HSM Inspiring Ideas

Visit the new HSM Inspire Blog!

HSM has launched a new and improved Blog called HSM Inspire which can be found at the following link:

http://inspire.hsmglobal.com/Blog

 

 

 

Leadership and Emotional Control--Is there a Time and Place for Strategic Loss of Cool?

Over at N2Growth, Bloggers Hub member Mike Myatt is encouraging leaders to exercise EC--emotional control:  "Emotional outbursts, rants, and rages will rarely do anything but cause you to make poor decisions and to lose credibility." So what to do with those pesky emotions that so clearly under-gird human behavior, but can just as easily destroy your ability to lead as help it? Clearly, you can't escape them entirely--nobody wants to follow a passionless leader. But, nobody likes a hothead either. Chess legend Gary Kaspaorov wrestled with the issue and came up with this:

So let's assume you have your emotions in check, and you've integrated them into your decision-making, but you make a tactical decision to engage them to light a fire under your team. You're still in control of your emotions--you just think that a strategic rant makes sense. Good or bad? Take it from another Bloggers Hub member, Terry Starbucker, who pondered To Yell or Not to Yell, That Is The Question (And 5 Things To Think About Before You Answer It). Starbucker thinks "the rant" can be a leadership tool, if used properly and only after you take into account the following five factors:

• Like any other messaging delivery system,  what we really need to look at is the content of that message.
• Then there is the timing of that message. [Pick] a time when everyone [is] already in a heightened state of awareness.
• Frequency: If you are prone to yell at the slightest provocation, or need to jack up the volume every time you feel you need to provide inspiration, it will get old really fast, and people will tune you out.
• Another consideration is the person behind the yell – how “outside the box” is this outburst?  I classify rants in several ways – there are the natural “in the moment” sounding ones, very contrived and fake ones, and then there are the “fight or flight“  fear generated ones.  Humans are very perceptive creatures, and they can pick up on these nuances very quickly.
• Lastly,  you have to “put your money where your mouth is” - that is, if you’re going to yell at people to get them to perform at a higher intensity and focus, then you better do the same yourself. 

If it sounds like the strategic rant would be hard to pull off...well, it should be. What Starbucker is suggesting doesn't run counter to the advice of Myatt or Kasparov. Starbucker is suggesting that you be able to do a little method acting now and then to express appropriate emotion. And that is the height of emotional control.

 

The Bloggers Hub Cap--Essentials from Top Business Blogs

Here are the can't misses in business blogs for that past week:

Economy, Trends, Change:

Will the Verizon iPhone Cripple Verizon? (Nick Bilton--New York Times Bits)

The mobile wireless battlefield is heating up once again. For years, U.S. consumers have clamored for Apple's iPhone to be made available on a network other than AT&T, which has been jammed since the phone's debut. (Calling an AT&T iPhone owner can be nightmarish.) The question is whether the same will happen if/when Verizon introduces its long-awaited iPhone. And what does a new iPhone carrier mean for carriers in general--for AT&T, which might suffer abandonment, as frustrated users flock to the competitor, or for the second-tier carriers like T-Mobile and Sprint?

Leadership, Performance, People:

Howard Roark Would've Made a Great Football Coach (S.M. Oliva--Mises Daily)

Do ideas matter more than talent? Oliva examines that difference between entrpreneurial and bureaucratic leadership highlighting an October 31 NFL football game between the Detroit Lions and Washington Redskins--specifically Redskins Coach Mike Shanahan's decisions late in the fourth quarter to pull star quarterback Donovan McNabb and replace him with journeyman Rex Grossman. Answer to the question opening this paragraph? "Ideas without the talent to execute them are worthless in the marketplace. It doesn’t matter how brilliant an architect you are if nobody wants to buy and occupy the damn building."

Strategy, Innovation, Communication:

3 Steps to Foolish Marketing (Brian Clark--Copyblogger)

Applying the tactics of the highly successful Motley Fool investment advisory service, Clark highlights the differences between foolish online advertising (which most online ads are) and Foolish online advertising--that is, "without wasting your money and annoying people" (which most online ads do). This is all about the power of content-driven, opt-in, education-based strategies that cost little and guarantee you no income at first (because you're always giving something away for nothing). Your content replaces traditional banner and click-through ads. This works because online consumers want content; your educational content becomes your advertising. And eventually, you can pitch to your new, loyal students.

 

The Bloggers Hub Cap--Essentials from Top Business Blogs

We're going to change it up at the Bloggers Hub Cap. Starting this week, the hub cap will highlight three of the best recent blog posts on the business web. Enjoy.

Economy, Trends, Change:

Power of Ten Interface (Thomas Frey's Futurist Speaker)

The distance between information and our brain is getting shorter. Twenty years the time between a request for information and finding the answer in the Library of Congress averaged 10 hours per question. We have shaved that time today to 10 minutes, and we are headed for a world in which we can find answers in as little as 10 seconds. "The ease and fluidity of our information-to-brain interface will have a profound effect on everything from education, to the way business is being conducted, to the way we function as a society."

Leadership, Performance, People:

Servant Leaders Outperform Because They Connect (Michael Lee Stallard)

Do certain types of leaders garner out-sized loyalty? Because they move people to “surrender the me for the we” and create "connection cultures," the teams of "servant leaders" accomplish more because they pull together rather than drift apart: the fascinating case of retired Chief Naval Officer Vern Clark, under whom re-enlistment soared from 38% to 56.7%.

Strategy, Innovation, Communication:

Top Ten Reasons Your Company Shouldn't Blog (B.L. Ochman's What's Next Blog)

Every company needs a blog, right? Maybe not. Companies need to consider whether they are willing to commit the time, energy and money to making a blog successful.  Leveraging your business by blogging takes a lot of work, and most company blogs are failures--not read, not interesting, not original and you can't expect them to drive sales.

World Business Forum 2010 Weekly Bloggers Hub Cap #wbf10

We'd like to welcome new WBF10 Bloggers Hub blogger Faith Fuqua-Purvis (Metcalf & Associates). With less than three weeks to go before World Business Forum 2010 kicks off, the Hub is heating up, and we're getting excited to welcome everyone to Radio City for a great event. Here are some Hub highlights of the past week:

• Ginger Conlon (1 to 1 Media): Who Controls Your Brand
• Jonathan Fields (Awake at the Wheel): How to Box and Sell Air
• Daniel Leidl (The Washington Post/My Generation Leader): Still Surprised: A Life in Leadership
• Larry Ossei-Mensah (My Global Hustle): Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa (Book Review)
• Ramon Ray (Small Biz Technology): Online Advertising Stats: Women Click. Men Act. Knowing The Difference Can Boost Your Online Advertising Results
• Kris Ruby (Ruby Media Group): Social Media Business Netiquette Tips (ABC Good Morning CT)
• Bret Simmons (Bretlsimmons.com) Employee Withdrawal: A Big Reason You Need to Care About Job Satisfaction
• Michael Lee Stallard (Insights on Leadership and Employee Engagement): To Impart Your Values
• Phil Stott (Vault's Careers Blog): How BMW is Dealing with an Aging Workforce

We're putting the final touches (like copyediting) on the WBF10 Bloggers Hub web page, and should be unveiling it next week.

Welcome to The World Business Forum 2010 Bloggers Hub Cap #wbf10

Welcome to the inaugural run of the Hub Cap--our weekly hot-list of notable posts by members of the World Business Forum 2010 Bloggers Hub:

• Ginger Conlin (1 to 1 Media Blog): Connecting the Dots Between Social Media and Customer Service
• Mitch Ditkoff (Heart of Innovation): Look to Nature for a Creative Breakthrough
• Jim Estill (CEO Blog - Time Leadership): Limits to Creative Energy
• Boris Pluskowsky (The Complete Innovator): 6 Secrets to Corporate Authenticity
• Carol Roth (Unsolicited Business Advice): How to "Stalk" Effectively
• Bret L. Simmons (The Leader Lab and bretlsimmons.com): The Narcissistic Leader
• Liz Strauss (Successful--and Outstanding--Blog): Cool Tool Review: Mechanical Turk

Check the Hub Cap each Friday to experience the unique viewpoints of Bloggers Hub bloggers as they wax on important issues in today's business world.

#WIF10 Beam Us Up! WIF 2010 is Here, and It's SRO

The last time I was in the Nokia Theater in the heart of Times Square, I watched the movie Star Trek Generations, the one in which Captains Kirk and Picard are stuck in an energy ribbon of bliss and immortality called the Nexus, where they have to defeat the evil Soran, who just wants to live in the Nexus forever (and who could argue with him, really). Or something like that. Well, I just got a sneak peak at the World Innovation Forum 2010 set at the Nokia, and if appearances are any indication, this year's Forum is going to go where no prior WIF has gone before, and you won't want to leave. Hey, the technology involved, alone, makes Star Trek look like child's play--who needs a communicator when you have Twitter? And the Bloggers, Tweeters and other web reporters who will be working the two Bloggers Hubs overseeing the stage will make warp speed look like a traffic jam. That's innovation for you. Just about the only thing we can't do that they purported to do on Star Trek is beaming ourselves up, and who knows, maybe a speaker or two will broach that topic for us in the next couple days.

Anyway, workers were just testing the enormous video screen that will add the visual color to speakers' presentations (one guy said the screen was 24 x 18--I think it was bigger). There are 900 seats that will be occupied, and a VIP section filled with a who's who of innovation, not to mention a growing live web audience (still time to register) that includes attendees from Europe, Japan, and South America. The "w" in WIF is a reality this year.

#WIF10 Meet the WIF Speakers: Biz Stone

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone comes to WIF to talk about the innovation he unleashed on the world, the power of simplicity and what Twitter means for business.  

Ok, that was already too long for a Twitter post, but when you're talking about someone who has more than 1.6 millions followers, 140 characters just doesn't seem like enough, especially when he is the creative force behind the one-to-many network that is changing the way people communicate around the world. People like Biz Stone is what WIF is all about. And we all get to watch his innovation develop in real time.

Before Twitter, Biz helped build other popular social media services such as Xanga, Blogger, and Odeo. He also published two books about the origins and social significance of blogging: Who Let the Blogs Out? and Blogging: Genius Strategies for Instant Web Content. Stone teaches an annual master class at Oxford's Saïd Business School. He shares much of what he has learned over the past decade as an advisor to startups such as answer community Fluther.com, travel service Trazzler.com which he co-founded, content encouragement service Plinky.com, and the non-profit organization Justgive.org.

#WIF10 Meet the WIF Speakers: Seth Godin

On his blog recently, best-selling author, renowned speaker and agent of change Seth Godin rued the emptiness of most writing. Given his 11 best-sellers including Purple Cow, All Marketers Are Liars, Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us and his latest, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?, not to mention his blog, the most popular marketing blog in the world, you have to figure he's someone with something to say. That's why we're excited to welcome Seth to WIF 2010, where he will discuss a broad range of subject relating to marketing innovation and remind us that there is nothing like tough times for refocusing your marketing efforts. Business Week 's "Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age," will also touch on the Internet as an enabler rather than a destination; redefining the e-funnel: how different consumers want to be treated differently; leadership as a form of marketing and today's top secrets of marketing innvation (and the crucial drivers).

For a sense of what Godin thinks about an innovation that has already gone mainstream, check out his 2008 post on micro-blogging, You Will Be Misunderstood.

New HSM Inspiring Ideas Podcast being launched

Working on launching a new HSM podcast. First episode: Gary Hamel at the 2009 World Business Forum