To Be a Better Executive You Need to Move

There seems to be a great deal of talk these days about how to be better. Writers, articles and media in general want you to be an improved entrepreneur, a more productive employee, a more loving parent or a more profitable CEO and executive.

A recent article in Forbes says that you need to wake up at the crack of dawn to earn more money for your company. An article in Entrepreneur magazine says you should take an improv class to be a better business leader. Scientific American thinks you need to set the bar high and use the "anchoring effect" to negotiate more effectively.

I have a much easier, simpler and more cost effective way be a better person, boss, dad, friend or entrepreneur. Go for a walk. Yup, that's it. Just put one foot in front of the other and repeat. You don't need any special equipment, join a club, learn a new skill or even try to find some magical hour in your already jam packed schedule to add another item to your to do list. In fact, you are probably ready to walk more but you are so trained to not do it that it takes some time to switch up your habits.

But why you ask, is walking the answer? Well, for one it will make you smarter. The psychological and mental health community has repeatedly shown that aerobic exercise (which walking is of course) leads to improved executive function. Executive function includes such important tasks as planning and organizing multiple things, making quick decisions, switching tasks, staying focused and paying attention...all of the things you were supposed to learn in school but we know you didn't (mostly because you didn't get enough exercise at recess apparently!). If you really want to enjoy a thorough read on the topic you will have to purchase the article though.

Walking will also improve your mood. Harvard Medical School states that prolonged walking (longer than 35 minutes a day five times a week or 60 minutes a day three times a week) can be nearly as effective as medication in treating depression. In their 2011 book, "Exercise for Mood and Anxiety: Proven Strategies for Overcoming Depression and Enhancing Well-Being," Smits and Otto make the case that exercise can reduce the symptoms of anxiety and that prolonged exercise programs can lead to a decline in risky behaviors such as smoking.

But probably most importantly is the notion that walking can improve your sexual stamina and satisfaction. Yes, that's right, walking can make your sex life better. The study is not as exciting as the results but the Huffington Post had a nice write up on it here.

So how do you do it? Start taking the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator. Park farther away from the door at the grocery or department store. Use the restroom one floor up or down from you and take the stairs. Walk around whenever you take a phone call. Take that next meeting as a "walking" meeting. Commit to taking a five minute walk during every hour you are at work. Get off the subway or bus one stop early. March in place while you are brushing your teeth. And my favorite idea? Instead of sending an email walk down the damned hallway and talk to someone instead.

So, stop reading, get up and go for a walk. Your brain, your mood, your belly and your sex life will thank me.

Why should we take the time to be better networkers?

So Why Should You Network? 

The other week I was lucky enough to be sent to Wheeling, West Virginia to join the National Recreation and Park Associations' Revenue Development and Management School. It was generally accepted by the group that at least a portion of the week long seminar was intended for networking and getting to know other successful professionals in the Parks and Recreation industry.

This of course made me think about whether or not the people that paid for us to be there (tax payers) would appreciate that we were there (at least in part) to hang out and get to know one another, often times over food and libations.

In my previous blog post I discussed that fact that networking is a skill. That means that it can be learned and taught to others. It means that you should take a risk on an individual who has little to no networking skill when hiring. I also believe in the notion that networking is a necessary skill in today's business world.

The longer I sat through these education sessions the more that I became convinced that all of this is true.

As a manager (and I don't think it matters whether we talk about public, private or non-profit sector) having the basic networking knowledge and skill sets is incredibly important. A few different situations that came to mind as I learned about generating revenue and reducing costs in the parks and recreation world include:

• Getting recommendations when you are looking for new employees to hire.
• Researching an area or subject with which you are unfamiliar with for a project.
• Getting information about a potential employer before you go on an interview.
• Collecting information about a potential client.
• Obtaining reviews and recommendations when hiring a contractor or consultant.
• Finding colleagues who have already partnered with another agency, service provider or vendor.
• Review results and feedback on a contractor or program provider before you hire them.

Aside from all of these reasons though I heard again and again from my peers how important it was to be able to adapt to the seemingly constant stream of changes in local government.

In other words you need to be able to think on your feet and move quickly when threats or opportunities arise. You need to be able to connect the dots between people, ideas and social situations. You need to be able to make the world a better place. And yes networking does that.

And that is the most important reason to network. By making the right and best hire, by putting the best contractor to work for you, by introducing the next great manufacturer to the next great marketer you might make the world a little better. You will gain credibility by making appropriate introductions. Colleagues will entrust you with information if they know you will use it to aide them. People will naturally gravitate towards you if they know you have a strong network that can support them as well.

If nothing else remember this, networking at its heart is not about you, your rise to the top or the number of LinkedIn connections you obtain. It's all about putting the right people together at the right time. So take a step back, review the how's and now start working on your why's of networking.

What do the LinkedIn buzzwords say about us?

What do our LinkedIn buzzwords really mean?

The day we learned about ourselves from a social network

Today was the annual day that job hunting and the unhappily employed scour their online profiles, resumes and social media posts for overused and seemingly cliched adjectives used to describe themselves; Linked In has revealed the most commonly used words in user profiles for 2012.

"Responsible" was the most often used descriptor and "driven" has somehow replaced motivated in our lexicon.

I am sure that lots of folks have already recognized that "creative" and "effective" will probably always rise to the top of any annual list when describing professionals. Just as I am going to guess that in the next two years the word strategic will more than likely fall off the list; eventually the pendulum is going to swing the other way. We are all craving safety via laws and policies after the failure of the auto industry, the banking system and most recently the budgeting abilities of our federal government. But the increase of regulation and NSA eavesdropping will lead to an eventual desire to cut the apron strings...see the Roaring 20's for more on pendulum swinging.

The thing that surprises me the most though is that "patient" is the most commonly used word in the USA. I am not shocked that we perceive patience as an important virtue at this moment in time. If you want to deepen and develop relationships with stakeholders and customers, if you are trying to make an impact in your community, if you are responsible for healthy product development you need to be possess patience to be successful in the long term. Putting the word in my Linked In description or my resume doesn't jump out at me though as a no-brainer.

Most employers want to know what objectives you will be carrying out, when you are going to do them and they want you to do it before your competitors do. We can fast forward though television commercials. We scroll through Twitter feeds in moments and see all of the day's headlines. Our complete financial information fits on the four inch screen of our smart phones. I am not saying that I support the culture of ever increasing progress but often times folks just don't allow for plateaus and pauses. The world just has a lot of demands and competition is fierce everywhere.

So what do we think about the pressure?

When you walk into some one's office and they are staring out the window while chewing on their pen cap do you think they are working hard? It's quite possible that they are taking the time to make an incredible important decision for their professional company or department. But usually our response to a scene like this is, "get to work. There isn't time to sit around and stare out windows." Being patient can often be mistaken for lack of initiative. We live in an instant gratification world. Patience does not always jive with online shopping and next day delivery.

Most futurists and economists agree that our future workforce will be based on the information and knowledge sectors. In a recent article on Bloomberg.com, a senior consultant was quoted as saying,

"“There’s an assumption that you can do it in one to two years but we have not tested this out to see if the mangers can actually do it,” Roi said. “They have to mature, they have to develop business judgment, integrity, competence, leadership in a very short period of time.”


It takes time to allow people to learn, to make mistakes, to figure things out for themselves. Quite often this process leads to ownership and feelings of investment. While I am surprised to see patience as a commonly perceived attribute in the world of Linked In I am happy to see us embrace a slower world and one where taking the time to build relationships, businesses and quality results is accepted.

For more information on patience and slowness, check out the following links:

http://www.ted.com/talks/carl_honore_praises_slowness.html

http://www.slowmovement.com/

http://www.slowfoodusa.org/

How to network...using social media or not!

How to network...using social media or not!

In the next few blog posts I will do my best to de-mystify the process of networking, define networking, define what it is not, discuss the role of social media and give some tried and true tips and hints at working a room like a professional. 

Let's get started...

So what is networking?

Networking is all about relationship development, creating bonds between you and someone else that will lead to success and improvement for both of you down the road.

Networking is simply an information exchange between you and another person. It involves establishing relationships with people who can help you advance your career in many ways.

Business networking is leveraging your business and personal connections to bring you a regular supply of new business. The concept sounds simple, doesn't it? Don't let that fool you, though. Because it involves relationship building, it can be a deceptively complex process.

Networking is an exchange of information, contacts, referrals and goodwill. Networking leads to new relationships, new opportunities and greater accomplishments.

At its essence networking is about learning. It is about finding a way for you and another person to be mutually beneficial to each other. Because at the end of the day (whether it be a business or a personal day) the only people that what to network with, hang out with you and learn from you are those that you can help become better humans.

Remember, networking happens all of the time. It can be at the lunch table, in line at the store, at a business after hours, at the gym or during your kids basketball game. 

What networking is not?

It is not a transaction. It is not making a sale. It is not about what you can get from someone.

Networking is not a transactional process. 

“It’s the difference between prostitution and a romantic relationship,” as my friend Ursula likes to say. (Follow her at http://www.saquiresearch.com/blog/). In other words if we do it in terms of selling it’s a one night stand.

The goal of good networking is to find and develop relationships with people that you can help and can help you.

So that's it?

Yup, that really is the beginning. Networking is a way to make the world a better place. You can do it everywhere and at anytime. Do not think that it is a sales process or a way to "get something" from someone. The most successful and respected networkers are those that find ways to help colleagues succeed and improve. They help others find connections and a way to improve their process.

So get out there and see if you can identify some times during your day that you could turn into networking opportunities. Begin to take stock of your connections and think of them in terms of how you can help them.

Good luck!

Philia joins me

One of my favorite writers of all time has a bunch of different characters that travel with him on his journeys. See, the books that this guy writes are all travel novels. And when I say novel I mean walking that incredibly thin line between non and fiction. The stories are absolutely 100% true, everything in them happened. But maybe they didn't happen exactly as described and definitely not always in the order described. And most certainly not with the same companion(s) over time. Because seriously, besides writers and professional travelers (see hippies and bad salesman) who has time to take months off and travel around the country? No one. So this particular writer's solution was to name a companion that would stay through the whole story but would represent the multiple real people that would travel with him.

I think I have that person (people) for my stories finally: Philia.

A writer, actor, speaker and car salesman (no, really) by the name of Mark Price has this on his website (markprice.com): Phillia, which means friendship in modern Greek, a dispassionate virtuous love, was a concept developed by Aristotle. It includes loyalty to friends, family, and community, and requires virtue, equality and familiarity. In ancient texts, philia denoted a general type of love, used for love between family, between friends, a desire or enjoyment of an activity, as well as between lovers. This is the only other word for "love" used in the ancient text of the New Testament besides agape, but even then it is used substantially less frequently.

C.S. Lewis immediately differentiates Friendship Love from the other Loves. He describes Friendship as, "the least biological, organic, instinctive, gregarious and necessary of our Loves" - our species does not need Friendship in order to reproduce. He uses this point to explain that Friendship is exceedingly profound because it is freely chosen.

This is also where the city of Philadelphia gets its name: the place that loves you back, without expectation of reciprocity.

Hey Philia, welcome aboard and glad to have you with me...without expectation of reciprocity.

Influence as value

My friend Keith says that:

The number one rule of leadership is showing up.

It's not that bad of a rule really when you think about it. Part of being a leader is the ability to identify how people work together, what their needs are, what their skills are, what their challenges are. And then figure out a way to help them achieve their goals. All the while without making it about yourself.


And then I thought about this groundbreaking event I was invited to today. The pictures in the paper were of all these people that were so proud of their accomplishment. They all showed up. They were there and it was recorded in perpetuity by the media. But are they the leaders of the project? Maybe one or two, but definitely not the majority of them. So does the first rule of leadership still apply here? Or are these people that were just trying to create and develop influence? What were they doing there? Who were they helping? Whose goal was being achieved?

Then the other night we finished watching the movie, Atlas Shrugged. The point as far as I can tell is that there is nothing worthwhile that can be bought with influence. It was a terrible movie. I am not a film critic or even a film aficionado but I know bad when I see it...this was bad. But it directly took on the question of what role we allow others to play in the influence in our lives.

So the question is, "If just showing up a lot and being around is a way to become a leader, are you just buying influence by being the last man standing?"

Is that truly leadership? Is that of value? Is influence the same as leadership acumen? Not really sure here but I seem to have a lot of unanswered questions. Maybe next post will answer or maybe this just gets worse.

I have been thinking a lot about networking lately...what is the point? Why do it? How do I go about doing it? What are the benefits of taking the risk of meeting new people in a new place? Why is this something that I don't want to do?

And then I heard a friend say the other day that:

your net worth is equal to your network.

And the more I think of it he is right.

I have also been told that:

you are the average of the people that you associate with.

Each of these are probably fairly accurate statements of how important it is to have a good, solid network of the type of people that are going to help you achieve your goals, both business and personal.

Because again, what's the point of networking? Is it because we just want to hang out with folks? Well that's just being with your friends. Is it because we are naturally social creatures? That's just human nature. Or is it because we want something? We want that sale, that referral, that connection that is going to land us the next great job or gig.

Networking is how we decide which people we can collaborate with, share ideas with and make an impact with. There are always going to be people in our communities that we never really associate with even though we run into them all the time. Then there are those that become colleagues, become our collaborators, people we share our ideas with first. Most of these people come into our lives because of networking. These are the core members of our business contacts. It's critical to cultivate those friendships and relationships. It's even more important that we help them develop their networks.

It would probably be a good idea for us to know how to do it well!