What makes a boss great?
It's a question I've been researching for a while now. In June 2009, I offered some analysis in HBR on the subject, and more recently I've been hard at work on a book called Good Boss, Bad Boss (published in September by Business Plus).
In both cases, my approach has been to be as evidence-based as possible. That is, I avoid giving any advice that isn't rooted in real proof of efficacy; I want to pass along the techniques and behaviors that are grounded in sound research. It seems to me that, by adopting the habits of good bosses and shunning the sins of bad bosses, anyone can do a better job overseeing the work of others.
At the same time, I've come to conclude that all the technique and behavior coaching in the world won't make a boss great if that boss doesn't also have a certain mindset.
My readings of peer-reviewed studies, plus my more idiosyncratic experience studying and consulting to managers in many settings, have led me identify some key beliefs that are held by the best bosses — and rejected, or more often simply never even thought about, by the worst bosses. Here they are, presented as a neat dozen:
1. I have a flawed and incomplete understanding of what it feels like to work for me.
2. My success — and that of my people — depends largely on being the master of obvious and mundane things, not on magical, obscure, or breakthrough ideas or methods.
3. Having ambitious and well-defined goals is important, but it is useless to think about them much. My job is to focus on the small wins that enable my people to make a little progress every day.
4. One of the most important, and most difficult, parts of my job is to strike the delicate balance between being too assertive and not assertive enough.
My job is to serve as a human shield, to protect my people from external intrusions, distractions, and idiocy of every stripe — and to avoid imposing my own idiocy on them as well.
5. I strive to be confident enough to convince people that I am in charge, but humble enough to realize that I am often going to be wrong.
6. I aim to fight as if I am right, and listen as if I am wrong — and to teach my people to do the same thing.
One of the best tests of my leadership — and my organization — is "what happens after people make a mistake?"
7. Innovation is crucial to every team and organization. So my job is to encourage my people to generate and test all kinds of new ideas. But it is also my job to help them kill off all the bad ideas we generate, and most of the good ideas, too.
Bad is stronger than good. It is more important to eliminate the negative than to accentuate the positive.
How I do things is as important as what I do.
Because I wield power over others, I am at great risk of acting like an insensitive jerk — and not realizing it.
What do you say: does that about cover it? If not, tell me what I missed. Or if you're not quite sure what I mean in these brief statements, stay tuned. Over the coming weeks, I'll be digging into each one of them in more depth, touching on the research evidence and illustrating with examples.
If you're like most people I meet, you've had your share of bad bosses — and probably at least one good one. What were the attitudes the good one held? And what great, workplace-transforming beliefs could your worst boss never quite embrace?
Robert Sutton is Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. He studies and writes about management, innovation, and the nitty-gritty of organizational life. His new book is Good Boss, Bad Boss.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Do's and Don'ts for Your Work's Social Platforms
Emergent social software platforms — the enabling technologies of the 2.0 Era — are being deployed by enterprises at a rapid rate. Companies as varied as Microsoft, Spigit, Salesforce, Jive, Socialtext, and IBM now all offer enterprise social offerings for customers.
This brings up an important question: what are Enterprise 2.0 best practices for individuals? Should an employee use her company's social networking software just like she uses her Facebook account? Should she microblog the same way she uses Twitter?
I say no. Enterprise 2.0 is not Web 2.0; corporate technologies are different than personal ones, even if they look and feel the same. They're there to support the work of the organization, not to let individuals do and say whatever they want.
As I've argued for some time, though, there's no deep incompatibility between these two use cases. The autonomous and personalized actions and interactions of people, facilitated by technology, can be a great benefit to the enterprise, because this work creates new knowledge and fosters novel connections.
So here are some recommendations about how to use these tools to simultaneously advance your own work, make your existence and expertise better known throughout a digital community, and benefit the organization as a whole. I'll divide them into three categories: things to do (in other words, positive ways to use Enterprise 2.0 technologies), things not to do, and gray areas — use cases I'm not sure about.
Things To Do
Narrate your work. Talk both about work in progress (the projects you're in the middle of, how they're coming, what you're learning, and so on), and finished goods (the projects, reports, presentations, etc. you've executed). This lets others discover what you know and what you're good at. It also makes you easier to find, and so increases the chances you can be a helpful colleague to someone. Finally, it builds your personal reputation and 'brand.'
Point to others' work, and provide commentary on it. When you come across something noteworthy, point to it and discuss why you think it's important. Chances are others would like to know about it. And include a link to the original source; people love links.
Comment and discuss. Post comments to others' blogs, join the conversations taking place on forums, and keep the social media discussions lively. Doing so will let others hear your voice, and also make them more likely to participate themselves.
Ask and answer questions. Don't just broadcast what you know; also broadcast your ignorance from time to time. Let the crowd help you if you're stuck. Most people and organizations are very pleasantly surprised by the amount of altruism unlocked by Enterprise 2.0.
Vote, like, give kudos, etc. Lots of social software platforms these days have tools for voting or signaling that you like something. Use them; they help provide structure to the community as a whole and let people know where the good stuff and real experts are. They also make you more popular.
Talk about social stuff going on at the company. Give a recap of the softball game, talk about plans for the holiday party, show how close the group is to its fundraising goal, and so on. Organizations are social places, and I think it's a shortsighted shame when E2.0 platforms are all business, all the time. However, it's often a good idea to give non-work stuff its own dedicated place on the platform so that people can avoid it if they want to.
Things Not To Do
Be narcissistic. Don't talk about what you had for lunch or how you're peeved that one more of your flights got delayed. It's selfish clutter, and serves no larger purpose. We all have lunches and delayed flights.
Gossip. Why on Earth would you want to be publicly identified as a rumormonger?
Be unsubstantiated. Your unsupported, shoot-from-the-hip, fact-and-logic free arguments and opinions are really uninteresting and unhelpful. If you're not willing to do the homework necessary to back up your points, don't bother making them.
Mock others or launch personal attacks. I had a friend who walked out of his performance review and tweeted about his boss's bad cufflinks. I thought this was a deeply bad idea. So are flame wars and trolling. Debates and disagreements are vital components of E2.0 communities, but like Samuel Johnson said, "honesty is not greater where elegance is less."
Discuss sex, politics, or religion. My dad tells me that these were the three taboo topics in the officer's mess when he was in the Navy. They seem like good taboos to keep in place with E2.0; it's just too easy to upset people and start nasty, pointless fights on these subjects. Of course, this these taboos don't really apply if you work at Playboy Enterprises or Focus on the Family.
Gray Areas
Humor.
We all like a good laugh, but we also all have different and deeply-held notions about the boundaries among funny, unfunny, and offensive. Sharing humor with colleagues you don't know well is a stroll through a minefield.
Self-praise.
It's great to hear positive things about our own work, and the temptation to pass them on is strong. I've given in to this temptation, but afterward I've felt like I've blown my own horn a little too loud. So these days I'm trying not to retweet compliments.
Unsolicited opinions on topics far from your own work.
The CIO of a large retail insurance company told me a little while back that he was tired of employees using his blog's comment section to offer their views on the company's latest advertising campaign. I feel his pain. At the same time, however, I think it's critical that people not feel constrained to use E2.0 platforms to only talk about the stuff in their job descriptions. Maybe one way forward here is to stress that people's contributions need to be substantiated, as discussed above.
This brings up an important question: what are Enterprise 2.0 best practices for individuals? Should an employee use her company's social networking software just like she uses her Facebook account? Should she microblog the same way she uses Twitter?
I say no. Enterprise 2.0 is not Web 2.0; corporate technologies are different than personal ones, even if they look and feel the same. They're there to support the work of the organization, not to let individuals do and say whatever they want.
As I've argued for some time, though, there's no deep incompatibility between these two use cases. The autonomous and personalized actions and interactions of people, facilitated by technology, can be a great benefit to the enterprise, because this work creates new knowledge and fosters novel connections.
So here are some recommendations about how to use these tools to simultaneously advance your own work, make your existence and expertise better known throughout a digital community, and benefit the organization as a whole. I'll divide them into three categories: things to do (in other words, positive ways to use Enterprise 2.0 technologies), things not to do, and gray areas — use cases I'm not sure about.
Things To Do
Narrate your work. Talk both about work in progress (the projects you're in the middle of, how they're coming, what you're learning, and so on), and finished goods (the projects, reports, presentations, etc. you've executed). This lets others discover what you know and what you're good at. It also makes you easier to find, and so increases the chances you can be a helpful colleague to someone. Finally, it builds your personal reputation and 'brand.'
Point to others' work, and provide commentary on it. When you come across something noteworthy, point to it and discuss why you think it's important. Chances are others would like to know about it. And include a link to the original source; people love links.
Comment and discuss. Post comments to others' blogs, join the conversations taking place on forums, and keep the social media discussions lively. Doing so will let others hear your voice, and also make them more likely to participate themselves.
Ask and answer questions. Don't just broadcast what you know; also broadcast your ignorance from time to time. Let the crowd help you if you're stuck. Most people and organizations are very pleasantly surprised by the amount of altruism unlocked by Enterprise 2.0.
Vote, like, give kudos, etc. Lots of social software platforms these days have tools for voting or signaling that you like something. Use them; they help provide structure to the community as a whole and let people know where the good stuff and real experts are. They also make you more popular.
Talk about social stuff going on at the company. Give a recap of the softball game, talk about plans for the holiday party, show how close the group is to its fundraising goal, and so on. Organizations are social places, and I think it's a shortsighted shame when E2.0 platforms are all business, all the time. However, it's often a good idea to give non-work stuff its own dedicated place on the platform so that people can avoid it if they want to.
Things Not To Do
Be narcissistic. Don't talk about what you had for lunch or how you're peeved that one more of your flights got delayed. It's selfish clutter, and serves no larger purpose. We all have lunches and delayed flights.
Gossip. Why on Earth would you want to be publicly identified as a rumormonger?
Be unsubstantiated. Your unsupported, shoot-from-the-hip, fact-and-logic free arguments and opinions are really uninteresting and unhelpful. If you're not willing to do the homework necessary to back up your points, don't bother making them.
Mock others or launch personal attacks. I had a friend who walked out of his performance review and tweeted about his boss's bad cufflinks. I thought this was a deeply bad idea. So are flame wars and trolling. Debates and disagreements are vital components of E2.0 communities, but like Samuel Johnson said, "honesty is not greater where elegance is less."
Discuss sex, politics, or religion. My dad tells me that these were the three taboo topics in the officer's mess when he was in the Navy. They seem like good taboos to keep in place with E2.0; it's just too easy to upset people and start nasty, pointless fights on these subjects. Of course, this these taboos don't really apply if you work at Playboy Enterprises or Focus on the Family.
Gray Areas
Humor.
We all like a good laugh, but we also all have different and deeply-held notions about the boundaries among funny, unfunny, and offensive. Sharing humor with colleagues you don't know well is a stroll through a minefield.
Self-praise.
It's great to hear positive things about our own work, and the temptation to pass them on is strong. I've given in to this temptation, but afterward I've felt like I've blown my own horn a little too loud. So these days I'm trying not to retweet compliments.
Unsolicited opinions on topics far from your own work.
The CIO of a large retail insurance company told me a little while back that he was tired of employees using his blog's comment section to offer their views on the company's latest advertising campaign. I feel his pain. At the same time, however, I think it's critical that people not feel constrained to use E2.0 platforms to only talk about the stuff in their job descriptions. Maybe one way forward here is to stress that people's contributions need to be substantiated, as discussed above.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
How To Build A Successful Business The Warren Buffett Way
by Tezza
Men like Warren Buffett don’t just stumble onto the world’s rich list year after year and not know a thing or two about how to run a very successful business. Buffett is more than just one of the greatest investor’s of all time, just like McDonald’s is not just in the burger business, but also in the real estate business considering their immense portfolio of prime real estate around the world.
So if your thinking about starting your own business, like thousands are doing every day around the world then who better to learn from then “the Oracle of Omaha” Warren Buffett:
1. Stop Talking About Starting A Business, Get Your Hands Dirty
“Can you really explain to a fish what it’s like to walk on land? One day on land is worth a thousand years of talking about it, and one day running a business has exactly the same kind of value.” – Warren Buffett
It is extraordinary how often I hear someone with an excited look on their face declare that they want to go into business and leave their dead end job. They continue to talk about all the benefits and opportunities that starting a business will bring to them in a manner that is more to convince themselves then it is to convince those around them that they are making a smart decision with their life.
But what is surprising is then nothing happens. Instead of starting a business with gusto they start to talk about it and drag out the whole process by weeks, months and sometimes even years. They start to see skill sets that they find lacking in their arsenal and look to investing a period in learning. This might take the form of looking at their job to learn more skills, maybe take a few courses or buy some reading material.
While I think this is sensible to want to minimise the risk of starting a business, I think it can also be greatly debilitating if the only thing you do is preparation but never taking the actual critical step of actually starting the business. Nothing can teach you more about business then actually being in the coal face day in day out. If you want to learn marketing skills for example you can attend all the courses you want but when you’ve got your own business and the sales aren’t coming in then you will learn sales skills very quickly out of necessity.
2. Find Your Business Opportunity and Believe In It
“You’re neither right nor wrong because other people agree with you. You’re right because your facts are right and your reasoning is right—and that’s the only thing that makes you right. And if your facts and reasoning are right, you don’t have to worry about anybody else.” – Warren Buffett
Brilliant business ideas and great business ventures are created every second of every day. They are all around you if you are willing to look. A common complaint with aspiring business people is that they don’t know what business to start. They approach starting a business like they would as an employee, they look for a safe option one with low risk. They are looking for that magical bullet and thus in the process get bogged down looking for that million dollar business idea hiding in the haystack.
They have the whole thing upside down in it’s thinking. You aren’t looking to try and find the next million dollar idea, rather the key is to find something you are passionate about and pursue it because you see an untapped opportunity or a market to service. After all Buffett argues “Risk is a part of God’s game, alike for men and nations.” If you see an opportunity then you must believe in it and pursue it. The greatest shame is watching someone else take that opportunity to the market years latter because you didn’t have the fortitude to follow up your beliefs.
3. Find The Joy In What You Do
“I get to do what I like to do every single day of the year. I get to do it with people I like, and I don’t have to associate with anybody who causes my stomach to churn. I tap dance to work, and when I get there I think I’m supposed to lie on my back and paint the ceiling. It’s tremendous fun.” – Warren Buffett
If you want to achieve lasting success in any endeavor it has to be more than just will power, discipline and hard work. While all these ingredients are often associated with high achievers, another common trait overlooked is following your passion. Starting a business is more than just a 9-5 job, it’s an all consuming activity and if you don’t have the passion in it then it’s just about money. Nothing great is ever achieved if it’s just about money. It needs to be more than that. Passion enables you to overcome the up’s and down’s of business, the ability to soldier through the difficulties and the long hours.
Life is too short to just labor away long hours in any undertaking that doesn’t give you fulfillment and joy. You might as well just get a job because at least you’ll have less headaches and pressure. You’ll also probably be able to walk away at the end of each workday with your sanity still in check.
Starting a business that you aren’t passionate about is akin to buying yourself a job you hate and having an idiot for a boss. Sure you can argue “if only I can make a few million then I can retire somewhere”. The problem is whether that future thinking is really worth the exchange of your present moment happiness. Is it worth exchanging the countless hours spent in misery so that you might enjoy serenity at some future point in time. The great disappointment in life is that the future may never come and it may not look the way you wanted it to. Statistics show that 90% of all small businesses fail in their first year, most of them probably were trying to make a quick buck without thinking through what they truly wanted to do with their life.
4. Utilize Good Advisor’s And Mentors
“Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don’t have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it; it’s true. If you hire somebody without the first, you really want them to be dumb and lazy.” – Warren Buffett
You don’t have to feel that going into business is a long and lonely journey. There are many people who have ventured on the journey as you and many are more than happy to share their business wisdom that they have fostered along the way. Finding good advisor’s and mentors means that you are building a team of quality people around you that will help enable you to make better informed decisions.
While they are no guarantee to success they will hopefully help you to drastically reduce simple beginner mistakes that can cost you thousands and countless wasted hours. Buffett says “If you don’t know jewelry, know the jeweler” so it is with business, if you don’t know accounting get yourself an accountant. Your team at it’s core should include an accountant and solicitor whom you trust and get along with. In the larger scheme a mentor is someone who would be greatly beneficial to your journey. The only thing I would suggest to steer clear of is business coaches who offer their services for a fee. While I’m not suggesting that all are bad, the saying does go “if you can’t do, you teach”.
5. You Don’t Have To Swing For The Fence
“I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.” – Warren Buffett
When I was growing up Michael Jordan was everyone’s boyhood hero. He was by far the greatest basketball player of all time. According to Wikipedia “Jordan’s individual accolades and accomplishments include five NBA MVP (Most Valuable Player) awards, ten All-NBA First Team designations, nine All-Defensive First Team honors, fourteen NBA All-Star Game appearances and three All-Star MVPs, ten scoring titles, three steals titles, six NBA Finals MVP awards, and the 1988 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award.
He holds the NBA record for highest career regular season scoring average with 30.1 points per game, as well as averaging a record 33.4 points per game in the playoffs.” So what do you suppose his career shooting average was. It was .497, that’s right, Michael Jordan got about one in every two of his shots in the net. Even legends don’t need to be right every time, they don’t need to sink the winning game shot every time. They just need to do the right things enough times and at the right moments. The line between greatness and average is a fine line. The difference between a great business and an average business is also a fine line and if your constantly trying to hit the fence with it you are going to be joining the bankruptcy list pretty soon.
Don’t get sold on the get rich quick mania, the rags to riches or the overnight success stories. Chances are they have been hyped up by media. A slow, disciplined slog to success isn’t a big enough story for people to pay attention to. So stick to your journey, find your strengths and follow your own path. Remember even Jordan spent countless years honing his craft and developing his skills before he even made it to the NBA.
Men like Warren Buffett don’t just stumble onto the world’s rich list year after year and not know a thing or two about how to run a very successful business. Buffett is more than just one of the greatest investor’s of all time, just like McDonald’s is not just in the burger business, but also in the real estate business considering their immense portfolio of prime real estate around the world.
So if your thinking about starting your own business, like thousands are doing every day around the world then who better to learn from then “the Oracle of Omaha” Warren Buffett:
1. Stop Talking About Starting A Business, Get Your Hands Dirty
“Can you really explain to a fish what it’s like to walk on land? One day on land is worth a thousand years of talking about it, and one day running a business has exactly the same kind of value.” – Warren Buffett
It is extraordinary how often I hear someone with an excited look on their face declare that they want to go into business and leave their dead end job. They continue to talk about all the benefits and opportunities that starting a business will bring to them in a manner that is more to convince themselves then it is to convince those around them that they are making a smart decision with their life.
But what is surprising is then nothing happens. Instead of starting a business with gusto they start to talk about it and drag out the whole process by weeks, months and sometimes even years. They start to see skill sets that they find lacking in their arsenal and look to investing a period in learning. This might take the form of looking at their job to learn more skills, maybe take a few courses or buy some reading material.
While I think this is sensible to want to minimise the risk of starting a business, I think it can also be greatly debilitating if the only thing you do is preparation but never taking the actual critical step of actually starting the business. Nothing can teach you more about business then actually being in the coal face day in day out. If you want to learn marketing skills for example you can attend all the courses you want but when you’ve got your own business and the sales aren’t coming in then you will learn sales skills very quickly out of necessity.
2. Find Your Business Opportunity and Believe In It
“You’re neither right nor wrong because other people agree with you. You’re right because your facts are right and your reasoning is right—and that’s the only thing that makes you right. And if your facts and reasoning are right, you don’t have to worry about anybody else.” – Warren Buffett
Brilliant business ideas and great business ventures are created every second of every day. They are all around you if you are willing to look. A common complaint with aspiring business people is that they don’t know what business to start. They approach starting a business like they would as an employee, they look for a safe option one with low risk. They are looking for that magical bullet and thus in the process get bogged down looking for that million dollar business idea hiding in the haystack.
They have the whole thing upside down in it’s thinking. You aren’t looking to try and find the next million dollar idea, rather the key is to find something you are passionate about and pursue it because you see an untapped opportunity or a market to service. After all Buffett argues “Risk is a part of God’s game, alike for men and nations.” If you see an opportunity then you must believe in it and pursue it. The greatest shame is watching someone else take that opportunity to the market years latter because you didn’t have the fortitude to follow up your beliefs.
3. Find The Joy In What You Do
“I get to do what I like to do every single day of the year. I get to do it with people I like, and I don’t have to associate with anybody who causes my stomach to churn. I tap dance to work, and when I get there I think I’m supposed to lie on my back and paint the ceiling. It’s tremendous fun.” – Warren Buffett
If you want to achieve lasting success in any endeavor it has to be more than just will power, discipline and hard work. While all these ingredients are often associated with high achievers, another common trait overlooked is following your passion. Starting a business is more than just a 9-5 job, it’s an all consuming activity and if you don’t have the passion in it then it’s just about money. Nothing great is ever achieved if it’s just about money. It needs to be more than that. Passion enables you to overcome the up’s and down’s of business, the ability to soldier through the difficulties and the long hours.
Life is too short to just labor away long hours in any undertaking that doesn’t give you fulfillment and joy. You might as well just get a job because at least you’ll have less headaches and pressure. You’ll also probably be able to walk away at the end of each workday with your sanity still in check.
Starting a business that you aren’t passionate about is akin to buying yourself a job you hate and having an idiot for a boss. Sure you can argue “if only I can make a few million then I can retire somewhere”. The problem is whether that future thinking is really worth the exchange of your present moment happiness. Is it worth exchanging the countless hours spent in misery so that you might enjoy serenity at some future point in time. The great disappointment in life is that the future may never come and it may not look the way you wanted it to. Statistics show that 90% of all small businesses fail in their first year, most of them probably were trying to make a quick buck without thinking through what they truly wanted to do with their life.
4. Utilize Good Advisor’s And Mentors
“Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if they don’t have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it; it’s true. If you hire somebody without the first, you really want them to be dumb and lazy.” – Warren Buffett
You don’t have to feel that going into business is a long and lonely journey. There are many people who have ventured on the journey as you and many are more than happy to share their business wisdom that they have fostered along the way. Finding good advisor’s and mentors means that you are building a team of quality people around you that will help enable you to make better informed decisions.
While they are no guarantee to success they will hopefully help you to drastically reduce simple beginner mistakes that can cost you thousands and countless wasted hours. Buffett says “If you don’t know jewelry, know the jeweler” so it is with business, if you don’t know accounting get yourself an accountant. Your team at it’s core should include an accountant and solicitor whom you trust and get along with. In the larger scheme a mentor is someone who would be greatly beneficial to your journey. The only thing I would suggest to steer clear of is business coaches who offer their services for a fee. While I’m not suggesting that all are bad, the saying does go “if you can’t do, you teach”.
5. You Don’t Have To Swing For The Fence
“I don’t look to jump over 7-foot bars: I look around for 1-foot bars that I can step over.” – Warren Buffett
When I was growing up Michael Jordan was everyone’s boyhood hero. He was by far the greatest basketball player of all time. According to Wikipedia “Jordan’s individual accolades and accomplishments include five NBA MVP (Most Valuable Player) awards, ten All-NBA First Team designations, nine All-Defensive First Team honors, fourteen NBA All-Star Game appearances and three All-Star MVPs, ten scoring titles, three steals titles, six NBA Finals MVP awards, and the 1988 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award.
He holds the NBA record for highest career regular season scoring average with 30.1 points per game, as well as averaging a record 33.4 points per game in the playoffs.” So what do you suppose his career shooting average was. It was .497, that’s right, Michael Jordan got about one in every two of his shots in the net. Even legends don’t need to be right every time, they don’t need to sink the winning game shot every time. They just need to do the right things enough times and at the right moments. The line between greatness and average is a fine line. The difference between a great business and an average business is also a fine line and if your constantly trying to hit the fence with it you are going to be joining the bankruptcy list pretty soon.
Don’t get sold on the get rich quick mania, the rags to riches or the overnight success stories. Chances are they have been hyped up by media. A slow, disciplined slog to success isn’t a big enough story for people to pay attention to. So stick to your journey, find your strengths and follow your own path. Remember even Jordan spent countless years honing his craft and developing his skills before he even made it to the NBA.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Richard Branson’s secrets to business success business
Sir Richard Branson. “A good leader does not get stuck behind a desk. I’ve never worked in an office — I’ve always worked from home—but I get out and about, meeting people.”
I am often asked if I have found a secret—or at least a consistent answer—to successfully building businesses over my career.
So I’ve spent some time thinking about what characterises so many of Virgin’s successful ventures and, importantly, what went wrong when we did not get it right. Reflecting across 40 years I have come up with five “secrets.”
Enjoy what you are doing
Because starting a business is a huge amount of hard work, requiring a great deal of time, you had better enjoy it.
When I started Virgin from a basement flat in West London, I did not set out to build a business empire. I set out to create something I enjoyed that would pay the bills.
There was no great plan or strategy. The name itself was thought up on the hoof. One night some friends and I were chatting over a few drinks and decided to call our group Virgin, as we were all new to business.
The name stuck and had a certain ring to it. For me, building a business is all about doing something to be proud of, bringing talented people together and creating something that’s going to make a real difference to other people’s lives.
A businesswoman or a businessman is not unlike an artist. What you have when you start a company is a blank canvas; you have to fill it.
Just as a good artist has to get every single detail right on that canvas, a businessman or businesswoman has to get every single little thing right when first setting up in business in order to succeed.
However, unlike a work of art, the business is never finished. It constantly evolves.
If a businessperson sets out to make a real difference to other people’s lives, and achieves that, he or she will be able to pay the bills and have a successful business to boot.
Let it stands out
Whether you have a product, a service or a brand, it is not easy to start a company and to survive and thrive in the modern world.
In fact, you’ve got to do something radically different to make a mark today.
Look at the most successful businesses of the past 20 years. Microsoft, Google or Apple, for example, shook up a sector by doing something that hadn’t ever been done and by continually innovating. They are now among the dominant forces.
Something that everybody who works for you is really proud of, businesses generally consist of a group of people, and they are your biggest assets.
Be a good leader
As a leader you have to be a really good listener. You need to know your own mind, but there is no point in imposing your views on others without some debate. No one has a monopoly on good ideas or good advice.
Get out there, listen to people, draw people out and learn from them. As a leader you’ve also got to be extremely good at praising people.
Never openly criticise people; never lose your temper, and always lavish praise on your colleagues for a job well done.
People flourish if they’re praised. Usually they don’t need to be told when they’ve done wrong because most of the time they know it.
If somebody is not working out, don’t automatically throw him or her out of the company. A company should genuinely be a family.
So see if there’s another job within the company that suits them better. On most occasions you’ll find something for every single kind of personality.
Be visible
A good leader does not get stuck behind a desk. I’ve never worked in an office — I’ve always worked from home—but I get out and about, meeting people.
It seems I am travelling all the time, but I always have a notebook in my back pocket to jot down questions, concerns or good ideas.
If I’m on a Virgin Atlantic plane, I make certain to get out and meet all the staff and many of the passengers.
If you meet a group of Virgin Atlantic crew members, you are going to have at least 10 suggestions or ideas.
If I don’t write them down, I may remember only one the next day. By writing them down, I remember all 10.
Get out and shake hands with all the passengers on the plane, and again, there are going to be people who had a problem or have a suggestion.
Write it down, make sure that you get their names, get their e-mail addresses, and make sure the next day that you respond to them.
I try to make sure that we appoint managing directors who have the same philosophy.
That way we can run a large group of companies in the same way a small business owner runs a family business—keeping it responsive and friendly.
When you’re building a business from scratch, the key word for many years is “survival.” It’s tough to survive.
In the beginning you haven’t got the time or energy to worry about saving the world.
You’ve just got to fight to make sure you can look after your bank manager and be able to pay the bills. Literally, your full concentration has to be on surviving.
© 2010 Richard Branson
from business daily
I am often asked if I have found a secret—or at least a consistent answer—to successfully building businesses over my career.
So I’ve spent some time thinking about what characterises so many of Virgin’s successful ventures and, importantly, what went wrong when we did not get it right. Reflecting across 40 years I have come up with five “secrets.”
Enjoy what you are doing
Because starting a business is a huge amount of hard work, requiring a great deal of time, you had better enjoy it.
When I started Virgin from a basement flat in West London, I did not set out to build a business empire. I set out to create something I enjoyed that would pay the bills.
There was no great plan or strategy. The name itself was thought up on the hoof. One night some friends and I were chatting over a few drinks and decided to call our group Virgin, as we were all new to business.
The name stuck and had a certain ring to it. For me, building a business is all about doing something to be proud of, bringing talented people together and creating something that’s going to make a real difference to other people’s lives.
A businesswoman or a businessman is not unlike an artist. What you have when you start a company is a blank canvas; you have to fill it.
Just as a good artist has to get every single detail right on that canvas, a businessman or businesswoman has to get every single little thing right when first setting up in business in order to succeed.
However, unlike a work of art, the business is never finished. It constantly evolves.
If a businessperson sets out to make a real difference to other people’s lives, and achieves that, he or she will be able to pay the bills and have a successful business to boot.
Let it stands out
Whether you have a product, a service or a brand, it is not easy to start a company and to survive and thrive in the modern world.
In fact, you’ve got to do something radically different to make a mark today.
Look at the most successful businesses of the past 20 years. Microsoft, Google or Apple, for example, shook up a sector by doing something that hadn’t ever been done and by continually innovating. They are now among the dominant forces.
Something that everybody who works for you is really proud of, businesses generally consist of a group of people, and they are your biggest assets.
Be a good leader
As a leader you have to be a really good listener. You need to know your own mind, but there is no point in imposing your views on others without some debate. No one has a monopoly on good ideas or good advice.
Get out there, listen to people, draw people out and learn from them. As a leader you’ve also got to be extremely good at praising people.
Never openly criticise people; never lose your temper, and always lavish praise on your colleagues for a job well done.
People flourish if they’re praised. Usually they don’t need to be told when they’ve done wrong because most of the time they know it.
If somebody is not working out, don’t automatically throw him or her out of the company. A company should genuinely be a family.
So see if there’s another job within the company that suits them better. On most occasions you’ll find something for every single kind of personality.
Be visible
A good leader does not get stuck behind a desk. I’ve never worked in an office — I’ve always worked from home—but I get out and about, meeting people.
It seems I am travelling all the time, but I always have a notebook in my back pocket to jot down questions, concerns or good ideas.
If I’m on a Virgin Atlantic plane, I make certain to get out and meet all the staff and many of the passengers.
If you meet a group of Virgin Atlantic crew members, you are going to have at least 10 suggestions or ideas.
If I don’t write them down, I may remember only one the next day. By writing them down, I remember all 10.
Get out and shake hands with all the passengers on the plane, and again, there are going to be people who had a problem or have a suggestion.
Write it down, make sure that you get their names, get their e-mail addresses, and make sure the next day that you respond to them.
I try to make sure that we appoint managing directors who have the same philosophy.
That way we can run a large group of companies in the same way a small business owner runs a family business—keeping it responsive and friendly.
When you’re building a business from scratch, the key word for many years is “survival.” It’s tough to survive.
In the beginning you haven’t got the time or energy to worry about saving the world.
You’ve just got to fight to make sure you can look after your bank manager and be able to pay the bills. Literally, your full concentration has to be on surviving.
© 2010 Richard Branson
from business daily
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Two Rules for a Successful Presentation
Most presentations go bad because the presenter didn't prepare well enough in two ways. In fact, so important are these two classic errors that I'm going to elevate them to The Two Rules for Preparing a Successful Presentation.
Rule One: Know Thy Audience.
Presentations are about their audiences, not their speakers. Before you write anything down, or commit anything to a Power Point slide, you must give some thought to your listeners. So ask yourself obvious — but easy to forget — questions like, what time of day am I speaking? How many people will be in the audience? Will they just have eaten, or will they be looking forward to a meal? Will they have heard a number of other speeches, or is mine the only one? The answer to each of these questions should affect the length, style and content of your presentation.
People have more energy and more ability to hear complex ideas early in the day; later in the day their energy flags and they don't want to entertain as many new ideas. Larger audiences demand more energy from the speaker and want to laugh more than they want to cry. The worst audience (from the speaker's point of view) is a tired, fed, slightly inebriated audience. That audience needs President Reagan's rule for after-dinner speeches: 12 minutes, a few jokes, and sit down before the audience stands up.
But the really interesting things to know about audience members are, what do they fear? What are their dreams? Where do they want to be led? And what have they had recent cause to like or dislike? Only once you understand the emotional state of the audience are you ready to begin to design a presentation for them. Far too many speakers make the mistake of believing that one size fits all. I have seen executives give the same speech about the financial state of the company to investors, to the general public, and to employees — with very different results.
Rule Two: Tell Them One Thing, and One Thing Only
This is a difficult rule for most presenters to follow. But it's essential. The oral genre is highly inefficient. We audience members simply don't remember much of what we hear. We're easily sidetracked, confused, and tricked. We get distracted by everything from the color of the presenter's tie to the person sitting in the next row to our own internal monologues. I'm afraid the company's not in very good shape. That comment that Joan made last week. Maybe I should dust off my resume. Now, what was that guy up front saying?
So you've got to keep it simple. Many studies show that we only remember a small percentage of what we hear — somewhere between 10 – 30 percent.
But when a speaker gets in front of an audience, the urge to tell 'em everything you know is very hard to resist. Far too many speakers perform a data dump on their audiences at the first opportunity. Unfortunately, we can only hold 4 or 5 ideas in our heads at one time, so as soon as you give me a list of more than 5 items, I'm going to start forgetting as much as I hear.
Against this dismal human truth there is only one defense: focus your presentation on a single idea. Be ruthless. Write that one idea down in one declarative sentence and paste it up on your computer. Then eliminate everything, no matter how beautiful a slide it's on, that doesn't support that idea.
Follow these two rules and you'll find that audience will remember — and maybe even act on — your speeches. After all, the only reason to give a speech is to change the world.
Nick Morgan is President of Public Words Inc, a communications consulting firm, and author of Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma.
Rule One: Know Thy Audience.
Presentations are about their audiences, not their speakers. Before you write anything down, or commit anything to a Power Point slide, you must give some thought to your listeners. So ask yourself obvious — but easy to forget — questions like, what time of day am I speaking? How many people will be in the audience? Will they just have eaten, or will they be looking forward to a meal? Will they have heard a number of other speeches, or is mine the only one? The answer to each of these questions should affect the length, style and content of your presentation.
People have more energy and more ability to hear complex ideas early in the day; later in the day their energy flags and they don't want to entertain as many new ideas. Larger audiences demand more energy from the speaker and want to laugh more than they want to cry. The worst audience (from the speaker's point of view) is a tired, fed, slightly inebriated audience. That audience needs President Reagan's rule for after-dinner speeches: 12 minutes, a few jokes, and sit down before the audience stands up.
But the really interesting things to know about audience members are, what do they fear? What are their dreams? Where do they want to be led? And what have they had recent cause to like or dislike? Only once you understand the emotional state of the audience are you ready to begin to design a presentation for them. Far too many speakers make the mistake of believing that one size fits all. I have seen executives give the same speech about the financial state of the company to investors, to the general public, and to employees — with very different results.
Rule Two: Tell Them One Thing, and One Thing Only
This is a difficult rule for most presenters to follow. But it's essential. The oral genre is highly inefficient. We audience members simply don't remember much of what we hear. We're easily sidetracked, confused, and tricked. We get distracted by everything from the color of the presenter's tie to the person sitting in the next row to our own internal monologues. I'm afraid the company's not in very good shape. That comment that Joan made last week. Maybe I should dust off my resume. Now, what was that guy up front saying?
So you've got to keep it simple. Many studies show that we only remember a small percentage of what we hear — somewhere between 10 – 30 percent.
But when a speaker gets in front of an audience, the urge to tell 'em everything you know is very hard to resist. Far too many speakers perform a data dump on their audiences at the first opportunity. Unfortunately, we can only hold 4 or 5 ideas in our heads at one time, so as soon as you give me a list of more than 5 items, I'm going to start forgetting as much as I hear.
Against this dismal human truth there is only one defense: focus your presentation on a single idea. Be ruthless. Write that one idea down in one declarative sentence and paste it up on your computer. Then eliminate everything, no matter how beautiful a slide it's on, that doesn't support that idea.
Follow these two rules and you'll find that audience will remember — and maybe even act on — your speeches. After all, the only reason to give a speech is to change the world.
Nick Morgan is President of Public Words Inc, a communications consulting firm, and author of Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything
I've been playing tennis for nearly five decades. I love the game and I hit the ball well, but I'm far from the player I wish I were.
I've been thinking about this a lot the past couple of weeks, because I've taken the opportunity, for the first time in many years, to play tennis nearly every day. My game has gotten progressively stronger. I've had a number of rapturous moments during which I've played like the player I long to be.
And almost certainly could be, even though I'm 58 years old. Until recently, I never believed that was possible. For most of my adult life, I've accepted the incredibly durable myth that some people are born with special talents and gifts, and that the potential to truly excel in any given pursuit is largely determined by our genetic inheritance.
During the past year, I've read no fewer than five books — and a raft of scientific research — which powerfully challenge that assumption (see below for a list). I've also written one, The Way We're Working Isn't Working, which lays out a guide, grounded in the science of high performance, to systematically building your capacity physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
We've found, in our work with executives at dozens of organizations, that it's possible to build any given skill or capacity in the same systematic way we do a muscle: push past your comfort zone, and then rest. Aristotle Will Durant*, commenting on Aristotle, pointed out that the philosopher had it exactly right 2000 years ago: "We are what we repeatedly do." By relying on highly specific practices, we've seen our clients dramatically improve skills ranging from empathy, to focus, to creativity, to summoning positive emotions, to deeply relaxing.
Like everyone who studies performance, I'm indebted to the extraordinary Anders Ericsson, arguably the world's leading researcher into high performance. For more than two decades, Ericsson has been making the case that it's not inherited talent which determines how good we become at something, but rather how hard we're willing to work — something he calls "deliberate practice." Numerous researchers now agree that 10,000 hours of such practice as the minimum necessary to achieve expertise in any complex domain.
There is something wonderfully empowering about this. It suggests we have remarkable capacity to influence our own outcomes. But that's also daunting. One of Ericsson's central findings is that practice is not only the most important ingredient in achieving excellence, but also the most difficult and the least intrinsically enjoyable.
If you want to be really good at something, it's going to involve relentlessly pushing past your comfort zone, along with frustration, struggle, setbacks and failures. That's true as long as you want to continue to improve, or even maintain a high level of excellence. The reward is that being really good at something you've earned through your own hard work can be immensely satisfying.
Here, then, are the six keys to achieving excellence we've found are most effective for our clients:
Pursue what you love. Passion is an incredible motivator. It fuels focus, resilience, and perseverance.
Do the hardest work first. We all move instinctively toward pleasure and away from pain. Most great performers, Ericsson and others have found, delay gratification and take on the difficult work of practice in the mornings, before they do anything else. That's when most of us have the most energy and the fewest distractions.
Practice intensely, without interruption for short periods of no longer than 90 minutes and then take a break. Ninety minutes appears to be the maximum amount of time that we can bring the highest level of focus to any given activity. The evidence is equally strong that great performers practice no more than 4 ½ hours a day.
Seek expert feedback, in intermittent doses. The simpler and more precise the feedback, the more equipped you are to make adjustments. Too much feedback, too continuously, however, can create cognitive overload, increase anxiety, and interfere with learning.
Take regular renewal breaks. Relaxing after intense effort not only provides an opportunity to rejuvenate, but also to metabolize and embed learning. It's also during rest that the right hemisphere becomes more dominant, which can lead to creative breakthroughs.
Ritualize practice. Will and discipline are wildly overrated. As the researcher Roy Baumeister has found, none of us have very much of it. The best way to insure you'll take on difficult tasks is to ritualize them — build specific, inviolable times at which you do them, so that over time you do them without having to squander energy thinking about them.
I have practiced tennis deliberately over the years, but never for the several hours a day required to achieve a truly high level of excellence. What's changed is that I don't berate myself any longer for falling short. I know exactly what it would take to get to that level.
I've got too many other higher priorities to give tennis that attention right now. But I find it incredibly exciting to know that I'm still capable of getting far better at tennis — or at anything else — and so are you.
Here are the recent books on this subject:
Talent is Overrated by Geoffrey Colvin. My personal favorite.
The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
The Genius in All of Us by David Schenk.
Bounce by Mathew Syed
* Thanks to commenter Rick Thomas for pointing out the misattribution.
Tony Schwartz is president and CEO of The Energy Project. He is the author of the June, 2010 HBR article, "The Productivity Paradox: How Sony Pictures Gets More Out of People by Demanding Less," and coauthor, with Catherine McCarthy, of the 2007 HBR article, "Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time." Tony is also the author of the new book "The Way We're Working Isn't Working: The Four Forgotten Needs that Energize Great Performance" (Free Press, 2010).
I've been thinking about this a lot the past couple of weeks, because I've taken the opportunity, for the first time in many years, to play tennis nearly every day. My game has gotten progressively stronger. I've had a number of rapturous moments during which I've played like the player I long to be.
And almost certainly could be, even though I'm 58 years old. Until recently, I never believed that was possible. For most of my adult life, I've accepted the incredibly durable myth that some people are born with special talents and gifts, and that the potential to truly excel in any given pursuit is largely determined by our genetic inheritance.
During the past year, I've read no fewer than five books — and a raft of scientific research — which powerfully challenge that assumption (see below for a list). I've also written one, The Way We're Working Isn't Working, which lays out a guide, grounded in the science of high performance, to systematically building your capacity physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
We've found, in our work with executives at dozens of organizations, that it's possible to build any given skill or capacity in the same systematic way we do a muscle: push past your comfort zone, and then rest. Aristotle Will Durant*, commenting on Aristotle, pointed out that the philosopher had it exactly right 2000 years ago: "We are what we repeatedly do." By relying on highly specific practices, we've seen our clients dramatically improve skills ranging from empathy, to focus, to creativity, to summoning positive emotions, to deeply relaxing.
Like everyone who studies performance, I'm indebted to the extraordinary Anders Ericsson, arguably the world's leading researcher into high performance. For more than two decades, Ericsson has been making the case that it's not inherited talent which determines how good we become at something, but rather how hard we're willing to work — something he calls "deliberate practice." Numerous researchers now agree that 10,000 hours of such practice as the minimum necessary to achieve expertise in any complex domain.
There is something wonderfully empowering about this. It suggests we have remarkable capacity to influence our own outcomes. But that's also daunting. One of Ericsson's central findings is that practice is not only the most important ingredient in achieving excellence, but also the most difficult and the least intrinsically enjoyable.
If you want to be really good at something, it's going to involve relentlessly pushing past your comfort zone, along with frustration, struggle, setbacks and failures. That's true as long as you want to continue to improve, or even maintain a high level of excellence. The reward is that being really good at something you've earned through your own hard work can be immensely satisfying.
Here, then, are the six keys to achieving excellence we've found are most effective for our clients:
Pursue what you love. Passion is an incredible motivator. It fuels focus, resilience, and perseverance.
Do the hardest work first. We all move instinctively toward pleasure and away from pain. Most great performers, Ericsson and others have found, delay gratification and take on the difficult work of practice in the mornings, before they do anything else. That's when most of us have the most energy and the fewest distractions.
Practice intensely, without interruption for short periods of no longer than 90 minutes and then take a break. Ninety minutes appears to be the maximum amount of time that we can bring the highest level of focus to any given activity. The evidence is equally strong that great performers practice no more than 4 ½ hours a day.
Seek expert feedback, in intermittent doses. The simpler and more precise the feedback, the more equipped you are to make adjustments. Too much feedback, too continuously, however, can create cognitive overload, increase anxiety, and interfere with learning.
Take regular renewal breaks. Relaxing after intense effort not only provides an opportunity to rejuvenate, but also to metabolize and embed learning. It's also during rest that the right hemisphere becomes more dominant, which can lead to creative breakthroughs.
Ritualize practice. Will and discipline are wildly overrated. As the researcher Roy Baumeister has found, none of us have very much of it. The best way to insure you'll take on difficult tasks is to ritualize them — build specific, inviolable times at which you do them, so that over time you do them without having to squander energy thinking about them.
I have practiced tennis deliberately over the years, but never for the several hours a day required to achieve a truly high level of excellence. What's changed is that I don't berate myself any longer for falling short. I know exactly what it would take to get to that level.
I've got too many other higher priorities to give tennis that attention right now. But I find it incredibly exciting to know that I'm still capable of getting far better at tennis — or at anything else — and so are you.
Here are the recent books on this subject:
Talent is Overrated by Geoffrey Colvin. My personal favorite.
The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
The Genius in All of Us by David Schenk.
Bounce by Mathew Syed
* Thanks to commenter Rick Thomas for pointing out the misattribution.
Tony Schwartz is president and CEO of The Energy Project. He is the author of the June, 2010 HBR article, "The Productivity Paradox: How Sony Pictures Gets More Out of People by Demanding Less," and coauthor, with Catherine McCarthy, of the 2007 HBR article, "Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time." Tony is also the author of the new book "The Way We're Working Isn't Working: The Four Forgotten Needs that Energize Great Performance" (Free Press, 2010).
Build Your Power Base from Small Beginnings
People who wish they had more power in their organizations — power to bring their ideas to fruition, power to change policies that make no sense — often try to find the one "big move" that will land them in a position of authority. That's a long shot, and, in any event, it misses the reality that most power bases start out small. Which means it's possible for almost anyone, in any position, to begin building one, acquiring growing influence through unspectacular moves.
What's mostly required is showing some initiative and taking on projects that a) bring you into contact with a wide range of people within and outside of your organization; b) situate you in the midst of information flows; and c) aren't coveted because they seem mundane or trivial — but not to you.
Take the example of Matt, who joined the office of a large, prestigious management consulting firm that had been talking about doing more public sector work. Matt volunteered to organize a speaker series in which various public sector people would come to the firm's office — thereby linking the company and its professionals with a sector in which they needed more insight and stronger relationships. Matt got a budget, organized the series, and got plaudits from his consulting colleagues for linking them to an important market opportunity. He also enjoyed the gratitude of the (paid) speakers he brought in to do the talks.
Mike, another relatively powerless person, took on the task of organizing analyst recruiting at a hedge fund. Everyone agreed the fund needed strong analysts, but no one could get very excited about recruiting talent that would just leave in a few years anyway and go back to business school. Mike took on this routine, not very sexy task — and found that it brought him into contact with everyone in the firm as he arranged schedules and recruiting events. He also made connections with a whole network of analysts who would continue to remember him as their primary point of contact with the firm, and someone who had taken them seriously in an early stage of their career.
Melinda started building her power base after she joined a large internet marketing firm, having come from a financial services company. She noticed that the firm's divisions didn't have much contact with each other or any organized way of learning about the evolution of the markets in which they were participating. So Melinda organized a series of seminars that brought internet and other subject matter experts into the firm to do briefings. As she recruited participation by people from throughout the relatively stove-piped organization, and built bridges between the firm and possible customers and partners, Melinda became highly visible — and much appreciated.
These tales — and while we're at them, let's add Robert Caro's masterful description of how Lyndon Johnson leveraged a "nothing job," that of minority whip, to the point of becoming the youngest-ever Senate Majority leader — all share some common themes. The first is the importance of filling a brokerage role. If you're in a position to bring together unrelated groups of individuals who benefit from being in contact with each other, that's a form of power. Ron Burt calls this "filling structural holes."
The second theme is the recognition that everyone wants the glamour jobs, the things that seem exciting and strategic. But organizations — sort of like armies — depend on many mundane tasks to reach their goals. Organizing analyst hiring may not get the blood racing in the way that making hedge fund investments does, but if no one does it, there won't be any analysts. Taking on these low-profile but vital tasks tends to be easier to do as there is less competition to own them. And you will get lots of thanks for doing them from the people who recognize their importance but are too busy doing high-profile work to focus on them.
Third theme: seemingly administrative tasks often bring you into contact with lots of people inside your company and make you central in the flow of communication. Being central in information flows is a source of power, and becoming known to many people is very useful, also. In the hedge fund, Mike had a reason to be in contact with everyone in the firm about the analyst hiring process. Melinda soon sat at a hub of communication because people, as they became interested in the seminars, wanted to make suggestions about whom to invite. She also became someone with a network of contacts across a largely-disconnected company. As Lyndon Johnson undertook the seemingly routine tasks of scheduling votes on uncontroversial issues and was in touch with people to get information on their voting preferences on important issues, he not only provided an important service to his fellow Senators, he was in regular contact with them — and became the source of information about what was going on.
So be on the lookout for assignments your colleagues don't want to bother with, but that have these valuable features. Others have built power bases from such small beginnings — and so can you.
Jeffrey Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, where he has taught since 1979. His forthcoming book from HarperBusiness is Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don't.
What's mostly required is showing some initiative and taking on projects that a) bring you into contact with a wide range of people within and outside of your organization; b) situate you in the midst of information flows; and c) aren't coveted because they seem mundane or trivial — but not to you.
Take the example of Matt, who joined the office of a large, prestigious management consulting firm that had been talking about doing more public sector work. Matt volunteered to organize a speaker series in which various public sector people would come to the firm's office — thereby linking the company and its professionals with a sector in which they needed more insight and stronger relationships. Matt got a budget, organized the series, and got plaudits from his consulting colleagues for linking them to an important market opportunity. He also enjoyed the gratitude of the (paid) speakers he brought in to do the talks.
Mike, another relatively powerless person, took on the task of organizing analyst recruiting at a hedge fund. Everyone agreed the fund needed strong analysts, but no one could get very excited about recruiting talent that would just leave in a few years anyway and go back to business school. Mike took on this routine, not very sexy task — and found that it brought him into contact with everyone in the firm as he arranged schedules and recruiting events. He also made connections with a whole network of analysts who would continue to remember him as their primary point of contact with the firm, and someone who had taken them seriously in an early stage of their career.
Melinda started building her power base after she joined a large internet marketing firm, having come from a financial services company. She noticed that the firm's divisions didn't have much contact with each other or any organized way of learning about the evolution of the markets in which they were participating. So Melinda organized a series of seminars that brought internet and other subject matter experts into the firm to do briefings. As she recruited participation by people from throughout the relatively stove-piped organization, and built bridges between the firm and possible customers and partners, Melinda became highly visible — and much appreciated.
These tales — and while we're at them, let's add Robert Caro's masterful description of how Lyndon Johnson leveraged a "nothing job," that of minority whip, to the point of becoming the youngest-ever Senate Majority leader — all share some common themes. The first is the importance of filling a brokerage role. If you're in a position to bring together unrelated groups of individuals who benefit from being in contact with each other, that's a form of power. Ron Burt calls this "filling structural holes."
The second theme is the recognition that everyone wants the glamour jobs, the things that seem exciting and strategic. But organizations — sort of like armies — depend on many mundane tasks to reach their goals. Organizing analyst hiring may not get the blood racing in the way that making hedge fund investments does, but if no one does it, there won't be any analysts. Taking on these low-profile but vital tasks tends to be easier to do as there is less competition to own them. And you will get lots of thanks for doing them from the people who recognize their importance but are too busy doing high-profile work to focus on them.
Third theme: seemingly administrative tasks often bring you into contact with lots of people inside your company and make you central in the flow of communication. Being central in information flows is a source of power, and becoming known to many people is very useful, also. In the hedge fund, Mike had a reason to be in contact with everyone in the firm about the analyst hiring process. Melinda soon sat at a hub of communication because people, as they became interested in the seminars, wanted to make suggestions about whom to invite. She also became someone with a network of contacts across a largely-disconnected company. As Lyndon Johnson undertook the seemingly routine tasks of scheduling votes on uncontroversial issues and was in touch with people to get information on their voting preferences on important issues, he not only provided an important service to his fellow Senators, he was in regular contact with them — and became the source of information about what was going on.
So be on the lookout for assignments your colleagues don't want to bother with, but that have these valuable features. Others have built power bases from such small beginnings — and so can you.
Jeffrey Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, where he has taught since 1979. His forthcoming book from HarperBusiness is Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don't.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton M. Christensen
How will your life be measured.
Editor’s Note: When the members of the class of 2010 entered business school, the economy was strong and their post-graduation ambitions could be limitless. Just a few weeks later, the economy went into a tailspin. They’ve spent the past two years recalibrating their worldview and their definition of success.
The students seem highly aware of how the world has changed (as the sampling of views in this article shows). In the spring, Harvard Business School’s graduating class asked HBS professor Clay Christensen to address them—but not on how to apply his principles and thinking to their post-HBS careers. The students wanted to know how to apply them to their personal lives. He shared with them a set of guidelines that have helped him find meaning in his own life. Though Christensen’s thinking comes from his deep religious faith, we believe that these are strategies anyone can use. And so we asked him to share them with the readers of HBR.
Before I published The Innovator’s Dilemma, I got a call from Andrew Grove, then the chairman of Intel. He had read one of my early papers about disruptive technology, and he asked if I could talk to his direct reports and explain my research and what it implied for Intel. Excited, I flew to Silicon Valley and showed up at the appointed time, only to have Grove say, “Look, stuff has happened. We have only 10 minutes for you. Tell us what your model of disruption means for Intel.” I said that I couldn’t—that I needed a full 30 minutes to explain the model, because only with it as context would any comments about Intel make sense. Ten minutes into my explanation, Grove interrupted: “Look, I’ve got your model. Just tell us what it means for Intel.”
I insisted that I needed 10 more minutes to describe how the process of disruption had worked its way through a very different industry, steel, so that he and his team could understand how disruption worked. I told the story of how Nucor and other steel minimills had begun by attacking the lowest end of the market—steel reinforcing bars, or rebar—and later moved up toward the high end, undercutting the traditional steel mills.
When I finished the minimill story, Grove said, “OK, I get it. What it means for Intel is...,” and then went on to articulate what would become the company’s strategy for going to the bottom of the market to launch the Celeron processor.
I’ve thought about that a million times since. If I had been suckered into telling Andy Grove what he should think about the microprocessor business, I’d have been killed. But instead of telling him what to think, I taught him how to think—and then he reached what I felt was the correct decision on his own.
That experience had a profound influence on me. When people ask what I think they should do, I rarely answer their question directly. Instead, I run the question aloud through one of my models. I’ll describe how the process in the model worked its way through an industry quite different from their own. And then, more often than not, they’ll say, “OK, I get it.” And they’ll answer their own question more insightfully than I could have.
My class at HBS is structured to help my students understand what good management theory is and how it is built. To that backbone I attach different models or theories that help students think about the various dimensions of a general manager’s job in stimulating innovation and growth. In each session we look at one company through the lenses of those theories—using them to explain how the company got into its situation and to examine what managerial actions will yield the needed results.
On the last day of class, I ask my students to turn those theoretical lenses on themselves, to find cogent answers to three questions: First, how can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career? Second, how can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness? Third, how can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail? Though the last question sounds lighthearted, it’s not. Two of the 32 people in my Rhodes scholar class spent time in jail. Jeff Skilling of Enron fame was a classmate of mine at HBS. These were good guys—but something in their lives sent them off in the wrong direction
The Class of 2010
“I came to business school knowing exactly what I wanted to do—and I’m leaving choosing the exact opposite. I’ve worked in the private sector all my life, because everyone always told me that’s where smart people are. But I’ve decided to try government and see if I can find more meaning there.
“I used to think that industry was very safe. The recession has shown us that nothing is safe.”
Ruhana Hafiz, Harvard Business School, Class of 2010
Her Plans: To join the FBI as a special adviser (a management track position)
“You could see a shift happening at HBS. Money used to be number one in the job search. When you make a ton of money, you want more of it. Ironic thing. You start to forget what the drivers of happiness are and what things are really important. A lot of people on campus see money differently now. They think, ‘What’s the minimum I need to have, and what else drives my life?’ instead of ‘What’s the place where I can get the maximum of both?’”
Patrick Chun, Harvard Business School, Class of 2010
His Plans: To join Bain Capital
“The financial crisis helped me realize that you have to do what you really love in life. My current vision of success is based on the impact I can have, the experiences I can gain, and the happiness I can find personally, much more so than the pursuit of money or prestige. My main motivations are (1) to be with my family and people I care about; (2) to do something fun, exciting, and impactful; and (3) to pursue a long-term career in entrepreneurship, where I can build companies that change the way the world works.”
Matt Salzberg, Harvard Business School, Class of 2010
His Plans: To work for Bessemer Venture Partners
“Because I’m returning to McKinsey, it probably seems like not all that much has changed for me. But while I was at HBS, I decided to do the dual degree at the Kennedy School. With the elections in 2008 and the economy looking shaky, it seemed more compelling for me to get a better understanding of the public and nonprofit sectors. In a way, that drove my return to McKinsey, where I’ll have the ability to explore private, public, and nonprofit sectors.
“The recession has made us step back and take stock of how lucky we are. The crisis to us is ‘Are we going to have a job by April?’ Crisis to a lot of people is ‘Are we going to stay in our home?’”
John Coleman, Harvard Business School, Class of 2010
His Plans: To return to McKinsey & Company
Editor’s Note: When the members of the class of 2010 entered business school, the economy was strong and their post-graduation ambitions could be limitless. Just a few weeks later, the economy went into a tailspin. They’ve spent the past two years recalibrating their worldview and their definition of success.
The students seem highly aware of how the world has changed (as the sampling of views in this article shows). In the spring, Harvard Business School’s graduating class asked HBS professor Clay Christensen to address them—but not on how to apply his principles and thinking to their post-HBS careers. The students wanted to know how to apply them to their personal lives. He shared with them a set of guidelines that have helped him find meaning in his own life. Though Christensen’s thinking comes from his deep religious faith, we believe that these are strategies anyone can use. And so we asked him to share them with the readers of HBR.
Before I published The Innovator’s Dilemma, I got a call from Andrew Grove, then the chairman of Intel. He had read one of my early papers about disruptive technology, and he asked if I could talk to his direct reports and explain my research and what it implied for Intel. Excited, I flew to Silicon Valley and showed up at the appointed time, only to have Grove say, “Look, stuff has happened. We have only 10 minutes for you. Tell us what your model of disruption means for Intel.” I said that I couldn’t—that I needed a full 30 minutes to explain the model, because only with it as context would any comments about Intel make sense. Ten minutes into my explanation, Grove interrupted: “Look, I’ve got your model. Just tell us what it means for Intel.”
I insisted that I needed 10 more minutes to describe how the process of disruption had worked its way through a very different industry, steel, so that he and his team could understand how disruption worked. I told the story of how Nucor and other steel minimills had begun by attacking the lowest end of the market—steel reinforcing bars, or rebar—and later moved up toward the high end, undercutting the traditional steel mills.
When I finished the minimill story, Grove said, “OK, I get it. What it means for Intel is...,” and then went on to articulate what would become the company’s strategy for going to the bottom of the market to launch the Celeron processor.
I’ve thought about that a million times since. If I had been suckered into telling Andy Grove what he should think about the microprocessor business, I’d have been killed. But instead of telling him what to think, I taught him how to think—and then he reached what I felt was the correct decision on his own.
That experience had a profound influence on me. When people ask what I think they should do, I rarely answer their question directly. Instead, I run the question aloud through one of my models. I’ll describe how the process in the model worked its way through an industry quite different from their own. And then, more often than not, they’ll say, “OK, I get it.” And they’ll answer their own question more insightfully than I could have.
My class at HBS is structured to help my students understand what good management theory is and how it is built. To that backbone I attach different models or theories that help students think about the various dimensions of a general manager’s job in stimulating innovation and growth. In each session we look at one company through the lenses of those theories—using them to explain how the company got into its situation and to examine what managerial actions will yield the needed results.
On the last day of class, I ask my students to turn those theoretical lenses on themselves, to find cogent answers to three questions: First, how can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career? Second, how can I be sure that my relationships with my spouse and my family become an enduring source of happiness? Third, how can I be sure I’ll stay out of jail? Though the last question sounds lighthearted, it’s not. Two of the 32 people in my Rhodes scholar class spent time in jail. Jeff Skilling of Enron fame was a classmate of mine at HBS. These were good guys—but something in their lives sent them off in the wrong direction
The Class of 2010
“I came to business school knowing exactly what I wanted to do—and I’m leaving choosing the exact opposite. I’ve worked in the private sector all my life, because everyone always told me that’s where smart people are. But I’ve decided to try government and see if I can find more meaning there.
“I used to think that industry was very safe. The recession has shown us that nothing is safe.”
Ruhana Hafiz, Harvard Business School, Class of 2010
Her Plans: To join the FBI as a special adviser (a management track position)
“You could see a shift happening at HBS. Money used to be number one in the job search. When you make a ton of money, you want more of it. Ironic thing. You start to forget what the drivers of happiness are and what things are really important. A lot of people on campus see money differently now. They think, ‘What’s the minimum I need to have, and what else drives my life?’ instead of ‘What’s the place where I can get the maximum of both?’”
Patrick Chun, Harvard Business School, Class of 2010
His Plans: To join Bain Capital
“The financial crisis helped me realize that you have to do what you really love in life. My current vision of success is based on the impact I can have, the experiences I can gain, and the happiness I can find personally, much more so than the pursuit of money or prestige. My main motivations are (1) to be with my family and people I care about; (2) to do something fun, exciting, and impactful; and (3) to pursue a long-term career in entrepreneurship, where I can build companies that change the way the world works.”
Matt Salzberg, Harvard Business School, Class of 2010
His Plans: To work for Bessemer Venture Partners
“Because I’m returning to McKinsey, it probably seems like not all that much has changed for me. But while I was at HBS, I decided to do the dual degree at the Kennedy School. With the elections in 2008 and the economy looking shaky, it seemed more compelling for me to get a better understanding of the public and nonprofit sectors. In a way, that drove my return to McKinsey, where I’ll have the ability to explore private, public, and nonprofit sectors.
“The recession has made us step back and take stock of how lucky we are. The crisis to us is ‘Are we going to have a job by April?’ Crisis to a lot of people is ‘Are we going to stay in our home?’”
John Coleman, Harvard Business School, Class of 2010
His Plans: To return to McKinsey & Company
Monday, July 19, 2010
What differentiates an attractive website from a repulsive one?
adapted from the Business Daily - 19th July 2010
By RAWLINGS OTINI
Posted Monday, July 19 2010 at 00:00
In a world where businesses are adopting quickly to information technology, websites have become the universal compass — pointing people to data that suits their specific needs in a sea of information.
However, not all websites are worthy revisiting.
What makes the difference between an attractive site and one the puts off surfers?
According to Denis Karema of Authentic Global, a Kenyan web design company, the name of a website must match the industry of the company (host).
It should be short and easy to remember.
This ensures that the visitors refer the site to other prospective visitors easily.
This also means that the client’s needs have been met and the website is easier to use, hence repeat visits.
This also enables search engines such as Yahoo, Google, and Binge — among others — to easily pick up the site during a search.
The quality of a good website is determined by the number of repeat visits and referrals it gets.
“Google ranks pages according to the frequency of visits they get and uses this to prioritise which page comes first during a search,” Larry Page, co-founder of Google told CNBC recently.
The website must be able to load even if the user has low broadband.
“When a website takes too long to load because it has multimedia applications which generally take long to load, sometimes the programmer or designer is not keen on optimising the images in order to make them light enough to load for visitors with low bandwidth,” says Isaac Gatembo of 9Lives Innovations Ltd.
Most websites are rarely updated, ending up displaying information that is outdated.
Such sites tend to turn away visitors since they have nothing new to offer.
A site that was updated several months ago shows that either the host is no longer active or has closed shop in the area specified on the site.
An updated site gives visitors the impression that they are likely to get feedback if they asked questions, hence chances of interaction with the host are high.
A good website must be audience specific, which means it must clearly target its market and should not be vague. This helps readers save time.
“It must meet the needs of the host and those of the reader,” says Mr Gatembo.
The appearance of the site and its design must match the clientele the host seeks to attract.
It doesn’t take too much effort, time, and money to come up with a reasonable looking site, yet there are very many out there that are in desperate need for a facelift.
The most relevant information must be available at first glance.
This includes a one page CV since readers have access to loads of information and the faster they get what they need the better.
Too much information slows down the speed of navigating around the site hence distracts visitors.
“Broken links or links that don’t lead one to what they are looking for turns me off,” says John Kithaka, a regular internet surfer.
Websites that have no physical and telephone contacts give the reader a bad impression.
However, this is acceptable in rare cases where the occupation of the host does not necessarily need physical location.
Clicking the “contact us” button only to receive a form asking for one’s details instead of the contact of the host turns off many.
Unless it is a binding agreement, any forms on the web meant to collect information from the user must be brief.
“Us surfers are very impatient,” says Mr Kithaka.
Dull colours might also turn off people since most internet users are young people.
Too much information scares away visitors, hence simple and brief content is the way to go.
A website should be interactive, with room for people to air their feelings concerning the host’s services.
This helps the host to improve his product offering.
You should work with designers who understand both sales and graphic design because the site must appear professional but simple and easy to navigate.
People are not likely to revisit pages with statements like “site still under construction”, “content not currently available” since there are many alternative sites.
Business website
A business website should not have flashy and contrasting colours unless it is in the fashion design or other art related industry.
“Websites with excessive advertisement pop ups are likely to distract surfers, hence one needs to restrict advertisements or put a link to an advert so that if one wants to see the advert they have to click that link,” explains Mr Karema.
For sites meant strictly for official purposes, a pop up may look odd.
However, the advent of Facebook is shaking traditional marketing strategies, transforming the website from a social networking platform to a business and political arena.
Many entrepreneurs have rushed to showcase their products on Facebook, while organisations including churches and event organisers are turning to the forum to advertise.
By RAWLINGS OTINI
Posted Monday, July 19 2010 at 00:00
In a world where businesses are adopting quickly to information technology, websites have become the universal compass — pointing people to data that suits their specific needs in a sea of information.
However, not all websites are worthy revisiting.
What makes the difference between an attractive site and one the puts off surfers?
According to Denis Karema of Authentic Global, a Kenyan web design company, the name of a website must match the industry of the company (host).
It should be short and easy to remember.
This ensures that the visitors refer the site to other prospective visitors easily.
This also means that the client’s needs have been met and the website is easier to use, hence repeat visits.
This also enables search engines such as Yahoo, Google, and Binge — among others — to easily pick up the site during a search.
The quality of a good website is determined by the number of repeat visits and referrals it gets.
“Google ranks pages according to the frequency of visits they get and uses this to prioritise which page comes first during a search,” Larry Page, co-founder of Google told CNBC recently.
The website must be able to load even if the user has low broadband.
“When a website takes too long to load because it has multimedia applications which generally take long to load, sometimes the programmer or designer is not keen on optimising the images in order to make them light enough to load for visitors with low bandwidth,” says Isaac Gatembo of 9Lives Innovations Ltd.
Most websites are rarely updated, ending up displaying information that is outdated.
Such sites tend to turn away visitors since they have nothing new to offer.
A site that was updated several months ago shows that either the host is no longer active or has closed shop in the area specified on the site.
An updated site gives visitors the impression that they are likely to get feedback if they asked questions, hence chances of interaction with the host are high.
A good website must be audience specific, which means it must clearly target its market and should not be vague. This helps readers save time.
“It must meet the needs of the host and those of the reader,” says Mr Gatembo.
The appearance of the site and its design must match the clientele the host seeks to attract.
It doesn’t take too much effort, time, and money to come up with a reasonable looking site, yet there are very many out there that are in desperate need for a facelift.
The most relevant information must be available at first glance.
This includes a one page CV since readers have access to loads of information and the faster they get what they need the better.
Too much information slows down the speed of navigating around the site hence distracts visitors.
“Broken links or links that don’t lead one to what they are looking for turns me off,” says John Kithaka, a regular internet surfer.
Websites that have no physical and telephone contacts give the reader a bad impression.
However, this is acceptable in rare cases where the occupation of the host does not necessarily need physical location.
Clicking the “contact us” button only to receive a form asking for one’s details instead of the contact of the host turns off many.
Unless it is a binding agreement, any forms on the web meant to collect information from the user must be brief.
“Us surfers are very impatient,” says Mr Kithaka.
Dull colours might also turn off people since most internet users are young people.
Too much information scares away visitors, hence simple and brief content is the way to go.
A website should be interactive, with room for people to air their feelings concerning the host’s services.
This helps the host to improve his product offering.
You should work with designers who understand both sales and graphic design because the site must appear professional but simple and easy to navigate.
People are not likely to revisit pages with statements like “site still under construction”, “content not currently available” since there are many alternative sites.
Business website
A business website should not have flashy and contrasting colours unless it is in the fashion design or other art related industry.
“Websites with excessive advertisement pop ups are likely to distract surfers, hence one needs to restrict advertisements or put a link to an advert so that if one wants to see the advert they have to click that link,” explains Mr Karema.
For sites meant strictly for official purposes, a pop up may look odd.
However, the advent of Facebook is shaking traditional marketing strategies, transforming the website from a social networking platform to a business and political arena.
Many entrepreneurs have rushed to showcase their products on Facebook, while organisations including churches and event organisers are turning to the forum to advertise.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
The UN's poverty-fighting programme lacks teeth.
by Mary Robinson
guardian.co.uk
'We need a human rights approach to the Millennium Development Goals,' says the former UN high commissioner for human rights Over the past decade, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have served as an international benchmark for measuring progress in fighting extreme poverty.
Despite the commitments made by governments, many countries are still not on track to achieve their MDG targets by 2015. Shortcomings are due to a range of factors. The MDG framework largely ignores ongoing discrimination and social exclusion. Equally important, the MDGs do not place on states obligations to develop national action plans, to be held accountable for achieving results, or to consult with people on priorities.
These shortcomings have contributed to the uneven results we've seen over the past 10 years and must be addressed as we look to the future.
In the past few years there has been an encouraging and important shift in the approach to fighting extreme poverty, which puts the human rights of the poor at the centre of the debate. Governments, the UN and civil society are now trying to find ways to accelerate the rate of progress.
Growing focus is rightly being placed on the very poorest people – those who live on less than a dollar a day, who are at most risk of infectious disease or from dying in childbirth, who have never known secure employment and who often go hungry for days or weeks at a time.
Poverty, as my friend and fellow Elder Ela Bhatt has said so often, is a form of violence. Extreme poverty robs people of all their rights: their right to health, to education, to dignity, to equality of opportunity and often of the right to life itself.
A woman who dies in pregnancy or childbirth for the lack of access to basic healthcare is being robbed of her right to life and health. A girl who is unable to go to school because her brothers are given priority is being robbed of her right to an education and to equality of opportunity. A government that ignores poor, informal sector workers when planning new city developments and forcibly clears shacks and shanty towns is denying people the right to livelihood.
Big, powerful countries and businesses that insist on free access to the markets of poorer countries, yet set impossible benchmarks for poor countries' imports, are denying the right to equality of opportunity and fair trade. So far, globalisation has helped some, but not all.
Civil society, the NGO community, business people and the media often rally round issues that are focused on rights. This is tremendously important. Today, at the UN in New York, civil society and business groups are making their case for faster progress on fighting poverty – and among them are human rights campaigners.
Accountability and freedom of expression are critical to achieving people-centred development. Yet too many governments are prepared to squash the voices of the poor and those who work with them. The poorest are excluded from the formal economy and their rights to decent work are not protected, let alone their rights to organise and to be represented.
By accepting that poverty is a violation of human rights and by ensuring that the voices of the poor are heard, we may finally see the kind of progress that holds governments accountable for implementing their human rights obligations and enables poor people to help themselves.
guardian.co.uk
'We need a human rights approach to the Millennium Development Goals,' says the former UN high commissioner for human rights Over the past decade, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) have served as an international benchmark for measuring progress in fighting extreme poverty.
Despite the commitments made by governments, many countries are still not on track to achieve their MDG targets by 2015. Shortcomings are due to a range of factors. The MDG framework largely ignores ongoing discrimination and social exclusion. Equally important, the MDGs do not place on states obligations to develop national action plans, to be held accountable for achieving results, or to consult with people on priorities.
These shortcomings have contributed to the uneven results we've seen over the past 10 years and must be addressed as we look to the future.
In the past few years there has been an encouraging and important shift in the approach to fighting extreme poverty, which puts the human rights of the poor at the centre of the debate. Governments, the UN and civil society are now trying to find ways to accelerate the rate of progress.
Growing focus is rightly being placed on the very poorest people – those who live on less than a dollar a day, who are at most risk of infectious disease or from dying in childbirth, who have never known secure employment and who often go hungry for days or weeks at a time.
Poverty, as my friend and fellow Elder Ela Bhatt has said so often, is a form of violence. Extreme poverty robs people of all their rights: their right to health, to education, to dignity, to equality of opportunity and often of the right to life itself.
A woman who dies in pregnancy or childbirth for the lack of access to basic healthcare is being robbed of her right to life and health. A girl who is unable to go to school because her brothers are given priority is being robbed of her right to an education and to equality of opportunity. A government that ignores poor, informal sector workers when planning new city developments and forcibly clears shacks and shanty towns is denying people the right to livelihood.
Big, powerful countries and businesses that insist on free access to the markets of poorer countries, yet set impossible benchmarks for poor countries' imports, are denying the right to equality of opportunity and fair trade. So far, globalisation has helped some, but not all.
Civil society, the NGO community, business people and the media often rally round issues that are focused on rights. This is tremendously important. Today, at the UN in New York, civil society and business groups are making their case for faster progress on fighting poverty – and among them are human rights campaigners.
Accountability and freedom of expression are critical to achieving people-centred development. Yet too many governments are prepared to squash the voices of the poor and those who work with them. The poorest are excluded from the formal economy and their rights to decent work are not protected, let alone their rights to organise and to be represented.
By accepting that poverty is a violation of human rights and by ensuring that the voices of the poor are heard, we may finally see the kind of progress that holds governments accountable for implementing their human rights obligations and enables poor people to help themselves.
The Responsible Manager
The global financial crisis of the past two years has triggered an unprecedented debate about managers’ roles. While discussions about managerial performance, CEO pay, and the role of boards have been fierce, scant attention has been paid to managers’ responsibilities.
For the past 33 years, I have ended all my MBA and executive education courses by sharing with participants my perspective on how they can become responsible managers. I acknowledge that they will be successful in terms of income, social status, and influence, but caution that managers must remember that they are the custodians of society’s most powerful institutions. They must therefore hold themselves to a higher standard. Managers must strive to achieve success with responsibility.
My remarks are intended to serve as a spur for people to reexamine their values before they plunge into their daily work routines.
Take a minute to study them:
• Understand the importance of nonconformity. Leadership is about change, hope, and the future. Leaders have to venture into uncharted territory, so they must be able to handle intellectual solitude and ambiguity.
• Display a commitment to learning and developing yourself. Leaders must invest in themselves. If you aren’t educated, you can’t help the uneducated; if you are sick, you can’t minister to the sick; if you are poor, you can’t help the poor.
• Develop the ability to put personal performance in perspective. Over a long career, you will experience both success and failure. Humility in success and courage in failure are hallmarks of a good leader.
• Be ready to invest in developing other people. Be unstinting in helping your colleagues realize their full potential.
• Learn to relate to those who are less fortunate. Good leaders are inclusive, even though that isn’t easy. Most societies have dealt with differences by avoiding or eliminating them; few assimilate those who aren’t like them.
• Be concerned about due process. People seek fairness—not favors. They want to be heard. They often don’t even mind if decisions don’t go their way as long as the process is fair and transparent.
• Realize the importance of loyalty to organization, profession, community, society, and, above all, family. Most of our achievements would be impossible without our families’ support.
• Assume responsibility for outcomes as well as for the processes and people you work with. How you achieve results will shape the kind of person you become.
• Remember that you are part of a very privileged few. That’s your strength, but it’s also a cross you carry. Balance achievement with compassion and learning with understanding.
• Expect to be judged by what you do and how well you do it—not by what you say you want to do. However, the bias toward action must be balanced by empathy and caring for other people.
• Be conscious of the part you play. Be concerned about the problems of the poor and the disabled, accept human weaknesses, laugh at yourself—and avoid the temptation to play God. Leadership is about self-awareness, recognizing your failings, and developing modesty, humility, and humanity.
Every year, I revisit my notes about the responsible manager, which I first jotted down in 1977. The world has changed a lot since then, but I haven’t found it necessary to change a word of my lecture. Indeed, the message is more relevant today than ever.
....................................................................................
C.K. Prahalad (ckp@bus.umich.edu) is the Paul and Ruth McCracken Distinguished University Professor of Strategy at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
....................................................................................
For the past 33 years, I have ended all my MBA and executive education courses by sharing with participants my perspective on how they can become responsible managers. I acknowledge that they will be successful in terms of income, social status, and influence, but caution that managers must remember that they are the custodians of society’s most powerful institutions. They must therefore hold themselves to a higher standard. Managers must strive to achieve success with responsibility.
My remarks are intended to serve as a spur for people to reexamine their values before they plunge into their daily work routines.
Take a minute to study them:
• Understand the importance of nonconformity. Leadership is about change, hope, and the future. Leaders have to venture into uncharted territory, so they must be able to handle intellectual solitude and ambiguity.
• Display a commitment to learning and developing yourself. Leaders must invest in themselves. If you aren’t educated, you can’t help the uneducated; if you are sick, you can’t minister to the sick; if you are poor, you can’t help the poor.
• Develop the ability to put personal performance in perspective. Over a long career, you will experience both success and failure. Humility in success and courage in failure are hallmarks of a good leader.
• Be ready to invest in developing other people. Be unstinting in helping your colleagues realize their full potential.
• Learn to relate to those who are less fortunate. Good leaders are inclusive, even though that isn’t easy. Most societies have dealt with differences by avoiding or eliminating them; few assimilate those who aren’t like them.
• Be concerned about due process. People seek fairness—not favors. They want to be heard. They often don’t even mind if decisions don’t go their way as long as the process is fair and transparent.
• Realize the importance of loyalty to organization, profession, community, society, and, above all, family. Most of our achievements would be impossible without our families’ support.
• Assume responsibility for outcomes as well as for the processes and people you work with. How you achieve results will shape the kind of person you become.
• Remember that you are part of a very privileged few. That’s your strength, but it’s also a cross you carry. Balance achievement with compassion and learning with understanding.
• Expect to be judged by what you do and how well you do it—not by what you say you want to do. However, the bias toward action must be balanced by empathy and caring for other people.
• Be conscious of the part you play. Be concerned about the problems of the poor and the disabled, accept human weaknesses, laugh at yourself—and avoid the temptation to play God. Leadership is about self-awareness, recognizing your failings, and developing modesty, humility, and humanity.
Every year, I revisit my notes about the responsible manager, which I first jotted down in 1977. The world has changed a lot since then, but I haven’t found it necessary to change a word of my lecture. Indeed, the message is more relevant today than ever.
....................................................................................
C.K. Prahalad (ckp@bus.umich.edu) is the Paul and Ruth McCracken Distinguished University Professor of Strategy at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
....................................................................................
Friday, May 28, 2010
Facebook's Culture Problem May Be Fatal
Facebook's imbroglio over privacy reveals what may be a fatal business model. I know because my students at Parsons The New School For Design tell me so. They live on Facebook and they are furious at it. This was the technology platform they were born into, built their friendships around, and expected to be with them as they grew up, got jobs, and had families. They just assumed Facebook would evolve as their lives shifted from adolescent to adult and their needs changed. Facebook's failure to recognize this culture change deeply threatens its future profits. At the moment, it has an audience that is at war with its advertisers. Not good.
Here's why. Facebook is wildly successful because its founder matched new social media technology to a deep Western cultural longing — the adolescent desire for connection to other adolescents in their own private space. There they can be free to design their personal identities without adult supervision. Think digital tree house. Generation Y accepted Facebook as a free gift and proceeded to connect, express, and visualize the embarrassing aspects of their young lives.
Then Gen Y grew up and their culture and needs changed. My senior students started looking for jobs and watched, horrified, as corporations went on their Facebook pages to check them out. What was once a private, gated community of trusted friends became an increasingly open, public commons of curious strangers. The few, original, loose tools of network control on Facebook no longer proved sufficient. The Gen Yers wanted better, more precise privacy controls that allowed them to secure their existing private social lives and separate them from their new public working lives.
Facebook's business model, however, demands the opposite. It is trying to transform the private into a public arena it can offer advertisers. In doing this, the company is breaking three cardinal cultural norms:
1. It is taking back a free gift. In order to build profits, Facebook has been commercializing and monetizing friendship networks. What Facebook gave to Millenials, it is now trying to take away. Millennials are resisting the invasion to their privacy.
2. Facebook is ignoring the aging of the Millennials and the subsequent change in their culture. Older Gen Yers want less sociability and more privacy as actors outside their trusted cohort enter the Facebook space in search of information and connection. These older Millennials want more privacy tools for control of their information and networks.
3. Facebook is behaving as though it owned not only its proprietary technology platform but the friendship networks created on it. It doesn't. Millennials believe that ownership of their networks of friends belongs to them, not Facebook, and resist their commercialization.
Facebook, under intense pressure, is belatedly agreeing to streamline and strengthen its privacy tools. That will lower the anger of its audience but increase the anxiety of its advertisers. The brand value of Facebook has already taken a hit and competing social media platforms that promise privacy are beginning to appear.
What lessons can we draw from the Facebook flameup? Lifecycle changes can trump generational change and cultural values perceived as crucial at the age of 13 can be very different at 20. A business founded on the values of a generation, such as Facebook, has to keep up with, and respect, evolving lives and needs.
Ownership in the social media world of networks is different from selling products and services in the traditional marketplace. Understanding the underlying cultural context of "free," "gift," and "creation" is important to businesses, including and perhaps especially high tech companies. It is not impossible to monetize that which is free. Apple did that with 99 cent songs on iTunes. But it is difficult.
Giving economic value to social networks is the new holy grail in advertising and the media. An army of economists and mathematicians are at work on this task. To date, most of the work has focused on metrics — how many friends, how many linkages, how much influence. Facebook's problems with privacy highlight the need to understand culture as well.
Bruce Nussbaum, former assistant managing editor for Business Week, is professor of Innovation and Design at Parsons School of Design.
Here's why. Facebook is wildly successful because its founder matched new social media technology to a deep Western cultural longing — the adolescent desire for connection to other adolescents in their own private space. There they can be free to design their personal identities without adult supervision. Think digital tree house. Generation Y accepted Facebook as a free gift and proceeded to connect, express, and visualize the embarrassing aspects of their young lives.
Then Gen Y grew up and their culture and needs changed. My senior students started looking for jobs and watched, horrified, as corporations went on their Facebook pages to check them out. What was once a private, gated community of trusted friends became an increasingly open, public commons of curious strangers. The few, original, loose tools of network control on Facebook no longer proved sufficient. The Gen Yers wanted better, more precise privacy controls that allowed them to secure their existing private social lives and separate them from their new public working lives.
Facebook's business model, however, demands the opposite. It is trying to transform the private into a public arena it can offer advertisers. In doing this, the company is breaking three cardinal cultural norms:
1. It is taking back a free gift. In order to build profits, Facebook has been commercializing and monetizing friendship networks. What Facebook gave to Millenials, it is now trying to take away. Millennials are resisting the invasion to their privacy.
2. Facebook is ignoring the aging of the Millennials and the subsequent change in their culture. Older Gen Yers want less sociability and more privacy as actors outside their trusted cohort enter the Facebook space in search of information and connection. These older Millennials want more privacy tools for control of their information and networks.
3. Facebook is behaving as though it owned not only its proprietary technology platform but the friendship networks created on it. It doesn't. Millennials believe that ownership of their networks of friends belongs to them, not Facebook, and resist their commercialization.
Facebook, under intense pressure, is belatedly agreeing to streamline and strengthen its privacy tools. That will lower the anger of its audience but increase the anxiety of its advertisers. The brand value of Facebook has already taken a hit and competing social media platforms that promise privacy are beginning to appear.
What lessons can we draw from the Facebook flameup? Lifecycle changes can trump generational change and cultural values perceived as crucial at the age of 13 can be very different at 20. A business founded on the values of a generation, such as Facebook, has to keep up with, and respect, evolving lives and needs.
Ownership in the social media world of networks is different from selling products and services in the traditional marketplace. Understanding the underlying cultural context of "free," "gift," and "creation" is important to businesses, including and perhaps especially high tech companies. It is not impossible to monetize that which is free. Apple did that with 99 cent songs on iTunes. But it is difficult.
Giving economic value to social networks is the new holy grail in advertising and the media. An army of economists and mathematicians are at work on this task. To date, most of the work has focused on metrics — how many friends, how many linkages, how much influence. Facebook's problems with privacy highlight the need to understand culture as well.
Bruce Nussbaum, former assistant managing editor for Business Week, is professor of Innovation and Design at Parsons School of Design.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Tips for Making Small Talk With Bigwigs
One of the things that can befuddle managers, even experienced ones, is how to make small talk with the big boss.
When you are talking about someone who has authority over you, be it your boss's boss or the CEO, the word "small" becomes relative. Anything involving a boss can have a big impact. Conversation with a superior can be fraught with peril but it can also be a great opportunity. Peril comes from the fear of saying the wrong thing; opportunity arises because you can reveal a new dimension of yourself to other.
You can increase the odds of success if you prepare. Yes, actually plan out what you will say to the senior manager. This works well if you know that the CEO is coming to visit your department or if you have the opportunity chat with him at an all-employee gathering. So here's what you can do.
Do your homework. Learn the issues the senior team is focused on. Ideally everyone in the company should know the strategic priorities. Bone up on these so you know them, too. Think in advance what you will say to a senior person if you meet her in person. Work out a key message about your projects, your career and yourself. This is good practice whether you meet a senior person or not. Finally, if it's a more social meeting, you might try to learn of a boss's personal interests — hobbies, sports he or she likes, or their volunteer activities.
Be yourself. When you are introduced to the senior leader, make eye contact as you shake hands. Smile and act relaxed. Feel free to ask questions about what's going on in the company. If appropriate, talk about what you are working on. This is your opportunity to use your messages. Strive to be brief and to the point.
Read the situation. Keep speaking if the boss is interested; if not, thank the person for his time and move on, even when you didn't get the opportunity to use your key messages. In some ways your sense of decorum is more important than what you say. Rattling on when no one is interested marks you as lacking in self-awareness; knowing when to end the conversation says much about your ability to read the situation.
Such preparation is good when you know in advance you may meet a senior executive or a member of the board, but what about accidental encounters, say at the airport, a social gathering, or even a sporting event? The good news is that what works for prepared encounters works for impromptu ones. Just assume that someday soon you will run into a senior person and prepare for it as you would for a more predictable encounter. And that preparation will pay off in other contexts too, such as during team meetings or conversations with clients.
That's why you should practice your key messages from time to time, say on your drive to work. You can even practice by recording them on your mobile phone, just to see how you sound. The exercise will give you confidence that you have what it takes to have a clear and coherent conversation with people in power.
One of my favorite stories about Winston Churchill, taken from Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes, is an encounter he had with a young New Zealand airman during the Second World War. The airman had crawled out of the cockpit of a bomber with an engine on fire and extinguished the flames. When Churchill met the young man he noted the lad's nervousness. "You must feel very humble and awkward in my presence," Churchill said. When the man said he was, Churchill replied, "Then you can imagine how awkward and humble I feel in yours."
Never forget that senior leaders are people first; executives second. Never forget your own personal abilities. And never forget that making small talk can have a big impact on your career.
When you are talking about someone who has authority over you, be it your boss's boss or the CEO, the word "small" becomes relative. Anything involving a boss can have a big impact. Conversation with a superior can be fraught with peril but it can also be a great opportunity. Peril comes from the fear of saying the wrong thing; opportunity arises because you can reveal a new dimension of yourself to other.
You can increase the odds of success if you prepare. Yes, actually plan out what you will say to the senior manager. This works well if you know that the CEO is coming to visit your department or if you have the opportunity chat with him at an all-employee gathering. So here's what you can do.
Do your homework. Learn the issues the senior team is focused on. Ideally everyone in the company should know the strategic priorities. Bone up on these so you know them, too. Think in advance what you will say to a senior person if you meet her in person. Work out a key message about your projects, your career and yourself. This is good practice whether you meet a senior person or not. Finally, if it's a more social meeting, you might try to learn of a boss's personal interests — hobbies, sports he or she likes, or their volunteer activities.
Be yourself. When you are introduced to the senior leader, make eye contact as you shake hands. Smile and act relaxed. Feel free to ask questions about what's going on in the company. If appropriate, talk about what you are working on. This is your opportunity to use your messages. Strive to be brief and to the point.
Read the situation. Keep speaking if the boss is interested; if not, thank the person for his time and move on, even when you didn't get the opportunity to use your key messages. In some ways your sense of decorum is more important than what you say. Rattling on when no one is interested marks you as lacking in self-awareness; knowing when to end the conversation says much about your ability to read the situation.
Such preparation is good when you know in advance you may meet a senior executive or a member of the board, but what about accidental encounters, say at the airport, a social gathering, or even a sporting event? The good news is that what works for prepared encounters works for impromptu ones. Just assume that someday soon you will run into a senior person and prepare for it as you would for a more predictable encounter. And that preparation will pay off in other contexts too, such as during team meetings or conversations with clients.
That's why you should practice your key messages from time to time, say on your drive to work. You can even practice by recording them on your mobile phone, just to see how you sound. The exercise will give you confidence that you have what it takes to have a clear and coherent conversation with people in power.
One of my favorite stories about Winston Churchill, taken from Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes, is an encounter he had with a young New Zealand airman during the Second World War. The airman had crawled out of the cockpit of a bomber with an engine on fire and extinguished the flames. When Churchill met the young man he noted the lad's nervousness. "You must feel very humble and awkward in my presence," Churchill said. When the man said he was, Churchill replied, "Then you can imagine how awkward and humble I feel in yours."
Never forget that senior leaders are people first; executives second. Never forget your own personal abilities. And never forget that making small talk can have a big impact on your career.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Speaking From a Podium: Simple Tips to Get Started
Speaking from a podium presents different challenges than other forms of public speaking. So the best preparation is to simulate the podium experience.
For example, when Barack Obama had to debate John McCain at Old Miss in 2008, his team created an exact replica of the stage where Obama would debate McCain. "No detail was overlooked," according to a Newsweek retrospective published just after the election. Incredibly, Obama even rehearsed in the evenings because the debate would be in the evening, and this would "match his natural circadian rhythms."
This concept is nothing new. Obama was simulating the full experience. It's why actors and dancers have dress rehearsals and soldiers have military exercises.
But you don't need a stage or replica board room to prepare for your own presentation. Here's the way to do it in a stepped-down manner and get the same benefits:
Put your script or notes on a stack of books or something that will elevate them for easy viewing. At home or in a conference room, this will simulate the podium experience. Use your speaking voice as you would on stage, and imagine that you're speaking to an audience.
Keep your feet planted and stand straight. This will empower you. Stepping back and forth, slouching, shifting weight — these can convey anxiety.
Consult the notes or script as much as you need during run-throughs. Repetition will enable you to look down less often, so you can increase eye contact with your listeners.
Have the script in large type, amply spaced — or use notes. You'll be able to find your place more readily after looking at the audience. Why invite panicky moments when you lose your place or need to check a figure?
Do not memorize, unless it's very brief. Doing so will introduce a whole new dimension of anxiety. After a lot of rehearsal, you may be able to speak almost from memory, and that's fine. But if you hold yourself to a word-for-word standard, you're inviting anxiety when a phrase doesn't fall in place.
Make a place for your hands. Lightly grip either side of a straight-backed chair at home — or if it's a side chair in a conference room chair, grip the top — and then forget about your hands. They'll come up naturally to gesture at times.
Write a reminder. In large letters with a red pen, print atop your notes or script a single, important reminder. Choose well. It might be, "Speak Slowly." Or, "Make Eye Contact." Or, "Slow Down." Take it to heart just before you start speaking.
Afterward, you may hear that your presentation was better than your self-assessment. This often means the anxiety you were feeling didn't come through because you created a steady physical presence up there. Yes, you may have felt unnatural or "manufactured," but it came across as confidently in command.
Once you've developed enough confidence and a good style at the mike, the value of this rehearsal regimen declines. Moreover, you may well discover shortcuts or tips of your own. Do you have any you can share now, which you think might help others?
Daniel Kennedy is an adjunct professor within the Graduate School of Management at UC Davis, where he has taught presentation skills and public communications strategy to MBA students for more than two decades. He also coaches executives, professors, and even children in the craft of public speaking.
For example, when Barack Obama had to debate John McCain at Old Miss in 2008, his team created an exact replica of the stage where Obama would debate McCain. "No detail was overlooked," according to a Newsweek retrospective published just after the election. Incredibly, Obama even rehearsed in the evenings because the debate would be in the evening, and this would "match his natural circadian rhythms."
This concept is nothing new. Obama was simulating the full experience. It's why actors and dancers have dress rehearsals and soldiers have military exercises.
But you don't need a stage or replica board room to prepare for your own presentation. Here's the way to do it in a stepped-down manner and get the same benefits:
Put your script or notes on a stack of books or something that will elevate them for easy viewing. At home or in a conference room, this will simulate the podium experience. Use your speaking voice as you would on stage, and imagine that you're speaking to an audience.
Keep your feet planted and stand straight. This will empower you. Stepping back and forth, slouching, shifting weight — these can convey anxiety.
Consult the notes or script as much as you need during run-throughs. Repetition will enable you to look down less often, so you can increase eye contact with your listeners.
Have the script in large type, amply spaced — or use notes. You'll be able to find your place more readily after looking at the audience. Why invite panicky moments when you lose your place or need to check a figure?
Do not memorize, unless it's very brief. Doing so will introduce a whole new dimension of anxiety. After a lot of rehearsal, you may be able to speak almost from memory, and that's fine. But if you hold yourself to a word-for-word standard, you're inviting anxiety when a phrase doesn't fall in place.
Make a place for your hands. Lightly grip either side of a straight-backed chair at home — or if it's a side chair in a conference room chair, grip the top — and then forget about your hands. They'll come up naturally to gesture at times.
Write a reminder. In large letters with a red pen, print atop your notes or script a single, important reminder. Choose well. It might be, "Speak Slowly." Or, "Make Eye Contact." Or, "Slow Down." Take it to heart just before you start speaking.
Afterward, you may hear that your presentation was better than your self-assessment. This often means the anxiety you were feeling didn't come through because you created a steady physical presence up there. Yes, you may have felt unnatural or "manufactured," but it came across as confidently in command.
Once you've developed enough confidence and a good style at the mike, the value of this rehearsal regimen declines. Moreover, you may well discover shortcuts or tips of your own. Do you have any you can share now, which you think might help others?
Daniel Kennedy is an adjunct professor within the Graduate School of Management at UC Davis, where he has taught presentation skills and public communications strategy to MBA students for more than two decades. He also coaches executives, professors, and even children in the craft of public speaking.
The Worth-Your-Time Test
Nate Eisman* recently started working for a large consulting firm after many years as an independent consultant. He called me a few days ago for some advice.
"I'm wasting a tremendous amount of time," he complained to me, "I'm in meetings all day. The only way I can get any real work done is by coming in super early and staying super late."
Nate had gone from an organization of one to an organization of several thousand and was drowning in the time suck of collaboration. He is not alone.
I recently surveyed the top 400 leaders of a 120,000 person company and found that close to 95% of them — that's 380 out of 400 — pointed to three things that wasted their time the most: unnecessary meetings, unimportant emails, and protracted PowerPoints.
Working with people takes time. And different people have different priorities. So someone may need your perspective on an issue that's important to him but not to you. Still, if he's a colleague, it's important to help. And often we want to help.
On the other hand, we've all felt Nate's pain. The question is: how can we spend time where we add the most value and let go of the rest?
We need a way to quickly and confidently identify and reduce our extraneous commitments, to know for sure whether we need to deal with something or avoid it, and to manage our own desire to be available always. I propose a little test that every commitment should pass before you agree to it. When someone comes to you with a request, ask yourself three questions:
Am I the right person?
Is this the right time?
Do I have enough information?
If the request fails the test — if the answer to any one of these questions is "no" — then don't do it. Pass it to someone else (the right person), schedule it for another time (the right time), or wait until you have the information you need (either you or someone else needs to get it).
In the last few weeks, in The Cardinal Rule of Rules and in The Mostly Unplugged Vacation I wrote about how to avoid being interrupted. But sometimes it's impossible or inappropriate to wall yourself off completely. For example, what if your boss is the person who interrupts you? Or what if you're on vacation and a critical client reaches out with a time sensitive and crucial question?
These three questions offer a clear, easy, and consistent way of knowing when to respond. So we resist the temptation to respond to everything.
If your boss asks you to do something and her request fails the test, it's not just okay - it's useful - to push back or redirect so the work is completed productively. It's not helpful to you, your boss, or your organization if you waste your time on the wrong work.
That's the irony. We try to be so available because we want to be helpful. And yet being overwhelmed with tasks — especially those we consider to be a waste of our time — is exactly what will make us unhelpful.
When we get a meeting request that doesn't pass the test, we should decline. When we're cc'd on an email that doesn't pass the test, we need to ask the sender to remove us from the list before we get caught up in the flurry of "reply all" responses. And a fifty-page presentation needs to pass the test before we read it (and even then, it's worth an email asking which are the critical pages to review).
A few weeks after sharing the three questions with Nate, I called him at his office at around 6pm to see how it was going. I guess it was going well because I never reached him. He had already gone home.
"I'm wasting a tremendous amount of time," he complained to me, "I'm in meetings all day. The only way I can get any real work done is by coming in super early and staying super late."
Nate had gone from an organization of one to an organization of several thousand and was drowning in the time suck of collaboration. He is not alone.
I recently surveyed the top 400 leaders of a 120,000 person company and found that close to 95% of them — that's 380 out of 400 — pointed to three things that wasted their time the most: unnecessary meetings, unimportant emails, and protracted PowerPoints.
Working with people takes time. And different people have different priorities. So someone may need your perspective on an issue that's important to him but not to you. Still, if he's a colleague, it's important to help. And often we want to help.
On the other hand, we've all felt Nate's pain. The question is: how can we spend time where we add the most value and let go of the rest?
We need a way to quickly and confidently identify and reduce our extraneous commitments, to know for sure whether we need to deal with something or avoid it, and to manage our own desire to be available always. I propose a little test that every commitment should pass before you agree to it. When someone comes to you with a request, ask yourself three questions:
Am I the right person?
Is this the right time?
Do I have enough information?
If the request fails the test — if the answer to any one of these questions is "no" — then don't do it. Pass it to someone else (the right person), schedule it for another time (the right time), or wait until you have the information you need (either you or someone else needs to get it).
In the last few weeks, in The Cardinal Rule of Rules and in The Mostly Unplugged Vacation I wrote about how to avoid being interrupted. But sometimes it's impossible or inappropriate to wall yourself off completely. For example, what if your boss is the person who interrupts you? Or what if you're on vacation and a critical client reaches out with a time sensitive and crucial question?
These three questions offer a clear, easy, and consistent way of knowing when to respond. So we resist the temptation to respond to everything.
If your boss asks you to do something and her request fails the test, it's not just okay - it's useful - to push back or redirect so the work is completed productively. It's not helpful to you, your boss, or your organization if you waste your time on the wrong work.
That's the irony. We try to be so available because we want to be helpful. And yet being overwhelmed with tasks — especially those we consider to be a waste of our time — is exactly what will make us unhelpful.
When we get a meeting request that doesn't pass the test, we should decline. When we're cc'd on an email that doesn't pass the test, we need to ask the sender to remove us from the list before we get caught up in the flurry of "reply all" responses. And a fifty-page presentation needs to pass the test before we read it (and even then, it's worth an email asking which are the critical pages to review).
A few weeks after sharing the three questions with Nate, I called him at his office at around 6pm to see how it was going. I guess it was going well because I never reached him. He had already gone home.
Could Your Organization Be Bipartisan?
The term "bipartisan" seems to be having a renaissance these days, particularly in Washington. Unfortunately while everyone agrees that bipartisanship is a good thing, nobody seems to know how to do it. So despite all of the dialogue, forums, campaign promises, speeches, and political theater, most issues (like health care reform, jobs creation, and climate management) are either stalemated by fundamental disagreements or pushed forward by the power of majority votes.
As we watch our political leaders struggle with the reality of bipartisan agreement, however, it might be worth thinking about the bipartisan dynamics in your own firm. In truth, every organization has factions (we don't call them "parties") that disagree about what to do or how to do it. Sometimes these factions are based on deeply held beliefs and philosophies. At other times the factions are based on personal loyalty to one senior leader vs. another; or to one "power center" vs. another (such as country vs. headquarters or function vs. field); or to one group vs. another (e.g. old-timers vs. newcomers or heritage company vs. acquired company).
No matter what the factions in your organization, one of the toughest managerial jobs — at any level — is to bring people together in a bipartisan or multi-partisan way to get things done. If bridging the gap between different factions is part of your job, here are some simple rules of thumb to keep in mind:
Start by getting consensus on what problem needs to be solved and how to sharply define it. Ask what success will look like a year from now. Test assumptions about what needs to be accomplished. Then use these initial discussions to bring people together around a compelling goal while leaving open how it will be achieved. The key is to get beyond the huge, vague goals (e.g. "we need to reform our health care system") to more narrow and specific goals (e.g. "we need to improve health care for children from ages __ to __ in the following ways while reducing overall costs.") Note: This is an example and not a suggestion!
Identify a range of solutions — the more the better. To develop these solutions, bring the different factions together for a brainstorming session — either physically or virtually. Encourage all ideas without judgment or analysis, and help people build on each other's thoughts. Working in this way transforms the various ideas from "my idea" alone into a "shared work product." For example, imagine if President Obama had held brainstorming sessions with Democrats and Republicans early on to develop a range of possible solutions to health care.
Assign bipartisan (or cross-faction) teams to flesh out and assess the different solutions. Have the teams work through the costs and benefits of the ideas and to what extent each will achieve the required goal. By getting people from different factions to actually work together, you will break down the divisions and refocus everyone on achieving goals instead of presenting positions. Again, imagine joint teams of Democrats and Republicans actually working together to develop legislative solutions.
Get some early wins to reinforce a continuing process of bipartisan achievement. Finally, while dialogue is important and critical for bipartisan agreement, real achievement is the ultimate key to success. So as soon as possible pick one or two ideas developed by joint teams that can be moved into action quickly, and use those to build momentum for further cycles of bipartisan collaboration.
Obviously there are other dynamics that constrain bipartisan collaboration in Washington and other capitals of the world; and these simple steps might not always be possible in highly polarized political environments. But if your organization has partisan divisions of various kinds, they might work for you. And who knows, they might even work in Washington!
As we watch our political leaders struggle with the reality of bipartisan agreement, however, it might be worth thinking about the bipartisan dynamics in your own firm. In truth, every organization has factions (we don't call them "parties") that disagree about what to do or how to do it. Sometimes these factions are based on deeply held beliefs and philosophies. At other times the factions are based on personal loyalty to one senior leader vs. another; or to one "power center" vs. another (such as country vs. headquarters or function vs. field); or to one group vs. another (e.g. old-timers vs. newcomers or heritage company vs. acquired company).
No matter what the factions in your organization, one of the toughest managerial jobs — at any level — is to bring people together in a bipartisan or multi-partisan way to get things done. If bridging the gap between different factions is part of your job, here are some simple rules of thumb to keep in mind:
Start by getting consensus on what problem needs to be solved and how to sharply define it. Ask what success will look like a year from now. Test assumptions about what needs to be accomplished. Then use these initial discussions to bring people together around a compelling goal while leaving open how it will be achieved. The key is to get beyond the huge, vague goals (e.g. "we need to reform our health care system") to more narrow and specific goals (e.g. "we need to improve health care for children from ages __ to __ in the following ways while reducing overall costs.") Note: This is an example and not a suggestion!
Identify a range of solutions — the more the better. To develop these solutions, bring the different factions together for a brainstorming session — either physically or virtually. Encourage all ideas without judgment or analysis, and help people build on each other's thoughts. Working in this way transforms the various ideas from "my idea" alone into a "shared work product." For example, imagine if President Obama had held brainstorming sessions with Democrats and Republicans early on to develop a range of possible solutions to health care.
Assign bipartisan (or cross-faction) teams to flesh out and assess the different solutions. Have the teams work through the costs and benefits of the ideas and to what extent each will achieve the required goal. By getting people from different factions to actually work together, you will break down the divisions and refocus everyone on achieving goals instead of presenting positions. Again, imagine joint teams of Democrats and Republicans actually working together to develop legislative solutions.
Get some early wins to reinforce a continuing process of bipartisan achievement. Finally, while dialogue is important and critical for bipartisan agreement, real achievement is the ultimate key to success. So as soon as possible pick one or two ideas developed by joint teams that can be moved into action quickly, and use those to build momentum for further cycles of bipartisan collaboration.
Obviously there are other dynamics that constrain bipartisan collaboration in Washington and other capitals of the world; and these simple steps might not always be possible in highly polarized political environments. But if your organization has partisan divisions of various kinds, they might work for you. And who knows, they might even work in Washington!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Know When to Back Down From a Challenge
3 Things to Assess Before
You Back Down
Leaders who take on huge challenges and win are lauded. But recognizing when a challenge is too daunting or risky is equally heroic. Here are three ways to evaluate whether you should step up or back down:
1. Assess the odds. You need to know what you are up against and be realistic about your chances of success. Weigh the costs against the benefits (recognizing that failure has benefits too). Don't undercount the costs.
2. Know your team. Even the best people have limits to their capabilities. Ask yourself whether your team truly has the skills to overcome the challenge.
3. Know yourself. This takes a huge dose of confidence. Be honest with yourself if you're facing something beyond your abilities.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Know When to Back Down From a Challenge" by John Baldoni.
You Back Down
Leaders who take on huge challenges and win are lauded. But recognizing when a challenge is too daunting or risky is equally heroic. Here are three ways to evaluate whether you should step up or back down:
1. Assess the odds. You need to know what you are up against and be realistic about your chances of success. Weigh the costs against the benefits (recognizing that failure has benefits too). Don't undercount the costs.
2. Know your team. Even the best people have limits to their capabilities. Ask yourself whether your team truly has the skills to overcome the challenge.
3. Know yourself. This takes a huge dose of confidence. Be honest with yourself if you're facing something beyond your abilities.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Know When to Back Down From a Challenge" by John Baldoni.
3 Ways to Keep Good Employees in a Bad Economy
3 Ways to Keep Good Employees in a Bad Economy
High performers are in high demand these days; all companies want to keep their best people while facing the intimidating task of recovery. Here are three ways to retain your competent and committed people no matter what the economy is doing:
1. Create a thriving environment. High performers want to be in a high-performance culture. Give people the opportunity — and the space — to learn and continually develop their skills.
2. Give feedback. This needs to be more than an annual or semi-annual occurrence. Give feedback often. Tell your high performers what they are doing well and how they can improve.
3. Ask for input. Companies that ask their employees for input on how to increase effectiveness not only build buy-in and commitment, they get great ideas for organizational improvements.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "How to Keep Good Employees in a Bad Economy" by Marshall Goldsmith.
High performers are in high demand these days; all companies want to keep their best people while facing the intimidating task of recovery. Here are three ways to retain your competent and committed people no matter what the economy is doing:
1. Create a thriving environment. High performers want to be in a high-performance culture. Give people the opportunity — and the space — to learn and continually develop their skills.
2. Give feedback. This needs to be more than an annual or semi-annual occurrence. Give feedback often. Tell your high performers what they are doing well and how they can improve.
3. Ask for input. Companies that ask their employees for input on how to increase effectiveness not only build buy-in and commitment, they get great ideas for organizational improvements.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "How to Keep Good Employees in a Bad Economy" by Marshall Goldsmith.
Enjoy Trying on the Way to Achieving
Enjoy Trying on the Way to Achieving
Trying something new can be daunting, especially if you fall short at first. Before you get frustrated and give up, remember that practice really does make perfect. To achieve perfection, stop focusing on it. Instead, try to enjoy the process of trying. If you want to be a great manager, you need to enjoy being a poor one long enough to get good at it. If you want to be a stellar salesperson, you need to spend time being a clumsy one first. You can achieve anything as long as you are willing to enjoy striving for it along the way.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "How Not Achieving Something Is the Key to Achieving It" by Peter Bregman.
Trying something new can be daunting, especially if you fall short at first. Before you get frustrated and give up, remember that practice really does make perfect. To achieve perfection, stop focusing on it. Instead, try to enjoy the process of trying. If you want to be a great manager, you need to enjoy being a poor one long enough to get good at it. If you want to be a stellar salesperson, you need to spend time being a clumsy one first. You can achieve anything as long as you are willing to enjoy striving for it along the way.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "How Not Achieving Something Is the Key to Achieving It" by Peter Bregman.
3 minute rule to better understand your customers
Use the Three-Minute Rule to Better Understand Your Customers
Surveys and focus groups can tell you a lot about your customers. But there are indirect analyses that can be equally revealing. Try using the three-minute rule to better understand the broader context in which your customers use and interact with your products and services. Ask what your customer is doing in the three minutes immediately before and after using your product. By doing this, you may discover an unnecessary complexity they have to overcome. Or you may identify a cross-selling opportunity if they interact with another product or service right before interacting with yours. This rule is a great way to see the big picture and identify adjacent opportunities.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "The Three-Minute Rule" by Anthony Tjan.
Surveys and focus groups can tell you a lot about your customers. But there are indirect analyses that can be equally revealing. Try using the three-minute rule to better understand the broader context in which your customers use and interact with your products and services. Ask what your customer is doing in the three minutes immediately before and after using your product. By doing this, you may discover an unnecessary complexity they have to overcome. Or you may identify a cross-selling opportunity if they interact with another product or service right before interacting with yours. This rule is a great way to see the big picture and identify adjacent opportunities.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "The Three-Minute Rule" by Anthony Tjan.
Ask for immediate Feedback
Ask for Immediate Feedback
Much of the feedback we get at annual, semi-annual, or even quarterly reviews can feel stale and outdated. Feedback is most useful when it is frequent, fair, and quickly follows the task or occasion you're curious about. Twitter's format — immediate, short, and to-the-point — is one way to give on-the-spot feedback. After a presentation, ask your audience to send feedback to your Twitter handle. Or ask your team to tweet you the answer to a question such as "What's the one thing I could do to make your job easier?" Remember that Twitter is public, so if you don't want the rest of the world in on your messages, consider a private microblogging tool such as Yammer or Rypple.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Use Twitter to Collect Micro-Feedback" by Jeanne C Meister and Karie Willyerd.
Much of the feedback we get at annual, semi-annual, or even quarterly reviews can feel stale and outdated. Feedback is most useful when it is frequent, fair, and quickly follows the task or occasion you're curious about. Twitter's format — immediate, short, and to-the-point — is one way to give on-the-spot feedback. After a presentation, ask your audience to send feedback to your Twitter handle. Or ask your team to tweet you the answer to a question such as "What's the one thing I could do to make your job easier?" Remember that Twitter is public, so if you don't want the rest of the world in on your messages, consider a private microblogging tool such as Yammer or Rypple.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Use Twitter to Collect Micro-Feedback" by Jeanne C Meister and Karie Willyerd.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
How to Battle Job Boredom
How to Battle Job Boredom
It's easy to blame your company, your boss, or your colleagues when you feel bored with your job. But it's up to you to turn things around. Here are three ways to stop the boredom:
1. Turn off autopilot. Think about new ways of doing work and try new approaches to what may seem like old problems.
2. See change as possible. When you first started, you likely saw things that needed to change. After a few years, and perhaps a few setbacks, you started to see change as too difficult. Remind yourself that change is possible, even if it's slow, and vow to find ways to make the impossible possible.
3. Renew your leadership agenda. Think about what you wanted to accomplish during your first 90 days on the job, before you got bored. Renew your energy and commitment to make change happen.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Maybe You're the Reason Your Job Is Boring" by Susan Cramm.
It's easy to blame your company, your boss, or your colleagues when you feel bored with your job. But it's up to you to turn things around. Here are three ways to stop the boredom:
1. Turn off autopilot. Think about new ways of doing work and try new approaches to what may seem like old problems.
2. See change as possible. When you first started, you likely saw things that needed to change. After a few years, and perhaps a few setbacks, you started to see change as too difficult. Remind yourself that change is possible, even if it's slow, and vow to find ways to make the impossible possible.
3. Renew your leadership agenda. Think about what you wanted to accomplish during your first 90 days on the job, before you got bored. Renew your energy and commitment to make change happen.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Maybe You're the Reason Your Job Is Boring" by Susan Cramm.
Be a Better Leader by Building Your Self-Awareness
Be a Better Leader by Building Your Self-Awareness
Too many leaders think they are adept at everything. Self-aware leaders know that they can't possibly have the skills and knowledge to do it all. Instead, they are dynamic, adaptable, and emotionally intelligent. Here are three ways to build your own self-awareness:
1. Observe your own performance. Take note of the areas you excel in and those that need improvement. Share these observations with your team.
2. Know what you don't know. Accept that there are areas you have little expertise in. Seek out a team that can help you fill in the gaps.
3. Monitor your impact on others. Because so much of work is about relationships, knowing how you affect others is a critical leadership skill. Manage your emotional responses and look for cues that you're building relationships, not destroying them.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "The Mark of a Great Leader" by Marshall Goldsmith.
Too many leaders think they are adept at everything. Self-aware leaders know that they can't possibly have the skills and knowledge to do it all. Instead, they are dynamic, adaptable, and emotionally intelligent. Here are three ways to build your own self-awareness:
1. Observe your own performance. Take note of the areas you excel in and those that need improvement. Share these observations with your team.
2. Know what you don't know. Accept that there are areas you have little expertise in. Seek out a team that can help you fill in the gaps.
3. Monitor your impact on others. Because so much of work is about relationships, knowing how you affect others is a critical leadership skill. Manage your emotional responses and look for cues that you're building relationships, not destroying them.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "The Mark of a Great Leader" by Marshall Goldsmith.
4 Things Your Employees Want from You
4 Things Your Employees Want from You
Figuring out what your people want can feel like an intricate puzzle, especially when different employees require different things. Here are four things most employees need to be successful:
1. Role clarity. Tell your employees what their roles are, what you want them to achieve, and what the rules are for getting there.
2. Autonomy. People want something interesting to work on and they want to be trusted to do it well.
3. Accountability. Holding people accountable is not just about being fair. It also sends a message about what is and what isn't acceptable. This is critical for employees who are trying to figure out how to succeed.
4. Praise. Everyone wants to be recognized when they've done something right. You can motivate employees by highlighting their strengths and not harping on their weaknesses.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Eight Things Your Employees Want From You" by Melissa Raffoni.
Figuring out what your people want can feel like an intricate puzzle, especially when different employees require different things. Here are four things most employees need to be successful:
1. Role clarity. Tell your employees what their roles are, what you want them to achieve, and what the rules are for getting there.
2. Autonomy. People want something interesting to work on and they want to be trusted to do it well.
3. Accountability. Holding people accountable is not just about being fair. It also sends a message about what is and what isn't acceptable. This is critical for employees who are trying to figure out how to succeed.
4. Praise. Everyone wants to be recognized when they've done something right. You can motivate employees by highlighting their strengths and not harping on their weaknesses.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Eight Things Your Employees Want From You" by Melissa Raffoni.
3 Ways to Overcome Barriers to Change
3 Ways to Overcome Barriers to Change
People often react to change by resisting it, and smart change agents know that being aggressive only makes people increasingly defensive. Here are three ways to move around the defenses and closer to your goal:
1. Find another way in. If your change is rebuffed, try another tactic. Find out what matters to the people whose support you need and shift the focus of the change to take their preferences and goals into account.
2. Befriend people closest to your resisters. Make friends with administrative assistants, direct reports, or other people who spend time with them. These relationships often yield useful information and help get your ideas heard.
3. Go bottom up. If senior management is resisting your idea, start from the bottom of the organization and build grassroots support. With enough backing, you may be able to convince leaders to reconsider.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Four Ways to Attack the Castle — And Get a Job, Get Ahead, Make Change" by Rosabeth Moss Kanter.
People often react to change by resisting it, and smart change agents know that being aggressive only makes people increasingly defensive. Here are three ways to move around the defenses and closer to your goal:
1. Find another way in. If your change is rebuffed, try another tactic. Find out what matters to the people whose support you need and shift the focus of the change to take their preferences and goals into account.
2. Befriend people closest to your resisters. Make friends with administrative assistants, direct reports, or other people who spend time with them. These relationships often yield useful information and help get your ideas heard.
3. Go bottom up. If senior management is resisting your idea, start from the bottom of the organization and build grassroots support. With enough backing, you may be able to convince leaders to reconsider.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Four Ways to Attack the Castle — And Get a Job, Get Ahead, Make Change" by Rosabeth Moss Kanter.
3 Ways to Keep Your Brain in Shape
3 Ways to Keep Your Brain in Shape
The notion that we lose brain cells as we age has thankfully been disproved. But to continue to harness your brain power on the job, you need to keep your brain cells in good shape. Here are three ways to make sure your brain stays healthy:
1. Keep working. Most modern jobs involve multi-layered thinking, problem-solving, and socializing, all of which are good exercises for the brain.
2. Seek out new ideas and people. Get out of your thinking comfort zone and search for new ideas and people that rattle established brain patterns and challenge you to think in new ways.
3. Breathe. Like the heart, the brain needs oxygen and blood flow. The current star in brain science research is exercise. So get up and move around.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Harnessing Your Brain Power" by Barbara Strauch.
The notion that we lose brain cells as we age has thankfully been disproved. But to continue to harness your brain power on the job, you need to keep your brain cells in good shape. Here are three ways to make sure your brain stays healthy:
1. Keep working. Most modern jobs involve multi-layered thinking, problem-solving, and socializing, all of which are good exercises for the brain.
2. Seek out new ideas and people. Get out of your thinking comfort zone and search for new ideas and people that rattle established brain patterns and challenge you to think in new ways.
3. Breathe. Like the heart, the brain needs oxygen and blood flow. The current star in brain science research is exercise. So get up and move around.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Harnessing Your Brain Power" by Barbara Strauch.
Elevate Performance without Waiting for a Crisis
Elevate Performance without
Waiting for a Crisis
Crises often motivate people to achieve new levels of performance. Since you likely don't want to operate in crisis-mode, how can you access the hidden reserves in your company without waiting for a disaster? Tap into the three factors always present in a crisis response:
1. Urgency. People feel motivated when they know time matters. Set clear goals and clear consequences if the goals are not achieved. Don't run fire drills, however; people know false urgency when they see it.
2. Empathy. People want to feel emotionally connected to what they're doing. Show employees how their work will matter to others — their coworkers or your customers.
3. Innovation. In a crisis, there's no time or patience for red tape. Remove unnecessary organizational obstacles to being innovative. Get rid of the time-consuming processes that would be the first to go in a crisis.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Using Crisis Response Factors in the Absence of a Crisis" by Ron Ashkenas.
Waiting for a Crisis
Crises often motivate people to achieve new levels of performance. Since you likely don't want to operate in crisis-mode, how can you access the hidden reserves in your company without waiting for a disaster? Tap into the three factors always present in a crisis response:
1. Urgency. People feel motivated when they know time matters. Set clear goals and clear consequences if the goals are not achieved. Don't run fire drills, however; people know false urgency when they see it.
2. Empathy. People want to feel emotionally connected to what they're doing. Show employees how their work will matter to others — their coworkers or your customers.
3. Innovation. In a crisis, there's no time or patience for red tape. Remove unnecessary organizational obstacles to being innovative. Get rid of the time-consuming processes that would be the first to go in a crisis.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Using Crisis Response Factors in the Absence of a Crisis" by Ron Ashkenas.
2 Questions to Ask before Diversifying
2 Questions to Ask before Diversifying
Believe it or not, some innovations are too innovative. Before you pursue the next big thing, ask these two questions to determine whether your core business will embrace or reject the new product or service:
1. Does the new innovation conflict with your fundamental business model? If so, stop. Undermining your business model for the sake of a new innovation wastes money and valuable management time.
2. Is the new innovation closely related to the five dimensions of diversification? These dimensions are: customer, distribution channel, product/service, geography, and competency. If the new product or service is closely related to many or most of these dimensions, then pursuing it will be less risky.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Is This Innovation Too Disruptive for My Firm?" by John Sviokla.
Believe it or not, some innovations are too innovative. Before you pursue the next big thing, ask these two questions to determine whether your core business will embrace or reject the new product or service:
1. Does the new innovation conflict with your fundamental business model? If so, stop. Undermining your business model for the sake of a new innovation wastes money and valuable management time.
2. Is the new innovation closely related to the five dimensions of diversification? These dimensions are: customer, distribution channel, product/service, geography, and competency. If the new product or service is closely related to many or most of these dimensions, then pursuing it will be less risky.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Is This Innovation Too Disruptive for My Firm?" by John Sviokla.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Turn the Flaw into a Distinguishing Feature
Turn a Flaw into a Distinguishing Feature
A hotel with no AC, mosquito-filled rooms, and no room service might appear to be flawed — unless the hotel is an eco-tourism destination. Then those flaws become part of the "eco" experience. Many successful products and services sacrifice one feature (performance or style) in the name of another (simplicity, affordability, or convenience). Many customers appreciate these trade-offs. Next time you are worried about your product's flaw, think about how that imperfection can be transformed into a distinguishing feature. Find customers who appreciate what they get because of that flaw: low cost, an easy-to-use product, or a unique experience.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Featuring the Flaw" by Scott Anthony.
A hotel with no AC, mosquito-filled rooms, and no room service might appear to be flawed — unless the hotel is an eco-tourism destination. Then those flaws become part of the "eco" experience. Many successful products and services sacrifice one feature (performance or style) in the name of another (simplicity, affordability, or convenience). Many customers appreciate these trade-offs. Next time you are worried about your product's flaw, think about how that imperfection can be transformed into a distinguishing feature. Find customers who appreciate what they get because of that flaw: low cost, an easy-to-use product, or a unique experience.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Featuring the Flaw" by Scott Anthony.
Friday, April 9, 2010
3 Tips for Raising an Ethical Issue
3 Tips for Raising an Ethical Issue
Disagreeing with a colleague about whether to raise prices or when to launch a new product is often easier than confronting a colleague about an ethical issue. Here are three tips for raising the issue in a non-combative and productive way:
1. Treat the conflict as a business issue. Present the issue as you would any other business issue: provide sufficient detail, tailor your message to the audience, and deliver it in an appropriate context.
2. Recognize that it's part of your job. Ethical issues may feel like a distraction from "real" work, but identifying, thinking through, and acting on them are part of everyone's job.
3. Be yourself. Don't assume that you have to be confrontational, assertive, or courageous to bring up an ethical issue. The best approach is to be yourself and use a style you are comfortable with.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Keeping Your Colleagues Honest" by Mary C. Gentile.
Disagreeing with a colleague about whether to raise prices or when to launch a new product is often easier than confronting a colleague about an ethical issue. Here are three tips for raising the issue in a non-combative and productive way:
1. Treat the conflict as a business issue. Present the issue as you would any other business issue: provide sufficient detail, tailor your message to the audience, and deliver it in an appropriate context.
2. Recognize that it's part of your job. Ethical issues may feel like a distraction from "real" work, but identifying, thinking through, and acting on them are part of everyone's job.
3. Be yourself. Don't assume that you have to be confrontational, assertive, or courageous to bring up an ethical issue. The best approach is to be yourself and use a style you are comfortable with.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Keeping Your Colleagues Honest" by Mary C. Gentile.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
4 Tools to Keep star Performers during Tough times
4 Tools to Keep Star Performers
During Tough Times
With unemployment rates so high, you may think that your employees have no option but to stay with your company. That is a dangerous assumption.
As we move into recovery, employees — especially star performers — are likely to start weighing their options. Use these four tools to keep your stars where they are:
Praise. It is the most inexpensive and underutilized tool out there. When your stars do something right, say thank you.
Challenging assignments. Give your top performers the opportunity to work on new projects that build their skills and give them a chance to shine.
Development opportunities. Find inexpensive ways to deepen your stars' skills such as providing mentors or opportunities to teach others.
Non-monetary perks. Most top performers crave things that are intangible and easy to provide, such as flexibility, better work/life balance, or more autonomy.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "How to Keep Your Star Performers in Trying Times" by Amy Gallo.
During Tough Times
With unemployment rates so high, you may think that your employees have no option but to stay with your company. That is a dangerous assumption.
As we move into recovery, employees — especially star performers — are likely to start weighing their options. Use these four tools to keep your stars where they are:
Praise. It is the most inexpensive and underutilized tool out there. When your stars do something right, say thank you.
Challenging assignments. Give your top performers the opportunity to work on new projects that build their skills and give them a chance to shine.
Development opportunities. Find inexpensive ways to deepen your stars' skills such as providing mentors or opportunities to teach others.
Non-monetary perks. Most top performers crave things that are intangible and easy to provide, such as flexibility, better work/life balance, or more autonomy.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "How to Keep Your Star Performers in Trying Times" by Amy Gallo.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
3 Ways to Help Your company Snap Out of It
3 Ways to Help Your Company
Snap Out of It
Organizations, like people, can get set in their ways. Relying on established ways of working and solving problems not only stifles innovation but can lead to a lack of perspective and moments of delusion. Here are three ways to help your organization snap out of unhelpful patterns:
1. Challenge rationalizations. Every organization has shared explanations for doing things the way they do. Poke holes in those rationalizations and ask the question: why is this standard practice?
2. Expose faulty either/or thinking. False dichotomies can set up irrational choices about how to work. Don't let A or B be the only options, propose C or D as a new way of working.
3. Focus on the long-term. Emphasis on the short term can trap you into current practice. Help your colleagues pull back, see the big picture, and understand not only short-term gains but long-term consequences.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Keeping Your Colleagues Honest" by Mary C. Gentile.
Snap Out of It
Organizations, like people, can get set in their ways. Relying on established ways of working and solving problems not only stifles innovation but can lead to a lack of perspective and moments of delusion. Here are three ways to help your organization snap out of unhelpful patterns:
1. Challenge rationalizations. Every organization has shared explanations for doing things the way they do. Poke holes in those rationalizations and ask the question: why is this standard practice?
2. Expose faulty either/or thinking. False dichotomies can set up irrational choices about how to work. Don't let A or B be the only options, propose C or D as a new way of working.
3. Focus on the long-term. Emphasis on the short term can trap you into current practice. Help your colleagues pull back, see the big picture, and understand not only short-term gains but long-term consequences.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Keeping Your Colleagues Honest" by Mary C. Gentile.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Know When to Confront Someone
Know When to Confront Someone
When someone shows up late to a meeting or makes a comment that makes you uncomfortable, it can be difficult to decide if it's a big enough deal to address or if you should let it go. In situations like these, try using the "rule of three." The first time someone does something that makes you uncomfortable, take notice of your discomfort. The second time, acknowledge that the first time was not an isolated incident and that there may be a pattern emerging. The third time it's time to speak up. Tell the person that you've noticed something three times and you want to discuss it with him. This simple rule can both help you determine what's worth raising and hold you back from jumping on every single issue.
click here
When someone shows up late to a meeting or makes a comment that makes you uncomfortable, it can be difficult to decide if it's a big enough deal to address or if you should let it go. In situations like these, try using the "rule of three." The first time someone does something that makes you uncomfortable, take notice of your discomfort. The second time, acknowledge that the first time was not an isolated incident and that there may be a pattern emerging. The third time it's time to speak up. Tell the person that you've noticed something three times and you want to discuss it with him. This simple rule can both help you determine what's worth raising and hold you back from jumping on every single issue.
click here
Take an Imagination-Driven Approach to Management
Take an Imagination-Driven Approach
to Management
Measurement is critical to understanding current and past performance, but data can only tell you so much. Measurement can fall short when you need to predict the future. Many companies have been blindsided by unpredictable changes in the market: see GM and Motorola. To envision the future, use your imagination. Employ qualitative insights, inferences, and logic to help you determine what the future might be like and how your company can adjust, prepare, and be proactive. Think beyond what can be proven with data and use hypotheses and deduction to determine likely scenarios.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Management by Imagination" by Roger Martin.
to Management
Measurement is critical to understanding current and past performance, but data can only tell you so much. Measurement can fall short when you need to predict the future. Many companies have been blindsided by unpredictable changes in the market: see GM and Motorola. To envision the future, use your imagination. Employ qualitative insights, inferences, and logic to help you determine what the future might be like and how your company can adjust, prepare, and be proactive. Think beyond what can be proven with data and use hypotheses and deduction to determine likely scenarios.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "Management by Imagination" by Roger Martin.
steps to Addressing the Uncertainity of Silence
3 Steps for Addressing the
Uncertainty of Silence
Silence is the worst kind of feedback — it is ambiguous and generic. When you don't know why someone hasn't called you back or responded to your email, it is all too easy to assume the worst. Here are three steps to take if you're getting the silent treatment:
1.
Accept that you don't know. Acknowledge that you don't know what the silence really means. Resist the temptation to fill in the blanks with your own insecurities.
2.
Ask for clarity. Reach out to the person and ask him to tell you why he's not responding.
3.
Believe the answer. Whatever the response — he was too busy, he forgot — don't read between the lines. Accept it as truth and move on.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "How to Handle Silence, the Worst Kind of Feedback" by Peter Bregman.
Uncertainty of Silence
Silence is the worst kind of feedback — it is ambiguous and generic. When you don't know why someone hasn't called you back or responded to your email, it is all too easy to assume the worst. Here are three steps to take if you're getting the silent treatment:
1.
Accept that you don't know. Acknowledge that you don't know what the silence really means. Resist the temptation to fill in the blanks with your own insecurities.
2.
Ask for clarity. Reach out to the person and ask him to tell you why he's not responding.
3.
Believe the answer. Whatever the response — he was too busy, he forgot — don't read between the lines. Accept it as truth and move on.
Today's Management Tip was adapted from "How to Handle Silence, the Worst Kind of Feedback" by Peter Bregman.
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