HL Arledge

Preparing for the Decade User Training Conference

Everyone, I apologize for not writing much these last few weeks, but everyone here has been preparing for our annual user conference, next Monday and Tuesday.

I will tell you all about it next week, but in the meantime, I thought I'd show you a picture of some of the staff ready to go for the conference.

I think one or two of them might be a bit nervous. What do you think?

Pictured (from left to right) are Nicki Bradford, Jerad Little, me, Cynthia Hill, Art Amezcua, Mark Harmon, and Patrick Glaspey.

Presentation are not about hyperboles or widgets

Everyone, I want to apologize for not updating you as often as I usually do, but the office is extremely busy preparing for our user conference on the 29th and 30th.

More to come on that.

In the meantime—and considering the industry Tom comes from, this could be considered "presenting at a conference" related—PR Guru Tom Murphy has some words of wisdom I would like to pass on...

"[The Public Relations and Presentation industry] needs leadership, we need people to lead by being realistic, by reflecting the challenges we face such as how we can build a better understanding of our audiences and the tools we’ll use to reach them.

This is not about shiny objects, hyperbole or widgets.  It’s about world class communication, based on insight into your audience and pragmatic investments in the channels that work."

Decade Software's best-kept is still a secret

[You may recall the blog post below. It is from last year at this time. Tomorrow, I will try again to get Decade Software's best kept secret. Wish me luck!—and in the meantime, refresh your memory of how this went down last year.]

Every year, Kevin Delaney begins— weeks in advance—planning his Presidential Address for the opening of our annual EnvisionConnect Users Training and Conference—and every year, I drop by with some hint of something I think he should discuss, and every year—he hates my idea.

This year, I thought using the phone would be less intrusive, maybe catch him off guard, and he would be more receptive to my suggestion...

"Hi, Kevin. It's me, HL."

"No."

"You've haven't heard why I'm calling."

"No."

My team's success is built on Trust

Michael Hopkin reported today is his blog "Lead on Purpose" that "Trust is essential to building a successful team"—something readers of this blog have seen proven time and time again.

Michael said...

"One of the best ways to gain trust is to be up front with the people you lead. Great leaders are not afraid to admit mistakes. At first blush it implies weakness; however, admitting mistakes actually helps leaders gain credibility because the people they lead see them as down-to-earth and genuine."

A recent article in Investors Business Daily discusses the importance of winning the trust of your team. Some leaders waste time trying to win acceptance—or even popularity—with their teams, rather than being vulnerable—open, honest, and transparent—about their strengths and weaknesses.

Trust is ultimately more important than popularity.

Patrick Lencioni, one of my favorite authors of wrote...

“Ironically, pretending you’re strong when you’re not is a sign of weakness. Trust is the most important thing a leader can have. People will walk through walls of fire for you if they know they can trust you. Without trust, nothing else matters to them.”

Leaders fulfilling promises and providing feedback—on both desired and undesired behaviors—will gain the trust of their teams and strengthen their organizations.

Truth, Trust, Transparency, and Toy Story

For years, I have touted that management through truth, trust, and transparency is the fastest way to succeed. In an article in this month's Harvard Business Review, the founder of Pixar, Ed Catmull, says I am dead on.

"Talent is rare. Management’s job is not to prevent risk but to build the capability to recover when failures occur. It must be safe to tell the truth. And we must constantly challenge all of our assumptions and search for the flaws that could destroy our culture."

We've proven this works in just a few short years at Decade Software. Pixar has been following this credo for nearly 10 years.

Pixar is the only movie studio in history to rollout consecutive blockbusters and nothing else.