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Facebookin’ on the job boosts productivity?

Ok, maybe posting pictures of you from that awesome Black Keys concert from the night before or gossiping about who unfriended who on Facebook while on the job is more of a productivity killer.

However, earlier this week, Microsoft released the results of a global survey conducted by Ipsos regarding the use of social tools in the workplace.  Nearly 10,000 individuals responded from over 32 countries, all of which were from various industries and age groups.  While the results aren’t necessarily surprising, leaders definitely need to be aware of the emerging trends.

networkingBefore getting into the results, I want to point out that it’s obvious why Microsoft commissioned the survey.  With products like SharePoint and Lync, Microsoft is building a business case for implementing more social enterprise tools within organizations.   With that being said, the trends are still very real:

  • 46% of respondents stated that their productivity increased because of their use of social tools.
  • 40% stated that social tools have results in more collaboration in their workplace.
  • 39% stated that other individuals in their organization did not collaborate enough.
  • The top reported use of social tools was to communicate with colleagues, followed by reviewing documents and communicating with customers/clients.

If you look online, you can find various opinions regarding the use of social tools in the workplace.  We can see there’s a trend based on the results above, but there are also individuals who feel social tools do not belong in the workplace.  Some say it could be comparable to putting the water cooler outside of everyone’s workspace.

The purpose of these tools, at least from a business perspective, is to increase communication.  If you can increase communication, it should be easier to increase collaboration.  Sure, the use of these tools can lead to non-work related discussions among employees, but in today’s work environment where resources are scarce and employees are doing more with less, this should be embraced.  There is no longer a clear line between work life and personal life.

There is one clear benefit to using these tools that I can identify that’s not listed in the survey results: documentation.

emailFor example, everyone has preferences when it comes to email vs. phone calls.  Some prefer voice-to-voice interactions, while others prefer email communication.  Personally, I prefer emails to phone calls because it automatically gives me a record of the conversation.    I’m not the greatest note-taker, so if I can automate that process, I have a clearer picture of the commitments I have made along with the commitments others have made to me.

I also don’t have the greatest memory, either.  If you asked me about the details of a meeting that took place last week, I might be able to fill in the details.  If you asked me about a meeting from a few months ago, the details I can recall will be much hazier.

The more I’m able to use technology to document my interactions, the easier it will be to increase my overall productivity.  That’s because I’m spending more times on real action items, instead of simply trying to remember details.

If you’re still on the fence about using social tools in the workplace or are even a naysayer, be careful: according to the results of the survey, 17% reported that they ignored their organization’s IT policy and installed social tools on their work device(s).  Further, 28% reported that they knew of others in their organization who had done the same thing.

What has your experience been with using social tools at work?  Did they lead to an increase in productivity, or were they more of a distraction?

As always, be sure to leave your comments!

2013
05/31
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Uncategorized
2 comments

Hail to the King? – Not If You Want to Manage

Have you ever worked for someone who thought they were the center of the world?  The person was so demanding that if you didn’t do what they wanted you to do, when they wanted you to do it, you would be getting an earful or worse?  When you hear the term “manager”, does your past experience make you think “dictator”?

caesarChances are, if you’re thinking about moving up to a leadership role (or are even in a leadership role now), the “bad boss” example from above probably showed you how not to behave.  However, in some cases, the way that person acted may have shaped an image for some who think that’s how a manager is supposed to act, especially for younger employees who may not have had many managers.

Consider the purpose of a manager – in the simplest terms, they provide task distribution and guidance.  Being a manager does not mean you are above others.  Just because you are in a position of power, it doesn’t mean you are “Lord of the Cubicles”.

I might be able to get away telling my dog “Hail to the King!”, but if I tried that with my wife, I’d be sleeping in the doghouse.  If I can’t get away with it at home, you better believe I can’t get away with it at work with people who aren’t even related to me.

chesskingHistory shows that most dictators only last so long before their people rise up an overthrow them.  While employees might not literally rise up against a toxic boss, you better believe that senior leadership will eventually take notice when a manager’s employee turnover rate exceeds the rest of the company, or that the manager-in-question seems to have their own filling cabinet of internal complaints in HR.

The bottom line is that a manager is there to support their people. The best managers look at their employees being the real bosses.  They tell their leader what they need, and the leader helps them get whatever they need to be successful.  If they are successful, the leader is successful, as well.  Plus, it makes for better all-around working conditions for managers and employees alike.

If your mindset still falls into the realm of management equaling power, you might find yourself facing your own coup d’état in the future…

Leave your comments!

2013
04/26
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Accountability
Behavior
Challenges
Expectations
Growing
Influence
Leadership
Learning
Managing
Productivity
Relationships
Retention
4 comments

Are You Handcuffing Yourself with Process?

Process can be a great thing.  It gives you a roadmap to get something from “point A” to “point B”, whether that something is a product/service/request/etc…  Generally speaking, it’s usually scalable and can be used by multiple employees and customers.  However, it can also present a road block to your employees and customers depending on whether they are allowed to deviate from procedure in special circumstances.  Where do you find the balance?

Handcuffs and Key I am a big fan of Consumerist, the blogging arm of Consumer Reports.  If you aren’t familiar with the site, the authors report both positive and negative stores regarding the actions of companies and organizations.  Usually, when I see a negative posting about a company, it’s not because the employees of the company in question wanted to wrong a customer.  In most cases, you can clearly see that a lot of the complaints in these stories are about customers having to jump through hoops and spending hours trying to get their problems resolved simply because the frontline employees (and in some cases, the supervisors and managers) cannot do what needs to be done to make the situation right.  They are required to follow established process, which isn’t always a one-size fits all solution.

Not only is this bad practice when it comes to customer service, it can create a negative perception about an organization.  I’ve personally cancelled services with companies simply because they wouldn’t make exceptions in extreme cases.  I would then recommend to my friends/family that they avoid these companies so they wouldn’t have to deal with the hassles I did.

It’s so much of a trend that Consumerist came up with what it calls the EECB, which stands for “Executive Email Carpet Bomb”.  When customers have exhausted all other avenues to resolve a problem, they can put together an email and send it to top-level executives following the tips Consumerist outlines on their site.  In the majority of cases where a complaint is escalated using the EECB, the customer’s complaint is usually solved in a satisfactory fashion.

Man Jumping Through HoopWhile it’s great that this solution does exist, it shouldn’t take the involvement of executive offices to resolve these types of complaints.  Employees need to be given enough leeway to make the executive decisions in cases that fall outside the norm.

When crafting a process or even re-examining an existing process, consider the following:

  • Can the process be duplicated by others with relative ease? (i.e. is it scalable?)
  • Is the process efficient for your employees and/or customers so they don’t have to jump through hoops?
  • Are there potential holes in the process where the ball might get dropped by one or more individuals?
  • Does the process give a desired outcome in the shortest possible timeframe?
  • Most importantly, can employees/customers move forward outside of the establish process under special circumstances?

Leave your comments!

2013
04/05
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Business
Challenges
Customer Service
Decision Making
Expectations
Norms
Problem Solving
5 comments

Molding A Culture For Millennials

In a Deloitte survey published last month, almost 5000 Millennials across 18 different countries were asked various questions regarding their gen-y-imageviews on innovation.  According to the survey, 78% of the Millennials surveyed believe innovation is essential to business growth.  However:

  • 52% believe their workplace environment helps them innovate.
  • 26% believe their organization’s leadership encourages innovation and idea sharing regardless of organizational hierarchy.

That’s a huge gap in the number of Millennials who feel innovation is critical, yet who also feel their leadership teams aren’t fostering cultures of innovation.

Where does your company leadership stand on innovation?  Do you believe that innovation comes only from the top?  Should new ideas be shared and implemented based on seniority, or do employees on the frontlines have opportunities to innovate?

A lot of this deals with change.   Well-established companies may be struggling with an old way of thinking that leadership is where all of the good ideas are generated.  53% of respondents perceived that newer businesses were better able to innovate compared to older businesses.

In reality, innovation should come from all levels.  Innovation shouldn’t be thought of as flowing in a pyramid starting at the top.  Instead, think of innovation spreading across a level playing field in an organization.

innovationFrontline employees who work directly with customers are often the ones who see areas for change.  They can spot problems with processes and even products and services.  They’re the ones who hear the most feedback from customers.    That makes them a great source of new ideas.

How do you know if your employees feel they can innovate?  Can they come to you and/or other company leadership and bring up new ideas for products, processes, and solutions?  Do you have any established process for those ideas to be shared?  Are you open to listening to those ideas, or are they quickly dismissed regardless of how innovative they may be?

There are various other studies/surveys that have shown Millennials are less “loyal” in staying with a single employer.  In other words, if they aren’t getting what they perceive is essential to their work environment, they are more likely to find employment elsewhere compared to the other generations.

In seeing how important Millennials feel innovation is, this could also lead to a possible conclusion that businesses who don’t foster a culture of innovation will have a hard time retaining talent from this generation.

There are some other key data points in the Millennial Innovation survey:

  • 66% of respondents agreed that innovative organizations will be better positioned to attract talent.
  • Innovation was considered a top reason for the purpose of business.
  • Employee satisfaction and retention was ranked as the #1 non-financial  measurement for business success (the interesting part about this is that this category could be further broken down by the Employee Work Passion survey published by The Ken Blanchard Companies on what factors affect employee satisfaction).

No matter where you are in your organization’s hierarchy, what are you doing to foster innovation?

Leave your comments!

2013
02/15
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Business
Challenges
Decision Making
Direction
Growth
Innovation
Leadership
Performance
Problem Solving
Retention
TAGS

4 comments

Cartoon Leaders Who May (Or May Not) Be Good Role Models

Long before we even think about what we’d like to do for a career or even our first summer job, we’re exposed to a variety of leaders.  You know the ones there during weekday afternoons or even Saturday mornings?

In no particular order, below is a list of cartoon characters that are either bad or good examples of leadership (note that not all of them are necessarily from children’s cartoons):

The Bad

MrBurns7

Image courtesy of http://www.simpsoncrazy.com

  • Mr. Burns (The Simpsons) – Let’s start with one of the most infamous and iconic leaders in cartoons.  Most people will recognize this power-hungry nuclear tycoon.  Some could say he’s a wealthy businessman (depending on which episode you’re watching), but if you’re an employee under Burns’ leadership, you better watch out.  He’s the perfect example of a self-serving leader only looking out for his own best interests.  The employees do get some nice perks (naps during work hours, anyone?), but I’m betting there’s a high turnover rate at that power plant.  Don’t say the wrong thing around this one, or he may “release the hounds.”
  • Mr. Slate (The Flintstones) – Mr. Slate actually isn’t that bad of a leader.  In fact, he seemed to have an ok working relationship with Fred.  However, he has no patience for Fred’s mistakes.  He likes to fire Fred on a regular basis.  Instead of firing and re-hiring an employee consistently, he should spend more time giving Fred some direction.  Yabba-Dabba don’t do this.
  • Spencer Cogswell (The Jetsons) – While George Jetson’s boss, Cosmo Spacely, has his own set of problems (another leader who loves to fire and re-hire his employees), he doesn’t compare to their infamous competitor Cogswell.  This leader isn’t above stealing other’s ideas or firing employees for little-to-no reason.  Stop this crazy thing!
  • Professor Farnsworth (Futurama) – He might be a great individual contributor since he always seem to invent something you need just at the right time, but watch out if you report to him!  This leader has a tendency to sleep on the job, especially when you need something from him.  For the most part, he’s honest with you, but he has a habit of forgetting to mention important details, especially in challenging and even dangerous situations.  He also doesn’t provide a lot of support when you need it most.  You might find a better leader on Omicron Persei 8.
  • Pointy-haired Boss (Dilbert) – If you could think of all the stereotypes of bad leaders and ball them under one individual, you’d get the Pointy-haired Boss.  Can you say “demotivated?”  He says and does everything the wrong way.   He usually makes uneducated decisions and most of them are highly unethical.  HR probably has a whole filing cabinet dedicated to just him.  Don’t expect any direction, support, or any input, for that matter.  It’s time to start combing your own hair to a point if you want him to notice you in a favorable light.

The Good

  • Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) – You could argue that Leonardo is the leader of the green machine, but at the end of the day, who do they actually report to?  That’s right, it’s the wise rat.   He always seems to support his team the right way.  In fact, I don’t recall Splinter ever making any real leadership mistakes/gaffes.  Sure, he gets captured by the Foot Clan, but who doesn’t?  He’s more than just a great leader since he’s also a father-figure.  Don’t get caught goofing off on the job, though.  You might find yourself doing 10 flips.
  • Optimus Prime (Transformers) – Yes, it’s the infamous leader of the Autobots.  This leader fights for righteousness every step of the way.  He could’ve landed on Earth an only thought about his own problems.  Instead, he protects all forms of life.  He’d sacrifice himself before sacrificing others.  He’s a cross-species(?) kind of leader and has all the servant leader qualities.  Roll out!
  • Keith (Voltron) – Keith is a good example of a leader who follows the GROW acronym.  He likes to read in order to educate himself and he always thinks about how he can improve.  He’s another leader that looks out for his team.  Need to form the head?  Don’t worry, Keith has you covered.
  • Papa Smurf (The Smurfs) – This is another leader who also has a parental role.  He deeply cares and loves those who follow him.  He helps those that have made mistakes or need guidance.  Yes, he’ll get upset if his orders aren’t followed, but when the health and safety of the village rests in your hands, it’s easy to understand.  Isn’t that Smurfy?
  • Lucky (Pound Puppies) – If you watched the Pound Puppies during the 80’s, you might not know Lucky.  Lucky is actually the leader on the new version of Pound Puppies.  This is the leader my own daughter would pick.  While he commands respect (he is the alpha dog of the show, after all), he still does it without coming off as rude or mean.  He cares about his crew, helps them in any way he can, and is always willing to do what’s necessary.  Once a Pound Puppy, always a Pound Puppy!

What other cartoon leader makes a good or bad role model from your point of view?  What makes them stand out from the rest?

(After compiling this list, I realize that it is composed of all-male characters and it could use more balance.  If you can think of female characters that have good or bad leadership qualities, please leave them in the comments section).

Leave your comments!

2013
01/11
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Differences
Diversity
Growth
Leadership
Managing
Satire
Servant Leadership
3 comments

Hitting the Performance “Wall”? Push Through By Asking the Right Questions

At any given point, everyone you lead will face performance challenges.  There’s no way around it.  runnerwallEven if your team is primarily composed of experts/veterans who have been on the job for years, you’ll still need to help those employees after they hit the performance “wall” at one point or another. 

 In order to help your people work through performance challenges, you need to understand the potential causes.  The following are prime reasons that everyone – from your new hires, to even your most knowledgeable and talented individuals – will hit the wall sooner or later:

  • We live in a society of constant change.  Technology is a great example because it rapidly changes and affects our daily lives.  We find ourselves interacting with one-another in new ways and using new tools.
  • Businesses have to constantly adapt and evolve in order to beat the competition.  That means that the employees are the ones that are actually adapting, and more specifically, learning and doing something new continuously.
  • We are all human.  We have emotions that affect us inside the workplace and at home.  Personal issues with friends, family, pets, bills, or even issues in the workplace, all take a toll.

The second bullet above is one of the biggest reasons for performance challenges.  Give your people something new to do that they’ve never done before and you’re likely to see a few cases of hitting the wall.  

If my leader came to me and said “You know, Matt, you’re an expert in what you do.  I have something new for you to take on.  The company has decided that we’re going to build a robot and have you take charge of programming it to do our bidding.”  I know nothing about robotics!  I can guarantee that I’d hit the performance wall, especially without the proper training and support.

Ok, that example might be a little out there.  However, think about anytime your company or IT department decided to do an upgrade or even change a key piece of critical software that your employees use.  Is your company moving to Microsoft Windows 8, soon?  Windows 8 doesn’t have the “Start” menu anymore (at least not without a workaround).  Think about your longtime Windows users, all familiar with that key Start menu, no longer having access to it.  How badly do you think their performance will suffer as they struggle through learning to navigate Windows all over again?  

TMedicalo help your people through performance issues, you need to start by asking the right questions.  Just as a doctor diagnoses a sick patient, you need to diagnose your employees by thinking of the following questions:

 1. What is the specific goal or task? – This should always be the first question that comes to mind.  It doesn’t matter that an individual may be an expert in their field.  If they’re doing/learning something for the first time, that “expert” is really a novice.

2. Has this person demonstrated task knowledge and skills? – Based on the goal/task, has this individual shown (not just told you) that they have the skills to complete the goal/task?

3. Does this individual have transferable skills, and if so, how strong are those skills? – Let’s go back to my example of switching to Windows 8.  Your employees have used some version of Windows, previously, so they do have some transferable skills.  Those employees are better off than someone who has only been a Mac user, or better yet, someone who has never used a computer, previously. 

4. Is this person motivated, interested, and/or enthusiastic about the goal or task? – Does this individual actually want to learn how to do the goal/task?  Let me add that even if they don’t want to learn how to do this goal or task (example: they don’t have the capacity to take on something new; completing the task is monotonous; they just aren’t interested; etc…) there is a difference between “can’t” and “won’t”.

5. Is this person confident or self-assured in completing the goal or task? – Are the confident they can get the job done, or are they having a problem learning how to do the task and feel like they’re stuck?  This one can be tricky, because if it’s something I want to learn, I might have a false sense of confidence in the beginning where I say “Sure, I can learn this!  No problem!” – not realizing how difficult learning the task may be.

perscriptionFinding out the answers to these questions allows you, as a leader, to write the prescription.  The prescription needs to be a proper mixture of direction and support.  Just as the same as a medical prescription, if you don’t apply the correct mix of direction and support, your patient (your employee) may experience adverse reactions. 

Think about a time in your life where you weren’t given the correct prescription, such as being given too much direction from your leader.  You probably thought of it as being “micromanaged”.  How did that make you feel?  Did you feel more or less motivated by it?  How did it make you feel about your leader?

These key diagnosis questions are based on the Situational Leadership® II model.  There’s a lot more to this model than just performance challenges, so if you’re not familiar with the Situational Leadership® II concepts, be sure to click on the link to get a better sense of the positive impact that Situational Leadership® II can create.

Leave your comments!

2012
12/14
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Accountability
Assisting
Behavior
Business
Challenges
Decision Making
Direction
Goals
Influence
Leadership
Learning
Managing
Partnering
Performance
Problem Solving
Productivity
Support
Trust
1 comment

The Opposition Holds the Key

I felt like I had been living in some deep, dark recess for the last 6 months. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold out and knew I was getting close to my breaking point.  All that torture from the fighting, the negativity, the robocalls….

Yes, I’m talking about Election Day.  It came and went, and it felt like I had emerged from some cave to see a beautiful sunrise with a rainbow, flocks of birds, and even a unicorn.  I’m sure a lot of you may have felt the same way, seeing how many people on the news from all sides of the political spectrum were tired of all the political ads and were just ready for the campaigns to be finished.

Now that the votes are in, the political landscape in D.C. hasn’t really changed.  Yes, there are new incumbents in Congress, but the House is still controlled by Republicans, while the Democrats still control the Senate and the White House.  This has many wondering if the next 4 years will mirror the past 4 years of deadlock and mudslinging, rather than bipartisan problem-solving.   There are countless issues America is facing right now.  Everyone knows that we cannot keep pushing problems to the backburner.   

Following President Obama’s acceptance speech, and the comments made by John Boehner the following day, news outlets have been speculating whether the political fever in has broken.  In his speech, Obama referenced that we all have the same end-goals, but that our ideas on the paths to take might remain divided.  He could have come out blaming the Republican Party for the problems over the last 4 years, but took a higher ground to say that (in my opinion) that we all have our difference of opinions, but that doesn’t make us bad people.  In fact, it’s what makes America a great country.

“We are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions, and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. We are and forever will be the United States of America.”

John Boehner was in the news the following day saying that Republicans would be open to new taxes under the right conditions.  This was something where the Republican Party had previously refused to budge.     

This also comes off the heels of Hurricane Sandy.  In particular, it was the cooperation, communication, and more specifically, praisings between Governor Chris Christie and President Obama.  Christie had been a vocal critic of Obama on the campaign trail, and here he was, setting an example of what Government could accomplish when partisan politics were pushed aside for the greater good.

Are these signs of changes to come?  Do the Parties finally realize that the American people are priority #1, instead of their own personal gains?

Whether you’re a politician or not, there will be times in your career when you may have to cooperate with someone who may not agree with you, or maybe even someone where both of you don’t even like each other.  It can be extremely difficult.  However, you shouldn’t focus on the part that you don’t want to do.  The true challenge is coming together for the good of all involved. 

Great leaders work with their greatest opposition to solve problems and achieve something great.  I’m hoping that we’ll see greatness emerge in D.C. over the next 4 years.

Leave your comments!

2012
11/09
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Behavior
Challenges
Differences
Fear
Goals
Influence
Leadership
Praising
Problem Solving
Productivity
Responsibility
Leave a comment

Laying The Smackdown On Cheaters

Whenever I’m looking to buy something expensive or need to hire a company for some type of service, I always start by looking online at the reviews.  Businesses know that having bad reviews of either products and/or services can send potential buyers running, so what do these businesses do?  Well, they can do the hard thing by listening to those negative reviews and improve the product/service in question (good), or they can cheat by hiring individuals to simply post good reviews to cover up the bad ones (bad).  Kudos to Yelp for pushing businesses to the former.

An article published in The New York Times highlights Yelp’s new push for accurate reviews on their site.  Yelp has had a filtering system in place for a while that looked at various factors about a review to determine if it might be fake.  However, Yelp recently took it a step further by conducting its own undercover operation.  One of the Yelp employees acted as an Elite Reviewer (someone on Yelp’s site who has lots of reviews and generally a good reputation) and posted ads through sites such as Craigslist.org. 

Businesses which were looking for Elite Reviewers to post positive reviews for them contacted this undercover reviewer.  The businesses busted in this sting operation now have a nice big label on their Yelp pages that state someone was caught trying to purchase reviews.

This is now the new policy for Yelp.  Any business that gets caught trying to purchase bogus reviews will have this label affixed to their Yelp page for 90 days as a warning to potential customers who might be looking at those reviews.  Moving forward, Yelp also has plans to display something similar for businesses that seem to have a lot of reviews coming from the same IP addresses.

Now, this system may not necessarily be perfect. In fact, if I wanted to smear a competitor’s name, perhaps I could pose as someone from a competitor’s business and purposely try to get “caught”.  Now, my competitor looks like a cheater.  However, I have to praise Yelp for trying.  Lots of consumers rely on those Yelp reviews when making a decision about which business to hire for services.

Do you want to know one of the characteristics between a good business and a bad one? 

-        A bad business is concerned more about protecting its own image. 

-        A good business understands that it may have flaws, but it listens to feedback from its customers/critics and makes improvements based on that feedback. 

Sure, a negative review might hurt a business in the short term.  However, which of these two businesses is likely to stay around in the long run?  One which listens to its customers, or one that doesn’t?

 The same can be said for those who lead.  A great leader listens to his/her people.  A bad leader is more concerned with making himself/herself look good.  Which one do you think will be around in the long run?

Leave your comments!

2012
10/19
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Accountability
Business
Challenges
Customer Service
Decision Making
Feedback
Influence
Leadership
Managing
Profits
Responsibility
Standards
Trust
2 comments

Aiming For the Stars (Literally) With Goal Setting

I’ll admit it: I’m a bit of a nerd.  I enjoy technology, science, and astronomy (or anything space-related).  On October 8th, Christmas comes early for me as I’ll be getting a mix of all three.  In case you haven’t heard, Felix Baumgartner will attempt the highest skydive to-date from the edge of space, 23 miles above Earth’s surface.  This follows two successful test jumps from approximately 13.5 miles and 18 miles up from earlier this year.

You might be thinking Felix is a little (or extremely) crazy.  After all, the dangers he faces are very real.  He has to worry about the typical issues of halo jumping such as the lack of oxygen or possible parachute problems.  At that altitude, the air is so thin that it’s near-impossible to steady yourself in the initial freefall.  Joseph Kittinger, the current record holder for the highest freefall at 19 miles from 1960, lost pressure in one of his gloves during his record-breaking descent, and his hand swelled up to twice its normal size.  Felix also has the added challenge of becoming the first human to break the sound barrier with just his body.  Even though he will be wearing a special suit designed by NASA engineers, some of the effects are unknown in terms of what will happen to his body once he breaks that barrier.

If Felix succeeds, not only will he have helped NASA study the effects of this freefall for future emergency low-orbit bailout systems, but he will have pushed the bar even higher in terms of what the human race is capable of.  These types of record-breaking events don’t come that often, so it’s great to see someone facing a challenge of this magnitude.      

After thinking about how far Felix has come, I’ve thought about his overall goal and how’s he’s reached this point.  While he may have not been thinking about this acronym, he did set a SMART goal for himself:

S – Specific and measurable: If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. - Felix set a goal to be the first individual to jump from 120,000 feet above Earth’s surface.

M – Motivating: What’s in it for the person? – If Felix succeeds, not only will he have the glory of holding this record, he will be helping in advancing future space travel safety.  He’ll also have the wildest ride of his life.

A – Attainable: If people think they can’t, they give up at the start. – Felix wouldn’t be getting ready for this jump if he thought he couldn’t do it.  I’m sure being a bit of an adrenaline junky helps.

R – Relevant: Why bother if it won’t make a difference? – This jump is another step forward in us becoming masters of our universe.  The data collected from this jump will make an impact on future space exploration.

T – Trackable: How will you know if you’re making progress? – He’s already completed two tests from staggering heights.  The space capsule, the suit, and even himself have all been tested in preparation for the final freefall. 

Sometimes, when we create goals for ourselves or others, we don’t think about the factors that make up a SMART goal.  If we can’t satisfy one or more of those factors, we may never achieve those goals.  If Felix’s original goal wound up being slightly different and didn’t meet one of those requirements, we might not be waiting in anticipation for October 8th. 

I’ve included videos Red Bull released from the two test flights.  While they don’t have shots of the actual freefalls (I’m sure Red Bull is saving that for the actual 23-mile decent), both contain some pretty amazing shots from the upper atmosphere:

Keep an eye out on the news following October 8th.  The video will likely be amazing knowing Red Bull. 

This blogger is rooting for you, Felix!

As always, be sure to leave your comments!

2012
09/28
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A Leader’s Challenge On Virtual Employment

The internet is a wonderful thing.  It’s one of the greatest communication tools to ever be created.  Information on most subjects imaginable is readily available to anyone connected to the web.  The added bonus is that it’s also given rise to the “virtual employee”.   With more and more businesses embracing the idea of employees working from home, leaders are now facing some problems that didn’t exist when all employees came into the office to work. 

For virtual employees, there are many benefits to working from home:

-There’s no need to commute.

-You have your own quiet workplace.

-You get to work in your pajamas (unless you need to use a webcam).

However, there can also be a disconnect between these virtual employees and those who lead them.  The interactions that might normally take place if they were in the office might no longer happen as consistently as they should (or even may not take place at all).  I’m talking about connectedness with their leader, discussions around their own work and their career development, and even their own connectedness with the other team members.  All of these things can have an impact on employee performance, morale, and even retention.  It can also create tension within the team, itself.

“Out of sight, out of mind” sounds like a fitting statement for this predicament.

To address some of these challenges, use the following tips:

1)      Stop the multitasking! - We’ve all been guilty of this at one point or another.  It’s hard enough to gauge someone’s reaction to what you’re saying through a phone line or an email.  If you don’t focus on what you or the other individual is saying, things can become misinterpreted and create complications.

2)      Create a virtual seating chart for team meetings – It can become difficult to involve everyone in a team discussion when not everyone is in the same location and has to share a conference line to speak.  Create a seating chart of all of your team members and check off each individual to ensure each one has had a chance to share their opinions

3)      Learn each team member’s communication preferences – Do you prefer phone calls or emails?  Do you like spontaneous meetings or should someone book a meeting with you?  What’s your preferred learning style when it comes to learning something new?  Everyone has their own preferences, including your team members.  Learning their preferences will create better interaction between you and them.

4)      Be mindful of time zone differences – I get to interact with a variety of leaders from various industries in my current role, and a lot of them have direct reports in different states and even countries.  It’s an increasing trend, so as leaders, we need to be mindful of people’s schedules based on their time zones.  If you need to schedule a meeting, try to accommodate all time zones involved, if possible.

I should add that these tips can also apply to onsite leaders and team members (minus the time zone differences).  If you fall into that category and you’ve ever sent an email, sent an instant message, or made a phone call to someone in the same building as you, you were also working “virtually” with those employees.  Those same potential pitfalls that exist with employees in another time zone also exist with those in the same office.

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2012
09/07
POSTED BY
CATEGORY
Accountability
Assisting
Behavior
Challenges
Differences
Diversity
Expectations
Leadership
Leading Virtually
Managing
Productivity
Relationships
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