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Read everything three times

Having spent 20+ years working in the information business, I’ve noticed two distinct groups of people; those who can consistently, accurately process information and those who seem to constantly misread, misunderstand or otherwise fail to successfully consume information.

When you have 1-2 people who occasionally misread something, that can be a small annoyance. But when you have an organization, of scores or hundreds of people, skimming written correspondence and making decisions based on an incomplete or incorrect understanding of the message/intent, that leads to mistakes, miscommunication, wasted time and rework on a large scale

Why does it happen?

My theory it is people who get complacent (aka lazy) and rather than concentrating and taking the requisite time required to internalize a message, they simply fly through it

I also think people are over-confident in their reading comprehension and they consistently over-estimate their ability fully understand a message without missing anything. This tendency can easily be seen on social media, where people jump to respond to something they thought was said, when in reality it wasn’t.

Consequences

Left unchecked, this tendency can degrade internal communications. This is a particularly acute problem with customer facing team members, who wind up frustrating customers by asking unnecessary questions, misunderstanding problems and ignoring key questions.

Two taps

The Israeli intelligence services use a small caliber service pistol and train all of their assets to employ a double-tap approach when dispatching targets. Tap-tap. Because one tap is often not going to be enough, two-taps is essential for getting the job done.

Solution

The solution to processing emails is similar. I require that all new employees get in the habit of reading everything three times. Tap-tap-tap

  • One tap to get the basic gist of the message. This is helpful for quickly triaging your inbox
  • second tap to really dig in and understand the message fully. This means reading it in its entirety
  • third and final tap to make sure you didn’t miss anything. This is a critical step, as people are often surprised at how much they actually miss the first two times

Remediation

When I mentor people who consistently fail to adequately communicate, based on the fact they don’t understand instructions, directions, questions etc., we apply this system. When the problem invariably re-surfaces, I ask them if they have read the message three times. After they tell me “yes”, I ask them again and this time to tell me the truth. When we finally determine that they haven’t, we re-apply the expectations and repeat until improvements are realized.

I have never worked with anyone who didn’t improve decisively and on a sustained basis, when applying this simple system

My own approach

Although I’ve tested very high in English competency and reading comprehension, I apply this same rule myself. So yes, I generally read everything at least three times, and sometimes more, especially before replying. It may seem like a waste of time, but by eliminating miscommunication, false-starts and other problems, over the long haul there is a significant net saving in time

Other

In addition to reading messages 3x, I require all customer facing and relevant internal correspondence to be processed consistently and systematically, following these rules

All questions (or issues) need to be addressed separately. So if you get an email with 4 questions, you should have 4 distinct answers, not 3, not 2. Seems obvious, but 90% of the time, if a customer asks more than 2 questions, at least one is ignored. I’ve seen that time and time again.

All questions should be answered in-line. This makes it virtually impossible to forget to respond to a particular question embedded in an email, or otherwise ignore some part of a message. It also provides for systematic readability, so you can flow through the correspondence matching each answer directly with the question.

0139

Initiative for the non-initiated

Rage against the machine

An employee, at my old company, told me a story of his days in university (faculty) in Serbia. His professor asked the class to write a paper, but apparently as is/was fashionable at the time, included the foregone conclusion that the students were supposed to arrive at. So essentially he removed any free thought or initiative from the assignment.

But rather than follow the guidance of the professor, the student came to his own, different, conclusion and submitted the paper. For his initiative, he was singled, as the professor highlighted his paper and began to read it to the class. Unfortunately, though, the professor took this opportunity to ridicule the student and read the paper in a derisive and mocking tone. Humiliated and discouraged, the student quit the class and the university.

Even though he quit school and his initiative was diminished it was never fully extinguished. Fast forward some years later, this student, at a relatively young age, became a high level executive at a billion dollar US-based company, and is on track for even greater accomplishments. His success was in no small part to his proactivity and personal initiative, in spite of the efforts of his professor to discourage him

Initiative

In many cases, initiative is discouraged in Eastern Europe. Young people are taught followership and not leadership. The goal is to find a “boss” and do what you are told. (1)

But this is the exact opposite of what you will need to build success, whether it is in a career, particularly US based companies, or a business. Initiative is the key to success. It is part of the Working naked values that I practice and preach.

Initiative is what separates the sheep from the goats and something we’ll be talking a lot about on SCRUMBUM.

 

(1) I don’t know if this is a legacy of communism or what. I do sense this is changing, but not fast enough.

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Support for the most vulnerable to continue their business after the pandemic crisis

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, a new global economic crisis became the topic that drew the attention of the public. Now, it isn’t seen as a potential threat, but as a certainty for which no one can predict what kind of consequences it will bring, or what kind of chain reaction it will trigger. It is also certain that no segment of the economy will be spared, and the biggest fear is among the weakest and the smallest companies, which have just walked into the business world.

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Seeking opportunity – taking initiative in landing your next job

Everyone can show initiative

So you have no experience, knowledge or skills? You can’t possibly show initiative until someone “trains” you, right? Wrong.

You, more than anyone else, will need to show initiative, to get your first position, exactly because you have little training or experience. It’s called hustle. You can do a lot of little things to demonstrate initiative even without a lot of experience and really position yourself for success

Pre-Preparation

PPPPPP – Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance

Invest in preparation; all of the little things that will tip the scale in your favor when you are applying for a position and put you ahead of the competition.

  • Further your English proficiency in a demonstrable way
    • Enroll in a program or otherwise take classes
    • Get certifications, scores, grades or some other tangible proof of your proficiency
    • If you do nothing else, create a group of your friends and name it, and meet every week to speak in English and correct each other. Add the name of this “group” to your LinkedIn profile
  • Improve your English typing speed
    • Take online typing classes
    • Certify, verify your typing speed and put it on your resume. Do you know what your typing speed is in English? If not, you should find out and if it isn’t good, work on improving it
  • Invest in self-promotion
    • Update your LinkedIn profile and try post weekly in LinkedIn in English
    • Have a resume available for the job you want in English
    • Add all activities, groups, etc to your resume
    • Ask people for written references and/or if they would be willing to provide phone references
  • Don’t have a job, have extra time on your hands?
    • Volunteer for a group, charity etc. It can make your resume look better and add valuable experience.
    • Add this to your resume, LinkedIn profile
  • Read some books about business, success, motivation etc
  • Improve your US cultural awareness
    • Watch as many US TV shows and movies as you can. This will both improve your English and your cultural awareness, aptitude which will be helpful when engaging with prospective employers from the US
  • Teach yourself a skill whether it be coding, web design, network admin. You don’t need to go to school, take a class etc. With some dedication and hard work, you can teach yourself. Here is a story of one guy who did
  • Spell and grammar check your resume, then re-check and re-check and re-check. Then have other people check it
  • Create different versions of your resume for different types of positions
  • Create a cover/intro letter, one for each type of position
  • Follow people you are targeting for employment or networking on LinkedIn and then
    • Like their posts, without over-doing it
    • Then after a month, engage with some posts with thoughtful comments, validation of their posts etc. Continue this engagement through for the duration
    • Make sure to post content, yourself, that may resonate with people that may see it. A good way to do this is to share helpful articles you have read with some comments. “I found this to be a very helpful and informative article because it provided insights into improving my productivity that really worked!”
    • Then after another month, send them a well thought out connection invitation indicating that you have really benefitted/learned from their content on LinkedIn
    • Continue to post, engage
    • After another month, endorse them for some relevant skills – not more than 2-3
    • Then when you see a good opportunity to make a move, like seeing or hearing of a job posting at the company, reach out via a message to ask them to consider you, including resume etc
    • Note: For this to be done right, it takes a long time, so the best time to start is NOW.

Next step to success

80% of success is just showing up – Woody Allen

Now that you’ve demonstrated some initiative and are ready for an opportunity, it is time to lean forward.

Apply to all jobs that you can, availing all means e.g. job boards, your personal network, job fairs etc. It is critical to “pound the pavement” and not stop until you’ve secured a position

Expand your network. Volunteering, classes and LinkedIn are all good opportunities

Don’t wait for someone to knock on your door. Show up at theirs.

But the other 20% is important too

Don’t just show up with your hand-outstretched. Being proactive is …

  • Thoroughly gathering all available information BEFORE asking questions. Nobody has time to provide you information that is already publicly available
  • Don’t immediately ask to be trained. Unless you are applying to a training program, the employer will expect you to be trained, or at least to add value … that is why they will be giving you money for
  • Tailor your presentation to the requirements of the job. If the job requires travel, then you’ve got itchy feet. If the job asks for English proficiency, highlight the aforementioned skills and knowledge.
  • Take time to research the company and demonstrate your knowledge. People are narcissistic, they love it when people learn/talk about them and their company. It is a great way to build rapport and good will
  • Take the perspective that you are there to help them. Frame everything in terms of what you can do for them/the company. What value can you add? What impact can you make? How hard will you work? Remember, they are basing their decision on their own self-interest. You can think about your self interest *after* you have been offered the job
  • You can’t guarantee success but you can guarantee that you will put in more effort to learn and succeed in the position than any other new hires and that if you need to learn something, you will invest the time, before, during and/or after work to learn it. A nice trick is to say that, if hired, you will be the first one in and the last to leave

Things you must do

  • Always attach your resume. Remember, you will get one chance to send something in, make sure you send everything. Leave anything out, and you might not get a chance to include it
  • Include a cover letter
  • Always mention something you learned about the company and, even better, the person you are engaging with, ideally in a complimentary way e.g. “I see you are a graduate of So-and-so university. My uncle went there and I know it is a fine institution”. This is called an “ice breaker” and may get you to the top of the stack.
  • Indicate that you are happy to provide references upon request (this allows you to notify your references first)

Possible add-ons

  • Always indicate that you will be happy to interview, in person, or virtually any time, any place on short notice
  • Indicate that you understand that the person may be busy, but that you may helpfully follow-up in a few days via email, if you haven’t heard back. That means your follow-up email, and even a call won’t come as a surprise because you can say “I’m a (wo)man of my word, and, as I indicated, I’m helpfully following up! :)”
  • Indicate that you are so confident that they will be happy with your efforts, that you would gladly accept a trial period to demonstrate your worth, before full compensation and benefits are provided

In your interview

  • Bring multiple hard copies of your resume
  • Have written references available
  • Show up early
  • Be well dressed
  • Be pleasant and greet everyone you meet
  • Use a firm handshake
  • Send a thank you email within 1 hour of end of interview
0029

Fucking up vs fucking down

I heard a phrase in the Army once that I have oft repeated

He can’t even fuck up right

But as trite and humorous as it is, there is a little wisdom behind that, as is often the case in military phrases, acronyms and jokes. Is there an incorrect way to fuck up? If so, conversely, is there a correct way to fuck up? It is an intriguing question and the answer is “yes” to both.

Fucking down

aka Fucking-up wrong

Most people don’t “Fuck up”, they actually “Fuck down”. This means they make a mistake but rather than learning from it they …

  • Make excuses or otherwise equivocate
  • Blame others
  • Attribute it to bad luck, external events or other unavoidable circumstances

In rare cases where they do accept responsibility, it is short-lived as they try to forget about the situation soon after it happens thus mitigating any ability to learn from, let alone benefit from the mistake.

By externalizing blame they miss an opportunity to understand the root-causes of the mistake, for example was it lack of attention to detail, insufficient effort, not following instructions etc. And by not analyzing the root causes, they will have no ability to correct/address them and prevent similar mistakes from happening in the process.

Also, externalizing blame prevents you from hearing, let alone internalizing feedback on the problem, which is meant to help you by correcting the behaviors or addressing the core issues that lead to the problem. Even worse, it can lead to resistance, resentment and even anger about getting feedback, no matter how constructive. If you truly don’t believe you have done anything wrong, any suggestion to the contrary can lead to such reactions.

If you match this profile, most likely you are fucking down. And the biggest problem with fucking down is that you are locked in a cycle of mistake > excuse that will endlessly repeat, until you start taking responsibility for your own actions and the consequences of those actions. I’ve known people who’ve lived their whole lives and never arrived at that level of understanding. It isn’t their fault. It is always “The man” who is out to get them. You know the type.

Worked example

You completed the sprint but, as the scrum master, you failed to send in the sprint retrospective for 3 full business days and only did, after you got a reminder.

As the product owner is reviewing the procedures for completing a sprint and detailing her expectations, in terms of deliverables, you fidget in your seat and all you can think about is what you are going to say next. You actually don’t hear a word she says let alone internalize the feedback.

You take advantage of a brief pause in the constructive criticism to interject and blurt out that it was only 3 days, not a full week (as if that has any relevance or meaning) and that you know another team turned one in even later (even though this is probably not even true). You turn it around by asking why you are being singled out, and in your mind, invent reasons why she has it out for you.

The product owner is able to complete the feedback session, despite the interruptions, and lays out expectations that you will adhere to requirements for sprint reporting from now on. When she asks for confirmation that you understand, ostensibly hoping you will even volunteer some contrition or even actions to correct the problems, you reply with “Well, nobody is perfect”.

Fucking up

aka Fucking-up right

Mistakes happen. Yes, you will fuck up. But it isn’t the end of the world, and in fact, learning from your mistakes is the fastest way to improve. And the more mistakes you make, if, indeed, you learn from them, the faster you will improve.

ARR

Fucking up “right” involves a 3 letter acronym ARR

This stands for …

Acknowledge the mistake, the feedback, the reality of the situation. By acknowledging feedback, this may simply be to sit there and listen, with an open mind, even if the topic and the delivery of the feedback isn’t positive.

Take Responsibility for the problem. Own it. Even if there we extenuating circumstances, even if it wasn’t all your fault, even if you don’t think it is totally fair – take responsibility.

Commit to Resolve the problem by changing your actions and behaviors to ensure that the situation won’t happen again, or at least not as badly

Worked example

A good example is some trouble I caused in high school. I was confronted by the teacher who had caught me red handed and threatened me with repercussions, if it continued

Acknowledge – I quietly listened to everything he said. I didn’t look down, roll my eyes, shake my head, cross my arms or otherwise try to invalidate what he was saying with my body language. Nor did I interrupt, try to interject.

Take responsibility – Internally, I took full responsibility. I didn’t equivocate (“Oh, it wasn’t so bad”, “Others were involved”). I didn’t make excuses (“Well, some friends were the ones who forced me to do it”). I knew I had done wrong and that even though others were involved, I was taking 100% of the responsibility for my actions

Commit to resolve – I committed to resolve the problem by saying “It won’t happen again. I guarantee it”. I didn’t say I would “try” to avoid trouble or that I “hoped” it wouldn’t happen again. I was in control of my actions and I was in control of the resolution. Committing means essentially making a guarantee that if you can’t control the results or the outcome, you can at least control the inputs, your behavior and actions. The things you do and the things you don’t do

ARR cheat sheet

To summarize the above, you can distill it down to some simple phrases

Acknowledge – I hear you. I get it

Take responsibility – I own this. It’s on me.

Commit to resolve – It won’t happen again. I’ll take concrete steps to avoid this in the future. I’ll make sure this isn’t repeated

Examples:

“I hear you. I own this. It won’t happen again”

“I get it. It’s on me. I’ll take concrete steps to avoid this in the future”

You can add:

“I would like to check back in a few weeks to make sure my corrective measures are sound, working etc.” 

“I really appreciate you taking the time to help me improve”

Saying “Sorry”

Where is the part where you apologize? It was left out on purpose. Apologies are words. They are meaningless. Worse, people feel that just by saying “Sorry” it is a proverbial get-out-of-jail-free card. And if the just throw out the word sorry, they can quickly get back to doing the same exact things that caused the problems in the first place, without consequences.

Only specific actions and a commitment to resolve the problem matters, along with hopefully the resulting improvement and lack of repeating the same mistake. Words like “Sorry” are useless, and can be even less than useless if they are meant to replace actual corrective steps

I always told people that unless they ran over my dog, they would never have to say “Sorry” in my company.

Summary

So the next time someone tells you “fucked up”, be grateful for the opportunity to learn and improve. Fuck up once and it is a teaching point. Fuck up a few times, and you will begin to learn, assuming you profit from those mistakes and don’t repeat them. Fuck up enough, and who knows you might even achieve success!

0136

Iron jaws and the ability to accept constructive critisism

Backstory

I had this guy working for me, to mask his identity let’s call him Adam. I can safety say that he was the “worst” guy that I had worked with in 20 years of running a software company

He …

  • Made the same mistakes over and over again
  • Failed to follow instructions properly
  • Didn’t think through things before he did them
  • Didn’t review his work or anything else before it was published
  • Didn’t plan out his work, make check-lists or refine protocols

My day would frequently begin with seeing some critical and obvious mistake he made and then call him up to, once again, admonish him and try to get him to correct his ways.

I would begin many conversations with the question “Are you going to quit?”. Because if he was, he could at least have done it then, saving us another torturous session of feedback. His answer was always “No, Brian”.

My philosophy on terminations was to terminate for Values problems, not mistakes, and if the employee exhibited at least some of our core values and was expending effort and working hard, to not terminate. In fact, in all of my years, I have never fired anyone, no matter how bad, if they were working hard. And I’ve never regretted that decision.

Fucking up

Over time, and I mean quite a bit of time, mistakes began to be diminished, but more importantly Adam internalized my feedback and transferred it to new team members, who were able to learn and progress faster because of it.

Throughout this process, the mistakes that Adam didn’t make were that he never …

  • personalized feedback. He took constructive criticism in the spirit it was given, no matter how harshly it was delivered
  • got defensive, talked back, argued or ever demonstrated any “attitude”
  • slowed down. He continued to work hard throughout
  • Made excuses or equivocated e.g. I ran out of time, it wasn’t my fault, it could be worse etc
  • said “Sorry”. Apologizing doesn’t help anyone or anything and just wastes time. He seemed to innately understand this, so I never had to waste time listening to apologies, allowing us to just focus on fixing the problem

I refer to Adam’s actions as “Fucking up” vs “Fucking down”

Too many times I see people react negatively to constructive criticism which essentially precludes their ability to grow and ultimately succeed. Also, I’m generally not interested in mentoring someone who is resistant to feedback, nor, for that matter, working with them. Such people have “glass jaws”. They shatter into many pieces when you criticize them. Adam had an “iron jaw”. He could take any feedback, no matter how tough, and not wilt in the face of it, let alone fall to pieces.

“Turning good”

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Adam grew, progressed and developed to a level where I was able to not only stop admonishing him on a daily basis but begin to validate his growth and progress, a process I call “Turning good”. This culminated in him being promoted to a full Level I analyst, no easy feat in our company. His work continues to improve and progress to this day and can be seen in the amazing results of the content marketing effort driven by him and his team.

Adam didn’t turn into the “best” guy I ever worked with, but his success stories are one of the best that I experienced in my career. Nobody was prouder of him getting promoted than I was

Time wasted vs invested

I spent a ton of time with Adam. He invested a ton of time himself. But his actions and the fact that he didn’t quit (and I didn’t fire him) turned what could have very well been wasted time, into simply time invested and in fact, well invested.

Failure vs success

If at any point during this process, Adam had quit, he would have failed. And I would have failed as a leader, mentor, boss. But the fact that he didn’t quit, meant that he never actually failed. And he continued long enough avoiding failure, that he eventually succeeded.

Other lessons learned

  • Take constructive criticism, no matter how tough, objectively and not personally
  • Remember that when a boss is criticizing you it isn’t because they don’t like you, it is because they are trying to help you (applies to good bosses only)
  • When you are taking heat, keep working through it and if you are successful, you may emerge successful in the long term
  • Never get defensive, argue, talk back or demonstrate an attitude. That will make a bad situation worse
  • Keep your eye on long term success
  • Remember the saying “No pain. No gain”. It is true in many situations
  • You don’t fail if you don’t quit
  • Stay true to company values, no matter what, and that will guide you to eventual success
1.Bedem

“As if”

There is a great scene from the movie, Boiler room, about “acting as if”.

To paraphrase Ben Affleck’s character

  • act as if you are the president of the firm
  • act as if you are endowed with exceptional attributes associated with manhood

or essentially, act as if you had the next role, position that you were striving for. Act as if, you had accomplished the goals you were working towards.

The reasons were left unstated, but I’ve been evangelizing this concept to my team members my whole career, and the reasons are clear

Many people think that they can apply for a role and then once they get hired, or promoted etc. they can begin to act the part. Wrong. You need to act the part before you get the role, job so that everyone, especially people responsible for hiring you, can visualize you in that role. Once everyone sees you in the role and believes you can fit that role, transitioning to it via promotion, hire etc is just a matter of time. Your simple goal is to make this a fait accompli.

Perception is reality

If you want to be promoted to a leadership position, start looking, sounding and acting like a leader right now.

Sounding like

A good way to stop is to kick the habit of using “loser words”. Nobody wants to promote someone to be a leader, if they act like a follower, or at worst a loser.

Followers ask questions. Leaders make recommendations. If you want to be thought of as a leader, never ask questions of a superior. Every question you ask diminishes you in their eyes and reinforces the superior/inferior relationship. Even if you have no idea what to do, you can still craft a recommendation using a best-guess approach

Wrong: When should we send the reports to the auditors?

Right: I recommend we send the reports out tomorrow to give the auditors a couple days notice.

If your boss disagrees, he can correct you. But, as you get good, you will find he often simply approves your recommendations. That is when your boss will begin to think of you as a leader.

Don’t make excuses or otherwise Fuck down (vs Fucking up)

Don’t constantly equivocate

Looking like

If you want to be thought of as a professional, a good start would be to look like one. A common trait of all successful people, is that they dress the part. This doesn’t mean you need to walk into work in a tuxedo and yes, many people who are really, really good can get away with looking like slobs. But for the vast majority of us, appearance is a critical fact in forming perceptions, often subconscious and often biased, but whether good or bad, they are powerful influencers.

When I was working as an analyst in Boston my suit cost me half of my first month’s pay. I was living in a tiny apartment in a working class neighborhood, taking the subway to work every day, but I looked like a commodities broker taking home some serious money. My goal was to act as if I fit into the financial community, that I was a player, that I deserved respect and to be promoted.

Later, when I transitioned to becoming a consultant, there was no dress code. But I continued to wear a suit and tie, even in shops that were business casual. I billed at a high rate and easily made 2-3x more than full time employees who worked at the shops I consulted at, so I thought it was appropriate to distinguish myself and look this part.

Once I started my own business, generally worked at home and no longer needed to aspire to the next level, I shed my fancy attire and opted to Work naked, a uniform that I’ve maintained to this day!

I will say one thing that I’ve always felt. In the military, leaders were expected to be in good physical shape and it is something I’ve internalized my whole career. I don’t believe you can be mentally strong if you are in terrible physical condition, taking no time and making no effort to eat right, exercise or simply move around. Not everyone needs to work out like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but I have less respect for leaders who abuse food, alcohol, drugs etc. and take no time to exercise their body because I know physical fitness is akin to mental fitness. For dynamic organizations that demand rigor, discipline and mental alertness, being physically as well as mentally fit is a key competitive differentiator for aspirational leaders.

Acting like

Professionals are reliable, responsible, dependable. They can be counted on to make things happen. Sure, professionals make mistakes but when they do they take responsibility for them vs making excuses.

Acting like a professional means, first and foremost, that you take full responsibility for your own results, whether they are good or bad. The difference between a professional and amateur is obvious the first time failure is encountered. The amateur will immediately make excuses, equivocate, deflect blame, apologize, etc. The professional will acknowledge the feedback, accept responsibility and commit to resolve aka ARR. When it comes time to promote someone, which person would you choose?

Leaders lead, even when they aren’t in a leadership position. You will always have opportunities to lead, including volunteering for new tasks or assignments, taking it upon yourself to learn some relevant technology, skill, software etc, helping others and in particularly mentoring people less experienced than yourself. In fact, mentoring others is a key attribute I associate with aspiring new leaders.

If you want to transition to a new career, then don’t sit back complaining that nobody is training you. Go out and buy a book, or take a class, and learn it yourself. Create some related projects, start a blog, contribute on social media, answer questions on online forums. Act as if you have already transitioned, and before you know it, you will get a position, having already burnished your resume with a lot of related experiences, if not an actual job. I wrote a story of one such 50+ year old guy who acted as if he was a technical consultant, until he was.

Summary

Don’t act the role you are in now, act for the role you want to be. The better you get at playing the role, the more convincing you will become and the more readily people will be willing to promote you to it. And as you work to act the part and internalize all of the values required for that role, you will, over time transition from acting to living that persona, as you adopt all of the traits, actions, behaviors and values of that higher level role.

Abuot-us

The gift of never having to say “Sorry”

Business isn’t life. In life, you will have to apologize for your actions, if your transgressions warrant it. But most (1) mistakes in business are just that, mistakes. They weren’t intentional, they didn’t lead to grievous harm or loss of life, so they rarely rise to the level where an apology is required.

My response to people at work who say “sorry” is that unless they ran over my dog, they don’t have to say sorry.

Loser words

Furthermore, people have a nasty habit of using the word “Sorry” as a place-holder for truly Acknowledging the problem, taking Responsibility for it and Committing to resolve it, otherwise known as ARR. Many of these people think that by simply saying sorry, they can use that as a general purpose, get-out-of-jail free card that will at once absolve themselves of having to take responsibility let alone take steps to commit the mistake won’t happen in the future. The one thing I notice about people who reflexively say “sorry” a lot, is that they constantly make the same mistakes over and over. Using this rhetorical crutch, people immediately short circuit the process of introspection that is necessary to take responsibility and ultimately improve, grow and develop. I refer to this as “Fucking down” vs “Fucking up”

This is why I term the word “Sorry” a “loser word” and why it is prohibited from use by people who work in any of my organizations

If you want to work/live/act “as if” you are a professional, someone worth to be hired, promoted etc, it is important that you act “as if” you are that person now, which includes talking like one, not a loser. By taking responsibility for your actions vs just reflexively apologizing in a knee-jerk fashion, you will demonstrate that you are such a quality person. I wrote an article about a person who made more mistakes than you could ever imagine, but never apologized once and eventually met with success and was promoted.

Words vs actions

It seems counter intuitive, at least at first, that a manager, boss, leader wouldn’t accept someone saying “sorry” as a response to a mistake, and even less so that they would prohibit the person from apologizing in the first place, but if your goal is to actually change and improve, apologizing actually is counter-productive because it inhibits that positive progression.

I was broken of the habit of saying “sorry” in the military. The first time I apologized for a mistake I made was the last time, and I still have dreams (or perhaps nightmares) of the response to saying “sorry” during basic training. At first, I felt that the Drill Sergeant was being unfair, vindictive etc. Only later, did I begin to appreciate the gift that he had given me of never having to say “sorry”. No longer did I fall back on some word, that just by throwing it out would negate any mistakes and preclude you from having to take responsibility for them. I started to take ownership of my mistakes and my vernacular changed from “sorry” to …

  • It won’t happen again
  • Consider this resolved
  • I’ll commit to address this problem

Giving up on your immature addiction to reflexively using the word “sorry” is a gift you can give your self and a sign of professional maturity. By focusing on actions like Acknowledging, taking Responsibility and committing to Resolving the issue at hand vs just throwing words at it, you not only will diffuse the current situation but also make strides to ensure less of them will happen in the future.

 

 

(1) In some cases professional apologies are warranted, such as the disgraceful behavior of acting Naval secretary, Thomas Modly

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Micro-followers

As the knowledgebase worker economy continues to transition to more agile, more remote, more dynamic and more empowered, your classic micromanager is a dying breed, for good reason. Micromanagement gets a bad reputation because of the pernicious effect is has on retarding the growth and productivity of teams and if left unchecked, how it can calcify entire organizations.

But a phenomenon that I see all the time but is never mentioned, is the prevalence of team members who refuse to think, lead, share, strive, own and want to have their hands held when doing even the most trivial task. I call them microfollowers.

Oh, so they need training? But even when you answer their questions, walk them through tasks up to thoroughly training them on certain skills they tend to not internalize this knowledge and instead just constantly ask questions. Other traits of microfollowers include:

  • When they do tasks they are often of such poor quality that they require a dedicated QA just to get the results accepted to any minimum standard.
  • They tend to not RTFM, search for answers or otherwise show any initiative in figuring things out
  • They won’t follow instructions, when they are given
  • They constantly ask questions, but often won’t listen to or at least remember the answers
  • They never take initiative in general

These people have a philosophy that a superior is actually a line supervisor that will essentially manage them as if they were a machine, inputting instructions for every task, no matter how small or trivial. They also believe they are responsible only for the effort and not the results, so that no matter the output from their labor, the quality of it isn’t their responsibility. These ideas can be deeply ingrained and difficult to change, especially as people get older.

How to spot a microfollower

  • They ask an inordinate amount of questions, often without applying basic thought or logic. Many of the questions are non-sensical
  • They tend to repeat the same questions that they had asked previously, even a day or two before
  • They don’t tend to retain information. They forget answers to questions, responses to emails, instructions that they supposedly read
  • They never read instructions, procedures, guidelines on their own
  • They tend to make the same mistakes over and over again
  • They never take responsibility for their actions
  • If a mistake is made they always “Fuck down” vs “Fuck up”
  • They constantly complain that nobody has trained them and/or their training is inadequate, yet when trained, even formally, they tend to retain very little of the knowledge
  • They don’t take criticism well and tend to personalize everything
  • Micro followers tend to use loser-words

Where do microfollowers come from?

Unfortunately, schools and universities, particularly in Eastern Europe, specializing in graduating micro-followers. I wrote an article on one such case where, when a student attempted to lead he was basically kicked out of the college.

These students arrive in the workforce and they get paired off with micromanagers, and tethered together, they weigh each other down as their careers move at a snail’s pace, if at all, while their more nimble peers who learn to show initiative move ahead by leaps and bounds. Best case, by working long enough and gaining experience just through pure attrition, they somehow move up in an organization to themselves become micromanagers, and the cycle continues.

Can they be salvaged?

Some, and perhaps many, can. Early in their tenure at an organization, you can work with them and attempt to break them of these tendencies. We created a values statement specifically designed to empower and encourage people to show initiative. It is amazing to see the reaction, when people realize that they can actually step out and think for themselves; that they are powered to take the initiative and make their own decisions. In fact, some team members who started out as microfollowers became some of the best leaders I’ve ever worked with.

Sadly, others will resist this with their every being. After much back and forth, you may determine that this person will always be a microfollower and the only recourse is to let them go. There are many companies that will be happy to have such a person and assign them to a micromanager, who will be fulfilled supervising such a willing supplicant.

Radical concepts

The opposite of micromanagement is holocracy, where essentially everyone manages themselves. I don’t believe true holocracy is possible, but we came very close. Our values statement was meant to highlight the fact that we were free of schedules, fixed work locations and bosses.

Even though I was the CEO, my internal title, and that of my COO was “Facilitator”. That meant I was there to help people do their jobs, not tell them how to do them or do them myself. This only works if you have a company full of self-starters, ready and willing to take the initiative. Microfollowers need to be quickly identified and converted to microleaders, or encouraged to find roles in more captive-employment type environments.

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Building trust with remote workers and contractors

I just read a good article that building trust is one of the top 5 attributes of a good leader. But what about decentralized, offshore, remote teams. Do they count? Yes, actually building trust is even more important in the context of offshore development

To build trust with your new team of offshore workers, whether they are inherited, full time, sub-contractors, freelancers, etc involves a lot of meetings, discussions, opening of your heart, social media engagement, team building exercises and more …

Just kidding. Nobody cares about that.

The key concerns of your team are listed as follows

  1. Will I get paid?
  2. Will I get paid?
  3. Will I get paid?

Nothing you can do, say, coordinate will matter unless you have demonstrate that you can/will pay your people

  • On time,
  • in full
  • and accurately, with no mistakes, underages etc

You need to make paying people not only a priority, but the core value of your company

Background

Unlike in the US, where people are generally paid on time and in full (although there are notable exceptions), in many developing companies payroll is a bit of a roll of the dice. You may get paid, you may not. You may get paid in full, you may not. This causes a lot of mistrust and uncertainty that you will inherit when you lead offshore teams

But onshore contractors like to get paid too and based on the temporary status of their work, they often run into trouble. You should make it your job, to make sure these guys get paid as well, even if they make more than you do! 😉

My principal job

I used to joke that my job at my old startup was to pay people. Anything I did above and beyond that was extra! But there is a lot of truth to that. If I could manage payroll efficiently and effectively, building trust with every completed pay-cycle, I was really making strides in building trust, which is a critical foundation that everything else is built on. If I couldn’t accomplish that, I really didn’t have a team.

One of my biggest sources of pride is that we ran an international payroll for approx. 15 years, of up to 100 people. Never once did I …

  • Fail to pay anyone
  • Pay anyone late
  • Make any mistakes in payment that weren’t immediately corrected, in the rare occasions that they did occur

I would occasionally offer to bet people $1,000 that they could find anyone to make claims to the contrary. Nobody ever did.

Full disclosure. My wife actually ran the books for my company, along with many other things, and gets most of the credit for this fast and efficient service!

By making payroll your top priority of your company, you are literally putting your money where your mouth is and, in doing so, establishing trust on your team

Sub-contractors

I never pay for work before it is done. But on the other hand, it isn’t fair to expect someone to not get paid anything for larger, fixed bid contracts until they are completed. We implemented a milestone system of payment for all of our sub-contractors where they would get paid based on, fully verified, milestone achievements.

Again, I can’t take the credit for this because my fine operations team in Serbia, managed all of these contracts, including all of these milestone payments. (1)

Lessons learned

  • Pay before the end of the month. We kept paying earlier and earlier, which the team appreciated. Bi-weekly would be even better, but we never got there
  • Follow a rigorous quality assurance process to make sure all payments are made accurately
  • Allow team members to escalate pay problems right to the CEO. I can’t remember more than 1-2 emails about pay, in these 15 years, as my HR team was so great. But just knowing people could reach out to me about pay put a lot of people at ease
  • Try to cover as many fees and expense as you can e.g. wire etc
  • Focus on payroll when you are doing it. Don’t allow it to be just another task that you juggle that day. You must commit a block of time and focus on it exclusively, until it is done, and don’t allow yourself to be interrupted or distracted
  • Pay expenses the following month. People shouldn’t have to wait 6 mos. to get reimbursed for expenses incurred on the job

Summary

By demonstrating to your people that paying them is your top priority you can eliminate worry, uncertainty, distraction and allow your team to fully focus on the job at hand. Seems simple, but I know a lot of managers don’t fully appreciate that, and their offshore team results suffer for it

 

 

(1) 60+ completed contracts