#484 - Manage, Network, Walk

Quick notes to help you grow your business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week. 

In this issue: 

- Thoughts on Managing
- Being Human
- Random Stuff

Thoughts on Managing

• Life is more pleasant without conflict. What's interesting about great managers is they embrace conflict. A little. When they see behaviors that need to be addressed, they jump in. Mix it up a bit. "Calls it likes they sees it," as one might say. 
• Want to be a stronger manager? Build your bench strength. When you have a strong player ready to step in, it makes it easier to hold current players accountable. 
• It's easier to be a great manager when you're clear on where you're supposed to end up. If you look at your managers and think they need to step it up, take a quick look in the mirror. Is your vision clear? 
• A friend reminded me of a great management saying I used to share with my team. "Exceptions become the rule." Managers need to be careful with making exceptions. One exception is all it takes for a new cultural rule to be established in the company.

Being Human - Meeting new people

“Everyone you’ll ever meet knows something you don’t.”
– Bill Nye (the science guy)

This week I attended an in-person networking event. You'd think with me helping companies with sales and marketing I would do more of the basics for myself. I was pretty active from 2012-2020, but since that time I've found it easier to send an email or set up a Zoom call. It's not what I'd recommend, but like the management idea in the first section says, when you make exceptions they become rules. Skip an event and the next one is easier to miss. 

As someone who looks exactly like me wrote in a book, once momentum goes, it goes. It will take a minute and effort to rebuild. 

For me, "inspiration motivation" has been building for a few months. I have tried this and that, but haven't stuck with anything because I can turn cynical in a flash. Networking events are easy for me to dismiss. I get tired of trying to break through the clusters of big company attendees gathering in the corner, checking a box for showing up. The tiny startups, excited to talk about their idea, but not clear on what they're looking for. The sales rep praying someone pulls them out of their current company. Just thinking about these people makes me tired. 

So why did I go? It was a speed networking event. 60 people, 3 minutes a visit. No matter how good or how bad the conversation was, 3 minutes and Ding! Move on. 

I met all the regulars, but also met a half dozen people I wouldn't have met otherwise. They made it worth my time. I find myself wanting to help them, which is fun. I didn't find any new projects for me, but that's normal. There's something about mixing it up that sends a signal to the universe, and new opportunities arrive. 

I should do more of this.

Random Stuff

94% of Parisians live within a 5-minute walk of a bakery. 

When was the last time you walked to go get a thing? Like, I need bread, so I'm going to take a walk to the bakery?

We have a local bakery. I've walked there. It's a destination more than an errand. I go to sit there and eat my pastry. I don't go there to buy a loaf of bread and take it home for dinner or anything.

I'm thinking about this because I have taken one of the cars in for its annual dealer visit. It takes a minute, so I sit here and do work. Part of my "work" is watching this dealership operate. It's a fascinating setup. I bet if you sat down and started a car dealership today, you wouldn't design it to be like it is. After 100 years of selling cars, it's morphed into its own weird world.

The center of this world seems to be the finance manager. It's the last stop before we get to take our new ride home. The last place for the dealership to make a little money.

I watch a nice couple go in the room. I feel their excitement. He is wearing jeans with wool socks and Birkenstocks. I know that look. I have that look. Growing up in Colorado, it was almost de rigur. I know how comfortable it is, but looking at him, I begin to doubt my fashion choices. Do I look like that? Looking around, I start questioning everything. 

Within minutes, I find myself hating this waiting area with its piped in Muzak. Hating my time spent in cars. Hating that I don't live in a walkable city. Why aren't I in Paris right now? 

My name is called, and I walk by the general manager's office. His last name is the same one on the building. He's looking at something and shaking his head. We make eye contact, nod, and smile. Both of us wondering, how did we get to this point? 

He goes back to his paper, and I go home to change into a fresh pair of wool socks and walk around in my Birks.