Being Meaningful
August 17, 2010 by Ed McLaughlin
Shortly after his return to Apple in 1997, Steve Jobs defined the company’s purpose to employees. The brief video below captures the essence of this message.
Belief in the mission matters. Do you believe in yours?
Legacy
July 28, 2010 by Ed McLaughlin
Fingerprints don’t fade.
Especially those placed on the lives you’ve touched.
If you can explain why we do what we do in fewer words, you win.
Three Words
July 21, 2010 by Ed McLaughlin
Character counts. Always.
Yet somewhere along the line, companies started to favor rhetoric and excuses instead of results and accountability.
How do you know when a company lacks character? Simple. When discussing poor results, leadership:
- Makes excuses
- Rationalizes limited progress
- Formulates arguments to minimize accountability
Not so with companies of character. They tell the truth. They take responsibility for shortfalls and failures. And they refuse to play the victim just so they can feel good about themselves.
Character is a choice. And one alternative is more likely to lead to success than the other.
Choose wisely.
Shake It Up
June 8, 2010 by Ed McLaughlin
My friend Shawn Murphy doesn’t follow. He leads.
Shawn (@shawmu on Twitter) just launched the Wake Up and Shake It Up blog series. Need a push to think bigger than you have before? Here it is.
The first post, Big versus Small, went live this morning. I think you know the author – check it out.
Yes, But
May 29, 2010 by Ed McLaughlin
How many times have you heard someone say “yes, but”?
“Yes, I’d like to ship that for you, but you can’t use that box.”
“That’s a good idea. I’d like to say yes, but this isn’t the time to try something different.”
Somewhere along the line, people were conditioned to say no. What would happen if everyone in the company had to look for a reason to say yes?
Don’t Change Your Story
May 23, 2010 by Ed McLaughlin
It’s frustrating to listen to people, companies, and politicians say they stand for something while at the same time they try to please everyone. It doesn’t work that way, no matter how hard they try to convince us otherwise.
A company’s story can’t be about convenience, low-cost, premium-value, and great selection.
A politician can’t talk about lowering taxes, increasing services, attacking bureaucracy, and reducing the deficit.
A Little League coach can’t preach health and fitness to his team and then sneak a cigarette while the kids are running laps.
I realize that it’s hard to take a stand, to tell people what they don’t want to hear. But it does no good to change your story to suit your audience. Sooner or later people will figure out that you don’t stand for anything at all, which means you’ll be gone tomorrow.
Stop Reinforcing the Status Quo
March 4, 2010 by Ed McLaughlin
Every day, people do the same thing over and over without questioning the policy or the system. Which is why new ideas are usually met with resistance.
“That will never work.”
“It’s never been done before.”
“Don’t bother – we already tried that once.”
“Nice idea, but can you prove that it will work?”
“We can’t sell that to senior management.”
We aren’t taught to question things that are familiar to us. Which reminds me of an experiment that can be done with five monkeys.
Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray the other four monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result – the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water.
Soon enough, any monkey that tries to climb the stairs will be stopped by the others.
Now, turn off the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The newcomer will see the banana and try to climb the stairs. To his surprise, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be assaulted.
Next, remove another of the original monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. And the previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm.
Continue the process – replace the third monkey with a new one, then the fourth, then fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. But most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs – or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey. After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Regardless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know, that’s the way it’s always been done around here.
Companies all over the world repeat this experiment every day with their own people. What about yours? Or do you promote a culture that is eternally curious about why they do what they do?
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
January 26, 2010 by Ed McLaughlin
Seth Godin is widely viewed as one of the sharpest marketing minds of our time. In my opinion, he’s more than that – he is a true change agent. His latest book, Linchpin, could not have come along at a better time.
We’re in the midst of the 22nd recession since 1900, and so far it’s been an ugly one. And while the rate of job losses has recently slowed, many companies are still in retreat – freezing salaries, raising health-care premiums, and eliminating training programs.
If you’re a linchpin, this is an incredible opportunity.
I was privileged to attend the book launch in New York City. During the presentation, I learned that the original title of the book was The Chef, The Cook, and The Dishwasher.
In a restaurant, the dishwasher is clearly the lowest job available. Someone will always have to fill this kind of role, but that someone doesn’t have to be you.
The cook follows a recipe – make a particular dish one way, every time. Everyone can follow instructions, so it should come as no surprise that there are a surplus of people available to perform these jobs. And since a cook doesn’t create any real value, they have little hope of making more than an average living.
The chef is different altogether. A chef may be aware of recipes, but chooses not to follow them. Which means that unlike the cook, her best work is completely unknown. By creating instead of following, she turns her work into art.
In the post-industrial age, the artist is the one in demand. Linchpin is the type of book that will push you down this path. It goes on sale today (January 26th). I hope that you’ll pick up a copy – it is by far Godin’s best yet.
Urgency
January 13, 2010 by Ed McLaughlin
I’m in the process of launching a new business. And since I’m booked during the day working on other projects, a lot of the pre-launch work takes place late at night. This actually helped create a bond between me and my business partner – we were pleasantly surprised to discover that one could email the other at 3:00 am and get a response.
A lot of people think that we overextend ourselves. “Slow down,” we’re told. “Take a breath every once in a while. You can’t run at the extremes all of the time.”
We disagree. The days of moving slow are over. Look at the leaders of yesterday – battered, bruised, and frozen in fear. Running at the extremes is now an important component of winning.
How fast do you run?
Leaders Don’t Cry
January 6, 2010 by Ed McLaughlin
When a kitten is confused or in danger, it will do nothing but cry for help. Sooner or later, it’s mother or owner will carry it to safety.
Too many in business have the same attitude.
That’s a problem. It’s a problem because although it looks like we’re starting to emerge from the recession, we’re not out of the woods yet. So the stop-loss efforts made by many (job cuts, salary reductions, training program elimination) have accomplished little more than buy time. Yet time is running out, and there are still fundamental business challenges that need to be addressed.
Crying for help – as many are doing – isn’t going to solve anything.
You can improve your business a number of different ways. But before you do anything else, make sure you have the right attitude. Because no one is going to carry you to safety.
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