Archive for the ‘Professional’ Category

What do you do if a competitor starting slinging mud at you, making outright false claims, or excessively stretching the truth about you?  Should you descend to their level and start slinging mud back?

A company’s president recently faced this basic question. The topic made for perhaps one of the most interesting, fresh topic, posts I’ve read in a while. So, do you sling mud too, or, ignore it, push forward, and take the high road?

Here’s something to think consider

Personally, I agree with the sentiment to avoid slinging mud. But there’s a difference between participating in the same behavior and standing up for yourself. In today’s social media world of broad transparency, you cannot afford to ‘not’ say anything.

Borrowing from a Harvard Business Review post yesterday, a happy coincidence:

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With so many people looking for work, seeking answers to win the next opportunity, this question is all too common.  At the same time, the suggested answers vary wildly but, for the most part seem to miss the crux of the issue.  Why should I hire you?

Consider these common responses:

I am:

• Accustomed to a fast pace and will hit the ground running
• Will be a valuable asset to your organization
• Able to handle stress and pressure
• Think quickly on my feet
• Am a team player

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I was catching up on blogs today…been away from my reading awhile…and saw one of Seth Godin’s dozens of philosophical questions.  The crux of his article was about doing indispensable work and cheating the clock.  We face more distractions, greater demands, more complex lives than ever before—nothing new there at all.  You also cannot work more than 24 hours in a day.  Too many folks work 10-12 hours a day, or, at least they’re ‘there’ that long.

One of his questions struck me as being worth discussing with my readers: What If…you were only allowed 5 hours a day to do your job?

Here are some suggestions:

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If you’re aspiring to move beyond your current role, you’re likely looking for ways to be seen as innovative, progressive, and ‘fresh.’  Which means, odds are, if you’re a business leader, event planner, meeting facilitator, or similar, you’re always watching for new ways to make them better.

If your life revolves around using PowerPoint or Keynote, how can you do better? Yes, you can add snazzy graphics, spinning tops, and whiz-bang animation.  And if you do, you’ll likely just come across as someone using distracting, confusing, dizzying images.  One way to avoid this latter problem, is to take a look at Garr Reynold’s book, Presentation Zen.

You’ve likely heard of this thing called social media.  You’ve also likely noticed it’s just about ‘everywhere.’  Even if the majority of the country still doesn’t understand it (Fast Company found, ’…69% of U.S. adults still have no idea what it is.’), they’ve likely been exposed.

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This is the second in a four-part series asking, “Do you have it in you, to be an entrepreneur?” There are four key strengths that are must haves for an entrepreneur to be successful. Previously, I discussed the first of these, Passion.  Here, we’ll discuss guts.

• Passion
• Guts
• Team
• Cash Flow

Passion.  Guts.  In past entrepreneurial discussions I have heard people use these two terms (or equivalents) interchangeably.  But, really, there is a difference between passion and guts.

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This past Friday, I had the opportunity to speak in front of a group of 30, folks considering launching their own business or just having done so.  Many are doing so because work is so hard to come by, others because it’s simply the right time to follow their dreams.

Starting my presentation, I wanted to address four key strengths that are must haves for an entrepreneur to be successful.

• Passion
• Guts
• Team
• Cash Flow

You Have to be Passionate

As a potential new entrepreneur, you have to ask yourself, “Am I passionate about what I want to do?”  Do you truly believe in the product, service, or other offering that you are going to build and take to market?

Passion is, perhaps first and foremost, the most important trait for any entrepreneur.  You have to truly believe that what you are going to do will add value for your customers.

A fire in the belly is what it will take for you to work the 12, 14, 16 hour days necessary at times to get your dream off the ground.  That same fire will keep you moving even when best friends, family members, Mom or Dad, are telling you it’s all wrong, you can’t do it, you won’t succeed.

Beyond the doubters, you will face uncounted obstacles, distractions, and daily-living events. If you’re not passionate, if there’s no fire in your belly, these events will overtake you, remove the luster of your once-shiny idea, and make it harder to stick with.

Next, I talk about Guts, Team, and Cash Flow.

Photo Credit: www.sxc.hu #793479

Ann Arbor SPARK hosts a monthly series, Starting Your Own New Business. The day-long seminar includes presenters on finance, accounting, marketing, product development, and other topics related to launching one’s own business. Below, is the high-level presentation for Friday, March 19, 2010.

This high-level presentation discusses:

• Do you have what it takes…to be an entrepreneur
• Key topics important for successfully moving the Idea for a product, through development, and ensuring it survives to reach fruition.

Monday night I had the opportunity to attend an Agile Groupies meeting.  It’s a semi-regular gathering of folks (developers, business analysts, product managers, etc.) interested in a specific approach, Agile, toward software development.

For those of you not familiar, Agile development focuses on smaller development teams, working on smaller deliverables, in highly iterative, somewhat less structured approach.  Part of the thinking is that if you are delivering in smaller, more discrete ‘chunks’ of working product, that the overall process will be more ‘agile,’ more adaptive to ongoing change during a product’s overall life cycle. The idea is to move away from ‘heavy’ less flexible disciplines, and back toward lighter, freer, approaches. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m pleased to let everyone know, March 17, I will be speaking at the It’s a Duesy II Manufacturing Revival Conference.  You’re encouraged to come.

Dennis Jeffrey of Tekni Consulting is the event’s organizer.  Heading into 2010, we begin to catch our breaths, having simply survived 2009.

Now, is the time for revival!  But, not revival just as a dictionary would describe it.  One definition is, ‘…restoration to use…’  We need not to simply revive, restore, or return to pre-‘09 conditions, we need to find ways to thrive, to strengthen ourselves and move forward positively.  With this in mind, I was happy to accept Dennis’ invitation to speak.

My discussion is part of the event’s Management track, focusing on Change.

The world around us continues to evolve; nothing new there.  But many organizations, even as they change what they look like, have largely stayed the same inside.  Social, technical, global evolution has now come so far organizations simply have no choice but to finally begin changing who they are inside.

Register Now! Early Bird Pricing until February 15th! Price is only $89/ person, group rates available.

For those of you who have followed my blog, you understand that my focus is on providing thoughtful business leadership.  Come listen as I discuss areas often neglected by leaders, allowed to fall by the wayside, which are increasingly important in today’s world—areas that need to change.

In preparation for this event, I am actively interviewing business leaders and soliciting input—including yours, dear reader.  I encourage you to provide your input regarding how businesses need to change in order to thrive, moving forward.  Feel free to Comment, or send me an email (results@jtpedersen.net).

In Seth’s latest book, Linchpin,  he spends a lot of time talking about maps and artists.  That being an artist means you create your own map, your own path.  And, that society is changing.  Rather than spending your life following a map someone else created, to be successful you’ll need to create your own map moving forward.

While I’ve not been an assembly line worker in a literal sense, it took me awhile (couple dozen reiterations) for what Seth was talking about to truly sink in…appreciating how much of it related to my own life.

Life was relatively easy, for a long time.  With a clear goal in front of me, I could move mountains to achieve it.  I would feel a sense of accomplishment, and life was grand.  So, for the first 3/4 of my life, this is how it worked.  Goal, after goal, after goal.  Going into the service, I bought a map out of the carousel, having chosen to go into aviation.  Once there, the Navy gave me a nice [flight] bag of additional maps to follow (exams, flight certifications, instructor certs, regular performance reviews, etc.).

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