Here’s what Serena said Sunday in response to the situation, after she had some time to reflect on her transgressions:

"Last night, everyone could truly see the passion I have for my job. Now that I have had time to gain my composure, I can see that while I don’t agree with the unfair line call, in the heat of battle I let my passion and emotion get the better of me and as a result handled the situation poorly," Williams said in a statement released Sunday by a public relations firm.

Let’s take this apart and see why this is NOT the way to respond when you make a mistake.

Don’t say you’re sorry – Nothing in the press release said “I’m sorry I acted like a child. I was wrong, and I am very sorry for what I did.” Heck, after this level of a blowup, this is the LEAST she could have done. Say your sorry, and be truly sorry, and you’re a long way towards making it right.

“I don’t agree with the unfair line call” – Are you kidding? You’re going to slap the authority in the face after the match that you lost, and say you don’t agree with the unfair call? If you were on my team and I had to write you up, and you said in your reply “I’m sorry you’re wrong” I’d probably fire you on the spot. You made the foot fault, deal with it!

Here are a few other ways you should NOT deal with making a mistake:

Delay or avoid talking about the situation – If you made a mistake, own up to it right away. Whether you’re a manager, a director, or an individual contributor, you stand a better chance of being forgiven than if you delay…or if you don’t talk about it at all.

Hide your mistake – This is even worse than a delay or an avoidance. If you hide your mistake, you’ll avoid the wrath of your manager…for a little while. As soon as anyone finds out you made the mistake, you’re now guilty of TWO mistakes: The mistake and the fact you hid the mistake. This is a fireable offense in my opinion.

Deny it happened – Again, this is two mistakes, because one person is a liar, and chances are, the person with the higher rank has the proof and will now make a point to prove you’re lying…and you probably will be fired or at least severely reprimanded.

What’s the best way to Respond?

Flip all over these around and you’ve got the best way to respond.

• Admit your mistake.
• Say you’re sorry.
• Don’t blame it on anyone else.
• Say it as soon after the error happened as possible.
• Get it out in the open.

What are your best suggestions for how NOT to respond to a mistake?

Image: Zuma Press

Post from: EveryJoe

Serena Williams: How NOT to Respond

One of my favorite bloggers is Gretchen Rubin, who writes the blog (and next year the book) The Happiness Project.

Gretchen has an awesome Happiness Manifesto that I refer to frequently when I fall out of focus. Here are some of my favorite parts:

• To be happy, you need to consider feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.
• One of the best ways to make yourself happy is to make other people happy; One of the best ways to make other people happy is to be happy yourself.
• The days are long, but the years are short.
• Happiness is other people.
• What’s fun for other people may not be fun for you, and vice versa.
• Best is good, better is best.
• Happiness comes not from having more, not from having less, but from wanting what you have.
• You can choose what you do, but you can’t choose what you like to do.
• You manage what you measure.

Simple stuff we can all use to keep things in perspective and be a better manager and a better person for your team.

Recently, Gretchen put together a Happiness Project Toolbox, and I am signed up!

Cool things inside the toolbox include:

• Resolutions
• Personal Commandments
• Inspiration Board
• Happiness Hacks

And so much more!

I encourage you to create your own Happiness Project Toolbox and see what happiness inside and out can do for your management and  your team!

Happiness photo courtesy of jaja1985

Post from: EveryJoe

Create a Happiness Toolbox

Do more with less.

Fire someone today.

Re-align your department.

Whatever you’re experiencing, no doubt it’s giving you more stress than you want.

Here are a few secrets of stress reduction – that you can do FAST – and they don’t cost you anything.

• Take a Walk – Step away from your desk for a few minutes and do nothing but walk for just a little while.
• Take the stairs – Try the stairs instead of the elevator to your next meeting
• Smile for no reason – Go into the restroom and just grin at yourself for a few minutes. Force it if if you have to.
• Phone a friend – Call a friend who always makes you smile and chat for just a few minutes.
• Look at your favorite comic strip – Whether you like Dilbert or Peanuts or Mark Anderson, reading a comic can be a great way to reduce your stress.
• Scream – Go to a secluded conference room and scream for no reason.
• Watch something funny – Last night I spent an hour watching funny YouTube clips with friends. One of my favorites is a 32 second clip from Airplane.
• Take a cat nap – Shut your eyes for 5 minutes and just think about nothing for a little while. Set something so you don’t sleep the day away.

What are your best stress reduction techniques?

Hitting a Wall courtesy of Joe M500

Post from: EveryJoe

Secrets of Stress Reduction – Fast!

Long gone are the days when CIOs were cloistered in back-room operations, you are now on the front lines with customers and in the boardrooms talking strategy. Fierce competition, increased innovation demands, complex compliance and regulatory requirements, and cost efficiency and performance pressures from customers have pushed the role of CIO into an external-facing leadership position.

Now, CIO’s now find themselves in a new, public spotlight. Customers look to partner with proven innovators; employees want to be a part of a technology leader, and new talent tracks search engines and blogs to research the who’s who in IT. If your IT organization is your company’s best-kept secret, you may want to include some publicity in your 2009 strategy.

One place to start is increasing your IT organization’s presence in industry publications.

Here are 5 great ideas to get you started getting ink!

Join the conversation

Participating in articles start with participating in the conversation. Editors always look for new sources and perspectives to include in their features. Reach out to a writer about an article and tell them you enjoy it and provide your own perspective on the topic. Introduce yourself to journalists through e-mail, by phone, or at a conference, and offer yourself as a potential resource on a few key topics. It takes time to cultivate relationships with journalists, but it can deliver great value through the eyes of your employees, potential new talent, customers, and your industry. It also provides great material for your sales team!

Check out editorial calendars

Every publication has a yearly editorial calendar outlining topics for each issue. It is primarily used for advertising purposes, but it is a valuable tool to see what editors are researching.  Case studies that support the topics are always a valuable “in”. Just pitch wisely, and provide a concise and valuable summary on the topic to the editor, preferably through email. Providing first-hand perspectives and results you achieved are helpful. Most editors assign stories at least two months prior to the issue date, so plan ahead. And be ready to interview when they respond.

Quality, not quantity

Editors receive hundreds of emails, phone calls, press releases, and product announcements each day. To cut through the noise, focus on the quality of your pitch. Offer yourself as a resource, someone who is willing to help the journalist with the topic. Stay on topic and provide examples, like detailed case studies of a successful (or not so successful) project or implementation, innovative technology user stories, lessons learned, significant business results, or business and technology challenges you face as an executive.

A good idea or source will not go unnoticed by a journalist. Depending on the story of the day, your pitch may get filed away for future opportunities. It is good to follow-up, but be cautious to not overdo it with multiple follow-ups. Don’t get discouraged; it takes time to develop the relationships.

Participate in industry awards

Many technology publications have established award programs. Awards such as the CIO Magazine’s CIO 100, InformationWeek 500, ComputerWorld’s Best Places to Work, and InfoWorld 100, provide credible, and powerful ways to showcase your organization’s successes. These awards not only provide positive publicity for your company, but can be a great motivator for your IT organization, and beneficial in recruiting new talent.

Get on social networks

As a CIO, you need to look at social networks as part of your strategy, or at a minimum, try them out. They have become new dynamic networking tools to connect with business thought leaders, editors, and technologists. Journalists are very active in the social networking world. They post topics they are researching, provide commentary on what they are hearing in the industry, and interact with their sources. It is an easy, and dynamic way to get involved in the conversation.

Bottom line, increasing your presence in industry publications, award programs, and speaking venues, will deliver value to your IT organization. The third party validation and credibility are assets that can be hard to match in this competitive marketplace.

What are YOUR best tips to get ink and make a name for yourself?

Wendy Serafin is the principal owner of Nifares Group (www.nifaresgroup.com), a thought leadership and public relations firm specializing in technology, financial services/insurance, healthcare, and business consulting industries. She primarily works with executives to build industry recognition, thought leadership, and brand awareness for their organization and company. Contact information: wserafin@nifaresgroup.com.

Photo credit to Flickr

Post from: EveryJoe

Getting Ink: 5 Ways to Increase Presence

Here’s the question:

What recommendations would you have for someone such as myself (I have an IT background with an MBA – and I am wanting to move up into management (again)). I am unable to move within my current organization and I know it would require me to move elsewhere.

I’ve got 10 suggestions to get you headed in the right direction.

1) Listen to what others have to say about in the area you want to move into. Use Twitter and Facebook and blog and Ning.

2) Write about your philosophy. Focus on how you would manage a team, what you believe in, stuff like that. Put it on your website.

2) Leave comments that add value all around the blogosphere, being sure to consistently use your name and linking back to your blog. Both of these will help you build friends and influence people who can help you meet people around the country that can help you find a job.

3) Interview your virtual mentors (mentioned in tip 3 above) and ask them what you asked me, only you don’t have to say it’s for you on your blog. It’s a good question, and hopefully someone knows about this.

4) Build up your LinkedIn profile like a resume. Ask for endorsements, add your picture, customize your URL, give a few endorsements, and add what you’re reading, a link to your blog, and start answering questions. (Check out my LinkedIn profile for a good example).

5) Figure out where you would be willing to move. Think about the companies that are there, the weather that’s there, and the culture of the area. Life AND work are important if you’re taking the long view.

6) Write down what you value in a company. Find out by read a few corporate websites about where you want to live (or look at the Fortune 100 Best Places to Work if you just want great companies) and see where you might fit in.

7) See who you know “on the inside” of these companies. This is where you need LinkedIn. You might know someone who knows someone who knows someone…You never know.

8) Ask these insiders for help. Ask them to share your resume with a hiring manager…or ask what they think about the opportunity for you. Perhaps they could do an e-mail introduction or something like that.

9) Ask how you could be a more attractive candidate. Once you meet the hiring manager (virtually or otherwise)Take the feedback seriously, and make the changes suggested if they stay aligned with your values.

10) Hire a career coach (Wendy Terwelp at http://knocks.com is my recommendation). Once you’ve gone as far as you can, find someone you connect with who can help you refine your resume and flesh out your brand even more.

What advice do YOU have for your fellow reader who wants to head in a new direction?

Photo credit: Before the Haircut by Randy Son of Robert

Post from: EveryJoe

Get a Haircut, Get a New Job

Looking a little deeper into the history of the mentor, I discovered the original Mentor was a character in Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey. When Odysseus, King of Ithaca went to fight in the Trojan War, he entrusted the care of his kingdom to Mentor. Mentor served as the teacher and overseer of Odysseuss’ son, Telemachus.

I’ve had some wonderful mentors in my life, both informal and formal, and they’ve taught me a LOT about how to manage my career, offered insights into how to manage my team, how to be a better speaker, and some even offered insights into how to manage my life. For this article, I’ll be covering only formal mentors. I’ll cover informal mentors soon.

I’ve also done my share of mentoring, offering younger managers and managers-to-be insights into how and why I do what my do, and helping them find the answers to the tough questions.

How do you find a mentor?

1. Be very clear on what you expect from your mentor. A general statement of “I want to be a better person” won’t help anyone help you. If you focus on improving one thing or maybe two things, you stand a much better chance of finding someone who can help you grow in those areas. Be specific and your mentor is
2. Next, think about when you want to meet with your mentor. Do you want mornings, lunches, evenings, weekends? Keep in mind your mentor is going to be helping you more than you are helping them, so understand you may need to change your schedule to make things work. Knowing what you prefer and when you absolutely can’t meet can be very helpful.
3. Understand how often you want to meet with your mentor. Weekly is typically the most frequently folks will be able to meet, and monthly is the longest I would recommend you go between meetings if you want to see your best results.
4. How do you prefer connecting with your mentor? Face-to-face is typically most effective, but some folks prefer e-mail, and some folks are so busy they can only do phone calls. Know your preference, and know what you least want to use, and write it down.
5. Setting an end point is also critical. Nobody wants to feel like they will be mentoring you forever, at least not at the start of a new mentoring relationship. I’ve kept some of my mentoring relationships going for many years, but I’ve also said goodbye after a year to mentees who’ve no longer needed my ongoing advice and support.
6. Write down 3-5 people who might be able to fill your mentoring needs and who you would enjoy learning from. This is your mentorship after all. If someone has great skills but you don’t want to work with them, the mentorship won’t be as good as it could be. By the same token, don’t base who you want to be mentored by solely on the fact that you like the potential mentor. This is why step #2 is so important.
7. Invite your number one choice to a cup of coffee on you, and ask them to be your mentor. Be sure to clearly explain your expectations taken from steps 1-4. Don’t take it personally if they say no, but do ask them who else they might recommend in their place.
8. Repeat 6 and 7 as needed until you find a mentor.

One additional thing: Once you solidify your mentoring relationship, type up steps 1-5, sign it, and ask your mentor to sign it. This helps with accountability and can help you both feel more comfortable with what’s going to happen during your mentorship journey.

What am I missing about finding a formal mentor?

Post from: EveryJoe

How to Find a Mentor (Formal)

by David Zinger

Assessing the poverty of strengths in the workplace. Here are the results from my latest management strength survey.

• 55% of people have had no strength training
• 18% of participants spent less than 1/5 of their day using their strengths
• only 9% of participants spent over 4/5ths of their day using their strengths.
• 28% of respondents report being able to spend beyond 60% of their time using their strengths.
• only 3 out of 10 managers are working from their strengths a majority of the time.

Actual strengths. The list of their greatest strength at work was somewhat vague. Communication, organization, problem solving, and knowledge were most frequently cited strengths. I believe managers would benefit from more detail and a sharper focus on their strengths (see the list of strengths listed at the end of this post).

My two favorite strength responses were: Making complexity comprehensible and sleeping through the noise!

Conclusion. We still have a long way to go to create a strength based workplace.

• 55.8% of the respondent have not had any training while 44.2% had at least some training in strengths.

Question 2. What percentage of the working day do you use your strengths at work?

• 18% spent less that 1/5 of their day using their strengths
• 18% spent between 1/5 to 2/5ths of their day on strengths
• 36% spent between 2/5ths and 3/5ths of their day using their strengths
• 19% spent 3/5ths to 4/5ths of their day on strengths
• 9% spent over 4/5th of their day using their strengths

Question 3. What is your greatest strength at work? (the list is in alphabetical order as provided by the participants in the survey.

ability to make decisions
Ability to Solve Problems.
Adaptability
analysis
analysis: finding patterns
Analytical Thinking
Analytics
Analyzing
calculations
calm
Calming people down to get to the root of a problem
coding
Commitment to get the job done right
common sense
communicating complex information
communicating requirements
communication
communication
communication
Communication
Communication
Communication skills
communication?
Course of Action Analysis / Planning
Creativity/Problem solving
customer relations
deadline work
decision making
Direct Work
don’t know
Employee Relations
Enabling people to understand their strengths and how to use them
encouragement and leadership
Excel skills
EXPERIENCE
Finding Solutions and Strategic Planning
Focus
Going home on time
Humor
humour
innovation
Integration of Ideas
interpersonal skills
intimidation
justice
Knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge
knowledge
knowledge of product
Lateral Thinking
Leadership
Leadership
leadership
leading groups in short-term goals – and as a musician
listening
Listening
Listening
listening
Logical Analysis
Making complexity comprehensible
Manage by walking around
management
managing
Multi-tasking
My focus on the needs of the customers
Organisation
organization
organization
Organization
Organization
Patience
Patience
patiences
perspective
planning design
positive attitude
Priority Setting
proactivity
problem solving
problem solving
Problem solving
problem solving
problem solving
Problem-solving
Process Improvement
procrastination
promoting other people’s strengths
Relating to people at their level to help them develop
relationship building
relationship mgmt
sales
seeing a problem & starting the process of root cause solution implementation
seeing how things can be done
SEO
SEO
setting priorities
simplifying
sizing up people
sleeping through the noise
speed
Strategy
team building
Technical Depth
Technology
Technology
tenacity
Too many to name
Troubleshooting
Understanding people
unknown
Vision

What conclusions or thoughts do you have after looking at these “strong results?”

Post from: EveryJoe

The Results From Management Strong Stuff

Inducted by David Zinger

I am delighted to induct Mr. Leo Babauta of Zen Habits as the May inductee in the Order of the Golden Slacker.

It is an honor to induct Leo Babauta into the Order of the Golden Slacker. Leo’s primary focus is on productivity and his perspective, suggestions, and articles on self-management are guaranteed to create a solid foundation for any manager to manage others by first managing himself or herself well. Leo is an exceptional blog writer who demonstrates an exquisite flair for this medium.

Leo is able to demonstrate solid and sound management by his top-notch award winning blogging fused with a family focus and even training for a triathlon.

If you are not already familiar with Mr. Babauta, here are 3 posts I recommend to get you started. If you already read Zen Habits then I recommend you go back and review these 3 classics:

1. Haiku Productivity: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential
2. Big Rocks First: Double Your Productivity This Week
3. How to Accept Criticism with Grace and Appreciation

I am honored to induct Mr. Leo Babauta into the Order of The Golden Slacker. As with all Golden Slackers, Leo will be receiving his official certificate by email!

The Order of the Golden Slackers:

Post from: EveryJoe

Mr. Leo Babauta: May 2008 Inductee into the Order of the Golden Slacker

Are you bobbing, almost drowning, in a sea of information?

Take this article, why are you reading it? Don’t go away just yet, I have my own simple answer at the end.

We have reached the point where the productivity experts are just adding to that sea of information with their habits, tips, and endless suggestions about how to cope with our terrible information plight.

According to a recent article in msnbc a majority of workers feel overwhelmed by a deluge of data:

• 7 out of 10 office workers in the United States feel overwhelmed by information in the workplace.
• 2 in 5 say  they are headed for a data “breaking point,”
• 62 percent of professionals report that they spend a lot of time sifting through irrelevant information to find what they need;
• 68 percent wish they could spend less time organizing information and more time using the information that comes their way.
• Workers admit that not being able to lay their hands on the right information at the right time impedes their ability to work efficiently; 85 percent agree that not being able to access the right information at the right time is a huge time-waster.
• More than 40 percent of the survey participants indicate an inability to handle future increases in information flow.
• While an average workday for white-collar workers is 8.89 hours, the survey finds that on average, 7.89 working hours are used conducting research, attending meetings, and searching for previously created documents.
• White-collar professionals spend an average of 2.3 hours daily conducting online research, with one in 10 spending four hours or more on an average day.

This strikes me as a bunch of data moaning with the covert message actually being…Hey MOM, look at how important I am with all the information I have to monitor, consume, and shuffle.

Too many people have a self-induced sense of over-importance with all the information they consume. I suggest we stop whining and complaining about this. If you don’t like the data, dump it.

Or change your approach: You can’t stop the waves of information but you can learn to surf.

If you don’t enjoy the waves stop surfing, close the book, turn off your PDA, set you e-mail inbox to stun, and spend time contemplating your belly button.

But if you enjoy information, like I do, stop whining and pretending to be so important — get back on your keyboard and surf the awesome waves in your sea of endless information.

SURF’S UP!

Photo Credit: Pile of papers by http://flickr.com/photos/jepoirrier/376900808/

David Zinger

Post from: EveryJoe

Zinger’s Secret Surfing Solution to Mastering Information Overload

 My optimal time for getting anything done is 30 minutes – with few rare exceptions.

If I’ve let any given task drag on longer than that, chances are I’ve lost my way. I’ve either forgotten the outcome, I’m unclear on my next step, or I’m off on some weird tangent. So one of the most valuable tools on my desk is my beloved OXO egg-timer. Is it a bit OCD? Ohhhhh yeah. But who cares? Time constraints work.

Ever have an impossible 5pm deadline? Something that seemed unachievable in the time required? I bet you made it. And I bet the end result was pretty darn good. Somehow we always manage to pull it out in the end (pun intended).

Time constraints work because they force you to focus on only the most important aspects of any given task or project. Given an unlimited budget of time, it’s only human to start making things bigger than they are. We add embellishments. We ‘research’ on Google. We play with fonts and fuss over the margins.

We create noise. All of this distracts from our core objective and most likely produces a poorer quality product.

Am I saying anything can be completed in half an hour? Well, no. But that next action on your project can. If it can’t, you’ve made it too big. This leads to resistance which leads to procrastination. You’ll put it off until the last minute. And then wouldn’t you know it? Your facing a 5pm deadline…again. And that is why I pace my projects (and my day) in 15-30 minute increments.

My Tips for Egg Timer Safety

I should say – I create a daily work plan that is organized in 15-30 min increments. I don’t schedule these times, I just list the things I want to advance today and put time estimates next to each. I work on them in whatever order I feel inspired. To get the most out of your time it helps to use the first few minutes to get my head on straight before diving right in.

1. Make the time outcome based: “When this 30 minutes is up I will….”
2. Think through the best approach — “If I want this ‘done’, done my best bet is….”
3. Then Dig in

Kelly Andrew Brown is the founder of Small Business Guru and the author of 10 Mistakes Small Business Owners Make (And How To Avoid Them). The Small Business Guru Web site provides coaching, inspiration & practical advice for small business owners.

Post from: EveryJoe

My Egg Timer’s Set to 30 Minutes