Val Wright's Blog, page 4

How To Use The “What-If” Game To Your Advantage

I just read a brilliant book that reminded me how the “What-If” game can either weigh you down or lift you up.

The New York Times best selling book The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is a fascinating read exploring one woman’s view of the choices she made and how it impacted her life during her moment of death.

I won’t say more to avoid spoilers, but I highly recommend it as a summer read.

If you have ever second guessed yourself, got stuck in the regret roulette, or wondered what would have happened if you made an alternative decision in your business or whole life, this thought provoking read is for you.

This is my favorite part because sadness, failure, or tragedy just isn’t talked about enough :
“There are patterns to life . . . Rhythms. It is so easy, while trapped in just the one life, to imagine that times of sadness or tragedy or failure or fear are a result of that particular existence. That it is a by-product of living a certain way, rather than simply living. I mean, it would have made things a lot easier if we understood there was no way of living that can immunise you against sadness. And that sadness is intrinsically part of the fabric of happiness. You can’t have one without the other. Of course, they come in different degrees and quantities. But there is no life where you can be in a state of sheer happiness for ever. And imagining there is just breeds more unhappiness in the life you’re in.”
Enjoy the read and let me know what you think if and when you read it.

…my fall 22 and 2023 calendars are filling up faster than previous years. Let me know soon if you are considering possible new work together so I can prioritize your requests!

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/

**photo credit: julia poppa

Three Simple Questions For The Perfect Vacation Reflection This Summer

I usually send this to the CEOs and leaders I work with on the first day of their vacation. Whether you are on top of the French Alps skiing, lying on a Spanish beach, or road-tripping across Nevada, intentional reflection will help you return to your work refreshed and grounded. 

Here are the three simple questions I ask: 

What are you most proud to have accomplished since your last vacation? This can be your mindset, your habits, your relationships, or your business results. Consider your whole life, not just your work life.

What has brought you the greatest satisfaction and joy since your last vacation? Get very specific: ask yourself why it brought you satisfaction, not just what brought you satisfaction.

What have you learned about yourself since your last vacation? I intentionally frame this as “since your last vacation” so that the focus is on recent experience, not old stories and news. It is also a great forcing function to note the frequency with which you take vacations.

As a side note, I would love everyone around the world to embrace the European method of vacation, as it boosts productivity. Unlike some countries, the majority of Europeans take a vacation to actually take a vacation, not work from another location, explaining on every call or in every email that you are on vacation but just checking in, or monitoring email. I challenge each of you to make this crucial statement to your team today: 

“Vacation Definition: no emails, meetings, or any work.” 

Your team, and their friends and families, will thank you for it. 

A further way to embrace the European vacation way is understanding and embracing the fortnight concept. I am not referring to the computer game, but the European name for fourteen consecutive days. It is common to take a fortnight’s holiday, fourteen consecutive days away from work. Any European reading this may consider that I am laboring this point, but it is for good reason, because it is such an alien concept that sometimes you have to hear the idea more than once! 

Even with the recently popular so-called Unlimited Vacation policies, still in the US the time people take away from work is not enough. 

So add to your playbook prioritizing, taking, and role-modeling for your team the art of taking a long vacation where you do not work.

Enjoy your summer!

You can find this and other executive tools

for how you communicate and lead with purpose in my latest book Words That Work:

Communicate Your Purpose, Profit, and Performance, Kogan Page 2022.

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Elon Musk Is Wrong About Needing 40 Hours In The Office

Is it detached and delusional to expect those who have worked remotely in the past two years to return to the office for 40 hours a week? 

Or… are Musk’s words a dose of cold reality because he is right to believe that employees “pretend to work” when they are not in a corporate office?

I’m still wondering what the real reason is that Musk would state that everyone has to be back at the office for 40 hours each and every week and failure to do so would be considered as their resignation. Perhaps he was hoping to create some additional attrition to achieve the 10% headcount cuts he said were needed?

Can the multi-billionaire entrepreneur father of seven, really be that detached from the sentiment and practicalities of the current world of work?

Musk shock tactics aside, you might not be surprised that he isn’t the only executive right now who thinks along these lines. It is certainly the minority from the conversations I’ve been having with CEOs, boards, and executives across many countries, but there are those who agree with Musk and the need to return physically to a regular office location. 

The trouble is, those companies who are forcing it are seeing how effective that strategy is going: Empty offices with minimal employees showing up and those who do are frustrated that they battled their commute to sit in an office on video calls with their remote colleagues and no difference of experience, connection, or communication. Not exactly encouraging. 

What is encouraging is the in-depth report The Reinvention of Company Culture published this week which is backed by significant surveys, data, and analytics. This report shows just how the world of work is changing and some immediate practical ideas. 

(Perhaps Musk and his executive team could benefit from taking a moment to read it!)

All 67 pages is worthy of your time to read, but for those as impatient as me I’ve included my favorite parts here:

Flex to the max: The old way of working is history as flex culture takes hold 

In the future, one-size-fits-all is not likely to fit anyone.

“Having everyone in one office space, 9 to 5, seems out of date now,” says Paddy Hull, vice president of the future of work at Unilever. “Flexibility is the way forward.”

Employees want flexibility in where, when, and how they work. And they’re more than willing to head out the door if their organization isn’t providing it.

“The people who are satisfied that their organization does a good job providing work flexibility in terms of time and location,” says Justin Black, head of people science at LinkedIn, “are 2.6 times more likely to be happy working at their company and 2.1 times more likely to recommend that others work at their employer.”

Flexibility also serves as a forcing function that drives companies away from presenteeism and toward performance.

“Organizations,” says Nickle LaMoreaux, CHRO at IBM, “must measure outcomes, not activity.”

Once a company couples agency with accountability and starts rewarding results rather than face time, it’s not such a large

leap to something like Flex Appeal, the program launched by international staffing agency Austin Fraser. Alice Scott, the firm’s chief operations and inclusion officer, describes the initiative as “work where you’re productive, when you’re productive, from day one, forever.”

But that new freedom puts new demands on company culture, which must now deliver equity for every employee, no matter where or when they work. Strong, highly functional cultures will work well no matter what time zone you live in or what time of day you do your work.

Some jobs, of course, can’t (yet) be done remotely. “Flexibility,” Nickle says, “is still the key.” Companies are offering job shares, different shifts, compressed workweeks, and other forms of flexible scheduling to make sure onsite employees can also shape work around their personal lives.

Ways to maximize flex time at your company 

As employees have shown they can be trusted to get the job done during the hours of their choosing, more employers are allowing workers to set their own schedules. “When you give someone choice and it comes backed with trust and with no consequences and no small print, I think that’s game-changing,” says Austin Fraser’s Alice Scott. “The effects for us have been overwhelmingly positive.” Here are some ways to offer your employees flex-time options while still achieving your business goals:

…I always check the sources before reading a report like this one. Saving you the search and posting for you right here. 

I’m curious how this relates to your own company right now and if you are a role model for others or where you see opportunities. Email or text me, I’d love to hear. 

Sources:

Survey 

Insights about job seeker priorities when considering a new job are based on LinkedIn’s Talent Drivers survey conducted in June 2021, with nearly 20,000 respondents across the globe. Respondents were asked to select up to five of the most important factors when considering a new job from a list of 15 employee value propositions.

Insights on employee happiness and feelings of care are derived from millions of Glint survey responses from more than 900 organizations; more details can be found in the Glint Employee Well-Being Reports from September 2021 and December 2021.

The survey data on C-level executives is based on a LinkedIn-commissioned YouGov survey of over 500 C-level executives from U.S. and U.K. organizations with 1,000+ employees and US$350+ million (£250+ million) annual revenue, from August 4 to 24, 2021, to understand how they are considering the future of work. The survey was conducted online.

The survey data on top areas to invest in to improve company culture was gathered from a LinkedIn Omnibus survey conducted in September 2021 among English-speaking, active LinkedIn members across the following countries and regions: US, UK, Canada, BeNeLux, Australia, India, Southeast Asia, Brazil, Germany, Middle-East and North Africa (MENA), Nordics, and Spain.

Behavioral insights 

Behavioral insights for this report were generated from the billions of data points created by nearly 800 million members in more than 200 countries on LinkedIn today. These analyses include data from September 2019 to September 2021.

Insights about job posts, company posts, member posts, and job titles are based on a keyword analysis using three categories of keywords: company culture, flexibility, and wellness. Categories included similar terms (e.g., flexibility included “remote work” and “work from home” as keywords) and were translated into Spanish, French, Japanese, Dutch, Italian, German, Portuguese, Turkish, and Chinese. Keywords were then used to classify content for comparative analyses. For comparisons between 2019, 2020, and 2021, the analysis considered all job posts, company posts, and member posts in the month of September of each year. If not otherwise stated, keyword analyses are based on all posts made in September 2021.

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Book Of The Week Winner: Words That Work

Lioness Magazine just announced Words That Work as their book of the week.

You can read the full interview here. My favorite question they asked me was who the book is for and why people should read it. Here’s my reply:

If you’ve ever replayed a pitch, a meeting or a conversation back and wished you could have a second take at what you said, this book is for you. Too many times, it’s easy to get caught up in preparing precise presentation slides or detailed spreadsheets without spending the time to plan and practice exactly what you will say and how you will say it.
Words That Work is full of quotes and scripts that tell you just what to say to get the results you’re looking for with your board, your investors, your team and your peers. It deconstructs the power of language and gives you tools you can immediately use to communicate your personal and company purpose that will deliver you profitable growth.

Take a moment today:
Ask yourself if you are having candid conversations with your teams about the most-difficult-often-avoided topics…

…it’s easy to be too cautious and hold back, when the opposite is needed
…it is easy to avoid rather than face conversations that need to be had
…it’s easy to form habits of avoiding and placating situations when sometimes you have to agitate
…it’s easy to do this if you create your own “truth telling norms” with your team and peers about just how candid you can be with each other and how you will go about sharing your candid feedback.

Are your truth telling conversations happening at the right moment with the relevant people?

Chapter One of Words That Work gives you the tools and techniques you need to create a truth telling culture around you. You can download it here.

Send me back your reflections from any of the tools shared in Chapter One before the end of June and I’ll share some personalized advice for you.

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Read These Top Three Stories In The WSJ Today

I love Sunday mornings with a pot of coffee, listening to British radio station Soul Central Radio, and the real paper version of the Wall Street Journal. (Online scrolling just doesn’t cut it for me…)

As I mentioned last week, I’ve just completed seven days of travel for technology conferences, private leadership retreats, brand strategy development, and acquisition integration. 

I took an extra day to myself before flying home and sleeping for ten hours straight. So Sunday morning was even more meaningful when I got to enjoy the cool California morning and read these thought provoking pieces. 

Each could have been featured alone in this week's VALuable Insights as its own topic but I couldn’t pick between them so you get the rapid version of each!

YES I know these are behind a paywall but I really do recommend you subscribe and get the old school style paper delivered to your door each morning. It’s worth it. 

Should Mayo Have A Purpose?

Love this particularly as I have been working a lot lately with Chief Marketing Officers on brand strategy and how companies can define who they really are (and how much their customers and employees really care!)

Terry Smith, one of Unilever’s largest shareholders gave my favorite quote.

It supports my belief that you can’t pretend to have a purpose or reason for being that is made up or doesn’t deliver return on investment for your shareholders.

This article is packed full of examples where chasing a purpose for the sake of a marketing campaign is a waste of time and money!

Why Social Media For Making Connections Isn’t All Bad According to Those Younger Than Me

Reed Hoffman has the 10th Edition of the book he co authored out The Start Up of You, and offers some interesting insights into those younger than me (or is it younger than I? My British / American grammar confuses me no end these days…but you get the point.)

Where Peloton Went Wrong and Can’t They Fix it?

Peloton executives must have whiplash from the speed they have gone from superhero to villain and back again so many times in the last few years.

The deconstruction of the events of their Rapid Growth certainly will feature in a future new edition of Rapid Growth Done Right as an example of what not to do during Rapid Growth!

This fascinating case study is unfolding before our eyes as we peddle, run, and meditate through endless classes…

I’m sure the PR shot of the executive team breaking ground on the new Peloton Factory doesn’t fill everyone with the optimism and hope that it once did!

If you want to read more about how creating a Company Purpose that isn’t based on marketing fluff or nebulous claims check out Words That Work, Kogan Page, 2022, to learn more or text / email me and we can talk live!

…I’ll be in Europe in July, and traveling very sporadically in June and August, so if you are thinking of a strategy retreat, conference, workshop, or event let me know now so you get your preferred dates on my calendar for 2022 and 2023!

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/

How To Enjoy Being Back Traveling For Business Again

Carlsbad, Austin, and Houston this week.

This is actually a record for me even in pre-pandemic times. Three events in six days with three different companies. Keynote talks, strategy retreats, board retreats, brand development, and executive team performance is my focus for the next week. 

I've heard a lot from executives lately about the tension of stress and joy of returning to business travel. Mainly stemming from feeling like untested expectations are unrealistic. When actually failing to reset habits is the true cause. 

Here's how to handle returning to business travel…

Preparation Yes, it is going to take you far longer to pack and you will forget things but nothing that instacart or online delivery in your country can’t solve….

The real preparation you need to do is with those who work with you. Let them know how to contact you and who to talk to in your absence.

It is unrealistic to expect that those traveling can keep up with the deluge of texts, IM’s, Slacks, and emails. Cover their back. Help them out. Set rules for what to expect when from those traveling again. There won’t be the immediate responses that we have all grown accustomed to.

Reality Check Don’t go back to your old travel schedule. Travel will never be the same…Customer visits will never be the same… Conferences will never be the same. Ask everyone. How can we do this differently?

Customers are looking for new ways to interact. Customer Advisory Boards are the new powerhouse, do you have one? Let me know and I can share work I have been doing that transforms how your customers view you.

Building in fun Nope, I don’t mean cheesy team building. I mean laughing till you cry, hugging people ( if you both like to hug), being sarcastic if that’s ok in your country and company culture and finding ways to laugh at yourself. Work doesn’t have to be annoying and tedious and some of the toughest work assignments are made easier when you get to laugh along the way.

Find a common thing you and your team like to do together. Whether that is eating, sight seeing, Learning about the history of the city you are visiting or helping a local good cause.

We all have a lot of catching up to do. So whether you love or hate going out with those you work with, perhaps it is time to adopt some new habits.

Dawn Ringstaff, VP of Channel at Area 1 Security is a great role model for adopting new habits. As we say talking before 400 technology leaders gather for the Women of The Channel event tomorrow. Dawn shared how she has recently adopted a new habit of approaching anyone who is sat alone at a conference to ask if they really want to be alone or want to talk. 

Imagine that. For every one person who found it hard before lockdown to socialize with strangers… there are ten times as many who find it hard today to initiate conversation and say hello. 

Be like Dawn, approach someone sat alone and check if being on their own is a choice or if they would like to say hello. 

Ask your team how they want to reconnect. 

Meanwhile, you can never be too early to book into my calendar. 

…I’ll be in Europe in July, and traveling very sporadically in June and August, so if you are thinking of a strategy retreat, conference, workshop, or event let me know now so you get your preferred dates on my calendar for 2022 and 2023!

If you want to read more about how to find new ways to communicate, check out Words That Work, Kogan Page, 2022, to learn more.

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/

If You Haven’t Tried Warby Parker Now Is The Time

I can’t quite believe how bad my eyes are. I only know because this week my new glasses arrived from Warby Parker, and I can finally see clearly again. It’s like the windscreen wipers just cleared my eyes and I can see again when reading and typing!

…I put it down to lockdown too much screen time. 

…I put it down to perhaps being too tired 

…I put it down to having my phone in my hand a little too much. 

When actually I just needed some glasses!

After throwing away hundreds of dollars each time one of my daughters lost their really expensive glasses I finally decided to try Warby Parker. I wasn’t disappointed. 

If you ever want to study a business disrupting an industry here it is. 

Beyond having a purpose, a cause, continuing to do good and provide glasses to someone in need for every pair of glasses sold…

The customer service is simple and fast

The choices are plentiful

The app lets you try on glasses that you can really see a 360’ view of what they will look like on you!

The shipping is FAST and they under promise and over deliver on delivery date so you are pleasantly surprised!

My husband often misplaces his glasses and when my Dad last visited from England in December, my Dad told him to just buy enough pairs to have a pair in every room of the house so you won’t ever be too far away from a pair! Wise words Dad, perhaps now with Warby Parker we can do this. 

The surprise was inside the case, it is Warby Parker in 100 words on a screen cleaning cloth. 

What are your 100 words?

If you want to read more about how to define your 100 words or raison d'être, check out Words That Work, Kogan Page, 2022, to learn more. 

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Finally Singing Again

I finally got to sing again last night. I’ve really missed going to LAFC football matches (soccer for my American friends)

Last night as we sat in our season ticket seats so very close to the 3252 supporters in the North End of the ground —it felt incredible. Even if the first 70 of the 90 minutes were pretty mediocre,. made better by the final 20minutes of enough chances to keep us on our feet and singing. If you’ve never seen the 3252 supporters club sing “jump for LA football club ole ole!” Please watch it here. 

My voice feels a little sore as I write this, but it was worth it!

Do your supporters show you this much love? 

Can you and others see their excitement for the products and services you provide?

Maybe it is time to ask, and truly listen to what they say.

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/

Five Important Quotes From Amazon’s New CEO

If you don’t read Amazon’s shareholder letter every year, please start today.

Not only did I love it when I used to work at Amazon in my corporate days, but now it is still an incredible read for inspiration, insight, and understanding just how Amazon keeps innovating and growing.

(***it is also an incredible example of the power of the written word. The Amazonian style of writing is sharp, direct, and written with the customer in mind. It’s where I credit how I learned to write far more powerfully than before, because I had to write business cases and strategy documents to get seven and eight figure investments approved….but that is another story that I’m happy to share if you reply you are interested. )

Inspired by Allume Group CEO Andrea Leigh’s noteworthy quotes from it here, I’m now sharing the parts that other CEOs and leaders can use to look at your own business in new ways. - I also point to tools you can immediately use to experiment with these ideas in your own company.

1. Innovation can be iterative.

“People often assume that the game-changing inventions they admire just pop out of somebody’s head, a light bulb goes off, a team executes to that idea, and presto—you have a new invention that’s a breakaway success for a long time. That’s rarely, if ever, how it happens. One of the lesser known facts about innovative companies like Amazon is that they are relentlessly debating, re-defining, tinkering, iterating, and experimenting to take the seed of a big idea and make it into something that resonates with customers and meaningfully changes their customer experience over a long period of time.”

Do you launch and forget? Or learn, adjust, adapt, and refine?

2. Sun setting failures fast and deconstructing wins & losses

“The phone was unsuccessful, and though we determined we were probably too late to this party and directed these resources elsewhere, we hired some fantastic long-term builders and learned valuable lessons from this failure that have served us well in devices like Echo and FireTV. “

How much time do you dedicate to reflection? The Success Deconstruction tool in Rapid Growth Done Right can help you quickly evaluate this.

3. Treat mature and experimental businesses differently.

“It’s also hard to spend enough time on the new initiatives when there’s resource contention with the more mature businesses; the surer bets usually win out. Single-threaded teams will know their customers’ needs better, spend all their waking work hours inventing for them, and develop context and tempo to keep iterating quickly.”

Do you have the same teams running the business and juggling new initiatives and projects? Dedicated resources is the number one way to improve the probability that neither will fail.

4. The power of two way door decisions

“…allowing teams to make two-way door decisions themselves, and setting an expectation that speed matters. And, it does. Speed is disproportionally important to every business at every stage of its evolution. Those that move slower than their competitive peers fall away over time.”

Do you have Decision Tenents for how decisions are made? Without these you waste energy and time deciding, undeciding, and frustrating everyone. The Decision Dilemma in Rapid Growth Done Right can help you understand and create effective decisions for your company

5. The power of music for memorable communication

“You Need Blind Faith, But No False Hope: This is a lyric from one of my favorite Foo Fighters songs (“Congregation”). When you invent, you come up with new ideas that people will reject because they haven’t been done before (that’s where the blind faith comes in), but it’s also important to step back and make sure you have a viable plan that’ll resonate with customers (avoid false hope).”

When did you last talk music to your team? Read more about how to do this in Words That Work The Power Of Music Chapter.

I’ve been working with a number of executive teams in the last month on their Leapfrog Strategy and understanding and refining their company purpose. You can understand more in Words That Work using the Personal Purpose Pyramid and the Company Purpose Pyramid. The foundation of this work starts with company history and heritage.

Andy Jassy continues this legacy by including the 1997 first ever shareholder letter at the end of his shareholder letter. This reminds everyone of the the foundation of the company, where it came from, what it valued then and what has changed now.

I’d love to see your own Annual Shareholder or Annual Company Letters, videos, or recaps.

Send them on over!

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/

A Weekend of Surprises Makes This My Favorite Hotel Brand Ever

Can hotels really make a difference with the service they provide? I believe they can. There is one brand that I’ve been a huge fan of since I visited their first opening in Chicago in 2017. Their device was so incredible I wrote about it in my LA Business Journal column and featured them in my second book Rapid Growth Done Right. 

We’ve been in Vegas for the last four days staying at the Virgin Hotel and just like the gambling all around me, I am hooked!

Vegas is the ultimate example of the logic vs. emotion debate. Logic tells you the statistical significance of gambling yet still people partake in the various roulette tables, poker and blackjack games. 

Emotion ties you to a time, a place, a brand, an experience, it can be the seater from an amazing to an awful experience. 

Logic tells me I should be able to book two rooms connected to each other. Apparently not. Until I asked on Virgin Hotels Instagram account and David Rosales helped me and got me the rooms we needed ahead of arrival

On arrival our twin daughters celebrating their birthdays has an amazing chocolate sculpture sent to their room. Pure excitement and joy.

We received a watermelon birthday cake by the pool. The creativity and design was spectacular!

Our pool server remembered who we are. In a packed hotel crammed with visitors it was amazing that Casey remembered who we are

Finally, I’ll share the ultimate emotional pull. If a city has a virgin hotel, it improves the probability that I will accept a piece of work in that city. That’s how much I love Virgin hotels. 

Now, if you are going to Vegas...

Apart from the incredible luxury, if you are not a fan of EDM music, stay away from the main pool between 3-6pm, the music carriers from the adjacent pool and you will need your ear plugs!

Viva Las Vegas!

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

P.S. I hope you enjoyed this week's VAL-uable Insights, sign up here to get them in your inbox each Monday morning: http://valwrightconsulting.com/newsletter-sign-up/