"Your Best Effort"

My recent "head buried in the sand" epiphany is that parenting isn't easy. The wife will chuckle and say "no $*@!" when she reads this, as her challenge of running our household is one I could never undertake. But I don't mean not easy in the sense of dealing with crying kids, cleaning up messes, school pick-up and drop off, etc. We knew that would be difficult going in. Instead, what drove this recent epiphany is the realization that I have to accept the genuine best effort my kids give to school, sports and household chores at face value. Praise them for trying their best, help them get better where possible, and live with the results - no matter how frustrating they may sometimes be.

In business, however, "your best effort" doesn't always cut it. Wins and losses are black and white. A campaign works or it doesn't. You win the business or you don't. You get the job or you don't. While, in spirit, doing your best will generally produce better results, it doesn't guarantee success, client satisfaction or job security. Kinda like the old adage about horseshoes and hand grenades.

If you are leading a team or at least managing others, "your best effort" is actually one of the best measurement tools you have available.

"Your best effort" for one person can mean greatness, while for someone else can mean relative mediocrity. If someone's best isn't good enough, you need to have a hard discussion as a manager and either redirect their talents more appropriately, or let them go.

If your agency's best isn't good enough for your client, you'll either be let go or you'll have the opportunity to shore up weak areas and get better. You generally don't get the opportunity for the latter.

We all should have a keen understanding of where our "best effort" is at an individual, team and agency level. Calibrating such a gauge involves an extremely honest, disrobing examination. Peer reviews, work audits, industry audits, client reviews of the agency. These are all great tools.

The most important concept to grasp, however, is that "your best effort" should not ever be a defined place. Successful people understand it's an ever-moving target. The key is to always make sure you're moving towards the target.

Lessons from a MadMan

Last night I had the chance to see Matthew Weiner, creator and lead writer for MadMen, speak in Fort Worth. While I disclose that I'm a huge fan of the show, anyone would have both enjoyed and greatly benefited from listening to his story.

He was one of the most engaging and eloquent people I've had the pleasure of listening to. Eccentric...yes. All over the map...no question. But just when you'd think he was wandering off to a completely irrelevant point, he'd tie it back to his overall message.

The theme of his story was about the creative process as it related to the show. He showed several different clips and touched on the inspiration for each. All were classic moments any MadMen fan would recognize:

•Don asking Roger "what women want" in his office
•Don asking one of his mistresses "what women want" and getting an inspiring answer
•Don on the phone with another mistress who says "I like being bad and going home and being good"
•Betty shooting at the birds in the backyard
•Don's presentation of the Kodak Carousel campaign

As brilliant of a writer as Weiner obviously is, where I think his true genius lies in his innate sense of always being open to outside inspiration. His curiosity factor is off the charts. He engages in conversation at the drop of a hat. He's personable. He wants to hear stories. He's thirsty for interaction.

The results spoke for themselves, as each of the above scenes was based on an observation or interaction Weiner had with someone else. The mistress' quote was from a lady he sat next to in an airplane. The "nostalgia" element of Don's Carousel pitch was from a class lecture during high school. Betty shooting the birds came from a personal story by someone on his writing staff.

Weiner's creativity (and, by extension, livelihood) literally depends on how well he's observing what's going on around him and collaborating with others. It was, in my opinion, a humble admission. Not one you'd expect from an A-List Hollywood writer.

Our business sometimes propagates a crap assumption that all account people have blinders on...oblivious to anything other than what their client tells them. And I understand stereotypes become stereotypes for a reason. No doubt, we need to know our client's business better than they do. But any diligent account person can do that.

The best account people I've known were amongst the most externally observant people in the business. Thirsty for knowledge, eager to learn, always on the lookout. Knowing they would improve if they would take time, listen and infuse their work with the contributions of others. Instead of clients having to ask for new ideas or different thinking, it came their way from these account people in a steady stream of observations, unexpected presentations and inspiring recommendations.

Those are the account leaders who didn't lose clients, but instead grew their business. We need more of those.

It also wouldn't hurt if a few of us could channel our inner Don Draper for presentation purposes...dude can sell ice to Eskimos.

Leadership Lesson from the Family Dinner Table

One of the rituals I most treasure is Sunday dinner with my family. Although we eat together as often as possible, it's usually the one time I know my wife, three kids and I can sit, eat, and enjoy each other's company. Hectic school, practice and homework schedules make it tough during the week to do anything other than a quick meal for the kids before they go to bed. Time just doesn't allow for anything more substantive.

This past Sunday, as the kids were cracking up at my jokes (more like me laughing at myself), I realized how infrequently opportunities like this exist at the office.

Time for laughing, getting to know people, asking about life outside the office, what their dreams are, what makes them tick...these are things any leader should know about his or her team. And you simply can't learn that within the normal work environment. Everyone is too busy and focused on their work (as they should be). Conversations are generic. Without truly understanding what motivates your team, your strategy and direction is going to be broad. You won't know exactly what buttons to push.

As a leader, these conversations can also provide insight into your employee's future. Do they really want to be doing what they are doing? Are they passionate? Do you see untapped potential? You can't get that during the regular course of the day outside of judging their current work product, which rarely tells the whole story.

You would be amazed at what 15 monthly minutes of genuine conversation over lunch, during a break, a scheduled meeting or after work can provide for your leadership skills. The person on your team will feel appreciated, and you will know how to better motivate them.

Over the course of a year, just 15 minutes a month would equal three hours of conversation focused on the individual outside of the daily grind. Say you have 5 members on your team. That's 15 hours of time you've dedicated to getting to know them better. If you upped it to 15 minutes a week, you'd be at 65 hours a year.

Talk about time well spent...