This week I celebrated my first month anniversary at my new gig. Prior to starting at my organization, I wrote a
post called Seeking Input: First Week of New Job where I asked for thoughts on how to best begin my new work. In addition to some of my own ideas, I received some suggestions that were very useful. They really helped me consider how to bring an immediate impact to my work and my relationships.

Perhaps David Batstone at Worthwhile Magazine was influenced by my post. Earlier in the week, he wrote a post called Five Tips for Thriving in Your New Job (could just be coincidence, but his post was one day short of my actual one month anniversary; could be that I’m just a tad self-absorbed). While David drew some criticism for these tips, I’m on the side of agreeing with them. Here’s the tips and my experience with each:

1. Put all the expectations on the table. When you’re hired to fill a position, there are expectations and hopes (often tacit) that need to be understood and managed. My position was open for quite a while and my CEO had certain expectations for what I would accomplish; my staff had their own expectations for how I would help facilitate and guide their work; I had my own expectations and hopes for what I could deliver. Rather than making assumptions, I scheduled meetings to get all these things out in the open. Nobody likes guessing what is expected of them. The best part of knowing is that it helps set priorities for accomplishing tasks. I walked into a challenging circumstance where much still needs to be done. However, rather than trying to guess which initiative needs my attention, I can consult our shared expectations and determine where my efforts can best be focused right now.

2. Identify a relatively simple problem and fix it within the first 90 days. I happen to believe that this is a solid piece of advice. Kevin mentioned this in his comment to my initial post and it has stuck with me. This has nothing to do with showing people up (if it’s so ‘low-hanging’ why didn’t it get fixed before?) or ignoring the root causes behind a problem. I believe the core principle here is that folks need to know that a leader can bring something new to the table and make things happen. Whether we like it or not, all new employees are in a position to explain their reasons for being around. This is even more critical for new executives and leaders.

I like Kevin’s rationale for the importance of this tip: "A quick victory establishes credibility you can bank for bigger things
later on. It buys time you need to research, learn, build longer-term
plans." I have a couple of changes in the pipeline that, when completed, will address a couple of key concerns shared by my staff and make a dramatic impact on their daily work. They probably will take 90 days to complete, but knowing that these issues are important and in the process of being addressed builds my credibility as a leader. If I didn’t do these things, I wouldn’t blame anyone for being suspicious about my abilities and cynical about my intentions.

3. Make yourself invaluable. This tip ties into the previous one and I can see how the language might put someone off. Rather than taking a defensive stance as a way to avoid a layoff or a "reassignment," let’s turn this one around to read: Constantly focus on bringing value to your work. We’re still talking value, but in a more active way. This tip requires us to think of what we bring on a couple of different levels.

One, what unique value do I bring to my organization? We all have talents and it might take some time in the job to figure out which ones are most beneficial to the organization’s core objectives. After a month, I can now see that I provide high value through my philosophy of creating passion-provoking member experiences, my ability to see patterns and apply a systemic mindset to organizational issues, and my belief in the benefits of creating a Soulful Workplace.

Secondly, what value do I want to deliver today? At the beginning of each day, I think about what value I intend to bring throughout the day and then at the end of each day, I reflect on how I did. Sometimes I get it right, sometimes not. In the end, my personal efforts to deliver value are mine to keep. Even if there is a layoff or I decide to move on, I have crafted a portfolio of work that markets myself as valuable.

4. Fit into the firm’s culture. This is a challenge. You want to integrate into the culture, but there are areas where it might be in the organization’s best interests to push back a little. If your new company has a tendency to allow conflicts to fester, a new perspective on confronting interpersonal relationship issues is important. I guess the point is to fit in, but don’t do it blindly.

5. New hires must establish credibility while sharing credit. This connects back to tip #2. Nobody needs a new boss or colleague who immediately comes in, gets things moving, and then pats themselves on the back without sharing the accolades. However, anyone who has read my previous post on being a savior knows that it can be easy for me to slip into a kind of messianic role. I’m working on this.

Thanks again to all commenters and well-wishers who helped me through this first month. Be well.

…but the flesh has been oh so weak. I’ve got all this really good stuff swimming around in my head, but this week has been a wild one for me. Busy, but good in all the right ways.

Look out for some blog posts exploring the nature of commitment and trust and my learnings from what is turning out to be one of the most useful books I’ve read in quite a while, How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work : Seven Languages for Transformation by Robert Kegan & Lisa Laskow Lahey.

And for those of you who read The Custo/Member Experience, I’m working on some ideas around change management, the slippery essence of the personal experience, and some contrarian perceptions of traditional association tactics. And for those of you who worry that it’s turning into an association-focused blog (okay, I’m getting worried about that), don’t fret. I’m in the process of developing some concepts that can easily be applied across for profit and non profit businesses.

Have patience with me. I promise that it will be worth the wait.

I’m doing some reorganizing in my home office and I found a stack of Fast Company magazines. I started looking through them and and discovered that I read only the first half of the May 2005 issue. Toward the end of the issue is an article called God and Mammon at Harvard and discusses how the Divinity School is producing some top level business leaders.

What struck me was the story of Tom Chappell, CEO of Tom’s of Maine, and his soulful path:

[Chappell] had come to the divinity school at age 43, after an aggressive
growth period in his company that had left him emotionally and
spiritually drained. The business was thriving, but he was finding more
emptiness than fulfillment in success, he says. Many entrepreneurs
would argue that when you reach that point, it’s time to flip the
business, buy a sailboat, and travel the world. But Chappell was
haunted by a comment from his pastor’s wife: "What makes you think
Tom’s of Maine isn’t your ministry?" she asked.

We can read ministry in any number of ways (personally, I don’t think the ministry has to be religious), but I think Chappell was being challenged to reconsider and transform himself and his purpose. He was being asked to think about his Soulful Work. I thought about that line a lot today. Some interesting and perplexing issues surfaced at work today that might have caused me to feel discontented and disillusioned with my job role. And yet, I was equally haunted by the notion that my work in my current organization is my own ministry. I believe that my Soulful Work is to encourage a joy-full work attitude, cultivate a positive organizational culture, inspire new leadership qualities in my colleagues,  and strengthen the organization so that it can achieve its core mission.

Do you have a ministry?

Sue at Face2Face has been challenged to give her blog a title transformation. What I dig is how it all came about. She, like me, finds the use of Xtreme in ASAE’s Annual Conference title Xtremely tired and unhip (actually, it all reminds me of that old Simpson’s episode where they try to hip up Itchy and Scratchy by introducing Poochie; not so good idea then, definitely not so good idea now).

Well, a humble reader submitted that Sue’s use of the ’2′ in her blog title was just as old. The really neat part is that she agrees and has risen to the challenge to find something new. She’s opening up the floor to suggestions.

It all just reminded me of the beauty of the blog and the potential for our associations and businesses. All it took was one person to suggest a change to set the wheels in motion. As leaders, can we be open to any and all comments (even those that strike us as xtremely negative…sorry) from our custo/members and consider making changes?

I’ve written before about my dear friend Rosa Say and her book Managing With Aloha. While it is largely intended for organizational managers who want to create vibrant values-based relationships with their staff, I’m beginning to re-read it again from a slightly different perspective.

As an association executive, one of the more challenging relationships we have can be with our volunteer leaders. For instance, there is a different type of connection between executive-volunteer than there is between executive-employee. With the latter, there’s a kind of institutional setup that facilitates an adherence to policies and agreement to action (in other words, you know who to report to and how to get stuff done). On the other hand, in associations the executive understands that the organization “belongs” to the volunteer. That doesn’t mean that the association staff are unimportant and that volunteers make all the decisions. As any association professional will confess, it’s way more complex than that.

Yet, the ability to effectively manage a diverse group of volunteers and member leaders is an essential skill. Enter Rosa’s book and the brief, related Manifesto at ChangeThis. It’s a powerful guide to using some of the best of Hawaii’s values to help recreate the executive-volunteer relationship. There will definitely be more to come.

Don at Leadership. Now. is on a quest to find organizations who ensure "perfection in the work by assuring pleasure in the job." That’s a tall order for organizations to fill, but they’re out there. Do you know of any? If your organization doesn’t come immediately to mind, then ask yourself "why not?"

From a managerial perspective, it’s commonplace to talk about quality and excellence. These are a couple of the characteristics we want our folks to aim for. From an employee perspective, who gives a rat’s behind about those things if the job stinks? If we feel like we’re constantly being taken advantage of by our organization or not being given respect, it’s a kind of difficult to freely give our best.

So, what can we do to assure pleasure in our job and the jobs of our staff? If you don’t know the answer, ask around. I can say that this question will form the basis of my "one-on-ones" with my team this week. I can’t wait to hear the responses.

I’m remembering one of the things that I dislike passionately about associations – the constant dues haggling. Here are just a few of scenarios:

• A member complains that their dues are too high and wants a discount.
• A potential member says he has a handful of people to bring into the association and wants to cut a deal for reduced dues.
• A volunteer leader is trying to develop a more international attendance for a meeting and wants to help non-US prospects join through discounted dues.

On the surface, I think a couple of attitudes drive these requests: the notion of the non-profit as charity and the belief that member growth is always beneficial.

I’m taking a stab at the charity issue. I simply don’t know why folks think non-profits have no regard for their own financial health. Perhaps it’s that term non-profit. What I do know is that it is very hard to get folks to understand that decisions must be put through a financial test and that giving something away works toward an association’s long-term vitality.

The more insidious attitude is that any type of membership growth is good for the association. The problem is that offering discounts on membership is purely a short-term solution. Yes, it may bring in members now, but what does it then say about the overall value of the membership? And here’s the more interesting question: are the members seeking a discount the right type of members for the association? Wouldn’t you rather have a member who wants to pay full price because they believe in the value rather than a member who constantly looks to cut their spending?

The common response is that if you give the member a taste now of all the association has to offer, they’ll undoubtedly come back for more next year. I believe this is not only a vicious myth, but the antithesis of creating a passionate experience. The relationship has been marred from the beginning where the association has essentially stated that we really don’t believe in the value of our own offerings.

Here is my proposition: that associations (and I’m putting my own right at the front of this line) stop looking for just any member to join and start looking for the right member to join. And the first way they can show that they are the right member is to be willing to pay in full for their membership.

Or is that asking for too much?

Wendy at Kinetic Ideas offers a simple, yet powerful suggestion for developing marketing resources: make your marketing solve a problem. Simple, right? Then why do most association brochures present a general litany of here’s who we are, here’s our benefits, here’s what we’re doing, blah, blah. Even most association websites are self-centered vehicles for announcing blah stuff about the organization. In short, it’s all about the association and hardly ever about the person actually holding the brochure or reading the ad or browsing the site.

Point #1 that Wendy makes is that:

People (you and me included) want to know what is in it for them. They are interested in useful ideas, services, and products that make something better in their life. Don’t talk about YOU. Start talking about THEM.

Some sagely advice I received a while back is that an association feature can’t be called a benefit until it you show the member how it benefits them. So, just don’t tell a prospective custo/member that you have a nice, award-winning publication. Connect the dots and help them understand how they can use it to solve a problem they’re facing in their work or life.

Felix Gerena left a comment to an earlier post and referenced his earlier post called The Opportunity To Lead. What I found interesting were his selected quotes from Wilhelm Reich. In particular, they kind of sum up an anxiety I experienced on Monday:

He (the new leader) would
have to forego any temptation to become a leader and to avoid any lure
on the part of people to seduce him into leadership. His first great
task would be to refuse to be a leader.

Such a leader would
immediately sense the danger that threatens to engulf every leader of
people, namely becoming a mere object of admiration and provider of
salvation and hope for the people.

The position I currently hold was vacant for several months. In that time, the department’s staff (which was rather new itself) was working without a managing director. The CEO did a very good job of assisting where needed, but the lack of a director left some critical gaps. So when I entered the picture a few weeks ago, a common refrain I heard from the staff was, "Now that you’re here, everything will be so much better." I had to remind them (and myself) that I was not Superman and definitely not a savior. Yet, sometimes it’s hard for me to push away the idea of leader as organizational messiah: "Follow me and everything will be just fine!" That’s the temptation that Reich writes about above.

Yet, rather than refusing leadership, I believe it’s vital to accept the right kind of leadership. One that doesn’t focus on saving anyone (me-centered), but instead, helps others achieve their best (us-centered). The results are far better and you get to live longer. Nothing wrong with that.

Custo/member loyalty. It seems so logical and obvious to a company’s success, you’d think that more would have embraced this basic concept by now. Sure, most (if not all) companies and associations claim they are customer-centric, but then they do crazy things like shoo them off like flies. The problem seems to stem from a very NOW-concentrated thinking process: got to make those quotas NOW, need to balance the financials NOW, need to bring in more custo/members NOW…

Christopher Carfi at the Social Customer Manifesto highlights FC’s Chuck Salter and his recent experience with Ameritrade. Seems Ameritrade is playing the “jilted girlfriend” with its custo/members by charging a termination fee to those who want out of the relationship. Sound like a familiar tactic in your other custo/member interactions? While banks and wireless providers are the most notorious, associations are just as susceptible of doing this by charging reinstatement fees to lapsed members. Why? Is the thinking that if you make it inconvenient to leave, custo/members will just stick around?

There seem to be two particular problems with this type of strategy:

1. The focus isn’t on learning and building a better tomorrow. Why not try to figure out why Chuck is leaving? What can be improved? Who knows and Ameritrade doesn’t really seem to care. When bottom lines become more important than custo/member relationships, you effectively one of your most vital assets at risk.
2. Why use a stick when a carrot will do better? Why make it punishment to leave when it can be a delight to stay? For associations, could you give your custo/members a reward for renewing early? For companies, could you give your custo/member a discount for loyally buying from you?

Let’s just listen and learn for a change. Isn’t that the foundation for a better relationship, anyway?