Sat: 12 Nov 2011

2.5 Quick Tips for Dealing with Board Members

I spend an inordinate amount of time in one on one meetings with entrepreneurs. And it occurs to me that there are two (and a half) simple skills that can be employed to great effect.

Tips for Dealing with Board Members

When getting advice or feedback, don’t defend, explore

If you’re seeking advice or feedback from a member of your board (or someone in a similar advisory capacity), present the issue, idea, or dilemma that you want advice on. Then listen. Ask questions. Engage in conversation. But DON’T DEFEND OR REBUT.

Your goal is to get that person’s input – not explain why their input is in your opinion irrelevant, wrong or just plain stupid. I’m not saying it might not be irrelevant, wrong, or moronic – it very often is (not very often, but you get my point.) If you’re seeking someone else’s input, you want them to open up and give you their full perspective. Analyze and critique it on your own time. You should leave the meeting with an understanding of their feedback. It’s up to you to decide (later) if it’s good bad or ugly.

Instead of defending (which often sounds like this: “I tried that but . . .” or “I hear what you’re saying but . . .” or “I don’t want to do that because . . .”), explore what they’re saying. Ask questions and listen. “What do you think we’ll learn if we do what you’re suggesting?” “What would you do next if that doesn’t work?” “That sounds great – if we couldn’t do that, what could we do?”

If you wanted help moving a couch, you wouldn’t nag the person about their technique until they dropped the couch – so don’t ask for advice and then immediately criticize it. That’s rude and ineffective.

Eliminating the negative is not the same as creating the positive.

This is a bit more subtle, but just as important. Let’s say you’ve got a problem. And as a result of this problem all sorts of negative things are going on in your company. And you’ve got an idea that will fix the problem – and eliminate the negatives. So how should you sell the solution? You can either say “If we implement this solution, these problems will go away.” or “If we implement this solution, things will be better.” Trust me, the second option, when available, is the way to go. If you simply talk about eliminating problems, then people can get drawn into a debate about whether those problems are in fact problems, and whether the solution will eliminate the negative. If you talk about enhancement (making things better), people are much more receptive. Try it and see.

Bonus tip: STFU

Best way to get advice from your board members is to STFU. Stop talking and start listening. Don’t spend the limited time you have with your advisors talking – talk little, listen a lot. Nuff said.

2.5 Quick Tips for Dealing with Board Members

Epic Launch: Keep your marketing on schedule

One of my new favorite blogs is Epic Launch (http://epiclaunch.com/). They’ve got a ton of great lists on their site, including one on keeping your marketing plan on schedule. I really dig this list. With a lot of the startups I work with, one of the big challenges is keeping projects and tasks on schedule. When you’re the only one minding the store – it’s damned easy for the emergencies to take over (even when they’re not emergencies) and for the work that requires a consistent and steady tempo to get done erratically and inconsistently. That’s why this tip is so spot on:

“Visualize Your Web Marketing Plan

One of the best things you can do is create a visual strategy. Put together a month by month and day by day strategy in an excel file and keep track of all your efforts. Put together your plan of attack for 6 or 12 months so you can see what it is that you will be doing. The organization and visualization will allow you to stay on track with everything you do. It will also keep you motivated to continue moving forward with all the efforts you have planned. Keep in mind that this plan can always be tweaked and modified in order to stay innovative in your approach.”

Love it! Check out Epic Launch and soak up the brilliance.

Are you a major league business or playing T-ball?

My son is going to start playing t-ball this spring. It’s for 4 and 5 year olds – so they don’t keep score. They don’t track hits, errors, runs, etc. Which makes perfect sense since the point of t-ball is to learn the basics: where to stand, what it’s like when the ball is in play, what base to run to, etc. Keeping score, playing to win – these just get in the way of the purpose of t-ball.

Meanwhile, my favorite baseball team (sorry Tigers – you’re my five year old’s favorite team) the Chicago White Sox are 10-16, and only one game out of last place in their division – a division where they were expected to compete for first. The problem is their hitting. How do I know this? Well thanks to the Sun-Times and their kick-ass stats team, I know that the Sox haven’t “scored in the first three innings in 12 of the last 13 games and has scratched out all of 41 runs in the last 17 games.” Why does this matter? Because it’s the White Sox job to play AND WIN games. The owners of the team have invested substantial money in the manager, coaches and players with the purpose of winning.

So what exactly does this have to do with business? Well ask yourself – is the purpose of your business to win it all (i.e. achieve success) or is the purpose of your business to improve your skills (i.e. learn something)? Your investors and I hope you know the answer – it’s to win – to achieve success. So if you’re planning on winning – you better keep score – and not just wins and losses – but all the little stats that create wins and losses. The wins and losses follow from things like how many runs a particular pitcher gives up – and the batting average of the hitters. The success (wins, or money) follows from good work (hits, strike outs, or a fiercly effective email campaign).

Seems simple right? Except it isn’t. I’ve given advice to dozens of startups and very few of them know how many visitors their websites are getting. Few of them know how their average customer would rate them on a scale of one to ten. Ask yourself – how many emails did you send out? How many people opened them? How many visited your website? Etc. Etc. Etc. If you’re not paying attention to these fundamentals, you can’t improve your number of wins. You become a victim to your actions – not the master of your actions. This can be damned ugly. If you’re in the majors – pay attention to the score and learn how to make informed decisions to improve the score.

Are you playing in the major leagues or playing t-ball?

Here’s a quick way to tell the difference – have you been given money for your effort? Are you getting paid? I pay for my son to play t-ball – if he learns to hit – awesome. If he doesn’t at least he’ll have fun. Paul Konerko from the Sox? He gets $12,000,000 a year. He better get some hits. You should too.