That being said, I’m going to presume that most of you who are reading this post are not working in factories or painting curbs, though I am certainly not intending to imply that there is anything wrong with those professions. If your job requires even the slightest bit of rudimentary cognitive skill, then you really ought to watch this short whiteboard adaption of Dan Pink‘s talk at the RSA and learn why you care more about autonomy, mastery, and purpose than you do about monetary incentives.

[No video? Click here to view on YouTube.]

Pretty inspiring. So, how are you going apply this to your job or company?

– Ryan

For your convenience, I’ve bolded John’s questions:

Tell me about your work and company? What is it that you do?

I am responsible for leading key business development and marketing functions at Übermind, including development and management of strategic partnerships, marketing strategy, social media/web marketing, and marketing communications.

In addition, my team oversees Übermind’s Mobile Strategy offering, which enables our clients to uncover and explore the many opportunities made possible by today’s mobile and social software.

Übermind is in an interesting, fast-moving industry. We’re a full-service software engineering firm and leading app developer for the iPad, iPhone, and Android platforms. We have developed and continue to maintain some of the world’s most acclaimed applications, spanning a wide array of industries and platforms.

In the context of your business leadership, how do you define success? Failure?

My gut reaction is to say, “I don’t cater to a strict definition.”

Though it may sound cavalier, my response stems from my desire to avoid any mental preoccupation or obsession with defining success or failure — especially failure. What I mean is that I try to learn from feedback, but at the same time, resist the urge to convert it into self absorption — either being overly focused on critical feedback or too self-absorbed with the positive. Moving towards one of the poles is unhelpful.

Tell me more about these poles?

Leaders are at the helm, and thus, are often pressured to classify the success or failure of their leadership endeavors in this spectral manner. The method appears sound at a first; we make choices, choices produce outcomes, and outcomes are then measured against what we thought would produce an ideal outcome.

Unfortunately, measuring success in a linear fashion is not only unrealistic, but it is amazingly unproductive. This is true for all leaders, but is most germane to young business leaders who, in my view, are in a much more ambiguous environment than their senior-level counterparts.

In an effort to measure success, the spectrum paradigm wrongfully assumes a universally agreed upon definition of success and failure, and it holds a leader’s decisions to the near-term results, completely ignoring the long-term, and ultimately, greater impact of those decisions.

Short-term analysis of success can be extremely detrimental to an up-and-coming leader; it focuses their attention on a single point rather than a strong, long-term success vector.

I hear you resisting a linear definition of success and failure, so what do you mean by a long-term success vector?

Here’s an example — salient to my industry — that illustrates the concept of a long-term success vector.

In the late ’90s, if we were to compare Microsoft to Apple, it would be laughable to think that Apple would ever be able to realistically go head-to-head with Microsoft and be “winning” the battle in the consumer software industry. Back then, those two companies were headed down very different roads and it would be easy to say that Microsoft was the success and Apple the failure.

Fast forward to present day where Apple — with its still small 6–8 percent share of the personal computer market — has eclipsed the Redmond-based giant in terms of value (valued at $222.12 billion and $219.18 billion respectively). Give them another 10 years and the tables could be turned again, though I’m not betting on it.

Generally speaking, measuring profitability is an obvious method for determining the success or failure from past to present. But leadership is not purely a “past-to-present” endeavor. It’s what a leader does next that matters.

But shouldn’t leaders be held accountable for their decisions?

Absolutely… I am not arguing against measurement but for right measurement. Here is what I mean:

Rather than a dot on a line, leadership, to me, is more like the variance of my heading towards the intended destination. Sure, I admit the analogy is, perhaps, somewhat cliché. Apropos, every leader has his or her own unique vision for where, and how, they will lead other people. I want “northeast,” you may want “northwest,” and even though we have different headings, we are all striving to stay on course.

If the term “on course” sounds ethereal and vague, well, it is. To some leaders, existence is solely about profit margin; others see ethics and culture as paramount. To me, my primary concerns are:

• Am I being a good steward of the resources that have been entrusted to me?
• Am I helping others around me develop into better people and reach their goals?
• Am I pursuing business opportunities that I have been able to identify because of my unique gifts and talents?
• Are my personal morals and values reflected in the way I approach my responsibilities? Co-workers? Good days? Bad days? The competition?
• Am I growing and/or improving professionally and personally?

The analogy of a compass heading is a helpful reminder to avoid adhering to a myopic view of time. If a business leader were to direct his or her company in a vector that negatively affects profit in the short-term but yields a harvest far greater than those of its competitors in the long-term, can we truly say that the leader both failed and succeeded?

My aim is to experience as little divergence from my heading as possible but also come to terms with the fact that failure is going to happen – probably more than I realize. When the needle sways, a true leader must humbly take up the charge to make things right.

We all must find the courage to heed those undeniable “tugs” from the Spirit on our heart, which implore us to be the type of leader we somehow know that we were designed to be.

What gives you courage to face failure? Who taught you to approach failure this way and how did they model it for you?

As Christians, we love to explore, discuss, and even debate (though I often find debate more hurtful than helpful), but thankfully there are verses in the Bible that require neither deep discussion nor provoke heated argument. In terms of not being afraid of failure, I think to the Gospel of Mark when Jesus counseled, “Do not fear; only believe.” (Mark 5:36).

It’s easier said than done, but in times when believing is truly difficult, my prayer is simply, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”

At the end of each day, I cannot help but to reflect on all the choices I made — professionally and personally — and the outcomes that followed. I find the greatest sense of joy on the days that I listened to my heart, believed what I heard to be truth, and then exercised my unique skills and abilities to act on my heart’s intuition.

Thanks for taking the time to read this interview – I’d love to hear any of your thoughts on anything of the questions or answers above!

– Ryan

Interview

• Carol Bartz (CEO, Yahoo)
• Robert Herbold (Managing Director, Herbold Group)

Carol Bartz: “Hire for talent, fire for fit.”

- it’s tempting to hang on to people who are good at what they do but do not fit the culture – you need to let them go

Carol Bartz: “Listening”

- be a good listener, you’ll be able to ‘see’ what people are really trying get from you / tell you

- as a manager in the 70′s-80′s, we’re taught to not dig into peoples personal lives as managers – this doesn’t work for me

- you need to know people well enough that you can read their body language

- don’t assume that you’ll be able to diagnose a problem in the first go around

- honesty is critical, regardless of the cost

Robert Herbold (moderator): Suppose you’re running a company and a top person in a crucial area quits, what traits do you look for in someone to replace them?

Carol Bartz:

- look for competence

- “I have a rule with CFOs: if she can’t make it through, then she gets ride of them

- look for personality

- look for energy

- avoids senior people looking for their “swan song”

Robert Herbold (moderator): If you think about leaders you’ve met or teachers you’ve had, which ones stick in your mind and why and what were the lessons or teachings?

Carol Bartz:

- watch people, take pieces / styles from each

- notice / pay attention to what you would do- notice / pay attention to what you wouldn’t do

- learned how to get things done from her grandmother (story about killing a snake)

- find people who will tell you where you’re not doing a good job, but you have to be ready to hear it

- learn when to when to stop talking up

Robert Herbold (moderator): I think business schools focus too much on ‘team work,’ teaching consensus rather than true team work. Students do not learn how to think individually. Your thoughts?

Carol Bartz:

- [Carol gave an example from career] “Share responsibility is not working, let’s go back to command and control.

- [This is the reply she received from Steve] “Sounds great, Carol, except for the fact you’ll have to be right all the time.”

Panel Discussion

• Carol Bartz (CEO, Yahoo)
• Robert Herbold (Managing Director, Herbold Group)
• Dorrit Bern (former CEO, Charming Shoppes)
• Charles Hill (Foster School of Business management professor)

Dorrit Bern: How do you balance strategic and tactical?

Carol Bartz:

- just like anything, the word balance is the problem with that question

- there are times when there is a firestorm, if you’re not working on the firestorm it doesn’t matter what the strategy is

- tempting to get in the moment and not have a path out there to follow

- there will always be people who love the longterm thinking, not perturbed with what’s going around them; find these people, place them in various groups because they will keep you going down the right path

- 5-year plans are hard, I don’t like them

- you have to be able to throw out a plan and adapt to a new one

- longterm plans are especially hard in tech

Charles Hill: You come in as CEO, to a pivotal, highly visible company that is hitting roadblocks – how do you craft vision?

Carol Bartz:

- spent 5 weeks in 45 minute sessions with employees

- [Carol would ask] “What would you do? What would you like me to do?”

- at the end of every meeting, I asked the employe I was meeting with who else in the company they thought I should talk to

- it was a bit presumptuous of me, but you met great people this way

- this helped to find the battles in the organization

- one of the key issues was that decisions were not being made at Yahoo

- I wanted to make a couple quick decisions to shake people up

- started doing a Friday message, kept it going, received amazing feedback

- one of the most important things was to define Yahoo after Microsoft took over search – employees needed to feel good again- did things to raise moral internally

Robert Herbold: Did you do similar things at Autodesk to build employee moral? One of the challenges as a leader is to get the ‘message’ out, especially before others.

Carol Bartz:

- birthday breakfasts and ‘coffee with Carol’ were important

- company meetings- there was much more structured than there is now

- worse today because bloggers are blasting into companies, employees hear those messages

- as a leader, you have to repeat the message until it comes back at you (from employees)

- I have this slogan, “Fail Fast Forward” — failure is acceptable, identify it quickly, and hopefully it’s a forward motion

- “sloganize” things to help people remember

- “The biggest mistakes you make are the things you didn’t do.”

Carol Bartz: Change is a muscle, if you don’t exercise it, then you don’t have it.

- Jerry (former Yahoo CEO) wasn’t married and would constantly reorganize the company (Yahoo) around the holidays

- it’s crucial to determine what has to stay stable and what has to change

Dorrit Bern: Culture is one of my favorite words. As a new CEO you are exposed to a new culture; how do you embrace it, modify, collect it, erase it, etc.?

Carol Bartz:

- it’s like having a teenager, you have to pick your battles

- all the little things that bother you don’t matter- focus on what’s important, making decisions, and moving fast

Charles Hill: What are some tricks to develop talent and confront weak performance?

Carol Bartz:

- strong performers self select – they volunteer, they lead, etc.

- you have to be brutal / direct with under-performers

- when management does not take action with under-performers, it creates dissent with good employees

- one of the things I do well is that I naturally attract people in all levels of the company to come to talk to me; the most amazing people seek me out and I make sure to ask what they would like to tell me

- people who have the moxy to have an idea, come up four levels to me rather than talk to their manager

Q&A: Personal life – what do you do to get past personal issues?

Carol Bartz:

- with work, for example, when the site goes down, I remind people it’s just a site

- ‘work / life balance’ is not balance, balance is being able to adjust- set expectations with family, leave room to surprise them

- don’t put pressure on yourself – oughta, coulda, shoulda, etc.

- don’t be so important with yourself – learn to laugh

Q&A: How much time do you pit into ‘people development’ at work?

Carol Bartz:

- formal is good, but the day-to-day personal development is more important

- I stopped annual reviews at Yahoo – instead, I sent out an email once a quarter asking if people had a meaningful conversation with their manager this quarter

- it’s the ‘everyday’ that makes people feel special

Q&A: What do you do to develop employees who are longterm thinkers?

Carol Bartz:

- start with someone whose thinking is productive

- don’t give longterm thinkers a day-to-day job

- it’s like sales, you have accounts your trying to break into, there is different compensation plan

- you’ll never be happy doing something you hate, everyone needs to find a role that fits

Q&A: What advice do you have for you job-seekers?

Carol Bartz:

- companies are looking for people who are energized by their job, who think, who like to learn

- if your are an interested person you’re an interesting person

I hope you found my notes helpful; as always, if you have any questions please be sure to let me know.

– RP

It’s short. It’s thoughtful. It’s right.

If you’re unable to see the embedded video above, click here to watch it on YouTube.

– RP

Although I would love to share all the impactful thoughts and moving stories from Gary’s address, there are a few cities that have yet to attend their upcoming IJM Benefit Dinner and I’d hate to take anything away from the experience of hearing Gary in person. However, there is one quote in particular that has lingered on my mind and heart, which I cannot help but to share…

Those of us who have freedom are responsible for those who don’t.

In its truth and simplicity, that statement demands my generosity. Does it demand yours?

Even though I support IJM, I am not inferring that you have to (though you can here). However, knowing what you know about human trafficking, can you really be “okay” with ignoring the surge of generosity you are undoubtedly feeling? It’s your choice as to whether you will be generous with your time, your skills, or your resources, but either way, I hope you seriously contemplate and decide to do something to help eradicate human trafficking.

– RP

Marty Neumeier‘s ZAG is my kind of book. Diagrams, large font, well-designed page layout. Though I am notorious for starting books and never finishing them, ZAG is digestible enough to knock out in a single sitting (okay, maybe two).

ZAG takes a “whiteboard overview” approach to explaining the process of creating a successful (or, at the very least, impactful) brand for your company and/or product(s) through identifying opportunities to differentiate. Or, as Neumeier would put it:

When focus is paired with differentiation, supported by a trend, and surrounded by compelling communications, you have the basic ingredients of a ZAG.

Simple, right?

In an attempt to lure you into reading the book, below you’ll find the 17-step process for “zagging” with a few of my own notes that I am in the process of using to better define my company’s brand, as well as the brand of a few of our offerings.

There are a lot of steps, so I’ll be signing off here. Happy reading!

– RP

ZAG BRAND DESIGN: 17-STEP PROCESS

I’ll take this opportune moment to declare that I have totally plagiarized the vast majority of the following content. Ahhh… I feel so much better.

1/ WHO ARE YOU?

Questions:

• Where do you have the most credibility?
• Where do you have the most experience?
• Where does your passion lie?

Action Items:

• Write a future obituary for your brand

Notes:

• The first step in building a brand is to look inside and see where the raw energy will come from
• “White space has little value without the experience, credibility, and passion needed to fuel success…”

2/ WHAT DO YOU DO?

Questions:

• What business are you in?

Action Items:

• Decide what your purpose is, beyond selling a product / service
• State your purpose in 12 words or less (e.g. Coca-Cola: “To refresh the world.”)

Notes:

• Core purpose is the fundamental reason your company exists beyond making money

3/ WHAT’S YOUR VISION?

Questions:

• What do you want to accomplish in 5, 10, and 20 years?
• How can you make this vision palpable and exciting?

Action Items:

• Paint a vivid picture of your future
• Test it on a real piece of communication
• Go back and refine it further
• Use it repeatedly to illustrate the direction of your business

Notes:

• True vision leads to commitment rather than compliance, confidence rather than caution
• Without a clearly drawn vision, it’s dangerous to empower people

4/ WHAT WAVE ARE YOU RIDING?

Questions:

• What trend is powering your business?
• How powerful is it?
• Can you ride more than one trend at a time?

Action Items:

• Make a list of trends that will power your success

Notes:

• When you look under the hood of a high-performance brand, you almost always find it’s powered by a trend
• Trends are the tides that lift all boats

5/ WHO SHARES THE BRANDSCAPE?

Questions:

• Who else competes in your category?
• Who comes first, second and third in customers’ minds?

Action Items:

• Find out how your brand ranks with customers
• Design a strategy to become number one or two
• Or, become the first mover in a new category

Notes:

• “ZAGGING” requires that a company define itself by what makes it unique, not what makes it admirable.”

6/ WHAT MAKES YOU THE “ONLY”?

Questions:

• What’s the one thing that make your brand different and compelling?

Action Items:

• Complete a simple “onliness” statement
• Add detail and pinpoint your “onliness” by answering “What, How, Who, Where, When, Why”

Notes:

• Our brand is the ONLY [category; e.g. frozen pizza] that [describe your ZAG; e.g. tastes like Naples]
• If you can’t say you’re the “only,” go back and start over
• “Notice the detail yielded by this format. You not only get the category (WHAT) and the pinpoint (HOW), but you also get the segment of audience (WHO), narrow your market geography (WHERE), focus on a need state (WHY), and define the underlying trend (WHEN).”

7/ WHAT SHOULD YOU ADD OR SUBTRACT?

Questions:

• What existing brand elements are undermining your onliness?
• What new brand elements could strengthen your onliness?
• How do the remaining elements align with your vision?

Action Items:

• Make a list of all current and planned offering and brand elements
• Decide which offerings to keep, sacrifice, or add
• Be brutal – it’s better to err on the side of sacrifice

Notes:

• Brand alignment is the practice of linking your business strategy to customer experience, aligning all your company behaviors behind a clearly articulated ZAG
• Prune back the brand to its core meaning by removing unaligned elements
• If adding an element to your brand brings you into competition with a stronger competitor, think twice

8/ WHO LOVES YOU?

Questions:

• Who makes up your brand community?
• How can you manage the “gives and gets” so everyone’s happy?

Action Items:

• Diagram your brand’s ecosystem
• Decide how each participant will contribute and benefit

9/ WHO’S THE ENEMY?

Questions:

• Which competitor can you paint as the bad guy?

Action Items:

• Tell your customers what your not, in no uncertain terms

Notes:

• Sometimes the enemy is the old way of doing things

10/ WHAT DO THEY CALL YOU?

Questions:

• Is your name helping or hurting your brand?
• If it is hurting, is there an opportunity to change it?
• If it is too late to change it, is there a way to work around it?
• Is it suitable for brandplay? Does it have creative “legs”?

Action Items:

• Choose a name that is different, brief, appropriate
• Make sure it is easy to spell and pronounce
• Find out if the name can be used as a URL
• Determine how easy or difficult it will be to legally defend

Notes:

• View ZAG naming tips here

11/ HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN YOURSELF?

Questions:

• What is the one true statement you can make about your brand?

Action Items:

• Craft a trueline that tells why your brand is compelling
• Avoid commas or “ands”
• Turn your trueline into a tagline to use with customers

Notes:

• Citibank example…
  • Trueline: “Citibank knows that money is only a means to happiness.”
  • Tagline: “Live Richly.”

12/ HOW DO YOU SPREAD THE WORD?

Questions:

• How can you unpack your name, trueline, and tagline?
• How can you enroll brand advocates through messaging?
• How can you align all your communications with your ZAG?

Action Items:

• Make sure your messaging is as different as your brand
• Only compete at the touchpoints where you can win

13/ HOW DO PEOPLE ENGAGE WITH YOU?

Questions:

• What are you selling and how are you selling it?
• Which touchpoints will let you compete in white space?

Action Items:

• Map you value proposition against those of your competitors
• See which competitive areas you can avoid entirely
• Discover customer touchpoints where you’ll be unopposed

Notes:

• “Best Practices” are usually common practices; common practices never add up to a ZAG

14/ WHAT DO THEY EXPERIENCE?

Questions:

• How will customers learn about you?
• How can you “enroll” them in your brand?
• Who will be your competition at each touch point?
• Where should you put your marketing resources?

Action Items:

• Map the customer journey from non-awareness to full enjoyment
• Bet your resources on the experiences that ZAG

15/ HOW DO YOU EARN THEIR LOYALTY?

Questions:

• How can you help customers build barriers to competition?
• How can you avoid creating a “disloyalty program”?

Action Items:

• Start by being loyal to customers
• Don’t make new customers feel punished or excluded
• Give loyal customers the tools to introduce new customers

16/ HOW DO YOU EXTEND YOUR SUCCESS?

Questions:

• How do you keep growing the brand year after year?

Action Items:

• Choose between a house of brands or a branded house
• Add extensions that reinforce the brand’s meaning
• Avoid extensions that unfocus the brand’s meaning
• Avoid extensions that bring you into competition with leaders

17/ HOW DO YOU PROTECT YOUR PORTFOLIO?

Questions:

• How can the whole be worth more than the parts?
• How can you stay focused under short-term profit pressure?

Action Items:

• Avoid C-Sickness – contagion, confusion, contradiction, and complexity
• Understand the longterm effects of brand extensions

Notes:

• Brand confusion can be avoided by understanding the trade-off between stickiness and stretchiness
• Stickiness: is a brand’s ability to own a distinct meaning in peoples’ minds
• Stretchiness: is a brands ability to extend its meaning without breaking

You want to read it now, don’t you? Order ZAG here.

What do you think? The site, by the way, is ThisIsIndexed.com – check it out.

– RP