Here is another installment in the Hot Mommas Project path to becoming a million dollar venture/organization…while being led by a mom working part time. Can it be done? We’re here to figure that out. Our big thing right now is the Hot Mommas Project Case Study competition. Click here to nominate someone. As you’ll learn below, we need to get 200 women to write their cases by January 31, 2009. (We are double checking – now – that this is REALLY the number we need to achieve. Oy. I hope it’s not. More on this later.) This blog post is on management and leadership because:
1. I’ve read a lot about this area (hasn’t every business junkie?)
2. As discussed above, I’ve been going through some semi-useful OTJ training lately.
3. Heard Cameron Herold speak, former COO of 1800GotJunk, and I plan to regurgitate a lot of what he says with which I agree.
Management
This is who I’m managing right now. Pictured here Achin Jain, Esther Leff, and Kaitlyn McAuliffe. We’ve recently added Ximena Iacono, primarily because her name begins with an “X” which is really cool.
***********************************
INTERLUDE
[Music starts: Marvin and Tammi rocking out to “Aint No Mountain High Enough“–because that’s what’s on Kaitlyn’s iTunes right now]
First, let’s have our interlude about self-management, perhaps the hardest management of all.
9.00 – 9.45 am – Extensive conversation with director of my son’s school. Don’t ask.
10.00 am – Back home, at computer. The team and I need to get 200 women to write cases by the end of January. [Voice inside my head] “My number one priority today is to do this blog so Kaitlyn can work her social marketing magic and drive people to www.HotMommasProject.org to write their cases.” I click on my email inbox to find notes from Cameron Herold’s talk to EO.
10.53 am – “What was I looking for?” I spent the past 53 minutes cleaning out my emails. Bad girl!
[music stops]
11.10 am – My window of opportunity is lost. I have to start prepping for a client meeting.
3.00 pm – Back from client meeting. Open email in box again to look for Cameron Herold notes.
[music starts]
4.23 pm – I’ve spent the past 83 minutes finding a new photo for www.HotMommasProject.org. Bad, bad girl!
[music stops]
5.30 pm – It’s time for a call with Esther. I have spent the past 67 minutes texting with Achin about the website, emailing with Esther and Kaitlyn about their tasks, emailing with Jennifer Moore (of Pink Heels), answering student questions via email, and posting stuff for my course on Facebook.
[Music starts]
That’s management folks. It’s balancing, powering through, doing what needs to get done….and, if you miss one goal, you clean up real fast. I prioritized things above the blog because – well – they were more important. Including the next event. 🙂
5.45 pm – Both my kids run into my home office naked and laughing. I inform Esther our conference call is officially over. I think she says “okay.” Am hoping I didn’t hang up on her.
11.00 pm – In bed with computer. Husband is next to me in bed on computer. Blog is STILL not written. 
Watching Skins get spanked. Trying to resist Twitter. Feel like this: “Must.Pick.Brain.Up.Off.Floor.” (Said in Frankenstein voice – Go Mary Shelley!)
END INTERLUDE
*************************************
What’s the big deal about management and leadership?
People talk about management and leadership all of the time because it’s hard. Really hard. I realize now I was a very spoiled manager. I’ve walked into situations in the past where killer teams had been picked or were part of a machine-like recruiting process. I’d manage them, and think I had something figured out. Even my past teams of Hot Mommas consultants (see first or second post on this) were pretty plug and play. They had all been senior executives and what not. On top of it, they were moms so – by definition – they could run a small country. Now it is a whole different ball game.
So, what’s really been a bad idea? The following things have been a bad idea:
1. Hiring a warm body – In the past, I have hired warm bodies. Someone says, “I want to work with the Hot Mommas Project” and I would say, “Great!” Those days are gone. (This is not true for you Liz and Meredith!)
2. Going with less structure – I work with a lot of students. Structure, structure, structure seems to work best for me and for them. (Examples below).
3. Not praising or encouraging – These people are not slaves, they are people. I see a lot of entrepreneurs treat employees badly. This is namely because they treat themselves like badly.
So, what’s been working?
The top 3 list.
First, here is the Top 5 list basic principle which I learned from Cameron Herold.
1. Always have a sense of the top 5 most important tasks you’re working on.
2. Write it down.
3. Carry it with you. Review it throughout the day.
5. Spend the last 5 minutes of each day making a list of the top 5 priorities for tomorrow.
6. Be accountable – Every day, an email should be waiting for you in your inbox from your staff with their top 5 from day before and what they hit or not and why.
THE TOP 3 LIST – our version of the above. (In a total contradiction to an earlier post, much of the team works virtually. Also, my team is part time because they are undergrad and MBA students.)
1. On your desktop have a document which says has the following: Top 3/On–Deck/Accomplished. Our Top 3 are focused on a specific goal or outcomes (measurable), and each week the actions change to meet that goal or outcome. It is immediately clear from the updates if weekly actions support a Top 3 item or not. These are our major goals right now. Hit the following case number (number of written cases on site):
Kathy – 100 (How: Partners, personal network, HARO, Twitter, Facebook, PR, events like the American Mustache Institute Stache Bash and BlogHerDC. Earlier post =full scoop)
Esther – 40 (How: Partners with social media/women’s groups, personal network, PR, events, Twitter)
Ximena – 30 (How: Academic/faculty focus, e.g., “assign case writing to your students”)
Kaitlyn – 15 (How: Personal network, bloggers)
Achin – 15 (How: Personal network, bloggers)
If anyone out there has other ideas for us, please post here. P.s. We have no money. We spent it all on @djuth from FMS (We love you Dave! You’re worth it! ) I am so busy with the above goal have no time to raise money and am almost completely relying on GW’s development department.
2. Monday the Top 3 list is sent from the team to me.
3. I spend Monday to Wednesday coaching the team on the list and supporting them. I do this via email and/or phone. Email really takes a long time unless the list is pristine. We’ve worked a lot on that, strangely…formatting, business writing, info I need to know.
4. Wednesday is a team meeting. Since Monday through Wednesday was spent on task management, I try to focus the mid-week meeting on a discussion of results and visioning (e.g., This is where we’re heading).
5. Friday – Another update is sent. The team is cutting and pasting their list for the week, and beginning to project their top 3 for the following week. Coaching takes place via email on Friday and over weekend (when some of my team members catch up on some of their work, especially if it was mid-terms…which is was last week).
6. Rinse repeat.
7. Motivation and inspiration. Esther also mentioned that having goals, and reaching them, is inspirational/motivational/etc. So, I send out frequent updates with things that are happening. “XYZ just said they’d be a judge.” or “Look what this case-writer said!” or “This company just signed on to provide prizes.” I put FYI in the subject line so the team can filter. We also did the a version of the “can you imagine” wall described below after last Wednesday’s meeting.
Esther’s wants to see Hot Mommas Project become a datasource of women-friendly companies.
Kaitlyn’s wants to get the Millionaire Matchmaker, who she loves, to write her case.
5 things to do to build a company and wrap up:
Kaitlyn has suggested I do shorter posts, and post more frequently…so, I’m taking her advice. Before I sign off, here are a few leadership nuggets from Cameron Herold – 5 things to do to build a company:
1. Painting a picture – Visualize the future of your business and communicate it to employees. Show them an example. Share it. It is not about “how.” Example: The “can you imagine wall” at 1800GotJunk where staff wrote creative ideas and dreams for the business. Here is Cameron Herold’s painted picture.
2. Great people – Like Jim Collins says, “Get the right people on the bus.” Use Top Grading by Brad and Geoff Smart plus a scorecard (letter grade for employees every 6 months). Example: Group interview process at 1800GotJunk focused on core concepts: “Do I like them and do they fit?” The goal is to raise the average skill set of the group with the hire.
P.s.
– The Dream by Matthew Kelley. If you care about your staff’s dreams, they’ll go through brick walls to help you.
– At 1800GotJunk, all employees get 5 weeks vacation. Wow!
3. Reverse engineer the future – Look at every sentence of the painted picture and say, “What can we do to make this come true? What are the missing pieces?” Rank in terms of urgency and impact. Use a spreadsheet in conjunction with the painted picture to clearly see the complexity of the future. Example: 1800GotJunk asked, “How many trucks will we need in x years? What are the bottlenecks? Have we called the truck supplier?” They did. It changed their supplier relationship and way they did business. Numbers also gave them the ability to think about people they needed to hire. They were growing 3 or 4 percent a week. We did this the other day when we mapped out, numerically, how many individuals we’d need to contact to make our case goals. It was an eye opener.
4. Meeting rhythms – Plan your work. Work your plan. Example: 1800GotJunk has a very regimented process for running meetings. The basis are:
a. All meetings have a purpose and a maximum of 3 desired outcomes.
b. No agenda, no attenda – If there is not an agenda, no one will come.
c. Book for half of the time you need – You’ll get it done. This didn’t work for us Wednesday, but will keep trying.
5. Technology Accelerators – Accelerate performance through technology. Examples: Buy staff lap tops, not desktops (Employees will work additional hours for free at home). Have 2 to 3 monitors up at one time for time savings (clicking between screens wastes time). Blackberries and iPhones at blackberryguy.com (Manage the blackberry, don’t let it manage you.) Turn off notifications. Buy headsets (www.headsets.com). Have wireless in the office. The list goes on and on.
At the end of the day, Cameron believes that the secret formula is an equation: Focus, faith, and effort. Read more in his book BackPocket COO.
PARTING THOUGHT:
Since I’m giving our promotional card to everyone ranging from my Zumba instructor at Golds to strangers on the street, I feel it would be hypocritical not to give you the plug as well.
The Hot Mommas Project is an award-winning women’s leadership initiative housed at the George Washington University School of Business. We’re building the world’s largest women’s case study database which will be free, online, and available to women, girls, and educators worldwide. Read this for detail. Read promotional postcard for short attention span version. Go to our main site and WRITE YOUR CASE! Be a Role Model…Tell Your Story…Help Others…Get Published.
HEY! If you, or someone you know is a role model whose story could help women and girls, and could be taught by educators in classroom, email us and include “nomination” in the subject line. Click here to see how cool it is to be nominated.
Building A Million Dollar Business Part Time 