All in Communications
Sometime between late Spring and early Fall, 1996, AOL’s stock fell from a high of $70 all the way down to $24.
These were the early days of the internet. The space was booming: startups were popping up everywhere, investors’ ears were perking up, and the big, established players were taking notice and/or beginning to get involved.
Many years ago, I worked with a senior consulting partner who liked to talk in puzzles. Instead of giving us specific marching orders, he’d talk around the issues and then ask us to put together a deck for his review.
For example, as we’d talk through a proposal we were working on, he’d talk about the client situation, the range of issues they were facing as well…
…Is that there really isn’t any such thing.
In popularity contests of any significance (where a sizable population is asked for its endorsement of an individual or a subject or an action), the landslide win is not a common occurrence. More prevalent (in my admittedly unscientific assessment) is the close race, where the margin of victory is in single digit percentage points.
…Is that there really isn’t any such thing.
In popularity contests of any significance (where a sizable population is asked for its endorsement of an individual or a subject or an action), the landslide win is not a common occurrence. More prevalent (in my admittedly unscientific assessment) is the close race, where the margin of victory is in single digit percentage points.
When it comes to the work we do, no one likes surprises.
It doesn’t matter which part of the organization you sit in - client management, operations, marketing or elsewhere - one of the fundamental tenets of corporate performance is predictability. We want to know what’s happening, why and, if necessary, what we need to do about it.
One of the staples of modern air travel is the flight safety video. It’s an aviation regulation that’s designed to ensure everyone is appropriately briefed on flight safety procedures in the event of an emergency.
If you’ve ever taken a flight, you’ve sat through one. And if, like me, you fly a lot, you’ve not only sat through them, you’ve likely tuned out during the briefing.
There’s a couple of stages we go through when we’re angered by a particular situation we’re faced with.
First, we lose our cool and debate and question our predicament. We turn the situation over and over in our heads, incredulous, bemused and upset that this is happening to us. We wallow in the ‘why me’s’. This is sometimes inevitable but always unproductive.
Think of the most exciting job you’ve done, the best initiative you’ve been part of, the most rewarding experience you’ve had. What was the underlying basis of that experience, the focus of the leadership in that situation? Were you excited? Were you focused on moving towards something? Were you inspired?
Arsene Wenger said this in response to Alex Ferguson’s comment that his team were the best in the Premier league back in the early 2000’s.
They weren’t. (Editor’s note: possible writer’s bias at play here.)
But the fact is, that people really do think that. And it’s not an unnatural or even irrational thought to have.
How many newsletters do you get in your inbox every day? How many emails do you get with an update on some issue or department or project? How many notifications do you get on your phone with the latest piece of “must-have” information?
Now, how many of them do you actually read?
When I left consulting about a decade and a half ago, I went from an environment where I had plenty of support structures and resources at my disposal, to what was essentially me, a laptop and a desk in my home office.
It was a massive shift, and one that required me to rethink what I focused on and how I got things done.
Labels are convenient. They're easy-to-use shortcuts.
They allow us to make a point, to convey meaning without additional, wasted effort. They’re also a means to put something (or someone) in a box - a box that’s familiar to us, one that allows us to - in our mind - better understand and relate to them.
One of the hardest things to do in our professional lives is to say no to someone when they ask for our time.
We always want to be helpful, to lend a helping hand whenever we can. If someone wants to show us their latest product, discuss their latest activity or just get together to “network”, we feel compelled to say yes.
I have an out-of-state friend I've met in-person only once but have stayed in touch with via social media ever since. Every so often, we'll message each other, usually with regards to something we posted on FaceBook.
During one recent exchange…
There's a cynicism we tend to have when it comes to advertising and branding.
So many brands adopt personas based on their desire to attract a certain type of consumer. These personas are fashioned on the basis of deep consumer research, canvassing their likes, dislikes, tastes, preferences and more. Some of these personas succeed, others don't.
Once, during 10th grade math class, I was called on to answer a question, one that was based on the prior night's homework. Homework that I hadn't done.
My answer was instinctual. “I don’t know. I haven’t done it.”
The teacher looked at me quizzically and asked, “Well, which one is it?"
I'm a reasonably open book. I like to think that I'm pretty transparent about what I think, how I feel and what I believe.
If I like something, I'm not hesitant about sharing my love for that thing. If I don't like something, for example, how an individual is behaving, I'll say that as well. (I'll try and find the right time and approach, of course, but I generally prefer not to leave things unsaid. Particularly if they are someone I need to have some sort of relationship with.)
There's a great quote that says that selling (anything) is essentially a transfer of enthusiasm.
There's a lot of truth in that and it matters whether you're in sales or not. You could be selling an idea, a project or an initiative to your boss. You could be promoting a new marketing plan for your non-profit or trying to raise money for a cause.
Why isn’t my message getting through? Why aren’t they opening my emails, especially when they asked for it? Why isn’t my presentation resonating?
Here’s a few ideas to consider:
