Parents Make Better Coaches

While no one would like to think of business-team leadership as a “parenting” role, there are many skills in common.

In my experience, those who have mastered the skills of being great parents have above-average performance dealing with: conflict resolution, motivation, rewarding good behaviors and punishing bad behaviors.

In fact,  while not every one of the best bosses I’ve had were parents, all of my worst experiences were with supervisors who either had no children or had relationship issues with their children.

Perenting excellence can go a long way to cover for lack of leadership acumen, but there are limitations that have burned me and people like me to beware. The greatest risk is in not making the transition from parent to boss.

Business is business, and over familiarity can create situations where, if you act  like the parent you will have a team that acts like children — ignoring responsibilities, trying to take the easy road, whining,  or feeling like they can have their way because your love is unconditional (and it is not).

It took me over a decade to become a good boss– not their friend, not their parent.

I am so thankful for the skills of being a great parent and all the behavioral psychology that goes with the territory. However,  key differences are to:

• remember to keep emotional distance (e.g., don’t get sucked into the details of personal drama) and
• set objective boundaries of business performance (based on numbers).

Remain human. Engender trust. But do not share details of your personal life or the troubles you are having. There is an instinct to view this as weakness not to be followed. Read about “EQ” or “emotional intelligence” to identify ways to balance the empathy you have as a great parent, with the  confidence traits others find more attractive to follow.

Think like a parent, act like a boss. With this blend in balance your teams will have a familial dedication to your success,  without losing the motivation or focus on performance. It takes time, and as with parenting, is more of journey than a destination.

The Art of Business Storytelling

Everyone loves a story. Great ones start here, go to a place of conflict, and then bring you to the point of blissful resolution.

In marketing and advertising storytelling is essential, but it’s never formally taught. Why not?

After all:

• Storytelling makes sense of data.
• Story telling brings a consumer insights to life with illustrative detail that can inspire great work from others.
• Storytelling engages the room.
• Storytelling gains approval of marketing plan investment requests.
• Storytelling wins pitches.

Start by knowing your story. If the story is to be delivered by teams of people, ensure EVERYONE knows “the story” and how his or her part contributes to it.

Keep the support points simple. Provide only the points that support your story. The rest go in the appendix. Get the room charged up with dynamic content that acknowledges the challenge the team is facing (now your audience is engaged and knows you understand them).  Then…deliver your unique insights and solution point with the type of clarity and memorability of a moral at the end of an Aesop’s Fable.  Summarize the point of your story in one sentence. Repeat.

What’s your next story?

Slow Marketing

The Slow Food movement encourages us to get more deeply involved with our food and strive for excellence. It focuses on quality, authenticity and sustainability.  What about a return to excellence in marketing? Let’s call it Slow Marketing: thoughtful, brilliantly conceived works of Brand Personality, Brand Promise and Positioning.  Properly identified and prepared to elicit the experience you want your consumers to have; one they crave repeating and sharing.

Here’s a simple 3-ingredient recipe. Take a little time to prepare. Once ready, you can serve it fast and fresh every day, regardless of the channel. 

3-Ingredient Slow Marketing Recipe,

• Emotionally relevant brand personality. Have you identified how to connect emotionally with your audience? If so, are you consistent representing this personality even when interacting with consumers on social media? Too often brands spend time developing a personality for advertising, but then become casual and irreverent in social media because they feel they should. You can be more authentic by being consistent. (Remember when your father would suddenly try to bond with you by discussing the latest music trends?) Inauthenticity is a turn-off. An irrelevant, out of touch personality is, too. (Think of the peppy social media poster asking you to get all excited about a new scent for bathroom tissue.) Take time to truly identify an emotionally relevant personality and live it everywhere, within your teams and in your outside communications.
• An appealing brand promise.  Are you really offering benefits that people want?Are you delivering this across media? Is your internal team focused on coming up with new ways to deliver on it? I love the example of Volvo. Volvo clearly stands for safety. So, everyone at Volvo should feel empowered to come up with new ideas for safer cars. In social media they can deliver safety tips beyond just what their cars deliver. In fact, doing something that is not directly associated with selling cars, but rather delivering value in a way that is consistent with the brand promise can dramatically improve perceptions.
• Great positioning. Is your brand’s positioning versus the competition clear? If not, spend time nailing this, and then delivering on that everywhere you touch your customers or consumers. Do it in a way that builds upon this competitive differentiation. Consider affiliations and links that further the positioning and question any ideas from your team that are inconsistent with it.

 

New channels like social media have changed marketing for the better.  Brands must now be more honest, authentic and accessible. The need for rock solid marketing essentials has never been greater because nothing seems more inauthentic to this always-on audience than inconsistency in your brand personality, brand promise or positioning.

Slow marketing. A focus on quality ingredients skillfully prepared. 

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