Successful Blog

Thanks to Week 65 SOBs

by

muddy teal strip A

Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

muddy teal strip A

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this badge’s validity, send him or her directly to me. This award comes with a full “Liz said so” guarantee. It is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

deep purple strip

Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame. Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Ideas? 20 Questions to Kickstart New Thoughts

by

(Updated in 2020)

Get Curious – Ask 20 Questions

What are you thinking right now? Are you thinking about your answer to that question?

We’re good at answering questions. We learn that in school. Sometimes we get so busy preparing our answers that we miss what’s going on around us.

10 Questions to Kickstart New Thoughts

Imagine you just landed on this planet. You’d have a passel of questions and a totally beginner’s view. The key is not to fix things, but to find new reactions to what you encounter.

Take that beginner’s view. Get curious. React and respond to what you encounter. Ask questions about everything and the ideas start showing up. Start with these 20 questions to kickstart new thoughts.

  1. What do you see what you look at me? What do you see when you look at yourself?
  2. What do you hear when you listen to all of the sounds around you?
  3. What is it that everyone wants to know, but is afraid to ask? What are the silly things we don’t tell people that they should know?
  4. What do we do that is touching or ridiculous?
  5. What do we take for granted that seems to have no logic?
  6. What would you do if you had only one day to spend here?
  7. What of our ordinary buildings, machines, and gadgets would stymie and fascinate you?
  8. What about our planet would amaze you?
  9. What about humanity would inspire you?
  10. If you had a conversation with yourself, what would you talk about?

The ideas are waiting in the details. Twist your view; add a dash of imagination; and take a look.

10 More . . .

I have 10 more questions. They’re all about you.

  1. Do you do stuff like keep your ketchup bottle upside down or choose songs based on what others are listening to online?
  2. Do you find money that you forgot about in a jacket pocket?
  3. Do you get nervous when a boss starts a friendly conversation for no apparent reason?
  4. Do you know a story that people ask you to tell over and over?
  5. Do you wonder what else you might have done with all of the time that you’ve been blogging?
  6. Do you know the most important thing you’ve learned?
  7. Do you know what gadget you would invent if you could?
  8. Do you have a secret for dealing with folks who cause stress wherever they go?
  9. Do you know what you want to be if you grow up? Will you share an idea or two?
  10. Do you wonder what it’s like to be me the way I wonder what it’s like to be you?

If you answered “yes” to any of those, and you decide to write a post, I’d read your answer. I bet that lots of folks would.

Remember react and respond to what you encounter. Ask questions about everything and the ideas start showing up.

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Photo by Zach Lucero on Unsplash

SOB Business Cafe 01-19-07

by

SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking–articles on the business of blogging written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Michael Stelzner wants your vote on the Best Books.

Orbit Now! has 10 Traits that are worth knowing about.

Shards of Consciousness exquisitely details how to change domains on a WordPress blog. This is fine art in how-to writing.

Copyblogger points out why keeping connected is critical to a growing blog.

A View from the Isle points out a truth of humanity.

Vitaly Friedman has the right stuff for drawing up our plans.

Related ala carte selections include

The Zehnkatzen Times coins the much needed phrase “clicky to embiggen” to let you know he has our colors.

A Weblog Tools Collection Essay teaches the fine art of blog juggling.

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like.
No tips required. Comments appreciated.

Have a great weekend!

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Taking Out My Crayons . . .

by

I've been thinking . . .
Winter days make me tired and less likely to smile even at the end of a Friday.

It’s a battle to keep my smile when my body is stiffened to fight the cold. Inside where it’s warm, I’m aware that the heat is unnatural, I want to hibernate like the bears. I know when I venture out I’ll have to fight the weather to keep my body and my temperament warm.

The coats, the boots, the bundling up, the time — the time to get ready, the time to clean off the car, the time to get there — the discomfort of trying to be comfortable in the uncomfortable clothing . . . all of these are exactly what wear me during the winter weeks. By Friday I’m not feeling cordial. I’m looking for space, some natural warmth. Actually, I’m dreaming of a rock in the desert, of digging the caliche clay in my old Austin backyard in 100 degree weather with 90 percent humidity.

We’re coming up on Jan. 24th. This morning, someone told me that Jan. 24th is the day the most people in the northern hemisphere are down in the dumps.

I won’t go there. Nu-uh, no way, not me. Even if you can’t smell, dumps are stinky places to go.

I’m taking out my crayons this weekend. I’m not kidding about that. I’m going to get the biggest sheet of paper that I can find.

I’m coloring a new sky with a huge, hot yellow sun. It will probably look like the pictures I drew when I was five years old. That will work just fine. In fact, it might be better . . . Five year olds have magic that we forget about.

When the sky is gray, and the air is cold, my crayons will make the sky a bright beautiful blue with a screaming comic-book yellow sun!

That will make my weekend and my mood luminescently brighter.

Heck, I even might put my sunglasses on and sit beside it.

If I do that, I know everyone I meet will be in a much better mood.

Liz's Signature

Dragonslaying Isn’t Good Leadership

by

Off I Go to Solve the Problem

kitten

I rememer it clearly. It was my calling as a young manager. A youthful team member would come to me with a problem. Someone in another department was behaving in a manner that wasn’t right or just. I would set off on a quest. I’d be mentally dressed full armor as in a royal fairy tale.

I would be off to slay the dragon. And slay that dragon I often did.

Unfortunately, after I slayed the dragon I would listen to the other side of the story . . .

That’s when I’d see that the dragon I’d just slain was really a kitten.

Over time I learned two things well.

  1. Leadership listens, considers, and seeks out all of the information before taking action.
  2. People are not grateful when you slay their dragons for them.

Now, my response to a similar story is, “Oh, I’m so sorry that happened. Shall we discuss some thing you might do to get the situation back on track again or do you already have an action plan?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Myers-Briggs: Vacation and Work with your PJs

by

Last in the Series:

Two Groups — Two Vacations

Customer Think Logo

Armed with our individual Myers-Briggs Type Indicator results, the seminar leader divided the 25 of us into two groups, one group on each side of the room. We didn’t know how the groups were decided. We only knew that we were assigned a task.

“Plan a vacation together,” she said. Then she allowed us a block of time to do so.

The two groups jumped on the task with enthusiasm. This was much more fun than a day at the office. At the office, we worked together as a department, so a group vacation was easy to imagine. I remember looking around at my group that day, thinking This is the group I would want to vacation with. How did she know that?

When the time was up, two vacations had been planned. They sounded something like this.

  • Group 1 had decided to go to Europe. They knew exactly which countries they would visit. They named who would be in charge of airline and hotel reservations. They knew the city in which they would meet to officially begin the trip. They planned how many days they would spend in each location in Europe and exactly what sights they would see. They knew how much free time they would have for shopping and by what transportation they would travel from every point A to every point B.
  • Group 2 had decided to go to Taos, New Mexico and from there to the Bahamas for a total of three weeks. However, if anyone got to Taos and wanted to stay, no one was under obligation to go further. The schedule and entertainment in each location was a pile of enticing possibilities.

Both groups were delighted with our plans.

Vacation and Work with your PJs (and other letters)

All of my work life, I’ve run into people who believed that everyone thinks the same way, should do things the same way — the industrial revolution was run on that exact premise.

I use the vacation planning story above to bring home the point that we don’t think alike. Want more proof?

Think about when your vacation starts. Does it start when you leave work on the last day before? . . . or when you leave for the airport or when you get in the car? . . . or does it not start until you’ve arrived and settled in? If your answer is different from that of your vacation companion, there could be conflict without understanding.

If my companions’ vacation starts before mine does, it’s irritating. He’s playing. I’m still trying to get to where my vacation begins.

If we care about how others think when we plan, we can get the best effect with the least stress and conflict. Hey, who doesn’t prefer a smile to getting yelled at? Though everyone is able to work in all eight modes, we have more fuel when we can go with our natural preferences.

Here are some ways to manage a team to their strengths and preferences.

  • E/I — Let the Extroverts network and investigate at the conference. Ask the Introverts to gather what’s happening and report back. Extroverts remember that folks who say nothing don’t necessarily agree. Introverts keep in mind that not sharing thoughts can be confused with withholding information.
  • N/S — The Intuitives are great at innovation. The Sensors can make sure the execution is flawless. Intuitives who know themselves value the grounding that Sensors can offer. Sensors of the same maturity know that intuitive detail often fills in what’s missing from the empirical data.
  • T/F — Have a Thinker evaluate a competitor’s product. Then have a Feeler tell whether customers will buy it. Feelers with experience realize that when a Thinker says “You’re not going to do THAT, are you?” the Thinker is being generous with information. Thinkers with experience understand that Feelers hear with the filter of emotion and nuance. Both groups do well when they connect head and heart as they speak and listen.
  • P/J — Ask Perceivers to brainstorm a list of ideas and steps in a process. Then let the Judgers build the schedule and detail the action plan. Perceivers can use Judgers to know when too many options are pinning them down or stopping progress. Judgers can use Perceivers to gain fluency and flexibility with ideas and processes.

We work counter to our preferences every day, and we do well. But it wears us out. It makes us tired and cranky, and strains relationships. When we do what we’re good at, work is fun; we’re enthusiastic; and we’re exponentially more passionate and productive. Which do you think is better for us, for the customers, and for the work?

On that Myers-Briggs day, the Ps “went to Taos.” The Js “went to Europe.” We all had fun planning in our homogenous groups.

How would you get a team of both Ps and Js to plan a vacation that worked?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
If you think I can help with your business, your brand or your blog, check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Related articles
Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator as a Personal Productivity Tool
Who’s Talking about the Myers Briggs Tonight?

Other resources
Keirsey.com They carried on the research.
Google Directory for Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Type Logic Resources and software