Posts Tagged ‘Management’

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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Anna Miller maintains a post over at www.onlinedegree.net.  Of particular note, is her blog post, 100 Blog Posts That Will Make You a Better Leader.  Anna’s taken the time to gather together 100 articles on the topic of Leadership.  And, I’ll admit, I’m very flattered to have been included in the list.  You’ll find my own article highlighted, “2 Keys for Moving into an Executive Role.”

Even if you don’t make it down to my article (somebody has to take the 92nd position<g>), I encourage you to take a look at the list.  I find it very convenient myself when someone takes the time to put together a useful collection like Anna has.

Thank you, Anna!

Therein lays the first clue of what to fix: ‘employee’ retention. There are uncounted articles written about employee retention. Employee retention is a very human topic. Yet the vast majority of related articles treat their subject (we humans) very impersonally, like things. Not, ‘how to keep your people,’ or, ‘how to keep your team together.’ Rather it’s ‘employees.’ Makes the topic sound about as exciting as personnel, headcount, ‘bodies’ (my least favorite).

It’s interesting. Do me a favor and try doing a couple internet searches. Try, ‘why employees leave’. And then, try swapping out ‘employee’ with ‘people’, or something similar, and see what happens. All of a sudden, your results go from being very dry, very clinical in nature, to results that tend to have human interest, deal with real ‘people’ issues.

Think about it, do you think it matters? It sure does, for me. How do you feel when referred to as ‘employee’ versus ‘team member’?

There are a few basic keys to keeping people engaged. They are trust, communication, faith, and guts.

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Had the opportunity to attend the April CEO Connect meeting, here in Ann Arbor.  The guest speaker was Ted Dacko, former CEO of Healthmedia.  A serial entrepreneur, he has led five start ups. As he describes it, 3 had good exits, one so-so, and one….  Healthmedia was most recent, and quite successful.  Ted provided a very enjoyable, engaging discussion on his entrepreneurial experiences, preferring to live in the ‘launch’ phase of a new business.

One of the key points he made, which I wanted to share, is that businesses fail because of only two reasons.  They are opportunity pool and win rate.

Too many businesses focus on the product, on it’s features, and trying to demonstrate them to you, in maniacal fashion.  Ask them about who the customer is, what their problems are, and as he say’s, “…they look at you like you’ve grown three heads.”

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Two thumbtacks and a piece of string are all you need to do basic planning.

On a regular basis, I have the opportunity to speak with new entrepreneurs thinking of starting their own businesses.  One of my key topics is how to successfully evolve an ‘idea’ into an actual deliverable, regardless of whether it is a tangible product or a service.

A basic product plan needs to clearly define your offering:

• What must it do?
• How must it do it?
• Where is it done?
• When is it done?
• Why?

Just as important, arguably more so, is what it is not:

• What must it not do (if only for now)?
• How should it not be done?
• Why not?

How you will get there:

• What resources are needed?
• How long will it take?

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For some time now, we have been hearing about a looming labor shortage in ‘10-15 years.’  That forecast has been out there quite a while now.  It seems odd that, even as we’re suffering higher unemployment than we are accustomed to, that this remains an almost certainty.

Why is that?  If you’ve not monitored labor trends, there are at least two key drivers.  One, is that the following generations (X-, Y-, …) are smaller than the baby boomer generation.  As the boomers begin retiring, there are fewer to replace them.  At the same time, other major parts of the world, such as India, China, and Brazil, are rapidly developing and more effectively competing for those same people we’d normally bring to the U.S.  Now, they’re returning or simply not coming to our shores to begin with.

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This week I participated in a discussion on what you need to do to strategically position yourself for moving into executive management.  There was a lot of input as you might expect, given the topic.

Distilling the comments, it came down to demonstrating:

• Acceptance of Increased Responsibility
• Courageousness – Make the hard decisions
• Vision and Leadership
• Ability to Influence colleagues at all levels
• Willingness to Move (to another company)

In my own experience the last two factors rise above the rest.

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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).

Energy costs.

Ask yourself, why did the economy tank last year? A popular answer is bad mortgages leading to a collapse of the financial markets…and the dominoes just fell from there. But if so, then why did Europe and Japan head into recession (by a couple quarters, at least) before the US?

If you listen to the popular economist Jeff Rubin (http://www.jeffrubinssmallerworld.com), he’ll give you an earful on why it was really triggered by 2008’s run up in oil prices. Consider that in 4 of 5 previous recessions (we can’t say about this one yet, for sure), oil spikes preceded economic recession by about 12 months each time. Interestingly, 09’s spike was nearly 500% prior spikes. I encourage you to read Jeff’s book, or at least skim the related blog post, Financial Crisis or energy Shock? You Be the Judge.

So, what happened to us as energy sky rocketed, before last year’s collapse? We started

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