Why do so many pharma companies give top sales performers “the President’s Club” award?
These award programs give companies another way to build some brand equity. Make it your company’s award, and your company’s only.
Merck Masters Club. Teva Trajectory Award. Easai Excel Club. The Glaxo Galaxy Club. Novartis Northstar Club.
Pharma runs on brand innovation; the industry’s corporate awards programs should do the same.
This leader knows the power of his wake. At least twice a month my client makes sure to connect with the national sales force he leads. He also makes it a point to name names. In a recent message, for example, he cited 30 national award winners and another 30 reps who had recently earned promotions. That’s 60 folks, in a 90-second read. Sixty one, when you include his mention of another rep he had accompanied on field rides.
Here’s how one district manager responded: “John, this is an excellent email. The reps will be pumped to see this! I can speak for myself and my team – this type of recognition is very much appreciated and keeps us driven and motivated to win!”
John’s simple act of recognition touched 61 people and left a positive imprint on his other 450 readers. Do you oversee large groups? Name names, and advance your leadership.
Ladies and gentlemen, get out your dictionaries. The finals of the Scripps National Spelling Bee play out tonight at 8 p.m. on ABC.
My money is on 14-year-old Neetu Chandak from Seneca Falls, N.Y. She advanced yesterday when she nailed, ‘hemerocallis.’ That’s another word for a day lily, but you knew that. Neetu would be the third Indian American to win the competition in the last four years. The champion takes home a huge trophy and more than $40,000 in cash and prizes.
Remember your fourth grade bee? I was asked to spell “ago.” You had to stand and spell out the word. I rose and said, “A-G-A.” I corrected myself, but it was too late and I got bounced. Funny how you remember these things.
What’s not funny is how many words get misspelled in everyday business writing. Here are seven, along with a tip for how to remember each one.
Accommodate. This word accommodates both a double “c” and a double “m.”
Committed. Two “m”s and two “t”s, or you come up “m-t.”
Grateful. Not greatful, even though it should be. This spelling grates on me.
Foreign. Forget the i-before-e rule.
Hierarchy. Remember the i-before-e rule.
Pastime. Since a pastime is something you do to pass the time, you would expect a double “s” here. There’s only one. A typo by Noah Webster?
Rhythm. This one was borrowed from Greek. Helps explain the phrase, “It’s all Greek to me.” Great hangman word, though.
I stumbled on this passage in a recent college alumni magazine:
“Paul Pickle was given the 2009 Rural Electricity Resource Council Electric Technology Award at the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Annual international meeting in Reno, Nevada. Pickle was selected for the honor for his dedication and outstanding contributions to energy efficiency in agriculture.”
Do you think anyone remembers the name of this award, even Pickle himself? Why not name it the Bright Idea Award?
When recognizing award winners, lead with a brief comment about what the honoree did to earn the award, then follow with the name of the award itself. In the example above, it would read, “Paul Pickle has been recognized for his outstanding contributions to energy efficiency in agriculture. Pickle received the Bright Idea Award from the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers at its annual meeting in Reno.”
Which summary is easier to read? Which would you remember?
A copywriter friend called the other day to vent.
“I’m working on this college marketing piece, and the designer is crowding me out. I’ve written all these cool profiles of students and professors, but they’re being cut to captions.”
“Can’t you find a compromise?” I asked.
“No. The dude loves his pictures and splatters them across every spread. He thinks copy is a nuisance. The guy cares only about the face, not the soul.”
That phrase stuck in my head. Images show a face, a sense of place. In my friend’s project, pictures show students and professors strolling lush courtyards and debating in the halls of historic buildings. Those images present the school’s face.
But a face is only a start. After all, when was the last time you saw a campus that didn’t look inviting? Readers want to see inside. They want to know the stories going on in the pictures. When they see an image of a professor making an emphatic point, they want to know what it means to her students.
Images introduce a story; words tell the story. Words describe ‘aha’ learning moments, uncover a social pulse, and give meaning to interaction. Words reveal the soul of an enterprise.
How do you make images and words work together? At the outset, meld the designer, the writer and the client. Establish your theme and supporting messages. Determine what it will take – in images and words – to convey that theme and messaging. When client, designer and writer stay on the same sheet, the look enhances the read and the read enhances the look.
Because in the end, what’s a pretty face with no soul?
My soccer teammate brings his seven-year-old son to our games. As they prepared to leave the house last Sunday morning, young Will walked downstairs carrying a dictionary.
“What are you doing with that?” asked his dad, Ted, eying the Webster’s hardbound occupying both his son’s arms.
“Your teammates use some words I don’t know,” Will said. “I want to look them up.”
Ted patted his son.
“Will, you won’t find a lot of those words in the dictionary.”
“What do you mean?” Will asked.
“I’ll tell ya later,” dad replied.
Undaunted, Will toted the dictionary into the backseat. A mile down the road, he broke the silence.
“Dad, how do you spell ‘alcoholic?’”
Ted answered again, “I’ll tell ya, later, son.”
Our team won that day. Will didn’t hear so many unfamiliar words.
The other day I was interviewing a professor for a college marketing campaign when he said something that hit home: “As you get older, you want to leave behind what you know. To die with knowledge in your head would be a crime.”
This fellow had spent 30 years developing carbon nanostructures in research labs. In his fifties he felt a pull to the classroom, a place where he could pass his knowledge along to others.
Later that day I met another faculty member who had spent the first 30 years of his career as a marketing executive for a consumer products company. For the last 20 years of that stint he moonlighted as an adjunct professor, teaching business classes at five different colleges over that span. He later earned his PhD and left the corporate world and now runs the international business department at his college.
“I like to expose students to things they have not seen or thought of before,” said this scholar, who traveled to rural India last summer to teach business courses at a women’s college.
This leader sees his second career as anything but work.
“What I do is not a job,” he remarked. “My wife says she envies me because I so love what I’m doing.”
An increasing number of business leaders are becoming adjunct professors. They come from and teach all disciplines – marketing, sales, strategy, finance, technology, operations, communication. They all have a few things in common – loads of experience; refined presentation skills; a master’s degree; and a desire to help others better themselves.
Can you see yourself sharing your knowledge and wisdom with the next generation? Learn more at these sites:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2165669_become-adjunct-professor.html
http://www.adjunctprofessoronline.com/content/how-become-adjunct-professor
One of the best talks I’ve heard about living the college years was delivered by David Butler, a former Dean of the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. I had the privilege of working with Butler in crafting this short address, which he gave to incoming freshmen and their parents during orientation week. If you have a son or daughter leaving for school in the fall, or know someone who does, you might want to pass this along.
A Blueprint for Learning
First, it might help to understand something about what education is. The essence of a word springs from its roots. “Education” comes from the Latin prefix “ex,” which means “out,” and the verb “ducere,” which means “to lead.” And so it means literally, “to lead out.”
Our faculty are passionate about their role in the leadership process. It is their job to provide rich and structured intellectual opportunity. But in the end, leadership rests with you.
What you get out of college is what you put into it. The yield on your college investment will be determined by how aggressively you take charge of your learning.
But what should you be aggressive about? We will spend the next four years helping you answer that question, but right now let me focus on one thing: Take risks!
As the origins of the word “education” suggest, learning requires pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone. And remember that in any university, the risk–reward relationship is loaded in your favor. The downside is low, the upside is high. Ours is a school of rigorous expectations, not of hard knocks.
So, in selecting courses, build on your strengths, but don’t hide in them. Attack your gaps and weaknesses. If you are quantitatively inclined, acquire the verbal facility you will need to sell the results of your analysis—and to succeed as a leader and as a social being. If you are verbally inclined, remember that few people rise high in business who don’t also understand the numbers.
In selecting faculty mentors, pick individuals with reputations for being unusually probing and challenging, even prickly. Supportiveness is only one tool in instruction. Many of our alumni’s fondest anecdotes about their teachers – and deans – seem to involve curmudgeons.
In selecting friends, seek diversity in country of origin and in ethnicity, interests, and faiths. In hospitality you will serve the world, and the world is here in this small town. Seek it out.
In sharing ideas, in your discussions inside and outside class, don’t “play it safe.” Take risks with what may seem off-the-wall. You may be breaking new ground.
A stimulating world moves through this campus. Use the whole university. Don’t overdo Statler Hall. If you do your part, our curriculum will ensure that you graduate with a sound base in hospitality management.
But leadership requires a broader take on the human experience. Explore the arts and sciences, music, drama, literature, biology, physics, and astronomy. Do so in courses, featured lectures, and campus performances.
Think big. Through our executive visitors, you have the opportunity here to sample virtually every side of hospitality: hotels, restaurants, clubs, convention centers, amusement parks, cruise lines, gaming, resorts, vacation ownership. And our internships open virtually every part of the world: ours is a global industry and we are a global school.
At the risk of sounding like your parents, let me also remind you: It is unlikely that you will ever again be able to spend four years of your life devoted primarily to improving yourself, much less in an intellectual environment as rich and diverse as this one.
College offers a glorious feast of experience and insight. Dine well. Where learning is involved, gluttony is a virtue.
On a recent visit to South Carolina, I felt like I had stepped back in time.
As I took my family into The Waffle House one morning, a perky young lady greeted me with “Hello, Darlin’.”
I was so dumbstruck that I missed her follow-up question, and we got seated in the smoking section. But who notices smoke when you’re being showered with southern comfort? Over waffles and grits, a second server called me ‘honey bun,’ and a third tagged me, ‘dear.’
Later that day my son and I walked into a store selling golf shoes. The courtly gent at the counter smiled and greeted us with, “Hello kids, what can I do for you today?”
I’ve lived in New Jersey for 20 years. No one here has called me ‘Darlin,’ and I can’t remember the last time someone called me, ‘Kid.’ My trip was a pleasant reminder that southern hospitality lives on and should be cherished for its unique charm.
The editor of the company magazine was startled when the CEO walked into his office one morning. The last issue of the magazine had gone out the day before, and the editor could only wonder: What did I screw up?
“Jim,” the CEO said, “I read the magazine last night, cover to cover. I learn something new every time I read it.”
“Uh, thanks sir.”
“No, thank you. I know how hard you work on that magazine. I also know that everyone enjoys reading it. Keep up the great work.”
The editor nodded as the CEO wished him a good day and turned to leave. For the next few minutes, the editor pondered what had happened. The CEO just told me he learns something new every time he reads the magazine. Am I dreaming?
How hard do you think the editor worked that day – and every day forward? How many people do you think that employee told about the CEO’s visit?
Great leaders seek out opportunities to pay personal tributes to deserving employees. In this case the CEO’s task came easily; he had read the work himself. But thoughtful CEOs use other means to set the stage for this kind of recognition. They ask a Human Resources leader or executive assistant to build a network of people who feed them stories about employees who have excelled.
Once every few weeks, the CEO reviews these notes. When she has a few spare moments, she seeks out someone worthy. She visits that person’s office and spends a minute or two telling the person how much her work is appreciated.
This kind of leadership pays big returns. Nothing motivates an employee more than a personal display of appreciation for a senior leader. Nothing builds that leader’s reputation more than this kind of act, especially when it’s done on a consistent basis.
Do you lead large groups? Commit an hour a month to this form of leadership. When it comes to return on investment, you won’t beat what you get out of this hour.