http://artpetty.com Leadership, Management and Professional Development Tue, 22 May 2012 11:58:03 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 copyright by Art Petty, 2011 art.petty@artpetty.com (Art Petty) art.petty@artpetty.com (Art Petty) 1440 http://artpetty.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Lcpodcast144x144.png http://artpetty.com 144 144 http://artpetty.com/feed/podcast Leadership Caffeine Podcast Host Art Petty interviews leaders, leadership authors, management thinkers and other professionals about creating high performance teams and organizations and developing effective leaders at all levels, during this weekly program. The goal is to share practical, powerful ideas to help listeners improve their performance and the performance of their teams and organizations. Caffene, Ldrshp, Profesional, Dev, Ledership, Ldrshp, Caffeine, Proff'l, Dev Art Petty Art Petty art.petty@artpetty.com no no http://artpetty.com/2011/08/24/next-call-for-interviews-product-project-managers-organizational-integrators/ http://artpetty.com/2011/08/24/next-call-for-interviews-product-project-managers-organizational-integrators/#comments Wed, 24 Aug 2011 13:39:42 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=6371 When chatting with leadership author and expert, John Baldoni, on the Leadership Caffeine Podcast (published on itunes last week), I asked him which of his books was his favorite. I loved his response…"The one I’m working on now.” I’m just a few weeks away from the publication of book #2 for me, a collection of essays organized into helpful…self-help sections for professionals striving to survive and succeed (Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development), and try as I might to resist the urge to do this again (right away), I have to have a book in process in my life. Next! Bring on the Organizational Integrators and Informal Leaders!

]]> http://artpetty.com/2011/08/24/next-call-for-interviews-product-project-managers-organizational-integrators/feed/ 0 http://artpetty.com/2011/03/28/leadership-caffeine-supporting-the-rise-of-the-informal-leader/ http://artpetty.com/2011/03/28/leadership-caffeine-supporting-the-rise-of-the-informal-leader/#comments Mon, 28 Mar 2011 14:36:29 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=5609 Want to know where to find your best and brightest emerging leaders? Here’s a hint, you’ll have to use your peripheral vision to see them, because they are moving sideways at a high rate of speed. Here are 7 ideas for cultivating Informal Leaders in your organization.

]]> http://artpetty.com/2011/03/28/leadership-caffeine-supporting-the-rise-of-the-informal-leader/feed/ 14 http://artpetty.com/2010/10/26/marketers-4-ideas-to-avoid-falling-victim-to-the-felt-need/ http://artpetty.com/2010/10/26/marketers-4-ideas-to-avoid-falling-victim-to-the-felt-need/#comments Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:04:16 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=4450 The article, “The Felt Need” by Dan and Chip Heath in the November, 2010 issue of Fast Company is worth the price of the annual subscription for it’s reminder value alone. The Heaths tackle a topic that just about all of us involved in selling, marketing or strategy have succumbed to at some point in our careers: the felt need versus the burning need. Here are four ideas to avoid being victimized by "The Felt Need."

]]> http://artpetty.com/2010/10/26/marketers-4-ideas-to-avoid-falling-victim-to-the-felt-need/feed/ 2 http://artpetty.com/2010/10/20/in-pursuit-of-management-innovation-in-marketing/ http://artpetty.com/2010/10/20/in-pursuit-of-management-innovation-in-marketing/#comments Wed, 20 Oct 2010 13:57:32 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=4429 The practice of management has evolved at a snail’s pace over the past 50 years, and one of the core tools of management and a key issue for any organization, marketing, has lagged just slightly behind.

]]> http://artpetty.com/2010/10/20/in-pursuit-of-management-innovation-in-marketing/feed/ 3 http://artpetty.com/2010/08/30/leadership-caffeine-the-noble-pursuit-of-power-and-influence/ http://artpetty.com/2010/08/30/leadership-caffeine-the-noble-pursuit-of-power-and-influence/#comments Mon, 30 Aug 2010 12:47:54 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=4242 Power and influence are not dirty words. Both are components of every organization’s environment and both must be carefully cultivated to succeed as a formal or informal leader. Power and influence provide the motive power behind organizations and initiatives and the lubrication that keeps the parts and people from binding and grinding and self-destructing. Here are 6 key reasons why cultivating power and influence is good for your career.

]]> http://artpetty.com/2010/08/30/leadership-caffeine-the-noble-pursuit-of-power-and-influence/feed/ 22 http://artpetty.com/2010/08/04/the-career-enhancing-benefits-of-message-mapping/ http://artpetty.com/2010/08/04/the-career-enhancing-benefits-of-message-mapping/#comments Wed, 04 Aug 2010 14:06:38 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=4086 Critical communication situations demand crystal clarity. With apologies for my abusive but personally amusing alliteration above, I’m banging the drum again on the need for all of us to carefully form and frame our messages before we open our mouths and trip on our tongues.

]]> http://artpetty.com/2010/08/04/the-career-enhancing-benefits-of-message-mapping/feed/ 4 http://artpetty.com/2010/04/12/leadership-caffeine-learning-to-adjust-your-altitude/ http://artpetty.com/2010/04/12/leadership-caffeine-learning-to-adjust-your-altitude/#comments Mon, 12 Apr 2010 12:50:07 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=3588 While the phrase is most commonly referenced as attitude adjustment, I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that one of the abilities that leaders must develop to be effective is the ability to adjust their altitudes. Good leaders learn to scale institutional and intellectual heights with ease and comfort, quickly adapting to the audience and situation.

]]> http://artpetty.com/2010/04/12/leadership-caffeine-learning-to-adjust-your-altitude/feed/ 14 http://artpetty.com/2010/03/14/leadership-caffeine-teach-your-team-to-make-better-decisions/ http://artpetty.com/2010/03/14/leadership-caffeine-teach-your-team-to-make-better-decisions/#comments Sun, 14 Mar 2010 21:06:04 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=3490 If you were to embark upon a rugged and lonely journey to the top of the mountain to ask for enlightenment from the Oracle of Management, I suspect that you would be left with the words “decision-making” to ponder on your long walk back to civilization. And in spite of the lack of a concrete answer from this journey, I’ll throw in my two-cents worth that decision-making is in fact the essence of management. It’s also darned hard to do, difficult to teach and challenging to get right more often than not.

]]> http://artpetty.com/2010/03/14/leadership-caffeine-teach-your-team-to-make-better-decisions/feed/ 1 http://artpetty.com/2010/01/15/leading-the-driven-individual/ http://artpetty.com/2010/01/15/leading-the-driven-individual/#comments Fri, 15 Jan 2010 14:21:14 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=3198 A great deal of popular leadership writing (mine included) focuses on the common issues and challenges with “typical employees.” Now before you grab a pitchfork and light the torches and start marching on this blog for my use of the term “typical,” don’t misconstrue my meaning. Yes, I know that no one is “typical” and that we all have strengths and weaknesses and that it is grossly unfair to provide such a crass label to the masses of good quality employees laboring away and earning “strongly exceeds” on our grade-inflated performance evaluations. (I can hear the pitchforks clanking again on that last shot!) Nonetheless, it was the best label I could come up with on short notice and only a few sips into my first cup of coffee, to differentiate from the subject of today’s post: The Driven Individual (DI).

]]> http://artpetty.com/2010/01/15/leading-the-driven-individual/feed/ 10 http://artpetty.com/2009/11/03/leading-in-the-trenches-recovering-from-trickle-down-project-management-chaos/ http://artpetty.com/2009/11/03/leading-in-the-trenches-recovering-from-trickle-down-project-management-chaos/#comments Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:53:23 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=2834 Project inflation…the spread of too many projects and the heaping of them upon the tormented and torn few is a formula for disaster. Unfortunately, work force reductions and pressures to reduce costs, improve processes and to innovate all fuel project inflation. Consider adopting a rigorous approach to project selection by asking and answering these following questions:

]]> http://artpetty.com/2009/11/03/leading-in-the-trenches-recovering-from-trickle-down-project-management-chaos/feed/ 3 http://artpetty.com/2009/09/30/leading-in-the-trenches-how-well-do-you-know-your-customers/ http://artpetty.com/2009/09/30/leading-in-the-trenches-how-well-do-you-know-your-customers/#comments Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:00:27 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=2560 If you don’t know your customers at a sufficient level of detail, including their hopes, dreams and emotions, everything you are doing includes a high degree of guesswork and randomness. Your messaging likely includes a great deal of blah blah about your firm. Promotional activities are fired from a shotgun, and while they occasionally hit something, there is no viable, sustainable marketing system in place.

]]> http://artpetty.com/2009/09/30/leading-in-the-trenches-how-well-do-you-know-your-customers/feed/ 9 http://artpetty.com/2009/08/26/management-excellence-audio-interview-the-ceo-perspective-on-product-management/ http://artpetty.com/2009/08/26/management-excellence-audio-interview-the-ceo-perspective-on-product-management/#comments Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:51:27 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=2388 Notes from Art: I recently mentioned that I would be kicking off the Management Excellence Audio Interview Series, and I’m thrilled to be doing it today with Mike Mulcahy, a technology industry executive that has served as a CEO, a Founder of his own start-up and a Business Unit Leader inside one of the world’s [...]

]]> http://artpetty.com/2009/08/26/management-excellence-audio-interview-the-ceo-perspective-on-product-management/feed/ 1 0:17:18 Notes from Art: I recently mentioned that I would be kicking off the Management Excellence Audio Interview Series, and I’m thrilled to be doing it today with Mike Mulcahy, a technology industry executive that has served as a CEO, a Founder of his o[...] Notes from Art: I recently mentioned that I would be kicking off the Management Excellence Audio Interview Series, and I’m thrilled to be doing it today with Mike Mulcahy, a technology industry executive that has served as a CEO, a Founder of his own start-up and a Business Unit Leader inside one of the world’s largest organizations.  Oh, and Mike just happens to be one of the best sales professionals that I’ve had the privilege of knowing. Mike is also one of those all-too-rare top executives that consistently champions the cause of product management inside his organizations. I know this first-hand, because it was Mike that provided me with an early opportunity to build a product management organization from the ground up. We recently reconnected and Mike highlighted his on-going challenges in supporting the development of great product management and great product managers on his teams. I invited him to share his thoughts and perspectives with the community in this inaugural interview program, and he graciously agreed. A few last comments and then on to the interview. The audio recording tools that I used are new to me and there are some sound quality issues. Bear with me as I improve those in future interviews.  Fortunately, the issues in this one are that Mike is very audible, and I’m a bit quieter.  At least we got that part right! I took the opportunity to poll the very active pm community out on twitter (#prodmgmt) and asked what they wanted to hear from the CEO. I received some phenomenal questions and based on the volume was only able to tackle a few here during the interview. I’ve included the full listing of the questions below…and encourage all interested parties to share their thoughts on these important issues. They are great content for future posts and interviews as well. Last and not least, Mike has graciously volunteered to field specific questions about the audio interview here on the blog via the comments. Ask away. With no further adieu, here’s Mike Mulcahy for 17 minutes offering his very experienced perspectives on product management. – Summary List of Questions from Product Managers for “the CEO” Via Twitter (#prodmgmt) Note: some great content for comments, questions and follow-on posts.  Thanks! What is the most compelling problem the CEO faces that he believe a pm can help solve? How does the ceo believe he best connects with the pm team? Does the CEO see prod mgmt becoming commoditized? What metrics does he use to determine if PM is performing well? Does he trust PM to stop development on a dead product? His view on relationships between pm and company/depts. What are the driving metrics he seeks from product mgmt? How does he encourage continuous learning from product management? What is product management’ss role w. development if the company is using agile? Do you view product management as product focused or more product marketing? Is product management really the Voice of the Customer? Does product management have a seat at the leadership table? I am interested to know how he feels about compensation based on product revenue. What innovation initiatives/practices do they have in place?  What is the role of PM in them? How important is domain vs functional pm expertise? How has he positioned the PM function in his org?  i.e. VP level, stand-alone or within marketing or development? Does PM own the product /line of business at a P& L level? Career, Leadership Art Petty no no http://artpetty.com/2009/08/21/management-excellence-news-updates-coming-attractions/ http://artpetty.com/2009/08/21/management-excellence-news-updates-coming-attractions/#comments Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:02:43 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=2357 Note from Art: While I’m remarkably sensitive to not creating an infomercial out of my blog, I am involved in a number of exciting activities that I’ve shared with some of you personally. Here’s a bit broader update and a call for speakers and interview subjects.

]]> http://artpetty.com/2009/08/21/management-excellence-news-updates-coming-attractions/feed/ 0 http://artpetty.com/2009/07/17/jump-start-strategy-by-jumping-straight-to-the-middle-of-the-process/ http://artpetty.com/2009/07/17/jump-start-strategy-by-jumping-straight-to-the-middle-of-the-process/#comments Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:27:01 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=2172 Get your team talking about the right topics and get them focused on assessing and comparing based on the criteria that are the most important to your success. Skip the summer strategy offsite and start the dialogue on determining what’s truly important, and you’ll find yourself and your organization moving and working the right things faster than you might imagine.

]]> http://artpetty.com/2009/07/17/jump-start-strategy-by-jumping-straight-to-the-middle-of-the-process/feed/ 0 http://artpetty.com/2009/06/11/a-fresh-voice-and-leadership-and-the-art-of-apology/ http://artpetty.com/2009/06/11/a-fresh-voice-and-leadership-and-the-art-of-apology/#comments Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:25:20 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=1944 There’s an excellent post entitled, “Sorry is not the final word, just the beginning,” by guest author and Product/Project Management Consultant, Lisa Winter at one of my favorite blogs: The Art of Project Management. hosted by the UCSC-Extension in Silicon Valley. Ms. Winter describes a situation where she inadvertently upset a valuable but delicate team member on a conference call, and then went to significant lengths to apologize and regain his support. In addition to the happy ending, this fine post prompted some thoughts on a topic that I confess I’ve not spent a lot of time thinking about: the role of the apology as a leadership tool. I can’t help but feel a little guilty that I’ve not raised this topic in the past, and for that, I apologize...(OK, I had to work it in somewhere!).

]]> http://artpetty.com/2009/06/11/a-fresh-voice-and-leadership-and-the-art-of-apology/feed/ 6 http://artpetty.com/2009/04/30/what-are-you-doing-to-reinvent-your-professional-self/ http://artpetty.com/2009/04/30/what-are-you-doing-to-reinvent-your-professional-self/#comments Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:56:58 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=1581 A fact of life in our world is that you will inevitably face the prospect of having to reinvent your professional self. For many this is a daunting task that gets put off along with getting in shape, painting the house and writing a book. The dream is nice, but the lack of action keeps it firmly out there somewhere in a hoped-for future.

]]> http://artpetty.com/2009/04/30/what-are-you-doing-to-reinvent-your-professional-self/feed/ 12 http://artpetty.com/2009/04/24/nine-power-techniques-for-building-your-leadership-credibility/ http://artpetty.com/2009/04/24/nine-power-techniques-for-building-your-leadership-credibility/#comments Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:51:30 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=1553 Whether you are a first-time leader, an experienced manager taking over a new team or an informal leader such as a project or product manager, you will be as successful as you are credible. Your credibility is your professional bedrock. Build on it carefully and constantly.

]]> http://artpetty.com/2009/04/24/nine-power-techniques-for-building-your-leadership-credibility/feed/ 5 http://artpetty.com/2009/04/23/the-potentially-profound-implications-of-kindle/ http://artpetty.com/2009/04/23/the-potentially-profound-implications-of-kindle/#comments Thu, 23 Apr 2009 12:38:15 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=1548 Amazon's remarkable second version of their Kindle book reader has some profound implications for all of us. Here's a "glowing" review and some speculative thoughts on what this device might just mean for a number of industries.

]]> http://artpetty.com/2009/04/23/the-potentially-profound-implications-of-kindle/feed/ 0 http://artpetty.com/2009/04/03/develop-culture-sensing-skills-and-take-the-blinders-off-of-your-career/ http://artpetty.com/2009/04/03/develop-culture-sensing-skills-and-take-the-blinders-off-of-your-career/#comments Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:18:15 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=1423 One of my greatest career misfires was accepting a role in a firm where I had failed to properly assess the culture. I was blinded by the allure of this successful and global firm and by the sharp people that I met during the interview process. I can think of few skills more important for professionals, product and project managers and other lateral leaders to develop than culture sensing. All of the functional or vocational expertise in the world is for naught if the individual fails to take into account and leverage cultural idiosyncrasies to achieve results and drive performance improvements.

]]> http://artpetty.com/2009/04/03/develop-culture-sensing-skills-and-take-the-blinders-off-of-your-career/feed/ 4 http://artpetty.com/2009/03/31/hey-tech-marketers-how-about-helping-your-customers-solve-problems/ http://artpetty.com/2009/03/31/hey-tech-marketers-how-about-helping-your-customers-solve-problems/#comments Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:04:32 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=1400 "Nobody Cares About Your Products (Except You)," is one of the core rules that author and marketing thought-leader David Meerman Scott espouses in his latest book, World Wide Rave, and throughout his other works and blogs. The most zealous anti-smokers that I know are former smokers. The fact that in hindsight, I can see that I was guilty of being a bit too proud of the features and functions of my own products as a technology marketer makes me just a bit maniacal about David's product rule as a user and consumer of tech products today. Unfortunately, it seems like there are still quite a few technology marketers out there that did not get the memo. What I thought would be a simple search for a solution to a straight-forward business issue has turned into a quest worthy of Homer.

]]> http://artpetty.com/2009/03/31/hey-tech-marketers-how-about-helping-your-customers-solve-problems/feed/ 1 http://artpetty.com/2009/03/03/too-many-projects-chasing-too-few-people-it%e2%80%99s-time-to-learn-to-say-no/ http://artpetty.com/2009/03/03/too-many-projects-chasing-too-few-people-it%e2%80%99s-time-to-learn-to-say-no/#comments Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:18:40 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=1241 One of the themes that I hear consistently in workshops and in discussions with the professionals in my MBA classes is frustration over the propensity of a firm’s leaders to never say “No” to a project. Lacking a viable mechanism to compare, evaluate and select and reject projects, decisions are made based on politics, gut feel and the squeaky customer wheel. The net result of this lack of discipline is that the people doing the work end up overloaded and overwhelmed. They operate in compliance mode, focusing on surviving until the next deadline and adding little creative value or innovation to their activities. You can end this chaos and rebuild your team's morale and effectiveness by building in new systems and proper rigor to project evaluation and selection.

]]> http://artpetty.com/2009/03/03/too-many-projects-chasing-too-few-people-it%e2%80%99s-time-to-learn-to-say-no/feed/ 2 http://artpetty.com/2009/02/17/the-challenge-and-opportunity-of-the-product-manager/ http://artpetty.com/2009/02/17/the-challenge-and-opportunity-of-the-product-manager/#comments Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:23:42 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=1188 Product Managers face significant organizational challenges in their quest to expand their roles and increase their value-creating contributions to their firms. Through a recent and on-going series of interviews with senior executives as well as product managers across a variety of technology and manufacturing organizations, it is becoming clear that more and more organizations recognize the potential for product management to create tremendous value. It is also clear that enlightened executives increasingly recognize that the professionals that wok in product management roles are a ready-made source of high potential contributors and emerging leaders. Senior executives are looking for their emerging senior contributors in product management to bring more advanced skills to the party, in the areas of: Leadership, Strategic Thinking, Executive Presence and Process Optimization.

]]> http://artpetty.com/2009/02/17/the-challenge-and-opportunity-of-the-product-manager/feed/ 2 http://artpetty.com/2009/01/22/quick-reads-and-sound-bites-on-success-career-growth-and-leading/ http://artpetty.com/2009/01/22/quick-reads-and-sound-bites-on-success-career-growth-and-leading/#comments Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:57:44 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=973 Suggested links and resources on success, career growth as a product manager and leading. Check out the review of Gladwell's Outliers at Three Star Leadership, Career Growth and the Product Manager by Art Petty and a podcast summary of Leading from the Edge by Dennis Perkins.

]]> http://artpetty.com/2009/01/22/quick-reads-and-sound-bites-on-success-career-growth-and-leading/feed/ 0 http://artpetty.com/2008/12/21/sixty-years-of-deming-and-american-managers-forgot-to-pay-attention/ http://artpetty.com/2008/12/21/sixty-years-of-deming-and-american-managers-forgot-to-pay-attention/#comments Mon, 22 Dec 2008 01:01:15 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=731 Dr. Deming indicated that he hoped one of his life’s accomplishments was to keep American companies from committing suicide. The public spectacle of Detroit and Wall Street committing suicide in the same quarter would indicate that he failed in his mission. Deming’s Theory of Profound Knowledge and 14 points offered (and still do) keys to many of the answers. They are not prescriptive, but rather they combine to create a philosophical approach to running a business, that if adhered to, will stand a chance of succeeding for customers, workers and partners on a global stage.

]]> http://artpetty.com/2008/12/21/sixty-years-of-deming-and-american-managers-forgot-to-pay-attention/feed/ 7 http://artpetty.com/2008/12/02/the-counterintuitive-nature-of-management-excellence/ http://artpetty.com/2008/12/02/the-counterintuitive-nature-of-management-excellence/#comments Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:35:41 +0000 Art Petty http://artpetty.com/?p=469 It takes no management skill whatsoever to spend a fortune building up clicks and it definitely takes no skill to slash budgets, cut headcount, freeze programs and hunker down and wait out the storm. It does take remarkable management courage and skill to run against the crowd and conventional wisdom by investing in strategic initiatives and talent during tough times and resisting the temptation to chase mythical fortunes during boom times.

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