thejoshbjones

[thejoshbjones]

Increase Performance...Intentionally

There’s a common complaint i’ve heard about moving the needle on a person. If it’s unintentionally done, then I can see how this would be terrible for moral and lead to reduced performance over time. Countering that, the action isn’t inherently bad.How do you run a longer distanced race than one you’ve previously run? You increase the distance goal.How do you earn more money? You set a target and…

[thejoshbjones]

We all need a time to downshift.

Rest is good. If you haven’t planned any for the year, we’re 2/3’s of the way through.-Go to your calendar now.-Look 4 weeks out.-Book it.There will be excuses as to why that can’t happen. They’re excuses. Be as ruthless with your rest as you are with your work.I’ll catch you all next week.

[thejoshbjones]

How can I help?

Take a breath. Ask “how can I help?” when your stuck not knowing how to give good feedback.This is a pomodoro timer that my wife gave me a few years back. It’s great for a lot of productivity hacks. One being, what to do when you need to give feedback but are frustrated and don’t know what to say. hit the 3 minute side and breath.I just had an employee who wasn’t performing to, what I felt, was…

[thejoshbjones]

Say it, or don't?

The litmus test for knowing what to say and not to say when giving feedback is not “Is it honest?” but rather “Is it helpful?”

[thejoshbjones]

Every strength has a back edge

I can operate quickly, but that also can make me impatient. I have a trick for mitigating being impatient in meetings.Several years ago I realized about halfway through a meeting (e.g. 30 minutes into an hour long meeting), I would begin to speed up and try to rush the conversation. You can imagine that the output of this wasn’t always great. Rushing a conversation does not lead to great decision…

[thejoshbjones]

Everything has a transaction cost.

Any time we add speed and flexibility there is a simultaneous introduction of new fragility. When we think we’re safe do to all our advancements, it’s helpful to keep this in mind.

[thejoshbjones]

Leaving your bad taste doesn't help others

A few businesses ago I had an interaction with someone who was new to an organization. They had joined to replace another person that exited (who I also happened to know). One of the things that came up in the conversation was a specific vendor. In this instance I happened to also know the vendor and the details around how both sides negotiated and setup their agreement. I’m not attached to…

[thejoshbjones]

Make Vendors Partners, For Your Sake

How do you communicate with your vendors?A few years ago I had a new account manager from a vendor call me. Initially he called because he didn’t have my email address. SMH. How do you not have my email address in your system? I didn’t want to give him the time of day. Especially after that. At one point I told him “If you guys didn’t have the best product on the market for this, I would have…

[thejoshbjones]

Learn DNS. It'll help you.

I try to avoid technical posts these days in lui of financial posts. Not because I don’t understand the tech. Honestly, it’s because I understand it to the point of boredom, cash flow and financials are much more interesting and so my goal has shifted to be able to help translate the technical things in light of overall business context. This is where true value is added. That said, Warning. Geek…

[thejoshbjones]

Humanlike Beings

I rewatched the video demo of the Figure robot the other day that prompted a thought. The question that arose was less about robots but rather the person interacting with them. Go to the very end of the video and you see an interaction where the conversation isn’t quite finished, but the person interacting with the robot begins to walk away. In any normal interaction, this would be considered a…

[thejoshbjones]

Good Counsel

“For Lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers.” -Proverbs 11:14I wrote something a few weeks ago and at the end asked anyone who read it who they had around them. The thing I’ve found over time is that wise counsel critical in managing towards better outcomes. If you don’t have this you’re no only increasing your risk, you’re decreasing your chance of good…

[thejoshbjones]

Assets - Private, Public, and Otherwise

Let’s talk about private equity for a minute. Full disclosure, i’m not an accredited investor. Still, through a myriad of circumstances I’ve been able to hold private assets with other parties as a Limited Partner. There are some times that being an LP or telling someone you’re an LP sounds good. Reality wise, it’s not all that nice most times. It’s an investment vehicle and that’s all it should…

[thejoshbjones]

Financial Measures and Levers

There are two primary levers that you have in your life for financial measures.1) Income2) ExpenseIn choosing the assets you own, you need to consider these levers.Expenses usually come from the assets you own. If you’re most Americans, your house and cars are the largest expense buckets and most of your wealth is tied up in your home. Anything else is probably in stocks somewhere. That’s fine,…

[thejoshbjones]

Vehicles for Growth

Everyone has a wall they hit with growth. The question is what to do once you get there? I’ve found these tools help me a ton as I look for ways to grow. Books —> Reading is helpful beyond the information. Training your brain to intake deeper and longer form information is an activity that our society has lost much of, but it’s incredibly necessary. Print —> If there are a lot a charts Audio…

[thejoshbjones]

High Performers and Self-Feeding

I had a conversation about growth with one of my staff the other day about the fact that he is incredibly smart, talented, and hardworking. That sounds like a good thing and in a vacuum it is. Here’s the thing though, he has currently refused to read books, listen to podcasts, or find other ways to grow outside of picking up things from those in his immediate orbit. I had also struggled with how…

[thejoshbjones]

Leveling Up is Your Decision

If you don’t know who Chris Lighty is, that’s ok. Chris was the business manager for most of the large names you would have heard of coming out of the HipHop scene from the late 90’s early 00’s. He was known for his incredible work ethic. The thing is, no one would have known about it if it weren’t for this one moment. There was a point he was in a club with some folks and got into a fight…

[thejoshbjones]

Directionality of AI

I had a discussion with a friend over the weekend about AI. There are some assumptions about the value it adds and I wanted to address one of these in particular. The reality is that it’s not going to remove jobs so much as it will make very boring jobs obsolete. The issue is that some believe this reduction of overhead will lead to greater profit and that’s simply not true. It could be if all…