Is Competition Out of Bounds for Christians?

Watching the Olympics and viewing all the athletes and their amazing feats spurred on by top-notch competition reminds me of 1 Corinthians 9:24, one of my favorite verses in Scripture:

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 

The Apostle Paul paints a powerful picture in his first letter to the church in Corinth. He challenges his readers to do more than merely run the race – he exhorts them to run to win.

For Paul, these were more than words. He lived them out. In II Timothy 4:7 he writes,

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Having finished his race, Paul joyfully anticipated receiving his victory crown from Christ.

Yet I’ve heard countless sermons calling competition sinful. It certainly can be, if we..... CONTINUED ON THE TIFWE WEBSITE

What Does a Fractional CMO Actually Do?

The idea of a mid-sized company hiring a fractional executive is not new. Virtual CFOs, for example – pioneered by companies like Tatum and vcfo – have been around for decades. They can bring incredible value to companies where having a full-time CFO wouldn’t make sense, either fiscally or even practically due to the typical scope of challenges needing attention. Yet, as one private equity principal once shared with me, “I know what I’m going to get with a fractional CFO. But I don’t have that same level of clarity if I hire a fractional CMO.” It’s no wonder. Marketing, as a discipline or an activity, has a wide range of definitions. For example, most of us consider “marketing” as the activities we deploy to take our products and services to market, or attract customers to our business or offerings. Or in short, marketing is largely promotional activity. Yet consider someone who gets their MBA in Marketing. A syllabus from The University of Texas shows most of the coursework is focused on disciplines not directly related to promotion. So what gives?

Strategic Marketing Metaphor: Growth Gears

Earlier this year, my partner and I published our first book, “The Growth Gears.” One key objective of this book is to help put Marketing’s role in perspective for mid-sized company CEOs. And the metaphor of “gears” is used to show a fundamental order every company can take to develop a repeatable process to drive growth. These specific gears – Insight, Strategy and Execution – are actually placeholders for a breadth of market-driven disciplines companies can and should deploy to increase their opportunities for growth. The diagram below lists some of the supporting activities.

(click on image to download full PDF on Fractional CMO Value)

As you consider your own company, which of these disciplines are strengths in your business? Where do you need to bolster your capabilities? Do you see how the items on the left of the matrix are fundamental to properly implementing the activities to their right? As you surely have guessed, these critical areas of market alignment, readiness and execution are the very disciplines that fractional CMOs bring to the companies they serve.

Fractional CMOs Get Hands Dirty

So, what does a fractional CMO actually do? The short answer is any or all of the sorts of things listed in the above matrix. In some cases, the fractional CMO rolls up their sleeves and is highly engaged into the research, analysis, messaging, and so forth. In some cases, the fractional CMO pulls in external resources – specialists or even agencies – to help. In every case, the fractional CMO leads the implementation of the growth strategy. After all, a plan is only as good as it gets implemented. As an example, the fractional CMOs at Chief Outsiders are all career executives. Not career consultants. Their job is to get things done. Not simply identify problems and recommend solutions. We know that when a CEO hires an outside executive resource, they are expecting to see tangible value, fast. They’ve had experience with consultants or agencies who under-performed to expectations, largely due to weak execution of some great ideas. So they are understandably suspicious, even of their hand-picked fractional CMO. Which leads me to some background on the firm we’re building at Chief Outsiders.

Chief Outsiders – Fractional CMOs for Accelerating Growth

We think of our fractional CMO offering as growth “Executives-as-a-Service.” We recognize that most mid-sized companies don’t need a full-time CMO or VP of Marketing, but they could really benefit from the services one could perform in their business. So we’re constantly recruiting from across the country, and each week we receive scores of applications from some of the best marketers in the world. Yet, we only hire on average one new CMO a month. Why? Our standards are high. We only hire the best of the best: CMOs who are hungry to solve the toughest challenges; CMOs who are easy to work with, bringing a career’s worth of experience (and scar tissue!) to the table, yet who don’t have to be “the smartest person in the room” because they are always seeking new ideas and knowledge; CMOs who like to work with other people – both in our client companies, and in supporting other CMOs in our “Tribe” – to get things done. To make big things happen. To do the best work of their careers. That’s what we’re building at Chief Outsiders. With nearly 50 CMOs who’ve served on the management teams of over 350 client companies as fractional CMOs, we believe we’re continually learning how to do fractional CMOs right. And with a Net Promoter Score that’s 2½ times the consulting industry average, we’re getting a lot of encouragement to keep going, keep learning, and keep improving our methods for accelerating growth in mid-sized companies.

Do You Need a Fractional CMO?

Here’s how you find out if you need a fractional CMO. Print out the above matrix, or click here for a PDF which includes the matrix. Now, circle each discipline you believe you’re less than optimal at executing. Next, consider the combination of impact your business would experience by executing these disciplines with greater precision – and assign a growth % or improvement per month. Did you do it? Is the growth % number larger than 1.56%? Because that’s all you need in monthly improvements to double your business every three years. Perhaps this exercise will help you decide whether or not your business could benefit from a fractional CMO.

Culture – Nature & Nurture

We hear a lot about how important a “culture” is in our businesses. And most of us think it is important to have a positive culture in our workplace. So how is that done? Do we have control over it?  

Let’s talk about two different types of cultures – sociological and biological. A sociological culture is what we usually think about– those elements that make up the customs or beliefs of a group. But another culture is biological – which most of us haven’t thought about since 8th grade biology when we watched things grow in that little glass petri dish. That was a culture – nutrients that were bound together and growing something.

So why have I brought up these two very different types of cultures? Because when we think about our business cultures we should think both about what elements we want to emphasize and how we put them together to make them grow.

In the formative years of my company I thought a lot about what type of culture I wanted to develop. I finally realized that I was going about it all wrong. I actually could not create a culture. I could emphasize, prioritize and nurture various elements and help direct them but I could not “grow” a culture.

But I knew that those elements I put into the “petri dish” could either grow a positive or negative workplace. And that could make or break us.

Why? Because ultimately the culture is the persona of the company. It is how our customers, clients, vendors and employees describe or feel about us. And it is how we will evaluate our successes and failures.

When you hear someone complaining about their workplace, most likely it’s because of their perception of its culture – negative, untrustworthy, unsupportive, harsh. Or on the positive side you hear – truthful, encouraging, friendly, exciting.

These attributes of culture are not very tangible – most of them are “feelings”. So how do you encourage, emphasize and ultimately help grow “feelings”? It’s not easy but it will define who you are as a company.

My field of expertise is communications – a very broad category which includes media, advertising, design and branding. We have helped clients with how to tell their story. We have told them what colors to use in their logos, what social media platforms to emphasize and what type of advertising to use for various messaging. No matter how important those elements were in communicating their story, however, the most important element of their company was the culture and how they nurtured its growth – either positive or negative.

No matter how great the communications program, storyline or website design – it will always take second place to the internal and external perceptions of the company’s culture.

Jesus said a lot about culture and its importance. He talked about how the Pharisees and Sadducees were more interested in how they looked then what was in their hearts. He said that when we only follow rules that humans set up and not care about how we treat others we were really not getting the point. Jesus knew that the intangible things like loving and caring for one another would change a culture. And ultimately, if nurtured, it would spread and grow. And that’s what happened in the early church. People saw the difference between truth and lies, love and hate and they began to change their culture and it grew. It grew so much that not even the most powerful empire in the world could stop it.

But we must be careful because the elements we put in the petri dish will grow a culture – one that can grow a disease or destroy it. That’s why our foundational cultural elements are so important to business, family and society. After all, that is how we will be perceived, remembered and ultimately evaluated.

6 things to think about before saying, “Can I see you for a minute?”

He tried. I was on a flight to Chicago last week where the flight attendant had made the announcement for us to put our devices in “airplane mode”, made yet another about the cabin door being shut, and had politely walked down the aisle to remind all of us, a few rows at a time, “airplane mode, please".  And seated in the front, I could hear that near the back, she was still on the phone.

He calmly walked to the back of the plane, stopped, and simply, directly said, “We can’t leave until you’re done.”.  And she told the person goodbye.  No scene, no attitude.  Problem solved.  Crisis avoided.

There’s a lot that’s been written and said about effective confrontation.  At Convene, we once heard from Nancy Ortberg about how it always confused her when people would say that Jesus was always “nice”.  In actuality, she points out, He stepped right in to confront the things that were not right in the world (if you don’t remember her talk and are a member, you might ask your Advisory Board Chair about this content piece or another that John Townsend did on growth through confrontation).  Additionally, you might want to check out “Crucial Conversations” by Kerry Patterson (and others).

When I think about times where a tense exchange of ideas went well - when someone spoke with me or when I’ve had to speak to others, a number of factors seemed to be present:

1)  Clarity:  It was objectively clear what the issue really was.  The person bringing the issue took the time to think it through, and look at it from different angles.  They probably tried a few things before deciding a more formal talk was warranted.

2)  Contribution: That same person had thought about what they had contributed to the issue.  They checked their emotions - and with some awareness of how they were wired, had considered how they might react with what they knew about the other person.  They had prepared for what might come.

3)  Change: They were also clear on what they felt needed to be different.

4)  Communication:  While I’m not sure if this was true of others, I found it really helpful to rehearse what I was going to say to begin.  I was also open to their feedback on what had happened, and that I might be wrong.

5)  Courage:  It’s not easy to step into these situation.  Most of us don’t want to, know that we won’t enjoy it, and aren’t exactly sure what the outcome will be.

6)  Calm:  Even though it was tense, at least one voice remained measured, and there was space to talk it through.

However you view these situations, as a leader, they are a necessary part of what you do.  If you won’t step into these, and do them well, who will?

A Culture That Honors God and Transforms People

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect  Romans 12:2 

Our culture impacts our people, positively or negatively. Many times business people talk about culture improvement, but what they really seem to be after is to have people conform at a more structured level in order to gain enhanced results for the business. In some cases business leaders may even use culture as a way of manipulating people.

Our goal should be to create a culture that positively impacts our people, and is reflective of how we have been transformed. Will that culture provide better business results? Absolutely. But that is a byproduct of honoring God in our culture rather than the primary goal.

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you.  1 Corinthians 11:1-2

Our culture should look at people through God’s eyes.  By building a culture that imitates Christ, we as leaders are able to create that reality.  A culture founded in God’s principles will positively impact people, and maybe even open the door for truly transformed lives. We want our people to live as God has designed them to be, to expand and renew, to live in confidence rather than fear, to know what is good and acceptable and perfect.

As you reflect on your culture, ask yourself these questions:

• What is my culture now?

• How does it need to change so that I am more pleased with it and it more fully honors God?

• What one step will I take now to begin designing and moving toward that culture?