Big-name entertainers had all but disappeared from Fremont Street, abandoning Glitter Gulch when the cheesy outdoor Fremont Street Experience was erected in the 1990s. Thankfully, comedian David Brenner aims to correct that travesty with this two-month run at Downtown’s fanciest digs, the Golden Nugget. Brenner, a Vegas regular since 1970, is making a comeback, and will stage his comedy routine to Downtowners brave enough to abandon their 5-cent fruit machines for an evening of sophisticated stand-up.

Today was my day off!

Although I woke up 2 hours later than what I had planned for, I still managed to do everything on my list for today. I was quite impressed with myself as I have no sense of time management.

First on my list: museum hopping

I went to the Singapore Art Museum and National Museum of Singapore. Both were fantastic but the national museum made me envious, it was so beautiful!

National Museum of Singapore

I went to Little India afterwards to go to this veggie eatery that’s part of an art project.

It’s called Food #03 and it’s part of the PostMuseum project, which the website explains more.

They only served pizzas this week, so I ordered the mixed vegetables one.

It was light and crispy. I quite liked it! It’s also a very relaxed place to just go hang out, read a book or meet up with friends. I would go back if I have an unplanned afternoon.

And then I finally went to Max Brenner. At first, I was disappointed about the size of the place. It was tiny, in comparison to the one in New York and so was their menu but the dessert was still very satisfying.

I had chocolate-filled crepe with caramel sauce, vanilla sauce, bananas and crystallized nuts.

Needless to say, it was yum-mee!

The shop was located at the Esplanade Theatre mall, Singapore’s main theatre, close to the marina bay. Since it was the weekend, they had a band playing outside, just by the bay. It was lovely.

I stayed for a few hours, listening to them play and just enjoying it. At around 9, I decided to head back to the hotel. I had a very long day so I picked up food from the nearby thai restaurant, ThaiExpress.

I was honestly not expecting it to be good but to my surprise, it was! I ordered spicy beans fried in a shrimp paste sauce (left) and seafood pad thai (right).

Back to work tomorrow at the museum…

But on the brighter side, my parents are coming in tomorrow! Now I can’t wait to finally try Singapore’s fine dining restaurants.

]]> http://thelatimergroup.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/anyone-know-how-to-lead-a-productive-conference-call/ Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:26:10 +0000 thelatimergroup http://thelatimergroup.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/anyone-know-how-to-lead-a-productive-conference-call/

We saw some disturbing stats today which got us thinking about leading meetings, especially virutal meetings or conference calls. These stats are a little dated but still eye-opening. A 2004 survey from Raindance Communications looked at the issue of multitasking. And for those of you who regularly lead conference calls (like me), brace yourselves… the numbers ain’t pretty.

According to this survey:

90% of people surveyed said they multitask while on conference calls;

70% reported doing other, unrelated work;

50% reported catching up on unrelated email, texting or instant messaging;

35% reported that they eat;

35% reported that they mute the meeting so they can conduct side conversations;

25% reported that they spend time on the internet.

In other words, most of the time, the people surveyed are not paying close attention to the conference call. Do you think this happens on the calls you lead? There are only two ways to answer that question… the honest way or the delusional way. The simple fact is that keeping people’s attention while you are leading a conference call is really challenging, and we’ll spend time this week delving into this issue.

But before we share some thoughts on how to keep the audience’s attention during a call, we ask you what you think? We’d love to hear ideas, comments or frustrations on leading conference calls and keeping people engaged.

Fire away, and we’ll be back tomorrow with some thoughts of our own.

We’ve already covered the first four key steps to creating an aligned and motivated team:

#1: Have a vision, mission or direction for the team;

#2: Communicate that vision, mission or direction so everyone on the team knows what it is;

#3: Assign roles and responsibilities so everyone feels a sense of ownership over the outcome;

#4: Don’t micromanage… let people execute the assignment you have given them;

And, finally, the last step to creating an aligned and motivated team is to bring everyone together, on a regular basis, and discuss progress, what’s working and what’s not, make changes to the plan, and (here’s the important part), give public credit where credit is due. Make the people on your team who deserve it feel good about their contribution and let them enjoy some acclaim in front of their peers.

None of this is rocket science, and the whole concept comes down to a few basic concepts: direction, communication, ownership and respect.

That’s how you align and motivate your team.

In our last post, we described that the third key step in creating a great team is to give everyone on the team a clear role and set of responsibilities in achievement of the vision or mission for the team. Everyone needs to be able to play a part, and they all need to know what that part is.

And that leads straight into the fourth key step. It’s a simple one… once you have created the role for a team member, once you have given them ownership over a part of your potential success, please, please, please don’t micromanage their efforts! Nothing kills motivation more quickly and more completely than an overbearing, micro-managing, suffocating leader. The great leaders we see have the confidence to give people some room to roam, and only step in when they have to. Sometimes when a member of the team makes a mistake, it provides a great learning moment for all, and the team can quickly be better off for having made the mistake… not always, but sometimes.

So, have the confidence to let your team execute on the responsibilities you have given them. It won’t work out perfectly every time. But if you develop the reputation as a leader who lets people do their work, you’ll lead better teams because you’ll attract top talent. People will want to work with you. No one chooses to work for an overbearing, suffocating micromanager.

As always, we welcome your thoughts.

Coming Friday: Aligning and Motivating Your Team, Part 5

So, now if you have done the first two steps well — created a vision for your team, and articulated it clearly for your team — now it is time to start thinking about the next critical step for aligning and motivating your team. If you have already articulated the vision to the team, you then need to think about clearly assigning roles and responsibilities so that every member of the team understands how they will contribute to overall success.

On any team, successful motivation requires that the people on the team feel like they own a piece of the outcome, as if a piece of the outcome is dependent on them. Motivating your team has a great deal to do with ownership. I’ll quote the great Warren Buffett: “No one washes a rental car. No one paints a rented house. Nothing motivates like honest to god ownership.“

If you want your team to be motivated around the goal, make sure they own a piece of the goal. And to make them own it, you have to give them a clear role, clear responsibilities.

I welcome your thoughts and comments on this. Don’t be afraid to push back.

Coming Thursday: Aligning and Motivating Your Team, Part 4

In our last post, we talked about the first critical step towards creating a well-aligned, motivated and productive team… you must have a clear direction, mission or goal for that team to be aligned around, before you have any hope of having an aligned team.

What’s the second critical step? Well, at the risk of sounding obvious, here it is… you have to let everyone on the team know what that direction, mission or goal is. I can’t tell you how many times this has happened to me and my colleagues at The Latimer Group. We are working with a client… they ask us for help with an unproductive team… we ask a few questions and learn that the leader thinks the team has a clear goal… and then we ask a few team members and find out none of them has any idea what the goal is. It happens all the time.

So, step one is to set a clear direction. Step two is make sure everyone on the team knows what that direction is. We always recommend getting the group together in a room, or in a virtual environment if that is the only option, and discuss in detail the direction, mission or goal of the team. Make sure everyone hears the same thing at the same time. Encourage people to ask question and discuss. Because only when everyone on the team understands where you are trying to lead them do you have any realistic hope of aligning them around the goal.

Sounds pretty obvious, doesn’t it? Well, it is. But the simple fact is that most teams don’t do this very well.

Let us know what you think…

Coming Wednesday: Aligning and Motivating Your Team, Part 3

Regardless of our industry, our organization and our role within our organization, the ability to align and motivate the people who work for us or with us is a mission critical skill. Simple fact. And this is not an easy thing to do. Almost everyone shows up with their own ideas, their own agenda, and their own dreams of being the leader. So how do we consistently get the people who we work with to play well together, to “share the sandbox” so to speak?

We’ve come up up five critical steps for aligning, motivating and successfully managing a team, and we’ll spend the next five posts here sharing them with you.

So, what’s the first key step to aligning and motivating your team towards higher effectiveness and performance? The answer is simple. Before you do anything at all, the key to building a great team is to get very clear, in your own mind, what the purpose, mission, goal, destination or direction of the team needs to be. What are you working towards? What are you trying to create? What problem are you trying to solve? What is the raison d’etre for your team’s existence?

You need to work all of this out before you can even hope to build a great team, because this work, this thinking will set up everything else in your effort to build a great team.

Start there… think about where you want and need the team go, what you want or need them to achieve. Be as clear and specific as you can. Be as action-oriented and results-based as you can.

“Our team needs to reduce $500,000 of wasted expense in the next three months.“

“We need to increase our market share by 10% in 2010.“

“We need to raise $1,000,000 for the cause this year.“

“We will win five medals at the next Olympic Games.“

Fill in the blank for whatever is necessary for you and your organization. But the point here is that great teams start with a clear purpose. Otherwise, things get murky, harder to define, harder to control.

I’m open to thoughts and comments on this…

Coming Tuesday: Aligning and Motivating Your Team, Part 2

Over the holiday break, I was flipping through some history books that Emily and I have in our home. And I came across an essay by Edmund Morris about Ronald Reagan. Morris was the official biographer of Reagan as President, and he did extensive writing on the man. Over the last several years of the Reagan Presidency, he had nearly unlimited access.

In the essay, I was struck by this passage, which described an interview with Mikhail Gorbachez after he first met Reagan in 1985. Morris asked Gorbachez what his first reactions were after his initial meetings with Reagan. Here’s the passage from the Morris essay:

I asked Mr. Gorbachez, ‘At that moment when you first met President Reagan, what did you see when you looked into his eyes? What kind of man did you think you were meeting?’ Gorbachez spoke in Russian. And his interpreter said, ’Mr. Gorbachez says that Reagan was ‘authentic.’ In Russian, the word is ‘lichnost’. He went on to explain that ‘lichnost’ is not an adjective, but an almost untranslatable noun. It means much more than ‘an authentic human being.’ It means a man of such force and certainty that he is true right through to his fingertips.  He represents not only himself, but everything he believes in.

I love this passage, and I found it late at night right before the new year. I found it right at the moment when I was thinking about and looking for a great piece of advice for our clients in 2010.

In our 21st century world, there is plenty of room for a little more “lichnost” from all of us. Be clear on what matters most to you, and do everything you can to communicate it in the most authentic, honest way possible.

We wish you great success in 2010.

On behalf of my colleagues at The Latimer Group, I would like to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season, and a peaceful and healthy 2010.

Be well.

Dean Brenner

Here’s our final great idea for better communication in the new year. It’s the easiest to understand, the most critical and yet the thing most often ignored.

You want to present better in 2010? You want to have a more polished pitch or communicate your strategy more effectively?

Then make sure you practice… a lot… out loud… in front of other people.

Just like any other skill, the more you practice the better you’ll be.

That’s it for today. Happy Holidays, and we’ll see you in 2010.

One of our primary goals whenever we present or speak in the workplace should always be this… be memorable. We should always strive to be remembered, and in the 21st century being memorable requires that we make it easy for people to remember what we say. In our information intensive world, standing out amidst the white noise is really hard. Being memorable is about more than looking the part. We need to work hard on our message so that it stands out.

And one of the best ways to be memorable in today’s world is simply this… use simple language to convey your ideas. No matter how complex the concept, the more you are able to put your ideas, your strategy, your product explanation or your solution into simple words and language, the more likely your audience will be to remember you and your message.

What does this mean? It means that even if you think your audience will understand, try to avoid jargon and acronyms, and try to put things into every day language. I’m not talking about dumbing it down, or speaking to the lowest common denominator. I’m talking about being clear, and communicating complex things in easy-to-remember ways.

The net result to you will be that your audience will be much more likely to walk away remembering you and your message. And in addition, you will likely build a brand for yourself as a person who communicates well, and can explain things… not a bad brand in our 21st century world.

Have a great day.

So much of our business communication is about data, numbers and quantifiable performance. That kind of detail matters a great deal. But the ultimate goal for any business communication is to build consensus, and cause the people listening to us to act… to buy our product, to invest in our idea, to support our initiative, to adopt our strategy. Our ultimate goal is, or should be, to get people to do what we want or need them to do, and the communication of the numbers and data is a means to that end. The communication of the data and the numbers is not the end unto itself.

So how can we use the communication of numbers and data to achieve our ultimate goal of persuasion? We need to make the numbers real. Contrary to the cliche, the numbers very rarely speak for themselves. In nearly all situations, the numbers need context, they need explanation, they need to be made real.

The advice here today is that you need to do more than just communicate numbers. If you want to be a world-class communicator, get in the habit of translating numbers into things your audience can get their arms around.

Don’t just tell me what the year-end sales numbers were. Tell me how those numbers compare to past performance, or how they compare to our competitors, or how they compare to our goals for the year. Give the numbers context.

Don’t just tell me we are wasting a million dollars a year, and that your strategy will save some of that waste. Tell me what a million dollars a year translates into for our business… how many new hires, how many more advertisements? Make the numbers real.

When you are preparing your message, ask yourself how you can help the audience understand, feel and embrace the data and the numbers. This will help your audience get closer to your message, which will ultimately make you more effective.

Have a great day!

This is a simple idea, but a very powerful one. We’ve all heard it before, yet so many of us continue to ignore it’s value.

Whenever possible, tell your story with pictures and not words. Pictures create images in the mind, and for most of us the mind retains the things it sees much longer and much more vividly than the things it hears. And here’s a real life example of a powerful presentation introduction that I saw from one of our clients.

The presenter was going to be introducing a new process flow strategy for engine repair at his large organization. They spent millions of dollars every year on engine repair, and he and his team had concluded that there was a lot of money, time and resources wasted in the current process.

But instead of simply talking about the problems with the old strategy, and then describing the new strategy, accompanied by classic, boring text slides with bullet points, he opened his presentation like this.

Today’s presentation is about our engine repair process. And here is what our current process looks like:

And now, here is what the new process we are proposing looks like:

If we make this change, it will save our organization $x million in the first year, guarantee faster service, and more reliable engines that need to be serviced less frequently.

This intro took him about 30 seconds to present, and the point of the presentation was immediately understood by the audience. If he had instead tried to make the same point with words only, it would have taken longer, been less visual, less memorable and less effective.

The point here today is that pictures can help us make our points more clear and our messages more memorable.

Have a great day.

In our last post, we talked about the importance of doing more than just transferring information and data when you communicate in the workplace. We talked about telling a story, and using story to engage the audience. Let’s take that idea a little further with this post.

What does every great story have in common? Two things… a hero and a villain. Every great story essentially comes down to a sympathetic character, our hero, overcoming something negative, our villain. The villain may be a person, another organization, a mindset, a prejudice, or just some sweep of fate. It does not have to be a person. But good stories make us cheer for our hero, and become engaged in defeating or overcoming the villain.

You should use the same technique when you weave the stories of your business life. Every time you can make your story about overcoming something or someone — be it a competitor, or a market reality, or a cheaper product — you then have the chance to create a hero for your story. First, find the villain that we can all agree must be stopped. Then, finding the hero is easy. Why? Because if your goal is to persuade your audience to agree, buy, invest, or support, then the answer is to make your audience the hero. Find a villain, and show your audience how they can be the hero. We all dream of being the hero at one point or another.

You want to persuade and use your communication to achieve your business goals? Then tell stories that have heroes and villains and make your audience the hero.

Have a great day!

Here’s our fifth great idea for more powerful and persuasive communication skills…

Do you want to increase the chances that your idea will get adopted, your strategy approved, your product sold, or your plan followed? Then be more than a messenger. Be a story teller. Don’t just transfer information to me. Don’t just inform me of something. Don’t just speak at me. Tell me a story. Make me understand the issue by helping me feel it, see it, and wrap my arms about what it all really means.

And when you tell that story, tell it to me in three parts or three acts. All great stories have three acts, and we coach our clients to use the following basic script in their story telling:

Act I is a statement of the problem or the reality or the issue.

Act II is the implication of that problem or reality or issue.

Act III is the solution to that problem or reality or issue.

If you can make your content into a three-act story, it will be easier to follow, easier to remember and ultimately more effective.

Have a great day…

Here’s our fourth great idea for more powerful and persuasive communication skills…

Detail matters, it really does. And the more sophiticated your audience is, the more it will matter. But we live in an information-intensive, full-access world, and as human beings, we can only process so much information at any one time. We are all competing for mindshare, and to win that battle, we must make it easy for our audience to remember who we are and what we say.

Therefore, as you are preparing your content and your message, make sure to spend some time thinking in headlines. How do you create an easy-to-remember tagline that captures what you are talking about? That’s the key to great messaging in the 21st century. We always ask our clients, that if their presentation was a newspaper story, what would be the headline that would cause the most people to keep reading?

Once you have identified those simple messages, those simple taglines, then you can dive into the content. But before the content, think big picture and think “memorable.”

Have a great day!

Good morning! Here’s our third great idea for more powerful and persuasive communication skills…

As you are preparing your message, make sure you leave plenty of preparation time for thinking about the most important piece of the equation… your audience. Spend time sorting out who they are, what they care about, and what will cause them to agree or be positive about your message.

Most of us make the mistake of communicating from an egocentric place. But the reality is that most of the people we communicate with make decisions based on what is best for themselves, their organizations, or their teams. So, if we want to cause our audience to buy our product, invest in our idea, follow our strategy or support us in any way, we need to communicate what is in it for them.

In other words, think about how your message benefits your audience, and make this a primary focus of your story.

This is where you should spend most of your time during your preparation.

Have a great day!

Here’s our second great idea for more powerful and persuasive communication skills…

If your message will be accompanied by any visuals, formal or informal, remember this. Before you design a slide, before you worry about any visuals or the presentation of your message in any way, spend time planning out your story. Ask yourself “what story am I trying to tell?”

And, taking the idea to an even greater level, we like to advise our clients to “plan in analog”, or in other words, write down your ideas on a piece of paper or a white board. Leave the computer turned off for a bit while planning your message.

Once you figure out the message, then you can start thinking about how to present that message. But first things first…

You want to communicate, present, and speak more clearly and powerfully? Here’s the first of 10 great ideas…

Before you do anything else, before you design a slide, choose a picture, or write anything, figure out what your goal is for the presentation, speech, or meeting. Figure out what you are trying to achieve, what you want your audience to do or think or remember.

In other words, start with a clear goal. When you do this, everything else in your preparation and delivery becomes easier.

Frequent readers of anything distributed by me and my colleagues at The Latimer Group know that we believe that great leadership, requires clear, consistent and compelling communication. Leaders need to set the goal and define the destination, and then shepherd the group on its path towards that destination. The first tenet of great leadership is to set the course and show the way.

When I say “leaders”, I mean leaders of all kinds: businessmen, politicians, coaches, teachers, mentors, managers, captains… clear communication is a requirement no matter the leadership venue. And, obviously, our political leaders are so public that they give us frequent examples of how to lead well… and unfortunately, how to lead not so well. I’ve used examples for our clients from Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and most recently, Barack Obama. There’s a lot of material there.

But I’ve recently realized that our political leaders just don’t, or can’t, provide the types of positive examples our business leaders need. The political landscape is just too toxic. It’s too dangerous to risk alienating any large swath of the electorate, and since our electorate is so divided, our national leaders all too frequently need speak out of both sides of their mouths.

You don’t believe me? Well, then take the time to read, closely, the speech President Obama made at West Point to announce his new military policy for the war in Afghanistan. You can find the text in full here. And if you take the time to read it closely, you’ll see what I mean. There’s something in there for every audience, hawks and doves alike. At times it sounds clear, but then it’s not. At times it seems certain, and then it doesn’t. It’s just hard to get excited here, and I don’t see this speech as an example of clear, compelling leadership communication. I see it as an example of how to play both sides of the aisle.

For example, the President makes it clear that this war is important. But then he sets a timetable for withdrawal, in July 2011. If this struggle is important, then the message needs to be we’re there until we’re successful, not “we’re there until July 2011.” What kind of message is that? The cynic in me says that this delicate balance gives the White House material to show both sides of the political aisle that they are with them… ”we’re staying, this is important, 30,000 more troops” to the right… and “we’re withdrawing on a timetable” to the left.

These kinds of fence-sitting realities are all over this speech. Are we passing control to a friendly Karzai government because we trust them to finish the job? Are or they a corrupt government that can’t be trusted? I’m not sure, because both claims appear in this speech. Is the Taliban growing stronger all the time? He says so. They’re dangerous and have to be defeated. But then we’re told that America will show it’s strength in the way we end our wars. Well, what if the war isn’t over when he wants to withdraw?

Before I go too much further, let me say that this post is not about whether I agree or disagree with the President’s policy or his speech. Honestly, it’s not. This post is about wanting to hear communication that doesn’t seem to be designed to make everyone happy. I’m beginning to expect exactly this sort of split-personality communication from our political leaders. I am starting to believe that if you want to survive politically, there just is no choice. If a political leader does not play to both sides, they are accused of being close-minded and perceived to be unintelligent, and unwilling to consider alternatives. The electorate in the United States is so fragmented and fractured that it’s impossible to have a firm opinion on almost any issue and and not alienate a lot of people. That’s the reality of politics in America today… try to avoid alienating too many people.

The point here is that if you are a business leader, a coach, a manager, a director, any sort of leader other than a politician, my advice is that you model your communcation skills after any politician at your own peril. In business, we are rewarded for true clarity and direction. In politics, we are skewered for it. That’s just the reality, and the idealist in me wishes this weren’t the case. Every once in a while, when I read a speech like this one from our President, I get frustrated. And then I start to think he really has little choice.

Coming up this Friday December 4 is Light Up Night in downtown York. For my internship, I had the privilege of making a brochure for this event, so I wanted to share the details with you. Beginning at 5:00 pm, York County Food Bank and Shipley Energy Green Team will begin accepting food donations at South George Street and West Market Street.

Following this, the Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center will host dance performance previews by the Greater York Center for Dance Education and the William Penn Pep Band with Carol Sing Along. After a welcome message from the Shipley Green Team and Mayor Brenner, guests will proceed to the lighting of the tree and the arrival of Santa Claus! Mayor Brenner will then read a Christmas story in the Strand lobby, after which kids can talk to Santa Claus and enjoy cookies and beverages.

Join us at 7:00 in the Capitol Theatre for the Mighty Wurlitzer sing-along and the showing of two Christmas classics on the Capitol’s Big Screen, “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” and “The Year Without a Santa Claus.”

Barack Obama has been President of the United States for 314 days as of this writing, and I’m still waiting and wondering what kind of President he will be. He rode into Washington on a wave of optimism and expectation, and yet I think it is fair to say that we’re still waiting to learn who he is as President and what he will stand for. Let’s take a look at some of the realities of his foreign policy.

Shall we categorize his recent trip to China as a success? Critics say he pandered when he agreed not to meet the Dalai Lama. Or rather, shall we say that meeting the Dalai Lama and enraging the Chinese government would be a mistake at a time when China holds so much US debt? Which is it?

Shall we say he has dithered over troop increases in Afghanistan? Or shall we say he has been deliberate? Critics say he has given the Taliban the upper hand. Supporters say he took his time in pursuit of a good decision.

Shall we say his overtures to Iran were a success, an outstretched hand hoping for an unclenched fist, to paraphrase his Inaugural Addresss? Or, has he allowed Iran to continue doing exactly what they have done all along… ignore the USA and continue on the path towards nuclear armament?

Shall we say that he let Russia off the hook on Iran? Russian President Medvedev promised Russian sanctions of Iran if they did not halt their nuclear arms program, in exchange for abandoning a missile defense system in Europe. But Russian Prime Minister Putin responded that sanctions against Iran are not necessary.

How shall we categorize President Obama’s efforts in Pakistan? Or the Israeli’s continued pursuit of settlements in the West Bank despite Obama calling for a full halt of the effort?

His supporters say that his approach is measured, thoughtful, deliberate. His critics say he is weak. His supporters say this is a welcome change over the “charge first, ask questions later” approach of the Bush years. His critics say that the world is a fast-moving, dangerous place and he needs to learn to get off the fence more quickly.

What do I think? Well, I think the title of this post tells you. I have no idea. All I know is that he has been President for almost a year, and even though I am someone who follows politics and current events closely, I cannot tell you what defines President Obama.

I am hopeful that he is being strategic and will lead us towards a safer, more secure place. But my fear is that he is proving to be exactly what his campaign opponents claimed he would be… someone who needed to learn on the job. The Oval Office is no place for on-the-job training, and I’ll admit that there are some days when I think that is exactly what is happening.

And the lesson for leaders of all kinds is that being deliberate and thoughtful is always positive… to a point. At some point, leadership requires bold action, not just thoughtful deliberation. At some point, the carrot must be accompanied by the stick. At some point, the words must be backed up with something else.

Still waiting…