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

Entrepreneurs are a confident bunch; it goes with the territory and it’s a good thing.

They need to be confident to withstand the waves that would otherwise engulf them.

They need to be confident even as others question their vision.

They need to be confident when discussing the wisdom of pivoting with their team and investors.

At the very least, they need to appear confident.

Arrogance is not a good thing.

While the line between confidence and arrogance is nano fine, the results of crossing it are obvious to all.

The confident entrepreneur listens where the arrogant entrepreneur dismisses.

The confident entrepreneur is transparent where the arrogant entrepreneur is opaque.

The confident entrepreneur is authentic where the arrogant entrepreneur is phony.

The confident entrepreneur is honest where the arrogant entrepreneur is deceitful.

The confident entrepreneur is leads where the arrogant entrepreneur bullies.

Talent flocks to the former and runs from the latter.

Which side of the line are you on?

Option Sanity™ fosters confidence.

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.

Image credit: Bun in a Can Productions

An article in the Canadian Globe & Mail listing ten realities of working for a startup sparked a discussion with a group of entrepreneurs.

Everyone agreed that ‘what do you tell candidates during interviews’ is too general a question, so here are some of the specific questions they voiced.

• How safe is it to assume that everybody who applies to a startup has read/heard enough to know the pitfalls?
• How much of the “down side” should be mentioned during an interview, especially with highly desirable candidates.
• Should you bring up the need to pivot—often more than once—when the end result may have little relationship to the candidate’s stated interests?
  • What if the pivot is already on the drawing board, but not yet public?
• How do you respond to questions about how company failure would affect their career?
• What do you say to someone with desperately needed skills who is willing to start in that area, but wants to learn new areas in a reasonably short period?
• What do you say when the candidate questions the option package and asks about option pool, investment rounds and dilution?
• Should you hire if you still have some money, but your investors have lost interest and are recommending closing the company?”
  • Should the fact that the candidate would be resigning from a current position to join you make a difference?

How have/would you handle these questions in an interview you were conducting?

Come back next week to see responses from the group.

Image credit: arte_ram

They tried once, they will try again.

Image credit: the Internet

“Live all you can: It’s a mistake not to.” –Henry James (The Ambassadors)

Want to boost productivity? Ramp up innovation? Reduce turnover? Attract better candidates?

Live all you can.

As true as this is for life in general, it is even truer for the sub-sector called work-life and you should make a point of embedding the wisdom in your company/group’s DNA.

For your people, living all you can at work means

• having multiple opportunities to expand on all fronts;
• taking on unfamiliar roles;
• doing things outside their comfort zone; and
• understanding the “big picture” and how their efforts fit, affect and support it.

For you, living all you can at work means

• providing the above opportunities to everyone;
• encouraging them to go for it even when they resist; and
• providing the training, coaching and mentorship needed for them to expand successfully.

Doing so is the most critical part of your job description and all but guarantees you’ll accomplish the rest of it.

Live all you can—a worthy mantra as long as you’re willing to back it up with your own actions.

Flickr image credit: zedbee

The thing she [behavioral psychologist] taught me—and this sounds obvious—is that behavior is a function of consequence.  We had to change the behavior in the organization so that people felt safe to bring bad news. And I looked in the mirror, and I realized I was part of the problem.  I didn’t want to hear the bad news, either. So I had to change how I behaved, and start to thank people for bringing me bad news. —Joseph Jimenez, chief executive of Novartis

The behavioral psychologist was brought in after a consulting group was paid to provide “better, more robust process, with more analytics,” which changed nothing.

When we started RampUp Solutions in 1999, we spent a good deal of effort coming up with a tag line that easily explained the services we provide.

After several iterations we finally settled on “To change what they do change how you think”

Over the years, I’ve heard and read story after story of how all kinds of changes—from turn arounds to improved productivity to retention—all started with a change in the way the boss thought.

And that applied whether the boss was CEO, team leader or somewhere in-between.

Stories and discussions about change tend to focus on the actions that bring about the changes, instead of starting at the beginning with the hardest work,

Work that requires the boss, at whatever level, changing the way she thinks and then dispersing and embedding those changes throughout her organization.

So before you hire expensive consultants or seek help from advisors look in the mirror to determine how much of the problem is you.

Flickr image credit: manymeez

See all mY generation posts here.

A number of you wrote and requested that today be dedicated to Steve and so it is.

Since this post is in memoriam, it seemed reasonable to choose quotes that touched on death–directly or not. Obviously, death was just another fact to be considered.

First, Jobs words regarding Internet entrepreneurs ought to be tattooed on their frontal lobe or at least be mandatory reading.

“The problem with the Internet startup craze isn’t that too many people are starting companies; it’s that too many people aren’t sticking with it. That’s somewhat understandable, because there are many moments that are filled with despair and agony, when you have to fire people and cancel things and deal with very difficult situations. That’s when you find out who you are and what your values are.

So when these people sell out, even though they get fabulously rich, they’re gypping themselves out of one of the potentially most rewarding experiences of their unfolding lives. Without it, they may never know their values or how to keep their newfound wealth in perspective.”

Most everyone has seen the following text taken from a commencement speech Jobs made at Stanford.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

But what is more rarely shown is the paragraph that preceded it and puts it in true perspective.

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.”

Over the years, millions of words were written on what makes Steve Jobs run, but the true answer is easily found in his own words.

“.. almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

Finally, these nine words perfectly sum up Steve Jobs driving goal.

“I want to put a ding in the universe.”

And I don’t think there is any question that he succeeded.

Image credit: Wikipedia

Wednesday saw the loss of the entrepreneurs’ entrepreneur, Steve Jobs.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about role models and mentioned that in some areas Steve Jobs wasn’t the best person to model.

Thursday I received an email suggesting I delete that post since Jobs had died.

I refused and explained that nothing had changed with his death.

While there is no question that Jobs was an extraordinary visionary; brilliant at creating the future and championing design as a development tool; exceptional as a marketer and his presentations are legendary, none of that changes or excuses his management style, which could be devastating.

Visionary leadership doesn’t preclude the ability to create a passionate culture that enhances employees, rather than diminishing them.

There is no doubt that Apple will miss Jobs, but there are many employees who will be relieved not to find themselves alone on the elevator with him even as the reason saddens them.

Which parts of Steve Jobs will you choose to emulate?

Image credit:

This is a guest post by Patty Block. Patty is working with me introducing Option Sanity to the entrepreneurial community.

Attending any of the AlwaysOn conferences is always valuable, obviously for the networking, but especially for the learning and GoingGreen was no exception.

If you are interested in what’s happening in green technology, Going Green was the place to be.

I met CEOs and entrepreneurs; heard about new approaches to solving serious problems—both domestically and globally.

The AlwaysOn Top 200 GoingGreen winners are good examples of companies that are taking a leadership role implementing eco-friendly CleanTech solutions.

From BigBelly Solar (eliminates the waste in waste collection) to Green Plug (provides a universal power converter…get rid of all those extra energy devices), all of these emerging companies are changing the way we work, live and play.

Congratulations to all winners. It will be exciting to see how the 2011 Top 200 innovations are adopted and evolve.

On a more general level, how do you get the most from a conference you attend?

By listening; stop talking, stop looking around and just listen.

Listen not only in the breakout sessions where it is expected, but on the show floor and in restaurants and bars when you are grabbing a beer at the end of an exhausting day.

Many attendees are so focused on talking about their latest ventures that they miss a lot of important stuff.

The best way to get someone to listen to you?

First listen to them.

Image credit: AlwaysOn

Just think, a guy lawyer with a sense of humor. Who knew?