Dig Deeper, Reach Higher, Be Great by Douglas Paul

03:48 pm | 3 recommendations | 1 comment

My Open Letter to Twitter

To the good people at Twitter, I have one thing to say: Know and accept who you are!

I say this because of your recent decision to begin placing ads on your Twitter sites. I know you’ve stated that you won’t put ads on Twitter.com, but I believe that like I believe Ralph Nader has a real shot at the White House. Money talks in business and if your test runs in Japan and elsewhere show some promising signs of bringing in the dough, I am sure we are going to see some backtracking that would make Deion Sanders proud.

Listen, online destination sites use online advertising as a main revenue stream. Online services do not. Online services use usage fees. Twitter is not an online destination; it’s an online service! Let me repeat. Twitter is not an online destination; it’s an online service! Granted, I understand that the average length of a Twitter visit is about 8 minutes but with tabbed browsers, page visit length data is all suspect. Who are you trying to kid? Do you expect me to believe that a site that doesn’t use Ajax to update the homepage dynamically and in real time is somehow so compelling that people just sit in front of the computer in awe? Of course not, no one is just hanging out on Twitter.com. People go to Twitter read the updates, click on links, and then go read, listen and/or watch content elsewhere, come back to Twitter, respond or update and then repeat. If you place an ad above the user information in the sidebar, no one is really going to pay attention to that. I mean the few times I go on Twitter, I hardly look in the sidebar’s direction, I’m there strictly for the content.

One of the reasons for the absentee users is that people are increasingly using desktop apps to interface with Twitter. Since I opened my account in 2006, I’ve gone from using GTalk to Twitterific to Twhirl and that’s not counting the Twitterbar add-on for Firefox (for quick posts with links) and the Twitterific app for the iPhone (for mobility). Now I’m using Ping.fm via GTalk and iPhone! That means I spend even less time on Twitter than the average person. I go to Twitter, follow the people I want to see and then I’m done! Most people who use Twitter are on the go like me and don’t have the time to sit in front of a webpage clicking CTRL + R. The great thing about these apps is that they work around me and my schedule. Twitter has become an invisible, albeit important, middleman in the grand scheme of it all.

When you add this to the service outages and issues, I have to wonder what the heck is going on over there. I have seen a lot of lazy thinking coming out of Twitter and I expected better given the leadership and the genius of the Twitter service. So not to be that guy who just brings up the problems but offers no solutions, let me toss out a couple of ideas on how you can make money.

1. Twitter Packages: It’s time to create and introduce Twitter Packages. You’ve already started down this road by recently restricting the amount of followers a person can now have to 2000. Take it to its logical extension. Create a Twitter Premium and Pro; charge about $25 and $50 a year respectively. Obviously newspapers, online magazines and blogs with big Twitter followings are going to sign up and for $25 or $50 a year, it would be a steal.
2. Ala Carte Features: Yes Twitter, it’s time to move beyond just the basic updates and microblogging that made you famous. Features like file sharing and streaming would draw musicians to a great degree that would use Twitter as a distribution channel. As a musician, I would love to have the ability to put music on my Twitter feed so my followers can listen and send me instant feedback. I would definitely pony up the cash for that kind of service. Developers would jump on the bandwagon and upgrade their apps to allow for the streaming to come to the desktop and mobile devices.

Want more ideas? Talk to your team, I’m sure they are bursting with ideas.

Look I’m a fan and at the end of the day, I want to see you guys do well, but I’m not married to you. On the Internet, competition is a click away so get it together over there.

-- Douglas

10:20 am | 1 recommendation | 1 comment

The Key to Managing Creatives: Flexibilty

Let no one think that flexibility and a predisposition to compromise is a sign of weakness or a sell-out. - Paul Kagame

After many years of working on creative projects, I’ve learned the secret to dealing with creative people as a whole. Flexibility. It is the key to not getting frustrated, reaching important goals and getting great results.

The problem that most managers have is that to be a manager requires a love of organization and order. To some degree, managers are creative, but to manage effectively require great skill at organizing money, people and projects. This skill tends to work against the manager when dealing with creatives because generally creative people aren’t organized and their idea of order can make your head spin. Creatives know the destination and the time they need to get there but usually don’t have a clue on the route – and that’s a good thing.

Let me say it again. Creatives know the destination and the time to get there but usually don’t have a clue on the route – and that’s a good thing.

Look, you hired this person to bring creativity to your company not to add another layer of rigidness. Creativity is the skill of taking nothing and making it into something. The really good creatives are able to make something extraordinary ( and I hope that’s what you have working for you ) but either way their process is going to seem random and confused from the outside looking.

Here are some tips to working with creative people.

1. Keep the rules to a minimum: Give your creatives deadlines and very little else. You’re running a business and therefore things have to be done on time, but after that let them do their thing. Micromanaging them will create tension that works against creativity.
2. Respect their emotional attachment to their work: Creativity requires putting a part of yourself into the work. So with that in mind critique a creative’s work with a little bit of a softer hand. Don’t baby them but remember it’s not like telling your accountant their numbers suck.
3. Give them room – literally: Granted this isn’t possible for most small businesses but creatives usually work better with space. This is true for most people since tight spaces are uncomfortable and constricting, but for creatives it usually leads to sub-par work as well.

In the end, don’t feel like you are compromising your business, leadership or management styles because you deal with your creative differently from others. It’s just smart management to understand that how to get the best out of your people.

07:28 pm | 3 recommendations | 1 comment

The Courage to Make a Decision

Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide. - Napoleon Bonaparte

Here at FastCompany.com, we discuss leadership and its application on business. We realize leadership is applicable in all areas of life and many of the ideas and skills we talk about can be used outside the workplace. But out of all the leadership skill we discuss, the ability to make a decision is the most important.

The first indicator to the world that you might be leadership material is the simple ability to make a decision. Maybe you have all the facts and maybe you don’t, but if you’re able to quickly access a situation and make a decision while others stand idle, you’re light years ahead of the curve. That doesn’t mean you’re making the right decision or that you have a full grasp of the situation. What sets you apart is the courage to make a decision. Once you have that going for you, it becomes a matter of refining and building around it.

Now the question is why is this so difficult for so many? One reason is that many are paralyzed by the fear of making the wrong decision. As I stated in “Just Fine Being The Bad Guy,” fear disempowers. People are afraid how making the wrong decision is going to affect them, make them look to others, make them feel, and etc. After settling into this mindset of doubt, the person is so afraid of misstepping that they pysch themselves out. The interesting thing is that the person who makes the decision has similar thoughts, but they have an underlying sense of responsibility that also brings to mind how many people are counting on them, how this decision is going to help, how important the right decision is and etc. Such thoughts can still make the moment daunting but it also instills the leader with a sense of purpose as well. That sense of purpose combined with the natural boldness of character work together to make the decision that most can’t.

This is a prized skill that all organizations look for. It is often cleverly threaded in the job descriptions, coded in phrases such as “take initiative” and “work without supervision.” Organizations need people who are capable of making decisions because those decisions ultimately keep companies moving forward in the right direction. And in times like these, leadership that is strong, bold  and unafraid to make the big call is needed in a big way.

10:55 am | 2 recommendations | 1 comment

Does (RED) Hurt Philanthropy?

Let me first say that I believe that the (RED) program is great. It has done great things, raised a lot of money and awareness, but I have to ask if it hasn’t done some harm as well.

There are obviously people in need around the world and those who are able to help should because if not for a few changes in details here and there, it could easily be you or I in that situation. Still that type of help has always been spurred by an inner awaking to the truth that not only should we help, but that we have the power to help and truly affect change. Such a realization paints the act of giving with a greater sense of purpose that more often than not, remains long after that first act of giving is done. It is what causes us to write another check, give more blood, give more of our time and etc. It also compelled us to encourage our family, loved ones and friends to do the same. This epiphany turns us into evangelists to some degree since we feel compelled to let others know what we’ve done and how they join the cause

Now the question is, does simply buying a (RED) t-shirt give that same sense of purpose? And if not, are we losing something important?

Some will point out that the money raised is to the most important thing and everything else is very secondary. To that I would answer maybe. Buying the t-shirt certainly helps the cause, but I wonder how many t-shirt owners become zealots for the cause. Does the purchase of a t-shirt purchase create any level of passion within the person to spread the word, enlist others and effect greater change? If I had to guess, I would say no. I think people buy the shirt and whatever feelings of purpose and goodwill that manifest are short-term and they return to living their oblivious lives. I think most people purchase the t-shirt and only remember the cause when they pull it out of the closet whenever it matches their outfit or mood.

Maybe I’m wrong. I hope I am. I think that the (RED) idea is great, but I don’t think the type of philanthropy it encourages is what we need to make long-term changes needed to make this world a better place. Philanthropy like this tends to be a fad and we all know that fads change with the season, oftentimes never to be heard from again.

08:47 am | 1 recommendation | 1 comment

Smart Brainstorming with Kluster

Here at FastCompany.com, we run across a lot of innovative software and technology, so much so that you can become jaded if you aren’t careful. So when I come across a new piece of technology that I think is really timely, cool and awesome, I definitely want to spread the word. Kluster is one such product.

Simply put, Kluster allows for intelligent brainstorming and decision-making in a straight forward manner that is agile and fun.  Brainstorming has always been an important part of business and in an ecomony like this, a good brainstorming session could be the difference between Chapter 11 and making the 2008 Inc. 5000 (yes, I’m not above a shameless plug). The problem with brainstorming has often been how to glean the very best idea out of the session and execute it properly. Kluster makes that possible, but big time.

With Kluster, you can create a campaign (which is just another word for session), classify and invite participants, add the campaign’s focus (i.e. money saving ideas, new marketing angle, where to have the Christmas party, and etc.), and set the rating criteria for incoming ideas. After participants submit ideas, authorized users will rate ideas and submissions based on the criteria. This means ideas are submitted by people you trust be creative and savvy and then are graded by those you trust to know a good idea when they see it. The online functionality means ideas can be exchanged between team members across the globe.

The part that really blows me away is the backend. After all the submitting and grading is done, you as the campaign creator can sort through the ideas and suggestions using the set criteria and participant’s role as a guide. This is the part of this application that makes it truly worthwhile.

Given the state of the economy, an application like this can be used to generate sales, marketing and technology ideas that can really help companies find the hidden gems that lie within its own organization. I really recommend that you give it a try at Kluster.com. Take it for a test run and let me know what you think. I think you’ll agree with me.

12:31 pm | 1 recommendation | Be the first to comment

Manager Know Thyself: Identifying your Strengths and Weaknesses for Better or Worse

One of the hardest things to do in life is to be completely honest with yourself about yourself. It requires total truthfulness about strengths and weakness regardless of how those revelations make us feel about ourselves. Nevertheless, as entrepreneurs, it’s probably our greatest weapon in putting together a great team of people to build our vision into a viable company.

Beginning with your strengths, make a list of five areas in which you excel, starting with the strongest.  Maybe your strongest skill is number crunching, motivating or hiring, but whatever it is, it’s important that you know it inside and out, because chances are good that the product and/or service idea you have is born out of that strength. It’s also probable that you will need to flex that particular muscle a lot, especially during the start-up phase of the company. You also need to make a list of the five areas where you are the weakest (again starting with the weakest). This is important because you need to know what areas you need to stay away from. These items are the things that, if not properly handled, can wreck your plans before they even get off the ground. Once you’ve made your lists, step back, take a look at it and make peace with it. Accept it because the next steps are almost impossible without the ability to reconcile your good and bad points.

Done? Ok, let’s move on.

Why was that step important? Because now you are going to have to hire people who are strong at the things you are weak at but as important as that is, what may be more important will be your ability to manage that person’s strengths and weaknesses. As with all things, it starts with the top. If you are able to lessen, or even eliminate, the impact of your weaknesses on the organization while maintaining the positive impact of your strengths, you will create a companywide culture where everyone will seek to do the same. The hope is that you hire people who are so passionate about the company’s vision and direction that they are more than willing to go beyond the call of duty to help. If that’s the case, it becomes your job to help them continue contributing to the company through their strengths while avoiding their weaknesses. Is it hard? Yes, but once you master this key skill, it’s amazing what can happen.

But it all begins with you. Do you know your strengths and weakness and are you able to successfully manage them?

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Douglas  Paul

04:42 pm | 2 recommendations | 2 comments

Just Fine Being The Bad Guy

You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. - Winston Churchill

One of the keys to being a leader is the ability to do what’s necessary and right in the face of opposition. It is an underrated skill since making such decisions usually gets you excoriated by many. And even worse, you rarely receive any praise even when you’re right. Nevertheless, it’s an important skill because not every decision will be easy. There are sure to be moments when a decision is the right move, but results in a departmental upset, a client not being catered to or worse – someone losing their job.

Underneath the hard, candy coating of the manager, lies the nougaty center of a human being that wants to be liked and accepted. Still, when you’re in a position of leadership, those desires must be set aside for the greater good of your organization. You simply can’t make trustworthy, sound decisions if you’re concerned about who’s going to like it and who isn’t. You have to remember that you can’t please everyone, so it’s best to just do what’s right. This is not to say that you should be insensitive and unaware, but being aware and compassionate is differently from being led and swayed.

Now naturally the question is “what if I’m wrong?” That’s an easy answer – so what?! I don’t want to diminish the consequences of your decisions, but that’s the attitude you have to take when confronted with that question. You can’t lead out of fear. Fear disempowers and as a leader you are being counted on to provide leadership that’s based on intelligent, insightful decisions. You have to brush the doubt aside and go forward. Keep in mind how lucky you are to be a position to have to make such weighty decisions in the first place.  Respect the opportunity by making the best decision you can based on the information you have – not through needless worrying and fretting.

So what does this all mean? As a leader, you have to accept that sometimes you’re going to be the bad guy and be fine with it. In this information age, this is a big deal because in the old days people would just talk about you at most. Now you have to deal with email attacks, discussions boards, YouTube, dedicated websites and more that can be used to trash you when you take an unpopular stance. But hey, you wanted to be the boss so you have to take the good with the bad.

The good news is that if your decisions are based on sound principles and are for the betterment of the organization, you will come out on top more often than not.

-- Douglas Paul 

11:47 am | 1 recommendation | 1 comment

Motivation: The Most Overrated Managerial Skill Ever

I am certainly not one of those who need to be prodded. In fact, if anything, I am the prod. - Winston Churchill

After a few years as an entrepreneur, manager and project manager, I have developed a tried and true system for hiring people.

1. Find proficient people.
2. From an elite group of the proficient, find the most passionate people.
3. From the crème de la creme of proficient and passionate people, hire those who genuinely want to be great at what they do.

These rules have never failed to net me great people who I didn’t need to waste time motivating and I think that was the competitive advantage my teams always held over others.

I believe that motivating people is an overrated skill that usually overshadows failures in hiring practices and policies. This is not to say that some motivation isn’t needed at certain times, but I think the abundance of policies, plans and strategies for motivating employees is just ridiculous. Employees that need to be motivated cost the company in a number of ways:

1. Productivity: The mere fact that an employee has to be motivated means that they are not going to give their maximum effort to the task at hand, reducing both the quality of the work and company productivity.
2. Culture: Hiring employees who need to be prodded says a lot about a company’s culture. It says that as an organization you are fine with slouches and people who don’t go all out. Such a culture rarely leads to greatness.
3. Focus: The bulk of a company’s time should be spent on increasing productivity and becoming great in their field. That means focusing on creating a great product, providing great service and building a great company. That focus becomes fractured when have to devote energy to getting employees to put their shoulder to the wheel in regards to their jobs.

It is vital that companies take the time to search for talented, intelligent people that love what they do and aren’t just looking for a paycheck. The result will be a company filled with people that don’t need constant pep talks because they, by nature of who they are, simply give their best every time. Now I admit, finding these employees won’t be an easy task but the reward of finding such people outweighs that difficulty by a mile.

This is not to say that rewarding success shouldn’t be a part of an employee policy mix. I believe that reward and praise is important for maintaining employee morale, but reward and praise shouldn’t be used in an effort to elicit a commitment to excellence. Such a commitment is either in you or it isn’t and no amount of reward plans will change that so why use it that way? You don’t want a company filled with people working for reward because that seldom leads to great work. If it isn’t rewarding to know they aced a project, hit that sales number, got that important client and etc. then they are not the kind of employee you’re looking for.

So to my fellow business managers, I offer this word of insight. Great companies are built on the backs of great people and great people never need any extra motivation than what they wake up with every morning.

04:08 pm | 2 recommendations | Be the first to comment

The Pitfalls of Micromanaging

The late nights studying your craft, hours spent pouring over books, the pain of listening to that monotoned professor in college, and the endless cramming sessions for exams all so you can earn a diploma and start working towards your dream job. Once you enter the job market, the dues paying is far from over. As a lowly intern, you submit to making countless coffee and donut runs and other less than glamorous tasks so you could gain the knowledge, skill and experience to be called a professional in your field. After all that, you finally get the job of your dreams and you run into the ultimate dream-killer - the micromanager.

Look, I understand the need of a manager to comprehend and keep track of what’s going on in a project, but there comes a moment when you as a manager have to trust in your team’s ability to excel and get the job done. Having your hand in every little thing actually hurts your team on many fronts.

1. It creates a stifling work environment that works against the natural creativity that’s needed to get the job done. When a person feels like their every move is being watched, they are less likely to take a chance and think outside the box on a project. You want a creative and vibrant team? Then give them a little space to work their magic.
2. When people feel like they are not trusted it creates resentment. As a professional, you always want to feel like the people who hired you are confident that you have what it takes to get the job done. Micromanaging undermines that by actually making the person feel like they need to have their hand held. You hired smart, capable people, so trust them to be just that.
3. It lowers accountability on your team by the simple fact that you are involved in everything and therefore you’re partly to blame when a project falls apart or a deadline is missed. Part of handing out responsibilities and duties is the clear understanding that you are making that person accountable. If you are too involved then you can’t really hold a person accountable without also fingering yourself.
4. Last but not least, it’s just bad use of your time as a manager. As a manager, there are more important things to do then involving yourself in every little detail of a project. As a project manager, you need to maintain an overview of the project so that you can keep it on track, make any needed changes to its direction and etc. You can’t do that efficiently or with great result if you are micromanaging.

In the end, it’s just best to make sure that you hire skilled people who are genuinely passionate about what they do, have an innate desire to excel and are excited about the vision, product and/or service of your company. That way you can just let them do what they do without hovering over them and be confident that the end result will be great.

-- Douglas Paul

03:51 pm | 1 recommendation | 2 comments

Leadership Revealed

The question of whether leaders are born or made is one that has spawned many arguments, books, seminars, conferences, websites and more throughout the years. Why? Leaders are born with certain innate qualities that make learning leadership skills (patience, praising success and etc.) easier. Leaders also possess a disposition that makes leadership lessons easy to understand, digest and execute. It’s this confusing mix of natural ability and teachable skills that set leaders apart from the rest of the pack. Those who are not leadership material, usually fight the underlying principles of those lessons. They simply can’t align themselves with the idea of putting someone else’s needs before their own. The keyword here is usually -- there are always exceptions.

Now in addition to being born and made, leaders are revealed. The revelation of leadership is one that most people don’t talk about because it happens after the leader is gone. After years of working on my leadership skills, I’ve come to believe that the adage “show me how things go when you’re gone and I’ll show you what kind of leader you are” to be 100% true. What I’ve come to understand is that leadership – true leadership is not about you. It’s about the organization and that principle revealed by how the organization moves forward after you’re gone.

People think that leaders are those who simple get the troops motivated, but leaders are more than well-paid cheerleaders. Leaders bring ideas, principles, vision, and systems that impact the company in a way that lasts beyond their stay. If the head honcho’s goal set is ego-driven and self-centered, then when the leader goes away, the organization will go astray. If the goal set is organization-centered, then upon the leader’s departure, the organization will still run smoothly. This is the mark of a real leader. They are rendered indispensable by his or her dispensability.

So the question is what kind of leader are you? If the organization falls apart after you leave, would you smile from ear to ear or would you be saddened that your presence didn’t result in permanent improvement? The answer is always revealing.

-- Douglas Paul