Soft Leadership

So you think you know how to search Google? Think again. Improve your search skills by applying these 20 smooth search techniques.

You can impart remarkable service that will set your products and services completely apart from every other in your market. It's possible because you are unique, creative, and capable of making friends.

It's going to cost you though. You're going to have to care more...a lot more. But, here are three reasons why you have no choice:

1. Remarkable Service Makes You Remarkable. 

• It's not all about selling a good product, pushing it out into the market, and making a lot of money. Zappos sells the same products as any department store for about the same price. I can get the same pair of Converse All-Stars at a shoe store in the mall, but I choose Zappos because they appreciate it, pleasant to deal with, excited for the business, and willing to jump through hoops for me. Zappos has made customer service their number one priority. They are a service company that happens to sell shoes.
• Treat your customers in a way that makes them feel like they matter to you. They will notice the difference and you will be remarkable in their mind. People remember remarkable amidst all the noise in the market.
  

2. Remarkable Service Makes You Trustworthy. 

• Every customer carries a special set of needs and circumstances. So remarkable service requires a personal touch. That means you must interact with customers on a personal level that leads to relationship building.
• Customers remember the people and organizations they matter to and have relationship with. I buy my glasses from WarbyParker because I know and trust them.
• Want your customers to trust you? Prove to them that service matters to you. Care enough to make service a priority. Remarkable service leads to trust which is followed up by sales.
  

3. Remarkable Service Makes You Better. 

• If service matters to you, then you must be constantly connected to customers. Get back to them...promptly. Find out what you are doing right and where you can improve. If trust exists in your relationships, you'll get honest feedback.
• You get an invitation to take a survey on every Walmart receipt, right? Despite the chance to win a $5000 Walmart gift card, how many times have you taken the survey? Exactly, same here.
• When was the last time a friend asked your for your opinion? You gave it to them, right? You're more likely to offer your opinion or feedback to help them improve because they will actually listen to you. They care about you and you care about them. 
• Customer feedback is worth its weight in gold because it saves you time and money brainstorming and performing market research. Besides, wouldn't you rather talk to your friends over analyzing market statistics?
  

Remarkable customer service has to be part of your strategy. If you're going to "get around to it" you never will. Make a plan and start leading by example. Live it with your example before you make a power point presentation about it.

Recently, in an effort to better understand our national economy I read Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future. I wanted to understand why we have such high unemployment, yet leave so many jobs go unfilled in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). 

To gain a better grasp on the STEM crisis (and it is a HUGE crisis by the way), this brief Executive Summary will bring you up to speed.

Currently, only four percent of our nation’s workforce is composed of scientists and engineers - and this number has been rapidly declining in recent years. Why is this important? Well, because this group disproportionately creates jobs for the other 96 percent.

Leverage is at play in our economy. Everyone benefits when we have more science nerds, gear heads, tech geeks, and mathletes. When there's progress in the lab the multiplier goes into affect, starting with the scientist and engineer inventors, then streams down to benefit the entrepreneurs who rally investors and manage the risk, their skilled workers who build the products, the marketer who connects it with consumers and creates demand, the truck driver who delivers, the salesperson who sells, and the maintenance person who repairs, and of course the consumer who realizes the benefits.

Additionally, for every job that is directly created in this said chain of manufacturing and marketing activity, on average another 2.5 jobs in disparate labor such as: operating restaurants, grocery stores, barber shops, filling stations and banks is generated. 

Progress enabling products like: smartphone apps, MRI machines, robot exoskeletons, genetically modified silk, invisibility cloaks, spray on skin, 3-D printers, self-driving cars, artificial bone, sustainable disposable solar panels, eye implants, and flexible glass are built on the work of a few scientists. In several years (or less) these breakthroughs will create millions of jobs. Right now we have the jobs we do because of products that were still in research just a few decades go: the Internet, CT scanners, iPods, and GPS. 

When our children are young they are sponges. They enjoy learning letters and numbers. Eventually they discover they enjoy STEM subjects because they can be fun to learn and it's personally satisfying to solve a math problem, build a robot, or reach a conclusion for the school science fair project. 

Then something happens at the end of high school and in college. STEM is not as fun and it gets hard. They hit the dip - the learning curve. Learning gets harder and they opt to drop out or focus on something easier because they're afraid, discouraged, and/or can't see the bigger picture of how they can be a part of something huge. We can't let this happen. 

If your son and/or daughter is interested even slightly in STEM, then motivate and guide them to pursue their interests to their full potential.

My perspective about training has changed forever. Special thanks to Mike Myatt for sharing The #1 Reason Leadership Development Fails.

Mike has taught me that "training is...the #1 reason leadership development fails." I asked myself, "Really? Training? Why?" The answer is because "development strives to call out the unique and differentiate by shattering the status quo." Training really is an attempt, "to standardize by blending to a norm and acclimating to the status quo." And the status quo is something we all need to fight.

The reason why training kills leadership is because it presumes and assumes. "It presumes the need for indoctrination on systems, processes and techniques...[and] assumes that said systems, processes and techniques are the right way to do things." 

I've never been a fan of best practices (we do it all too often in academia) because as Mike points out, "Training is...a rote, one directional, one dimensional, one size fits all, authoritarian process that imposes static, outdated information on people." I think the primary reason I despise trainings is because I don't enjoy lectures and such one directional presentations. I need to ask questions, I want people to ask me questions. I crave meaningful dialogue. I don't care what happened in the past. I learn so I am better prepared to meet future needs.

From now on, every time I am invited to attend a conference and give a "Best Practices" presentation I'm going to call it "Next Practices" and we're going to have a dialogue! That's a promise...a challenge to the status quo.

Training is for mindless cogs, non-thinkers, sheepish people who want to work in a factory and be told what to do. Development is for innovators, critical thinkers, and creative problem solvers. We don't need more factory workers, we need creative problem solvers.

If you're like me, you still need help determining the difference. Here are Mike's 20 points that differentiate between training and development:

1. Training blends to a norm – Development occurs beyond the norm.
   
2. Training focuses on technique/content/curriculum – Development focuses on people.
   
3. Training tests patience – Development tests courage.
   
4. Training focuses on the present – Development focuses on the future.
   
5. Training adheres to standards – Development focuses on maximizing potential.
   
6. Training is transactional – Development is transformational.
   
7. Training focuses on maintenance – Development focuses on growth.
   
8. Training focuses on the role – Development focuses on the person.
   
9. Training indoctrinates – Development educates.
   
10. Training maintains status quo – Development catalyzes innovation.
    
11. Training stifles culture – Development enriches culture.
    
12. Training encourages compliance – Development emphasizes performance.
    
13. Training focuses on efficiency – Development focuses on effectiveness.
    
14. Training focuses on problems  - Development focuses on solutions.
    
15. Training focuses on reporting lines – Development expands influence.
    
16. Training places people in a box – Development frees them from the box.
    
17. Training is mechanical – Development is intellectual.
    
18. Training focuses on the knowns – Development explores the unknowns.
    
19. Training places people in a comfort zone – Development moves people beyond their comfort zones.
    
20. Training is finite – Development is infinite.
    

The most important thing I've learned about leadership is that you don't need permission to lead.

In my career, I live by and teach this Five Step Plan. It applies to just about everyone and everything:

1. Go, make something happen.

2. Do work you're proud of.

3. Treat people with respect.

4. Make big promises and keep them.

5. Ship it out the door.

When in doubt, see #1.

Not that you needed it, but I give you permission to lead.

In his revolutionary eBook Stop Stealing Dreams, a solution the US public education system, Seth Godin helps us understand the history of school and its relationship with the industrial revolution.

Essentially, factories needed interchangeable, fearful, obedient workers who were on time, and prepared to perform repetitive tasks. 

Schools were invented to train youth to be on time to class, follow a repetitive schedule, do repetitive work, do their homework (or else!). And it worked! Schools churned out a workforce for the labor market.

Well, the labor market has changed...but school hasn't. Here's a starter list of what school is for.

What we need today are youth who are passionate, innovative, and caring problem solvers. 

If you'd like to know how we get there, then get your free copy of Stop Stealing Dreams and READ it.

If we choose to change the system here's what we need to do:

1. Homework during the day, lectures at night.
   
2. Open book, open note all the time.
   
3. Access to any course, any where in the world, anytime you want to take it
   
4. Precise focused education
   
5. No more multiple choice exams. Measure experience instead of test scores
   
6. Cooperation instead of isolation.
   
7. Teachers transform in to coach.
   
8. Lifelong learning, start working earlier.

Don't for a minute believe these two myths:

1. Great performance in school leads to happiness and success.
   
2. Great parents have kids who produce great performance in school. 
   

Here's what's true:

• Grades are an illusion, passion and insight are reality.
  
• Work is more important than congruence to an answer key.
  
• Persistance in the face of a skeptical authority figure is priceless.
  
• Fitting in is a short term strategy that gets you no where. Standing out is a long term strategy that takes guts and produces results.
  

This video is all about Seth Godin's triangle of: Strategy, Tactics, and Caring.

Here's a preview of what you'll learn:

We now live in a 'Connection Economy.'

It's now easier than ever for you to speak up and be heard.

Normal is crumbling. 

Be willing to fail. 

Work without a map. 

Create scarcity.

How to market: Tell stories to pockets of people who share a world view.

Spend most of your time doing work that is revolutionary.

Here's a helpful infographic that can help you better understand Google's PageRank.

There's nothing more exciting to me than developing new scientists in 4-H. It feels great to be a part of accomplishing such a huge goal. Now onward with more science!