Aug 28, 2007 | blog
Every now and again, one finds themselves in that “down” portion of the work cycle. That’s where I’ve been for the last few weeks, and it’s hard to move past that into the effective, productive mode that one needs day to day.
Today, I got to have lunch with a business contact, we worked together for a few years awhile go and always got along. He definitely helped identify some ideas and methods to move past where I’m at – it’s much appreciated.
While I want to thank him, I also just wanted to point out to everyone how easy it is to forget to ask for second opinions. Get another point of view and take the feedback straight up and find the lessons and value in it.
Because of a great lunch, I’ve got a fresh perspective that I didn’t have before. Will it help? Sure – whatever doesn’t hold you back will move you forward. What resources do you turn to for inspiration? Do you solicit external input or keep it to yourself?
Aug 24, 2007 | blog
Wow for a long post title eh?
While this was a follow-up for a question Jeff had on Wednesday, it really started me thinking…
First the question:
If you’re NOT an entrepreneur, if YOU work for a corporation and have spent your career as an employee, why have YOU made that choice?
I suspect that many people either are unaware of their true capabilities, or are comforted by the “feeling of security” a corporation can offer.
Personally, I have chosen to take the other path – for good or bad. It’s hard to work without a net, but at the same time I CAN SEE the opportunities that did not seem obvious before.
So, I can’t answer Jeff’s question – I simply want to follow the more interesting drummer.
Via: The Jeff Pulver Blog – Today’s Question of the Day: If you are NOT an Entrepreneur and if you work for a Corporation, why did YOU choose this career path?
Technorati tags: Career Improvement, Career Choices, Entrepreneurs
Aug 23, 2007 | blog
I’ve often wondered why it’s so hard for people (especially tech geeks) to get themselves a site on the web. For many it comes down to time as much as anything, but for several, it’s also about anonymity.
I guess that I shouldn’t be surprised by this, it’s human nature not to expose too much information or place yourself in a position to be noticed. While we all may feel that way to a certain degree, I’ve often wondered why tech people are sometimes the worst at this.
Maybe it’s because they understand the technologies and capabilities inherent in the Internet. Maybe they are scared off by the possibility that there is someone out there smarter than they are, and that they may not be able to adapt quickly enough.
Whatever the reason is, it bothers me that several talented people don’t leverage their skills and promote their brand. There are so many possible things to promote yourself that it’s silly not to. Create a web site for yourself and have information about you, or start a blog about something you’re interested in.
Promoting your personal brand is not hard, and it’s not dangerous. It does require a different mindset than what people are normally used to. When you set out to start promoting your brand, you should be as transparent as possible and only hold back a few pieces of information.
Here are some tips that I strongly recommend for those sitting on the fence wondering if it’s worth the “risk”.
- Get a site on the Internet for people to find you. Whether that’s a blog, a static web page or simply a LinkedIn profile. Have someplace where people can find you.
- If you choose to do a web site, I’d encourage you to go for a blog. You’ll have someplace to do more than just a simple page. And with services like Blogger or WordPress.com, you can do it fast and for free.
- If you’re really serious about your brand – get yourself a domain name and host your own sites at a hosting service. It’s a lot simpler than you think and can cost under $5 a month.
- Participate. Get involved in discussions about things that you’re interested in. Get known around the communities that you have a passion for, things that really are fun for you.
- Make sure to have a page for your biography. Blogs all have a provision for an “About” page. Use it!
- Your resume must be on your site – no doubt about it. I always create a subversion (yes I version all my personal documentation) of my resume sans address, just for on the website. Also, I recommend making a PDF copy for placement on you web – that way nobody can change it easily when downloaded.
- Create an email address (GMail?) just to put on your website. Make it easy for people to contact you.
- Seriously think about putting your phone number on the website. Especially if you are actively involved in social media. (I know some bloggers even make it a challenge to people to call them!)
Yes there is the chance of identity theft out on the Internet, but their really after money. Do you store money on your website? Didn’t think so. Hell, if people want to be me, they can come and do my work for me as well! 
The reality, of course, is that most all the information that someone needs to steal your identity can be found in pay-for databases from a number of firms around the world. The little bit you expose on the Internet just being yourself is negligible in comparison.
Technorati tags: Personal Improvement, Identity Theft, Personal Brand
Aug 18, 2007 | blog
You know, I’ve found that being too focused on your employer’s goals can distract you from you own. That’s not to say that your goals and your employer’s can’t be similar or overlap. Nor am I suggesting that your employer (large or small) is controlling your future, however, you do need to make sure that you are attending to your own agenda to ensure your own growth.
Too Involved
Being deeply involved in your job can be very rewarding to many. I for one really liked being an important team member in my department – I was able to recommend or bring solutions to the table for difficult problems. The more successful you are at your job, it sometimes leads to overworking yourself and keeping you away from family, friends and, generally, life itself.
Time Out!
This is where I want to suggest that you take a minute (hour?) and think about what your goals are in your life. Go ahead, I’ll wait…
Ok, now that you’ve thought a bit – have you ever written these ideas down? Have you ever sat down with a notepad or journal and created even an abbreviated overview of your life & career goals? If you’re married, have you and your spouse sat down and outlined a plan? While not a requirement, it can help alleviate some unknowns or uncertainties and can foster conversations on finding those dreams and wishes for the future.
Planning
Every successful business, organization, or project starts with a planning session. The more intricate, expensive, or critical, the more a plan is important in it’s success. The same is true of your life & career, without some kind of plan you’re likely going to wander through life without as much enjoyment as might be possible.
Having an overall plan can help keep focus of what your next step should or might be. There are so many things that come up in life that you can’t plan for, but you should always be able to see that you’re off track, or that your views and goals are changing. Being able to refer back to a plan from time to time can help in motivating oneself as well.
Map It Out
One way to start could be to simply draw a map. Think about how you plan a road trip with start/end points, rest stops, points of interest, etc… Starting with today as your starting point and pick something that you wish or dream for as an end point. Next you could start identifying points along way that you need to get to your dream, roadblocks that could keep it from happening, and detours to get around them.
Change Is Good
Don’t be afraid to change those goals either. It’s important to really allow for growth and maturity that changes one’s opinions and possibly one’s goals. You may be satisfied as a single professional, but what if that one special person turns up next week? Life is a never ending series of events to be experienced. Plan that things will change. Hey, the best part here is that you don’t have to negotiate a “Change Request” for your project – regardless of the budget.
All this is just an exercise in planning and contingency management. My whole point is to get you thinking of your agenda (family, kids, college, retirement, recreation, etc…), as much as you think about your employer’s agenda. It’s great to be the go-to person for an organization, but remember that it’s your future that you’re really working for. Enjoy the trip, don’t let it sneak up on you!
Technorati tags: Goals Planning, Personal Improvement, Career Growth
Jul 20, 2007 | blog, leadership
In communication it is easy to “over-do” it. We all use email, voice, IM, RSS, and more. The trick is to manage your time, and other’s expectations at the same time. We’ve grown used to instant contact to nearly everyone in our address books over the last decade (or more) to the detriment of productivity.
While we have increased our productivity over the last 10+ years, I think we have hit a plateau as far as communicating with each other. It has become so easy to ask a person a question, to get an answer that we often forget the implications of doing so. The more we communicate, the more we interrupt and distract each other. Now I’m repeating a lot of what many are saying, but I’m also going to be following these methods to gain back what could amount to several hours in a week.
Email
Take the ubiquitous email for example. We all abuse it on a daily basis, hoping to steal attention from one another to perform some task or other. Most of the time, the answer is already available to use, but we seem to feel like pestering a coworker or friend is a better use of time than looking up the answer ourselves.
As recent Lifehacker post Limit your email messages to 5 sentences details, you can work towards brevity. An elegant explanation can be found at five.sentenc.es if you care to link to it. Going even further going back to setting expectations, you can train people to expect shorter messages.
Another technique that is becoming common lately is to process your email (and feeds for that matter) once a day. Again, when you set the expectation that you will respond within a day, you can pick the time that works best in your schedule to read/reply to email. Process later in the day to get a jump on the next day, or mid-morning to answer any critical questions for the day. Depending on your responsibilities, I’m betting you’ll find the right time.
Feeds
News & Blog feeds are a fantastic way to increase your information consumption. A good reader also makes a big difference here too. The amount of information that one can process through feeds as apposed to individual web pages is amazing. I literally increased my ability to consume information more than ten-fold with feeds (and Dave Winer’s “river of news” layout). Combine that with a an reader like Google Reader that is available anytime, anywhere and you have a powerful news appliance.
The problem, of course, is that you can easily become a news junkie – always hitting refresh and watching for new bits to come through. While entertaining, it’s a waste of time. The industry news doesn’t change from 9am to 3pm, so why watch it all day? Why not process your feeds once a day, similar to email? Later or earlier, it doesn’t matter – it’ll keep you up to date on your industry and help you gain back hours in the week.
IM
Instant Messaging is another essential business tool that we abuse. I’ll allow to some former coworkers that it is potentially HUGE time waster (Tom, Craig – ya listening?). BUT the flip side of that is that IM is one of the most important productivity tools that an individual or company can leverage. The trick is managing the tool to your advantage. Every IM tool allows you to set your presence as “Busy”, “Do Not Disturb”, “Offline” or some other status that indicates you are not available.
The biggest mistake is that, like email, we feel like we need to answer any request immediately. Start using your status to reflect your actual work status. Are you trying to get that report done? That presentation polished? That document formatted? For crying out loud – that means your “Busy” – set your status and revel in uninterrupted bliss.
Micro-Blogging
Now micro-blogging platforms like Twitter (and Jaiku, Pownce, and Hictu) are a different breed. They cross boundaries like covered by blogging, IM, and SMS (text messaging). The result is a literal fire-hose of status updates and thought streams from dozens, hundreds or thousands of individuals depending on how many “friends” you have. The concept can be hard to get your head around, but the beauty of these platforms is their brevity.
While not the case with some competing services, Twitter restricts each post (called a Tweet) to 140 characters. This will train you to be concise and descriptive. This is very good, because it helps you hone your communication skills by communicating only the information that is required.
Summary
So in explaining what I’ve been learning and thinking about for several months, I’ve written a verbose and wordy description about how not to be. I hope the hypocrisy of the post helps drive the point home. The basic thing to keep in mind no matter what communication tools you use is to leverage the tool to your benefit. Think about time as much as you think about what you communicate.
Brevity is essential
Technorati tags: Time Wasters, Personal Productivity, Communication
