Archive for the Initiative Category

On this date, 29 years ago (January 28, 1983), the Challenger space shuttle exploded 73 seconds into flight, killing all seven crew members.  This space mission was to include Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space.

According to Wikipedia, one study reported that 85 percent of Americans heard the news within an hour of the accident.  Considering Mark Zuckerberg wasn’t even born yet, the speed of the report without social media is quite remarkable.

What’s even more remarkable is that we kept going.   It would have been easy to stop and give up.  Many would have been sympathetic and understood if we took that path.  But, despite a tragedy that involved the loss of human life, we learned from our failures, tried again, and eventually were successful at sending men to the moon again.

Our personal struggles rarely come close to a life and death situation.  But persevering and picking ourselves off the mat over and over again in the face of failure is a great lesson to learn.

One of my favorite quotes, first discovered in Mark Cuban’s book How to Win at the Sport of Business, is from Coach Bobby Knight (former men’s basketball coach at Indiana University and Texas Tech, most wins of any coach at the time he retired):

The key is not the will to win.  Everybody has that.  It is the will to prepare to win that is important.

Many want to win.  Few take the time to do it.

In his early years, Mark Cuban sold software.  He took a different software manual home every night and read it.

Why?  Because no one else did.  When people asked him questions, he knew his stuff and could give assessments and comparisons on everything he sold.  This helped him build rapport with clients and ultimately led to more sales and consulting work.

Do you spend the time preparing?  Before you visit or speak with a client, do you know your desired outcome?  What actions do you plan to take to deliver these results?  What will be the client’s reaction and how will you respond?  Do you truly understand the client’s needs and how your goals align with theirs?  Does the client really feel like you care?

The difference between winning and losing can be very small.  What would it mean to your business to have won an additional 5% or 10% deals this year?

Do the work that nobody else does.  Put in the time and you will reap the rewards.

Excuses.  I had so many of them.

A few years ago, I told myself that I was going to start a blog.  So, I bought a theme, got everything setup, and then proceeded to let it sit on the shelf collecting dust.  Why?  Because I didn’t have a logo.  Something that seems so insignificant now (does anyone really care about a blogger’s logo?) became a major impediment.  Between work and family life, I didn’t have time to put it together, or so I said.  Or, when I finally did have time, I didn’t like what I put together.  Producing work for yourself is somewhat similar to dating.  You could never find the perfect mate for yourself yet had no problem advising or setting up your best friend.  In the end, the blog was never started.

One of my other dreams was to start a business.  A couple of buddies and I brainstormed some ideas at work, but again, there were always excuses.  Either we couldn’t think of any good ideas, couldn’t figure out a way to make money, or our days jobs got in the way of putting in the hours on a side project.  It was always some excuse.  In the end, the business was never started.

For many of us, we live in our comfort zone, doing the same thing every day yet expecting a different result.

For me, this year will be different.  No, this isn’t just another New Year’s resolution.  While I practice the skills of being a Linchpin at work, I don’t hold myself accountable to ship in my side projects.  I’m ready to start.  And repeat.  To move the needle from ‘wantrepreneur’ to ‘entrepreneur.’

Seth Godin, one of my favorite authors (including the aforementioned Linchpin) and blogger, recently published his most recent book, What To Do When It’s Your Turn (and it’s always your turn).  In his usual style, Godin challenges you to do work that matters, and race to the top instead of the bottom.  Godin’s Special Projects Lead, Winnie Kao, decided to use her failed daily blog post as a means to rally together and practice shipping together.  Daily.  The challenge involves blogging daily for 7 days in a row.

Why am I participating?  There is nothing more amazing than a community of like-minded people.  To meet, connect, and share.  To push each other to ship.  As Godin wrote, “people like us do stuff like this.”  Care to join us?

Happy New Year!  Streamers!  Parade!  Ball Dropping!  Expensive tickets to a party where the line to the bar is so deep you only get 1 drink and everyone leaves by 12:08!

…Wait, what’s that you say?  It’s NOT New Years?  It’s already past the middle of January?  OK – let’s check in on all those resolutions you said were so important just a couple of weeks ago.  How are you doing?

Approximately one-third of people will break their New Year’s resolutions within the first 30 days.

If you’re still going, keep up the great work!  It typically takes about 2 months for a new habit to form.  This study, published in the European Journal of Social Psychology in 2010, shows that people took anywhere from 18 to 254 days (average 66 days) for their new habit to become automatic, mostly depending on the person and habit.  No wonder it’s not easy!

If you’ve already broken your resolution, don’t despair.  Just get back on the horse.  Why not pretend that today is New Years Eve?  You don’t have to wait for an artificially made up day to begin forming a new habit.  So break out those streamers and celebrate!

3…  2…  1… start again!

Yesterday, I was on an email chain talking about a financial reporting tool and process that is quite evidently very broken.  The resources using the tool, now being called ‘Champions’ for our respective geographic regions, have varying levels of expertise and understanding ranging from novice to expert.  There is a lot of uncertainty over the billing triggers that happened downstream.  There are many manual steps with a high possibility of human error.  Finally, there are too many one-off situations requiring outside help to fix.

One person suggested to the rest of the email chain that we should embark on a Kaizen, a Japanese term for continual improvement.  The response?  He was told such changes were “above my pay grade.” “I don’t have authority,” and change only comes from the top.

I cringed.

Frankly, that kind of attitude is a cop-out.  Everyone has the ability to recommend change not just “from the top.”  In fact, as someone on the front line actually using the tool, you’re in a much better position to recommend changes than someone who is further away and only looking at final results, not how you got there.  You might not have the resources or money at your disposal to actually implement but nothing is stopping you from summarizing your findings and proposing the ideas to the leaders who do control those resources.

Who knows, the leader might agree with you and appoint you to lead the project.  A successful implementation and rollout of the change would solve a major problem – something you can add to your résumé.  Once you’ve been established as someone who can effect positive change, you’ll likely be asked to do it again, and again, which can ultimately lead to a promotion.  This is one of the best methods in picking yourself for career advancement as opposed to waiting for someone to pick you.

Even if your suggestions are shot down or don’t meet the leader’s vision today, you’ll be looked at differently, as a change agent, and someone who will be picked to help lead future projects.

Saying it’s above your pay grade is deflecting blame.  It puts the problem on someone else’s shoulders and gives you a pulpit to complain or say “see I told you it wouldn’t work.”  Failure is ok.  That’s how we learn.

Encouraging a culture of feedback and open two-way communication between associates and leaders is critical to the success of an organization.