BizThoughts

You know what's cool about having a blog? Other than it being a exhibitionistic platform for vanity, public self-inflection, and personal branding, I mean.

It also means getting free stuff! A PR firm recently sent me the book Family Wars: Classic Conflicts in Family Business and How to Deal with Them by Grant Gordon & Nigel Nicholson, in the hopes that I'd mention it. So in the interest of full disclosure, let me get that out of the way first.

The Pros

Coincidentally, I've always thought it would be cool to have a family-run business. Not like a "operate from the back room of the Bada Bing" type family business. More like a business legacy that I can pass down to my children and children's children.

Having such a business can be fraught with backstabbing, cheating, lying, and betraying, so say the authors. In their book, they list countless case studies, from IBM & Ford to the Mondavi & Gallo wineries. There's also the rivalry of Adidas & Puma and the in-fighting at the LA Times, U-Haul, Gucchi, Guiness, Redstone, and many many more. Each example goes into detail about their family dynamics and individual personalities, making each sound more like a soap opera than a business case study.

The book is organized like a sandwich. The first chapter starts out with their psychological theories on family conflicts. Then there are six meaty chapters of back-to-back case studies. The last chapter follows up with a conclusion and reiteration of their theories.

My main takeaways from this book are:

• Learn how to be a good parent.
• Make sure you raise emotionally and socially intelligent children.
• Make sure you teach your children how to do the same for their children, and their children's children.
• And for goodness sake, don't spoil your kids!

There's actually a lot more to it than that. The authors prescribe a few formulas for dealing with various scenarios in the last chapter. These include pratical tips such as, "develop career plans for family members", "clarify roles of all working family members", and "agree to a policy for objective third-party oversight of the leadership selection process by independent directors, trustees and/or close advisors." That looks to be some very sound advice to me.

The Cons

For better or worse, contemporary authors of business & psychology books seem to have fallen into a particular writing style formula. Books like Freakonomics, The Tipping Point, The World is Flat, How Doctors Think, and Emotional Intelligence all do it. And for the mass market, I think it works. The formula is this:

Start each chapter with an anecdote. Make it fun and dramatic. Engage the reader with a real story about real people. Then go into the analysis, theory, and data of your point. In other words, start the chapter sounding like a story from a piece of fiction, then go into the relatively drier prose of your non-fiction.

Gordon & Nicholson don't follow that approach, making their book a slower read than its contemporary peers. So if you like that particular writing style, you're going to find Family Wars tougher to digest.

Perhaps it's the academic background of Nicholson (a professor of organizational behavior at London Business School), but I found the prose quite verbose as well. I would love to give the authors a copy of On Writing Well if I could. Hell, I wish I could give every writer in academia a copy of that book.

The analysis at the end of each case study seems a bit sparse too. To their credit, they unearthed an amazing amount of personal information about these companies. From all of that hard work, I expected a deeper analysis of each company and family. Sadly, this wasn't the case.

Still, the book is worth it just for the detailed case studies alone. Not only are they an entertaining read (especially if you like soap operas), but they'll give you insight into family-run businesses too.

Do parents make better managers? I sure think so. There are lots of similar responsibilities in both roles. Each trains you and prepares you for the other in a cyclical manner.

And apparently, according to a Forbes.com article, researchers from Clark University and the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, NC, agree:

According to new research, parents–at least those committed to family life–actually perform better in the office. …

Those who were committed to family life achieved significantly better reviews. The reason: Parents learn to multitask, handle stress and negotiate, says Marian N. Ruderman, research director at the Center for Creative Leadership, and one of the study's authors.

"In parenting roles you get a chance to do a lot of the same things you do as a manager," Ruderman says. "You get to hone your interpersonal skills. You learn how to develop other people. It's another opportunity to learn from experience."

Ah! Exactly what I said!

There are some caveats, though. "After all, employees are not toddlers," says the Forbes.com article. (No, not toddlers. Maybe more like teens. Ever try to settle a petty dispute between coworkers?)

There isn't direct evidence of causality between being a good manager and a good parent, however. But someone who's a good manager typically is a good parent, and vice versa. Tammy Allen, a psychology professor at the University of South Florida, adds: "the best employees are probably those who are engaged in all life roles," whether it be as a manager or a parent, employee or spouse. "It's just indicative of someone who's an active, engaged individual."

In another study by Ajilon Office, an executive administrative professional staffing firm, says that "77% of American women believe that being a parent helps prepare one for being a more effective manager."

Although the study focuses more on women's perceptions of how being a good parent means being a manager, the results raise some salient points:

• "The top parenting skill that helps out the most at work is communication according to 50% of women."
• "Whether it's being constantly on the go with children's extra curricular activities or working on three different projects at once, women rank the ability to multi-task as the second most important parenting skill that helps at the office."
• "More than a third of women decided that learning to be flexible as new projects arise and priorities shift is the workplace skill that's refined most at home while parenting."
• "Another 23% of women believe that the ability to handle workplace conflicts, whether it's between co-workers or with clients, is the top managerial skill that comes from raising children."

See? Mommy's not just a manager at work; Mommy's a manager at home too.

Ever get close to burning out from a heavy workload? Your boss is pushing you to complete twenty tasks this week, yet you know you can only handle five or six. So you stay late and dine on coffee and pizza, trying desperately to finish at least ten.

And after you finish ten tasks (sans sleep and a healthy meal), another twenty tasks hit you next week, giving you a total of thirty. Deeper and deeper you sink as the weeks drag on.

Sound familiar?

As a former manager, I often heard about cases like this from my team. Heck, I experienced cases like this myself. Over time, I developed a way to compensate for these unrealistic & heavy job workloads. I had to; I would have gone insane had I not.

1. First, it's important to realize that it's not always possible to complete all the tasks you've been assigned. Your boss may make you think you can. Even you may think you can. But c'mon, be realistic. Look at all that work. If you feel that troubling pinch in your gut, then trust your gut: you have too much work.

2. Second, let your boss know. Not all managers are able (or willing) to help you lighten the load, but you still need to alert your manager about this condition. Give your boss a chance to fix it if possible.

3. Third, find out the source of all these tasks. Someone asked for this work, so go seek that person out. Ask that person how urgent and necessary this work is; chances are, some of it can be postponed or done by someone else with more time.

4. Fourth, prioritize your tasks. After speaking with the sources, you'll have an idea of the urgency and importance of each task. This can allow you to prioritize each of the tasks and do the most urgent and most important first. Ideally, your manager should help you with this, but if he/she is not able to, do it yourself.

5. Finally, do the work. Do them in priority order. Realize that some of the items won't get done. If you can, set clear expectations with your team and the sources of work. This isn't always easy, as many will argue and try to coax a higher priority for their task. But hey, there are only so many hours in the day. The more they argue, the less time you'll have to finish everyone's tasks.

In my opinion, your direct manager or project manager should handle this kind of task prioritization for you. That person would/should also have the power to delegate and balance the workload across the team, which is something you may not have the authority to do.

Unfortunately, managers aren't always able or willing to do this. If that's the case, hopefully these tips will help.

What have you done to handle a heavy job workload?

During his lecture "Top Ten Mistakes that Entrepreneurs Make", Professor Jeff Pfeffer said something that made me go, "Ah!"

If two people agree on everything, then one of them is redundant.

It's a quote from a colleague of his. What he's saying is that constructive conflict is good, even necessary, for highly-functional teams. When team members disagree, each is forced to defend his/her position. In doing so, facts are surfaced, assumptions are challenged, alternatives are analyzed, and everyone walks away more enlightened than before.

To put it another way: two heads are better than one, right? The more diverse your team is, the greater the variety of solutions they can offer. If everyone in your team thought the same way, however, then why do you need that team? Why not just keep one person and fire the rest?

Just so I could relive my college days, I attended Stanford's Conference on Entrepreneurship yesterday. The conference was just a one-day event within Stanford's Entrepreneurship Week from February 22 - 29. (You have one more day left!)

One of the sessions I attended was Professor Jeff Pfeffer's "Top Ten Mistakes that Entrepreneurs Make". Pfeffer is a professor of Organizational Behavior in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Judging from the packed classroom, he's also a popular professor. With good reason too, it seemed. His lecture was pretty funny and engaging, with stories and personal anecdotes sprinkled throughout.

Though I jotted down a ton of chicken scratch, I was able to get Pfeffer's top ten mistakes that entrepreneurs make:

1. Too much CEO ego.
2. Too little regard for the self-esteem needs of others.
3. Too much time, attention, & emphasis on "strategy" & analysis, and not enough time on "execution."
4. Too little emphasis on the importance of people & culture.
5. Too much belief in the saving grace of "miracle" technologies & "big brains," particularly in high-tech fields.
6. Too much emphasis on budgets & financial controls; not enough attention to customer satisfaction and employee attraction & engagement
7. Not enough attention to and knowledge of competition & competitors, including tracking their sales & market share
8. Too much emphasis on individual performance and too little attention to context & situation within which that individual performance occurs.
9. Excessive reliance on financial incentives for alignment, motivation, & communication.
10. Not enough consideration of or attention to underlying assumptions & feedback effects.

This is just a quick recap; he had a ton more information. I hope he doesn't mind my posting these notes. I would guess not, since attending his lectures is an experience mere notes could never convey.

If you attended Entrepreneurship Week too, what did you think of the other sessions?

A friend recently asked me, "How do you deal with flaky people when you're in start-up mode?"

My answer: Don't.

When you're just starting up a new business, the people you choose will be absolutely critical to your long-term success. These are the seed people, the grandparents of your business, the ones who will set the pace for generations to come.

A start-up requires an incredible amount of work. It's not for the faint of heart. A flaky person is not someone with a strong heart—at least, not for your business. Why would you want someone who only cares half-heartedly about success?

There are exceptions, of course. Perhaps that person's skills are extremely rare. Or that person is already loaded with prior commitments. What do you do then?

Then it becomes a matter of motivation and task management. I've already written about motivation. Here are some tips on managing the tasks of a flaky person.

(In this definition, a "flaky" person is one who is unreliable, may not complete tasks on time, and may even forget some of those tasks.)

• Be clear and direct about expectations. Put them in writing (an email is fine).
• Get that person's buy-in on tasks. Have that person agree (verbally or in writing) to the tasks.
• Set clear timelines and deadlines. Make this schedule visible to the person.
• Communicate often, even to the point of over-communicating. Repeat the tasks and deadlines.
• Hold regular, predictable, and frequent checkpoints. The checkpoints can be short and succinct.
• Give feedback immediately to the person, especially if performance is an issue.
• Have a back-up plan for an alternate resource.

In my opinion, working with a flaky person in a new business is very, very risky. Personally, I wouldn't do it. But if you have no choice, hopefully these guidelines can help. Good luck!

There are many schools of thought on employee motivation. Here is the philosophy I've used while managing Internet software developers. The underlying principle is simple and has served me well.

Employee's Goals

This graph represents your employee's own personal goals. These are individual motivations which can be ideas like, "to get a promotion," "to be a manager," or even "to save enough to buy a house." They don't necessarily have to do with their day-to-day work either; they should be the deeply personal motivations which drive that person.

Company's Goals

This graph represents your company's goals. These can be company-wide or specific to your particular team. The key here is that an employee's personal goals will rarely map directly with a company's goals (you're probably thinking, "no duh").

The Convergence of Goals

At some point, there will be an overlapping of an employee's personal goals and the company's or team's goals. If you can accurately identify both sets of goals, those that converge in the middle will be the strongest motivators for your employee within your business.

If your employee is working on a task that is outside his/her personal goals, but within the company's/team's goals, your employee will most probably still do it, but may not be strongly motivated, depending on how far it is from his/her personal goals. Conversely, if the task is outside the company's goals, but within his/her personal goals, your employee will be strongly motivated, but the task won't be of any use to your company.

It is also important to note that not every task can be mapped directly to an employee's personal goals. Every job has its share of grunt work. But as long as a reasonable number of an employee's tasks fall within the convergence of goals, then you'll have a well-motivated employee.

An Example

Mary and Joseph are developers for Acme Software. David is their manager. Acme Software creates desktop and web widgets.

In his talks with Mary, David learns that her personal goals are to become a manager and one day own her own company. She's already a brilliant developer who's stronger in building web widgets than desktop widgets, but has lofty ambitions that span outside of Acme Software. Mary hasn't yet held any managerial positions, but exhibits some leadership capabilities.

With Joseph, David learns that his personal goals are to purchase a bigger house for his growing family, get a promotion, and earn a name for himself in the open source community, where he already regularly contributes. He's a strong desktop developer, but wants to grow his skills in web software. Joseph has no interest in management and the politics that come with it.

Joseph's team is tasked with building a stock ticker widget for the desktop and the web. He needs a team lead, a senior developer for the desktop version, a senior developer for the web version, and junior developers for each.

Knowing what David knows, he gives Mary the assignment of being the team lead and Joseph the assignment of senior developer for the desktop version. This matches both of their personal goals and their team's & company's goals, with a few compromises. The rest of his team fills the other positions.

For Mary, this is a stretch role. David will have to mentor her closely as he tests her leadership and managerial aptitude. Her strong technical skills help her earn the respect of her team, though she will need help earning the respect of the product, sales, design, and QA teams. This experience will be very valuable for her, especially if she's to own her own business one day. David explains this and Mary enthusiastically takes the assignment.

For Joseph, this is a stepping stone towards a promotion and internal recognition. As the senior developer in an area with which he is competent, desktop development, he will define the technical architecture while working closely with the senior developer for the web version. These discussions will familiarize him with web development and prepare him for a future role coding a web widget. David explains this and Joseph enthusiastically takes the assignment.

By understanding the convergence of his employees' personal goals and the goals of his company & team, David has been able to staff a highly motivated team. Not all real life cases will be this easy, of course, but these underlying principles can be a useful guide for any manager.

Now for some Friday fun. Do you work in a large office? Do you hate your job? Are your coworkers idiots?

Well, you're not alone. Take, for instance, the idiots overheard and quoted here on the surreptitiously funny blog, Overheard in the Office. Hours of aural voyeuristic fun! Enjoy!

New girl: Why is the door to the file room always locked?
Veteran: Because someone might steal something.
New girl: Who all has a key?
Veteran: Everybody.
. . .

Coworker packing her stuff as she quits: Jesus will pay my unemployment! I cannot work around you, the wicked!
. . .

Lady peon #1: Chipotle's burritos are, like, so good!
Lady peon #2: Yeah, I know. Carol*, have you ever had one?
Carol: Uh, I've never been out of the country…
. . .

Worker bee: I don't have his cell phone, but he's always at his desk… Except when he isn't.
. . .

Manager: What motivates you to do your best job possible?
Interviewee: Well, I don't do anything half-assed… Yeah, I like to put my whole ass into everything I do.
. . .

Office hottie #1: Just think of all the stuff we put in our mouths that we don't think about…
Office hottie #2: Ummm…
. . .

Boss to assistant: Well, I don't remember what all I had, um, asked you to do before I went on vacation, but did you, like, um, do it?
. . .

Manager: Did you see the game last night?
Coordinator: I was drunk. [Takes bite of Oreo.]
Manager: Huh?
Coordinator: Yeah, I'm drunk every day. S'matter of fact, I'm drunk right now!
. . .

Office girl #1: I don't like lettuce.
Office girl #2: You don't eat lettuce? Why'd you get a salad?
Office girl #1: Because I need to lose weight! I'm getting fat!
Office girl #2: What else is that in your salad?
Office girl #1: Chicken.
Office girl #2: Grilled or fried?
Office girl #1: Ummm… Fried…
Office girl #2: Uh-huh… Is that cheese I see in there?
Office girl #1: Yes!
Office girl #2: And are those Bacon Bits?
Office girl #1: Shut up! And no, it's real bacon!
Office girl #2: And you aren't gonna eat the lettuce?
Office girl #1: I will stab you with my fork! Go away!
. . .

Coworker #1: Congrats on your bush transplant!
Coworker #2: Thanks!
Coworker #3, overhearing: Uh, yeah, congrats on your bush transplant. I didn't know that was a procedure. Was it medically necessary?
Coworker #2 to #1: You should have said 'shrubbery' instead!
. . .

Female coworker, as another is delivered flowers: Every time I see the flower delivery guy I hope it's for me. I wish someone would send me something nice like that. Oh, well. I'll just take a piece of chocolate from the candy dish.
Male coworker: That's right, decrease your chances even further.
. . .

Sales rep #1: Here's that spreadsheet. I hid the columns you didn't need so it would fit on one page.
Sales rep #2: How did you do that? I have been cutting and pasting all this time!
Sales rep #1: Cutting and pasting?
Sales rep #2, pulling out three pieces of paper, cut and taped together to make one big spreadsheet: See? I cut and pasted!
. . .

Office mate on speakerphone: I need to send my printer back. It isn't working.
CSR for printer company: Okay, I can set up a return shipment and get you a label and address to send yours back. What is your e-mail address, sir? [He relates e-mail address.] Okay, when you get the link on the e-mail I just sent you, print the FedEx label and put it on the box to ship it.
Office mate: Um, well, my printer is broken, which is why I am sending it back…
CSR: I understand that, sir, so what I have done to speed up the process is send you a shipping label all prepared for you to ship the box out.
Office mate: How am I supposed to do that if my printer is broken?!
CSR: Well, you print it up and put it on the box.
Office mate: Okay, when we are done with this, I would like to order an instructional DVD on how to setup my DVD player.
CSR: I'm not following you, sir. I thought your problem was with your printer. We don't have DVD players.
Office mate: Dude, you're killing me! Can I speak to a supervisor, please?
. . .

Boss looking at her new laptop: There are too many keys.
. . .

Suit #1: Hey, Jeff*, has there ever been a Friday-the-13th on a Monday?
Suit #2: Uh…
Suit #1: Man, that would be the worst day ever.
. . .

Peon #1: Mmmm… I love these doughnuts. I could even eat them without the icing, the dough is so soft.
Peon #2: Like your flesh.
. . .

Suit #1: What was that?
Suit #2: What?
Suit #1: You just hid something when I came up.
Suit #2: It was my juice box, because it's… You know…
Suit #1: What? There's nothing wrong with drinking juice from a box. I love juice boxes.
Assistant, walking up: What are you guys talking about?
Both suits, in unison: Nothing.
. . .

Sales person: Hmmm… Are you doing the billing today since Sherry* is out?
Trainee: I'm going to try.
Sales person: Well, don't mess up my billing or I'll kick your ass.
Trainee: Promise?
Sales person: Oh, yes.
Trainee: My pain is your pleasure.
Sales person: You and I will get along fine.
. . .

Office girl on phone: I'm sorry, he's not in right now. Is there something I can do to you? Shit. I mean for you?
. . .

Male peon: So, where are you guys located, anyway?
Customer: We're in Guyana.
Male peon: Oh, over in Africa, eh?
Black coworker, yelling from four cubicles over to male peon: Stan*, you're an idiot!
. . .

Lady coworker #1 reading a website: Here it says, 'Sleep is the best cure for a headache.'
Lady coworker #2: My boyfriend always says sex is the best cure for a headache… He's lying to me!
. . .

Boss: Do you have five minutes so I can talk to you for a sec?
. . .