Take A Bite

Whenever I get busy at work the first thing that gets weeded out is time for myself- time to read up on industry news, check blogs, tune into SEM buzz etc. I always just figure that what's most important is deliverables to clients and my manager. These are the things that I am under strict deadlines for so I push the fluffier "should-do's" to the back burner. I do the job asked of me and I do it well but when I peel these "non-essentials" away the opportunity cost is huge.

It's hard to realize at the time, but not making time for these things ends up costing me because I fall behind. So when new features or tools are released or breaking news is spreading or industry trends are changing I'm behind the curve, and in this industry that's not an option!

Here are some tactics I'm using to sink my teeth in (they're food themed because I'm hungry):

1. A Daily Serving 
   I have 30 minutes blocked off on my calendar every day to read and explore industry goodness. I used to block off two hours every Friday and not once did I ever sit down and devote an entire two hours to reading industry news. Most weeks I skipped it altogether but when I did engage in it I usually let the urgency of my other work pull me away after about 40 minutes..
2. Bite by Bite
   I only read 30 minutes at a time, which means that if I miss one day I don't play the catch-up game and read an hour the next day. I can't. If I do this one day turns into two days, which turns into three days and then four and before I know it I'm trying to read four hours at a time again and failing. 
3. Balanced Food Groups
   Just reading about what interests me is easy, but doesn't really accomplish what I'm after so I made a list of all of the topics that I should be following and learning and found some sources for each that I could add to my Google reader and subscribe to via email. So every day more resources are pulled into these collection bins for me to sort through and soak up.
4. A Pinch of Sugar
   I schedule my reading when I most need a break during the day because it helps my mind associate it with something calm and relaxing. 

Have any advice? Pleeeease share it! I'll take any help you can give.

Office Personas- The Good

In my last post I discussed negative office personas, and now it's time for a few positive ones and some tips on how you can get the most out of your working relationships with these positive personas.

1. The Mom

The Mom is usually a female but is not necessarily an actual Mother in real life. The Mom goes out of her way to make sure that everyone is prepared for meetings and has the resources they need to complete projects. The Mom tends to remain on an even keel, and is generally upbeat and fun to be around. She is does not often express stress and frustration openly. The Mom is empathetic and will listen to other people's problems and offer advice where needed. Moms can be found in admin roles, HR, and occasionally middle management.

Tips on harnessing the power of The Mom:

• Tell her what you need. Moms enjoy procuring the resources and favor needed to get things done.
• Utilize her connections. The Mom is well-liked and can be your ticket to getting to know people and winning influence.
• Don't just take take take. Even The Mom needs someone to listen and care for her at times

2. The Pinch Hitter

The Pinch Hitter is the all purpose teammate that will fill in as needed and never lets the team down. The Pinch Hitter is not the type of person to refuse a job or task because "it's not his/her job." Pinch Hitters may not always want to help out with certain tasks but they know that the progress of the team is paramount. They may fly under the radar and not get the recognition that they desire, but for Pinch Hitters the public recognition is not their driving factor. Pinch Hitters thrive off of the success of the team and the relationships that they develop within the team. The Pinch Hitter is the glue that holds a team together and can be found in any space in a company.

Tips on harnessing the power of The Pinch Hitter:

• Only ask the Pinch Hitter for help when you really need it, not to lighten your work load. Pinch Hitter or not, no one likes to be used. Even The Pinch Hitter can burn out eventually.
• Thank The Pinch Hitter. Just because they don't need public recognition doesn't mean that they don't want recognition from the people they are working with closely. Relationships are very important to The Pinch Hitter and gratitude will go a long way. 

3. The Ghost

In the old Mario Kart Nintendo game there was a single player mode of the game that allowed you to race a course and then re-race it over and over following a translucent "ghost" of yourself and every time your time improved you'd follow the new faster version. Thus, in a sense the ghost was the best version of yourself. 

The Ghost on a team or in a company is the coworker you work best with- the person that is similar enough to get who you are and how you work and different enough from you to push you to be better. Ghost relationships are usually symbiotic. Hopefully, The Ghost is wherever you are in the company!

Tips on harnessing the power of The Ghost:

• Be clear about your goals and the obstacles you foresee in getting there with The Ghost so that you are both on the same page 100%. The Ghost will help get you where you're going by pushing you to do the work to get there.
• Offer to work with The Ghost on as many projects as possible.
• If The Ghost moves teams/divisions/offices/gets a promotion, etc.don't let go of your Ghost buddy. Find a way to work cross functionally in order preserve that relationship.

There are probably a million positive personas out there. Feel free to leave a comment with some of your favorites!

Office Personas- The Bad & The Ugly

At a recent conference I attended they were discussing buyer personas. At the most basic level there are four buyer personas: spontaneous, humanistic, methodical and competitive. These personas are neither good nor bad, they are just differences in personal characteristics or predispositions that indicate how people will go about making purchase decisions but this made me think of some "personas" you might meet in the typical office scene. Office personas, on the other hand, CAN be positive and negative. Here are a few negative personas, and some tips on working with them:

1. The Bro (aka The Meathead)

Think Jersey Shore. The Bro is typically male and thrives in a competitive field- sales, business development, recruiting, etc. When it comes to relationships, The Bro values quantity over quality because  he wants to be well liked. The Bro does not take kindly to being criticized or questioned. The Bro is stubborn and likely will not change his behavior, even if it if deemed as unprofessional.

Tips on working with The Bro:

• Don't volunteer to work with him.
• Address issues with The Bro address privately. Do not challenge or question The Bro in front of others.
• Do not misconstrue The Bro's jovial nature for a trustworthy business relationship. The Bro will probably not go to bat for you should you ever need it.

2. The Busy Bee

The Busy Bee is busy being busy. He/she loves to boast about being busy either to garner sympathy or establish superiority. Busy Bees like to make plans and are eager to engage in projects but will remind others at every step just how busy they are (even when they are not any busier than anyone else around them).

Tips on working with Busy Bees:

• Being busy is closely tied to the Busy Bee's sense of self- never suggest that perhaps the Busy Bee is not as busy as he/she is suggesting.
• Give Busy Bees the opportunity to help out with projects- you'll already have to hear about how busy they are so you might as well make it true :-)

3. The Guru

The Guru loves to be right. You can find the Guru in management, investors, communications, and social media. The Guru will always relate a particular problem/situation/opportunity that is facing the team or company to something from his/her past. There are actually subject matter experts out there, but the Guru claims to be more than just that. The Guru sees himself/herself as the foremost authority on the industry, your job, or just life in general. 

Tips on working with The Guru:

• The Guru will almost never be wrong, just get used to it now. It's likely that you'll never make any headway on this front.
• Suggest other "rights"- The Guru doesn't necessarily have to be wrong for you or your team to be right.  If you can get The Guru to latch onto "your right" you will have him/her on your side as a promoter.
• If you suspect that The Guru is making the wrong call and his/her idea/solution may not pan out, make a back-up plan. It's never a bad idea to have something to fall back on!

In my next post I'll address some positive personas; but in the meantime, if you have encountered any other negative personas feel free to add the in the comments!

35 Minutes And We're Nowhere

This week our team scheduled a live demo of some software we were evaluating. The presentation was a hot mess! The man conducting the presentation made just about every mistake you can imagine during this presentation.Take a lesson from the following recap:

• Poor Preparation
  The company did not send us the information for the GoToMeeting ahead of time so we booked a conference room and assembled the team only to end up twiddling our thumbs waiting around for the information to be sent.
• Going Nowhere Slowly
  After 35 minutes we hadn't really gotten anywhere- we were still on the first main feature of the software. The presentation was absolutely crawling, causing boredom and frustration on our end. 
• My Way or The Highway
  Since we were running out of time I suggested that we focus on the feature that we were most interested in- the deal breaker for us. The presenter then blatantly told us to wait until he finished going through his presentation on the first feature in full before he would move on.
• Exclusive Offer
  When we finally got to the feature we were most interested in the presenter showed it for a brief instant and quickly moved on. He did this because the feature was incredibly weak, especially compared to the industry. Instead, he showed us "an exclusive feature"... translation- a feature that no other company is bothering to offer because anyone with the internet can do the same thing.
• Why Use It For Free When You Can Pay For It?
  When we asked to see what they could offer in the way of reporting they showed us some very basic reports and mentioned that more could be done. I requested to see an example of what he was referring to and the presenter informed that I could use the data to make something better in Excel. Umm, why would I pay for software that doesn't give me anything as good what I could create in Excel for free!
• Problems? No Problems Here!
  After explaining a particular requirement of the software the presenter asked, so what do you think? With the way we operate that requirement would be incredibly inefficient and annoying. I tried to explain that politely but was rebutted by the presenter who told me not to worry about it because it would be fine. I again explained why that requirement would make it harder for us and he basically just replied that we'd have to deal with it.
• Do You Like Me? Do You Really Like Me?
  For whatever reason, our presenter felt the need to make bad jokes, explain them, and then ask us to laugh. He would also follow up almost everything he showed us with "Pretty cool huh?" or "What do you think? Great right?" This was annoying in and of itself but on top of that, there were times when what he was showing us would not be useful to us at all. In those cases it was awkward because we then would have to explain why we didn't think it was "cool" or  "great" or "awesome." The presenter, however, could not be dissuaded. He would follow-up by reminding us that no one else was offering what they offer, as if that would suddenly create a need for what he was showing.

If you've ever seen a really bad presentation, give us the details!