Boris Hristov

Founder of 356labs

Founder of 356labs
and PowerPoint MVP.
Speaker, Trainer & Author.
A guy that loves to do sports, have fun and enjoy life. Gallery / Blog / Contact

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Simon Sinek and Personal Accountability

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You know Simon Sinek from his “Start With Why” TED talk, right? If not, please stop everything. Stop reading this blog post and watch this.

I try to consume everything that Simon Sinek produces and probably that is the reason I saw the video above and stayed up until late in the evening one day to watch and then reflect on what he said.

Stop here for now and watch the whole video. Please. Yes, it will take you 1 hour, but I promise you – it’s worth your time.

Welcome back. Now you may be wondering why I am writing this blog post? The answer is very selfish – because I want to keep myself publicly accountable. This way I won’t have any excuses in front of myself and in front of you to not do what I learned from this video. Here are the 2 “accountability lists” I prepared for myself:

The personal one:

  1. When going out with friends, family or my girlfriend, leave my phone at home or have it with me, but don’t use it except in an emergency.
  2. Don’t put my phone next to me on the table when on a meeting or use it while waiting for someone. Notice the world.
  3. Leave my phone at the living room during the night.

The ones for 356labs:

  1. Make a rule – before a company meeting – phones out of the room.
  2. Care. Truly care about the people who work with me. Build a family.
  3. Support. Give chances. Make people at 356labs understand that I will always be there to help them in a hard moment.

…

That’s it. It’s public. Now I have no excuses.

Did you watch the video? What do you think?

Gen Ys are coming! What is your company doing about it?

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Grown Up Digital
I have just finished the listening(yes, not the reading, I am learning while I am driving also) the book Grown Up Digital by Don Tapscott and I wanted to do a quick blog post, because I am bit worried! I am a bit worried, because I am not sure that companies(not to mention education) can get their heads around the change that is coming (ah… sorry, that already came!). This book is all about the so called Generation Ys (which is us, oh, by the way) and how they (we, me including!) see the things in a bit different way, let’s say…

I was talking with a lot of people(Ys) recently, trying to figure out if we all think the same way in terms of education, work and way of living in general. Interestingly… we do indeed, but in this blog post I want to focus or actually stress more on just a few of the “specific characteristics” of Generation Ys(for more info on the topic – just google/bing it) and their expectations in terms of work. Here are some(yes, just some) of the common characteristics of the Gen Ys:

1. Customisation and flexibility– Gen Ys want to decide when and where to work from! This generation likes to customise everything – from their phone screens and ringtones to their working life. Can your company offer this?

2. Fun at work – This generation expects their job will be fun. They expect that the company’s environment will predispose to amazing and full of laughter moments. Can your company offer this?

3. Speed – Generation Ys want everything to happen fast. Really f*kin fast! They expect to be promoted fast, they want to do everything they do faster and faster each and every next day! Can you company offer them or help them with this?

4. No bans – Is your company banning the access to Facebook, Twitter or any other service that Gen Ys want access? Can your company offer a “use whatever you want whenever you want” policy?

5. No hierarchy – This generation is not familiar with the old school hierarchical models and does not expect strict control applied against it. However, they expect a team where everyone is equal. Is your company culture looking similar?

These are just five of the Gen Ys characteristics! Can someone recognise itself in them? I bet you can…

I am not going to comment the psychological part of this topic here. I am leaving this part to you – read the book, it’s fantastic! However, I want to end this post by raising all of those questions above to all companies out there, because I am not sure that they understand something – the people you are about to recruit in the next years will all be Gen Ys! However, how are you going to “get” them? How are you going to approach them? What are you going to offer them, because if you are not willing to change around those 5 above there are companies that are and your company will lose. What’s more – you’ll lose one the best talents out there, because Gen ys are quadrillion times more productive, informed and ready to prove their knowledge compared to anyone out there!

So… that was it – my opinion. What’s yours?