Another one of my reading list down!

About two weeks ago, I completed Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation, by Sally Hogshead. When my wife asked me what I was reading, she did a double take after I mentioned the title. After I explained the book, she just said another marketing read, I see. The research that went into this book is outstanding. She really took a hard look at what makes us fascinated.

Sally Hogshead  recognizes that for companies and their brands, it is simply not enough to offer quality, or even a unique product or service. If a brand is not fascinating to people, it will suffer low sales volume, and perhaps even complete business failure. No longer is a good idea or a good product enough. The company and its brands must be found fascinating and trigger at least one of the seven emotional triggers of fascination. Those seven triggers are:

• Lust – creates craving for sensory pleasure
• Mystique – lures with unanswered questions
• Alarm – threatens with negative consequences
• Power – commands and controls
• Vice – tempts with “forbidden fruits” causing us to rebel against norms
• Trust – comforts us with certainty and reliability
• Prestige- earns respect through symbols of achievement

For me, I enjoyed how Sally Hogshead combined her scientific research with real world examples to present her case. I am a sucker for the pairing of theory and practical ideas, for understanding the power of fascination in both our personal and professional lives. While reading I was visualizing how the concepts would work for both an individual and businesses. I would recommend this one highly!

Do you want to know your F-Score? Go ahead and check it out. I did and found out that my primary fascination is MYSTIQUE. My secondary trigger is POWER.

1. Doing the Right Things. Begin by identifying your strategic intent. What are you trying to accomplish and by when? We are accountable for understanding and identifying our strategic intent—and the activities that support it.
2. Managing Your Space. We are accountable to create the new space we need to grow and innovate in our own lives, which sometimes means taking space from something else that we’re doing. “Force of habit prevents us from giving ourselves the physical, mental, financial, or emotional space necessary to shake things up a little bit and put something new in our lives—something that could provide growth and improvement.”
3. Managing the Process. We are accountable for creatively making progress toward whatever it is we are trying to make happen even when we hit an obstacle. It means not throwing up our hands and saying, “If it’s not meant to be, it’s not meant to be.”
4. Establishing the Right Expectations. We are accountable for establishing the right expectations, that reflect our values, that are properly benchmarked, and are a bit of a stretch.
5. Contributing to Your Relationships. The success or failure of our relationships depends entirely on the contributions we make. We are accountable for giving to our relationships—without keeping track. “In fact, the quickest way to kill a relationship is to start keeping track of all the reasons it’s not your turn to give to it and support it.” Sam adds, “We should constantly be looking for ways to invest in the relationship and enhance the value of the relationship over time.”

For me, I worry that too many times accountability is passed off to others, rather than just assumed and accepted. If you truly give service (not lip service) to these 5 items, I bet your people will follow you anywhere. That they look up to you, as a mentor and coach. Over at his website SamSilverstein.com - he has all the contact information and free tools and exercises to help you implement the Five Accountabilities.

New experiences come everyday. How do you usually handle them? I say, we usually form our opinion rather early on and act on our feelings first. As much as I like to think that I am very deliberate and cautious on these things, I am not. Meeting people for the first time, do you size up the person across from you? Do you draw on your experience with others to help understand this person better? Do you look at the company that this person keeps to help form some understanding? And yet, we have to remember not to judge the book by the cover…

Feelings are real.. If used properly they can help you make decisions or what course of action to take. Those feelings are your experiences and information that you have gathered! Use them wisely.

I did something the other day that was just out of character, I read one. It was for a Remington Hot Roller product. Why read that one? Random test and it happened to be around. Below is what was in the IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS:

DANGER (To reduce the risk of electric shock)

• Always unplug this appliance from the electrical outlet immediately after using. I guess that one can make sense, since there is no timer on the device
• Do not use while bathing or in the shower. Now this one is pretty good. Stupid consumer warning – electricity and water do not mix. Or have people really done this?
• Do not place or store this appliance where it can fall or be pulled into a tub or sink. We should know this too..
• Do not place or drop into water or other liquid. Now we have written it 3 times. Electricity and water – bad.
• Do not reach for an appliance that has fallen into water. Unplug it immediately.
• Unplug this appliance before cleaning it. Especially sent the cleaning instructions have you using a damp cloth to clean.

WARNING (To reduce risk of burns, fire, electric shock or injury to persons:)

• This appliance is for household use only. Not sure what else a hot roller set could be used for, but there probably are some very creative uses, that just don’t come to me.
• An appliance should never be left unattended when plugged in, except when charging a rechargeable appliance. Definitely a generic statement, as this one is not rechargeable.
• Close supervision is necessary when this appliance is used by, on, or near children or individuals with certain disabilities or special needs. I have too  many ways to go with this statement.
• Use this appliance only for its intended use as described in this manual. Do not use attachments not recommended by manufacturer. You would have to read the complete manual to understand that this is for curling hair only? Oh well… Reading is good.
• Never operate this appliance if it has a damaged cord or plug. If it is not working properly; if it has been dropped, damaged, or dropped into water. Makes sense.. but we have our 5th reminder about water.
• Keep the cord away from heated surfaces.
• Do not wrap the cord around the appliance. Bold-ed, probably due to the likelihood that it will happen. What else to do with cord?
• Never use while sleeping. To me, don’t use when sleeping comes in to different flavors. Don’t use the curlers while sleeping… Ok that makes sense. If you are sleeping and want to use this – how could you?
• Never drop or inset any object into any of the appliance’s openings.
• Do not use outdoors or operate where aerosol (spray) products are being used or where oxygen is being administered. Nice reminder for keep the hair spray away from the appliance.
• Do not touch the posts that hold the rollers. They are hot. Hence hot rollers..
• Keep lid open when heating rollers. This must have happened a couple of times, where the lid was melted due to the heat of the posts that are warming up the rollers, so you can curl your hair.

From now on, I plan on looking at the instructions for a couple of reason. First of all, everyone should read them for proper use and care of the products. That is a given! The second is for me to just look at the statements that have to be added for safety. Safety of hurting one’s self and the safety of the manufacturer or provider from getting sued. Where has common sense gone?

As a person that loves to people watch, observe situations and just plain listen to their surroundings. I feel confident that I can nail down the strengths and weaknesses of every leader that I have worked with over the years. Why you may ask? Simple, their words and actions are the window to the good, bad and the ugly. There is no hiding stuff. We all work with people, some of them are leaders (others are aspiring to become leaders). A control freak is pretty easy to spot… Spend a small amount of time with people and you can spot someone that is very controlling. Hey, that one is easy. How about when new ideas or alternative solutions are offered – ever just watch and listen? Come across a leader that becomes defensive to any of those ideas? This one takes some time and effort to really spot. Words and actions are everywhere.

No one is perfect. We each have the items that we excel at and of course the opposite end. Going back to myself and my teams and their observations. The strengths that I was told that I exhibit well are:

• Being real – We know exactly what you are thinking and doing – there is never any guess work involved.
• Stand up for your folks – No matter what the situation, no matter who is upset – we know you have our backs. Of course, if we “all” are wrong – we will deal with it together. Never has anyone ever been thrown under the bus.
•  Fair – you treat each as they need to be treated. Give each of us the ability to do our work with only coaching and mentoring – when needed. One person, came out and said – why do you never disagree with my recommendations? I had spent years, trying to tell this person – you do not need to bounce everything off of me. Trust yourself. So, I would just agree with whatever they recommended. Finally they saw the light!
• Set Expectations and Follow-up - Getting to the promise land of success – takes time in the planning and plotting the course. You do that well – and with our help. Then you step out of the way and let us get it done.

For me, that was good to hear! Since I am not perfect, I wanted to get the feedback on those items that are weak. Here is some of that feedback:

• Openly praise – I have struggled with this one for quite awhile. Which is no excuse. Giving praise for a job well done is a simple and effective necessity. I have gotten better! I used to say, we get a great paycheck at the end of the pay period. When we go above and beyond that – then you will get your praise. No more! I have made time to make sure that we discuss jobs well done – in public and private sessions.
• Career guidance – During my early days as a manager I used to spend plenty of time working with my team to insure that they are fulfilling their dreams toward their goals. We used to plot a path that worked with the employee and the company. Over time, our company moved to the employee owned their own employ-ability. Lost sight with keeping career guidance as a priority.

If any leader thinks that their strengths and weaknesses are NOT known – think again. Each and every person that you come in contact with – gets a dose of your strengths (and weaknesses). Better make sure that you know what they are.