“Your true strategy is not what's written on your strategic plan; but what's written on your weekly calendar.” - Verne Harnish

“Creative 53%   Teaching 28%  Other 19%  ... That, he explains, is a running tally of how he’s spending his time ... These aren’t ballpark guesstimates. Mr. Collins, who is 51, keeps a stopwatch with three separate timers in his pocket at all times, stopping and starting them as he switches activities.” - 2009 NYT piece on Jim Collins

It is week three of my blank-page life.  I’ve never had fewer places I have to be.  So what am I doing? One big theme has been how I manage time itself.  Having a clear, unobstructed calendar to shape has lent itself to experimenting with some time management ideas that I think would translate back to work.  So below is not only what I'm filling my weeks with, but how.

"Making Time" is the number one obstacle to learning.  I saw it again and again with people at M5 that just couldn't show up to do the work needed move their careers ahead.  But when something is really important - like a family member in the hospital - somehow we manage to keep everything going.  I often think of getting off the cardio-machine in the gym when it hurts, but I don't, because I already did the work of getting my butt on the thing.  There's a lot to be said for showing up where and when you want to, and it isn't always easy.   So, to try and make sure I'm controlling my time during this period of limitless distraction, I baked a pie chart.

Dan Hoffman Assumes New Leadership Role with ShoreTel – Keith Nealon Becomes President and General Manager of the Cloud Division

On paper, it has been a long time since I had a new job.  But , in growing M5 from zero to $70 million, I've had a new job every year. I've had to change my leadership style constantly as we grew from five people to 50 and now to 250 people.   As Christopher Columbus supposedly said (in Portuguese), “You can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”

The personal learning has been thrilling.  Public speaking, team-building, managing people, designing sales processes, embracing the Agile development methodology, building culture, strategic planning, bits and bytes – through it all, I've had the joy of working with world-class teachers and experts, many of them on my own staff.

This Wednesday, we had the unique opportunity to host a group of reporters and analysts at the Boston Celtic’s game.  The Boston Celtics are a customer of our on-premise business phone solution.  They took on the Brooklyn Nets, a customer of ShoreTel Sky’s cloud-based solution.  We were joined by IT executives from both teams and despite the intense cloud vs. premise rivalry, all of the violence remained on the court.  (Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo was suspended by the league for two games for his role in a shoving match with Nets forward Kris Humphries after a foul on Celtic’s Center Kevin Garnett.*)

Yesterday is the last day we used the name “M5.”  For me, it is a bit bitter sweet.  I couldn’t be happier that we are part of the ShoreTel family and that we are fully embracing the brand.  But, together with the rest of my team, I’ve spent the last twelve years focused on all things M5, so it is just a little bit sad.   The good part is that I won’t have to keep making up answers to the question “how did you get the name M5?”  (Here’s my favorite from a number of made-up answers.)

Brand was one of the major reasons to combine with ShoreTel. We’re both known as upstarts that compete by delivering an exceptional customer experience.   We both have lots of fans, and great workplaces.  But M5 was known to a small circle in the industry.  ShoreTel has built a brand recognized on a global stage for building a top three company in the premise phone system market.  Since we stand for the same things, it made sense to combine and leverage one name.  Besides, we didn’t want the kids to be confused.

Recently, Russell Sarder, author, and CEO of NetCom Learning sat down with our Dan Hoffman to discuss building a strong leadership team. Dan discusses his leadership style and what makes a good leader in general. Enjoy!

This month, we asked our members: How do you find time away from the day-to-day running of the business to focus on strategic planning?

Dan Hoffman, M5 Networks: Quarterly offsites are crucial. I like to visit a great company or program, such as Zappos, Rackspace, or Verne Harnish’s Gazelles200, as a group to serve as a catalyst for our thinking. Having a strategic planning facilitator helps move the process along. Also, I spend every Monday morning alone in a coffee shop to review how we are doing against our plan and use that time to think bigger thoughts.

Read more at NY Enterprise Report.

M5 Networks‘ president and CEO, Dan Hoffman, talks to NY Report publisher and CEO Rob Levin about selling his business and some past tough times

ShoreTel Cloudies:

What a day!  For about half of you this is your first M5 birthday party. Enjoy the start of your journey.  For the rest of us, this is a day filled with nostalgia and pride.  It is the one day a year that we are all together to thank each other, and slap M5 high-fives.  We've accomplished so much this year.  And I don't only mean the 42 people that learned to rock, or the 17 that learned to roll.  We've built a rocket and readied it for lift-off.  You can feel the rumbling of the engine, the smoke billowing beneath us, the tight straps holding us in, the countdown ... I say it every year, but picture what next year's event will be like!

Last week, I had the great pleasure of joining Peter Blackmore and other ShoreTel executives for ShoreTel’s investor day at AT&T Park in San Francisco.  We had the opportunity to speak to investors and analysts about the future of ShoreTel, unified communications and, of course, the acquisition of M5 Networks.

This was a whole new game for me.  One of the things I like best about my job is that it feels completely new every six months.  I was anxious about how "The Street" would receive us.  But it is great to learn from pros like Peter and his team.  I thought the event was excellent.