Make. Be. Act.
MBA Balance has helped professionals in many walks of life find solutions for problems in their careers and in their search for personal excellence while enjoying themselves along the way. While many MBA graduates have shown an interest in our service, they are just a fraction of the types of leaders who are followers of the blog as well as clients of the coaching offering.
In fact, though the founder is an MBA graduate, MBA Balance is not named for the degree. It is true that the use of “MBA” in the name is intended to emphasize the connection between living a balanced life while succeeding in the business world. And the business world could pertain to one’s corporate career or through a non-corporate person’s awareness of how that world inevitably affects their livelihood, their finances and general sense of security. After all, we all are connected to the world of business, whether as employees, leaders, owners or customers.
Those of us that have chosen a career in business find our lives intertwined with the performance of a corporate employer or the customers of our entrepreneurial ventures. But even those that work in disciplines outside of business, today cannot avoid the impact that macroeconomic and financial affairs have on the choices they make, the plans they create and the expectations they hold for themselves around happiness and lifelong fulfillment. Just look at how the recession has impacted everyone from Wall Street to Main Street.
No, MBA Balance was not named for the MBA degree, but rather as an acronym for three important words: Make. Be. Act. These words are seldom used together and are simple and short. Yet they speak volumes in their brevity. Continue Reading →
Can You Handle The Truth?
As a business professional, how proactive are you at asking for honest feedback on your leadership performance?
Do you welcome it or resist it? When you get it without asking for it, do you immediately think about the things you would like to reciprocate their opinions with? Most of us could do better in the area of seeking and absorbing feedback. But to be fair, some just lack validity or even value depending on who it comes from. Nonetheless, even those remarks or judgments can still be valuable on the journey toward self-improvement.
Feedback, in order to be truly valuable, must be delivered with an intention toward going concerns, not just rehashing the past. If someone is just telling you all the things you did and placing a judgment on it, without equal care about the use of the data and opinion on future action, then they are either complimenting you or complaining, but not really collaborating with you toward greater effectiveness.
This doesn’t mean that you should ignore the message. It’s just important to filter it for maximum value. At the end of the day, this is the conversation people are having in their minds or with each other about you. It doesn’t mean it’s true, but it is what it is, nothing more, nothing less. And you’re better off for getting access to it.
Your ability to receive feedback in a constructive, engaged way will help you keep ahead of the pack because you will always be aware of how people perceive you and where you can improve. Regardless of whether people are right or wrong, you are better equipped to align their perceptions with what you want them to see.
Knowing that feedback is, at its best data-driven, but at its worst a mere perception, you need not try to please everyone. Continue Reading →
MBAs and Maslow’s Hammer
At a recent dinner with a fellow MBA holder, I came to find out how many K-12 schools are looking to hire MBAs as principals nowadays, often putting them before career educators and school administrators as top candidates. It seems public schools as well as notable charter programs are looking to run their programs the way businesses do, and they believe that hiring an MBA at the top is a great solution to cure the education crisis. With jobs hard to find today, countless MBAs are also applying for these positions, often with no experience working in a school, having no past exposure to teaching kids, let alone managing other teachers.
Then I came across this well-distributed clip of Matt Damon at a Save Our Schools event. He was questioned by an interviewer with the libertarian site reason.tv, about incentives for tenured teachers to work harder. The interviewer implied that actors like him work hard because of their job insecurity, so how can having job security as public school teachers possibly keep them motivated to do their job well?
Mr. Damon’s response blamed the “MBA style [of] thinking,” pointing out that a teacher teaches because that’s what they want to do, not because of any form of job security; otherwise, why else would they “take a shitty salary and really long hours and do that job unless [they] really love to do it?”
He was then challenged by the cameraman filming the interview with the retort, “[But] “aren’t ten percent bad?….Ten percent of any profession maybe should think of something else [to do].” Mr. Damon cleverly responded by offering that if that’s true, then perhaps the cameraman is part of the 10% in his profession that are bad too, so what do you do?
This clip struck a chord with me. Continue Reading →
How To Love What You Hate To Do
As the phone on the other end was ringing and I was holding my phone waiting for someone to pick up, my mind was racing between remembering my name to introduce myself and repeating to myself “please don’t pick up, please don’t pick up.” That’s right, I’m not afraid to admit it – I hate cold calling.
This was a daily necessity when I worked in sales and though the warmer calls (when I had some prior rapport or connection with the person on the other end) were a bit easier to handle than these ones, they caused pretty much the same reluctance because I still had to “sell” them something.
I eventually figured out ways to overcome the worry, whether by reminding myself that I was helping them and providing them value, or by making it a game to see how many rejections I could get so that none of them stung more than the other.
But to be perfectly honest, there is still nothing I loathe more than to call someone out of the blue and just shoot the breeze or get them interested in what I’m peddling. I’m not a small talk person, nor am I ever comfortable with “salesy” conversations. That’s not to say I don’t do it, or that I don’t recognize the value in cold calling when done right.
What was fascinating to me, given my own self-doubt about why anyone would be interested in being bothered by a random call from me, was that I was actually pretty good at sales.
And what I realized is that there is something else besides the sheer practice of a skill or the leveraging of the law of averages (call more people and you get more rejections, but also more “yes’s”) that contributes to success in sales, or really any endeavor. Continue Reading →
Profiles in Balance – Part I of Our Interview with Leon Kaye
Leon is the founder of GreenGoPost and a thought leader on sustainability issues. You can find his blog at www.greengopost.com.
MB: Leon, thanks for taking the time to meet with MBA Balance. You’re doing some fascinating things in your career right now. Tell us a bit about what you’re up to.
LK: Right now I write for my own site, GreenGoPost.com, write for a few publications including UK’s The Guardian, and ghostwrite.
Can you share some details about your background? Where did you go to school and how do you feel your decisions impacted your success today?
Had a plan to be a high school teacher way back when. I decided to shoot higher and be a professor, but academia was not for me. I lived abroad for a few years, then moved back to California, worked my up from customer support to training to sales. I did a one-year International MBA at USC in Los Angeles. I view my MBA as one tool in my kit. The broad life and work experience is what matters—I am convinced that unless you are on track for I-banking or a major consulting firm, the MBA is not significant—I’m just glad I have it and got a different business perspective I did not otherwise have.
Given your approach to business, what is the impact you personally want to make as a business leader? What are you hoping to do even more of in the future?
Continue Reading →
-
Subscribe Below And Connect Through Facebook and Twitter
