marginally subversive

On Networking, Schmoozing, and Building "Street Creds"

I am perhaps the worst "networker" around.  An introvert - bordering on being a hermit, I have been one who has had to make an effort to socialize.  I am - what you may call - a "learned, really-trying-hard extrovert".

Through the course of my career, I have learned the value of networking - not just schmoozing part, but perhaps more importantly, building a network of people who trust, believe, and are confident in me and my capabilities.

My ex-boss, KT, calls this - in one of our recent conversations - "spreading seeds of goodwill and excellence".  I couldn't have defined it better.  Across time, you'd see these seeds blooming into plants.

I am heeding the advice of Jeremiah Owyang and cutting/pasting *shamelessly* what he has to say about the art and the science (I think it is a science - there is a structure, there needs to be a structure...) to networking.

Thanks, Mr. Owyang.

=================

Here’s a few things I’ve learned, and hope you intake, invest, and pass on:

1) You’re always looking for the next opportunity, simply shutting down what else is in the market is fool hearted. It doesn’t mean you need to jump ship before 1 month, or 1 year, but it means you should be talking to recruiters, companies, and hiring managers to see what next skills are needed now, and in the future. This will actually help your current employer, as you continue to skill up, take on new projects, as they invest in you. Remember, even if you work for someone else, you are a company of one.

2) Those who ignore the party/conversation/network when they are content and decide to drop in when they need the network may not succeed. It’s pretty easy to spot those that are just joining the network purely to take –not to give. Therefore, be part of the party/conversation/network before you need anything from anyone. Start now, and continue to build relationships by giving now: share knowledge, help others, and become a trusted node and connector, not just an outlying ‘dot’ of a comet that swings in every 4 years or so.

View Original Article

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: Career, Jeremiah Owyang, Networking, Networking Strategies, Career-building, Growing, Personal Growth

Underutilizing the Young...

In a blog by Bronwyn Fryer, a question was posed: 

Do you overlook young people, or do you go out of your way to listen to them? If the latter, what are you learning from them, and how are you helping them?

A very interesting question - but frankly, I am more interested in how the "elders" respond. 

A few years ago - when I was 25 - I became one of the youngest country managers for a large network of communications planning companies in the world.  True - the operations that I handled were not as massive as my "peers" (I dared to call them peers back then) - I had a team of 10 with a business that is perhaps 15% the size of the biggest average-sized operations in the Asia Pacific network.

Whenever I took the stage to report on the status of the business of the office I was managing, everybody looked encouraging.  They had questions - and I had answers.  There was - I felt - mutual respect, in spite of my age.

But when I moved offices and countries, age became an issue.  In spite of the fact that I had 8 years of working experience in a field that I was truly passionate about, age always became an issue.  The first question that clients - and potential employers - would ask me was "How old are you?"  And I would answer, 27 - because that was the truth.

The second question - which I supposed was to placate them that I was not some inexperienced guy trying to tell them what to do - was one that somehow also irked me: "So how long have you been doing this job?"  And I would tell them "8 years". 

And the seemingly surprised response would be "You started working when you were 19?", as if that were an impossibility.

And I would go on and explain that "Yes, I did - I was accelerated twice, I was a merit scholar in my university - with advanced credits in most of my sciences and math courses, and in English and communications - and filled my university summer breaks with full-loads of electives so I can graduate early and well, learn more than I can and be prepared to face you and answer mundane questions that you are asking now."

(OK, I didn't verbalize the last couple of statements.)

But seriously, why can't older people trust younger people?  We may not have the experience - and we know that experience is a good teacher.  But history - as we all know - is not the best of teachers.  Sometimes, history repeats itself - but only because we let it repeat itself.

Young people - young managers like myself - can offer something - an untainted view of the world which to the untrained elder would mean "inexperience, unrealistic, too idealistic".

I am now 33 - and still, I am nowhere near the age of my direct sups.  I have been blessed to have worked with the best of bosses who listened to my advice and my counsel - and have formed partnerships that resulted to new business ventures that resulted to better margins, better profits, better processes, better workplaces.

I am still young - and I still have a lot to offer.

Just ask me.

Because if you don't ask me, I won't offer it. 

There's only so much resistance - a resistance that is borne out of the perception that I am "too young to understand" - that I can take.

Ask me for advice - for my thoughts - for what I think the world will be ten, twenty, thirty years from now.

I just might give you something to inspire you - if you'd only ask.

Why Gen-X'ers are not feeling the love...

I am a 30something gen-x'er.  I entered the workplace when the world was so excited about the internet - and computers and Windows.  Then the tech-boom  - and the subsequent bubble - came.  Suddenly, things were not so good as they were supposed to be.

Gen-X'ers I believe are far more controlling - far more independent and far more of a gamesman and a gameswoman than the "corporate, yes men and women" that the boomers were.  We challenged the status quo - asked questions - and never really got answers.

Some of us had given up - and were assimilated by the big companies and borgs.  Some of us are still struggling with the challenges of being independent.  Some of us are still straddling between being our own person - and a corporate executive Monday to Friday - that sometimes we are scared of change - and yet clamor for change.

And the balance - that darn balance between work and personal life - is still out there somewhere.

Argh.

In this article from Tammy Erickson, there are ten reasons why Gen-X'ers are not entirely feeling the love - in spite of companies needing our expertise.

One thing that Erickson does not mention - that I think should be there in the list of reasons why Gen-X'ers are not feeling the love - is because we're too fed up with hypocrisy.  It's no fault of the companies - it is perhaps the result of the system that we are in.

We hear of companies that are saying "our number one resource is our people - and our employees are our talent" - to the point that they set up talent management divisions, team-building and skill-enhancing projects, and on-job/classroom style training.

Only to be discarded and disregarded at the lower levels of the management rung.

Let's be honest: Gen-X'ers wanted to change the world.  We wanted the world to be a different place from our parents.  When Gen-X'ers came to be, we were on the verge of a technological and sociological mindshift - that suddenly stopped and we all stumbled.

We still want to change the world - but we've been stymied and and we've seen through the facade and the hyprocrisy of companies that say "we value you" - words that do not get translated to real actions and policies that affect us personally.

We've dreamt so much of a better world - and we've been disillusioned once.  We've tried to straddle several aspects of our lives - hoping that one of these - or ALL of these - will coalesce into one big whole that will be different from the lives that our parents and older siblings have led.

But still, we're not being heard.

Come on.  Give us some credit.

And to my fellow Gen-X'ers... it still is not over.  There is still an opportunity to change the world - and make it all different for us and our families.  We may not be the most tech-savvy and most digitally-savvy generation there is (hey, boomers don't even know how to program their VCRs and have given up; at least we tried - and we kept on trying until we got it right).  But we surely have the guts to get through this again.

We've gone through a lot.  And we can go through more.  A lot more.

Seen on a shirt @ Adam Road Food Center

I can work for money - but that would be boring.

Not sure if I agree... but I am also not sure if I disagree.  Hmm.  Neutral?

Persistence

Seth Godin's entry today is very timely - at least for me.  Mr. Godin never fails to amaze me in ensnaring things that are floating in my mind.  (No, I will not even equate myself with Mr. Godin - there's just a sense of "vibrational compatibility" - a resonance, I guess.)

In his latest entry

Remarkable visions and genuine insight are always met with resistance. And when you start to make progress, your efforts are met with even more resistance. Products, services, career paths... whatever it is, the forces for mediocrity will align to stop you, forgiving no errors and never backing down until it's over.

If it were any other way, it would be easy. And if it were any other way, everyone would do it and your work would ultimately be devalued. The yin and yang are clear: without people pushing against your quest to do something worth talking about, it's unlikely it would be worth the journey. Persist.

I like the last word he wrote.  Persist.

Against mediocrity.  Against "it's good enough".  Against "no one will know and notice".  Against "where's the shortcut".  Against the dark forces that cut squares.

My personal guiding principle - borrowed from my former university - is Arete.  Excellence. Virtue.

And that is what's driving me.

Mass x Acceleration x Distance = Potentials

The Devil Wears Prada and the Stock Market

My friends are probably going to sigh yet again because for some reason, I am writing about  The Devil Wears Prada yet again.  Well, I honestly think that there is some "wisdom" (OK, wisdom is too big a word) in the movie that could potentially be applied to the changing sentiments of Wall Street.

These are lines from the movie's 'devil' played by Meryl Streep:

You can see beyond what people want, and what they need and you can choose for yourself.

Guess what I think:  I think that those who are going to survive the downtrends in the global markets are those who will be able to see what people want, what they need, what their short-term and long-term fears are, what their aspirations are, what drives them and what disappoints them.

And choose.

The market is supposedly rational.  The movements of Wall Street and of other exchanges around the world are supposedly rational.  We are supposedly trading in a rational world.

But we're not trading in a rational world.

A rational world would be one that allowed everyone - every stakeholder - access to perfect and full information.

One could argue that the internet has allowed access to more information - and that is true.  As I type this, I can the ticker of the NYSE go up and down on my screen.  I also see a stream of news coming in.

Surely, there is more information available - timely information.

But perfect and 'full' information?  I don't think they are.

Now more than ever, corporate people - being people - are more wary about what they say and do because it could spread like wildfire thanks to the internet.

 

So who will profit from this mess?

Those who can see into the fears, dreams, aspirations, motivations, drivers, dampeners, souls, and hearts of investors - and choose and play.

Withdrawal symptoms...

A challenge, I would say, is emerging. 

I am used to seeing lots of zeros in planning, learning, and project engagement briefs (unfortunately, those zeros don't get filtered down into my pocket.)

I am also used to being able to work independently and sign or initial invoices for endorsements.  Or give advice on pressing business issues about the strategic direction of the office.  Or be heard about what my thoughts are with regard to where the company should be headed in the next 3-5 years - and what the risks are.  Or be consulted by the staff. Or approve forms. ("Approve now, inform later..." was my mantra; "it's easier to rationalize and apologize than seek permission" was my other mantra.  Of course, within reasonable bounds.)

Or stay up late to finish one report or presentation needed by the client for a very crucial meeting that could make or break the business.  Or stare at the screen in search for stories amidst a plethora of numbers - and scratching my head every time a hypothesis bombs.

Suddenly, I have to scale down.

Significantly.

And my body - and my mind - is suddenly undergoing "withdrawing symptoms" with all the changes that are happening in my new environment.

I know - I should be thankful.  And be careful of what I ask for - as I just might get it.

Well, that gives me more time to do more of my academic and charity work, and more time to spend with my significant other [albeit electronically].

But I wonder how other agency-execs feel and cope when they move to the client side?  Did they feel the same as I do now?  Or is mine a spurious case - an outlier?

Boredom

I have been trying to deal with boredom in the past couple of weeks.  I guess it's a remnant of the holidays, when things slowed down significantly.  If there is something more behind it, I am not sure.  Things are not what they seem to be these days.  (And I am always on my guard; it's tiring, believe me, but it comes with the territory.)

I guess I am blessed (or cursed?) with an active mind.  I can't count how many ideas and thoughts for work questions and problems whilst showering in the morning, whilst doing my laps on the pool or simply watching cartoons on TV.

Yesterday, I told my smoking cessation therapist (yeah, there is such a thing - and I am pretty successful so far) that I always hated it when I was bored that's why I can't seem to relax.

And his response struck me:  "It's understandable.  An idle mind is the devil's playground.  Boredom is the devil's best friend, you see."

I agreed.

The worst decisions I have made were made out of boredom - and the resulting impatience.

Well.

There is something about boredom marketeers should consider.  Ogilvy summed it all up elegantly (as always):  "You can't bore your consumers to buying your product". (Or something like that).

One can only excite them.

And if your message is boring, nothing new, not visionary enough, not relevant enough, then they won't move - they won't shift.

It is the same with employees and employers:  Look at the most productive people, the most innovative people, the most involved people in your company.  They are the ones who are not bored - they are excited about things that they are doing.  They are not just doing it for the sake of doing it.

The challenge is to get them excited and engaged and involved.

With regard to my boredom, I will not succumb to it.  I will always find a question to fill in my boredom - whether it is a C++ program to analyze or an algorithm to scrutinize or a calculus theorem to solve or a sudoku table to fill in.

Or a PowerPoint(R) document to create.

 

 

Technorati Tags: Communications Planning,Office Life,Employee,Marketing Planning,Strategic Planning,Managing Life,Lifehacks

The Best Resolution Ever: LET GO...

Adrian Savage wrote in Lifehack.Org, one of my most tech-things in the whole wide wourld about transforming 2008 into the "Your Best Year Ever".  His advise is simple:  Let go.

Let go of the past.  It's over.  And whatever your past resulted into, you probably can't undo them.  If only there was a Ctrl+Z or a backspace that is applicable to life, I think I'd be the happiest man alive.  But there isn't a Ctrl-X, a Ctrl+Z, or a backspace or delete button life.  So I am going to listen to Adrian Savage about this - let go of the past.  What I like most about his advise is let go of both the bad and the good - there's no point to replaying either.  One makes you want to wish that you could've/would've done something else - and the other is actually pretty much the same thing - only, you want to prolong the enjoyment.

Let go of guilt.  This is perhaps (as with most letting-go's) difficult.  You cannot just switch off the "guilt button" and voila - guilt is one!  Bu I would agree with him - it is useless emotion.  Ad yet, I find myself stuck in it sometimes - mistaking guilt for conscience or remorse.  Perhaps the line between guilt and remorse are thin - but remorse carries with it the possibility of not doing it again.  Guilt simply mopes.

Let go of resentment, let go of revenge. For the last four weeks of my life, I have discovered things that would have led me to plan the most complicated of revenge plans because I was truly hurt.  I vowed revenge on the players - only to realize that if I were to do that, I would be no more savage and hateful as they are.  I choose the high-road - and I choose to look at them with compassion.  How difficult was that to do - midst anger, rising blood pressures...  But what a relief to simply let go.

And his last advice is "Let go of Joy".

At first, I didn't understand why I had to let go of joy.  Until I realized that when we get obsessed with happiness - or joy - by our own terms (which typically is materialistic, financial-orientated or physically-related), that's when we suffer because of the trek to find joy. 

The fleetingness of joy - it's transience.  And of life.

This is indeed going to be a good year.

Playing Small versus Playing Big

I received an email from a friend.  He's one of those who writes "personal updates" about his previous year, publishes them on a word document, and distributes it to his friends and family members. 

(I know of families that do this - and mostly, they talk about how the kids have grown and how the Christmas play was - complete with kids in costume.  But a single guy doing these updates?  You gotta give it to my friend - he's got lots of drama to write about in his life.)

Anyway, one of the things that struck me was one of his resolutions for 2008:  This year - 2008 - will be the year when I start playing big.  I will aim for the stars and the sun.  I may end up not hitting the sun, but who knows - I might end up on the moon.

Which got me thinking about playing small and playing big.

I never believed that playing small will get my anywhere.  It will probably get me through the day unscathed - and perhaps, give me a night or two of complete peace.  But playing small would make me more bored with my life.  And boredom is bad - always bad.

But lately, I have been asking myself:  Must one always play big?  Must one always want, strive, dream, work hard to become the CEO of the company?  Must one's voice always be heard?

A part of me - the competitive side - would assert that things are not good if things are smooth.  It would assert that if it isn't broken (yet), then break it and rewrite it.  Reinvention, it would argue, is the mother of innovation.

But a part of me also argues against playing big:  Playing small makes one nimbler, faster, more flexible, and more at peace.  Playing big also means being a big target of others who are as competitive as one's self.

So the question - which may sound existential to some (if not everyone) - is For this year, will it be a year of playing small or playing big?

And the answer is...

It depends.

I am sure that I am going to be playing it big in my personal life.  The relationships that I value - the ones that cannot be "monetized" but are very important to my life - will definitely figure strongly this year.  At the same time, there will be relationships that I will dump - relationships that suck the life out of life, relationships that do nothing but destroy other aspects of my life.

In my career, I am also sure that I will play it big.  The competitive spirit in me still remains - but it will be tempered.  This year will the year that I will be playing responsibly.  The game will be played seriously - but there will be aspects of the game that I will give up on because it is not worth winning.

I guess it comes with age - this ability to discern what is and what is not worth playing for.   Not that I have mastered it - but the years have led me to this realization:  That not all games need to be played, not all games need to be won, and not all games need to be special.

Some games are worth playing big for - and some games are not.

My executive coaches will probably kill me for saying this - but nobody's last words were ever "I wish I delivered that presentation or report better". 

There are some things that not even stocks and stock options can buy.

 

Technorati Tags: Personal Journeys,2008,New Year,Views,Personal Views,Playing Big,Playing Small

The Search for the Great GTD App...

This article form Lifehack.Org talks about the search for that great GTD app - which I would say is becoming more and more important in these harried days (and particularly in my new job).

I’ve yet to find the system that works best for me, although there are plenty of slick apps that look promising until I actually get down to working with them. After a few days of excitement, I find myself coming up against barriers to productivity — some of them because of poor design, some because of differences in philosophy between myself and the programmers, most because I’m simply not the target client — and find myself spending time looking for workarounds to make the system work rather than actually getting stuff done.

I can commiserate with the author's experience.  I once downloaded PlanPlus for Outlook (it was supposedly created by experts from Franklin Covey of the Stephen Covey fame; see www.franklincovey.com for more information).  And for awhile I found it to be a great tool.  However, it's got problems syncing with my Windows Mobile powered phone.

I gave up on it after one year of lugging my heavy laptop around.

I would say, however, that the new Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 comes close.  I am rather new to Office 2007 and coming from Office 2003, the leap to Office 2007 for Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint was rather disconcerting at first.  But on day-1 of my personal migration to Outlook 2007, it was rather easy.  And each day, I find more and more tools to make my life a little easier.

I specially like the "drag-and-drop" feature of Outlook 2007.  Say, someone sent me an email that I would like to follow-up on three days after.  I'd just highlight it and drag it to my to-do list or to my calendar - and voila!  Three days after, I would remember and in fact follow it up.

I also like the idea of creating calendars in Outlook 2007.  (OK, I am not entirely sure if this is a new feature and if this feature was available in Outlook 2003.)  But that was exactly what I did today - I now have two calendars on my Outlook:  One for my day to day stuff, and the other one for my professional milestones.  I am sure that this will come in hand as I venture into more and more projects.

It's not perfect - but I really think that it is getting there.

(And Google Calendars?  It's screwing up my schedules - for some reason, it keeps on moving my recurring appointments one hour later!  I think I'll stick to my Outlook for now.)

One wish though:  I would love to be able to sync my Outlook Calendar (at least one of them) with my Live.Com calendar.  That way I don't have to log in to check my Monday appointments every Sunday evening.