Are You Involved in Every Decision at Your Company?

By JOSH PATRICK

Does every problem still come across your desk? Are you spending too much time in the weeds and not enough thinking about the big picture? Are you feeling burned out? For many business owners I know, the answers to these questions are a resounding “yes.”

One of the best ways I know to create value in a business is for the owner to become operationally irrelevant. That doesn’t mean leaving the business. It means changing your relationship to your business. Instead of being involved in every decision, you build a team and find a way to trust your senior employees to take care of their individual areas of responsibility.

I use the term passive owner to describe owners who have removed themselves from the day-to-day operation. Instead of solving problems all day, they have moved on to working on strategic issues. You know a business has a passive owner when it can run for weeks and or even months without the direct intervention of the owner, because there are managers in the company who are competent and have been given the authority and responsibility to keep things running smoothly. Here’s a fun way to think about it: Several years ago, Norm Brodsky wrote a column for Inc. magazine in which he argued that the more vacation time he took, the more he increased the value of his company.

Passive ownership is hard to achieve. At first, we don’t believe it’s possible. If we get to the point where do believe it’s possible, we often have to change not only our behavior but the culture of the company. Worse, we’re busy — so busy in fact, that we often don’t have time to stop and take a look around. We’re forced to deal with emergency after emergency after emergency. Before we know it, another day has passed and we’re still in the same place.

To take the first step toward passive ownership, we have to be able to get past living as if everything is a crisis. When we’re constantly in crisis mode, everything is late and we’re always under tremendous pressure. At least, that’s how it was for me. I thought I had to be involved in every decision. I lived as if everything was an emergency. I drove my staff crazy and, frankly, my company wasn’t a very satisfying place to be — neither for my employees nor for me.

In the early ’80s I ran across a book by Stephen Covey called “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” The book talks about four stages that people occupy. They are:

1. Urgent and important (where I was living).
2. Important, but not urgent (where I needed to be).
3. Not important, but urgent (I delegated, but not effectively. The project seemed to always land back on my desk).
4. Not important and not urgent (where I hid behind useless activities and was completely unproductive).

I realized that I would have to move out of stages 1 and 3 and spend more time in stage 2 if I were ever going to be successful. It wasn’t easy, but I found one thing that I thought was a crisis and successfully delegated it to someone else. Then, I did it again. Over the course of a couple of years, I managed to get some time to work on important but not urgent activities. And that’s when life started to change.

Passive ownership requires the owner to build a team of effective managers, to have a reporting system that shares critical company information and to have systems in place that let front-line employees know what to do and how to act. This might sound easy, but it often takes several years of taking small steps before you even get close passive ownership.

For my company, the result was that we went from providing inconsistent service to being tactically excellent. We developed systems, and we stopped acting as if everything was a crisis. We had systems in place to keep crises from happening in the first place but could plan for things that were likely to go wrong.

Building trust between my managers and me was a real challenge. My issue was that I had a very difficult time understanding what was happening when one of my managers made a mistake. At some level, I didn’t fully understand that it wasn’t on purpose. This is where I ran into W. Edwards Deming and his books on quality management. One of his rules was that you don’t blame the person — you blame the system. This was a really difficult rule for me to embrace. But as we put more and better systems in place, the mistakes got smaller and more manageable. This took time and the willingness to change.

There’s a reason a lot of owners have a habit of micromanaging. In the early years, if I hadn’t been obsessive about being involved in every aspect of the business, the business might well have failed. It was only as the business became more successful that I had the option of learning to back off. But I know I waited longer than I should have.

Take a moment and ask yourself whether you are constantly feeling the pressure. If you answered yes to the questions at the beginning of this post, you might want to think about ways to make at least some of these issues go away.

Josh Patrick is a founder and Principal at Stage 2 Planning Partners where he works with private business owners on wealth management issues.

7 Beliefs of a Leader Who Will Never Be CEO

shh (Photo credit: Inubleachanimefan)

In order to build a successful company, varying personality types must all be represented. This array of characters is more important than determining someone’s title: instead of trying to check the box for CTO, CMO and VP of Engineering, you should focus on hiring rockstars, all different from one another. These leaders bring their range of expertise to the group, none more important than the next. That being said, common thinking patterns need to be tossed out the window, right from the start, in order to be the chief executive of a company. Many strong leaders are priceless assets to teams but aren’t CEO material if they hold any of the following commonly-held beliefs.

It’s real when you see it. To build a company, CEOs have to be visionary and forward-thinking. No different than an architect and builder can “see” a house before the foundation has been dug, a CEO sees the results only when he first believes in them. Whether this is an invigorated team, a world-changing product, or the acquisition of a competitor, a CEO rests at the helm, perpetually steering the ship forward toward the goals set out in advance.

If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. In the age of creativity, our world moves at mind-boggling speeds. To keep up with the crowd, let alone stay ahead of the curve, companies must constantly innovate. Stagnation is the surefire path to mediocrity. If a fix does not come until after something is broken, it’s far too late.  It’s the things that work just fine that need the fixing.  “Fix the stuff that works fine” is the modus operandi of a true innovator.

Failure is not an option. Failing (fast) must be encouraged in a company of five or a company of 50,000. Employees need to feel comfortable speaking up and sharing ideas with their teams and broader peer group, which is only cultivated through a well-developed culture of openness. Ultimately, failing isn’t a nail in a coffin, but rather in a window into something otherwise unclear. Michael Jordan explains it succinctly, noting, “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” It’s not that failure is not an option, but rather that failure is the only option.

Risk is something that should be managed. Big risks lead to big rewards. The world’s most successful people – and their companies – are those who take outlandish risks, often cast off as crazy by others, until they’ve won, changed the game, and proved their naysayers wrong.  “Here’s to the crazy ones…”

Figure out the best way to do something and stick with it. If you’ve always done something a certain way, it’s probably wrong. Traditions are great at home with your family, but in the business world, they can lead to disaster. At ePrize, a digital promotions company I founded in 1999, we told the meatloaf story: a young girl asks her mom why she always cut off the end of her meatloaf before putting it in the pan. Without a good answer to her daughter’s question, the woman calls her own mom, who also has no explanation beyond “it’s just how I’ve always done it, because that’s how my mom did it.” Grandma calls great-grandma, who laughs hysterically at the question. Her response was a slap in the face: “I don’t know why you’re all cutting off the end of your loaves – I didn’t have a big enough pan!”

Your best ideas must be protected. The best ideas are never stolen, because they must be shoved down people’s throats. At first these plans will be ridiculed, then fought, and finally, accepted, but only once a critical mass has developed. Nobody wants to be the first one to the party. For customers you already have, remember that their feedback is a gift – use it to improve upon whatever you’re doing, because the truth is, there’s always room to improve.

Common sense is king. The best CEOs balk at the herd. If there’s a trend doing something in “zig” fashion, visionary executives will jump at the chance to “zag,” racing in the opposite direction. Even if it seems incremental (as opposed to disruptive or revolutionary), the status quo provides any company with the opportunity to do it better by doing it differently.

For more insight on creativity and innovation, visit JoshLinkner.com.

How To Nurture Your Company’s Rebels, And Unlock Their Innovative Might

WRITTEN BY: Tim Leberecht

BEFORE YOUR BUSINESS IS THREATENED BY EXTERNAL COMPETITION, YOU SHOULD COURT THE INTERNAL OPPOSITION WITHIN YOUR OWN WALLS, ARGUES FROG’S TIM LEBERECHT.

“Choose your enemies carefully, 'cause they will define you
Make them interesting 'cause in some ways they will mind you
They’re not there in the beginning but when your story ends
Gonna last with you longer than your friends."
--U2, “Cedars of Lebanon”

We know that opposition is an integral part of the creative process. But sometimes opposition itself can be a creative act. Beyond common tactics (listed on this Community Toolbox site as “deflect, delay, deny, discount, deceive, divide, dulcify, discredit, destroy, deal”), it can manifest itself as craftsmanship and art--whether it be street art by Shepard Fairey or satire like these recent Mitt Romney campaign spoofs of Venn diagrams.

As Make Shift’s editor, Steve Daniels, observes in the current issue, the nature of resistance is changing. Case studies ranging from Occupy Wall Street to neighborhood activism in Port-au-Prince illustrate that a combination of social technology and street-level ingenuity is producing new tools, techniques, practices, and skills for vocalizing opposition. And these in turn drive boycotts, counter-movements, and insurgencies, as well as opposition at a more mundane level, in day-to-day interactions.

With regard to business, numerous acts of creative opposition abound, from product hacks (e.g., hackers of Ikea products and Microsoft’s Kinect) to Beck’s decision to release his new album only as “sheet music” to be recorded by his fans. The entire maker and crowdfunding movements, as well as “innovation communes” such as The Glint, the Rainbow Mansion, and the Memento Factories, can be seen as fundamental acts of creative resistance to business as usual.

CON

All of these trends made me think about creative opposition within companies--about employee activities that are counter to the top-down policies without crossing the line into the unproductive and illegal. From passive disengagement, noncompliance, and disobedience to passive aggression, covert sabotage, and overt conflict, which tactics are appropriate, legitimate, and effective? How much resistance from its fringes can an organization endure before it is threatened at its core--and stops being an organization altogether? And most important, why would fostering creative opposition even be beneficial to companies?

 

In his book The Opposable Mind, the management guru Roger Martin argued that the ability to hold opposing truths was a critical quality for business leaders. Or in the words of F. Scott Fitzgerald, “The mark of a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two contradictory thoughts in its mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” If it is true that tension is a hallmark of our complex society and requires complex solutions, and that the “most enduring institutions” are contradictory, as David Brooks contends in a recent New York Times column about the Olympics, then creative opposition inside companies is nothing but the tangible manifestation of it. With a strong and self-organized in-house opposition, companies can cover the entire breadth of their corporate character. It allows them to acknowledge that they are complex and multipolar, that they have multiple truths, and that, through this tension, they can become capable of stretching themselves, expanding, and realizing their full potential.

There are other, more practical benefits to cultivating internal opposition. Today’s Millennial employees value freedom (and opposition might well be the most obvious act of freedom), and in that sense encouraging creative opposition among young employees, rather than squashing it, can serve as an important engagement (and retention) strategy. Moreover, companies that fail to allow internal opposition may be caught off guard and slow to respond when they face external opposition. Perhaps most important, resistance can serve as a catalyst for innovation. Alexa Clay and Kyra Maya Phillips, authors of the upcoming book The Misfit Economy, posit that the “black, gray, and informal economies,” with their underground entrepreneurs (“pirates, terrorists, computer hackers, and inner city gangs”), are underappreciated sources of new business models and products.

Similarly, I would argue, the contrarians and rebels, the people on the fringes of organizations who question and deviate from the status quo, which so often leads to inertia and inflexibility, are huge assets for any organization. Those who disagree with the present often see the future more clearly. This applies to hiring, too. Many business leaders, at least those who are forward-looking, essentially seek to hire “change agents”--individuals who are both creative and persistent in bursting a straitjacket of outdated practices and processes.

CR

Ashoka Changemakers, a global network of social innovators, and others have adopted the term “social intrapreneurship” and aim to equip contrarian employees with best practices and tools to self-organize more effectively. They also hope to raise executive-suite awareness of the potential of empowering social intrapreneurs. The Rebels at Work initiative has created a community hub for connecting corporate renegades, identifying “good rebels” as those “who feel compelled to create ways to improve, change, and innovate,” who ”stand against the prevailing mindset of the organization and argue for a better way.”

 

Companies are beginning to realize that opposition is vital and a certain amount of conflict healthy. Some have even launched internal disruption units that can drive radical innovation from left field (e.g., Anheuser-Busch’s Beer Garage or Google X). As an alternative, companies may also bring in agencies and consultancies--hired opposition--with the mandate to disrupt conventional thinking and overcome groupthink and organizational myopia. The caveat here is that these outside interventions can lead to changes that fail to become a part of a company’s cultural fabric for the long term.

So what else can companies do to make internal opposition productive? Here are a few possible actions to consider:

1. CREATE SAFE SPACES

Safe space does not necessarily refer to a formal group like an employee council but rather a practice of tolerating contrarians and mitigating their fears of retaliation or discrimination. It doesn’t mean that companies simply open-source all decision-making, flatten hierarchies, and initiate only grassroots projects. In fact, it might be more effective for companies to continue introducing new initiatives and policies from the top down but at the same time factor in enough space for oppositional voices. Every company campaign, policy, and product that is developed functions as a wave that generates undercurrents. And like every movement, it inevitably breeds a counter-movement. It is often this counter-movement that holds the insight for the next stage in the process.

2. MAKE SURE THAT INTERNAL OPPOSITION IS CONSTANT

Executives may be tempted to believe that inclusiveness (by way of crowdsourcing and other participatory designs) eliminates, or at least minimizes, resistance. That is certainly effective for the conceptual and rollout stages of a new initiative or policy, but many companies then fall short of allowing resistance after the rollout, thereby threatening to undermine the strength of the initial support they had garnered. Alignment is a moving target, and the window for resistance should always be open.

3. EMBRACE PASSIVE AND ACTIVE OPPOSITION

On the more passive (and sometimes passive-aggressive) side, employees increasingly find creative ways to sidestep policies and protocol. Take the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) phenomenon, propagated by professionals who simply bypass IT approvals to bring their own preferred mobile devices to the workplace. According to a recent survey by Forrester Research for Trend Micro, 78% of businesses have implemented BYOD programs--and 70% of them cited increased productivity as the main reason.

Creative opposition, in this sense, means raising the accountability for each and every employee. Employees as innovators strive to find better ways of doing business instead of just following the business-as-usual manual. This may result in the traditional corporate functions giving up authority and shifting from being owners to enablers. It’s certainly not an easy transition, but one that pays off in the long term.

INC

Companies could even go a step further and adopt and actively support formats such as House of Genius, a brainstorming session/idea incubator in which participants are anonymous. Why not institute an employee council with members whose identities are not disclosed? They could meet regularly to discuss important company matters and make recommendations, maybe even directly to the board, bypassing the management team. Or launch live-work communes that bring together employees and customers to develop antitheses to the company’s vision and policies? Or conduct internal brand hijacks or product hacks that challenge top-down initiatives and may become powerful counter-movements that prompt a rethink or perhaps even a reset?

 

It’s important to remember that incorporating creative opposition begins with asking the right questions. What is your company’s “black market”? What is its “underground”? Who are your misfits, your hackers? Who are the people who might want to “occupy” your company? Who is seeing the cracks in your organization and seeking to attack them? Invite them to do so before they invite themselves (and others along with them). Make sure your internal opposition has ample safe space to self-organize, is always close, and utterly creative. Resist the temptation to squash resistance. Bring the renegades into the mix and not into the fold. And remind yourself that occasional disloyalty might be the strongest form of loyalty.

[Image: Fighting Sheep, Pirate Flag, and Warning via Shutterstock]

Transformational Leaders Coach for Better Employee Performance

by Beth Miller • via @vistage

Business leaders can have many titles. But excelling at one role is a highly-effective way to bring about better performance in your employees: the role of a coach.

Coaching is about bringing a person from where they are to where they want to be; it is about transformation. Transformational leadership is a specific type of leadership that is becoming more popular today.

Transformational leaders create a lasting, positive impression on people and improve the companies they work for. And employees are more satisfied and productive under them. What leaders do is to work with employees to improve specific work behaviors and skills, and in the process, they become better themselves.

Are you a leader who wants to see better results from those you lead? What are some things you should do? Follow these coaching tips that have helped many of the leaders I work with.

10 techniques to coach employees to improved performance

1. Foster an ongoing dialogue between yourself and the employee(s). You want to be in touch with the person or people you are coaching. The dialogue must be two-way and continuous.
2. Collaborate with the person you are coaching. Work together to identify problem areas, to set standards and to develop a performance improvement plan.
3. Set up and follow a plan with the person or team you are coaching. Have a plan of action about what specifically needs to improve or change.
4. Share resources with them to help them become more successful in their work. Send them emails, or articles, you think they might find useful. Give them books and talk about what they think about what you share with them.
5. Celebrate success. Recognition is the best motivator and will show the employee that they are valued and doing something right. Find the person’s strengths and highlight them.
6. Acknowledge problems and concerns. Talk with employees about any problems or concerns you, or they, may have.
7. Listen actively. Try to be attentive, summarize their thoughts and give your feedback to what employees have to say.
8. Improve your questioning skills. Good coaches ask open-ended and non-threatening questions. The better the question, the higher likelihood of a great answer.
9. Try to be objective and nonjudgmental. You want them to be comfortable and honest with you. Focus on behaviors and the impact they have, not the personality.
10. Get people to think through their actions. Getting people to think things through can bring about personal insight and will help you understand them better.

Practice a behavioral approach to coaching

In his book, “Coaching for Improved Work Performance”, Ferdinand Fournies explains that focusing on an employee’s’ behavior is the key to correcting and improving performance. He says that leaders should focus on the behavior they want and reinforce that, rather than punishing the behavior they don’t want.

He also explains that telling someone something is not enough. A person must say AND do something that will make the other person receive their message. Asking the person questions is a way to do this.

He also gives a few more ways for leaders to improve the behaviors of their employees:

• Let employees know what they are supposed to do.
• Follow up with employees to maintain proper performance.
• Create a feedback system.
• Increase the amount of verbal reinforcement.

And finally…

Coaching is often a one-on-one process, but leaders can also set an example and coach an entire team. To do this, leaders must be available to everyone. They often come in the morning and talk to each employee and try to become a part of their group, rather than simply being someone who leads from the corner office. This kind of leadership is hard work, but the benefits are huge.

10 Ways to Create and Open Culture

BY: CHRIS HIRST

Three years ago, Grey London really needed to change. The industry had changed, the media landscape had changed and Grey remained a relatively successful (in financial terms at least), safe, but dull London outpost of a global network. Not a great, or ultimately sustainable, place to be if you’re in a creative industry.

Grey had tried to change before. The business wasn’t in denial, but it just seemed like the "uncrackable" problem. This time, we did it differently. Our strategy for change was to change our culture. We called this Open. It is both an expression of a culture and how we believe today’s people-based businesses should work in order to survive, evolve and thrive. It is a philosophy of collective creativity and collective responsibility. It encourages increased collaboration between departments, the agency and its clients. Any business can be Open; what follows is a brief description of how we did it, the lessons learned and the results we’re achieving.

As a team, we have a shared dissatisfaction for how most agencies choose to work. Despite selling creativity, many behave in the exact opposite way and the most conservative department is often the creative department. We believe that most "people" businesses are actually "talent" businesses and conventional pyramidal structures squash and stifle this talent. This makes them slower, less innovative and ultimately frustrating places to work. In 2009, we set about turning this pyramid upside down, re-framing the role of management as coaches and cultural guardians.

To achieve actual change rather than paper change we needed three things: vision, courage and urgency, with the greatest focus on the latter--because talking about change rather than doing it is where most programs come unstuck. We set metrics, a timeline, identified our key stakeholders (primarily in our case staff and clients) and published targets for all to see. It was scary, because metrics and transparency set targets that demonstrate success, but can also highlight failure.

Focusing on actions ahead of words and documents, we held focus groups internally, removed all offices, official processes--even sacrosanct "sign-offs"--and department boundaries, creating a place that allowed people to be the best they could be. We believed that if we did this, breaking the traditional parent/child relationship that exists in most businesses, we would achieve radical change.And we have. Over the past three years we have transformed our creative output, winning awards around the world, and doubling in size (revenue). Crucially, our staff and client satisfaction scores have also skyrocketed. 

Yet the job is not complete. Open positively affects our business on a daily basis, and with the desire to change as strong as ever, continues to drive us forward.

Here, based on our experience, are 10 ways to become Open.

DON’T JUST STRATEGIZE FOR CHANGE

All businesses need to change. This is as true of a small, fast-paced creative business as it is of a global corporate behemoth. The problem is, despite the considerable money thrown at them and the legions of paper theories written about them, most change programs fail.

Strategy is, in fact, the easy bit. Paying for it hurts, but the pain passes. Doing it gets very hard indeed. You need to be prepared for the long road ahead. Only a dramatic shift in culture can yield the best results.

DO IT NOW

Let’s face it, the ideal moment to change your business--when you’ve got a clear diary, all your clients are happy and there are no major projects in the pipeline--will never present itself. So stop waiting for the right time, just get on with it.

Image: Flickr user Francisco Delatorre

PICK THE RIGHT TEAM

The operative word here is team. You need to put together a genuine and focused group at the top of the business to make change happen. A team who invests effort in collective success and effort in making the team itself work effectively.

DO AS I DO, NOT AS I SAY

Fundamentally, culture is the behavior of management. Too often, people accept change needs to happen, but believe it’s someone else that needs to behave differently to make it a reality. What you do as a manager, not what you say, is what really counts. Only your actions and leading by example will bring about a change in the way your whole organization behaves.

ENGAGE, DON’T MANDATE

The biggest barrier to change is mobilizing and energizing your workforce, which is likely to be highly skeptical. Your people need to be invited to shape the future of the business, not manipulated to satisfy the needs of management.

At Grey London we invited everyone to a series of day-long workshops to engage staff in developing our new vision and values. The management team didn’t define Open, the talent did. In an Open culture, the role of management is to create a culture that allows every individual to be the best they can be and then focus on removing obstacles and barriers that obstruct this ambition (of which inevitably there are many).

Image: Flickr user Grant Hutchinson

BREAK HABITS AND MAKE CHANGE VISIBLE

Culture is like concrete, which over time sets into a certain mold. An effective change program therefore needs a degree of physicality. Too much so-called change stays on PowerPoint. To really shake things up, you’ve got to take a sledgehammer to that concrete, but be mindful that, in time, the new way of doing things will also become too entrenched. You need to keep smashing and resetting to keep your culture vibrant and your business energized.

Fundamental to the success of Open is the breaking of barriers, physical or otherwise. So the first big step is tearing down walls: no offices (for anybody) and nobody sitting in departments. Then change your processes to involve all stakeholders throughout a project so everyone not only understands the problem, but takes pride and ownership in delivering the best answer.

Not all change has to be this radical, however. You can achieve a large amount by seemingly symbolic acts. Seen by everyone and felt immediately, symbolic acts can have disproportionate influence.

MANAGEMENT AS MENTORS

Open turns the traditional organizational hierarchy upside down, recasting management as mentors. Ultimately, its success lies in the emphasis on the power of the individual and their teams to do the right thing, their way. It allows ambitious entrepreneurs to thrive and be the best they can be.

If you sit in an organization where the seventh floor doesn’t know what the first floor thinks, you can’t change a company’s culture. To combat this kind of malaise, you need to change people’s emotional contract with the organization--we went as far as giving junior executives a place on the board through the creation of "Open Chairs."

You also need tangible demonstrations of trust and devolution of responsibility. For Grey London, the most totemic act was the removal of "sign-offs." For us, sign-offs became a short hand for everything that we believed was wrong about traditional agency ways of working. Sign-offs are about control, but unfortunately, also disempower and imply that only the creative director’s point of view matters. This leads to a slow, dependent culture, frustrated clients and, most importantly of all, less good work.

Open belongs to everyone. It involves everyone. Even clients. Ideas can come from anywhere and anyone, so allow people to adapt the approach as they see fit and launch their own initiatives to promote a culture of collaboration. You’ll find leaders emerge at all levels.

Image: Flickr user Brian Duffy

RECOGNIZE THAT CHANGE IS LUMPY

Set ambitious metrics for success and be transparent about what they are. Encourage open and honest feedback and share all the results with everyone. Open is about decisions, action and continuous change. Coupled with ambitious targets and full disclosure on progress, comes the very real possibility of failure. If you’ve fully embraced Open, you will make the wrong decisions from time to time, but as long as you continue to act and make more good decisions than bad ones, your business will move forward fast. Remember, change isn’t linear--it’s lumpy.

At Grey London, implementing a "70% right" approach has served us very well. As General Schwarzkopf once said, “If you’ve waited until you’re more than 70% certain, then you’ve waited too long.”

DON’T STOP

Too often, change consists of one-off initiatives that are forgotten by employees and abandoned by management. You need to nurture continual change and ongoing collaboration through workshops, training, social events and company-wide challenges.

We lie awake at night worrying "what next?" rather than, "did that work?"

THE STAKEHOLDER JOURNEY

Identify your stakeholders and make sure they see the result of your change program--not just being different, but being better. Not better in the abstract or in a corporate sense, but better for them as individuals.

This applies to all stakeholders and you need to be able to articulate exactly how. From the personal association with a winning team, the potential career development if you’re the client who commissions a breakthrough piece of creative, the rewards that come with working for a successful company, and yes, even just coming to a nice place to work.

Chris Hirst is CEO of Grey London.

What to Do With a Workplace Whiner

By SUE SHELLENBARGER via @WSJ

It's one of the diciest challenges of office politics, one that invades the cubicle farm and executive suite alike: How to deal with workplace whiners.

While it's often best to walk away, that can be difficult in today's team-based workplace, where many people work closely in groups.

Trying to stay neutral by just listening and nodding can also backfire, says Dana Brownlee, founder of Professionalism Matters, a corporate-training firm in Atlanta. "Before you know it, there's another version of the story circulating, saying you were the one saying something negative about the VP. And they're talking about you over by the Coke machine."

And it can be tough to object without seeming self-righteous. "If you approach someone about their complaining, they may take it in a completely wrong way, and then you've alienated them," says Jon Gordon, an author, consultant and founder of a Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., training firm. It's better to try to bond with co-workers, while setting an example by not griping yourself, he says.

When Kris Whitehead joined a new employer several years ago, his colleagues' frequent work complaints "had a direct impact on my ability to sell," says the Nashua, N.H., salesman. With the economy in a slump, "I had the same secret fears" of failure being voiced by co-workers, he says. Staying upbeat "was an extremely arduous task."

But when he suggested to colleagues that they focus instead on solutions,"nobody wanted to listen," he says. Plus, "people started talking about me at the water cooler."

Mr. Whitehead started reading books on personal development and worked on bonding with colleagues. As he posted gains in sales, co-workers warmed up and his boss recently asked him to help train new hires. "People seem to listen better when you produce," Mr. Whitehead says.

But research shows productivity can be damaged by toiling alongside a chronic complainer. Exposure to nonstop negativity can disrupt learning, memory, attention and judgment, says Robert Sapolsky, a prominent author and professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford University. The brain, he says, can only handle so many stimuli at once before it begins losing ability to concentrate or remember—especially if that steady stream of negativity sparks distressing emotions.

Complainers who are highly emotional, or who target a problem that also makes the listener feel wronged, can especially darken a co-worker's mood, Dr. Sapolsky says.

Whining has become so common that many people don't even realize they're doing it. Benjamin Ballard, an account manager for PaceButler, an Oklahoma City company that recycles cellphones, says he used to moan at work about his migraines. But "I'd make jokes about it and thought that somehow made it positive," says Mr. Ballard.

5 Tips to Fight Off Complainers

• Change the subject, by asking the complainer what's going well.
• If you're stuck listening to a grouser, retreat mentally and imagine yourself in a peaceful setting you enjoy.
• Ask the complainer what he or she intends to do about the problem.
• Move your desk or workstation farther from incessant grumblers.
• In meetings, allot a specific, limited amount of time for coworkers to air their complaints in a constructive context.

PaceButler CEO Tom Pace made such grousing a front-and-center issue last December by offering cash rewards to any of his 70 employees who could refrain from complaints or gossip for at least seven days. Participants in the challenge monitor themselves and each other, wearing rubber wrist bracelets that they move to the other arm when they slip. Workers who say they have gone a week without such toxic talk are eligible to enter a monthly $500 drawing.

For his part, Mr. Ballard stopped griping and took action to stop the headaches by eating better, he says. "I don't get headaches anymore." Spending less time talking about them, he figures, has helped.

His colleague Debbie Gutierrez, an agent coordinator, says the program has made everyone stop and think before they talk. "You can see growth in people," she says. And throughout the office, Mr. Pace says, "there are more high-fives, more laughter and more production."

Still, in most companies, it's getting harder to avoid the grumblers. Some 18% of U.S. employees are "actively disengaged," negative and likely to complain about their employers, according to an annual Gallup poll of 31,265 employees. That negativity can spread "kind of like a cancer," says Jim Harter, Gallup's chief scientist for workplace management and well-being.

Work groups with a high rate of negativity tend to have lower productivity and higher rates of absenteeism and quality defects, the Gallup research shows. If an opportunity arises to invest extra effort to help the company, these workers are likely to pass it up, Dr. Harter says.

John S. Dykes

Do Like the NFL Quarterbacks Do: To deflect negative energy, imagine an invisible shield of positive energy descends from the sky like a glass cloak to lightly cover your whole body, says author Trevor Blake.

But there are ways to cope with complainers. When people beef about the boss or someone else, author and speaker Will Bowen suggests deflecting the gripes by saying, "It sounds like you and he have something to talk about." Other people bellyache just to get attention. He suggests giving the complainer a different kind of attention by asking, ' "What's going well for you?" They'll look at you like you're crazy at first,' but persist and "the person will either switch topics or stop talking to you. Either way, you don't have to listen to them any more," says Mr. Bowen, Kansas City, Mo., founder of a nonprofit group, A Complaint Free World.

Of course, "there has to be some healthy conflict," says Mr. Gordon, the author and consultant. When work teams get together, the ratio of positive interactions, such as support and encouragement, to negative interactions, such as disapproval and criticism, should be about 3-to-1 or higher in order to ensure top performance, based on research by Barbara Fredrickson, a psychology professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and others.

And some chronic complainers expose real problems. Joan Curto griped almost constantly years ago about the heavy travel required by her job as a national accounts manager for a drug company, says her former boss, Trevor Blake. "She complained about everything: The company car wasn't big enough, the bonuses weren't good enough," says Mr. Blake, a Seattle-based entrepreneur and author. "I pushed back, asking, 'What are you going to do about it? Come to me with a solution.' "

At first, Ms. Curto says, she was irritated. She was traveling four to five days a week trying to cover a huge 600-hospital sales territory and was seldom home with her family. But she soon figured out what Mr. Blake calls "a brilliant plan" to limit face-to-face visits to customers with the highest sales potential, and to hire a pharmacist to contact the rest.

The result: Sales went up, and Ms. Curto, now a sales manager for a different, Chicago-based company, got to stay home more often with her family.

This Is How Facebook Is Tracking Your Internet Activity

Excellent article from @BI_Insider

Facebook really is watching your every move online.

In testing out a new diagnostic tool called Abine DNT+, we noticed that Facebook has more than 200 "trackers" watching our internet activity.

Abine defines trackers as "a request that a webpage tries to make your browser perform that will share information intended to record, profile, or share your online activity." The trackers come in the shape of cookies, Javascript, 1-pixel beacons, and Iframes.

For example, cookies are tiny bits of software that web pages drop onto your device that identify you anonymously but nonetheless signal useful behavior about your background interests to advertisers who might want to target you. Facebook uses these types of cookies to activate the "like" buttons on other websites.

Critics call this spying. Advertisers call it targeting. That's how advertisers use Facebook to figure out when you're pregnant.

In an email to Business Insider, Abine privacy analyst Sarah Downey explained why users should pay more attention to trackers, and block them:

In addition to invading your privacy, these tracking requests can consume large amounts of data.  And transferring lots of data takes time. Generally, the more tracking requests on a website, the slower that website loads. That's why DNT+ gets you surfing at 125% of the normal speed and with 90% of the bandwidth, compared to a browser without DNT+ running.

Equipped with this insight, an inquisitive Facebook user might be wondering why they wouldn't block all trackers and cookies alike. The Facebook page cautions:

Technologies like cookies, pixel tags ("pixels"), and local storage are used to deliver, secure, and understand products, services, and ads, on and off Facebook. Your browser or device may allow you to block these technologies, but you may not be able to use some features on Facebook if you block them.

Not all cookies are used for tracking or for other purposes, such as those used for Facebook's "like" button. Many are simply placed in order to store information for later use. But it is the broader scope of "requests" that present the larger issue. In simple terms, Downey explained that when you navigate to a website, your browser constructs that site by communicating back and forth with the server where the site information is stored. These communications are the “requests.”  

But it isn't just the website you are visiting that makes requests for information: online trackers from other companies hidden on the site do it, too. They act as third parties on your computer: you can't see them without privacy software, you probably wouldn't expect them to be present, and you probably don't intend to share your information with them. 

They request information like your geographic location, which other sites you’ve visited, what you click, and your Facebook username.

In terms of what the "requests" represent, Facebook declined to comment because, in the company's opinion, the requests do not mean much unless you can see exactly what they are and how they are being used. Facebook's entire site is run off of JavaScript and other such tags that have an array of purposes other than tracking.

So, we set out to see just how much Facebook is watching our internet browsing activity. Using the Abine software, we tracked to what extent Facebook trackers increased for each new click. We started by cleaning out the browser cache and search history, and then went about using the browser like it was the start of a typical work day ...

Click here to see how Facebook's spying increases with every click>

The Millwright Died

One of my favorite book on leadership is a short book called Leadership is an Art by Max DePree. In a simple and straightforward fashion, the author tells the following story in this excerpt entitled, “The Millwright Died”.

---
My father is 96 years old. He is the founder of Herman Miller, and much of the value system and impounded energy of the company is…a part of his contribution. In the furniture industry in the 1920’s the machines of most factories were not run by electric motors, but from pulleys from a central drive shaft. The central drive shaft was run by a steam engine. The steam engine got its fuel from the sawdust and other waste coming out of the machine room – a beautiful cycle. The  millwright was the person who oversaw that cycle. He was a key person. 

One day the millwright died.

My father being a young manager at the time, did not particularly know what he should do when a key person died, but thought he ought to go and visit the family. He went to the house and was invited to join the family in the living room.

There was some awkward conversation – the kind with which many of us are familiar. The widow asked my father if it would be all right if she read aloud some poetry. Naturally he agreed… When she finished reading, my father commented on how beautiful the poetry was and asked who wrote it. She replied that her husband, the millwright, was the poet.

It is now nearly 60 years since the millwright died, and my father and many of us at Herman Miller continue to wonder: Was he a poet that did millwright’s work, or was he a millwright who wrote poetry?

In our effort to understand corporate life, what is it that we should learn from this story? In addition to all of the ratios and goals and parameters and bottom lines, it is fundamental that leaders endorse the concept of persons. This begins with the understanding of the diversity of people’s gifts and talents and skills. Recognizing diversity helps us to understand the need we have for opportunity, equity, and identity in the work place.

Recognizing diversity gives us the chance to provide meaning, fulfillment and purpose, which are not to be relegated to  private life any more than are such things as love, beauty, and joy.

When we think about leaders and the variety of gifts people bring to corporations and institutions, we see that the art of leadership lies in polishing and liberating and enabling those gifts.

 

12 Things Happy People Do Differently

by Jacob Sokol

“I’d always believed that a life of quality, enjoyment, and wisdom were my human birthright and would be automatically bestowed upon me as time passed.  I never suspected that I would have to learn how to live - that there were specific disciplines and ways of seeing the world I had to master before I could awaken to a simple, happy, uncomplicated life.”
-Dan Millman

Studies conducted by positivity psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky point to 12 things happy people do differently to increase their levels of happiness.  These are things that we can start doing today to feel the effects of more happiness in our lives.  (Check out her book The How of Happiness.)

I want to honor and discuss each of these 12 points, because no matter what part of life’s path we’re currently traveling on, these ‘happiness habits’ will always be applicable.

1. Express gratitude. – When you appreciate what you have, what you have appreciates in value.  Kinda cool right?  So basically, being grateful for the goodness that is already evident in your life will bring you a deeper sense of happiness.  And that’s without having to go out and buy anything.  It makes sense.  We’re gonna have a hard time ever being happy if we aren’t thankful for what we already have.
2. Cultivate optimism. – Winners have the ability to manufacture their own optimism.  No matter what the situation, the successful diva is the chick who will always find a way to put an optimistic spin on it.  She knows failure only as an opportunity to grow and learn a new lesson from life.  People who think optimistically see the world as a place packed with endless opportunities, especially in trying times.
3. Avoid over-thinking and social comparison. – Comparing yourself to someone else can be poisonous.  If we’re somehow ‘better’ than the person that we’re comparing ourselves to, it gives us an unhealthy sense of superiority.  Our ego inflates – KABOOM – our inner Kanye West comes out!  If we’re ‘worse’ than the person that we’re comparing ourselves to, we usually discredit the hard work that we’ve done and dismiss all the progress that we’ve made.  What I’ve found is that the majority of the time this type of social comparison doesn’t stem from a healthy place.  If you feel called to compare yourself to something, compare yourself to an earlier version of yourself.
4. Practice acts of kindness. – Performing an act of kindness releases serotonin in your brain.  (Serotonin is a substance that has TREMENDOUS health benefits, including making us feel more blissful.)  Selflessly helping someone is a super powerful way to feel good inside.  What’s even cooler about this kindness kick is that not only will you feel better, but so will people watching the act of kindness.  How extraordinary is that?  Bystanders will be blessed with a release of serotonin just by watching what’s going on.  A side note is that the job of most anti-depressants is to release more serotonin.  Move over Pfizer, kindness is kicking ass and taking names.
5. Nurture social relationships. – The happiest people on the planet are the ones who have deep, meaningful relationships.  Did you know studies show that people’s mortality rates are DOUBLED when they’re lonely?  WHOA!  There’s a warm fuzzy feeling that comes from having an active circle of good friends who you can share your experiences with.  We feel connected and a part of something more meaningful than our lonesome existence.
6. Develop strategies for coping. – How you respond to the ‘craptastic’ moments is what shapes your character.  Sometimes crap happens – it’s inevitable.  Forrest Gump knows the deal.  It can be hard to come up with creative solutions in the moment when manure is making its way up toward the fan.  It helps to have healthy strategies for coping pre-rehearsed, on-call, and in your arsenal at your disposal.
7. Learn to forgive. – Harboring feelings of hatred is horrible for your well-being.  You see, your mind doesn’t know the difference between past and present emotion.  When you ‘hate’ someone, and you’re continuously thinking about it, those negative emotions are eating away at your immune system.  You put yourself in a state of suckerism (technical term) and it stays with you throughout your day.
8. Increase flow experiences. – Flow is a state in which it feels like time stands still.  It’s when you’re so focused on what you’re doing that you become one with the task.  Action and awareness are merged.  You’re not hungry, sleepy, or emotional.  You’re just completely engaged in the activity that you’re doing.  Nothing is distracting you or competing for your focus.
9. Savor life’s joys. – Deep happiness cannot exist without slowing down to enjoy the joy.  It’s easy in a world of wild stimuli and omnipresent movement to forget to embrace life’s enjoyable experiences.  When we neglect to appreciate, we rob the moment of its magic.  It’s the simple things in life that can be the most rewarding if we remember to fully experience them.
10. Commit to your goals. – Being wholeheartedly dedicated to doing something comes fully-equipped with an ineffable force.  Magical things start happening when we commit ourselves to doing whatever it takes to get somewhere.  When you’re fully committed to doing something, you have no choice but to do that thing.  Counter-intuitively, having no option – where you can’t change your mind – subconsciously makes humans happier because they know part of their purpose.
11. Practice spirituality. – When we practice spirituality or religion, we recognize that life is bigger than us.  We surrender the silly idea that we are the mightiest thing ever.  It enables us to connect to the source of all creation and embrace a connectedness with everything that exists.  Some of the most accomplished people I know feel that they’re here doing work they’re “called to do.”
12. Take care of your body. – Taking care of your body is crucial to being the happiest person you can be.  If you don’t have your physical energy in good shape, then your mental energy (your focus), your emotional energy (your feelings), and your spiritual energy (your purpose) will all be negatively affected.  Did you know that studies conducted on people who were clinically depressed showed that consistent exercise raises happiness levels just as much as Zoloft?  Not only that, but here’s the double whammy… Six months later, the people who participated in exercise were less likely to relapse because they had a higher sense of self-accomplishment and self-worth.

5 Rules For Making Your Vision Stick

BY CRAIG CHAPPELOW

A corporate mission statement isn't merely words to slap on a coffee mug or on the wall of your reception area. It should guide decision-making on every level--so learn to communicate it effectively.

In the mid-1990s, I was working with some leaders from Iams, the premium pet food company. Its mission: “Improving the well-being of dogs and cats.”

Over a beer after the workshop finished, some of the executives were telling work stories when the subject turned to then-CEO Clay Mathile. As the legend goes, he was approached by one of the leading business magazines of the day to be the subject for the cover story--and turned it down.

Most business leaders would jump at that opportunity. When asked why he didn’t accept, Mathile is rumored to have said, “I just can’t see how that would improve the lives of dogs and cats.”

I love that story. It’s a great example of leading by example and using the organization’s mission and vision to make decisions.

If you spend a lot of time in company headquarters like I do, you will often see organizations’ visions, missions and values written down somewhere, often in the main lobby for you to ponder as you go through the “sign in here, wear this nametag, your host will be right down” process. Other likely spots: the employee cafeteria, coffee mugs, and the corporate website.
Yet, senior executives are often blind to the reality that these guiding principles should play--and how well understood they are outside of the executive suite. If you asked the average employee who passes through the lobby, eats in the cafeteria, or drinks form the mug, my guess is that they might not even know the mission, vision, and values, much less how to use them to inform their work.

The fact is, even the greatest mission and vision statements fall flat unless they are shared effectively. Solid research finds that people see you as a better leader if you are able to communicate your organization’s vision effectively.

A study published in Claremont McKenna College’s Leadership Review shows that when leaders discuss their organizations’ vision in a specific way, not only is the vision better understood, the leaders are also seen as being more effective in general.

So what’s the practical lesson in that research for you?

Simply put, if you’re a leader, you need to exhibit the following five qualities in communicating your vision: 

1. Inspiration: The way someone discusses the organization’s vision can be just as important as the content. Eye contact, facial expressions, hand gestures, tone of voice, and enthusiasm all contribute to the increased impact of the message. In this short interview, Sal Kahn, founder of Kahn Academy, describes his vision in a casual, upbeat, almost infectious way.
2. Challenge: While simple works, easy does not. An element of challenge is critical. TheLeadership Review study showed that vision discussions that were ambitious and difficult were actually perceived as a plus by employees. If you talk about your vision as fiercely maintaining the status quo, you’re not being effective. In 2005, when he was president of Walgreens., Jeff Rein told me about their vision for growth. Their research showed that most of us use whatever pharmacy is four miles or less from our home or work. His vision was to have a Walgreens store within four miles of most people’s offices or homes. Since then, the company has gone from 5,000 stores to 7,900.
3. Clarity: Making a vision easily understood is critical. Drop the buzzwords and corporate speak. Use terms that are easily understood, unambiguous, and as simple as possible. There are a lot of clear mission statements out there, but my favorite was used by Nike in the 1960s: "Crush Adidas." The results from my own unscientific research study in which I counted the number of photos of athletes wearing Nike and Adidas shoes in the latest issue of Sports Illustrated: Nike 64, Adidas 8.
4. Task–specific: At any level in the organization, the challenge for employees is to try to convert the vision into their day job. By mentioning specific tasks, actions, and behaviors that bring the vision to life, leaders can help employees convert the concept into practice. Jeffery Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, in their Harvard Business Review article called "The Knowing Doing Gap," suggest that organizations use the act of creating and discussing mission/vision statements as one of the most common substitutes for actually taking action. The trick is to create a solid vision statement that is easily translatable by everyone in the organization into actions on their day-to-day job.
5. Inclusion: Certain key words registered as more positive in the Leadership Review study. Inclusive language such as “we,” “us,” and “our,” (instead of “they”) tended to unify people to the vision. Leaders scored higher when they stated how they were personally living out the vision. Etweda "Sugars" Cooper, mayor of Edina, Liberia, describes her vision for the small town's future in the wake of 14 years of civil war in a way that embraces everyone involved.

In 2004, by which time Iams had been purchased by Procter & Gamble, another Iams employee jumped at the chance for her cover shot. Euka, a golden retriever whose job as Vice President of Canine Communications was to hang out at headquarters to greet guests and represent IAMS at corporate events, posed with Procter & Gamble CEO A.G. Lafley forFortune--an outstanding example, by the way, of inclusion.

--Author Craig Chappelow, who specializes in 360-degree feedback and the development of effective senior executive teams, is a portfolio manager at the Center for Creative Leadership, a top-ranked, global provider of leadership education and research.

Working Out Doesn’t Just Make You Stronger, It Makes You Smarter

by Morgan Clendaniel via @fastcompany

We already know the facts: Our country is in the midst of an obesity epidemic. Few American adults exercise enough, and that poor lifestyle choice is getting handed down to our children, who are getting fat at record levels. And all that obesity is affecting our health, causing heart disease, diabetes, and untold other health consequences. But what if the effects aren’t only physical?

This new infographic, from OnlineCollegeCourses.com points out that exercise has some great benefits for not just how our body works, but how our brains work, too. It’s clearly important for kids, who need all the brain power they can get for school, but it’s equally important for adults: A fit worker is a fast, efficient worker.

First, let’s review the facts. Children--who should be buzzing about with so much energy that we have to ask them not to exercise--aren’t moving around that much anymore. (Ironically, part of the problem is the diminished role of phys ed in many public schools.) Only one in four children get 30 minutes of daily exercise, and by the time they’re teenagers, only 12% are getting their daily recommended amount of physical activity.

So what? Bill Gates probably spent more time tinkering with computers than he did on the basketball court, and he turned out fine. But not all of us are Bill Gates. In fact, only one of us is. Most of us could probably use a little brain boost, and it turns out that exercise does just that. In studies of students, vigorous exercise was shown to improve IQ scores by 3.8 points--and test scores, too.

This applies to adults, as well. Exercise improves memory, releases brain-derived neurotrophic factor (a protein that makes your neurons healthier), and has been shown to potentially increase the size of your hippocampus--the part of the brain responsible for memory and spatial recognition. It’s no surprise, then, that college students who work out before class do better on tests, and workers who work out are more efficient.

The lesson? If your employees want to take a longer lunch break to hit the gym, you should let them. You’ll be getting more than enough out of them in the afternoon to make up for the lost time.

See the full infographic here or see it below, if you’re not too busy at the gym!

MORGAN CLENDANIEL

Morgan is the editor of Co.Exist. Formerly, he was the deputy editor of GOOD.Continued

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Let's talk like idiots...

This made me laugh!

Many CEO's and Business Owners Are Caught in Holding Pattern

By ANGUS LOTEN via @wsj

Economic and political uncertainties—including the coming elections, the so-called fiscal cliff and the shaky European market—are putting many small businesses into a holding pattern.

Roughly half of 799 heads of small businesses expect economic growth to remain sluggish in the year ahead, according to the August Wall Street Journal/Vistage Small Business CEO Survey.Many small business chiefs said they're not planning to boost hiring or increase investment spending any time soon.

Only 37% said they planned to increase plant and equipment spending within the next 12 months, for instance. That is up from 36% in July, but still down from 40% in June, the survey found.

Additionally, fewer than half said they expect to hire new workers within the next 12 months, largely unchanged from July."It's very tough to have a clear view forward these days," said Ed Herinckx, president of HMHagency Inc., a Portland, Ore., marketing firm with 60 employees.

Mr. Herinckx said planning cycles have shortened among his firm's two-dozen clients—which include small and large companies in a range of industries, including Nike Inc., Louisiana-Pacific Corp. and Subway restaurants. Many aren't willing to make commitments beyond the next quarter, he says.

"We're only building to meet projected demand, rather than speculate," he added.

Launched in June, the monthly survey is aimed at gauging changes in the outlook of the heads of small U.S. companies.

Richard Curtin, a research director at the University of Michigan who analyzed the August results, said most owners are waiting for several key issues to be resolved over the next few months—not least the presidential elections in November—before committing any capital to new equipment or employees.

"There is substantial uncertainty out there," with many small-business owners asking themselves, 'Why make a big decision now?' " he said.

Many are postponing investments into their businesses until they have a sense of when and how the fiscal cliff will be bridged, which presidential candidate will prevail, and whether they might suffer as a result of the European financial crisis, he said.

Slightly more owners in August said they expect sales and profitability to improve, or at least remain steady, than in July—though not by enough to kick-start any significant business investments before year end.

Frank Flanagan, the owner of Sentry Control Systems Inc., a Los Angeles-based firm that automates parking-garage payment systems, said he's hoping to tap into growing demand from clients who are trying to trim operating costs through automation.

As a result, he said, his 90-employee firm is ratcheting up spending to boost production. "If we guess right, we can pick up market share," he said.

Sixty-five percent of respondents anticipate stronger sales in the next 12 months, and 50% said they expect profits to improve, according to the survey, fielded online from Aug. 13 to Aug. 24.

Only 9% are girding for weaker sales, while 17% expect to be less profitable.

The survey's small-business confidence index—a composite based on survey responses and benchmarked at 100—rose in August to 93.7, from 91.7 in July.

A monthly survey in July by the National Federation of Independent Business, a small-business lobby group, and a quarterly survey in July by Wells Fargo & Co., both found declines in optimism about the economy among small-businesses owners.

Click here for additional August results of The Wall Street Journal/Vistage Small Business CEO Survey.

7 Tips for Creating Your Own Destiny

by Kevin Daum 

Are you working on your life or just in it? Here is the perspective and method you need to plan and execute the life and career worthy of your potential.

Too many people whine about not having the life they want. The main reason people fall short of their own expectations is the same reason most companies fail to achieve their objectives: poor planning and execution. In fact, I am amazed at how many successful executives create strategy for their business, leaving their life to chance. Often it's more comfortable (note I didn't say easier) to complain and blame outside factors for lack of accomplishment or unhappiness than to take time to work on life rather than in it.

I choose otherwise. A close entrepreneur friend, J, and I are taking our annual four days away to determine our futures and hold each other accountable. Here are the tips that will assure us of success. 

1. Plan a Preferred Future

As Lewis Carroll said: If you don't know where you are going, then any road will get you there. Both J and I are close to 50, so our 60th birthdays are the milestone for this journey. Twelve years is plenty of time to make course corrections and absorb any external factors thrown at us. Our planning will be specific and measurable. We'll take time to examine and discuss the details of every aspect of our lives, personal and professional, to achieve integrated success and happiness. 

2. Be Pragmatic

Neither of us will be playing for the NBA at our age (or my height). The future has to reflect what is physically possible with available resources and limitations. Pragmatism isn't in itself restrictive, however; J and I will harness our creativity to design aspirational futures that exploit every opportunity and asset we have. We'll also create filters to keep us from wasting time and energy on what's unachievable or irrelevant. 

3. Decide the Who, Not the What

We're defining who we want to be at 60, not what we want to be doing. The whocenters on passion, core competencies, and core satisfaction, such as material requirements. If I know who I truly want to be, I can detail what to do, own, resources I need, etc. I can also determine what not to do, own, etc., focusing time and resources where required.

4. Be Honest

J and I will challenge each other constantly to get to the truth of who we are and who we wish to be. There will be no quiet politeness on this trip (not that I'm capable of it). I can't let J believe his own stories and rationalizations, causing misdirection and distraction. Warning: Allowing this dialogue requires intimate knowledge of each other and great trust. Pick your accountability partners wisely.

5. Consider the Tools Around You, Old and New

Every resource is important. On my old list is Napoleon Hill, who nearly 100 years ago connected creative visualization to success. And I will also consider new resources like crowdsourcing. Although I'm a natural skeptic for overhyped Internet trends, my friend and talented designer Elena Kriegner inspired me with her KickStarter campaign. It's simple, interesting, and elegant (like her jewelry), which is why it's gaining traction, unlike many others. In this planning exercise, no resources, new or old, are off the table to achieve my desired future.

6. Ignore the Naysayers

I live for constructive criticism. But outside perspective that is baseless conjecture or stems from emotional baggage (think dissatisfied family or friends) is destructive for achievers. Put these people in a box where they can't distract you from your ambitions. Find people who get it, and put them in your corner. Engage them in your preferred future, and help them achieve theirs.

7. Don't Settle for Mediocrity

Although being the next Steve Jobs or U.S. President is likely off our agenda (as it should be), J and I both want to be pushed to the limits of our potential. Too many people settle for what is easy rather than engage their energy and creativity to create something different and meaningful. Then they wonder why their work has no significance. I choose to pursue the Awesome Experience.

People who take a reactive approach to growth and development will suffer the same fate as companies, managers, and employees who let the markets, technology, and competitors determine their destiny. The game of life rewards aggressive players who leverage their energy, smarts (note that I didn't say intelligence), and creativity to determine and obtain the life that truly makes them happy. As Jim Collins points out in Great by Choice, good and bad luck comes to all; it's how you plan and execute that determines your return on luck.

Listening to Complainers Is Bad for Your Brain

by Minda Zetlin

Exposure to nonstop negativity actually impairs brain function. Here's how to defend yourself.

shutterstock images

Do you hate it when people complain? It turns out there's a good reason: Listening to too much complaining is bad for your brain in multiple ways, according to Trevor Blake, a serial entrepreneur and author of Three Simple Steps: A Map to Success in Business and Life. In the book, he describes how neuroscientists have learned to measure brain activity when faced with various stimuli, including a long gripe session.

"The brain works more like a muscle than we thought," Blake says. "So if you're pinned in a corner for too long listening to someone being negative, you're more likely to behave that way as well."

Even worse, being exposed to too much complaining can actually make you dumb. Research shows that exposure to 30 minutes or more of negativity--including viewing such material on TV--actually peels away neurons in the brain's hippocampus. "That's the part of your brain you need for problem solving," he says. "Basically, it turns your brain to mush."

But if you're running a company, don't you need to hear about anything that may have gone wrong? "There's a big difference between bringing your attention to something that's awry and a complaint," Blake says. "Typically, people who are complaining don't want a solution; they just want you to join in the indignity of the whole thing. You can almost hear brains clink when six people get together and start saying, 'Isn't it terrible?' This will damage your brain even if you're just passively listening. And if you try to change their behavior, you'll become the target of the complaint."

So, how do you defend yourself and your brain from all the negativity? Blake recommends the following tactics:

1. Get some distance

"My father was a chain smoker," Blake confides. "I tried to change his habit, but it's not easy to do that." Blake knew secondhand smoke could damage his own lungs as well. "My only recourse was to distance myself."

You should look at complaining the same way, he says. "The approach I've always taken with complaining is to think of it as the same as passive smoking." Your brain will thank you if you get yourself away from the complainer, if you can.

2. Ask the complainer to fix the problem

Sometimes getting distance isn't an option. If you can't easily walk away, a second strategy is to ask the complainer to fix the problem.  "Try to get the person who's complaining to take responsibility for a solution," Blake says. "I typically respond to a complaint with, 'What are you going to do about it?'" Many complainers walk away huffily at that point, because he hasn't given them what they wanted, Blake reports. But some may actually try to solve the problem.

3. Shields up!

When you're trapped listening to a complaint, you can use mental techniques to block out the griping and save your neurons. Blake favors one used by the late Spanish golfer Seve Ballesteros during a match against Jack Nicklaus--a match the crowd wanted Ballesteros to lose. "He was having difficulty handling the hostility of the crowd," Blake says. "So he imagined a bell jar that no one could see descending from the sky to protect him."

Major League Baseball pitchers can sometimes be seen mouthing "Shields on!" as they stride to the mound, he says. He adds that his own imaginary defense is "more like a Harry Potter invisibility cloak."

A related strategy is to mentally retreat to your imagined favorite spot, someplace you'd go if you could wave a magic wand. "For me, it was a ribbon of beautiful white sugary sand that extended out in a horseshoe shape from a private island," Blake says. "I would take myself to my private retreat while people were ranting and raving. I could smile at them and nod in all the right places and meanwhile take myself for a walk on my private beach."

Blake first saw the picture of the island in a magazine, and the image stuck with him. Eventually, he got a chance to try it for real. "It turned out the island was for rent, and it was the same one I'd seen," he says. "So I rented it for a week. And I got to take that walk."

Innovation is Creativity x Risk Taking

by Robert Brands 

Innovation is impossible to achieve without taking a necessary amount of risk. In a world where the success rate of new product entries in the grocery business is 1 in 100, it is inevitable that every success sees failures along the way. An effective innovation leader should encourage creativity andrisk taking, while also practicing a tolerance for failure.

In order to foster initiative and innovation, ask yourself these questions.

• Do you allow free research and development (R&D) time?
• Do you invest in innovation: money, people, resources?
• Do you celebrate failure and risk taking?

In a tough economy the willingness to take risks can wither, so it’s critical to let team members know that failure will not result in punitive measures. A strong leader practices failure management by setting and agreeing on the risk taking bandwidth or budget. It is ok to fail but that failure should be seen and recognized as a learning experience.

Fear of failure is an innovation killer, so here are some simple steps to develop a failure management plan that will lead to a culture of sustainable innovation.

1. Clearly communicate the risk profile you are asking your people to adopt and state why it is important to the organization’s success. This limits your potential loss, while opening up the floor for creativity and risk taking.
2. Never allow an unsuccessful risk to hamper a team member’s opportunities and advancement. A culture of innovation depends on trust.
3. Create and communicate the results of an award program created with a high intraorganizational profile. It should, ideally, reward risks that pay off and “gee, nice try’s” that don’t.
4. Establish a formalized, non-accusatory process for harvesting key learnings from unsuccessful risks. Distribute these lessons learned. The key here is that all risks, whether successful or not, contribute towards the end goal.
5. Give your people the situational risk assessment tools they need to help them improve their risk-taking decisions. This can include risk scoring systems to identify different levels of risk, and ways to deal with adverse situations as part of a preventive strategy.

For more tips on achieving innovation through risk taking and failure management, see “Robert’s Rules of Innovation: A 10-Step Guide for Corporate Survival.”

The Five Rules for Negotiation

Jack Kaine is a master negotiator.  Negotiation is the process for addressing and solving problems. Problems and conflicts must be negotiated as soon as they arise, because they do not age gracefully. This is particularly true where money is concerned. Conflict is inevitable. It can be positive, negative, or irrelevant; it is how the conflict or problems are handled that makes the difference.

So what are the five key rules for negotiation?

Jack is speaking to my Vistage group and select guests next week.  If you would like an inviation feel free to contact me directly:  tom dot cuthbert at vistage dot com

11 Reasons a 23-Year-Old Shouldn't Run Your Social Media

By Hollis Thomases via @inc

Sure, she understands Instagram. But do you really want a new grad controlling your brand online?

 

Pardon the generalization: I don't mean to attack 23-year-olds specifically. Nor do I believe there are no young people capable of managing a business's social-media responsibilities.

I am, however, trying to make a point: Just because you don't understand social media doesn't mean you should forfeit all common sense and hire your niece, nephew, or any other other recent college grad (say, your best friend's sister-in-law's kid) because "they're really good on Facebook."

If your business targets the young and hip, most definitely look to a recent grad or young social-media nerd to help your business. But don't assume, either, that you need to hire someone young to manage your social media "just because."

Frankly, this kind of logic makes me crazy--and yet I'm seeing it more and more these days. But you really shouldn't be entrusting your entire social-media efforts to a newly graduated intern. Here's why.

1.  They're not mature enough. Compared with young people 50 years ago, who were eager to enter adulthood and settle down, today's youth are not only not eager to do so, but most do not feel that they've reached adulthood until late into their 20s or early 30s, according to research from Clark University. Instead, they tend to feel unstable and self-focused and would rather explore who they are and how they can transform their lives. This is great for them but not so great for you, their employer--particularly because social media is all about communicating with your audience in mature and accountable ways.

2.  They may be focused on their own social-media activity. Because of the above, if you hire a young person to manage your social media, you may also need to need to worry about how he or she is actually spending his or her time. Will you need to be monitoring the person?

3. They may not have the same etiquette--or experience. Your recent college grad may have experience with Facebook and Instagram, but make sure you check out the substance of his or her updates and posts. You need to make sure your posts reflect your brand--and that you don't wind up with a late-night smartphone photo landing in the wrong account. At the very least, ensure you have a social-media policy in place.

4.  You can't control their friends.  This isn't exclusive to recent grads, of course, but it's a risk to consider: Even if you hire a real winner, be sure that his or her friends won't post inappropriate content to your company's social-media accounts.

5.  No class can replace on-the-job training.  Social media for business is really so many things wrapped into one: marketing, customer service, public relations, crisis management, branding. How deep is the experience of a young person in delivering any of these things?

6.  They may not understand your business.  You are handing the keys to your social-media kingdom to a newcomer, but there's plenty that he or she needs to understand beyond the social tools themselves. What are the nuances of your products or services? What makes you stand out in the marketplace? What are the typical expectations of your customers? How do you troubleshoot issues or cajole customers into working a bit more with you? What does your company stand for? No new hire will be able to absorb these issues overnight, of course--but a brand-new graduate will have an even steeper learning curve.

7.  Communication skills are critical. Communication is critical to solid social-media execution. Before you let a young hire take over your company blog posts, take stock of his or her writing skills. Also: Many young people have not yet learned the "art" of communicating. Make sure they know how to read between the lines, rather than taking things too literally.

8.  Humor is tricky business.  People like to be entertained, on social media as well as elsewhere. Will a young hire understand the boundaries of humor and entertainment appropriate to your target audience, or could your audience wind up being offended?

9.  Social-media savvy is not the same as technical savvy. Good social media requires a combination of both. Successful social-media management involves production requirements, tools, analytics, and other aspects of work.

10. Social-media management can become crisis management. The real-time nature of social media can quickly turn fun engagement and conversation into apublic relations disaster, especially if the person behind the wheel isn't thinking a few steps ahead. Are you really willing to take that risk?

11. You need to keep the keys. If you do go ahead and hire a new grad, make sure he or she sets up the social-media accounts using your company's email and shares the passwords with you. Otherwise, you could wind up with no access to these social-media accounts--and no way to take them over.

Social media is not the be-all and end-all. It's a marketing tool--part of an ever-growing arsenal of ways to bring your company to your prospective customers' attention.

Thinking of it this way, you will perhaps slow down and consider more closely whom you're hiring--and why.

How to use Google Two-Factor Authentication

By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols

Do you really think security is too much trouble? That no one is ever going to bother with your accounts? Ask former Gizmodo employee Mat Honan if he feels that way after his accounts and devices were wiped clean. That could have been you, and it could have been worse. There are several ways to try to protect your online accounts and one of the more important of these is two-factor authentication. 

Two-factor authentication is ancient IT technology. If you've ever worked in a shop that required you both to show an ID card and enter a pin to go through a door, you've used it. As the name suggests it requires you to both show you know something, typically a password, and have a unique item that identifies you. On the Web, two-factor authentication typically requires you have both a password and a phone with its unique number, which can be used as the item.

Since Google played a role in the Honan case and almost everyone uses some Google service or the other--and Apple doesn't support two-factor authentication—let's go over how to turn on Google's version of two-factor authentication:  two-step verification. 

Before jumping in that though here are some other basics. First, don't use passwords, use passphrases. “Always color outside the lines!” is both much easier to remember and far harder to break than say "Tr)ub4DORm1."

Second, use different passphrases for each of your accounts. These days, as in both the Honan situation and the recent Dropbox breach, a major reason things went bad was that one password was used for multiple accounts. If you use a different passphrase for each account, you limit your damage to that one service.

And, if you have trouble remembering all those passphrases—as we all do—I suggest you invest in a password management program. I use, and like, LastPass myself. I have many tech. savvy friends, however, who swear by 1Password. 

Got all that? Good. 

What Google two-step verification adds to your security blanket is to get access to your Google account and all its services is that to break in a cracker needs not only your password but your phone as well.

To use Google 2 step verification, you'll need your phone as well as your PC.

Here's how to set Google's two-step verification up. The first thing you'll need is a phone that will accept anonymous SMS (aka text) messages or voice calls. You're going to need that because Google uses your unique phone and its number as its second factor. Google recommends that you use a mobile phone number as opposed to a landline or Google Voice number.You can use either, but I suggest you don't use a Google Voice number since that could trap you in a situation where you couldn't easily access any of your Google services  

Next, you need to sign-in to your Google account and head to the two-step verification settings page. Once there, you'll need to choose “Using 2-step verification” from the menu. From here, you'll enter the country your phone is registered I and enter your phone  number. You can also choose whether to get your verification code by voice or SMS on your phone. In a matter of seconds, you'll get a call with your verification number. You then enter this code into the data entry box provided by your Web browser. Your computer will then ask you if you want it to remember the computer you're using. If you answer, “yes” that computer will be authorized for use for 30-days. Finally, you turn on 2-step verification and you're done.

Well, not really. You see, you're not really authorizing your computer,as you might think from the instructions, you're authorizing the use of a particular Web browser on that computer with 2-step verification. If, like me, you run more than one browser you'll need to go through this process with every browser. You'll also need to go through it with every computer you use. Since on an average day I use half-a-dozen different computers that adds up to a lot of time for the initial setup. 

Also, while most Google services work with 2-step authenticaiton, not all of them do. Services that don't support the 2-step authentication dance include: 

POP and IMAP email clients such as Outlook, Mail and Thunderbird 
Gmail and Google Calendar on smartphones 
ActiveSync for Windows Mobile and iPhone 
YouTube Mobile on Apple devices 
Cloud Print 
IM clients for Google Talk and Adium 
3D Warehouse, Sketchup, and installed applications 
AdWords Editor 
Sync for Google Chrome 
Gmail Notifier

So, if like me, you use a smartphone and clients for email and IM, you'll also need to set up application specific passwords. This will not, can not, be the same as your master Google password.

Google, not you, generates your application specific passwords.

You'll get these application specific passwords by first giving it a name, such as e-mail, Android, and so on, and then Google will automatically generate a password for you. You then enter this new password in for the application and your application will be good to go. There are also a handful of applications, such as Google TV Gallery, that don't work with any version of 2-step verification. 

From this same page you can also see all the services you've authorized to use your Google ID as your identification. So long as you're cleaning up your security act anyway, you might as well go through the list and Revoke Access to any service you're no longer using. 

Let's say though that you don't have your phone, or you're somewhere without a signal when your laptop's 30-days of grace are up. No problem. Google gives you two answers.

The first is to download the Google Authenticator app for Android, Apple and Blackberry tablets and smartphones. With this you can generate a PC/browser password. You can also create a batch of ten backup codes, which you can use to authorize a computer. 

Is this perfect? No. There's no such thing as perfect security. A man in the middle attack can still grab your password and your authentication number. And, a good old fashioned people hack led toCloudFlare CEO's losing control of his Google account even with two-factor authentication.

Even so, if you don't want  your personal security disaster you should follow all these suggestions. Yes,setting Google, or any other two-factor authentication, up can be a pain but you'll be far safer with it than without it. 

http://www.zdnet.com/how-to-use-google-two-factor-authentication-7000002345/

How to Work Harder & Not Burn Out

by Maura McCarthy via @inc

You might think keeping work and your personal life separate is best for balance. But it might actually be causing you to burn out.

 

For so many of us, keeping work and a personal life fairly balanced is a constant struggle.

Maybe it’s time to rethink the “separate but equal” work-life balance theory and find ways to rekindle and nurture the passions that drew us to our career choices in the first place?

If we don’t, we risk burnout. Here are three strategies for avoiding burnout by staying connected to work, both as an employee and as a person.

1. Connect the dots between the Home You and the Office You. 

One cliché that still holds very true: Finding what you love is central to being your best at work. Within your industry and organization, be sure that your talents and abilities in “real life” (the things that are important to you in your day-to-day life at home) are in line with your tasks at work. In the best scenario, the talents that make you who you are in your family life, your social life, your hobbies, etc. are also put to use in your job (think meticulous attention to detail, compassionate understanding in social situations, drive to creatively problem solve, etc.).

Not there yet? Even some small changes--like taking on pieces of projects that you feel connected to--can help give you a more personal relationship to your work and company.

Some of the best decisions I’ve made for Blu have involved helping employees find where they are best suited and where their passions within the business truly lie. Productivity goes up, of course, but so do morale, fresh ideas, and a host of other invaluable and highly contagious effects.

2. Keep the big picture easily within reach--literally.

Getting caught up in the minutiae is so easy, especially when your job is high stress, involves managing others, or demands intense attention to detail.

There’s much research to support the idea that visual reminders can be powerful motivators. So find one and keep it in plain sight. Hokey? Maybe.

But I remember one day when I stopped by my local pizza place for a slice, I was struck by, of all things, the box: The ambitious little pizza company had designed its box to incorporate the words that evoke its mission and message. It depicted visually the ideals at the core of the business. That stuck with me. I cut out the box top and still have it to this day at my desk.

Reconnecting to the reasons you were inspired in the first place is crucial to keeping your own work exciting--and, if you are the boss, provides the fuel for continuing to inspire others.

3. Create opportunities for employees--or for yourself--to be in the thick of it.

When you’re staring at this month’s budget spreadsheet under the glow of your desk lamp at 11 p.m., it can be hard to remember the why.

When the going gets rough, it’s hard to remind yourself that it’s thanks to that budget that resources can be adequately allocated in the development of new and better ways to bring clean, beautiful, green homes to Americans looking to live healthier lives, for example.

Combat this by putting yourself “in the field,” even if your job has nothing to do with frontline work. One non-profit I know does this with a program that rotates employees through an “ambassador” program that gives people working in all parts of the organization a chance to represent their company and witness firsthand the impact of their work on the ground in Third World countries. This is an ambitious solution, but it doesn’t take such extravagant programs to have a similar effect. Look for events outside the office that bring you closer to your business’s core.

If you don’t step outside of your cubicle (or your corner office), you risk feeling disconnected from your business and why you’re there. 

If your workplace can’t help facilitate enrichment of this kind, then take it on for yourself. It’s an investment in your career and your happiness.