Monday, March 31, 2014

100 Great Questions Every Entrepreneur Should Ask

How can we become the company that would put us out of business? -Danny Meyer, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group
Are we relevant? Will we be relevant five years from now? Ten? -Debra Kaye, innovation consultant and author
If energy were free, what would we do differently? -Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
Hsieh explains, “This is a thought experiment to see how you would reconfigure the business if you had different resources available or knew that different resources would one day become available. Another question might be, what if storage was free? Or what if labor costs half as much or twice as much?”
What is it like to work for me? -Robert Sutton, author and management professor at Stanford
If we weren’t already in this business, would we enter it today? And if not, what are we going to do about it? -Peter Drucker, management expert and author
The late Drucker posed a variation on this question to Jack Welch in the 1980s. It inspired General Electric’s “fix, sell, or close” strategy for exiting or restructuring unprofitable businesses.
What trophy do we want on our mantle? - Marcy Massura, a digital marketer and brand strategist at MSL Group
Massura explains, “Not every business determines success the same way.Is growth most important to you? Profitability? Stability?”
Do we have bad profits? -Jonathan L. Byrnes, author and senior lecturer at MIT
Byrnes explains, “Some investments look attractive, but they also take the company’s capital and focus away from its main line of business.”
What counts that we are not counting? -Chip Conley, founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality and head of global hospitality for Airbnb
Conley explains, “In any business, we measure cash flow, profitability, and a few other key metrics. But what are the tangible and intangible assets that we have no means of measuring, but that truly differentiate our business? These may be things like the company’s reputation, employee engagement, and the brand’s emotional resonance with people inside and outside the business.”
In the past few months, what is the smallest change we have made that has had the biggest positive result? What was it about that small change that produced the large return? -Robert Cialdini, author and professor emeritus of marketing and psychology at Arizona State University
Are we paying enough attention to the partners our company depends on to succeed? -Ron Adner, author and professor at Tuck School of Business
Adner explains, “Even companies that execute well themselves are vulnerable to the missteps of suppliers, distributors, and others.”
What prevents me from making the changes I know will make me a more effective leader? -Marshall Goldsmith, leadership coach and author
What are the implications of this decision 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years from now? -Suzy Welch, author
Do I make eye contact 100 percent of the time? -Tom Peters, author and management expert
What is the smallest subset of the problem we can usefully solve? -Paul Graham, co-founder of Y Combinator
Are we changing as fast as the world around us? -Gary Hamel, author and management consultant
If no one would ever find out about my accomplishments, how would I lead differently? -Adam Grant, author and professor at Wharton
Which customers can’t participate in our market because they lack skills, wealth, or convenient access to existing solutions? -Clayton Christensen, author, Harvard Business School professor, and co-founder of Innosight
Who uses our product in ways we never expected? -Kevin P. Coyne and Shawn T. Coyne, authors and strategy consultants
How likely is it that a customer would recommend our company to a friend or colleague? -Andrew Taylor, executive chairman of Enterprise Holdings
"Taylor’s use of this question at Enterprise Rent-A-Car inspired Fred Reichheld to create the Net Promoter Score, a widely used metric for customer loyalty.
Is this an issue for analysis or intuition? -Tom Davenport, author and professor at Babson College
Davenport explains, “If it’s a decision that’s important, recurring, and amenable to improvement, you should invest in gathering data, doing analysis, and examining failure factors. If it’s a decision you will only make once, or if for some reason you can’t get data or improve the decision-making process, you might as well go with your experience and intuition.”
Who, on the executive team or the board, has spoken to a customer recently? -James Champy, author and management expert
Did my employees make progress today? -Teresa Amabile, author and Harvard Business School professor
Amabile explains, “Forward momentum in employees’ work has the greatest positive impact on their motivation.”
What one word do we want to own in the minds of our customers, employees, and partners? -Matthew May, author and innovation expert
May explains, “This deceptively simple question creates utter clarity inside and outside a company. It is incredibly difficult for most people to answer and difficult to get consensus on--even at the highest levels. Apple = different. Toyota = quality. Google = search. It’s taken me three years to get one of my clients, Edmunds.com, to find and agree on their word: trust.”
What should we stop doing? -Peter Drucker, management expert and author
What are the gaps in my knowledge and experience? -Charles Handy, author and management expert
What am I trying to prove to myself, and how might it be hijacking my life and business success? -Bob Rosen, executive coach and author
If we got kicked out and the board brought in a new CEO, what would he do? -Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel
In 1985, with the company’s memory-chip business under siege, CEO Grove famously posed this hypothetical to Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, leading them to ditch memory for microprocessors.
If I had to leave my organization for a year and the only communication I could have with employees was a single paragraph, what would I write? -Pat Lencioni, author and founder of The Table Group
Lencioni explains, “Determining the substance of this paragraph forces you to identify the company’s core values and strategies, and the roles and responsibilities of those hypothetically left behind.”
Who have we, as a company, historically been when we’ve been at our best? -Keith Yamashita, author and founder of SYPartners
What do we stand for--and what are we against? -Scott Goodson, co-founder of StrawberryFrog
Is there any reason to believe the opposite of my current belief? -Chip and Dan Heath, authors who teach at Stanford’s and Duke’s business schools, respectively
Do we underestimate the customer’s journey? -Matt Dixon, author and executive director of research at CEB
Dixon explains, “Often, companies don’t understand the entirety of the customer’s experience and how many channels may have already failed them. They don’t understand that the customer goes to the website first, pokes around but can’t find the answer to their question, and then tries to start up a chat with an agent, only to get frustrated by the delayed response. Only then do they go to the Contact Us tab and call. From the company’s perspective, the call is square one. The customer sees it as, you’ve already wasted 15 minutes of my time.”
Among our stronger employees, how many see themselves at the company in three years? How many would leave for a 10 percent raise from another company? -Jonathan Rosenberg, adviser to Google management
What did we miss in the interview for the worst hire we ever made? -Alberto Perlman, CEO of Zumba Fitness
Do we have the right people on the bus? -Jim Collins, author and management consultant
What would have to be true for the option on the table to be the best possible choice? -Roger Martin, professor, Rotman Business School
Martin uses this question when members of a group bring diverse opinions to a decision. It allows people to step back from their strongly held beliefs and contemplate a range of circumstances that might--or might not--support each option.
Am I failing differently each time? -David Kelley, founder, IDEO
When information truly is ubiquitous, when reach and connectivity are completely global, when computing resources are infinite, and when a whole new set of impossibilities are not only possible, but happening, what will that do to our business? -Jonathan Rosenberg
Do we aggressively reward and promote the people who have the biggest impact on creating excellent products? -Jonathan Rosenberg
What is our Big Hairy Audacious Goal? -Jim Collins
Is our strategy driving our strategy? Or is the way in which we allocate resources driving our strategy? -Mark Johnson, co-founder, Innosight
Johnson explains, “You might think you have a strategic plan, but your people may be doing things on a day-to-day basis that are undermining it. It’s essential that people believe in the strategy so they can make the daily decisions that support it.”
How is the way you as the leader think and process information affecting your organizational culture? -Ari Weinzweig, co-founder Zingerman’s Community of Businesses
Weinzweig explains, “Describe the culture you'd love to have in your organization. Then check the desired characteristics of the culture against the way you think and process information. Are they congruent? Do you want collaboration but think in isolation? Do you want a flat organization but think hierarchically?
Why don’t our customers like us? -James Champy
How can we become more high-tech but still be high touch? -James Champy
What do we need to start doing? -Jack Bergstrand, CEO, Brand Velocity
Whom among your colleagues do you trust, and for what? -Charles Handy
Handy tells this story: “One CEO had a problem with his best subordinate, who was very good at his job. But he was also personally ambitious, so the CEO could not trust him to be totally loyal. The dilemma was whether to keep him because of his abilities or lose him because he couldn't be sure of him. The answer was for the CEO to either assign the subordinate jobs where his loyalty wasn’t relevant or to confront him with his feelings. After some pushing from me. the CEO did the latter, and it cleared the air.”
Are you satisfied with your current role? If not, what is missing from it? -Charles Handy
Do you keep 50% of your time unscheduled? -Dov Frohman, engineer and executive, author
The 50% stat may be somewhat arbitrary. But Frohman’s point, laid out in his book “Leadership the Hard Way,” is that leaders should make sure they maintain sufficient “slop” in their schedules to allow space for reflection and the assimilation of lessons learned from experience.
What would I recommend my friend do if he were facing this dilemma? -Chip and Dan Heath
What kind of crime could a potential new hire have committed that would not only not disqualify him/her from being hired by our organization, but would actually indicate that he/she might be a particularly good fit? -Pat Lencioni
Lencioni explains, “In this case "crime" is a metaphor. This question speaks to values. A particularly idealistic organization may be okay with hiring someone that was previously reprimanded for standing up for his beliefs or blowing the whistle on something. A particularly competitive organization may be okay hiring someone who in prior positions was reprimanded for being overly arrogant or difficult to work with.”
If our customer were my grandmother, would I tell her to buy what we’re selling? -Dan Pink, author
If our company went out of business tomorrow, would anyone who doesn't get a paycheck here care? -Dan Pink
What is something you believe that nearly no one agrees with you on? -Peter Thiel, partner, Founders Fund
Do you have an implicit bias for capital investments over people investments? -Tom Peters
Peters explains: “Capital enhancements are important. They're also cool. You can get your picture taken next to a new robot. People investments are invisible and hard to measure. The tendency is to favor the hard stuff over the soft stuff. But the soft stuff is invariably more related to long-term strategic success than the hard stuff.”
Do we have enough freaky customers in our portfolio pushing us to the limit day in and day out? -Tom Peters
Who are you going to put out of business, and why? -Brad Feld, managing director, Foundry Group
What happens at this company when people fail? -Bob Sutton and Jeff Pfeffer, Stanford professors
How will you motivate the dishwashers? -Bill Keena, independent casino consultant
Job interview questions comprise a genre unto themselves, so we chose not to include them in this article. With one exception. Keena says the only correct answer to this question, posed to manager candidates in a hotel chain, is “If they are overloaded I would roll up my sleeves and start washing right alongside them.” That speaks to the candidate’s ability to create employee engagement. Turned inward, however, the question reveals even more about culture. Ask yourself this: Are we the kind of company that cares whether our dishwashers are motivated?
Do your employees have the opportunity to do what they do best everyday? -Marcus Buckingham, author
Where is our petri dish? -Tim Ogilvie, CEO. Peer Insight
What Microsoft is this the Altair Basic of? -Paul Graham
Do we say “no” to customers for no reason? -Matt Dixon
You may have created your customer policies at a time when you lacked resources, technology wasn’t up-to-snuff, or low service levels were the industry norm. Have those circumstances changed? If so, your customer policies should change too.
Instead of going to current contacts for new ideas, what if you reconnected with dormant contacts--the people you used to know? If you were going reactivate a dormant tie, who would it be? -Adam Grant
Do you see more potential in people than they do in themselves? -Adam Grant
Are you taking your company in the direction of better and revenue or cheaper and cost? -Michael Raynor, director, Deloitte Services LP
Would you rather sell to knowledgeable and informed customers or to uninformed customers? -Don Peppers, founding partner, Peppers and Rogers Group
Partly it’s a matter of values: uninformed customers can be easy targets who swallow your pitch without pushing back. Selling to knowledgeable customers, by contrast, “is a mark of a trustable firm--one that is working to advance its customers’ best interests,” says Peppers. And there’s another benefit: “Your most valuable customer references are not the ones who spend the most, but the ones who have the most expertise and authority. That gives them credibility with their peers.”
What are we challenging, in the sense that Mac challenged the PC or Dove tackled the Beauty Myth? -Mark Barden and Adam Morgan, founders, eatbigfish
Barden and Morgan explain that for companies challenging market leaders with greater resources, competing on the status quo is death. Instead they must assault the dynamics of a category (the dominance of PC) or a cultural meme (what society defines as “beautiful” in women).
In what way can we redefine the criteria of choice in our category in our favor, as Method introduced style and design to cleaning and Virgin America returned glamor to flying? -Mark Barden and Adam Morgan
In the past year, what have you done (or could you have done) to increase the accurate perception of this company/brand as ethical and honest? -Robert Cialdini
Cialdini explains: “Of course, the preferred way to increase the perception of a company as ethical is to foster ethical practice within the organization. However, sometimes a company can be ethical without a corresponding perception in the marketplace that this is indeed the case. Therefore, companies should strive not only to enhance and reinforce an ethical culture but also to arrange for a warranted perception of that ethicality to be part of their brand.”
To whom do you add value? -Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood, co-founders, The RBL Group
Why should people listen to you? -Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood
How would our PR, marketing, and social media change if we did not use outside agencies? -Guy Kawasaki, founder, Garage Technology Ventures and Alltop
Kawasaki explains, “Let’s see what happens when a company can't abdicate these functions to hired guns. I'd bet that employees, because they know and love their product more than any agency, can do a much better job at less expense to boot.”
What was the last experiment we ran? -Scott Berkun, author
Are your clients Pepsi or Coke drinkers?” -Marcy Massura
Massura explains: “This is a symbolic question that gets at how deeply you have researched your target clients. Business leaders can find out more about their customers than ever before thanks to the ability to collect data on a grand scale. Such detailed information allows the company to interact with targets in new ways and to assess current product development and marketing roadmaps.”
What is your BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement)? -Roger Fisher and William Ury, negotiation experts
What's the best design framework for an organization in a post Industrial-Age if the top-down, command and control model is no longer relevant? -Traci Fenton, CEO, Worldblu
Who are four people whose careers I’ve enhanced? -Alex Gorsky, CEO, Johnson & Johnson
Where can we break convention? -Shane Snow, co-founder, Contently
Whose voice (department, ethnic group, women, older workers, etc) might you have missed hearing from in your company, and how might you amplify this voice to create positive momentum for your business? -Jane Hyun and Audrey Lee, partners, Hyun & Associates
In retrospect, of the projects that we pulled the plug on, what percent do we wish had been allowed to keep going, and what percent do we wish had ended earlier? -Ron Adner
Do you, as a leader, bounce back quickly from setbacks? -Bob Rosen
Who do we think the world wants us to be? -Geoffrey Moore, organizational theorist and management consultant
How will we build a 100-year startup? -Phil Libin, CEO, Evernote
What successful thing are we doing today that may be blinding us to new growth opportunities? -Scott D. Anthony, managing partner, Innosight
If you could go back in time five years, what decision would you make differently? What is your best guess as to what decision you're making today you might regret five years from now? -Patrick Lencioni
What stupid rule would we most like to kill? -Lisa Bodell, CEO, FutureThink
What potential megatrends could make our business model obsolete? -Michael A. Cusumano, professor, MIT
What information is critical to our organization that our executives are ignoring? -Max Bazerman, professor, Harvard Business School
What have we done to protect our business from competitive encroachment? -Tom Stemberg, managing general partner, Highland Venture Capital
If you had to rebuild your organization without any traditional competitive advantages (i.e., no killer a technology, promising research, innovative product/service delivery model, etc.), how would your people have to approach their work and collaborate together in order to create the necessary conditions for success?” -Jesse Sostrin, founder, Sostrin Consulting
What are the rules and assumptions my industry operates under? What if the opposite were true?Phil McKinney, innovation expert
Do the decisions we make today help people and the planet tomorrow? -Kevin Cleary, president, Clif Bar
What is your theory of human motivation, and how does your compensation plan fit with that view? -Dan Ariely, professor, Duke University
How do you encourage people to take control and responsibility? -Dan Ariely
Who do we want out customers to become? -Michael Schrage, professor, MIT
How do I stay inspired? -Paul Bennett, chief creative officer, IDEO
Do I know what I’m doing? And who do I call if I don’t? -Erin Pooley, business journalist
Do they use it? -Howard Tullman, CEO, 1871
What is our question? -Dev Patnaik, CEO, Jump Associates
How is business? Why? -Thomas A. Stewart, chief marketing and knowledge officer, Booz & Company

Thursday, March 20, 2014

10 Habits of Good Public Speaker

Public speakers can motivate, educate, challenge and entertain audiences. The best public speakers can do all four at the same time. A good public speaker is flexible and enjoys the diversity that each audience presents. It is an honor to speak with an audience and the best public speakers never forget that.

Always strive for excellence when you are speaking in public. In no particular order, here are 10 behaviors that public speakers should incorporate into their professional conduct.

A great public speaker. . .

1. . . .meets the audience.
When I speak at an event with other presenters on the schedule, I am always amazed that the speakers congregate backstage and away from the audience. While some prep time is always needed before an event, make it a point to go out and casually mingle with the audience, doing more listening than talking. You will meet some great people and more of the audience will feel like they already know you when it is your turn to speak on stage.

2. . . .knows their subject matter.
Speak about what you know and subjects that capture your energy and focus. You should know your subject well enough that you could spontaneously speak without notes in any situation. Be devoted to the subjects you speak about.

3. . . .uses sound equipment.
While it may seem more casual to ditch the microphone, I am seeing and hearing many speakers in my coaching work that insist they do not need a microphone. Making your audience strain to hear your words is not respectful. Any group gathering that cannot fit around a conference table will require a microphone.

4. . . .dresses comfortably for the audience.
Keep your clothing choices just a step above the casual or formal dress of the group. For example, if you are expecting an audience filled with blue-jeans casual, you might choose a business-casual attire.

5. . .listens to other speakers.
Just as you want to meet an audience before events, it is important that speakers participate in those events. In particular, make it a point to hear the speakers that are before you on the schedule so that you will be able to make good tie-ins with the group's experience.

6. . . .incorporates learning styles.
Not everyone in your audience can learn from a singular presentation stytle. Mix your presentation with audience activities, slides, stories and your direct input.

7. . .uses good speaking mechanics.
Are you using first-rate nonverbal techniques? Vary your pacing, tone, eye contact, gestures and movement as your presentation progresses. Be interesting to watch.

8. . .customizes presentations.
It was popular advice a few years ago that you should be a speaker who developed a single presentation and presented that to every audience. In addition to being arrogant, it is rude to your audience and is a way to guarantee you will not be rehired. Tweak your presentations for each audience.

9. . .uses appropriate humor.
While the days of the "start with a joke" are well behind us, it is still good to use your own natural humor- staying away from traditionally sensitive topics such as religion or politics. Rather than try to be funny, simply share things that are funny to you and let the audience decide what they will laugh at.

10. . .shares good stories.
Good stories, used to illustrate your points, can help an audience remember your presentation. Be on the lookout for good stories from your own life and literature that can be used for future presentations. Learn good storytelling techniques to adjust each story for your audience. In my "Storytelling 101" Eworkbook, you can learn how to develop and present stories in a step-by-step manner.

4 Qualities of Amazing Public Speakers

Whether you are an experienced public speaker or just flirting with the idea of sharing your message with the world, you probably know that giving a great presentation involves much more than just reading from cue cards.

The good news? Learning about the essential qualities of other great presenters is an easy way to become one yourself. The following four essential qualities of all public speakers, in particular, will ensure you are delivering presentations that will influence, inspire, and make a meaningful impact on your audience.

1. Introspection & Self-Awareness

To be an effective speaker, you must first understand who you are as a speaker—and as a person. What are your strongest interpersonal qualities? How do you best connect with others? What qualities do you need to work on? The most effective speakers are constantly working to capitalize on their strengths—whether that’s great storytelling or a talent for getting the audience to participate—and also to improve upon their weaknesses. Tapping into your most powerful interpersonal qualities is an excellent way to make yourself accessible, engaging, and unique.

To start, make a list of your best traits and the areas in which you excel. Then, think about how each of these traits is expressed when speaking or presenting in front of others. For example, if you’re great at explaining complex concepts in simple terms or if you have a dynamic, engaging personality, make sure you’re incorporating and highlighting these qualities throughout your presentation. (Need help identifying your interpersonal strengths? StrengthsFinder 2.0 is an excellent resource.)

2. The Ability to Tell a Story

Audiences show up for information, but they stay for the stories. Told well, stories can be the key to a compelling presentation that excites, energizes, and truly engages the people sitting in front of you. As my friends and mentors at Story Leaders have told me: “Others may not think what we think, but through a shared story, they can feel what we feel.”

So, consider sharing a story of struggle or triumph or your personal path—ideally at the start of your speech. Don’t be afraid to reveal information about yourself and demonstrate your vulnerabilities—this will capture people in a way that fact and information-sharing alone never will.

3. Generosity

Simon Sinek changed the lives of many thousands of people when he shared his brilliant TED talk, “How Great Leaders Inspire Action.” What stands out about this presentation above all is the generosity with which Sinek shares information. He holds nothing back and instead, gives everything to his audience, including his secret to success in business and in life: “Start with why,” he says. "Tell people why you do what you do before you tell them what you do or how you do it." Simple. Brilliant. And in return for sharing this insight, he has built an undying, committed tribe.

The best communicators understand the value in sharing information openly, honestly, and generously. The more you give, the more an audience can connect with you and the more they will take away. To do this effectively, you will have to truly understand your audience Who are they? How do they learn? Would they respond better to a high-energy motivational speech, for example, or one that is more subtle? The better you know your audience, the more likely you will deliver the information in a way that is meaningful to them. And then show a true commitment to your audience by revealing everything and holding nothing back.

4. Confidence

Finally, when you’re speaking and presenting in front of others, confidence is key. An unsure or timid presentation will not capture or engage an audience, and it certainly won’t motivate a tribe. But, of course, for many of us, public speaking and anxiety tend to go hand in hand.

If you find yourself feeling intimidated before a presentation, consider this: Your nerves do not show. What you’re feeling is primarily internal, and others can’t sense your fear if you don’t let on. Also, your audience is rooting for you—they want a great presentation, so they want you to succeed. Finally, and most importantly, you are in control of your nerves. If you have practiced your speech again and again, as any great speaker must, the confidence will flow naturally. In addition, mental visualization exercises, such as envisioning applause as you near the end of your speech, and physical exercises such as deep breathing and stretching, can also relieve stress so that you can deliver a powerful, engaging presentation uninhibited.

Brilliant public speaking is not an easy task. But with some practice, and with these key principles in mind, you can master it, without question.

10 Tips for Public Speaking

Feeling some nervousness before giving a speech is natural and even beneficial, but too much nervousness can be detrimental. Here are some proven tips on how to control your butterflies and give better presentations:

1. Know your material. Pick a topic you are interested in. Know more about it than you include in your speech. Use humor, personal stories and conversational language – that way you won’t easily forget what to say.

2. Practice. Practice. Practice! Rehearse out loud with all equipment you plan on using. Revise as necessary. Work to control filler words; Practice, pause and breathe. Practice with a timer and allow time for the unexpected.

3. Know the audience. Greet some of the audience members as they arrive. It’s easier to speak to a group of friends than to strangers.

4. Know the room. Arrive early, walk around the speaking area and practice using the microphone and any visual aids.

5. Relax. Begin by addressing the audience. It buys you time and calms your nerves. Pause, smile and count to three before saying anything. ("One one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand. Pause. Begin.) Transform nervous energy into enthusiasm.

6. Visualize yourself giving your speech. Imagine yourself speaking, your voice loud, clear and confident. Visualize the audience clapping – it will boost your confidence.

7. Realize that people want you to succeed. Audiences want you to be interesting, stimulating, informative and entertaining. They’re rooting for you.

8. Don’t apologize for any nervousness or problem – the audience probably never noticed it.

9. Concentrate on the message – not the medium. Focus your attention away from your own anxieties and concentrate on your message and your audience.

10. Gain experience. Mainly, your speech should represent you — as an authority and as a person. Experience builds confidence, which is the key to effective speaking. A Toastmasters club can provide the experience you need in a safe and friendly environment.

6 Surprising Ways to Get More Creative

Here are six surprising facts you might not already know about how the creative mind works, which can hopefully to get your own creative juices flowing:

1. Workplace clutter makes you more creative.

Here's a creativity fact Martha Stewart certainly wouldn't agree with: clutter actually makes you more creative. Research by the University of Minnesota discovered people in a disorderly room were more creative than those in an orderly room. Disorder can help you see things in a new way.

After all, penicillin was discovered by accident only after mold grew on one of Alexander Fleming's petri dishes. So, don't waste your time straightening up your desk. There could be inspiration lurking in that clutter.

2. Blue is the warmest color for your creativity.

We know color can affect your mood, but can it also spur your creativity? A study by the University of British Columbia looked at the two primary colors most associated with advertisements: red and blue. They found that, while red is great for focusing our attention to detail, blue is the color you need for creativity.

Blue environmental cues in the study caused participants to produce twice as many creative outputs. Blue is associated with tranquil environments like the ocean and sky, making people feel safe to creatively explore.

3. Exhausted? That's great... for your creativity anyway.

If you want to work at optimal productivity, you should do so when you're most awake and alert. For early birds this might be in the morning, while night owls perform better later. But when it come to creativity, you should just throw this conventional wisdom out the window.

According to some research, being exhausted and easily distracted can actually be the best combination for creativity. Creative work calls for being receptive and able to form new pathways and solutions to old problems. When you're susceptible to more information, you're that much closer to a new and potentially great idea.

4. Coffee shops give you a brain boost.

Is there an added bonus to your overpriced cup of coffee besides the caffeine rush? Researchers from the Universities of British Columbia and Virginia certainly think so. They've found the moderate noise distraction found at your average coffee shop can help boost your ability to think creativity. The sweet spot, according to researchers, is about 70 decibels of ambient noise. So next time you go for a coffee, consider staying for a bit of inspiration.

5. Meditation can actually rewire your brain.

If you stop thinking, at least temporarily, it might help you think more creatively. Meditation can actually rewire your brain by loosening the connections in the medial prefrontal cortex. Researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands found the right form of meditation can actually improve creativity. Open-monitoring meditation, where meditators focus on both the internal and external, can boost the ability to think of new ideas and dream up solutions to problems.

6. Aerobic exercise can help.

Exercise isn't just good for your body, it's also good for your mind. So if you've already given up on your new year's resolution to hit the gym, you might want to reconsider. Research by Rhode Island College gave participants the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking after some vigorous exercise. The results? Participants thought more creatively after working up a sweat. So there's really no more excuses not to hit the gym.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

High Performance Is Not the Same as High Potential

If your company is like most, you probably identify your next leaders from a pool of your top performers. They might be salespeople or project managers or skilled developers, but in any event, they've got a reputation for delivering results.

Stong performance and the results it carries are all well and good, of course, but it does not necessarily indicate that an employee will make a good leader. And according to research from executive team consultancy Corporate Executive Board, companies are seriously hurting themselves by failing to differentiate between performance and potential.

Defining True Potential

CEB's report says that just one in six high-performance employees also display the attributes that indicate potential. So leadership development programs that stress performance can amount to a huge waste of resources for companies looking to develop leaders.

What goes into a high-potential employee? CEB senior vice president Eugene Burke tells Inc. that the chief behaviors include, for starters, an aspiration to eventually serve in a leadership role. Other attributes include autonomy, flexibility, interest in the company, and the capacity to work in fast-paced settings.

Aside from those personality traits, the CEB report says that potential also shows itself in actions. High-potential employees...

Show an ability to make decisions and act on them.
Can lead and supervise groups.
Show an ability to meet their goals and objectives.
Act entrepreneureally by actively looking and advoating for new opportunities for the company.

In other words, potential is about a lot more than just hitting or exceeding sales goals or other performance metrics, even if that does play a role. Employees who are strong in all of these areas, Burke says, are 11 times more likely to succeed in a senior role than those most lacking across all areas.

According to CEB, 46 percent of employees brought into leadership development programs ultimately fail to meet their business objectives once they assume managerial roles. But at least they get through them; the report also says that more than 50 percent of misidentified employees brought into these programs--employees who display high performance but not high potential--ultimately drop out before they're complete.

Why You Need Leadership Development

So companies are wasting a lot of time and energy--and potentially hurting themselves in the long run--by bringing the wrong employees into development programs.

But an even bigger risk?

Companies stand to cost themselves their best and brightest employees much more immediately by outright not offering leadership development opportunites. Only 23 percent of high-potential employees who are not engaged say they plan to stay at their current job, CEB reports, compared to 59 percent of those who are engaged.

Making sure they realize the opportunities within the organization--such as by putting them in a leadership development program--is one way to keep them excited about the company and their careers, Burke says.

How to get from Good to Great?

Company leaders always want to motivate, inspire, and support their people to the absolute fullest. But most go to bed at night suspecting that they're coming up a little short. Maybe more than a little. Take heart: You can become a truly great leader. All it takes is:

Perspiration

Great leadership requires effort--lots of effort. And much of that effort revolves around learning: about your people, your operations, your industry, and yourself. Be relentless in your pursuit of knowledge about everything--and everyone--in your business ecosystem.

Vision

Develop a clear vision for what your business is all about, and don't lose faith in it. Know in your heart that you and your team can accomplish anything you set out to accomplish if you work together and believe in one another. You will undoubtedly encounter setbacks, but don’t be deterred. Learn from failure and remain confident.

Communication

Great leaders communicate sincerely, often, and in many different ways to everyone in their organizations. They inform, provide feedback, and motivate--intelligently and honestly. Connect with all your people and cultivate multiple channels for two-way. When you hear your own words and messages repeated back to you from your employees, or when your employees talk among themselves using your words to describe your vision and goals, then you know you’re making an impact.

Collaboration

Form teams and groups that are constituted for maximum effectiveness. Recognize that in order to do their very best work most employees need consistent support and input from co-workers, peers, and managers. When you create this kind of environment, you'll see an immediate impact on productivity and effectiveness--as well as morale.

Decisiveness

Highly effective leaders are decisive when called upon to make tough calls quickly and confidently. Take a moment to assess a difficult situation and then calmly and rationally consider your options. As soon as you have the information you need to make an informed decision, make it. Don't let fear of being wrong prevent you from making what you know is the right call.

Integrity

Study after study finds that the No. 1 quality that employees want leaders to possess is integrity. Always be candid, forthright, honest, and fair. Treat your people as you want to be treated. Your employees will respect you and respond in kind.

Inspiration

When times are tough, be the person that people look to for inspiration. Don't just talk, act. Reassure your employees and help them overcome their own doubts and anxieties. Model the kind of positive behavior you want to see in them.

5 Things Super Lucky People Do

"The Luck of the Irish" is an American phrase that comes from the days of the gold rush in the 1800s. Intolerant Americans figured the Irish people weren't smart enough to find gold, and blamed their success on being lucky rather than skilled. In reality, America's early immigrants have time and again proven themselves to be hardworking and smart enough to generate their own good fortune consistently.

So often I have witnessed people excuse their own inadequacies by crediting the success of others to luck. Salespeople I know disparage their more successful competitors as lucky. If those salespeople would make as many calls or work as many hours as their competitors, they would realize that their probability of closing is fairly equal. The competitors are simply swinging the bat more often.

The truth is that seemingly lucky people are opportunists. They do the things that allow them to take advantage of the world around them. For them, it's not about being in the way of good luck or bad. It's the actions they take to get what Jim Collins refers to as a high return on luck whichever way the pendulum swings. Follow these five tips and you can be as lucky as anyone, no four-leaf clover or rabbit's foot required.

1. Play to your strengths. So much time and energy is wasted trying to do things you probably don't do very well. Author and Inc. columnist Lewis Schiff learned from his survey of incredibly wealthy people that they got that way by focusing only on what they do best. Everything else you can delegate, or you could find a partner to compensate for your weaknesses. That way, you will shine where you excel and attract opportunity. Good things come to those who emanate success.

2. Prepare in advance. Unlucky people often get that way because they're reactive and unprepared for whatever comes. People who have stored food and water in their basements aren't lucky to find themselves prepared when disaster strikes, they used forethought to make sure they had what they might need just in case. I personally scoff at this horrible recent trend of disparaging business plans because things change constantly. The point of a business plan isn't to follow it no matter what, it's to establish a structure for smart decision making that allows you to succeed no matter what the future might bring.

3. Start early. Some people seem to have more hours in the day. I myself don't need more than six hours of sleep and am constantly finding ways to be more efficient. I use that extra time to start my projects well in advance. My rewards aren't dependent upon the time of day that I take action. (This column is being written at 3 a.m.) But it does matter that I'm beginning to explore projects I expect to complete months or years from now. So many people only want to put their energy into things that provide immediate gratification. The most fortunate people I know are the ones who planted seeds early and now reap that harvest of happiness.

4. Connect with as many people as possible. The key to success is access to opportunity. Access comes from influence. If you're influential, people will come and bring opportunities to you. The bigger your following, the more powerful your influence. The only way to build a big following is to provide value to many people. You have to provide the sort of value that will cause people to spread your thoughts far and wide, attributing credit to you when they do. Are you creating that kind of value? If not, figure how you can.

5. Follow up. Opportunities often come and go because people don't respond in a timely manner. I'm always amazed when people ask me for something and I respond only to never hear from them again. Three months ago, a young woman asked me if I hire interns or assistants. I replied immediately saying I'm always willing to consider hiring people who bring value to my work. I asked her how she thought she could enhance what I could do. I never heard from her again. Perhaps she now considers herself unlucky that opportunity doesn't come her way. I believe that following up is often more powerful and impressive than the act of initiating.

May you be so lucky to have people in your life that follow up.

Friday, March 14, 2014

5 Ways to Make It Big in a Small Town

To connect into your local smaller entrepreneurial ecosystem:

1. Find local angels and venture lawyers.

Get to know the venture lawyers in your state, because they know all the key players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Somewhere in your state, probably in your university towns, there is an active angel investing group working with early stage entrepreneurs. Meet them as well, but don't get excited yet, as they aren't going to fund you, unless they are tech entrepreneurs themselves. If you're credible, they'll send you on to someone they know who can help. In small eco-systems, everyone knows everyone and word quickly spreads about a quality entrepreneur with a great idea. You are in.

2. Target focused, small funds.

Smaller funds are springing up around the country that either focus on your geography or your industry. This fit alignment makes them more likely to jump on a plane and work with you than some of the larger, more famous funds who want to write bigger checks later in the process anyway.

3. Go to entrepreneurial watering holes in your region.

Investors gather at equity conferences, entrepreneurial competitions, demo days and pitch days. Scout them, get to know them, seek their advice and help. Get to know other entrepreneurs as well; they can help you navigate and evaluate the investor community. Getting to know investors at the regional level is important when you need to stitch together financing from several angel groups or smaller funds.

4. Understand how national networks can help with specialized needs.

Don't settle for local solutions when you need to build national-level credibility in the early stages. Recruit the best talent, both tech and management, that you can attract, and bring on the highest profile industry-specific advisors, initial corporate pilot partners and other key partners as early as you can. Finding good talent willing to relocate is often the biggest headache in smaller ecosystems. Prove you can do it early on.

5. Act with integrity.

A smooth-talking entrepreneur with a great resume may be able to hide past problems in a big city. No way in a smaller entrepreneurial community. Every one of the angels, lawyers, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in a smaller eco-system will know how you treat your employees, how you negotiate a deal and then live by its terms, whether you are "good people" or not. An entrepreneurial failure can be forgiven. But cheating the spirit of an agreement, skating an ethical line, treating people badly doesn’t get forgiven. So don’t be a jerk.

Small is beautiful and focus wins.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

8 Weird Startups Getting Traction

There was a time when the adjective "weird" didn't imply anything you would want to emulate. But today, it's more like a badge of honor. Heck, the cities of Portland, Oregon, and Austin actually brag about their weirdness. So in that spirit, behold eight of the weirdest startups in business:

Rapt.fm

Rap as an art form is alive and kicking. Just take a look and Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake's recent History of Rap 5 which the duo performed on The Tonight Show to a delighted crowd and now nearly 7 million viewers on YouTube. But making a business out of helping people rap? It's a weird idea, albeit one that at least one guy is using to make money.

Rapt.fm is a beta platform for live video rap competitions. Since launching in September the Detroit-based startup has 50,000 registered users, 6,000 active monthly users, and in January landed funding from the Silicon Valley accelerator 500 Startups.

Before that, founder and CEO Erik Torenberg had been bootstrapping the company with $30,000 earned from corporate gigs in which he and his team taught employees in companies such as Quicken Loans, Fathead, and Chalkfly how to rap. Why would companies want this? Rapt.fm says not only do its workshops make for a fun team-building exercise, they boost creativity and confidence as well as presentation and leadership skills.

Freight Farms

If you're a food wholesaler, restaurant, or community farm cooperative, you might want what Boston-based Freight Farms has to offer, especially if you're located somewhere with a limited growing season. Co-founders Jon Friedman and Brad McNamara had the brilliant idea of repurposing shipping containers into farming systems outfitted with all the equipment and environmental controls necessary to grow food year round.

According to Friedman, the company has sold one farm a week--at $70,000 a crack--so far in 2014. You can see why: the 320-square-foot farms are stackable, come with a tablet and software a grower can use to adjust climate controls remotely, and are capable of producing 900 heads of leafy greens per week.

StartupsAnonymous

You're familiar with Alcoholics Anonymous. How about a similar concept for startups?

StartupsAnonymous is a website entrepreneurs can use to anonymously vent frustrations and fears, as well as ask questions and get help. In the two months the site has been live, it has garnered more than 130,000 unique visitors, as well as over 700 submissions and responses from users. It also inked a deal with PandoDaily to syndicate a user's story every week.

As for the business model, it involves sponsors paying StartupsAnonymous to act as advisers. For example, the website is about to launch a series called "Ask a Startup Attorney," in which users can ask legal questions anonymously. Other topics will follow, such as venture capital, HR, and marketing.

"I think that people have spent so much time over the past eight years--effectively the start of social media--trying to build their ideal image and impress people that anonymity is a welcome relief," says co-founder Dana Severson. "It's the equivalent of taking off your skinny jeans at the end of the day and putting on sweats."

Narrative Clip

Imagine a little camera clipped to the front of your shirt snapping two images a minute all day long. I don't know about you, but I'd have a whole lot of photos of my computer screen and other uninteresting things. Plus, who's got the time to look through all those pictures later?

While the concept might not make a lot of sense at first glance the folks behind this Swedish startup are right: it's humanly impossible--unless you have a photographic memory, of course--to remember every little interaction you've ever had. But wouldn't it be wonderful to somehow replay moments you've shared with loved ones over the years?

Meet the Narrative Clip, which can hold 4,000 photos and keeps a charge for two days. It raised more than $550,000 on Kickstarter and now boasts users in around 50 countries enamored with the idea of "lifelogging." For $279, it comes with one year of cloud storage you can use as a repository for all those images.

As for concerns that Narrative will amass a heap of boring images, the iPhone and Android apps that work in tandem with the camera actually take care of the problem and filter only the best photos and present them in a movie-like timeline you can play and pause.

"You can capture your moments effortlessly without interrupting them with technology--holding out a cell phone or an SLR in front of you--and your photos get nicely organized for you," says co-founder Oskar Kalmaru.

While Kalmaru says Narrative users don't fit into any particular demographic, the company sees its product being particularly useful to people who tend to take a lot of photos, such as travelers and parents.

Mix 'N' Match Creamery

It's an old chemistry class trick--use liquid nitrogen to make flash-frozen ice cream. Newbie food cart proprietors Genevieve and Eric West tried making a business out of it for the first time last summer and were blown away with the success of Mix 'N' Match Creamery, often running out of liquid nitrogen or cream base before the end of the day. They ended up hiring five employees, putting their eldest child to work at the cash register, and sometimes even doling out ice cream with their newborn strapped to Genevieve's chest.

"When you see a crowd of people with their cell phones out taking video, and smoke erupting from a little food cart with a banner that announces 'Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream,' most folks stop to see what the fuss is all about," Genevieve says.

Hampton Creek

Where the world is going to get food in the next several decades and beyond is a sobering question. Yet Hampton Creek may be on its way to helping solve the food shortage problem with a weirdly cool innovation--a plant-based egg. The San Francisco-based company developed its formulation for its egg-like "Beyond Eggs" family of plants by screening more than 3,000 plants from around the world. Not only can food manufacturers use it in their products for 18 percent less than what real eggs cost, it has the potential to alleviate the environmental problems associated with chicken-egg production as well as Avian Flu, which birds spread.

The innovative food-tech company has attracted some high-profile supporters, including Bill Gates, who last year called it out as one of three companies shaping the future of food. Last month, the company also landed $23 million in Series B funding led by Li Ka-shing, the wealthiest man in Asia.

Want to try a plant-based egg-like product yourself? Hampton Creek sells its debut consumer product, Just Mayo--a mayonnaise made with pea protein instead of egg--in Whole Foods Market stores nationally, and says it has inked deals with six other prominent companies that will start doing the same later this year. Next in Hampton Creek's pipeline: a scrambled-egg product to rival the real thing in taste, look, and feel, as well as cookie dough you can safely eat raw.

Project Repat

If you've ever had an old T-shirt you couldn't part with, you understand the sentiment involved with this kind of apparel. Maybe you remember wearing a particular T-shirt on what turned out to be momentous occasion, such as a first date with your spouse, or perhaps you've collected a pile of them from various sporting events or concerts.

Project Repat co-founders Ross Lohr and Nathan Rothstein started out by making random upcycled T-shirt tote bags and scarves but customers kept asking for T-shirt quilts instead. To undercut competitors such as Campus Quilt Company, the duo decided to sew T-shirt panels together and back them with Polartec fleece, instead of using traditional batting and interfacing.

"In February 2013, we sold 6,000 custom T-shirt quilts on Groupon in two weeks," Rothstein says. "As T-shirts have become a cheap commodity, they really have become the modern form of scrapbooking."

The company processed 400,000 shirts last year, resulting in $1.1 million in sales.

SpareFoot

At first glance, Austin-based SpareFoot, an online marketplace for self-storage, doesn't seem all that weird, but it's what goes on inside that matters here. Not only does the company do away with titles of any sort, but it also brags about sake bomb initiations and produced the weirdest recruiting video you'll ever see.

In it, a camera person follows a potential hire through an interview at the company, where the co-founders assault workers with blow horns and megaphones, a plucky HR person rolls around the office in a battery-operated kiddie car and waves goodbye to the applicant while destroying her application in a paper shredder hanging from her neck. It's all made up, of course, but somehow you know a company that would put such a thing out there must be a fun place to work. Oh, and since launching in 2008 SpareFoot has raised $26 million in venture capital, including $10 million in Series C funding in February from New-York Based Insight Venture Partners.

17 Traits That Distinguish the Best Startup CEOs

Three out of four startups fail, and a full 90% of those in the tech sector don't survive. The startups that become successful typically require exceptional leadership -- and a lot of luck.

In a recent Quora thread, users answered the question, "What separates the top 10% of startup CEOs from the rest?"

Robert Scoble, renowned blogger and analyst for Rackspace, gave a definitive answer based on his extensive experience with CEOs, and others jumped in to share some thoughts. We'll look at some highlights, including all nine of Scoble's leadership traits.

According to Scoble, an elite startup CEO...

1. [Is] good at hiring AND firing. Whenever you find a really great CEO you find someone who has a knack for hiring. That means selling other people on your dream or your business. Especially when it doesn't seem all that important or seems very risky. I used to work for a CEO who was awesome at hiring, but couldn't fire anyone. Doomed the business. Many of the best CEOs get others to follow no matter what.

2. Builds a culture, not just a company. The best CEOs, like Tony Hsieh at Zappos, build a culture that gives everyone a mission. They stand out in a sea of boring companies.

3. Listens and acts. Many CEOs want to tell you what they are doing, but the best ones listen to feedback, and, even, do something with that feedback. My favorites even give credit back. Mike McCue, CEO of Flipboard, tells audiences that I was responsible for a couple of key features.

4. Is resilient. AirBnB took 1,000 days for its business to start working. Imagine if they gave up on day 999? The best CEOs find a way to dig in and keep going even when it seems everything is going against them.

5. Has vision. Let's be honest. There are a lot of nice CEOs, but if you don't have the ability to build a product that matters to people, then no one will remember your name. Can you see a way to make billions with wearable computers? I guarantee some can, and they are the CEOs who will bring me interesting new products.

6. Stays focused. A friend who worked for Steve Jobs told me that what really made him different is that Jobs wouldn't let teams move off their tasks until they really finished them.

7. Speaks clearly. A great CEO is clear, crisp, concise. Quotable. So many people just aren't good at telling a story in a way that's easy to remember. The best are awesome at this. Since it's the CEO's job to tell the company's story, it's extremely important that this person be able to clearly tell a story about the company and the product.

8. Is a customer advocate. The best CEOs understand deeply what customers want and when they are making anti-customer choices.

9. [Is] good at convincing other people. CEOs have to deal with conflicting interest groups. Customers often want something investors don't. So, a good CEO is really great at convincing other people to get on board, even at changing people's opinions.

Now we'll summarize some of the other best answers, with our own numbers added.

Mark Suster, a venture capitalist at GRP Partners and a former entrepreneur, thinks the best type of startup CEO...

10. Pays attention to detail. Someone in charge of an early stage business needs to be hands on in every aspect of the business, from the financial side to the design side.

11. Is skilled at adapting to change. The best entrepreneurs are able to adjust their product and business model to unexpected changes in the market and consumer demand.

12. Can make decisions quickly and on their own. Corporate executives often have the benefits of time and extensive analysis before making a business decision, but entrepreneurs need to deal with a deluge of choices every day.

13. Is intensely competitive. Elite startup CEOs wants to win major deals, acquire the best employees, and sign up every partner -- all at the expense of the competition.

Other Quora users experienced in the startup world also weighed in. They've seen that the greatest kind of entrepreneur...

14. Is courageous. Every entrepreneur needs to have at least some significant amount of courage to start a business, but the best ones are brave enough to stand out, make enemies (if they have to), and make unpopular decisions. --Tolis Dimopoulos

15. Doesn't micro-manage. While great entrepreneurs influence every aspect of their companies, they find ways to build machines that can deliver results on scale. --Henning Moe

16. Never stops executing his vision. Startup CEOs shouldn't trust that others will stay true to their vision without their constant influence, at least for the company's first few years. --Henning Moe

17. Is generous. People will be more willing to help startup CEOs who have track records of taking care of employees, partners, vendors, and clients