Greg Skloot Blog

The Need to Network

Tue, 29 May 2012 10:00:00 -0400

Rewind to sophomore year of college, and I am a networking fanatic. I spent a ton of time hopping from event to event in Boston, piling up business cards in stacks across my desk. Looking back, this wasn’t the most effective strategy. Meetings lots of people and adding them on LinkedIn is a good first step but it needs to be solidified by building relationships. Instead of endless networking, consider the following approach I have since embraced:

1. Be specific

Going to networking events takes time and energy. If you are going to put off serving your customers or building your product to network, you better have a darn good strategy for who you want to meet and how you want to help each other. More specifically:

Who can teach you something and compliment your skillset?
What are you looking for… designer, developer, salesman, friends?
Do you want to find customers, mentors, partners? They might be in different places.

2. Be picky with events

Especially if you are in the entrepreneurship world, you will have your pick of many fantastic events to attend. Here in Boston, Paul Hlatky at GreenhornConnect.com makes that incredibly easy with the schedule and calendar that he manages online. Sort through the options and find what you believe to be the very best events for what you are looking for. If you try one and it isn’t what you thought, leave early.

3. Follow up meaningfully

Sending a quick email saying “it was nice to meet you” is a start but does not go nearly far enough. You must research each person you want to follow up with and share with them something meaningful - like feedback on their business or a recommendation of someone else to connect with. This is the start of building a relationship with them.

4. Build the relationship

Find reasons to talk to a person more. Maybe it is to ask their advice or opinion and offer your own for whatever they are working on. You don’t have to become best friends, but you should make an effort to keep up to date on what they are doing.

5. Be clear and abrupt

If you are courting a client through networking, don’t beat around the bush. Say, “It was awesome meeting you, I think your product is awesome, here is how I can help.” Now list precisely what value you would add.

Remember, it should be fun and exciting to be meeting all of these new people. Enjoy it!

More Than a Haircut

Tue, 22 May 2012 08:30:00 -0400

I don’t care how much technology exists nor how advanced our society gets - real people interaction and exceptional customer service will always be key in creating feelings. Feelings impact my buying decisions much more than a 10% off daily deal coupon, and here is why:

Last week I wandered through Allston, MA near the influencers@ HQ in search of a haircut. I peeked my head into a few shops along Harvard Avenue, all busy, high priced or both. As I turned onto Commonwealth Avenue, I walked by a small shop called Volmmer’s Hair Salon. As I walked in, a man came out from behind a desk to greet me and ask if I’d like a haircut. I enthusiastically responded yes. I quickly learned that this man’s name was Volmmer, the owner and operator of the business.

While Volmmer ended up giving me a great haircut (he claimed that it made me look several years younger, which I’ll always take as a compliment), that is not why I was so impressed. Instead, it was Volmmer’s exceptional customer service.

1. He asked for my name

As soon as I sat down, he asked what my name is. Not how I wanted my hair, but what my name is. He then told me his name, and proceeded to address me by name for the rest of the hair cut. This made it personal, and it was gold.

2. He understood time

Volmmer new I was at lunch while at work, and did not waste any time in getting me back to the office as soon as possible. Interestingly, we were still able to have an enjoyable conversation that fit right in.

3. He priced reasonably

I wanted to pay $15 for a haircut - that is the value I placed on it as a customer. So when other salons offered $18, despite being such a small difference, I wasn’t enthused. Sure enough Volmmer charged $15. I paid him $18.

4. He produced a great product

Being personal and having great customer service is awesome, but it won’t be good enough if your business doesn’t provide a quality product. Volmmer gave me an excellent haircut and provided excellent customer service simultaneously.

Ultimately, Volmmer impressed a customer because he took something simple (going and getting a haircut) and made it an incredibly pleasant experience. It didn’t take much: he just treated customers with respect, produced a high quality product and priced it appropriately. His small shop should be the model for every business a customer interacts with. Volmmer didn’t just provide a haircut - he made me feel appreciated as a customer. And that is why for as long as I am in Allston, I will be a customer of Volmmer’s Hair Salon.

Weekly Team Check-in

Mon, 14 May 2012 08:04:14 -0400

When 3pm rolled around around this past Friday, I climbed up through the pile of papers on my desk at influencers@ and headed to the conference room, where every 20 minutes I met with a member of the team and checked in. I asked them how their week was going, what challenges they were facing and how I could assist.

This weekly check in is simple, easy and so important. Per the recommendation of my go-to COO expert, Ryan Durkin, a team leader needs to check in regularly with everyone at the company (while size allows for it) and get a pulse on how the team is doing. Let’s face it - the business week is busy. At a start-up, it is borderline insane. As a result, personal issues and work-related challenges can get pushed aside while everyone scrambles to meet deadlines. The Friday afternoon check-in ensures that those issues don’t get missed and can get resolved going into the next week.

The check-in is super casual. Consider the following questions to ask your team:

How was your week?
What challenges did you run into?
Are you stuck on anything?
How is everyone else on your team - are you getting along?
How can I help?

In addition to these questions, the key is to let each team member know what they did well and opportunities for improvement for the next week. These should be clear and actionable, ie “The design work on that flyer was fantastic! For next week lets work together on reducing the amount of verbiage that is used in copy for our marketing collateral.”

Super easy questions. 15-20 minutes for each person. Every week. Get it done.

Entrepreneurs Club Semester Finale

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:23:00 -0400

Just a few years ago I wandered into the Entrepreneurs Club as a freshmen. There were about 10 people in the room. Fast forward several years, and the Entrepreneurs Club is now one of the largest student organizations at Northeastern University and in July 2011 was ranked the #6 collegiate entrepreneurship club in the world, sitting near titans like Yale, Oxford and Harvard Business School. Each week, 75-100 students come out to the club’s exciting get togethers and our email newsletter is sent to a whopping 2,000 recipients in the University community every Monday. A team of 24 passionate student leaders run the organization, and do so with a $34,000 budget, all fund raised by the students themselves.

This semester, we’ve attracted incredible speakers like the founder of Newbury Comics, COO of CampusLive, President of Strong Women Strong Girls and many more. The Husky Startup Challenge graduated 18 new student ventures, awarded $5,500 in prizes and even had 300+ attendees, including President Aoun. Our members landed great co-op jobs at startups like Perkstreet and Zeo. We expanded into the College of Engineering with EGG weekend, where 9 new physical products were created and $2,000 in prizes awarded. On top of that, together with IDEA and CRI, we helped to launch the Prototype Fund and awarded over $15,000 in grants to students to build prototypes for their ventures.

The Entrepreneurs Club has been the defining factor of my college experience. Every co-op job and internship I earned as an undergrad was a direct result of meeting awesome people at the club. The E-Club was my first major management experience, and the learning opportunities were plentiful. More specifically, I learned:

1. How to manage people

From motivation to delegation, I gained exposure to many different management techniques and found a passion for team building and coordinating a large group of people.

2. When you have to be bureaucratic

I gained an understanding for why larger organizations start to add bureaucracy and learned that some bureaucracy is necessary while too much can stifle creativity and innovation.

3. The value of brand and design

The Entrepreneurs Club was so successful in part because of excellent branding and design work by our Creative Director, Wells Riley.

4. How to motivate students

Student engagement is a powerful tool. I learned about what motivates college students and how to get them excited and passionate about something in order to produce quality.

5. Event planning and logistics

The Entrepreneurs Club is an event planning power house. I learned how to properly execute high profile events and all of the little details that go into them

6. Coordinating with “the man” (administration)

Being in a leadership role in a student organization provides an opportunity to deal with upper-level administration. I leaned how to ask the right questions, get the right resources and gain significant exposure.

7. The importance of aritculating a mission and vision

I figured this out half way through the year: it is important to have a clear mission and vision that everyone in the organization understands. I worked with senior leaders in the group like Cory Bolotsky to craft a great one for the E-Club.

8. How to innovate your way out of challenges

Our team got thrown challenge after challenge this year, from having a room that was 3 sizes too small for our events to keeping everyone dedicated while balancing full course loads. Time after time we had to be creative to work around these challenges and succeed as a group.

9. The value of a strong culture and team unity

The E-Club’s culture might be its most valuable asset. We created an entity that people feel truly passionate about. As a result, they pour their hearts into making it the best it can be.

10. How work and fun should blend together as one

Finally, I learned a lot about work-life balance, and how to deal with a lack of one. Ultimately, it is great to have work be fun and let it all blend together. That is certainly how it was with team E-Club.

It has been an honor to lead such an outstanding organization, and our entire team of dedicated members worked so hard to make all of it possible.

To the Eboard of 2012-2013… have a blast, keep building and get us to #1 in the world.

Becoming an Influencer

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:24:00 -0400

I am very excited to announce that I will be joining the team at influencers@ as COO after graduation!

Influencers@ is an influence marketing agency that hits the streets and interwebs to help brands and solutions become the most talked about, wanted, and shared among the 18 to 30 year old demographic. We generate and delivers influence marketing via word of mouth campaigns, product sampling, street team promotions, brand ambassador programs, event promotion, staffing and promo tours. We also just launched our first software product, ChatterMob, which is currently in private beta.

I first met the Chief Imagination Officer (CEO), Spencer Bramson, at the beginning of the semester when I invited him to be a speaker at the NU Entrepreneurs Club. The room was packed with students wanting to hear the story of how a 7 month old startup run by a 22 year old CEO could be earning revenue, running marketing promotions for major events like CollegeFest and here is the kicker - they have a ball pit in the office. I am incredibly excited about this company, and here is why:

1. Spencer Bramson is an absolute maniac

When Spencer spoke at the E-Club, we named the event “Marketing Maniac” and it fit perfectly. Spencer is the kind of guy that gets stuff done, and in the business world that means he delivers value to customers and drives revenue. He previously co-founded BuzzU and grew the revenue to over 6 figures at the ripe age of 20. Put simply, Spencer is a business rockstar.

2. We are earning revenue and profit… cash!

There is something to be said in the startup world about actually making money. After immersing myself in the Northeastern and Boston entrepreneurial ecosystem, I found that I am most attracted to companies that have simple business models: we deliver value to a customer and that customer pays us. Turning a profit at 8 months old is impressive and it is a cornerstone of the influencers@ culture. We are a business and darn proud of it.

3. A culture of ball pits, nerf guns and feety pajamas

This company easily has the most unique culture I have ever seen. There is a ball pit in the office. There is a wall of nerf guns. My sign-on bonus included a pair of feety pajamas, which I am encouraged to wear at the office. There is a lot more to this culture than meets the eye… it is a fascinating exercise in creating an atmosphere that is super appealing to college students to work in.

4. Mix of service and tech product

On one side, we offer our clients influence marketing services in the form of campaigns, events, product sample distribution, etc. At the same time, we have just launched our first product into private beta, ChatterMob, which is a web platform where all you have to do for free stuff is chat. This unique mix of both service and product offerings provides a ton of exposure for anyone involved to see how different models can work together.

5. Wicked cool customers

We ran the marketing campaigns for CollegeFest and other clients include CampusLive and Mr. Youth. For a tiny new start-up, influencers@ has attracted an impressive list of paying customers, and this is just the beginning.

6. Building a key core competency: customer acquisition

Every entrepreneur knows that one of the greatest challenges is customer acquisition. When it comes to acquiring users and building brand awareness in the 18-30 year old demographic, we kick ass. That is why we love to work with local start-ups like PXT Money, Jebbit and SplashScore to help them build their user-base.

7. Learning and mentor-ship opportunities

My philosophy is that you learn best by doing. influencers@ is giving me an opportunity to take on serious responsibility and learn the way every entrepreneur should: by being in the trenches and having pressure. On top of that, I have an excuse to engage with fantastic mentors like Ryan Durkin to learn the ins and outs of operations.

8. A wide open path to grow

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this opportunity is the potential to grow. We have ideas, but there is no way to really know what influencers@ will be like 18 months from now. By being part of a start-up that has the flexibility to capitalize on new opportunities that come our way, the possibilities are endless. And wow is that exciting.

Insatiable Initiative

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 20:00:00 -0400

I walk into the office on a warm Friday afternoon to find Freshmen Entrepreneurs Club member Nina Stapanov peering over a pile of boxes with tape in one hand and markers in another. “The closet is a mess so I’m cleaning it up!” declares Nina with a smile. She is right - the club’s closet in our Curry Student Center office is a disaster with old napkins and pens littering the shelves. Over 2 hours later, Nina is beaming in front of the closet and I cannot believe my eyes: all of our materials are in labeled boxes, the shirts are organized by size and a year’s worth of junk is discarded. “This is incredible Nina, thank you!” I say. What blows my mind is not how great the closet looks, but how Nina took initiative to do a mundane task without even being asked. Nobody assigned it to her and it isn’t in her job description; in fact, she doesn’t even start her role as Assistant Director of Marketing until next fall. Instead, Nina took it upon herself to clean out the closet because she is a team player who truly cares. She will do whatever she believes will better our organization, and the closet cleanup is just the most recent example. This exemplifies why Nina is such a great member of our team. I don’t need to delegate things to her; instead, she will take it upon herself to look for problems and fix them.

Situations like this make me proud to be a leader of such a high performing team with people like Nina as a part of it. The absolute best case as a manager is when your people manage themselves. In other words, they do not need to wait for things to be delegated to them; instead, they are go-getters who seek out opportunities to add value. These are the teammates that are going to give the organization the highest ROI, and I’d hire them over and over again. While looking for character traits like passion, dedication and a “go-getter” attitude is key in recruiting, the organization must have a culture that backs up that attitude. The Entrepreneurs Club fosters an environment where we respect and reward people who go above and beyond. We take job descriptions very lightly - ultimately everybody is responsible for everything. As a result, our team members push to support every facet of the organization, even the cleanliness of the closet.

Crafting the Next Great Leader

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 10:30:00 -0400

I’m thrilled to announce that rising junior Matt Bilotti will be my successor as the next President of the Northeastern University Entrepreneurs Club. Our team’s executive board just voted him in, but that wasn’t a surprise for me; in fact, I knew Matt was going to be the next President since last October. This is the story of how a leadership development strategy crafted Matt from inexperienced sophomore to chief executive.

It is October 2011 when I walk in the door at an Entrepreneurs Club meeting. Sure enough, Director of Marketing sophomore Matt Bilotti is just a minute behind me, ready to get the room setup an hour before our 100+ person event. As I think back to recent events the club has put on, I come to an interesting realization: Matt is always “just a minute behind (or ahead) of me” when it comes to preparation. As President, I attend nearly every event the club puts on, which is usually about 6 weekly. There is only one other person that attends all of those with me: Matt. I never asked him to, he just shows up. He is at every meeting, every event and responds to every email. As a manager, this gives me a simple indicator: Matt cares. Matt’s passion for the organization can only rival mine. Needless to say, this was the first indicator that Matt has potential for the big job of President.

Once I discovered Matt’s passion, care and how it set him apart, I decided to spend more time with him. I invited him to more meetings and asked his opinion in more emails. Before we knew it, he was playing a Vice President role informally, taking on many of the tasks without the title or authority of VP. As Matt continued to add value in all that I threw at him, it hit me that he could be the next President. But at this point he is young and inexperienced. So what did we do? We created and executed the following leadership development strategy:

1. Critical Beyond Belief

When most people on my team make a mistake, I am generally pretty comforting, help them understand what they did wrong, and am lenient in letting it go. With Matt on the other hand, I was ruthless. I ripped apart his emails, comments and any written documents with a slew of constructive criticism on the weaknesses and specifically how he can improve them. When he made a silly comment in a meeting, I came down on him harder than anyone else.

This all got to him sometimes and I could feel his intense frustration. He might not have realized how much it burned me inside to see him agitated. But I knew I had to keep going. So I just pushed harder. I taught him how to send authoritative emails, engage with sponsors and motivate teammates to excel.

2. Meetings Meetings Meetings

I pulled Matt into many management and recruiting meetings. He watched and soaked in how I handled on boarding new teammates and senior level management challenges.

3. Expanding the Marketing Department

To give Matt more responsibility, we expanded the Marketing Department, created a new program called Marketing Marines which he manages and gave him responsibility for another brand new club program, Engineers for the Greater Good. Having oversight on these new programs gave Matt an opportunity to build his leadership skills in real life as opposed to just watching.

4. Spending Time

Matt and I started spending a lot of time together. In the fall we would watch movies together on the weekends, and in the spring we started going to the gym together every morning. The gym was just an extended conference room - we discussed organizational successes and challenges, and used the time to brainstorm solutions. Matt was able to get a clear view of what the role of President was like because we interacted with each other so much.

5. Caring

Perhaps the most important element of this leadership development strategy is that I truly care about Matt. When he is struggling or upset, I want to help him and see him feel better. I want him to grow, learn and succeed, and over the past year I invested a lot of time into ensuring that he will. This element is why I was able to be so critical with Matt, and an important “secret sauce” in the leader development and mentor/mentee strategy. Below is an excerpt from an email I sent him in February when I sensed he was being challenged with the training:

“I know I am extremely critical and rough on you, more so than with anyone else. I know this can be challenging and aggravating at times. I call you out on stuff I’d never mention to most other people. While this is challenging to work through now, it will be immensely beneficial for you going forward. I am incredibly proud of you and all of your hard work so far this semester and your journey towards becoming the next great leader of our organization.

What I am doing now is a crash course to prepare you for that, which means that if it is to be done well it requires me to be hyper-critical. Most people won’t do that for you… they won’t call you out on things. Instead, they’ll let your weaknesses build up until you fall. That is a shameful disservice to you. Few people will have the guts to call you out… and those are the people you want to be surrounded by because they actually care about you.”

I joke that Matt was my biggest “project” this year; and all joking aside, it is pretty much accurate. Through all of the leadership development, meetings, constructive criticism and teaching, Matt has emerged as a force to be reckoned with. He is organized, forceful, insightful and can control a room. He knows how to identify talent and how to cultivate it. He still has a ton to learn, but I am confident that he is ready to take on the role of youngest President in the history of the club. Put bluntly, Matt will kick ass in his role and I cannot wait to watch him do it next fall.

Making People Feel Valued

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 09:00:00 -0400

I recently had the honor of being a judge at Northeastern’s Research, Innovation and Scholarship Expo, RISE:2012. The event was planned by the university’s new Center for Research Innovation (CRI). It was a large scale event with many moving parts: nearly 400 students exhibiting their research, dozens of judges and attention from all of the major eyes at the university, such as the President’s office.

Being a judge was a time commitment - it required me to review and rate several posters before the event and then meet each researcher in person to hear their pitch and pose questions. Tracey and the CRI team understood that, and considered ways to show the judges their appreciation. One way that particularly impressed me was the name badges provided (see photo on the right). These are not just little name tags; instead they are well designed, laminated displays complete with a head shot photo and title.

It seems like a simple little detail, but getting this badge made me so excited. It created a feeling within me that went along the lines of “wow, I must be an important part of this event.” As a result, I was quite excited to jump right into judging and was glad to give more time and effort to make the event a success.

The important lesson to learn here is how important the little details can be and how much of a big impression they can make. The CRI team went above and beyond to make the people supporting them feel valued. This attitude should be mirrored in every organization’s culture - it is certainly something that I hold in high importance at the Entrepreneurs Club.

Mobile Managers

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 11:49:00 -0400

Sophomore Program Director Danny Smith has a busy weekend. His own team for the Entrepreneurs Club’s EIP Program is promoting a local start-up at a big event on Saturday and he is also serving as a mentor in the Husky Startup Challenge and a participant in Engineers for the Greater Good, a 72 hour business and engineering competition. Despite this crazy schedule, a weekend like this is typical for Danny. As a senior leader in the Entrepreneurs Club, he makes it a point to not just focus on the program he runs, but instead go out and help with every other director’s program. As a participant, he learns how each program works so he’ll be able to offer tangible suggestions to his manager colleagues. When Danny is an attendee, he doesn’t expect special treatment - he sits with everyone else and goes through the same learning. This attitude is the epitome of what I look for in an excellent leader: willingness to go beyond your own department and care about the success of the team as a whole. Danny’s desire to learn, help and be a part of the community serves as shining example for everyone in the organization.

I recently read a parable about a tribal leader who always stays in his compound at the top of a mountain and rarely comes down to meet with his people and understand their problems. This is of course the opposite of what an effective manager should be doing. Danny’s actions on the other hand represent a much better way to do things: be a mobile manager. These managers:

Talk: go out and speak to the people you manage and their customers. Gain a deeper understanding for their lives and what problems they face.
Learn: take what your people and customers say to heart. Go beyond observing and think about what you can learn from the people you manage.
Participate: be a customer and use the services that your organization provides. You’ll quickly earn a better perspective on what your people need.
Advise: provide tangible action items that the people you manage or other managers can use to exceed their objectives.
Go Beyond: go outside your job description and appropriately provide input and participate in other facets of the organization.

Combined with other important qualities like clarity and respect, having people with a “mobile management” attitude is a great asset for any successful team… I’m glad to have one like Danny on mine.

The Value of Praise

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 10:10:00 -0400

Praise is an amazing thing. It can create powerful feelings and motivate people to perform, and yet it costs nothing and takes minimal effort. Praise is one of the best tools a manager has to keep the team happy and productive. Take the following email example from me to a Director on my team:

Hi Matt

Thanks again for your hard work today on the applications. I know it was a long day but I truly appreciate your input and the apps are going to be that much better because of it. Keep up the great attitude and I’ll see you tomorrow.

Greg

I spent about 45 seconds writing that email, and it made Matt’s day. Whether it is from a manager to a subordinate or the other way around, everyone likes to be reminded when they do a good job. Consider the following guidelines to be a praise-centered team:

1. Praise frequently, but make it count

I might send 2 or 3 emails like the one to Matt each day to different teammates. Anytime someone does a good job, I recognize it. At the same time, you don’t want to over do it. Sometimes a simple “thanks!” will suffice while other times an extra sentence specifically outlining what the team member did is better.

2. Be short and sweet

Praise doesn’t need to be in long essays or paragraphs. It can be a sentence or two that fits on a sticky note or takes 30 seconds to send from your Smartphone. Short sentences that get to the point quickly tend to be more powerful.

3. Balance it with constructive criticism

In order to make your praise count more, you also need to call teammates out when they make a mistake and provide constructive criticism. This isn’t to be hostile; instead it is to help them learn and develop as leaders.

4. Mix up public and private praise

While personal emails are a great way to deliver praise, public announcements to the entire team at a meeting or even a blog post about a teammate’s good work can be even more powerful. Consider having a healthy mix of both.

By leveraging these strategies and letting your teammates know when they excel, they will feel happier and learn more, ultimately leading to a better organization for everyone.

Hire for Passion, not Skills

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 11:19:00 -0400

It is 4pm on a Thursday when Freshmen Rohan Venkatesh walks into the Entrepreneurs Club’s office to meet with Director of Marketing sophomore Matt Bilotti and myself. Matt and I are very excited to be offering Rohan a promotion to Assistant Director of Marketing. We are so impressed with Rohan: his attitude is nothing short of spectacular. He constantly volunteers to help out, like at the sign in table at our Husky Startup Challenge Demo Night. His enthusiasm and passion for the club shines through. Yet at the same time, Rohan is inexperienced: as a freshmen, he has minimal background in leadership or marketing roles. But we have a feeling that he’d be great, so we deliver the news. Rohan’s eyes light up and it looks like he is going to burst with happiness “This is so awesome guys, thank you so much! I can’t wait to get started!” says Rohan, with a grin on his face that seemes like it couldn’t get any wider.

Bringing Rohan in as an Assistant Director ended up being quite a good call. Rohan quickly made up for his lack of experience with his hunger for learning. Rohan constantly asked Matt questions and learned the ins and outs of marketing for the Entrepreneurs Club. When he took on social media marketing in Facebook, our RSVPs went from 45 for an event to 86 the week he started. Rohan continues to volunteer for any task that needs work, whether related to marketing or not. His passion is contagious and at events and executive team meetings he isn’t shy about sharing it. The most impressive thing about Rohan though is how welcoming he is of constructive criticism. Any time someone makes a suggestion to him for something he can improve, he thanks them profusely for caring about his development and quickly implements the suggestion in his work.

If I had two candidates for a role, one with strong established skills for what I need and one with the passion and attitude Rohan has, I’d take Rohan pretty much every time. Someone like Rohan can be trained and he will learn quickly to attain those skills that the organization needs, and when that is combined with his upbeat attitude and thirst for feedback, he is unstoppable.

This post is an excerpt from my upcoming book about how to grow a wildly successful student organization at university. More details coming soon!

The Challenge of Managing Volunteers

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 09:00:05 -0500

Managing a team of people is challenging, fun and rewarding. You need to give them guidance, set goals and deliverables, provide feedback and foster a top notch culture. If someone on the team isn’t living up to the expectations of their role, they risk losing their job and income. Losing the income from a job is key… many people fear it and this sometimes helps motivate them to perform. But what happens when we take money out of the equation… what about managing volunteers?

Volunteers are likely choosing to be a part of the organization, but many times they do not NEED to be there. They have other commitments to balance and sometimes your team doesn’t get first priority. This requires creativity from the manager to motivate their team to be as loyal to the volunteer opportunity as they are to a paid position. Below are some strategies I use at the NU Entrepreneurs Club:

1. Foster the passion

People are motivated to perform when they are passionate about what they are doing. From a management perspective, this means having a deep understanding of the people on your team and finding roles and responsibilities that align with their passions. Asking the computer wiz to volunteer to take on customer service activities might not work too well.

2. Pay in experience

This holds true especially for student volunteers. Students are constantly looking for new experiences to add to their resume and have as success stories to share during interviews. Provide your volunteer teammates with valuable experience and real responsibility so they can learn. Education and training is highly valuable and in the right scenario can be an excellent form of compensation.

3. Rock the culture

People want to be in an organization with a culture that fits their values. At the Entrepreneurs Club, that culture is based around open doors, transparency, dedication and accountability, among others. Each organization will have its own unique culture, but it must be comfortable and supportive for your team if you want them to keep coming back.

4. Make it fun and interesting

Volunteering is on my own time, so I will likely opt to do something that I actually enjoy. Consider how you can blend the lines between work and fun in your organization. At marketing firm Influences@, my friend Spencer Bramson conducts meetings in a McDonald’s style ball pit and has an entire wall of Nerf guns. Needless to say, I enjoyed my meeting in his office. Perhaps for other organizations it is trips or getting to interact with really interesting customers, or free stuff.

5. Enable ownership

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: people care more about their own stuff then they do about yours. When a person owns something, they feel a deeper attachment to it and are more likely to put in the effort necessary to make it great. This translates to having your volunteers take real ownership over projects or facets of the organization.

A Day in the Life of Ryan Durkin

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 10:24:53 -0500

For a recent class assignment, I interviewed Ryan Durkin, the COO of CampusLive, a marketing company that focuses on engaging college students with brands through fun online games and challenges that give the students opportunities to win cool prizes. Ryan is a 2008 graduate of UMass Amherst and also serves as an Administrator for the Massachusetts Soldiers Legacy Fund. At CampusLive, Ryan is responsible for a 25 person team, overseeing spending of over $3.1M in venture capital funding and is passionate about being an operator.

Ryan’s days are busy to say the least. He gets to the office at 9am, fires off some emails and jumps right into finances. He checks in on cash flow, how much cash is in the bank, ensures receivables are paid off to keep CampusLive’s customers and vendors are happy. His focus on financials is not to do book keeping but more to quickly identify problems early as opposed to finding a cash shortage at the end of the month when closing the books. If he does detect something of concern, he can immediately alert the proper stakeholder so they can take action accordingly.

From there, Ryan moves to sending a daily email to the entire team updating them on key performance metrics for their product. It includes growth rates, user engagement and multiple internal stats for the business. Ryan considers that consistent communication and transparency a crucial aspect of his management style. He sees ensuring that KPIs are in check is a primary role for any operator.

Next, Ryan shifts focus to legal, accounting and general administration tasks. This includes creating offer letters for new hires, reviewing stock option grants, etc. While it isn’t the most glamorous of his responsibilities, he is confident that one can learn a ton from dealing with these administrative tasks. Once he finishes those up, Ryan spends the rest of his day in random meetings with his team. He might get pulled in to advise the marketing folks or sit in on usability studies with customers. He also spends time speaking to potential new teammates at networking events in Boston: he is constantly recruiting.

Management Challenges

While Ryan’s job is fun and fulfilling, it isn’t always easy. He faces constant challenges that he must overcome in order to continue to be a successful manager and learn and grow.

1. Getting the product right

In order for CampusLive to sustain its growth and continue to expand its revenue, the product must appeal to each unique consumer group based on their interests (men interested in sports, women interested in music, etc). This provides an exciting challenge to the company’s engineering team that keeps them motivated and passionate about coming to the office everyday – they know they will be faced with challenging problems to solve.

2. Hiring technical talent

As a technology-driven company with a web-based product, Ryan is constantly on the hunt for top-notch developers to join the team. He is tasked with creating a world class company culture that is a prime environment for developers to be happy. He recommends making that environment be focused on problem solving and seeking developers that also have strong business acumen and comfort speaking. Ultimately, Ryan looks for developers that he can sit down and have a conversation with and be comfortable talking to.

3. Finding the right mentors and board of directors

Ryan relies on a network of mentors and advisors to get advice, introductions and assistance from for his business. Finding great mentors, appointing investors to the company’s Board of directors and appropriately engaging with all of them can be challenging but rewarding when done successfully.

4. Figuring out when to communicate with team members

When a company is small, it might be feasible for the COO to sit down with every member of the team once a week and check in, ensure they have everything they need to succeed and that they are happy in their role. As a company gets larger, it becomes much more difficult to do that. Additionally, a management structure and hierarchy starts to form where marketing associates might take detailed questions to the VP of Marketing instead of Ryan as the COO.

Putting faith in VP level management and consulting with them as opposed to everyone in the team directly can be challenging, but a necessity as the venture grows. Being willing to encourage teammates to speak to their managers directly and not handling every detail is a tough call for a manager like Ryan. He consistently delegates responsibilities to his VPs so he can focus on more of the big picture operations responsibilities.

Characteristics of Great Managers from Ryan’s Perspective

Finding success and drive in productivity – passionate about building and executing
Good managers live for other people – they want to see their team succeed
Ability to look at their team’s skills and match them with mentors to build up those skills
Communicating clearly and transparently
Providing feedback in the form of appreciation, praise and suggestions for improvement
Setting specific goals that are measurable and realistic
Introducing teammates to the right people to advance their lives
Keep people happy and reduce turnover… making a new hire can cost $20,000+

Key Abilities to focus on to be a great manager and COO

Ryan recommends that an operator should have a solid understanding of numbers and business models. They need to understand implications of adjustments in the business cycle – if we increase our marketing spend, how does that affect the month’s cash flow?

He also stressed the importance of someone’s likability. One can be good at managing, but if people don’t like them or they are simply an asshole, others will not be interested in being led by that manager. Managers must have their people gravitate towards them and give off a constant vibe that they truly care about their people, following the mantra that “if I can help you, the rest of it will work out.” This means that Ryan meets many candidates that might not be the right fit for CampusLive, he will still introduce them to another start-up.

Finally, Ryan is a big believer in having a deep understanding of each of the people on his team and their needs. Some might need to be checked in with once a month, versus others who need help daily. Understanding the right allocation of time and resources for each of his teammates keeps everyone on the team happy, motivated and working hard to build something great at CampusLive.

CEO is a Lonely Title

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 08:55:00 -0500

Last year, I served as the Director of our largest program at the Entrepreneurs Club, the Husky Startup Challenge, in addition to being the interim Vice President of the organization. I had the honor of working directly under Aaron Gerry, who was President last year and graduated in May 2011. During that year, Aaron served as a mentor and guide for me. I looked up to him and depended on him when I needed help or got stuck with a problem… and he was always there for me.

Having someone there for you is the key here - you get that privilege as a VP, a manager, an assistant or as an employee. You have a boss that you can defer to for big decisions, and who is responsible for you if you make a mistake.

Well fast forward a year and I was promoted to President. I was beside myself with joy and excitement. Finally, I got to set the vision, lead a group of my peers and architect the building of something great at Northeastern. As I settled into the role, I suddenly realized, “Oh wow, Aaron isn’t here anymore.” And it was then that I realized how much I leaned on Aaron the year before. Because if I messed up, it was Aaron’s problem. If I missed a deadline or couldn’t figure something out, it was Aaron who had to pick up the slack. Now, things are very different. If I mess up, it is my problem. And if any single person on my team messes up, it is my problem. If something doesn’t get done, guess who has to do it?

I didn’t understand it at all until this year, and I couldn’t understand it until I had the honor of being in the top role in an organization. As the President or CEO, you have to worry about everything, because you are ultimately responsible for everything. Instead of a budget for one business unit, you might oversee 6 different budgets. You go from managing assistants and team members in your division to managing the managers who manage the assistants and team members. That’s a tongue twister.

So what is the big takeaway?

I have a lot of respect for anyone in the CEO role.

Especially in large organizations, these folks have a tough job. They really are alone in their role. They can (and should) ask their team for plenty of input. But ultimately, they are the ones that have to make the big decisions. And they are the ones that are ultimately responsible for the outcome of those decisions.

Commercial Failure, Experiential Success

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 10:35:00 -0500

I know what you did last summer. Well, ok: that’s not true. But I do know what I did last summer: I tried my hand at a software startup, fell on my face, and learned a ton. Here’s the story:

It is January 2011. I am in Durham, NC, on co-op at Digitalsmiths, pretending to attend Duke University. In the cocktail hour before an entrepreneurial speaker at a campus event, I meet Kirill Klimuk, a freshman computer science major. Standing over a big bowl of chips and guacamole, acting as a scout for .406 Ventures looking for hotshot hackers I ask Kirill what he’s up to. He proceeds to explain what sounds like one of the craziest ideas I have ever heard: concocting some sort of web of information, making it easier for people or organize and share data online, and a whole bunch of other jargon. I have no idea what the heck he’s talking about. However, something tells me he’s special. So after the event I track him down and send an email inviting him to dinner.

We meet at 6pm on a Sunday evening at Panda Express on Duke’s campus. We end up sitting in that restaurant for 6 hours straight.We talk about everything from our childhoods, to our obsession with Legos, and the intricacies of this very clever idea Kirill had. The basic premise of the idea is that there is a lot of information content online (news articles, blog posts, etc) and we’d filter out the uninteresting stuff and only show people the content that they actually care about. At around midnight we leave, shaking hands as business partners in this new venture.

Now, we weren’t signing contracts or NDAs: we were just two students working on a project. So we meet every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night while everyone else was out partying. We would sit in front of whiteboards from 5pm to midnight putting together the components of our product to make it work like a well-oiled machine. Working was glorious intoxication: we loved it and couldn’t get enough of it. We had a mission: to be a destination website where people could go to discover every topic from technology to mountain biking. One night we stayed up until 3am, filling the room with diagrams, outlines and mockups of our baby, which we called Quiree, after inquiry (a search leading to discovery). It couldn’t have been any more fun.

We did this all semester and all through spring break. At the end of the semester Kirill’s classes ended and so did my job, so we decided to walk away from high paying tech internships and work on this crazy idea full time, all summer. We decided we were really serious about the company and incorporated it to protect the IP, working with a great startup lawyer in Chapel Hill, NC. My parents, as crazy as they are, agreed to let us both live in their house in NY. So sure enough, I came back from co-op with a Duke student to live in my parents’ house in mid-May.

We settled in and made a rigorous schedule. We started work around 9:45am and ended work around 11:00pm every day, with a couple of breaks for lunch, dinner and sanity. We did this 7 days a week.It was madness. As the weeks turned it to months, it became more and more challenging to keep up our insane work ethic. No going to the beach, no enjoying summer, or being kids. We were crafting code, graphics, and layouts like gears churning in a engine, without an off switch.

It was finally the beginning of August, and we had finished our website. It was amazing: we built it! Everything functioned just as we had drawn it out on the white boards months ago. It was still a minimum viable product (in our eyes at least), but, man was there a lot to it. Bells, whistles, the works. Features stacked up like a skyscraper and the instruction manual thickened with guidelines of how to use the product. We started sending the link out to our friends and colleagues to try out. They gladly signed up, looked around for about 60 seconds, left and never came back.

“Oh, crap” we said. Realizing that there were a ton of flaws that we could quickly identify and repair, we set out to iterate and create the next version to release again in a week. We cranked it out during the week and sure enough pushed a new version out. It was a big improvement, butusers still did not seem to understand it or want to use it. Maybe it wasn’t social enough? So we added more Facebook and Twitter integration, more opportunities for users to interact and discuss topics they were interested in and comment on news content. But again, people tried it and left, not really giving it a chance or understanding what it could do for them.

At this point it was mid-August. School was going to start soon, and the project looked like it needed to a major pivot that would require massive re-coding. Kirill and I were so tired that we could barely lift a finger. Our spirits were down, our energy depleted, our enthusiasm at an all time low. Suddenly, going to class didn’t seem so bad at all. At that point we made a choice to put our product on the shelf, and so ended the story of Quiree.

What did we learn?

1. Simplicity

Products MUST be simple. The best software product is a button that does one thing the same way every time. Our product had 50 buttons that were color coded and felt like an airplane cockpit command center to most of our users. On top of that, the interface was so busy that users didn’t understand what they were looking at. You need to be able to sum up in one sentence what your product is, and it needs to be in clear, simple language. Ex: “My product is a software program where you can voice and video chat with your friends.” - Skype. Or, “My product is a website that teaches you how to code.” - Codecademy. Simple, simple, simple.

Here’s a guideline to simplify your product. Dream it up, write down all of the features you believe are necessary. Now, ditch half of them. I mean it, ditch them right now. And now, cut the amount of features left in half. There: that is your minimum viable product. Seriously. It needs to be MINIMUM, the absolute bare essentials.

2. The user is LAZY

One of our biggest mistake was overestimating our average user. My partner and I are technical guys. We build software and understand its intricacies. But the average user doesn’t always realize the most basic aspects of navigation on the web, like the issues of using the browser’s back button from within a web application. Your product must be so EASY to use and so OBVIOUS that the user does not have to exert energy trying to figure it out, because I assure you that they will not. Instead, they will simply walk away from the product.

3. Design and User Experience (UX) are key

Neither my partner nor I were great designers. It showed: our product was ugly. There are some really beautiful products out there that place a great emphasis on design, like Zaarly. Do yourself a favor: have a design co-founder on your team or hire a top notch firm like Bionic Hippo to consult on UI/UX. If your product is not appealing to the eye and warming to the soul, people won’t want it.

4. Pivot quickly

If a software product takes 4 months to code, you are probably doing something wrong. Get something out quickly (i.e. in weeks), get user feedback, and test again. We spent way too much time on our first iteration. Adapt to what your customers want and be willing to completely change your product or business model to suit the needs of your customers. There is zero room for stubbornness in web software startups, especially targeting mass consumer markets.

5. Partners will fight

You start out your business loving your partner. You are best friends; all is sweet in the world, etc. I promise that at some point in your career, you will fantasize about smashing your partner’s head into a telephone pole. It is ok; it is normal. Remember, you are all people. You have your own opinions, desires, and agendas. You need to learn when to give each other space, when to compromise, when to take a stand, and when to back down. Most importantly, you need to act like a decent human being, otherwise nobody will care how smart or skilled you are, and they won’t work with you.

6. Cost control is good

My partner and I lived for free in my parent’s house (and ate their food). Luckily we were young enough to be able to play that card. At the end of this adventure, we lost very little money. We spent a lot of time, but we also learned a lot. Our costs were incredibly low. Position yourself the same way.

7. Code, code, code

We learned a ton about coding through this experience, and anyone who tries to attack a similar venture will too. I became comfortable with JavaScript and my partner had PHP shooting out of his fingers.

8. Product management

It is really easy to get picky on details of the product. Don’t do that - it is not important in the beginning. Whether the icon is blue or orange doesn’t freakin’ matter. What is important:do people understand your product? Is it easy to use? Does the basic functionality work properly? Can you easily scale it when the time comes?

So, that is the story. It was a magnificent summer and I learned a huge amount. I’m very glad I took the plunge to make our crazy idea a reality and despite it being a commercial failure, it was certainly an experiential success.

Thanks to Kirill Klimuk for his input on this post.

Managing Event Mishaps

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 08:20:43 -0500

This past fall, my team put on a kick ass event coined the Zaarly Survival Challenge. The event came out of our organization’s Entrepreneurship Immersion Program, headed up by sophomore Danny Smith. The program is a semester long consulting project where a team of Northeastern students partner with a startup to help build the business through marketing and operations projects.

For the fall semester, we teamed up with Zaarly, a web startup that enables people to ask for anything from other people nearby. Imagine it as modern version of Craigslist, except buyers can post what they want and sellers respond… very cool app. To bring the Zaarly brand to NU, our team created the Zaarly Survival Challenge, where we locked campus celebrity Drew D’Agostino in a homemade glass box in the middle of the quad for 24 hours straight. Drew had to use Zaarly to post what he needed to survive. It was a fantastic event and everyone involved had a blast.

This was a complicated event. We had to deal with:

a ton of materials… we built a freakin’ glass box
outdoor electricity and internet
loads of cash transactions
hundreds of attendees
a team of 20 students working on the event in different shifts
complying with safety codes to be outside at night at school

A particularly stressful challenge my team dealt with was when we found out 3 hours before the event was starting that the quad we were working in hadn’t been properly reserved with NU facilities. Which technically meant, we weren’t allowed to be there. Panic time? Maybe. Here’s what happened:

I walked right into the Student Activities office, asked to speak to the Asst. Director, sat down with her and explained everything, talked it out, and 10 minutes later I walked out of the room with the proper reservation I needed, despite their policy that reservations must be made in advance. This worked because I handling things personally. Not via email, not on the phone, but in person. This is by far the most effective way to really get stuff done.

So, the big lesson here is that if there are last minute event mishaps (and probability says that there will be), stay calm, handle things personally and be ready to get creative if you run into road blocks.

The Art of Complaining

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:09:46 -0500

If we called my mom right now, she’d probably say that growing up, I was a complainer. If I didn’t like where we were going, what we were doing or what we were eating, everyone was going to hear about it. Now granted this was one I was 10 (ok, when I was 15).

Why do people complain? Well for one thing, complaining makes you feel better. It allows you to vent and blow off steam. It gives you a feeling that you have control and impact on the situation. Thing thing is though, you don’t always have control. That is where we need to explore the differences between the types of complaining. In one type, complaining can be good. In the other, it’s worthless.

There are two different types of complaining:

1. Complaining about stuff you CAN control

2. Complaining about stuff you CANNOT control

Let’s break them down:

Complaining about stuff you CAN control

This can actually be a good thing. If you think there are problems or things that can be done better, speak up! Share your ideas and express your opinion. No organization can be succesful with just “yes-men”… great leaders want to be surrounded by people that will challenge them to be better and complain when things aren’t the best that they can be.

In this scenario, we want to make sure complaining translates into creative problem solving. Identifying a problem is step 1, but you need tangible action items if you want to actually resolve that problem.

Complaining about stuff you CANNOT control

This is what I was notorious for growing up. A good example was when my dad was picking me up from school, he forgot the car rack needed to bring my bike home. As a result, I had to leave my bike at school. I was ruthless, I wouldn’t let him hear the end of it. The problem with that is that as much as I complained and made sure my dad felt stupid for what he did, I did nothing to change the situation. Complaining in that situation did nothing to remedy it… it was worthless and made me look like a jerk.

Sometimes you are going to be in situations that suck. But complaining highlights your weakness. It shows that you are difficult and inflexible. So, even when you think it will make you feel better to start complaining about a sucky situation, consider which category it falls into. If it is something you cannot control, keep the complaints internal, and save your energy for taking action on the items that you have control over.

How I Recruit Young Talent

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:03:00 -0500

Any good operator spends a significant portion of their time on recruiting. Having fresh talent ready to join the team, getting university students excited about the organization and courting top notch engineers and sales people is key.

I am constantly recruiting for the NU Entrepreneurs Club, especially because at a university there is always a ton of turnover with people graduating, studying abroad, etc. Here are my best practices:

1. Everything is a recruiting exercise

That’s right, every program, speaking opportunity and question asked should be seen as a recruiting exercise. I am constantly judging and making mental notes, considering how someone I am interacting with might fit into a certain role.

At the Entrepreneurs Club, I created a program called the Marketing Marines, which is a team of freshmen and sophomores who want to get more involved in running the club, so they propose and execute on projects that they design. They team up, act as project managers, assist with marketing initiatives, and ultimately add additional value to our organization. Rohan Venkatesh and Dean Brodeur joined the program as freshmen, and just one semester later they have already been promoted to Assistant Director roles.

2. Start early

I start recruiting for leadership roles at freshmen orientation. They haven’t matriculated yet but that doesn’t mean they don’t have potential to be the next President.

3. Take people to lunch, and pay for it

If you think someone has potential to join your team, take them out to lunch. Have a casual conversation with them, you don’t even have to talk about work. The goal is to get a feel for them as a person. What makes them tick? What’s the probability that they are actually a serial killer? You want solid answers to all of these. At the end of lunch, don’t forget to pick up the tab. You want them to walk away feeling happy about you and your organization.

4. Sell yourself

Remember, you are pitching your organization and opportunities to new recruits just as much as they are pitching themselves as a candidate. You need to convince them that your organization will be the absolute BEST choice for them to go with for their next opportunity. Practice your pitch and have it flawless when you are out recruiting.

5. Hire interns

Interns are great because you both get to “try before you buy.” You get to see how the person interacts on your team without giving them tons of responsibility for key projects. They get to try out your organization with no commitment, knowing that they can walk away at the end of the internship. So, hire interns that you think would make great full time employees and use the internship to validate your hypothesis. If it proves true, make them an offer at the end for full time.

6. Promote from within

Some of your best talent might be already inside of the organization. Promoting from within is great, cost effective, increases team morale and is overall a good thing, provided that the talent is indeed there.

Event Planning 101

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:27:45 -0500

One of the biggest parts of my job at the Entrepreneurs Club is overseeing event management. At the core of our club is the Get Togethers, which attract 100+ students every week and involve a C-level executive speaking, a hands on skill building activity, networking and feeding everyone in the room a free dinner. If we measured my stress levels there would definitely be a spike on Tuesdays at 6pm.

Event planning and execution is incredibly important, and most organizations need to be good at it in order to engage effectively with their customers. Here is my short list of the keys to putting on great events:

1. You need a hook

Maybe it is a high profile speaker, a fancy free dinner or a sexy venue. Either way, there needs to be something attached to the name or description of the event that immediately entices people to come. The events that my team put on focus on the speaker as the hook. My rule of the thumb is that for every event, I need to hit all 3 of the following requirements:

A big name speaker or company
An impressive number to attach to that speaker
A speaker that is high energy and knows how to give great talks

For example, “Featuring the CEO of Au Bon Pain, a $250M casual cafe chain that was named one of the healthiest restaurants in America.”

2. Logistics need to be smooth

One of the biggest mistakes folks make is underestimating the amount of little details that go into the logistics of putting on a great event. What time will the speaker arrive? Will they know how to get from the parking garage to the room? How are the chairs being set up? All of these details must be taken into account. Ideally, there should be someone on your team with a “Director of Operations” title who takes on full responsibility (with an assistant) for all of these items.

3. Timing is everything

I break events down to the minute. That means I know what is happening at 6:05 and 6:07. You need to take into account delays like people coming in late, standing up to get food, etc. Don’t underestimate these because they can add up. Before each event, I create what I call a “Logistics Schedule” that breaks down minute by minute what is happening, who is responsible for it, etc and I share it with my team. For example:

6:00 - 6:05 - Greet members - Entire team

6:05 - 6:07 - Member of the week announcement - Matt

And so on. This way, there is never any confusion for where we are in the progress of the event or where we need to be going at any given period of time during the event.

4. You can’t do it alone

Event planning is not a one person job. If you want to do it well, it needs to be team based. That means one person is responsible for the technology/media in the room, another person gets the food, and another escorts the speaker. Make sure that everyone on the team understands exactly what their roles are and what the action items / deliverables are for them during the event.

5. A boring speaker means that YOU are boring

If your organization is putting on an event, then you and you alone are responsible for every detail, both the good and the bad, that happens at the event. If you bring in a speaker and they speak in a monotone voice, droning on about random nonsense that has nothing to do with your event, here’s what’s going to happen: the people in the audience will think to themselves, “wow, (your organization) sucks!” That’s right, they won’t say “wow, this speaker sucks!” You get blamed. This means that you need to be on top of everything that happens and exert tight control over who gets to speak to the people at your event.

6. Food is a necessity

Every good event has food, and it must be free for attendees (or at no additional cost if they paid a fee to attend the event). Few things warm the human soul more than free food. I’m not saying you need lobster… keep it simple. But feed your attendees and they will be shockingly happier.

7. There has to be engagement

People’s attention spans are surprisingly short. Esspecially if you are targeting a younger demographic (ie people in their 20s), guess again if you think they’ll enjoy sitting through a 60 minute speaker. No way. Every good event has to be broken up into different chunks of activities.

When I plan events, I use the rule that attendees are never doing the same thing for much longer than 20 minutes. We keep it exciting and shift focus. All of our Entrepreneurs Club activities start with food and networking, then go to a hands on skill building activity, then to a speaker, then to Q&A and finally back to networking. It’s a solid framework and it works.

8. Leverage the F**k Factor

Particularly for younger audiences, people start paying a lot more attention when whoever is speaking does something that they seemingly shouldn’t. This especially holds true with dropping an occasional F-bomb to the crowd. It generally goes hand in hand with ensuring that whoever is speaking, making announcements, etc is doing it with a ton of energy and enthusiasm.

9. I’d rather “do” than just “listen”

The best events are interactive. That means the attendees aren’t just sitting in chairs the entire time, but instead they become part of the event. Maybe they are creating some plan and pitching it to the group. Perhaps there is a competition involved where attendees break up into teams. Or maybe they just have to answer a question. Either way, people want to be involved, and it will keep their attention. Ultimately, this makes an event more fun.

10. Follow up

Think carefully about the objective of your event. Was it to sell something? Or perhaps you were driving deeper engagement with your customers? Either way, there needs to be a follow up or call to action for attendees. Maybe it is an email sent out after the event with something to check out. Either way, make sure you circle back with your attendees and get their opinions on the event. Ask them what you could have done better and thank them profusely for their feedback.

Managing Managers

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:17:54 -0500

As my organization has grown over the past couple of quarters, I started implementing something I had never touched much before… a reporting structure. We have Directors, who have assistants, and managers who work on the Director’s teams. PR and Social Media report up to Marketing. Video production is a part of Media, while Accounting comes under Operations. As an organization grows, having a structure like this becomes important, otherwise you’ll start to see a lot chaos, really fast.

I was first exposed to a real reporting structure during my co-op at Digitalsmiths as a Project Manager. There, I reported to the VP of Client Services who handled Project Management. However, sometimes I’d interface with the COO, but it was usually going through the VP of Client Services. Why couldn’t I work directly with the COO when it seemed convenient? Well it turns out that policy actually makes a whole lot of sense, because the COO is responsible for managing the VP of Client Services, not me. If he had to manage both of us, he’d go nuts.

Now that I am in a managerial role, I understand why I can’t answer every question for our Assistant Directors. I’d go nuts. Instead, they work with the Directors of each division of our organization, and I step in when necessary. In short, I am responsible for directly managing the managers (and responsibly for indirectly managing everyone).

So how do you do this well?

1. Give managers the tools they need to succeed

I constantly check in with all of my Directors to ensure that things are running smoothly in their division. Whether it is a budget issue, people problem, etc, you should get there before they even have to ask for help.

2. Don’t be a stranger to anyone in the company

Having a reporting structure doesn’t mean I don’t talk to Assistant Directors. On the contrary, I talk to everyone, a lot. I value everyone’s ideas and input, regardless of role, and I ask for them constantly. I gladly step in and work with anyone on my team. But at the same time, I try to defer the details in each division to the Director leading it. Part of my job is to make everyone better and more effective at doing their own jobs, so my Directors need opportunities to figure things out on their own, make mistakes and learn. As a leader, you are there to guide them along the way.

3. Respect managers authority

Don’t hesitate to override one of your managers if you feel that are making a bad call. BUT, do so with courtesy in a one-on-one environment. Calling out a manager in front of their team is never acceptable and can create way bigger problems in your organization.

4. Be a mentor to the team

As a manager of managers, your team is going to be learning a lot of management techniques from you. That means you need to lead by example, give lots of feedback, support and ultimately act as a mentor for everyone on your team.

5. As people learn, give them more responsibility

I give younger members of my team leadership opportunities as soon as they prove themselves capable of doing quality work and collaborating effectively in a team environment. The more opportunities that you give your team to manage, the better managers that you will have to work with.