en-us http://www.keithwatanabe.net/index.php Keith Watanabe's Website http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/7/22/91774a11fdf2b0d2cdd797154e160436.html

• Risk takers - Leaders need to know when to take a massive risk. Being conservative only maintains status quo, but the whole idea of leadership is not just ensuring the survival rate of a group, but moving forward as well.
• Omniscient - Seeing from the peripheral is necessary to provide as much of an unbiased, objective viewpoint as one can take. One must be able to absorb much input from different sources, filter it and provide an opinion that is beneficial to whatever the objective is.
• Decisive - A leader cannot be schizophrenic and unwilling to commit to a decision. Regardless of the outcome from a decision, it's more important to make that decision than to sit and wait for an outcome.
• Able to take responsibility - This means that the person is willing to not hide when the heat is turned up a few thousand degrees and is able to accept consequences.
• Vocal - Ever hear of the saying "the squeaky wheel always gets the grease?" People are not mindreaders, but if you don't speak up, how would people know what you want? More importantly, are you the type that's able to speak for everyone and act as their representative? A person who has no voice but is smart, might as well be a researcher in an isolated lab.
• Detail Oriented - Unless you have an amazing memory, you're going to need to take notes. You'll need to itemize what you do, what goes around you and all the steps necessary to move forward. I haven't seen many sloppy, disorganized people move forward as leaders. This doesn't necessarily mean if your room is a gigantic tornado heaven that you're doomed to failure. But you do need to provide clear details to your subordinates who'll follow your command.
• Earn respect, don't just demand it - Wherever you go, people are always going to challenge you if you're attempting to manage them. At a certain point, you'll be confronted by someone who wants your position. To keep it, you'll have to prove to them why you are there. This is show don't tell situation.
• Be respectful to others - Respect the individuality of people. At least give them an opportunity to prove to you that you can trust them. I feel that leaders who lack respect because of huge egos tend to also receive a lot of criticism or backlash once their flaws emerge.
• Communication Skills - More and more I find that the importance of communication goes beyond your hard skills. It's a thing that cannot be simply taught, but experienced and learned. Knowing what to say and when to say it are equally important as how to say something. After all, what is the idea of charisma anyway in terms of leadership?
• Demand and Strive for Excellence - Never cave in to the lowest common denominator. Make people meet your expectations.

]]> Sun, 22 Jul 2007 09:30:32 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/7/22/91774a11fdf2b0d2cdd797154e160436.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/8/15/3118202e74c8db1a3aa21337c3d85e87.html
I can hardly imagine a world without meetings. Probably we'd solve globlal warming, hunger, poverty, resource issues, etc.]]> Wed, 15 Aug 2007 07:57:26 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/8/15/3118202e74c8db1a3aa21337c3d85e87.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/23/de266f21ab45758d7f9cf41c59167724.html
Since returning, I read two major things that Jerry Yang had performed on behalf of Yahoo: 1) deal with the whole China escapade and 2) announcing the layoff of numerous Yahoo-ers.

I'm certain that neither decision is appealing at all for many of the people within Yahoo. I read that most engineers are going to be retained while a lot of other people (read: middle management) will scramble about to latch onto some project or team before getting The Note.

Of course, Semel did a lot of damage to Yahoo, attempting to convert it into a pure media company whereas the foundation was oriented towards tech. When Google overtook Yahoo in various areas, Yahoo was left in the dirt of various bad moves, especially in terms of PR. Now, the focus is on engineering. Why? It sounds like they're attempting to follow Google in letting the engineers once again lead the company. I don't have a problem with this; I have a problem of Yahoo trying to follow Google rather than focus on a separate path or improve upon their core competencies.

While Yang sat on the board, I feel that he probably was away from the day-to-day activities, instead enjoying life as one of the richest and most influential people in the world. I noticed that he contributes to the Republican party as well, which shows some of his psychological paths. But I think he's gotten complacent and being away from the day-to-day activities and enjoying a large amount of wealth, removed a lot of his hunger and ambition to drive Yahoo.

Let's face it: Yang's position in Yahoo came from the fact that he helped found it and created some of the technologies along with Dave Filo. Can he still steer the helm? Or is he just going to live off of stock?

My feeling is that Yahoo really ought to have promoted someone within the company to CEO. I don't think Jerry Yang was the best candidate and with the layoff announcement, there'll probably be a lot of backlash against him and what he represents. Also, probably the only reason why they ended up bringing him back was that internally Yahoo was politically messed up and that no one really trusted anyone else to lead the company. They really need to groom someone else who had been handling the day-to-day operations of the company and had the vision, passion and hunger to improve Yahoo (raises his hand!).

While I'm certain that there'll be some cool new stuff coming from Yahoo, it won't be earth shattering and I don't think any of the true innovation done will be caused by Yang himself. Let's see what the upcoming months hold for Yahoo. But I'm not holding my breath.]]> Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:27:23 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/23/de266f21ab45758d7f9cf41c59167724.html