A colleague recently hosted an online discussion on effective ways to use business cards. I was amazed at the responses. Long discourses on one-sided versus two, how many colors, slick or matte finish, crafting an effective marketing message and so on. And on and on and on. When I hear this kind of discussion I wonder if these people have missed the bigger picture.

I think business cards are overrated and most people do not know how to use them. Design may have been pretty important back in the days we all had Rolodexes, but does anyone use them now? Of course not. We transfer the contact information electronically and toss the cards. Oh, I admit to keeping a few from some people I'm close to, but who needs to store the physical card anymore? I talk to people who agonize over font and color. I'd rather they agonize over the value they bring to customers.

And this. I see this all the time at networking events and so have you. We're sitting at a table and one or more people make no introductions other than to pass out a card to everyone at the table. No introduction, just a card. Unless those people take the time and courtesy to introduce themselves, I throw those cards away. Or someone approaches you and the first thing he or she does is hand you a card. They should be introducing themselves and asking about you. Instead, they lead with a card and make it about them. It's all backwards. 
 

Cards are a minor tool in successful networking, not a strategy. If someone takes an interest in what I do, asks me interesting and provocative questions, shows they're interested in building a relationship based on mutual needs or concerns or just plain interests, then I'll gladly take their card. I'll write myself a quick note on the back to remind me of a few key facts. That information goes into my computer and phone and I will send a short note, usually an email, saying I was pleased to meet him/her, and try to follow up with an item of interest to them within the next week. I'll also search for them on LinkedIn and send an invitation to connect there. 

Pay basic attention to your card, but don’t obsess over it. Simple is more professional, and clutter looks amateurish. Why do real estate and insurance people always put photos on their cards? I have no idea. Now, if a business is of a creative nature, like advertising, a little style element looks fine. But no holograms! Has anyone closed business on the strength of their business card? Have you ever decided on using a company because their rep’s card just overwhelmed you?
 
Shouldn't we be focusing on the value we bring to people we meet? Unless you're a natural extrovert, networking can be a daunting, at times terrifying task. And it's the latter who I've found spend an inordinate amount of time carefully crafting their cards because it's easier than developing a strong value proposition and practicing a few opening lines that focus on the person being met and not on themselves. Let's focus on what really matters.

I've had a lot of questions about Mitt Romney recently as he pursues the Republican nomination for President. Mitt was my boss ten years ago when he was CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, which was responsible for staging the 2002 Winter Olympics. I managed the leadership and customer service training for the volunteer workforce and staff, and I had a front-row seat to observe Mitt's leadership style. Politics notwithstanding, Mitt was an exemplary leader and I use his example from workshops to college classes.

There's a lot, too much you could argue, that's been written about leadership, and I won't get into definitions and descriptions here. However, there are several traits that are universally accepted as being common to and essential for great leadership, and Mitt demonstrated them well.

• Vision: Mitt envisioned a future for the 2002 Winter games that was clear and compelling. This is always essential but even more so at the time because of the so-called scandal that forced the previous CEO and his leadership team out. Mitt laid out a vision of what could be as we all moved forward, and presented it with enthusiasm. He conveyed absolute confidence that we would succeed, and that our goal To Be The Best Games Workforce Ever would become a reality. Great leaders can inspire people to share their vision and we did.

• Communication: A mark of great leadership is great communication, by word and deed. Mitt did both. He was constantly communicating the vision in venues large and small. Sometimes it was an all-hands meeting of the 5000 SLOC staff, other times it was small, impromptu meetings in the hallway. I even remember speaking with Mitt in the men's room and even there he was always on message, always exuding confidence in us and fulfilling the vision. Another time after a huge volunteer event, Mitt was outside greeting the volunteers as traffic snarled to a halt leaving the venue. In full Olympic uniform, he went directly to the street and began to help direct traffic out of the parking lots. Cynics labeled it a stunt, but there was no hesitation and it inspired the volunteers.

• Crisis leadership: When 9-11 occurred, the world community suggested that the Olympics be cancelled. Here in Salt Lake, our headquarters was in a 30-story building and frankly many wondered if we would be targeted next. I asked our trainers to poll the volunteer training classes to see if they wanted to see the Games go on and if they would continue themselves. Overwhelmingly the answer to both was yes. Mitt considered all the factors and advice from national and world leaders and made a very decisive statement. The Games would go on. In fact, the world needed the Olympics now more than ever, he announced. In the face of the worst terrorist attack on American soil, we would show the world what could be, the international display of sport presented with complete cooperation from nations around the world. We would enhance security, of course, but the Games would go on.

The Salt Lake 2002 Winter Olympic Games were an unqualified success. From the president of the International Olympic Committee calling them the best-run Games in modern history to the universal compliments from media around the world, the vision was accomplished. And in terms of fiscal responsibility, Mitt insisted the Games not operate in the red as virtually all others did, but that we would have a budget surplus, and we did.

So from a leadership perspective, Mitt is as good an example as you can find and I can't praise him enough for his example at the Olympics. A final observation: we had a 10 year reunion of the Organizing Committee a month ago, and Mitt took time out of his campaign schedule to be there. As he spoke, I looked around and saw people from every political perspective, and Republican and Democrat alike they were all cheering. Great leadership transcends personal politics, and he united a very disparate group to accomplish the task of staging the largest international sporting event doing so with resounding success. And never once does he claim credit, but instead pours the praise onto the staff and volunteer workforce. That's something else great leaders do.

I’ve always hoped that a side benefit of studying human behavior and its cultural context is that I improve my own behavior. Like many people, I have a ways to go, and there is no shortage of examples on all sides. I prefer to look for and emulate the positive traits and behaviors I see around me, yet there is great value in noticing the negative, too. It reminds me what not to do as I see its effect in client situations, even friends and family. In my consulting work the problems I encounter usually fall into a few general categories, with interpersonal behavior always near the top. I encountered the latter on a personal level not long ago.

In addition to consulting, training and coaching, I teach at a local college. Not much, one or two night courses a semester. I love the classroom and the energy from the students, who even though mostly work full or part-time, are still eager to learn. No jaded cynicism yet and I learn as much as they do.  But now I have colleagues, fellow faculty members, and my interactions with them are not in my regular role as consultant.  A few weeks ago, I was in a meeting with some full-time faculty in the business department, and we were comparing notes on a course we all teach. I like doing this since I can always pick up a few good ideas to use. Well, I happened to share the fact that in one unit of this course, I take a class period to conduct one of my training workshops. Well, an abbreviated version, about one and a half hours. It’s on navigating change; it gives the students an interactive way to learn about change management and gives them workshop experience. We have fun and learn a lot each time. One faculty member wasn’t impressed. He remarked: “Well, putting them through that should be enough to sour them on training.” Both his tone and look were dismissive. It was clearly a put-down.

Now this man doesn’t know me well, and has never seen me present a workshop or even teach a class. Why would he say something like that? On the one hand, we can never really know. But on the other, we should never accept it and let it go unchallenged. This is classic passive-aggressive behavior, and usually designed to elevate the perpetrator at the expense of the insulted. What prompts someone to do this? Low self-esteem? Insecurity? Maybe. Probably. This type of person sees life as a zero-sum game and sees your success as diminishing his own. If you succeed, I fail. You’ve met them and you usually are too shocked to say anything when on the receiving end. You don’t have to be and shouldn’t be. That kind of behavior is poisonous  and needs to be challenged on the spot. Which I did. I said “Why would you say that? You weren’t there and this workshop is one of my most requested and popular. We try to give students real-world experience here. Do you have something against training workshops?”

If left unchallenged, this negative behavior continues and more people are hurt by it. Whole departments can be affected. Let’s be aware of this behavior and prepared to nail it on the spot. If you notice, I wasn’t mean or rude, but I was plain in my challenge of his insult. I wanted him to justify his words. Anyone can do it and should. We have to do our part in not letting our own well be poisoned or our department or team or whatever the group. It requires a certain confidence to not be bullied, and the rewards are tremendous. When accountability is lost, the bad behavior multiplies. Check that behavior right away! Your confidence will grow and group satisfaction will improve more than you can imagine. I try to never exhibit this behavior myself and if I do, call me on it. Right away.

Once you’ve let your culture get out of hand, it’s unbelievably hard to fix. That’s true for businesses, nonprofits and in this case, a city. Yes, my hometown of Philadelphia, whose government culture of ethical lapses and corruption is surpassed only by Chicago, has attempted a cultural shift towards integrity. How? By appointing a Chief Integrity Officer, of course. Do I applaud? Laugh? Scream, maybe?

I did all three, although the applause was of the one-handed Zen variety. Before I launch into why this is so crazy, let’s look at the description given in a press release. “Joan Markman is the City of Philadelphia’s first Chief Integrity Officer…. She is charged with promoting  honesty, integrity, and transparency in City contracting, disposition or use of City  property, and provision of City services.  Among other things, she reviews and monitors advertising, consideration, and award of city contracts, disposition and use of city property, and provision of city services, and makes recommendations for reform of city processes where necessary to strengthen accountability and transparency.” Ms. Markham is a former prosecutor and US Attorney in fraud and public corruption cases, a background I’d consider essential for this job.  Her job description is an admission of failure in all those areas, that integrity is lacking and oversight is needed.

Apparently the city has owned up to its well-deserved reputation for generally ignoring the ethics rules and policies already on the books. Well, OK, good, admitting you have a problem is the first step towards eliminating it. However, when you try to change a culture that has been one way for so many years, decades really, prepare for resistance. Mighty resistance. Especially from those who have benefited from the way things have been for so long. When you come in and announce “we’re going to change the way things are done around here,” and plenty of people see no reason to change a system that’s doing fine for them, it’s time to get fitted for a flak vest.

Culture includes an organization’s values, norms, beliefs and behaviors, and if integrity is missing in these elements you foster corruption, and dishonesty becomes de facto policy. In a city’s case it can include graft and misuse of public funds. In a company it can mean shady sales practices and cooking the books. We could make quite a list. There’s a huge problem when the current culture rewards the current personnel and they have no interest and no incentive to cooperate with change. It’s a long, hard, slog and like most change management initiatives, the odds are tilted towards failure.

This is why it’s so essential for senior management (or a mayor) to integrate integrity from the start, to infuse all policies with this principle and hire only those that can support and demonstrate it themselves. And then be vigilant of all behaviors and hold people to full accountability, from the top on down. And I mean starting at the top, no excuse given for position. The earlier you can institutionalize this, the less need there will ever be for a Chief Integrity Officer. In reality, we should each be our own.

Change management always means cultural change and it should include some change of personnel. I have a friend who’s experiencing this first-hand and he is frustrated every day. He came from a company that was fast, agile and a leader in its field, and is faced with raising the bar in an organization that has basically stood still for decades. They have a new chief who has announced his intention to move performance to much higher levels, but they’re dealing with a culture and employees that don’t change that easily. What is my friend to do?

After listening to my friend for over a year now, I’m inclined to tell him good luck and get a prescription for a good antidepressant. His problems lay in three main areas:

• Existing culture: this place has been a stagnant pond for many, many years and processes have developed to maintain it just that way. The current beliefs, principles and values sound better than what is actually produced. In fact, they sound really good, but there is no evidence that anyone tries to implement them. It’s a culture of mediocrity perpetuated by the next problem,
• Existing people: the current employees see no reason to change anything. They like it there! They’re rewarded for minimal performance and results, so why would they want to change that? When my friend tries to introduce higher standards, there’s plenty of push-back or just apathy. Who’s not doing the job here? Problem 3,
• The new president: He’s introduced a new set of values and a mission statement with great fanfare and passion, but they’re so involved it takes a half-hour just to read the bizarre chart they’re posted on. You can’t expect people to get behind something that needs a translator! And he won’t get rid of the people in key positions who are obvious obstacles. One man has been in such a job for fifteen years and has done nothing but act as a caretaker. He’s openly resistant to change and yet there he stays.

These are common problems in any organization trying to make changes. They’re challenging but not impossible to overcome. But it requires senior leadership to lead the way, and in my friend’s case that’s not happening. The new president needs to replace a number of people but won’t and they’re holding everything back. My friend has a lot of responsibility but no significant authority and so his frustration will continue. There are few reasons to think anything will improve soon.

Leaders have to make tough decisions when changes are being made. Clear vision and values are required, yes, but so are signs that you mean it! What is lacking here and often elsewhere is accountability and the guts to replace key people with those that will back the new initiatives 100%. Try and win the hearts and minds, sure, but after a year with no progress it’s time to get some new people, the right people, on the bus.

Change management always means cultural change and it should include some change of personnel. I have a friend who’s experiencing this first-hand and he is frustrated every day. He came from a company that was fast, agile and a leader in its field, and is faced with raising the bar in an organization that has basically stood still for decades. They have a new chief who has announced his intention to move performance to much higher levels, but they’re dealing with a culture and employees that don’t change that easily. What is my friend to do?

After listening to my friend for over a year now, I’m inclined to tell him good luck and get a prescription for a good antidepressant. His problems lay in three main areas:

• Existing culture: this place has been a stagnant pond for many, many years and processes have developed to maintain it just that way. The current beliefs, principles and values sound better than what is actually produced. In fact, they sound really good, but there is no evidence that anyone tries to implement them. It’s a culture of mediocrity perpetuated by the next problem,
• Existing people: the current employees see no reason to change anything. They like it there! They’re rewarded for minimal performance and results, so why would they want to change that? When my friend tries to introduce higher standards, there’s plenty of push-back or just apathy. Who’s not doing the job here? Problem 3,
• The new president: He’s introduced a new set of values and a mission statement with great fanfare and passion, but they’re so involved it takes a half-hour just to read the bizarre chart they’re posted on. You can’t expect people to get behind something that needs a translator! And he won’t get rid of the people in key positions who are obvious obstacles. One man has been in such a job for fifteen years and has done nothing but act as a caretaker. He’s openly resistant to change and yet there he stays.

These are common problems in any organization trying to make changes. They’re challenging but not impossible to overcome. But it requires senior leadership to lead the way, and in my friend’s case that’s not happening. The new president needs to replace a number of people but won’t and they’re holding everything back. My friend has a lot of responsibility but no significant authority and so his frustration will continue. There are few reasons to think anything will improve soon.

Leaders have to make tough decisions when changes are being made. Clear vision and values are required, yes, but so are signs that you mean it! What is lacking here and often elsewhere is accountability and the guts to replace key people with those that will back the new initiatives 100%. Try and win the hearts and minds, sure, but after a year with no progress it’s time to get some new people, the right people, on the bus.

Success may breed success, but it can also breed complacency and contempt. This is not a new insight, but I have yet another example of the latter. One indicator is when product quality drops and customer service is ignored. My latest example is Skullcandy, a very successful business that manufactures ear buds and headphones. During last year’s crushing economic troubles, their CEO was quoted as saying “Recession? What recession?” Their sales growth was outstanding, their marketing budget seems limitless, but quality and customer service, well, that’s a different story.

And here’s my story. My family has owned several pairs of Skullcandy earphones, and in less than six months, three of them broke. Keep in mind that their products are not cheap! I expected better. In one case I returned the earphones to the company in person (they’re local here in Utah), and was offered a replacement for no charge. So far, so good, that’s what they should do. I paid a little extra to upgrade and left. A few months later, the new phones broke. The new, more expensive ones. Their website makes a big deal about their customer service, and this time I wrote them a message on the website explaining my dissatisfaction with the quality of their product. You can brag about customer service but I don’t want to have to keep using it!

I heard nothing back. Not a word. It seems they encourage you to send them a customer service message, but don’t expect a reply! Not my definition of service. So I decided to write a letter to Skullcandy’s president. An actual letter, on my business letterhead, explaining my concerns with poor quality earphones and no communication from their customer service people. Generally this brings a swift response. Company presidents usually know the value of keeping customers and projecting a good corporate image. Not so with Skullcandy. It’s been over a week and I’ve heard not a word in response. Again.

Products that break in a few months and a total lack of responsiveness from customer service and the company president. That’s Skullcandy. They’re still selling boatloads of their products, but this will catch up with them eventually. I ordinarily take pride in local businesses and try to buy from them whenever possible. But I won’t be supporting Skullcandy again if they think that little of their customers.

If you’re a consumer, don’t let businesses off the hook when they let you down. You are the marketplace and your voice should be heard. If you’re in customer service or run a business, one of the biggest dangers is when things go well. Don’t relax, don’t take customers for granted. Quality and service bring us in, lack of them drive us away.

One of the great things about being a consultant and having several sales training certifications is that as a consumer, I can spot certain sales techniques a mile away. And if I’m in the mood, I’ll call the sales person on what he or she is doing, even naming the specific closing technique and telling them what to do if that one fails (and it will). So much of selling sounds contrived, even attempts at so-called consultative selling, and I wonder if the perpetrators ever think about what they sound like on the receiving end. I mention this because of a sales call I received about a week ago.

I was driving home from an appointment when my cell phone went off. I don’t usually take calls when driving and almost never from a number I don’t recognize. That day I did. A young man’s voice asked if I was Bob Ligget with Corporate Pulse Consulting, I responded yes, and without identifying himself he began to ask me about my day, the time of year and my general health. I finally said that by now I knew the purpose of the call and asked this young man if he would please tell me who he was and who he worked for. Turns out I had dropped a business card in a fishbowl at a business expo I attended here in Salt Lake City a while back, knowing full well about this standard marketing ploy and now I was reaping the consequences.

The voice informed me he was with V Chocolates, a small local boutique chocolate company, but what really got me was his next statement: “We’d like you to consider purchasing our products as you consider your business gifting needs this Christmas season.” I stopped him right there. After telling him I buy from V Chocolates every year, I said I may stop this year if he didn’t cease and desist from using the word “gifting.” He seemed more than a little shocked and tried to tell me what the word meant, in case I didn’t grasp the concept. I asked if “gifting” was really on his script and proceeded to tell this now-confused young man that if he expected to be successful in sales he shouldn’t use stupid make-believe words that sound “businesslike” to people who don’t really understand business. We had a great conversation after that. He had just started phone selling three days before, and rather than get upset and hang up, this young man asked me why I didn’t like the word “gifting,” what I did in my business and would I give him some advice. Impressive, and he’ll go far with an attitude like that.

My advice to him is the same I give to any sales person, heck, to any business person: stop abusing the language with goofy jargon and phrases that sound impressive only to those who use them and ridiculous to those who have to listen. It’s verbal abuse and benefits no one. I suggested to my caller that he rewrite his script to ask his prospects if they would consider purchasing V Chocolates as gifts for clients and customers. Isn’t that how normal people talk? He did agree, and even thanked me for the advice. No charge, I said, and I would now probably buy some again this year. And I have. I think their chocolates are the best around and I admire the business itself.

One further note: if I was his boss, I would have had him write a note and maybe include a coupon or a small sample as a follow-up (he had my card with all my contact information). That’s sales plus customer service, costs next to nothing and builds huge amounts of good will as well as ensuring further sales. And that’s what the company really wants, isn’t it? Small things can pay enormous dividends.