WHAT GOT YOU HERE WON'T GET YOU THERE

Thriving in the New Economy - WOMEN PRESIDENTS' ORGANIZATION - Annual Conference

SPEAKER: Marshall Goldsmith, Best-selling author and Executive Coach
SPONSOR: IBM
DESCRIPTION: Marshall Goldsmith is a world authority in helping successful leaders achieve positive, lasting change in behavior: for themselves, their people and their teams. In this fast-paced, interactive session, Dr. Goldsmith will describe classic challenges faced by successful leaders and how they can use ‘what to stop’ in personal development and coaching. Participants will practice feedforward – a positive, focused tool for development that has been successfully implemented by leaders around the world. He will then share a proven process for leadership development and coaching – along with published research involving over 86,000 respondents from eight major corporations. Finally, Marshall will have participants practice peer coaching and share exciting new research on how it can produce great results – at very low cost to the company. http://www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com/

I really enjoyed hear Dr. Goldsmith speak. He provided a lot of food for thought. Below are my notes from his session. It is hard to capture the try spirit of the session since much of it was interactive.
 -  #1 - You need to learn what to STOP doing!
 -  We all get stuck in our egos
 - Challenge is not theory but execution
 - Change happens when you follow up and really stick with it
 - The world becomes a better place when people "do"
 - Let others watch you develop
 - Peer coaching is a valuable tool
 - learn to be happy and reduce your feelings of guilt

Classic challenges when interacting with your staff
 - Try to win too much
 - Wanting too much value (no longer their idea) reduces their comfort of sharing with you
 - Passing judgment

As a leader - Remember
 - Your suggestions become orders
 - Before you speak - is the comment worth it? (even if you're are right?!)
 - Learn to say "Great idea!"
 - Take a deep breath and let it go
 - Help more, judge less, don't critique
 - Let go of the past
 - Learn
 - Help

Are You Stuck!?

Thriving in the New Economy - WOMEN PRESIDENTS' ORGANIZATION - Annual Conference

KEYNOTE ADDRESS – PROFESSOR REBECCA HENDERSON, Senator John Heinz Professor of Environmental Management, Harvard Business School

SPONSORED BY: Foley & Lardner, LLP

Professor Henderson finds that most companies do not achieve their strategic plans because they just have too many of them. We tend to have a hard time saying no. What does your pipeline REALLY look like? Are you trying to do too many things at once? Goals that are beyond the resources of your company? Are you "being too busy"? Most companies run at ~300% overload

These are the dynamics of overload

-The dangers of firefighting

-Why we tend to stay stuck

-How to break the cycle -what can be done

What are the realities of overload?

-Most everyone knows that the bottom projects will never get done

So kill those projects

Stop burning up your people

Over commitment reduces productivity

When you are constantly moving from project to project there is no time to reflect

Attention to projects actually declines

Focus shifts to short term versus long term

-Why does overload persist?

Overload is not about the person failing, it is a structural dynamic

people get blamed instead of the systems

Imposes pressure

Switch into firefighter mode, providing insights, fixing things instead of developing strategy, setting priorities and systems, and killing the project

Want to get unstuck?

-Manage your capacity - look at your projects like your product production pipeline

Don't take a bottoms up estimate approach

Most often tasks established are unreliable

it NEVER goes as planned

Always easy to make space for 1 more

keep good records of actual times required to complete past projects

Compare past projects to the new one - understand how really feasible the new one is

-Learn to like killing projects

Have a clear strategy and live by it -even if it is a "good" project - say NO!

Run a funnel not a tunnel

Clearly articulate the priorities

Let staff know what can "fall of the table"

Learn to face worse before better

Accept short term pain for long term benefits

fix problems - don't punish

-Change your habits around dealing with problems

respond to them as opportunities

-Build trust within the organization

Think about your relationships - don't just CYA

"Best Ways to Overcome Small Business Ping Pong Syndrome"

The above is an article I read this morning from USA Today by Rhonda Abrams http://bit.ly/aU6N5u. She addresses the multi-tasking nature of anyone who runs a small business. We all struggle to stay focused and organized. The term “ping pong syndrome” was coined by Staples and not surprisingly their poll revealed that "Organize the Office" with 22% of the vote, was the number one goal in their Fourth Annual National Small Business Survey. I think we all feel like we are more in control when our office is organized. I know I always feel that a cluttered desk is a cluttered mind. So I stack items on my desk (very neatly), off to the side, and over time they get higher and higher, until one day I just have to address those stacks. For those of you in Strategic Coach http://bit.ly/zNJDA you will understand that my Buffer days never are long enough for me to actually clean and organize. And yes I know that is not effective use of my time regardless. Oh I have lofty goals, I write out my lists, yet as soon as I walk into the office my day is totally out of my control on most Buffer days. I envy those people that operate totally paperless, who have the “virtual” office. I try to achieve this, but I still don’t feel comfortable reading and proofing items off my computer screen. Then that makes me feel guilty, I am wasting paper, being totally un PC. But I just feel the need to be able to mark up items by hand. I know, I am weak and being very old school. But I am doing more of my lists on my computer now. I am in love with and have been totally sucked into the wonder of Mindjet’s Mind Manager software http://bit.ly/ruxLT . My brain operates a bit like a ransom note so this software allows me to map out all my thoughts quickly and in an organized manner. It even syncs with Outlook. What more could a girl ask for? Well I guess I could ask for more Focus days and less interruptions; hence my post prior on this blog about working on the weekends. I am open to your ideas and suggestions. How do you stay organized and productive? I’d love to read your best tips.