Get More Done, but Also Get the Right Stuff Done

Effective time management is accomplished by using the Pareto principle of 80-20.  Making sure that  80% of your time is spent on the 20% of the work that makes most of the difference.  Some have called this the Picasso work. Where creativity, talent or experience is critical.  The book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell also discusses this principle and calls it reaching the level of unconscious competence.  Brain science and scanning have recently proven the biology behind this, whereby human beings used neuroplasticity to rewire their brain for certain sophisticated tasks. This is why experts who have spent 10,000 hours or more can potentially answer or do something in the blink of an eye. Where the book title comes from.

There are some things experts can do in hours, or even minutes, that others could never accomplish in weeks or even months. That is the invisible value of five or more years of experience, When...

Well, I think the question is the wrong one to ask, really. It trivializes entrepreneurship. Would you ask, “How do I do my first brain operation?” Or “how do I play Carnegie Hall?  Nope!  The question should be what do I do to prepare to launch a startup?

First understand that ideas are literally worthless. The press promoting the concept that an "idea is worth millions" is a problem. Building a company takes many things, and the person with only an “idea” has no chance. It is typically a 3 to 5 year to turn an idea into a business. And that process will require hundreds of ideas, maybe thousands, and many skills on a team.

The truth is, there are hundreds of things you should do and learn before you even think and launching a company. Pretending it is one is ridiculous. And that is why over 85% of new companies fail. The number one reason for failure is underestimating the skills, time, money and team needed. 

When I launched...

There are far too many texts and systems on management, and I do not want to create another.  However, there is a simple and effective system I use that leverages many of these wonderful systems that can be anywhere from fantastic to disastrous in a particular situation.  In every case, some thought must be given as to which technique is appropriate for each special circumstance and individual. 

A simple, yet very effective, model for people management uses the following combination of well known management styles by selecting the appropriate method for each individual.  This is an easy model to understand and implement, and adjusts the management style to each individual's specific abilities and limitations.  In general, you are going to work very closely (micromanage) with anyone when they are first hired to help determine where they are on this scale and then move down the scale until you reach their current ability to perform.  Initial...

By Harvy Simkovits

Are you starting the new year over-extended, over-committed, overwhelmed, and over-stressed in your business? Maybe you suffer from being under-leveraged as a leader!

"Too much to do and not enough time" is a common mantra for most business owners. Too many demands and expectations from customers, employees, vendors (even consultants), not to mention your own family (who want a piece of your time), can throw off-kilter your well-intentioned New Year's business resolutions (those important "to-do's" you promised yourself in December to get to in January).

Here are some thoughts to leverage yourself better (using yourself to your utmost capability, and better working through and with others) during those high-demand and high "to-do" times, like right now.

1. Share the "water-carrying". Does your business load rest just on your shoulders for you to carry alone, while everyone else is watching or waiting for you? If so, then you are...

In any startup company, EACH employee MUST wear many hats. In a large company, job specialization is the rule. However, job specialization does not make for a successful startup, as it requires too many people and both the costs and risks would greatly increase with the added levels of people and communication.

It is a well-known fact that there are diminishing returns with each layer and additional employees on any project. This is even more pronounced in knowledge-intensive areas and professional services like software engineering and other knowledge and design-intensive areas.  (Read The Mythical Man-Month). In early-stage and smaller companies, each employee must provide a range of value-added responsibilities that might encompass several jobs at a large company.

Therefore, employee selection in early-stage companies is not only more critical because there are so few people, but also more fraught with danger because each person's "scope", ability and attitudes must be...

Launching a startup company may be the hardest thing you ever do.  This is a big question with many moving parts and hundreds of things to get right that comes from experience and art, not just black and white answers. However, there are many things that can be easily agreed on that will go a long way to getting you there.  First, let's talk about the stages because it is clear that there are very different skill sets and modes of operation at different stages of the company's development.  Let's call these stages Raw Startup, Early Revenue, and Established.  Raw Startup is the idea development stage, working out of the home or "garage" without a significant burn rate.  Generally, you are spending most of your time developing your plans, researching the market and customers, and defining the product.  You may also develop the actual product, or need to raise funding to accomplish this.  Early Revenue is when you have a product or service...

John F. Welch Jr., CEO of General Electric, identifies four types of managers:

Giving Toothless Boards Some Bite

Consultants And Getting The Most Value Added

As a CEO I struggled long and hard over any decision to use a consultant. There are many issues that need to be managed by the client to keep a consultant from going overboard on time and costs.

Too many need to long to get up to speed on your business (on your dime), cost too much, and can not provide tangible results on a limited project basis. Too many are unproductive and do things in ten hours that I know I could have done in 2-3 hours, as paying by the hour is often a demotivation, while paying by the task aligns the client's and consultant's interests more.

All that said, I currently make my living as a consultant and do believe there is a better way.

The old saying that a consultant is someone who you pay to learn your business who then goes down the street to sell that expertise to someone else next week can be true if you let it happen that way. But it does not have to be that way if you use consultants appropriately and as a...

From www.Joelonsoftware.com