January 29, 2011 in Leadership and Inspiration

Are you a leader, manager, or both?

“You can not manage men into battle.  You manage things; you lead people.” Grace Hopper, Admiral, US Navy

You may have noticed that some managers can not lead.  To lead is to organize and motivate others around a shared vision in order to accomplish a common goal.  Strong leaders tend to adhere to a set of values, paint a vision, promote teamwork, and motivate action.  A leader tends to inspire trust, have a long term perspective, and focus his efforts on people.


You may not have noticed that some leaders can not manage.  Management requires a specific attention to detail.  Strong managers excel at planning, organizing, and coordinating.   A manager tends to rely on control, have a shorter view, and focus her efforts on systems and processes.


Leadership and management are both essential in business.   Managers facilitate successful projects.  Their day to day activities help to propel an organization through these successes.
 Strong leaders are hard to find.  Their value transcends a single accomplishment as they tend to boost the performance of the entire organization within which they lead.


Are you looking to take your career to the next level?  Looking to have a greater impact?  Ask yourself a simple question – are you a leader, a manager, or both?  If you’re a leader, challenge yourself to play a managerial role where appropriate.  You may gain credibility.  If you’re a manager, stretch yourself to think long term and focus more on people, values, and principles.  This may help increase your influence and effectiveness.   If you’re both, well, congratulations, your talents are few and far between.



January 25, 2011 in Faith and Family

Inside the Vatican

“Inside the Vatican” – those three words have taken on a multitude of meanings over the past month and as with all things related to faith, I would expect them to continue to unfold over time.

Just over a month ago, through a mutual and well respected friend, I met the Executive Publisher and the COO of Inside the Vatican.  For 18 years Bob, the founder and executive publisher has been publishing the “little magazine”, as he call it, that strives to maintain journalistic integrity and independence in order to report on matters of concern to faith and the Catholic Church.  In this time, Inside the Vatican has gained the public respect and praise of Bishops, Cardinals, and even Pope John Paul II.  It also seems as though both the CIA and KGB subscribe to the magazine to stay up to date on Vatican affairs.  Quite an impressive list of readers for a “little magazine” that has operated as a non-profit and on a shoe string budget.

Bob, Debbie, the COO, and I met to discuss the transformation of the media industry, the effects the internet and social media have had on his distribution, and what the future holds.  Bob, naturally, was torn between a nostalgic love for print and the prospects that the digital revolution bring with it.  Ultimately, his genuine love for truth and his calling for disseminating the Word of God led him to fully embrace the idea of virtual distribution – not only for his own publication, but for the Catholic Church as a whole.

It was this passion which ultimately prompted Bob to invite me to attend a Symposium for the Foundation for Evangelization through the Media this past weekend.  The symposium hosted, among others, Archbishop Celli, the President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, some of the worlds must successful business men and women, and professionals throughout the Catholic media world.  The symposium was held in Rome and those of us that attended were given the opportunity to go “Inside the Vatican” – a unique experience to say the least.

It’s difficult to put the experience into words.  Eyeopening and life changing may provide a glimpse into the overall experience, but a few key observations may begin to paint a deeper picture.

  • I found great hope in the fact that the Holy See is embracing new technologies and taking serious the new media.  More than their presence at the event, I was rather surprised and excited to learn how spot on, and even forward thinking, a couple of their internal initiatives are.  They are truly “high impact”.
  • It was inspiring to see people of faith gather from around the world to share their time, talent, and resources.  As the biggest “nobody” in an otherwise “Who’s Who?” event, I was encouraged by the humility, collaboration, and alignment of mission amongst many of the big names.  I had the feeling as we left that the connections that were made would lead to some great things – both in the business world and for the Church.
  • I was struck by the pastoral nature of our interactions with Archbishop Celli and the Secretary of the Council, Msgr Paul Tighe, who went out of their way to make us feel welcome and at home in Rome.  Msgr. Celli spoke to us as a big brother or old friend, once even punching me in the gut in a playful way as we joked during a break.  Msgr. Paul (an Irishman) took a small contingency to dinner at a local pizza house on Sunday night in order to collaborate further and welcomed us into his private residence for some Irish Whisky afterwards.  I can only assume that in addition to being holy and personal men, this is a reflection of their role representing Mother Church.  I really did feel at home in Rome - something I didn’t expect.
  • I gained significant exposure and insight into how the Vatican works.  It’s easy to forget that it’s a vast, ancient, and complex organization and that I undoubtedly have very little insight into the reasons why things occur.  I went exacerbated that, among other things, the vatican website reminds me of 1994 and left with an appreciation for the reality that while many insiders may share my frustration, there are a multitude of factors that I have no insight into that may impact their ability to make change.  While the Church is undoubtedly a bit too bureaucratic, meeting the people at the Vatican changes your perspective.
We stayed in the Santa Marta, the new residence where the College of Cardinals stayed during the conclave to elect Pope Benedict.  I was impressed by the simplicity of the room and entire hotel.
In addition to the bed, there was a simple chair and simple desk.  

This is the view from the window of my room.  I literally could have thrown a football out the window and hit St. Peter’s basilica.  Right to the left of the scaffolding is the private door into the basilica
where I’m told the Pope and Cardinals enter for ceremonial Masses.
We had dinner on Saturday night, after a private tour of the Sistine Chapel, inside the storage area of the Vatican Museum.  Yes, we were in the midst of ancient ruins – can you see some of them in the background?



Sunday Mass was celebrated by Archbishop Celli in the crypt below  St. Peter’s.  The glass doors behind are provide a window into St. Peter’s tomb.



After mass we were able to pray in front of the tomb of Pope John Paul II the Great.  It was my sister’s birthday, so in addition to praying for Teresa and the kids, I asked for JPII to intercede for her.



January 17, 2011 in Business and Entrepreneurship

Pick One: Following Policy or Loving your Client

Southwest Airlines ran a couple of ads during the NFL Divisional Playoffs today that summarized a blog I have been planning to write for the past week.  While the campaign takes a dig at larger airlines who charge “Change Fees” for modifying your flight schedule, I wonder if there’s not a broader lesson that can be learned.
I head to Rome this coming week.  After making my initial reservations with American Airlines, I stumbled across a second set of connections which would bring me home about an hour and a half earlier for roughly the same price.  Needless to say, I attempted to change the tickets, only to find that it was against policy to do so without charging the $150 fee.  I decided to keep my money.
Before I continue, understand the scope of my change request.  I am scheduled to leave Rome on Monday morning, stop in Madrid, on to Dallas, and then finally into Washington Dulles around midnight.  The alternate schedule would have me leave on the exact same flight to Madrid, only to fly to Miami before arriving at Washington Dulles at 10:30. The same destination and arrival airports, the same departure flight, but a tighter set of connections.  Fairly simple, and obviously not any more expensive for the airline, especially since I can see online that the flights are now priced identically.  An easy change that would have made a very happy customer.
It struck me as incredibly bad business, as I spoke to the very friendly, but obviously unempowered operators, that no one, not even the supervisor I asked to be escalated to, could make the change without charging a fee.  Yes, I understood that I purchased a non-refundable ticket, but if anyone with any business sense had pulled up my profile, they would have seen the following:
  • 10 year member of the Aadvantage program with over 500,000 miles flown
  • Platinum or Gold status in 4 of the 10 years, one of which was just last year
  • Significantly increasing international and domestic travel over the course of the past 9 months
  • 7 family members associated with account (my infant can still sit on a lap, so they don’t know about her), and travel with all of them occurs at least once per year
I’d think I’m a fairly decent customer for an airline.  Wouldn’t anyone with half a brain understand that saving me an hour and a half would build strong loyalty that would in the long run be much more valuable than $150?  I would think so for any customer, but especially for one who’s proven to provide a bit of recurring revenue over the years.
Obviously, this was a policy issue.  American Airlines charges a minimum $150 fee to make any changes to a discount economy fare.  I’m guessing that the reason is more complex than simply wanting to make $150.  It probably stems from the nature of “full fare” and “discount” tickets and the need to differentiate their value in some concrete way (full fare tickets are refundable and flexible, while discount tickets allow them to stick it to you whenever they get the chance).  Either way, in my book, this is bad policy.
This whole episode got me thinking.  How many times, in business, do we put policies in place and fail to understand the ramifications?  Do we listen to our front lines, actively seek feedback, and empower our employees to do do what’s right for both the customer and the business, regardless of policy?  Do we have mechanisms for escalation in place and a clear owner that can overrule the policy?  If not, we may look like a well oiled policy focused organization, but we won’t be creating the kind of long term, mutually beneficial customer relationships that build great businesses.
As the “Big Airline CEO defendent” in the Southwest commercial says about the discount airline in the follow up commercial - ”they love customers, I love cash”!   That sure is the message I got from American. I hope my company never sounds so foolish.

January 10, 2011 in Business and Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology

6 ways successful media will react to your new media consumption habits

In a recent blog post I outlined the core disruptions causing the Media Industry to change. Changes to distribution channels and the editorial role, the explosion of content sources and the use of multi-media over a dedicated medium have all become reality due to advances in technology and consumer demand.  I received a bit of feedback seeking my thoughts regarding how these disruptions have already and will change the media industry.
As I alluded in my first post, the most critical fallout of all these disruptions is the evolving relationship between content producer, publisher, and distributor. Now that content is more widely accessible and distribution more digital, the role of publisher and distributor seem to be overlapping, if not merging. Both parties are fighting to figure out how to stay relevant and monetize their role while simultaneously ensuring they don’t get squeezed out of the value chain.
In order to remain relevant publishers must change their thinking.  Media is no longer a content centric industry. It is consumer centric.  The plurality of content sources and technology enabled aggregators has given consumers the freedom to choose what content they want to consume, when they want to consume it, and through what medium. Additionally, it has allowed consumers to interact with the content, even to the extent of becoming producers of content themselves.
Through collaboration with industry insiders and the experts we have working with our various media clients, I have developed the opinion that the successful publishers of the future will:
  1. Recognize generic content is becoming more of a commodity and shift the center of their distribution model from content to consumer.
  2. Differentiate their brand through high quality content and exclusive relationships with household name producers.
  3. Recognize the shift in their editorial role and yield their editorial powers to the consumer.  The publisher’s role is now one of accurate tagging in order to provide relevancy and weighted suggestion rather than final authority.
  4. Develop technology platforms to provide access and optimize the use (within the appropriate legal restrictions) of their content for their consumers.
  5. Embrace open and social platforms in order to integrate their content, brand, and distribution into the fabric of their consumers every day life.  Just like the newspaper used to be the staple of every businessman’s breakfast routine, publishers must find a routine in their target consumer to be the staple of.
  6. Realize the financial models of content, editorial, and distribution are changing.  Advertising, subscriptions, premium content models, and several others are still being explored and I, personally, doubt, we have found the model for monetization just yet.  

Publishers must remain alert and flexible and have the systems ready to easily deploy content in new ways in order to capitalize on the innovation yet to come.
The constant, rapid evolution of technology is forcing key players in the media industry to adopt an unprecedented fluidity in order to remain relevant and monetize their role within the flux. It is not far-fetched to predict the successful publishers of the future will reflect and embody, at a minimum, the six attributes listed above. 

January 7, 2011 in Business and Entrepreneurship, Faith and Family

Can potatoes teach us anything about life?

I remember very well the pain I caused my mom as an adolescent as I scoured the boxscores, watched a game, or built legos.  It wasn’t the activities that killed her, it was oblivious to anything else going on that suck in her craw.  I think she honestly thought I was ignoring her, unfortunately, I literally couldn’t hear.


Now I feel sorry for my poor wife.  It’s bad enough that I have been unable to resolve my hearing problem and she is my new victim.  She sent me to the Dr. a few years ago and he confirmed that I had the syndrome commonly known as “being male”.   Unfortunately for her, this seems to be a hereditary defect.  My 7 year old son has displayed similar symptoms and I suspect my 2 year old has the same disease – today he broke out with a rash that others commonly call “potatoes” in his ears.

As with all things in life, I do believe that you can learn something from our disorder.  So what is it that this natural skill my boys and I have of “tuning out” can teach us?  Focus.

Too many people think that focus is the ability to tune in to something.  It’s not.  Focus is all about tuning out everything else.  If you want to have incredible focus, learn to say ‘no’.  Are you struggling to get something important checked off of your todo list?  Start saying ‘no’ to the urgent things that seem to always take priority.  Is your business struggling to land clients in your target market?  Start saying ‘no’ to those that aren’t in it.  

Learning to focus is a great skill to have.  To put it into action, start practicing the art of saying ‘no’.  I guarantee it will pay dividends.  You might make your mother a little bit angry, but whatever your doing will be done well.

January 5, 2011 in Business and Entrepreneurship, Faith and Family

All roads lead to Rome (My continual convergence of passions)

As the saying goes: All roads lead to Rome.

In my recent post, A Convergence of Passions, I outlined how my career progressed from media to technology centric and then, ultimately, a combination of the two. Much to my surprise, the convergence continues, this time, bringing my professional and personal lives together in an integration I could have only hoped for.

While at Franciscan University I was fortunate to study Communications from not only a technical perspective, but also from the perspective of the Catholic Church.  During my sophomore year, I read Communio and Progressio, a pastoral letter instructing Catholics on the Church’s teaching on Social Communications and encouraging them to embrace the media and leverage it for good.  This struck me as significant, especially in so far as the Church specifically encouraged the young to embrace new technologies.  It was this motivation that piqued my passion for media and my overarching goal to be “in the world but not of the world”.

Venturing out after graduation, I was pulled more and more toward technology and  found myself applying this mandate to my new career field.  My calling shifted from leveraging media for good to leveraging internet and web based technologies for good.  Of course, given that the internet is often referred to as “new media”, this was anything but a stretch.  You can imagine as the technology and media sectors have converged in my professional life, I felt as though this “jump” had been validated.  That said, one aspect was lacking.  My work was undoubtedly beneficial to society as it played a role in enhancing productivity, optimizing business, and eventually creating jobs, however, it lacked a supernatural element I had always found intriguing.

Today I am proud to announce I will be heading to the Vatican later this month to leverage my experiences in technology and media for an even greater good.  The Pontifical Council for Social Communications will be holding it’s first ever symposium for the Foundation of Evangelization through the Media.  The purpose of the conference is to gather “Church leaders, entrepreneurs of high potential projects for evangelization through the media, and major business personalities” in order to “help the Church meet the challenge of having a stronger presence in all media”.  Having received the formal invite to the symposium only five days after posting “A Convergence of Passions”, I can only stand in awe of the plan God has for my life and the lack of awareness I have to what it is.  I have been truly blessed and can only pray that I am able to respond to his calling.   My life continues to converge before my eyes. . .

 

January 4, 2011 in Business and Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Inspiration

Proactive Employee Relationships: On-boarding

In my first video blog, I discuss my recent realization that in order to live our core values more fully, Three Pillar must begin proactively building mutually beneficial relationships – instead of just waiting to make the right decisions when the opportunities present themselves.
One example of how we do this already is the onboarding process that our culture working group and recruiting teams have collaborated to develop.  I touch upon the impact that this process seemed to have just today as we welcomed 9 new employees – across the world – to our team.  It amazes me that three of these individuals went out of their way to comment on how organized and engaging our onboarding process is.  Do other employers not invest in welcoming new employees to the team?

Here are a few ideas on how you might improve your own on-boarding process.  What other ideas do you employ that may help us get even better?

  • Don’t just organize the boring aspects of orientation – filling out paperwork and computer setup.  Organize inculturation.  Set aside time for your newest teammates to get to know the role models who you look at as the archetype of your ideal employee, team members they will work with, and key players within your organization.
  • Instead of communicating legalese, policies, and procedures, think about communicating culture, guiding principals, and other positive aspects. 
  • Put your money where your mouth is.  If your employees are as important as you say they are, you will find time to spend with them and invest in your on-boarding process.  One size does not fit all, build an orientation and on-boarding process that demonstrates your core values. 

January 4, 2011 in Uncategorized

New Year, New Name, New Format

Believe it or not, 2010 has come and gone and it’s time to start fresh.  Over the course of the next few weeks (or maybe months), in addition to your new year’s resolution, you will begin to see a few fresh aspects of this blog.  I’ve tried my hand at this for about 5 months and since I’ve proven to myself that I can not only keep up with the demands of being a blogger, but also that there are actually people interested in hearing what I have to say, I’ve decided to take it to the next level.  
Starting today, this blog will be renamed the “shufflepass” blog.  Why shufflepass? Well, what kind of blogger would I be if I gave away all my secrets at once?  I’ll save that story for another blog. Suffice it to say that you will notice a new domain, a new look and feel, and other changes in the near future.  Don’t be surprised.  
Secondly, given that we live in a multi-media world, and I happen to blog about the very reality that media must embrace this change, I figure it’s time for me to start video blogging.  In a few minutes, I’ll post my first ever video blog.  I don’t have a strategy or expectation regarding how often I will post one format or the other.  I’ll figure that out as I move forward.  That said, I do think you will find Shufflepass to be a rich experience, a bit more interactive, and hopefully a ton more fun!
Welcome to Shufflepass!

January 3, 2011 in Business and Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Technology

Your media consumption is changing (and why the industry that provides it is being forced to react)

If you have been paying attention, over the past year we have witnessed the beginnings of a Media revolution.  We all knew in our gut that the industry had to change to stay relevant.  During the past year, we saw the change begin to take root right before our eyes.  In August it was leaked (only to be reported more officially a few months later) that Newscorp had hired over 100 journalists for it’s new “iPad only” news service – dubbed “The Daily”.  USA Today parent Gannett announced in October that it planned layoff of 10% of staff while it simultaneously ramped up it’s focus on digital distribution.  


Have you ever stopped to wonder what is behind this change?  Several recent discussions have lead me to conclude that many people, even some industry insiders, don’t understand the core reasons why media companies must reinvent itself.  During a recent strategy session,  Dan, Mike, and I identified the following disruptions:

  1. Distribution channels are changing – dramatically.  Newspapers, magazines, radio, and television are all being replaced by digital counterparts.  Your laptop, tablet, phone, and a slew of other digital devices are the newest channels and they are quickly overtaking their legacy counterparts for mindshare.
  2. The editorial role is evolving.  Due to the static nature of legacy distribution platforms, publishers have traditionally been responsible for defining what was ultimately consumed.  Now consumers have direct, or near direct, access to content producers and are able to locate content more freely.  The consumer’s limiting factor is no longer accessing content, but rather, an over abundance of content.  Because of this, the editorial role has now become one of suggestion and defining relevance, as opposed to importance and a final decision.
  3. The medium used to communicate is now fluid.  Most publishers no longer target a single medium – the written word, video, or audio.  We now live in a multi-media world where publishers embrace multiple media in order to provide the consumer with more choice.
  4. The sources of content are changing and expanding rapidly.  Publishers likely no longer know what content they have access to, how to find/access it, and what rights they have to it.  The potentials are unlimited and technology is driving their ability to digest, manage, and leverage all of their content.

Each of these disruptions are fundamental to the media sector and individually each one would require significant changes to the media industry.  When combined, they create a perfect storm.  The end result is an industry in flux.  The lines between the traditional roles of producer, publisher, and distributor are being redefined and each is looking to stay relevant.  The players within a multi-billion dollar industry are looking for new ways to monetize content and divide the pie.


What other core disruptions have you seen?  How do you see these paradigm shifts playing out?  What do you think the answer is?  Will they and how do publishers stay relevant?  At the end of the day, will the old adage remain – “Content is King”?

December 22, 2010 in Business and Entrepreneurship

A Convergence of Passions

When I graduated from college in 1999 I assumed a career in media lay before me.  Passionate about leveraging the media for good and wholesome entertainment, I spent a large portion of my time in school trying to “get ahead” in the industry.  I worked as a sound technician for nearly all four years, helped in the production of several television shows, and produced three independent CDs, two of which sold through nation wide distributors. I left school confident in my mission – to be in the world but not of the world.  My sandbox – Media.

After a couple of “less-than-bill-paying” job offers and one month into my post graduate life, I realized it was going to be nearly impossible to support my soon-to-be wife, never mind a family, in a young TV or Radio career. Spurred by this realization I took a job at a high-tech advertising agency developing websites.  Within three months I joined a software firm that was developing a product to simplify website development and deployment.  This was my first step into the tech industry and I have never looked back.  Something just felt right about this new direction.

Had I been originally mistaken about my calling?  Did I betray my passion?  Was I wrong to leave Media behind?

The transformation currently under way in media is revolutionary.  Digital advancement now allows consumers to interact and be much more selective with a wider range of content.  The traditional focus on content has been surpassed by a focus on an autonomous and deliberate audience.  Traditional media and content publishers – the newspaper, magazine, tv, and radio companies I originally pursued for jobs – are now forced to redefine their entire business model or risk becoming entirely irrelevant.

For me this is exciting.  Life has brought me back full circle.  The media industry has collided head first into the technology sector and I have been fortunate enough to be right in the middle of the explosion.  The revolution has created an opportunity for Three Pillar Global to work and speak with some of the strongest media brands in the US – PBS, Time, Newscorp, and Gannett, just to name a few.

So, no, to answer those questions, I don’t feel as though I was mistaken about my calling, disloyal to my passion, or wrong to leave Media. I just happened to be ahead of my time. So, if you’re concerned that you have been disloyal to your passion or you’ve taken a wrong turn, don’t look back.  Keep moving forward.  Trust your gut.  You just might find that you were just a few steps ahead of your time?

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