Talking shop … store, booth, garage, and office…
Business networking events aren’t for everyone. For some people, such things are the awkwardness of an office soirée but without the benefit of free alcohol for that bit of Dutch courage, and swapping out the unwelcome overtures of that not-so-special someone who you avoid like the plague for the overt advances of a bunch of salespeople who talk at, over, and through you.
Worse, the dreaded speed networking event — eek!
Choice of venue aside, I’ve found the optimal angle of approach is to ask the other person what it is they do and then wrap their explanation in a contextual proposition of what it is Octane does.
It’s the difference between:
“We help small businesses deal with big business problems.”
… and:
“We’d create a secure web application to manage the life cycle of [Widget X, Gadget Y, Service Z, or Events 1, 2, and 3], and…”
… or:
“We’d look at trimming your workflow down from 7 stages to about 5, or — if possible — 3, and then digitising the whole thing, then…”
… in each instance, continuing with additional, contextual ideas specific to their business, accompanied with essential benefits, such as reducing costs, and improving efficiencies, among others.
While apocryphal, it’s worth mentioning something that Albert Einstein never said because it’s a useful shorthand:
“If you can’t explain it simply you don’t understand it well enough.”
We often have an intuitive understanding of what we do, but then struggle to articulate that to someone else, so — as I said — context is everything, as is practice.
I often avoid explaining the specifics of what Octane does (because it’s technical and therefore either: 1. confusing; 2. boring; or 3. a combination of 1 and 2) and instead focus on the expected results, and the benefits we would bring to them.
In the end, simplifying the raison d’etre of a product or service isn’t so much a strand of self-promotion or some branch of your marketing strategies as it is the communication of an idea such that its purpose is self evident to someone, whether it’s applicable or relevant to them or not.
Because if someone else understands what you’re capable of accomplishing, then you have the makings of a message that is communicable to others by others, via word of mouth, and fingers to keyboard or touchpad, which could then — in modern parlance — go viral.
The 20-80 rule
You’ve heard about the 80-20 rule. What about the 20-80 rule? I’m guessing not.
Some time after a running a marketing campaign, which attracted a scant few new clients, we ran into difficulties with one particular new client.
Now, it’s worth prefacing this with an explanation about their particular circumstances. Having spent a large four-figure sum on a major overhaul to their website, in the end, there was almost nothing to show for it. Worse, due to some naivete on their own part — and I didn’t get a complete picture of things — there was no legal recourse.
I came along to “firefight”, which had been about 75% of the work Octane had been doing since 2001; clearing up the chaos caused by a number of web design agencies who seemed to be popping up like mushrooms between 2000-2006 who either failed to do the job or had no intention of doing so.
As you’d imagine, the budget was tight and the profit margin became razor thin. Complicating things further was the clash of personalities, which — for me at least — manifest itself in a fundamental lack of appreciation for the task at hand, its scale, and the challenge of accomplishing much of what had been asked of the previous web designers but on a fraction of the budget.
I didn’t have either the time or the patience for capturing the Moon and putting it on a lollipop stick for a fraction of the price, deliverable by last week. At the same time, a number of other clients had been growing more vocal and more difficult to deal with.
In fairness, these were hard times, but we weren’t doing great either. I came to a realisation — that 20% of the clients were responsible for 80% of the problems we were having, such as:
- poor lines of communication;
- late or non payment (I took two clients to court and won both claims);
- high-maintenance support requirements, but an unwillingness to pay for the service;
- difficult and obstructive personnel;
- unethical and immoral business practices.
… the list went on.
It was a difficult a decision to make (not so much where there was a lack of morals and ethics), and more so given the economic climate, but I made the decision to cut that 20% loose, and — over time — reaped the rewards, the most immediate benefit was that we had more time and resources to deal with the work coming from the remaining 80% of the client base.
Photograph from Pixabay.
An era of technological and ethical unknowns
Taken from an article on TechCrunch, regarding the ethics when designing new technologies:
Consumers would prefer to minimize the number of overall casualties in a car accident, yet are unwilling to purchase a self-driving car if it is not self-protective. Of course, the ideal option is for companies to develop algorithms that bypass this possibility entirely, but this may not always be an option. What is clear, however, is that such ethical quandaries must be reconciled before any consumer hands over their keys to dark-holed algorithms.
As technologies accelerate the pace of change, that same momentum is pushing us into an era of ethical unknowns.
Learning to Lead
Up until some time in October 2014, Octane was the figurative and literal one-man-band — fighting the good fight, but nurturing an ambition to grow. Then, over the course of the following November, I was an employer for the first time.
I had intended taking on a single employee to help me with a nascent internal project, the Under Cloud, but given it was — for the most part — both a new experience and a complete leap into the dark, I took on two employees, both acquired via (and from) the University of Sheffield.
How not to be a boss!
Perhaps more important to me at that time — at that moment of becoming an employer — was to avoid becoming the boss I had so long ago.
I had a terrible experience as an employee, and at the time of that acrimonious departure, I made a promise to myself that I would never become like the person I worked for. But it was a learning process, one that taught me that in spite of the terrible experience, we had followed a similar path.
What separated us was the application of those experiences and the value we derived from them.
In the end, it was a choice: choose to be broken by those experiences; or break the cycle and turn those experiences into a blueprint for something positive.
I chose the latter option.
Lessons in leadership
A trick I use is to step outside of myself and look beyond the bubble of ownership and management, because sometimes the passion I have translates as frustration when things aren’t moving fast enough, or despair when those I engage with lack the same zeal as me.
So it’s about remaining human, humane, grounded, real, focused, trusted — a windswept, rugged island of calm in the teeth of a raging storm. I know, that last part is a bit dramatic, but it’s apt, because while I have several decades of experience to draw upon, those who work for me do not, and I must be that singular point of calm to their storm.
Personal experience aside, I am a relative newcomer to this employer thing! Yes, I have mentors to turn to, such as the wonderful Karen Guile, the owner of Tobook Limited, a client of Octane’s. But in the end, it’s a path I — and anyone else in my position — has to walk alone.
I get it, don’t allow employees to become too familiar. I see the argument and I understand the logic, but it’s not me, and it’s not how I was as an employee, either, because I questioned (and continue to question) almost everything.
Questions are good!
I’d rather be the target of a barrage of pointed, reasoned, logical questions, than a participant in an awkward silence emerging from a lack of action, resulting in a poor performance.
Projects live and die by three things:
- Planning;
- Communication;
- Execution.
While we keep doing those 3 things, we won’t often go far wrong.
Which brings me to performance, and it also ties in with the lack of (but fast-growing) experience I (don’t) have when it comes to employing people.
Role reversal
Now, for some of you reading this article, imagining yourself as an employee shouldn’t be too difficult because that’s what you are!
But think for a moment:
- Those things you do which you wish you didn’t have to.
- Or those things that get foisted onto you when a little sharing would have been a big help.
- Then there are those who get nudged out of position, a bit like Wayne Rooney playing out on the left wing; why squander the striking talent of the lad when he was born for the forward position? Play people to their strengths!
You get the idea.
I don’t want — or need — to be that boss who hands down from on high things with an avuncular scowl of pre-emptive disappointment.
However, at the same time, I need to know what else an employee is capable of doing. Stress is a revealing environment, which might forge a metallic edge to a person, or make them shrink like a flower in the shadows. I got florid again, didn’t I?
So it’s a balancing act: place them in a stressful environment, or under pressure (not quite the same thing), but be there for them. In either instance, I ask if it’s something they want to do.
Failure isn’t such a bad thing until we stop learning from it, or we become afraid of it.
Leading by example
We know from personal experience that finding enjoyment in what we do is vital. But not everything we do is a rib-tickling festival of mirth and merriment.
So how do I mitigate this?
I share the entire strategies I have with the team, which is sometimes overwhelming, but at least the journey is known.
It’s rare that I might withhold something (perhaps financial), because I believe that censorship of information is often (but not always) more harmful than sharing.
Then we talk about activities, and I ask questions such as:
- “Do you want to do this?”
- “Does this make sense to you?”
- “Here’s how I do things, but what would be best for you?”
- “Would it help if I gave you a hand?”
Sometimes, it’s about maintaining momentum, understanding the terrain, and knowing when to lead by example.
In short, I sometimes get stuck in and do the horrible things, freeing the team up to do the things I’m paying them to do.
Then I’ll do something which some might find unusual — I conduct a reverse performance review by asking: “How am I doing?”
I don’t often make demands, but I demand an honest answer to that question, and I make a point of teasing out the observations and drilling down to the specifics. Sometimes, it’s about them, but then sometimes it’s about me, and if I agree and it makes sense, I fix that.
Everyone has to be engaged, and feel part of the journey and not an incidental passenger, or a mere cog in a machine.
Look, I make no claim to be the perfect boss, nor am I aspiring to be that (perfection is impossible, but that’s for another time). Instead, first and foremost, I’m attempting to be boss that I’d work for and then build from there.