Review of the book "Lead Well and Prosper"

I was recently contacted by Nick McCormick, author of the book Lead Well and Prosper, and was asked to review his book on my blog. I love to read business related books, especially ones that are focused on the topic of leadership, so I was pleased to accept the request.

Lead Well and Prosper is a quick read. It is the kind of business book that you keep on your bookshelf and reference to remind yourself of the core basic fundamentals that leaders need to follow in order to be effective managers. The book also provides helpful tools in the back of the book as good suggestions in how to better maximize effectiveness.

The subjects that are covered in the book are coveted longstanding principals that Mr. McCormick points out as being critical if you are to achieve the status of a "good" manager. He also points out that being a "good" manager will separate you from your peers by virtue of "good" managers being few and far between.

There is a management practice or principal covered in the book that will speak to each individual. One such topic that I personally am completely on the same page as Mr. McCormick and feel that in today's business world more leaders need to follow is in Chapter 5, which is titled “Listen.” In today's business world, all too often the art of listening and paying attention has been pushed aside for the "art" of multitasking. Have we as leaders forgotten that as much as 70% of all communication is in fact listening? Mr. McCormick reminds us in his book that we should be giving our team members our undivided attention and that bringing a laptop to a meeting or answering your phone when you have a team member in your office are both leadership errors. In Mr. McCormick's words, these types of actions will lead to members of your team shutting down and not coming back to you when they have quality ideas that they would like to pitch to you, which include the ones to which you could add greater value. I could not agree more! Again, this is just one example of the "15 successful strategies for becoming a good manager" that Mr. McCormick covers in his book.

Pick this book up once a quarter and take it to lunch in order to get a good refresher and to ensure that you are executing the basics well. It is an investment of your time that will be well worth the effort.

Thanks again to Nick McCormick for the offer to read and write about my experience with his book titled Lead Well and Prosper. I wish him all the best in his future writing endeavors!

What's New No. 2

So what else is going on at The EG that is new and exciting in addition to the recent introduction of video? Over the course of the later half of 2007, our talented product development team and programmers went to work on constructing a new solution for recruiters in the health care industry. Breaking from the platform of traditional job boards, our team, after researching the industry, decided to incorporate a social networking component into our new site. It was clear that people in the health care industry needed their own community online; therefore, we introduced our social networking section of the new HealthCareerWeb.com called, "MedCom."

After the soft launch of the site at the end of 2007, we started to see an influx of medical professionals starting to find their new networking space. As we near the hard launch date, more than 2,000 individuals have already created networking profiles in addition to uploading resumes and actively applying for jobs. We are also very excited to have Denise Tanner leading our HealthCareerWeb.com efforts in the capacity of business development manager. Denise has professional experience within the health care industry and has a great understanding on how to best position our products to meet the needs of both job seekers and recruiters. Denise has already contributed greatly to our efforts in preparing HealthCareerWeb.com for the upcoming hard launch.

At the rate new jobs are being created in the health care industry, we understand the importance of developing a product that can readily meet the needs of the industry. The aging population in the United States is the primary reason for the increasing health care hiring bubble, and when an economic trend is demographically supported, it typically come to fruition.

A large part of our motivation in developing this new product is to meet the needs of our customers (job seekers and recruiters within the health care industry). Another large part of our motivation is to be a partner in proactively meeting the health care needs of the aging population base within the United States. We have a large group of hourly job seekers that utilize our products and services that represent a great base for educational programs to tap into in order to re-career individuals for new careers in health care. As manufacturing jobs, construction jobs, etc., are on the decline, there are great opportunities for individuals within these respective professions to embark on a new rewarding career within health care.

We are very excited about our newest product offering! A special thanks goes out to all of the individuals who worked together to pave the way for our newest offering, HealthCareerWeb.com.

Sound Leadership Principles

2008 is going to be a year in which many professional leaders at all levels of organizations separate themselves from their peers by way of producing excellent results within industries that are cyclical in nature. It is increasingly important that those in leadership positions have made a concerted efforts to plan their strategies for the year well in advance of whatever current market conditions might be, while remaining sensitive to the fact that (since we live in a business climate that changes faster than the leader of the current presidential primary elections) their plans will need to be constantly reviewed and updated throughout the year.

Below is a list of ten sound leadership principals we can all follow as leaders (at all levels) that become increasingly important when faced with challenges.

• Stay positive - Make sure that those that you lead understand your plans and initiatives to navigate the tough times, while simultaneously keeping the focus of the organization on proper execution of basic fundamentals and celebrating successes.
• Identify solutions, not just problems - When you find something that is not working or is need of repair, be prepared to offer suggested solutions to the problem in lieu of just being someone who comes across as always pointing out the negative.
• Catch your folks doing something right - You will be encouraging the type of behavior or accomplishments that you want among your teams.
• Listen - I mean really listen. Give those that you lead your full attention when you are engaged in conversation. Not only will this give you a better sense of the pulse of your organization, it will send the message that you care.
• Have high expectations - You have to keep yourself and those within your organization focused on performing at higher levels of success. This means you, too. Make sure the people that you lead see that you are willing to go the extra mile. If you expect more from your people, it will increase their willingness to roll up their sleeves while putting on their company hats if they know that you are also going to be in the trenches.
• Quickly identify and lose any and all dead weight - Constant poor performers, under-achievers, bad attitudes, constant complainers and negativity can quickly be a big drain on those in your organization that are getting it done. Identify it and remove it quickly. Not only will overall attitudes improve quickly, but you might be able to afford to pay your top performers better if they can absorb the workload that was being put forth by those who did not possess the will do or can do or simply did not fit in with the team or organizational culture.
• Put the right people in the right jobs - People are happier when they are doing what they enjoy. Have you ever promoted a top performer into a new capacity just to watch as they struggled in their new role? You will also need to take the time to hire the right people the first time.
• Invest resources in what works and quickly - If your organization is not focused on the ongoing research and development of your next big initiative, your company is at risk. It might take trying twenty different products, strategies, and initiatives in order to find the next $10 million dollar business. Keep developing product, and get it to market fast.
• Get your organization lean - Healthy organizations do not waste resources. Find where and on what you might be spending money that you can live without and get rid of the waste.
• Reduce your stress - Be sure to make time to recharge your batteries. Don't forget to make time for yourself and your family. Exercise, eat healthier, go for a run, read a good book, go for a family walk around the neighborhood, etc. A healthy mind and body will afford you the ability to make better decisions and will provide you with increased energy.
  

I am excited about the initiatives The Employment Guide has in store for 2008. These include launching HealthCareerWeb.com, the introduction of video job postings and many other great initiatives, as well as the ongoing development of new products to meet the needs of our customers well into the future.

What other sound principals that you utilize would add to the above list?

"The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been." - Henry Kissinger

Professional Resolution

The process of establishing a New Year's resolution is very similar to the goal setting process. Two key aspects of developing a resolution are writing it down and the fact that it is time sensitive. New Year's resolutions are typically personal in nature, but I have found that using this process in business can be an effective means by which to lead individuals to establish personal work-oriented goals.

If you are in a leadership position, you can resolve to mentor or work on the development of the individuals that you lead. You might also resolve to improve one area of your leadership skill set to a new level. This could include the improvement of listening skills, organizational skills, presentation skills, writing skills, etc. If you lead a sales team, you can use this exercise to have each member of your team establish a resolution that would be activity based. Agree to be your sales team's income coach throughout the year to keep each person on track to hit their personal income goals by measuring activity. This can be broken down into individual resolutions in the areas of increasing the number of sales calls being made, number of prospects being called or improving his or her ability to execute a sales call from the opening to wrapping up the sale, etc. This will not only demonstrate your interest in his or her success but your commitment to helping in the obtainment of their income goals. Weekly one-on-one meetings with your team can have a segment in which you analyze each team member's progress towards staying on track to achieve their income goal. This will mean establishing new activity-based targets throughout the year to act as a road map to success against the backdrop of, say, “If you do this you will be on track to hit your income goal for 2008.”

A side benefit of this process is in the fact that each member of your team has a vested interest in following your direction. Weekly coaching sessions do not include, "Your activity levels are too low...make more calls," which in my mind is a lot like a track coach running behind a runner yelling "run faster" (doesn't work). Instead, your coaching sessions now sound more like, "Your goal is to make $90,000 in 2008, and based on your sales and activity levels, you are not on track to hit your goal. However, let me show you that if you increase your efforts (here and here) you will get/be back on track." This is a great example for sales representatives, but this process can also be imperative in developing goals for those in leadership positions who (verses higher commissions, etc.) might aspire to achieve higher levels of responsibility. Therefore, developing a resolution that is focused on their professional development over the year could make this individual a better candidate for any promotional opportunities that might arise in 2008.

I have yet to finalize my own resolutions (professional or personal) for 2008. Professionally, I do know that I am going to continue to be a student of leadership and continue working on my own professional development. Reading a book each month on leadership is a good option and one that I am considering. Attending seminars on leadership is another good option. Personally, I am giving some thought to training for and running in a marathon. I completed my first half-marathon in 2007 and feel as though this could be the year that I could cross "run a marathon" off of that proverbial "life list." I only have a couple of days left to make a decision. The Chicago marathon in October could be the ticket...

What is your professional resolution for 2008? How about your personal resolution? Have you ever used this process in the establishment of goals for those that you lead?

Happy New Year!

Best regards,

Jeff Littlejohn
Vice President and General Manager
The Employment Guide

Finding Y-our Focus

In a changing business landscape companies are routinely challenged to develop new products to better meet the needs of their current customer base while continuing to expand their ability to acquire and retain new customers. Many businesses will tackle this process by adding new products or brands to the current offering. Typically these brands are overseen by a brand manager or business development manager while utilizing existing infrastructure and resources to deliver new products to market.

The recruitment advertising industry is not exempt from this process. Our business, The Employment Guide is also not exempt from this process. As we enter our eleventh year of business we are a much different and diversified organization than we were in 1997. We have added to our product offering through the development of our job fair business and our award winning website EmploymentGuide.com. We have also added our targeted niche product offering to the transportation recruitment industry CareersinGear.com and as of yesterday just released our newest member of our product family HealthCareerWeb.com. All of this change is due to the changing needs of our customers and emerging needs within certain industries that are the fastest growing areas of within the recruitment industry.

So what does this mean to the leaders within our organization and the individuals that they lead including our sales personnel? What is or should be our focus? At first glance the thought of this question can appear overwhelming. How am I going to sell all of these products? How can I get my staff to sell this and this and this...? Where do I find the time? When do I spend time selling this or that? It can become a daunting task if not properly managed.

Realistically, from a leadership perspective, we are not asking our sales teams or leaders to do anything different. We continue to ask our sales personnel to focus on calling existing customers and prospects to discuss their needs and to match the best product or combination of products from our portfolio that will satisfy those needs while developing their overall skill set and knowledge base. Nothing new. The line-up of products that we have today affords us an increased ability to expand our total customer count by satisfying a wider array of needs. Once we earn a prospect's business and they become a customer; it is then up to us to work on retaining that customer by exceeding their expectations while providing award-winning customer service. Basically, our expectations of our sales teams and where they focus their efforts will not change. Do they need a broader range of knowledge and skills due the fact that they are talking to a more diverse group of prospects and dealing with new technology? Yes. Are we asking for these individuals to do something outside of their core responsibilities and focus? No. We cannot nor will we ever be all things to all people. It is important that we are the right things at the right time to the right people, which equates to providing the right combination of products and services to meet the need of the customer or prospect on whom we are focused at the particular moment in time.

Businesses can grow by adding products and customers or selling more to existing customers, or they can grow through acquisition (buying new customers). The way that a company stimulates progress and the ability to grow can come in a wide range of packages. We have expanded our product offerings, which in turn offers us as an organization to meet the needs of an increasing number of prospects and customers. The purpose of this expansion is to meet specific needs within targeted markets in the recruitment industry while adding to our overall customer count. We are working towards accomplishing this in a way that has allowed our business to remain true to our roots in the fact that all of our products are niche in nature and are in line with the core ideology of our organization.

In my opinion, customer acquisition and retention must always be the primary focus of a business. A successful company will always be customer oriented. How a business chooses to tackle this task should be based on their core values and purpose. The road map will always look different from business to business and leader to leader, but the goal of customer acquisition and retention will always be an underlying part of a "for profit" company's purpose.

What are you doing to increase the focus of the individuals that you lead in the area of customer acquisition and retention?

Have you found any specific time-management techniques that have worked for you or those that you lead?

Best regards,

Jeff Littlejohn

The Changing Face of Distribution

As the publishing industry continues to evolve and become predominantly one that is electronic media oriented, so will distribution. The move towards changing the way in which publishing companies look and measure their distribution is being driven by the consumer. As more consumers switch to predominantly online sources for the news and information, publishers will have to follow. Newspapers are no exception to this change, especially given the collapse of the paid subscriber. The questions are: Are they willing to change and can their culture allow for this change quickly enough as to not lose the franchise?

Our organization, The Employment Guide, is a publisher. We publish 80 free weekly employment publications across the United States. Just like all other publishers, we are not exempt from the changing media landscape. Our website EmploymentGuide.com is one of the top ten job boards in the United States (according to the comScore Media Metrix for Career Resources & Development sites, September 2007). We are making a concerted effort and significant investments in leading our organization successfully into the future. One component of our future will include an electronic distribution network that is being constructed to support our print titles in how we are meeting the needs of our customers. We are in the process of constructing this network which will allow for our client's message to be delivered through an electronic means to job seekers in a way that will specifically match the job seekers needs. In addition to distribution directly to job seekers, we are continually building additional distribution channels for our customers' job postings. We currently distribute our content to a multitude of websites, as well as powering a job board for a variety of websites across the internet landscape.

Of note is the recent trend towards publishers communicating their total distribution to include their online distribution. It is about time! Most of these publishers, including us, have made significant investments into developing this side of their business. All of this hard work, investments and the results of the effort should be allowed to be an extension of their distribution. In fact, if you were to take the more than two million copies of our print publication that we are distributing across the country on a weekly basis and add the readership (averaging 2.5 readers per free publication picked up) of the job seekers picking up our titles to our comScore, we would rank as the number four job resource in the Untied States, only outpaced by the three largest general job boards/resources. As far as niche resources for the hourly non-exempt job seeker, we would rank number one.

That is exciting as we strive to deliver quality results for our customers. We will continue to work on the development of an online distribution channel that will be hourly, non-exempt job seeker centric. The results of this initiative will manifest in the upward trend in our traffic over the course of the effort. We love to compete. We are excited about the future. No doubt we are a publisher that is evolving, but we are on the right track to continue our progression as a dominant player online. The Employment Guide is an exciting place to be right now. We are having a lot of fun while working on our own professional development as we continue on our journey of organizational evolution.

How is your organization evolving?

Our Strengths

I was recently forwarded a couple of links to comments on a competitor's blog that referred to our organization in a negative fashion. When you are the leader in your industry, you are going to be criticized, especially by your competition. If you were not the leader, you probably would not have anyone making any comments about your business because no one would really care that much. Being out in front of your competition means that you are the one with the target on your back. It is obvious, however, that if your business does not have a lot of strengths or positives things going on, your only way to attempt to build value in the eyes of prospects or to garner attention is to speak poorly of your competition. When secondary businesses within industries try to use this approach, clients either quickly lose interest in their message or are quick to identify a fleeting effort by a struggling business to nip at the heals of an industry leader.



I have always advocated and will continue to advocate taking the high road when it comes to addressing questions or speaking directly about our competition. As a business, we teach our folks to focus on talking about our strengths. Conducting a thorough needs analysis with a client or prospect will uncover specific requirements to which we can match the features we offer as a business (our strengths). This will result in our being able to quickly ascertain and then satisfy those needs to the benefit of that prospect or client. This approach followed by quality customer service has proven to be a recipe for success over the last ten years. We entered this industry with the approach of being a long-term recruitment solution partner for employers within each of the local 77 markets that we serve with print, online and job fair solutions. Ten years from now our products will have changed because the need of the job seeker and employer will change, but our purpose and focus to meet the ongoing needs of our clients (both job seekers and employers) will remain constant and our passion. As products continue to quickly change via emerging electronic media recruitment solutions, our approach of being focused on meeting our customers needs of today and tomorrow will remain the foundation for our success. We will make this a reality through the combination of quality products in the form of online, print and job fair recruitment solutions. (Did you know that The Employment Guide conducted its 1,000th job fair earlier this year?)



"In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." -T. Jefferson



My advice is to always position your business based on your strengths. Know your competition and address questions as they come up while having conversations with your customers or prospects in a way that once again allows you to focus on the value proposition your organization brings to the table in meeting their needs. This is always a combination for success. Who wants to spend time talking about their competition? Especially by name! Leave their branding efforts up to their marketing department. Quite frankly, if you find yourself talking negatively about your competition, it might just mean that you don't have a whole lot of positive things to say about your own business or organization.



"A leader is one who sees more than others see, and who sees before others do." -Leroy Eims


How does your staff handle conversations with your customers about your competition?

Manage Your Vision

I like to look at our business in terms of cycles. I categorize our business cycles into initiatives, sales, product and industry cycles. New initiatives influence new product cycles, which are completed prior to the beginning of a new sales cycle. The introduction of a new product to a customer base through the sales process can lead to industry shifts or in this context, "cycles." It is the leader's responsibility to cast a vision for the future and build their organizational infrastructure to be prepared for the future while simultaneously executing in the current sales cycle or business environment. Proper development and execution of initiative and product cycles affords a leader to move his or her organization from one sales cycle to the next seamlessly. The leader is also responsible for timing this transition so it occurs as soon as there is a declining return on the investment of time in the current sales environment.

With regards to our businesses, The Employment Guide and http://www.employmentguide.com/ ,this is best demonstrated through the introduction of new and exciting ancillary events, initiatives or electronic media products. People in our industry love to have a new and compelling story to tell. What is it about your organization that is remarkable or will create excitement on the part of the key people in the businesses where you provide your products or services? Is it a new twist on a current product? Is it new technology? The creation of a new compelling story ushers in with it a new sales cycle and represents the graduation of a product cycle. Tied to this process comes the responsibility to once again engage in the initiative and product development cycles. Effective leaders can manage multiple initiatives, products and sales cycles concurrently. This is how effective leadership and the leader's vision continuously breathes life into a business and positions an organization to become an industry leader.

Can you identify each of the "cycle" components in how you are currently leading your organization? Initiative -> Product -> Sales -> Industry

Perception is Reality

Due to the fact that everyone relates to the world differently (see yesterday's post titled "Un-Multitask"), every employee also has a unique interpretation of what goes on in his or her own world or office environment. Each individual will create their own perception, which in-turn creates their own reality. You might be wondering what this has to do with leadership or the development of others. In order to effectively lead individuals out of a rut or through a tough situation from a performance or human resources standpoint, you have to gain a clear understanding of the employee's reality with regards to the situation. Correcting behavior is a far less costly road to travel than replacing behavior, so leaders can utilize the proper management of individual perception to improve operational performance. One essential part of a leader's responsibility in this process is in the well-being and continual shaping of a healthy reality for the individuals that they lead. Conflict typically arises when there are polar viewpoints about a subject within the same realm of responsibility or across departmental lines (sales and production, administration and sales, etc.). By being engaged and fairly and consistently applying company policy, good leaders can avert performance-killing and energy-draining perception-based situations.

When I have been involved in situations that have needed investigating or are in the need of being resolved, the solution will typically come down to reshaping perception based on clearing up misunderstandings. Misunderstandings can be avoided through improved leadership and a higher level of engagement in the shaping of individual opinions into group consensus by leadership. In the sales industry and in management development, it is not uncommon to hear how important it is to gain "buy-in" prior to implementation of a new initiative. In addition to gaining "buy-in" leaders must be engaged in ensuring that everyone has a clear understanding of organizational expectations, communication skills and individual office environments and behaviors.

Do you have someone on your team that has a misconstrued perception about their goals, your office's environment or in how you are leading your operation? If so, what are you doing to reshape their perception to match your reality?

Details...Details...Details

Does seeing to the details really matter? In my opinion this is what separates those that are exceptionally good at something and those who are great. It has been my experience that "detail management" usually comes down to doing the small things with precision and making sure that everything right up to the slightest detail is in line with your highest expectation. A former mentor of mine used to pound this philosophy into my head by always reminding me "it's all about the details" whenever he uncovered a good coaching opportunity for my professional development.

This subject also makes me remember an interview that I saw on television when I was much younger where Jimmy Connors explained the difference between being a world class tennis player verses being a really good player as being able to make contact with the tennis ball two inches farther out in front of your body. More important was how he was able to master this, which was to work at it longer and harder than the other players (details). Yes, seeing to the details is much harder and takes a lot more effort, but the payoff can be substantial. The concept of detail management can be applied to our businesses in terms of everything that we do as professionals and will have a lasting impact on our final revenue, income, share price, etc. It will also have a great impact on those that we have the ability to work with on their professional development. As I mentioned earlier in this post, I have been on the receiving end of this coaching and know that I am a better professional today due to being taught and being a practitioner of detail management. Do you have any examples of this that show up in your work environment?