Stylists

I received this extensive case study from "NexLevel" who would really like our help to save him from bankruptcy. Please offer your ideas.

Your article, "The One-Firm Firm" addresses my current situation. I own a salon and spa in Texas. I acquired the business 18 months ago and have faced resistance to new strategies almost from day one.

As you may know, most stylist / technicians wield power by threatening to leave and take clients with them. They are the rainmakers. Therefore, most salons are what you call "warlords" shops.

I fear I do not have much time in order to implement an employee development program. Attracting other rainmakers is difficult even though we offer full "back office" support. We provide assistants, front desk, bookkeeping, etc. They do not even sweep the hair clippings as we have a housekeeper on staff. With all of the above services, the stylists still want full commission (55%). Industry analysts show that salons cannot be profitable with payroll / commissions over 45%-50%.

Clients are very loyal to stylists and very vocal in giving their opinions, likes and dislikes. I need to terminate one of the rainmakers for insubordination, but it will hurt cashflow so much that I would have to close.

The staffing model of the salon since the early 70's has been to have a hair-stylist up front servicing clients at full commission. Support people were hired to work in the back, shampooing and applying colour and perms, washing towels, sweeping hair, cleaning the bathrooms, etc. for hourly min wage + tips. In most salons, these tasks would be a part of the job.

The irony is that the stylist received full commission but do not have do all the work and resist contributing to the overhead cost of the assistants. They know it, the clients know it too. Until 6 yrs ago none of the stylists made a great deal of money. As others retired, they took on the clients of the retirees. Now they are making money, but have no loyalty to me.

The Company at one point was a $2.8 mil dollar business and could easily afford the overhead costs. Today, I can't. With overhead payroll and commission, total payroll is 67% of revenues. We are in a high profile strip centre and rent is $8400/mth for 3600 sf. We do $800,000 yr, but there too much going out the door.

Raising prices on the existing client base would be greatly help. However, the stylist will most likely resist as they did before. That battle started the riff leading to 2 employees leaving. We retained 100% of the clients, so we have a feather in our decision making management cap. All dissenters were proved wrong.

Stylists who are afraid that they will lose clients by raising prices do not understand supply and demand or their value to the market. They only want to work harder for the lower prices. And they do this because of the assistants that perform the time-consuming tasks that they do not pay a whole lot for.

This fear becomes arrogance if the stylist has sufficient clientele to support them going independent. They will then have to accept losing clients or work more hours because they are working all alone without assistants. If they pay an assistant they are in my boat and will not make the money they want.

Among the solutions I have considered are to budget and implement regular advertising and measure results to improve, implement aggressive recruiting and training program. With a regular flow of new clients and home grown employees, I, as the owner could always have foundation and build a firm, not just a collection of independent warlords. By the time the existing stylists begin to resist policy and process changes, I will have more stability and can manage the any insubordination or non-collaboration head on.

What advice do you have for "NexLevel?"

20 Bad Workplace Habits

Marshall Goldsmith is a famous executive coach, who has worked with more than 80 CEO's in the world's top corporations. He has a fabulous new book out called What Got You Here Won't Get You There. Actually, the title is not very descriptive, but the subtitle says it all: 20 workplace habits you need to break. It's a content-rich, well-written book.

While Goldsmith warns against self-diagnosis, I found the list incredibly helpful (even though I am not and never will be a CEO.) The practical, real world advice he provides for conquering these bad habits is immensely useful. Here's his list of bad habits:

1. The need to win each time
2. The overwhelming desire to add our two cents to every discussion
3. The need to pass judgment on others
4. Needless sarcasm and cutting comments
5. Starting with "no", "But", "However"
6. Need to show how smart we are
7. Speaking when angry
8. Negativity: the need to share negative thoughts even when not asked
9. Withholding Information
10. Failing to Give Proper recognition
11. Claiming credit we don't deserve
12. Making excuses
13. Clinging to the past
14. Playing favourites
15. Refusing to express regret
16. Not listening
17. Failing to express gratitude
18. Punishing the messenger
19. Passing the buck
20. An excessive need to be "me": exalting our faults as virtues simply because they're who we are

Read the book. You'll learn a lot about yourself, and how to improve (slowly.)

As a way to get our discussion going on this blog, let me ask all of you two questions about your bosses (not about you, but your bosses.)

(a) Which of Goldsmith's 20 bad habits would you say is the most damaging?

(b) Which do you think are the most common?

It's Not How Good You Are But How Much You Want It -- New strategy podcast episode available now

The third episode of my new podcast series, Strategy and the Fat Smoker, is now live and available for download.

It is dedicated to exploring the themes found in my new book by the same name.  I encourage you to forward these to friends and associates who may be interested in the topics covered.

"It's Not How Good You Are But How Much You Want It" looks at how so many business career paths seem to be made up of sensical, well thought out steps to a pre-determined, ultimate position and how this is most often not the case.  They are more often a conglomeration of experiments seen through by the drive and determination to find the next great challenge.  The key is to sustain that drive and determination for a lifetime.

NOTES FOR THE EPISODE:

00:43 -- Introduction
00:51 -- A brief recount of my early career choices
06:11 -- Finding your passion is sometimes a very long search
11:09 -- Lifelong drive and determination:  The key ingredients in career success
12:48 -- Rebounding from failure and renewing efforts
15:34 -- Conclusion

You can download "It's Not How Good You Are But How Much You Want It" or sign up to receive new Business Masterclass seminars automatically with iTunes or other podcast players.  (Click here for step-by-step instructions on how to subscribe).  My seminars are always available for download at no cost.

Islamic Saying

Last September, I gave a speech at a conference of professors from across central and eastern european business schools. One of my themes was about the importance of managers actually being interested in the people they manage. At the end of my presentation, one of the audience members handed me a note with the following Islamic saying:

Very often, we are concerned about our own welfare and the souls of others. It would be better if we would be more concerned about our own souls and the welfare of others.

Politics Part Two

Yesterday's blogpost was about the politics one encounters as a consultant or internal advisor.

However, the truth may be that you can never get away from office politics, no matter where you work.

There are many people who tell you that you need to be careful what you say, who you say it to, and how your message might be perceived (or misperceived).

The advice they would give is to act on a first presumption of suspicion or distrust -- that it's the only realistic way to behave. Unless you've built a strong, trustworthy relationship with a person, you should assume (they say) that whatever you say will be rebroadcast (and potentially misbroadcast) to a wide variety of people.

Naturally, this would also mean that you should be very careful with emails and voice mails -- you never know who some people will forward your message to, or blind copy.

They would advise you to "strategise" what you say at meetings and when.

How do you out there feel about this? I'm torn. On the one hand, I think it terrible to be this paranoid.

I also believe that starting with a lack of trust is likely to breed mistrust. Playing office politics may only serve to worsen office politics. And if you're not very skilled at it, it might be a disaster to try.

On the other hand, CAN you be a non-participant? I'd readily confess that some of my worst career events came from not being very attuned to (or skilled) at office politics. (I wish I picked up on unsaid things faster!)

Tell me, please, is it it really this bad out there? Is office politics a key part of everyone's life (not just the advisor's)? If so, where do you go to get better at it? Is there a reading list?

Client Politics

In my consulting career, it is often the case that I quickly realise that I have been hired for more than just the purpose I'd been told. As a consultant, my clients often tell me they want help in developing strategies and systems to move the company forward on its declared goals. But what isn't said is that, all too often, different groups within this company are at odds with each other and I am a tactic or a weapon in this battle (or worse, a war.)

In many, if not most consulting assignments (even many speaking assignments) it is apparent that, as a person who has an extensive written history, it is known that I already have many views on common issues. This means I am a threat to at least one group within my client firm, possibly to all sides. Since I'm already "on the record" on many issues, it's hard for me to come off as impartial.

It used to surprise me, but I now accept that all business problems have "sides" or "positions." Each department (marketing, operations, procurement) wants you to adopt their point of view and help them prevail. It works vertically, too. Management wants you to explain to "them" (the workforce) why they should go along with the corporate policies, while the juniors want you to help management understand why they (the juniors) are close to burnout.

The polarisation doesn't have to be between formal groups. In a majority of my consulting assignments, the battle is between individuals who just have different operating philosophies (hunters and farmers, for example) and who want my help in figuring out a way for them to co-exist. (Sometimes they can and should, sometimes they cannot and shouldn't)

All this real-world complexity must be addressed. I suspect that there is no such thing as a politically-insulated position for a consultant to be in. It's ALWAYS about politics, and like it or not, you're involved. (This is just as true for internal staff like HR and marketing. We like to think what we offer is our intellect, but really we're all marriage guidance counsellors -- helping people live together.)

Even though I have decades of exposure to the realities of corporate politics and gamesmanship, I find it astoundingly hard to navigate my way through it. It requires muscles and skills in which I was not schooled. I never had a course in mediating, politicking, bargaining, shuttle diplomacy, representing people to each other. And I'm not sure I want the job of arbitrating other people's lives together.

I'm not saying this is avoidable. It isn't. It's the normal human interplay of egos, diffrences in preferences and turf. It's not often about logic, rationality, analytics, experience, frameworks and all the other things that consultants like to think are their stock in trade.

As I think Ben Franklin once said, you don't persuade by appealing to people's sense of reason, but to their interests.

As an advisor, I really have to ask myself what am I bringing to the table if I am working with smart people who are divided not by a lack of understanding (they are not missing facts, logic or conceptual frameworks.) What they are missing is agreement about how to run their joint (firm) affairs. And that disagreement is not driven by a lack of clarity, but a real difference of vested interests.

Take, as a relatively pure example, a fight over the design of a compensation system in a professional firm. Everyone can PRETEND it's about it's about the logic of which systems best promote the long-run health of the firm. However, the truth, 99 times out of 100, is that when a firm goes outside to get an advisor, they are looking either for a diplomatic mediator who can bring opposing sides to agreement, or (on occasion) one side is trying to hire a consultant who already agrees with them so that the internal battle can be fought.

All this raises some very interesting question for those of us who earn our living as advisors.

Do you HAVE to be a skilled mediator to be a good advisor?

What do you do if you're not?

Is it OK to accept an engagement when you know you are being used as political weapon?

Is it ethical to accept an assignment if you think your work will lead to the break-up of that firm by proving to people that they shouldn't be living together?

Is there ever a way to not be politically involved?

Is there ever a way to not have a political impact?

Update: this discussion is continued in a new post entitled Politics Part II.

Carnival of the Capitalists -- January 22, 2007

It is my pleasure to host this week's edition of Carnival of the Capitalists as promised (or threatened) -- a collection of blog articles about business and economics submitted for review.

I would like to issue a special welcome to readers visiting my blog for the first time courtesy of the carnival. All my research conclusions, consulting advice and speeches come down to passion, people and principles, and this blog is about the importance of passion, people and principles for success in managing, strategy, client relations and career development. While you are here, I encourage you to take a look around the site, explore my podcasts and articles, and consider subscribing to the blog by email or by RSS.

The policy of this Carnival is to be inclusive, i.e., to include ALL submissions unless there is a reason not to. So, my main task is not to review, edit or endorse, but to try and provide a small degree of organisation to guide through the many submissions.

There were a wide span of topics covered, from personal advice to macroeconomic analysis. Having no other basis on which to organise things, I have chose to go from the personal to the cosmic, from the micro to the macro. This is not an evaluation, so you may want to skip to the types of topics that interest you most. (I couldn't resist starting with those that I found most interesting.)

The rest of this week's edition of the Carnival of the Capitalists will be organised in the following categories:

• Section 1: The Articles I Enjoyed the Most (A Highly Personal Selection)
• Section 2: Articles Giving Personal Advice
• Section 3: Articles about Personal Finance
• Section 4: Articles About Marketing
• Section 5: Bogs about Public Policy and Macroeconomics
• Section 6: Other Topics

Section One: Articles I Enjoyed The Most

1. Shawn Callahan is well-known to regular readers of this blog. His firm (in Australia) provides advice on how to use stories and anecdotes to make things happen, and he walks us through (in a 1300-word piece) the role stories play compared to other ways of "knowing" (the scientific method, religion, and intuition).

2. A blog called Software Project Management has an in-depth post (from December) about creating logos. Very informative, with good graphical illustrations. (Obviously?)

3. Getting Green has a really interesting description of attending a meeting organised by a multi-level marketer (Quixtar) with lots of insight into how these things are actually run.

4. There's a fascinating discussion of various aspects of the talent gap (what our economy needs vs what our educational system is producing) at Talentism. It wanders in and out of some other subjects, but is worth looking at and thinking about.

5. Bob Brown Consultant Intelligence Briefings describes a situation where it looks like both client and consultants were at fault in working together.

6. Jennifer, at Penguin uneartherd, discusses the different approaches taken in different countries to major catastrophe insurance. Did you know, for example, that everyone in New Zealand is entitled to seek help from a government body if they are injured in an accident -- it doesn't matter how old you are, if you are in the work force or not, or if you are at fault. In return, there is no right in NZ to sue anyone for personal injury. Great stuff!

7. Econbrowser review the topic of why some countrieas are rich and some are poor, and reviews a recent paper analysing the colonisation of oceanic islands according to the prevailing winds. I'm not sure what it all proves, but it's fascinating stuff.

8. Krishna De says that Google alerts are probably the best free research tool in the world. She shows you how and why.

9. The Antisysiphus Effect has an intriguing essay about managing and some religious concepts. This one's worth a read.

10. Charles Green gives good advice about how to deal with purchasing agents if you are attempting to sell professional services.

11. Ready Fire Aim has a blog on what makes a successful entrepreneur. This is one of a three-part series (with references).

12. Stirling Newberry at The Agonist has a detailed (2300-word) analysis of the economy (where we are in the boom and bust cycle) and what it means for investments by business. You'll need to think and pay close attention, but it will reward the effort.

13. Re:The Auditors has an intriguing exploration of the state of the accounting profession and KPMG's woes.

14. Phil For Humanity analyses the tension between China's economic policy and its international policies.

15. There's an interesting brief discussion of MBA writing skills at Photon Courier.

16. Wally Block sensibly points out that team-building exercises teaching leaders to cook are probably an irrelevant activity.

Section Two: Articles Giving Personal Advice

1. Execupundit has a quick list of 25 ways to screw up.

2. Slow Leadership offers some steps to finding out what you really want to do with your life, unaffected by what others say.

3. Eric Brown writes about the problem with linear thinking. His example is about tending to hire the kind of people we have always hired, but he provides some good links to other aspects of the "fixed mindset" problem.

4. Gautam Ghosh has a post about the CEO as politician. His advice to build at least one necessary political skill is to go to an undergrad student class and explain your business model in non-technical terms. He says you never know what you might learn about your own business if you simplify it to communicate.

5. Smart Cool Rich offers some advice based on high-stakes poker: bluff by not bluffing. The key takeaway is that while bluffing may be great theatre, it seldom leads to an ultimate victory.

6. Breaking the Shackles quotes Tony Robbins to the effect that only action reflects a decision made.

Section Three: Articles About Personal Finance

1. Build Your Life to Order explains how EVERYONE can get rich.

2. Five Cent Nickel says "Don't Miss These Tax Deductions."

3. HedgeFund Domain reveiews his investment portfolio's performance.

4. Wisebread offers some tips on learning to save and living on a budget.

5. Searchlight Crusade has a discussion of California's Home Equity Sales Contract Act.

6. The Boring Made Dull thinks tax refund loans are a bad idea.

7. The Digerati Life recently stumbled across Jim Cramer's Mad Money TV show and gives us a review.

8. Extreme Perspective takes us through the lessons of leverage and compounding in personal finance.

9. Free Money Finance gives a basic example of what saving $10,000 a year would translate into in savings if you kept it up.

10. OhCash.com warns about get rich quick schemes.

11. Debt C0nsolidation Lowdown says that you should live within your means.

Section Four: Articles About Marketing

1. Small Business Buzz bemoans the lack of client service we receive.

2. James S. Logan reports on some research done by James D. Brausch as to whether it helps or hurts to hide your price until the end of the purchase process. (It hurts.)

3. Businesspundit explains that "marketing is math." He debunks some of the "get rich quick” marketing ideas that are flying around out there.

4. Modern Marketing explores how "brands" can or cannot create "communities." It concludes with a paradox: that businesses that want to create communities cannot achieve it by TRYING. They have to give up control and let the users do it.

5. Queercents asks whether we should (or do) buy from people or companies of whom we morally disapprove.

6. Robbin at Brains on Fire observes that the same things that make a person remarkable also make a company remarkable. She lists the characteristics.

7. David Daniels at Business Technology Reinvention describes the difficulties firms have in hiring Sales Managers.

8. Entrepreneur's Life offers 5 critical questions for effective small business advertising.

Section Five: Articles About Public Policy and Macroeconomics

1. Brian Gongol has a thoughtful discussion of global warming and energy taxes.

2. Leadership Now comments on the firing of Home Depot chief Bob Nardelli.

3. Bio Health Investor talks about Project Bioshield, and the incentives to protect against biological attacks.

4. The New Business World reports on a study that apparently shows that more diverse companies make more money.

5. One-Man Band urges you to contact your congressperson and vote against net neutrality.

6. Insureblog comments on Las Vegas magnate Steve Wynn's attempt to claim on the insurance for putting his elbow through one of his Picassos.

7. The Benin Epilogue has a brief discussion on why Uganda may be ready for business.

Section Six: Other Topics

1. Tattvamasi talks about the failed promise of the three-letter acronym (TLA) and uses it to reflect on some software products.

2. Dilanchian Lawyers provides a link to a story about YouTube's Licensing arrangements.

3. BigPictureSmallOffice points out an example of bureaucracy gone crazy in categorising problems as minor, major and major-plus.

4. EGO reports on AOL's bid for Tradedoubler AB.

That concludes this edition. Thank you to everyone who submitted articles to this week's carnival.

The next edition of Carnival of the Capitalists will be hosted by Long or Short Capital on January 29. You can submit your blog articles to future carnival editions using the Carnival of the Capitalists submission form. If you are interested in hosting an edition of the carnival on your blog, contact Jay Solo, the Carnival of the Capitalists co-founder and administrator.

Managing Up

A few years ago, I asked some people what they wished they had learned earlier in their careers. One of the common topics was about how to manage your boss (or superior).

Here's one such comment I recieved:

The main thing that I want young professionals to know is the importance of "managing up". It is often a negelected skill and you need to learn it early.

It means making sure your manager is aware of the big issues that are plaguing the team and possible topics that may be discussed at a management meeting he/she attends. It also involves filtering the less important details from the important so that your manager does not feel overwhelmed with information. The ability to recognise the important from the insignificant will help a young professional in his/her plight to becoming a successful professional.

I wrote about "managing up" in an earlier post when I gave some advice about the questions you need to ask when receiving an assignment.

But there are many other aspects. How do you get your boss to treat you well, or at least reasonably? How do you deal with over-demanding bosses?

OK, gang. Time for you all to play the game. Let's make a thorough list here by completing the following sentence:

"To manage upwards effectively you should........."

Anybody want to play?

Non-Financial Currencies

What do you do if you're the boss of a group, and someone within it has done well, but you can't give them a raise? What other "non-financial currencies" are particularly effective?

Commonly listed non-financial currencies would be these:

1. Approval (Well Done)
2. Gratitude (Thank you)
3. Autonomy (Extra degrees of freedom to operate that others in the group do not have)
4. Recognition (in front of others)
5. Visibility (to others inside and outside the office)
6. Contacts (to key people)
7. Access to Information (Becoming more of an Insider)
8. Access to additional resources
9. Rapid response (by manager, even faster than to rest of the team)
10. Task support (more resources)
11. Titles (Official and Unofficial)
12. Special roles or assignments
13. Extra Challenges
14. Access to Participation / Involvement in hi-status tasks
15. Personal Interest / Support

Is it possible to say which of these are the best to use? Are some of them dangerous? What categories do you see?

Who's Happiest?

I went to a dinner party the other night, and my host, who is a partner with a Big-4 accounting firm, was discussing his planned retirement in a few years' time.

(His firm has a mandatory retirement policy, which we both agreed was a dumb idea. But that's a topic for another time.)

Anyway, my friend observed that, looking at others who had already retired from his firm, the happiest among them tended to be those who did more than one thing: they started a small business, they did Board work, they consulted, they did some pro bono work, they got involved in their community, or they did some teaching.

The key, apparently, was not doing just one of these. Each activity had its own attractions and pressures. The real answer, it seemed, was having a mixture of things to do, so that you could stay busy without becoming "caught up" in the pressures of obligations that an exclusive focus might bring.

I found this fascinating. I wonder if it's a generalisable statistical truth that (on average) people with variety in their lives are happier. If so, does it apply at all ages?

What do you all think?

A Home Fit For Heroes?

There's a really good article by Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams in the December 2006 issue of the Harvard Business Review called "Lift Outs: How to Acquire a High-Functioning Team." It provides advice to professional businesses whose strategy is to grow not organically, but by attracting whole departments out of competing firms.

The desire to do this is huge. In a lot of my consulting work in a variety of professions, across the globe, it is amazingly common to find that the core strategy for getting into new markets, locations, disciplines and specialties is to go and raid effective groups that, for one reason or another, are less than completely happy in their current firm and can be "lifted out" to the new firm. Building capabilities organically is something that many firms have lost either the patience for or the ability to do.

When "doing strategy," many prominent firms are not really scheming less about how to win clients, nor about how to win in the war for junior talent (who can be subsequently nurtured). What they are REALLY worried about is winning the competition for warlords.

I analogise it to the emerging formation of nation states in mediaeval times, when the barons and warlords throughout had to decide which coalitions they would join, and which emperor they would (temporarily) swear fealty to. In the modern situation, the firm is the (relatively unstable) nation-state. The real power is with the warlords who have the
"following."

So, the main question firms are asking themselves nowadays is: How can we make OUR firm the firm that the best warlords (those with the established reputations and existing book of business) will find the most attractive?

It's proving to be an interesting question.

There's a lot of firms out there hoping that their strategic problem will be solved by a white knight coming in from the outside and solving the firm's problems without the current citizens having to change much.

However, ask any headhunter and he or she will tell you that one of the major concerns of warlords is that they do not want the surplus that they generate (or at least that they think they generate) siphoned off, so they don't like to join firms that don't have tough discipline throughout the rest of the firm. Powerful warlords don't want to join a firm of unenergetic underperformers.

But notice a degree of circularity here. If the rest of the population begins to "raise its game" to make the firm a more attractive place for the new warlords, maybe the current population doesn't NEED the warlords! Maybe they can succeed themselves.

But the core question remains: what makes an emerging nation-state (i.e., a firm) an attractive place for the best warlords? Assuming it does (indeed) want to attract these "lift outs," what's the best way to run your firm so that the warriors want to come with you?

Strategy Means Saying No -- New strategy podcast episode available now

The second episode of my new podcast series, Strategy and the Fat Smoker, is now live and available for download.

This series is dedicated to exploring the themes found in my new book by the same name.  I encourage you to forward these to friends and associates who may be interested in the topics covered.

This second episode, entitled "Strategy Means Saying No", talks about one of the hardest things for a professional to do:  turn down work.  Everyone has their excuse as to why they shouldn't have to, but undeniable fact is that you cannot build a differentiated practice or reputation by being a jack of all trades.

NOTES FOR THE EPISODE:

00:40 -- Strategy is deciding whose business you are going to turn away
02:40 -- Wickham Skinner's concept of the focused factory
05:10 -- Courage:  The only competitive advantage
08:06 -- Excuses And Risk Aversion
12:04 -- Managing for the strategy, not the cash

You can download "Strategy Means Saying No" or sign up to receive new Business Masterclass seminars automatically with iTunes or other podcast players.  (Click here for step-by-step instructions on how to subscribe).  My seminars are always available for download at no cost.

Making A Difference

As an author, or as a speaker, you never know the influence you may or may not have had. Here are two emails I received this week which are immensely gratifying.

"You spoke at my (large) law firm retreat some time ago. I won't embarrass anyone by saying which one, where or when. I thought you would be interested in the result. As you predicted, most of the firm was supportive of what you said but both unwilling to truly commit the firm and unwilling to proceed without the few financially powerful partners who were against the ideas. So things muddled along pretty much as before. I realised it was not going to happen so if it was important to me, I had some hard choices to make. I made them and left after a long partnership to form a small firm of like-minded people. I can't understate the value of the change in my life. I have gone from someone playing out his career without enthusiasm or enjoyment (and being very well-paid to do it), to actually caring about what I do, who I do it with and who I do it for.

"I know that you are in business to make a living and when you talk to firms the goal is to help the firm do better. But I wanted you to know that you are as well talking to each person that listens to you. And in my case anyway, what you said had a profound impact. So thank you very much. Bob"

That was the first one. The second was from Russia:

"Dear M-r Wood! Great interest, intellectual amusement and deep YESSS! -- that's what I've felt reading the Russian translation of your The Trusted Advisor". 15 years of psychotherapy and psychological consulting -- dysfunctional families, drug addicts, co-dependency -- have lead me to the very similar proposals; but you and your colleagues formulate it (and help me to formulate my own experience) with the elegance of gathered Rubik's cube.

You see -- psychological consulting have some specific nature: client's business there is just his personal, very and only personal area. But the question of trust, the stages and technology" of it's establishing, danger of methodical occupation" instead of personality-oriented approach and many other aspects, underlined in your remarkable article, are quite the same (and even more important) as in other areas of consulting.

Thank you for your deep and consistent humanism. Adler can have some rest (as Russians say) -- his ideas of contradiction between the neurotic behavior and cooperation finds in your article very practical actualisation. What a joy for me was to see, that the main principle of my practice -- each problem of client is the challenge, opportunity for personality (not only professional!) growth of advisor, and if the last miss this opportunity and doesn't grow -- he can't help the client -- is one of the main points of your article; it is not formulated, but each line affirms that!

Once again thank you; I wish you, your friends and your families more successes, joyful opportunities, new horizons and grateful readers!

Konstantin Levitskij, Russia.

P.S. I sincerely hope, that the remarks about my professional experience is not the trespass of demonstrating competence; that pointed parallels doesn't look like as inadequate self-orientation; that underlined principle is not a demonstration of value-intervention"; and that the whole letter is not the trespass of compliments. And sorry for my, may be, terrible English!"

Wow! I'm going to keep those two in my folder for "down days" when it all feels like too much of an uphill struggle. It's nice to know there are such honourable people out there, willing to continue the struggle to do what's meaningful and not just what's pragmatic.

Carnival of the Capitalists -- Call for Submissions

I will be hosting the Carnival of the Capitalists, the preeminent business blog carnival, this coming Monday, January 22, and I encourage my readers to send in your own articles for inclusion.

A blog carnival is a regular collection of links to blog posts, on a particular theme or area of interest. The Carnival of the Capitalists is a weekly blog carnival on the wide-ranging topics of business and economics offering readers a compilation of some of the best writing in the business blogosphere.

I hope my fellow bloggers here will consider sharing your best recent business and economics writing, and I look forward to sharing the results with everyone on Monday.

Carnival of the Capitalists Submission Guidelines

• Deadline for submission is 3:00 EST on Sunday, January 21.
• I greatly appreciate if you can send your submissions well before the deadline!
• You are welcome and encouraged to submit blog posts by other people which you'd like to recommend as well as your own writing.
• Articles on business strategy, managing, client relations and career development are especially welcome.
• Click on this Carnival of the Capitalists Submission Form link to submit your article.

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What a Company Needs Most

If you HAD to put them in order, what do you think are the most important key ingredients for a company (or an organisation)?

• A Mission?
• A Vision?
• Values?
• A Direction?
• A Culture?
• A Set of "Rules and Obligations" for membership?
• A Purpose?

Lots of writers play around with these concepts and each has its fans. Which do YOU think are worth spending time on (in which order) if you were trying to help an organisation succeed?)

Offering Advice When it's Not Been Asked For

I was digging around in my old "Q&A" files and found this question from 2003:

Richard, One of my clients' has become accustomed to operating in crisis mode. They are constantly in reactive mode vs. proactive. I have not been asked to help fix this, my firm is involved in other projects. I feel like I am watching a train crash about to happen. How can I get them to see that reactive mode and crisis is not a normal way of conducting business, when they have not asked for help? Thanks.

Here's my (modified) reply:

One of my rules is: don't give your opinion until it's asked for -- it will just be resented. First, you must build a relationship and earn the right to comment. Second, there's no point commenting to someone who isn't empowered to change things. So, you must ask "If they were to change this mode of operating, who would have to lead that change? Who is the key decision-maker here?"

By the way, I don't completely accept your premise that a "reactive mode and crisis is not a normal way of conducting business." It may not be a good idea, but it's remarkably common. Mentally, imagine this: you observe that this person in your social circle that you've met (not a close friend) is overweight and unfit. You think it's not healthy to live that way. They haven't asked your opinion. But you want them to understand that there's a better way. How would you approach THAT???

You'll probably have to guess that you are not the first person to point out to them that their are fat and unfit. They've heard it before, in all probability. So what's going to be different about your approach?

(By the way, you wouldn't tell someone they were ugly and had terrible dress sense, would you? So why would you point out to them they were fat and unfit? Aren't both equally unkind? Maybe there's a business equivalent. Some things you just SHOULDN'T point out.)

The first thing I'd observe is that it won't be the logic of your argument that will prevail. Whatever the process is will mostly be about emotions: creating the desire for the benefits that fitness can bring, helping boost their confidence and courage that, yes, they CAN change, quelling their fears about dropping their past habits, and understanding the group psychodynamics that led to why they operate this way now. You'll need to be a skilled counsellor, psychotherapist and corporate politician to pull it off.

So, to do this well, you have to scheme (at least) WHO, WHEN, WHERE, HOW and WHY.

WHO do you approach? Your current contact? The person causing the problem? The person with the power to solve the problem? The person who's bearing the brunt of the problem?

WHEN do you approach that person? At the end of you current project (when you have earned some credibility) or as soon as possible?

WHERE do you do it? Ask for a private meeting? Take them out for a beer or a meal to get them away from the office?

HOW do you phrase the words?

And, of course, you have to ask yourself WHY you are doing it. Are you really doing it to help, or do you just want to cross-sell something or develop a follow-on assignment?

Anyone got any advice to offer? What DO you do if you're working with a client and see things that urgently need change but which they don't seem to want to tackle? For all of you out there whose firms want you to grow business (or grow "relationships") this should be an important topic. And, of course, those in the business of giving out marketing advice should join in!

How Polite Are You?

A friend let me know that he wanted to find out how well one of his seminars went, but after the work was done, he couldn't get the client to return his phone calls. That happens to me, too, and it got me to wondering about people's sense of business manners.

I think the best way to test what good manners are would be to identify what think we should do, not just what we want others to do to us.

So, think about this: In which of these circumstances do you return the phone call?

a) You have used someone's services, and it was OK -- not great, not disastrous, OK. They want to telephone you to discuss their performance. Do you take (or make) the call?

b) You have used someone's services and you were disappointed. They want to telephone you to discuss their performance. Do you take (or make) the call?

c) You have asked someone for some detail about their services, with a view to considering hiring them. You decide that they are not someone you want to proceed with. Do you call them to tell them why, or just not respond to emails, letters and telephone calls?

d) You receive an enquiry by email about your services from someone who doesn't fall within your “strategic screen.” (ie, they're too small a company, too low level, the wrong type of topic.) They want you to call them to discuss hiring you. Do you place the call and tell them why you don't want to work for them, or do you just not bother?

e) Someone wants to work for/with you as an employee and places a call. Do you return the call to explain why you don't want to consider hiring them? Do you send a brush-off email? Do you just not reply?

f) Someone is interested in exploring a joint venture or alliance with you, something you have never wanted to do. Do you return the call either on the grounds of being open to new ideas, or on the grounds of being polite?

What are your policies?

Immigration and Strategy

I'm very interested in the evolution of professional businesses over time, and how they either evolve or transmute. Sometimes, it can be very confusing to identify what the core identity of the firm is. I have previously written about "one-firm firms" that tend to grow all their own people (ie promote from within) and achieve an ideological consistency. For better or for worse, you know what the firm is, what it stands for, and why it is different from others.

But many firms, in many professions, bring in lateral partners who "grew up" in other firms, and they can often predominate. I sometimes find myself facilitating strategic planning sessions about what shall "we" do when the sense of "we" is very unclear. It's hard to build on a firm's heritage and reputation, for example, if most of the people are "immigrants."

If a firm has been built (as many are) through mergers, acquisition of foreign outposts, diversification through absorption of neighboring states. It can end up having little trace evidence of what it was or where it was when it started. After numerous transitions of personnel, services, locations, leadership and ownership, (often in a short period of time) it can be hard to figure out whether there is ANY meaningful way in which the firm can be referred to as the same entity as it was thirty years previously. If that's so, what does it mean to say there is a firm?

On the other hand, you could look at it like a cooking recipe. A unique blend of immigrants CAN (eventually) define the firm. If you trace the history of the British Isles, you find that you get English people by mixing in a specific recipe of Celts, Angles, Saxons, Danes, Vikings, and Normans. (With a few other spices thrown in over the years.)

In the US, you forge Americans through what? A huge mixture of backgrounds, held together by what? (Some trivia for you: who was the first US president who grew up speaking, as his first language, a language other than English? Answer, Martin Van Buren who grew up speaking Dutch.)

You could argue that the evolution (and success) of the US is based on (a) the fixed points of the constitution melding with (b) waves upon waves of constant immigration, which kept the country entrepreneurial and vibrant.

Could the same be true for a business? Is it or can it be a good thing to bring in significant numbers of people trained and developed elsewhere, and if it is, how do you "meld" them into one organisation rather than have them pull in the different directions that reflect their different heritages?

Down Time

Here's a question I received by email that I bet many of you could help with.

Richard -- I think I'm in a mid-career crisis. I love what I do and I've found a great organisation in which to do it. Coworkers and clients are great and I'm asked to be more creative and given more autonomy (and more money, incidentally) than ever before. My problem is that I'm having trouble motivating myself to do my best work.

I don't understand it -- I've worked so hard to get here, and I've enjoyed that hard work. I don't know if this is burnout or not. I'm early 30's, finished a master's while working full time, worked in high-profile roles in a couple of Fortune 200 companies and have always been labeled a high-achiever.

How do I motivate myself, so that I can motivate those around me? I'm experiencing some pretty severe cognitive dissonance over this -- my behaviour just doesn't match my idea/expectations of myself, but no one else seems to notice. Thanks in advance, L.

Well, L., the main thing I want to say is: "welcome to the club!" I don't want to minimise the distress you must be feeling, merely point out that your experience is not at all uncommon. Certainly I have been through what you describe on a number of occasions, and I would be amazed if most high achievers had not.

Sometimes, you just reach a point where you need to lie fallow and let the mental "soil" regain its nutrients. I'm not qualified to comment on the science of this, and not licensed to be a therapist, but my own experience and my observation of others is that it's a necessary part of all creative activity.

It's only scary if you start believing the falsehood that "you'll never get back" to your former dynamism, and those are normal fears to have. (Again, I know.) But the truth is that the odds that you will be stuck forever in a "I don't feel motivated to do anything" mode is very small. Unless you've got a clinical problem, my advice is to forget about it and just enjoy your down time.

I know that sounds easier to say than do, but like many emotional and mental things, the key is not to try too hard. To take just one analogy: it's kind of like having jet lag after some intercontinental travel, and you're in some hotel room wide awake at 3am. There's no point "trying" to fall asleep if it's not gonna happen, and there's no point adding worry to the problem of sleep loss. You'd be better advised to call room service for a snack or some breakfast, read a book, and go with the flow.

I wrote about the elusive phenomenon of motivation:

"Everybody must have had the following experience: You are responsible for a piece of work about which you just cannot seem to get excited. It is not that the task is too difficult, too easy, or even inherently uninteresting: just that the spark is not there. Nevertheless, being dutiful, you sit at your desk and try to work at it, being neither productive nor doing your best work.

Then the next morning, for some obscure reason, you begin to see the work in a new light. You approach the work in a new way, and begin to delve into the problem. Gradually, what had appeared as mundane now has an element of interest, which grows into curiosity, into fascination and ultimately into involvement, effort and productive, creative work. No amount of procedural work plans, tight supervision or incentive schemes could ever substitute for the inner motivation described in this anecdote as a means to achieve productivity, quality and, not coincidentally, professional satisfaction in a job well done.

This link between motivation and performance in professional work results in an interesting and important phenomenon: the motivation spiral. The elements of this spiral are as follows: high motivation leads to high productivity and quality, which leads to marketplace success. In turn, this results in economic success for the firm, allowing the firm to be generous with its rewards, including high compensation, good promotion opportunities and challenging work. This atmosphere of ample reward breeds good morale, which results in high motivation: and the cycle begins anew.

Of course, the spiral effect also works, all too effectively, in reverse. Poor marketplace success means poor economic success which means fewer rewards available to be shared. With lesser rewards, morale, and hence motivation, is low. This, inevitably and inexorably, leads to poor productivity and less than top quality, which reinforces the lack of marketplace success. In professional work environments, success breeds success, and failure sets the scene for more failure. The spiral can begin, up or down, at any point. But once launched, its forces are hard to resist. In consequence, the motivation crisis is a very serious problem for any firm that allows it to take hold."

L., you may be in a spiral right now, but, as it says above, one morning, you're going to wake up and you'll see an element of interest in something, which will grow into curiosity, which will become engagement, then fascination, then true involvement. And you may never know what started the spiral upwards for you. Your main task right now is to NOT beat yourself up, and stay open to the possibility that something soon is gonna catch your interest.

Oh, and while you're not fully engaged, try and fill the time with something interesting, so that your down time has SOME benefits. Read a book, go for a walk, play at a hobby.

By the way, a book that you might enjoy is "Exuberance: A Passion for Life" by Kay Redfield Jamison.

She's a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and her book is a (well-researched but non-scholarly) description of people in history who have or had an extra dose of passion for life. It's a GREAT read, and you'll see that "recharging the batteries" was part of the life of all these people. You can't be a dynamo 24/7/365 every year of your life, and you shouldn't try to be.

OK everybody, please help L. Join in!

Passing It On

Rich Saletan (who built a very successful consulting firm and then sold it to a mega-firm), posed the following question:

How does a personal services company / consulting company of small to medium size continue after its founders and key management people "retire." Sustainability of the "Brand" is what I am talking about. It seems to me that only larger entities have been able to make this transition. Your thoughts?

Rich, I'm not sure it has anything to do with size. My hypotheses are that if the founders / key managers want the institution (and it's "brand") to survive their departure then they must start doing some things many years before their planned departure. In particular, the founders must:

1. Make sure that the brand of the firm is built on the reality that there are shared ways of behaving, values and consistent principles that underlie decision-making. The founders need to have ensured that they have enforced these through the years, thereby ensuring that only those who share (and live) the values are allowed to remain in the firm. A brand is what people consistently do, and it takes a decade or more to build that reputation for consistency. If the goal is to have the brand survive the founders, people must have been living the brand for so long, they cannot conceive of an alternative way of running the firm's affairs.

2. Start grooming their leadership successor(s), choosing them on the basis of their ability to be "high priests of the brand religion," not for their business or rainmaking skills. The force of entropy is very high, especially when the founder departs -- leaders must be left behind who have been carefully groomed and battle-tested as stewards of the cause, not self-interested individuals who will run the firm as personal fiefs. Choosing the next CEO is critical.

3. Share power, decision-making authority and ownership very early in the life of the emerging firm, so that the up and coming next generation have a sense that it's "our firm" very early on. It's hard to make an overnight revolution from the dictatorship of the founder. Founders can often act like kings -- their people will accept it. But few of their successors can get away with acting that way.

4. Leave money on the table. I often say that the founders can either extract the maximum sales price or leave behind a vibrant institution, but they can't do both. They must decide what they want.

Anyone else have an opinion on this?

Can We Be Manipulated?

Previously, I asked what sales tactics had worked on you. As a follow up, I draw your attention to today's WSJ (January 3, 2007, page D1) which has an article by Jonathan Clements on how so-called "advisers" manipulate you.

He notes that effective financial salespeople feign friendship, asking you all about yourself, pretending you have things in common.

He observes that "Popularity is a pretty good guide when picking things like movies and restaurants, so it's comforting to hear that an investment is popular." And hence we get suckered in to going with inappropriate things.

He makes reference to another ancient sales tactics: Giving a free lunch or offering supposedly inside information to create the sense of obligation that makes people more susceptible to buying.

He reports that one can obtain a free AARP book "Weapons of Fraud" which outlines the tactics used by unscrupulous salespeople by emailing your name and address to weaponsoffraud@aarp.org.

Presumably, the theory behind the book is that, by being aware of the manipulative techniques that salespeople use, we will have better defenses.

I'm not so sure.

Note that these "tactics" are incredibly similar, if not completely identical, to how someone would behave if they really were trying to be helpful to you. Here's someone showing an interest in me, giving ideas away first to earn my trust, from an institution that I've heard of (the popularity or brand effect). That's what a REAL trusted advisor would do isn't it?

I recently (skim-) read a book by Kevin Hogan called The Psychology of Persuasion: How to Persuade Others to Your Way of Thinking.

Aimed primarily at salespeople, it is one of the most effective and terrifying books I have ever read. It summarises and communicates clearly all the manipulation techniques most likely to work when selling a product or service.

What's so terrifying about it all is, that as today's WSJ article points out, these tactics WORK. And yes, they work on you and me.

The difference, presumably, is that the salesperson is using all the techniques as "tricks" but without real sincerity behind them. The Trusted Advisor that I write about is likely to be doing all the same things but with a true desire to help.

So, the effectiveness of my defenses turn on the following question: if someone is doing and saying all the right (manipulative) things, how well do I think I can discriminate between those who are doing it to be truly helpful, and those who are doing the same things just to get my business? How good am I at spotting insincerity?

I'd like to think I'm terrific at it, but I have my doubts.

What do you think? How susceptible are we to the person with high skills and low motives?

Strategy and The Fat Smoker -- New podcast episode available now

The first episode of my new podcast series, Strategy and the Fat Smoker, is now live and available for download.

It is dedicated to exploring the themes found in my article by the same name.  I encourage you to forward these to friends and associates who may be interested in the topics covered.

The first episode of this series, also entitled Strategy and the Fat Smoker, discusses how strategy, like any other life altering decision, requires the discipline to stick to the plan.  In the absence of this determination, most strategic planning is a complete waste of time.  We will discuss some of the tools necessary to do what is obvious but not easy.

NOTES FOR THE EPISODE:

00:43 -- Strategic planning and New Years' resolutions
02:32 -- Future rewards require immediate sacrifice
05:00 -- The only meaningful debate is:  Which diet are you really ready to get on?
16:48 -- Conclusion

You can download "Strategy and the Fat Smoker" or sign up to receive new Business Masterclass seminars automatically with iTunes or other podcast players.  (Click here for step-by-step instructions on how to subscribe).  My
seminars are always available for download at no cost.

Changing People's Minds

We all want to know how to change the thinking of our boss, our colleagues, our subordinates, our clients. But it's very hard to do. After all,

"He who's convinced against his will,
Is of the same opinion still."

(I remember this couplet from college days, but I don't remember who wrote it.)

My experience has been that those who seem to like my work most tend to be people who already share my underlying assumptions (about professionalism, people and passion, to name only three things.) Those who do NOT share my assumptions do not seem to appreciate my work, and neither read my work nor hire me for consulting or seminars. I tend not to have the chance to engage in debates with those I would most like to reach -- those who do not share my world view and might benefit from considering it. And, of course, vice versa.

The same "talking to ourselves" pheneomenon tends to be true in many fields. It's not the left-wingers listening to right-wing radio broadcasts, and if they do, I doubt their views are changed by it. And Congressional and parliamentary debates are all posturing and rhetoric, rather than exercises in reasoning. The opposing parties don't REALLY listen to the arguments of the other side, do they? Even trials often (mostly?) turn on the predispositions of the jury members -- hence the thriving business of selling jury selection advice.

If we're not REALLY engaged in discourse, what difference does ANY writer, speaker or consultant achieve? Do we all just preach to the already converted?

Ian Welsh, a prominent political blogger (he's managing director of www.agonist.org) points out that even if you write for those who fundamentally agree with you, one serves a useful purpose by helping people clarify their reasoning and giving them the ammunition to debate and prevail in the discussions THEY need to have.

Is that what we writers, speakers and consultants do? Is that ALL we can do? Or can we truly convert people to different ways of seeing and understanding things than they started off with? If so, how?

The Honours List

In the UK, it's traditional for the Queen to announce so-called New Year's "honours," including knighthoods, dameships, OBEs -- membership in the "Order of the British Empire" (yes, it's still called that for the honour, but nowhere else). This year, as you may have seen, Bono (of U2) received a knighthood.

Without trying to be regal about it, here's MY honors list for 2007, acknowledging the contributions of everyone who participated on this blog during the year.

Commentors 2006

A

Adnan, Lora Adrianse, Roma Ahuja, Jason Alba, Alberen, Grant Aldrich, David Alev, Scott Allen, Stephanie West Allen, Hugh Alley, Tyler Allison, Andreas, Angel, Recruiting Animal, Annette, Antoine Henry De Frahan, Steve Arpano

B

David B, Mark Baker, Ron Baker, Deepa Balaji, Martin Bamford, Lora Banks, Ann Bares, Chris Barrow, Uri Baruchin, John Beck, Jim Belshaw, Debra H. Bender, Jim Bennett, Ben, Rich Berger, Mel Bergstein, Phil Bernstein, Bud Bilanich, Bill, Friedrich Blase, Barend Blondé, Kent M. Blumberg, Wally Bock, Larry Bodine, Jerry Bogart, Sue Boggs, Bonnie, Eric Bostrom, Leo Bottary, Ed Boulton, Gary Bourgeault, David Bourgeois, Thomas M. Box, Mark Brady/fouro, Anne Braudy, Breakingranks, Ed Brenegar, Kevin Brennan, Bren, Lou Brothers, Bob Brown, Eric Brown, Paul Brown, Rob Brown, Bruce, Jean-Claude Brunner, Duncan Bucknell, James Bullock, Nigel Burke, Tim Burrows, Paul Buseyne

C

Shawn Callahan, Martin Calle, Anita Campbell, David Campbell, Jimmy Campbell, Sean Campbell, Johnny Canada, CarSinger, Sebastian Carey, Travis Carnahan, John Carroll, Allan Carton, Robert Edward Cenek, Prem Chandavarkar, Tom Chandler, James Cherkoff, Clarke Ching, Sunil Choudhary, Chris, Eric Christiansen, Todor Christov, John Clough, Elizabeth Cockle, Colin, Tom Collins, Geoff Considine, Niall Cook, Robert Crampton, Dan Crites, Ctd, Curt

D

DUST!N, Petri Darby, Peter Darling, Bob Daugherty, David, James Davidson, Andrew Davis, Jennifer Davis, Krishna De, Dean, Debbie, Dee, Todd Defren, Dennis, John Dillard, Ed Dodds, Ahmet Dogramaci, Bill Dotson, Stephen Downes, Norman Dragt, Lance Dunkin, Scott Dunn, Joanne Dustin

E

Francis Egenias, Heidi Ehlers, Carolyn Elefant, Emmanuel, Judy Erickson, Eric, Raissa Evans, Ron Evans

F

Steve Farber, Anna Farmery, Brad Farris, Adam J. Fein, Douglas Ferguson, David Ferrabee, Lindsay Fikowski, 1styearassociate, Kathy Fish, Doug Fletcher, John Flood, Dr. Leonhard Fopp, Donis W. Ford, Tristan Forrester, David Foster, Fouro, Linda Freedman(TherapyDoc), Allan Freeman, David Frey, Peter Friedes, Dean Fuhrman, Jordan Furlong

G

David G, Edward Gabrielse, Ganesh, Barbara Garabedian, Charlie Garrard, Gareth Garvey, Gautam, Alexei Ghertescu, David Giacalone, Mike Gilronan, Matt Ginn, Paul Gladen, Dave Glynn, Michelle Golden, Marcel Goldstein, GordonG, Phil Gott, Brooks Gould, Mark Gould, Mark Graban, Gordon Gray, Charles H. Green, Tim Griffin, Clive Griffiths, Dan Griffiths, Lisa Guinn, Peter Gwizdalla

H

Isabelle Hakala, David Harmon, Andy Havens, Jim Hayward, Ken Hedberg, Beverly Hedrick, Hejustlaughs, Lori Herz, Markus Herzog, Joseph Heyison, Tom Hoff, GL Hoffman, Marc Hoppers, Amanda Horne, Chris Horne, Dennis Howlett, Robert Hruzek, Huda, Hunter, Jol Hunter, Laura Hunter, Jon Husband, Kami Husye

I

S. Anthony Iannarino, Paul Illes, Carl Isenburg, Lee Iwan, Lori Iwan

J

David Jacobson, Patrick Jacques, Eric C Jaffe, Jaylpea, Ron K Jeffries, Jennifer, Jld, Joan, John, Stuart Jones, Jon, Joscelyn, Jose, Josh, Juliet

K

Cem Kaner, Steve Kaplan, Danielle Keister, Rita Keller, Tim King, David Kirk, Alexander Kjerulf, Edward J Kless, John Koetsier, Kok Van Der Weijden, David Koopmans, John Kottcamp, Mark Kraemer, Howard Krais, Greg Krauska, Peter Kua

L

Patrick J. Lamb, Ron Lamb, Norma Laming, Van Lanier, David Law, Miriam Lawrence, Greatest American Lawyer, Steven Ledgerwood, Dave Lee, Ed Lee, Mark Lee, Wendy Leibowitz, Moe Levine, Bruce Lewin, Stuart Liroff, Dave Livingston, Dave Lorenzo, Howard Lovatt, Karen Love, Suzanne Lowe, Tom Lowe, Toby Lucich, Ludwig, Andrew Lumsden, Simon Luscombe

M

Brett M, Tim MMF, MOHAN KRISHNAN, Bruce MacEwen, Macz, Greg Magnus, Manny, Mark Maraia, Marco Antonio P. Gonçalves, Markkleeberg, Stephen Marshall, Susan Marshall, Arnoud Martens, Mason, James Mason, Matt Mason, A F Massari, Lisa Mather, Hugo Matislaw, Steve Matthews, Matt, Ed Mays, Erik Mazzone, Alex McCafferty, Lex McCafferty, Moray McConnachie, Erin McCune, Patrick McEvoy, Sharon McGann, Jim McGee, Pat McGee, Bob McIlree, Francine McKenna, Patrick J. McKenna, Michael McKinney, Alexander McLaren, Chris McLaughlin, Malcolm McLelland, Mel, Jeff Merrifield, Carol Metzker, Ann Michael, Mike O'Horo ("The Coach"), Mike, Milan, Warren Miller, MillionDollarCountDown, Maggie Milne, Cristian Mitreanu, Johnnie Moore, Matt Moore, Stephanie Fox Muller, Dan Murray, Mike Myatt

N

Arvind Nadkarni, Rob Nance, Nancy, Nancy Roggen, Liz Nash, Mark Needham, Ludwig Ng, Nicole, Miika Niemelä, Nneka

O

Paul O'Byrne, Eileen O'Hara, Old Secretary, Orikinla Osinachi, Erek Ostrowski

P

Jan Pabellon, Justin Patten, Paughnee, Yiannis Pavlou, Steven Pearce, Bill Peper, Tim Percival, Bill Perry, Florin Petean, Peter, Erich Peters, David Phillips, Lars Plougmann, Jerry Van Polen, John Eric Pollabauer, Steve Portigal, Barbara Walters Price, Gregory Price

Q

Deborah Crawley Quinn

R

RJON, Manoj Ranaweera, Prem Rao, Lyman Reed, Joe Reevy, Russell Rensburg, Ric, Rightwingprof, Jeff Risley, James Robertson, Rob, Steve Roesler, Rolf, Rolf Van Der Meer, Suzanne Rose, Steve Rucinski, Roman Rytov

S

Kosol S., Nick Saban, Jon Sacker, Jeff Sansone, Mike Sansone, Mark Schenk, Brent Schlenker, Spencer Schmerling, Frank Schophuizen, Bryan I. Schwartz, Scott, Tim Scout, Rusty Scupper, Stephen Seckler, Abram Serotta, Rajesh Setty, Roland Shankles, Peter Shaw, Gavin Sheehan, Paul Shillam, Steve Shu, Shuchetana, Coach Shweta, Tom Siebert, Linas Simonis, Carl A. Singer, Carl Singer, Brijinder Singh, Johan Sleegers, Andrew Smith, David A. Smith, Michal Sobczyk, Brian Sommer, Sonnie, Dustin Staiger, Terry Starbucker, Starbucker, Constantinos Stavropoulos, Mark Stevens, Brit Stickney, Prashant Subhedar, Bob Sutton, Nut Suwapiromchot

T

Dan T., Zale Tabakman, David Tebbutt, Ted, Tojo Thatchenkery, Kathleen O'Brien Thompson, Stephen Thomson, Ava C. Thorin, Mister Thorne, Joseph Thornley, Richard Thornton, Charles Tippett, Tired Secretary, Eric Tong, Stefan Topfer, Fiona Torrance, Rick Turoczy, Stefan Töpfer

V

Peter Vajda, Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan, Coert Visser, Von Von

W

Dan W, Michael Wagner, Liam Wall, Bo Warburton, Warren Miller, ASA, CPA, Neha Wattas, Michael Webb, Ellen Weber, Michael Webster, Alan Weiss, Ian Welsh, Ed Wesemann, Fred Wiersma, Mott Williamson, Clyde Willis, Susan Wittenoom, Darren Woolley, Bob Worley, Vicky Wright, Jay Wynn

Z

John Zapolski, David Zatz, Hyokon Zhiang, Zorak163

Trackbacks 2006

AccMan Pro
Accounting for a Detoured Economist
Adam Smith, Esq.
Adventure of Strategy
Advertising Age
Afficionados of Ink
All Things Workplace
allbuynow.co.uk
ALMResearchBlog
Amitai Givertz's Recruitomatic Blog
ANDERS|denken
Anecdote
AngelaRandall.com
Antitrust Review
Asia Mind Dynamics - Accelerate Your Performance
Ask-Dr-Kirk
atomiq

Bag and Baggage
Balanced Life Center
Be Excellent (TM)
Benjamin Bach and Associates
Better Communications Results
Biz Growth News
BizInformer
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Blawg
Blawg Review
blissblast
Blog Business World
Blog Carnival
Blogtrepreneur
Blueprint for Financial Prosperity
Bob Sutton : Work Matters
BrainBasedBusiness
Breaking Ranks
Brown Consulting Group
Brown Consulting Group Blog
Bruce Lewin
Bruce's Blog
Bryan C. Fleming
Business & Technology Reinvention
Business of Marketing and Branding
BusinessMatters
Buyout Blog
BWPrice's Marketing U

Career Intensity Blog
Casual Fridays
Ceci N'est Pas
Central Desktop Blog
Chief Happiness Officer
Client Service Insights (CSI)
Cloudy Thinking
CollegeRecruiter.com Blog
Combat Consultancy
Common Ground
Communications Overtones
Community
Compensation Force
Consumerism Commentary
Coolz0r - Marketing Thoughts
Corporate eLearning Development
Counsel to Counsel
CPA TRENDLINES
Creating a Better Life
Creative Outlet Labs
CRM Lowdown
Crossroads Dispatches
Cultivate GREATNESS | Personal Development
Cyberlaw Central

Debt Hater
DennisKennedy.blog
Direct Response Works

e e learning
Ed's World
Escape from Cubicle Nation
Evan Schaeffer's Legal Underground
Execupundit
Expertise Marketplace - Professional Service Firm Marketing Blog
Fat Pitch Financials
Financial Freedom Library
Forward Blog

Gautam Ghosh - Management Consultant
GEO 12.97N 77.56E
Golden Practices
growing changing learning creating

HealthBlawg
How to Build the Life You Want
HUMAN LAW

idealawg
In Search of Perfect Client Service
Infamy or Praise
Information Overlord
Innovation Zen
Inspire Our Teens UK
Instigator Blog
Integrated Marketing
Internet Marketing Resource Center
itjournalist.com

Jibber Jobber Blog

Kathy Maister's startcooking.com
Kent Blumberg
Kicking Over My Traces

Larry Bodine's LawMarketing Blog
Law Firm Business Development
Law.com Blog Network
Law.com Inside Opinions: Legal Blogs
LawSourcing Blog
lead and gold
Leadership for Lawyers
Lee Iwan, Bits and Pieces of Accumulated Experience
Legal Blog Watch
Legal Marketing Blog
Legal Sanity
LexBlog Blog
Limbic Nutrition
LloydLaw LLP
Luis Villa's Blog
Lunatic Wisdom: Life Beyond the Matrix

MabelandHarry
Manage To Change
Managing the Professional Services Firm
MANGROVE ROOT GANG.com
Marketing - Communications - Greg Magnus at eoecho
Marketing Babylon
Marketing Profs Daily Blog Fix
Marketing Profs: Daily Fix
Math class for poets
Matt Inglot's Thoughts on Entrepreneurship
Media Orchard
Michael's Thoughts
Modern Marketing - Blog by Collaborate PR
Money Thinking
More Than A Living
morepartnerincome
musings from strategic leverage partners
Musings from Strategic Leverage Partners
My 1st Million At 33

Nadim Habib
Names @ Work
Natalie Solent
New Media in Australia
New World Man - always hopeful, yet discontent
NewBusinessEducation

One Man Band
Oplossingsgerichtmanagement

Patent Baristas
Pind.com: Lars Pind's blog
PointOfLaw Forum
PR Studies
ProPR
purple motes
Purple Slog

Re-model 4 Life
Re: The Auditors
Reforming Project Management
Rethink(IP)
Richard Wilson's Space
rmic.be
Roman's miles

SamaBlog
Scot Herrick's BizBlog
Searchlight Crusade
Seeds of Growth
Selling to Small Business
sellingbrand
Show Me the Money
Slacker Manager
Slow Leadership
Small Business Building Blocks
Small Business CEO
Small Business Gurus
SoloBlawg by Ben Cowgill
SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED
Sonnie's Porch
Spare Change
Spooky Action
St. Louis Blogs
Stark County Law Blog
Startup Spark
Steve Shu's Blog
Strive Notes
Success Connections
SuccessJolt

Tech Law Advisor
TeresaCentric
The Agonist
The Airport Lawyer
The Bell Curve Scar
the blogging boss
The Business Innovation Insider
The Business of America is Business
The Business of Information
The Coach Approach
The Engaging Brand
The Entrepreneurial Mind
The Expertise Marketplace
The Globe and Mail
The Greatest American Lawyer
The Lawyer Coach Blog
The Marcus Perspective
The New View From Object Towers
The Small Business Blog
Think Happy Thoughts
third life
thoughtsphilosophies.com
Tim Worstall
Towards Better Life
TrackKnacks: Aptitude Wizard Watch
Transcending Gender

Uncommon Knowledge: free alternative business and technology knowledge to save you time and money.
Unleash Your Potential

Value Added HR - Four Groups
Value Investing, and a Few Cigar Butts
Vanvouver Law Librarian Blog
Verve Coaching
View From a Height
Votelaw

Wealth Building World
What About Clients?
What's on Mike's Mind
Why I FAILED
Widows Quest
Women@Sun
Work Matters
Worker Bees Blog
Working at Home on the Internet
Working Solo
WUCL Career Services News
wWw SirLook Network
www.votala.com

Zale Tabakman
Zen and the art of Nonprofit Technology
Zmetro.com

Podcast Trackbacks 2006

Bryan C. Fleming
Cool Podcasts
Corporate eLearning Development
Forward Blog
Infamy or Praise
Jibber Jobber Blog
Kishore Balakrishnan's Blog
Law.com Inside Opinions: Legal Blogs
LAWYERSCHILE EL MUNDO INTERNACIONAL DEL ABOGADO
Lunatic Wisdom: Life Beyond the Matrix
MANGROVE ROOT GANG.com
Michael's Thoughts
Pro PR
Risley Ranch
Show Me the Money
Spooky Action
Startup Spark
SuccessJolt
The FPG Notepad
third life
TrackKnacks: Aptitude Wizard Watch
WUCL Career Services News

Quite a list, isn't it? If you'd like a title to go with the honour, how about we call ourselves "Members of the Passion, People, Principles and Professionalism Party" (MPPPPP)?

(To pronounce it, sing it along to the tune of "Papa-Ooo-Mama-Mow.")