Kingmaker – Plain and Simple

You’re a “domain expert” in your field. That means: You are already one of the most knowledgeable persons in your community.

How do you know that you already are in this elite category? Look in your life for several tell-tale signs that you are a king (or queen)-in-the-making:

• People seek you out when you’re at a conference or other “meeting of peers,”
• You often advise others – even in the context of casual conversations, and
• Your colleagues defer to you when you voice an opinion. Or, if they contest what you say, they will carefully support their arguments – if they don’t want to look like a fool.

Now, you desire to be recognized as such. It’s time for some kingmaking. That would be: moving to the place of leadership, influence, and opportunity that you know is right for you.

Transition: From Respected Peer to Kingmaker

So what are your next steps?

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Painting by Henry Tresham representing Warwick’s alleged vow prior to the Battle of Towton

You’ve “paid your dues” with the obligatory years of study; practicing your craft and honing your skills. You’ve already done what it takes to become an established (and even respected, and deferred-to) member of your elite specialty area.

But now, you’re about to go beyond the comfort realm of “safety in numbers.” You’re going to step out, and assume a more prominent role. You are about to become one of the most-recognized, most sought-after, and most influential thought-leaders in your field.

And that means, you’re going to get into the ring with the “big guys.”

This takes strategy. This takes aforethought and planning. This takes courage, because the voices that you’ll have to defeat, most often, will be those inside your head.

Who Is the Kingmaker? Who is the King?

One note, before we begin.

You may be the kingmaker. You may be the king or queen. Either way, with or without the “title,” you are going to step out.

During the famed English “War of the Roses,” Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, was the first to whom the term “kingmaker” was actually applied. He was the most powerful man in the realm. As the Governor of Abbeville wrote to the French King Louis XI, when Henry VI was king of England:

They have but two rulers, M de warwick [Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick] and another whose name I have forgotten.

So in answer to the twin questions – Who is the Kingmaker? Who is the King? – you may be either. You may be both.

You may be the author of an emerging work that has the power to change the world. You may be the creative visionary of a new product line, or a whole new company. You may be the Publicity Chair for an underfunded, overworked non-profit; one in hot competition (for attendance, donations, and overall public support) with several other non-profits in your area.

The title doesn’t matter. Effectiveness does.

Sun Tzu and Machiavelli: Essential Reading

Sun Tzu, 544-496 BCE; Chinese general and military strategist, author of “The Art of War.”

This post series assumes that you’re taking your new role seriously. How do you know?

• You have at least two copies of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. One beside your bed, another behind your (ahem) “throne.”
• You treasure your copy(ies) of Machiavelli’s The Prince, and reread at least every year.
• You critique the strategies used by various “agonists” in the Game of Thrones, and know that you could do better.

Now, let’s get serious.

Sun Tzu opened The Art of War with the following:

1. War is a matter of vital importance to the State; the province of life or death; the road to survival or ruin. It is mandatory that it be thoroughly studied.
2. Therefore, appraise it in terms of the five fundamental factors and make comparisons of the seven elements later named…
3. The first of these factors is moral influence; the second, weather; the third, terrain; the fourth, command; and the fifth, doctrine.
4. By moral influence I mean that which causes the people to be in harmony with their leaders, so that they will accompany them in life and unto death without fear of mortal peril.
5. By weather I mean the interaction of natural forces; the effects of winter’s cold and summer’s heat and the conduct of military operations in accordance with the seasons.
6. By terrain I mean distances, weather the ground is traversed with ease or difficulty, whether it is open or constricted, and the chances of life or death.
7. By command I mean the general’s qualities of wisdom, sincerity, humanity, courage, and strictness.
8. By doctrine I mean organization, control, assignment of appropriate ranks to officers, regulation of supply routes, and the provision of principal items used by the army.
9. [Phrases 11-14] … If you say which ruler possess moral influence, which commander is more able, which army obtains the advantages of nature and the terrain, in which regulations and instructions are better carried out, which troops are the stronger; … which has the better trained officers and men; … and which administers rewards and punishments in a more enlightened manner; … I will be able to forecast which side will be victorious and which defeated.

Practical Mind Control: Sun Tzu’s Warfare in the World Today

Let’s start the first two of Sun Tzu’s “fundamental factors,” as listed above: moral influence and weather. If you nodded your head as you read the opening paragraph of this post, if you were saying, “Yes, that’s me” – thinking about your own “domain expertise” – then you already have moral influence. You already have the right – and even the obligation – to lead.

The whole concept of weather we will defer to another post; for our purposes now, it means the confluence of all factors that can influence the outcome of a strategic campaign. These can range from emergence of new technologies for communication (Facebook, Pinterest, even blogging) to factors such as economic conditions and the various “stresses” and “concerns” facing your target demographic.

Likewise, we defer to a later post consideration of the last two factors, command and doctrine. More to the point, we will integrate consideration of these two factors with other strategic components.

Here, we focus on the one factor that is truly essential to your success: terrain.

Obviously, we’re not talking about the local hills and valleys. Our terrain is not the physical layout of the land.

Rather, for our purposes, our terrain lies within the minds of our target audience.

We are competing, not so much for an immediate purchase or “Like” on a Facebook page, but for mindshare.

In any realm in which we seek strategic position, our dominant concern is with the minds of the people whom we would take into our “realm.”

In short: the most valuable thing in the world today – the most hard-fought and difficult-to-keep commodity – is mindshare. Our entire strategy is devoted to claiming this.

First Strategic Imperative

The first task that we must do is to get some sense of the terrain – the “mental maps” within our target demographic. This presupposes, of course, that we actually have a target demographic.

Exercise 1: If you haven’t done this already, write up a description of your target demographic. Identify things such as gender (if appropriate), likely age ranges, education, work/profession/income, social interests/hobbies, and – most importantly – needs. Why would this person possibly be interested in what you have to offer? (50 bonus points if you’ve already done this, and have your target demographic written up already. An additional 50 bonus points if your Target Demographic Description is included within your written Business Plan.)

Now, look at the world through the eyes of your imagined Target Demographic Person. In particular, look at the world in the area where you are offering a product or service.

Suppose, for example, that you are the author of a new book, and you’re about to launch (or re-launch) your marketing campaign. What are the books already on your Target’s bookshelf? (Hint: They’re likely to be the books already on your bookshelf, and referenced – at least mentally – in your own book.)

Exercise 2: Identify the “dimensions” in which your product/service lives. Then break this down into “dimensional pairs,” so that you can draw pictures on a sheet of paper.

Backing off for a moment from the needs, interests, and concerns of your imagined Target Demographic Person, go back to your own product/service/offering. Typically, the “essence” of what you offer will live in more than one “dimension.”

Examples of Dimensional Pairs:

• You offer “success coaching,” and have a book on that topic. One of your “dimensions” will include “values/goal-setting/prioritization/use-of-time.” Another of your “dimensions” would potentially be specific to your Target Demographic Person – for example, women of retirement age or top insurance salespeople.
• You’re the Publicity Chair for a non-profit organization; a symphonic orchestra made up of local, volunteer musicians. One “dimension” would certainly be “symphonic music performances.” Another could be – depending on your Target Demographic Person – music education, or community involvement, or support for a much-beloved conductor, soloist, or special invited guest artist. Or – if you’re appealing for dollars – it could be the “enrichment factor” that the symphony brings to the local area. (Do you see that we’re heading towards multiple Target Peronae? Yes. This will be the subject of future posts.)

Exercise 3: This will require research. For each set of dimensional pairs, you’ll develop a “mental map.” This represents the world according to your Target Person, and to some extent, an “objective world” backing that up. For each dimensional “pairwise set,” do the following:

1. Find the “leaders” for each “dimension,” and estimate the “size” of the area that they “control.” For example, if one of your “dimensions” is “values/goal-setting/etc”, you would almost certainly identify Stephen Covey as a leader. You’d want to estimate the “size” of the “area” that he “controls” by estimating total book sales for his books. (Yes, research.) Find a reasonable and representative number of such “leaders,” and be sure to include both dimensions. Of a certainty, identify any products/services/packages that appeal to BOTH of your dimensions. If you find “singletons” (like Covey for leadership), try to figure out where they would impact the “other dimension.”
2. Start drawing these on paper – draw circles for each different “thought-leader,” and make the circles roughly corresponding to “importance.” (You might use a log-10 scheme; a circle for 1 million copies sold would be twice the size of a circle for 100,000 copies, which would be twice that of 10,000 copies, etc.)
3. Play with this until it “feels right.” Don’t waste too much time on precision, and don’t overdo the research; if you have to, estimate influence. (Compare completeness of product lines, etc., with competitors to gauge someone’s or some company’s likely influence; look for newspaper articles and/or reviews, etc.).

You’ve now created your first draft of a mind-map. You’ll create several, and update these, over the course of your work.

Next Step(s)

You have your first mind-map. This is – to the best of your ability, right now – your understanding of terrain.

Where are you, and where do you think that you can be, with due diligence over time?

If you’re just starting off, and your mind-map has some big “mountains” on it (those areas “owned” by established thought-leaders, such as Stephen Covey), you are probably in some valley or desert terrain, and are barely a flyspeck on the paper.

Take a long, meditative break. When you come back (which may be days later), you’re ready for:

Exercise 4: Carefully consider where you’ve put yourself in the mind-map that you’ve constructed. You should be “near” those authors or products or speakers or service providers with whom you have the greatest “kinship.” These will both be your strongest allies (should they choose to support you, over time) and those who will be most reluctant to release mindshare to you. After all, they’ve developed their own “following” through trial and error, and much hard work, over many years.

Now you know what faces you. You understand that which Sun Tzu described as “terrain,” taken into the reality of today’s world, in which mind-share rather than physical space is the dominating factor.

In future posts, we’ll take on strategies for gaining ground in this “terrain of the mind.”