Hey, I Know Nothing About Enterprise Software and User Interfaces

So, I left a comment a few days ago on a posting about enterprise software design over at Signal vs. Noise, the blog written by the guys at 37signals.

Do you know that famous New Yorker cartoon — “…on the Internet, no one knows you’re a dog”?

Oh, how true.

So that comment generates a boatload of traffic to our humble little vanity blog, including — get this — a number of serious emails asking my opinion about user interface design for enterprise software and, in one instance, whether I thought these types of design firms have a future.

Those of you who know me understand the rich humor in these requests because, although I am inept in many, many things, I am spectacularly unqualifed to formulate meaningful insight into the enterprise software and user interface industry.

Except as a user.

I’m an everyday person in an organization who uses software (including my company’s enterprise tools) as an occasionally central tool to accomplish what  I need to do.

I understand nothing about the technical skeleton of software and interface design, but I do know that bad interface design bothers me because it costs me time and energy and focus — or worse, it wastes these precious resources. I think there is a spectacular future for any company or developer who can design simple, intuitive, adaptable interfaces that make people’s work easy and useful. I am deeply loyal to any product, for that matter, that is exceptionally considerate of me, my time, and my energy.

If you design interfaces for enterprise software and you like what you just read and you have a lot of money, please call me. My eleven year-old daughter thinks we’re going to be rich because Daddy has his own website.

What Ineffective People (Usually Leaders) Have In Common

Writing about the pathway to workplace superstardom reminded me that I encounter quite a few people (usually managers and other organizational leaders) who have the opposite problem — they’re going nowhere. 

They’re chronically ineffective — as people and as leaders.

Their efforts to change and grow as people, or develop leadership skills have stalled — sometimes hopelessly.

I noticed something else about these folks — they have one or more characteristics in common, significant roadblocks to making the changes in their skills, focus or behavior necessary to become more effective, happy and successful.

Here they are — five surefire pieces of evidence that someone’s growth and development are blocked:

1. They’re Not Having Any Fun. They don’t enjoy their lives, or their jobs, or their circumstances to the fullest. What possible motivation does someone have to improve, to learn and to grow if they hate what they’re doing? The best way to achieve mastery at anything is to have a deep passion and commitment to the challenges and problems it throws at you every day. One of the challenges and problems you must enjoy deeply is building yourself.

2. They Live Scattered, Hectic Overloaded Lives. In other words, no margin. For most managers I know, life is like drinking out of a firehose — some gets in your mouth, but most just goes right over your shoulder. The major reason they don’t build themselves (or other people, for that matter) is they simply don’t have, or haven’t fought for, the time and space to reflect on themselves and their behavior, and to devote to the hard work of growth.

3. They Are Unable, Or Unwilling, To See The Truth About Themselves. It’s simple — great leadership starts out as a love affair with the truth. If you can’t, or don’t want to, acknowledge your own shortcomings or ineffective behaviors, how in the world are you going to do anything about them?

4. They’re Self-Absorbed, Unhealthily Focused On Their Own Needs. One of the biggest obstacles to change is a lack of focus on other people, particularly those you lead or those impacted by your behavior and actions. The antidote? Express gratitude daily; other people play, or have played, a role in your success. Acknowledging the contribution of others makes you aware of their presence in your life. And (now follow me on this), the more outward your focus, the greater the chance you’ll care about your impact on others. The more you care, the greater the chance you’ll do something about it.

5. They’re Isolated. Personal change and development is difficult. It’s even more so when you go it alone, without support, encouragement and, most importantly, accountability. People who don’t want to change want to continue to live in the dark, away from scrutiny and feedback. People dedicated to growth seek out partners who will hold them accountable, with whom they can generate mutual support.

Give yourself a score on each of these items; how closely does each describe you? We are all pursuing some sort of goal, from becoming better leaders to losing weight. If you find your own progress blocked, chances are you are struggling with one or more of these characteristics — partially or fully.

My advice to you: (1) have fun, love your problems; (2) fight for margin; (3) fall in love with the truth; (4) thank someone every day; and (5) find a partner.

Becoming an Organizational Superstar

On her blog and in an “Information Week” column, author Penelope Trunk (The Brazen Careerist) offers five steps to being a workplace superstar. They are all very provocative ideas, with a helpful message in there somewhere between the lines (with the exception of “start a side business” — this may be good for your career and your life, but it won’t necessarily make you a superstar at work).

I’d like to suggest five additional ways to shine brightly in the workplace, particularly for twenty- and thirty-somethings, but also for anyone looking for a path to accomplishment, accolades, control over your life, and value:

1. Build Yourself. You cannot spend enough time seeking mastery of not only your technical skills, but your personality/behavioral/leadership skills as well. Find out how the most effective leaders you know behave and treat people, and work exceedingly hard to become just like them.

2. Build the People Around You. Do you make everyone around you great at what they do? Coach, teach, encourage — that’s what a true superstar does.

3. Never Take Any Job You Are Not Matched For — one whose problems and challenges you don’t have a deep passion for and enjoyment of. You will suck at it or, at best, be mediocre and waste precious time in your one turn at bat on this planet.

4. Fight for Margin. Margin is the space between your limits — physical, time, financial and emotional — and your life’s workload. Superstars have margin, lots of it. They have the energy to work hard, the time to think, the financial security to say “screw you” if need be, and the relationships that give support. Also, all the great things you will do in your career will flow from margin — building yourself, building other people, and building a business.

5. Be Truthful. The biggest enemy faced by senior executives and CEOs is that no one wants to tell them the truth. There are two types of people who are useless in the workplace: those that can’t (or won’t) tell the truth, and those that can’t (or won’t) listen to the truth. Want to be a superstar? Be someone your leaders can count on for frank and candid insight, advice and feedback, offered genuinely and without agenda.

Superstars are superstars because the things they are good at are very rare. My experience is that these five things are among the rarest behaviors in any organization.

More, Or Less

You know, the same things that are scarce in the “real world” are just as scarce on the Internet.

Which is odd to a lot of people, particularly those whose exuberance about the Internet and Web 2.0 resembles a kind of creepy utopianism. Don’t get me wrong — the digital age has given us a lot of potentially great tools and resources, but it’s still no cure for the human condition. As someone I deeply admire is fond of saying, “we’re in the twenty-first century technologically, but we’re still in the first century behaviorially.”

The Internet (and the digital “revolution”) has made us more connected, but still searching for intimacy:

• given us more “community,” but no greater civility
• given us more information, but no greater wisdom
• given us more opinions, but no greater enlightenment
• given us more choices, but no greater focus

And so the rules of success on the Internet will be the same as in the real world — the people who will continue to make the greatest contributions to society are the ones who can give us (or lead the way to) the things — online or off — that are most scarce in life and in work.

The Sponge vs. The Hose

My job requires me to give people advice occasionally. Every so often, someone actually listens. I gave a group of managers this advice recently:

“Be a sponge, not a hose.” In other words:

• Stop spewing all over everyone around you. Stop trying to be heard, and instead try to understand. Be just a little less enamored with the sound of your own voice, and the beauty of your own opinions and ideas.

• Start absorbing, listening and learning. Ask questions; seek the truth — about yourself, your behavior, your environment, your customers, the world around you. Think, then speak. Attract and nourish talented, creative people; go out of your way to find people smarter than you. Figure out where the gaps are in your knowledge and skills, and get to work eliminating them.

In my experience, most managers are taught to be a “hose,” if you will. Daily managerial life can be a struggle for attention and affirmation, and against overload,  as well as a competition for scarce resources (material and psychological, like power, influence, titles). Generating attention and noise, and spraying a command-and-control attitude, then, are thought of as survival skills.

Truly great leadership goes beyond mere survival, doesn’t it? Mastery flows from clarity of purpose and mission and a form of humility that, paradoxically, grants you a quiet confidence that liberates you to listen, learn, and absorb.

The “hose” repels; the “sponge” attracts.

The “hose” belies an insecurity; the “sponge,” a confident pursuit of mastery.