MBA in a Blog

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4

Stuck in a Bad Meeting?
2008-01-17 14:20:00
I had feedback on yesterday's post, saying that it was great advice if you were running meetings, but what happens if you're the person who regularly has to attend mis-managed meetings? - Provide the meeting organiser/chair with some constructive feedback. They may not know how awful their meetings are or they may not know how to fix them. If you have the time/skills, offer to help them plan/execute their next meeting. Alternately, you could point them to my post. For a small fee, I'd also be happy to coach them in person!- Make sure you really have to attend. Ask the person who is organising the meeting what the purpose of the meeting is and why they want you, specifically, to attend. If it's purely to represent your team/department rather than for any special input you, personally, can provide, send a deputy instead.- Get an agenda. Before the meeting, ask for an agenda to be sent to you. If that doesn't happen, at the start of the meeting, ask the chair to outline how the gr...
More About: Meeting

Running Effective Meetings
2008-01-16 14:00:00
One of my favourite book titles is the Dilbert classic 'Always Postpone Meetings With Time-Wasting Morons'. It's a great statement about how running effective meetings is a skill that more people need to respect and develop, particularly as people's time becomes more valuable in the workplace. Here are some basics for running effective meetings:Planning The MeetingYou will likely spend more time planning the meeting than you will spend in the meeting. During this time you should:- Decide why you need the meeting. Is it really necessary for you to bring together a group of people? The answer is likely to be 'yes' if you need to collect, discuss, and debate ideas, if you need to build consensus and come to agreement on an issue, or if you need a group of people to all be on the same page at the same time. - Decide what purpose and outcome you expect from the meeting. Will everyone be in agreement by the end of the session, or will you simply be debating first thoughts on an issu...
More About: Running , Effective

My Biscuits in the Telegraph
2008-01-12 11:52:00
Back in December I started baking a few things for a local deli named Romeo Jones. They've received a very complimentary write-up in today's Telegraph - I made the "heavenly lemon biscuits" and lemon mascarpone cream that are mentioned!!The inspiration for the biscuits and the cream came from a jar of Claire's Handmade Lemon Curd that the deli gave me. While I would normally make my own lemon curd, I use Claire's for all of the products I make for Romeo Jones. It's very good, and you can either buy it in the deli or on Claire's website.
More About: Biscuits , The Telegraph

Leadership and the US Elections
2008-01-08 13:57:00
I've been following the run up to the Democratic primary elections in the US with great interest. I'm not even a Democrat, but the dynamics of the race have been fascinating.One of the things that I find most interesting is the growing popularity of Barack Obama. With his recent victory in Iowa, he's in the spotlight and people are wondering if he's the real deal. While I don't agree with all of his policies, I think he has the potential to be a great leader. Here's why.I recently had the chance to hear Professor Rob Goffee from London Business School speak about leadership. I really like his approach to leadership, because his focus is not so much on you, as a leader, but on how as a leader you respond to what your potential followers need. He's written a fantastic book on the subject called Why Should Anyone Be Led By You?, which I highly recommend.Professor Goffee's main thrust is that being a leader takes both great self-awareness AND an understanding of what the people ...
More About: Elections , Leadership

Healthy New Year
2008-01-07 03:00:00
All over the UK news there are reports of a ghastly stomach virus - doctors are predicting that it will start spreading exponentially now that schools are back in session following the holidays. This thing is so contagious that doctors are asking patients not to come to their offices and to instead stay at home while being sick and for 48 hours after symptoms disappear.I HATE being sick, so I'm doing everything in my power not to catch this bug. Some of my top tips for staying healthy while trying to get your job done:1. Wash your hands frequently. Most of the germs that you need to worry about are passed through some sort of physical contact - usually carried by your hands. At a minimum, wash your hands when you get to work, any time you go to the bathroom, before you eat anything, when you leave the office, and again when you get home. Also, if you have any open cuts on your hands, put a band-aid over them.2. Don't touch your face. A lot of germs are passed from your hands throu...
More About: New Year , Healthy , Year , Heal

Good Customer Service - John Lewis
2008-01-04 13:39:00
Yesterday, the installation team from John Lewis finished installing the carpet runner and rods on the stairs in my hallway. I'm thrilled with how it looks, but even more so, with the service I received from the store.Not many people know that John Lewis has a floor coverings department, and I can highly recommend them. From start to finish, they've been a joy to work with, helping me understand which carpet is right for my house/family, talking me through the estimate and fitting process, and giving me honest opinions from their experience on the choices I was making. On top of that, the fitting team always arrived when they were scheduled, were polite and tidy, and talked to me about the issues they were having with fitting the carpet before they took any action. They perfectly managed my expectations, and the carpet looks great!!I've always had good experiences with John Lewis, and I think that's because they work in the model of 'the customer is always right' where right =...
More About: Customer Service , Service , Customer

Odd Jobs
2008-01-03 11:07:00
My husband and I were walking our dog in the park the other day when a red bike blazed past us. The bike had the name 'Animator' inscribed along its side - who knew that someone actually has the job of naming bikes?It's always struck me as a little odd that we have to make decisions about our careers at an age when we really know very little about how the world works. I've always been grateful to have had a guidance counselor at school who could think outside of the box. At the age of 14, and with my vague description of what I wanted to do including "something with science, with lots of travel, where I don't sit at a desk or in a lab all day, and where I can earn a decent living", my guidance counselor came back with the inspired suggestions of 'sports equipment designer' and 'underwater welder'. While I became neither, the suggestion of sports equipment designer did influence my decision to attend an engineering university and to (briefly) major in biomedical engineering....
More About: Jobs

Karoshi - Where's the Outrage?
2007-12-28 13:51:00
There is a heartbreaking article in the most recent Economist about the lasting trend of 'death by overwork' (karoshi) in Japan. I first became aware of karoshi when I lived in Japan 15 years ago. My husband worked for an American investment bank, and his (American) boss called me one day asking that I persuade my husband to leave the office at dinnertime, even if that meant he had to do some work from home at the end of the evening. Apparently, the boss was having a hard time getting his Japanese staff to go home at a normal hour. Culturally, it's ingrained in them that they shouldn't leave before their higher-ups, and that they will be punished if they're not seen making sacrifices for the team ("the nail that sticks up gets hammered down"). While the foreign companies in Japan at that time were bending over backward to avoid episodes of karoshi, it was because there were many well-publicised instances of karoshi in Japanese companies.It saddens me to see that, even today, ka...

Is Your Appraisal a Waste of Time?
2007-12-18 12:16:00
The newspapers last week were all talking about a recent survey that's been done that concluded that many annual performance appraisals are a waste of time - mostly because managers can't be bothered to spend the time or effort on them.What a shame.If you're a manager, appraising and developing people is one of the most important aspects of your job. If you're not interested in doing it, you really shouldn't be a manager. Plus, it's not that hard if you make it an ongoing process.When I start working with a new team, I meet with each team member to talk about their role, their ambitions, their current skill set, and how we ensure that both what the organisation needs from them and what they need from the organisation can be delivered. From there, I ask that person to document a set of annual and longer-term objectives and development activities. This is what we use as the basis for the appraisal.Throughout the year, we address this document. As people perform tasks, meet goals...
More About: Time , Waste

Where is 'No' in Your Vocabulary?
2007-12-12 22:44:00
When I lived in Japan, I had the loveliest, nicest Japanese teacher. She spent a long time teaching me how to say 'less positive' things, because that's how it's done in Japan. You don't say negatives. For example, it's never 'cold', it's just 'not warm'. It took her a long time to teach me how to say the word 'No', because in Japan, it's very rude to actually say the word 'No'. Because of my teacher, I know the thousand ways of saying 'No' without ever invoking the actual word. I always get worried when I hit someone Japanese with an idea and they say "That's interesting". That's about as close to 'No' as you get in Japan.Why am I thinking about this now?I realised today that I don't say "No" that often. Usually it's when someone asks an opinion question - as in "Do you like raisins?", to which I will answer "No, I detest them." (In Japan, I would have to say something like, "I like grapes more.")But when it comes to action questions - as in "Could you do th...
More About: Vocabulary

I'm a Slasher
2007-12-08 00:19:00
No, not as in the horror movie type of slasher.Back in September, I asked for feedback on what someone like me, who is a jack of all trades, might call themselves so that people understand that not only do I have a variety of talents and interests, but I'm also actually quite good at some of them.This evening, my husband pointed me to this article, which discusses people who practice 'career slashing' - as in I'm a rocket scientist/pasty chef/manager/Board member (read as: "I'm a rocket scientist - slash - pastry chef - slash - manager - slash - Board member").There's also a book about the career slashing phenomenon. For anyone who's wondering what to get the career slasher who has everything, it's on my Christmas wish list...
More About: Slasher

Finance Industry Looking for More Business Grads
2007-12-06 02:02:00
There was an interesting article on page 15 of yesterday's CITYA.M. discussing how more investment banks and financial companies are recruiting candidates with business school qualifications. It included a profile of London Business School, as well as the credit risk programme the school is launching this year.
More About: Finance , Industry , Sine

Why I Don't Own a Mobile Phone
2007-12-05 15:26:00
Did you know that more than 80% of the population in the US and the UK own a mobile phone? This figure includes children as young as five years old!!It's no wonder that so many people around me look at me with disbelief when I tell them that I don't own one.With my work-style, I should be the 'poster girl' for the mobile phone industry. For the last 20 years, I've worked from home offices (not to mention from my company car when I worked in sales), hot-desked in client companies, and travelled the world on projects with teams that spanned continents. I understand the importance of clear and timely communications and know how difficult it can be to put these in place. Perhaps it's because I've worked outside of the traditional office setting for so long that the emergence of mobile phones is less relevant for me than for those who have had more traditional careers.Can you please tell me why I need a mobile phone?Lives don't depend on the work that I do. Millions of dollars or...
More About: Mobile , Phone , Mobile Phone

Is Technology Always Better?
2007-12-04 11:11:00
I just ordered my Filofax refill pages for 2008.I know, I know. As someone who has worked with some of the most technologically advanced organisations in the world, helping them to apply techologies in new ways and in new markets, I'm still paper-based. My paper diary isn't cumbersome, it doesn't require batteries or re-charging, I can easily synch it with any kind of electronic diary system, and I have a pocket in it for my paperclips and safety pins. When you have a wardrobe malfunction before an important meeting, how helpful is your PDA going to be?Call me old-fashioned, but I don't always see new technologies as being better or more advanced. You have to know what will work best for you.In my next blog, I'll tell you why I don't own a mobile phone...
More About: Technology

Under-Promise, Over-Deliver
2007-11-29 09:32:00
Having spent a good part of my career pitching products and services to clients, I learned early on that it's always better to provide a conservative-to-realistic assessment of what you can deliver and then to work your rear-end off to ultimately thrill the client with your work.You'd think this is common sense - happy clients mean repeat business, almost always a lowest-cost option for the seller and the client in the long-run. Realistic planning means that risks are identified and planned for, and that delivery teams can focus on the work-at-hand and build relationships with the client and their stakeholders. Overly-stressed teams are bad news, both because it affects the quality of the work they can deliver and the way in which they interact with the people around them. And failure to deliver? Not an option in my book, but it never surprises me when I'm asked to clean up the mess that another consulting team has left behind.Why discuss this issue now?I've been following the e...
More About: Promise

Good Customer Service
2007-11-27 11:51:00
I'm always pleasantly surprised when I experience good customer service, and I thought I would highlight something that happened to me yesterday.Back in June, I ordered some bulbs for my garden from Van Meuwen, an on-line garden supplier. At that point in time, they let me know that most of the bulbs would be shipped in September. I received all of them except some daffodil bulbs in the middle of September, so at the end of the month, I rang Van Meuwen. They told me that the bulbs would be shipped within a few days of my call.Then disaster struck in the form of postal strikes that left the UK without mail delivery for almost three weeks. When my bulbs had still not arrived within a week of the end of the strike, I rang Van Meuwen to see if the bulbs had been sent. They very kindly offered to ship a new set of bulbs, and I received a packet from them within the next week.To my surprise, another packet of daffodil bulbs was left in my doorway this weekend (despite the fact that noone...
More About: Customer Service , Service , Customer , Good

Thanksgiving
2007-11-26 12:40:00
Last week, I was in the US to celebrate Thanksgiving with my husband's family. While we were there, we visited a friend who teaches at Harvard Business School. The school has a wonderful Thanksgiving tradition - they give pumpkin or pecan pies to all of their staff, everyone from the guards at the parking gate through to the Dean. Coming from my 'food is love' background, I can't think of a nicer gesture to make the people in your organisation (and their families) feel valued!It's a shame that every country doesn't have a day set aside to give thanks. As an American I often take this ritual for granted, but it is something that has shaped who I am. Being thankful helps you to be more optimistic, to appreciate what you have worked for and how far you have gotten, even if you only do it once a year.So whether you have a national holiday or not, try to be a thankful person. It's easy to appreciate those people in your workplace who make life easy. But you should also give thanks...

They Can't Say 'No' Unless You Ask
2007-11-14 16:16:00
Since my last post was about having what's important to you, I thought it might be useful to follow that with a post on how to get what's important to you.There's a sentence in the book "Eat Pray Love" that encapsulates the advice I'm going to give:"You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughtta be." First, the backbone: Once you know what you want, you have to work for it. You have to prioritise your time and energy into doing the things that will productively get you to your end point. Plan and invest in the journey, and don't try to skip steps along the way because you will learn and grow from them. Don't be discouraged if you get lost or stalled en-route - it happens to all of us, and, again, we learn and grow from these detours. You also have to open yourself to opportunities and experiences - look for the reasons to do things instead of the excuses not to.Second, the wishbone: Wanting something in your head and making it happen are two totally different...

Have It All or Have What's Important to YOU?
2007-11-14 12:59:00
As mentioned in an earlier post, I spent last week in the US. The thing that surprised me most while I was there was how many articles I saw in newspapers and magazines about women 'having it all' - the high-flying career, 2.5 perfect children, well-bred pets, an immaculate house and garden, multiple SUVs, etc. Even CNN has space on their website dedicated to this issue.I don't get it. Since when do I need so many people who don't even know me telling me what I should want and have?My mother was among the first generation of women in the US to work outside of the home. She and my father did an incredible job of raising their three children. As a child, I had home-cooked meals with my family around the dinner table every night, the presence of at least one parent (and usually both) at every sporting event, ballet recital and academic ceremony, and help with homework when required. We/they didn't have it all, but my parents had/provided what they thought was important.I can never...

See my Dog on ITV
2007-11-12 12:09:00
For those of you who read my post on Change Management - Going to the Dogs? and thought, "How can I take this advice when I have no idea how well-trained her dog really is"...You can see my dog on ITV News Tonight with Sir Trevor McDonald on Monday 19 November. She got great reviews during the taping last week!!

The Gift of Gab
2007-11-07 14:07:00
For the second year in a row, I have been fortunate enough to be included as part of a selection panel in the US for a scholarship programme that I work with in the UK. As was the case last year, I was amazed at the very strong academic and personal qualities of the applicants. Happily, I also found that the interview skills of the female candidates were more consistently good across the candidates than they were last year. No matter how smart you are, it really does make a difference how you present yourself and your thoughts. For some reason, it seemed like a number of the females we met last year had been left to develop some very bad habits - possibly because parents or advisors thought they were 'cute' or 'charming', possibly because they didn't realise the negative impact some of these things could have on a professional woman:1. Pitch: Many women, to project their voice, have a tendency to 'go shrill' - they speak from just below their jaw, and shout to be heard. This ...
More About: Gift , The G

Being #2
2007-10-31 09:48:00
Last week, my favourite blog on leadership raised the topic of 'Is the CEO job right for you?'. It was great timing, as the CEO at one of the organisations I've been working with died recently. Every time I speak with my father, he asks me if I've applied for the job. I can't seem to get him to understand that I simply don't want it.As an American, it's just not in our nature to strive to be #2 - you've seen the fans chanting "We're #1" at sports matches. Every child in America is taught that, someday, they too could be President. You never, ever, hear a parent or teacher encourage a child to be the Vice President.It's just as bad in the business world. A quick search on Amazon.com shows there are more than 500 books written about being CEO. I found less than five about being COO. Harvard Business Review had a 502/85 ratio for their articles, and Business Strategy Review had a 214/14 ratio. Where the bulk of material written about being a CEO makes the job seem powerful an...

Does it Ad Up?
2007-10-29 12:03:00
When they first meet me, most people think I'm a pretty normal person. Only a few very close friends know my dark and dirty secret - I love to watch TV commercials.Advertising has always fascinated me - even more so since I saw Derren Brown's 'trick' where he manipulates two advertising professionals into creating the same ad he had sketched out in private earlier.I like to see which companies get the 'who-what-need-feature-benefit' aspect of advertising right, and what tricks they use to shortcut the pitching process in such a small space of time. For example, instead of defining a specific 'who' on camera, are they using music to create an emotion I might instead relate to? Coca-Cola is always my poster child for how to do marketing right. Their Diet Coke Break ads are a great example of someone getting the sales pitch right: Who = professional women (young and old, single and attached), hunky young guysWhat = hard-working environmentNeed = a well-earned breakFeature = coo...

The Perfect Pitch - B2B Update
2007-10-26 12:26:00
In an unplanned act of excellent timing, last night I attended a seminar at London Business School given by Nirmalya Kumar on 'Marketing as Strategy'. He has recently co-authored a book called Value Merchants which examines how businesses that sell to other businesses can negotiate the best prices from their customers by demonstrating and documenting the value that their product/service provides.He argues that 'Value' should follow-on from 'Benefits' in the perfect sales pitch - i.e. you should be able to quantify the benefit that you can deliver. This makes your customer focus more on the return on investment they get from your product compared to a competitor instead of solely focusing on attaining the best price. I identified with the need for this, particularly having spent a lot of my time pitching consulting services to the public sector, where time and again I would hear potential clients say that price would be an important - if not the most important - factor in their...
More About: Update , Perfect , Pitch

The Perfect Pitch
2007-10-24 11:28:00
I started my career selling pharmaceuticals, which was a great first job. The company I worked for drilled their pitching format through my head so that in a pinch, when I only had 10 seconds in an elevator with a doctor, I didn't choke. It's something I've never forgotten, and I've used this pitching format in every job I've had since - whether pitching in-person or on-paper, in 30 seconds or 300 pages, B2B or B2C.It's pretty simple, too: Who, What, Need, Feature, BenefitEvery sales pitch should include:Who: What customer or end user is appropriate for your product/service? What do you know about them? What is your track record in working with similar customers in the past?What: What issues or problems is the customer facing? How is the world around them changing, what are their competitors doing, what are their customers doing?Need: Based on the 'what' that you've defined, what end result could/should the customer/end user be looking for? (Try to link this to something th...
More About: Perfect , Pitch

Managing Conflict
2007-10-23 11:14:00
My friend, Alex Yaroslavsky, was in this week's Time Out (NY), examining how to settle some of New York's most public conflicts - click here to read the article.I met Alex in the early 1990's when he was a consultant at (what is now) Accenture and working on projects on Wall Street. He has since set up his own business, The Yaro Group, helping organisations manage conflict. This always struck me as the perfect field for Alex, who is smart, engaging, empathetic, and funny - definitely the kind of person you want around in a sticky situation.Not only does Alex work directly with clients, but he also runs seminars on a variety of conflict and dispute resolution topics that are open to the public - I'm looking forward to being in NY someday when he runs one of these so that I can attend!Like many of you, I feel relieved that I haven't been in a position in my career where the main focus of my job has been to manage conflict. This seems a funny thing for me to say as someone who has...
More About: Conflict

Ways to Save a Bad Time at a Conference
2007-10-19 13:20:00
As a blogger, the hardest thing to know is how relevant your posts are to the rest of the blogosphere. A friend of mine recently sent me a link to a blog that listed 100 topics the blog author hoped someone would write about, and topic 8 - 'Ways to save a bad time at a conference' is relevant to my blog. You'll also find some tie-ins to topic 85 - 'How I went from very shy to less shy'.As a relatively articulate, not-wholly-unattractive female, I find that I'm often asked to represent organisations at conferences, particularly when I worked in science-related fields. Over the years, I've learned lots of tricks to save myself from having a bad time at conferences:1. Do your homework before you go. If you're the lone representative from your organisation (or one of a few) who will be attending the conference, it's very possible that others may be interested in what the conference will cover. Let people know you're going and find out if there are any seminars you can attend o...
More About: Time , Save , Conference

How Green is Your Business?
2007-10-15 10:59:00
Today is Blog Action Day, and the people who arrange such things have decided that this year's theme is the environment.Many years ago, I completed a project with the National Physical Laboratory to help them launch a Government-supported environmental programme for businesses called Envirowise. The purpose of Envirowise is to provide free services to business that "increase profits, minimise waste, and reduce environmental impact".Envirowise was slightly ahead of its time, in that it long-ago recognised that being a greener business was good business. Its experts have always had a focus on the cost savings and profitability for businesses from addressing their effect on the environment. The other great thing about the Envirowise programme is that they offer something for everyone - whether your business is large or small, and whether you deal with difficult customers or toxic substances. Their offering includes:- Quarterly e-newsletters that provide updates on environmental and se...
More About: Business , Green , Sine

Resistance is Futile...
2007-10-11 21:09:00
It seems only logical to follow-up a post on change management with a post on resistance, since the two go hand-in-hand. All of us, at some point in our careers, will be resistant to change and experience resistance to change. As I often say, everything is life is physics, and Newton's law of inertia supports that it's natural for people to want to stay where they are and to maintain the status quo. I always feel very fortunate that while I was at London Business School, I took a class called 'Leadership Skills' where we were taught how to handle 'blockers' (what we refer to as 'resistance' in today's change management jargon). It always surprises me that so many managers today don't even recognise resistance when they see it, much less know what to do about it. Here are some of my tips and techniques for the different types of resistance you'll encounter.1. Reasonable Skeptics are in the early stages of change, and are trying to figure out what the change means to them....
More About: Resistance

Change Management - Going to the Dogs?
2007-10-09 16:09:00
I've spent a good deal of my career managing change. It's always interesting to see how some organisations try to consolidate change management into a step-by-step process. Yet, most people who have managed change know that the biggest challenge is in changing behaviour.Unfortunately, no-one teaches you how to do this at business school.Funnily enough, a lot of what I know about changing behaviour I learned from owning and training a dog. Now, I would never compare the people you and I work with to my dog, but I do think some of the lessons are relevant:1. Establish the hierarchy. Dogs are pack animals, and unless you let them know what their role is in the pack (preferably an adult human in your household should be leading the pack, not the dog), they will challenge you, misbehave, blatently disobey you, and generally run you to the ground. Does this sound familiar to your organisation?In establishing the hierarchy with our dog, my husband and I agreed the pecking order amongst o...
More About: Management , Change , Change Management , Goin