The Advisor’s Corner

How COVID Has Affected Mental Health in America

October 11, 2021/in Ideas to help you build a solid team, Sharpening Your Personal Leadership Skills/by Tom Doescher

According to my favorite psychologist, speaker, and author, Henry Cloud, between 15 and 17 percent of adults had a diagnosable mental health issue (depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, addiction, sleep deprivation, etc.) pre-COVID; now, approximately 40 percent are suffering. Yes, a mental health crisis is affecting the workplace.

When it comes to COVID and its impact on mental health, Cloud believes there are four principles on which to focus. He also offers some rhetorical questions and tips regarding the issue. I would suggest you review the list, self-diagnose, and then think of your leadership team. (Editorial comment: Some of us are included in the 40 percent.)

Connection vs. Emotional Isolation

Symptoms of disconnection include depression, moodiness, anxiety, fear, addictions, and distorted thinking.
Realize that we all have a need for connection. Are you isolated?
Do you have a safe place for emotional support — possibly a mentor; accountability partner; a candid, close relationship with another person of the same sex; or some type of support/fellowship group?
Are you willing to be vulnerable?

Freedom vs. Loss of Control

Can you set limits or boundaries?
Are you enabling someone?
Are you blaming others for your problems?
Set limits on bad behavior, control, and manipulations by others.
Respect others’ freedom.
You may be one firing away from success.

Acceptance vs. Denial (How do you handle imperfections?)

Can you face the facts and reality of situations?
Are you willing to be vulnerable about problems?
Again, do you have a safe place where you can solve the problem?

Adulthood vs. Remaining a Child

Have you become an adult, or in your mind are you still a child?
Do you feel inferior?
Are you a people-pleaser?
Do you have an excessive need for approval?
Are you a ridged, black-and-white thinker? (Life is lived in the gray area.)
Own your own opinions.
Take people off pedestals.
See yourself and others as different but equal.

Action Steps:

If any of the above items strike a nerve with you, talk to someone who can help you — a counselor, pastor, or mentor.
If any of the above items strike a nerve with someone who reports to you, encourage them to talk with someone who can help them — a counselor, pastor, or mentor.

Conversing 101

September 27, 2021/in Ideas to help you build a solid team/by Tom Doescher

Sitting in a Coney Island, reading a book, I couldn’t help but overhear a conversation taking place at a table a few spots over from me. (I’ve confessed before that I have a history of eavesdropping — especially in airports, back when I was Platinum with Delta.)

At first, I couldn’t tell if it was a sales meeting or a job interview. (By the way, my advice would be quite similar for both.) Anyway, the man “selling” was dominating the conversation. At times, I wasn’t sure how he was breathing, since he was stringing so many words together in a rapid-fire manner. The other man was either a good listener or lacked the energy to compete with the first guy.

Since we were at a local diner, I decided to get the waitress involved by asking if she knew them, and explaining why I was curious. Without me asking, she decided to hover near their table to see if she could figure it out, and then reported back. Can you imagine being my waitress? I even told her that I was going to write a blog about this episode.

Here are my takeaways:

Whether you’re attempting to sell a product or service, or interviewing for a job, please ask some questions of the other person. Prepare some well-thought-out questions that let the other person know you did your homework and are really interested in them.
Don’t dominate the conversation. Pick your spots, but draw them out, too.
Because of my vantage point, I could see that the “talker” was making very limited eye contact. He was looking around the restaurant as he spoke, or down at the table, but rarely at his companion. When someone is telling a lie, it’s hard for them to look you in the eye. So, hypothetically, was this guy making up stories?
His volume was very high (I should talk). That’s why I heard him from across the restaurant to begin with. Be aware of your volume.
At one point, the talker was telling a story and said “The Wife.” Seriously! And this was supposedly when he was on his best behavior? Not on my team!

OK, now I feel better.

BTW, if you’re interviewing and would like to practice, I would be happy to help you get ready (no charge).

What Does Marketing Really Mean?

September 13, 2021/in Nuggets and Encouragement Regarding Strategy and Focus/by Tom Doescher

For years, my old firm struggled with marketing — which meant something different to every partner. Finally, in 2007, the confusion was clarified and our marketing efforts actually made sense through the leadership of our new CMO, Jeff Antaya.

I had been asked to be part of the interviewing team, and I liked him a lot — so much so that I wasn’t sure he knew what he was getting himself into, and I recommended he not take the job. I told him that many of my colleagues thought they were marketing gurus, they didn’t agree with one another, and they would make his job and life miserable by constantly second-guessing him (sorry if I’m offending anyone, but that probably includes me). I was so persuasive that he took the job anyway — fortunately for Plante Moran and me.

I just finished reading his first book, Don’t Ride a Dinosaur into Your Battle for New Clients (Dinosaur). He does an amazing job of covering all the major marketing areas and providing logical, practical tactics for a complicated, confusing, nebulous subject. If you’re a business owner, CEO, COO, CMO, or any other C-person of a B2B company responsible for marketing, I would highly recommend Dinosaur.

Antaya lays out a comprehensive outline of everything you need to consider in very few words. He shares non-hedged advice, great lessons-learned stories, and very practical suggestions with a touch of his humility, for which I can vouch. I found it very refreshing. For those who have read my book, Hunter Extraordinaire, you know I acknowledged in Chapter 9 that I hadn’t covered digital/technology tools and was planning to add them in the next version. After reading Dinosaur, I’d be embarrassed to even make an attempt. Antaya not only knows his subject deeply, but he lived through the digital implementation at Plante Moran for 13 years.

Like my last three books, I would consider Dinosaur a field manual for marketing, and I would suggest keeping it close by for easy reference. Antaya has provided a very detailed table of contents; short, very specific chapters; very distinct paragraph headings; lots of lists; and 13 useful tools (you’ll find those in the appendix).

Here are just a few examples of the subjects upon which Antaya offers advice:

Hiring, compensating, and managing new business developers (Hunters).
How to digitally maximize and evaluate your content marketing/inbound sales effectiveness (he calls it thought leadership).
Lots of ideas on how to measure marketing effectiveness. Antaya brings objective measurement to subjective activities.
He shares his positions on print advertising; radio advertising; public relations; trade shows, including booths; and many other subjects.

Antaya blends his four decades of real-world experience with the best, most practical millennial digital tools. He accomplished this in a very complex environment that had been described by a previous marketing director as a Rubik’s Cube of Industries, Services, and Geographies.

I’m glad he didn’t listen to my advice, joined Plante Moran, and now has written Dinosaur, which I’m sure I’ll use with many of my clients.

How COVID Has Affected Mental Health in America

Conversing 101

What Does Marketing Really Mean?

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