Perhaps you have been wondering what happened to the Corporate Catapult blog emails you were receiving?  Well, I was, and then I realised that after migrating to http://whoto.wordpress.com it didn’t drag along our subscribers!

Please pop over to the new adress at http://whoto.wordpress.com and sign up again and I look forward to staying connected with you!

Thanks – Matt.

Why you would do this:

- Exposure to the executive with an opportunity to showcase your team ethic and intellect.
- You build social capital with a senior manager (In this case the head of revenue)
- You build a cross-functional network within the working group and are established as a leader within that group

The opportunity here is to offer your specialist skills to solve a problem that lies outside your area of responsibility for the greater good. An example case study is that Sarah hears that customer attrition is increasing and as a technologist could provide input around automated customer service or early warning systems that could help reduce churn.   She approaches the head of sales and suggests that she convene a working group made up of marketing, sales, customer support and technology to meet once a week for a month with a goal to presenting some recommendations to the executive for addressing the issue.

If you can think of a problem that needs solving within your organisation, be assertive and approach the responsible manager and seek sponsorship for a solution working group.

If you think it would be helpful to have a written step-by-step guide of how to do this, let me know and I may include it in a subsequent post.

1) John says to his boss: “There is a problem with XYZ – It has a significant impact on ABC.

Boss thinks: “OMG, yet another issue to deal with – It would be nice if people came to me with solutions, not problems.
__________________
2) John forwards an article about Russian economy to head of international sales:

Head of international sales thinks: “What the heck is this link and why should I look at it?”
__________________

3) John is looking for a job:
John: “I was hoping you could help me find a job.”
Friend:  ”Sure, what are you looking for?”
John: “Something in I.T.”
Friend: “Anything in particular?”
John:  ”Nah, I am willing to learn just to get my foot in the door to technology.”

The friend has no idea where to start and nothing that he comes across in the next few weeks will make him automatically think of John.

The answer to getting things done:

In all three scenarios the interaction could be greatly improved by not making them think.  The approach is easy and perhaps you might consider how a recent interaction for you may have been improved by applying the following approach:

1) Very clearly and simply state the situation.
2) Tell them why they should care
3) Give them a suggested course of action based on prior thinking you have done.

This approach is actually used in the world of professional sales, but can be applied to any situation where you want someone to take action.  So, fixing the above scenarios for example:

1) John to boss: “There is a problem with XYZ – It has a significant impact on ABC.  I have given it some thought and I think we should implement DEF.”

2) The email:

3) John is looking for a job:

John: “I was hoping you could help me find a job.”
Friend:  ”Sure, what are you looking for?”
John:  ”I would like to work in the inside sales department of a multinational firm that sells software.”

DON’T MAKE THEM THINK! 

I have to admit I have no time for ‘social games’ like Farmville, Fishville, Mafia Wars and their ilk.  Why?  Because they require you to do inane things that give you virtual rewards that don’t have any real world impact.  I am one of the minority that just finds it frustrating and feeling like it is a waste of time – However, in doing some research into these games (ie playing them), I have found that they are really good at creating habits – It would be great if those habits were good for me though.

After attending a couple of gamification conferences last year I became quite convinced of the power of games to create long term habits and this was consistent with the discussions we were having at Corporate Catapult – What if we could use the motivational power of formed habits to achieve long lasting value for people in their professional lives?  How can we help you form habits that have undeniable value immediately and simultaneously create habits that will set you apart from the crown in the future?

The answer is daily watering
Well, we came up with an answer that is very similar to watering your broccoli in Farmville or feeding your pets in Petville – The answer is to create a simple, but fun way to keep ‘watering’ your professional contacts so that you have a healthy network that will promote your cause for years to come.  If you haven’t signed up for the beta version, please do so now at our www.corporatecatapult.com site…  We are only weeks away from letting in early users and first come first served

Stuff to think about today
Something for you to think about ahead of gaining access to the service we have built to help you:

1) Who within your company or network has the ability to effect change that impacts you?
2) How strong are your relationships (Based on trust/credibility/integrity)?
3) How are you going to be of use to them (Seek first to help, before being helped)?

A service you can try now
If you want to experience a service that helps you create good habits in a fun and social way, check out www.keas.com who help you improve your fitness/health through self selecting commitments, like filling half your plate with vegetables each day….

The Apple off-site is where people who can make the greatest contribution to strategy and future direction are invited to attend.  This is an exclusive club: 100 out of 47,000 employees represents just one fifth of a percent!   So, what do I know about the attendees without needing to ask?

1) All attendees are there because the inner circle of Apple knows who they are and rates their intellect highly.
2) They arrive having versed themselves in everything important to not only their domain, but the things that are keeping the exec awake at night
3) They will not be invited back if they don’t stay in the consciousness of those in power and continue to maintain/build credibility.

Aside from being a novel approach it may be considered a best practice that has contributed to making Apple the most profitable tech company on the planet and the second largest by market capitalization on the S&P 500.  It is also a practice employed by my former employer Salesforce.com, who in 2007 had a ‘Sales Council’ that pulled together a multi-disciplinary team to build the sales strategy for the coming year – A ticket to this event was merit based, not seniority related.

How you get invited to the ‘inner circle’:

1) Be known to the people in power and maintain regular contact
2) Find a way to demonstrate your expertise/intellect and build your brand
3) Stay informed on the subjects that matter to the execs so that you are comfortable in any forum
4) After establishing credibility, proactively bring ideas/solutions to solve strategic problems – Don’t restrict your thinking to your immediate responsibilities.

Here is a simple way to do that:

1) Think about which locations and industries are important for you to have relationships in today (People you do business with, learn from, enjoy spending time with) and write down the top two or three.
2) Thinking of where you want to be and what you want to be doing in 12 months, do the same.
3) Have a look at your network statistics and see the fastest growing locations and industries to see if they match up.

If you see that your top 2-3 locations/industries aren’t consistent with what you need, then it is time to train that vine by putting yourself in a position to meet the right people either through personal introductions or doing the usual activities – Meetup networking events, conferences, LinkedIN groups etc.  My own process is that I use a Salesforce.com report that tells me how many new people I have met in a week segmented by the skills/industry that they are in.  When I am looking to balance my network I set weekly goals to make sure I get out there meeting the right people.

I just ran the report and it shows that in my first 3 months in San Francisco I met 87 new people whose details I recorded (Approx. 1 person every day).  So, with a little focus you can train your vine in any direction – My focus has shifted and you can see that reflected in my LinkedIN statistics:

Time in Sydney > 10 years.    Percentage of network today = 12%
Time in San Francisco > 1 year.  Percentage of network today = 20%

Have a look at your network and train your vine to grow in the direction you want it to go.

My initial reaction is, “So what? The world is swings and roundabouts and doing good gets good.”.  However, what if you had to burn some serious social capital for a favor, which resulted in significant financial gain to the person you helped?

I am prompted to raise the point because a friend of mine recently used up a bunch of favors to help an associate close a deal that was worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.  The rub is that this person said, “If you can help me with X, I will help you with Y.”  Turns out that the recipient of the favor can’t help with ‘Y’, so what now?  Well, I think it absolutely behooves the recipient of the favor to share some of the benefit with my friend.  Getting these sorts of interactions right is important because it will determine whether you can rely on someone again in the future.

I think that the idea of social capital flow is so important to your success that it makes sense to consider the following as a recipient of favors:

My conclusion:
1) If in doubt, be overly generous in repaying favors – You want to be known as a person that is a grateful recipient of assistance.
2) Remember that social capital is a currency, so don’t trade your dollars for pennies.  If someone must give up $100 worth of social capital to gain you pennies of benefit, then this transaction is not worth doing.

Here is how it went down:

I met a sales guy in his late twenties who was an ideal fit for an open headcount I had.  He was working for a company that was being acquired by a very large software multinational (a competitor of mine) and he was ready to make a move.  He expressed a desire to take on a leadership role in coming years, which was certainly a possibility and one that we would work toward together.  We agreed the terms and after receiving his signed contract I sent him a gift basket to welcome him and his wife to the family.

The wrinkle happened shortly thereafter when the acquiring company made him the offer to take on a Regional Sales Director’s role with immediate effect.  This offer really was too good to refuse and herein lies the lesson to us:

His actions:  He could have waited till the last minute, hid behind a letter of withdrawal and scurried off into the distance.  But instead he did this:

Called me personally and covered the following:

• Acknowledged his responsibility to me and my organisation
• Explained the opportunity at his new employer and how it met his goals
• Asked me for my advice as a mentor.  He appealed to me as an individual and used this technique to give him permission to take the new role because if I had any integrity at all I would recommend he take it.

He followed the call by sending my team an oversized gift basket of tasty treats as a thank you for the investment in time

My action:  I could have been justifiably angry with this situation – We had to start the headhunting again after losing 4 weeks waiting for him.
What I did was:

• Realise that acting with integrity is the most important thing you can do in business.
• By treating this situation with dignity I sent a message to my team and to potential future employees that our culture is one of trust and sincerity

Business is a game of musical chairs and I know that I would want to employ this guy in the future.  I also know that this potential hire will be telling his friends about his experience.

The takeaways:

- You can derive a positive outcome in many difficult professional situations if you act with integrity and sincerity.
- Being open and speaking from the heart is a great way to defuse situations
- If you are hiring someone, NEVER give them more than the minimum notice period in which to join your firm  :-)  

Situations you might find yourself in:

- You work for the Flip Video™ division of Cisco™ and your CEO decides to get out of that business by laying you off with 549 others.
- You joined a company and believed the sales job done on you by the recruiter      (You missed the disclaimer:  “Actual job may not resemble role description.“)
- You are working for a start-up and the money runs out before you realize that the market for location aware toasters that tweet updates to your wireless alarm clock is actually very small.

What I have seen:
(A) A good person running around like a headless chook the day after they get sacked trying to organize coffee catch-ups with anyone they have ever connected to on LinkedIN.

(B) A savvy person that makes a few strategic calls to people in their network and has several options to consider within a month of severance.

Characteristics of situation B:

(1) An extended network of professionals know your capabilities
- You engage in regular updates (Face to face catch-ups, emails and phone calls)

(2) You have credibility with key people
- You regularly give them information/opinion that helps them professionally (emails/articles/blog posts)

(3) You have goodwill with a number of key people (They want to help you)
- You take every opportunity to help others knowing that the universe always pays you back (Pay it forward)

Actions:
Identify the key players in your network and start watering the relationships – Don’t let anyone wither on the vine!

Tools:
- www.linkedin.com
- www.corporatecatapult.com

1) I feel a sense of goodwill for the sender
2) I attribute intellect to the sender based on the value of the article to me
3) I feel that I owe this person something back – They have made an emotional deposit from which they can draw-down in the future.

Think about your relationships like plates spinning on a pole – When you haven’t touched base with someone for a while it is like the plate slowing down… Unless you give it a spin the plate crashes down – Relationship dies.

Recommendation:

When you haven’t touched based with someone for a while, find an article that will be of interest professionally or personally and send them a note that has a format similar to this:

“Hi [Name],
I saw this [article/link] and thought it would be of interest to you because [why].
I hope that you find it useful.”

If you want to be a Jedi master at this stuff, then sign-up for the Corporate Catapult Beta because we will be giving you a tool that really helps you keep many more plates spinning.