Michael Bungay Stanier, who wrote the book, Do More Great Work: Stop the Busywork. Start the Work that Matters., believes that all work falls in one of three buckets:

1. Bad Work consumes time and energy, and makes no difference.
2. Good Work that you do most of the time, and do it well.  The problem -- it's endless, and it's comfortable, which keeps you spinning your wheels in routine and busyness, as you just get through each week.
3. Great Work is meaningful, challenging, lights you up and matters to you. 

What kind of work are you doing, most of the time? 

If you're like most people, on average, you're doing Bad Work 0-40% of the time, 40-80% of your time doing Good Work, and 0-25% on Great Work.

Check out this YouTube video for a quick overview.

How can you do more Great Work?  Here are three tips that I believe in and fully endorse:

• Create Projects.  See all great work as projects.  Abandon your job description and focus on creating projects where you are focusing on your best work.
• Define 3 Things Daily.  Define three high-impact actions you will take each day, and focus on them. Having a long "To-Do" list completed daily isn't effective if you haven't accomplished what matters most. At the very least, define one thing that you really will do. The other two can be gravy, bonus tasks that you'll be happy if you get to them and if you don’t, you won’t beat yourself up about it.
• Create Great Work Space. Great Work requires a different type of thinking, so create a different kind of space for it. The space can be a coffee shop, a meeting room, another office space, the cafeteria, a library. Find another space to do your Great Work.  Changing the context will change the way you work.

I'll be interested to hear about your success doing more Great Work!

Recruiting and getting the right "talent" in organizations is one of the most important leadership abilities.  Whether the buzzword is "talent management" or "human resources", it all comes down to having the right people.

A recent post in Workopolis blog "New Rules for the Talent Hunt" highlighted how the job market is changing, with tips for recruiters and candidates.  From this post, I found 3 key components that I feel are really critical to be aware of, when you are a leader searching for the right people:

a. Hire a person, not a resume.  Spend time getting to know people in interviews: who they are, how they will contribute, and how well they will fit into your organization.

b. Getting it wrong can be costly. "Hiring the wrong person will cost you 2.5 times that person’s salary."* Getting it right is worth the reward of the time you invest in really getting to know people in interviews.

c. Fulfillment is the new corner office. Employee happiness (and productivity) is a result of fulfillment on the job. Engaged employees achieve more. Beyond hiring the right people, invest in keeping each person engaged and thus, achieving results on the job. Find out what is important to each person individually, to maintain fulfillment in his/her career.

* Source: Society of HR Management 2007

1. Commitment. People who are truly committed are consistently present and engaged. They show up fully. They have their heads in the game 100%. You can sense when people are truly dedicated in this way; and, on the flipside, when they are not. Trust your intuition in assessing someone’s level of engagement.

2. Fit. People with complementary strengths form the best team, and may provide a healthy source of conflict. Rather than a homogeneous group of people, having differing opinions and attitudes will create a stronger contribution to the whole. At the same time, you want team members who play well together, to minimize the destructive potential of conflict. Also:

• Consider culture (the way we work around here) and values (what’s really important to us) and how your team member will fit in within that framework.
• Assess the individual’s personality and how well it fits the job.

3. Skill and Aptitude. Of course, you want people who have the ability to do their job. Although, I have engaged team members who did not have 100% of the requirements for the job, but had the aptitude and desire to learn and bridge the gaps. As long as you sense a good fit and high level of commitment, know that attitude and personality often weigh more in the long term since these attributes are inherent in individuals and not learned traits.

• Wouldn’t it be preferable to have someone who shows up consistently, plays well with others and is growing into their role, than someone who is capable of doing the job but is consistently absent and is destructively confrontational with others?

When I am choosing a team member for my sailing team, I assess the racers with these 3 attributes. Commitment and fit are as important as skill and aptitude. Whether you are selecting a new team member, a new board member, or making a difficult decision to let someone go, consider these 3 attributes to assist your decision making.

How do you assess these 3 characteristics? Communication, through active listening, questioning, while focusing on understanding others and always, always, maintaining respect.

In Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture", he shared some valuable advice for working well with other people in a group:


Find things you have in common. You can almost always find something in common with another person, and from there, it's much easier to address issues where you have differences.  Sports cut across boundaries of race and wealth. And if nothing else, we all have the weather in common.

Try for optimal meeting conditions. Make sure no one is hungry, cold or tired.  Meet over a meal if you can; food softens a meeting.  That's why they "do lunch" in Hollywood.

Let everyone talk. Don't finish someone's sentences.  And talking louder or faster doesn't make your ideas any better.

Check egos at the door. When you discuss ideas, label them and write them down.  The label should be descriptive of the idea, not the originator: "the bridge story" not "Jane's story."

Praise each other. Find something nice to say, even if it's a stretch.  The worst ideas can have silver linings if you look hard enough. (A related piece of advice: Look for the best in everybody. If you wait long enough, people will surprise and impress you.)

Phrase alternatives as questions. Instead of "I think we should do A, not B," try "What if we did A, instead of B?" That allows people to offer comments rather than defend one choice.

I read an article about attaining career New Year Resolutions, related to the recent theme in the Lounge -- taking consistent action towards your outcomes gets results. The advice is to:

“make goals you wish to achieve by the end of the year and strategize the steps you'll need to take in order to get there. Instead of squeezing yourself to 'resolve' things quickly, spread out the commitments and proceed at a manageable pace, with benchmarks to understand and celebrate your progress. Steady progress is made and the stated goal has an excellent chance to be achieved."

I particularly like the following 3 success tips to stay on track in the New Year:

1. Eat the frog! "Mark Twain said if you eat a frog first thing in the morning that will probably be the worst thing you do all day. So, start your day by tackling an important task, especially if it is a task you aren't crazy about."

2. Concrastinate. "If procrastinating means putting things off, concrastinate should be doing things immediately. Work in 15 minute increments. If there is a task you don't like, set a timer and do it for 15 minutes. At the end of 15 minutes, you will be amazed at how much you've accomplished. At that point, either stop or if you have built up some momentum, keep going."

5. Plan it. "A few minutes of planning can save you hours of time. Either first thing in the morning or at the end of the day, take a few minutes to plan. It doesn't have to be a long formal process, just jot down the things you want to do that day (or the next if you do this at the end of the day)."

How have you experienced these success tips in action? Post your comments and share your success.