Winning Nice - Business the Right Way

Make a Decision and Don’t Look Back

There are certain pieces of business and life advice I’ve gotten over the years that have stood out apart from all the other suggestions, recommendations, comments, etc. One of the earliest nuggets came from my stepfather, Don Van Demark. (An oil exec, not the guy who works for CNN and CNBC). I was agonizing over a decision, the exact nature of which I no longer remember, and went to Don for advice. He didn’t advise me on any particular option, he just said “Make a decision and don’t look back.”

At the time that advice struck me as a little lacking, after all I had come to him with the expectation that I would get real direction, “Do this” or “ Don’t do that.” But as I kept making bigger and harder decisions, his advice increasingly became more valuable. Looking back, some of the best decisions I’ve made have been the toughest. And in almost every case, I decided to not take the easy route, or the expected path. In every case, I hit a point where I decided that I was going to take a certain action, and be willing to deal with the consequences.

Making a decision and continually second guessing yourself is almost as bad as refusing to make a decision. Make that decision and don’t look back!

MD

Going Beyond the Call of Duty

Tuesday’s The Wall Street Journal had a great article on Denny Flanagan, a United Airlines pilot who provides incredible customer support – he buys delayed passengers McDonald’s, calls the parents of unaccompanied minors with updates and takes pictures with his cell phone camera of animals in the cargo hold to show the owners their pets are OK. The story reminded me of The Fred Factor by Mark Sanborn. In The Fred Factor, Sanborn relates the story of his postman, Fred, who constantly exceeds his expectations and provides incredible customer service.

In an age when Pottery Barn sends me, as I’m 8 months pregnant, a form letter telling me that the baby dresser I ordered in June won’t be delivered until November at the earliest, I love hearing stories about the Dennys and Freds of the world.

And every time I hear such a tale, I wonder what exactly it is that makes them consistently go beyond the call of duty. It’s not a huge raise based on customer satisfaction ratings. It’s not a big promotion (Fred had been a mail carrier for years).

I have to believe there’s some incredible internal motivation, but what is the root cause? Any thoughts?

DS

Who is Dawna Stone?

Whenever I read a blog, the first thing I want to know is, who is the person writing the blog, and why are they qualified to give out information. So I would expect no less from anyone who comes to Winning Nice.

Who is Dawna Stone? Currently I own a national women's sports and fitness magazine called Her Sports + Fitness. I'm also the author of Winning Nice: How to Succeed in Business and Life Without Waging War.

Many people are surprised by my background when they meet me, given my current occupation and my win on The Apprentice:Martha Stewart. They don’t realize that I’m a former Wall Street investment banker with Morgan Stanley, I spent several years with Deloitte Consulting as a C-level strategy consultant or that I’ve been the Chief Marketing Officer for a $700 million publicly traded company. I’ve also been the Sr. VP of a 300 person dot com and the President and General Manager of a $20 million sports nutrition company.

When I received my B.S. from U.C. Berkeley I would have never thought that I’d one day own a media company. I was a finance major and I just assumed investment banking would be my future. It wasn’t until I went back to school to get my MBA at the Anderson School of Business at UCLA that I focused more on entrepreneurship and realized that one day I’d like to own my own company. Although it took nearly 10 years of working in big business after graduate school for me to finally take the leap and become my own boss, it was definitely worth the wait.

I hope that given my background and experience I’ll be able to contribute many insights into how to get ahead in business. But more so than me just giving advice, I want this blog to be a place where others share their insights and experience. Over the years I have learned so much from other professionals and I believe the sharing of experiences and information with other successful businessmen and women is what has helped fuel my success over the years.

My Winning Nice book co-author, Matt Dieter, will also be my co-author on the Winning Nice blog. Matt's an excellent business and marketing strategist and definitely has strong opinions on how to run a business successfully. I'm looking forward to his entries.

I hope you will share your some of your most important tips, ideas and comments in the Winning Nice blog.

Why Winning Nice?

I believe that people are inherently good, want to help others, want to do the right thing and are always looking at ways to improve themselves. However, we face increasing pressure to succeed at all costs. A quick look around – at newspapers, magazines, television and movies – made it clear: we are no longer living in the benign era of The Brady Bunch, of being nice to others and doing the right thing; we are living in the cutthroat age of The Soprano: kill or be killed.

A lot of people are afraid of being too nice in the workplace. They hear stories about ruthless leaders who rise to the top and are conditioned to think the way to get ahead is to win at all costs while waging a virtual war on the competition. But what people forget is that for every ruthless leader there is a leader who actually gets ahead by following the Golden Rule (Treat others as you want to be treated).

I’ve learned over the years that some small changes in the way we treat others truly can have a huge effect on our business and personal success.

My goal for the Winning Nice blog is to have a place to discuss general business, comment on current business issues and share my thoughts on books, products, services and people that have helped me throughout my business career.

The underlying theme of the blog is about doing business the right way but it will also be a place for professionals to share their stories and their suggestions. A place where you can come for advice and inspiration from other successful business professionals that can help you get ahead in your career, improve your professional relationships and find that much sought after work life balance.