It’s hard to live your values if you don’t know what they are. My dictionary defines a value as “something (as a principle or quality) intrinsically valuable or desirable.” That sounds about right. Clarifying your values is one of the first steps towards knowing yourself. You would think you know yourself after all these years, but a lot of things get in the way. For example, maybe you never took the time to write down your top five values. Or maybe, you got caught up in what you think you “should” value or what other people scripted for you. Either way, now’s the time to figure out your values.

This a practice I learned long ago and it’s actually helpful whether it’s day to day or building software. It’s doing worst things first. Rather than save a hurdle to the end, do it up front when you’re you’re strongest.

I’m a fan of learning from the best. What are the high-leverage strategies that the leaders in innovation use? In “Smart Spenders, the Global Innovation 1000,” an article in strategy+business magazine, Barry Jaruzelski, Kevin Dehoff, and Rakesh Bordia write about the successful strategies that the 94 high-leverage innovators use.

I’d like to share some of the insights that others have shared with me over the years about choosing career paths. My favorite insights have always been guiding questions that help me choose my own adventure. In this post, I share the same questions that some of my mentors have given me that have helped me analyze potential jobs, think through career decisions, and pick my paths. What’s interesting about the questions is that not only can you use them to analyze potential opportunities, you can use them to analyze a job you already have. Sometimes the best job, is the one you already have, but you may need to reinvent yourself or your job.

You can tell the maturity of a market by the consumer patterns. If you know the life cycle stages of a market you can better anticipate what level of “needs” your product needs to match to be successful. (I always think of needs in stages like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.) In the Autumn Special Edition of strategy+business magazine, Alonso Martinez and Ronald Haddock describe how a country evolves from a developing nation to an industrialized nation.

If you have to compete for resources or budget or sell an idea, one of the keys is a business case. One way to think of a business case is “how big is the pie” and “what’s your slice.” You use the business case either to argue for your project or in argument against other projects competing for the same resources and budget.

I use a simple frame for life to help me spend my time and energy on the right things. I call this frame, my “Life Frame.” My life frame is simply a collection of “hot spots” that I invest in. Or put it another way, I think of my life as a portfolio and I try to invest wisely in my key hot spots: mind, body, career, emotions, financial, relationships, and fun. The beauty of having a simple frame is that you can balance your life through thick and through thin. If you have a life frame, you can more thoughtfully allocate your time and energy for maximum results. More importantly, when things aren’t going well, you have a tool to help you spot where you are not investing enough.

How do you get the people on your side or inspire a vision or change the world? First win the heart. I’m blogging on this because it’s a lesson I’ve learned that shows up in so many ways, time and again. I see it in thought leaders. I see it in people leaders. I see it in everyday, conversational exchange. This is one of those ah-ha’s that when it sinks in, you find opportunities to apply it every day to improve your effectiveness.

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“Stay committed to your decisions, but stay flexible in your approach.” – Tony Robbins
You can make more effective decisions when you know what the key elements are.  When you make important decisions, there are a few key factors to keep in mind.
For example, you should rationalize and understand the problem itself.  You need to know the problem you’re solving.  You should also set boundary conditions for the solution.  Success is often a spectrum so you should set boundaries so that you don’t limit yourself to something that’s impractical …

Every now and then I like to take a step back and check whether I’m on track. Sources Of Insight is now a little more than six months old. My last checkpoint was Sources of Insight is One Month Old. In this post, I share some of my lessons, take a stroll through some data, and give a bit of insight into where I’m headed.

A friend of mine told me a story the other day. I liked his reminder of how your job satisfaction, is more about your perspective, than the job.

It’s Not Your Job …
The story goes like this. As he was walking to his jet, on a picture perfect day, he thought to himself, how boring … one more routine solo flight. Then it hit him. He’s doing a job that other people only dream of. He realized that day and ever since, it’s not your job that determines what you enjoy … it’s what’s between your ears.

Twenty-five years of business in 32 countries has honed my understanding of what sets successful business people apart from those whom success is an elusive quest. Five characteristics persist in leaders I have been honored to know. Although there are more than five characteristics, these five characteristics top the list.

I found an interesting article about contextual decision making. It’s “A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making,” an article in Harvard Business Review. The idea is about tailoring your decision making approach based on the context. You can use the Cynefin Framework to figure out which context you’re operating in, so you can choose the most effective response. The five contexts are simple, complicated, complex, chaotic, and disorder. The key is to determine whether to categorize, analyze, probe or act.

How do you figure out what your organization or business is really about? It’s one thing to know it intuitively. It’s another to be able to share it or have meaningful dialogue. This is extremely important in an economy that’s contracting. Obviously, it’s important when the economy is expanding too, but when the economy is contracting, it forces you to take a really good look at why the business exists. Why do people fund you? What’s the value? What’s the intrinsic value of what you do versus what’s the market value? Have you found the right efficiencies or does it cost you a $5 to produce that item that nobody will pay you more than $1 for? Here’s the tests I use to quickly know what a team, organization, or business is really about

There are 4 key time wasters that show up from management and organizational ineffectiveness. One time waster is a recurring crisis. This means there’s a lack of system foresight to anticipate and respond effectively. Another time waster is friction and feuding among teams. This is usually a sign of overstaffing. Another time waster is too many meetings. Too many meetings are often a sign of the wrong organizational structure. Another significant time waster is bad information. People need accurate, relevant, timely information to do do their jobs well.

One leadership style doesn’t fit all. According to the Situational Leadership II model, the leadership style depends on the development levels within the team. Some people might need more motivation while others need more capability. A quick cutting question to ask is, “do they want to do it?” Another question to ask is, “do they know how to do it?” These two questions can very quickly help you figure out the right approach.

When you find yourself in a situation that isn’t working for you, analyze it. You can use a simple frame for analysis: adapt, adjust or avoid. This frame can help you improve your effectiveness for any situation. For any situation that isn’t working, determine whether to adapt, adjust or avoid that situation. When you analyze, also look for the patterns. Chances are, you’ll find that you behave similarly in similar situations. Once you know the pattern and what to look for, you can spot these situations faster and improve your effectiveness.

Can you reconfigure your brain for empathy, competitiveness, or strategic thinking? Maybe. You might be fighting an uphill battle though. Your brain shrinks as you get older. As it shrinks, you get smarter. Your brain shapes around your key strengths. By the time you reach your mid-teens, your brain is mostly shaped. I think what this means is that you gain more by focusing on your strengths and playing to your strengths, than trying to improve your weaknesses. If you’ve got it, flaunt it.

You don’t need to get what you want to be happy. You can be just as happy if you don’t get what you want, as you can if you get what you want. It’s not just sour grapes. You can manufacture your own happiness. It’s synthetic happiness. Dan Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness, teaches us that synthetic happiness is just as real and enduring as real happiness. Dan also teaches us that our longings and worries are overblown because we have the capacity to create happiness within ourselves rather than depend on experiences.

If you coach others or you need to encourage change or if you need to change yourself, the key is to use questions. Lead others to their own insight or your advice may fall on deaf ears. You know the saying, “you can lead the horse to water, but you can’t make them drink.” Part of the reason is, asking questions puts people into a more receptive state. When people have their own “ah has” it actually creates an emotional link. This helps the insight stick. The key of course is to ask the right questions.