http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/ Thoughts and Observations on Human Capital Management en Copyright 2008 Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:16:22 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Putting It Into Action Ask yourself, what are the tough decisions or difficult situations that everyone has been avoiding and you feel need to be addressed? Volunteer to take on those things. Make this reflection and action a regular quarterly habit. If you need help staying on track, assign a coach to keep you accountable for making tough decisions and handling difficult situations. Ask your boss which tasks that she or he dislikes the most. Volunteer to take on those things as a regular habit. With you along the path towards success, Joseph ]]> http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2008/06/leadership_theres_no_avoiding.html http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2008/06/leadership_theres_no_avoiding.html Leadership Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:16:22 -0500 Putting It Into Action Put together your weekly plan to recognize people for their unique and exemplary contributions. When you offer your compliments, make sure they are genuine, realistic, timely, thoughtful, specific and offer encouragement. Purchase a box of 'thank you' cards and write a quick note of appreciation. Use your weekly planner as a tool to record great achievements and then periodically give praise by quoting those specific achievements. There is no such thing as too much communication when it comes to those that you count on. Use compliments as a key engagement tool. With you along the path towards success, Joseph ]]> http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/12/my_compliments.html http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/12/my_compliments.html Leadership Tue, 04 Dec 2007 23:18:19 -0500 clarity and focus. Describing a situation via a simple metaphor can paint a much more vivid picture than a thousand words. Repeating your main message in a meeting or presentation or speaking slowly in 3-8 second sound bites will help your audience listen and retain the information and understand its importance. Presenting without countless, overly detailed PowerPoint slides, allows your powerful messages to break through the clutter of noise and people fighting for our attention. Think of the most effective leadership speeches, slogans and marketing campaigns -- they communicate a common theme and use one or two strong but uncluttered messages. Putting It Into Action Do not stop providing people with the details, facts and figures that they need. Provide details as support or an appendix to your main message. Tell people what you plan on telling them, tell them, then review what you just told them. Paint visual images, use video, use props to help people remember. Purge your work space at least twice per year. During important phone meetings, clear your desk and stand up to add energy to your voice. Get your main hypothesis down to a 30 second radio commercial, where every word used must add value and repetition is key. If you want to be quoted by media or stakeholders, speak in powerful 3-8 second sound bites. With you along the path towards success, Joseph ]]> http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/12/less_is_more.html http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/12/less_is_more.html Personal Development Mon, 03 Dec 2007 23:05:05 -0500 Putting It Into Action You have no excuses, think of the twelve reasons above. Book your remaining vacation this year. Research your extended break next year. Book your multi week vacation and make sure you get to visit a new area. Working vacations and staying connected to the office are not true, reflective re-energizing vacations. You owe it to yourself and your stakeholders to reinvent and recharge yourself every year. With you along the path towards success, Joseph ]]> http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/12/unplug_to_recharge_1.html http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/12/unplug_to_recharge_1.html Personal Development Sun, 02 Dec 2007 21:31:39 -0500 Putting It Into Action Brands use slogans, sound bites and visuals to be memorable and communicate their sustainable competitive advantages. Within the next few weeks, come up with a 3-8 second slogan that communicates your brand. Who are you? What value can you bring to the marketplace? What is your brand promise? Is your package (image) consistent with your brand promise? Combine your brand promise and your slogan to come up your 30 second radio commercial and 2-3 minute image. What you say about you and how you present it, creates expectations. Delivering on expectations wins customers. Consistently delivering on expectations and delighting customers builds loyalty. With you along the path towards success, Joseph ]]> http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/11/brand_new_you.html http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/11/brand_new_you.html Career Mon, 19 Nov 2007 20:38:43 -0500 Good to Great, Jim Collins makes the hypothesis that the greatest barrier to becoming great in your business is being good. I think the same holds true for your career. Being good at what you do, prevents you from making a fundamental leap frog to being great because: 1) Success is equated to a validation of the past and present. 2) We are too focused on current customers and challenges. 3) We are too focused on current sector and not redefining what business you are in or should be in. 4) Too focused on managerial obsessions of cost cutting and efficiency improvements. 5) Our organizations and reward systems reward short term goal attainment and incremental improvements. 6) We strive to mitigate risk or are risk averse by nature. 7) There is comfort and an illusion of security in sticking to what we know. Restructuring your career or business will help you close the performance gap. You should instead plan for a renewal, taking advantage of new opportunities. Putting It Into Action: In general, professionals who make drastic and revolutionary changes in their career directions failed to invest in small but progressive evolutionary moves towards new careers. Find a sustainable way to make money in the present to support and prepare a career or business transformation for the future. In business, our cash cows fund our research projects and exploratory products and services. For your career, you may want to join a Board, volunteer, join a professional association, attend a conference or work on a project or consult in the area that you think you want to gravitate towards. With you along the path towards success, Joseph ]]> http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/10/good_is_not_great.html http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/10/good_is_not_great.html Career Sun, 28 Oct 2007 23:42:59 -0500 Create the Future. To effectively and strategically plan your business and career strategy, you should start with Box 3. Visualize and conceptualize your vision for the future and begin to create what it will look like. Putting It Into Action: Many of us are stuck in BOX 1 because we are somewhat successful and are often obsessed with making marginal improvements. We think that our success is a validation of our past actions and strategy. Chances are you are somewhat unsatisfied in your career or business because you have settled on marginal success. Global events like the rise of China and India will re-write the business fundamentals. You must plan out a forward looking vision of the future in a space that is not currently or in the near future being met by cheaper sources of labour (Box 2 Thinking). You must develop a date specific action plan to achieve future success. It may help to meet regularly with a group of forward looking visionaries who are looking forward to rewriting the rules in their favour. With you along the path towards success, Joseph ]]> http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/10/create_the_future.html http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/10/create_the_future.html Leadership Sun, 21 Oct 2007 22:04:02 -0500 Increased Clarity – consistent and focused communication at all levels 2) Integrated Culture – part of their DNA, embedded in their operations 3) Global Alignment – alignment around values and culture 4) Consistency – maintain a long term focus and consistent customer experience 5) Focus on People – proactive strategy to develop all levels of talent, provide mentorship and coaching 6) Better EQi – great awareness and improvement of Emotional Intelligence 7) Increased Diversity – leadership and management team shows diversity in sex, heritage, lifestyle and backgrounds 8) Team Builders – team players and collaborative culture 9) Open Culture – healthy discussion, challenges and constructive criticism 10) Intense Innovation – built into culture, expected from all levels and rewarded According to the study, the Top Ten Companies included: General Electric, Toyota, P & G, Fed Ex, Nokia, BP, BMW, etc. Nine of the Top Ten are consistent performers, being on the list in 2005. Putting It Into Action: No matter what your level in your organization, it is imperative that you begin to embrace, illustrate and champion the above listed ten leadership keys. Conduct a leadership competencies gap analysis to identify your strongest strengths. Improve on your strongest strengths by planning and implementing a weekly key leadership strategies action plan. Move to a lesser dominate skill only once you are fully leveraging your strengths. With you along the path towards success, Joseph ]]> http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/10/ten_keys_to_leadership_nirvana.html http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/10/ten_keys_to_leadership_nirvana.html Leadership Sun, 14 Oct 2007 19:55:35 -0500 Motivation -- for the individual (rewards, money, career enhancement, etc.) 2) Coaching – interactive and two way 3) Retention – practice is reinforcement, have them summarize into own words 4) Transference – application to own scenarios and go forward plan = ownership Putting It Into Action: Do not dump learning and e-learning on everyone and force them to use it. Ensure that the four requirements mentioned above will be met. Implement or champion your training in phases. Start with your most enthusiastic learners, followed by early adopters, middle adopters and lagers. Save the die hards for last. Look for higher visibility and higher impact opportunities to apply the new learning. Get testimonials along the way and have the first batch of trainees attract the next batch to attend the training sessions. With you along the path towards success, Joseph ]]> http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/10/mirror_neuron.html http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/10/mirror_neuron.html Personal Development Sat, 06 Oct 2007 19:42:36 -0500 Putting It Into Action: Surround yourself with forward thinking visionaries who can’t wait for the future and are taking steps now to prepare themselves. Embrace continuous learning both in traditional in class formats and increasingly with on-line, interactive and with knowledge sharing on-line communities. Reflect on the four facts above and the rapidly developing economies. Learn as much as you can, as quick as you can, and begin to map out a proactive strategy to try to stay ahead of the relevance curve for both careers and business. With you along the path towards success, Joseph ]]> http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/09/fear_of_the_unknown.html http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/09/fear_of_the_unknown.html Leadership Tue, 18 Sep 2007 21:29:28 -0500 take risks. Most people don’t take risks because they are afraid of failure which usually stems from low self esteem. Low self esteem is a self defeating prophecy. Our self doubt or feeling that others don’t value us or believe in our abilities, takes us out of the game at a very early stage; before we can prove them wrong and prove ourselves right. The reality is that the only opinion of you that matters, is your own. You must expand your self esteem and confidence through the following stages: from thinking, to knowing, to believing. Everything in life is a choice. If you choose to be successful, you will look for signs that you are right and you will fight like heck if you are doubted. If you walk around with a defeatist attitude, you will get what you seek out. There is a famous Chinese saying that goes, “I have seen the enemy, the enemy is within.” Putting It Into Action: Once you have worked on your own self esteem, try to assess which category people around you fall into. Assessment allows for reflection and often a deeper understanding of their motivation and perhaps fears. Deeper understanding of those around us provides us with insight on how to help them achieve greater self esteem. Their greater self esteem will hopefully lead to empowerment and improvement, which will give you a sense of satisfaction. Now that is a nice win-win that we can all use! With you along the path towards success, Joseph ]]> http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/09/three_types_of_people.html http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/09/three_types_of_people.html Emotional Intelligence Mon, 03 Sep 2007 08:00:00 -0500 is the content (eg. Blogs, discussion boards, Wikipedias). The second trend is rewriting the advertising industry: -if traditional media is chosen, it is watched on own time and usually without commercials -articles from magazines and articles are read increasingly on-line rather than in print -information is coming from non traditional sources like Blogs and Wikipedias and other media. In the last US Presidential Election, many Gen Xers and Ys got their election commentary from the Jon Stewart Show, a mock news show. Micropreneurs have emerged and have changed the rules of business. They are winning business with the new tools of the trade: a laptop, an Ebay account, a PayPal account, a strong network of contacts and a Google ad. They don’t have overhead costs like warehouses, inventory or employees. They transact almost entirely on-line as the needs arise. They have no need for employers or a traditional workplace. Virtual communities are becoming larger than physical communities. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg correctly turned down a $1 Billion offer to sell to Yahoo. X-box Live, Wii and virtual reality gaming and software thrive with on-line communities. As a business person, do you have a Linked In profile? The rise of a gargoyle culture was made vivid when Sadaam Hussein’s assassination video was caught and posted on websites. It was not CNN, it was someone’s cell phone that caught the vivid images. Putting It Into Action: Your personal brand or employers brand must embrace and act on these important opportunities. You should register your personal name as a domain name, build your personal website and begin blogging. You should surround yourself with teenagers and twenty somethings who thrive on this new on-line virtual culture. Rethink your advertising and recruitment strategies to use these alternative communication channels and consider viral marketing, event marketing, lifestyle marketing and funky interactive, content rich ways to drive traffic to you and your company’s websites. With you along the path towards success, Joseph ]]> http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/08/five_disruptive_forces.html http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/08/five_disruptive_forces.html Leadership Thu, 23 Aug 2007 07:51:47 -0500 Putting It Into Action: Try to get yourself assigned to an executive compensation review team at work. Failing this, get involved in Boards where you can play a role in the Governance, Compensation, CEO Review or Finance/Audit Committees. Research annual reports, prospectuses and other publicly available reports on executive compensation. The more knowledge you have in this area, the better. This issue will remain a very visible and sensitive issue that will provide you will great visibility. With you along the path towards success, Joseph ]]> http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/08/executive_compensation.html http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/08/executive_compensation.html Leadership Sun, 12 Aug 2007 18:47:16 -0500 Putting It Into Action: No matter what your level, you can begin practicing around the corner thinking, get results and get the attention of others in your organization. Focus on ways to co-create new ideas by soliciting input from customer service employees, customers, suppliers and competitors. Champion this new thinking throughout your organization. These same principles apply if you are in career search mode. Create your own position where you can be a visionary standout by always looking at what is coming at you around the corner. With you along the path towards success, Joseph ]]> http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/08/around_the_corner_thinking.html http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/08/around_the_corner_thinking.html Leadership Sun, 05 Aug 2007 12:00:00 -0500 Attention Deficiency Disorder is on the rise in western society. We are also spending more time multi-tasking, devoting what we think is full attention to a number of tasks at once. The reality is, the older we get, the less we can focus on more tasks at the same time. The X Generation and Y Generation that are our consumers and employees think that they can do it better, this is debatable. The internet has permanently altered all of us as people. A recent survey showed that 69% of X’s and Y’s time is spent on-line or with various forms of media. That leaves 31% of their time for work; these numbers were the exact reverse only five years ago. You Tube was barely a blip on our radar screens a year ago, now they get one of the highest daily hit rates and visitors are staying on their site for a whopping 108 minutes. How long do you think people are spending on your site? A new practice called Attention Slicing has emerged. Consumers and employees are devoting small slices of their attention at any time to any one source and for increasing shorter periods of time. Consumers want their information and entertainment when and where they want, and they want to be able to customize it to match their personalities, share it, and make it even easier to access. If you think we are moving too quickly, you would be wrong. We are at the ‘kindergarten’ stage of development. Putting It Into Action: Your leadership, your firm and your personal brand need to adjust to this new reality of attention slicing. What can you do to make your message stand out, be more visual, add impact, be more accessible? One way is to register your own personal domain name. Then upload any materials that would give people a window into who you are as a person. The more visual your material, the better. Always invite people to provide their feedback and input. Visit some of the most popular blogs that Xers and Ys read. Begin to publish your own Blog and again allow people to comment. With you along the path towards success, Joseph ]]> http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/07/add_the_new_norm.html http://www.randallcraig.com/coach/2007/07/add_the_new_norm.html Personal Development Wed, 25 Jul 2007 22:06:02 -0500