Hidden option D

The title of this blog post comes from a joke I heard long ago, about picking up a spouse at the airport.

Essentially, the man had three viable options and he was wrong no matter which he chose, since the “right” answer was hidden option D,  involving waiting at the gate with flowers (clearly a pre 9/11 joke).

I find myself thinking of this joke often, as it relates to what matters in our jobs, and how we choose to spend our time.

I find that ofttimes people perceive a conspiracy against them, where the real problem is that they have failed to accurately assess their options.

In other words, they did not know about hidden option D.

It is rare that I talk to a company or a manager about how they determine the right people for key roles, where they don’t use some amount of  hidden option D,  in their mental math.

Whether it’s the gets things done competency, or the ability to appropriately speak up and be heard, there are things that matter that are not often well articulated.

In fact, like many things, the reason that these options are hidden is that they are not well understood by the decision maker themselves.  They are often non-verbal and “gut feel” elements that weigh very heavily on the choice.

If you find yourself working hard, achieving results and not moving forward, I recommend you spend some time making sure that you have checked for hidden option D.

I would guess you have accidentally missed it, and no one is telling you.

What’s Your IQ?

What is your Innovation Quotient (IQ) or what could also be called your Creativity Quotient (CQ)?

The Glass Hammer hosted Women in IT: Staying Technical and Getting to the Top and held a recent panel discussion at Goldman Sachs‘ West Street headquarters.  The panel featured Dr. Caroline Simard, Vice President of Research and Executive Programs at the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology.  On Innovation, “Dr. Simard said that her research showed that a disproportionate amount of women did not consider themselves innovators, compared to men. She said that a lot of this comes down to societal conditioning, and that, “We all have a responsibility to engage younger women in the innovation process.” 

Another panelist, Inna Pomeranz, Technology Fellow and chair of the WIT Technical Pillar at Goldman Sachs,  commented, “It may be a misconception of innovation as invention. In the business world it’s not necessarily about inventing as it is about solving problems in a new and creative ways that bring value to our business.” How can one become a better innovator, she asked? “Open up to new ideas and new solutions. Create atmosphere where ideas can flow. Innovation means risk – without risk there is no reward. Take more risks. I love change. Get involved with strategic initiatives for the firm that bring value to your business and provide an opportunity to influence the organization and reinforce your position as a change leader There is always risk. We all can make mistakes. I think we need to think about how to take calculated risk and how we can mitigate that risk.”

You can read more about the panel discussion on innovation and other related topics at The Glass ceiling’s blog post of the event, written by Melissa J. Anderson (New York City).

When I was in business school (ahem, just a few years back), one of the top lessons I learned from my mentor was about creativity in the workplace.  She asked me if I considered myself creative.  I said, “no, not really”, as I always associated creativity with artistic abilty or the ability to design something like an advertising ad (she happened to be an exec at an advertising agency).  She instantly corrected me and said that creativity was not only about artistic ability, it also meant being creative with your  problem solving and thinking out side the box around issues. I shifted my mindset from that point forward and decided I was creative.  And I’m expanding that to include innovative as well.

Don’t make the same mistake I did early on in my career.  Rather, be sure to get those creative juices flowing early and often.  And don’t forget to leave some breadcrumbs of your innovations along the way.

The Carnival of HR – Online Degree Edition is up!

Jennifer McClure over at Unbridled Talent has posted The Carnival of HR – Online Degree Edition. Jennifer has assembled over 35 contributed posts on a huge range of HR topics, organized them by topic, and written a helpful, brief intro to each, so check it out.

Some notable posts include:

• Tanmay Vora’s Leadership Belief and Building ‘People-Centric’ Culture
• Jennifer Miller’s The Perfect Corporate Culture Doesn’t Exist
• Erik Samdahl’s Inclusion Measurement – Tracking the Intangible
  
• Dan McCarthy’s Make Sure You “Hug” Your Top Performers During Times of Change
• Aaron Ziff’s If Lebron Went Corporate: A Cautionary Tale
• Mark Stelzner’s Winning the War on Talent

and as a reader, I recommend also checking out:

• The Devon Group’s Ten Minutes with Vinnie Mirchandani – Industry Expert
• Trish McFarlane’s Top Summer Reading for Business Leaders

This Carnival of HR offers a terrific opportunity for you to get a great sample of a variety of perspectives, thinking, and just plain good writing. Who knows? Maybe you’ll discover a great blog you never heard of before.

Picking and delivering a winner

I can say with [no] humility that I’ve had the opportunity to build winning products.

Multiple times.

There are several ways to define winning, but the one that is most universally accepted is when a product makes money.

When a product makes money there is a kind of love that comes that is really unmatched.   I wish this love for all my development friends.  Here are a few things I think that help increase the probability that this will happen for you.

• Make sure you validate your market before you start.  This is easiest when you have experienced strategists but if you don’t, do your own homework.  Spending any amount time on something that people don’t care enough to spend money to solve, is not going to optimize your results.

• Align other teams to a shared success.  The best and most lucrative projects I have done are ones where others get to show their best work through my delivery.   Whether that is the documentation group, the performance and benchmarking team, the user experience group the training group or the technology team.  The more people who want the project to succeed, the better result you will have bringing your vision to light.

• Really know your customer.   Both the customer who is buying your product and the person who is using your product.  Make sure your product makes them feel smart.  A product that makes the customer feel smart is the one they want to buy.

• Expect that the deliverable will  be much more than code.   Products that make money are those that are well understood and ready to be sold.  References, road-maps, white papers, examples, demos, these deliverables are what can accelerate or stall a product ramp.  Never leave these to chance.  Make sure they are worthy of your products and be ready and willing to personally do what it takes to get them right.

• Have a hook but not only a hook- you need something that captures the imagination and attention of the sales team but also delivers actual value.  The more you have of both, the better you will find your long term results.

• Once you have done your homework, and know you are right, don’t lose your faith. In the time from idea to delivery there tends to be a lot of thrash and second guessing.  My best wins were where I did my homework first and then held firm to my belief.  In the end, it’s the delivery that differentiates the women from the girls [grin].

So for all my friends who apply their talents to creating the new and the needed, I wish you all unmatched success.  For I really do know you have earned it, and even if the money goes to your company and not to you directly, I am sure that the fame will more than make up for it!

Upside of a global organization

Participating in a global workforce can be tough - it takes time to get into the groove of conference calls, strange working times, and cultural translations.  I learned this first-hand as I transitioned from PeopleSoft to Oracle 5 years ago.  Sure, PeopleSoft was “Global,” but it wasn’t optimized globally.  A sprinkling of virtual team members might have connected into a meeting at headquarters on occasion, their advice tapped into via email.  Their expertise was focused on their particular local area and work was rather isolated.

Not so at Oracle.  Not only are there global people, but there are global teams. Infrastructure and processes revolve around the fact that large groups of people are based throughout the world.  And so, we are optimized in two ways: 1) the ability to connect/collaborate virtually with anyone in the world at any time, and 2) the ability to leverage local working teams such that entire projects/issues/opportunities are presented and fully dealt with independent of “headquarters.”

Optimizing for 1) is fairly straightforward.  It involves good technology and reasonably flexible people.  Optimizing for 2) is much harder and takes a level of organizational maturity.  It requires that leaders consider the talent based in particular geographic regions and how best to organize them based on skills, leadership, timezone, and organizational network/connection.  It also requires that high level goals & values are communicated and understood globally.  Meg provides some great advice for managers here.

Building a global organization is not for the faint of heart, but the upside is tremendous.  I am continuously awed by how great it can be.  For example, last Thursday night as I was heading to bed, I saw an email from my manager that presented one of those issues/opportunities.  This was something that needed to be solved by the next morning; however, it was not something I could solve on my own, even if I stayed up for hours.  Instead, I contacted a colleague in India who would be able to push through the necessary channels throughout his day (my night).  The next morning I woke up and felt like the tooth fairy had left me money under my pillow – my colleagues had solved the problem and we were able to take advantage of the terrific opportunity before us.

Many thanks to Ravi and Sai for the shared goal and super teamwork!

photo source: i.telegraph.co.uk

The July 4th Leadership Development Carnival is up!

Dan McCarthy, the founder of the Leadership Development Carnival over at Great Leadership, has posted the July 4th Leadership Development Carnival. Dan has assembled over 35 contributed posts on a huge range of Leadership topics and has also written a helpful, brief intro to each, so check it out.

Some notable posts include:

• Jennifer V. Miller’s “Socrates Was On to Something”
• Jon Ingham’s Chasing Stars and Socialism
• Working Girl’s Is Attrition a Key Component of Retention?
• Miki Saxon’s How to Improve Your Management Skill
• Anne Perschel’s What NOT to Learn from Zappos
• Kevin W. Grossman’s Valuing meaningful work always plays better to the bottom line

and for both the content as well as the comments, the insightful as well as eye-opening…

• SHRM 2010: Observations & Conclusions from Mark Stelzner

This Leadership Development Carnival offers a terrific opportunity for you to get a great sample of a variety of perspectives, thinking, and just plain good writing. Who knows? Maybe you’ll discover a great blog you never heard of before.

Photo by Daniel Peckham

When understated becomes a liability

I’m going to state right now you might dislike this post.  The same way you didn’t appreciate being told about Santa Claus.

It’s nice to be in the dark sometimes, but there comes a time in your career when you must decide to [as my good friend Laura's husband told her] “man up” and see the world as it exists, not as you want it to be.

Today’s harsh reality topic is that your strategy of being understated is limiting your career.

Here are a few truths

• People that claim to be good at things they are not are posers.
• People who do not claim to be good at things they are, become invisible

It is not arrogant to know what you do uniquely well.  It is not valuable to the organization to be invisible or underutilized.

Finding that perfect job fit, and doing your best work, is best facilitated when the people who are in charge know who you are and what you can do.  If your accomplishments and abilities are not known to the organization you should get a plan to fix that.

Quickly.

Or, it’s possible some poser is taking your great opportunity.  And that would suck more than knowing Santa isn’t coming this year.

Rationalize my decision … please

I finally got around to reading Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely – a behavioral economics book that Mark and Ken have been recommending for awhile.  Dan’s book shows via extensive experimentation that a good deal of emotion (and predictable emotion, at that) goes into decisions – even those as obviously rational as price-based decisions.

Dan and his colleagues have done loads of experiments, but my favorite bit from the book is a personal anecdote.  Dan had just got rid of his motorcycle and was set to buy his first car.  He was married and planning to have kids soon.  With this in mind, he turned to a car advice website and took a blind survey – the questions ranged from preferred safety ratings to desired breaking distance to number of passengers.  15 minutes later, Dan had his answer.  A Ford Taurus.  What??  He didn’t know what car to buy, but he knew for sure he didn’t want a Ford Taurus.  He then did what any rational human being would do – started hitting the back button and changing his answers until he got a more “accurate and appropriate” response.  A Mazda Miata, as it turned out.

In reflection, Dan wrote:

“The elaborate computerized justification process might seem artificial and extreme but I suspect that the same basic elements end up playing out in many of our important decisions.  This experience taught me that sometimes we want our decisions to have a rational veneer when, in fact, they stem from a gut feeling – what we crave deep down.”

Of course, this got me thinking about business software.  The best business software enables better decisions … and the best decision-making tools understand the human nuance Dan refers to above.  Rather than throwing a bunch of new information at people and then making a decision for them, an effective tool takes information the individual already knows, organizes it, augments it, and gradually discloses discrepancies.  The decision maker feels in control, feels more confident and justified, and ultimately makes the *right* decision.

A business leader’s gut instinct shows him where to go and the effective decision-making tool shows him why and what opportunities are available to him.

Have you ever hit the back button on a survey answer?

photo source: cartoonstock.com