Performance Management Presentation link

Today, PSVillager Rob Barnum, SVP of SupportSoft Global Services and Technical Support, (and former EVP Oracle/PeopleSoft), presented to our Mentoring group on the topic of Performance Management. Rob's 20+ years of business management lends insight into the most valuable asset a company can have - its personnel. Managing that personnel to peak performance is an ongoing effort that requires planning, monitoring, developing, rating and rewarding. We captured the presentation in GoToMeeting and posted it at Performance Management Presentation. The recording is available for 14 days after post. It is roughly one hour long.

Thank you Rob for a great presentation!

Debbie Stovall, PCC, Strategist
http://www.succcessrealities.com/

PS Village Mentoring Program

I am finding the PS Village mentoring program to be extremely valuble because it fills a nich that is difficult to otherwise fill in my daily work day or though other programs that have a broader focus. As the leader of Professional Services you do not always have resources within the company to turn to when you have questions or want to bounce ideas off of. PS Village and the mentoring program specifically provides this outlet. My PS Village mentor also provides career advice with an independent perspective that I may not receive within my company. The web based training sessions have also been valuble because they are focussed on relevant topics and delivered by service professionals. Finally, its designed to facilitate networking. Overall, this is a top notch well run program.

Link to Professional Services Career Paths - 11/6/2008 Presentation

Today, PSVillager Joe Longo, VP PSO MetricStream, presented to our Mentoring group on the topic of Career Path. Joe helped define the options that every PS resource has when developing his/her career. We captured the presentation in GoToMeeting and posted it at Career Path Presentation. The recording is available for 14 days after post. It is roughly 40 minutes long.





In summary, Joe helped those on the call recognize that there are different paths to career advancement through field management and through operations management within an organization. An excellent question raised on the call was the option to pursue independent consulting outside of a PSO group. Answer was along the lines of there are far greater risks with this option, but far greater rewards as well, so weigh the pros and cons carefully.





Thanks again for a great meeting and thank you Joe for sharing your insight on career paths.



Debbie Stovall, PCC, Strategist

http://www.succcessrealities.com/

Mentoring Take-Aways

On today's Mentor Q&A session, we discussed how a mentor might wrap-up the engagement with his mentee. The easiest ways is just to tell your mentee. But when I thought about it, I realized that I was gaining as much from these sessions as my partner. We've been meeting weekly for almost 2 months, and you'd think we'd run out of topics. Not so. My partner brings a specific topic to each session and we work it. The reward is in being able to address issues objectively, whereas in the workplace, being emotionally involved in an issue can cloud your thinking. It's like observing your past experiences from the outside, rather than from within.

But it also helps to have a good mentee. In our first session he listed a number of topics he wanted addressed: sales, career, projects, quotes, practices, staffing, etc. So we agreed to meet weekly and to pick one of the topics each week. He's done that, and most weeks telegraphs it ahead of time. Having a specific topic for the meeting, and a little time to prepare, makes it that much easier and meaningful for me as a mentor. As we get to know each other, the topics build up context. I drove away today thinking that we don't need to arbitrarily end our sessions. We'll know when that time is right - when we've run out of specific topics. Until then it's worth the investment.

These experiences provide a few good take-aways for future mentors, being:

1. Negotiate goals at the first session - as Debbie pointed out during the kickoff
2. Focus each session by agreeing on a topic in advance
   
3. Create continuity, context and familiarity through weekly sessions
   
4. When topics become scarce, reduce the frequency or wind-up the sessions
5. And most important: maintain a weekly blog so that you can share your experiences

Two more tips to consider:

• Starbucks is a good venue. It's noisy, but addresses our basic needs: caffiene, wifi, 'food', lots of people, free-songs-Tuesdays
• It's OK to discuss off-topic subjects: the bailout, elections, sports. I'm not saying we discuss them and I'm not saying we don't. I'm saying it's OK.

Regards to all,

Joe Longo

Link to Professional Services Knowledge Management - 10/2/08 Presentation

Today, PSVillager Andrew Nash, CEO of Navaroo Consulting, (and former COO, Broadvision and Partner, Deloitte Consulting), presented to our Mentoring group on the topic of Knowledge Management. Andrew is very steeped in Knowledge Management and gave an excellent presentation on the topic. We captured the presentation in GoToMeeting and posted it at Knowledge Management Presentation The recording is available for 14 days after post. It is roughly one hour long.

Overview
The presentation today helped dispel several myths regarding KM. The biggest myth … KM is just a repository. Instead, Andrew recommends the 4 pronged approach for KM: Enterprise repository; Wiki/Blog; Web conferencing; Social Networking. With a little effort and leveraging freeware, you can very quickly launch a KM system no matter how large or small your organization.

Other Big myths:

· Focusing on one area like service delivery. Much of the knowledge needed for delivery resides elsewhere within the company, so an integrated knowledgebase is key to success.

· While technology is an enabler to share information, the real work is up-front with capturing, transferring and codifying data. Preparing it for use in an organized manner. The most pervasive technology used for KM today … email. Who would have thought …

· Build it and they will come. Making any knowledgebase file centric vs. human centric will leave you with more lurkers than contributors. PUSH information out and recognize the outstanding contributions of the community members.

· There is no need for an FTE to manage the knowledge. For organizations of less than 50 resources, part-time distributed management of the KM is adequate. A good rule of thumb is once you reach the 50 – 100 resources level and depending how robust the information is that you are sharing, full-time community management and domain ownership will become necessary.

Thank you Andrew for a great presentation!

Debbie Stovall, PCC, Strategist
www.succcessrealities.com

Link to Professional Services Recruiting - 9/4/08 Presentation

PSVillage Mentoring Program Participants: We have devised a way to enable all of you to down load the recorded sessions of our monthly meetings via use of YouSendIt.

GoToMeeting allows us to create a .wmv file which can be pushed out to all of you. The recordings will be available for 14 days after post. Download link to recoding of today's presentation Professional Services Recruiting Presented by Sheryl Friesz, Santorini Consulting.

Great meeting today. Here are just a few of the tips Sheryl provided our participants - check out the other tips and tricks by downloading the recording:

Three additional sources for Identifying Talent: Linkedin – searching for job titles, reviewing their recommendations; References from a candidates application – typically all contact information, titles and current employer are listed making for an easy 'warm' (versus cold) call; Calling directly into a company (also called 'sourcing') and asking to speak to ‘person with title you are searching for’.

Recruiting is a sales and marketing role for the company: conveying a "mutually beneficial" message as to why a candidate may want to join the company is critical. From the job description to the individuals conducting the interviews - everyone speaking with that candidate needs to convey this message. They should share what they like/enjoy about the company, job, group, department and why they joined the team/company.

Human Touch: once the candidate accepts the offer, the recruiting process doesn't end there. In order to make sure the candidate/employee arrives on the first day make sure to maintain communication/contact. Email, invite them to lunch, leave messages (have some of their new team members, ideally those who were part of the interview process) do the same. On the first day, the employee should never be left to ‘fiddle’ but should be engaged with and introduced to the group. (Someone should be assigned to give them a tour, their desks should be set up, there should be a welcome letter/agenda awaiting them, a team lunch set up...) If they are remote workers, sending them company care packages – tee shirts, company prizes, etc. can make that first day a great one.

Recommended reading from Sheryl Friesz, Santorini Consulting: Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham ... Let us know your tips/tricks for recruiting talent!

Mentor Q&A – August 14, 2008

Great call today with discussion between Rick Furino, Tom Minich, Cameran Haire, Ananth Arunachalam and me. From the mentors’ perspective the program is progression nicely with all participants busy working up their schedules for meetings and topics for discussion over the next 5 months.

Our main topic of discussion today: Surviving Acquisition

With consolidation rampant in the market place, something all organizational leaders need in their pocket is the ‘How to Survive Acquisition’ manual. Here, in summary, are few tips from the seasoned professionals of our Mentor ranks:

1) Do not take your eye of the ball – basic business metrics for a service organization should remain intact: utilization, margin, customer satisfaction. Leadership within a newly acquired organization need to be able to articulate their efficiency and effectiveness during delivery, thereby defining their value to the customer and the organization. Upwards of 75% of time should be spent focused on keeping the service/satisfaction/profitability levels steady. The other 25% is redefining success criteria in the newly created organization, and this may mean redefining some of the metrics.

2) Gaining clarity of strategy driving the newly formed organization. During M&A, it is very typical for both sides to revamp their go-forward strategy, whereby a newly formed strategy will emerge. Once this happens, the redefinition of success criteria can be completed and solidified into organizational goals, objectives and measures.

3) Understand the rationale behind the acquisition: filling a strategic/technical gap or net incremental revenue and customer growth. When an acquisition is driven by the need to fill a gap, typically the delivery organizations merge over time bringing together the best practices from both sides and create an expanded service offering to the clients. This opens the way to sell back into existing clients on both sides with additional value add product and service. When the driving factor is net incremental growth, typically delivery organizations are consolidated and duplicate processes removed.

4) SaaS delivery vs. traditional service delivery. SaaS models are measured on a transactional basis whereby making it extremely difficult to link to service hours. Connecting billable hours and transactions by client is something to be discussed further as more and more organizations migrate to the software as a service method of delivery. SaaS is the ultimate redefinition of measurements and success criteria on the current horizon.

What do you think? Please let us hear from you on other ways of surviving merger and acquisition.

Link to Professional Services Marketing and Branding - 8/7/08 Presentation

PSVillage Mentoring Program Participants:

We have devised a way to enable all of you to down load the recorded sessions of our monthly meetings via use of YouSendIt. GoToMeeting allows us to create a .wmv file which can be pushed out to all of you. The recordings will be available for 14 days after post.

Download link to recoding of today's presentation Professional Services Marketing and Branding Presented by Scott Fletcher, Infomentis.

Great meeting today. Some very thought provoking questions that I hope to see posted to our blog so that others in our community can give us their input and benefit of their experiences.

PSVillage Mentoring Program Kicks-off! - Link to Kick Off Recording

WOW! What more can I say about the participants in the 2008 PSVillage Mentoring Program. Everyone’s willingness to share their ideas and experiences is inspiring and I am sure this will spark even more participation in the future. For the next 6 months, we will grow and learn together.

As part of the program, the following PS Leaders have volunteered their time to present on the following topics. For ease of scheduling, the presentations will be the first Thursday of every month at 12noon Pacific / 3PM Eastern. The conference calls will be on the second Thursday of every month at 12noon Pacific / 3PM Eastern.

Aug 7 – Marketing and Branding – on-line Event – ALL: Scott Fletcher, Director, Infomentis
Aug 14 – Mentor Q&A – Conference Call
Sept 4 – Recruiting - on-line Event – ALL: Sheryl Friesz, Founder of Santorini Consulting
Sept 11 – Mentee Q&A – Conference Call
Oct 2 – Knowledge Management - on-line Event – ALL: Andrew Nash, CEO of Personive
Oct 9 – Mentor Q&A – Conference Call
Nov 6 – Career Path - on-line Event – ALL: Joe Longo, VP PSO MetricStream
Nov 13 – Mentee Q&A – Conference Call
Dec 4 – Performance Management – on-line Event – ALL: Rob Barnum, SVP of Global Services and Customer Support for SupportSoft
Jan 20 – Final Wrap-up call – on-line Event - ALL

Meeting invitations will be sent in advance of the meetings so that reminders will be placed on your calendars with the GoToMeeting and/or conference dial-in number connection information.

Your enthusiasm is infectious! Thank you for your participation and I look forward to working with each of you.

Download link: PSVillage Mentoring Program Kick-off Recording

Debbie Stovall, President
http://www.successrealities.com/

What does it mean to be a mentor /coach?

First Published in Voice of The Village - October 2007 - see more articles at PSVillage http://www.psvillage.com/index.php/psvillage/Featured-Article/

As a veteran of the corporate climb I grew up, like most of you, on hard work and little advice. Early in any career you survive on pure will or youthful ignorance to succeed. But as you stockpile the good, bad and ugly encounters in your repertoire, you begin to use your experience to help navigate not just your career but the careers of others. Mentoring and coaching is skill that every great leader needs to have. So, what does it mean to be a mentor or coach?
Some think it is an annual review where you give and receive the ‘do better cards’. Some think it is leaning back in their chairs and telling of ‘when I started this career .. blah blah blah’. Others think only sports analogies will give them the distinction of ‘coach’. Categorically all of the above, while useful tools in some cases, have nothing to do with being a mentor or coach. Being a mentor or coach is about the mentored / coached; helping bring clarity to a goal and tasks to an end result.

I got such clarity early in my career when I met my first real mentor/coach – and of all unlikely places, in a pulp mill. Now those who know me, realize that stylish footwear is part of my passion – so the steel toed shoes made by RedWing did not fit my goal and objective of style. But, the learning opportunity afforded me as one the IT staffers far outweighed the horror of lace up combat boots. Our boss was a fabulous mentor and coach – he helped me, for the first time in my career, see that what I did in my daily, weekly and monthly tasks were directly connected to the goals and objectives of the mill and the parent company. In today’s buzz word style this would be known as cascading goals – and if you don’t have them where you work, you need to get them.

Most companies have a mission statement and then annually set goals in line with that mission. These objectives are typically tied to revenue and customer satisfaction. But how does the IT staffer ever know how they affect the revenue – because they don’t sell anything or produce the widgets or cup stock. And customers - Who are they? They don’t talk to or see the company’s customers. So when Dixie Cup calls and complains about the 45 railcars loaded with cup stock all bearing the exact same batch number label (they are suppose to be unique) – who in IT knows about it? All we hear is that the label printer is on the fritz again and someone needs to strap on their ugly shoes and get down to the finishing house and fix it! Yesterday!

During this unfortunate series of events, our boss/mentor/coach, took the opportunity to bring clarity to the goals of mill. Customer satisfaction – well Dixie was none too happy. And revenue – after refunds, rail charges to/from/to the client, labor to refill the order, etc. – pricy to say the least. So beginning that day, not during reviews, we all set goals reflecting what we could do to affect revenue and customer satisfaction. From there, we reviewed our daily, weekly and monthly tasks to ensure we were progressing toward our goals. The lesson - if we are doing a task not related to one of the goals, then we are not doing the right task. Basically, if you don’t have goals, how does anyone know what to do each day?

What a difference one meeting can make. Companies are powered by the individuals working to accomplish daily, weekly and monthly tasks. So I challenge each of you to have that meeting in your teams, set the clarity of the group’s and the individuals’ goals. Then proceed to the list of tasks that will carry them to the end result. Be a mentor and coach – help your colleagues, peers and subordinates realize their contribution and value of the work they perform.

PSVillage Mentoring Concept and Background

I have become increasingly convinced that to be an effective leader, within any context, one must first have a passion for helping others develop their skills. Demanding more and better performance without showing how it can be done is seldom effective and never sustainable.

When first introduced to the concept of a Professional Services focused mentoring program I was impressed with the vision and delighted to have the opportunity to participate. The vision and strategy Terry set out for this program perfectly aligns with my conviction that mentoring is not only an outstanding opportunity to raise the platform so that those who follow can achieve even greater heights, it is also crucial to the long-term vitality and sustainability of any organization or profession.

The program coalesced in an amazingly short time because we kept ourselves focused on the simple objective of bringing professional services people together in such a way as to enable those with years of successful endeavors to share their knowledge with those looking to further their capabilities and who understood the wisdom of learning from those that had traveled the path before them. In other words, we kept it simple. What is important is not the program but rather the people who will engage to share within its context.

I fully expect that those designated as mentees will realize a vast source of insight and knowledge that will prove invaluable to them but I also anticipate the mentors will gain much both professionally and personally. As a result, although the program itself has been specified as a six month engagement, we suspect the relationships forged during this time will endure long past the official time-frame.

The PSVillage Mentoring program is a start. We have provided enough structure to ensure core topics are discussed and that an initial set of tools is in place. We are particularly excited about the panel of experts who will address the group over the coming months to discuss topics such as: Marketing/Branding, Recruiting, Knowledge Management, Performance Management and Career Path. We have also started a reading list that we hope will be useful to all participants. Again, we have simply primed the pump with an initial selection of materials but fully expect that too will expand as participants add to it.

The program is not, however, complete. It is our hope and expectation that it never will be complete. We envision the program evolving and changing as those that participate share their experiences and provide input and feedback. We endeavored to designed a program that will guide without being restrictive, that will encourage innovation and ensure perpetual relevance. We hope you agree and look forward to hearing from each of you regarding your experience in the PSVillage Professional Services Mentoring program.