Many of the books I read so that I can grow professionally. Books on developing better leadership skills, on becoming more effective in what I do, on fostering deeper and stronger relationships within teams, and on how businesses can make better use of their data, are some of the topics that interest me.

Already this year, I’ve read three books that I’ve added to my Recommended Reading list. These were insightful, yet entertaining, applicable, yet engaging.

It’s Your Ship The United States Navy doesn’t have a monopoly on the highly-regimented, top-down leadership style. In fact, many companies still have this corporate culture. In It’s Your Ship, Abrashoff recounts how he was able to take a below average ship and turn it into one of the best ships in the Navy. His crew developed a sense of ownership and pride in their work. His bosses recognized Benfold’s accomplishments and rewarded the crew with additional liberty and flexibility. Abrashoff’s approaches work in the corporate world as well. This book is a must-read for leaders.

Permission to Screw Up Many business and leadership books are sanitized and polished. The authors share their successes without revealing the many painful mistakes and setbacks that plagued them along the way. This is not one of those books. In her book, Permission to Screw Up, Hadeed shares how she inadvertently started and grew a business hiring only millennials. She tells her engaging and personal story in an entertaining and thought-provoking way. In the end, the leadership lessons she shares seem more real and less academic, more applicable and less theoretical, more heartfelt and less boastful. Entertaining and informative, this book will help you build a better team.

The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and Winning People Over Jack Shafer spent years with the FBI, preparing spies for their missions and helping to recruit spies from other countries. During his career, he developed strategies for reading people, building trust, and developing long-term relationships. This is not a book about deceitfully manipulating people. This book shares how to build better and stronger relationships.

If you are or desire to be a leader in your organization, I’d highly recommend that you pick up a copy of these three books. They are well worth your time.

The full Recommended Reading list is here.

Enjoy!

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Have you seen the hashtag #TODOZERO? I didn’t think so. It’s as elusive as Nessie, unicorns, and movies with protagonists played by Ray Liotta. It just doesn’t happen.

There’s always something left undone at the end of the day, more work that could be done, more work that should be done. At some point, you have to acknowledge and make peace with the fact that not everything will be done today. (There’s a short but very good book by Andy Stanley called Choosing To Cheat that describes this in more detail. I reviewed it a while back.)

There are a lot of productivity books on the virtual shelves of Amazon and an equal number of life hacks on the internet. Some suggest making an Eisenhower Matrix. Others advocate doing the most important or yuckiest of tasks first. One of the more popular systems is Getting Things Done by David Allen.

I read Allen’s book when it was first released in the early 2000’s. I was left with the impression “Wow, this guy is making a mint writing and consulting on a series of paper To Do Lists! That’s so simple. I’ve got to come up with an idea like that.” But after trying and failing with the GTD system several times, I understood why his business model is successful. The system is simple in concept but difficult to put into practice.  Eventually, I abandoned GTD altogether; there was too much overhead in the system and I was both overwhelmed and discouraged at the depth and breadth of my lists. In retrospect, I’m sure it was my lack of understanding or perhaps discipline with the system that led to my failed attempts.

Recently I discovered and read a short book by Leo Babauta called Zen To Done. Babauta, like me and countless others, had trouble adopting all of the aspects of the GTD system. So he tweaked it to fit his own working style. He distilled GTD into 10 simple habits. He recommends implementing only one or two habits at a time and encourages the reader to use only those that make sense in your environment.

For example in GTD, the only things that go on the calendar are the hard-set appointments that if not done at that time will be missed altogether, such as doctor appoinments or meetings with clients. All other activities are documented and driven by the context To Do Lists.

With the Zen To Done system, Babauta recommends scheduling your Most Important Tasks (MITs) on your calendar each week (typically early each day) so that by the end of the week you have completed something of significance. According to the author, that’s critical. It ensures that the more important things get done. The practice also is helpful if your calendar is available to others in the organization who can schedule meetings with you during your free time.

Admittedly the ZTD system borrows quite a bit from the GTD. If you’ve read Allen’s book, ZTD will be very familiar to you. The author acknowledges that and thanks Allen for his framework. However the modifications are subtle yet significant enough to inspire me to give the combined system another go, albeit with a few minor tweaks of my own.

Overall, I’d recommend reading Zen To Done. But don’t go into it expecting groundbreaking concepts. Rather, expect customizations to an existing system that may make it actually doable.

The post Book Review: Zen To Done appeared first on The SERO Group.

“That’s so simple! How did he write a best-selling book on this stuff?” Those were my first impressions after reading David Allen’s Getting Things Done when it was first released. I was amazed that an entire book could be written on managing to-do lists. Yet, I found myself using the system and actually getting more done than I had before.

Then life happened. At first it was subtle. I stopped doing my weekly reviews. Then I stopped updating my lists and just keeping things in my inbox again. So I thought, “I need a new PDA! With a new PDA, I’d certainly be better at entering everything.” And I was. For a while.

After the newness of the PDA wore off, I fell behind again so I declared to-do bankruptcy and started over. It was great for a while and then I slowly reverted back to my old habits. Deja vu all over again.

Since then, I’ve tried countless productivity softwares and hacks. I’ve tried everything from the low-tech 3×5’s and text documents to expensive productivity software and web sites. I’ve tried the Pomodoro Technique and time blocking. I’ve tried just about everything.

But you know what I’ve found? It doesn’t really matter what you use. All of those systems can work, some better than others.

However, all of them will fail without discipline. The most important factor in staying productive is discipline. Find a system that works for you and keep at it. There will be times when you love it and times when you loathe it. The important thing is to keep at it.

I’m certainly not saying that you shouldn’t stop doing something that isn’t working for you. What I’m saying is don’t be too quick to blame your tool. Eventually, like me, you’ll run out of tools to try and realize that what you need is discipline to stay at it.

By the way, my current favorite is a variation of the Kanban system using Trello. It’s working pretty well. But I think it’s because I’ve determined to make it work.

The post Your System Doesn’t Matter appeared first on The SERO Group.

As we enter the last quarter of 2014, I’m reminded of a story by Mike Greene that I read recently in the Business Journals (check it out here).

Paraphrasing, the story went something like this:

A man walked into an old country store late one afternoon. As he wandered around looking at the merchandise, he was occasionally interrupted by a low moan coming from behind the end of the cash register counter. He continued to peruse the shelves until his curiosity finally got the better of him. He approached the counter and asked the store owner about the sound.

The owner nodded his head toward the floor where an old dog lay sleeping. “He’s napped there every day for the past several years. So much so that he’s worn the wooden floor down and an old rusty nail pokes him in the side as he sleeps,” offered the store owner.

The man looked questioningly at the dog and then at the store owner and wondered aloud, “Why doesn’t he just get up and move to another spot?”

“Good question,” replied the owner, “as much as it hurts him, I guess it’s not enough to do anything about it.”

The end of the year is traditionally a time to reflect on the prior year and to set goals for the next 12 months. As you consider the direction you’d like to take in 2015, spend some time thinking about the things you’ve been living with and ask yourself, “Do I hurt enough to change, to actually do something about it?”

It may mean making a career move or signing up for training to expand your knowledge. Maybe it’s seeking out a mentor to help you navigate the difficulties or uncertainties in life. Or maybe it’s something else entirely.

Whatever it is, resolve that come next December, you’ll be able to look back with a sense of accomplishment and pride in what you’ve done.

photo courtesy of freeimages.com

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Because I said so!” Ever hear that growing up? I certainly did on more than one occasion, typically when I had exhausted my parent’s patience with me.
Unfortunately, many IT Leaders adopt this behavior as part of their leadership style. What most don’t realize is that using the dictator style of management doesn’t bring out the best in your team. In fact it can be counterproductive. To really motive your team, you need to share why what they are doing is important.

Adam Grant, professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania recently conducted an experiment which illustrates this point. In his study, a group of university call center workers soliciting donations from alumnus were given a chance to meet and talk with some of the recipients of scholarships funded by the callers’ efforts.

As you might expect by the end of the experiment, there was a substantial difference in the amount of time spent on the phone and the total money raised by each caller who had spoken with scholarship recipients. In fact, those call center works who had spoken with scholarship students spent twice of much time on the phone and raised over 2 and 1/2 times the amount of money as those callers who didn’t talk with the scholarship students. You can read about Grant’s study here.

Understanding why is important. Help your team be more productive and stay motivated longer by helping them to see why what they are doing is important.

The post Motivating Your Team: The Importance of Why appeared first on The SERO Group.

So how are you doing? Is there a void of leadership in your team? If so, it’s time to step up and fill the vacuum.

image courtesy of www.freeimages.com

The post A Leadership Vacuum appeared first on The SERO Group.

“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be ‘meetings.”  – Dave Barry

Surveys over the past 12 years have repeatedly confirmed Dave’s sentiment. On average only two of every three hours spent at work are considered productive by IT professionals. The item most often cited reason for lost productivity is ineffective meetings. This only gets worse the higher up in the organization you climb. VPs and C-Suite people tend to spend more time in meetings than out of them.

If meetings are an abyss into which we throw our time, why do organizations hold them every day? And why do we do very little to improve them?

Fortunately, there is one simple step that you can take to vastly improve your meetings: follow an agenda.

Life Without an Agenda

When you have a meeting without an agenda, it starts a domino effect of cascading unproductive behaviors that derail the meeting. The figure below illustrates this.

Without an agenda:

• Invitees don’t know if they should attend of if they can send a delegate instead. They don’t know what will be covered.
• Invitees don’t know what they can do to prepare ahead of time and hence will be less productive during the meeting. They won’t have the figures they need; they won’t have the results of the recent analysis; they won’t have the relevant information at their fingertips.
• Since invitees don’t know how important the meeting will be, they won’t make it a priority to arrive on time. They may show up late.
• Without a critical mass of attendees present, you, as the meeting organizer, will be tempted to postpone the start of the meeting until the “important people” arrive.
• Without an agenda to keep the meeting on track, the discussion topics will tend to meander.
• People will begin to multitask, opting to be personally productive at the expense of the group’s productivity.
• Decisions will not be made and the unstated goal or reason for meeting will not be accomplished.
• As a result of all these, another meeting must be called. And the cycle begins again.

Life is Better with an Agenda

This fate is easily averted. Before sending out a meeting request, spend 5 to 10 minutes organizing an agenda for the meeting. Send the agenda with the meeting request. Your invitees will see the purpose of the meeting. They will recognize that you have prepared ahead of time and that the meeting will be worthwhile

During the meeting you can use the agenda as a yardstick by which to measure every topic that is discussed. This will keep from going down rabbit trails and keep the discussions focused on the meeting topic.

The result: people remain more engaged, productive discussions will ensue, and decisions will be made. As a bonus, your meeting will end on time.

But…

Ahhh, but you say I do not have the time to create an agenda. I understand. We are all busy.

But I submit that you do not have the time to not make an agenda. If spending 10 minutes before a meeting will make the hour-long meeting more productive, not to mention eliminating the need for subsequent meetings, I don’t believe you can afford not to make an agenda.

So, what’s stopping you? Buck the trend. Create a corporate culture within your team that will increase your and your team’s productivity.

The post One Easy Step to Improving Your Meetings appeared first on The SERO Group.

Meetings are not free, even if everyone is local and there are no travel costs to consider. The loss in productivity alone can be staggering.

Personal Productivity at the Expense of Team Productivity

I used to just “grin and bear” it as the saying goes. I used to take my laptop to those meetings under the guise of “taking notes”. But what I was really doing was being productive on my own. I was sifting through email in pursuit of InboxZero. Or I remoting into a client’s server to do some “real work” while the meeting languished.

But I’ve learned that although I was being productive as an individual, I was contributing to the ineffectiveness of the team. My mental absence was hindering the team as a whole. My personal productivity was at the expense of the productivity of the team. In essence I was part of the problem, not part of the solution.

I’ve written about some of those experiences and my short-sightedness in a prior post entitled “Closing Your Laptop in Meetings.”  If you haven’t read it, I’d encourage you to do so and then take the challenge.

Conducting Effective Meetings

Something had to give. I didn’t want to spend scores of hours each year sitting in meetings that even most of the attendees would say was worthless. So, I did a lot of research and experimenting, looking for ways to make the meetings I conduct and the meetings I attend more effective.

I finally found a few critical points that have helped me immensely in making my meetings more productive. I’ll be the first to admit that these are not rocket science; they are common sense approaches that just seem to work.

Now, your turn. What techniques have you found for making meetings more effective?

The post Conducting Effective Meetings appeared first on The SERO Group.

My laptop, my security blanket

Recently, I listened to a cast about how to make your meetings more effective by leaving your laptop at your desk. “That’s just crazy; that’s pure nonsense!” I thought as I listened. “What will they suggest next? Adding cursors to your stored procedures to improve performance?”

Like most professionals, I’ve sat through more meetings than I care to remember. Some are very productive. Others, not so much. They seem to go on and on like a bad movie. How could one make it through such meetings without a laptop with which to multi-task?

Having a laptop with you is like having a security blanket. When a meeting takes a non-productive detour, you can turn to your trusty laptop and get some things done. At least you’ll stay productive.

I’ve been to some meetings where I was able to reach inbox zero while others belabored a really inconsequential point way past reason. And I’m not alone. I remember in one all-day meeting, I received a flurry of emails from several others sitting in the same room. Many of those emails were in response to questions I’d sent to them days or weeks earlier.

If at first you don’t succeed…

But as crazy as Mark and Michael’s advice sounded to me, they have a proven track record of offering good advice. Could this really be true? It sounded so foreign to me.

So I decided to conduct an experiment. For the next couple of weeks, I’d leave my laptop closed during meetings and devote my entire attention to the meeting. No more emails. No more remoting into a client’s system to check something. Just the meeting at hand.

At first it was tough, really tough. When a meeting seemed to take a nonproductive tangent, I instinctively reached for my laptop. Argh! It was missing in action! What had I done? Stupid, stupid, stupid!

But over the next several meetings I persisted. I stubbornly stuck to my experiment as hard as it was.

The Payoff

I found that it got easier over time. Not having the laptop in which to seek refuge forced me to mentally stay in the meeting. I was more engaged. I paid attention. I contributed more.

Soon I noticed that the meetings were better as a result. I realized that I didn’t have to sit back and allow the meeting to go astray. I could do something about it. I could subtly step in and redirect the meeting back on track by suggesting we take that point off-line. I could even do this in meetings that I didn’t run. It wasn’t very difficult; most people were buried in their laptop and not paying attention.

I also realized that what Mark and Michael had said was true. While I felt that having a laptop made me more productive, the meeting is not all about me. It’s about the group and making good decisions. If I’m being more effective as an individual, it’s detracting from the meeting and thus making the meeting less productive. That wastes a lot of other people’s time and costs the company.

When I closed my laptop, I was able to influence the meeting and the outcome for the better. I wish I’d learned this lesson years ago.

Excuses

I know what you must be thinking right about now. “Joe, you’ve spent too much time in the server room. Your brain has frostbite.” I know. I thought that at first, too. But give it a try. I think you’ll agree.

Mark and Michael talk about some excuses that people may have when you, as the leader of a meeting, decide to banish the portable computers from your meetings. I won’t recount those here. But I will give you some that immediately came to my mind along with my current thoughts on them.

• “I really need my laptop to take notes.” That really is an excuse. Almost everyone claims to need a laptop to take meeting notes, but very few actually do take notes with it. The temptation to do other work is too great. If you really want to take notes, and I encourage you to take notes, use pen and paper. If you must have them electronically, transcribe them later.
• “I need to be able to look up the latest figures at the meeting.” That may be, but reporting the latest figures to the group can probably easily be an action item that you take away from the meeting. Taking time during the meeting to look them up is not the best use of everyone’s time.
• “I need to have my calendar available.” Again, coordinating a future meeting can be done after this meeting ends. Spending an extra five minutes trying to schedule another meeting takes up valuable time during this meeting. Besides, if everyone was fully engaged in this meeting and decisions could be made, perhaps another meeting wouldn’t even be necessary.

For every rule there is an exception

Like the guys from Manager-Tools, I’ve found that not having my laptop open in meetings has made the meetings more productive. I think that’ll be the norm from now on. I’m even going to add this suggestion to the How to Conduct Effective Meetings Lunch and Learn that I give to companies.

There are, of course, some exceptions to this general rule. But I’m beginning to think that those are few and far between.

So what do you think? Do you take your laptop to meetings? Have you tried leaving it closed during the meetings? What has your experience been?

The post Closing Your Laptop in Meetings appeared first on The SERO Group.

Series Outline

• So I Got Promoted, Now What?
• Stop Doing Your Old Job
• Employ the Same Successful Tactics
• Get to Know Your Peers
• Get a Trusted System
• Manage Your Email
• Manage Your Calendar
• Start Having Weekly One-On-Ones
• Recognize the Tendency to Revert

How do you recognize an extroverted IT professional? Answer: He looks at your shoes when he talks to you.

That’s a harsh joke. It’s certainly not true for the people I know in the IT field, but it does illustrate a point. Those of us in the IT realm are not known for our exceptional interpersonal skills. It’s not that we don’t have interpersonal skills. It’s just that we tend to be more at ease when “interfacing” with other techies.

Being comfortable amongst similar people comes naturally. I’m reminded of the old sales axiom: People buy from people they like, and people like themselves.

Why Should I Care About My Peers?

Getting along with other IT folks may have been sufficient in your prior role, but as you get promoted up through the ranks you’ll need to extend your comfort zone to include a broader swath of the organization. Business is relational and you’ll need to be as well to succeed that landscape.

Why? There are many reasons. Here are but a few.

Learn From Your Peers

If someone has been in a position that’s similar to your new role in the organization, it stands to reason that they may have picked up some good insight during their tenure. I’m not suggesting that they’ll be perfect or that you’ll want to follow their lead. That’s probably not the case. You need to be true to your own style and make your own mark, but they may be able to help you navigate around potential land mines as you adjust to your new responsibilities in the organization.

Establish Lines Of Communication

In most organizations, a certain level of cooperation is required from multiple teams and departments. You must work with other groups to push the organization’s goals and objectives forward. It’s much easier to work with someone else when you’ve already established a professional relationship with him. People are more willing to go to bat for someone else if they know him.

Prepare For Future Conflicts

When two people interact regularly, there will eventually be conflict, even under the best of circumstances. The likelihood of conflict is escalated when put in the context of a stressful or demanding project. Some would even argue that the conflict helps to produce s better outcome. Regardless, those conflicts are less intense and are more easily resolved afterward if the two parties have already established trust and mutual respect for one another.

Vet Your Ideas Before Unveiling Them

As we come up with ideas for our department or the organization, it’s good to have a trusted colleague with whom we can share those ideas and get good and honest feedback. An idea that we conceive may have downsides that we haven’t considered. Vetting the ideas before announcing them will help you to improve the ideas and lay the groundwork for better acceptance of them when announced.

Expand Your Network

Let’s face it, business can be turbulent. Mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations and outsourcing, recessions and contracting economies all make for a very dynamic workplace. In such an environment, it’s good to have an extensive network of people who can help you if needed, or who you can help.

Ok, But Who Are My Peers?

That’s a good question. I’m reminded of the parable of the Good Samaritan where a young man asks “Who is my neighbor?” and learns that his true neighbors extend far beyond his confort zone.

Getting to know your peers means getting to know others both inside and outside of your current organization, those with whom you work regularly and those you only see occasionally, those who are in the same industry and those who work in complementary industries. In short, most anyone you come into contact with can be considered your peer for these purposes.

However, that’s a pretty ambitious target so let’s narrow it down a little for starters.

Peers At Work

The peers at work are primarily your colleagues at the same level in the organization. If you are the DBA Manager, your peers may be the Dev Team Manager, the Customer Service Team Manager, and the Quality Assurance Team Manager. Don’t limit yourself to one department or physical location; reach out to peers in other departments and locations.

You may also go up the promotional ladder a rung or two, depending on the culture of work environment.

Peers In The Same Industry

Trade shows and conferences offer great opportunities to meet other people in the same industry as yours. If you go to these types of events and only consume the information presented in the break-out sessions, you’re missing out of one of the most important aspects of the event. Networking (in the best sense of the term) is probably the most important aspect of these events. You can even participate when you’re unable to attend in person.

Peers In Complementary  Industries

During the course of your business day, you’ll likely meet people from other walks of life. Getting to know your suppliers, your customers, your service providers will help you to work more effectively with them.

How Do I Get To Know My Peers?

Getting to know your peers is not really that difficult. Little kids seem to have an innate ability to do it. If you go to a playground and watch for a few minutes, you’re bound to see a new kid arrive. At first he tentatively plays near the other kids, then before you know it he’s joined their game.

As we grow, we sometimes convince ourselves that it’s much more difficult than that. We start believing that meeting new people is hard. It’s not. If a little kid can do it, surely we can. Initially you may have a certain level apprehension or even anxiety about striking up a conversation with someone you don’t know very well. As you practice, it will become much easier.

Lots of books have been written about the subject. If you’re looking for a good starting point, try the classic How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. It’s a good common sense approach for becoming a good conversationalist. In general, it’s simply finding common ground and becoming a good listener.

Some specific examples of situations where you can get to know your peers may be:

At Meetings

Meeting are pervasive in business today. Our calendars are full of them, so why not use them as an opportunity to meet someone new? Arrive early and introduce yourself to someone else who’s early. Spend a few minutes talking with her before the meeting. Afterward, send a short follow up email. Something simple like “Hey Darlene – It was good chatting with you before the meeting earlier today. Here’s a link to the resource I was telling you about. See you next week.”

Small Tokens

Don’t be afraid to reach out to your peers with little acts of kindness. For example, if you occasionally bring bagels or donuts for your team, buy some extra and give them to your peer for his team. Let him be the one to give it to his team. “Hey Marc – I was at the bakery this morning picking up some bagels for my team and thought your guys may want some too. Enjoy.”

At Lunch

Of course, lunch is one of the more common ways to get to know your peers. “Let’s do lunch.” as they say. But you’ll probably want to be more genuine than that. I find that it’s typically easier to establish a working relationship with my peers first and then invite them to lunch. For example, after I’ve met and talked with someone a few times I may ask “Hey – I was thinking of trying the new Mongolian place for lunch today. Have you heard anything about it?” And then you can invite him to join you.

Start Today

The best part about all of this is that you don’t have to wait until you’ve been promoted to begin getting to know your peers. You can start reaching out to your co-workers, customers, suppliers, and colleagues in other industries now. What’s stopping you?

The post So I Got Promoted, Now What? Get To Know Your Peers appeared first on The SERO Group.