Frances Cole Jones on nailing a tricky interview question

Frances Cole Jones is the author of How to Wow and, more recently, The Wow Factor: The 33 Things You Must (and Must Not) Do to Guarantee Your Edge in Today’s Business World published by Ballantine Books. She offers some especially valuable advice in Chapter 19, Human Resources: An Insider’s Guide. Here is an excerpt in which she portrays a hypothetical interview exchange.

HR director: “So, what do you think is your greatest weakness?”

You (after waiting until he or she looks up to you): “I’d have to say my greatest weakness is I sometimes just don’t know when to give up. When I identify an opportunity, I’m like a dog with a bone. This is why I like working with a team. Feedback helps me maintain my perspective.”

HR Director: “That’s great. Can you give me anther example?”

You: “Well, speaking of teamwork, sometimes my energy can be a bit intimidating to people without my horsepower. I’m a fast thinker and speaker and I’ve learned to hold back sometimes – be more patient with the process. Since noticing this I’ve made a point of soliciting the opinions of others of the rest of the group before I move on to the next idea.”

Book Review: Living in More Than One World

Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life
Bruce Rosenstein
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. (2009)

In the Foreword, Frances Hesselbein suggests the key to understanding how to understand Peter Drucker’s approach to life, indeed to understanding how any of us can improve the quality of life, is to recognize the importance of diversifying the nature and extent of daily existence, to sharpen a sense of curiosity while remaining open to new ideas, and to learn as much as possible from as many different sources as possible. As Drucker’s own life suggests, she observes, “It is to be introspective when needed, but to remember that the most important things happen in the outside world.” There is an implicit obligation to share time, talents, and expertise with others, “to leave something of value behind to others.” She notes that in this book, Bruce Rosenstein provides many suggestions and strategies to achieve that worthy objective but also reminds us that we must be fully and continuously “aware of pitfalls in our diversification, including finding the time to do everything we want to do. Answers will emerge, but not because we have taken shortcuts.” This book is an endorsement of reflection but also a call to action, and that can also be said of every book that Drucker wrote.

According to Rosenstein, “The organizing theme of this book is creating and living a `total life’ that includes your work, friends, family, professional colleagues, and affiliation groups. In this way, you can consider all of the elements of your life together and think of how each affects the others, now and in the future.” Frankly, I envy the extensive contact Rosenstein had with Peter Drucker for more than ten years. He had been studying him and his work for more than 20 years, conducted in-person interviews of him between 2001 and 2005, and obviously learned a great deal of value from extended conversations with someone who hated the term “business guru” and preferred to identify himself as a “bystander” or “student.” Throughout his life, Drucker was involved in all manner of professional activities (e.g. classroom teacher, author, lecturer, consultant) even as he actively pursued a number of personal interests such as studying Japanese art and culture, philosophy, and religion as well as attending Los Angeles Dodgers games and concerts performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.

There is much of substantial value to be learned from Drucker’s life and work, and from Rosenstein’s explanation of how Drucker’s wisdom can inspire and transform the lives of those who are both willing and able to consider themselves, the work they do, and their relationships with others “in a new light.” I agree with Bruce Rosenstein: “We all will live in a better world if enough people act on the principles described in this book. We’ll see benefits as friends, family members, and colleagues if people make the most of their talents, learn as much as possible and share that knowledge, and extend their generosity in many different settings…Be patient, but persistent. Good luck on your continued journey!” Peter Drucker could not have said it better.

OK, let’s try this again – the secret to time management & mastery is execution – (reflections on why we have so much trouble actually getting things {getting every thing} done)

Getting Things Done – the Unending Quest

Almost everyone I encounter these days feels he or she has too much to handle and not enough time to get it all done.
David Allen, Getting Things Done:  The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

I was talking to a man this week who supervises eight other people.  He is responsible for a chunk of geography within a large plant.  He has to keep the people, and the plant itself (at least his corner of it) working well, he has to step up and do triage on all of those crises that pop up EVERYDAY!, and he is always behind.  Always!

So, after quite a lengthy conversation, I finally grasped this:  he has “started” with a very, usable, practical, workable system time and again, but he simply does not stick with his workable system.  So – he then tries another “workable system,” and that doesn’t work either.  So, starts and stops, time and again, and the work still piles up and he still does not get everything done.

Sound like anyone you know?

The issue is simple — we have an “execution” problem when it comes to time management & mastery.  Knowing a system to use is a good first step.  But executing, actually using that system effectively, is really the whole ball game.

You know how the interview goes:

interviewer:  “Why did you not get everything done?”
interviewee:  “Well, we had a great plan — we failed to execute.”

And to make matters worse, so much of our work is “undefined/mushy.”  Allen again, from his book:

In the old days, you knew what work had to be done – you could see it.  It was clear when the work was finished, or not finished.  Now, for many of us, there are no edges to most of our projects.  Most people I know have at least half a dozen things they’re trying to achieve right now, and even if they had the rest of their lives to try, they wouldn’t be able to finish these to perfection.

As we talked, I made a simple suggestion.  Will he follow it, I don’t know.  But I know enough to know that if you don’t do this, you will never get on top of things.

Here’s the suggestion:  make a daily appointment with yourself – for the purpose of working, and staying on top of, your system.  (This phrase, “make an appointment with yourself,” is a phrase I heard David Allen say years before he wrote Getting Things Done).    In other words, you have to actually make time to work your system.  A great system left “unworked” is not as good as a mediocre system faithfully worked.

So – if you want to stay on top of things, then carve out that daily meeting with yourself, to work your system.

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You can purchase my synopsis of Getting Things Done, with handout + audio, at our companion web site, 15minutebusinessbooks.com.

Fierce???

In Fierce Conversations and then in Fierce Leadership, Susan Scott acknowledges that the word “fierce” However, “fierce” can also be synonymous with “robust, intense, strong, powerful, passionate, eager, unbridled, uncurbed, and untamed” as well as when used to express especially strong affection, loyalty, appreciation, and perhaps even love. However it is used, whatever is expressed should be honest, real, genuine, frank, candid, and in all other respects authentic. I agree with Scott, “Weak leaders want agreement. But fierce leaders want to know the truth.” In fact, they insist on unvarnished, commercial-strength truth as the currency of their communications. There is much to be said for building a consensus, for seeking common ground and agreeing to compromises on less important issues. That said, it is imperative to keep in mind that Dante reserved the last and worst ring in hell for those who, in a moral crisis, preserve their neutrality. “In a culture of legislated optimism, leaders know only the sound of one hand clapping…legislated optimism is the tactic of those whose who attempt to camouflage rotten news with pretty words, confusing words, empty words.”

In his latest book, How to Be a Fierce Competitor, Jeffrey Fox asserts that fierce competitor companies and their people “relentlessly, tirelessly, continuously do whatever they legally can to pursue and capture every profitable customer. “These companies are ethical, honest, compliant with regulations, and model citizens…They never stop innovating, selling, reaching out, and communicating to their market. They train, train, train and execute, execute, execute. They never stop ripping out waste and bad costs.” Fierce competitors never let anyone worker harder or work smarter than they do. They demonstrate what Jack Dempsey once said of champions: “They get up when they can’t.”

Long ago, Leo Durocher, a Hall of Fame baseball player and manager, said something to the effect that nice people never win, and usually finish last.

Durocher was wrong.

“words are the single most valuable thing in the world” – thinking about Roger Ebert

“Roger Ebert is no mystic, but he knows things we don’t know.”

I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn’t always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.

The above is only one of the truly terrific paragraphs in the article Roger Ebert: The Essential Man by Chris Jones in Esquire.  And Ebert himself has written about the truth and revelations in the article, crediting Chris Jones as a very good writer himself:  “he can be proud of the piece.”

I have often written on this blog about my deep appreciation for Roger Ebert.  This article, and Ebert’s blog post, have only made me even more appreciative.

Let me put it simply – carve out some minutes, read the Esquire piece, and Ebert’s blog post.  It will do your heart good.