Startupcoaching

KFC doesn’t mean Kentucky fried Chicken but can be a nice little formula to get things going in the right dierction

The issue raised here is very important. I totally agree.
But the case study is way off line.

After reading the article, I had to react.

I knew Renée personally, as I do Martin. We are part of the same business bloggers network in Montreal. There is no hint in Martin’s article about what they are talking about. Maybe something got added in the translation….

Renée was very active on social media but probably even more in real life. Living alone at 60, in a foreign country, doing lots of volunteering on the Island, specially at a Veterinarian clinic for stray cats. Besides that she was talking daily very long walks along the beach.

She was a foreign old lady, seen as “rich” by the Islander’s standards (remember she had been travelling back and forth between Isla Mujeres and Montreal for many years) and therefore easily “spotable” for a local looking for quick cash. No need of any social media presence for that.

She was a “people person” in real life just as she was on Social media. She had the knack of starting a conversation with anyone. Well educated and world traveller, she was never short of topics to talk about. Being friendly with people has it’s downside, but by bringing in this debate a “culture of fear” prevalent in the US, they make an exceptional situation sound like a rule.

With such a strong presence online, in social medias, numerous blogs and sites, Renée’s case should inspire SocialMediaToday to focus on the issue of “Digital Legacy” It would be a right way to pay respect to the pioneer of “Digital Nomadism” that she was!

So you are the shy type. You have problems in crowded events. Well, social media to the rescue. Have a simple socialmedia strategy and look at people coming towards you. Much easier , don’t you think ? Besides, being active online greatly maximizes the time you spend networking offline anyway.

It’s the time for Tweetups, Podcamps, Yulbiz, Webcom and all kinds of event when you finally get to meet those people you keep chatting with over Facebook, Twitter, your blog and in some cases LinkedIn. Let”s put this to good use shall we ?

Picture: Besides the fact that it adds to your credibility, one good reason to have a real photo as your avatar is that it makes you easily recognizable.  It happens often in these meetings that someone will look at me kind of funny saying; “You’re Startupcoach aren’t you ? It’s much easier to approach someone when you “know” who he or she is. Use the same avatar everywhere, and use a recent one, just to make sure. Make it easy for people to come up to you.

Participating: “Be” in the conversations. A certain amount of “human-ess” is required online if you want to come out as ‘fun o be with”. I’m always amazed at how quick the conversations pick up when people you meet offline are the ones you’ve been “chatting” with online. The topics are right at hand, some blog post can come to mind, or news about common online friends.  Furthermore, usually people will offer to introduce you to other people in your line of thought, your line of work or your expertise. You network will expand accordingly.

Polarize: As in ‘take a stand”!  Even if some lengthy conversations can take place over the net, some topics can only be discussed in real life. If you take a stand on a particular issue, people will seek you at those events. Can be seen as a double edged sword but at the same time you can’t stand out of the pack by being average. If you don’t like the “talking about the weather ” stuff, that the way to go.

Come on get out there, reach out and…shake someone’s hand

Photo: Eric Baillargeon

Following a good Vlog post by Mark at CoachCommons, I scrambled into my coaching notes to run down a list of the top 10 situations where people experience cognitive dissonance.

Saved that from a book from Dr. David Burns

1. All or nothing: For you, there are good guys and bad guys…
2. Generalizing:You turn that grain of sand into  a great big mountain !
3. Mental filter:You see everything through dark glasses.
4. Shrugging positives: You do great things BUT it’s not worth mentioning, it’s only you…
5. Jumping to conclusion: No fact? Who cares YOU’RE RIGHT! You assume…everything/self fulfilling prophecy
6. Dramatize and minimize: You downplay the great stuff until they look small
7. Emotional reasoning:  HOW you feel is WHAT you are…. You can’t be that bad.you wouldn’t be reading this blog
8. The “should”: Everybody SHOULD do this, do that. No one should “should over themselves” like that!
9. Negative branding: For you or others. One mistake and BANG …HOT-IRON BRANDING
10. Blaming: Here again, it’s you or someone. You always have someone to blame

Do you recognize yourself in one of these situations ?

Remember Toughts lead to Feelings that lead to the Actions that bring Results

If you don’t like the Results you have change the Actions you take!

And if you can’t help but act the way you do, look at the feelings behind the actions…and the thoughts behind the feelings.

Use that list to identify what cognitive dissonance you’ll start correcting RIGHT NOW!

Change some thoughts

You’ll FEEL GOOD about it.

You’ll act accordingly

Ans new results will follow.

As for myself, these days,  I’m guilty of number 4. Now I’ve got to work on those 2 Online programs….

More thoughts about rituals

2 articles on how entrepreneurs take decisions made me re-visit how to deal with perceived risk.  The first one “The innovative brain” from the november 2008  issue of Nature and the second one, “into the unkown: How do we get there from here” based on “Marketing under uncertainty: The logic of an effectual approach” in the May 2009 issue of AMA’s Marketing news

In the Innovative Brain, we learn that entrepreneurs, it seems, have a highly adaptive risk-taking behaviour. When there is no emotions involved in the decision, the ability to take high-quality decisions is the same for managers and entrepreneurs alike. But when emotion is involved, when there is a perceived risk for the outcome,  research has found some interesting things.

Entrepreneurs have shown superior cognitive-flexibility performance. The ability to put the decision in different contexts. When combined with some functional impulsiveness, this generates the ability to seize the opportunity so typical of entrepreneurs.

This would explains why sometimes entrepreneurs are “tough acts to follow”…

Now the AMA articles raises a question that I love. “What happens if there is no past to consult ?” which is often the case for a start-up, specially an innovative one.

In the decision process, here again, managers and entrepreneurs differ.

The entrepreneur showed the following tendencies:

• They started taking action based on what and who they know and the resources they had available
• They evaluated opportunities based on whether the downside risk was acceptable rather than on the attractiveness of the predicted upside
• They sought partnerships
• They embraced surprises and leverage flexibility
• They focused on activities where they had some means of controlling the outcome

The key for me in all of this is their evaluation based on the downside risk.It comes back to “what are you willing to lose ?” The focus on what they can control makes them move forward faster. The functional impulsiveness mixed with their capacity to leverage flexibility makes for that Ready-Fire-Aim approach, which put them in a quite different time-frame than partners and investors.

I think I would even go further, considering all of this, in the entrepreneur’s mind once the downside is accepted, the risk isn’t worth wasting energy on, it almost vanishes!

Coaches, consultants, bankers, angels and VCs, keep that in mind when you think the individual in front of you acts like a bronco.