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Sheila Marcelo is the Founder and CEO of Care.com, an online service for families to find trustworthy options for child care, senior care, pet care, tutoring and housekeeping. Prior to this, as an entrepreneur, Sheila has worked as an executive at several successful for-profit start-ups with a social mission: Upromise.com, an online service helping families save money for college, and TheLadders.com, an online job search website for executives.

Care.com aims to provide families with a trustworthy resource to address their care needs. Evolving past the traditional concept of a service directory, Sheila started Care.com to provide families with a more efficient way to find local care providers. In this discussion, we talk about entrepreneurship and addressing the needs of families.

RS: Sheila, this is your third startup. What lessons from your previous startups are you bringing to this startup?

SM: Having worked in a start-up environment for several years prior to launching Care.com, I was aware of the deep personal investment that comes with starting your own company.  It’s like raising a child in its own way.

From my past experiences, I know how important it is for a company in our position to stay focused on what our goal is.  For Care.com, and many companies out there, it’s easy to get sidetracked by any number of great opportunities that come along.  I would much rather us be a leader in the areas that we focus on by providing the highest-quality service, rather than spread ourselves thin by pursuing every opportunity or partnership that comes our way.

Another key lesson that I have carried with me from my past experiences is the need to hire and work with a very talented team.  We have a great group at Care.com, and I’m thrilled to have a team so committed to pursuing the company’s mission of helping families.  The important thing to remember is that with a start-up, strategies can change at a moment’s notice.  It is important to have a team that can adapt and switch gears when needed, but maintain the passion and enthusiasm for what the company is building.

RS: What motivated you to start Care.com?

SM: I was motivated to start Care.com based on the challenges I faced in my own life in trying to find quality care providers.  With my husband and I both working, it’s always a juggling act raising our two sons and caring for our two dogs.  Several years ago, in the midst of managing a career and raising my children, my father needed quadruple bypass surgery.  Living in another state, it was a struggle to find adequate care for him – and the experience made me more aware that many families out there are without options for finding adequate care.  You may have a trusted nanny or a regular pet sitter, but if their personal circumstances change or if they suddenly fall ill, it can be a struggle to find help in a moment’s notice.

RS: When you decided to launch Care.com, there were already a number of service directories. What was your game plan to play in the crowded space?

SM: Actually, I think there were certainly a lot of niche players when we entered the family services space, but Care.com is unique in that we are addressing the lifecycle of care needs under one umbrella.  Many services like senior care can be very localized – so it’s often times difficult for an out-of-state family member to know who the trusted resources are in another area.

I think we also differentiate ourselves from a typical service directory by creating a greater degree of efficiency and safety to the process of finding a caregiver. A typical online classified may do a great job of providing a place to find local babysitters, but you still need to click through individual profiles to find the right fit.  If you are a mom looking for a babysitter with infant experience who is available on select afternoons – it can be challenging to find someone who fits the bill.  We tailored our search metrics to be very specific, allowing families to find providers in their area who fit the criteria that they designate.

Additionally, Care.com offers safety features like free background checks and recorded reference interviews to provide families with a greater degree of confidence when hiring a caregiver.  It is still important to interview candidates and make sure that someone is the right fit for your needs, but by having Care.com address items like background checks and references, it ensures that important steps are not overlooked.

RS: What is the “litmus test” if any to see if the idea is worth executing on?

SM: First and foremost, I think it’s important to be invested in the idea that you are trying to get off the ground.  With Care.com, I had a very personal connection to the services based on some of my own experiences trying to find caregivers for my sons, our family’s dogs and my father. Beyond that, it was fulfilling for me to create a company that addressed a social mission.

It is really important to solicit as much feedback in the early stages – whether that’s talking to friends and family or tapping your intended consumers for input.  It is important to get a thorough read on how viable your idea is, and then beyond that it becomes important to evaluate the scope and scalability of a concept.

RS: What is your advice for “would be” entrepreneurs?

SM: There are definitely a lot of great aspects to being an entrepreneur.  For me, the realization that we are creating from the ground up at Care.com is really exciting.  It always amazes me to look out and see how much we have grown this company even in a short period of time.

At the same time, it requires a lot of work and personal investment to succeed at being an entrepreneur.  Probably the single best piece of advice I can give is to develop a network of professional mentors and former colleagues that you can rely on for advice and guidance throughout the process.  I have a number of people in my life who have provided me with a great deal of advice, guidance and support along the way.  Beyond that, drink a lot of coffee!

RS: Lastly, what can you share about your future plans for Care.com?

SM: We just recently celebrated our one-year anniversary since the site’s nationwide launch – and it has been exciting to see how much Care.com has evolved in that time.  We are continuing to expand our reach nationwide, especially in our services outside of child care.  In addition, we are continuing to actively listen to feedback from our customers to figure out areas of improvement as well as opportunity.

Michael Kanazawa and I met almost a year ago at the 800-CEO-Read Pow Wow event in Chicago, a gathering of authors and thought leaders in business and leadership. I joined Mike for his launch party of his new book BIG Ideas to BIG Results in April of this year and more recently had a chance to catch up and talk about his work.

Michael is a leading authority on the topics of corporate transformation and strategy execution. He serves as chief executive of Dissero Partners, a consulting firm focused on helping companies more quickly and predictably turn their BIG Ideas into BIG Results. He has worked with numerous high growth companies and global corporations including AT&T, Anadigics, Intel, PG&E, Schlumberger and Symantec. He has been quoted and featured in major media, including Fox Business News, the Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. He also blogs at www.bigideastobigresults.com.

ChangeThis.com recently published his manifesto titled, “People Don’t Hate Change, They Hate How You’re Trying to Change Them.” It has created a good buzz and I wanted to ask him a few more questions about it.

Here is our discussion…

RS: Why do so many leaders find it difficult to lead change and transformations in their organizations?

MK: First, many of us are promoted into management and leadership jobs with no experience or knowledge of how to effectively lead major change efforts. We don’t learn these skills through school or in most leadership development programs at corporations. And with an overall success rate of change programs at 33%, based on over 40 studies on effectiveness, chances are we’ve all lived through a lot more botched efforts than successful ones in our careers. Many people go into these efforts underestimating the time and care required to get it right.

RS: I’ve heard you talk about doing “more on less.” Can you explain more about that and how it relates to driving change and success?

MK: In many organizations there is little time for strategic thinking, prioritization of work or thinking through effective resource allocation. Every group is running fast against their own goals and often out of alignment with other divisions. Organizations end up in tactical overload. As resources get spread thin or cost cutting is done, leaders fall back on the old rallying cry, “we just need to do more with less!” In the end, these organizations get stuck in gridlock and progress comes to a grinding halt.

One of the big impediments to change is that people are so overloaded with firefighting on a daily basis that they can’t get out in front of things to do fire prevention work or to create strategic change. Shifting your mindset to doing “more on less” can help you and your team to get your work under control and deliver results more quickly on the few initiatives with the greatest business impact.

RS: For an IT leader, what is the best way to help the company change to adopt a new technology solution?

MK: First, if the IT department is implementing technology projects that are not clearly focused on delivering on the top strategic goals of the business, this is tough. Often IT and other departments are working to implement against their own priorities. In companies with weak strategic alignment, departments end up working at odds with each other. In this case, IT leaders need to work with the senior executive team to generate proper alignment between operations and technology goals.

Now, assuming that the company is aligned to a single focus, then the challenge is in engaging end-users to build their ownership and accountability from the beginning. Generating a high-engagement approach to needs assessments, user requirements documents and prototype testing can be a key to success up front.

RS: I know you have said that people should eliminate “buy-in” as a step in change management processes. Can you explain that further?

MK: Many companies put a “buy-in” step between a planning and execution phase. It is viewed as the trigger to get the troops involved in the effort. The problem with this approach is that it is typically too little, too late, to have a real impact on ownership and accountability. People do not like to have change inflicted on them and have no input to things that will impact their daily lives.

As I explain in the eBook, “People Don’t Hate Change, They Hate How You’re Trying To Change Them,” we need to eliminate the concept of “buy-in” as a late step in a change effort. The best way to ensure that people will be ready to implement a change is to engage them in the process of planning the things that will impact them. Clearly there are times when this can’t happen, like when acquisitions of public companies are happening, but those are exceptions to the rule.

RS: Is there one manager you remember working for who left a lasting impression on how you do things today?

MK: Michael Jimenez was my first boss as I left college and went to work for a financial services company as a credit manager (trainee). I went to him with my first loan package and was waiting to fill out the “Approved or Not-Approved” field on the form. He looked at it and said, “fill in your answer first and then we’ll talk about your decision.” I had questions and wanted to get his input to help make the decision, but he sent me back to make my own decision. I filled in “Approved” and he started asking me questions about why that was my decision and did I look at various analyses in making the decision. I had missed a couple and went back to do those. I came back and stood by my decision with him. He said, “Yeah, that looks right. Good decision.” That made my day. My confidence went way up and I was learning how to exercise judgment and having to live by my decisions.

There were other loans where I didn’t make the right call, but he never told me to change my answer. He would simply ask questions until I stumbled upon the same data or perspective that he was looking at and could true up my decision. He had me engaged and taking ownership of the decisions from day one. I was engaged and accountable. If he just had me filling out forms and stacking paperwork for him to make decisions on, the way other branch managers treated trainees, my experience would have been totally different. That was a great lesson.

Again, you can find out more about Michael at:

1. Company: www.disseropartners.com

2. Book: www.bigideastobigresults.com

3. Manifesto: People Don’t Hate Change, They Hate How You’re Trying to Change Them

Companies say this in many different ways. One simple way is to state the accomplishments of the company as a whole and make it look like you were (or are) a major part of the past (or future) accomplishments.

A quick example. Take a look at a career advertisement on a bill board for Yahoo!. The bill board says

1 out of every 2 people online
WILL LIVE YOUR CODE

One can take this literally and be in the fantasy world that 1 out of 2 people online are REALLY living their code. I hope nobody does that. Probably Yahoo! knows that too.

My point:

I think it is a given that you should be proud of working for the company you are working for. Otherwise, why work there?

What really matters is - “Is the company you are working for proud that you are working for them?”

Last week I had an opportunity to talk to Jack Hayhow, founder of Opus Training. I also had an opportunity to read his wonderful little book called “The Wisdom of the Flying Pig” and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Jack was not only kind enough to answer a few of my questions for the benefit of the readers of Life Beyond Code but also offer an eBook version of “The Wisdom of Flying Pig” for FREE. Details to access the book are at the end of this blog post

Now, here is the Q&A with Jack Hayhow:

RS:  The title of your book mentions managers AND leaders.  What, in your opinion, is the main difference between managers and leaders?

JH:  That’s an important question and one that a lot of people have asked.  There is some overlap between management and leadership, but in my view the roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders are fundamentally different.  Managers look first to the individual in the present moment while leaders look first to the group and toward the future.

Managers help their companies grow one person at a time by helping each individual turn his or her talent into performance.  The great manager’s focus is always locked on to what is happening with each individual direct report in real time.

On the other hand, every leader on the planet woke up today thinking about tomorrow.  The gift of great leaders is that they rally the collective passion of the organization toward a better future.

RS:  How can people evaluate themselves as a manager?

JH:  The important thing to remember is managers don’t get paid for what they do, they get paid for what their people do.  So, if you want to figure out how you’re doing as a manager, ask yourself these three questions:

1)    Are your people more productive working for you than they would be working for someone else?

2)    Are your people growing more working for you than they would be working for someone else?

3)    Do your people stay with the company longer working for you than they would have stayed working for someone else?

RS:  What’s the litmus test for leaders?

JH:  There have been thousands of books written about that question, but I think it’s productive to think about what leaders are responsible for producing.  At the end of the day, it seems to me there are four deliverables of great leadership:

1)    Amazingly engaged employees

2)    Evangelical customers

3)    Consistently solid financials

4)    Growth (Revenue, Profit, Capability)

Without these results, it’s hard to be described as a great leader.

RS:  What’s the most important thing a manager can do to be successful?

JH:  There are a handful of critical activities, so it’s tough to pick just one.  But you asked for one, so maybe we can compromise – I’d mention two:

1)    Make sure your people have the talent they need to do the job you’ve asked them to do.

Great achievement starts with great ability.  The idea that anybody can do anything is just flat wrong.  If you want your people to perform at a high level, you have to identify each person’s talent and then match that talent with the task.

2)    Make sure your people are doing work they find satisfying and meaningful.

Without quoting all the research (and there is a ton of it), just know that intrinsic motivation trumps any external device, process or practice ever invented by man. When the work itself is meaningful and satisfying, people are inspired to amazing achievement and the manager’s need to motivate mostly disappears.

RS:  What characteristics must a leader have to be successful?

JH:  Leaders can be successful in a number of different ways.  But there are some indispensable characteristics.  The two that jump most immediately to mind are honesty and optimism.

Honesty requires that you tell the truth, of course.  But it goes much deeper.  You must always do what you say you will do.  Your actions must be absolutely consistent with your words.  If you don’t walk the talk, you can’t be believed and you will fail as a leader.

Optimism is central to leadership because people need hope.  They need to believe the future will be better than the past.  To be a leader, you must have followers – people who will commit their hearts and minds and sweat to attaining your vision.  Can you imagine that anyone would commit so much to a person who is pessimistic about the future?

Now, here are the instructions to access the eBook version of “The Wisdom of the Flying Pig”

1) Go to:   www.OpusTraining.com

2) Click on “Books and eBooks”

3) Click “Add to Cart”

4) Enter Discount Code:  L8B1C

The typical question you may ask is “Is the ball in my court?”

Unfortunately, this question is flawed if you assume that there is only one ball to handle. Generally, there are many balls in the air. Here are some of them:

* A ball that relates to your work

* A ball that relates to your family

* A ball that relates to your social life

* A ball that relates to your long-term projects

* <<fill in the blanks here>>

So, in the process of trying to figure out whether the ball is in your court or not, you might forget to ask the real question which is

How many people are in my court?

Enjoy the weekend!

It hurts to see many nice people struggle through life. Just like gravity doesn’t care who you are, the world doesn’t care how much money nice people make. The marketplace rewards value and it helps if that comes from a nice person.

If being nice is on one axis, having the power to make things happen is on the other axis. Being nice and having the power is the winning combination. Any other combination, a recipe for a short-term or a long-term failure.

Here is a Nice-Power matrix to consider

As you can see, if you have no power and you are not nice, you will be a “Clueless Loser” meaning, you don’t have a clue that you are losing or you know you are losing but have no clue why you are losing.

With pure power and no nicety, you will be an “Arrogant Loser” - meaning you may have a short-term win that will boost your arrogance even further until it leads to an eventual failure.

Being very nice but no power, you will be a “Charming Loser” - meaning people will love to be around you but won’t be willing to pay and engage you.

You need both - niceness and power. Only then you have an opportunity to “make it happen” in the short and long-term.

Goals are easy if you never have to fulfill them.

Everything is clear when it is in your head. Only when that has to be translated into reality, there’s a problem.

So, if you are alone and you are going at your goals, chances are you may not reach where you are headed. Why? Because at 20,000 feet level goals are simple and you can easily overestimate your capacity to achieve them. As you get down to the ground level, you will realize that you alone are not capable of achieving those big goals. Since long-term relationships cannot be built in the short-term (it just doesn’t make sense, isn’t it) you will probably fall short of achieving the goals.

On the other hand, it is exactly the opposite in the case where you have BIG goals but also have access to a lot of help. With good help, you will start realizing that you can actually achieve more than what you set out to achieve in the first place. So you might really overshoot your own dreams or just simply achieve them in less time than you planned earlier.

All the best and start building those long-term relationships NOW!

What is the best gift your customer can give you?

Hint: It’s not money.

It is an act that shows that a customer REALLY cares about you.

Recently Hari (president of Jiffle) and I experienced a gift from one of our customers and it touched our hearts.

Please take a look at this site

http://www.myjiffle.com

It is a referral site for the Jiffle service. It provides a brief overview of what Jiffle offering is and urges potential customers to go and sign up for the service. Think of it like a site with just a landing page. Companies do this all the time.

In this case though - this site was not created by us. It was created by one of your kind customers - Sylva Leduc. Sylva has been a long-time customer, power user and a long-time supporter of Jiffle. But creating a site dedicated to us - that made our day!

Thank you Syl. This means a lot to us!

One option is to have simple goals. Goals that you can achieve easily. Goals that won’t make a big difference in your life or in the lives of others. Goals that really don’t matter.

The next option is to have big goals - goals that can change you and more importantly - goals that can change the world around you for better.

For that, you need help.  And, how do you get that?

In simple terms, here are some tips:

1. You build an identity big enough that people are willing and open to help you. Building an identity is a lifetime process - you can start it but I don’t think you can ever end it.

2. You help others early while growing in your career. In fact, it is also a lifetime process. You can end it but it is better that you don’t. A sub-set of people will reciprocate your help.

3. You engage in activities that will help multiple people at once. Imagine you were completing a task and a thousand people benefitting from it. That’s leverage like no other.

4. You ask for help. But before you do, remember that you have to earn the right to ask for it. Nobody is entitled for any help - automatically - unless you have an emotional relationship with them.

Help is really a two way street. Take a look at this help matrix. There are four quadrants. Here are the descriptions:

1. Clueless: In this category, the person can’t get help and neither he has the power to reciprocate if he ever gets help. Needs serious help.

2. High Cost: The person gets a lot of help but can’t reciprocate. These are people who know how to convince others to help them - probably for the first time ONLY. Once others realize that they are “high cost” slowly people will move away from them.

3. High Potential: Here the person has the ability to reciprocate. This category is filled with smart people who can return the favors easily but they don’t want to accept any favors as they don’t want to feel guilty - just in case they can’t return the favor. Or simply  they think that they can do it all by themselves.

4. High Leverage: This is the winning category. Only a small percentage of smart people get here. They know that they need help. They are happy to receive it and they are happy to reciprocate to the extent possible. You can never go wrong with them.

Have a wonderful Friday!