Category: Corporate Games

I’m getting asked for a big favor today.
I know
because the relative called me
on Saturday
and said she wanted
to discuss something with me today.
She wouldn’t discuss this on the phone.
I’m 99% sure it is a favor.

I don’t know what kind of favor.
I don’t know how big this big favor is.
So since Saturday
it has been simmering
in the back of my mind,
irritating the hell out of me.
Although I usually grant all favors I can grant,
I am predisposed to say no to this one
(just because it ruined my freakin’ weekend).

If you’re going to warn someone
that you’re going to ask them a favor,
at least have the decency
to let her know what that favor consists of
(financial, time, expertise, etc).

It also helps, if you can,
to build up to the favor.
Hint that you’re having financial difficulty
or that you may be kicked out of your house
or…

Otherwise, simply ask
and DON’T forewarn.

I love the video for
Drake’s Find Your Love.

The old ‘mentor’,
a man with the hero’s best interest at heart,
a knowledge of the community,
and vast experience,
tells the hero to leave
the drug dealer’s girl alone.

The mentor lays out
argument after argument.
The hero clearly isn’t listening.
As Drake states
‘you hear
but you don’t listen.’
Eventually the mentor stops talking
and the hero gets himself killed.

The best advice
is wasted if you don’t listen to it.
Heed or don’t heed advice
but, at the very least,
listen to it.
(So you can kick your own ass
for having ignored it later)

Many romance writers
glow over how great attending conferences are.
They talk about attending
a dozen workshops
and learning so much from each one.

I know, however,
that this would do nothing for me.
I learn by doing.
When I sit in a workshop,
I schedule time after that workshop
to implement the lessons.
If I don’t implement the lessons,
I don’t learn.

So attending a dozen workshops,
one after another,
would be useless.

To be successful,
the first lesson you need to learn
is HOW you learn.
Do you have to do?
Do you learn by listening?
Do you have to see the lessons?

Once you’ve figured that out,
THEN find sources of information
presented in your preferred method.
It will save aggravation
and time.

Today I have a two hour meeting
three hours away
at noon.
That is the only thing
I have to do at this location.

Yep, very poor planning.
It completely breaks up my day,
ensuring
that I do nothing before the meeting.
So basically this is an eight hour meeting.

It turns out
I can’t do this meeting another way
(the client refuses alternative methods)
and I have to factor it into my cost
of taking on this project.

But that isn’t always the case.

If travel time is a beyotch for a meeting,
try to meet half way
or accumulate things to do in the same location
or figure out a way
to share the information
without meeting face-to-face.

“Managing email now accounts
for about half of the average employee’s workday.”

You read that right
HALF.
Four hours a day is spent
on email management.

That is a crazy waste of time.

I receive
about 1,000 emails a day
to my personal inbox.
Clientk readers who email me
(and I do love the emails)
will know that I’m not always the best
at responding.

Why?

Because I spend most of my day
DOING.
I do first
and then reward myself
with email.

That’s the best thing about emails.
They don’t go bad.
Whether I answer them at 9am or 9pm
won’t matter.

Do first.
Check email second.
Read Cameron Herold’s article
for other great tips.

P.S. the exception is
if I’m between projects
and on a mini-holiday
as Elisha recently found out.

I am a big believer
in job hopping
during the early stages of a career.
Spending a couple years
in a few different companies
provides a solid base
of management styles and experiences
to draw upon.

Research by Monika Hamori
of Spain’s IE Business School,
however,
states that once we get to an executive level
and our eye is on the CEO seat,
we should stay put.

Why?

Because if companies hire outside for a CEO,
they look only at candidates
that ARE already CEO’s.
They don’t look at CFO’s or COO’s or…

Companies are more likely
to hire a non-CEO
from their internal pool of candidates.

So job jump at the lower levels
and stay put at the higher.

There are competent teachers
and there are GREAT teachers.
The lessons great teachers
share
are about real life.

One of my favorite teachers
would present three or four ways of arriving at
calculus solutions.
She wasn’t just teaching about calculus.
She was teaching us
that there was more than one way
of getting to any goal.
That lesson was priceless.

Terry Starbucker
shares a lesson from one of his favorite teachers.
This teacher would present
his exam questions
from hardest to easiest.
The hard questions would have to be answered
before moving to the easiest.
The lesson was, of course,
to do the most important things in life first.

Are you teaching/mentoring at this level?
If you aren’t, why not?

The latest corporate trend
is the office-less manager,
managers sharing cubicles
with their employees.

This seems like a great deal
for managers.
Wow, now managers can contribute
and micro-manage
every step of the process.
They can stay abreast
of every project
and every sales call
and every everything.

As a contractor,
a creative person,
and a problem solver,
I HATE sitting in a bullpen with my manager.
I HATE the office-less environment.

Creativity is about failure.
There are a dozen failed solutions
for every successful one
(for an example of that, look at BP’s process).
With the manager right there,
she will be aware of every single failure.

I play it safe when watched.
I reach for things that have worked.
I don’t come up with crazy yet brilliant ideas.

If you want average,
go for the office-less environment.
If you want cutting edge,
let your creative people
have the space to fail.

On the weekend,
I won a critique of a query letter
from a renowned pitch coach.

I am not currently
working on a submission
needing a query.
One of my critique partners is,
however.
I gave the opportunity to her,
with the request
that she share the critique.

Success is a team event.
That means that
not only is the work shared
but the booty (or winnings) is shared also.

Sharing the glory will ensure
that your successful team stays happy
and focused on future successes.

The co-worker of a buddy
applied to an internal job posting.
She told everyone she applied
(her current manager was not amused).
She told everyone
when the phone interview was.
She took that interview
at her desk.

She bungled the interview.
She didn’t pass that initial stage.
She didn’t get the job.

And everyone knew it.
(Yeah, a cringe-worthy moment)

I fail.
I fail A LOT.
However, I don’t usually broadcast
these failures.
If there is a chance
a venture might fail,
I only inform the people I need help from
to increase the venture’s chances of success.

Many people think less
of doers who fail.
(It is silly
but it is the world we currently live in)
Limit your public failures
as best you can.
Don’t tell everyone your business.