Research, Technology, and Teamwork blog by Susie Wee : career tips

Top ten tips for doing business in Asia

susie.wee — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:22:00 GMT

The NY Times published an article about President Bill Clinton’s visit to North Korea to meet with Kim Jong-il about releasing the two imprisoned American reporters, Laura Ling and Euna Lee. The result was simple and surprising- they were released...(read more)

From Work-Life Balance to Work-Life Bursts and Work-Life Teams

susie.wee — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 00:20:00 GMT

From Work-Life Balance to Work-Life Bursts and Work-Life Teams I was reading a colleague’s post on work-life balance , where she was referencing Jack Welch’s statement that there is no such thing . Those who know me would certainly laugh if...(read more)

Following from in front and Leading from behind

susie.wee — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:29:00 GMT

I had an interesting experience when going out to lunch with my team. They took me to one of their regular lunch spots where I had never been. I kind of vaguely knew where it was, but I didn’t know exactly where it was.

I had to drive separately to get back for a meeting, so we split up in the parking lot to get into our cars. For some reason I ended up getting into my car and out of the parking lot first. Since I vaguely knew where the restaurant was, I started heading in the general direction of the restaurant. But, since I didn’t exactly know where the restaurant was, I had to follow them. But, I was in front of them. So, I had to follow from in front.

So there began my little adventure. I kept going towards the general direction of the restaurant. But, I kept looking in my rear view mirror to see where they were going. I looked in the rear view mirror to see which lanes they were getting in, and then I switched into those same lanes, but did this many cars in front of them. I actually followed them from in front for about three turns… all the way into the parking lot of the restaurant. It worked perfectly! And, it was actually pretty fun!

So, why am I writing all this? Well, I thought it was pretty funny to follow from in front. And then I thought about how it applies to work. Sure, as a manager I’m the official leader of my organization. But, in many ways, my team members “lead from behind” while I lead by “following from in front”. I mean that I lead by getting the best ideas from my team and others around me and I use these ideas to help guide all of us forward. Now, I think I have a good idea of my own every now and then, but I’m also perfectly happy to push forward the great ideas that my team members have. Hey, a great idea is a great idea no matter where it comes from. And actually I’m kind of proud of my ability to pick out great ideas from my team.

We’re all familiar with the concept of “Leading from behind”.

What do you think about the concept of “Following from in front”?

Have you followed from in front?

Toys in my sandbox: HP Touch, Mini, and Slim

susie.wee — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 23:13:00 GMT

One of the neat things about my new job is getting to play with, I mean, work with some cool products. Last week the HP Personal Systems Group (which I'm now in) had a big product launch in Berlin. I was happy when the launch date finally came, because I could finally talk openly about the products that I was playing with- oops!- I mean working with at work.

Before I introduce you to my new toys, let me wander into a little career advice since some readers told me that they missed this during my little blogging drought.

Back when I graduated from grad school and was looking for my first job (12 years ago!), one big thing I realized was that the company that you work for determines the kinds of projects that you can work on. In other words, your company sets the context for your work. This was very important from a research perspective, because your company's strategy determines which research problems are relevant or irrelevant, you should work on problems that relevant to your company, and thus this has a big influence on your research career. This not only applies to research, but is true for any field that you're in: research, engineering, design, business, marketing, sales, etc.

So, my two career tips from this little story are:

Work on areas that are relevant to your company and your company's strategy!
Work for a company that provides a context for the type of work that you believe in!

Note that this is related to Tip #10 in my Top 10 Career Tips:

Align your work with your passions and strengths. Define your career accordingly.

To say this in a more playful way, I have always viewed that your company is your sandbox, and your company's current and future products are the toys in your sandbox, and these toys are the ones you get to play with and build on to do your work.

Okay, enough of the career advice. Let me introduce you to some of the new toys in my sandbox: Touch, Mini, and Slim! (This is not supposed to be a sales pitch, but I have to say that I love these products, so apologies in advance if it sounds like one.)

Touch is the new HP TouchSmart PC. It's the second generation of the TouchSmart product. Touch has a 22" widescreen with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. All the computer guts are built into the touch monitor, so all you do is plug in power and an ethernet connection. It comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse. The first version was bigger and boxier, and this version is much more streamlined and sleek. It's neat to see the evolution of the product as we refine it through improvements in technology (e.g., touch sensor technology, display technology, etc.) and through user testing and feedback. It's a neat new device category that we're driving. So far the blog posts have been fun to read [1] and I can't wait to learn more from the new users of the product to get a well-rounded perspective. I'm really excited about the emergence and evolution of this category, and it will be neat to get more software developers going on this platform!

Mini is the new HP 2133 Mini-Note PC. It's so cute! (Sorry- I couldn't help myself.) It is less than 3 pounds and it has an 8.9 inch WXGA display. It comes with Linux or Vista. It has a cool aluminum case. When I first saw this model in an internal board meeting many months ago, I was immediately drawn to it. The first thing that came to my head is that this is just about to reach the size where I could put it in my purse and still have a fairly full computing experience (I say "fairly" because of the small display). It was slightly bigger than the purse that I had at the time, but I liked it so much that I was thinking that I would buy a slightly larger one so I could carry it around. This raises an interesting usage question that I'll have to write another post about: women like products that fit into their purse while men like products that fit in their pocket. So I wonder what will become of this new form factor of devices. Don't worry- it's not a women-only device. When we unboxed one in my lab the other day, all the men were equally excited about it and we all drooled equally! This is the product category of the Asus Eee PC and surely more competitors will emerge. An interesting this about this product category are the price points- baseline versions are at the sub-$500 level, which allows this fairly full computing experience to get to quite a few places.

Slim is the new ultra-thin notebook, the VooDoo Envy 133. It's 0.7 inches thick and is just over 3 pounds with a 13.3 inch display. It fully boots into Windows, but it has a quick boot Linux-based OS- another great topic for a future post! The upgraded version has a solid state drive for more money, of course. Unfortunately, I don't have one of these myself yet, but I have seen and touched them and they are pretty cool. My brother has been in the market for a laptop and I told him to hold off until this model came out. Bloggers [1,2] are comparing this to the MacAir, which is .76 inches in the center and tapers out on the edges. These thin and light notebooks with full-size displays are very interesting and they change your coffee shop, airplane, and over-the-shoulder carrying experience. I like the thought of tucking this away in my slim bag neatly lined up with a writing notebook and a few folders. Slim looks and feels very crisp and sleek- very much in the VooDoo spirit!

My team's job is to look at next-gen software experiences for these and other HP personal computing products. All I can say is I have a fun sandbox to play in!

It's neat to see these emerging product categories evolving. I'd love to hear your thoughts on these categories, so here are a few questions:

What do you think about these product categories (the good, the bad, and the ugly)?
How do you think these product categories will evolve?
How would you like to see these product categories evolve?
What kinds of experiences would you like to see on these products?

Learning as a New Year's Resolution

susie.wee — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 16:41:00 GMT

It's the time of year to reflect on the year behind and think about the year ahead. As I reflect on the last year, I realize that my most valuable accomplishments were not necessarily the accomplishments themselves, but the learnings that were behind them since it is those learnings that you carry with you into the new year and for the rest of your life. So, here's a little tip for setting goals and resolutions that will last you a lifetime.

For example, you could set a New Year's resolution like "lose 10 pounds" and you could accomplish it. But, perhaps a more valuable lifetime accomplishment is "learn how to lose 10 pounds". You could set out to "run a marathon" or you could "learn how to train for marathons". You could set out to "write a significant paper" or you could "learn how to write significant papers".

Of course, you do want the tangible goals and results to go along with your learnings, so I'm not suggesting you do away with them. Rather, I'm suggesting a two-part resolution. For example:

Lose 10 pounds. Learn how to lose 10 pounds.
Run a half-marathon. Learn how to train for half-marathons.
Write a significant paper. Learn how to write significant papers.
Make an impactful invention. Learn how to make impactful inventions.
Manage your finances. Learn how to manage your finances.

This also allows you to set long-term goals and resolutions, while giving you a path to get there. This suggests a three-part resolution. For example:

Long-term goal: Become a manager. Learning goal: Learn how to manage people. This year's goal: Manage an intern.

Okay... You try it! Feel free to share some of your learning resolutions here!

Best wishes for a Happy 2008!

Feel free to leave a URL with your comments.

Clashing leadership styles

susie.wee — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 20:48:00 GMT

I went to Leadership Boot Camp (my own name for an intensive HP Leadership Development program) earlier in the summer with a number of senior leaders from across the company. The class was mostly VPs with a few directors. As part of the program, they have assessments to help you understand yourself better so you can be more effective. In one exercise we answered questions and then were assessed according to four styles of leadership. We were each characterized as having some percentage mixture of the four styles. People ended up with one or two dominant leadership styles. Here are the four leadership styles:

Directive: Leadership style is driven by taking charge and getting things done. Directives are known for moving things forward competently and quickly.
Principled: Leadership style is driven by principles and perfection. They strive to develop thoughtful solutions based on principles.
Accommodating: Leadership style is driven by considering other people's needs and feelings. They are caretakers who work hard to make sure everyone feels good all the time.
Analytical: Leadership style is driven by data, facts, and analysis. They control their emotions and use numbers, data, and logic to make their decisions.

This is how our class did: Over 90% of the people were "directive". A couple people were "principled". Nobody was classified as primarily "accommodating", though many people had this as a secondary leadership style. A few people were "analytical".

The class was mostly VPs, so having so many "directive" people made sense. As you can guess, our classmates from finance, accounting, and IT were "analytical". It turned out that I was one of the two people assessed as "principled".

The assessment was followed by a discussion about what happens when people with different styles work together. Let me know if this situation sounds familiar to you... It certainly resonated with me!

Basically, the directive people are focussed on getting the task done, and they make decisions quickly to reach that goal. The principled people are focussed on creating the best solution, even if it takes a little extra thinking to come up with it. When working together, the directive people keep charging forward and making quick decisions while the principled people keep raising questions to make sure the solution matches the principles and reaches perfection. Tensions can arise when the project is under tight deadlines and the quick decisions don't match the principles. Basically, the principled people start getting frustrated at the "rash decisions" and the directive people start rolling their eyes at the "redundant discussions", thinking "why are we discussing this again?" Meanwhile, the analytical people roll their eyes saying "it's simple, we just need to follow the data. What's the problem?" And, the accommodating people are stressing out trying to find ways for everyone to get along. Uh-oh! The tight deadlines are causing a clash of leadership styles!

Does this situation sound familiar to you? Do you have any examples to add? How do you get out of this situation? I'd love to hear your thoughts. Let's have some fun with this one!

Please feel free to add a URL with your comments.

Deceit, trickery, encouragement, and teamwork

susie.wee — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 16:11:00 GMT

I somehow got mixed up with a bad crowd- a very bad crowd- a trail running crowd. These people are crazy. They see a hill and they want to run up it. They like running half-marathons and marathons. They run at a moderate pace, sauntering along and stopping to regroup every so often, but they just keep on going up and up and they seem to be able to run forever. They think a 6-mile run is short, and they say things like "only 6 miles". They hate running on flats because "flats are boring". What can I say, they're crazy.

I got mixed up with them about a month ago by mistake. Now I just follow them wherever they take me. Before meeting them my longest run was 6 miles on flats during small time windows in my life of peak fitness. Last weekend they tricked me into running 8.5 miles, which was easily my longest run ever. Yesterday they tricked me into running 13.5 miles to 2000 feet elevation. Yes, we stopped to regroup every so often. Yes, I was practically crawling at the end. But it was longer and higher than I ever planned to run during my entire lifetime.

Afterwards I was sore... very sore... and I told my friend how far we ran and how sore I was. He said, "You didn't know that you were going to do that beforehand?" I said "No!" In fact, I didn't know how far or how high until we got to the top, actually, I didn't know until we got to the bottom and finished and they started clicking away on their little GPS gadgets. But my friend's question made me think... Often times if you are going to do a big ambitious challenging thing, you would know about it in advance and get yourself prepared and psyched up. You would train for it (perhaps for months), you would eat right beforehand, you would probably spend a good number of brain cycles fretting, and you might lie awake in bed a little nervous the night before. Well, since I didn't know what we were going to do, I didn't have to go through any of that. From my perspective, I was going out for a little jog on a trail, and it accidentally lasted longer and went higher. I didn't have to plan and worry about it beforehand. I just had to do it.

Okay, why am I writing about this in my work blog? Well, it's because it didn't actually happen purely by accident. I'll exagerrate a little bit, but basically, the team has a few schemers who tricked me into it. I think I was duped.

Barb turned back early because she only planned to do a "short run" (think "only six miles") since she was recovering from the first part of laser eye surgery and couldn't see depth. After we were just a couple miles into the run, Barb's parting words to me were "This hill goes up just a little more and then it's all rolling hills... You're gonna do great at this trail!" and then she turned off. So, I happily jogged along thinking it was "just a little more" uphill and the peak was just around the next corner. In reality, that "goes up just a little more" was about 4.5 more miles and 1500 more feet. She tricked me.

Dennis is another tricky one. He uses that "a little more" phrase quite a lot as well. When we're at the juncture where we're about to do a really steep and hairy section, he just smiles kindly giving no hint that something really bad is about to happen. When I first met the group, he sent me an extra email with directions to let me know where they will meet, and during runs he gives all sorts of compliments and encouragement. During a run he changes his pace to help out and encourage anyone who is having a hard time. As you can see, Dennis is another one of those people full of tricks and deceit.

Tim, Scott, Mary, Gerald, Cathy, Ruth... They're all guilty. And, they each do their trickery in different ways about different things... For example, one will tell a joke or talk about good food during a hairy part of the climb, again, just trying to trick you into lasting longer. As you can see, it's just a bad crowd.

Or, I guess I could take another perspective. The group is full of mentors, coaches, and great team players. In fact, they're almost a perfect team. What makes this group into such a great team?

They strive for ambitious goals together.
They encourage, motivate, and support each other.
They push ahead and then wait for each other.
They welcome and develop new people.
They develop each other.
They help each other through the challenging times and are sensitive to each others' needs.
They figure out and say what each other needs to hear during times of challenge to get to that next level, whether it's the truth or a little white lie.
They mentor each other without wanting any acknowledgement or credit.
They turn their individual strengths into their group strength.
They like each other, have fun together, and celebrate each others' accomplishments.

Again, they don't seek credit or acknowledgement when helping each other out. But, since I figured out their trickery and deceit, I'm calling them on it here!

As you can guess, I'm writing this here because I think this applies to work and your career. It doesn't matter what job, experience, or skill level you or the person you are talking to have. You can always give a little encouragement and coaching. Don't worry about being noticed in the short run... you absolutely will be noticed and appreciated in the long run!

Have you motivated someone today?
Have you encouraged someone today?
Have you mentored someone today?
Have you helped someone with their development today?
Have you helped someone be better than they ever thought they could or would?
Have you ever been tricked, deceived, motivated, and encouraged into doing something you didn't think you could?

I'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Please feel free to leave a URL in your comments.

Friendship skills at work

susie.wee — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 06:27:00 GMT

David Maister has an interesting post on using friendship skills as a strategy at work. David's target audience is people in professional service firms where clients are your key customers. He suggests that skills that make a person a good friend will also make a person a good consultant for your clients. I think it's a very interesting perspective and I agree with it. In fact, I think it's brilliant! And, I think it's good advice for anyone who is trying to have a successful and impactful career.

We hear about the importance of leadership, teamwork, collaboration, building networks, and personal effectiveness. But to explicitly call out friendship skills takes this to a new level.

True friends:

believe in each other
have a good time together
are honest with each other
are proud of each other's success
go to extremes to help each other without hesitation, even if it means making a personal sacrifice
have reciprocal relationships that result in a win-win for everyone
give each other the benefit of the doubt
tolerate mistakes and are ready to forgive
go out of their way to make up for mistakes to regain lost trust

When I think about it, my most effective work relationships have many of these friendship properties. And, when I think about, the biggest accomplishments I have seen come from teams with many of these friendship properties.

I'm not saying that all your coworkers should be your closest friends. But I am agreeing with David that friendship skills can be important factor for career success.

What do you think about using friendship skills at work?
What do you think about developing friendship skills for your career?
Which friendship properties are most useful for work?
Are there other properties of friendships that are useful for work and your career?

Tags: friendship skills, teamwork, career advice, David Maister, HP

Please feel free to leave a URL in your comments.

Top 10 things you can do to make a meeting successful

susie.wee — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 05:25:00 GMT

I've been in a number of fun and productive brainstorming meetings at work this past week. The people in the meetings are from different parts of the organization, so some people know each other well and some are meeting for the first time. There has been a lot of energy in the room and people are openly contributing their ideas. At the end of each meeting, I discuss our next steps and ask people if we should have another meeting. The answer keeps being "Yes!". A few people have even said "This is fun!".

This makes me think about what is making these meetings so productive and fun. My mind keeps going back to one explanation- it's the people. People are coming to the meetings with open minds, and they are also coming to the meetings "ready to have a good time". Since these are brainstorming meetings, the success of these meetings really depends on the people, their attitudes, and their ideas.

I put together a list of the top 10 things you can do to make a meeting successful. These tips apply to brainstorming meetings, but to meetings in general. These are extracted from the behaviors I'm seeing from my colleagues. Thank you, team!

Be ready to talk. Be ready to listen.
Be ready to contribute, both during and between meetings.
Be ready to create a great result.
Be ready to collaborate.
Be ready to meet team objectives and goals. Be ready to go with team decisions.
Be ready to share your best ideas. Be ready to accept and build on other people's ideas.
Be ready to have your ideas supported. Be ready to have your ideas shut down.
Be ready to argue politely. Be ready to concede.
Be ready to be positive. Be ready to have a good time.
Be ready to energize yourself. Be ready to energize others.

Note that the last two tips are perhaps the most important. When you come to a meeting with a positive attitude and ready to have a good time, you not only bring your own positive energy to the group, but you also have the effect of energizing others. This energy builds and helps create the dynamic collaborative environment needed for new ideas to flow and for the meeting to be successful.

Have you been in dynamic, creative meetings?
What were the key factors for success?
What do you think of the items on my top 10 list?
Which ones do you agree or disagree with?
Which ones are the most meaningful to you?
Do you have any to add?

Tags: career tips, successful meetings, brainstorming, creativity, collaborative dynamic environment, energizing others, HP

Please feel free to leave a URL in your comments.

Use your weekend strengths at work

susie.wee — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 06:24:00 GMT

I was on a panel Q&A session for the women interns at HP Labs. The panelists were a set of current and past lab directors at HP Labs and a senior researcher at HP Labs. My fellow panelists had some very good advice. The audience was a bright, energetic group of women who are in various stages of grad school, and they made good comments and asked great questions. It was a very fun group to talk to.

One of the tips I gave them was from my Top 10 Career Tips: Align your work with your passions and strengths. Define your career accordingly.

It turns out that this was not unique advice. In fact, all the panelists gave the advice that for career success, you have to be passionate about your work.

An additional tip that I gave was: Use your weekend strengths at work.

My advice here is to think about the things that you do on your weekends and in your free time when you're with your family and friends. Chances are that you're spending your free time doing things that you love to do. Chances are that these things use your natural strengths, i.e., your weekends strengths. And, chances are that your weekend strengths can be used at work!

You might not realize what your weekend strengths are, so you may need to do some asking around to find out. Ask your mom and your close friends what your natural weekend strengths are. You might think you're a pretty average person who doesn't have any special strengths or you might think you know what your strengths are, but your mother and your friends will probably be able to point out some strengths that you didn't know you had or that you didn't think were important. So ask them and listen carefully to their answer!

The next part is creating opportunities to use your weekend strengths at work. You probably never thought that your weekend strengths could be applied to work. They definitely can, and I'd even go so far as to say that if you get your job aligned with your weekend strengths, then you will have a successful career!

Let me give you a few examples about your hidden weekend strengths and how they can be applied to work.

When you go out with your friends, are you the person who does all the research and planning to find the best restaurants to go to, the best way to get there, and the nearby places to park? Do you make the restaurant reservations and print maps for everyone? These planning, organization, and execution skills are absolutely invaluable at work. So if you have them, please get into a job that uses and values them! Organize the projects and people at work, get people excited about what they're doing, and make those people and projects produce results. Note that those of us who don't naturally possess those planning and organizational skills find people like you invaluable! And, you don't have to be a manager to do these things. Just offer your skills to your manager and see what happens.

Or, are you the person who spends your free time reading news and surfing the internet learning all sorts of news and random tidbits? Do you always know the latest about what's going on with anyone at any moment anywhere in the world? Do you know where to go to find to information about anything? It turns out that these research and news skills are also invaluable in the workplace. Get into a job that needs this kind of diligence, collect all the information that's needed, and find a way to share the valuable information you collect in your head with those around you!

Or, do you spend your weekends coaching, teaching, or mentoring people about some activity that you love? If so, try to apply your coaching, teaching, and mentoring to your colleagues at work. You can do these things with your colleagues even if you are not a manager. I love it when my employees start coaching each other and when they start coaching me. Everyone wants to do a good job, so if you have any tips that can help someone do their job better, then offer to tell them!

You might think that your current job doesn't use your strengths. Before you come to this conclusion, I would strongly encourage you to take a very close look and ask yourself if your job doesn't use your strengths or if the way you are doing your job today doesn't use your strengths. Note that there is a big difference between these two. It turns out that there is lots of flexibility in how you do your current job. And, there is a very good chance that you can improve on the way you are doing your job today, especially if you think creatively about how to apply your strengths. Let me share an example from my own career, which is actually how I formed this advice in the first place.

Early in my career I used to sit in my cubicle and create video transcoding algorithms, develop prototypes, and write papers and patents. I thought that was what my job was. At the same time, I spent my weekends playing ice hockey, running a few practices, and giving people tips to improve their game. And, a couple years earlier I used to coach ice hockey; I really enjoyed teaching people new skills and watching them progress. At one of my performance reviews, my manager gave me my review which was basically all positive. He then asked if I had any questions. I didn't really have any, but we had an hour slot so I made one up. I asked my manager why all these things I like to do on my weekends are different from my job at work, even though they seem to be useful work skills. I told him about my weekend hockey exploits and the aspects of teamwork and coaching that I enjoy. He thought for a minute and then said, "They don't have to be different. They shouldn't be different!" He said that I should incorporate my teamwork and coaching skills at work and try to make them match. After that, I went back to my cubicle and I started thinking about how I could collaborate with other people on projects to bring a little teamwork into my job. Then, over time I mentored an intern and got a little coaching into my job. And soon enough, teamwork and coaching became a larger part of my job, and I redefined my job in way that being better at them made me more successful in my job. And, it turned out that this new way of doing my job actually led me to greater success, because I was working with more people and having more impact with my work. I'm happy to say that teamwork and coaching are still part of my job today!

Final remark: Discover your weekend strengths and find ways to use your weekend strengths at work!

So, here are my questions for you:

What are your weekend strengths?

Do you use your weekend strengths at work?

Ask a friend what your weekend strengths are. Did you find any surprises?

Do you think your weekend strengths can be applied to work?

If you can't see the connection, then let us know what your weekend strengths are so we can brainstorm about how you can apply them at work!

Tags: career tips, natural strengths, weekend strengths, successful career, align work with passion, career advice, HP

Please feel free to leave a URL in your comments.

Are you blind-sided by your strengths?

susie.wee — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 04:00:00 GMT

When you're playing sports, it's natural to have a strong side.

In soccer, you may be better at kicking the ball with your right foot than with your left foot.
In ice hockey, you may be better at making and receiving passes on your forehand than on your backhand. Or, you may have a better slapshot than wristshot.
In tennis, you may be better at hitting the ball with your forehand than your backhand.

Now, think about the unnatural things you do to favor your strong side.

In soccer, perhaps you take a few extra steps before taking a shot to move the ball from your left foot to your right.
In ice hockey, when making passes perhaps you first look to teammates on your forehand-facing side rather than your backhand-facing side. Or, perhaps you wind up for a slapshot instead of triggering a quick wrist shot.
In tennis, perhaps you position yourself on the line to increase the chance of receiving shots on your forehand.

Sometimes it's good to get aligned with your strong side. After all you are more skilled and you can execute better with your strong side.

But sometimes favoring your strong side is counter-productive and even harmful.

In soccer, those few extra steps might cost you the shot as your opponent will have more time to steal the ball. Those extra steps may even cost you the goal as they may give the opposing goalie the extra time to get into position to make the save.
In hockey, if you only look towards one side of the ice to make a pass, you greatly limit the passing options you have and make it easy for the opposing team to cover you and the teammates you're more likely to pass to. Also, if you wind up for a slap shot rather than trigger the quick wrist shot, the extra time can reduce your chances of scoring as in the soccer example.
In tennis, if you position yourself on the court to favor receiving forehand shots, then you make it harder to reach the shots that come down the line that you're farther from.

Even worse than these near-term tactical disadvantages are the long-term strategic disadvantages. As you favor your strong side and sometimes get away with it:

You may become over-confident in your abilities.
You may become overly reliant on your strong tool and skill and apply it to the wrong situations.
You may decide you don't need to invest in and develop your weak side.
You may become unaware of the fact that you have a weak side or gap.
You may become unaware of the fact that the gap skills exist or could be applied to the situation.
You may only consider solutions that use your limited skillset and toolset and become unaware that the other solutions even exist.

I think the worst impacts are the ones that you become unaware of, since they become your blind spots and they ultimately limit your capabilities.

You unknowingly create sub-optimal solutions to your problems.
You unknowingly create an upper limit on how well you can perform.

Of course, all this relates to work and your career.

Are you being blind-sided by your strengths?
What unnatural things have you done to favor your strong side?
What was the price you paid for this?
Can you see the analogies with work and your career?
Do you have any examples to share?

Tags: learning, development, favor strengths, career tips, sports analogy, HP

Are you here or there?

susie.wee — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 06:57:00 GMT

You know the person... the person who is always looking at their cell phone or PDA, checking for new messages, stepping out for phone calls, busily pounding on their laptops responding to their emails, even when they're in small meetings. The person is very busy, always moving, and always has so much to do, actually, too much to do. The person is very important and juggling many things. I'm sure you know the person I'm talking about. Maybe it's a colleague. Maybe it's a friend. Maybe it's you. I know that often times it's me.

We spend so much time being connected and building close relationships with people who are far away. Then, we go to the effort of reserving time to be with them and traveling to see them. And when we finally get there, instead of focusing on them, we dive into our connected mobile devices and start communicating with the other people who are now far away from us, those who we're virtually connected to.

In other words, instead of focusing on the people who are HERE, we focus on the people who are THERE. And, when we get THERE, that becomes our new HERE, and instead of focusing on the people who are in our new HERE, we focus on the people in our new THERE. It's a vicious cycle!

Perhaps you have figured out that I'm a big fan of being connected. I love the new communication experiences that technology has enabled. I love creating the technologies that enable them. I love the fact that I can communicate with people by email, phone, video conferencing, blogging, social networking, and instant messaging. I think the experiences and technologies are immensely valuable and that we should keep developing them as fast as we can.

But, as people, we have to learn how to manage ourselves in a world where these technologies exist.

Do you know someone who is stuck in the HERE-THERE cycle? Are you?
Where do you live? HERE or THERE?
How do we manage ourselves in a world of communication technologies?

Tags: communication experience, communication technology, multitasking, work-life balance, overload, focus on people, build relationships, HP

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An audience of one

susie.wee — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 20:19:00 GMT

What size audience do you need to stick with a new idea, a new tool, or a new hobby?

An audience of zero. There are things that I do for an audience of zero. I do them for myself, and I do them no matter what. I enjoy doing them so much or find them so valuable that they don't require any audience. If everything around me fell apart, I would still do them. For example, my research falls into this camp. If the world came tumbling down around me, I could happily keep myself occupied with a few programmable mobile devices that I could develop into a little video streaming system.

An audience of one. There are things that I do for an audience of one. Social networking tools like Facebook are an example. I started using Facebook as "research" to see what it was all about. But, I kept using it because I had an audience of one, my sister, who cared about seeing what I was experiencing when I was away on trips. Now I have a small community of friends on Facebook who update their status as they travel and post pictures now and then. I'd say we're casual users. But it's interesting that it took an audience of one to make me stick with it long enough to build up my little community.

An audience of few. There are things that I do for an audience of n, where n is somewhere between 1 and 100. Blogging falls into this camp. I am very pleasantly surprised when I find out that someone reads my blog and finds it valuable. I don't need a huge audience, as it is more important to me that it touches a few people more deeply. (A big thanks to those of you who have read this far!)

An audience of many. Then, there are things that someone might do for an audience of N, where N is very very large. Personally, I can only think of a couple things I do that fall in this camp. For me, I do my research for myself, but I would love to get some of my and my lab's technologies into the hands of the world! But some people may have many things in this list. For example, Guy Kawasaki is not shy about saying that he's trying to climb the ranks on Technorati, which requires a large audience and lots of links. (Guy- Here's your link!)

People are different, and the audience you want or need for the things you do is a very personal thing. Some people need an audience, others don't. This is not good or bad or better or worse... just different. Also, your desired audience size may change over time as you gain more confidence in what you can do and how many people you can impact. For example, Guy knows he can change the world so he probably lives in the domain of N!

What size audience do you want or need for the different things you do?
What things do you do for an audience of zero?
What things do you do for an audience of 1, few (n), or many (N)?
Do you have examples where your desired audience size has changed over time?

Tags: audience size, feedback, stickiness, blogging, HP

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Does your work environment resemble The Office?

susie.wee — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 03:54:00 GMT

Last week I was talking to some friends about their work environment. I was hearing some stories that were a little hard for me to believe. All of a sudden, a little lightbulb went off in my head. I asked them, "Have you seen that show The Office? What do you think about that show?" They laughed and said that they thought it was funny. I said I thought it was funny too. Then I asked, "Can you relate to the show? Does your work environment actually resemble The Office?" They started nodding vigorously, and without hesitation they decisively, independently, and in unison said "YES! Our work is definitely like The Office!" (By the way, they work at different places.) They then went into a bunch of real-life work stories that sounded a lot like the kinds of things you might see on the show.

I was absolutely stunned. My introduction to The Office was through in-flight entertainment on business trips. I do think the show is funny, but I thought it was an extreme exaggeration and I thought it did not accurately resemble any real-life work environment. While I have seen a few strange situations at work, I could not relate to The Office in my own daily work environment as the norm. Now, I have to say, I think Dilbert is very funny. And, to be honest, I can relate to a number of Dilbertisms in my own daily work experiences. Since I'm a manager, I might even be one of the characters sometimes. But The Office? I can't really relate to that at all.

I have to say, my career advice to my friends was that if you want to have an upwardly mobile career, then you better get a better work environment and surround yourself with really good people. Now, I don't mean to be judgmental, and staying in such a work environment and may be a fine choice for you. But, for those of you who aspire to have a more professional work environment, I just wanted to let you know that such work environments do exist, so you could look for them.

And, by the way, I am not at all against the show. I think it's funny and I'm glad it makes people laugh. And Kudos to the producers of the current and preceeding versions for making such a classic.

Back to real-life work environments. I'm curious to hear from all of you:

Does your work environment resemble The Office? [1=No way; 10=They film it in my office.]
If not, do you believe that there exist work environments that do?
Does your work environment resemble Dilbert? [1=No way; 10=They film it in my office.]
What is your advice for people who work in office environments that resemble The Office?

Help me understand this!

Tags: The Office, Dilbert, work environment, career advice, HP

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Don't forget to breathe

susie.wee — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 15:50:00 GMT

Sounds kind of silly out of context, but those of you who work out know exactly what this means. When you're doing something tough at the gym like lifting weights, doing pushups, or striking a strange yoga pose, then it's kind of natural to hold your breath and stop breathing. If you're lucky, you have someone nearby who will remind you to breathe. And, if you do breathe, then the oxygen will flow through your body, your muscles, and your mind and you'll be able to perform better, think more clearly, and last longer.

It's funny how something so natural (actually, required!), such as breathing, gets completely forgotten when you're doing something hard!

This makes me think about what other otherwise-second-nature things we forget to do when things get tough at work and in our careers.

Let's make a list together- I'll start!

Don't forget to breathe: This applies when you work out, but this applies to work too. If you're in a situation where you're getting nervous or emotional inside about something, then take a deep breath, regain your composure, and then find a way to approach it constructively.
Be polite: When things get tough and you are working towards a tight deadline, the first thing to go might be your politeness. You don't intend to be mean, but others might perceive your actions that way. So, even when things get tough, remember the basics: Say Hello. Ask nicely. Say Please. Say Thank You. Smile. Share.
Tell people where you're going: When you start getting on a roll or getting busy, your tendency might be to concentrate on the tasks at hand and forget to tell people where you are going, both physically and in your mind (your co-workers are not mind-readers!). At home, you probably tell people when you're going to the store, going on a trip, or going to work. Do this at work too! Tell people when you're going somewhere physically, and tell them what you did when you get back. And, tell people where you are going in your mind, for example, what you have planned for the meeting objectives and what you're shooting for in your career! (I forget this one all the time.)
Express yourself: Say what you want. Say what you think. Say what you're worried about. Now, don't be the ultimate complainer and don't be such a doubting Tom that you bring everyone else down. Life's too short for living life that way, at work and at home! But you can be professional and let people know what your concerns are and find constructive ways to solve them.
Call for help when you're hurt: When you physically get hurt, you probably yelp or make a face and you probably ask one or more trusted people what you should do about your injury. If you injury is serious enough, you probably even go to the hospital or see a doctor. This applies to work too. If you get hurt at work, find a trustworthy co-worker or boss, let them know what your injury is, and ask them for advice on what you should do.
Tell people what you're thinking: Ask questions when you don't understand something. Speak up when you have an opinion. You probably do this with your friends and family. Do this at work too.
Ask for directions when you're lost: Okay, maybe this is not second nature for everyone. But it does help to talk to people about your career and your goals, and to ask for directions. If you feel lost in your career, don't worry. I have a secret to share- everyone feels this way at times, even the most seemingly successful people you know, including your VPs and CEOs! It helps to talk to people because 1) it will actually make you think about what your career direction and goals are, 2) it will encourage the other person to share their insights with you from their perspective (maybe they will even share their own career direction and goals with you!), and 3) you won't be going through all this alone!
Take trips: Every so often you get to the point where you need to take a break and you go on an outing or a trip. Maybe you go on a long vacation, maybe a weekend trip, maybe a day trip, or maybe just a couple hours out. You might be visiting somewhere new, trying out new foods, relaxing, or being adventurous. Afterwards, you're probably glad you took the time to take the trip. When you're at work, you should do the same. Take a trip and visit somewhere new, e.g., visit a different business unit, a different company, or talk to someone in a different job function. Just try to learn something new. This will be refreshing, and may give you new ideas and insights on how to do your own job better.
Celebrate! In real life, you celebrate birthdays and anniversaries, and you probably toast the little things. Do this at work, too. Celebrate your and your co-workers' accomplishments, however big or little. [Contributed by Brent Vallat.]

Let's flesh out this list together!

Do you find any of these tips helpful?
Do you agree or disagree with any of them?
Do you have suggestions for other tips?
What other otherwise-second-nature-things do we forget to do at work and in our careers?

I'd love to hear your ideas!

Tags: career advice, work tips, breathe, HP

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