Don’t Get Blindsided by Organizational Politics

April 30, 2012 By 2 Comments

Some people take pride in being deaf and blind to organizational politics. A good friend and now out-of-work colleague confesses that he didn’t see his termination coming. He offered:

“I didn’t want to play the games.”

He now knows that is approach was naïve. By ignoring the internal power dynamics in his organization, he allowed himself to be marginalized and then eliminated.

“My reviews were fine, but I ignored the shifting structure and ended up on the wrong side of someone I had shown no tolerance for during my time at the firm.”

For all of us, ignoring this very real human behavior that manifests itself as organizational politics, is a sure-fire way to end up at best on the fringe of irrelevance, and at worst, to end up outside, wondering what happened.  

Some have power, some aspire to power (or control) and others will stop at nothing to gain power.  Certainly, intentions and approaches vary. There are good people who aspire to more responsibility and to gain the opportunity to make a bigger impact. And there are others who view this as a game to win or lose. The rest tend to be passive observers along for the ride, hoping (a bad strategy all of the time) to be left alone.

“My work speaks for itself.”

Nice thought. No it doesn’t. You have to speak for yourself and, you need others willing to speak for you. Lacking both, you end up isolated and in danger.

7 Ideas for Playing Politics without Sacrificing Your Integrity

1. Build bridges across the organization. Every day. There’s nothing wrong, dirty or evil with networking, supporting others and building productive relationships with those in peer and superior roles in other parts of the organization. In fact, it’s decent, logical and shows you in good form.

2. Don’t fear new opportunities. Even if you are comfortable in your current role, if someone offers you a new opportunity, it’s because they believe you are up to the task. A good many professionals suffer from a bad case of lack of confidence when it comes to taking on something new, something different and something that involves doing more. Say “no” too many times, and the offers will dry up, and you’ll be headed for the margin of irrelevance.

3. Over-deliver, every single day.  Your results do count and word does spread.

4. Learn your boss’s agenda, and support it. Today’s boss is tomorrow’s sponsor, reference or adversary.

5. Speaking of the boss, steer clear of boss bashing. Keep your feelings to yourself, and beware the groups who thrive on breaking bad over the boss. Your words can and will be used against you.

6. Same rule as #5, different audience. Steer clear of colleague bashing sessions.

7. Attach yourself to individuals who aspire to do more in support of the firm. While these individuals might be more aggressive than you in pushing an agenda, your affiliation with people you respect and who are motivated to do good for the firm is a sincere and genuine form of playing politics.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Choosing to ignore the internal power dynamics in your organization should come with a warning label. “Ignoring reality may prove harmful or fatal to your employment.”

Instead of taking comfort in a naive pride in your ability to “avoid the games,” participate in a manner that allows you to retain your integrity. Keep your eyes and ears open and choose your steps deliberately, all the while maintaining your integrity.

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Don’t miss the next Leadership Caffeine-Newsletter! Register here.

Art Petty is a Chicago-based management consultant focusing on strategy and leadership development. Art regularly speaks on innovation in management and leadership, and his work is reflected in two books, including the recent, Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development. (download a free excerpt at Art’s facebook page.)

Art publishes regularly at The Management Excellence blog at http://artpetty.com/blog/

Prior to his solo career, Art spent 20+ years leading marketing sales and business units in systems and software organizations around the globe. You can follow Art on twitter: @artpetty and he can be reached via e-mail at art.petty@artpetty.com

Filed Under: Career, Professional Growth, Values Tagged With: , , ,

Leadership Caffeine Podcast: Brook Manville on Judgment Calls

April 26, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Cover art for Leadership Caffeine PodcastDecisions are the lifeblood of organizations. Nothing happens without a decision. Yet, judging by the news headlines from the past decade, allegedly smart people and name-brand organizations can make some truly miserable decisions.

The importance of looking at decision-making as an organizational capability that can be exercised and improved upon was underscored in an empirical study by Blenko, Mankins and Rogers, published in the Harvard Business Review (The Decision Driven Organization, fee), suggesting a strong correlation between decision-making effectiveness and financial results. The study went on to suggest that the typical organization may be able to improve decision-making effectiveness by at least 50%. If they are right, that’s a big pile of decision-making opportunity left out on the corporate table.

Run a literature search on decision-making, and you’ll find a broad range of content, much of it focused on the cognitive issues and traps surrounding the process, and the balance focused on the disasters so widely dissected in our culture. For a fresh and refreshing view on decision-making, enter Tom Davenport and Brook Manville with their book, Judgment Calls-12 Stories of Big Decisions and the Teams that Got Them Right.

Leadership Caffeine Episode 15-Judgment Calls with Brook Manville [ 30:56 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By design, the authors eschew bullet lists, “How To” narratives and neuroscience lectures so commonly found in this field, and instead, focus on these positive stories and the approaches the various teams took to go from big challenge to effective decision. Instead of serving up their own form of framework for the process of decisions, the authors let the stories and approaches emerge, commingle and ultimately, educate. Refreshing, instructive and memorable!

Enjoy this podcast…Brook is a fascinating guest.  And enjoy the book. It’s a great addition to your management library.

For more information on our podcast guest, Brook Manville, visit his website. Brook and his co-author, Tom Davenport, both blog for HBR.org.

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Don’t miss the next Leadership Caffeine-Newsletter! Register here.

Art Petty is a Chicago-based management consultant focusing on strategy and leadership development. Art regularly speaks on innovation in management and leadership, and his work is reflected in two books, including the recent, Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development. (download a free excerpt at Art’s facebook page.)

Art publishes regularly at The Management Excellence blog at http://artpetty.com/blog/

Prior to his solo career, Art spent 20+ years leading marketing sales and business units in systems and software organizations around the globe. You can follow Art on twitter: @artpetty and he can be reached via e-mail at art.petty@artpetty.com

Filed Under: Leadership Caffeine Podcast Tagged With: , , ,

Leadership Caffeine: Listen with Intent

April 24, 2012 By 5 Comments

image of a coffee cupYesterday, a valued colleague described a fascinating professional interaction and used the phrase, “listening with intent.” While I imagine this is something on the level of “seek first to understand,” the phrasing works for me. It connotes a significant and deep personal investment in focusing on another human…something lacking from most of our interchanges in life and in the workplace.

A quick search on the topic uncovered a number of resources…mostly linking the phrase to the process of “active listening.” Listening with intent goes beyond the acts of repeating words and asking clarifying questions, techniques commonly associated with active listening.

Listening with intent isn’t a technique, it’s a personal value backed by behaviors that cause us to shift from the movie about ourselves running in our own minds to focusing on the movie or picture being created by another.

Stephen Covey describes this concept very eloquently and effectively in 7 Habits…and it is summarized wonderfully in this piece at Fast Company: “Using Empathic Listening to Collaborate.”

Instead of our usual listening “with intent to reply to control, to manipulate,” it (Empathic Listening) means getting “inside of another person’s frame of reference. You look out through it, you see the world the way they see the world, you understand their paradigm, you understand how they feel.” 

Rhetorical question: How many of us listen that hard to our colleagues? Our customers? Our loved ones? 

Frankly, the act of listening with intent…or employing Covey’s empathic listening, sounds exhausting and painstaking. I suspect that’s why we spend so much time not doing this.  Nonetheless, there are some good reasons to invest the mental sweat required to listen with intent.

  • Great negotiators understand and apply empathic listening masterfully. They strive to understand issues, goals and aspirations, which are often hiding out of sight behind positions.
  • The best salespeople I’ve been privileged to work with are masters. The worst sell on features and functions, the great ones sell by sitting down in our theaters and seeing the world and challenges and needs from our frame of reference.
  • Great strategists listen to customers and markets with intent. They look for emerging patterns and strive to make sense of those patterns and then they adapt their firms and products and services to fit the patterns and frames of groups of customers.
  • The best medical professionals employ Empathic Listening with their patients, which makes a remarkable difference in how we cope with difficult diagnoses.
  • And yes, the best leaders strive to tune-in to their employees, particularly as it relates to professional development.

Covey  ties this concept off beautifully with: “When you listen with empathy to another person, you give that person psychological air. And after that vital need is met, you can then focus on influencing or problem solving. This need for psychological air impacts communication in every area of life.”

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Help your family members, colleagues, employees, customers and even negotiating opponents breathe a little easier. Listen with intent. Listen with empathy (not sympathy) and provide a bit of psychological air. Most of us…myself included, don’t this very well or very often. It’s time to start.

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Don’t miss the next Leadership Caffeine-Newsletter! Register here.

Art Petty is a Chicago-based management consultant focusing on strategy and leadership development. Art regularly speaks on innovation in management and leadership, and his work is reflected in two books, including the recent, Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development. (download a free excerpt at Art’s facebook page.)

Art publishes regularly at The Management Excellence blog at http://artpetty.com/blog/

Prior to his solo career, Art spent 20+ years leading marketing sales and business units in systems and software organizations around the globe. You can follow Art on twitter: @artpetty and he can be reached via e-mail at art.petty@artpetty.com

Filed Under: "To Do" List, Career, Leadership, Leadership Caffeine, Professional Growth, Values Tagged With: , , ,

Bringing Back Professional Courtesy

April 19, 2012 By 8 Comments

Professional Courtesy Never Goes Out of Style

The issue of professional courtesy (or seeming lack thereof) came up at a recent networking group meeting. With permission, I’m sharing the spontaneous suggestion list we generated, including ideas for live and social media settings. You can easily intuit the pet peeves that led to the suggestions.

Please add to the list and let’s all strive to put these into practice in real-time. 

At Least 15 Ideas to Help Bring Professional Courtesy Back:

1. Don’t send a Linked-In invitation without personalizing the note. (OK, this one was mine. It’s the height of laziness to skip this common-sense and common-courtesy step.)

2. If someone facilitates an e-introduction, thank the person who introduced you and take the initiative to reach out to the person you’ve been introduced to. Don’t let these go stale.

3. Jamming business cards into people’s hands at networking events isn’t networking. Introduce yourself, ask about the other party and listen.

4. One conversation at a time in group settings. Always. Forever. Always.

5. Say “thank you” constantly and mean it.  Say it in person, via-email, in social media settings…everywhere.

6. We all know that “Thank You” in your e-mail signature is in your e-mail signature. There’s something less genuine about that. Type it out yourself so it doesn’t look like you put it in your e-mail signature because you’re too lazy to type it out!

7. Auto DM messages on Twitter are generally not appreciated and frankly, they feel disingenuous.

8. Executive Recruiters, we know you work for yourself first, the client second and the candidate not at all. However, you have a professional obligation to loop back with candidates. These are people’s lives and livelihoods you are dealing with here.

9. HR Managers and Hiring Executives, see the comment on Executive Recruiters and follow-up.

10. For all of us: quit “effing” around with the smartphone when you are SUPPOSED TO BE ENGAGING with (lisenting to, talking with) other humans.

11. Beware overuse of “I” in your conversations. Every “I” is amplified 10 decibels above your other words and after a few, we grow deaf to your message.

12. The 3rd stall on the right (or any stall) in any restroom is not the place to hold a phone conversation.

13. Listen better.

14. Smile more.

15. Walk into a room and portray a demeanor of “You’re here and I’m honored to see you,” instead of the royal, “I’m here and you should be honored to see me.” Trust me, we sense which one you are portraying.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Courtesy given freely and genuinely pays handsome dividends many times over. What a great investment! Let’s bring professional courtesy back.

And to those of you who stop by to read and to share your wisdom, Thank You. -Art

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Don’t miss the next Leadership Caffeine-Newsletter! Register here.

Art Petty is a Chicago-based management consultant focusing on strategy and leadership development. Art regularly speaks on innovation in management and leadership, and his work is reflected in two books, including the recent, Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development. (download a free excerpt at Art’s facebook page.)

Art publishes regularly at The Management Excellence blog at http://artpetty.com/blog/

Prior to his solo career, Art spent 20+ years leading marketing sales and business units in systems and software organizations around the globe. You can follow Art on twitter: @artpetty and he can be reached via e-mail at art.petty@artpetty.com

Filed Under: "To Do" List, Career, Professional Growth, Values Tagged With: , ,

The Cruel, Bitter and Crushing Taste of Dump-Truck Feedback

April 17, 2012 By 7 Comments

Manure Delivery

Right after avoiding it, the most commonly employed managerial strategy for dealing with feedback is, delaying it. The first approach is poor form… the latter approach is cruel.

Have You Seen this Movie?

Place yourself in a setting where you are sitting down for your annual performance evaluation. In your mind, the year has been filled with smiles and pats on the back from the boss and co-workers. Your frame of reference is, All is Good,  and you are genuinely excited for the opportunity to talk to the boss about how you can contribute more.

This good feeling lasts for about 5 seconds into the conversation.

As quickly as the smile on the boss’s face fades, you’re being fed the first piece of the “But” sandwich, slathered in “To Be Honest With You” sauce. It sounds like this: “You’ve done great this year, But, to be completely honest with you, we have some concerns.”

The first bite tastes stale and rotten at the same time. And who the heck is “We” and why didn’t they tell you they had concerns? Never mind that the boss just confessed he was lying to you all along and is only now being truthful. (Note to everyone: use of the “to be honest with you phrase is a guaranteed credibility killer. Strike it from your vocabulary.)

As the reality sinks in that this conversation isn’t about what you’ve done right or what you can do to contribute more, you swear you can hear the beeping of the dump-truck as it backs up and prepares to unload a year’s worth of everything you did wrong, all at one time.

The above conversation takes place somewhere in a corporate office daily. I’ve heard this countless times, and most recently from a good friend.   Perhaps you’ve been on the receiving end of this stale, rotten sandwich and dump-truck criticism.  Feels good, doesn’t it?  Not.

While I would love to wave the proverbial magic wand and see all who abuse this most important of developmental tools, placed into feedback jail and rehabilitated, reality tells us that our primary focus must be on our own behaviors.

4 Steps You Can Take to Stomp Out Dump-Truck Feedback:

1. Frequently ask the boss for feedback. If “How am I doing” elicits a grunt and a snarl with no input, try variations, including, “What do you need me to do more of?” or, “What can I do to help improve performance?” or, “How can I better help you?”  Creating an opportunity for the conversation might just open a dialogue and keep the dump-truck in the parking lot.

2. Get this right when it’s your day. If you supervise or manage others, get this right from the start.

3. Teach good feedback practices. If you supervise or manage those who supervise or manage, teach the right behaviors and hold people accountable for getting this right with their people.

4. Give some feedback on the feedback. If you are victimized by  a “Dump Truck” approach while being force fed a “But” sandwich slathered in “to be honest with you” sauce, give some frank and professional feedback on the feedback process. And yes, I mean, good, behavioral and professional feedback…slightly different than the thoughts running through your mind. And then ask the questions in #1 above.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Everyone loses…the firm, the manager and the employee, when the manager delays giving feedback. Some managers may be beyond rehabilitation, but you control your own actions.Tips for strengthening your command of the feedback process are never more than a web search away. And, “to be honest with you,” (see, it doesn’t feel good, does it?), most professionals want and appreciate regular feedback…positive and constructive. As it becomes your turn to carry the management torch, make certain that the Feedback Dump Truck ends up on the scrap heap, along with the “But” sandwich and jar of “To Be Honest With ¥ou” sauce.

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Don’t miss the next Leadership Caffeine-Newsletter! Register here.

Art Petty is a Chicago-based management consultant focusing on strategy and leadership development. Art regularly speaks on innovation in management and leadership, and his work is reflected in two books, including the recent, Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development. (download a free excerpt at Art’s facebook page.)

Art publishes regularly at The Management Excellence blog at http://artpetty.com/blog/

Prior to his solo career, Art spent 20+ years leading marketing sales and business units in systems and software organizations around the globe. You can follow Art on twitter: @artpetty and he can be reached via e-mail at art.petty@artpetty.com

Filed Under: "To Do" List, Leadership, Professional Growth, Surviving Lousy Leaders Tagged With: , , ,
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