Majority of Workers Are Seeking New Jobs

According to a recent survey by the University of Phoenix, which polled 2,500 workers in diverse industries, we have the following observations:

• Two-thirds of workers are on the lookout for a new job
• Almost half have been working for the same employer for five or more years
• 29 percent have stayed with their company for 10 years or more

BOTTOMLINE: With 2/3 of workers looking for a new job, are there really enough "new" opportunities out there - or is this a situation of "the grass looks greener..."? Perhaps these folks ought to get together for a day -- or even better, a week -- and job-swap. THEN let's re-survey these same folks and see what they think.

Better idea? Look for ways to make you own job, your own career, your own company - even better. Every single day.

Entrepreneur-Friendly States

The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council) just released its tenth annual rankings of the states according to their respective public policy climates for small business and entrepreneurship in the ‘Small Business Survival Index 2005.’

According to it's author, "The ‘Small Business Survival Index’ aims to gauge, state by state, whether public policies help or hurt the entrepreneurial sector of our economy, which of course is so important for economic growth, innovation and job creation."

In terms of their policy environments, the Top 10 most entrepreneur-friendly states under the ‘Small Business Survival Index 2005’ are:

1. South Dakota
2. Nevada
3. Wyoming
4. Washington
5. Michigan
6. Florida
7. Mississippi
8. Alabama
9. Indiana
10. Colorado

For a copy of the ‘Small Business Survival Index 2005,’ visit SBE Council’s website at www.sbecouncil.org. SBE Council is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit small business advocacy group headquartered in Washington, D.C.

Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management

William Swanson, Chairman and CEO of Raytheon Corporation, spent his entire career at Raytheon, and was later asked if he could put his rules down on paper. So he did: in 3-inch-by-5-inch spiral-bound notebooks handed out to executives and customers.

For those of you who haven't seen them, here they are for your review:

1. Learn to say, "I don't know." If used when appropriate, it will be often.
2. It is easier to get into something than it is to get out of it.
3. If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.
4. Look for what is missing. Many know how to improve what's there, but few can see what isn't there.
5. Viewgraph rule: When something appears on a viewgraph (an overhead transparency), assume the world knows about it, and deal with it accordingly.
6. Work for a boss with whom you are comfortable telling it like it is. Remember that you can't pick your relatives, but you can pick your boss.
7. Constantly review developments to make sure that the actual benefits are what they are supposed to be. Avoid Newton's Law.
8. However menial and trivial your early assignments may appear, give them your best efforts.
9. Persistence or tenacity is the disposition to persevere in spite of difficulties, discouragement, or indifference. Don't be known as a good starter but a poor finisher.
10. In completing a project, don't wait for others; go after them, and make sure it gets done.
11. Confirm your instructions and the commitments of others in writing. Don't assume it will get done!
12. Don't be timid; speak up. Express yourself, and promote your ideas.
13. Practice shows that those who speak the most knowingly and confidently often end up with the assignment to get it done.
14. Strive for brevity and clarity in oral and written reports.
15. Be extremely careful of the accuracy of your statements.
16. Don't overlook the fact that you are working for a boss.* Keep him or her informed. Avoid surprises!* Whatever the boss wants takes top priority.
17. Promises, schedules, and estimates are important instruments in a well-ordered business.* You must make promises. Don't lean on the often-used phrase, "I can't estimate it because it depends upon many uncertain factors."
18. Never direct a complaint to the top. A serious offense is to "cc" a person's boss.
19. When dealing with outsiders, remember that you represent the company. Be careful of your commitments.
20. Cultivate the habit of "boiling matters down" to the simplest terms. An elevator speech is the best way.
21. Don't get excited in engineering emergencies. Keep your feet on the ground.
22. Cultivate the habit of making quick, clean-cut decisions.
23. When making decisions, the pros are much easier to deal with than the cons. Your boss wants to see the cons also.
24. Don't ever lose your sense of humor.
25. Have fun at what you do. It will reflect in your work. No one likes a grump except another grump.

(Thanks to Leadership Minute for publishing Swanson's "unwritten" rules)

Innovation: A Key To Sustainable Growth

Every company needs to grow, and innovation is one of the keys to sustainable and profitable growth.

What decisions can we take to increase the probability of successfully building innovation-driven growth businesses?

Many are convinced that it is impossible to predict with confidence whether an innovation will succeed, so they feel they need to place a number of bets -- with the hope that some will be winners.

Professor Clayton M. Christensen of the Harvard Business School has another way: He suggests using theory.

Wait....before you nod off thinking this is one of those ivory tower academic discussions, let me offer this definition of "Theory": A theory is a statement of what causes what and why. Whether team leaders know it or not, they are voracious consumers = and executers - of theory. Every action a team leader takes, every plan a team leader makes, is based on some belief of cause and effect.

Listen to Professor Christensen's podcast here where he explains how to use theory in addressing the innovation challenge.

Seven Traits Of Success

Gary, over at High Performance Business, offers these seven unifying concepts that seem to run through each successful High Performance Business (HPB).

1. Become Customer Oriented
2. Plan
3. Embrace Technology
4. Monitor Your Costs
5. Improve Productivity
6. Hire The Best People
7. Solve Problems

Interestingly enough, many of these traits seem to be aligned with our own research at Six Disciplines that describe how high-performing businesses differ from low-performing businesses.

Our research indicates that the top 5 areas where the contrasts / differences were greatest include:

1. Strength of the senior leadership team
2. Attracts and retains quality people (aligns with #6)
3. Disciplined approach to business (aligns with #2 and #7)
4. Strategic use of technology (aligns with #3)
5. Effective use of trusted relationships

These are all outlined in the chapter "How The Best Differ From The Rest" in Six Disciplines for Excellence.

The Little Company That Could: A Case Study in Excellence

Melvin Wilson, 46, a marketing manager for Mississippi Power, was reviewing next year's advertising campaign when Hurricane Katrina turned toward Mississippi.

A day later, the marketing man was "director of storm logistics," responsible for feeding and housing 11,000 repairmen from 24 states and Canada.

When Katrina hit, Mississippi Power management responded with a style designed for speed and flexibility, for getting things done amid confusion and chaos.

The key elements to success:

• A can-do corporate culture
• Clear lines of responsibility
• Decentralized decision-making

Read the story of true inspiration here - an example of innovative excellence.

Seven Early Warning Signs Of A Company In Trouble

Management consultant Douglas J. Enns started assembling a list of such signals after he noticed that companies that get into difficulties share common moments of blindness.

Here, in Enns’s words, are seven of those early warning signals:

1. New competitors are discounted
2. In-house empires arise
3. The sales cycle lengthens
4. Key people start to behave differently
5. Expansion abroad is used to compensate for slow domestic business
6. There’s profitability without free cash flow
7. The company buys a competitor to restore earnings

Read all the details here - and see what happened when companies missed acting on these seven early warning signs of trouble.

Surveys of Corporate Board Members

Speaking of corporate boards of directors, the number of boards and their members that regularly undergo formal evaluations has climbed significantly since 2002, according to a survey by Corporate Board Member and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

This year 84% of the respondents say their boards conduct such a process, up from 33% three years ago.

In 2005, 67% of those being evaluated rate the full-board evaluation process either “very effective” or “effective.”

The big exception: strategic planning. For the second year in a row, a majority of the respondents—59%, compared with 58% in 2004—put strategic planning at the top of their list of things they say need additional discussion time. And a greater percentage than last year want to spend additional time discussing their company’s competitive position (42% versus 36%)

100 Ways To Be A Better Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur.com offers these 100 Ways to be a Better Entrepreneur.

Among them are some of my favorites:

4. Franchising and Licensing
10. Why You Should Never Stop Learning
19. Leave No (Paper) Trail (move from paper to digital)
22. Take Time for Marketing
27. Preparing for Tomorrow, Today
46. Keep in Touch
52. Why Recognition Is a Must
61. Get Others Organized
65. Get in Control!
69. Learn From Your Mistakes
87. Create a City Where People Want to Live
88. Share the Riches of Your Business
95. Keep 'Em Coming Back for More

and of course, 100. Plan for Success

View the entire "100 Ways to be a Better Entrepreneur" here.

SWOT and Staying Ahead of the Technology Curve

Only 4 our of 10 companies regularly brief their Board of Directors on emerging technology strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, according to a global survey of 127 senior executives conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit, and sponsored by Dimension Data and Oracle.

The survey, published in an Economist Intelligence Unit report called "Staying ahead of the technology curve," sheds light on how effective companies are identifying and exploiting emerging technologies.

While the majority of companies (73%) say they have people monitoring the emergence of new technologies, only 52% of companies regularly keep track of competitors' technology initiatives, and surprisingly, only 44% measure the value of technology once it is implemented.

Angel Investors - Funding More Deals

According to Red Herring magazine, Angel investors are funding more early-stage startups this year than at any point since the Internet boom....Innovators who meet with angels are twice as likely to get funding this year than two years ago, a study shows.

In 2005, angel investors backed 21.8 percent of the companies they investigated, up from 10.3 percent in 2003, according to a study by the Center for Venture Research.


BOTTOMLINE: Angel investors are back into it - but they're not into trend investing (no repeats of the dot com era here.) They're smarter, more careful - investing in high growth, "long-tail" ventures. If you're a start-up, one way to ensure long-term viability is to adopt (from the start) a business-building methodology, practical Internet technologies and seek the advice of experienced professionals who can help coach you to keep you on track...hmm, sounds like you need a Six Disciplines Leadership Center perhaps?

The Right Words Can Make All The Difference

Words are powerful - and the powerful words can help move you in the right direction.

When it comes to filling out job applications or applying to colleges or universities, there are two rules that are generally observed:

1. Highlight your strengths
2. Brush over those weaknesses

The top 10 words found to "stand out the most on application forms" include:

1. Achievement
2. Active
3. Developed
4. Evidence
5. Experience
6. Impact
7. Individual
8. Involved
9. Planning
10. Transferable skills

Want some key words to include on your resume? Check it out here.

Do You Have The Right Entrepreneurial Stuff?

In BusinessWeek's simplistic eight-question entrepreneurial quiz, you're quickly assessed as to whether you have the "right stuff" of not.

Here's another one from the EnCompass Group.

While they're both interesting exercises using Macromedia Flash, you're much better off going into much more depth, such as:

• The Wall-Street Journal's Startup Journal - Entrepreneurial Quiz (26 questions)
• Manitoba Assessment

I'm sure they're lots of them out there....if you know of one that is very in-depth, and provides good direction, let me know!

Excellence of Purpose

Fortune Magazine published their "The 25 People We Envy Most" list.

Most intriguing was their inclusion of Rick Warren, pastor and best-selling author of "A Purpose-Driven Life".

Their take on Warren:

"Look, if anyone is going to heaven, it's this guy. Saddleback Church, which he founded in his living room in 1980, is now a 120-acre campus with an average weekend attendance of 21,000. His book The Purpose-Driven Life has sold over 25 million copies and is among the bestselling nonfiction hardcovers in U.S. history. Apart from the Rolling Stones, not many middle-aged white guys can fill a stadium with adoring fans, but Warren can, and his are actually sober. The most influential evangelical since Billy Graham preaches in Hawaiian shirts and sandals. As if that weren't enough: Warren gives away 90% of his income. And he'll never wake up wondering if his job has meaning."

BOTTOMLINE: Understand your purpose...make a difference...help others understand their purpose...do it as well as you can. Repeat as necessary.

Execution Without Excuses: How Dell Does It

According to this Harvard Business School interview with Michael Dell, the success of Dell is based on more than its business model (essentially: computers-direct).

High expectations and disciplined, consistent execution are embedded in the company's DNA.

To double its revenues in five years, the company had to adapt its execution-obsessed culture to new demands. They had to reignite the spirit of the company to retain its top team members.

They implemented a team member survey, whose results led to the creation of the Winning Culture initiative, which defined the "Soul of Dell":

• Focus on the customer
• Be open and direct in communications
• Be a good global citizen
• Have fun in winning

BOTTOMLINE: Dell changed as individuals and as an organization. They are not only creating a "great" company that not only performs consistently both financially and operationally, they are creating a culture that makes people stick around for reasons other than money.

Look for Excellence in Others

This, from Fast Company:

"I had dinner with a friend who has owns a successful ad agency in New York City. At one point we got to talking about what has made him a successful leader.

I asked him, "If you had to boil it down to one thing, what would you say is the most important thing you do?"

He reflected for a minute and then gave an interesting answer.

He said, "For me it comes down to 3 words - Look for Excellence.

The one thing I can say, beyond the shadow of a doubt, is that when I'm actively looking for the excellence in others, things always work better.

Creative ideas just flow and new possibilities come out of thin air.

Identifying Poor Performers - And What To Do About It

How do you work with team members - particularly those whose performance?

Performance management is about the importance of measuring and recognizing accomplishments rather than activities. To overcome performance obstacles, you need to develop elements and standards that center on what your employees achieve, not what they complete.

Improving substandard performance can be a daunting task. A one-size-fits-all solution to resolving poor employee performance does not exist. There are some common issues that result in poor performance, and ways to overcome them.

Every organization has its fair share of poor, or at least, suboptimal performers. But even though the employee may be partially responsible for the poor performance, there are other contributing factors. Some issues that directly affect the performance of employees and eventually -- the entire organization include:

• Lack of knowledge
• Not clearly defining performance objectives
• Lack of support
• Inconsistency from superiors
• Inadequate tools
• Not having a clear direction

For more on this topic, including what difficult questions to ask, and how to handle poor performers, check out the entire article here.

The Key to Bottom-Line Business Performance

This, uh, rather "obvious" piece of research reported in Workforce Performance Solutions magazine.

Professionals in human resource management (HRM) always have intuitively known that better-managed people work harder and more efficiently, and therefore achieve better results for their employers.

But HR leaders have often struggled to convince cynical business leaders of this fact. But the 1990s was a good decade for those making the case for the HR profession.

During this time, evidence began to crystallize that proved once and for all that people really are the key to bottom-line business performance.

For people to perform better—beyond the minimal requirements of the job—they must:

• Have the ability to do so because they possess the necessary knowledge and skills, including how to work with other people.
• Be motivated to do the work, and do it well.
• Be given the opportunity to deploy their skills, both on the job and more broadly by contributing to work-group and organizational success.

BOTTOMLINE: The research leaves little doubt that people really do make the difference to business performance. However, the relationship is complex, and therefore, ready-made solutions or prescriptive approaches are of little value. Organizations need to be able to analyze their processes in the light of the evidence that is now available to identify the triggers for discretionary effort among their workforce. If they can understand this, they can then make an informed judgement about the HR process model that is likely to bring them the most significant performance gains.

Rewarded for Excellence

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (known by many as sponsors of National Public Radio) recently named 25 new MacArthur Fellows for 2005.

Each received a phone call from the Foundation informing them that they will be given $500,000 in “no strings attached” support over the next five years.

MacArthur Fellows are selected for their creativity, originality, and potential.

Some of the recipients this year included:

• a molecular biologist
• a sculptor
• a pharmacist
• a laser physicist
• a violinmaker
• a photographer
• a fisherman

BOTTOMLINE: Achieving excellence - whether in business or any other area of life, is a long-term process, and should be recognized. Isn't it great to see examples of those doing work worthy of such high praise?

CEOs and Innovation - The Big Disconnect

A recent BCG survey shows a disquieting gap between CEOs and their top managers over the criticial issue of innovation.

Here's a peak at some of the results:

• 81% of CEOs believe innovation is a top priority for their companies while only 63% of lower-level execs share this view.
• 76% of CEOs believe their companies foster a culture of innovation, but 51% of lower level execs and employees disagree.
• 66% of CEOs say their senior management teams share a common view on managing innovation but only 53% of non-CEOs agree.
• Some 56% of CEOs believe their companies have the right organization structure already in place to generate innovation, while 56% of lower-level people do not agree.

Why the disconnect?

It looks like many CEOs are naive when it comes to operationalizing innovation in their own companies. They're not getting it -- and perhaps not providing the resources (Discipline III - Align Systems) to develop it.

And many managers many don't understand how imporant innovation is (Discipline V. Innovate Purposefully) as a strategic imperative . It appears that senior managers of most companies are out of alignment (Discipline III-F Align People) when it comes to innovation.