A Culture of Appreciation As I mentioned in my last post in the Collaboration is Hard series, we’ve tried to create a culture of appreciation at Return Path that lowers barriers to collaboration and rewards mutual successes. We developed a system that’s modeled somewhat after a couple of those short Ken Blanchard books, Whale Done and Gung Ho! It may seem a little hokey, and it doesn’t work 100% of the time, but in general, it’s a great way to make it easy for people to say a public “thanks” to a colleague for a job well done. The idea is simple. We have an “award request” form on our company Intranet that any employee can use to request one…
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Leadership
Collaboration is Hard, Part III
Collaboration is Hard, Part III In Part I, I talked about what collaboration is: partnering with a colleague (either inside or outside of the company) on a project, and through the partnering, sharing knowledge that produces a better outcome than either party could produce on his or her own and why it’s so important knowledge sharing as competitive advantage, interdependency as a prerequisite to quality, and gaining productivity through leverage In Part II, I suggested a few reasons why collaboration is difficult for most of us It doesn’t come naturally to us on a cultural level, it’s hard to make an up-front investment of time in learning when you don’t know what you’re going to learn, and there’s a logistical…
A Model for Transparency
A Model for Transparency Rob Kalin from Etsy (a marketplace for handmade goods) wrote an outstanding blog post today that Fred describes as a transparent window into what makes the company tick. I’d like to riff off of two themes from the post. First, the post itself and the fact that Rob, as CEO of the business, is comfortable with this degree of transparency and openness in his public writing. I still think that far few CEOs blog today. There is probably no better window into the way a company works or the way a management team thinks than open and honest blogging. One member of our team at Return Path described my blogging once as “getting a peek inside…
Collaboration is Hard, Part II
Collaboration is Hard, Part II In Part I, I talked about what collaboration is: partnering with a colleague (either inside or outside of the company) on a project, and through the partnering, sharing knowledge that produces a better outcome than either party could produce on his or her own and why it’s so important knowledge sharing as competitive advantage, interdependency as a prerequisite to quality, and gaining productivity through leverage In Part II, I’ll answer the question I set out to answer originally, which is why is collaboration so hard? Why does it come up on so many of our development plans year in, year out? As always, there isn’t an answer, but here are a few of my theories:…
Collaboration is Hard, Part I
Collaboration is Hard, Part I Every year when we do 360 reviews, a whole bunch of people at all levels in the organization have “collaboration” identified as a development item. I’ve been thinking a lot about this topic lately and will do a two-part post on this. So, first things first…what is collaboration and why is it so important? Let’s start with the definition of collaboration from our friends at Wikipedia: Collaboration is a process defined by the recursive interaction of knowledge and mutual learning between two or more people who are working together, in an intellectual endeavor, toward a common goal which is typically creative in nature. Collaboration does not necessarily require leadership and can even bring better results…
Book Short: Shamu-rific
Book Short: Shamu-rific I re-read an old favorite last night in preparation for a management training course I’m co-teaching today at Return Path: Ken Blanchard’s Whale Done! The Power of Positive Relationships. I was reminded why it’s an old favorite. It has a single concept which is simple but powerful. And yes, it’s based loosely on killer whale training tactics. Accentuate the positive. The best example in the book is actually a personal one more than a professional one. The main character of the book has a “problem” in that he chronically works late, then comes home and gets beat up by his wife about coming home so late. The result? No behavior change — and probably even a reinforcement…
How to Impress Your Boss
How to Impress Your Boss No matter what area of the company, non-profit, or public sector you work in, ask yourself these three questions every time you are about to review something you did with your boss: What am I trying to accomplish with this piece of work? Is this the best/only way to accomplish that mission? Is this my best work? I guarantee you two things if you get into this habit. First, you will frequently stop and do more work on something before handing it into your manager. Second, you will get a raise and a promotion sooner than your friends. And yes, it really is that simple.
A Thankful Moment
A Thankful Moment While there are certainly some aspects of being a CEO that are full of those proverbial thankless tasks…there are some moments that are just the opposite. And boy are those rewarding. I had one this morning. While I frequently get nice emails or handwritten cards from employees after they interview or start or get a promotion or raise — and those are all great — this is one I can easily blog about because it’s online. Yesterday was the first official day of work for Neil Schwartzman, who actually joined us many months ago as a consultant running compliance for our Sender Score Certified whitelist but just finally became a full-time employee as we set up a…
It Never Goes Without Saying
It Never Goes Without Saying Remember that old adage, "It goes without saying…"? That saying shouldn’t exist inside a well-run company. Communication — real communication, not implied communication — is the foundation for a successful business. We human beings live for "moments." We mark time by observing regular occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays. While religions and cultures differ on the details, we mark the cycle of life with things like baby namings, bar mitzvahs, confirmations, first communions, weddings, and funerals. There’s no reason the workplace should be any different. Think about these few examples where it could "go without saying," but where you’re so much better off creating that "moment" by: – Publicly acknowledging a member of your team…
Calling for the Boss’s Head
Calling for the Boss’s Head Maybe it’s just a heightened sense of awareness on my part, but I feel like our culture has really turned up the time-to-fire-the-boss-o-meter to a new level of late. What is going on that has caused the media and vocal people among us feel this thirst for public lynchings over a single incident? The list isn’t small — just in recent weeks or months, you have Rumsfeld, Dunn (HP), Gonzales, Imus, Wolfowitz, and even last week, Snyder (Vonage). And I’m sure there are a dozen others, both corporate and political, that I’m not dredging up mentally here on a Sunday night. Now I’m all for accountability, believe me, but sometimes it doesn’t help an organization…
Marketing is Like Baskin Robbins
Marketing is Like Baskin Robbins A couple years ago, I wrote that Marketing is Like French Fries, since you can always take on one more small incremental marketing task, just as you can always eat one more fry, even long after you should have stopped. Today, inspired in part by our ongoing search for a new head of marketing at Return Path and in part by Bill McCloskey’s follow up article about passion in email marketing in Mediapost, I declare that Marketing is also like Baskin Robbins – there are at least 31 flavors of it that you have to get right. McCloskey writes: I submit that the über marketer who is expert in all the various forms of interactive…