Want to be more successful at work? The Dot Connector blog helps you do just that. Here is a recap of the most popular Dot Connector posts. Each can help you be more effective at work, and think differently about the work world around you!

5 Useful Blackberry Tips and Tricks to Boost Your Productivity

If you have a Blackberry, chances are you picked it up, and started emailing right away. Did you know, there are several time-saving features built in, and several tricks you can do to make your Blackberry even more useful? Here are 5 of my favorites…

10 Tips for Getting Organized with To Do Lists

Getting organized — and staying organized — can help you get things done, feel more fulfilled, and clear your mind for more creative thought! A cornerstone of every organization “system” are to do lists.

10 Tips to Improve Your Voicemails

Voicemail is one of the most frequently used communication tools within an organization. And, it seems that the more senior the person you are communicating with is within your organization, the more likely they will favor voicemail over email. Here are 10 tried-and-true tips to improve your voicemails.

Top 5 Characteristics of Effective Work Relationships

Effortlessly working with your peers is one of the things that is so hard for many to attain, yet so easy to take for granted. In this post, I’ll discuss my top 5 characteristics for effective relationships at work.

Get Control of Your Email - Email Management: Part I, Part II, and Part III

Email. We all have it. We rely on it, and sometimes, we can’t get away from it. Overflowing Inboxes cause us stress. Trying to find an email causes stress. Wondering if you replied to all of the emails you need to causes stress. Today, that stress goes away!

6 Blackberry Tips for Reading Emails

Did you know you can use the keyboard to read Blackberry email? Here are my favorite keyboard shortcuts, especially useful when only one hand is free.

If you enjoyed any of these posts, subscribe to free updates by email or RSS.

I’m often asked what books I would recommend for Project Management, Personal Productivity, and Business Strategy. Here are a few of my favorites:

Project Management Books

The Project 50 (Reinventing Work): Fifty Ways to Transform Every “Task” into a Project That Matters!, Tom Peters

Getting Real: The Smarter, Faster, Easier Way to Build a Successful Web Application, 37signals

The Leadership Challenge: How to Keep Getting Extraordinary Things Done in Organizations, James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner

Leading with the Heart: Coach K’s Successful Strategies for Basketball, Business, and Life, Mike Krzyzewski

Business Strategy Books

Only the Paranoid Survive: How to Exploit the Crisis Points That Challenge Every Company, Andrew S. Grove

Your Marketing Sucks, Mark Stevens

Good to Great - Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Others Don’t, Jim Collins

Microsoft Secrets: How the World’s Most Powerful Software Company Creates Technology, Shapes Markets, and Manages People, Michael A. Cusumano and Richard W. Selby

Body and Soul: Profits With Principles-The Amazing Success Story of Anita Roddick and the Body Shop, Anita Roddick

Personal Productivity Books

The Brand You 50: Fifty Ways to Transform Yourself from an ‘Employee’ into a Brand That Shouts Distinction, Commitment, and Passion!, Tom Peters

The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferriss

All I Really Need to Know in Business I Learned at Microsoft: Inside Strategies to Help You Succeed, Julie Bick

Lifehacker: 88 Tech Tricks to Turbocharge Your Day, Gina Trapani

The Art of Connecting - How to Overcome Differences, Build Rapport, and Communicate Effectively with Anyone, Claire Raines, Lara Ewing

Note from Regis: This is the first post in Dot Connector’s “Effective Leadership Training Series.” My goal is to bring you people who exemplify leadership styles and leadership skills needed for success.

Today’s interview is with Todd Albery, Creator of Webolutions at Quicken Loans. Todd is the guy who gets the huge, impossible projects — the ones that make you simply go “no way.” And, through his amazing perseverance, he finds a way to get them done.

In this interview, you’ll hear Todd’s thoughts on perseverance, and how you can use this essential leadership skill to launch memorable projects.

Regis: Can you give an example of a time when you had to exert a lot of perseverance?

Todd: For the past two years I’ve led a project at Quicken Loans called Quizzle. It has been an extremely exciting project – built to be a game-changer in our industry and on the web! However, like any good project, it had its share of challenges.

In the course of development…

• We lost important pieces of our development team;
• We changed the technology platform on which Quizzle was built;
• We wrote way-too-extensive “specification documents”;
• We tinkered with marketing stuff too much (Yep, I’m the marketing guy);
• We encountered some ‘late-game’ business obstacles.

With this project, we were continuously breaking new ground. We were taking a road less traveled. Sometimes there was no road. Sometimes it was dirt. Rarely were the signs clearly marked. And more than a few times, the destination changed. The project took longer than we hoped. But in the end we persevered. We ended up in a great place. And we got there because we all laced up our boots and took the journey TOGETHER, AS A TEAM!

Regis: As a leader, how do you stay motivated when a project is taking a long time (i.e. when you personally have to really persevere)?

Todd: In a long-term project it’s important to break the project up into smaller pieces so you can focus on the “Little WINS.” It’s tough sometimes when there’s no immediate end in sight, but that’s why you’ve got to take the time to IDENTIFY milestones and CELEBRATE with the team each step of the way.

Personally and professionally, my motivation and energy come from relationships. I stay motivated by building a strong tight-knit TEAM aligned with a BELIEF in a VISION and armed with a POSITIVE (can-do) ATTITUDE. Truly aligned team member will motivate each other daily.

Regis: As a leader, how do you keep others around you motivated when a project is taking a long time (i.e. when your team really has to persevere)?

Todd: There are a few things that I believe are essential to keeping a team together and motivated during a long project:

1. Build relationships: You’ve got to get to know your project team like a family.

• Get out of the office together and do things that are 100% NOT work-related. Get to know your teammates in a fun pressure-free environment. Build real relationships and memories that have nothing to do with your work project.
• Once you develop those critical personal relationships, you’ll begin to understand what makes your team members tick. You’ll learn a person’s inner passion. Then you’ll know when and where to let someone take the ball and run and they’ll create things you never dreamed possible.
• Relationships develop TRUST. Team trust is something that is critical throughout a long project. Then when tough and controversial decisions are made, you will benefit greatly from a team that trusts you and each other.

2. Create a true team: You need to create a team environment to persevere.

• Create a team that works TOGETHER towards a common goal. Create a team that is focused on doing what’s best for the business. Create a team that believes in doing the right thing and making decisions becomes much easier.
• Keep an eye out for team members who are “me focused.” If you’ve got a cancer in the “locker room,” you’ve got to deal with it. It’s best to confront a problem head-on and sooner is better than later.
• Speaking “The TRUTH in love”: be honest and kind; most people appreciate honesty when it’s delivered in a constructive manner (”in love” - for the betterment of the team). Don’t fall into the trap of believing that confrontation is bad, because it’s not. Confrontation is not only critical to moving a project forward, but it will often lead to breakthrough moments for a team.

Note from Regis: I agree that confrontation is critical to resolving issues. To be blunt, I often tell my team that if you’re not pissing people off, you’re not doing work that matters.

3. Involve your team in the vision: You must COMMUNICATE the vision with your team on a regular basis. And it’s even more important (if you can do it) to INVOLVE your team in the creation of that vision.

• Don’t be afraid to discuss business dilemmas, decisions, hurdles and challenges with your team.
• First of all, it’s always good to get out of your own shoes and get other people’s thoughts and ideas; and secondly, you’ll begin creating team ownership in the project. A project should never be just one person’s project – it should be a team project.
• Secondly, by involving the team, you automatically break down the natural blame barriers that too often plague a project and instead, you develop a truly SHARED VISION.

4. Laugh a lot: You’ve got to bring a sense of humor with you to work everyday.

• The day you lose the laughter is the day you’ll lose the ability to motivate a team long-term.
• Take your work seriously, but never take yourself too seriously.
• The trick is to keep the team focused on the task at hand, but have fun while you do it! You’ll be surprised how far daily laughter will go in keeping spirits high and the team motivated. There’s a time to strap on the helmet and get stuff done, but it can’t be all day everyday. Life’s too short to be serious all the time.

Honest disclaimer: We had a couple of added motivational benefits on the Quizzle project.

• We had the luxury of working closely with Dan Gilbert, a genius-minded business entrepreneur, who shared his vision with us throughout the project and allowed us to go BLUE SKY and DREAM BIG on this project.
• We had a group of folks on the team who believed strongly that Quizzle had the potential to be a real game-changer someday on the Internet!

Unfortunately, we don’t get these benefits on every project, but a great leader can instill belief in a vision, tap into inner passions and allow a team to dream big.

Regis: How does someone learn to persevere?

Todd: For me perseverance was ingrained since I was a kid. My parents instilled the value of never quitting, and giving things my very best shot. I was taught to look on the positive side; find the good in situations rather than dwell on the bad. I was taught to view problems as challenges. I was taught to recognize challenges as opportunities. And opportunities will often times lead to success.

When challenges are the hardest, don’t be afraid. Instead, get excited, because you have the opportunity to find creative, game-changing solutions. There’s a quote from a marketing book called “Juicing the Orange” that went something like this: “Creativity is the most economical form of competitive advantage.” Creativity can be cheap; it can also pull you out of a commodity box and can differentiate you from the rest.

Personally, I love sports. I love playing games. So when a day at work provides a good challenge, it’s like a game, a competition, and my juices start flowing. And at the end of this challenge (just like a game) you either win or lose, right? That’s exciting. So go ahead, play games at work. Embrace your challenges. Play to WIN. And with this approach, more often than not, you will… persevere.

Regis: Do you have any great quotes, books, etc. about perseverance you’d recommend?

Todd: Read any book about a company that made it big and you’ll find that there were many roadblocks along the way, challenges to overcome, and days when the future looked bleak.

A couple of my favorites are “The Google Story” and “Pour Your Heart Into it: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time.” It wasn’t always easy, but in the end it was worth it. “The Experience Economy” is another one of my favorites. In this book you’ll also learn about the importance of creating a great experience for your clients. You’ll learn to be bold and try new things. You can’t be afraid to fail. Through failing and overcoming challenges you gain experience and wisdom.

I love A&E biographies. Listen to or read the biography of any great man or woman and you will find stories of hardship and perseverance that not only shaped their character but made them stronger.

I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.
-Christopher Reeve

Note from Regis: We can all learn a lot from Todd, and the ideas he talks about in this interview. Stay tuned for more in our Leadership Training Boot Camp series!

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Have you ever missed someone’s birthday? Lost the location of a cool website you found? Maybe you were driving, had an idea, didn’t stop to write it down, and now it’s gone?

Today, that all ends!

If you leverage my 3 online reminder services below, you will remember more than you do today.

1. Never forget another birthday (or other event) using Backpack Reminders

I’ve written about the power of using Backpack, the online organization tool, to manage your to do lists. Did you know Backpack is also an online reminder service that will help you remember dates?

Here’s how you do it:

• Simply enter what you want to remember into Backpack
• Associate a date/time with it
• Tell Backpack to email you or send a txt message to your cellphone.

That’s it! Imagine this: the morning of your friend Ben’s birthday, you get a txt message on your cellphone that says “Ben’s Birthday is Today” so you can give him a call. Pretty cool, huh?

2. Never forget another idea and boost your memory using Jott

Jott is a fantastic, free tool that seriously enhances what you can remember and accomplish. Here’s how Jott works:

• You use your cell phone to call Jott, and the service asks you “Who you want to Jott?”
• 98% of the time, I say “myself”
• Then, I simply leave myself a Jott.

What the heck is a Jott? Well, it’s a voicemail that gets translated (via the Jott system) into an email and sent to me.

So, when I’m driving in the car, walking the dog, etc. and have a great idea, I just Jott myself. Bam! Idea is “saved” in my email, and I don’t have to think about it anymore. Later, when I check my email, I will see my voicemail as email text and I can act on it then.

Jott is also useful for sending an email to a person, or group of people by simply leaving a voice mail using your cell phone. Check out the Jott website for more examples on how to use their service.

3. Never forget another website using del.icio.us

Del.icio.us is a “social bookmarking website,” which is fancy tech-speak for: it remembers websites for you, and you can let other people see what you save in it. Del.icio.us is especially helpful because:

• It’s web-based, so as long as you have a web browser, you can save bookmarks to it
• It has an “Add-on” for the web browser Mozilla Firefox, so you can create and classify your bookmarks from within Firefox.
• It uses “tags” (labels you create) to classify your bookmarks so you can easily find them later

Give del.icio.us a try. Once you have your bookmarks centralized there, you’ll easily be able to find websites whenever, and wherever, you need them!

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results.

How important is mental focus? It’s simply the number-one key to becoming legendary at what you do.

We have a saying at Quicken Loans: “what you focus on, you find.” Oprah and followers of the book The Secret - say that “like attracts like.”

However you choose to say it, the power of focus is what separates those who are good from those who are great.

However, your daily life can easily compromise your ability to focus. Let’s take a look at a recent day in my professional life as an example:

• 623 emails across 4 email accounts
• 23 social media requests, messages, etc.
• 13 incoming phone calls, and 9 voicemail messages
• 2 conference calls and 3 one-on-one meetings
• 1 presentation to some of my Clients
• 1 contract negotiation

How do I maintain focus when I have all of these things challenging it? Of course, I stay organized with to do lists, manage my voicemail, and keep my email management system in top shape. But, as I tell people all the time, you’ll always have 100 things on your plate, but are you doing the right things?

Patrick Rhone has written about his Today Card. The Today Card is a note card he keeps with 3 simple things he would like to accomplish that day. Patrick’s post inspired me to go back to a similar tradition I used to keep, specifically using a Top 3 list to help me focus.

I’ve re-adopted and improved on my old Top 3 list technique. It’s insanely simple, and has increased my ability to focus exponentially.

Here’s my secret to using a Top 3 list to achieve mental focus every day:

1. For 5 minutes right now, think about what you really need to focus on. This should be time where you focus only on important things that will move your project, career, etc. forward. Mentally ban thoughts about an email you have to respond to, a person you have to call, etc. Use this time to deliberately force yourself to mentally focus on what you need to do.

2. Write down the Top 3 things you need to focus on. I like to write this list down in my moleskine notebook, but you might prefer a sticky note, or a note card, like Patrick. Your goal is to use this Top 3 list to guide what you do tomorrow.

3. Tomorrow morning, do one thing from your Top 3 list before you open your email. I am TOTALLY SERIOUS about this. Email is a gigantic distractor and priority-changer. Do not let it prevent you from maintaining focus. By doing at least one thing on your list before opening your email, you set yourself up for a successful day.

4. At the end of the day, check your Top 3 list, cross off what you’ve accomplished, and write your list for tomorrow. It’s CRITICAL that you write your list for tomorrow at the end of the day today. At the end of the day, you still have the day fresh in your mind. Also, by doing this, you’re not spending time tomorrow morning figuring out what to do.

That’s it - the secret to mental focus is the Top 3 list! If you really use this technique (including #3 and #4 above), you’ll be amazed at the mental focus and clarity you have.

To quote another saying (from Dan Gilbert, Chairman and Founder of Quicken Loans), “nothing clarifies like clarity!” Good luck!

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

It happens to all of us…at different points in our careers, we feel our creativity is stifled.

It’s happened to me, and it’s happened to people on my team. In fact, I’ve had project managers seriously questioning their career choice, since they were so stifled creatively. When dealing with project issues, budgets, and deadlines, I totally understand how this can happen.

Here’s the bottom-line: You don’t need to be on the “creative” team, be a “creative director,” or be a “designer” to be a creative person. The opportunity to be creative is right “under your nose” every single day!

Here are my top 3 ways to seize the opportunity to be creative!

#1: Get Creative when Reporting Metrics

• Many of us manage and launch projects to meet a company’s goal: more leads, more sales, more interactions with the brand, etc. Every single time you give an update on a project’s metrics, you have the opportunity to be creative.
• Think about it:the people who are reading your update (probably an email) are senior leaders in your organization who care about such results. You have their attention! Use this to your advantage. As Avinash Kaushik says, “don’t puke data out.” Always intepret what you think is happening in the data you are providing. And go beyond that: propose new ideas based on what the numbers are telling you.
• Your leaders want you to step up, they want you to “read between the lines,” they want your new ideas! Get creative and drive your new ideas to fruition!

#2: Get Creative with Your Communication

• From Tip #1, and my previous post on telling your story, you already know you should be thinking about your “message” when giving project updates. But have you ever really pushed the boundaries of what you can do? As Picasso said: “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” Be sure to check out The Positivity Blog for Picasso’s Top 7 Tips for Creating an Exciting Life.
• Here are just a few real-world examples to spark your creativity for giving a project update (I’ve seen people do each of these, and yes, I know some of these are a bit crazy!):
• Shoot a video: with video cameras and editing software within reach of everyone, use that to your advantage! Shoot a video telling your story and send it to your team, leaders, Clients, etc. Make it fun and engaging - people will remember it!
• Create your own soapbox: literally take a box you can stand on into a meeting, group of people, etc. and deliver your update “town crier” style! Again, people will not forget it, or you!
• Write a song or rap: Write your own song or rap about your project, and deliver your update that way. Some of the most memorable ones I have seen spoofed popular songs/raps people know. Combine this with video, post it on YouTube, and send the link to your entire team!

#3: Get Creative with Your Project Management

• When you manage a project, are you being productive or active? Just because you’re active, it doesn’t mean your being productive.
• Look critically at what you are doing: are you procrastinating and not dealing with an issue by staying active? Have you fallen into the “old ways” of doing things and not realized it? Challenge yourself to be better than that!
• Are you defining the world around you in such a way that you either: have a negative view? can’t see ways to get things done? or disregard new ideas? Be very careful of this trap! By doing so, you not only limit what you can accomplish, you limit what your project team can do too. If you’ve fallen into this way of thinking, you probably cannot see new opportunities to get things done.

I hope these ideas help you get creative, think differently, and manage projects more successfully!

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

In my previous post, 5 Useful Blackberry Tips and Tricks to Boost Your Productivity, I covered some of my favorite overall tips. In this, and future posts, I will be going deeper into different Blackberry tips that can help you.

Did you know you can use the keyboard to read Blackberry email? Here are my favorite keyboard shortcuts:

#1 - “T” - pressing the letter T when reading an email, jumps to the top of the email.

• Have you ever started reading an email, and then wondered who’s copied on the email? Just hit “T” to jump to the top of the email to see information like who is on the CC list, when it was sent, etc.

#2 - “B” - pressing the letter B when reading an email, jumps to the bottom of the email.

• This is really helpful when you are reading a reply and want to see the earlier message. By jumping to the bottom of the email, you can read the previous emails first, and read from the bottom-up to read the entire email trail.

#3 - “Space” - pressing the Spacebar jumps down one screen in the email.

• This is especially useful when you need to quickly scan emails you will read again later. By using this technique, you can scan email reports, long email chains, etc. quickly and effectively.

#4 - “Shift + Space” - pressing Shift and Space jumps up one screen in the email.

• This is especially useful after you hit “B” (outlined above), since you can use it to scan up an email more quickly than with the wheel.

#5 - “N” - pressing the letter N jumps to the next email.

• You can use this technique (combined with the others above) to quickly read Blackberry email with one hand. To use this technique, just hit the letter N when you are reading an email. You will jump to the next email in your inbox.

#6 - “P” - pressing the letter P jumps to previous email.

• Similar to the N tip above, pressing P will jump you to the previous email in your inbox. Both N and P are a great way to scan your email quickly, instead of just looking at the inbox view.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Some of the most important relationships you will develop in your career are with your leaders (i.e. your immediate team leader, popularly called a “boss,” and the other senior leaders of an oganization, i.e. the “higher ups” or “executives”).

All relationships you create are important - certainly, you just never know when you might run into someone again. However, to get things done effectively and constantly grow your career, you have to know how to work with your leaders. For the purposes of the 4 Tips below, I will focus on building rapport with your immediate team leader (i.e. your “boss”).

Building Rapport - Tip #1: Learn What Your Leader is Trying to Accomplish

• You have to put your focus on your leader, not yourself, and ALWAYS start with her goals: What is she trying to accomplish? What are her goals? Why is she the team leader? Why are you on the team (i.e. what’s her vision for you)? Do your goals help or conflict with your leader’s goals? Understanding your leaders’ motivations is the first step to delivering on their expectations.
• Treat your leaders like they are your Clients. Just like when a Client hires a firm to help them achieve a goal, you are that “company of one” for your leader. As Sales Coach and Consultant Brian Macias says, “LISTEN to what your Client says! Remember the old 80/20 rule: they talk 80% of the time and you only talk 20% of the time…the more they talk, the more they like you! Not the other way around.”

Building Rapport - Tip #2: Show Your Leaders They Can Trust You

• Any relationship that works is based on trust. In order to build an effective relationship with your leader, they have to inherently trust you, your motivations, and your ideas.
• To start to build trust, assume rapport - especially with new team leaders. As The Positivity Blog says: “instead of going into a conversation or meeting nervously and thinking “how will this go?” you take different approach. You assume that you and the person(s) will establish a good connection (rapport).” By looking at your interactions this way, you can create a great first impression and develop trust. This is especially critical when you and your leader have different beliefs, lifestyles, etc.
• Then, develop a policy of “I want you to know what I know” with your leader. Ensure that both good and bad news, tips and insights, and observations your leader may not see are all shared quickly (See Tips #3 and #4 below for more on how to do this).

Building Rapport - Tip #3: Constantly bring news ideas to help your leaders brainstorm and solve problems

• Focus on your business goals and the goals of your leader. Whenever you feel that you, your project team, or the company is drifting away from those goals, initiate a discussion with your leader. Don’t just bring issues, but also always bring solutions to the table.
• Take the time to involve your leader in the brainstorming process. Resist the temptation to go off, find the solution, and present it to her. Instead, give your leader the opportunity to be a part of the brainstorming process. Not only will this help you build trust in each other, it will bring you new ideas you might not have thought of otherwise.
• Stay up-to-date on trends, blogs, conferences, etc. that apply to your business’ goals and your leader’s goals. When you find ideas of interest, share them with your leader.

Building Rapport - Tip #4: Adapt to your leaders’ communication style

• Find out how your leader likes to communicate, and follow it religiously. This does take some sacrifice, but isn’t it worth it? Does your leader like to check and respond to emails after 11PM? Maybe she likes to talk on the phone during her drive home? Maybe she prefers updates via voicemail before 8AM?
• Whatever preferences your leader has, match them with your communications. This doesn’t mean you have to be “on email” at 11PM, or “on voicemail” before 8AM, but you should have emails and voicemails waiting for your leader at that time. Most email and voicemail programs also allow you to “schedule” messages. Take that into consideration when determining your communication approach.

Bonus: How to Build Rapport Like Terry Gross

“Fresh Air” - hosted by Terry Gross - is one of the most popular programs on public radio. One of the most prolific interviewers in the media, Gross is known for her entertaining, informative, and provocative conversations with influential people in academia, entertainment, government, and more.

In order to connect her audience to the person she is interviewing, Terry has mastered the techniques of building rapport over 30 years. Her techniques, outlined in “The Art of Connecting: How to Overcome Differences, Build Rapport, and Communicate Effectively with Anyone,” include:

• Putting the focus on the other person (see Tip#1, above)
• Listening (see Tip#1, above)
• Accepting different beliefs, values, lifestyles (see Tip#2, above)
• Staying up-to-date with people, events, trends (see Tip#3, above)
• Respecting individuals (see Tip#4, above)
• Creating an atmosphere for unhurried conversation (see Tip#4, above)

By learning Terry’s time-tested techniques, and applying the 4 Powerful Tips above in your daily interactions, you too can focus on building rapport with your leaders and finding new opportunities to grow.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

As I’ve mentioned in my other posts on leadership, leadership is a choice - how you make decisions, trust your instincts, and allow yourself to learn from failure determines if and how you will become a leader.

My past week was filled with leadership development lessons to share with you. Some were lessons I learned myself, others were lessons I watched others learn around me.

Here are my top 3:

Leadership Development Lesson #1: Giving Feedback

• By having an honest feedback session with each person you lead, you have the opportunity (and responsibility) to share the positives about their progress, as well as the areas for them to improve.
• As Wally Bock says in his Three Star Leadership Blog, feedback is really the breakfast of champions. By not hesitating to give constructive criticism, you give people the opportunity to grow and learn faster than they would otherwise.

Leadership Development Lesson #2: Having the Right Attitude

• Giving constructive criticism is always easier when a team member has the right attitude. If you have an open mind and a true desire to constantly get better, you will be open to feedback that can help you get there.
• No one is right all the time. Everyone has times where they need to be redirected, coached, or talked “off the edge of a cliff.” Allowing yourself to accept feedback like this can only make you better.
• Feeling down? Need some inspiration to boost your attitude? Check out Orrin Woodward’s favorite quotes on attitude.

Leadership Development Lesson #3: Prevent a Communication “Vacuum”

• You always have to show people you are “driving the bus” on the projects you lead. It’s critical that whenever you are managing a high-profile project, you communicate early and often - even if you don’t have all the answers.
• This is especially important with key executives. When asked a question through email, it’s best to reply immediately, letting the executive know you are looking into her question, and when you expect to have an answer.
• Later, when you give your answer, make sure you completely answer the question, and give your own opinions. To most executives, giving your opinions is as important as answering the question.

Leadership lessons like these are around you every single day if you look for them! I’ll share more of my lessons as I come across them. If you have lessons to share, leave a comment or send me an email.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Here are my 3 favorite quotes from Dr. Randy Pausch’s presentation below:

• “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want”
• “When you’re doing a bad job and nobody points it out to you, that’s when they’ve given up on you.”
• “Don’t complain, just work harder.”

Please take 10 minutes out of your day to watch this video. Let it sync in, and think about how you are living your life: are you a Tigger or an Eeyore?

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

One of my all-time favorite business books, and a huge influence on my leadership philosophy is Andy Grove’s “Only the Paranoid Survive.”

Grove participated in the founding of Intel, and went on to become President, then CEO and Chairmen. Under his leadership, Intel became the 7th most profitable company among the Fortune 500, and he was Time Magazine’s Person of the Year in 1997.

In his book, Grove discusses strategic inflection points, how leaders must identify them, and lead their teams through them.

What is a “strategic inflection point?”

• Grove defines a strategic inflection point as a time in the life of a business or project when its fundamentals are changing significantly. Often, “point” is really a misnomer, and it’s actually a long, sometimes painful, period of change.
• To me, strategic inflection points are those times and decisions that make or break your business, your project, your Client relationship, your Executive’s view of you, etc.
• You could also look at Strategic Inflection Points as Tipping Points as well (based on Malcolm Gladwell’s popular book The Tipping Point, another must-read).

Leadership Tips from This Book:

1. Only those who constantly try to anticipate change will survive when change happens.
2. Seek the opinions of all around you, as they are usually in touch with impending change sooner than you are.
3. Encourage debate at all costs. The most important tool in identifying a strategic inflection point is broad and intensive debate.
4. Don’t justify holding back because you don’t know the answers - seek them out as fast as you can.
5. Give your most considered opinion, and give it clearly and forcefully.

3 Questions Every Leader Should Ask Themselves:

1. Am I actively seeking opinions from everyone possible, regardless of their title?
2. Is our key competitor about to change? (Note: if you can’t clearly answer who that key competitor is, something significant is definitely going on.)
3. Do people seem to be “losing it” - or that they increasingly don’t “get it” - around you? (Note: if so, they are likely applying old solutions to a new problem, a sign that you are in a strategic inflection point.)

4 Favorite Quotes:

1. In times of change, managers almost always know which direction they should go in, but usually act too late and do too little.
2. Businesses fail either because they leave their customers - i.e. they change a strategy that worked for them in the past - or because their customers leave them.
3. Strategic inflection points provide an opportunity to break out of a plateau and catapult to a higher level of achievement.
4. No statues will be carved for leaders who charge off on the wrong side of a complex decision.

Other Bloggers talking about this book and Andy Grove:

• The Bizness Blawg: “How Paranoia Can Actually Make You Successful“
• Changing Way: “Andy Grove’s Book Survives“
• Innovate Blog/Podcast: “An Interview with Andy Grove, former CEO and Chairman of Intel“

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

If you lead (whether or not you are formally a leader, you can lead!), you have a responsibility to give context to the team you work for. Giving context is about telling the story of “why” to your team members, and letting them be a part of it. It’s about explaining how certain decisions were made, how they fit into the bigger picture, and how they’ve impacted the business.

Here are two examples:

• You manage a high-profile website project, where your main Client is the Chairman of the board. Giving context in this situation means teaching your team why the Chairman makes the decisions she does (hint: she’s thinking in the best interest of the business). By doing giving context, you prevent speculation and “we have to do it because she said so” rationale that can quickly fill the void in a project that lacks context.

• You work in a fast-paced environment where you manage 20-30 projects at one time. Instead of taking the time on each project to give your project team the proper context behind why you are asking them to do something, you settle into just giving orders. Quickly, the team starts to distance themselves from you, and you notice they don’t respond as quickly, or proactively seek your advice as often, as they used to.

Giving context is about first making those around you (your project team, your immediate teammates, etc.) comfortable with you and your approach. Then, it’s about giving the the knowledge so that they can be on the same page you are!

Give your team the “backstory” (i.e. context) and you’ll be amazed at how they will grow and rise up to help your cause!

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Being comfortable sounds nice, right? We all like our comforts: comfort foods, a favorite blanket, or a special place we like to go to. However, in the world of work, being comfortable is not a good thing.

Why?

If you’re comfortable, you’re likely stopped:

• Challenging yourself and those around you to be better
• Opening your mind to new ideas and solutions
• Accepting decisions that were previously made without understanding why
• Looking objectively at things like the “health” of your business right now
• Challenging group decision making

Being continually dissatisfied (but always with a positive attitude) is a great way to overcome being comfortable. Being dissatisfied does not mean being pessimistic. Rather, it means always looking at each and every decision you are making, or the decisions those around you are making, and truly asking yourself:

“Is this truly the best decision for our business?”

If you are truly committed to continuous improvement at work, you’ll notice you’re continually dissatisfied. It’s a simple case of “what you focus on you find.” If you focus on always making things better, you’ll always find things to make better!

It’s not easy to be continually dissatisfied. But remember, work that matters is hard. So, embrace the fact that by being dissatisfied, you are making today better than yesterday. Then, go find those things that need to be improved (even if they were decisions you made in the past) and improve them!

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Leadership is not a title. Leadership is a choice. You earn respect. You earn experience. But you choose to be a leader.Whether you are an executive, middle manager, project manager, or intern, you choose to be a leader. And far too often, those who could be leaders choose not to.

How do you become a leader? Here are my top 3 leadership development tips.

1. Make decisions. Decide to be happy. Decide to be excited about what you do. Decide that you want to achieve your Top 3 todos for today. Decide that you will make a conscious effort to help those you work with to grow. Decide to speak up to your CEO in a meeting. You get the idea! Leaders are people who are not afraid to make decisions. Do you find yourself actually making decisions, or continuously seeking answers and approval? If it’s the latter, then stop! Look objectively at what you are trying to do, and make decisions for yourself. Just ask yourself: “is this decision the best thing I can do right now?” If it is, decide and do it.
2. Trust Your Instincts. This is intimately tied into #1 - Make Decisions, since without instincts, it’s very hard to make decisions! Instincts are what guide you through your thought process when analyzing any situation. Far too often, people “second-guess” their “gut instincts.” Don’t do this! All of your career, you are continuously fine-tuning your gut instincts. No report, no research, no opinion can make a decision. Those things can only help you to refine your gut instincts. Guess what? Start trusting your instincts, and a magical thing will happen: they’ll get better and better over time! You’ll be amazed at where it can take you.
3. Allow Yourself and Your Team (if you have one) to Fail. How do you learn a foreign language? You screw it up until you get it right! Secret: the “best” people you will ever work with were not born that way. They’ve made BIG mistakes OFTEN. Yet, I’ve seen it happen time and time again: by trying to make things “perfect” a person, or an entire team, will inevitably either miss an opportunity or limit personal growth. I know this is scary stuff, but it’s key to your leadership development. Take the training wheels off yourself and your team. Jump out of the nest and fly! It’s the only way you’ll grow as a leader.

I hope you keep these leadership development tips in mind throughout your day, when you are faced with times where you can use all 3 of them.

Starting right now, decide to be a leader!

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Big jobs go to the people who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.

- Theodore Roosevelt

Getting organized — and staying organized — can help you get things done, feel more fulfilled, and clear your mind for more creative thought!

A cornerstone of every organization “system” are to do lists. Below, are my Top 10 To Do List tips, including how I use the online organization tool Backpack from 37signals, to manage my to do lists online. Below, I will outline approaches for paper and online systems where relevant.

Note: If you’re familiar with David Allen’s “Getting Things Done,” system/book, some of the ideas below will look familiar. However, I’ve taken my own approach, as you will see throughout this post. Also, the following tips are specifically designed for getting organized at work. However, you could easily apply them to your personal life as well.

1. Create the system that’s right for you. For years I used a paper-based version of the to do list system outlined below. Just over a year ago, I moved to a completely online system. Really, it comes down to the tools you want to use (or already use) in your daily routine. Are you online a lot? Do you have a web browser on your phone or Blackberry? If so, I’d recommend using the tips below with Backpack. Are you less concerned with the “digital world”? That’s just fine, you can use a paper-based system just as effectively!
2. Create only 3 lists: “To Do List,” “Waiting For,” and “Someday/Maybe.” Then, put all of your to dos on your 3 new lists, as outlined below. Remember, it’s fine to create more lists, segment lists into areas (i.e. “To Dos by Client,” or “Project A’s Someday/Maybe list”), etc., but really try to keep it simple for now. You can always refine later!
   • Backpack Tip: I’d recommend a separate page for each list, as shown to the right (Note: I use symbols like “!” and “@” to make pages show up in a certain order in Backpack.
   • Paper-based Tip: Create a To Do List template and save it. That way, when you need to create more lists, you can just print more copies! You can download my Excel To Do List template here.
3. Your “To Do List” is the new home for all of the current things you need to get done. Personally, I like to have a motivational quote at the top of my list, and separate out my Top 3 for today (see Tips #9 and #10 below), Calls I need to make, and the rest of my To Dos.
   • Backpack Tip: See the screen shot at right for a sample of my To Do List page in Backpack. By using Backpack’s easy drag-and-drop features, you can move items from your To Do List to your Top 3 area easily. Also, by clicking a link at the bottom of your Backpack page, you can easily send your page to yourself via email.
   • Paper-based Tip: You can use sticky notes to write down your Top 3 for today, and simply slap today’s note on top of your To Do List.
4. Your “Waiting For” list should contain all of the things you are waiting on others to do, including stuff you’ve delegated. Be sure to list WHO you are waiting for at the beginning of the item for easy scanning later (i.e. “Doug: Revised 2008 Strategic Plan”)
5. Your “Someday/Maybe” list is a place to store all the crazy ideas, brainstorm session results, stuff you just can’t think to hard about right now, and dreams that you have but that may never happen. It’s a place to actively “remember” new ideas!
6. Start each item on your to do list with an action verb. This is a subtle, but powerful tip, that I found thanks to Patrick Rhone’s blog. It has helped transform my lists into lists of action! Just by starting a to do with “Call…” or “Determine…” or “Present…” you get your mind thinking about taking action.
7. Dedicate some time to review your lists. Just like with email, your to do lists are a “thing” that needs attention. Even taking just 5 minutes at the beginning and end of each day will help you focus on what you need to do, and ensure you are keeping your lists up-to-date.
8. Develop easy ways to keep your to do lists up-to-date. Your lists are little help to you if the things you need to do are not in them! Find ways to make sure you keep them updated.
   • Backpack Tip: Use email to send To Dos to your Backpack page! This is one of the greatest features of Backpack, and it works especially well if you use a mobile device like a Blackberry. You can add items to your lists by simply sending an email to your Backpack page! Here’s a complete tutorial.
9. Each morning, make a list of 3 things you need to do today. By limiting yourself to only 3 things, you set yourself up for success. Also, it means you have to go through your lists and decide what is most important. And don’t pick more than 3 — most days don’t go as planned, and you need to be easy on yourself (that’s very hard in today’s world). By only picking 3 things, you give yourself the time necessary to do those other things that come up!
10. Don’t let your system run your life! Always do the right things first. We all have 1,000’s of things to do. You can easily let your well-organized to do lists run your life, and settle into being a “task doer” at work. Don’t let that happen! This to do list system is strictly a “place” to keep all of your to dos, not a direction on what to do. Deciding what to do — and how you want to react to what you have to do — takes thought, prioritization, and intuition.

As many of you know, as the “Leader of Leaders and Pursuer of WOW!” at Quicken Loans (Fortune Magazine’s #2 Best Company to Work For), I lead an amazing team of folks who completes well over 1,000 projects per year. In a future post, I’ll share my secrets for using Backpack as a leadership and management tool.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

Asking for help is one of the most critical steps to effectively get things done, innovating in your projects, and advancing your career.

But, why is asking for help so hard?

1. We are taught to be self-reliant. Self-reliance is a great skill to have, but not at the expense of collaborating and reaching out to others around you to learn from them.
2. We have horrible experiences with group projects in college/business school. The first group projects we have, while still in college, are rarely stellar. Usually, it’s a group of people without a common goal, understanding, or approach, working to complete a project they are most likely not interested in.
3. We are proud. Many people are very hesitant to ask for help, because they see it as a sign of weakness. Others have a strong sense of pride that prevents them from showing others that they don’t know the answer, or have the solution.

Asking for help is actually a great way to grow stronger relationships within your work environment. Consider that…

1. Most people are flattered when someone asks them for help. By asking for help from someone, you are acknowledging their expertise and/or knowledge in a particular area. Most people will go out of their way to help you once you have done this.
2. Changes you didn’t know were possible can happen. Let’s say you’re stuck on a project, and just can’t see a solution. Often, asking for help from a team leader, manager, etc. can lead to resources, tools, and solutions you didn’t even know were possible. Frequently, project tasks, and even entire projects, can be re-prioritized when you ask for help. You will learn dramatically from these situations.
3. Usually, people are more likely to reach out to you when they need help. By asking for help, you open up a line of communication with other people where they are more likely to ask you for help in return. Again, you never know just where this can take you.

So, the next time you need to, go ahead and ask for help! You’ll probably be surprised with the results.

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.

There’s an old saying that goes “you have to tell your story or someone will tell it for you.”

That single principle, that you have to be continuously “telling your story,” is an essential business communication tip.

Why? Think about these sample situations:

• You work for 3 years with a high-level executive. Then, that executive is replaced with another. The new person might not know all of the things you have accomplished or plan to implement.
• You work with a large project team where new team members are rotated in and out of projects on a frequent basis. If you haven’t created a good story (and chronicled your successes and failures), new project team members will have a hard time assimilating into the team.
• You work in a large organization where you may come into contact with tens, or even hundreds, of different people across your different projects. It’s always best if your good reputation preceded you.

Ok, but am I saying you should brag about yourself? Absolutely not. So then how do you tell your story?

1. Connect the Dots! If there are projects you are working on that others might benefit from knowing about, tell them! Remember, tell your story by talking about “what’s in it for them.” They’ll appreciate that you were thinking about them, and it will build trust between you.
2. Create a Weekly Paper Newsletter! I created a newsletter called The Weekly WOW! for a controversial project that involved over 75 people. I used this newsletter to communicate the progress of the project (complete with a countdown to launch), share stories about the project team’s individual accomplishments, and include motivational quotes. People loved it! It wasn’t a voicemail, and it wasn’t (another!) email, it was just clear, beneficial information about the project that showed up as a printed newsletter at everyone’s desk on Fridays. (Side note: the project was a huge success!)
3. Use Voicemail to Get the Word Out! Do you send a weekly voicemail update to your “Clients” about your progress? If so, great! If not, why not? Share the great information you know with them. You can also use voicemail to share when you can’t see them in person. If this idea interests you, be sure to check out my 10 Tips to Improve Your Voicemails post.

Tell your story and you’ll be amazed how much it can help you!

If you enjoyed this post, get free updates by email or RSS.