Posted by
Greg Ortbach
Jan
2
Time blocking for me personally is my primary goal for the New Year. I want to ensure clients as well as friends and family get the “best” of me in 2011 so I believe it’s important to designate time for specific activities wherever possible. In theory this will allow me to give the important folks in my life my undivided attention – which can be a challenge for all of us. This of course might be easier said than done, and obviously doesn’t apply when there are fires that need to be put out.
Can you decide not to decide?
To ensure I stay on track, wherever possible I will strive to take the decision making ability out of the mix. For example, at webAssist we run all of our phones using VOIP (voice over internet protocol) technology. With this system comes a robust user interface that allows us to really customize how the phones are set-up. I can seamlessly transfer calls to my colleagues during a designated time automatically – without having to stop my current task and manually take or transfer a call. This is a key for me – as if I need to break my concentration and make a decision, it might take additional time for me to get back on track.
Expectation Management
The second and probably more important phase to this plan is to ensure clients are kept fully up-to-speed on my schedule. For example, if I’m time blocking between 9:00 and 11:00 in order to work on current project management tasks and calls are routed automatically to voicemail, the voicemail should indicate that urgent calls will be returned in two hours. I know that as a client, there’s nothing worse and more stressful than leaving a message to a “generic” voicemail and wondering whether or not anyone will actually get back to me. For this reason it’s imperative to have a process set-up to ensure that messages are promptly returned – or in my case automatically forwarded to a colleague for swift handling.
I firmly believe that these two simple steps will very much assist with the work-life balance we are all looking for, and I’m excited at the prospect of “being there” for my personal and business interactions, as opposed to being on auto-pilot – something I’m certain we’ve all been guilty of in the past.
I’ll post updates to the blog to let you know how I’m doing. In the meantime, do you have any tips to share? I’d love to read them and discuss them with you. In fact, I’ve even set aside a specific time to do it – each day.
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Posted by
Greg Ortbach
Jan
1
Setting realistic (along with some not so realistic ones) goals is an important part of business. Many of the world’s top companies came to be because people dared to dream. In a previous post, I talked about the concept of Moving Day – how every day is an opportunity to improve processes, rearrange things for the better, and challenge yourself (and your colleagues) to find a better way. I recently did this by finally kissing my PC goodbye and switching to a glorious iMac (though in truth I do have the ability to boot up with Windows 7). 
I love the notion that no matter how set in our ways we become, or how used we are to “the way it’s always been”, there are often very few steps between the current way and “changing it up” for the better – or at the very least to confirm we’re doing things right.
As we arrive into 2011 I have challenged my team to continually challenge ourselves and be forthcoming with any and all ideas they have to improve our processes. If we all approached life as the Choose Your Own Adventure it actually is, imagine what could be accomplished!
How about you – what would you like change in 2011?
Twitter has been likened to the future of local news. Its more powerful than any other news outlet (tv, radio, newspaper) based on its real-time, multi-stream format. As more news outlets are shutting down in local areas, Twitter can be the source of news for very specific areas.
Today, for example, I used it before even looking to another source. It snowed last night (I had 1.5 feet on my driveway), the roads looked a bit rough, so before venturing out on the roads I turned to not a news station, but to my Twitter stream to see what the roads are like in the city. I could have turned on the radio to listen for their road update or could have gone to a weather website, but I know these are less accurate and less specific than Twitter. After reading through some posts based on my list of local people, I asked my followers about specific areas in town and had answers within a minute. These answers were more specific than any news report could be. They gave me exact intersections and roads where the posters were, not just a general label put up by news sources.
So is Twitter the end all for news? Probably not. It doesn’t tell me indepth stories that are happening. But when you need local, real-time news from multiple sources, you can’t beat the Stream of Twitter. And as it grows to more people, the stream can get more specific, the news can be more accurate, and the information you seek will be easier to find.
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This is a bit of advice that seems to land firmly in the common sense territory, but it’s far too uncommon these days. It seems that we’re always so busy with each task (or burdened under many, many tasks) that each time we successfully complete an item we have no time to celebrate it before we’re thrown into the next pit of snakes. This is a very key item that we have implemented in our organization, and we have seen it blossom into an amazing experience. I don’t think there’s a day goes by that we don’t stop for a few moments for each member of the team to share and celebrate a win of some sort. It doesn’t have to be landing some major deal, or wrapping up some massive project. It can just be a smooth and happy day-care drop off for example, when a normal one includes yelling or tears.
When people take the time to internalize and then share the things in their lives that can be counted as something worth celebrating, suddenly each day has a bright point in it, a positive energy if you want to call it that. When this continues every day for an extended period of time, each person starts to look back and realize that their life is good, that there are many happy moments each and every day. Over-all I have seen the amazing effect this has on moral, which acts as a catalyst for many other positive feelings and changes.
This is part 1 of a 6-part series on Leadership. Leadership is a valuable skill to cultivate no matter what you do. It will help you in all walks of life. I’ve found myself in leadership roles in many different organizations, and I’ve been discussing, thinking and postulating on the topic a bunch lately. I would like to share some of the not-so-common sense foundations of leadership that I’ve discovered.
People by their very nature change, that’s one of life’s great mysteries. As people change, the role they play in a community, a project, or a task changes as well. It takes regular re-evaluation of each person to ensure that a team or community continues to function as a whole. The best way to make sure that this re-evaluation happens sooner rather than later is to create regular schedules. This idea is somewhat contrary to who I am at my core, but it is also something that I am working very hard (and using available tools and resources) to change.
By the same nature, projects and tasks change over time. Regular re-evaluation of the tasks at hand will keep people on target, keep everyone in the loop, and generally help things to run well.
This is part 1 of a 6-part series on Leadership. Leadership is a valuable skill to cultivate no matter what you do. It will help you in all walks of life. I’ve found myself in leadership roles in many different organizations, and I’ve been discussing, thinking and postulating on the topic a bunch lately. I would like to share some of the not-so-common sense foundations of leadership that I’ve discovered.
Thanks and Affirmation Can Move Mountains
This is much more than a leadership style; it’s a common sense that I fear is not so common anymore. It seems somewhat of a “no-brainer” that you need to say thank-you to people who you work with, and give special praise to people who do a great job.
I have seen this at work in myself from both sides of the coin, and I can say with confidence that a little thanks and affirmation can go a very long ways to help people recognize that they’re appreciated. When you mix that with the previous discussion of letting people do what they love to do, it becomes an amazing example of what people are capable of accomplishing.
Don’t take my word for it. Check out any CEO-focused self-help book, parenting magazine, or even dog-training articles. They all push the idea of positive reinforcement as the best way to empower, teach, and train.
This is part 1 of a 6-part series on Leadership. Leadership is a valuable skill to cultivate no matter what you do. It will help you in all walks of life. I’ve found myself in leadership roles in many different organizations, and I’ve been discussing, thinking and postulating on the topic a bunch lately. I would like to share some of the not-so-common sense foundations of leadership that I’ve discovered.
Lead By Example
I do not believe that any leader should ask of her/his people to do anything they’re not willing to do. I firmly feel that a leader must spend time in the trenches, up to her/his elbows in whatever is going on. Complete immersion and involvement is key to help the leader to understand what’s going on in the lives of those s/he affects and has influence on.
I don’t know that this can be totally classed as leadership strength. I do have lots of first-hand experience of times when this concept worked against me, as it’s a short step from here to the idea of “If you want it done right, do it yourself.” I have learned the hard way that times come for the leader to step back and let others do the digging, but I still think he must understand how the shovel works and what the job really feels like.
This applies to the leadership of teams of people getting things done in any organization. I have always felt that it’s unfair of me to ask anyone to think or feel or believe or do anything that I’m not willing to take on myself. I often challenge groups of people where I’m speaking to do something in the coming week, but in the same breath will also promise that I’ll take on the same challenge.
This is part 3 of a 6-part series on Leadership. Leadership is a valuable skill to cultivate no matter what you do. It will help you in all walks of life. I’ve found myself in leadership roles in many different organizations, and I’ve been discussing, thinking and postulating on the topic a bunch lately. I would like to share some of the not-so-common sense foundations of leadership that I’ve discovered.
Start With Understanding
I like to get to know people. I mean I LOVE to get to know people. It’s one of the things that really drives my life, and making that realization has helped me to understand myself and why I do what I do much better. That realization has lead to a change in the types of projects I take on, and the roles I play in those projects. In my current business life, the times when I am happiest is when I have the time to get to know a client, get to know their business and their processes, and nail down the things that get in the way of happiness and productivity. Then I can work with them to create a solution that can really make a difference for them. Though my education is in a technology field, I find myself very often working on personal and business processes long before we ever get technology involved to help people.
My leadership style is based on this same fact. I love to get to know the people I’m working with, and learn what they love to do, what they hate to do, what they’d like to be better at, and what makes them really uncomfortable. I firmly believe that without an understanding of the individual, a leader has no hope of integrating them into a project or task effectively or efficiently.
Starting with understanding is clearly important in all types of leadership roles. Whether you’re a C-level executive, or volunteering for a local not-for-profit, understanding the people that your working/speaking/dealing with is key to being able to connect to them, share with them, and lead them into tighter community, better relationships, higher productivity, or happier life, whatever your goals are.
This is part 1 of a 6-part series on Leadership. Leadership is a valuable skill to cultivate no matter what you do. It will help you in all walks of life. I’ve found myself in leadership roles in many different organizations, and I’ve been discussing, thinking and postulating on the topic a bunch lately. I would like to share some of the not-so-common sense foundations of leadership that I’ve discovered.
Companies are jumping into social media faster than you can say ‘What is a twitter?’. But, as users run frantically to your Facebook page, you have to do something that puts your company into the category of ‘useful’ rather than just another company on Facebook. Content and interaction are what people stay for, but the key to instant coolness and getting attention is what’s called the Landing Page. This is the page that people clicking on or searching for your company get to first. This page initially is your brand’s Wall page, where all the posts are. This is boring. You don’t want boring. Your fans don’t want boring. So then what is the plan? Create a custom landing page for your fans to see first. This be a page with more info on the company, current deals and coupons, links to other content on your website or just a fun message to keep people interested.
To see some examples of what your Landing Page could look like:
Adidas
RedBull
WebAssist
Your brand’s landing page should be associated with your company’s image. It should make people want to follow or give them an action to take. Creativity counts here, but it doesn’t have to be hard.
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