So, You're Not Doing...

Wow, you did not see that coming! You just learned that you were expected to do that which you were not instructed to do. Therefore, you did not do the expected, without knowing what it is, and somehow, unexpectedly, you are accountable.

The matter is singularly one of reasonable expectations and very clear communications specific to those expectations. What is expected should be inspected to use a tried and true statement. Inspecting anything, with the goal of setting expectations,  requires the time committed to doing the work necessary in order to get to know more about every facet of the matter.

One of the main reasons that capable people fail to meet expectations is that they are never fully informed what the expectations are, until it is too late. One of the main reasons that customers become confused, disenchanted and then they abandon plans far too early, is because no one took the time to tell the truth early on about what they should reasonably expect and when.

Leaders spend considerable time and effort selecting the right employees for the right job and far too little time telling those employees what they need to do, how they must to do it and when it is expected to be done. Leaders should also make it clear that they expect employees to ask for all the help they need, not all the help they want.

Setting and sharing aggressive yet reasonable expectations is leadership's responsibility when employees are involved and your responsibility when customers are involved. There is little you can do that has greater value than setting clear expectations, especially in the beginning.

If expectations are not clearly set, managed and measured, then anything is acceptable. Employees will feel they are meeting expectations because they do not know otherwise and customers will envision, establish and own their unrealistic expectations as part of the deal they struck with you.

Be certain to make expectations clear and you can expect to have more as those expectations are met and exceeded.  If you don't know what is expected or you feel there is something that needs further explanation, then ask for and expect help. Always expect more from yourself than you do from others.

Block Me or I'll Tackle You

Successful football teams do two basic things better than their opponents: blocking and tackling. The ability to block and tackle, are skills that football players continually practice and prepare for. Blocking and tackling are skills that are most effective when they employ several critical factors; timing, strength, speed, knowledge, desire and of course being face-to-face. To block or to tackle you have to be close, very close. Before they block or tackle in a game, they spend lots of time learning proven methods and practicing. 

I vividly and terrifyingly remember when, as a young boy, my Mother would be addressing my bad behavior face-to-face. When I would look away she would always say; "Look at me when I am talking to you." She had a point.

Looking at someone when we are talking to or listening to them, speaks volumes about our commitment to building a trusting and mutually beneficial relationship. Trusting and mutually beneficial relationships do not always mean an equal outcome relationship. Trusting and mutually beneficial relationships mean we are truly invested in doing what is best for our clients, even when it may not immediately be of benefit to us.  Over time, benefits will balance. 

Selling effectively and successfully comes down to one main goal, building trusting relationships. This is challenging at first, because the target usually does not know us or know of us, resulting in us being more of a distraction than a worthy opportunity. The fastest means to a desired outcome is in personal visits that occur, over and over.

Over time, once your value is established and your client's trust you, you may be able to achieve desired results from afar. Yep, I have done business with people without ever meeting them in person, but the relationship was not nearly as productive or fulfilling as the trusted relationships with people that I made frequent in-person contact with. Nothing is better than making calls in person. You should never do from afar, that which you can do up close. Make the time to make the calls. Studies have shown that you lose as much as 10% of your hard earned influence for every 30-days you fail to make contact!

Making close-up calls that you are prepared to make will have a significant positive impact. Making close-up calls that you are not ready to make, because you are not prepared, will have a significant damaging impact and probably get you blocked from making measurable progress. If you want to block and tackle well, you are going to have to get close, very close. Because, you can't tackle the important issues without blocking out the show-stopping challenges. 

It Is Not About The People

The understandable and very common answer from those at the "top" is that our people are our greatest asset and that they are the difference makers.

People can and do make a difference. But they are not any company or organizations most valuable assets.

The most valuable asset is not people; the most valuable asset is the right people.

The right people do the right things, the right way, at the right times and if they fail they are not hesitant to share their failures, especially when they are seeking help. Yes, the right people will ask for help and they will take the advice as they seek to learn. The right people know that failure isn't fatal. 

The right people have aggressive yet realistic expectations. They do not expect too much and will not, for long, accept too little. 

The right people ask questions and listen to answers. 

The right people are team members, who focus on contributing and helping the team to a successful outcome and do not really care who gets the public credit. They understand that not everyone can contribute at the same level and they are accepting of that, as long as the other team members are making a solid effort.

The right people can identify, the wrong people and yet they do not judge. They understand that over time, the right people will demonstrate why and how they separate themselves from the crowd. They know that the right environment will run the wrong people off. The right people will not throw the wrong people under the bus. They will however, when the timing is right, with compassion and empathy, help the wrong people to get off the bus. 

The right people make exceptional leaders because they know that no one is more important than anyone else. They know that everyone has a job that entails differing degrees of importance and that without everyone pulling  in the same direction all may be lost. They know that winning is a combined effort. The make sure the right people are in the right seats and that they are getting all of the help they need. 

When the right people are promoted to a leadership role, they already know the "who and what". They know, that they have earned a leadership role because of who they are, not what they are. Who they are is an individual that has excelled and has diligently earned the new role. They do not allow the new position (the “what”) to make decisions. They make decisions based on the right information, independent of who is involved. They do not show favoritism, they lead empathetically and when the time is right, they make decisions that will impact others, sometimes significantly. The right people care about all other people.

People are not the most valuable asset, the right people are. Are you the right person?

Sure Do Miss Phone Booths

Go ahead.

You are free to assume that everyone and I mean everyone is interested in your side of the phone conversation.

While you sit there in, let's say an airport gate waiting area or while you stand in line at the grocery store, taking far too loudly you obviously are convinced that everyone within a half of a mile is really glued to what you have to say to whom ever you are saying it to. If your opinion, based on your actions, substantiates that the discussion is of such common interest, why not activate the speaker phone function and ask everyone to gather round so we can all hear both sides and perhaps occasionally chime in as we see fit. That option would be far more considerate than intentionally speaking at such a high volume that others have no choice but to listen to you and only you.

Surely there is a place where you can take your conversation so it will not distract other people and would likely give you more privacy where you are better able to concentrate. Otherwise you might consider returning the call when you can isolate yourself from the maddening crowd. There used to be a thing called a phone booth that insulated the person making the call from the outside world. These were marvelous inventions because it required one to close a door in order to hear the other party.

The smart phone is a fantastic device that has the capability to communicate in voice and written word. You might consider the latter if you can't find a secluded place to have your phone conversation. Because believe it or not, the world outside your world, is not that interested.

Likesillitus Causes Major Grammatical Disruption

Like declaring that like is like overused is like really like insulting.


While I was like in like the airport like waiting for like the plane to like arrive I was like looking at all of the like interesting people. We will likely all agree that like the airport is like a really great place to like, people watch. So I like, did just that.

When I like got on my flight I was like seated behind like one of these interesting people I had been watching who I later discovered is like a recent college graduate (Let's call him like Ace and his conversation buddy, we'll call him like Bud) Ace like struck up a conversation with like Bub who was like sitting right next to him and he was like in the same like business this recent like college graduate was like looking to like get involved in after like spreading his diplomaed wings, while like spending like one more like big pile of like his parents' money on like some tropical like beach. So during like the course of their like loud like conversation, I like heard Ace tell Bud like just how he like learned to like change like the world with his like engineering degree from like this really cool like college.

Mostly they like talked about like the computers in like cars so I like figured like all by like myself that like Ace like wanted to like get into like the car-business. Not like physcially get in like a car but get in like the business that like makes like computers for like cars.

Bud, who talked like he had like been in the car computer business for a while like carried his 8% of the like mostly one-way conversation without like much of a challenge. Honestly Bud like appeared to like be like a bit like tired and perhaps like wanted to like sleep on like the flight, but Ace wasn't like having it.

Ace was like so attached to like Bud that he didn't even take like the window seat. Ace like sat in like the middle seat and Bud was like in the aisle seat. Most people like really find that if like the middle seat is not like occupied like one passenger sits in like the window seat and like the other passenger sits in like the aisle seat so they can like have some like space between like their bodies and will not like find themselves in like a flight-long armrest like struggle. But alas, Ace wasn't like cooperating. Ace like didn't move during like the entire like 2-hour flight, including like the 20 minutes of like taxiing,  Ace like talked like really loudly and talked like a lot and Bud like played like he's was listening and said like un-huh and okay like as much as Ace like said like.

This experience was like listening to like a drunk like attempt to have like a conversation with like a sober person. The drunk like just like continued to like carry on talking like loud and like really fast and like the sober person was like trapped in like the corner of like a crowded bar and couldn't like escape.

There like really is like a lesson here for like all of you people who use like to constitute 80% of your like chosen words during like a conversation. Like I don't drink but like I can assure you that I really like considered drinking, like a lot, during like this flight after like listening to Ace like use like one million times during like a two-hour and 20-minute conversation with like Bud. Bud was like soused at the end of like the flight and I was like not at all like surprised. In fact if Bud like ran out of like drink money, I was like going to like offer to pay for like all of his like drinks until the like flight attendants like stopped like serving like ice-cold Bud to like Bud.

Like you know like who you are. I fear that like Ace doesn't like have like a clue.

And Then, It Got Weird

Sitting in one of my favorite coffee shops, near a college campus, enjoying the best bagel on the planet (Cinnamon Crunch from Panera) I overheard a statement from a young college student.

While having a conversation with their companion, one of the students stated; "And then it got weird." I am not really sure exactly what that meant, (and I was grateful for that) because that is when they started whispering.

And then, it got weird.

We have processes in business that are developed and engineered with a desirable result expected. When we follow the steps and endeavor to own the process, our outcomes will become more predictable and overtime, more beneficial. Step after logical and planned step we continually should be moving toward the objective. The singular objective achieved is going to be one of many, making the entire process more effective and efficient.

The process is just that, a process. A set of actions required, (REQUIRED) that when followed and preformed should open a door to the next objective.

But what happens when it gets weird?

How we grow in our flexibility and resilience will determine how much we grow. People are different  and while you may be providing a solution to a common problem, people are not common and any attempt to treat them as such will invariably throw you off course.

If it gets weird and you react weirdly, it is going to get weirder.

When you are thrown off course because it got weird, the immediate objective becomes to get back on course. Get back on course by getting to the root of the matter by asking questions and listening to answers. View every individual, as they deserved to be viewed, individually. Their problems that you can solve may be familiar to you but they may be foreign to your customer. Any attempt to move to the next objective when confusion is resident is destined to fail. Make clear that the objective is clear.

You must be patient and resolute. Demonstrate patience by empathizing and show resoluteness when you are making your clear and scientific recommendations, including the next action-objective.

Expect it to get weird and when it does, adjust.

My Finger Might Be Broken

The day was especially hot in deep south, Texas. The considerable heat was not unusual for August in the Valley but this day was really, really hot!

After work, I decided to go for a refreshing swim in our backyard pool. Walking outside I noticed my beautiful wife and her niece sitting on the steps of the pool. They obviously had the same idea as I.

After I gave my wife a kiss and said hello to her niece, I dove in.

My routine was to dive in the shallow end and swim underwater to the deep end, touch the end of the pool with my hands and swim back to the shallow end. This exercise provided me the opportunity to cool off more quickly since I swam underwater the entire way.

When I approached the deep end of the pool and reached out with my left hand to touch it so I could reverse my course, I heard a strange cracking sound and felt a unique sensation. Feeling something wasn't right I surfaced and looked at my now disfigured finger, I feared, that my finger might be broken. My finger was dislocated. So without thinking, I grabbed the end and pulled! The finger popped back into place with minimum discomfort and immediately began to swell.  So as a precaution, I took my wedding ring off and as it turned out, that was a very good idea. My finger continued to swell and if I had left the ring on we would have been in the emergency room with a doctor handling a metal cutting tool that was designed for much larger industrial projects.

After the finger healed, the knuckle was disfigured to the extent that my wedding ring would not fit.

Considerable time passed and the knuckle refused to return to its normal size.

I was talking to my wife about the continuing condition of my disfigured knuckle and said I was tired of waiting on my finger to heal so I could wear my wedding ring and we needed to get me one that fit, even if it was going to rattle around because of the size of my abnormal knuckle. She decided I should give my old ring a try to see how far off we were from it going over the knuckle. With a bit of convincing, the ring fit!

My wedding ring is very important to me because it is a visual sign of my commitment. I have always been deeply committed, but the ring represented a visual reminder to me, my wife and the world.

Making commitments is easy, keeping commitments takes dedication. When you make a commitment, create a visual reminder of that commitment. When you see the reminder, you will know that your commitment is strong and requires your continuing dedication because commitments don't stick to people, people stick to them.