November 3-4, 2005
Microsoft, Redmond, WA
Poster Boards
Board 1
- Knowing when you are ready to take the next step?
- Boredom
- Dissatisfaction with status quo
- Recognition by others that you are ready
- Personal Drive; money
- What is the next step?
- Knowing self and strengths
- Know spectrum of opportunities
- Mentor assessment of opportunity/match
- Personal goals
- 360 degree assessment
- How to prepare for and obtain the transition
- Knowing current capabilities
- What else needs to be developed
- Self promotion (communication)
- Leveraging strengths
- Embracing the risk
- Create support system for new position
- Preparing for feedback
- Prepare to be out of your comfort zone
Board 2
Difficult Conversations
Giving feedback:
- Worries – inflicting pain, hurt, negative impact on life, won’ be liked, hurt self-esteem, fear and retribution.
- Our impact – what to do in response to crying or anger; lt it happen, validate it.
- How to maintain “control” self perspective; don’t’ offer to reschedule meeting for another time.
Getting feedback:
- Feeling powerless, our of control, misunderstood
- Feel like a failure, helpless, core being questioned
- Defense stance. Need to marshal argument in real-time
Type pf feedback:
True: privately given, take time to understand, write it down.
False: in large audience anger may be appropriate but based on your understanding of the information “Like to come back and tell you more later.”
Board 3
Accepting you can’t do it all, making good choices and how to allocate your limited time and energy:
- Set time and space aside for strategic thinking, self reflection and big picture thinking.
- Effectively manage expectations and communicate it.
- Ask yourself why you are doing something.
- Is there someone else who can do it?
- What can you delegate or get others to step up to do?
- Make personal choice for priorities/goals; use these to guide your actions.
- Be realistic.
- Identify and use mentors to get external feedback.
- Teach others to “fish”.
- It is possible that you have to arbitrarily reduce your workload.
- Learn how to do some things badly.
Book recommendation: “How to Get Control of Your Time and Life”, Alan Lakein
Board 4
Accepting you can’t do it all. Why are we overcommitted?
Internal factors:
- Perfectionism
- Need to achieve
- Proactive vs. reactive
- Difficulty prioritizing
- Self-care (neglect)
- Guilt Management
- Over developed sense of responsibility
Strategies:
- Define core values
- be honest with your self “put your own oxygen mask on first”
- Actually take a vacation (plan in advance)
- Take time to assess
- Celebrate ourselves “you can have it all, but not all at the same time”
- Longer term outlook
- less can be more (cost benefit ration – both internal and external)
Board 5
Harnessing (your and others Emotion to Your Advantage
- Emotion is information which needs to be acknowledged and understood.
- Understand your triggers and understand their triggers.
- Reframing emotions in a positive way.
- Knowing your objectives and establishing a shared purpose.
- Exploit the power of joy, humor and enthusiasm.
- Avoidance is an emotion and needs to be acknowledged outside the group.
- Understanding the importance of timing.
- Use recovery.
Board 6
Managing Peers and Upwards
Organizational chart vs. social information flow
- Establish trusted connections across levels and organizations.
- Understand motivations and objectives of others.
- “Give to get” – give first.
- Socialize ideas with a broad network.
- Know the admins and other influencers.
Board 7
Turning around a negative work relationship
- Establish expectations (your and the other’s).
- Watch for cues that you are moving off-center, give yourself and others space.
- Place yourself in the other’s head and try to understand how they perceive your and your actions.
- Find the place of connections; speak the other’s language.
Board 8
Fostering collaboration and using competition effectively
Vision:
- Process/Tools
- Environment/Culture
- Shared passion
- Open accountability
- Trust
- Win/win
- Expectations
- Common values
- Smart* goals (*Specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time bound.)
- Communication
- Respect
Board 9
Persuasion
Preparation:
- Pre-bicker and bolster support
- Position support around meeting room
- Understand audiences and anticipate response
- Work indirect and direct connections
Style:
- Engage perpetual trouble makers
- Feed ego
- Verbal strength, no uptick, no “I think”
- Learn your own style (Meyer’s Brigg)
Guidelines and techniques
- Establish basic principles and then persuade then of details based on principles.
- Slow meeting down, water, glasses, deter until later
- Eye contact, confidence , avoid action
- Rephrase question
- Pitch to audience
- Progress check
Board 10
Influence or manipulation
- Position kills possibility/Interests open them (what is the matrix of responsibilities?)
- Understand the landscape/culture (power of precise language)
- Does it need to be win/win?
- Know when to take a break – walk away
- Emotions are both a tool and a limiting factor.
- Don’t go in alone; know who your allies are.