Work is Personal. The Work Matters. I'm in an EMBA program right now, but I view this journey as something that started long before that program, and which will continue long after -- continuous learning, continuous improvement, a "Perpetual MBA".
Management Issues asks the question: Does your desire for change itch, or burn?
Burns go much deeper. They are itches that don't go away. They've been around for a long time (a year or more) and they have wrenched your value system to the point that:
You can no longer compartmentalize work vs. life.
I don't know that burns 'wrench' your value system -- I think it's an incongruency between your values and your firm's values that develop burns in the first place.
Seth Godin provides a whole new perspective on going to meetings.
Actually, I found this to be true in my MBA course as well. We have a lot of presentations, group and individual, and it's a little surprising the varying levels of effort that classmates put in as the audience. If it's your job to be there, it's your responsibility to make the meeting as challenging and rewarding as possible.
Tags: seth+godin, meetings, pmba
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Yes, it's a bad time to start a company on VC diesel, using me-too technology, flaunting your non-existing goods, doing tagging because it's cool, and spending all your time partying. Guess what? That was never a good idea.
But tagging IS cool... regardless, they have 5 good reasons why starting a business today is a good idea.
Tags: startup, entrepreneurship, pmba
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Yes, it's a bad time to start a company on VC diesel, using me-too technology, flaunting your non-existing goods, doing tagging because it's cool, and spending all your time partying. Guess what? That was never a good idea.
But tagging IS cool... regardless, they have 5 good reasons why starting a business today is a good idea.
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Best Working Conditions = Best Programmers = Best Software = Profit!You don't need to have a killer product, no better-mousetrap, just something to lure the best people. Apparently it worked for Joel. And doesn't it sound like HP back in their good-old-days? What do you think? tags pmba business+plan
A players hire A players; B players hire C players...So, do you consider your boss an A player? Because if he/she is not, then guess what that makes you... This is, of course, not the least bit scientific. It doesn't seem to take into account that some people can fluctuate between A and B players in the course of their career. Maybe your boss was an A player when he hired you, and now he's slipping and that explains the B and C players he is surrounding you with. Or on the flip side, maybe your boss was a B player when he hired you, and now that he's improved his game, the A+ players he's hiring are so far out of your league that you can't keep up. If you are a C player that thinks you are an A player, this might come as quite a shock. I know this doesn't apply to You, because there is no doubt You are an A player, right? Remember, almost half of the people in the world are below average, it's just that everybody wants to believe that they're above average. I guess the other issue I have with Guy's theory is that he doesn't define what an "A player" is. It's better than a B player, I'm sure, but how exactly? And while hiring someone that is better than you at a specific aspect of the job makes sense (hire a better coder, a better architect, a better handyman), a manager had better have a good plan before they hire someone that is a "better manager". Without a plan, that person is going to manage you out of a job. tags recruiting management topgrading * apologies to Mr. Keillor
Nothing radical in this list from BusinessWeek, but they are still good reminders. Read through the article and imagine someone presentating the information with only their image on screen (they have an image for each idea), using the text as their script - I think this is an excellent example of using compelling visuals (RIP on the last slide).
And I like the thumbnails of the slides across the bottom - that wouldn’t be difficult to add to a slide deck, and it would give the audience some idea of where they’ve been and where they’re going. The catch is, you can probably fit no more than 10 thumbnails or you’ll end up with unidentifiable images - sounds like no better reason to have 10 slides or less! (a la Kawasaki)
tags presentation powerpoint
Another cautionary tale of how common presentation mistakes can deflate even the perfect idea/pitch.
Get to the sizzle of your offering as quickly as possible, then move backwards (when relevant) to tease out the assumptions that led you to your design. These matters of method best emerge in a discussion period following your presentation.
via worthwhile / tags presentation powerpoint persuasion
I was searching for passion+leadership yesterday, and came across B. Scott Berkett’s Mornin’ Cup on Passion as a Competitive Tool. Looking for a common theme between the ‘great teams’ in his career, he determined that they all had great people. On each great team, there were people who demonstrated great leadership. What was the catalyst for that leadership? Passion.
This resonated with me instantly. In our Leadership session at school last week, we dicsussed whether leaders were born or made. There were good examples to support both extremes and, of course, plenty of room in the middle. Many people held up Ghandi as an example of a ‘born leader’, but I argued that much of his leadership had been learned, not the least of which through his legal education where he would have learned the law and how to be a persuasive orator (he was a successful lawyer, not a poor peasant). I proposed that the thing that made leaders great was passion. It was Ghandi’s passion for justice that compelled him to stand up against oppression and his passion for peace that focused him on doing so in a non-violent way.
Unfortunately, passion doesn’t seem to be enough. If Ghandi had been born in 1980 with the same passions, he would likely be a successful lawyer but it is unlikely that he would be a near-universal symbol of leadership. The context of social injustice was what triggered his passion and allowed him to rise up and lead a nation.
So what do you do when you don’t have passion for the task or organization at hand? Passion isn’t just something you can create, and it’s certainly not something you can fake. This exercise wasn’t helping the funk I was in...
Fortunately, Scott’s post had a link to Passion Catalyst by Curt Rosengren, which looks interesting and may expose some hidden passion I didn’t know I had, or relate my passions to my current situation in ways I hadn’t thought of before. I’ll let you know what I find. If you have any other recommendations for finding your passion, please share them in the comments.
tags: passion leadership
Scott asked that he be cited thusly: Burkett, Scott. "Mornin' Cup: Passion as a Competitive Tool." B. Scott Burkett's Pothole on the Infobahn. 2006-01-18. 2006-03-01 http://www.scottburkett.com/index.php/archives/69.
