The Art, and Science, of the Jockey

As the democratic primaries come to a close, and a fun day of ensuring my team's hard work and thought leadership doesn't get stolen by others, I thought it was time to post on...

The Art, and Science, of the Jockey

No I'm not talking about becoming a sports athlete, but a business athlete.

What can help you stand out as a great business jockey of all time, versus just being one of the pack? Here are 10 tips to help you win at office politics.

The Art
1. Build Connections
You never know when someone in your company you meet can help position you and/or your team for great things. Or, you help them.

2. Establish Trust via Delivery
Harvest references.

3. Position "The Other" to Be Part of the Solution
Don't squash the other guy, instead, take the lead on collaborating with the other.

4. Determine Your Allies and Enemies
Nurture the Allies. Try to make the enemies your friends even if it hurts.

5. Guess the Counter Play from "The Other"
Good athletes compete. Great athletes second guess the upcoming moves of "The Other" to stay ahead.


The Science
6. Know Your Team's/Business Unit's Statistics
How has your business grown over the last year? What are you tactically doing to continue to grow?

7. Tout What Your Team Does
If you have truely done something before you say you have, prove it.

8. Calculate Your Next Move
How will you ensure your team stays ahead? What's the plan to stay the course?

9. Stay In Shape by Creating New Opportunities
Or what is known as "blue ocean strategies".

10. Don't Over Do It
You need to rest and jockey in moderation, otherwise you'll burn out and lose the art and science of it all.

Are you ready to play?

Do You Nurture Or Throw Into the Fire - Or Do You Even Know?

After chatting with one of my managers from a long week of trying to determine how we are going to staff all the work we have to accomplish this summer (which is a wonderful problem to have!), we embarked on a great conversation about "nurturing" new hires versus the proverbial "throw 'em into the fire".

If you are a manager, or an independant entrepreneur getting ready to hire contract workers, do you realize and know how you bring up to speed new people working for you?

Nurturers:

• Give new hires a plan from day one


• Meet with new hires regularly to ensure questions and needs are met


• Provide clear goals and objectives

Fire Throwers:

• Provide a few recommendations on how to get started


• Expect a new hire to come to them when needing help


• Has the new hire create their own plan and objectives

So are you more of a nurturer or fire thrower? Even if you are one versuses the other, there's a trick - it's not how you want to bring someone up to speed, but more so about how your new hire needs to be brought into your team's culture.

For example, more junior resources need to be nurtured where more senior can be let loose. Or, you have a particular project at hand you know how it needs to get done versus a new opportunity looking for someone new to look at tackling it from a different perspective.

It's important as you grow your team, and your self as a manager, that you learn how to manage and cultivate a diverse team of talent and experience, where you are capable of sensing which type of ramp up you need to deliver and then knowing how to deliver each method.

So when you look to bring on a new person remember to

1. Recognize what you need to have accomplished in the first 3-12 months


2. Understand the strengths and experiences of the new hire to tailor your ramp up style to him or her

Did Gaming Nurture My Leadership Style?

Though I'm not a millennial and did not grow up on MMORPGs (Massive Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Games), I did however grow up on Atari, Nintendo and other gaming devices. As an only child and independent learner, these devices kept me entertained for hours on end, and out of trouble.

• Did gaming help me hone my strategic skills?
• Did gaming teach me how to be responsive, faster?

A few business professors recently studied this and began to forecast how the future business world may be more like a MMORG due to the environment being more dynamic and game like, requiring tomorrow's leaders to

• Have speed
• Be risk takers
• Accept leadership roles as temporary

I found the last comment interesting. It means title will no longer entitle you to always take the lead, or not take the lead. It means peers/employees of the company select who will be a leader for a project or initiative, but it's not permenant and others will have a chance to lead as well.

I believe that is already happening in many companies - for example where I am we have different types of governance and advisory councils for different types of projects and peers/others select "who" will take the lead either till the next year or when that project comes to completion.

This made me ponder on if we are just trying to morph corporate america into a world millennials could live in. What do you think?

• Should we be educating more junior colleagues on the ins and outs of the "corporate game" to help achieve what one wants to do and/or accomplish while in a career for one company?
• Is the "game" a new, more modern, acceptable term for what we know as today for "politics".

Now if only Zelda or Mario could lead corporate america...