Why Management and Leadership Need a Better Balance

More on How to Be Lucky - Proximity, Practice, Persistence

A few months back, I wrote a post about why the clichés about luck are true, and how you could position yourself to take advantage.  This post on Lifehack (How to Be in the Right Place at the Right Time - the photo above is from the post) advances some of the same ideas, and demonstrates how they work with an effective anecdote.  The author proposes that luck is driven by:

Proximity - By putting yourself into situations where you have the experience and knowledge to prosper, you automatically drive up your likelihood of success.

Practice - Using athletic accomplishments as an example (like the outstanding catch David Tyree made for the Giants in Super Bowl XLII), the author points out that many instances of luck are the result of thousands of hours of practice (and thus advises not giving up on practicing a skill too soon).

Persistence - By simple math, being in a lot of places at a lot of times increases your probability of being in the right place at the right time. So even for mundane events and experiences, it's valuable to be "in the present" and looking for opportunities to learn and grow.

As you can tell, I'm a passionate advocate that we (generally) control our own destiny.  Doing it well requires a constant attention to your environment and an awareness of your ultimate goals.  If, for example, I qualify for the Boston Marathon next month, it will not be because I had a lucky day - it will be the accumulation of setting the right goal, developing the plan to work towards it, executing the plan, and, maybe even most importantly, taking advantage of opportunities to become a better runner through extra practice or finding sources of motivation in everyday activities.

5 Rules for Managing "Clever" Employees

A Tale of Two Attitudes

Yesterday, I read an article on how a good customer had acquired a few operations of a company in a similar field, who would also have potential use for the solutions we had provided this good customer.  I sent the article on to three of our people involved with the customer, and here are their responses:

#1 (chief engineer, also responsible for a sales territory):  Responded right away: "They like to buy used equipment, but I'm sure they'll get in touch with us if they need anything."

#2 (product manager / designer):  Responded an hour later:  "Hey, sounds like an opportunity, I'll get in touch with our contact to see if there may be opportunities at these new facilities."  A bit later, the contact had already gotten back to our product manager, stating that he would in fact take the idea of using our solutions into these facilities and see if there were some opportunities for us.

#3 (regional sales manager in the acquired facilities territory):  immediately got in touch with our dealer for that territory and, in discovering this dealer had no relationships at these facilities, began talking to potential other routes in to the customer.

Now, which two of the three would you want on your team?  #1 is considered a subject matter expert, but sometimes being the "expert" means you take the basic questions for granted.  Thank heavens we have #2 and #3 on the team as well.

An ignorant engineer stereotypes marketing

Office Christmas Party FAIL. Your gift - a pink slip.

via Business Pundit

This genius didn't need to rely on some Facebook digital job-killing flameout.  She did an old-school foot-in-the-mouth blunder.  Though thanks to the alcohol, I doubt her foot can actually find her mouth.  So, here is a timely reminder to be responsible about alcohol at your company's holiday party. Especially if said holiday party is actually a lunch, like ours.

Leading from the Trenches – 5 + 2 Tips for Standing Out on Any Project

Photo courtesy of World War I Color Photos

Scot Herrick (@scotherrick on Twitter) wrote an interesting post last week on “How to make yourself the de facto leader on any project”.  In this post, he offers five tips to stand out as an individual contributor on a team project, most of which involve just doing the basic blocking and tackling for team meetings that often gets overlooked:

1.       Do your work (seems obvious, but too many get wrapped up in what’s next, instead of what’s now)

2.       Be prepared for all meetings

3.       Know everyone’s position on issues

4.       Offer an agenda if no one has one (related article of interest – How to hijack a meeting. “Hijack” is a bit strong for this context, but the idea of controlling the agenda is valid)

5.       Offer constructive suggestions behind the scenes

As an enhancement to #3, I’d also suggest helping to drive pre-reviews with key stakeholders who are not on the core project team before formal reviews.  This helps ferret out objections in time to address them and makes these stakeholders feel a sense of ownership and participation in the project, thus building momentum for the approvals you need in the actual review.  I had a manager once who, while weak in many other areas was phenomenal at doing this, and project reviews almost always went off smoothly (though, in retrospect, the project should have been stopped much earlier than it eventually was).

I’d also like to offer up two additional tips for leading from the trenches on a team project:

1. Be vocal at team meetings.  Even when you are not right, being willing to speak up on key issues shows a sense of confidence and enthusiasm for a project.  Too many meeting participants are wall flowers; provoking conversation on key topics is a critical leadership skill that anyone can practice.
2. Take an opposing viewpoint when “groupthink” has set in.  If you get the sense that agreement is coming too easy and contrary opinions are not being aired, don’t hesitate to take on a contrary position. I have often taken positions that I don’t actually believe in order to make sure debate on key points occurred in meetings.

Obviously, when taken to extremes the last two tips can be counterproductive, but in general project participants are too passive in engaging on key points and provoking debate.  A healthy dose of skepticism is an important element in any project. When done properly, more options and alternatives are considered and better results are achieved.

Do you have any additional tips for leading from within?

Why All the Clichés about Luck are True, and How to Be One of the Lucky Ones

Ever since it I found the article “Be lucky - it's an easy skill to learn”, courtesy of @JeffreyJDavis via Twitter, I have thought a lot about the studies described and whether real life evidence is consistent with the results.  To summarize, this study found that those who self-identify as being “lucky” were far more able to take advantage of opportunities to win money or complete a task more expediently than those considering themselves “unlucky.”  Thus, this offers more support to the view that you can make your own luck (or fortune favors the brave, or whichever other cliché you wish).

The study probably leaves itself open for challenge. For example, were those identified as “unlucky” maybe just in a bad mood, or did they not bring their “A” game to the study?  Nonetheless, the message is clear and consistent with real-life experience.  There is little doubt that optimists tend to be luckier than pessimists.  I’m fortunate to be way out on the “naïve” end of the optimism spectrum; I’d definitely fall in the “lucky” category.

There have certainly been plenty of positive events in life that have come as a result of taking advantage of opportunities.  Take, for instance, meeting my wife, Robyn. We were set up on a blind date for her sorority date party our sophomore year in college.  Now, our natural tendencies, as cautious people, would be to say “sorry, too risky.”  However, neither of us had a particularly stellar dating record to that point. We both, independently, saw it as an opportunity to try something different, with much lower risk given the context of our past failures, and it has been pretty smooth sailing ever since.

Yes, that’s just one anecdote, but every time I think about a good job change, for example, I can trace it back to keeping a mind open to opportunities, or putting myself in the right place at the right time.  At a minimum, there can be no harm in having an open mind and breaking out of routines and comfort zones, as the article suggests.  Certainly, everyone has setbacks in life. Allowing your energy and outlook to be dictated by setbacks rather than opportunities, however, limits your potential for growth and happiness. I, for one, will choose optimism, even if it is, at times, naïve.