FountainBlueExecs

Effective Decision-Making and Follow-Through

2007-04-06T15:09:00.000-07:00

April 6 Workshop Topic: Effective Decision-Making and Follow-Through, with Marcia Daszko, Marcia Daszko & Associates

Effective decision making is a challenge that people face everyday. For leaders of organizations, where decisions impact thousands of people, organizations and industries, the process of making effective decisions becomes critical. Some decisions impact life or death situations. Fundamentally, making decisions means making choices based on multiple variables that are both rational and emotional. Choices are made by assessing what is known and certain, what is at risk, and what is unknown with probable outcomes. Once decisions are made, they need to be implemented.

In this session, we explored what it takes to make more effective decisions and execute them as well as the obstacles to great decisions and how to remove them. We will discuss the challenges to executing decisions and how you can make changes tomorrow to achieve better decision making and execution.

To encourage growth based on continual transformative change:

Have an aim/compelling purpose and communicate what it is, what it means to stakeholders, organization, industry, company, society.
Ask strategic questions.
Challenge any assumptions you might have.
Leaders do not delegate accountability down the chain, but continually look for systemic issues/processes which are barriers to success (rather than blaming and faulting the parts - the people and things that support the system).
People are responsible for the commitments they make.
Four questions about the decision you're making: AIM: What are we trying to accomplish together? METHOD: By what method? CUSTOMERS: Who are we serving? MEASURES: How will we measure progress and success? Do not focus your measures on individuals who are only part of the system.
Five key questions for managing data-driven decisions: What bugs you? What is repetitive about what bugs you? What can you measure about that? How will you know if a change is an improvement? What changes can you make that will result in an improvement?
Stay away from the culture of accountability which is closely tied to blame and fear
Adopt the BOHICA principle, which assumes that a minority are early-adopting Explorers (who embrace change readily) and Pioneers (solid adopters, more cautious before adopting change), the majority are Settlers (who take a wait and see stance), and the remaining are Cynics (unlikely to adopt change). The principle focuses on supporting the Explorers and Pioneers.
The key to managing an organization/system is to look at data over time in context.

Marcia conducted a kaleidoscope exercise and asked the participants to brainstorm the answers on several questions (see below). From there we began to explore some fundamental theories about making more effective decisions and leading an organization's transformation.

What are the most important elements of making a good decision:

Define the goal
Get consensus on the goal/acceptance by stakeholders
Having the right information to make educated decisions - Seeing consequences and impacts
Get a second opinion from others before deciding
Balance research and intuition/Reasonable risktaking
Tools and resources
Research and Timelines and Measurable results
Timing of the decision

What are barriers to making good decisions:

Resistance to change /not open to alternatives/Lack of agreement
Politics/Power
Fear/Lack of Trust/Procrastination
Assumptions held
Lack of follow-through/reward structure/not considering impact
Lack of data/information/time/too many uncertainties/unknowability
Lack of resources/ support
Too much thinking
What are some ideas for addressing different decision-making styles:
Understand the perspectives of the stakeholders/Get buy-in
Allowing innovation and creativity/Listening to different opinions
Differentiating between what's essential and what's secondary
Understanding big picture
Having achievable goals/Considering future impact
Using intuition
Having good data
What are the elements of Effective Follow-Through:
Leadership/vision/mission
Ownership and accountability
Buy-In
Milestones, Timeframes and other Measurable results
Desire for success
Remove obstacles of implementation
Delegation

What are some barriers to Effective Follow-Through:

Lack of Leadership/Unclear Communications/Conflicting priorities/Not setting expectations
Lack of/incomplete buy-in
No Accountability/Unclear milestones, goals/No Measurements/Unclear plan commitment vs. interest
Time constraints/Poor Process/Lack of resources/Taking on too much/Placation disorder
Fear: of uncertainty, failure, success
Perfectionism and procrastination
Sudden and unforeseen change
Role Confusion/Bystander Syndrome

For more information:

The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education by W.E. Deming
The Goal, A Process of Ongoing Improvement by E. Goldratt
The Improvement Guide: A Practical Approach to Improving Organizational Performance by G. Langley
Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos by D. Wheeler
Understanding Statistical Process Control by D. Wheeler
Leadership On the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading by Ron Heifitz
The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work by Peter Block

Using Age to Your Advantage.

2007-04-02T17:33:00.000-07:00

FountainBlue's March 22 Transitions event was on the topic of Using Age to Your Advantage.

Your age is one of your most powerful advantages in your job search ... if you have the right attitude and strategy to overcome the subtle and not so subtle age bias that exists in every interview.

For this FountainBlue Connections event, America's leading professional career coaches, Jean Erickson Walker, shares her very practical and expert advice on landing that great job you really want ... at any age. Jean Erickson provided us with a step-by-step guide on how to turn your age and experience into must-haves for any potential employer. We shared our stories and challenges around 'the age question' and participated in an engaging discussion. Below is advice for using age to your advantage:

Have a positive attitude about your age, no more derogatory remarks
Position yourself as a trustworthy, experienced, competent executive with integrity, values, and competence who will make life better for the senior executives at an organization
Talk about the big picture, don't talk about the smaller details you did in executing a project
Sell your relationship skills, not necessarily your tactical and technical knowledge
Find a job which sounds like it would be fun, exciting, rich and engaging learning and growing experience where you can make a real contribution

Jean's Top Ten things to consider in using age to your advantage:

Understand the new world of work
Become CEO of You, Inc.
Remember your age IS an issue
Stop looking for jobs and start looking for work that needs doing
Do a thorough self assessment
Take a strategic view of job listings
Learn the career search process
Focus on outcomes, create a defining statement
Pick your battles, sell your greatest asset, wisdom
Bring your friends to the party

For more information:
Contact Jean and inquire about her coaching services
Order her book
Read her articles

The Nearshoring Option

2007-03-16T17:13:00.000-07:00

FountainBlue's March 16 Connections event was on the topic of The Nearshoring Options.

In this month's Connections event, we described Nearshoring options, in comparison to off-shoring options, share some Nearshoring success stories from large high-tech, life science companies as well as a smaller start-up's successes. Our experienced panel of experts shared criteria they used to determine outsourcing solutions. Our attendees shared their challenges and successes with our panel:

Facilitator Matt Perez EVP of Engineering and founder of NearSoft
Panelist Brian Higgins, Manager at KLA Tencor
Panelist Dr John Linehan, Stanford Professor
Panelist Steve Mezak, author of Software without Boundaries
Panelist Ray Scott, CEO, Axolotl

We discussed how offshoring and Nearshoring options impact the company's business model in the long-term and in the short term. Below are notes from our discussion.

Nearshoring is an attractive option for companies that need to partner with providers outside their organizations to meet their development needs and timelines.

Educated, intelligent developers are becoming more and more available
More experienced technicians are being trained even in the United States
US citizens well acculturated into the American society are leading development firms from their native countries and can serve as interpreter/facilitator between development teams
Nearshoring addresses the time zone challenges presented by working with countries on the 'other side of the world' (of course that's all relative)
When issues arise, they may be solved more quickly when time zone factors aren't as heavily involved

Before you consider a Nearshoring partner, consider the following factors:

The education level of the country/organization/people that you're working with
The infrastructure support for the country you're considering
Your personal software development needs
The culture of your organization, and that of the country you're outsourcing to
The relationship you have with the organization
How close the Nearshoring team is to the rest of your teams
The political and economic stability of the country you're working with
The time zone question - how many time zones away are they and how would that impact yourself and others on your team? would you need to adjust to early morning or late evening hours, and which are you more comfortable with?
In general, minimize the education, communication, distance, etc., separation between yourself and your development partners in order to maximize your degree of control

To make the best use of Nearshoring relationships:

Make priorities and statements of work clear, while also communicating and adjusting as needed
Consider whether you're using Agile method (like UML, SCRUM) which is more collaborative and iterative or Waterfall with complete specs
Use communication tools to facilitate and coordinate development efforts; these might include IRise, RavenFlow, BuyProcess (Unified Modeling Language), MS Project, Online software as a service tools such as Artifact Software, Clarison, etc.,
Build the largest pipeline for information flow between the various development players so that you can better stream video, audio and other data; real-time video tools might include Microsoft or IBM Lotus
Understand specialties for each region
Understand travel and infrastructure development limitations/constraints (there are tier 1 areas in India like Bangalore and tier 2 ones like New Delhi)
Consider copyright requirements not just for your direct providers, but also for their providers

For more information:

See Nearsoft's Outsourcing Risks page

http://www.nearsoft.com/outsourcingrisks.php

Take Accelerance's software IT readiness test http://www.accelerance.com/readinessTest.php3

Take Accelerance's Vision Resourcessm - Outsourced Team Selection Service from Accelerance http://www.accelerance.com/visionResources.htm

Subscribe to the Accelerance RunTime eZine http://www.accelerance.com/runtimeSignup.htm

Women in Policy

2007-03-09T19:22:00.000-08:00

Our March 9 event was on the topic of Women in Policy

With the latest election results, Silicon Valley, California has the distinction of having two women representatives in the Senate as well as the speaker of the house. This month's conversation will focus on having women in policy at the local, state, regional and national levels and their impact on our business and personal lives. We will feature the personal and professional stories of the women policy-makers on our panel and share advice on how best to navigate the political landscapes to make the kind of sustainable impact that benefit men and women, in business and in life.

We wish to thank and acknowledge our speakers for their candid and inspiring practical advice on how to support women in forging change at home, in our communities, and at work.

Facilitator Leslee Guardino founder of the Women's High Tech Coalition and Partner at Canyon Snow
Panelist Cindy Chavez, former Vice-Mayor, City of San Jose
Panelist Kathleen King, City of Saratoga City Council
Panelist Liz Kniss, Supervisor, County of Santa Clara
Panelist Bev Strand, Manager, Strategic Partnerships, Worldwide Diversity & Inclusion, Cisco, Member, California Commission on the Status of Women.
Panelist Michelle Wright-Conn, Cisco Global Policy and Government Affairs

Below is additional information and advice on how to support women forging change at the policy and business level:

There has been little change in the last 40 years:

Women are still not earning at the same levels as men.
Women are still balancing home and work challenges, being required to do more, multi-task better, work longer hours.
Women bring a different perspective to policy: It's not just a gender difference, a woman's overall experiences, views and approach are different.

Advice on how to support women forging change:

Consider the globalization of talent and how it impacts our policy, personal and business perspectives.
Be exposed to diverse perspectives.
Take on a challenge, and help others also be one inch taller as they do the same.
A woman's more collaborative approach might better address the war, healthcare and image issues currently posed at the national level.
Perhaps adopting a mandate on the percentage of women in office would have a positive impact on policy, much like it had for Rwanda.
Take the initiative to find out who is running for which office, whether they're men or women and make a point of supporting women and men forging positive change. Your voice matters!
Be more confident in the abilities of other women.

Advice for yourself, as you lead at work and in community:

Leverage the more intuitive, more self-aware nature women might have.
Support technology, and women in support innovation and technology at the policy level.
Think outside the box; view things with a different lens.
Expect to be treated with dignity and respect, and make a stand when this is not the case, for yourself, for your colleagues, for those who will come after you.
Doing the right thing for people generally is also doing the right thing for the economy.

Leading with Power, Influence and Integrity

2007-03-03T10:55:00.000-08:00

FountainBlue's March Workshop Topic was Leading with Power, Influence and Integrity, with Camille Smith, Work In Progress Coaching http://www.wipcoaching.com.

In our branding workshop, we talked about how to create your own personal brand of leadership. In our communications workshop, we talked more expanding your communication style so that you can better communicate your desires to a wider range of personality styles. In this workshop, we brought the two concepts together.

We examined our personal commitments and motivations and their impact on ourselves and the people around us.
We worked through exercises that challenge us to think through what we really want and how we can engage others to share our goals.
We explored the differences between unexamined wants and consciously created commitments and their impact on our actions and communications.
We investigated several types of power and how to choose the one that is most likely to produce the outcomes we intend.
With this knowledge, we were challenged to generate the "missing ingredient" that would allow us to lead ourselves and others with power, influence and integrity and produce results that create successful businesses and fulfilling lives.
We left intrigued and inspired by the conversation and empowered into action. We look forward to continuing our discussion on how to elicit effective leadership skills in ourselves, and in those we work and play with. Below are notes from our discussion.

Thoughts on leading with power:

You are completely responsible on how to use your power, grow your power, balance it with influence and integrity.
Be willing to stretch your comfort zone.
Understand your passions, and your commitments. Take action on your commitments.
Know your skills. Build on your skills and strengths.
Build relationships bigger than goals. Relationships are the foundation of power and influence.
Listening leads to relationships, not listening leads to fragmentation and suffering. Build power through listening and engaging others.
Learn as you lead.
Power: The ability to do or act.

Thoughts on leading with influence:

Surround yourself with empowering, like-minded people.
Understand your skills and build relationships and communities which would respect your skills, complement your skills.
Build relationships bigger than goals. Relationships are the foundation of power and influence.
Listening leads to relationships, not listening leads to fragmentation and suffering. Build influence by listening.
Be the kind of leader who cares, shows character, is competent and consistent and shows commitment.
Influence: the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others.

Thoughts on leading with integrity:

Understand how you can be healthy and whole.
Understand the internal conversations you're listening to now, and be prepared to think deeply about why you are having these conversations and how you can shift them so that you're actions, commitments, communications are in alignment with who you are.
Know where you are headed, why you are headed there. Ensure that your power, your influence is in alignment with your direction.
Start first with where you are headed - your passions and values. Then build relationshipos and communicate and engage to build power and influence toward a common vision.
Be flexible enough to allow your passions, values, desires to evolve.
Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not. Oprah Winfrey
Integrity: wholeness, perfect condition

Below are recommended Articles from Harvard Business Review as well as books:

In Praise of the Incomplete Leader, Deborah Anacona (2/2007) http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=R0702E
What Leaders Really, Do John P. Kotter (12/2001 excerpt) http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b01/en/common/item_detail.jhtml?id=R0111F&referral=1043
“Leadership is different from management, but not for the reasons most people think. Leadership isn’t mystical and mysterious. It has nothing to do with having “charisma” or other exotic personality traits. It is not the province of a chosen few. Nor is leadership necessarily better than management or a replacement for it.

“Rather, leadership and management are two distinctive and complementary systems of action. Each has its own function and characteristic activities. Both are necessary for success in an increasingly complex and volatile business environment.”
Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office 101: Unconscious Mistakes Women Make that Sabotage Their Careers by Lois P. Frankel, Ph.D. http://www.amazon.com/Nice-Girls-Dont-Corner-Office/dp/0446531324
The Naked Truth A Working Woman's Manifesto on Business and What Really Matters by Margaret Heffernan http://www.mheffernan.com/

Learning from Bad Management Practices

2007-02-22T16:47:00.000-08:00

Our February 22 Transitions event was on the topic of Learning from Bad Management PracticesThe media is filled with books and articles about management and leadership, and a sizable cottage industry exists of advisers and consultants to teach us the best techniques. But what about *bad* management? You probably haven’t seen many books about that, though you may have seen plenty of real life examples. It’s certainly a commonplace reality. It keeps Scott Adams in business drawing Dilbert, and as Mr. Adams clearly demonstrates, it’s more *fun* than good management – as long as you’re not its victim.

In this talk, we discussed bad management. We covered real cases and real consequences, including failed companies and billions of dollars in losses. The intent is not to derive good management advice, but rather to observe bad management in all its glory. We may also illuminate some tactics for surviving, and perhaps even succeeding, when confronted with bad management.

Our facilitator, Jay Michlin, has served as a senior engineering and management executive within the Silicon Valley and beyond. Currently the VP of Engineering at OnStor, Jay takes pride in learning from Bad Management practices, mentoring and growing high-potential leaders, while delivering bottom-line business results. Bring your favorite bad management stories and the lessons gained from them, and prepare for an interactive and educational discussion!Below are comments and advice from our discussion.

Some characteristics of bad managers:

They look at business from the '50,000 feet' level, not the on-the-ground level which is much more effective.
They impose their business standards and experience on their current business situation rather than adapting to the business challenges in front of them.
They focus on measurements rather than results.
They put the wrong people in the wrong job.
Sometimes they add unnecessary layers of management, which takes everyone away from the thoughts of the staff and the customers.
They lack the courage and integrity to lead and deliver results.

Some characteristics of good managers:

They have the courage to invite others (like customers and staff) to share the truth/provide honest feedback and to follow through on that communication.
They have the integrity to do the right thing for the company and its people.
They utilize the talent from their staff and network.
They emulate behaviors of other leaders they admire.
They focus on company results and the bottom line while also addressing strategic business and people issues.

Fostering Innovation and Leadership for Your Organization

2007-02-16T16:16:00.000-08:00

Our February 16, 2007 FountainBlue's Connections panel was on the topic of Leadership Matters - Fostering Leadership and Innovation for Your Organization.

An organization's success ultimately rides on the leadership abilities of its key decision-makers, particularly in Silicon Valley with its heavy profile of fast-moving technology companies. These organizations must innovate both their technology and business model continually in order to prosper.

The fact that few organizations rise to be clear stars and long term winners is testimony to how difficult it is to create and sustain a climate of leadership and innovation. For those who have, what are they doing right and how are they doing it? What do you need to do to do to create your own culture of leadership and innovation?

Our panel represented the HR, Strategy and Executive Management perspective on what it takes to foster that dynamic, engaging and exciting culture which attracts and retains the best and the brightest.

Facilitator Linda Prowse Fosler, Linda Prowse-Fosler and Associates
Panelist Barrie Novak, Director of Organization Design & Development, Global Technical Services at Cisco Systems
Panelist Donna Novitsky, partner from MDV
Panelist Ramon Nunez, CEO of MetaLINCS

Each panelist spoke on:

The cardinal rules of leadership and why leadership is more important now than before
What your organization is doing to maintain its competitive talent and maintain their edge in innovation
Advice and suggestions on how to foster leadership and innovation

In the meeting, we thought deeply about their recruitment, retention and development strategies and also the overall about developing a corporate culture centered around innovation and leadership. Below are notes from our session:

Thoughts on Leadership

Have a vision you are passionate about
Focus on the needs of the customers - ask them what they want and adapt your business strategy based on customer needs
Communicate it clearly, passionately and often. Seek buy-in.
See clearly who can contribute to the vision in what specific ways - even if they don't see it themselves
Empower others: Give people the room, space and time to innovate in their own way
Affirm your people; be proud of who they are and what they do, and communicate that to them regularly
Adopt a common mindset of empowerment rather than 'victim' or 'blame' as empowerment helps people focus on how they are involved with the situation, what can be changed and how their perceptions might be skewed.
Distinguish between when alignment is important and when agreement is important. Alignment means everyone buys in even if it isn't their first option and agreement means that the choice is everyone's first option.
Assess three areas of trust within a relationship: competence, reliability and motive. Consider what makes your assessment of the relationship as high/low as it is and what needs to be done to change that assessment from both sides.

Thoughts on Innovation

Develop a process for taking ideas and transferring them into commercial value
Communicate the process and be transparent about the process
Ensure that the process is within the parameters of the law (employment laws and IP laws, for example), but don't let legal compliance issues be an obstacle to innovation
Leverage hiring and layoff discussions as opportunities to manage your IP. This sets the expectation up front and also at the end of an employment agreement without infringing too much on day-to-day innovative activities of the typical employee.
Make it part of the organization's culture to innovate - communicate innovation at all levels of the organization
Treat everyone as an innovator
Believe that everyone has the best interest of the company in mind
Have an 'open kimono' perspective on communications: Communicate the successes and
challenges for the organization and engage others in addressing challenges and leveraging successes
Find ways to say 'yes' to someone's ideas
Welcome creativity and innovation in start-ups; don't squelch that natural tendency in start-up employees by enforcing too much process, discouraging out-of-the-box thinking, etc.,
Spend more time with the early adopters of change, and less time with the resistors. The early adopters will help turn around the mind-sets of those who are in the middle of the bell curve.
Separate innovation from implementation
Allocate the funds and resources for innovation
Ensure that innovation is in alignment with business goals
Innovate in all areas, from technology to business models to HR, etc.,
Balance resource management/bottom line with need for continual innovation.

See also an article about Barrie Novak's leadership alignment project at Cisco by visiting an HR Forum article available at

http://www.hrforum.com/pdf/hru/advisory-board-profile-barrie-novak.pdf.

Healthy Lifestyle Choices

2007-02-10T16:03:00.000-08:00

FountainBlue's February 9, 2007 When She Speaks Women in Leadership Series event was on the topic of Healthy Lifestyle Choices.

Our panelists included Geetha Rao; Lisa Jing, HR Manager, Integrated Healthcare Initiative at Cisco; Julie Johnston, HR Benefits Manager at El Camino Hospital; Linda Williams, CEO of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte. And thank you to each of you, for your active participation in this event, which helped make it a success for everyone.

Below are comments and advice on making healthy lifestyle choices from our panel, and the collective wisdom of the audience.

Take responsibility for your physical and mental health

Frame your thoughts without the 'shoulds' and 'supposed to's' imposed on us by others in our lives
Proactively manage the stress in your life
Anticipate the many small decisions we make day-to-day (like take the stairs or elevator; chips or salad; soda or water; portion size, etc.,) and consistently make the healthier choice.
Arm yourself with facts so that you can make those right small decisions which can make such a big difference
Be centered in yourself and your interests, values and needs and act based on your identified priorities. Recognize and accept that there may be trade-offs to making those prioritized choices.
Choose regular exercise and make it a priority
Make the time for yourself
Meditate
As women, our own personal needs come behind those of our children, our spouses, our parents, etc., Make taking care of ourselves as important as taking care of our careers. Be relentlessly assertive about your health and well-being.
Practice safer sex and protect themselves against STDs because the consequences are often more severe for women
Serve the community, give back. It provides fulfillment and helps provide balance in your life.

Support yourself and your family in making healthy lifestyle choices

Encourage others in your life to take responsibility as well
Encourage frequent 15-second hand-washing
As a parent, become confident sex educators, as they are the preferred sex educators for our youth (first is parents, second schools, third is peers, fourth the media, but in actuality, the reverse is true). Help other parents do the same.
Planned Parenthood's book, Let's Talk About S-E-X/ A guide for kids 9 to 12 and their parents might help us become more comfortable sex educators for our children. Order this book through Amazon.
Be an advocate for HPV immunization for 9-12 year old children, which guards against 4 HPV viruses, which could lead to cervical cancer.

Corporations like Cisco take an active interest in the health and well-being of its employees and their families

It supports the bottom line for corporations to proactively support its employees and families - 18% of the employee population spends 81% of the cost of healthcare for an organization, so proactively working with employees to head-off long-term health conditions and challenges is in the best interest of both the employer and the employee
When employees have a better quality of life, they are happier, feel better, easier to work with, and more productive
Visit http://www.cisco.com/web/strategy/healthcare/index.html for more information.

Expanding Your Communication Style

2007-02-02T15:14:00.000-08:00

FountainBlue's February 2 Leadership Workshop was on Expanding Your Communication Style, featuring Kimberly Wiefling, from Wiefling Consulting.

Although one doesn't have to lead in order to communicate one does need to communicate well in order to lead effectively. Understanding and then expanding your communication style will positively impact how you are received and enlarge the range of people to whom you can meaningfully connect to in your network.

Communication skills are among the most powerful tools available to leaders today. Great communicators listen more than they talk, and ask more questions rather than advocating for their particular point of view, and have clear goals for their communication. They are aware of their own communication challenges and strengths, alert to different communication styles, know how to communicate effectively with these various styles, and can continue to communicate effectively even in stressful or challenging situations.

In this action-packed and fun-filled workshop, Kimberly Wiefling enabled us to understand and be effective with different communication styles, raise our awareness of how our communications are being received by others, and inspire us to take action to more effectively communicate with a broader range of audiences. We'll not only learn, but practice, listen generously, be a "thinking partner", and creating a "thinking environment" to rapidly create a meaningful connection and positive rapport with people from widely varying backgrounds. You will leave this workshop with a fresh perspective on the power of your communication and a commitment to implement some of the practical ideas immediately in order to achieve your goals with others.Below are also notes and comments from all of you, our active participants.

Communication Strengths:

Identify and empathize with others
genuine and authentic
focused on interests of others
Open-minded
Generous Listening

Communication Challenges:

Infer, make assumptions
Interrupt
too shy or self-conscious to network
too pressured to 'fill the silence' when networking
highjack conversations - turn them to talk about yourself rather than listening to what someone else is communicating

Communication Insights:

It's easier to speak if you've listened first
It's hard to do generous listening, it takes practice
It's hard to break the habit of interrupting
It's hard to avoid "helping" speaking with your ideas
We need to find ways to push conversation forward as a listener
It's hard not to use 'why' questions, rather than 'help me to understand' phrasing
It's hard not to use 'how' and jump to action too quickly. Ask 'what would make that possible' instead
It's hard to communicate when others don't share your perspective - speak about touchy-feely things to engineers for example

What to Expect in 2007

2007-01-25T16:31:00.000-08:00

FountainBlue's Thursday, January 25, 2007 Transitions event featuree Mitchell Levy, Author of 5 books on business topics, chair for CEO networking, head of the Silicon Valley Executive Business Program, frequent speaker on leadership, networking challenges and online publishing strategies for senior executives, and founder and CEO for the book publishing company, Happy About http://www.happyabout.info.

Since 1998, Mitchell has surveyed thousands of senior executives annually on the question of what to expect for the coming year.
Here are the top 10 trends for What to Expect in 2007
#01 - Global Warming/Environmental Concerns Effect Business
#02 - Energy Continues to Take Center Stage
#03 - The Internet Continues to Grab Mindshare by Getting Incorporated into Daily Processes
#04 - The World Continues Going Mobile
#05 - Marketing Starts Moving from an "Art" to a "Science"
#06 - The US Dollar Becomes Less Important
#07 - Capitalism Continues to Spread Throughout the World
#08 - Rapid Adoption of Mass Customization
#09 - Software Continues to Morph
#10 - Online Networking Becomes a Key Business Asset Industries

To follow up with this conversation:

Visit http://www.marketerschoice.com/app/netcart.asp?MerchantID=75129&ProductID=2638341 to purchase your copy of Mitchell Levy's What to Expect in 2007.
For more information on other books published by Happy About, visit http://www.happyabout.info/books.php.
For more information about Mitchell's CEO Networking group, visit http://ceonetworking.com/.
For more information the Silicon Valley Executive Business Program, visit http://www.siliconvalleypace.com/
Contact Mitchell if you are interested in writing a book to be published through Mitchell's company. He will e-mail you six questions about your book topic.

Business and Technology Trends in 2007

2007-01-19T15:37:00.000-08:00

FountainBlue's January 19, 2007 panel on Business and Technology Trends in 2007 featured John Verrochi, marketing executive and strategist and founder for the HP and Sun Alumni Associations; Steve Bengston from PriceWaterhouseCoopers; Rick Ellinger, Founder and Board Member, Wireless Communication Alliance; Tom Foremski from SiliconValleyWatcher.com; Fred Greguras, Of Counsel, Fenwick and West.

The beginning of the year is a time of optimism and promise, a time for planning ahead, reflecting on the past, leveraging the learnings into the future. As you consider plans for the new year, we invite you to attend this month's Connections event, where we've assembled a prestigious panel to share their predictions, their advice and their strategies for the year.

Below are some big-picture take-aways from the meeting:

General Business and Financing Trends

Private equity funds have gotten so big that few companies are now beyond their reach. This is good for Silicon Valley and businesses in general if it helps fix and repackage ailing firms, but not-so-good if it's for the purpose of financial re-engineering alone.
IPOs continue to be weak and M&A market will continue to dominate - Trend for early-stage companies is to invest 5, 10, 15 million an make an average of 60 million in M&A, not the hundreds of millions in an IPO
It continues to be tough to scale and grow firms sustainably
AIM market - 2/3 of companies that went public on AIM are not at IPO levels now
Outsourcing trend to continue as it makes economic sense
Foreign relations becomes more important as companies become more international
No materials changes in Sarbanes-Oxley or stock option back-dating for this year expected
Corporations will continue to give back to the community, through corporate foundations for example
Investments in consumer-facing companies that are compelling products, easily delivered with a unique value
Companies are successfully using viral marketing techniques to build brand, momentum and revenues

Technology Trends

Wireless is hot, especially when it involves education, entertainment, social networking, video uploading, business collaboration, inter-connectedness
Increasing importance of 'local' applications, targeted local marketing
Software as a Service and Open Source will be very attractive
Life Science Trend - There will be more opportunity/more up-sides in life science companies in Southern California
Clean Energy Trend - Filtering, purification, pumping and other local activities that don't involve distribution of energy are easier to implement. But when distribution is involved, safety, connectivity, legal and other issues arise which make it more difficult, more time-consuming to develop.
Media is hot - content and advertising plays like Yahoo and Google are examples of how we are becoming a 'Media Valley'

Silicon Valley Remains Strong

35% of VC investments in the US are in Silicon Valley, and US gets 20% more financing than anywhere else in the world
Market shared hasn't declined in 10 years
Our rich culture of failure-tolerance, innovation, multi-ethnicity, business-technology integration remains strong. Our solid infrastructure of support services from VCs to lawyers and accountants to serial entrepreneurs to academic institutions and their partnerships with businesses has been developed over many decades. This makes Silicon Valley difficult to replicate elsewhere.

Trends that Affect Our Personal Lives

There will continue to be breeches in privacy. Until there is accountability for parties responsible for protecting our privacy, privacy breeches may continue to occur.
Lines will blur between business and personal lives
Entrepreneurs are less likely to make the financial returns once expected. Entrepreneurs should choose start-ups for the culture, lifestyle, passion, not as much for the money as there is less to be had and less favorable distribution to entrepreneurs after investors take their share
Education for our children becomes more important - there will likely be fewer jobs for well-educated, liberal arts majors
Pensions are gone; only 20% of Fortune 500 companies have them vs 80% of them 20 years ago. We need to manage and plan for pensions ourselves.
The aging baby boomer population will impact us all - from the strain on social security, to caring for elderly parents to retirement ages.

Thanks to our facilitator, John Verrochi, for compiling other trend reports below:

McKinsey

Centers of economic activity will shift profoundly, not just globally, but also regionally. As a consequence of economic liberalization, technological advances, capital market developments, and demographic shifts, the world has embarked on a massive realignment of economic activity.
Public-sector activities will balloon, making productivity gains essential. The unprecedented aging of populations across the developed world will call for new levels of efficiency and creativity from the public sector. Without clear productivity gains, the pension and health care burden will drive taxes to stifling proportions.
The consumer landscape will change and expand significantly. Almost a billion new consumers will enter the global marketplace in the next decade as economic growth in emerging markets pushes them beyond the threshold level of $5,000 in annual household income—a point when people generally begin to spend on discretionary goods.
Technological connectivity will transform the way people live and interact. The technology revolution has been just that. Yet we are at the early, not mature, stage of this revolution.
Individuals, public sectors, and businesses are learning how to make the best use of IT in designing processes and in developing and accessing knowledge.
The battlefield for talent will shift. Ongoing shifts in labor and talent will be far more profound than the widely observed migration of jobs to low-wage countries. The shift to knowledge-intensive industries highlights the importance and scarcity of well-trained talent. The increasing integration of global labor markets, however, is opening up vast new talent sources.
The role and behavior of big business will come under increasingly sharp scrutiny. As businesses expand their global reach, and as the economic demands on the environment intensify, the level of societal suspicion about big business is likely to increase. The tenets of current global business ideology—for example, shareholder value, free trade, intellectual-property rights, and profit repatriation—are not understood, let alone accepted, in many parts of the world.
Demand for natural resources will grow, as will the strain on the environment. As economic growth accelerates—particularly in emerging markets—we are using natural resources at unprecedented rates. Oil demand is projected to grow by 50 percent in the next two decades, and without large new discoveries or radical innovations supply is unlikely to keep up.
New global industry structures are emerging. In response to changing market regulation and the advent of new technologies, nontraditional business models are flourishing, often coexisting in the same market and sector space.
Management will go from art to science. Bigger, more complex companies demand new tools to run and manage them. Indeed, improved technology and statistical-control tools have given rise to new management approaches that make even mega-institutions viable.
Ubiquitous access to information is changing the economics of knowledge. Knowledge is increasingly available and, at the same time, increasingly specialized. The most obvious manifestation of this trend is the rise of search engines (such as Google), which make an almost infinite amount of information available instantaneously. Access to knowledge has become almost universal. Yet the transformation is much more profound than simply broad access. New models of knowledge production, access, distribution, and ownership are emerging. We are seeing the rise of open-source approaches to knowledge development as communities, not individuals, become responsible for innovations.

Red Herring

Brain Implants The hope is that by sending or blocking electrical pulses, the power of the nervous system can be harnessed to treat problems like depression, migraines, and even blindness.
Attack of the Mobile Virus Nasty viruses, long a threat to PCs, will likely start to menace the humble little cell phone in 2007. With cell phones getting smarter and with the proliferation of mobile advertising and applications, the communications world’s first widespread cell phone virus attack is a near certainty.
Private equity goes shopping for technology giants. EMC, Dell, Yahoo Become Buyout Bait
Google signs first ad contract, step one in dominating the 30-second spot.
Nanotech Will Heat Up now know that when materials like metals are broken down into particles the size of a few atoms—called nanoparticles—their properties change, enabling a host of innovations like stronger, lighter tennis rackets, better flash drives, and stain-resistant fabrics.
Some day, it might provide cheap solar energy in homes across the world.
SOX Gets a Makeover Law will be fixed to make IPOs less costly.
HD-DVD and Blu-Ray: DOA Internet downloading will bypass physical media.
Rollins to Get Booted Out At Dell? Watch for Kevin Rollins to gracefully step down to "spend more time with his family" in 2007, but don’t expect him to do it willingly Dell shares were down about 38 percent at one point in 2006, over worries that top management had become overly committed to the direct-sales and made-to-order business
Solar Gets Simpler Solar will get easier in 2007, which will be a step up from where it’s been
New Year, New Jobs This year will usher in a boomlet for a new breed of jobs. With two populations—MySpace and AARP—seeing explosive growth, there’ll be a need for a Social Networking Liaison for the Over-50 Set. This person’s job is to find a way to bring them together

San Francisco Chronicle

Clean tech -- which includes technologies for removing heavy metals out of groundwater or reducing power consumption through sensors and switches. Clean tech plays to the region's strengths. Silicon Valley excels at making tiny products such as controlled chemical and biological processes and electronic devices
Net neutrality (in which telephone and cable companies prevented from charging exit tolls on their high-speed Internet wires) 2.0 fight to resurface in 2007
Shift to a consumer-driven tech industry (see CES and MacWorld shows) will continue to cause friction within the industry as well as a general anxiety because fickle consumers with short attention spans make for brutal product cycles
Nanotech, biotech, robots
Round 2: Blu-ray vs. HD DVD fight heats up
More video on the Web

San Jose Mercury News

You (recall Time’s person of the year, community, collaboration
Mobility, e.g., video to go (cell phones, iPods)
Renaissance of electric car (see Tesla)
Windows Vista: reliability, security, compatibility, new features. Estimates are that 82M units will be sold, primarily on new PCs
Games: Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo part of $28B WW market in 2006
Continued reduction in privacy (hackers, identity theft, social networking sites like My Space
Digital living room (AT&T and Verizon rollout of IPTV, Apple’s iTV device
LEDs replacing conventional light bulbs
GPS in cell phones

Succeeding in a Man's World

2007-01-12T16:03:00.000-08:00

FountainBlue's January 12, When She Speaks Women in Leadership Series event was on Succeeding in a Man's World. Our panelists included Patti Wilson, CareerCompany; Linda Fosler, Linda Prowse Fosler & Associates; Francine Gordon, President of FGordon Group and President of ATW for 2007; Mona Hudak Senior Diversity and Inclusion Program Manager from Cisco Systems; and Panelist Praveena Varadarajan, director of engineering at Sun Microsystems.

Below are some big-picture take-aways from the meeting:

Historical events have impacted a woman's participation and leadership in the workplace

in the 40s, women went to work to support our country, and our men who were serving in the war.
in the late 40s when the men returned, the women gave up their jobs
in the late 50s women who went to college were generally looking for a husband and got married and raised families
in the 60s, more women were in the workplace, but the types of jobs available for women such as teaching, nursing, administration, were generally lower level or more lowly paid
in the 70s, more women entered the workforce out of necessity. They were known as the 'displaced homemaker'.
in the 80s, with affirmative action, there was a rise in women in non-traditional women jobs from firemen to engineers
in the 90s, with the dot com boom, salaries for men and women jobs were fairly comparable
now, in the 2000s, women are back to earning .7-.8 for every dollar a man does, and are not well represented in traditionally male professionals and at the most senior levels

Advice for women seeking to succeed in a man's world:

Be a good leader

Be true to yourself
Have passion and desire for what you are doing
Know yourself - your strengths and challenges
Have a strong moral compass
Don't tie your ego with your position
Stop competing with your self Work Hard
Focus on relationships: Be trustworthy, have integrity
Collaborate
Bring out the best in other
Leverage your strengths and partner with others to help you address your areas of need
Focus on the ideas rather than the politics
Focus on the ideas rather than the politics
Have high standards and make plans to achieve them
Decide to be successful
Correct the mistakes you make
Be competent, and do your homework
Know when to cut your losses
Be powerfully focused
Don't shy from conflict, but don't invite it
Be better today than you were yesterday, better tomorrow than you were today
Communicate your effectiveness as a leader
Behave as if you belong at the table
Don't downplay your accomplishments
Don't give away your power
Take the initiative at meetings when appropriate
Have and project confidence:
Watch your body movements and amount of space you take at a table
Monitor your voice intonations
Communicate your confidence with your handshake
Consider the cultural and personal background of those you're interacting with. Be sensitive to the feedback you are receiving regarding the confidence you are projecting.
Have and project confidence:
Watch your body movements and amount of space you take at a table
Monitor your voice intonations
Communicate your confidence with your handshake
Consider the cultural and personal background of those you're interacting with. Be sensitive to the feedback you are receiving regarding the confidence you are projecting.
Be opportunitistic
Be prepared and take advantage of serendipitous opportunities as they present themselves
Ask for help when you need it
Find ways to support others and give back
Find a way to fit into male-dominated culture
Accept that the high tech world in Silicon Valley is a man's world and work from there
Be conversant about sports and/or participate in male dominated sports like golf
Be comfortable and confident about being a woman
Leverage traditionally female strengths, from collaboration to communication, from empathy to multi-tasking
Don't conform to standards that don't fit your identity as a woman, as a leader
Don't use femininity in negative ways
Advice on how to integrate work and life as you're rising up the corporate ladder:
Collaborate with your spouse as a partner
Plan your work around your family's needs. Sometimes working in a global economy with late-evening phone calls helps you make that balance.

Knowing and Communicating Your Personal Brand of Leadership

2007-01-05T16:42:00.000-08:00

FountainBlue's first Leadership Workshop on Knowing and Communicating Your Personal Brand of Leadership was conducted on February 2, 2007. Ellen Rudy and Victoria Hayden from The Hayden Group launched our leadership series with our first workshop focusing on the foundation for leadership: Knowing yourself and your unique value proposition to any leadership opportunity. This is absolutely critical as it helps define who you are and what distinguishes you from other leaders, first to yourself, and then to those around you. Exploring your unique contributions, passions and capabilities and successfully presenting / promoting that to the marketplace is more integral than "skills" or "strategy" for career success. It not only helps you better succeed and lead in your current position, it also helps you to plan your career development path in alignment with your unique offerings, in order to optimize your success and enjoy greater fulfillment along your career journey.

Leadership comes first from within and this workshop will help you lead more effectively by helping you to identify, articulate and communicate your personal brand. Doing so will help you proactively manage the feelings that people--your boss, your colleagues, your employees, your customers, and your family and friends--have about you, and about how they feel about interacting with you, observing you, and even thinking about you.

Below are some big-picture take-aways from the meeting, based on Victoria and Ellen's presentation.

Start by performing an audit of your leadership style:

What are your leadership goals, personal and professional?
What external factors impact your goals?
What are your values?
What are your internal strengths and challenges?
Who are your constituents? What are their perceptions and needs?

Consider the three major elements of brand as it relates to your leadership style:

Message - What do you stand for? What is your philosophy, what are your strengths? How do others perceive you?
Image - What do you want your desired image to be?
Experience - What changes do you commit to making to ensure your constituents are experiencing your intended leadership brand?
What revelations have you seen or resolutions will you make when considering? How does one leverage one's personality traits to address personal and professional challenges?

Below are additional big-picture take-aways provided in the session, by the facilitators and the audience:

Brand exists in the minds of your constituents, so consider carefully:

who your constituents are,
what their needs are,
how you are communicating to them,
what's the delta between who you want to communicate yourself as and how you are perceived
If there's a large delta, how do you change impact without changing intentions

Leadership is a journey and a process:

You must see who you are as well as who you would like to be
Creating a structure for reviewing and considering your leadership style will help ensure progress on the journey
There is a close intersect between the personal and the professional - how you do one thing is how you do everything.
Your strength can be a weakness, your weakness can be a strength.

Focus on Your Strengths -

Accept and embrace what's inside you, remind yourself of what's remarkable about you - not just in achievements, but also in who you are.
But invite yourself also to step outside your comfort zone
Clearly communicate your value proposition, not just your resume
Align your professional work and personal style with your leadership brand, your values, your leadership style

Perspectives in the Year - 2006

2006-12-15T17:18:00.000-08:00

The December 15 Connections event was on The Year in Perspective, The Good, The Bad, The Huhs? and our panelists and facilitator were:

Ysabel Duron, "KRON 4 Weekend Morning News"
Martin Kan, Silicon Valley Bank
Jay Phillips, Senior VP, Cornish & Carey
Keith Virnoche, Virnoche-Frigon Group at Merrill Lynch

Below are notes from the session.

Thoughts about Silicon Valley

It's been a tough year for the low income. The middle income is also feeling the pinched, the upper income are becoming more strategic about how they spend their money.
The economy is slowing down for some
Our political leaders received a strong message encouraging change, as their perspectives are straying from that of their constituency.
There's an undercurrent of unease. It's difficult to trust our leaders.
On a positive note, values-driven business leaders are making strides to change our views on leaders, particularly in Silicon Valley where hope springs eternal. These business leaders striving to make money, have fun, and do good.

Thoughts about Real Estate Trends

Due to increased corporate earnings, venture financings, and other factors, the real estate market is very strong, at all-time high prcies in some cases. We haven't seen such numbers since 1999-2000.
Sales activity extremely strong, residential conversion subsides. Total vacancy rates continue to fall
The rapid commercial expansion of companies like Google (and indirect residential expansion for employees) are directly affecting housing prices much more quickly and with much greater impact than anticipated
Green energy companies are starting to impact the real estate market
M&A activities are more strongly impacting the real estate market than anticipated

Thoughts about Venture Financing Trends (statistics from PriceWaterhouseCoopers Q3 2006 Shaking the MoneyTree Report)

Steady Pace in Number of Deals: 2004: 3,024; 2005: 3,092; 2006: 2,533 (thru Q3)
Increase in Total Dollars Invested: 2004: $22.1 billion; 2005: $22.7 billion; 2006: $19.2 billion
Silicon Valley Continues to be the Leading Region for US Investments: 250 Deal in Q3 2006; 87 Deal in Q3 2006 for the New England Region.
Software and Biotechnology Continue to Attract Strong Investor Interest
Software - Number of Deals and Total Dollars in Q3: 2005: 205 $1.14 billion; 2006: 186 $1.10 billion
Biotechnology - Number of Deals and Total Dollars in Q3: 2005: 101 $1.03 billion; 2006: 95 $1.14 billion

More thoughts on venture financing:

VCs are raising their expectations/standards/requirements for funding
Natives from India (software companies) and China (hardware companies) are returning to their countries
Migration of European companies from UK, France, Finland establishing headquarters in Silicon Valley
China is interested in moving from hardware manufacturing into design and India is looking at moving from software test to design

Thoughts about Investment Trends

The economy is stronger than many people think - double-digit earnings growth ends after 15 quarters in a row
Investments in 500 S&P may be a good opportunity now

What can we as leaders do?

Foster innovation in your companies and partners as innovation offers countries and companies a competitive advantage
Build a collective social conscience while meeting and exceeding business/revenue objectives
Get involved - in your company, in your family, in your community!
Support our local educational system

Thoughts on Executive Recruiting

2006-12-14T15:59:00.000-08:00

FountainBlue's December 14 Transitions event featured a recruiter panel:

Roy Fiebiger, Sanford Rose Associates-Silicon Valley, representing the life science management market
Jim McFadzean, DHR International, representing senior-level positions in advanced technology companies
Sue Salvesen, STRe Solutions, representing senior-level finance positions
Gretchen Sand, Skyline Recruiting Corporation, representing engineering, product management and marketing for early stage companies
Max Shapiro, PeopleConnect, representing the early stage company market

Through their comments and that of an engaged audience, we have a much better understanding of what to look for when working with a recruiter and a better understanding of what needs to happen to ensure a successful job search. Below are notes from this afternoon's session for your reference.

Characteristics of a Great Recruiter are that they are relationship-based rather than transaction-based

Treat you with respect
Transparent and clear with you
High ethical standards

They partner with you and with the hiring manager

to ensure a good fit of skills and culture
to assess your interest and abilities and identify the skills, experience, personality needs of organization

They partner with candidate

to help them understand value-add and to communicate it clearly
to expedite the hiring process, where appropriate

Advice for Job-Seekers:

Leverage technology
Use resources like LinkedIn and LinkSV and Craigslist. Recruiters use them too.
Be persistent
Be strategic
Understand your own strengths and weaknesses. You may want to interview former bosses, colleagues etc., to help you better understand this. You can use this information during the interview (representing what you know someone thinks about you instead of giving a 'vanilla response') and also line up references through this process.
Practice selling to your strengths
Research and understand the needs of the hiring company
Understand and communicate how your strengths can help the hiring company
Take responsibility for your search success, don't rely on someone else to close the deal or move it along
Be particular with the people you are working with to find a job.
Be particular about the organization you're willing to work for. 'How you do one thing is how you do everything,' so if you're not treated well during the interview process, it may reflect on how you would be treated after you sign on.
If you're working with a recruiter, involve him in your search, even if you're considering applying for a job not covered by the recruiter.

Thoughts on Job Trends into 2007:

Biotech is producing more jobs, more hiring
There are never enough 'A players' to go around
The market is looking better this year than last, and last year was better than any year since 2000
There's an advantage to living in the area. Relocation costs are now seldom provided by companies

Creating a Work-Life Balance

2006-12-08T16:34:00.000-08:00

FountainBlue's December 8, 2006 event was on the topic of Creating a Work-Life Balance

Silicon Valley women leaders are challenged by the corporate and business pressures of high-stress, high-impact positions, while still juggling the personal demands of life and family. This month's When She Speaks event focuses on how successful women are juggling these often-competing goals and what we can do to adjust our own and others' expectations on us, in order to ease the load. Our speakers will share their stories, commiserate with us, and challenge us to re-evaluate how roles, our priorities, and our own expectations for ourselves.

Facilitator Michele Bolton, a founding partner of ExecutivEdge of Silicon Valley, LLC, http://www.executivedge.com, an executive development and management consulting firm. Michele is a former professor of management, having recently retired from nearly twenty years on the faculty of the College of Business at San Jose State University, having taught MBA courses in visionary leadership, strategic management, entrepreneurship, and team building. She is the author of The Third Shift: Managing Hard Choices in our Careers, Homes and Lives as Women.
Panelist Jan Schlossberg manages the Hardware Product Standards team at Cisco System, the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Cisco employs more than 47,000 employees worldwide, 24% of whom are women, and frequently appears on Working Mother magazine's "100 Best Companies" list. Jan will share the joys and challenges of standardizing hardware innovations across 80 product families while raising young children in a dual-income family
Panelist Jennifer Gill Roberts is currently a partner at Maven Ventures. Having served as a serial VC for high technology companies across the valley and beyond, Jennifer has helped a wide range of early- and later- stage start-ups with access to funding and consultation on their business strategies. Jennifer will share how she juggles the intense business demands while raising three children alongside her husband.
Panelist Nivisha Mehta is currently the development director for South Asian Heart Center at El Camino Hospital http://www.southasianheartcenter.org/. Nivisha will share how she has successfully juggled her work interests in support of nonprofits across the region and her growing young family.
Panelist Kristi Royse is currently President of KLR Consulting, http://www.klrconsulting.com a successful consulting practice focusing on team and organizational challenges for executives in the valley. Kristi will share how she successfully balances her business interests with that of her family.

Below is a Summary of Notes and Advice for your Creating a Work-Life Balance, drawn on the wisdom of our facilitators and participants. We also invite your comments on these notes.

Set realistic goals about what you can accomplish, based on your resources and strengths and support networks and manage your activities based on those goals.

Visualize success. Look forward, not backwards.
Embrace the positives about yourself, don't focus on the negatives.
If it's a goal worth achieving, focus on achieving that goal, even is it's harder than you thought it would be, and if it takes longer than you thought it would take.
Be realistic and strategic about your standard for balance

Define what you mean for balance in which areas (work, life, family, friends, etc.,) over what period of time (day, week, month)

Define success for you
Manage your activities and self-talk based on your defined standards
Accept that you can't always keep all the balls in the air. One of them is going to drop. That's OK. Just pick it up once in a while and keep juggling.
Being balanced is about being happy.

Advice for professional women who chose to have a family

If you have made a career choice, don't second-guess yourself if/when your children, for example, ask for more time from you.
If you have young children and need to spend more time with them, considering finding a situation a work with the flexibility to do it.
If you have chosen a high-pressure career which doesn't support raising a family, and you decide to do it, don't think too much about when a good time will be. Just do it and find a way to make it work afterwards.
As business professionals, consider your opporutnities to volunteer and make sure that you can make a good impact which best utilizes your skills, acknowledges the needs of your children, and supports the organization.
Tell your children why you are doing what they are doing. Share your work with them.
Get your children invested in the success of your chosen career.

Create an inspirational vision for your life and work, and strive toward achieving that

Know yourself - your strengths, your passions. Focus on your strengths and build on them.
Follow your passion. Enjoy what you do.
Model your values in your work, in your life
Live autentically, with curiousity, with passsion and with fun.
Manage your energy so that you're happy, living the life you want.

Delegate tasks, leverage resources for tasks that do not provide core value for people closest to you

Leverage resources around you - family, hired help from gardener to babysitter to cook to handyman
Build a support network to support yourself personally
Continue the conversations with others
Make time for your family and friends
Work with your support network so that you can get personal time
Enjoy each other. Take the time to communicate.
Seek mentors. Learn from others.
Dedicate time for your personal and physical health. Exercise can be a great stress-reducer for example.

Do what you have to do to be successful at your chosen task. Enjoy doing it. It doesn't get any better than that!

For more information:

Michele's book is available at The Third Shift: Managing Hard Choices in Our Careers, Homes, and Lives as Women is available on Amazon.com
For more information about Nivisha's organization, visit the South Asian Heart Center at El Camino Hospital http://www.southasianheartcenter.org/. The mission of center is to dramatically reduce the high incidence of coronary artery disease among South Asians, and save lives, through a comprehensive, culturally-appropriate program incorporating education, advanced screening, lifestyle changes, and case management. Join us in supporting this great cause by visiting http://www.southasianheartcenter.org/support/donatenow.html.

Corporate Governance: What It Means for the Average Exec

2006-11-20T17:41:00.000-08:00

FountainBlue's November 17 Connections Event was on the Topic of Corporate Governance: What It Means for the Average Exec.

Corporate Governance is at the center of all investors' minds as decision-makers for companies of all sizes are charged with mitigating the risk of high-profile business failures, such as Enron and WorldCom. In order to reinforce investment confidence and protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosure, executives today are adopting Sarbanes-Oxley compliance standards, proactively managing board communications, and, in general, building corporate infrastructure and processes to automate reporting and accounting practices. This Month's Facilitator was Richard Brenner, CEO of The Brenner Group, http://www.thebrennergroup.com/services/corpgov.html, and chairman of the audit committee for the fastest growing bank in the United States. Rich helps small and mid-market public and emerging private companies proactively plan for corporate governance practices, but also assists in harnessing the positive impact of financial reporting and disclosure activities throughout the organization. Rich facilitated a prestigious panel who will share their knowledge and insights on proactively developing and managing corporate governance plans.

Mark Leahy, Partner, Fenwick & West
Leinani Nakamura, Partner, Mohler Nixon
Tom Sa, Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, Bridge Bank

Below is a Summary of Notes and Advice for your reference, drawn on the wisdom of our facilitators and each of you as participants.

With the recent corporate scandals, there is a public outcry against the behavior of coporate executives

There was a similar outcry against the behavior of the banking industry in the 80s, and federal mandates helped to reform that industry. The Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance requirements might do the same for corporate America, and may be worth the administrative and financial burden for complying with these requirements.

Boards are more involved as the duty of loyalty and the duty of care (to meet frequently, to understand the issues) is enforced through SOX.
With more involvement and participation and ownership from leadership, the 'tone at the top' may be better, with higher integrity, better accountability, better communications, better transparency, etc.,
The requirement for independent auditors and an audit committee helped ensure better run companies with better internal controls, cleaner partnerships with independent auditors, more proactive ownership of issues, earlier notifications of problems, earlier preparation
The code of conduct for CEOs, CFOs, Directors and Staff has helped ensure clear guidelines for behavior and encouraged consequences for breaches in conduct
The disclosure requirements encourage transparency of communication, proactive management, etc.,
The certification requirements encourages planning, process, validation, etc.,
Companies are encouraged to take some early steps to prepare for 404 Compliance, prior to the start of the documentation and testing process, even before they become public.

However, there are tremendous time, money and loss-of-opportunity costs for complying to these standards above

As a result there are fewer finance professionals, particulary at the senior level, just at a time when we need them more
As a result, fewer companies are deciding to go public, and more are going through M&A exits
As a result, CEOs in smaller public companies are opting to merge with another company rather than accepting the legal, fudiciary and other requirements demanded for senior executives.
As a result, companies may choose _not_ to go public due to the additional SOX requirements.

For more information, visit http://www.FountainBlue.biz.