Additionally, you should have a standing meeting with your main sponsor and input/decision-making meetings with your other sponsors, as needed. Again, this will help you manage expectations and remove obstacles from your path.

If we applied succession planning to our political electoral system in the same manner as companies apply it to their leadership positions, then we would look for our next generation of President / Vice President candidates to come from Governor positions in the 5 – 10 states with the biggest economies or populations.  The reason is that Governor positions are the jobs that most closely match the responsibilities of the President and VP.  From there, we could make a logical chain of other job experiences that would prepare someone for higher positions.  Each political party would look to "groom" an identified line of successors to take on the next level position, helping the potential successor gain the experiences needed to be successful at the next higher level.

While we're at it, I would also suggest that the "debates" not only cover the hypothetical "what would you do" questions to ascertain the candidate's position on a topic, but also ask them for examples of when they have had to deal with similar problems in their past.  This would apply the concepts of behavioral interviewing to candidate vetting.

Of course, I'm not suggesting that our system be altered legally to prevent anyone from running for any position; that's the beauty of our democracy.  However, I am advocating that our major political parties think about how they can best prepare their top candidates for the top jobs in our country.  So, how about it Tim Kaine and Michael Steele?  Call us when you're ready; we're happy to help!

If so, you’re not alone.  Over the past 10 years, Webster’s has recognized thousands of new words, many having to do with technology or corporate-related trends.  As long as no one calls me ’404′ I’ll be fine!

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So here’s a few phrases that I’ve heard recently:

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• “Can you send me that deck after the presentation?”
   Deck, as in PowerPoint slide show. 

• “That’s a hot potato and I didn’t bring my gloves.”
   Used when someone is asked a hot topic question and prefers not to answer.

• "Depending on your available bandwidth, I’d like to have you take on a new project.”
   Since when is time and energy measured in bandwidth?

•  “Let’s take this discussion off-line.”
   Used when a conversation relating to only two or three people begins to take over a group meeting.  Especially used in conference calls.

•  “We’ll take care of the low-hanging fruit first”
   On a long list of things to do, low-hanging fruit is the easy place to start.

•  PowerPoint Bunny
   The person in a team who collects everyone’s hard work and research and creates a PowerPoint presentation. 
  

What corporate speak have you heard?

Twitter is incredibly popular, but is it incredibly valuable?

I recently read that, like so many other eCommerce start-ups, Twitter is struggling to determine how it will turn a profit. Yet, Twitter’s popularity has taken off over the past year. The number of unique visitors to Twitter has increased a whopping 1448% in the past 12 months!

To put Twitter’s growth in perspective, the most popular social networking site, Facebook, has increased unique visitors by 190% over the last year.

Not bad, but Twitter has a lot to tweet about, and I suspect it owes a lot of its new found popularity to Barack Obama. The Obama campaign really showed the internet world how to capture value from Twitter. They kept loyal followers (and the other team) informed of their every move. The campaign worked to create an army of followers- feeling like they were "in the know," and thus, inspired them to become an army of volunteers and campaign contributors.

However, it seems that now everyone is tweeting about everything…what they had for breakfast that day or what show they just finished watching on TV. These tweeters may be missing out on the real potential of Twitter. What people have failed to grasp is that the power of this tool is in creating a sense of "I’m in the know on something really cool."

Companies like Dell will set the tone for how savvy Tweeters will win the day, while others like Oprah (who I usually love) are missing the boat.

Why? Because DellOutlet uses Twitter for things like letting its followers in on special deals designed just for them, while Oprah is just Tweeting things like the latest celebrity she hung out with.

To the Dells of the world, I say, Tweet on. To everyone else: please spare me the details of your last visit to the loo… that’s really not something I want to be "in the know" on!

It is very important to track and manage risks associated with your project/program. By keeping a risk log that all project members can access, assigning ownership over risk mitigations and reviewing the risk log regularly, you can minimize the risks to your success. Additionally, alerting key sponsors early to high risk factors will enable them to work with you to deal with them.

What makes you open one?

Always make sure you: Catch their Attention: Start your most important sentences with the person’s first name. State your Request: Your request should be easy to find, easy to read and simple to execute. Be Concise: Keep your total email to less than one screen in length. Keep it Under 3: The ideal email has no more than 3 sentences or 3 short paragraphs. Clearly Communicate Your Tone: It is easy to misunderstand a writer’s tone in an e-mail.  Follow up important emails with a voicemail.  Leave Contact Information: Make your contact information easy to find and use text format.