Standing on the Shoulders of Mentors

FountainBlue’s May 10 When She Speaks, Women in Leadership Series event, on the topic of Standing on the Shoulders of Mentors. Below are notes from the conversation.

We were fortunate to have a wide range of perspectives on our panel, and that our panelists shared their insights, suggestions and advice with poignant humor and candor. They speak from a broad range of perspectives, learnings, trainings and experience.

Our panelists have all been mentors, had mentors, trained mentors and participated in formal and informal mentoring programs. Their mentors have helped them to navigate their professional and personal journeys and have been especially helpful during crossroads – between roles, between companies. Sometimes are mentors, both male and female, have been from the same or different companies, the same and different roles and companies or industries. What they had in common as mentors are that the were admired and respected by the mentee, and were adopted by the mentor as someone they respect in turn, and shows great promise and potential.

Our panelists point out that coaches differ from mentors in that coaches focus on asking the right questions rather than providing the answers, whereas a mentor might do both. Unlike mentors, sponsors are generally executives who are higher up in an organization, in a position to advocate internally for their charge, so they are best positioned to help their charges advance to a new level within an organization and/or move to an adjacent role or division within a company. Sponsors may initially be mentors, and then evolve into sponsors as the relationship develops and the mentee proves him/herself.

Below are pearls of wisdom shared by our esteemed panelists.

• Successful mentor-mentee relationships always focus on the relationship between the two, and a win-win benefit from the relationship. The relationship may evolve over time and the way you work together professionally may change as well – your mentor may become your consultant, your colleague, your boss, for example.
• The mentee needs to have a clear view of what she/he needs help with from a mentor and why, plus a good idea about who could help them get from here to there. Understanding where you’ve been, where you are now, and where you want to go can help you develop a strategy for getting there, working with your mentor.
• The mentee is responsible for his/her results, engaging sponsors, mentors, partners, peers, coaches, to figure out what the opportunities are, what is holding you back, and how to make things happen.
• The best mentors are approachable, credible, leads by example, is a great role model, and is generous. Strategize on how to best position yourself as a promising mentee for this person, what your short-term and long-term objectives are for the relationship, and how mentoring you would be helpful to them.
• The best mentees are curious, open, clear on objects, results-oriented, and willing to work hard, leveraging their strengths. Work with the mentor to establish objectives, ground rules and boundaries, and keep conversations confidential.
• The best mentors know how to leverage their connections and resources to support their mentees in achieving their goals without compromising that confidentiality agreement.
• Sometimes mentors bring in their experience, connections and perspectives to help mentees think through a professional or personal transition between roles, companies, divisions, etc.
• Make candid and authentic feedback an integral part of any mentor-mentee relationship.
• If someone takes an interest in you as a prospective mentee, he or she is complimenting you and you should understand the potential he or she sees in you. If she/he is not mentoring and supporting you in the way which is best helpful to you, inquire about why he/she is taking an interest in you, how you can support her/him in return, and share what would be most helpful to you in your development path.
• Regardless of the mentoring program, formal and informal, peer or reverse or skip-level, ensure that both parties benefit from the trust-based relationship and that both understand the long-term and short-term goals and what success looks like – what you want more of, less of and why.

In conclusion, our panelists would agree that successful leaders are self-aware, understanding their strengths and weaknesses, are strategic, focused on executing on the bigger picture objectives, and collaborative, engaging the wider network of resources, including mentors to achieve win-win results.

Resources:

• Gender-Related Material in the New Core Curriculum (which includes information on the Heidi Powers story, and how Heidi Roizen, an accomplished investor, entrepreneur and leader is seen as too aggressive, and how people who thought she was a man, ‘Howard’, found her more likeable. http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/wim_martin07.shtml
• Life Moxie’s resources and articles around mentoring http://www.lifemoxie.com/articles-new.php

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FountainBlue would like to thank and acknowledge our speakers for our May 10 When She Speaks, Women in Leadership Series event, on the topic of Standing on the Shoulders of Mentors:

Facilitator Ann Tardy, Founder and CEO, LifeMoxie Mentoring

Panelist Monica Bajaj, Senior Engineering Manager, NetApp

Panelist Gina Ferguson, Director, Finance IIG, EMC

Panelist Catherine Moore, Board Advisor, Teamitt and ConnectBright, former Head of HR for Nokia Research Centers

Panelist Leila Pourhashemi, Director, Technology Business Operations at PayPal, an eBay company

Please join us in thanking our gracious hosts at EMC.

Getting Your Company from Here to There

This month, our marketing blog will work in conjunction with our leadership blog with the same theme: Getting from Here to There. This marketing blog will focus on the company aspects of it: Getting Your Company From Here to There while our leadership blog speaks to Who Gets From Here to There. Below is advice to help companies get from-here-to-there, integrating vision with strategy and execution.

Vision

1.  Having a big hairy audacious goal (BHAG) is the inspiration and the purpose behind a company. Whether it’s a company just starting out, or one who needs to pivot from one market to another, this BHAG will address why you are in business – it is the big-picture view of what you do for whom and why.

2.  Your vision should include details about your product or service offerings and the niche audiences for each must be thoroughly understood.

3.  Everyone in the company must be aligned with the vision for the company, particularly those at the highest level.

Strategy

4.  Your strategy should include specific information about your differentiators and value proposition, how your service or product offerings differ from what competitors are offering.

5.  The communication strategy about the vision, the strategic direction and execution successes of the company

6.  Strategically, you should also consider how to efficiently deliver the products and services in a sustainable and scalable way.

7.  Everyone in the company must be aligned with the strategy for the company, particularly those at the highest level.

Execution

8.  Consistently delivering excellence in execution will set you apart from everyone else. Every person involved with the organization must make a personal stand for excellence, and help ensure that as an individual, team and organization overall, excellence is delivered.

9.  Company leaders who aren’t confident that excellence will be delivered in every instance may be living on borrowed time.

Integration

10.  In the end, it’s about the leaders and companies who can do more than each individual piece: vision, strategy and execution, but also be able to integrate the three and weave back and forth between elements with ease.

Companies need to create momentum, preferably in a positive direction. The integration of a grand vision, a customer- and market- based strategy, and excellent execution will help great companies to get from-here-to-there. Company leaders who chose the status quo and embedded complacency, are headed for imminent extinction.

Who Gets from Here to There

Who Gets From Here to There

This month, our leadership blog will work in conjunction with our marketing blog with the same theme: Getting from Here to There. This leadership blog will focus more on the people aspects of it: Who Gets From Here to There, and the marketing blog will focus on the company aspects of it: Getting Your Company From Here to There.

The best leaders have a high level of self-awareness and embrace and understand their strengths and shortcomings. But they also understand the skills and talents of others around them, and are relied upon to accurately and quickly discern who on their team or in their network can help the team/product organization from here to there. Below are some guidelines to help make astute assessments about who can get from here to there.

Values-Alignment

1.  The first filter is always about the ethics and values of the people you’re working with. If someone does not fit within the cultural and moral expectations of a group overall, or doesn’t fit within the overarching direction defined by the group leaders, he or she will never get from here to there, despite the best efforts on everyone’s behalf.

2.  Even if the skills and passion are there, sometimes the fit-within-the-team is not. Team dynamics should be in alignment with the leaders expressed goals, and proactively managed to ensure successful execution at a team level, and personal and professional accomplishments at the individual level. And sometimes the best performers may not perform well even in the best teams.

Skills and Abilities

3.  A hallmark trait of a good manager is someone who hires and develops people with the skills and abilities to get the job done, and even to grow with the job. Each manager has his or her unique combination of quantitative and qualitative evaluation tools to select for those who can get the job done well the first time, and no effective manager would hire someone without the confidence that she/he is qualified to perform the job.

4.  Even if you are certain that the skills are present, hire for someone who is teachable and open to learning new approaches, technologies and processes. This is particularly true as technology changes, business model evolutions, and the way business is done keeps evolving and changing.

5.  But what if he or she is hiring someone with adjacent, but not direct experience in a specific role? In these instances, it is important to rely more heavily on qualitative evaluations, and the recommendations of trusted others. Consider also having a probation period or a consulting project prior to hiring someone full time into this role.

6.  And what if she or he is hiring for a new role, where there are few people with the background skills and abilities to perform the job well from day one? In these instances, consider prerequisite qualifications in terms of experience and training. Brainstorm with others about what technical, leadership and process skills would be good indicators of success in a newly defined role or area. Clearly define what success looks like.

Drive, Passion and Purpose

7.  Successful people have an intrinsic desire and drive to succeed. They approach projects with energy and are persistent and successful in achieving measurable goals. Watch out for those who are only seeking external rewards for specific tasks performed, particularly if you are not sure of the values they stand for.

8.  With that said, people express drive and passion in different ways. Just because someone does not appear as energetic as someone else doesn’t mean that the less passionate is less driven. Indeed, the focus should be on the results, not the fanfare and the noise.

9.  Beyond the skills and abilities and values, look also at the passion and fit between someone and the role he/she currently has.

10.  Providing stretch goals in alignment with her/his passion and purpose is one way to help ensure engagement and success.

It’s no easy task to decide for yourself who can get from here to there. But continually reviewing values, skills and passion will help you, as a leader, to get a high level view of the people who will take the team and organization forward.

Building and Reinforcing Your Executive Brand

FountainBlue’s April 12 When She Speaks, Women in Leadership Series event was on the topic of Building and Reinforcing Your Executive Brand. Below are notes from the conversation.

We were fortunate to have a wide range of perspectives on our panel, and that our panelists shared their insights, suggestions and advice with poignant humor and candor. They speak from a broad range of perspectives, learnings, trainings and experience, but they had many things in common:

• They are articulate, successful, experienced professionals who have successfully and proactively managed their transitions throughout their career.
• They are passionate, people-focused leaders who think deeply, act thoughtfully, and constantly raise the bar for themselves and for those around them, in a positive, constructive way.
• They are deep thinkers who are self-aware enough to understand, accept and communicate their value, wise enough to seek alignment with who they are and what they do, and strategic and connected enough to find/build a job/career that fits who they are.
• They are exceptional problem-solvers and great go-to people when something tough needs to happen. Not only would they deliver measurable results, but they would engage a wide spectrum of stakeholders to achieve those results.
• They are open, humble, candid and genuine enough to share their stories, and invested in the success of others around them.

To our panel, creating and reinforcing an executive brand, at its best, is authentically communicating who you are, even when you’re at your worse. It’s having the strength, fortitude and courage to truly examine who you are, your unique value in a business context, and insisting on an alignment with who you are and what you do. One of our panelists call this the convergence of self, where the inner self and outer self echo and reinforce each other.

This brand evolves as we move from role to role, company to company, industry to industry, level to level. It threads through our career, and those adept at proactive brand management tells the story of her/his career path, with these common threads of purpose, values, integrity, and passion.

Sometimes it’s about understanding how your past roles impacting how you are coming across in a new role. Welcoming continuous feedback at all levels will help us examine how others see us, so that we can access whether it’s how we want to come across and what we can do about it.

Below is advice from our panelists regarding proactive management of brand:

• Know and accept yourself – your strengths and weaknesses. Leverage your strengths, bolster your weaknesses with support staff/team.
  • Set yourself up for success by understanding what you do well, where you can grow, and selecting positions and roles with achievable stretch goals.
• Build a history as someone great to work with who can get things done.
• Communicate clearly who you are and what you stand for, and continually get feedback about how you are coming across.
• No matter where you have in-depth knowledge, take the time to rise up beyond your own reality and area of strength so that you can see a bigger picture for your group, division, organization, and industry. Having this perspective will help you have a better context for why people do the things they do, what the customer wants, what the market trends are, etc. This is important regardless of whether you want to stay at an individual contributor level or rise within an organization, as it will help you better understand how people, teams and businesses work.
• Align all aspects of your life, for how you do one thing is how you do everything.
• Learn at every opportunity, especially if there is an incongruence between what you think of others, what others think of you, etc.
• Welcome support from mentors, sponsors, and people-who-don’t-think like you, whether you are angling for a promotion, lateral move, new role, etc., or not. This will help you understand what they see as great in you so that you can nurture that, and help you see and perhaps welcome new opportunities for yourself, or pay in other ways that nobody would expect.
• Your values are part of your brand – being consistently authentic to values such as honesty, integrity, persistence, perseverance, decisiveness will help you build trust and a following, and otherwise serve you well.

The bottom line is that everyone has a brand, whether you know what it is or not, whether it’s positive, or not so much. People who proactively manage that brand so that it’s in alignment with their best authentic, realistic self will be best positioned for success.

Resources:

• Tom Peter’s Article, The Brand Called You, published in Fast Company, www.fastcompany.com/28905/brand-called-you
• Dan Schawbel’s Personal Branding Book, Me 2.0 www.personalbrandingbook.com

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We would like to thank and acknowledge our panelists for FountainBlue’s April 12 When She Speaks, Women in Leadership Series event, on the topic of Building and Reinforcing Your Executive Brand:

Facilitator Nancy Monson, Nancy Monson Coaching

Panelist Erin Jurgeleit, Chief of Staff, Global Compliance, PayPal

Panelist Vijaya Kaza, Director of Engineering, Cisco

Panelist Merline Saintil, Vice President, Technology Operations, Joyent

Panelist Joyce Tompsett, Evangelist & Technology Advisor, Silicon Valley Executive Briefing Center, EMC Corporation

Panelist Praveena Varadarajan, Vice President – Architecture, Technology & Services, FICO

Please also join us in thanking our gracious hosts at EMC.

An Ecosystem Approach to Engaging the ‘Right’ Customer

Last month we talked about how you knew you had the wrong customer, and how de-focusing it is to your organization when you serve these customers. This month, we will continue the customer-conversation and talk about engaging the right customers.

The strategy, execution and ultimate success of any company, large or small is the engagement of the right customers for the right solutions at the right time and continuing to add value and develop deep relationships with customers, partners, vendors and other stakeholders. This month’s marketing blog focuses on how to engage those right customers, through the strategy, execution and expansion of an organization.

Strategy Phase: Understanding the Market Trends and Customer Needs Whether you’re just launching or dreaming about your new company, struggling to pivot it to a new direction, or riding that hockey stick, it’s essential to know what-you-do-for whom, how that fits into the evolution of the business market, and what that means to your customers now and in the future.

1. To understand how your product and service offerings fit into the market, it’s important to talk to your customers, partners, vendors, analysts and others about what their needs are and what the business model is around serving that need. No one person will have all the answers, but everyone will have a piece of the puzzle. The genius is someone who can weave the pieces together and transcend the data into an integrated solution which serve all stakeholders sustainably.
2. Often your stakeholders are working with partial solutions which address some of their needs, but not all of them, which may serve them well for now, but may not be enough in the long term. Hearing what your stakeholders are saying directly and between the lines will help you craft a strategy which engages the ecosystem of partners, leverages technology to sustainably and collaboratively serve the needs of customers and partners, and generates an integrated business model which benefit all.

Execution Phase: Collaborating Across the Ecosystem In this new economy, leadership will be more about seeing and managing a web of relationships than a pyramid, king-of-the-mountain structure. Today’s leader will have the vision to see how stakeholders work together, the integrity and ingenuity to see how collaboration is key, and success-for-one-is-success for all.

1. Mapping out the motivations, interests, resources and merits of each partner in the ecosystem will help leaders strategically understand how best to work with others, and the role of themselves and their organization in the market.
2. Forging partnerships and relationships across the ecosystem, and transparently communicating interests, motivations and collaborative ideas will become ever more important in the new economy.
3. Collaborative offerings between stakeholders will create more energy and momentum to each entity and the ecosystem as a whole.

Expansion Phase: Seeing Beyond Your Own Needs One of the benefits of this systemic, ecosystem, collaborative approach is that it makes an organization more nimble, and it helps leaders adopt a broader perspective about industry, customer and technology trends as well as global market trends.

1. When you see beyond your own needs, and map the trends beyond your offerings, you can respond more nimbly, quickly and collaboratively as technology and customer and global needs evolve.
2. Partnerships with specific organizations across the value chain can help individual entities more efficiently deliver customized services to customers, customers they may have common with others in the ecosystem.

Relationships Are Paramount

1. Not every stakeholder will buy into this new type of integrated partnership. Building relationships of trust and delivering results that benefit all are essential to ensure that the partners inclined to respond to this approach actually commit and deliver on their end.
2. The days of divide-and-conquer, one-king-of-the-mountain and independent monopolies will soon pass, and the days of the self-serving leader/company will be lessons in a history book about what-could-have-been. Those who see and lead past the fear and embrace relationships and collaboration will tell tales about how they led their organizations through the pivot, and how their leadership turned the company around.
3. Collaborative partnerships across the ecosystem will assist organizations to expand into new markets, services, technologies and offerings. The trick is to ensure that all entities across the ecosystem benefit from expansion opportunities and that relationships remain intact when there’s a lot of money at stake.

This new model of relationship-development and leadership is not business-as-usual. But it’s a model of doing business which fits well with the evolution of the market: from an age of information to an age of personalization.

When to Hold Up, When to Fold Up, When to Walk Away, When to Run

In thinking about this month’s FountainBlue leadership blog, Kenny Roger’s song The Gambler with lyrics by Don Schlitz comes to mind. If you work with the premise that every hand can be a winner, it’s a matter of knowing when to hold firm to your ideals, when to fold to the pressures and insights of others, when to walk away from a relationship or deal, discussion or direction, and when to run away from someone and why. Here are some guidelines on when to choose which option:

When to Hold Up

Leadership is not always about making the most popular decision, being the most likeable guy/gal in the room. Sometimes it’s about making those tough choices, weighing a variety of factors, looking out for the best interest of the people and organization who have entrusted you with their future. If your decision is well researched, impartial, not-personal, and in the best interest of all, to the best of your knowledge, hold firm to your decision, communicate clearly your position, and lobby for support. This is especially true if:

1. There are individuals or teams who are reacting emotionally to a decision, and taking things personally. If you’re sure that the decision is not personal, help he/her/them see this, and help them get the support to navigate the emotions around it. Change happens. It’s generally tough, but always inevitable. People vary in their abilities to adjust. A compassionate leader understands both why difficult things have to happen and how to support people in making things happen.
2. There are times when individuals or teams are working at cross purposes, and it’s hard for both sides to see the value of a new direction if their goals are not aligned. Understanding the motivations of all sides and getting all sides to agree on a win-for-all solution will help leaders to hold firm to a decision, and enlisting 360 degrees of support.

When to Fold Up and Adopt the Perspectives of Others Nobody can be right *all* the time, and sometimes it’s worth adopting the perspectives and ideas of others on your team, particularly if:

1. Others have more experience, knowledge, information or connections which give them a bigger, broader, different perspective.
2. Others have a new, more efficient, more collaborative, more inclusive way of doing something, especially if it has proven successful in the past.
3. Others have had more success in a particular area, and are sharing new perspectives you or your team may not necessarily understand, but may prove revolutionary if done well.
4. Others might have a better long-term solution and understand that there are down-sides to the proposed short-term solution.

When to Walk Away Sometimes we have to agree to disagree, and we have to walk away from individuals or teams as we can’t agree a consensus or agreement. Hopefully, if we build on transparent communications and a relationship of respect, we can go separate ways with a relationship intact. Regardless of what happens when you agree to disagree, you should walk away if:

1. There’s a philosophical difference about a technology or business trend or direction. It’s hard for any company to take both sides on a strategic direction for an organization. You could have tangent or tiger teams do explorations on an alternative technology track or business model, but the company must quickly coalesce on one direction, and all march and converge in that direction. People and teams who can’t get on board should walk away.
2. Often times in tech companies, there’s a chasm between those-in-tech and those who are not. My advice is for business and tech professionals to agree-to-disagree when it comes to how something should be implemented, provided that the deliverable meets the needs of the customer. Getting into a head-to-head about technology implementation, process definition, general communications, etc may not be a good use of energy, and it may be better to decide to walk away from an unnecessary conflict.

When to Run As a leader, there will be times when the people you’re working with don’t share the values and culture and standards you stand for. These people might go through the motions and follow the plan, but they are definitely people who can’t get from-here-to-there, and the only option is to run from them.

1. If the values of someone are in alignment with the organization, yet she/he has violated the trust of others, it is time to run. Trust is something hard-earned, and easily lost, and if that trust is lost, it is difficult, time-consuming, and expensive to regain. Someone who violates others’ trust may succeed in different future circumstances, if the lessons are learned, but it’s too expensive to repair that trust in the same team and organization once it has been compromised, and would reflect badly on the leadership team if violated trust goes un-penalized.
2. If your fundamental values are different than the people you are working with, it would be very difficult to find a middle ground. The values, culture and moral compass of an organization should be clearly communicated, and violators must be carved off, to preserve the integrity of the organization for those who remain. Lastly, there will never be a role for anyone in your organization who does not share your fundamental values – not that theirs are wrong, just different. So the only advice is to interview for common morals and values, and act quickly if it turns out someone is out of alignment with your values.

As a leader, you can’t expect everyone to always appreciate the tough decisions you make, so knowing when to hold-up and why, when to fold up and revisit your decision, when to walk away, agreeing to disagree, and when to run will make you more effective, more contemplative, and more likely to be right . . . at least *this* time.

Agility – The Key to Building a Successful Career

FountainBlue’s March 15 When She Speaks, Women in Leadership Series event was on the topic of Agility – The Key to Building a Successful Career. Below are notes from the conversation.

We were fortunate to have a wide range of perspectives on our panel, and that our panelists shared their insights, suggestions and advice with poignant humor and candor. They speak from their deep experience immersed in high tech, challenged by the needs at both work and home, and making tough choices, for themselves and for their careers. There are vast differences in education, experience and perspectives, yet they had many things in common.

• They made tough, proactive choices all along their career path, some responding to the needs of others around them. They made the best of each of the choices they made, whether they proactively made them or not, and leveraged their successes to position themselves for the next move.
• They are business and tech savvy, but more importantly people-focused and leverage each of these strengths to deliver value, no matter what their role or title was.
• They are self-aware professionals who know and leverage their strengths and successes and consistently deliver value for their team and organization.
• They are great relationship-builders and proactive networkers and strategically manage their careers leveraging relationships and connections (in a good, non-direct, non-manipulative way).
• They are positive, energetic leaders and lifelong learners who embrace change and encourage and empower those around them to do the same.

To our panelists, career agility is just part of the new way we work: we don’t expect to have a full time job throughout our career. Changes in role, company, industry are a given for today’s worker; your career path would be more like a EuroPass – unlimited travel for a specified period of time, than a traditional train ticket where you go from Point A to Point B with perhaps a transfer or two along the way. As such, proactively managing your career with agility – strength, flexibility, persistence, resilience – will serve you well.

Our panelists advise that you first know what your strengths and passions and skills are, and then evaluate what the needs in the market are. If you start with your strengths and abilities and understand the opportunities, you can at times create your own role, particularly if you are energetic, intelligent and flexible enough to do so proactively.

Everyone who wants to proactively manage her/his career must be seen as someone competent, and easy-to-work with, with a track record for delivering results. Sometimes we get in our own way when we are *too* thorough about doing a job well, so follow the 80-20 rule if someone tells you things like ‘work smarter’, ‘be more strategic’.

Strategically managing your career means delivering results on each of your projects, understanding and anticipating market trends and their implications, and connecting with the right people for the right opportunity for you. Today’s successful professional plans for each transition, and positions him/herself for each new opportunity, embracing the change and learnings which come with the new territory. Their focus is not necessarily on increasingly higher job titles, but more on the larger impact of each new role and opportunity.

Consciously choosing which projects you work on and who you report to will also help you raise the bar for yourself, and support your career trajectory. Connecting with the right people and projects are especially important if you’re getting into a new area/role/company/industry, but note that the stakes are higher here, so it’s even more important that you perform well and build relationships well, if you elect that higher visibility.

Work hand-in-hand with and consciously choose your project/role/boss so you can proactively embrace work you can do and love well. Insist to yourself that you love what you do, and make changes in your role to make it a job you really want and love. Do the same for those who work with or for you. Not only is it more fun to work with passionate, effective people, but you would be more likely to get things done, and done well.

Regardless of what level you work at and whom you work for, have the confidence to take a seat at the table, and share your perspectives and insights. Sometimes it’s a gender thing – men might be more comfortable making it up or applying for jobs where they are not fully qualified. So if more women were to have the confidence to make it up as we go, especially in areas where nobody has the answers, there will be more success stories in many more areas, just because more women would be trying!

Our panelists recognize that life happens, and we make career choices to address the needs of our loved ones. But their philosophy is that this is a given, and they would encourage us to get back on track with your career once the home front is more stable. The work-choice is hard at times, especially when the children say or do something to unwittingly touch our guilt hot buttons. But the larger picture is that as career professionals, we are making a conscious, proactive choice, and second-guessing our own choices may undermine our drive and confidence. Our panelists didn’t say that career comes before children, but they did say don’t be hard on yourself for the choices you made, don’t judge others for the choices they made, and focus on instilling the love and values in your children and they will understand and support you.

One of the tips our panelists shared is to actively engage in community activities as a leader. Benefits of participation included making a difference, learning new skills, building connections, and serving a higher purpose.

The bottom line from this discussion is that you are in charge of your career, so empower yourself to manage it well, enlisting the help of others around you. And agility is a choice you can make at every crossroads in your career. It is your uncomfortable stretch goal, your other-than-what-you’ve-done-before option. It will be what will distinguish you from others around you, and increasingly more so in the new economy.

Resources:

• The Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career [Unabridged] [Audible Audio Edition], by Reid Hoffman (Author), Ben Casnocha (Author), Kaleo Griffith (Narrator), http://www.amazon.com/The-Start-Up-You-Yourself-Transform/dp/B0078XQW3Q
• Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg (Mar 11, 2013), http://www.amazon.com/Lean-Women-Work-Will-Lead/dp/0385349947/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363462728&sr=1-1&keywords=lean+in
  • Fast Company article about the book, with TED video embedded: http://www.fastcompany.com/3006859/why-everyone-not-just-women-needs-lean?partner=newsletter
• A videotape of the event is graciously provided by our event hosts at eBay and is available at http://myroom-na.adobeconnect.com/p1tz0d59lkx/.

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We would like to thank and acknowledge the speakers for FountainBlue’s March 15 When She Speaks, Women in Leadership Series event was on the topic of Agility – The Key to Building a Successful Career:

Facilitator Christy Tonge, Executive Coach & Organizational Consultant, Leadership Expedition Partners

Panelist Diane Bisgeier, Program Manager, WebFWD Open Innovation Program, Mozilla Corporation

Panelist Roli Saxena, Global Director Product Consulting and Customer Success, LinkedIn

Panelist Barbara Williams, Director of Diversity and Inclusion, Oracle

Panelist Kirsten Wolberg, VP, Technology, PayPal

Please join us also in thanking our gracious hosts at eBay.

Ten Ways You Know You Have the ‘Wrong’ Customer

This month’s top-ten-marketing rules topic is part of a two blog series about customers: This one is on ‘Ten Ways You Know You Have the Wrong Customer’ and next month’s blog will be on ‘Ten Ways to Enlist the Right Customers’.

Whether a company is struggling to grow and retain customers or struggling with having the resources to service them, they may be suffering from the same symptom: having too many of the wrong kind of customers. ‘Can there be such a thing as a ‘wrong’ customer?’ you ask? In my opinion, that’s a resounding yes. If it costs more to serve them in the short term and in the long term, if they use more resources than other customers, if your team groans when they come or call are all signs of having the wrong customer. The top ten ways you know you have the wrong customer are listed below.

They Are High-Maintenance

1. Customers who are really demanding of your time and unappreciative of your expertise will tax you in the end. You know who they are. You know who can be trained out of this mode. You know how it weighs on your team and company. And you know that it takes much more time and money to serve them than others. Is it time to fire them or move them on to another solution? Did they once serve the purpose of raising the bar for your product team, but are now more in-the-way than providing value?
2. High-maintenance customers can give you insights about your revenue models and the value you’re providing. They may give you insights about marketing and industry opportunities if you pay attention. So there’s an up-side to having high-maintenance customers, but not on their current terms. How would you reframe your offerings to serve them without annoying your team and breaking the company bank?

They Are In a Dying Market Opportunity

3. Sometimes new customers or long-term customers aren’t worth having because they are in the wrong market or industry. If you see the trends going against getting more customers in this sector, perhaps you should invest time and resources in closing other types of customers, as it better serve your marketing needs, your product road map and your revenue goals in the short term and in the long run.

4. Long-term customers who are in a waning industry might be a good partner. Depending on what you do and how you do it, you could help them shift their business and offerings to address the new market forces and trends and/or work in collaboration on new projects.

They Are Not In Your Sweet Spot

5. Sometimes we bend over backwards to accommodate customers and take her customers who don’t fit our ideal profile. I say have clear ideals of your top tier customer types, know the reasons why they are most coveted, and reward your team for delivering clients who fit that sweet spot. You could also strategize on current customers not in your sweet spot and look at how to transition them into other types of customers or partners, seeking that win-win.

6. With that said, categorizing customers *not* in your sweet spot and recognizing what they think of your offerings and what they are doing with your products and services might be a great opportunity to expand your communications, your strategy and your revenues.

They Are High-Volume, Low-Margin Customers

7. High volume, lots of them. Low margin, you make so little money. If your business is providing a commodity, you need to find a greater way to offer value, rather than doing it increasing faster and cheaper. What are the industry trends and how do you pivot to a higher-margin business, involving more customization and service? The problem might not be the customer. It is the business itself.

There Is No Partner Opportunity Beyond Client-Vendor

8. If your best customers with the deepest relationships with you are still in a client-vendor relationship, without ever talking about doing something better and deeper together, then ask yourself why-not? Is there an opportunity to do something more than what you’ve done? Are you trends facilitating a new way of offering services and products? What are collaboration options? Where are the synergies in the value chain and what can you do about it?

They Do Not Understand or Appreciate Your Offerings

9. If you hear your customers describing your offerings to a third party and they don’t get it right, then something is very wrong. They are engaging you and your company without understanding why, so the misperceptions must be corrected.

10. Their misunderstanding might be a business partnership opportunity or a market expansion opportunity for you, so they may not necessarily be the wrong customer.

Do you have any ‘wrong’ customers? Can they be converted into the ‘right’ customers? Are they pointing out things about your business that you didn’t know? Do you like what they are telling you about your business? And most important, whether you have zero wrong customers or hundreds of them, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

Read next month’s blog about ten ways to recruit the ‘right’ customers. Your thoughts are welcome. E-mail us at info@FountainBlue.biz.

Ten People You Should Have In Your Network

No matter what your role is, what level you are within an organization, where you are in your career path, or to what degree you are happy with where you are personally and professionally, your network has tremendous influence over your career, your impact and influence for today and going forward. In this age where communication can be pervasive and instantaneous, given how connected we are globally and the tools we use daily to connect with others (from e-mail to social media to videos), it is ever more critical that we message precisely (a topic for another blog) what we want to the audience and network we prescribe. In considering your network and who you would like to target which message to, consider including these ten people as an essential part of the network you build:

1. You Mom or other Cheerleader, someone who would stand behind you no matter what, and insist that you live by the values under which she has raised you. This is a maternal figure or cheerleader someone who believes in you, and gives you the confidence, fortitude and inspiration to keep going, especially when times are tough; and to appreciate the people in your life, the accomplishments you’ve already achieved, and the values you stand you. Having a mother figure in your network gives you the sense of self and confidence in self to insist on excellence and persistently reach and grow.
2. Your Dad (or Mom) or an older, wiser Advocate, someone who always raises the bar for you, and insists that you bring honor and success to your family and yourself, while providing for those who rely on you. This is the paternal figure (who could also be your mom) who challenges you to be all that you can be, advocates for you and your higher purpose, and helps you to provide for others, and stand for the values with which you were raised. Having a father figure in your network will help you feel comfortable with who you are, what you stand for, and understand how to reach beyond your current circle of people, your current goals.
3. Your Best Childhood Friend, or the equivalent, who may or may not get what you are doing now, but knows that you will always be there for him and her, and that your purpose, passion and values are clear.
4. A Devil’s Advocate, who is always poking holes at your ideas, to ensure the validity of what you decide to do in the end.
5. A Hero who has opened the world of possibilities in new ways, and stretched your thinking about what’s possible.
6. An Older Sibling who is always encouraging, sometimes contrarian, yet also always raising the bar for you. He or she may be exactly like you, or nothing like you, but they have witnessed your personal development and professional growth and will help you find that true north.
7. A Mentor with skills and information not necessarily in your repertoire, who sees your potential and facilitates your success. He or she might help you see things from the other point of view, and give you ideas and recommendations and resources beyond your field of vision. She or he might at times be that hero or devil’s advocate or cheerleader, and coaches and encourages resilience, fortitude and resourcefulness. Good mentors make great accountability partners, while always staying on your side, sometimes with tough love.
8. An Executive Sponsor who can open doors for you at the top executive suites, but only if he is she thinks that you’re ready for it. She or he would stand beside you and help facilitate your success and recover from inevitable missteps while coaching and prepping you for the next opportunity. He or she would take a chance on you, and open doors for you, and also call you to task if you don’t deliver.
9. An Adviser who has broken the ground in some way in a specific business or technology area, and can help you think through the business and tech opportunities, challenges and implications. Part mentor, part partner, part devil’s advocate and cheerleader, an adviser could be very hands-off, or definitely hands-on with the day-to-day business. The better ones are hands-on, but not necessarily hungry for a home run.
10. A Partner or Spouse who doesn’t think or act like you, or play and work in the same circles as you, who is not afraid of providing candid feedback, as well as implicit support. The best ones know when to play which of the roles above to push you while supporting you implicitly.

So which of these people are in your network? Who do you still need in the network? Who else should be on the must-have list? We invite your questions and comments about your marketing and leadership successes and challenges.

Work-Life Balance

FountainBlue’s February 8 When She Speaks, Women in Leadership Series event was on the topic of How to Throw More Balls Up Higher: Juggling Work-Life Balance in Demanding Times. Below are notes from the conversation.

We were fortunate to have a wide range of perspectives on our panel, and that our panelists shared their insights, suggestions and advice with poignant humor and candor. They speak from their deep experience immersed in high tech, challenged by juggling home and work needs, and making tough choices, leading tough conversations which would help them and others around them integrate work and life better. There are vast differences in education, experience and perspectives, yet they had many things in common.

• They know what it looks like and feels like to be on the wrong side of the work-life balance equation, and are committed to making tough choices to seek a better balance.
• They understand the business value of integrating work and life, how a better balance leads to a happier, more productive culture, team and organization.
• They have sponsors, mentors, friends and others in their network who help them maintain their perspectives, and stay true to their values, passions and goals.
• They make a stand for their family, particularly their children, and make sure that they have the care and support they need.
• Although they each admit how tough it is, they are each making a conscious choice to make time for themselves: to be self-aware, to stand for their values, to focus on what’s important.

Below are some thoughts on how to integrate life and work successfully:

Know and Manage Yourself

• Build your self-awareness and inner strength, so that you can manage the inevitable stress of working in high tech environments.
• Turn down the self critic and don’t aspire to be perfect, for good enough is good enough.
• Be attuned to the physical manifestations of stress and proactive about managing it.
• Don’t think that everyone’s judging you for not being as perfect as you can be, for everyone’s too busy thinking about themselves to judge whether what you’re doing is good enough.
• Choose happiness. Don’t let the small people and things get to you. Put yourself first.
• Take the journey from work to home, and home to work as a transition point, and be fully where you are when you’re there, at home and at work.
• Start your day in a positive mind set. End your day focusing on learnings, what worked, what to build on.
• Speak to yourself throughout the day in a positive voice.

Accept What You Can’t Change

• There *is* no perfect role which facilitates work-life balance in high tech. You are in charge of creating the boundaries and integrating that balance as best you can.
• You can’t change people or what happens in life, but you can take responsibility for your thinking and doing.

Create Boundaries

• Get the job done, and done well, but you don’t have to be there 24×7 to make that happen. Choose to work from home. Delegate where appropriate. Set boundaries on assignments and timing of calls.
• Don’t over-explain and justify *how* something will be done. Just make sure that things get done.
• Make sure that every meeting makes sense, that most tasks have owners (so that you don’t have to check in with everyone), and that coordination between busy people is easy, and communication is clear and concise and inclusive.

Get Support

• Ask for help where you need it, particularly if it’s on doing non-essential tasks, or things that you don’t love to do.
• Keep yourself and others around you alive and vibrant and passionate. Do something you care about, working with a team and company you care about.
• Recruit cheerleaders and listen to them.
• You are good at taking care of everyone, but who is taking care of you.
• Surround yourself with tokens or reminders to help keep you grounded on work-life integration.

Give Support to Others

• Support your friends in seeking their work-life balance.
• Do regularly check-ins with your spouse about what’s working, what’s not working and how to change it so that things work better.
• Don’t assume that the answer is no by playing an anticipated conversation in your head.

Resources:

• How to Meditate When You Haven’t Got Time http://www.just-a-minute.org/
• Unplugging From Technology + Nature = Leadership Success, Kristi Royse, 2/4/13
• See TED Talks, including this one on Self Compassion http://self-compassion.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=babe5d1e9fa070096aca72ae4&id=deecba4f56&e=19701603f9

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We would like to thank and acknowledge our panelists for FountainBlue’s February 8 When She Speaks, Women in Leadership Series event, on the topic of How to Throw More Balls Up Higher: Juggling Work-Life Balance in Demanding Times:

Facilitator Kristi Royse, KLR Consulting

Panelist Anne Griswold, Principal and Organizational Specialist, Altera

Panelist Komal Lahiri, Director, Payments & Credit Products Risk, PayPal

Panelist Punam Nagpal, Engineer, Quality Metrics, Cisco

Panelist Phyllis Stewart Pires, Director of WorkLife Strategy, University Human Resources, Stanford University

Please join us also in thanking our gracious hosts at Altera.