The Original Social Media Guru June 8, 2009
Posted by Chuck Musciano in Book Reviews, Networking.Tags: Best Of 2009, Book Reviews, Books, Communication, Customer Service, Facebook, LinkedIn, Networking, Relationships, Twitter
7 comments
If you spend any time doing anything on the internet, you will soon stumble across a special kind of expert who is just dying to help you improve your virtual social life. These self-professed Social Media Gurus promise to reveal deep secrets about Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, all designed to garner you more followers, more attention, and more interest on the internet.
Let’s face it: the vast, vast majority of Social Media Gurus know just a teeny bit more than you do about all this stuff. If you really wanted to learn their secrets, ten minutes with Google (or Bing, which is growing on me) will make you a Social Media Guru, too. And if you really want 100,000 followers, or friends, or connections, one mortifying YouTube video should do the trick.
All these social networking tools are just communication tools: conduits for information. You can learn the mechanics of any of them in a day, and absorb most of the culture in a week. But that doesn’t make you any more social, although you may have made a good start at a network.
What matters is what you send over those conduits. The information you share and how you respond to others is what’s important. It’s the content that counts, not the mechanics of the tool.
Most modern Social Media Gurus want to teach you the mechanics. This is not social networking, just like understanding the mechanics of a piano is not going to make you a piano player. Very few Social Media Gurus can teach you what to send using these systems, once you have mastered the mechanics.
Sadly, the very best Social Media Guru died in 1955, before any of these things were invented. Fortunately for us, he wrote down all his secrets well before he passed away. That Guru was Dale Carnegie, and his secrets are revealed in his book, How To Win Friends & Influence People.
If you have never read this book, do yourself a great favor and pick up a copy. For Amazon’s bargain price of $8.70 ($0.96 on your Kindle) you can learn the secrets of the greatest Social Media Guru in history. Carnegie’s book is easy to read, with each concept presented in a short chapter with supporting anecdotes. If even that’s too much for you, he summarizes each chapter with a one-line moral at the end. The anecdotes are delightful, recalling social situations from the 1920’s and 1930’s that are still relevant today.
If you have read this book before, read it again. You will have the same revelations all over again, and be even more committed to changing the way you communicate with people. Carnegie was among the first, and is still the best, Social Media Guru.
I won’t even try to summarize Carnegie’s advice here. Click the link above, buy the book, and start your summer reading with the one book that could truly improve every relationship you have.
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Deep And Wide May 6, 2009
Posted by Chuck Musciano in Leadership.Tags: Communication, Leadership, Management Skills
2 comments
Information, of quality both high and low, is seemingly infinite in supply. Time, however, is woefully finite. I’ve written previously about using the Three Ps as a structure for status reports, in the hopes of sharing more quality information in a shorter amount of time. Coaching your people to focus on the Three Ps certainly can help, but it doesn’t stop there. It’s also important to recognize the value of Deep versus Wide.
Many people, especially technical people, take a simple approach when communicating up their management chain: convey a lot of detail about the issue at hand. There are merits to this technique: you can show that you know your stuff; you make sure that your boss is truly well-informed; and you can’t be accused of hiding information. There is little downside for the messenger to use this “deep” communication strategy.
Unfortunately, your boss may simply not have the time to listen to all this data, no matter how much they’d like to hear it. In many cases, they need certain salient details to make a decision; once that decision is made, little further information is needed. Instead, they need to move on to the next decision, which may require a similar quick assessment. Leaders often need “wide” communication, rapidly covering many topics at a low level of detail.
These competing goals often set up disastrous status meetings. Staff members go on at length with tremendous detail and background about each project while the decision-makers patiently wait them out, having made their decision long ago. Not wanting to offend or discourage their team, leaders will suffer through lots of extraneous data, sacrificing precious time that could be spent on other decisions. When they do cut things short, teams come away annoyed that their hard work was ignored or dismissed out of hand.
This conflict serves no one and can demoralize a team. Meetings run long and items at the end of the agenda never get addressed. Without clear direction, people have no idea how to communicate effectively with their bosses.
You need to address your desired level of detail with your staff. I tell my team to approach these meetings in a “wide” fashion first, initially addressing each item at a fairly cursory level. If things are as I expected, either good or bad, there is often little need to go “deep” and request more information. If, however, the initial review seems awry, I want to dive into the details and learn more. I expect my staff to have the details in their head so we can discuss them.
That’s a key item: discuss them. I expect my staff to understand the details and to be ready to engage in a good discussion. I do not want them to whip a stack of PowerPoint slides out of their hip pocket on demand. That’s a huge waste of time on their part, time better spent doing real work. Just be ready to have an informed conversation and we’ll all be better off.
Don’t think that this advice only flows downhill. Many CIOs suffer from the same problem, arriving at a senior management meeting ready to go “deep.” This is a double disaster, since deep dives with CIOs eventually drift into inscrutable technobabble. It’s as if we CIOs need a “stall alarm” in our heads that squawks “Pull Up! Pull Up!” as soon as we mention anything with moving electrons.
Your boss and peers are just as pressed for time as you are. Go “wide” until the questions start, and then dive deep as their questions lead you. You’ll save time, win some points, and shift further into your true role as a business leader, not the technology director.
No? No. No! April 22, 2009
Posted by Chuck Musciano in Leadership.Tags: Communication, Customer Service, Denial, Governance, Leadership, Management Skills
5 comments
There is a fatal trap into which all IT Leaders fall, sooner or later. It isn’t a sudden trap, sprung upon you all at once, but a slow, gentle descent into a disaster that can break your career if you aren’t careful.
It starts by saying “no.”
Every IT organization in the world is understaffed with respect to the total demand for all IT projects contemplated by the business. While we may have enough people to keep the lights on and systems running, we’ll never have enough people to execute every project envisioned by our peers in the business. That’s the way it should be: not every project needs to be completed, no matter how badly it is wanted by its champion.
As the owner of scarce resources, IT can become the arbiter of what gets done and what gets ignored. And therein lies the trap: for every project you accept, you are telling one or more people “no.” Each person that gets turned away views IT as an impediment to their grand plan, a speed bump on their road to success. Over time, you’ll wind up telling everyone no at some point. You’ll have accrued so much resentment among your customers that they will begin to bypass you to get things done. When that happens, your effectiveness as a CIO has diminished, and your ability to serve your company has ended. Soon after that, you’ll be looking for a new job.
There is a better way, and savvy CIOs know how to avoid this trap. The key is to engage your peers to decide, among themselves, which projects should or shouldn’t get green-lighted. IT has no business determining the ultimate cost and benefit of a project. That’s up to the project champion and his or her peers, debating the project in the broader perspective of the business as a whole. When they finish their debate, your job is to step in and make their collectively-chosen projects successful. The animosity of those whose projects were declined can be directed at their peers who made that decision, not you as the CIO.
Every CIO needs to develop this governance process in their company. Whole books have been written on how to gather projects into portfolios, build governance teams at various management levels, and facilitate the debate among business leaders. The IT organization provides guidance along the way, with scope estimates, impact statements, and technology assessments. This is done objectively to support the conversation, not to champion a particular cause.
But, some CIOs complain, change only occurs when I initiate it! How do I get things to happen while being objective?
You have two choices. The right way is to present your big idea to another business leader, convince them of the merits, and allow them to champion the project. With them as champion, you step back into your role of objective facilitator and implementation expert. The more difficult path is to advance the idea yourself, acting as a business leader and not as the CIO. This requires a deft hand and can be fraught with peril. Honestly, if you can’t convince someone in the business to champion your idea, why would you advance it on your own anyway?
Good IT governance is a crucial part of every successful company and every successful CIO. It takes time to develop the culture and process for successful governance, but your patient efforts will be well-rewarded. Good governance gets you out of the position of being the “guy who always says no.” That’s important, because the “guy who says no” is soon known as the “guy looking for a new job.”
Three Ps April 8, 2009
Posted by Chuck Musciano in Leadership.Tags: Communication, Management Skills, Reports
5 comments
A big part of anyone’s job is absorbing information. As leaders a lot of our crucial information comes from our team as they update us on the issues of the day. I strongly believe that this flow of information must be accurate, timely, and succinct.
I worry that people spend too much time preparing and rehearsing what they are going to say when prompted for some sort of report. I have sat in many meetings where people have produced beautiful PowerPoint decks or elaborate Word documents that summarize their work. These things reflect a lot of effort, and it is clear that people put a lot of time into getting them done.
I appreciate that hard work and the desire to deliver a solid result, but I worry that a lot of that time is better spent on something else. How do we coach people to deliver information without a lot of fanfare or flourish? Ultimately, while I appreciate the packaging, I really want the content.
Long ago, I was taught how to present results using the Three Ps: Progress, Problems, and Plans. Almost any activity can be divided into these three areas, and it makes for a good way to discuss any issue.
Begin by reviewing your progress. What has been accomplished since we last met on this topic? What action items were previously promised and have since been resolved? Even if nothing has been done, note that as well and move on. This part should be fairly brief, since the goal is to acknowledge progress, not shower accolades. (You need to do that, but not in this setting.)
Turn to your problems. This is really the meat of the discussion. A problem is anything you cannot resolve yourself. (It you could resolve it yourself, it should have shown up in the Progress section.) As I’ve noted previously, for each problem you present, be prepared to offer a potential solution. Drive the discussion to develop an approach for each problem as needed.
Finish with your plans. What will you be doing next? What accomplishments and actions should be expected when you next meet on this topic? Depending on the solutions to your problems, your plans may change dramatically as the discussion evolves.
I like this approach because it brings consistency to any conversation. Although one or more sections may be empty at some point in time, it helps to formally acknowledge that and move on. Often, these kinds of conversations get bogged down in just one section. I’ve seen people go on and on about progress to avoid problems, or focus on plans without reviewing what has been accomplished. With this simple agenda as a framework, you can stay on track and make sure that everything that needs to be covered is addressed.
Have you tried this approach? Do you have a different structure that yields good results? I’d love to hear about it!
The Effective CIO 