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The Smart Lemming Rundown is your shortcut to career management success. I explain how these three recommended business books help you:

• Learn the new science of rapid change by thinking a little while changing a lot.
• Overcome the conflict between your rational mind and your emotional mind to accomplish transformational change as a person, worker, manager, or leader.
• Change your old approach to innovation, becoming a disruptive innovator.

59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a lot by Richard Wiseman

Self-help books are failing us. You’ve tried visualizing yourself to success, only to remain in the same place that you started. Wiseman outlines research that supports the new science of “rapid change.” He provides simple and elegant advice on how to make change in a small amount of time.

59 Seconds rates a 4 on a scale of 4. It’s a must-read for everyone.

Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Change is hard. Change is exhausting. Psychologists have discovered that self-control is an exhaustible resource. The primary obstacle is a conflict between our rational mind and emotional mind. The rational mind wants to change something while the emotional mind loves the existing routine. The tension or conflict stymies change efforts. Chip and Dan Heath show us that we can unite the two minds, teaching us how to make the switch.

Switch rates a 4 on a scale of 4. It’s a must-read book for everyone.

The Silver Lining: An Innovation Playbook for Uncertain Times by Scott D. Anthony

The biggest silver lining for innovation is scarcity, which is actually a good thing. It provides constraints, which are the great enablers of innovation. Anthony offers a framework that helps your company get ready for innovation; build blockbuster businesses by spotting opportunities, formulating ideas, taking the ideas forward, and launching them; and making innovation repeatable by creating innovation structures and systems.

The Silver Lining rates a 4 on a scale of 4 for leadership and management. It’s a must-read for middle managers, directors, VPs, and CEOs.

My CEO has a lot going on. He’s getting more funding from our lead investor; he’s changing the Sales Compensation Plan, and changing the organization structure. Since my promotion at the end of March, we’ve been addressing operational and budget issues.

On the funding issue, my CEO’s presenting our additional funding needs, so that’s in play. The comp plan has just gone through Management Team review with a number of key issues that he has to solve.

And the org chart? There’s a change he intends to make in Sales that involves me, but it’s still not final.

Organizational Development, Moving up the Ladder

Have you ever wondered why organizational charts change? Were you ever curious how some people moved up the ladder faster than others? I know I have.

I’m finding the upcoming changes fascinating. I’ve never had access to a CEO making these types of changes before. I’ve never known about upcoming organizational changes before they happen. It’s interesting to see these organizational developments up close and personal.

I feel fortunate that my CEO has identified me as one of his key resources. I appreciate the opportunity to grow into new roles that he keeps giving me.

Sales & Marketing?

I think I’m going to have both of these functions. My CEO asked me again on Friday, if I was okay with being accountable for Sales. I replied with,

“We have two issues as a company. The first one is Sales and hitting our forecast and the second one is revenue recognition. Both make me tense. I’m happy to take on the first issue for you because I know it’s important to us.”

“I’m glad to hear you’re as tense as I am. I just want to make sure that I’m not giving you something that you don’t want to do.” My CEO added.

So that means the Sales Directors would report into me, which they already do in a day-to-day Sales management capacity. I have two more marketing headcount scheduled, with one being set for June in and another in November.

Deep Dive into Sales Management

Because of the organizational changes, I’ve done some research on Sales Management. Last night I researched compensation in Sales plans. Now I can understand why our existing one was problematic.

The comp plan is this week’s top priority. The Controller and I will be running the figures on different commission rates and see what our current budget can handle. We have the old one budgeted for, but we’re trying to solve rate, timing, and caps. Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for the contracts that I hope are delivered on Monday.

Lessons Learned

Becoming a key player for your boss, creates new career opportunities that you never anticipate.

The Smart Lemming Diary is a series that chronicles a journey of laid-off worker, who becomes a Vice President of Sales Operations & Marketing for a small entrepreneurial healthcare technology company. For previous entries in this series, click here.  For the first diary entry, click here. For the highlighted Smart Lemming Diary entries, click here.

Click the red play button

To subscribe to the RSS feed for this podcast, paste http://smartlemming.com/podcasts/smartlemming-rundown.xml in your RSS reader (we don’t yet have it in iTunes).

The Smart Lemming Rundown is a shortcut to career management success by recommending three business books that help you:

• How you can construct a realistic path to enduring success.
• How you can defend yourself in office politics or collect political power in a way that’s not selfish.
• How to forge an effective relationship with those above you.

Just Enough by Laura Nash and Howard Stevenson

After reading Just Enough, you’ll learn to how to prevent setting yourself up for failure by creating a sequential strategy, not a Big Goal approach. Learn that “just enough” reflects a multidimensional understanding of yourself after you examine your values and belief system, your needs, and unique capabilities.

Just Enough rates a 4 on a scale of 4, as a must-read for workers, managers, leaders, and entrepreneurs who want to a better approach to managing their career path that results in enduring success.

The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

The 48 Laws of Power teaches the fundamentals of power that workers must understand entering the work environment. The need for power is so fundamental, that when you feel you have no power over people or events, you feel like a pawn in someone else’s chess game.

New workers may not be ready for the laws of power and may foolishly use them in the wrong situations, while Advanced to Senior workers, and middle managers should read this book to defend themselves from others.

Managing Up by Rosanne Badowski with Roger Gittines

Managing Up teaches you how to make your boss look good, how to build your confidence, and align yourself with your boss’ agenda and goals. Badowski offers managing up principles that she learned after working with her boss and business icon, Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric.

Who should read this book? New and advanced workers. I rated this book a 4 on a scale of 4, as a must-read for workers, who want to learn the basics of managing their boss.

Watch the video that lists all 48 laws of power by Robert Greene.

The Smart Lemming Rundown will return with Episode 4 on March 1, 2010.

Creating Structure in Time Management and Workload

I have seven projects that I spend my time on. I found myself feeling randomized, since I didn’t the structure I was looking for.

What should I work on Saturdays and Sundays? What’s job number one during the work week? Does family trump everything else? I needed answers, so I could be more productive. I needed to create order out of chaos.

Over the weekend, I created a simple spreadsheet by adding my projects and family in the row and column headings. Using 1 for priority and 0 for not a priority, I was able to identify how I should allocate my time.

Priority Matrix Findings with Action Items

After reviewing my matrix, I learned the following order of my priorities with three action items:

1. Family (7 points): I’ll have a weekly commitment from Thursday night through Saturday, starting this week. This ranks higher than anything else on my list. Family always comes first.
   • Block out Thursday night through Saturday on calendar
   • Identify documentary to watch for Friday night and tutoring activities
   • Record podcast on Friday with family members
2. Project 1 (6 points): this is my top priority project that I’ll work on workdays, until I’m comfortable with the results I’m expecting over the next 90-days. I’m managing the project in my 90-Day action plan template.
   • Block out 6 hours per work day for this project
   • Work on business strategy deliverables
   • Work on competitive intelligence deliverables
3. Stakeout Podcast (4 points): a weekly podcast with Sarah that we now record on Fridays.
   • Identify content for the week
   • Identify quotes and record
   • Record podcast on Friday
4. Project 2 (3 points): my second top priority in work, but ranks below the commitment I made to Sarah.
   • Review 90-day action plan
   • Work on top priority deliverables
   • Review and edit content
5. Rundown Podcast (3 points): the Smart Lemming Rundown podcast feels like a higher priority until I saw the results in my matrix. Actually, it doesn’t conflict with my other projects since I think about the content in advance and record the podcast on Saturdays.
   • Identify content for the week
   • Storyboard/outline the content
   • Record the podcast
6. Smart Lemming Blog (2 points): I’m limiting my content to only Smart Lemming Diary and podcast posts for now. My project #2 is related to this type of content, so I needed to allocate less time to the blog itself.
   • Post Smart Lemming Diary post for each work day
   • Post Smart Lemming Rundown on Mondays
   • Weekly Twitter Digest (remember to tweet)
7. Personal Blog (1 point): I have my Dance Mix series that are quick posts, acting as my creative outlet (and is an excuse to listen to my old dance music). I’m trying to move this blogging to the weekends or evenings so it doesn’t conflict with Projects 1 & 2.
   • Post Dance mix series on each workday, but write content on weekend
   • Random posts
8. Podcast #3? (0 points): I’m considering another podcast, but we don’t have the bandwidth until after mid-February. I’m taking a wait and see approach on this priority.
   • Brainstorm new series, but depends on bandwidth
   • Review again after Mid-February
   • TBD

Are you having the same problem that I am in prioritizing your time with too many competing projects? Then try this spreadsheet; it’s easy to create and kind of fun to do. Use the Data Filter so you can sort the Priorities column from largest to smallest to discover your ranking order of priorities.

I recommend that you take the Kang and Albion’s advice and identify three action items for each priority so you can schedule your time and monitor for results.

Free Dowloadable Template

• Click here for a free download of my version of the Priority Matrix tool.

You know what I like about my CEO? He’s sincere. He always wants to do the right thing by his standards. He always follows through.

Originally, my CEO floated a 10% raise to accompany my promotion to VP of Marketing. While I was half joking about checking the salary data that I purchased for my job offer negotiations back in July 2005, my CEO remembered he had market salary data too and was eager to review it. He wanted to ensure that I was receiving market value for my base salary.

Justifying His Second Raise Amount

Early this week, my CEO told me that his big goal was to finalize my salary by yesterday. We didn’t have my one-on-one meeting on time due to meetings on both of our parts. He finally showed up with a piece of paper in his hands. I could tell he couldn’t wait to discuss, whatever he was holding. But we had to discuss a Sales issue first, and then finally, he launches into his speech.

“You know I wanted to finalize your salary base. I have the data. For our size company, the average is $X and I’m prepared to round up to $Y. While you are far from average, I intend to improve this base when we start hitting our sales forecast. But as you know, we have to manage cash flow, so this is as high as I can give for now, but there will be more to come later.”

My CEO’s was in suspense. I looked at the piece of paper. I was shocked. I respond with,

“This is an outstanding raise. Thank you so much. I appreciate your thoughtfulness on researching the base.”

Mutual Admiration Society

My CEO was relieved. He continued,

“I think we have great chemistry. We work so well together. At least that’s my perception. You also have great chemistry with the management team. Just keep doing what you doing. I’m not good at mushy stuff, but thank you for being with our company.”

After my last gig, it’s great to feel valued again. I replied with,

“When I interview prospective employees for our company, I tell them that I can’t wait to come into work every day. Your company is exceptional. I love working with you, my peers, my Marketing team, and all our employees.” I say with my usual understated excitement.”

Validation in My Abilities

So there it is. I have my new raise; it’s a 20% increase from my starting salary. My CEO doesn’t care that I’ve never been a VP before. He wanted to give me a salary that fit his expectations.

While I was excited about his initial 10% offer, I’m stunned that he gave me 20% increase. As for the stock options, he has to meet with our investor to discuss the pool. Frankly, I’m not so concerned about that, especially since my own LLC is in the process of being acquired. The base and future growth at my CEO’s company is fabulous.

On a footnote, I had to review a document I created early last year in 2005, when I was still a Sr. Product Manager. I can’t believe that so much has happened in one year. My position was eliminated on April 30, 2005. Eleven months later, I’m a VP of Marketing with the new raise that is 46% more than what I made in my last job as Sr. Product Manager. So much can happen in a short amount of time that it’s hard to believe that good things really can happen.

Lessons Learned

Life can throw us curve balls or even bench us in the game, nearly defeating our confidence in our abilities. Always remember, there’s a reason for everything. Jobs begin. Job’s end. There’s always a perfect timing to these events, even though it doesn’t feel like it at the time.

The Smart Lemming Diary is a series that chronicles a journey of laid-off worker, who becomes a Vice President of Sales Operations & Marketing for a small entrepreneurial healthcare technology company. For previous entries in this series, click here.  For the first diary entry, click here. For the highlighted Smart Lemming Diary entries, click here.

Click the red play button

To subscribe to the RSS feed for this podcast, paste http://smartlemming.com/podcasts/smartlemming-rundown.xml in your RSS reader (we don’t yet have it in iTunes).

The Smart Lemming Rundown is a shortcut to career management success by recommending three business books that help you:

1. Find your core purpose in life, one that adds meaning and fulfillment to your work life.
2. Avoid making mistakes at work that make you look bad to your peers or manager.
3. Learn the unwritten rules at work, giving you the upper hand with peers.

Passion at Work by Lawler Kang and Mark Albion

Kang and Albion’s “Five Ps” model is the perfect tool to discover and execute your career management plan.

The Smart Lemming rated Passion at Work a 4 on a scale of 4, as a must-read book for workers and entrepreneurs who want to their passion in work. It rated 2 out of 4 as an optional read for managers and leaders, who are interested in this topic from a Business Life, Leadership, and Management perspective. Managers can use this book as a resource in helping direct reports discover passion in their jobs.

Who should read this book? Workers at any stage in their career.

The Rules of Work by Richard Templar

Rather than take a trial and error approach to learning the rules of work, read Templar’s book that explains the unwritten rules in your workplace.

The Smart Lemming rated The Rules of Work a 4 on a scale of 4, as a must-read for workers, who want to learn the fundamentals of business life that’s critical in Business Life and Career Management. It rated 3 out of 4 Leadership, Management , and Women in Business, as a should-read, for managers and leaders who may want to coach their direct reports behavior.

Who should read this book? New and advanced workers, who are just starting their career.

45 Things You Do that Drive Your Boss Crazy by Anita Bruzzese

Bruzzese’s book is ideal for workers, who want to know what mistakes to avoid in order to stay on your boss’s good side and get ahead at work.

The Smart Lemming rated 45 Things that Drive Your Boss Crazy a 4 on a scale of 4, as a must-read for workers, who want to understand business life that’s crucial to your success. It rated 3 out of 4 in Career Management and Women in Business, as a should-read, for more experienced workers as a brush-up on business life. It rated 2 out of 4 in Leadership and Management, as an optional-read, for managers and leaders who are coaching or mentoring underlings.

Who should read this book? New and advanced workers just starting their career.

Business life:

• Employers & employees: read this post on social media throughout throughout the employment lifecycle. It’s insightful.
• I like Toodledo too, but right now I’m lovin’ my new iPhone app, Outliner. Check it out.
• My definition of success is a moving target. I just wish the target would stand still, so I could focus as I aim!
• Video: Learn to think twice, using your counterintuition to make better decisions.
• Great advice on how to work when UR exhausted. RT I published this one for a reason today! How to Work When You’re Tired
• A must-listen podcast on how to admit mistakes on the job. RT Latest set of Career Tools cast … Admitting Mistakes
• Do your coworkers hate working with you? Then learn to play nice with others.
• Goldsmith is my favorite author. His book has “mojo” in the title? Am I the only one seeing Austin Powers in my head?
• At times, we all have them at work…the frenemy. Here’s an excellent article on how to deal with them in the office.
• RT Hate gossip in your organization? Well, do something about it. Latest Manager Tools cast, How to Stop Gossip
• New research shows that people with power feel just fine when lying and are better at getting away with it.
• Repeatable processes are nothing more than checklists. Read this HBR post on avoid to avoid failure by using checklists
• You have your action plan, but now what? Gill Corkindale provides excellent advice on how to stay on track your plan.
• Being afraid to ask for help at work stunts your upward mobility, read this for 3 smart ways to ask for assistance.

Career management:

• What does it take to reach the top of your game, professionally? Read this: 5 traits for rising to the top.
• Hearing crickets at work from your boss? How to handle silence, the worst kind of feedback
• Check out John Baldoni’s four-point plan in approaching your job this year. How will you make a difference in 2010?
• Avoid a Dumb Lemming moment, check your employer’s social media policy.
• Connecting disparate pieces of information is a key skill to have in managing your career.
• Writing an action plan is a must-have skill in career management, here are quick tips for writing one
• Bored at work? Make time go by faster by finding meaning in your work, even if you’re not your dream job.
• Don’t be a “dabbler,” find something to become an expert on in your job
• Taking initiative at work shows helps you move up the career ladder. Read 10 tips to add value by showing initiative
• Self-doubt can hold you back in your career, check out this excellent post on how to conquer self doubt by @alevit
• First episode of my new podcast Smart Lemming Rundown: 3 must-read career management books.
• Baldoni offers five new ways for leaders to think critically, which is a must-have skill in leadership.

Management:

• Strategy: five ways to create disruption, don’t just evolve your business model.
• Your career strategy is like a business plan. Don’t forget your SWOT analysis. Who knows what you’ll discover there.

After my promotion this week, my CEO and I had a lot going on. We had several meetings together, especially with outsiders.

My CEO enjoys introducing me as his VP of Marketing. He’s so excited and proud of this change. I can see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice.

He’s quite pleased with himself because, according to him, he finally found someone that actually worked out after several stressful experiences in the past for my department. It’s nice to be valued. It’s hard to believe that I was a disgruntled worker only a year ago.

It’s overwhelming to feel needed, feeling like I’ve turned into his Number 2 person, joining with our COO. Currently, my CEO’s thinking strategically as he describes his vision to potential acquirers right now.

It’s rewarding to helped him realize his vision by letting him articulate his thoughts during our impromptu one-on-one meetings. After listening to his vision for our product, I created the mock-up screen shots to use in his presentation.

Salary Discussion

On Friday, we had our one-on-one meeting to catch up with each other, even though we had been in most of the same meetings all week.

Finally, at the end our meeting, he asks me, “Now, what do you have for me?”

“So, do you have any news on the new comp plan that you were going to create for me?,” I said in more a fun and playful tone.

My CEO was positive. His reaction was, “Rats! I forgot to meet with the Controller to discuss your salary. Wait, I don’t need him. I know what I want to offer you. What’s your salary right now?” I replied.

He quickly said, “I was thinking about a 10% salary increase. How does that sound?”

“Well, since I bought the salary data for our initial salary negotiations, let me review it, so I can properly respond to your proposal.” I made sure that my tone is still light and fun.

My CEO replied, “Wait, I have the software association salary report! I can look up for the salary for your title and responsibilities, especially since we’re trying to be fair with comp plans.”

What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

Timothy was still determined to find out what I want to be when I grow up. “You never did tell me what you want to be when you grow up.” He asked.

“I really do want this to be my last gig in healthcare technology. I’m ready to work with my partner full-time. We love the Internet because we can work anywhere. If this deal [my startup is in the process of getting acquired] goes through for us, then we’ll have the flexibility to continue to build new things. I still have one or two personal things that I want to do as well.”

My CEO listened, and then said that he still has more to give. He wants to flip his company for an exit. After that, he wants to launch another startup in the same industry by saying, “I still have one more left in me.”

I think he was trying to signal me to see if I could bite and want to join him. Of course, I would consider it. It’s not very often I meet someone exceptional like my CEO. He has his quirks and I have mine. But we don’t bug each other and enjoying working together. It would be fun to join him if he does build another startup.

The Smart Lemming Diary is a series that chronicles a journey of laid-off worker, who becomes a Vice President of Sales Operations & Marketing for a small entrepreneurial healthcare technology company. For previous entries in this series, click here. For the first diary entry, click here. For the highlighted Smart Lemming Diary entries, click here.

My new VP responsibilities kick into high gear this week.

I’ve identified the sales and channel management functions for my CEO. Now, I have two transition plans and one channel partner Sales Training that I need to move on quickly. The following reflects my plans, CEO’s expectations, and our Management Team’s specific goals for my new role.

Transition Plan for Sales Management

• CEO rolls-out my new sales management role to Sales Team today.
• Schedule one-on-one meeting with each of the Sales Directors for this week to review their results.
• Assessment and analysis the past performance of sales team, past performance - individuals, sales cycle, Webinar audit, and post-mortem review on closed lost deals.
• Alignment Sales Team to business strategy as defined by Management Team, assumes Management Team identifies sales weights for our direct sales and VARs (value-added reseller); align to Channel strategy & goals; align Marketing to Sales Team’s efforts; and align individual Sales Directors.
• Sales management deliverables with include working with CEO on Sales Plan and individual Sales Plans, create individual performance measures reports for each Sales Director, outline sales management process, update Sales standards with new process, and train sales directors on Salesforce.com changes in Webinar attendee opportunities.

Transition Plan for Channel Management

• Channel Manager Position: write Channel Manager job description and recruit for Channel Manager position.
• Channel Strategy: author situational assessment for VAR strategy, VAR plan with management team review, establish key areas of responsibilities; develop & prioritize alternate strategies; and draft and present VAR Channel requirements for management team approval.
• Transition from CEO and execute: identify key success factors and VAR-specific plans for all channels.

Kick-off VAR Sales Meeting

I have another VAR to implement. Here’s my preparation for this month’s roll-out to third key partner. Here are the action items:

• Initial call with VAR 3’s VP of Sales
• Finalize agenda and send to partner’s VP of Sales
• Create VAR branded sales and marketing tools
• Update COO document for this partner
• VP of Sales setting date and time for Sales meeting in a week
• Establish sales cycle process between our company and theirs

Lots to do, I’m relieved that I always use my 90-day template to manage my deliverables.

The Smart Lemming Diary is a series that chronicles a journey of laid-off worker, who becomes a Vice President of Sales Operations & Marketing for a small entrepreneurial healthcare technology company. For previous entries in this series, click here. For the first diary entry, click here. For the highlighted Smart Lemming Diary entries, click here.

This week has been crazy. My CEO sent out this wonderful note to the company announcing my title change.

I am pleased to announce that Lori has accepted the position of Vice President of Marketing. Since August of last year, Lori has served as Director of Marketing. This change is being made to reflect increased responsibilities that Lori is taking on in the areas of marketing, sales support and channel management.

Lori and her team have done a great job of developing a comprehensive marketing program that we all benefit from in terms of increased visibility and sales for our company.

Please join me in welcoming Lori to her new role.

My CEO’s partner wanted to share her two cents on my promotion. She sent me a nice email to let me know:

I wanted to do more than a quick congrats on your promotion. It is a well deserved move based on the contributions you’ve made and the skills you bring to our company. Your new role in providing sales oversight is so important to our success. I’m glad that you’re taking that on. I know you’ll bring new order and accountability to the process.

I love your attitude, your work ethic, and your intelligence. We’re very lucky to have you at our company!

It’s unusual to find a company with an exceptional boss you admire, a management team that you have fun with, employees you can count on, and a product that you love. I’ve been fortunate for find all four.

The Smart Lemming Diary is a series that chronicles a journey of laid-off worker, who becomes a Vice President of Sales Operations & Marketing for a small entrepreneurial healthcare technology company. For previous entries in this series, click here.  For the first diary entry, click here. For the highlighted Smart Lemming Diary entries, click here.

Click the red play button

To subscribe to the rss feed for this podcast, paste http://smartlemming.com/podcasts/smartlemming-rundown.xml in your RSS reader (we don’t yet have it in iTunes).

I decided to launch a podcast to share what I’ve learned, and how I’ve used this knowledge in managing my career. This week I discuss three must-read career management books and explain why you should be reading them.

The First 90-Days by Michael Watkins

The First 90 Days provides an approach to how to learn as much as possible about your new company, as fast as you can, during your first 90 days. It teaches you how to transition into a new leadership role by understanding the ten key challenges facing new hires.

This book taught me how to conduct a Needs Assessment when taking on leadership roles.

This book assists you in developing a 90-day plan to achieve results. Below is the Smart Lemming rating for The First 90-Days.

SmartLemming.com rates The First 90 Days a 4 on a scale of 4, as a must-read book for workers, managers, leaders, and entrepreneurs, who want to learn how to transition into a new Leadership role part of their Career Management skills.

This book also rates 4 out of 4 as must-read for workers, who are interested in this topic from a Management perspective. Managers learn how to structure their newly recruited or promoted leader’s transition into new role.

It rates 3 out of 4 in Business Life and Women in Business, as a should-read book, for workers who want to use it as a resource in business life.  This book is not applicable for workers, who are interested in developing their Marketing or Sales skills.

Below is also the rating scale used in the Smart Lemming Radar graph.

Kotler on Marketing: How to Win, Create, and Dominate Markets by Philip Kotler

Philip Kotler’s book teaches you that marketing is not just selling. Its purpose is demand management to influencing the level, timing and composition of demand.

Kotler teaches you how to ask the customer question: “Why should I buy from you?”

Below is the Smart Lemming rating for Kotler on Marketing.

The SmartLemming.com rates Kotler on Marketing a 4 on a scale of 4, as a must-read for workers, managers, leaders, and entrepreneurs who want to understand and learn marketing from a Career Management , Management, Marketing, and Sales perspective.

This book rates 2 out of 4 in Business Life, Leadership and Women in Business, as an optional-read, for workers who want to use it as a resource in these areas.

Below is also the rating scale used in the Smart Lemming Radar graph.

Beyond the Core: Expand Your Market Without Abandoning Your Roots by Chris Zook

Beyond the Core explains why the most successful kind of growth is an “adjacency move,” in which you expand into an area related to your core business activity. He teaches you why “adjacency moves” provide the best opportunities to expand, what the primary requirements are for such moves, and what directions such moves often take.

Below is the Smart Lemming rating for Beyond the Core.

The SmartLemming.com rates Beyond the Core a 4 on a scale of 4, as a must-read for workers, managers, leaders, and entrepreneurs who want to understand and learn strategy of their career Management plan.

This book rates a 4 out of 4 as a must-read read for workers, who are interested in this topic from a Management and Marketing perspective. Managers and marketers will need to learn new approaches to product strategy.

Zook’s book rates 3 out of 4 in Business Life, Leadership and Women in Business, as a should-read, for workers who want to use it as a resource. From a business life perspective, you learn why strategy matters. Leaders learn how to be a leader in your company to come up with new strategies for your company. Women in business need to be up to speed on strategy and add value to their companies with Zook’s knowledge.

It also rates 2 out of 4 in Sales, as an optional-read, for workers who want to use it as a resource to improve their sales or sales management skills.

Below is also the rating scale used in the Smart Lemming Radar graph.

Swatting Away Permanent Sales Management Duties

Now that’s not a question you hear every day at work. But, this is the question my CEO asked me on Friday, after we reviewed my sales and channel management plan.

“Wow, this looks great. You’re doing what a VP of Sales should be doing here.” I replied, “I see myself assessing and analyzing what’s going on in Sales. I’ve come up with a management plan, complete with reports to start measuring performance for the team and individuals. I’ve also created a repeatable process for someone to assume, but my team could still own the analytics.”

I presented my Channel Management plan. He couldn’t wait for me to get done with my Channel Management transition plan.

He quickly asked me, “What do you want? The CTO told me he wants to make enough money from our gig to start his own business. What’s your goal? What do you want? You’re startup’s getting acquired, what happens next for you? What do you want to be when you grow up?”

My startup’s acquisition came up with my CEO asking me, “How will this affect your job with us? What do you see?”

I replied, “My best case scenario is they acquire our network. We may have to be in Manhattan. I’d prefer to shuttle back and forth from New York to here. I would like the flexibility in my job with you to allow me to keep my job.” My CEO didn’t get rattled as he listened.

“Done. I have no issue with that scenario.”

Talking Titles

I continued on with, “Great, then there’s a matter of a title change given all the responsibility that you’re given me.”

“What title do you want? VP of what? You’re doing sales management, marketing, and channel. Tell me, I’ll give you any title you want. AS long as you’re with us, you can do anything you want.” My CEO said with excitement. Wow. You never hear that everyday.

I calmly replied, “Well VP of Marketing is fine. Channel is typically under Marketing, so we don’t need to have that in the title.” I hope he didn’t want me to take on Sales, but I really felt that wasn’t a permanent fit. It was enough to take on the Channel Management function, which is our business strategy, or exit strategy. Cool. I get to manage it.

In the Works since February 8?

My CEO finally had a chance to tell me that he met with our lead investor and board member on back on February 8, letting the investor know that he intended to promote me. The investor gave his support and agreed that I should manage the Channels.

“What’s the timing? I want this done as soon as possible. When can I tell the sales team?!?” my CEO said with urgency.

I replied, “I get back from LA Tuesday and will be in the office on Wednesday. My team has been sworn to secrecy and knows what we’re discussing. We should meet with the sales team without my marketing team.”

Discussing a Compensation Plan

My CEO then added, “You’re taking Monday and Tuesday off. Darn, I can’t believe I forgot that or else I would have taken those days off too! Okay, I’ll take Thursday and Friday off instead. I’ll not work on Saturday and Sunday, and then work like crazy on Monday through Wednesday. I should have a compensation plan done next week for you.

I kept thinking, “This is so anti-climatic. I’m so calm. It feels normal. I can’t believe I’m having this talk with my CEO. It like any typical other discussion that I always have with him, but it’s about my new VP title and now a new compensation plan. So that was my Friday.

The Smart Lemming Diary is a series that chronicles a journey of laid-off worker, who becomes a Vice President of Sales Operations & Marketing for a small entrepreneurial healthcare technology company. For previous entries in this series, click here. For the first diary entry, click here. For the highlighted Smart Lemming Diary entries, click here.

February 21, 2006

Creating something from nothing is my specialty. I get bored maintaining things, but love the act of creating new stuff.

Currently, I’m in the process of creating the new day-to-day sales management and channel management functions in my Marketing department. Yesterday, I outlined the sales management function into its major work blocks of activity, which is my MacGyver tool in my knowledge worker toolbox.

Outlining the New Department Function

Below are the things I’ll be flushing out, documenting, and presenting to my CEO on Friday:

1. Assess and analyze: assess and analyze past performance for sales team, individuals, and sales cycle. Audit webinar follow-up of marketing leads to sales, review performance to date, review 2005 sales performance, identify sales issues in sales cycle, and post mortem on closed/lost deals.
2. Function, roles, and responsibilities: define what day-to-day sales management is, my role, Timothy’s role, sales team member’s role, identify management oversight as it pertains to weekly calls to each sales team member, performance measures reports, and management team reports.
3. Alignment of departmental function: document management team strategy and how this new function aligns to it, align to channel management, and align marketing support to sales management.
4. Identify my responsibilities and deliverables: create sales plan for sales team (Sales Situation Strategic Positioning, Sales Objectives, Sales Forecast by CFO, Sales Model as defined by the Management Team, Sales Budget, Timeline, Key Success Factors, Next Steps) and individual sales team members, identify required reports, document new process on how sales team members will be expected to adjust their individual work flow to accommodate new reports required by lead investor and CEO, identify new management oversight details like weekly calls with each sales team member, and set up and maintain reports for weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual review.
5. Individual sales team member’s performance measures: identify Salesforce.com reports to be used in monthly performance measures, identify key measures for individual reports, update monthly board/management team report with additional measures that should be monitored.
6. Repeatable reporting structure: update the sales standards document with new sales management requirements and reports and prepare message to communicate to sales team.
7. Transition plan: outline the transition plan with target dates for hand-off and messaging to sales team members.

Action Items

I’ll document the process, create the templates, and start assessing and analyzing the data. I have my marketing team working on Salesforce.com’s key reports and metrics, so they can add to my monthly board/management team report and the new individual sales team member performance measure reports.

I have my team in Secret Squirrel mode, since the Sales team hasn’t been informed about the new sales management function. Only the Management team and lead investor are aware of this management change.

Teaching My Team My MacGyver Tool and Process

I’ve also met with my team, so they can understand how approach new functions and create an entire process and infrastructure to support it.

I figured that this would be a valuable knowledge worker lesson for them. When I was new in my knowledge worker career, I would have loved to see what was involved in this type of management work. It’s great to see how my direct reports connect the dots in their minds or don’t get it or struggle to understand why I do what I do. I’m glad my team feels safe to ask me when they don’t understand my process.

The Smart Lemming Diary is a series that chronicles a journey of laid-off worker, who becomes a Vice President of Sales Operations & Marketing for a small entrepreneurial healthcare technology company. For previous entries in this series, click here. For the first diary entry, click here. For the highlighted Smart Lemming Diary entries, click here.

1. 5 Self-Made Barriers Between You and Your Dream Career
2. Life’s too short: 5 Reasons to Never Give Up on Your Dreams
3. Why personal goal setting can be dangerous
4. Trait transference: Why gossip can kill your career
5. By learning how to exploit your “weaknesses,” you can turn them to your advantage
6. 5 reasons volunteering should be a part of your career evolution strategy
7. What’s Your Unique Talent? Unique Talent = Natural Abilities + Your Unique Way Of Expressing Those Abilities
8. A 15-point plan to deal with a bad boss or adversity at work
9. Does Your Career Flounder and Flop Around Like a Fish out of Water?
10. What jobs will be in demand in 2010? The Top 10 Job Positions in 2010, segmented by industry
11. Need ideas on decluttering your life, check out: Book Review: Unclutter Your Life in One Week

1. Are you qualified to apply for a job you want?
2. 15 minute resumé makeovers: Edit, edit, edit
3. The seven biggest interview mistakes
4. What Does It Mean When They Say They’re Still Interviewing Candidates?
5. Should you write your resume in past or present tense?

1. How to deal with a decision you hate
2. A Must-read series: What Management Skill Level Are You?
3. The Management Skills Pyramid, Level 3
4. How to Maximize Collaboration and Reach Consensus in Under an Hour
5. New Study: How Communication Drives Performance
6. 7 tips for more effective meetings
7. Employees: When You Resign, Be Kind
8. 5 Self-Made Barriers Between You and Your Dream Career
9. Job Search Stalled? Do What the Pros Do.
10. Questions to Ask Yourself When Changing Careers
11. 10 Things You May Not Know About Listening
12. 3 tips to handle resume career gaps: don’t ignore your resume gaps and hoping a recruiter/hiring manager won’t notice

1. 9 ways to research prospective employers: do this advance work and you’ll be set for a smarter interview
2. Earn a Living While Making a Difference
3. The Value of Simplicity - Do You Know What Simple Feels Like?
4. The gentle art of conversational ping pong
5. The keys to strategy execution
6. Are You More Specific–or More General? Why you should understand your natural inclination.
7. Trait transference: Why gossip can kill your career
8. How do you GET to work?
9. How to Get Work at a Small Company
10. Making Common workplace fears more manageable
11. How to Ask for a Raise
12. Negotiating a six-figure salary? Don’t forget the perks.
13. The paradox of letting go: It’s funny what happens when you let go of something. All of a sudden it’s handed to you.
14. A Cautionary Tale: You Want to Talk About Our Infighting and Politics? You’re Fired.
15. Six Steps To Manage Change In Your Organization
16. Questions to ask when you’re interviewing job candidates for a peer position
17. New Unemployment Extension News
18. Video: Top Ten Startup Pitches

February 18, 2006

The Paradox of Letting Go

It’s funny what happens when you let go of something. All of a sudden it’s handed to you.

My current job has grown due to my sense of duty and loyalty. I keep volunteering to do more because of my previous work experience.

I first started as a Director of Marketing and within seven months, my responsibilities now include two more functions.

It all happened this week, which went like this:

• Monday: we outlined our approach to our meeting with our lead investor
• Tuesday: my CEO was traveling so I was charge of the presentation
• Wednesday: I had the deck ready for my CEO and management team’s review
• Thursday: I had Channel Management and day-to-day Sales Management handed over to me

Which Option would You Choose? Door #1 or Door #2?

We had two three-hour meetings on Wednesday. By 4:00 pm, right when we thought we knew what we were presenting, our CEO asked each of us, “Which option would each of you pick?”

• Option A - stay the course, but we just need a little more money from lead investor
• Option B - go for another round of funding and build a national sales and marketing team

My Management Team colleagues were silent as they thought about which option to choose, so I spoke up.

“Option A. We’re on track, so we should stay the course. We’re doing exactly what he wanted us to do. We’re smarter now and have data that I’ve analyzed that supports we’re doing all the right things. We’re good at a channel strategy.”

I continued, “Option B requires us to do something we don’t know if we’re good at and we couldn’t build new products fast enough. Besides, our product isn’t rocket science. Any of our publicly-traded competitors could decide to assign developers and build it, putting us between a rock and a hard place. I recommend we stay the course. Build up our channels, get acquired. Yes, the acquiring company most likely would need any of us to maintain the product, but all of us would have the pleasure of stock being worth something and we accomplished what we set out to do.” I said.

Before I knew it, the CTO was on board, the COO chimed in, while our Controller shook his head in agreement. “Wow, this turns everything on its head for tomorrow!, our CEO said without hesitation.

“No, not necessarily, we’re doing everything we said we would and now you’ll have the data to back it.” I said. The CTO agreed with me. I wanted the CEO know that as a Management Team under his leadership and management, we’re doing everything we set out to do. It was important for us to remind him of that fact before he meets with the investor.

Making the 3 Point Shot with 2 Seconds Left in a Tied Game

I was a basketball player growing up and in college, so I often use that experience as a frame of reference. I have to say that making this statement to my CEO as we’re under pressure to nail our message to our lead investor and board member was big. It was like having to win a regular season basketball game, with a three-point shot with only 2 seconds left in the game - or pulling Michael Jordan.

I love that our Management Team is so comfortable with each other that we all felt ownership of my statement and bought into it.

It wasn’t just my idea, it was our idea. Just like the Chicago Bulls, we each take turns being Harper, Jordan, Pippen, Rodman and Longley. Our presentation was flawless with our investor commending our CEO for our performance as a Management Team.

BTW, You’re Now in Charge of Channel Management

At the end of the day during our Management Team debrief with our CEO, we identified action items from the meeting. The CTO has critical action items in product development. I presented what our CEO is transitioning to me: the day-to-day sales management function in two weeks with specific items. The investor loved the idea, so it could free up our CEO to pursue new channels.

As our CTO white boarded our actions, our CEO said, “Oh by the way, Lori, congrats, you now are in charge of Channel Management.”

So there it was. I had recommended to my CEO a few months ago that he should have the Channel Manager position report to me, since my department supports all our value added reseller (VARs) channels.

When the CTO heard the CEO’s comment, he stopped white boarding. Gave us a blank look and said, “It’s clear Lori’s role is changing.”

All I know at this point is that the CEO’s in charge of negotiating the VARs channels and I execute them. Our key business strategy is channel distribution and now I’m in charge of it. Cool.

Lessons Reinforced

This work situation has reminded me that when we let go of our attachments, stuff happens. Attachment can make you crazy, often causing you to make weird decisions.

The bottom line is that we can’t control timing or other people. I learned a long time ago that I can only aspire to do something, send out my intentions, but then let it go. If it’s supposed to happen, great. If not, then it’s not meant to be.

1. About one million laid-off workers will see their unemployment benefits end in January unless Congress acts quickly
2. Finding balance can be tough for top leaders: finding your ‘ego balance’
3. “The Good Wife” Episode 8 “Unprepared”: TV Recap
4. My knowledge worker mascot is now a toy: Unitasker Wednesday: USB-Powered Hamster Wheel
5. I had no idea on why I use lists until now: We Like Lists Because We Don’t Want to Die
6. Free Report: How to Become a Creative Entrepreneur
7. Great lessons for all: How to Become a Freelance Web Developer: A Six Month Plan
8. How an entrepreneur survived the boom of the lat 90s and the bust of the early 2000s, and still going strong today
9. Calendar planning: How to manage too many ASAPs
10. Passion in work: To find a job you feel passionate about, you need a process
11. Level 2 Management Skills: Management Skills For Team Building
12. Why is Management’s Perception of Time is Different than Worker’s: It’s the Theory of Special Relativity of Management
13. What’s Your Strategy for the Next Decade?
14. How Not Achieving Something Is the Key to Achieving It
15. Leadership isn’t about you. The best leaders understand results are created by all of the great people doing the work
16. You never know who may be watching you at work
17. How to use a professional resume template: the key components to a professional resume

February 14, 2006

When you’re in the rank and file in a company, sometimes you wonder why it takes so long for Management to act.

Over the past six months, now that I’m in that upper Management structure, I’ve learned that travel schedules, conflicting Management deadlines, and other random things delay things from happening.

The Special Relativity of Management

It’s kind of like the Theory of Special Relativity as defined on Wikipedia with my notes:

• Relativity of simultaneity: Two events, simultaneous for some observer (Management), may not be simultaneous for another observer (Workers) if the observers are in relative motion.
• Time dilation: Moving clocks (worn by Management) are measured to tick more slowly than an observer’s “stationary” clock (worn by Workers).
• Length contraction: Objects are measured to be shortened in the direction that they are moving with respect to the observer.

I don’t pretend to be an expert in physics, but Theory of Special Relativity describes how I experienced Management delays when I was a Worker.

Time passes quickly at the Management level (one work week can feel like two days) if you’re a manager, while that same time period feels like a standard work week or even longer when you’re the Worker, waiting Management to act.

Preparing for Lead Investor Meeting: Asking for More Funding

Now that I’m in Management, I’m fine with the Theory of Special Relativity of Management. My CEO was slammed yesterday, so we never had a chance to meet to discuss what he wants to discuss-what I want to be when I grow up.

He’s kind of like Woodstock, missing a landing as he bounces from one task to another. Every time we run into each other, I calmly look at him as he apologizes for not meeting with me.

He’s on the road today and back in the office on Wednesday. I was left in charge of getting the PowerPoint together across the Management Team for his review. That gives me all day tomorrow to do the Marketing and Sales slides, help our Controller with his Finance slides, add the COO’s Operations slides, and get the CTO’s Development ones in there too.

I’m the Lead?

We’re pitching a “get big fast” option for additional funding from our primary investor in our Thursday meeting with him. While I thought I would be meeting with the investor to discuss his thoughts on this option and brainstorm with him, I’ll actually be the one to determine what that looks like, working with the Controller to update a budget scenario for the meeting.

How did that happen? How did I get left in charge of determining our “get big fast budget?” Not only am I preparing the Monthly Report for the lead investor, but also the justification for our funding option.

Sales Continues to Disappoint CEO

I’m bummed about this. A member on our Sales team fails to conform to my CEO’s standards. She’s had some performance problems in recent demos to prospective clients. My CEO finally had to tell her that a condition of her employment is to conform to his standards, so now that’s hanging out there.

I’m not sure how the day-to-day Sales Management role will unfold. The Controller brought up the option of me managing the Sales Operations, saying, “It was brilliant…” I’m hoping the Sales team will be open to potential changes in the day-to-day management of their activities.

Management’s Perception of Time is Different than Worker’s

On a career management note, normally I would be impatient to discuss the new job responsibility of Sales Operations. I now understand why things take time in a company. With managers pulled in multiple directions, people traveling, and emerging top priorities converging at once, managers have to stop and start or pause and change direction.

They eventually get to the thing they’re supposed to do, but only when it’s the right time to get to it. I’ve learned that the extra time or delay is valuable because you can reflect on the correct course of action, rather than being too reactive in decision making.

The next two days will be fun, but long. Fortunately, I don’t see any talks with my CEO on the horizon until Friday.

The Smart Lemming Diary is a series that chronicles a journey of laid-off worker, who becomes a Vice President of Sales Operations & Marketing for a small entrepreneurial healthcare technology company. For previous entries in this series, click here. For the first diary entry, click here. For the highlighted Smart Lemming Diary entries, click here.

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2. Women in business: 3 Strategies for Raising Successful Daughters
3. Leadership: 5 Decision Making Options
4. This is different: Testosterone Levels, Top Dogs, and Collective Group Confidence
5. An inside look at job Interviewing: Interviewing Do’s and Don’ts for Job Seeker
6. The work left behind after colleagues are laid off—still haunts the employees who remain: tips to help you gain control
7. How to manage your job search. Get organized now to save time later
8. 8 tips to help you find your way in this tough job market
9. Management Skills For Beginners: Level 1 Management Skills
10. Interesting: Bruce Lee’s approach to the value of money
11. On Twitter and in the workplace, it’s power to the connectors
12. The Best INSEAD Podcasts on Leadership, Management, and Women in Business
13. Who often does your manager ask you “What do you want to be when you grow up?” For me, only once in my lifetime.
14. How Much Can You Change Your Manager?
15. 5 Words You Don’t Want to Be Caught Saying After a Layoff
16. How are you redefining your market opportunity to identify growth during challenging times?
17. A key lesson from the recession: Managers can be whipsawed by a downturn or use it to gain a competitive advantage
18. Overcome negative thinking: ways to squash negative thoughts that cause you fear and anxiety about your job

Leadership

1. INSEAD Knowledgecast n°23: Putting Leaders on the Couch with Manfred Kets de Vries
2. INSEAD Knowledgecast n°25:The Experience Trap with Kishore Sengupta and Luk Van Wassenhove
3. INSEAD Knowledgecast n°38:The transcultural leader: Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault, Nissan
4. INSEAD Knowledgecast n°57: The show must go on: Cirque du Soleil’s recession-proof formula
5. INSEAD Knowledgecast n°63: Innovating your way to the top
6. INSEAD Knowledgecast n°69: Obama’s first 100 days in office: a personal view
7. INSEAD Knowledgecast n°79: The quest for authenticity with Manfred Kets de Vries

Management

1. INSEAD Knowledgecast n°26:Relationship building: A key driver for securing repeat business with Tom D’Aunno
2. INSEAD Knowledgecast n°27: Why managers fail to do the right thing with Craig Smith
3. INSEAD Knowledgecast n°49:Middle managers linchpin to dynamic team leadership
4. INSEAD Knowledgecast n°65: Effecting change management: a reality with the LingHe Simulation?

Women in Business

1. INSEAD Knowledgecast n°45:Unshackling the ‘double bind’ of the female leader
2. INSEAD Knowledgecast n°66: Women and the ‘vision thing’ with Herminia Ibarra and Otilia Obodaru
3. INSEAD Knowledgecast n°67: Womenomics: winning the war for talent and customers with Avivah Wittenberg-Cox

My CEO wants to play me at my highest level by adding more responsibility to my current role as Director of Marketing. He asks, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

“A millionaire who has financial security.” I said. “Well, you and your partner are on the fast track for that. We may be able to contribute to some of it,” Timothy replied with a serious tone.

Today my CEO tried to spend quality time with me, so he could get me to brainstorm Sales Operations, Marketing, and anything else I can think of would like under my management.

“I was going to take you to lunch today, actually get us out of the building, but this contract came up. I wanted to spend quality time with you today, because I want to hear more about your ideas about sales management and your role.” He said like a little kid in a candy store.

My CEO and I never did have a chance to meet. I had time sensitive deadlines. He had deadlines.

Emergency Career Counseling Session

I managed to squeeze in a career counseling session with Debbie, who I noticed was on instant messenger. I told her that my CEO wanted to know what I wanted.

“Just tell him. You have to be open and honest. He’s authentic and you should do the right thing. You have to tell him that you’re part of the package if the acquisition goes through. You’re the backbone of your business with your partner.”

Debbie kept repeating the point several different ways until I got it. She drove the point home when she pointed out that I’m still committed to the healthcare industry. My master’s degree is in it and I should finish the race in this industry by trying to find options in how to do that with my boss’s startup.

I finally relented and agreed. She got me on the “That’s how you run your business with your partner, that’s how you have to operate in your interactions with your CEO….you love your job and you should brainstorm options with him on how to do both.”

Okay, Debbie made total sense. It’s hard not to let my issues of untrustworthy managers and leaders get in the way. My CEO has integrity. What was interesting was to hear Debbie’s use of the term “family” in describing my work environment. She’s on spot with that comment. I have a strange feeling of loyalty and wanting to help them succeed, making sure they’ll be okay. I want to step up and find a way to make this work.

Next Steps

So, maybe tomorrow my CEO and I will talk. I’ll most likely pitch that I could manage the Sales Management, marketing (expanding into additional marketing functions that we’re not staffed for), and Channel Management.

I’m at a very exciting time in my career. I have a boss that values me and wants to increase my responsibility, peers that that I love working with, and direct reports that I enjoying managing. My CEO wants to help me achieve whatever career goals I have. You don’t hear that everyday as a knowledge worker or middle manager.

The Smart Lemming Diary is a series that chronicles a journey of laid-off worker, who becomes a Vice President of Sales Operations & Marketing for a small entrepreneurial healthcare technology company. For previous entries in this series, click here. For the first diary entry, click here. For the highlighted Smart Lemming Diary entries, click here.

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5. How Not to Conduct an Employee Engagement Initiative (satire)
6. How to Approach a Career Change from PR to Marketing
7. The Management Skills Pyramid: skills a manager must learn in order to succeed.
8. From the archives: How to be Stealth like a Ninja Monkey during a Job Search
9. Workplace Gossip? Keep It to Yourself
10. What jobs will be in demand in 2010? The Top 10 Job Positions in 2010, segmented by industry
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15. When you work in a startup, you can expect that you’ll be hired for one job, but end up doing more or something different
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1. HBR IdeaCast (Podcast) 44: Retaining Talented Women with Sylvia Ann Hewlett, author of Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success
2. HBR IdeaCast (Podcast) 61: How Women Become Leaders with Alice Eagly, co-author of Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders
3. HBR IdeaCast (Podcast) 62: Customize Your Career with Cathleen Benko, co-author of Mass Career Customization: Aligning the Workplace with Today’s Nontraditional Workforce
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5. How to Stop “Mean Girls” in the Workplace by Sylvia Ann Hewlett
6. Stay Home and Work by Rosabeth Moss Kanter
7. Women of the Workplace, Uniting by Sylvia Ann Hewlett
8. Flex Time: A Recession Triple Win by Sylvia Ann Hewlett
9. Increase Engagement by Encouraging Employees to Volunteer with with Sylvia Ann Hewlett
10. How to Get More from Your Mentor by Jodi Glickman Brown
11. In Hard Times, Re-Commit to Flex Time by Sylvia Ann Hewlett
12. How Women Have Changed Norway’s Boardrooms by Kate Sweetman
13. High-Flying Women Shift Gears in the Recession by Sylvia Ann Hewlett
14. The Glass Cliff: Are Women Leaders Often Set Up to Fail? by Sylvia Ann Hewlett
15. Missing Women, Empty Talent Pipelines, and CEO Compensation by Rita McGrath
16. The New Challenge for Women: Reshaping the Company by Tamara J. Erickson
17. Likeability and Women’s Leadership by Sylvia Ann Hewlett
18. Ambition and High-Octane Women by Sylvia Ann Hewlett
19. Are There Gender Differences Within Gen X? by Tamara J. Erickson
20. Bonus video: Where Will We Find Tomorrow’s Leaders?An Interview with Linda A. Hill, Professor, Harvard Business School

When you work for a new startup, you can expect that you’ll be hired in for one job, but end up doing more or something completely different.

When my CEO approached me to take over his Marketing department last summer, but I had no idea that it could possibly grow into managing our Channel Management function. That it could also lead to managing the Sales Operations for our startup.

We’re now at the crossroad where my CEO needs options from the Management Team on how to fix Sales, including the Channel Management function. He’s had to be CEO and VP of Sales, but is unable to manage all the complexities that come with Sales.

Key Business Issue: Sales are Down

Since last Wednesday my partner and I learned a company wants to acquire our startup, my day-job work has becoming increasingly worrisome.

As a Marketing Director, I’ve been re-engaged back into my Management Team responsibilities because we’re in the process of reviewing staffing, budget scenarios, and preparing for our lead investor’s visit next week.

We’re also facing another key issue - Sales are down.

We didn’t have any deals come in for January. If we’re lucky, we’ll have one in February. What’s going on? That’s what we’re trying to figuring out as a Management team.

Staffing and Budget Scenarios

Our CTO and COO took us through their staffing requirements. Understanding the budget concerns that Stan informed us about, the management team was able to slow down hiring.

However, one key question was left: do we still make key strategic hires in Sales?

We need a Channel Manager (to manage the value-added reseller agreements) and another Sales person. Our CEO had been stalling and for good reason because he wasn’t sure how he wanted to proceed. Under the existing budget scenarios, we’re burning cash and are cash negative by the end of the year due to sales issues.

I also did a deep dive into our Closed Won Sales data. I started using some data points during our budget meeting, and then my CEO asked me print more documents for our team’s review. So what’s really going on with Sales?

Channel Management Option for Marketing

The CEO asked all of us, “I’m leaving my title at the door. I’m asking for your feedback because I need to know what to tell our lead investor about our sales situation. I’m not doing in a good job in managing the sales team. Feedback?”

There was a long silence. Finally, breaking the silence, I quietly sighed, and then said, “I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time. I’ve been ambivalent to say anything because I wanted to see how things unfolded and I was worried about the impact to our Marketing department. I think you need to hand-off your day-to-day sales management duties. You and I have discussed what should be done. I’m willing to do that for you.” My CEO’s eyes light up.

The CTO, COO, and Controller all voice their approval saying, “We think this is a great idea…” The CEO replies, “That’s exciting. Yes that has implications for your department but we’re definitely talking about it later today.”

Personally, I thought my CEO had blown me off when I offered via email to manage his Channel Manager. So I didn’t bother to offer up the sales management function as a result.

In the time after my CEO asked for feedback about his sales performance, I had to think through, “What if my partner and I get acquired? I’m a headcount in the new plan. I was planning to leave my CEO’s company if this acquisition goes through. But what if the acquisition doesn’t go through? I have a duty to offer up myself as a resource if it helps the Management Team, the company, but mostly, my CEO.”

So I did the right thing, I offered up myself as an option to solve our problem. When I first offered to take on Channel Management in December, I had no idea that it would include the possibility of taking on Sales Operations.

Excited about all the Possibilities

My CEO’s a cool guy. He’ll tell you how he feels. He’ll tell you what he thinks, even if it’s not quite fully formed.

“I want to talk to you about your offer to manage the day-to-day sales function. I think this is exciting. I think there are other things we should consider to make sure we’re playing you to your highest value. You’re the best process person in this company. We have to use you to the fullest. I’m going to think about what that looks like.” My CEO said in his two-octave low tone.

“Thank you for your feedback. I appreciate your kind words.” I said. “I knew you were good when I hired you. I thought I knew what I was getting, but I didn’t know you were this good.”

“I’m taking care of this stock option paperwork even if it means giving you more to compensate. But we probably should consider giving you more anyway since you’ve more than proven yourself. I’d like to tell our lead investor next week that here’s our big plan for sales and marketing if he gives us more money and how you fit into it, but even with the lower funding level, here’s what you’re still doing.” My CEO says with more excitement.

The Smart Lemming Diary is a series that chronicles a journey of laid-off worker, who becomes a Vice President of Sales Operations & Marketing for a small entrepreneurial healthcare technology company. For previous entries in this series, click here. For the first diary entry, click here. For the highlighted Smart Lemming Diary entries, click here.

1. 10 things you may not know about listening
2. Following your passion can be a tough thing. But figuring out what that passion is can be even more elusive.
3. 7 keys to reading faster
4. Career Planning with a Busy Schedule
5. Successful people develop their natural talents
6. What career management is and isn’t: personal branding is NOT career management
7. “The Good Wife” Season 1, Episode 7 “Unorthodox”: TV Recap
8. You are a reflection of your closest friends. Do you like what you see in that mirror?
9. The 4 steps required to achieve your “critical” goals that perfectly aligned with your life’s purpose
10. 40 years of lessons on ‘Sesame Street’: 8 lessons learned from your favorite TV show
11. Reminder: strong personal brands attract and repel
12. 10 career mistakes you should avoid
13. The ability to learn is your most important skill
14. How to benefit from working smarter and harder
15. Women leaders in Generations X and Y don’t go it alone. They are highly interdependent.

1. Are you making one of these 10 Facebook job search mistakes?
2. Job search tips for Gen Y college grads
3. Why you don’t stand out from the crowd: here’s a tip, it’s your resume
4. Due diligence and the job offer: more than salary and benefits
5. How to manage your job search stress
6. How to separate yourself from other job candidates: 7 steps for writing your post-interview letter

1. The Smart Lemming’s list of the best management podcasts by Harvard Business Review’s Ideacast
2. The Smart Lemming’s list of the best podcasts on innovation by Harvard Business Review’s Ideacast
3. The Smart Lemming’s list of the best leadership podcasts by Harvard Business Review’s Ideacast
4. The Smart Lemming’s list of the best career management podcasts
5. 10 things you may not know about listening
6. Career coaches: Worth the investment?
7. Following your passion can be a tough thing. But figuring out what that passion is can be even more elusive.
8. 7 keys to reading faster
9. The five whys and the power of analyzing your life
10. Andre Agassi’s choice and success: Successful people are clear on what they want in their lives and careers
11. Book Notes: Derailed by Tim Irwin - the lack of character is why otherwise talented leaders ultimately fail
12. The 12 psychological stumbling blocks of looking for a job
13. 5 habits for creating a career you can love
14. Bosses: When an employee resigns, be nice
15. Your job search strategy needs to focus on three different areas that will personalize your job search
16. How to use transferable job skills for your job search
17. Podcast: Roger Martin, author of The Design of Business - Why Design Thinking is the Next Competitive Advantage (to listen to story, click on RSS with headphones image below on the right)

1. HBR IdeaCast:How to Manage the Alpha Male
2. HBR IdeaCast 6: Make Better Decisions & Retain Your Best People During Change with David Garvin
3. HBR IdeaCast 7: Spotlight on Sales with David Champion
4. HBR IdeaCast 10: Opening Up Innovation & Dealing with Underperformers with Henry Chesbrough
5. HBR IdeaCast Episode 12: Doing Business in China and How Great Managers Manage
6. HBR IdeaCast 33: Made to Stick with Chip Heath
7. HBR IdeaCast 34: Competing on Analytics with Tom Davenport and Jeanne Harris
8. HBR IdeaCast 35: What It Means to Work Here with Tammy Erickson
9. HBR IdeaCast 44: Retaining Talented Women with Sylvia Ann Hewlett
10. HBR IdeaCast 49: What Makes Gen Xers Tick? with Tammy Erickso
11. HBR IdeaCast 69: Rapid Transformation with Behnam Tabrizi
12. HBR IdeaCast 71: How to Manage Conflict with Gill Corkindale
13. HBR IdeaCast 75: Managing B Players with Thomas J. DeLong
14. HBR IdeaCast 79: Managing Generation Y with Tammy Erickson
15. HBR IdeaCast 84: Talent Management with Peter Cappelli
16. HBR IdeaCast 86: Grooming Top Performers with Boris Groysberg
17. Harvard Business IdeaCast 95: Why Gen Xers Are Unhappy at Work with Tammy Erickson
18. Harvard Business IdeaCast 99: Retaining Employees When Money is Tight with Christina Bielaszka-DuVernay
19. Harvard Business IdeaCast 106: The Importance of Urgency with John Kotter
20. Harvard Business IdeaCast 122: Reinventing Your Business Model with Clay Christensen
21. Harvard Business IdeaCast 135: Building a Better Layoff with Bronwyn Fryer
22. Harvard Business IdeaCast 142: How to Be Strategic With Your Workforce with Dick Beatty
23. Harvard Business IdeaCast 144: Recruiting in Good Times and Bad with Claudio Fernández-Aráoz
24. Harvard Business IdeaCast 146: The Truth About Middle Managers with Paul Osterman
25. Harvard Business IdeaCast 147: Being a Good Boss in a Bad Economy with Bob Sutto
26. Harvard Business IdeaCast 150: When High Performers Struggle with Bob Seelert
27. Harvard Business IdeaCast 156: Use the Right Incentives for Gen Y, Gen X, and Boomers with Sylvia Ann Hewlet
28. Harvard Business IdeaCast 164: How to Cut Costs — Strategically with Cesare Mainardi
29. Harvard Business IdeaCast 165: Making Time Off Predictable — And Required with Leslie Perlow
30. Harvard Business IdeaCast 166: Leading Your Boss (and Following Your Subordinates) with John Baldoni

1. HBR IdeaCast 10: Opening Up Innovation & Dealing with Underperformers with Henry Chesbrough
2. HBR IdeaCast 28: Chris Trimble, co-author, with Vijay Govindarajan, of Ten Rules for Strategic Innovators: From Idea to Execution
3. HBR IdeaCast 32: The Rewards of Innovation with Jim Andrew
4. HBR IdeaCast 39: The Upside with Adrian Slywotzky
5. HBR IdeaCast 40: Hidden in Plain Sight with Erich Joachimsthaler
6. HBR IdeaCast 43: Authentic Leadership with Bill George
7. HBR IdeaCast 46: Unleash Your Hidden Assets with Chris Zook
8. HBR IdeaCast 54: Teams That Lead, Innovate, and Succeed with Deborah Ancona
9. HBR IdeaCast 64: Sustainable Innovation with Cheryl Perkins
10. HBR IdeaCast 74: Thinking Inside the Box with Kevin Coyne
11. HBR IdeaCast 80: Where Does Strategic Innovation Come From? with George Stalk
12. HBR IdeaCast 81: Disruptive Innovation with Scott Anthony
13. HBR IdeaCast 88: Reverse Engineering Google’s Innovation Machine with Tom Davenport
14. Harvard Business IdeaCast 108: Innovating at Every Level with Erich Joachimsthaler
15. Harvard Business IdeaCast 109: Pixar and Collective Creativity with Ed Catmull
16. Harvard Business IdeaCast 121: Finding and Grooming Breakthrough Innovators with Jeffrey Cohn
17. Harvard Business IdeaCast 141: Use Failure to Grow Your Business with Rita McGrath
18. Harvard Business IdeaCast 100: Innovation at Procter & Gamble with A. G. Lafley
19. Harvard Business IdeaCast 160: Innovation to Delight (and Surprise) Your Customers with Roberto Verganti
20. Harvard Business IdeaCast 168: How GE Does Reverse Innovation with Vijay Govindarajan
21. Harvard Business IdeaCast 171: Applying Design Thinking to Your Business with Roger Martin

1. HBR IdeaCast 8: Leading Through Conflict & Setting Priorities in a Pinch with Mark Gerzon
2. HBR IdeaCast Episode 14: Your Leadership Legacy and How Softer Skills Make Great Managers with Robert M. Galford
3. HBR IdeaCast 23: Enlightened Leadership with Annie McKee
4. HBR IdeaCast 26: The Tests of a Leader with Tom Stewart
5. HBR IdeaCast 27: Ram Charan on Leadership
6. HBR IdeaCast 38: What Your Leader Expects of You with Larry Bossidy
7. HBR IdeaCast 45: What Holds Leaders Back with Marshall Goldsmith
8. HBR IdeaCast 47: The New Rules of Power with Alan Murray
9. HBR IdeaCast: Trust: The Secret Weapon with Kathy Bloomgarden
10. HBR IdeaCast 61: How Women Become Leaders with Alice Eagly
11. HBR IdeaCast 67: The Leaders We Need with Michael Maccoby
12. HBR IdeaCast 77: Ask the Coach with Marshall Goldsmith
13. HBR IdeaCast 85: Keep Your Ideas to Yourself with Marshall Goldsmith
14. Harvard Business IdeaCast 93: Where Will We Find Tomorrow’s Leaders? with Linda A. Hill
15. Harvard Business IdeaCast 94: Lead with Just Enough Anxiety with Dr. Robert Rosen
16. Harvard Business IdeaCast 114: Speaking Well in Tough Moments with Holly Weeks
17. Harvard Business IdeaCast 124: Leading Through the Downturn — And Beyond with Vineet Nayar, Jeff Stibel, and Stewart Friedman
18. Harvard Business IdeaCast 131: What Charisma Really Is (And Isn’t) with Barbara Kellerman
19. Harvard Business IdeaCast 133: What Business Leaders Can Learn from Today’s Military with Colonel Tom Kolditz
20. Harvard Business IdeaCast 148: The 5 Leadership Essentials with Dave Ulrich
21. Harvard Business IdeaCast 155: Leadership in a (Permanent) Crisis with Ron Heifetz
22. Harvard Business IdeaCast 162: Leading Clever People with Gareth Jones
23. Harvard Business IdeaCast 166: Leading Your Boss (and Following Your Subordinates) with John Baldoni

1. HBR IdeaCast 4: The Joys of Deliberate Mistakes and “Middlescence” with Tamara Erickson
2. HBR IdeaCast 17: Science Business and Be Your CEO with Gary Pisano
3. HBR IdeaCast 21: Extreme Jobs with Sylvia Ann Hewlett
4. HBR IdeaCast 30: Paths to Power with Anthony Mayo
5. HBR IdeaCast 36: Getting Unstuck with Tim Butler
6. HBR IdeaCast 37: Five Minds for the Future with Howard Gardner
7. HBR IdeaCast 38: What Your Leader Expects of You with Larry Bossidy
8. HBR IdeaCast 56: The New Science of Ideas with Richard Ogle
9. HBR IdeaCast 58: Three Signs of a Miserable Job withg Patrick Lencioni
10. HBR IdeaCast 62: Customize Your Career with Cathleen Benko
11. HBR IdeaCast 72: Are You Making Things Too Complex? with Ron Ashkenas
12. HBR IdeaCast 87: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life with Stewart Friedman
13. Harvard Business IdeaCast 101: Are You Spending Your Time the Right Way? with Melissa Raffoni
14. Harvard Business IdeaCast 102: What Kind of Leader Will You Be? with Bill Taylor
15. Harvard Business IdeaCast 104: When Does Executive Coaching Work? with Marshall Goldsmith
16. Harvard Business IdeaCast 110: How to Protect Your Job in a Recession with Diane Coutu
17. Harvard Business IdeaCast 125: What Can Coaches Do for You? with Diane Coutu
18. Harvard Business IdeaCast 126: Picking the Right Transition Strategy with Michael Watkins
19. Harvard Business IdeaCast 132: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions with Sydney Finkelstein
20. Harvard Business IdeaCast 150: When High Performers Struggle with Bob Seelert
21. Harvard Business IdeaCast 151: How to Write Clearly at Work with David Silverman
22. Harvard Business IdeaCast 159: Managing Information Overload with Paul Hemp
23. Harvard Business IdeaCast 161: Boost Resilience, Decrease Stress, and Improve Your Performance with Stewart Friedman

1. 7 More Lessons Learned From Sesame Street
2. Leadership: How develop you leadership brand
3. Leadership: Want to be a leader? The leadership competencies you should develop.
4. 9 ways to overcome being overqualified
5. If you have this attitude towards your manager, you lose
6. Unemployed: Lessons learned on a successful job search
7. Are leaders born or made? 5 ways to become a better leader
8. Ten things not to say when firing an employee
9. The right place for competition is the marketplace, and the wrong place is the workplace
10. How to find a job through networking
11. How not to quit a job: don’t quit the way Sarah Palin did

1. 3 tips for quitting your job with style
2. Should You Tell An Employee That They Are Part of a Talent Pool For Succession?
3. Podcast: how to manage people on the thoughts, emotion and action levels
4. Study shows that job applicants are more attracted to organizations when their websites include employee testimonials
5. Are you having trouble fitting in with your coworkers?
6. The art of learning from a colleague
7. Why parents make great managers
8. Sizing Up Jack Welch: Is “Too Big to Fail” Really Too Big to Succeed?
9. The single best way to make your manager love your work
10. Are you making one of these 10 Facebook job search mistakes?
11. What career management is and isn’t: personal branding is NOT career management
12. Leading Innovation: 21 things that great bosses believe and do
13. 3 tactics to finding a new job
14. Thinking through the pitch of why a potential acquirer should invest in my CEO’s startup
15. Resume first impressions: how a hiring manager looks at your resume
16. More “Wall Street 2? Movie News: Donald Trump Confirmed, Charlie Sheen Returns as Bud Fox
17. 10 quick tips for job hunting after being laid off
18. Video: Why companies to innovate by thinking of ways to revolutionize consumers’ everyday lives

With so much valuable information on personal brands in book and blogs, don’t lose the forest for the trees.

Personal branding ≠ career management. I repeat, personal branding by itself is NOT managing your career.

Then what is career management? It’s more than the image you project, the way you speak, or the unique value you provide your employer.

It’s a process that includes several steps in career analysis, career strategy, career planning, job execution, and on-going career support.

Personal branding pertains to only two aspects of career management, as we define our brand during the initial stage of launching our career, outline our personal brand roadmap, and perform on-going monitoring or evolution of our brand.

I love reading and writing about personal brands as much as other blogs, but the Smart Lemming’s mission is to provide information that allows you to proactively manage your career rather than letting your career happen to you.

I’ll address each step in the Smart Lemming’s Career Management Framework in upcoming posts. In the meantime, reflect if you:

• Have the right information to make educated decisions about your next job opportunity
• Have a strategy and plan to get the job you want
• Know how to hit the ground running in your new job by quickly adding value, or
• Are supported with trusted advisers like your mentors, coach, friends and family, and network

Finding Equity Investors or Getting Acquired

This morning our CEO has a meeting with our first channel partner at their request to discuss how our companies can be more aligned.

Our company has contributed to 60+ sales opportunities representing million of dollars in their sales pipeline. He’s pitching the advantages to an acquisition or equity by stating three things:

1. The channel partner would have pricing and strategy flexibility since its key competitor is using a competing product as loss leader
2. We have three channels in place for distribution of our products
3. Leverage product platform by integrating into their existing solutions

Partner Relationship is a Success

My CEO’s also highlighting that we’ve been a demonstrated success. Our company is at the right size with a small, specialized sales team. The Development staff & processes are in place and scalable. We need to scale so we need additional funding.

Two Options

It appears that my CEO’s startup has potential two options for an exit strategy:

• Equity Investment: plan to close a funding round in Q4 with existing lead investor, business plan self funding, and equity investment by partner would provide greater flexibility in use and deployment of current and future products.
• Acquisition: our most likely exit strategy is being acquired by a large company that controls other assets in continuum, roll-up to create continuum company, valuation at close of funding from late summer 2005. The acquisition terms and decision-making rests with two people with our CEO and our lead investor.

The Smart Lemming Diary is a series that chronicles a journey of laid-off worker, who becomes a Vice President of Sales Operations & Marketing for a small entrepreneurial healthcare technology company. For previous entries in this series, click here. For the first diary entry, click here. For the highlighted Smart Lemming Diary entries, click here.

1. How to lose touch with your inner whining artist
2. The problem with leadership is that the vast majority of people don’t know how to be a leader: how to become a leader
3. 7 conversation skills for becoming a good listener – and conversationalist
4. How to be a good listener by regularly engaging in these four mental activities
5. How judgments about your behavior impact your perceptions of fairness and blame in others
6. How to find, save, and create your own good ideas
7. At the intersection of fields or disciplines, combine existing concepts into a large number of extraordinary new ideas
8. Due diligence and the job offer: more than salary and benefits
9. Don’t just communicate, explain what is at stake and answer the question “What does it mean?”
10. 5 tips for working at home with your significant other
11. Working for a startup has peaks and valleys: potential exit strategies can evaporate as quickly as they emerge.
12. Does power reduces the ability to understand how others see, think, and feel?
13. What do you do when your employer won’t give a job reference
14. Find the 15-minute competitive advantage
15. 5 Signs You May Be a Bad Coworker
16. 40 years of lessons on ‘Sesame Street’: 8 lessons learned from your favorite TV show (to listen to story, click on RSS with headphones image below on the right)

Working for a startup has peaks and valleys. One day you’re worried about funding. Another day you’re concerned about too much to do in too little time. Or your channel strategy pays off, with partners signaling your startup is a strategic fit in their portfolio.

The trick to working in a startup is to not get too excited or attached to potential exit strategies because they can evaporate as quickly as they emerge.

Yesterday was full strategic business information regarding our exit strategy. Here’s a summary of key business opportunities that we’ve been pursuing or that’s now pursuing us.

1. Selling off our core services: the Microsoft Solutions provider who wanted to sell our core service offering decided they couldn’t buy us right now.
2. Our channel partner is interested in acquiring us: our first channel partner signaled to our CEO that they want discuss acquiring us.
3. Investor rolling us up: our lead investor is looking into creating a larger corporation by rolling us up with other companies that he’s also invested to create a continuum of services.
4. A second channel partner wants to introduce us to their parent company: out of the blue, our second partner is interested in selling our product again. They’ve just emerged after being acquired by one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world.

Selling off our Core Services

This news was a bummer. We were hoping to get a target price for our service offering, so we could expand and fund new positions that we need without having to go to our lead investor for more funding.

In our February Board meeting, now we’ll have to discuss more money with investor. As a Management Team, we’re providing an update on how we’ve performed since he last met with us. We’ll be pitching why we need more funding to grow. Unfortunately, our sales stalled again for January.

Channel Partner is a Potential Acquirer?

My CEO met with our partner’s CEO, who just arranged a meeting with his boss - a key leader in their parent company. They want to discuss acquiring us. My CEO, Controller, and CTO were busy strategizing about what should be in this presentation as they reviewed the sales pipeline.

This partner needs us to protect their core business, since their key competitor is practically giving away a product similar to ours as a loss leader to protect their core business. Our channel partner is finding they can’t compete since they cannot reduce the pricing for our product.

Consolidating into a Larger Company?

Meanwhile, my CEO has been in constant contact with our lead investor. My CEO learned that our investor is so exciting about us that he’s researching combining us with another company he’s invested in: he wants to buy a few other companies and then have all of us be one big corporation.

This new combined company would provide a continuum of services that’s currently missing in the market.

Second Partner wants to Introduce Us to their Parent Company

Our second partner, who could care less about us, finally surfaced. They were recently acquired by a subsidiary of a company that I’ve long admired and used to be lead by one of the greatest managers and leaders.

A random manager left a voice mail for my CEO, informing him that they wanted to meet with us, so they could look at the product and that we fit nicely into their portal product. They’re trying to complete the holes in the portal product and they would like to get us in front of their company to show how our company’s a fit for their gap.

Stock Option Paperwork

My CEO and Controller have completed the new valuation of the company. Our board has finally approved the strike price. As part of my compensation package, I have stock options that in the event of an acquisition, they all vest. But I don’t have the paperwork yet. With companies wanting to buy us again, I need to make sure my CEO and Controller get this paperwork to me.

What an interesting week for me. First, my CEO’s partner has me in her cross hairs. And today, everyone wants to buy or re-engage with us.

The Smart Lemming Diary is a series that chronicles a journey of laid-off worker, who becomes a Vice President of Sales Operations & Marketing for a small entrepreneurial healthcare technology company. For previous entries in this series, click here. For the first diary entry, click here. For the highlighted Smart Lemming Diary entries, click here.

1. Gossip In the Workplace: how it kills camaraderie and morale
2. Survival mentality puts people into a defensive mode. How to thrive, not just survive.
3. Reminder: strong personal brands attract and repel
4. 10 career mistakes you should avoid
5. Be someone who is engaged with work, not someone who avoids work
6. Why you must change–and how to overcome resistance to change
7. For the “over experienced” job seeker: resume tweaking may be better than an overhaul
8. How to conduct a compensation analysis
9. Applying for a job: what to do when a degree is required, but you don’t have one
10. 11 ways to overcome your procrastination
11. If a baby step feels too big, ask yourself what is the micro-baby step you could take
12. What are the pros and cons of mid life career change?
13. Women leaders in Generations X and Y don’t go it alone. They are highly interdependent.
14. Don’t forget about key stakeholders: when you’re in the weeds, raise your head, and communicate with key stakeholders.
15. Overconfidence clouding judgment? How to avoid mistakes from overconfidence.
16. Career Management Advice Video: When companies don’t follow up after interviews

There are times when you’re working so hard and fast that you forget how powerful a particular key stakeholder is in your company.

When you’re in the weeds, raise your head, look around, and communicate with key stakeholders.

Because I failed to do this, I lost political capital this week with one of my key stakeholders — my CEO’s wife and partner who also works on our business proposals. My Marketing team was starting to fall apart at the seams due to fatigue that reduced the quality of our work. Not meeting my key stakeholders expectations was my first management misstep since joining the company.

Our just-in-time delivery worked against us because we didn’t allocate enough time for the corporate website redesign.

Our content for each web page was rougher than expected, but I still had to roll it out for our CEO and his partner’s review.

Bottom line: the CEO’s partner was annoyed that our content was not up to par. By this morning, it became clear that I was on her radar screen. I had tense email conversations with her from Wednesday through Friday of this week.

On Wednesday, I received an email from our CEO’s partner in all caps, after she reviewed the Client Success tab:

“THESE TWO EXAMPLES USE THE SAME OLD STUFF WE ALWAYS SAY. LET’S GET SPECIFIC QUOTES FROM Client X AND Client Y ABOUT WHAT THEY LOVE ABOUT OUR PRODUCT. BETTER YET, LET’S FIND OUT IF WE CAN TALK TO ONE OF THEIR CUSTOMER’S ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCES USING OUR PRODUCT. I THINK THAT WILL BE MUCH MORE MEANINGFUL. WE NEED TO GO TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL IN SELLING THIS PRODUCT ON OUR WEBSITE.”

In my mind, all caps in an email = yelling.

I had to figure out how to deal with this because she’s also a contributor to some of our website content. I’m also was working on another sales process project with here, where she’s not providing her deliverables in the process. I chose to reply with:

“I absolutely agree, and we’re working on the Client X and Client Y to get specific quotes. We have to go live on January 31st for the corporate Website, so we’ll use this content until we can swap out. But do you think we should not post this content until we have specific product quotes? We could not go live with this tab until we have the quotes.”

20 minutes later, she replies,

“I think it’s fine to go live with this but I’m very glad that you already had new content on your priority list.”

On Thursday, I finished up on my sales process document that our CEO wanted. I identified myself as the work around to plug the hole that the CEO’s partner is causing in our process. I called her to review the process again, letting her know that due to her home office challenges I would be happy to do her step in the office for her.

The CEO’s partner sounded fine when she responded in a positive manner by thanking me for helping out. I emailed:

“I don’t mean to jump topics on you, but I want to make sure that you’re comfortable with us using the old client stories until we get new ones.” I asked. She was fine and tone was good.

Then later, she sent one more change by letting me know:

“You said you wanted these by COB Thursday. Does 7:05 PM count? If I can do anything else, please be SURE to let me know. Over and out.”

On Friday, we continued the discussion when I replied to the CEO and his partner so I could address concerns:

I want to thank both of you for review, editing, and writing the Website content. Here’s our plan for Website rollout:

• Complete uploading the CEO’s partner changes today
• Add CEO’s changes today and Monday
• Marketing team adding the people images today
• Development moves site to staging today (adds Web forms and possibly ROI calculator which is TBD)
• Marketing team reviews after any content changes
• Marketing team focuses on the site again on Monday with a final review at 3:30 pm
• Our goal is to go live Tuesday which I don’t see as a problem

I apologize that we gave this to you at the last minute. I know from my perspective, just-in-time delivery on this project traded off content quality content for speed in preparing the content for your review.

Our goal is to maintain the right balance when we have to make this type of trade-off. Fortunately, I think my team’s improving its ability to make estimates on how much we can accomplish during our 90-day plans. I’m trying something different with this coming 90-day plan by reviewing the proposed list with the team, so they can contribute to the target dates and number of deliverables, then finalize with CEO.”

Much later, CEO’s partner replies back with,

“I think you and your team have done a great job with the website. I certainly don’t mind reviewing rough copy. Better that than running into delays. Please let me know if I can help in any other way.”

Reading the Tea Leaves

On Friday, I met with our sales person who confirmed that, “Yes, based on everything you described, you’re on her radar screen.” In fact, the CEO’s partner came into the office this morning, which is very rare. My sales contact said, “That’s how she checks in on people, casing them out.” She added, “The CEO’s partner did say, ‘I’ve been just slammed by reviewing Marketing’s content for the Website…’ That’s her way of saying she’s not pleased.”

I’ve always known that my CEO’s partner had enormous political power as an owner of the company. I respect her and her position.

I told my Sales contact, “Personally, I think the CEO’s partner is more powerful than our former VP/COO ever was when I compare the two. At least with our former VP/COO, you could see things coming and she’d want you to see it coming. With our CEO’s partner, she’s stealth and you can’t hear or see her approaching until she appears. You don’t know what’s really going to happen.”

Fortunately, the rest of the day improved since our CEO’s partner emailed:

“I know now that it is true that God wants us to be happy - because he sent us our Marketing Manager- AND Cosmopolitans martinis.”

Casually, I asked in email if she was still in the office or at home because I was hoping we could do coffee:

“Alas, I am at home. Let’s do coffee one day next week - maybe when our Marketing Manager’s here. I’d like to get to know him better.”

Lessons Learned

1. Key stakeholder relations: I’ve been so busy in the weeds that I forgot our CEO’s partner is a power player in the company. I should have made sure that she knew my team’s priorities over the past 90 days.
2. Buffer time: I should have carved out more time so we could have had an extra week to write the content rather than throwing it out there like that. It left our CEO’s partner to think, “This is crap.” I’m sure she didn’t think that, but she certainly didn’t appreciate feeling compelled to rewrite an entire page of content.
3. Don’t over commit the team: I took on too many 90-day priorities this month by under estimating the level work needed to complete them on schedule. We ended up randomizing development resources, since my Marketing Manager didn’t plan. I should have caught this sooner. I’m capturing time estimates for the next set of 90-day priorities and can identify my team’s bandwidth and who’s over resourced so I can move tasks/deliverables around.

And I’m still on the radar screen and that’s not a good thing.

The Smart Lemming Diary is a series that chronicles a journey of laid-off worker, who becomes a Vice President of Sales Operations & Marketing for a small entrepreneurial healthcare technology company. For previous entries in this series, click here. For the first diary entry, click here. For the highlighted Smart Lemming Diary entries, click here.

1. 5 ways to become more intelligent. My favorite? Watch more TV!
2. When should you let an employee make a mistake?
3. From the archives: acting fearful in the workplace is dangerous and career limiting
4. From the archive: 5 questions to ask to understand your job’s requirements
5. The job search isn’t over until the offer is in hand
6. 7 steps to sustain a career change
7. What to expect when across-the-board layoffs are coming
8. How to be ready to find a new job at a moment’s notice
9. Can you identify any of these change-resisting thoughts to a new career?
10. Workplace bullying is very really and kinda scary. Check out survey results for horrific findings.
11. Fostering humility at work requires leadership and putting what you believe into action.
12. Flexibility and persistence: getting the balance right
13. 7 storytelling tips from Salesforce’s Marc Benioff
14. Uncovering Steve Jobs’ Presentation Secrets: the five elements of every presentation by the Apple CEO
15. B players are more important than you think they are. How to manage B players.

1. A master’s degree in tough times? Do your homework before you enroll.
2. Your LinkedIn profile picture maybe killing your job prospects
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Sadly, bullies are alive and well in the American workforce. 37% of the U.S. workforce (an est. 54 million Americans) report being bullied at work; an additional 12% witness it. 49% of workers.

Key Findings Bullies and Bully Victims

The Workplace Bullying Institute’s U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey (September 2007) reports these facts about bullying — defined as same-gender/same-race harassment ignored by current laws — in the workplace:

• Bullying is 4 times more prevalent than illegal forms of “harassment”
• American employers ignore bullying. In 62% of the cases, when made aware of bullying, employers worsen the problem or do nothing
• Most bullies are bosses, with 72% of bullies as bosses and 55% of those bullied are rank-and-file workers
• Bullying mostly affects women, with women being targeted in 57% of the cases and women targeting other women in 71% of cases
• Bullying is a public health hazard, with 45% bullied targets suffering from stress affecting their health
• Bullied individuals are not “sue crazy,” with only 3% filing lawsuits. In fact 40% fail to complain.

Top Tactics of Bullies

• Verbal abuse: swearing, name calling, malicious sarcasm, threats to safety, etc.
• Behaviors/action: public or private that were threatening, intimidating, humiliating, hostile, offensive, inappropriately cruel conduct, etc.
• Abuse of authority: undeserved evaluations, denial of advancement, stealing credit, tarnished reputation, arbitrary instructions, unsafe assignments, etc.
• Interference with work performance: sabotage, undermining ensuring failure, etc.
• Destruction of workplace relationships: among workers, bosses, or customers

Bullies are cruel and innovative. Most bullies are threatened by their targets, who are often more skilled than the bully.

Bullying is Top Down

• 43% of bullies have an executive sponsor
• 72% of bullies are bosses with women being targeted by bosses 74.7% of the time
• 55% of those bullied are non-supervisory employees

Bullies operate with confidence that they will not be punished because they enjoy support from higher-ups who can protect them if and when they are exposed.

What can you do if you’re being bullied?

Unfortunately, there are no laws protecting employees from bullying in the workplace.  Suing your employer is expensive. Your privacy will be lost because your health records will be available for your bully and employer.

Regardless of whether you pursue a legal remedy, have an exit strategy to get out of your dysfunctional work environment, get help if you need it to get healthy again, and use the Workplace Bullying Institute’s strategy to find a safe employer for your next job.

Resources

• Download U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey
• Being Bullied? Start Here
• Who gets targeted by bullies?
• Definition of Workplace Bullying
• Frequently Asked Questions on Bullying
• Who gets targeted
• Why bullies are bullies
• Woman-on-woman bullying
• Employer reactions/resistance
• Workplace Bullying-related Books

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Packaging matters in the workplace, and you are a package. The image you project influences the way others perceive you. Everything about you from your shoes to your hairstyle to your watch communicates some kind of message.

An episode from Bones (”Judas on a Pole”) provides is a great example of how Zack Addy isn’t aware of the importance of image as part of his personal brand.

The Episode in a Nutshell

• As Dr. Brennan’s student and assistant, Zack’s is one of the brightest up-and-coming scientists at the Jeffersonian Institute, but his boss Camille Saroyan, the Head of the Forensic Division, tells him she can’t promote him because he looks like a weekend fill-in at a college radio station.
• Zack asks his coworker, Angela Montenegro for help, and after refining his professional image with a new hair cut, new suit, and new shoes, Camille hires Zack.

A personal brand is a commitment that you make, a promise to people who do business with you. It represents all the things you stand for, your values and attitudes. Your clothes are part of your package so create a look that’s consistent with the position and goals you’re trying to attain.

But your “look” also includes the way you move and the way you talk. Develop a consistent image, and make the most of your natural attributes (your eyes, your hair, etc.).

Bottom line: you are the image your project. Choose wisely.

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