I just took an interesting workshop at work related to determining what my strengths are. As you all know, I’m always up for a personality assessment. I take them all with a grain of salt, but I always learn something from them. This workshop was based upon this book (which you can buy on Amazon)
The online assessment comes included as part of the cost of the book. Yes, that means if you buy the book, you can receive the personal assessment without taking the course. The assessment really is personalized – I compared mine to a couple of coworkers with the same strengths and we received significantly different data.
After some reflection, my strengths were pretty much on target.
Relator – I develop close relationship with people and my friends trust my judgment when they need advice.
Learner – I am curious and dig deeply into topics that attract my interest.
Command – I push people to excel.
Significance – I need to be be independent and for people to take me seriously.
Input – I collect information like some people collect shoes.
The one that really resonated with me is the last one – Input. I am currently reading 3 books at once. I have a stack of 4 more on my “to read” list right now and my library due date is looming large. I have more interests than I can count. I’ve always been frustrated when I hear “just take your favorite hobby and turn it into a business and you can be successful.” I think that’s because I don’t know where to start. My short list for favorite hobbies is a crazy laundry list. Weight training and nutrition. Sports cars. Volleyball. Investing. Cooking and using local produce. Business strategy. Leadership and management. Social media. Chronic disease management. Photography. Gardening and landscaping. Birdwatching. Kayaking. Eldercare. Wine. Construction. Green technologies.
This opened my eyes. My favorite hobby is processing information. Weird way of looking at it, but that’s exactly what it is.
The book is small and a quick read and I’d recommend it.
I’ve just finished reading the book “Why now is the time to Crush It! Cash in on your passion” by Gary Vaynerchuk. I thought this would be a good book talk about.
First off, this is a quick read, but there are a lot of great concepts in it. I’ve dabbled a bit in my own personal branding so this resonates with me. However, I haven’t spent any time attempting to monetize what I do – I am still doing it mainly for myself. Writing this blog provides a creative outlet and it also helps me focus my thoughts and my thought processes.
What I really like about the book is the concept that no matter what your passion is – there are other people out there just like you. If you’re willing to put in the time and energy (yes, this is hard work – it won’t happen by magic) to share what you know, and to interact with folks who share your interest you can become a well regarded expert in the community surrounding your passion. This means sharing what you read about, answering questions, providing key insights and having online conversations through a variety of social media formats.
Another key point in the book is that it is very important to be yourself. Be authentic. If you try to hide your personality, whether it is serious, outlandish, or sarcastic, you’ll inevitably fail because you won’t come across as genuine. Also, chose the medium that is best suited for your personality. Some people choose the written word, others podcasts, and still others video. If you can’t write, don’t! If you’re uncomfortable in front of the camera – don’t pick that medium either!
And lastly – patience in this space is a virtue. You won’t likely find a big audience or make much money in under a year. It just won’t happen, so don’t expect it to.
Well, the weather has taken a turn for the better around here. It’s been warm, it’s been sunny, and the trees are dropping pollen like nobody’s business. I’ve enjoyed playing hooky in the yard for the better part of the last two weeks. After a long, unseasonably cold and dark winter there is nothing like being able to do some Spring cleaning in my garden. I’m not much for New Year’s resolutions, but when it comes to Spring-time I’m all about getting things ship-shape in my house, my personal life, and at work. Things to put on the todo list:
Blow out the cobwebs – In the garden this means cranking up the gas backpack blower and removing the remaining leaves out from the shrubs (hence the smell of two-stroke). In my personal life it means kicking up my exercise program a notch and getting outside for long walks and runs when the weather is good. At work it typically means clearing out my desk of old projects and responsibilities that are hanging around.
Get my hands dirty – In the garden I’ll be pulling the netting off the pond and clearing out the dead plants and other winter debris. In my personal life I’ll be looking at all the little things I’ve been procrastinating about over the winter. At work it means that it is time to pick up a new skill or hone an existing one.
Use my imagination – In the garden it’s time for planting the early vegetables and for rearranging the landscape. In my personal life it’s time to plan my next vacation. At work, it’s time to brainstorm new project ideas.
I’ve never read any of his books before and I just happened upon this one in the library while I was in the throes of navel gazing about my own future. These last 9 months (nine!! where does the time go?) of job searching and soul searching have been both good and bad. At first I really needed the time off but more recently I’ve determined that it is time for me to *DO* something productive. The question has been: “what?” Do I want to keep doing what I had been doing? Or do I want to try doing something completely different with a huge learning curve and a higher likelihood of failure? I’ve gone back and forth from one day to the next. I’ve been on interviews that seriously felt like my soul was being sucked out of my body… and then I’ve regretted not being more enthusiastic about the position! Well, maybe my gut was trying to tell me something. I think that it is time for a change. I am always happiest when I am learning something new. The bigger the learning curve and the more support I have while learning, the better off I am.
This book really helped me put my dreams about the future into better focus. I think that my favorite question is “The Ownership Question: Is my dream really my dream?” Who hasn’t said that they want to do something because it’s what they are “supposed” to do? Clearly that’s not your dream. Or maybe you are doing something for someone else… that too, not yours. Sorry. How about you want to keep working on something because you’ve been doing it for all of your career but it isn’t fun anymore? hmmm. Sounds like that isn’t your dream anymore either.
I’m all for leveraging strengths and I know what mine are. I connect with people and I like to think that I bring out their best. I don’t lose sight of the big picture. I am extremely organized and I can be detailed oriented when necessary. I can run a complicated project like no ones business. I just need to apply all that to something a little different than what I have been doing.
I leave you with this final thought:
“Think of your comfort zone as a prison you live in – a largely self-created prison. It consists of a collection of cants, musts, must nots and other unfounded beliefs formed from all the negative thoughts and decisions you have accumulated and reinforced during your lifetime.” Jack Canfield
I recently read the Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen.
Some parts of this book feel a little bit outdated due to the primary case study that is used: sustaining vs disruptive changes in the hard drive industry from the 1970s until the 1990s and how the companies in the industry coped with the changing business landscape. However, the messages that are represented are still valuable.
Key points for me include:
” Most managers learn about innovation in a sustaining technology context because most technologies developed by established companies are sustaining in character. Such innovations are, by definition, targeted at known markets in which customer needs are understood. In this environment, a planned, researched approach to evaluating, developing, and marketing innovative products is not only possible, it is critical to success.
What this means, however, is that much of what the best executives in successful companies have learned about managing innovation is not relevant to disruptive technologies.”
In a nutshell, if you are going after the same customer base or market segment you always have – with a known set of needs you won’t get any market research information to help you create disruptive technologies. In reality this data will discourage your attempts.
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… the vast majority of successful new business ventures abandoned their original business strategies when they began implementing their initial plans and learned what would and would not work in the market. The dominant difference between successful ventures and failed ones, generally is not the astuteness of their original strategy. Guessing the right strategy at the outset isn’t nearly as important to success as conserving enough resources so that new business initiatives get a second or third stab at getting it right. Those that run out of resources or credibility before they can iterate toward a viable strategy are the ones that fail.”
Here, the message is that no one gets disruptive technologies right on their first attempt. Make sure to conserve resources and iterate repeatedly until you find that market or that strategy that works.
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Not only do you need the right people to be able to develop your disruptive technologies, you need the right processes, and you need the right values or priorities. This is what makes it so hard to succeed in large companies which have qualified people and the money for the resources. However, the bigger the company, the more rooted in existing processes it is, and the more likely that the priorities of the organization as a whole are tied to large percentage gains in revenue which a new disruptive technology in a nascent industry is unlikely to provide.
I have some very fond memories of “fun” at work. When it comes to a good environment, it truly is a matter of the little things rather than the grand gestures. Having fun is something that you do on a daily basis, not just once in a while to celebrate a big achievement – though that is important too. I have learned that the folks who work the hardest, also love to play the most.
As a leader you have to at least turn a blind eye toward play, and in most instances it is wise to encourage it. You just cannot expect everyone to sit at their desks for 8+ hours a day without a break, though the worst managers seem to demand this. I definitely remember being growled at by a senior manager a very long time ago when the entire aisle that I worked on was embroiled in a rubber band fight. This was before nerf weapons really became sophisticated. Full scale nerf wars are hilarious and 5 minutes of insanity can help people blow off some steam.
Games are also a good way for folks to have some fun – and they promote a natural gathering place during breaks, lunches, and after work. I’m partial to ping pong tables, but I’ve also seen pool tables, foosball, and video games foster a sense a community in a team.
Keep things fun and people will want to come to work.
One thing that I’ve learned over time is that you can never know – or be good at – everything. There just aren’t enough hours in the day. Everyone has a few things that they concentrate on and really excel at. The key to a successful project is to have the right combination of those people. If everyone is good at the same things, they will be tripping all over each other. When I build a team, I look first and foremost for wicked smart people, and I try to find ones that have had all different types of experiences. I also I look for people who can work with others, but that’s a topic for another post.
How do you determine who is really smart versus someone who is a poser? Sometimes it isn’t easy. There are a lot of people who talk smart, but when the rubber hits the road they can’t get things done. Really smart people can apply what they know in a practical way. They also learn more from their mistakes than their successes. The fact that they are willing to acknowledge their mistakes is a big part of being smart. Some people never make mistakes – all of the problems they encounter are blamed on external forces outside of their own control. Other people never make mistakes because they never put their ideas into practice. Philosophizing about the best way to do something without actually trying it out isn’t a good way to get smarter.
I like working with people who I consider to be smarter than I am in their area of expertise. As a leader I don’t need to know all of the technical details of a project. Heck, I might not even understand all of it. That’s ok. I’ve got someone who does working for me. It’s really great if they know what they know – and even better if they know what they don’t know. That provides an opportunity for another expert to be involved – or it provides an opportunity for growth and learning.
What is not being smart:
Going to the right school or getting the right degree and considering education as “completed”.
Having a very strong opinion without being able to see other options.
Being firmly rooted by experience. i.e. – this worked before it will work again.
What is being smart:
Curiosity about the world and how it works. Striving to learn something new everyday.
Having a strong opinion, but also having a willingness to listen to new ideas.
Using experience as a basis for creativity – this worked before – how can we make it even better?
Unshackling Employees from a Wall Street Journal Blog talks about ways that even staid industries like the banking industry can take advantage of empowering their employees.
“In most organizations, the decision-making freedoms of frontline employees are highly circumscribed. Sales reps, call center staff, office managers, and assembly line workers are usually trussed up in tangle of top-down policies, “best practices,” and standard operating procedures. Yet it’s impossible to build a highly adaptable organization without first expanding the scope of employee freedom. To create an organization that’s adaptable and innovative, people need the freedom to challenge precedent, to “waste” time, to go outside of channels, to experiment, to take risks and to follow their passions.”
Transparency with business information, the freedom to try new things even with the risk of failure, and a culture that doesn’t require top-down decision making is key to creativity.
You may have noticed that my blog postings have been a little bit sparse lately. Last week I took a “vacation” from my usual computer activities and spent some time down at the beach. This didn’t slow my networking or job search down any, but I made a concrete effort to spend more time reading books (fiction – I am partial to murder mystery/forensic science novels) and getting outside in the sunshine for some fun. This post probably won’t seem like a business related topic at first glance, but in the end I hope you’ll find that it can be applied there as well.
First off, a little background. I’ve been going down to Brunswick County, NC regularly for the last 15 years. Initially I had some friends with a beach house down there who were generous and invited us to stay with them on a regular basis. After many years of that, my family decided it was time to own some rental property down there as well. To say that the area is familiar is an understatement. I know the local restaurants, where the best grocery stores are, and which gas station has the best fresh fish and shrimp. No, I am not kidding about that! They have a marine fuel pump and the fishing boats drop their catch off there daily, but I digress. For years going to the beach always meant – well, going to the beach. Pack up a cooler, bring the bocce set, paddle ball or a football and ride the waves if they were good. We dabbled in golf occasionally since the courses were so good, but it wasn’t an all consuming hobby. We bought kayaks since our place is on the marsh, but that always is tide dependent.
This year, since we’re down to a single salary we decided to take advantage of an unrented week during the summer season. We rarely go down there in the summer – it is too hot and it is too crowded, and we typically have seasonal rentals throughout the high season. The Spring and Fall are much more pleasant and the water still is warm enough for swimming. The off-season is also better for all of those maintenance projects and upkeep necessary for a salt-water exposed structure that gets some pretty heavy rental traffic in the summer. This year was going to be different. My goal was to “pretend” to be on vacation someplace completely new – and I wasn’t going to do any projects around the house either. I always do this when we travel, I decided it was time to do it in more familiar surroundings. What better way to find some undiscovered local gems right?
I started my research a week in advance of our trip. I like hiking so I started looking for parks. I like history and gardens so I also looked for historic sites and colonial homes open to the public. I’m unemployed… so I looked for cheap or free. There would be no ferry rides to Bald Head Island or trips to what used to be the Hard Rock Park (now bankrupt) down in Myrtle Beach, SC, or even to the aquarium at Ft Fischer.
I learned a LOT! I had no idea. Did you know that Brunswick County is incredibly bio-diverse? I didn’t. There are 112 rare plant species in the county – the largest in NC. The preserves that I visited had over 400 distinct vascular plant species. The Nature Conservancy manages over 20,000 acres – in an effort to protect this diversity in the long leaf pine savannas and shrub bog pocosins. I took pictures of numerous carnivorous plants and wild orchids. The venus flytrap only grows natively within a 90 mile radius of Wilmington NC!
I also found out that in North Carolina the first resistance (and complete refusal of compliance) to the British stamp tax occurred in Brunswick County. So much for the Boston Tea Party! Being a Yankee, (damn yankee in some instances) I had not learned a whole lot about the part that North Carolina played in the Revolutionary War. If you’re curious about a huge British defeat early in the war you’ll need to read about the Battle at Moore’s Creek Bridge. Fascinating!
In the span of a week we visited two nature preserves I didn’t know existed (Green Swamp & EV-Henwood), one pre-revolutionary war plantation home and its gardens (Orton Gardens), and the archeological site of the oldest known town in NC (Brunswick Town) which subsequently became a civil war earthen fort (Ft Anderson). We also managed to spend a couple of days on the beach and we did a bit of kayaking.
Ok. By now you are probably wondering where I am going with this. How many times in your life have you blindly gone about your business at work and at home and not bothered to look around you? I’ve been there. Too busy. Too tired. This worked before, so let’s do it again. Sometimes just taking a break and picking your head up to look around let’s you see what you are missing. Sometimes you have to dig a bit harder to figure it out. If you aren’t looking for something new and you’re just milking the old cash cow that your business has, your competition will surprise you and they will make you irrelevant. If you spend your life just doing what needs to be done, one day you’ll wake up and you’ll find that your life has passed you by. Take the time. Find and explore the unique and exciting in your world. You’ll be much richer for it.
Hi -I'm Linda Bonanno and my blog is all about business leadership and management. Occasionally I'll give you a little insight into my personal world as well. Hopefully you don't mind the diversions.
