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Archive for July, 2008

Vote/suggest a new tagline for Leadership Turn

Friday, July 25th, 2008

Post from Leadership Turn

As long-term readers know, I’ve changed both the tagline and design of Leadership Turn since I took it over last year—unfortunately, I couldn’t change the name. I say that because neither I, nor anyone I’ve discussed it with, can figure out what it’s supposed to mean. But that’s OK, the world of blog names runs the gamut and mine happens to lean to the esoteric side of the scale.

Currently, the tagline is “Leaders DO—and it’s your turn.” I came up with that when I moved the blog away from classic leadership content and more to a discussion of leadership in action—or out of it as the case may be—but I still think it’s a dumb tagline.

Being a strong believer in the “ask/hire people smarter than yourself” school of thought I asked Eric Eggertson of CommonSensePR; here are his suggestions,

  • Keys to earning trust and building relationships
  • Earning trust, building relationships
  • Making things happen
  • The road to achievement
  • From inspiration to results
  • Being a catalyst
  • Harnessing team potential
  • Seize the future
  • Inspire and achieve
  • Managing attitude and effort

I came up with

  • Seize the initiative

Now I’m asking for your help. Please click ‘comments‘ and vote for your favorite OR offer up something else.

(Argh, I’m going to be really embarrassed if no one votes!)

Your comments—priceless

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Miki’s Rules to Live by 18

Friday, July 25th, 2008

Image credit: Zela CC license

Everyone I know is struggling with time management issues.

One of the biggest time management caveats is to prioritize.

I’m happy to say that I learned a lot about prioritization as a result of my procrastination.

And one of the things I learned is now a lynchpin of my time management and my 18th rule.

Prioritize: why do today what doesn’t need to be done at all?

A bit of explanation. This doesn’t refer to that trip to the gym that you’re trying to avoid, nor to the time you set aside to read, think or daydream.

It does refer to all the busy work that we add to our already overcrowded lives; all the stuff that we convince ourselves must be done to keep the sky from falling.

Think about it.

CandidProf: teaching is leading and leading means work

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

CandidProf is a Professor of Physics and Astronomy at a state university. He’ll be sharing his thoughts and experience teaching today’s students anonymously every Thursday—anonymously because that’s the only way he can write really candid posts.

Last week I wrote about what is involved to be a good teacher. What I described takes a lot out of me.  It means that for every hour that I am in lecture, there are several hours outside of lecture associated with the class.  Every now and then, someone in the state legislature points fingers at the college faculty saying that we are overpaid because we don’t teach 40 hours per week.  A full load is considered only 5 classes per semester.  Depending upon the institution, some of that requirement is met by mentoring graduate students, and some is met by research in lieu of lectures.  But, that doesn’t look like much.  It doesn’t look like much, that is, until you look what some of us put into what we do.growth.jpg

For us, this isn’t just a job. It is what we do.  I feel responsible for my students.  I have dozens of students who sign up for the class expecting to learn something.  I feel that I am letting them down unless I give my all.  So, that is what I do.  And, that is what makes me successful.

Teaching is leading students.  You lead them to learning.  You can’t force the knowledge and understanding into them. You have to lead them to where they can learn.

Good leaders realize that leadership doesn’t stop at the end of the work day.  Sometimes, the leader has to put in extra hours just like everyone else.  As I see it, how can you actually be leading if you are not working as hard as those you are trying to lead?

What do you think?
Is teaching too easy?
Is compensation fair? High? Low?

Your comments—priceless

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Image credit: ajmac CC license

Idiocy isn’t illegal

Thursday, July 24th, 2008

Image credit: bluegum CC license

One of the things that RampUp does for its startup clients is help implement our unique approach to awarding stock options. The original methodology was conceived by RampUp’s angel Al Negrin for his own startups and we’re currently in the process of turning the consulting service into a software program called Option Sanity™.

Among all the neat things that Option Sanity™ does is track award dates and provide an audit trail that discourages backdating.

It also provides the intelligence necessary to avoid the level of idiocy present in TeleTech Holdings’ restatement of 12 years’ worth of financials dating back to 1996.

Yup, 12 years of misdated stock options, but no misconduct!

“If we eliminate misconduct, we find ourselves in the land of cluelessness, sloppiness and ineptitude… There were other goofy mistakes, like recording option grants for folks who were no longer on the payroll…And the firm’s options accounting treated some consultants like employees.

As in many of these options messes, the compensation committee’s use of “unanimous written consents” instead of real meetings (and befuddlement over who had authority to make grants) led to massive confusion about the dates on which options were officially granted. The investigators had to reconstruct the circumstances behind every grant to figure out the “appropriate” date (and hence the real exercise price) for each one. The company admits that some dates “could not be determined with certainty.”

All of which goes to prove Hanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

What do you think?

Wordless Wednesday: bad corporate culture

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

Image credit: thadz CC license

Check our my other WW: leading a global business

Wordless Wednesday: leading a global business

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

Post from Leadership Turn  Image credit: konr4d CC license

business_labyrinth.jpg

Don’t miss my other WW: bad corporate culture

Your comments—priceless

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Starbucks proves that leadership can even overcome bad management

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

Post from Leadership Turn  Image credit: emsago  CC license

By Wes Ball, author of The Alpha Factor – a revolutionary new look at what really creates market dominance and self-sustaining success. Read all of Wes’ posts here.

starbucks_cups.jpgIf you’re alive, you’ve probably been watching the drama being played out at Starbucks.  Hundreds of stores are slated to close across the country, and customers ranging from local neighbors to business owners to the mayors of cities are calling to lobby for their local store.

Starbucks management claim that they “over expanded,” and that has caught up with them as they experience the same economic downturn that is haunting everyone else.   That is certainly the case, but there is something even more significant being displayed here: the power of an Alpha company.

Alpha companies are the leaders of customer expectations in a product or service category.  They define what it means to be “good.”  Everyone else has to either emulate or overcome them to establish themselves as acceptable.  They accomplish that by driving emotional needs fulfillment ever higher to “self-satisfaction” and “significance.” 

One of the benefits of making yourself this kind of company is that you have a lot more margin for error when you really blow it.

Not since Coca-Cola nearly immolated itself with “New Coke” in the 1980s has there been such a customer response as we are seeing for Starbucks.   Customers saved Coca-Cola from disaster.  They are trying to help Starbucks in the same way.  What a testimony for leadership over management.

Cost-side management has really been the cause of the problem.  What was forgotten was that cost-side management could never have created this kind of customer response.  Only revenue-side management (which is the focus of leadership vs. management) could do this.

Luckily, Starbucks has been given a gift by its customers.  I hope that it recognizes the true cause of its decline is a cost-side focus and uses this time to re-focus upon the customer experience that defined new experiential expectations for a coffee shop.

How will you react when your local Starbucks closes?

Your comments—priceless

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The Internet: silver bullet or lead?

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008

I’ve written a number of posts over time both here and at Leadership Turn about how turning off, unwiring and giving yourself the freedom and time to think—letting your mind wander freely—will juice innovation and spark productivity.

When most everyone you know is wired to the hilt and acts as if their world will end if any little wire goes astray you start to feel like a fish looking for water in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

But it turns out that I’m not alone in my concerns that the Net is dumbing us down and innovation is being killed by constant noise.

Yesterday, Soul Shelter posed the question, “What if the Internet poses a threat to the cultivation of a rich, reflective inner life? What if Internet-mentality endangers Art—its creation, its place in our culture, and our ability to appreciate it?—or the cultivation of real knowledge?” and reviewed these books.

The review also mentions Mark Bauerlein’s The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future and an article by Nicholas Carr in the July/August issue of Atlantic Monthly, Is Google Making us Stoopid? with the subtitle: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains .

Pick up any of the books; click the link to read the Atlantic article; at the very least read Soul Shelter.

Then, if your brain can still focus and think, consider the real truths that are presented.

How wired are you?

Image credit: Angel-13 CC license

Bad leaders avoid the stove

Monday, July 21st, 2008

Post from Leadership Turn  Image credit: Gather No Dust

jeff_scott.pngJeff Scott is the Library Director for the City of Casa Grande Public Library in Casa Grande, Arizona, and as president of the Pinal County Library Federation, a consortium of 13 public libraries, he helps guide a budget of over $3 million for the City and County Libraries. A technology advocate in a rural area, he developed the first free wireless hotspot in Pinal County and experiments with e-books and technology for the library users. You can find some of his writing at Gather No Dust, and at MCLC Tech Talk.

When we talk about leadership, we often speak of being innovative, having a vision. When we talk about management, we talk about leading teams and change management. Too often, leaders and managers are afraid to make changes or have a firm vision. There is a reason behind that, they have common sense. When you place your hand on the hot stove you get burned. In the future, you know not to do it.

Those who are innovative know that they are going to get burned, but they do it anyway.

I remember watching NFL films about the kickoff teams. These teams run downfield as fast as they can hurling themselves against a virtual brick wall of people. It is the equivalent of getting in a car accident every kick-off. One of the players was asked, “Don’t you get scared of doing that every time?” His reply, “Of course I am scared, but I do it anyway. Courage is being afraid, but going anyway.

I learned a lot from that when I became a manager. I know there are projects that are going to be very beneficial, but after a certain number of changes and innovations, you begin to learn who is going to oppose you and by how much. What happens over time is that you avoid conflict in those areas. You are too afraid to make the change because you don’t want to deal with the consequences. This is bad. This is probably the number one reason things don’t get done in an organization.

How do avoid this trap? This is what is commonly referred to as mitigating risk. We know what is going to happen when we make this decision. You will anger some people, please others and the end result may be positive or negative based on perspective. Knowing ahead of time which burners will launch on the stove will lead to avoid being burned. Attempting to get ahead of the curve and realize the hot points will save your bacon. It will also allow space for failure.

When you make a mistake, everyone will know how and why and what you learned to avoid it again.

How do you handle your hot stoves?

Your comments—priceless

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Interviewing idiocy

Monday, July 21st, 2008

Image credit: imjstudios CC license

I read an interesting column from “someone who believes firmly in the discipline of changing jobs on a regular basis, I have learned the hard way not to be flip about such cherished rituals as group cake for the dearly departing. Newcomers who try to change the existing script often don’t realize how much damage they may inflict –particularly to themselves.”

  • From human interaction—“I was accustomed to full-knuckle brawls over everything from the number of creamers to put in a mug of coffee to the company’s strategic direction, but this lot never directly confronted one another—and certainly never the boss;”
  • to handling staff—“When it was time to get the low-down from some of my new staffers, I popped around and asked them to come to my office for a chat. I was quickly informed that the accepted practice is to use a special meeting request program to communicate about such matters. Furthermore, the manager is supposed to go to the cubicle of the individual—not the other way around;”
  • to dress—“Coming from an industry where…it was necessary to always be dressed in full business attire…my residual formality is perceived as an unwillingness to join the group and be part of their tradition”

made me wonder what the heck went on during the interview.

this isn’t a me-focused Millennial or even a near-new grad—she was hired as a manager.

Read the article and you tell me who more richly deserves the new-hire dummy award,

  • the manager who hired someone so obviously not a fit for the company culture; or
  • the candidate who didn’t consider the culture before accepting, assuming that it’s always a problem, but never hers.

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