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Adventures in Businessing

Adventures in Businessing (AIB) is the culmination of over 60 years in organizational leadership experience between three best friends and business partners. Discover the how working together should work.
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Now displaying: July, 2021
Managing Up 0
Jul 29, 2021

Show Notes

 

  • [0:00:00] Episode Summary | Intro

 

  • Jeremy tries out new greetings…

 

  • [0:02:16] Managing Up & Why it Works

 

  • Challenging...and comes with many landmines.
    • Do it right and your life is easier.
    • Do it poorly and it could make your work and culture really suffer.
  • You can’t control whether someone is a good or bad manager, but you can put your best foot forward.
    • You have very real restrictions in how you can deal with a manager, and how you interact with them. 
  • Managers aren’t perfect, and are oftentimes someone who was in a similar role to you, but was good enough at their job to be moved up (sometimes against their will or desired growth path).
    • This however does not mean that they’ll inherently be a good manager. 
  • Rarely is a manager ever actually ‘out to get you’, but poor communication and misunderstandings can make it feel like the opposite. 
    • Over communicate.
      • Don’t assume you’re on the same page and that you have the same goals or high level view of the work and tasks at hand. 

 

  • [0:09:55] Healthy Ways to Communicate  

 

  • Force Clarity 
  • Ask Questions 
    • Also ask good questions. ;)
  • Understand How You’ll be Measured
    • How will you know you’ve done a good job?
    • How do you know when you’re excelling or falling behind expectations?
      • Try to avoid unwritten/undiscussed expectations from both parties.  
    • Share what success looks like to you. 
      • Make efforts to humanize yourself and your manager by finding that common ground.
    • Don’t be afraid to negotiate priorities when you’ve developed a good rapport with your manager. 
  • Recurring check-ins are great refreshers and reminders of what’s on your plate. 
    • Which helps measuring workload. 

 

  • [0:19:57] Be to Solution...with caveats. 

 

  • Figure out ways to remove stress and not be the source of stress for your manager. 
  • If you bring an issue to your manager, attempt to bring a solution, or a series of solutions. 
    • When you come with a solution you give your manager options, which provides the potential for them to lead well. 
      • You also shape how you’re known. You can be known as the person for solutions, or for problems.
        • You have to decide which you want to be known for. (This all assuming you don’t work for, or belong to, a toxic culture.)
  • Some situations can be fixed.
    • But you might be able to course correct and salvage what’s there. 
    • If you can’t manage up, it might be time to think about transitioning out. 

 

  • [0:26:15] Parting Words

 

  • Just like peer relationships, managing up is never done. 
    • It’s an ongoing process, and it’s an uneven relationship with a “balance of power” to keep in mind to make sure you’re handling that relationship in a productive manner. 

Subscribe/Follow us on Ciircles.com for more helpful advice, best practices, and tips that cover all kinds of solutions to workplace tensions and challenges.

Managing Relationships with Others 0
Jul 22, 2021

Show Notes

 

  • [0:00:39] Episode Summary | Intro

 

  • Jeremy gets “folksy”. 
  • All relationships take work and conscious effort to make them affective. 
    • This applies to work, family, and friends.
    • You’re managing relationships, even when you’re not. 

 

  • [0:06:06] Diving Into Managing Relationships Well

 

  • Communication Mistakes
    • We often go in NOT assuming the best. 
      • Whether you’re sick, maybe you slept poorly, etc. 
      • We’ve found that very-very rarely does anyone actually have any ill intent going into their interactions. 
      • Assume the best!
      • With the advent of social media dominance, the world at large right now needs to come together and acknowledge there are MANY more individuals with you than against you. 
        • And those people want peace, kindness, equality, and much more for themselves and others. 
  • If you are going to manage your relationships well, you’re going to have to listen. 
    • Listening is a skill that takes effort, and it’s not one people come by naturally. 
    • Listening isn’t, and shouldn’t be used as, a gateway to counter points, attacks, and conversational dominance.
      • The goal is to listen twice as much as you talk. 
  • Questions are key. 
    • To great benefit, asking the right questions after engaged listening can unlock a lot of mutual understanding and trust. 
      • But questions shouldn’t come veiled with “gotcha” scenarios painted in, and should never be used to set someone up for failure. 

 

  • [0:13:25] Other Thoughts on Managing Relationships

 

  • Relationships aren’t one and done, they’re ongoing. 
    • Intention and ongoing effort are required. 
    • Some relationships come easier than others, and sometimes that’s a good thing. 
      • Though we do have to be careful about spending all our time and efforts on what comes easy, while letting other relationships slip up. 
  • Respond, don’t react. 
    • Teaching yourself to think about your response is always worth the investment.
  • The best relationships work when you don’t have the walled off facade in the way.
    • Measure this for yourself and context is important. 
      • But there is something to say for being honest and sharing your feelings in earnest. 
        • Otherwise bitterness becomes the poison you drink...assuming the other person will get sick.
  • Sometimes you just have to be humble and apologize. 
    • Too often work relationships fall apart because of one person or the other refusing to be wrong or accept the blame.
      • Some of this can be from a toxic work culture, but a lot of it can be prevented. 

 

  • On that note, if you come from a toxic work culture, let us know! 
  • We want to help you get out of that, or improve that situation; and we have a network of amazing professionals who just might be able to help.

 

  • Be a person and place that is safe to fail around. 
    • We can’t improve without failing.
      • Help others navigate failure and acknowledge efforts of others with grace and humility. 

 

  • [0:23:57] Sometimes we make mistakes when we should know better…

 

  • It’s easy to just pile on, try offering support.
    • We all need allies, not enemies. So put that supportive energy out in to the world and help others rather than ridicule.
  • Unspoken expectations are the landmines of all relationships.
    • Assume the best, but don’t assume others know your expectations of them. 
    • Communicating expectations is so very important; the sooner the better!

 

  • [0:28:45] Parting Words 

 

  • Spend time thinking and being intentional about your relationships in your life today, and the ones you wish could be better. 
    • Then ask how you can improve yourself to meet those relationship goals.
Managing Yourself 0
Jul 16, 2021

Show Notes

 

  • [0:01:05] Episode Summary | Intro

 

 

  • [0:03:16] Managing Yourself

 

  • Applicable to Everyone, Even if You’re Not Actively in a Leadership Position
  • If you don’t have a culture of people who can/will self manage...you’ll notice it quickly. 
  • In distributed work you have to focus on objectives over time tracking. 
    • Activity can be disguised as progress, but oftentimes it’s anything but. 

 

  • [0:07:12] Things we do to Manage Ourselves

 

  • Incrementally enhancing the mundane has a positive ripple effect. 
    • Improving sleep is a prime example. 
  • Start every day with a loose list of things you can accomplish, that which if completed will ensure you feel successful. 
    • Identify your Essential Three:
      • What are the three things that are imperative to move forward today?
    • Try to make sure the thing you do not want to do is on that list, attempt it first; the goal is that hopefully you can then snowball through the rest of the day on easy mode. 
  • Get your mind engaged without focusing on work. 
    • Whether through exercise, meditation, spiritual and/or philosophical studies.
    • Be wary: you can’t have multiple focuses and still be focused.

 

  • [0:17:29] The Crucial Piece in Self Management is Finding Time to Unplug

 

  • Self-care is 100% vital.
    • Schedule, prioritize, and protect your time for self-care. 
    • Be flexible and don’t punish yourself when things don’t go according to plan. 
      • You will have bad days, and if you can accept that, you can bounce back from it with greater success.

 

  • [0:22:05] Preventing “Bad Days” as Much as Possible

 

  • What are the distractions that could get in your way, the things that could steal you away from a good day?
    • We all have our own triggers, but being mindful of them can help you avoid distractions on a daily basis.
  • We can underestimate the impact of minor disruptions. 
    • Rarely are you responsible for putting out every fire.
  • Be flexible, but stick to your schedule overall. 

 

  • [0:27:42] Parting Words & Advice

 

  • There’s always more work to be done than there is time. 
  • When you’re managing relationships, the most important one for you to be managing is yourself.
  • Next Time on AIB
Accomplish Anything by Doing Nothing 0
Jul 8, 2021

Show Notes

 

  • [0:01:00] Episode Summary | Intro

 

  • Most “Excitingest” Episode Ever?
    • The Work Between the Work, Vacations, Etc. 
    • The Most Neglected Topic in Business
  • Margins
    • Lots of managers and leaders don’t like to talk about pausing. 
    • We believe in margins so much that we’ve dedicated a third of our schedule to margins. 
    • Without an emphasis on Margin, Burnout is a very real danger. 

 

  • [0:05:10] It Doesn’t Always Take Active Work to Make Progress

 

  • Margin can facilitate progress.
  • We think of progress as linear, but that’s just not realistic. 
    • Progress has fits and starts. 

 

  • [0:07:59] Active Rest-- What is it? Why is it Necessary?

 

  • You should be scheduling active rest into your calendar. 
  • You tend to lose focus on the importance of margin with age. 
    • Which emphasizes the need to make margins intentional. 
  • If you don’t fill your calendar, someone else will steal that time from you, and fill that time for you. 
    • Memorialize and protect your intentional disconnects. 
  • Is boredom the missing item in your workday toolkit?
    • You have to find incremental ways to schedule margin into your schedule. 
      • You won’t come out the gate a detox/disconnect professional. 
        • Regardless, you have to treat margin like it’s business, to keep it secure and sacred from the infinite things that could or would detract from it.

 

  • [0:14:25] If Possible...

 

  • Try a Week Out of Office Per Quarter
  • Start Each Day With a Plan 
    • Set aside planned time for others, whether that’s morning or afternoon. 
      • Bookend your day with margin. 
    • Be present with your thoughts. 
  • Attempt ‘Boredom & Margin Interval Training’
    • You start with a lot of work time, and then gradually increase the margin and thought work time. 
    • The time away from active work makes you better and faster when it’s time to run. 

 

  • [0:19:50] People Who Have no Margin Are Stressed 

 

  • Having no margin will have an unintentional negative run-off on others.
  • Everyone needs different amounts and types of margin.
  • A lot of us think we need less margin than we actually do. 
    • Challenge: build in more margin into your schedule, and be retrospective about the effects.

 

  • [0:22:43] How We Use Margin Intentionally in Our Business

 

  • A tool for reflection.
  • A tool to acknowledge what’s important today. 
    • The world changes so fast, and what was important mere weeks ago, may not be important today.
  • Margin can be the gateway to progress, and therefore margin IS sometimes the work itself. 
  • Margin is a very real world tortoise and hare scenario. 
    • Don’t let the modern world trick you and your organization into being burnt out hares. 
  • Group Margin
    • How we plan and execute margin together. 

 

  • [0:29:30] Parting Words

 

Progress vs Productivity 0
Jul 1, 2021

Show Notes

  • [0:00:49] Episode Summary | Intro
    • The Topic That Keeps us Moving & Out of Bed in the Morning
      • Being Motivated by Progress!

 

  • [0:03:27] Progress is Essential, but...

 

  • We sometimes forget that being busy or active doesn't always go hand-in-hand with moving the needle forward. 
  • It’s easy to not plan your productive time well. 
    • It takes a lot of planning to do ‘deep work’ well. 

 

  • [0:05:15] The Secret SuperPowers of a Good Manager

 

  • Facilitating & Tracking Real Progress
  • Real progress has nothing to do with looking busy.
  • Being aware of putting your big rocks in first. 
  • Rewiring How You Perceive Busy vs Productive
    • It’s a fundamental, though rewarding, shift.

 

  • [0:08:52] What is Progress?

 

  • Is it strictly movement over time?
    • Instead let’s consider: The right amount of better over the right amount of time. 
      • You know when you’ve taken too much time for too little better.
      • You know when you’ve scheduled too much better for too short a time. 
      • The sweet spot is always the right amount of better over the right amount of time. 
      • Time is a real constraint that can free us up in ways that make us more productive.
  • Progress Doesn’t Mean Much Without Time Constraints

 

  • [0:13:07] The Impact of Not Defining Constraints or the Right Amount of Better

 

  • Lots of activity is a false security blanket.
  • It’s hard to stay passionate about something over a long period of time if you aren’t making the necessary progress. 
    • Working on things that never ship is a good example of this type of burnout. 
    • Poorly scoped work also results in this kind of burnout. 
    • When you do not have steady progress, everyone loses motivation. 
  • Most people are quite bad about predicting or estimating how long something will take to accomplish. 
    • Don’t beat yourself up about that though, and while it’ll never be perfect, it gets better with time.
  • As your company changes, how you do the work will change as well.
  • Invisible progress is a very real thing, let’s be mindful of it.
  • Focused effort will lead to results. 

 

  • [0:21:10] How to Help Your Team Establish Progress

 

  • The Ingredients of Progress:
    • Clarity
    • Collaboration
  • Progress is impossible to determine without clarity. 
  • Your team cannot make decisions without clarity, and decisions by the team are necessary to make progress. 
    • Clarity also means checking in frequently to ensure everyone is still operating under the same parameters. 
    • Clarity enables your team to make better decisions. 
  • The Importance of Planning
    • Slowing down to speed up ensures better results in the end. 
  • All Leaders are CROs: Chief Reminding Officers
    • Constantly be reestablishing the clarity aspect. 
  • Do you have a proper collaborative workflow?
    • Does everyone know where the hand-off points are?

 

  • [0:30:38] Parting Words

 

  • Next Episode: The Work In Between the Work
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