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Archive for June, 2011

mY generation: Recurring Meeting

Sunday, June 12th, 2011

See all mY generation posts here.


Quotable Quotes: Success

Sunday, June 12th, 2011

5783814472_46418d3a63Sometimes Quotable Quotes focuses on a person, sometimes an idea and sometimes on a word. The problem is that certain words keep coming to mind, which is what happened today when I focused on “success.”

As I collected quotes I realized some were familiar enough that I must have used them in the past, but I chose the ones I liked best and started to organize them for you.

But just in case, I thought I would check; good thing I did. The first Quotable Quotes: Success was December, 2009 and the second was January this year. That wouldn’t have mattered, but nearly everything I chose I had used previously.

The old posts are worth taking a look at and here are three new entries.

Mark Victor Hansen reminds us that there is no best time to start something, except now, “Don’t wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.”

Many people get excited because of an external event or person, but Fred Shero offers a better way, “Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must first set yourself on fire.”

I really like this final thought and I have to thank Emily White for sharing it with me.

“Well behaved women rarely make history.” Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

As for the image, I couldn’t resist. It just goes to show that the things that are most important when you are young are the same things important as you grow old.

Flickr image credit: Undertow851

Expand Your Mind: Fashion, Innovation and Entrepreneurs

Saturday, June 11th, 2011

No, Kim Kardashian does not figure in any way in this post. Actually, I’ve never seen her, know almost nothing about her and have no interest in changing that. But I am going to introduce you to some very cool people and their fashion-connected innovations.

But first, something for all those who were ever forced to change not only their job, but their entire career.

What if you had the coolest, most awesome job in the world and your company closed, eliminating your position? Worse, what if it was the only company in that business? What would you do?

Next up is David Barton, a five foot, five inch powerhouse who created and runs the coolest gyms on the planet. (If I’m wrong about that you can correct me in comments.)

Every wonder who profits from the millions of toys that are given away in cereal boxes and places like Carl’s Jr? Meet George Namkungm founder of Namkung Promotions Inc.; the same guy who traded in the plush lifestyle those toys gave him to create a way to feed lunch five days a week to 15,000 children.

Innovation can also be turned on ones-self. What kind of career would you create for yourself if you were a six foot tall fashionista? Image-maker, of course, which is exactly what Rachel Johnson did, only she styles celebrity athletes, instead of the glitterati.

Ever wondered what else clothes can do besides the obvious?

On the high tech side there is wearable there are clothes that act as sunscreen and “anti-odor” polo shirts.

On the low tech side is something far cooler. A mom who wanted to give her blind daughter access to the fun of cool slogans on tees found 3-D embroidery and connected with the right company. The result is Braille-A-Wear—check it out.

This final link doesn’t address entrepreneurs or innovation, but it does take a look at the flip-side of an age old fashion dilemma that every woman knows—and it’s hilarious. Enjoy!

Image credit:  MykReeve on flickr

If the Shoe Fits: the Startup Social Contract

Friday, June 10th, 2011

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

“Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for ’tis better to be alone than in bad company.” –George Washington

3829103264_9cb64b9c62_mFor early stage companies (and for all well-run private, Pre-IPO or Pre-Acquisition firms), the stock awarded to employees and the executive team is a form of “social contract” that promises them unusually high “return” for their risk, hard work, “sweat investment” and belief in the company.

The unstated social contract goes something like this:

I will initially forego a higher salary and cash compensation, in lieu of stock options that will increase in value at a faster rate than possible elsewhere, and will “return” more than the forfeited cash compensation might have, over time.

This is both an investment risk approach (“Do I believe the company’s product or service can win in the marketplace?”) and a simple ROI calculation (“Is the salary/cash compensation I forfeit going to be made-up (and then some) in a reasonable amount of time?”)

Because I am now an “owner” (“investor”) in this company (seeking to boost stock value. i.e. company value), I presumably have strong incentive to help the company thrive.

This includes being diligent and helping avoid risk, helping to find and fix problems everywhere, as well as going above and beyond my “job description” to help the company thrive and grow. I am super-diligent and respect and protect the company’s assets, reputation and product/service quality.  I treat this as “my” company.

In short, as an owner-employee (at any level), I understand that I have to “have the company’s back” and that others in the company “have my back.” We all watch-out for one another.  Our stock positions fairly and accurately reflect our contributions and risk “investments” we’ve made in this venture.

If the workers and/or the exec team come to disrespect, disbelieve or ignore this social contract, the company is lost.

Option Sanity ratifies the social contract

Come visit Option Sanity for an easy-to-understand, simple-to-implement stock process.  It’s so easy a CEO can do it.

Warning
Do not attempt to use Option Sanity™ without a strong commitment to business planning, financial controls, honesty, ethics, and “doing the right thing.” Use only as directed.
Users of Option Sanity may experience sudden increases in team cohesion and worker satisfaction. In cases where team productivity, retention and company success is greater than typical, expect media interest and invitations as keynote speaker.

Flickr image credit: Kevin Spencer

Entrepreneur: Thinking Culture

Thursday, June 9th, 2011

270663_a_good_time_to_start_somethingLast week “Ben” wrote me in response to my answer on Quora.

Hi Miki,

I saw your post (on quora) and was wondering if you can help me out. I’m starting an online business and I’m working with a great developer but is requesting a large potion of future earnings (profit). Let me be honest, he is the heart of the project and it was not easy to find him… (so i’m happy).

We are still at the beginning – so no profits are coming in yet but we can see that the business has potential to really make it.

He is barely charging me for the work he is doing now but i still would like to work on a smart package that will keep him in the game for a long time.

We emailed a bit and then started chatting (he is overseas) and, with Ben’s permission, I want to share our last two conversations, because they illustrate why it is so important to do culture from the start.

The first part of our conversation addressed the importance of finding out exactly what the developer meant by “earnings.” I warned Ben that there are many ways of figuring earnings, which means that the number can be easily manipulated, so it was crucial that they jointly decide on exactly what was meant.

Then I asked about culture, because compensation, especially equity, should reflect and support the values and culture of the company. Here is a shortened version of the conversation.

Miki: Have you thought about the culture you want in the company?

Ben: what do you mean?

Miki: Every company has a culture, “the ay things are done here” and the culture usually reflects the values of the founder. For example, everyone talks about having a ‘fair’ company, but if you don’t craft your policies to reflect/enforce that then it ends up as nothing more than talk.

Ben: ok, im not really sure then how im to “craft” it. i think im kinda lost. im really just trying to pick up this cool idea that i have and i KNOW will work (im sure you have heard that before.) i didnt thin i was going to run into these issues right now

Miki: Does the guy you are working with ‘fit’ you? Does he have the same beliefs about the kind of place he wants to work?

Ben: what do you mean “in the kind of place?”

Miki: mood, attitude, how you are treated. Remember your old bosses? You don’t want to hire someone later who thinks like one of them, do you?

Ben: no! im not just saying this about myself, im very fair! i dont think he knows that about me yet. i think he is a good person and we have a good connection and i like him as a person. he has good values

Miki: Good!

Ben: but i guess we still need to work on trust right now

Miki: Trust is a value. By looking at his values and your values you will start to see what you want in your culture; and you should make a list.

Ben: im starting to understand what yr talking about

Miki: You can also use your culture to screen new hires, because you don’t want to hire people with opposite values

Miki: I’ve known managers who sow distrust, it’s the way they manage, and some who talk fair, but play favorites. The neat part is that you can build your policies, such as compensation, to reflect and support the values you want and then talk about them when interviewing and people who don’t “fit” won’t join

Ben: i get it

Miki: I thought you would. Build your infrastructure from the start and it’s easy.

Ben: but in my case even if i give him a high % its not going to give him power in the company

Miki: Don’t think that way. From what you say he has power, he can leave or threaten to leave. You don’t want to run your company by power, you want a culture that draws employees in and focuses them on the company’s success and you want to have fun at work or why would you work that hard?

Ben: agreed

Miki: The ‘experts’ have finally caught up with workers and are saying that “culture trumps strategy” and “culture is why company’s succeed” etc. There is a saying that people quit bosses, not companies.

Ben: how true

Miki: Even in a company with a great culture a jerk can create a lousy one below himself. Another thing, money won’t hold someone if they are unhappy and those who join you just for money will leave for more money, because they aren’t invested in the company.

Ben: i know! :)

Miki: So part of holding your guy is creating a place he LOVES and to do that you need to know what he loves.

Ben: ok… so i should be talking to him for a second tonight but i will brush him off and meet with him on Sunday because i dont want to do it over the phone

Miki: Don’t brush him off! Tell him you are working on a fair way to handle the equity and one that will affect the future. Tell him enough to know what you are doing (research, thinking, etc.), so you can build trust; the more transparent your are the better. Just take it slow and give you both time to think, offer thoughts and discuss. That helps build trust on both sides.

Ben: sounds better your way

(End of first conversation)

Ben: we could not meet at the end so we v-chatted on skype and talked a little. we both felt that we will get to an understanding and we are wasting time… he started working on the platform and we are going to meet as soon as we can.

Ben: i red the other stuff [links to various posts about culture] you gave me …

Miki: Was it helpful?

Ben: yes!

Miki: I’m glad

Ben: its getting me talking in a diff way

Miki: GOOD! Something to remember is that it’s easier to do it right at the beginning than fix it later

Ben: yes… i kinda feel ok that he has started on it. i really think we will work things out

Miki: Be sure to ask him to make a list of his most important attitudes/values to have at work, stuff like fairness, merit, etc.

Ben: i know, but that sounds like a test and when the guy is about my age its going to come off the wrong way…

Miki: No, not if you have examples to show him and explain that you want to build a good culture and to do that you need to identify the most important values, prioritize them and then create a culture that fosters them with a small amount of policy and process that enforces them. For example: It’s great to say “we treat our people fairly” but if the equity is handed out based on charm or prejudice or whim it’s not fair. So what you ask him is what values does he want to see built into the company culture, what is important to him. You don’t just ask for a list:) You create a conversation so he understands what you are working to do and that you want him to be involved in it. One of the least transparent things that managers do is ask for information without explaining why they want it. Does that make more sense?

Ben: yes, send more links

Any of you, or your friends, who are doing a startup should follow Ben’s lead and work on your culture from the beginning. If you would like the list of links I sent Ben, just let me know, either in comments or drop me an email.

I’ll keep you posted on how this goes.

Be sure to join us tomorrow on If the Shoe Fits for a look at Matt Weeks view of the social contract, an integral part of any culture.

Stock.xchng image credit: arkitekt

WW: Innovation Turns the World Upside Down

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

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Flickr image credit: ocean.flynn

Ducks In A Row: Cultural Fit

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

There is much talk about the need for “cultural fit” when hiring and rightly so, since being in the wrong culture is equivalent to a fish out of water.

But does fitting require total acceptance? Does it mean agreeing 100% with every value and the way each is implemented?

It’s not nitpicking; bad hires are only one outcome of a bad fit between candidates and corporate culture; bad cultural fits are also the culprit in most screwed up M&A.

Actually, there are many similarities between hiring one person and acquiring/merging two companies—no matter how complementary the skills, technology and experience, cultural incompatibility typically leads to disaster.

While culture may not seem obvious when acquiring or hiring, due diligence and good interviewing is eminently capable of identifying and exploring it.

The problem is that managers often ignore cultural differences, because they believe they that their culture is ‘right’ and those joining will change—much like the people who marry “in spite of [x],” believing that s/he will change because s/he loves me.

Consider Amazon and Zappos vs. Microsoft and Skype and then think about the candidates you “hired anyway.”

The problem is often not a matter of right or wrong, but of different—the things that float your boat don’t float mine or, worse, sink it.

And 98% of the time you should have seen it coming.

Fickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zedbee/103147140/

June Leadership Development Carnival—Commencement Edition

Monday, June 6th, 2011

Jennifer Miller, author of The People Equation, is host for the June edition of the Leadership Development Carnival. She tagged it Commencement Edition in honor of the potential represented by the Class of 2011. My quick sampling of the different categories tells me it offers a well-rounded meal no matter what you are looking for.

First up, it’s regular Leadership Development Carnival host Dan McCarthy, with 10 Ways to Get More Candid Feedback (and 5 ways if you really can’t handle the truth) from his blog Great Leadership.

Management

Sharlyn Lauby from HR Bartender serves up solid advice on a way to enhance your company’s performance review process in Should Employees Do Self-Appraisals?

I’m not sure what the trophy would look like for this award, but Jane Perdue at Get Your Leadership Big On has a great list of what a manager would need to do to earn top honors in 10 Ways to Win Bad Boss of the Year.

Over at Learning Curves, Lakshman Rajagopalan asks the tough (but necessary) questions of prospective managers in Why do you want to become a Manager?

Robert Tanner finds that he’s gleaned wisdom, emotional intelligence, and leadership lessons from Colin Powell in Revisiting Colin Powell’s 13 Rules of Leadership . As Robert says in the post, “The truth never goes out of style!” Read it on his blog Management is a Journey.

Miki Saxon from Mapping Company Success takes on the issue of Positional Deafness, remarking, “I’ve never understood why managers expect workers who were consistently ignored and shut down to suddenly start contributing because they receive a promotion.”

From the Fortune Group Blog and Andy Klein comes this thought: are some managers too wrapped up in being “needed” to properly develop their people? Andy says, “The best managers don’t make people dependent on them; they create an entity that will function in their absence”. See his thoughts on Effective Managers Must overcome the Emotional Need to be Needed.

Enda Larkin gives us a list of 7 typical managerial mistakes in What are the Most Common Mistakes that Managers Make? on his blog HTC Consult.

Adi Gaskell uncovers research that doesn’t paint managers in a very good light, so he offers a balancing perspective with In Defense of Management at The Management Blog | Chartered Management Institute.

Team Development

Mary Jo Asmus of Aspire –CS highlights the process of a leader skilled in developing his team.  See the guidelines he used to launch a very creative, hands-on team development project in Six Tips to Help Your Team Learn.

At John Spence’s Achieving Business Excellence blog, John outlines the HPT competency models he uses when working with teams. See more via How to Build a High Performance Team (HPT).

Dave Doran, who is an executive coach and writes at The S4P Blog , offers How to Develop a Pre-Coaching Ritual. This post is geared towards external coaches, but could easily be used for leaders coaching an employee in a one-to-one setting.

Rosaria Hawkins draws an interesting connection between being “lost” and developing leaders.  In her post Lost: The Key to True Learning, she says: “It’s been said that true learning occurs when we are lost—in a liminal place, where nothing works, where old methods, strategies and knowledge just don’t cut it. How can we, as leaders, tap into this potent developmental space?” See more at The Mindful Leadership Blog.

Michael Cardus explores the 4th phase of building high performance teams, inquiring, Accountability to the Team; When does that happen? on his blog Create Learning Team-Building Blog.

Using an analogy of tending plant life, Will Lukang identifies five things leaders must do to “grow” future leaders in Planting the Seeds for Leaders of Tomorrow at Will’s Blog .

“The use of the word team has greatly diluted what teamwork is really about. And along the way, the cult of teamwork has created skepticism, mistrust–and even guilt–among employees.” Because of this, Jim Taggart wants to rock the teamwork boat in his post Rethinking Teams: Getting Over the Guilt Complex. See more at the ChangingWinds blog.

Over at Management Excellence, Art Petty gives us plenty to contemplate about the challenges of developing a high-performing team in It’s Time to Start Teaching Your Team to Succeed.

Organizational Culture

In his travels Mark Stelzner meets some interesting people. Fortunately for us, he gleans wisdom from these unlikely sources and shares it in 4 Reasons Change is So Damn Hard at Inflexion Advisors.

Linda Fisher Thornton asks,How are curiosity and imagination related to ethics and business leadership?” Read Curiosity and Imagination Necessary Ingredients in Ethical Business on her blog Leading in Context to see her answers.

John Kotter contributes to a Forbes.com blog called Change Leadership and submitted the post Throw Out Your Strategy? Not So Fast. It’s about how leaders can preserve a strategy they’ve worked hard to develop while they take a step back and focus on getting people in their organization to feel a renewed sense of urgency about the strategy.

Weaving social media use into an existing company’s culture is still presenting a challenge for many, even if they have a policy in place. According to Mark Bennett of Talented Apps, it’s because Social Media Policy: Only Just the Start. “The more you can determine a specific business performance measure that you can connect to the purported benefits of social media, the better” offers Mark.

Bob Lieberman likens executives resistant to a change initiative to encountering an elephant on the road– “if it wants to block the road, you’re sunk”. And this, he asserts, spells trouble for a change effort that’s not supported at the top of the organization. His post The Elephant In The Road appears on his blog Cultivating Creativity – Developing Leaders for the Creative Economy .

Read how Chery Gegelman of Giana Consulting was inspired to write the post Discover THE Solution after hearing presentations from executives from Coca-Cola and Chick-fil-A. Chery’s post highlights the value of strategic partnerships.

Leadership

You’re Not the Boss of Me is the name of Gwyn Teatro’s blog and in Going First Gwyn discusses what it means to be a leader and (bonus!) offers up some of her favorite leadership blogs.

The post Spotted: A Leader Without Title narrates a short encounter with a leader who needed no title to lead, causing Tanmay Vora to wonder, “what if well-bred, educated professionals stop looking at their jobs as a ‘transaction’ and start treating it as a ‘service’?” Learn more at QAspire Blog.

The post It Takes Courage and Character to Unify People by Don Shapiro appears on the multi-contributor site Lead Change Group Blog – Leaders Growing Leaders. In it, Don writes about the importance of unity and courage contrasted against division and fear. “The crisis we face today isn’t about techniques, methods and attributes of good leaders. We face a crisis of courage and character.”

Lisa Petrilli of C-Level Strategies shares insights from the recent CEO Connection Boot Camp regarding the most pressing issues on CEOs’ minds today in her post Four Priorities Keeping CEOs Up at Night.

In Leadership Guru Reality Check, Brett Simmons of Bret L. Simmons – Positive Organizational Behavior implores us to be wary of the impressively packaged books touting the next leadership “guru”. To be serious about the practice of leadership, he advocates getting to know the true heavy-hitters in the leadership development discipline.

Jason Price draws upon lessons learned in carpentry to define the two key aspects of leadership in Cutting Boards and Building the Leader Within at his One Money Design blog.

David Burkus of Leader Lab muses about the merit of making the distinction between “leadership” and “management” in Toward a New Kind of Distinction.

Personal Effectiveness

Miriam Gomberg sees a connection between customer service and leadership. She writes “I believe that great leaders do what is right without asking for anything in return and the post The Meaning of Customer Service: Pay it Forward embodies the sentiment well.” Find out about the leadership/customer service connection at Miriam Gomberg.

David Wentworth contributes to the Institute for Corporate Productivity’s TrendWatcher site and offers up ways that leaders can incorporate mobile learning into their daily practices in Mobile Learning Anywhere Anytime

Jason Seiden’s 10 Great Ways to Get Focused… Fast! is a quick hit-list of ways to help you “get yourself grounded, focused, and ready to crush”. See it at My blog is profersonal (yes, that’s the correct spelling)

On Utpal Writes, being open and willing to admit what you do (and don’t) know is the way to being “self cognizant” says Utpal Vaishnav . He urges readers to Know Thyself Better! to develop their leadership skills.

In his post Why Going Back Doesn’t Work Eric Pennington explains why going back is rarely a good plan of action-in work and life. “Revisionism gives us the luxury of telling ourselves lies”, he tells us on his blog Epic Living and gives us 7 reasons why he believes this to be true.

The entry by Bill Matthies is succinct, yet thought-provoking: “Management is often thought of as one telling others what to do but do we give enough thought to what we should do?” Check out his unique blog format at Business Wisdom: Words to Manage By in the post Personal SWOT? in which your comments form the bulk of the post.

Steve Roesler of All Things Workplace wonders Is Everyone Coachable? See his list of 5 traits you must possess to be a viable candidate for coaching.

So there you have it— yet another excellent round-up of leadership essays. Oh, and one more—my entry is Following. It’s the New Leadership, which was inspired by my first in-person attendance at a TEDx event.

Image credit: Great Leadership

mY generation: Doing Nothing

Sunday, June 5th, 2011

See all mY generation posts here.


Quotable Quotes: Chuck Palahniuk

Sunday, June 5th, 2011

Chuck Palahniuk has an interesting, if cynical, view of life; in fact, much of it is too cynical for my taste, but not all.

Palahniuk said, “Everybody here thinks the whole story is about them. Definitely that goes for everybody in the world.” That attitude makes navigating one’s own existence almost surreal, especially if you are of that small minority (like me) that doesn’t see themselves as the center of the universe .

He also offers a good explanation for today’s need to stay connected, “People used what they called a telephone because they hated being close together and they were scared of being alone.” How sad, because when all is said and done you remain alone until you make friends with yourself.

Decades ago I embraced the attitude that people can’t move emotionally further in one direction than they had experienced in the opposite, but Palahniuk words are much more elegant, “The lower you fall, the higher you’ll fly.”

Many humans seek immortality by building great artifacts, but it is only in the intangibles that they will find it. “The unreal is more powerful than the real, because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. because its only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. stone crumbles. wood rots. people, well, they die. but things as fragile as a thought, a dream, a legend, they can go on and on.”

There is nothing wrong with the human desire to live on; to be remembered long after death. “We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.” A worthy goal if kept in perspective. While the something we create doesn’t have to be world-changing, it is best if it is positive, although many negatives live on in infamy and offer immortality to their creators.

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

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