Box of Crayons

Great Work Interview with Alan Webber of Fast Company

Michael — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:28:57 +0000

Alan Webber is the founding editor of Fast Company.

Fast Company has had a fundamental influence on my belief in Great Work—work that’s less hierarchical, more innovative, more creative, more design focused, more full of meaning and more engaging.

Alan has just published a fantastic book called Rules of Thumb: 52 Truths for Winning at Business Without Losing Your Self, which contains his wisdom and insights from 30 years in business.

In our talk, Alan sheds light on his top rules of thumb from the book:

Ask the last question first: what’s your definition of victory?
How to create an a-ha moment to create a solution that actually works
Keep 2 lists: 1) What gets you up in the morning? 2) What keeps you up at night? And learn how these questions can help you find work that’s motivating and makes an impact on the world.

You can learn more about Alan at www.rulesofthumbbook.com.

Listen to my interview with Alan Webber

First call for new Coaching for Great Work program leaders

Michael — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 16:30:47 +0000

We’re looking for a small number of new program leaders for Box of Crayons’ flagship product, Coaching for Great Work. You can register your “no obligation” interest here.

Coaching for Great Work provides practical coaching skills for the time-stretched manager. It increases both impact and engagement. The program is proving popular and effective, and we’re having success working with blue-chip organizations in North America, the UK and Europe using Coaching for Great Work to support their strategic and leadership goals.

Learn more about the program at our new website: www.CoachingForGreatWork.com

What we’re looking for

We’re looking for a magical combination of three things: corporate gravitas, experience both as a trainer and as a coach, and entrepreneurial zeal.

Most likely, you are a successful independent and looking for an awesome program to add to your current portfolio of services.

We’re also encouraging people to consider applying in pairs – although it’s not obligatory by any stretch. We’ve learned that having a buddy/partner can help with future success. (Now’s a good time to be sounding out possible partners.)

The process

1. We’ll be inviting full applications shortly.

2. The certification starts with a three-day training program in Toronto on October 22-24 (so save the date), and then continues with teleclasses for three months after that.

We’ve not yet finalized the cost – that will be clear when we open the application process.

Interested? Curious? Want to dip you toe in the water?

With no obligation, you’re welcome to register your name and contact details for free here.

It will ensure that you’ll be first to know about the application process which will open next month.

Thanks for your interest

Michael

PS – If you’d like to learn more about Coaching for Great Work for your organization, take a look at www.CoachingForGreatWork.com and please do get in touch.

Great Work Interview Al Ries, author of 22 Immutable Laws of Branding

Michael — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:43:38 +0000

Do you want to create a leading brand?

Then Al Ries is your man. Al is the legendary marketing strategist who co-authored a series of articles declaring the arrival of the Positioning Era in 1972. Positioning is about how to place your brand in the mind of a consumer in a crowded marketplace, and this concept has revolutionized how people view branding.

Al is the bestselling author of 22 Immutable Laws of Branding and Focus: The Future of Your Company Depends on It.

In our conversation, we talk about what it takes to make a brand truly flourish, which often defies logic and conventional wisdom:

How to be the leading brand – the Heinz, Starbucks, Red Bull or Gatorade – of your category
What people will remember after reading a magazine with 200 ads – and what this means for your brand
Why doing things different is more important than doing things better than the competition
How to increase profits by focusing on a single concept (find out why Nintendo is more profitable than Sony)

Learn more about Al at www.ries.com.

Listen to my interview with Al Ries

4 Fundamental Ways to Increase Your Influence

Michael — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:12:04 +0000

Have you seen the Fast Company Influence Project? They’re conducting an experiment to see who’s really influential on line, and they’ve got quite a funky set up.

In fact, you could help me participate in the project by just clicking on this link. If you wanted to help even more, you could then follow the “spread Michael’s influence” button and see where it takes you…

In our Coaching for Great Work programs and the other workshops we run, we do touch on influence. The reason is the more senior you become, the less control you have over things and the more you’re required to use influence to get things done. And influence is derived from your relationships and understanding the undercurrents of power and control.

Now, I’m not sure if I actually have much influence. But I’d trace whatever I might have to these four strategies.

1. Invite participation

One of the coolest things I’ve done for a while has been the Great Work Interview series. The sophisticated program behind getting such an amazing range of people to participate is that I decide who I’d like to interview. And then invite them.

Truth is, I have about a 85% success rate. Nearly everyone says – sure, I’d love to. Some say, my apologies but not now. And a tiny, tiny, tiny number don’t respond.

Reach up and out. Make a specific request. Invite them into something cool. Be persistent.

2. Know who matters

I was just speaking to [alert! Name-dropping ahead!] Tom Peters last week, and he was talking about organizational politics. His point was that politics is the way business gets done. I made some comment about just how critical relationships were, and he corrected me – no, not relationships. Politics.

His point – politics gets a bad rap in organizations, as if it was somehow dirty or manipulative. But in fact, it’s just the way things work. Politics means influence. And you get to do that for Good (or Evil if you really wish).

Good news – the legendary “16th Map” from Do More Great Work is available at www.DoMoreGreatWork.com. And it will help you figure out who matters.

3. Build

I’ve done a lot of tiny things to build my brand. Hundreds of teleclasses. Many interviews. Assorted articles. Six years of newsletters. Phone calls up the wazoo.

I think of it like silt gathering at the bottom of a lake. Slowly but surely building up a layer of…sludge.

OK, perhaps not the best metaphor. Let me try that again.

It’s like a pointillist painting.

Many many many dots of colour, and when you step back you see a picture.

4. Be a gazillionaire

OK, I’m not an -onaire of any description and it’s likely that you’re not one either.

So let’s cross this off the list, and replace it with my favourite three Great Work attributes. Focus. Courage. Resilience. Know where to put your attention. Be brave and start something. Keep going even when it gets tough.

Don’t take my word for it

Smart people thinking out loud about influence.

The secret of my influence has always been that it remained secret.
-Salvador Dali

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.
-Henry Adams

Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another.
-George Eliot

I have thought a sufficient measure of civilization is the influence of good women.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Influence is like a savings account. The less you use it, the more you’ve got.
-Andrew Young

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.
-Mark Twain

Michael coming to Finland and the Netherlands in September

Michael — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:09:56 +0000

This will be my first trip to Finland, and I’m totally excited about it. And I’m delighted to be returning to the Netherlands, one of my favourite countries.

I hope I’ll see some of you there.

Helsinki, Finland, Friday September 3rd

I’m thrilled that the good people from Romana Management have invited me to Finland to work with them.

I’ll be doing a full-day Great Work program on Friday September 3rd. You’ll not on leave with a bunch of great tools to help you focus on Great Work, but an action plan to do the same.

More Information here

Utrecht, The Netherlands, Wednesday September 8th

Thanks to Elise de Bres of Life Architect, we’re running an Great Work evening event in Utrecht.

It will be based on Do More Great Work of course, but I’ll be adding a range of useful bits and pieces that aren’t in the book.

More Information about Registration

Free Teleclass with Dave and Wendy Ulrich, Friday 23rd July, 2010

Michael — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:39:06 +0000

Dave and Wendy’s new book, The Why of Work, deservedly hit all sorts of top 10 lists last month when it came out.

It focused on the importance of purpose in our working lives, and you could consider this teleclass to be the Why of Great Work.

As always, it will be free-flowing, practical, engaging and fun.

It’s this coming Friday (July 23rd) at 1pm Eastern (10am Pacific, 6pm GMT).

We’re getting close to our numbers limit, so jump in fast.

Register here

Great Work Quote 83 – Example is not the main thing in influencing others…

Michael — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 10:45:23 +0000

“Example is not the main thing in influencing others; it’s the only thing.”
~ Albert Schweitzer

Influence is on my mind this week, prompted in part by this very interesting project that Fast Company is running.

(If you click on this link or the one above, you are in fact helping prove I have some influence…)

The Schweitzer quote is provocative, although Robert Cialdini – author of the definitive tome, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion – would argue that it’s a little too emphatic. Cialdini suggests there are at least six other ways to influence others, one the much quoted and somewhat abused “law of reciprocity” (you give me something, I now really want to give you something.)

But back to the quote. You know and I know example matters.

So what example are you setting? In your interactions? In your meetings? In where you put your focus? In what you say No to? In how you handle pressure? In how you support, encourage, cherish those around you?

What’s the example you want to be setting?

Great Work Interview with Annie McKee author of Primal Leadership

Michael — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 10:00:02 +0000

I met Annie McKee, one of the world’s top advisors on leadership, at a conference in Dubai last year. I was excited to meet her because her work as the founder of the Teleos Leadership Institute focuses on creating large-scale change in organizations to evolve and do more great work.

Annie is the co-author of several groundbreaking leadership books: Primal Leadership, Resonant Leadership and Becoming a Resonant Leader.

Annie has been dubbed the “High Priestess of Executive Coaching” by Business Week. With a title like that, you may picture her dressed in flowing white robes and carrying a sacrificial dagger. But the truth is—her approach to finding meaning (at work and in life) is incredibly down-to-earth.

In our conversation, we discuss:

How all people wake up with intentions to do good work, and how to rekindle their spark when they get knocked off balance
3 magic words that could revolutionize every conversation you have at work
Tools for defining a “noble purpose” to drive you forward in your personal and professional life (believe it or not, this may include tarot cards!)
How playfulness, taking a walk, and the “perceived weird index” can get you from good to great work

Listen to my interview with Annie McKee

NB-Although Annie’s voice comes through nicely in this interview, I sound a bit like I’m standing in a wind tunnel. Sorry about that.

Essential Coaching Skills for Managers #5: 7 Core Coaching Questions (2)

Michael — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:45:06 +0000

It’s all about the questions

In Essential Coaching Skills for Mangers #3, I shared the first of seven core coaching questions that should be in every manager’s back pocket: What’s the real challenge here for you?

Here’s the second of the seven core coaching questions, and it’s short and sweet. In fact, I’d go as far as to say this might be my MOST favourite of the core coaching questions for managers and leaders.

Core Coaching Question for Managers #2: And what else?

So small. So cute. Yet so powerful.

“And what else?” works helps managers get to the real issue at hand for three reasons:

1. Because the first thing a person has to say is never the only thing and often not the best thing

2. Because it stops you as the manager from leaping in with opinions, advice, commentary and whatever. It keeps the focus on the person you’re coaching

3. And because, should you need it, this powerful three-word question buys you time to find the next great question.

(Of course, it comes it a wide range of varieties: Anything else? Yes, and… ? Is there more?)

Your coaching action

Start building your “and what else?” muscle. It’s going to transform your both your peer-to-peer conversations as well as manager-employee conversations.

Additional reading

Making Questions Work by Dorothy Strachan. A fantastic resource for facilitators, coaches and the rest of us. [Amazon affiliate link]

Great Work Interview with John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing

Michael — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 10:00:02 +0000

If you’re a small business owner, I hope to heck that you’ve heard of John Jantsch, the man behind Duct Tape Marketing.

With Duct Tape Marketing, John has created a system for marketing your small business, so you can forget about the hype and guesswork, and counting on consultants to decode the mysteries of marketing. John’s system will get your business beyond the clutter and into the limelight.

John is insatiably curious, admits to getting bored easily and is a voracious reader of 100 blogs and 4 books a week. During our conversation he shares his wisdom about:

How social media years are like dog years
His “light bulb” moment about the secret to marketing small businesses
The 2 biggest mistakes that John sees over and over, and make him smack himself on the head every time
How to turn your biz into a “Referral Engine” that people love talking about
Creating a brand that’s as cool as Apple (don’t worry.. you don’t need their budget or iPads)

You can read John’s award-winning blog Duct Tape Marketing here (it’s a Forbes fave and Harvard Business School featured marketing site) and follow him on Twitter at @ducttape.