Why Aren't You Following Your Passion?

Gary's presentation at Web 2.0 should inspire you to find the time to focus on what you love most to succeed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhqZ0RU95d4&feature=related

Why aren't you following yours?

Do Your Employees Know What is Expected of Them?

As a new manager, or someone jumping into a new role with direct reports, do those that now work for you know

• What to deliver to you to keep you up to date on what they are doing?
• When and how to raise issues to you?
• What they are measured on for performance feedback/raises/promotions?

Even if you have been leading your team for a long time, would each one of them be able to tell you that they know exactly what you expect of them? Probably not, and unfortunately, this is fairly common in business for a number of reasons, including:

• There is too much to do and you don't carve out time to set appropriate expectations
• The business goals or their role has changed, but expectations have not
• There aren't clear expectations at your level or higher that you can map back to your organization
• Annual performance reviews aren't the norm

To ensure your team is norming and performing in a direction you need to take them, setting expectations is key to getting the job done. Here are some tips to ensure you set clear, measurable expectations to make progress, versus, expectations to check off the to do list.

1. Have Report Take First Stab at Documenting Expectations
Let your team be in control of their destiny, and help you understand where your team is coming from, before laying down the goals you expect.

2. Map Corporate, Business Unit and Your Expectations to Your Reports
How do you plan to meet your expectations if your reports aren't in some form of alignment to help you meet your goals? Areas typically mapped include

• Quality
• Revenue/Amount Produced
• Cost Control
• Responsiveness

3. What Are Your Reports Expecting of You?
Make sure you know what they expect of you in case you need to change anything you do or convince them of something different.

4. Behaviour
Related to responsiveness, set expectations on returning emails and phone calls, being at meetings, and ettiquette on things like email.

5. Review Often
Sometimes once a year isn't enough if you are noticing issues early in the year. Have informal reviews when needed and "tweak" - expectations though a solid foundation for measuring a person's performance, can be modified through the year.

6. Set the Example
Do what you expect of your team. Otherwise you'll be the "pot calling the kettle black".

Failure Part 2 - Try Something New

Ironicly, April looks to be the month of "try try try, it won't matter if you fail" conversation among leadership writers and coaches. The following came through today from "The Daily Source":

"Look for ways to experience failure. Only through failure do we grow, and we just aren’t letting ourselves fail enough. We are stunting our growth. As leader or prospective leader, you likely don’t fail very often. How about trying something new? Go run a marathon. Try-out for a local theatre production. Take the most challenging class you can think of. Buy a canvas and some paint and try to paint a masterpiece work of art. Start to get comfortable out of the band of success."

I'm writing a fiction novel.

What are you doing to stretch yourself?

What Are You Afraid Of?

Failure?

Public opinion?

Or worse, success?

Be it a monetary set back, or a public image set back, what are you waiting for to focus on achieving your goals? If you are driven to deliver on what you are passionate about you really have nothing to lose other than missing opportunities to focus on what you love.

So, what's that obstacle in front of you that you need to confront, tackle and just get over to make your dream reality? Here's my formula to overcoming fears that could be keeping you away from your goals:

1. What is your fear?
Write it down. Read it. Understand it - why does it exist? Where did this fear first arise? How does it come up for you? What are the underlying characteristics of this fear?

2. Imagine going through that fear.
What if you hit that fear - how will that really play out? Imagine it happening to you and the different ways it could go. Is it all that bad?

3. Brainstorm ways to remove or get around your fear.
It's time to play real life "choose your own adventure". What things can you do to get around the obstacle, or, remove it completely? Can someone help you get through or around these fears? Prioritize these ideas in a manner where you can begin to try the first one to three easily to see if it helps you jump over that fear.

For readers that know me very well you know that I originally had a fear of public speaking. My knees would quiver. I couldn't remember what I wanted to say. My delivery was rigid, mechanical and un-life like.

This fear is not completely gone, but I have brainstormed ways to get through and around the fear. For example lots of practice, envisioning a flawless delivery over and over in my head, or only talking on topics I know backwards and forwards.

It's time to get over your number one fear keeping you from making progress - identify and tackle it!

Only 3 Quarters to Go - Are You Making Progress?

Guess what folks - Q1 (or QX if your fiscal year doesn't start January 1) is officially over.

Did you make progress in Q1? Before we get half way through 2008 you should take a few minutes, right now, to reflect on three things you accomplished in helping you move towards achieving your goals, and set your sights on three things you want to accomplish in the next quarter.

For example, the three things I am proud of accomplishing this quarter are:

1. Starting this blog
2. Taking a creative writing class to begin my novel
3. Putting a fork in projects I am no longer passionate about

What's up in Q2 for me?

1. Launching another business concept I'm passionate about
2. Getting another blog up (for the day gig)
3. Completing 30,000 words (half) of my novel

Life's short. Live your dreams. Know when to hold 'em, and when to fold 'em.

And lastly, be progress.

So what did you accomplish last quarter and looking to accomplish in the next? Feel free to comment and share to help inspire others who read this blog on focusing on living their dreams.

Focusing On Getting The "Right" Things Done

I don't know about you, but in today's world of email craziness, crackberries beeping constantly, and immediate, if not 24/7, access to information and people anywhere, it's hard to get tasks accomplished. To boot, we've all become victim of bad habits - from checking email frequently to getting caught off guard surfing the net not just for 10 minutes but for 2 hours.

And, our to do lists keep growing because we don't know when to finally say 'no' to one more thing to pile on top of the list. You mean well, heck I mean well in wanting to help someone or get something done, but when you fail to deliver it doesn't bode well.

So how does anyone stay focused to make progress today? Here are some tips and tricks from what I do and what I've observed my direct reports, peers and managers do:

1. Block That Outlook Calendar
Don't get caught up in meeting hell, especially back to back meeting hell. You know you typically have something to do after a meeting - make sure you plan the time to focus on the follow up from the meeting or get the follow up action carved out in an open time on your calendar. I typically block half my day for "getting things done" leaving the other half for meetings and catching up with colleagues.

2. Set Appropriate Expectations
Can you really turn around something in one hour? In a day? Ensure you are communicating when you can really get something done, and if you need to slip something due to the unexpected, immediately let the other know you are delayed.

3. Start Your Day Listing
Because our to do list is just overwhelming, begin your day planning your to do list, in order of priorities, so that by the end of the day you can feel like a rock star in all the progress you have made that day.

4. Learn to Say No
Do you really need to do what someone just asked you to do? Don't know? Think about if it gets you to any of your end goals for work or life - if it doesn't, then pass or delegate. Remember, you are going to have to give up doing something else to take on that "one more thing" you think you have the time for. Refer to my Opportunity Mojo series for further help in this area.

5. Be Your Own Personal Project Manager
Everything you tackle in life is a project, so, why not leverage project management tools to help you ensure you are balancing what you need to accomplish. This means becoming a good estimator of tasks, scheduler and resource planner. Remember, you can always hire people to do the things you don't like to do without having to own your own company - from maids to dog walkers to virtual personal assistants.

Changing your habits are probably next to impossible, but you can do it if you just incorporate one tip or trick at a time to be more responsive and focused in meeting your end goals.

Remember to prioritize and focus on the tasks to get to your end goals, period.

Concept MEL

No, MEL is not an ode to one of my great friends of all time (sorry if you are reading Mel, but this isn't about you), but MEL is a simple concept I instilled in my team 8 months ago, in that, no matter what role you play on a team - from individual contributor to manager to executive, that you need to live and do MEL every day to make waves.

So, what is MEL?

Managing the Business
Empowering for Excellence
Leading for Growth

Let's look at each aspect a bit further and how it applies to you no matter where you fit in your organization:

1. Managing the Business
Why are you making that investment? What are the goals you need to manage to achieve over the next 12 months?

• Executives: Have you defined the vision for the next year and communicated the goals you want to set to achieve the vision? How are you tracking to your goals and what tools/dashboards do you provide your team, and yourself, to measure goal attainment so to proactively respond to red flags in achieving the goals.


• Managers: Are you making decisions based on the goals in front of you for the year? Have you broken the higher level goals into your team's action plan? You are the guiding light for your individual contributors - continuously make sure they know what you want out of them.


• Individuals: Do you know what you need to do to help your team achieve the goals for the year? Do you know what you need to know to deliver, and thus, continuously learn? When was the last time you asked your manager "how can I help you achieve our goals"?

2. Empowering for Excellence
Are you carving for yourself or your team ways to deliver excellence? Getting rid of obstacles preventing your team from being excellent? Are you an "excellent" role model?

You need to start by defining what "excellence" means to you and/or your team and live it, no matter where you fit in the organization.

3. Leading for Growth
This comes down to everyone, no matter the level, contributing towards two things

• Continuous business improvement (becoming more efficient)
• Harvesting new opportunities (innovation)

You need to make sure mechanisms are in place to become more efficient and to identity and build on new opportunities.

As you embark on embracing MEL, there is one more think to remember - keep it simple, silly. For example, those above me set 2 goals, yes only 2 goals, for my team to achieve this year - a revenue goal and utilization goal. That's it - bottom line goals.

So what are you waiting for - Manage, Empower and Lead today to achieve your goals for 2008! 2 months are already past you.

Connect the Dots, Continuously

Today I reflected on how I enjoy "connecting the dots" - be it connecting people with one another for business or personal reasons, or linking business ideas with other concepts to execute. In dusting off a book I received at an Executive Leadership Forum a few years ago called "Connecting The Dots" by Cathleen Benko and Harvard Professor F. Warren McFarlan, I was reminded of why we often look to connect the dots:

"Aligning Projects with Objectives in Unpredictable Times"

I hate to say it, but aren't we always in unpredictable situations? Shouldn't we always be looking to align our projects with objectives we want to accomplish, and thus, always look to connect the dots?

Are you connecting the dots for both yourself and your business/organization you either manage or work within? Here are some tips on making those connections to create tidal wave results:

Connecting the Dots for Yourself

1. Document your strategic goals/objectives for your life.
2. Review the list of things you do for yourself/not for your organization.
3. Does each activity you do for yourself map back to your personal strategic goals and objectives? If not, can you stop doing it? If it does link back, can you find other things to link it to so to make a bigger impact?
4. Who can you connect with, or what can you add to your activity list, to help accelerate meeting your goals/objectives?
5. Make it a weekly or monthly goal to connect with someone new and help make a connection for someone else via an introduction.

Connecting the Dots for Your Organization

1. What is your organization's strategic vision and mission? If you don't know it go find out what it is or recommend getting this figured out asap!
2. Review the projects and activities you are working on.
3. Does each project/activity take your organization one step further to meet the strategic vision and missiong? If not can you stop doing that project/activity? If so is there a way to accelerate the project?

Even though this may seem like a "new year's resolution" alignment process to go through, in actuality you should be doing this type of alignment much more frequently - once a month if not once a week.

Why not begin to ask yourself the above questions when you plan out your goals and objectives for the week?

If you can continuously connect the dots with yourself and for your organization you will be in a much better position for the uncertainty faced every minute.

Getting Started

"You don't have to be great to get started, but you do have to get started to be great."

Debbie Mrazek, The Sales Company

Only one word can describe Debbie - amazing. I've always appreciated her opinion, and this quote of hers comes to mind often.

So, turning the wonderfully young age of 30 almost a year ago jolted me to "get started" on what I wanted to be known for being great at. Though I knew I started already, but something wasn't quite right. Instead of jumping right in at what I wanted to be great at, I found myself diving into a process of asking myself a series of questions around

Who am I?

What am I doing?

Am I where I want to be?

Am I focused on my passions?

Am I leaving the legacy I dream?

Am I a role model for others?

Am I making an impact?

And quickly I realized that in about 50% of my life I was exactly where I wanted to be - building a growing business with amazing potential and colleagues, plus am extremely happy with the people I have come to surround myself with since moving to Dallas. (Yes, I am an overachiever - for many this would be 100% fulfilling, not 50%.)

But 50% was missing. Or more like the other 50% was cluttered with things I either didn't care much about any more or cared about for the wrong reasons, which unfortunately began to affect others, or took me far off my unique path. It wasn't me nor what I wanted to be known for doing.

However, I did not know what was missing, or better yet, should be the remaining 2-3 things I start to focus my energy on. So I couldn't really get started to be great, yet. Instead, I began a process of self discovery and exploration. I read books. I dabbled in different things to see if the glove fit.

By asking the above questions in different contexts I began to see patterns around what has been missing that I want to be known for being great at:

Motivate Others to Make an Impact

Thought Leadership on the Soft and Hard Side of Technology

Making an Impact on Education and Children

So almost a year later, just weeks before turning 31, I have honed in on the 50% that is missing that I want to be great at. Part of what's next is getting through the de-clutter process and setting realistic goals for 31.

So get started to become great. I have.