A few years ago I undertook the task to certify as an EMT-Basic. This involved taking a semester long class at our local college, many hours of clinicals working in the Emergency Department at a local hospital and riding on ambulances, demonstration of skills and the final National Registry certification test. It was a most fascinating and fun six months.

As I got ready for the class, all my EMS friends clued me in on the instructor, Captain V. “Watch out,” one would warn, “he’s a tough one.” “He’s a great guy, but don’t cross him,” another said. “He knows his stuff and teaches well,” said another. I had a feeling, after hearing all the comments, that he was going to be one of those “tough but fair” leaders I had met in my various careers. I was right.

The class required several weekend class sessions, including the very first weekend. This was right when my wife and I were supposed to go out of town for our anniversary, a trip we’d been planning long before I got the class schedule. Capt. V told us we could email him any time we had questions, so I sent him a quick message after the class schedule was posted asking what we were going to cover that weekend and if it would be OK if I missed it. I was a bit nervous about it, given I wasn’t quite sure how he’d react. Thankfully, that first weekend was devoted to getting CPR certification; something I had. He was very nice about my request, but let me know under no circumstances would he let go any class requirements when it came to test time.

Tough but fair – very good.

Over the next several months I got to know this man a little, talking during class breaks and corresponding via email. Over that time I got to know a little bit about a man who was a dedicated public servant (a Firefighter and Paramedic) and one who taught countless people the skills needed to certify as an EMT. It was his dedication to education which had the biggest impact on the communities in our area.

One person can only do so much alone. Sharing skills and teaching others multiplies the effort many times over. If Capt. V saved the life of one person every day of his career, he could never touch the number of lives he may have indirectly saved through his teaching to tough standards and making sure each of his students clearly understood what was at stake each time they cared for a patient.

I remember one person asked why the class was so tough. His answer was quite simple: “You are going to be caring for patients one day. I will not be responsible for having an unqualified person taking care of people in their time of need.”

He was tough and exacting, but he also exemplified servant leadership in the way he made sure everyone got the help they needed to succeed. He brought in other skilled EMTs and Paramedics to help teach classes and offer insights from their experience. Some of those he brought in were interested in teaching themselves. This was another great opportunity to multiply his lifesaving efforts.

Yes, Capt. V is a great example of a leader – out front and blazing the trail for others to follow.

Last week I saw he posted on Facebook he will be retiring from teaching after 25 years. We owe a great debt of gratitude to this man. If you live in Central Texas, chances are someone in whose life he invested may come to your assistance one day. You’ll be glad he was such a fantastic leader if that happens.

Cover Shot of "Read This Before Our Next Meeting"

I hate meetings. Or, rather, I hate what meetings do to productivity. Most meetings are set up to gather facts and data in order to analyze a problem ad nauseum. The worst meetings are those which are held “just because.” When I was in the Army, we had those meetings all the time. Meetings were often used to postpone decisions, as a tool to let the boss show he or she was “boss,” or create an atmosphere which makes everyone look busy when there’s no real work going on.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Boss: Hello, Kevin, are you coming to the meeting I scheduled today?

Kevin: No. I’m trying to wrap up a project I’m working on.

Boss: But I have some information to share with the group.

Kevin: Is John there?

Boss: Yes, he is.

Kevin: Good. If you have anything important to say, he’ll let me know.

In one unit I was part of early in my career, the First Sergeant would have each platoon sergeant and their subordinate squad leaders in his office every morning in order to go over the schedule and tell them what to do. Every day, except Monday which was always Motor Pool day, we would sit in our office and wait for the meeting to finish and someone to come tell us what to do. It was a ridiculous waste of time.

Then, in came the new First Sergeant. On his first day at work, all the usual suspects started filing into his office for the morning meeting. He yelled at them: “Get out of here! If you want to know what to do, read the schedule! It’s posted out in the hallway where it’s always been! If you can’t figure that out, let me know and I’ll find someone who can!” A new era had begun.

Meetings are so ingrained in our culture that some of us may have trouble accepting what Al Pittampalli calls “The Modern Meeting Standard” in Read This Before Our Next Meeting. In his reasoning, a meeting is called only when a decision has already been made in order to either resolve a conflict or to foster complex coordination (which means beyond that which can be done via memo). In this new paradigm, what can be communicated via memo will be – and everyone is required to read memos.

According to Pittampalli, the Modern Meeting …

• … starts on time, moves fast and ends on schedule
• … limits the number of attendees
• … rejects the unprepared
• … produces committed action plans
• … refuses to be informational. Reading memos is mandatory
• … works only alongside a culture of brainstorming.

Brainstorming is different than a “meeting.”

The main goal in changing how we do meetings is to quit wasting time and get to doing more productive work. Can you abandon the old ways of meeting and try a new thing? Check out Read This Before Our Next Meeting by Al Pittampalli and see if you agree The Modern Meeting Standard is the way to go. Like many other Domino Project works, it’s a quick read, goes straight to the point and doesn’t waste any time – just like the Modern Meeting it describes.

I received a copy of this book free from GoToMeeting by Citrix, however it is my honest opinion of the work.

All links to the book are Amazon Affiliate links.

I recently wrote a piece directed at marketers reminding them that it is important to keep their IT folks in the loop all the time. This is important so they can get the best advice, counsel and work the IT folks can offer. It’s a topic I talk and write about quite often.

As is usually the case, there is another side to the coin. The IT folks have to be willing to communicate as well.

As in any relationship, the one between Marketing and IT is a two-way street. Each side has to be willing to work with the other and offer the best they have to the relationship. Each side has abilities and strengths the other lacks. By combining skills, knowledge and efforts, the entire organization benefits.

It goes without saying that Marketing and IT have different missions within an organization. But, where those missions overlap, it is in each groups’ best interest to cooperate for the good of everyone. Sometimes this involves compromise and sacrifice. Isn’t that true in any relationship?

Here’s my challenge to my IT counterparts in 2012: Reach out to your Marketing colleagues and try to find meaningful ways you can help them succeed. Look at their business objectives and see if you can find ways to help meet them. Not only will you learn more and expand your horizons, you will help the whole business do better. And that, my friends, is what it’s all about.

What say you? Are you in a corporate IT group and have a good relationship with your Marketing counterparts? What kinds of things help the relationship? Please feel free to share any tips in the comments.

photo credit: mikecogh

I recently had a great chat with a younger person who was looking for advice about opportunities which had presented themselves. It was great to talk to someone with great passion about what they do and where they want their career to go. I was also quite flattered I was asked for wise counsel.

It also reminded me of the importance of the Mentor/Peer/Mentor relationship and how that can fit into our professional (and personal) life.

You Need A Mentor
Let’s face it: none of us are perfect. As much as we’d like to think we know everything and are wise beyond our years, the truth is we don’t and we should constantly be looking for opportunities to learn. This is where a mentor comes in. Find someone who knows more about your business and business in general and ask them to be your mentor. If they are a servant leader, all the better. This person should be someone who’s willing to ask you tough questions and challenge you in various areas. Schedule a time once a month or so to buy them lunch and chat about what’s going on.

You Need Peers
Friends are very important. Spending time with those whom we have things in common is not only enjoyable, it’s necessary. We need people we can laugh with, cry with, and blow off steam to. Find friends who challenge you intellectually and otherwise. This group should also include those who are willing to hurt your feelings for your own good.

You Need To Mentor Someone Else
A true servant leader is one who makes sure those he or she leads are equipped to succeed at the job they’re in now, and also the job they will move to next. While it’s true you don’t know everything, you know more than some. Be willing to mentor others and pay it forward. There are many young, hungry minds out there who need to learn what you already know. Also, one of the biggest challenges in any business is succession. Spend time developing the leaders who will be in charge when you retire. Don’t wait – start doing this now!

You may already have these three groups in your life. If you do, that’s great! If you don’t, however, start making plans to get these people into your life soon. Everyone benefits when we have mentors, peers and “mentees” in our lives.

I had Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” (Amazon affiliate link) as my ear worm today – the title of this post is inspired by it.

This past Thursday’s PubCon keynote was a panel discussion between Topher Konan (CNN.com’s SEO Coordinator), Jeff Preston (SEO Manager for Disney) and Alex Bennert (In-House SEO for the Wall Street Journal). It was quite a lively talk about different issues facing in-house SEOs in large organizations.

One stand out comment was Jeff’s mention that everyone involved in the web efforts need to be at every meeting. His comment was very well received by the people in attendance. I was certainly glad to hear him say it, as that idea is something very important to me. It’s something which I stressed during my In-House SEO presentation on Tuesday. In the context of my talk, it was about the importance of marketers being constantly in touch with their IT counterparts.

What I said was something  like …

“If you treat your IT folks as an afterthought, guess what? They’ll treat you as an afterthought.”

Constant and consistent communication is important for several reasons:

• It helps maintain lines of communication which can otherwise get lost
• It helps build those relationships needed for smooth cooperation
• Both sides of the team learn from each other
• Both sides of the team learn each other’s abilities, strengths and weaknesses
• It makes working life just that much more pleasant

Remember that web marketing success means success for the entire organization. Although you may not see the need to communicate across departments on a consistent basis, that need is there. Keep in contact, even when you don’t feel like it. Make time to talk to those who have a hand in all pieces of your web marketing strategy, no matter how small their role may be. In the long run, everyone wins when you do.

Oh, and this applies to outside contractors, too!

Once again, PubCon is upon us. This time next week I and two of my colleague will be winging our way to Las Vegas for this excellent web marketing event. It’s going to be a busy time of learning and exchanging ideas.

If you’re a Crossing reader and will be at PubCon, I would love to meet you. If you see me wandering the hallways or in a session, please stop and introduce yourself. Here’s my partial tentative agenda:

Monday

• I’ll be at the kickoff event at 5:30pm. This is a great time to meet new people in a social setting.

Tuesday

• I will be presenting as part of the In-House Team Building and Training session at 2:55 in Salon D. This will be a great panel with some luminaries in this area: Tony Adam, Peter Leshaw and Josh Gampel.
• In the evening I’ll be playing in the Raven Tools poker tournament. Thankfully this is just for “funsies” because I am not that great of a poker player

Wednesday

• After all the day’s festivities, I’ll be participating in the Epic Dinner organized by Alan Bleiweiss.

Thursday

• From 2pm until 3pm I’ll be sitting in on PubCon Labs. This is a new feature of PubCon which I think will be a huge hit. Session speakers will be at a table and will sit down with you and answer your questions. Reservations are going fast. I’m scheduled to cover Beginning SEO, but I don’t think anyone would mind if you wanted to talk about In-House issues or anything else web marketing.
• From my Labs session, I’ll be rushing over to Salon G to moderate a session entitled Engaging Your Community and Audience Through Contests with Matt Craine and Lisa Buyer
• Fest Call! At 7pm we’ll be having an informal and unofficial meetup at the Hofbrauhaus. Anyone is welcome to attend, but I’d especially like to invite Veterans of the Armed Services to come out and tell lies and talk web marketing.

Instead of posting a long summary of the sessions I attend at the end of the day, I’m going to try posting summaries of each session individually. I think this will be more efficient for me and easier to read for you.

What say you? Are you headed to PubCon next week? What do you hope to learn? Please feel free to share in the comments.

Some ideas I got from the Stump The Nerds panel at BlogathonATX with Jeremy Arntz, Jackie Dana and Pat Ramsey. They were taking questions on techie topics relating to blogging and other web sites.

• While all blog platforms have great features and are easy to set up, a self-hosted WordPress install gives you many more options, there are a lot more themes to choose from, and you have a lot of control over your site.
• Cloud hosting is good if you want to scale to more memory, disk space and processor power
• Use Akismet is a great plug-in for catching comment spam. It’s worth signing up for a WordPress.com account to get an API key
• Analytics is easy and important. Google Analytics is a good option
• Use Regenerate Thumbnail plugin for WordPress to automatically resize thumbnails when you redesign your site.
• Use a cache plugin to speed up your download times. W3TotalCache is a good option
• Nextgen Gallery is a great plugin if you display a lot of images
• Don’t forget a social media sharing plug in to help readers share your site
• Don’t go crazy downloading plugins, if you get too many plugins your site’s performance will take a hit. Plus, there’s more updates to keep track of and more chances for problems
• A good category structure can benefit your SEO more than tags. Don’t forget the basics like good content and titles, too
• Tags are very handy for plugins that display related stories with a post
• Learning CSS, PHP and HTML are very important. Especially if you try to get help from a developer. You should have a sense of what’s going on – it’ll save you time and money in the long run
• Backups are very important. This is especially true if you try to hack some code yourself. It’s nice to be able to roll back changes if you mess something up
• Don’t install a plugin just because you think it’s cool. Install it only if you have a real need for the functionality it offers
• Is SEO important for the personal blogger? It is if you want people to read your blog. But, not every blog will be successful. If no one is interested in what you right about, all the SEO in the world will help it. Consider tweaking your content or changing your format
• Make sure to delete old plugins and themes you no longer use
• Make sure to use a good strong password. That’s your first line of defense against hacking. Also, avoid using “Admin” for the admin user name. (I wrote a post about creating strong passwords a while back: Four Steps To Better Passwords - you might find it helpful)

The other day I had a great conversation with someone about leadership. He mentioned that it was frustrating to work for a leader who felt they were “entitled.” He described this as someone who, when they achieve a certain leadership rank, feel that they can just lord it over the people under them and don’t have to get their hands dirty. In other words, the opposite of a servant leader.

This reminded me of a certain young lieutenant I had some run-ins with while working in Germany. I was in charge of the orderly room at the time, acting as the company commander’s assistant. One afternoon, this newly-minted young officer appeared at my desk with orders in hand.

I took his paperwork and got him checked in. He asked to see the commander, which was a natural request for someone just arriving at a new unit. I told him that, because the commander was working on a project which required his immediate attention, I would make him an appointment for him to report first thing the next morning. Young Lieutenant “Jones” didn’t appreciate that and was rather vocal about it. I was calm and respectful, but told him in no uncertain terms that I was following the Captain’s instructions and that he could report in the morning.

I had a few more run-ins with this young man, who seemed to think he was “all that and a bag of chips:”

• One day he came into my office and dropped on my desk a large stack of pages ripped from a legal pad. He told me that they were part of a report he was working on and that I needed to have it typed and returned to him by 3pm that afternoon. I offered to let him use the typewriter in my office, since it was much quieter than the one he shared with four others. He declined and insisted that it was my job to type for him. I let him know that I wasn’t the company “typing dude” (though I may have expressed it a little more salty than that) and that he was responsible for his own work. When he tried to pull rank on me, I reminded him that I worked for the guy with two bars, and he only had one. Unless the guy with two bars told me to do something, it didn’t get done. He got someone else to type it.
• The unit we were a part of dealt a lot with radio communication. Among my other duties, I was the subject matter expert on radio theory and radio wave propagation and was often called upon to teach classes related to those subjects. Lieutenant Jones knew next to nothing about such things, and came to ask for help. I invited him to come to my home for dinner, after which I would give him a crash course on radio-related matters. He ate dinner, and promptly fell asleep on my couch. After trying to wake him a couple times so we could work on our lesson, I gave up and let him doze. He woke up just around the time I wanted to go to bed and wanted to continue the lesson. I declined, which didn’t make him too happy. I offered to have him come over another evening, but never took me up on it.
• One day he was in my office waiting for an appointment with the commander, who was running a little behind schedule. I don’t know what got him going on the subject, but he was lamenting the fact that most enlisted soldiers were not educated past high school and this was a handicap to the modern Army. I was rather incensed and felt I should put him in his place (gently and respectfully, mind you). I pointed out to him:
• That I had just completed my Associate Degree
• My assistant had a Bachelor Degree in English Literature
• The Training NCO was only a few credits short of his Bachelor Degree
• The young man working in the arms room was working on his MBA
• One of the squad leaders in his platoon as just completed his Masters in International Relations from, of all places, the Army War College (and it was very rare for an enlisted person to even get into that school).
• Most of the other people in the unit had at least some post-high school education

I don’t want to make it sound like I had constant trouble with this guy. He wasn’t really a bad person, nor really a bad officer. He just didn’t “get it” that he was part of a team in the place as leader and not someone who was there to order everyone about because he was better than they were. His position was one of authority, but the respect he needed to effectively use that authority needed to be earned over time.

A few years later I had a conversation with someone who worked for Lieutenant Jones. My friend related to me that at some point young Jones realized he wasn’t doing very well and asked a couple of the more experienced sergeants in his platoon to help him out. This time, he listened to them, learned from them and went on to be very successful.

I was glad to hear that. Many a young leader (in the military or in business) don’t take such lessons to heart and they struggle throughout their careers because of it.

What say you? Have you run into a leader like this? Perhaps you’ve been one yourself – how did you learn to change your way of thinking? Please feel free to share in the comments.

Who am I and what am I doing here?

That’s a question which has been asked since people first started walking the Earth. Religious leaders and philosophers have been trying to answer it for probably just as long. Perhaps it can’t be answered except in personal reflection.

But, that depends on context. In the context of the “Big Question” it, perhaps, cannot be answered. However, in the context of your team, it certainly can – and must be answered. In many organizations, it’s answered by a good mission statement.

If you run your business strictly on the premise that you want to make money, I believe you are doing it wrong. While it is important for businesses to make money, it can’t be their only reason for existing. There has to be a bigger purpose, a larger calling, a higher calling. The members of your team need something they can look to and identify with. They need something to give them a reason to come to work when they’re having a bad day, something they can look to and say, “This is why I’m here.” Motivation by cash alone isn’t going to do that.

I think it’s better to have a short, memorable phrase, but it can be a little longer. Regardless, it needs to be simple and easy to communicate. If it is longer, you can have a shorter “Catch Phrase” version which will help team members remember the longer one.

Check out some of these mission statements, some are better than others:

• Fortune 500 mission statements on missionstatements.com
• Zappos Family Core Values is kind of like the Ten Commandments of Excellence

One of the better ones I found in my personal career was that told by former CEO of Wilsonart International, Bill Reeb:

Serve the Customer, Serve the Enterprise, Serve People

There was a longer version which explained what the three points meant. But this summary was short, easy to understand and easy to remember. It’s really quite good.

Keep in mind: you can’t just have a snappy, catchy mission statement alone. It needs to reflect the purpose and culture of your organization. It also needs to be truthful and honest. If your mission statement isn’t those things it becomes merely a catch-phrase and, ultimately, a joke.

Now, you leaders who work for a company with a good mission statement: you’re not off the hook. Your team needs one, too. Within the larger context of the company mission statement, you need to have one for your team. Again, it’s something they can look to to help them find their sense of purpose in the larger scheme of things. It’s your job to help them “find themselves” in the context of their work on your team.

What say you? Have you found any particularly good (or particularly bad) missions statements in your career? What do you think about the mission statement, is it important? Please feel free to share in the comments.

For a time in my Army career, I worked in an office a dozen with or so others. We were split into three teams, and each team was assigned a vehicle and trailer to use if we were ever called to deploy somewhere. On my particular team, A Staff Sergeant was the Non-commissioned Officer in Charge (NCOIC), I was the Assistant NCOIC, and there were two others. A Warrant Officer was in charge of all three teams. Monday was set aside for the Motor Pool. We’d show up early in the morning, operator manuals in hand, and go over the truck, trailer and other equipment assigned to our team to make sure everything was working properly.

The Incident
On one particular Monday, my team had all four people working on our stuff, while another team, which was assigned the truck parked next to ours in the motor pool, only had one person. While it was easy enough for one person to do all the checks, it would take longer than if two or three were doing the work. Four people tended be the point of diminishing returns, since everyone would start getting in each other’s way. So, when the lone person working on the next team’s truck asked for a little assistance with his equipment checks, I readily agreed. After all, it is a lot easier to check turn signals and bright lights with two people.

It took me all of five minutes to help out my friend, and then I turned my attention back to my team’s truck as one of the new guys was having trouble getting the radio antenna mounted properly. As I finished up showing him the finer points of safety wire twisting, the Staff Sergeant tapped me on the shoulder. As I turned, she proceeded to lambaste me for helping the person on the other team. She chewed me out good, ending up our “chat” with a warning to never help that team again.

I was rather taken aback. She was reading me the riot act in front of everyone there. I was embarrassed, for myself and for her. Even people working on vehicles on the other side of the motor pool stopped what they were doing and stared. Trying to maintain my military bearing, I merely said, “Yes, Sergeant, if that’s the way you want to do things.” Inside, though, I was extremely upset.

There were two things wrong here:

1. She handled her talk to me totally wrong. First, except in extreme emergencies, one leader should never dress down another leader in front of the team. This kind of thing is best handled in private. And, remember the whole, “Praise in public and correct in private” thing? Yeah, she totally missed the boat on that one.
2. Even though we were on different teams, we all did work in the same office and had the same officer over all of us. It seemed strange that she would object to me helping anyone, let alone someone who was “family.” Although I understood her perspective that we needed to tend to our business first, I didn’t agree with it in this situation. After all, one day, one of our team might be alone in the motor pool on Monday and need some help. A little good karma can go a long way.

I waited until we were about to break for lunch and quietly asked the Staff Sergeant to speak in private around the corner of a nearby building. When we got there I told her, very calmly, that I understood her position and would follow her instructions even though I didn’t agree with them. I also let her know in no uncertain terms that I didn’t appreciate at all how she handled the situation and that I would appreciate a little professional courtesy next time she felt she needed to correct me about my activities; and, to do so in private away from the rest of the team. When I was done, we parted ways and I went to lunch.

Little did I know that the Warrant Officer in charge of our office followed us around the corner of the building. He was standing behind me the whole time I was talking to her. I later found out he lambasted her for lambasting me. While I don’t care much for revenge, it was nice to learn I wasn’t off the mark thinking she was in the wrong in this case. Later, he confirmed that in his eyes I had handled the situation correctly.

Business Lesson
It’s important that members of your team trust your leadership. One way to lose that trust very quickly is to “lord” over them and dress them down in front of everyone. As a leader you do need to correct improper behavior and make sure everyone is following the plans you communicate to them. But, this needs to be done with tact and in private rather than in a shouting tirade in front of everyone.

What Say You?
Have you ever had a situation like this happen to you? How did you handle it? Would you have done things differently than I did? Please feel free to share in the comments.

photo credit: gideon_wright