Category Archives: Heroik MBA
The One Network to Connect it All? Google+ All Grown Up
Google+ is rapidly becoming the social starting point as people begin to understand how the network and tools are tightly integrated with all things Google. I particularly enjoy how fast it is to filter the noise and change the channel by clicking through your various circles. Google continues to learn and grow from its many mistakes and insights from the multitude of user data. Below is a 14 min video introduction to Google+ and a brief view into just how tightly the various Google properties are integrated into the platform.
Google+ Continues to grow at a steady pace. It’s not Facebook growth, but it’s also not Facebook spam. The ability to change channels/circles and really listen in increases the opportunity for enhanced virtual relationships. If you’d like a quick read to master some Google+ goodness, be sure to read Guy Kawasaki’s What the Plus!: Google+ for the Rest of Us
But Wait There’s More – Google+ Tips
Must Be Present to Win
In order to get somewhere, you have to be somewhere first. Instead of obsessing over getting somewhere fast, focus on being somewhere completely. Being who you are right where you are will allow you to practice more authentically, generate more opportunities, and increase your performance and enjoyment, personally and professionally. In essence, in order to reap all the benefits that life in the moment has to offer, you must be present to win.
If you’re more mentally aware of your circumstances, you can be more honest about your actual experience and avoid the self-deceptions and false guarantees. If you’re intelligently available to clients, customers and demands of your job, you will perform better than those that don’t. If you develop a trust for your natural talents, you’ll be able to work candidly and play to your strengths. The adaptive mindset, authentic present, both require an acute attention and awareness to the here and the now.
The Challenge: No time for the Now. Only Time for the Future.
The challenges to being present revolve around the common and frantic obsession with the future. Will I get that promotion? Will it launch successfully? What will happen next? Will my deal go through? These are but a few questions and worrying habits of the future that create anxiety and stress and hinder performance in the now. With our attention on the future neglect the opportunities of our work now.
Stress Anxiety from Unrealistic Expectations
While stuck on the future, we set unrealistic expectations by ignoring or not defining the present. We set goals for ourselves while completely ignoring our present circumstances. By ignoring or not defining the starting point, it becomes quite easy to set unrealistic demands on our workloads and personal lives. If your goal is to run a marathon but you’ve never ran a 5k, your making failure far more likely than success. If your goal is to make a million when you’re having trouble making a hundred, you’re likely creating trouble. These examples may sound obvious but the addiction to speed and consumption confuse the senses.
Stop Counting and Start Measuring- Quality Control
We often confuse the quantifiable measurements of speed and consumption with the qualitative net gain,and holistic virtue of our efforts. For example, the number of books you’ve read may be impressive, but the number of books you remember, or better still the number of books that changed your life and business may appear less impressive but are far more meaningful to your bottom line. This is a problem of linear thinking; when focused on measuring only one outcome (volume or quantity) and not the many varying results (qaulities and virtues) or net effect. Though they may be harder to define, the qualitative effects may be more important to measure.
Linear Check-List Mentality of Strict Accounting
Our self-sabotaging doesn’t stop there. Consider the check-list mentality. Do you have a business plan? Uh-huh. a website? Yes. A business card? A website? Duh. The most neglected aspects of our practice are often areas where we apply a checklist (yes/no) mentality. This attitude of binary strict accounting when it comes to measuring progress and achievement hinders the quality of our work and creates more anxiety. Without acknowledging the qualitative values that we wish to demonstrate in our work, frustration builds when we can’t check off our progress. This ends up causing us to ignore our actual forward momentum, and tricks us into believing that despite our efforts we got nothing done.
So how do you escape all the entanglements and anxiety of future obsession? How do you become present to win?
The solution: Be Somewhere First.
Be who you are right where you are. Know yourself. Choose to cultivate an authentic practice. Know who and what you’re not (e.g. you are not a 5th degree black belt productivity guru, or Google or Steve Jobs). Let go of the urge to compare yourself to the myths and legend of your time and industry. Be comfortable with what you’ve got and build something with it.
Increase your opportunities right now by deciding to be attentively aware right now. In order to act upon these new opportunities, you’ll need an adaptive mindset. Making use of an adaptive mindset requires an understanding of your situation, so consider your environment, network and capabilities.
Be who you are right where you are. Relax.
Recognize that you will never be able to completely control every aspect of your work. Let go of the expectation. Commit to what you can do on a time frame you can actually deliver on. Integrity goes hand in hand with authenticity. Be consistent in your word and deed, for your own personal practice and to build respect in your work.
Let go of the focus on the future so you can be fully available to work in the present. Try and have one mind for that one task or project, right now, today.
Pencil in at least 10 minutes per day to practice being aware. Schedule the time on your calendar. Write it down. Focus on everything and nothing. If your attention wanders, bring it back to the moment and just sit and be open. If you treat this as seriously as the rest of your business efforts, it will outperform many of them. The fruits of being mentally available in the now will come to those who choose to do it. You must be present to win.
Posted: Nicholas McGill
Categories: Becoming Heroik, Blog, Chronicles, Heroik MBA, Productivity, Required Courses, Simplicity
20 Search Tips to Make You a Google Master in 5 Mins or Less
Below you’ll find an interactive approach to the top 20 Search Lessons to Google Mastery. Read. Learn. Enjoy. Share.
The $10 Startup- A BootStrappers Quick Reference to The Art of Hustle.
While I don’t completely write off the various investment/funding business models, I do have a larger respect for the art of hustle and the adaptive mindset of the true entrepreneur. I’m a big fan of bootstrapping business models and their success stories of small wins that lead to big victories. Looking at the small things, or the ability to make more of something from next to nothing, is a great exercise to use to help you hone in on the important things. That said, the big challenge is this: if you only had $10 to start a business, what would you do? What would you focus on? How would you go about it?
Read on to see some of our recommendations on how to start a business with little more than lunch money. Be sure to chime in and comment with your own ideas as well. (more…)
Posted: Nicholas McGill
Categories: Becoming Heroik, Blog, Chronicles, featured, Heroik Life Hacks, Heroik MBA, Leadership, Simplicity, TEE Savers
Using Gamification to Improve Wellness & Productivity
Bringing gaming paradigms to the workplace is a growing market, especially in the digital space. The advantage to an individual is to rally excitement and add entertainment value around getting things done. Bombarding the brain with electronic visual stimuli is the latest form of positive reinforcement for mopping the floors, sending emails, paying the bills, dropping off the dry-cleaning and drinking more water or what have you.
Big Biz Wellness & Productivity – For businesses with an eye for saving money and fattening the bottom line, increasing buy-in & participation in wellness programs can significantly lower healthcare costs, boost productivity, and increase employee retention.
Big Biz Buy-In & Lower Labor Costs – Creating environments and experiences with built in game paradigms can be a real money maker and money saver. Essentially, with the right ingredients, a business can increase employee buy in, retention, and productivity while lowering labor costs simply by bringing in more of the elements you’d find in the floor of a casino, only tied to work tasks . What if your job were performance based and performance was measured at every step and task with a point value?
For many professional reasons and personal curiosity, we wanted to investigate how we could bring more of ‘The Game’ to life at home and at the workplace. Enter EpicWin- which is but one of many Heroik case-studies and adventures in gamification. (more…)
Tougher Than Your Mudder
We all had our reasons; vindicate our training and tough talk, to remind ourselves that we’re brave and capable, to satisfy our thirst for epic adventure, to do a little team building, to demonstrate leadership, and perhaps most important- to have a good time and enjoy the adventure. Staring from the starting line, knowing what was in store, I was more excited than afraid. Doing the Tough Mudder after recently pulling a hamstring, I’ll admit, was an intimidating notion. I knew we’d survive. I knew we’d get it done. I trusted my team and I wasn’t going to allow myself to quit, come hell or compound fracture. (more…)
Posted: Nicholas McGill
Categories: BYOX, Chronicles, featured, Heroik MBA, Required Courses, What We Do
Getting Beyond The Filter Bubble: Discover Your True Ranking
Eli Pariser explains in The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding from You
Heroik MBA Intro
What skills and wisdom are required to thrive and lead a balanced life? What wisdom can we carry over from the industrial age? Which practices and mentalities are obsolete? What are the new rules, guidelines and best practices, for life and business in a global, information based economy? If we are to honor in our professions the belief systems and principals we hold personally and individually, how would we go about that? These questions were filling my head in 2010, when I started down a path of seeking answers, cultivating experience, wisdom, skills, discipline and a eventually finding a new Way, new models, that scale and profit in more than just dollars. I’ve since been reviewing and organizing the practice into what I call the Heroik MBA. (more…)
Bring Your Own Bravery
The first step to become Heroik is to cultivate bravery.
Recklessness is bravery to excess. Cowardice is a lack thereof. Much of the world prefers cowards. We believe it’s better to edge a bit towards the reckless side of the bravery continuum as often times, the worst case scenarios aren’t nearly as perilous as the world would have you believe.They’re easier to manage and will work for less. At Heroik, we have a mantra that allows us to Get Heroik each and every day. We remind ourselves to bring our own bravery; to own and control our efforts and outcomes in life. Every challenge we undertake, every project and adventure, the least we can do is to be responsible and courageous enough not to look to others when it is time to get things done, have a good time, share epic experiences and lend a hand. We bring our own bravery, lead by example; get in there and get dirty. (more…)
