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#Leadership : Why Monday Is Your Most #ProductiveDay Of The Week…Even If it Doesn’t Feel like It. Here’s How to Make the Most of It.

February 12, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

You may be working for the weekend, but when it comes to actually getting work done, Monday is the most productive day, according to a study by Redbooth. The data collaboration software provider found that the highest percentage of tasks–20.4%–are completed on Monday, compared to Friday, when only 16.7% of work tasks are accomplished. Tuesday is a close second, accounting for 20.2% of work.

“Given the relatively low completion levels on the latter days of the week, it’s likely that Monday is the ‘catch up’ day at work,” according to the report.

WHY MONDAY IS MADE FOR WORKING

Mondays are prime for work because they feel like a fresh start, says productivity coach Deb Lee. “When you’ve had the weekend to take a break, relax and regroup, you come back to work fresher than when you walked out the door the previous Friday,” she says. “We tend to tackle our work week-by-week, which means Monday can often be less stressful than say a Thursday or a Friday when those end-of-week deadlines are approaching. That stress-free, clean-slate feeling on Monday morning can inspire creativity and boost productivity.”

Focus is often at its highest at the beginning of a work week, adds Scott Amyx, author of Strive: How Doing the Things Most Uncomfortable Leads to Success. “On Mondays, you have a vantage point, looking at your priorities for the week and then appropriately applying your highest level of concentration to the hardest tasks,” he says.

Willpower might also be replenished on Monday, says Amyx. “For those who believe that willpower is limited, I believe that they do apply the greatest energy on Mondays,” he says.

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MAKING THE MOST OF MONDAY

The key to starting off the workweek in high productivity mode is being ready, says Lee. “You could prepare for the week on Friday afternoon, before heading home for the weekend,” she says. “Others look to Sunday evening as an opportunity to prep meals, pull clothes out for Monday morning, and check their calendars. It’s also fine to save your preparation for Monday morning—just be sure to set aside at least 30 uninterrupted minutes when you arrive at your desk to regroup and map out an action plan.”

Set up the week for success by not completely unplugging over the weekend, says Amyx. “Perhaps one of the biggest culprits to a stressful Monday is email,” he says. “Workers end up sifting through dozens of emails to come up for air hours later to find out it’s already lunch time. Give yourself permission to check once or twice on the weekend to quickly prioritize what’s urgent, important, lower priority or spam.”

Use your renewed energy on a Monday by blocking out time to focus, suggests Amyx. “Success comes when we do the things most uncomfortable,” he says. “Instead of acquiescing to your urge to check your email on Monday morning, time bound it to five to 10 minutes, not to answer emails but rather to quickly organize and prioritize. Then allocate the next one to two hours to do the hardest, brain intensive work without interruption.”

And cancel Monday morning meetings, suggests Mike Vardy, author of The Front Nine: How to Start the Year You Want Anytime You Want. “If your meetings are scheduled for first thing on Mondays and if you have any pull with your superiors then ask if it’d be possible to shift the meeting to later in the day,” he writes on his Productivityist blog. “Mention that giving each of your colleagues time in their own space before going into a meeting would allow them to be more ‘present’ in the meeting. If you are absolutely certain that there’s no way you can avoid that early morning Monday meeting, then make sure you prepare for that meeting the night before. That alone will make your Monday morning better.”

When you start to organize your Mondays by your priorities, productivity, and rewards then you feel great about your accomplishments, says Amyx. “There’s no greater satisfaction than knowing that you overcame the biggest, gnarliest cognitive, creative work to make significant progress on your project or tasks,” he says.

#Leadership : Work Smart- 5 Ways To Make Sure Your #Meeting Will Be #Productive …Don’t Accept another Meeting Invite without Making Sure it Meets all of These Criteria.

February 1, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Meetings can be the bane of working life, but they don’t have to be a waste of time if you ask yourself a series of questions before every meeting, and only attend meetings that are really necessary.

So before you click “accept” on that new calendar invitation, look out for these signs that indicate it’s not going to be a waste of your time.

1) YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THE MEETING IS ABOUT AND WHAT IT’S TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH

Part of the reason that a meeting tends to drag on for longer than it needs to is because there is no clear purpose. As a result, attendees might be more likely to veer off topic for long periods of time. Christopher Frank, a VP at American Express, asks everyone to answer the question, “What exactly are we meeting about?” at the start of each meeting. He said, “This will show you if everyone is on the same page or not, and if your meeting topic is focused enough. Are the answers inconsistent or too long? Refocus the meeting and try again.”

2) YOU KNOW WHAT TYPE OF DISCUSSION WILL TAKE PLACE

Each meeting has a different purpose and commands a different type of discussion. Cameron Herold, business consultant and author of Double Double: How to Double Your Revenue and Profit in Three Years or Less, told Fast Company in a 2015 article that there are three types of meetings: information share, creative discussion, and consensus meetings.

In information-share meetings, attendees are expected to listen, and discussions are generally limited to “requests for clarification.” Creative discussion meetings tend to be an exercise in brainstorming, and consensus meetings require participants to make a unanimous decision. Having a good idea of what type of discussion will take place ahead of time lets you be better prepared, and allows you to plan accordingly.

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3) THERE IS A CLEAR AGENDA TO ACHIEVE THE OBJECTIVE

Having an objective is one thing, but a productive meeting focuses on what needs to happen in order to meet that objective. Connie Williams, CMO & chief knowledge officer at Syneticsworld, a company that studies meeting processes, told Fast Company that instead of focusing on the problem, facilitators should frame the agenda in “problem-solving” language. Some examples: How can we build a better campaign? How can we find new clients? As Williams explained, encouraging people to think about solutions means that they’re less likely to focus on the problems.

4) ITEMS ARE PRIORITIZED ACCORDINGLY

In addition to being solution-focused, a productive meeting prioritizes the most important items and tackles those first. Mat MacInnis, CEO and founder of digital content platform Inkling, previously wrote in Fast Company that his team would always prioritize the meeting items based on what they need to get done that week, and park any debates that spin into “strategic, long-term conversations” for later discussions. At the end of the meeting, everyone knows exactly what they need to execute for the rest of the week.

5) THERE ARE SYSTEMS IN PLACE TO PREVENT MULTITASKING AND INTERRUPTIONS

Sometimes, it’s not the meeting itself that’s unproductive, but the attendees. Whether they’re answering emails instead of listening to an important announcement, or they’re constantly interrupting another, there needs to be a system in place to prevent this from derailing your meeting. For one, you can either ban digital devices in meetings, or limit them to those who may need them for meeting purposes, such as pulling up a presentation. If it is interruption that you’re trying to fix, you can assign someone to monitor and interject the interruptors, setting the expectation that people should be able to finish what they want to say at every meeting.

FastCompany.com | February 1, 2018 | BY ANISA PURBASARI HORTON 3 MINUTE READ

#Leadership : A Simple but Ruthless Exercise Reveals who your #StarEmployees Are & Who Should be #Fired … A #Strategy you Might Call the “Six-Month Exercise”. You Should Do it Regularly & Here’s How it Works

January 18, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Patty McCord is the former chief talent officer at Netflix. She now runs her own consulting business.
In her new book, “Powerful,” McCord says managers should always consider whether the team they have now is the team they’ll need in six months.
If not, they should let go of the employees who don’t have the requisite skills and knowledge.

Being a manager requires practicality bordering on ruthlessness — at least according to Patty McCord.

McCord was the chief talent officer at Netflix from 1998 to 2012; she and Netflix’s CEO Reed Hastings created the company’s infamous culture deck. Now she runs her own consulting business.

McCord has just published a book titled “Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility,” in which she distills the lessons she learned at Netflix and as a consultant into insights any manager can use.

One of the most jarring insights is that the team you have now may not be the team you’ll need going forward. And since a manager’s goal is to build the best team possible, you may have to make some tough decisions about which employees to keep on — and which to let go.

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To that end, McCord recommends a strategy you might call the “six-month exercise.” You should do it regularly, she writes. Here’s how it works:

1. “Write down what the team will be accomplishing six months from now that it’s not accomplishing now.” It could be a product they’re building, or money they’re making.

2. “Think about how things are being done differently from the way they are currently done.” Imagine yourself walking around the office — maybe there’s more collaboration, or fewer meetings.

3. Think: “In order for those things to be happening, what would people need to know how to do?” It could be technical knowledge, or negotiating skill.

Now here comes the hard part. Does your current team have the right skills, knowledge, and experience? If not, you may need to bring in people who do, potentially even replacing some of your current team members.

In an interview with Business Insider, McCord said that companies’ missions should be “hiring the best people to solve the problems that you need to solve in your particular company — and then making sure that those teams are always comprised of those kinds of people.” But — and here’s the kicker — “it’s not always the same people.”

Netflix is clear that it only keeps its most effective employees

Netflix doesn’t appear to have changed its management practices very much since McCord left. In the “culture” section on its website, Netflix makes clear that they “keep only our highly effective people.” The website reads: “Succeeding on a dream team is about being effective, not about working hard. Sustained ‘B’ performance, despite an ‘A’ for effort, gets a respectful generous severance package.”

It’s worth noting here that McCord was let go in 2013. “I am the ultimate product of the culture that I helped create,” she told Business Insider, noting that she’s had a successful career since leaving Netflix and is still in touch with many of her former colleagues.

This isn’t an easy way to manage people — in fact it might seem downright unfair. McCord’s argument in the book is that “you’re building a team, not raising a family.” That is to say, you’re not responsible for your employees’ career development.

McCord told Business Insider that employees should steel themselves against this reality. “You should be wary of expecting a company to take care of your career for you, because that’s not their job. Their job is to take care of their customers and their clients.”

Businessinsider.com | January 18, 2018 | Shana Lebowitz

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#Leadership : The Secret To #Teamwork Isn’t Managing Personalities Stop Trying to Turn Everyone into “Team Players.”…Here’s How to Set a Baseline that Everybody can Commit To–No Matter How Different they Are.

January 9, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

When I started out as an illustrator and designer, I focused way too much on myself. I thought I was only expected to do the work I was skilled at, figuring that the task of getting everyone on my team to pull together was our boss’s job, not mine.

That assumption wound up hurting me. I didn’t understand how to communicate. I followed my own agenda, unwittingly adding to team drama with unhelpful gossip. And when one of my first performance reviews included a critique from my supervisor that I wasn’t a “team player,” I actually took it as a compliment: “Team players” were losers, and I was a uniquely gifted winner. I quit soon afterward.

It took me a while to shake that egotism–and learn not only that teamwork makes everybody’s work better, but also that you don’t have to surrender your personality to be a team player. As a manager, I’ve since learned how to ask employees to focus more on their team without having to downplay their individual strengths and quirks. The secret is simple: It all comes down to the norms you set.

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR NORMS

Norms, for starters, are expected shared behavior. No matter what they consist of, they’re the known but mostly unspoken “way we do things around here.”

Teams can have strikingly different social behaviors and still produce exceptional work. I’ve seen teams with an informal brainstorming process–they always went off track during team meetings–be just as successful as extremely formal teams that were totally goal-focused. What matters isn’t the style of behavior, but that all team members feel good about that style.

This also leaves room for individuals to improvise and do their own thing. If one team member’s approach to a certain task differs from her coworkers but they’re similar in style (if not substance), chances are they’ll still be able to collaborate. The norms govern a certain set of behaviors that bind the team members together. As long as everyone’s broadly in sync with them, you won’t need to spell out a best practice for every single task or activity. In general, norms must accomplish these five things:

Guide how much personal sharing is part of team meetings.
Determine how critical feedback is shared and how praise is used.
Keep the group from splitting into cliques and factions.
Be inclusive and serve as a binding agent that holds everyone together, even when opinions differ significantly.
Prove strong enough to ensure that even divisive opinions are respected and encouraged (since they’re often where the best solutions come from).

If a team member or leader breaks with these norms, they do so at the risk of diverting the team’s attention away from the shared goal. Best of all? Encouraging and enforcing your team norms frees managers from having to do the impossible and “manage” their team members’ personalities.

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EMBODYING YOUR TEAM’S NORMS

Once you’ve identified your norms, it’s easy to draw up more specific guidelines that reflect them. Here are a few that I’ve found are especially helpful for managing teams of creative people whose personalities may be more likely to clash:

Manners matter. Civility provides a feeling of safety. Once civility becomes the norm, it’s easier for team members to do work that challenges each other as well as conventional wisdom. As long as you can be civil in the way you disagree with each other, you can put forward radically different ideas in pursuit of a shared goal.

Inclusion. If civility helps everyone feel respected by their coworkers, inclusion is what lets everybody feel equally valued and empowered. In meetings, for example, this norm might dictate that all team members speak for roughly an equal amount of time. Those who really listen to each other feel respected, included, and at ease sharing decision-making power evenly.

Dependability. For the team to succeed, each member must not only commit to doing their share of the work, they must also complete it on time. The simple tenet of always doing your part and honoring your commitments is fundamental to any cohesive team.

Role clarity. Each team member has to know their own role, be completely committed to it, and understand how it supports the roles of the others. This is what gives team members confidence in their value to the group and in their colleagues’ contributions.

Higher purpose. Everybody needs to grasp why we’re doing what we’re doing and believe that it matters. That underlying sense of purpose is (ideally, anyway) what motivates everyone to make an earnest effort individually.

Honest critique. This one is sometimes under-appreciated, but effective teamwork depends on being able to step back and question how the work is progressing and whether it’s serving the goals. Effective critiques challenge and examine different approaches, thinking, and methods, sometimes leading to a change in direction. This type of feedback needs to focus on the work, not the person who did it; done wrong, criticism can stir up vulnerable feelings of not being good enough rather than strengthen everybody’s stake in the process.

Healthy controversy. Seemingly risky or silly ideas are essential to collaboration. Encourage your team members to ask challenging questions and look for unusual solutions. A committed, supportive team creates an emotional environment where controversy can flourish and be positively channeled.

No bad behavior. Damaging interpersonal behavior is off-limits. That means no personal gossip, no back-channeling, no undermining, and no shaming or blaming.

You’ll notice that these norms and guidelines don’t have much to say on the question of personality type–and that’s by design. Rather than managers or team members adapting their approach to the personality of whoever they’re working with at a given moment, norms set a common baseline. This way, everyone knows how to behave to be a “team player”–even though they may be a proud individualist at the same time.

FastCompany.com | January 9, 2017

Your #Career : How to Build a Positive Relationship With Your Boss and Colleagues…Mutual Respect Makes the Office Much More Pleasant.

December 9, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

In the past, an employee’s relationship with their direct supervisor was found to be one of the most influential factors on whether or not the employee enjoyed their job. Over time, this dynamic has somewhat changed.

In recent years, relationships with colleagues have become increasingly influential in the perception of job satisfaction. Part of this has to do with younger generational workers highly valuing collegial relationships — as demonstrated by their desire to work together on tasks more than Gen X or Boomers do.

Another aspect is that, in many settings, there is a greater amount of cross-departmental collaboration that creates more than one reporting relationship. For example, a team member in customer service may work with marketing to give input on how to market to existing clients, and the marketing supervisor oversees the project.

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Another factor that may reduce the importance of the relationship with one’s direct supervisor or boss is the myriad of ways an employee is assessed in today’s workplaces — including 360 degree feedbacks and other objective measures of work. A few thoughts about how to build a positive reporting relationship, even in shifting times:

Be appreciative. Bosses and supervisors don’t hear thanks very often. They hear a lot of complaining and problems they are expected to solve. Occasionally thanking someone — and being specific as to why you are thanking them — can go a long way to start to build a positive relationship.
Be respectful. One of the most common complaints I hear from supervisors, especially in cross-generational relationships, is that they feel disrespected. Most of us aren’t sure what makes us feel respected, but we clearly know when we feel it. Having a general conversation with your boss about actions that lead them to feel respected or disrespected would be wise.
If you are going to raise a concern, make sure it is specific, not vague and general, and that it is a behavior or issue your boss can address. Don’t whine about management or a colleague in another department, where your supervisor has no influence.
Do your job well, and be willing to go above and beyond. Remember, you are there to accomplish tasks and do them well. When you do quality work and, at least occasionally, do more than is required, you make your boss look good to his or her colleagues and supervisor.

The goal of building a positive relationship with your boss isn’t try to suck up to them and win undue favoritism. The purpose is to develop a healthy, positive relationship of mutual respect, which will lead to better communication, the ability to work through disagreements and can build a partnership where you can support one another through difficult times.

Entrepreneur.com | December 9, 2016 | Paul White

#Leadership : How Successful Leaders Communicate With Their Teams…Choosing your Medium — Text or In-Person? — and Keeping your Message Decisive and Focused are Just Two of the Key Strategies.

November 30, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

One of the most critical factors for your success as a leader will be how you communicate with your team. On a primary level, communication is all about exchanging information, whether that means brainstorming as a group, delegating responsibilities, setting expectations or alerting others to a problem.

The completeness, accuracy, timing and form of your messages will directly affect how your plans are carried out.

Beyond that, how you communicate can play a massive role in the morale of your team — how you treat your employees will have a direct impact in how they respect you, respect one another and ultimately perform on the job.

So, what is it that makes successful leaders so good at communication? What strategies are they using?

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Strategies for success

Take a look at some of the most successful communicators around you (and those in a bigger spotlight), and you’ll see the following traits:

Choose your mediums carefully. First, make sure you’re considering your medium(s) carefully. Being able to send out a mass text or voice message to your employees is important. These channels are appropriate for notifying your team of a last-minute meeting change but wouldn’t be for sending out the scope of a new project.

In the same way, email isn’t the best way to start a long back-and-forth conversation — especially if it concerns a sensitive subject. Learn to read the situation and decide on the appropriate medium; in the right form, your message’s effectiveness will spread.

Consider your tone and direction. This is especially important when speaking to someone face-to-face. When delivering messages, remember what you’re trying to accomplish and how you may come across. For example, if an employee has done subpar work or missed a deadline, you want that person to improve so the problem doesn’t happen again; you don’t want this employee to merely feel guilty about the error.

Frame your wording to achieve this goal; instead of scolding or reprimanding, use a friendlier tone with a corrective direction. You’ll accomplish far more, make your intentions clear and preserve morale this way.

Be as concise as possible. Good leaders strive to remain as concise as possible. Speaking and writing concisely is all about conveying as much information as possible in the smallest possible space, which saves time and maximizes the effectiveness of your writing. Grammarly has a fantastic article worth the read if you’re interested in digging into how to become a more concise communicator.

Keep your messaging decisive and focused. When writing or giving a message, you need to be decisive and focused, which means avoiding rambling, or working through a problem out loud. Speak only when you have something meaningful to say, and make sure your point is clear to whomever you’re speaking with. You can use a service like Evernote to better organize your thoughts, tasks and goals, and work on defining your thoughts in firmer frameworks this way.

Be proactive. Telling someone about a new project requirement isn’t effective if that someone is already halfway through the job. Try to be as proactive as possible by telling your employees early on what you expect from them. Set your expectations long before any actions are taken; and when something comes up, let your team know about it as soon as possible.

One easy way to put this into practice is to set more alerts on your phone and make use of calendar apps; this will force you to consider the timing of your messages, especially for things like follow-ups.

Always be available for conversation. This is important for building morale within your team. You can’t possibly be available for conversation 100 percent of the time, but you need to make your team feel comfortable communicating with you. Show patience and appreciation for their thoughts and opinions, and they’ll be more willing to share with you when they have a problem, when they need help or when they see something that can be improved.

Listen actively to every team member. Finally, listen actively to every member of your team. All team members are valuable, and their diverse range of opinions will open you up to new ideas and help you see flaws and inconsistencies you were previously blind to. Do this early and often to build trust within your team.

Executing the model

If these actions look intimidating to you, or you don’t have a track record of successful communication, don’t worry. Nobody is born an effective communicator; just as it takes us time to develop our understanding and use of language, it takes time to refine our skills as efficient communicators.

With practice and dedication to improving your abilities, you can become a communicative and respectable leader in your environment.

Entrepreneur.com | November 30, 2016 | Larry Alton

#Leadership : Three Ways To Turn Around A Team In Turmoil…At times of Crisis, Leaders have a Tendency to Batten Down the Hatches, Bark Orders, and Assign Blame. Those are All Bad Moves.

October 14, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

When your team is in trouble, it may seem like any way out is a good way out. It often isn’t. Taking a team in the right direction is crucial at any time, but when the pressure is high and things aren’t going well, getting everyone back on track is especially difficult.

Here are a few ways to do that, without falling prey to the common mistakes managers often make when trying to set things aright.

1. LOOK AT PROCESS, NOT JUST PEOPLE

When something goes wrong, too many leaders seek to blame others—it’s an understandable instinct. First reactions in crisis situations are often about sorting out what went wrong and assigning fault. And to be sure, sometimes it really is a person or group of people who screwed up. But often it’s the systems or processes they work within that’s enabled their missteps.

It helps to zoom out a bit before pointing fingers. Take these steps right away:

Closely examine your current strategy. How well was your team executing it before things went awry? What changed? Consider those execution methods from the perspective of your current situation to determine whether changing circumstances have made them less effective.
Next, analyze the impact of the work of your team, partners, and customers. Where did the results start slipping or sales begin to fall off?
Finally, evaluate your present capabilities. Despite the bad turn, what’s your current capacity to execute? What assets and resources do you still have at your command to try something new?

This assessment of your processes should make it easier to take a fresh look at your team’s or company’s strategy, so you can make decisions about how to move forward that aren’t based on personalities or office politics. Usually if there’s turmoil, it means that there’s a part of your process that hasn’t worked as intended for longer than you’d realized. But you need to pin that down before making rash choices. When decisions are made in haste without understanding their full impact, even the most effective leaders fail to get their teams back on track.

In 2009, Ed Whitacre was appointed as the chairman of General Motors when it was on the verge of bankruptcy. He immediately combined GM’s sales and marketing organization under one leader—a hasty decision that turned out to be wrong. A few months later, GM had to split up sales and marketing again.

As Bloomberg reported, “Whitacre realized that all of the change had rattled the workforce, so he sent a companywide email: ‘A smart company changes and adapts to the needs of the business. So, while there will always be individual moves within GM, I want to reassure you that the major leadership changes are behind us.'” It took a lot more than his email to reassure Whitacre’s team, but ultimately, under his direction, the company went on to an enormous, $20-billion IPO under his direction.

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2. REVISIT YOUR SHARED PURPOSE—AND DON’T BE AFRAID TO CHANGE IT

When we find some common reasons to be optimistic, we’re often able to channel that positive energy into finding a solution. Morale sinks when things go wrong, so it’s essential to reinvest in a shared purpose before moving ahead. Many leaders already know they need to emphasize their team’s shared vision in times of turmoil, but few do it the right way. You need to explain in concrete, practical terms how the changes underway tie into your company’s redefined objectives—what new steps need to be taken, and how those steps should be executed.

After all, sometimes your sense of purpose does need redefining. It may be that a pivot is exactly what the doctor ordered. It might actually be a bad idea to return to underscoring your core vision if that vision has steered you wrong. In the rush to blame “bad apples,” this is something struggling companies tend to miss.

Instead, effective leaders re-instill self-worth in their teams by making them feel good about the urgency that the task at hand requires of them. Get comfortable with the reality that in the face of crisis, the future is often hazy—then ask your team to embrace that uncertainty, too, showing how confident you are that they can pull it off. Leaders don’t necessarily need to singlehandedly push their organizations in a new direction, just keep a steady ship as the crew does the steering together.

3. START EXPERIMENTING AND DELEGATING RESPONSIBILITIES

Change may or may not be woven into the fabric of your company culture, but sometimes circumstances require it. Whatever the case, it can be a good thing. People often learn more about each other when they have to change together. And a crisis is arguably the best time to instill this team-building attitude. This way, when turmoil hits next time, your organization will be better equipped to carry itself through.

To do that, leaders may need to do theopposite of what they’re used to doing during tough times; instead of buckling down, handing out directives, and showing “strong” leadership, it may be better to start experimenting and giving others more responsibility, not less.

After all, the worst thing you can do is fall back on the old ways of working—the ones that got you into this pickle in the first place. It’s often at the edge of a crisis where the most innovative solutions are found. When things are going well, innovation tends to offer incremental benefits, but when we need to make wholesale changes fast, the ability to experiment can sometimes transform even the most dire situations.

But in those situations, leadership usually doesn’t come from just one person. Leaders and managers may not be in best positions to see the disruptive parts of the puzzle themselves. If every team member is encouraged to speak up and has the authority to take on their own portion of problem-solving themselves, the solution can be all the more robust.

When a team owns the route out of the quagmire, they’ll be better experienced at climbing out of the next one they stumble into.

Serial entrepreneur Faisal Hoque is the founder of Shadoka, which enables entrepreneurship, growth, and social impact. He is the author of Everything Connects: How to Transform and Lead in the Age of Creativity, Innovation, and Sustainability (McGraw-Hill) and other books. Use the Everything Connects leadership app for free.

FastCompany.com | FAISAL HOQUE | 10.14.16 5:00 AM

#Leadership : 3 Things Leaders Must Consider For The Sharing Economy…A Constantly Changing Landscape Needs People who are Willing and Able to Constantly Change with It —People who can Adapt Not Only as Individuals, But also as Teams. They Must be Adaptable, Resilient and Curious Enough to Learn So as to Embrace Change Quickly and Continue On.

September 12, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

With teams on the rise in business today according to research by this article, people must be able to coordinate disparate interests, communicate across silos and do so without the added advantage of a stable team environment. After all, the business environment of today is anything but steady—it’s fast moving, constantly changing and a bit chaotic.

If, for example, you work in a hospital where your team changes every shift, then every time it disbands and re-bands there are new interpersonal dynamics to learn, new skills and competencies, new mindsets and fears that you must re-familiarize yourself with every time.

The problem is, in such fast moving environments, there’s no time to learn about each other’s backstory or practice working together. You must be able to work together before called upon because otherwise the patient (client) suffers.

A constantly changing landscape needs people who are willing and able to constantly change with it —people who can adapt not only as individuals, but also as teams. They must be adaptable, resilient and curious enough to learn so as to embrace change quickly and continue on.

However, it’s not simply up to each and every individual to “get there” but rather organizational leaders to set the right environment for such behaviors to occur. Here are three considerations for doing so:

Knowledge feeds knowledge. When you know more, you more you want to know. In a study conducted by psychologist George Loewenstein, subjects were divided into two groups. In the first group, each participant was placed in front of a computer whose screen was segmented into 50 different squares. Behind each square was a different animal, so every time a participant clicked on a square, a new animal was revealed. After a few clickthroughs the participants stopped clicking because they knew what to expect.

Now, compare this with the second group who faced similar computers with 50 squares on the screen again. Except this time, behind each square was a picture of the same animal. What happened? Every participant clicked through because their curiosity was heightened the more information they received. Information enabledprogress, just as it does for people in your team. That’s why…

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Knowledge is not power. Yes, you read that correctly–knowledge is not power. The old adage that knowledge is power is no longer relevant in a world of interconnectivity and global dispersion . If you’re holding onto information because you think it’ll protect your own interests, think again. Knowledge enables. Knowledge arms. Knowledge feeds knowledge , just as we saw above. It builds the capacity for others to build theirs. Unless you want to be bogged down with information overwhelm anddecision fatigue, you must share what you know with others to:

Avoid duplicated tasks
Maximize time and reduce wasted costs
Stay sane

The increased rate of technology today beckons more subject matter experts to be able to “diagnose” technology, but the global dispersion of information warrants generalists who can assimilate those unique pieces of information and fit them into a larger puzzle. What this means is that people must learn how to team, how to share information and fill each other’s knowledge gaps.

Teaming is a skill. There’s a realization taking place in business today. Companies are realizing that the hierarchy in which they’re structured isn’t how work actually get things done. Instead, work is accomplished through clusters of relationships; through teams of people—it always has and most likely always will. This has profound impacts for competitive advantage because if these clusters aren’t leveraged for their scalability then that means the tacit knowledge held amongst these networks can’t be shared. Relationships are sources of intimate knowledge, which is a challenge for any leader to set a psychologically safe environment for people to share what’s on their minds with the team rather than at the bar, I mean, water cooler.

The ability to team is a learned skill–one that starts by sharing information and trusting each other to share.

Jeff is the author of Navigating Chaos: How To Find Certainty in Uncertain Situations and former Navy SEAL who helps business teams find clarity.

Forbes.com | September 12, 2016 | Jeff Boss

#Leadership : The Self-Driven Manager’s Guide to Leadership…I’ve often Found that Self-Driven People make Good Leaders. After all, They usually are Harder on Themselves than anyone Else Could Ever Be, Which Drives them Towards Success.

August 15, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Because of this, they act as their own accountability partners and they rarely need to be pushed. They also are not afraid of hard work; perfection must be reached, regardless of the hours. While self-drivers possess many qualities that help them climb the management ladder, they also might struggle when leading people who operate from different motivators.

Here are three keys for self-driven leaders to remember:

1. There is no such thing as perfect.

For the self-driven leader, it’s not uncommon for them to demand perfection from themselves. The target is a benchmark that is impossibly lofty, but as a high achiever, you sometimes manage to reach it. The problem is when you try to hold your team to the same stringent standards as you do for yourself. People are never perfect. To err is human.

When perfectionists expect their teams to approach goals with the same degree of precision, the employees are doomed to never meet expectations. Not only that, this type of leader will tend to get annoyed by even the most inconsequential imperfections, causing enormous frustration.

Does this mean that lowering expectations is the answer? Not necessarily. It’s a combination of choosing what to focus on and looking past stylistic differences. The perfectionist by definition wants everything to be just right. This can result in focusing too much attention towards what isn’t going right — even if it is not a key result area of your business. While you should not ignore an important constraint, ask yourself if it’s really where your attention should be concentrated. If not, focusing on the bigger picture can help you steer your team in the right direction.

Shifting emphasis away from the minor imperfections also can give your team more leeway to operate within their own style preferences versus strictly adopting yours. This can be tremendously valuable in not only getting the most out of each individual team member, but also in the discovery of better approaches you otherwise might not have pursued.

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2. Your drivers may differ from your team’s.

One aspect self-driven leaders often share is that they know exactly where they want to go and are in a hurry to get there. Whether it’s a big promotion, an income target or a juicy assignment — your motivators are clear and compelling. While this surely works for you, it’s very likely your team is going to be comprised of individuals with lots of other drivers. Great leaders don’t operate under a one style fits all model. They get to know the team first and work with each individual to put together a mutually beneficial plan.

3. Others may need your ability to push yourself.

One of the reasons some people rise up the ranks faster than others is because they are naturally able to grasp concepts quickly and apply them without much supervision. These individuals are able to produce prodigious results, whether their leader is exceptional or not. They are successful and have been promoted in many ways because they can operate largely in a self-sufficient manner. Through years of experience, these individuals have learned how to motivate themselves.

Upon being asked to lead others, these individuals can become frustrated that their teams do not have the same skill sets. This should not be mistaken for either a lack of effort or disinterest. It’s more likely they need someone to help hold them accountable. They require the occasional nudge, pat on the back or kick in the rear. Gradually, they can reach a level of greater self-sufficiency, but it needs to be coached, learned and practiced.

The best leaders have the ability to relate to each member of their team, regardless of their diversity. Remembering that every member is unique — and allowing for such differences — can help determine whether you become a great versus good organization.

Entrepreneur.com | August 15, 2016 | Marty Fukuda

#Leadership : Leadership Lessons From The Man Who Runs The U.S. Olympic Track Team….CEO Max Siegel Shares his Strategies for Managing a Team on a High-Stakes Project: the Olympics.

August 7, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

At this moment, 129 American track and field athletes are settling into their living quarters in Rio de Janeiro as part of the 555-person strong Team U.S.A. They are getting acclimated to the weather and training daily, using every last minute to prepare physically and mentally for one of the most important events of their lives. But behind the scenes, Max Siegel has been planning this moment for years.

Siegel is the CEO of U.S.A. Track and Field (USATF), the governing body for runners in the U.S. The nonprofit organization serves 41 million people who love to run—from amateurs to professionals—providing them with opportunities to compete in marathons and races. Siegel has been instrumental in helping the organization take on a more entrepreneurial outlook, building the sport into a brand and helping lock down sponsorship deals. On top of that, Siegel must also help discover the nation’s Olympians and give them the support that they need to thrive at the Games.

Max Siegel

The final list of qualifying athletes is decided right before the Olympics begin. These individuals represent a wide range of disciplines, including marathon runners, sprinters, high jumpers, pole vaulters, shot-putters, and more. “There’s literally a month between the time that people qualify and we go to the Games,” Siegel says. “The very last race in our Olympic trials ends, and they go directly to Olympic training camp.”

Once the team is selected, Siegel and his staff spin into action, managing the elaborate logistics of bringing the team to the host country. Though Siegel’s tips for leading a group of runners to success might seem specific to the sports world’s greatest show on earth, we think they can be useful to any professionals who manage projects that are short but intense, with many moving parts (think organizing a conference or overseeing a quarterly earnings report).

ALWAYS LOOK FOR TALENT

While the Olympic Games happen once every four years, Siegel says his team is constantly preparing for it. Finding the highest-caliber athletes for the Games means being on the lookout for elite runners, recruiting them, and preparing them to compete in the Olympic trials when the time comes. This means tracking students as young as middle- and high-school age who show serious promise. “There’s a pretty robust and thorough analysis of the talent,” he says, explaining that he has experts on staff who are single-handedly focused on assessing every aspect of an athlete’s capabilities.

Siegel says that USATF is extremely judicious about only reaching out to people they really believe will have a successful career in sports because of the sacrifices demanded. Teens may postpone higher education, and those who do go to college will struggle to balance their studies and the rigors of training. Of course, not all athletes are young. The U.S. is sending runners in their forties to Rio, including Bernard Lagat, who qualified for his fifth Olympics at the age of 41. These more seasoned athletes also have to give things up, including time at their jobs or with their families.

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EQUIP YOUR TEAM

Once the team is chosen, Siegel needs to make sure that they have every resource at their disposal to succeed. Since the team comes together right before the Olympic Games, USATF must equip itself in advance with tools. “When they matriculate into our program, we give them support,” he says. “This means coaching, training, medical attention, and biomechanical sports-science help.”

But tools aren’t just physical. To prepare teams to go overseas for events, USATF also helps with language and cultural training. Since the athletes will be ambassadors for their country, it is important that they understand the nuances of local culture. This is particularly useful to athletes who are young or not particularly well-traveled.

Since Olympic athletes are not paid by the International Olympic Committee to appear at the games, they need to generate their own funds to attend. Many runners rely on prize money from other races or seek out sponsorship or endorsement deals. In his time as CEO, Siegel has made it a priority to make USAFT more attractive to companies. “It’s been about creating a brand that’s connected to the idea of excellence,” he says. “This has allowed us to partner with best-in-class companies like Visa, Rosetta Stone, and Hershey.”

Nike has always been one of the USATF’s biggest sponsors. But over the last five years, Siegel has helped negotiate a contract with the brand that has been called one of the most lucrative deals in Olympic history: It ensures that every qualifying athlete will receive a sum of money. (He declined to tell me exactly how much.) “Athletes that make our World Championship or Olympic teams get pretty significant compensation,” Siegel says. In return, Nike will outfit Team U.S.A. for the Olympic Games.

In addition to snagging funds for individual athletes, Siegel also pushed through a separate contract for USATF with Nike that’s worth a reported $500 million and will be in effect from 2017 to 2040. This has improved his organization’s ability to support its entire constituency of runners.

ON GAME DAY, ELIMINATE DISTRACTIONS

Finally, the team heads to the Olympics. Once on site, the USATF’s main goal is to ensure that athletes focus on their event. This means cutting out any possible worry or distraction.

One of the competitors’ biggest sources of concern is their families. While spouses, parents, and siblings often come to show their support and participate in the historic moment, Olympians can lose focus by imagining what their loved ones might be up to, or worrying that they might not be enjoying themselves. So in 2012, Siegel launched a new program in which one group of USATF staff is entirely devoted to making sure families are comfortable and occupied. Staff members take these relatives sightseeing, for instance, and shuttle them to events.”The athletes have grandma and grandpa there, whom they love,” Siegel explains. “They’re worried about them and whether they will be able to get from point A to point B. They feel an emotional obligation to them.”

Siegel has also had to manage some of the crises surrounding the Rio Games, including the Zika virus. His strategy has been to keep all the athletes informed of the latest health information from the World Health Organization and National Institutes of Health. “We don’t want them to be distracted by the media,” he says.

USE THE MOMENTUM TO KEEP MOVING FORWARD

Because the USATF’s Olympic team comes together so late, the organization doesn’t have much time to promote them before the Games begin and get the public excited about them like they are for, say, swimmers and gymnasts. New elite runners come to the world’s attention as their events unfold, so Siegel’s responsibility is to keep enthusiasm (and sponsorship interest) high after the Games. “Stars are born, and you need to ride that momentum afterwards,” he says.

Over the course of the Games, Siegel and his staff familiarize themselves with the athletes’ personal stories so they can keep these narratives alive when they return to the U.S. The USATF pitches these individuals hard to television, social media, newspapers, and magazines. “They might have a unique backstory or an interesting way that they train,” he says. “We don’t want to waste the moment.”

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][Photos: Errol Anderson, courtesy of U.S.A. Track and Field]

FastCompany.com | August 2, 2016 | ELIZABETH SEGRAN

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Posts

WHY MONDAY IS MADE FOR WORKING

MAKING THE MOST OF MONDAY

1) YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THE MEETING IS ABOUT AND WHAT IT’S TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH

2) YOU KNOW WHAT TYPE OF DISCUSSION WILL TAKE PLACE

3) THERE IS A CLEAR AGENDA TO ACHIEVE THE OBJECTIVE

4) ITEMS ARE PRIORITIZED ACCORDINGLY

5) THERE ARE SYSTEMS IN PLACE TO PREVENT MULTITASKING AND INTERRUPTIONS

Netflix is clear that it only keeps its most effective employees

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR NORMS

EMBODYING YOUR TEAM’S NORMS

Strategies for success

Executing the model

1. LOOK AT PROCESS, NOT JUST PEOPLE

2. REVISIT YOUR SHARED PURPOSE—AND DON’T BE AFRAID TO CHANGE IT

3. START EXPERIMENTING AND DELEGATING RESPONSIBILITIES

1. There is no such thing as perfect.

2. Your drivers may differ from your team’s.

3. Others may need your ability to push yourself.

ALWAYS LOOK FOR TALENT

EQUIP YOUR TEAM

ON GAME DAY, ELIMINATE DISTRACTIONS

USE THE MOMENTUM TO KEEP MOVING FORWARD