i believe that everyone is motivated by something. i’d say that most accountants have a natural love of working with numbers. i’m sure that stock brokers get a special kind of high out of making the deal that nets their clients big returns. and i’m sure that if you spent even just a little time with three of my colleagues as they talked about solving linear programs and differential equations you’d be amazed at how much they can geek out over it. but when was the last time, as a manager or leader, that you had a discussion with your employees to find out what drives them?

some of you might answer — if you’re being honest with yourself — “the job interview”. how long ago was that? people change over time, and so you must be willing to spend the time to really watch and track how your people are changing and the kinds of people they’re changing into. you might have someone with a modeling and simulation background whom either suddenly or even gradually falls in love with data visualization. you might have a history teacher whom has a newfound love of english literature. but you’ll never know any of this unless you take the time to know your people.

do you have carrots (bonus structures, awards systems) or sticks (hard deadlines, performance reviews) in place because they actually work? or is it just because it makes your job simpler?

everyone is motivated to do something.

find out what that is. then have them do that.

you might have someone stay behind to ask questions after you give a presentation, have someone approach you after reading a whitepaper, have someone respond to an online posting, etc.. in all cases, though, it seems as though there’s a very short amount of time to actually do something with that attention.

if you wait too long, don’t follow up, or spend your time asking for permission you’re going to lose that person and your idea isn’t going to spread. don’t ask permission: JUST GO (and apologize later)

image by Robert S. Donovan, flickr artist

“wishing someone would sneak up behind me with a chloroform soaked cloth while I sit here in my pathetic cubicle doing work that means absolutely NOTHING to me.”

wow.

a few days ago, i saw this in my facebook feed. it was a post from a friend of mine with no fewer than 6 ‘likes’. it’s a pretty powerful statement and a sentiment that apparently resonates with more than a few people.

we need to find a way out. and soon.

on this 4th of july, it’s time to declare your independence. independence from the norm. independence from society’s expectations of cradle to classroom to cubicle. independence from NOTHING.

read, books, the internet — read anything that deals with what you want to be doing. watch documentaries about that field. LEARN about what those people do, and what they have done, in order to live the life you want to be living. pay close attention because chances are you’ll have to do some of those same things to achieve your own goals.

it’s time to declare your independence from yourself.

people have made changes before; they have given up on the 9-5 workday and they’ve gone out and made their lives work for them. in all of these cases, one thing remains true: it started with a conscious decision to give up on what they knew in order to start something else. that kind of commitment takes courage. it requires fortitude. if you’re going to have any chance of living the life you want to live, you’re going to have to decide if it’s worth the risk or not. is it worth giving up the comfort of a consistent paycheck? is it worth moving to a new city? is it worth moving away from your closest friends? your family? your mettle is going to be tested for sure; before you go running off to start your own company or head back to college, ensure that it’s really what your heart desires.

it’s time to declare your independence from doom and gloom.

you might strive to reach your goal, to find that new job in that new place making more money than you hoped for, and never see those dreams become reality. yet there is no failure for anyone who strives to make themselves better, for even if you never reach your goals you are still better off than you were on the day you started. you will have experienced new things, seen new places, and learned what it means to be on the path of continuous improvement. and should your new endeavor not work out, you can always return to the corporate world of “business casual” dress and cubicle farms. there is no shame in that; there is no shame in trying.

it’s time to declare your independence.

what better day to start than today?

when going in one direction, it usually takes less effort to keep moving in that direction than it takes to make any adjustments. we all enjoy when our life is made easier, that’s a part of being human.

but that’s why, however, some people end up being more successful than others — they have an innate feeling that whatever is easy to do isn’t worth doing. we call these people adventurous. we call them troublemakers. we call them leaders. but whatever you call them, one thing remains true: these people get things done.

we like to think that change happens because it makes sense. we like to think that discussions were had, plans were made, and the change was carried out because after all the details are looked at, one decision stood alone as the right one. but that’s hardly ever how changes occur. there’s more to it than that.

change happens when we decide that it’s going to happen. for all the talk and planning and analysis that we may go through, it all means nothing if there’s no action. it all means nothing if there’s no sustained action.

you’ll come across some villains — people that try to make things difficult. people whose inertia is taking them in a direction opposite of yours. others because they don’t like you, some because they don’t like what you stand for, and even more because they don’t like the fact that you might accomplish what it is they’ve been unable to do. some of these people may even be your friends. ignore them.

change takes effort. it takes motivation. it takes conviction and a relentless spirit. it takes doing.

if you can communicate to people why change is important, if you can inspire people to change, and if you can grow a following, if you can show people what to do — you’ll have a chance.

but only if you try.

image by setlasmon, flickr artist

i’m a new breed of employee and, believe it or not, there are a lot more like me. we’re all over the place, and the best news — for us anyway — is that there are more of us coming. and perhaps the first thing that we could care less about is the traditional corporate structure.

to us, it doesn’t really matter what your title says. it doesn’t matter how old you are, or where you come from, or even where you went to school. what we do care about is what value you bring to the table… and what kind of computer you use (mac, for the win!). it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been around or how new you might happen to be because good ideas are good ideas, no matter who has them. and that’s what we gravitate towards.

we don’t want someone who sits at a bigger desk to tell us what to do, and it’s not about a lack of respect for authority. for us, we just have a different idea of who actually is the ‘authority’. for many of us, that happens to be ourselves. we want to work on what we want to work on, and it’s because — on some level — we have an attachment to it. we’re passionate beings, and we like to express and explore that passion. we don’t want to just go through life checking boxes.

we care about what we do and how we do it. employees like us don’t want email and we don’t want telephones; we want facebook and twitter. we want to be mobile. we want our office and our information in our pocket because we want our work to be anywhere. board shorts on a beach? no problem. off-site meeting with a client? no problem. we also want to have a voice in the direction that our tribes take. but beyond having a voice, what we really care about most is actually being heard. we’re not all stupid.

we care just as much about giving information away as we care about consuming it. why should anything be strictly mine? or yours? or anyone’s? you may be a great analyst and do great things with information that is provided to you, but when have you ever given back to the community that provided that opportunity to you? because if there’s one thing you should know about us, it’s that we’re relentless.

we don’t think that we can have an impact on the world — we know that we can. so don’t try to censor us. don’t hold us back. don’t act like you know what’s best for us. don’t think for one moment your ideas are better than ours just because you’ve “been there, done that”. don’t expect the same things out of us because you’ve gotten it out of everyone else who has come before. obedience without question. satisfaction over scraps of success. sorry, but we’re not interested. not anymore.

i’m part of the new breed of employee. i’m a 2.0 in a world of 1.0. so whatever expectations you had for me, go ahead and throw them out the windows 95/98/2000/xp. maybe the reason you’re having such trouble with me is because you’re putting artificial boundaries on me. it’s time for a paradigm shift; dare i say it’s time for a revolution.

so don’t box me in.

i’m glad.

image by prettyfriendship, flickr artist

i like drawing parallels between sports and life.  there are so many lessons that we can learn just by taking a look at things through a different lens.  the beautiful game is no exception.

it’s world cup time right now; for me this is a huge deal.  the only way i can describe it to non-football enthusiasts is to take thanksgiving, wrap it up in christmas, and then get rid of it for 4 years.  it’s massive.

as i’ve watched the games and results unfold this year, i’ve had to rub my eyes in disbelief on more than one occasion.  most notably, for me, the first group-stage match between spain and switzerland where the swiss won with a 1-0 final score.  if you look beyond the score to the match statistics you see today’s lesson.

official stats for the game: spain 63% possession, 12 corner kicks, 24 shots… only 8 on target.  switzerland 37% possession, 3 corner kicks, 8 shots… but 3 made it on target and of course one resulted in that crucial goal.

by all accounts spain has the better squad, from the starting XI all the way through the last player on the bench.  two years ago they were the european champions and rode into this tournament on an incredible streak having lost just 1 match in their last 48, including a 10-0-0 record in qualifying.  as for the swiss.. not so much.  it was a true david versus goliath match-up, and the stats illustrate that perfectly.  spain dominated in every significant category, especially possession.  it’s rather difficult to score goals and win matches when you don’t have control of the ball.

but what the beautiful game teaches us is this, and it’s very important:  make the most of every opportunity.

on the one hand you have the indomitable spainiards who spoiled chance after chance wide of the goal, over the goal, straight into the keeper and had nothing to show for their tremendous effort.  then on the other, you have the very opportunistic swiss who only had 3 real chances to score a goal (two coming on just the one play), and they did.  another match worth bringing up is the italy v. paraguay fixture, where paraguay managed a draw with the defending world champions from 2006 — my boys — gli azzurri. paraguay managed 8 shots, and only 1 on target, with that one shot being the one goal they needed to split the points and help propel their squad into the knockout rounds.

it’s true, in life, that some people have more opportunities than others.  where we’re born, the parents we have (or don’t have), our environment growing up — all of these factors and more have an influence.  some of us are spain and some of us are switzerland, but in the end we all get opportunities to score.

if you have a chance, take it.  spain or switzerland, you have to make the most of your opportunities.

image from mypartyshirt.com

with some recent events in my life, i’m reminded of the final lesson that mr. feeny taught me growing up.  he said,

mr. feeny: “believe in yourselves.  dream.  try.  do good.”
topanga: “don’t you mean ‘do well?’”
mr. feeny: “no, i mean do good.”

life never plays out the way you want it to — but the best that we can do is to do good, no matter what the situation.  we might lose our jobs, our loved ones, our marriages, or we might just find ourselves in a town or place we no longer want to be in.  despite what ills may befall us, doing the right thing is something that we should always try to do.  there really is no excuse for not doing good.  there are always ways that we can help people — you just have to believe in yourself, dream, and try.

grandmom clara, grandmom theresa, pop-pop frank, pop-pop anthony .. uncle cholly, aunt rosie, aunt lena, uncle domenic..

i’m trying to live as best as i can.  i want, when people see or hear my name — the name you gave me — to say, “you know, that scardino is a good guy.”  i certainly hope that i’m making you proud.  even though i know you’re looking down on me, i wanted you to know that i’m doing good.

i love and miss you all.

image by virtual sugar, flickr artist

i was reading my most recent copy of espn the magazine when i found a brief article about ‘touch’ in sports called “contact high.”

“berkeley social-psych researcher mike kraus, along with psych professor dacher keltner, decided to track the performance of nba teams by the amount of positive physical contact players made during the 08-09 season. their work — to be published in an upcoming edition of the journal emotion — reveals a strong correlation between touching and win totals.” … “kraus explains that fist bumps, for example, serve to improve team chemistry, spatial awareness and cooperation among teammates.”

i found this to be particularly intriguing because of my liberal use of the #fistbump hashtag on twitter and yammer.  i fist bump people all the time — in real life and in virtual space.  i guess i knew all along, on a certain level, that fist bumps had a secondary benefit aside from serving as the actual congratulatory action — but now i’ve got science to back me up!

if fist bumps and high-fives can help the boston celtics and la lakers reach the nba finals, why can’t they help bring together an executive brief or trade show presentation?

image by foreverdigital, flickr artist

i’m not sure exactly what my favorite part of hockey is.  as a goaltender (in my younger years), i have to admit that few things get me going more than a glove save on a 2-on-1 breakaway.  i can still appreciate a fine dangle, however.

i can tell you with conviction, however, that one of the best moments is the celebration when a player scores a goal.  the unbridled passion, the camaraderie, everything great about the sport of hockey comes through in one moment shared by 5 players on the ice (sometimes more).  it’s one single moment that embodies all of what hockey is about.

teamwork.

so why is it, that hockey players — among other athletes — celebrate their teammates hard work together, but we in business don’t?  anyone who hits a home run in baseball is greeted with a collection of fist bumps when he gets back to the dugout,  basketball players get chest bumps after knocking down a big three late in a game, football players get a firm slap on the butt after a big play, and soccer players… well, they do things differently than everyone else.  but no matter the sport, they all celebrate together.

what is it about business that makes us treat the dolling out of awards and kudos as a function of management?  imagine if home runs didn’t come with fist bumps, and soccer didn’t come with… miko vucinic.  imagine a sports world where goals weren’t celebrated, or big plays appreciated, except when from a coach.

so the next time you see a co-worker putting in long hours, or shoveling tons of crap to keep the client happy, don’t wait for management to step in and give an award.  do it yourself.

organize a happy hour in their honor and pay for the first round.  buy them lunch when you see they’re too busy to stop and grab one themselves.  every day there are opportunities to thank each other for doing the hard work that many — especially management — take for granted.  find some way to express your gratitude.

because what good is scoring a goal if no one’s there to… take off their pants?

when you set goals, you want to make them SMART:

• specific
• measurable
• attainable
• relevant
• time-bound*

example of a really bad goal: “lose weight this year.” first of all, losing weight is a stupid goal to begin with.  most people don’t realize that muscle weighs more than fat does, and working out might cause you to actually gain weight.  you should be looking for a better resolution.

example of a really good goal: “run in four 5k events for charity this year.” it’s specific, not just a random notion of weight loss.  it’s measurable because you can mark off events as the days pass through the year;  make it one run each quarter.  it’s certainly attainable.  asking yourself to run 4 marathons might not be, but a 5k is much more manageable and takes less time to train to.  it’s not an ‘always on’ kind of goal and allows yourself some wiggle room.  it’s relevant because your overall mission is to be healthier.  your soul will feel better too because you’re doing it all for charity.  and that asterisk i placed above is the most important for making goals… although i don’t necessarily see it in the same way as the textbooks do.  instead of time-bound i say to make that T in SMART stand for ‘tell everybody you know’.  telling other people puts that goal up-front and center.  you can’t hide from it because you just might have someone say to you in june, “hey, i thought you were running those 5k things.  what happened to that?”

so when it comes down to business, are you making SMART goals for your organization?  for yourself?  for your career?

it’s a new year, and there are no excuses.  come up with smart goals, write them down, and make sure you’re taking steps towards getting them every day.  start with something specific, measure your progress, make sure it’s feasible, ensure that it’s in keeping with your overall mission, and tell everybody about it.  you haven’t failed in the past because you weren’t good enough; it’s because you weren’t reaching for the right goals.