Welcome! Hope all is well for you. Apparently we're experiencing the new, new economy where talent and value and opportunity and innovation and effective communication skills and perseverance and courage will matter more than ever. (Of course, this is really the old, old, old economy because these are the same attributes for success that the pioneers of the 1800's required.) Life is an adventure and since we're in it for the long haul let's turn every one of its twists and turns and ups and downs into an exciting chapter. Here we go!!!

This issue will cover four main areas:

1. Last month's Question
2. Hot Issue For This Month
3. Question For Top Performers
4. Resource Recommendations For Top Performers

LAST MONTH'S QUESTION

Here's last month's question:

You and your family have been looking forward to a week-long vacation in Florida for three months. Your boss comes to you three days before the vacation and says that he wants you at a very important client meeting next week in Seattle. You explain that you have vacation plans next week with your family. Your boss says, "I'll make it up to you." The last two times the boss said that he gave you a $2500 bonus, but no additional vacation time to make up for the time lost. In three weeks, you have your annual Performance Review and you know that you are in line for a promotion. What do you tell your boss?

Here's a response from faithful inputer, Rick Miller, at CCD:

To send someone else. Surely there is someone else that could handle the client meeting, maybe even himself. From the question it sounds as though the Family has already been put on the backburner twice before. Doing that again would send the wrong message to both the Family and the Boss. As a single Father I know how important it is to spend time with your Family. It would also be important to express these sentiments to the Boss in a professional manner while remaining firm on your intention to vacation next week with your Family. As for the Performance Review and the Promotion I would expect just exactly that, a Review based on my Performance. I have already dropped Family Plans at least twice before to help the company in a tight spot, and since I am being considered for a promotion I would guess that my performance has been excellent up till now. It would seem irrational to me for a Boss to think less of me for making my Family a priority, and quite frankly, I am not sure how I would feel working for a Boss that would let an incident like this influence his opinion of me in a negative way.

Rick, I love your answer! Here are a few additional thoughts. I would suggest saying, "No, I will not miss my vacation. Here are three names of people I would recommend that could be there. I will gladly prep them for this important meeting." If the boss reacts negatively to my approach, I would start to look for a different department to work in or a different company to work for. Self-esteem and personal dignity are at the foundation of all success. If we allow our self-esteem and dignity to be damaged, then we subconsciously will weaken our long-term performance. In other words, if I give in to this unreasonable request for the short-term gain, I will dramatically hurt my long-term success. Not a good trade, in my opinion.

HOT ISSUE FOR THIS MONTH

This month's topic is "Detailing Your Way To Greatness."

Far too often people achieve temporary success by applying the broad strokes, but they end up failing over the long-run because they didn't fill in the minute details.

Over the holidays, my wife, Barb, and I watch a film classic: "Meet Me In Fenton" starring Judy Garland. After the film was over, it showed a series of interview clips from various members of the cast and the director, Vincent Minelli. This quote was given more than thirty years after the film was completed. Vincent Minelli said, "I believe that a picture that stays with you has a hundred or more hidden things."

Wow, did that quote impact me! This mindset could be applied to business, family life, friendships, community involvement and so on. Greatness is truly in the details. It's the hundred hidden things that make for a lasting impact.

We also saw "What Women Want" starring Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt. This was a terrific film because of its humor and its message. (As my sister, Mary, said, "Every man should watch this.") However, what really made it extraordinary was the attention to detail in terms of story lines, imagery, characters, music, slapstick and many other areas.

I went to Las Vegas for my annual Dream Weekend (two high school buddies and I go somewhere for 48 hours to review the past year and set our goals for the upcoming year.) One night we stood outside of the Bellagio Hotel and watched an amazing water show that combined lights, music and water in a dazzling manner. I'll never forget it. That was a beautiful example of detailing your way to greatness.

As I think about all of the Dot-Com companies that went under, I can't help but think that they missed the important details. You know, details like really increasing the chances that the customer will be successful and actually making a profit on their own. Instead, many of these companies focused on the broad strokes of having a great idea and pushing their stock price ever higher.

So how does all of this relate to being an effective executive? I think effectiveness as an executive is based in large part on attention to details. I recently sat in a strategic planning meeting for the number one region for McDonald's Corporation. The leader of the group said very little. However, he made sure that the group stayed focused on two important areas: innovation and retailing. Everything kept coming back to the idea of bringing more customers into their restaurants and getting them to spend more money. Consequently, he had dozens of small ideas that would add value to the customers.

As you move forward this month, make a list of thirty important hidden details that add value to other people. They may be hidden for the moment, but they will add up over the long run.

QUESTION FOR TOP PERFORMERS

You are the vice-president of a $2 Billion division of a major company. The economy looks like it may grind to zero growth. Other companies have laid off hundreds of thousands of employees. You need to decide where to invest your capital, much of which is just projected capital. What do you do? Do you invest in skill development, product development, marketing, innovation, new incentive programs or new pricing programs? What do you do? Do you lay people off, trim the compensation packages of top executives, go after a hot new idea? It's decision time. The go-go growth of the last few years has faded. So what are you going to do now?

This should generate some interesting answers. Please send your e-mail responses to info@thecoughlincompany.com

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE OF THE MONTH

Over the past year, I have accumulated several books on management. Some were gifts and some were purchases. I wanted to read them all, but I knew if I started with one and read it completely that I wouldn't get to the seventh one for several months. So here's what I did: I read one chapter and then moved to the next book. Then I repeated this process until I had read one chapter from each of them, and then I went back to the first book and repeated the process. Wow, was this an exciting journey. I felt like I had a faculty of top advisors influencing me each day. Here are the books I dove into:

• The Unofficial Guide To Power Managing by Alan Weiss
• Maslow On Management by Abraham Maslow
• Old Dogs, New Tricks by Warren Bennis
• Adventures of a Bystander by Peter Drucker
• The Capitalist Philosophers by Andrea Gabor
• Management Challenges For the 21st Century by Peter Drucker
• Jack Welch and the GE Way by Robert Slater

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