context

One of the more rewarding things I do is bridge the gap between our company's President and CEO and my marketing team.

Most of what I do is manage our campaigns based on the information I get from my team and my bosses. Sometimes what I have on my hands is a disconnect between members of my team and what my bosses are looking for. It happens everywhere.

Ever found yourself wedged between two sides?

My advice is to listen to everyone before assessing the situation. Start with the person who has the most responsibility and then talk to everyone else. Ask them questions about how they perceive things and let them talk.

The person with the most responsibility should be able to give you the guidelines for the situation. Look for that person's expectations and actions. Compare their actions with everyone else's experiences. What are the possible problems in this situation? Not just one, look for as many as you can. What's not working here?Read more

This is the third week I've been in my adjusted role, and life is good.

As much as I was looking forward to working out of our main office five days a week instead of being split between our office and working on site with one of our customers, I had some apprehensions. Was this the right move for the company? Would I make a worthwhile difference? How would I find the time to listen to new music without being able to sit in front of a database for hours on end? Would the person taking on my database role do well?

As much as I pushed for this change I still had to make sure it was the right move.

When we made the decision to go for it, I was excited. Except it took up most of my time for over a month, between hiring new people for our office as we grew, a new person for our database work, and then training all these people. I smiled the whole time, though. I knew the tough part was temporary, the reward on the other side was worth it, and I could do this. I just had to neglect my Internet world for a short while.

By knowing how things would likely be on the other side of this shift, I had enough purpose to keep pushing.Read more

One of the most popular and passed-around sites right now is People of Walmart.

Go there and you’ll find new pictures posted every day of the absurd people and things others saw at Walmart, along with some witty caption for each post. People are dressed in ridiculous outfits, bring pet monkeys into the store, and decorate their cars with little plastic dinosaur toys. Most of it is funny satire.

What gets people riled up about the site the most? When they make fun of people who look stereotypically poor, uneducated, or uncultured. When the comments are anti-gay, or insulting to people with obvious physical handicaps.

It made me think of a lesson I learned from the service manager at a car dealership.

The dealership he worked at was split into two separate buildings next to each other: one Dodge, one Subaru. Since I was looking for a job he told me the difference between the customers at the two dealerships. Dodge customers expected their current car troubles to be fixed when they drove their car home from the shop. Subaru customers did not expect their cars to have problems.Read more

“When we talk about settling the world’s problems, we’re barking up the wrong tree. The world is perfect. It’s a mess. It has always been a mess. We are not going to change it. Our job is to straighten out our own lives.” – Joseph Campbell

“Let’s not try to figure out everything at once.” – The National, from “Fake Empire”

The most important thing I do at work every day is lead with my personal beliefs.

I cannot end world hunger, break down racial barriers, make hate disappear, or eliminate any of the world’s biggest problems. I’m one out of seven billion people.Read more

This is the first post in a weekly series on how philosophy (personal beliefs) affect people’s perspective, and how you can this knowledge in life.

What would you rather do, work or play a game?

Some call problems “opportunities dressed up as work.” Who the heck wants to show up to WORK? You know what I mean; that kind of work you dread, the kind where you need a pot of coffee in your system just to move papers to a new area, after you already spent the first thirty-five minutes of the day bantering with your coworkers around the water cooler. That kind of work.

The game wins for me, always.

Games fit life well. Remember, there are different kinds of games. Not all have losers, though someone comes out ahead. The losers don’t have to be people (though sometimes they are). Take the concept of the game and expand it beyond pickup basketball, monopoly and poker. It’s all three of those and so much more.Read more

Think about the last time you splurged a little on something you had no intention of buying. Especially if you looked back afterwards and wished you hadn't done that, even if it was the teeniest tiniest doubt.

What made you do it?

Let me rephrase that: what were you feeling when you made that purchase?

We have a wide range of emotions, and they're far more powerful than our logical minds. Think about your logical decisions for a moment. How many of them were to fill an emotional need?

Trust me, the answer is more than "a few." The answer is "all of them."

Take buying clothing, for example. We need clothing, yet there are so many choices. Why buy a certain pair of jeans? People don't buy jeans because they fit well, it's because of how someone feels wearing a pair of jeans that fit well. Heck, buying jeans in itself is an emotional decision. Maybe you don't want to feel bad after destroying nicer pants so you buy jeans; maybe you like the comfortable feeling which washes over you wearing jeans.Read more

Lydia asked a great question about handing out ice cream cones:

“Now if someone gave me an empty cone, I would assume they were going to offer a way to fill it.
I've heard of the term ‘bait and switch.’ Is this tactic of empty promises still a bait and switch or is it the customer's fault for assuming?”

We’re conditioned to think if we’re given an ice cream cone by someone they have a way of getting ice cream. The person giving us the cone KNOWS this. If they don’t have a way to get you ice cream then it’s a bait and switch. Which freakin’ stinks. Now you’re mad at that person, mad at that company, and will probably go write a blog post about it (or at least tweet your frustration).

Now let’s say they hand you an ice cream cone and they tell you they have some great flavors. You go try a few out and don’t like any of them. Hey, no hard feelings. They just didn’t have what you were looking for. Huge difference.Read more

Have you ever stopped in your tracks when you saw something you just couldn’t believe?

When that happens, the power of the unexpected has crashed down upon your consciousness. You have to stop to register what’s going on. Maybe you’ll keep on like nothing happened; and maybe you’ll check it out a little more if it continues to keep your interest.

This is where most failed marketing positioning gets it wrong.

If you’re talking about the same things everyone else is talking about, you’re part of the background noise. Think about someone poking you in the same spot over and over. It gets your attention, and it’s annoying. It’s not going to help the person poking you get what they want.

Let’s say you like ice cream, and they handed you an empty ice cream cone. Now you’re intrigued. The outlook for getting some ice cream just got a whole lot sunnier.Read more

If there’s one thing I always want my sales team to do, it’s asking the question “Why?” more often.

Heck, I think if we all asked “Why?” more often the world would be a better place.

On a sales call, our goal is to dig around for ways we could help the person on the other end of the phone, and then present these things in a way which creates enough interest for them to talk to a sales rep. No manipulation, no cheap tactics. All we want is a thought-provoking conversation so we can understand the other person better.

What’s the easiest way to get someone else thinking and talking? Ask them why they do what they do.

Asking “Why?” causes someone to think about it for a moment. Sometimes we get a knee-jerk response. We ask “Why?” again, digging deeper, getting more input, letting the other person walk us down the path they’ve traveled so many times. They point out things they take for granted. It’s these things they take for granted we want to hear about: we want to understand why it’s taken for granted.Read more

Has your manager ever started up a conversation on philosophy and how it applies to your job and/or company?

That’s what I did today right before lunch.

I read two short passages from books I have read this year and asked my team to throw out some ideas on how they relate to what we do. What I hoped was for any kind of discussion, and for me to be able to help them put the pieces together. It turned out even better, as everyone contributed something to a great discussion on the art of making a sales call, and how each call was different.

I plan on having one of these conversations every week with the team to see what they think of. It’s a great way to mix sales training and creativity into one session.

What are you doing to get your coworkers and team to think, learn, and grow in their careers and lives? I'd love to hear your ideas.