On leadership.

Whether you're a fan of old time hockey or not -- or if you are, whether you're a fan of the Bruins or not -- you could learn a lot from their goalie Tim Thomas, who pitched a shutout last night against the Lightning.

Unlike a lot of high-profile athletes who take credit and lay blame, he's the opposite.

When things go bad, particularly when the guys in front of him do something boneheaded and put him in a tough spot, he's the first to defend them. To pick them up. And even take the blame with an "I should have made that stop" comment. He takes all the pressure off his teammates and places it squarely on his shoulders, because he knows he needs them at the top of their games the next time they hit the ice.

And when he stands on his head and doesn't let a single puck get past him, like last night, he talks about the guys in front of him. About how they made the tough plays and kept the puck in front of them and kept the forecheck on and kept the pressure up. He deflects all the positive attention from himself and showers his teammates with it, because he knows he needs them to be at the top of their games the next time they hit the ice.

No matter what your job, if you're in a position of leadership, your job is to get the best out of your team. To get them to get outside their comfort zones and go to places they didn't even think they could go. When they know you have their backs, in good times or bad, they'll work their asses off for you. And deliver.

And make you look good.

On T-shaped people.

One of the prevailing topics of conversation at this year's Making Digital Work 4 conference at Boulder Digital Works was the notion of T-shaped people.

It's something that was coined by Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, in an article of Fast Company way back in 2005. It's a fascinating concept. Here's a snippet:

"We look for people who are so inquisitive about the world that they're willing to try to do what you do. We call them "T-shaped people." They have a principal skill that describes the vertical leg of the T -- they're mechanical engineers or industrial designers. But they are so empathetic that they can branch out into other skills, such as anthropology, and do them as well. They are able to explore insights from many different perspectives and recognize patterns of behavior that point to a universal human need. That's what you're after at this point -- patterns that yield ideas."

In other words, have a deep understanding of and experience with something. Be really, really, really great at it. But don't stop there. You have to branch out. Push the boundaries of what you know to the left and to the right.

When I got into the ad business nearly 20 years ago, I was a copywriter. That was it. My job was to write copy. Sure, I worked in different media, but always as a copywriter. After a while, however, my natural curiosity led me to taking some design classes. And learning how to edit video. And doing voiceovers and on-camera acting. And taking photography classes. And diving headlong into social media. And taking a stab at UX for a friend's startup's web site. And...

I'm still a copywriter. It's what I know best and what I have the most experience with. That's the vertical leg of my T. But every day I try to push the ends of the top of my T out a little further. Get a little better at something out there. Or learn something new.

I'm sure you know your specialty. Your vertical.

But what makes the top of your T? How wide is it? And are you pushing it further?

I'll leave you with the words of Robert Heinlein regarding specialization:

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

On 5.

My boy turned 5 today. Seems like yesterday...

On making digital work.

Okay, I figure eight months is long enough to be on hiatus from Just Be Kos. So I'm back. And I have every intention of remaining back, but you know how these things can go.

So I spent the past two days at the Making Digital Work 4 conference at Boulder Digital Works. When I attend a conference I usually figure that if I find 25% of the content inspiring, they did pretty well. I've suffered through a mind-numbing amount worthless presentations at conferences throughout the years -- some poorly masked sales pitches for the speakers' businesses, some completely elementary, some ridiculously impractical, and many just plain boring -- so 25% is actually a pretty high standard.

I'm rating MDW4 at about 80%. It was probably the best professional conference I've ever been to. If you get the chance, don't hesitate. Go.

First, I got something out of every single presenter. Every single one had content that I (and my nine co-workers who were there as well) felt could and should be taken back to my agency and implemented, like, yesterday.

Second, most of the presenters were really interesting. It helped that the room was intimate and every presentation happened in the same place, vs. having to move from room to room. But these were folks who obviously loved and were proud of what they did, and were excited to present it. On top of that, the presenters played off each other. As evidenced by their Twitter feeds, they hung out together. It showed. And that made it all the more engaging.

But thirdly, and most importantly, I discovered that while digital was a platform for the conference, a rather large bulk of the topics and insights went way beyond digital application. They were quite simply about how the hell we need to be running our businesses and serving our clients right now. In 2011 and beyond.

We got some changing to do.

My mind is swirling with ideas and possibilities. Once I'm able to start turning them into semi-intelligible chunks of thought instead of the random chaos they are now, I'll throw some more here.

And I promise I won't wait eight months to do it.

In the meantime, you can actually watch the entire conference here. And download all the presentations here. And read the Twitter feed from the conference at hashtag #mdwboulder.

On storytelling.

Here's a link to a fantastic article entitled Steve Jobs and the Power of Storytelling. Please go read it ASAP. Well, as soon as you've finished reading this post, of course.


It's a great encapsulation of why I've been teaching storytelling classes here at Integer and to our clients for the past couple years. To quote the article:


Stories are more powerful today than ever. Why?

• We are drowning in information. Good stories can cut through the noise.
• Personal stories  feel “real” vs abstract concepts, statistics, or logical arguments
• Stories capture people on an emotional level, creating a deeper, intimate bond.
• Stories are memorable. People forget facts but remember stories.

That last point is the most important, especially for business presentations. Or brands. You want to be memorable, right?

Then lay off the facts.

As my pal and co-creator of our Storytelling class Ethan Decker says, "People don't need to know all the facts. They just need to know that you know them."

So find your point and tell it with a story. Pepper it with a few I-did-not-know-that facts to help hold the story together and give it credibility.

And watch how people engage.