How to become a successful Leader, and how to get started from where I am right now? [Corinne Rattay]

Humans admire successful leaders. From the well-known names of history to specific people in our industry, or maybe even inside the company we are currently working for, there are people we simply admire. If I asked you who holds such a special place for you, at least one person’s name would pop up in your mind within the first 10 seconds, wouldn’t it?

This is the Engineering Leadership Special Interest Group (ELSIG) of the Software Development Forum (SDForum). So I’ve decided to write about leadership, a topic which is very dear to my heart. You’ll understand more once you get to know me.

In my managerial hi-tech career I’ve had to lead teams of over 100 engineers across Silicon Valley, US East Coast and India towards putting out the best possible version of Network Operating Systems under tremendous time and budget pressure. Those of you who are at VP or director level can relate to this. What had never been done before needed to be approached boldly. And I’m sure your responsibilities may even be more challenging and exciting. Yes, excitement is an important driver isn’t it?

Maybe you have dreamed of engaging into a bigger leadership role at your present level in your career, wanting to become a little bit more like some of the inspiring leaders you’ve observed in your industry or company. I have at least, to be completely honest with you. I’ve wanted to become a successful leader myself for a long time. Not necessarily to play at the same level as the ones I admired, but at least become a better leader than I considered myself to be at that time. And I’ve struggled, as you can imagine. So, did that mean that true leadership wasn’t for me?

With your permission let me make in innocent guess here: I could assume that the people who have become successful leaders in our surrounding environment (i.e. company, industry, personal sphere, …) have all had a clear vision, clear goals and somehow were either incredibly skilled or fortunate to be on a path filled with success after success. It somehow looks like it, doesn’t it?

If you’re like me, you may object intellectually that this assumption isn’t reality. So how did these successful leaders get to where they are today? What is it that you or I had to or have to do differently compared to before this moment of decision?

Maybe you are an influential leader already and are merely reading this out of curiosity (which successful leaders typically do) or you are experiencing some resistance at this point in your life and I may simply share with you what I have learned over time which would have made life so much easier for me back then.

The first thing you should know about me is that I’ve made many mistakes and learned greatly from them. The truth is that I didn’t even have a clear vision of what successful leadership was really about. I’m not embarrassed to say today that a few years back I equated “successful” with “me” being successful, with “me” being “significant” (yes, let me cut right to it) in just the ways I saw successful leaders as being people “significant” to me in my eyes.

If I could only share one key insight with you, it would be that I’ve learned that successful leaders don’t focus on their own significance but on the significance and success of what they stand for. What they envision is so much bigger than their individuality in their own eyes. That’s why they succeed in making things so much better for everyone.

Ok, but let’s get back to where you and I may be right now. So can we grow towards the character, charisma and passion that come with the role of a successful leader? Yes, you probably know intellectually that this is indeed a possibility. How to get started though when one doesn’t have a clear vision, clear goals and the necessary skills (yet)?

I’ve learned a few crucial insights through personal experience, which I’d like to share with you in order to assist in whatever way may be useful on your journey if you choose so. In summary the most crucial ones I believe are below:

• a clear direction you feel compelled moving into will do perfectly in the absence of a fully developed vision; you can refine and make things concrete along the path.


• get in touch with the person you want to become; catch yourself acting like him/her every once in a while and rejoice yourself; be passionate about it.


• getting started is not a matter of skills but of clarity of the path you want to pursue and the level of motivation for yourself; have absolute clarity of why you want to be on this path and what you’ll need to give up if you don’t.


• take one step at a time instead of overwhelming yourself; don’t try to swallow the entire mountain or elephant in one bite; let things unfold, make one thing better than it is today through your own action and keep doing it consistently.


• adopt a “responsibility vs. victim” attitude; whatever happens around you, understand that you still have the freedom of choice of how to respond.


• cultivate your value system; develop integrity, trust and passion for what you do and for the people you’re interacting with

Skills of course are important also to become a successful leader. The key to really understand here is that they are not what is needed first on this journey. Speaking in front of a large audience, speaking up in a tense meeting and disagreeing for the sake of something bigger at stake, you name it. The truth is that you’ll acquire all the needed skills along your path as I have and am still doing.

In fact, this is a never-ending journey of personal and professional fulfillment once we’ve understood what life really is about.

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Corinne Rattay works with senior hi-tech executives on strategic leadership, breakthrough communication and effective execution, helping her clients to achieve extraordinary results. She can be reached at crattay@crexecutiveconsulting.com or at www.CRexecutiveconsulting.com


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Whose English is it Anyway? [Kimberly Wiefling]

My work takes me from my home in the San Francisco Bay Area, where more than 50% of the people living here don’t speak English at home, to Japan and elsewhere around the world nearly every month. I have the distinct honor and pleasure of working with people from all over the world, and recently had an incredible adventure with 37 people from 12 different countries who all came together as a global team to propose the future direction of their company. It’s an incredible experience to work with such a diverse group, and a heck of a challenge due to the most basic of reasons – we all speak different languages.

Even though all members usually speak some version of “English”, it might as well be Klingon. There’s the traditional British English, and many more, including Australian English, New Zealand English, South African English, Canadian English, English of “the islands”, African English, Singapore English, East Indian English, as well as heavily accented versions of Spanish English, German English, French English, and the worst of the worst – American. Without modifications, or an interpreter, no sustained meaningful communication is possible among these disparate groups.

If you’re a native English speaker, working in a global team, you need to stop speaking English. Stop speaking YOUR English, that is – if you want to understand, and be understood by your colleagues. Delving a bit more deeply into the various versions of the so-called “shared language” called English based on my own personal experience:

Americans – Strictly speaking you don’t speak “English”. You speak “American”. It’s different. Just listen to someone from New Zealand speaking English and you’ll know exactly what I mean. Or catch a couple of idiom-laden blurbs of British English from a person from the UK. You won’t understand what they’re saying, and they’ll be horrified when you start talking about your“fanny pack”.

UK People – For people who didn’t grow up with British English as their native language, no one will have a clue what you mean when you start complaining about the “tallback” that delayed your arrival at work.

East Indian Colleagues – As an American Native English speaker, I reluctantly admit that I can’t understand more than 70% of “Hinglish” because the emPHAsis is on a difFERent sylLAble than I am accustomed to.

Singapore – “Singlish” is musical and beautiful, but – unless I watch your lips every moment, and assure that my attention doesn’t drift in the least – I can only understand about 50% of what you are saying.

Australians – It’s not as bad as listening to someone from Texas or Georgia, but it’s pretty tough to understand you, mates!

New Zealand Colleagues – Really, I get such a headache focusing on what you are saying that it makes the Australian accent seem almost easy to understand. As I mentioned previously, listening to you is not quite as challenging as understanding people from my own country who hail from Texas or Georgia, but it’s pretty darn demanding.

There are other examples, but you get the idea. I don’t want to beat a dead horse (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

The former CEO of ABB, Percy Barnevik, stated that the official language of the company was “bad English”. I almost agree, but I reject the negative connotations of “bad English” in favor of “Global English”. And a CEO of a Korean company advised his people that it’s more important to speak badEnglish than good Korean.

Although I’m sure that most people assume that they are perfectly understandable to others when they speak English (especially my American colleagues!) in my experience they all might as well be speaking entirely different languages. The solution is not to speak English. The solution is for ALL of us to STOP speaking English and START speaking GLOBAL English.

I’m not a linguist, but here’s a few things I’ve learned about effective communications among global teams:

- Do your L.A.P.S.s.s.s!

• Loud – Speak loudly so people can at least receive the soundwaves.


• Attention – Make sure you visually make contact with the person you’re talking with before starting to speak to them. Eye contact varies greatly across cultures, and can be uncomfortable, but is critical to beginning a conversation.


• Pause – Many non-native English speakers are “translating in their head”. Although not ideal, it’s a reality that they will need a few seconds to grock (sorry!) what you said.


• Slow – Speak slowly . . . painfully slowly. Imagine you are speaking in molasses, then slow down even more.


• Simple – Use simple words. Native English speakers use over 5000 different works, but non-native speakers use something like 500 – 1500. Don’t go showing off your vocabulary if you want to be understood.


• Short – Short sentences. No long-winded phraseology, with obscure references to previous clauses.


• Smile – If they can’t understand you, at least they’ll like you!

- No idioms, slang, obscure references.

- Don’t never use no double negatives!

In my experience, it’s not just European, Asian, South American or African people who need to change how they communicate. EVERYONE needs to adopt Global English in order to assure that 21^st century global company teams can understand each other.

STOP speaking English. If you are a so-called “native” English speaker, DEFINITELY stop speaking English! START speaking GLOBAL ENGLISH. It’s better for you, it’s better for your colleagues, it’s better for your company, and it’s better for your business profitability.

If we truly are going to realize the dream of a global economy where we collaborate across time zones and cultural boundaries for mutual benefit, we ALL need to change the way we communicate. Let’s not wait for “other people” to change so that it’s easier for us to communicate. Let’s all share the responsibility for improving communication and moving toward a truly global economy.

It’s in ALL of our best interests to make the pie bigger instead of arguing over who gets the crumbs. That win-win scenario begins with speaking a common language, and it's not as easy as just saying "English". It's GLOBAL English. Give it a shot (sorry again!).

Originally published on CareerShorts.com where Kimberly has been invited to contribute blogs periodically on global leadership and project management.

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Project Manager Meets The Steering Committee [Glen Gage]

Situation: You, the project manager, have just been called to represent your project at the next IT Steering Committee meeting, a meeting that includes the CEO and is held once every three months.

It can be daunting to be called before a group of 'C' levels, VPs and other executives when you aren't used to it. When you are used to it it's even worse because any naive thoughts you may have had of a group making reasoned business decisions based on open dialog and fact have long since evaporated. Steering Committees are some percentage true to their charters and the other percentage a hot bed of corporate politics. The percentages vary from company to company and within companies, from month to month.

Your first thoughts upon receiving the invitation were mixed--pride and fear. Good. Appropriate. The devil on your left shoulder whispered in your ear "Don't worry, it's no big deal. You know what's going on in the project, just relax and go to the meeting. They just want to tell you what a good job you're doing." The angel on your right shoulder whispered "This is a big deal. Get prepared, thoroughly prepared."

The first thing you did right when your manager told you your presence was expected at the next IT Steering Committee meeting was to ask why. When the answer was vague (your manager isn't on the committee) you did the second right thing, you arranged a few minutes with the project's sponsor (who is on the committee) to find out why and ask a number of other questions.

The answer to 'why' might range from "Project Managers are invited randomly so that they get the experience of executive level dialog and exposure to the management team. It is all a part of our employee development program" (not likely) to "This is a critical project and not everyone feels they have a handle on it." (whoops, is your communication plan not working?) to any number of reasons. The important thing is to find out why they want you there so that once you are there you can satisfy them.

I'll tell you now that you performed well because you listened to the angel on your right shoulder and because you knew in advance not only why you were invited, but what senior executives want in general.

What do they (Executives) want in general? They want the project finished and the benefits on which it was sold accruing. You and others may want the project for the project itself, after all its your job for the moment. They don't, it's a means to an end, full stop. What they want from you: competence, in control, working to achieve the benefits for the company promised by the project (vs. the details of the project.) Be aware that they look at project managers as commodities. One PM isn't working swap another in. It can't be that hard to learn MS Project, right? I don't think this way but most of them do.

Let's look back on your performance and see why it went well...

The sponsor told you you were invited because Sales was questioning the importance of the project, especially in light of the recent three month delay. You also found out where you were in the agenda, who else would be there, what they thought of the project, how to dress, how early to show up, the fact that it would be a good idea to have a few slides to show and a hand-out, and that your sponsor was a good guy and would support you. Then you were on your own.

You prepared your message and you visualized the end result. You practiced over and over in your mind driving to work. You did a dry run with your spouse. You prepared simple materials to hand out--bullet points and pictures, the detailed information planned for verbal delivery, detailed documentation written in case you had to distribute something. You made sure your project binder was up-to-date and indexed and you brought it to the meeting.

During the meeting you kept your cool and always appeared attentive and interested, but never cock-sure. You watched the body language.

Here is what happened:

You were introduced by the chair, the CIO. You had barely started when the VP of Sales interrupted. "These damn IT projects are like the pork and barrel Congress. Full of fat and low on delivery. For example, look at functions 12.1.4.5 and 12.1.4.6, if I can navigate this requirements spec properly! Where the hell did they come from?" You wanted to say "Then why did you sign off on the requirements document, you monkey?" but you didn't. Instead, you went to your project binder, found the data, and were able to say "Those functions were proposed by Mr. Bell A. Whistle at the user workshop held in Atlanta last month. The full group approved them as items with significant business benefit but not essential for version one. The development cost was estimated as low so they were included in the User Requirements Document for version 1." Then you stopped talking. Good, you answered his question. Everyone knows the Sales VP signed off and everyone knows he was represented at the workshop.

You continued with your presentation. The delay in your project was due to a change request from Sales that took several weeks to clarify, and this was your next topic. Your sponsor had coached you on how to phrase this part of your presentation. After your brought up the delay and why, the room went nuts--finger pointing, accusations, red faces. You did your job, you stayed out of it. As project manager you need to navigate politics, but it is not your job to resolve it, certainly not at the level you saw being played out before your eyes. You soaked it all in and kept an expression that communicated interest and professional concern. In fact the argument had little to do with your project.

When the dust settled you had an action item to modify the functionality of the software slightly and the direction that if the supplier gave you a hard time you should refer them to the sponsor. You began to finish your presentation but it was clear from the expressions in the room that the reason you'd been invited had been taken care of. You asked if there were any questions. There weren't. You thanked everyone and went back to work.

End note:

This little tale had a happy ending. Sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes there isn't anything you can do about it. In my tale there is an assumption that your project was approved because the steering committee 'power field' leaned toward supporting it. Sometimes, very rarely, but in my experience, projects are approved to discredit the sponsor. If that had been the case in my tale above you would still have survived because everyone (who counts) would know why your project was crushed, and everyone would respect the fact that you kept your cool and professionalism.

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Mr. Gage is an independent consultant with extensive international and cross-industry consulting and line management experience. Getting the highly unlikely done is the hallmark of his career.

Mr. Gage teaches a variety of project management classes in partnership with Fog City Consulting. These classes count toward Personal Development Units (PDUs) with the Project Management Institute (PMI). Links to these classes can be found on his web site https://sites.google.com/site/gageinnovation

I would love to hear from you. If you found an article interesting or not, please comment. Thanks in advance!

Contact information for Mr. Gage can be found on http://www.linkedin.com/in/glengage

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Glen_Gage


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A Journey of 1000 Miles is Still 1000 Miles Long [Rich Mironov]

It's easy to confuse actual progress with intentions to make progress.

Why point out the obvious? I've just come out of another agile conversation where prospective clients confused "we want to build better software faster" with "we hope that some new processes will instantly catch us up on years of slipped deadlines and missing features."

So paraphrasing Confucius, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but is still a thousand miles long. Even at twice your normal walking speed, be prepared for a very long slog."

For context, nearly every software development team would like to be more productive, ship better product, and be innovative. Almost by definition, though, those with the biggest productivity issues are the furthest behind - with months (years) of unmet customer requirements and technical debt. Shovelfuls of postponed promises piled in a heap. Which means that calls for better development processes are usually in the context of big, ugly backlogs and long-suffering customers.

So the unstated question in these meetings is "how do we catch up to where we were already supposed to be? Can a better process (in the future) also erase our previous shortfalls?" Stated that baldly, it seems naive. Yet the emotional logic is very real. Everyone wants a fresh start, a reset, a mulligan. Surely an outside expert or shiny new process will catch us up. Or not.

So What Do We Do Now?

Consider a hypothetical software team that sporadically ships product, has run up a stack of technical debts, missed some customer commitments, and needs a series of process improvements. Business needs are pressing, so there's no option to halt development for a radical retooling.

You might try some combination of these:

Pick one small thing as a demonstration, and make it successful. For example, if we're having trouble planning and estimating, then identify one very small project for careful planning and estimation. Focus the team on completing just that - mostly on time and reasonably on spec. This becomes our existence proof for improvement: having done a better job once on something small, we can do it again. (After all, a journey of a thousand miles...)

Ruthlessly prioritize. There are years of backlogs to address, and our newly hopeful development team can still only handle a few items at a time. Make sure that the next handful of small improvements are truly the most important. For everything else, 'nice to have' translates to 'not this year.'

Don't confuse small with big. As soon as a few tiny things start arriving on schedule, internal stakeholders will be lobbying for massive overhauls. ("If the engineering team can rewrite a report in a week, can't they re-architect all of our business processes in a month?")

Be transparent. Explain your 'do one small thing right' strategy to all internal stakeholders. (To be fashionable, you can call it 'agile.') Remind everyone that we still have 998 miles to go, but we're picking up the pace.

Share small improvements with customers. They are likely to be hungry for any good news, and eager for you to succeed. Gather some applause for your team. Customers don't really expect you to fix everything at once, but need some sense of progress.

Do your math. If we have two years of backlogs to work through, and we double our development speed, then it may take a year to catch up. Avoid magical thinking.

Celebrate the positive. Regardless of the starting point, your teams need a sense of progress and optimism. Highlight small triumphs, applaud people who are doing the right things, divert attention from yourself.

And wear comfortable shoes. There's a lot of walking to do. Because Confucius also said that "no matter where you go, there you are.

SoundByte

Find some improvements that you can make now, and establish a trend. Most long-term issues are solved with incremental changes and successes, not through one big fix.

Crossposted at http://www.mironov.com/1000miles/

Rich Mironov is a serial entrepreneur, product management thought leader, and agile “product guy.” He’s the author of The Art of Product Management, and writes about software, startups, organizations and technology customers at www.mironov.com .


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Suppressing Your Feminine Side May Be Bad for Business [Kimberly Wiefling]

About 15 years ago a woman I barely knew, the wife of a coworker, was listening to me describe the challenges I faced as a project manager at Hewlett Packard. “You’re not using your feminine power!” she suddenly pronounced, as if she’d just discovered the cause of some mysterious chronic illness I’d been suffering from for a lifetime. My first reaction was, “Use my feminine power? I sure hope not!” Since I was obviously perplexed, she further explained that this included nurturing behaviors like bringing food and drinks to meetings, and expressing other characteristics that I’ve heard described as “soft skills” by HR pros. I guessed I missed that in the job description.

You see, I was working in high-tech, and for over a decade I’d painstakingly stamped out any semblance of femininity in my work. After earning a masters degree in physics, a field in which women are almost as scarce as on-time schedules, I’d entered the high-tech engineering world, a profession with an equally abysmal track record of attracting women. Why on earth would I want to associate myself - in any way - with anything female in my work? I was sure I would appear weak and ineffective to my colleagues, and quite possibly my salary would decrease.
Maybe I was being a little paranoid, but until recently, I have done my best to ignore the gender issue in my career. I've steered clear of “radical feminism,” and I most certainly didn’t want to be perceived as “nurturing.” However, this past year I’ve been working on a book project, Scrappy Women in Business, which prompted me to reflect on the role of women in the workplace, and my own experience as a female in a predominantly male work environment. As a result of this, and the changing nature of the work environment, I’ve come to value what my wife’s colleague called my "feminine power." But my initial hesitancy wasn't completely unfounded, given the research on women in the workplace.

Even If I’m Not Nurturing, Chances Are People Will Think I Am

It turns out that it might not matter whether I am nurturing or not – being a woman, it’s likely that I will be perceived as nurturing by CEOs and other top executives. Catalyst, the leading global nonprofit dedicated to expanding opportunities for women in business, published a study in 2005 under the intriguing title Women "Take Care," Men "Take Charge:" Stereotyping of U.S. Business Leaders Exposed. Their research demonstrated that, although women and men often lead in similar ways, they are perceived very differently by both male and female senior executives. Regardless of the reality, women are perceived to be better at supporting and rewarding while men are perceived to be better at delegating and influencing upward.

Unfortunately, these unconscious biases impact the perception of competence and fitness for promotion, though with the growing emphasis on teamwork and collaboration these days, I’m not sure in which direction. We can, however, measure the results by observing the difference in participation of women and men at various levels in the professional world, and in the relative compensation of women and men.

Justice is Blind

Back in the 1970’s women represented only 10% of the musicians in an orchestra. That number has risen over the years to over 35%, and a Princeton University study in the year 2000 found that a big chunk of that gain was due to the switch to blind auditions. When the decision-makers can’t see whether the musician is a women or a man, more women are hired. And a study by The Anita Borg Institute on the recruitment, retention, and advancement of technical women found that women are sometimes preferentially eliminated during the resume review process, even if the interview process is unbiased. Another study specifically comparing evaluations of resumes by randomly assigning a woman’s name found that resumes bearing a woman’s name were rated lower by both women and men. (Perhaps women should use initials instead of first names on resumes, or hiring managers should have the names masked before reviewing them.)

Of course we’re all biased in many ways. All human beings are. Our assumptions and beliefs unconsciously influence our decisions, and our brains are clever enough to keep this process hidden from us so that we think we are making rational decisions based on the facts. Don’t think you’re biased? You can find out in about 15 minutes. Harvard University’s “Project Implicit®” provides a test in exchange for using your data in their studies. You will be randomly assigned one of a variety of bias studies, but you can repeat the process to experience them all. Based on experimenting with this several years ago, I found that I have a slight tendency to associate technical topics with women. Go figure!

Just Because You’re Paranoid Doesn’t Mean People Aren't Out to Get You

According to US Department of Labor statistics, only 10% of employed engineers were women at the turn of the century (2001). And while the salary differential in engineering has largely disappeared, the employment differential remains large in all but the life sciences. Even project management remains a profession with some degree of gender disparity—in both employment and pay. The 2010 PMI Salary Survey suggests that only 40% of US project managers are women (based on survey responders), and that the salaries of women project managers are “considerably lower” than that typical for men (about 10%). Karen Klein’s 2005 article “It’s a Women’s World, Too” does make the point that women are entering the project management profession at rates around double that of men, but still acknowledges that female project managers face barriers to success that are peculiar to women, such as excessive humility and a tendency towards self-criticism.

In spite of the possible risk, and because I’m past typical childbearing age (something executives admit is a real barrier for women in hiring and promotion in off-the-record true confessions), I’m less inclined to eschew my feminine qualities in my work these days. I’ve found that these qualities have become increasingly valued for their importance in delivering extraordinary business results. The incredible diversity of teams, increased focus on alliances and partnerships, the growth of open innovation, crowd-sourcing, and collaboration on a massive scale (facilitated by the internet), have all made people keenly aware of the power of group genius and the importance of a more collaborative style of leadership. I’ve noticed that the work I do as a project manager increasingly involves facilitating interaction rather than giving direction; perhaps it was always about that and I just didn’t notice because I was suppressing my nurturing side.

It turns out that female versions of leadership improve bottom line business results. Companies with higher proportion of women on their top management teams enjoyed 35% greater ROE (Return on Equity) than those with the lowest. Although I’m wary of the trap of stereotypes, in the past couple of years I began to wonder if maybe women and men really do lead in some fundamentally different way. And, with more profit at stake, I hope it’s something that can be learned by anyone, even nurturing-averse me.

There are plenty of pop psychology discussions about gender differences, including the somewhat unimaginatively titled “Are Women Better Project Managers Than Men” on the Toolbox for IT Project and Program Management Blog. Puh-LEESE! This kind of conversation is similar to my Japanese friends asking me to describe Americans. “Which one?” I ask. Like all simplistic questions, the answer to whether men or women are better project managers is, “It depends.” It depends on which woman, or which man, and which project, and in which situation. While statistics can help us understand trends in the aggregate, it’s foolish to apply that data to any specific individual or situation. Those who carelessly apply averages to individuals do both parties an injustice. Let’s not deepen the gender divide by participating in these kinds of debates. Instead, let’s look at facts.

The Road to the Top Winds Uphill All the Way

Is there gender bias at work in project management, and the business world in general? In my project leadership role I make it a practice to focus on the results produced, not the intentions of my team. Customers care about results, not intentions. I think the same approach may work well in this situation. I have no real way of knowing whether there is bias in the process, but I do know that there is a difference in the outcome – the participation and compensation of women relative to men. The measurable data from Catalyst certainly demonstrate a disparity:

• Percentage of women in the U.S. labor force: 46.3%
• Percentage of women in management, professional and related occupations: 50.6%
• Percentage of female Fortune 500 corporate officers: 15.4%
• Percentage of female Fortune 500 board seats: 14.8%
• Percentage of female Fortune 500 top earners: 6.7%
• Percentage of female Fortune 500 CEOs: 2.4%

Of course, root cause analysis is important, but the root cause of being overweight has been well known for years and still I can’t lose 5 kilograms. I personally don’t care whether the remaining disparities between women and men in project management—and the business world in general—are a result of accident, unconscious bias, or a devious plot. The causes no longer interest me. Making and measuring progress does. What’s measured tends to get attention, and frequently improves.
Good intentions or accidental bias can no longer be acceptable as a defense for inequitable results. After all, if I accidentally run you over and land you in the hospital, you’re just as injured as if I’d driven purposely in your direction with intent to harm.

The Coming Shortfall in Working Age Population in the Developed World

Based on a report by the Stanford Center on Longevity, (PDF) it looks to me like it’s in all of our best interests to make workplaces more attractive to human beings in general, and—in fields where they are under-represented—to women in particular. In a decade or two, the shortage of working-age people will be an economic crisis in some parts of the world. Japan and Germany in particular will face at least a 20 percent shortage in the coming decades (That’s why I don’t worry about women’s equality in the workplace in Japan – it’s coming!). We'll need everyone's participation if businesses are going to successfully meet the challenges facing humanity.

The Anita Borg Institute found that technical women leave their companies in mid-career at twice the rate of men. (Read more about this and the reasons why if you like.) Companies are losing women, especially at the mid-career stage. Catalyst reported that women cite four major reasons why companies lose female talent: “lack of flexibility (51%); glass ceiling issues (29%); unhappiness with work environment (28%); and feeling unchallenged in their jobs (22%). Only 5% report being downsized and only 3% say they were victims of sexual harassment.”

Of course, the workplace isn’t all that hospitable to men either. A Gallup Institute study on wellbeing concluded that 77% of all workers hate their jobs. HATE! Wow. That’s much worse than being unhappy with the work environment or feeling unchallenged in a job. I’m no expert at organizational development or the link between worker satisfaction and profit, but I’m guessing this is NOT good for project success or bottom line profits. A little more nurturing probably wouldn’t hurt any of us, or our chances for project success either.

If Being More Nurturing Will Increase Project Success, Bring on the Nurturing!

I was educated as a scientist, and if I were just looking at past data I’d conclude that expressing my so-called feminine side in the high-tech business world would put me at a bit of a disadvantage. But that’s kind of like driving while only gazing into the rearview mirror. With almost everyone hating their jobs, increased emphasis on collaboration, and the coming shortfall in skilled workers, I’m thinking that a more nurturing work environment is going to be a competitive advantage.

In fact, I’ve been experimenting with a more nurturing approach in my work in Japan, and it’s yielding excellent results: noticeably improved performance in various individuals, faster response to my requests, and more enjoyable working relationships. It’s working so well that I’m tempted to try it out on this continent. My only concern is whether it’s possible to be both scrappy and nurturing at the same time. Considering the potential 35% higher ROE, I’ll have to give it a go purely for financial reasons.

Nurturingly yours, - Kimberly

P.S. Scrappy Women in Business – Living Proof that Bending the Rules Isn’t Breaking the Law, will be available in July 2010. This book, and the associated website invite women to draw inspiration from each other’s stories. It’s just a small drop in the bucket, but it is one drop.

©2010 Kimberly M. Wiefling. All Rights Reserved. Published on the SD Forum Engineering Leadership Blog by permission of the author.

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Guy Kawasaki on Entreprenuership 2.0 [Shriram Natarajan]

Guy Kawasaki speaks about his mind altering experiences; holds forth on entrepreneurship and marketing in the social age.

Guy Kawasaki talked about "Entreprenuership 2.0" at UCSC extension in Santa Clara on Wednesday, July 7th. Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow at Apple Computer, Inc. Guy is the author of nine books including The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, , and The Macintosh Way. He has a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from UCLA as well as an honorary doctorate from Babson College.

Alison van Diggelen of Fresh Dialogues collected the questions that the participants had enterred beforehand and asked them of Guy.

It was a wide ranging talk on Guy's opinions on various topics.

On Apple

Seeing the Mactinosh was one of the three all time (legal) highs he has experienced. Other highs were: meeting his wife and playing hockey (in no particular order).

Microsoft or Nokia could have made the iPhone. They should hire the right people and use their almost infinite cash to build products that people actually want. Microsoft or Nokia could have been the iPad maker -- had they just gotten their act together after seeing the iPhone.

Apple is a company that is dedicated to making the coolest products around. The company culture is decidedly inclined towards creating nifty, awe inspiring industrial designs. HP (to bash another company, he said) was built on two guys building oscilloscopes. They would gravitate towards stodgy businesses with safe markets. Apple's founders on the other hand could barely stay out of jail during their salad days.

On Marketing

The best way to market anything is to make sure that you have a great product. It is easy to market good stuff. It is draining to market "crap". Example: It does not take a genius to market the iPad; on the other hand marketing the "Kin" would be an uphill battle.

For a marketer today, social media awareness and presence is key. If you do not do social media today, you are not marketing. Guy opines that this is a fundamental way to do business today and in the future; to the exclusion of traditional marketing tools of focus groups and user surveys. The people are talking to you and about your company/products in various forums. All a marketer has to do is to plug into them to be successful.

On failure

Guy listed his various failures.

His job was to evangelize the Mac way of life to developers and thereby secure the market share for the better product. However Apple lost that battle overwhelmingly to Microsoft.

He does not have a net worth greater than $100 million. He has failed in terms of the movers and shakers of the valley.

He does not own a professional sports team (say the Sharks).

Despite his failure on behalf of Apple, he is best known for his role there. He went on to say that the valley is very forgiving of good faith errors/failures. There are no dynasties (continued success) or pariahs (continued failures). For entrepreneurs, the message is: there will be failures. It will not be the end as long as you learn and stay in the fight.

On investing

He would much rather invest in a couple of engineering graduates that build a product that they would like to use instead of a couple of MBAs from an A-list school with a snazzy slide deck.

He would invest in people that are hungry (living on soy sauce and rice) rather than first-25 employee/VP level person of a highly successful company. His thinking is that if you are a senior employee in a highly successful company you are accustomed to certain comforts and a certain size of bank roll. Also if you are said senior employee, you should be able to fund your ideas and not rely on venture capital.

On success

He is living proof that you can fool most people most of the time. He had no formal training in hardware or programming or computers. He was not even the earliest or most passionate Apple fanatics. He mostly got into Apple via nepotism or his familiarity with the original Mac Evangelist. He considers his key to success is his ability to grind it out. Hard work and passion. As an example, he built his twitter fan base from the ground up and by persistently posting good links.

In another context, he facetiously mentioned that the top five criteria for success were: "luck, luck, luck, luck, luck".

On Steve Jobs

Steve is one of a kind person across all time. The combination of perfectionism, sense of style and hunger to change the world is not possible. Guy would have been worth a couple of billion today had he stuck with Apple over the years. He would have to to put up with Steve for 25 years in the bargain.

In response to someone's questions about Steve Jobs' recent emails about the new iPhone's antenna: Guy thinks that this is probably just to indulge in the pleasure of seeing the response that these actions garner.

On twitter

Twitter occupied a disproportionate amount of time in the chat. He has added a quarter of million subscribers the old fashioned way: one at a time.

The rules of normal interaction seems to apply in twitter (or other social media as well):

- do not take "crap" from anyone (use tweetdeck to filter out and twitter itself to block people you do not like)
- if someone talks to you, talk back
- provide value in your interactions (good links in tweets/updates)
- provide content that is compelling to folks beyond your immediate earshot (measure content quality by the number of retweets)
- if you have provided considerable value over time, it is then kosher to do a little self promotion.


One aspect to his twitter toolkit is taken from the 24 hour news/sports channels: if you watch long enough, you will see the same stories repeat. That is an indication that you are spending too much time on the channel. It also is a tool for Guy to maximise the reach of his message.

Another axiom he has is: if you are not irritating a few people, you are not doing it right.

The only rule on twitter usage is quite simply this: if it works for you, it is right.

On entrepreneurship

Guy's advice to entrepreneurs is:

1) "Ask a woman."

Present your idea to women. They are not predisposed to destruction and could give you constructive ideas on your plan.

2) Build it and you will be funded.

A working prototype is more powerful than any powerpoint slides that you present. Any revenue stream is more powerful than spreadsheets about future monetisation. This goes for securing other funding as well.

3) Market yourself and your ideas

Establish yourself as a goto person in a niche. Build a network of people that look to you for the latest and greatest in a particular area.

4) The time is now:

This is a great time to be an entrepreneur: software is free, marketing is free and limited only by your imagination, labour is cheap, costs are low.

The silicon valley's entrepreneurial spirit is only due to the Stanford engineering department. So if any area that wants to reproduce the SiValley magic, he asks them to focus on their engineering school(s).

You can get more snippets and video at the Fresh dialogues page.
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Shriram Natarajan blogs at http://words.sangram.info/.

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How a Failure in Engineering Leadership Caused the Deep Horizon Oil Spill [Elizabeth J. Agnew]

Mike Williams survived the blowout on The Deepwater Horizon and he shared his story on 60 Minutes in May. What I found fascinating, in addition to how he survived, was his description of a catalyzing moment in the board room, just one of the many leadership mistakes that led to the disaster.

The rig had been working for seven years, and was just finishing up the largest drilling project to have ever been completed. The crew was preparing to close the cap of the oil well. Managers from BP were on site to celebrate a successful completion.

Here’s an excerpt from the 60 Minutes interview explaining what happened the morning of the accident:

Williams says, that during a safety meeting, the manager for the rig owner, Transocean, was explaining how they were going to close the well when the manager from BP interrupted.

"I had the BP company man sitting directly beside me. And he literally perked up and said 'Well my process is different. And I think we're gonna do it this way.' And they kind of lined out how he thought it should go that day. So there was short of a chest-bumping kind of deal. The communication seemed to break down as to who was ultimately in charge," Williams said.

The largest environmental disaster in US history starts because of chest bumping! This may not be surprising, but it certainly is ridiculous, disappointing, and embarrassing.

This highlights the importance of communication in the engineering world. I was told that the technical communications course I took senior year at Cornell would be the most important course I took. And I’ve found that to be true. What if there was a way (and there is) for those two men to have seen themselves on the same team, to have put their different ideas in a pile, then agreed on a way discuss the project that would result in the best all-around process? What if they were trained in how to maintain sight on the bigger picture, on all the forces at play, and not just on being “right”? What if the system was set up so that “being right” was the same thing as “finding the right answer together”?

Later in the segment we learn that if BP hadn’t won the argument, there probably wouldn’t have been a blowout:

In finishing the well, the plan was to … place three concrete plugs, like corks, in the column. The Transocean manager wanted to do this with the column full of heavy drilling fluid - what drillers call "mud" - to keep the pressure down below contained. But the BP manager wanted to begin to remove the "mud" before the last plug was set. That would reduce the pressure controlling the well before the plugs were finished.

"If the 'mud' had been left in the column, would there have been a blowout?" Pelley [the CBS interviewer] asked.

"It doesn't look like it," Bea [the expert; a UC Berkeley engineering professor] replied.

In all the cleanup work and ongoing efforts to stop the leaking, let’s not forget how this clusterf*** started. The way we’re working together IS. NOT. WORKING.

We need to:

1. Bring real leadership and communication training to all ruff-n-tuff engineering leaders out there


2. Teach leaders how to deepen their identity to Self so they get their egos out of the damn way when solving technical problems that have widespread, multifaceted implications.


3. Provide technical tools and processes for the skill of communicating so that when differing ideas are put on the table there is a reliable, impersonal way to choose the best one.

We NEED to change the way we solve problems together if we are ever going to a) avoid the next mega-disaster and b) fix all the mega-disasters that are already ruining our planet.

Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/16/60minutes/main6490197.shtml

About: Elizabeth J. "Liz" Agnew works with individuals and teams of technical professionals on leadership development, collaboration, and strategic planning.  She offers complimentary consultations with no obligation.  Visit www.integrative-leadership.com or email liz@integrative-leadership.com to learn more.
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