Category: Corporate Games

Ramit’s New Year post prompted a discussion
on weddings.
Many people talked about
how weddings were a waste of money.

I think otherwise.
I considered my wedding an investment.

When I married the hubby,
we had 300 people at our wedding.
All 300 guests cared about us,
they wanted us to succeed,
and on that specific day,
they were focused on us.
That doesn’t happen that damn often.

I consider our wedding
the best networking event
I have ever helped organize.

10 years later,
the connections made there
are still paying off.

So yes, save money
on areas the guests won’t care about,
but think carefully before
cutting that guest list.

And have fun.

As I head into a major project,
I’m hustling to put
everything else on auto.

The problem is…
I’m dragging it.
Mentally and physically.
I can’t seem to get motivated.

So I’m playing the one more game again.
One more blog post.
One more chapter.
One more email.

That one more always turns out to be multiple
but focussing on
the smaller goal drives me forward.

Do one more, just one more…

What is my outlook for 2009?
One word.

Terrific.

But… But… But…
how can I say this with such confidence
with talking heads throwing around
the D word?

Lets say we slip into a 1930’s style depression.
Did you know that
more millionaires were created
during the Great Depression
than in any other time in U.S. history?
A depression brings change
and change brings opportunities
for ambitious folks like you and I.

But that’s not why I’m optimistic.
I’m optimistic because I have a plan
and because I’m already taking action
on that plan.

As everyone else looks backwards at 2008,
I’m not only looking forward
but I’m reaching out for my 2009 goals.

2009 is going to be terrific!

In these challenging economic times,
many companies are cutting back
and one of the first expenses to be eliminated
is training and development.

Some employees use this as an excuse
to not take courses.
They say things like
‘if we pay for it ourselves,
the company won’t ever pay for it again.’

That’s B.S.
Without a training budget,
there is no formal reporting process.
If it doesn’t get reported,
it doesn’t get measured.
If it doesn’t get measured,
it doesn’t exist at the executive level.
As far as they’re concerned,
no one is getting trained.

Which means if your boss wants to brag about
how his staff is taking courses
on their own initiative,
he doesn’t throw out numbers,
he talks about individuals and individual training.
Instead of saying 86% of his team
met personal development objectives,
he says ‘K took a course on marketing using Twitter.’

And because others aren’t willing
to pay for the course themselves
and Twitter is a fairly new marketing tool,
K suddenly becomes the company expert.

THAT is why having the training budget cut
is not necessarily a bad thing,
not for an employee with initiative.

New Years is traditionally the time to set
resolutions for the next year.
These resolutions are usually large
and unfortunately,
92% of them won’t be kept.

Why?

Because they are too big.
I always break down big goals
into small, almost trivial tasks,
my to do list for the day.

My blogging goal for today
was to write 2 posts for every blog.
Small, right?
Except that I only blog once a day.
So after a week of completing 2 posts,
I’ll be a week ahead of my posts.
After a year,
I’ll have a full year buffer.
Hhhmmm…
not so trivial anymore, is it?

THAT is how goals get completed.
Break ’em down.

Some of us have the day ‘off’ today
but as driven, passionate people,
we’re tempted to work.

Resist.

My buddies and I have a motto…
‘You can always get a new job,
you can never get a new family.’

If you’re lucky enough to have a loving family,
treat them as your number one customer today.

Stop reading this blog,
turn off the computer,
and give them your full attention.

Figure out their dreams, their needs,
and like a good saleswoman,
figure out a way to satisfy them.

The payoff will be huge.

Being a project person,
I tend to have multiple bosses.
I have the boss I directly report to
(often Finance)
and then the bosses assigning me projects
(sales, marketing, operations, the CEO).

Whenever layoffs are discussed,
my main boss has to discuss and get agreement
with all the other bosses
about whether my position stays or is eliminated.

That complexity saved my butt many times.

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert,
talks about Boss Diversity in Fortune.
“The best plan now is
to have as many bosses as possible.
I call it boss diversity.
If you work for a company and
you have one boss and
that boss doesn’t like you or
wants to get rid of you,
you’re in trouble.
But if you work for yourself,
you have lots of bosses,
who are your customers,
and if a few of them decide
they don’t like you,
that’s okay.
You can get new ones.
Boss diversity is the one kind
companies don’t talk to you about,
but it can save your career.”

Yesterday, we talked about bosses being stuck.
Today, we’ll talk about how to work around
a stuck boss.

A loved one wants a promotion
but he’s dealing with a stuck boss.
The boss doesn’t know how to ask
for what the loved one wants (a promotion).
He’s scared someone will figure out
he doesn’t know how to play the game
and fire his ass.

So my loved one is putting together a proposal.
He’s outlining why that position
(always make it about the position,
not about the person)
should be at a more senior level.
This report has numbers behind it
(the percent of his pay currently performance based
vs
the percent of revenue he pulls in for the team).
It is thick
and
it is ready to be presented.

All the boss has to do
is read the executive summary.
It is no risk for him.
If it goes well,
he takes all the credit for the report.
If it goes poorly,
he says since his employee
put so much time into it,
he felt he had to present it.

Bam!
Stuck boss worked around.

Has your boss been in his position
5 years or more?
Then odds are
he’s stuck.

He’ll tell you he’s happy where he is,
he doesn’t want more responsibility,
or he’s waiting for retirement.
That is B.S.
I’ve played at the different levels,
the stress is all the same.

What changes is the game
and your boss being stuck
is a clear indication
he doesn’t know how to play that game.

What’s the answer?
You work around him.
If you don’t,
you’ll end up stuck one level down.

I have a core group
I go to when I want to hear the brutal truth.
I also have a larger group
I go to when I want a pat on the back.
One of the reasons I’m successful
is because I know
who belongs in which group.

In the Rich 100 edition
of Canadian Business,
former CEO of Seagram Co
Edgar Bronfman
talks about ass-kissers and truth-tellers.

“One of the hardest things to do
when you’re a chief executive
is to separate the ass-kissers
from those who tell you the truth.
And, of course, there’s a lot more ass-kissers
than there are truth-tellers.

Sometimes it’s very difficult
for people to tell you truth.
Nobody wants to get in the ashcan
because they insulted you.
They tend to skirt around the issue.
You really have to know
how to penetrate the nonsense.”