As a leader your attitude and ability to overcome adversity and hardship not only affects your ability to lead (and perform), but can also affect the performance of others. If you make a mistake or have hardship the only thing you can do about it is learn, and move on from there. Alicia is not the best gymnast on the team, but they looked to her for leadership. Her inability to shake off a mistake might have cost the U.S. a gold medal.

This is the law of the lid which says “A person’s level of effectiveness is affected by their leadership ability“. Teaching others can can an exponentially positive effect… but not demonstrating how you would have people react can have an equally negative effect.

• Resourcefulness - Having the techniques, tools or the ability to get the techniques or tools you would need to solve the variety of problems that you may have to solve.
• Resilience – The ability to know what to do when you have a problem and stick to it until you have an adequate answer.
• Refactoring – The ability to use the things that you have learned in new ways to solve new problems.
• Responsiveness – The ability to quickly adapt your skills to new and changing environments and situations.

As an endnote the ability to solve problems is absolutely critical to everyone and you can’t always solve them by the book, because today even the books are quickly out of date.

Over the last 2 years I have interviewed a lot of very talented, very smart web designers and developers. I have seen dozens of great looking portfolios and one thing has stood out – We (professional and schools) are doing a poor job of teaching students about today’s web workforce and how it is evolving. How do I know? If I interviewed 10 recent grads tomorrow, 1 of 10 would have used XHTML and CSS to layout their pages, 5 or 6 will still be using deprecated tags such as font and center and almost all freeze when I ask for a good explanation of W3C, Section 508, WCAG 1.0 or web standards. Why is this happening? Here are a few observations I have made.

• Textbooks are woefully out of date. I have a friend who is finishing up a web class at a local community college. There was no mention of XHTML, CSS or web standards in the book. Why????
• Print still dominates in a web world. It seems that many times students have come from programs that focus largely on print, with light coverage of web just before graduation. Looks at what Adobe is doing. They have been the dominate force in the print world for the last decade. Their recent actions should give you some indication as to what they want to do. Need anther reason? Google Adobe Apollo.
• Program Focus. Rather than focusing on simple “Hello Worldâ€? type examples it would probably be better to use the case study model used in many MBA programs. Look at real world examples. Get professionals to help teach courses, plan curriculum and give guidance on the direction of the workforce. This would be invaluable to students planning on following in their footsteps.

If you are a student wanting some pointers on how to prepare yourself, here are my top tips.

Learn Web Standards – Teach Web Standards

Standards are now the norm not the exception, so if you haven’t started learning XHTML and CSS you really need to get on the ball. Neat technologies like AJAX and Ruby on Rails require a good understanding of Web Standards. Most employers want you to have solid knowledge and experience with XHTML/CSS not just a passing fancy (e.g. you read in it a book once.). Tables had their time and place in page design, and it’s not now.

As for the schools out there…we have to start teaching these things while people are in school. Basic Information Architecture, XHTML, CSS, Accessibility (Section 508 and WCAG) are extremely important in today’s workforce.

Good Designers Copy, Great Designers Steal

This isn’t as bad as it sounds. As a design student you’ve already learned the basics with color theory, space concepts, typography and layout. Now you need to turn to the wealth of resources available to get inspiration and keep up with design trends and styles. This goes for designers and developers. It amazes me how many young developers want to re-invent the wheel and how many designers never look outward for inspiration. The last time I counted there were more than 35 CSS galleries. 35! That’s a lot of example work to take a look at. Practice, Practice, Practice. You only get better by doing - and remember managers love ingenuity and creativity, but aren’t impressed because you do things the hard way.

Textbooks are Good…Lessons from the Trenches are Better

In general I don’t have a problem with textbooks, after all Dietel and Dietel taught me how to program C and C++, but they do serve a purpose. Basic knowledge. When it comes to web education lessons from the trenches will provide a lot more value than a regular textbook. Check out these books to start:

• Eric Meyer on CSS by Eric Meyer
• More Eric Meyer on CSS by Eric Meyer
• Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman
• The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web by Dave Shea
• Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook by Dan Cederholm
• CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions by Andy Budd
• Web ReDesign 2.0: Workflow that Works by Kelly Goto and Emily Cotler
• Bulletproof Web Design: Improving flexibility and protecting against worst-case scenarios with XHTML and CSS by Dan Cederholm

An open question to schools. Can we start incorporating these books into the classroom?

Learn By Doing

There isn’t anything that I am good at today that I got good at in a classroom. Being excellent at something requires time -but more importantly it requires dedicated practice outside the classroom. Classroom lectures, homework and textbooks are intended to teach you the basics and introduce you to topics and can’t simply can’t replace the lessons learned by putting in some sweat work.

Get Your Head and Maybe some skin in the game

Do you have a web site or blog? Do you participate in local professional groups and organzations? Have you attended affordable conferences? If not why not? One of the best ways to practice and hone your skills is by having your own web site, and many employers now want to see a web site that you created during the interview process. Why? 1) It can tell them a lot about your creativity, coding skills and dedication to creating great work.

Professional groups can be a great learning resource for the budding web designer or developer. It is also a great way to network and build your personal brand. I recommend that you start interacting with these groups before you graduate. You might find out a lot that will make you a stronger candiate come graduation time. Here are some things I recommend.

• Professional Group: Refresh
• Professional Group: Netsquared
• Attend SXSW
• Attend a BarCamp

This post could have been much longer as there are a lot of little things that tend to bug me like no mention of search marketing in marketing courses, no single starting point for students who have identified web careers as a choice. I thought focusing on Web standards was the easiest starting point becuase every web site starts with the underlying XHTML and CSS. Don’t count on learning everything you need to know in the classroom. Give yourself a foot up and start learning them on your own. Now for an example. If you haven’t read his blog check out Paul Stamatiou. Paul hasn’t limited himself to classroom learning/work and his outstanding work on his blog is leading to great opportunities for him (did I mention he was a native Houstonian?) Take a hint from Paul. Stretch yourself, do something different. Learn something new.

Here are some of the things I would recommend:

• Share Your Knowledge. Don’t be stingy with the things you have learned, share it with other people. Knowledge is perhaps the greatest gift you can give.
• Follow Your Passion. A long time ago someone told me, don’t focus on salary. Find a career that makes you happy and go for it. The same can be said of “giving back”. You don’t have to have a 29.1 billion dollar philanthropy fund like Bill and Melinda Gates to make an impact. Take some time to consider the things you are really passionate about. If you are passionate about something, you can have a huge impactby helping out in that area.
• Be a mentor. There are few things more rewarding that being a mentor. Not only do you get to help someone as they are forging their own path in the world, but you stand to learn as much from your mentee as they learn from you.
• Money is Easy….Time is better. Giving back is a contact sport. Don’t always take the easy route and donate money. You might think you don’t have the time or talent, but you do. You can’t always “give backâ€? with a check. Get out and do something!

• I’m not in sales or marketing, it’s not important for me
• My skills speak for themselves
• Yeah, Yeah. It’s who you know not what you know

I’m not in sales or marketing, it’s not important to me

It’s surprising how many people think that they don’t have to know how to sell.  Nearly everything you do in life will have some sales component. Job interviews, convincing your peers or boss to adopt a certain technology, convincing that special someone to go out on a date with you. It’s all sales. How good are you at identifying the “benefits” you bring to the table and accentuating them?

My skills speak for themselves

Ha. I laugh in your general direction. If skills were all that mattered, the world would be a very different place. People don’t work with skills, investors don’t invest in skills. They work with and invest in people. If people don’t know you, then you probably won’t get the opportunity to demonstrate your skills.

It’s who you know, not what you know

I have known a lot of people during my lifetime, but how many of those people remember me? That’s what’s important. You have to have a distinguishable brand so that people can remember you.

How do you do it?

A successful personal brand is authentic. Thus, you need to know to build a brand. If you are creative, dynamic, outgoing, and whimsical, you will not succeed by communicating the attributes of  predictable, steady, and focused. I have done this a couple of times in the past few years, once while prepping for MBA applications and again last year with Reach Communications. The Reach program was easy and comprehesive in its "probing". Although there were a lot of questions and activities involved but I would boil the process down into 3 steps, 1) Develop a vision, 2) Develop a purpose 3) Know your principles and brand attributes, and then demonstrate these things. As an example I will include some of the things I uncovered about myself.

Vision

I have always been a technology enthusiast.  I have always loved creating things and building things, working with other people and community oriented activities. That’s a lot. How could I explain this without being wordy and still make it actionable? Here is what I came up with.

Kelsey Ruger is incredibly passionate about creating a world where technology is transparent, easy to use and universally accessible to all people regardless of ability.

Short, sweet, actionable and easily understandable.

Purpose

This one was harder. Why are you here? What do you want to accomplish?  My purpose:

To be a leader in every activity I undertake (social, business, community) bringing a bit of humanity to everything I do.

Principles

How do you define principles? Start by thinking about things that make you mad when they happen, or things that you are strongly passionate about. Your principles are there. You just have to dig them out. Here are my principles.

• Think. Try. Teach
• Challenge Your Sacred Cows
• Help People Do More By Doing Less
• Provide Great Experiences

It shouldn’t be forced

This is not an exercise in deciding what you want to be, it has to be authentic. You need to ask people who know you and combine their attributes with your own list to develop a true brand. You might be surprised at what people really think of you. During my exercise I got to ask 40 people (bosses, peers, friends, family and employees) how they would describe me. That is by far the scariest step, but a necessary one. You need to know what "the market" already thinks. Personally, I found out some interesting things like - if I were a cereal I would be Wheaties and if I were a car I would be a Volvo. Not sure why but it was a consistent answer across the board. Use the feedback you get from people to build/repair your brand. The positive will give you areas for continued growth and the negative will give you the areas for improvement. While I found out a lot during the branding process two things stood out: People think I an genuine, ethical and visionary. Those things meant a lot to me. Maybe you think you joke around too much, or that you’re a clown. Maybe you’re making an effort to be "more serious". Before you do that stop and think - maybe those are brand attributes that people appreciate about you and you should actually be proud to demonstrate that part of your brand. It’s who you are.

So I would recommend that if you haven’t recently done this, that you take some time to figure out your brand. It could make a world of difference.

• Sin #1: Burning Bridges
• Sin #2: Staying somewhere too long
• Sin #3: Not remembering that a great job is a partnership
• Sin #4: Not viewing your job and a career
• Sin #5: Losing your passion and creativity

Burning Bridges

Bryan stated it well. Don’t burn bridges, for a couple of reasons. 1) Despite the number of companies out there, the technology and web community is small. To this day it still amazes me how many people I run into over and over again. You will run into people again, and God forbid they are in a position to make you pay for what may have a decision made in the while you were angry or burned out. 2) You never know how people will react to you leaving them with short notice. In some cases they may take it in stride, and in other cases you may work for the most vindictive people on the face of the planet. It sucks that an employer can lay you off with no notice but they expect two weeks from you, but hey those are the break kid. Fortunately for Bryan this has worked out well, but maybe the next sin applies a little?

Staying Somewhere to Long

Haven’t we all been guilty of this one? You go into a situation with high hopes and guns blazing. Then after a year, maybe two you start to get that sinking feeling that maybe you are not in the right place. You try to make it work, only to become bitter, resentful toward your employer or boss. It is at this point where many people make the shift from career to job. Doing this for too long will kill your growth, creativity and passion for what you do. Don’t take the stay and quit option. Be fair to yourself and your employer, if its time to go its time to go…but may be that’s not your problem, which leads me to the next sin.

Not remembering that a great job is a partnership

Remember the last time you worked really well with someone? It probably required a lot of communication and cooperation. If you have a problem you owe it to yourself to address it before sin #2 takes hold. A lot of times simply communicating a problem or feeling that you are having can make a world of difference. If you don’t address it sometimes it will lead you down a path that you otherwise would have avoided. There are also some distinct responsibilities that you have must honor as a manager and a leader if you want your employees to honor this partnership.

Not viewing your job as a career

I am dumbfounded by the number of people who are Web professionals that 1) Don’t keep their resumes up to date and more importantly 2) Don’t have an online portfolio or web site of some type. Holy career negligence batman! It’s like a doctor who doesn’t get a physical or a mechanic who can’t change his own oil. I have said before that techies are notoriously bad at selling themselves and managing their careers. Can you communicate what you have to offer outside of three letter acronyms and the latest technology? Here is something that a sales rep can tell you but most techies don’t get “know your benefits, ignore your features�. Isn’t it better to show someone you know Illustrator, Photoshop, PHP, ASP.NET or Ruby on Rails? Brand yourself and make sure that you aren’t just going through the motions when you are working. Have a plan for yourself.

Addendum: The argument that you aren’t going to be doing what you are doing forever is a cop out. If you don’t manage the career you have, how will you manage the career you want?

Losing Your Creativity and Passion

This topic is near and dear to me, because I believe that creativity and passion drives most web professionals – at least in the beginning. Like every other skill you have to take time to exercise it, and you can’t be so burned out that you don’t have the energy to be creative. Do not allow anything to zap your creativity or passion. It you feel it slipping away do everything you can to get it back.

So there you have it. I’d love to hear your comments on this one.

One of the worst problems with making new technology accessible and usable is that those considerations are added too late. - Whitney Quesenbery

I think all software and web sites should have a goal of meeting the most basic human needs before attempting to meet higher needs. Too often building web sites and web applications becomes a mad rush to create something “flashyâ€? or “coolâ€?, when what is really cool is an app that does what it supposed to do. I just finished reading 37 Signal’s Getting Real, In it there is a paragraph that reads.

Beware of the “everything but the kitchen sink� approach to web app development. Throw in every decent idea that comes along and you’ll just wind up with a half-assed version of your product. What you really want to do is build half a product that kicks ass. Stick to what’s truly essential. Good ideas can be tabled. Take whatever you think your product should be and cut it in half. Pare features down until you’re left with only the most essential ones. Then do it again.

There is a great deal of power in being basic (read crappy). It’s at the core of every great design. Some people don’t understand that “great technology” isn’t technology packed full of features or with the most eye catching interface. Great technology solves a wide range of human needs/problems – it shouldn’t create a whole new category of problems.

Original Post: January 14, 2006

Over the past few years I have heard many people repeatedly use the phrase “Don’t Worry Be Crappy” when they want to get software products released in a hurry. These people have completely missed a major point of Guy’s book Rules for Revolutionaries and his rules for innovation. This is almost as bad as quoting bible verses out of context. Guy is specifically talking about innovation. If your product is innovative, it’s OK to go to market if it lacks some features. That doesn’t mean release buggy software! Bugs are crappy, but Guy is not saying bugs are acceptable. Don’t confuse well developed, light on features software with software that has been rushed and is full of bugs. The best current example I can think of…Basecamp. Painfully simple UI, light on features and solidly built.

On another note, if your product is a copy cat or lacks innovation you had better make sure it is as bug free as possible.

Technorati Tags: Guy Kawasaki, software development, web software, accessibility, usability, sxsw, 37signals

I have to mention how much of a pleasure it was to talk with Janice, so much of what she says and believes lines up with my own beliefs about business, managing people and building technology solutions. Janice shared more of her insights on entrepreneurship at Stanford’s Entrepreneurial Thought Leadership program for undergraduates.

The Business Makers will be launching a new updated blog site soon; I will keep you informed about that.

Technorati Tags: Janice Fraser, software development, ruby on rails, adaptive path, measure map, 37 signals

As a manager it is easy to give out orders and delegate tasks. The hardest part is developing people. Here are some observations I have made on creating an environment in which employees are more likely to behave responsibly:

Give Them Something To Commit To

• Create a Clear Sense of Direction.
• Make working for your department/division/company a sense of pride.
• Match skills to the right job and make it challenging and meaningful.
• Be their lead blocker – identify problems that impede and prevent good results.

Make Sure They Understand What They Need To Accomplish

• Make sure employees understand their job, how they will be judged and the criteria for success- and failure.
• Make sure employees understand how their job, its activities and outcomes affect the company.
• Provide the tools and resources they need.
• Do you recognize your employees?
• Encourage results – reward them.
• Do your employees know what they need to do to participate in rewards?

There is an old saying that says “Generals do not win battles, their soliders do.” When you don’t give your team the right tools it has a demotivating effect that can cause people to leave or worse stay and become disengaged.