Flip the Script: How to Turn the Tables and Win in Business and Life - Hardcover

Wackermann, Bill

 
9781451618396: Flip the Script: How to Turn the Tables and Win in Business and Life
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1451618395 ISBN 13: 9781451618396
Verlag: Free Press, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

From Condé Nast’s publishing director—in charge of Glamour, W, Details, and Bon Apetit, comes Flip the Script—a hip and refreshing lifestyle guide that shows readers how to turn negative situations around and create new opportunities for growth.

Have you ever felt stuck in your career or in your personal life? Do you want to write new and exciting chapters to the story of your life? You just have to learn to flip the script. Few executives in media today are as well respected for their ability to turn a business or situation around as Bill Wackermann. As a leading executive in the publishing industry he is esteemed for his powerful combination of business ingenuity and innovative branding. The New York Times has heralded his work, stating, “Mr. Wackermann is becoming known for the offbeat campaigns he creates,” and Fashion Week Daily called him “Times Square’s turnaround artist.” His simple approach to this kind of transformation transcends the publishing industry, impacting the worlds of entertainment, fashion, and art. Here, in his hip lifestyle guide, he shows how to turn negative situations around and how to create new opportunities for business and personal growth.

Through helpful tips and engaging stories, Wackermann empowers readers to embrace self-knowledge and be confident of their individual talents. With great energy and enthusiasm, he presents a clear and clever program for how people can turn their lives around, essentially discovering how to “flip the script” by identifying prospects where none existed and rewriting their personal stories for the better. He encourages readers to think of ways to turn every problem or situation around to their benefit. Packed with advice such as how to watch for potential openings that might be right in front of you or how to embrace a mantra of personal responsibility, his book draws on eye-opening stories from his life and the lives of friends and colleagues to show how readers can start to find success today.

Flip the Script is a highly intuitive and engrossing guide for everyone from entry level to the corner office. Wackermann shares his results-oriented approach to life and business, which has taken him from brash young upstart to seasoned executive, making it clear to younger readers, in particular, that they too can seize the director’s chair and come out on top.

***

I have read many books on how to succeed in business, and often, after reading them, I have been left wondering if the authors’ own experiences were relatable to the average person. The advice in many of the books tended to be either too scholarly or too complicated to incorporate into real life. The lack of a better-grounded, reality-based approach to guiding others to success inspired me to think about my own experiences. My success in life and business has come in the absence of any extraordinary opportunity or vision. Mine is a journey from a family of six children who struggled monthly to make ends meet to a career in one of publishing’s glittering ivory towers. From New York to Paris, from the world of fashion and beauty to the back lots of Hollywood, my success has come from “flipping the script” and creating opportunities where none existed. Flipping the script is my unique approach to turning tables and gaining control. — from Flip the Script

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Bill Wackermann is Executive Vice President and Publishing Director at Conde Nast. He is the youngest Executive Vice President in Conde Nast history, having overseen Glamour, W, Details and Bon Appetit magazines.

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Chapter 1

The Power of “So What?”

Life is very interesting if you make mistakes.
—GEORGES CARPENTIER,
TWENTIETH-CENTURY FRENCH BOXER

THERE IS TREMENDOUS VALUE in thinking of alternatives to any situation and creating backup plans. Some of the best advice that I’ve ever been given—and that works exceptionally well in dealing with both business and personal issues—came from my mother. My mom, who passed away when I was still in my early twenties, was a beautiful and loving woman, but she was also a tough Irish lady, the type who had a cigarette half hanging out of her mouth while she talked on the phone and who treated us like adults even when we were five, as when she’d tell us, “Go make your sandwich for school.” She and a generation of women like her managed to walk a fine line between teaching their children love and independence and treating them with a touch of benign neglect. But no matter what, we knew we were loved, and whenever things got tough and people or situations seemed insurmountable or hopeless, my mother would say, “So what?” Asking “So what?” allows you to open windows when you feel as though all the doors are shut. “So what?” pushes you to think against the grain, imagine the worst-case scenario, and then devise new options.

“So what?” can be one of the most unusual and effective personal management tools in your arsenal. It will help you pursue opportunities that may seem out of the norm but that have extraordinary potential, and it will be an important approach for crafting alternative solutions to challenges that arise seemingly out of nowhere. In this chapter, we will discuss how to harness the power of “So what?” to create new ways of thinking, to see hidden opportunities, and to realize possibilities.

The value of “So what?” in business can be critical because too often when we struggle with difficult work and personal situations it is because we are too close to see the issues clearly. If you’re honest, you’ll admit that when you’re personally vested in any situation it becomes much tougher to see new perspectives. When that happens, our perceived options become limited. Think of it this way: when you are too close to have clear perspective, it’s the equivalent of looking at Claude Monet’s Water Lilies in a museum from two inches away. Only when you pull back several feet can you get the full picture. I ask you, are you seeing your circumstances clearly? If you’re not, the power of “So what?” will provide some easy techniques that will give you the ability to pull back from any situation where you’re too close and gain a new perspective. For example, becoming too close can happen at work when we can become too personally vested in our own ideas or what we think is the “right” outcome that we lose sight of the overall picture. When that occurs, we limit our ability to see other alternatives or connections. Asking “So what?” is freeing; it motivates you to extend beyond what you think of as conventional or comfortable. Practicing “So what?” thinking allows you to take a few steps back from the issue and see it in all its complexity. By saying “So what?” we become unburdened and free from the tyranny of others’ expectations and our own adherence to them. So how does it work?

FREE YOUR MIND, AND THE REST MAY FOLLOW

When you say “So what?” to any situation, something instantly happens: you develop a new attitude that breaks you from your expectations and gives you the strength to consider what some might call the “unthinkable”—alternative solutions or paths that take you outside your comfort zone or that force you to redefine the status quo. And that’s a good thing. Your mind needs to be free to see previously un-thought-of benefits. “So what?” thinking helps you come up with a Plan B when you need it most. It kicks in when you are hamstrung and feel as though your options for creating new alternatives are limited. This freedom comes from allowing yourself to imagine the worst, then finding the positives in the worst-case scenario and devising new options from there.

There are three important mental advantages that asking yourself “So what?” delivers:

1. It frees your mind from being stuck so that you can see new alternatives.

2. It stimulates fresh thinking and renewed focus.

3. It creates new strategies and contingency plans.

FRANKLY, SCARLETT, YOU’D BETTER GIVE A DAMN

For example, in the publishing world the biggest-revenue issue of the year for fashion magazines is the September issue. September is when fashion and beauty companies launch their new fall ad campaigns. Consumers love that the issues are thick and packed with fresh editorial material and advertising. It is also the issue that has the most financial impact on the bottom line and as a result the most pressure to perform. One year I had a salesperson on my team excitedly tell me several months before the September issue closing that she was going to exceed her revenue number because one advertiser, a fashion company, was planning on running multiple-page ad units in that issue. I said to her, “Sounds good, but what if they don’t?” She responded defensively, saying “No, they’re going to advertise.” It was clear that she was unwilling to consider alternate possibilities. She further explained, “They have to. I need to hit my number, so they’re going to.” From her response I learned everything I needed to know. The fear of not hitting her revenue number was her real issue and had been combined with the pressure and expectation associated with it. Her fear of failure was strong, and it limited her ability to see alternative viewpoints—and even though she had been told only that the customer was “thinking” of running multiple pages. She was seasoned and should have known that ad campaigns change all the time and it was months before the issue would actually close; in that business anything can happen; it was hardly a done deal. She overlooked all these obvious doubts because blind faith provided the solution to the fear that she might not meet expectations. As a result, she was closed to any alternative views. She had convinced herself that the fashion company advertising was happening. And with that belief, she did not have to further worry about reaching her goals. But was it? Haven’t we all felt like Scarlett O’Hara at one time or another when we can’t seem to find the answer to a problem or issue and don’t want to deal with it? “Oh, I’ll think about it tomorrow.” The problem is, while you’re sleeping tonight, the world and business aren’t.

In today’s marketplace, asking “So what?” can be useful in creating competitive advantages. “So what?” is a mental tactic that allows you to force yourself to consider alternative viewpoints and plan for the worst. Once you say “So what?” you are free to devise new positive plans and create new outcomes. In that case, I pushed back on her, asking “So what if they don’t advertise? What’s your plan?” She had none. She had not considered any alternatives. “Look,” I said, “I will be thrilled if you are right and everything goes according to your plan, but don’t fool yourself: it’s gonna be your neck on the line if it doesn’t.” That dose of reality drew her attention. “Wouldn’t you rather try every option?” I pressed. “And in the...

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Verlag
Free Press
Erscheinungsdatum
2012
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1451618395
ISBN 13 
9781451618396
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
240
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar

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