The Level 3 Leader
Understand the 3 levels of leadership starting with the Level 3 leader, aka, The Owner. Find out how to excel at this level and how to reach the next level of leadership.
The level 3 leader is also known as ‘The Owner’. At this level, the primary goal is to expand the value you have created into other markets, products or initiatives.
The Level 3 Leader
The Owner
As a Level 3 leader, your primary goal is fulfillment. Fulfillment entails extracting or expanding the value that has already been produced into other avenues, thereby fulfilling the owner’s higher aspirations and goals.
Level 3 Leaders ask:
How can I leverage my own and others’ assets and efforts to expand my results and assume new forms?
Level 3 Leaders may struggle with:
Separating themselves from the business
Finding new opportunities for expansion and evolution
Clarifying their values and purpose
Defining their leadership legacy
The Level 1 Leader
Understand the 3 levels of leadership starting with the Level 1 leader, aka, The Employee. Find out how to excel at this level and how to reach the next level of leadership.
The level 1 leader is also known as ‘The Employee’. At this level, the primary goal is to develop skills, knowledge and experience that sets you apart from others and allows you to establish a unique brand for yourself.
The Level 1 Leader
The Employee
As a Level 1 leader, your primary goal is competence. Competence is the first step on the path to becoming a transformational leader.
Level 1 Leaders ask:
How do I make myself known for a particular set of skills, body of knowledge or level of experience?
Level 1 Leaders may struggle with:
Being visible in the team or organization
Getting the right assignments, jobs or training to develop their hard and soft skills
Changing from one skillset, role or industry to another
How To Go From Ugly Duckling Leader To Swan
This one thing helps marginalized leaders go from ugly duckling to confident, culture-conscious leader. Learn to use your ‘ugly’ as your strategic advantage and go from unlikely leader to leadership role model.
How Do Ugly Duckling Leaders Realize That They’re Swans?
Since ugly duckling leaders are getting negative feedback about their unique traits and being overlooked for leadership roles, how do they find out that they’re not ugly ducklings after all?
In order to recognize that they’re really a swan that’s being mislabeled, they will need an accurate mirror.
What Is An Accurate Mirror?
Accurate mirrors come in many forms.
Depending on which type of accurate mirror you choose, it may not only help you see yourself better, it can also help you find your flock and learn how to fly.
Types of Accurate Mirrors
Mentorship
Sponsorship
Leadership development programs
Better job / culture fit (i.e., joining the right flock)
Peer support communities (i.e., finding fellow swans)
Role models
Telling your story
Most of the accurate mirrors listed here require another person or group. There's only one that you can do entirely on your own: tell your story.
When you start to share your story and experiences as an ugly duckling leader, it can not only help you recognize your own leadership abilities, it can become a beacon for other ugly duckling leaders who are looking to be seen as the swans they are by a flock they can call their own.
Are you a BIPOC, LGBTQ or neurodivergent leader?
Tired of being overlooked for leadership opportunities because you don’t ‘fit the mold’?
Ready to go to the next level of leadership, but lack the confidence or support to get there?
Want to create your own brand of leadership that celebrates differences versus demanding that every leader look and act the same?
The Unlikely Leader Mini-Course is for you!
Start embracing your differences instead of hiding them. Connect with other like-minded leaders in a virtual community. Develop your skills in the 4 leadership disciplines.
As a Bonus, you’ll get 1-month Free membership to Masterplan University - a leadership learning community for culture-conscious leaders.
The 3 Contrasting Traits of Ugly Duckling Leaders
These 3 traits of marginalized leaders are both challenges to overcome and opportunities to make your mark. Learn to use your ‘ugly’ as your strategic advantage and go from unlikely leader to leadership role model.
What is an ugly duckling leader?
Ugly duckling leaders are those leaders who are usually overlooked for leadership because they don’t fit the typical leadership mold, these leaders often come from historically marginalized groups, such as: BIPOC, LGTBQ, and neurodivergent communities.
Ugly duckling leaders often experience the following challenges or obstacles on their leadership journeys:
Being blocked or held back by conventional leadership definitions
Assumed to have few leadership qualities and / or little desire to be a leader,
Struggling to conform to an ideal leadership image or personality type
Mistaking their natural tendencies, talents or behaviors as weaknesses.
Ironically, ugly duckling leaders often have and demonstrate traits of high-performing leaders.
3 contrasting Traits of Ugly Duckling Leaders
Trait #1: high-performing misfits
Ugly duckling leaders often experience marginalization, but remain high performers.
Trait #2: Culture clashers
Ugly duckling leaders tend to be at odds with the culture of the organization that they're in, but they're also role models of alternatives to that culture.
Trait #3: Aloof Ambassadors
Ugly duckling leaders often get charged with being aloof, but they usually have no problem speaking up for others.
Do any of these sound like you? Keep reading to find out how to make the transition from ugly duckling leader to swan.
Are You An Ugly Duckling Leader?
Feeling marginalized or overlooked because you’re not the one-size-fits-all leadership type? You might be an ugly duckling leader. Learn to use your ‘ugly’ as your strategic advantage and go from unlikely leader to leadership role model.
The Story of the Ugly Duckling
There once was an ugly duckling. She knew she was an ugly duckling because everyone said so. ‘Too big!’, they quacked. ‘Too much. Too different.’ She was teased, laughed at, and bit.
There once was an ugly duckling...
Ugly duckling leaders are often overlooked for leadership because they don’t fit a one-size-fits-all image or idea of leadership.
One day, the ugly duckling hears a sound from above. She looks up and sees a formation of elegant swans flying overhead. Their beauty and movements make a lasting impact on her. If only she could be like them.
If only she could be like them…
Ugly duckling leaders usually identify with and exhibit the role model behaviors of other leaders and high-performers
The ugly duckling runs away, going from place to place seeking shelter, but each time she is chased out. Tired and bruised from ill treatment, she spies a flock of the strange and elegant creatures floating on a lake. She thinks to herself, well, at least if I'm going to be beat up, I'd rather be beat up by someone I admire, and decides to throw herself at their mercy.
The ugly duckling goes from place to place seeking shelter…
Ugly duckling leaders may try switching roles, teams or organizations in search of a better cultural fit.
To her surprise, The elegant swans don't attack her. Instead, they embrace her as one of their own.
They embrace her as one of their own…
It make take some time, but once the ugly leading finds their ‘flock’, they grow in confidence, visibility and influence.
What is an ugly duckling leader?
Ugly duckling leaders are those leaders who are often overlooked for leadership because they don’t fit the typical leadership mold, but they’re also high-performers who demonstrate leadership ability.
Ugly duckling leaders often come from historically marginalized groups, such as: BIPOC, LGTBQ, and neurodivergent communities.
Keep reading to find out if you have any or all of the 3 contrasting traits of Ugly Duckling Leaders.
How To Tell Your Leadership Story
I enter the room filled with energy and excitement. I’m here to celebrate my friend Michelle’s achievement of having been nominated for the 40 under 40 award from her alma mater.
I spot Michelle instantly. She is dressed in a pristine all-white suit, her makeup impeccable and her short-cropped hair adding an air of chic professionalism to her look. She is commanding the table that she’s sitting at. As I approach, I can see that the other nominees and guests are buzzing around her like fireflies to a light bulb.
Without a doubt, she is owning the room.
I grab a drink, then settle in to the seat next to Michelle so I can offer my congratulations and we can catch up before the evening’s official festivities begin.
We chat about things - life, work, our families - for a little bit, while enjoying our hors d’oeuvres and cocktails. After a few moments, Michelle confides in me…
“I still have to write a statement about myself to be officially considered for the award. It’s due in a few weeks and I’ve just been putting it off.”
“Oh? Why’s that?” I ask.
“I just don’t know what to say about myself. I mean, I feel like I haven’t really done anything. Especially compared to these other people,” she says, motioning to the other nominees in the room.
“They’re all so much younger than me. And I’m a nontraditional student. I’m not on campus. I’m a mom. I’m working. Like. what’s so special about that?”
I try not to choke on my hors d’oeuvre.
“Girl!?” I exclaim. “Are you serious?”
***
Why High-Achieving Black Women Have A Hard Time telling their stories
By any standard, Michelle is a high-achieving black woman. She immigrated to the US from Zimbabwe on her own in her early 20s and has since made a successful career for herself in accounting. She was recently promoted to a senior executive position in her firm and she’s recently earned her MBA. All of this while also holding the titles of wife and mom.
Like many black women I know, Michelle has not just one, but many amazing and inspiring stories to tell about her life experiences and accomplishments. So why would she (and other high-achieving black women) have such a hard time putting something down on paper? A few contributing factors could be:
Humility as more feminine or culturally appropriate
Women of all cultures are often conditioned to downplay their achievements and not take up too much ‘air time’ with their stories or anecdotes.
Normalization of struggle, hustle, grind culture
Balancing work, parenting, school and marriage may seem like nothing special when everyone else around you is balancing at least that much if not more and making it look easy.
Thinking of achievements as story
A list of awards and achievements does not a story make. Rattling off a series of accomplishments is more suitable for a resume not a leadership story or personal bio. And chances are we’re more used to writing our resume than writing our story.
Because everybody else has a hard time with it too
I don’t think high-achieving black women have any more of a difficult time telling compelling leadership stories than anyone else, The fact is, most of us haven’t learned or practiced the storytelling skills needed to tell great leadership stories. So when we’re asked to do it, we freeze, panic or procrastinate until the last minute.
How to Tell Your Leadership Story
Focus on Your Vision
Decide what aspect of your leadership story you want to focus on. Is it your philosophy as a leader? Is it a specific obstacle or challenge you’ve overcome? Is it a biographical account of your leadership history? Once you’ve narrowed your focus, you’re ready to start constructing your story.
Understand Your Audience
Who are you telling your story to and what will they get out of it? The most important thing to remember when telling your leadership story is that you’re telling it for someone else’s benefit. The more you know about them, the better you’ll understand what they care about and how to bring that out in your story.
Define Your Main Character
As the main character of your leadership story, it is essential that you have a deep and accurate understanding of your own values, strengths and your challenges. These are the attributes you want to highlight in your story. They will help you earn your audience’s trust and build a meaningful connection with them.
The 4-Part Change Story
The most inspirational and memorable stories are usually stories that involve a significant transformation or change. To quickly structure an impactful leadership story, use the following 4-part change story format:
Start - “When I started out…”
Key story points: What were you like before the change? What did you not yet have, know or understand?
Decide - “I had to make a change…”
Key story points: What forced you to take action so you could have, know or understand more?
Learn - “That taught me a valuable lesson…”
Key story points: What mistakes did you make, what did you lose or learn?
Transform - “Which made me who I am today.”
Key story points: How were you changed? How does that change still influence you today?
That evening, I shared the tips above with Michelle, and let her know that the non-traditional parts of her story were what made her story so impressive. Her unique story of growth and change ended up being a perfect fit for the 4-part change story structure.
Tell Your Story.
Download My Free Storytelling Ebook
Don’t know what story to tell or how to tell it? Learn a simple method for telling compelling impact stories. Create a draft of your own signature story. Download Now.
What's the 'So What?' 1 Question for Better Stories
If you don’t answer this question, your story won’t make an impact.
‘What’s the so what?’ I ask this of my team members when they are presenting an idea to me or to someone else. The question really means, ‘Who cares?’
While it may seem flippant, is really a way to remind you that your story is about your listener, and that if you haven’t determined who they are and why they should care about the information, your story won’t make an impact. Nobody cares what you have to say, if it isn’t something they care about.
Download My Free Storytelling Ebook
Don’t know what story to tell or how to tell it? Learn a simple method for telling compelling impact stories. Create a draft of your own signature story. Download Now.
Common Growing Pains for Leaders
There will come a point in your leadership journey or in your team’s journey where you recognize that what got you to the current level of success will not get you to the next level of success or growth that you desire.
There will come a point in your leadership journey where you recognize that what got you to the current level of success will not get you to the next level of success or growth that you desire.
In order to ‘level up’, you’ll need to take a long, hard look at the habits, behaviors and mindsets that you have developed, and determine which ones are blocking you from achieving the next level of growth.
The longer you delay or put off that process, the more growing pains you are likely to feel.
Here are some of the most common growing pains I’ve experienced and that I’ve seen my clients experience on their journeys to growth and change.
Common Leadership Growing Pains
Lacking a clear leadership vision that articulates your perspective as a leader
Feeling stalled in your career or business, but not sure how to start the next chapter
Not focused on performance management or unsure of how to help your team members learn and grow
Unable to identify or groom emerging leaders on your team
How many of these growing pains are you experiencing?
IF YOU WANT TO CHANGE YOUR FUTURE
CHANGE YOUR STORY.
Create A Strategic Story To Map Your Future In Times of Growth & Change
the sacred bundle: unwrap your team’s backstory
Learn an indigenous storytelling technique to help you and your team reconnect and remember the moments that mattered most in your journey to ‘happily ever after’
While I was doing research for my paper on storytelling & school discipline, I came across a concept called ‘the sacred bundle’.
The sacred bundle is a reference to an indigenous American storytelling practice, where a tribe would place objects that represented key moments in the their history into a bundle.
from, ‘The Sacred Bundle: Unwrap Your Team’s Backstory’ www.kishasolomon.com
The sacred bundle is a reference to an indigenous American storytelling practice, where a tribe would place objects that represented key moments in the their history into a bundle. This bundle was kept safe by 1 or 2 ‘keepers of the bundle’ - usually 1 male and 1 female from the tribe. The keepers of the sacred bundle had the responsibility of remembering a specific song or story that related to each object in the bundle. At certain tribal celebrations or gatherings, the keepers of the bundle would remove the objects and recount the stories to the rest of the tribe. This was done as a way to preserve and pass on the moments that defined the tribe’s culture and their shared histories and futures.
Organizational consultant Peg Neuhauser extended the concept of the sacred bundle into teams and organizations, and posed the idea that, much like a tribe, teams and organizations have key moments that define their history. She posited that there are 6 organizational sacred bundle stories that every organization has:
How We Started
Our People
Why We Do What We Do
What We Learned in Failure
How We Succeeded
How We Will Change the World
I was so inspired by this idea of sacred bundle stories, that I decided to use them for a year-end retrospective with my product team at Ford. I asked each member of the team to share an object or image that represented each sacred bundle story. Later, we gathered as a team and took turns letting each team member share their object or image and explain what it meant to them.
The exercise was so well received, that I also decided to use it for my own year end review for 2022. I shared my own sacred bundle objects and stories on Instagram.
The 6 Sacred Bundle Stories of a Team
1. How We Started
2. Our People
3. Why We Do What We Do
4. What We Learned in Failure
5. How We Succeeded
6. How We Will Change the World
Why Use Sacred Bundle Stories?
The sacred bundle exercise made for a much-needed alternative to the typical year-end review or retrospective. Instead of only focusing on what tasks we completed or what I personally achieved, the sacred bundle stories allowed me and my team to look back at the moments that had the most meaning for us over the past year.
By sharing them with each other, we were all able to get deeper insight and understanding to what those moments meant to the the people we work with every day. We went deeper in our conversations than we had in our other team-building sessions or our quarterly OKR reviews - we shifted the focus to our journey together, how far we’d come and most importantly… how much we had all changed and grown. It was also a great way to honor and say farewell to a couple of members who were transitioning out of the team onto new projects.
The Importance of Backstory
Understanding what brought the main character to this point is really a pre-requisite for writing stories that will engage your audience. Before we can emotionally invest in the main character and her journey, we need to understand where she’s been, why she makes the choices she does, what happened before that has shaped her into the person we see today.
The same is true when you’re preparing to write the next chapter of your personal story or your team’s story. You want to re-engage with and celebrate how far you’ve come, you also want to be sure that you won’t forget the lessons you learned so that you don’t run the risk of repeating them again. There’s also the need to re-center on your values and remind yourself what has the most meaning to you - this is how you will avoid getting distracted or caught up in trivialities as you continue to journey towards ‘happily ever after’.
storytelling is a core leadership skill (audio)
Why leaders who develop the skill of telling good, strategic stories have an advantage in career and business.
Audio transcript:
Storytelling is a key, but I think often overlooked domain of leadership. Managers give directives, leaders tell stories. And I think the difference in giving directives and telling stories is that giving directives is something that is not participative.
The people that you are giving a directive or instructions or objectives or whatever that you're giving that to are receivers. They receive their instructions and they carry them out and they report back to you and tell, tell you, what they did and you tell them how good they did or how good they are.
And it creates this hierarchy. It doesn't lead to a relationship of equity between the leader and the follower. And I think some people think, ‘Well, there's not supposed to be equity there. I'm the leader. I'm higher up. They're supposed to look up to me. I'm supposed to be better or higher or more powerful or on a different level than them,’ which is true organizationally, but I think all real leaders recognize that their leadership is not based on the title or the position they hold in the organization.
The organization's titles and positions are specific to that organization only. And a leader is a leader no matter where she is. So if you're a leader in an organization by title, this doesn't mean that as soon as you leave that building and that title is not there on you anymore, that you stop thinking, behaving, and performing like a leader. That's very unlikely for someone who is truly a leader versus someone who just holds a title. So leaders know that the primary way that they influence is through relationship. And there are a number of ways to exist in a relationship with others. I think a lot of us think of it purely as this idea of networking. Like I go into a room and I press the flesh. I amass a whole bunch of people, then I call them and I have coffees and I go on golf dates with them. This is what we think of when we're, when we usually think of like networking or relationship building in terms of career or work or business.
But relationships are built on all kinds of interactions, and storytelling I think is one of the first ways we learn to build relationship with others.
As children we hear stories. Maybe an elder in our family is telling us stories, or maybe we're getting read a bedtime story, or maybe in school we have story time, but what we start to understand as kids is these are one of the few times when adults, the people who are bigger than us, come down to our level and actually engage with us, and ask us where we want to go next. Or have us say, Well, what happened next? Or, Well, why'd they do that? We're in a conversation in a more equitable level than we've probably ever been with an adult in our lives.
And this is the relationship that stories allow us to build between and among each other. And as leaders, it's kind of that same idea of if you're living in the leadership stratosphere all the time. Storytelling is this activity that allows you to sit down and look eye to eye at everyone across your organization and engage in an act of co-creation with them.
So you may be telling a story, but if you've really learned how to be a strategic storyteller, you recognize that every story you tell is not a story about you per se, even if it is, it's a story that's about the person who's receiving it. The point of you telling the story is so that the person receiving it can identify themselves in this story and then see themselves as the hero by the time you're finished telling it. You're telling stories to your people so that they can see, 'Oh. This is an achievable idea, or this is a relatable experience. Or if this person has been through it and I can identify with them, then I can possibly identify with this story and see myself going through it as well.'
I think this is why, for me, storytelling is such a core discipline of leadership. It's also a wonderful way of knowledge transfer. And I think another part of leadership or what leaders are maybe not always consciously thinking of, but definitely unconsciously leaders are always concerned with legacy.
'What am I leaving behind that represents me even though I'm no longer here?' And stories are one of those things that are wonderful ways to transmit legacy. And I think those two benefits or those two outcomes of really good and really strategic leadership storytelling: the ability to build equitable relationships and the ability to transmit or transfer leadership legacy; I think storytelling really is so powerful, , in accomplishing those two objectives or delivering those two benefit. And it's highly accessible. It is accessible to anyone in an organization who sees themself as a leader and wants to build relationships and leave legacy.
When No One Knows The Way: 5 Steps To Make Your Mission Statement A Way Of Working
My client’s disappointed that the team hasn’t adopted or isn’t fully aware of the organization’s mission. How, she wonders, can she get her team to not only know what the mission is, but live it everyday?
Management Issue:
My client has been in her role as lead of her team for the past year or so. She’s put a good deal of her efforts into strengthening the team culture and creating a more collaborative and client-focused mindset within her department.
At the beginning of the year, she worked with other members of the organization’s executive team to develop a mission statement for her department. Shortly after it was finished, she proudly shared the new mission with the team in a town hall style meeting. Months later, she’s dismayed at how few people on the team have grasped the mission – she randomly polled a few of her staff about the mission statement a few days ago, and some didn’t even know that a mission statement existed!
Naturally, she’s disappointed that the team hasn’t adopted or isn’t fully aware of the mission. How, she wonders, can she get her team to not only know what the mission is, but live it everyday?
***
Training your team on your organization’s mission statement is not a once-and-done activity. Many organizational leaders put a great deal of effort and thought into the creation of their company or department mission statement, carefully crafting each word until it conveys a message that both inspires and succinctly describes what the organization does.
But once the hard work of creating the mission statement is done, the task of getting employees to learn and embody the words of the mission statement is the next big hurdle – one might rightfully conclude that this is the hardest work of all.
As a result, mission statements often end up being treated as canned corporate speak or a motivational poster without real-life impact. Organizations who move beyond this mindset and successfully instill the mission into their employees are poised to experience profound shifts in organizational culture.
So how do they do it? Here’s one approach for taking your company’s mission statement from words to action.
From Mission To Action
5 Steps to Turn Your Organization’s Mission Statement into a Way of Working
Step 1: De-construct the mission statement
Take action phrases from the mission statement and develop both marketing and training materials around them. Do the same for adjectives and descriptor words.
Step 2: Create marketing and training materials
Suggested marketing materials:
Wall posters of the mission statement with action phrases or descriptors highlighted and explained
3D toys, puzzles, games, figurines, etc. that demonstrate the action phrases or descriptors in some way or have action phrases or descriptors printed on them
Suggested training materials:
Self-directed eLearning modules – a la the security essentials training
Recorded video presentation of a member of leadership explaining the mission and its importance
Animated explainer videos
Step 3: Include mission statement in required annual training
Require that each employee attend an annual introduction or refresher training that includes or exclusively focuses on the mission statement. Require the training to be completed within the first 30 days of employment for new hires and once a year for existing employees.
Step 4: Provide and promote ongoing experiences
When launching a new or modified mission statement, provide 2-3 experiential learning activities or sessions within 6 weeks of revealing the new mission statement. Experiential training should be designed to create ‘a-ha’ moments that allow participants to act and reflect on the concepts of the mission statement.
After each training session or after all sessions are completed, recommend and regularly encourage activities for your team to continue ‘living the mission’, including:
Book clubs – read and discuss business-related books that focus on the action phrases and descriptors in the mission statement
Internal improvement projects - suggest and work on internal-facing improvement initiatives that embody the concepts of the action phrases and descriptors in the mission statement
Community service projects - plan and participate in external activities and hands-on projects that embody the concepts of the action phrases and descriptors in the mission statement
Informal social groups - encourage small group participation in fun, social activities that are aligned with or themed with the action phrases and descriptors of the mission statement
Step 5: Encourage and reward demonstration of the mission in action
Create a rewards and recognition program to identify, recognize and reward projects or teams that have demonstrated the action phrases and descriptors highlighted in Step 1. Be sure to focus rewards and recognition primarily or exclusively on team and group efforts, not individuals. This will serve to encourage teamwork, asking for help, collaborating and having shared experiences; and will discourage isolation, ‘hero’ behavior or the tendency to ‘pick favorites’.
Further reading:
https://blog.clickboarding.com/how-to-improve-employee-engagement-make-the-mission-clear
Kisha Solomon is an Atlanta-based writer, knowledge worker and serial expat. She writes witty, poignant stories about the lessons she’s learned from her life, work and travels. She deals with the sometimes frustrating and often humorous side effects of being black, female and nerdy. When she’s not writing working or travelling, you can find her in deep conversation with herself or her four-legged familiar, Taurus the Cat.
what the wizard of oz can teach you about business
“Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”
That’s got to be my favorite line from the beloved Hollywood movie classic, The Wizard of Oz. I’ve heard and used the phrase a hundred times or more, but just the other day I caught the movie on TV, and got a totally new insight from the scene in which The Great Oz is exposed as just a regular man. The Great Oz, it dawned on me, fell into the same trap that many small business owners do.
Heavy emphasis on marketing, not nearly enough on infrastructure. Think about it. Everyone in Oz – from Munchkins to Flying Monkeys – knows who the Wizard is. He’s got Glenda the Good Witch sending him referrals out the wazoo. And not once when Dorothy mentions, “I’m going to see the Wizard of Oz”, does anyone reply “Who?” Obviously, his Ozness has got one helluva marketing strategy if he’s that well known in a place that’s full of so many other colorful characters.
He’s also got a pretty good brand image that emphasizes exclusivity (no one gets in to see the Great Oz, you know) and dazzling opulence. But as soon as customers come seeking his service, it all starts to fall apart. First, the great and powerful Oz makes them jump through hoops to get his service (What? You don’t take credit cards? You’ve got no website? You’re only open every other Tuesday? It only works on a PC? I gotta kill a wicked witch to get an appointment?). And even once his customers have completed the extremely difficult task he asks of them, he stalls for time. “Come back tomorrow,” he says. “I know I said that if you did this, then I could meet your need, but…”.
Time and time again, I see businesses of all sizes spend a fortune in time and money on creating beautiful presentation and packaging for their business, generating a lot of buzz and publicity, and subsequently falling flat on their faces or driving themselves insane with work, when the customers hit the door and they realize they’ve got to deliver on the unrealistic expectations their marketing created.
So, am I saying that you shouldn’t do a great job of marketing and branding your business? Nope, not at all. But I am saying:
Your marketing and promotions should match your infrastructure. If you’re marketing to the world that you make the biggest and baddest widgets on the block or that you’re the premier, most exclusive this-that-or-the-other, then dammit, you’d better have the infrastructure to back it up, or someone’s going to call shenanigans on you.
Only promise what you can deliver. Better yet: underpromise, and over-deliver. Don’t tell your potential customers that you can get their product to them in 2 -days, when you know it could take 3 or 4, or even 2 and a half days. If you think it’ll take 2 days, tell them it’ll take 3, and surprise them with the good news. Set realistic expectations, and meet or exceed them every time.
It’s ok to have limitations, just be sure to reveal them upfront. You’re a small business. Everybody knows it. There’s no shame in having a limitation here or there. You’ll be surprised how forgiving people can be if you just tell them (yes, even in your marketing) about your limitations, and let them know how you’re working to improve.
It’s not ok to have the same limitations forever. If you’ve been giving the same “we’re working to improve” line to your customers for years, eventually they’re going to get tired of hearing it. They will expect more of you. And you should expect more of yourself. Spend the time and effort to stabilize your infrastructure, or if you don’t know where to start, ask for help.
The moral of the story is: The hoodoo, magic, pomp, and circumstance of over-the-top marketing might make you a popular little business, but you’ll need to pay some attention to what’s going on behind the curtain to be a successful little business.
The good news is… you probably already have everything you need. Some brains, a lot of heart, and a little bit of courage.
And a pair of sparkly red pumps wouldn’t hurt either.
