More Useless Meetings, Please

Posted on January 20, 2007 by Toby Lucich

Nothing is more disrespectful than showing up late to a meeting. It is almost better to completely blow it off, at least then people can assume you had a scheduling conflict.

I know you know that it is disrespectful. I know you know that YOU hate waiting for the key decision maker to arrive. But the guy (or gal) that is waiting to get things started pending your arrival isn’t going to believe it. Not now.

If you need to be a few minutes late, call ahead. Send an email. Reschedule. And in the worse possible case (evidently, since it too rarely happens), give the team authority to make the decision – and support their outcome.

I was thinking about what that solution might be to this social tardiness – and was struck by this entry at the Life 2.0 blog entry – “Have no Small Meetings“. I think this is the root of it all: most meetings lack meaning. Why would anyone show up when meetings are a waste of time?

I have a few theories for those that aren’t interested in changing the way that meetings work, and just want to understand the apathy of it all. I call it the “Call for More Crap Meetings”:

  • Any meeting is an excuse to get out of the daily rut and go intentionally ignore someone who has an agenda.
  • The pretense of a meeting is a nice alternative to the water cooler to catch up with co-workers, behind close doors and away from management’s monitoring eyes.
  • Participating in meetings is a social measure of how important you are – the more you are invited to attend, the higher your social value since everyone wants your opinion (and hopefully not your support in delivering tasks!).
  • A meeting is a nice place to hide away from the normal demands of the business, and gain an appreciation for how mundane the tasks of your peers truly are. When you think your job is mindless and dull, it can be useful to hear how senseless the work of others might be.

So if you’re having crap meetings, don’t change a thing. It is probably pleasing someone.

Posted in Failure, Meaning, Wrong | 2 Comments

Failed resolutions beginning to snowball?

Posted on January 17, 2007 by Rick Turoczy

Well, well, well. It’s been a few weeks since the beginning of the new year. All full of promise and intrigue.

We were really going to change some stuff this year, weren’t we? Really put our mark on things. Come out of the gates with both guns blazing and whatnot.

Boy, it was going to be good.

Yeah. I’m sure.

If you’re anything like me, you start the new year with a list of resolutions to which you are definitely going to stick this year. It probably looked something like this:

  • Lose weight
  • Exercise more
  • Eat healthy
  • Read more
  • Blog more
  • Write the great American novel
  • Write the great insightful business book
  • Land 5 new accounts/get a promotion
  • Finish those efforts lingering from 2006
  • Mentor inner city youth
  • Mentor suburban youth
  • Care for the elderly
  • Find a solution to world hunger
  • Finish time machine (with guidance from Mr. Peabody)

We all build them. They’re all completely unobtainable and rife with the potential for failure. In fact, I’ve failed so miserably at a number of them that I’ve already given up on them for this year. Heck, I’m already well into next year’s list.

But here’s what I’m doing with next year’s list. And it’s going to make things different. Trust me. No, I’m serious. Try this. (You may still have time to rescue this year’s list with this technique.)

Treat your resolutions like a product manager treats a product roadmap.

You see, we all get wound up on shoving lofty goals onto a list. Goals with no metrics and no dates. But, if we begin to focus on exactly “when” and “how” and “to what extent” we will increase our personal features and functions, things would be much easier.

So, like a product roadmap, give your resolutions some tweaks:

  1. Don’t try to do everything at once.
  2. Break features into manageable chunks.
  3. Set a reasonable timeline for delivery.
  4. Set metrics for success.
  5. Group like features for implementation at the same time. (Maybe you’re one of those freaks who can read without falling off the treadmill, so more reading and exercise could go together.)
  6. Sunset some unnecessary features that you’ve been supporting.
  7. Pad your time for development, QA, and release.
  8. Understand that there are unknowns that are going to derail development. (Plan for this and be prepared to compensate.)
  9. Know when to build and when to buy. (Some of the features you’re implementing may be unobtainable without outside help.)
  10. Solve the actual problems. Don’t just toss features at them. (The features you’re choosing may actually be addressing symptoms instead of the problem.)
  11. Listen to your target market, but understand that you know the product better than anyone.

I could go on and on and on. And I have. Quite often in fact. “Embrace brevity” will never make the resolution list for me. Sorry, Hemingway.

Where was I? Ah, yes. Does this spark some ideas? Give you some inspiration? Cause your blood to boil? I’d love to hear about it.

Posted in Failure, Goals, Growth, Happiness, Product management, Resolutions | Leave a comment

Professional Agility: Debunking the Security Myth

Posted on January 13, 2007 by Toby Lucich

This single sentence at itzBig Blog really got me up and running this Saturday morning:

“There was a time when people had the opportunity to spend the majority of their lives working in one industry or even working with one company.”

Do you really want your father’s job? Or your grandfather’s? I can’t say that I do, despite the guise of “security” that surrounded it. (Don’t get huffy about gender bias – consider this my explicit acknowledgement that mom and grandma worked much too hard, and their financial “security” isn’t where I’m going in this. Stick with me here.)
The idea of professional security – financial security – seems to have evolved into a Gen-Xers’ view of the 1950s (thinking something like Pleasantville or Edward Scissorhands), where people lived and worked along side the same persons they went through high school with. “Security” meant keeping your nose to the grindstone, doing what you were told, and not making waves. Working Saturdays was normal, and moving up meant the business expanded, you relocated with the company, or someone died/retired.

No thanks. I would rather pursue professional fulfillment (emotional security – happiness -at work) rather than simply financial security.
The discussions around “job security” should have gone away with the defined benefits retirment plans. Being in the seat the longest doesn’t make you expert, and it doesn’t make the people in your office an expert, either. Even if you are in a company that loves clock punchers and you just want to hang on, showing up each morning is no guarantee either in this day and age.

If you seek to only execute grandpa’s corporate strategy – show up on time, keep your head down, don’t make waves – you’ll find yourself at best marginalized by people seeking challenges, and at worst punted to the street in a layoff without any noteworthy accomplishments or powerful references to get you back up and running.

If you haven’t heard it already, consider this your notice – tenure is no longer an available option. You will not retire from your job if you have more than 10 years to retirement (that is, unless you have such a critical and crap job that no one else would ever do it and it can’t be automated).

Two Words for you – Professional Agility.

Continue reading →

Posted in Agility, Autonomy, Habit 7, Security | 2 Comments

Your Job Sounds Great – You Recruiting?

Posted on December 21, 2006 by Toby Lucich

Looking to make the leap? Start talking up your “A list” friends.

A list players are getting targeted for recruitment purposes, and they are one of your best bets to get into something interesting. Recruiters love them, because they are essentially vouching for their recommendations.

Tis the season, and be sure to sprinkle a bit of your 2007 intentions among those that can help you find professional joy and purpose in the coming year.

Posted in Career, Recruiting | 2 Comments

Manifesto du jour: The Career Manifesto

Posted on December 20, 2006 by Rick Turoczy

My favorite?

If you suspect that you’re working in a madhouse, you probably are. Even sociopaths have jobs. Don’t delude yourself by thinking you’ll change what the organization regards as a “turkey farm.” Flee.

You might have a different favorite. I’d love to hear which one it is. Read the rest of the points of The Career Manifesto or spend some time with the More than a living postulates. Or both. And then come on back and dish a little.

Posted in Manifesto | Leave a comment

Resume Building- The Difference Between Spit Shine and Fluffing

Posted on December 20, 2006 by Toby Lucich

I get Rick’s rant – particularly if you’ve ever been duped into hiring based on a resume and interview, and discover the “new toy” out of the wrapper was completely plastic. All packaging, no product.

I’m of two minds about fluffed resumes (damn those fluffers, which is how I’ve come to think of them). On the one hand, fate is cruel and often timely and will mow them down when it can and will hurt the most. (Ah, lovely fate). On the other, if a resume is the new sales glossy for your product (your time), should you maybe oversell and then fake-it-til-you-make-it?

Lucky Come Eleven – Bring it Home Fate

It’s a funny truth that we all typically see our daily work lives as fairly mundane, nothing that we get dressed up for or sweat over each morning. Now, this isn’t how we describe it at the club house or to acquaintances over drinks at our spouses’ Christmas parties. But yeah, even the exciting or exotic becomes status quo over time.

This is the “living it” versus “selling it” difference. Most people want to live easy, and sell large. The easiest way is for Billy Slacker to dodge the stretch assignments at work, but make a note on his resume that he was present when the assignment was dreamed up. The new rules say, if you were present (in the building evidently counts too) when the work occurred, you can record it on your resume.

Recognize that this attitude flies in the face of seeking purposeful work: you can’t lie your way into an organization and then continue these same antics. It won’t work. And if it does, you probably deserve each other (just hang a sign out front for the rest of us so we don’t come knocking). At some point, we’ve all worked for/with/near a manager that blows hard but can’t clear a task list. These people just occur in nature, like lice, and strep throat, and ingrown hairs.

For all these fluffers, a word of caution: if I find you in my midst, I’m going to out you like an anti-gay Republican prom queen that privately covets his share of younger men. Fate requires this of me – it is not only a civic but morale duty. To our peers, our shareholders, and all the future bright-eyed employees that might unfortunately fall under your inattentive and un-nurturing span of control.

Playing on FUD to Get the Sale – The New Sales Slick

But maybe you are just shaping the edges, honing the details to cast you in the best possible light as you go forward in pursuit of your next new adventure. Is it really a crime to blur the edges of your experience? Can you claim that it was you that actually invented the internet?

As a hiring manager, I was interested in specific experience as well as aptitude. The resume needed to be clean, compelling, and demonstrate a capable professional that I could bring in and start handing tasks to on day one.

Most of the specifics I look for are fundamental, and things I’m going to drill down on. You developed/ managed [x]?

  • Who was involved in the analysis and decision – HR, Marketing, Operations, Finance, Sales?
  • How did this effect or get affected by existing company values?
  • How did the project change through the implementation?
  • What played out differently once you got deep into the project? What did you learn?
  • Who was your ultimate champion? CMO? CEO? CFO? Operational managers?

Know that whatever is on your resume is fair game for some very deep dives. Very deep. Who, what, when, where, why, how. If you are making the claim, you have to be able to back it. Period.

Simply put, don’t list anything on your resume that your last boss wouldn’t confirm. We know the rules on background checks, but the world is a small place full of relationships. If I get a resume that shows you used to work for a friend of a friend, I WILL get an informal download on the details. Call it what you will – but I do my background as best I can (painful lessons of the past), and you should expect your next manager to as well.

If you really want to stretch out for new things you think you are capable of, start networking. No one is going to risk on you like someone that truly believes in you. Less likely the guy that interviews you off of the internet job boards.

Posted in Can vs. Should, Career, Myth, Purpose, Skill, Wrong | Leave a comment

Lying on your resume

Posted on December 19, 2006 by Rick Turoczy

Now, let’s be honest. We’ve all told a little fib or two on our resume from time to time. Added a little hyperbole. (Like saying that you were Time’s Person of the Year in 2006.) Blown a few things out of proportion. Reported a metric that might have been little off-topic.

It happens. It’s a first date. People want to seem more impressive to get in the door. And a little spit shining occurs. It’s a known factor.

And it used to be–back in the paper work-a-day world–people could take advantage. It was a great deal easier to pull off this ruse. I mean, unless you and a colleague were going to apply for the exact same job at exactly the same time, it would be nearly impossible to uncover the creative license in action.

But in this day and age, that is no longer the case. In this day and age, the employer can see your current resume, past versions of your resume, not to mention all the versions of your resume floating around LinkedIn and Monster and HotJobs and Jobster and so on and so on–and all of those resumes that come into the mix for the hiring decision. (At least, they do when I’m hiring.) Not only that, but they can compare those resumes against the resume of your peers who were working with you at the same time. As well as all the various versions of that person’s resumes.

Long story short, access to information makes adhering to the truth a requirement.

It’s something about which to think.

So why the rant? For the final reason not to do this: Your peers can see the resumes you’re posting.

You see, I’ve recently encountered a peer who–according to this resume research–apparently, did exactly the same job I did at exactly the same time I did.

Now, when push to come to shove, I’m confident that my resume holds water, and shame on the employer who is fooled by this.

But it still hurts. It hurts my feelings. And it hurts my willingness to recommend this person. And, in the long run, it hurts this person.

If the person had contacted me directly and said, “Look. I need a new gig. Can you help me out?” I likely would have helped. Now, not so much.

Professionally, I’m sure it will inflict little damage, for either party. But personally, it has completely unnerved me. It upset me. Hence, my tantrum.

This happens to creative-types all of the time. You hear about designs being stolen. Creative being co-opted. But, a resume? It’s new for me.

Have you ever had this happen to you? How did you handle the situation? I’d love to hear about it. In the meantime, I’ll just sit here and fume.

Posted in Accountability, Career, Criticism, Happiness | 1 Comment

What Can You Get for Your Tax Dollar?

Posted on December 19, 2006 by Toby Lucich

No more complaining about government waste. Ok, well maybe a little bit more – but here is a bright shiny offering in return for your hard-earned tax dollars: a long list of best practices, including this 2000 GAO report “Human Capital Management – A Self Assessment Checklist for Agency Leaders“.

If you haven’t visited the site, take a bit of time to peruse what seems to be one of the most prolifict publishing environments today. Though the topic is the public sector, the many analyses have useful insights for application even in your for-profit, private sector gig.

Consider:

Remember that “best practices” are not always the single, best way to get something done. They are an example of effective within an organization. That said, these resources should provide you with a few interesting examples that can help make your case.

Posted in Career | Leave a comment

Feeling stressed?

Posted on December 14, 2006 by Rick Turoczy

All of us get stressed from time to time. But some of us tend to work in an atmosphere of almost constant stress.

And to retain our sanity, what do we do? We tell ourselves little fibs. Little lies that keep us going through the stress. As with any dysfunctional relationship, we search for excuses. Because clearly, we must be at fault. It’s not you. It’s me.

Right?

Wrong. A great deal of the stress–and dysfunction–of the modern workplace is a complete and utter lack of meaning. You get stressed because you don’t understand why you’re being asked to do what you do. You don’t see a great deal of value in what you do. And most importantly, you yourself don’t place a great deal of value in what you’ve been able to accomplish.

Alexander Kjerulf, self-described Chief Happiness Officer, puts it even more succinctly:

Stress has nothing to do with the number of hours you work, and everything to do with how you feel during those hours.

If you work 100 hours a week feeling great, having fun and taking pride in what you do, you won’t be stressed. If you work 30 hours a week feeling inadequate, bullied or unappreciated you will be stressed.

That’s why meaning is so critical. Meaning combats stress.

To take it from a different angle: when was the last time you got stressed doing something you enjoyed? And I mean really enjoyed. Writing in your blog, staring out the window, going for a walk, talking to a close friend, spending time on your hobby. When was the last time those things stressed you out?

I hope the answer is never. Because they shouldn’t. You’re doing those things because you enjoy them.

And work shouldn’t be any different. If it is, you need to keep searching. Don’t settle.

Posted in Myth, Stress | 4 Comments

There's even a manifesto for being happy at work

Posted on December 13, 2006 by Rick Turoczy

The more manifestos the better. That’s what we always say.

And while 26 points may be a little long–and rival the verbosity of our own postulates–I think this is well worth the read: The Happy At Work Manifesto

(Hat tip to Curt Rosengren)

Posted in Happiness, Manifesto, Meaning, Passion | Leave a comment