Every member of a team must make a unique, individual contribution to the team’s success. I want to be surrounded by people who don’t make excuses, assume individual responsibility and work towards the greater good of the team.

With a commitment to individual responsibility, empowerment and performance, I invite you to join me in believing and internalizing the following affirmations:

1. I see the big picture.
2. I see how the individual pieces fit together, and I understand the importance of my unique role.
3. I prioritize my work and spend considerable time working on projects that are important but not urgent. Because of this, I am proactive and in control of my projects, my career and my life.
4. I think strategically before acting tactically.
5. Functioning as a marketing consultant, I ask affirming, empowering questions of myself and others.
6. I approach consulting projects in a collaborative manner, finding ways to say “yes” and thereby facilitating the success of others.
7. I own and manage important projects where I assume the entire responsibility for the planning, production and evaluation of my projects.
8. I am a collaborative team player, contributing my energy and expertise to those projects managed by others.
9. Knowing that the status quo often leads to obsolescence, I have a deep desire to learn, to create and to explore. I seek innovation and welcome change.
10. I do work that really matters. I make a difference.

]]> http://duanehallock.com/2010/09/01/manifesto-individual/feed/ 0 duanehallock DDH Signature http://duanehallock.com/2010/08/25/a-manifesto-for-being-visionary-and-strategic/ http://duanehallock.com/2010/08/25/a-manifesto-for-being-visionary-and-strategic/#comments Wed, 25 Aug 2010 10:30:40 +0000 Duane Hallock http://duanehallock.com/?p=2926 ]]>

Helen Keller was right when she said, “The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight, but has no vision.”

Everyone, it seems, talks about the importance of having a vision, but very few people have a vivid picture of what they hope their future will look like.

With a commitment to being visionary and strategic, I invite you to join me in believing  that:

1. The effectiveness of a vision statement can be measured by its ability to inspire us to rally around a shared picture of what can be—and must be—our new reality.
2. A compelling vision is future-focused and usually threatens those deeply vested in the status quo.
3. Progress always requires change, but not all change is progress.
4. Where there is no vision, people perish.
5. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
6. Tactics not tied to strategy are nothing more than busywork.
7. When you and I are not pursuing the same goal, then we are not on the same team.
8. When you and I focus on the same goal from different vantage points, we have stereoscopic vision that gives us better depth perception.
9. Every project can be improved by periodically asking, “Why are we doing this?”
10. We must, as Stephen Covey says, begin with the end in mind.

]]> http://duanehallock.com/2010/08/25/a-manifesto-for-being-visionary-and-strategic/feed/ 0 duanehallock DDH Signature http://duanehallock.com/2010/08/18/manifesto-marketing/ http://duanehallock.com/2010/08/18/manifesto-marketing/#comments Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:30:18 +0000 Duane Hallock http://duanehallock.com/?p=2928 ]]> Marketing is not as complicated as some want you to think. Good marketing is based upon common sense, though such sense is uncommon.

With a commitment to successful marketing, I invite you to join me in believing  that:

1. Marketing will flounder when not in pursuit of a measurable goal.
2. If a product, service or even a person cannot be differentiated, it cannot be marketed.
3. Marketing will fail unless strategy drives tactics, not vice versa.
4. Marketing must be based upon the concept of exchanges. Without a quid-pro-quo exchange, we will never have a solid marketing program.
5. Value can be defined only by the customer, not by the company producing the product or service. (Nonprofit organizations especially have trouble with this.)
6. The social media revolution is the best thing to happen to marketing in a long, long time, even though the tools for achieving marketing success have forever changed.
7. Old-school marketers who try to control the message will become increasingly frustrated, disoriented and ultimately obsolete.
8. You are still functioning in a 1.0 world—even if you’re using 2.0 tools—when you are not creating community and engaging people in conversations.
9. If we aim our message at no one in particular, we shouldn’t be surprised if no one in particular responds.
10. Communications comes at the end of the marketing process, not at the beginning.

]]> http://duanehallock.com/2010/08/18/manifesto-marketing/feed/ 0 duanehallock DDH Signature http://duanehallock.com/2010/05/20/when-the-emperor-has-no-clothes/ http://duanehallock.com/2010/05/20/when-the-emperor-has-no-clothes/#comments Thu, 20 May 2010 10:30:28 +0000 Duane Hallock http://duanehallock.com/?p=2764 ]]> Remember the classic tale of the emperor who had no clothes? Popularized in 1837 by Hans Christian Anderson, the story is summarized in Wikipedia like this:

An emperor who cared for nothing but his wardrobe hired two weavers who promised him the finest suit of clothes from a fabric invisible to anyone who was unfit for his position or “just hopelessly stupid.” The emperor could not see the cloth himself, but pretended that he could for fear of appearing stupid or unfit for his position. His ministers did the same. When the swindlers reported that the suit was finished, they dressed him in mime and the emperor then marched in procession before his subjects. A child in the crowd called out that the emperor was wearing nothing at all. The cry was taken up by others. The emperor cringed, suspecting the assertion was true, but held himself up proudly and continued the procession.

In this story, with whom can you identify? Where would you best fit into the plot?

Certainly, no one wants to be the self-centered authority figure oblivious to reality. Neither do we aspire to be “yes men” who refrain from speaking the truth for fear of looking stupid or being punished for political incorrectness. Of course, the dishonest weavers would never be our heroes.

But what about all the people who lined the parade route? They went along with the game until someone dared to speak the obvious truth.

Personally, I identify best with the innocent child who demonstrated transparency and authenticity. (He would have loved living in the 2.0 world of social media.)

The little boy was not concerned about what others thought; he just spoke the truth. He was not worried about being ostracized by others; he was just being himself. His intent was not to make stupid people look even more stupid; he was just being honest, never considering the potential consequences of his honesty.

In all facets of life, we encounter people who refuse to see themselves as everyone else does. Their game continues as long as we collectively enable their self-absorbed delusion.

Daily we interact people who don’t want to upset the status quo. Perhaps they are like the “emperor’s ministers” who have too much to lose if things change. Often we find ourselves along the parade route, surrounded by people watching the world go by and pretending that nothing is wrong. These individuals are tempted to think it’s just them. They are afraid to comment on something that no one else apparently observes. Or perhaps they just hope that by ignoring the situation it will go away.

Then there was the innocent boy who curiously watched as the emperor flaunted his “new clothes.” When you think about it, he could have responded in a variety of ways. He had to chose from the following three options:

1. Say nothing. After all, why upset the status quo? Why not just pretend that nothing is out of the ordinary?
2. Be amused. Why stick your neck out? Just admit to yourself that something is amiss and then quietly chuckle at the absurdity of the situation.
3. Speak up. Why not say what needs to be said? What’s to be lost by being honest? Why varnish over the obvious reality?

I applaud the young lad for speaking up. As he grew older, though, I imagine he learned that society will embrace a child for his or her innocence and candor. That same society, though, will likely disdain those same traits in an adult.

Three years ago tonight an exceptionally violent tornado destroyed 95 percent of Greensburg, Kansas. With winds more than 200 miles an hour, the rare EF-5 twister claimed 10 fatalities in this town of 1,400. The tornado was 1.7 miles wide and it flattened nearly 1,000 homes and destroyed almost all businesses. Additionally, thousands of picture albums, family heirlooms and other irreplaceable possessions were lost forever.

For seven nights and eight days I represented the American Red Cross in its disaster relief efforts. My role as a Public Affairs Supervisor provided me with unusual access to the restricted areas. When I first parked my Red Cross vehicle, I walked through what was left of the town and saw firsthand the widespread devastation. Block after block after block, houses and businesses were gone. Thick steels bars were wrapped around the stumps of huge oak trees. Cars were upside down under layers of brick, wood and concrete. The drug store, the local café and the post office had been blown away.

I took nearly 500 pictures, though they inadequately captured the magnitude of the devastation. Without using clichés I found it difficult to describe the destruction. Yes, it looked like a war zone. From its appearance, the town could have been leveled by a huge bomb.

Community Connectedness

The people of Greensburg lost everything, or so it seemed to me as an observer. Yet they were grateful for what they had – their lives, their families, and each other. What impressed me most about this rural Kansas community was the incredible human spirit. These hardy individuals rose to the occasion. Despite their loss, the townspeople stood strong. From across the nation, they were surrounded by strangers who were united in one common cause – helping the storm victims to heal and to rebuild their lives.

"Struck down but not destroyed"

People came together to do what they could. If they couldn’t provide a direct service or clean up debris, they helped someone who could.

Everywhere I saw evidence of the connectedness of this community. As I drove 30 miles each morning to get to my “office” at headquarters, I would listen to local radio stations conducting their own fundraising drives for the Red Cross. In the parking lot of the Presbyterian church, people were selling home-baked goods, potted plants, and crafts. A young girl set up a lemonade stand and raised several hundred dollars to benefit the Red Cross. In addition to a corporate gift of $80,000, local Wal-Mart employees personally collected $20,000 for the Red Cross.

Although the Red Cross literally took over the United Methodist church to coordinate our relief efforts, the congregation and pastoral staff genuinely appreciated our presence. On Sunday morning children in Sunday School classes made Mother’s Day cards and gave them to each of the Red Cross women who were away from their own families on that special day. Each day at the church, we Red Cross workers were served hot meals prepared by community church groups representing various denominations. With their own food, these good-hearted folk from the community came into the Methodist church to prepare and serve our meals.

Red Cross Disaster Efforts

The Red Cross has considerable experience in all types of disasters. We plan and prepare for the unexpected, and literally within hours of the tornado we were in Greensburg providing emergency assistance. In two nearby towns we set up shelters in high school gyms. Many Greensburg residents found lodging there until they could make other arrangements.

In addition to the emergency shelters, we also set up service centers. Here people came to receive financial aid, casework assistance, counseling, medications, tetanus shots, and personal care supplies. Bulk distribution sites were also set up. There people picked up food, bottled water, sunscreen, insect repellant, gloves, rakes, plastic trash bags, bleach, 5-gallon pails, and other cleaning supplies.

Red Cross feeding in Greensburg

From throughout the Midwest we brought in ERVs – emergency response vehicles. These are Red Cross vehicles built on an ambulance chassis. From these vehicles we provided mobile feeding – driving around Greensburg serving hot meals and bottled water to residents cleaning up their property, contractors working within the restricted zone and various law enforcement personnel assigned to the disaster.

My job as a a Public Affairs officer was to inform people how they could either give or get help from the Red Cross. Specific activities included writing news releases announcing the locations and hours of service centers, distributing flyers to the residents of Greensburg as they came together at a town hall meeting, being interviewed live on the radio, talking with newspaper reporters, handling TV news crews coming into the Red Cross shelter, giving tours of Red Cross operations to major donors and VIPs and meeting with the highway patrol to update the information being broadcast on the 1610 am emergency radio station.

There in South Central Kansas, everyone was genuinely appreciative of what the Red Cross and its partners were doing. As I paid for gas, minimum-wage clerks would thank me for being in their community to help. In a local cafe, other diners would call me over to their table to express gratitude for what the Red Cross and other charities were doing. A teenage boy even walked over to me in Greensburg’s city park just to shake my hand and say “thank you.”

A Special Birthday Party

Inside our shelters, real people have real lives. Inside our lodging accommodations in the gym of a local high school, I observed the wheelchair of an elderly woman. She was lying there on her green canvas cot. She lost her home in the tornado and had found refuge in a Red Cross “motel.” I also watched as a pregnant woman walked to the dining area. A week earlier, she had lived in Greensburg. Many of her dreams for the future were now destroyed, and I wondered where she and her family would live in the weeks and months ahead.

90th birthday celebration inside a Red Cross shelter

Despite the human suffering, stories of hope and celebration abound. One such story centered on a man named John. He and his wife were living in the Red Cross shelter. On Friday, the one-week anniversary of the tornado, John planned to quietly mark the 90^th anniversary of his birth. Upon learning of his upcoming birthday, a Red Cross worker decided to somehow bake a birthday cake. Catching wind of this plan, an NBC news reporter asked if she could provide the cake.

I first heard of the surprise party only 45 minutes ahead of time. I was escorting Wal-Mart executives from Bentonville, Arkansas who had flown in on their corporate plane. After presenting the Red Cross with a generous check, they were touring our operations centers and were on their way to the tornado site. I phoned ahead to alert the shelter manager that we were on our way. As the Wal-Mart people in my car overheard my conversation, they asked if they could present the man with a birthday gift. They phoned back to the local store and had an employee speed to the shelter with a $300 gift card.

Minutes later we were all huddled around John and his family singing “Happy Birthday.” He was so touched that he put his head into his hands and cried for an uncomfortably long period of time. His granddaughter commented that she had seen her grandfather cry only once before.

The Town Hall Meeting

On Friday night, one week after the tornado struck, Greensburg residents returned to their community for a town hall meeting. This was the first time they had to come together since the tragedy. The only place to meet was in the city park under a huge tent. As the townspeople gathered, I was among a handful of Red Cross workers who greeted them and passed out flyers telling how they could contact the Red Cross to receive services and financial assistance.

Greeting the Greensburg residents arriving for the town hall meeting

The meeting began with an invocation by a local member of the clergy. Then, the mayor took the microphone. He welcomed his fellow citizens, and then said, “Our first order of business is to thank the many volunteers who have come here to help us.”

Immediately, hundreds of town folk rose from their folding chairs and gave us a standing ovation. According to the newspaper report, the applause lasted for more than a full minute. As I stood on the perimeter of the tent, I looked into the moist eyes of the volunteers by my side. I also felt a huge lump in my throat as I realized that this applause was coming from people who had lost all their material possessions. Yet in gratitude they rose from their seats to express heartfelt appreciation. What a memorable moment! Years from now, that is the memory from Greensburg I cherish most.

I went to Greensburg to give. Yet, ironically, I received much more than I gave. I went to help others, yet I was the one who was blessed. Having provided disaster relief in this rural farming community, I’m reminded of the agricultural advice given in 2 Corinthians 9:6 – “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”

Back at Red Cross headquarters

After letting them wrestle with that concept for a moment, I would continue by saying, “The reason I am here is to stimulate your curiosity so that you ask good marketing questions.”

Too often we mistakenly assume that the goal of education is to find the right answers. We obsess unnecessarily with that pursuit—finding correct answers.

We would be much wiser to focus on asking good questions. From my experience, I have learned that answers magically appear at the right time when coaxed out of hiding by positive, affirming questions.

We’ve all worked for a boss or been around someone who compensated for his insecurity by always having to provide the right answers. I’ve never been impressed with know-it-alls. Rather, I hope to be surrounded by individuals who are curious, inquisitive and vulnerable. They recognize that life is a journey and the pathway is best illuminated when we ask insightful, probing and provocative questions.

“It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.”

Don’t you love that quote from James Thurber?

Want to test your own skills? Why not leave a comment below in the form of a question? Can you help move this conversation forward—not by offering an opinion—but by asking an interesting question?

Let me emphatically state:  Raising awareness is NOT a marketing goal. It is a means to an end and should always be regarded as a tactic in support of some higher-level strategy.

Earlier this month I listened as a nonprofit communicator talked about media relations. She used examples from her organization to talk about writing press releases, pitching stories to the news media and developing relationships with reporters and assignment editors. I was tempted to quibble with her implied assumption that the traditional media are not waning in significance. When someone asked about social media, she brushed off the “new media” as not being serious forms of communication. I couldn’t disagree more, but I’ll save that rant for another occasion.

What I found troubling was that this PR practitioner was operating efficiently at a tactical level, yet I was unable to tie her tactics to any strategy. We spent 90 minutes bumping into trees without once having seen the forest. I wanted to see the big picture. I wanted to know the impact of her communications tactics. When asked what she hoped to accomplish by raising awareness of her organization, she talked about warm, fuzzy feelings that would be evoked in the general public. Still unclear, I asked what she wanted the audience to do with those “warm, fuzzy feelings.” She was at a loss for a solid answer.

Creating warm, fuzzy feelings is not a marketing goal. That’s a means to an end. Warm emotions can only have an impact when accompanied by a call to action resulting in someone actually taking the desired action.

Communicators are naive if they hope their CEOs will be impressed with only soft, warm and immeasurable results. Those communicators will be vulnerable targets when downsizing occurs. Only those who create results and can demonstrate their impact will be of ongoing value to an organization. Everyone else is just a drain on the organization’s precious resources.

So, I will close with this simple question:  What impact do you hope your communications will have?

If your answer is “to raise awareness” I would challenge you to dig deeper by asking, “What do I want someone to do with his or her increased awareness?”

Starting off on the right foot is essential for ongoing career success. When I began my current job in 2006, I bought and read an invaluable book called The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins. Anyone making a fresh start would be well-advised to buy his or her own copy of the book and study it.

The book lists 10 things you should accomplish during the first three months in your new job. Within the book each step is discussed in detail, but for your convenience I’ve summarized those steps here:

1. Promote yourself. Mentally break away from the mindset of your old job and think of your new one as a promotion that will require new ways of achieving success.
2. Accelerate your learning. The learning curve may be steep. There will be so much to learn in your new environment, so do everything you can to quickly absorb what you need to know.
3. Match strategy to the situation. Diagnose the business situation accurately and then quickly develop a customized plan of action.
4. Secure early wins. You need a few early successes to build credibility and to create momentum. Early on, identify ways to create value.
5. Negotiate success. Plan a series of critical conversations with your new boss—the one person most essential to your success. Make sure he or she has ownership in your 90-day plan.
6. Achieve alignment. Assess whether the organization’s strategy is sound and whether the supporting structure is properly aligned.
7. Build your team. During the transition, you must be willing to make tough personnel decisions and select the right team members.
8. Create coalitions. You must influence people beyond your direct line of supervision. Create supportive alliances, both internally and externally.
9. Keep your balance. Keep your perspective and maintain your equilibrium. Balancing the personal and professional facets of your life will help you stay focused on the right priorities.
10. Expedite everyone. Help others achieve their success.

If you’re beginning a new job, or even launching a major project, make good use of your first 90 days. What you do during those first three months will likely determine your success and failure.

Good luck!

First, be aware that by the time you are scheduled for an interview you have already cleared several hurdles. Apparently you said something in your cover letter to differentiate yourself from the herd of other applicants. The content of your resume indicates that you’ve met the essential criteria listed in the job description. Without question, the person interviewing you has already Googled your name to find any additional information contained in your digital footprint.

Congratulations! You’re on base and in scoring position. You haven’t yet crossed home plate, though, so here are my coaching tips. To emerge the winner, here are several items to remember:

1. Be yourself. If you don’t feel comfortable “in your own skin” during the interview, that might be an indication that you won’t be comfortable in the job itself.
2. Exchange enough information so both parties can make a rational decision about whether this will be a good match. Don’t think of the interview as “selling” yourself. Think of it as a first date where you’re just talking to see if there’s potential for a long-term relationship.
3. Tell stories. Make them interesting. Make them brief.
4. Never denigrate a current or former employer. I was disappointed several years ago when my strongest candidate (on paper) began the interview by telling me everything wrong with her current employer. Though we talked for 45 minutes, the interview was actually over within the first seven minutes.
5. Help the interviewer envision you as already being successful once you’ve been hired. Twice I’ve selected people for my marketing team who gave me written lists of things they anticipated doing during their first 90 days on the job.
6. Ask good questions. When I’m interviewing candidates, I pay special attention to the types of questions they ask me. That tells me whether they are really engaged in the conversation or just going through the motions. The best candidates have the best questions.
7. Ask for feedback. Make sure you have clarified everything the hiring manager will need to make an informed decision.
8. Do not be the first to mention compensation. As a rule of thumb, the first person to bring up money is at a negotiating disadvantage.
9. Find reasons to follow up. Then make sure you actually do follow up. Quickly.
10. Have a strong closing statement. Talk about your growing interest in being part of the team. Mention specific reasons why you would be successful in the new position.

It helps to think of the interview as a two-way conversation, not an interrogation. Be a good conversationalist and you’ll likely be a good interviewee. Good luck!

My first thought was, “That’s pretty stupid!”

My second thought was, “If it’s not stupid, it’s at least naive.”

If you are looking for a job, you already have strong competition from other job seekers. Therefore, you need every available tool to differentiate yourself in a crowded job market.  Facebook can be a very effective tool for branding yourself.

The CNN article began with the story of a college student who wanted “to keep his personal life (hidden) from potential employers while applying for summer internships.” I’d like to remind that young person that there is no shortage of people applying for those same internships. So, what sets him apart from all the others? How is he special? How is he differentiated?

The 2.0 world we live in requires authenticity and transparency. Those who are inexperienced in branding themselves naively believe they can present themselves in a one-dimensional way.

People like doing business with people they know, or at least people who present themselves as real-life human beings. A resume or even a LinkedIn profile is usually a sterile, sanitized description of your job title, your responsibilities and perhaps other work-related stuff. Seldom does it portray you as a real, multi-dimensional person.

For any given job opening, you’ll likely be up against dozens of people who look as if they were cast in the same mold as you were. They have similar work histories, job titles and career accomplishments. So what might make you stand out from the rest of the pack? One way is to present yourself as a real person.

Though I’m not in a job search, I want my personal/professional branding to be multi-dimensional. Of course, I want people to know me as a marketing professional. The problem is there are thousands and thousands of other good marketing professionals. So on a deeper level, I also want people to see me as a loving husband, a proud father, a grieving son, an involved community citizen, a committed church member or whatever else might give me common ground with a new friend. Facebook can be an effective way of doing that.

Those who have nothing to hide should embrace the fact that in this 2.0 world there really aren’t any secrets, especially for those interested in effectively branding themselves. Authentic transparency can be a very differentiating attribute.

So here are some questions for anyone looking for a job (and even those like me who are not) — How are you using Facebook to brand yourself, both professionally and personally? Are your Facebook privacy settings set too high? If so,  why? Are you hiding something? Okay, that was probably a dumb question, but in a transparent 2.0 world you never want to give the impression that you might be.

Open up. Be real. Be yourself. You’ll find that’s a very liberating, invigorating and differentiating way to go through life. And to find a job.