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

Intelligently sharing information, commenting or arguing in 140 characters or less is challenging, but can you sum up your life, career, mood or tell a story in just six (real) words?

When challenged to tell a story in six words, Ernest Hemingway came up with “For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.”

Since 2006, Smith Magazine has challenged readers to write their memoirs in six words and the effort is still going strong. Here are three examples from the Smith site,

Ecstatic, elastic, eccentric, electric, ever-changing existence!

Dreams diverted; life proceeds. Embracing detours.

Lesser people would’ve given up already.

A while back I wrote Birth, death, fun and happiness in-between, because that’s what I’ve always wanted and got from life—including obstacles and detours.

The great advantage six words have is to focus deeper thought, creativity and clarity upon the subject.

It’s fun to read through the Smith website and share your own thoughts, but much better to create your own version of it for your company.

Whether you do it digitally, on whiteboards or create a scrawl wall, it’s easy to set up a place for people to post their six-word thoughts.

In six words your people can

• describe your culture;
• spark creativity and innovation;
• facilitate bonding;
• clarify projects and goals;
• strengthen the team; and
• much more.

Analyzing the differing descriptions can go a long way to making sure everybody is on the same page.

It’s also a great tool to provide you with insights and a heads-up, so you can address molehills before they become mountains.

Image credit: HikingArtist

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

As a founder you

• identified a market itch;
• crafted a way to scratch it that will delight and de-stress;
• polished the vision so people would get it;
• wowed investors to get funding;
• hired the best talent you could find; and
• worked your tail off building them into a team.

But deep down you believe that teamwork is actually a lot of people doing what you say.

What are your odds for success?

Image credit: HikingArtist

Everybody has a box.

And no matter how hard you try you’ll never really think outside it.

But you don’t have to.

As with most things, the good and bad of boxes rests with how you view them.

It’s not the box that matters, but its size and how you address that.

Steven Spielberg’s box is immense, far larger than most, yet he is constantly enlarging it, as did Steve Jobs.

And therein lays one of the secrets of a creative organization.

It’s not about encouraging your people to “think outside the box,” it’s about helping each to understand his/her own box and how to enlarge it.

Because that’s how it works.

As soon as you step outside your box, a new one forms. Once you totally use up its content and find its sides you go outside that box, a new one forms and the process begins again.

It takes work, but the process can continue throughout life—although some never start and some get comfortable in a certain box and retain it.

There will always be a box, but with effort it can be enlarged enough to encompass galaxies—and even entire universes.

Sharing this knowledge with your team and providing a culture in which they are encouraged and helped to expand their box is the hallmark of a great founder.

Flickr image credit: Mr. T in DC

Last year, Brad Feld of Foundry Group joined a roster of gurus who recommend hiring for cultural fit above all.

I said it again last week.

Henry Ford was one of the first to explain why, If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.

This is true for every company from startups through the Fortune 10.

And the key word isn’t “forward” it’s “everyone.”

Research has shown that culture trumps strategy and the most important component of culture is people.

Without people there is no company.

With the wrong people there is no team.

It is the team that makes vision reality.

It is the team that draws investment and customers.

It is the team that lets you pivot, innovate and change when necessary—no matter your size

It is the team that saves your ass when you screw up.

Your team is made up of the people who focus on the success of the company, knowing that its success ensures their own, not the people who work primarily for their own success.

A strong team always trumps a group of individual players—no matter how good they are or what each has done in the past.

Team needs and candidate attitude should always trump individual credentials, experience, previous title and company.

Flickr image credit: Glyn Lowe Photoworks

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

In 1739 the Scottish skeptic David Hume wrote “Treatise of Human Nature” in which he argued that the only difference between a virtue and a vice is the impression it makes, i.e., the subjective way it is perceived and internalized.

Subjective vision is the norm, possibly even more so now than in the past, which means you need to constantly be on the alert for how your words and actions are perceived by your team.

People are an amalgamation of their upbringing, education and, especially, their experiences, so no two are exactly the same.

As a result, each perceives what comes their way differently.

It is your responsibility to keep everyone not just on the same page, but on the same line.

Image credit: HikingArtist

What is the most important thing to remember when hiring?

The one thing that can keep you from hurting your team?

The one thing you should never forget?

You may interview for skills, but you hire whole people.

Flickr image credit: Syefri Zulkefli

I’m not really a sports fan, but I read the NYT and occasionally an article that focuses on the human side as opposed to the play intrigues me. That’s how I ended up reading about Jeremy Lin and using him as an example of how easily bosses miss their real star talent.

In mid-March another Knicks story caught my eye.

[Coach] Mike D’Antoni and the Knicks parted ways Wednesday — an event that seemed fated once the franchise acquired Carmelo Anthony, an immense talent whose individual playing style clashed with D’Antoni’s spread-the-wealth offense.

At first glance you might not think this is applicable to business; obviously, no boss is going to quit when an employee disagrees with the culture, no matter how good he is.

In fact, it’s much more likely that the boss will laud him and shower him with whatever perks, bonuses, promotions and raises possible.

Anything to keep him happy; anything to keep him, period.

Not all star players have star egos; from the little I’ve read Lin is the former, while Anthony follows a more typical star profile with the ego to match.

So what really happens when a culture starts focusing on star egos?

The most obvious problem is the deep doodoo you are in if your star ego is injured or leaves.

The more subtle crisis takes place quietly over time as all the potential star players leave for more spread-the-wealth cultures and bosses who will give them a chance to shine.

Flickr image credit: Joshua Smith

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

By now, everybody knows that the Jets management turned itself into a pretzel and spent big money to acquire Tim Tebow from the Broncos.

Notice I didn’t say “add him to the team,” because from what I read there is no team, just a series of “splashy acquisitions.”

That’s the difference between the Jets and the Giants.

…championship teams are built, not bought, not bartered. … The Jets have yet to learn what the Giants already know: championship teams are built, not bought, not bartered. The Jets lacked two important elements last season: roster depth and locker room cohesion. They built their roster as if playing fantasy football, certain Coach Rex Ryan could glean character from a locker room full of characters. But when this grand chemistry experiment blew up the Jets’ laboratory, with players arguing in the huddle and on the field, Ryan acted shocked.

Last year I wrote Insanely Smart Retention and Stars (the third in a series; it contains links to the first two, Insanely Stupid Hiring and Insanely Smart Hiring) and last fall I posted the story of what happens when a founder sets out to hire a star.

In one form or another I and others have been warning that hiring stars is an iffy business and your energy is better spent building and maintaining an all-star team.

So which is your company channeling?

The Jets or the Giants?

Option Sanity™ is a team-builder.

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: HikingArtist

I have often heard managers refer to their job as “herding cats;” this is especially true in technical fields where much of the work requires individual efforts.

Scientists are probably the most difficult, since they often come from an environment where publish or perish is the mantra and egos are super-sized.

This was the difficulty that David Ferrucci faced when he set about building the team that created Watson for IBM. He not only had to herd cats he had to hire cats.

As most of the world knows, Ferrucci’s team was wildly successful and created a computer that won playing Jeopardy against its two top past champions and is moving on to far greater challenges.

He says, “In the end, the hero was the team, not any individual member or algorithm.”

What do the researchers think? This comment from one of them pretty much says it all, “Compared to the way we work now, it’s like we were standing still before.”

These scientists are all considered ‘stars’ in their respective fields, but none of them could do anything close to Watson on their own.

Nor could they have done it if their egos and desire for personal recognition had stayed their driving force.

“As for the members of the original Watson team, they’d tell you that never in a million years could they have imagined what we accomplished. Just like Watson itself, we all learned that the sum is much greater than the parts.”

Hiring and herding cats is the true talent of a great manager/leader and absolute proof that in today’s world the boss needs to be both.

And Watson is proof positive that the only stars worth having are the ones who join the team.

Flickr image credit: Bengt Nyman

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

Research has shown that culture trumps strategy and the most important component of culture is people.

Without people there is no company.

With the wrong people there is no team.

It is the team that makes your vision a reality.

It is the team that draws investment.

It is the team that lets you pivot when necessary.

It is the team that saves your ass when you screw up.

Your team is made up of the people who focus on the success of the company, knowing that its success ensures their own, not the people who work primarily for their own success.

A strong team always trumps a group of individual players—no matter how good.

To ensure you have a team and not a group you need a rock-solid hiring and compensation (salary and stock) philosophy, method and process, because the needs of the team trumps any individual’s credentials, experience, previous title and company.

Option Sanity™ strengthens teams

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