Jean Fahmy

A few years ago, I was invited to do a conference at a tech show on innovation and entrepreneurship. Another speaker on the bill got me curious. He was talking about how to 'be approachable'. His name was Scott and he was dubbed 'The NameTag Guy'. Another corny gimmick I thought.

I popped in to see his presentation (I was secretly looking for a good laugh, I must admit). Was I ever wrong! To his credit, I felt like an idiot to have judged the guy without understanding his message. Full of sound content, he was showing us how to be 'that guy', just like he was the NameTag Guy. His moniker came from one day, as a student, wearing a nametag saying 'Hello, my name is Scott' and then deciding to never take it off afterwards - sleep and shower included. He even tatooed on his chest. This social experiment led him to discover how approachable he became just by wearing a permanent nametag. It also led him to become a world expert on personal branding.

I've been following his career and blog since then and he has not ceased to impress me with great content and material. I often use him as an example in my classes. Recently, he did a post that cuts to the core of branding for entrepreneurs :

what is your mindshare.

He describes the 4 variations of mindshare, with accompanying questions:
- When you’re the FIRST person that comes to mind. (Immediate Mindshare)
- When you’re the OBVIOUS person that comes to mind. (Duh! Mindshare)
- When you’re the ONLY person that comes to mind. (Sole Source Mindshare)
- When you’re the BEST person that comes to mind. (Number One Mindshare)

It got me thinking about what kind of mindshare I wanted to give off personally and professionally. I want to be 'that guy' but what is the 'that' ? In my case, the difficulty comes from having built and sold multiple projects. I'm close to figuring it out, but I thought the principe that Scott put forward should be shared.

The post here
The blog here
The main website here
The video website here

Yesterday, I received a wonderful email from a friend of mine, Chrystian. In it, he was wishing me a Happy Easter, knowing this holiday is of special significance to me.

Why a post on this ? Because it embodies the type of respectful relationships I strive to develop with my friends, colleagues and everyone else around me.

I encourage all entrepreneurs to develop that type of respect with the stakeholders in their business. When you're there, you realize that:
- you've been understood
- they know you understand them
- the lines of communication are wide open
- the payoff is priceless
- ...there is hope.

Here's what he said :
"I know this is a special weekend for you and your family. Let me wish you a happy Easter. May the Light, who has a different name for both of us, shine with the same love on the ones we love as well."

Short, sweet, to-the-point and so beautifully put. Best I can answer him is :

Thanks... you too.

While researching a future project, I fell upon a (true) story I had vaguely known before, but that resonates more for me today. This version is written by Dr Neil Chadwick.

It speaks to me on so many levels, so I won't insult you by giving me my own conclusions. I'll let you take what you see from it.

---
At the age of seven, a young boy and his family were forced out of their home, and the boy was forced to go to work. When the boy was nine, his mother passed away. He had a job as a store clerk, but lost it when he was twenty. The young man wanted to go to law school, but had no education. He went into debt when he was twenty-three, to become a partner in a small store. It was only three years later that his business partner died, and left him with a debt that took years for him to repay.

He dated a girl for four years and, at the age of twenty-eight, decided to ask her to marry him. She turned him down. Thirty-seven years into his life, he was elected to Congress... on his THIRD try. He then failed to be re-elected. This man's son died when he was only four years old. At age forty-five, he ran for the Senate...and failed to be elected. He persisted at politics and ran for the vice-presidency at age forty-seven, and again lost. Finally, at the age of fifty-one, this man was elected President of the United States.

His name was Abraham Lincoln.

And then, President Lincoln did a very unusual thing. In the midst of the darkest day in American history, in the midst of the Civil War which claimed more American lives than any other war, in the midst of great trial and tragedy, President Lincoln issued the following proclamation: "It has seemed to me fit and proper that [the gifts of God] should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens . . . to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens."

I know. I promised there would only be 3 in this series, but only fools don't change their minds.

A reader sent me brilliant and striking parallels made from the Hierachy of Needs from Maslow to (A) corporate maturity and (B) types of individuals within a corporate structure. I just couldn't resist complementing the series with these parallels while acknowledging Celine Gravel and the Renoir Consulting company where these notions are continually developed and used. They work, I've been through each level and lived the thrill / stress / doubts / all nighters in the passing to the next one.

So here are the 5 levels of corporate maturity mapped out on Maslow's levels. I also included the types of employees per level.

LEVEL 1 : Physiological needs
Company needs to establish stable revenues and answer clients
Manages emergencies, very reactive and short term
Product is defined according to founder's idea
Initial systems and processes in place, trial and error to tweak them
Rapid production with little resources
Complete one-man-show decision making

Employees :
single tasked or inefficient multi-tasked
production focused
5% interpersonal abilities, 95% task execution

LEVEL 2 : Security needs
Company builds in parity with clientèle
Developing ideas to be proactive to maintain the flow
Product is modified according to client one-off demands
Certain critical systems are tweaked, secondary systems are still ad-hoc
Resources grow by client demand
Production is somewhat standardized
Some delegation takes place from founder on what the founder views as 'less critical' matters

Employees :
slightly more efficient multi-tasked
management by fear
Individualist profiles, little team spirit
Managers roles are created
15% interpersonal abilities, 85% task execution

LEVEL 3 : Belonging needs
Company grows by the market it is in
Ideas are out in place to be proactive towards the whole market, not just specific clients
Product is seen as an entry-point to satisfy market needs, complimentary products are envisioned
Internal processes are set with minor tweaks being brought to them
Resources are added in anticipation of market response and feel as though they are part of a global solution
Leadership is being executed by a team, with coherence still being tweaked as the founder learns to involve and 'let-go'

Employees :
customer service focused jobs
interdepartmental teamwork
supervisors, facilitators, management are put in place
management by relationships
less Individualist profiles, more team spirit
50% interpersonal abilities, 50% task execution

LEVEL 4 : Esteem needs
Company becomes a market leader
Recognition is there for work done to accomplish market needs
Future versions of the product now anticipate the market needs (and sometimes can even create those needs)
Internal processes are all 'in-sync' and have been optimized for top-line and bottom-line growth
Resources are lining up to be a part of the success story, supply passes the demand for HR
The leadership team have pride in accomplishments and have the constant challenge to keep the success going
Strategies for sustained growth become more diversified : new products, new markets, acquisitions, decentralization, recentralization
Corporate vision becomes challenged

Employees :
client and strategy focused
collective thinking, based on client services
like-minded individuals with similar value systems
team is king
85% interpersonal abilities, 15% task execution

LEVEL 5 : Realization needs
Company becomes a social heritage, a legacy to society, to its clients, to its employees
Recognition for social change and positive outcomes of the innovation becomes prevalent
Thriving internal culture with strategic alignment
Growth strategies have been successful and the challenged vision is now clear to all stakeholders
Strategic decision making revolves around how profits will be used to better the lives of those around the company
Succession planning becomes a priority for the founder(s)

Employees :
CXOs, VPs manage with creativity, unity and innovation
inventors, creatives thinkers, trainers are sought after
95% interpersonal abilities, 5% task execution

So where are you in this process ? Where do you want to be ? What kind of challenges do you thrive on ? What kind of leader are you ? What kind of employees do you need now ? and what kind should you look out for ?

This is the path awaiting you. Don't forget to have fun ;)