Tales of a Recovering Extrovert

Many people have asked the question as to whether great leaders are born or made.  Certainly, we equate leadership success with the same shallow charisma that we simultaneously loathe and demand from politicians.  But can an introvert be a successful leader?

Other than questioning someone’s parentage, is there a faster way to insult someone than calling him an introvert?  Isn’t introversion something that we need to quickly cure people of by sending them to the Dale Carnegie Course?

People hear “extrovert”, and they think: outgoing, friendly, social, capable, productive, normal.

People hear “introvert”, and they think: shy, withdrawn, anti-social, elusive, dysfunctional, wall-flower.

In Good to Great, Jim Collins reveals the qualities that his research has shown as effective in running great organizations.  Interestingly, many of the qualities of “Level Five Leadership”, are found more naturally in people with Introverted preferences.

You might also be surprised who may be a closet-introvert:  High-profile leaders, television personalities, sports stars, maybe even one of your friends, neighbors, or family are introverted.  They’re everywhere, so beware – you never know when they’ll want to slink into the back corner of a meeting room, and silently wish everyone would stop talking at once.  Or perhaps pray that someone will listen to them for 20 seconds before interrupting them.  Worse yet, they may think about something before responding to a question creating that awkward few seconds of silence.

So you may be wondering where I fit on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Grid.

As someone who spends a lot of time talking to groups of people, and a person who worked in television (for a short and spectacularly unsuccessful period of time), I am rarely accused of being an Introvert.

I prefer to label myself as a Recovering-Extrovert.  We might need to create a new scale for measurement.

 

Does Business Education Matter?

Does business education matter?

I would hope it is a strong indicator that a person has a minimum proficiency in reading and writing.  It probably also means that you survived for an extended period of time on a diet of beer and pizza – excellent training for future business trips.

There is no doubt that Business degrees should be more vocational in nature than they currently are.  Therefore, it is up to the individual to ensure s/he gets the most pragmatic training from any academic business program.  As a service to anyone considering business education, or is part way through such a program, here are some things I wish I knew before going to business school:

  • Kraft Dinner is not food.
  • Liberal Arts degrees may be fulfilling, but they almost certainly ensure a career in a location with a drive-through window.
  • However, you need at least a few Arts courses so you can learn to write clearly and quickly.  This is a skill you will use far more often than the stats and accounting they teach you in Business School.
  • Likewise, good Project Management skills will serve you much better than anything you’ll learn in an Operational Research course.
  • Cheez Whiz isn’t something you eat – it’s something you seek out urologist for.
  • Take a Gap Year between High School and Post-Secondary.  This is common practice outside of North America, and it will ensure much higher focus when you do start.
  • Your Business School Professors have most likely never been in Business.
  • Take Out and Delivery are not two of the food groups.
  • Student loans aren’t a bad thing.  While it is true that society gets an 8:1 return on any investment they make in your education, you should still pay the bulk of it – your return over your lifetime is 17:1.
  • Build networks – that weird, awkward guy in your lecture might be building the next Facebook in his dorm room.

 

10 Things They Won’t Teach You in Business School

Join Jed and Bob as they discuss the 10 important Business Lessons you won’t learn at business school.  Many of the Business School professors may not like this list, but it useful for the rest of us.

Watch the ’10 Things They Won’t Teach You in Business School’ Video (15 mins 00 sec):


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Missing Business School Lessons: 10 Things They Won’t Teach You in Business School

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Of all the Business School Lessons, there are several things you don’t learn at Business School.  Below, we talk about the 10 things you won’t learn through Business School Lessons

Missing Business School Lesson #1:  It’s all about relationships:

  • The smartest, hardest-working person will not be successful if she can’t get others to work with her.
  • “Trumping” doesn’t work.  Being cranky and disrespectful to others works for the character Donald Trump plays on TV.  In real life it never works.
  • Networks matter.  The connections you build are more important than what you know.

Missing Business School Lesson # 2:  Very few business school teachers have ever actually been in business:

  • The study of business, and research is a very important function of business, but it’s not the same as actually running a  business.
  • The theory, and the research is only useful when it is applied.

Missing Business School Lesson #3:  Cash Matters

  • Presumably, you would learn this in Finance class, but there are many Business School grads who will fail to recognize that their billion dollar idea that requires a $100 million investment is only useful if you have $100 million.
  • Cash flow is likely the most poorly understood concept in business.  Much like your household finances, businesses are limited by their ability to raise capital through equity or debt.  There is a limit, and sometimes good investments need to be ignored or deferred because the cash is not available.

Missing Business School Lesson #4:  Listening is the most under-rating skill in business

  • Listening is typically not valued in our culture.  Many inexperienced business people think they will appear smarter if they talk a lot.  The opposite is true.
  • Listening is viewed as a “passive” skill – it is not.  Listening requires energy and concentration.  It also needs to be practiced.

Missing Business School Lesson #5:  Very few MBAs become CEOs

  • If you go get an MBA because you think it will be a ticket to an Executive job, you will be disappointed.
  • You should undertake business education because you want to improve yourself.

Missing Business School Lesson #6:  All you need to do to be a hero is do what you say you will

  • Careful management of expectations is key.  Ensure you know what you are responsible for, and be careful not to over-commit.
  • Follow through is required.  You need to get tasks and actions completed.

 

Missing Business School Lesson #7:  Leadership is not a democracy

  • Contrary to many of the Management and Leadership books, consensus is only good sometimes.
  • Some decisions will not be popular, and leaders need to learn to execute them regardless of popularity.

Missing Business School Lesson #8:  HR is not a department

  • The best run organizations insist that every manager be an HR manager.
  • The management of performance, and development of people is the responsibility of individual managers.  HR can be used as a resource, but it is not their accountability.

Missing Business School Lesson #9:  Education and intelligence are not necessarily correlated

  • Don’t think you’re smarter than anyone else because you have a business degree
  • Don’t discount the fact that others that don’t have a degree.  You will meet someone who barely graduated from high school and may be incredibly bright.

Missing Business School Lesson #10:  The alumni network is far more valuable than who is on faculty, and the reputation of the school

  • The world’s best business school have graduates that are very loyal to hiring graduates from the same school.  See lesson #1.
  • It is questionable whether the quality of education you get is any better at highest prestige schools.

Three Things to Remember about Business School Lessons:

  1. Any education will make an individual better than they would be without it, but not better than others.
  2. Don’t do it for the credentials.  You need to pursue education to improve yourself.
  3. The “Education versus Experience” argument is boring and irrelevant.  You need both.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Missing Business School Lessons (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

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Things You Won’t Learn in Business School

There is a whole industry out there dedicated to training business people.  But does Business Education really matter?  Join the Wily Manager guys this week, as they talk about what you’ll learn in Business School, and more importantly, what you won’t.

Monday’s Tip: Business School Professors have never actually been in business. They have lots to offer, but the theory is only useful if it can be applied.

Tuesday’s Tip: It’s all about relationships. Build your networks, and play nice with others because who you know is often more important than what you know.

Wednesday’s Tip: Listening is the most under-rated skill. The ability to listen well is an incredibly important skill that can make anyone a better leader of others.

Thursday’s Tip: Don’t go to business school for the credentials. Very few MBAs become CEO, so don’t think that Business Education is a ticket to the top.  Any education or development needs to be done with the intention of improving yourself.

Friday’s Tip: HR is NOT a department. The management of the human asset is an important role that belongs to every leader of people.  Do not attempt to abdicate this responsibility to the HR people.  They can’t (nor should they) do this well.

Taking Good Notes

Join Jed and Bob as they talk about why you’d want to take good notes, and provide some tools for doing so.

Watch the ‘How to Take Meeting Notes’ Video (15 mins 00 sec):


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How to Take Meeting Notes: Save Time With These 2 Unconventional Methods

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It might seem easy, but how to take meeting notes is a valuable and under-rated skill.  Below we talk about:

  • Why Meeting Notes Matter
  • The Basics of how to take meeting notes
  • Symbolic Method of taking meeting notes
  • Quadrant Method of taking meeting notes

Why Taking Good Meeting Notes Matters

  • Taking good notes makes the rest of us think you are on top of your game.
  • Good meeting notes help you stay on top of what decisions were made and who agreed to do what by when.
  • Good meeting notes are a historical record of
    • decisions or agreements that were made
    • why they were made
    • who is responsible for what.

The Basics of How to Take Good Meeting Notes

  • Don’t record everything that you hear or see. Focus on topics, decisions, actions and maybe only the important facts that led to these.
  • Listen for clues and cues, and ask for clarity.
  • Leave lots of white space for later additions to your thoughts.
  • Use positive language.
  • Be objective. Avoid inflammatory or personal observations. The fewer adjectives or adverbs you use, the better.
  • Boring writing is the key to appropriate notes.
  • Notes should consist of key words, or very short sentences
  • Have a uniform system of punctuation, abbreviation and symbols that will make sense to you.
  • In most situations, you will want to take notes with a pen and paper, not a laptop.

The Symbolic Method of Taking Meeting Notes

  • Indent the pages of your notes in from the left margin. Then, use a simple system of symbols to categorize information types in the column space left in the margin.

[ ] A square checkbox denotes a to do item

( ) A circle indicates a task to be assigned to someone else

* An asterisk or star is an important fact

? A question mark goes next to items to research or ask about

  • After the meeting, a quick vertical scan of the margin area makes it easy to add tasks to your to do list and calendar, send out requests to others, and further research questions.
  • (This method is the brainchild of Michael Hyatt.)

The Quadrant Method of Taking Meeting Notes

Split your note-taking page into quadrants and record different kinds of information – like questions, reference and to-do’s – into the separate areas on the page.

3 Things to Remember about How to Take Good Meeting Notes

  1. Be attentive.  Make sure you pay attention
  2. Look to be as brief as possible
  3. Be action oriented.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about How to Take Meeting Notes (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …

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Taking Good Notes

Socrates was worried that note taking was a crutch that would make people intellectually lazy.  Just about everyone else thinks it’s a good idea.  Join the Wily Manager guys this week, as they talk about how to take good notes.  It will help you look smarter, too.

Monday’s Tip: Be Brief. Copy down only the most salient points.  There are no awards for volume – and you risk writer’s cramp.

Tuesday’s Tip: Use symbols. Actions, decisions, follow up items for you, important points, etc., can all be noted by symbols of your choosing.  This makes your notes much more useable afterwards.

Wednesday’s Tip: Listen for actions and decisions. The most important things to be noted at any meeting are the actions and decision that result.  It is easy to get lost in the detail, and forget to write down these most important outcomes of the meeting.

Thursday’s Tip: Don’t note every detail. Less is often more.  You want highlights, not a transcript.

Friday’s Tip: Consider transcription services. In the event you do want a transcript of a meeting, it is much easier to make an audio recording, and then send it to a service to be converted to a transcript.

Note to Self: Take More Notes

A couple of thousand years ago, Socrates was lamenting the fact that writing things down was an intellectual crutch that was making the youth lazy.  Or it might have been Plato – I really can’t remember because I failed to write it down.

It seems that as every year passes, I am able to hold less and less in my head, and rely more and more on writing things in a notebook.  I have attributed this to the same reason my computer slows down after a few years – more and more bits of (mostly useless) information is taking valuable disc space away from what I need to remember most recently.

Case in point – I went to the grocery store looking for five items last week.  The first four, I recalled without difficulty.  The fifth item, however, completely eluded me to the point where I was wandering up and down the aisles with my mouth open, and eyes squinted hoping that item number five would magically jump off the shelf and into my basket.

I left the store with four items.

On the way home, there was a radio trivia contest asking about the actor that played the role of Skipper on Gilligan’s Island in the 70s.  Any thinking person would tell you that it’s the legendary Alan Hale.  Likewise, if you want to know Marsha Brady’s first boyfriend’s name (Harvey), I’m the guy you want to call.

In fact, I’m pretty sure I could take out a Craig’s List ad as the phone-a-friend guy for “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” contestants for anything that happened twenty or thirty years ago.  Just don’t ask me who won the 2010 World Series.  I remember watching the game, I just didn’t write down the winner.

I first started thinking about this blog post in the car, and had something really clever to say.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t write it down, so you might have to check back every few days to see if I’ve remembered.

Note to self:  Take more notes.

 

Living in the Post-Politically Correct Era

Recently, I was meeting an old friend for lunch.  When I got to the restaurant, I wasn’t sure if he was already there, or if I had arrived first, so I asked the hostess if there was anyone waiting.  “There’s a woman waiting on a party of four”, she explained, “and another man wearing a grey suit.”

I had absolutely no idea what my friend was wearing, so I said, “The man I’m looking for is a tall, bald, black man.”  The reply I got was quite telling.  The hostess looked quite uncomfortable, and replied, “I didn’t know I could identify him as ‘black’”.

“It’s OK”, I said, “he knows he’s black.”

I’m happy we’ve moved beyond Amos and Andy jokes, but the story above illustrates a hyper-sensitivity to cultural diversity that does no one any good

For this reason, I am self-proclaiming myself to be living in the post-politically correct era.  This means the cultural differences between people have such little consequence for me, that it is entirely appropriate for me to comment on such differences.

Just the other day, I was saying to my Irish friend, Alexis Theodropoulos, that this politically correct garbage has gotten way out of hand.  It seems that every Tom, Dick and Xianlong in town feels comfortable critiquing your tolerance simply because you mention in passing that you don’t like curried food.

I live in a city where the WASP population is significantly less than half the population.  I live in a country where there are no majorities – not white males, not English speakers, and not people of Protestant faith.  It’s a community of communities (with proper credit to Joe Clark).

These diverse groups do not integrate, but they do coexist, and do so nicely.  So next time you see an Italian on the street – ask him the best place to eat schnitzel.  You just might be surprised at the response.

 

 

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