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Leadership: If You Act Like A Leader You Will Think Like A Leader…Leaders Ought to Seek out New Knowledge, Experiences & Networks in Order to Both Grow as a Leader & Act as a Better, more Effective Type of Leader

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The move from individual contributor to first-time ‘leader of people’ is one of the most daunting career moves for many employees. It doesn’t matter what line of business you’re in either. When you’re asked to lead — when you’re given your first opportunity to become a leader of people — it can feel like the first time you put on ice skates. For me at least, my first time skating was a wee bit of an experiment, wobbly ankles and all.

actlikealeader_thinklikealeader_

Think of the sales account representative with seven years of experience who won the competition and is now leading the team she was a part of last month. What about the communications prime for a business unit who has now become “Communications Manager” for five different parts of the organization, leading eight communications employees in total. Then there is the accountant who, after a stellar 12-year career of over-performing on his individual objectives, takes the plunge and earns the chance to lead a team of accountants at a different company. He’s never led people before, but at 35 years of age, he’s ready to tackle hearts and minds, in addition to cells and spreadsheets.

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When you’ve been presented the opportunity to lead people for the first time, it’s best for you, your new team, your organization and your career that you have some sort of guide to assist your preparations. I used to do a lot of orienteering in the woods and forests of Ontario. Without a map and a compass, there’s no way I would have made my way through the various obstacles and terrains that were in my way. It’s hard to cheat in orienteering, but it’s even harder to complete your mission if you’re devoid of a map and compass.

This brings me to a solution for those new leaders (and long-standing leaders, for that matter) looking for a map and a compass in the quest to become an above-average leader. That map and compass comes in the form of Herminia Ibarra’s wonderful new book, Act Like A Leader, Think Like A Leader. (Harvard Business Review Press, 2015)

Herminia is the Paris-based Cora Chaired Professor of Leadership and Learning at INSEAD, one of the world’s leading and very popular graduate business schools. Her book lays down a foundation for leaders to consider in their quest to become more effective at leadership itself.

At the core of the book — and Herminia’s vast research, conducted with hundreds of executive education students from all parts of the globe — is a concept she calls “Outsight“.

As Herminia writes in the opening chapter of the book:

“The only way to think like a leader is to first act: to plunge yourself into new projects and activities, interact with very different kinds of people, and experiment with unfamiliar ways of getting things done. In times of transition and uncertainty, thinking and introspection should follow action and experimentation – not vice versa.”

Bottom line? The Outsight principle is about action.

In order to become as effective a leader as possible, we needn’t rely on the ubiquitous number of self-reflection assessments and surveys available to us. Ibarra suggests introspection and self-analysis can only take us so far. On the contrary, leaders ought to seek out new knowledge, experiences and networks in order to both grow as a leader and act as a better, more effective type of leader.

If the Outsight principle is about action, Ibarra crystallizes the theory with an extremely useful model that any type of leader can utilize. After finishing the book, I immediately thought organizations of any size could utilize the book (and the Outsight principle) as a basis for their new-leader management development programs. It could easily become a handy action-based job aid that ensures new leaders are taking the right steps in their first few months in their new role of leading people. That’s why I opened this post with the anecdote of people becoming leaders for the first time.

That stated, it’s clearly not a book solely intended for new leaders. On the contrary, it’s written for any level of leadership.

The Outsights model is broken down into three key actions for a leader to redefine:

  • Redefine Your Job
  • Redefine Your Network
  • Redefine Your Self

First off, I wholeheartedly concur with Ibarra. There are far too many operational time wasters that encompass a leader’s role. Leaders become bogged down by the minutia, in addition to endless emails and meetings. I see it every day in my line of work.

Her suggestion? Allocate more time to doing things that leaders DON’T do best. (That’s right, what they don’t do best.) Because leaders get good at certain aspects of their job — or through honing their skills over time — it becomes that much easier to do the things leaders are good at instead of learning new skills, and spending more time on those aspects where they might improve upon. In the first pillar to the Outsights model, Ibarra recommends that in order to ‘Redefine Your Job‘ leaders should:

  • bridge across diverse people and groups – ‘outsight’ comes from a range of outsiders where a leader can then develop differing points of view to see the big picture of opportunity.
  • envision new possibilities – developing and articulating what she calls “an aspiration”.
  • engage people in the change process – encapsulated by the formula “the idea + the process + you = success in leading the change”
  • embody the change – using Margaret Thatcher as an example, leaders need to utilize their charisma to help get things done.

To help actualize the redefinition of a job, Ibarra recommends leaders make their job a platform. The platform can be inculcated by actions such as getting involved in projects outside your area, participating in extra-curricular activities and creating slack in one’s schedule.

The second key pillar to the Outsights model is to ‘Redefine Your Network’. Of the three components to the model, I personally like this the best. Any position I’ve ever held — any article, post or book I’ve ever written — has come as a result of my network. I even wrote something entitled, ‘My Net Work Is My Net Worth‘ about five years ago. If a leader believes she is ‘acting’ like a leader while holed up in a Fort Knox-like office, afraid to mingle with the masses inside or outside the organization, it’s the epitome of passive and ineffective leadership, in my opinion. To me, that’s not leadership … it’s cowardship.

Professor Ibarra emphatically decrees:

“Effective leaders create and use networks to tap new ideas, connect to people in different worlds, and access people for radically different perspectives.”

She encourages leaders to network outside the organization, often an untapped source not only of contacts and people but of potential innovations and creative solutions to business problems. She is very correct in asserting leaders need operational, personal and strategic networks, to get things done but also to develop and ‘act’ like better leaders.

I had the chance to meet Herminia for the first time face-to-face last year at the Drucker Forum conference in Vienna where we both were speakers. Our relationship started a couple of years ago with a simple email. It grew to Twitter and (arguably) a mutual admiration for each other’s writing, research and thoughts on leadership. We’re not best friends, but we’re both interested in one another enough to keep abreast of each other’s work, exchanging thoughts, books, and so on. While many academics can talk a good game, Professor Ibarra definitely ‘practices what she preaches’ when it comes to redefining your network. For that, I am thankful, and I’m certain many, many more in her network are as well.

Throughout the book, Herminia takes pot-shots at the passing cars of various and overly hyped leadership theories written by what I refer to as “pop culture leadership authors”. She’s too professional to ‘name names’, but I smiled each time I came across one as I too believe there are far too many theories, models and books published by authors whose purpose is to create a cottage industry of self-assessments – for additional purchase, of course. In the third and final component to the Outsights model — “Redefine Your Self” – Ibarra states:

“You can buy many books on how to be more authentic at work and can sign up for countless courses on how to be a more authentic leader. Clearly, many of us are finding it problematic to just be ourselves.”

I must admit, I giggled out loud when I read those lines.

But authenticity is the crux of the third pillar to the Outsights model. In Ibarra’s case, however, she wants leaders to escape the ‘authenticity trap’ by playing around with new behaviours to create a new sense of self, one that is acting without positive illusions or the crutch that has enveloped many leaders – to be authentic for the sake of popular argument.

Ibarra wants leaders to play around with their identity. For example, instead of relegating yourself to continually being in the performance mode (presenting yourself in a favourable light – think ‘managing up’) try to use a playful learning model, “one that allows you to reconcile your natural yearning for authenticity in how you work and lead with an equally powerful motivator; growing and, most of all, learning about and extending the possibilities for yourself.”

She also suggests — within the Redefine Your Self pillar — to steal like an artist (observe others and take what you can to improve your self) and not to stick to the story. In other words, try different versions and edit, edit, edit.

In summary, at 190 pages, Act Like A Leader, Think Like A Leader is an excellent, insightful and thoughtful book for leaders of any tenure to consider as they seek out new ways to redefine (and arguably refine) their leadership abilities. The Outsights model is simple to understand, yet the book itself offers all kinds of practical tips and exercises throughout. The stories are superb.

My only constructive criticism has more to do with flow, and in particular the Afterword and Conclusion chapter. Herminia rekindles a fabulously personal story about her time at INSEAD when she shifted from an individual contributor academic role, to one where she began leading people (other academics) at her school. It’s incredibly poignant, detailing what she had to mentally (and physically) go through as she transitioned from a role where she focused solely on writing, teaching and researching to one that had much more to do with the multi-faceted nuances and actions of leading people.

I mentioned earlier that academics are often branded as not having any ‘real world’ experience, cherry-picking their knowledge from on-site stints, focus groups, studies, and so on. Herminia IS walking the talk of her research, and I would much rather have preferred to see that personal anecdote at the beginning of the book to establish herself with even greater credibility.

All in all, I highly recommend the book.

It’s both a map and a compass for people at all levels aspiring to become more effective — and action oriented — leaders. Don’t take my word for it, read Chapter One for free!

__________

Dan Pontefract is the author of FLAT ARMY: Creating a Connected and Engaged Organization and is Chief Envisioner at TELUS Transformation Office. He’s finished writing his next book — DUAL PURPOSE — which will publish in the Fall, 2015.

 

Forbes.com | February 24, 2015 | Dan Pontefract

 

Leadership: How Do You Create a Culture of Service?… We Strongly Encourage Employees to Volunteer in Their Communities

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In December, Points of Light and Bloomberg LPreleased the 2014 Civic 50—a list of the most community-minded companies in the country. The Civic 50 sets the standard for corporate citizenship, honoring companies that are effectively giving their time, talent and resources to improve lives in the communities where they do business.

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This is part two of a five-part series that examines the trends and highlights released in Points of Light’s report, The Civic 50: A Roadmap for Corporate Community Engagement. In this piece, I worked with Yvonne Siu Turner of Points of Light to find out from Margot Copeland, Chair and CEO of KeyBank Foundation, what inspires her to lead the company’s corporate citizenship efforts, and how KeyBank has created a culture of service.

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Q: A culture of service depends on policies, incentives and systems to support and sustain corporate community engagement efforts. Tell us about KeyBank’s policies and incentives.

A: Our culture of community engagement is longstanding. KeyBank is more than 160 years old and KeyBank Foundation is 45 years old this year. Throughout the decades, we’ve implemented a number of policies that we regard today as simply part of our culture. For example, we strongly encourage employees to volunteer in their communities. On Neighbors Make the Difference Day, our annual day of volunteerism supported by paid time off, our goal is to have half of our 14,000 employees to volunteer across the country, from Alaska to Maine. We achieved this last year, with 50 percent of our workforce participating in 900 projects. Super Refund Saturday is another important day of service for us, where we provide free tax preparation for hardworking local residents trying to make ends meet.

Apart from these days of service, we encourage employees to continue volunteering throughout the year. We currently have more than 600 volunteers who teach our free financial education curriculum to the public, helping people better understand saving, spending, We encourage employees to volunteer on nonprofit boards and take an active role in matching employees with interested nonprofits, in partnership with an organization called Business Volunteers Unlimited: Center for Nonprofit Excellence. Board placement is led at the corporate level by the KeyBank Foundation and supported at the market level by Key’s market executives.

I myself am honored to serve as a trustee of Kent State University, the Thomas White Foundation, Kenneth Scott Foundation, University Hospitals Health System and the Delta Foundation in Washington, DC. To show support of employees’ board service, we provide annual $500 Community Leadership Grants to each organization (up to four per employee) that includes one of our employees on its board.

Our matching gift program allows an employee to make a gift, use the receipt as proof and then request a matching amount from KeyBank, which is sent directly to the organization. Through this Matching Gift Program, employees have a say in how and where we give. In 2014, we contributed nearly $4 million through employee gifts, matching corporate contributions and United Way fundraising.

Q: Peter Drucker once said that “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” How important are policies and incentives to creating a culture of service at KeyBank?

A: Business strategies grounded in solid, long-standing values are always superior to strategies that are merely opportunistic or that view customers as mere “transactions.” Setting the tone at the top is extremely important. From the CEO down, we expect and foster a culture of service, as well as a commitment to diversity and inclusion, among our 14,000 employees. The “shadow of the leader” is a very real concept at Key, and our leaders are heavily involved in their communities. We purposefully hire, promote and retain those who are invested in building thriving communities, and select questions we ask potential leaders during interviews revolve around the importance of community service. At any given time, there are dozens of service and volunteer initiatives throughout the bank.

We intentionally established a structure that supports our values when we launched a Corporate Responsibility department in 2012. Created by our CEO Beth Mooney and led by Executive Vice President Bruce Murphy, the department includes the bank’s philanthropy, volunteerism, sustainability, diversity and inclusion, and Community Reinvestment Act initiatives.

The Corporate Responsibility department influences all segments of the bank. It provides both expert leadership and direct guidance on how best to invest in our people and the planet and how we can achieve profits responsibly. The department aligns the conduct of the entire bank in a way that produces an industry standard for responsible banking. In the end, we see a competitive advantage in the marketplace because we are a responsible business partner.
Q: How did you choose which policies and incentives were the right fit for KeyBank?

A: All of our policies support our purpose of “helping our clients and communities thrive.” Let me give you an example of a recent policy that directly supports our value of diversity: Valuing diversity and fostering an environment of inclusion are among Key’s highest strategic priorities. We believe that diverse individuals bring with them unique backgrounds, experiences and ideas, which make KeyBank stronger. The lenses of diversity and inclusion are considered when we recruit talented employees, invest in our communities, engage in grant-making, volunteer, develop vendor partnerships and reach out to customers.

Two years ago, the Foundation carefully looked at specific practices of certain nonprofits that directly opposed Key’s values and policies related to inclusion. In June 2013, the KeyBank Foundation Board adopted a non-discrimination policy, stating that, “KeyBank Foundation shall not make any grants, whether through its employee matching gift program or otherwise, to charitable organizations that discriminate against individuals on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender, gender identity, disability, or sexual orientation.” This decision demonstrates our continuing corporate commitment to advancing the concept of inclusion.

Q: Did you struggle with any policy or incentive at first?

A: Recently, we have been challenged with aggregating and quantifying the good work our 14,000 employees are doing. We know we are helping clients and communities thrive, and celebrating this is important to us, but it has been difficult to track. That’s why, at the end of last year, we decided to use new software that will allow our employees to share with us their good works and allow us to reward their volunteerism. We’re proud of our employees, and we want them to know just how much they are valued. We look forward to the full deployment of this system in 2015 and to sharing how the incentive program has been received.

Q: What inspired you to pursue a career in corporate citizenship and what inspires you in the day-to-day of your job?

A: To pinpoint an event, day, or time is difficult, so I must attribute my life approach to my upbringing. Throughout my entire career, I have been inspired to volunteerism and community service. It’s a part of the very way I live and operate. You could ask others who know me and they would say I’m a relationship person – people are extremely important to me. I know that building connections are the way to create change.

Long before I came to Key, I had a track record in community affairs and was a champion of civic vitality, which is part of the reason I was offered the job. To me, affecting change is about going directly to where the need is greatest and serving there. When you care deeply and are deeply connected, you can put the right policies and people in place with greater speed and efficiency. To see transformation happen – in individual lives, as well as institutions – is exciting to me and constantly keeps me inspired.

Forbes.com | March 23, 2015 | Cause Integration

Strategy: How To Ace Your Performance Review…Frame the Discussion Yourself, Casting your Boss in the Role of Gentle Coach & Mentor Rather than Disciplinarian

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Back in 2008, Samuel Culbert, a UCLA professor and management consultant, published an op-ed inThe Wall Street Journal titled, “Get Rid of the Performance Review!” The piece got a huge response from readers, and Culbert went on to write a book with the same title, which came out in 2010.

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The performance review “destroys morale, kills teamwork and hurts the bottom line,” Culbert wrote in the Journal. “A one-side-accountable, boss-administered review is little more than a dysfunctional pretense.” A Ph.D. in clinical psychology, Culbert hates performance reviews, if anything, even more today. “It’s all b******t anyway,” he says.

Despite Culbert’s protests, the performance review remains a fact of life for workers at most big companies. What is the best way to survive this annual ritual and come out on top? Culbert’s advice: be calculating, and remember that subjective forces are at play. “Don’t get emotional,” he says.

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Paul Falcone, a human resources executive in Los Angeles and author of 2600 Phrases for Effective Performance Reviews and The Performance Appraisal Tool Kit, has more concrete advice to offer.

First, Falcone says, you must take the initiative. Do your own self-examination in advance, he suggests. Some companies ask their employees to fill out self-review forms. If yours doesn’t, put yourself through the paces anyway. “Otherwise it’s like being a turkey on Thanksgiving,” Falcone says. “You put your head down on the block and wait for your boss to lower the ax.”

He recommends starting the process two months before your review. Write a memo detailing your achievements. What have you done to increase revenues, to decrease expenses, to save time, to reinvent your department in light of the company’s changing needs? Make sure you track the entire year since your last review. “Bosses don’t remember what you did 11 months ago,” Falcone points out.

Additionally, Falcone recommends you spell out what support you need from your boss. Also, detail your goals for the next year. What sort of measurable outcomes are you shooting for? This will help you in your review a year from now.

In your self-review, and in the performance review itself, speak plainly. “Talk English, for Pete’s sake,” Falcone says. Do not say anything like, “We leveraged strategic resources.” Speak in specifics, not generalities.

If you can, Falcone advises, frame the discussion yourself, casting your boss in the role of gentle coach and mentor rather than disciplinarian. “A lot of people go into the review asking, ‘How did I do, boss?’” he observes. “If you do it right, you’ve done the boss’ job for her, with respect and humility.”

What if the boss levels some unexpected criticism? Handle it calmly and openly, Falcone recommends. Apologize, but try not to take it personally. He suggests saying something that includes the wordperception, as in, “If your perception is that I’m not doing this as well as you expected, then I take responsibility for that, and I’m sorry.” He calls such a response “business maturity.”

Own up to mistakes when you make them, he advises. Then thank your boss for the feedback.

This is an update of a story that ran previously.

 

Forbes.com | March 23, 2015 | Susan Adams 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2015/03/23/how-to-ace-your-performance-review-5

Strategy: 8 Ways To Get Work Done Faster…Polled a Group of More than 1,600 leaders, 81% Felt They are Often Expected to Move Faster & Do More

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John Maynard Keyes, a famous economist in the 1930’s, predicted that his grandchildren would have a three-hour workday. Sadly, it did not happen–In fact, we now have the reverse! Organizations are looking for ways to do more with less, the population is aging, and the pace of work is increasing.

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When Zenger Folkman polled a group of more than 1,600 leaders, 81% felt they are often expected to move faster and do more. In the chart below you can see the perceived number of “hurry up” messages executives receive every year. A Harvard Business Review study found that in the 1970’s executives received about 1,000 messages per year. If you contrast that with the 30,000 messages executives received in the 2010’s, you can see the expectations emerging through more than 120 messages per workday. Clearly there is a great need for speed in today’s workplace.

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As organizations look at competition and shorting deadlines there is a great need for increased speed. In our survey we asked respondents the impact of increased speed. When we looked at the data we examined the differences by position (e.g., Top, Senior, Middle and Supervisors).

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Screen Shot 2015-03-23 at 8.25.05 AM
While the majority of each group realized the value of increased speed, Top Management saw the need more clearly with 79% agreeing with the statement.

Assessing Your Speed
We created a self-assessment to evaluate an individual’s pace. We have found that the assessment provides a valid estimate of an individual’s pace. The self-assessment results are positively correlated with the feedback from others on pace (.50 Pearson Correlation) and with an activity assessment (.51 Pearson Correlation). From the data that we have gathered we are understanding that the pace individuals keep tends to increase with age. The graph below shows gender differences by age and it is evident that while females start their work life with a faster pace males tend to overtake them in their 40’s. Note that as people age the pace tends to slow down.

Screen Shot 2015-03-23 at 8.25.44 AM

Breaking the pace assessment results out by position revels that top management tend to have the fastest pace scoring at the 60th percentile and individual contributors a much slower pace scoring at the 40thpercentile.

Screen Shot 2015-03-23 at 8.26.29 AM

 

To get a better sense of your individual pace click here and take the self-assessment. The Pace Assessment measures a leader’s ability to spot problems or trends early, to respond to problems quickly, and to swiftly make needed changes. From this assessment I learned some very interesting things about the power of speed:

  • Leaders in the top speed quartile were rated as much more effective leaders.
  • Leaders in the top speed quartile had direct reports who were more engaged.
  • Leadership who exhibit the combination of doing things and doing things right rank in the 96% percentile for being extraordinary leaders.

How do I increase my pace without becoming frantic?

Now that I’ve established the important of speed I want to be clear: I am not encouraging you to run around your office and make people uncomfortable. One of my greatest findings as a behavioral statistician was the use of companion competencies. When bosses tell employees to improve, they will typically seek linear ways to become better. For example, to improve your interpersonal skills you may try to talk more, read a book on the subject, or attend a class. But I have found that every competency is statistically correlated with companion competencies that help to improve people in a “non-linear” way. By looking at the leaders who are in the 90th percentile of effectiveness I’m able to examine the behaviors that got them there. To increase speed, I have found eight companion behaviors that will help individuals improve their ability to anticipate problems, address issues, and move forward quickly. Here they are:

  1. Be Innovative. The old system may not be the most efficient. Take the time to see if the answer involves developing something new.
  2. Be strategic. Understanding the vision and strategy are not just key components to doing things fast, but doing them right.
  3. Be courageous. Leaders who are fast don’t waste time worrying or mulling over choices. There make decisions quickly and stand by them.
  4. Be focused on stretch goals. Stretch goals push people to accomplish more than they thought they could.
  5. Be a powerful communicator. People can move faster when they are absolutely clear about their instructions.
  6. Be externally focused. This perspective increases speed because leaders become aware of competition, recognize other organizations are creating competitive advantage, and see how their products and services compare.
  7. Be diligent. Leaders who are fast take initiative and get the job done.
  8. Be smart. Having deep expertise make everything move faster! If you know how to do the job it is much easier to get it done.

These non-linear behaviors are the keys to building strengths. The good news is that you don’t have to be good at all of these to increase your pace. In fact, you only need to be good at one or two of these abilities to get better. Ask yourself which companion behavior, if done well, would help me be the most successful in my current job? Which behavior do I have the most passion to grow?

To see where you currently stand, take our Pace Assessment and then make a plan to increase your own working speed.

Forbes.com | March 23, 2015 | Joseph Folkman

 

Strategy: 8 Common Smartphone Mistakes You’re Making At Work.. Upper & Mid-Level Managers say that “UnTimely & Inappropriate Use of Cellphones” is the #1 Etiquette Breach of Their Employees

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It used to be that poor workplace etiquette was about taking someone else’s food from the office refrigerator or dressing too sloppily on casual Fridays. Now that everyone has a smartphone glued to their hands, there are all kinds of new ways to trip up.

(Photo credit: Meet the media Guru)

(Photo credit: Meet the media Guru)

In fact, upper and mid-level managers say that “untimely and inappropriate use of cellphones” is the number one etiquette breach of their employees, according to a recent survey by Kessler International.

“It seems like the workplace has changed significantly in the past 30 years and not for the better,” said Susan Peterson, Kessler’s chief operating officer, in a press release.

Here are a few ways you might be missing the mark when it comes to smartphone use, according to Rachel Wagner, founder and president of Rachel Wagner Etiquette and Protocol in Bixby, OK:

You check your phone during client meetings. If you’re in a face-to-face conversation, you should never take a non-urgent call or text—so put your phone away and leave it alone. The exception: You work in an emergency field. “Maybe you’re an on-call physician, or you work for the national security advisor,” Wagner says. “But the important thing there is that you let the person know ahead of time that you’re expecting an urgent call.”

Pete Czech found this out the hard way, when he put his phone on his desk during a pitch meeting. Two minutes into the meeting, he received a text message about an urgent matter. “I picked up the phone, took a look, and put it right back down,” says Czech, founder of the New Possibilities Group, a boutique digital agency in New Jersey. “The person we were pitching got up and left. He was clearly a bit old school, but it did teach us a lesson. From now on, we ask, going into all meetings, if it is okay to even have our phones out.”

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You have your phone out when someone is in your office. “It sends a message to the other person that the cell phone is a symbol of something that’s more important than the person across the desk, whether it’s a co-worker, guest or client,” Wagner says. “You don’t want to give that impression.” Stash your phone in your purse or briefcase, or even in a drawer when people drop by.

You are on your phone at networking events. You are there to talk to other people, not to check your social media feed. “Some people aren’t confident being in those situations, so they tend to get on their phones,” Wagner says. “If a call comes through, just let it go. Keep 100 percent focus on the person you’re talking with at the time.”

You’re checking email during a business meeting. It apparently bears repeating—if you’re looking at your phone, you’re not giving your full attention to whomever is speaking, and it’s rude. “What some of my clients are doing is at the beginning of a meeting they’ll say, ‘This is going to be a 30-minute meeting, so we would appreciate everyone putting phones away until the end,’” Wagner says. Just put your phone down. You won’t die.

You have your phone on the table during a business meal. It’s probably habit—you sit down at a table at a restaurant and put your phone next to your plate. But if you’re eating with clients or higher-ups and you aren’t expecting a call indicating that your spouse is in labor, put your phone away. “A lot of times younger workers have been raised in this generation where your phone is an extension of your arm,” Wagner says. “I have to remind them that your phone is not part of the place setting.”

You’re still yelling into your phone. “People talking too loudly is one of the biggest pet peeves,” Wagner says. “People forget that these cell phones have very sophisticated, powerful little microphones.” In other words, you don’t have to scream. Just talk like a normal human being.
You take very personal calls in your cubicle. It’s one thing to take a phone call from your spouse about your dinner reservation that night. It’s another to take a call in which you’re going to get emotional, argue with someone, or discuss very private information. Plus, you’re probably yelling about it. (See previous point.) “Find a private place where you can take the call, like a conference room or the community kitchen if it’s empty,” Wagner says. And by the way, “the restroom stall is not a private place.”

You’re using Maroon 5’s “Animals” as your ringtone. Yes, this still happens. And your coworkers hate you. “I try to remind people to keep it professional,” Wagner says. “Have a professional sounding ring tone, which is usually a ring sound.” While you’re at it, just turn your ringer off. Leave your phone on vibrate or silent in the office to avoid making the people around you listen to every text message you receive.

– Follow Kate Ashford on Twitter.

 

Forbes.com | March 23, 2015 | Kate Ashford 

Leadership: 5 Timeless Leadership Roles To Help Navigate Change…If There’s One Thing that’s Constant Today (actually everyday), it’s Change.

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If there’s one thing that’s constant today (and everyday, for that matter), it’s change. Whether it’s people or organizations, change is the one thing both can rely on that will emerge when it’s least expected—or desired.

Image credit: Scott Maxwell on Flickr

While the business landscape is in a perpetual state of flux—and always will be—the challenges that leaders face when working through change are timeless principles that remain the same. The need to envision, create, sustain and adapt are imperative to a company’s success, albeit at different stages along its lifecycle.

Here are five leadership roles leaders should expect when facing inevitable change:

Leaders are growth mindsetters. In Carol Dweck’s groundbreaking bookMindset: The New Psychology Of Success she highlights the difference between a fixed and a growth mindset. Namely, people with a fixed mindset believe that talent and motivation are innate and therefore non-developable, whereas those with a growth mindset believe success is earned through practice and hard work. Imperative to leadership effectiveness is inculcating the growth mindset not only for oneself but for others, too, as an organization is only as strong as the leaders who define it.

One way leaders can do this is by praising failure (different from encouraging it). When employees see effort as the means by which results are attained and failure as an acceptable temporary byproduct of that effort, they’re more willing to try and fail rather than not try at all.

 

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Leaders lead with energy. Founding a company is no easy feat. It takes hard work, persistence, a growth mindset and, most of all, the energy to keep going. Energy presents itself physically, mentally and emotionally, expressed through non-verbals such as facial expressions, vigor with which you answer questions (or don’t) and voice pitch.Leaders are switched “on” everyday in this startup mode and as a result, literally breathe life into the company. They must, for if they don’t then their newly minted startup just becomes another new business gone awry.

Leaders as creators. Significant to an organizational leader’s effectiveness is the environment that he or she creates that enthuses others to think or act out of newly inspired values. In other words, leaders determine the direction and success of a company based on the culture they instill today, and they do so in three ways:

  1. Only hiring like-minded employees
  2. “Raising” employees according to the belief system of the organization
  3. Individual expression (i.e. behavior) that role models the way for others to espouse

How a leader shows up is everything. The positive or negative thinking and emotions, the words a leader chooses to use (or avoids) all contribute to not only a leader’s professional effectiveness, but also that of others. If a leader constantly micromanages then instilling trust becomes an organizational challenge; if a leader supports a democratic leadership style all the time then decision-making becomes impaired. There’s no right way to do everything. Rather, different situations necessitate different tools.

Leaders as growth catalyzers. At some point—hopefully, many points—companies must grow, not just in size but in the process and systems that keep the name brand competitive. This is a significant gap that pervades many organizations, as leaders face three challenges here. First, it’s easy for leaders to become emotionally attached to the culture they’ve (ideally) created. Thus they fear that as the company scales, the culture will have an inverse reaction; essentially, that they’ll lose the uniqueness that serves as a talent scout.

Second, to compensate for the unknown associated with scaling, they instill process after process in hopes of creating certainty. More affectionately, it’s a “CYA” methodology, or the equivalent of what I heard in the Navy when it came to tying knots (“If you don’t know knots, tie lots!”).

Third, leaders don’t know how to scale so they procrastinate, and in doing so, they lose their competitive advantage.

To stay competitive in today’s fast-paced world, leaders must continually adapt to a changing landscape, and that means internalizing change within the culture and serving as catalyzers for perpetual growth.

Leaders as adaptability agents. The term “change agent” connotes a complete shift from what one once knew to something else new entirely. However, when you really think about it, do organizations really change? Or, do leaders tend to adapt the inner linings of their organization through re-structuring or re-strategizing to answer the competitive calling? Organizations don’t change, they adapt.  They exploit the gaps in their current system and fill them by building upon the strengths they need. They must, otherwise they won’t survive.

A leader’s role varies at different stages in the game. If you’re cognizant of what to forget, what to adopt and what to adapt as the next phase approaches, you’re already ahead of the game.

Jeff is an executive coach, speaker at the HarryWalker Agency, and a board member of  the SEAL Future Fund. Follow his daily blog at www.adaptabilitycoach.com

Forbes.com | March 22, 2015 | Jeff Boss

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Your Career: The Single Best Way To Speed Up Your Job Search…Again & Again, People make the Same Mistake: They Underestimate the Value of Human Relationships

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Again and again, people make the same mistake: they underestimate the value of human relationships. This is true when you are looking for a job, and – for most – it remains true after you find a new position.

resume-mistakes-11

Instead of looking for a job, look for people with whom you would like to work.

For most of us, that means people with whom we have interests, habits, or attitudes in common. Personally, I’m drawn to people who break or ignore rules. When I was one of the original partners of the consulting firm Peppers and Rogers Group, we used to joke that we were all unemployable. In truth, we had all worked successfully many places, but we liked being on the cutting edge and challenging conventional wisdom.

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By the way, I never applied for a job as partner; I simply sent an email to one of the partners along with a strategy statement I had written based on their ideas. Ten days later, I was a partner in their firm. My motivating factor was that I was drawn to Don Peppers and Martha Rogers, two highly innovative authors with whom I wanted to work.

To me, job descriptions are little more than clues. They tell you a bit about a company and its current needs, but they don’t represent the sum total of opportunities at a firm.

When I worked at WGBH, Boston’s public television station, I escaped an entry level job by writing a job description and giving it to my boss’s boss’s boss. Two weeks later, he tossed a job description on my desk and asked if I’d be interested in the position; it was my draft with a new title and a few words changed here and there. (I took the job.)

There are two reasons that gambit worked. First, I had already built a relationship with him. Second, I took the initiative rather than rotting away in a dead-end job.

Most people slow down their job search and limit their opportunities by being reactive. If you are simply applying for jobs and submitting resumes to companies, you are probably in for a very long slog.

But if you use social media and weak connections to find interesting people, the reverse is true; you can speed up your job search.

I say weak connections because most business and career opportunities arise through weak connections… friends of friends of friends, or someone you met once four years ago.

Farm your interests and past for such connections. Look for people who attended the same school as you, grew up in the same state, or played the same sport. If you like programming or glass blowing, find others who do, too.

It is not enough to find people with just one interest in common; look for people with whom you share two or more interests. These are the people who will lead you to a great job.
For example, if you simply look for someone who also likes glass blowing, it is unlikely that person will lead you to a viable job. But if you look for healthcare administrators who also are glass blowers, the odds are pretty good such a person can lead you to a solid healthcare position. You will be able to quickly establish a relationship.

By focusing on people rather than positions, you put human connections first. In doing so, you acknowledge the way the world really works. Very few workplace decisions are based solely on objective facts. Most are strongly influenced by human relationships. People act based on interactions with others they like, trust and respect. That’s true whether someone is hiring a new employee or deciding whom to promote.

Here’s the bottom line: to speed up your job search, don’t look for a job. Look for people with whom you want to work.

Bruce Kasanoff is a ghostwriter and speaker.

Forbes.com | March 20, 2015 | Bruce Kasanoff

Your Career: Is College Still Worth It?… Less Than 40% of Hiring Managers Felt that Recent Graduates Were Ready for Jobs in Their Fields of Study

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Mark Zuckerberg. Bill Gates. Steve Jobs. Sir Richard Branson. These are some of the world’s most illustrious college dropouts. Of course, they’re also outliers – extraordinary individuals who probably didn’t need college to be successful in the first place. For most people, though, common wisdom says that a college degree is practically a requirement for a good career. But with rising tuition costs and an entire generation of graduates burdened by crushing debt, the ROI on college is shrinking.

CollegeGraduateFocus

The High Cost of Higher Education

First, let’s weigh the overall opportunity cost of skipping college. College isn’t just a degree; there are friends, alumni connections, and the fabled “college experience.” There’s no doubt these are valuable, but the Internet has helped us build global communities for the last 25 years. Do we need to be on a campus to form these bonds?

Now, consider the cost of going to college. You risk taking on serious debt. You potentially take longer to develop the vital skills to be competitive in the world. You lose four years of building professional experience — and four years of earning money instead becomes four years of spending money.

The average cost of attending a top four-year college is rapidly approaching a quarter of a million dollars, and last year’s graduating class is the most indebted ever. The average 2014 graduate with student loans will have to pay back around $33,000. Even after adjusting for inflation, that’s nearly double the amount from only 20 years ago. As costs rise and median wages fall, how will the 40 million Americans with student debt repay what they owe?

 

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College should prepare students for careers that ignite their passion and build upon their natural talents. Instead, graduates are chasing jobs based on debt-repayment.

To make matters worse, less than 40% of hiring managers felt that recent graduates were ready for jobs in their fields of study, citing a lack of key skills like leadership, organization and personal finance. While university administrators largely felt they were sending skilled graduates out into the workforce, employers disagreed.

Sign On, Log In, Drop Out

If the average college graduate is both indebted and unprepared for work, isn’t it time to consider other options? As the Gig Economy grows, innovative gig entrepreneurs are choosing to gain valuable skills through practice, coupled with on-demand peer-to-peer learning via sites like Skill Share and General Assembly. Young people used to leave school to take on apprenticeships. They got their hands dirty (sometimes literally) and learned a trade. This isn’t a new idea, but it might be a better one than we give it credit for.

Success doesn’t depend on education alone; it can also be won through innovation and entrepreneurship.

“You don’t have to be a genius or a visionary or even a college graduate to be successful. You just need a framework and a dream.” — Michael Dell

Peter Thiel and Seth Godin are high profile advocates of eschewing the academic route in favor of practical experience. Every year, the Thiel Fellowship grants 20-25 young adults $100,000 each to drop out of school and pursue their interests.

I’m not challenging the potential value of a college education; I’m just suggesting that we need to reevaluate the assumption that it’s the best path for everyone.

Learn to Work and Work to Learn

I graduated with a law degree and landed a job with a top firm, but it left me unfulfilled and uninspired. It was only when I sold my first software product that I realized that my dream was to run my own business. It was that experience – not my education – that set me on the right path.

The Gig Economy lets people build real-world business skills, even if they’re fresh out of high school. Decide which of your talents you are passionate about pursuing and then start building a business around them. Or reach out to startups, and engage with the kind of people you want to emulate.

Nintendo started off by making playing cards. Wells Fargo used to operate the Pony Express. Just like large companies adapt to new markets and new technology, you can learn as your customers’ needs change. Lifelong learning and continuous education are the new norm, so why not start now? With the rise of on-demand education, college campuses might even be in danger of becoming obsolete.

It’s not that there’s no merit in the college experience, but higher education can insulate students from the real world as much as it prepares them. And you can seek out the equivalent, or better, connections and social experiences in the outside world. Before you devote four years and tens of thousands of dollars to a piece of paper, remember that the real value in life is pursuing your passions and discovering what truly drives you.

I understand that stepping off the traditional path can be scary, but, as I’ve said before, it’s important to make a habit of exposing yourself to new and unpredictable opportunities. After all, taking the scarier path might be the best preparation for the uncertainty of the real-world.

And if you eventually do decide to go the traditional college route, your experience as an entrepreneur will make you a savvier consumer of the education you’re purchasing.

Do you think college is still worth it? Let me know on Twitter @michakaufman

 

Forbes.com |  March 20, 2015 | Micha Kaufman

http://www.forbes.com/sites/michakaufman/2015/03/20/is-college-still-worth-it/

Strategy: The 7 Most Important Lessons from 30 years of Best-Selling Business Books…Wouldn’t it be Nice to Have an Overview of Their Best Advice? We Thought so, Too.

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Each year brings with it scores of new business books filled with secrets.  Become a better leader! Start a million dollar company!  Be your best at work! they tell you, We’ll show you how!

Even if you maxed out on vacation days, it would be impossible to read them all. But wouldn’t it be nice to have an overview of their best advice?  We thought so, too.

Page19 was started by the people behind Blinkist, which transforms great nonfiction books into 12-minute reads that reveal their key insights.

In combing through more than 100 of the last 3 decades’ best business books for an article we wrote for Forbes, we realized something:

Even though the books offer up original anecdotes and framing techniques, there are a few tried-and-true principles that emerge time and time again.

We’ve compiled the 7 most common and enduring of them for you here.

1. Find your why

Before you do anything, it’s important you’ve established your personal “why.” Not only will this simple activity get you on the right track, but it’ll keep you there, too.

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective PeopleIn “Built to Last,” Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras sleuth out why visionary companies like Disney and Johnson & Johnson stay stable when the waters get rough.

One critical thing these companies had in common was that they had a higher purpose for their existence than merely chasing profits.

The “why” is key at a personal level, too. Daniel Pink’s “Drive” references an experiment in which psychologists asked university students about their aims in life.

Some had extrinsic profit goals like wealth, while others specified more intrinsic goals, such as personal development or helping others.

Years later, the students with profit goals were no closer to contentment, but those with intrinsic goals were happier.

Lesson learned: Stop what you’re doing and figure out the why that drives you. It will help you set and meet meaningful goals, organize better, and even feel happier.

Where we found it: “Start With Why” – Simon Sinek, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” – Stephen R. Covey, “The Everything Store” – Brad Stone, “The Magic of Thinking Big” – David Schwartz.

 

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2. Make the “work,” whatever it is, come first

Once you know what you want to achieve, you’ve got to put in the work to get there. In “So Good They Can’t Ignore You,” Cal Newport encourages cultivating a change in attitude that puts focus on the quality of your work rather than the outcome.

By becoming a servant of the work, you naturally acquire the “rare and valuable skills,” that make you stand out. In fact, it’s these very same skills whose importance Seth Godin emphasizes in “Linchpin.”

A linchpin, Godin explains, finds the niche into which she can pour her expertise, passion, and emotional labor to become irreplaceable within her sphere.

But make no mistake: becoming a linchpin takes practice – roughly 10,000 hours of it, if you ask Malcolm Gladwell. The good news is this: if you’re journeying toward a why about which you feel passionate and focusing on creating great work, those 10,000 hours will feel remarkably un-sloggy.

Lesson learned: Suit up, buckle down, and focus on the quality of the work you do. By investing in the work rather than the outcome, you’ll hone your skills and accrue the hours of practice needed to become indispensable.

Where we found it: “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” – Cal Newport, “Linchpin” and “Purple Cow” – Seth Godin, “Mastery” – Robert Greene, “Outliers” – Malcolm Gladwell.

built to lastAmazon

3. Plan. Do. Repeat.

As you put in those 10,000 hours, you’ll need to do some planning – and a bit of recalibrating, too.

David Allen counsels in “Getting Things Done” that having a trusted system to organize your work and reviewing it regularly will help you stay on track and committed.

This frees you to create concrete action plans that move your project forward. But as you review your plans, you might find something unexpected: as a result of the work you’ve done, what you thought was your next step may no longer apply. And that’s okay.

Progress doesn’t always mean sticking to a rigid plan – sometimes, it means rewriting it. Built to Last teaches that visionary companies preserve their “why” while relentlessly stimulating progress and improvements, some of which look rather unexpected.

Lesson learned: Find an organizational system that works for you and use it to drive and revise your action plan.

Where we found it: “Getting Things Done” – David Allen, “Built to Last” – Jerry I. Porras and James C. Collins, “The War of Art” – Steven Pressfield.

4. Forget about “efficient.”

With all of the advice out there on lifehacking, the imperative to be efficient is strong. But one of the most surprising – and potentially game changing – pieces of advice that many great business books espouse is that being effective will get your farther than mere efficiency ever will.

Tim Ferriss’s classic “The 4-Hour Work Week” counsels divesting yourself of clutter and irrelevant tasks to make the most time for meaningful work. Instead of small tasks like trivial emails or things someone who’s not you could do just as well, focus on activities that are unique to your talents and will advance your goals.

The same advice is echoed in “The 80/20 Principle”: if used correctly, 20% of the effort gets you 80% of the results. Working effectively on important goals will always bring you farther than checking off tiny “to-dos” will.

Lesson learned: Focus on doing the right things, not lots of them.

Where we found it: “The 80/20 Principle” – Richard Koch, “The 4-Hour Work Week” – Tim Ferriss, “Focus” – Daniel Goleman, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” – Stephen R. Covey.

Made to Stick book coverAmazon

5. Tell a good story.

Today, everybody has to be a salesperson. Even if you don’t interact with clients, convincing others by telling a good story is part of every job. Given the facts, it’s important that you learn to tell stories and sell your ideas to others.

Both “The Tipping Point” and Chip and Dan Heath’s “Made to Stick” hold that any idea can be expressed in a way that is impactful and memorable, or “sticky.”

Luckily, there’s a psychology to telling stories in a compelling way: by learning to listen to your audience’s stories, when you frame your vision for them, you are better able to tap into their needs and desires – a surefire way gather their support. Once you learn to do it (and you can learn this skill. Even Steve Jobs had to!), you can sell anything to anyone.

Lesson learned: Learn the right way to tell a story. Once you get a handle on how to bring people to your vision, you’ll have more manpower to advance your why, too.

Where we found it: “The Tipping Point” – Malcolm Gladwell, “Made to Stick” – Chip & Dan Heath, “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs” – Carmine Gallo, “Influence” – Robert Cialdini, “You Can Negotiate Anything” – Herb Cohen, “The Story Factor” – Annette Simmons, “Contagious” – Jonah Berger.

6. Change your expectations about creativity.

Creativity doesn’t work the way you think it does. If you want to come up with something entirely new, you’ll need to sally boldly forth and be a little adventurous with what you try.

Steven Johnson’s “Where Good Ideas Come From” suggests that creative ideas arise from a process similar to evolution, which makes their arrival as unpredictable as it is exciting.

“Creativity Inc.” underscores the same principle and stresses determination, too: keep on trying and allow creative ideas to arrive of their own accord as a result of experimentation.

By keeping an open mind and treating each new challenge as your laboratory rather than your checklist, the ideas will eventually come.

Lesson Learned: Creative ideas are like cats. They might not come when called, but if you’re patient and keep the door open for opportunity, they’ll saunter in and find their way to your lap when they’re ready.

Where we found it: “Where Good Ideas Come From” – Steven Johnson, “Weird Ideas That Work” – Robert I. Sutton, “Creativity Inc”. – Ed Catmull with Amy Wallace.

thinking fast and slowAmazon

7. You’re irrational, and that’s okay.

“Business.” It sounds as serious and logical as neckties and walnut paneling. When it comes down to it, though, business is about people, and people are spectacularly irrational – even you.

Your rational side might be able to make a decision about what’s best for you, such as nixing sugar or kicking your smoking habit, the irrational self who favors cookies, Marlboros can derail you.

So, as you journey toward your why, things might not go as you planned: others will interfere, and even your own irrationality can hold you back every now and then.

But if you accept these truths as part of your project and remember to have fun and commit to righting your course after, irrationality can prove refreshing and exciting rather than world-ending.

Lesson Learned: Accept your inherent irrationality and that of others. Plan to see it, bear it, and recalibrate to offset it.

Where we found it: “Predictably Irrational” – Dan Ariely, “Fooled by Randomness” – Nassim Nicholas Taleb, “Thinking, Fast and Slow” – Daniel Kahneman

The full books will give you more perspective on everything you learned here, but if you need a little inspiration on where to start, come check out our 12-minute summaries of key insights from all of the books mentioned here on Blinkist.

 

Businessinsider.com | March 19, 2015 | CAITLIN SCHILLER, BLINKIST

 https://www.blinkist.com/page19/smarter-7-minutes#ixzz3UrnUykgw

Strategy: 23 Super-Successful People Share the Best Advice they Ever Received…The Path to Success isn’t Always Straight. There are Often Bumps/Turns/Forks in the Road

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The path to success isn’t always straight. There are often bumps and turns and forks in the road. But a little bit of guidance can help you find your way.  In fact, many of the most successful leaders are where they are today because they took advice from people they trusted.

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman, Google

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman, Google

Here we’ve compiled some of the best tips that executives have shared throughout the years.

Aimee Groth and Kim Bhasin contributed to an earlier version of this article.

 

Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway

Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO, Berkshire Hathaway

Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

Berkshire Hathaway board of directors member Thomas Murphy told him:

“Never forget Warren, you can tell a guy to go to hell tomorrow — you don’t give up the right. So just keep your mouth shut today, and see if you feel the same way tomorrow.”

From a 2010 interview with Yahoo!

 

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Marissa Mayer, president and CEO, Yahoo!

Marissa Mayer, president and CEO, Yahoo!

Jemal Countess/Getty Images

“My friend Andre said to me, ‘You know, Marissa, you’re putting a lot of pressure on yourself to pick the right choice, and I’ve gotta be honest: That’s not what I see here. I see a bunch of good choices, and there’s the one that you pick and make great.‘ I think that’s one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever gotten.”

From a 2011 interview with the Social Times

Richard Branson, founder and chairman, Virgin Group

Richard Branson, founder and chairman, Virgin Group

Gareth Cattermole/Getty

“My mother always taught me never to look back in regret but to move on to the next thing. The amount of time people waste dwelling on failures rather than putting that energy into another project, always amazes me. I have fun running ALL the Virgin businesses — so a setback is never a bad experience, just a learning curve.”

From an interview with The Good Entrepreneur

Terry J. Lundgren, CEO, Macy’s

Terry J. Lundgren, CEO, Macy's

AP

Gene Ross, the man who recruited Lundgren at Bullock, told him:

“You’re not going to do this forever. There’s a finite amount of time you’re going to be doing this. Do this really, really well. And if you do this really, really well, everybody will see that, and they’ll move you onto the next thing. And you do that well, and then you’ll move.”

From a 2009 interview with The New York Times

Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO, Goldman Sachs

Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO, Goldman Sachs

Chip Somodevilla/Getty

His boss at Goldman during the 1980s told him:

“First, it’s good to solicit your people’s opinions before you give them yours. And second, your people will be very influenced by how you carry yourself under stress.”

From a 2009 interview with CNNMoney

Maureen Chiquet, Global CEO, Chanel

Maureen Chiquet, Global CEO, Chanel

AP

Mickey Drexler, CEO of Gap at the time, told Chiquet:

“I’m going to give you some important advice. You’re a terrific merchant. But you’ve gotta learn to listen!“

From a 2008 blog post at Harvard Business Review

Shafqat Islam, CEO and cofounder, Newscred

Shafqat Islam, CEO and cofounder, Newscred

NewsCred

“If you’re not getting told ‘no’ enough times a day, you’re probably not doing it right or you’re probably not pushing yourself hard enough.

“I think that’s a good piece of advice for anyone building a company because you hear ‘no’ so many times and I think that’s normal, I think that’s a good thing, that means you’re trying to do something that’s disruptive, that’s groundbreaking.”

From a 2012 interview with Business Insider

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman, Google

Eric Schmidt, executive chairman, Google

Google via Google+

“Find a way to say yes to things. Say yes to invitations to a new country, say yes to meet new friends, say yes to learn something new. Yes is how you get your first job, and your next job, and your spouse, and even your kids.”

From Katie Couric’s book “The Best Advice I Ever Got,” excerpted by The Daily Beast

Tory Burch, cofounder and CEO, Tory Burch

Tory Burch, cofounder and CEO, Tory Burch

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

“When I started my company, many people said I shouldn’t launch it as a retail concept because it was too big a risk. They told me to launch as a wholesaler to test the waters — because that was the traditional way.

“But Glen Senk, [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][then] CEO of Urban Outfitters and a mentor of mine … told me to follow my instincts and take the risk. I wanted to create a new way of looking at retail.”

From a 2009 interview with CNN Money

Jeff Weiner, CEO, LinkedIn

Jeff Weiner, CEO, LinkedIn

Justin Sullivan / Getty

“As a child, I can’t recall a day that went by without my dad telling me I could do anything I set my mind to. He said it so often, I stopped hearing it. Along with lines like ‘eat your vegetables,’ I just assumed it was one of those bromides that parents repeated endlessly to their kids.

“It wasn’t until decades later that I fully appreciated the importance of those words and the impact they had on me.”

From a 2012 post at LinkedIn

Ursula Burns, CEO, Xerox

Ursula Burns, CEO, Xerox

Reuters

Ursula Burns’ most powerful advice, which she relates to employees, comes from her mother:

“Stuff happens to you, and then there’s stuff that you happen to.”

“Stuff that happens to you, please, let’s talk about it for five minutes, and you can cry, and let’s go through that, the healing process, but then it’s kind of done. I can’t hear about that two years from now.”

From a 2010 interview with the New York Times

 

Dave Kerpen, founder and CEO, Likeable Local

Dave Kerpen, founder and CEO, Likeable Local

Dave Kerpen / Twitter

Several weeks into his first job as a salesperson for Radio Disney — where he was “failing miserably,” Kerpen’s mentor Peggy Iafrate said:

“How well are you listening to what your prospects have to say? How many questions are you asking them to better understand them? How are you showing them that you care about them more than you care about selling them?

“Remember this one thing: Shut up and listen.”

From a 2014 LinkedIn post

 

 

Arianna Huffington, cofounder and editor-in-chief, The Huffington Post

Arianna Huffington, cofounder and editor-in-chief, The Huffington Post

TED

“Whenever I’d complain or was upset about something in my own life, my mother had the same advice: ‘Darling, just change the channel. You are in control of the clicker. Don’t replay the bad, scary movie.’

“We don’t have to wait until we move or change jobs to change our lives. Nor do we have to wait for large-scale, upstream change. We can initiate change right now. There are endless starting points.”

 From a 2014 LinkedIn post

Brian Chesky, CEO and cofounder, Airbnb

Brian Chesky, CEO and cofounder, Airbnb

Chris Weeks/Getty

When Airbnb was going through Paul Graham’s Y Combinator program, the legendary programmer and startup mentor told Chesky:

“Build something 100 people love, not something 1 million people kind of like.”

From a 2013 interview with Pando Daily

Bill Gates, cofounder and chairman, Microsoft

Bill Gates, cofounder and chairman, Microsoft

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

“I’ve gotten a lot of great advice from Warren [Buffett]. I’d say one of the most interesting is how he keeps things simple.

“You look at his calendar, it’s pretty simple. You talk to him about a case where he thinks a business is attractive, and he knows a few basic numbers and facts about it. And [if] it gets less complicated, he feels like then it’s something he’ll choose to invest in. He picks the things that he’s got a model of, a model that really is predictive and that’s going to continue to work over a long-term period. And so his ability to boil things down, to just work on the things that really count, to think through the basics — it’s so amazing that he can do that. It’s a special form of genius.”

From a 2009 interview with CNBC

Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook

Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook

Reuters / Mike Segar

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.

When Sandberg was thinking she wouldn’t accept an offer to be Google’s general manager, Eric Schmidt told her, “Stop being an idiot; all that matters is growth.”

Source: All Things D

Richard Parsons, former chairman, Citigroup

Richard Parsons, former chairman, Citigroup

AP

Steve Ross, the former CEO of Time Warner, told him:

“Just remember, it’s a small business and a long life. You’re going to see all these people again.“

From the 2008 HACR Roundtable

Mary Barra, CEO, General Motors Company

Mary Barra, CEO, General Motors Company

Daniel Roland/Stringer/Getty Images

“The best advice I ever received came from my parents, who encouraged me to work hard and pursue my early love of math. This was great advice for two reasons.

“First, it led me to do something I really loved. In my experience, in work and in life, there are lots of smart, talented people out there. But talent alone is never enough. One of the things that distinguishes those who truly make a difference is passion and hard work. There is truth in the expression that hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. And the passion that drives hard work comes from doing something you really love.

“The second reason this was great advice is that it steered me toward a career in engineering at a time when few women were pursuing work in science, technology, engineering or math – fields that, collectively, we now call STEM.”

From a 2014 LinkedIn post

Mohamed El-Erian, former CEO, PIMCO

Mohamed El-Erian, former CEO, PIMCO

REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

“I remember asking my father, ‘Why do we need four newspapers?’ He said to me, ‘Unless you read different points of view, your mind will eventually close, and you’ll become a prisoner to a certain point of view that you’ll never question.'”

From a 2009 interview with CNN Money

Kenneth Burdick, president and COO, WellCare Health Plans

Kenneth Burdick, president and COO, WellCare Health Plans

HACR

Burdick received this message from various successful people he has met:

“Surround yourself with good people. And part of that is surrounding yourself with people who think differently than you. Surrounding yourself with people who have different experiences than you. In business, it’s all about the team.”

From the 2008 HACR Roundtable

Jennifer Hyman, CEO and cofounder, Rent The Runway

Jennifer Hyman, CEO and cofounder, Rent The Runway

Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

Jennifer Hyman is on the left.

“Just do it. There’s no benefit to saying, ‘I’m just doing this because it will get me to this new place,’ or ‘I’m just going to go into this analyst program because it will prep me for X.’

“If you’re passionate about something, go for it, because people are great at what they love and when they’re the happiest.”

From a 2011 interview with The Huffington Post

Maynard Webb, chairman, Yahoo!

Maynard Webb, chairman, Yahoo!

Getty Images/Bloomberg

“I reflected back to a conversation I had with my dear friend Gay Hendricks, who was a trusted advisor and one of my coaches at eBay. Some years before, when I was thinking about leaving eBay, he offered some sage advice: ‘Your 50s are a decade of creativity or stagnation — so be searching for what you are intended to do.‘

“Gay certainly was a case study of that advice. He was running an organization that helped people have better lives, had written dozens of books with his wife and even appeared on Oprah. Now at 69 years old, he has started writing detective novels and is producing his first movie. Amazing.”

From a 2014 LinkedIn post

Ben Silbermann, cofounder, Pinterest

Ben Silbermann, cofounder, Pinterest

Flickr/Victor Ng

“Don’t take too much advice. Most people who have a lot of advice to give — with a few exceptions — generalize whatever they did. …

“Every company carves its own path, and [founders] are under pressure to make their startups look like the last successful company everyone remembers.”

From a panel discussion at SXSW 2012

 

Forbes.com | March 19, 2015 | 

 http://www.businessinsider.com/successful-executives-share-the-best-advice-they-ever-received-2015-3?op=1#ixzz3UrgD856t

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