This Week in the Spartan Nation

By Scott Westerman
The Week: By The Numbers
427 – Emails answered.
76 – Business cards distributed.
54 – Twitter posts
21 – Hours awake on Friday, starting at 4am in DC and ending at almost 1AM after celebrating my escape from the snowstorm with Mark and Martha Bashore and Kip and Jane Bohne.
20 – Superb MSUAA team members who supported my efforts this week.
19 – The number of times I ran up and down stairs at the Brez during the Northwestern game.
18 – New MSU Facebook friends.
17 – Email exchanges with local alumni club presidents.
13 – New LinkedIn connections.
12 – “aerobic” walks across campus (no frostbyte).
10 – The number of kids I had a meal with in the dorms this week.
9 – The number of shirts I brought with me from New Mexico. Enough to get through almost two weeks without going to Baryames.
8 – Heathcote/Izzo baseball caps purchased (and given away) from the Kellogg Center gift shop.
7 – New friends I made during my visit to the MSU Black Student Alumni board meeting on Saturday.
6 – Skype video calls with my beloved wife. One more week till we’re together again.
5 – New videos posted to our MichiganStateAlumni YouTube channel.
4 – Hours delay in leaving Washington due to a non-functional back up horizontal gyro display on Delta’s jet. Reminder to self: Always fly Southwest!
3 – Phone conversations with MSUAA Members getting feedback and brainstorming.
2 – Lunches at the State Room.
1 of the best altar egos I’ve ever had: My assistant Jennifer Decker.

Thanks to everyone who joined us in DC for Sec. Spencer Abraham’s Grand Award presentation. We’re hoping to entice Julie, Betsy and Spencer II to come to MSU. Great work by Cheryl Denison trail-bossing the event.

Thanks to: MSU Alum Bob Benenson for brainstorming at dinner with me in Washington, to Rich Lewis for welcoming me to the MSUBSA family, to MSU Trustees Colleen McNamara and Melanie Foster for brainstorming the Greening of Detroit with me this week, to Merri Jo Bales for helping me strategize our leadership retreat, to Peter DeLong for trail-bossing the ring project, to the EatAtState.com team for feeding me and to my wonderful wife for trail-bossing our move and being patient while I express my Spartan passions.

We hit the ground running again in the morning at the best job I’ve ever had.

 

Monday Motivator: How am I doing?

By Scott Westerman
” It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” Sherlock Holmes – from A Scandal in Bohemia

One of my favorite phrases comes from Ken Blanchard, author of  The One Minute Manager: “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.”

Todd Storz, one of the inventors of Top 40 radio in the early 60s, is famously credited with keeping track of what songs people were playing in restaurant juke boxes and using that data to populate his on air playlist.

Richard Fatherley, a former Storz employee quotes Todd as saying, “I became convinced that people demand their favorites over and over while in the Army during the Second World War. I remember vividly what used to happen in restaurants here in the States. The customers would throw their nickels into the juke box and come up repeatedly with the same tune.”

Serving the need is the foundation of our great American system, and figuring out how to do it can make you rich. By the same token, not paying attention to what you’re customers are saying can destroy your brand.

The great motivational author Norman Vincent Peale wrote, “The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.”

Being open to feedback, whenever and however it comes at you, digesting it and acting on it, can be a powerful success tool.

Thankfully, I learned this lesson the hard way relatively early in my leadership career. I was managing (not leading) a small group and thought I was doing a great job. One day, my boss called me into his office and presented me with three pages of legal pad with feedback on all the things I was doing wrong… As told to him by my team!

I was stunned. But after I got over the shock, I realized that I had not set up effective feedback mechanisms to get course corrections from the people I was being paid to serve.

I went back to the team and wrote all the common points on a flip chart, apologized for being such a poor leader, thanked them profusely for reaching out for help and promised to try to be a better listener going forward.

I also empowered them to give me their candid input immediately and often. Within 12 months I got a promotion.

Bill Gates notes that, “Once you embrace unpleasant news, not as a negative but as evidence of a need for change, you aren’t defeated by it. You’re learning from it.”

Here are some tips on how to make sure you’re getting the feedback you need.

  • Declare to your boss, your peers and those you serve that you’re a feedback fanatic. Encourage them to give it to you straight.
  • Preserve confidences. The worst feedback killer ever is acting on information in a way that ‘outs’ the person who gave it to you.
  • Have a third party conduct an anonymous annual 360 degree survey, giving your team and your boss and your customers a chance to tell you how effective you are. There are several companies that do this inexpensively and the data you get will be enlightening.
  • Collate key feedback points and share them with your team, along with your action plans to improve how you serve. It’s best to do this live with your group so that you can ask clarifying questions and respond to additional input.
  • Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. There are a ton of leadership books out there, but in reality, interpersonal interaction is as much an art as it is a science… especially when you’re trying to modify your approach.
  • Be open and transparent. When you go down an unproductive path, say so. Saying,  ”I screwed up, I hear you, and I’ll try to do it differently next time” can be one of the most empowering things you can do.
  • In your weekly one-on-ones with direct reports, make sure that the opportunity for feedback exists. “How can I better serve you?” Or, “Is there anything I’m doing that’s worrying you,” are a couple of good discussion starters.

If you seek feedback with gusto, two things will happen:

By modeling the behavior, you’ll eventually create an atmosphere where feedback is welcomed across the organization. People will follow your lead. At first it may be uncomfortable, but folks who don’t by in to cultural change have a way of self-selecting out of the organization.

More importantly, you’ll become more effective and have more fun. A team that communicates is much more likely to deliver results, work well together and enjoy themselves in the process.

Dick Cavett says, “It’s a rare person who wants to hear what he doesn’t want to hear.”

Be one of those rare people.

Feedback: Its the shortest word in the English language that uses abcdef.  It’s part of the culture of winning institutions like Google and the Ritz-Carlton. Make it part of your daily bread and you’ll quickly get a step closer to where you want to be.

Have a great week!

Feedback welcome to scott@spartanology.com or @MSUScottW on Twitter.
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Monday Motivator: Winter Reading

By Scott Westerman
One of the first apps I downloaded for my iPhone was the Amazon Kindle. The reviews are mixed for this mini-version of the famous Kindle EBook reader, but for me, it’s been a perfect way to keep up on my reading wherever I may be.

A cool dimension of the iPhone Kindle is that when someone gives you a book recommendation, you can instantly download it from Amazon to your device (if it’s Kindle-ized) and don’t have to remember to write down the title, or go to the bookstore.

Don’t get me wrong. I want to do everything I can to support our booksellers. Colleen and I are frequent fliers at Borders and Barnes & Noble and have spent many a post date-night dinner browsing and buying.

So however you consume your literary media, here are a few books that have come across my radar recently that can make a difference in your professional and personal life.

Lynchpin – Seth Goden
One of the most important branding and business thinkers of our day writes about what it takes to become indispensable at work. Chock full of his usual paradigm busting and hit-on-the-side of the head insights.

The New Gold Standard, 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience – Joseph A. Michelli
Joe Michelli knows more about great customer care than almost anybody. As President of the Ritz Carleton Hotel Company, he’s developed a culture of excellence that has delivered such great results, that companies pay his team big bucks to come teach the Ritz secrets. This book distills and details how he does it.

Making Strategy Work – Timothy Galpin
The best planned strategies don’t instantly generate results. Tim Galpin shows us how to align the vision with the team and execute effectively.

The Power of Small – Linda Kaplan Thaler & Robin Koval
Linda and Robin smash the myth that we shouldn’t sweat the small stuff. Our smallest actions and gestures often have outsized impact on our biggest goals. Going that extra inch – whether with a client, customer, family member, or friend – speaks volumes to others about our talent, personality, and motivations.

Who’s Got Your Back – Keith Ferrazzi
The master networker of the new millennium takes personalizes his Never Eat Alone concepts. Each of us needs a board of directors.. Accountability buddies who can keep us on course and be a sounding board for our hopes and dreams. Keith walks us, step by step, along the path to build and nurture a team of mentors and confidants who can ensure our happiness and success.

Pick one for some inspiration and see if it adds value.

Have a great week!

Feedback welcome to scott@spartanology.com or @MSUScottW on Twitter.
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By Scott Westerman
In June of 2006, I went to Harvard. My company sent me to do some post graduate studies focusing on customer service and business metrics. It was a great week. Intense, exhausting and fun. But I realized early on that my real education began before the first class even began. Here’s how I documented the experience nearly four years ago.

Tangible Value
Clear Strategy
Committed Team
Excellent Execution

Those are the four take-aways from my experience at Harvard Business School. The professors were excellent. I was surrounded by smart people who were engaged and eager to learn. The atmosphere was conducive to learning, the technology was top notch and the food was first rate.

But if I had been paying attention, I would have learned everything I needed to know the moment I got off the plane.

When I heard I was going to Cambridge, I have to admit that my heart sank. I would have to endure Logan Airport and the Daedalusian maze that Bostonians call ground transportation.

I’ve written before about my preference for trains. The travel tips the college provided ignore the T, Boston’s rail transit system, and probably for good reason. Although it costs a fraction of a cab ride, it’s a hike to get from the Harvard Square Station to the HBS facility, and the footbridge across the Charles River is not conducive to wheeled luggage.

That left the taxi cabs. I don’t have a beef with Boston cabbies. They have a well deserved reputation for eclecticism in ethnic origin and personality. But the cab line at Logan’s Terminal C will instantly generate strong commentary from the regulars who must endure it’s winding queue.

It didn’t help that my connection arrived at 6:40 and that the opening reception was scheduled for 7. When I travel, the company considers Sundays an adjunct to the five day work week. And since my family time is my most prized possession, I do my best to book the last boat out. Airtran delivered on it’s promise this particular trip, and thanks to my strict carry-on luggage policy, I was at the end of the queue at 6:50 on the button.

The muttering of the regulars seemed to concur that from our remote position, we had an hour wait for a ride into town. That’s when Salem appeared and my lesson in the four take-aways began.

“Where are you going?”

He seemed to be taking a transportation survey among those of us at the tail end of the cab line. Many simply ignored his question, but four of us mumbled answers.

“We can do that. Follow me.”

A woman left her place in line and, with group dynamics in full sway, the rest of our quartet followed. We reentered the terminal and rode the escalator to the departure level.

“What’s this all about,” I asked the guy in front of me.

“You’ll see.”The guy knew something I didn’t.

Beyond the sliding doors there stood a spotless mini-van, a transportation company name stenceled on the door panel. The rear gate was open and Salem began tossing our luggage in the back.
“The front door of your hotel, 20 dollars,”he said to the first woman. He rattled off prices to the rest of us, finishing mine with a final flourish, “Harvard Business School, 30 dollars.”

I scanned my memory of Harvard transpo memorandum. “ab rides from Logan airport typically cost between 40 and 50 dollars.” Tangible value. This would be cheaper. We all climbed aboard.

“I always pick my own customers,” Salem said as we sped away from Terminal C. “I find people who are going in the same general direction, charge less and take as many as I can.”

The Thomas P. Oneal Tunnel connects Logan with the rest of the world. We were headed in that direction now and I could quickly see a line of about 150 cars crawling three abreast toward the toll booths. Salem seemed to be ignoring them as he raced along in the far right lane.

“Do you have one of those toll transponders that let you bypass this mess,” I wondered?

“I’m special,” was Salem’s grinning response. At that instant, we arrived at the front of the toll line and he cut the wheel to the left, sliding into a non-existent space between a vehicle and the toll booth. Salem waived his left hand in a friendly greeting that was met with a sonorous blast and a hail of epithets. We were now at the front of the line.

“I pick my own customers, charge less and give them excellent service,” he said. Clear strategy.

We shot away from the toll booth and were soon threading our way among the traffic in the tunnel. The speed limit therein was 45 miles per, but my eyes saw the speedometer top 60.

“Nobody gets people to where they want to be more quickly than me. My cab is the cleanest and I never make my customers listen to these.” He pointed to an array of CDs clipped to his visor. It was an interesting mix of heavy metal and Arabic. Salem seemed to read our thoughts.

“After 9-11, people are afraid of anyone who looks like an Arab,” he said. “But I love the United States and I love Americans. “And this…” he turned to look at us with his right arm outstretched, “is the realization of my dreams.”

We were on the freeway now, doing 80. Fenway park slid quickly by on the left. Salem’s lesson continued. “My daughter was born here. She will go to college on scholarship, perhaps to medical school. I tell her, ‘you give your best and good things happen’. This is how I work. To be the best. To show her that this is true.” Commitment, clear and simple.

I watched as he dropped off each customer. All gave him more than quoted fee. He had earned 30% in
tips by the time we pulled up the front of McKinley Hall. The entire experience had taken place in 20 minutes. By my calculation, I would be checked in and in the reception hall with time to spare.

Excellent execution.

I gave him fifty dollars.

I thought of Salem many times during the next five days. The Harvard experience was well worth the investment. But even now I smile as I think of how I learned the essence of sustainable success… from a Boston cabbie.

Have a great week!

Feedback welcome to scott@spartanology.com or @MSUScottW on Twitter.
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Monday Motivator – What is Power?

By Scott Westerman
“I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be.” Thomas Jefferson

I was the new guy in Jacksonville. Not yet in the seat, but about to become the vice president in charge of 640 people and a market of over a million. It was the day before I was to start. To get the lay of the land, I visited the local home and garden show.

Our company had a booth there and I watched, at first from afar, to see how well we were received by the attendees. Sandra and Jamie were our representatives, both gregarious, well trained and helpful.

I walked up and casually began asking questions. They were friendly and responsive. And then I said something that gave me away. I’m not sure what it was but Sandra looked me over and said, “You’re the new VP.”

I was busted, so I came clean. “Yup, I start tomorrow. You guys are doing a terrific job!”

It was then that I saw how others can perceive power. To Sandra, what I was had little bearing on who I was. She kept on talking, shifting gears to where she saw opportunity to improve our business processes and better serve our customers.

Jamie clammed up. I learned later that she told Sandra afterwards, “how could you talk like that to our new vice president?”

We all tend to be in awe of the powerful. When we know that someone has power, we listen more carefully and are circumspect in how we answer. We respond more quickly to their requests and try to curry their favor because we believe that they can influence our destiny.

In some organizational cultures, titles are everything. Rank has its privileges, the saying goes, and many of us spend our careers chasing it.

Over the years, my teams have grown weary of my telling the tale of the Servant Leader. Lao-Tzu defined the concept this way around 500 B.C.: “The highest type of ruler is one of whose existence the people are barely aware. Next comes one whom they love and praise. Next comes one whom they fear. Next comes one whom they despise and defy. When you are lacking in faith, Others will be unfaithful to you. The Sage is self-effacing and scanty of words. When his task is accomplished and things have been completed, All the people say, ‘We ourselves have achieved it.’”

In the gospels, Jesus is said to have told his followers, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Robert Greenleaf is a personal hero of mine. He was an AT&T executive who studied servant leadership extensively. In his pamphlet, “The Servant as Leader” he writes, “The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.”

“The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?”

Larry Spears, longtime head of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership, identified ten characteristic of servant leaders in Greenleaf’s writings:

listening,
empathy,
healing,
awareness,
persuasion,
conceptualization,
foresight,
stewardship,
commitment to the growth of others,
and building community.

No matter what your title may be, it’s possible for you to exert your personal servant power to positively influence others. Help them solve their problems and they are more likely to help you solve yours.

I tell my team, “First seek to serve, find out where it hurts and help make it better.”

The old sales maxim goes: you must first build rapport before you can earn the right to ask for the order. Too many of us come into the room with our sales pitch already underway.

In my one on ones this week, one of my team members asked, “how can I earn respect from someone who is hung up on hierarchy?”

We can earn just about anyone’s regard by helping them build their own self respect. This doesn’t mean capitulating on your principles, or knuckling under to a bully. It does mean choosing carefully how and when we react. As Stephen Covey says, “Between stimulus and response is our greatest power – the freedom to choose.”

Seek to understand why the other person is responding they way they do. Ask clarifying questions. Practice Greenleaf’s ten characteristics of servant leaders. And watch the magic happen.

If it doesn’t bring your boss into it. As your servant, she can help remove the obstacles to your growth and success.

My relationship mentor Keith Ferrazzi says that getting only happens when you give without expectation of return. That’s hard to do when each of us has metrics to deliver to our organization and to our loved ones. But it’s truly the only way that real returns will accrue.

And when the time comes where you are given a title that bestows power upon your shoulders, remember that you’re still a servant… you just have a bigger constituency who are depending on you.

Your greatest power is the power to serve others. Do it joyfully, patiently and tenaciously.

I’ve been reading my Martin Luther King, Jr. this weekend. We’re both Capricorns and on Monday we celebrate his legacy. “I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good,” he said.

And as you express your personal power in this pivotal time in our nation’s history, remember, too, JFK’s cautionary words.

“We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world – or to make it the last.”

I choose the former.

Have a great week!

Your humble servant,

Scott Westerman
@MSUScottW on Twitter
scott@spartanology.com
www.scottwesterman.com

Feedback welcome to scott@spartanology.com or @MSUScottW on Twitter.
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Monday Motivator – It’s About Time

By Scott Westerman
“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it you can never get it back.” – Harvey MacKay

Do you ever notice how the most successful people always seem to be willing to share their time? But, spend some of that time with them and you’ll quickly see that they want to invest it carefully. If they sense you’re not benefiting, they will either quickly correct your behavior or disconnect and move on. (more…)

 

Week One

By Scott Westerman – Head Servant – MSUAA /Advancement
One week ago tonight, I was driving through Indy, heading toward a post midnight arrival in East Lansing.

Since then my first week as head servant for your MSU Alumni Association has been a whirlwind. Learning the lay of the land, re-aquainting myself with campus, getting to know the 20 people who make up our lean, mean, alumni machine, running through the processes that make me an official member of Team MSU, signing up for my locker at Men’s IM, and beginning to lay the groundwork for the best-in-class alumni / advancement organization that President Simon, Bob Groves and I will most surely help build. All these are the things that I crammed into the past seven days. (more…)

 

Social Media 101

msuaaingrandrapidsThis week I took the MSUAA show on the road to the Grand Rapids YMCA Service Club. The topic was Social Media, that illusive band of applications that are changing the way we communicate with one another. The group included many people who have never dipped a toe in the Twittersphere, to whom Facebook sounds more like a collection of high school senior pictures, and LinkedIn was the way you installed another charm on your wife’s bracelet.

So we kept it simple.

If you’re new to Social Media, or want a good refresher on the basics, take a listen.

Audio: Social Media 101 16:00 7.5mb MP3

 

What if William Shakespeare wrote The Big Lebowski?

lebowskititleIt’s firing around the Internet at warp speed. Adam Bertocci’s Shakespearian version of The Big Lebowski is overtaxing his home website to the point where it’s sometimes impossible to bring it up on your browser. Adam is an award winning screenwriter and filmmaker. Check out his professional portfolio here. His Elizabethian take on the Dude, or “the Nave”, is right on thyne money.

So, as a public service, here be the PDF file of his excellent mirth and merriment.

What if Shakespare wrote The Big Lebowski PDF

Link to the author’s site

 

Inside the Izzone

By Scott Westerman – Head Servant, MSUAA
The CoachThe greatest, most powerful and most feared monster in East Lansing is the Izzone.  Since 1995 it’s been the 6th player on the Michigan State University basketball team, making the Breslin Center rafters ring with support for the Spartans and psychological pressure on our unlucky opponents.

Every year, there is a challenge: How to bring the power of the Izzone to the Brez during Winter break? MSU can easily sell out the venue, but the team, and Coach Tom Izzo have come to rely on the incomparable human energy that the student section generates.

This year, the MSU Student Alumni Foundation, the group that recruits, trains and manages the Izzone came up with a novel idea: Why not invite Izzone alumni to come back to their former haunts when the students are away?

Tonight, we saw the fruition of that notion. 850 former Izzone members came from as far away as California and the East Coast, to cheer and jeer on cue. I had the great good fortune to be right in the middle of it.

As the new Head Servant at the MSU Alumni Association, SAF and the Izzone ultimately are under my care. As one who models the behaviors I expect, I joined SAF leaders Dan DiMaggio and Tim Bograkos at tonight’s event.

It began with a huge reunion in the auxiliary gym, complete with catered dinner and a visit with our legendary head coach. Word had it that when his staff told him that there were over 650 people downstairs waiting to see him he found the number hard to believe. Could we really attract that many energized alums? Could they put the same intensity into the game that they did when they were fueled by pizza, beer and youth?

When the Coach entered the gym, he received a thundering ovation, which was only quelled when he yelled, “OK, sit down” into the microphone. He was genuinely grateful, he said, for the turn out. He talked about how the Izzone had been an important part of the Spartan legend for 24 years. He didn’t guarantee a win, but guaranteed a good game if we helped charge up the team.

When he returned to his players, I did a wholy inadequate warm up with a rising volume of “Go Green – Go White” chants as we fired them up for the game.

the IzzoneThe Izzone has prime seating. They fill almost half of the lower bowl, dressed in identical white Izzone T-Shirts. At each seat are the tools of the trade, a newspaper, cotton towel and a white paper bag.

Tradition dictates that when each member of the opposing team is announced, we cover our faces with the newspaper, pretending to be disinterested and shouting “who cares” after each introduction. This contrasts with an explosive cheer for each Spartan player.

We blow up our paper bags and pop them in unison when State scores it’s first field goal.

During the game, the power of the Izzone is palpable. Whenever the bad guys have the ball, we jump up and down and scream at the top of our lungs making it impossible for the other team to communicate and focus. By contrast, we support the home team with a cacophony of cheers at each Spartan basket.

Working the crowd I could feel the full fury of the Izzone when I walked along the front row. Your ears hurt and you can almost feel the hurricane wind of air rushing from lungs past vocal chords and into the faces of the other team.

There is well practiced choreography for everything from pep band tunes to free throw shots. Over the last five years the fight song phrase “See their team is weakening” has evolved into “See their team is weeeeeeeeeeaaaaaak.” Just as in the early days of MAC, MSU’s students have created fresh traditions that elevate school spirit to new heights.

DanKimTimThe game was close. Our victory wasn’t assured until the last 41 seconds. So none of us had a chance to catch our collective breath until the final buzzer. As the post game festivities began, PA announcer Terry Braverman broke from his script to announce that the Coach wanted to address the crowd.

Tom was hoarse. He always is after a game. But you could hear emotion in his voice as he said, “I want to thank the alumni who came back tonight to participate in the Izzone. You were a definite factor in our victory.”

I stood at the top of section 127 shaking hands as the white shirts weaved their way toward the exits. The common theme was that everyone had a wonderful time. “We’re still proud to be Spartans,” was something I heard again and again… along with.

“Can we do this again next year?”

We will.

 

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