As organizations and individuals succeed, it gets more difficult to innovate. There are issues of coordination, sure, but mostly it’s about fear. The fear of failing is greater, because it seems as though you’ve got more to lose. So urgency disappears first. Why ship it today if you can ship it next week instead? […]
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Personal branding in the age of Google…
A friend advertised online for an Office Administrator. Three interesting resumes came to the top. She googled each person’s name. The first search turned up a Facebook page. There was a picture of the applicant, drinking beer from a funnel. Under hobbies, the first entry was, “binge drinking.” The second search turned up a […]
Learning from the State Department…
Ambassadors do two things that are really difficult for most people within organizations: 1. They listen and send the notes up the chain. They’re at the front line, and they listen to what’s happening and figure out how to get the right people back home to hear what’s being said. 2. They apologize. Not for […]
The call of the Open Sea…
There are predictable evolution and revolutions as an organization grows. These are dictated by the increasing complexity that comes with adding employees,customers,product lines,the locations,etc. Handling a company’s growth successfully requires three things; a) An increasing number of capable leaders. b) A Scalable Infrastructure c) The ability to navigate certain market dynamics. If these factors are […]
“I”, “We” and “You”
One of the most profound ways to change your posture and the way you and your organization interact with customers and partners is to change your pronouns. Instead of saying “I” when you’re ready to take credit, try “we.” Instead of saying “we” when you’re avoiding responsibility, try “I.” And, every time you’re tempted to […]
Running with Gazelles,Eating with Lions…
Every morning here in Africa,a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle. When […]
How to get rich by expanding your capaci...
If you want to get rich,you need to have a mind open to new ideas and have the skills to take on possibilities greater than your current abilities. In order to do that,you must have a reality that can change,expand,and grow quickly. To try and get rich with poor persons reality or a reality that […]
May be this Year….
Maybe this year… Your knowledge will reach critical mass.. Your boss will give you the go ahead.. Your family situation will be stable.. The competition will stop innovating.. The traffic jam will cease.. There won’t be any computer viruses to deal with, and Then… You can act, you can launch your project, you can […]
Merry….
You can’t be merry by yourself. Sure, you can be content, happy, possibly even delirious. But merriment requires a group, and that group is almost always a group you can see and touch, one that’s sharing the same molecules of air, face to face. The digital revolution continues to get deeper, wider and more important. […]
The initiator….
For each person who cares enough to make something, who is bold enough to ship it, who is generous enough to say, “here, I made this,”… There are ten people who say, “I could have done it better.” A hundred people who say, “Who are you to do this?” A thousand people who say, […]
How to really think big…
It must be borne in mind that the tragedy in life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach… Its not a disgrace not to reach the stars,but its a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure,but low aim is a sin… […]
A great way to give thanks…
for the privileges we’ve got is to do important work. Your job, your internet access, your education, your role in a civilized society… all of them are a platform, a chance to do art, a way for you to give back and to honor those that enabled you to get to this point. For […]
What are corporations for..?
The purpose of a company is to serve its customers. Its obligation is to not harm everyone else. And its opportunity is to enrich the lives of its employees. Somewhere along the way, people got the idea that maximizing investor return was the point. It shouldn’t be. That’s not what democracies ought to seek in […]
Promotion, demotion and opportunity….
You can learn a new skill, today, for free. You can take on a new task at work, right now, without asking anyone. You can make a connection, find a flaw, contribute an insight, now. Or not. In a fluid system, when people are moving forward, others are falling behind. The question, then, isn’t, […]
Three ongoing changes in marketing….
1. Advertising and marketing are no longer the same thing. 2. The most valuable forms of marketing are consumed voluntarily. 3. The network effect is the most powerful force in the world of ideas. (The last assertion is based on the fact that culture changes everything about how we live our lives, and culture is […]
The most important career choice… Choose
Choose Your Spouse Wisely The most Important career choice you will make is who you marry.-Sheryl Sandberg,COO,Facebook . Choose a mate who understands that your drive to succeed at times trumps satisfying their sex drive of course both desires are not mutually exclusive; sex and success can ride together,however distractions in form of […]
The one thing that will change everythin...
That introduction you need. The capital that your organization is trying to raise. The breakthrough in what you’re building… Have you noticed that as soon as you get that one thing, everything doesn’t change? In fact, the only thing that changes is that you realize that you don’t need that one thing as much as […]
Firemen, donuts and meetings…
When a building is burning down, fireman coordinate their actions, make decisions and save lives. They do this without Executive desk chairs or Steers Donuts. They do it without subcommittees, McKinsey/PWC/Dolphins Group studies or input from the boss in another city. To quote Al Pittampalli, “why bother going to a meeting if you’re not […]
Sold or bought…?
Some things are bought–like bottled water, airplane tickets and chewing gum. The vendor sets up shop and then waits, patiently, for someone to come along and decide to buy. Other things are sold–like cars, placement of advertising in magazines and life insurance. If no salesperson is present, if no pitch is made, nothing happens. […]
Trading in your pain….
The pain of a lousy boss, of careless mistakes, of insufficient credit. The pain of instability, of bullying, of inadequate tools. The pain of poor cash flow, corrosive feedback and work that isn’t worthy of you. Pain is part of work. And it leads to two mistakes. The notion that you can trade your […]
Your voice will give you away….
It’s extremely difficult to read a speech and sound as if you mean it. For most of us, when reading, posture changes, the throat tightens and people can tell. Reading is different from speaking, and a different sort of attention is paid. Before you give a speech, then, you must do one of […]
When the world changes…
It’s painful, expensive, time-consuming, stressful and ultimately pointless to work overtime to preserve your dying business model. All the lobbying, the lawsuits, the ad campaigns and most of all, the hand-wringing, aren’t going to change anything at all. In fact, instead of postponing the outcome you fear, they probably accelerate it. The history of media […]
An alternative to believing in yourself…
Of course, self-belief is more than just common advice. It’s at the heart of selling, of creating, of shipping, of leadership… Telling someone, “believe in yourself,” is often worthless, though, because it’s easier said than done. Perhaps the alternative is: “Do work you can believe in.” Not trust, verification. Not believing that one day you’ll […]
Simple Project Management Tips…Make thre
When considering a new project, it might help to make three lists: A list of everything that has to be true for this to be a good project (things you can look up, research or otherwise prove). A list of all the skills you dont have that would be important for this project to work […]
Compared to…
Without a doubt, there’s someone taller than you, faster than you, cuter than you. We don’t have to look very far to find someone who is better paid, more respected and getting more than his fair share of credit. And social media: Of course there are people with more followers, more likes and more of […]
In search of your calling…
In search of your calling I don’t think we have a calling. I do think it’s possible to have a caring. A calling implies that there’s just one thing for you, just one thing you’re supposed to do. What we most need in our lives, though, is something worth doing, worth it because we […]
How is your buzz management..??
I started the quiz team at my high school. Alas, I didn’t do so well at the tryouts, so I ended up as the coach, but we still made it to the finals. It took me thirty years to figure out the secret of getting in ahead of the others who also knew the […]
Abandoning perfection..
It’s possible you work in an industry built on perfect. That you’re a scrub nurse in the Operation Room, or an air traffic controller or even in charge of compliance at a nuclear power plant. The rest of us, though, are rewarded for breaking things. Our job, the reason we have time to read […]
Pain,Money and B2B selling…
When you sell to someone at a business, it’s worth remembering that the pain their problem is causing belongs to them, while the money they have to spend, doesn’t. Any time you can cure their pain in exchange for their boss’s (or the shareholder’s) money, that’s a compelling offer. The challenge is actually being […]
The crowd will call you a fool…
When you do work that matters, the crowd will call you a fool If you do something remarkable, something new and something important, not everyone will understand it (at first). Your work is for someone, not everyone. Unless you’re surrounded only by someones, you will almost certainly encounter everyone. And when you do, they will […]
How to go faster….
How do you get to market faster than the competition? How do you become more efficient without violating the laws of physics? How do you save time, money and frustration? It all comes down to decision hygiene: 1. Make decisions faster. You rarely need more time. Mostly, you must merely choose to decide. The […]
To overcome an irrational fear…
replace it with a habit. If you’re afraid to write, write a little, every day. Start with an anonymous blog, start with a sentence. Every day, drip, drip, drip, a habit. If you’re afraid to speak up, speak up a little, every day. Not to the board of directors, but to someone. A little […]
Two heads or one…?
As a company gets bigger, there’s an inevitable split between the people who market what gets made and the people who design what gets made. At some organizations, it’s likely that these two people work in different buildings, and don’t spend much time together. One of the most important decisions made in the early days […]
Active listening…..
The kind of listening we’re trained to do in school and at work is passive listening. Sit still. Get through it. Figure out what’s going to be on the test and ignore the rest. Your eyes can glaze over, but don’t let it show. Try not to nod off. People are talking, and they’d like […]
What is the difference between commitmen...
We spend way too much time teaching people technique. Teaching people to be good at flute, or C++ or soccer. It’s a waste because the fact is, most people can learn to be good at something, if they only choose to be, if they choose to make the leap and put in the effort and […]
The enemy of creativity…..
is fear. We’re all born creative, it takes a little while to become afraid. A surprising insight: an enemy of fear is creativity. Acting in a creative way generates action, and action persuades the fear to lighten up.