WORK:
Get “1″ Rated at work
Continue to use GTD at work – weekly reviews every week
Monthly join-ups to grow network
Meet quarterly with mentors

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• 2009 Goals Recap
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• Quick update…

Here is how I did:
LIFE: 6 for 8
FRIENDS: 4 for 6
CAREER/PRODUCTIVITY: 5 for 8 (2 of the 8 shouldn’t have been goals–more like whims)

I’d call 15 of the 22 solid wins. 2 of the 22 I didn’t accomplish and weren’t important so I get a pass on those. That leaves 5 outstanding to stay on my 2010 list in some form or another. 22 goals is too many and my list will be much shorter in 2010.

Additionally, I am toying with making my goals S.M.A.R.T. as well. SMART goals are a work thing. Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, Time-Bound. Apparently there are several possible words for every letter of the word SMART as Wikipedia lays out here. I find myself somewhat resistant as it is a lot easier to let things slide and “just be flexible” when you haven’t made specific commitments. I feel like I’ve got a lot going on and don’t want to sign myself up for too much. At the same time, I know that the goals I am most reluctant to set specifics around are the same ones I didn’t achieve in 2009. A little external processing going on right there, but it sounds like I will be making my 2010 goals SMART. I encourage you to do the same.

Internet trivia of the day: Apparently that line about Harvard MBAs with written goals earning great fortunes vs. their peers without written goals is an urban legend. See here for details. Another study was done that demonstrated written goals do help people accomplish more, but huge sums of money may or may not follow.

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• 2009 Goals
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Innovative models, sophisticated analyses, and leading large-scale change.  These are the top of the pyramid elements that we typically associate with high caliber finance professionals.  However, without a firm foundation, the most sophisticated pieces of analysis will go nowhere.  Finance people without integrity aren’t worth much, hence the internal controls piece.  You also can’t make meaningful assumptions if you can’t trust your organization and the people in it.  Owning sound internal controls is the key to ensuring the numbers you work with can be counted on and will be taken seriously by others.  Delivering the business results is the other key piece of the foundation.  Finance managers at P&G are true business partners.  They aren’t just accountants and they don’t just “run the numbers” on ideas that get passed down the chain.  Finance folks are typically present early on  and have significant input at all stages of the planning process.  As a result, finance managers own the business results right along with the sales force, the marketers, and general management.  Once the foundation of sound internal controls and consistent business results is in place, then feel free to trot out your latest greatest data visualization techniques or sophisticated model.  Ignore at your own peril.

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One of my 2009 goals was to end each day with an empty inbox. That worked for me, even with a newborn, for the first 3-4 months of 2009. The newborn thing actually helped because what else is there to do when you are up at 3am? Then we started looking for houses and getting more actively engaged in the relocation process and it all went out the window. However, I’m back under 50 messages in the inbox after dedicating a couple solid hours to deleting, archiving, and unsubscribing.

However, Google Reader has been haunting me. I didn’t look at it for ten days or so and I came back to find 900+ “new items”. Digging a little deeper it turns out the real culprit is a recent subscription to Zero Hedge that I had added that was contributing 400+ of those items. The real problem is that I constantly find fascinating stuff in ZH posts. This morning though I had to admit defeat and hit the reset button. I hit “mark all as read” on Zero Hedge and my unread items instantly fell from 600+ to only 219. It felt awesome. As I’ve typed this post I’ve been thinking how nice it would be to see a nice big zero for total unread items. Hold on, one more click (and another to confirm that yes I am that crazy) and bam, ZERO unread items!

This is a little trick I learned from David Allen Greene, the author of Getting Things Done. He advocates doing the same thing with your email. His argument is that if you haven’t written back in 2 weeks, or a month, or 6 months it must not have really been that important that you reply. This can obviously get a little tricky with email but in the Google Reader context it makes perfect sense to get familiar with the reset button. The tools we have are supposed to empower us not burden us. Get familiar with the reset buttons you have available to you and make use of them. You will free up all kinds of mental energy you are currently wasting on things that don’t really matter.

Give it a shot and leave a comment below with how this works for you.

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• 2009 Goals
• Quick update…
• How to get HTML email, Youtube, and internet radio on your Blackberry…

Matt offers a refreshing perspective on piracy and the role of pirates by asking one simple question.  Do the pirates add value?  Put more explicitly, what is it that consumers are getting from the pirates that mainstream companies aren’t providing?  The businesses that can look beyond their default reactionary “us vs. them” mental model and stay focused on consumer needs will be able to adapt and thrive.

See the whole video above for more tips from Matt on dealing with pirates.

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So why am I thinking about the PVP now?  This morning I was reading Fred Wilson’s blog, A VC, and came across this post on building successful long term relationships.  Apparently, today is Fred’s 22nd anniversary so he thought he’d write a post about business relationships.  How romantic right?  Actually he does say some nice things about his wife as well, but the main takeaway was that the two most important factors in any relationship are tolerance and shared vision/values.  P&G’s commitment to the PVP ensures that everyone in the organization has shared values.  I guess this is why I keep meeting so many P&Gers that have been with the company 20 and 30 years.  Anyways, I’m excited to work for a company whose purpose is to “improve the lives of the world’s consumers, now and for generations to come.”  I never imagined during my seven years in the non-profit world that a for profit company might have a purpose statement like that.  Apparently, it is possible, and I’m lucky enough to get to work for one of them.  Check out the rest of Fred’s post, that I linked to above, if you are building a team, starting a business, or looking for a spouse and want to have long term success.

See the following post for a great video of P&G’s new CEO, Bob McDonald, talking about Values-Based Leadership.

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Paul Tudor Jones – Failure Speech June 2009

Originally posted by The Investment Linebacker here.  I stumbled on Paul Kedrosky’s repost here.

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This presentation is a good basic tutorial on social media. It covers the why and how of Facebook, Twitter, blog readers, and personal branding. I designed it for incoming Notre Dame MBA students but it has proven itself valuable for everyone from my parents, to executives, to my peers who don’t quite get why everyone is suddenly talking about Twitter. Basically anyone looking to understand what social media is all about.

Please share it with your friends, family, coworkers, etc by using the “ShareThis” button below.

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In the past 4 months I have bought a house, watched my little girl grow up, changed lots of diapers, put together a primer on social media for incoming MBAs, gotten my MBA from Notre Dame, seen Joe Montana and Obama at graduation, moved from Indiana to Ohio, grown a lawn from seed, bought my first lawnmower, mounted my plasma on the wall, bought and returned many curtains, bought and assembled several more pieces of IKEA furniture, lost money shorting commercial real estate, bought a new car, filed an amended tax return, and made way to many trips to Lowes and Home Depot.

I start work at P&G in eleven short days an am very excited for it.  Alright, I’m out for now.  Lots more house organizing and stuff buying to do.

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