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Signature Move

What word, phrase, or image sums up your organization?

The hockey great Brett Hull was fielding questions at a youth hockey camp. One of the youngsters asked what quality was most important for making it to the National Hockey League. Hull answered:

You have to be good, of course, so master the basics. But you also have to get noticed. There are thousands and thousands of kids like you out there who want to become pros. Most of you will be lost in the crowd. The way to get the scouts to remember you is to develop a signature move—something you do so well that whenever your name is mentioned, everyone will have a picture of you in their mind.

Hull’s own signature move was a sizzling, hundred-plus-mile-per-hour slap shot that some experts have ranked among the best ever.⁴⁸

With people and with companies as with aspiring hockey stars, a signature move affects how you are thought of, how you are remembered, and how others react to you. So, signature move is one lens through which we can look at what we’re doing, and perhaps think about how to do it differently.

We expect attentive service when we shop at Nordstrom, and we expect prompt delivery when we order a pizza from Domino’s or ship a package by Federal Express. It’s not accidental that we have those expectations: these companies spend a lot of money making sure that’s how we think of them, and even more money making sure that we get what we expect. Lousy service at your local dollar store? What did you expect? Lousy service at Nordstrom? You feel like you’ve been cheated, and you might not go back.

A signature move isn’t always a positive thing. Your internet service provider might provide generally excellent high-speed connections, but you might still view its signature move as something much slower, slothlike even: keeping you on hold forever when you call with a question; routing you through a voicemail maze before you can get any attention at all; making you wait too long for an installation or service appointment.

An advertising executive describes a client interaction:

I was looking to try to identify what makes them unique. Their website and collateral material basically said that they did everything. It was just a bunch of blah blah. I brought up the “Signature Move,” explaining to them that they needed a key differentiator. What makes them unique compared to other companies who do the same thing as they do? When I mention your company to your customers or prospects, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Those “Signature Move” questions moved us off dead center and really resonated.⁴⁹

The signature moves we ascribe to people we work with are a shorthand way of characterizing perceived strengths and weaknesses. “She doesn’t say much in meetings, but when she does, it’s really valuable.” “He’s always glancing at his watch when you talk to him.” “She steals the credit for any good ideas you give her.” What’s your signature move at work? What would you like it to be?

Of course, you have a signature move in your personal relationships, too. It might not be what you think it is; maybe it’s not even what you’d hope it would be. Maybe it’s better. Ask.

A Father’s Signature Move

When business speaker Paul Stoltz came to The Masters Forum, he already had given hundreds of lectures around the world, but his father, who lived in Minneapolis, had never heard him speak to a group. So, we invited his father. Toward the end of his presentation, Stoltz asked his father to stand, introduced him to the audience, and said this:

I don’t know of a person who is more giving, on a 24/7 basis, than my father. He doesn’t know how not to be giving. As a matter of fact, the coveted thing to happen in your life is to make the Gary Stoltz List. If you hit that list, you will be sent the coolest stuff, at the weirdest times. He just finds stuff—especially now that he’s semi-retired—he finds stuff and sends it to the list. And then we all talk to each other: “Did you get that?” “Yeah, it was great!” “He’s incredible! How does he find such great stuff?” I would say the ratio of give to get for my father is probably fifty to one.⁵⁰