Category: Leadership

Sometimes you just need to pick a different table.

And bring your own chair.

My father half-jokingly laments that he doesn’t like watching the news because he’s always finding out that some food he loves is killing him. The fact that he’s from the rural South notwithstanding…

It’s true.

We’re constantly bombarded with reports and studies about the things that have made their way into our everyday lives, and how they’re going to cause cancer of the everything™ in twenty years: cleansers, asbestos, cell phone radiation, DDT, lead paint, high fructose corn syrup, water, oxygen, the list goes on.

The trouble is that in many cases we get this information second and third-hand from media outlets looking to create the latest hysteria, with research funded by companies looking to sell us a cure or solution. Everyone’s biased! Who should we trust?

I think one solution is to get curious.

We have access to unbiased research if we’re willing to look for it, and you can bet that there’s someone trying to get the word out about their findings.

And if it’s not a popular opinion to hold (see: it could cause large companies to lose lots of money if the truth got out), it’s likely that their efforts have been undermined and disregarded, making them all the more willing to talk to you about their opinion.

Help them start a blog. Or release an ebook.

Or perhaps you can be our resource. I’d love to know what you find.

I’ve been shadowing my CEO on some customer projects recently, and it’s been eye-opening.

Sure, he has a decade and a half of high-level engineering experience that he draws from, but what’s most interesting to me is the dynamic that exists during client calls: even previously hostile customers listen with rapt attention, excited to hear about how their business could improve.

Early on, when I would handle customer calls on my own, I found myself just hoping not to blow a deal. Slowly, I became more confident in what I was “selling,” and that confidence in turn assured the person to whom I was speaking.

There is a posture that gives customers the confidence to spend money with your company, and it’s forged only by 1) actually knowing what you’re talking about, 2) experience (not just the ability to do the work proposed, but a demonstrated history of delighted customers), and 3) a deep understanding of the customer’s business.

Oh, and having a quality product to sell.

As I told clients for years during my freelancing days, the technology is the easy part.

If you’re in the NYC area and have an interest in Yoga, you should come to Geek Yoga on Thursdays at 8PM.

Here’s why I’m sharing it with you:

• Jenny didn’t wait for anyone to give her the chance to teach a class, she rented the space and now it’s a thing.
• The class makes it easy for stiff engineers like me to get started with something physical like yoga without feeling as ridiculous as I look when doing it
• Every time I drag someone along, they say they love it and come back the next week

See you soon?

This is something I’m learning from my CEO right now, and I’ve found it to be helpful. The idea behind it isn’t complicated.

Instead of hashing out an optimized gameplan for peak productivity that’s disturbed every time your schedule is interrupted, why not determine what the essential items are in your operation and complete them, no matter what?

If you have a meeting that takes place at 6am ET every week and your speaking engagement in California requires you to get up at 3am, just act accordingly.

If your team’s project won’t be completed in time unless you spend an extra hour in the office without pay or recognition, just act accordingly.

If there are things that must be done for which you have no training, and that terrify you: 1) congratulations! 2) just act accordingly.

One lesson I learned about leadership last year is that your goals should not be derailed by the inaction of others. In the context of a team setting, your leadership and the example you set must take place regardless of the goals others set and fall short on.

This means that the completion of your goals should be enhanced by the contributions of others, but not predicated on them. Behave as if your goals are mission-critical (because they are), and as if the consistent completion of your goals is the only way you’ll get ahead (because it is).

I have a P.O. Box at the UPS Store near my apartment here in NYC, so I’m there pretty frequently. The service is generally good, and being able to walk downstairs (just outside by building) to pick up my mail is nice.

I went there yesterday and saw a slip in my box indicating that I had a package. Also worthy of note is that a man carrying himself like the manager (who I had never seen before) was in the store.

He took the slip from me with a look of smug indifference and handed it to another employee. As the manager and employee moved out of sight into the area where packages are logged, I could hear the manager starting to berate the employee for an issue that was obviously being discussed before I entered the store.

The manager was literally doing everything wrong in providing correction: confrontational chastisement, speaking loudly, saying that it (the resolution for the issue) would have come out of the employee’s paycheck if he (the illustrious manager) hadn’t caught it, etc.

The specifics of the employee gaffe are immaterial (amounting to less than $100 if you’re interested), but the manager saw fit to humiliate the poor guy for the whole store to hear.

It just reminded me that there’s an art to leadership and management, and I was bothered to the point of almost saying something as it was taking place. It’s hard to imagine someone getting it so wrong, and it makes me wish that How to Win Friends & Influence People was required reading for anyone in a leadership position.

I’ve worked with two highly successful businessmen this year (the former a marketer, the latter an engineer) and a common theme can be seen in their “management” style: they don’t impose upon others strict deadlines or expectations.

They are both smart enough to realize that pushing someone to reach certain specific goals that they (the leader) set is short-sighted, and that the ideal arrangement is for someone to set goals for themselves.

Although it’s challenging to avoid saying, “do [task] by [deadline],” the art of leadership is to create a leader who self-manages, not an employee who looks for guidance at every turn.