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ChangeForge | Ken Stewart | Where business and technology collide

Where business and technology collide. You are welcome to change...

If You Want Them to Like You, Expect Them to Hate You.June 28

As a manager, new in my profession, I began my first days with the impression that having my team “like” me was important. I sought consensus in my decisions and all but asked permission of my team to guide them down a given path.

As a father, new in my appointment, I began my first years with both trepidation and uncertainty of action. I loved my daughter more than life itself, but was unsure of when to push, when to pull, and when to let well enough alone.

As a manager, I struggled with my team’s performance; each individual was highly talented, but the sum of my team’s parts were certainly weaker than each stood individually. For many months I struggled with the why. As a father, my angst-ridden decisions played out in many arguments with my wife just as my need for consensus was crippling my ability to manage.

And then I realized my team was ineffective because of my ineffectiveness as a leader; I wanted my team to like me so much I thought their approval was of the utmost importance.

I finally grasped that my fathering skills were crippled not because of my

Stressed Out? Unplug and Sweat It Out!June 22

Most of the loyal readers of this blog are most likely urban professionals, sometimes called desk jockeys, or otherwise living in a profession typically termed as white-collar. We spend our days either out meeting and greeting clients, in meeting rooms trying to figure out why we are there, or click-clacking on the keyboard in front of us.

As we get dressed in our nice slacks or cinch up our new tie, we go through our day in a generally sedentary manner. Sure we move, sure go walk around, but in general we do not expend more calories than we take in.

Now I bet you are begrudgingly thinking just about now, “I don’t need another lecture on weight or diet.”

You would be right! You don’t.

Instead, I want you to take a few moments at the end of your day and observe if your shoulders have slowly climbed to your ears. Take a breather in your day and gauge whether you are using your full lung capacity. Take a look at yourself and see if yo

Your First Mistakes Could Lead To A Second WindJune 16

How many of you are presently a manager? How many of you have managed, or would like to be a manager someday?

How many of you are presently a leader? How many of you have lead or would like to be a leader someday?

Interesting difference isn’t there? – The weight of each word carries distinctly different emotional overtones for you, I would suspect: 

Manager.

Leader.

While some may be thrust into positions of authority, the accompanying respect does not find its way to the surface quite so easily. Often you must earn the respect of those given to your care with blood, sweat and tears. It is this ability to seek out how to earn and instill an intrinsic trust for all that look to you which defines you as their leader.

In looking to my past, I replay my first attempts in building a team. They were abysmal attempts to manage through my lack of confidence in my own sense of di

Is Your Cost Cutting Strategy As Good As It Gets?June 10

Posted by Shawn Robison (Blog / LinkedIn)

“Would you tell me which way I ought to go from here?” asked Alice.
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get,” said the Cat.
“I really don’t care where” replied Alice.
“Then it doesn’t much matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
- Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), novelist and poet (1832-1898).

A few weeks ago I was sitting in a meeting with our MPS team discussing prospecting, sales strategy and what we were encountering in the field, and I had a thought. Cost savings have been the cornerstone of MPS value and, based on current economic condition, things should continue this way for some time.

The question that came into my head was,

How will MPS be received when the economy turns around, businesses get into growth mode and the sprint to cutting costs dies down?

Struggling to Make Ends Meet.

From what I’ve seen, it’s much easier to get in front of a CFO now than it was 24 months ago. And from speaking with those executives, the interest is a result of the slow-

Taken For Granted?June 8

I recently caught a movie, Taken (starring Liam Neeson) which every father out there should relish, the opportunity to really take it to anyone who messes with your child.

The tag line caught my attention at the rental store, “They took his daughter. He’ll take their lives.”

That is exactly what the movie is about. They make no bones about what you get when you buy a ticket, rent the movie from your local video store, or stream online; brutal, unadulterated ruthless destruction of anyone or anything that prevents him from getting to his daughter.

Do You Deliver on Your Promise?

So how often do you state exactly what your clients will get? Do you even know where your own ship is headed?

The fact that I read this tag line and knew the overall direction didn’t diminish my interest in the product. In fact, it reinforced it. I wanted t