23 June 2008 
Serving on a Board of Directors or Advisers
One of the highest callings in business is to serve on a Board of Directors. To be asked to serve on a Board of Advisers or Trustees.
In the 1600’s in England the man who was responsible to run the strategic direction of a going concern sat in a chair at the head of a table. The other members sat on benches on each side of the board.
In that time and place meeting tables were actually duel purpose movable boards set upon trestles. The person at the head of the table was called the Chairman of the Board. And so he is today.
Service as a Board member is determined by your willingness to offer your wisdom and judgment and influence — special and unique talents.
Your Business Blogger(R) no longer advises Boards of Directors, the law and liability has complicated this consulting segment — it is best left to legal counsel, unfortunately. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has become the full employment statue for lawyers. Budget for compliance can be $500K. And no one considers serving with out Directors and Officers (D&O) insurance.
But if your company has not gone public and is privately held another form of corporate governance might provide the accountability the business owner wants: A Board of Advisers.
Under a Board of Directors, the company management must obey the Directors. The Board, well, can direct.
Under a Board of Advisers, the company management does not have to listen to this Board. The Advisers can only advise.
Both Board organizations offer the CEO consulting, contacts and access to capital. And the Boss can tell the Board of Advisers to get lost.
But it is the smart CEO who considers the wisdom of his Board of Advisers, his board of elders.
Following is a Powerpoint presentation my company would give back at the turn of the millennium.
Yes, you may certainly use the ppt. A link this site would be swell.
Thank you (foot)notes:
Full Disclosure: Your Business Blogger(R) currently sits on a number of Boards of Advisers and has served on Boards of Directors.
See Inc.com for more on corporate governance.
Alert Readers know that one does not lobby for the position as Board Member. Candidates are invited.
20 June 2008
Managing Management Time(tm) Radio Interview on Ringler Radio w/ Larry Cohen
Bill Oncken III was recently interviewed on the Legal Talk Network,
Law News and Legal Topics - Time to Time Manage
Every manager’s and leader’s mission is to positively influence.
Ringler Radio host, Larry Cohen welcomes guests, William Oncken, III and Alan Boal to describe The William Oncken Corporation’s leadership seminar, Managing Management Time™ (MMT), and proprietary techniques, which provide the road map and process for accomplishing that mission.
They will take an in depth look at the Oncken philosophy, discretionary time, controlling your events, the Oncken professional, and the professional versus the amateur in today’s workplace.
Click here to listen.
17 June 2008
The Four Speeches Every Speaker Delivers
In any single trip to the podium there are four separate, different speeches every public speaker makes :
1) The one he gives in the car to the event.
2) The one he gives at the event.
3) The one he gives in the car leaving the event.
4) The one his audience heard.
In any speech, I’m lucky if any of two of these match up.
Your Business Blogger(R) was recently honored to give a lecture on Time Management, Managing Management Time(TM) and Completed Staff Work at Morton Blackwell’s Leadership Institute.
As a college professor, I am careful to keep with the speakers’ adage of,
Tell them what you are going to tell them.
Tell them.
Tell them what you’ve told them.
And repetition works in a speech. Repetition does not work in writing. ‘Repeating words’ are hard to read.
But easy to listen to.
So, while I’m busy speechifying with speech-tricks: repeating myself, using four seconds of silence, my audience is getting the message.
However, it wasn’t quite what I wanted to emphasize. They heard what they needed to hear.
Charmaine once made the pages of Vogue magazine. The writer didn’t talk about her flawless debating and managing abilities. Nope. Vogue was only interested in her “sharp” red suit. Clothing was all that interested Vogue.
Like most of us, I guess…
In my talk I made only a head-fake at “Time Management.” I am more interested — and I thought the audience would be more interested — in the Managing of Management Time(TM).
Nope.
A number of attendees came up afterward or sent me emails referring to time management strategies.
I had made only a passing reference to the time-management-of-paper-dictum of,
Do,
Delegate,
or
Destroy.
These days the fourth “D” would be ‘delete’ from the email inbox. A good, efficient staffer or manager only handles a piece of paper or email once.
This wasn’t what the bulk of my talk was about. But in any communication it is not enough merely to transmit a message. It is the sender’s responsibility to know that the message has been received.
Proper transmission and knowing the audience needs is the speaker’s job.
Delectare et Docere.
And sometimes we don’t need to be taught, we just need to be reminded. RR writes,
Dear Mr. Yoest,
I just wanted to thank you for your lecture today. I found it to be very interesting. Especially with regard to the advice you gave, it was very sound and logical.
Sometimes we forget to act according to plain old common sense, and your speech was a great reminder of exactly how acting with common sense can help one manage both his time and his life in general.
After your compelling speech today, I thought that it would be most logical on my part to follow your very own instructions and send you an email. Once again, thank you.
Best Regards,
One attendee, Channa Yu, did, well, get the message,
In particular, your lecture on Time Management spoke deeply to me, as it was directly relevant to the interaction and relationships that take place daily in the APIA office, and related to the past experience I had managing a small painting business last summer.
Through today’s lecture, I realized that the best employees (painters) I had were the diligent ones who carried out the tasks they were entrusted with, solving problems individually first instead of receiving constant direction, and I feel encouraged to do the same in the context I am in now.
I loved the new perspective you brought on how we can best manage our work load and time through an effective relationship with our boss. As an intern and perfectionist, I have often thought of doing the job as flawlessly as possible instead of considering the best approach to take in my tasks or relationships at hand.
Your lecture voiced out important steps to strengthen office relationships and create an efficient office environment, and it was both refreshing and fun to reevaluate my role…
I appreciate your time today as well as your honest and helpful advice, and thank you for a wonderful new perspective on how I can serve my best at the office this summer.
Ms. Yu understood my talk best, perhaps, because she had some managerial experience. Most attendees were individual contributors (as Your Business Blogger(R) is currently) and didn’t have a frame work to build on my brilliance…
The group needed and wanted to learn more about time management: efficiency.
I wanted to talk on management time: effectiveness.
An audience, like a customer, is not always right — but they must always be happy.
I gave four different speeches — and the audience heard the right one. For them.
And we all ended up happy.
10 June 2008
Managers: Is Training Your Job?
Managers: Train Your Staff Interns–Clerks—Entry-Level Employees June 10, 2008, #8
This is Jack Yoest Your Business Blogger® with solutions to your management problems.
Managers: you have a new, young staffer who just screwed up.
Whose fault is it?
I’ve done tours of duty in the military, government, business and academia –
And there is one constant.
And no matter what department silo is tasked with staff development
– training is the manager’s responsibility.
I once asked a young staffer to draft a letter. I received a hand written letter — late –
in confusing cursive that was indeed a draft.
Whose fault?
The military teaches that the manager is responsible for all his unit does and fails to do.
The young intern should have produced a letter that was finished,
so well done on time that the only action required would have been my signature.
This is completed staff work.
Managers: it is your responsibility to train your staff.
But it is the JOB of smart individual contributor that gets training on his own initiative –
and helps the boss do his job.
To learn more about completed staff work visit YOEST.com
That’s yoest dot com
Managers: Train Your Staff
Your Business Blogger(R) once did a tour of duty in government after running a number of jobs in the private sector and as hired gun.
It was there that I was reminded from the Army that staff development was the bosses’ job. Yes, it might have been in the job description of human resources. But training is the managers’ job, in both the military and government and business.
My eye opener was when I asked a young staffer to draft a letter. I received (late) a hand written letter in cursive (unreadable) on a yellow legal pad that was indeed a draft.
Who was at fault?
If you are a manager your answer would be instructive. If the reply is ’staffer’ the manager is exporting blame, the finger pointing exercise of an amateur.
The professional manager is responsible for all his unit does and fails to do.
So. After I blamed the staffer, and blamed HR for all the incompetents hired, this incompetent had to import some responsibility.
It was government, so no one really noticed.
My sins were legion. In this draft letter example there was,
No deadline.
No template.
No expectation.
The staffer didn’t know. “Well, you asked for a draft…” she said.
And she was right.
Even if ignorance of the law is no excuse, the manager is the one who should get fined or fired.
Getting results is the manager’s job. By getting performance from his people.
I needed some help. I realized that the need for more training was systemic for all departments, at all levels. I actually had two problems:
1) Getting the work done, and
2) Finding the time to do it.
I bought some time by hiring an outside consultant to help train. (This was faster and cheaper than using the in-house trainers: bureaucracy.) (Don’t tell anyone.)
The end result?
After training, that same staffer was providing draft letters that,
Were typed
Dated
Proper salutations
Addressed
With envelope
On proper letter head
In the correct front/pt (this was government, remember?)
Fact checked
Spell checked
With the proper action (clear…or hidden, this was government, remember?)
Signature block.
The letter should be complete, save for the bosses’ signature. This is completed staff work, even if the boss asks for a ‘draft.’
There should be no other action required by the manager except to sign the letter, if the manager has trained his people.
The manager will know how well his department is functioning when all that is needed is his signature. And really well managed units don’t even need that.
4 June 2008
FREE Intern Seminar NO CHARGE
Managers, send your interns, clerks and entry-level trainees to a no-charge day long seminar here near Your Nation’s Capital.
Your Business Blogger(R)
at the Stern School of Business
New York University
Sponsored by the Leadership Institute,
Do you want your interns [clerks] to be more organized, resourceful and effective?
The best internships enable interns to complete projects that create value for the organization, and to learn useful skills under the supervision of a mentor.
But interns often come to Washington [or to any organization or city] with unrealistic expectations, which frustrate interns and mentors alike.
Send your interns to the Intern Workshop at the
Leadership Institute’s Stephen P.J. Wood building in
Arlington, Virginia on June 12, 2008,
from 9:15 am to 7:00 pm.LI’s Intern Workshop teaches interns to set and achieve realistic goals during their internships.
Workshop speakers present tips about:
How to become an unforgettable asset
How to prioritize and get more done
Effective networking
Surviving on zero dollars a day
Personal development.
[Your Business Blogger(R) will be speaking on Completed Staff Work and Managing Management Time(TM) starting around 4:30.]
This day-long workshop is free of charge.
It includes a free lunch and free dinner.The Leadership Institute provides this service to philosophically like-minded organizations and offices to help you and your interns get the most out of your investment in them.
[To learn more about this seminar, click here.]
To register visit www.leadershipinstitute.org
For questions or additional information please
email Mary Koehnor call (800) 827-LEAD
When LI says Free Workshop at the Leadership Institute, they really mean FREE. And there is a FREE LUNCH.
And watch the 60 second commercial:
Thank you (foot)notes:
Jack Yoest is an Adjunct Professor of Management and President of Management Training of DC, LLC. He blogs with his wife Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D. at Reasoned Audacity.
Mr. Yoest is a marketing representative for the William Oncken Corporation and Managing Management Time(tm)