Living a sustainable life! Content V Context!

How context can make or break us…

There are so many cliches that come to mind when I think about how we live our lives. However, when I think of context, an old Bushido saying comes into the forefront of my mind “We should never obsess about if we are going to die, but instead focus on how we live as those whom live an honorable life will always die a glorious death.” Whilst meant for the warrior elite of Japan’s Samurai, the wisdom it holds has value and meaning for us all! If nothing else in our time here, living an honourable life is a context for all things great! Even in failure, it’s a respective premise for living and without that context, any ‘grand’ content is meaningless.

I have come to conclude that in business as in life, if we want to have an honourable existence, we should at least learn from or adopt in part or in full the Samurai’s code for defining honourable living.

Rectitude (義): Courage (勇氣): Benevolence (仁): Respect (禮 ): Honesty (誠) : Honour (名誉): Loyalty (忠義)

Rectitude - A morally correct method of thinking otherwise known also as righteousness

Courage - Courage to do the right thing. It’s a commitment to the world to be inherently good through ones intent and resulting actions

Benevolence - Kindness and well meaning to others

Respect - Respect for oneself as much as for others. Even in conflict, respecting one’s enemies existence in this world is required for honourable living

 Honesty - Never leaving a path of honest discourse and engagement with the world. In essence, be true to others, thus be true to oneself

Honour - Holding oneself in high esteem and never deviating from morally correct intent or a morally correct course of action

Loyalty - Holding true to one’s feeling of strong support for one’s leaders, family friends and society to which one is loyal to

To me, this is an arguably complete set of attributes that defines honourable living and is transposable into any area life with a degree of accuracy that impresses. So, if we can set our life on a road that embraces this context, what are benefits and pitfalls:

Benefits:

Like attracts like - Those who live an honourable life have a lighter spring in their step through the good times and a look of resilient character in the bad times. As the old saying goes “When we surround ourselves with like minded people, we can do great things”

Stress weight - The weight of anything we feel living an honourable life even in abstract failure is far outweighed by the mounting weight of dishonourable living where betrayals, deception, immoral and/or criminal actions of all kinds take a toll on body and mind

Clean Heart -  If we are to engage life and liberty in the pursuit of happiness, living an honourable life allows us a clean heart and a good context to be happy. There is no point having all the gold in China if all we can feel is the prickly thorns of bad behaviour we set ourselves up in.

Positive Impact - In giving and not taking, we use our abilities, our courage and commitment to contribute to this world in a sustainable manner where we leave a positive imprint as a legacy for others to benefit from. They in turn are inspired to do right by others and the cycle of good intent to positive outcomes continues.

 Pitfalls:

Giver Taker Mentality - Ever have a favour done for you and be asked nothing in return? Well if you are “that guy” and want to positively impact somebody else’s life in a similar manner then there are those who will admire you for it (givers) and those who will target you because of it (takers). Takers perceive givers to be weak and thus target them in an exploitative manner.

Short Term Loss - There is no doubt in my mind that doing the right thing can bring a downside that should not be overlooked. “Learned helplessness” is a term coined to capture the feeling of justification in business for allowing others to do the wrong thing because of their standing, associations or some other criterion that can come back to hit the observer where it hurts causing short term loss.

Troubleshooting Tip: Networking is a great way to make a coalition of like minded people who look after one another. Be careful to make your network in your likeness so you have like minded people around you. If you become targeted, their support could limit your losses and prevent untold suffering on your part. A single twig breaks easy in the wind, whereas many twigs together bend but never break in the wildest of storms that rip the mighty oak tree from the ground.

Betrayal - As you become who you want to be, there will always be people in business and in life looking to profit from, take advantage of and/or abuse your good nature. The most dangerous of these are those who can deceive you into thinking they are good folk when they are really targeting you to exploit you. Know your enemies so you can understand your friends and why they are by your side. In doing so, you limit your exposure to betrayal.

It is up to us to take responsibility for our lives, our actions and our mistakes as much as our successes. When we are old and grey in our chairs many years from now, wouldn’t it be nice to look back knowing you not only made a good life for yourself but you made a positive impact on the world by being true to yourself and how you chose to live! I know I’m on board, are you? Leave a comment with your opinion…

Sources/Credits:

Pics;

www.hobicell.com

www.en.wikipedia.com

www.4photos.net

www.picjumbo.com/?s=meeting

www.rocketfuelradio.com

Credits;

"A Raving Success” - Planning for Performance

Learning from today’s failures in order to achieve tomorrow’s success

Lisa Morton once said “Some say I'm an overnight success. Well, that was a very long night that lasted about 10 years.” Her point is well made and recurring throughout time due to a fact, which all successful people know. All success is predicated by a much longer period of trying, failing, trying and trying until the stars a-line and success happens.

In my own career, I have worked with 3 start ups thus far and can say with a degree of certainty that Dublin’s startup scene is currently one of the most vibrant, youthful and committed in the world today! As with elsewhere, the formula for success is still elusive and first time entrepreneurs seem to have a consistent expectation for success. I personally think it’s admirable but from experience know that the high failure rate is down to many things, which are covered in some of my prior posts. What is as important as the environmental and constituent elements of a new business is the expectations of the entrepreneur and how they go about putting it all together.

Here are some points I have noticed in my own career to date, which bear merit to the new business entrepreneur setting out on the road to success.

Expect to succeed in business, not in your business! Contextualise your mindset with a high fault tolerance knowing that whilst you expect your business to succeed, it is likely to fail on your first try as an entrepreneur. This does not mean you should fail in business. Segregate your career as an entrepreneur from your new business and be prepared to start again. Accept failure as part of the company lifecycle, which will drive your career as a business owner. By doing so, you can be less burdened by the ability to fail, thus focus on the path ahead to success.

Flexibility is key, assertiveness is its vehicle! They say ‘keep an open mind, but don’t let your brain fall out.’ The entrepreneur should remain mentally flexible and open to comments, suggestions and criticisms. They should vet them for positive intent on behalf of the sender and deal with them assertively even if it’s negatively intended. To assert oneself positively even in a negative situation is to establish a stronger position based on one’s interests rather than the position they hold. A conversation that starts off as negative, can with an assertive reaction by the entrepreneur finish very positively a couple of minutes later.

 Manage your time or it will manage you out of business! I submit that time is equally as valuable a commodity as money to the new business entrepreneur. Manage time on a bootstrap basis with strict discipline around time management techniques like 7 day forward scheduling, setting time for “urgent” tasks where incoming emergencies need to be dealt with and important outbound tasks that can be proactively planned. Tasks that are not important or urgent can be delegated or automated. Never underestimate how much time is needed to do emails, answer calls, engage employees in their issues and so on. This is time you need to plan for. Augment your schedule as you learn from experience how long it actually takes. I always put time aside for my breaks, checking email AND planning my time for the following day and week ahead.

Manage your work life balance -  Work hard, stay committed and do what you need to for your business. However, there is a limit that needs to be respected. Keep a tight reign on your time as overworked and exhausted can put you out of business as quickly as anything else, especially when your own judgement and performance becomes impaired by fatigue.

Start with the end in mind - It’s too easy to have a great idea, start a business and get lost in the reasons why things can’t be done, cope with them and come out the far side a different person with a business you never wanted at the beginning of your journey to success. Success does come with a price but don’t prepay for it with a lack of consideration for things normally associated with larger companies like organisational structure, leadership practice, process management, documentation of work practices and company culture. IF you intend to have a business success with a hierarchical company culture, then match that intent with an appropriate business idea and plan. Don’t expect to succeed in a startup that requires a team effort from founders, employees and interns building services or developing specialist products that require expert knowledge using a dictatorial leadership style, chain communication practice and a wish for a “command ‘n control” hierarchical company culture. Match your “style” with you business plan as if you do not, the secondary issues that arise from this mismatch are likely over time to destroy your business before it really begins.

 Protect your “interests” - As in a prior point, remaining flexible to protect your interest in a relationship context is key to success as is protecting your interests such as intellectual capital, product schemas and physical goods patents. Registering trading names, brand names and trademarks are an important part of the road to success. Don’t build a castle of success for someone else to walk in and take the keys because if you let them, they will come when there is money to be made!

From idea to vision to practice to culture - people come first! - A start up of any kind is more likely to succeed if Founders surround themselves with like minded people. There is synergy with 3 Founders and 6 Employees all being givers and collaborators gelling in a near unconscious way to form the nebulous adhocracy company culture before they even write a single operational policy document. Deceiving any one of those people who are not like you into “becoming you” is an act of arrogance that will ultimately lead to compatibility problems. Given the profound impact employees and founders alike have on the potential of a new business, such an issue can lead to disaster if left unchecked.

There is no exhaustive list for becoming a successful entrepreneur. Many “feel” their way through a process of “on the job” learning as they go to become successful and in many cases are blessed with good luck to help them on their way! What is clear though is that those who learn from the mistakes of others, clearly understand who they are, what they want and how they are going to get it will stand a higher chance of success than those who are unclear in these areas. As the old saying goes “give a man a fish and he feeds his family for a day, show a man how to fish and he feeds his family for life”. With entrepreneurship, the trade craft can be learnt without drowning in the process. Do you agree? Leave a comment today...

Sources/Credits:

Pics;

https://stocksnap.io/search/business/sort/relevance/desc

https://picjumbo.com/?s=business

Credits:

Lisa Morton for here quote from http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/overnight_success.html | http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/overnight_success.html#EBuTrwVeB7l1pE0c.99

Innovation - Can it Exist in “Big” companies?

Does company size or company culture matter when it comes to innovation?

It’s no secret that in technology, people rather than products are the key to success. It’s the old scenario of a couple of guys with a great idea and great coding skills teaming up with a “business founder” and before you know it, their company is funded and worth tens of millions of dollars. The meteoric rise of technology start ups is no surprise when one thinks of how ‘software is eating the world.’

What is often overlooked is how big companies innovate across technology and other sectors. Afterall with the march of software into business, the disruptor effect is shortening product life-cycles and transforming whole industries overnight. With such risk out there, the saying “innovate or die” has understandably become very popular in C-Suites. The response is normally two fold in big companies.

A) Fund R&D keeping it as a high priority on the senior management agenda with a focus on high calibre talent acquisition to keep that new product project pipeline filled with viable entries.

b) M&A. Buy small companies where those couple of guys and gals teamed up and made their successful company out of their idea and collaboration.

Many large companies that consider new product development a priority often do both. So, why do so many companies not consider innovation a priority? In my experience, it’s down to a senior level perception of inelasticity in its product range despite the threat of the disruptor effect to their current business model. We are entering a disruption era and industries that have remained relatively unchanged for many years are starting to realise that they need to learn how to change or face becoming obsolete in the wake a disruptor wave.  

For example, banking had the corner on the lending market for generations with no real competition on lending. The technology disruptor wave has hit Ireland’s retail banking shores with companies like Grid Finance offering investor 2 business connections on the Grid Finance platform for the purpose of evaluation of projects and offering of (debt) loans in a manner that is similar to how banks lend BUT the lender makes the decision on his/her money cutting out banking as the “loan middleman”. This type of innovation was considered unthinkable a few short years ago yet it is upon us in today’s cash strapped hyper competitive and hyper connected world.

So, with that in mind, the need for change is apparent and yet so many cling to the notion that change will pass them by and all will be well in their world view. This could be true for tomorrow, next week and next year but eventually change will happen and those who ignore it will be left behind. In facing it, what are the biggest problems for business, is it size or culture?

Some considerations about size when looking at a large company's ability to change:

Size should not matter -  in this light, if the company is structured correctly, the organisational design should be flexible enough to facilitate change.

Too risky - if presented as a knee jerk reaction to a change idea, it once again is down to culture, not size. Companies over-focusing on the transaction and process hierarchy do so at the expense of creativity and innovation.

Too expensive - a classic shut down which once again if returned as an answer in record time to a change idea is down to culture. When this happens, the senior team incur an opportunity cost for their risk adversity.

When looking at company culture; dogma, vertical “silo” structures and leadership practices are all keywords in any evaluation.

Strategy - A company must see a need to a) innovate and b) value in their people to help them innovate. If they don’t, then nothing will change their fate including the below comments until they do.

Leadership Practices - A company who has business practices that are about control (classical management theory) instead of collaboration will never get the best out of their people. Innovation comes from free will to commit to an idea for the greater good of the company and its staff, not from a pay cheque.

Organisational Design - A company who has a classical management model of strict vertical silos leaves little room for effective cross company collaboration making change extremely difficult by design. This again is a cultural (V size) preference for stability. Apple and Google have variations of the Adhocracy culture with a strong focus on collaboration, cross functional projects and ‘common good’ values with creativity and controlled risk taking rewarded.

 Company culture - It’s the platform we all work in, the combination of our combined practices, decisions and experience under one roof. A hierarchical or dictatorial culture by design stifles creativity and innovation. Adhocracy (project orientated) culture and a clan culture are best suited to engaging employee support and commitment to innovation for the company’s and by extension their greater good!

If your organisational model has matrix or horizontal components of other kinds in their design, then your chances of good in-house innovation are greater than most! Here is a couple of pointers on good practice that encourages and manages innovation:

Engineer Work Practices - Make change part of the norm. Google stays innovative by allowing staff to work 20% of their work time on projects of any kind that Google may like. That freedom fans trust and creativity like no other.

Situationally aware leadership - onboard new employees with collaborative leadership and make sure all leaders practice collaborative leadership for their teams

Process map change - make change a process, have regular meetings on new ideas and present them in small groups that pass into the next phase and the next, etc.

Create a giver environment - keep takers out! The malevolent practice of taking credit for the work of others, backbiting and physiological bullying creates an predatory environment where office politics can kill an innovation programme. A giver environment will never take hold if takers are in it. Takers see givers as weak. Givers eventually become victims and leave. No-one wants to be targeted for creating something of worth.

Reward innovation - ensure politics and practices exist to reward innovation that is successful and learn from failures. Risk takers after doing a post mortem on a failure should be coached on what went wrong with the sole purpose of learning from it. The process being controlled should know when to kill a bad project in a timely manner.

Communicate - All of the above through change and after it is worthless if communication is not two way and regular with a strong collaborative tone. This applies to all levels with one standard for the company.

Whilst big companies have the safety of size, they should use their positives to address the threat of disruption, competition and natural life-cycles by becoming leaner, more creative and more innovative. It beholds senior management to follow this path no matter the industry, size or longevity of their organisation to date. Sustainability and the future of their staff is centred about management’s ability to convert the payroll “cost code” into a profit centre where innovation, not simple compliance is the biggest return they get from their biggest asset, which is their people.

Sources/Credits:

Pics;

www.scaasymposium.org

www.bakeryandsnacks.com

www.wethinq.com

www.unsplash.com

           

Credits:

https://www.grid.finance/

Feature pic by Stefanus Martanto Setyo Husodo on unsplash.com

Consultative Leadership - How to lead a start up!

Progressive leadership for a dynamic start up… why consultative leadership is so important…

We all know of the stories coming out of technology like San Francisco’s very own Airbnb, who ‘stole the show’ after renting out their apartment in San Francisco on conference weekend. It was a tough slog for Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia who had the foresight, wisdom and mental acuity to make the right decisions at the right time. Their good decisions married with exceptional luck gave birth to the Airbnb we know today. Kudos to them both for a job well done!

What we rarely hear of is that over 90% of all startups fail due to issues such as lacklustre marketplace need, misjudgement of costs, unforeseen disruption and funding issues. When you add internal development issues, founder disputes and bad leadership practices (often stress driven), then you can see why Airbnb’s ‘Cinderella story of success’ is the exception rather than the norm.

As a Technologist, I found a tech start up survey report on Inc.com to be very insightful indeed. An MIT doctoral student called Jorge Guzman did a survey on Silicon Valley failures and found some interesting patterns from using “pattern recognition” algorithms on start up registrations in California from 2001 to 2006. I thought some of his findings to be very insightful of tech start ups globally and are as follows:

Short Names - companies with short names are more likely to succeed. It makes sense when you think of branding and how word association works for companies in the marketplace.

Incorporate - companies who incorporate to a LTD/LLC/etc are more likely to succeed. It makes great sense once again on branding grounds. It also signals commitment by the founders to the project along with serious intent to be successful. Those who project a confidence of success with a well organised and structured start up are more likely to be trusted in business ergo are more likely to succeed.

Products - start ups with a patent are likely to experience a growth dividend of 25% above those who don’t. If the patent has a unique take on something that creates value in the eyes of the company, this conclusion makes perfect sense.

Networking - companies who are located in Silicon Valley V elsewhere in California are 60% more likely to succeed. This makes perfect sense to me for a tech start up as networking is key to any success, especially in technology.

So with all of insights, it is reasonable to think a good business idea has a better chance of being a roaring success, but that’s only a portion of the criteria for a successful start up. If the founders are not consultative leaders, they are increasing their chances of failure by attracting, employing and leading a personality type that cannot and/or will not meaningfully contribute to their success. Participative leaders who want the group to direct the strategy will not gain traction in a start up when employees are expected to do many things at once in a near uncontrolled environment. Dictatorial leaders who set a false sense of structure and then micro-manage employees into leaving will always have a work deficit and an opportunity cost that can cost the very same directors their business. Richard Branson once said “take care of your employees and they will take care of your business”, he is quite right!  

One of Silicon valley’s best kept secrets is how start up successes lead their companies. They use consultative leadership models that have the following attributes:

Strategy Setter – Management sets the direction the company needs to go with high level strategic goals defining the general direction for staff to brainstorm around so they can strategise how to operationally get there.

Employee Positioning - This has everything to do with people and little to nothing to do with HR. Management treat staff as assets (not cost overheads) and by definition actively harness feedback from them on the business and how things could be done better feeding into a Kaizen improvement cycle that keeps the company lean and current.

Marketing - The employee revered by management as a primary asset is also able to contribute to working conditions, how things get done and how the company could market itself better. Company events, idea boxes and regular team meetings provide good feedback in a structure for idea generation and capture.

Culture - The consultative leadership model works well in a clan or adhocracy culture. The focus on people gives everybody a sense of belonging and security insofar as they are directly contributing to their own success or failure with their colleagues in the company. Good founders start with the end in mind and socially engineer good relationships with employees that are Givers (v Matchers or Takers) by nature, thus a good fit with clan or adhocracy cultures. Team players are important and the consultative leadership practice; if done correctly in a collaborative environment creates a structured people centric culture, which is critical to success, longevity and innovation.

Communication – A two way (respectful) communication style in verbal and non verbals is a key attribute of success where staff are respected by founders for speaking their minds, even if the founders may not agree.

Combine all of this with strong founder vision and a willingness to be a real leader especially when stress levels are high, than it’s easy to see why balanced judgement is worth its weight in gold.

What happens after an initial growth period in a ‘successful’ startup can often damage a company's longer term prospects. Some founders fork from Silicon Valley’s magic formula of success by cutting employees out of the decision making process and withholding information relevant to their roles. Others cut them out of stock options that now hold worth due to “our” success. For good employees who invested in the founders through the currency of commitment, there is no greater betrayal! Other issues are the entrepreneur who cannot let go, scalability becomes an issue and as the pressure mounts, the ability to lead competently becomes compromised with employee morale sinking as a result.  

With all the learned lessons out there, it’s incredible to think how anyone could make those mistakes but they do. There is no rulebook saying a start up cannot recover to become a success. However, if the founders do not genuinely believe in the power of their people, how can their people genuinely believe in them? Place any half belief on the part of the founders under the pressure of a start up gaining traction and you have a route of potential success to definite failure.

The big take away for a success in a start up is this… if you bring your people with you, they will make sure you get to your destination! It’s not a bad sentiment when you think of how many fail. As the old saying goes ‘Surround yourself with like minded people and you will do great things!’ Do you agree? Share your start up experiences by leaving a comment…

Sources/Credits

Pics;

www.startupstockphotos.com

www.pexels.com

www.joelonsoftware.com

www.businessinsider.com

www.theselfemployed.com

Credits;

https://growthhackers.com/growth-studies/airbnb

http://www.inc.com/laura-montini/getting-closer-to-the-science-of-silicon-valley-success.html