What Will You Be Known For?

I was reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about US Airways Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger today.  You may recall he is the guy celebrated as a hero when he safely landed a plane in NYC’s Hudson River after having all of his engines fail.

Overall, the article is very inspiring and I enjoyed reading it.  One thing that really struck me, however, was one of  Sully’s quotes in the article:

"We need to try to do the right thing every time, to perform at our best," he says, "because we never know what moment in our lives we'll be judged on."

  That is a very poignant comment, isn’t it?  It was also very timely for me, as I’ve been thinking about similar things in my own life lately.  You see, I’ve done a huge variety of things in my career but, as I change roles I sometimes find myself a bit “typecast” based on one person or another’s view of what they believe I’m best at based on their limited experience with me. 

At a certain level, I’m flattered that they think I’m adding value in a particular area, but in other ways I feel short changed because my talents aren’t being fully utilized.  My default behavior is sometimes to just “live with it” though I am making more of a conscious effort to do better “PR” so I don’t get minimized.

OK… enough whining - what are my takeaways from the thinking triggered by Sully’s quote?

• You can’t always pick what other people will value you for an remember you for, so try to do things you can be proud of whenever possible.  That way, no matter what someone else picks to tag you with, it’ll probably be OK.
• Just because you feel like your “highest and greatest” moments aren’t being noticed, doesn’t mean you’re not adding value.
• It takes a lot of work to overcome typecasting, if you can at all.  So ask yourself, “Is it worth it, or can I live with my typecasting?”
• You can honor the past, but you can’t live in it.  If you don’t like the present, work on how you can change things in the future.

Of course, the other side of the coin bears thinking, too:  Are there people I’m typecasting in the same way?  How would I even recognize it if I were? Hmm…

A few Podcasts for “On The Go” Folks

I’m beginning to travel a bit more again (the summer was a lot slower) and looking for good things to listen to en route.  Lately, that means podcasts.

If you’re on the hunt for some good podcasts, here are a few (all free) that stand out for me.

	The Wall Street Journal This Morning (non-iTunes link) This is an entertaining, well-produced daily rundown of news highlights from the Wall Street Journal.  There are hard-hitting news stories, gadget updates, and a lot of unusual stories covered, and the hosts of the show have great chemistry, which makes this a fun listen.  It’s about 40 minutes long, with very limited commercial interruption.
	Cranky Geeks (non-iTunes link) Hosted by John C. Dvorak with a collection of randomly selected others, this is a panel discussion of the week’s tech news.  It’s fun to listen to, particularly if you’re into gadgets or involved in the tech industry.  I’ve linked the audio-only version, but there are video versions available (I am usually driving when I listen so I forego the video).
	How Stuff Works (non-iTunes link) This is a series of in-depth, but conversational, discussions of lots of interesting topics.  These are great for the curious mind – you can find out useful things (like how to delay the onset of physical aging) and just entertaining things (like the best place to be during a zombie attack).
	The Bugle (non-iTunes link) This is a highly irreverent look at the news, featuring people like John Oliver (the British guy on The Daily Show).  It’s very much in the spirit of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report on the Comedy Channel in the US, so if you like those shows, you’ll probably like The Bugle.

I’m about to board a plane, so that’s all I can write up for now.  If you find this useful, let me know and I will share other podcast finds with you in the future. Happy listening!

Introspection – Powerful Stuff

In my last post, I mentioned I’d been doing a lot of introspective thinking lately but what I didn’t mention is that I’ve had help with that.  My friends at Whakate sent me an advance copy of their Introspection Handbook and I have been putting it to good use.

The book (published as a PDF) has an accompanying workbook.  The two artifacts work together to guide you through a process that takes you through various aspects of your life experiences, attitudes, and what not.

You start with the ever-popular Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test to get a better feel for how you’re wired (Whakate has an online version of this test to get you going).  There are also some in-depth materials about your type – very helpful whether you’ve done the MBTI before, or not. 

As you go through the book, you are encouraged to analyze your thoughts around different scenarios to help you figure out what’s working and what’s not in each area.  They may be a little tough to see on the diagram at right  but the areas are:

Personality Assertiveness Values Script

Influence Goals Journal

As you can see, “You” are at the center and this book is about helping you understand yourself better and getting more deliberate about how you live your life and influence the world.  As my wife often says, “You need to teach people how they should treat you.”  This book will help you in that journey.

I must say, the results I’m getting are better than I expected.  I am also finding some things I don’t really like about how I’ve done things in the past, and am working to improve myself so I get better at them in the future.  Not a bad outcome from a book, eh?

If you’ve been avoiding that objective look in the mirror or you want to spend more time analyzing how you’ve gotten where you are, I highly recommend this book.

By the way, it helps to set aside some “quality time” and put yourself in the right frame of mind to get the most out of this book.  When I first read it, the book didn’t really resonate with me as much.  However, I revisited it following a disappointing setback and found it to be just what I needed.

Do You Have A Permanent Record?

One skill I wish I could acquire from someone else is to be more disciplined about writing things down.  OK - so I do write a lot of ideas and tasks down (thanks to GTD I’ve gotten much better at this).

What I mean is “bigger” things, and writing them down more explicitly and earlier.  I have a friend that is very good at writing ideas down even while they are vague, then refining and clarifying them over time.  I, on the hand, tend to wait until I think the ideas are almost “done” before I write them down.  That means a lot of things get thought about, talked about… but not recorded.

You’re only hurting yourself with this rambunctious behavior…Right?

As a consequence of this tendency to leave things open-ended, it seems a lot of my grand  ideas don’t go anywhere because I never finished developing them, or I just move on and forget about them.  This, I believe is caused by a combination of:

• my introverted thinking style (I’m an INTJ / INTP on Myers-Briggs),
• my love for “fluidity” in the options I pursue, and
• fear of failure (or dislike for being held accountable?), at some level.

Until recently, I didn’t think of this as a big deal.  However, I have been very introspective lately and thinking about a few problem situations where I can see the negative consequences of not writing things down…and it bothers me.  You see, I have seen situations where the lack of a written record of ideas, commitments, and such has led to ambiguity that caused problems later.

Revising Verbal History Is Pretty Easy

In my opinion,the problem lies in the fact that human memory is fallible, and is much weaker than the human ego.  In the situations I’ve observed, this inherent conflict has led to things like:

• people not getting credit for some great ideas, because others didn’t remember where the idea came from;
• people not being held accountable for commitments they’d made because the commitments were never documented;
• people “adjusting” what they committed to, bringing it more in line with where things actually ended up;
• people moving accountability to someone else, when that wasn’t the original intent (sort of a scapegoat maneuver);

and things like that.

In most of these cases, the “revisionist historians” weren’t malicious – they were just trying to turn things to their own advantage and, I believe, in some of the cases they actually believed the altered back-story was true.

Permanent Records Are Harder To Change

What do I take away from this?  Writing plans and “big ideas” down is important – even when they are in their formative stages.  That will help you hang on to your ideas so they don’t drift away, help you keep track of where the good ideas (and bad ones) came from, ensure accountability, and – perhaps most importantly – give you the means to compare what happened to what you thought was going to happen so you can learn from your successes and failures.

So – my question to you:  what’s your advice to someone trying to develop this habit?  How do you overcome a tendency to take life as it happens and move to a more concrete model where plans, goals, and intentions are actually written down? 

Do tell.   And in writing, please!

So much for Exercise…

Thanks to Twitter, I found out about a new gadget Honda has created, called the "UX-3."  It is like a Segway but intended for use in the office, while seated.  The video below is in Japanese, but the coolness transcends all languages - check it out (here is the link if you don't see the embedded video).

From a technology perspective, I think this is extremely cool.  But come on - we have enough challenges with people becoming unfit from a sedentary lifestyle!

I still want one, though.  If you work for Honda and want a US-based blogger to do a review of the UX-3, just let me know!