All posts in Leadership

Launching Speeds

by Adam Lehman on January 31, 2012 in Leadership with 4 Comments

I’ve been in lots of conversations lately about launching new things. Books, features, services or businesses.

One thing I’ve observed is that there are 3 main speeds at which launchers feel comfortable.

Break Neck Speeds

These launchers have an idea and are ready to put the rest of the world on hold to focus on a new offering. They’re willing to risk health, wealth & wisdom to keep their eyes on the prize. All-nighters, desperate asks & urgent emails/phone calls characterize this pace.

There’s not a ton of room for failure here as any hiccup will cause the team to trip over its own feet.

Win or Bust. Go Big or Go Home. All or nothing.

All Things in Moderation

An excitement and sense of purpose fill these launchers, but also a healthy skepticism.

The This cohort is amped to create something new and still wants to do their due diligence. They want to learn what the “competition” is doing, they want to talk to potential customers, they want to research options & vendors. This group wants to make sure all the steps are laid out. They acknowledge the hard work that is ahead of them, but want to eliminate some uncertainty.

Slow & Steady Wins the Race

These launchers are going to need a Red Bull.

They toss around ideas and dreams and wishes. No one really looks into it. No one really gets too excited.  Change doesn’t happen. Launches don’t happen. New things don’t happen.

I once worked with a company that identified “changing our name” as one of the most important changes they needed to make. It took them 3 years to get around to looking into that….

The Point

The reason it’s important to see the pace of launchers is to understand if you want to work with them. It’s easy to assume an entrepreneur is going to flounder or crash & burn when in reality, you’re just wired for a different pace than them. It’s OK.

Just acknowledge the speed you’re trying to work at. Ask people to keep you accountable to that speed & get ready to rock.

 

I Honestly Hurt for Liars

by Adam Lehman on January 13, 2012 in Leadership with 1 Comment

I Honestly Hurt for LIars

The guy living a lie to his girlfriend. I’m sad for him.

The girl who acts like she’s so confident to overshadow how terrified she can be. My heart breaks for her.

That tweeter who retweets Seth Godin, Rick Warren & Dave Ramsey every morning. I wish more for you.

When we put on a show, we’re hurting. We don’t feel comfortable, we can’t be ourselves. We live lies. And living a lie is one of the most exhausting existences of all (remember when you were a kid and told that lie and stressed about it for the next month…).

I’m not mad at liars. I’m not going to expose them for the fakers they are. I hurt for them. I’d wish they could be secure enough to be honest.

Being your genuine self is one of the most freeing things you can do for yourself. It’s also a HUGE gift for the rest of us. You’re special/weird/unique/different/gifted and there’s no one like you!

On Being Intentional

by Adam Lehman on December 29, 2011 in Leadership with 3 Comments

A follow up to yesterday’s posts on setting yourself apart through intention.

Here are some practical applications for your relationships, work & life.

1. Put down your phone and talk to your wife.
2. Close your Facebook browser and read a book.
3. Set periodic reminders to text or call your friends/family.
4. Pack a healthy lunch with intentions to skip fast food.
5. Budget. Stick to your budget.
6. Take 5 minutes to make a list of friends you’ve lost touch with. Set reminders to call, email or Facebook them to reconnect.
7. Write down the top 5 areas of life you want to devote time to (marriage, kids, work, friends, networking, exercise, etc.) and put time on your calendar dedicated to those things.
8. Say “NO” to more.
9. Stop watching TV for a week. Plan how you’ll spend that time.
10. Pick a topic you’d like to learn more about and subscribe to a blog on the topic. Read a boom on the subject as well.

Intentionality is your Separation

by Adam Lehman on December 28, 2011 in Leadership with 2 Comments

Default is easy.

School trains you to default to getting the questions right. College trains you to study for finals and show up to class (sometimes). You job trains you to clock in every day and work past 6.

After an amount of time, you’ll ask for a raise and a promotion. You’ll accrue vacation days. Pension. Etc.

Mundane. Routine. Default.

Intentionality is what separates the default-livers from the artists.

The more intentional you are with your relationships the further you’ll be from the default (right now, the default is divorce).

Be intentional in your time management and you’ll be able to do more in a year than most get to do in 5.

Intention in your focus will keep distractions from sucking your creativity dry (I wander how many times Steve Jobs checked his Facebook timeline?).

To the extent that you’re able to apply intentionality to your life is the extent that you’ll be able separate yourself from the competition.

A Solid Challenge from Chris McAlister

by Adam Lehman on December 4, 2011 in Leadership with No comments

Chris put this video together for the ChurchWith.Us blog. It’s a reminder that our work doesn’t have to come from a place of short-term excellence, but can be an overflow from long-term health.

Enjoy & let me know what you think.

Honest Stories

by Adam Lehman on November 25, 2011 in Leadership with 3 Comments

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I’m writing this post on my phone. Forgive my shortness or typos. Wait, I have typos all the time… Uh… All my posts are from my phone…?

The key to honest marketing is honest stories. That doesn’t mean you have to tell everyone how much you suck.

Tell the truth.
Don’t cover up faults.
Don’t position yourself as something that you’re not.

But feel free to make audacious promises.

Me. I’m really good at shooting straight & wooing people to a cause, product or service. I’m great at digging up info I (or you) need.

I’m not really good at designing software, cleaning my room or cookin for large groups (unless ordering pizza counts (it doesn’t)).

2 questions:
What are you good at?
What aren’t you good at?

Telling The Truth

by Adam Lehman on November 14, 2011 in Leadership with 2 Comments

[box title="Marketing for Honest People" color="#f00"] This post is part of the Marketing for Honest People series. To stay up to date on all new posts, subscribe or connect on Facebook.[/box]

Marketers and sales folks are rarely known for being truth-tellers. Quite the opposite actually. Folks are so skeptical of marketing and sales professional that companies use the title “business development” instead of sales.

The nature of business seems to tempt people into short-term thinking. Over-promising (or flat out lieing) can lead to ruined relationships. Close friends of mine have sworn off all products from Apple, HTC, Dell or Blackberry because their experience didn’t live up to the expectations set from the outset.

You can avoid the broken trust that comes with these experiences. Tell the truth.

Your tweets, blog posts, emails & status updates should tell the truth. Be honest.

I’ll show you an example of honesty vs dishonesty (from my perspective).

Take Apple’s long-form commercial for the iPhone 4s. Apple’s commercials, as of late, have simply been examples of functionality in their products. They show you the product in action. Sure they may speed up the transitions between apps or put some diverse, attractive actors in the scenes, but the focus is the product.

Now take one of the least honest commercials I’ve seen in a while. Droid is obviously positioning themselves entirely opposite of Apple here. They occupy the same market and are competing against the same customers. Obviously some ad executives decided that it’d be a good idea to fail to showcase anything. This TV spot drives me bonkers.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugLIkx1u5iY

Every time you talk to prospective fans, customers or partners you have the opportunity to be honest.

Marketing for Honest People

by Adam Lehman on November 14, 2011 in Leadership with 1 Comment

When I’m helping people grow, I’m winning.

I like helping people grow their business, their church, their web presence and their influence.

I can easily come across as a brown-nosing salesman.

But I won’t lie.

I won’t make you sound better than you are. I’ll make you sound as good as I can, but not better.

I won’t help you with your get-rich-quick scheme, but I will help you grow you influence.

There is natural, healthy growth. And then there’s steroids. Steroids make you look and perform in a super-human manner, but it’ll kill you.

This week, this blog will be discussing what marketing looks like for honest people.

To follow along, go ahead and subscribe.

THE Leadership Event You Need to Attend

by Adam Lehman on October 30, 2011 in Leadership with 7 Comments

I spent a solid chunk of last week at the best leadership experience I’ve ever come across.

It wasn’t hyped. You didn’t see an advertisement for it on that blog you love. You didn’t see it’s hashtag trending on Twitter.

Peak Performance Retreats are the product of years of exploration of Chris McAlister.

The work done there is so personal, so perfectly individualized that I can’t easily put into words what you’ll take away. But I’ll try:

  • You’ll be put in perfect position to have God speak to the core of your being.
  • You’ll have the opportunity to identify some of the key fears that are blocking your creativity, communication & leadership.
  • You’ll learn simple practices that will allow you lead at a high level with longevity.
  • You will have a breakthrough.
Those are big promises, but I’d guarantee them.
If you’re struggling, stuck in an addiction, losing relationships or hurting others in your leadership; you NEED to go. You NEED to sign-up as soon as you can.
If you’re serious about changing – about growing , I can’t imagine an excuse not to sign-up.

Slow, Steady Growth

by Adam Lehman on October 4, 2011 in Culture, Leadership with 1 Comment

At work today, I was commenting about my poor results the past week. I had just got off the phone with a company that was in no shape the buy what I was selling. They’re a large, nationally known company whose product is directly tied to new home builds. Bad time for that sort of business…

Our CEO stopped me and – rather than coaching me on how to smooth talk my way into their pocketbooks, he spoke to me (and my team) about the way he sees America’s current economic climate. He explained how our time is similar – and different – than many times before.

I jokingly stated, “Sound like a great time to start a business.” (Our company was founded in 2007)

He went on to tell story after story of business people who caught economic waves in the 80s & 90s. They made money young. Bought expensive houses. Started new, riskier companies. They’d never failed.

Until now….

In fact, they’d never really struggled for their success.

You see, if your success is directly tied to the economic wave your company has caught, you don’t really have to be good. Or smart. You just have to follow common practice and you’ll be fine. (Examples: Investing in .com before the bubble, taking out huge housing loan in 2006 & calling yourself a social media expert in 2011).

The problem with those people is that they never developed their core. They never had to build the habits needed to weather ANY economy.

Slow growth is golden. Better than golden.

Learn the hard work. Erase entitlement from your worldview. Learn to hunt your food, even if there’s a buffet in the next room (a buffet only slowly kills you anyways…).

In fact, don’t just learn to hunt, get really good at it. Learn to teach others to hunt.

 

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