Posted: July 3, 2012 | Author: Dr. Janice Presser | Filed under: Career, Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Teams | Tags: entrepreneur, Independence Day, leadership, patriot |
Tomorrow is Independence Day. With organizations becoming increasingly global, the meaning of that day needs to change. I mean, it will never be much of an occasion for our friends in the UK. That would be too much like celebrating a divorce. And for many millions in other countries, July 4 may be no more notable than January 14 (Pongal, the Harvest Festival in India) is here in the US.
So I have a suggestion. Amidst the fireworks and barbeques honoring a victory long past, let’s celebrate the people who trek into uncharted territory to create a new vision: entrepreneurs!
Whether you think of yourself as one, or not, you may be more entrepreneurial than you think. Have you ever convinced a group of people to try something new? Dreamed about improving something? Had a burning desire to help others or to create a more glorious future? If so, you have the spirit of the entrepreneur in your blood, and you deserve to be celebrated.
In that spirit, you are similar to the signers of the Declaration of Independence, who confirmed their intentions to each other, mutually pledging ‘our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor’ to the grand vision. This is also the pledge of the entrepreneur: to continue striving, and to do nothing half way.
As the hot dogs are passed around and the fireworks dazzle the waterfront, I will be celebrating the pledge I made eleven years ago, when The Gabriel Institute was founded. I hope that you will be celebrating yourself, too.
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Posted: November 19, 2011 | Author: Dr. Janice Presser | Filed under: Behavior, Leadership | Tags: entrepreneur, Founder, work |
“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
It was on the puzzle page as I was cooking dinner and multitasking.
Very apropos, I think. Been a week of planting.
Being a Founder is like being a farmer. You need to make sure the soil is tilled in time, get the seeds to go in the right places, and do the whole mess before the sun goes down.
Oh yes, and leave the rest to Heaven.
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Posted: September 10, 2011 | Author: Dr. Janice Presser | Filed under: HR, Leadership, Social Networking | Tags: entrepreneur, Fast Company, HR, metrics, synergy |
I was hanging out with an old buddy a short while ago, catching up on life in our respective fast lanes. As with most entrepreneurs, high speed is my choice. I seldom slow down to smell the roses, much preferring to stomp the pedal to the metal while imagining – and sometimes designing – the future ‘flowering’ of our business. But my friend is a tried-and-true HR guy. He not only stops to admire the fragrance, he even buys a few, just to make people smile. Consequently, he is less than thrilled by the speed at which he is now expected to travel in order make grumpy stakeholders smile. They are just not willing to wait for his particular roses to unfurl.
My friend’s plight made me flash back to that classic article in Fast Company that caused HR people to cringe. Remember the banner headline “Why We Hate HR”? My friend has never forgotten it, and to this day will not touch a copy of that magazine.
It’s time to call a ceasefire! When it comes to building, promoting, and protecting the human infrastructure of any organization, HR and the rest of us need to be partners!
Here are a few things we can do to build productive synergy, even though we may be traveling at very different speeds.
- First, create ongoing conversations across departmental lines. When you do, you learn more about how other people think, how they do what they do, where you share needs and interests, and the business impact of your mutual efforts.
- Second, consider how YOUR focus might bring some clarity to that of other departments. Do you think about the message behind your communication, and how it will be received by the other side? Is there a simpler way to solve a problem, or get things working better?
- Third, keep score! This is a bit tricky, because you need to be doing this for the right reasons. Some people keep score for their personal zero-sum game, in which one wins and one loses. What I’m talking about is keeping score of the give-and-take, just to make sure you are giving at least as much as you are getting. This approach will always produce positive outcomes.
Those are my kind of metrics!
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