business – Page 6 – Work Should Be Fun!

You Will

Many years ago I was involved in a corporate merger. I was on the side of the company being purchased and subsequently absorbed.

During the lead-up to the actual papers being signed, executives from the soon-to-be parent company visited our location as part of their due diligence.

One of these visits was in the midst of a winter storm going on at the location of the parent company. As we were walking through our local campus, there was casual discussion of this storm. One of the executives told us that whenever bad weather approaches, he drives his Porsche to the airport, leaves it there, and rents a car that is more suitable to winter driving. I commented that I could not imagine being in a position where I could have such a fancy (and expensive) car, and choose to take on the additional expense of renting something different.

He responded by saying, “You will.”

My key takeaways from this offhand remark were:

He viewed me as someone who would continue on with the company after the merger.
The company had a philosophy of sharing the wealth.

Both of these turned out to be true.

This simple statement, “You will,” impacted my work greatly. I felt motivated, included, engaged. “You will,” became, “I did.” For that, I am extremely grateful.

As a leader, do you believe in sharing the wealth? Do you actively seek ways to include others in the benefits that you have received?

Or do you view the perks and benefits you have received as something to guard and protect?

Find a way to truly say, “You will.”

Rock Solid Mediocrity

Photo of the turtle of mediocrity — Mediocre Turtle – copyright ©2016 David J Crone

Last weekend I spoke at the Ohio Linux Fest in Columbus, OH, giving a presentation called, “Situational Leadership – Leading when you are not the boss.” During the Q & A session, I was asked for a few ideas on how to take people on your team from Mediocre to Great. While I think my answer at the time was OK. In hindsight, I’d have to say it was mediocre.

Anyone who knows me well, knows my feelings about mediocrity. If you want a refresher, here is a previous post on the topic.

After a bit of thought, I think there’s a better answer I could have given. It starts with two questions:

Q: How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb? [A: Only one, but the light bulb has to want to change.]

Q: Is the person capable of doing better? That is, are they currently coasting along doing just enough to get by, or are they already operating at the top of their game?

The first question, while stated in the form of an old classic joke, is critical. Does the person want to change? Do they have any interest at all in doing better, improving their skills, or their level of performance?

The second question is even more critical. It’s also not always an easy one to answer. You, as team leader / captain / manager, can’t necessarily answer it. You may have an opinion (He’s just lazy!), but you might be wrong. It is entirely possible that the person IS capable of doing more / better / faster, if only given the proper motivation and probably additional education. And it’s also possible that they simply don’t care.

But, here’s the deal. Sometimes you have someone on your team who is a rock solid mediocre performer. And guess what? Sometimes that’s just fine.

What? Did you just say it was OK to be mediocre? Yep. I did.

For some people, a job is just that – a job. It is something to which they show up, turn the crank, then leave. And they do it day after day after day.

It is that very rock solid level of dependability that makes them valuable members of the team, just as they are.

Now, personally, I have trouble relating to these people. Because I think work can be so much more. Thus, this blog. But, just because I can’t relate, doesn’t mean I can’t also honor and respect them. And make good use of them.

Not “take advantage” of them. Utilize them.

Many times, we need someone on the team who is willing to do the tedious, day after day, steady tasks. I find this kind of thing boring and can think of little I would want to do less. But, there are people who find great satisfaction in showing up, turning the crank, doing the same repetitive set of tasks day after day after day. It is this very repetitiveness (that I find boring) that brings them joy.

Sometimes that mediocre team member is the bedrock of a high-performing team.

So, if you have a mediocre performer on your team who is clearly capable of doing more AND they have an interest in becoming better, by all means support and encourage them. But, if that mediocre performer happens to be your rock solid, steady on, reliable, day to day task tackler, be grateful they’re on your team and move on.

Do the one thing

It happens to all of us. OK, it happens to me often, so I have to assume it happens to all of us. Maybe you are unique and you don’t suffer from this problem. Or, maybe you’re just kidding yourself.

It’s there. Right in front of you. That one thing that needs to be done. It’s a simple thing, really. If you just stepped forward and did it, you’d feel better.

It could be anything. It could be picking up the phone to call that person you know you need to call. A simple phone call. How hard can that be? Wait. I need to get my coffee first. And a notebook. Where did I put that notebook? And my special pen. I can’t take notes without my special pen. Oh, this won’t do. The lighting isn’t quite right here. Let’s adjust that.

Next thing you know, it’s well past normal daytime working hours and you tell yourself the person you’re going to call is certainly gone for the day. I’ll call tomorrow.

Or exercise. Yeah. Exercise will make me feel great. First I have to change clothes. Where are my workout sneakers? And those yoga pants. OK, I’m dressed. Oh, I have to move all the stuff off the treadmill. Where am I going to put it all? Not yet. I forgot to get my water bottle. Hydration is important, you know. Where’s my iPod? Let’s download that new playlist. That’ll get me motivated.

See where this is going? Nowhere.

What are you resisting? How many roadblocks are you putting in your own way to make you feel better about not doing that one simple thing?

Be aware of those self-destructive procrastination habits. Do the one thing that needs to be done. And then the next. And the next. Keep it simple.

No special pen will make you feel as wonderful as crossing off that one item on your to-do list, even if you use an old crayon to do it.

Happy Birthday Jeff Dunham

Today is Jeff Dunham‘s birthday.

Instead of sending the typical generic Facebook birthday greeting, I decided to list a few of the things I have learned from Jeff along the way. Lots of business and life lessons here for all of us.

Laser focus on your goals – From the very beginning of his career, Jeff knew exactly where he wanted to go. Everything he did was aligned with achieving the level of success that he has now reached. This was no accident.
Character development – Jeff’s characters are very clearly defined and consistent. Watch videos of his earlier performances and you will see the consistency. Yes, the characters have grown. But, they have not changed their core personalities. It is this strong character development that drives Jeff’s material. The photo above is from last year’s ventriloquist convention, where he sustained over 7 laughs per minute for nearly 8 minutes – by reading the cooking instructions on a package of ramen noodles. That is the power of a strong character.
Get help, but you own the result – Sure, Jeff has a team of people who contribute to his material. But, before a joke hits the stage, Jeff makes his own adjustments to the final wording and delivery. Give Jeff a classic joke from an old classic routine, and he will tweak it just that much to make it his own. This hands-on approach to every aspect of Jeff’s stage presence is what preserves his brand. He knows how to ask for help, take the bits he likes, adapt it, twist it, and make it his own. He has a team of people working in the background, but ultimately, it is all Jeff.
Test, test, test – Jeff is always adding new material to the act. He doesn’t just write a joke and that’s the end of it. He tests it. He varies the setup, the punchline, the timing, the vocal delivery, the physical movement that goes along with the delivery. He constantly hones and tweaks the nuances to get the maximum reaction from every line.
Know your fan base – Some criticize Jeff’s material, complaining of the language, the content, blah, blah, blah. Guess what. Those people are not Jeff’s core fan base. He knows exactly who his fans are. He understands in great detail who buys tickets to his shows, who spends gobs of their hard-earned dollars at the concession stands buying T-shirts, stuffed Peanut dolls, and on and on. He knows his fan base, he knows what they want, and he delivers. Man, does he deliver.

I have learned a tremendous amount by watching Jeff over the years – not just what he does on stage, but also what he does off stage to earn the right to be on the stages that he plays.

Thank you Jeff, for all you have taught me. And happy birthday.

First things first

Do you remember being a kid in school and answering this question:

What do you want to be when you grow up?

When asked that question, most of us immediately think in terms of the job we will do. Fireman, policeman, doctor, lawyer, astronaut, nurse, etc.

FIREMAN DAVID — Photo copyright John R. Crone. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

The question itself is flawed. It causes us to think of the wrong things. It puts way too much emphasis on what we want to get paid for instead of what we want to live for.

A better question would be,

Who do you want to be when you grow up?

What do you want your life to look like? Single? Married? Kids? Lifestyle? Travel? Leisure time?

My perspective:

Define your life goals
Form your career to support that life
When in doubt, go back to step one

With that fresh perspective in mind, take a moment to ponder these questions for yourself:

Who do you want to be?
What is the life that you want to live?
If money were no object, what would you choose to be doing with your life right now?
What do you need to do to make that a reality?

Live Long And Prosper

Net Neutrality – Part 2

Before proceeding, be sure you’ve read my first post on Net Neutrality. Done? OK.

Part 2.

I’m going to use a really simplistic analogy to explain what’s happening on the Internet and what brought about the need for Net Neutrality.

GEEK WARNING: As in part 1, I warn my more technically knowledgeable readers that I am going to greatly oversimplify things here. If you have a way to explain this in words that non-technical-geniuses can understand, go for it.

Analogy #1 – The Highway System:

Since so many people refer to the Internet as “The information superhighway”, I have to use this analogy.

When the Internet was created, it was designed as a transport mechanism with equal access. All bits were created equal. No matter what type of data you transmit, it is to be relayed and carried the same as all other types of data.

If you think of our nation’s highway system, you can drive any brand or color of vehicle on the highway that you want. Car, truck, motorcycle, red, white, black, all are treated the same. I know, being stuck behind a big old broken down RV going up a big hill is annoying, but you get the point.

On the US Interstate highway system, there are 3 basic components: On-ramps, Off-ramps, and the highway. For the sake of discussion, let’s assume the highway itself has infinite capacity. Obviously, that’s not true of the Internet, anymore than it is of I-95 around our nation’s capital. But, stay with me here.

With this assumption, the only limitations are the size (capacity) of the on-ramp to get data onto the highway, and the size of the off-ramp, to get data off.

When we talk about companies and individuals paying for the Internet, by and large we are talking about paying for the size of your on-ramp and/or off-ramp. For now, we are going to ignore the highway itself (the Internet backbone).

Content providers such as web sites (Facebook, AOL, Yahoo!, etc.) and streaming media providers (Hulu, Netflix, etc.) pay for on-ramps. How much they pay depends primarily on the amount of data that they are sending to the highway via their on-ramps.

Consumers pay for off-ramps, again based on the amount of data they pull off the highway.

[Side note: Although not always the case, on-ramps and off-ramps are typically priced based on their maximum capacity, not the amount of data actually traversing them. Essentially, you are paying to put data onto the Internet, or to take it off.]

Where this gets tricky is that we, the end user consumer, don’t live on the off-ramp. We live in neighborhoods fed by the off-ramp. Your ISP (cable, DSL, telelcom, etc.) manages the off-ramp. The ISP acts as a middle-man to the Internet backbones, aka the highway.

What makes Net Neutrality of interest is that the ISPs are getting tired of moving large amounts of traffic across their off-ramps from certain high-volume content providers. Those providers (Netflix is only one, but the most often mentioned), have created a demand for their content that is exceeding the ISP’s off-ramp capacity.

That leaves the ISPs with a challenge. How do they pay for the work it will take to increase the capacity of their off-ramp?

The easiest way is for them to charge the end users based on the amount of data that they consume. Another way is that they can charge users based on the TYPE of traffic/data they are consuming. And that is the root issue behind Net Neutrality.

Again, to make this simple, let’s say Netflix is the red cars coming off the highway. MegaCable Off-Ramp Services (MORS) notices an unusually high percentage of the cars using their off-ramp are red. There are so many red cars that other cars are having trouble getting off the highway.

Now MORS has a choice. Do they increase the capacity of their off-ramp, which is going to cost them money? Do they just let the cars coming off the ramp fight it out, and whoever gets through wins? Or, do they start limiting how many red cars are allowed to use their off-ramp.

What started happening was that ISPs were taking that third option. Some were actively limiting traffic on their off-ramps based on the type of data (limiting red cars, for example). Others were getting ready to do so.

Unfortunately, the customers, the end users who are paying to be fed by that off-ramp, want red cars. And they want lots of them.

And there you have it. The root of the issue.

Net Neutrality says that ISPs cannot limit the flow of cars across their off-ramp based on the color of the car.

Any questions?

Net Neutrality

There has been a lot of talk about Net Neutrality lately and people are finally waking up and taking the topic seriously. Unfortunately, there is an enormous amount of misinformation circulating. Some of that is intentional, some of it is simply a lack of understanding on the topic. And some of it is because, as with many issues of this nature, the term itself has changed over time such that nobody fully understands what it means anymore.

I’m going to take a crack at it anyway.

Many years ago, back when I was heavily involved in network operations for a major player in the Internet world, I sat on an international industry council whose purpose was to discuss and develop new models of operations for the global Internet. It was a pretty cool experience and somewhat humbling to be part of such an august group of very smart people from all around the world.

WARNING: I am going to greatly oversimplify some very deep technical concepts. I apologize in advance to my more technically astute readers.

As the work of this council progressed, it became more and more driven by the desires of a small number of large telecom providers who were members. To oversimplify the main topic of discussion at that time, the council set out to create new standards that would enable QOS across carriers. While ultimately the motivation of the carriers was to make more money, they were trying to do this by finding a way to get heavy users of the Internet to pay more for their usage.

QOS = Quality Of Service.

QOS is a way of prioritizing data moving across a data network. Using QOS can be a useful tool in making high priority applications operate correctly. But, there is a big problem with it.

Many people think of QOS as a way to get their data to move across the network faster. And, in a way, that is correct. But, it’s not that simple.

A data network connection has a fixed maximum speed. All data traversing the network share that path and essentially take turns sending packets of data.

QOS does not work by making data move faster. A given network connection has a physical maximum capacity. No, QOS works by allowing certain types of data to be treated with higher priority than others. Often, this means ignoring lower priority data, or worse, actually discarding it.

So, QOS does not make high priority traffic move faster. It makes lower priority traffic move slower, thus providing a clearer path for the higher priority traffic.

There is a bit of an analogy, albeit a crude one, with express lanes on a crowded highway. It’s all fine and dandy if you have access to the express lanes. But, if you don’t, you get bogged down crawling along with everyone else.

Perhaps a better analogy is the FastPass at Disney and other theme parks. The overall rate at which riders can be loaded onto the ride is fixed. But, if you have a FastPass, you get to skip to the head of the line. Again, great if you paid that extra price, but for everyone else? Really annoying. Especially if it’s late in the day and despite waiting for over an hour, the ride closes before you get your turn.

OK, so I can hear the voice in your head. Shouldn’t I be able to pay more if I want faster network delivery? Shouldn’t those who consume large amounts of network bandwidth pay more for using more?

If only it were that simple. The problem crops up when your Internet provider, let’s call them MegaCable, doesn’t like your content provider. For content delivered across the Internet, MegaCable does not receive any revenue from the content provider, e.g. NetFlix. Conversely, on a traditional cable TV service, MegaCable does receive revenue from providing you a specific channel of content, e.g. HBO.

You see the problem?

Delivery of NetFlix content to MegaCable Internet customers consumes a large (and ever increasing) amount of the overall bandwidth at MegaCable. In order to continue delivering good service to their customers, MegaCable has to keep increasing the size of their Internet connections. And that costs money. But they get no compensation for this.

What to do?

Simple. MegaCable implements QOS across their delivery network, essentially limiting the amount of bandwidth that can be consumed by NetFlix (in our example). As more customers tune in to the latest edition of House of Cards, or start binge-watching Sons of Anarchy, QOS starts throwing away data, customers see “buffering” issues, frustration increases, etc.

Or, you could simply increase capacity until you have enough that QOS is no longer needed. The question is, who should pay for that extra capacity? Not so simple.

In the beginning, all data traversing the Internet as we know it was treated equally. As we say in the techie world, “bits are bits”. The goal of Net Neutrality, in its original context, was to continue to this equal treatment, giving all types of data equal priority. It was a movement. A campaign to encourage fairness.

The carriers did not listen. They continued down the path of putting limits on certain types of traffic. And now the result is the government getting involved.

Who is right? That is a topic for a later post.

Choosing your clients

The Indiana State Senate passed a bill this week that clears the road to outright discrimination under the guise of religious freedom. Welcome to last century.

To paraphrase, the bill would make it legal for businesses to refuse service to married same-sex couples on the grounds that same-sex unions violate the business owner’s religious views on that subject.

This is lunacy.

In response to this, I have instituted a new policy at I’m No Dummy Productions LLC. My business will no longer serve companies who refuse to serve married same-sex couples based solely on their being a same-sex couple.

For more, read the press release.

Don’t get me wrong. I fully support the right of a business, especially a privately held business, to select their clientele. When we can only serve a limited number of clients, we need to choose the clients who are a best match for the services that we provide. But, the choice must be made in a way that makes the most sense for the business. Not, as this bill allows, in a way that perpetuates bigotry and ignorance.

I support this bill on one condition: If a business, on religious grounds, chooses to refuse service to a customer based on their sexual orientation, then they must refuse service to all clients who violate any tenet of their religion. You’ve sinned? Sorry. Next! You use birth control? Next! This needs to be an all or nothing package deal. You don’t get to pick and choose.

We must not allow individuals to hide behind their religion to support bigotry and hatred. Especially not a religion based on love and acceptance.

3 Tips For A Better Company Holiday Party

It’s time for the annual holiday parties. Is your company hosting one for your employees?

Allow me a moment to play “Captain Obvious” and provide a few tips. None of these are earth shattering, but they are often overlooked

1. Make it count – How often do you get your whole crew together? If you’re like most of my clients, not very often. 1-3 times per year is pretty typical. So, it’s really important to make it count when you do. Splurge a little on your guests and make them feel special.

2. Greet your guests as they arrive – This might sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how effective this is and how often it is overlooked. Assign 2-4 people the role of official greeter and position them near the doors. A warm smile and a hand shake will do wonders to get your event off to a great start.

3. Get your leaders to mingle – Let’s face it. We’re all human, even the company leaders. That means we tend to be most comfortable hanging out with our friends. Some company leaders are natural minglers. Others, not so much. Encourage your leaders to step outside their normal circle of colleagues and have them make a point of mingling and talking with people they don’t see on a daily basis.

And one more bonus tip …

4. Book your entertainment early – You knew that was coming. My advice? 6 months minimum, especially for events during major holiday seasons, like December and January.

I hope your event this year is your best one ever.

Move on

Have you ever felt guilty about leaving a job? Have you ever allowed this guilt to hold you back from moving on, whether to another company or simply another position within the same company?

Perhaps you’ll appreciate this advice given to me by an HR manager at a company I was working for at the time:

“Picture a bucket of water. Imagine putting your hand into the bucket of water. Now pull it out. See how quickly the water fills in the space where your hand was? That’s how long you’ll be missed.”

Ouch!

But, he was right. In the instance that prompted the above conversation, I took the new position. Amazingly enough, my former department did not implode. They did not fall apart. Life continued. In fact, my departure created an opening, an opportunity, for someone else to step up and grow. It was good for everyone.

So many times we hold ourselves back from new opportunities out of some misplaced sense of responsibility. Sure, we might be missed – for a while. However, moving on when the time is right provides us with new challenges, new insights, and new avenues of personal growth. And, just as important, it creates opportunities for growth in others as they step in to fill the role we are leaving.

Next time you find yourself hesitating to jump because you are worried about those you’ll be leaving behind, picture that bucket of water. Make the jump.