Kent Blumberg

How to ask for help from your network

We all have a network of people who stand ready to help us, if only we will ask.  We may not be in touch with most of them.  We may not even realize how many folks are out there ready to lend a hand.  But they are there.

How can you tend your network so it is more ready to help when you need it?  When you need a hand, what are some keys to asking effectively?  Once you get the help you need, how do you follow up?

Read on for tips on growing a lush network, and harvesting a bountiful crop of help from it.

15 ways to build a great relationship with your boss

Wish you had a better relationship with your boss?  Feel like you are ignored in favor of others?  Wondering if you have any career progression left?

Think about how well you are helping your boss get her job done and meet her obligations.  Are you doing everything you can (within legal and ethical bounds, of course) to help her look good and get ahead.

If not, your relationship may be getting in the way.  Consider this list of 15 things you can do to improve your relationship with your boss.

9 Keys to Successful Delegation

All of us delegates tasks and outcomes.  Even sole proprietors have suppliers and service providers who require direction.  Few, if any of us, can get through life without asking others for help.

But delegation can be scary.  It's tough to let go of control and trust others to get stuff done.  We might think only we can do something well.  Sometimes that's true, but most often it isn't.

If you are going to have leverage in this world, you simply must delegate.  Here are nine simple ideas to help you delegate more effectively.

Please throw out your performance review system

My opinion:  annual performance reviews are hammers looking for nails to pound, and hurting employee engagement, productivity and health in the process.  If you have any say in the matter, please throw out your performance review process.

Here's why I believe that, and some alternatives you might want to try.

Should you hire specific experience, or the ability to learn and lead?

[Updated March 2, 2008 with notes from Time Magazine's March 10th edition.  Updates are marked with "*"]

Two blog postings last week got me thinking about hiring decisions.  Eric Brown asserted that we ought to "...hire the best person you can regardless of the number of years of experience..."  On the same day, Growing Business Link carried a brief piece extolling the virtues of the generalist.

So the question is, should you hire for very specific experience, or should you hire a generalist who has proven her ability to lead and to learn?

I say the latter - usually.

Company mission - why bother?

People don't bring their hearts and souls to a business that exists solely to make money for its owners.  According to research by Amy Wrzesniewski, as reported in 12: The Elements of Great Managing (Wagner and Harter, Gallup Press, 2006), people want to work for an organization with a higher purpose - a mission that means something to them.  And those same people want to understand how what they do individually contributes to the larger organizational mission.  Fail to provide that mission, or fail to provide a connection from each employee to the mission, and you will fail to build a great company.

A book to help you focus your time

[Update:  Retitled post to accurately reflect content.]

Clients often want help sharpening their focus - getting more done on the stuff that counts while reducing stress and working fewer hours.  Back in 2000, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Les Hewitt published The Power of Focus: What the Worlds Greatest Achievers Know about The Secret of Financial Freedom and Success.  That book is chock full of strategies to help you focus.

Email - the Seven Ds of Inbox Happiness

How many emails do you receive every day?  100?  200?  500?  1000?  Whatever the number, the Seven Ds of In box Happiness will help you find the bottom of the pile.

David Maister's upcoming book on strategy and execution

David Maister's upcoming book, Strategy and the Fat Smoker, will be well worth the read.  If you are a leader or manager trying to develop and execute strategy, I'd plan on picking this book up as soon as its January 2008 release.

Embracing Failure at Work

Want to understand an organization's culture and leadership with one question?  Jeffery Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, in their classic book Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense: Profiting From Evidence-Based Management (Harvard Business School Press, 2006) propose asking,

"What happens when people fail?"