Jon Kolko on How to Improve Social Interactions at Work

In Chapter 13 of 16 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, educator and designer Jon Kolko answers "How Are You Learning to Work More Effectively With Different Personality Types?" Kolko shares how working effectively with others, no matter what differences exist, comes down to respect. Respecting a person's point of view creates a more accepting foundation to have a discussion and to communicate more effectively. Jon Kolko is VP of Design at MyEdu and the Founder and Director of Austin Center for Design (AC4D). He has authored three books on design and previously has worked in design roles at Austin, Texas venture accelerator Thinktiv and global innovation firm frog design. He was a professor of Interaction and Industrial Design at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) and earned his Masters in Human Computer Interaction (MHI) and BFA in Design from Carnegie Mellon University.

Humor and Other Leadership Skills You Use More as Your Career Grows

In Chapter 10 of 20 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, social entrepreneur Courtney Spence answers "What Skills Are You Using More As Your Career Advances?" Spence embraces humor - in particular learning not to take herself so seriously - and finds it incredibly helpful in her professional development as a nonprofit leader. She sets goals to develop stronger relationships and learns to hand off responsibility and put the right team members in the right places. Social entrepreneur and storyteller Courtney Spence founded 501c3 nonprofit Students of the World (SOW) to shine a light on progress and celebrate the world's problem solvers. She is building a movement of next-generation storytellers and creative activists through the SOW program The Creative Activist Network. Spence is a graduate of Duke University.

Audrey French on How Emotional Vulnerability Can Build Relationship Trust

In Chapter 7 of 18 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Audrey Parker French answers "How Do You Establish Trust When Building Relationships?" French finds sharing a vulnerable moment or being open to showing emotional vulnerability is a good way to build relationship trust. This helps her create and open, sharing and accepting environment to engage others in and out of work. Audrey Parker French is an entrepreneur who co-founded CLEAResult, an energy management consulting firm she helped grow to #144 on the 2010 Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies and then sell to General Catalyst Partners. She currently volunteers as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) and teaches children's choir. She graduated from Wake Forest University and lives with her husband in Austin, Texas.

Audrey French on How Make Your Communication More Effective and Enjoyable

In Chapter 9 of 18 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, entrepreneur Audrey Parker French answers "How Are You Learning to Communicate More Effectively?" French learns to see communication as more than getting information across to another person. Specifically she advances her communication skills by embracing the relational or relationship way shared experiences can foster more effective communication and understanding between two parties. Audrey Parker French is an entrepreneur who co-founded CLEAResult, an energy management consulting firm she helped grow to #144 on the 2010 Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing private companies and then sell to General Catalyst Partners. She currently volunteers as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) and teaches children's choir. She graduated from Wake Forest University and lives with her husband in Austin, Texas.

Bijoy Goswami on When to Avoid Projecting Confidence

In Chapter 7 of 19 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, leadership philosopher Bijoy Goswami answers "What Role Does Confidence Play in the Work That You Do?" Goswami notes that by not projecting confidence in cases where he does not have the answers or know the material, he is better able to embrace ways others can teach or instruct him.

Bijoy Goswami is a writer, teacher, and community leader based in Austin, Texas. He develops learning models to help individuals, organizations and communities live more meaningfully. Previously, he co-founded Aviri Software after working at Trilogy Software. Goswami graduated from Stanford University.

Bijoy Goswami on Giving People Space to Be Themselves

In Chapter 12 of 19 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, leadership philosopher Bijoy Goswami answers "How Are You Learning to Work More Effectively With Different Personality Types?" Goswami references his MRE Model for understanding different personality types, the maven, the relator, and the evangelist. He notes the importance of giving every person space to be themselves and then meeting them in their space to create something together.

Bijoy Goswami is a writer, teacher, and community leader based in Austin, Texas. He develops learning models to help individuals, organizations and communities live more meaningfully. Previously, he co-founded Aviri Software after working at Trilogy Software. Goswami graduated from Stanford University.

Bijoy Goswami on What It Means to Be Trustworthy

In Chapter 12 of 19 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, leadership philosopher Bijoy Goswami answers "How Are You Learning to Work More Effectively With Different Personality Types?" To Goswami, being trustworthy means being true to where you are and what you believe. By presenting yourself truthfully, trust ensues.  He notes trust and happiness are not achieved by reaching a destination, but rather are achieved by being true to yourself.

Bijoy Goswami is a writer, teacher, and community leader based in Austin, Texas.  He develops learning models to help individuals, organizations and communities live more meaningfully.  Previously, he co-founded Aviri Software after working at Trilogy Software.  Goswami graduated from Stanford University.

How to Find Interesting Friends Who Accept You For You

In Chapter 7 of 19 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, innovation strategist Hammans Stallings answers "How Are Your Personal Priorities Changing as You Get Older?" Stallings notes how the people around him provide him the space and accommodation to have selfish or individual moments. He also discusses why he tries to surround himself with interesting people who teach him things.

Hammans Stallings is a Senior Strategist at frog design. Previously he worked in strategy at Dell and investment banking at Stephens. He earned an MBA from the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, a MS in Technology Commercialization from the University of Texas and a BA in Economics and Psychology from the University of Virginia.

Jason Anello on Motivating the Many Moving Parts of a Team

In Chapter 19 of 20 in his 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, creative director and Manifold ad agency co-founder Jason Anello answers "How Are You Learning to Better Manage and Motivate Teams?" Anello uses his enthusiasm and passion to motivate a team as best he can, understanding that he also needs to break down the team into pieces and focus on each of the different personalities that contribute to the whole. 

Jason Anello is a founding partner and creative director at Manifold Partners, an award-winning creative advertising agency.  Previously, Anello worked in creative leadership roles at Yahoo!, Ogilvy & Mather, and Digitas.  A passionate foodie and traveler, he runs the Forking Tasty food blog and supper club series.  He earned a BFA from University at Albany.

Cathy Erway on How to Create Relationship Trust

In Chapter 3 of 17 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, writer and healthy food advocate Cathy Erway answers "How Do You Establish Trust When Building Relationships?"  Erway believes it comes with time and comes with testing, particularly in high stress environments.  Going through an intense period can teach you whether or not you can trust another person and how you can trust that person. 

Cathy Erway is Brooklyn-based author, part-time cook, freelance writer, radio host and teacher focused on healthy food advocacy.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Cathy Erway on Finding Better Ways to Teach Cooking

In Chapter 17 of 17 in her 2013 Capture Your Flag interview, writer and healthy food advocate Cathy Erway answers "How Are You Becoming a Better Teacher?"  Erway shares how she is getting more relaxed and confident the more she teaches cooking classes from her home.  Feedback teaches Erway to focus on a specific topic and do so in the casual, loose style she enjoys. 

Cathy Erway is a Brooklyn-based author, part-time cook, freelance writer, radio host and teacher focused on healthy food advocacy.  Her first book, "The Art of Eating In" developed from her blog "Not Eating Out in New York".  She earned a BA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Jullien Gordon on How to Build Career Coaching Conversation Skiils

In Chapter 13 of 21 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, business coach Jullien Gordon answers "How Are Your Coaching Skills Improving as You Build Experience?"  Gordon learns ways to ask someone questions to understand where they are coming from.  He learns different ways to improve the questions he asks and the coaching conversation - and outcome - that results.  Jullien Gordon is a high performance coach and consultant to organizations, individuals and teams who want to increase employee performance, motivation, engagement and retention.  He earned a BA from UCLA, an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a Masters of Education from Stanford University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How are your coaching skills improving as you build experience?

Jullien Gordon: So my coaching skills, they come from my personal journey, but before anything, rather than coaching from my experience, I actually coach from my listening. So I actually focus on listening to the individual first. What I found is that oftentimes, especially when you think about self-help books and things of that nature, a lot of times when you read those books and then we try to apply somebody else’s framework or definition of success to our life, it doesn’t work out, because that’s theirs. And so when I coach, I don’t necessarily just take my experiences and translate them to the individual and say, “Here, do this,” instead, I start with deep listening and really thinking about what their situation is and then try to put myself in their shoes and then based on my experiences and my insights regarding that situation, it may inform my answer, but sometimes when I’m helping them, I’m really focused on asking the right questions. Rather than giving people answers, I’m focused on asking the right questions, because I think that when you ask the right questions, then the individual gets insights, and that insight leads to authentic answer for them. And so I think there are some coaches out there who take their experiences and then try to superimpose those experiences on the individual and say, “This worked for me, you should do exactly this,” and that’s not really the way I coach. My experiences help me understand an individual and where they’re coming from in a deeper way, especially as not only I have my experiences but I hear and have the experiences of others that I coach and that I connect with, all those stories are in my listening but I pull bits and pieces from them to help ask the right questions, not necessarily give answers for my coaching clients.

Erik Michielsen: That’s great. How are you learning to ask the right question?

Jullien Gordon: Pausing like this. Not trying to be right. And trusting that the individual, or my audience when I’m speaking to larger groups, have the answers within them, and that I’m just creating the space for them to actually explore what’s best for them. That’s really what it’s been for me. And like I said, sometimes my experiences and the stories that I hear from others help shape the question but I stay with questions rather than answers. A lot of people want answers, but I think when you give somebody a standard answer and they apply it, it may not work for them in the same way that it worked for you.

Jullien Gordon on Improving Career Workshop Experiences

In Chapter 14 of 21 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, business coach Jullien Gordon answers "How Are You Learning to Facilitate More Effective Workshop Experiences?"  In his public speaking work facilitating career education workshops, Gordon shares how he has transitioned from providing his audience tools and answers to asking questions and allowing his audience to come up with authentic answers.  Jullien Gordon is a high performance coach and consultant to organizations, individuals and teams who want to increase employee performance, motivation, engagement and retention.  He earned a BA from UCLA, an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a Masters of Education from Stanford University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: How are you learning to facilitate more effective workshop experiences?

Jullien Gordon: Originally, when I started this work, it was all about giving people the answers, the 8 cylinders of success. Here, here’s my 8 cylinders of success. Try this on and use it for your life, implement it. And while 5 of the cylinders may resonate with you, for somebody else, it may be 3 cylinders, for somebody else it may be all 8. But I found by instead of giving answers and just by asking the right questions, I help the individuals in the audience actually come to their own authentic answers. And it’s their own authentic answers that are gonna stick with them throughout their life. I can give you my weight loss program but if it doesn’t align with who you are then your chances of actually completing it are going to be slim. But if you come up—if I ask you the right questions in terms of your eating patterns, how your body reacts and you come up with your own authentic answers for your diet, your exercise routines, et cetera. What kind of exercise is fun for you? I can’t just run around a track. I need a ball. I need to be playing basketball or I need to be playing soccer. I can’t exercise just by running around a track, that’s not fun, that’s not engaging for me. So, again, it’s been by asking the questions and trusting that the people know the answers. That’s what interviewing is all about, the assumption is that the answer is already within you. And if I can create a safe space and ask the right questions and bring it out, then you are creating your own plan and strategy for the next phase of your life.

Jullien Gordon: Career Planning Advice for Millennial Professionals

In Chapter 17 of 21 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, business coach Jullien Gordon "What Steps Have You Found Most Effective to Help Young Professionals Create Career Plans?"  When working with younger professionals - Gen Y and Millennials - on career planning, Gordon starts with a process to help clients get clear on life and career goals.  He lays out his 4-step process to create a dream life, attract a dream career, build a dream team and land your dream job and walks through why and how to do this.  Jullien Gordon is a high performance coach and consultant to organizations, individuals and teams who want to increase employee performance, motivation, engagement and retention.  He earned a BA from UCLA, an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and a Masters of Education from Stanford University.

Transcript:

Erik Michielsen: What steps have you found most effective to help young professionals create career plans?

Jullien Gordon: Good question. So whenever I’m talking to a young professional to help them think about their career plan, I like to break it down into four different steps. And the four steps are, one, creating your dream life. Next is attracting your dream career. Then building your dream team. Then landing your dream job. And of course the acronym for “dream” means to have your desired relationships employment and money. So it’s really about your life design, and the reason I start with creating your dream life first is because your life is bigger than your career, a lot of times people allow their career to define who they are, when in fact who we are should define what we do.

And so I start with your life first. What is your vision for your life? And then let’s find a career path that actually allows you to have the life that you want. And so we start with creating your dream life and that’s a visioning process, thinking about your perfect average day, or your perfect average week, and what you want your desired relationships to look like, and your relationships not just being with your significant other or your kids but your spiritual source, your parents, your friends, your colleagues, what do you want those relationships to look like? What do you want your employment to look like? How do you want to create value? What problems do you want to solve? How do you want to use your passion on a daily basis? And then money, what is enough? And do you have enough? And really getting clear on what that is.

And then from there, attracting your dream career is all about your professional and personal branding, that’s your résumé, your cover letter, your web presence, and your business cards, the way you network, et cetera. Building your dream team means of course your networks up, down, across and out. So not just—a lot of people have strong networks across in terms of their Facebook friends, but if you look in their cellphone, 95% of the people are in their age group, I found that the most powerful form of networking is networking up with other professionals, with peers, with mentors, with leaders in the community, et cetera. Those are the people who are on the other side of the door that you’re trying to get into. Your peers can get you to the door, but you want to know who’s on the other side of the door who – or who has the key.

And then of course, finally, landing your dream job is all about the interview process, and nailing your first 90 days at whatever new organization that you’re at. So that’s how I like to help people think about their career journey.

How Nieces and Nephews Inspire Creative Thinking - Conrad Doucette

In Chapter 7 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, musician Conrad Doucette answers "What Have You Found Most Gratifying About Being an Uncle?"  Doucette, an uncle to multiple nieces and nephews, details the joys of having young children in his live.  He finds it eye-opening to see things through a child's eyes, especially creative tools.  Seeing the creative side flourish in his nieces and nephews provides Doucette creative inspiration in his music writing and playing. 

Conrad Doucette is a Brooklyn musician and the drummer for Takka Takka, which released its 3rd studio album, AM Landscapes, in late 2012.  He has performed with Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, The National, Alina Simone, and many other leading acts.  When not performing music, Doucette is the communications and brand director at music licensing and publishing startup Jingle Punks.  Doucette earned a BA in History from the University of Michigan.

Matt Ruby on Louis CK Style Influences on Making Better Comedy Videos

In Chapter 17 of 19 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, standup comedian Matt Ruby answers "What Has Louis CK Taught You About Making Better Comedy Videos for the Web?"  Ruby notes how having full control over the creative process allows Louis CK to communicate a more personal point of view.  He notes how Louis CK is able to get more personal in his work on his show "Louie."  Ruby notes how this is also true with Woody Allen films and how the director also keeps ownership over his personal vision.  Matt Ruby is a standup comedian and comedy writer based in New York City.  He co-produces the weekly show "Hot Soup", co-hosts the monthly show "We're All Friends Here", and manages a comedy blog "Sandpaper Suit".  Ruby graduated from Northwestern University. 

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: What has Louis CK taught you about making better comedy videos for the web?

Matt Ruby: Well, I think the fact that he makes everything himself and, you know, like writes it, acts in it, edits it, directs it, and has full control over the process I think is, you know, I think you can sense it in the stuff that he makes, it feels more like something that comes from a single person’s viewpoint as opposed to so much of what’s on TV seems like it comes from a room filled with like 20 people that are all trying to agree which is cool but like a little bit more – makes stuff more homogenous and so I think, you know, part of what you see from — I’m thinking specifically the show Louis is that you can— if you do that, you can get stuff that’s sort of weirder, more personal or more—you know I think Woody Allen films have that too where it’s like, oh this really feels like it just came from one person, as opposed to like a committee decided that this was best. 

And I think it’s part of like what makes his stuff special and I think it’s something to—I don’t if I necessarily shoot for it in everything that I do but just something to keep in mind that is like, you know, oh, it’s okay to be cool or—not it’s okay to be cool—but it’s okay to be weird or to you know—sometimes his stuff will just get really absurd or just go off into some weird, you know, fantastical place and then come back to reality and, you know, sort of stuff that if you had a committee deciding on, they’d be like, no, that doesn’t make sense. Whereas like you can kind of indulge whatever your own personal vision for it is, and that’s what makes it unique to you and what you’re making is gonna be more unique.

Michael Margolis on How Vulnerability Creates Trusting Relationships

In Chapter 6 of 17 in his 2012 Capture Your Flag interview, educator and entrepreneur Michael Margolis answers "How Do You Establish Trust When Building Relationships?"  Margolis uses vulnerability, which he cites as the most overlooked part of storytelling.  He notes how truth gets attention, empathy establishes connection, and vulnerability reminds people of shared values and similar interests. 

Michael Margolis is founder and president of Get Storied, an education and publishing platform dedicated to teaching the world how to think in narrative.  He earned a B.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Tufts University.

Transcript: 

Erik Michielsen: How do you establish trust when building relationships?

Michael Margolis: So, it’s something that I called the V-factor and it’s actually the most overlooked element of storytelling, it’s vulnerability. So, you have to have truth. Truth is what gets people’s ears to go [make sounds], right? It’s like Scooby Doo time, oh, there’s something over here. I better pay attention. Or, wow, this looks interesting. So, truth gets people’s attention. 

Then you have to establish empathy, which lets people know that you really care about them. You care about their world and what they’re going through, right? You really give a crap and you understand what your audience is facing or struggling or challenged with and it all comes home though. 

The third principle is vulnerability. So, vulnerability is reminding people that, “you know what, I may be an expert or I may have a solution for you but we’re more similar to each other than different. Here’s what we share in common”, I have my own foibles you know, it’s why -- you know as we sat down I talked to you about, “Geez, the last six months my health has kicked my ass”, right. Very humbling process. When I'm teaching or coaching students, you know, in my programs online, I'm very open about sharing my own personal journey because this is a fallacy – This I think really, in a way it captures the paradigm shift of what we’re all going through in the world of business. It used to be we lived in this world of objective reality. Of being the brand that spoke with the voice of God, “I have all the answers for you. I am the guru”. And instead we’re now shifting into this place where it’s peer-to-peer learning, right. Where we’re all co-learners together. Part of it is things are so challenging and so complex. None of us have like all the answers. 

So, we have to be more in relationship with each other. So, it’s really important this vulnerability piece is what makes you human. And here’s the kicker on vulnerability, is if you establish vulnerability with people in an authentic way, you really share a part of yourself and where your edge or your struggle is, do you know what happens? People become more forgiving of the hiccups and the bumps in the road. It’s a really important principle for any brand especially if you're in startup mode, you have a new product, a new service, you’re doing something that’s different. If you wanna build that halo around your brand where people feel emotionally connected, vulnerability is key. 

A great case and point is look at Netflix in the last year, they’ve got an awesome product, okay, so they raised their prices from what was it $8.99 to $11.99 and everybody had a shit storm. I think the way that people reacted was actually the way that Netflix talked about it. They talked about the price increase like they were doing us a favor as a consumer and then once sort of the crisis hit they were still -- sort of they came off in a very arrogant fashion, which I think ultimately really hurt their brand. Now, are they bouncing back, are they here to stay? I think so, because ultimately they have a product that many of us want and reflects sort of the new way that we’re consuming media but that’s a really great example to keep in mind the power of the V-factor or vulnerability. And if you can build that halo of having more disclosure, of letting people in sort of behind the curtain, the places where you’re struggling -- not in a poor pity me or [make sounds], okay but in a way that’s relevant, in a way that’s relatable. 

Again, by building a brand halo that includes vulnerability, people become so much more forgiving about the bumps in the road. It’s just like being in a relationship with a significant other and let’s say your partner has certain places that are kind of their tough spots, their edge, their place of growth. You’re far more forgiving if you have a partner that’s like, “Yeah, honey you know what? That’s what I'm working on” versus if you have a partner that’s like, “What are you talking about? That’s not my problem, that’s your problem,” right. That same dynamic that shows up in relationships, same thing shows up with brands or, you know, in our own individual relationships with each other and that’s the power of vulnerability when it comes to storytelling.

How Hands On Work Enlightens Creative Career - Jason Anello

In Chapter 7 of 20 in his 2012 interview, creative director Jason Anello answers "How Has Hands On Experience Changing What You Believe is Possible in What You Create?"  Through his life and career, Anello finds success leads into management and, as a result, removal from hands on work.  He shares how he has created a career where he can maintain the hands on work that drives his passion to create things which unleash an audience pleasing experience.  Jason Anello is a founding partner and creative director at marketing services agency Manifold Partners.  He is also the co-founder of the Forking Tasty Brooklyn supper club.  Previously, Anello held creative leadership roles at Yahoo! and Ogilvy & Mather.  He graduated from the University at Albany.