At small companies I’ve always promoted the work ethic: “do anything for the success of the venture.” Mostly to try and get around the “it’s not part of my job” issue but if that means evenings and weekends too then so be it. Now, I do try to encourage some semblance of work life balance but we are in the technology industry so isn’t being a workaholic a given? Uhm, no.
recently I’ve been having pause for thought on just how much we work.
Why? I recently visited some great friends who work at Apple. They work crazy hours. It was a sheer honor that they took an afternoon off to visit with me (although they spent that Sunday afternoon feeling guilty and talking about work constantly among themselves - I felt like I was at a staff meeting). One even mentioned that they would never hire anyone who wasn’t available 24/7 and didn’t think no amount of work is too much work. Really? When I mentioned it would be very unrealistic to sustain that level of pressure, burnout and health issues would surely slow them down, I was told it was more like a badge of honor to almost kill yourself over delivering a product.
wow. are we literally willing to give life, health and happiness to take something to market?
Well, it seems so. Last week I was at F5 Expo and I had the pleasure of seeing Tod Maffin speak on work/life balance. Here is a little taste from his talk “Taking Crazy Back”:
If you have a chance to see him speak, I would highly recommend it. He is a man who really almost died for the success of his company and has come back to tell his tale. It really made me think about the side effects of my “anything for the venture” mentality. For instance:
What about all those people who don’t stay late? Who work reasonable hours and still get the job done? If everyone else is “giving 110%” do they feel guilty? do they then develop the “ass in seat” mentality (e.g. they stay at work out of obligation not really being more productive)? Resentment? Hmmm, how do we reward them? where is their badge of honor for working efficiently and effectively?
I think it’s time for me to find a new phrase. We need to take crazy back.
As many of you know, Business Ready is all about helping small businesses get ahead. Lately I’ve been working with a lot of companies that are starting to contract very “big company” people to provide guidance. Now, by big company I mean individuals whose work experience reflects the ten years they just spent at that little company that had 40K+ employees. I’m not quite sure they really fit into a world that operates MacGyver style - building most everything with just duct tape and paperclips. Yes, they do bring different perspectives and valued experience but they also operated in a world that had expensive infrastructure - a luxury for small business.
so what is the alternative to glean solid information on how to start, build and grow a small business?
Take a little over two hours of your life, $30 and go buy and read Rework the latest from the fine folks behind 37signals: Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. I’m not big on management books but this one is pure genius, easily digestible and spot on in a very humorous way.
For instance, many software companies offer a free trial as sort of a teaser - an easily digestible introduction that allows people to try without investing a lot of time or money up front. Hopefully they come back and buy the full product. Many management books set aside whole chapters to review the importance of this topic. Rework has one page that starts: “emulate drug dealers … they know their product is so good they’re willing to give a little away for free upfront. They know you’ll be back for more - with money”. And it goes from there. Using dry wit drives the point home (and makes it unforgettable).
There are so many gems I wanted to highlight but really I’d just be retyping the whole book so the only alternative is to encourage you to buy and read the book. I few of my favorite “chapters” (remember a chapter is at most two pages long):
planning is guessing / your estimates suck;
enough with the “entrepreneurs”;
scratch your own itch;
outside money is Plan Z;
start a business, not a start-up;
four-letter words;
inspiration is perishable.
There is a quote on the inside jacket cover from Mark Cuban, cofounder of HDNet and owner of the Dallas Mavericks, that sums up the must read nature of this book:
if given a choice between investing in someone who has read Rework or has his MBA, I’m investing in Rework every time … Mark Cuban
Nice. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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this post is dedicated to a very dear friend. I was in a bit of a writing funk and in order to kick my ass she gave me a copy of Rework to inspire me to get back on this blog and continue to share with people the little, unknown but highly valuable, details behind starting, growing and building a business. It worked. Thanks, D.
To be honest? I hate recruiting and try to get out of it any way I can. Unfortunately, I’m really good at it which is why so many of my small companies are willing to pay my high hourly rate for this service. Not being a certified HR recruiter I’ve amassed some harsh observations. Harsh? maybe because I’m jaded about the process, maybe I’m just becoming cynical, maybe the lack of formal training but here are some interesting things to consider when you are recruiting next:
Resumes. Fact or fiction? Really, isn’t this just a piece of marketing collateral? We’re trying to “sell” ourselves and use all those power words (drove the initiative, delivered in three weeks, developed, created, maintained … action verbs ‘r’ us!) to reassure potential employers we’re the best. We did it all. Lately I’m starting to see resumes as just spam and I’m spending more time, and frankly more emphasis, on the cover letter.
Writers. I hate to say it but I have a bias for people who write well. If your cover letter is poorly written I’m going to pass, regardless of your stellar qualifications. Why? Because good, logical writing - the flow of an idea - is an incredibly good sign for how they think, communicate, make things and their point of view understood. If you haven’t won me over in the written word, well, it is unlikely you will during the interview. One of my last recruiting jobs was for a Product Manager and each candidate had to write a market requirements document. The managers looked at it for content - I looked at it from a writing/flow/point of view. It really made a difference in the candidates we went forward with.
Assignments. I am now becoming increasingly more adamant that finalists have to do some kind of assignment or test. I’m finding that lately candidates can really talk a good story but when you test-drive them you find out they are not really as good as they are on paper. At this stage I’m still just on skills assessment or assignments (nothing that takes longer than 4 - 6 hours in aggregate). However, one of my colleagues goes further and insists on contracting for a mini-assignment if possible to see what a candidate is like. Interesting way of getting to know them.
Experience. My clients give me laundry lists of what kind of experience they are looking for but, really, at this juncture candidates should know what “software programmer” means. I’ve been getting really cheeky in my job postings of late and have been including the following that seems to suit me just fine:
We could (and perhaps should) list a bunch of specific requirements, years of experience in particular languages and all the usual job posting type stuff but, really, we’re looking for people with the right spark of intelligence, personality, development experience and drive (and communicates and plays well with other humans).
Yes, some baseline level of experience is required but as you know most people master a role in 12-18 months and then start to look at what’s next in their career development. I don’t really care how long they’ve been doing a role - just that they’ve been doing their job well. And isn’t the above paragraph more accurate than “5 years experience in ….”?
Speaking of experience: my thoughts on formal education. Almost every post I write includes a college degree, certification, or some other formal requirement for the position. Really? It seems a bit hypocritical as I am a CFO that doesn’t have an accounting degree. Yup, it is definitely possible to find intelligent people who do their jobs exceptionally well that didn’t get a formal eduction (I have an undergrad in International Finance - I learned accounting at Sun Microsystems). Again, I get it is an indicator as to the level of experience required but most CFO’s know, as do other roles, what level of accounting understanding is required to do their job well.
These are just a few things that I have observed. Maybe the recruiting world is moving forward or maybe not. But I feel it necessary to challenge the old school requirements and approach to recruiting so that we can find innovative talent to take us into the next decade.
It sounds like a bad latin dance-floor move. Pecha Kucha (pronounced “peh-cha koo-cha”). But it seems to be all the rage in presentation styles these days: 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide. Or, for those in the know: “20×20″. Yup, 6 minutes and 40 seconds to get your point across. It ties in nicely with some guidance I was given a long time ago regarding making presentations: be brief. be brilliant. be done. But why now? Why this?
Why Pecha Kucha?
Pecha Kucha Night started in Japan in 2003 as a way to attract people to an event space. Initially it was for young designers to meet, network and show their work - quickly. Of course, all things cool emanate out of creative fields and the masses followed. These days people talk about travels, research projects, hobbies, collections, well, just about anything really. It’s a real social environment, not just a bunch of presentations, and can be found in most cities.
Pecha Kucha has made its way into business because internal meetings are increasingly becoming a time suck without really getting anything done. By implementing the 20×20 format the hope is to force presenters to focus their message, reduce interruptions and avoid “death by Powerpoint”.
I can’t help but wonder: is this the new Toastmasters? I mean in a world of Twitter and no one able to concentrate on a thought for more than 10 minutes, it seems, is this how we become great speakers? leaders? concise and to the point? Toastmasters-lite? Or is this the evolution/expansion of the “elevator pitch”? - conveying your idea in the time span of an elevator ride: approximately thirty seconds to two minutes.
Regardless of the presentation style the underlying theme is certainly the same:
get your point across concisely in a way that will stimulate thoughts and further discussion.
And if you don’t - solicit feedback after your presentation to help you hone those skills. Good luck!
At small companies I’ve always promoted the work ethic: “do anything for the success of the venture.” Mostly to try and get around the “it’s not part of my job” issue but if that means evenings and weekends too then so be it. Now, I do try to encourage some semblance of work life balance but we are in the technology industry so isn’t being a workaholic a given? Uhm, no.
As many of you know, 
To be honest? I hate recruiting and try to get out of it any way I can. Unfortunately, I’m really good at it which is why so many of my small companies are willing to pay my high hourly rate for this service. Not being a certified HR recruiter I’ve amassed some harsh observations. Harsh? maybe because I’m jaded about the process, maybe I’m just becoming cynical, maybe the lack of formal training but here are some interesting things to consider when you are recruiting next:
