We weren’t really super into it…

A VC has a good post that ends in a tip for entrepreneurs. It briefly discusses the necessity of the founders being 100% passionate about their project, if not they don’t give their all and that ends up trickling through the organization.

Assuming the founders have 100% passion, the question I am working towards developing answers for is, how do you scale that enthusiasm for your company throughout all its employees as is grows substantially? How do you create a corporate culture and what qualities does that culture have that creates evangelists out of everyone on the payroll?

aaron.berndt

Corporate Culture - Wal-Mart

I have been thinking a lot about corporate culture since reading the INC article I discussed in my last post. I am really interested in how to develop an innovative and successful corporate culture early on in a company’s life cycle that will greatly increase the odds of building a successful company. I plan to begin posting regularly about this subject including my thoughts and ideas gathered from other sources.

Fast Company had a recent article Working with the Enemy that discussed an environmentalists switch to back Wal-Mart. At the end of the article a glimpse into the Wal-Mart culture that its massive success was built on.

From the article;

“But for Werbach, the big surprise is how much he's learned from Wal-Mart. He riffs on the company's obsession with its core mission, its relentless tracking of results, its "correction of error" meetings. "In failure," he says, "you don't hide your head in shame, you actually get on the phone the next day and you talk about what went wrong." In Wal-Mart's culture, he has found what he thought was missing from the environmental establishment.”

aaron.berndt

Using Culture as a competitive advantage

INC.com recently posted an article I found very interesting. It really highlights the importance of team building for ventures as well as how to build and maintain a corporate culture that gives your company a competitive advantage to companies mimicking your product or process.

http://www.inc.com/gems/blog/2007/08/understanding_the_importance_o.html

aaron.berndt

Linked In

I have noticed a significant increase in the amount of people I know that are starting up a Linked In account. It will be interesting to see where all that goes.

aaron.berndt

Fear and a Balanced Life

Our new VP of Education, Sean Kramer, gave an excellent speech tonight at our Parker Toastmasters meeting. The topic was about fear, what it can do to you, and how you can use it to your advantage. There are genuine things to fear, war, being one of them. However, many of us also have fears that are more trivial; fear of failure, fear of rejection, and close to home with Toastmasters, fear of public speaking. If you let it, fear can slow you down.

One way to use fear to your advantage in these situations is to realize that they are opportunities to grow. Fear lets you know that you are out of your comfort zone. With a goal of constant personal growth you can turn that fear into a positive energy to push your limits.

One very interesting point that Sean made was talking about a balanced life, and how most people are searching and striving towards one by balancing work, family, exercise, diet, and relaxation. The visual image that Sean provided was that of an old weight scale.

When the scale is balanced, how much work is being completed by the scale? The answer is none. The scale needs to be unbalanced, have its limits pushed, to move the weights and complete work. The theory being that if your living a perfectly balanced life, your not stretching or pushing yourself, your not living fully. So get out and face your fears, get off balance and grow.

aaron berndt

Private Library Collections as Learning Tools

Brad Feld recently posted about one of his most recent reads. In the post he linked to an interesting article about CEO libraries, which is a good read.

The article discusses reading habits, private libraries, and the insight that could possibly gained from knowing the contents of those private libraries.

Openly sharing the contents of our private libraries is an interesting way to sharing knowledge, especially for insight on how high profile people get things done. This is similar to how TED shares the ideas of fascinating thinkers and doers. Brad Feld updates his reading collection here.

I decided to start something similar here.

aaron.berndt

TED: Ideas worth spreading

TED is an awesome website.

"The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes)."

The site host's the presentations in video and podcast form.

Check it out. These folks are pushing boundries and doing some really exciting work.

Here is an example of some incredible exploration.

I have set a personal goal to one day present at TED. I'm not sure how I'll get there just yet, but toastmasters should help.
aaron.berndt

What could I be doing better?

Chip and Dan Heath (Authors of Made to Stick http://www.amazon.com/Made-Stick-Ideas-Survive-Others/dp/1400064287) had an interesting article in the July/Aug issue of Fast Company http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/117/column-made-to-stick.html. The article split people into two groups; the fixed mindset and the growth mind set. The fixed mindset group believes that leaders are born and intelligence is innate and static. The growth mindset group believe that leadership and intelligence can be learned and improved by training your brain like a muscle.

Growth mindset folks will take on projects that will stretch and build their skills.

At my current company I have been able to wear many hats, allowing me to stretch myself and push my career in new directions. One technique that I have found useful for growth is asking “What could I be doing better?” Honest answers to this question from supervisors, customers, and yourself can be truly invaluable to push yourself to new heights.


aaron.berndt

VP of PR for Parker Toastmasters

For most people public speaking is not a natural activity. It’s pretty close to some peoples worst fear. For anyone not aware, there is a non-profit group that can help, Toastmasters.

Toastmasters offers a proven way to improve your communication skills. By participating in a fun and supportive Toastmasters group, you'll become a better speaker and leader and gain confidence to succeed in whatever path you've chosen in life.

• Deliver great presentations
• Easily lead teams and conduct meetings
• Give and receive constructive evaluations
• Be a better listener

I started in Toastmasters 9-10 months ago and after getting past the initial fear have truly enjoyed myself. Last week I took on the role as Vice President of Public Relations. In this role I will be managing Parker Toastmasters public image and working on bringing new bodies in the door.

I have never had a role like this one in a non-profit environment. I am very excited to learn the ropes of PR and to spread the word about all the good that Toastmasters can bring to your
life.

Please check out http://www.toastmasters.org/


aaron.berndt

Twitter

I just started up a Twitter account ( http://twitter.com/aaronberndt ) .

Other than folks on the web I havn't heard of anybody using it.

aaron.berndt

Networking

Today I found an interesting compilation of networking articles.

Check them out.

http://www.careerjournal.com/jobhunting/networking/


aaron.berndt

Hesitation – Elevator Pitch

Today I hesitated when asked “Well…what do you want to do here?” I worked my way through a reasonable answer, but it could have gone a lot better. I’m not sure why the words didn’t flow out of my mouth eloquently this afternoon. I spend a lot of time thinking about where I’m steering my career. I definitely knew the answer today, just not the best method for explaining and selling it.

This falls in line with my previous post about having a brief elevator pitch about what you are doing and where you are going. There is no need to have a memorized script, but having practiced at least saying the main points would have helped me a lot today.

To expand on this a bit, it is important to think through a few different pitches that you may need one for influential co-workers, networking situations and friends and family. Most of these people already have an interest in you and a quick exciting answer can spur some help for your cause. However, in a networking situation if you stand there stumbling through a rather boring answer you may miss a great opportunity.
Luckily today when I went back to my desk I realized my mistake, re-thought my answer, and went back to my co-workers desk to clarify and got a much better response, “That’s good, that’s very good.”

aaron.berndt

Passion Project

I read an interesting article recently in INC. about brand management (http://www.inc.com/magazine/20070101/features-brandmakeover.html ). The branding, PR, and marketing discussion was an interesting read, however, I was struck by an idea the article presented, a passion project. The article described a project that the brand management firm, Deskey, went through to keep its employees fresh and creative.

Most of Deskey’s current projects consist of accounts for large companies that have significant restraints and lack creative flexibility. Most of the folks working at a brand management firm are going to be the creative type who need to keep creatively stimulated in order not to get bored, unproductive, or unhappy. One way Deskey changes this is to inject a passion project into the mix once in a while. The project will have a scope that is outside the bounds of the normal bread and butter projects of the firm. Some key characteristics of the project are that it is relatively short, can involve the whole group, and requires significant creative flexing. The financial requirements of the project are not as critical since the main goal of the project is to allow the team to get up and stretch its legs.

It struck me that these passion projects could be useful for folks other than just the creative/art department. Engineering teams need to stretch their legs and flex their muscle in order to stay awake during an extended project. Ambitious and intelligent engineers will grab onto these projects and run. Engineering is a method for solving complex problems. It is important to keep all of the tools in an engineer’s toolbox sharp. This requires an engineer to occasionally step outside his specialty area that consumes his day. As an added benefit this will identify your more qualified engineers as they step up and grab the reigns during these projects, since by definition a passion project is a change from day to day activity, and change is hard.

aaron.berndt

Categories

I just learned how to put each post into a specific category.

There is a category link list on the right hand side to filter posts in that manner.

aaron.berndt

Hotel Cleaning

I don’t mind staying at cheap/crappy hotels or motels. Frankly, it is just a place to take an extended nap, clean, and get dressed when traveling for business or on a road trip. Maybe I would change my mind about this if I travel extensively, but for now, cheap is fine.

There is one issue I don’t understand. Why do hotel cleaning supplied stink so much? Everything seems to smell like a mixture of moth balls and some form of chemical fruit smell. They Stink. The smell seems to be present from the cheapest hotels to the pretty good ones. What do the high end hotels do to keep their facilities clean that the cheap ones do not?

aaron.berndt

National Eagle Scout Association

I recently renewed my National Eagle Scout Association (NESA) membership. I made the choice to renew it after a speech I gave at toastmasters, in which I revealed that I was an Eagle Scout. This was my first speech, called “The Icebreaker”, in which I discussed myself. After the speech I was given a review that stated “Being an eagle scout states so much about you that you don’t even need to say it, it’s understood.”

The statement hit home, and reminded me of the awards importance. I’m hoping that through NESA that I get a chance to meet new Eagle Scouts and a chance to give back to the Boy Scouts.

http://www.nesa.org

aaron.berndt

How to survive a management change in a startup

I started as an entry-level engineer at the general aviation company, AA. During my time with the company we have gone through several different management shuffles, additions, losses, and re-shuffles.

Each one of these adjustments can change your current position significantly, either through more responsibility, visibility, or a desired side step. If your not positioned well however, management will make its best guess as to where you belong and could get you locked into a new position that you are not to happy about.

The following steps should help get you get closer to what you are seeking.


1. Make your intentions known.

Not letting anyone know what you want to do makes it much more difficult to get it from them.

Develop and maintain your 2 min elevator pitch. You need to have an idea of where you want to be within the company in 2 yrs, and in 5 yrs. Upper management changes happen quickly and without much warning. When it happens there is generally a scramble to reorganize things quickly. When your boss asks you where you want to be in the company in 2 yrs, he is feeling around his group to determine who can be shifted where and still be happy/productive.

2. Build credibility and keep it/Stand Out of the Crowd

Having a position and projects that are on the radar of upper management is good exposure and opens doors for movement upwards later. Name recognition associated with successful projects comes in handy when the org chart gets shuffled. Your superiors will have you in mind when they need someone to step up and fill a new position.
This is especially handy when new upper managers are brought on board. If your boss and many others speak highly of you to new management you will be included in the new managements plans. If however you do not have a track record that the new management can use to understand your capabilities they will more than likely bring in new talent to cover it.

3. Be Flexible.
Usually accompanying management change is a slightly different company focus. Even though upper management tries to keep things moving forward in a similar manner, new managers have different views on how the projects should proceed. This means that you may need to stick out some less exciting work for the betterment of the company. Things change very fast early on. There is a good chance in 3-6 months there will be a chance for you to change your focus to more exciting projects.

aaron.berndt

Mission Statement Draft 1

I spent the last few days actually trying to come up with a first draft for my personal mission statement. (as part of the 7 habits)

So here it is.

I will strive…

• To live my life with honesty, integrity and consideration for others.
• To express my commitment to love and cherish my sweetheart, family, and friends. To nurture each relationship. To prepare myself to provide for my own family.
• To constantly strive to improve myself personally and professionally everyday.
• To be healthy, fit, and energetic so that I can enjoy life to the fullest and have the energy to pursue my goals.
• To be known not as a stalwart, but someone who is willing and able to grab onto the reigns of change and yell, “Hit it!”
• To be actively involved in the community as a volunteer and a mentor.

aaron.berndt

Seven Habits

I recently completed reading The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. My mom recommend I read this book quite some time ago. However, at that time I’m not sure I was mature enough to understand the benefits. I think many of the items that Stephen Covey discusses will help keep me focused on what really matters. To do this I have started working on my own personal mission statement. Along with the personal benefits I’ll receive from this exercise, I think it will really help me write top-notch admission essay’s to business school. Yesterday I wrote down the first draft of a portion of the mission statement. I need to change the tense around, but it gets the point across.

I don’t want to be known as a stalwart. I want to be remembered as someone who was willing and able to grab onto the reins of change and yell, “HIT IT!”

aaron.berndt

Why is this so hard?

Gahh! Its been another month since my last post. I’m not sure why it’s so hard for me to write what I’m doing down and publish it on a more regular basis. I think I need to start blocking out time.

On top of keeping people informed with what I’m doing and thinking I am using this blog as an avenue for my continued communication development. Strong communication skills play such a vital role in every aspect of our lives. We do this through reading, writing and speaking (with listening being a large portion of that last one). I try to work on each of these throughout each week.

I joined a group called Toastmaster to develop my speaking skills. Toastmasters is a non-profit organization which basically functions as a speech class – club. I have only been attending for the last couple months and given one speech, but I truly believe that the Toastmasters program can change lives. It is a powerful learning/networking tool.

I already have leaned an incredible amount about technical writing through my positions at AA. However, I feel that writing about myself will help me on many different levels.
I already read quite a bit, so I have had that one covered for a while. I am planning on switching up the content a bit more to get exposure to many different types of literature.

aaron.berndt