According to Wikipedia, many in the United States believe that Cinco de Mayo is Mexico’s Independence Day (which actually is September 16 (dieciséis de septiembre in Spanish), the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico). In reality, Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican regional holiday that commemorates the Mexican army’s unlikely defeat of the French at the Battle of Puebla. According to the historical record, while outnumbered, the Mexicans defeated a much better-equipped French army that had known no defeat for almost 50 years.

It’s not a major holiday in the U.S., but we treat it with equal regard to other cultural holidays such as St. Patrick’s Day, Oktoberfest, and the Chinese New Year. So regardless of what you believe or if you plan to share a few cerveza’s with your colleagues after a day at the office in celebration of the holiday, I think the today is a perfect opportunity to take stock of your own battles against formidable opponents and how you are responding.

Whether your opponent is a colleague, a member, change, the system or even yourself, are you fighting a good fight? Is the battle actually worth fighting? Are you being honest with yourself? Are you digging in and doing everything you can to emerge victorious?

If the answer to any of these questions is no, perhaps it’s time to reevaluate your strategy and priorities. Should you really be doing it? Is it worth your effort, energy and enthusiasm? Is this how you want to be remembered? Are you being driven by pride or fear of defeat? If so, all of these
motivations need to be reconsidered.

In the Art of War, Sun Tzu advised: “He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight“. It was his first essential rule for victory. Perhaps we would all be wise to heed his advice. Pick your battles wisely and always remember there is as much to be gained in defeat as there is in victory. What people will remember most is how you conducted yourself in pursuit of your goal.

Last week I got a Tweet from @lindydreyer asking me what I thought of The Power of A. Prior to that reference, I hadn’t a clue what the Power of A was, but I was surely going to find out. I do my best to stay up to date on everything going on in the Association-world, but regardless of how vigilant I am, things can and do slip under my radar. Thankfully, I have a pretty active group of Association peeps that I follow in the Twitterverse and the Association Blogosphere, so even when I miss something one of them are normally there to clue me in.

I took the tweet from Lindy as a suggestion (normally when Lindy recommends something to me it’s going to be a hot topic so I have learned to listen to her when she does) to take a good look at the Power of A and weigh-in n what I thought. Admittedly, at first I really didn’t get it. Not only didn’t I grasp the purpose but I also didn’t immediately realize who was behind it. It took me some clicking around to realize that (a) it was produced by ASAE and the Center and (b) it was extolling the virtues of Associations. Granted it was a user-friendly interface and I found it aesthetically pleasing but I still didn’t get it. I thought that ASAE already had a website and if anything this type of information should have been housed there. I did privately wish that the ASAE website were as easy on the senses, but that is a different topic for a different day. After my cursory review, I sent a tweet back to Lindy to tell her that I didn’t get it but I did like the presentation and left the topic go…at least for a while.

Over the weekend the topic popped back on my radar screen through a bunch of Tweets and a blog post by @maggiemcg (The Power of…huh) responding with her thoughts on the whole thing. I think that was about the same time that I finally pieced everything together and saw what was going on. I left my own half-baked comment, many others followed more thoughtfully, and a stream of Tweets – #PWRA ensued. Needless to say, I think the whole thing wasn’t being viewed too positively – at least not initially – and the comments seemed to corroborate that fact. A follow-up post by Deirdre Reid seemed to push the paradigm even farther (The Natives Are Restless – How Do You Respond?).

After letting the topic stew for a day I began to better understand what I did and didn’t like about the website/approach and what I thought could have been done to make it better. On the positive side I liked:

1. the fact that ASAE was jumping up and telling the world about the impact that Associations can have for business and society.
2. the use of multimedia: text, audio/video, graphics, etc. to make the site welcoming, easy to use and full of a lot of decent information.
3. how ASAE embraced a myriad of social media tools (tagging, sharing widget, twitter stream, etc.) to not only bring in some of the resources referenced above, but also to encourage sharing and feedback.
4. the use of specific examples to drive home concrete messages about the true power of associations. I think this is a lot more of an effective approach as compared to listing specific benefits without substantiating them.

However, what I really didn’t like was:

1. the fact that the audience that this was directed at wasn’t really apparent. I came to find out that this site was specifically designed for our friends on Capitol Hill. While I know there is a pretty active campaign to gain additional support from our lawmakers during our country’s economic malaise, I think this site could have served many masters, not just one, equally as well.
2. the fact that ASAE and the Center engaged a PR Firm, actually not just any PR firm but one of the best and likely most expensive, to assist with the creation of this campaign. Now I happen to be a big fan of PR done right and also think highly of Ogilvy, but for the purposes of this campaign, I think it sends the wrong message. It looks like it is saying that the power of associations lies in the ability to use it’s funds to engage high dollar PR firms, not that it is part of the solution to some of woes that are ailing our nation as a whole.
3. while I do like the specific examples, I would have preferred to see the site go live with a lot more info than what it currently has. Sure, this is a superficial comment, but the examples while detailed only go so far in detailing all of the great things that associations do for their members, business and society.

What would have I done differently? Quite a bit actually.

1. First, I probably would have created the site as a sub-domain of the main ASAE site. You could have still had the vanity URL and accomplished all of the same things but visitors would have been all that much closer to the ASAE site. I would have also played up who was responsible for the site, not downplayed it. The first visual cue that you get that the Power of A site is part of ASAE is if you scroll to the bottom of the page. Why hide it?
2. Second, I would have definitely made the site serve different purposes depending on who the visitor was. Capitol Hill lawmaker? Go here. Association Executive or staffer? Go here. Association member or member of the general public? Go here. Employer? Go here. Associations have multiple stakeholder groups and ASAE is no different. As a former association staffer and current association (actually multiple association) member I would have liked to have seen the benefits of belonging spelled out clearly. After all, being currently out of work – which many are these days – I need to be reminded why an association membership is a great investment and ultimately an investment in my future. Likewise for employers. Why, when they are in the midst of slashing budgets and cutting back on professional development, should they continue to invest in association memberships for their employees?
3. Third, I think that a lot of this could have been done in-house. Again, no offense to the work and/or talent of Ogilvy, but who better to demonstrate the power of associations than associations themselves? A general call could have been put out or a tiger-team/task force could have been assembled and a myriad of social media tools could have been employed to create the same type of resource probably as quickly and a lot more cost-effectively. When your members are the exact people you want to hear from why go to a third party to solicit their feedback?
4. Fourth, I would have made the site a lot more dynamic (e.g. living and breathing) than it is now. I would have made it almost all user generated (with some oversight of course) and allowed to be something that was continuously changing and being updated with compelling stories from associations, from members and from businesses. My guess is that by really opening the site up it would have a much longer shelf-life and much more compelling content that would have mass appeal.

Surely these aren’t the only ideas that could have made the site much more reflective of the true power of associations, but it would have been a good start. If you were to ask me, I would say that the true power of associations lie in the membership so who better to tell the world about it?

What did I miss, what other ideas are there? How could we take this from a target for criticism to a true reflection of the power of associations? Share your thoughts, ideas, feedback and criticism below!

In keeping Jamie’s meme alive, I wanted to contribute my thoughts on the 3 most important qualities of effective leaders. There’s already been a number of great contributions to the meme and some touch on my own ideas but great minds do think alike.

Simplicity

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” – Leonardo da Vinci

Great leaders have the innate ability to make the most challenging situations simple by removing the extraneous and focusing on the core.

Empowerment

“Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.” – General George S. Patton, Jr.

Great leaders teach others how to accomplish a task, tell them what is expected, give them the tools they need to succeed, and then get out of their way.

Agility

“First do it, then do it right, then do it fast.” – Anonymous

Great leaders accept the fact that our world is dynamic, change is a constant, what works today may not work tomorrow and are willing to adapt to the circumstances. In doing so they become prepared, and perhaps inspired, by the opportunity that the change creates.

Without digging into each of these attributes in depth, these are the additions that I would make to the already great list (Edit – Here are a few links to the other posts: Maddie Grant, Jeff De Cagna, Deirdre Reid, Bruce Hammond)