What's Your Prius?

In today's challenging economic times, I just pinch myself that I'm not working with or for one of America's Big Three automakers. They can't seem to catch a lucky break with their plight, playing out in front of us as a symbol of failed strategy and out of touch management.

Nowhere are the contrasting styles of strategy and management more evident between Japan and the United States than in hybrid car technology. Pop quiz -- what flagship vehicle from anyone of the Big Three comes to mind when you think of the "hybrid" moniker?

Thinking, thinking'¦

Now the same question for Japanese manufacturers. How quickly did Toyota's Prius come to mind? If you could even find one today on crowded dealer lots, you'd pay a premium for it, despite falling gas prices.

Here's the kicker -- and something all of us can learn from in regard to making a product that's so dialed in and coveted you can charge a premium price for it. You can't cost justify the additional expense of the Prius versus domestic or otherwise in gas savings alone! Instead Toyota created a molten hot product by capturing the very real, but very challenging to define, consumer "green mindset." The mindset that puts a premium on environmental impact of the products consumers buy.

The question for all of us regardless of industry and marketplace is, how do we define the "green mindset" that either exists today or surely will tomorrow in our markets spaces? And then, how do we position our companies and products to capitalize on this ever increasing consumer perception to create our own version of the Toyota Prius?!

Furthermore, it is becoming no longer politically acceptable the world over to be in business for the mere profit of it. The emergence of these two factors has propelled green technology embracers like Toyota to the forefront in their field. By rewarding forward-thinking companies with their patronage, consumers have spoken with their most powerful voice -- their wallets! If you haven't heard them yet, and responded accordingly in your market, there's only one thing that's certain, some other eco-prenuer will!

I come from the camp where luck happens when opportunity meets preparedness. So take a lesson from America's decidedly "unlucky" Big Three and prepare your company now for the emerging green movement that has no limitations on its reach. You just might be rewarded with your own "Prius" product in the process.

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Resolved, Determined, Motivated

Blood and guts! That's what's going on everywhere in the marketplace right now. There's the credit crunch, decreased consumer spending, the bailout quandary, the jobs report, fuel prices and surcharges, the stock market falling, the pending election, our uncertain future. One part of me fully comprehends how today's economic, political, and social climate could leave people paralyzed. Yet, I'm more determined and motivated to do the hard work, the sometimes seemingly impossible work, to succeed despite what the world is throwing at us.

If business is war, here's a pertinent analogy. In Patton, the famous movie featuring George C. Scott depicting World War II Gen. George Patton, one scene stands out. Walking amongst casualties of a battle, with blood and guts and carnage everywhere, Scott, playing Patton, looks to the heavens and says, "God help me because I love this stuff!" Gen. Patton was one of this country's greatest strategist and military leaders, even if he was a bit twisted. As an entrepreneur, you too have to be a bit twisted to do what you have to do day in and day out to succeed despite today's chaotic times.

Personally, I could not muster the resolve to do the hard work if it weren't for the motivating factors of our country's and my organization's challenging times. It's exasperating to have to downsize good people in order to do what I have to do in right-sizing my ship. But you can't, as an entrepreneur, not respond aggressively to threats to your organization from outside influences. Being paralyzed, in today's paralyzing times, is just not an option if you are going to survive. Instead, the media, the banks, the instability we face, needs to fuel the entrepreneurial fires in a way the status-quo business environment never could on its own.

Today, everything we do and how we do it is being sifted through with a fine-tooth comb to make certain of the cost-benefit returns on our investment. When the cow's fat, how do you motivate an individual or team or even an organization to do that? Like every business today, we need to increase sales while decreasing costs and Houdini ain't around to help us. That's why the last thing any of us can afford to do today is to be paralyzed by fear. To quote another famous American leader who said this in the middle of our country's worst economic times, The Great Depression, "So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory." (In case it doesn't sound familiar, that was President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933.)

As entrepreneurs, it is up to us to prevent fear -- however well founded it is -- from gripping our organizations and creating company-paralyzing self-fulfilling prophecies. I say, praise God for the motivation that's been amply provided by our economy today and the subsequent motivating resolve it brings about in me.

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What If We Used an Executive Search Firm to Pick a Prez?

I recently read an opinion piece by Steven Katz in the Chicago Tribune that discussed bringing business logic to the search for a presidential candidate. While politics does play a role in business, the hiring of a CEO and the voting of a candidate into office are as different as McCain is from Obama.

But what if, the author wonders, we used an executive search firm -- the way businesses usually do -- to qualify our next President? What criteria would a president of the United States or a CEO be judged by as an indicator of success? Mission critical factors were organized into seven categories: strategic skills, operating skills, courage, energy and drive, organizational positioning skills, and personal and interpersonal skills. Both quantifiable hard skills and less quantifiable soft skills compose a great leader. What I found interesting about the piece was the general consensus from executive search firms that when leaders fail, it's almost always related to soft skills. People IQ, self-awareness, chemistry, values, ability to motivate, etc.

Edward Santimauro of executive search firm Korn/Ferry International says "study after study says executives fail not because of their technical skills or industry experience but because of their lack of ability to lead and fit into a culture." The conclusion: it's not what someone knows or who someone knows. Instead, the most important factor in an executive's success is the soft skills. Teamwork, motivation, leading others while playing well and overall chemistry with the organization they are in charge of.

The soft skills come naturally for some, but are the hardest things to master for others. That's a lesson every leader needs to be cognizant of when striving for success.

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Investing in Summer

Summertime is my favorite time of the year. For one thing I don't work! The majority of the summer I'm at the lake in Wisconsin, dreaming and scheming. Some might call that work -- that is, thinking about work when you're not there. But to me those precious few months when I mostly stay away from the office (and even better yet the airports) are the most productive part of my year on a number of fronts:

Family: With two young boys and a wife who have to put up with my hectic schedule the rest of the year, I get a chance to be at home all day and night, which goes a long way for family unity. The old Cat's in the Cradle thing is ever on my mind, and the rewards of spending time with my family when the kids aren't in school are immeasurable.

Books: I'm notorious for getting a book, starting it, and then getting another before I've finished the first. In any given week, two or three new books hit my desk and all of them come highly recommended. By the end of the summer, I could be a walking, talking encyclopedia of the latest business topics, all because I'd finally taken the time to catch up with my library and actually finish the books I've started.

Vision: Is it not true that the best business ideas occur when your nose isn't against the grindstone?! Many people find their vision comes when they're in the shower; for me it's on the pier, pen in hand, that I think the most clearly. The running joke when I do pop my head back in the office is, "Oh no, The Pond Guy's back from vacation! Watch out!" And it's true, the majority of my ideas come when I'm not in the office.

Me Time: You know how easy it is to get fat when you're on the road doing client dinners every night and flying to another city the next day?! I'm not making excuses, but it sure is easier when you're home to roll out of bed and use your own weights instead of some Nautilus machine in a converted hotel room. And with my dog always ready to go for a run, I drop a good 10 to 15 pounds and love every minute of it.

Knowing how productive my time away from the office is for me, I felt organizationally we could benefit if more people invested more time to work on the business outside of our four walls. I even offered to spring for anyone, from managers to customer service personnel, to get a "cabin in the woods" on the company's dime to do just that. But alas, I only had a few takers. The grind of daily duties and life -- along with a realistic fear that I would look for big things from them upon their return -- kept this concept from every taking off organizationally.

I'm still a staunch believer that clearing one's head and stepping back periodically changes one's view while re-charging not only your own batteries but those of the ones you love as well. For me that means summer. And summer can be the best business and personal investment you make. If you drop a few unwanted pounds in the process, it can be even better!

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It's All About the Relationships

I just finished reading a great book called "Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior." Finally, I thought, when I first read the title, a book to explain why the rest of the world that doesn't agree with my thinking is so messed up! I snatched it from the shelf and eagerly delved into its pages, looking for the explanations my logical brain craved. Well, as you may have guessed, the answers I got were a little different from the ones I thought I'd find.

Newsflash: People, even when given a choice of thinking logically and getting beneficial results, will often act emotionally despite the consequences. The effects of this irrational behavior on businesses can be far reaching. And it has many causes. Here's one: A person's internal barometer for "fairness," the researchers point out, is a powerful emotion that "sways" even the most straight forward of business decisions. One case study in particular struck a chord with me:

A nationwide survey of car dealers revealed that when it comes to buying cars from manufacturers, the dealers didn't focus on the results of these transactions -- did I overpay? did I receive high quality inventory? Instead, the dealers cared more about how manufacturers behaved toward them. According to the research, what mattered to the dealers wasn't just whether they felt they got a good deal; they evaluated their transactions on such seemingly insignificant details as whether the manufacturer took "pains to learn the local conditions under which dealers operate," whether the manufacturer acted in a "polite and well mannered" fashion, and whether the manufacturer "treated dealers with respect." Indeed "fairness" factors mattered more to dealers than bottom-line profitability. To me, if there was ever a way to quantify the power of relationships in business, this dealer case study demonstrates it!

The authors point out one final take-away that struck close to home with me. "The researchers concluded that business owners place too great importance on margins and outcomes. They recommended that all managers -- regardless of industry -- put greater "effort, energy, investment, and patience" into nurturing the relationship. In the end, "the fairness of the procedure has as much to do with our satisfaction as the ultimate outcome."

Here, in this case study, I found the rationale to explain the irrationality of past business relationships gone sour. Far too often I, and I imagine other business owners, fight emotions with logical facts -- which in the end rarely results in swaying someone who simply feels you somehow done 'em wrong. It's a classic case of being so right you're wrong. How irrational is that?!

So the next time you're logically stating your case, just remember that those ears you're hell bent on convincing just might be wired with a little emotional baggage of their own. In the end, it's only through the development of relationships that you can truly hear what the customer is thinking, irrationality and all!

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I Want to be Like Mike

I got a chuckle reading a Reader's Digest article a while back telling the story of a New York City road crew that found an interesting way to earn some extra money. Apparently, during the noon lunch hour, they'd sell a few minutes on the jackhammer to suit-wearing paper pushers more than happy to drop ten or twenty bucks to take out their frustration on an innocent chunk of asphalt. This enterprising road crew struck a chord of human nature left unmet by your typical white-collar desk job. I was reminded of this story after calling my college buddy "Mike" who had recently exchanged his desk job for one in the field building ponds.

It was a cold and rainy day when I talked to him and Mike was in the middle of doing pond cleanouts, which is something more than one person has suggested would be perfect for the Discovery Channel's show, "Dirty Jobs." Figuring he might be bemoaning his mid-life career decision, at least at that moment, I ribbed him a little about his decision. What Mike said next made me smile wide. In all seriousness and with passion that would make infomercial guru Billy Mays proud, Mike declared to me, "The worst day in the field is better than the best day in the office." Here's a guy who had a degree, worked everyday on a CAD program designing interior spaces, and chucked all that so he could be outside doing something he really loved. He wasn't going to let a little inclement weather and a tough job dampen his spirits. Boy could I relate!

The best days for me are the rare ones I get to be out in the field slinging rocks and using a shovel. The sense of satisfaction derived from creating something from nothing produces a much more tangible sense of accomplishment than yet another meeting or reading another report. One day tends to blend into the next when I'm using only my noodle and not my muscles. Maybe that's why so many white-collar guys still enjoy cutting their lawns, perfect lines and all -- breathing in the fresh air and enjoying the process of seeing direct results from their actions.

The moral of the story? There's something to be said for doing a physical job that produces immediate results from your efforts. Mike's refreshing outlook made my outlook brighter. Because of my love for ponds, and our longtime friendship, my college buddy had become such a pond lover that he, too, had made it his career. And to me, that makes my desk job worth it -- seeing people who were burned out have their passion renewed. That's what makes my switch from the field worth it, I guess. But it still doesn't change the fact that, "The worst day in the field is better than the best day in the office." Kudos to all the other "Mikes" out there who are doing what they love.

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Living the Lifestyle

Tony Sargeant from Atlanta is someone I've billed as "one of my favorite customers." Tony's the rare bird who spends his time doing what he loves and is good at it while not being overwhelmed with running his business. Which also means he spends his time building and selling water features during the day and then comes home at night to Live the Lifestyle with his bride of 25 years. I wonder how many entrepreneurs out there started out doing what they love and were good at it only to find themselves dragged down to doing things they hated and subsequently weren't that good at -- all in a desperate attempt just to keep their heads above water while managing their own businesses? How nuts is that?!

Michael Gerber chronicles the trappings of entrepreneurs in his classic business book "The E-Myth." Aquascape's customer base is a classic Gerber case study in technicians who start businesses to free themselves from laboring at a trade for someone else -- only to find themselves enslaved by their own two hands. Often the allure of being your own boss soon becomes a case of "be careful what you wish for."

The irony is that so often those who work to help create the lifestyle for their customers end up doing so at the expense of their own lifestyles. Tony has managed to avoid that trap, and that's why he's one of my favorite people. Anyone who spends five minutes with the man will see the positive impact that living the same lifestyle he sells has had on Tony, his wife, and all those he touches. He's so filled with life, love, and optimism -- is it any wonder that his business is flourishing?! If only you could bottle a little bit of what Tony's got and get others to drink it, the world would be a better place. Now that's the kind of Kool-Aid I'd like to sell!

But, alas, for every Tony there are dozens more who feel trapped in a cage of their own making. The good news for all those who feel that way is that the solution is at hand. One of the things you need to do is to try to do what Tony did: Focus most of your effort on doing the things you're good at and try to off-load the things you're not good at. And if you think that involves hiring people with money you don't have -- think again. Tony downsized from multiple crews and multiple headaches to one full-time and one part-time guy. Today, his profits are better than ever! Just goes to show that finding the elusive Holy Grail of a work/life balance might just be as simple as living the lifestyle you sell.

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Fifteen Minutes with the Boss

One of my favorite times of the month is when I meet with my teammates one-on-one for what has been dubbed "15 minutes with the Pond Guy."

HR tries to get any new employees slotted into these brackets and to round out any open slots with whomever else wants in. The goal of these sessions is for me to get to know the employees a little better (and vice-a-versa) -- while offering my advice on how they can succeed here. Although the sessions always seem to end on a high note, they often begin -- especially with new employees -- with some trepidation. The other day, however, I had anything but the normal interaction with a new employee hired for our construction division.

"Nate" (his real name!) came up to my office and almost immediately took over. He had done his research and knew I liked to get a lot of information on someone's likes and dislikes, past experiences, and in general what it is that makes them tick. I've been known to rapid-fire questions as I go through this process while sizing up the best synergies for us to work together.

Not with Nate, though! He whipped out a prepared sheet of paper with all the relevant and even some non-relevant personal information that was not only articulate but quite creative and even downright funny. I found myself laughing out loud as we went through his list. The 15 minutes flew by way too fast, and the interaction ended with a great first impression of our new construction guy.

Now, I don't know if Nate will ultimately be a star here, but here's what I do know. He sure took an opportunity -- one many others enter with hesitation -- and used his "15 minutes" to leave a lasting first impression. I now find myself asking his boss and even his co-workers on a regular basis, "How's that Nate kid doin'?" I think it's pretty obvious to them that I'm curious for good reasons, and I can only imagine that's going to help him in their minds: "Hey, if the boss is so interested in this new guy, there must be somethin' special about him." And so far, the reports I'm getting back on his impact are fantastic.

The moral of the story? There are probably a few, but as an employer, it's such a breath of fresh air when you get an employee who takes a fairly routine interaction and turns it into so much more. I just felt moved to blog on it. I also felt there may be a few of you out there who have similar stories of people working with you that might serve as an inspiration for others. There are probably more than a few good apples out there just lookin' for their own 15 minutes to shine. Got any stories of your own?

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