Finding my voice October 2, 2013

For the past 5 weeks or so I have been fortunate to meet a great guy called Nic Paton. Over 20 of us were able to spend a little time with him and were exposed to his knowledge of music. He took many of us out of our comfort zone by taking us back to a time when we were unafraid to sing. To a time when little worried us and our confidence was not curbed by the judgement of others. I will admit that at first I was reluctant, but Nic managed to provide a space where we could all feel comfortable. I guess what I drew from it most is that as an entrepreneur you are always going to be faced with situations which make you feel uncomfortable; issues that you feel may be out of your depth. It is then the task of the individual to take up this challenge for what it is, an opportunity to learn and to grow as a person.

A theme that resonated through out the course was that of finding your voice. Below lies an excerpt of something that we had to write which encompassed the value we had taken from the sessions:

“One word expresses the pathway to greatness: voice. Those on this path find their voice and inspire others to find theirs. The rest never do” (Stephen Covey). Covey expresses the idea of finding your voice in a way which is both honest and daunting. It is scary to think that achieving greatness can be reduced to one word, your voice. It is even more intimidating that you can exist on either side of line, that is with it our without it.

On a regular basis I am faced with the question, what is your passion? What is the one thing that you feel will get you out of bed every morning with a smile on your face? The ease with which this question is asked suggests that the answer should be equally as effortless. It is not. An interesting two part question was posed which looked to address this question. The first pertained to describing a moment in my life which was felt to hold the most meaning. A time where I felt like I did something that has added a somewhat indescribable value to my life as well as somebody else’s. The second question related to whether I had found my calling; that one thing that I could see myself doing for the rest of my life.  I knew instantly that I could not give an answer for the first question, and that this delay in reaction whilst I thought of a valuable moment meant that I hadn’t been fortunate enough to have lived through such an experience. In that moment I realised if I couldn’t answer this question, then by default I would be unable to address question two, my calling. For me, the two are interconnected and cannot be viewed in isolation. As soon as I reach the point where I am able to live through both questions, is when I feel I will truly be able to find and connect with my voice.

 

Closing the Business October 1, 2013

So the team met today to discuss the closure document – which is no joke. It is a huge document with a lot of learnings. As you can imagine, this year has been full of learnings, so we have to get all of our learnings summed up into one document which is no easy task. We also have to show our financials, what is going to happen with the business next year and how the process of disolution is going to take place.

As it is such a vital document, we would have loved a bit more time to get it all together however we have until friday to get it all done.

But as i have blogged about this week we will work together as a team and get it all done on time.

This year has been all about good time management, good team work and a high standard of quality work so this is exactly what we will deliver and have delivered so many time this year.

How to Manage your business partners

I am not claiming this as my post but thought that this was a very interesting article for you all to have a look at! 

When Ari Mir, 31, and Amos Elliston, 38, met as coworkers at a Los Angeles startup, they instantly clicked and began bouncing around ideas to hatch a business of their own. Seven years later they launched Pocket Change, which seeks to build a universal rewards currency similar to American Express points but accumulated through apps on your phone.

Launched in 2012, the San Francisco-based company has already raised $5 million in venture capital. While Elliston and Mir enjoy each other’s company, they say the partnership has been successful largely because they’ve set boundaries and maintained their own lives outside of work. This work-life divide limits their overreactions when it comes to business matters, says Mir. “We’re not best friends,” he says. “You need some sort of distance or you are always going to take things a little too personally.”

Co-founder disagreements and misunderstandings can sink a company before it starts. Here are four ways to manage your partner and set the business up for success:

Get an outsider’s perspective.
Most startups don’t have a board of directors but still need an outsider’s viewpoint. Frank Demmler, an adjunct professor of entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, advises founders to give a monthly presentation about company goals and challenges in front of two or three mentors. Presenting to a third party keeps partners from blaming each other for company decisions gone wrong. For example, partners who disagree about how to price their product can present their cases to their mentors instead of getting into a direct conflict with one another. Getting into this habit also helps the founders gain perspective on their decisions, since their mentors are removed from the day-to-day ups and downs.

Related: Essential Elements of Working With a Business Partner

Solve problems before they happen.
Just like you would create a business plan, it’s a good idea for founders to sit down together, write out potential hot-button issues and think through solutions in advance. For example, you’ll want to outline each partner’s time commitment to the company and how you’ll handle personal problems, such as illness. It’s also important to discuss how and when the partners will be paid and strategies for growing the business, says Demmler. For instance, one partner may want to keep the profits, while the other may prefer to re-invest them in order to scale. Taking the time to address what’s important to you upfront can help prevent future breakdowns in communication, he says. “Do it at the beginning when rational minds are engaged.”

Clearly outline job responsibilities.
If one or more founders isn’t pulling their weight, it can breed resentment. One way to avoid this is by assessing and redistributing the amount of work each one does through weekly partner meetings, says Shahab Kaviani, chief executive at CoFoundersLab, an online co-founder matching service based in Rockville, Md. Knowing you will meet regularly to discuss the workload can help ease any lingering tension. Keep in mind that a balanced division of labor doesn’t necessarily mean divvying up every project. For example, instead of splitting the marketing work down the middle, one partner can focus on marketing while the other concentrates on operations. Of course, you’ll want to consider each other’s strengths when making those choices.

Consider all partners when making decisions.
For many business partners, making even the smallest company decisions can turn into a drawn out, painful process, which can slow down the company’s upward trajectory. Learning how to effectively negotiate with your co-founders will help smooth out potential gridlocks. When negotiating a big decision, Douglas Noll, a corporate mediator in Clovis, Calif., suggests that partners focus on their overarching goals, rather than quibble over specifics. For instance, if you’d like to take more money out of the business to pay off company debt, make a list of the long-term benefits of doing so, such as added financial security. When you come to the negotiating table, discuss ways that you might be able to achieve your ultimate goal of financial security, and offer directing funds to pay off debt as one possible method.

At the same time, Kaviani advises against making concessions without getting something in return. For example, when negotiating a hiring decision, one partner might agree to hire someone they’re not sure about, if the other agrees to a three-month trial period for the employee. Then, both sides feel they have gained. Finally, he says it’s important to stay calm during these discussions, because losing your cool can escalate the conflict rather than resolve it.

You can read more on this article from this website 🙂

 http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226772#ixzz2gTclQsQM

 

 

Teamwork in a business context.

Leading on from my last post you can see how crucial it is to have a good way of controlling your business. I now want to share a post on the importance of teamwork – something that Pandacoustics has worked hard to get right this year. It has definitely ensured that we have worked well together and that we all get on well with eachother.

The Synergy of the Four Pillars

While all four processes have their place, they are not implemented separately, but rather in concert. Using the example of implementing a new social media tool for increasing informal learning:

• Command communicates the vision or goal to the best people who can implement it. Throughout the process, it adjusts to new knowledge and refines the vision.
• Management allocates the resources and helps to organize the activities that will make it a reality. This is normally a continuous process, rather than a single activity.
• Leadership helps to guide, coach, and motivate the people to do their best throughout the entire process.
• Control looks for opportunities to reduce risks, which in turn makes the process more efficient.

The four pillars need to be in harmony with each other. As the diagram below show, when one or more of them is too strong, the organization falls out of balance:

 

Likewise, if any of the pillars become too weak, it drives the organization out of balance:

 

 This year has been all about getting the balance between, our academics, our Genesis project and our social life – something that has been very difficult to do.

Thus, the four pillars must consistently be weighed against each other to ensure they are in a proper balance that allows the organization to grow and prosper.

 

Learning to Lead and Leading to Learn

Its incredible how much one not only learns about oneself but also about the people around you when you form a team out of people that you never new prior to this year and then learn all about leadership together.

Every day we grow as a team, we learn about the strengths and weaknesses of not only yourself but the rest of your team. We build on each others strengths and make up for each others weaknesses. The stronger you are as a team the more successful you will be! You may have the most impressive individuals in a team but if they do not work together then there is little point in being a team.

Every day your team is challenged – but challenges are good, if you don’t succeed then you learn and if you do succeed then you become closer. This year has definitely brought pnadacoustics closer together, ensuring that we work well together to get things done.

Have a look at this post on leadership that i have found. Some interesting insights into what leadership is in an organization.

 

Leadership, Management, Command, & Control

While there are plenty of discussions about leadership verses management and the need for command and control nowadays, these are important concepts that every leader must be aware of to successfully guide their organization. In fact, they are the four pillars of every organization as they directly drive the organization. Used properly, the business will grow; used improperly, the business will sink.

These are not distinct processes, but rather concepts that all leaders perform in order to build and strengthen their organizations.

As the above diagram shows, the four pillars overlap, thus they are not separate processes. This blending gives the organization the ability to focus on opportunities and deal with threats:

• Leadership drives the interpersonal aspects of the organization, such as moral and team spirit.
• Management deals with the conceptual issues of the organization, such as planning and organizing.
• Command guides the organization with well thought-out visions that makes it effective.
• Control provides structure to the organization in order to make it more efficient.

Benefits of the Four Processes

Command and Control

While most people think of command as simply telling others what to do, it goes far beyond that. Command is the imparting of a vision to the organization in order to achieve and end-goal. It does this by formulating a well-thought out vision and then clearly communicating it. Command emphasizes success and reward. That is, the organization has to be successful to survive and in turn reward its members (both intrinsically and extrinsically).

An example would be visioning a process that helps to increase informal learning and make it more effective. A bad vision would be implementing a social media tool, such as a wiki or Twitter. This is because social media tools are the means rather than an end-goal. That is, they are more like specific objectives that enable you to achieve your end-goal (vision).

Now you might implement a social media tool as explained below, but the real goal is to increase interactions that lead to informal learning, while a supporting process is the tool itself.

Visions do not have to come from the top, but rather anywhere within the organization. Informal leaders are often good sources of visions; however, if the vision requires resources, then they normally need the support of a formal leader.

In contrast, Control is the process used to establish and provide structure in order to deal with uncertainties. Visions normally produce change, which in turn produce tension. These uncertainties cause tensions that leaders must deal with so they do not impede the organization. This is far different from most people’s conception in which they think of control as controlling others.

For example, an organization might implement a new social media tool to enable its worker to interact with others and aid the process of informal learning more effectively. After implementing the tool the leader might ask, “Is the tool we provided to increase the effectiveness of informal learning really working?” Thus, control is also used to measure and evaluate.

Inherent in evaluation is efficiency—the act of examining the new tool often leads to processes that make it more efficient. This can be good because it can save money and often improve a tool or process. The danger of this is if the command process is weak and the control process is strong then it can make efficiency the end-goal. That is, it replaces effectiveness with efficiency.

A good example of this is our present economy that caused many organizations to perform massive layoffs. Now the very same organizations are complaining that they cannot find qualified workers. Efficiency over road effectiveness—they failed to realize that they would need a trained workforce in the future.

I don’t want to make this post too long so will carry on with my next post. But as you can see from the article leadership is vital and there are different ways of commanding and controlling not only your workforce but your company as a whole.