The Art of Lollygagging

Since it’s the holiday season, I thought I would write something lighter J 

Back in 7^th grade my Social Studies teacher would tell us to stop lollygagging when we got a little too rambunctious.    Since then, it’s been one of my favorite words and recently has become one of my favorite activities (helping me get out of a funk). By its very definition there are no rules to lollygagging – but I can make some recommendations.  

According to Urban Dictionary, lollygagging is “Idly wasting time, hanging around with no purpose”. Lollygagging for me is a slightly slower paced version of hiking and/or exploring.  I typically do this in and around the city of Atlanta.    I’m looking for cool street art, random nerdy things, and neato scenic stuff.

While I typically have a plan (I know it seems contrary to the art) – there are two keys: 1) You need to be ready to have a squirrel moment and 2) the pace has to truly be leisurely.  Regarding item 1.  You need to be ready to walk off the beaten path.  If you hear music playing around the corner - follow the beat, if you see a bird that's really interesting– follow it (just make sure you look where you are going) , if you see an ice cream shop – stop and get a cone, if you see a large structure/boulder/random rope – climb it….you get the picture.  Speaking of pictures...

Pics or it didn’t happen (#lollygagging).  Words of advice – hold onto your phone when taking pictures.  I accidently dropped mine into a creek on a lollygagging adventure…

Shout out to Jorge for inspiring this latest post.

Have a happy holiday!

Follow my lollygagging adventures on instagram @kelliej21

Intersection of People Leadership and Product Management

It’s been far too long since I’ve written a post!  Work and lollygagging are getting in the way of my blog and I need to fix that.  I’ve switched into a people leadership position and it is a little bit harder to write about specifics. 

I had drinks with one of my favorite product people, Jason, and we were talking about my current role and what I’m doing. He informed me that I have been product managing people leadership, which I had never really thought about but when I did, realized he was correct.   I’ll probably always be a product manager at heart. 

The things that translate well between people leadership and product management include managing all the expectations of your stakeholders.  My main customers are the people on my team and I need to serve them, but I also need to serve market demands and other stakeholders.  My manager has expectations from my team & me, other departments have different sets of expectations from the team and like all things there is not enough time to get it all done.  Some of my time is used setting the correct expectations with all the stakeholders and keeping them informed on what your doing and why, as well as what your not doing.

As a people leader you are continually getting feedback on how the team & individuals are doing, sharing the successes and getting better (customer interviews & surveys J). It’s also about setting a vision of where you want to be 3 years from now, creating a plan to get there and getting buy-in on that plan.  It’s being agile enough to adapt to the needs of your organization and people as the environment changes.  My title might have changed but I feel many parallels in my current role to my former product manager role.  And of course I use a Trello board to help manage it all!

Dare to Learn

Several weeks ago I received a text giving me grief for not posting an article in over 2 months.  I started to think about why that was?  (I’m still a product manager at heart – I always use the 5 why’s)  It’s because I hadn’t been learning.  All of my prior posts were inspired by something that happened during the week.  Many were littered with typos because I was writing at midnight buzzing on adrenaline from a night of Improv and I wanted to write down everything I learned while it was still fresh.

Becky Blalock’s book Dare, Dares you to learn at every age.  Learning new things helps give you credibility, gives you confidence and gets you to the next level…and apparently it inspires me to write a blog post.

One way that I learn is local networking events.  I love to talk with others in the product management community.  I’ve made connections that have turned into friendships.  We go to lunch, out for drinks and talk about common challenges we all face and learn from each other on how to solve them. We bring best practices back into our organizations. 

I learn by doing things outside my work context.  Taking Improv classes helped me with listening, teamwork and confidence.  Even more valuable, I connected to people that I would have not met in my regular circles who have allowed me to grow as well.   I need to continue to look for these opportunities.

And of course I learn by reading.  There are traditional leadership/business books (currently reading The Alliance: ManagingTalent in the Networked Age) – and than again picking up books outside of your domain is crucial  as well (try Brene Brown’s Daring Greatly).  There is so much you can learn outside your domain that is applicable and can give you new insight and generate ideas into your work and personal life.

So I’m echoing Blalock’s challenge to dare you to learn.

Because I Was Told Not To

Tonight I went to a book signing by author Karin Slaughter.  Her most recent book, Cop Town, tells the story of two women police officers in the 70’s.  It was during a time when to rent an apartment a women had to have a man cosign for it. Needless to say if it was a tough time to be a woman on the police force.  Slaughter interviewed retired cops as part of her research.  When she asked the women why they signed up- the most common response was “because I was told not to”.  J

The talk given by the author inspired me to write this post (I was long overdue).  The topics of women in leadership & women in technology have been swirling more and more around me for the past year.  I happen to be a woman in technology leadership.

Last year I heard Becky Blalock, former CIO of the Southern Company, speak at a Women in Technology event in Atlanta.  I just finished her book Dare and identified with much of what she discussed in her book.

I thought I would share a couple of topics that resonated with me the most.

“Toot your horn”.  Women are taught from childhood to focus on fitting in and collaborating with others while men are taught to compete.  One of the ways it manifests itself in the work environment is that we don’t do a good job in promoting the great work we do.  We’re likely to attribute our success to others.  There are ways we can graciously promote our successes and it is something we need to do more of. This will help us compete better in the workforce and showcase our value.

“Getting over your need to be liked” – I find this a lot more with women in leadership than I do with men.  One of my favorite quotes in the book is “Change makes people upset. You can’t take it personally or let it distract you. Dogs don’t chase parked cars.”  In my current role, not everyone has liked every decision I’ve made – and initially that was hard for me. I work to be thoughtful in the decision making process and stay true to my core values and the values of my organization. I understand not every decision will be right and/or liked – but am getting more comfortable with those facts and am getting better at taking things less personally.

“Dare to fail”-  she asks how many times have you failed in your career?  If the list is short it likely means that you haven’t taken enough risk.  Failure can be a good thing if you fail responsibly and learn from it.  Lack of failures over the course of one’s career means you’re likely losing out on experiences and opportunities to learn. The lack of failures also typically shows lack of risk which means we're not having the big successes either. We need to learn to take a more positive outlook on risk and how to approach it.

Those are just tidbits of leadership information covered in the book. If you get a chance, it is a great book.  Books like these as well as networking with others in leadership roles are the best way to learn, improve as well as understand how to get to a leadership role.  The power of many is stronger than the power of one – and I’m personally lucky to have a strong network of people in leadership that helps me improve every day.  The book is also a great reminder to give back and share one’s knowledge.  If you want to connect, here’s my linkedin profile. 

I’ll leave you with one of my favorite songs by “Geek Girls & the Doubleclicks"

Let It Go

It’s been awhile since I posted.  I decided to sell my current house and move in town.  Apparently moving is among the top stressful life experiences and I believe it. It’s turned my life upside down. 

Last night at improv class (yes I’m still taking classes) – we talked about letting go of control.  Some of us (me included) have a tendency to try and control a scene.  Our scene partner says something and rather than going along with it – we control it and move it in another direction.  Last night my scene partner told me she was trying to kill me.  I tried to convince her not to by saying we hadn't completed our bucket list.  But when we replayed the scene and I accepted that she was trying to kill me it was so much funnier. When we learn to “let go” in improv and just go with it – the scene ends up in unexpected and fun places.

Its no surprise that I try to control the scene especially since my moving experience has been about a complete lack of control.  I had verbally accepted an offer on my house within 48 hours from putting in the on market.  I didn’t realize it was a sellers market until I was making offers on new places and losing out to other buyers.  I made two offers without physically seeing the condo – I took facetime tours with my realtor while I was out of town.  My inner accountant had to learn to let go otherwise I was going to go crazy (and make my friends crazy with me). I eventually found a place to buy – but even if I hadn’t I still would have figured it out.

As a people leader I need to also learn to let things go – I need to focus on outcomes and not the path that people take to get there.  There are multiple roads to the same destination and by letting folks find their own path we’re both learning. Rumor has it that life is about the journey anyway…right?

And if you thought I’d go this entire post without mentioning Frozen…you were mistaken. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_DaizJnnJQ