Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Fwd: Is Work-Life Balance a Myth? These 11 Entrepreneurs Don't Think So




-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Is Work-Life Balance a Myth? These 11 Entrepreneurs Don't Think So
Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2013 07:34:32 -0400
From: OpenView Venture Partners <editor@openviewlabs.com>
To: stevescott@techacq.com


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It's Labor Day weekend — are you working or are you taking a much-needed break to relax and recharge? In this edition of OpenView Weekly we're inviting you to kick back with tips and resources to help you hit the ground running in September.


Is Work-Life Balance a Myth? These 11 Entrepreneurs Don't Think So

Achieving Work-Life                                            Balance

Does being a successful entrepreneur always have to come at the expense of everything else? Au contraire. With Labor Day as a backdrop, we've pulled together a list of 11 quotes from some of today's most successful founders and executives that illustrate the importance of taking a break and keeping things in perspective. Read more.

6 Sales Prospecting Tools You Should Be Using Right Now

  Sales Prospecting                                                    Tools
   

There may be no magic spell to bring willing prospects to your door, but there are some fantastic online tools that can add up to the next best thing (at no cost, no less). Find out more with this invitation to join OpenView's Devon McDonald and CeCe Bazar along with special guest Kyle Porter of SalesLoft for an exclusive live webinar Wednesday, September 4th. Read more.


Product Envy Will Kill Your Competitive Edge

Don't Copy Your                                                    Competition  
   
In business as in life, the grass always looks greener on the other side. But before you cave in to the pressure to keep up with your market's Joneses and match every competitor feature, read this post by PopSurvey and Temper founder Josh Pigford on the real keys to getting ahead of the pack. Read more.

Are Your Tough Interviews Scaring Off the Best Talent?

Ironman Interview                                                    Process  
   
Ever had a job interview that felt like the first day of boot camp? Did it make you want to take the job? Thought not. OpenView's Sudip Verma and Katy Smigowski know a better way, so stop discouraging your candidates with an "Ironman" interview process and read more.

Divide and Conquer: Making Data Manageable

For SaaS companies, data doesn't come in bytes, it comes in mountainous mouthfuls. Jacquelyn Barry Hamilton, CFO at Intronis, explains how breaking information down into manageable cohorts is the key to truly meaningful insights and better-informed decisions. Read more.

The Secret to Building Content Marketing Momentum

Struggling to get your content marketing ideas off the ground? OpenView's content strategy maestro Kevin Cain has great advice on how to develop the kind of consistency and frequency that audiences will eat up. Read more.



One-Stop Webinars: A Simple Guide to Getting You Up and Running Fast

Webinars are an indispensable way of generating high quality leads. Want to get on board? Monetate Content Marketing Director Rob Yoegel has seen first-hand what webinars can do for business, and offers a definitive guide to help you get results, too. Read more.

Is Your Scrum Team Serving Up Aces?

To evaluate the performance of your Scrum team you have to keep an eye on the right indicators. Here are five factors you can't ignore (and one that you can) courtesy of Essential Scrum author Kenny Rubin. Read more.


Trust Sites

Video: Find out why some of the premier companies in tech are turning to Trust Sites — and you should, too. Watch here or visit our YouTube Channel for more videos.



Scrum Big                                                    Picture

Podcast: With so many details to focus on, it can be easy to get lost in the day-to-day minutia of Scrum. Join Scrum expert Kenny Ruin to take a crucial step back. Listen here.



Surprising Tips

Curated: Discover the best new resources and ideas from around the Web that you may have missed. Find more here.






Fwd: Seth's Blog : Q&A: Tribes and the reality of worldview

Q&A: Tribes and the reality of worldview

Our series continues with my book Tribes. It's nice that we're featuring it on Labor Day, a holiday in the US that celebrates some of the most impactful tribal behavior in recent history.

It's easy to gloss over the key points of the book, because for some, it's frightening to realize that each of us has the ability to find and lead like-minded people to make real and powerful change that matters. Lead, not manage. Like-minded, as opposed to converting those who have no connection to us, to each other or to our goals.

As we shift from an economy dominated by mass marketing of the mass produced, this ability to lead is fundamentally transformative.

The selfish nature of the industrialist (hey, I made this, how do I get people to buy it?) hasn't gone away. Whether it's a small coaching service, a non-profit, a local window cleaning business or a big company, the most misguided assertion is, "I have a tribe, how do I make it bigger?" In fact, you might very well have customers, but it's unlikely you have a tribe, not if you haven't intentionally worked to engage at this level.

So, the question... "One of my favourite passages from Tribes is:   

People don't believe what you tell them.  They rarely believe what you show them.  They often believe what their friends tell them.  They always believe what they tell themselves.   

My question - what is the best way to join the conversation that is already taking place in the minds and hearts of your tribe?  What is the best way to seek out members of your tribe that have the same beliefs as you?" Thanks to Giovanni Marsico for the question.

We just celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington, and understanding how the organizers that led that singular event succeeded can help us understand how tribes work. They didn't create this movement by merely organizing people who already believed in the urgency of the civil rights movement and were ready to march. No, they organized people who already believed in their community, who already cared very much about what their neighbors (not everyone, just the circle of people from their church, their town, their community) did and thought. Only after they organized were they able to embrace their shared understanding of the enormity of racial segregation and respond to the leaders who made the urgency of the moment so clear.

So they began with the bravest early adopters, the few who held the worldview that it was not only their responsibility to take action, but that taking action now was urgent. Early adopters have a worldview different from their neighbors. They ask themselves, "what's vitally important and how soon can we start?" They gave these folks a path, coordinating and reinforcing their actions.

The next step, so critical, is that they amplified the social connections and media cues that would spread the idea of urgency to neighbors, to people less inclined to take action. "People like us do things like that." It's not an accident that the civil rights movement was lead by a Reverend, and that much of it was based in churches. Those churches were a natural nexus, a place where people were already coming to see what people like them were going to do next.

Worldview isn't sufficient, and worldview isn't impossible to change. But what worldview does is give you the bridge, the ability to engage people in the tribe, and then, and only then, do you have the privilege to change the conversation.

The goal isn't to find people who have already decided that they urgently want to go where you are going. The goal is to find a community of people that desire to be in sync and who have a bias in favor of the action you want them to take.

A long blog post, but worth it I hope: You don't build a tribe about the thing you want to sell. You don't even build a tribe about the thing you want to accomplish. You build it around the community and experience that the tribe members already want to have.

       

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Monday, September 2, 2013

Fwd: Seth's Blog : Q&A: Tribes and the reality of worldview


Q&A: Tribes and the reality of worldview

Our series continues with my book Tribes. It's nice that we're featuring it on Labor Day, a holiday in the US that celebrates some of the most impactful tribal behavior in recent history.

It's easy to gloss over the key points of the book, because for some, it's frightening to realize that each of us has the ability to find and lead like-minded people to make real and powerful change that matters. Lead, not manage. Like-minded, as opposed to converting those who have no connection to us, to each other or to our goals.

As we shift from an economy dominated by mass marketing of the mass produced, this ability to lead is fundamentally transformative.

The selfish nature of the industrialist (hey, I made this, how do I get people to buy it?) hasn't gone away. Whether it's a small coaching service, a non-profit, a local window cleaning business or a big company, the most misguided assertion is, "I have a tribe, how do I make it bigger?" In fact, you might very well have customers, but it's unlikely you have a tribe, not if you haven't intentionally worked to engage at this level.

So, the question... "One of my favourite passages from Tribes is:   

People don't believe what you tell them.  They rarely believe what you show them.  They often believe what their friends tell them.  They always believe what they tell themselves.   

My question - what is the best way to join the conversation that is already taking place in the minds and hearts of your tribe?  What is the best way to seek out members of your tribe that have the same beliefs as you?" Thanks to Giovanni Marsico for the question.

We just celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington, and understanding how the organizers that led that singular event succeeded can help us understand how tribes work. They didn't create this movement by merely organizing people who already believed in the urgency of the civil rights movement and were ready to march. No, they organized people who already believed in their community, who already cared very much about what their neighbors (not everyone, just the circle of people from their church, their town, their community) did and thought. Only after they organized were they able to embrace their shared understanding of the enormity of racial segregation and respond to the leaders who made the urgency of the moment so clear.

So they began with the bravest early adopters, the few who held the worldview that it was not only their responsibility to take action, but that taking action now was urgent. Early adopters have a worldview different from their neighbors. They ask themselves, "what's vitally important and how soon can we start?" They gave these folks a path, coordinating and reinforcing their actions.

The next step, so critical, is that they amplified the social connections and media cues that would spread the idea of urgency to neighbors, to people less inclined to take action. "People like us do things like that." It's not an accident that the civil rights movement was lead by a Reverend, and that much of it was based in churches. Those churches were a natural nexus, a place where people were already coming to see what people like them were going to do next.

Worldview isn't sufficient, and worldview isn't impossible to change. But what worldview does is give you the bridge, the ability to engage people in the tribe, and then, and only then, do you have the privilege to change the conversation.

The goal isn't to find people who have already decided that they urgently want to go where you are going. The goal is to find a community of people that desire to be in sync and who have a bias in favor of the action you want them to take.

A long blog post, but worth it I hope: You don't build a tribe about the thing you want to sell. You don't even build a tribe about the thing you want to accomplish. You build it around the community and experience that the tribe members already want to have.

       

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Friday, August 30, 2013

Fwd: Five Steps to Becoming a Leader by Tynan | Tynan | Life Outside the Box




-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Five Steps to Becoming a Leader by Tynan | Tynan | Life Outside the Box
Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 10:16:58 -0400
From: Tynan <newsletter@tynan.net>
To: stevescott@techacq.com


 
   

Five Steps to Becoming a Leader by Tynan

I've always wanted to be a leader. For the longest time I didn't know what it actually meant to be a leader, so my aspiration was probably just because I wanted the prestige of being a leader. I guess I also didn't like taking orders from anyone, so I figured there was no other place for me.

My idea of how to become a leader was even worse than my motivations for being one. I thought that I should just act aloof and slightly superior to everyone, and that that would make them naturally assume I'm a leader. This sounds incredibly stupid, which it was, but it's also quite common. I see people doing this all the time.

Luckily I was exposed to a lot of real leaders, I got to observe how they interact with others, and I learned what a leader truly is. From that experience, I present to you the five steps to become a leader.

1. Make things happen for people. A leader is the person with the most responsibility, and the way you get responsibility is by taking it. A great way to do this is to organize things for people you know. I sometimes organize trips for my friends, my friend Nick is always organizing tours and parties for his friends, my friend Elliot always seems to be hosting barbecues and parties for his friends.

I didn't realize this at first, but leadership isn't about what the leader gets from people who consider him a leader; it's about what he gives to them.

2. Solve all problems. Leaders are reliable, confident people. When something goes wrong, even if it's not your responsibility, be willing to step up and be the one who deals with it. For example, when my friends and I bought a school bus in college, my friend Austin was always the one who would solve problem that cropped up. He dealt with the registration of the bus, the insurance, and even finding us places to keep it. We bought into the bus as equals, but because of all that he did, I always thought of him as one of the leaders of our group.

3. Be fair and honest. The act of leading is the act of taking on the responsibilities naturally assigned to others. Our elected officials have power because we allow them to make decisions for us. CEOs are leaders because their subordinates trust them to make decisions that will affect everyone. The more fair and honest you are, the more willingly people will allow you to lead them.

I manage the investments of several of my friends and family. If they didn't believe that I was completely honest and well-intentioned, they would have never given me such an important responsibility.

4. Be as confident as you deserve to be. As discussed above, the bulk of being a leader isn't based on natural ability, it's based on willingness. Anyone can be willing to make things happen for people, to fix things that go wrong, and to be a fair and honest person. Because this is all under your own control, you should feel confident that you can execute those duties.

5. Recognize that any given group can have many leaders. I didn't consciously realize it until I went to Japan with nine friends last spring, and Sebastian commented that almost everyone in our group was a leader. I looked around and realized that he was right.

In most situations there's no need for one absolute leader, and it's actually better for several members of the group to take the lead on different things. Everyone will have their own strengths and interests, and if those are coupled with the attributes of a leader, everyone in the group can benefit.

---

I used to think that being a leader was a good thing because of how it would reflect on me. I guess that is a benefit, but the real reason I'm happy to be something of a leader is because it's the path that allows me to be fully engaged in life. I get to make change, improve the lives of those closest to me, and experience more than I would be able to otherwise.

If you don't consider yourself to be a leader, I'd suggest giving these steps a try for a month or two, even if it's outside your comfort zone. Even if you decide it's not for you, which is definitely true for many people, you will have gained perspective and probably done some nice things for your friends.

###

Photo is a view of Central Park in NY.

I feel like my writing has been pretty mediocre recently. I've got a lot of other stuff going on, some of which will develop into exciting blog posts. So bear with me, and spend your time reading Leo's new blog, Unschoolery.

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