Leadership has around these parts become a bit of a dirty word as of late.
But as Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “A good leader inspires people to have confidence in the leader, a great leader inspires people to have confidence in themselves.”
So with that in mind I read the following article from http://www.entrepreneur.com/leadersecrets with great interest.
Especially as I may have to forgo being the leader of one ship - for another.
But, as the article rightly points out becoming a great leader isn’t easy. And so deciding to move course mid adventure isn't either.
Successfully maneuvering a team through the ups and downs of starting a new business can be one of the greatest challenges a small-business owner faces. And one I feel might be done better by someone who knows more about the technical side of the business.
Leadership is one of the areas that many entrepreneurs tend to overlook, according leadership coach John C. Maxwell, whose books include The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (Thomas Nelson, 1998) and Developing the Leader Within You (Thomas Nelson, 1993).
“You work hard to develop your product or service. You fight to solve your financial issues. You go out and promote your business and sell your product. But you don't think enough about leading your own people and finding the best staff,” Maxwell says.
It turns out, the skills and talents necessary to guide your team in the right direction can be simple, and anyone with the determination can develop them. Here’s a list of 10 tips drawn from the secrets of successful leaders.
1. Assemble a dedicated team.
Your team needs to be committed to you and the business. Successful entrepreneurs have not only social and selling smarts, but also the know-how to hire effectively, says leadership trainer Harvey Mackay, who wrote Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive (Ivy Books, 1995). “A colossal business idea simply isn't enough. You have to be able to identify, attract and retain talent who can turn your concept into a register-ringing success,” he says. When putting your team together, look for people whose values are aligned with the purpose and mission of your company. Suzanne Bates, a Wellesley, Mass.-based leadership consultant and author of Speak Like a CEO (McGraw Hill, 2005), says her team members rallied around each other during the worst part of the recession because they all believed in what they were doing. “Having people on your team who have tenacity and a candid spirit is really important," she says. It is this team spirit that I need to find again.
2. Overcommunicate.
This one’s a biggie. Even with a staff of only five or 10, it can be tough to know what’s going on with everyone. In an effort to overcommunicate, Bates compiles a weekly news update she calls a Friday Forecast, and emails it to her staff. “My team is always surprised at all the good news I send out each week,” Bates says. “It makes everyone feel like you really have a lot of momentum, even in difficult times.”
3. Don’t assume.
When you run a small business, you might assume your team understands your goals and mission -- and they may. But, everybody needs to be reminded of where the company’s going and what things will look like when you get there. Your employees may ask, “What’s in it for me?” It’s important to paint that picture for your team. Take the time to really understand the people who are helping you build your business. “Entrepreneurs have the vision, the energy, and they’re out there trying to make it happen. But, so often with their staff, they are assuming too much,” says Beverly Flaxington, founder of The Collaborative, a business-advising company in Medfield, Mass. “It’s almost like they think their enthusiasm by extension will be infectious -- but it’s not. You have to bring people into your world and communicate really proactively.” Something I can fail to do.
4. Be authentic.
Good leaders instill their personality and beliefs into the fabric of their organization, Flaxington says. If you be yourself, and not try to act like someone else, and surround yourself with people who are aligned with your values, your business is more likely to succeed, she says. “Every business is different and every entrepreneur has her own personality,” Flaxington says. “If you’re authentic, you attract the right people to your organization -- employees and customers.”
5. Know your obstacles.
Most entrepreneurs are optimistic and certain that they’re driving toward their goals. But, Flaxington says, it’s a short-sighted leader who doesn’t take the time to understand his obstacles. “You need to know what you’re up against and be able to plan around those things,” she says. “It’s folly to think that just because you’ve got this energy and enthusiasm that you’re going to be able to conquer all. It’s much smarter to take a step back and figure out what your obstacles are, so the plan that you’re putting into place takes that into account.”
6. Create a 'team charter.'
Too many new teams race down the road before they even figure out who they are, where they’re going, and what will guide their journey, says Ken Blanchard, co-author of The One-Minute Manager (William Morrow & Co., 1982) and founder of The Ken Blanchard Cos., a workplace- and leadership-training firm. Just calling together a team and giving them a clear charge does not mean the team will succeed.
“It’s important to create a set of agreements that clearly states what the team is to accomplish, why it is important and how the team will work together to achieve the desired results,” says Blanchard, who is based in Escondido, Calif. “The charter provides a record of common agreements and can be modified as the business grows and the team’s needs change.”
7. Believe in your people.
Entrepreneurial leaders must help their people develop confidence, especially during tough times. As Napoleon Bonaparte said, "Leaders are dealers in hope." That confidence comes in part from believing in your team, says Maxwell, who is based in West Palm Beach, Fla. “I think of my people as 10s, I treat them like 10s, and as a result, they try to perform like 10s,” he says. “But believing in people alone isn't enough. You have to help them win.”
8. Dole out credit.
Mackay says a good salesperson knows what the sweetest sound in the world is: The sound of their name on someone else's lips. But too many entrepreneurs think it's either the crinkle of freshly minted currency, or the dull thud of a competitor's body hitting the pavement. “Many entrepreneurs are too in love with their own ideas and don't know how to distribute credit,” Mackay says. “A good quarterback always gives props to his offensive line.”
9. Keep your team engaged.
Great leaders give their teams challenges and get them excited about them, says leadership expert Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Free Press, 1989). He pointed to the example of a small pizza shop in a moderate-sized town that was killing a big fast-food chain in sales. The big difference between the chain and the small pizza joint was the leader, he says. Every week he gathered his teenage employees in a huddle and excitedly asked them: “What can we do this week that we’ve never done before?” The kids loved the challenge. They started texting all their friends whenever a pizza special was on. They took the credit-card machine to the curb so passing motorists could buy pizza right off the street. They loaded up a truck with hot pizzas and sold them at high-school games. The money poured in and the store owner never had problems with employee turnover, says Covey, who is based in Salt Lake City, Utah.
10. Stay calm.
An entrepreneur has to backstop the team from overreacting to short-term situations, says Mackay, who is based in Minneapolis. This is particularly important now, when news of the sour economic environment is everywhere. “The media has been hanging black crepe paper since 2008,” he says. “But look at all the phenomenal companies and brands that were born in downturns, names like iPod, GE and Federal Express.”
And it is this LAST point which is the most important for me - and the take home moment. Perhaps I will lead the lads @goaugmented after all. It was just with so many people entering the Augmented Reality Mobile Applications market I was starting to lose sight of the end goal.
We have a great team and a great chance.
Now it is time for me to be a great leader.
Monday, 17 October 2011
Thursday, 6 October 2011
So, what do you do if you’ve been put upon the planet with an insatiable desire to create, but not the ability to handle the potential angst that goes along with leaning into the unknown?
On a day like today when Steve Jobs passes - it's kinda got me thinking about innovation and why aren't there more people like Steve Jobs.
A chap called Jonathan Fields might just have the answer below.
He has spent the last few years interviewing everyone from Mullen Chief Innovation Officer, Edward Boches, to The War of Art author, Steve Pressfield, and devouring reams of research that spanned neuroscience to decision-making theory in a quest to find out.
What emerged surprised even me.
There may, in fact, be a very thin slice of creators who arrive on the planet more able to go to and even seek out that uncertainty-washed place that destroys so many others. But, for a far greater number of high-level creators, across all fields, the ability to be okay and even invite uncertainty in the name of creating bigger, better, cooler things is trained. Sometimes with great intention, other times without even realizing it.
And what surprised me even more was that so many creators, field-wide, work in a way that is in direct contradiction to the way your brain functions best. Not because it works for them, often it doesn’t, but because “that’s just the way it’s always been done.”
It’s possible to effectively build “uncertainty scaffolding,” practices that allow you to do what you do (a) without ending up a psychotic mess, and (b) giving you access to an often untapped reservoir of creativity.
This uncertainty scaffolding tends to fall into three different areas:
Workflow adaptations
Personal practices
Environmental/cultural shifts
Here are five examples to get you started:
1. Single-Task.
The part of the brain that helps keep fear and anxiety in check -- the prefrontal cortex, or PFC -- is also tasked with managing working memory. Problem is, it’s easily overloaded. Doing too many things as once lessens its ability to keep the discomfort that tags along with moving into uncertainty at bay and makes you more likely to shut down. Only by rejecting multitasking and focusing on a single task at a time can you harness your full brainpower for optimal performance.
2. Exercise Your Brain.
Meditation and exercise have well-documented mood-enhancing, stress-management, and disease-prevention effects. What you may not know, though, is that they also have a profound impact on creativity, decision-making, and problem-solving. Recent research even shows certain approaches increase brain mass, something that’s always been thought impossible.
Also, these two daily practices bolster your ability to go to that edgy place where the good stuff happens and stay there long enough for next-level innovation to emerge. Together, they combine to create the single most powerful mindset, creativity, and innovation force multiplier on the planet.
But not all forms are equal. High-intensity, cardiovascular training, for example, has a greater effect on the brain than moderate level activity. And mindfulness training has the added benefit of training creators in the art of observing, then dropping storylines, which creates the space for more empowering patterns of thought to emerge.
3. Reframe.
Reframing is the process of asking questions that allow you to change the storyline around a particular set of circumstances. We often become so close to a project, we lose objectivity about its viability and start to tell ourselves stories that not only stifle action, but stunt creativity. Reframing is a process that allows you to see an identical circumstance in a way that motivates action and fuels creativity. And, as noted above, one of the most effective tools to build the awareness needed to pull back and reframe is a daily mindfulness practice.
4. Pulse and Pause.
Though we often tend to work in 2-4 hour chunks of seemingly uninterrupted time, our brains are really only equipped to productively focus for a max of about 90-minutes. Beyond that window, we may feel like we’re cranking, but in reality our attention, creativity, and cognitive function decline rapidly. So, rather than push through and watch your frustration levels skyrocket while the quality of your output craters, rework your day into intense, 90-minute bursts with refueling periods in between.
5. Drop Certainty Anchors
Certainty anchors are repeated daily experiences where the decision-making aspect has been removed. They can be as simple as eating the same thing for breakfast every day, wearing only black t-shirts, or walking to work the same way. The key is removing the decision-making element from the experience and, in doing so, turning these moments into repeated occasions where you know in advance that you’ll be able to drop out of the creative ether and land on firm ground.
All of these we are going to start to put into practise @goaugmented - as it's all very well being able to create mobile phone augmented reality applications - but if you cannot be creative as well with them - then no client will be happy. That's just not #greatmarketing for them or us.
A chap called Jonathan Fields might just have the answer below.
He has spent the last few years interviewing everyone from Mullen Chief Innovation Officer, Edward Boches, to The War of Art author, Steve Pressfield, and devouring reams of research that spanned neuroscience to decision-making theory in a quest to find out.
What emerged surprised even me.
There may, in fact, be a very thin slice of creators who arrive on the planet more able to go to and even seek out that uncertainty-washed place that destroys so many others. But, for a far greater number of high-level creators, across all fields, the ability to be okay and even invite uncertainty in the name of creating bigger, better, cooler things is trained. Sometimes with great intention, other times without even realizing it.
And what surprised me even more was that so many creators, field-wide, work in a way that is in direct contradiction to the way your brain functions best. Not because it works for them, often it doesn’t, but because “that’s just the way it’s always been done.”
It’s possible to effectively build “uncertainty scaffolding,” practices that allow you to do what you do (a) without ending up a psychotic mess, and (b) giving you access to an often untapped reservoir of creativity.
This uncertainty scaffolding tends to fall into three different areas:
Workflow adaptations
Personal practices
Environmental/cultural shifts
Here are five examples to get you started:
1. Single-Task.
The part of the brain that helps keep fear and anxiety in check -- the prefrontal cortex, or PFC -- is also tasked with managing working memory. Problem is, it’s easily overloaded. Doing too many things as once lessens its ability to keep the discomfort that tags along with moving into uncertainty at bay and makes you more likely to shut down. Only by rejecting multitasking and focusing on a single task at a time can you harness your full brainpower for optimal performance.
2. Exercise Your Brain.
Meditation and exercise have well-documented mood-enhancing, stress-management, and disease-prevention effects. What you may not know, though, is that they also have a profound impact on creativity, decision-making, and problem-solving. Recent research even shows certain approaches increase brain mass, something that’s always been thought impossible.
Also, these two daily practices bolster your ability to go to that edgy place where the good stuff happens and stay there long enough for next-level innovation to emerge. Together, they combine to create the single most powerful mindset, creativity, and innovation force multiplier on the planet.
But not all forms are equal. High-intensity, cardiovascular training, for example, has a greater effect on the brain than moderate level activity. And mindfulness training has the added benefit of training creators in the art of observing, then dropping storylines, which creates the space for more empowering patterns of thought to emerge.
3. Reframe.
Reframing is the process of asking questions that allow you to change the storyline around a particular set of circumstances. We often become so close to a project, we lose objectivity about its viability and start to tell ourselves stories that not only stifle action, but stunt creativity. Reframing is a process that allows you to see an identical circumstance in a way that motivates action and fuels creativity. And, as noted above, one of the most effective tools to build the awareness needed to pull back and reframe is a daily mindfulness practice.
4. Pulse and Pause.
Though we often tend to work in 2-4 hour chunks of seemingly uninterrupted time, our brains are really only equipped to productively focus for a max of about 90-minutes. Beyond that window, we may feel like we’re cranking, but in reality our attention, creativity, and cognitive function decline rapidly. So, rather than push through and watch your frustration levels skyrocket while the quality of your output craters, rework your day into intense, 90-minute bursts with refueling periods in between.
5. Drop Certainty Anchors
Certainty anchors are repeated daily experiences where the decision-making aspect has been removed. They can be as simple as eating the same thing for breakfast every day, wearing only black t-shirts, or walking to work the same way. The key is removing the decision-making element from the experience and, in doing so, turning these moments into repeated occasions where you know in advance that you’ll be able to drop out of the creative ether and land on firm ground.
All of these we are going to start to put into practise @goaugmented - as it's all very well being able to create mobile phone augmented reality applications - but if you cannot be creative as well with them - then no client will be happy. That's just not #greatmarketing for them or us.
Monday, 3 October 2011
So where should you live - to feel economically free :)
Canada has surpassed the United States for levels of economic freedom, according to a new report released today by the Fraser Institute, Canada’s leading public policy think-tank.
“In response to the American and European debt crises, governments around the world are embracing perverse regulations and this has huge, negative implications for economic freedom and financial recovery.”
The United States experienced one of the largest drops in economic freedom, falling to 10th place overall from sixth in 2010. Much of this decline is a result of higher spending and borrowing on the part of the U.S. government, and lower scores for legal structure and property rights.
Hong Kong again topped the rankings of 141 countries, followed by Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Australia.
Research shows that people living in countries with high levels of economic freedom not only enjoy higher levels of prosperity and greater individual freedoms, but also longer life spans.
“The link between economic freedom and prosperity is undeniable: the countries that score highly in terms of economic freedom also offer their people the best quality of life,” McMahon said.
“The political uprisings sweeping across the Arab World are the result of people wanting the outcomes of economic freedom – prosperity, job growth, political freedoms, and poverty reduction.”
The annual peer-reviewed economic freedom report uses 42 different measures to create an index ranking of 141 countries around the world based on policies that encourage economic freedom. The cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete, and security of private property.
Economic freedom is measured in five different areas: (1) size of government, (2) legal structure and security of property rights, (3) access to sound money, (4) freedom to trade internationally, and (5) regulation of credit, labor, and business.
International rankings
Hong Kong offers the highest level of economic freedom worldwide, with a score of 9.01 out of 10. The other top scorers are Singapore (8.68), New Zealand (8.20), Switzerland (8.03), Australia (7.98), Canada (7.81), Chile (7.77), the United Kingdom (7.71), Mauritius (7.67), and the United States (7.60).
The rankings and scores of other large economies include: Germany, 21st (7.45); Japan, 22nd (7.44); France, 42nd (7.16); Italy, 70th (6.81); Mexico, 75th (6.74); Russia, 81st (6.55); China, 92nd (6.43); India, 94th (6.40); and Brazil, 102nd (6.19).
Zimbabwe maintains the lowest level of economic freedom among the 141 jurisdictions measured. Myanmar, Venezuela, Angola, and Democratic Republic of Congo round out the bottom five nations.
Several countries have substantially increased their economic freedom scores since 1990. Uganda saw the biggest improvement, climbing to 7.10 this year from 3.00 in 1990, followed by Zambia, which rose to 7.35 from 3.52; Nicaragua, which jumped to 6.76 from 2.96; Albania, which climbed to 7.54 from 4.24; and Peru, which increased to 7.29 from 4.13.
Over the same period, economic freedom has steadily regressed in Venezuela, whose score fell to 4.23 from 5.45; Zimbabwe, which dropped to 4.06 from 5.05; the United States, which slipped to 7.58 from 8.43; and Malaysia, which fell to 6.68 from 7.49.
About the Economic Freedom Index
Economic Freedom of the World measures the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom. The annual report is published in conjunction with the Economic Freedom Network, a group of independent research and educational institutes in 85 countries worldwide. The 2011 report was prepared by James Gwartney, Gus A. Stavros Eminent Scholar Chair at Florida State University; Robert A. Lawson, Southern Methodist University; and Joshua Hall, Beloit College.
“In response to the American and European debt crises, governments around the world are embracing perverse regulations and this has huge, negative implications for economic freedom and financial recovery.”
The United States experienced one of the largest drops in economic freedom, falling to 10th place overall from sixth in 2010. Much of this decline is a result of higher spending and borrowing on the part of the U.S. government, and lower scores for legal structure and property rights.
Hong Kong again topped the rankings of 141 countries, followed by Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, and Australia.
Research shows that people living in countries with high levels of economic freedom not only enjoy higher levels of prosperity and greater individual freedoms, but also longer life spans.
“The link between economic freedom and prosperity is undeniable: the countries that score highly in terms of economic freedom also offer their people the best quality of life,” McMahon said.
“The political uprisings sweeping across the Arab World are the result of people wanting the outcomes of economic freedom – prosperity, job growth, political freedoms, and poverty reduction.”
The annual peer-reviewed economic freedom report uses 42 different measures to create an index ranking of 141 countries around the world based on policies that encourage economic freedom. The cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete, and security of private property.
Economic freedom is measured in five different areas: (1) size of government, (2) legal structure and security of property rights, (3) access to sound money, (4) freedom to trade internationally, and (5) regulation of credit, labor, and business.
International rankings
Hong Kong offers the highest level of economic freedom worldwide, with a score of 9.01 out of 10. The other top scorers are Singapore (8.68), New Zealand (8.20), Switzerland (8.03), Australia (7.98), Canada (7.81), Chile (7.77), the United Kingdom (7.71), Mauritius (7.67), and the United States (7.60).
The rankings and scores of other large economies include: Germany, 21st (7.45); Japan, 22nd (7.44); France, 42nd (7.16); Italy, 70th (6.81); Mexico, 75th (6.74); Russia, 81st (6.55); China, 92nd (6.43); India, 94th (6.40); and Brazil, 102nd (6.19).
Zimbabwe maintains the lowest level of economic freedom among the 141 jurisdictions measured. Myanmar, Venezuela, Angola, and Democratic Republic of Congo round out the bottom five nations.
Several countries have substantially increased their economic freedom scores since 1990. Uganda saw the biggest improvement, climbing to 7.10 this year from 3.00 in 1990, followed by Zambia, which rose to 7.35 from 3.52; Nicaragua, which jumped to 6.76 from 2.96; Albania, which climbed to 7.54 from 4.24; and Peru, which increased to 7.29 from 4.13.
Over the same period, economic freedom has steadily regressed in Venezuela, whose score fell to 4.23 from 5.45; Zimbabwe, which dropped to 4.06 from 5.05; the United States, which slipped to 7.58 from 8.43; and Malaysia, which fell to 6.68 from 7.49.
About the Economic Freedom Index
Economic Freedom of the World measures the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom. The annual report is published in conjunction with the Economic Freedom Network, a group of independent research and educational institutes in 85 countries worldwide. The 2011 report was prepared by James Gwartney, Gus A. Stavros Eminent Scholar Chair at Florida State University; Robert A. Lawson, Southern Methodist University; and Joshua Hall, Beloit College.
Tuesday, 20 September 2011
How do we create a company people want to work in?
More than 100 studies have now found that the most engaged employees — those who report they're fully invested in their jobs and committed to their employers — are significantly more productive, drive higher customer satisfaction and outperform those who are less engaged.
But only 20 per cent of employees around the world report that they're fully engaged at work.
Which for me is scary as I love what I do for a living - it would be nicer if I was a multi millionaire as well - but I geniunely / usually love what I do.
But for others this is not the case - so what's the solution?
Where is the win-win for employers and employees?
The answer is that great employers must shift the focus from trying to get more out of people, to investing more in them by addressing their four core needs — physical, emotional, mental and spiritual — so they're freed, fueled and inspired to bring the best of themselves to work every day.
It's common sense. Fuel people on a diet that lacks essential nutrients and it's no surprise that they'll end up undernourished, disengaged and unable to perform at their best.
Our first need is enough money to live decently, but even at that, we cannot live by bread alone.
Think for a moment about what would make you feel most excited to get to work in the morning, and most loyal to your employer. The sort of company I have in mind would:
Commit to paying every employee a living wage.
Give all employees a stake in the company's success, in the form of profit sharing, or stock options, or bonuses tied to performance.
Design working environments that are safe, comfortable and appealing to work in. In offices, include a range of physical spaces that allow for privacy, collaboration, and simply hanging out.
Provide healthy, high quality food, at the lowest possible prices, including in vending machines.
Create places for employees to rest and renew during the course of the working day and encourage them to take intermittent breaks.
Ideally, leaders would permit afternoon naps, which fuel higher productivity in the several hours that follow.
Offer a well equipped gym and other facilities that encourage employees to move physically and stay fit. Provide incentives for employees to use the facilities, including during the work day as a source of renewal.
Define clear and specific expectations for what success looks like in any given job. Then, treat employees as adults by giving them as much autonomy as possible to choose when they work, where they do their work, and how best to get it accomplished.
Institute two-way performance reviews, so that employees not only receive regular feedback about how they're doing, in ways that support their growth, but are also given the opportunity to provide feedback to their supervisors, anonymously if they so choose, to avoid recrimination.
Hold leaders and managers accountable for treating all employees with respect and care, all of the time, and encourage them to regularly recognize those they supervise for the positive contributions they make.
Create policies that encourage employees to set aside time to focus without interruption on their most important priorities, including long-term projects and more strategic and creative thinking.
Ideally, give them a designated amount of time to pursue projects they're especially passionate about and which have the potential to add value to the company.
Provide employees with ongoing opportunities and incentives to learn, develop and grow, both in establishing new job-specific hard skills, as well as softer skills that serve them well as individuals, and as managers and leaders.
Stand for something beyond simply increasing profits. Create products or provide services or serve causes that clearly add value in the world, making it possible for employees to derive a sense of meaning from their work, and to feel good about the companies for which they work.
This is what we are trying to do with goAugmented - a leading augmented reality design company based in Manchester. But it's hard to be all the above and a start up at the same time. As Tony Schwartz, who wrote the article and Be Excellent at Anything says:
"In more than a decade of working with Fortune 500 companies, I've yet to come across a company that meets the full range of their people's needs in all the ways I've described above. The one that comes closest is Google. I'm convinced it's a key to their success."
We want to be like Google - which is why we have bright colours ;) Seriously
But other to you how does your company measure up?
What's the impact on your performance?
Which needs would your company have to meet for you to be more fully engaged?
But only 20 per cent of employees around the world report that they're fully engaged at work.
Which for me is scary as I love what I do for a living - it would be nicer if I was a multi millionaire as well - but I geniunely / usually love what I do.
But for others this is not the case - so what's the solution?
Where is the win-win for employers and employees?
The answer is that great employers must shift the focus from trying to get more out of people, to investing more in them by addressing their four core needs — physical, emotional, mental and spiritual — so they're freed, fueled and inspired to bring the best of themselves to work every day.
It's common sense. Fuel people on a diet that lacks essential nutrients and it's no surprise that they'll end up undernourished, disengaged and unable to perform at their best.
Our first need is enough money to live decently, but even at that, we cannot live by bread alone.
Think for a moment about what would make you feel most excited to get to work in the morning, and most loyal to your employer. The sort of company I have in mind would:
Commit to paying every employee a living wage.
Give all employees a stake in the company's success, in the form of profit sharing, or stock options, or bonuses tied to performance.
Design working environments that are safe, comfortable and appealing to work in. In offices, include a range of physical spaces that allow for privacy, collaboration, and simply hanging out.
Provide healthy, high quality food, at the lowest possible prices, including in vending machines.
Create places for employees to rest and renew during the course of the working day and encourage them to take intermittent breaks.
Ideally, leaders would permit afternoon naps, which fuel higher productivity in the several hours that follow.
Offer a well equipped gym and other facilities that encourage employees to move physically and stay fit. Provide incentives for employees to use the facilities, including during the work day as a source of renewal.
Define clear and specific expectations for what success looks like in any given job. Then, treat employees as adults by giving them as much autonomy as possible to choose when they work, where they do their work, and how best to get it accomplished.
Institute two-way performance reviews, so that employees not only receive regular feedback about how they're doing, in ways that support their growth, but are also given the opportunity to provide feedback to their supervisors, anonymously if they so choose, to avoid recrimination.
Hold leaders and managers accountable for treating all employees with respect and care, all of the time, and encourage them to regularly recognize those they supervise for the positive contributions they make.
Create policies that encourage employees to set aside time to focus without interruption on their most important priorities, including long-term projects and more strategic and creative thinking.
Ideally, give them a designated amount of time to pursue projects they're especially passionate about and which have the potential to add value to the company.
Provide employees with ongoing opportunities and incentives to learn, develop and grow, both in establishing new job-specific hard skills, as well as softer skills that serve them well as individuals, and as managers and leaders.
Stand for something beyond simply increasing profits. Create products or provide services or serve causes that clearly add value in the world, making it possible for employees to derive a sense of meaning from their work, and to feel good about the companies for which they work.
This is what we are trying to do with goAugmented - a leading augmented reality design company based in Manchester. But it's hard to be all the above and a start up at the same time. As Tony Schwartz, who wrote the article and Be Excellent at Anything says:
"In more than a decade of working with Fortune 500 companies, I've yet to come across a company that meets the full range of their people's needs in all the ways I've described above. The one that comes closest is Google. I'm convinced it's a key to their success."
We want to be like Google - which is why we have bright colours ;) Seriously
But other to you how does your company measure up?
What's the impact on your performance?
Which needs would your company have to meet for you to be more fully engaged?
Monday, 19 September 2011
Just seen myself in a video - interesting to watch myself on stage.
Didnt really know this was going online - so great to find it - and very proud to be working with Dragon's Den legend Doug Richard.
Sit yourself down - have a cup of tea ready - and enjoy an hours free marketing training courtesy of School for Startups and Great Marketing Works
Sit yourself down - have a cup of tea ready - and enjoy an hours free marketing training courtesy of School for Startups and Great Marketing Works
Just seen myself in a video - interesting to watch myself on stage.
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Thursday, 15 September 2011
What we can learn from Salesforce's scruffy looking leader :)
Read this today - and made me think about our own leader in the advertising revolution i.e. me. We need a leader for augmented reality to become a house hold moment!
I think we can all learn a lot from Benioff, and not just from his business model and technology. Here are a few lessons we can all learn in terms of vision and leadership:
1. Be inclusive. At Dreamforce, I think I heard the term “you” (spoken to the audience) at least a hundred times. “You created the social enterprise.” “You told us you need mobility.” Every presentation involved customer case studies. Salesforce even featured a video from KLM, the airline, that wasn’t related to Salesforce.com at all, but just illustrated a creative use of social media. Benioff clearly wants Salesforce.com to be a community, not just a company. And a community is much harder to stop.
2. Be confrontational. Benioff is not afraid to pick a fight. In fact, he seems to enjoy it. You can’t listen to him give a presentation without hearing a swipe atOracle and a jab at Bill Gates. He wants to create a narrative about the Salesforce.com community being a revolution against the old guard. Indeed, he even referred to the Arab Spring and a revolution happening in corporate America, in which old guard CEOs, who don’t get the social enterprise, are falling like Qaddafi. He’s calling out his own customers. Many of us in the CEO role are afraid to be provocative. We want to make friends and avoid enemies. And this is good. But playing nice to a fault doesn’t make headlines. And, more important, it doesn’t inspire people—whether they are employees or customers.
3. Be evolving. The term pivot has become almost cliché in the startup world. But while changing directions is impressive and imperative, it’s relatively easy for five people in a garage and much harder forbig enterprises. Although Salesforce isn’t Hewlett-Packard yet, it’s not easy to get 5,000 employees to do a 180. Salesforce.com had a good thing going, crushing Siebel with software-as-a-service for CRM (customer relation management). But Benioff saw the arrival of cloud computing, and software-as-a-service was suddenly a thing of the past. Then, just as cloud computing became hot, he perceived the next trend in social media, and shifted his focus to redefining the “social enterprise.” Each time he pivots, he makes the previous phase (for instance, cloud computing) seem obvious and de facto, further cementing his company’s position. And none of his competitors can keep up.
4. Be imitating. For all the flak Benioff gives Microsoft for copying innovations from Apple and others, he’s absolutely willing to imitate where appropriate. Check out Chatter. Benioff openly admits that it’s designed to look like a Facebook inside Salesforce.com. He realized that people understood Facebook, and that enterprises needed a corporate equivalent. He didn’t try to reinvent the wheel and devise a user interface to be more “enterprise-friendly” than Facebook. He almost literally copied the look and feel we all know, down to the latest Chatter Now instant messaging feature, which is a doppelganger of Facebook Chat. The UI may not be innovative, but for corporate users who’ve gone blind after years of looking at 1980s-designed SAP user interfaces, Facebook at work is refreshing and exciting.
5. Be infectious. If you’ve ever been to an IT conference, you realize that if there is a hell it probably includes the typical IT trade show. Bored customers race past booths seeking out free T-shirts, watered down drinks, and scantily clad booth babes. If customers do stop at your booth, they are most likely just eyeing your giveaways, your staff, or both. Yet my company exhibited at Dreamforce this year and we were mobbed. And, no, it wasn’t because our cheesy giveaways were any better than our neighbor’s. Every booth was mobbed. Customers actually wanted to talk and learn. They were excited. In many ways, Salesforce.com has done the unthinkable and made customers feel that they aren’t fighting with vendors, that they and vendors are shoulder-to-shoulder together on the right side of history in an epic battle.
What I first saw as cheesy in Benioff, I now respect as genuine passion. He really believes there is a revolution. Or at least that’s what it feels like. And then you start believing it too.
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