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Is What You Say And What You Communicate Consistent?

January 13, 2010 | 1 Comment

Yesterday, I talked about the impact that perception has on people’s performance. Perception is formed through spoken and written words, gestures, and other forms of non-verbal communication.

While it’s important for everyone to understand this, it’s even more important for leaders (and managers) to understand that what they say isn’t always what they communicate. This discrepancy occurs because of language (the verbal and non-verbal cues used when people communicate). I discuss this in the following 4 minute video.

How do you make sure that what you say and what you communicate to others is consistent?

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How People Perform Is Influenced By Their Perception

January 12, 2010 | 8 Comments

Most people believe that their perceptions about a situation are accurate. For example, if I perceive an employee to be lazy, I’m confident that the employee is, indeed, lazy. The reality is quite different. Our perceptions are influenced by many factors, and people can perceive the same thing in fundamentally different ways. I’ve learned this first-hand not only while working with the team at crowdSPRING, but during my 13 years as a trial attorney – trying complex cases in front of judges and juries.

Why should you care about this? You should care because changing a situation (such as a bad work environment, poor team collaboration, etc.) doesn’t necessarily change perceptions. Many times, perceptions can be more damaging than the actual situation.

You also should care because perceptions impact performance. Startups – especially those with small teams – cannot succeed unless people perform well. I talk about these issues in the following 5 minute video.

What do you think? Do you agree that perceptions affect performance?

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Getting Things Done: How I Set Priorities

January 11, 2010 | 2 Comments

How do you decide what to do next? Should you write a blog post? Answer emails in your inbox? Make several sales calls? Spend time on Twitter? Or should you call a team meeting to discuss a customer problem?

Successful people are successful in part because they are good at setting priorities. And while there are many different ways to set priorities, I wanted to share how I set my own priorities – and priorities for the team at crowdSPRING.

How do you set YOUR priorities?

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How I Stay Efficient – My Three Hour Rule

January 7, 2010 | 10 Comments

Some people are more efficient than others. There are many reasons for this: ability to focus, complexity of the work, distractions, etc. But while some have unique skills and intellect to get things done quickly, most people must develop systems to help them improve their efficiency and balance many diverse tasks.

Some people rely on to-do lists to stay efficient and focused. I’ve tried to-do lists – and have failed miserably.

Years ago, while managing dozens of complex cases as a trial attorney, I started focusing on three major priorities every day, breaking the day down into 3 hour blocks of time. That system has worked well for me and has helped me to manage a massive amount of work as an entrepreneur. What I do works well for me but might not work for you. There’s no perfect system for everybody – but everybody could benefit from a regular practice. Here’s what I do regularly:

What do you do to stay efficient?

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Startup Tip – What I Would Have Wanted To Know About Data Migration

January 6, 2010 | 7 Comments

This is the last of a 3 part video series discussing software technologies and data migration. In part 1, I talked about selecting software technologies for your startup. In part 2, I talked about what to do if your existing software technology just isn’t good enough. In this video, I share what I would have wanted to know about data migration before refactoring our software to a new language and platform.

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Startup Tip: What To Do If Your Existing Software Technology Just Isn’t Good Enough

January 5, 2010 | Leave a Comment

In yesterday’s video, I offered five suggestions to help you pick the best technologies for your startup. But what do you do if the technology you pick doesn’t work for you later on? We recently struggled with this issue at crowdSPRING and completely refactored 100% of our code, moving from PHP to Python. In this video, I offer suggestions on what to do when you find that your existing technology just isn’t good enough.

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about the challenge of migrating customer data – something that any established startup must face when changing software and/or platforms.

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Startup Tip: Selecting Software Technologies For Your Startup

January 4, 2010 | 2 Comments

You have a great idea for an Internet startup – and maybe even seed funding – but how do you pick the right software to power your startup? I offer 5 suggestions in the following video, based on my experience with crowdSPRING.

Over the next two days, I plan to cover two closely related topics for technology startups: knowing when it’s time to make a change to a better platform (when you realize your initial software doesn’t scale well), and the challenge of migrating customer data.

And if you have additional suggestions or questions – please feel free to leave a comment.

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