Advice: get some

I have been catching up on some old podcasts, and just listened to one from the Get-It-Done Guy about "internal advisory boards." In this podcast, he talks about creating a fictitious advisory board inside your head and using it to vet ideas.  Pretty novel concept, and he portrays it in an entertaining way - go give it a listen when you're done here.

That got me thinking about the use of external advisory boards, though.  I'm leading a project to define a very forward-looking product strategy, and I've come to realize I'm drawing too much on my own perspective and experience.  I don't want to limit my thinking so I've begun to engage with others as advisors, sounding boards, and contrarians to help me make my strategy stronger.

If you've never done this before, it can be daunting.  The first step is to admit you need help (pretty easy this time); the second step is to be open to others perspectives (again, fairly easy in this situation); and the third is to figure out who to ask to be your advisor.  That third one is a bitch, let me tell you.

I've been trying to make it easier by doing a couple of things:

1. I've written a list of the attributes I'm looking for (experience, perspective, type of input I'm looking for, etc.) for a number of advisor types;
2. I've begun to socialize this with some of my more connected friends who are most likely know someone or know of someone who can help;
3. I've written a document about the topic I want feedback on so I can get any potential advisors anchored in my topic;
4. I've begun talking to people more openly about their role as my advisor (interviewing, if you will).

This has worked pretty well - I have a couple of solid advisors on board, and a couple more in the works.  I am really looking forward to getting their input.

What about you - have you ever solicited outside advisors in any deliberate manner?  If so, do you have any advice you can share?

Looking for a job? Preparation can make a difference

A post from Jason Womack on "being ready" made me think of the importance of doing your homework before a job interview.  I've been interviewing a lot of candidates recently, and you can really tell the difference between those who take the time to not only become familiar with your company, but also spend time thinking about how they would integrate with your company.

This is more than figuring out what they key products are, what messaging is on the web site, or what recent press releases have hit the wire.

For me, the candidates that really stand out go beyond cursory research.  For example, I've encountered candidates who have prepared a document with their thoughts on our company's strategy versus our key competitors' - with recommendations for how to make our company more competitive.  I've also run across people who have called our company asking for information from our Sales team to see how we position ourselves, what business problems we solve, and how we engage with prospects.

The difference wasn't in what these folks knew or that they'd put forth the extra effort (though that tells you something about a person).  No, the key difference was in their ability to engage in a meaningful discussion during the interview process.  They behaved like informed members of my team, which made it even easier to envision what it's like to work with them.

So, if you are interviewing and want to stand out, get beyond a scan of the web site, engage with the company you want to work for, and bring informed passion to your interview.

Get Cozi with your family

I've just jumped into a service called "Cozi," which is a free online tool you can use to coordinate all the crazy commitments across your family.

I've got three kids, all with busy school and sports schedules (especially in the fall) and I travel a lot.  That means it is a delicate symphony of schedule coordination to make sure everyone gets where they need to be, everyone gets picked up when they should be, and collisions are well understood ahead of time.

When I heard about Cozi, I had to go see what it was about.  I'm still way early in the adoption process, but it is impressive so far.  As you can see at right, there are a lot of features includes with your free Cozi account.  The cool thing about this is you can provide logins to each person in your family, and they can create their own events as well as "assign" tasks to others (for example, adding "Milk" to the shopping list, or adding "Take out the trash" to one of your kids' To Do list).

Master your schedules

Entering appointments is easy.  For example, I can enter "<kid's name> Soccer Practice every Tuesday and Thursday until November 1," and Cozi creates the series correctly on the right person's calendar.  Pretty cool.

But the calendaring is even more powerful than that - you can link it to web calendars, there's an add-in to sync with Outlook, and there is a very well executed iPhone app (other mobile phones can get to a special Mobile web view that is also easy to use.

Everyone's calendar is color coded (you can choose the colors) so it's easy to print out a master calendar or check it out online and tell who's doing what.

The calendaring system can send reminders to the right person's mobile phone, if you so desire, making it easy to keep people on schedule.

Lists for everyone

The To Do lists are very flexible.  You can create shared lists (for example a Grocery list) that show up on everyone's radar, or create individual lists that can be selectively shared with others (so you can keep that Christmas shopping list between you and your spouse).

But wait - there's more

There are other features I haven't dabbled in yet, including a Family Journal for capturing "baby book" like memories, pictures, and other things you want to remember (think of it as a family blog).  Apparently, this can be used to publish articles for sharing with extended family, and even publicly if you choose.  I don't have experience with it yet, but it looks pretty cool.

The journal also feeds into a dynamic screen saver that shows photos and upcoming commitments on your screen when your screen saver is active.

I must say, I'm very impressed for a free service (I'd be impressed with this as a fee service, for that matter).  If you want to know more, head over to Cozi's web site for more information, including a short overview video of Cozi.

Be Bodacious: Improve your career with cowboy wisdom

Just finished reading Steven D. Wood's "Be Bodacious: Put Life In Your Leadership" and I must say I am impressed.

This book is solid theory for personal leadership development, presented in the form of a story about a guy who learns  some powerful lessons from his boss.  The boss is a colorful character nicknamed "Cowboy," who teaches through a series of stories from a Journal he's assembled during his life.

To be transparent, I avoided this book for a little while because I'm kind of tired of these "leadership fables" - there have been a lot of them in the past several years, and they sometimes take too long to get to the advice.  Now, I wish I'd jumped right in.

I'm happy to report that "Be Bodacious" doesn't waste time in getting to the point - with just a little story setup, you get to the meat of the learning pretty quickly.

This is an easy, entertaining book to read and it goes quickly (it's only 150 pages).  In this book, you'll learn:

• How to get out of crappy jobs and into jobs you really enjoy and feel passionate about;
• How to lead a team by igniting their drive and spirit;
• How to get to know your team as individuals so you can give them what they need to be challenged and successful;
• And a whole lot more.

Some other things you'll learn are just as important - like how to get out of the trap of comparing yourself to others, which can really mess with your confidence and limit what you can achieve.  Closely related to this are some good techniques to help you identify when you are hanging on to old habits that are preventing you from being successful (the chapter "Rocket Fuel" was very relevant to me).

The book also deals with some proven "sharpen the saw" techniques to make sure you spend time on yourself, so you can improve your own skills.  There are some thought-provoking elements on this topic.

This book is a quick read, and I think it's perfect for anyone who's a business leader or aspires to be. You can find out more at Be-Bodacious.com including seeing the "Be Bodacious" movie (it's short, but good), and you can download a sample chapter.

You might also check out Wood's blog, where you can get a taste of his writing style, philosophy, and leadership mojo.

So, 'nuf said - Be Bodacious, and put some life in your leadership.

Deja vu, all over again - are you guilty?

Ever notice yourself or others making the same mistakes over and over again?  I have seen this in a lot of the places I've worked, and a lot of the problem is that people tend to tolerate "emotional business cases" (latest, loudest, and most charismatic) over "real" business cases (logic, data, and well-thought out strategy decisions).

The root cause is that we like to do fun and exciting things, and real business cases are hard work and sometimes boring.  Then there is the fact that we often take shortcuts when analyzing ideas we like.

Know what?  This is not uncommon - take a look at this comparison of the current BP oil spill to one that happened in 1979.

It's eerie how similar they are, isn't it?  Are you guilty of repeating the mistakes of the past?  How can you break the cycle?