FC NOW: The Fast Company Weblog
February 24, 2006
Spin Yourself
"On each gig, you must be marketing your worth, marketing Me Inc. You can go too far (think Dennis Kozlowski or Martha Stewart), but you constantly have to spin-doctor. If you don't, you have what I call 'engineer's mentality'--and I am an engineer by training. People with an engineer's mentality believe that truth and virtue will automatically be their own reward. That's a crock."
--Tom Peters, co-author, "In Search of Excellence"
From Fast Company's recently released book, The Rules of Business: 55 Essential Ideas to Help Smart People (and Organizations) Perform At Their Best
Posted by Kevin Ohannessian at February 24, 2006 10:41 AM | Category: book discussions |
16 Comments
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The use of 'spin-doctor' as a verb is appalling enough, but Peters's comment is the "crock" here. Smart people see through spin, bright managers are always cutting to the core of the issue, lopping off the spin. Spinning is saying things are going well in Iraq three years after the invasion when the country is on the brink of civil war. Market your successes well, share them well, but if you screw up, don't spin it, admit it, fix it and move foward.
This quote is misleading, No? An engineer is always looking to maintain their brand via truth and virtue. But, satisfying 'rewards' are a byproduct of performance. Constant maintenance (spinning if you will) of truth and virtue vis-a-vis deception, distortion, and abstraction--is a required element. (pardon the Olympics-ism)
I prefer Sally Hogshead's view on this from her book Radical Careering. Radical truth # 96: Expressing your truest self is the ultimate competitive advantage.
Spinning will just confuse your head. That's why they call it spinning.
If your customers (including your boss) don't know what you're doing, it seems like you're doing nothing. You have to speak up and not make them work so hard to find out. I think that's what Tom is saying. He's a good guy.
We need less of this joker, not more. He makes my skin crawl.
Tom is busy supporting chic buzz words. He has made the error of creating a black and white, either/ or example to support his position. If spin-doctoring is honestly letting people know who you are and what you've done - I agree. I don't think that truth and virtue will "automatically" be their own reward - I believe they are a goal worth pursuing.
Makes me want to throw away my engineering degree.
Marianne - I think I'd tend to agree with you. I think Peters most likely knows there is little benefit in not admitting one's mistakes. Certainly, he's addressed this in one of his many books.
I don't think his definition of "spin" is a reference to "tooting our horn and deflecting blame for mistakes." We live in a word-of-mouth-world-of-buzz. I'd bet he's referring to the fact that we can't afford to not be about the business of marketing ourselves and our accomplishments, rather than sitting quietly on the sideline expecting our contributions to speak for themselves.
I don't think he should have used the word spin then. Spin, I think, is more about how you package things. Self-promoting is simply about the act of sharing them.
The term "spin" suggests that you are lying about something. Everyone needs to know how to market themselves and their accomplishments, but "spinning" yourself takes you toward that line that separates truth from fiction, something which (as mentioned above) smart managers can figure out.
Agree with dfoxx on this. This train of thought is the epitome of modern jackassness - all style no substance. A turd will always sink, even if it's polisehd.
I'm an EE who left the corporate world because I discovered that most companies care more about money than people. But it may surprise some that I agree with Tom's assessment here.
Tom said: "People with an engineer's mentality believe that truth and virtue will automatically be their own reward. That's a crock."
As a thirty-something guy who has worked between 60 and 90 hours a week his entire professional life, I've had both of these attitudes. My engineering coda, and the coda of many of my fellow techies, was truth, virtue, loyalty to the company and the product, using the products that I helped to create, and trusting in the vision of company leaders.
But after a decade of waiting, it turns out that the general public tends to believe spin more than benchmarks. It was a hard pill to swallow. You have to realize that they don't have time to research every aspect of every product they buy, that's an engineer's trait. So they turn to magazines and T.V., they turn to popular web sites for reviews, and they tend to believe the most well spun line.
I think Tom's comment can be boiled down to this: Style and substance have to go hand in hand. The best product in the world can be beaten by the third best product in the world, with the right marketing and flair. There are plenty of companies that thrive without innovation, and that's the damning evidence. If you can do the same thing as the other guys, but spin it better to the press, you'll often win. I can't blame the level of journalism or the consumer for this... everyone wants to buy what they dream about. So we have to learn how to sell both the product and the dream.
No doubt about it...companies and employees use “spin” all day long. Problem is companies employ spin masters called PR people that use it on their own employees. The hard part I’ve had during my career is knowing how to see thought the spin & how to use it to my advantage.
I recently found a good read called, The Sales Adventure Guide.
(I bought my copy through Amazon.com) www.salesadventureguide.com
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0977308405/qid=1140993897/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-4723740-9679267?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
It covers this topic in detail from a sales & marketing perspective. It’s hard to find books that tell like it really is & that provide real world (spin free) information.
Real world knowledge is power.
Best of luck!
BJacobs
We spin ourselves every day at work.
When asked how long a project will take and we give a longer time that what we know it will and turn in the work early it is spinning. We make ourselves look better.
Wait for a reward or advancement based on truth only will not bring it about. We need to promote ourselves daily to get ahead in our careers.
On every gig,one finds himself in different forms.And the possiblity of fun that one may make of him or he may assume to have happened.Needed is a disinct line of thought and to act upon it.
Seems to me the key is knowing how to read through the corporate “spin.”
As a recent college graduate my goal is to start my own business. My challenge has been learning to see through all the corporate smoke and mirrors and stick with why I’m currently working – money, experience, contacts, and the goal of my own business.
I just read the following books and highly recommend them:
I recently bought a copy of The Sales Adventure Guide.
www.salesadventureguide.com
It was recommended by my business fraternity members at SJSU. The book outlines how to identify a lucrative sales/marketing/business opportunity, stay employed, earn a ton of money, and negotiate a severance package once it’s time to go and start my own business. (Has any one ever had a college class in severance negotiation??? Seems to me gray haired folks know ALL about it…but the young guns left in the dark.)
Corporate Confidential : 50 Secrets Your Company Doesn't Want You to Know
http://www.corporateconfidential.com/sneakpeek/index.php4
This book hits hard but gives a corporate person the keys to staying employed, avoiding the corporate merry-go-round and gain the financial resources and business knowledge to get out and make start-up…really start-up!
Any one have any real world business book recommendations?
Thanks,
Bill Jacobs