Seth Godin, Nobody is Indispensable

by Mike Myatt

There is no shortage of information circulating of late espousing the benefits of making yourself indispensable to your employer. While this mantra has clearly gained some traction, if not actually becoming quite popular, popular thinking does not necessarily equate to sound thinking. Let me be as clear as I can - nobody, and I mean nobody is indispensable. I don't care who you are, what role you play, or what your title is. If you perceive yourself to be indispensable, you are setting yourself up for a very rude awakening. Furthermore, anyone who by design sets out to orchestrate a situation to make themselves indispensable is not operating in good faith. In today's post I'm going to share my thoughts as to why the myth of becoming indispensable is very dangerous thinking to say the least...

A well managed company does not allow itself to become dependent upon the performance of any single individual. Those individuals who attempt to hoard knowledge, relationships, or resources to attain job security should not to be valued or viewed as indispensable, but should be admonished as ineffective and deemed a liability. Corporate talent that cannot be shared, duplicated, distributed, or leveraged is not nearly as valuable as talent that can.

So, where has all this recent self-indulgent, misguided thinking come from? I believe much of it stems from the self-help types that proliferate the concept of self-promotion for self-benefit over the concept of service above self. More distressing is that this concept was recently validated in Seth Godin's new book "Linchpin".

Let me begin by stating that I'm a Seth Godin fan. While I agree with him more often than not, I will from time-to-time find myself shaking my head wondering what in the heck could Seth possibly be thinking? In his recent book "Linchpin", Seth Godin puts forth some great concepts that we should all aspire to. I wholeheartedly agree that each of us should become the best we can be, that our work should become developed and refined to the point where it is viewed as art, and we are seen as the artist behind the masterpiece. So much of what you'll read in between the covers of "Linchpin" is as close to inspirational brilliance as you'll find in a business book, which is why it pains me to have to point out the critical flaw in "Linchpin" that regrettably overshadows the highlights - namely the concept of the linchpin itself.

Seth describes a linchpin as somebody in an organization who is indispensable - who simply cannot be replaced because their role is just far too unique and valuable. Making things worse, he then goes on to say how important it is for all of us to become indispensable, for not to be indispensable is tantamount to economic and career suicide. Encouraging somebody to make the most of their talents and abilities is quite laudable - encouraging them to become indispensable is validating a new level of self worship that I find quite troubling.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that anyone who sets out to make themselves indispensable would be the one committing career suicide for two reasons:

1. Anyone who is "perceived" as indispensable in their current role completely eliminates any possibility of promotion


2. Any good leadership team who finds themselves dependant upon a linchpin will immediately move to mitigate the risk of finding themselves in such an untenable position

It is an organization's ability to collect and convert data into information, turn information into knowledge, and knowledge into an operating advantage that allows an enterprise to effectively address current needs as well as to strategically drive innovation and forward planning. This cannot happen if one person positions themselves as a linchpin. Put more simply, a corporation's employees must be able to acquire knowledge (learning), transfer knowledge (out of the head and into an information system), apply knowledge (from the information system into an actionable event), manage knowledge (execute with focus, timing and precision), and secure knowledge (keep it from evaporating or even worse from walking out the door to a competitor). Let's see if we can bring this issue a bit closer to home for some of you. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Have you ever had a disruption in business continuity because someone who possessed a wealth of experience and/or information retired, quit or was terminated?


• Have you ever lost a deal or had a major operational problem because somewhere in your organization you found yourself dependent upon a single person's expertise and they dropped the ball?


• Have you ever found yourself in the unenviable position of desiring to terminate an employee only to be held hostage by the fear of losing the knowledge that they possess?

While I could go on ad-nauseum with day-to-day operating examples of how a linchpin can adversely affect a business, I think I've probably dredged-up enough painful memories for now. As a CEO or entrepreneur, the fact that you would allow an employee to become indispensable to begin with means that at a minimum you have a lack of transparency and continuity in your organization, and more probably that you lack depth of talent and are weak in process and knowledge management.

How would you answer this question... Is your company talent poor and linchpin dependent, or talent rich or linchpin independent? From my perspective there is a monumental difference between real tier-one talent and a primadonna who thinks of themselves as indispensable. Employees who represent true tier-one talent see themselves as part of the team seeking to make those around them more successful. Contrast this with those primadonnas who are interested solely in their own success without regard to those around them. Any company that bestows a primadonna with recognition as somehow being indispensable, is a company about ready to experience a completely avoidable disaster.

If you want to eliminate unnecessary dependencies, don't allow any individual to create ultimate domain over anything that is considered key or mission critical. Instead create a culture that values transparency, knowledge management, mentoring, coaching, and process. By doing these things you will add both depth and breadth to your organization and increase the overall level of talent across the enterprise. Bottom line... encourage people to be a valuable part of the team, to maximize their contribution to others and the overall enterprise, but under no circumstances allow someone be become the proverbial cog in the wheel.


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Mike Myatt, is a Top CEO Coach, author of "Leadership Matters...The CEO Survival Manual", and Managing Director of N2Growth.

Focus on Your Winners

by Holly G. Green


Four Ways to Keep Your Top Performers From Jumping Ship

Have you ever lost a top performer to a competitor?

I see it happen all the time, even in good companies. Surprisingly, it rarely has to do with money. More often than not, it's due to indifference, apathy, or neglect on the part of a leader or manager.

Why the neglect?

Because most leaders and managers focus the majority of their time and energy on the low performers. It makes no sense when you step back and look at it, but leaders are either trying to correct mistakes, deal with behavior issues, or simply get wayward employees back on track with the results they're supposed to be producing. As a result, they fail to give their winners the time and energy they deserve.

If you want to keep your winners, make sure they feel acknowledged and appreciated. Here's how:

1. Identify your winners.

Almost every company has the salesperson who regularly makes his numbers but leaves a trail of angry customers and disgruntled co-workers in his wake. And almost everyone knows the manager who gets the short-term results but drives good employees away with her abrasive personality. Clearly, there is more to winning than just producing results.

Performance consists of two distinct components - what employees do and how they do it. Many employees excel in one area or the other. Top performers excel in both. They produce outstanding results while demonstrating total alignment with the values and culture of the organization. They get things done AND do it in a way that respects, supports, and empowers others.

2. Show your appreciation.

The biggest mistake most leaders and managers make is taking their top performers for granted. Partly because they are absorbed in putting out the ongoing fires caused by problem employees. And partly because the winners are so busy getting things done that they rarely make waves.

To show your appreciation, recognize your top performers on a regular basis, both publicly and privately. Tell them how much you appreciate their hard work and ability to get things done, and hold them up as role models to other employees. Send them handwritten notes, small gift cards, or other incentives. They go the extra mile for you, so go out of your way to make them feel wanted and appreciated.

3. Remove their roadblocks.

For top performers and innovators, nothing is more frustrating than a lack of information, resources, or management support. Check in on a regular basis to make sure your best performers are getting everything they need from you and their co-workers to innovate and get the job done. At the same time, make sure their needs are getting met in the areas of training and professional development. Look for ways to give them new assignments and special projects that will broaden their skill sets and enhance their value to the company.

4. Get inside their heads.

When top performers leave to go to another company, it's rarely for more money. Far more often it involves dissatisfaction with something in their work environment. To keep your best people from jumping ship, get inside their heads and find out what really motivates them and what they enjoy most about their work.

Do they want increased authority or responsibility in their current position? Do they want more opportunity for professional development? Do they want to lead a team, department, or division? Perhaps they would like to have more time off to spend with family. Or maybe they want to get involved in some type of community service on behalf of the company.

Check in regularly to assess their morale. Ask questions like, "What do you like most about working here? What do you like the least? If you could change one thing about your work situation, what would it be?"

Obviously you can't make everyone happy all the time. And it may not be feasible to provide what your superstars say they want. But an honest effort on your part to understand and meet their needs will help your winners feel wanted and appreciated. And that can make a big difference the next time a competitor comes calling!


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Holly is the CEO of THE HUMAN FACTOR, Inc. (www.TheHumanFactor.biz) and is a highly sought after and acclaimed speaker, business consultant, and author. Her unique approach to creating strategic agility, helping others go slow to go fast, will change your thinking.

12 Steps to Grow Diversity in Your Personal Network

by Mike Brown

Look at your network now compared to last year. Have you dramatically expanded the number of people you can call or email and be reasonably sure you'll get a response from them?

And that doesn't mean from loading up on contacts inside your company using the "People You May Know" feature on LinkedIn. A network gains value through diversity - not from having 75% of your connections riding on the same economic train as you!

If your active network looks the same as it did last year, ACT NOW when ideally you don't need your network's benefits. Here are 12 potential ways to add not only numbers, but diversity to your network:

1. Join and actively participate in professional associations


2. Regularly attend (and even create) networking events and follow up on connections


3. Take on leadership roles in church, school, or alumni organizations


4. Deliberately try to network with other parents at kids' activities


5. Write articles for publications within your industry


6. Speak publicly on topics of expertise for you (and if you're reluctant to speak, join Toastmasters and get over your apprehensions)


7. Use Twitter to build a global network of people involved in topics of interest (Twitter Lists or WeFollow are great places to start)


8. Run for public office


9. Find and join groups focused on hobbies you enjoy


10. Share your expertise via social media - start a blog, comment on other blogs, record podcasts or video blogs


11. Start a second job where you interact more with the public


12. Strike up conversations with people you meet standing in line

And IMPORTANTLY, have business cards with you and introduce yourself to new people with your first and last names. I can't believe how many people go to networking events and don't have cards and/or introduce themselves by mumbling their first names.

Not all of these methods make sense for everyone. For my networking strategy, numbers 1, 2, 6, 7, and 10 have all been very effective at meeting great new people both online and in IRL (in real life), especially by starting to attend and even organize tweet-ups.

There are certainly several of these that will work for you, so pick and get started adding diversity to your network!

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Mike Brown is an award-winning marketer and strategist with extensive experience in research, strategy, branding, and sponsorship marketing. He's a frequent keynote presenter on innovation and authors Brainzooming!

Top 10 Corporate Time-Wasters

Do you need time to innovate?

by Mike Myatt

Time is the only thing we all have in common, yet it's how we choose to spend it that defines and differentiates us as individuals. Even though time is a key success metric, I am always amazed at how many executives don't manage it as such. Time is indeed a precious and finite commodity, and those professionals that manage it wisely are those that achieve the greatest results. Show me an executive that doesn't leverage time to its highest and best use and I'll show you an executive likely to be replaced by one that can. In today's blog post I'll examine the value of time.

The proper understanding of how to use time directly impacts income. You see, time doesn't slow, nor can it be accelerated or recovered; it can only be wasted, invested, or leveraged. I often hear people espouse the axiom "don't work hard, work smart."

I have a bit of a different take on the subject as I work very hard at working intelligently. It was coming to an understanding of these fundamental principles at an early age that have made a tremendous difference in my life as contrasted with many others I've encountered along the way.

Whether you are a sales person, professional advisor, entrepreneur, or executive, you only have 24 hours in a day, which consists of 1440 minutes, and when reduced to the ridiculous amounts to 86,400 seconds. If you want to do more, earn more, serve more, influence more, or significantly change the level of your impact in any area, you simply must make more out of the time you have at your disposal. So, my question is this - How well do you leverage your 86,400 seconds?

Have you ever heard someone say they wish there was more time in a day?

While I've already pointed out that you cannot increase the amount of time in a day, I've also said that time can in fact be leveraged if you know how. Some people use only a portion of a full day, while others leverage the entire day, and those who are most productive leverage multiples of a day.

Multiples of a day you ask?

In my world there are far more than 24 hours in a day. Through making good use of personal time, leveraging staff and technology, outsourcing across different time zones, associating with quality people and organizations, managing risk, and having a laser like focus on highest and best use principles, I estimate that I'm able to average nearly a full week's work into a single 24 hour period while rarely working more than an average work week on a personal basis. Leveraging time is all about making good choices.

Are you making good choices?

The first step in making the most out of your time begins with the understanding that time itself is a key success metric. You can either leverage your time, or waste your time. Once you learn how to invest your time wisely, you can then get to a point where you can start to leverage your time into multiples. The first step in making this transition is to maximize personal time by avoiding the most common workplace time-wasters. According to most of the research I've read, the following items represent the Top 10 Corporate Time-Wasters:

1. A lack of focus and shifting priorities


2. Technology (phone, email, IM, social media, etc.) interruptions


3. Lack of planning


4. Biting-off more than you can chew (initiative overload)


5. Drop-in visitors


6. Ineffective delegation


7. Lack of organizational skills


8. Procrastination


9. Inability to say "No"


10. Unproductive meetings

Time can either be your best friend or your worst nightmare. Executives that understand how to use time to their advantage accomplish great things, and those who allow time to slip through their fingers don't. The lesson to learn is to accomplish more through leverage while decreasing personal time commitments. Remember that time is a finite commodity, and once a moment in time has passed it is gone forever.

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Mike Myatt, is a Top CEO Coach, author of "Leadership Matters...The CEO Survival Manual", and Managing Director of N2Growth.

Book Review and Innovation Summary - "Innovate with Influence"

A few weeks ago I received "Innovate with Influence - tales of a high-tech intrapreneur" by Steve Todd in the mail. "Innovate with Influence" is a short (134 pages), easy, and pleasant read - almost like sitting down with Steve over a cup of coffee. Given that most innovation books are written by innovation consultants, it is rare to get a a first-person account from the innovation trenches, direct from an actual intrapreneur.

As an intrapreneur, Steve (and the book) don't concern themselves with a lot of theory, but instead on how you go about getting innovation done. And if you harbor the illusion that you have to burn the midnight oil to innovate, Steve has generated over 140 patent applications and billions of dollars in revenue for EMC from the solutions he has worked on, and still managed to leave at 5 o'clock along the way.

The book gives a first-person account of Steve's career, the projects he has worked on, and his approach to innovation. His keys to success?

• Getting things done early


• Building and leveraging influence


• Actively managing his career


• Actively managing his visibility


• Managing work-life balance to maximize creativity


• Combining expertise, customers, and adjacencies to create innovation


• Doing the important things first

So, if you'd like to get a different perspective on innovation, and see what it looks like through the eyes of an innovator, I highly encourage you to check out "Innovate with Influence". I'll leave you with one final concept from the book that speaks to the potential innovation that corporations leave on the table every day.

Many companies don't actively managing their portfolio of innovation potential across their divisions and business units, to look for new opportunities from combining new discoveries and capabilities spread across the organization. Steve refers to this idea as corporate potential energy and defines it like this:


"Corporate potential energy is the product innovation stored within corporate employees that has the potential to be converted into other forms of product innovation."


My interview with "Innovate with Influence" author Steve Todd can be found here.

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Braden Kelley is the editor of Blogging Innovation and founder of Business Strategy Innovation, a consultancy focusing on innovation and marketing strategy. Braden is also @innovate on Twitter.

Personal Branding When You're 25 x 2

by Mike Brown

Thanks to a tweet from Richard Dedor, Chris Reaburn and I were last minute attendees at a Kansas City PRSA lunch session by Dan Schawbel based on his book "Me 2.0 - Build a Personal Brand to Achieve Career Success."

The talk was part of a career day for students interested in PR, so the average audience age was 20. As a result, Dan's slant on personal branding was customized for the industry and audience life stage.

The concepts he covered were nonetheless applicable to anyone working on personal branding. From talking with many people in mid-career transitions, however, they tend to be woefully behind on how personal branding applies to their situations. So for the 25 times 2.0 crowd, here are three suggestions customized for you:


1. Volunteering for meaningful assignments with professional associations is a great mid-career internship.

Dan highlights the necessity of internships for college-age job seekers. Mid career job seekers have similar opportunities. I speak with many people whose current job is "looking for a job." There's no sizzle and not much built-in skill development there. Yet associations relevant to you are likely looking for knowledgeable professionals to take on assignments. One great thing about a smartly-chosen volunteer project is you typically have room to make it much cooler than anyone in the association ever expected. The result is you get to experiment, learn, and have something with sizzle to lead with when networking.


2. Mid-career, it's imperative to assess your personality and get on with changing what's not working

My advice to people who leave for other companies is always to think about who they want to be in a new job, because it's the only opportunity to create a "new" you. Dan makes the point it's tremendously challenging to reinvent yourself in the age of (nearly) total visibility to your online presence. That's true, but if you continually trip yourself up through the same behaviors, do the self-help, career coaching, or counseling necessary to eliminate rough spots. Become if not a new, at least a "new formula" you.


3. Mid-career people need a solid offline and online network you're actively growing

Dan's right when he says a larger network has the potential to work much harder for you. But with a number of years of experience, you should be good at determining the highest value people in your network. While you definitely want to serve and cultivate these relationships very actively, you should also be continually reaching out to expand your network offline and online. Focus on adding people you may be able to help while building the most vibrant, responsive network you can. That's a far better move than creating the largest network possible filled with people having few real ties to you.

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Mike Brown is an award-winning marketer and strategist with extensive experience in research, strategy, branding, and sponsorship marketing. He's a frequent keynote presenter on innovation and authors Brainzooming!

How many years of experience do you have?

by Mike Brown

Several years ago, an HR professional passed along a piece of wisdom warranting consideration by anyone who works: Lots of people claim twenty years experience, when what they really have is one year of experience, twenty times over.

Since that conversation, I've used her statement to gauge my career:

• What new skills, capabilities, and accomplishments have I demonstrated in the past year?


• Based on near term potential, what opportunities exist to gain new experience in the coming year?


• What can I do specifically this year to increase the likelihood I'll be developing additional valuable skills?

Ask yourself those same questions. If it looks like you've posted several years of the same experience, you owe it to yourself to take deliberate steps and correct the situation. Potential solutions?

• Work to redesign your job - formally or informally


• Step forward for new and different work assignments


• Figure out ways you'll increase your learning


• Volunteer for associations and specific roles to help grow your experience

If you haven't done this self-assessment, do it now and get to work making sure your next twelve months are materially new and different.

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Mike Brown is an award-winning marketer and strategist with extensive experience in research, strategy, branding, and sponsorship marketing. He's a frequent keynote presenter on innovation and authors Brainzooming!

Making Innovation Happen in the Downturn

by Stefan Lindegaard

What should innovation leaders do make things happen in times like this to? Let me present you with some ideas and hopefully you can add more advice on this in the following discussion. Here are eight quick tips:

1. Align With Executives

• You need to have a better alignment between the innovation strategy and the overall corporate strategy. One way to do this is to make an extra effort of understanding what matters most for the executives right now and deliver on this.

2. See What Comes Next

• Once you deliver what the executives would like to see right now, you still have to be able to see what comes next and make sure that your company moves in that direction . The small wins gained by aligning with the executives hopefully make them more attentive to your suggestions on how to develop strategies on what comes next.

3. Go External, Get Connected

• As we move towards open innovation, you need to build better personal as well as corporate networks. Look at the external sources you should connect with to develop the offerings of your company and expand your own career opportunities.

4. Become A Digerati

• As you work to develop more external ties, you need to gain a better understanding of social tools such as LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs and perhaps even Facebook. Facebook has a more private focus but there are industries where you need to understand how Facebook works in order to innovate better. Use these tools to gather and distribute information and knowledge and to build your personal brand if you have set a strategy for this.

5. Build Your T-Shape

• In short, the T-shape is about having depth as well as breadth. You need to understand how other business functions work and why they are important to the innovation process. One way to do this is to convince your executives that job rotation programs are great vehicles for building a better overall understanding of your company and its offerings.

6. Get Noticed

• In times like this, you need to make sure you get the proper credit for the work you do. I am not saying that you should just focus on your personal brand and disregard the work of colleagues. Find the right balance remembering that no one likes shameless self-promotion.

7. Adjust Your Drive

• Working with innovation you most likely have a faster drive and pace of change than that of your colleagues. You need to be careful about launching too many initiatives and pushing too hard as you need to get the support from others to get results. From time to time, you need to stop, look around and ask yourself if you have enough key stakeholders backing your projects.

8. Build Your Management Portfolio

• A majority of the innovation leaders I work with aspire to climb the corporate ladder and even become executives. In this case, you not only need to understand other business functions; you need to work in other functions such as sales in order to get the management experience needed to advance to higher positions. One reason is that innovation is carried out in smaller units not giving you the experience of working in - or leading - a larger department.

I have only heard of a few cases in which innovation leaders advanced directly to executive positions; you need to build further on your resume. Perhaps this is the time to develop new skills and competences by taking on new challenges?

Just some thoughts... I look forward to hearing your comments.

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Stefan Lindegaard is a speaker, network facilitator and strategic advisor who focus on the topics of open innovation, intrapreneurship and how to identify and develop the people who drive innovation.

Personal Innovation - Profiting from Uncertainty

by Paul Sloane

How can you ensure that in turbulent times you not only survive the organizational restructuring but actually benefit by it? Most businesses are having to change not once but over and over in order to meet the challenges of recession, competition and technology convergence. Some changes are all about cutting costs, although they may be called something else. Others are about realigning the business to cope with new opportunities. Either way it can be a bloody affair, littered with victims and casualties. How can you maximize your chances in the change maelstrom? One way is to take a positive approach to change and to be seen as an innovative go-getter who will help make the re-organization a success. Here is how:

1. Adopt a positive attitude

• Don't be cynical about change. Don't assume the worst. Don't believe and repeat rumours about management conspiracies to do down the workforce. Change is inevitable for every organization so it is time to start liking it. Change means new opportunities, new responsibilities, new things to learn and do. People who are positive about new challenges are more likely to be given them. People who are resistant to change and reluctant to adapt are the first to be culled.

2. Become a change agent

• Make suggestions. Introduce ideas and recommendations. Look for ways in which your department could bring in new products, business processes or partnerships. Ask yourself - is there a better way to meet the needs of our customers? Anticipate trends and suggest ways of changing the department to exploit new opportunities and new technologies.

3. Listen to customers

• Where can you find the ideas for change? One source is customers. In your dealings with clients you should make a point of asking how your product or service could be improved. What do they like and dislike about your offering? How are their business needs changing? What will they need in the future? Even better than asking them is to study how they use your product or service. What difficulties do they encounter? How could you alleviate the problems and make their life easier? Do they use your product or service in conjunction with others? Could you co-operate with another company or combine your product with others to bring an innovation to market?

4. Watch the competition

• Keep an eye on what they are doing and any innovations they introduce. Ask customers what other suppliers are doing that is smart and new. Study their initiatives and see what works. Suggest ways in which you can not just match the competition but leapfrog them.


• A copy-machine operator at Kinko's, a major chain of outlets providing copying and document services, noticed that customer demand for copying dropped off in December. People were too pre-occupied with Christmas presents to do much copying for the office. So he came up with a creative idea. Why not allow customers to use Kinko's colour copying and binding facilities to create their own customized calendars using their personal photos for each of the months? He prototyped the idea in the store and it proved popular -- people could create personalized gifts of calendars featuring favorite family photos. The operator phoned the founder and CEO of Kinko's, Paul Orfalea, and explained the idea. Orfalea was so excited by it that he rushed it out as a service in all outlets. It was very successful and a new product -- custom calendars - and a new revenue stream were created.

5. Be sensitive to office politics

• For most ideas it is best to talk them through with colleagues in your department and in other areas to test their workability before you speak to your manager. That way you have checked out the concept, cleared some obvious objections and gained feedback before you propose it. It will sound better thought out. However, there are some ideas that are so sensitive that it would be silly to bat them around the office before proposing them. You have to choose your moments carefully. Often you can prepare the ground by describing the size of the problem and agreeing how pressing it is before you introduce your idea. Catch the boss when he or she is most receptive. Sometimes it is best to introduce your big idea outside the hurly burly of the office. If you can buttonhole the director in the bar or the car park you may have a better chance of a good hearing.

6. Don't insist on the glory

• If you spark an idea and then other people adapt and improve it then that is fine. By letting go you have a better chance of it being adopted than if you insist on driving every aspect of the initiative because it 'was your idea in the first place.' Sometimes the cleverest tactic is to let your boss take it over as his or her idea. People will still know that you were the one who planted the seed.

7. Be prepared for rejection

• Most managers are analytical and critical. They are good at finding fault with other people's ideas. The more radical your proposal the more likely it is that people will feel uncomfortable with it. Propose it carefully. Lay it out in a logical way and explain the benefits. But if your boss disagrees then don't fall out over it and don't bypass him. Let it lie fallow for a while. I once worked for a CEO who would tear new ideas to shreds and ridicule them. But the next day he would often say, "I was thinking about that idea of yours and I can see a way to make it work." His initial reaction was to oppose an idea just to test it. But once the germ of the idea was in his head he could find ways to develop it. Above all don't stop bringing forward ideas because the first few are rejected.

Conclusion

Change means winners and losers. If you can be known as someone who is creative, innovative and a driver of change then the chances are that you will emerge a winner. Not only will you survive the change but you will be given the responsibility of making part of it a reality.

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Paul Sloane writes, speaks and leads workshops on creativity, innovation and leadership. He is the author of The Innovative Leader published by Kogan-Page.

Five Ways to Create Innovation Throughout Your Life

When innovation is brought up in a business context, we mostly think about, well, the business. We think of innovations related to products, business models, go-to-market strategies and the like. This blog does a great job of identifying and promoting specific strategies and tactics for accelerating and maximizing innovation through those and other business-specific contexts.

But your business strategy is just one of many places where the right innovation approach can create incredible, positive changes in your life. Imagine what would happen if you made a specific point to innovate elsewhere?

Here are five specific places and contexts in your personal and professional life that, with the same approach to innovation, can make you happier, more fulfilled and more successful.

1. Innovate Your Career

Are you doing what you want to do? Are you learning new things every day? Do you feel comfortably challenged with the work on your plate? If not, it may be time to try something new.

If you were starting your career from scratch, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently? What risks would you take? How hard would you work in a different direction to achieve the job, the career or the business you dream of today?

What do you really want to be doing in five years? 10 years? Whatever that vision is, what do you need to do right now, this month, or at least before the end of the year to make progress towards that dream?

Playing with your career can mean playing with your livelihood, which is of course scary. But you spend at least 40 hours a week at work, working effectively on your career.

2. Innovate Your Management Style

How are you making your direct reports as productive, successful and satisfied as possible? For those who don't work directly with you, how are you enabling them as best as possible to achieve their goals, and make both you and the company overall perform better?

Are you actively mentoring future leaders inside your company? How about outside? When you get requests for your time to help someone learn - whether or not they work directly for you - do you take the time to do it?

Do you actively use recognition strategies to praise and motivate your team? Not just bonuses and coffee gift cards, but do those you work with know on a regular basis that you value their work?

Think hard about how you would be best learn, innovate and be motivated as an employee, and make sure you're innovating your management style to match that. Better yet, ask your employees directly how they learn, how they innovate, and how they’re motivated, and match that.

3. Innovate Your Personal Life

You do have a life outside of work, right? If not, let's start there. How are you staying balanced and refreshed so that you're working at your peak while on the job, but also living a rich, fulfilling life away from the office?

Put pen to paper and inventory the things you wish you had more time to do. If they're important enough, you'll make time for at least a handful.

What are the things you want to do in the next five years? Before you die? What are you doing right now to make those things possible? If you don't act now (or at least prepare to act), you'll never take advantage of the things you really want to be doing.

Explore that personal itch. Meet new people. Try new things. Mix things up.

4. Innovate Your Relationships

Think about the people most important to you - your family, your spouse, your close friends. Do you spend as much time with them as you want? Do you do the things with them you want to be doing?

Indulge me for a moment, and treat your personal relationships like a business problem. What's your goal? What does success look like? Envision what that relationship would ideally look like moving forward. Now what's your strategy to get there?

5. Innovate Your Future

OK, I cheated. This one's really a combination of the first four above, but is perhaps the most important. You can keep doing what you're doing today - follow the same career, keep the same friends, the same occasional convenient hobbies - and maybe that makes you happy.

But chances are, if you took a minute to think and innovate, you'd envision a world much different than the one you live now.

So what are you going to do about it?

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Matt Heinz is principal at Heinz Marketing, a sales & marketing consulting firm helping businesses increase customers and revenue. Contact Matt at matt@heinzmarketing.com or visit www.heinzmarketing.com.

Can a Virtual Career Fair Be Like the Real Thing?

I had the opportunity to be a fly on the wall at Top-Consultant.com's virtual career fair on February 20, 2009. It was hosted using technology from iCongo that attempts to virtually replicate the feeling of a traditional career fair, complete with:

• Lobby


• Exhibitor Hall


• Seminars

For the seminars there was integration of YouTube and other web sites like CNBC for "presentations" in the "auditorium".

The chat functionality (userplane av webmessenger) was capable of Audio/Video, but I didn't come across anyone using it. Nobody tried to engage me by A/V and the interface made me think that others didn't have the capability.

People manning the booths seemed to feel the event was successful for capturing profiles from a large number of candidates, but some hesitated to call the virtual event a success until they saw whether it resulted in real hires.

From an attendee perspective, each attendee was able to create a profile for their details and their resume, and to visit the company booths and start online chats with representatives there.

My personal experience of the event was that it felt very vacant, empty, and impersonal. There was no greeter or question desk, there were no avatars manning the booths, and only one person bothered to make a photo appear in their chat window. There was no indication of the number of chats that any of the "available" people in the booth were currently having. But more than anything, I was surprised that a vast majority of my chat requests went unanswered, even from large companies like IBM and PWC that had several employees listed as available. But I did manage to chat with representatives of Project One Consulting, MindBench and PA Consulting and found them all to be friendly, helpful, and responsive.

I wasn't there looking for a job, but I hate to say that if I was that I probably would have found the experience disappointing. For the future, iCongo should look at addressing some of these shortcomings and look at working with Top-Consultant.com at creating a more active customer on-boarding experience.

I didn't notice the demo in the confirmation e-mail, but did manage to figure out everything covered (though I didn't get anyone welcoming me). Being welcomed like this would have made it feel a little more personal. The demo and e-mails also failed to mention that I had a profile to fill out, and what the benefits of doing so might be. The benefits of filling out your profile should be at the very beginning of the demo, and of the registration process.

Overall, this virtual career fair was a good first step, and I imagine the next time Top-Consultant.com and iCongo hold a virtual career fair it will be much improved.

Do virtual career fairs have a future?

What do you think?

@innovate