EfficientLeader Coach

Catching up when your project is starting to fa...

EfficientLeader — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT

If you have a project that is just starting to fall behind, there are things you can do to catch up before it’s too late. Your range of tools include resources, expected deliverables, dates, money, quality, and more. However, the more you wait the less effective and more costly it will be to get your project back on track. Here are some ideas on how to get your project back on track.

Project

Trim the total number of deliverables.
Drop or defer other work.
Make sure the tasks are prioritized.
Focus on outcomes and optimize your to do list.
Get metrics and a list of exactly what is left to do.
Start daily status calls.
Share project documents to get everyone aligned with key documentation.
Include managers on status distributions.
Get alignment on priorities such as time or quality.
Find out exact costs incurred or revenues lost from lateness.
Identify competing projects that are u...

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Encourage your directs to solve the problem

EfficientLeader — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT

It’s a good process to let your direct reporting team work things out, at least initially. Delegating saves time and allows them to grow. You will also be able to focus on potentially bigger problems. So if you have two or more directs that can tackle a problem or resolve a dispute, give them a chance to work it out.

Here are some benefits to letting your team work things out:

Saves you time.
Gives you confidence in delegating.
Helps develop your reports.
Lets you focus on bigger problems.
Shows your team you are confident in their skills.
Creates accountability among peers.
Discourages team from complaining to you about peers.
Allows you to identify leaders in your team.
Your team may be closer to the problem than you.
Develops strong relationships among your team.
Word gets out and sends a behavior message to others.
Over time lets you learn who is not a team player.<...

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Great By Choice

EfficientLeader — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Popular author Jim Collins talks about leading in uncertain times. He uses 10 companies and stories to introduces strategies like: 20 Mile March, Fire Bullets, Then Cannonballs, Leading above the Death Line, Zoout Out then Zoom In, and the SMaC Recipe.
Popular Quotes:

We cannot create the future. But we can create it.
You don't wait until your in an unexpected storm to discover that you need more strength and endurance.

Working with a former but tricky colleague

EfficientLeader — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT

Say an old colleague is back. One that you’ve had ups and downs with. But overall the person is good, maybe with a few issues just like yourself. How can you get off to a new start, one that leverages each of your known strengths and without the scars of the heated battles of yesteryear. Here are some ideas on how to get your new relationship off to a bright start.

At the second start:

Have a catchup call.
Avoid discussions about the prior teams, people, pressure, and behaviors.
Speak on friendly first name basis.
Acknowledge your skills.
Talk about the new situation.
Share a little personal update.
Learn about what recent projects the other has been working on.
Recall this person’s strengths.
Watch your tone.
Don’t talk bad about people behind there back, it will come out and around.
Be the first to provide a favor and build credit.
Make personable introductions with pos...

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Having a weak performer resign

EfficientLeader — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT

What better way to have your worst employee leave, than by having the employee get another job. The employee is happy with another job that suits him or her better and you feel good that you didn’t have to fire the person. You saved time with the required HR legal trail and you may have avoided the painful performance reviews and discussions.

Here are some other thoughts:

Will you have headcount to replace this person?
Will the rest of the team be positive or negative about this departure?
Is there a trend?
Are you able to find better talent?
Consider having a discussion with the remaining team.
What will you say at the exit interview?
Are there any Intellectual Property, Trade secrets, or competitive risks? Possibly need to exit with a verbal and written reminder?
What is the back story that the employee is telling others?
Will you hire differently this time?
Did something go wrong in the...

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Are customers promoting your products?

EfficientLeader — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Are customers telling others about your products and services? Are the products noteworthy? Is the output shareable? Do the products include networking and sharing features? Can you tweak the product to make it self-promoting? Is your company’s branding visible for end users? Can you include coupons for friends?

Read more: Are customers promoting your products?

Asking Why Repeatedly

EfficientLeader — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT

It’s often a helpful tool to ask why several times. Often the first few whys get you out of the weeds and in a bigger frame of mind. The third and fourth why will help you tackle the right problem. People may also not take the first why seriously, or think that the second why is silly counter. So take some time and listen actively to let the other party get into a serious problem solving mode.

Dont forget to backup!

EfficientLeader — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT

You absolutely need a backup system. When was your last backup? It doesn’t matter if your system is high tech or low tech, but you need a backup system. Here are some tips about key files to backup and techniques to avoid a disaster.

Don’t forget about these files:

Email files, Contacts, Groups, Calendar
Internet favorite links
Documents, Spreadsheets, Presentations
Functional data files like photoshop and source code
Any important files in your downloads folder
Passwords, Settings
Serial Numbers, Application Licenses, Digital apps or purchases
Current user profile files like My Documents, Pictures, Music
Shared data files on servers like sharepoint, file servers, databases, and content management systems.

Here are some backup tips:

Think about big backups versus little folder specific deltas.
Use a dated folder name to let you know the la...

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When presenting is more about receiving

EfficientLeader — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Dont forget that some meetings are really about receiving information and not presenting. All too often we forget to plan for the outcomes of a meeting. You may be savvy enough to wing the meeting using your default powerpoint, but you shouldn’t waste time. We can get more of what we want if we setup the meeting agenda and materials correctly. Here are some tips on thinking about the goal of the meeting and how to extract the desired information.

Is your goal to receive some information?

Do you have a decision to be made?
Do you need approval on something?
Do you need consensus or a vote on a topic?
Do you want to confirm the right options are being explored?
Are you or the team stuck?
Do you need help with a plan?
Is the plan at risk?
Are you supposed to be listening to a what a customer or partner wants?
Are you trying to build a two-way relationship?
Are you trying to learn more about ...

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Aim for at least one review of your team's output

EfficientLeader — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Your time is so precious, but because of your experience and knowledge your reviews can help work improve by upwards of 20%. Even a 5 to 10 minute scan can provide a junior or senior staff member significant amounts of feedback as well as help align the work with bigger initiatives outside of that employee. This is critical if your work will directly or indirectly be shared, used, or viewed by a much bigger group or a smaller group of special customers, clients, or stakeholders. While there could be diminishing returns, quick reviews once or twice can give a major quality boost and your team can be known for quality work.

Setup:

Is there a lead author?
Make sure someone is documenting the feedback, so you don’t talk for x minutes then realize nobody is writing.
If you are speaking feedback, be sure the person is ready to write your comments.
Is it known who will be receiving the feedback?
Consider using a net meeting tool to show...

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Video Conferencing Tips

EfficientLeader — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Whether using an advanced cisco telepresence or skype on your PC or mobile, here are some tips to video conference like a pro.

Setup:

Specify multiple room numbers and locations in the meeting invite.
Specify time zones in the meeting invite.
Viewing a presentation may be difficult depending on the setup, so you may want to share the doc ahead of time.
Avoid putting open laptops in front of the microphones.
Check your room lighting and provide feedback on the other participants.
You may be able to add a conference calls to your video conference.
If you have multiple monitors, try to stay within your monitor, because a hand gesture could override another monitor.
Try to have an upper body, arms, and head view of each participant.
You may want to assign leaders for each of the locations. Leaders should get to the conference a few minutes early.
Solid color shirts look better on television t...

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How to keep information confidential

EfficientLeader — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Keeping a company secret is very hard in this highly networked social world. Here are some tips.

Use legal document like a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
Avoid discussing on email
Stay busy
Avoid the topic
Use legal references, I can’t legal told me not to discuss
Avoid gossip at break rooms, water cooler, and lunches
Stay quiet when the topic comes up
Dont document on email or Instant Message or text
Ask can you please not tell anyone
Get a handshake
Get a verbal promise
Close the office and meeting room doors
Think about who can hear your phone calls
Come up with a codename or abbreviation
Use “Confidential”, “Privileged”, or “Do not distribute” on emails, ppt, docs
Discuss in another language
Discuss offsite
Discuss off hours
Limit the team size
Have a senior exec remind team about confidentiality
Read more: How to keep information confidential

The SalesRoundup Podcast

EfficientLeader — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT

A Sales Podcast for the Complex Sales Professional

Read more: The SalesRoundup Podcast

How to handle weak performers

EfficientLeader — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Here are some ideas on how to handle workers that are under performing.

If there is hope:

Identify if there are any issues at home or with health.
Find out if this is short term lull.
Talk to them about where they are falling short.
Talk to other coworkers to get a full view of strengths and weaknesses.
Educate them with training, reviews, books, conferences.
Ask them for feedback or have them fill out a job satisfaction survey.
Have them complete a 360 review and discuss it with them.
Change their job to something that suits them.
Change their supervisor.

If there is no hope:

Start a documentation trail before firing them.
Apply public peer pressure to increase performance.
Contain them behind a strong performer.
Talk to hr about the replacement options.
Guide them to a new job.
Add a new employee and then terminate the u...

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Untapped skills in your team

EfficientLeader — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT

I needed to warm up prior to a deep dive on process, so I asked everyone to let me know one skill that they have that they are not using. I was so surprised how we have so many hidden talents and also by how passionate people were about the potential for using these untapped skills.

I found out I had folks that missed talking to customers, wanted to do some photoshop on the side, would love to work on a little code, missed giving presentations to groups, wanted to help build a product, and more. I’m planning on finding ways to give a little extra reward and joy to my team by letting them utilize these fun skills in ways that help our primary and secondary goals.

Uninvited project participants

EfficientLeader — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT

So you have a few new folks helping out on your projects. This is good right? Here are some things to think about:

Are these folks helping or are they derailing your project.
Is their house in order, and will this extra credit hurt the project later when their own homework isn’t done.
Are they going to send your department a bill?
Do they provide useful input and experience to the team?
How much core team time will it take to get these new folks up to speed? Or will they simply catch up from here on.
How is the distribution of the team, departments, and functions. Does it provide balance or imbalance?
Are you forced to revisit rules around voting, roles, leads, process order?
Is the team getting too big? Are there silent participants that use up space on email distros, calls, and meetings?

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Know your team?

EfficientLeader — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Do you know your team skills? Is it valuable for you to have an inventory of skills, industries, languages of your team? Will this information help you with sales, testing, resources, quality? Is this information gathered informally with a meeting, survey, shared spreadsheet, or web app? How big is your team? Will you provide a policy about how this information will be used and will team members that opt out get penalized? How will you handle synonyms like business case, business model, or startup. Will you normalize the data or provide choices from a drop down list box? In conclusion, having this information can be very powerful for many team goals.

Free Prize Inside - The next BIG Marketing Idea

EfficientLeader — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Wonderful marketing and product development book on taking products, services, and platforms and tweaking them to make them special instead of investing in risky new products.

Read more: Free Prize Inside - The next BIG Marketing Idea

Rework

EfficientLeader — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 04:00:00 GMT

Great book of honest, simple to digest ideas on how to improve your business, products, and company.

Read more: Rework

Leverage secondary research

EfficientLeader — Sat, 28 May 2011 04:00:00 GMT

In addition to primary research that you do yourself, don't forget to leverage secondary research from third parties. There is a lot of good and free research and statistics published by government, universities, trade associations, and news agencies.

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Always Be Closing