CameronMathews.com: August 2015

Monday, August 31, 2015

3 Tips on Leading Alongside Peers

Leadership comes with difficulties, no matter the relationship of the leader to those they lead. Managers can exert some direct influence from a chain-of-command and disciplinary perspective, but ultimately that only holds so far. When trying to influence peers without a direct manager-subordinate relationship, though, the challenges may appear insurmountable. Still, people successfully lead alongside others every day. So how can you effectively lead others with whom you don't have a direct relationship?

Friday, August 28, 2015

What Type of Product Do You Sell? [Infographic]

How are you marketing your products to differentiate them against your competitors? Most products fall somewhere on a spectrum between novelty and innovation, customer experience, and price. Markets certainly exist to compete at any level between these factors. For example, "me too" products second to the market have to rely on price and experience to differentiate them from the original. Products charging a premium price may justify that with higher quality and customer experience. Where do your products fall on this spectrum?

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Why Good Work Is Never Waste

Once upon a time, I worked on a project with one of my team members that ended up a flop. We've all had failures (unless you haven't worked long enough), but sometimes they feel colossal, even if the failure was not our fault. This particular project went through multiple iterations and a good chunk of IT's development dollars before we cancelled it due to inability to match the functionality with what the users were seeking.

A few years later, I had a heavy role in the implementation of a new CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system. It was a top industry pick, and one that we felt was going to revolutionize our sales process and methodology. A few months before implementation (but almost one year after we had started), some executives pulled the plug on it.

Both of these projects could be chalked up as complete time wasted. Teams spent countless hours working on projects that never saw the light of day. But neither of these were wasted.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

6 Aids For Finding Your Way In A New Job

When you are new on a job, sometimes you may feel lost. The first few days often don't have the amount of direction required to perform at your peak right out of the gate. Fortunately, you can find your way easier than following a treasure map with a few lists and a few actions.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Winning the Weekend

By now, I am sure you are familiar with my productivity challenge, but I wanted to throw in a few more examples on how you can leverage the concepts to your advantage, even when it seems difficult. One way you can bump it up a notch is by making a game out of your productivity.

Monday, August 24, 2015

Level Up!

I'm writing this Sunday night, but Monday, our family is going through something pretty cool: my oldest starts Kindergarten Monday morning. It's certainly a nostalgic event, and a change across the family. We will have multiple stops dropping off and picking up from school, we will be waking up earlier, and we'll be adjusting to all sorts of new things which we are not even yet aware of.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

You Had One Job

"You had one job." Every time someone makes a mistake in their perceived "job," this phrase gets uttered by someone looking to ridicule their sheer incompetence. The phrase has become an internet meme, has an entire website devoted to it, and probably more than one Twitter handle (but here's one).

Other than its reported first usage in the movie Ocean's 11, I think the first and most frequent time I hear the phrase follows a missed field goal in a football game. The idea that the kicker has one job (to kick the ball between the uprights) that he (or she, perhaps) practices day in and day out and still lacks perfection in execution is pure fodder for the hecklers. But have you ever tried to kick a field goal? It's not particularly easy.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

3 Traits of Good Managers

What makes a good manager? There are several articles about what not to do as a manager (note to self: write a "bad manager" article in the next couple of weeks), but sometimes positive vibes are just more pleasant to read and to write. So, here's my opinion on a few traits that make someone a great manager.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

What Is Your Dream Job?

I made this beer. No, really.

If you won the lottery and did not have to work, what would you do? If you're like me, the first thing you would do is likely take a vacation, but after some point, I would need to work at something. For me. that would most likely be running a brewery. I've even started running the numbers to see how much money I would need to start a brewery as a hobby. The answer to that math question is more than I currently have sitting around as play money, but it is not completely out of the realm of possibility someday. In the meantime, though, I can make moves in that direction by continuing to brew at home and learning as much as I can about the commercial process and equipment.

Monday, August 17, 2015

How Long Are Your Meetings?

Happy Monday! If you haven't yet filled out my quick three minute survey from Friday, click here and go do that. I really appreciate it and it helps me select topics for the blog and get feedback on how I'm doing and where to focus.

So, to the question of the day.

How long are your meetings? And how long should they be?

Everyone that ever talks about meetings agrees on one point: people hate them, yet they cannot escape them. Given our destiny seems to indicate that we will, for the foreseeable future, continue participating in and scheduling meetings, what's the best way for us to do that?

Friday, August 14, 2015

Casual Friday Fun Survey!

It's Friday, and I am cruising quickly towards 125 blog posts, which would mark the halfway point in this initial jump started journey, so I thought it was time to take a quick pulse check and see how I'm doing and what I could do better. It's ten simple questions. Answer as many as you like and I truly appreciate it!

Create your own user feedback survey
If you can't see the survey, click here.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Why and When You Need To Bounce

If you have aspirations to get promoted and move up the corporate ladder, chances are that you have, at some point, had the vision that it is as easy as climbing that ladder, or perhaps a flight of stairs. After you work for while, though, you realize that the staircase narrows as it goes up the pyramid. At the base of it, the mathematics just make it more and more difficult to climb by moving straight up. Sure, not everyone has aspirations for moving up the managerial chain, but even if there are two others on your team that want to move in the same direction you do, when your manager gets promoted, quits, or passes away (heaven forbid), there are at least three equally qualified people angling for the same job, not to mention those from the outside. If you are exceptionally talented, a direct vertical move may be in your future, but a horizontal bounce (either between departments or companies) may create an easier and better path for you.

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

What's The Matter With Kids Today?

Thanks to a couple of my coworkers, I was able to participate in leading a class during the take-your-child-to-work day at our office yesterday. We worked with over 90 kids to walk them through an exercise to help them understand what we do at work and how that operates to improve the business.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

The Importance of the Unimportance of Analytics

It is incredibly easy to be sucked into data and analytics. It is fascinating how much information exists, and how readily you can get your hands on it. Whether you have Google Analytics on your blog or you are using Twitter or Facebook analytics as well, information about the performance of your website and your readers is constantly being collected and stored for you to continually pore over, wondering why that last post didn't just take off like the H1N1 virus. My recommendation on that front? Stop. Stop looking and obsessing over the data. Instead, develop a methodology for utilizing the data that keeps you from obsessing over every lost Twitter follower.

Monday, August 10, 2015

The Last Leap in the Productivity Challenge - Are you Ready?

Here's the last jump for you in my ongoing productivity challenge on how to get more done: bump yourself up to five items a day on your list. Wow, this is groundbreaking. I know you are thinking to yourself that you can't believe the concept of just doing more. Well, there's a little more to it than just bumping up to five items a day. So keep reading, unless you think you have it figured out, and I will explain exactly which five items make your list today (and every other day from here on). There may be something in it for you in the end as well if you keep on reading.

Friday, August 7, 2015

Your Moment of Zen

So, if you are strictly keeping count at home, today is the day that would be the next step in the productivity path to getting a ton of things done. I hope you have made it and are ready. But I am going to postpone that post until Monday.

Last night I watched Jon Stewart's final episode of The Daily Show. I remember when he started on the show thinking that he could never rival what Craig Kilborn did with the show (spoiler alert: I was definitely surprised to see Kilborn cameo on the finale).

Thursday, August 6, 2015

How Not To Be a Needy Boss

So, a couple of weeks ago I had a post about how not to be needy as an employee (you can read it here). If you don't have five minutes to read it, I'll give you the synopsis: try it yourself first, rather than running to the manager to ask direction on every single thing before you take a stab at it yourself.

So what about if you're the boss? Bosses can be quite needy, too. And, if you haven't gotten the gist of my overall philosophy here, people need to be able to work independently. That includes management. So here are some tips on how not to be a needy boss.

Monday, August 3, 2015

Thank Somebody Today

I do not thank people nearly as often as I should. Sure, every now and again I will thank someone for going above and beyond to help me out, but sometimes I fail to recognize above and beyond and miss out on appreciating some people.

Showing your gratitude has power. It builds relationships. It strengthens bonds between teams. It lays foundations that can pave the way for future assistance, should you need it. Saying thanks can also prevent erosion of those same relationships or alienating someone that helped so that they never want to help you again. It's a powerful glue with the power to bond together and prevent from breaking apart. So here are a couple of ways you can say thank you.

Stealing Scrum: Responding to Change

The Agile Manifesto consists of four comparative statements that describe the elements of value that drove the development of Agile software development methodology and eventually Scrum as well. The fourth, "Responding to change over following a plan," drives the vast majority of methodologies and practices. Why? Because change is inevitable. Change happens every day.

Even to a team operating Scrum, change can insert itself at inappropriate times. During trainings for Scrum methodology, where groups of people often attempt to work a project using the practice, the facilitator often injects a dramatic change mid-cycle. Even for a methodology with quick sprints and quick turnaround of work, injection of major enough change can wreak havoc on an efficient team. Agile nciples and methodologies pride themselves on responsiveness, though, so how should you deal with change?

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