It’s that last 10 percent that separates the great from everyone else.

Please enjoy this posting thanks to Mr. Godin, and check out his blog at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Hardly worth the effort

In most fields, there’s an awful lot of work put into the last ten percent of quality.

Getting your golf score from 77 to 70 is far more difficult than getting it from 120 to 113 or even from 84 to 77.

Answering the phone on the first ring costs twice as much as letting it go into the queue.

Making pastries the way they do at a fancy restaurant is a lot more work than making brownies at home.

Laying out the design of a page or a flyer so it looks like a pro did it takes about ten times as much work as merely using the template Microsoft builds in for free, and the message is almost the same…

Except it’s not. Of course not. The message is not the same.

The last ten percent is the signal we look for, the way we communicate care and expertise and professionalism. If all you’re doing is the standard amount, all you’re going to get is the standard compensation. The hard part is the last ten percent, sure, or even the last one percent, but it’s the hard part because everyone is busy doing the easy part already.

The secret is to seek out the work that most people believe isn’t worth the effort. That’s what you get paid for.

Again, thank you for sharing your knowledge Mr. Godin.  I’ve read Seth’s books, and his insight is remarkable.  Take the time to pick them up and read them, you’ll be glad you did.

Matthew Schmitt

This story is absurd, but funny enough is an exact description of how some people manage their daily lives at work.  I was recently in a situation where I was in a training session.  Our global strategy came up in discussion, and many in the room did not know what the points were, or even our main goals.  This struck me as a real issue, and I voiced that issue.  I posed the question to the group, “how do you know that what you’re doing is right?”  I asked, “how, when you take up a task, do you know it’s valuable for our company? Or more importantly, how do you know you’re not getting in the way of the people driving the strategy (shooting the man next to you, so to speak)?  I was shocked to hear the instructor say, “you’ve made a choice to be aggressive and move up, but that’s not for everyone.”  He shot the man next to him, only he wasn’t blindfolded. Totally missed the point (and totally discredited him in my eyes).

Your organizations high level strategy is critical to developing a local strategy. Take for example our nation and it’s focus on the environment. Green initiatives are in focus now.  Our local translation of that strategy is to replace our light bulbs with efficient florescent bulbs, and recycle as much of our waste as possible.  This is the same in our companies.  I’ll say it again; Your organizations high level strategy is critical to developing a local strategy.  Understanding it, and I mean really understanding it, is key to developing your own departmental strategy that drives the high level goals every single day.

I encourage you as you head to work every day, to understand your company or organizations strategy and tie clear lines to what you’re doing every day.  Ask yourself, what am I doing to, not only make the company more successful, but to avoid “shooting” the man next to you as he works hard to drive those goals?

As always, I’m excited to hear your thoughts.  Connect with me on twitter (@matt_schmitt) or subscribe today.  I want to learn more about your viewpoints and ideas.

Working harder vs. being effective is one of the oldest sayings in the book. It almost turns my stomach to hear someone say, “work smarter, not harder”. The reality is that’s mostly true. You must work smarter and harder. You must work harder, be more effective and deliver results. You must do both, and do it better than anyone.

How do you avoid the reactionary situation?  Specific to IT, remember that our job is to leverage the business objectives with our knowledge of technology. To effectively accomplish this, you must understand the business and what it hopes to achieve. Otherwise, you’re just buying expensive toys. Spend as much time as you can gaining an understanding the details of the business and its product and strategy. Like I said in a previous post, in IT our hands are in every part of the business and its strategy (http://goo.gl/KJiO) and we must understand it completely to be successful.

Our job in IT can quickly become completely reactionary in nature. We must change our mindset to be more proactive, involved in the high level strategic direction setting facet of the business for it, and us to be successful. Otherwise, we allow ourselves and our profession to become merely a “tax” on the business. A discretionary spend line item that never leads to success. It’s ultimately in our control as IT leaders. Take the reins and be part of the success rather than a part of the budget. That’s effective. That brings value. That’s working smarter, harder.

As always, I’m interested in hearing your thoughts. Connect with me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/matt_schmitt/ and subscribe today. Let’s discuss your experiences and opinions!

Matthew Schmitt

Related post: http://matthew-schmitt.com/2010/02/12/strategy-no-area-untouched-by-it/

We all want to succeed

We like people who help us succeed.  You will build trust and credibility with your manager when you prove that your goal is to help them succeed.  This doesn’t mean you are a “yes sir” person, always agreeing (more on this below), but rather that your focus is on their success, which is ultimately your organizations success.  When they look good, you’ll look good and you’ll reach your departments objectives as well, developing a reputation of someone who delivers results.

Feed them the right information

I mentioned not being a “yes sir”.  You role is to be a subject matter expert.  It doesn’t matter what the subject is, only that in your role it’s your primary focus.  As such, you have an obligation to ensure that your manager understands what’s important in detail.   I’ve always worked with the understanding that I’ll make sure my manager has all the information, and I’ll fight for what I think is right.  Until they make a decision, I’ll work hard to defend my position as the subject matter expert.  But here’s the key; when your manager makes a decision, forget your opinion because it’s gone and over with.  Never tell people down the road that you thought it was a bad choice, or were fighting for another choice.  Remember, we’re going for trust and credibility, not undermining authority.  Show your manager that you have the guts to fight for what you think is right, and the fortitude to stand at his side even though he went a different direction.

Market them and your company

Never tell people that you don’t like working for them, their stupid or you hate working for them.  Remember, you’re trying to help them succeed, not run them into the ground.  If you talk about them in a negative light, or even bad mouth the company you work for, it’s time to leave and find something new because you’ve torn down the foundation to your career success.  Be an advocate for your organization, your boss and your situation.  If you can’t, update your resume and find somewhere you can.

You don’t need to be close friends with your employer (although that can be nice), but you definitely need to be on the same page, working towards the same goal and objectives.  If you’re fighting against them rather than with them,  you will do damage to your reputation, be worthless to your company and be your own biggest roadblock to success.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.  Subscribe today, and connect with me on Twitter and let’s talk about your experiences.

Matthew Schmitt

Let’s take a moment to examine the recent situation involving Toyota and their malfunctioning automobiles.  Historically, Toyota has been know for, and built a brand on safety and reliability.  It’s been the primary factor in their success in luring away customers from the American brands like Chevrolet and Ford.  But then, the accelerator started sticking in some cars.  There were reports of drivers crashing, flying out of control and not being able to slow down or stop.  People panicked, and Toyota did too.  They blamed the customer; top level management went strangely underground and weak promises of resolutions lacking substance were made by mid-managers.  The entire situation destroyed any semblance of dedication to fixing the issue at any cost.

This should be an educational experience for both businesses and individuals.  How you respond to failure or crisis changes our potential for long term success.  If you’ve failed in some way, or are experiencing a crisis in your career, keep these points in mind.

Own it.

You’ve failed, it’s over now and the dust is starting to settle and everyone is looking at you.  This is probably the most important action you can take.  Stand up straight away and admit your momentary lapse in judgment.  Tell people that you did indeed make the mistake and have a repentant attitude.  Remember, part of what people want is just to know it wasn’t intentional and that you are truly sorry.  They want to blame, but you take away the blame game, and own the mistake.  In a company, this needs to be done as quickly as possible by the leader, the CEO of the company.  Mr. Toyoda learned this lesson rather painfully this year.

Provide direction.

Now you have instilled some trust and shown character in your ownership and willingness to be accountable.  Now provide some direction in how you’ll work towards resolution.  Lay out your plan, and try as best you can to get the right people lined up with you to fix the problem, and make the outcome even better than originally expected.  Show people you’re not done, you’ve learned a lesson and it’s time to drive it to completion and build back the trust.  This might be trust from your boss or coworkers, or like our example, your customers who swore by your product for 10 years only to now consider buying a different car because of something they watched on the news.

Strap in.

That’s right, it’s going to be a grind.  It’s time to examine everything to make sure that you understand where your decision making process broke down.  Take the time to really dig into your thought process and information gathering processes.  You have to help everyone understand the entire scenario that led to this failure or crisis, and how to avoid it moving forward.  It’s time to think about how to avoid this in the future.

Don’t waste it!

You’ve heard the old saying, never waste a good crisis.  This is so true.  You have a newfound willingness to examine yourself and your broken habits and make positive changes.  Now you have removed the blinders that were there from ego or refusal to make an introspective examination of yourself, and can really improve.  Acknowledge this in yourself, and take advantage of it.  Make positive change now, and watch people notice (they’re watching you).

Attack!

You can come out of this stronger than when it started.  People will look at your differently because they’ll remember your strong character and willingness to be accountable not only for the bad decision, but the resolution.  They’ll hold on to your leadership as things improve.  If you are able to make things even better than they were supposed to be in the first place, that will carry even more weight.  It’s time to get on the offensive now, start making up ground and moving forward.  For Toyota, they need a structured plan of attack to reclaim market share, and lay claim to even more.  You better believe Ford and Chevy are on a full on attack of Toyota and their market share, and if you think that your screw up won’t bring your own competition out of the wood work looking to drive down your individual market share in the office, you’re dead wrong.

It’s interesting how you can learn from the crisis in a global corporation and apply some of those same principals to your own reaction to failure in your life.  Take care as these situations unfold, and carefully choose each next step.  They will definitely have a significant impact on your success for years to come after the mistake.  Let me know what you think about this.  Have you had a major crisis in your life that you handled poorly, and learned from?  Perhaps you handled one beautifully, and learned from that?  I’d love to hear about it here in the form of a comment, or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/matt_schmitt/.  Let’s connect today!

Matthew Schmitt