I am not ready to crown myself the greatest leader of all time. And I readily admit that I don't necessarily do this on purpose, but...in his book "The Management Gurus: Lessons from the Best Management Books of all Time" Chris Lauer writes about the importance of generating small wins. And that is something I do.
He writes "leaders should dream big, but start small. Dream big about crossing that enormous cosmos to find some new world but start small with a few short journeys to test your theories and abilities".
I have found myself telling more than one person, on more than one occasion, that I am not trying to conquer the world. Now don't get me wrong here. I have big plans for Bravo but I also know that have those dreams realized it needs to be slow grow. Deliberate, slow, methodical and planned. One project at a time, one client at a time.
I would think for anyone starting a business this would be sage advice.
Why is "generate small wins" important for me? I think one of the reasons that people never go after their dreams is because they think everything has to be perfectly in place in order for them to get started. Not me. I see the first time I do anything--a new workshop, a new presentation, any new idea as a trial run. I have to. If I required perfection I would never get started.
And so I approach everything I do as adding one small win to my win category knowing that in time, those small wins will accumulate and start snowballing into the big wins I lay in bed at night and plan out in my head.
All great stories have a moral and mine is this: if you are keeping from going after your dreams because you think everything should be PERFECT take a deep breath, tell yourself "perfection is not the goal" and then get started.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Friday, November 13, 2009
The Duh Factor
I sometimes find myself clicking on the Yahoo Home Page snippets about life at work. Today's home page snippet is about bad co-workers. Here are the five things that make you a bad co-worker, according to Yahoo.
1. You dump last-minute work on people when you could have avoided doing so.
2. You complain about people without telling them your beefs directly.
3. You exude negativity.
4. You bring your personal life to the office in ways that make people uncomfortable.
5. You're chronically defensive.
Here's the end to this ENLIGHTENING (sarcasm intended by the all caps) article:
"If you recognize yourself in any of the above habits, you may be the irritating coworker that colleagues are complaining about to me. Try a one-month moratorium on the behavior and see if any of your relationships improve."
Here is the problem: YOU WON'T RECOGNIZE YOURSELF IN ANY OF THESE ITEMS AND THAT IS WHAT MAKES YOU SO **%#@@ IRRITATING. Thus, the DUH factor.
You see, people who do these things are painfully self UNaware. And that is what makes them so hard to work with. I have often joked with clients that we are going to start providing an anonymous service to people where we send emails that say "hey guess what? Everyone thinks you are a royal jerk!" That reminds me of a funny bumper sticker I saw once "Jesus Loves you, Everyone Else Thinks You're an Asshole". Now that is funny.
Maybe I should just buy a bunch of those and hand them out as a service project. It would make the world a better please me thinks.
DUH!
1. You dump last-minute work on people when you could have avoided doing so.
2. You complain about people without telling them your beefs directly.
3. You exude negativity.
4. You bring your personal life to the office in ways that make people uncomfortable.
5. You're chronically defensive.
Here's the end to this ENLIGHTENING (sarcasm intended by the all caps) article:
"If you recognize yourself in any of the above habits, you may be the irritating coworker that colleagues are complaining about to me. Try a one-month moratorium on the behavior and see if any of your relationships improve."
Here is the problem: YOU WON'T RECOGNIZE YOURSELF IN ANY OF THESE ITEMS AND THAT IS WHAT MAKES YOU SO **%#@@ IRRITATING. Thus, the DUH factor.
You see, people who do these things are painfully self UNaware. And that is what makes them so hard to work with. I have often joked with clients that we are going to start providing an anonymous service to people where we send emails that say "hey guess what? Everyone thinks you are a royal jerk!" That reminds me of a funny bumper sticker I saw once "Jesus Loves you, Everyone Else Thinks You're an Asshole". Now that is funny.
Maybe I should just buy a bunch of those and hand them out as a service project. It would make the world a better please me thinks.
DUH!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Power Point is not the Devil
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
I was cruising the aisles of the business section at Barnes and Noble yesterday in search of new alluring book titles and came across a book on leadership and presentations that looked interesting. I opened it up to the table of contents and noticed a section on PowerPoint so I turned to the page indicated where I read "how many of you have ever left a presentation and said 'Wow he/she has a great PowerPoint!'? No one right?" The writer went on to suggest that great leaders don't need Power Point for a great presentation. That may be true in some cases. But to then make the assumption that no one has ever been moved by a great Power Point? Well, I respectfully disagree.
Slides in a presentation have the ability to create a visual experience that a stand alone speaker could never achieve no matter how amazing her language choices might be. That is just the truth of the matter. Millie and I recognize the place of our slides--to provide visual impact to our message--and we design them accordingly. On many occasions our workshop and presentation attendees have commented on how great our slides were and well, I humbly agree. We work HARD at it. Millie has spent an hour on one slide before trying to strike just the right tone with the slide and I can't count the endless hours we have spent looking for just the right image. Why?
Because seeing is powerful.
Because the research is conclusive: people are more likely to remember a message when all their senses are employed.
Because audiences want a multi sensory experience.
Because audiences have a shorter attention span and are more likely to zone out without something to look at.
Because Because Because
Slides are not bad.
The people who design them are usually bad at designing slides.
If you have never left a presentation and said "Her Power Point rocked" you would certainly know it when one did in fact, well, rock. It would make an impact. You would sit up and take notice.
Slides are not going to go away.
People are going to keep using Power Point.
And we are glad for it, because it allows us to work with our clients to help them design slides that, well Rock.
I have a few slides above to illustrate my point. Could you do a better job with words to tell the story that the image so nicely tells on it's own? Take the toy soldiers for example. It is just the perfect representation of the idea we wanted to communicate and for our audience the image is a throwback to their days as kids playing in the backyard with their little toy soldiers. Without it, we might have said "You know it's like when you had all those little toy soldiers you used to play with when you were little..." and it might have gotten a few smiles but the IMAGE is way more powerful isn't it?
I shall not throw the book under the bus I read because I did not read the whole thing and I suspect there is probably some great advice inside the book. But suggesting that great leaders who are great speakers don't use Power Point or Slides in their presentations is just flat out wrong.
Just ask Steve Jobs.....
Great Slides
View more presentations from guestbce1265.
I was cruising the aisles of the business section at Barnes and Noble yesterday in search of new alluring book titles and came across a book on leadership and presentations that looked interesting. I opened it up to the table of contents and noticed a section on PowerPoint so I turned to the page indicated where I read "how many of you have ever left a presentation and said 'Wow he/she has a great PowerPoint!'? No one right?" The writer went on to suggest that great leaders don't need Power Point for a great presentation. That may be true in some cases. But to then make the assumption that no one has ever been moved by a great Power Point? Well, I respectfully disagree.
Slides in a presentation have the ability to create a visual experience that a stand alone speaker could never achieve no matter how amazing her language choices might be. That is just the truth of the matter. Millie and I recognize the place of our slides--to provide visual impact to our message--and we design them accordingly. On many occasions our workshop and presentation attendees have commented on how great our slides were and well, I humbly agree. We work HARD at it. Millie has spent an hour on one slide before trying to strike just the right tone with the slide and I can't count the endless hours we have spent looking for just the right image. Why?
Because seeing is powerful.
Because the research is conclusive: people are more likely to remember a message when all their senses are employed.
Because audiences want a multi sensory experience.
Because audiences have a shorter attention span and are more likely to zone out without something to look at.
Because Because Because
Slides are not bad.
The people who design them are usually bad at designing slides.
If you have never left a presentation and said "Her Power Point rocked" you would certainly know it when one did in fact, well, rock. It would make an impact. You would sit up and take notice.
Slides are not going to go away.
People are going to keep using Power Point.
And we are glad for it, because it allows us to work with our clients to help them design slides that, well Rock.
I have a few slides above to illustrate my point. Could you do a better job with words to tell the story that the image so nicely tells on it's own? Take the toy soldiers for example. It is just the perfect representation of the idea we wanted to communicate and for our audience the image is a throwback to their days as kids playing in the backyard with their little toy soldiers. Without it, we might have said "You know it's like when you had all those little toy soldiers you used to play with when you were little..." and it might have gotten a few smiles but the IMAGE is way more powerful isn't it?
I shall not throw the book under the bus I read because I did not read the whole thing and I suspect there is probably some great advice inside the book. But suggesting that great leaders who are great speakers don't use Power Point or Slides in their presentations is just flat out wrong.
Just ask Steve Jobs.....
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
What ideas are sticky for you?
We continue our conversation about sticky ideas today by looking a new ad campaign I find sticky. Recently I have found myself not skipping the new Intel commercials. The two we included here are SO sticky. Why?
Well first they are quite simple. "Our Rock Stars aren't like your Rock Stars" and "Our Jokes aren't like your Jokes" is so simple and yet packs a lot of punch. They are also unexpected. When you think Intel what do you think? Well I don't think about clever, funny, imaginative or cutting edge. I think boring technical computer stuff. But this new ad campaign is less than boring.
Next the ads are concrete because they reference things I am already familiar with--rock stars and jokes. I understand those concepts. By suggesting their rock stars and jokes are different from my rock stars and jokes I feel like they are giving me the opportunity to know them better. We share some common ground--we both like rock stars and jokes right?
Finally the commercials tell a good story. The rock star one is a perfect story. We have all seen the crowds of adoring fans waiting for their favorite band to pass by so they can swoon. Only this time, the rock star is the most unlikely fellow we could imagine--Ajay Bahht, co-inventor of the USB. Wow!
So what do you find sticky?
Leave your comments below. To leave a comment simply press on comments.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Are you Sticky?
In our lunch, learn and LEAD workshop with our friends at VLK this week we are looking in great depth at how to generate sticky ideas for our presentations. I am hoping to get some feedback leading up to Friday that will help us to wrap our head around the concepts of sticky ideas. One of the most profound, yet simple ideas that comes out of Chip and Dan Heath's book "Made to Stick" is "The Curse of Knowledge" heretofore referred to as: CofK. Ok... The CofK concept is pretty elegant in it's description--Once we know something, it is hard to imagine what it was like to not know it. Done. Millie and I have to remember this when teaching presentation and slide design. We have years of experience doing this--most people don't. So we have to carefully construct our messages to fit the experiences of our audience.
Now, if you have ever had to suffer through the pains of helping your little person with multiplication you can understand CofK at work. As an adult, with years of experience multiplying numbers, we have all learned the little tricks that help us to multiple even the most difficult of numbers. Just the other night I was working with my daughter on 7, 8, and 9. I was hoping the pattern that emerges when multiplying with the number 9 would be obvious. You know it right?
9 18 27 36 45 54 63 72 81 90 99 108 117 126 135 144 153 162 171 180
Do you see the pattern?
You probably do.
The number in the ten's place is going up as we climb to 90 and it is going down in the one's place. When we get to 99, we start over again and the tens place goes up one while the one's place goes down one.
But my daughter did not see the pattern on her own.
And this made me frustrated. How could she not see it?
Because I am familiar with the CofK I was good to remember that I probably didn't figure out the pattern on my own either (I'm no rainman mind you) and it is more likley that an adult pointed it out to me. And with that realization I was able to then modify my instruction to her to accommodate for the fact that she does not have the same knowledge base as I do.
So, I am wondering--how does the CofK get in the way of your messages? Consider for example if you work in a highly specialized industry. Do you tend to take for granted that not everyone knows the same things you know? (Computer People can be among the worst! Sorry but it's true!)
Leave your replies below. And good luck conquering the mighty CofK (cue dun dun dun music).
Tomorrow's post will get you thinking about what messages and ideas are sticky to you. Start looking around and considering for example commercials, logos, advertising campaigns, packaging, etc. All of these are places where ideas should be sticky (and often are not!)
Until then, have a great (rainy) Monday
Now, if you have ever had to suffer through the pains of helping your little person with multiplication you can understand CofK at work. As an adult, with years of experience multiplying numbers, we have all learned the little tricks that help us to multiple even the most difficult of numbers. Just the other night I was working with my daughter on 7, 8, and 9. I was hoping the pattern that emerges when multiplying with the number 9 would be obvious. You know it right?
9 18 27 36 45 54 63 72 81 90 99 108 117 126 135 144 153 162 171 180
Do you see the pattern?
You probably do.
The number in the ten's place is going up as we climb to 90 and it is going down in the one's place. When we get to 99, we start over again and the tens place goes up one while the one's place goes down one.
But my daughter did not see the pattern on her own.
And this made me frustrated. How could she not see it?
Because I am familiar with the CofK I was good to remember that I probably didn't figure out the pattern on my own either (I'm no rainman mind you) and it is more likley that an adult pointed it out to me. And with that realization I was able to then modify my instruction to her to accommodate for the fact that she does not have the same knowledge base as I do.
So, I am wondering--how does the CofK get in the way of your messages? Consider for example if you work in a highly specialized industry. Do you tend to take for granted that not everyone knows the same things you know? (Computer People can be among the worst! Sorry but it's true!)
Leave your replies below. And good luck conquering the mighty CofK (cue dun dun dun music).
Tomorrow's post will get you thinking about what messages and ideas are sticky to you. Start looking around and considering for example commercials, logos, advertising campaigns, packaging, etc. All of these are places where ideas should be sticky (and often are not!)
Until then, have a great (rainy) Monday
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
The Cost of Self Delusion
I am about half way through "What Got you Here Won't Get you there" by Marshall Goldsmith, a pretty good read on how to break some of our worst habits to reach our full potential. There is not, so far, anything revolutionary in his list of bad habits that hold us back but I am always a fan of repetition to reinforce some of those hard learned lessons. I have paused to put down here a great thought from this very book, found on p. 134.
"Your flaws at work don't vanish when you walk through the front door at home"
that is worth typing again
"YOUR FLAWS AT WORK DON'T VANISH WHEN YOU WALK THROUGH THE FRONT DOOR"
I hear people I work with tell me all the time "I am different outside of the work place" and honestly, I have a pretty tough time believing them. The area I struggle most with in my life is organization. I know that about me. Thank goodness I have Millie as my business partner because she helps me with that by 1. being very organized herself and 2. gently reminding me of things I should be paying attention to but have failed to do. "But I am not that way at home". Yeah right.
Goldsmith tells of a Gordon Gekko like character he worked with who was VERY successful financially but a disaster in his professional relationships. Essentially everyone he worked with hated the
man. When Goldsmith sat down with him to address this flaw, the guy's response to him was "Oh that is just me at work, I don't act like that at home". So Goldsmith got his wife on the phone who literally burst out laughing at her husbands self delusional statement. I think the word she used was "jerk" to describe him at home. Just for good measure, Goldsmith got his kids on the phone too. And they corroborated her story. OUCH!My point? Pay attention to the complaints you receive at home, and there is a good chance that those are the very qualities that are holding you back not just in your personal relationships but in your professional relationships too. May Angelou once said "When people show you who they are, believe them". I would add to that--if they show you to be one thing at work, they are likely the same way at home--and vice versa.
Take a week and write down all the comments that people make about you. Even the comments your kids make (ouch!) Write down the good with the bad. At the end of the week, sit down and see if any patterns emerge from the "passing remarks". Then make a plan to do better.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
You Gotta Start Em' Early
My daughter is running for student council today at her school. I don't know if she will win the election as the politics in the 5th grade are just brutal! She asked me to help her prepare her speech and I thought I would share it here to illustrate how I can even apply the principles I teach to a 10 year old's speech to her classmates.
Maddie was a little nervous while she was practicing her speech so I did what I have done for countless other people--I gave her some stage directions. I put them in all capital letters and inside brackets so she would know not to read that out loud! As she practiced her biggest challenge was to not read too fast
(DON’T READ TOO FAST! SLOW) Did you know that a survey I read said people are more scared of giving a speech than of death? Seriously? but I want to run for student council and that means giving a speech.... so here I go.
Maddie had three ideas on why people should vote for her. We used this one as the first because it has the smallest impact. I tried to inject a little humor but who knows with ten year olds if they will laugh at my little attempt at humor. Yeah--I could have told her to just burp really loud--kids love that stuff--but I don't believe in pandering.
(REMEMBER TO MAKE EYE CONTACT)
First of all I think I will do a GREAT job on the maverick morning news. i love watching the news and I think it would be fun to be the newscaster. Have you seen Katie Couric on the TV news? Well I want to be the 5th grade Katie Couric!
(BREATHE, SMILE)
I also like helping other people and I think student council is a great way to serve our school by helping students and people in our community too.
I thought this was the best of Maddie's ideas so we put it last. The idea is a direct connection to the posters she made to hand up around the school. Maddie Spears is Mint and she put packages of spearmint gum all over the poster. It was pretty cute and apparently a hit because all the kids wanted to know if they could have a piece if they vote for her.
The last thing is something I think is a really good idea. Ever wish you could chew gum at school? Well I think we should change twin day to “Double Mint Twin Day”. You would still dress like your friend and be twins but the best part? You get to chew gum in school....ALL DAY LONG! I think that would be really cool.
This was Maddie's idea--I didn't inject a transparent appeal to the audience, she did it herself. You probably have some great ideas too for things we could do at our school. If you vote for me I hope you will tell me your great ideas and I will try and make them happen!
We really struggled here. I had some clever ideas but Maddie vetoed all of them because they were lame and stupid. Her words. So we settled on something pretty simple.
Well I didn’t die huh? My mom said I need a conclusion so here is what I can up with: “If you like a girl with great ideas and want just one day to chew gum at school then vote for Maddie!” (SMILE)
To compliment the speech I made her a T Shirt that says "Vote for Maddie" on the front and "I want to be your DoubleMint Twin" on the back and did black and green to match her gum packets.
Will she win? Who knows. I am more proud that she can get up in front of a crowd and articulate her ideas. She is a pretty great kid and if mom and dad could vote she would be a shoe in. 5th graders are a pretty fickle bunch. But in the end, we had fun working on the posters and speech and win or lose, she is still a great kid.
Maddie was a little nervous while she was practicing her speech so I did what I have done for countless other people--I gave her some stage directions. I put them in all capital letters and inside brackets so she would know not to read that out loud! As she practiced her biggest challenge was to not read too fast
(DON’T READ TOO FAST! SLOW) Did you know that a survey I read said people are more scared of giving a speech than of death? Seriously? but I want to run for student council and that means giving a speech.... so here I go.
Maddie had three ideas on why people should vote for her. We used this one as the first because it has the smallest impact. I tried to inject a little humor but who knows with ten year olds if they will laugh at my little attempt at humor. Yeah--I could have told her to just burp really loud--kids love that stuff--but I don't believe in pandering.
(REMEMBER TO MAKE EYE CONTACT)
First of all I think I will do a GREAT job on the maverick morning news. i love watching the news and I think it would be fun to be the newscaster. Have you seen Katie Couric on the TV news? Well I want to be the 5th grade Katie Couric!
(BREATHE, SMILE)
I also like helping other people and I think student council is a great way to serve our school by helping students and people in our community too.
I thought this was the best of Maddie's ideas so we put it last. The idea is a direct connection to the posters she made to hand up around the school. Maddie Spears is Mint and she put packages of spearmint gum all over the poster. It was pretty cute and apparently a hit because all the kids wanted to know if they could have a piece if they vote for her.
The last thing is something I think is a really good idea. Ever wish you could chew gum at school? Well I think we should change twin day to “Double Mint Twin Day”. You would still dress like your friend and be twins but the best part? You get to chew gum in school....ALL DAY LONG! I think that would be really cool.
This was Maddie's idea--I didn't inject a transparent appeal to the audience, she did it herself. You probably have some great ideas too for things we could do at our school. If you vote for me I hope you will tell me your great ideas and I will try and make them happen!
We really struggled here. I had some clever ideas but Maddie vetoed all of them because they were lame and stupid. Her words. So we settled on something pretty simple.
Well I didn’t die huh? My mom said I need a conclusion so here is what I can up with: “If you like a girl with great ideas and want just one day to chew gum at school then vote for Maddie!” (SMILE)
To compliment the speech I made her a T Shirt that says "Vote for Maddie" on the front and "I want to be your DoubleMint Twin" on the back and did black and green to match her gum packets.
Will she win? Who knows. I am more proud that she can get up in front of a crowd and articulate her ideas. She is a pretty great kid and if mom and dad could vote she would be a shoe in. 5th graders are a pretty fickle bunch. But in the end, we had fun working on the posters and speech and win or lose, she is still a great kid.
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