Building a Powerful Team

I used to think there was some ‘hidden voodoo’ involved with building a powerful team……..and maybe there is……I have been involved with team building for most of my adult life. I have learned that whether you are at church, on your local city council or in a huge corporation, good team building is an ‘art’ and also necessary for the health of any organization.

If I could pick just 2 things out of the many things that I feel are crucial to team building they would be:

1.)    Do not pick people that always agree with you. The quickest way to ultimate failure in business is to form a team of ‘head-nodders’.  If I have a team of 10 people, I make it a point to add at least 2 people that I usually would not associate with. I prefer young folks with an open mind and less experience. If you run a company that needs ‘out of the box’ thinking, do not be surprised when you get ‘traditional’ input if you pick only ‘traditional’ people for the team. Also, if everyone agrees with you, you are probably going to miss some really obvious blunders.

2.)    Give team members room to fail. Building a team of people and allowing no room for failure is a sure way to go out of business before you can get your business off the ground.  People must be held accountable but they must also be given room to make mistakes. In fact, until you have tasted failure, I contend that you cannot fully know success.

I love building teams and I have to admit that one of the greatest gratifications in business is when a team comes together and all the chemistry seems to ‘click’. Each person will know their role and will contribute as required. Maybe we’ll add a few more items in the coming days regarding successful teams.

Your thoughts?

kml

2009

Bad Economy Got You Down? Try Innovation.

I am a firm believer that economic downturns are the times that good companies dig in and create something new and radical!

I remember my late grandfather very well. His formal education ended during his 4^th grade year but he was a man wise beyond his years even as a young man. He managed to fight for America during World War II, build his own house and barns and own a farm in North Carolina debt free before his death.

I look back on the lives of 2 American boys whose formal education ended with high school. These boys refuted the modern scientific theory of their day and said that man-made objects, heavier than air, could indeed fly.  Many laughed........ but Wilbur and Orville Wright insisted........ and they are now considered the fathers of global aviation.

It does not take the brightest kids on the block nor does it always take the guy with the greatest college degree (granted, it helps) but many times it takes a person that has a dream and the fortitude to see it through. These are the people in business that look at the same old tired processes and they visualize a future that is more efficient than the present.

Does the gloomy economy have you down? Now is the time to find a better way. Think outside of the box. Be a pioneer. Remember many of the greatest of American companies were born out of our Great Depression!

Your thoughts?

kml

2009

Why I still call it ‘Christmas’.

I can not apologize for my Christian stand. …..even if I wanted to, I could not. I do not consider myself a bigot. In fact, I consider myself to be very open to change and also very open to different cultures. However, my relationship to Jesus Christ is not open to debate.

Until February 6, 2006 I was going through life just hoping I was doing all of the right things. I had made some pretty big blunders. I have left a trail of broken lives behind me. Not a day goes by that I am not reminded of my past but things changed for me on February 6, 2006. I became acutely aware that within my own power I could not change myself. I had many folks fooled but I knew I was not fooling myself or the Creator. Sitting at my desk at work I admitted to Jesus Christ that I could not change myself as a person through my own power. I admitted to Christ that I was a sinner and that I trusted Him as my personal Savior.

I have lost a few friends along the way but words can not accurately describe the peace I have felt inside of me since that day in February. Sure, I still have my problems but I also have that peace.

I know people over the years have argued about what specific day Christ was born. I don’t get caught up in these theological debates…….. I can’t prove the specific date Abraham Lincoln was born. Many people have fought over the date and location of Lincoln’s birth. To me personally, I believe the historical record that Christ was indeed born. I believe his birth was supernatural. I also believe that Christ paid the price for my sins…….a price that I could not pay.

It is for these and many other reasons that I am compelled to wish all of my friends a Merry Christmas. If you know me very well at all, you know that I am far from perfect…….but you also know that my heart is for people.

My friends, Merry Christmas!

kml

2009

Intrapreneur or Entrepreneur??

There are trade-offs. It is really a matter of personal preference. Many intrapreneurs are folks who enjoy new ideas and innovation but simply lack the connections with successful venture capitalists to get financing. In fact, being an intrapreneur is a wonderful place to ‘test run’ your ideas within the confines of your current employer. The one glaringly obvious trade-off for the intrapreneur is the fact that your company could easily decline financing your idea and simply implement your idea within existing business platforms. Either way for the intrapreneur, you will know if your idea has value because you will either get financing or your idea will be implemented outside of your business proposal but still within the company. This is not necessarily a bad thing even though your idea is essentially stolen because you will at least be able to gauge whether or not you are having viable ideas.

Life for the entrepreneur is basically the same minus some of the safety curtains. The entrepreneur has access to outside venture capital which may be better but if the idea fails they may miss out on the steady income. For the young entrepreneur, just starting out may be tough without the safety net of a steady job but on the other hand the risk of having your idea pirated outside of your conditions is also considerably lower.

If you are currently employed and enjoy radical innovation, see if your company has any teams or programs to pilot your ideas. The market will weed out ideas pretty quickly that will not work. It is also important to note that while some ideas are potential game changers, they may simply be too early to market. The complete context in which ideas are introduced is very important. Much thought should be given to the product cycles and market cycles of your idea or product.

Successful elevator pitch discussion will follow in the next few weeks.

Your thoughts?

kml

2009

The Sport of Business by Mark Cuban

Saw this........loved it...... and had to share it......

http://blogmaverick.com/2009/12/09/the-sport-of-business-3/

by Mark Cuban

The Sport of Business

Dec 9th 2009 9:01PM

I can’t go more than a week without shooting baskets. There is something about the feel of the ball coming off my hand, and the sound of the ball going through the net. It just feels good.

If I’m just standing in the gym, I can shoot pretty well. Playing in a game. Well it’s not quite what it used to be. I used to have a spin move that would work for me no matter who I was playing against or what level they were at. If I could get a pick and the defender went under, I didn’t have to think about it, I could hit the shot. These days, my mind knows what to do, but my body just laughs at me. Put me up against 20 year olds, and I won’t embarrass myself but it’s only because I know how to set a pick and hit an open, a very wide open jumper, and spend the rest of the game getting out of the way.

I love to compete. I always have. Playing basketball was just something I had to do no matter how good I was and its something I will always do, no matter how old I get. It gives me a chance to blow off steam. It gives me a way to refocus.

But no matter how much I love to play the game or how involved and competitive I get during a Mavs game, it’s only a minor release. Real competition comes from the sport of business.

In sports, you know who your opponents are. You know when you are going to play a game. You know pretty much how long the game will last. It’s mentally and physically exhausting if you are at the top of the game, but it still pails at the effort required to be successful in business.

The sport of business isn’t divided into games. It’s not defined by practices. It doesn’t have set rules that everyone plays by.

The sport of business is the ultimate competition. It’s 7×24×365xforever.

I love the sport of business. I love the competition. I love the fire of it. It’s the feeling of the clock winding down, the ball is in your hands, and if you hit the shot you win…all day, every day.

Relaxing is for the other guy. I may be sitting in front of the TV, but I’m not watching it unless I think there is something I can learn from it. I’m thinking about things I can use in my business and the TV is just there.

I could take the time to read a fiction book, but I don’t. I would rather read websites, newspapers, magazines, looking for ideas and concepts that I can use. I spend time in bookstores because 1 idea from a book or magazine can make me money.

I’m not going to go to dinner with you just to chat. I’m not going to give you a call to see how you are. Unless you want to talk business. Other guys play fantasy sports. I fire the synapses to get an edge.

That’s what success is all about. It’s about the edge.

It’s not who you know. It’s not how much money you have. It’s very simple. It’s whether or not you have the edge and have the guts to use it.

The edge is getting so jazzed about what you do, you just spent 24 hours straight working on a project and you thought it was a couple hours.

The edge is knowing that you have to be the smartest guy in the room when you have your meeting and you are going to put in the effort to learn whatever you need to learn to get there.

The edge is knowing is knowing that when the 4 girlfriends you have had in the last couple years asked you which was more important, them or your business, you gave the right answer.

The edge is knowing that you can fail and learn from it, and just get back up and in the game.

The edge is knowing that people think your crazy, and they are right, but you don’t care what they think.

The edge is knowing how to blow off steam a couple times a week, just so you can refocus on business

The edge is knowing that you are getting to your goals and treating people right along the way because as good as you can be, you are so focused that you need regular people around you to balance you and help you.

The edge is being able to call out someone on a business issue because you know you have done your homework.

The edge is recognizing when you are wrong, and working harder to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The edge is being able to drill down and identify issues and problems and solve them before anyone knows they are there.

The edge is knowing that while everyone else is talking about nonsense like the will to win, and how they know they can be successful, you are preparing yourself to compete so that you will be successful.

That’s what makes business such an amazing sport. Everyone plays it. Everyone talks about how good they are or will be at it. Just a small percentage are.

Every single day someone has an idea. Every day someone talks about some business they want to start. Every day someone is out there starting a business whose entire goal is to beat the hell out of yours. How cool is that.

Every day some stranger from any where in the world that you have never met is trying to come up with a way to put you out of business. To take everything you have worked your ass off for, and take it all away. If you are in a growing industry, there could be hundreds or thousands of strangers trying to figure out ways to put you out of business. How cool is that.

The ultimate competition. Would you like to play a game called Eat Your Lunch. We are going to face off. My ability to execute on an idea vs yours. My ability to subvert your business vs your ability to keep it going. My ability to create ways to remove any reason for your business to exist vs your ability to do the same to me. My ability to know what you are going to do, before you do it. Who gets there first? Best of all, this game doesn’t have a time limit. It’s forever. It never ends. It’s the ultimate competition.

It’s the sport of business. It’s not for everyone, but I love it.

I’m fortunate. I have done well enough financially that I don’t have to play 24×7×365. I can and have cut back to 18×7×365. Family first now.

But in those 18 hours, you can bet I’m competing, and loving it.

But that’s me. You have to figure out what works for you.

Home, Small Business & MobileMe

Just when I swore I would never ditch my Blackberry……I did…..well, kind of.

Life was going along good. I was routing all mobile data (work, small business and home) through my personal Blackberry Bold 9000 when our company also decided to add Blackberry Bold 9000’s into the corporate mix. Somehow I ended up with more phones than I knew what to do with. I wanted to keep the small business and the home calendars and contacts in a different ‘circulation pattern’ than my corporate data which is processed via the company Microsoft Exchange server.

I’m not complaining at all. These are good problems to have because it means I am able to stay busy. So after some thought and discussion we made the move to the ‘evil Apple’ empire. The wife and I each use the iPhone 3GS and have a MobileMe account. It is amazing how true the statement is, “Apple devices just work.” Both of our iPhones, our home PC and the cloud server form the perfect circle. The wife updates our cloud calendar from the desk at home throughout the day and every device in the loop is automatically updated.

The next logical step for us will be the MacBook Pro for travel, training, consulting and presentations and finally the iMac for the house. (not all at once, we don’t have it like that yet) I challenge those of you who have hesitated on using Apple products for small business…….give it a try….you may be pleasantly surprised.

More to follow in the near future as we experiment.

kml

2009

Breaking Cultural Barriers!

I’ve listened to so many people tell me that there is some real ‘difficult science’ that must be learned in order to effectively bridge cultural divides in business. Many times I believe things are made to appear more difficult than they really are simply to keep people suppressed and limited to their daily routines.

I recently found myself emerged within a group of people from all corners of the Earth. Chinese, Indians, Europeans, Americans etc. were all working beside each other towards a common goal. No magic, no big voodoo…..simply human beings working towards a common goal.

I have a couple of pointers and they are not 'rocket science' tips……just tips from a regular guy that loves people.

1.)    Be honest. If you are not familiar with cultural courtesies, make it known before meals etc. Make it known what your customs are ask if there are customs that you should know about before proceeding with your meal. The first person at the table to do this is usually the person that ‘breaks the ice’ and can direct the conversation.

2.)    No fakes. Don’t pretend to know things that you have ‘no clue’ about. Admit when you need help. Most often people will fall over themselves to help you understand if you are sincere.

3.)    Plan, plan, plan. Rehearse each trip in your mind. Read about the cultures in which you will be interacting with.

At the end of the day after all the differences have been analyzed and debated one simple fact remains….we are all members of the global society and basic human needs remain consistent. Treat each human with dignity and respect and you may be amazed at just how far this long forgotten bit of advice will get you. The world does not revolve around me………but others.

kml

2009

10-20-30 Microsoft PowerPoint Rule

Most any Venture Capitalist you run into (worth their salt) can explain how they have sat through 100’s and maybe 1,000’s of PowerPoint presentations.

There is a pretty good ‘unwritten’ rule that we use in America that works well. (I emphasize America because Countries do differ slightly as to what they like to see in the presentations) Now for the ‘magic numbers’ explanation:

10 = 10 slides - If you need more than 10 slides to get your point across, you have already ‘missed the point’.  The persons listening to your dialog are human beings too and unless they are very different from the rest of the people in the world they HATE long boring slide shows.

20 = 20 minutes – You should be able to give your idea from 10 slides and you should be able to do this in 20 minutes. Again, if you can’t hit a home run in 20 minutes then you are out of the game anyway. (For personal instruction shoot me an email)

30 = 30 Point Font – The font should NOT be less than 30 point. Never place a ‘book’ up on the screen and expect the audience to be enthusiastic. No one wants to read that much.

This rule works. For references shoot me an email.

I was able to spend a week in Switzerland last week. We were fortunate enough to spend an afternoon in the Technopark in Zurich. (Switzerland’s Silicon Valley) We received some great insight at the park. There are several great young inspiring CEO / Owners there in the Technopark. More to follow this week regarding experiences in the Technopark.

kml

2009