The 12 habits of highly ineffective non-leaders

I've been thinking a lot about leadership lately.  I think about it a lot in connection with some volunteer work I do and in connection with my Star Trek podcast. 😀

Managers are people who have formal authority in a particular job or responsibility. Leaders are people who exert influence through social relationships and engagement.

Sometimes managers are leaders, but not always.  Sometimes leaders are also managers, but not always. Often the true "leader" in an organization is not the person with formal authority.

It is not hard to find lists of the habits of highly effective leaders.  

But here, from the Michael Marek Management Handbook, are 12 habits of highly ineffective non-leaders:

1. Come in late and leave early - keep them guessing
   
2. Manage by edict - asking people what they think might undermine your authority
   
3. Don't let them predict when you are going to micromanage and when they have discretion
4. Assume that people don't really want to work, so you have to be a taskmaster
5. Never admit you were wrong about anything
6. Don't give people feedback on their work before it is time to fire them
   
7. Take credit for everything (never give credit where credit is due)
   
8. Make sure YOU know what YOUR superior wants before you voice an opinion
9. Knee-jerk everything - planning takes critical thinking and that's HARD
10. Let your temper go - it will scare them into obeying
    
11. Never socialize with your subordinates
12. Review Machiavelli at least once a month 
    

Leadership when combined with management is both an art and a science. Leaders should never knee-jerk their reactions and always think their responses through for the secondary and tertiary ramifications is possible courses of action.

How to Fail at Podcasting (or not)

I've been podcasting for some time now and listening to podcasts for a lot longer.  There are some great podcasts out there but also some stinkers.

Here are my nine rules for how to fail at podcasting and some of my reflections on the alternatives.

1.  Don’t have any clear subject matter for your podcast.  Be all over the map.

Listeners seek out podcsts because of the content they are looking for. As a result, your podcast needs to have a clear niche. If listeners can't predict what your next episode might be about, they are unlikely to subscribe, or stay subscribed very long. 

You need to "brand" what your show is about and preferably make it about something that 147 other podcasts are not also about. 

A narcissictic "it's about whatever I want" subject won't attract much of an audience, other than maybe your family and close friends.

2.  Use bad video and off-mic sound.

Theorist Marshall McLuhan said "the medium is the message."  If you are an audio-only podcast, you need excellent audio quality.  Sounding like you are a yard away from the microphone will turn off listeners fast. You don't necessarily need expensive professional microphone equipment, but use what you have professionally, which means having your microphone close to your mouth, recording in a quiet location, and avoiding distractions like "Popping Ps".

If you are also doing video, you also need a well-composed screen for each participant and good lighting. Weird camera angles and bad lighting appears unprofessional and ruins your credibility.  

3.  Ramble and use free-association as you talk.

You need to have a solid plan for your episode and stick to it.  At least have a rundown of topics planned in advance so all particiants can keep track as you record. Many podcasts use a relatively complete script, written in advance. 

And plan to edit your podcast before posting it.  At the very least, remove most (or all) of your "UMs" and generally tighten up the flow.  If you did end up wandering away from topic, maybe it's best to cut that section out.  The common professional audio editing software is Adobe Audition, but the Open Source (free) package Audcity will also do everything you need.

4.  It’s great to have multiple people all talking at once.

No, it's not. Only one person at a time should be talking and you should not be interrupting each other.  Whoever the "host" is for this episode should also be the discussion leader and moderator.  When you're verbally stepping on each other's toes  or talking over each other, it doesn't feel professional and, again, blows your credibility.

5.  Laugh uproariously at your own jokes.  

Humor is fine in a podcast, but remember that your focus has to be your audience, not your own narcissism. You aren't entertaining yourself.  You are entertaining your audience.  Be like the late-night talk shows - if you are telling the joke, you're the "straight man" (or woman or other gender choices, of course). Your side-kicks may respond, but nothing is more of a turn-off than people laughing at their own jokes 

6.  Spend at least 20 minutes talking about your personal lives before you get around to the announced topic of today’s episode.

This takes finnesse.  Some talk about yourselves (self-disclosure) can help make connections with the audience, but too many podcast people take way too long to get to the point of the episode.  Best is to make any opening small-talk short and sweet.  Also remember that people may be listening weeks or months into the future, so references to today's events need a light touch.

7.  Monster files are no problem, even if they take ages to download.

Save your finished podcast file in a way that is easy to download quickly. For audio-only, that means as an MP3 file, but wait, there's more.  

Unless you MUST have stereo, save your final as monaural.  It will be smaller and will download faster.  A sample rate of 44,100 Hz 16-bit is plenty of quality for a podcast that is mostly voice.  Try a format setting of MP3 192 Kbps. If you use lower than these numbers, listen to test recordings critically in headphones to ensure quality.  If you use bigger numbers, you probably won't hear an appreciable improvement in voice quality.

8.  Violate copyright - nobody will notice (probably).

The biggest point here is that you need to be REALLY careful about what music you use in your podcast. There is no way to blanket-license your podcast to play commercially-recorded music (although a few companies are cautiously getting their feet wet).  So if your podcast actually plays the music by name recording artists, you may easily be subject to copyright infringmenet legal actions. 

There are ways to find royalty-free music to use for your opening and closing themes and transitions, but beware. Many of the sites that claim to have royalty free music offer it only for personal use, and a podcast available to the general public is NOT personal use. Be sure to read their terms of service.

9.  Believe that "if you podcast it, they will come."

You need to not only produce a podcast with good technical quality and engaging content.  You need to promote it.  Get it listed with many podcast hosting sites as you can, promote it on social media, get yourself a professional-looking website, and promote, promote, promote still more. When podcasts instantaneously go viral, it is usually a freak occurance. How to really succeed at promoting would take tens of thousands of words, but promotion needs to be an importnt part of your planning.

I hope that this reverse psychology format has generated some ideas for your podcast.  A podcast is not something to start on a lark.  Those who do usually close down again soon.  Your podcast doesn't have to exist to make money (although that is possible, once your audience grows some) but you should still treat it as a professional undertaking.

Facebook

There has been a lot of angst recently about how Facebook uses data from user profiles. But pretty much every organization that uses advertising does essentially what Facebook does, i.e. collecting information about customers and using it to target advertising messages to them.  So how do we make sense out of current events in social media?

Yes, Everybody does it

It is a standard postulate of advertising and marketing that we respond most favorably when the messages we receive are relevant to our interests. So ALL advertising companies do research to find out where their preferred customers (and prospects) hang out in the media, and they advertise in those locations.

They also do various kinds of research to understand us better.  For example, the bar code scanning in our favorite supermarket.  Everything goes into a database, and if we pay by credit card for check, they know a lot about us, personally.  Have you ever noticed that the coupons that print out while we're checking out are usually for something we already buy (or a competitor)?

Data collection about customers is not new, by any means.

• For centuries, newspapers and later radio and TV created interesting content in order to get people to also see advertisements.
• Starting in the 1970s there was an explosion of specialty magazines, allowing advertisers to reach audiences they knew was already interested in the specialty products the advertiser sells. 
• The hundreds of cable channels now provide this same pre-selection of specialty interests for advertisers.
• When businesses started using the WEB, the same thing happened -- specialty websites sprang up allowing advertisers to find the audience interested in their particular specialty products.

Modern mobile technology has certainly taken this way of doing business to new heights, like knowing your exact location so they can text you discount coupons when you are near a certain store. But it is more of the same and NOT something unprecedented.


How does Facebook Advertising work?

When you make a post on a Facebook business page, some people see the post "organically" because they already follow the page, or they see a friend comment or like the post.

But as page administrator, you also have the opportunity to pay money to extend the post so more people see it.  You can select friends of your current followers, or use a variety of other criteria, such as geographic area, age, and gender.  Facebook also watches what members post, like, and share, so you can select people based on a variety of interests which Facebook has identified, resulting from your history of posting.

In doing this, Facebook does NOT actually share your data.  The advertiser provides the criteria, and Facebook does the match internally in its system, and "serves" the post (advertisement) to the people who match the criteria.


So how did Cambridge Analytica get the data?

According to this article, the researcher, Dr. Kogan, made an agreement with Facebook which allowed collection of data for research purposes, but forbade transferring the data to third parties.

At face value, this is reasonable.  Academic researchers collect personal data all the time, but ethical research does not allow the identities of the participants to be known by anyone outside the study. Institutions have mechanisms in place to ensure this, called "Human Subjects Institutional Review Boards."  I have served on HSIRB at my school and have written proposals seeking approval for my research plans.

In keeping with this, Facebook prohibits collected data from being sold or transferred “to any ad network, data broker or other advertising or monetization-related service.” Dr. Kogan apparently collected the data, then violated the agreement with Facebook and transferred the data anyway.


What was the real failure here?

One can certainly argue that Facebook needs a stronger way of enforcing it's terms of service policy than simply trusting people to comply.

One can argue that websites and apps on which we post personal data should not be allowed to use that data, but this has been happening for 20 years or more on almost every commercial online platform you visit.  It is the REASON they exist, i.e. to make money (not to "serve the public.")

One can argue that users need more warnings about "the information you are about to post may be used for advertising, and delivered back to you in individually-targeted messages."  Most people will still ignore the messages, as they do the terms of service and other warnings.

One can argue that the people in Congress who are charged with regulating this stuff have no clue about what they are trying to regulate (a fact made clear by the questions from members of Congress to Mark Zuckerberg).

I wish I could boil this all down to a single failure with corresponding solution, but the social media environment is too complex.

The vast majority of these web and app systems are for-profit undertakings, meaning that they either need to charge fees, or depend on advertising.  The tried and true business model is to attract an audience with interesting content, and then expose them to advertising, ideally focused to the interests of the audience because what is advertised aligns with the content.

But most consumers conceptualize these content sources as "services" and do not understand that they, themselves, are an audience being sold to advertisers.  This makes them gullible and prone to impulse when they encounter memes, quizzes, and other means of data collection.

There is no simply way to change this paradigm, but public education is part of it.  Caveat Emptor (let the buyer beware) is critical.  Stop and think what information you are entering into the app or website.

If you don't want the entire world to know something, don't put it on the Internet (including ANY communication transmitted via technology).

Why go to the Moon?

Going back to the Moon will be great -- if it's a means to an end and not an end in itself.

The Trump administration announced an initiative today to partner with private industry to return Americans to the Moon, and continue on to Mars.

I like the idea...if it's done right. But it could easily be done wrong.

First a confession

The starry-eyed idealist in me believes that we MUST establish a population of humans off the Earth, because there are SO many things that could destroy the Earth, or at least destroy civilization. I have thought this since I was old enough to understand the ramifications of the Cold War, and my ideas have been strengthened by the credible threats of climate change, big rocks from space, and even things like the Yellowstone super-volcano, not to mention epidemics, political stupidity, and other threats.

For the human race to insure that it will survive for the very long term, we have to distribute ourselves, in a way that is sustainable, on many different worlds, and eventually many different star systems.

Now back to today

Based on my logic above, having a significant human presence on the Moon, and eventually getting it to the point where it does not need resupply from Earth, would be a good thing. 

Having a significant human presence on MARS, and eventually getting it to the point where it does not need resupply from Earth, would also be a good thing, and possibly easier to sustain, in the long run, than the Moon.

There are other worlds in our solar system with lots of water and the possibility of sustainable colonies, as well.

Why return to the Moon now?

The biggest reason to go to the Moon now is to begin developing the technology we need to do the rest of this stuff.

A lander that can set down on Mars would also likely be able to set down on the Moon, which would be a good way to test it. The deep space outpost around the Moon, previously announced, can be the precursor of the orbit-to-orbit "mother ship" that takes people and landers to Mars, and maybe farther out.  We need to develop these things, step by step.

But we also need to start thinking not just in terms of reusable space vehicles, but also vehicles that can do lots of stuff.  Like the space opera fiction of the 1950s, our next generation of craft needs to be flexible enough to go many different places and land on many different worlds.

That's expensive, isn't it?

Yes, but the reusability brings the cost down a lot.  Partnering with private industry brings the cost down a lot.  Stable goals that do not get changed every time there is a new president would make a BIG difference. 

And remember -- every dollar spent on space is spent ON EARTH.  All the R&D and construction contracts go to companies and institutions on Earth which employ people, and have payrolls.  It would require a big push for STEM education, which would benefit lots of other technology programs and companies, also.  Face it, without the Apollo Program, you probably wouldn't have smartphones.

Is there a down side?

There is some concern that the Trump administration is pushing NASA to the Moon and Mars as a way of deemphasizing Earth resources programs and climate research.  It may be, and those programs will need protection in Congress. 

But going to the Moon, Mars, and beyond is still a wise investment in the future of the human species.

8+1 Life Hacks to help you Succeed in College

2020 edit:  I wrote this article in 2017, long before the COVID-19 pandemic.  Today, I add one more behavior that will lead to success - wear your masks faithfully, be meticulous about social distancing, and don't cheat on virus safety rules. Even if you only get a little bit sick, you could infect other people who are at much higher risk.

_____________________________

The school year is starting and every year, college freshmen have to figure out how to live their lives independently.  For many, it will be the first time they have been away from home for very long.

All college students need to figure out how to balance their school work, social lives, jobs, and sleep.  Some never figure it out by the time they graduate (or leave school without graduating). Some struggle and eventually figure it out.  A few are in great shape from the beginning.

College is about academic learning, certainly.  But it is also about learning life skills, like organization, work ethic, and how to balance multiple priorities and stay in control.

If you are a new college student or are close to someone who is, consider the following eight strong recommendations I make for new students.  They may seem obvious, but when you are newly on your own, sometimes they are harder to accomplish than you think.

1. Go to class and take notes

This seems like it would be most obvious, but many new college students are too casual about their classes.  Some only attend sporadically.

Don't fool yourself into thinking "nothing much is going on in that class, I can skip today."  

Class is where you learn the professional skills that will get you a good job down the road. But it is also where you make connections with teachers who will give you strong references (or not strong).   

If you often skip class, remember that a prospective employer is likely to ask me "is she dependable?"  I can't lie. 

2. Turn in assignments on time

This follows from point one.  In addition to the fact that your grade is likely to suffer from a late assignment, being late also speaks to your dependability, work ethic, and initiative.   

Late assignments are a big flashing red light over your head that says "do not hire me."

3. Do not procrastinate; be ahead of the curve

You don't learn much from hurry-up rush jobs on assignments.  You teacher has made the assignment because it will help you achieve the objectives of the class.   

Doing the minimum to get by on the theory of "a D still passes the course" means maybe you should not be in college. Why spend thousands of dollars that either you or your parents will have to pay back if you aren't ready to apply yourself to learning? 

The same advice also applies in everything else you do in college.  Take charge and be in control of all the various parts of your life.  If something seems beyond your power to control, don't allow yourself to be helpless - figure it out.  

4.  Don't be a drunk

To be blunt, most college students drink, including before they turn legal age. Some do pot or other drugs. But if you do, like everything else in this article, don't let it control your life. 

If alcohol, pot, or other controlled substances control you, rather than the other way around, you are tempting failure.

The typical college students would ignore me if I encouraged complete teetotaling, but that's not the real point.  The point is to be in control and don't let it take over your life. Which leads to the next point...

5. Ask for help when you need it

College and university campuses have all kinds of help available to you, from special meetings with your teachers, to tutors, to emotional counseling, and everything in-between. Absolutely do not be too proud or too nervous to ask for help if you need it, whatever the needed help is.  

6. Schedule your study time

Sure, college is complicated.  There is a lot going on.  But other people are not going to keeping you on target anymore.  YOU need to take control of your life and your schedule. 

I strongly recommend scheduling your study time, just like you schedule other things in your life.  For every hour you spend in the classroom, teachers are supposed to be assigning your TWO hours of homework.   

Make sure you set the time aside, and do not low ball how much time you really need.  If you DO get done early, so much the better, but don't skimp on study time. 

7. Work at making college friends

You are not going to be happy in college if you are isolated and have no friends.  If you make the effort to find friends and join in campus activities, it will help your school work and your overall learning (as long as you keep your social life in balance).  Hang out and do things with your roommate and dorm neighbors.  Join campus organizations to meet people with interests similar to yours. 

Sometimes taking these steps to make friends feels awkward and makes you a little nervous, but it is worth it. 

Plus, this is where boyfriends and girlfriends come from, which are part and parcel of college life for many students.  Such relationships are great, but remember the basic theme of keeping all parts of your life in balance.  Don't ignore the advice in this article, just because there is someone new in your life. 

8. Get enough sleep

Again, this seems obvious, but college students your age need at least seven hours of sleep a night, with a little more on weekends.   

Not getting enough sleep will tempt you to violate all of the other recommendations above. Plus you will have higher stress, more chance of mental health issues, and you will generally be more miserable. 

Like all of the other points above, take charge of your sleep schedule and remain in control.

As I said, these things may all be obvious, but each semester I have students who stop coming to class, fail to turn assignments, or otherwise get their lives off track. Some get their act together and get back on track.  Some don't.

It's true that college is a pretty desirable lifestyle, particularly if you don't worry about classwork. You have more independence than ever before and your lodging and food (most of it) are pre-paid.

But also remember that you are making decisions that will have consequences for years to come.  Be proactive and make them smart decisions.