Dark Matter Consulting

Sonic Boom

Dave Kaiser — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 15:57:54 +0000

Around World War II, planes started getting faster. Shortly after, we started building planes that could fly close to the speed of sound. As planes would go faster, though, the noise would increase, and a lot of pilots and engineers were concerned that at a certain point, a plane would tear itself apart from the noise. I’m sure that in the pilot’s seat, it must have been pretty terrifying. For that reason, they often referred to the “Sound Barrier,” meaning they might not be able to break through it. What happened, though, was that once the airplane was going aster than the speed of sound, rather than being noisy, it was peaceful and quiet. They were literally out-running the sound they were making.

What does this have to do with coaching, leadership, personal growth? I’m glad you asked. So often when we wish to make a change in our lives, as we approach the threshold, it starts to get really noisy from fear and worry, to the point we wonder if we will survive. As we push through the barrier we find out that on the contrary, it’s peaceful and quiet. I’ve been through this process myself many times, and guided clients through it, yet it never fails to amaze me how each time we approach that barrier and it gets noisy, even though we may “know” how quiet it will be on the other side, we worry and hold back. I know I do this. I’m doing it right now in some areas of my life, even though I “know better.” The solution, to keep pushing the throttle and trust that it will be OK, not just OK, but peaceful.

Why I like Social Media

Dave Kaiser — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 22:08:04 +0000

I finally get why I like it…it helps our hearts and minds work to scale. I read somewhere that based on the size of our brains, relative to other primates, we would thrive in a group of 150 – 200 individuals. Maybe this worked on the savannah 10,000 years ago, or the farm village 1000 years ago, but cities are too big for that, so it can become overwhelming and anonymous. Social media allows us to create and manage small communities. Sometimes geographically, sometimes socially, sometimes according to obscure interests such that our “village” is scattered all over the globe (I am part of a LinkedIn group that has 150 people on six continents, it’s awesome!) Without it, we have to rely on our outmoded and under-resourced brains to manage in a world that is bigger than our design specs say we can handle. How cool is that? Yay

I’m going to SxSW

Dave Kaiser — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:55:22 +0000

I will be at South by SouthWest Interactive this year, as part of their new Mentor sessions. I will be providing mentoring (obvious, right?) and guidance to interested individuals. I look forward to seeing you there, find me via Twitter, my handle is @DarkMatterCon.

UPDATE: my mentor session is at 11 on Saturday, Holiday Inn Town Lake: Lantana A. You will be able to sign up soon!

Hiring is Up, Unemployment is Down

Dave Kaiser — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:25:58 +0000

I’m excited by this. I think we are finally starting to move past the Great Recession

Exciting News, My First Book is Published!

Dave Kaiser — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 02:55:18 +0000

It’s a workbook, entitled “60 Days to Greater Confidence.” I actually wrote it about three years ago, and decided on a whim to try a Print-On-Demand publisher. So….it’s now available at CreateSpace (Click HERE) and will soon be up at Amazon (link to follow). It’s on sale for $8.75, but for readers of my blog, you can use discount code J2MT6AQ4 to get 15% off.

This was such a great process, I look forward to doing it again soon!

UPDATE, it is now available on Amazon as well. Click here for the link!

Matthew Bishop meets Crash Davis

Dave Kaiser — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 04:36:04 +0000

In the midst of a jobless recession, many companies are having a hard time finding talented employees, according to this story by Matthew Bishop in the Economist. How can this possibly be so?

Once upon a time, big companies were more interested in hiring employees who were pretty much interchangeable in their work and their appearance, and then aggregating their efforts in a fairly predictable manner in order to gain economies of scale. This was very profitable during the 20th century. And the systems that were set up didn’t allow for much variation, the most workers generated the same amount of value for the business, and the difference between the “best” workers, and the middle of the pack wasn’t that big. To illustrate this, imagine we are talking about digging a hole. The best diggers can dig maybe two or three times as much as the average. Nice, but not that big a difference.

The world is different now. Simply aggregating effort via bureaucracy isn’t enough anymore. New technologies and expectations make smaller, nimbler, more ENGAGED companies dangerous to sleepy behemoths. instead of digging holes, think about writing. The best writers aren’t two or three times more productive than average, they are hundreds of times more productive, and they write better stuff, too, whereas digging a hole…is still just digging a hole. Mark Zuckerberg of FaceBook has asserted that the exceptional employee “is not just a little better than someone who is pretty good, they are 100 times better.”

What does this mean? Well, companies are no longer interested in hiring large numbers of mediocre employees anymore. They want people that can make a big difference to the bottom line. So there is no longer safety in being part of the herd. You need to be Extraordinary, and if you are, not only will you survive, you will thrive. Those who hide in mediocrity will be suffering.

This may seem like a bit much to ask, but remember that small improvements matter. As minor-league catcher Crash Davis noted in the movie “Bull Durham,” the difference between staying in the minors where you carry your own luggage, and playing in Yankee Stadium, is one hit per week. Where can you pull out on more hit per week? Maybe make one more sales call before you go home every day. Maybe put in a few more minutes a day to push for your new product. Maybe take one more chance a week. Do that consistently, and you won’t be worrying about your job, you’ll be fending off multiple competing offers from companies that want to recruit you….

Thursday Thanks ManKind Project

Dave Kaiser — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 14:07:47 +0000

OK, I am going to reboot the Thursday Thanks category here at the DarkMatter blog. Today I want to thank the Mankind Project (Also known as New Warriors). I went to an MKP weekend here in Chicago back in ’04, and it changed my life for the better. I have learned to look at my own shadow and to make changes in myself. I have been meeting with a small group of men for years, and I recently began staffing the weekends. I have made several close friendships in the group, and I have learned some amazing techniques that have benefited my own personal and spiritual growth, and helped me to be more present and effective with clients. Day by day, I chip away at the crap that prevents me from showing up as fully and powerfully and lovingly as I want to, and I am slowly becoming a better man through the process. MKP started me down the journey of healing and personal growth. Without it, I would probably be divorced, estranged from my daughter, in some dead-end job, or maybe just dead. Thanks in large part to MKP, I am a good dad, I have my own business which I love, I am part of a wonderful community, and I like what I see in the mirror (most days).

BHAG – Big Hairy Audacious Goal

Dave Kaiser — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 05:58:25 +0000

So, I was working with my coach, Jean-Pierre LeBlanc, recently, and we began to talk about the Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) for my coaching. Many great human endeavors started with somethign that had seemed crazy. Kennedy proposed putting a man on the moon in less than 10 years. Bill Gates wanted a computer on every desk, at a time when most computers took up more than a room, *those* are BHAGs. So, my coach asked, what is my BHAG? Mine is to make the entire world a kinder, more loving, more exciting and abundant place. OK, sounds fluffy, like something a beauty pageant contestant would say…except that I’m serious. I want to have that kind of impact on the world. I want the whole damn world to be a better place because of my work, PERIOD. OK, that’s a BHAG, no equivocating there. So, my coach asks, how will you know you’ve done that, Dave? Fair question. I will know I have impacted the world when I have had 10 or more clients who are Big Names, such as people mentioned on the TIME Magazine’s Most Influential People list, or the like. These are people who have big impact, and if they have bigger, or more powerful and positive impact, because they have worked with me, then I have done my job. Now, I’m not there yet, but I will get there. I have focus, and metrics, so now it is simply a matter of time…and audacity. I know I have lots of the latter, as to the former, we’ll see.

So, a friend gave me a copy of TIME’s 100 most influential list, and I noted the following people who I would love to have as clients. If you are on this list and find this post, please feel free to reach out to me, I can help you to become even more impactful. If you know one of these individuals, I would be most grateful for an introduction. Otherwise, keep your fingers crossed for me and send me good thoughts, I’m on a path. So, without further ado, here is the list of people from the TIME’s Most Influential People, whom I would love to have as clients (in no order).

Reed Hastings

Joseph Stiglitz

Amy Poehler

Geoffrey Canada

Ron Bruder

Mark Zuckerberg

Julian Assange

Jennifer Egan

Congressman Paul Ryan

Rob Bell

Colin Firth

Amy Chua

Joe Biden

Cory Booker

Gabrielle Giffords

Michelle Obama

Michele Bachman

Chris Christie

Justin Bieber

Prince William / Kate Middleton

Joe Scarborough

Tom Ford

Saad Mohseni

Sue Savage-Rumbaugh

Blake Lively

Hilary Clinton

Oprah Winfrey

Esther Duflo

Matthew Weiner

Lisa Jackson

Larry Page

Nathan Wolfe

Cecile Richards

Grant Achatz (I like the picture with the pheasant)

Feisal Rauf

Heidi Murkoff

Rebecca Eaton

Kathy Giusti

Ray Chambers

Scott Rudin

Derrick Rossi

Felisa Wolfe-Simon

Sergio Marchionne

David Cameron

Mia Wasikowska

John Lasseter

Chris Colfer

Major General Margaret Woodward

Bruno Mars

David and Charles Koch

General David Petraeus

Matt Damon

Gary White

George R R Martin

Jamie Dimon

Sting

Jonathan Franzen

Michelle Rhee

Mark Wahlberg

Arianna Huffington

Barack Obama

John Boehner

Benjamin Netanyahu

Patti Smith

What NOT to do to get more done

Dave Kaiser — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:21:51 +0000

I have a new article up at LifeHack. The idea is, you’re always hearing about more things you need to do to be productive, this article is about what you can stop doing to get more done. Read it HERE, and leave comments there, or below!

Too Busy For Professional Development?

Dave Kaiser — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 05:58:58 +0000

I hear this all the time: “I can’t afford to take time away from work to go to some seminar or conference.” Often, it’s from the guy or gal near the top of the pyramid, too. The way I see it, you can;t afford not to learn. The world is changing fast, your competitors are rolling out new products, even whole new business models. Technology is changing. Globalization is making the world smaller, and it’s making your world more complex. Your people need to learn, too, and they are looking at you as a role model, and you’re…doing nothing about it?

I get it, you’re busy. You need to be able to justify any time you spend away from your desk in terms of return on investment. That’s why Executive Coaching is such a great option for so many people. First, it’s not disruptive. You spend 60 minutes, every other week, having a conversation in your office or on the phone. That’s it. You already do that with clients and partners. You don’t need days and days offsite, plus travel.

Second, coaching is woven into your work life. It’s not something you step out of work to do, it’s part of your work. This also means it’s more likely to “stick,” that is, to be persist and be part of your every day life.

Third, it’s customized for you. Unlike a class, which can be too fast or too slow or maybe not even covering the material you need, a coaching engagement is designed for you with your needs and your preferences in mind.

Lastly, coaching works. Coaching actually brings about change. You want to get more organized, be more strategic, stop yelling at your staff, communicate better, or build relationships more effectively? A good Executive Coach will help you do that, AND, the benefits will usually spill over into your personal life as well. Talk to someone who has had a good coach. They’ll tell you it’s a game-changing experience. The Former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, says that “everyone needs a coach.” He’s right, too.

So, no more excuses, this year is the year you make change, you fix a problem, and you seize an opportunity. Contact me at Dave@DarkMatterConsulting.com for a complimentary strategy session.

Image: Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net