All posts in Lead

“You’ve Got My Permission To Make This Better”

by Adam Lehman on April 26, 2012 in Lead, Relate with 5 Comments

There’s a problem. You see it. You know how to fix it.

Now what?

Do you go fix it & then keep to yourself?

Do you tell your boss?

Do you tell your coworkers?

Do you tell your competition?

Do you tell your clients?

Great leaders are ready & willing to delegate results. A great leader will look at you and say, “You have my permission to make this better.”

A great employee will go to their boss and explain problems and ask for permission.“Can I make this better? Who do I need to talk with about making this better?”

Leaders, give permission. If you’re scared to ask, you’re not developing your people like you could.

Followers, ask for permission instead of complaining. If you’re scared to ask, you’re not developing yourself like you could.

Big & Little Things

by Adam Lehman on March 30, 2012 in Lead with No comments

Great artists see the big picture. Great artists see the details.

To work well with people, you’ve got to understand what’s going on with them on a high level and in the details of their life.

The big things are important & so are the little.

Which are you better at? Big or Little?

What Do You Do When You’re Tired?

by Adam Lehman on February 8, 2012 in Lead with 4 Comments

The past couple of days I’ve been a whiny baby; complaining about being tired, stuffed up & drowsy.

My productivity was zapped. I wasn’t much fun to talk to. Coherent thoughts were a rarity.

This caused me to rethink what I do when I feel myself being tired.

I took a little Facebook poll and realized most people simply head straight for the caffeine. Coffee, Red Bull & Mountain Dew.

But we all know that those are just temporary jolts, right? We know that we’re gonna crash after a  few hours, right?

I spent a little time and rethought how I could avoid being in this spot again.

There’s two steps:

Ask “why” a few times.

In my sales role, I represent a 3rd party logistic provider. Within the logistics & manufacturing world, there is a practice called 6-Sigma. Essentially, this process is asking “why” 6 times.

For example, a truck is late for delivery:  Why? Driver left late. Why? Trailer wasn’t loaded yet. Why? Loader was late. Why? He works in a culture that allows lateness. Why? No one has emphasized that to supervisors. Why? They have too many other things to worry about.

So for our tiredness analogy, we have to ask why 6 times. Why? I didn’t get much sleep. Why? I stayed up till 2am last night. Why? I was working on a website. Why? I procrastinated. Why? I’m had too many other projects that took priority. Why? Because I’ve overbooked myself.

Invest in your answers

As you’ll see in my own personal tiredness example, The core reason I’m tired is because I’m overbooked. Taking on too many projects has left me squeezed for time. So one of the first ways for me to make sure I’m well-rested and ready to attack the day is to make sure there’s not TOO much on my plate.

In the practice of 6 Sigma continual improvement, you make a minimal investment at each stage you identify in the problem. So working backwards I’ll invest in 1) Getting more sleep, 2) going to bed earlier, 3) not procrastinating, 4) keeping my projects limited to top priorities & 5) taking some time to outline what it is that I want to prioritize in my work.

 

 

I Honestly Hurt for Liars

by Adam Lehman on January 13, 2012 in Lead 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 Honest Business, Lead 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 Lead 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 Lead 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 Lead 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 Lead 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 Lead 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.

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