Accidentally in Code

Tag: book

  • Stand Out

    StandoutOver the weekend, I finished reading Marcus Buckingham’s Stand Out (Amazon). Similar to StrengthsFinder (Amazon) – which I blogged about recently), only instead of highlighting what your strengths are, it focuses on how others see you. I found it pretty interesting, and if you’re also interested in how your team perceives you, it’s probably worth taking. StrengthsFinder has more practical ways to capitalize and build on your strengths, and I’m not entirely sure what my takeaways are here. I think they complement each other.

    There are 9 “types”, top two combine to give your profile. Order of mine is:

    1. PIONEER: You see the world as a friendly place where, around every corner, good things will happen. Your distinctive power starts with your optimism in the face of uncertainty.
    2. INFLUENCER: You engage people directly and convince them to act. Your power is your persuasion.
    3. CONNECTOR: You are a catalyst. Your power lies in your craving to put two things together to make something bigger than it is now.
    4. ADVISOR: You are a practical, concrete thinker who is at your most powerful when reacting to and solving other people’s problems.
    5. PROVIDER: You sense other people’s feelings and you feel compelled to recognize these feelings, give them a voice and act on them.
    6. CREATOR: You make sense of the world, pulling it apart, seeing a better configuration, and creating it.
    7. EQUALIZER: You are a level-headed person whose power comes from keeping the world in balance, ethically and practically.
    8. STIMULATOR: You are the host of other people’s emotions. You feel responsible for them, for turning them around, for elevating them.
    9. TEACHER: You are thrilled by the potential you see in each person. Your power comes from learning how to unleash it.
    Interesting that the first one has me optimistic in the face of uncertainty, when two people have lately asked me to be more positive… perhaps things are insufficiently uncertain.
    It expands your top to themes, combines them, and gives you your greatest value you bring to a team.

    You keep innovation high on the agenda, challenging us to create the exceptional.

    Pioneer – “What’s new?”

    You begin by asking, “What’s new?” You are, by nature, an explorer, excited by things you haven’t seen before, people you haven’t yet met. Whereas others are intimidated by the unfamiliar, you are intrigued by it. It fires your curiosity and heightens your senses–you are smarter and more perceptive when you’re doing something you’ve never done before. With ambiguity comes risk, and you welcome this. Instinctively you know you are a resourceful person, and since you enjoy calling upon this aspect of yourself, you actively seek out situations where there is no beaten path, where it’s up to you to figure out how to keep moving forward. You sense that your appetite for the unknown might be an attempt to fill a void, and some days you wonder what you are trying to prove to yourself. But mostly you leave the questioning and the analyzing to others, and revel in your pioneering nature. You are at your best when you ask a question no one has asked, try a technique no one has tried, feel an experience few have felt. We need you at your best. You lead us into the undiscovered country.

    Influencer – “How can I move you to act?”

    You begin by asking, “How can I move you to act?” In virtually every situation, your eye goes to the outcome. Whether you are in a long meeting at work, helping a colleague get his work done, or talking a friend off a ledge, you measure your success by your ability to persuade the other person to do something he didn’t necessarily intend to do. You may do this by the force of your arguments, your charm, or your ability to outwit him, or perhaps by some combination of all of these, but, regardless of your method, what really matters to you is moving the other person to action. Why? Partly because you see where things will lead if the other person doesn’t act, and partly because you are instinctively aware of momentum and so become frustrated when you bump into someone who slows your momentum down. But mostly because you just can’t help it. It’s simply fun for you to influence people’s behavior through the power of your personality. It’s challenging and mysterious and thrilling, and, in the end, of course, it makes good things happen.

    Pioneer + Influencer

    You bring movement and momentum to any team.

    That cartoon of the penguin in the Hawaiian shirt, standing among hundreds of penguins, singing out, “I gotta be me!”? You can relate. You are usually the first on the block to own the newest toy or gadget and you love to tell the stories of how you got it, how it works, how it’s going to revolutionize… everything. As soon as everyone starts buying what you’re selling, however, you’re on the waiting list for version 2.0. You revel in introducing ideas that create a furl in someone’s brow. If you see a skeptical, quizzical look in their eyes, you know you’ve hooked one. You don’t like to rally behind anything obvious or conventional. If everyone else is doing it, it pains you to toe that line. In fact, you will swim against the tide for the simple joy of seeing if you can get anyone to swim with you.

  • Making Ideas Happen: The Dreamer, the Doer, and the Incrementalist

    making ideas happenMaking Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality (Amazon) is a must for anyone who feels their genius is insufficiently recognized and needs to start focusing on action, not ideas.

    In my In Pursuit of Awesome talk, one of the points was – “Ideas are Cheap. Execution is expensive.” This book is all about the execution.  The continual grind required to make stuff happen is hard, and there are strategies and tips on how to do it. Some seem obvious, but are easily forgotten. For example, ending meetings with concrete action steps, and the importance of delegating.

    There was definitely stuff that I knew here – but probably it bore repeating, and it was stuff that I had learned the hard way. There is some really interesting and important stuff about criticism, and consensus that I will try and use moving forward.

    My favorite bit (p112) on The Dreamers, the Doers, and the Incrementalists.

    We all have someone in our lives who is a perpetual dreamer – someone with real talent who never seems to get his or her act together.

    As entrepreneurs, Dreamers often jump from one new business idea to another. Even with an existing business, they are always imagining something new… The Dreamers in the not-for-profit world are idealists – and they are likely to become engaged in new projects at the expense of completing current ones. Similarly, Dreamer artists are always starting new projects, often considering massive undertakings with long-term grandiose vision.

    Dreamers are fun to be around, but they struggle to stay focused. In their idea frenzy, they are liable to forget to return phone calls, complete current projects, or even pay the rent. While Dreamers are more likely than anyone to conceive of brilliant solutions, they are less likely to follow through. Some of the most successful Dreamers we have met attribute their success to a partnership with a Doer.

    Doers don’t imagine as much because they are obsessively focused on the logistics of execution. Doers get frustrated when, while brain-storming, there is no consideration for implementation. Doers often love new ideas, but their tendency is to immerse themselves in the next steps needed to truly actualize an idea. While Dreamers will quickly fall in love with an idea, Doers will start with doubt and then chip away at an idea until they love it (or, often, discount it). As Doers break an idea down, they become action-oriented organizers and valuable stewards. An idea can only become a reality once it is broken down into organized, actionable elements. If a brilliant and sexy idea seems intangible or unrealistic, Doers will become skeptical and appropriately deterred.

    Then there are the Incrementalists – those with the ability to play the role of both Dreamer and Doer. Incrementalists shift between distinct phases of dreaming and doing. When imagination runs amok in the Dreamer phase, the Incrementalist begings to feel impatient. The deveoping sense of impatience brings on the Doer phase, and the idea at hand is pushed into execution. And when the time comes to pull back and dream again, the return is a welcome relief from being buried in the managerial mind-set. Thus, an Incrementalist is able to bask in idea generation, distill the Action Steps needed, and then push ideas into action with tenacity.

    You might be thinking that becoming an Incrementalist is the Holy Grail for making ideas happen. The transformative capacity of the Incrementalist appears attractive until you consider the inherent limitations. With the ability to rapidly develop and then execute ideas, the Incrementalist finds him- or herself leading multiple projects (and, in many cases, multiple businesses) simultaniously.

    Incrementalists have the tendency to conceive and execute too many ideas simply because they can. This rare capability can lead to an overwhelming set of responsibilities to maintain multiple projects at the expense of ever making one particular project  an extraordinary success. In my research, I came across many Incrementalists who were known within their communities for their many projects but never on a global scale. The Incrementalist’s brands, products, and ideas are seldom sufficiently pushed to their full potential.

    While a Doer and a Dreamer are best paired with each other, Incrementalists can thrive when they are paired with either one. Incrementalists are the “O” blood type of the world of collaboration – the universal donor. After talking to many Incrementalists about their most successful projects, I found that they just need to be pushed one way or the other. A Doer will push the Incrementalists into more of a Dreamer mode when necessary, while a Dreamer brings out the Incrementalist’s impatience and organizational Doer-like tendencies.

    And so there is no ideal category. The Doers, Dreamers, and Incrementalists all have their own strengths and limitations. However, once you consider which type you might be, you can leverage the forces around you – potential partnerships, organizational tools, and other resources – that can make all the difference.

    I’m not sure, but having looked at the downsides of being an Incrementalist, they seem familiar… maybe that’s me. How about you? Are you a Dreamer, a Doer, or an Incrementalist?