busy we are doing busy things being busy. Time flies, life moves fast, and suddenly we reach a point where we take stock and try to calculate how much of our finite time we actually spend enjoying this experience called life.

It's just clocks and money?

David Thackston wrote: “A positive effect that Daylight Saving Time has on the economy is that it gives people the opportunity to spend more time outside of their homes in the evenings, attending sports events, shopping, and in most all cases, spending money.”

As leaders, how can we ensure the entire team is spending their time wisely rather than doing busy things that make us all look like we’re progressing? Perchance we should take a moment to pause and reflect how we are spending our time together. We may not need that additional meeting this week. Perhaps we should afford people more time to grow and think and create.

Or we can continue to complain that we have no time.
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Kneale Mann | Leadership Strategist, consultant, writer, speaker, executive coach facilitating performance growth with leaders, management, and teams.

timecenter

Let's Go For Coffee

Wanna get together for coffee? How about we meet for coffee? Let's book coffee some time. Where are we meeting for coffee? We know it's about much more than coffee.

Steven Johnson explains.


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Kneale Mann | Leadership Strategist, consultant, writer, speaker, executive coach facilitating performance growth with leaders, management, and teams.

Steven Johnson | TED

Put the Phone Away

Marketers will tell you all about the overwhelming metrics on cell use. Conservative estimates say we will have more activated mobile devices this year than people living on the planet. We are using them to do just about everything in our lives and the time we spend on them increases with every passing day.

We’re in meetings sitting right beside each other mesmerized by that little screen in our hands. We’re checking email at stop lights. We’re ensuring we didn't miss something while we wait for our flight. Look around a public place and count the number of people not on their device. They are the endangered species.

I was having lunch with a client recently and he just about lost his mind because he forgot his phone at the office. And we wonder why we have disengaged employees, connections, and relationships. We're vacant in a connected world.

Charlene deGuzman forgot her phone and discovered something interesting.


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Kneale Mann | Leadership Strategist, consultant, writer, speaker, executive coach facilitating performance growth with leaders, management, and teams.

Charlene deGuzman

Your Leadership Review

There's an annual event that everyone seems to think is crucial yet few look forward to enduring and that is the annual performance review. This delightful 45-minute meeting consists of a discussion of how one of the people in the room has performed for the past twelve months. There's precious other time during the year to focus on people so keep it to a chit chat once a year then get back to work.

Some companies engage in a form that is to be filled out by the employee prior to the meeting and then reviewed with their manager. The time spent on strengths is often paled by those items that require more attention or the weaknesses. If you ask most people, they would agree they should work on getting better at what they don't do well. But how often do we do what we can to find more time to do what we do well?

They Won't Wait

Your customers and your team don't wait for an annual appraisal form on your work. They make judgements all the time. But they often don't tell you if they're are unhappy. In some cases they just leave. Or worse, tell everyone about the experience.

So review your leadership strengths and decide whether you are waiting for the feedback or being proactive to ensure superior internal customer service, discussion of performance and strengths, while providing greater external customer service.

Your leadership review is a daily event.

Kneale Mann

arividam

Compulsive Disclosure Disorder

There is an ailment, a condition if you will, that has captured the attention of the global medical and scientific communities. The origins trace back to our earliest ancestors but it appears to have accelerated rapidly in the last few decades. From afar, it may appear innocuous but could prove chronic and dangerous.

Those afflicted may not know it. Their actions seem innocent. Their need to belong, be validated, and connect becomes so strong, they are compelled to share every blemish, recipe, setback, mood, argument, road trip stop, victory, meal, and event in their lives whenever the urge strikes them. Some experts call it Compulsive Disclosure Disorder.

Not Limited to Online Use

CDD (and closely related TMI) can appear suddenly at meetings, on conference calls, and in boardrooms. In extreme cases, sufferers must share whenever and wherever they can. Although not severe, most of us have had the occasional slip up.

The path to recovery begins with curbing the need to share our exact thought at any given moment. Inside voices are permitted and often encouraged to remain inside. If you know someone with CDD, gently remind them that some details of their lives are okay to keep to themselves.

Let’s remain strong.

Kneale Mann

niklaswikstrom

Your Customer Review

There's an annual event that everyone seems to think is crucial yet few look forward to enduring and that is the annual performance review.

This delightful 30-60 minute meeting consists of a discussion of how one of the people in the room has performed their duties for the past twelve months.

Some companies engage in a form that is to be filled out by the employee prior to the meeting and then reviewed with their manager which is a far cry from daily leadership.

Summarize and Generalize

The time spent on strengths is often paled by those items that require more attention or the weaknesses. And if you ask most people, they would agree they should work on getting better at what they don't do well.

For most, the performance form is filled out shortly before the meeting. Then the results are neatly placed into the employee’s file to be viewed in another year.

If you own your company, you don't have the luxury of an annual performance review because that happens every day in the form of client feedback - or worse, no feedback - followed by lost revenue.

Customer Measurement

Do they wait a year, send you an appraisal form to fill out to mark yourself on various aspects of your product and customer service then sit with you to discuss? No, they often don’t even complain if they are unhappy with your offering. They just leave. Or worse, tell everyone about the experience through the social channels.

So have a look at your team, your business, your offering, your organization and decide whether you are waiting for the feedback or being proactive to ensure superior internal customer service within a social business model – which includes regular discussions about performance and strengths versus the annual review – and greater external customer service.

Our performance review is a daily event

Kneale Mann

image credit: amerispec | original: oct 2011

Performance Reviewed Daily

There's an annual event that everyone seems to think is crucial yet few look forward to enduring and that is the annual performance review.

This delightful 30-60 minute meeting consists of a discussion of how one of the people in the room has performed their duties for the past twelve months.

Some companies engage in a form that is to be filled out by the employee prior to the meeting and then reviewed with their manager. The time spent on strengths is often paled by those items that require more attention or the weaknesses. And if you ask most people, they would agree they should work on getting better at what they don't do well.

Summarize and Generalize

Of course, few of us keep an open file to make notes during a major project or a significant event throughout the year. This form is often filled out shortly before the meeting. Then the results are neatly placed into the employee’s file to be viewed in another year.

If you own your company, you don't have the luxury of an annual performance review because that happens every day in the form of client feedback - or worse, no feedback - followed by lost revenue.

How do customers measure your performance? 

Do they wait a year, send you an appraisal form to fill out and mark yourself on various aspects of your product and customer service then sit with you to discuss? No, they often don’t even complain if they are unhappy with your offering. They just leave. Or worse, tell everyone about the experience through the social channels.

So have a look at your team, your business, your offering, your organization and decide whether you are waiting for the feedback or being proactive to ensure superior internal customer service within a social business model – which includes regular discussions about performance and strengths versus the annual review – and greater external customer service.

How's your performance review?

Kneale Mann

image credit: buzzle

Developing Your Offline Business

Nice to Tweet You

If you work hard, remain open to all possibilities and build a connection, it is astonishing how many people will help you. Each connection is a person, not just another number to add to our LinkedIn profile.

The digital universe can connect us with people who can help us, work with us, hire us, befriend us and collaborate with us. In the last five years, I have had the pleasure of meeting hundreds of people and not all through quick clicks and shares. It takes time but it's well worth spending if you take the connection to the next step and get to know the people you bump into in cyberspace.

Digital Will Only Help So Far

You may say it's the power of social media but that is just the starting point. We bump into hundreds, perhaps thousands of people every day and make no connection. It is when we set up a call or meeting and get to know each other outside of the busy online world and connect as people that the power begins to be realized.

The in-person meeting or phone call will never be diminished and should never been removed from your business plan. It is the single tactic that can crush you or help you.
I can't speak for you, but I know I need to pick up the phone more often!

Often companies don’t put forth the effort because they don't want to put forth the effort. They can point to other reasons but perhaps they don't care to hear what customers are saying about them. The world is shrinking yet the basics have never been more critical – reading, writing, partnerships, service and being human.

Drop the tweet and pick up a phone

Kneale Mann

image credit: rachelcreative
original post Apr 2011

Your Biggest Business Advantage

Nice to Tweet You

If you work hard, remain open to all possibilities and build a connection, it is astonishing how many people will help you. Each connection is a person, not just another number to add to our LinkedIn profile.

The digital universe can connect us with people who can help us, work with us, hire us, befriend us and collaborate with us. In the last 48 hours
I inquired about three projects with a small handful of people.

I met all but two of them online, I have spent time with three of them in person and four were strangers a year ago.

Digital Will Only Help So Far

You may say it's the power of social media but that is just the starting point. We bump into hundreds, perhaps thousands of people every day and make no connection. It is when we set up a call or meeting and get to know each other outside of the busy online world and connect as people that the power begins to be realized.

The in-person meeting or phone call will never be diminished and should never been removed from your business plan. It is the single tactic that can crush you or help you.
I can't speak for you, but I know I need to pick up the phone more often!

Often companies don’t put forth the effort because they don't want to put forth the effort. They can point to other reasons but perhaps they don't care to hear what customers are saying about them. The world is shrinking yet the basics have never been more critical – reading, writing, partnerships, service and being human.

Do you think it might work?

Kneale Mann

image credit: gruntled

The Intelligence of Coffee

I often meet colleagues and clients in coffee shops, perhaps you do as well. It has become the cliché of our time to meet for coffee. The drink has become the conduit for gathering and discussing and sharing.

Let’s meet for coffee. Let’s grab a coffee some time. But according to author Steven Johnson, there is much more to coffee than we may know. [video] 

knealemann

image credit: TED

Five Things: Staying Focused

We are human. We get distracted by squirrels and unicorns.

The easy stuff is more fun than prospecting. Fear of success is often replaced by inaction.

Here are five things you can do consistently that will help you.

Network Socially

Despite our penchant to interact since the dawn of our existence, the social web is still in its infancy. This gives us a chance to connect to similar people from across the world or next door. Take your time, have patience, connect and contribute.

Meet and Referral

Coffee meetings are common as you start out. You need to meet people, practice, meet more people, ask for business and ask for people to refer you to others who may need your product or service. It is a community and a network that will help you best. Remember to reciprocate.

Turn It Off

With smartphones in our hands at all times, it’s difficult not to stay in touch. We return emails in an instant and we train ourselves and more importantly others that we are always available. Phone and email can be shut off once in while. It also stops others from wanting to make their emergency your priority.

Stay Off Social Networks

If you are on Twitter for eight hours a day, you may not be working on other clients’ business like what you say you will do for prospects. Block off your online time or it will consume you.

Start One. Finish One.

Do one thing, finish it, tell people to stop distracting you and get on to the next. Easier said than done but magic when you can pull it off.

Back to my five things.

What are yours?

@knealemann
Helping you integrate all you do with all you do.

photo credit: nextup

Experience + Help + Time ≠ Free

Can You Spare An Hour?

One issue that has been coming up more and more is free.

Give It To Sell It.

This is not about being there ahead of the sale or building a strong community, this is about allowing vultures to pick away at your gray matter with wild abandon.

Lovely image, isn't it?

If you don't give your time and experience value, who will?

Social networks have given us the wondrous opportunity to meet people we would not have otherwise met. It gives us a chance to get to know each other. It's far superior to cold calling by ten to the power of infinity.

Business Over Coffee.

If you and I met for an hour to talk about your business, it would not be an hour, it would hour plus twenty-six years of marketing, media and management experience overseeing multi-million operations. It's also an hour of your time plus all of your experience.

But I buy most of my music. The album only has two good songs. The band already makes plenty of money.

The music industry continues to deal with the issue of free. After all, there are hundreds of thousands of songs being illegally downloaded every minute. They have tried watermarks, law suits, embedded code, threats, public relations campaigns and people are still stealing their stuff. Why? Because they can.

The Doors Are Wide Open.

If you owned a clothing store and told the world that Thursdays were free night, how's the lineup on Fridays?

If you are planning to redecorate your office, the manager at the hardware store is probably not going to let you bring home the paint so can decide if you want to pay for it later.

But it's much tougher to quantify our time. It doesn't fit in a glass, it's gone and there's more in its place so how do you value it?

It's Just a Doodle.

A colleague recently reminded me of the story about Pablo Picasso having lunch in a restaurant. Another patron approached the master and asked for a quick drawing on a napkin.

Picasso quickly informs the man that it will be $1 Million. Shocked, he questions why a simple drawing would be that much. Picasso replies that it took him thirty years to perfect that talent and that is not free.

We are all Picasso in our own way. We need to celebrate that and stop giving our time away like it's in endless supply.

Three posts about free from three brilliant colleagues who continue to give away plenty for free. You can read them here, here and here.

And feel free to add your free thoughts.

@knealemann
strategy. marketing. social media.

photo credit: echostains

Why Social Media?

Got 'em. Need 'em

Why do we spend time collecting connections, friends and followers? Are we going for some sort of record? Is it bragging rights we seek? Are we in need of that much attention that we must ask strangers and colleagues to click a few clicks and join our community as we reciprocate? Is that the end game?

Are we collecting each other like trading cards or dusty trinkets for the mantle? Of course not!

Sure, some think these digital channels are advertising/spam/direct mail opportunities but those activities aren’t very successful.

Yes, enough people say yes to the pitch. There are plenty who are happy to write the code to create bots who scour the social networks like bottom feeders. But that’s not you and me.

A Chit and A Chat

Most of us just want to connect and share. It is a chance to find and meet similar thinking people. It may even give us a chance to work together. But it begins with a conversation and a modicum of trust.

It’s a cup of coffee, relax!

Today I published a tweet about meeting people for a chat. There were some skeptics and a whole bunch who said that would be a good idea.

Newsflash: If you want to tap in to the magic of social media, you kinda need to be somewhat social. I am looking forward to the seven meetings that were booked within ten minutes. Pretty cool, huh! Yes it is.

Friends And The Rest

Why do you have friends or followers or connections on your social media profiles? Some may be buddies from school or co-workers or members of your Thursday night hockey league but are there others?

Why are they there? Have you taken the time to get to know them a bit more? It may surprise you that they may have been trying to figure out a way to connect with you.

It’s not whether or not you need to tap into the power of human networking, but you should know why do you want to do so.

@knealemann
Helping you create your best business.
marketing and social media strategy.

image credit: scienceblogs.com