Stuck between mediocrity and excellence

Does the work that you do align to your personal values?  Does the work that your company purports to do align with it's "stated" organizational values?  When we interview or apply to jobs, we look at the job description, see if our resume matches it, and then if the compensation seems right - we go for it.  But how many of us have asked a company leader or interviewer what the organization's values are?  The reason that we don't ask is because it's a touchy-feely type of question.  You are bound to be seen as one sandwich short of a picnic if you start asking a lot of business book, "that's academic BS", "quit watching TED Talks," questions.  Here's the thing. A well-run company not only has documented values, it's culture exemplifies each and every one of those values.  In her book Daring Greatly , Brene Brown says that there are "aspirational values" that describe the elusive list of values that resi...

It's that time of year where everyone sees January 1st as the day for a new start.  We make resolutions. We create vision boards. We set goals.  My local LA Fitness becomes busier than usual. A lot of money is spent signing up for things to start.  I'm guilty of it just like the next person.  The pain of doing an intense training program to get ripped was greater than the money that I lost paying for 10 sessions. Some people call that lazy. I also call it lazy. I'll go ahead and own it.  For 2014, let try something different. Taking a page from Trevor G. Blake in Three Simple Steps : A Map to Success in Business and in Life-  instead of writing goals, write down your intentions.  An intention is a goal with all doubt about its attainment removed. Baby steps are not needed because there is no doubt about getting what we desire.  He goes on to say,  With goals we push energy toward the object. With intentions, we pull or attr...

In Boundaries for Leaders  by Dr. Henry Cloud, he says,    "In the end, as a leader, you are always going to get a combination of two things: what you create and what you allow." The premise is that when you are " ridiculously in charge," you have the capacity to set boundaries on what you allow.  In other words, there are things that you can control and things that you can't. Focus on the things that you can control.  It's natural as human beings to worry about things outside of our control. These include but are not limited to: Other people's decisions Bureaucracy enabled by processes and systems How people will react to certain messages Did I say other people's decisions?  When you worry about things outside of your control, you lose sight and spend less time on the things that you can control.  It's also human nature to want to live in a state of certainty - and that means having a sense of control.  Imagine wh...

1990's PowerPoint Clip Art Great ideas are a dime a dozen. Or, in this economy, at least a penny per dozen.  What's amazing to me is that you can tell friends, colleagues, and perfect strangers your great idea - and within seconds you'll get a reaction as to just how good your idea really is.  I'm sure a lot of it depends on the pitch, but if you can get the concept of your idea into a couple of intelligible sentences - it's pretty easy to observe the other person's immediate reaction to what you are pitching. But turning the pitch into profit is what separates the real entrepreneurs from the "want"trapreneurs.  Getting a good idea to become something tangible requires a number of things: A little bit of luck (or a lot) The right people to support it An audience that demands it  Determination of the person or people who thought of it Belief and faith the the idea really is that good Unfortunately for every 10 people that like you...

The day to day grind will consume your life. An organization will take just as much from you as much as you give to it -- and it still won't be enough. When I worked at a big Firm, I could literally work 20+ hours a day doing something for the Firm. It wasn't because I was asked to do it. It was the nature of working in an environment where you were trying to get ahead and move to Partner as quickly as possible.  When I got off the road, it was both a blessing and a curse. No more emails on weekends -- much less after 5 pm during a week day.  No more nagging open loops.  I got back a precious commodity - time.  It's amazing how self-aware you become when you have time. As a good friend of mine said, " You just have time to think. "  For me, reading one business book a week turned into three or four a week.  Podcasts started to eat up my data plan.  The volume of my posts has picked up considerably -- so much so that I think I have eno...

Every job has its highs and lows.  Some days are better than others and you do your job because it's what you are paid to do-- generally speaking. I would venture to say that the majority of people are doing jobs where they've given into acceptance rather than chosen it as a career.  That's evident in statistics that you hear about employees that are not just disengaged from work, but actively disengaged. 1 out of 10 of us are not engaged in what we do.  Unfortunately, many organizations feel like it's not their place to make work engaging or meaningful. The onus is on the employee. And there is advice out there where you need to see the glass as half full, make lemons out of lemonade, follow a lot of Peter Drucker / Dale Carnegie self-help advice in order to become a good corporate citizen and move up the corporate ladder.  The reality is that you may just be in the wrong job. Here are 7 signs that you are: It gets harder each day to wake up in th...

There are two books that are must reads if you are thinking about an approach or philosophy to starting, operating, conducting-- and just being in   business.  One book that you'll read 2 or 3 times is Conscious Business  by Fred Kofman. You'll want to read this many times and highlight most of it.  The other book that I am currently reading is Conscious Capitalism by John Mackey with Raj Sisodia. John Mackey is the Co-CEO of Whole Foods Market. He has a great interview  on his philosophy of conducting business if reading involves time that you cannot afford to spare. (The link contains ~21 min. audio) If you believe that business is about profit maximization, then these books aren't for you-- or maybe they really are. If you are steadfast in your point of view (as taught and learned through many B-schools), then it's going to be a tough sell for these books to change your opinion.  There will always be a school of thought and students of that sch...

The power of others promoting you is far greater than you simply promoting yourself.  Most of the people that I meet are either are on one side of a spectrum - see complex graphic below.  On one end, I know people that believe work and effort speaks for itself. People will notice and talk about it.  On the other end, I know people that are what I call, "Legends in their own minds," and they aren't afraid to let you know about it.  Too little self promotion and no one knows who you are. (Casper the Ghost).  Too much and you run the risk of becoming noise -- or "human spam" as i've heard Sally Hogshead reference a few times.  If you do great work and don't tell anyone about it, you end up in the middle of the bell curve - or worse, you become irrelevant because the person doing great work AND telling people about it may be annoying, but at least he is relevant.  However, if you do great work and others are talking about it, you'll far ...

What's Really Behind The Curtain? There are plenty of lists that come out touting how great an organization is.  "Best companies to work for..."  "Best and the brightest..."  "A Leader - Top right of the magic quadrant..."  The lists go on forever.  In reality, what's really important? What's important is the reputation that the company has out in the marketplace and what people say when they leave.  How many customers rave about the company?  For the ones that leave, how many have positive things to say?  How extreme is the negative feedback? (There usually is some truth to that kind of feedback).  What do alumni of these organizations become?  Zappo's, Google, Southwest, GE, McKinsey - they all have reputations beyond a website review.  Think beyond the list. 

Batman's Utility Belt Elite consulting firms hire smart people.  Yes, all of these guys have figured out how to rock standardized tests. But the majority of these people come from marketable backgrounds and have demonstrated leadership skills beyond their years. I know because I had to recruit them and knew what standards recruits had to meet just to get a resume look.  If I was 21 and applying to these firms, there is no way I would have received the courtesy of a rejection note. But I got in, made an experience out of it, and then left the lifestyle.  The thing about being a consultant is that your brand is the sum total of your experiences.  Your experiences could cross industries, service offerings, clients, etc...  If you are in the 90% of the people that decide that out is preferred over up, then how do you translate that into a marketable brand?  Essentially your value proposition is, "Hey! I'm a smart guy. Put me in a leadership po...

I have a goal of getting over 1,000 LinkedIn connections.  Anyone will tell you that it's not the number of connections that you have, but the quality of the connections that you have.  What's the point of having 1,000 connections if none of them can vouch for you, right?  You'll probably roll your eyes at this, but I can say that many of those connections (outside of the executive recruiters) were made in the spirit of helping vs. taking. (Look at the number or recommendations I've written vs. the number that I actually have).  To expand on that, in Adam Grant's book,  Give and Take, he talks about Adam Rifkin "...who in 2011 had more LinkedIn connections to the 640 powerful people on Fortune's lists than any human being on the planet....His network includes the founders of Facebook, Netscape, Napster, Twitter, Flickr, and Half.com."  If you want to understand his philosophy for how he built his network, you'll have to read the book....

Go to Despair.com for the original  If you want to be a management consultant, or are in the profession, there are a few books that I would recommend.  Consultants, like lawyers, investment bankers and real estate agents, can get a bad and glorifed rap thanks to stories like Enron, Raj Rajaratnam, and House of Lies.  In addition, the narcissistic, selfish and intellectually arrogant ones in the profession tend to overshadow and overwhelm the ones that do it because of their love to help clients. I remember reading this joke like this a back in the middle of my consulting career that didn't really help things.  A shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of the dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Broni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and YSL tie, leaned out the window and asked the shepherd... "If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me o...

In this month's issues of Success Magazine , there is an article by John Maxwell titled "Choosing Wisely".  In it, there is a quote from SonyCorp. co-founder Akio Marita: "No matter how good or successful you are, or how clever or crafty, your business and its future are in the hands of the people you hire."  Maxwell goes on to say that, "when you hire, sometimes the the person with the right skill set  does not have the right mindset to be successful in your organization."   Another interview with Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappo's, reiterates the same message. It's why he built a company with an obsessive focus on culture. He learned from selling his previous company that culture matters when it comes to company growth and employee productivity.  When a company is in hyper growth mode, recruiters will not understand whether a candidate has the right mindset or attitude to be successful at the company during the interview process. Af...

After over a decade of experiences and information overload, I've come up with the top 3 things that I would tell people as they enter the management consulting profession.  If I think about them, they probably apply to entering any profession. I would be interested to hear what you think.  It doesn't matter how you get there, it only matters what you accomplish when you are there. Just like the military, everyone has the same Day 1. Pedigrees, relationships, and nepotism aside, you've made it. Figure out what it takes to differentiate yourself from the pack. You're not better than anyone else, but you should be bettering yourself  each and every day. Find the experiences that will improve you as a person. Find the mentors and people that you want to be like. As Jim Rohn says, " Formal education will make you a living, self-education will make you a fortune."  It is and it isn't about you. The consulting profession is about helping others. When ...

At big consulting firms there are things that you have to do in order to make sure you fit squarely on top of the bell curve.  These include: Remaining utilized Not pissing off your Manager or Partner Not pissing off your client Being competent Following all of the processes to keep the business running In order to differentiate yourself, you need to lead, contribute, or participate in firm building activity. These are also called extracurricular activities.  When you volunteer to do something for visibility and not because you have a genuine interest in it, you are already behind the 8-Ball.  Let's call it being passionate about something. Tony Robbins would ask whether you are invested or just interested.  When you are just interested, that activity will never be a priority.  Firm leaders are not oblivious to this-- good ones anyway. Some like the ego boost of you working on something they are interested in.  But during...

When on a consulting project or engagement for an extended period of time, it's hard not to go native.  For those consultants that have traveled to the same client for a long, long time and are working on the same project in the same role, it might be time to admit that you are now just in a flexible staffing arrangement.  Quantitatively, I would say that after 6 months is when the process of going native starts. When I worked in a plant in industry, I found myself getting into a 7:30 AM to 3:00 PM work routine.  I really didn't have anything major to accomplish each day. I just needed to make the rounds on the plant floor, keep everyone happy, and make sure production didn't stop.  At that time, the internet was in its infancy. So there literally was nothing to do except to go around and talk to people. Craziness, right?  Fast forward to today. I go to work at the same time each morning and leave at the same time -- but it's more flexible thanks...

In 2009, I wrote a post called DFU . It's pretty straightforward as to what that stands for.  It's how I proceeded to be slightly rated above average at a big consulting firm -- that is until I actually did screw up. If you read any story of any successful person, you will find a story of failure.  Successful entrepreneurs have failed many, many times. I'm actually so sick of hearing about failure that I want to fail miserably at something else and get it over with.  Part of that is putting yourself in situations where failure is an option.  This is where I think everyone's proclivity to feeling comfortable kicks in. We were all educated in a system where failure is frowned upon-- if not unacceptable (especially if you had Asian parents).  The ones that fail or cause trouble in the classroom are labeled negatively.  How many of us looked at people in high school and thought, "Yeah... that person is definitely going to make it in life." On ...