Live it - Lead IT

Today’s episode is about the open door policy and how effective it is…or isn’t! An open door policy is usually used as a behavioural institution in that every manager has their own office, and the door is open so that employees can approach him. At least, that is how it is supposed to work.

"The boss uses the open door policy as an excuse!"

In reality what ends up happening is: the boss sits in his office while things happen around him that he has no clue about! The boss uses the open door policy as an excuse. He sits in his castle on the hill and expects his team to approach him. This will never happen! This boss is the top of the food chain and nobody comes to this chamber of power without enormous physical and mental effort. No one wants to go into the boss’ territory.  Yes, we are in 2020 but people still have this concept of private space, which is why many people hate using public transport. Employees resist going to their managers’ office because they equate it with a terrible thing happening, especially when the door closes!

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"As a manager you must be approachable!"

Having an open door policy is antiquated and my recommendation is to get out of your castle! Do your best to be around your people. Of course, from time to time as a manager you do need to talk in privacy, in which case you can book a meeting room. As a manager you must be approachable. If you want to do your work silently, then be open with your team. Tell them you do not want to be disturbed unless there is blood or flames! Being approachable doesn’t mean that you are open to any and all interruptions.

"The solution to a fortress is simple; keep the gate and the drawbridge open!"

On the other hand, if you park yourself in the office in the morning when you arrive and then stay there until you leave in the afternoon, this is not an open door policy! Let’s behave like educated and polite human beings. Take an hour or so in the morning to speak to your team and just say hello. These people are your tribe, not your slaves or your robots. Trust equals interaction over time! The solution to a fortress is simple; keep the gate and the drawbridge open.

Stay in lead!OLAF KAPINSKI 🙂

The focus of today will be on self-employment. Is the future of work self-employment?  I read about this often. Last year I attended a conference about whether this is the future. Surprisingly, I was one of the only people that said no, it isn’t. Let’s discuss where this opinion comes from. More and more people are exposed to freelancers whether it be through their companies or even when ordering an Uber!

"There is a small percentage of people who are risk-averse enough to become self employed."

In IT we have companies that hire a highly trained, highly qualified IT project manager for three months in the first quarter, then maybe two months in the summer, and another month in October. When you sum it up, this freelancer is on the payroll for six months instead of 12, so it gives the company some flexibility. I see where this is coming from and I can also see where this ends. There is a small percentage of people who are risk-averse enough to become self employed. They are smart enough, can adapt quickly, and have enough market knowledge. One of the main problems that my customers have when I go and assess their companies is that the employees don’t give a damn! They are switched off and only execute what they’ve been tasked with. These people will never, ever become self-employed, and therefore I do not see everyone in the future transitioning away from the traditional type of employment. Being self-employed also requires extreme attention to detail as well as discipline and foresight. You will be responsible for your own taxes, your own pension, your own health insurance, and so on. Here in Europe the tax topic is especially difficult as, in my experience, many tax advisors struggle with simple which were quite evident. Much more pure administrative work is required on your part.

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"No one will benefit from your knowledge and experience if you sit in your room!"

You must also be very forward-thinking and extremely responsible! Setting aside your own savings and pension is not something many people have the discipline to do. Moving on to marketing; no one will benefit from your knowledge and experience if you sit in your room. My company invests half of the money into marketing, especially now when we are growing.  It’s rare to have one big customer that refers you to another and so on. Enough of the negatives! Let’s get a more positive note. There is a lot of beauty in being self-employed, though I do know a lot of people are not made for it.

"There is a lot of beauty in being self-employed!"

You have a lot of freedom. If my calendar is free and the sun is shining, then I can decide to take a day off and who cares.

Today I refer to the last episode in which we discussed the question of success or happiness and which comes first. My conclusion was that you need to be happy to be successful, despite being taught our whole lives that it is the other way around!  So do I require a psychologist to become happy?

"Do I need a psychologist to be happy?"

As a psychologist the overall goal is to help people to overcome their obstacles. Human beings, and especially our brains, are like machines in that they get very used to doing things a certain way. Seeing a psychologist could help because they’re taught to look at the data from beforehand and how your life experiences shaped you. However, I do feel that the word psychologist has a negative stigma such as the idea of repairing or of medicine. Now we shift a bit to coaching because there’s only so much you can do by looking at the past. At a certain point, you need to be able to make that next step into the future. Being coached and having an individualized plan to achieve your goals is imperative!

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"No one pays attention to their feet until they start to hurt!"

The problem with coaching is similar to having a stone in your shoe: no one pays attention to their feet until they start to hurt. This is when most people decide to go to the repair shop, or the psychologist. So there is this connection that only when something hurts or there is this problem should I do something to improve. Now, this podcast is for from leaders, for leaders who want to improve, those who aim a little bit higher. I have seen often with successful leaders they have this one problem. However this problem is just a symptom.

"If you are satisfied with yourself, you will never need a coach."

So, as opposed to a psychologist, a coach helps you with creating some goals and with looking forward. If you are satisfied with yourself, you will never need a coach. Realize that perfection is never to be achieved! The coach improves, whereas the psychologist usually tries to repair something from the past. There are some that would compare trainers to coaches. To me, training or a training course is designed to get groups of people from point A to point B. There is no close attention to detail. And that’s the reason why the coaches are so effective, because a coach works with your problem individually. This person shines a light on you and his only job is to make you the best version of yourself that you can be!

Stay in lead!OLAF KAPINSKI 🙂

Let’s talk about happiness and how to achieve it. I want to be happy in life, so perhaps the way to become happy is to become successful. Because success brings happiness, doesn’t it? Let’s first define success. Success is achieving a goal that you have.

"Success brings happiness...doesn't it?"

I have an example I like to use; an American redneck named Bob. Bob is one of these uneducated people that is always eating crisps and sugar and watching television. He knows that he sucks and he hates the world because he sucks. Now he heard success makes me happy. He wants to be successful and to him success is dropping his weight to two digits! It is a goal that is achievable and fuelled by the motivational video he saw. By the next morning, he hates the world again. If you come from a grumpy, unhappy state then I cannot believe that you have any positive energy in yourself to achieve anything. Whining becomes a way of life and usually they have somebody to blame. No! If I’m not achieving anything I realize it’s my responsibility. Do not have that victim mentality. You will be successful when you’re happy. Happy people are nice to people and more confident. There is saying that if your cup is not full, how can you give to others? So be happy. Then you become successful. In my career, especially the coaching aspect of doing one-on-ones, I work with people high up in the food chain. All of them are nice people, even though they have high standards and they can become quite nasty when you don’t fulfil them. 

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"If your cup is not full, how can you give to others?"

So the main question is, how do you get out of your shitty mood and into a positive mood? Open your eyes and look around! Start with the small things like stepping outside and into the sun or seeing a beautiful flower. Focus on the nice things and be thankful for what you have. You can decide that you want to be happy. Even if I was redneck Bob and I hated the world, this is my decision and I can change it at any time.

"You have the power to change with a simple thought!"

No amount of external motivation can replace your own internal motivation on whether to be happy or not! You have the power to change with a simple thought. This positivity is crucial. We’re talking to leaders here on this podcast and we said several times that empathy is the foundation of leadership. You must be able to get along with people. Nobody can get along with you when you are negative. Sometimes things don’t work. Screw it and try something else! First start with happiness, and success will follow!  

Stay in lead!

Today I will be taking about what I think is a Leadership Star. It all starts with your promotion: High likely you have been the best professional who got promoted into the boss-role.

This is where the problem starts: People don’t understand, that leading is a different kind of craft than the former profession. It is a different thing.

“Leadership realizes change”

Our world changes. Fast. Faster. Our organizations need to change accordingly. Companies like Blackberry try not to change, we see how successful they are. Organizations may not survive with just do the things they’ve done in the past.

“Cannibalize yourself, before someone else does it for you”

Our organizations need to adapt to the new surroundings, Opportunities, competitors, customers. This requires leadership.

Young leaders face these three types of problems:

No Idols

Companies on stocks are very often only managed, rather than lead. Btw: Listen to LIT002 Management vs. Leadership for my definition of the difference. Small companies don’t show good leadership neither, very often, because the founder is simply swamped by daily operations.

We can’t see good leadership often. We lack Idols

No training

Only a small portion of companies have understood, that leadership and management can be trained. And should be trained. The majority still promotes and hopes for best.

No exchange

As soon as you are in a leadership position, you are unique. High likely, that you don’t have so many people around you anymore, with whom you can talk on eye-height. Additionally, a leadership role usually causes more to think and reflect and to talk about.

The LeadershipStars

I had exactly the same problems. And I decided to develop a solution on this, as I think we all need to become faster better.

The LeadershipStars Annual Program is my answer to this problem: A One-year Online Program for either Young Leaders or experienced Leaders in IT.

Check the German Page for Information, English will come soon.

Stay in Lead

OLAF

Today’s topic will deal with an issue that I am very passionate about: email! As you can tell from the title, I love email! It is early 2020 now and I continually read articles about how email is dead. The funny thing is, I have been hearing this crap for the last 10 years. It’s almost like a running bad joke. I have collected eight points in defense of email. Let’s jump right into it!

"I continually read articles about how email is dead."

The first point is synchronic versus asynchronic. A conversation with back-and-forth communication is synchronic. Someone forces me to take time for his immediate communication needs. This involves replying immediately to someone. Asynchronic conversation, on the other hand allows, you to decide when to respond. You go at your own speed and respond when and how you see fit! The second point is push becomes pull. There are two types of information, push and pull. Push information is what others “push” onto you while pull information is what you “pull” from others. With email I can categorize the information I would like separately from the information I would not like! The third point is about the harmonization of information sources, and is similar to the previous point. I do not need to mess around with dozens of websites to get all the information I need. My email collects all of this for me!

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"An email is almost like a diary or journal which chronicles your experiences."

The fourth point is about memory; I have emails from my first company. An email is almost like a diary or journal which chronicles your experiences, and I never understood why people delete their emails! The fifth point is that emailing is universal. Every IT system can send and process emails. Point six is that email is ours. By “ours” I mean we decide where we place and route our email systems. We do not need to relying on external! Point seven is a bit old school, but email is always available. You have access to your email even when you are offline.

"Email is universal!"

As for the eighth point I will ramp it up a bit. Let’s call it maturity. Email services aren’t mature as they have improvements, really slight improvements over the last 20 years. As a consequence of this, email technology has time to grow and to mature. So the biggest complaint that many companies have about email is that it is their biggest time burner. Instead of emails companies are aiming for replacing emails with fancy tools such as Slack or so on. The result is that more time is spent on various apps that cause even more time to be wasted! This doesn’t work! Now if you have a different experience feel free to get in touch. I do this podcast because as leaders we need to ...

So today we are talking about company loyalty! One of our listeners, Nicole, who is based in Germany, sent us an email. Her company basically gave her an ultimatum: move to Spain or leave along with the rest of her team. Nicole is not sure what she should do. She’s never been to Spain before, doesn’t speak Spanish, and does not want to leave her family, friends, and life behind.

"These days companies don't give a damn about employees at all."

Now this is quite an asshole move. Why?  Nicole’s company has given her an impossible choice. The main point is that she has been fired. The “opportunity” in Spain was not really that. It was either Spain, or nothing. What kind of choice is that?! We see this more and more often, specifically in bigger companies that don’t care about the people who work there. I often see a disconnect, especially with people who are older than 30. They have the same loyalty to their companies their parents’ generation. These days companies don’t give a damn about employees at all. This is especially true the bigger the company gets. And they really have no loyalty to you when they are a publicly listed company because the stockholders control it!

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"These people are only interested in what comes out of the company, not the employees!"

The stockholders are like mosquitoes that do not care about the horse that they own. All they care about is the blood that they can suck out of it. These people are only interested in what comes out of the company, not the employees. Now going back to Nicole’s example: I’m not even sure if the position in Spain would have the same conditions as in Germany. My advice to Nicole would be to forget your company! Screw them. Go on sick leave and start interviewing for other companies. Better yet, make them pay for your move to Spain then leave them there and find a position with a different company.

"Eat or die is not really a choice!"

Now is your time for revenge! One option is not a choice. That is an ultimatum! Eat or die is not really a choice. Yes this company gives you money, but you give them a lifetime. Remember, money comes and goes but your lifetime does not.  I can see loyalty from bigger companies getting worse and worse, so do not overstate your loyalty!

Stay in lead!OLAF KAPINSKI 🙂

Transcript

Any successful business leader will need to be able to achieve their organisation’s business goals – but what does a goal look like, and how can you transform them into reality? (more…)

So today I have one of these topics that are relevant to all of us. Everyone is always talking about being stressed all the time. Let’s begin with what stress means. The official scientific definition of stress is an event, experience, or environmental stimulus that causes a state of mental or emotional strain or tension. It’s become almost fashionable to be stressed. You have to tell everyone that you are stressed, otherwise you’re worth nothing.

"Where the brain goes, the body follows."

In terms of the workplace, I see most issues of stress coming from the never-ending avalanche of urgent things you have to do. Stress is like sleep deprivation; after a while you get used to being chronically tired. Stress builds up over time. Unfortunately the stress we have, at least in Western Europe, comes mostly from our own minds! You don’t have to run away from tigers or things like that. It’s psychological now. Keep this saying in mind as it is very important: Where the brain goes, the body follows. Many studies link stress with a compromised immune system, increased weight gain, mood disorders, decreased brain functioning, disrupted hormone production, heart attacks and more. As a manager you have to make sure that you are at the top of your game. You’re the captain of the ship, you’re leading your team. Let’s speak about the standard stressors that you deal with in an office environment. Deadlines due to not prioritizing are a big issue, as are problems with your boss or colleagues. If you don’t take care of them, this negative baseline through years and decades is detrimental to your work performance and your health.

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"I want you to be a proactive person, don't always react!"

Let’s now speak about handling stress, or de-stressing, in a positive way. There are positive and negative ways to de-stress. Healthy and natural ways to de-stress create a good to offset the stressful life that we live. In my experience, the first one is exercise! Physical exercise releases endorphins, a hormone in your brain that relieves stress and boosts your mood. Meditation, or practicing mindfulness, is also proven to reduce stress. Taking a 5- or 10-minute break and thinking about what needs to be done can have a great impact on stress levels. Take a minute for yourself because if you’re flustered, you cannot lead yourself, let alone a team. This gives you the ability to be more mindful instead of reacting. I want you to be a proactive person, don’t always react!

"Take the time to focus on the things you are thankful for."

When you’re consistently in a receiving state, you will constantly be on the back foot. Leadership is marathon,

In one of our previous episodes we discussed one of our readers who sent an email about being content where they are. During the course of our discussion we touched on not working for money. Today we will talk about what exactly that mean. Everybody believes that they work for money. You make a deal and sell your lifetime: eight hours plus commute and then you receive money for your real life. This started in the Middle Ages, or perhaps even thousands of years ago. As professionalization kicked in people began doing the stuff that they were good at for a living. 

"Don't survive, thrive!"

If you are doing this, you are being average! And I want you to be excellent, not average. The question that you need to answer for yourself is: why are you here? If you just want to live, make babies, watch them grow, and then die this podcast is not for you. This is 2019, almost 2020. Don’t survive, thrive! Now you can make a legacy and leave something. A single person can affect hundreds of thousands and millions of people even after they’re gone. Most of our listeners are based in Western Europe. You are living in where you can do whatever you want, whenever you want.The world is full about five billion people who have a reason to suffer. If you live in in Western Europe, then I am sorry to say you do not have a reason to suffer. Although the word ‘consequence’ has a negative connotation, there can be positive consequences for a certain action. I worked my ass off to get this company off the ground and now I face the consequences: I can work whenever I want for as long or as I want.

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"If you don't like your job, go somewhere else!"

If you don’t like your job, go somewhere else! My intention is to give you an idea of your opportunities and options. My invite is don’t live an average life, live an awesome life. So why not work for money? Because life is too short to suffer. Everyone loves money, but is it that colored piece of paper that brings you happiness? Or is it the possibility of things that money can bring? Don’t go to a crap job only for the money. Instead, have your focus on what you want to do with your life. 

"Understand your meaning, your purpose!"

Unfortunately, people tend to live in extremes; either I work in an office in a job I hate, or I sit on the beach all day doing nothing. Why can’t you work your job, but in your free time work on monetizing a passion so that you can end up doing something that makes you happy but also provides an income. Work for entertainment. Work for fun. Understand your meaning, why you’re here! Life’s too short to suffer, so don’t work for money!