Up Market |
- What Does Success Look Like?
- Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney
- Marketing Lessons from Car Talk
| Posted: 16 Jun 2012 08:00 AM PDT
Without an end goal in mind (and preferably written down somewhere), how will you know you've achieved what you set out to do? Having a goal (or many) will help you focus on the work that's genuinely important and worth pursuing, rather than just being a distraction. The problem many people encounter (including myself), is that they are so keen to get started and 'make stuff happen' that the busy work (Email, Facebook, Twitter, unproductive meetings) is often confused with meaningful work, which is the only kind that truly matters. Success means different things to different people. For me, success is mostly measured using bespoke software and tools like Google Analytics to set statistical goals for the websites I manage. Unfortunately, having all this data at your fingertips can be overwhelming — so it's important to focus on the stuff that counts, the stuff you can act upon. Always striving for more website Visits and Unique Visitors, Faceboook 'Fans' or Twitter 'Followers' can be dangerous as you can never, ever have enough. When it comes to digital, there's always more you can do and therefore no end to the workload if you're not careful. For this reason, it's important to set yourself realistic, achievable goals and milestones for a specific time frame, remembering to congratulate yourself if you reach them, and not to beat yourself up if you don't! You can try benchmarking and comparing yourself to others, but there can only be one you — so it's much better to compete with and set challenges for yourself. The important thing is to work and try with purpose. Ultimately, the biggest signs of success in business are sales and happy customers. If you're creating both, then you should consider yourself a genuine success. Your own happiness and personal fulfillment are very important too. If you don't feel good about the work you are doing then it's unlikely that your customers or clients will either. If that's the case you need to stop what you're doing and change your direction. If you go out of your way to provide the best possible service then you will not only please others but make yourself feel fantastic too. In addition to the small scale stuff, you need to set yourself some 'Big Hairy Audacious Goals.' There's plenty of evidence to suggest that having a grand vision and even shared goals with your colleagues are powerful ways to motivate a team to great heights. The most successful businesses and inspirational leaders understand this, and often talk in abstract terms which inspire others to dream and follow their footsteps (listen to some of the best on Nancy Duarte's website). Once the 'big idea' has been defined, it becomes much easier to gauge whether your day to day activities are contributing to the overall success of the mission, or if some of those activities can be jettisoned to free up more of your time to work on what does. Keep your aims broad, loose and ambitious. This will give you the freedom to experiment and feel inspired to create your very best work. Another thing to remember is that work, just as in life, is a journey — not a destination. When you achieve one goal there is always another, bigger one up ahead that requires you to 'Level Up.' As Lord William Armstrong, one of the great British pioneers of the industrial age, once said: "However high we climb in the pursuit of knowledge, we shall still see heights above us and the more we extend our view, the more conscious we shall be of the immensity which lies beyond." Or as the posters which adorn the walls of Facebook offices say, "This journey is 1% finished" — to remind employees that the company has only begun to fulfill its 'mission to make the world more open and connected.' Start setting some goals for yourself today. Write them down on paper and stick them up on the walls of your office, cubicle, or home to remind you of what you are trying to achieve. I believe that anything is possible with hard work and determination — but you need a plan and some focus to help you get there. This is the very first step in becoming the person you want to be. Photo credit: The U.S. Army |
| Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney Posted: 16 Jun 2012 05:00 AM PDT
Leadership is hard. Managing people is easy — you just tell them what to do and then measure how well they do it. Leading people is much more difficult. To lead, you must teach them the overall goal, and then give them enough room to get the job done their way. Even the greatest leaders in the world will agree that they have messed up from time to time. So how can we become great leaders if it is so difficult? Clearly, we should learn from the success (and mistakes) of the best. Lee Cockerell is one of the best leaders in business. His work at Walt Disney World is legendary, so of course he has a lot of insight into leadership. In Creating Magic he not only explains his leadership strategy, but he gives his readers tools to become skillful leaders themselves. Lee's stories about being a great leader at Walt Disney World are wonderful for showing how to do things right, but I find his stories about how he became a great leader more useful. When he writes about his mistakes, I realize that I have done the same things, though on a smaller scale. By seeing myself in him I can learn what not to do, too. There are some books that can be read once and then donated to the library. This is a book that should be read yearly. Each time you read it you'll get something new out of it — and you will absorb more and more of the useful lessons Lee teaches. This is one book that I wish all employers would read! |
| Marketing Lessons from Car Talk Posted: 16 Jun 2012 02:00 AM PDT Last week, the hosts of the long-running NPR show Car Talk announced they'll retire at the end of September. Brothers Tom and Ray Magliozzi (known as Click and Clack on the air) have been on the radio for 35 years, with 25 of those broadcast nationally through NPR. Longtime fans are greeting the news with sadness. Nathan Heller at Slate writes, "…what many of us will miss most about Car Talk isn't the show itself. It's the contact with a world that the Magliozzis helped invent and bring to life, each week, on the air." The show, which answers questions on car troubles, rattles, rumbles and more, has teaching moments beyond what's under the hood. Business Insider has pulled five lessons for small businesses from the radio show, based on the success and loyal fan base of Car Talk. 1. "Use humor to make your marketing messages more interesting." 2. "Don't be afraid to use (self-deprecation) to make your audience laugh with you and not at you." 3. "(Make) your message clearly understood no matter what the expertise of your audience is." 4. "Use examples of your past successes and testimonials from your customers, past and present." 5. "All messages should have a clear call to action of what you want the audience to do." Though September will mark the end of new recordings, fans will still be able to hear archives of the show and read the Magliozzis' column, called "Dear Tom and Ray." Their continuing work may hold another lesson: Just because you're slowing down, you don't have to give up your passion, your relationships and your expertise. "The guys are culturally right up there with Mark Twain and the Marx Brothers," said Doug Berman, executive producer of the show. "They will stand the test of time. People will still be enjoying them years from now. They’re that good." |
Before you embark on any new project or business venture, you need to ask yourself this question: 'What does success look like?'
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