Something Beyond Your Confort Zone

Good read from Marci Harris, founder and CEO at POPVOX, Inc. An Excerpt:

Age 22 brings a powerful blend of ambition, confidence, energy — and for many, a less-than-exact idea of where to focus that energy beyond a vague aim to do “something awesome.” That “something awesome” is never easy and always sits just outside your comfort zone.

It turns out that venturing to the edge of your comfort zone (and beyond) is not a haphazard thing. It is a cycle. There is a process. You can get good at it. You can start to feel “comfortable” outside of the comfort zone. But, at 22, sometimes it’s hard to know when to speak and when to listen; when to color in the lines and when to paint on the walls.

Here´s the link for the entire article. A must read!

Expiration Date for CEOs?

“I sometimes wonder if it would make sense for companies to set formal 7 to 10 year “term limits” on their Chief Executive Officers. Doing so would have several advantages:

1. For every genius forced out, there would be far more executives who reached their peak performance years before the departure date. The term limit would be the board’s safety net, permitting an exit without rancor”.

Michael Wade in Term Limits for CEOs?

Quote of the Day

“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves”.

Lao Tzu

Start-Up Key Advices

From the great NIcholas Bate, some key advice for anyone thinking about to open a start-up:

1. something different
2. i.e. a desired difference which allows a premium price to be charged
3. a premium price which allows profit

Read the entire post here!

Quote of the Day

“Don’t ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up”.

G.K. Chesterton

51 Ways to Fail

From March/2013

Nelson Biagio Jr

Michael Wade made a great list with 51 ways to fail . Here’s the first five reasons:

1. Don’t plan. 
2. Disdain discretion. 
3. Study when you feel like it.
4. Over-commit. 
5. Always swing for the fences.

Be sure to read the full list at the link indicated above.

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Music for this Afternoon: ‘Ne me quitte pas’

Maysa Matarazzo was a singer, composer, and actress from Brazil. She is also associated with Bossa nova music (‘Brazilian Jazz’).  She died in a car crash in 1977, on the Rio-Niterói bridge, which connects the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Niterói over the Guanabara Bay.

The Power of Perspective for Leaders and Project Managers

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Perspective is “a particular attitude towards something; a way to think about something”. I think in perspective as a matter of location between the observer and the observed object. When we change the position of the observer or the object, the perspective about it also changes automatically.

Applied to the business world this definition also brings great advantages to the project manager and leaders in general. It helps us to gain a new vision about the projects and problems we face daily and is also a good tool to stimulate our creativity and critical thinking.

Cinda Voegtli wrote a great article about this subject. An excerpt:

By looking at things through multiple lenses, I reduce the chance that I’ll miss something and am able to head lots of problems off at the pass.  And you’ll see below that the answers I get from the  different lenses often involve overlap – different lenses will identify some of the same risks, or planning items, or communication needs.  But that’s a good thing, because it raises my confidence that I really am looking thoroughly at the whole picture, even though I’m moving fast.

One of the best ways to practice the change of perspective is to engage  in the “what-if” game. For example, “If we do this, how will our customers respond? What will our superiors think? What impact will this have on our projects? What if there is something we have not considered?” This exercise will help to demonstrate the viability of your strategic decisions and should always be performed before you move then forward. Try to do it sometimes!