I recommend you take a look at the articles available on COMMERCE-SAVVY.COM. They're no-nonsense advice on getting ahead in business. I'd appreciate your feedback or suggestions for new articles.
Be Heard Series
Getting the Most from Email Communication in Business
The Importance of Feedback
Personal Awareness
Converting opportunities in technology to business value
Creating a Simple Boost to Your Interpersonal Skills as an IT Professional
Monday, 28 May 2007
Does Instant Messaging have a place in Business?
What's you opinion on whether Instant Messaging, i.e. tools like MSN Messenger oy Yahoo! Messenger, have a place in business? Are they inexpensive tools for widespread communication or are they a lure for loafing? Your comments are welcome.
My opinion is that if well controlled and audited, IM is a valuable business tool as it avoids the burden on email systems: the cost of storage and maintenance is growing rapidly. It also means that phone calls are potentially avoided, reducing call costs and the load on the phone systems. It makes economic sense.
Here's some comment from Living-It: http://www.living-it.co.uk/pages.asp?id=252
[You can see the results of this question here: http://commerce-savvy.blogspot.com/2007/08/results-on-instant-messaging-in.html]
My opinion is that if well controlled and audited, IM is a valuable business tool as it avoids the burden on email systems: the cost of storage and maintenance is growing rapidly. It also means that phone calls are potentially avoided, reducing call costs and the load on the phone systems. It makes economic sense.
Here's some comment from Living-It: http://www.living-it.co.uk/pages.asp?id=252
[You can see the results of this question here: http://commerce-savvy.blogspot.com/2007/08/results-on-instant-messaging-in.html]
Thursday, 17 May 2007
Another Inspiring article from HBS: Technology Platforms and their commercial success
I really like this article (link below) - it deals with exactly the kind of thinking we need if we're going to break out of technical jobs. Read it please! It discusses how software platforms can revolutionise business. Its a great example of how a technical innovation can create innovative and large scale commercial opportunities. Particularly look for Hagiu's comments on the management skills needed to make technology innovations a commercial success.
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5482.html
When you've done reading this article, begin thinking about platforms you're aware and how they are commercially successful. One everybody should have heard of is the XBOX360 - it isn't just a games console; it is a marktetplace where games developers can showcase their work and consumers can purchase games all from the console, complete with inbuilt payment systems.
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5482.html
When you've done reading this article, begin thinking about platforms you're aware and how they are commercially successful. One everybody should have heard of is the XBOX360 - it isn't just a games console; it is a marktetplace where games developers can showcase their work and consumers can purchase games all from the console, complete with inbuilt payment systems.
Creating Positive Energy in Yourself (2)
This is my second installment on this subject as I get reminded of it constantly! Positive energy is such a.... positive thing! Its what urges us to succeed, we should absorb and create as much of it as we can.
This time I'm considering the personal aspects of this subject
1) Boredom can generate negative energy; avoid it.
Not being busy and bored can spark negative energy in oneself. I've often found that people who are feeling stuck or without motivation are underwhelmed by their job, or perhaps don't have enough to do. Often this can be as a result of lack of proactivity on the individual's part, and sometimes because of poor management or leadership. Either way, if it sets in it can be very destructive. So don't let it. Whenever I've spotted the potential for boredom to creep in, I've proscribed myself a course of research. Investigating subjects that are not part of the day-to-day grind can open up new opportunities, or even prompt a re-examination of the way I'm conducting my job, such as the use of a different toolset. Creating and maintaining a list of research subjects, however various, is a good thing to do. And keeping them relevant to your job or your business is great - you won't get into trouble for loafing! Perhaps one could look at how your business turns profit, and how your competitors do it? Perhaps one could investigate better methods for design or documentation of a solution? Maybe one could research into courses for your colleagues. Either way, make the subjects engaging and useful with a potential outcome for yourself and your organisation. You could also make appointments to sit with colleagues from different functions or departments and see how they conduct their job.
2) Set yourself aggressive targets.
Although your employer or boss may set you objectives or targets that are challenging, why not set yourself higher targets rather than accept whats given to you? This will certainly create positive energy in you and create motivation to challenge the status quo. Acceptance to achievable targets (although important in business) can keep you well within an established rut, and you could simply be coasting. Many leadership books talk about a 10% stretch, i.e. give youself a challenge which is greater than the one you would normally accept. It works. I use this often and so do many successful people.
3) Set short terms goals.
Notwithstanding point 2, its much better to set yourself a series of smaller challenges than one huge one. By taking an incremental approach to your goals, you'll reap the benefits of each milestone and gain confidence in your progress, further boosting your motivation. For example, you could set yourself the target of climbing Everest at 29,035 feet (8850 meters), or you could set yourself 2,904 sequential targets of climbing 10 feet! You might not be able to climb the summit of Everest, but you're likely to be able to succeed in many of those targets. Use this thinking in an everday situations.
Wednesday, 16 May 2007
A good book to read...
Here is a good book to read for boosting your commercial awareness of IT. It explains how organisations view IT in terms of the benefits it provides against the 'bottom-line', how business cases are constructed and accounted for, etc. Its very insightful. Anyone who wants to break out of core IT into the business arena must read this book!
Effective Measurement and Management of IT Costs and Benefits
(Amazon.com)
Effective Measurement and Management of IT Costs and Benefits
(Amazon.co.uk)
Effective Measurement and Management of IT Costs and Benefits
(Amazon.com)Effective Measurement and Management of IT Costs and Benefits
(Amazon.co.uk)
Creating Positive Energy in Yourself (1)
I've decided to create a series of posts based on positive energy and I will summarise them soon in an article on the COMMERCE-SAVVY.COM website (http://www.commerce-savvy.com/).
In this first article, I'm going to talk about positive and negative sources of energy, and perhaps dispell some myths. So on that note, I'd like to focus first on...
1) Issues and Problems are not necessarily negative sources of energy!
When people come to you with a problem, do you always react with a negative? I doubt it. Problems can create strong desire to change, and can give you a boost to do something positive. For example, if a colleague comes to you and tells you that a project will be delivered late, it could provoke a burst of energy in you to bring delivery back to the deadline. In these 'crisis moments', all normal rules can be suspended and it may give you the legitamacy and latitude to bring people together who wouldn't normally do so, or perhaps make a decision based on your gut. I must admit, these moments are my favourite. Personally, I have risen much further in colleagues expectations due to crises; my brand of leadership has brought us out of a mire to a positive result.
When issues are uncovered when the solution is in the hands of the messenger, this can be disheartening; it can feel like you're being dumped upon. Often, people in different teams aren't communicating which stems other problems. You can turn this into a positive by motivating both parties to resolve the situation together by symbollically showing them their common enemy - a deadline or an unexpected cost.
And sometimes a problem is not really a problem, or a significant one anyway. A positive boost to what might seem a bad situation is to critically look at it and ask 'Does it really matter'? So what if so and so is hacked off? So what is we miss that date, is the alternative worse? A neutral position is sometimes the best one.
2) Popular people are not always positive people
Some people like to 'know stuff' that others don't and selectively share it. Some people likely to hold a coven and share negative views. Some people just enjoy a good moan at others, and to receive a good moan. But these people are influencers and have a degree of charisma, and shouldn't be ignored.
2) Minimise the effect of negative people
Negative people can often spread negative feelings like wildfire. You should try to surround yourself with positive people, but that isn't always possible. Often the root of a negative person's attitude is their perception of some major wrongdoing against them. And its something that can be in their deeper past. If you can't eradicate these people from your sphere of interest, then you'll have to deal with them, and perhaps in an unfair way relative to others. But it will pay dividends. If you can get a negative person singing a positive tune, it will have an amplified effect on you and the rest of your team. Look for quick wins; can you change their job title? Or their desk location?
3) Don't become negative when people don't see things your way - learn from it
As a person from a technical background, you will often find that some people marginalise your opinions on general matters or consider your hard work as a background task. This can be frustrating! But don't be. Use the occasions when this happens to learn - its your responsibility to do that. Reflect on the personal interchange and consider the language you used, or the way your points were communicated. Did your language contain jargon? Was it accessible to the other person? Did you use email instead of talking one to one? Was the other person listening? Use these experiences to look into your behaviours and adjust them, and try again. See this as a challenge you must overcome.
4) Accept the worst and beat it
A powerful thought tool is in any given situation, accept the worst possible outcome. Know what this means and accept it has already happened. Anything you do from this point is a bonus. This technique is used by many successful people. Once you've accepted the worse case, you can begin to construct positive steps to improve the situation, and you'll do so with positive energy.
Conversely, I've found that technical people are often perfectionists. Technical perfection is the only acceptable position. But in the commercial world, this rarely exists. Its mostly about compromise. So why try to gain perfection? If its an impossibility, then the only outcome is disappointment and negativity. Change things around and you'll find that you not only feel and act more positively, you're unlikely to deliver anything of less quality!
MORE WILL FOLLOW!
In this first article, I'm going to talk about positive and negative sources of energy, and perhaps dispell some myths. So on that note, I'd like to focus first on...
1) Issues and Problems are not necessarily negative sources of energy!
When people come to you with a problem, do you always react with a negative? I doubt it. Problems can create strong desire to change, and can give you a boost to do something positive. For example, if a colleague comes to you and tells you that a project will be delivered late, it could provoke a burst of energy in you to bring delivery back to the deadline. In these 'crisis moments', all normal rules can be suspended and it may give you the legitamacy and latitude to bring people together who wouldn't normally do so, or perhaps make a decision based on your gut. I must admit, these moments are my favourite. Personally, I have risen much further in colleagues expectations due to crises; my brand of leadership has brought us out of a mire to a positive result.
When issues are uncovered when the solution is in the hands of the messenger, this can be disheartening; it can feel like you're being dumped upon. Often, people in different teams aren't communicating which stems other problems. You can turn this into a positive by motivating both parties to resolve the situation together by symbollically showing them their common enemy - a deadline or an unexpected cost.
And sometimes a problem is not really a problem, or a significant one anyway. A positive boost to what might seem a bad situation is to critically look at it and ask 'Does it really matter'? So what if so and so is hacked off? So what is we miss that date, is the alternative worse? A neutral position is sometimes the best one.
2) Popular people are not always positive people
Some people like to 'know stuff' that others don't and selectively share it. Some people likely to hold a coven and share negative views. Some people just enjoy a good moan at others, and to receive a good moan. But these people are influencers and have a degree of charisma, and shouldn't be ignored.
2) Minimise the effect of negative people
Negative people can often spread negative feelings like wildfire. You should try to surround yourself with positive people, but that isn't always possible. Often the root of a negative person's attitude is their perception of some major wrongdoing against them. And its something that can be in their deeper past. If you can't eradicate these people from your sphere of interest, then you'll have to deal with them, and perhaps in an unfair way relative to others. But it will pay dividends. If you can get a negative person singing a positive tune, it will have an amplified effect on you and the rest of your team. Look for quick wins; can you change their job title? Or their desk location?
3) Don't become negative when people don't see things your way - learn from it
As a person from a technical background, you will often find that some people marginalise your opinions on general matters or consider your hard work as a background task. This can be frustrating! But don't be. Use the occasions when this happens to learn - its your responsibility to do that. Reflect on the personal interchange and consider the language you used, or the way your points were communicated. Did your language contain jargon? Was it accessible to the other person? Did you use email instead of talking one to one? Was the other person listening? Use these experiences to look into your behaviours and adjust them, and try again. See this as a challenge you must overcome.
4) Accept the worst and beat it
A powerful thought tool is in any given situation, accept the worst possible outcome. Know what this means and accept it has already happened. Anything you do from this point is a bonus. This technique is used by many successful people. Once you've accepted the worse case, you can begin to construct positive steps to improve the situation, and you'll do so with positive energy.
Conversely, I've found that technical people are often perfectionists. Technical perfection is the only acceptable position. But in the commercial world, this rarely exists. Its mostly about compromise. So why try to gain perfection? If its an impossibility, then the only outcome is disappointment and negativity. Change things around and you'll find that you not only feel and act more positively, you're unlikely to deliver anything of less quality!
MORE WILL FOLLOW!
Monday, 14 May 2007
Giving up control: losing the detail
A number of people have said that one of their biggest issues when moving up the career ladder is knowing how to give up control of the 'detail', i.e. influence and decision making of technical matters. To some people, its losing their edge - their very basis of power and expertise. I think this can be a big misconception, particularly by those people who are already feeling the pull towards leadership positions.
I went through this journey myself.
Breaking out of this mindset took a long time, and I managed it by eventually realising that having a strong understanding of the concepts of technology, and how to make it sound sensible and accessible to the layman, is even more powerful. Our role must be able to influence people outside of techie-dom. Decisions of funding, risk management and acceptance of business cases are generally performed by non-techies.
So I've found that:
1) Understanding the overall concept of a technology,
2) Seeing how it fits into the big picture and the business environment,
3) Being articulate in its value-add,
4) Understanding its costs, and
5) Being able to describe it in simple, plain English
... is the most powerful application of technology!
I went through this journey myself.
Breaking out of this mindset took a long time, and I managed it by eventually realising that having a strong understanding of the concepts of technology, and how to make it sound sensible and accessible to the layman, is even more powerful. Our role must be able to influence people outside of techie-dom. Decisions of funding, risk management and acceptance of business cases are generally performed by non-techies.
So I've found that:
1) Understanding the overall concept of a technology,
2) Seeing how it fits into the big picture and the business environment,
3) Being articulate in its value-add,
4) Understanding its costs, and
5) Being able to describe it in simple, plain English
... is the most powerful application of technology!
Friday, 11 May 2007
Are you at a career impasse?
Then take a look at this great article on the Harvard Business School website:
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5548.html
It gives a great insight into the psychological side of feeling stuck in a professional rut, and some valuable ideas on how to deal with it.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this article. Email me!
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5548.html
It gives a great insight into the psychological side of feeling stuck in a professional rut, and some valuable ideas on how to deal with it.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this article. Email me!
First Post!
This is the inaugral post of the COMMERCE-SAVVY.COM Blog! Yeah!
This blog will publish a variety of tips and alledged wisdom from me, Simon Stapleton, on matters relating to personal development and breaking out of techie-dom into the business arena.
Feel free to comment or contribute, but please, keep it clean!
This blog will publish a variety of tips and alledged wisdom from me, Simon Stapleton, on matters relating to personal development and breaking out of techie-dom into the business arena.
Feel free to comment or contribute, but please, keep it clean!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
