Sales Meetings Thoughts

5 Meetings You’re Doing Wrong

When done well, meetings allow people to do their jobs more effectively.  In practice, though, meetings rarely produce enough benefits to justify the time they take up, giving credence to the cynics who describe meetings as “the most frustrating exercises in pointlessness ever to have been invented.”

It doesn’t have to be this way.  A recent Google Ventures presentation offered tips that startups and multinational corporations alike have been using to make meetings as pleasant—and productive—as possible.  Below, we distill their insights about the five types of meetings that you’re probably doing wrong and suggest how to turn your situation around.

Meeting #1:  The Brainstorming Session

You’re hoping to:  Solve a tough problem with the knowledge and creativity of a diverse group of colleagues.

What goes wrong:  Chaos ensues.  One person has no idea what the meeting is about, so you spend the first ten minutes updating them.  A few people dominate the conversation while others struggle to contribute or simply stay quiet.  One person thinks they already know how to solve the problem and spends the entire meeting lobbying the group to go with their proposal.

Fixes:

Keep them small.  Better to have three separate meetings with four people than one big meeting with twelve people.

Keep them scoped.  It’s important to know what problem you’re there to solve, but it’s even more important to know what problems you aren’tthere to solve.  If you aren’t clear about that, someone will inevitably push the conversation to an inappropriately high altitude, e.g., “I know we’re here to build a database of customer advocates, but this discussion is bringing up fundamental issues with our CRM system we should discuss.”  (That discussion may be worth having; a brainstorming session just isn’t the time for it.)

Designate a facilitator.  It’s impossible to be deeply creative while also watching the clock and tracking group dynamics.  Let the facilitator take care of ensuring that the meeting is running on schedule and that everyone is participating an appropriate amount.

Make sure you want a brainstorming session.  If there’s a decision to be made, run it like a decision meeting (see below).  “Brainstorming” meetings are often decision meetings in disguise; the person organizing the meeting wants to make a certain decision, but they also want to seem like a collaborative colleague, so they call the meeting a “brainstorming session.”  Don’t let this happen.

Meeting #2:  Decision Making

You’re hoping to:  Make a decision based on evidence and your colleagues’ views.

What goes wrong:  Gridlock.  You spend time debating whether a decision needs to be made right now, you debate who actually deserves to be making the decision, and someone makes a plea to gather more evidence.  In short, you spend remarkably little time debating the decision itself.  If, despite all of this, you actually make a decision, those who disagree with it may sabotage the process by going along with the decision half-heartedly.

Fixes:

Decide on the decision ahead of time.  A decision making meeting is not the place to debate the decision on the table, so decide this beforehand and include it in the agenda.  Avoid weasely, vague language here.  The meeting isn’t to “decide on a new organizational structure”; it’s to “decide whether to adopt the proposed reporting structure for global account managers.”

Decide on the decider ahead of time.  Most people at a decision meeting should be reviewing the decision and offering their thoughts to the decider.  Having a power struggle over who the decider is needlessly derails decision meetings.  Determine the decider—or, if necessary, deciders—and explicitly state their identity in the agenda.

Make escalation okay.  If someone really doesn’t like the decision a decider made, there should be a way to express that concern besides trying to stall the decision out.  Encourage people with strong objections to escalate their concerns and bring in more senior colleagues rather than engaging in silent subterfuge.

Meeting #3:  Update Meetings

You’re hoping to:  Keep a group of people updated on each other’s workloads through weekly/bi-weekly meetings.

What goes wrong:  Everybody mentally checks out; nothing valuable happens.  Half of the attendees check their e-mail while a junior employee blathers on about his embellished accomplishments of the past week.  The 200-word follow-up e-mail contains all of the information anyone could have gotten out of that hour long meeting.

Fixes:

Only have them when necessary.  If all of the organization information could be sent out in an e-mail, just send it out in an e-mail.  You can always call meetings when something substantial is happening.

Get team updates through stand-ups/e-mail snippets.  A team can learn what everyone is up to without having an hour-long meeting.  Consider Google’s “stand-ups”:  ten-minute meetings where small teams of ~8 people stand in a circle and say what they accomplished yesterday, what they’re working on today, and what roadblocks they’re expecting that a colleague/manager could help them overcome.  Prepare to be amazed by how quickly meetings end when everyone is standing rather than sitting.  Alternatively, use a program likeiDoneThis to send out a daily digest of what everyone has been up to.  (E-mail snippets like this are particularly useful for remote teams.)

Sunset the meeting every four months.  The calendar planners for update meetings are typically set to recur indefinitely, which allows the meeting to continue on long after everyone has realized that it is useless.  If you decide to do an update meeting, make the planner end after four months.  At that time, you can reexamine the meeting to make sure that it’s still necessary, that the right people are attending, that the current time still works for everyone, etcetera.

Meeting #4:  One-on-Ones

You’re hoping to:  Check in with your direct reports and preemptively address any performance concerns.

What goes wrong:  The meeting is postponed again and again.  Something more important comes up, so you keep canceling your one-on-one meeting until you have to deliver that official performance review.  Or you keep your one-on-one meeting but spend the time dealing with an ongoing project rather than the higher-level issues you intended to discuss.

Fixes:

Just do them.  One-on-ones are like preventative checkups with your doctor:  they allow you to spot and address problems before they turn into something ugly.  Even if you don’t think there’s anything pressing to discuss, have the meeting anyway.  A conversation about sports can quickly morph into a discussion about a staffing issue or a lingering source of frustration.

Walk and talk.   It’s difficult to be fully engaged in a conversation when you’re in a stuffy office or a dimly-lit conference room.  If the weather permits, take a walk around the block or down to your neighborhood coffee shop.  The change of scenery will open up the conversational floodgates.

Meeting #5:  All Hands Meeting

You’re hoping to:  Get your entire company to pay attention to something at the same time.

What goes wrong:  People only pay attention when something major is happening:  layoffs, a reorganization, new executive leadership, etcetera.

Fixes:

Increase the frequency and fun.  Don’t just do quarterly presentations of financials and new strategic directions.  Have these every week or two, paired with free snacks and drinks, budget permitting.  Cover new products, humorous anecdotes, and success stories in a personal, approachable way.

Use video.  You should be including time for Q&A, and Q&A over video is much more engaging that Q&A over a teleconference line.

Schedule during downtime.  People won’t login to a webcast at 10 am on a Monday when they’re digging out of their e-mail inboxes.  Try Friday afternoon or right before closing time

A la Memoria de Ángel Fernández

A todos los que quieren y aman el fútbol…”
Ángel Fernández

¡Enorme…! A la memoria de Ángel Fernández

No quiero describir mi infancia como dramática, pero sin duda fue un período gris y con muchas limitaciones, determinada por la escasez y la austeridad. Considero que esto me llevó a ser tímido, encontrando en el fútbol un refugio social. En aquella época donde era un deportado psicológico, la primera señal de rescate fue la voz de un hombre que narraba partidos de fútbol como si fueran gestas de La Iliada, era la voz de Ángel Fernández.

No existía otro deseo en mis primeros años de vida que ver “el juego del hombre”, como él lo llamaba y no creo ser el único que soñó cientos de veces marcar un gol espectacular (soñado) en la final de la copa de mundo representado a México y remontando el marcador adverso en el último minuto. Lo exclusivo de esos sueños es que mis goles eran narrados por el sonido cautivador de su voz.

Ángel vivió un momento decisivo en la cultura de las masas, el paso de la radio a la televisión. Él siendo un locutor de radio entendió que no era importante precisar el rumbo de la pelota y que la televisión tenía otros desafíos. Él no cayó en la ruta fácil de explicar lo que el espectador está viendo. Su lírica se desentendió del discurso objetivo para trasladarlo a la retórica más vertiginosa que se haya escuchado. El estadio Azteca era un templo para la imaginación y el encanto. Transformó lo simple en una epopeya donde los involucrados desconocían a ciencia cierta la descripción de sus hazañas.

Ángel fue un enemigo de la mesura, creó un tejido narrativo en el que intervenían poemas, anécdotas, hechos históricos, invenciones de su portentosa imaginación, canciones y epigramas que delataban el eléctrico estado de su mente. Su locura también era impredecible. ¿Cómo olvidar cuando el joven Cristóbal Ortega debutó en el América?, él dijo: “Señoras y señores, hemos vivido en el error, ¡América descubrió a Cristóbal!”. Sus alardes se convirtieron en máximas… Un lateral alemán avanzando con enjundia: “Ahí viene Hans Peter Briegel, que en alemán significa Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Alemania…”. Un jugador se encaraba con otro: “El Alacrán” Jiménez, “echa mano a sus fierros como queriendo pelear”. Enrique Borja, de célebre nariz, se convirtió en el “Gran Cirano” y, Evanivaldo Castro Cabinho, multicampeón goleador que reía al fallar goles, en el “Hombre de la Sonrisa Fácil”.

Ángel fue el “sacerdote” por excelencia bautizando incluso a equipos enteros: El Cruz Azul de la bella época (“la máquina que pita y pita”) se transformó en la “máquina celeste”, imagen que desbancó el fabril mote de “Cementeros”. El recién ascendido equipo de la Universidad de Guadalajara (1973) quien para enfrentar su primer campaña en 1ra. división se reforzó contratando a 3 grandes jugadores brasileros, dos de ellos de raza negra, les llamó “Los Leones Negros”. El mote tuvo tanto impacto que a la comunidad de la U de G así se les conoce desde aquella temporada.

Y así, decenas de jugadores que han pasado a la posteridad por su apodo y, en muchos casos, no precisamente por su calidad futbolística. Nunca rayó en lo ridículo de la obviedad pues los apodos eran descriptivos, producto de su gran capacidad de observación. De algunos jugadores no recuerdo sus apellidos: “El Inspector” lateral del Cruz Azul cuyo parecido con el personaje de la Pantera Rosa era de caricatura. “El Superman” Marín, por su complexión, espectacularidad e imbatibilidad en el marco del Cruz Azul. Miguel Ángel Cornero “El Confesor” por su rudeza al defender en la zaga del América. “El Cocodrilo” Valdés por sus constantes “clavados” en el área enemiga simulando una falta punible. “El Monito” Rodríguez por su fealdad. Javier Sánchez Galindo “El Pierna Fuerte” por sus aguerridas barridas y duras entradas. Osvaldo Castro “Pata Bendita” de célebres impactos con la pierna izquierda. “El Pimienta” Rico, tardé algunos años en entender el porqué del mote, la traducción al inglés es Black Pepper y Jesús Rico era muy moreno.”El Patrulla” Barbadillo ala derecha de los Tigres. “La Cobra” J.J. Muñante por sus ”piques” en el ataque del extinto Atlético Español. Leonardo Cuellar “El león de la Metro”, su exuberante cabellera a lo “afro” típico de los finales de los 70’s, bien pudo ser la envidia del león emblemático de la Metro Goldwin Meyer.

En plan humorístico, Ángel ofrecía falsas explicaciones de lo real. Recuerdo en México 70, cuando la cámara se acercó a la selección de la Unión Soviética justo al pecho donde estaban las siglas CCCP, él comentó: “¿Saben lo que quiere decir? ¡Cucurrucucú Paloma!”

Hay algo que antecede a toda inclinación literaria: el descubrimiento de las palabras como símbolos mágicos. De repente, el idioma utilitario se convierte en un mecanismo de invención. Concedemos poca importancia a este rito de paso, que suele provenir de un estímulo popular, prejuicioso sinónimo de lo intrascendente. Y sin embargo, el rumbo de una vida puede cambiar con el grito de un hombre en el estadio. Porque Ángel gritaba como nadie lo ha hecho jamás. Él era capaz de lo inusitado, después de romper el record de duración de la palabra gol, hacía una pausa para que se oyera “la voz del Azteca”. Su don nato estaba también en el timbre de su voz, el cual era poderoso, convertía el juego más aburrido en epopeya: “Se hunde la nave… niños y mujeres primero”

Él fue el primero en narrar al lado de un verdadero crack del fútbol, el mismísimo “Rey” Pelé en la copa del mundo de Argentina ‘78. El reto consistió en traducir y transmitir las enseñanzas del otrora rey del fútbol, pues Edson Arantes no articulaba una frase entendible, vamos, era más fácil anotar un gol a Sepp Maier desde el medio campo. Pelé hizo celebre la frase “Sin duda ninguna” que usaba como muletilla y que a mi hermano Alfonso y a mí, nos hacía reír ante la estupefacta mirada de mi mamá.

Pero Ángel Fernández no solo es fútbol, hace unos quince años le escuchaba en un programa de radio junto con Fernando Marcos e invitados, discutían de todo. Le recuerdo hablar sobre la correspondencia erótica entre Joyce y Nora Barnacle, la forma de vestirse de Bill Clinton, los amoríos clandestinos de los hermanos Kennedy con la Monroe, la secreta geometría del billar, la pintura de María Izquierdo de quien fue un temprano coleccionista.

Esta curiosidad sin freno lo llevó a coleccionar y articular datos insólitos. Cuando el portero alemán Schumacher cometió una escalofriante falta y estuvo a punto de matar al delantero Patrick Battiston de Francia en el partido de la semifinal de España ‘82, él exclamó: “Le hundió el acero hasta donde dice Solingen”. Algunos años más tarde estando en Alemania, supe que los mejores cuchillos alemanes llevan en la hoja el nombre de la ciudad donde fueron construidos: Solingen.

Ángel fue también grande como escritor deportivo. Recuerdo con mucho cariño aquella época cuando mi Papá compraba El Heraldo de México y leía, siendo yo un niño, su columna “Crónicas Heráldicas” en la sección de deportes. Pasé horas admirando como entretejía la relación de hechos históricos con lo frívolo del fútbol.

Su profunda sensibilidad popular hizo posible que los más grandes jugadores de fútbol, boxeadores y atletas de su tiempo, fueran transportados al Olimpo por su retórica delirante. Y así, eran dioses que descendían los domingos para convertirse en hombres, emulando a Hércules y hacer posible lo irreal tan solo con la magia de sus palabras. Ante la pasión de la multitud, entendió el sentido profundo del fútbol, su imán simbólico. En todo momento vinculó hechizos momentáneos con perdurables mitologías. Siguiendo al antropólogo Desmond Morris, se refería al fútbol como “el juego del hombre”. El juego de Ángel fue el de la palabra.

Desde su muerte he recordado su singular descripción de los hechos, pues en él, percibo el rasgo más noble de la cultura popular ya que repartió generosamente la inspiración de su mente. La obra de Ángel Fernández está en quienes recordamos sus fogonazos, en la alegría de su narrativa almacenada en nuestra memoria y en nuestros recuerdos, de encontrarle el valor a lo trivial, de amar a un deporte tan sencillo y fácil de jugar. También en aquellos que tratan de impostar la voz para llegar a ser como él, poniendo apodos a diestra y siniestra y que además, repiten sus hallazgos sin saber que nacieron hace años producto de una mente prodigiosa. “Enorme GOOOOL” y “¡Me pongo de pie!”, exclama el locutor ante un lance meritorio.

Importa poco que yo me ponga de pie ante sus méritos pero importa mucho que se ponga de pie el niño solitario de una calle polvorienta al que le revelo “El juego del Hombre”.

Álvaro Galindo Barraza
Ariete_09

Darwinismo

¿Es el darwinismo una teoría esencialmente atea? ¿Constituye el Diseño inteligente una alternativa más favorable al teísmo? Comienzo el artículo adelantando mi respuesta a estas dos preguntas: No, y no. El darwinismo NO es una teoría atea, ni una teoría que deba necesariamente inclinar a sus partidarios hacia el ateísmo, ni que resulte más fácil de conjugar con una cosmovisión atea, ni más difícil de conjugar con el teísmo que la propuesta del llamado “diseño inteligente”, que se discute de un tiempo a esta parte en los EEUU. Después de este arranque tan rotundo, el lector tiene derecho a esperar una justificación por mi parte. Y, aunque no es fácil ofrecerla dentro de los límites de un artículo, voy a intentar saldar esta deuda en lo que sigue. Comencemos con algunas definiciones (que, por supuesto, tienen que ser telegráficas, y, por tanto, bastante toscas): Por “evolucionismo” entiendo la tesis de que, a lo largo de una historia de miles de millones de años, se ha ido dando una sucesión de especies vivas en nuestro planeta. De manera que las especies que lo pueblan actualmente derivan del algún modo de otras especies anteriores, hasta remontarse a una, o varias formas vivas iniciales, seguramente unicelulares (o tal vez incluso más sencillas que todos los tipos de células que se conocen hoy día). Por “darwinismo” entiendo la propuesta de que el único (o el principal) mecanismo que ha guiado la historia de la evolución de la vida es el de la selección natural sobre variaciones aleatorias. Dicho de un modo algo más extenso: los descendientes de cada ser vivo presentan variaciones aleatorias respecto a su(s) progenitor(es) en algunos rasgos estructurales hereditarios, y algunas variaciones resultan útiles para la supervivencia del individuo que las posee, o de su especie; los individuos cuya estructura presenta tales ventajas, tienden a dejar más descendencia que los otros, y así, los cambios se van acumulando, y dando lugar a la historia de la vida. Por DI, o “diseño inteligente”, entiendo una corriente de autores (de momento casi exclusivamente norteamericanos) que afirman que hay aspectos estructurales en los seres vivos que poseen un tipo de complejidad (bien sea “complejidad irreducible” [Behe] o “complejidad especificada” [Dembski]) que no puede haber sido producto del mecanismo darwinista de selección natural, sino que implica que las estructuras en cuestión han sido diseñadas inteligentemente, del modo que sea. Los partidarios del DI no niegan, por tanto, en general, que se haya dado una evolución de las formas de vida. Lo que niegan es que esta evolución se explique de manera completa, o principal, por medio del mecanismo de variaciones aleatorias y selección propuesto por Darwin. En el tránsito de unas especies a otras similares puede ser que el mecanismo darwinista resulte decisivo, pero las grandes novedades estructurales no surgen por ensayo y error, sino por diseño. Por “teísmo” entiendo, de modo general, una imagen del mundo según la cual la realidad fundamental no es la materia inerte sino una inteligencia creadora. Es decir, se trata de un planteamiento que considera que la inteligencia no es sólo un atributo particular del hombre, o de algunos tipos de seres vivos, sino que este atributo constituye el reflejo de una mente fundante de la naturaleza. Por “ateísmo” entiendo justo la cosmovisión opuesta, es decir, la que postula que la inteligencia es tan sólo un derivado, y que la materia inerte constituye la realidad fundamental. Hasta aquí las definiciones. (No son lo que se dice muy matizadas, pero creo que valdrán). Sentadas estas bases, quizá la primera pregunta que a uno se le ocurre sea la siguiente: ¿por qué tendría que ser el darwinismo una teoría atea, o que tiende a generar ateísmo? Pero esta pregunta no nos proporciona, en realidad, una buena forma de empezar a abordar el asunto. Y no lo hace, porque el problema al que nos enfrentamos no es de principio, sino que es histórico. El darwinismo no constituye una teoría atea de suyo, por esencia (sobre esto volveré enseguida), pero sí que constituye una propuesta que fomentó, sobre todo en el siglo XIX, el ateísmo. ¿Por qué? Por la sencilla razón de que Darwin ofreció una explicación natural −y, en cierto sentido, “mecánica”− del origen de la arquitectura de tejidos, órganos y funciones de los seres vivos, siendo así que la “teología física” inglesa del siglo XVIII (una corriente que tiene su inicio nada menos que en Newton), había llevado a concebir los vivientes como una especie de relojes cuya arquitectura −el engarce armonioso de sus órganos para realizar las funciones vitales− sólo podría explicarse por la acción directa de una divinidad, que crearía cada especie al modo en que un artesano relojero compone las piezas de sus creaciones. Tan extendida estaba esta idea, y, sobre todo, tanto habían insistido en ella autores como Paley, que la empleaban como la prueba decisiva de la existencia de Dios, que el hallazgo de la explicación darwinista alternativa del origen de las especies tuvo por fuerza que convertirse en un gran refuerzo de la corriente atea que ya comenzaba en el siglo XIX a ser pujante. Pero estamos hablando de hechos del siglo XIX, y ahora nos encontramos en el siglo XXI. Y deberíamos haber alcanzado entretando una cantidad de información y una perspectiva lo suficientemente amplia como para poder analizar las relaciones entre evolución, darwinismo, teísmo y ateísmo sin los elementos coyunturales y emocionales que enturbiaron el asunto antaño. Modifiquemos entonces la pregunta inicial, y cuestionémosnos bajo qué circunstancias sería legítimo decir que el darwinismo es una teoría atea, o que tiende a generar ateísmo. Puesto que el teísmo postula una inteligencia creadora como fuente de la realidad natural, el darwinismo se opondría al teísmo si contribuyera a hacer innecesaria esta inteligencia. Y, de hecho, justo esa fue la impresión que inicialmente dio la teoría a aquellos que se hallaban bajo la influencia de la “teología física” anglosajona (incluido el propio Darwin). El argumento que movió a estas gentes es sencillo: Si no hace falta Relojero que diseñe la estructura de los distintos tipos de seres vivos, entonces Dios es innecesario. Sin embargo, a estas alturas, me parece obvio que deberíamos estar en condiciones de reconocer que una cosa es postular una inteligencia fundante de la naturaleza, y que le imprime a la misma un orden racional y tendente a unos fines (entre otros, la generación de criaturas racionales) −lo que implica que la naturaleza posee un diseño global−, y otra muy distinta es postular un Dios relojero que diseña y crea las especies una a una, a mano, por decirlo de algún modo. Lo primero es necesario para el teísmo cristiano, mientras que lo segundo no. ¿Contribuye, pues, el escenario darwinista a eliminar la idea de una racionalidad y un diseño global del universo? A mi modo de ver, no sólo no contribuye a esto, sino que el diseño y la racionalidad subyacente del universo se ve con particular nitidez si nos situamos en la perspectiva darwinista. Y la razón de ello es que el mecanismo de variaciones aleatorias y selección natural no podría funcionar, o, al menos, no podría generar la enorme fecundidad de formas de vida que existe en nuestro mundo, si no fuera porque la naturaleza posee una estructura de leyes y constantes finísimamente ajustadas que permiten el desarrollo, en primer lugar, de elementos y compuestos químicos en general, y en segundo lugar, de una química del carbono de potencialidades arquitectónicas asombrosas. Bastaría un ligerísimo cambio en algunas de las constantes o leyes fundamentales de la naturaleza para que todo esto se viniera abajo. Y los físicos encuentran, una y otra vez, que la mayor parte de las variaciones de la estructura del universo que se ensayan teóricamente, y se simulan en ordenadores, sólo producen universos inertes y aburridos, sin ningún tipo de estructuras complejas. Dicho de otro modo, para que el mecanismo darwinista sea fecundo, se requiere que actúe sobre una materia de características muy especiales. Y justo esas características las posee la materia de nuestro mundo. Este hecho es tan notorio, que últimamente se ha puesto de moda, en el pensamiento materialista, el postulado de la existencia de una enorme multiplicidad de universos, para tratar de interpretar el aparente diseño global y fínamente ajustado del universo como si fuera un mero efecto de perspectiva antrópica. Una vía para escapar de la conclusión del diseño cósmico que no puede tener éxito, según entiendo −aunque esto habría que tratarlo en un texto aparte−. De manera que el enfoque darwinista resulta, como mínimo, tan atractivo para el teísmo como puedan serlo las alternativas que proponen los autores del llamado (y quizás mal llamado) “diseño inteligente”. Y, a mayor abundamiento, le cedo aquí la palabra al profesor Juan Arana, que explica, como de costumbre, este asunto mucho mejor que yo: «[...] Pongamos que fabrico [paracaídas]. Mi empresa es modesta y sólo oferta dos modelos: uno para listos y otro para tontos. El de listos necesita ajustar una serie de broches y correas antes de ponérselo, vigilar en todo momento que ciertos pliegues no se descoloquen y, ya en el aire, exige efectuar varias maniobras con serenidad y destreza a fin de que el artilugio se despliegue como es debido y evite que su avisado usuario se estrelle contra el suelo. El de tontos en cambio es facilísimo de usar: se carga como una mochila y cuando uno se arroja (o lo empujan) por la portezuela del avión ni siquiera hay que tirar de una simple anilla: se abre por sí mismo con suavidad y el mentecato que pende de él se balancea pausadamente hasta besar la tierra como si fuera un pluma volandera. La pregunta que ahora planteo es: ¿qué modelo costó más diseñar, el destinado a los listos o el de los tontos? El mensaje de la metáfora es sencillo. Un universo en el que basta la selección natural para conseguir que la más primitiva forma de vida se multiplique y diferencie hasta formar jardines botánicos y parques zoológicos tan variados como los que alberga la Tierra, es un universo bastante bien pergeñado, sea cual sea el camino por el que llegó a ser (creación directa, construcción gradual, diseño, emergencia o fluctuación cuántica). La razón es que en el abanico de los infinitos mundos posibles hay una proporción inmensamente mayor de aquéllos a los que no hay forma humana ni divina de sacar nada en limpio. Entre los que poseen la virtualidad de generar vida, la mayoría requerirá mecanismos con mayor potencia de direccionamiento que la selección natural: en ellos sólo existirán paracaídas para “listos”. Pero en nuestro universo el paracaídas de la vida se abre con suma facilidad; por eso es verosímil que baste la selección natural para extraer todo el jugo vital que contiene. Si Leibniz levantara de nuevo la cabeza, diría sin lugar a dudas que el mundo que proponen los valedores del Intelligent Design es la obra de un mal relojero.» Siendo así las cosas, ¿tendríamos que apoyar con todas nuestras fuerzas el darwinismo? Pues tampoco se trata de eso. Porque la cuestión en torno al darwinismo, la auténtica cuestión, no es teológica, ni filosófica, sino estrictamente científica. El darwinismo sostiene que bastan las variaciones genéticas aleatorias, junto con la selección natural, para dar cuenta de la historia de la vida en nuestro mundo. Pero, por una parte, la complejidad de ciertas estructuras de los vivientes −y tenemos que agradecer a los autores del DI el haber hecho hincapié en las dificultades que subyacen ahí−, y, por otra parte, el ritmo altamente irregular de la evolución de las especies −y tenemos que agradecer a los autores de la teoría del “equilibrio puntuado”, y sobre todo a Gould, el haber subrayado este aspecto− suponen un reto a la explicación darwinista. Un reto científico, no filosófico ni teológico. La cuestión de verdad es ésta: ¿Ha habido suficiente tiempo, y los pasos evolutivos han sido lo suficientemente graduales, como para que el mecanismo darwinista proporcione una explicación completa de la evolución? ¿O más bien son algunos de los saltos demasiado grandes, y/o algunos de los plazos demasiado breves? En este caso el darwinismo constituiría una explicación insuficiente, que tendría que ser modificada o completada, quizás con algún tipo de ley de formación de estructuras, aún por descubrir. Ahora bien, lo que quiero subrayar es que esto es una cuestión científica. Y además una cuestión que, hasta donde se me alcanza, no tiene relevancia alguna para la teología. Por lo que a la teología respecta, el marco darwinista es perfectamente asumible, y hasta preferible a algunas versiones populares del DI que circulan por ahí, y que siguen presentando a Dios como una especie de demiurgo que continuamente tiene que estar interviniendo para que de la materia se pueda sacar algo interesante. Una imagen muy pobre de la inteligencia de Dios, según creo.

5-leadership skills needed to develop ideas

You would think that good ideas make it easier to be a good leader. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. Good ideas are threatening to leaders. By definition, good ideas mean an improvement over the present, a better way of doing things or even better lives.That’s why people who have good ideas expect their leaders to act on them, which creates an instant test of leadership: do you care enough for those around you to do something positive with the idea? Are you able to do something with it?

Good ideas of your own can be equally threatening. As a leader, how often have you had a good idea and then found yourself unsure how to turn it into reality, how to convert it into something of tangible value for you and for others? The experience can be not only threatening, but ultimately deflating.

It doesn’t have to be. Consider the most extreme and most personally threatening case in which leaders must turn good ideas into reality: entrepreneurship. Fail as a leader in this case and the entire enterprise goes down. And, in my experience, many entrepreneurial failures are failures of leadership, not of ideas.

Successful entrepreneurs, in meeting the stern test of leadership posed by good ideas, have much to teach us. If you can bring to the challenge of good ideas what the best entrepreneurial leaders (ELs) bring to it under threat of extinction, you will likely be able to handle anything that comes your way.

The great news is that the required skills can be learned. Indeed, you can even have major weaknesses, as long as you understand and mitigate them. Leaders who successfully lead the process of turning ideas into valuable, tangible realities are able to do five things uncommonly well:

1. Maintain self-awareness
To lead others, you must first lead yourself, realistically understanding your capabilities. Mastering self-awareness requires that you understand what you are capable of achieving, given your combination of traits, motivations, and skills, all of which are interdependent. You cannot change your traits, but you can change your skills and some of your motivations.

Understanding your traits, motivations, and skills enables you to construct straightforward strategies for leveraging your strengths and mitigating your weaknesses.

2. Build relationships
Entrepreneurial leaders virtually never act alone in getting the world to adopt their ideas – they build strong relationships with the people who will help implement the new idea. Ultimately, successful Els understand that the essence of all relationships is the existence of one or more shared objectives.

Further, there are three categories of shared objectives—cooperative, competitive, or retreating—and our relationships are a dynamic mix of all three types. Understanding when and how to weave together shared objectives that are based upon cooperation, competition, and retreat enables you to structure your relationships to further the needs of your team and your enterprise.

3. Motivate others
Motivation is to groups as relationship-building is to individuals. If you aspire to deal with ideas that will impact more than a handful of people, you must understand how to motivate scores of people to align their actions with your desires. Motivating others requires creating job tasks that make people feel autonomous, masterful, and purposeful, and not controlled, insecure, or inconsequential.

4. Lead change
Implementing virtually any idea requires people to change what they do, something few leaders know how to do. Many leaders themselves fear change and resist it, which only serves to diminish their stature in the eyes of their followers.

Change leadership starts with changing yourself. But you don’t have to go it alone. Experts, as well as many worthwhile books and articles, on leading change are plentiful.

5. Understand enterprise basics
Implementing your ideas or ideas that come from your team requires an understanding of how value can be created from these ideas. It happens in one of two ways: either through a project or through a process.

A project is a one-at-a-time exercise performed by a team assembled specifically for that task – building a better mousetrap, a new software program, or a driverless car. A process accomplishes tasks repetitively, reliably, efficiently, and cost-effectively, as when a project or product goes into full-scale production.

In addition, ideas and the enterprises that house them go through stages of maturity, like infants becoming children, then adolescents, and then adults. In brief, those stages are: 1) validating a “customer” for the idea, 2) validating the value proposition around the idea, and 3) scaling up to deliver that value widely and reliably.

Each stage requires applying a different mix of the leadership skills described here. Without understanding these stages, leaders cannot completely understand what remix of their leadership skills is most likely to get an idea accepted and then to make it self-sustaining.

These five leadership skills apply broadly to any leader who wants to transform an idea into a tangible and self-sustaining reality. This newly created reality could be anything: a small work improvement or a large enterprise; it could also be a rock band.

The payoff for producing value from good ideas is enormous: happy teams, individual fulfillment, financial success, high status, and well-being. The risk, too, is large and it’s not just financial. A leader who fails to create value from a manifestly good idea forfeits trust, feels frustration, and may lose confidence.

Project Managment: Items for facing issues

1) Make sure the requirements are clear and stick to your.  The most essential requirements should always be front and center for your team producing the deliverable(s).  Any variations on those requirements need to be approved and implemented according to your established project change control process.

2) Centralize and make accessible key documents  Project management software has come a long way in the last several years.  Electronically-based collaborative tools allow team members to access key, updated information in the absence of anyone, including the project manager.  Having a single hard copy project reference that can be lost, quickly outdated, and less accessible to the project team, especially in a crisis situation, should be a relic of the past.  Even if some documents are only available in hard copy, scanning them in a shared electronic repository, along with all other key relevant project information, is important for as-needed, on-demand access and reference.  Remember to constrict editing rights, though, to those who are authorized to update those documents.  

3) Create goodwill among your stakeholders; you may need to cash in favors later during a crisis.  If you build up a reserve of credibility and earn a stellar reputation in your role, you are more likely to receive extraordinary, out-of-the-norm help when needed in a project crisis situation.  Leveraging that reserve along with a bit of tact and diplomacy will go a long way in clearing obstacles under the most challenging of circumstances.

4) Exude a sense of confidence, calm, and control in delegating authority. Remember that the project manager is the captain of the ship, and your team and sponsor will take its cues from you–from your ability to plan for and manage risk, your ability to communicate contingencies, and your confidence in entrusting the tasks that are delegated to your team.  A calm and positive demeanor can help keep emotions in check and open the door to constructive solutions in dealing with unforeseen and difficult issues that may arise.

5) Establish clear lines of emergency communication and decision-making authority.  Sometimes when new people are brought in for backup on a project but have less background and knowledge, the project manager has to control the flow of orientation, communication, and lines of authority to avoid missteps.  Although I obviously cannot endorse the idea of contradicting the wishes of executive management, there is a lesson learned in that when key roles on a project are absent, a comprehensive escalation plan is developed to make sure that there is no ambiguity in terms of who makes decisions in any stakeholder’s absence and how the flow of project communication takes place within the team and to management levels above.

6) Encourage creative thinking and innovation. When the more unexpected and unusual challenges come up, whether your project is in crisis or not, it is important to motivate your team to look for and implement creative solutions.   Creating an environment that uses group creativity techniques such as brainstorming and mind mapping to resolve problems and to handle crisis situations will serve you extremely well as project manager.

7) Develop and manage contingency situations by documenting risks and issues. Although no project is devoid of risks and problems, there are standard documents, such as the Risk Register and Issue Log, that can be helpful in identifying and proactively handling the tasks that can go wrong once the project is underway.  These documents become that much more critical when the project is under duress.  You, your key team members, or other key stakeholders will have family emergencies, commuting/business travel problems, and other factors that can potentially derail the most comprehensive of project plans.  Assessing risks and their impact is one of the most important steps in your project planning process.  And documenting issues when they occur will prove invaluable when assessing lessons learned, which can then be applied to future projects and processes.  Although your risks and issues may not be worthy of a film such as Locke(hopefully not!), the extra time and care in documenting these factors will pay off in the long run in terms of maximizing your chances of project success.

Motivation Killers

Are you guilty of any of these common motivation killers? 1. Pretending to listen What most employers don’t realize is that when they ask for employee feedback, they’re starting a conversation, and, like in any conversation, there’s an expectation they will listen and engage in a back-and-forth exchange of information. Instead of making employee feedback a springboard for dialogue, they’ll just publish it in a report months later — or worse, put it away and never speak of it again. When people invest their time and effort in offering feedback, then don’t hear back for months — if ever — they’re left with the impression no one is listening. It’s disheartening to feel like no one is hearing your voice — especially after they specifically asked you to speak up. What to do instead: If you want to motivate your employees, you need to shrink the length of time between requesting feedback and doing something with it. Report your findings promptly, and let people know what actions you’re going to take based on what you’ve discovered. 2. Hiding from the truth Another reason employers fail in handling employee feedback is they can’t handle anything negative. When employees offer constructive feedback or surveys reveal real problems in the organization, employers may tend to sweep that information under the rug and not do anything about it. This shows they’re not only not listening, but they’re actively ignoring employees concerns and problems. What to do instead: If you went to the doctor for a check-up and found out you had cancer, you wouldn’t sit on the test results for months or walk away and pretend you’d never seen them. You also wouldn’t spend time patting yourself on the back over your doctor’s finding that your heart was healthy. You’d focus on the cancer and start working on treating it right away. Employers need to stop being scared of their data. When they receive negative feedback and constructive criticism, they should get right to work examining what’s wrong and what steps they need to take to make it right. 3. Operating in secret For years it’s been standard for employers to keep salaries, sales numbers and other key statistics a secret shared only by board members, senior leaders and anyone government regulators required them to inform. The problem with this is that secrets erode trust — the foundation of great teams and teamwork. When employees don’t feel trusted and don’t have every reason to trust their employers, they’re less engaged and less motivated to do their best. What to do instead: Recognize that transparency builds trust, trust supports teams, and great teams — not great individuals — build successful organizations. Make transparency your default. Many new organizations are starting to do this. For example, Buffer, a company I respect a lot, publishes every employee’s salary from the CEO down and includes details about its pay structure and the rationale for the way it’s set it up. Buffer is also completely open about its revenue, paying customers and other metrics. When employees aren’t engaged at work, they don’t give their employers their best. If you want your employees’ best, you need to make sure you’re not inadvertently killing their motivation to give it to you. Being the sort of organization that kills employees’ motivation is not good for your employer brand either, and can make it harder for you to attract and retain great people. That may not have been a major concern in recent years with the economic downturn and slow recovery, but the jobs market is heating up again and with it competition for the best, most motivated employees.

Emotional Intelligence by Travis Bradberry, Ph.D

There is nothing wrong with making a mistake. It's what you say to yourself after you mess up that matters. Your self-talk (the thoughts you have about your feelings) can either magnify the negativity or help you turn that misstep into something productive. Negative self-talk is unrealistic, unnecessary, and self-defeating. It sends you into a downward emotional spiral that is difficult to pull out of. All self-talk is driven by important beliefs that you hold about yourself. It plays an understated but powerful role in success because it can both spur you forward to achieve your goals and hold you back. As Henry Ford said, “He who believes he can and he who believes he cannot are both correct.” TalentSmart has tested the emotional intelligence (EQ) of more than a million people and found that 90% of top performers are high in EQ. These successful, high EQ individuals possess an important skill—the ability to recognize and control negative self-talk so that it doesn't prevent them from reaching their full potential. These successful people earn an average of $28,000 more annually than their low EQ peers, get promoted more often, and receive higher marks on performance evaluations. The link between EQ and earnings is so direct that every point increase in EQ adds $1,300 to an annual salary. When it comes to self-talk, we've discovered six common, yet toxic, beliefs that hold people back more than any others. Be mindful of your tendencies to succumb to these beliefs, so that they don't derail your career: Toxic Belief #1: Perfection = Success Human beings, by our very nature, are fallible. When perfection is your goal, you're always left with a nagging sense of failure, and end up spending your time lamenting what you failed to accomplish, instead of enjoying what you were able to achieve. Toxic Belief #2: My Destiny is Predetermined Far too many people succumb to the highly irrational idea that they are destined to succeed or fail. Make no mistake about it, your destiny is in your own hands, and blaming multiple successes or failures on forces beyond your control is nothing more than a cop out. Sometimes life will deal you difficult cards to play, and others times you'll be holding aces. Your willingness to give your all in playing any hand you're holding determines your ultimate success or failure in life. Toxic Belief #3: I “Always” or “Never” Do That There isn't anything in life that you always or never do. You may do something a lot or not do something enough, but framing your behavior in terms of “always” or “never” is a form of self-pity. It makes you believe that you have no control of yourself and will never change. Don't succumb to it. Toxic Belief #4: I Succeed When Others Approve of Me Regardless of what people think of you at any particular moment, one thing is certain⎯you're never as good or bad as they say you are. It's impossible to turn off your reactions to what others think of you, but you can take people's opinions with a grain of salt. That way, no matter what people think about you, your self-worth comes only from within. Toxic Belief #5: My Past = My Future Repeated failures can erode your self-confidence and make it hard to believe you'll achieve a better outcome in the future. Most of the time, these failures result from taking risks and trying to achieve something that isn't easy. Just remember that success lies in your ability to rise in the face of failure. Anything worth achieving is going to require you to take some risks, and you can't allow failure to stop you from believing in your ability to succeed. Toxic Belief #6: My Emotions = Reality Know how to take an objective look at your feelings and separate fact from fiction. Otherwise, your emotions will continue to skew your sense of reality, making you vulnerable to the negative self-talk that can hold you back from achieving your full potential.

How you can lead the life you want

If you're searching for "work/life balance" you'll always be disappointed because "balance" connotes a zero-sum equation. But if you shift your mindset to asking, "How can I initiate change that's good for my family, and my community, and my career, and my private self (mind, body and spirit)?", then you are more likely to produce harmony in your life. So, forget balance! Instead, gain greater control and learn to pursue meaningful change in your world by building your skills as a leader in all parts of your life, no matter what your job or age. You can assess your skills for free here. In this post, I describe five of the three dozen exercises I offer in Leading the Life You Want: Skills for Integrating Work and Life. Try one and see how it enhances your capacity to integrate the different parts of your life. Let's think about the following: The Conversation Starter. This simpler exercise is another way to help you increase connections among different parts of your life. You might start by putting something about your family or outside interests in a prominent position in your work place. When colleagues notice, you can mention why it's important and how it helps you at work. Then try the reverse, by bringing something from work to your home so you can talk with your family or friends about it. This creates awareness of who you are as a whole person and might clue others in to how these hitherto unknown aspects of your life might be valuable to them. Your boss may be interested in the skills you have developed organizing activities at the food bank or see a chance for the company to partner with that operation. Who Matters Most. To lead the life you want, you need help from others. No way around it. To build supportive networks, try this exercise by listing the names of a handful of people or groups who matter most to you in each domain of your life. Write down why each is important to your future and why it's in their interest to assist you. Then come up with one thing -- the simpler the better -- to provide help for some or all of these people or groups. To do that, you will probably have to hold some conversations about mutual expectations, which might create some anxiety initially, but help you (and them) over time. The Tune Up. Here's another easy one. When you're doing something that you do regularly, but not daily, like getting your car tuned or going to the dentist, why not build into that time a chance to look inside yourself and see if you need to make any adjustments to your life? Ask yourself: Am I living in a way that's consistent with what matters to me? Take 20 minutes to see how your inner engine is running. The Talent Transfer. Take an inventory of the key skills and talents you've developed and think about creative ways to apply them in different parts of your life. If you play piano, maybe you can teach kids how to play or you can play for people at work or when you visit relatives.

3 ways to keep your next negotiations on track

3 Ways to Keep Your Next Negotiation on Track We waste too much time and emotion during negotiations. We argue about items that don’t really matter and let our feelings override our logic. If you want to move a negotiation forward and advance to where you want to be: 1.- Understand the common goal. You both should articulate your goals and interests in writing and share them to ensure clarity and alignment. 2.- Be transparent and explain the why of your points. It’s surprising how seldom people explain why they’re fighting for something. The other side likely doesn’t know why you’re asking for a term or condition. If something is going to impact you personally, think about disclosing it – the other party may understand. 3.- Calculate what’s actually important. Figure out how material each point is. Then determine what’s really worth fighting for in the bigger picture – and what you might be able to use as leverage. Adapted from “Keep Time and Emotion from Killing a Negotiation” by Anthony K. Tjan.

Leading by Serving—5 Essential Ingredients to Becoming a Leader People Want to Follow

That’s the message that Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller share in the 10th anniversary edition of their bestselling business book, The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do. Leaders can find countless ways to serve the people they lead, and they should always be on the lookout for new and different ways to do this. However, there are at least five critical ways leaders must serve if they want to be as effective as possible. 1.- See the Future. The ability to envision and communicate a compelling picture of a preferred future. Leaders must help the people they lead see the destination, as well as the advantages of going there. Everybody needs to see who they are, where they are going, and what will guide their journey. 2.- Engage and Develop Others. Recruiting and selecting the right people for the right job while creating an environment where people wholeheartedly invest themselves in achieving the vision. Blanchard and Miller believe that engaging is a two-part proposition. The first part is to recruit and select the right people for the right job. That means to get the right players on the team. The second part is to do whatever it takes to engage the hearts and the heads of the people. Historically, the authors point out that many leaders have employed the hands and nothing else—and that’s probably where the term “hired hands” comes from. The best leaders engage the head and heart of their employees in addition to their hands. 3.- Reinvent Continuously. To possess a never-ending focus on improvement. Blanchard and Miller believe a leader must be willing to reinvent on at least three levels. The first is personal. Some key questions they recommend asking are: How am I learning and growing as a leader? and What am I doing to encourage others in my group to constantly learn and reinvent themselves? The second level of reinvention is systems and processes: How are we doing the work? How can we do it better? and What changes would enhance our ability to serve our customers and each other? The third type of reinvention involves the structure of the organization. A recommended question to ask here is: What structural changes do we need to make to be more efficient and effective? 4.- Value Results and Relationships. The ability to generate positive, measurable results AND cultivate great relationships with those you lead. Leading at a higher level includes both results and relationships. The authors encourage leaders to put equal emphasis on both. According to Ken Blanchard, “We traditionally teach people the important skills they need to get results: problem solving, decision making, and so on. Leaders need to put an equal emphasis on building relationships and connecting with people. It’s both/ and, not either/ or.” 5.- Embody the Values. To live in a fashion consistent with your stated values. This is fundamental and ongoing, explain Blanchard and Miller. If a leader loses their credibility, their leadership potential will be greatly limited. Aspiring leaders must do more than articulate values—they must live their values every day.

Do you want to be a great leader?

For some reason, leaders struggle to embrace their "inner weirdness." But if you don't figure out how to do it, you'll miss out on one of the simplest ways to strengthen your team and build an amazing company culture. When we talk about building weirdness in our team, the ultimate goal is to develop a company with perfect authenticity. Tony Hsieh is a firm believer in this, and it's allowed him to build one of the best company cultures in the world with Zappos. There are plenty of benefits of acting weird around your employees. Here are a few to get you started. 1. You'll encourage your employees to be themselves. When you start building your team, many times new hires will be nervous meeting everyone for the first time. The best way to get them to open up is to immediately share embarrassing stories about yourself during a company meeting. This will get them to start laughing, and they'll notice that the leader of the company is down to earth. Some leaders believe they need to be stern and appear perfect 24/7 to fill their role. This is one of the worst beliefs a head of a company can have. You need to be open with your team about your weaknesses, because that's how you build respect and credibility. No one wants to work for a leader who seems fake, just as you don't want your employees acting inauthentic. Once you start opening up and acting weirder around the office, you'll notice the rest of your team will follow suit. Pretty soon, everyone will act like themselves in the company, and your office will become much more fun. 2. Your company will be more innovative. As a leader, it's tough to get all team members comfortable enough to speak up when they have an idea. Voicing out-of-the-box ideas in company meetings is a perfect way to get everyone else to start chiming in with ideas. In rare cases, you might even want to throw out a really weird idea that you know your team will not like. This will register to your team members that their ideas can't be as bad or weird as yours, and they'll start speaking up more. Because you're the leader, your employees will feel empowered when their ideas are picked over yours. Will you lose the spotlight? Sure, but your team will build enough confidence to start innovating without you. 3. You'll hire better people. Once your team members start showing their inner weirdness, it will start rubbing off on people whom you interview. Right off the bat, they'll be able to see what working at your company will be like. Ideally, you'd want them to appreciate the fact that everyone is a little quirky and proud of it in your office. Sometimes, people won't be looking for that in an organization, but those are the people you want to keep out of your company. Try asking an applicant a few funny questions. Then gradually move the weirdness scale further by inviting the person to a company social. At the social, share embarrassing stories, and try being as authentic as possible. By the time you're done, both you and the applicant will know if the applicant is weird enough for the job.

About Feedback ...

10 tips that managers can follow to make their feedback on their employees’ weaknesses as effective as possible. Before the Review 1.- Work on your employee relationships. 2.- Clearly explain performance expectations. 3.- Provide informal feedback between reviews. 4.- Collect concrete examples of employee behavior and decisions. During the Review 5.- Start with and focus on the good news 6.- Avoid making judgments 7.- Don’t just talk, listen Prepare for negative reactions 8.- Summarize the conversation and provide next steps After the Review 9.- Lay the groundwork for the next review

Managment Talks: The 4 Most Important Key Performance Indicators for Profesional Sellers

Don’t get me wrong. I love numbers as much as the next person and I agree that measurement improves performance and is essential to success. But I also know we can’t keep changing the rules of the game. Performance improvement comes only when we focus on the same metrics over time. We need to follow the right measurements and stay focused. What if you could only measure four things? Which would you choose? Instead of measuring absolutely everything under the sun, what if you were limited to just four points in your process where you could drop a meter and collect data? Choose wisely, because the increased focus on each of these four areas will be your source for improved sales performance. Choose the right metrics and there’s no telling how high you could soar.Choose the wrong ones and you’ll barely see the needle move at all. Which would you focus on? What are the four best places to insert measurement? Let’s take a look. Four Key Performance Indicators to Track Every Month 1. Lead Flow This is the number of new leads that are coming into the sales department each month. Get very specific and track both the total number of leads and also where each one came from. More and more managers are discovering that to increase sales you don’t need more salespeople; what you really need is more leads. 2. Number of Qualified Opportunities Created Measure the total number of new, qualified opportunities created in the month as well as the dollar value of each one. How can you count a qualified opportunity? Qualified opportunities are those who you've sent or presented a proposal focused on a need you hear about. What doesn't count as a qualified opportunity: sending the same email to 50 people on a list. 3. Conversion Rate The conversion rate is the number of new customers divided by the number of qualified leads. That will tell you the rate at which your leads become customers. 4. Booked Revenue Here we look at the revenue numbers, but we are going to break it down so we get the whole picture. You will want to keep track of three things: New business (brand new account) Business that is added on to an existing contract Renewal Business

Managment Talks: 7 common mistakes of inexperienced managers

Nobody is born a know-all, and managers are no different. Mistakes happen at all levels of experience, but they most often happen with rookie managers (hopefully!). But making mistakes is all part of a learning experience. That is, as long as you take away a lesson or two from your mistake, you’re one step ahead of the game. Below are some of the most common mistakes inexperienced managers make, and what to look out for. 1. They want to be liked more than respected Of course, everyone wants to be liked. But since you’re the leader of the team you also need to be able to make unpopular decisions and to deliver them to your team. The fear that you won’t be liked will make it less likely for you to do so. That’s why most inexperienced managers either don’t know how to deliver the hard news to their team, or don’t make the hard decisions in the first place, afraid of how their team might perceive them. 2. They micromanage As a manager, it’s easy to get drawn into perfectionism. You don’t want anything to go wrong. You want to make sure everything is perfect, because it will be a reflection on you if your team is any less than perfect. Chances are, if a manager is constantly bombarding team members with emails or dropping by to see how the work is going, he is suffocating his team members. Micromanaging disempowers team members, and even affects their confidence and performance, as it shows that you don’t trust them. While you should always expect the best work from your team, micromanaging is not the best way to achieve that. 3. They don’t delegate Delegating works both ways: you’re taking some tasks off your plate just as much as you are empowering team members and showing them that you trust them. Not only does delegating give you time to focus on your most important tasks, but it also gives your team members the opportunity to grow, as it allows them to gain new experience and develop their skills. It’s a win-win situation! 4. They don’t invest in employee development Whether it’s improving poor performers or assisting strong performers with career development, employee development is vital to employee satisfaction – and to the well-being of your business. Your business can’t grow if its people are stagnating. Evaluate what skills you need on your team, then see how you can enable the right team members to get those skills. 5. They don’t read body language The ability to read body language is a vital part of emotional intelligence. Good managers are able to understand how a team member is feeling and what they may be thinking, even when things are not spelled out. Of course, people will probably always hide some things from their managers. Developing this skill early can help managers prevent things like employee dissatisfaction that seems to come out of nowhere and avoid potential conflicts before they escalate. 6. They don’t adjust their management style Good managers know when they can be more hands-off and when they need to harden their grip. Different team members need different management styles, and your ability to provide that depends on how well you can adapt your style to different personalities. Of course, you’re not a chameleon and you can’t be the perfect manager for everyone. Neither should you try to be pleasing each and every colleague. But you do need is an understanding of how different individuals like to be approached, and what they respond best to. 7. They don’t give credit where credit is due It’s human nature to complain when something goes wrong, but to forget to praise all the good work. Pretty much everybody has had a manager like that at some point in their life, and you know it’s not fun. Team members need to feel their work is appreciated, and you really don’t need too much to show them that. Alternatively, inexperienced managers put the blame on individual team members. “Bobby wasn’t able to finish the project in time”, “Mary wasn’t in the office when she was supposed to,” etc. But since managers are the ones with the oversight, they are responsible for it. Don’t fall into the trap of placing the blame on your team members. Instead, see where you can make changes to avoid similar mistakes in the future.

Managment Talks: Remote Teams

What is the real issue in remote teams? We’ll take a look at working in a remote environment and what that means for team collaboration. Remote teams are not a thing of the future - they’re today’s reality for many startups, as well as small and large businesses. And they might be the answer to a number of challenges in employee satisfaction and retention. The issue in a remote team is not the physical distance between employees. The issue reducing the psychological distance and increasing the cohesiveness of the team - challenges that all team leaders face, whether their teams work remotely or not. Remote teams might actually be the answer to a lot of problems businesses face. For one, you will not be limited to hiring people within a certain geographical area. You also skip the daily hassles of commute and give team members a certain autonomy over their working schedule - an important factor in motivation and job satisfaction. But remote teams also have to work extra hard at building a sense of community, shared expectations and values. Here are some tips to help shape the foundation of an awesome remote team and get stuff done together. Set high level goals and communicate them In any team, it’s vital to communicate expectations and to align everyone’s efforts to the same goals. By setting high level goals and clearly communicating them to your team, you ensure that everyone is working toward the same purpose. This way, each person can create their individual measurable and achievable goals that support the high level goals. Then each team member can go on and further break up goals into tasks. This is where communication becomes vital. Transparency is necessary not only so that team leaders are able to identify and address any gaps in the goals set by team members, but also so that the entire team can assess the impact of their goals on the overall well-being of the company and adjust their efforts when necessary. This will keep the entire team focused on the goals that really matter, and it’s a good way to communicate expectations. Keep your goals in writing Keep a history of all the goals, past, current and upcoming, as well as a history of all the tasks completed by your team member. They should be somewhere where all team members are able to access them, so they can reflect on their process and make adjustments where necessary. Emphasis on communication Communication is vital in any team, but even more so in a remote team. Aim to overcommunicate with your team members. It’s a thousand times better to have an excess of communication than not enough of it. Lack of communication causes so many frustrations in team members that it’s often hard to recover from it. Remote teams should aim for daily video calls. This will help manage the psychological distance they can experience. However, every communication should have a clearly defined purpose. For example, what's the purpose of your daily video call? Is it to simply share with each other what you’re working on? Or are you trying to solve a specific problem together? Get in some real face time Even in a remote team, it’s still important to get some real face time every now and then. Having a remote team is almost like having a long distance relationship. If you don’t see each other sometime, you might forget why you liked each other in the first place. One important time to see each other is the beginning of employment. This sets the tone for how the team members see each other, and how they will collaborate in the future. It also gives you an idea of how the new person fits on the team, and whether they truly align with your company values. Every now and then, schedule team retreats. Being together will create a sense of camaraderie among your team members. It will help build trust and as a result improve collaboration. Choose the right task manager It goes without saying that remote teams should always use cloud hosted secure products, so that the sharing of communication is frictionless. But this is even more important when it comes to task management. The right team task manager should ultimately reduce the exchange of emails and keep your inbox easy to manage. It offers transparency to what everyone is doing. It allows team members to have discussions over tasks. It keeps all attachments in one place.

Managment Talks: Iterate

So how exactly do you iterate? Iterating is another way of saying “working in increments.” When you iterate, you find a process that, repeated, will help you achieve your desired goal. The results of one iteration will be your starting point for the next iteration. 1. Plan your iterations. Start by chunking down your projects into customer facing increments - things that you’re building directly for your customers (releasing new features, design, user interface, etc.). You can further break down your work into team facing increments - work that will stay within your team and not be released (at least initially) to the customers. 2. Start with your first iteration: Build. Measure. Learn. Begin working on your first iteration. Here you can use the “build, measure, learn” methodology. This method is all about working in cyclical increments, all while focusing on feedback. So instead of working in a vacuum, without understanding how your product is affecting your customers (or even if it is wanted to begin with!), you are releasing often, analyzing the results and learning from them. 3. Begin building again. Iterations are all about moving quickly and adjusting to what you learn. So as soon as you have drawn conclusions from the first iteration, you go back to the beginning of the cycle, and start building again on your second iteration. Working in increments also helps you adapt to changing priorities. When you work in increments, you are able to stay flexible and change course if something doesn’t work as planned. The more you work on a project, the more you know. The benefits of working in iterations Some iterations are customer-facing, or geared directly at people who use or buy your product, others aren’t. When you’re working in iterations, you have the ability to release often so that your customers get value from what you’ve created so far very quickly. You also get feedback more often and can adjust to that. This way, you don’t waste time working toward something that your customer doesn’t want. Also, you can test out an idea you’re not sure about by creating the minimum viable product and getting feedback on it before you make a commitment. Zappos - initially, they started a website that allowed people to order shoes online. But they didn’t have any shoe inventory. The two founders would simply go to the mall, buy the shoes, and ship them to the customers. Of course this isn’t a feasible long-term business, but it is a quick and easy way to evaluate customer interest before putting in all your marbles. This kind of iterations allowed them to quickly achieve their company goals. Zappos reached the $1 billion yearly sales goal two years earlier than expected, and they were eventually bought out by Amazon. On the opposite spectrum is BlackBerry. Although there was a great market demand for touch screen devices, BlackBerry did not pay attention to what customers wanted. Lack of response to feedback caused them to lose a lot - until they eventually did do touch screen. The 30% feedback method Even when your iterations are not customer-facing, you still get lots of benefits from working in increments. For one, you can apply the 30% feedback method. This method encourages feedback from team members when projects are 30% completed, as opposed to, say, 80%, so that you avoid the projects going completely off target. The beginning of the project often moves faster than the last stretch, so you can take advantage of that and make sure you’re on the right course before investing too much time perfecting your project. Imagine you’re working on a project and you’re doing the best you can. Actually, you’re doing pretty darn good, but what you’re doing is completely besides the point. You’re simply working on the wrong thing. Wouldn’t you want to know that you’re going in the wrong direction as soon as possible? Combined, the "build, measure, learn" and the 30% feedback methods can help you power up your iterations.

Managment Talks: Setting Goals

What is the purpose of setting goals? At this point, you might be asking yourself: if we can’t plan perfectly, then what is the purpose of goals? If you see your work as a map, your goal is the destination on that map - the big red X showing where you want to get. Although our culture is oversaturated with talk about goal setting, we still fall short of achieving our goals. Distractions, procrastination and lack of prioritization are all villains trying to prevent us from getting where we want. So how can we slay these villains? It's quite simple: by breaking down your goals into tasks with these three easy steps: 1. Establish your goals Of course, before you break down your goals into tasks, you need to have goals. Not just goals, but well-established goals. If your goal is to sell 200 copies of your e-book, for example, what does this mean exactly? Selling 200 copies in a week or in a month? In what country? Does this include repeat purchases? A scientific review of behaviour change in diet and exercise shows that specific, challenging goals lead to better performance than vague goals. It’s very likely that this also applies to areas outside of nutrition and physical exercise. Get crystal clear about what you’re aiming for, and write it down. 2. Create a map of milestones Goals can usually be divided into milestones. Following our earlier example of selling two hundred e-book copies in a month, the milestones would look something like this: • determine the best channels to broadcast and advertise your e-book • determine the best channels to sell your e-book • sell at least 20 copies during the first week Milestones are still big steps, but they help you think of your goals in terms of what you need to achieve them - the logistics. Whether it’s new gear or new knowledge, you can begin to grasp what is necessary to get to each milestone. 3. Come up with a task list Now that you have a map of the milestones you want to achieve, you can come up with a task list. You don’t need to map out your whole goal from the start. Remember, you know less in the beginning than you will ever know. Start with the first milestone and go from there. If your first milestone is to determine the best channels for selling your e-book, here’s where you might start: • describe target customer • interview three target customers to determine which channels they listen to most • determine which channels did best in the past Weekly team task agenda to keep on track In a team setting, it’s important for everyone to be aligned and working towards the same goal. Consider having a weekly team meeting to look at how close you are to achieve your goals. This will allow people to see where the company is, and find ways to adjust where needed. It will also allow team members understand how each of them are contributing to achieving the company’s goals. A time to work, a time to play Sometimes it can seem that taking time off for yourself means you’re betraying your goals. You should be working, not playing. But working too much can drain all energy and creativity - for both individuals and the overall team. Leisure is closely connected to the creative process (the word recreation, a synonym for leisure, basically means returning to a previous state of ‘creation’). Taking time for leisure allows you to generate a positive flow of creative energy. Bringing this energy back to your work will help you to pursue your goals even more passionately.

Managment talks: Plan meaning

The real meaning of plans In task management, you need to understand that plans are exactly that: plans. They’re general schemes that help you decide where you’re going, what you’re going to do, how you might proceed. But you need to acknowledge that no plan is set in stone. At best, planning is a guessing game. It’s a general outline of how things might go, so it’s important not to get stuck on them. We don’t know enough to plan At the beginning of any project, we know less about what needs to be done than we will ever know again. We simply don’t know enough to plan. You can see how this is a bad time to make plans. How can you decide when things need to be done, if you’re not really sure what needs to be done in the first place? You don’t want your team to focus on meeting an artificial deadline you created for your plan. You want them to focus on great performance and getting closer to your goals. Don’t get us wrong though. We’re not saying that being flexible means letting deadlines slip. It just means that you’re always on the lookout for the best path to get where you need to go. That path might change as your project progresses and you know more about it. Being flexible is all about being open to reassessing your initial plans and changing as you go. The point of staying flexible There’s something to be learned from bamboo when it comes to flexibility. Bamboo is famous for being flexible and strong. But the interesting thing is that it is strong exactly because of its flexibility, not in spite of it. So in the face of adversity, bamboo bends, but it doesn’t break. Instead, it snaps back into shape as soon as the pressure is taken off. Similarly, being flexible in your task planning will give you strength. Flexibility doesn’t mean that you don’t plan. It means that you are able to reassess your plan often and adjust on the fly as circumstances around you change. That’s why your task list needs to be adjustable as you go. The ability to adapt to new situations is an asset that will help you get where you want faster. Let’s say for example that your team is working on a feature, but then you find out there is a similar yet conflicting feature that will work much better for your target market. Being able to change course of action will help you to keep an open mind to all the possibilities. There are countless stories of companies that changed course and found immense success as a result. Take for example Youtube: in 2005, the site started as a video dating site - very similar to HotOrNot. But when it did not gain traction, the founders abandoned the idea and focused on an online video sharing tool. Another good example is Flickr. The company actually started as an online role-playing game. But when the founders realized that they were solving a much larger problem, they decided to stop the development of the game and began focusing on simplifying online photo sharing. YouTube was acquired by Google for $1.65 billion, and Flickr was acquired by Yahoo back in 2005, reportedly for $35 million. Plans, if we get hung up on them, undermine our ability to stay open minded and positively respond to change. We want to follow our plans because we think that abandoning the initial plan means we’re somehow failing. But examples like YouTube and Flickr show us that abandoning the initial plan can really pay off. When a plan makes you rigid to change, then it’s failing to be good plan. So how can you apply flexibility to your task management practices in a practical way? First, try to plan your tasks in weeks rather than in hours. Have a general plan for the day, but don’t get hung up on them as long as you get to what needs to be done in the week. Second, make it a habit of reprioritizing - both daily and weekly. Don’t be afraid to move tasks from this week to the next, or from next week to this week. It’s one of the best ways that you can stay responsive to change as you learn new information. Third, allow room for creativity. Get into the habit of brainstorming possible solutions, and try not to dismiss options that are not part of the initial plan before really assessing them.

Managment Talks

Distinguish between the urgent and the important U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower is quoted to have said: “What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” Most people fail to manage their tasks adequately not because they are incapable of it, but because they don’t know how to prioritize. We have a tendency to focus on urgent activities - such as returning phone calls and responding to emails - but don’t leave enough time to focus on the truly important tasks. This way, we are simply keeping our head above the water, firefighting through our to-do lists, but not really progressing toward our goals. Take a good look at what it is you’re trying to accomplish, and how you and your team can get there. Once you dedicate some time to this, it will become clear to you which tasks are truly important. Dividing your to-dos into the ‘Important’ and ‘Less Important’ categories can help you keep your focus on advancing your goals. Choose your most important tasks The most important tasks are the ones that you should get done before anything else. They’re the reason your projects are advancing, why you’re getting closer to your goals. Decide when you’re writing your list what these tasks are, and prioritize ruthlessly during the day to make sure they get done. Use a visual way to prioritize your most important tasks - for example, place them at the very top of your list. It can also help to break down your projects into bite-sized tasks, and completing 5 to 7 of these tasks daily. By not overwhelming yourself, you make it more likely to actually complete the items on the list and advance to your goals. Focus on single tasking There’s power in doing each task on your list as if you’re doing nothing else. Give your full concentration to each of the tasks on your list. The benefits of single task focus are undeniable. For one, you’ll become better at anything you do, by pure virtue of you giving your full attention to what you are doing. You will become more effective at work, and the benefits of single tasking may even overflow in your personal life. Creating the right to-do list Everything starts with being able to write down (read: get out of your head) the tasks that need to be done. There is a right way and a wrong way to write down your tasks. So what does the right to-do list look like? Actionable: Start each task with a verb. Instead of writing out a task that says ‘bills’, have a task that says ‘pay the internet bill’. Using a verb will make it easier to take that action when the time comes. If you simply write a noun on your to-do list, you might forget what you actually have to do about that task. Similarly, your team might not understand what you mean if a shared task is not actionable. Flexible: It’s important to stay flexible and respond to change as it happens around you. That’s why you shouldn’t schedule your tasks down to the minute. Instead, your to-do list should reflect things that need to get done "this week" or by a certain deadline. Sometimes, things that are out of our control come up and we need to attend to them right away, like an urgent customer request. But don’t confuse being flexible with getting distracted from your to-dos! Don’t schedule your time to the last second. Instead, leave some leeway for possible deviations from the list. (Next week we will deal more with why there’s power in flexibility.) Does not include the obvious: We’re sometimes tempted to put every little thing we might do in a day on our to-do list. Of course, this will result in more items crossed off the list, which will really make us feel better about how ‘productive’ we are. Really, you should only be writing down tasks that you wouldn’t get around to unless they’re written down. “Create analytics report” is one of them; “check analytics numbers” isn’t. When you’re faced with two tasks that you’ve given the same level of importance, your brain will always choose the simpler one. So if we put every little thing we do on our lists - let’s say, check email - it would certainly look like we’re getting a lot of stuff done. But, in fact, we’re regally procrastinating. You also shouldn’t write down tasks if it’s faster to just do them. For example, you can reply to a quick email in less time than it takes to write down a task for it. Keeps a history of completed tasks: It’s nice to revel in how much you did on any given day, or keep yourself honest about how little you got done. Either way, it’s a good idea to keep a record of what you did, and not just so you can improve your practices and become more efficient. A full history of your completed tasks will save you time when you need to find certain info about what work was done pertaining to a certain project, when was the work done and whether it was completed before or after another task, or if you need to find information about what exactly was done and why.

Are you connected?

Be honest: how addicted are you to your smart phone? Do you feel lost without it? Do you struggle to leave those Twitter and LinkedIn apps alone? Does it sleep with you? One US study has suggested we use or check our phones up to 110 times just during the day and then as often as every six seconds in the evening. That’s a staggering amount of time we spend ‘keeping in touch’, so why when it comes to forging genuine, personal connections are we falling short, especially in the workplace? 61% of us now own a smartphone - or 75% among the under 30s - so in theory communicating has never been easier. Yet a recent survey* suggests we actually suffer a dearth of meaningful connections in our workplaces. Workers were asked whether they were satisfied with the quantity or quality of their relationships at work and the answer was a resounding ‘no.’ 81% complained their leaders don’t listen. 82% said their boss won’t praise them or give appropriate feedback. Research also highlighted how 28% of people rarely or never discuss future goals and tasks with their boss, although 70% wish they did. The figures are even worse when it comes to sensitive matters such as problems with colleagues. Then, while 64% wish they did feel able to take this up with managers or supervisors, only 8% actually do. This is deeply problematic. We know how vitally important it is to have good relationships with colleagues to help you feel good about yourself and good about your job. From an employers’ perspective, happy, engaged, communicating employees are more likely to be loyal to their organisation, support it, and put in discretionary effort. This is why good relationships with leaders are especially important – how often have you quit not because you didn’t like the job or the organisation, but your manager? “People crave a deeper human connection at work; they want to feel a more personal and authentic connection with their leaders and their peers that goes beyond what technology can provide,” says Ken Blanchard. “Without this human connection, the typical workplace is at high risk of becoming what I call ‘dysfunctionally connected.’” Creating connection in the workplace starts with conversation, yet most working people don’t have a shared leadership language to help them ask for what they want and avoid misunderstandings. This is especially difficult now because for the first time ever, we have five generations working together in the workplace, and many different cultures. Whether or not you use a leadership model, what is important is making sure our conversations are rooted in being clear that direct reports are given all the direction and support they need to achieve goals, goals that must have a clear vision when it comes to what success looks like. Building in frequent one-to-ones, either formal or informal, keeps conversation flowing and prevents resentment building up, as does providing regular and honest feedback. This is the glue of successful organisations, as is giving praise when praise is due, or redirection when a colleague steers off course. Starting difficult conversations at an early stage with ‘in order to get this job done I need you to...’ or ‘is there anything I can help you with so you can get this job done?’ is a far better approach than allowing a head of steam to build up at which point any conversation is going to become emotional. This approach helps leaders to be more in tune with their people’s needs and aligned with their own intentions. We all face common challenges in the workplace from time to time and our work environments are constantly changing. Today’s leaders need to learn how to assess a situation very quickly, respond to it appropriately, and then move on to the next challenge. Economics, globalisation, the lightening pace of change, our generation gap and cultural differences frequently take us beyond the edge of our comfort zones. If we are to become the kind of leader others want to follow, and help our people be confident, competent and motivated, our goal-setting, people management, performance monitoring and feedback stills must be in tip-top shape. Even in the digital age, one-to-one communication matters. And even if we communicate through technology, our approach still has to be human.