Are You Taking Time To Watch The Sunset?

An acquisition that will double the size of the company, growth rates that exceed every estimate, teams where everyone is in the biggest jobs of their lives, the board has just approved every innovation project presented to them and now it is time to execute flawlessly. 

These are just some of the situations my clients are dealing with right now, and it is at these moments, when we are at what feels like peak capacity, that we have to take time to stop and take in our surroundings.

Last week I was hypnotized by a two hour, spectacular sunset. I had arrived in Seattle on Sunday ready for an executive retreat I was running at Amazon the next day. Before any client event I always allow extra time to acclimatize, empty my mind, and top up my energy levels. As I sat at the end of Pier 70, I could see the first apartment we lived in overlooking the Olympic Sculpture Park, the waterfront path I used to run (ok, slowly jog/walk!) many mornings, and the outline of Mount Rainier. 

Another of my executive clients just told me he has returned to his favorite form of exercise after a manic few months managing an acquisition and moving his family across the country. When I asked him how he was he told me he was “excellent.”

With summer comes an added pressure of family reunions, kids summer schedules and the beach/pool/lake calling your name.

With everything you are juggling right now, don’t forget to be selfish, in a sensible way with what you need to re-energize yourself.

Then pay attention to your team – who is looking overwhelmed, exhausted, or with their nose barely above the water level of work demands? – Ask them what you can do to remove roadblocks, give them context, or reassurance that what they are prioritizing are the right things.

There is a sunset out there waiting.

 Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

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Who Do You Call When You Need Candid Advice?

When I quit my corporate life four years ago to become an entrepreneur and set up my consulting business I had one overwhelming concern: I didn't have anyone close to me who had done what I wanted to achieve. I didn't have anyone I could call. I had plenty of cheerleaders encouraging me from the sidelines. I had plenty of new clients wanting to hire me, but I lacked an enviable inner circle of advisers and that became my first priority to fix. 

If today you got promoted, made an acquisition needed to prepare for a tough board meeting, who would you call? Do you have five people on speed dial who would return your call within the hour? That is how I define an enviable inner circle of advisers. People who are where you want to be, who have achieved what you want to achieve, who act with your best interests at heart and will tell you exactly what you need to hear not what you want to hear. 

For successful executives who get promoted fast, it is easy to forget to upgrade your advisers around you. If you are the most senior, with the largest role, greatest challenges, and often the one giving the advice, not asking for it, just like your 2010 Mercedes, it is time for an upgrade. 

One of the most common reasons I hear my new clients say they want to work with me is that they want an adviser who can be an independent sounding board, to share new approaches to rapid growth and bring different ideas that are proven. 

I pinpoint my own success as a leadership and innovation expert on the advisers I hired, the mentors I work with, and the remarkable colleagues I have a phone call or a text away who will give me the reality check, the encouragement or the wake up call I need just when I need it. 

Who do you have on speed dial?

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

How To Reduce Your Meeting Time By 75 Percent Right Now

It may sound like fantasy but it's not: You can immediately reduce your investment in meetings by 75 percent. Here is why: Half of all meetings are not needed. Those meetings that are needed require only half the attendees. The meetings that take place with half the people could be completed in at least half the time. If you were to add up the salary investment in employee’s time spent in meetings and then reduce it by 75 percent, what would your savings be? What if you redirected even half of this time to innovating new ways to offer value to your customers?
 
I wrote about this in my column for Inc Magazine several years ago and it is still true today. A recent study by HBR revealed that CEOs spend 72% of their time in meetings, my observations show that the executive team below the CEO it is closer to 100%. That is not enough time for thinking, reflection, and actually working.

Companies and teams do not innovate in meetings. Meetings creep and expand like the roots of a bamboo plant. Before you know it they have taken over, locked themselves in, and are sucking life and energy from everything around them. I used to work at the Rare games studio in England shortly after Microsoft acquired them for $375M to make games for Xbox. Founded by three brothers, the studio was made up of 250 artists, musicians, animators, and developers. There were no planned meetings at Rare; if a decision needed to be made, a handful of people would huddle, make the decision, and move on. Simple, fast, and effective. Though a little unnerving at first, this was incredibly freeing for me. My calendar was empty and I could focus on doing work rather than talking about it. While this may be an extreme that many can only dream about, you do have more control over your time than you think. I have sat in thousands of meetings; some have been effective and inspiring and others have compelled me to run from the building screaming. All have worked together to teach me these six lessons about the best ways to manage your meetings:


1. Create Clear Instructions

Just like board games require clear instructions to know how to play them, meetings require parameters too. Often when faced with meeting executives, employees are unsure how to behave: Can I disagree? Should I interrupt? Do your team a favor and let people know what to expect and what is acceptable beforehand; this information is especially helpful when new people join your team.


2. Share the Point

Make it clear what decisions need to be made and who will make the final call. Most meetings consist of information sharing, which is a waste of time and can usually be accomplished outside of a meeting. Be clear on the point of every meeting. If there isn't one, cancel it.

 
3. Don't Send Ego Invites

As you plan a meeting, don't just select based on hierarchy. Be sure to invite your best designer, technical expert, or customer advocate to make sure all of the right voices are heard. Ego invites don't help.

 
4. Get on the Same Page

Amazon starts every meeting with reading a written document they call a narrative. It is not sent out ahead of time, so everyone literally gets on the same page at the start of the meeting by reading in silence. Then the discussion begins page by page, questioning data, assumptions, and results. This allows everyone to participate. Even when Jeff Bezos is present, everyone in the room asks questions and makes suggestions. This avoids a derailing conversation on slide 2 of a PowerPoint presentation. Can you start your meetings with quiet reading?

 
5. Mind Your Furniture

Pixar used to have an oval table in their main conference room, and over time everyone knew that Ed Catmull and the other Pixar executives sat in the middle of the oval and the more junior people sat at the ends. There were even cheap seats in a second tier around the edge of the table where people sat to observe but rarely participate. Over time, the dynamic of the conversation focused solely on the center of the table in a powerful inner circle, until one day Ed realized that the table was the greatest barrier to everyone participating. The table went out with the trash. How does your meeting room layout affect who participates?

 
6. Reboot Your Meetings

As fast companies grow, it is easy to get stuck in old ways of making decisions, so regularly press reboot on any reoccurring meetings and free up time. Peter Deng, head of product for Instagram, did this when he first joined the company. He cancelled every existing meeting and replaced them all with just one 30-minute meeting for rapid-fire removal of roadblocks.

I created the Thoughtfully Ruthless Meaningful Meetings Guide as a reminder for how to run and evaluate the meetings you attend.

Complete a meeting review every week to make sure your next week is focused on the right spot. Which meetings could you cancel, decline, or reduce the number of attendees for? Redirect some of that time toward customer-focused innovation and your customers and employees will all be thanking you. 

How many hours did you claw back this coming week? I’d love to hear.

Dedicated to growing your business,

Val

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