I had lunch recently with a great friend, Roger Rhoades, who has 30-plus year’s experience as a relationship counselor. Somehow we got on the subject of the difference between people who are spectators of life versus people on the field in the game, and the song “Centerfield” by John Fogerty came up. The chorus is amazingly insightful to me, as an advisor who works with a lot of CEOs and pastors, to help them build great organizations that stay relevant to the worlds they’re trying to connect with. I know Fogerty didn’t write it for that purpose, but here’s the chorus:
“Oh, put me in, coach—I’m ready to play today (2x);
Look at me, I can be centerfield.”

The chorus illustrates four great principles that separate dreamers from success stories:

1) Power of the Ask (Put me in, coach!)

Over the years I’ve marveled at the people who appear less talented, less qualified, less “voted most likely to ____”, yet they got the job, got the TV show, got the dream girl, got the book deal, fulfilled the dream. The difference: At some point, they realized they’d have to be bold, strike the fine balance between humility and confidence, and say “Put me in, coach!” Notice a critical, subtle key word: ‘coach.’

Are you asking the right person—the person in authority over your opportunity—for the chance to be put in? Telling your friends, complaining to co-workers, asking the wrong people for feedback does no good. At some point, you’ve got to recognize the power of knowing your rights; ask the right person for the right opportunity at the right time for the right motives. This also means asking for the opportunity, confidently, knowing you may get a “no.” It’s your future, your dream, your life. Wanna have it?

2) Power of Preparation (I’m ready to play!)

David had to practice throwing a rock with a slingshot for days, months, years…before he got to throw it at Goliath one time. When the call came, he was ready, and his entire life changed in 24 hours. Olympians spend every day of their life trying to shave the 1/100th off their time to make the difference between bronze and silver medals. Before your door of opportunity finally opens, are you preparing your gifts and talents in private in preparation for them to be on display publicly?

3) Power of Priorities (Today!)…

I don’t advocate being a workaholic, nor am I suggesting everything happens overnight. However, there are moments we have to recognize that a door is opened, and be keenly aware of its closeability. All doors close eventually—that’s why they’re on hinges. What matters most is what side you’re on when it does close. When the door opens today, what’s your excuse for waiting until tomorrow to charge through it with a sense of urgency? “Oh, it’ll be there tomorrow…I have all these emails to catch up on before I make the call…I can’t possibly pick up and fly to New York just for a lunch…” Well? Why not today? What guarantee do you have the door will be open tomorrow? After all, why would God open it today, if you weren’t supposed to move toward it today?

4) Power of knowing who you are vs. what you do (I can BE centerfield!).

The amazing part of that lyric (the part I always thought was bad grammar), an awkward ending to a chorus…I never caught it in 20-plus years until now…he said “be” instead of “play” centerfield.

Your gift, the thing inside you that’s uniquely you and opens doors of opportunity for your future—is in you because of who you are, not what you do. Great jobs, relationships, and other opportunities rarely come to you as a result of what you do, they usually come to you because of who you are.

He knew he loved baseball, and could play a lot of positions. But the one he was born for—was centerfield. Middle of the action. The one that required the guy with the best speed, the best arm, the best sense of the game to be counted on to cover the most ground and save the day the most times up against the wall.

Great success stories are great because they didn’t ask for any job, they asked for a chance at “the” job. The relationship. The internship. The chance. They asked for it because they knew it was in them, it was what they were born to do, and it was who they were.

You’ve probably heard it said that seeds produce after their own kind. In other words, apple seeds don’t produce cucumbers, they produce apples. Acorns produce oak trees. A seed produces what’s in it.

At the top of most organizations and/or divisions, there’s generally one of two types of leaders: Reproducers or Producers.

Reproducers, generally, are reproducers because they reproduce reproducers. It’s what they’re wired to do.

Producers, if given a leadership position, typically produce producers.

Stick with me, and think about your current team, and who falls in which category: recognizing what kind of leader you are (a reproducer or a producer), and recognizing what kind of leaders you have in your organization, can go a long way in eliminating frustration and setting realistic expectations. It will also help you in determining who should be championing what, and why you should hand off responsibility of cultivating a leader to a reproducer, versus handing off the responsibility of executing a project to a producer.

A reproducer is wired to reproduce reproducers, and gifted at spotting them quickly. In other words, inside him/her is the capacity to identify, develop and release other leaders who can exponentially reproduce other leaders so you as an organization can expand capacity, add other services and products, a lot faster. A sign of an organization led by a reproducer is rapid horizontal growth. New division rollouts, more risk taken to penetrate new markets, etc.

Producers, however, if put in a leadership position, will typically raise up other producers. A producer in a leadership position can typically build a strong unit of production capacity, and continue to find opportunities for efficiency, savings, and increase output capacity. A sign of an organization with a producer at the helm tends to be laser-beam focused in a single discipline and vertically competitive (multiple layers of experience and depth within a single market space). However, don’t place a false expectation that out of that unit will come your organization’s next reproducers.

Every organization needs both. Just make sure the right one is in the right seat on the bus.

I had a baseball coach in high school who, when he saw any of us standing around, would shout, “Get moving, you’re not here to kill grass and make my turf brown!”

People who stay in one place too long, get offended, or refuse to recognize their own pride usually get their toes stepped on by those following a leader’s vision. For a vision to be fulfilled, leaders need people willing to constantly be moving, growing, changing, challenging “the way we always did things” and carving out new ground of opportunity and new turf. Those who complain about their toes getting stepped on are usually spending far too much time attaching their self-worth to the turf they’ve firmly planted their own feet on.

Problem is, when leaders cast vision, those called to the leader respond by blazing trails to fulfill the vision. The only way new ground gets plowed is by digging up old turf. Progressive, growing organizations have leaders who are constantly willing to allow people to take risks, challenge old paradigms and build new bridges to the future. But you can’t build two sets of bridges simultaneously, in opposite directions. It drains too many resources, zaps too much energy and sucks too much life and joy out of the journey.

In large organizations especially, when teams begin building bridges to the future, the hope is that everyone will cross the bridge. In reality, not everyone will. As a leader, the easiest way to figure out who’s on board, who has their own agenda and who can’t go with you is to see who’s trying to build a bridge between where you are and where you used to be. In other words, they’re building a second bridge to create a path—a way for them to stay the way they are and not work with those you’ve brought in to effect change. You can’t afford two crews, so make a decision which crew to pull, and give everyone the opportunity to get on the same bridge-building project.

As a leader, you aren’t responsible for the feelings and frustrations of those who feel their toes are being stepped on, if you’ve clearly articulated the vision and given them every opportunity to get off the old turf and start building toward the future. You are, however, responsible for recognizing who’s complaining about their toes getting stepped on, and helping them see that, in reality, they are getting their toes stepped on by the very people you’ve put in place to bring the organization to the place you envision.

The other responsibility you have, to them and to the team, is to give them only one choice, and give it to them with compassion: They can stay if they get their toes out of the way, off of the turf they think is theirs, and get their feet moving on the new bridge. If not, that’s okay. There will always be people assigned to different stages of your vision who helped you get here, but can’t help you get there.

People who stay in one place too long are the people who get their toes stepped on because they’re standing idle, pointed in the wrong direction, and a vision only waits so long. For the vision to be fulfilled, the people who have the resources and the drive will make it happen and be there when the final bell sounds.

Today’s economy is tough for so many businesses, and in times like this, most spend their time watching cash flow, cutting expenses, and not enough time figuring out how to do things differently for new customer acquisition or generating repeat business from existing loyal customers.

The challenge, however, is that consumers today are receiving information and making purchasing decisions differently than ever before. Social media and other interactive tools are just a few of the major consumer shifts. So how’s a small business supposed to succeed?

Sometimes, generating business doesn’t involve cutting prices, changing your product, or anything having to do with your product or service, in fact. New innovative ideas that are effective solve a problem for your customer or speak their language, meet a need in their world, not yours. These ideas demonstrate, “Wow, you get me.” Verizon exploded years ago, gaining unprecedented market share, because at the point of pain, when customers experienced a thread of discontent (dropped calls), Verizon figured out the power of speaking their customers’ language (“Can you hear me now? Good.”). With marketing changing dramatically the last 10 years, what hasn’t changed about people is this: we want to feel valued, special, understood, and appreciated.

Here are two principles and a few examples that might get you and your team thinking differently—from your customer’s perspective—to come up with ideas that speak your prospective customers’ language and make them feel important.

1. Customer retention is a lot cheaper than new customer acquisition.

Recently, I took my family out for breakfast at a restaurant here in Greenville that has become somewhat of a family tradition (shameless plug: Stax Omega). Good food? Yup. Service? Usually fantastic. This time? Not so good. Bathrooms? Too small. Cost? There are cheaper options ($45 w/tip & tax for two adults and three kids). So what’s the tiebreaker? Fish tanks. Two massive fish tanks. My kids (3, 4 and 8-years-old) have named all the fish. Freddy the fish, Wally the white fish, Yippy the yellow fish, Bubba the blue fish, Goofy the green fish, Peppy the pink fish, and Oscar the orange fish (buggy eyes—the goofiest of them all!). Bubba’s my favorite. He makes my youngest, Alana, laugh hysterically.

Almost every Friday night when I tuck them in, after we pray and they kiss me good night, they say, “Daddy, can we go see da fishies in da morning?” They couldn’t care less about the food, quality, service, convenience, or price. But these three kids, for the breakfast restaurants in my city, are driving the purchasing decisions of a household for a market segment, based on two fish tanks.

Two weeks ago, I took my wife, for our anniversary, to Chophouse 47 for the first time. Phenomenal food, first-class service (a completely different experience. Thanks, Miller!), and arguably the perfect steak. But the tiebreakers I won’t forget? Without asking, the servers put a white napkin at my wife’s place (she had light beige slacks) and a black one at my place (I had black pants). They also kept putting her fork at her right side and mine at my left (they picked up on the fact that I’m a lefty).

What’s the point? Price might be a non-issue, if experience exceeds expectation.

2. Understanding your target customers’ needs and habits is more important that yelling louder and more often to everyone about your product that you need to move, but they may not need.

My (former) bank used to send me bill stuffers asking me to consider opening an IRA with them. Problem: I already had one with them. Key word: Had. Message: “We lump you in with everyone else. We don’t really get you.” And, as of last year, they don’t get my business either. Conflict = the distance between expectations and reality.

Over 20 years ago, all of my college friends went to the same barber. Why? Definitely not the haircut (no jokes). Tiebreaker: They gave free beer to college students. Knowing what matters to your customers can change your strategy in a slow economy. It’s why a dry cleaner should consider the fact that consumers have limited time and might pay an extra $1.50 to save an inconvenient trip to pick up their clothes. Why not meet them where they already are going to be and partner with a church—an established, loyal audience conditioned to a great, reliable life pattern that matches your business model: drop off Sunday; pick up Wednesday.

Okay, now look at your customers’ lives, not your business offerings. What do your customers LOVE? What matters to them? How do they live? Then, how can you incorporate the answers to those questions into your brand experience?

They’re worth it. So are you.

It’s a tough economy for so many businesses, and in times like this most spend their time watching cash flow, cutting expenses, and not a whole lot of time figuring out how to do things differently for new customer acquisition or repeat business from existing fans.

Sometimes, new ideas don’t involve cutting prices, changing your product, or anything having to do with your product or service, in fact. New innovative ideas are ones that solve a problem for your customer or speak THEIR language, meet a need in THEIR world, not yours.

Here’s a quick example that might get you thinking differently long enough to come up with something that works for you: I took my family, again, to a restaurant here in Greenville for breakfast that has become somewhat of a family tradition. Good food? Yup. Service? Average typically, and once-in-a-while great, like today. Bathrooms? Way too small. Cost? Overpriced ($50 w/tip, for 2 adults, 3 kids). So what’s the catch? Fish tanks. 2 massive fish tanks. My kids (3,4 and 7 yrs old) have named all the fish. Freddy the fish. Wally the white fish. Yippy the yellow fish. Bubba the blue fish. Goofy the green fish. Peppy the pink fish. Oscar the orange fish (buggy eyes, the goofiest of them all!). Bubba’s my favorite. He makes my youngest, Alana, laugh hysterically.

My point is this: Almost every Friday night when I tuck them in, after we pray and they kiss me good night, they say, “Daddy, can we go see da fishies in da morning?” They couldn’t care less about the food, quality, service, convenience, or price. But these 3 kids, for the breakfast restaurants in my city, are driving the purchasing decisions of a household for a market segment, based on 2 fish tanks.

Pause. Breathe. OK, now look at your customers’ lives, not your business offerings. What do your customers LOVE and value, and how can you incorporate it into your brand experience?

Every week, at least once—sometimes on multiple occasions—leaders are faced with a decision–in front of an open window of opportunity, to jump or stay in the room they’re in.

Windows of opportunity open up all the time in life. Great leaders (in business, at home, in communities) have spent painstaking amounts of time and energy promoting the right people to the right positions around them, people that aren’t just leaders, but who cover the leaders’ blind spots, see things she doesn’t see, and who are able to effectively corral people, information and experience together to proactively bring sound advice in their areas of giftings to the leader.

As a leader, however, at some point there’s a decision to make. Once you’ve counted the cost as best you can with the available information and advice you have, how much more information will you need before you jump through the window of opportunity?

Great leaders recognize 6 things:

1) When they jump, they have the burden and responsibility of pulling all those attached to them through the same window.

2) They have become accustomed to recognizing windows in the first place.

3) There’s never an unlimited amount of time to jump.

4) They’re able to quickly assess whether there’s an opportunity for it to open again.

5) Most windows aren’t high up enough to kill anyone from the fall; great leaders can decipher the very few that will.

6) They’re at peace with the fact that they make the same amount of mistakes as non-leaders, they’re just willing to jump more.

Great leaders understand the power of a moment, the “aha!”, the pivotal point in a meeting, conversation, or process where a window is open, and they typically jump where others stay in the same room and admire the view.

You’ve probably heard it said that seeds produce after their own kind. In other words, Apple seeds don’t produce cucumbers, they produce apples. Acorns produce oak trees. A seed produces what’s in it.

At the top of most organizations and/or divisions, there’s generally one of two types of leaders: Reproducers or Producers.

Reproducers, generally, are reproducers because they reproduce reproducers. It’s what they’re wired to do.

Producers, if given a leadership position, typically  produce producers.

Stick with me, and think about your current team, and who falls in which category: Recognizing what kind of leader you are (a reproducer or a producer), and recognizing what kind of leaders you have in your organization, can go a long way in eliminating frustration and setting realistic expectations. It will also really help you in determining who should be championing what, and why you should hand off responsibility of cultivating a leader to a reproducer, vs. handing off the responsibility of executing a project to a producer.

A reproducer is wired to reproduce reproducers, and gifted at spotting them quickly. In other words, inside him/her is the capacity to identify, develop and release other leaders who can reproduce, exponentially, other leaders so you as an organization can expand capacity, add other services and products, a lot quicker. A sign of an organization led by a reproducer is rapid horizontal growth. New division rollouts, more risk taken to penetrate new markets, etc.

Producers, however, if put in a leadership position, will typically raise up other producers. A producer in a leadership position can typically build a strong unit of production capacity, and continue to find opportunities for efficiency, savings, and increase output capacity. A sign of an organization with a producer at the helm tends to be laser-beam focused in a single discipline and vertically competitive (multiple layers of experience and depth within a single market space). However, don’t place a false expectation that out of that unit will come your organization’s next reproducers.

Every organization needs both. Just make sure the right one is in the right seat on the bus.

For businesses, churches, and most organizations, the challenge of finding target market people to share your message has always been challenging. In 2009, it’s a problem compounded by the fact that even when you find them, figuring out how to break through the clutter and the noise seems insurmountable. Between websites, blogs, texts, emails, FaceBook, Twitter, radio, TV, and over 200 other social media platforms, organizations are crying out for help…”Where do we even start?”

The good news is, your target audience is crying for help too! They’re not over-communicated, they’re over-messaged, over-noised, over-interrupted, and over-loaded.

Let me help you by comforting you with a premise that won’t steer you wrong, if your organization embraces it, and sticks to it as a foundational measuring stick for “should we buy that ad” or “should we jump on that social media tool.” In fact, it’s comforting to know that this premise has remained constant for about 2000 years, despite shifts in consumer spending, technology, and other 21st century changes. Here it is:

At their core, consumers are people. People want authentic relationships, and they want to connect, and they want to be led (not pushed, not coerced, not managed) towards a vision and a decision that makes their life better. I’ve taught this premise at workshops, as a definition of marketing you won’t find in textbooks at college, but that is reality:

Marketing = building an authentic relationship, connecting with people, and leading them to a decision. Whether it’s a relationship with God, wearing Nike’s, donating to the Red Cross, or watching Barney, the formula doesn’t change…”How can we build an authentic relationship with them, help them feel connected to me, and lead them to a decision and a vision for something better than their current circumstances and surroundings?”

Sounds too simple to be true, I know. It’s so easy to grasp, but so tempting to stray away from.

I had lunch with an old (he prefers “longstanding!”) friend the other day. He’s the Director for a significant worldwide organization, with lots of influence, but that’s not why we were meeting, it was really just a “let’s catch up”. After catching up on each others’ lives personally and professionally, he caught me off guard and asked me a question that stumped me…”What do you need?”

My first words were “more time!” Then I thought, “Naaah, what I need is…”…things like money, a key addition to our staff, a few other things. But I thought, “Nope, personally,  things are great, and with business, looks like we’re on track!” Two days later, I’m still wrestling with the question, and 2 thoughts it’s provoked me to consider:

1) As leaders, people will be sent your way to help fulfill your vision. When they ask the question, will you be ready, and can you allow people to help you get there? Is your vision so big that you can’t pull it off with what you have or see in your life right now? If not, you’re probably not dreaming big enough and might need a bigger vision.

2) As a leader, it’s easier to offer help to people who seem like they need it. When was the last time you asked that question of someone who’s already achieved some success? We may be the very solution/catapult sent to THEM to help them fulfill their vision. The laws of sowing and reaping never cease to amaze me.

Organizations that struggle with culture typically find, at the root of the struggle to create a dynamic culture, this dilemma: The leadership either is firmly rooted in the belief that their organization must be one of 2 polar opposites when it comes to leading and managing people:

1) Hire and train people who want a dependent culture (I’ll do anything you tell me to do, but I’ll do very little you don’t tell me to do, don’t expect initiative because you’re not modeling or encouraging that behavior)

2) Promote an independent culture (typically found in sales environments and/or workplaces where a large portion of the workforce is 1099/contracted employees)…Drive your own success, we’ll provide you little support but if you’re a self-starter, you can make it!

Exceptional organizations with uncommon cultures (the ones where everyone wishes they worked) have figured out the delicate balance between micromanaging and pushing people off a cliff. They’ve also embraced and understand the power of an interdependent relationship, where CEO, intern and all in-between understand that success of the organization AND development & growth of the individual are both priorities and intertwined on the journey to success. When fear of losing a valuable team member takes a back seat to giving them opportunity, visibility, credit and authority, legendary cultures emerge. It starts at the top…your leadership must make a commitment to truly be committed to people first, process second. Leadership also must be willing to grow into a place of maturity where they’re not threatened by the success of others. That fear can’t coexist very long in a healthy culture. At some point you’ll have to choose which one you’re willing to lose (the fear, or the healthy culture).