Listen Now!

In This Episode:

• Find out how to advance your career in the long run.
•  Tom shares the 10 Signs of a Good Growth Environment to help you figure out if your work place is also a growth place.
•  Learn from Tom’s history to avoid the obstacles that he ran into.
• Take a peek behind the scenes of this podcast.

Listen now!

Resource Download:

Career planning: My “DVD Exercise” to help you create the plan you want!

“The 10 Signs of a Growth Environment” – A quick, one-page PDF that has what to look for in a workplace to help you grow individually.

 Transcript

Male voice: [00:00:01] Becoming a Geek Leader. Season One, Episode Three.

Sponsored by Geek to Great

Male voice 2: [00:00:04] This episode of Becoming a Geek Leader is sponsored by the Geek to Great 101 course. We all want to grow our skills and improve the work we do. But who has time for that? In this online blended learning program, you and your team will gain practical skills in topics like time management, dealing with difficult people, improving communication, and so much more. Train your whole team for less than 500 dollars. Each lesson is 30 minutes or less, so it fits right into your current team meeting schedule. Find more information and get immediate access to your first free lesson at brighthillgroup.com/helpinggeeks. That’s brighthillgroup.com/helpinggeeks, so that you can get access to the Geek to Great 101 course.

Tom Cooper: [00:01:02] Welcome to the Becoming a Geek Leader podcast. My name is Tom Cooper. As a geek, I’m on a mission to figure out better ways to lead others, at work and at home. Through the Becoming a Geek Leader Podcast, I’m sharing what I’m learning so I can help make you more effective at leading people, too. Ready?

Introduction

[00:01:24] Hi. Welcome to episode three. I’m excited today to talk about your career. How can you achieve the goals that you have, from a career development perspective? Now, I’m excited about this because I see lots of folks frustrated about this, and there are a couple of areas that I think that people generally get stuck on. I’m going to talk about them today. I’m going to talk not only about the challenges, but also what you can do about it. And my goal today for you is to walk away with an action plan that you can use to help you figure out how to move to the next level.

[00:02:01] One of the things that happens is you do great work, and you get promoted. And then all of a sudden, you find yourself in a situation where you’re no longer doing the hands-on geek work. You’re not responsible for actually pressing the keys, and doing the things that you’ve been doing through the course of your career. And now, all of a sudden, you’ve got to coordinate the efforts of other people. And this is one of the things that I hear a lot from my clients, things like, “Why won’t these people do their jobs?” One of my clients recently asked me, “Aren’t these people grown adults?” I’ll tackle that question in a future episode.

[00:02:38] The other thing that folks find – and this may have happened to you as well – is you might think, “Why did I get passed up for that promotion?” Even worse is you think, “That guy? That guy got promoted? He’s a bozo. How in the world did that guy get promoted? I’m a lot smarter than that guy.” You look and see an open job requisition gets filled. Maybe even you post for the position. Maybe you get an interview, and maybe you don’t. And I know I had both of those problems in my career. On the one hand, I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t moving up. And on the other hand, I got promoted and then all of a sudden, I was the Peter Principle. I got promoted beyond my level of competence, and all of a sudden I was stuck. And so I want to talk about what you can do to address both of these.

[00:03:21] Fundamentally, it comes down to this question: what is your plan for career growth? Understanding what your plan is, then you think, “What skills do I need to get that next job?” and then, “What am I doing to get those skills?” So we’ll talk about all of those things in today’s episode. Let’s get started.

Thought Leader Segment.

Tom Cooper: [00:03:58] In today’s Thought Leader segment, I want to talk about something that I learned from my mentor John Maxwell. John said if I wanted to be somebody who grew in my career, if I wanted to be ready for the next opportunities, I needed to be in a growth environment. But what in the world is a growth environment? What does that even look like? I want to share top 10 signs or indicators of a growth environment, according to John Maxwell.

[00:04:23] So number one, a growth environment is a place where others are ahead of me. If everybody around you is looking up to you, you’re probably not in a good growth environment. Number two, a place where I am continually challenged. Is your work too easy? Number three, a place where the focus is forward, not backward. The focus is on tomorrow, not yesterday. Think about your work. How does it compare with that?

[00:04:50] Number four, a place where the atmosphere is affirming. Are people constantly backstabbing each other in your environment? That might not be a good growth environment for you. Number five, a place where I am outside my comfort zone. Wow. Somebody who’s growing is always going to be stepping outside their comfort zone to do something that’s not comfortable.

[00:05:11] Number six, a place where I wake up excited, because I’m going to be with like-minded people. Number seven, a place where failure is not your enemy. John says, “I fail a lot, because I take risks.” A growth environment is a place where your friends will pick you up when you fall down. Number eight, a place where other people are growing and getting better. Number nine, a place where people desire change. That’s powerful, right? A place where people desire change. And number 10, a place where growth is modeled for me, and expected from me.

[00:05:48] Now, that list of the Top 10 Signs You’re in a Growth Environment is going to be available on the webpage, the same place as the show notes. So if you want to get a copy of that, just start thinking about those ideas, feel free to go to the website and pick that up.

[00:06:02] But what if you’re not in a growth environment? What if you go back over that list and you say, “Wow. That is not my organization, at all.” Do you need to quit? Actually, no. There’s some things that you can do about that. One of the challenges that I hear people say is, “Well, what if my employer is not going to pay for training? My employer just doesn’t value that. They’re not willing to. Times are tight.” Whatever. Well, let me ask you. Whose career is it? Is it their career, or your career? I like the idea, “If it’s to be, it’s up to me.”

[00:06:38] And that’s challenging, because all of a sudden we have to figure out, “Wait. What am I doing to help be in a growth environment?” Maybe the growth environment isn’t actually in your office. Maybe the growth environment is a community of people you connect with in a meet-up. Or maybe you create your own mastermind group of like-minded people who can help you grow. I’ve certainly done that. I have a number of mastermind groups that I participate in, that help me be connected with people who are thinking the right thoughts, and encouraging me to step outside my comfort zone.

[00:07:07] But again, let’s go back to this question. What if my employer is not going to pay for me to get the training or growth that I want? What do I do? Well, Darren Hardy asked me this question. He said, “What’s your E to E ratio?” E to E, your education to entertainment ratio. How much do you spend on your personal development, versus how much do you spend on your entertainment? If you’re like me, ouch. It didn’t feel good.

[00:07:38] What if you spent half as much on your personal development as you do on the sum total you spend on movies, eating out, hobbies and cable? Do you even know how much you spend on those things? All right. So maybe you look at that and you go, “Man, I couldn’t spend that much.” And I think actually if you add it up, you’ll be stunned at how much you do spend on just those categories.

[00:08:03] But let me ask you this. What if you invested 10% of your income in yourself? What if you bet on you, just 10% of the income that you make? Just think about this for a second. What conferences would you be able to attend? What courses would you be able to take? What would happen in your career, if you had a coach helping you get to that next level? I want you to think about your E to E ratio. What’s your education to entertainment ratio? Because these thought leaders – whether we’re talking about John Maxwell or Darren Hardy – they’re people who help me start to think differently, and they can help you, too. Don’t forget you can download a copy of John’s Top 10 Signs You’re in a Growth Environment from the website. And that’s today’s Thought Leader Segment.

Mentoring Segment.

Tom Cooper: [00:09:10] In today’s Mentoring segment, I want to talk a little bit about my journey. When I got out of school, I thought that being geeky was the way to be successful, and in fact, I found that was true. My first job out of college I learned as much as I possibly could about…man, was that NetWare version 2? That’s scary. I did a ton of installations of NetWare for my employer, and I helped clients begin to share files, and do all kinds of nerdy things along those lines. And I thought that if I got geekier, that that would help me grow in my career. And you know what? That was true. The first couple of years of my career, the more I learned about the technical stuff and how to make stuff work, I got rewarded. I got promoted. I got raises. It was all good.

[00:09:56] And then I went to work for a consulting company, and I was doing travel, and working on technical projects with highly technical experts. And again, I got geekier, but I started to run into a wall. One of the things that I needed to know about was how to write better. And my boss actually pointed it out to me and the other folks on the team, and he said, “You guys are not doing a great job with that, so I’m going to bring in somebody to help you with writing, and how to do a better job with writing.” And that was good. At the same time, there was a big emphasis on technical skills. I got more certifications, and took more certification exams and did training, and it was all around geek skills. And that was really where the investments were being made, from my career perspective.

[00:10:40] And after that, I went to work for Marriott. I was at Marriott for 10 years, and I was in a group of…I think I was a senior technical analyst at that time. Again, very geeky, working on geek skills. And I was excited about my opportunities there, focused on geekiness. What could I do to become more geeky, and to be more effective in my technical work? And I was operating under a false assumption. The assumption that I made was that if I worked hard, that my boss would notice, and if I worked hard and did really good work, that I would automagically get promoted.

[00:11:22] Now, this seems reasonable, based on the feedback that I had gotten from my employers up to this point that the more technical skills that I developed, the more I could get promoted. And I was happy about that, but what happened was geek skills were necessary, but not enough. Necessary, but not sufficient. And I didn’t realize that. And so here I was keeping my head down, working hard, trying to get along with people, trying to solve problems with the technical projects I was working on, and I wasn’t getting promoted.

[00:11:56] And I was frustrated about that. I was really frustrated about it. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. And I went to my boss and I said, “Hey, what’s going on?” and he helped me understand that good work is not enough. It’s not enough. I had to do more. And in fact, if I wanted to get promoted, I needed to have a plan about getting a promotion.

[00:12:16] One of my mentors is Jim Rohn. I’ve learned a ton from studying Jim Rohn’s work, and he has a quote on this. He says, “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” Yeah. That’s the thing. I was working under the illusion that my plan was I’ll just work hard and people will notice, and I’ll move ahead. And that was wrong. What happened was I worked hard, I delivered good solutions, and my boss said, “Thanks, Tom.” And that was it. That was it. That was the whole deal.

[00:12:56] I wanted to move ahead, and I needed to figure out how to do that. But now all of a sudden, I was in a place where I wanted to grow to that next level, but my employer was very happy because I was delivering what they wanted in the role I was in. Why should they have me change? Why should they make additional investments in me? And I was kind of stuck there in my career for a couple of years, while I wrestled with that idea.

[00:13:26] And then I stumbled into an idea. The idea was that I owned my career, that it was my job to figure out what I was going to do, and how I was going to solve it. And that was a big deal for me. And that was a season when I began to buy some books, and I started reading those books. And then I applied some of the ideas that were in the books about how to be more influential, because I said, “I want to be able to do more, and I see that people who are doing more have some skills that I don’t have that are not geek skills. What do I need to do?”

[00:14:00] After I started doing that, the things that I was doing, I was reading about how to connect with others, how to communicate with others, how to get people to want to help me. And man, did it work. And then I said, “Well, this is working.” So I invested more. I bought tickets to go see speakers that I thought would be helpful speakers. I invested my own money in training programs, where I would take time off of work. I would take vacation days from my employer, so that I could go to the training that I wanted. I even invested in conferences that were out of state, where I would have to get on an airplane and stay in a hotel, on my own dime.

[00:13:49] And why did I do that? Because I was betting on me. I was investing in me. When my employer would not invest, I invested in me. And guess what happened. I moved up. I got better as a team member and then they said, “Hey, we need you to be the team lead.” And I got better as a team lead, and they asked me to be the manager. And then from manager, I went up to director. And by the time I left my last job, I was VP of Products for a software company.

[00:15:06] It worked. The investments I made in me made a difference. And investments you make in you will make a difference, too. But all that growth began when I realized that hard work wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough for me to get promoted. I needed a plan. I needed to take action, and I was going to have to spend some money. So let me ask you, “What is your next step in your plan?”

[00:15:31] Now, maybe you think, “Well, gosh. I haven’t thought about that. I don’t have a specific written down plan.” That’s okay. If you like to have some help with that, I’ve got a video online that I call the DVD exercise, and I will share that link in the show notes with you so that you have a chance to take a look at it. It’s a couple of minutes long. You’ll just spend some time thinking about what you want to do next to help give you some clarity. If you want to grow, you’re going to have to invest in you. You’re going to have to bet on you. And that’s today’s Mentoring segment.

Behind the Scenes Segment.

Tom Cooper: [00:16:18] In today’s Behind the Scenes segment, I thought you might be interested to hear about a problem I had, and what it took for me to solve it. Now, as I record this episode, I’m in the process of preparing for the formal launch of this podcast. I’m getting all the pieces ready. It turns out there’s a whole lot to think about, whether it’s iTunes, or whether it’s show notes and transcripts and MP3 formats, etc. But one of the things that I know is that audio quality matters.

[00:18:47] It matters because you are surrounded by what’s called broadcast quality audio all day long. The broadcast quality audio and video, that’s a standard that you have come to expect. And so if something is produced that’s not up to that standard, it sticks out and it doesn’t work. And frankly, if it’s not good enough from a quality perspective, you’re going to turn it off.

[00:17:13] So going back to the first year of my business, I knew I was going to be doing public speaking and I thought, “I’m going to have to have some high quality audio gear.” So I invested in a professional microphone. And I used it a couple of times, but I’ll have to tell you that – like most of the assumptions I made when I started the business – I was wrong. I didn’t need that to be able to speak from stage. It made me feel better, I guess, but basically the mic sat in a box, and it was only occasionally broken out.

[00:17:42] But when I got ready to start this podcast, I pulled it out and I hooked it up. And guess what I learned? I learned that it’s really hard to get good sounding audio, even if you have professional quality gear. And I couldn’t get it to work. I tried everything I could think of. I looked on YouTube, and I poked around in the options in Garage Band that I’m using to do this production. I fiddled with a bunch of settings, and I played with things that sounded less bad. And then it sounded less bad, but I still could not get it to work. What was happening was my volume level was way too low on the recording, and compared to the other things that I was doing, it was just not good enough. And if I tried to turn it up, it sounded terrible. And I wasn’t going to do that to you guys.

[00:18:32] After I had spent a whole bunch of time trying to get to bottom of that, to figure out what it was going to take to get my recording studio up to speed to make it work properly, I eventually reached out to a couple of audio engineers who were geniuses. One is Rob Lawrence from soundtheory.co.uk and the other is Tim Ripley, both of whom are great at understanding the audio, and helping me figure out what was going on. I sent a bunch of recordings off to them to listen to and play with different settings, and they helped me dial in and actually get it working. And finally we figured out what I was doing wrong. But who knew that in order to launch a podcast, I was going to need to become proficient with things like recording levels and compression and sound leveling and reverb. I had no idea.

[00:19:15] My oldest son has been learning to do some audio editing. In fact, Joel is the reason you’re hearing this episode. Thanks, Joel. One of the things that we’ve learned together is the mantra “Garbage in, garbage out.” It is true. If I’m the talent and I record something that sounds awful, there’s no audio engineer in the world that can fix that. And I want to tell you, recording this podcast has been a blast. And I’m excited to be able to share it with you. And I’m really excited about being able to share some of the ideas that I have been learning with my clients and from my clients, as I go.

[00:19:48] So this Behind the Scenes segment has been about…it turns out that to do things that show up in public, there’s a whole lot of stuff that has to happen that nobody ever sees. And it’s been a lot of fun to learn about that, and I’m excited to be able to continue this journey, and I’m thrilled that we’re this far along in the podcast process. And that’s today’s Behind the Scenes segment.

Episode Hack.

Tom Cooper: [00:20:34] So today, we talked about creating your career plan. Your career plan. We talked about being in a growth environment, and how to set the stage so you can intentionally grow. For today’s hack, I want you to take a few minutes to think about what’s next. What is it that you want to do in your career? Once you’ve thought about what you want to do, what skills are you going to need to do the next job up the ladder? Step one is thinking about what you want. Once you’ve done that, the next step becomes clearer. So today’s Episode Hack is make a plan. If you don’t have a plan, you’re not going anywhere. What are you going to do next? And that’s today’s Episode Hack.

Outroduction

[00:21:23] Thanks for listening to this episode of Becoming a Geek Leader. You can play a part in helping the podcast to grow. If you enjoyed it, please do me a favor. The way to get the podcast to grow is for you to go to iTunes and give it a rating. If enough of you give me a good rating in iTunes, this podcast will show up in their New and Noteworthy section. Being in New and Noteworthy is a great way to attract more listeners, and having more listeners helps me have the support to get the podcast going. There are three simple steps to giving me a rating. One, go to the iTunes Store in the podcast section. Two, search for Becoming a Geek Leader. And three, give the podcast a great rating. And while you’re there, why not write a quick review, as well? Thanks.

[00:22:08] This is Tom Cooper. Thanks for listening. Be sure to join me next time for another episode of Becoming a Geek Leader. Join me and my mission of discovering better ways to lead others, at work and at home.

Listen now!

In this episode:

Are your emails not getting read? Do you want to improve your relationships and conversations with others? This episode deals with both of these issues.

• Write emails that actually get read.
• Learn about the different levels of listening and how to become better at it!
• Learn what a BLUF is and why it’s great for emails.

Resource Download:

Original podcast – https://hbr.org/ideacast/2015/08/become-a-better-listener.html

Original article – https://hbr.org/2013/03/for-real-influence-use-level-f

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Becoming A Geek Leader. Season One, Episode Two.

Sponsored by Geek to Great 101

We all want to grow our skills and improve the work we do, but who has time for that? In this online blended learning program, you and your team will gain practical skills in topics like time management, dealing with difficult people, improving communication, and so much more. Train your whole team for less than $500. Each lesson is 30 minutes or less, so it fits right into your current team meeting schedule. Find more information, and get immediate access to your first free lesson at www.BrightHillGroup.com/helpinggeeks. That’s www.BrightHillGroup.com/helping geeks, so that you can get access to the Geek to Great 101 Course.

[00:01:04] Welcome to the Becoming a Geek Leader podcast. My name is Tom Cooper. As a geek, I’m on a mission to figure out better ways to lead others at work and at home. Through the Becoming a Geek Leader podcast, I’m sharing what I’m learning so I can help make you more effective at leading people, too. Ready?

Introduction

[00:01:25] Today’s topic is focusing on others to improve your influence. And we’re going to be digging into specifically some things you can do when it comes to emailing other people, and things you can do when it comes to listening to other people. I’m excited about the topic today, and I hope it helps you as you connect with others.

Thought Leaders Segment

[00:02:04] In today’s Thought Leaders Segment, I want to share an idea that I think is fantastic. It came from a podcast I heard just yesterday from the Harvard Business Review Idea Cast. I love that podcast. It’s a great one, and I would strongly encourage you to check it out. It’s worth listening to.

[00:02:20] In this particular episode, the conversation was about listening. And over the years, I have worked on my listening and sometimes, I’m an okay listener. Sometimes, I do a pretty good job of listening to other people. In fact, when I heard the topic for that particular podcast, I candidly thought, I’ve already got this, but I’ll just take a listen, in case I might pick something up. Let me tell you, I was blown away. Simple and very, very powerful.

[00:02:52] Now as I’m sharing some ideas about listening, this particular Thought Leaders Segment has got a lot of details in it. And I know that there’s a decent chance that I’m catching you while you’re commuting, or while you’re working out, or something like that. There are some great ideas here, and I want you to relax about it. I know that when I was listening to it, I was thinking, Oh, man. I hope I can capture all of this.”

[00:03:12] So a couple of things I want to share with you. One, registered members can get a copy of the transcript of this episode, and so you can copy and paste directly from the transcript. You can get exactly the information that I am sharing. The second idea is, I’ll be sharing in the show notes, the links to the original article and to the original podcast. So there was a Harvard Business Review article, which is available for free on the HBR website, as well as the Idea Cast, which is also available for free.

[00:03:40] So for now I just want you to sit back and get ready to learn about listening at an entirely new level, because it was a shock for me. The podcast in question was the Harvard Business Review Idea Cast. They were interviewing Mark Goulston, who is the author of a book called, “Just Listen”. One of the key points that he made is that people are craving to be understood. We’re so busy, nobody has time to think. And we’re just dying to have a safe place where we can be heard.

[00:04:09] The key point that he brought up is the idea about being a “first class noticer”. Now, a noticer goes beyond just listening to the facts. It’s not looking, or watching, or seeing what’s happening. Those things are kind of passive. What he is thinking about, and encouraging us to think about is, as you are talking, look at the engagement level of the other person. And that our job is to be present, and to be attentive, and to be intensely curious about the other person. And that’s hard. It takes a lot of energy.

[00:04:51] The key thing about being intensely curious about the other person, it starts with noticing their body language. Are they making eye contact with you? What’s their hand movement? Is it really subdued or is it really intense? Are they moving closer to you or farther away from you? Do they seem kind of open with their arms and their legs, you know, open? Or are the kind of closed off, folded arms and crossed legs, and that sort of thing? What you want to be doing is being intentional about noticing what’s going on.

[00:05:25] Now he talked in the article about four levels of listening. I thought that it was neat, because the first one is the classic, classic…and I remember my dad used to do this with my mom. He would be reading the newspaper or looking at something, not paying attention to my mom. And she would say, “Tom, you’re not listening,” and my dad would look up and say, “Sure, I was listening,” “No, Tom. You weren’t listening,” and he would say, “Yes, I was listening. You screamed,” and he would rattle back off the last 10 seconds of whatever my Mom had screamed.

[00:06:00] Now that used to really infuriate my mom, because she knew he wasn’t actually paying attention. But it was upsetting that he could pretend that he had processed that information, and give her kind of a, “uh-huh, uh-huh.” Goulston calls that level, “Level One, Listening Over Someone.” You’re really not even in the room. You’re there, but you’re not there. You’re not paying attention, you’re not fully engaged. You’re not present in the conversation. You can give lip service to being there.

[00:06:29] Let me tell you what this looks like. This looks like, I’ve got my phone in my hand, and my eyes are glued to my phone while you’re talking. You’re standing in my office, and I’m staring at the screen responding to an email. Yeah, go ahead. I can do this while I’m…because you’re great at multitasking, right? No, you aren’t.

[00:06:45] Anyway, the idea of listening over somebody. And we see this and…think about how you feel when somebody is listening over. When they’re just not even paying attention, they’re kind of nodding their head, “uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh.” It’s awful. All right, so that’s “Level One, Listening Over Someone.”

[00:07:05] Now let’s talk about “Level Two, You Are Listening At Someone.” Now this is candidly where most of us live. This place is where most of us spend our time when it comes to listening to other people. And when we’re listening at someone, we are preparing what we are going to say while they’re still talking. We’ve heard something, we’ve got a brilliant response, we’re going to jump right on that as soon as we can get in. As soon as we find a break in the conversation, man, we are on it.

[00:07:35] And really, you’re not listening at that point, because, you’ve listened enough to hear what you wanted to say, to jump back in. I’ll tell you, this is most of our interactions, personally. And frankly, it’s where most of the social media conversations happen. You make a comment, and I’m going to pick up on one little, tiny thing on that, and I’m going to jam on my comment, and prove how right I am. Not necessarily very helpful.

[00:07:56] So Level One is Listening Over, “uh-huh, uh-huh.” Level Two is Listening at Someone, so you’re preparing what you are going to say while they’re still talking. Now Level Three, is a good level. Level Three is a good level. It’s problem-solving. So now you’re listening to someone. So we aren’t listening over or at someone, we are listening to someone.

[00:08:15] Now when you’re listening to, you’re hearing about their problem. You’re hearing about what’s going, and you are thinking about how you can connect with them by solving the problem. So you’re ready to offer a fix. Now, the challenge with this is sometimes they don’t want a fix. And frankly, this is one of those things that, I’m a problem-solver. Don’t talk to me unless you’ve got a problem you want solved. And when you tell me about your problem, I have a solution because that is the way I operate.

[00:08:42] That gets me into trouble with my wife, sometimes. Because sometimes she doesn’t want me to fix it, she just wants me to listen. In fact, sometimes with Holly, what I’ll say is, “Hey, what do you need from me? What do you need from me? Can I make sure that we’re on the same page? If you want me to try and jump in and help, I’m on it. If you want me to just listen, I can do that, too.” So really, problem-solving is Level Three. We are trying to jump in and fix a problem, but make sure they want you to fix that problem.

[00:09:10] Now Level Four Goulston calls, “Listening Into Someone.” Now this is really about having them feel heard, having them feel heard. This is not the same as my dad with my mom, where he was parroting back whatever words she screamed. Goulston talks about really getting emotionally connected with the emotions the person was feeling. Now this requires us to move beyond being defensive, right? I can’t be defensive when you’re saying something. I want to hear what you’re saying, I want to hear your emotion, and I want to connect with that.

[00:09:42] I have to go beyond explaining my point of view. “Yeah, but let me help you understand why I did that.” That’s not helpful either. It’s going beyond offering help to them. Your goal is to really understand the other person. This is about making a safe place, helping the person to feel safe, to feel like they can really share what’s going on. Now this requires a tremendous amount of self-control because, “I have so many things to say, if you could just stop talking.”

[00:10:11] And that’s my big problem. I need to recognize that I don’t have that much to say, and I need to be listening to you. And Goulston offers some great questions. I encourage you to pick these up from the show notes. As you’re talking to people, you want to get them to feel comfortable and relax.

[00:10:25] Here are some questions that you can ask them. “What does that mean for you,” or, “How do you feel about that,” “Can you tell me some more about that,” “What’s your take on…” and “What’s the best thing about that?” And this one I like, too. He says, “What else comes to mind?” These types of questions are really powerful in helping you to go to a higher level of listening. Now the higher you go in the levels of listening, the more powerful your influence is with the other person. I’m telling you, this absolutely works.

[00:10:57] If you want to influence somebody, listening to them is far more powerful than talking to them, or over them, or at them, or solving their problem. I found this fascinating, and I just wanted to share it with you. The podcast, that Harvard Business Review podcast, goes into more detail and it talks more, there’s a whole section on how sales people can apply these ideas for incredible results, so…but I wanted to get these ideas out to you, and I wanted to share them with you.

[00:11:24] So you want to go beyond listening over someone, beyond listening at someone, even beyond listening to someone to solve their problem, you want to listen into them. I hope this helps you think better about listening better. And that’s today’s Thought Leaders Segment.

Coach’s Mailbox

Want Tom to answer your question? Just send an email to Coach@BrightHillGroup.com.

Today’s message is from Cecilia. She’s a Project Manager at a large non-profit and Cecilia asks, “How can I influence the senior leaders in my company? Sometimes I feel like they are not listening. I have had some feedback that my emails are too long, but I want to make sure that they have all the information they need. So sometimes my messages get a little bit long. How can I get them to listen?”

[00:12:36] First, focus on the needs of the other person. Think about if you’re that person, if you’re the one receiving that message. Let’s say you’re the CEO, and you’re reporting out on projects and the status of projects. What does the CEO really, really need to know? What are the key points that would be relevant from the CEO’s perspective?

[00:12:59] So for example, the CEO’s job is to figure how to increase revenues or decrease costs. Those are the two major factors, and it doesn’t matter if it’s for profit, or non-profit. Those factors are irrelevant, either way. So Cecilia, if you’re focusing on the needs of the CEO, how can you translate the key elements of your message to match up with the needs of the other person?

[00:13:27] So in this case, what is it about the project status you’re reporting, that’s relevant to either increasing revenues or decreasing costs? If you can tailor your message to meet the specific needs of the other person, it’s going to help you dramatically. So thinking about whomever you need to communicate with, figure out what it is that they need to know, or need to do, in order to be successful. And then, you want to communicate those things that really matter.

[00:13:58] Now I told you I was going to tell you how to BLUF. This is an acronym, B-L-U-F, and I got it from the military. It stands for, “Bottom Line Up Front,” BLUF. If you want to communicate really effectively, if you want to influence people to help you do the things that you need done, you need to figure out how to BLUF. And what you want to do is take your message, read through the entire message. Figure out, what are the key elements that are relevant to the other person that you want to highlight?

[00:14:31] Then you are going to write an executive summary that is two sentences, maybe three sentences. Maybe it’s three bullet points, but it’s going to go right to the very top of the message. And that’s going to be your Bottom Line Up Front. As you are focused on the needs of the other person and you’re thinking about how you can put your bottom line up front, it makes it so much easier.

[00:14:56] In fact, a way that you can combine techniques to get even more value is, not only put your bottom line up front in your email, but also in the subject line. If you can note exactly what it is that you need from the other person, that’s going to be powerful, too. So for example, if you’re sending something to the CEO. What do you need from the CEO? Do you need the CEO to make a decision? You could put in your subject line, “Decision Needed on X”. Or if you want to support, you’re talking about increased sales, you could say, “Update On Increased Sales,” or, “Update On Decreased Operational Costs.” Put that in the subject line, then when you put your bottom line up front, that executive summary at the top of the message, it’s really going to make a big difference.

[00:15:51] One more thing. Many times, folks who are detail-oriented feel like it’s very important to include all of the details when sending a message. Now what this means is, if you’re sending a message to a senior leader, realistically they are not going to read a long message. If your message is more than about seven or eight sentences total, they’re just not going to get around to reading it. You send them a 15-page attachment, I guarantee you that’s not going to get read. That may be frustrating, but the fact of the matter is that the most precious resource that’s available to anybody in a leadership position is their time and attention. They’re not going to invest the time. What they’re counting on you to do is to roll that data up, do some analysis, and give them information that is recommending a course of action. Help them understand exactly what it is that the data shows, not every little piece of data.

[00:16:53] Years ago, I worked with a woman who was very detail-oriented, very smart. She would send these very detailed emails that went on and on and on. Eventually, we went through a process to talk about communication styles and communication needs. I’m a big picture person, and she’s a detail person. And what she told me is, “Tom, for the longest time, I thought you were broken. I thought, I couldn’t understand how you could possibly make a decision without all of the information.”

[00:17:22] Now people are different. And because we are different, I didn’t need as much data as she needed. On the other hand, she was really good at keeping me honest, making sure that I wasn’t going to make a big mistake when I was going through and making a decision with limited information. What you are going to want to do is try to understand who are you communicating with, and what’s their preferred communication style? Do they like lots and lots of details?

[00:17:50] If so, and you’re a big picture person like me, you’re going to need to figure out, how do you put more details into the mix? If they’re a big picture person, they’re not good at the details, then you probably need to put fewer details into your message. Again, we’re focusing on the needs of the other person. We’re doing the difficult work of making it simple for the other person. We’re sweating those details to figure out how we can communicate clearly and concisely.

[00:18:20] In fact, I was working with a client not that long ago. And we spent about an hour together, working on putting together an email. The original email that she started working with was about, I don’t know, it was about a page and a half. By the time we were done, we had gotten it down to seven sentences. She screamed, “We spent an hour to write seven sentences?”

[00:18:41] I’ll tell you what, far better results came from that hour and those seven sentences, than from a message that will never get read. So you’re going to focus on the needs of the other person, and you’re going to figure out how and when to BLUF. Put your Bottom Line Up Front.

Episode Hack

For the episode hack, I really want to help you become a do-er. I want you to take some of these ideas and do something with it.

[00:19:24] So for a quick review from today’s episode. We talked about the Coach’s Mailbox, and Cecilia, and her challenge with getting other people to listen to what she has to say. And we talked about focusing on the needs of the other person, and we talked about putting your Bottom Line Up Front in that type of communication. Then we turned our attention, in the Thought Leaders Segment, to the art of listening and how we can listen more effectively.

[00:19:51] Specifically, what I want to encourage you, as a key takeaway from our topic today, is the idea of being a “first class noticer.” I want you to begin to notice the things that are going on around you. Begin to notice the other person’s engagement. Begin to notice how they talk. Do they have a lot of energy? Are they really passionate? Are they loud? What is it that’s happening with them? And how can you engage with them on an emotional level about the things that are going on?

[00:20:23] So as an exercise, as a first step, what I want you to do is, the next conversation you have that’s a meaningful conversation, I want you to be intentional about noticing how emotional they are about the topic they are talking about. And when you see that they’re passionate about it, or they’re excited about it, they’re louder about it, they’re talking faster. Whenever you see something like that, I want to encourage you to say, “Tell me more about that. Help me understand what you’re thinking there. What does that mean?” Dig in a little bit. So become a first class noticer. And that’s today’s Episode Hack.

Closeout

[00:21:00] Thanks for listening to this episode of “Becoming a Geek Leader.” You can play a part in helping the podcast to grow. If you enjoyed it, please do me a favor. The way to get the podcast to grow is for you to go to iTunes and give it a rating. If enough of you give me a good rating at iTunes, this podcast will show up in their New and Noteworthy section. Being New and Noteworthy is a great way to attract more listeners and having more listeners helps me have the support to keep the podcast going.

Listen now!

In This Episode:

• One key tip on how to get people to want to listen to you
• Why WII-FM is everyone’s favorite radio station
• A simple, one page tip sheet to help you focus like a laser on what other people care about

Resource Download:

“My Favorite Things” – a quick one-page downloadable PDF that lets you focus on exactly what is important to the other person.

Take a listen!

Transcript

Becoming a Geek Leader. Season one. Episode one.

Sponsored by Geek-to-Great 101

We all want to grow our skills and improve the work we do, but who has time for that? In this online blended learning program, you and your team will gain practical skills in topics like time management, dealing with difficult people, improving communication, and so much more.

Train your whole team for less than $500. Each lesson is 30 minutes or less, so it fits right into your current team meeting schedule. Find more information and get a median access to your first free lesson at brighthillgroup.com/helpinggeeks. That’s brighthillgroup.com/helpinggeeks, so that you can get access to the Geek-to-Grade 101 Course.

Introduction

Welcome to the Becoming a Geek Leader podcast. My name is Tom Cooper. As a geek, I’m on a mission to figure out better ways to lead others at work and at home. Through the becoming a geek leader podcast, I’m sharing what I’m learning so I can help make you more effective at leading people too. Ready?

Today I want to talk about how do you get people to want to help you. What can you do to get people to want to buy in to your ideas? How can you get the support you need, whether it’s the tools or the resources or the time, whatever it might be? How can you get other people to want to buy in and help you?

Mentoring segment.

In the mentoring segment, Tom tackles tough issues based on his years of experience.

Tom: [00:02:01] In the mentoring segment today, I want to talk about how you can get more cooperation from other people. Now specifically I want to talk about building a relationship with your boss. I’ve thought back over my career and I probably have had between 8 and 12 bosses depending on the types of jobs which ones I include in my career. And I have had some great bosses and I’ve had some not so great bosses. I’ve had some great relationships with bosses and I’ve had some not so great relationships with bosses. I’m not suggesting that you should be your boss’s best friend, and frankly, they might not want to be that friendly with you. But let me talk for just a minute or two about things you can do to improve your odds.

[00:02:47] What I want to talk about specifically is one aspect of their life that you may know a lot about, or you might only know a little bit about it, and it’s their family. Let me ask you, do you know your boss’ spouse name? How much do you know about your boss’ spouse? That’s the person they partnered with. That’s the person they spend a bunch of time with outside work. It be a good idea for you to know who they are.

[00:03:14] Now I’m going to ask you a really tough one. Do you know how many kids they have? If you know how many kids they have, do you know their kids’ names? And you’re thinking, “Why do I care about my boss’s kids names? After all, that has nothing to do with work.” Let me just submit to you that if you don’t even know the names of the people that this person considers the most important people in the world, how do you think you’re going to have any influence with them at all. Let me tell you, if you take the time to get to know things about their family, their interests and their activities, it will be incredibly powerful for you when you go ask your boss for help on work projects.

[00:04:08] Now I have to confess, I was not great at this. Over my career, I got better at it. I learned more about it. But it was one of those things that I had to make a lot of mistakes about. If I go back to some of my earliest bosses, I knew nothing about them outside of work. And frankly I didn’t like them very much and didn’t want to know very much about them outside of work. That wasn’t good for me.

[00:04:34] Now let’s talk practically about how you can find out about what’s going on with them. You can ask them about their kids, about what their kids are into. You can look around their office for any kid artwork, photos, certificates. Look at the things that they do with their family.

[00:04:55] One powerful example. I had a co-worker whose eight-year-old son was involved in a competitive dirt motorcycling league. I have to say I know nothing about that at all. But what I did learn is that they would pack up and travel and camp every weekend during the season. And they thought about things like equipment and gear and things that might give their son an edge. If you wanted to have a good conversation with that family, you could ask the mom about where they went that weekend. And she would have a story about their camping and about their son’s competition and about their equipment or whatever had gone wrong. It’s a great way to make a connection.

[00:05:37] Now I know this is not rocket science. It’s not rocket science, but you’re going to need to be able to find a way to remember this stuff too. And for me, I remember I used to try use my memory to keep track of stuff like, and what I learned was I’m astonishingly bad. And in fact, if you talk to people, many times they’re going to tell you, “Oh, I’m just not good at remembering names. And if I can hardly remember my boss’s name, how am I going to remember by boss’s kids names?”

[00:06:05] Well, again, it’s not rocket science. You need a system. And for me the system was writing it down. You do whatever it takes to help you remember. But my tool is note-taking because that’s the way I learn. By writing and reading, that really works for me. So I’ll be talking with somebody, and let’s say during a conversation, they’re telling a story and they mention their spouse’s name. If I’ve got my notebook handy or Evernote and my laptop, I’ll make a note of that immediately. If I’m not taking notes right then, I’ll make every effort to remember though. Think, “Okay, how can I remember this?” It’s John or it’s Susan or whatever the person’s name is and I’ll repeat it in my memory until I think I’ve got it locked in. And then as soon as I can, I’ll write it down, because I know me, I’m not going to remember.

[00:06:54] Now, what do I write down? It’s pretty simple. When I get to my notebook, I’ll write down spouse’s name, July. And hopefully it is July. If I had confused it with Susan or whoever. If they happen to mention something about their kid, I might say, I might write down, “Son in kindergarten.” And if I know their son’s name, I’ll make a note of that too. If not, I’ll try to make a point of asking the next time, “Hey, what’s your son’s name?” And then I’ll write it down. And you might think, “Look, this is ridiculous. This is just a technique or a tool or a manipulation process, and it’s not going to work.” Or they’re going to think. “Oh, that’s totally disingenuous.” Well, if you’re doing it as a weasel because you want to manipulate your boss, then yes, it’s not going to work for you. But if you are showing an interest in your boss and you’re trying to understand what their world is about outside of work, it’s going to work and it’s going to work very well.

[00:07:46] So whatever system you need to use, use that. But you want to find out the names of the people that are the most important people in their life, and you want to find out the things that those people are interested in. And as you build that relationship with your boss, your opportunities at work are only going to get better. And that is today’s mentoring segment.

Family segment.

Tom: [00:08:30] As you probably know by now, I’ve got seven kids and each of them has got their own style, their approach and priorities. But one thing that happens regularly at my house is that somebody want’s to get involved in an activity. Let’s say they want to play a game, and they need to find some recruits to want to play.

The other day I was working in my office and I heard this.

Stephanie: [00:08:50] Why doesn’t anybody play with me?

Tom: [00:08:56] That was my daughter reenacting a scenario that happens on a pretty regular basis around here. How do we get other people to want to get involved? She was so frustrated that she couldn’t get people to help her with her goal of playing a game, that she got more and more frustrated until she finally could not stand it.

[00:09:16] So how could she get them to want to play with her? It’s an important question and it ties in exactly to what we’ve been talking about on today’s episode. How do we get people to want to go along with the stuff we want to do? People’s favorite station is W-I-I-F-M, what’s in it for me. In my daughter’s case, she was crystal-clear on what was important to her, what’s in it for Stephanie, but not so clear on why others would need to stop what they were doing to play along with her, to go along with the game that she had in mind.

[00:09:50] I got to tell you, that’s how it is at work too. If other people on your team cannot figure out why they should stop what they’re doing and play with you, they’re not going to play with you, whether it’s delivering the work that you need, or whether it’s attending your meeting, or whatever. And so you need to think about how you can get people to want to play along, and it really comes down to what’s in it for them. If you can focus your communication around what’s in it for them as opposed to what’s in it for you, you’re much more likely to get the equipment, or the software, or the people, or the time, or the cooperation that you need.

[00:10:34] And let me just want to point out that the more passionate you are about the thing that you need, the more important it is to you, the more you need to think about what’s in it for them. What do they care about? What are they being measured on? Who is your audience? And we’ll dive a lot more into those questions in future episodes of becoming a geek leader. In my daughter’s case she could turn it around. Rather than just announce to somebody who’s busy doing something else, “I’m going to play scrabble.” She could think about her brother who loves words, and she can entice him with the idea of being creative. For her brother who is very competitive, she could challenge him to a contest. And for her mom, she could appeal the Holley’s love of fun with her kids. In no time, she could have a foursome sitting around the living room, having a blast, debating whether “koo” is a word, or just a sound that babies make when they’re content. And of course, which dictionary should be the source of truth for this evening’s game.

[00:11:38] Getting buy-in by thinking about what’s in it for the other person is how you make it work, and that’s today’s family segment.

Episode hack.

Tom: [00:12:08] Now it’s time for the episode hack. And just a quick review. In this episode, we’ve talked about how do you get buy-in from other people. We talked about communicating with your boss, building relationship with your boss, getting others to want to help you. Today’s episode hack revolves around W-I-I-F-M, what’s in it for me.

[00:12:27] How can you start to think about the other person and what it is they need? What matters to them? How can you re-frame your request in terms of their interest? I want to encourage you to check out the show notes for a powerful template you can use called My Favorite Things. And it helps you keep track of the things that are their favorites. It’s available for free to folks who register for the Becoming a Geek Leader podcast on brighthillgroup.com.

[00:12:53] Thinking about the other person, framing your communication and your request in terms that matter to the other person, that’s thinking about W-I-I-F-M, and that’s today’s episode hack.

Closeout

[00:13:05] Thanks for listening to this episode of Becoming a Geek Leader. You can play a part in helping the podcast to grow. If you enjoyed it, please do me a favor. The way to get the podcast to grow is for you to go to iTunes and give it a rating. If enough of you give me a good rating in iTunes, this podcast will show up in their new and noteworthy section. Being in new and noteworthy is a great way to attract more listeners, and having more listeners, helps me have the support to keep the podcast going. There are three simple steps to giving me a rating. One, go to the iTunes store in the podcast section. Two, search for Becoming a Geek Leader. And three, give the podcast a great rating. And while you’re there, why not write a quick review as well. Thanks.

[00:13:50] This is Tom Cooper. Thanks for listening. Be sure to join me next time for another episode of Becoming a Geek Leader. Join me in my mission of discovering better ways to lead others at work and at home.

In this episode

• I’m introducing you to the Becoming a Geek Leader podcast.
• I’m sharing with you what I’m learning about leading geeks, and being a geek who leads geeks.
• I’m also offering a sample of what you can expect from future episodes.

Take a listen!

Transcript

Becoming a Geek Leader, Episode Zero.

Sponsored by Geek to Great 101

This episode of Becoming a Geek Leader is sponsored by the Geek to Great 101 course. We all want to grow our skills and improve the work we do, but who has time for that? In this online blended learning program, you and your team will gain practical skills in topics like time management, dealing with difficult people, improving communication, and so much more. Train your whole team for less than $500. Each lesson is 30 minutes or less, so it fits right into your current team meeting schedule. Find more information and get immediate access to your first free lesson at http://BrightHillGroup.com/HelpingGeeks so you can get access to the Geek to Great 101 course.

Introduction – What is The “Becoming a Geek Leader” Podcast all about?

[00:01:03] Welcome to the Becoming a Geek Leader podcast. My name is Tom Cooper. As a geek, I’m on a mission to figure out better ways to lead others at work and at home. Through the Becoming a Geek Leader podcast, I’m sharing what I’m learning, so I can help make you more effective at leading people too. Ready?

Tom: [00:01:24] Hi, my name is Tom Cooper, and this is the Becoming a Geek Leader podcast. As we get started on this podcast, this is Episode Zero, and I want to talk about why this podcast exists. I want to thank you for joining me. Let me start out by saying the plan for this podcast is all about you. Let me play out a scenario here and ask you, “Does this sound familiar at all?” You’re an experienced, highly technical expert. You’re smart. You’ve had really good career success up to this point. In fact, you’re moving up. But all of a sudden, you’re finding out out that work is more and more frustrating. You just can’t seem to make the progress you used to make. In fact, a lot of your time is spent in meetings. In fact, there’s very little time to do any real work because you spend your entire day in meeting after meeting after meeting and collecting a whole bunch of to-dos. And you’re accountable for getting a bunch of work done.

[00:02:18] Worse than that, you’re not only accountable for personally getting work done, but you’ve got to get work done through other people. Now, you’re accountable to deliver that, and some of those people report to you, most of them don’t. And most of these other people have other bosses and all of them have other projects. They have lots of projects. Sometimes, they do great work for you, and sometimes they don’t. If that sounds familiar to you at all, then this podcast is designed just for you.

Is this your story?

[00:02:49] But how did this happen? How did you get here?

Well, if your story’s anything like mine, maybe it went something like this. First couple of years after I got out of school, I was seen as the technical guy, that I had all the technical skills. And the geekier I got, the more I got paid.

Then at the end of my first year, the more I had learned about the technology I worked on, the more I was rewarded. And that happened again the second year, and the third, and the fourth.

And then about the fifth year of my career, it all changed. My boss came to me, and he said, “Tom, you’ve been doing a great job, and I really appreciate the work you’re doing. What I need you to do is show some of these young folks how to do the things that you do. Help them to figure out how to do it better.” Now, here’s a challenge. Up to this point, we’ve had a deal. The deal has been I get geekier, and you pay me more. You can’t go changing the rules now. That’s not fair. And that was a big frustration for me, was figuring that out. But the thing that I’d had to learn was that it wasn’t ever about me being geeky. That wasn’t it at all. It was always about the business problem, and my boss had hired me to solve business problems. Now, he hired me to solve them using technology, but he doesn’t really care what technology is used.

[00:04:12] And here’s where you are now. You’re at a point where you have to adjust your thinking. So early in your career, it was all about your brains using technology X to solve a problem. Now, it’s still about your brains, and it’s still about your problem-solving ability. That’s the same. What’s different is two things. First, you have to recognize that you’re no longer in the technology business. You’re in the business problem business, and you solve the business problems using technology. See? That’s how business people think, and it’s how you have to start thinking. And number two, you’re no longer personally going to do the technical work. You’re going to use your brain, and you’re going to the be the conductor of the orchestra of team members and technology that’s going to solve those problems.

[00:05:01] Now, I work with clients all the time, and they struggle with this. In this podcast, I’m going to talk about how you can think more like a business person. And when you do that, you’re going to get more support and resources for your projects, and you’re going to be able to grow your career. So you’re going to be thinking differently because you’re in the business problem business, not in the technology business. You use technology, but it’s not about the tech. And the second is you are the person who coordinates, organizes, and leads others to deliver work.

[00:05:29] In this podcast, you’re going to get bite-sized ideas and practical application points. I’m going to give you the tools you need to be successful. Let me tell you a little bit more about my story.

Once upon a time…

Once upon a time, there was a young software geek, and every day, he worked on software projects. Day after day, he watched as these technology projects struggled. Some of them worked, but many of them, too many of them, failed. He got frustrated. And one day, he discovered project management, and that helped. As he got certified as a project manager and began to study project management principles, he found more success in his projects. But eventually he saw technology projects that didn’t work. They were run by certified project managers, and they were using methodologies and tools that were provided by the PMO, and it still didn’t work.

[00:06:20] And he thought, “There’s got to be a better way.” Until one day, quite by accident, he discovered that you could learn to lead other people, that leadership was not something that you received at birth or just a natural gift that you had, but that it was a set of tools, a set of skills you could learn. And so he had become a leader of a team, and he thought, “Well, how can I work on learning more how to use these skills?” And so he began to experiment on his team. And you know what he discovered? He discovered that his projects got healthier, that his team worked better together. When his bosses saw those things, they gave him more work, more projects. The team delivered higher quality work, and life was good. And then he thought, “I’ve become a better boss, and I’d like to have a better boss.” Wouldn’t it be great if it was that easy, just say, “Hey, I’d like to have a better boss,”? The challenge is, the boss factory has a quality control problem. Sometimes, the bosses that get turned out are fantastic, and other times, well, not so much.

[00:07:28] But as he grew in his career and as he learned more about how to be an effective boss and he started looking for a better boss, he realized that nobody was helping people figure this stuff out. That they were proficient technically, they got promoted, and they were put in a position where their boss said, “Well, you go figure that stuff out. You’re smart.” And so he decided to start a business. And what I do now, because I’m that formerly young software geek, is I help geeks communicate, moving from being that hands-on technologist to the one who leads a team of people who are able to deliver great technical solutions.

How I help Geeks

[00:08:05] And the four areas that I work on are: I help leaders and teams communicate clearly, delegate more effectively, manage conflict in a productive way, and plan. So thinking about communication, how many times have you had to spend a whole lot of time playing cleanup because you had a miscommunication in an email or in a meeting? Think about delegating. Sometimes we delegate, and it doesn’t work. They don’t get the work done, or if they do, it’s bad quality. We have to do it ourselves. And so we say, “Why am I bothering?” Managing conflict in a productive way. Conflict can be very healthy, but most of the time, we struggle with it. And we end up saying, “Well, we can’t have Person A and Person B work together because they don’t get along.” And finally, planning and executing well. We are so busy. We’re too busy to plan. And I’ll talk about ways to plan better without having to invest a huge amount of time. I’m going to giving you real-world examples that will help you turn your ideas into action.

What you can expect

[00:09:00] So let me take a minute and share with you, what can you expect? In Season One, I’m going to be talking a lot about the core things you need to know about how to be geek leader. What do you have to do to effectively lead other folks? I’m going to put out episodes about every two weeks. There are going to be 10 episodes in the first season. During each episode, I’m going to be sharing stories about my clients. I’ve got a big family…I’ve got seven children…and I’ll be sharing some stories about my family as well, leadership lessons I’ve learned in that regard. One key thing that I’m going to be giving you every single time is what I call an “episode hack.” It’s an action item, one key thing that you can apply after each episode.

[00:09:43] One thing I want you to know is you’re not alone. For most of us, our boss came to us and said, “Hey, look. You smart. You figure it out. Here’s a couple of people I want you to oversee. You go figure out how to make that work.” But what we’re doing here is we’re learning together how to more effectively motivate, communicate, influence those people around us to deliver great solutions. And I’m excited you’re here, and together, we’re going to learn a lot about how to become geek leaders.

What can I learn from the podcast?

[00:10:12] Each episode of the podcast is made up of different segments that focus on different ideas. Let’s take just a minute and give you an example of what you can expect.

Mentoring Segment

In the Mentoring segment, Tom tackles tough issues, based on his years of experience.

Coaches Mailbox

In the Coaches Mailbox segment, Tom answers a direct question from a listener.

Want Tom to answer your question?

Just send an email to Coach@BrightHillGroup.com.

Tech Segment

In the Tech segment, Tom talks about tools, processes, and theory related to Agile, projects, systems, and more.

Thought Leader Segment

In the Thought Leader segment, Tom brings in ideas from today’s best thought leaders.

Family Segment.

In the Family segment, Tom shares leadership lessons from his family life.

Episode Hack.

In the Episode Hack segment, Tom shares one action-oriented takeaway from this episode, something you can apply right away.

Tom: [00:11:52]

Here’s a quick clip from Episode One.

Let me ask you.

• Do you know your boss’ spouse’s name?

How much do you know about your boss’ spouse? That’s the person they partnered with. That’s the person they spend a bunch of time with outside work. It’d be a good idea for you to know who they are.

• Now, I’m going to ask you a really tough one. Do you know how many kids they have?

• If you know how many kids they have, do you know their kids’ names? And you’re thinking, “Why do I care about my boss’ kids’ names? After all, that has nothing to do with work.”

Let me just submit to you that if you don’t even know the names of the people that this person considers the most important people in the world, how do you think you’re going to have any influence with them at all?

Tom: [00:12:52]

Here’s another snippet from Episode Two.

So Cecilia, if you’re focusing on the needs of the CEO, how can you translate the key elements of your message to match up with the needs of the other person?

If you can tailor your message to meet the specific needs of the other person, it’s going to help you dramatically. The fact of the matter is that the most precious resource that’s available to anybody in a leadership position is their time and attention, and they’re not going to invest the time. What they’re counting on you to do is to roll that data up, do some analysis, give them information that is recommending a course of action. Help them understand exactly what it is that the data shows, not every little piece of data.

[00:13:47] Now, if you want to make sure you get access to all the information, all the best stuff that I’ve got to offer, head on over to http://BrightHillGroup.com/GeekLeader,

And there, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up. As you register on the community, you’re going to get access to transcripts of the broadcasts. You’re going to get access to the show notes, and to other pieces of valuable content that are going to make your experience with this even better. So head on over to BrightHillGroup.com/GeekLeader, and be sure you sign up.

Closeout

Thanks for listening to this episode of Becoming a Geek Leader. You can play a part in helping the podcast to grow. If you enjoyed it, please do me a favor. The way to get the podcast to grow is for you to go to iTunes and give it a rating.

If enough of you give me a good rating at iTunes, this podcast will show up in the “New and Noteworthy” section.

Being in “New and Noteworthy” is a great way to attract more listeners, and having more listeners helps me have the support to keep the podcast going. There are three simple steps to giving me a rating: one, go to the iTunes store in the podcast section, two, search for Becoming a Geek Leader, and three, give the podcast a great rating. And while you’re there, why not write a quick review, as well? Thanks.

This is Tom Cooper. Thanks for listening. Be sure to join me next time for another episode of Becoming a Geek Leader.

Join me in my mission of discovering better ways to lead others at work and at home.