Monthly Archives: March 2016

Getting to the Truth

There’s a lot being done in behavioral economics…it attempts to explain things like why you won’t use a $2 app but you’ll spend $30 to go 6 blocks.

This is a great article that talks about customer development from a technology point of view, but I think it’s applicable to lots of situations. Some of the mistakes they talk about:

  1. Confirmation Bias: when you focus only on feedback that backs up what you already think and you discount everything else.
  2. Hindsight Bias: forgetting all the failures when you have a success, and getting arrogant because of it.
  3. Supportive Bias: justifying the decision because you already made the decision (invested money, spent time)

The article struck me because I see a lot of this happening just as part of the day to day life. It’s important to try and ask the right questions in order to get to the truth. And then it’s important to share the truth….I love this quote about using stories:

“Stories are shareable and lend clarity.  They contextualize data in a way everyone can understand and rally behind.  Generally, people are ok with pivots if they understand the impetus.”

With presentations, I remember the stories people tell….I don’t remember random facts and figures. Trying to boil down complicated issues to simple answers is blunt force. Some examples:

Rather than:”Why are you leaving the firm?”
Try: “When did you first start thinking about leaving the firm?”

Rather than: “We’ve created this technology/application/new thing. What do you think?”
Try: “What do you see this xxx doing better than what you do now? What would you hate or dread if someone told you that this xxx was coming?”

It’s so easy to fall in love with something you’ve created/believe in. But too often, we see situations that I call ” a solution in search of a problem.”

Help Someone Else

Some portion of my day is spent listening to people who have problems or need help. It’s the best part of my job.

When I was younger, I didn’t spend a lot of time doing it because I didn’t really think I had anything to offer. But then as you get older, you realize you know more than you think.

I think the best compliment someone can give you is not that you’re smart or talented, but that you’ve helped them. It means you’ve given something of yourself because you believe in them….and there’s no greater compliment.  You won’t remember all the times you did it, but the recipient will.

(PS sorry the site was down! My files all disappeared so they had to back them up!)

Knowledge Hoarders

These are often the “high skill, low will” people you work with. They know everything, but don’t want to share it. It’s a source of power for them as a way to control others and how they are valued in the organization.

Often this is driven out of insecurity: they choose this strategy rather than being confident enough to share their information as part of a team. They prefer being an individual contributer. They think if they share their information, their value to the organization goes down, and they become disposable. Continue reading →

A Speech I Didn’t Get to Make

This year I had the opportunity to say a few words to newly promoted women Managing Directors.   I couldn’t do it this year, but this is what I would have said:

“Congratulations to each of you on this accomplishment. For many of you, this most likely represents a first. Maybe you’re the first female MD promotion in your group, the first MD promotion in your family, the first Asian female MD in your division. It’s just the beginning of many firsts.

Here is the one thing I would ask of each of you: to coach, to mentor, to give feedback, to be available for other women who are coming up behind us.

Because our responsibility is to make sure our “firsts” don’t become the “only”. “

Communicating during Uncertainty

I get to work with some incredibly smart people….most recently, folks who are the best I’ve seen in the communications space.

I used to think communicating was obvious…but it’s very hard to do well. Think about the time you were asked a difficult question, and you felt tongue-tied in your response.

Often people struggle with communicating when they are unsure what is going to happen. Because the questions tend to be about the future (which often changes), our instinct is to say nothing, plead ignorance, or be vague.

I learned a useful way of thinking about this: weather forecasting.

You can probably predict today’s weather and be accurate. But your prediction accuracy is going to diminish as you go more into the future. People understand that. So the strategy is to communicate with certainty what you know now, identify what is probable, and what’s probably not going to happen.

The objective is not to answer every possible question definitely, but to limit speculation.

My own habit:  Before I go into meetings, I think about the hard questions that might come up, and I write down what I want my answer to be and I review it. I don’t want to be scripted, but I want to be authentic and articulate.  I am not as good when I “wing it” compared to thinking about something ahead of time.

 

Why Your Boss Doesn’t Agree with You…about You

Sometimes there’s a disconnect between what you think you do well, and what your boss thinks you do well.

Usually, it’s about consistency.

I’ve had lots of conversations with people on whether or not they are a team player, good manager, good communicator. Here’s the thing:

Inconsistency is what stops you from earning the label. If you’re a team player on some projects, but not on others, people won’t see you as a team player because you’re inconsistent.

So next time you get feedback that surprises you, ask yourself 3 questions:

1. “How consistent am I in doing x? Do I do it all the time?”

2. “When is the last time I exhibited this behavior?”

3. “And the last time I didn’t?”

You’ll find that if you concentrate on doing it all the time, you’ll change perception over time.