Tom’sbiztips # 17 : follow the (full) decision cycle

The other day, I heard one of my friend blaming her manager for not taking decisions. Fair point, but I pointed out that maybe sometime it is better to take your time rather than decide straight away and get it wrong. Not satisfied with my answer, I tried to come up with a kind of decision cycle… and ended with these 3 steps.

1. Understand : quoting (roughly) Warren Buffet , “decide only on matters you understand”. Even if that takes you a little bit of time. Quite obvious but back to basics rarely hurts.

2. Decide : take decision is one of the key attribution of a manager, even if  a complex and moving context makes it harder. The decision must be timed, clear and properly shared. Lack of decision being highly negative in terms of strategy, management, communication… don’t go for that option.

3. Adapt : this is the point I want to stress – more than ever experience and testing is key in the market race (particularly in the digital area). So take decisions rather than not, but be aware they might be wrong, and be ready to react/adapt/ correct the strategy or the product.

As long as you don’t make any compromise on point 1, you can follow JP. Agon’s saying ; ”I ‘ll always prefer someone who take risks and fail to someone not taking risks” – as long as you know why you failed and adapt, would I add !

Does that ring any bell /make any sense to you ?

Tom’sbiztips # 16 : priorize the right approach, efficiency over friendship

Do you wonder every day if your boss likes you ? Do you feel safe when he is in a good mood, happy about everything ? Do you think you’re going to lose your job  when he’s angry, even if it has nothing to do with you ? Then you have what I would call the “loyalty program syndrome” : you believe your relationship with your boss is the assessment metric of your skills and talent. The friendlier the relationship, the safer you feel.

In fact you are like Air France or British Airways : you’re investing and spending a lot in a loyalty program with unpredictable returns to protect your market share. While you should be some kind of Easyjet, focusing all efforts on efficiency (meaning here cheap prices). Guess who just became #1 carrier in Europe in terms of passengers…?

Here is my point : if you have to choose, being the most efficient is a better way to succeed than being friendly. BUT it doesn’t mean you can’t be both.

So instead of focusing too much on reading and interpreting your relationship with your boss, focus on efficiency. It is a longer lasting and more “exportable” approach. Be only nice and you won’t last. Be only efficient and you’ll be respected. Be efficient and nice, and you’ll be irreplaceable.

Tom’sbiztips # 15 : feed your brain actively and variously to get creative

For a while, I thought that I could find the most disruptive business idea just by sitting in my room and think; think about what I could create that would be new, different, disruptive, creative… and make me rich. And guess what ? It was a big mistake. Cause I’m still not rich yet. I would love to believe (partly by laziness) that creativity is a matter of attitude and spirit : we would have all the knowledge inside us, and it is just a matter of interconnecting pieces together. But that is simply (and sadly) not true. Creativity requests an active behavior.

As Churchill would have said it (roughly), if you want to be innovative and creative, I have nothing to recommend you but hard work and sweat. To my opinion, the more you actively feed your brain with diverse materials, through readings, observations and analysis, the more you’ll will be able to link and interconnect various things. And thus come out with disruptive concepts.

Feeding your brain is similar to feeding yourself : while you need diversity in your diet to be healthy, you need variety in your observations, interests and readings to be creative. I was backed in this philosophy no longer than 2 days ago, when I heard the following sentence from a major online company CEO : we should always spare 5% of our time for activities/readings that have nothing to do with our business. That means pretty much 1 hour every 2 days.

So be open, actively observe, read and look for new things. Give a sane and various feeding to your brain. It’s the best way to stimulate its creativity.

Tom’sbiztips # 14 : set yourself relevant goals

Last week-end I was lazily watching Tv (yes, it does happen from time to time) when I came across an interview of Usain Bolt, the fastest man on earth. And his philosophy reminded me of something I read a long time ago about gold medalist athletes: “Not all athletes willing to be #1 achieved this goal, but all athletes that are #1 clearly and deeply wanted to be so“. That means that the 1st step to success is to clearly define it.

Sadly, failure being almost always negatively perceived (see my previous post on that matter), people often don’t want to set themselves goals in order to avoid failure. No goals, no fails. No fails, no disappointment. No satisfaction either. A comfortable but stationary situation. So make the choice of evolution, constructive risks & mistakes, achievements & success, and set yourself relevant goals.

To be relevant, a goal has to be :

• specific : a clear outcome and timing has to be defined
• challenging : stretch yourself, be ambitious
• achievable : compare to others, what’s realistic, what’s not

Setting relevant goals is like building yourself a house : would you not start by defining exactly how you want it to be ? And check what is the best you can get with what you have, and when you can expect to get it ?

So go on, start building your house / setting your goals. But just like you’d like your house to be “just like you”, make sure your goal is meaningful : the more it makes sense for you, the more you’ll want it and the more chances you have to achieve it. And the more satisfaction you’ll feel when achieved.

Tom’sbiztips # 13 : know the true value of mistakes

The « right to fail » is an old concept but it sadly rarely goes beyond the stage of concept. Managers claim they apply it, but mainly they don’t, resulting in a totally negative perception of mistakes and failure at word. All mistakes are not the same though.

Let’s picture mistakes as stairs : either they help you growing and stepping up, or they bring you down. Here are for me the different type and value of mistakes.

ZERO VALUE MISTAKES

Accidental mistakes : they happen randomly and may be the result of lack of attention, motivation or energy. They may be acceptable as long as they do not occur more often than rarely.

Repetitive mistakes : any mistake (even accidental) happening more than twice is not acceptable as it means that nothing has been learned from the 2 first occurrences. They are to be tackled as soon as possible at any level.

VALUABLE MISTAKES

Learning mistakes : happening on a new field/competency they are part of the learning process and should be accepted and analyzed. Sometime they can be avoided with common sense or knowledge sharing within a team. If happening more than twice, falls into repetitive mistake.

Risk-taking mistakes : counterpart of a conscious risk taken for a bigger benefit, they are hardly avoidable and highly instructive. Their value lies both in the spirit in which they were taken (risk acceptation) and in the experience learnings.

All mistakes are therefore not to be condemned. Identify the value of each mistake (from you and your team) and act accordingly. There is not personal development without a  « fair » right to fail.

Tom’sbiztips # 12 : share your convictions efficiently

Following my post on the importance of convictions a few weeks ago, I thought it would be interesting to do a focus on the best way of sharing them. Because it is at least as important. If growing a conviction is like growing a tree, sharing it is like… transplanting this tree in someone else‘s garden. You need to find the right time to plant, the right place/soil, and proceed bit by bit, to make sure the tree takes root. It is a kind of art. The movie “Inception“ pictures it pretty well.

Here are 3 key elements to consider when it comes to share a conviction :

1.  Choose the right timing : even the best reasoning will have zero impact if shared at a wrong time, so make sure you take that into account.

2. Know the person & tailor the communication : its common sense, but different people are responsive to different behaviours & selling points. Understand the person and tailor your communication to establish the best connection.

3. Proceed bit by bit : make sure each root/pillar of your reasoning is clear and understood. Once there are all in place, enlighten the global coherence.

If your conviction is well-rooted (understand : made of strong facts and arguments), no doubt that the result should sound convincing. But never forget : as confident as you may be in your conviction, you should always stay humble. No one likes to be taught by an asshole.

Wether you share your convictions with your manager, yours  colleagues or people in your team, remember that the most relevant convictions will never be considered as such if they are not shared in a proper way.

Tom’sbiztips # 11 : give the right direction, at the right time.

In a considerable effort  to move away from public transports strikes and subway gloominess, I decided when I settled back in Paris 8 months ago to buy a scooter. And so did I. My perception of Paris changed since then, and despite the (slight) dangers of driving a scooter in Paris, I am enjoying it A LOT. I am even learning the name of the streets now, thanks to he help of my friend GPS  (I’d love to have the one with the Darth Vader’s voice).

I find GPS fascinating because they seem to be omniscient. They are permanently connected, getting (almost) live information and recalculating itineraries all the time to make sure they give you the right direction. At the right time. And so should a manager be. But in order to be able to be a ‘proper GPS‘, a manager needs to :

1. Stay tuned, stimulate and listen to his team & colleagues, know what happens on the market
2. Organize in hierarchy all the information to make the best of them
3. Communicate properly the outcome, giving a clearly direction at the right time, and re-adjust if necessary

Giving the right direction at the right time to his team is one of the key role of a manager. But it is not an easy one. Because unlike what some manager tend to think, giving the right direction is not a matter of just pointing it out : the work starts before (see 1), and goes on after (see 3). And that’s the only way to get a team 100% on board.

Because just like with a GPS, if a manager is not giving the right directions at the right time, his team won’t listen to him any more.