Communication skills

Describing Your Business: The Elevator Speech

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What is an Elevator Speech?

A short, highly focused statement selling an idea, course of action, or a description of your business.
The name comes from the scenario of bumping into an important decision maker, and winning her over in the short duration of an elevator ride.

When to put an Elevator Pitch to use in Describing Your Business:

When trying to persuade people as to a course of action. It may not be that you are attempting in this first meeting to close a business deal with someone, but rather likely that you would want to persuade them to meet with you to begin such a discussion.
At networking events.
When selling something – a product, idea or a business relationship.
Whenever the opportunity presents itself – so be ready.

How to structure an Elevator Speech:

You need to catch your audience’s attention immediately
When Describing Your Business, discuss benefits, not details or features of your business
When Describing Your Business, pre-empt the question, “So What?”. You need your audience to understand what is in it for them.
Move people to a specific action when describing your business. Are you looking for an appointment with a decision maker? Do you want them to order a trial offer? Be very clear what you want them to do.

The Delivery of Your Elevator Speech

Target your audience carefully. What does your audience what to hear? What type of language would they be most receptive to?
Speak in your own voice. You can’t fake authenticity. Although you need to prepare and rehearse your elevator speech, the words you choose must be appropriate to who you are, and how you wish to be perceived.

3 Things to Remember about Describing Your Business Using an Elevator Pitch:

Write it out. You shouldn’t improvise your elevator speech. You need to write it out in advance, and refine it over time.
Be prepared at all times. You should have the key points of your Elevator Pitch committed to memory.
It’s more than a slogan. Your Elevator Speech must leave no doubt what you’re in business to do, and what’s in it for them as your audience.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Describing Your Business (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

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How to Make Sure People Don’t Care

There is so much stuff out there telling managers what they should do to be more effective, and how they can be better leaders of their people. This week, I thought I’d take a different approach, and suggest to managers how they might make sure that none of their people care.

It seems that many leaders will read an article or attend a seminar and them come back to the office and do the same thing they were doing before. They then find themselves stressed-out and miserable, as they can never seem to get a grip on their jobs or on leading their people. It seems something is lost in the transfer between reading or hearing something, and applying it to our own circumstances.

As for the people those managers are leading: they all start out with a different level of giving a crap, and they are then pushed towards the mean (or average) of “giving-a-crap-edness” of the culture around them. The great managers push that average line up, and inspire people to come along for the ride. Bad leaders, push the line down, and tacitly encourage people to give a crap about far fewer things, and at far lower a level.

So here are some things bad leaders do to ensure no one cares:

Enable unnecessary bureaucracy. This is why many public sector organizations suffer with poor morale.
Not dealing with performance issues. I’m not going to work all that hard for you if I know my peer is doing nothing, and not getting called on it.
Not administering consequences. People need to know that both good and poor performance will be recognized and “rewarded” as such.
Micro-managing. If you are going to redo all my work anyway, I’m not going to put much effort into it.
Playing favorites. OK… maybe a meritocracy only exists in a University Professor’s textbook, but you’ve got to at least try to give the appearance of fairness.
Reinforce a blame culture. People’s best work comes from taking risks, which they will not do, if they get crucified every time a small error is made.

There are lots of other ones, too, but leaders should start with these ones, and determine to what degree they do these things. The further away you are from these things, the more likely you are to be pushing that mean line of discretionary effort upwards.

When Command and Control Works

It seems to me that Command and Control as a management style has gotten a bum rap. You’ve heard the disparaging remarks, “She’s a complete command and control style manager” – implying there is something wrong with that.

I think such comments display a startling lack of understanding of what leaders are required to do in organizations. Command and control is a very useful managerial tool for certain situations.

People love to use fire-fighting as an analogy to describe modern management practice. I would challenge anyone to go find himself a Fire Chief and ask him/her if command and control is a bad idea.

When a building is burning and lives are at stake, the Fire Chief very much relies on command and control as the appropriate management tool for that situation. Can you imagine the fire department showing up at an emergency, and the Fire Chief requesting that everyone break up in study groups, to hold hands and sing camp songs?

“OK – everyone brainstorm ideas for how we should tackle this, and I’ll give a special prize to the group that comes up with the best idea. Make sure everyone participates equally, and remember that everyone’s feedback is valuable. This is an excellent opportunity to reinforce how much we value each other, and I’ll float between the groups to help facilitate.”

Glad it’s not my house on fire. I want the Fire Chief standing on top of chair barking out orders as fast as she can to get the situation under control. I also want the Firefighters to listen carefully to the orders being dispatched, and execute as they’re being instructed to do.

When they are back at the Firehall, and practicing for such emergencies, or doing community outreach, then the Fire Chief would be well advised to pull a different tool out of his box, and to engage his people in a more collaborative style.

The problem for people that disparage command and control is that they confuse this very important managerial style with a lack of respect. Lack of respect is never appropriate, but many times it is a leaders job to tell her direct reports in no uncertain terms what they are required to do. Setting clear expectations, holding people to account for those expectations, and administering the appropriate consequences are what we pay managers to do.

Command and control is one legitimate tool to get this done.

Socrates, Lincoln and ADD

One of the hazards of living in a society that doesn’t value anything remotely old, or any person over 25, is writing about people who lived in different centuries. I’m taking a bit of a risk here… by way of this first sentence, 50% of the reading audience has already ADD’d onto another subject.

You see, Socrates and Lincoln were masters of the art of asking questions. A key part of each of their distinct repertoires was to ask questions to guide and persuade people to their way of thinking. Undoubtedly, it was a special skill in their respective times. Now, it is probably an extinct form of communication.

The benefits of guiding conversation by questions are well documented and obvious. What is not as evident is why people don’t bother to use this powerful method of communication.

I’ll go out on the limb here, and suggest it’s because we don’t think we have time.

We live in an instant gratification culture with an overwhelming societal case of Attention Deficit Disorder – communal ADD.

In the course of investigating this phenomena, I turned to the ultimate authority on all things cultural: the TV. I watched a few unscripted TV shows (I won’t call them “Reality TV”, because Star Trek is closer to reality than any of these shows).

It seems effective communication requires us to:

a) Have all the answers, right away. If you don’t know the answer, make something up, and stick to your guns, lest you look weak.

b) If you don’t know the answer, shout louder than the other person to make your (incoherent) point. It doesn’t really matter what they are saying, or even if they are right. What is most important is that you win.

c) You are entitled to an opinion, even if you have absolutely no clue what is being discussed. You are not only entitled, you are obligated to weigh-in with your clueless drivel.

d) Everybody is exceptionally good looking. Ugly people make for bad TV, and are thus completely ignored even if they do have something intelligent to say.

I wonder what questions Socrates would ask about this?

The Art of Asking Questions

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Below we talk about the art of asking questions, and about how this can be a powerful managerial tool. Specifically, we address:

The power of asking great questions
What are empowering questions
How to ask great questions
Responding to questions with “positive understanding”

The Power of Questions

The art of asking questions well is a powerful tool for managers and leaders of organizations. By effectively using questions, managers can realize a number of benefits:

Facilitation of individual, team, and organizational learning.
Enhanced accountability and clearer responsibility
Improved innovation and problem solving
Movement of people from dependence to independence.

Using Empowering Questions

It is important to understand the difference between disempowering and empowering questions, and to maximize the use of empowering questions.

Disempowering Questions threaten self-esteem and thereby cause people to get mired in their problems.

“Why are you behind schedule?”

“What’s the problem with this project?”

Empowering Questions build positive attitudes and self esteem. They get people to think and allow them to discover their own answers, thus developing self-responsibility and transference of ownership for the results.

“How do you feel about the project thus far?”

“How would you describe the way you want this project to turn out?”

“Which of these objectives do you think is the most important to accomplish?”

“What do you think is the logical first step?”

How To Use The Art of Asking Questions as a Powerful Leadership Tool

There are three immediate things leaders can do to tap into the power of the art of asking questions:

Use Confirming/Clarifying Questions: Listen and look for themes, key issues, and feelings.
Focus on Empowering Questions: Focus on the gateway to success or deeper understanding.
Use Action Questions: Moves toward a course of action or plan of attack.

“What if you/we were to try …”
“Based on your experience, what do you suggest we do next?”

Responding with Questions of Positive Understanding

When using the art of asking questions to respond to people, focus your questions on the positive aspects of the others’ statements:

Others’ Statement:	Positive Understanding Questions:
I’d like to try that but … I’m not sure that the others will go for it.	What can I do to help you give it a try? How can we overcome others’ resistance? How soon can we try?
Are you kidding, this is not a pragmatic approach! That is not even close to how things really work in my department.	How do things work in your department? Tell me more about it.

3 Things to Remember About the Art of Asking Questions

This is not as easy as it sounds. You’ll have to make a conscious effort to move to asking questions rather than telling people the way it is.
Use Empowering Questions. There’s more to it than simply using Open Ended Questions.
Asking rather than telling, questions rather than answers, is a key leadership skill.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about The Art of Asking Questions (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

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Generation X in the Workplace

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Given how small Generation X is compared to the Boomers or the Millennials, there is much written about Generation X in the Workplace. Below we discuss:

Why managers should care about Generation X in the Workplace.
What has shaped Generation X in the Workplace
The expectations of Generation X in the Workplace
How to lead and motivate Generation X in the Workplace

First, we should define Generation X in the Workplace

Traditionalists: 1925 – 1945

Baby Boomers: 1946 – 1965

Generation X: 1966 – 1980

Millennials: 1980 – 1999

Why Managers Should Care About Generation X in the Workplace

Clashes between generations can directly affect turnover, and unwanted turnover is expensive and time consuming.
If team members do not feel like they “fit in” or that their values are not reflected in the workplace, they are more at risk of leaving.
Generation X in the Workplace has been influenced by different life events and thus has different perspectives that can impact motivation and performance. For Example, Generation X in the Workplace:
- Has unique ways of viewing quality.
- Has distinct and preferred ways of managing and being managed.
- Has different priorities that effect how and when they show up for work.

The Shaping of Generation X in the Workplace

This generation watched their parents get downsized out of their jobs after a lifetime of loyalty.
They graduated from high school and university into a poor job market.
They were the most educated generation in history at the time.
Gen X came from families that had triple the divorce rates than that of the previous generation.
They came of age during the end of the Cold War
They saw the beginning of the digital revolution
They were the first generation to wonder if they’d be able to do as well as their parents.

Expectations of Generation X in the Workplace

They are skeptical of everyone and everything.
After watching their parents struggle with large organizations, they expect to be screwed.
They are as loyal to their organizations, as they expect their organization will be to them (not very loyal!)
They expect to be independent and to do it on their own.
Rather than challenge authority they tend to ignore it.
Job security is about mobility, not stability. They believe job security comes from proactively jumping from job to job.
They are entrepreneurial.
They approach work as a process of acquiring skills or resume building.

How to Lead and Motivate Generation X in the Workplace

Let them take risks. Allow them to take some chances.
Respect their time. Time off or away is often a motivator for this group
Be Creative with Time Worked: Sabbaticals, compressed work-weeks, telecommuting, are all very popular amongst this group.
Reward them with training or other experience building offers. Gen X values the opportunity to build their resumes.
Let them do it their way. Take advantage of their entrepreneurial spirit. Give them a challenge and let them figure it out.

3 Things that frustrate Generation X in the Workplace about the other generations:

Boomers are self-absorbed workaholics, who took all the good jobs, and now won’t give them up.
Traditionalists reject change, and are too rigid.
Generation Y expects everything to be handed to them.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Generation X in the Workplace (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

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The Grand-Mal Resignation: Great Theatre, Bad Practice

I worked with a client, who confided in me that he was about to quit his job in a senior leadership role within the organization. Mike was really smart, and hard working, but had a bit of a blind-spot when it came to political considerations within the workplace. He always insisted that he didn’t play politics. What he failed to realize is that you can’t choose whether to play workplace politics or not. You play, or you get played.

Mike and I role-played his resignation conversation a bit, and it became clear to me very early that this was going to be a disaster of epic proportions. Mike was determined to teach his boss, and the organization a lesson on his way out. No one was safe – his boss, his peers, and his direct reports were all targets of his wrath.

In completely unrelated news, Mike was a smoker. Putting the addictive nature of tobacco use aside, people smoke because the short-term consequences of smoking are immediate, certain and generally positive. How else can you look cool, get a nicotine high and relax yourself? It feels good. The longer-term death and illness are problems for another day.

Mike’s choice in how he chose to leave the organization was parallel reasoning, and equally as stupid. He had watched too many crap-TV shows that erroneously illustrate people quitting their jobs by sticking it to their boss and the organization, feeling a huge sense of relief and a temporary euphoria before moving on to bigger and better things.

The reality of a grand-mal resignation is more like the eventual cancer and emphysema that smokers get. It feels good for a few minutes, but ultimately sabotages the quitter’s longer-term career prospects.

Before Mike chose to light his future with the glow of the bridges he’d burned behind him, he may have wanted to consider how and when he might run into some of these people again.

Mike didn’t know which one of the peers he burned on his way out might be a hiring manager at another organization five years from now. He also had no way to know that the boss he called everything short of illegitimate would also be submitting his notice shortly because he was taking on a new role at the same firm Mike was moving to.

Oh, that’s going to be awkward. But they never talk about that on the sitcoms.

The Best Way to Quit Your Job

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The best way to quit your job, is to do it in a planned and deliberate way. Below, we discuss why you should think about the best way to quit your job, what to do beforehand, how to make the actual meeting easier, what to do during the transition, and what to do after you quit.

“Don’t Let Your Future Be Lit by the Fires of the Bridges You’ve Burned Behind You”

Why You Want to Consider the Best Way to Quit Your Job:

You may want to “Boomerang”. Many people have left their employer only to return a short time later because things didn’t work out. If you don’t consider the best way to quit your job, you potentially close a door in the future.
You may need a reference. If you consider the best way to quit your job, and do it well, you can call upon that employer for a reference in the future. You may not think you need it now, but eventually you might.
You don’t know else might leave the organization. One of your current peers, or perhaps a supervisor could change companies and be your boss one day. If you don’t consider the best way to quit your job, you will leave a sour taste in everyone’s mouth that will not serve you well in the future.

The Best Way to Quit Your Job — Before You Quit

Plan a communications strategy. It is critical you manage how the news of your departure will permeate the organization. Some people you will want to tell in person. Always consider the impact of your departure on others:
- Your boss
- Your peers
- Your mentor, someone you might have a special relationship with.
- Prepare your “story” and stick to it. You cannot tell your boss you are leaving for a better opportunity, and tell everyone else you’re leaving because you hate your boss. You need to pick a story, and stick to it.
- Manage the grapevine. The best way to quit your job is to control as much of the grapevine as you can. Do not leak information to anyone in advance, and proactively manage how the news is distributed.
- Give appropriate notice. Often two weeks is not enough time for an employer to replace you and transition your work. You need to ensure you have provided enough notice to minimize the hardship for your organization and your peers.
- Prepare for the possibility of a counter-offer. The organization may provide you with an opportunity that tempts you to stay. If you’ve already accepted a position with another company, it makes any counter-offer complicated. Make sure you have considered this possibility in advance.

The Best Way to Quit Your Job — Doing the Deed

Plan what you’re going to say, and keep it short. You should not defend or over-explain you reasons for leaving. Simply tell the recipient of the news that you intend to leave on a certain date for a simple reason.
It is not a forum to air your grievances. The best way to quit your job is to say positive and supporting things during the meeting. Any disagreements or problems you had with your boss or your employer are no longer relevant once you choose to submit your notice.
Be prepared to be escorted off site. Some employers will require you to leave site immediately upon the submission of your notice. Do not take it personally, and be prepared in advance:
- Remove your personal effects prior to submitting your notice. This may be tricky to do without revealing your intent.
- Back up your contacts, or other information you want in advance of the meeting. You may not have computer access after you have submit your notice.

The Best Way to Quit Your Job — During the Transition Period

Try to close out your work without creating a problem for others.
Keep any negativity in check. You will be leaving shortly – there is no advantage to badmouthing the employer, or embellishing your reasons for leaving with your peers.
Collect future references. You never know when you will need a reference from a former boss or a peer. Cultivating these references during the transitionary period will serve you well.
You may want to consider a personal note to important peers, or perhaps a former boss.
Treat exit interviews with care. You must assume that everything you say in an exit interview will be revealed to any targets of your criticism. No promise of confidentiality should be entirely believed.

The Best Way to Quit Your Job — After Quitting

Cultivate alumni relationships. Make the attempt to keep up with people from your former employer. This will serve you well professionally and personally.
Maintain networks where you can. Networks are powerful things, and may new employment opportunities do not work out – in which case, you will be tapping into you network again quickly.
Don’t bad-mouth the employer. You must assume that your comments will always get back, and as such, your mother was right: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”
Be available for an occasional question from your replacement. You can elevate your credibility considerably by being available to the organization, and specifically for your replacement to follow up on some of your previous work.

3 Things to Remember About The Best Way To Quit Your Job:

You need to have a well thought-out plan. You don’t want to improvise this important part of career management.
It is in your best interest to leave “well”. You never know when you will run across people again, and you want them to speak well of you.
Stick to your story. You need to have a departure “script”, and stick to that script regardless of who you are speaking with.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about The Best Way to Quit Your Job (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

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Managing the Balding and Grey

How did this happen? When you were a teenager, you were very clearly smarter than your parents. Then you went on, and got yourself a whole bunch of education, worked hard, and are now leading a team of people. Half of them are old enough to be your parents.

Managing your mom? You didn’t sign up for this.

Oh to be a Baby Boomer — The single most important demographic cohort in the history of the planet. The baby boomers have absolutely dominated the workplace since the 1960s, and are only slowly giving up their grip now. If you were born after about 1965, then it is a good news/bad news story for you.

The bad news is the Boomers racked up your “societal credit card debt”, that will take several generations to pay off. The good news is they’ve already cured erectile dysfunction, and they are bound and determined to stay youthful forever, which bodes well for all those that follow.

In the workplace, this has a number of ramifications. If you’ve got a boomer working for you, you might have to put up with the occasional tardy arrival, if you are to believe the Cialis commercials. It also means when you start talking about ISPs, ASPs and HTML, their eyes will glaze over faster than Paris Hilton’s would on Jeopardy.

Keep in mind that there is something to be learned from this generation. Yes they were financially reckless with your future, and made the planet into an environmental disaster, but that doesn’t mean they don’t know a thing or two about whatever business you are in.

The Boomers have seen several business cycles come and go, and will tell you (with certain credibility) that they’ve seen it all previously. Everything in business comes full circle – just the details are marginally different. If you listen carefully to the Boomers working for you, you just might get a jump on whatever is going to happen next.

They can’t manage email to save their life, and they think microwaves and fax machines are high tech, but if you discount their input and feedback, it is at your peril.