Kolz Blog

As I've written elsewhere [1], networking has proven to be a crucial new focus (and set of skills) as I develop my personal productivity practice. One issue that often comes up when starting out is that of finding something to give to the folks you'd like to connect with. As Keith Ferrazzi says in Never Eat Alone:

"I learned that real networking was about finding ways to make other people more successful. It was about working hard to give more than you get." 

However, I sometimes felt that, as someone new to the field, I didn't have much to offer. As I said in my interview with Josh Hinds, one gift is that of good, honest listening, but I've come up with something more concrete that almost anyone can give. It's simple: I noticed when doing my research on people that their web sites often had typos, grammar errors [2], and broken links and pictures. So I decided to turn them into little gifts. In fact, they can be openers when you have no other obvious introduction to someone. I've shared a dozen or so of these, and recipients are usually quite grateful. (They're often too busy to stay on top of web site changes, or they haven't looked at their own pages in a while.) The only advice I'd give about the approach is to keep it short, and be respectful, e.g., "your site was great; thought you'd like to know..." My main point is usually that the errors might be diminishing her message. So if your personality runs into the detailed side of things, keep track of those errors - they can be valuable! References

• [1] See A geek "gets" networking: The strange magic of connecting with others and On the goal of meeting three new people a week - A ten week retrospective.
• [2] I've found Paul Brians' Common Errors in English site to be tremendously useful. It covers classics like ITS/IT’S and THEY’RE/THEIR/THERE.

Lead up principle #9 in John C. Maxwell’s book The 360° Leader is to be sure you are better tomorrow than you are today. Growth is one of the things the insures that you will be able to lead from the middle. Many people have goals to become something or reach a specific level. And at that point, they are satisfied. However, that can be deadly to a career where someone wants to lead. As leaders, we never want to “arrive” in our profession. If we ever get satisfied with our place in life, we are finished in terms of growth. The Better You Are, The More People Listen If I wanted to learn about ice hockey, would I more likely talk to Joe Sakic of the Colorado Avalanche, or the guy in the upper tier of the Pepsi Center that brews beer on his day job? Now the beer guy may know hockey, but I want to talk to the expert. Why is that? It is because Joe’s 1,489 career points in 1,237 games in the league gives him credibility. I can’t say that about beer guy. Beer guy knows beer…or at least those who drink his beer hope he does. The point is, if you want to be the “go-to” guy in your office, you must be the expert. Expertise gives you credibility, and credibility in leadership is priceless. The Better You Are, The Greater Your Value For Today It takes many years for trees to start bearing fruit. Truth is, most trees do not bear fruit for as many as 5 years after it is planted. So like a tree, we must be allowed to grow. If you are not moving forward as a learner, you are moving backward as a leader. The Better You Are, The Greater Your Potential For Tomorrow The more you learn and grow, the more capacity you have to learn. If you want to have influence with your leaders, you must fight to grow. An investment in your growth is an investment in your future. So learning, talking, and practicing your craft today is the best way to make yourself better for tomorrow. - Jason

Today, in a chatroom, a friend of mine from England by the name of Steve posed this question to me, and it got me to thinking. How can one insure that goal setting is effective? One thing I can say for certain is that if we set goals, and then put them in a folder, and do not reference them for another six months to a year…they are obviously useless. What can we do to keep our goals in front of us? I would recommend that at least once every two months (though I do it once a month), make your goals a review item in the weekly review. This way we can periodically take an inventory of what we are doing to accomplish our goals. It is also the appropriate time to set up projects and next actions related to those goals. The key is that we need a mechanism of some kind to help us keep the goals in our minds so we can consciously take actions to achieve those goals. Another key element of this, that Steve and I did not touch on, is that we need to make sure that our actions are aligned with our goals. When we are doing our weekly review or planning actions for the day, we should be able to see how our actions ultimately push us toward our goals. Obviously, not all projects are goal related. But in the big picture (30,000 foot level), if the things we do fail to press us toward the goals we set, we need to reevaluate the things we do. If you don’t already think of these things when you do your weekly reviews, try it…and let me know if it enhances your ability to achieve your goals. Thanks, Steve, for challenging my thinking today. - Jason