Michael Redmond takes a chance and talks to risk management with Craig. The last in a series highlighting speakers for the PMI-Rochester Professional Development Day on May 24th, Michael explains the importance of identifying potential problems every company face yet often don’t want to think about.

You can find more about Michael Redmond at http://www.redmondworldwide.com 

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RealityCheckwithCraigPrice/~3/gPPZALpsZ94/reality-check-ep-52-michael-redmond-mp3

Anthony Mersino talks to Craig about “soft skills”. They talk about feelings (no…no crying), empathy, interacting with strangers and new people. You know, things Craig has no ability to talk about. They also discuss how to become more self-aware, understanding self-confidence and being more authentic.

Be sure to attend the PMI-Rochester Professional Development Day on May 24th and if you can’t attend but want to learn more about Anthony, visit his company’s website at http://www.projectadvisorsgroup.com

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RealityCheckwithCraigPrice/~3/7sHtc8hp1JY/episode-51-anthony-mersino-soft-skills

I was once reprimanded by an unsolicited life coach who told me “It’s not a problem, but a challenge!”

To which I replied “I’m sorry, Sudoku is a challenge, ordering Mongolian Barbecue is a challenge (Why am I adding spices?? If I knew how much garlic or cumin to use, I’d be home cooking this instead of you!). Talking to you is a challenge. What I’m talking about is a problem. Challenges can be ignored. Problems can’t.”

Since my perspective was not the one he wanted to hear or was one that he expected he seemed offended by my reply. He was assuming his perspective was the only one that mattered. Sadly, this is not uncommon.

Perspective is something people often overlook. (At least from my perspective anyway!)

It seems people rarely take time to see how the other person may look at things or perceive a given situation. Maybe because it no longer fits our 140 character, instant status updating world. Maybe because their perspective doesn’t fit our own narrative (Thanks cable news for making people take immovable stands on complex and changing issues). We don’t want to see their side because we have become too invested in our own ideas, our own perspective, that we don’t want them to be challenged at all, otherwise we’d risk “being wrong”. Maybe it just takes too much supposed “time and effort” (Which is a nice way of saying “Don’t be lazy!”) Maybe it’s a combination of a lot of different reasons.

Looking at things from other’s perspective, teaches us new things, builds empathy towards others (Yeah, I don’t care about that either) and creates long term trust.

Teaches us new things: If you can see something in a new light, gain a new understanding on a subject or a person, uncover information you hadn’t considered before, you can make better, stronger decisions.

Builds empathy: If you can’t see someone’s perspective, it’s hard to understand that person or relate to them. It’s easier to slap a label on them based on one thing and move on. Doing that closes the door to all their talents and skills. If you can take a moment to at least look at things from their perspective, it can clear up misinterpreted animosity, remove the presumption of personal intent (This might hurt some feelings but the way people react to you, isn’t always about YOU!) and create understanding that leads to:

Creates long term trust: Honest looks at other’s perspective builds trust through your ability to show fairness. Being fair-minded is a huge advantage when leading others. Fairness doesn’t mean you have to agree. It doesn’t mean you have to acquiesce to other’s ideas. It does mean you are willing to hear others ideas or concerns and weigh them accordingly. You have the final say, yet allowing others to express their ideas/concerns/opinions in an environment they know they will be heard gives you a track record of fairness.

And that’s all most people really want out of life…a fair shake (Though I could go for an ice cream shake right now) 

What’s your perspective on perspectives?

Maria Matarelli (@mariamatarelli on twitter) calls in to discuss her Agile Management program she will be presenting on May 24th at the Project Management Institute-Rochester Chapter’s Professional Development Day. While Craig’s limited knowledge of Agile is more than obvious, he does manage to get some understanding on Scrum, Velocity and thanks to Maria, invent Smokey and the Bandit Management.

You can register for the May 24th PMI-Rochester PDD at http://www.pmirochester.org and you can learn more about Maria at http://www.bevilledge.com/maria or connect with her via LinkedIn.

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RealityCheckwithCraigPrice/~3/isodyzh9MJg/episode-50-maria-matarelli-agile-management

In this “everyone gets a medal” “all ideas are equally valuable” and “there are no mistakes, just happy accidents” world we’ve created around ourselves, one valuable tool is often missing in many people’s arsenal (Especially younger workers): The ability to accept rejection.

I come from an entertainment world where you are rejected far more than you are accepted. In my case, much more (This explains why my sitcom “Everybody Tolerates Craig” never made it to air). Handling rejection becomes almost a defining quality. Understanding and embracing rejection is a huge part in an organization’s success and those who handle better than others often succeed at a greater pace.

 Ron Ashkenas has an article at the Harvard Business Review touching on this very topic (Explains why I brought it up, doesn’t it?). But I’ll skip to the good parts:

In light of these behaviors, leaders need to encourage a more conscious and healthy toleration of rejection. While all employees should feel comfortable offering ideas, raising issues, and making observations — they should do so with the knowledge that they may be rejected. If they get discouraged or angry about not having their ideas accepted, they might shut down and stop contributing. Similarly, if employees feel so self-important that the organization should never turn them down, their sense of entitlement will make it difficult to drive constructive change.

It’s easier to talk about learning from rejection than to actually experience it. Rejection often triggers painful emotional doubts about our own competence and self-worth, so we either try to avoid it or pretend that it doesn’t matter. A more constructive approach is to remember that rejection can be beneficial: It can force us to come up with more ideas, redirect us to different paths, and keep us humble and open to learning.

Let you’re people know how important their ideas are, encourage them to share them but also prepare them for the instances when they are not accepted so they can be ready the next time.

Lois Creamer (@loiscreamer on twitter) sits down with Craig immediately after her presentation “Book More Business” and talks being a speaker. More like the business of being a speaker. Craig weasels information for himself under the guise of podcasting, getting Lois to talk position statements, leveraging testimonials, understanding who your target market is, their different perspectives on Toastmasters and why Craig dislikes Purple Cows.

Lois Creamer can help speakers build their business at http://www.bookmorebusiness.com

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RealityCheckwithCraigPrice/~3/Qjqe4UcwfXc/episode-49-lois-creamer-positioning

Crystal Washington (@Cryswashington on twitter) joins Craig to discuss afroPuffs…yes afropuffs, being harassed by the TSA, tornado helmets and most importantly social media. With so many platforms popping up it can get confusing very quickly. Crystal talks platforms, strategies and maybe social media isn’t something you don’t need to be on every second of everyday.

Crystal can be found at her own website – http://www.crystalwashington.com

Have you ever been wrong? Made a mistake? Screwed up? Flubbed it? Made a mess of things? Stepped in it? (Started a blog by accusing your reader of being stupid?)

We all have. (Not admitting that is a mistake)

Often, people will scramble to hide their mistakes or worse, look you in the eye and tell you it’s not a mistake at all. In their effort to look infallible they come out looking ridiculous. But mistakes and errors are a huge part of the process. And being wrong should be something true leaders can admit to and use to their benefit.

The Myth: Being wrong is the highest offense and punishable by death (Not actual death. Corporate death…which can be worse!)
The Reality: Being wrong can often be the right thing for everyone.

Kathryn Schulz, wrote a book all about it called Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error and she points out many ways (As I have in my book “Half a Glass: The Realist’s Guide”. Yes, I plugged my own book too. Get over it) you can use being wrong to your advantage.

 From Forbes:

So how do you foster a corporate climate that has a healthy relationship to being wrong? Schulz offers four pointers for executives.

 1. Appoint a devil’s advocate. Too much groupthink? No one willing to speak up with dissenting opinions? As a manager, you should “appoint someone you really trust whose job is to argue against you,” says Schulz. “If you’re so respected that no one in your inner circle is willing to say you’re wrong, you need to rethink your internal management structure.”

 2. Showcase your commitment to being open about mistakes. If you’re wrong, admit it – and if someone else in your company has made a mistake, don’t attack them for it. “I guarantee you any situation in which you have your wrongness shoved in your face will go very poorly,” says Schulz. “You’ll be disinclined to acknowledge your error, and the most common response is to become defensive and entrench.” Instead, make it clear that everyone is wrong sometimes, and it’s part of a shared responsibility to learn from errors together.

 3. Argue against yourself. Make it standard operating procedure – for yourself and your employees – to argue the opposite side of a case, even if you’re convinced you’re right. The research you conduct may help illuminate aspects you’ve been overlooking and encourage you to revise your opinion.

 4. Truly listen. When views are polarized, it can be hard for anyone to step back and see another side, much less admit they’re wrong. But listening can defuse that tension, says Schulz: “If you let people talk things through in an environment where they feel they won’t be attacked, a remarkable number will let down their guard.”

Being wrong is not the end of the world. It’s often the start of something much, much better.

Dr. Michael Nuccitelli talks cyberbullying with Craig on this week’s Reality Check. Be it texting, tweeting or trolling facebook statuses, “The Nuche!” as Craig gleefully calls Michael, discusses why kids bully, how to identify if you child is bullying or being bullied and introduces his new iPredator Protected membership based advisory services that works to protect, advise and educate online users, their families and businesses.

You can find out all about it at www.ipredator.co (no “m”!)

Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RealityCheckwithCraigPrice/~3/yU651HvNKBE/reality-check-ep-47-dr-michael-nuccitelli-mp3

I wanted to share this piece of insight from an article I found by Daniel Sobol on arguing in business.

The Myth: Arguing is counterproductive and leads to animosity.

The Reality: Arguing, within the proper parameters in place, can be more productive than just a brainstorming session.

Most people try to avoid arguing (at least that was what my last fight at work was about) especially at work. But arguing, . But what really caught my eye is something I’ve always stood behind and that was being able to say “No, Because”. From Fast Company:

2. SAY “NO, BECAUSE”

 It’s widely evangelized that successful brainstorms rely on acceptance of all ideas and judgment of none. Many refer to the cardinal rule of improv saying “Yes, AND”–for building on others’ ideas. As a former actor, I’m a major proponent of “Yes AND.”
But I’m also a fan of “no, BECAUSE.” No is a critical part of our process, but if you’re going to say no, you better be able to say why. Backing up an argument is integral in any deliberative discourse. And that “because” should be grounded in real people other than ourselves.

 We conduct ethnographic research to inform our intuition, so we can understand people’s needs, problems, and values. We go out dancing with a group of women in a small Chinese village; we work in a fry shack in the deep South; we sit in living rooms and listen to caregivers discuss looking after a parent with Alzheimer’s. This research informs our intuitive “guts”–giving us both inspiration for ideas and rationale to defend or critique them.

 During ideation, we constantly refer back to people, asking one another if our ideas are solving a real need that people expressed or that we witnessed. This keeps us accountable to something other than our own opinions, and it means we can push back on colleagues’ ideas without getting personal.

With all due respect to my friend and podcast guest Avish Parashar and his great book “Say Yes, And” (you should go buy it today!), it’s okay to say “no” and object to a bad idea. In my own book “Half a Glass: The Realist’s Guide”(I am really plugging products today. But they’re not all mine so cut me some slack) I bring up how to object properly:

You can’t just say, “That’s a bad idea!”

Sorry, “That sucks!” isn’t a good response to someone’s new idea. Even if it sucks stronger than a black hole.

If you do accidently forget to engage your filter and they ask “Why does it suck?”

“I don’t know. It just sounds bad. Of all the things I’ve heard before, that idea sucks the most. And yet, I couldn’t tell you why. It’s like art. I know it when I see it and that idea sucks.”

How useful is that kind of feedback? Does it really accomplish anything besides identifying you as a jerk?

When you do have a complaint and want to share it, you need to:

 Explain why.

 You can easily state you don’t like the idea and then go through the laundry list of reasons you dislike the idea.

“I don’t think that is the right approach because…”

Back up your own objections. They’re going to defend their idea, you better take the effort to defend yours or you might as well keep quiet.

Being the “I told you so” person gets annoying.

Being the person who identifies the key problem and help improve it is seen as a “critical thinker ”. If you have valid reasons why an idea is not good, you won’t get dismissed out of hand.

Often a typical response to an objection is “Well, what’s your idea?”

Making a good idea on the spot is not easy. It takes planning and time. They sure took time thinking up their crappy idea. You probably need that time, too. Taking an honest look at why an idea may not work is still a valid way to be constructive.