Blogging on Business Update from Bob Morris: Week of 11/12/12

I hope that at least a few of these recent posts will be of interest to you:

BOOK REVIEWS

Leading at the Edge: Leadership Lessons from the Extraordinary Saga of Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition
Dennis N. T. Perkins with Margaret P. Holtman, Paul R. Kessler, and Catherine McCarthy

The Yale Book of Quotations
Fred R. Shapiro, Editor

The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition
Caroline Alexander

The Talent Wave: Why Succession Planning Fails and What to Do About It
David Clutterbuck

Saving Capitalism From Short-Termism: How to Build Long-Term Value and Take Back Our Financial Future
Alfred Rappaport

Brilliance by Design: Creating Learning Experiences That Connect, Inspire, and Engage
Vicki Halsey

How to Close a Deal Like Warren Buffett: Lessons from the World’s Greatest Dealmaker
Tom Searcy and Henry DeVries

INTERVIEWS

Seth Besmertnik (Conductor) in the “Corner Office”
Adam Bryant
The New York Times

James Taylor: An interview by Bob Morris

Nancy Koehn
“Ernest Shackleton’s Lessons for Leaders in Harsh Climates”
IdeaCast produced by HBR Blog Network

John A. Daly: An interview by Bob Morris

COMMENTARIES

“Here’s a Better Way to Brainstorm in Groups”
Management Tip of the Day
HBR

“Waste on the Shop Room Floor”
Josh Linkner

“The best innovators are need seekers”
Gijs van Wulfen
Booz & Company

“The Timeless Strategic Value of Unrealistic Goals”
Vijay Govindarajan
HBR

“How Nate Silver Won the 2012 Presidential Election”
Dorie Clark
HBR

“Disrupt Before You’re Disrupted”
Patrick Houston
InformationWeek

“How ‘social intelligence’ can guide decisions”
Martin Harrysson, Estelle Metayer, and Hugo Sarrazin
The McKinsey Quarterly

“How Do You Survive the Innovation Hamster Wheel?”
Chris Murphy
InformationWeek

“Jack Lowe Jr. of TD Industries: The Leader’s Leader”
Editors of Texas CEO magazine

“How to Promote Potential With Success Mapping”
Mara Swanfor
Talent Management magazine

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To check out these resources and other content, please click here.

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How to Know When to Give Up On a Goal

 

Here is another valuable Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Review. To sign up for a free subscription to any/all HBR newsletters, please click here.

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Setting goals and sticking to them is important. But you should also occasionally reevaluate your goals.

Quitting isn’t fun, but sometimes it’s necessary.

Here are two warning signs that it might be time to abandon your goal:

•  Your goals have adverse consequences. If you’ve committed to going to the gym every morning but find that you’re too tired to be productive the rest of the day, something needs to give. In these cases, adjust the goal itself or at least how you go about achieving it.

•  Your goals impede other objectives. Most people have several goals — getting healthy, spending time with family, making more sales calls, etc. If one of your goals is preventing you from reaching another one, decide which is more important.

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from “When to Give Up on Your Goals” by Dorie Clark.

To read that article and join the discussion, please click here.

Also, you may wish to check out Management Tips from Harvard Business Review by clicking here.

Why You Are Not a Failure

Here is an excerpt from an article written by Dorie Clark for the Harvard Business Review blog. To read the complete article, check out the wealth of free resources, and sign up for a subscription to HBR email alerts, please click here.

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Success sells. Everybody loves a winner. These clichés are reaffirmed every day in our business and media culture, especially if the winners are young or “emerging.” Fast Company recently released their list of the year’s 100 Most Creative People in Business. Every city has its roundup of the local heavy hitters (hello “30 under 30″ and “40 under 40″). And don’t forget the World Economic Forum’s posse of Young Global Leader. What, you didn’t make the cut? (Actually, me neither.) In this kind of environment, it’s all too easy to feel like a failure — but just because the world doesn’t yet recognize your genius doesn’t mean it’s not there.

I talked recently with David Galenson, an economist at the University of Chicago who began studying prices at art auctions — an exploration that drove him to understand the nature of creativity over the course of one’s career. He realized there were two very distinct types of creativity — “conceptual” (in which a young person has a clear vision and executes it early, a la Picasso or Zuckerberg) and ”experimental” (think Cezanne or Virginia Woolf, practicing and refining their craft over time and winning late-in-life success).

I saw this kind of fast, “conceptual” creativity and success exemplified not too long ago at my Smith College reunion, where I heard a talk by one of our notable alumnae, Thelma Golden, now the Director of the Studio Museum in Harlem. Golden has been on my radar for a long time — the year I graduated, she was honored by the college with a special prize. Though it typically goes to older alumnae, she won it only 10 years after graduation for her achievements as a Whitney Museumcurator. She’d known she wanted to enter the field since high school, she told us. Her focus was singular, and she attained professional success almost immediately. It’s enough to make anyone feel like a loser in comparison.

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To read the complete article, please click here.

Dorie Clark is CEO of Clark Strategic Communications and the author of the forthcoming Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012). She is a strategy consultant who has worked with clients including Google, Yale University, and the Ford Foundation. Listen to her podcasts or follow her on Twitter.

Why Transparency is the New Leadership Imperative

Here is an excerpt from an article written by Dorie Clark for the Harvard Business Review blog. To read the complete article, check out the wealth of free resources, and sign up for a subscription to HBR email alerts, please click here.

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What kind of leaders do we need today?

Steve Jobs — mysterious, charismatic, intriguing — is often cited as one of the recent greats, and there are clearly benefits to his style. A recent study showed that leaders like him — those perceived as having an almost magical aura — are seen as visionary, with employees and customers clamoring to touch the hem of their garments. But that kind of leadership also has its limitations.

Succession is made harder by a towering and mysterious personality (good luck, Tim Cook). And, even more importantly, there’s no formula for becoming charismatic. You could try to model others — emulating Jobs’ cool reserve, exacting standards, and mercurial temper, for instance. But the nuances are subtle; you’re just as likely to come off as aloof or entitled, rather than intriguing. The harder, but more rewarding, path as a leader is to make yourself known — to your employees, your customers, and the public. Here are three reasons the new leadership imperative is all about transparency.

To know you is to love you. Well, love might be strong. But you want your employees to at least like you and understand where you’re coming from — because, as copious research has shown, money isn’t a good motivational tool. Rather, what will make them go above and beyond is their relationship and loyalty to you — and you’ll never get that if you don’t let them know you as a person. (Customers, being human, also like to form relationships with real people, not just faceless organizations.) Lunch meetings and feedback sessions are a great place to start, and if you’re managing across continents or your workforce is simply too large, don’t underestimate the power of video. Your personality and enthusiasm can come through just as clearly on YouTube. (A great example is this 2009 video featuring Best Buy Chief Marketing Officer Barry Judge, in which he explains his philosophy of marketing and how the company should interact with customers.)

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To read the complete article, please click here.

Dorie Clark is a strategy consultant who has worked with clients including Google, Yale University, and the National Park Service. She is the author of the forthcoming Reinventing You: Define Your Brand, Imagine Your Future (Harvard Business Review Press 2013). You can follow her on Twitter at @dorieclark.

Dorie Clark on “Five Things You Should Stop Doing in 2012″

Dorie Clark

Here is an excerpt from an article written by Dorie Clark for the Harvard Business Review blog. To read the complete article, check out the wealth of free resources, and sign up for a subscription to HBR email alerts, please click here.

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I recently got back from a month’s vacation — the longest I’ve ever taken, and a shocking indulgence for an American. (Earlier this summer, I was still fretting about how to pull off two weeks unplugged.) The distance, though, helped me hone in on what’s actually important to my professional career — and which make-work activities merely provide the illusion of progress. Inspired by HBR blogger Peter Bregman’s idea of creating a “to ignore” list, here are [three of five] activities I’m going to stop cold turkey in 2012 — and perhaps you should, too.
1. Responding Like a Trained Monkey. Every productivity expert in the world will tell you to check email at periodic intervals — say, every 90 minutes — rather than clicking “refresh” like a Pavlovian mutt. Of course, almost no one listens, because studies have shown email’s “variable interval reinforcement schedule” is basically a slot machine for your brain. But spending a month away — and only checking email weekly — showed me how little really requires immediate response. In fact, nothing. A 90 minute wait won’t kill anyone, and will allow you to accomplish something substantive during your workday.

2. Mindless Traditions. I recently invited a friend to a prime networking event. “Can I play it by ear?” she asked. “This is my last weekend to get holiday cards out and I haven’t mailed a single one. It is causing stress!” In the moment, not fulfilling an “obligation” (like sending holiday cards) can make you feel guilty. But if you’re in search of professional advancement, is a holiday card (buried among the deluge) going to make a difference? If you want to connect, do something unusual — get in touch at a different time of year, or give your contacts a personal call, or even better, meet up face-to-face. You have to ask if your business traditions are generating the results you want.

3. Reading Annoying Things. I have nearly a dozen newspaper and magazine subscriptions, the result of alluring specials ($10 for an entire year!) and the compulsion not to miss out on crucial information. But after detoxing for a month, I was able to reflect on which publications actually refreshed me — and which felt like a duty. The New Yorker, even though it’s not a business publication, broadens my perspective and is a genuine pleasure to read. The pretentious tech publication with crazy layouts and too-small print? Not so much. I’m weeding out and paring down to literary essentials. What subscriptions can you get rid of?

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Eliminating these five activities is likely to save me hundreds of hours next year — time I can spend expanding my business and doing things that matter. What are you going to stop doing? And how are you going to leverage all that extra time?

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To read the complete article, please click here.

Dorie Clark is a strategy consultant who has worked with clients including Google, Yale University, and the National Park Service. She is the author of the forthcoming What’s Next?: The Art of Reinventing Your Personal Brand (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012). You can follow her on Twitter at @dorieclark.

 

Ask for a Favor

Here is another valuable Management Tip of the Day from Harvard Business Review. To sign up for a free subscription to any/all HBR newsletters, please click here.

Entrepreneurs or executives often hesitate to ask for help because they worry about being intrusive or appearing needy.

The truth is that it’s innately satisfying to assist others, and most people want to help.

• Next time you want to make a connection with someone, ask them for a favor.

• Request that they serve as a reference or provide a testimonial of your work.

• Hit them up for new client referrals or job leads. Don’t be shy about it.

Asking for favors can be a powerful way to get people to like you better, because they become invested in your success.

Today’s Management Tip was adapted from “The Fear That’s Holding Back Your Business” by Dorie Clark.

To read that article and join the discussion, please click here.

Also, check out the new book Management Tips from Harvard Business Review, based on HBR’s Management Tip of the Day.

 

How to Become Ubiquitous

Dorie Clark

Here is an excerpt from an article written by Dorie Clark for the Harvard Business Review blog. To read the complete article, check out the wealth of free resources, and sign up for a subscription to HBR email alerts, please click here.

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This post is part of the HBR Insight Center Marketing That Works.

It was 8 a.m. on a Tuesday, and I stumbled into my local coffee shop. Laptop in tow and shaking off jetlag, I steeled myself for the onslaught: replying to the hundreds of emails that had built up while I’d been on a luxurious 12-day vacation to Spain. Like many professionals, I have a complicated relationship with holiday — coveting the idea of relaxation, while dreading the idea of being out of touch. (Even with absurd data roaming rates, it’s hard to resist the siren call of email.)

The trip had been incredible — the best of Barcelona, Madrid, and Marbella — but I returned feeling guilty and slightly panicked. What had I missed? What moves were competitors making in my absence? And that’s when I spotted Mimi, one of the most connected players in town. She smiled and walked over to my table. “How’s it going?” she said. “You’re everywhere.”

In that moment, I realized you don’t have to be present in order to be ubiquitous.

Ubiquity, of course, is a major marketing goal. You want to be top of mind for your customers, so they’re calling you (not your competitors) when they need a lawyer, a website redesign, or more widgets. But how do you pull it off without sleeping in your office and surgically implanting your Blackberry? Here are four strategies to consider:

[Actually, here are the first two. To read the complete article, please click here.]

1. Schedule your social media presence. It’s true: the blogosphere never sleeps, and you do (unfortunately) lose face if you haven’t updated your blog in three months or you’ve let your Twitter feed languish. If you’re intent on building a strong personal (or corporate) brand, you need to be consistent. But that doesn’t mean you can never escape. Every few months, I’ll lock myself away for an afternoon and come up with a few hundred nuggets to post on Twitter. You can schedule them weeks or months in advance via services like Hootsuite or Tweet Deck. Sure, you’re not replying in real time — but at least you’re putting something out there when you’re lolling in your cabana. Similarly, you can use WordPress or other services to schedule upcoming blog posts.

2. Respond quickly when it matters. When you’re away from the office, practice triage. If you have a corporate assistant, ask him or her to monitor your email and call you if anything urgent arises. If you’re a solo practitioner, shell out for a virtual assistant through a service like Elance. Tim Ferriss provides tips on selecting the right person and scripts to use with them in The 4-Hour Workweek. Most of what passes over the transom can be safely ignored — but you don’t want to miss a new client inquiry from that account you’ve been hoping to land.

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Dorie Clark is a strategy consultant who has worked with clients including Google, Yale University, and the National Park Service. She is the author of the forthcoming What’s Next?: The Art of Reinventing Your Personal Brand (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012).

How to become a thought leader in six (not-so-easy) steps

Dorie Clark

Thought leaders are those who generate thoughts that attract others’ interest, adoption, and advocacy. Here is an excerpt from an article written by Dorie Clark for the Harvard Business Review blog. In it, she shares her own no-nonsense thoughts about thought leadership, accompanied by several specific suggestions. If only one of her insights or recommendations proves helpful to you, she will be gratified and you will be rewarded for reading her article.

To read the complete article, check out other articles and resources, and/or sign up for a free subscription to Harvard Business Review’s Daily Alerts, please click here.

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It’s gospel that you have to cultivate your personal brand, particularly if you have designs on the C suite. But because everyone has a brand nowadays (Tom Peters describes it as “your promise to the marketplace and the world”) simply having one is insufficient if you want to advance. You can’t just be known as “the guy who speaks Spanish” or “the programmer who can explain things well” or “that woman in legal who gets things done fast.” That’s nice — but there are a million of you, and in a globalized world, your company can find an alternative to you fast. That’s why you need to establish yourself as a thought leader. Good employees and good executives are nice to have. Thought leaders are irreplaceable — and indispensible.

So how do you build a reputation as a singular expert — someone who doesn’t just participate in the conversation, but drives it? In a word: leverage. No matter how brilliant and talented you are, you won’t be sufficiently appreciated within your organization or by your customers until the broader public recognizes you. This outside reinforcement becomes an echo chamber that brings money and respect. How to get it?

Follow these six steps to jump-start your thought leadership. Not all avenues will be open to you at the start, but most will in time.

[Here are the first three. To read the complete article, please click here.]

1. Create a Robust Online Presence. Not everyone can immediately jump to international prominence (CNN probably won’t book you as a talking head if you’ve never been on local TV). But everyone can start here, with an online beachhead. Blogs are particularly good because they showcase your knowledge — and search engines prize the frequent stream of fresh content. Most blogs are unloved and unread — but yours can be different with a little time and elbow grease. Good content is key, of course, but so is making friends (online and off) with other bloggers to create a virtuous, networked circle. Some of the best advice is from Chris Brogan, an otherwise unfamous guy who has been blogging for a decade, made himself a critical cog in the blogger world, and has turned it into big-time book contracts and bestsellers.

2. Flaunt High-Quality Affiliations. This one is often more about luck than anything else (I might be blogging this post from the White House if I’d been a high-ranking staffer for Barack Obama instead of for Howard Dean), but if you’ve got well-known connections, flaunt them and leverage them. Ivy League pedigree? Stint at McKinsey? Testimonial quotes from industry celebs? It’s credibility by proxy.

3. Give Public Speeches. Given the terror that public speaking instills in most people, your street cred will automatically skyrocket when you take the stage. Start with Rotary and the local Chamber of Commerce, and work your way up to associations, conferences, and in-house gigs for major corporations (you can literally write them a letter, suggest a topic, and ask to be considered). Buy the National Trade and Professional Associations directory to find out who to contact, and double-dip the benefit by promoting your engagements relentlessly (showcasing your desirability to others), and recording everything so you can cross-post like a maniac on Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. Your goal is ubiquity.

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Dorie Clark is a marketing strategy consultant for clients including Google, Yale University, and the National Park Service. Read her blog here or follow her on Twitter.