When Tim Berry decided to hand over his company to his daughter, he turned to Shakespeare's King Lear for guidance on what not to do. "Lear didn't really manage to figure out how to give away power," he told The Wall Street Journal.

Berry named his 34-year-old daughter CEO of the business-plan software company he built. He now reports to her as president, since he wasn't interested in retiring. But he did want a smooth transition, and offers these tips:

• Prepare to let go: It took a year of reflection to prepare to let go. During that time, he re-read King Lear, which reminded him he had to make sure he truly was ready to leave. He suggests you imagine the transition failed and are writing a book on why. Generally, the reason will be that you didn't let go.



• Find a sweet spot: If you want to still stay involved, carve out a role you enjoy and that benefits the company as well. Berry, who loves writing, has become the company's blogger. But you shouldn't have anyone reporting to you to minimize the chance for interference.



• Make a quick, clean cut: Berry's decision to step down was announced and implemented in a week. Some people, out of habit, still came to him for decisions, but he simply reminded them of the change. He advises: "Get out of the car … and say, 'Here, you take the driver's seat and drive."

When selling, it's vital you address -- rather than ignore -- the elephant in the room. For example, when Jill Konrath sold for Xerox, her most feared competitor had a switch that automatically turned its copier off after not being in use for 20 minutes. "I lost more sales over this stupid feature than I care to admit. My competitor kept emphasizing its value. All my responses made me sound like I was on the defensive," she writes on her Selling To Big Companies blog.

The truth was that the annual cost savings were minuscule and waiting for the system to warm up again drove people nuts. So early in the sales process, she would mention that as the prospect was evaluating systems they would likely hear about an automatic on/off switch. She would add that copiers in the "wait mode" are only using the electricity of a light bulb and that many people didn't realize it took 30 seconds for the machine to warm up if switched off, which for most employees was a waste of time. She never lost a sale again.

So figure out the elephant in the room you are avoiding, and how to address it. If it's pricing, admit that you are not the low-cost provider and explain why that's to their advantage. If your competitor is a big company, explain the advantage of working with you. Name the elephant, instead of tiptoeing around it.

Consultant, best selling author, and football fan Patrick Lencioni notes that many NFL teams insist they are looking for players with "good character" but don't know what that actually means. If your company also wants employees with good character, he urges you in the American Management Association's Performance and Profit newsletter to think through the behaviour that makes for good character.

When it comes time to meet the candidates, don't conduct typical interviews. Instead, take them out of the office and do something that requires a natural interaction. If you could take them on a business trip, you would know immediately if you would want to hire them. That's not possible, so instead try a trip to the post office or Home Depot, and while buying stamps or sandpaper informally ask questions about what they have done -- particularly, he stresses, mistakes they have made.

Books on failed leaders often blame their demise on arrogance. But consultant Richard Reeves argues that ideal leaders in fact need an utter confidence in their own ability to lead along with a willingness to learn from others and admit mistakes. He calls that combination "amiable arrogance," and likens it to the humble but wilful leaders celebrated in Jim Collins's Good To Great.

"Arrogance is only a virtue in combination with amiability, openness and focus. But it is hard to do the top job convincingly without a deep-seated belief that you are the best person for it," he writes in Management Today. "As Virgil put it, 'fortune sides with him who dares.'"

• As a general rule of thumb, work on the assumption that your opinions on anything (and particularly about other people) are best kept to yourself. There are few times when volunteering your opinion has an upside.
  (Source: Winning At Work newsletter)



• Web marketing expert Anne Holland reports that new research shows you don't need to use sans serif fonts like Arial on web sites -- Times Roman is just as effective. But watch font size and colour: "Using type smaller than 10 points and/or body copy that's not black on white is the equivalent of asking your Web visitors to wear extremely pointy shoes with 5-inch spike heels as they walk around your site."
  (Source: Marketing Sherpa.com)



• When asked in a recent TV interview what attributes leaders need, legendary auto executive Lee Iacocca began with curiosity. An executive needs to ask questions to find out what is going on, in order to determine what to do next.
  (Source: Fast Company Blogs)



• Keep a record for a week of every activity you do and the time spent. Then rate the value of each one using three categories: Top 20 per cent, those high value activities that contribute significantly to your goals; bottom 80 per cent of activities that need to be done but don't contribute as significantly to your objectives; or 0 per cent, the activities that should be delegated. Determine how much time you spent in each category.
  (Source: The Road To CEO Leadership Blog)



• Employees should always expect fun just around the corner.
  (Source: Brand Autopsy blog)

There are many ways to begin, but we find clients get off to a fast start by assigning homework individually and in advance to all participants in the planning group. Your session may involve a full board, senior management, or a team with representation from across the organization -- they all have different perspectives on the key issues that may need to be addressed.

The best method we've found is to ask participants to use email or an online input tool to submit their individual feedback on two or three key questions. For example:

• What fundamental issues or choices do you see as being critical to our future success?



• Being optimistic but realistic, what would you see as the most desirable outcome of our activities over the next three years?



• Are there any areas where our culture may need to change to accomplish that outcome?

Rather than starting with a roundtable discussion where the focus tends to narrow to the first couple of topics mentioned, this technique of inviting feedback in advance brings out a full range of perspectives and issues. A "first cut" from team input efficiently identifies broad strategic choices, the team's desired outcomes and how values or past practices may have to change in the future.

We compile all the input into a summary document, usually verbatim, and then distribute it back to the team for their review prior to the first planning session. As a result, participants arrive ready to go -- with a good understanding of where their colleagues stand and what the hotspots in the strategic landscape are from all points of view.

We've been noticing an increased interest in tapping into the opinions and attitudes of relatively small stakeholder groups (small compared to polling the general public). Examples of such populations might be staff, organizational partners, physical/geographic neighbours, user groups or clients in a particular niche.

To be effective, the research approach for such groups often goes beyond standard polling or survey practice. Literacy or attention span may be an issue for certain client groups. Language may have to be tweaked for a specialized group of partners or users close to the organization. Confidentiality may be an issue, for example when staff don't fully trust management and fear repercussions from making frank comments.

There are also opportunities to improve on standard techniques. For example, we have seen a staff survey for more than 100 employees completed in just 10 minutes at an annual retreat -- bringing a completion rate of virtually 100 per cent, many times what a standard survey response would be. (The format was a little like writing an exam, with all the participants quietly answering a print survey at the same time in the same room.)

8020Info offers counsel and services to help you conduct effective research and consultation with staff and other stakeholders. We would be pleased to discuss your requirements and welcome your enquiries at (613) 542-8020, or by email at watercooler@8020info.com.