Gina Rudan’s publisher informs us that Oracle Magazine will be running a review of her latest book PRACTICAL GENIUS: The Real Smarts You Need to Get Your Passions and Talents Working for You  (Touchstone Hardcover / Simon & Schuster; October 11, 2011) in the November/December issue and Profit Magazine, Oracle’s quarterly magazine aimed at executives, is doing an interview with her as well.

In her talk at the 2010 TEDGlobal Conference Gina Rudan redefined genius as something we all have, but need to find within.  In her latest book she shows how to tap into the kind of practical, everyday genius that will unleash your full potential and bring fulfillment to both work and life.

Gina redefines genius so that everyone can recognize it within themselves, access it easily, and harness it to transform their lives and careers. It’s about identifying your hard assets (which are your skills, strengths, and expertise), and your soft assets (which are your passions, creative abilities, and values) – and finding the sweet spot where the two meet. That’s where you find your PRACTICAL GENIUS. And that’s how you can merge the self you bring to the office and your authentic self.

In PRACTICAL GENIUS, Gina shows us how in 5 steps:

Step 1. Identify Your Genius: Only You Can Find It

Step 2. Express Your Genius: It’s Time to Tell Your Story

Step 3. Surround Yourself with Genius: You Are Who You Walk With

Step 4. Sustain Your Genius: Find What Fuels You

Step 5. Market Your Genius: Where the Rubber Meets the Road

She has been a guest lecturer, trainer and strategist for organizations including Fannie Mae, Booz Allen Hamilton, BET Network, Interpublic Group, U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Hispana Leadership Institute, Stern School of Business at NYU, and the Endeavor Organization. She is the curator of TEDxMIA and has held executive positions at Fortune 500 companies including Avon Products and PR Newswire. Gina was awarded the 2009 March of Dimes Woman Living to the Fullest Award and was recently selected as one of Poder Magazine’s top “20 Under 40” Hispanics in the U.S. A native New Yorker, she now lives in Miami.  

Invent Your Future welcomes Gina to the Bay Area!

Contact us to request information on inviting Gina to speak at your company.

Article reprinted from the Invent Your Future Newsletter

Are you preparing a presentation? Seeking approval for a priority project? Requesting venture capital for your startup? Introducing a product idea?

Did you realize your success depends on whether you capture your audience’s favorable interest in the first three minutes?

People today are BB. They’re busy (they have dozens of priorities competing for their attention) and they’re bored (they’ve heard and seen it all – or at least, they think they have). If you don’t quickly prove you’re worth their valuable time and attention, they’ll start checking their watches (or Blackberries).

Three ways to win buy-in is to create a “Jerry Maguire” opening by fulfilling “The Three Requirements of the First Three Minutes of any Presentation.” If you do the following, you’ll create a positive first impression that “has ‘em at hello” and your audiences will tend to view what you have to say and what you sell favorably from then on.

Requirement #1 to Win Buy-In: Make ‘Em Chuckle

“I learned when I made people laugh, they liked me. This is a lesson I will never forget.” – Art Buchwald

If something makes you laugh out loud, chances are it will make other people laugh out loud. Imagine you’re giving a presentation on executive etiquette. The night before the program, you’re watching a late night talk show and guest Sandra Bernhardt is complaining how rude some people are with their constant cell usage. One of the other guests mentions she has Caller ID and never answers her phone in public unless it is urgent.

The quick-witted Bernhardt says, “Caller ID? What I’m waiting for is Caller IQ.”

You could start with Bernhardt’s line (be sure to attribute it) and then segue into five ways audience members could have “Caller IQ” so they don’t offend clients with cell use and abuse

Requirement #2 to Win Buy-In: Make “em Raise Their Eyebrows”

“It has always surprised me how little attention philosophers have paid to humor since it is a more significant process of mind than reason. Reason can only sort out perceptions; humor is involved in changing them.” – Edward De Bono

Scanning the local newspaper the morning of your presentation, can be one of the best ten minute investments you make. If you find an article that pertains to your issue, cut it out and bring it with you. The fact that you went to the effort to share something current shows you’re not doing a canned spiel. Your innovative approach will pleasantly surprise your audience – further raising your approval ratings.

I got up early to read the paper before a keynote I was to deliver to a group of managers. My discipline was rewarded by an article in the Washington Post entitled California Couple with Empty Nest Gets Serious About Downsizing. The article told the story of Steve and Judy Glickman who traded in their five-bedroom home for a (drum roll, please)…chicken coop.

The Glickmans’ two sons had gone to college and the couple realized they were only using 30% of their home. So, they moved into this 544 square foot home, said to be the smallest residence on the smallest lot in the country. It was originally built as a chicken coop for the house next door. The article reported the Glickmans paid $545,000 for their new home (a result of the hot real estate market in the Bay Area).

Quoting that article got the group’s attention and led to an interesting discussion of how teams can adapt to just about anything (my presentation was titled “Full Team Ahead”). It also gave me a dream opportunity to play off the theme of unintentional miscommunication. I told the audience I could just imagine the couple looking at each other with eyes as big as saucers as Judy told Steve, “No,” I said, “Why don’t we FLY the coop?!”

That got a laugh, a segue into how easy it can be for managers and employees to misunderstand each other, and a return speaking engagement, at least partially because that story provided a fresh approach to a familiar subject. As George Washington Carver said, “When you can do common things in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.”

Requirement #3 to Win Buy-In: Make ‘Em Say a Mental Yes

“The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations.”
– Benjamin Disraeli

Will your audience be wiser after hearing the first three minutes of your message? They will if you introduce a thought-provoking quote that causes them to raise their eyebrows, think, “I didn’t know that,” and agree with or want what you’ve just proposed.

Quotations are “verbal shorthand.” They condense complicated concepts into an easy-to-grasp sound bite. More importantly, they can win buy-in because they point out precedence. By showing how others have already benefited from adopting this particular behavior/belief or approving this type of project, audience members have personal incentive to do likewise.

For example, if you’re a NBA fan, you may be familiar with the feud between former Los Angeles Lakers teammates, seven-foot tall Shaquille O’Neal and sharpshooter Kobe Bryant. Insults were exchanged in person and in the press and the two notoriously avoided even looking at each other in meetings on the basketball court.

Their very public spat came to an end on January 16, 2006 when O’Neal, now playing for the Miami Heat, approached Bryant during pre-game warm-ups and congratulated him on the upcoming birth of his second child. A few minutes later, the longtime adversaries shook hands and exchanged a hug at center court before tip-off.

“It made me feel good,” Byrant said in a Jan. 18 Washington Post article, adding that he was surprised at O’Neal’s good will gesture.

What inspired O’Neal to extend the olive branch? “I had orders from the great Hall of Famer Bill Russell,” O’Neal said. “People thought Russell and Wilt Chamberlain hated each other, but Bill told me they spoke once or twice a week before Wilt passed away. Martin Luther King was an ambassador of peace, and it’s his birthday today. Bill Russell told me how rivalries should be, and that I should shake Kobe Bryant’s hand, let bygones be bygones and bury the hatchet.”

If you’re presenting a program on employee relations, that story would provide an excellent entrée into the importance of taking the initiative to resolve disagreements instead of letting them fester. You could remark on how O’Neal demonstrated what a true “big man” he is by initiating that peace-making gesture. If your office staff is mired in conflict, you could speak about the cost of carrying grudges. Instead of sharing platitudes about “forgive and forget,” you could hold up that article, read O’Neal’s rationale behind his actions, and let his words eloquently make your point for you.

Quoting a respected individual or organization who has successfully done what you’re suggesting is a way of letting them do your talking for you. It’s a way of saying, “You don’t have to take my word on this. Here’s proof this suggestion is valid, that others have succeeded with it and beneftted as a result.”

About the author: Sam Horn is a sought-after keynote speaker, best-selling author, creative consultant and media resource. She has presented programs to more than half a million people worldwide since 1981. Sam is author of “Tongue Fu!” and “POP!” (Perigee, ‘06). Visit www.samhorn.com.

In recent years, awareness of this issue has led to more interest among corporations to create internal women’s networks that aid in the retention, development and acceleration of their women leaders. Interestingly, we are also seeing companies starting to correlate increased diversity of their workforce with improved business results. There is actually a business case for hiring and promoting women!

Evidence exists that U.S. companies with more women in senior management jobs earned a higher return on equity than those with fewer women at the top. At the same time, we hear from many companies about the need to plug the pipeline where it leaks – that women are leaving corporate America at a faster rate than men. The cost to a company that loses one senior-level employee can range as high as $250,000, according to research2 by a leading management consulting firm. A recent study by the Center for Creative Leadership concluded that 66% of senior managers hired from outside the company failed within the first 18 months. With those kinds of costs, it makes sense to identify what kind of support would help women stay in corporations.

Is creating a social framework the key to retention? Can internal networks play a major role? We believe that well-run internal women’s networks are a critical piece of the retention puzzle. They are not just about creating new activities and events for women. They are about giving a voice to women, creating a “safe space” and a sense of community for business skill-building and social support. A great work environment should offer a supportive community and top level education – that’s a workplace they won’t want to leave!

What are key factors in the success of internal corporate women’s networks? Based on our research into diverse women’s networks at various stages of development, Invent Your Future helps clients capitalize on these 15 valuable lessons learned:

1. Senior executive support of the network from the outset is a critical factor to insure its success. This should include both top-level, public championing of the new initiative as well as funding.
2. The network’s goals and educational objectives should all be outlined clearly and aligned with the needs of the company.
3. High quality, creative network-hosted programs should set the standard for the development and retention of women employees. Use all modes of learning – face-to-face, online, and experiential.
4. Evangelize! Start with core competency programs to train a select group of women leaders from across the company, then create a waterfall effect with modular “speaker-in-a-box” programs, webinars and broadcasts to disseminate core competency training throughout the organization. Trained leaders become facilitators. Offer past event downloads on demand.
5. Successful networks are open to men and welcome their participation.
6. Create a website for your network. Add great resources and content and initiate a blog to continue the conversation between events.
7. Offer follow-up coaching to insure follow-through on action plans.
8. Networks should be member-driven to insure relevancy but not entirely volunteer-run to avoid burnout of leaders. Some HR budget and support for administration may be advisable. Partner with outside professionals.
9. Networks should complement and not replace internal training opportunities. HR professionals report that dissatisfaction with career development opportunities ranks among the three greatest threats posed to employee retention at their organizations. Networks can offer competency skill building aimed at the specific needs of their members.
10. The talents of your network can be leveraged in: Recruiting – high school and college level, particularly for tech firms that want to encourage young women to enter the field; Marketing – women have different purchasing preferences than men; test your products and services with your internal network.
11. Corporations can use their women’s network as part of their communications policy, e.g. advance release on programs to benefit women or update participants on company developments.
12. Networks can support women attending external events and conferences and help them get the most from the experience.
13. Senior women in the network can help develop a talent pool and train the next generation of women to get to the next level.
14. Networks encourage formal and informal mentoring. Junior women gain access to senior women to seek career advice.
15. Provide a continuous feedback loop to measure success.

Many companies struggle to attract, motivate and retain women. Women themselves are not always clear on the issues influencing their careers. Internal women’s networks help identify and address the issues which hold women back. While much remains to be done, giving women a voice will cement your company’s reputation as a great place to work. By creating powerful internal networks we will see the waterfall effect of systemic improvements throughout our work environments – for men and women.

About the author: Ruth Stergiou is CEO and Co-Founder of Invent Your Future. For a complimentary audit of your internal women’s network, advice on how to implement these key lessons, or for help creating a new corporate women’s network, contact us.

Sources: (1)Catalyst organization, New York; 2Cited by Healthcare BusinessWomen’s Association, http://www.hbanet.org/150120.27160.asp; Making Good Connections: Best Practices for Women’s Corporate Networks; Professor Susan Vinnicombe, Dr. Val Singh and Dr. Savita Kumraby; Cranfield University School of Management, UK

IBM recently ran an intriguing series of TV ad’s designed around what I would call “popular innovation stereotypes.” In one ad, a chubby caped superhero with an “i” emblazoned on his chest zooms onto the scene to inspire Innovation Day at a large company. Moments later – presumably after making his grand entrance – he slumps away feeling dejected and unappreciated. “Nobody understands me,” he moans.

In a second ad, IBM caricatures the role of creativity in the innovation process by showing scores of executives lying on the floor at a company retreat. One of them receives a call on her cell amidst the hush of the meditation session being held, complete with dimmed lights. Presumably in response to the question, “What are you doing?” she secretively whispers to her caller: “We’re ideating.”

Innovation Is A Force

Both ads point to classic misperceptions about innovation. Rather than a start/stop process that gets handled between 2 PM and 4 PM on your calendar, innovation is a force. In fact, Thomas Edison – still considered America’s greatest innovator – described innovation as a social force. Edison felt innovation not only impacted business, but politics, education, and virtually every other area of our lives.

In Edison’s laboratories and manufacturing facilities we see a true representation of this “force” at work. For Edison, innovation was a continuum of actions and processes generated by employees bringing a positive, solution-orientation to their work. In a sense, Edison’s teams were like mini force-fields operating on behalf of their customers, continually striving to bring value to the marketplace.

And these force fields were always in motion. Rather than “innovating between 2 PM and 4 PM,” Edison and his employees constantly maintained an open mind, watching for patterns in the results from their experiments. Rather than have meetings to report on findings, Edison preferred to have “working sessions” where teams would actually share ideas and then conduct experiments jointly. This reinforced a culture of information-exchange and learning-by-doing that yielded world-changing results.

Edison realized he could not legislate a force as big as innovation to operate only during designated hours. Instead, he allowed innovation forces plenty of room to expand rather than be constricted. For example, Edison set up his laboratories to encourage what today in the world of design is called “spontaneous interaction.” Employees would criss-cross the lab floor to use equipment Edison placed along the walls, stopping midstream when they encountered a colleague on their way. In this way, new ideas developed immediate “buzz,” gradually building momentum as employees further tested their findings.

Importance of Communication to Innovation

Edison intuitively recognized that to expand the creative impulses of his employees, he also needed to create a communications environment that allowed thought processes to operate with few constrictions. One way he encouraged this was allowing employees to work in solitude (which Edison himself practiced almost daily). Modern neuroscience confirms that having time in quiet or solitude allows the hemispheres of the brain to connect more frequently, and more powerfully. Edison asked his employees to record their ideas in notebooks expressly designed for capturing insights generated during solitude, as well as during team work. This practice not only helped Edison’s employees track their insights, but allowed these insights to be immediately at hand whenever colleagues gathered to share ideas, or have working sessions with Edison.

To further expand communication in his organizations, Edison encouraged debate not only between colleagues – but with Edison himself! Imagine being able to go toe to toe with “Mr. Edison” and never have your disagreements show up in your employee record. Edison admired those who had leading edge ideas they wanted to run by him, even if the idea was at an early stage of development. Edison was known to encourage outside-the-box thinking from all his employees, and knew how to make the exchange of ideas feel “safe.”

Creating a Collaborative Culture: A Strategic Asset

Scores of company leaders today are seeking to create innovation momentum within their organizations. To be successful, not only is it imperative for these leaders to view innovation as a “force” rather than a thing, it is critical to recognize that the most rapid shift toward an innovation mindset comes when company leadership drives – and models – collaboration.

In his December 2007 newsletter, business guru Tom Peters stated that having an innovation culture today is not a nice-to-have, it is a strategic asset. Peters stated his belief that the primary job of every CEO today was to develop a collaborative culture in their workplace. Encouraging collaboration is a primary driver of innovation. Is collaboration a key cultural value in your organization? Is it considered a strategic asset?

Edison knew that innovation thrives when open exchange and collaboration come together. In contrast to IBM’s caped crusader’s experience, every day in Edison’s laboratory was “innovation day.” No one needed to lie on the floor in an ideation session. All Edison’s employees had to do was pull out their notebooks, and charge ahead!

Check for Innovation Stereotypes in Your Organization

Look to see where in your organization you can stomp out innovation stereotypes, and begin to champion the force of innovation. Check your communication patterns – are they open and collaborative, or are they confined and restricted? How does the physical layout of your company – or the structure of your meetings – contribute to information exchange? To welcome the force of innovation in your organization, take a page from Thomas Edison’s innovation best practices handbook, and start a notebook of your own. It’s one of the quickest ways to bring the force of innovation right to your doorstep.

About the author: Sarah Miller Caldicott is the great grandniece of Thomas Edison, and co-author of “Innovate Like Edison: The Success System of America’s Greatest
Inventor”. She is also an innovation speaker, trainer, and consultant. You can learn more about Sarah and her work at http://www.sarahcaldicott.com.