He called himself “the Marketing Mindbender.” (That alone should have tipped me off.)
Several years ago, when I had built my first fully online course and it was time to promote it, I needed a marketer who knew how to get the job done.
He talked a great game. And he did a pretty thorough analysis of my current offerings, providing some solid insights into strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for development, which was both impressive and appreciated.
He didn’t have any experience in the “B2B” space specifically, but he really “got me” and the value of my services, to the point where he wanted me to train some of his team, which we were able to work into our agreement as a partial “bartering” of services, which was also persuasive economically as well as – let’s face it – for my ego.
Overall, he seemed to have “it,” so I gave him the benefit of the doubt that his skills were transferable to my industry (how different could it be?) and we agreed to a formal engagement.
Unfortunately, while his pitch was great, let’s just say, his results were not. The only thing that was truly “mind bending” was how quickly my marketing budget disappeared!
I learned an important lesson in the adage, “Trust, but verify.” Now I know many other specific, quantifiable and verifiable questions I should have asked him, which would have made it much easier to check my gut and determine more objectively if he was truly a good fit, or if I just really wanted to believe he was.
And I know I’m not alone in having learned that lesson.
On this week’s episode on the Speaking to Influence podcast, Ngozi Okeh, global head of DEI at NextRoll, explains that emphasis on the ‘it factor’ can often mask bias, even when our intentions are good!
That’s why it’s so important to ground our assessments of others in objective standards and external and varied perspectives in interviews and other decision-making situations.
Just a few of the other insights Ngozi provides include:
- Challenges in staving off growing misconceptions about DEI,
- How to engage executive leaders in recognizing and changing such misconceptions
- Why you need to develop a personal mantra that aligns with your goals and needs
- When experiencing strong gut feelings about a person, how to evaluate the reasons behind those feelings and determine if they are based on bias or valid concerns
and more.
Of course it’s important to find someone who will be a good fit with the culture of the team or organization, but there’s a difference between “good fit” and “group think.”
Listen to the conversation here or watch the video on YouTube here.
