Operator, can you help me make this call?

“If the phone doesn’t ring, it’s me” Jimmy Buffett

Got an email today from a guy I used to work with. I guess I’d call him a work friend in that I know him and like him but don’t socialize with him. We live in the same town so I run across him now and again. So, the email says, “hey, how you doing? Call me sometime”. OK, but if he wants to chat why didn’t he call me? If he had time to email me he had time to dial my number. Why is the responsibility now on me to call him?

Then I realized this happens a lot where someone tells you to call them. I guess it’s like that “One Minute Monkey” thing from the book. But in this case they give you the phone monkey. Now if the two of you don’t talk in the next several months it’s because you didn’t call. It’s your fault, not theirs.

Further I’ve paged back through my memory banks trying to remember if I’ve said “hey, call me” to someone and although I can’t pinpoint exact people and places I know I have and when I did it was because I really didn’t want to talk to that person and I hedged my bet that they would never call me.

Years ago I called an old buddy of mine and while talking to him apologized for it being so long since I’d called. He said, “no problem pal, the phone lines run both ways”.

Yes they do.

They run both ways in business too. Constantly having to be the one to call a prospect once you’ve had an opportunity to pitch your product or service is a clear warning sign of something being amiss. Either, the prospect doesn’t have the need or the money (thus poorly qualified), you did a poor job of representing your value (you need to train and practice your value proposition), or your product/service has a poor value ratio (it doesn’t hit the mark or isn’t worth the price tag).

The hard – but extremely important – part is determining which reason (or combination of reasons) it is that’s causing the silence. Fixing it will be a separate blog for each one.

So, my newest resolution is I’m not going to use the “call me” line. If I want to talk to someone I’m going to call them, and if I don’t want to talk to them I’ll email them and say “write me sometime”…..

Ignore the rear view mirror

“Don’t look back….something might be gaining on you” Satchel Page

Woulda’, Coulda’, Shoulda’. Yes, those who ignore the lessons from history are destined to repeat them. You can also spend so much time looking back that you miss the ice cream stand you were looking for, or worse crash into a tree when you miss the turn.

When mistakes happen – and they will - it’s imperative you:

• Realize a mistake happened


• Quickly and thoughtfully deal with the mess


• Just as quickly and thoughtfully dissect the cause


• Adjust/train/coach accordingly to prevent another occurrence


• Get back to going forward

So much time and energy tends to be spent on anguishing about a mistake having been made. We grind through the cause, hunt down the culprit, punish the innocent and promote the guilty. It often becomes an exercise that resembles using a shotgun on a house fly.

I once worked for a great guy - Glen Chatfield - who always said, “unless someone has done some illegal, immoral, unethical or with intent to harm we have too much to do to spend time punishing”.

Good words from a good man.

Forget how to tell time

“Lack of money is no obstacle. Lack of an idea is an obstacle” Ken Hakuta

I once worked for this serial entrepreneur who was notorious for never being on time, and not by minutes but hours, days and yes, even weeks. Drove everyone nuts. Those who learned to cope either were already good at or got good at always having work to do so productivity wasn’t totally lost waiting on him to show up for a meeting. You also got agile at carrying on with clients or prospects without him.

Those who didn’t cope well got overly wrought about him “not respecting others”, “being self-centered”, etc.

But the man is a creative genius. He sees things outside of boxes where others (myself included) don’t even see the box.

One day I’m riding back from an important meeting in the neighboring city with a colleague who has known our genius boss since they were kids. We decide to call him to see if we can catch up with him to tell him about our meeting. So my colleague calls, gets him and tells him we’ll meet up with him in 10 minutes. All’s good except we’re still over an hour away. When I mention this small detail to my colleague he shrugs and says “that’s ok, he can’t tell time anyway”. I laugh. He looks at me and says “No, I’m serious, he’s never been able to tell time. Clocks just get in his way”.

I pondered that statement for a long time and started watching this guy with a different eye. You know, clocks really do get in the way, especially when you’re first starting a company. You’re so much better off when traditional rules of time are ignored. Where’s it written that the work day is 9 -5, or conversations have to happen Monday – Friday? Those are factory rules not startup rules.

Now, there’s obviously a flip side to this that I’ll cover in another blog, but for now that’ll just get in the way of a good story.

TRUST

“I don’t really trust a sane person” Lyle Alzado

Trust is a funny thing. Everyone wants to get it but no one wants to give it up.

To not be trusted is one of the most inglorious states one can live in. There are two times that not being trusted is the most maddening – when it’s not deserved…and when it is.

Conversely, being the trustor can be a scary proposition.

You get so busy running your piece of the business that being on top of every single thing gets to be overwhelming. So when someone says “yeah, I took care of that” you want (need) to believe them. The problem is, when “it” wasn’t taken care of properly you’re still the one on the hook. This causes the “it’s just easier to do it myself” syndrome which is just as career-limiting as being surrounded by untrustworthy people.

Experience will teach you which of the people you deal with will always give it to you straight, which will hedge their answer, and which will flat out lie to you.

There’s an old adage that goes “people do what you Inspect, not what you Expect”. In lieu of knowing who you can totally depend on revert back to the most dreaded words from high school algebra “show your work”.

Implement a standard, consistent and equal process of written (email) or verbal (voicemail) confirmation of all completed tasks each and every time.

If done consistently and without indictment, everyone you deal with will quickly adjust to verified proof  as just Standard Operating Procedure when dealing with you.

Oh, and as a tip, the ones who bellow the loudest about having to follow the process? Well, I trust you to figure it out.