- David Brinkley

- W. Somerset Maugham

- Dean Rusk

- Peter F. Drucker

- John F. Kennedy

As you may already know, I’m a big fan of finding ideas in unconventional places.  So, when I read the recent interview with Martin Scorsese in Fast Company, I found a goldmine of things to share.

First, let’s cover the basics, and then we’ll get into the lessons.

Who is Martin Scorsese?

Some argue he is the greatest living director of movies.  Others only know him as gangster movie director.  Whatever your opinion, Martin Scorsese has directed several classic films, including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Casino, The Departed, Shutter Island, and one of my all-time favorites, Gangs of New York.

That’s obviously a huge list of creative accomplishments for one career.  The number of people he’s collaborated with is staggering.  The diversity of topic and location in his movies is amazing.  Yet, even with all this experience, one thing stood out in the Fast Company interview: how Mr. Scorsese leverages past movies to convey how a future scene should look.  Here’s some insight from Dante Feretti, an Oscar-winning production designer:

I read the script and then Marty shows me films.  Many, many films, with many different references he wants me to think of for the look of our movie.  He carries all these films in his head.  He shows me whole films for just one shot, telling me, ‘Remember this image, that’s the feel I want.’”

As someone who has to frequently convey how I think things should be designed, both on the web and in mobile apps, I can say that taking this “immersive examples” approach has yielded much better results since I’ve started using it.

What Can Martin Scorsese Teach a Project Manager About Leadership?

This is where it gets really interesting.  As I read the list of 7 questions that plague Mr. Scorsese, I had an a-ha moment: if Martin Scorsese deals with these same questions that I do, it makes encountering and tackling them that much easier to deal with.

Here’s the list of the 7 questions that plague Martin Scorsese, with my additional thoughts on each.  One of the toughest things about being a leader is remaining creative in the face of these questions.

1. Is he going to get the resources he needs?

• The most frequent complaint of most project managers is a lack of resources.  However, resources are only one piece of the “scope, time, resources” trifecta.  Smart project managers know that they can adjust time and scope to fit the resources at their disposal.  I’ve also seen my share of situations where “more” resources doesn’t always equal “better” output.

2. Will his bosses like what he’s doing?

• You have to first ensure you understand your bosses.  After that, use their view as a “lens” with which to see your project and yourself.  By doing this, you’ll be able to ensure the project executes on their vision as well as yours.

3. Will they give him another chance on another project?

• It’s very important to think of your projects as an ever-increasing portfolio that defines you.  When you look at it that way, what’s the best method to get bigger and better projects?  Ensure the ones you are working on right now are wildly successful, by any means necessary.

4. How much of his creative vision will get into this project?

• Anyone can get things done.  However, it takes a special kind of leader to put their stamp on a project.  Be curious and ask yourself, “Am I putting my own creative vision into this project?”  You should do this regardless of if your project is an accounting system automation task or a TV ad.  Doing work that matters means flexing your creative muscles on it.

5. How much will the powers that be screw with his vision?

• 80% of this battle is defining your vision but being flexible to evolve it.  So many people jump into tactics and tasks without defining their vision first.  Having both a strong, fact-based vision, while also being willing and able to turn on a dime, is a combination of skills that will help you achieve things you didn’t think were possible.

6. When does he say “no” to them? When does he say “yes”?

• The distance between “order taker” and “revolutionary” at work might seem far, but in reality it’s not.  It really comes down to how you approach every interaction with your boss.  Your goal as someone who leads projects is to find objective methods to assess any situation.  Arguments of opinion are your enemy.  So, use external research, quantitive insights and qualitative input to drive when to say “no,” and when to say “yes.”

7. Whom does he trust? And how in the world is he going to get away with doing the work he loves for his whole life?

• Trust is constantly evolving, earned and lost within relationships all the time.  Use your experience to develop your gut instinct about trust, and stay aware for signs that someone is breaking it.  Successful projects are the key to doing work you love.  Projects are built on relationships.  Relationships are built on trust.  Ask yourself: “Am I doing everything I can to build relationships in my project(s)?”

- Tony Robbins

After putting the ideas in Your Marketing Sucks to use daily, I was very excited when my friend Mark Stevens reached out to let me know about his new book, Your Company Sucks.  In this article, I’ll share some of the best ideas from the book, and some thoughts on how to leverage them in your company or, as I do, in your team.

How Do You Know if Your Company Sucks?

As Mark noted in his guest post for CNBC, there are millions of companies in the world, and most fall far short of the CEO’s ambitions—all for FOUR basic reasons.  Below are those reasons, and what to do about them.

1. Ineffective Leadership

This is when management has lost control of the business: employees act on the basis of their own agendas, are accountable to no one, and engage in random actions devoid of a cohesive strategy.

Mark’s first rule of management is to take the role of the lowest ranking employee and your customers and forgetting the focus groups, management off-sites, etc.  Using this “lens” into your business is the only way to know if it thrills or sucks. He suggests that once you see where your company sucks, it’s time to live Harry Truman’s mantra “The Buck Stops Here” as a leader, make decisions and accept ultimate responsibility for the ineffective parts of your company or team.  Then, by adopting (and relentlessly repeating) Apple’s model of Innovate + Execute + Innovate, you can reinvent every corner of your company or team.

I’ve always believed that effective leaders make quick, decisive decisions and learn from them.  I favor making many decisions quickly, with adjustments in approach along the way, over getting into “analysis paralysis” mode and missing possible opportunities.  It’s also just as critical that anyone leading a project, a team, or a company takes ultimate responsibility for the effectiveness of it.

2. The Lust-to-Lax Syndrome

This is where all focus is put on luring new customers, at the sacrifice of existing ones.  In time, the former loyalists leave, frustrated by their stepchild status and the lackluster service that comes with it.

To resolve this, Mark suggests creating a “Touch Point Map” that analyzes and perfects the customer experience at every point of interaction.  The Touch Point Map scrutinizes each of these points of interaction, rates the experience, and assesses the quality of each.  At every point of interaction with customers, the goal is simply to thrill them.

This part of the book reminded me of an experience I had at Caribou Coffee not long ago.  I stumbled in, half-asleep, and ordered a skim dark chocolate mocha with no whip cream.  The person across the counter promptly yelled “congratulations!”  After seeing my puzzled look, she then replied “you just saved 130 calories in your coffee today!”  That simple gesture thrilled me that day, and has left a positive impression about Caribou with me ever since.

3. Complacency

So many business wounds are self-inflicted through ignorance, arrogance, and oversight.  Mark outlines the following 5 destructive actions that turn companies into misdirected failures.  I’ve included my take on each one:

• Conducting email wars inside the company – After about 3 emails, it’s time to get the discussion out of email and into another medium!
• Allowing people to undermine their managers by circumventing them and launching appeals to the manager’s boss – If senior executives need to approve everything, something is very, very wrong.  It’s critical to establish and reinforce decision making authority with the people who are responsible for those areas of the business or team.
• Empowering whiners to rant about their co-workers – On our team, the rule is you never say something about someone you wouldn’t say to their face.  And, I encourage people to do just that: talk to the person face to face.  Sometimes it’s hard to do, and sometimes the feedback can be painful.  But in the end, everyone is always better off for doing it.
• Managerial indecisiveness – As a leader, I feel it’s critical to tell the story of our team’s strategy at every opportunity.  That way, we can eliminate any guessing games about where we are going and why certain decisions are made the way they are.
• Managers who change their minds every time the wind shifts in a new direction – Another thing that’s critical is to explain why you make a major change in strategic direction.  Don’t make your team guess.  Remember, nature abhors a vacuum, and someone else will gladly tell your story for you.

4. Conventional Thinking

Mark talks in the book about how early in our lives, we are all handed a book titled “This is the way things are done.”  The obedient read it and follow it as dutifully as possible.  The wise, the innovators, the change-makers read it and then re-write it with their own version of “The Rules.”  He also talks about how the free markets are not fair, and only those who can identify conventional wisdom and prevent themselves from being trapped in it will move their companies and teams forward.

As Mark said in my interview with him, “It’s about not being a follower, not following convention, and not accepting the terminology of the lowest common denominator. If ask most managers, do you believe in this (idea), they’ll say I want to build a “consensus” around this. Well, I hate that word. I don’t understand what it means. Why do you have to build a consensus around it? I can’t imagine. The metaphor I always use is, Steve Jobs wakes up in the middle of the night and says ‘I want to create an iPhone. But, let me go to the office first and see if I can build a consensus around it.’ I mean, no!”

An Action Plan for Change

More Great Ideas to Use from Your Company Sucks

• When thinking about marketing: We all enter a relationship with a business with a mental checklist of questions: How will I be treated?  Will I find the merchandise or service attractive?  Are return policies fair? Is there a genuine guarantee that I will be satisfied, or simply a series of empty promises laced with fine print?
• On achieving greatness: To be truly superb, you must have more than one of the following: stunning innovation, exclusive features and performance characteristics, irresistible design, and extraordinary value.
• What to do with that new idea: Has an important question or idea slipped into your brain, but you are too beat to attack it right now?  Set your alarm for an hour early tomorrow morning and get right to it when the thinking is fresh and the urgency is still alive.
• On how to avoid going out of business: If people like your company, its products and services, you will go out of business.  With so many competing choices available today, they must love it.  Because they will regularly patronize only the businesses they love.  The ones that…thrill them.

Note: Mark was gracious enough to give me a pre-read of Your Company Sucks, as well as the lead quote in the book’s “Praise for Your Company Sucks” section.  I’m grateful for such a wonderful opportunity, and encourage each of you to buy Your Company Sucks and see it for yourself!

For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work.

Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

- Ira Glass

- Mark Twain