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The most cliché leadership advice you will ever recieve

By on November 7, 2011 in Ideas with 1 Comment

Someone asked me recently what makes a good leader.

Seeing as I work for a leadership development center, and that I’ve led quite a few projects, businesses, and groups of people, this guy probably thought I was well equipped to answer his question. Truth be told, so did I.

I thought about it for a second.

Then, to my surprise, what began spewing from my lips was a verbose collection of the most cliché garbage I’ve ever heard. I started saying things like, “you’ve got to manage by walking around” and “you need to over communicate” and “set priorities for people” and on and on. He wrote some things down and then looked up at me like, “really?”

It was embarrassing. He knew it. I knew it. He thanked me (for what I’m not sure) and walked out.

Later that day I emailed him an apology. I also tried to redeem myself by offering some real leadership advice. The following is my non-cliché advice for how to be a good leader:

1. Be real with people. Don’t try to be someone you’re not.

2. Be in constant communication. Informal is better and faster.

3. Push hard. Tell people what you expect.

4. Do remarkable things. Most people think great ideas are crazy at first.

I guess the point of it all is that being a good leader comes down to some pretty simple stuff. The danger is that leadership can easily be turned into a cliché. When it is, whether you’re just giving advice or actually living it out, people notice. Don’t be like me. Don’t be the cliché.

VIDEO: Notes from the World Business Forum

By on October 19, 2011 in Ideas with No Comments

Here’s a recap from the business part of our trip to New York. Some of the biggest names in business and politics speak at this conference. People like Bill Clinton, Jack Welch, Seth Godin, Howard Schultz, and Malcolm Gladwell. Here’s a little video about what I learned from them.

VIDEO: The Empire State

By on October 15, 2011 in Ideas with No Comments

This is New York City through my camera lens, with a little help from Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. It’s a compilation of footage I shot during our trip to New York. New York is like Disneyland for a cinematographer like me. Loved the city and can’t wait to go back.

Geeky stuff:
Panasonic GH1
60p
Nikon 50mm 1.4
Canon EFS 10-22mm
Edited in Final Cut Pro
Color Graded in After Effects

Music:
Empire State of Mind
Jay-Z and Alicia Keys

Want people to get it? Make it visible.

By on September 2, 2011 in Ideas with No Comments

In a meeting the other day, I asked our team of about 26 people this question:

“What are our 3 big objectives for the year?”

Silence.

Crickets chirping.

Blank stares.

To my surprise (and to my frustration), no one could rattle it off.

Quick backstory. For the past few months, we’ve been deep in a strategic planning process at The Soderquist Center. Our guide is a guru in strategic planning. Our plan is simple, it fits on one page. It lists our Objectives, Goals, Strategies, and Measures for our entire organization for the whole year.

Back to the meeting. Now I’m frustrated that our team didn’t know it by heart. And later I received some feedback that I came across as agitated and harsh. To be honest, I was. But saying things like, “This is important, people!” and “You should know this already!” didn’t really help the situation.

As I processed this a little more I realized that in our excitement to create the plan, we missed a big piece. We didn’t make it visible. The document lived in some folder on our server where people would have to dig to find it.

So I decided to fill up my office windows with big bold words and pictures to remind us of our vision and our plan. Some people think I’m a little crazy (which I don’t disagree with), but all in all, it has been well received. Since the meeting, many people have joked with me about being so direct and annoyed, a side of me they rarely see. And most everyone has posted the strategic plan at their desk. They like to wave it around as I walk by.



Stop trying to do it all

By on September 1, 2011 in Ideas with No Comments

Ignore this quote at your own peril:

Productivity tip: Organize email by thread

By on August 31, 2011 in Ideas with No Comments

This is not rocket science, but I found this feature in Apple Mail about a year ago and it has saved me a lot of frustration by grouping email threads together. I’m not sure if Outlook has this feature or not, but it should. Anyway, just something that has made my life a little easier and wanted to pass it along. In Apple Mail, just go to View –> Organize By Thread.

A new way to work: How to focus and get things done

By on August 29, 2011 in Ideas with 7 Comments

Our team is testing a new way to work.

Most people know that I hate meetings. It’s become a running joke around the office actually.

I don’t just hate meetings to hate them. I hate them because most of the time they are unproductive, poorly run, and just a waste of valuable time.

With that in mind, you will probably be surprised that this new way to work involves several people in a room all day. Sounds like a meeting, right?

Here’s the thing: We’re not together to meet. We’re together to work. Big difference. And, we’re only working on one thing. Just one.

So when someone says, “We need to write a script for that video” or “Hey, we need an outline for that,” it doesn’t get assigned as a follow-up item. Instead, I fire up a Google doc and start writing. Clayton joins in and begins to edit in real time. Simultaneously, Christy is designing a mock-up of our new resource, Pablo is tweaking part of the webpage that this new video will live on, and Zac is…well, Zac had to leave early.

Last week was the first time we tried it, but the results were very encouraging. Solid productivity. We accomplished a lot by intentionally focusing our combined effort on one thing.

3 pieces of advice from a great CEO

By on August 24, 2011 in Ideas with No Comments

David Glass and Don Soderquist giving advice to this year's 40 Under 40 class

David Glass has a way of cutting through the bull. He speaks in no uncertain terms about what he thinks.

I’m glad he does, he has a lot to say.

Retired CEO of Walmart, David arguably accomplished more than any other CEO in history.

Yesterday I got to hear him speak at the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal’s ‘Forty Under 40′ event. (The Soderquist Center is a sponsor)

He talked about some things that I believe most organizations today fail miserably at.

1. Just make a dang decision already.

And if you screw something up, fix it. David admittedly “hates” decision by committee. His rule at Walmart was never to leave a meeting with something undecided. He didn’t wait for people to go do research. He didn’t allow people to put things off. They just made decisions and moved ahead. “There are two ways to climb an oak tree. 1. Start climbing. 2. Stand on an acorn and wait for the tree to grow.”

2. Keep it simple.

David’s people would send him 2-page, single spaced memos to update him on important issues. Eventually he stopped reading the second page. He thought the reports were too cumbersome. If he missed something on the second page, oh well. Once people realized he was only reading the first page, they started condensing the reports to one page. Obviously the reports were more complicated than they needed to be.

3. You don’t have all the best ideas

“Most of the ideas we had at Walmart were copied from our competitors. We just figured out how to improve on them.” David’s advice is to see what others are doing around you. Don’t get enamored with yourself or you will miss the best ideas.

You can watch part of an interview I filmed with David Glass and Don Soderquist here.

Want to be more productive? Get up early.

By on August 22, 2011 in Ideas with 5 Comments

People sometime ask how I get so much done.

In addition to my full time job at The Soderquist Center, I do a lot of freelance video projects, I helped start and run a website called WorshipVue, I co-founded Transparent Ministries, I write this blog, try to be a good husband, and I’m working on another little startup you’ll be hearing about soon.

Am I a workaholic? Um, maybe.

Do I have superhuman powers? Not that I know of.

Have I figured out how to clone myself? Creepy.

My secret is this: I start early in the morning. Really early. Like 5:00AM early.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. “But I’m not a morning person!” Well, I’m not a morning person either. Really, I’m not.

About a year ago, my wife Mandy started getting up really early to work on her doctoral courses and to prep for class. She was carrying a full load of both at the time (Just FYI, she does have superhuman powers). I started getting up when she got up and using those early morning hours to work.

My usual routine is to get up, take the dogs out, eat something, and be sitting at my desk in our study no later than 5:30AM. I work until about 7:30 and then get ready for the day.

What I discovered, crazy as it sounds, is that I’m more productive at 5:30AM than any other time during the day. My head is clear, everything is quiet, and the distractions of the day haven’t infiltrated my thoughts.

Now contrast 5:30AM to 10:30AM. I’m at work in my office. A constant stream of people walk by my window. I hear two or three conversations going on outside my door. Someone sends me an email and then comes by to make sure I got it. On average (I’ve timed it) someone pops into my office at least every 15 minutes. Some days it’s more like every 5 minutes.

I don’t say all that because it’s bad. I want to be available to people. They need me to be available. So I just reserve my “in the zone” work for the wee hours of the morning.

I accomplish more meaningful work in those two hours than I will the entire remainder of the day.

It’s not easy to drag myself out of bed that early. But I guess if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Maybe you should try it.

The Fellows

By on August 18, 2011 in Ideas with No Comments

Our Soderquist Fellows are an awesome bunch of incredibly talented young people. I have the humbling privilege of leading the Fellowship program at The Soderquist Center. We went out on campus to take some photos of them the other day. Here are a couple of my favorites (click to enlarge).

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