Leaders Must Motivate
to Retain Top Talent

Donna Dubinsky

JAD woman of the month:
Donna Dubinsky: Mother of the Palm, Co-Inventor of the PalmPilot and Co-Founder of Handspring

Like many people today I use a PDA in my work everyday. I started with the very first PalmPilot and believed in the product to the extent of purchasing stock in the company. Over time the PDA market has run the gamut from the Palm to the Sidekick and there are numerous versions of hand held solutions today. It all started with Donna Dubinsky and her partner Jeff Hawkins.

The original PalmPilot changed the way everyone kept track of appointments, friends, and colleagues. By keeping its operating system open, Dubinsky spawned a subculture of software developers devoted to writing games and other programs for the Palm OS. PDAs have even changed dating habits. At some bars phone numbers are "beamed," not written on matchbook covers. Remember the commercial in the early days of Palm where the young man beamed his business card to the young woman as they went their separate ways? It was cool then and it's still cool today.

By 1996, Silicon Valley had spent nearly $1 billion trying to develop a handheld computer, and about all there was to show for it was a rather rotten Apple Newton. Then along came Donna Dubinsky and Jeff Hawkins. He glued together bits of mahogany and cardboard in his garage and transformed them into the first PalmPilot. But it was she who built up Palm Computing and turned the wooden experiment into one of the most successful consumer electronics product launches in history, selling 400,000 units during its 1996 debut.

Dubinsky repeated herself in 1998, when she and Hawkins left Palm, which by then was a division of 3Com, to start Handspring Inc. Apparently running a small division within such a large company wasn't enough for this entrepreneurially minded woman. Venturing out on their own paid off. By undercutting Palm's prices by as much as 30%, Handspring's Visor gained market share quickly, representing one out of every four personal digital assistants (PDAs) sold after just a year in business.

Today I speak about Donna Dubinsky to the students in all of my PDA Productivity classes. I figure if they're using the product, they should know that a woman helped make this possible. It's not enough to just utilize the product, I believe my students should know where it came from, especially if it comes from a woman.

I even deliver my PowerPoint presentations from my PDA. I love the look on the student's faces when they realize that you can leave your laptop at home and deliver presentations from your handheld. Donna recently teamed up with her original partner Jeff Hawkins to start a new company. I can't wait to see what they have in store for us next. Donna is the newest addition to our "Famous Self Creators" section of the JAD website. Click here to read her story in her own words.

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Mothers of Invention of the Month

Our woman inventor forJuly is – Patsy O. Sherman Inventor of Scotchgard™

You're at a party, lots of people, lots of laughs, lots of food. There are unwrapped presents, spilled sodas, a dropped cupcake and a few sandwiches later the part is over, the guests are gone and the mess is left behind. The sofa is stained and there are spots on the rug. What are you going to do about it? Spills happen and while you can wipe up the juice and clean off the counter sometimes it's not so simple. That's what Patsy O. Sherman faced back in the 1950s. She decided to do something about it and that's when she invented Scotchgard fabric protector.

Patsy was a scientist at the 3M laboratories in 1952. Hired on a temporary project she was supposed to create a new type of fuel hosing to be used on jet aricrafts. One day while Patsy was making a rubbery synthetic latex mixture, there was an accident. "A little brown, 4 oz. bottle of this sticky latex mixture dropped on the floor. It broke, splashed all over the assistant's canvas tennis shoes," Patsy explained.

They tried everything to clean the white shoes; water, soap and every cleaning solution in the lab was tried to no avail. The spill resisted all attempts. Watching the cleaning materials bead up o the splotch Patsy started thinking. Why did this happen? What does it mean? What can be done with it? Eventually she realized that her latex material could potentially be used as a fabric treatment that would repel spills and stains - an idea unheard of at the time.

The original blob that spilled on the shoe was not ideal for fabric as it was too sticky and gummy. So Patsy and her co-inventor decided to design and create products specifically for fabrics. Their first attempts were a disaster. "The first attempts at the new product was too sticky and caused the sticky rubber to build up on the squeeze rools when they ran the fabric through the mill. The next attempts was too hard and brittle and when sent through the mill's squeeze rolls it got hard and powdery," she recalled.

During this phase Patsy had to wait for word of her product's performance because (believe it or not) she was not allowed inside the textile mills because she was a woman! In the 1950s women were discriminated against not only in mills but in the general workplace. Many men thought that women didn't have any skills and would just get in the way!

Eventually they were able to get the product to meet the needs of the consumer. Now they had to prepare it in an economical fashion so the consumer would be able to pay for it. When the affordable, permanent press Scotchgard was created, the manufacturing plant manager notified 3M that they had a large batch ready enough for a whole year. A few days later the entire stock was sold!

After Scotchgard was introduced in 1956 Patsy spent the next years improving the product and creating new specific uses for various fabrics. Other 3M scientists became involved in the development of the product and some made very important discoveries. Soon the project had grown so large that everyone in the lab was working on it. "We suddenly had a Scotchgard product that everyone wanted to buy," Patsy recalled, and that's when the product really took off.

Thanks to an accidental spill and the inventiveness of Patsy Sherman and her colleagues, everyday spills are no longer a problem. Today Scotchgard has more than 100 kinds of the product, they are sold worldwide and 3M has made millions of dollars on the product. New furniture and carpets are now pretreated with fabric protection at the factory and cleaning up spills are much easier.

The next time that something bad happens, or you have an accident, do what Patsy did. Pause for a moment and ask yourself the same questions she did: Why did this happen? What does it mean? What can be done with it? Then open your mind to possibilities and maybe like Patsy you will find a solution. By the way back in 1947 Patsy took a general interest test in high school. At that time boys and girls took different tests. Despite the fact that she wanted to be a scientist, the test indicated that Patsy was most suited to be a housewife! Dissatisfied, she demanded to take the boy's test and the results showed she would be good in a career in dentistry or chemistry.

So the next time that a naysayer or anyone else points you in a direction that you do not feel is right for you, stick to your guns and find your own path and like Patsy you might find a million dollar solution!

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Book of the Month:
eBOOK: How to Travel on Other People's Money

Do you want to travel internationally? Would you like to go to Italy, France, London, Germany, Austria or Asia and have someone else pay your way and all your expenses? Our book of the month will teach you how to do just that. The woman who used these strategies put it this way "I became really frustrated at my previous position and realized that staying where I was, simply wasn't enough for me. I needed to do something about it. So I started investigating how I can go live abroad, how I can try all these things I've have been dreaming about for the past 10-15 years of my life but didn't do anything about. I started to realize there's a way to experience the world and have someone else pay for it. So that's what I did." She shares her story and the strategies she used successfully to travel worldwide in an easy read that can save you thousands of dollars right away. Get your copy today!

"When you give someone a book, you don't give her just paper, ink, and glue. You give her the possibility of a new life." - Christopher Morley - 1890 - 1957, Novelist, Journalist, Poet

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Innovation of the Month:
Design Your Own Sneaker

Remember when Dell came up with the idea to have the consumer design their own Dell PC online and revolutionizsed the PC market? Well now Nike has done it too. You can now design and customize your own sneaker at Nike stores and at the Nike online store. You can pick your colors, personalize with your own iD message and shipping is free. The system is called "Customize IT - Nike air Rift iD" Check it out at NikeTown or online at nikeid.nike.com

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Note I received from the Universe today:

If you but soak up the sunlight you are given, drink each drop of water I send, and strive only to be yourself, life shall quicken in your roots, spirit shall raise you into the light, and your bloom will inspire the world. You see, Yvonne… I do all the hard stuff. - The Universe

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The Five Biggest Traps to Avoid When Leading a Diverse Team
by Yvonne Brown

Today's leader must motivate and retain talent that talent being perhaps the most diverse than it's ever been. The differences are of many kinds, including, but not limited to, race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual preferences, life style, physical and mental challenges, geographic origin, education, personality, values, experience, and socio-economic status. There are five common traps that leaders should avoid when leading diverse teams.

1. Not Valuing Differences
   When leaders see differences as an advantage, they seek diversity in their teams and work hard to get the different perspectives and opinions on the table. They naturally encourage individuality while promoting teamwork.
2. Failure to create an inclusive environment
   Leaders need to encourage the involvement of all team members who, in turn, need to feel comfortable about offering suggestions and challenging ideas or practices. Leaders demonstrate inclusion by being open to new ideas, listening to different perspectives and encouraging creative problem solving.
3. Stereotyping
   Leaders must avoid associating any behaviors, talents, or lack of ability with any particular group. For instance, any leader who assumes that all women are emotional or that all Asians are excellent in math is guilty of prejudice and, further, does not acknowledge the uniqueness of each individual.
4. Not modeling the expected behaviors
   Effective leaders demonstrate the behaviors they want from others. When they show respect for differences, develop trust in their teams and promote the valuing of differences, they set the standard for how others should behave. They should clearly communicate that disrespect for others will not be tolerated.
5. Failure to coach
   Leaders need to make expectations clear to all employees and coach them individually toward higher levels of performance and growth. Besides the individual coaching, leaders will need to help diverse teams with conflicts that may arise from their differences. The leader must also encourage team members to coach others.

Talented individuals bring different perspectives and ideas to the workplace. It's a leader's job to attract and retain them. Avoiding these five traps can move diverse teams to their highest level of performance.

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Empowering Your Destiny

This month's Empowering Question

"Could I gain greater cooperation right now by showing genuine kindness and respect than by demanding it?"

This month's Empowering Affirmation

"Big jobs are just a bunch of easy to do small tasks. I persevere in the face of all adversity. I see road blocks as stepping stones. Every moment provides me with opportunities to strengthen my belief in myself. I go after goals one task at a time, and then move on to the next one."

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You Never Know

I am a firm believer in the abundance of the Universe. I believe in win-win and that if you put what you want out there you will attract, based on your belief and commitment, what you really need. It is in this mindset that I recently examined my need for a second laptop computer. My company provides training and consulting for corporations, individuals and associations. We also provide training through universities and on one particular day my husband Bill and I were both presenting training on the same day in different cities. We needed another laptop and quickly! I told him not to worry the Universe would provide and it did! Read the story of how I won a top of the line laptop and had it in my possession before the day of the class.

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