Meeting Dark Arts: Conference Call Etiquette

Okay, so how many of you have to sit on a conference calls on a regular basis? How often do you get the heavy breather? The dog barking in the background, or the all to often music on hold? Yes we live our lives on conference calls these days and we will be living more of them as we seek more ways to control costs. This next installment of my Meeting Dark Arts series will be the various conference call etiquette rules I picked up over the years. Make sure you share these at the start of every meeting to remind everyone on the call that we all suffer when someone isn't paying attention (yep, that is the keyboard you are hearing in the background)

First the list of etiquette rules for those of you not wishing to read all the details:

1. Remind us in the beginning about the rules
2. With large calls let people know you are waiting to start
3. Run a call just like any other meeting
4. Provide local dial in numbers
5. Remember there are timezones
6. Remember to mute your phone!
7. Don’t put us on hold
8. Watch the noise makers
9. Don't eat while on the call
10. Don't have side conversations
11. Keyboards are a no no
12. Say your name (when you enter, when you speak, when you leave)
    
13. Don't be long winded
    
14. Everyone has an accent!
15. End the call

Remind us in the beginning about the rules
The host should remind everyone about these rules at the start of every meeting. I found that this prevented most of the problems from re-occurring and now everyone expects me to recite the rules before we start. Also I can quickly address those who forgot the rules while the rest of the conference laughs. Yes it has become a point of humor with my team. But everyone does agree the meetings are more productive and the attendees have more freedom because I encourage them to take calls from other locations so they are not always in the office.

With large calls let people know you are waiting to start
I know it is important to start the meeting on time and not to reward the late comers, however, when you have large calls it is often difficult to get everyone logged into the call on-time. I recognize these difficulties and therefore provide a couple of minutes of grace time when it is a large call. However, when it is a large call I make sure to mention it in the appointment and ask people to try to dial in early. Unfortunately when you have back to back meetings it is very difficult to do this. So I usually give it a five minute grace period. But this means that every 30 seconds or so I let everyone know we are waiting for others to join given the large size of the call.

Run a call just like any other meeting
See my post on meeting management

Provide local dial in numbers
Most conference call providers have local dial in numbers for almost all countries. If you are leading an international call be sure to include all of the local numbers for the call. This will greatly reduce costs and simplify the dial in procedures for the staff. Many companies have restrictions on international dialing from their phones so a local number will make it that much easier. I include all of the dial in numbers because you never know where an attendee might be. I have had individuals call in from a safari in Africa.

Remember there are timezones
Have the individuals calling from the late night timezone first on the agenda. if they are not needed for the rest of the meeting let them off the hook and give them permission to leave the call.

Remember to mute your phone!
The reality is that we are part of a mobile society and you will be taking calls from airports, taxis, and other loud locations. Mobile phones pick up background noise so if you are not talking, place your phone on mute. Most conference call systems have *6 to turn on/off mute. If you are wearing and headset for the call, it is a really good idea to have the mute on so that the rest of use will not hear your breathing. Mobile phones and heavy breathing are the two biggest complaints on conference calls. Muting your phone will help with the next couple of etiquette items as well.

Don’t put us on hold
We had just kicked off the conference when the music on hold came on. Someone had decided to take another call and put us on hold and they didn't come back on the line, the entire group was forced to sit and listen to music on hold. Fortunately I was able to close the conference and then reopen it so that we could get started. Getting the "music on hold" will stop the entire call. If you have to leave a call for some reason then leave the call and dial back in later, remember to tell people you are leaving. It will save everyone the challenges of trying to hold a conversation over the background music.

Watch the noise makers
If you are attending a call in a conference room I still recommend placing your phone on mute when no one is talking from the room. However, there are times when the phone must be open for the conversations to take place. Please remember that conference room microphones are very good at picking up the sounds in the room. Every click of the pen, shuffling of paper, turning of a page, or table tap is picked up by the phone. Sometimes these sounds come through much louder than the volume of the overall conference volume. but more important the sounds tend to be almost like a form of torture to the attendees on the phone.

When you are on the phone be aware that heavy sighs are heard very clearly. It is best to keep the headset away from your nose and mouth until you need to talk.

If you are calling in from home, it is best to find a quiet location where you can close a door to avoid being interrupted. Hearing children playing, barking dogs, or getting interrupted while you are on the phone can create the wrong impression.

Don't eat while on the call
Never eat while you are on the phone! The microphone picks up almost every sound that is made and the noise canceling ones are even better at their focus. If you are chewing gum or eating your lunch it will sound throughout the call and muffle your words. You don't talk with your mouth full (at least I hope you don't). Beside being very impolite we often can't understand what you are saying. A note to others in conference rooms do not bring food to these meetings even if you have enough to share (I know that some people have the rule that if you bring enough then it is okay).

Don't have side conversations
I was on a budget call the other day. We had multiple attendees and some very senior managers attending. When one of the staff leaned over to a colleague and started discussing where they were going to go to dinner after the meeting. I happily invited myself and the rest of the attendees as the two perpetrators sat red faced. Some phone systems have amazingly strong pick up and your conversation will heard, often without you being aware of it. Even if you hold your side conversation in another language others may not understand what you are saying but they will be aware the conversation is going on. If you want to talk about something other than the meeting wait until afterward and if you want talk about the meeting but do not want to share with the broader group; wait until afterward.

Keyboards are a no no
I understand that the call may be of informational nature, but the rest of us learn quickly that you are not paying attention when we hear clicking away on your computers keyboard. If you are there only to listen then please place the phone on mute. If we ask you a question you will have plenty of opportunity to ask that we repeat the question if you weren't paying attention.

Say your name
When you enter a meeting, even if you are late (apologize for being late too) say your name and your location. This is important so that we know we have all of regions represented but also because we cannot see the people on the call and do not recognize everyone's voice. Please say your name each time you speak so that we can have a point of reference when taking notes. Finally if you are going to leave a meeting early please say your name and let us know you are leaving. This way we will know not to direct any questions your way.

Don't be long winded
Many phones are designed with noise canceling features that cut the inbound sound to avoid microphone feedback. Thus when you are talking no one else on the call can interrupt. If you are going to make a statement try to be as brief as possible. If you are presenting, stop after each slide so that people can ask questions. This is especially important when you are on global calls which leads nicely to my next point.

Everyone has an accent!
I don't care what country you are from you have an accent and those of us from different countries may have difficulty understanding you. I am an American and thought I spoke English until I started working with the British and Australians and found out I had no idea what their slang words meant. Slow down, speak more slowly and enunciate. The phone magnifies the challenges of listening and it is important to allow the listeners to process what you are saying. This is a reason to stay away from being long winded in your talks. Be aware that often we cannot understand what you are saying with your accent and then aggravated by a poor phone connection. If you keep your statements short then others can ask for clarification.

End the Call
When you wrap up the conference call remember to use the host's "disconnect all callers" feature to avoid any lingering charges from leaving a call open.

The important message here is that each of these rules should be shared at the start of your call. I am amazed at how often these rules are forgotten. My teams are global and therefore almost all of our meetings are conducted via telephone or video. At the start of each meeting I remind everyone of the etiquette so that we can be as productive as possible. I am curious of your thoughts.

If you liked this post you might like:
Meeting Dark Arts: Meeting Management

Written by: Jeffrey Hurley in Central, Hong Kong

Meeting Dark Arts: Meeting Management

With all of the modern capabilities there is little excuse for not making a meeting. However, there are more meetings than ever and often we spend more of our time in them than actually accomplishing real work. What can you do to make your life easier. Just follow this series on Meeting Dark Arts and you won't need attendance from everyone all the time yet will get better results than ever before. Why? Because these tips and tricks will actually result in improved productivity through better communication.

Seth Godin in his post Three kinds of meetings, broke down the meeting types nicely:

- Information
- Discussion
- Permission

This post will focus on the Discussion type of meetings, these are the meetings held most often by business teams. When you are managing a team of multicultural, geographically diverse members you are often holding meetings with a different perspective than that of the typical westerner. Group meetings are run differently in each culture and these differences manifest in strange ways. An insightful approach to your meeting will result in better meetings and hopefully translate into better results.

Set the rules early
I start most of my meetings off identifying the time limit of the meeting for the consideration of many who must attend other meetings. I then let everyone know we may have to use a parking lot for issues that cannot be resolved quickly and that if we are spending to much time on any one topic on the agenda then a separate meeting will be held to review that item. If there is not a direct answer in the meeting then there is additional work that must be done on the subject and there is no point in continuing the discussion anyway, most of the discussion is people talking to sound important only.

1. Remember Time Zone Differences
2. Provide More Than One Way to Attend
3. Send out an Agenda
4. Make the Appointment a Complete Request
5. Stick to Your Schedule
6. Stay on Topic
7. Assign Action Items
8. Take Notes and Send out Minutes
9. Discourage Interruptions
10. Senior Staff Should Hold Their Tongue
11. Request mobile devices be turned off (ok, just put them in silent mode)

Remember Time Zone Differences
First, remember that today's meeting may be happening tomorrow in Hong Kong, Singapore or another Asian country. Time zones become all the more important as you set up your meeting. I would recommend the use of a website like World Time Server to perform time zone calculations. Yes, most calendaring software will convert the appointment to the local time but it won't warn you that you have booked your 2:00 PM meeting at 3:00 AM my time. Please be considerate of your partners in other time zones.

Provide More Than One Way to Attend
With the advent of mobile devices it has become much easier for people to attend meetings from anywhere. Thus it is important to provide multiple ways to attend a meeting: in person, via phone, or via video. With the multitude of Internet tools available conference calling and video conferencing is very easy to set up. Remember to include the access phone numbers and pass codes (As a policy I always include the complete list of toll free numbers for all countries) so that the meeting can be forwarded and benefit those who are traveling. Unfortunately, with all of the access capabilities there is little excuse for not making important meetings. As a manager and meeting planner you will need to become comfortable with having team members on the phone or video and adjust your approach accordingly, I will cover the various rules and etiquette of these mediums in additional posts.

Send out an Agenda
And I mean send an agenda for every meeting. This may seem trivial but you and I both know that it is very rare to see meeting agendas. If you are going to have a meeting and go to the trouble to set a time and seek availability then take the time to write out an agenda. The agenda represents your goals for the meeting and if you expect to get these goals accomplished you need to write them down. Please let the attendees know the agenda before the meeting so they can come prepared. It gives attendees a chance to prepare. Springing your agenda on the attendees at the last minute demonstrates a lack of organization and ends up wasting time when needed information is not prepared for the meeting.

Make the Appointment a Complete Request
When booking the meeting include the meeting purpose (usually the subject item in the appointment), the location, conference call information and most important the agenda. How often do we schedule meetings with a subject of: Catch Up? What do you want to catch up on? Is it business or do you want to discuss the latest sports scores? At least place a few word agenda in the appointment, that is why the space is provided for. If you want to pitch a project then include the project pitch as an attachment to the meeting. I really like Guy Kawasaki's 10/20/30 rule for PowerPoint. If you build your presentation around his recommendation and send it early there will be an opportunity to provide more information.

Stick to Your Schedule
Timeliness is a sign of respect. Start the meeting on time; do not reward late comers by going backward on the agenda or restarting the meeting. If late comers ask for more information, politely let them know that the minutes will be distributed after the meeting. Your colleagues may be angry at first but they will come to appreciate the respect that all are given for showing up on time. I know this may be difficult at first but it is an important message that must be given. If not enough people show up, then reschedule the meeting or do namawashi to get your answers.

Stay on Topic
Don't wander into tangential areas. Use a parking lot to place items for later follow up and assign them as action items. There is no better way to kill a project's progress than to spend your time in a meeting talking about something else. Use a whiteboard for idea generation and tracking of parking lot items.

Assign Action Items
Most meetings cannot accomplish everything and undoubtedly will have action items or items needing follow up. Make sure that all action items are assigned and have a due date. Preferably the task assigned should be able to complete in two weeks or less. Anything longer will be to high of level for the assignee to be able to work on it. I will have another post on action items.

Take Notes and Send out Minutes
Every meeting needs to be minuted to provide attendees the opportunity to review the message that was heard and correct any potential differences. This practice also allows anyone who came late or missed the meeting to understand the action items, the discussion, and decisions. I will do two posts on meeting minuting and note taking to explain these further. The bottom line is there are many reasons why individuals cannot attend a meeting so give them the important information.

Discourage Interruptions
In some cultures it is not polite to interrupt the speaker so staff will wait their turn to talk. This also means that as the moderator of the meeting you have a responsibility to encourage other members to speak and make sure that all have their chance within the allotted time of the meeting. Remember to keep track of who has spoken. If you have a few people dominating the meeting then you will have to ask that they let others talk. It is important that, regardless of who you have in the meeting, you are careful not to allow any one individual dominate the conversation.

Senior Staff Should Hold Their Tongue
The more senior staff should wait to talk if they want genuine dialog to take place. In many cultures the senior staff are to give direction and the junior staff are to follow the direction. Thus if the senior staff lead the conversation the meeting will go in their direction, this is not bad if it is the meeting objective. If it is not, you may have to have a separate one-on-one meeting with the Junior staff to understating what is going on and then have another one-on-one meeting with the senior staff. This is commonly referred to as namawashi.

Request mobile devices be turned off (ok, just put them in silent mode)
A meeting is usually for a short period of time and is best when everyone is focused on the topic. Unfortunately many of us believe that we have to pay attention to email and instant messages all the time. Therefore always ask that devices be turned off. If someone is responsible for mission critical activities then ask that they set their device to vibrate and employ a special chime for emergency messages (BTW you should have all of your mobile devices set up this way) and yes I will post on this too.

When you are holding global scale meetings be aware that you have people attending from many different cultures. Yes, they can forgive your lack of understanding of their needs. They will be much more appreciative if you make an effort. This is by no way an exhaustive list of recommendations. I would welcome feedback from those of you who can share your first had experiences.


Written by: Jeffrey Hurley in Central, Hong Kong

6 Lessons From Slumdog Millionaire

Let me start by saying that Slumdog Millionaire is outstanding; I can say this with conviction after I had the opportunity to see Slumdog Millionaire over the weekend. Being in Hong Kong the movies are not available on the same time frame as in the US and when Slumdog millionaire walked away with a whole heap of academy awards it was time to go see a movie. The story telling was well done and because it was so well done I waled away with several messages:

Persistence...Always
One of the first scenes of the movie that introduces the main character, Jamal, has him jumping through the latrine to get an autograph, something, most of us would never do but he did and it got him the autograph. The entire movie is a demonstration of persistence and overcoming life's challenges. As long as you persist you will achieve. Things may not always go the way you want them to but never giving up even when it all goes in a direction you had not wished for.

Others will Take Advantage of You
Right after Jamal got the autograph and while his mom cleaned him up his brother took the autograph and sold it for a "good price." As the movie progresses we learn that beggars who are blind singers get double the handouts; so the orphanage intentionally blinds them. Finally watch as Jamal's girlfriend is taken from him. Jamal does not let this hold back what he seeks for that matter it is core to the storyline. But each of us has felt that others have taken advantage of us. Unfortunately , this is part of what happens in life it is not a matter of if you will be taken but when. Thus there is no reason to be angered but rather learn from the lesson and the lesson of others. Which brings up the third point I learned.

Hold no grudge
I mentioned above that it is not a matter of if you will be taken but when and that this is part of life. When I watched Slumdog I struggled as I watched the pain and suffering of so many; but what stayed with me afterward was that being angry at the life you have will not help you. If you harbor hatred and a grudge you cannot move forward toward your goals but also you cannot appreciate the wonders of this life. Individuals will always act in their own self interest. This action may result in bad things happening to you, sometimes they will do things intentionally because there is a desire to pull others down. In each instance Jamal did not let a grudge or anger toward his persecutors hold him back from his desire, yes I am sure he had doubt but he did not give up.

Sometimes You Must Work with People you Don't Agree With
Jamal chose to stay with his brother even though he could never forgive him for what he had done. I agree his brother was not one worthy of forgiveness, however, Jamal wanted to find Latika. This desire necessitated staying with his brother. The Game show host lied and attempted to set Jamal up for failure, Jamal stayed on the show. Again he had a mission

This one I found the most interesting and difficult to deal with personally but the lesson is very important. There are times that you must swallow your principals and your pride so that you can accomplish what it is that you truly seek. Yes principals are important but do not let your principals be an excuse for failing to accomplish your goals.

Money is Not a Pure Motivator
While Jamal was on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" he was presented with more money than he had seen in his lifetime. But he chose to continue the competition. He chose to continue because he was not there for the money but for the hope that Latika would see him and they would find each other. Yes, money is important however we all know from experience even if you are paid well it is not enough to put up with being miserable. For Jamal winning or losing the money was not his motive. We should look carefully at what it is we are doing and ask what are our motives?

You Make Your Own Happiness
Jamal grew up in the slums and overcame many difficulties: the torture, beatings, hunger, loss of love, and death of his mother. Wherever you are in life right now is exactly were you are supposed to be. It may not feel good to be there but you are. When you are dealing with difficulty you learn quickly that there is little that you can control. The question is what do you do now? Do you choose to be unhappy or will you choose to be happy. After all it is a choice within your control.

You are the sum total of your life experiences. These experiences are neither good nor bad they are just experiences. How you react to these experiences make you who you are. Jamal and his brother had many of the same experiences but they both responded differently to them. Jamal, as the movie depicts, chooses a path of non-violence; His brother, one of violence, that ultimately consumes him. I believe people can experience the same event differently and that is what makes us unique.

To conclude I recommend seeing the movie, "Slumdog Millionaire". The story telling is well done and the message of hope is there. I look forward to hearing of your Slumdog experience.

Mentoring Part III - The Mentor

In an earlier post I wrote about the responsibilities of the mentee, but what about the mentor? How as a mentor can you ensure that you are helping the mentee to grow? Will the relationship work? I have applied the following guidelines to my successful mentoring relationships and hope that by sharing them you can build a great mentoring relationship.

Have Reasonable Expectations
Have you ever thought about what you might expect from someone who comes to you for advice? Are you expecting to much from yourself? The best part of a mentoring relationship is that it is an opportunity for everyone to grow so you do not need to know all of the answers. It also means you will be asked questions that might be insightful, angry, simplistic or even naive; this is okay, your job is to be a guide. A young mentee is looking to grow and will have an immature view of the world but will be confronting with very difficult questions. You are not the mentee's manager nor sponsor; you are a teacher, a coach, a friend, and a confidant who will help them shift their paradigm or way of thinking. Just remember that most of the time the mentee will not implement your suggestions properly assuming they follow them at all. Why the warning, it has taken years for some of the advice I was given to sink in to the point where I could apply.

Be a Good Resource
Yes, there is Google for most of our questions, however, Google is only one type of resource (the one I use when I am trying to help with homework). Most management and career challenges involve the subtle intricacies of people relationships and these can only be worked through with the help of others who have experienced them. When issues and challenges arise please use your network of contacts to help the mentee learn to seek out advice. Encourage them to use critical thinking skills to assess the validity of their statements, arguments, and actions. Bring together different sources of information to serve or challenge an argument or idea you are working through and then work with them to make the logical connections. How can you be a good resource? Show them how to leverage the knowledge of others.

Use Active Listening
The best mentorship I have have provided is when I was able to admit my lack of understanding and then had the sense of curiosity to explore the conversation further. You may think why would I admit to not understanding; because it made the relationship more real, we stopped pretending to be what were not and focused on the challenges the mentee was facing. The mentee is expected to drive the relationship but it is important that they learn to look at all the various angles of the challenges they are facing.

So then how do you actively listen? Ask pertinent questions, assess the statements and arguments made by the mentee. I always have the objective to be a mirror and not add new content to the conversation until I confirmed I understood the message correctly, however, that also means that I do not let the mentee "move on" until we have explored their challenges. I make sure to suspend judgment until all facts have been gathered and considered; without being critical of the events or actions. Active listening allows the mentee to better express what they are looking for from you. I found that the concepts of repeating, paraphrasing , asking clarifying questions and summarizing work best for me. For example I often ask, "Let me make sure I understand you correctly..." or "What would your next step be...". Work at setting aside your other thoughts and business/personal priorities so you can concentrate on the message, ask the questions and paraphrase.

Provide Constructive Feedback
The mentoring relationship is to help the mentee to learn and grow, they don't need to be criticized or disciplined. Be direct and to the point when giving your feedback. Remember that criticism attacks the person to which it is directed, is negative, judgmental, labeling, and accusing while constructive feedback is collaborative, informative, specific, and actionable. If you are providing feedback in a straightforward manner it will be much easier for the mentee to absorb. The best feedback is sincere and not a mixed message. If you are giving negative feedback it is important to express concern while avoiding anger, frustration, disappointment, and sarcasm which tend to send a message of criticism. Provide your observations to back up your feedback; avoiding characterization of behavior. Observations are what you see occur; interpretations are your analysis or opinion of what you see occur. Share what you've noticed, not what you think of it, and report the behavior you notice at a concrete level, instead of as a characterization of the behavior. Observations have a far more factual and nonjudgmental aspect than do interpretations.

Explore the similarities and differences between the ideas you are are discussing. Allow the mentee to examine the problems closely and reject information that is incorrect or irrelevant

Allocate Time
If you are going to be a mentor then this should be a priority. Allocating time for a mentorship means hard choices will have to be made and some things will have to be postponed or not done at all to allow for mentoring to happen. In this age of fast fix sitcom solutions Mentorship stands out in stark contrast. This is a journey and will develop over time; when time is given for the relationship to mature. Mentorship is a very rewarding process and allows you to give back by sharing your successes, failures, and life experiences. Keep your commitments and be certain to follow up on agreed actions. I am a dedicated note taker even in my mentorship relationships I keep notes and after each session summarize how I thought the session went. It is amazing to see how the mentees progress from when they first walk into your office to their next level and beyond. But to observe this progress will require a commitment of time.

Leverage Learning Opportunities
Each experience is a learning opportunity. Share stories of the struggle, challenge, and setbacks and how you were able to overcome them to get to where you are. Show how you leveraged challenges into opportunities. But most of all share when no matter the effort but in sometimes things don't work out. Life is a harsh task master but also willing to reward you with anything you ask of it. The mentee is here to learn how to ask of life and receive while dealing with the challenges placed before them and not get off track. To often we are taught that failure is bad, however, it is the failures we learn the most from. So that when the challenges of life start to confront them they will be well equipped to deal with them.

Keep Discussions Confidential
I cannot stress this enough. The worst thing a mentor can do is share what was discussed outside of the relationship. Being a mentor should be treated on the same level of confidence as a doctor or attorney. Don't pass judgment and don't share outside of the relationship. If there are activities or potential actions that could lead to someone getting hurt then yes you should act in the appropriate manner, however, I have yet to have a single mentorship relationship that ever put me in this situation. When a foundation of trust is built the mentorship relationship will grow and prosper.

I have found these guidelines to be very effective in my relationships. Even when i am working with my own mentors we take the time to discuss these guidelines as part of the goals for the relationship. In my next post on mentoring I will provide the guidelines to manage mentorship meetings for maximum results. Mentoring is one of my passions and years later it is great to look back and see how effective the times spent together resulted in incredible outcomes. I hope that by using this guideline others can have successful mentoring relationships also. I look forward to your comments.

Related Posts:
8 Rules to Maximize the Benefit of Mentorship
Hit Fast Forward and Leverage Mentorship

I just got a new HP Mini

I just got the new HP Mini net-book after doing a lot of research on possible candidates for highly mobile laptop. In Hong Kong there is a large selection of net-book manufacturers and when I was researching this small form factor devices I found that they all had roughly the same features and were the same price range. After careful consideration I chose to go with the brand I was most comfortable with HP (they provide the machines for the office and the rest of my household).

The HP Mini is feature rich for its size and after testing the machine for some time these features were the deciding factors in my choice:

• I Like the light weight and small form factor, that allows me to take this net-book where ever I go. The beauty is it isn't much bigger than an average book. I wanted was ultra portability after hauling a laptop around the Asia Pacific region every time I travel I recognized the importance of having as little weight as possible.- It has a nice keyboard. I am finding that the keys have a nice feel to them and am able to type easily. Many of the other net-books I tested did not have a nice of a feel especially when you "touch type".
• The screen is 10.2 inches and is remarkably easy to read. The competition had a less "glossy" look to the screen and I was a bit worried about glare but have not had any issues.
• The battery is a six cell model and should provide about five hours of usable time. I does stick out of the casing giving the net-book a slight angle when sitting on a table. I originally thought this would be a problem, however, the angle works well for table top typing.

I really look forward to the increased productivity brought on by the use of this small factor machine. I am writing this post on it now and expect to write many more. I definitely recommend the HP Mini series.

There is Abundance Don't be Afraid to Share

Paul Zane Pilzer says that we should not look at our work as a scarcity of resources, one person's gain does not have to be someone else's loss. Success should be scene as an ever abundant, expanding pie with enough for everyone. If we are all working together for a common goal and we share our findings and abilities so that others can then expand their productivity we all benefit from the success.

I had an excellent project manager who worked from me a few years back, she produced a project summary document that was very good and it was quickly adopted throughout the organization. However this project manager was not happy and came to me to express her displeasure with everyone using her self developed tool. Now we would have developed a project summary document anyway. The summary would not have been nearly as nice or as easy to use as the one she developed; at the very least she got to continue to use her very effective solution rather than one created by committee. As many of you are aware the ones developed by committee are far more complicated and much less effective.

I happily explained that a solution was badly needed within the organization and we were using hers rather than assigning a committee to develop one and how I thought it was a great to see so many people using her summary document and getting great results. Unfortunately this project manger did not see it the same way, which was too bad because her knowledge and skills in delivering projects were outstanding. If our business and technology mangers adopted her techniques for project delivery it would have resulted in one of the more successful technology delivery organizations.

This project manager made a major contribution to the organization by showing the effectiveness of good project management and reporting. Why was she so upset? This was a win/win situation and everyone in the organization benefited. Rather than seeing abundance she only saw scarcity and pushed away other managers. Ultimately she left the organization and explained her departure saying that it was not a good fit for her. I was deeply disappointed to see her go, however, she was right: we wanted abundance from our managers and this did not fit her world view. Today I still keep in touch and she continues to manage projects as an individual contributor.

Abundance versus scarcity in the workplace, what are your views?

8 Rules to Maximize the Benefit from Mentorship

In my previous post, Hit Fast Forward and Leverage Mentorship I said, "effective relationships happen when the mentee is actually initiating and driving the relationship with a set of personal goals in mind." I believe that high achievers need mentors; a mentor will help channel a high achiever's energy in the right directions, avoiding having to learn through the school of hard knocks. Mentoring provides a powerful resource for personal and professional growth by facilitating development through the sharing expertise, skills, perspectives, experience, and knowledge. To maximize the benefit of a mentorship relationship I recommend the following eight rules for the mentee:

1) Identify your mentorship goals

Before entering into a mentorship relationship determine what your goals are. Ask the question, "what do you want from the relationship?" Are you looking to better your career, make better decisions, achieve better results, increase your capacity, develop your leadership skills, or just guidance, support, and advice.

2) Be realistic

Don't enter into a mentoring relationship expecting to get a job offer or find the solution to all of your problems. Mentorship is about you as an individual taking a journey of self discovery; a mentor will act as a guide but cannot walk the path for you. Your journey is your own and it is for that reason that you should be realistic and recognize that the responsibility for your goals is yours. This may include changing much of what you have learned or already done. Be open to suggestions and let go of the past so that you can internalize the advice you will receive. The best part about mentorship is you don't have to have the solution figured out. There are many ways to get to the top of a mountain so don’t lock yourself into only one path before you have a chance to understand the other options; you may find a much easier solution than the one you were considering.

3) Initiate and drive the relationship
It is your responsibility seek out a mentor, you are the one who has the most to gain and you know what you are looking for. I do not recommend looking to your immediate relationships for a mentor. I you work for a relatively large organization ask your manager and the human resources department if they have a formal mentorship program. If you are not able to find the right person or your goals are outside of your current workplace then these following websites may be of some help:

SCORE
Mentoring.org
Vistage
iMentor
Academy of Achievement
International Mentoring Network
Gotta Mentor

4) Take an active role
Mentorship is about personal growth and to achieve growth requires effort. After each meeting review your notes and write out your actions and next steps. If your mentor gave you names of people to contact or items to research put them on your schedule and make sure to make the effort to complete them before your next session. Before each meeting set aside time to review your goals and objectives and write new ones for the meeting. Then review your notes from the last session, check the work you have done and the research. It is also a good idea to summarize your work from the last session, showing your mentor that you are applying her advice.

5) Allocate time and effort
Making time for a mentoring relationship when your schedule is already full can be difficult and the tendency is to let a relationship drift after a few meetings. This is I recommend that you review your goals, take notes, review them, and act on the advice. By continuing to review your goals you are reminding yourself of what it is you are looking for. Remember you seeking expertise, network contacts, and ideas. When a mentor provides these things it will often require additional work; from researching information and reaching out to contacts. After each session summarize your notes and action items. Much of what you will be working on might not come natural and to realize the value of the relationship set aside time to work through the guidance you are receiving.

6) Be articulate in what you want
Remember you don't have to know all of the questions you should ask, have all of the answers, or a solution when you walk into your meeting; this will allow for a dialog to take place. Make sure that you are clear in what your objectives are for the session, as the saying goes, "if you aim at nothing you will hit it". Start each meeting outlining your goals with your mentor. Don't expect to get all of the answers or to have said the right things that is why you have a mentor to work through your challenges, opportunities, or decisions in an interactive way.

7) Follow through
It is important that when you make commitments you follow through on them. If you are unable to follow through in a timely manner renegotiate. A mentor is volunteering their time to help you and one of the more frustrating mentorship experiences is when advice or commitments are not followed through. The power of a mentorship relationship is that it is a risk free environment to learn and grow; if you are not good at follow through you will not realize these benefits. This does not mean you have to get it right all the time.

8) Engage in a Dialog
A mentor is not your boss and should not be a person you are looking to get a job from, therefore, be open and candid in your relationship. A true mentorship relationship is about working through your goals and challenges and being able to learn and grow. What makes this all work is your ability to be open and honest, share what you were thinking when you made particular choices, saw the results, or planned your next step. Talk about how you arrive at decisions, deal with office politics, or negotiate with vendors. A mentor, by being far enough from the situation to not be clouded by it, will bring a third person's view. However, don't expect to get all of the answers, some things will require that you work them out on your own.

leveraging these eight rules will allow your mentoring relationship to be one of the more rewarding professional relationships. I am planning two more posts in this series, the first on what a mentor will gain from the relationship and finally on how to manage your mentorship meetings.

Do you have mentor relationships? Are you actively managing them or passively? I look forward to your feedback and comments.


Related Posts:
Hit Fast Forward and Leverage Mentorship

Make your mobile life simple with Muji

Much as I try to use electronic only tools and go paperless I always seem to still have papers to carry; whether it is something I am reading on the commute home, a presentation that needs editing, my personal journal, or minutes from a meeting that need to be typed up, I am hauling the information between the office and home. My daily routine involves a morning workout and I find that my gym bag is my carry-all bag which has issues with keeping all of my stuff easy to find. That is when I stumbled upon Muji. Muji is a Japanese retailer that represents the wonders off Japanese minimalist design and has recently entered the US market in the NY area. They have a online store for those who do not live in the NY area.

Muji has what they call a mesh in bag. This is the one bag I use to keep my paperwork organized between home, office, and travel. I use this indoor bag to keep my journal, office papers, articles, headphones, mobile phone, keys, etc. together. I can then pull them easily when I am in the office and off to a meeting.



The second item that I found to be a lifesaver is the Tarpaulin Zip Case. I keep all of my travel documents from passports, id cards, itineraries, maps, and even the various currencies I need for a trip in this zip case. Keeping everything together in one place that I can then pull out for the airline counter, hotel check-in, and then toss into the hotel safe has made things so much easier.





If you travel regularly then the following items will help simplify your airline trips:

Recycled Leather Luggage Tags Having to replace the airline provided tags is a nuisance when I travel so I found that placing a luggage tag with my business card on my luggage is the most efficient way to breeze through the airport.

Hanging Wash Bag This toilet kit is perfect for keeping all of the stuff you need when you travel. I especially like the ability to hang it.

100ml Bottle Containers If you want to avoid checking your bag for a short trip then you need to have all of your liquids placed into small containers. One way is to purchase travel size items, however, I find that I cannot always get my preferred brands in the travel size so these little bottles have proven to be the solution for carrying the toiletries that I prefer.

TPU Cases These cases hold the liquids that you have in the 100ml bottles and can then carry them through the airline security without incident.

The minimalist design that Muji employs works so well in their other offerings as well; take some time and browse their online store. I hope you find these items to be as effective in simplifying your mobile life as I have. Let me know your thoughts.

What the Heck is Namawashi

Want to get a decision made quickly and avoid countless debate in your next meeting? In Japan they have a term called Namawashi that essentially means do preliminary work to involve others before holding a meeting. In Japan there is the concept of not wanting to publicly embarrass someone you may think that you achieved agreement in a meeting only to find out later there may be even more dissension than before. What does this mean? In the US it is referred to as management by walking around; talk to your meeting attendees before pitching your proposal to the broader group.

Why would someone not doing business in Japan care about the concept of namawashi? Have you ever noticed that not everyone speaks up in meetings? Have you ever noticed that some attendees visibly do not agree with what is being discussed but say nothing? A Congressmen friend of mine once said, "don't call a vote unless you already know the outcome". This is good advice that applies outside of politics. Any amount of change whether personal or organizational starts with the individual, see my post book review: change management. One person can easily be pushed aside but a number of people united toward a common goal are much harder to push aside. Working one-on-one to build grass roots support will ensure that staff have a chance to air their ideas as well as concerns will provide insight into what others are thinking and enable you to tailor your presentation improving the opportunities for agreement.

In the west we expect to be invited to meetings to get the update or provide our opinion, in Japan it is namawashi that keeps people informed. If we, as western managers, adopted namawashi we would see much better staff engagement. Using namawashi you are selling your ideas one on one and allowing each individual to work through change in their own way allowing organizational change to be achieved. I have found that the team will be immensely more aggressive toward achieving the organizational goals when each individual has discussed her ideas, concerns and observations from their perspective. Meetings are more effective because all members are able to look around the room and see the level of engagement.

Share your thoughts about namawashi and how it might be effective in your organization.

Keep Your Measure of Project Success Simple

I was listening to the Accidental Creative Podcast where he was talking about setting aside personal creative time. What stood out in the podcast was the importance of defining success criteria even for personal projects. Why did that one piece resonate with me? As a business professional I have observed so many projects drag on to ultimate failure for any number of stated reasons; when in actuality there was no measure or definition of success before the project started. Now I know the technology professionals will tell you to look at their scope document it will state the success measures. I am going to argue that is not really the truth. the definition of project success needs to be so simple everyone can easily see that it was achieved.

Large projects should be broken down into smaller sub projects that can be measured with clear success. I think creative, technical, and operational professionals some times spend far to much time over complicating their projects and lose site of their objectives. Occam's Razor says if you are confronted with multiple solutions it is best to pick the simplest one. Warren Buffet is identified as saying, "if you can't explain what you do in easy to understand terms then you are either hiding something or have no clue what you are doing". Both are right. It is better to keep things simplistic to enable better operational control but also so you can apply your efforts effectively and to good result. It's no good if you give up because you just can't achieve "success" define it up front and you can succeed.

What are your thoughts about defining success up front in simple terms?

Hit Fast Forward and Leverage Mentorship

Want to build a learning organization or are you looking to accelerate your career? Then you need a mentor. Mentoring provides a powerful resource for personal and professional growth through sharing expertise, skills, perspectives, experience, and knowledge. If a mentee takes ownership of the relationship, as they should, they will receive tremendous benefits in the following areas:

Improve your self awareness. Mentors are a third person who can give you that all important perspective on the issues you are seeking to solve. Have a team member that is just driving you crazy? Don't get into a fight on the floor (yes I did have this scenario happen). A good mentor will help you to think through your challenges and come to your own conclusions. Being able to understand who you are and the role you are playing in the particular situation will take a you a long way toward your goals.

A opportunity to expand your network. A mentor does not always have all of the answers you are looking for, however, they do have a network and someone they know may have those answers. An opportunity to meet experts who can provide advice is very powerful; not to mention the chance to enhance potential future opportunities. Often my mentor does not have the answer but after carefully questioning I can point me to someone who does. I know of several occasions that I did not have the answer the to the issue being presented by the mentee and I was able to refer them to someone in my network who did. Don't focus on picking mentors for their expertise rather for their position and experience; then you can learn how to achieve similar goals.

Exposure to senior leaders. Make sure that when you are looking for potential mentors identify individuals that are in roles you hope to achieve during your career journey. Senior level people can provide a clear perspective for you and it will be much easier to evaluate their feedback when you recognize that your mentor has probably been there and done that. This is not about perfection and setting mentors that are to high up in senior management won't work. Mentoring is about active dialog and not always having your problems solved. Don’t ask your friends or peers to be your mentor. You want a third person's point of view. I am not saying don’t develop friendships with your peers; I am saying seek out advice from those in the next level or higher.

Mentors are a sounding board for your ideas and plans. If you are planning a new project or looking at potential employers a mentor will be able to actively listen to what you are considering and help you to draw effective conclusions. For discussion and guidance the opportunity to test approaches, ideas, or other activates is important and being able to do so without it being a part of your annual review is an unique opportunity to you as a mentee.

Opportunity to view issues from another perspective. Having someone to give you that important third person's perspective. How many times have you been told that you are too close to a situation to make the best decisions? Our decision making ability can easily be clouded by the events that are affecting our daily lives. Getting a chance to review the situation and explain what we are doing and how things are evolving around you in terms a third person can understand will enable you to get outside of the situation. I have had several situations when, after reviewing them with my mentor, I was able to handle in a much more effective manner than had a taken the original action I was pondering. Again having someone to bounce your ideas off of will enable you to make the right decision for the situation.

Constructive feedback. Getting the constructive feedback on your strengths and weakness is so much easier when the person providing this feedback is not your boss or someone with an influence on your year end review or your compensation. A forum for constructive feedback, will give a foundation to build upon, don't expect the feedback to always be positive. A good mentor will tell you when you need to get your head together.

Don't expect a perfect relationship. Mentorship is a growing process and a mentee can build skills and knowledge while attaining her development goals in this safe environment. Effective relationships happen when the mentee is actually initiating the driving the relationship with a set of personal goals in mind. I will explain more in a later post.

Out Sick

One of my biggest pet peeves is when staff think they are doing the right thing by coming into the office sick. It is nice to know that you are dedicated to your job but please don't come to work when you are sick. The reality is you are much less productive than you think you are and the rest of us get sick too. We don't want to get sick because of your dedication.

After delivering this lecture to my team late last week, when several of the team came to work sick, I end up catching a flu bug. I can't stand being sick, spending the day laying around resting because my brain is so fogged up from the congestion that I can't concentrate. I am going back to bed to sleep this off.

Take care of yourself and don't go to work sick!

The Next Next Promotion

I had an employee resign the other day, which is part of life in an organization. He was in a non-titled role and gave his reason for leaving that the promotions were not coming fast enough for him to meet his career goals. He shared that the job he was offered came with a bigger title, though no increase in pay, and within a year he would be eligible for a bigger title. On the surface this seems like a reasonable argument to take another job; after all it is all about the the next next promotion? This individual was very excited about the prospect that he will be up for another promotion within a year of joining his new firm, however, he didn't spend much time assessing the work he will be doing.

This was an immature reason for leaving a firm. Before signing on to the notion that you can get a promotion in a year think through what the interviewer said. It is easy to tell someone you will be up for promotion if you are a top performer, capable, good or competent. However, great as this sounds there is no commitment in the statement and there is no definition of what you will need to do to be eligible. The burden is on the candidate to figure out what it is that drives the next next promotion. The interviewer dangled the opportunity and the interviewee took the bait hook, line, and sinker and like most young professionals he never asked about the details of the job he will be performing.

The unfortunate reality is he took a role supporting legacy technology that is most often relegated to the staff interested in long term stability and consistency. This was not the type of role an young ambitious professional would normally choose. In his quest for title he sacrificed the opportunity for valuable skills that would improve his resume and future marketability. When you are evaluating an opportunity focus on the type of projects and technologies you will be working with; not the title being offered. Every company and industry looks at corporate and functional titles differently, however, when we are looking to fill a role we are looking at the skills and experience of the candidate (not the cool sounding title).

Shoganai: Forgive, Let Go, Move On

Everywhere I look I see the signs that the economy is in dire straights, even our president elect Barack Obama is saying he needs TARP funds released before he gets into office. Just the other day I read in Penelope Trunk's blog that she has run out of funding for her start up company. A good friend shared that his company will run out of funds at the end of the January and any he is talking to investors in terms of months of payroll. With all of this bad news it becomes very difficult to focus and believe that we will come out of this. Yes, things are difficult but you or I cannot change the macro environment, however, we can change ourselves and our outlook.

The Japanese have a saying, Shoganai ‘shoga-nai‘, It literally means “there’s nothing we can do about it.” The word implies: “It’s no-body's fault, it’s just nature’s course, we can’t do anything about it, so let’s forgive, let go, and move on.” To effectively apply Shoganai to your life, focus on the following ten things you can control:

1) Control what you think. Christina Merkley, The Shift-it coach, recommends in her post Tell a New Story in 2009 that you, "Make the effort to change your internal programming – even just cleaning up one little degree of resistance can have a huge impact on your overall trajectory" One technique Christina recommends is to FLIP IT, where you take your current thought and FLIP IT around to a positive. Do this with the US unemployment rate published at 7.2% and FLIP IT to the opposite and you have 92.8% of people are employed. Set a personal agreement to flip all of your negative thoughts.

2) Exercise More. I know this one is beating a dead horse but it really worked for me. There are numerous studies that show exercise provides better stress management, builds your immunity, and improves your sleep. I personally was able to drop 50 pounds and as an added benefit reduce my blood pressure, cholesterol, and manage stress much better with my regular exercise regimen. Taking care off your body will take care of your mind.

3) Learn Something New. Take a class a your local college that will add to your professional skills. Sign up for Toastmasters and improve your presentation and selling skills. This will make you more marketable and desirable to potential employers. Continuous learning and growth will exercise the mind and expand your creative ideas not to mention positive contributions to your current job.

4) Implement a 15 minute per day reading plan. See my post about reading daily. Spending 15 minutes of reading something positive can make immediate improvement in your personal outlook. Your subconscious mind processes the activities of the day and inserting a positive influence right before your sleep will channel this processing down the path of enlightenment.

5) Turn off the news. There is very little that you as an individual can do at this moment to make a change to what has already happened. The news is always reporting events after the fact. Listening to bad things that have already happened is depressing your outlook unnecessarily. Take the advice of Michael Hyatt and take a media break. This is not a recommendation to ignore what is happening or to hide from the truth, rather this is a recommendation to intentionally limit the amount and volume of bad news you are taking in. There are plenty of opportunities to be told about how the economy is doing by friends and associates; these conversations will happen whether you are watching the news or not. So reduce the negative inputs.

6) Spend more time with friends and family. If you stop watching TV you will have more time to spend with your friends and family. Take the time and renew your friendships and enjoy time spent together. If you enjoyed the time you spent idle then it was time not wasted. Living abroad as I do I find the times that I am most homesick are during the Holiday events that included big get together with friends and family: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Fourth of July. Spending time connecting with others is one of life's definitions of an individual.

7) Start a new project. Todd Henry from the accidental creative asks, "you DO have built-in unnecessary creating time, right?" One of the best uses of your time is to start a new project, whether it be a personal creative project that allows you to explore your talents outside of the office or a project within the office. Exploring your own creative side with breakthrough barriers that are holding you back spawning the discovery of new and interesting solutions and maybe even your next venture. Write a proposal and present it to your boss on how to improve office efficiency or a new market for your company's products. Even if it is rejected you will have gained valuable experience and practice for your next idea as well is valuable credibility within your organization.

8) Give back. I am an advocate for having a calling that drives who you are (A Job or a Calling ). I am not suggesting that we spend money to give back, rather it is about donating your time. There will always be people or organizations in need that cannot afford to pay for the skills they are in need of. By finding a way that you can use your considerable talent outside of the office contributing to the greater good you will find the ultimate satisfaction. Look at your job as a means to an end and that end is the opportunity to donate your time to helping others. You will find tremendous satisfaction and this satisfaction will empower you, your job does not define you, your calling will. Use your considerable talents for a greater good outside of the office.

9) Write a daily journal. The most powerful thing I did in late 2008 was to start writing in my journal on a daily basis. My aunt, and author of Daily Paintings, Elin Pendleton made this recommendation to me when I was 12 years old and some many years later, after reading the book,"Write it Down Make it Happen" I started this practice. This daily exercise of writing for a minimum of 20 uninterrupted minutes allows me to dump all the thoughts out of my brain, clearing up my thoughts and then improving my focus. This allows me to review all that is there and realize that much of what I was thinking was not focused on the priorities of the day; I write about goals, ambitions, letters to family, and even notes to others. Taking the time each day to write will clarify your ideas; this single activity has proven to be powerful therapy.

10) Appreciate the moment. Times may be difficult and there is no easy way to say this but feel the experience. You are more alive today than you have ever been, feel alive and appreciate this very moment. Once the moment has passed it will be gone for ever so appreciate what you do have. Then look to the future; opportunities are available and no matter what will happen in 2009; the economy will recover.

Shoganai, "It’s no-body's fault, it’s just nature’s course, we can’t do anything about it, so let’s forgive, let go, and move on.” You are defined by the people you meet, the places you have been, and the books you have read. Focus on what you can control, let go and take back your life.

Human Resourcs your Business Partner

I just had the opportunity to write a recommendation for a Human Resources colleague I have worked with here in Asia when we were assessing, acquiring, building, and even shutting down businesses and while I was having a think about what I looked for in my HR team.

Human Resources is, like all corporate functions, often referred to as unavoidable; employees believe HR is only looking out for the company and the managers believe HR is only looking out for the employees. Both are right in the minimalist's view, however, there are many government-mandated activities they perform also so we have to include that they are also only looking out for the Government. I of course say this with "tongue and cheek" as I have found that a solid HR team is the cornerstone to a successful organization. All corporate functions are established to support the various business functions in the effort to grow revenue. To see HR as a trusted advisor and valued partner look to the following areas:

- Compensation
- Recruiting
- Staff development
- Discipline
- Understanding the people impact of decisions
- Interacting with staff and feeding this information to management

Each team leader and manager cannot act as an expert in these areas they need to focus on the aspects of running their business. The HR team is the partner to assist in understanding, how as leaders, our actions will affect our most important resources...our employees. It was straight forward writing a recommendation for my colleague because he excelled in these areas and I do view him as a business partner.

15 Minutes a Day Can Change Your Life

One simple trick applied for 15 minutes a day can change your life. That simple trick is reading something positive or uplifting 15 minutes right before you go to bed. Turn off the TV set a timer and read. That is all there is to it. So why is something so simple so difficult to do? Well to be effective you need to apply the rule everyday regardless of how tired you are, this is a commitment to yourself and you will need to work at it to keep up even when you are so tired all you want to do is go to bed.

I have a regular queue of books that are lined up for reading rotating then in the order listed:

- An uplifting book. Usually in the self help genre that will provide some tool set that I can apply to my life right away.
- An industry book. part of my personal commitment to continuous learning requires that I spend time building my industry specific skills and new skills
- A fiction book for pleasure, I do stay away from the horror genre.

According to the Helpguide.org REM sleep or dream sleep is the stage that is associated with processing emotions, retaining memories and relieving stress. Giving your mind something positive to think about all night long will leverage this processing period during your sleep. Michael Hyatt has a great post on taking a break from the news that essentially comes down to what you are putting into your head impacts your view of the world.

Loren taught this 15 minute reading technique to me over ten years ago and he explained that if he is too tired to read he actually stood up and read until the 15 minute timer went off. The level of commitment to the goal is as important as material you are reading. If you want to see a change happen that will open a new world of opportunities and ideas make a daily 15 minute commitment to yourself.

I have applied this tool for years with excellent results and when, like Oprah, I do revert backward it is a simple step to get back on track. This simple solution allows me to keep my goals for continuous learning, an escape from the world, and positive reinforcement. A simple 15 minutes a day plan can change your life.

Negotiate for Time to Market Advantage

Negotiation is about knowing your limits, your opponents limits, and being willing to walk away without a deal. But what if you can't walk away? The two most often cited reasons for not being able to walk away are:

- The opportunity that you are working on is so great and the window so small that you have to have all components in place very quickly or miss it.
- The number of viable options in the marketplace is limited, essentially this is the only option

I have encountered both of these situations with one big project in late 2005. We had a unique opportunity to be a first mover in the marketplace and that the competition would be able to match us within a year of our start. Our initial assessment was to attempt to be up and running in 90 days from approval, a very optimistic goal. The first thing we did was address the market window, only to discover the challenge from our competitors would have been limited initially so we had a much larger window. We also new that given our superior position in the space and the pent up demand opportunity that a scalable organization was more important than rushing into the space. After several adjustments to the plan we knew our first customer should be acquired within ten months. So we set out to find a technology vendor that could deliver a complete solution in 6 months or less. unfortunately there wasn't any vendors in the space that had a viable product. So we set out to find a vendor with a similar product that we could work with to modify to meet the specific opportunity.

We identified a single vendor that had a flexible system and the talent to develop to our needs; given that there was only one vendor in available it appeared on the surface that our negotiation position was limited. However, we used the following techniques for great success:

- Leverage Quarter end and Year end targets to our advantage
- Let the vendor know you are willing to go without them (build internal if they won't play)
- Write a commercial as well as legal contract with tight service levels and compensation when not met
- Agreed to co-develop and co-own the intellectual property for reduced pricing
- Used cooling off periods and a "most favored nation" clause to ensure best pricing

The end result was the vendor believed that we could walk away without completing the deal, raising their fear of not completing the negotiation before year-end and potentially losing the sale. After several rounds and a forced cooling off period from our last negotiation we were able to get a solid contract that ensured we had the best pricing with the "most favored nation" clause. The vendor was able to work closely with our specialists and we delivered a successful business within 10 months and leveraging a window of opportunity well before our competition was able to enter the marketplace.

I would like to hear about other stories of negotiations, if you have some that you would like to share send me your comments.

Book Review: 4 Hour Work Week

I just completed the 4 hour work week by Timothy Ferris not because as a senior manager I believe I could actually achieve a 4 hour work week, rather it was after reading Tim’s blog that I became intrigued with many of his ideas and having a 14 hour flight to the US ahead of me I figured this would pass the time quickly. I am pleased say that I was impressed and the flight did go quickly. Being a bit of a self help junkie I have read many books in the genre because I recognize that there is always a chance to have a sliver of a take away that can be applied into my daily life with an immediate impact. For me it was his advice on email and interruptions, which I tweaked slightly to fit my work environment, gibing me an additional two hours of productivity per day!

Timothy Ferris is a 29 year old who through exploitation of flaws in the system became a Tango champion and a Chinese Kickboxing champion. If you take a serious look at how he accomplished both it can only be defined as “going ugly”; which isn’t necessarily bad because it worked. I really enjoyed this book and if you effectively applied any one of the following approaches he espouses in your daily life you will recoup the cost of the book a thousand times over:

• Time manage that focuses only on high value tasks
• Avoiding busy work for the sake of working
• Mini sabbaticals rather than the standard two week vacation
• Setting up a self operating business
• Outsourcing your life
  

There are plenty of examples of Tim’s advice being applied for real success and if you can apply them in whole to your life there is an amazing new world that will open up to you. Most of his techniques have little downside risk to your current job and one of the more salient pieces of advice is that you can always get another one.

Get the book and apply it where it makes sense.

A Job or a Calling

I just read the December 10^th article by Michael Lewis on Bloomberg, “A Wall Street Job Can’t Match a Calling in Life”. The statement that most resonated with me was, "The distinction is artificial but worth drawing. A job will never satisfy you all by itself, but it will afford you security and the chance to pursue an exciting and fulfilling life outside of your work. A calling is an activity you find so compelling that you wind up organizing your entire self around it -- often to the detriment of your life outside of it. There’s no shame in either. Each has costs and benefits. There is no reason to make a fetish of your career. There are activities other than work in which to find meaning and pleasure and even a sense of self-importance -- you just need to learn how to look.”

Michael is right, a Wall Street job can’t match a calling in life for that matter most jobs don't match a calling. but I was not content to let it rest at that. There is a section on every annual review and goal setting form for personal development goals. Often these are populated with some form of guess work to what management may find impressive or what the company training department is offering from their stock list of classes; which this year will be very limited. It was after reading this article that I realized the opportunity presented by this classically underutilized area of the goal setting form. I am challenging every one of my staff to literally think outside of the box and identify goals that will allow opportunity to find meaning and pleasure that may or may not be directly tied to the work they are doing. The objective is to write goals that will enhance the employee’s value and that should include self esteem as part of the development process.

Positive well rounded thinkers will enhance the overall team performance and deliver fresh perspectives to the 2009 projects. The ability to come up with new and innovative solutions to the challenges in the marketplace without spending additional funds will be the mantra. Creativity in addressing potential threats and more importantly see the opportunities as others are dwindling in the market. Often it is not about investing more capital in seizing an opportunity, rather it is seeing the opportunity that others have missed.

Thus if it is one day a week that a staff member leaves the office a little early to work in an orphanage, feed the hungry, or other pursuit (my goal is not to pass judgment on their choice for you cannot predict were the opportunities will come from) it will be the opportunity for them to leave their mark on the world and the organization will benefit from the differing perspectives they return to work with.