Stuck between mediocrity and excellence

A t the request of an organizational leader, I was asked to read Throwing the Elephant by Stanley Bing. It is a book about managing upward. In the foreword, the third sentence is, "You can't choose your boss."  The book plays on a CEO stereotype that is characterized in many movies, but the most recent one that I can remember is Too Big to Fail. Think Gordon Gecko, Chainsaw Al Dunlap, Robert Nardelli, etc...  My takeaway from the book is that your boss (i.e., elephant) just is, you must figure out how to coexist within its ecosystem.  So the question to me now becomes, why was I asked to read the book? Here are the reasons that I can think of:  To quote a friend, "[Am I] getting Punk'd?" I am a business book junkie, this one never made my radar. Is this a mentoring session? Thinking about myself for a minute, is a message trying to be sent to me?  Or is this a book used to influence a working relationship between colleagues? Develop a common conne...

There are periods of time where I think that I've faked being a management consultant. It's amazing that I've gotten to my age in a profession that is for all intents and purposes highly competitive and full of smart people. There are times where I feel that someone is going to figure me out- and not in a good way. I stayed at a big firm long enough to accept how things were done and challenge why up to a certain point. But I never had the thought of, "This is just plain wrong." I think that's because a defined hierarchy and decision-making process existed. It was easy to understand who made the final decision. In addition, I worked in an environment of like minded people. The rigor in the recruiting process played a large part in that. In a big firm there are more partners, sr. managers gunning to become partners, and even business analysts gunning to skip all of the levels before partner to become partner. That structure and resulting culture stayed con...

Those of you that play Fantasy Football can relate to this. Those of you that are good coaches probably cannot.  On Sunday, Doug Martin blew up for 50+ points in my Fantasy Football league. A few hours before, I was looking at my lineup deciding on whether to keep Doug Martin in the Flex position or start Calvin Johnson who had not practiced all week and had a knee injury. I decided to go and start Calvin Johnson thinking that my 2 other running backs, Darren McFadden and Trent Richardson could carry the load. I did not even think to take Denarius Moore out of the WR2 slot, put Calvin Johnson in there, and keep Doug Martin in the flex position. Maybe my judgement was clouded because I'm a UT fan. Maybe I made the decision based on the information that I received from a zillion sources in my email and online at the time. Either way, I made a very, very bad decision. Given the state of my life right now, being a good fantasy football player is one thing that I set as a part of goal...

My wife brought up a good point last week. She said that the reason nobody reads my posts is that the posts really only pertain to me and my problems.  Shut the front door! She is absolutely right. So from this point forward, I am going attempt to write about topics that 3 or 4 others may be interested in. That will double my readership.  The other day, I referenced Level 5 Leadership in a survey and quickly realized that nobody else that reads as much of that material as I do, would understand what I mean. Jim Collins, in his book, Good to Great defines Level 5 Leaders as ones that  "blend extreme personal humility with intense professional will." John Maxwell describes Level 5 leadership as a leader "who people follow because of who they are and what they represent."  There are a plethora of books on leadership and a number of executive coaches that teach leadership and I figure that I would throw my 2 cents into the mix. Over the past week or two, I n...

One of these things is not like the others, One of these things just doesn't belong, Can you tell which thing is not like the others By the time I finish my song? I read that the definition of culture is an environment where there is a shared and common set of norms and beliefs. I also think that a culture shares a common set of values and a well-defined purpose. In a big firm environment, the culture is driven by competitive people that collaborate with each other to better themselves and their clients. As much as consultants are self-motivated and driven, ultimately, if they didn't think there was a payoff at the end, no one would drive themselves the way that they do. In other words, the carrot was big enough and the 'perception' of the stick was big enough to drive the motivation. The reason that I say perception is that as many times as I didn't do things as planned in a big firm environment, I was still able to survive with better than average performance ...

Every now and then I will get an email from my client that takes passive aggressiveness to a whole different level.  If there was a Master Black Belt in passive aggressiveness, my client would be a sensei.  In my younger years, I would have fired an email right back that would have probably gotten me in trouble. (Not that posting to a blog is any different- if not worse).  Today, now that I'm older, I feel a sense of inner rage, start an email, and then delete the draft. With technology today, it's so easy to blast a text message, a tweet, [a blog post], an email, a Facebook post, etc... and out it goes into the inter-web. I remember the good old days where I would take the time to hand write a letter and make the effort to get a stamp and mail it. That's when you know you are pissed because of the shear time it took to get your anger on paper and into the postal system. But I digress.  I'm lucky in the fact that my parents are Buddhists. The only issue...

I've read that Google has something called 20% time. What this means is that you get to spend 20% of your time doing whatever you want -- as long as it is in the interests of the company. Gmail was one of those things that originated as a part of 20% time. Think about it.  Imagine if you could spend 1 day out of your week working on whatever you want. For me, it would be leadership development. For some odd reason, I have this fascination with personal and professional development, leadership, management, mentoring, and productivity.  I can read book after book on it in the hopes of one day providing that kind of service to help others. In my spare time, I am a beta "mentor" for Modern Guild  and I attempt to pass on sound advice to undergraduate students that definitely have more going for them than I did when I graduated from college.  Unfortunately for me, I'm on what I call 99.9% time. 99.9% of the time I spend doing things that probably make sense for everyon...

If there is one thing that I've noticed since I've been off of the road, it's that I have much more time on my hands. In the past, I used to get up when it was dark outside with hardly any Atlanta traffic. I'd make my way to the airport, get through security, and time it so that I spent very little time at the gate. I'd save my Starbucks fix until I landed at my destination. But I would occasionally grab an Economist, HBR, or Inc. to read on the plane. Quite honestly, the reading wouldn't last very long because sleeping became more of a priority.  Today, I wake up later -- it's light outside. I wake up with my son and take him downstairs to watch PBS while I get him breakfast. We hang out a bit and instead of catching winks in the window seat of a plane, I do it on the couch while my son watches Curious George. I then get ready and head out the door to work along with a million other Atlanta residents on the highway. There is no expense account for Starbuck...

Marcus Buckingham says that you look at your career or job through 3 lenses: Why is this important to me?  Who am I going to be working with? What am I going to be doing?  Over time, the 'what' goes wrong and when the what goes wrong, everything gets tainted.  I absolutely think this is true in many cases. For me, I actually liked what I did working at a large consulting firm. But in my case, the 'why' changed. The chance to be home to watch my son grow up and really influence his life far outweighed both the 'who' and the what. In other words, it was an emotional decision. Now that I've had some time to settle in, I've assessed happiness with my current situation based on two criteria: Do I feel as though I am adding value to my clients and to the company? Do I feel as though I am valued by my company and my clients? Adding value- For many people, it can be very easy to get into the trap of working 8 to 5 and collecting that paycheck eve...

Adding on to my last post, I read an article on the 10 behaviors of the hyper-successful. This one is even better. Here is where I rank: The less stuff they carry:  I go to work with 2 laptops, a journal, and a bag to carry my power cords in. On top of that, I have a couple reference books on my topic of the day and project management. Just like last time, strike 1. The fewer calls answered or return: Winner! I don't answer or return calls. But that's mainly because I don't like talking on the phone or it's usually some marketing person trying to get me to buy something. I don't think this is what the author meant. The harder they are to reach by anyone or any means: Not so much. People can easily find me. This is easily a gigantic gap. The less time they spend at a computer: As much as I stare at my computer all day. This is definitely not one that I can check off. But if I look at #3 and add #4, this would mean that a hyper-successful person is either dea...

I recently read an article on the 10 characteristics of highly successful people. In order to baseline my performance, here is a gap analysis on what the article says and where I am: Being a fierce competitor: The other day in a soccer game, a Brazilian guy took me to school and scored a lot of goals on me. Back in the day, that would have never happened. I'm not off to a good start. You're really, really smart: I know way too many people smarter than me. Strike 2 You're a turtle: There is a glimmer of hope here. I'm almost 40, have a young son, and am not even a middle manager in my career. Wait a second. That didn't sound too good. Strike 2 1/2.  You're an idea guy: Ah... this is a good one. I have plenty of ideas. I just need to get one of them to stick. So I'll give myself a positive rating on this one. You've got instincts: I know I definitely have instincts. I can sense when things are wrong. I'm usually right on projects and the directio...

I keep hearing that happiness is a state of mind.  If that's the case, then on appearances, it must seem like I'm as far from that state of mind as possible.  For example, I remember in business school, we had a big pow wow on the state of the program and where we saw issues. I remember that my only contribution was a slew of curse words that were unintelligible to anyone in the room.  Lesson learned #1 - Check your negativity before trying to articulate a point. If you don't, the negativity will take over the message and turn people off.  Most recently, I was in another room where we were talking about a go forward strategy at a particular client. Being 12 years removed from business school, you would have figured that I would have internalized lesson learned #1 and done my best John Maxwell version of what I saw as the reality of the situation.  Lesson learned #2 - Even if you have the most articulate way of stating a point, any hint of negativity will tu...

I remember when I was a kid watching Eddie Murphy Raw. there was a bit that he did where he told a joke about doing the Jedi mind trick with Mr. T. It sort of went like this, " So I figured if he came up to me, I could use the Jedi mind trick on him. Mr. T walk up and go, 'I heard you did some jokes about me.' 'No, you didn't.' 'Maybe I didn't.' 'I'm gonna go beat up the fool that told me them lies.'"   There are times at my current client where I think it's being done to me.  Decisions are made or I've been told they've been made where I have zero memory of them ever being made. It's at that point that I begin to wonder if I really agreed to something or if I made a comment in passing that could have been interpreted as me understanding the decision or agreeing to it. But then I talk to other people and they are having the same type of episode. It's such a weird (and disturbing) feeling. All I know is tha...

There are two observations that I've made now that I deeply entrenched in a large organization working on behalf of a smaller contracting company. The first observation can only be described as, " Why ?" One of many things that big firms do is hire a lot of smart, competitive, and highly critical people. They also force their people to make meaningful contributions as part of an up or out environment. Given that 100% of consultants are highly critical, the best thing to do is turn consultants loose on internal processes and operations. As a result, you get very streamlined processes that are challenged quite a bit. Challenge usually drives change.  When you work for a smaller company, the internal processes are trying to catch up to dramatic growth. Sometimes things are going so fast, that people work just to get something in without really asking, "Does the way we are doing it make the best use of our people's time?" If there is one thing that big firms ...

I have always wondered what would happen if I sat on the other side of a consulting pitch.  I recognize every phrase I've used as a consultant to gain trust and build a relationship with a client: "I'd prefer to use handouts and not make a presentation."  "We'd rather have a discussion and make this interactive [as opposed to us talking at you]" "We'd like to understand your  needs and listen to your  issues so that we can see how we can help," and many others...  On the other side, I've learned that there is a different mentality or thought process - especially when you work for a big company. "Tell me something that I don't know." And guess what? You aren't going to tell me something that I don't know, because we already know where we have problems." "How much do these guys really understand about our business? Because unless they've worked here for 15 years, they don't know half the ...

I remember that when I left the world of big firm consulting, my exit came with very little hullabaloo. I think people were disappointed to see me leave. But all in all, I think that the people around me knew that it was going to come sooner or later. The treadmill was on 14 mph and it was time for me to get off or I was going to run the risk of pulling the red cord that stops the treadmill completely. Now I'm on a different type of treadmill. Actually, I wouldn't even call it a treadmill. I would call it a slow version of the moving walkway in an airport. You can just stand on the walkway and it will get you to where you want to go. Or, if you want to step it up a notch, you can walk on the left and pass a few people. What I've found is that the one thing that a big firm did was push you to stay on that treadmill and increase the speed and incline because everyone else around you was pushing the up buttons. I didn't think that I would miss that, but I do.  Now...

I'm joking. But if there is a reason to start, I think that I have one. One of my strengths is that I am a Relator. It's easy for me to empathize, listen, and connect with the majority of people that I meet. So when I'm not able to connect with someone, it's kind of a big deal to me. I can think of 2 other instances where this has occurred. The first was when I was a Sr. Consultant and my coach told me that she was "disappointed" in me like I was her kid and had just failed a test. The second was with a Partner at my old firm where we just were not on the same page and he rolled me off of an engagement. Now I'm in a similar situation and I'm feeling the same types of symptoms. The difference in this situation though is that my project is actually progressing in the right direction. Part of that is that we have some dynamite resources, the other part is that I've bypassed all of the non-value added steps and people to get stuff done. So the quest...

One of the most powerful questions that a person can ask me is "Why?" The question tends to illicit a number of responses depending on who it comes from and how it's delivered. Sometimes it gets a reaction of pure annoyance. Sometimes, it gets an explanation. But almost all of the time the question makes me think. Something that I've learned when reading about starting your own business is to have an answer as to "why" you are doing it. Every answer that I've come up with is always, "to have more autonomy and financial independence." The first one is a given. The second one - not so much. I would say that 99% of people that start a business are in it to make money. Maybe it's lower than that. Yet all of the content that I've read about successful start-up business say that they were started in order to fill a need. I watched TV about a guy that started delivering fruit to businesses because snacks in corporate America typically c...

I am caught in what I am going to term the management circle of death. It is my belief that as you move up the ranks in an organization, it becomes your responsibility to make decisions. Part of being in "'management" is that you have to manage other people's issues. Otherwise, as a manager, why would they even come to you for advice or decisions? In my current situation, a typical scenario plays out like this.  I have an issue that needs to be escalated. So I escalate it. I am either told to either handle the issue myself, or the escalation path continues laterally. At that point, instead of being continued to be escalated up, it's actually pushed back down another path to a peer of mine. At that point, the issue ends up right back in my lap If that's not very self-defeating, I don't know what is. Managers don't like to hear about issues. But guess what? That's what you get paid to do. You can coach your people to not only come to you w...

To say you made more money by working more is not evidence of immense intellectual creativity. In fact, I call it the donkey strategy. -David H. Maister - True Professionalism Continuing... The point of any business is to find ways to make money without working harder. If I fail at making any other (real) improvements, I'll probably do that because I like the income, but I'll never chest up with pride and say, "Look at me-I'm a donkey: I made money by working more!"  [I should just stop the post right here. ] My latest epiphany is that I am a donkey. I am not only a donkey, I am now the CDO. Before, I worked a lot because I figured that if I worked harder and longer than the next guy, I would outperform that person and move up the ranks faster. Oh-- and I actually liked it and was somewhat appreciated for my contributions. Now I work a lot because 1. I decided to take on more responsibility at my company; and 2. Reasons that I cannot say due to ...

In Marshall Goldsmith's Mojo , he refers to what is called The Great Western Disease. The Great Western Disease afflicts anyone who says or thinks the phrase, "I'll be happy when..." And then fills in the blank.  Admit it. We all do it which means that we're all afflicted.  I used to think that there was a certain dollar amount that I needed to make in order to be happy. But as P Diddy and Biggie say, "Mo' money. Mo' problems." I think to some degree that it's true that the more you make, the more you want. What a vicious cycle. It's been a few months since I left a fairly lucrative job at a large consulting firm. I haven't bought a new pair of shoes in a while. My wardrobe is a little dated. I let my wife drive the nice car while I drive the one that's paid off. But we are still able to eat. My son has more than he needs. And I paid more for him last year to go to school then my parents paid to send me to college. All in al...

The other day I received an Outlook invitation that had over 60 people on the distribution list. Granted I was part of the problem in that I was added to the list a few weeks ago. But still - this is a weekly meeting that has obviously suffered from invitee proliferation. If the objective of the meeting is to have any decisions made with everyone listening on how that decision is made, then mission accomplished.  It's not rocket science to figure out how a distribution list can get to be that way. Maybe the original intent of the meeting was to get a core group of people (let's say <10) together to get updates and make decisions on a strategic decision. Then those 10 people decide one day that they can't make it and assign the meeting attendance to their deputy so that he or she can attend and then that person is never removed from the distribution list. Then there's always an agenda item that involves resources working on the projects that support that agenda item ...

When I was in graduate school, my Industrial Engineering professor wanted us to write a paper on living our life 'lean.' By lean, I'm referring to lean principles that are prominent in many best-in-class manufacturing organizations today. The point of the exercise was to demonstrate how much waste there was in our everyday lives and what impact there would be as we leaned out our daily activities. Even in graduate school, where I was living off at most $13K a year, I still had too much 'stuff'. It was an eye opening experience. Fast forward to today. I now make more than $13K a year, am married, have a son, a house, and a pension / 401k plan. I'm on my 3rd job now and am in the annals of management for a multi-billion dollar client. Our 2 car garage only holds one car - because the other side is filled with who knows what. Our dining room is a play area for my 20 month old. When I go to work, I have 2 laptops, 2 phones, an iPad and more paper than I know what ...