Career Planning: 10 Things That Really Matter!
October 29, 2008
I have three daughters who are nearing the age when they will seek careers. This is a bit scary for me but that is fodder for another blog. Today, I want to share with you some of the advice that I give college aged kids who are thinking about the future. No matter who you are and no matter what you plan on doing, if you want to succeed, you must make sure that you follow these strategies!
1. Trajectory! It’s not about where you are, it’s about where you are heading! I remember when I was making next to nothing and wondering what was going to happen. I knew I was working hard and that I had the ‘never give up’ work ethic (together this is called momentum). I knew I was in a field that was growing. But, I really wanted to make enough to support my family. My wife and I talked about my career trajectory. I was tracking up! As long as I kept my path point up, it did not matter where I was today. The most important thing is to keep that long term focus and to keep your plans rising up. Time will take care of the rest. What affects trajectory…Aim and Momentum!
2. Look the part! If you look like a bum, you will get paid like a bum – and who can afford that type of income. Who is your boss’ boss and what do they look like? Find out and cloth yourself in their cloths. So, wear what your boss’ boss wears. Dress like the position you want to have in 3-5 years. 90% of people’s confidence in you is judged within 10 seconds of them meeting you.
3. Never, ever give up! There are times to change direction, but this is not the same thing as giving up. When faced with a challenge, take it and keep going – keep trying and persevere. When you see the really hard problems and others are running, volunteer! What can go wrong – if you make it happen, you are a hero. If you can’t, well no one else was able to either. Success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration!
4. Learn baby learn! One time I walked into the office of a general for a project that I was on. We had a short (and focused) discussion. He wanted things done right. I was prepared because I bought a book on how to do it. In my honesty I told him that I was going to do it by the book. I meant literally, I was going through this book section by section and I was going to follow it. He took at as that phrase goes… “by the book”. His reply, yes, I want it done by the book. I didn’t correct him. When we stop learning, we stop earning.
5. Take responsibility! There are people who I depend on. These people say, “I’ve got it” or “I’ll get it done”. These are the people that I will turn to every time. When someone takes responsibility they look different than those who don’t. Responsible people take the initiative and remain focused on the task. They understand that it’s not about them, it’s about the team, the project, the task. People who don’t take responsibility walk that gray area in-between, they ride the fence, they leave themselves outs and look to blame early. They portray that it’s really about them. If you want to be responsible, then make a decision to do so – it’s really that easy.
6. You will never fail! Understand that there is no way that you can fail. People don’t understand what failure is any more. Failure is when you give up and according to number 3, that can’t happen to us! We will learn many many ways how things don’t work. Don’t confuse this with failure. Be like a stamp and stick to it! When you find how something doesn’t work, this is also called learning. But as long as you keep on trying (number 3) and keep learning these lessons (number 4) and take responsibility (number 5) while dressing the part (number 2) and knowing that it doesn’t matter so much where you are now (number 1), you cannot fail!
7. Be Humble! My kids play a lot of soccer and one day they asked me to play in an indoor league. Now it’s been a long time since I played and I was pretty out of shape and everyone else was better than I. Well, I told my kids that if I scored, I would simply jog back to my position and act like I’ve done this before. That game I scored two! And while I was really excited, I did what I said, I acted like this was expected. When we are humble and give credit to others, without saying it we communicate “Of course I was successful, that’s what I’m about”. But the magic is that when people see/say this about us, it’s true in their minds. But, when we have to tell them how great we are, they don’t believe us.
8. Act like everyone is watching, all the time! Our character is our sacred honor. It is the most expensive thing we have. If your actions depend upon who is watching, I guarantee that one day it will catch up with you and your character will be bankrupt. Don’t let this happen. From day one make an oath to yourself that you will always act in a manner that you would normally do when the big boss is around.
9. Let your yes be yes and your no be no! Politics is when you filter what you say so that you will influence your current audience. While it is ok to adapt your communication style and content to your audience to communicate different points, it is not ok to slant your motives to gain favor for one group at the expense of another. When people do this, it is poison and will kill the team and eventually your career. Are you the antidote or poison?
10. Rewards follow performance! I have seen many people’s career stall because they won’t move on something because it’s not their job or they don’t pay me to do that. I have actually had many people say they won’t go that extra mile because they are not getting paid for it. Well, until you understand that rewards follow performance, your prophecy will be self fulfilled. It takes performance and most times, continuous and consistent excellent performance to be rewarded. The person whose career excels is the person who makes high performance a standard.
LUCRUM Radio: Episode 13, Mike Kurtz
October 29, 2008
In this episode of LUCRUM radio, I spend time with Mike Kurtz from the University of Dayton’s Media Production Group. Mike and his team do exceptional work for numerous clients, stretching far beyond the University of Dayton itself. Listen as Mike describes how the organization began and how it has evolved over the years to become a leading provider of multi-media production services. From commercial video to interactive applications, Mike and his team have embraced technology and are using it to drive continued revenue growth.
My thanks to Mike for taking the time to share his story.
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When You Have Trust
October 28, 2008
The other day we had a technical team meeting where we were discussing access rights for a global solution that we have begun to implement but have a need to extend some functionality. Well, it gets complicated pretty quickly. To be honest, I started drawing out all the potential combinations of variables that can occur and I’m trying to lead the group through this thought.
Well, this one “rogue” guy (I think to myself) keeps bringing up an idea. I hear it but it doesn’t seem to make sense to me. So, I discount it and try to get the group to move on. He keeps bringing it up and won’t let it go. We all tell him that he sometimes has listening problems and to hang it up for a bit.
Does he do this? No. Not because he is really a “rogue” guy or because he enjoys making things difficult (I have encountered my share of these people), rather, James knows that he can trust the group. James feels the trust and sees it played out over time. James knows that the environment is mature enough to handle the truth. Remember that line, “You can’t handle the truth” from the movie A Few Good Men. There was no trust in that relationship – that is for sure!
James sticks to his guns and won’t let it go. He did so in an encouraging way, but forceful. Finally, it dawned on us that he was right. Had James not felt the trust, he would avoid the conflict by either shutting down and ceasing to contribute or becoming defensive; and we would not have the proper solution to the problem. Way to go James (you know who you are)!
By the way, I called him later that day and said thanks and that I appreciated the way he handled himself. I thanked him for putting the needs of the group ahead of the need for him to avoid unpleasant conflict. This was a highlight for both of us that day. We saved a few days time and money and walked away with a better solution for less money.
In a recent blog post I wrote “This is a key point (gaining trust) because without trust the team is guarded and people don’t share. A solid foundation of trust is necessary for any team that wants to be highly successful.” Conflict is a necessary part of a team. But healthy conflict doesn’t focus on people, rather it focuses on the topic at hand.
Did you ever experience a team that had conflict and someone when historical? Not hysterical, historical! You know; “…yeah, but remember when you did this and you said that and he said… and she said…” This is because there was a lack of trust. When this happens, people focus on defense and of course sometimes a good defense is a good offense. Other times they shutdown and withdraw. Either way, that conflict is not healthy.
Conflict + Trust is healthy debate and leads to innovation!
Conflict w/o Trust leads to murder (of at least one’s character).
Go find someone to Trust.
~ Scott
LUCRUM Radio – Episode 12, Jill Haney
October 17, 2008
Jill Haney is an image consultant and columnist for the Cincinnati Enquirer. In this episode of LUCRUM Radio I spend time discussing the importance of image for business professionals – even those who rarely leave the cube. She shares her top 5 tips for men and for women, and offers up some great advice as to how improving your image might just improve your life.
Thanks to Jill for taking the time to do the podcast.
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Not Just Another Object-Relational Mapping Service
October 16, 2008
Andy Erickson and I went to a Microsoft MSDN Unleaded event last week (10.07.2008) and they uncovered the new ADO.NET Entity Framework. It’s a new tool to help developers bridge different data sources into a single representation in code. Stated a different way, a customer entity can exist in two different systems but be represented in code as a single customer object. It abstracts the logical schema in the database and its conceptual schema for the application. That, in it self is powerful; but there’s more. The ADO.NET Entity Framework provides services to generate all the business objects and database access for you on the fly. You can sort, page, and filter data using LINQ with very little code. Consume the service with an ASP.NET application or couple it with a Windows Communication Foundation service for some real bang in the enterprise!
To learn more, check out the MSDN article: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa697427(VS.80).aspx
You can also download the sample code from the MSDN presentation: http://blogs.msdn.com/wsteele/attachment/8970691.ashx You will need the Adventure Works database installed and SP1 for the .NET 3.5 framework in order to build and run the sample application.
Please post any questions and comments in the comments section.
Happy coding!
Business Intelligence, Done Right
October 14, 2008
Business Intelligence efforts often fail, not because of the technicians, but because of the disjointed relationships we (IT) have with the business. We fear relationships. We think that our investments and communications are a waste of time because we have a tremendous amount of downward pressure to deliver – so we start quickly and build according to some document that we substitute as face time with our partner. To fix this problem, we need to take the best part of our building experience as ITers and put that together with the best part of relationship management – skills that we often don’t posses, but are vital to successfully delivering value and meeting our partners expectations.
{more on “The Right Way” below}
Kimbal’s methodology calls for the segregation of the three layers of BI and this is fantastic. There are in fact three separate BI tracks that can and should run concurrently. The three tracks are:
1. Technical Architecture
2. Data Architecture
3. Application Architecture
After all, we need to make progress on the technical choices of architecture and tools. What is our environment like, what standard tools do we use, what is our technical strategy to frame and contain our BI effort?
At the same time, we need to start looking at our data. What data will we need to work with, what is it, how should it relate, where does it come from, how do we extract, transform and load it. These are considerations of the data architecture effort.
Again, at the same time, what level of innovation do we need to arrive at? How do we present this to the user and provide the desired interaction to help mine data to craft information.
Kimbal’s Methodology
This methodology is right on! It is triggered by and the scope is managed by the requirements. These requirements are derived from that box that is labeled “Program/Project Planning”. But it’s not enough, it’s not there yet! In my mind, this is a bit limited and really only addresses the “Go” portion of the project – to build. All too often, BI projects fail because of thing that are ‘above’ or before the Go. Here is what I have found to be the differentiating factors.
Requirements should be built from Strategy. Why are we building this BI application? What are the important questions that need to be answered? What is the value that these answers bring; are we making things better or faster or cheaper? A well formulated strategy addresses these questions and should manage the deliverables. When we rely on a set of requirements to build a BI solution, we are abstracted from the strategy and this is not good. When this abstraction occurs, we are removed from the business value and are relegated as a commodity…simply build to this specification.
However, strategy is not born without a birthing process. The birthing process consists of a couple of elements. The first is an alignment or a focus at most senior levels. If we can’t align on the true aspects of the business, we are forced to work in a vacuum and can, at best produce a solution that is severely slanted. This slant often caters to the loudest voice or the biggest ego. Worse, our solution is then forever raised in a silo that contributes to expensive growth and maturity with a limited enterprise appeal. If and only if we get this alignment, we are doomed to deliver value slices rather than holistic value.
This alignment is not enough. After we have a focus, we then have to dive deep within the organization to see what raw materials we have to work with. I refer to this phase as ‘Discovery’. Once we are aligned and focused on the business value, what do we have to work with? What data exists in what format and at what availability and quality?
To state this concisely, we have the following necessary phases that will lead us to success.
1. Alignment – A common focus with enterprise level buy in.
2. Discovery – An exploration to ascertain our resources and an evaluation to ensure it supports the common focus.
3. Strategy – The actual strategy that is an outcome of “What do you want” + “What do we have”.
4. Requirements – The plan of how to get there from here.
Now, we are ready to “Go” forth and multiply! We are ready to build! And we know what we are building (requirements) and how the effort will benefit the organization (strategy). We know what we really have to work with (discovery). And finally, we have those committed at the top who are committed at the deepest levels of the effort and will both support/defend the effort as well as ensure that its accepted and reused across the enterprise.
Putting it all together, let me suggest the following methodology…
Sometimes we are asked “Why are you just sitting there? Do something!” We need to rally and fight the urge to just do something. We need to change that around as ask “Why are you just doing something? Sit there” (and get focused, aligned, discover, produce strategy, birth requirements…then we can “Go” and do something excellent).
The difference between a commodity and a partner is the level of time you invest in the relationship.
Take the time to do it right and it will be celebrated!
The next series of blogs will outline the above components; alignment, discovery, strategy, requirements and the three team approach to building BI solutions. Feel free to shoot me some questions or thoughts you may have regarding these topics.
Enjoy the ride!
~ Scott Felten
Closing The Innovation Gap
October 12, 2008
I spent Saturday lunch at Via Vite on Fountain Square with a group of regional entrepreneurs in a forum where Judy Estrin discussed with us her book, Closing The Innovation Gap. Her’s is a seminal work discussing how our economic engine developed from innovation to the point where we measure progress with quarterly reporting and even more frequent guidance on the numbers. The unfortunate result is that room for true innovation in the corporate world no longer exists.
Judy’s premise of taking the long view is good. Still, I had difficulty digesting whether or not we, in an American business culture, could actually change our ways and allow an ecosystem of innovation to develop again. It took us 40 years to dismantle it. I can’t see us rebuilding it overnight. If we hope to continue to compete in the global economy, we’ll have to start.
Innovation matters. We can’t compete without it. Our corporate drive forward needs to find ways to incorporate ongoing change and innovation into our lives. Many times the foundations of these two ideas clash, and innovation is set aside due to the pressure for corporate profits now. Then it becomes clear that innovation doesn’t just happen. It can’t be mandated. It can’t be scheduled. Innovation requires the right environment.
After WWI, America’s business environment thrived on a foundation of research and innovation. In the ’70s companies stopped investing in research and focused on efficiency and production. There could be no room for surprises. Every input and output had to be measured. In the’80s and ’90s greed took over. And with the bursting of the internet bubble and 9/11 in 2001, business’ appetite for risk was undermined. So we find ourselves today in a business environment not conducive to innovation.
But it’s more than just the business “environment”. Estrin suggests that progress requires creating an ecosystem where innovation can thrive, an ecosystem where research communities, development communities, and application communities can find the right balance to sustain life. Balancing calls for leadership, funding, education, policy, and culture. Of these, leadership and culture are most important. The right leadership develops funding, education, and policy. The right culture allows for both top-down and bottom-up growth.
This ecosystem balances itself and thrives on the basis of 5 core values.
- Questioning – the ability to question from a perspective of curiosity, but moreso from a perspective of self-assessment. Be the critical optimist performing constant self-assessment in order to feed more data back into the process.
- Risk – the willingness to fail. Attitudes towards failure must change to support a culture of failing often and failing early. Embrace failure and allow the experiences to continue to funnel more data back into the process.
- Openness – Imagine together. Collaborate. Share the failures and their lessons. Continue to take in new data.
- Patience – For the researcher, patience is tenacity. For the business, patience is letting something develop rather than asking, “Is it done now? How about now? Okay, well when do you think?”
- And finally, Trust
Most companies construct disincentives to innovate all over the place. There is no room or time for questioning. You need to know up front whether or not an initiative will succeed. Failure is not a badge you wear on your chest, and the larger the failure the more quickly you’re shown the door. So why share the lessons? That only shines a brighter light on the problems and exposes your weaknesses. And because you have not only NOT added to the bottom line for this quarter, but you’ve taken from it, you can no longer be trusted.
Can we really deconstruct our disincentives? Can we develop an environment that allows profit and innovation to thrive together? Or are we past the point that we can fix it?
- Andy
Patrick Ryan Joins LUCRUM
October 7, 2008
LUCRUM is excited to announce that Patrick Ryan has joined the firm as a Senior Recruiter. Patrick is a seasoned veteran of the staffing industry, and is a consumate professional. Patrick will support and grow the staff supplementation arm of LUCRUM through the utilization of the vast network of Information Technology professionals he has come to know over the past 11 years. Other responsibilities will include working with the sales staff and introducing them to connections he has made in the community throughout his career.
Patrick is a graduate of The Ohio State University, and an avid fan of the Buckeyes. He is also very active in the local community. He is a volunteer for the American Red Cross, Camping Director for the IHM Pack 694 Cub Scouts and consistently donates blood every 8 weeks through the Hoxworth Blood Center. In addition, he belongs and has served as President to service organizations such as The Knights of Columbus and The Ancient Order of Hibernians. Each group is responsible for community service projects, raising money for disaster relief and the Hibernians have a special interest in supporting Irish cultural activities here in Cincinnati.
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