Following my webinar with Jo Miller, there were many questions asked about leadership, virtual teams, work-life balance, and the like. I offered answers to many of these questions and Jo posted them on her website. This exercise made me realize that there are many people who have questions about these topics but who might not have a resource to seek out the answers. As such, I’ve decided to try something new on my website.
If anyone has questions related to business, leadership, management or similar topics, I’d like to offer myself as a resource to provide answers. Of course, it goes without saying that I am just one person with my own opinion. However, I have been working for many years and have held leadership positions in some of the best companies around, especially within the software industry.
This all said, if you have a question and want someone else’s opinion, advice, etc., please feel free to post your questions in the comments section here. I will reply publicly so that all readers have a chance to learn from these exchanges. In fact, perhaps some of these questions will warrant full posts which I will feature on this site.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you.
Thanks for the open invitation Nina, I have a question for you.
My consulting firm has grown through the efforts of my business partner and myself. We have created a fairly niche offering, and went from just the two of us to having about 10 employees and a handful of contractors. In order to help guide our further growth, we are interested in putting together a board of advisors from both our industry and outside industries as well. Can you give me any guidance into how to begin this process, how to create an interesting and appealing offer to potential candidates and what kind of expectations they may have when considering participation?
Thanks in advance for your help Nina.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for your question. While my career has been predominantly in larger organizations vs. small businesses, I will try to offer some helpful thoughts/suggestions. However, this said, I would surely encourage you to talk with others in businesses nearer in size to yours vs. SAP with nearly 50,000 employees.
In putting together a board of advisors [BOA], a close colleague of mine once taught me that it is best to do as you suggest which is to use some folks form within your industry and some from outside in order to gain different perspectives. Also, consider your board of advisors as a testing ground for potential board of directors [BOD] prospects if you intend to deepen the relationship with those BOA members that prove themselves worthy. Here is a link worth reading that briefly discusses these differences: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-board-of-advisors.htm.
To begin the process, I imagine that you and your business partner have many contacts between you of which surely there are some who you would collectively consider worthy of a BOA seat. I would approach them with the offer – after all, who doesn’t welcome being sought out for advice – initially via a personal conversation. I would let them know that you are seeking to grow the business and as part of this growth, you are beginning to form a BOA and you would sincerely welcome their participation given the respect you have for them and their accomplishments. Assuming they state their interest or desire to serve in this capacity, I would then move to formalize such a relationship in writing. I would have a formal letter of understanding between your company and them which describes the compensation [if any], the term of the position [do you want to renew these seats yearly, every two years, etc.?], and the expectations you have for them as BOA members [e.g. do they need to attend a certain number of meetings, make introductions, achieve specified objectives, etc.?].
To make it appealing to them, you will need to offer something of value – cash, equity in your business [which is not common for BOA members], public mention in company literature/website, etc. While each person will have different expectations, you and your partner should determine what you are comfortable with offering in return for the advice these individuals will be providing.
I hope this helps and thanks again for your question, Steve.
Thanks Nina, that does help.
Hi Nina,
Nice to read your blogs. I would like to have some information on email management. Let me know if you can share some information as to how effectively can we manage emails.
Regards,
Senthilkumar
Hi Senthilkumar,
Thank you for your question. Email management sure is a challenge for many of us in the business world. The best things that I can suggest for managing the many emails that arrive are as follows:
* Do NOT do email all day long. Set aside specific times to handle email and only do so for a certain amount of time. Doing email all day long, as they each arrive, is purely a distraction which negatively impacts our ability to do whatever it was we were in the middle of when the email(s) arrived. MOST emails do not require immediate response. As such, I’d suggest turning off any indicators that tell you a new message has arrived.
* Use filters to separate emails automatically into specific groupings. Whether you use Outlook or an online email system, such as Gmail, they have the ability to create filters or rules based upon specified criteria. Let the email program help you manage your email load by sorting it out ahead of your having to tackle it. Rules can be used to simply move messages to specified folders, auto-forward to certain colleagues, delete messages, highlight the unread messages, etc. This is a very important and valuable feature of these applications which many people do not use to their best advantage.
* Start at the bottom of your inbox and commit to work on some number of unaddressed emails each day – again, during your specific “email time”, not during your most productive work hours (e.g. the first hour of each day). Be sure to stay true to this commitment so that you can work your inbox down to zero unread messages in due time. Even if some messages require additional research or something similar, simply let the sender know that you are in receipt of their request and will respond back with additional answers upon completion of your research.
Well Senthilkumar, I hope these tips help you. I know the frustration of dealing with a seemingly endless stream of email and I use these tips to help me manage through them all.
Hi Nina,
Thanks a lot for your reply & for inspiring the future leaders.
Cheers,
Senthilkumar
What is your view on setting or breaking the 40 hour work week rule?
Thank you!
Marius
Hi Marius,
In my role, which is global in nature, I have never had the luxury of looking at the “normal” 40-hour work week. I tend to work at whatever hours are necessary in order to allow me to connect with my European and Asia/Pacific colleagues. So, in order to then accommodate my US-based work responsibilities, I end up working far more than 40 hours in any given week. I wrote a piece about the “work-life balance” issue and invite you to read it here if you are interested:
http://ninasimosko.com/blog/a-little-misnomer-about-the-“work-life-balance”/
All this said, I do encourage employees to take the necessary downtime to re-charge their batteries which ultimately makes them better at what they have to do within their jobs. So, for me, there really is no “40 hour work week rule” as you call it.
I welcome your follow up thoughts.
I wrote a post on the “40-hour work week” week at: http://www.mariusserban.com/post/2009/04/Thoughts-on-40-hour-work-week.aspx
Marius
Hi Marius,
Thanks for sharing your post on the 40-hour work week and its history. I surely don’t live the life of a 40-hour work week and nor do many of my colleagues. I think globalization and the roles that many of us have in dealing with a global base of colleagues, clients, partners and the like, have changed the nature of work and the timing of how we accomplish our responsibilities. Your piece offers good insights and I appreciate you sharing it with me and my readers.
i have been reading your blog for a bit now, just wanted to say thanks for this. and i have am subscribed to your RSS feed. look forward to reading more from you