All in Communications
There’s a debate raging at the moment around the football club I support (Arsenal) as you whether they should replace the club’s manager of the last couple of years, Unai Emery.
Emery, for those who don’t know, replaced a club legend, Arsene Wenger, who managed the team for 22 years and brought us the greatest period in our history. He not only transformed the club but he transformed English football, in general.
When you’re growing a business, it’s no surprise that you need friends who will advocate for you. I’ve relied on more than my fair share over the last 15 years as I’ve built the business - friends both outside the firm as well as within it - and they’ve been essential to the success that we’ve achieved.
A subset of these friends have gone above and beyond - they’ve truly put themselves out there for us. These are individuals who’ve (certainly in our early days) put their reputations on the line, or gone out of their way to help the firm, or given materially of their precious time to further our goals.
Episode 7 of the podcast is now available and, in this episode, I continue this month’s discussion about story and it’s role in our lives. I talk about my first business trip and the book, A Million Miles In A Thousand Years.
Presentations and pitches are tricky things.
By definition, the goal is to sell something to someone. It could be to get a business idea funded, to get approval to move forward on a project or, to make a sale. In all cases, we’re trying to convince someone to part with something valuable (usually, but not always, money) in return for whatever it is we have to offer.
Epictetus’ words are easy to understand, but difficult to practice. Not surprising, given that it’s in our nature to be liked, to gain approval, to be considered valuable.
The problem is that when we accept these opinions, when we consider ourselves to be “important”, we think we’ve “arrived” and achieved some special end-state or level of wisdom.
The movie, Lost In Translation, is a cinematic masterpiece. Perfectly paced, thoughtfully crafted and backed by the perfect soundtrack, it explores the idea of human connection, isolation and meaning in a way that is real and emotive without being cliched or preachy.
So much of how we experience in the movie - specifically how we interpret those scenes - is up to us. The karaoke scene with Bob (Bill Murray) singing More Than This.
…Is not a phrase I’m entirely comfortable with.
Sure, there’s a maturity that comes with age - what we can refer to as wisdom. This experience also has a way of tempering our roughest, ‘least-rounded’ impulses which. in so many ways, is not at all a bad thing.
But the idealism of youth brings with it a daring, an audacity that has (more often than not) broadened our way of thinking, pushing our boundaries and forcing us to confront those things that hold us back yet we’ve taken for granted.
“How people may emotionally connect with music I’ve been involved in is something that part of me is completely mystified by...Human beings are really different, so why would it be that what I do connects in that way? I discovered maybe around (Radiohead’s album) The Bends that the bit I didn’t want to show, the vulnerable bit...that bit was the bit that mattered.” Thom Yorke
The 1,000 true fans of what you do, the ones who will follow you through hell and high water, aren’t there because they expect you to sell them something. They aren’t interested in you because you’re thoroughly researched, or because you’re crafted to the nth degree.
There’s a lot of talk these days about Artificial Intelligence. Much of the buzz behind AI and many of the “digital disruptors” that leverage it (think digital twins, IoT, blockchain applications and more) is well founded. Taken together, these capabilities and technologies will change almost every facet of our lives, from how we live to what we buy to how we work.
With all that’s going on, I completely forgot that, 10 days ago, this blog turned 3.
That’s a little hard for me to believe considering that for, so many years, the blog was just an idea. I felt I should write a blog, that I wanted to write one, that I really needed to start one. But as so often happens, I kept putting it in a bin called “later”.
But during the summer of 2016, I got to the point where “later” felt like “now or never”, and so, in August of that year, I decided to put up (instead of shut up) and launched Omerisms.
Perceptions are everything.
If someone believes something to be true, it almost doesn’t matter what the data says. The most reasoned arguments and the most robust set of facts will pale in comparison to their beliefs, values and worldview.
And as a marketer or salesperson reaching out to current and potential customers, it certainly doesn’t matter what you think. It only matters what they think, how they perceive the facts.
“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” — Anne Lamott
It’s almost always a bad idea to try and make difficult decisions in the fog of war, unless we absolutely have to.
In the midst of the battle, we’re faced with a host of messages and signals coming at us, non-stop, seemingly at random. Sometimes, our senses are heightened and we’re fully attuned to our circumstances, allowing us to make sharp, intuitive decisions. But more often than not, we’re not. Or we aren’t for any extended period of time.
Every organization has that person. The one who raises issues, flags problems, talks about solutions and fixes to move the ball forward.
I’m not talking about the complainers - folks who have nothing better to do, and don’t have any real intent to solve the problem. I’m talking about those who want to get things done and are vocal about it. Very vocal, in fact. Sometimes, they’re in your face. Many times, they’re irritating. Many times, it feels like they’re too much.
Expectations management is everything in business.
If you’re going to do something, do it. If you have no intention of doing it, don’t say you will. That’s pretty clear cut and I think we’ll all agree with that.
The problem arises when we get comfortable in the grey areas, at the edges of “well, this isn’t really a big deal”. We brush off - consciously or otherwise - these little things.
In my last post, I talked about the importance of simplicity and authenticity in our messaging. Complex, obtuse and, worse, overly clever messaging does a disservice to the point we’re trying to make. And most of the time, it detracts from getting that point across.
Sometimes, though, this just seems impossible. We struggle with distilling the key takeaways or the so-whats. What keeps emerging is far longer and more involved than what feels right.
When it comes to communication, authenticity and simplicity are the two most important ingredients.
Whatever you’re trying to do - convince someone to buy something, change how they behave or join your team - it always pays to get straight to the point and be real about why your message is so important.
Very early on in my career, I went to meet a senior executive at one of the fastest growing entertainment companies in Asia.
At the time, I was a Marketing Executive in the Consumer Goods space and, while the work was interesting, I wanted to explore what else was out there, especially in this exciting new area that was taking Asia (I lived in Hong Kong at the time) by storm.
One of the things that I love about the Montessori education system is its focus on developing independence and confidence and instilling self-esteem in children.
In fact, one of the central tenets of that system is Valorization. I was reminded of this in a recent video from the RPMS school (which is where my kids went). Valorization is about:
I’ve talked about situations where leaders and managers struggle to say “I don’t know” because of their fear of seeming incompetent or not being “in the know”. It’s an approach that rarely works and, more often than not, breeds frustration and angst, because it goes against the reality that real leaders are human, open and willing to be vulnerable.
On the flip side, we also see situations where perfectly competent individuals - individuals who know their stuff and know the situation at hand - are unwilling to say what they think. They remain quiet even when they know better, even when their expertise, experience and gut are telling them otherwise.
Why does this happen?
“I don’t know.”
Three words that so many people, including both emerging and current leaders, find incredibly hard to say.
We’re bred on this perception that we need to have all of the answers, that we’ve mapped and thought through the entire journey - peaks, pitfalls, perils and all. And that all of these answers are at our fingertips.
