Category: Corporate Games

Entry level writers are hands down
some of the most paranoid people
on the planet.
Everyone is out to get them
and every organization is a conspiracy.

I’ve worked with people like that before.
People on the lower rungs
of the organizational ladder.
They stay at these lower levels
and eventually their paranoia is justified.
Everyone IS out to get them
because no one can work with them.

When you think
everyone is out to get you,
you don’t trust anyone.
Without trust,
business doesn’t get done,
projects don’t reach launch state,
relationships don’t form.
You can’t succeed without relationships.
You can’t succeed without trust.

Paranoia is contagious.
As is trust.

Look for alliances rather than conspiracies.
Look for reasons to trust rather than distrust.

Whenever I hear
“Sorry to be a bother”,
I immediately think
‘she’s going to be a bother.’
(‘She’ because
these openers
are always used by women.)

When I hear
“I hope you don’t mind but…”
I think
‘Actually, I DO mind.
Very much.’

Do NOT use these phrases
EVER.
They aren’t nice.
They aren’t polite.
They’re irritating
and ensure I won’t listen
to anything you say.

If it will only take a moment of my time,
don’t waste that time
by making me listen to garbage words.

If you think you’re a bother,
then why the hell are you bothering me?

If you think I might mind,
then, again, why the hell are you talking to me?

Train yourself NOT to use these phrases.
Believe in yourself
and what you have to say.

A reminder was sent out
about a major contest entry deadline.
I, as well as others, appreciated the reminder.
Some people, however,
have issues with the contest organization
and responded harshly.
The emailer felt unappreciated
and
I doubt she’ll send out a reminder next year.

In other words,
they killed the messenger.
Not the result
the grumblers had in mind.

How not to kill the messenger
yet still protest the message?

Acknowledge the messenger first.
Thank her.
Tell her you appreciate
her passing that information along.
THEN talk about the issues.

It is THAT easy.

Dick Harrington,
Former CEO of Thomson Reuters,
sums up 30 years of leadership experience
by advising others to be
approximately correct,
instead of precisely incorrect,
with strategy.

Perfection is not needed
with strategy.
Strategy is directional thinking.

Bloggers, for example,
may benefit from positioning themselves
as experts.
That’s strategy.

How to position themselves as experts?
There are a zillion different ways.
Opportunities will come along.
If these opportunities increase the perception of expertise,
then they should be considered,
even if the tactics don’t appear in the original plan.

Get the strategy directionally right
and you’ll
(likely ’cause nothing is certain)
succeed.

This week
I’ve read post after post
about how business cards are no longer necessary.

That’s bullshit.

Do you seriously think
that after meeting 300 people at a party,
that contact you impressed
is going to remember you?
No way in hell.
Business cards are memory prompts.

Do you think that Googling someone
gives you permission to contact them?
No way in hell.
Business cards are relationship hall passes.
Giving one out says…
You have permission to contact me.

Do you think when that
when your ass gets fired
(and it will, eventually),
all those former co-workers you now need
contacts from
are going to Google you?
Or pass your name along
to prospective employers
on a post-it note?
No way in hell.
Business cards are the quickest way
to transfer your contact information
in person
(the way serious business still gets done).

You need a business card.
You need multiple business cards
for every brand you
you’re building.

Gossip can kill careers.
Not only the career of the person talked about
but of the person doing the talking.

When I hear someone pass along information
they shouldn’t,
I immediately put that person
in the do not talk to category.
Because I know if they gossip about others,
they will gossip about me
or my projects
or my beloved sources.

I try not to gossip
but sometimes the gossip is too juicy
to keep to myself
and I need to talk it out with someone
because it might affect me.

When that happens,
I turn to a handful of buddies
with my own stance on gossip.
I’ll choose one of those buddies,
well out of the industry I’m ‘gossiping’ about
to confide in.
I’ll tell the story,
leaving out names or other identifiers
(and because the buddy isn’t in the industry,
he or she doesn’t care about the gossip enough
to probe for more information).
I’ll ask for his/her feedback.

The urge to gossip is satisfied,
I get another opinion on it,
and my reputation is still intact.

Gossip carefully.

There is only one reason
to ask a question
during a company meeting…
… to market yourself positively
to the management team.

It isn’t to get answers.
Answers to real concerns
should be gathered quietly.

Normally, I like to know the answer
to the question I’m asking
the management team.
I don’t want them
to end up looking like jacka$$es
and remember me in a negative way.

I always allow the answerer to ‘get back to me.’
I graciously allow them to flub a reply.
I phrase the question openly.
I ask questions that
an average intelligent employee
would ask
(i.e. no talking about secret projects).
I also walk up after the meeting
and thank the management team
for answering my question.

Company meetings are marketing opportunities.
Don’t waste them.

Having recently received an email,
addressed to one ‘influential’ blogger
and cc’ing the rest of us,
I thought I’d review e-mail sending etiquette.

To:
is used for the recipient you are writing the email for.
If my name is in the To: section,
I know I’m supposed to take action,
even if that action is to send back an LOL
to your hilarious joke email.

CC:
is for information only recipients.
That recipient may be responsible for tasks
but you’ve already contacted them
about their parts.
If the entire email is informational,
the To: recipients are considered more important
than the CC: recipients.

That’s what went wrong in this email.
The blogger in the To: field was seen as more important
and the CC: field bloggers got insulted.

BCC:
This field can come back to bite you on the ass.
Usually recipients in the BCC: field
will receive the email as though they were To: recipients.
This is great for mass mailings
and for other delicate address lists
where you don’t want recipients
to see everyone’s email addresses.
I use BCC: ONLY if there is no connection
between the recipients.
That is, the recipients aren’t going to talk to each other
about my email.

THIS is the field that should have been used
in the blogger contact email.

I’ve never used BCC: in an office situation
(other than to BCC: myself so I have a copy).
Folks that use BCC: get well deserved reputations
for being sneaky bastards.
You don’t know who the hell is included
in the conversations.
Once someone uses a BCC: on me,
that’s the end of trust
AND I assume everyone
is getting a copy of my emails.

But that said…
I assume everyone ALWAYS gets a copy of my emails.
Emails are forever.

When companies do bad things,
the media usually focuses on
‘did the CEO know?’

I don’t give a shit
if the CEO knew.

I guarantee that
the CEO didn’t know everything.
Why would he?
That wasn’t his job.

His job, his only job,
was to build an environment.
The environment he built
allowed the bad thing to happen.
He was responsible.
He should pay the price.
End of story.

As a leader,
how much time do you devote
to purposefully crafting your company’s environment?

Art Petty has an insightful list
of other concepts leaders should know.

There are some repetitive tasks
managers and business builders
can’t delegate.
These can be tedious.
These can be creativity suckers.

Or these can be the exact opposite.

I tend to look at them like a game.
Some people time themselves,
trying to beat their personal bests
for completion.
Some people find
a different spot
in the office
to complete these tasks
(taking them outside if possible
during the sunny days).
Being a systems girl,
I tend to look for patterns
(if you look closely enough,
you can find a pattern in anything).

As my Mom always tells me
‘there are no boring tasks,
there are only boring people.’

Entrepreneur has some more suggestions
for repetitive task games.