What I Learned from My Kid’s Zoom School

As a working parent it’s been difficult for me to be completely tuned in to my son’s school experience. Before COVID19, we outsourced homework and tutoring as much as financially possible and we relied on school as a babysitter of sorts. Obviously that all went out the window with Stay at Home orders and social distancing. Now I juggle the demands of consulting along with the demands of Zoom school, which has been both fun and frustrating.

What I’ve realized is that there’s a lot we working parents can learn a lot from our kids’ virtual school experience. While eavesdropping on middle school classes I found three principles consistently at play in the classroom that should always translate to the conference room.

Eliminate Distractions – my son’s Zoom classes followed these ground rules: no eating, no pets, no toys, no devices. How many meetings do we sit through where colleagues are half paying attention while they scroll on their phones or answer emails on their laptops? This type of multitasking was a no-no in the virtual classroom. Meetings would be much more effective, and faster, if we take away distraction.

Everyone’s Ideas Count – do you remember the kid who always had his or her hand raised in the classroom? Their son or daughter are doing the same thing! In the classes I overheard the teachers made a point of seeking input from the quieter kids. It was important that all voices be heard and that there was a diversity in perspectives and points of view. Next time you run a meeting, try engaging the introverts.

Emotional Intelligence is Essential – I was blown away with the empathy and patience displayed by my son’s teachers. No matter how many times the students asked the same question that had already been answered, the teachers kept their cool. It was a brilliant reminder of how we should treat our coworkers. The way we field questions lobbed at us in our meetings can influence the way our teams interoperate and succeed.

While all of these points are common sense, they are easy to forget when we’re working and operating in the unknown. Lucky for us we have the next generation to remind us of the basics.

What have you observed in the virtual classroom, let’s discuss!

Busy or Bored? Three Tips for Whichever Mode You’re In

In these unprecedented times businesses and employees are challenged with new ways of interoperating, revenue and cash flow instability, personal and world health concerns, job loss, furlough, the list goes on. When I speak to colleagues and friends, with whom I’m checking in more than ever, they seem to fall into two camps – busy or bored. Those in the busy camp are working more than ever, killing themselves to stay necessary/employed and are secretly envious of those in the bored camp. Those on the bored front are struggling to stay productive, desperately wanting to be engaged in something and are tired of hearing the busy people complain about how much work they have on their hands.

While these two groups are stuck at opposite ends of the spectrum they can leverage the same tools and tricks to cope and thrive in their current work environment.

Stay Organized – use whichever tool appeals most to you. I’m a fan of handwritten To Do Lists. I get a lot of satisfaction out of crossing things off. I categorize mine by Work, Personal, Family so I can cover the actual work I do to get paid, the things I want to do for myself and the things I need to do to keep our household running. There’s no shortage of task management apps out there if you’re not a paper person. I’m a fan of Asana and the notes app on my phone.

Prioritize – as someone who lives in the efficiency and productivity space, prioritization is the most basic of concepts but it’s also one that many people struggle with. If you’re among the bored you may want to do everything from finding a job to redoing your closet to attending online learning courses. Those are all great pursuits, but which one requires your immediate attention? The fastest and easiest way to prioritize is to tie your to do’s to your goals and needs and work from there.

Master Your Attitude – when things are not going as expected it’s natural to get negative. Staying in a negative headspace will inevitably take you off track whether your goal is to hold on to your job or pick up your next gig. Doses of positivity and optimism can go a long way to help keep you going through the chaos and the unknown. Even if you naturally skew more on the pessimistic side of things, fake it. Even the slightest lean into the positive can be a key to unlocking what’s next for you.

Questions on incorporating these tips into your day-to-day? Contact me!

Integrating Innovation and Process

Innovation and process — two important components of any successful business. Often, one is favored: Established companies can be heavily entrenched in processes, and conversely, start-ups rely on innovation. As a result, bridging the gap between innovation and process, for all types of businesses, becomes increasingly important. 

What Came First: The Chicken or the Egg?

Truly, it doesn’t matter whether innovation or process came first. The more beneficial question is: How do we continually integrate the chicken and the egg?

A business often starts with an idea; and as it grows, more and more structured processes are implemented. Many business people assume that innovation and process are diametrically opposed. Perhaps this is because their strengths often lie in one camp more than the other.

In general, as companies grow and scale, they are more beholden to a larger universe of customers, vendors, suppliers, etc. Standards and ways of interacting change. It’s important that the company maintain its credibility during growth cycles. This becomes particularly important as companies are subject to outside, non-negotiable regulations. 

It is possible to apply process in a way that doesn’t impact agility and innovation. The key is to look for ways to build a structure that fosters innovation and not simply apply process for process’ sake. For larger, more established companies that are used to operating in regulated environments, the challenge becomes embracing innovation while maintaining checks and balances. In this use case, the trick is understanding where innovation is impacted by an excessive process and where standards can be relaxed to promote ideation and quick turnaround.

During growth spurts, many business owners have trouble seeing the convergence of innovation and process. It is often challenging to adapt without outside assistance. 

It’s extremely helpful to have an experienced consultant come in and see things with fresh eyes — an outsider who can view all sides and make process adjustments while encouraging concurrent innovation.

Contact me today to get started!

Project Management 101: Time Management

There are many brilliant and creative thinkers who provide essential new ideas for a business, yet struggle with implementation: How do I create an action plan? How do I get my work done in an organized way? What can I do to best manage my time?

For anyone who struggles with time management and organization, the following steps provide an action plan that will help to build subsequent action plans:

1. Lay everything out on the table;

2. Determine what needs to be (a) delivered and what needs to be (b) delivered by you and only you; and

3. Identify your timeframe.

Projects are most easily organized when broken down into smaller parts. Most things in life are projects whether it’s a major business implementation or a personal endeavor. In either case, breaking tasks into manageable components and delegating what you don’t personally need to own will give you forward momentum toward their completion. 

If the divide and conquer approach is still challenging, business professionals can hire an outside consultant who will take them through the exercises from start to finish — and this way, the process is more easily implemented without assistance during the next project. 

Remember, the practice of identification, compartmentalization, and organization is a daily ritual and should be scheduled as such, just like meditation or your morning run would be. Daily commitment leads to increased accountability and success.

How Do You Manage Change and Chaos in Business?

In a corporate situation or even in a startup, many things come into play that are simply beyond your control. Given this, it is inevitable that from time-to-time, chaos may occur. Consider the following two examples: 

• During a merger or acquisition, employees are almost always put in a situation where they have to justify their existence and continued employment. 

• A big project that you're working on is not going well and you have to course correct. 

What are some key ways that you can represent yourself that can help you manage through troubled times? Here are three things I personally do and recommend to clients during times of change or uncertainty:

1. Make a plan: Document the things you need to get done and put some tangible dates around them. I always find that, even when there's chaos all around you, if you focus on something very simple like a task plan or project plan, it will help you stay centered while ignoring some of the chaos.

2. Develop tunnel vision: Don’t get caught up in the drama that is going on around you. Stay focused on you, your successes, and all of your accomplishments.

3. Be fearless: Believe that you can navigate any situation — and you may not get the outcome you want — but whatever the outcome, it will contribute to future success.

The most important thing to remember during chaos is to believe in yourself. Contact me today for a consultation to discuss your chaotic situation.

The Delicate Balance of Power and Empowerment in the Workplace

Passion for a company is contagious — especially when it emanates from the CEO or business owners. As a result, employees often feel energized about the goals of the company and its direction.

However, for some executives, the passion for their brand translates to a higher level of micromanagement — their personal stamp is a requirement on any project, big or small. Employees can feel suffocated and unempowered to make decisions. Over time, this can result in perfunctory efforts on projects because the employees know that, ultimately, their work will be changed and/or overruled.

This type of management style permeates day-to-day office life. For example, I was assisting a team who was helping the CEO of their company prepare for a big product launch. Presentations, marketing materials, etc. had to be created. Yet, the implementation team could not finalize anything because they did not have the ultimate decision-making power. Their creativity and productivity was significantly stifled as a result. They began to orient their efforts toward doing the minimum they needed to satisfy the request knowing that the CEO and his directs would adjust and refine.

I have successfully worked on both sides of this equation with executives and staff members alike to shift this dynamic in the workplace.

Empowering Staff Members

Staff members can become entrenched in behavior patterns. The key is to help the staff member change their way of being in vivo. For example, I worked with a young woman who could not commit to a project structure. Instead of owning her project, she kept asking for opinions from various people.

Finally, during the process, I said to her, “This is your project; you make the decisions. It’s your job to get everybody on board with how you want to do it, not the other way around.”

I helped the staff person to embrace their decision-making power and increase their sense of personal empowerment.

Big(ger) Picture Focus for Executives

It can be more challenging to try and reduce the level of involvement of an executive. An effective approach is to showcase areas where efficiency could be improved if employees were able to make the final decision. For example, productivity on a two-week timeline is vastly improved if the executive is only involved for a final sign-off — and not beforehand. 

Regardless of company size or structure, this awkward (and detrimental) dance between super-involved C-Suite and uninspired employees can occur. It is important for business owners to distinguish which decisions are critical in order to empower employees — ensuring that everyone feels that they directly contribute to the overall success of the company.  

Contact me with questions.

Anecdotal Success Won’t Stand Up to Hard Data. Make Sure You Measure!

In a previous article, I discussed the importance of creating holistic objectives for your business. When setting goals, the business must be ready to track the efficacy of efforts towards the desired outcomes. 

The success of the implementation measures and overall progress can only be tracked by measurable benchmarks — data points that indicate whether or not the needle is moving in the right direction when compared to an initial baseline measurement. 

Tracking progress can be accomplished through sophisticated methods, such as a vendor system that provides analytics. Alternatively, it can be done simply via internal dashboards and spreadsheets. Regardless of the system, the most central task is to determine success criteria, how they will be measured, and the length of time used to take the measurement(s).

Without a measure of whether or not an objective is successful, the planning and associated efforts are not as useful as they could be. For example, a business project may have been anecdotally successful, but the team has no empirical data to prove it. Without hard data, it is difficult to compare work, projects, and tactics across differing efforts and challenging to determine which actions are more efficient and/or have a higher rate of execution.  

Obtaining data through a lookback is much more intensive and time-consuming than establishing tracking measures upfront. This is a mistake I’ve seen teams make time and time again: getting right into the business of implementing without taking a moment to figure out what success means and making sure tools and tracking are available before they start the work.

Contact me today to plan your tracking measures, ensuring you get the data needed to truly analyze the success of your efforts. Remember, don't hit the ground running without a quality measurement plan in place!

Want to Be a Leader? First Things First: You Have to Earn It

The title of manager does not necessarily a leader make. In other words, the terms are not interchangeable. I’ve encountered many managers leading large projects or teams who struggled to garner support or bring their visions to life. Those leaders expected staff to fall in line or simply follow because they were in charge. They underestimated the fundamentals of strong leadership and the importance of leading by example.

Leaders have specific qualities that are universally recognized and respected:

•Good Listeners: Open to hearing other people’s opinions, a leader will engage and connect with people at all levels. 

This an area where my startup clients excel. I find early stage companies more open to hearing differing points of view. They embrace dissent, something they call out in their job descriptions. This type of environment comes from the head down. My startup CEOs lead by listening and by embracing their team's perspectives.

•Relatable: No matter the position in the company, a leader can easily find common ground with others. 

For example, I worked with a manager who was undergoing treatment for cancer, and he used his experiences to promote health and the importance of a work-life balance. He was not afraid to be human—and this built trust with team members.

•Decision Makers & Risk Takers: Leaders have the ability to make decisions without direction from others. They are thoughtful risk takers and consistently move forward—undeterred by mistakes and failures. 

I once worked for a manager who was leading a major technology launch. It was highly complex and highly visible, both to senior management and the company’s clients. A lot went wrong with the launch but this manager gathered a team of trusted individuals, problem solved and fixed what was broken. He was under tremendous pressure but he leveraged his team, made decisions and moved people into action. My teammates and I didn’t think twice about working around the clock to course correct. We were behind our boss 100% because he led by action and inspired us to do the same.

All managers have the potential to become leaders. How? Trust in yourself that you’ll be able to work through every situation. Focus on your responsibility to your team instead of their responsibility to you and you will inspire them to believe in you. 

Contact me today to work on transforming into the type of leader you dream of becoming!

Defining Holistic Goals & Objectives for Your Business

Personal resolutions are the focal point of the new year. For businesses, the first quarter of the new year is a great time for goal setting—creating objectives that are measurable, actionable, and will drive forward motion.

Companies that successfully attain their goals break them down into manageable chunks that, once completed, can be checked off and used to support the next step.

So how do you know if you’re ready to move onto the next step?

The key is to use a reasonable measurement. For example, having a general goal of increasing sales and closing more business is too vague and not specific enough. By adding a measure to a goal, it immediately becomes actionable. With specificity and measurability, your goal is transformed into something like increase sales by 10% and add 2 new accounts to the book of business that will generate X dollars in revenue.

Establishing metrics naturally progresses into the conversation of how a goal can be achieved. For example, you can increase sales in a variety of ways. Do you want to hire 10 more salespeople who increase total sales by 1% each? Probably not. While you’d meet your sales objective, you’d likely undo any staffing objectives at the same time. It is imperative that goals and objectives do not undermine each other. 

Goals and objectives need to be set in a holistic way across the business so that there are no direct conflicts—and this vision must be coordinated at the top of the company. 

I help business leaders capture a panoramic view of their company so that goals and objectives are productively developed and rolled out. A business that stands still will not survive competition; refreshed targets will propel forward momentum and support business growth.  

Contact me today to get started planning your new year’s goals and objectives!