Management Craft

New from Keith Ferrazzi

Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone (and Foreword author for my Focus Like a Laser Beam) has created a cool online tool to help you get focused and in action to achieve your dreams.

The model is based on three steps:

1. Focus on what you want
2. Diagnose what's getting in your way
3. Build a Dream Team for support

This seems simple, but I agree that the power of focus and the power of sharing your goals and dreams combine to make a big impact. Keith has added his emphasis on connecting with others to goal achievement. If you keep up with my writing about breakthroughs, you know that I could not agree more. Check it out!

Bloggers talking about FOCUS

Slide on over to the Execubooks Blog. The folks at Execubooks have created a summary of my book, Focus Like a Laser Beam, and they have several bloggers writing about it all this week. I just put up a post inviting questions about focus (or you can ask about anything!). Give me a tough question that makes my brow wrinkle!

You Can’t PowerPoint Authenticity

Let’s face it, “authenticity,” is the new empowerment. Websites, HR departments, blogs, and convertible driving consultants are all talking about authenticity and sometimes I just want to gag when I hear the word (even though I am a convertible driving consultant, but I am really a biker at heart so it does not count).

Most people talk about authenticity with a shallowness that defines irony.

Lawyers use weasel words.
Marketers use spin.
Managers lean on bullet points.
Senior managers pontificate pointing to a dusty framed vision on the wall.
HR pros end every sentence with either "no" or "fair and consistent manner."
Teachers give passing grades to students who memorize letters and spaces but who have not learned a thing except how to memorize letters and spaces.
We are all so well trained at saying one thing while meaning quite another or saying nothing at all and speaking volumes.

What a victory it would be if we were all really real for just one hour a day.

I cherish the few moments and relationships I have where authenticity reigns. I would do anything for these colleagues, friends, and clients. Anything.  And I am not holding myself up as a model, I speak on the surface way too much too.

Am I being a bit of a downer? You could take it that way or you see it as an opportunity.

Your employees, coworkers, managers, friends, family, and even your adversaries are aching for realness.

For many, getting real takes courage. It's true, don't you think? Doesn’t it seem a bit odd that being real – being authentic – requires courage? Why is this? What have we done to ourselves and others that makes being real an action that requires courage?

Fireside Chat with Jodee Bock

How do you know your capacity? - Chat with Jodee Bock

In this 27 minute podcast, I chat with Transformational Consultant Jodee Bock, author of the 100% Factor: Living Your Capacity. During this conversation we discuss what it means to be working at capacity and the questions you can reflect upon to better align your energies and your work. Find out the value of moving from defining what you want, to what you intend, and to what you commit.

Jodee and I had a fabulous conversation and I am sure your will enjoy it.

Want to know the answer to the question, "How?" for anything? Listen to this podcast!

You can listen to my podcast with Jodee Bock by clicking here:

You can also download an MP3 version of the podcast here: MP3 Download

And just a reminder.....

Here is the Podcast Feed for the entire Fireside Chat podcast series:

To see the complete list of podcasts in this series, select the Podcasts and Webcasts category on this blog or see the list on my main website here.

You can also find this series on iTunes (and several other podcast sites), just search under my last name for Fireside Chat.

Would you like my free newsletter?

Admission: My monthly newsletter sometimes comes every other month.

OK, but I think the way I approach the newsletter reflects the business world. I send new newsletters when I have something to offer that I think is helpful and useful. Just in time, nothing forced. Also, I do not want to repeat content from recent blog posts or other articles that I write. Sometimes my pea brain can't come up with enough stuff! And finally, some things just seem more newsletter-like.

I mention this because I have a juicy newsletter cued up to deliver this coming Monday. It contains two lengthy articles worthy of passing along to your colleagues (if I may be so bold to say). If you are not signed-up to get the newsletter, click here to sign up.

No News is No News

I was talking to a leader yesterday and he said this, "no news is no news." He is so right and this points to a common managerial weakness - allowing ourselves to get lazy, complacent, or to let our fears keep us from getting out of our chairs to find out what we need to know about what's going on in the business.

No news is no news - when managers have no news, how can they possibly do their jobs? The problem is that I have known many managers who operate on auto pilot and have the perspective that no news is good news. Wrong.

Sure - we don't want to micromanage. You know how I feel about micromanagement and an overuse of control to mask an inability to inspire excellence.

Managers must know what's going on in the business.

I can't even count the number of times that people have told me that their managers are clueless as to what's going on. What do you think the odds are that your employees say that about you?

The good news: This is an easy problem to solve.
1. Have real - candid and deep - conversations about the business on a regular basis.
2. Encourage your employees, peers, and managers to come talk with you.
3. Show your appreciation for constructive and candid conversation and input - the good, the bad, and the ugly.
4. Be analytical - seek and interpret information. If this is not a natural strength, ask for coaching and develop this skill.

I once knew a manager I will call Debbie. She was smart and she clueless about what was going on. Why? Because she put up barriers to communication. She was not accessible. She closed her office door for most of the day. She was always working on high profile planning stuff that she had to share with the president - problem was that she was plannign in an information vacuum. She did not welcome ad hoc visitors. She took several days to get to email and did not respond to all of them. She acted so busy and yet I would say that she was a slacker because she did not fulfill one of her most important duties as a manager - communication and connection. Managers ought to be like organizational glue. She was not like glue.

She was my manager for a time, by the way. She was the VP of HR and I was the director of training and OD. I could not fathom how she defined success. She was an HR director who did not engage with people unless absolutely necessary. Why become a surgeon if you can't stand the sight of blood?

No news is no news. Make sure today that you are not dealing with no news.

Here's a post from my pal David Anderson that relates to the power of honest information when dealing with projects called Why Red Status is my Friend. Could not agree more. Here's a snippet:

It seems that it isn't culturally acceptable to report bad news and experienced PM's have made a career out of not doing so. Hence, the politically astute invitation for me to do something about it before the red status gets reported. So my response was unusual. What the PM's fail to realize is that I see red status as my friend.

Knowledge is power - the power to choose, the power to react, the power to influence, the power to fix.
Information opens doors and facilitates better decisions.

OK, I know, you get this intellectually. But I want to challenge you. Do you have the communication practices, habits, and processes in place to ensure that you know what you need to know?

Free Webinar from Laurence Haughton

Microsoft is sponsoring a new online presentation from my pal, and best selling author, Laurence Haughton called “More Buy-In for New Ideas and Innovations – a strategy to overcome resistance to change and improve follow through.” 

It will be online January 30th at 9AM Pacific Time.
Registration is free.  Go here to register. 

Laurence offers a great online workshop, so tune in if you can.  Here are a few key learning points for the session:

• How to get your new ideas off to a great start
• Who should be invited on and who you must keep away from your change team
• The tactic that will stop bureaucrats before they kill your momentum

In just under an hour (and with the free follow-up materials) attendees will get all they need to make sure innovative ideas and strategies get enough buy-in to overcome any organizational resistance.

Where the Real Answers Lie

Love this diagram of where to get real answers. I so agree. That said, as a peddler of 1) how to books, 2) motivation, and 3) advice, I think that these sources can be great catalysts and provocations. What do you think?

On another note, I have written about this book before and offered a podcast. I like this post from Mark at Strategy Central about Glen Hiemstra's Turning the Future into Revenue. In the post, he offers a nifty rendition of one of the more helpful diagrams from the book.

The Purple Wren likes 24 minute chunks of time for focusing. I have not written about chunking in a while, but this post brought back the happy memories - I still get emails from people using chunking or some derivation.

Evolving Ideas offers this nice collection of riffs and raffs about HR. Like  Astha, I get sick of the whole, "we hate HR" or "I want a seat at the table" whines. Here's a nice snippet:

Nope, you didn't walk into the wrong blog-- it's just that I am tired of the whole HR isn't this, HR could be this and HR should be this discussion. While, all the time, the employees (which by the way is not just a term used in business papers- it refers to well, nearly everybody on the planet) walk around convinced that all the people who couldn't get into any place else got into HR.

Yep. Let's quit whining and get down to business.

And last but not least: Me and my lead foot want this. Because it's good for the environment, of course. As leaders, we need to be stewards of the planet. I'll take my Tesla Roadster in orange.

Vroom Vroom.

Fireside Chat with Kevin Salwen

Is your passion and purpose soaring or are you working on auto-pilot? - Chat with Kevin Salwen

In this 26 minute podcast, I chat with Motto Magazine's co-founding editor, Kevin Salwen about the importance of enlivening passion and purpose at work and the role that Motto Magazine is playing to share inspiring business stories and practices - their goal is to change the world! Find out what Deepak Chopra and the time it takes to fire a bad hire have in common. Anyone who works for a living (that's most everyone, right) will enjoy and get benefit from this podcast. Motto Magazine was formerly called Worthwhile.

As I was editing this podcast, my brain synapses were firing like crazy. Want to know why? Listen to this podcast!

You can listen to my podcast with Kevin Salwen by clicking here:

You can also download an MP3 version of the podcast here: MP3 Download

And just a reminder.....

Here is the Podcast Feed for the entire Fireside Chat podcast series:

To see the complete list of podcasts in this series, select the Podcasts and Webcasts category on this blog or see the list on my main website here.

You can also find this series on iTunes (and several other podcast sites), just search under my last name for Fireside Chat.

Virtual Map with Pins?

I have a question. I am planning an extensive trip through the US and I would like to create a virtual route map. What I am looking for is the map of the US (with major highways) with the ability to put virtual pins onto the locations I am thinking of visiting.

I can access the Google map and even found a way to put ONE pin location in, but I want to put lots of pins in and be able to save the map and return to it. I don't mind paying for the program.

Anyone know of such a thing? Thanks!