Category: Corporate Games

In Carmine’s last post at Slow Leadership,
he writes…
“My last word is this:
the very best leadership,
I am convinced,
is engaging in
as few “managerial” activities as possible.
By this I mean creating plans and budgets,
setting strategies, setting up mergers and acquisitions,
discussing policies, holding meetings, marketing,
branding, analyzing data and the like.
Nearly all such actions get
in the way of real business
and lie at the heart of most problems
that leaders face.”

Though I don’t agree that all the listed activities
are useless,
I DO agree that a lot of time is wasted.

That’s
one of the reasons
I’m no longer in corporate.
I figured I could better use that time
on my own projects.

Ask yourself why you’re doing something
before you start doing it.
If you don’t have to do it,
don’t do it.
If you need it done
but don’t need to do it yourself,
delegate it.

I spent most of last month
judging contest entries.
One contest
was the best of the best
for romance eBooks.

Anyone could, for a fee,
enter their book.

Anyone did.

There were books
that clearly had never seen an editor
(or at least not my kiss ass editor)
yet these authors felt
their books were the best of the best.

It was an eye opener.
Humbling.
Because there could be judges
out there
thinking the same thing of my book.

Everyone thinks their product
is the best.
That’s why outside opinion is so important.
Listen to your customers.
Listen to your critics.
Listen to your competition.
Let them be the judge, not you.

Recently I was being ‘considered’
for a contract position.
It took the company a month
to move from
the resume stage
to the interview stage.

After two weeks,
I had already written the company off
as a prospective employer.
Many other candidates did the same.
They either got jobs elsewhere
or (as I did)
worked on projects.

Great employees are in demand,
regardless of the economy.
A slow hiring process
means you’ll be lose candidates.
These WON’T be the undesirable candidates.

If you want first choice
of the best employees,
speed up the process.

For the first twenty some years of my life,
I trained myself
to go back to school in September.

Decades later,
I still want to go back to school
in September.

So why fight it?

Continuous education is a must.
We need to stay current.
Keep our skills fresh.
Update our knowledge.

Work with
the September back to school urge.
Take a course.
Learn a new skill.
Read a book outside your area of expertise.

Darren Hardy has posted a great story
about how people
are not 50% responsible for a relationship.
They are 100% responsible for a relationship.

This is SO true
because your end of the relationship
is the only one
you have control over.

I was talking to a loved one
about holiday cards.
I’ve sent one of my uncles a holiday card
every year for the past 16 years.
A couple years ago, he sent me back one.
My loved one was irritated
because she didn’t get one.
Has she ever sent the uncle a card?
No.

I’ve been trying to arrange a cross promotion
with a company.
I’ve contacted this company several times.
No answer back.
Then I found out (by accident)
that I was contacting the wrong person.
I contacted the right person
and heard back immediately.

In both cases,
the responsibility could be shared
but what purpose does that serve?
None.
Better that we take full responsibility.
My loved one didn’t get a card
because she never sent a card.
I didn’t get a call back
because I was contacting the wrong person.

If you want to improve a relationship,
YOU improve the relationship.

One of my best buds
presented incorrect figures.
They weren’t her numbers
but because she presented them,
she is taking responsibility for the mistake.

It’s called
taking the beats for the team
and the higher up in the organization
you climb,
the more you’ll do it.

There is no avoiding mistakes
(especially if you’re trying to do
something world changing).
The key is to learn
how to best communicate these mistakes.

You always use ‘we.’
You never finger point or call people out.
You clearly outline the mistake,
you share what the impact is,
and then you say
‘this will never happen again because
we now have this and this in place
to prevent it.’

This is done as quickly as possible
because the last thing you want
is to have to manage the ripple effect
(i.e. your CEO relaying the incorrect information
to shareholders or the media
and looking like a complete jackass).

Seth Godin has a great excerpt
from his book Tribes
on the scarcity of leaders
and why that scarcity makes them valuable.

I disagree with his premise
that not anyone could do it.
Anyone COULD be a leader.
I believe everyone has the potential.

There’s a leadership shortage
because…
people don’t WANT to be leaders.

Why?

Because leaders are hated.

If you want to be
President of the United States,
the job comes with having
either the Republicans or Democrats hating you.

If you lead an organization
fighting child prostitution,
you’ll have the pimps, johns,
and other ‘fans’ of child prostitution
hating you.
They could hate you so much,
they kill you.

If you want to lead a business blog,
you’ll deal with stalkers, haters,
and people who disagree
with every word you write
just because you wrote it.

These haters are relentless
and because they’re relentless,
they can break the spirits of leaders.

UNLESS…
the leaders’ fans are as relentless.
That is one of the secrets of success,
having relentless fans
to offset the haters.

If you admire a leader,
an organization, a movement,
send them a fan letter today.

One of the perks of
leading without authority
is that those formally in charge
usually have a clear agenda.

Often this agenda
is not driven by them
(unless they occupy the C-Suite).
They don’t have a lot of choice
about what they’re trying to achieve.

When you don’t have official authority,
you usually don’t have an official agenda either.
You can be more neutral
(everyone always has some sort of bias)
when you investigate possibilities.
You can choose which goals you wish to pursue.

In other words,
you have more freedom.

Eventually if you’re good at what you do
and you create results
or even waves,
someone is going to give you
official authority
so enjoy this sweet spot
for as long as possible.

Go out there and make a difference!

I received two big rejections yesterday.
They didn’t bother me.

Part of my reaction stemmed
from experience.
I know there are plenty of opportunities
out there.
Some will work out well.
Some won’t.

The bulk of my I-don’t-care attitude
came from not having time to care.
I once again have way more opportunities
than free time available.
I don’t have any time to waste
feeling sorry for myself.

If you’re depressed over a rejection,
you may not be busy enough.
Grab one of those wonderful opportunities
floating around
and work on it.

I have some dear friends
who have very strong religious beliefs.
They wouldn’t approve of
the romance novels I write.

So you know what?
I don’t talk to them about my writing.
At all.
It is like that part of me doesn’t exist
when I’m with them.

My friends aren’t idiots.
They know I’m writing romance novels.
But because I don’t fling it in their faces,
they can pretend I don’t,
clinging to the ounce of doubt.
This allows two people with different beliefs
on one topic
to be friends.

I heard of someone who got fired this week.
She’d been breaking a company rule
for years now.
She knew the boss knew
but they never talked about…
until last week.
She let it drop in a conversation.

It eliminated all doubt from the boss’ mind.
He had no choice.
He couldn’t pretend she wasn’t doing it.
He had to take action.
He fired her ass.

Yes, people can uncover all your dirt.
This doesn’t mean you should help them shovel.
There is no need to tell everyone everything.