fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
The Rise of Scientific Management 2.0
By: Fredrik Holm
Tags: Software Development, Organizational Change, Agile Transformation, Business Transformation, Management And Leadership

The Rise of Scientific Management 2.0

Image found on https://wallpapersafari.com/w/zexW2p

In the beginning, the Agile movement was mostly about a set of values and disciplines aiming to help software development teams to build small to mid-sized products. The focus was on craftsmanship, close customer collaboration, and to bridge the gap between developers and management.

The primary measure of success? Working software. And the ability to keep a sustainable pace to keep delivering.

To boil it down to a single word: Trust.

Today, most managers and developers still subscribe to the ideas in the manifesto, at least in theory. But in real life, when the rubber hits the road, I often encounter a completely different reality.

The agile implementations prevalent in the enterprise world today almost inevitably end up being more about control and micro-management than building sustainable products.

Somewhere along the way, the original Agile movement morphed into the people-and-project management methodology that I like to call Business Agile.

And, in the process, it more or less became what it initially set out to be an alternative to — a rigid control structure.

What happened? To try to answer that, we need to take a quick detour into the realm of social science.
Leadership & Leader-sheep
By: Ibrahim Oral Emul
Tags: Management, Leadership, Good Management, Management And Leadership

I have been working full time for nearly 25 years. I experienced all sorts of managers either I reported or I witnessed my colleagues reported to. I have seen numerous good examples besides some limited number of unwanted styles. I will mention the leadership style that I have seen as the most controversial ones which make upper management think everything is tidy and well organized.

There is a well-known quote, “People would not mind how strong were the waves and how brave were you to beat them out in the open sea. Instead they pay attention to whether the ship arrived at the port in good condition”. This is called “Leader-ship”.

The captain is needed to approach the port

Managers and leaders are two important roles in modern corporate management. These two important titles provoke the mind interchangeably. When a change is needed there is always resistance against it. This resistance is inevitable and constant in most classical companies. Leadership is a difficult transition at every management level. Even a project manager can be frustrated with the resistance against his/her project change management.

Some of the leaders, who have enough managerial positions and formal power, might transform the subordinates with full obedient type to follow them. However, these type of leaders probably uses the sentences “I pay attention to the hierarchy to utmost level” or “our company has strong subordinate relationships” or “every member has to follow proper idea-sharing mechanisms to report up”. I call this leader type leader-sheep. Just to make sure the sheep properly herd. This approach requires less effort, as well as less risk to reach the destination and apply the change fast. Besides, it is a proven method to lead properly without resistance.

However, the quality of the outcome is inevitably always lower. If teamwork in a passive mood and just becomes followers without questioning, the success becomes dull and less sustainable. A strong future is built upon strong waves, currents.

Chaos or Tidiness

To tackle this issue, some leaders might apply some chaos style, just to stir the mud and make sure the members of the team are awake and are not sheep. Unfortunately, this is not a leader-ship style, instead can be called a chaos-oriented management style, the results in an unbalanced leader type.

A good leader needs power as well as the courage, energy, and effort to lead the team. The leader might convince them, walk with them, climb with them, and, when they are tired, also can pull them up. No manager is assigned to make a leader-sheep by suppressing ideas or mono toning views or putting them in well defined hierarchical boxes just to make all followers sheep-like.

Some good followers

Good companies need managers to show good leadership who do not need sheep style followers. Because change flows through great efforts and well-defined plans.

#management #leadership #leader
Thought leadership is trash
By: Ted Bauer
Tags: Future Of Work, Thought Leadership, Work, Management And Leadership, B2B

I’ve written twice about some of my issues with thought leadership (here and here). My dog woke me up at 4am this morning and admittedly I was mildly hungover when he did that, so I’m not going to super belabor this post. Let’s just get right into it, then get out. Sound good?

The supposed demise of B2B marketing and sales

We’ve been talking about this for years. The core argument is that buyers can learn more online, so the “sales” aspect isn’t necessary.

My two cents: all that’s really changing is funnel entry stage. B2B sales and marketing won’t die. It’s changed, yes, but for it to “die” that would mean websites have to be more effective at conveying information. ROFL. Many websites, including my own, are trash when it comes to that. Something like 70% or more of the websites in the world right now aren’t set up to convert.

“We’ll attract those B2B leads with thought leadership!”

No you won’t. No one gives a flying fuck about your white paper. Your targets including “enterprise C-Suite?” LOL. They ain’t reading that drivel. Want to know what those guys want? Here we go:

This is from a 2015 study of B2B buyers. Look for blue: “important.” See where “important” is lowest? That would be “thought leadership content.” Now let’s find the three highest:

Search and navigation tools

Easy access to pricing

Easy access to content

So what does this mean?

Well look, this is one study. It might not mean anything, OK? Let’s not go ass over teakettle here. But I’ve seen similar studies as to this recently. My take would be: people want clean, easy-to-follow websites with a good interface. They want to know your solution and the pricing. The thought leadership shit is just bogging down what they really want/need to find, and GODDAMN IT THEY ARE SO BUSY.

Let me go back for a second to something I told a friend once. Let’s say your boss calls you into his/her office and gives you a project. A few days later, they want a status update. You say “Well, I’m leading a lot of thoughts on it. I have a lot of thoughts.” That first meeting? It’s tolerated. But if you’re saying that three meetings later, you’re shit out of luck and getting reamed out. Business isn’t about leading thoughts. Never has been. It’s about action, execution, and KPIs. That’s how people advance. It’s also why thinking is pretty much RIP at most companies.

And that’s maybe the greatest irony of all: we pursue marketing strategies based on “thought leadership” and then, often when an employee has an original thought, we tell him/her “No time, I need to see where you are with those McPherson deliverables!”

God save the Queen, and/or all of us in the white-collar working world.
Thoughts on Fast Incident Response(FIR)
Tags: Incident Response, Dfir, Apt, Management And Leadership

About FireEye being attacked by APT. They showed a very sincere attitude. This is worthy of respect and learning. But for other companies how to deal with subsequent impact is a problem.

Check the contents of the weapon library and make patches for the attack surface.

Which affected products are used in your company？

What is the impact on the business? which businesses have higher levels？

What is the fastest potential way to protect it?

Also in most cases, manufacturers will release official patches. if not, you should be able to do soft patches.

2. Extract the IOC from the weapon library and make a scan on the whole assets.

Analyze the sample library and get some IOC

Find your asset list and Identify potentially affected assets

Sort out the targets that can be detected, Whether it’s files, network traffic, or anything else.

At the same time, you need to know which places are inaccessible and monitor them accordingly

According to Tencent’s Security Laboratory, they have detected many new IOC

3. Tracing the Corresponding Attacks and Make a Forensic Analysis.

Know how the attack is formed

Fixed evidence is the most important, memory mirroring is also necessary

According to the analysis results and find some information from Threat Intelligence Base. (Maybe you have your own channel information)

The premise is that there are sufficient resources, and most cases can only meet the first two steps. Professional traceability analysts are not easy to find.

At the same time, don’t forget to follow the company’s internal regulations to initiate corresponding changes. For example:

Follow the Online Change Plan and Special Approval Process

Prepare SOP in advance，Include repair plan and rollback plan, etc.

Quickly find the interface person and implement the steps

Notify relevant departments whether the repair is completed and whether it takes effect

Add to a Disaster Drill Plan And conduct regular drills

It is still necessary to recruit professional security engineers and continuously optimize the security defense architecture and improve the emergency response process in order to achieve the fastest recovery measures. Win precious time difference in the war with the attacker. also for security engineers, solving problems should be value-driven, threat-driven, and disaster-driven, not management-driven. I have to say, it’s so funny.
Living & Leading in the Temporary
By: Careers In Gov.
Tags: Leadership, Management, Management And Leadership, Business

As 2020 ends and 2021 begins, I feel compelled to craft a personal commentary about ‘living & leading in the temporary.’ It has been an extraordinarily complex year both personally and in leadership work. Every leader I have worked or spoken with talks about the complexity they are residing in. Some have found incredible innovation; some have had to lay people off; some are struggling to meet budgets; some have left roles and recreated themselves.
Fear Based Leadership
By: A. Kerem Köseoğlu
Tags: Leadership, Fear Based Leadership, Management, Fear, Management And Leadership

Well, that was a homework for me in an online course. I liked it so i decided to publish. Feel free to comment or make additions!

This type of leadership is very common for long lasting companies (aged companies) where you get things done with old school way. It is common in aged companies because owners of these companies trust on the experienced leaders, and these leaders do nothing different from their previous leaders: rule with fear.

Sometimes the job pushes themselves to this type of leadership or the entire thing they know is this type of leadership; but they also know that it is easy to apply this leadership style, because you got the power and you can show the “bat” every time you want to rule. People will afraid and follow with their born reflex. Opposite of this leadership style is convincing or inspiring people, which is always harder.

It is even common in series Game Of Thrones of HBO, the queen Cersei is ruling with fear because his father did it for whole his life. Being powerful is not something that you can buy from market; instead, you push people to make you powerful. That is what happens when you lead with fear; people make you feel powerful.

This type of leadership is popular because of the culture of company, this style is common for more worker class jobs like factories, heavy-duty jobs etc. I think it is because it is harder to fear creative and highly educated people.

There are disadvantages of this leadership style; like gossiping from your back and form groups that does not support you (but fear you!). Even people disagree with ideas of this type of leadership, they never say that in public, instead they gossip. And that damage to whole company…

Every leader needs feedback and when only available information are hidden in gossips, you start to listen whispers (Lord Varys, Little Finger etc.) and rule with information that came from whispers. Such a pity that when you listen whispers; you only hear 10% of the true information, rest is some others opinion, like who carried that whisper to you.

Another trait of these type of leaders that they stick to each other (same kind of leader) a lot. They empower people who similar to them, I believe that is the way they feel safe. Because they know what empowered one will do, they could not have control for other type of leaders, they are unpredictable.

As a sum up; in a world that is evolving; leadership styles must evolve too. Let’s bring future to our companies and change the way we rule.

A. Kerem KÖSEOĞLU
Leadership Focus 2021: It Starts With YOU!
Tags: Leadership Development, Executive Coaching, Leadership Focus, Goal Setting, Management And Leadership

​The winter months, when the elements seemingly encourage us to hunker down inside, almost call us as leaders to turn inward and practice introspection. With the coming year, it’s an opportune time to focus on the leadership journey, starting with the responsibility to lead the self. As outlined in MAP’s best-selling book, “ The Disciplined Leader,” that leadership journey is best begun before you start trying to make a big impact on your team and the organization at large.​

It begins with holding up the mirror, reflecting honestly and deliberately at who you are as a leader-or how you’ve led both yourself and others. And it means answering key questions, such as:

What are your current values and beliefs?

What traits do you have that enhance or deflect from your leadership capabilities?

In your leadership journey, what you’ve been good at and not so good at thus far? Also, what do you cherish, and what are you passionate about, in your career and outside of work?

Use your answers to recognize how your personal and professional lives interconnect and serve one another. Notice what balance between the two looks like at the end of the day.

Why does this matter? Fail to understand these things about yourself and it will be hard to know how to make the right changes in your leadership going forward-the ones that will inspire you, your team and your organization at large to act and deliver results.

The changes you notice that need to be made aren’t just about “getting results.” They’re about caring for yourself, demonstrating you’re worth it. And without a discipline around understanding and truly caring for yourself, your credibility and impact as a leader can get cast into question, creating exponential problems personally and professionally.

This year, start building vital focus around your business by first focusing on yourself. As outlined in “ The Disciplined Leader,” which walks you through the journey of leading yourself, your team and your organization, starting with the self is the best place to begin. As this year comes to a close and your turn toward a new year, take that step to focus on what matters.

“The Disciplined Leader: Keeping the Focus on What Matters Most” makes is a high-impact holiday gift for leaders, managers and their teams. Offering 52 succinct lessons, plus real-life case studies and action items, this guide can help you accelerate performance and get results.
Organizational and Time Management Tips for Consultants
By: Gregg Jaclin
Tags: Consulting, Management, Time Management, Management And Leadership, Organizational Culture

One of the daunting things when doing independent work is managing your time. Time management is pivotal to grow your consultant firm.

Without a plan, time management can be difficult for a self-employed professional. Here are tips for managing your time efficiently as a consultant.

Set Achievable Goals

Working as a consultant means wearing several hats. Sometimes, you will find your inbox full of client’s requests to meet you. As a result, you will be more likely to handle everything in a day.

While working for long hours is typical for independent work, it essential to be realistic when planning for your day. Don’t make promises to clients, or set expectations for yourself, if you aren’t sure you have time to meet them.

Being ambitious is great, but don’t strain yourself too much. Only set expectations that you can comfortably meet.

Don’t Underestimate Available Time

When assigning time for a particular task, it is easy to underestimate with the hopes that you will gain an additional hour in the day. Developing a tight schedule with no room for error can turn to be a nightmare.

When developing your schedule, include an additional 20% time to the actual time needed to complete a task. It is also imperative to leave some open appointment slots in your day to create space for forgotten responsibilities and last-minute emergencies. If you end up with an extra free hour, finish a pending project, or take a break.

Account Time for Predictable Tasks

Even though the workday is highly unpredictable, you should strive to manage your time when you can. It is daunting to create a schedule in advance because so many things can happen throughout the day. Budgeting time for major tasks only is a common mistake numerous people make.

While you can’t budget time for new tasks, there are several routine tasks that you can account for in your daily or weekly schedule. Some of these tasks include reading and responding to emails, taking a break, or monthly invoicing. Such tasks occur regularly, and hence it’s easy to account for them.

Make A Priority List

When you have so many uncompleted tasks, it’s essential to prioritize tasks with first approaching deadlines. Handling urgent items first is a brilliant way of using your time efficiently.
Crickets Kill Ideas — Be the First Voice of Support
By: Mark Nelson
Tags: Leadership, Meetings, Management Software, Communication Skills, Management And Leadership

Perhaps the easiest way to help drive improvement is to simply speak up and support people when they suggest good ideas. Once you start noticing, you’ll be surprised how many good ideas are met with dead silence.

Crickets kill ideas.

Crickets Kill Ideas

You have to stick your neck out to suggest something new. Don’t leave someone hanging when you agree with them. Jump in and be the first voice of support. It takes a little guts but it works wonders.

Being the first voice of support builds on common ground. When you hear an idea you agree with, you have found an ally. Don’t keep that a secret, let them and everyone else know it. You will likely discover other allies who may be more passive in their communication style because it will give them a larger psychological safety net for speaking up themselves.

Being the first voice of support lets others take credit even if you had the same idea. Rather than saying, “I was thinking the same thing as Ryan,” consider something like, “I like Ryan’s idea because…” A great way to be generous in sharing credit is to continue to refer to it as, “Ryan’s idea,” in the future.

Being the first voice of support builds relationships because people will appreciate your support. People like to feel smart. People like to be recognized and to feel heard. And bonus: they will be more likely to reciprocate and voice support for your next good idea.

Being the first voice of support turns the suggestion into a conversation. Conversation leads to collaboration and action. Think of it this way: the person with the suggestion holds out a ball, the first voice of support starts it rolling.

Being the first voice of support is an underestimated form of leadership in itself. And you don’t have to be “the leader” to do it. Anybody can voice support. Anybody can kill crickets.

In Derek Sivers wonderful TED Talk, “How To Start a Movement,” he shows a video of a man dancing by himself at a concert while the rest of the crowd sits on the grass. He’s dancing alone and he even seems a little nuts — until someone joins him. That second dancer somehow gives permission for the rest of the crowd to join in — and they do. Both the initial, lone dancer and “first follower” as Derek calls him, have to be a little vulnerable. It takes guts to stand out.

“Now if you notice that the first follower is actually an underestimated form of leadership in itself. It takes guts to stand out like that. The first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader.”

Don’t let crickets kill good ideas. Look for opportunities to be the first voice of support. It’s a simple way to help drive improvement, build on common ground, share credit, build relationships, and keep good ideas alive.
Hire better data scientists: A field guide for hiring managers new to data science.
By: Eli Goldberg
Tags: Machine Learning Ai, Hiring Tips, Data Science, Office Hours, Management And Leadership

Hire better data scientists: A field guide for hiring managers new to data science.

If you’re new to hiring data scientists, it’s likely you’re terrible at it. Hiring is a huge responsibility and easily one of the most important things you do as a manager. Even a single bad hire can drag down your team’s productivity, kill morale, decrease team retention, and generate a significant amount of work (and headache) for you as a manager. From the job description to the interview to the offer, this series of posts is intended to memorialize hard won wisdom in hiring data scientists over the last few years, focusing on how to enhance the candidate interview process and get less…you know…terrible,

N.b., these are my opinions and not representative of those of my employer. This (these) posts are simply to memorialize some of the things that I’ve learned in an informative manner. While I hope you find them useful, they’re not official statements of any kind.

Authors:

Eli Goldberg, PhD, MSc, Director of Data Science in Clinical Analytics, Analytics and Behavior change at CVS-Aetna

Benjamin Goldberg, PhD, Instructor in Humanities and Cultural Studies at USF, currently trapped in Bulgaria on a Fulbright.

If you’re new to hiring data scientists, it’s likely you’re terrible at it. Hiring is a huge responsibility and easily one of the most important things you do as a manager. Even a single bad hire can drag down your team’s productivity, kill morale, decrease team retention, and generate a significant amount of work (and headache) for you as a manager. From the job description to the interview to the offer, this series of posts is intended to memorialize hard won wisdom in hiring data scientists over the last few years, focusing on how to enhance the candidate interview process and get less…you know…terrible.

Here’s some organization for these articles. I’ve bolded the part you’re on for convenience.

Part 1. Creating better job descriptions brings in better talent.

Part 2. Create a clear interviewing process.

Part 3. Good interviews have structure.

Part 4. Good companies respect their candidates time.

Part 5. Don’t get emotional about compensation.
Be the Last One to Speak. Coming to a foreign country alone make…
By: Faustina Fan
Tags: Self Improvement, Kindness, Empathy, Patience, Management And Leadership

Coming to a foreign country alone made me feel that I was always the underdog at young age. I would speak last in project groups, worried to express my opinions.

To be fair, everyone around me had better English, they were surrounded by families, they understood the culture, they form friendships easily, and they had resources I couldn’t get access to. All of these led to my desire to learn and overcome. To be better, faster, stronger.

Over the past 10 years, my extreme growth mentality gave me real progress and success. I became top performer in multiple billion dollar companies, I delivered real results that impacts business decisions. People cared about what I think and what I have to say. I was no longer that underdog, but someone who is strong and walked with confidence.

However surprisingly, being knowledgable didn’t give me the happiness I was craving for. I was bringing so much value to everyone around me and yet I felt alone, and not understood. And it’s only then I realized that somehow along the journey of chasing to be better, faster, stronger, I lost sight of others.

Instead of “yes and…” I said “yes but….” so that the projects can move forward faster. Instead of giving space and time for people to come to their own conclusions, or have a few trial and errors…I drove conclusions, all with very well intentions. I was definitely optimizing for speed, but at what cost?

I remember when I was younger, I would ride bike with my mother and she would always ride right behind me. She never forced me to go any faster than I can and she never led the race even though she had the bigger wheel. If she were to just carry me, we’d definitely get to the destination faster, but I wouldn’t be able to grow and learn new skills. If she were to move at her own speed I would feel so tired catching up to her, and even when we finally cross the finish line together, I would feel so exhausted from catching up to her to appreciate the journey.

In a corporate world people tend to get rewarded for delivering quick business results, increasing efficiency, and do more with less. Many times people become so focused on getting to the outcome that they neglect the importance of carrying others with them, the importance of moving together.

Reflecting on this early in my career really helped me grow in the past few years and build the brand I want to have. It also gave me so much fulfillment in the process of watching others grow.
What an incredible lesson in leadership, decision making and humanity.
By: Alex Kusters
Tags: Leadership, Management And Leadership, Decision Making, Coaching

What an incredible lesson in leadership, decision making and humanity. Thanks for sharing, Mr. President. This is a must read for leaders, managers, coaches and parents!
DeServing Leadership in a Virtual World!
By: Bj Singh
Tags: Leadership, Leadership Development, Management, Leadership Skills, Management And Leadership

I have had to give much thought recently about leading virtual teams consistent with DeServing Leadership principles. EVENTEQ has been mostly virtual in 2020. My new additional role as President & CEO of Premier Event Technology has brought all I have learned about servant leadership and emotional intelligence to the forefront. Our teams are scattered across several locations, working from remote areas on varying schedules. What does it mean to serve a dispersed, virtual team?

As I have thought about how I can serve my teams virtually, a few ways come to mind:

Availability: This is perhaps the trickiest challenge since your teammates can’t just pop their heads into my office or sit down for a chat. But being available to help my teammates in their daily work is the best way to serve them. Being available to virtual teams isn’t about instant or all the time; it’s about making time for people.

Communication: It is human nature to want to feel connected, and sharing information frequently is one way to serve them. We continue to have weekly leadership meetings, daily sales meetings, and I attempt to be involved in my team’s activities in some fashion weekly.

Create a culture of ownership: Every teammate has their style and approach to work. Working remotely requires a higher degree of collaboration to create a greater output. It is essential to not micro-manage your teams and give them space and flexibility to work.

Encouragement: Perhaps the closest human need to feel connected is to be recognized and encouraged. A well-timed text message, tweet, or note is another way I can serve my virtual team. I continuously look for ways to recognize team members and their contributions and share client feedback.

Creating Opportunities: This one may not seem obvious, but I believe that the best way I can serve my virtual team is by working as hard as possible to create a viable, stable business. When we had to make tough decisions earlier this year due to COVID’s impact on the event industry, we set a very clear goal — that we would work as hard as we can to bring everyone back as quickly as possible. I wake up every day to pursue that goal and work in service to the team and our shared goals.

Making a consistent attempt to frame your days to serve your team can help serve dispersed teams with excellence. Keeping experience at the center is essential.
How to Give and Receive Feedback
Tags: Cognitive Science, Feedback, Management And Leadership, Remote Working

The ability to give and receive feedback is an essential component of professional success and personal growth. At Meseekna, we help individuals understand the optimal ways in which feedback can be structured and delivered to inform metacognitive growth.

Over five decades of research into human metacognition (our ability to think about our thinking) has shown us that there are five key elements to providing and receiving feedback.

1. Understand The Goals of Feedback

The first element is understanding the goals of feedback. Prior to providing feedback, it is important to have a clear understanding of the reason and desired impact of feedback. This will frame how the feedback is delivered and will be received.

2. Choose The Timing of Feedback

There are optimal time points to provide feedback which yield the best results. In order to find and utilize those time points successfully, a combination of emotional sensitivity, information management and strategy is required. An understanding of the interpersonal dynamic and goals is key to choosing the right moment for feedback.

3. Approach The Situation With Multiple Perspectives

A key determinant of good feedback is the ability to approach the situation with information that is diverse and robust. In giving feedback, it’s important to set the intention for the feedback, and gather information on the intention and execution of the individual’s action. In receiving feedback, it’s imperative to understand the intention of the feedback, and the perspective of the individual providing it.

4. Follow Through & Follow Up

Optimal feedback requires adequate follow up to ensure successful results. This follow up has several characteristics that mirror the situations around the initial feedback, including timing, frequency and context. Change takes time and patience.

5. Reflect, reflect, reflect

Feedback requires both parties to reflect on their role in giving or receiving feedback, how the process felt emotionally and cognitively, and how to successfully incorporate feedback into their professional relationship going forward.

These five steps can help make your next feedback session more productive and effective when implemented consistently and actively.

For more information on how Meseekna helps train managers to excel at these five steps, please contact us.
Give Up on People Faster
By: Jonathan Kelly
Tags: Rhinopreneur, Management, Management And Leadership, Management Mastery

As a business owner or manager, one of your core jobs is helping mentor and train those around you. This causes your business to be stronger, makes the people on your team better, and makes you a stronger and better leader. To mentor and train someone, you have to invest the most precious thing anyone has, time. The honest truth is that not everyone is worth your time and you need to move on. Give up on people not valuing your time and investment .

We live in a world where businesses act like a church, continuously trying to help people. They are wanting to give people a second, third, and sometimes even a fourth chance before giving up on them. Many people are not worth this investment. No matter how much time, effort, and knowledge are poured into them, they just are not going to do anything. Give up on people ! Learn to spot these kinds of people to avoid wasting your time with ungrateful, unworthy people.

Some people are worth your investment. They are worth mentoring, teaching, helping, and investing your time and energy. These people absorb everything that you are teaching them like a sponge. They are grateful for learning, they write things down, they actually implement and make changes, but the ones that don’t are just clogging up your life.

Now, if you are asking yourself, “Self, how do I spot these people faster?” Let me give you a few clear warning signs of these people:

Always ask for advice but never actually follow it. Never write anything down. Seems to never learn from their mistakes. Ask the same question SIXTEEN THOUSAND FREAKING TIMES! (I’m not upset) Show up late to anything and everything. Their name is Skylar. (Just kidding to any Skylar’s out there….maybe…)

All of these traits show that they do not value your time or advice, so do not give it to them! Learn to mentor deep and few not wide and shallow. Focus your energy and attention on those that value your wisdom and investment.

You are probably thinking, “Dear God — this is more harsh than the other Rhinopreneur posts I have read!” To this I say, “You’re welcome”.

Stop trying to change or save people, unless you are a church. Jesus is much better at that than you. Just give up on people faster — I bet you are better at that than Jesus!
What’s your one thing?
By: Phil Wall
Tags: Consistency, Time, Time Management, Change Your Life, Management And Leadership

What’s your one thing?

But do they?

I suppose that would depend on many different things. But who cares what I think about what they think anyway?

The real questions, the ones I ask myself, are: What matters to me? What do I want? Am I happy? Am I moving forward or slipping silently backwards? And ultimately, am I willing to do what it takes to change?

Einstein said, “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”

If I want to change my life, I have to get busy doing something differently than what I’m currently doing.

“what is something you do sporadically that if you did it consistently would change your life?”

This question totally changed how I looked at running my day and ultimately my life.

I have always disliked flossing my teeth. Still do. I used to floss sporadically. One day, my dentist asked me if I flossed. (Sometimes you have to appreciate when people already know the answer to their question.)

Long story short. My dentist scared me with a crazy story. I started flossing and haven’t stopped. I floss after every meal and before bed. Not surprisingly, my teeth and gums are now healthy and have been since I implemented consistent flossing.

I’m closing in on 50 years old and in the best shape of my life. I’ve always exercised consistently, but healthy eating was sporadic. I could never dump the chub (aka the Dad bod)!

Three years ago, I changed how I ate. I did it consistently. Within 100 days, I was 10 pounds lighter, shredded and in the best shape of my life.

Today, I am still 10 pounds lighter, and I am still ripped.

So what changed?

I listened to one of “those” people. (be open minded) I decided I wanted to be physically healthy. For me this means strong, fit, fast, agile, ripped. I took what I was doing well sporadically (the way I ate) and did it consistently.

If you want to make a change in your life, what can you do get started?
On Managing Information
Tags: Management And Leadership, Information Technology, Leadership Development, Information Management

One of the most valuable currencies we all have at any given moment in time is information. As managers and leaders, aggregating, vetting and distributing information is critical to fostering a collaborative culture and organized team.

At Meseekna, we study how individuals and teams manage information and in particular, how their management of information factors into their decision making. Through our years of research, we have identified a few common pitfalls teams make- and possible solutions.

Complete transparency: every member of the team has equal access to all the information the manager of the team has. In an effort to keep the workplace democratic, there is a surface level effort made to share information. However, as a result, the information is frequently prioritized and managed differently at an individual level. What one individual finds meaningful or relevant, another dismisses. This can lead to conflicting views on the most critical tasks or information to use in making decisions. Siloing: each member of the team guards their information closely. This leads to decisions made with incomplete or missing information, and a general frustrating sense of discord. Leader Access: information is shared first and primarily with those closest to the leader, leading to a network of informal power politics.

In reality, information should be managed in a combination of these environments. Each method has its place, depending on the context of the information at hand. There are few options leaders have to ensure that information is managed appropriately among the team members.

Create an informal pipeline of information internally. Identify team members who excel at information vetting and analysis, and cultivate opportunities for them to present information. This will encourage transparency, but remove the chaos of individual information management. Build opportunities for a team to come together and share information. Reward early information sharing clearly to reduce the urge to silo, and be wary of penalizing the sharing of early, incorrect information. Instead, frame it as a way to work together to vet information. Clearly identify a system for information management. Create specific questions within a team that an individual can answer in order to know if information is necessary and helpful to be shared. For example, does this information directly impact how someone else on the team completes a task?

Taking the time to assess how a team is managing information and consciously work on improving the flow of accurate, timely and relevant information through the organization can lead to outsized gains in productivity and strategic achievement.
How to Invest in Yourself!. Spending money is something which we…
By: The Sparkle Executive
Tags: Self Improvement, Leadership, Leadership Development, Management And Leadership, Self Love

Spending money is something which we all do. There are purchases which are impulsive, some which you love and some which you think why did I do that. Here are some purchases or investments which you will not regret!

Investing in your body and mind — Depending on who are you, this maybe something you have done or considered. This can be a number of things to improve your body, appearance or mind. For example; laser hair removal, teeth whitening, teeth straightening, taking time out, speaking to someone, maybe even cosmetic procedures which boost your confidence. I have spent money on permanent hair removal using electrolysis. It was expensive and painful, however, for me it was something I invested in for myself for the long term. Education — Educating yourself through a diploma or a certificate that you need, will be a great investment in yourself. You might need to do a course to further yourself in your career, which you might think it’s expensive, however, it will be worth your while in the future. I carried out some courses early in my career which cost me a lot of money. The companies I worked for didn’t want to invest in me whilst I was employed with them. I paid for the courses and this helped me further myself in my career. It may be a lot at the point in time, however, if it helps in the long run it’s worth it! Travel or Experiences—Buying new items will create happiness for a short period, you will then want something else. Spending your money on seeing the world and creating memories is priceless. You can carry out experiences such as going on a microflight, going up on a hot air balloon or anything with adrenaline! You will learn a lot about yourself, you will learn about different cultures and try new things. You can keep the memories for the rest of your life. Your experiences will change you. You can reminisce and laugh at the experiences you had, both good and bad!

What investments would you consider priceless? Leave your comments below!

Photo by Katie Harp on Unsplash
Certainty is Created by the Certain
By: Colin Gautrey
Tags: Leadership, Leadership Development, Management, Influencer Marketing, Management And Leadership

Imagine a horse race where all the runners and riders are raring to go, itching to get started but uncertain which way to go. In this race, there is no clear winning post, nor even a rail to guide them round the course. Nobody is certain in which direction to race.

Then suddenly, one rider makes a strong and visible move in one direction, riding hard, with certainty. The others still can’t see which way to go, but worried about losing out, they start chasing the certain one, believing they must know where the finishing line is.

Suddenly, the whole field is off, chasing in the same direction, wanting to beat the others to the winning post. And as they go, their belief, confidence and creativity creates the reality they are all chasing.

Thus, certainty is created by the certain.

How certain are you?

Nobody follows the uncertain, because they don’t know where they are going.

While you may not know where to go, looking uncertain is a leadership faux pas.

Deciding to follow a given path yet displaying uncertainty will likely damage confidence and make it less likely that your chosen path will yield the winning post.

Of course, arrogant naivety is the other side of this tricky little coin. A delicate dilemma, that as a leader you have to balance and decide.

Clear decision processes, reliable information, canvassed views, prophetic scenarios, all play a role in creating the certainty, and the point at which you need to flip.

Once you’ve decided, back it to the hilt and run hard for the finishing line.

Don’t fear the competition that starts to follow your lead, encourage it. The more people who have committed, the more it will come true.

All who follow will lend their weight and influence to making sure it is the right direction. Use your first mover advantage boldly, and focus on staying ahead of the field.

Strong leaders provide the certainty for others to follow.
Monetization Playbook #6 — how to create your strategic business overview in 6 milestone steps
By: Strat-E-Gym, The Monetization Manifesto
Tags: Pricing Strategy, Entrepreneurship, Strategy, Management And Leadership, Monetization

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The “need for closure” work problem
By: Ted Bauer
Tags: Future Of Work, Work, Psychology, Management And Leadership, Sociology

Need for closure is obviously a common term you hear around relationships, etc. But did you know the concept of need for closure is also a psychological construct about people in certain group dynamics, i.e. meetings? You can probably figure out what it means, but it’s a person who is essentially averse to brainstorming or “kicking around ideas.” They want to be done with that, get to the plan, and hit the execution/implementation stage. In essence, they are usually either (a) uncomfortable with uncertainty or (b) really like the check-boxes part of work, maybe because it’s slightly more clear than kicking around ideas. (“I do A then I do B!”)

The problem is, this need for closure personality doesn’t work so well in the modern business world. Well, in general.

Art Markman on need for closure and ideation

UT-Austin professor Art Markman wrote this article on brainstorming and why it’s always handled wrong. (That would be correct.) In it, he talks about a 6–3–5 method for ideation. You get six people at a table (6!), they each write down three ideas (3!), and they pass those ideas to the right. This happens five times (5!). Each time the next person adds to those previous ideas. Everyone participates, and there’s a lot of ideas out there when the exercise is done. Plus it’s not verbal so you avoid the forced brainstorming bullshit where everyone just repeats what the last person said.

The problem in these situations is that while the concept is good, a need for closure person is nervous and twitchy the whole time. Can’t we get onto the deliverables? Work is messy these days, though — not as cut-and-dried as putting widgets together in a plant. It’s “VUCA,” where the “U” even stands for uncertainty. Need for closure don’t like uncertainty, so maybe it’s not the best team member these days.

Two caveats, though!

Eventually, shit has to get done. You can’t throw ideas around all day. So if your need for closure team member is the one pushing that, good. That would be a good role for him/her.

The other major caveat is that we always talk about innovation, entrepreneurship, and ideas, etc. Fact is, though, companies are becoming more bureaucratic and largely hiring train-mover middle managers for those clogged ranks. And while we talk about wanting “innovative team members,” the fact is most companies still promote exclusively off execution. So if all anyone cares about is execution and a need for closure personality type is the one driving that, he/she might get promoted faster — even though his/her actions might be dooming the team to a lesser solution. Ironic, eh?

The big picture

Bottom line would be: work priorities are often unclear and managers often have no clue what they want on a project anyway. In those environments, I suppose ‘need for closure’ managers and team members aid us all. Because if it’s going to be a sense of urgency slopfest anyway, we might as well cut to the chase faster. And need for closure could help us there.
What the hell even happens at most companies all day?
By: Ted Bauer
Tags: Future Of Work, Strategy, Employee Engagement, Work, Management And Leadership

Just a quick rundown:

Seriously, though. What the ever-loving shit is happening in these organizations? This isn’t complicated. Get people. Train the people. Respect the people. Give them opportunities. Make money as a result of their growth and the product/service’s growth.

There’s way too much bullshit and ineffectiveness at most places.

Could you imagine going to a CEO and telling him he had a 95% failure rate in his business? He’d smack you in the mouth. But you know what? He does. Hiring and strategy (see above). Now tell him, “Oh, you’ve got a 82% failure rate among the guys and women who manage your execution-level workers.” He jab a knife in your thigh. But it’s true. And we’ve all worked in those places.

An operational or fiscal failure rate of even 0.00001 would probably get an all-hands meeting called and people flown in from various locations, but the stuff above just keeps happening.

Now, I know automation is coming and the robots may take 1 in every 2 jobs. So people may phase out of work eventually, but probably not entirely and it’ll take a bit of time for that to be a reality in most orgs. We can get this right. But we don’t. We honestly don’t seem to care.

And here’s the true bullshit from the “thought leaders” and influencers and futurists and future of work experts: you absolutely cannot have a conversation about any of this stuff — what work should look like, etc. — without starting from the above. This is the reality for most people. No strategy, terrible managers, hiring whiffs left and right. Any discussion of where we could go has to begin by acknowledging how presently eff’ed we are in a lot of companies. See above.

Want to make this better? Let’s do that.