Mobile QA Strategy

With the emergence of mobile app development, companies often rushed to be the first to market with their new apps, often overlooking steps critical to ensuring a successful application.  As this market is more established, businesses now realize that, just as any other media for reaching customers, a mobile app must be a well planned, properly designed, and quality piece of software in order to be successful.  

Quality Assurance (QA) testing is one of these previously overlooked steps that companies now realize is critically important.  QA activities take on a new level of complexity with mobile applications that can make this a daunting task.  With a wide variety of devices, manufacturers, operating systems, mobile browsers, screen sizes, screen resolutions, and screen proportion, there are literally thousands of unique combinations.  Each combination can result in a different user experience or functional impact, making the scope of testing needs tremendous.

An important first step related to the QA efforts that should happen early in, or prior to, the design and development phase, and before any formal QA testing begins, is to identify a matrix of the target devices and Operating Systems/browsers.  The business should determine a list of all of the different devices that they feel are important, and provide a priority ranking for each.  Similarly, they should provide a list of all mobile operating systems and browsers targeted and provide a priority ranking for each.  Data is available online that gives an overview of the market usage and prevalence of operating systems, browsers, and devices (see http://www.netmarketshare.com/).  Along with the general market information, the business should evaluate their target market, demographic usage patterns and requirements, and business needs in determining their device/platform prioritization.  As there is a direct cost associated with compatibility development, changes, and defect resolution specific to individual devices, this prioritized matrix allows the business to evaluate where money should be spent to enable devices, and which devices are of lower priority and not worth the investment.

Although the application is meant for mobile, the easiest testing method is on the desktop through a standards browser (for mobile website) or development tools (for mobile applications).  Basic functional testing to ensure the code is defect free, meets business requirements, and data entry is appropriately handled can be addressed on the desktop.  Providing feedback to developers is simplest when tested on the desktop, and the easiest to resolve.  This ensures the application is functional in its own state and allows future device specific testing to focus on defects and issues related specifically to the device and software.  Some browsers, such as Firefox, have a setting allowing control of the identified browser agent, which allows the server to provide mobile versions to the desktop browser.  

Emulators provide a convenient and easy way to provide pre-device testing.  As nearly all mobile manufacturers provide development device emulators, developers and QA resources should utilize these services for initial testing across the full spectrum of prioritized devices.  Emulators don't always exactly mimic the device, and certain usability testing can be difficult to test, however this can provide an ability to initially eliminate errors related to the device.  

The final step, which is critical to fully ensuring compatibility and usability, is to test on the actual devices.  The tester should perform tests across the full spectrum of categories (functionality, usability, data entry, security) directly on the devices using a combination of manual testing and automated testing directly against the device.  

Testing on each of the target devices can be a logistical challenge.  Especially if a large variety of devices has been identified, securing devices with mobile data connections across the spectrum could be very costly.  Depending on the nature and frequency of apps being created, outsourcing device testing could be a viable option.  There are three major categories of outsourcing: outsourced testing, device outsourcing, and crowd sourcing.  

Outsourced testing is, as it sounds, completely outsourcing the testing of a mobile application to a vendor specializing in mobile testing.  The testing organization is responsible for test case creation and full execution of testing on mobile devices.  Results of the testing are provided back to the development organization for correction.  

Device outsourcing retains the QA activities within the development organization, however utilizes devices owned/maintained by the outsourcing vendor.  Depending on the vendor, this could involve actually renting devices which are shipped to the development organization, utilizing devices within a lab setup provided by the outsourcing vendor, or remote access to the actual devices.  In the later scenario, you have full control of the actual devices via remote control, and can view the screen through both a screen share, and an actual camera feed of the device.

Crowd sourcing represents an interesting option for testing.  Vendors coordinate real-world users based on the types of devices and configurations they use for their personal mobile communications.  Development organizations can specify the exact category of users to test, and the vendor will provide the application to users to test.  This is generally not thorough testing – simple user interaction testing to provide user feedback and error logs from each type of device.   Although this testing does not provide a full QA implementation, it is an effective method to get initial field results.  

   

Although mobile testing represents significant additional challenges above traditional software testing, it is critically important to ensure thorough testing.  Mobile users have little tolerance for defects, and will not continue to use an application that does not function well or intuitively on their device.  The best chances for success in your mobile application involve creating a well planned and designed, fully tested application.  

Successful IT Project Management

Survey’s show that over 60% of IT projects fail. Failure can refer to numerous things; going over budget, beyond schedule, or not meeting the requirements of the business. Another survey (http://www.genecaresearchreports.com/) asked business and IT professionals their perspective on IT projects and found that 75% felt development projects would either always or usually fail, 78% said they felt the business is usually or always “out of sync” with project requirements, and 80% responded they felt at least 50% of the time during a project is spent on rework. These statistics represent a tremendous amount of wasted time, money, and resources.

What causes projects to fail? Often, this comes down to weak processes, structure, and project management. In this article, we’ll explore the top areas to focus efforts and evaluate how strong project management and adherence to a methodology can dramatically improve project success.

Before exploring opportunities for improvement, it is important to take a deeper look at what defines success. Traditionally, the constraints triangle has set the standard for defining project success with scope, schedule, and budget. Companies are now realizing that the traditional metrics don’t reflect all important success criteria. The project’s overall impact to the business, how effectively it solves the organization’s needs, and the general perception of the project define true project success.


#1 – Business vs. IT Projects
Think in a larger scope for your projects. An IT project is designed to implement a system with a very narrow scope. Focusing solely on IT requirements may ignore the true metrics for success within the overall organization, causing the project to fail in the eyes of the business. A business project, however, is designed to solve an organizational problem. This approach brings together the appropriate expertise from throughout the organization, gains top management buy in, and ties goals and metrics back to business needs. The broad perspective approach of a business project is an underlying theme within all areas of improving project management.


#2 – Proper Planning
Perhaps one of the most common, and most obvious types of project failures arises from poor planning. Before a project can begin, there must be careful planning to ensure the solution solves the business problem. This involves carefully understanding the needs, business drivers, success criteria, stakeholder impact, and numerous other factors related to the environment, organization, and situation. It is critical to have a clear view of where you are heading and the full problem.

A less obvious planning concern is around over-planning. There is a balance that must be identified between identifying enough details to ensure you are moving in the proper direction and taking proper steps, while not fully documenting and exploring every possible detail. Over-planning can result in budget and schedule overrun before the first piece of code is ever written.


#3 – Poor Team
A major cause of project failure is having a poor team. This could involve the most obvious issues – such as a team that doesn’t have the skillset or skill level to complete the work at the needed level of quality, or a team that doesn’t communicate or work well together. Thinking of the team in a broader sense as all who have influence over the project – those actually completing the work, the business leaders, the project manager, the executive stakeholders, etc. – shows there are a lot of areas for breakdowns and failures. All team members and stakeholders must be operating effectively, communicating appropriately, possessing the necessary skills, aligned with the business goals and needs, and motivated to reach the same goals in order for a team to be high performing. Organizing a high performing team is both an art and science, requires significant attention and work by all involved, and can be very challenging to obtain.


#4 –Stakeholder Management
Stakeholders are a critical component of any project, and it is important to carefully manage the interactions and information distribution with stakeholders. Failure to properly understand, manage, and engage stakeholders can result in poor adoption, lack of needed support, poor perception, and confusion. Stakeholders should be properly identified and categorized based on level of interest and influence over the project. Projects should be operated in a highly transparent manner allowing stakeholders visibility in the process, progress, and results, with expectations carefully aligned with the project’s objectives.


#5 - Breaking Down Projects Into Smaller Pieces
A business principle called the “Cone of Uncertainty” demonstrates that the level of risk in a plan increases exponentially as you move further out in time. While you may be fairly certain what development efforts lie before you over the next few days, as you start to look further beyond into months or even years, the degree of uncertainty caused by positive or negative influencing factors becomes great, increasing the level of risk that you won’t be operating on plan. So, why plan so far in advance? Break projects up into the smallest pieces possible to allow operation with the most predictable variables and provide timelines with more certainty and less risk.


#6 - Managing Risks
Risks are a part of every project that can yield significant positive or negative impact. It is critical to proactively manage risks by identifying leading risks by likelihood and impact, and determining a strategy of mitigate, transfer, avoid, or accept. Obviously, you’ll never be able to identify all possible risk scenarios, but, you’ll find projects progress much more effectively when you are actively looking for, and managing, those risks that become apparent. Risk management is an art form that is learned over time.


#7 – Scope Creep
For anyone that has worked with software development long, “scope creep” is a very familiar concept. Often changes appear to be quick to implement, and are made without following formalized scope management policies. These changes, however, add up to significant additional work over time. With no tracking, it can be easy to suddenly be behind schedule and over budget without realizing the cause was a series of small changes. A rigid change management system is imperative. Document the initial intended functionality and scope of the project, and when something arises that is different, identify that it is a scope change, and identify the impact to schedule and budget. It is common that stakeholders don’t realize the impact these changes might have, so, highlighting the change and its impact can help keep the project on track. It is also important to realize the scope creep does not only come from outside of the team. The development team itself, as well as project manager, are just as likely to see opportunities to improve the product and add these “quick” changes to scope.


#8 – Rigidity
At first glance, identifying rigidity as a failure point seems counter-intuitive from the previous point of the necessity of change management. The opposite is actually true – change in a project is not a bad thing and it should be embraced. It is critically important to understand and manage change, but changes to make the product better, better serve the customer, or create additional value should certainly be acted upon if possible. Often times projects fail to deliver the intended value to the business because they stick to the planning that was completed a year or more earlier during the planning phases. Remember, a project delivered on time, in budget, and within scope is still a failure if it doesn’t bring value to the organization. Be open to changes that improve the project or keep it aligned with the business.

While projects can fail for countless reasons, the above listed eight project failure reasons highlight some of the leading causes. The common theme through each of these items is the need for strong project management and leadership skills, adherence to a project methodology, and close alignment between business and technology. With a focus on these areas, projects stand a much greater chance of success.

The Waterfall to Agile Continuum

The two leading approaches to software development are the agile and waterfall methodologies. A common perception is that these are two distinct methodologies that organizations could select. In actual practice, however, organizations will seldom implement at either of these extremes. Waterfall and Agile can be thought of as the end points of a methodology continuum. An organization’s actual implementation of a methodology will lie somewhere along this continuum based on numerous factors and the specific goals and requirements for their development processes.

When listing the benefits of a strict agile approach, it’s easy to jump to the conclusion that agile is the far superior methodology. It does provide numerous benefits that waterfall lacks, which is why many organizations benefit from shifting along the continuum towards agile. However, waterfall certainly has a number of benefits as well and has produced successful results during its decades of dominance as a development methodology. This is where the concept of the continuum becomes so valuable – it allows organizations to not simply choose one approach, but to evaluate the importance of key benefits from each to find their ideal point.


Organizational Structure / Environment
The organization’s structure and environment play a key role in determining the point along the methodology continuum. A highly agile approach requires significant direct collaboration between team members from throughout the organization. If an organization has high barriers for communication between departments or teams due to structure, organization, geography, or any other factor, this could present a challenge for a highly agile approach.

Next, the management style used within the organization must be evaluated. A traditional command and control style is most common within the waterfall approach. A more agile approach promotes self-organization and control within teams that are held accountable for the results they produce.

Finally, what are the values the organization places as it encourages and rewards its team members? Are team members rewarded based on their individual contributions to the project – such as number of features they personally develop, volume of code, or code quality? As a highly agile approach promotes the teams, employee evaluation should be focused on how well individuals contribute and thrive within the team environment, evaluating aspects such as how well they mentor junior team members, how they encourage and promote their team to accomplish sprint goals, how they communicate ideas within their team, and the level of insight they provide during team discussions.


Level of Support
The level of support is a critical factor to consider as you are evaluating the change to a more agile methodology. A highly agile approach requires an organizational level change across teams and functional areas of the organization. Management at all levels must embrace the change in thinking, responsibilities, and structure. If a change is limited to only the development team, the team can adopt agile practices to gain certain benefits, but the resulting methodology will be limited in its movement towards the agile end on the continuum.


Level of Talent
A third factor to consider is the level and type of talent available to your teams. An agile approach often works best with a combination of junior and senior level talent. In this environment, senior level resources will tend to provide mentoring to junior level talent, allowing them to continuously improve their skillsets. Projects will always tend to have a combination of difficulty levels of the work to be performed, so the team will be able to collaboratively work together to complete all work utilizing the varying levels and types of expertise available.

Another factor to consider relative to the team is their perspective on development. In the “software factory” model of development, teams are used to receiving precise specifications and requirements, and focus on coding and technology to meet these requirements. There are some teams that thrive in this kind of environment, and these types of developers could become less effective if given more latitude and responsibility for business problem solving. Other teams, however, may produce far superior results if given the opportunity to apply their full skillset to analyzing, solving, and implementing solutions based on a broader understanding of the end user’s need. If the later is the case, then the team will succeed with a more agile approach.


Trust in Teams
Do you trust your teams? The immediate answer to this question is generally, “Yes, of course – we wouldn’t have hired them if we didn’t trust them!” An organization should take a very critical approach to evaluating the true level of trust they have for their teams. A highly agile approach gives significant empowerment to the teams, and trusts the teams will perform at their highest level capacity when given more freedom and latitude. Further, agile empowers teams to make key decisions throughout the process that will directly impact the success, or failure, of the project. If an organization does not feel that they can stand behind the decisions made by their teams, or that the teams will not perform at optimal levels when left to their own self-organization, than a highly agile approach would not be appropriate.

An important is that a change to a more agile approach doesn’t mean the organization must start trusting its teams. As a subtle difference, the organization should focus on forming teams that it can trust, not simply instilling trust in existing teams. Strong teams are the foundation of the success of an agile approach, so it is critical that the teams be seeded with trusted, high performing team members. If the organization trusts the people going into the teams, then the organization will be able to trust the teams.


Conclusion
Determining the methodology for your organization is a major decision. Moving towards a more agile approach can be a lengthy and difficult change, but can yield great rewards. An organization should start with a thorough and honest evaluation of itself, including considering the above factors. With this insight, the organization can create a methodology that is tailored to gain the benefits from both the agile and waterfall worlds. This customized methodology allows you to find the optimal spot along the continuum where your organization will realize the greatest results.

Going Mobile - An Introductory Guide Part 4 - Marketing Your Brand

In the “going mobile” series, we’ve evaluated the approaches of creating mobile websites and mobile apps . The final avenue to explore in the “Going Mobile” series is in marketing your brand through mobile channels. This option involves strategic placement of your business identity in front of consumers through mobile channels. Much like traditional media advertising strategy, organizations identify channels familiar to their target demographic and place their message in these channels. This may include simple ad placement on mobile sites and in mobile apps, or more transparent brand integration opportunities.

Mobile website and app ad placement works very similar to internet ad placement. The nature of the medium allows highly precise demographic targeting to focus advertising dollars. Depending on the channel, ads can be selectively displayed based on user age, geographic location, interests, and more. Mobile advertising clearinghouses simplify this process with the ability to place ads across multiple sites/apps focusing specifically on the target demographic. Rich media advertisements, those that are in some manner interactive, are proving to be highly effective at attractive attention and converting into click-through.

Brand integration mobile advertising strategies allow a more natural, often subliminal placement of your business information in mobile sites or apps. Your products, message, or image can be placed at key opportunities on mobile sites and apps. This might include mentions or reviews of products / services, products or images being visible in other contexts, etc. Often the goal of cross-promotional activities is not to result in immediate click-through transactions, but instead to increase awareness, image, or align with other products, people, or organizations for validity and association.

An exciting opportunity for mobile marketing exists with locations based apps. A number of social apps integrate geographic location check-in and location awareness. This presents a new unique opportunity to reach out to potential customers on their device at the precise opportunity to attract them to your location. For example, offering discounts or information to attract customers into your location when they check-in at a nearby location. Encouraging customer to check-in from your business can also help to encourage new customers through implied, unsolicited recommendations (seeing friends visiting a business could encourage people to visit your business as well).

Opportunities for mobile marketing go far beyond the few ideas presented in this posting. As mobile devices increasingly grow in their role as a communications tool, entertainment center, information gathering portal, and consumer transaction device, the opportunities will continue to expand. Businesses must carefully evaluate the various avenues for engaging the mobile market through marketing, mobile website development, and app development. Each implementation approach provides significant opportunities when fully integrated and supporting an organization’s overall business strategy. This represents an exciting method to engage, attract, and retain customers through the technology that consumers cling to in their daily lives.

Going Mobile - An Introductory Guide Part 3 - Creating a Mobile App

In the last post of the “going mobile” series, I discussed the importance of businesses setting up mobile websites. A second opportunity for entering the mobile space that business should evaluate is if a mobile app is right for their brand and a fit within their business strategy. A mobile app differs from a mobile website in that it is a piece of operational software that is installed on the device and available offline. Whereas a mobile website is accessible through the mobile browser, the app is accessed generally by an icon specific to the app on the device desktop.
Recent studies show the average smartphone user is now spending more time throughout the day using apps than browsing the web through the mobile browser. So what types of apps are people using most? Game play represents the largest category, followed by weather, social networking, navigation, music, and news.
So, should your organization rush out to create an app? Maybe not. Before you rush into building a new app, determine how this really fits into your strategy – keeping in mind that a strategy reflects the needs and objectives of both the business and the customers. While every business would love to have customers that eagerly await their press releases, latest news, and carefully review the details of their business on a regular basis, this may not really equate to the customer’s needs and desires. “If you build it, they will come” may work for a baseball field in Iowa, but doesn’t hold true to an app for your business. Convincing people to first download your app, and then to use it regularly can be a difficult sell depending on the type of app you have to offer.
Don’t write off creating an app just yet, though. Although an app doesn’t fit into the strategic model for every business, it is equally fair to say that apps do represent a very significant successful contributor to the strategy of other organizations. Given the volume of time spent by consumers using apps, and the value consumers perceive in apps (spending an estimated $3.8 Billion in 2011 in app stores), it is certainly a worthwhile consideration if an app should be part of your strategic roadmap.
Does your business posses some kind of information, service, or other offering that customers will want to access often or when they are offline? Does this need correspond to a benefit to the business – to better serve the customer, drive additional revenue, attract new customers, or compete against competitors to maintain customers? If so, than perhaps an app is the right approach. Get creative. Be innovative. Engage industry experts to help identify how a mobile app approach fits into your business strategy. It comes down to a straightforward value comparison for both the business and consumer. For the consumer – does the app provide a benefit (time saver, entertainment, satisfy a need, etc.) that is more valuable than the time (and, depending on your model, price) of downloading AND using the app (don’t forget – downloading the app is only half the battle, there has to be a value to encourage the user to continually use the app)? For the business, does the value towards strategic goals generated from offering the app (revenue, customer service/loyalty, etc.) exceed the development and maintenance costs of the app? If the answer to both of these is yes – than an app represents a great opportunity for your business to meet its goals.
Once you’ve identified that an app is a fit for your strategy, the next step is determining your technical approach. Depending on the needs of the app, you may select to develop it using cross platform development tools, or native development. A cross-platform development technique allows a single application to be created for accessibility across different device categories (smartphones, tablets, etc.), device manufacturers, and operating systems (iOS, Android, etc.). Cross platform yields a larger market segment across devices at a lower cost, but you heavily trade a more “natural” experience specific to the device and the deep level of device integration. For simpler apps that are highly general information based, this may be a great approach. Native development is created in a programming language more specific to a particular operating system (iOS, Android, etc.). Native development yields apps that are highly customized to the specific device with a natural feel and a clean integration with all of the features of the device, but results in multiple implementations and a higher cost. Identifying your specific organization, customer, budget, and app needs can help determine the appropriate approach technique.
While determining your approach, you must also consider what types of devices to target. Should you target iOS, Android, or both? Should you target smartphones, tablets, or both? These are critical decisions that can be identified only through an evaluation of your customers, your business goals, and the specifics of your app.
Although the discussion on apps has been centered around a business launching a public facing distributed app, it is also important to quickly note that apps can also be highly effective towards meeting organization objectives as internal apps. Internal apps represent an opportunity for empowering efficiency within a mobilized workforce, as well as providing additional customer service opportunities through increased availability to systems and information from the field. Organizations may find opportunities to use third party mobile apps already built for their internal systems, or create new custom apps, to gain a significant competitive advantage with access and efficiency away from the desktop.

Going Mobile - An Introductory Guide Part 2 - Mobile Websites

Looking back 10 years, and perhaps even less, many businesses were saying “We don’t need a website”. The profound impact the Internet has had on commerce in the modern culture has made a clear and compelling case that every business has a need for a website, and few would argue the value of at least a minimal web presence today. In much the same way, the explosive growth in mobile consumer patterns shows a need for businesses to cater to the browsing experience on a mobile device.

This second installment of the four part “Going Mobile” blog series highlights mobile websites - one of the most basic, and most important, approaches a business or organization can take in establishing a mobile presence. Once an organization has determined their business strategy by evaluating customer needs and business goals, the mobile website can be an effective tactic in implementing their strategy and connecting with customers in the mobile space.

A mobile website can simply be thought of as a website that is formatted in content, design, and experience to work with a mobile browser. While mobile browsers are able to browse standard Internet websites, the smaller screen size, nature of the device, and limited functionality of the browser yield many websites either inoperable or challenging to view and navigate. Traditionally, mobile customers have been accepting of these limitations. However, as the novelty of these devices wavers and they become the norm, the acceptance of a less than optimal mobile experience will quickly fade, becoming a liability for businesses that ignore this need. Just as businesses have come to understand their website as the virtual face of their company, a poorly functioning mobile presence provides an undesirable image of the company to mobile users.

An effective mobile website is more than simply a translation of the current Internet website to fit the screen size. The user experience design is absolutely critical for your site. Identify and understand the needs and objectives of both your organization and your customers as it pertains to your overall strategy in the context of a mobile device. Using this understanding, create the navigation, flow, aesthetics, and content for the site. Avoid long text, extensive scrolling, and deep background details in favor of more situational-aware concise and current information.

Going Mobile - An Introductory Guide

Going mobile – it’s a key component of the strategic road map of many organizations. The mobile market represents an enormous opportunity to serve existing customers, attract new customers, and explore new areas of business growth. Given the dramatic and ongoing growth in consumer mobile data usage and spending patterns, this is a market that cannot, and should not, be ignored. While some businesses are capitalizing on these opportunities, others may still be struggling to understand the landscape.

Not sure if the mobile market is a worthwhile investment? A quick look at a few market statistics shows the undeniable importance of mobile. There are 312 million people in the United States and 328 million mobile subscriptions – meaning there are more devices active on the mobile networks in this country than people. If we limit this down to just data enabled devices, there are still 278 million – with smartphones and tablets comprise over one third of this number. Data traffic on mobile providers networks increased by over 110 percent last year, and is anticipated to grow even more dramatically this year. Consumer spending and purchasing behaviors via mobile devices continue to dramatically increase each year. Mobile device consumerism is growing and represents a significant opportunity.

How do you get started? It’s critical to avoid a common pitfall of jumping right to the technology. Taking the next step into the mobile space is a business project – not a technical project. This is an important difference as it reflects a new method for connecting with customers, and not simply a new piece of software. As with any new business venture, it is critical to start with an understanding of the customer – their needs, wants, capabilities, common practices, etc. Next, understand the business’s objectives and goals. Once you understand your customers and your business, then you can formulate an overall strategy of how to best integrate the two. Finally, the strategy is translated into the tactical plan of how to accomplish these goals, including what technologies to use and how mobile can be engaged to serve the business and customers.

The most common approaches for “going mobile” are mobile websites, mobile apps, and mobile marketing. Each has distinct costs, opportunities, and uses. It is important to recognize there is no expectation that every business should engage in all three – these are highly distinct avenues and not appropriate for all businesses.

Over the coming weeks, we’ll explore these various approaches and opportunities for entering the mobile space. Each will cover the approach, appropriate uses, and benefits associated with the plan. Stay tuned for this four part series on “Going Mobile”.

Change Management and Cultural Differences

I’m currently at a Project Management Institute conference in Dublin, Ireland. The attendance is comprised of over 800 project managers from over 100 different countries, leading to a great deal of diversity of management and leadership styles. An instance of such diversity appeared today during a session on Change Management.

Early in the session, the discussion was on the topic of the language of resistance, and the concept of resistance on the basis of motivation versus competence. The idea is that a motivation deficit occurs when a person does not want to participate in a change, and a competence deficit is when a person does not have the skills or ability to participate successfully. Two sample responses from a manager were put forth. The first is the statement: “I support the change, but, I don’t understand why this should have any priority over any of our current projects and we simply don’t have the bandwidth to support this any time soon.” The second statement is: “I support the change, but I’m not sure what you need from my team to make it happen.” The resulting question is: which statement is easier to overcome to implement the change?

To me, and most others in the room, it was instantly obvious that the first statement is a motivational problem. The person claims they support the project, but essentially state they don’t see any value and therefore will not be supporting it. They blame this on resource bandwidth, but it would seem this is more of a passive resistance to say no without simply saying they don’t want to support the change. The second person, on the other hand, indicates their willingness to support the project, but simply needs guidance for the implementation of the change.

A smaller group in the room, however, firmly asserted that they disagreed with this assessment. They stated the first manager simply had a staffing issue and needed guidance on how to reprioritize or to be given additional staff to support the change. They argued that the second person, in saying they didn’t know what was needed, was clearly demonstrating an unwillingness to complete the required tasks. Despite a few minutes of back and forth between the two camps of thought, neither side could convince the other of the merits of their argument and the discussion was finally terminated by the presenter to continue the presentation. The takeaway from this example and discussion was meant to show that it is much more difficult to overcome motivational problems compared to competence problems.

The key takeaway from the presentation was that all projects involve a change, and projects tend to fail because the project leadership fails to properly manage the human aspect of the change. Based on my experience, I would tend to agree with this assessment. The recommendation is that large projects should include a trained change management practitioner. I would certainly agree that for very large projects, this would certainly be a great addition, and for smaller projects it is definitely worthwhile for the project manager to focus on aspects of managing the human side of change.

During the question session at the end of the presentation, it became apparent that there was a portion of the group that did not agree with this assessment – the same group that initially disagreed on the motivational versus competence question. This group questioned that, at a project level, the addition of change management tactics would be completely unnecessary. Their position was that by the time a project was initiated, the client had already embraced the change and so no further change management was warranted. The presenter countered with the fact that most changes are initiated by management and impact the full company. The disagreeing audience was not moved by this explanation and continued to argue that change management is not needed on the basis it has already been accepted and further efforts would be unnecessary / inefficient.

I initially had difficulty understanding how this group could so firmly hold to this perspective, which to me seemed clearly incorrect. I noticed, however, that this group, which was dispersed around the room and presumably not colleagues, seemed to be of similar cultural / national backgrounds. To guess, I might think this included middle eastern regions. My theory is that this distinct difference in perspective originates from the management paradigm within their cultures.

Studies have ranked various cultures on their work environments and if they are more collaborative or hierarchical. In a more hierarchical culture, there is a more clear distinction that, within an organizational structure, information flows upwards, and decisions, strategy and policy, flows only downwards. In the hierarchical culture, it would be considered subordination for a worker to question or resist any decision made by management.

I believe this may account for the difference in perspective. For those professionals from such a culture, the concept of a change management would be of lesser importance. If management had approved (and funded) the project, then they’ve clearly embraced the change and desire it to be implemented – so no change management is necessary. For subsequent levels of management and workers, they should accept the changes without question as they represent the decision of a superior. Under this premise, change management would be unnecessary – you wouldn’t need to convince someone of the importance of doing something they fully intend to do.

Being accustomed to the management and work styles within the United States, it is difficult to imagine a paradigm of such subservience. The culture within the United States is much more questioning where it is not only acceptable, but often required, that various levels of management will express concerns and provide input on situations they feel would adversely affect the organization.

Obviously these differences could also be explained by differences in personal experiences, different understandings of the presentation, or various other factors. Regardless, I find it very interesting to consider the impact of culture perspectives on management and leadership styles.

Delivering Negative Feedback

In the operation of business, there will, inevitably, be times when projects don’t go well, mistakes are made, and team members don’t perform at the level that is needed. As a manager, it is often your responsibility to meet with team members to provide negative feedback and work with staff to improve their performance. This can be a very difficult task, and highly uncomfortable for both the manager and the team member. Especially in circumstances where you have an employee who is giving their best and has a great attitude, it can be very difficult to tell them they aren’t performing to expectation.

Early in my career, I made a mistake that is common to many new managers. I absolutely dreaded providing any kind of negative feedback to my direct report employees, and simply avoided doing so unless absolutely necessary. My rationale was that if I provided negative feedback, I would de-motivate the team member, cause them to be uncomfortable, and further exaggerate the problem with low morale. I reasoned that if I provided ample positive feedback on things that were done right, staff would recognize that they didn’t perform to expectation when they didn’t receive positive feedback and make changes accordingly. I further reasoned that problems were either generally minor and limited, and therefore not important in the grand scheme, or if frequent and large, would warrant the termination of the employee. So, I determined the best approach would be to simply let the problems lie, see if the employee improved on their own, and then if they got to a point too great, terminate the employee. As I matured as a manager, I realized that this is about the cruelest approach I could possibly take. Employees could be blindsided by a poor review, or worse yet, a termination they didn’t anticipate.

As I grew in my management abilities, I came to realize that negative feedback is critically important. At first I would use the biannual evaluations as the “right time” to provide negative feedback on problems. However, I realized that this wasn’t timely enough feedback and could result in employees being surprised and de-motivated. A better approach is to provide feedback as soon as possible. By providing both positive and negative feedback regularly, team members can clearly see where they stand, what is expected of them, and how they are progressing.

I’m a firm believer in the adage that a happy worker is a productive worker, and I think this holds true across industries and organizational levels. As such, I’m highly conscious of the morale of my team members and want to be certain that as I provide feedback it doesn’t discourage or harm their morale. Providing negative feedback, however, doesn’t have to de-motivate the employee if delivered constructively and tactfully. It is important to make sure to deliver the information in a non-confrontational manner. You accomplish nothing if the person is instantly on the defensive and feels they have to justify their position. I’ve found an approach that works well is to start by talking about strengths and things that went well, and then broach the problem area with a statement such as “an area I’ve noticed that we could work on”. I generally also try to be very clear with the significance of the issue – is it something that was very damaging to the project or the company, or is it simply something to be aware of an work on for the future. Hopefully, by being very proactive with feedback, most issues will be caught early and will simply be items to work on to avoid future problems. I try to make these conversations very productive oriented; going quickly from the problem to a plan to mitigate the problem. I try to ensure that the employee doesn’t feel the problem will prevents them from being successful in the future, harm the relationship with me as their manager or their team members, and that it is something they are empowered to correct.

The underlying idea of this discussion is that employees are, I believe, very interested in being successful and doing the best job possible. By not providing the employees with negative feedback, you are depriving them of the ability to be successful. Through providing an accurate and timely view of their performance, you encourage the employee to modify their performance to meet the specific organizational needs and demands and perform at their highest level. With this feedback, hopefully your team will become more effective. For those who are not able to adapt, they are able to see for themselves that they are not effective in the environment, and are not blindsided in the event of employment conversations. So, as a strong manager, it is critically important to overcome the discomfort of providing negative feedback, and have these constructive conversations with your employees for the benefit of everyone.

Give 'Em a Big Bear Hug

My first real employment was at the Big Bear Grocery store in Hurricane, West Virginia. This was a summer job immediately following my high school graduation. I was employed as a “bag boy”. I enjoyed this summer experience and actually learned a number of great business lessons that has remained with me over the years.

A few weeks after I began my job at Big Bear, there was a change in corporate management over the chain of large grocery stores. It was announced that the new CEO would be making a visit to each of the regions and meeting with all of the employees. Although some employees were frustrated to have to go to a meeting, others, including myself, were very enthusiastic to get to meet the new CEO. It was very exciting to think that he was interested in speaking with even the newest entry level employees.

Business Lesson #1 – As a high level manager, you have a very tremendous influence on the morale of all employees. You set the tone for the business. By simply acknowledging, thanking, and paying attention to employees at the ground level, you can dramatically improve motivation and align teams behind the company.

The day of the meeting came, and all of the employees from our store and a few other stores in the area gathered in a large meeting area at a local college. We were greeted by a large and elaborate breakfast spread (hopefully from the Big Bear deli and bakery). After the breakfast reception, we were all seated for the CEO’s presentation. He began by talking about cutting expenses and saving money. He discussed various examples of where the company was spending too much money. For example, the produce department had plastic bags printed with five colors. He explained the amount of money that could be saved simply by switching to single color printed bags without having any affect on the customer experience.

Business Lesson #2 – Spend money wisely, focus spending on what will produce value to the customer. If you are spending money on items that have no direct or indirect value to your customers and you goals as a business, it is a waste of money. The key to this, however, is identifying what has “indirect” value. For example, professional development, competitive employee salaries, generous employee benefits, morale building activities, employee recognition, and community involvement don’t necessarily directly provide value to the customer, but by building a strong business, you are able to provide better products, services, and support, which is certainly a value added feature for your customers.

Another main agenda topic of the CEO’s discussion was the distribution of product return cards to all employees. Every employee received a small plastic sleeve containing business card sized product return cards. We were instructed that if a customer brought back in items for returns, or even told us they purchased a product with which they were not satisfied, we were to fill out the card with the item information and the customer could exchange the card for the return value or replacement at any cash register. This empowered any employee the customer came in contact with to provide customer service. The CEO further explained that we shouldn’t question or argue with the customer – even if they returned a product that we didn’t sell, or we knew the customer was taking advantage of us, to simply happily give the customer the return and thank them for their business. We were further told that, as an employee, we would never get in trouble for doing too much to serve a customer.

As an entry level employee, I was thrilled to have this empowerment. I was engaged and ready to serve the customers and felt that I had the tools to do so. I don’t think I ever actually had an opportunity to use any of the cards, but, I faithfully carried them with me and felt aligned with
the organization to provide outstanding customer service.

Business Lesson #3 – Empower your employees to serve the customers. Your teams need the proper and necessary tools, knowledge, and motivation in order to provide outstanding customer service. If any one of these three is missing, you will not get the results you desire.

Another amusing story from my employment at Big Bear was in unloading a truck one afternoon. I was asked to unload a freezer truck that had arrived early. Caught a bit off guard by such a request, I asked what all needed to be done. They said I simply needed to take everything out of the tractor trailer and put it in the large walk in freezer. So, I went to the back to find a truck at the loading docks, opened and ready to be unloaded, with no one else around. The food was packaged on pallets. I looked around and found a manual lift that could move the pallets. After figuring out how to pick up the pallets, I began trying to navigate the pallets from the truck bed, across the storage area, and through the freezer door that was only marginally wider than the pallet. I managed to unload the entire truck, although not without a significant casualty. I lodged a pallet against the freezer door frame, and managed to completely tear the frame off the doorway. I had to explain to the store manager why they needed a new door frame installed on their freezer. Fortunately, I wasn’t fired for the mistake – I also was never asked to unload a truck again.

On a particularly busy afternoon, I tested out the promise from the CEO that no employee would get in trouble for doing too much for a customer. The phone at the front stand kept ringing and ringing, but there were no supervisors around to answer it. As I was working close by, I could hear the phone and guessed that a customer was trying repetitively to talk to someone. I knew I wasn’t allowed to answer the phone, but I had a minute of down time between customers right as the phone started ringing, so I answered it. The customer asked questions about a certain product we sold – what varieties were available, the pricing, etc. I answered her questions and welcome the customer to visit the store to purchase the item. As I hung up and turned around, the supervisor was standing behind me with a smirk on her face. She told me that I had done a great job with the customer, but that I was not authorized to answer the phone and should never do it again.

I definitely enjoyed my experiences working at the grocery store. It was a great insight and introduction to the business world.

Entrepreneurial Beginnings

I’ve always considered myself to be an entrepreneurial type of person. I have a passion for watching business grow and finding ways to make organizations stronger, more efficient, and more successful. While driving to a meeting across the state a few days ago, I began thinking about my first entrepreneurial experiences. I find these experiences now to be amusing and thought they might be something to share that others might enjoy.

My first business experience that I can recall would be in elementary school, probably around 4th grade. As a child, I always enjoyed drawing mazes – often quite elaborate and complex. I used to draw these and give them to people. So, as a child I determined this is something I could do to make money. I put together a book of mazes of all different difficulty levels, designs, and types. I talked with the son of the local grocery store owner who was a fellow classmate about making copies of the book and selling it in the store. Unfortunately, this plan didn’t make it far as I determined it wasn’t feasible due to cost for copying plus the cut that the store owner’s son required.

My next business venture proved more successful. In middle school, I opened a candy business at the school. The business actually began somewhat by accident. I saw a student who charged another student to borrow something, and decided to make a point to him. So, the next day I brought in candy and when he asked for a piece, I said sure – but it would be a quarter. To my surprise, he accepted the offer, and a few other students sitting nearby accepted the offer as well. Seeing an opportunity, my business began. The business lasted only a few months before my family relocated, but was highly successful. I would purchase candy in bulk, set the price for each type, and sell it to students during class. I carried a money envelop where I stored the money received from sales, money to make change, and the credit slips. Each of my “customers” was extended a credit limit based on how reliable they were with paying me back, and credit balances were due at the end of each week. In addition to the credit policy, I set other policies – such as a replacement policy that would replace the candy if it was confiscated by the teacher during class. I calculated and tracked the gross sales and profit nightly and kept books showing how well my business was doing. Although the business only made a few dollars a day, I was on top of the world and thought I was loaded.

After my family moved, I undertook a “construction” job for my parents. My parent’s new property had a creek that ran across the back of the property. The creek was eroding the bank, and had cut into the hillside about 15 feet. So, my parents made an offer that if I would dig an area for the creek in its original spot, they would pay $20. Thinking this would be a project that would take countless hours as the new path would be around 50 feet long, and would need to be dug fairly deep and wide, I declined the project. Thinking about that tremendous “contract price”, I went back to evaluate again the next day. I noticed that, although the new creek bed was lower than the original path, there was a high spot between the original creek bed and the current bed. So, I let my parents know that I would accept the offer and went to work. I dug out a few feet at the beginning of the old creek bed, and used the dirt to make a damn in the creek. The damn caused the water to pool, raising its level to the height of the original creek bed, and the section I dug out routed the water into the original path. The slope of the land forced the water into the original bed. So, after only one hour of work, I collected my $20 payment. Years later, the “Thornton Canal”, as I named it, is still holding strong.

Over my childhood years, I had a few other business ventures, but, these are the most amusing that come to mind. Creating a maze book, running a classroom candy business, and building the “Thornton Canal” won’t exactly propel me to the cover of Fortune magazine, but are certainly a fun early start to a business career.

Experience versus Capacity

What should a company look for when hiring new team members? During nearly every interview, the employer will ask the candidate about their past experience – where they have worked, what they have done, what level of responsibility they have had, and what successes they have had. It stands to reason that these types of questions and understanding what a candidate has done in the past are great predictors for how the candidate may do if employed within the organization. However, having been through the interview process many times on both sides of the table (both being interviewed, and interviewing candidates to hire), I see that many companies seem to interpret this information very differently.

Some companies interview candidates with the hopes of finding someone with experience as close to matching the job being interviewed for as possible. The successful candidate will have done the exact same job in the same industry, using the same tools, and in as close as possible to the same environment. It stands to reason that if someone has completed this role with similar variables in the past and been successful, they have a high chance of being successful again. This is a safe bet. But, a safe bet also often yields the lowest returns.

Over the years, I’ve hired a number of software developers to serve on the development teams that I managed. We were exclusively a ColdFusion development shop – ColdFusion being the web scripting language used to create advanced web based software applications. During an interview, I once asked a candidate if they had done any work with ColdFusion, they broke out laughing. The candidate had never heard of ColdFusion – other than of course the scientific research of nuclear fusion without producing heat - which would be a fairly absurd question for a software developer’s interview. This, however, didn’t prevent me from ultimately extending an offer to the young developer to join the team.

What I look for in team members for any role is not what they have done, but, what they have the capacity to do. This isn’t to say I didn’t go through their experiences heavily, quite the opposite. As I review the work experience of a candidate, I’m looking for how they were able to work within an environment with the given constraints and variables and be successful. Were they able to use what was available to produce results and advance? Did they demonstrate creativity and ingenuity? Was their work rewarded with progressively more responsibility and new challenges?

Of course, there is some degree of requirement based on experience. For example, as intellectual as a brain surgeon might be, I wouldn’t hire a surgeon to be a software developer if he had never looked at code. So, for a software developer, although I wouldn’t care even he had ever heard of ColdFusion, I would look for him to have developed some type of web based applications. For a management position, I would expect them to have led a team and demonstrated strategic and operational successes. Things such as industry, tools, and even scale are things that can easily be learned and quickly grown into for a candidate who has a demonstrated history of successes.

For me personally, I always want to be learning new things and growing professionally. If I were looking at a position where I had already done everything involved, I really wouldn’t want to do the job again – where would the challenge be in that?

There is certainly a purpose for both types of hiring. If you view, and need, a team that are essentially specialized tools to accomplish a certain task or job, then your goal would be to hire individuals who have the specific experience needed. However, if your needs and views are to establish a strong organization that will grow and perform above minimum requirements in varying environments and circumstances, experiences are merely indicators of past successes, not a list of future capacity. Everyone who has managed a team in any kind of an IT environment knows that one rockstar employee can outperform two or three average employees in productivity and results. So, if you are trying to locate a rockstar, your best bet is to look for people who are adaptable, team oriented, able to engage their environment to produce successful results, eagerly accept responsibility and accountability, and respond to challenges with exceptional results. If those are the qualities of the individual you need on your team, things such as tools, methodologies, technologies, industry, and scope are of little significance. This is the approach I’ve taken to hiring and had the fortune of building outstanding teams that produce amazing results.

Servant Leadership

It seems there are as many different leadership styles as there are leaders. That actually makes sense, as a strong leader looks at many different management and leadership styles to develop their own ways to be effective and successful at leading teams. One leadership style that has been influential for me is the concept of Servant Leadership.

Servant Leadership essentially takes the organization chart and flips it upside down. The idea is that each level of management in an organization exists to support those at the next lower organizational level. This goes against what many people think – that teams exist to support the manager. In order for the company to be successful, the work to get finished, and the final product or service to be delivered to the customer, it is obviously critically important that those doing the work are empowered to do their jobs, and they have all the tools and resources necessary to accomplish their tasks. As a manager within an organization, you have the power to acquire and provide these tools and necessary resources to your teams. Therefore, your strength as a manager and a leader relates to your ability to serve those who report directly to you. The role is to make sure that they have everything needed to accomplish their work. This involves making sure you are available to your team and receptive to their needs, clearing their paths to allow success.

While a large portion of the role of a manager or leader is to empower their staff, this isn’t to say this is their only role. As described in previous posts, of critical importance is focusing on continuous improvement in processes, organization, motivation, and morale. The manager is responsible for setting policies, initiatives, and direction for teams. The concept of servant leadership can be applied to all these areas and also provides a degree of humility when embraced by managers of all levels.

How to Overcome Being Good

There are a lot of good companies. Companies that provide good service, a good product, and a good experience. Good… but not great.

I read a book several years ago called “Good to Great” by Jim Collins. This was a great book that talked about the differences between companies that did “ok”, and those that really excelled. The book made a bold statement that has really impacted me over the years – that the biggest hurdle to overcome in becoming a great company, is being a good company. Essentially, once a company becomes “good”, they don’t strive to change things to become great – they settle for just being good.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this idea and contemplating what makes a company great. It’s easy to think that hard work towards your goal is what yields the great results, but, I don’t think this is true. I think hard work will make you good, but, focusing on “working hard” makes you miss the aspects that can make you great.

In my career, I’ve had the opportunity to learn from different types of managers. Some who I consider true leaders whom I respect greatly, and others who are merely managers organizing activities. In order to stay on topic, I’ll save my definition of what makes someone a leader versus a manager until a later post. For the sake of argument I’ll compare two fictitious managers. These aren’t based on actual people I’ve worked with, more just a composite of different management styles and various individuals.

The first manager, who we’ll call Alpha, worked hard every day. He managed his teams of employees by ordering them to work more and more and setting high expectations for the amount of work to be completed. He, and his teams, would work late into the evenings, struggling to ensure all work was completed, all customer concerns were addressed, and nothing was left undone. Alpha knew that, because of his experience and skills that had made him the manager, he could get more work done than anyone else on his team, so, he worked side by side with his team to get the work done. Through hard work, dedication, and commitment to the company, they got the work finished to serve the customers.

The second manager, who we’ll call Beta, also worked hard was completely dedicated to the company and its success. This second manager, however, took a very different approach. While he knew that he could do the work, and do it well, he chose to let his team do all the work instead of working alongside them. Instead, he spent his time analyzing what was being done, why it was being done, and how it could be done better. Additionally, he spent his time thinking about the actual team members – were people doing what they wanted to be doing, did they enjoy their work, were they properly motivated, did they feel appreciated? He was able to identify ways to make things more efficient, better motivate the teams, and provide better service. His teams delivered the results needed to serve the customers as well.

So, who is the better manager? Both are delivering the end result to the customer. The difference - Alpha helped foster a good organization, Beta built a great organization. I think this is a common trap that managers fall into, and I’ll admit that this is a trap I’ve fallen into in the past as well. There is just so much work to be done that the goal is simply to get “done”. When you look at it this way, it becomes clear why an organization would be relegated to being “good” if the managers simply view their goals as getting to “done”. Beta, however, empowered and trusted his staff to get the work finished and made sure his goals were beyond simply finishing the work at hand. Beta looked for ways to continuously improve the organization, better serve the customers, and improve the lives of those who worked for him. By never settling for being “good” – just delivering the expectations – Beta will build a strong, great organization.

In practical application, however, it may not always be possible for a manager to be either like Alpha or Beta, and may need to be a combination. A good manager (and leader) needs to know when it is necessary to get his hands dirty and actually work with his staff to get the work done. This actually is necessary at times just to understand what is actually being done and maintain the perspective of the worker, not to mention great for the morale of the team members. Depending on the size of the organization, it may be necessary for managers to actually produce the work alongside their staff just to ensure everything gets finished. The challenge that every manager must overcome is ensuring that no matter how much effort is required in working alongside the staff, they don’t forget to be continuously strategic in thinking of ways to improve the organization, processes, and better serve both their teams and their customers.

Stimulus Vs. Response

As I discussed in my previous post, I am a big fan of Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. One of the stories he relates is that of a Viktor Frankl – a prisoner of a Nazi concentration camp. Despite the horrible torture and treatment that Frankl was subjected to, he maintained that he was more “free” than his captors. While his captors were bound by both responsibility in their duties in the prison and by their hatred toward those they held captive, he was free choose his own response to whatever happens to him.

I found this story to be extremely powerful. It is hard to imagine someone under these circumstances who wouldn’t consider himself to be a victim and give up all hope. Instead, he remained resilient and strong. Applying this concept to your life gives you such power and control.

How often do you find yourself saying something like, “he made me mad”? I know I certainly do. But, if you think about this statement and relate it back to the lessons from Frankl you realize it makes no sense. Mad is your response to whatever the person did. You have the power to choose your response. So, no one can make you mad, you can simply choose to be mad in response to the actions of someone. To say that they made you mad gives them the power to control your emotions.

This all boils down to a common problem – the victim mentality. People who choose to give away their ability to control their responses. These are people who blame those around them for their mood and all of their problems. All of the misfortunes in their life are the results of those around them, out of their control, leaving them completely free of blame and a victim to their circumstances. Once you realize that you can control your response to everything that happens to you, you gain the ability to be more logical and think with your mind instead of your emotions. This gives you a far more positive attitude and outlook on life.

This is, of course, easier said than done. I think it is just human nature to immediately react with an emotional response when something negative happens. Even as a strong believer in this theory, I still find that it is work to overcome the initial emotional response with a logical, beneficial response. Depending on the stimulus, this can be extremely difficult.

I tend to think about this concept a lot whenever I am stuck in heavy traffic. Obviously, no one likes to be stuck in heavy traffic. I tend to find myself becoming frustrated and upset, and have to remind myself that I am choosing to be frustrated, and that being frustrated won’t benefit me in any way. Instead, I think about the fact that it gives me time to listen to the radio or contemplate the world. Similarly, when someone cuts me off in traffic or nearly hits my vehicle, despite my initial desire to yell at them, I just think that there is no reason to be angry, that would just ruin my day and put me in a bad mood, and with all the great things in my life someone cutting me off in traffic has no effect at all in the grand scheme of things. When I see people who become visibly angry in traffic reacting to those around them, I feel sorry for them. Their days are being ruined by their inability to control their emotions. I often wonder how bad their lives must be if they get so angry over something that is really so minor in the grand scheme of the world.

Steven Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Over the last few years, I have become a strong follower of Steven Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People book and program. The company I served decided to send its senior leadership team to this training course. I complied, and went to the training, although was not optimistic going into the training that it would have any value. With so many different types of programs out there, I've always thought they were gimmicky and trying to sell you a quick "self help" that will solve all the worlds problems. After the week training, I was sold that this wasn't the case and this is a great program.

Much of the content in the book/program is common sense - things we really already know, but, don't think about. The book helps to frame concepts from a new perspective, making you really think about things you already "know", and in turn, learning more about it. The content focuses on 7 habits that one must master as they progress from dependence (the lowest level) through interdependence (the highest level where you are the most effective). The habits are: Be Proactive, Begin with the End in Mind, Put First Things First, Think Win-Win, Seek First to Understand, Synergize, and Sharpen the Saw. The real lessons to be learned within the content aren't in these steps as a checklist, however. The important take away is how to interact with people, how to approach relationships, and how to achieve your goals by aligning them with the goals of others.

One of the big takeaways early in the content is the concept of a matrix of importance versus urgency - breaking all of your tasks up by those that are urgent but not important, urgent and important, and unimportant but urgent, and unimportant and not urgent. Obviously the goal is to spend your time working on those items that are truly important, and recognize that there is a lot out there that is urgent but not important.

Another concept presented in the first section that is a hangup for many people is the idea of your circle of influence. Essentially, this means that if it isn't something you can control or influence, there is no reason to worry about it. So, you should focus your efforts entirely on areas where you can make an impact and have an influence. Something I find interesting in this is defining your circle of influence. For many people, their circle of influence is defined for them. They are simply told what their responsibilities are and what needs to be done. As one becomes a stronger leader, and gain higher levels of responsibility within an organization, they gain the ability to control their circle more. Further, they gain the ability to control the circles for those around them. A good leader will understand an area where they can have an impact, align themselves properly within that area to ensure it is within their influence, and then assist those around them who have the capability and capacity to play a role to align their circles with the needs.

The content focuses heavily on how to interact with other people. This concept begins with empathetic listening - the ability to really listen to understand what someone is saying. So often, people only partially listen, while they are really just thinking of what they are going to say next. This teaches the importance of understanding what the other person is saying, and fully listening to them to hear what they have to say. Understanding what someone is saying allows you to put yourself into their perspective. This is critical for being able to form a true win-win situation where both people can gain.

This blog topic is something that I could talk about for pages and pages. Instead, though, I might save individual topics for future blog postings. A couple of other concepts that I find particularly important are the ideas of the separation of stimulus and response, and that you can only influence people by changing yourself.

Covey's work has a lot of similarity with Dale Carnegie's work on How to Win Friends and Influence People. Carnegie's work came first, and, no doubt, was an influence to Covey as he wrote his books. I personally think the Covey content is far better than Carnegie. Covey's seems to have so much more depth and importance. My feeling from reading Carnegie's book was that it was very self gratifying, it is structured around an approach of presenting a concept and then giving examples of how people who listened to him succeeded because they listened to him. I felt the book was all about telling you to complete certain actions in order to gain success. Further, success was defined solely on the basis of financial business accomplishments. Covey's work, however, uses stories and examples to present concepts and develop the basis for theories. His work focuses on becoming a better person who is better able to interact with the world around them. Its about self improvement - not just steps to win. Further, while the ultimate goal can be applied to business successes, it emphasizes making those around you successful as well. I highly recommend Covey's work to anyone.

Executive MBA vs. Traditional

This is a question that I struggled with before beginning an MBA program. I decided on the Executive MBA program at West Virginia University, and have now completed 3 semesters of the 5 semester program. I'm excited to graduate this coming December (2010).

When I finished my undergrad degree, I was ready to be done with school. I graduated with a BBA with dual majors in Management and Management Information Systems. I was offered a job at the university in a graduate assistant position that would have allowed me to complete an MBA for free. But, after four years in school, I was ready to start making some money and really applying my education and experience I'd gained in internships. So, I declined the offer to stay and left the university.

I had always thought that at some point I wanted to go back and get an MBA. Although I felt I had learned a great deal in actually working within the business world, I knew those credentials after my name could help to open some doors, and that there was certainly more I could learn on the theoretical front to apply to my real world experiences. For a long time, I toyed with the idea of leaving the work world for a while to go to school full time in an MBA program. I figured if I was going to do this, I wanted to go big and try to go to an ivy league school (bring on the debt!). I greatly struggled with the practicality of this notion, though. Would it really be worthwhile to loose a year or two's income, go into debt, and loose the additional experiences I would gain from working? From a financial perspective, did it really make any sense. From a personal perspective, did I really want to give up my lifestyle and go back to that of a poor college student?

These ideas stayed in the back of my mind, and the concept of actually going forward with this was more resigned to my plans after winning the lottery or making a fortune with some new project. I hadn't given serious consideration to any executive MBA programs. One of the first reasons was that, living in West Virginia, there aren't any ivy league schools within a reasonable distance. Next, the concept of working my 40+ hour work weeks, and then going to class a few evenings a week, and studying the other nights for the next few years didn't sound too appealing - it seemed like I would basically have to put my life on hold for this extended period.

Ultimately, opportunities availed themselves to make the decision a bit easier. My employer offered to support me in the Executive MBA program at West Virginia University. Initially, I wasn't too excited about the idea of WVU - not that I had anything against the university, it is a fine place, and their business school is fully accredited, but, it wasn't the Wharton, Harvard, or Yale of which I had dreamt. With the company offering to pay for the education, though, it certainly had huge financial benefits - I would continue making my salary, gaining professional and leadership experience, and not go into any debt to attain the degree. So, the only direct cost to me would be in the loss of my evenings and weekends for 2 and a half years. After some deliberation, I decided to go for it, and started the program.

Now that I'm over half way through the program, I still question at times if the right decision were made. From a financial perspective, I think there is no question this was the right move to make. Also, I realize that the chances of my ever really abandoning my work life to move off to a bigger school was probably slim, so, this was much more realistic. I've found that although it does take a significant amount of time between class and studying, I can still maintain a good personal life.

So, what are the cons to the program? Well, first off, you don't have a full immersion into the education process. If in a full time program, your primary efforts involve focusing on your school work. In this format, you are balancing constraints between work, personal, and school life, so, clearly don't spend as much "thought" time with studying. Next, worth mentioning in my case is that I'm not attending an ivy league school, which I may have otherwise done. Another big drawback is the perception of the executive programs. I've heard that some employers don't give the same level of weight to candidates with EMBA programs as they do traditional students. It's somewhat disheartening to think that I'm doing all this work just for potential future employers to disregard the degree because of the format.

There are certainly benefits of the program as well. Obviously, being able to not lose your income and experience while you are obtaining the degree is a huge plus. In my case, having it fully paid for is another huge benefit. Also, although I listed the level of immersion as a drawback above, a benefit to this is that you are able to instantly apply what you are learning to real life business situations. In a traditional MBA program, you might learn something, apply it to some business study cases, but, not really directly apply it for a couple years. In my case, what I'm learning in the evening may have direct application the very next day, so, I can put it to use and see the immediate results.

There are certainly benefits and cons to both formats. In my case, although I still question it occasionally, I think I made the right practical decision that was in my best interest.

A couple other comments are that the program I am going through is still an actual physical classroom setting. Although we do have some distance learning sites in other cities, everyone is actually sitting in a classroom, listening live to a professor, and interacting with the classroom. It is not an online program where you work at your own pace and just read notes from professors. I'll admit that there is a bit of hypocrisy here - while I don't want anyone to judge my degree because of the format, I do think less of online degrees. In hiring decisions, I've actually considered people with online degrees to essentially not have the degrees. I've always felt that the in class interaction and learning process is very important, and that would be missed in an online program. Also, unfortunately a few fly by night online degree places that give degrees in exchange for a payment have given the whole concept a bad name.

I began by talking about an opportunity to get an MBA right after my bachelors degree. I'm glad I made the decision to get work experience first. I think the MBA education has a much greater impact after you've had true work experience. By having years of experience before going, you have a lot more real world application to draw upon. Further, by having this experience, you better understand the importance and value of what you are studying.

Religion and Business

The topic of religion and business is one that interests me. First, so there is no misunderstanding, I think that the two are best not mixed - religion and business are very separate things. By combining the two, you run the risk of alienating your employees and your customers. Further, assuming your business isn't directly related to a religion, there is not direct cross over between the two.

At times, however, this can be taken too far. For example, always having Holiday or X-Mas parties instead of a Christmas party, etc. When planning my company's end of the year festivities, I still called it a Christmas party. To be fair, as the company is primarily located in a very homogeneous area, there, unfortunately, isn't much diversity so nearly everyone in the company celebrates Christmas, making this easier. I actually had employees tell me that they felt it was refreshing that we didn't try to hide or disguise it and actually called it a Christmas party.

But, I'm getting off topic - what I wanted to discuss is the application of religion in business. I'm very clear that I don't think the two should mix, yet, I also believe that my religion makes me a better business leader. The core fundamentals of nearly all religions teach traits such as honesty, compassion, trust, high morality, and other "higher level" type personality traits. These same traits are those of a strong leader. For someone to truly be able to lead an organization, a team, a project, etc., they have to have integrity and earn the respect of those they lead. The best way to earn this respect is to genuinely care about your teams and those you work with, conduct yourself truthfully, and to not look for ways to take advantage of nor cheat people.

Unfortunately, many business people don't seem to grasp this concept. Greed for the almighty dollar all to often overwhelms people so they lose site of these ideals. We see this regularly on the news, and I'm sure everyone has seen it where they work.

So, despite the separation of religion and business, if your looking for a good way to get centered as a leader, try going to church. So much of the ideals taught in the study of faith can be directly applied to your professional work life in how you choose to conduct yourself and present yourself to the world.

The Team Member Win-Win

First, I have to give credit where credit is due - the idea of a "Win-Win" agreement actually came from the Steven Covey's 7 Habits training course. I'm a huge fan of these works and they have dramatically impacted my management style. I've took the concept of a "Win-Win" agreement and made it my own with great success. It is something I wish I'd started using a long time ago.

The idea of the "win-win" agreement for employees is that you want to find the ideal relationship between the employee and the company where both parties "win" - they get what they want and need. Early in my career as a manager, I used to think this was simple - the company wanted/needed the employee to produce work in whatever capacity they were assigned, the employee wanted a paycheck and some occassional recognition, and both were happy and productive. This is a very shallow approach though, and only barely touches the concept of a true "win-win" relationship.

Of course the employee wants a paycheck. Unless you are finding a cure for cancer or petting baby kittens, most people probably aren't going to come to work if they stop getting a paycheck. But, there is a lot more than this that motivates employees. We could certainly get into the expectancy theory, X and Y motivational theories, pyramid of needs, and all those, but, those aren't too important for now. At the end of the day, I believe all people want to feel good about themselves, feel they are valued, and feel they are progressing. So, I combined the idea of a "win-win" agreement with progression planning. Another mistake I made earlier in my career was assuming that all employees desired the same progression path that I had, but, this simply isn't true.

I would hold one on one monthly "win-win" meetings with each of my direct report staff. This took a good bit of time and was a commitment, but, I feel it was very worthwhile. I would talk to each employee about what they wanted to do, what types of projects they enjoyed, and what areas of the company were the most attractive to them. Once we defined what their "win" was, we next openly discussed how that would benefit the company. This allowed them to take an active role in their progression and help determine ways that the business could be improved by allowing them to do what they wanted to do. Once this was determined, we could lay out a roadmap of how to get there. Perhaps they needed more training, more exposure to certain types of projects, a better working network with certain other teams, etc. We could lay out goals and have a clear understanding of what hurdles may be in the way.

I'm sure you can imagine the impact this has on employees - to feel that they have a say in their progression and are valued enough by their employer to control their own destiny. I've heard people say before that the way you progress and move forward is by jumping between companies getting progressively higher roles - and with many companies this does seem like the best method. Why loose your greatest talents, though. By giving them opportunities to progress internally and feel that they are progressing with each passing month, you greatly increase loyalty and decrease turnover.

This program did have a few downfalls, however. First, things may not move at the pace some team members might like. A team member might have felt that if they did X, Y, and Z, they would instantly get what they wanted, and forget that the business need still has to exist. Also, what happens when multiple employees are working towards the same goal. Obviously, good incentive programs recognize all employees who achieve certain levels, but, within a hierarchial organization structure, only one person can get that next level. So, if multiple employees are working towards the same goal, both are doing everything in their goals to progress, you must pick the best, and have to play careful damage control to avoid demotivating the one(s) that didn't get the promotion. The best defense for this is simply to be upfront with expectations.

Despite some potential liabilities from the program, all in all it is a great way to motivate and retain employees. It opens up communication and keeps employees engaged. This is definitely a program that I will continue to use in future teams.

Business Community Involvement

More and more businesses are realizing the benefits of community involvement. While many business still ignore the importance of this, it is crucially important and can greatly improve a business in a number of ways.

First, through community involvement many businesses can realize direct increased sales. Whether a business sells to residential or business customers, being seen as a part of the community directly results in revenue. Businesses tend to like to do business with local businesses, and by seeing an organization playing an active role in the community, they see that they are local and vested in the community. Many chamber of commerce organizations have evidence to show that chamber members do business with other chamber members - because they feel a part of the same community. For residential customers, this may hold even more true. Individuals inherently want to trust those they purchase services or products from, and by being a part of that individuals community, you can establish this trust.

Another reason why businesses benefit from direct community involvement is that the business gains a personal face to its potential constituents. Whether this face is that of a salesman, executive, manager, or just a positive team member, it enables customers to see that it isn't simply a business wanting their money, it is real people behind the business. Local people who attend the same sporting events as them, attend the same churchs, go to the same shopping malls - in other words - people just like them they can trust. Essentially, you turn your team members into corporate champions within the environment. Finally, as every team member is, at some degree, a salesman for the company, this helps to improve networking

Beyond the most direct benefits that come from community involvement of increased revenues, are the benefits to the employees of the organization. The same psychological effects for potential customers also apply to the companies team members. Employees want to feel that they work for a great company. Although this might not rank up there as high as other interests and motivating factors, employees still enjoy feeling that work for an upstanding and socially responsible organization. By connecting the company to the community where employees live, they in turn feel more connected to their community. This results in directly increased employee morale. Increased employee morale directly equals increased productivity, and decreased employee turnover - leading to lowered operational costs. Those employees who choose or are selected to represent the company through its community involvement also feel increased levels of loyalty to the company and the community - making offers to go to work for other organizations or other geographic locations less appealing. Finally, by being connected in with the community, the company gains a better reputation and better access to local talent, improving their ability to attract and retain the best talent around.

There are a wide variety of types of community involvement for a business to choose to participate. This can range from traditional levels of involvement such as through the chamber of commerce or other local industry associations, to sponsorship of local events, participation in charitable organizations, sponsoring childrens teams, etc.

Although perhaps the simplest way for a business to get involved is with the checkbook, this doesn't yield the best dividends. By simply sponsoring events or teams to get your name out, you gain the benefit of name recognition and being local, but, you don't engage your employees in the community. Involvement by the corporate checkbook is still very important, as it enables many great community activities that desperately need funding. As they say, to understand what is important to a business, look at their budget - if a business doesn't allocate any funds to local support, it probably doesn't really care that much for the local community.

One of the absolute best methods for community involvement is a structured and supported volunteer program. This has the benefit of costing very little, can have a large impact on the community, and can get a large number of employees active and involved. Volunteerism is even considered to be "in fashion" now, so, getting employees involved may not take much prompting. By choosing projects that allow employees to get involved with a project with a defined and accomplishable boundary, employees will feel good about themselves, feel good about the company, and feel good about the community - a definite win all the way around.