Art of Managing: Tackle the Big Issues by Creating Time to Think Deeply

May 23, 2013 by Leave a Comment

ArtofManagingSometimes, you just have to call a time-out.

While our tendency is to respond to the gravitational pull of our devices and the unceasing demands of the urgent and urgent-unimportant in our work lives, some issues simply require deep thought.

Most organizations and professionals get into a groove of recurring meetings and outlook calendar-driven days. They associate “being busy” with working.

The hardest work is finding the quiet time to allow you and your colleagues to stare at and talk through and solve the real issues in the way of progress.

You won’t solve: “design new approach to market and supporting organizational structure for new strategy” or, “outline succession plan for management team” in-between your 8:00 a.m. production meeting and the 10:00 a.m. call to London.

The big issues of talent and strategy and structure all demand more than transactional treatment. The decisions that commit us to distinct paths merit the thoughtfulness that can only occur when we hit the stop button, change the environment and allow ourselves to honestly engage on the issues, risks, opportunities and fears about the path.

When working with executives who are struggling to get something right…sales, profits, team dynamics etc., I look for signs that they understand the need to occasionally slow down and focus. I asked one sales executive when he took time to think about the big issues in front of his team and the firm, and his response said it all. “Never. I enjoy the thrill of the daily hunt, and I focus my energy there every day.”  OK, that explains the visible stress fractures and performance problems all over his team.

6 Ideas for Creating Time to Think Deeply:

1. Make this part of your job. Recognize and accept the need to create time to think and talk deeply about the core issues with one or more of your key colleagues.

2. Accept that off-line time is still work time. In fact it’s the right work, even though you’ve turned off your devices and are ignoring for the moment the 147 issues that seemingly can’t move forward without you opining or approving.

3. Don’t restrict “thinking deeply” to the annual offsite. Be spontaneous. Don’t restrict deep thinking time to one or two off-site retreats during the year. In my experience, the best progress is made on the big issues when the planning is less deliberate.

4. Recognize the signs that it’s time for some deep thinking and talking. Most of our big plans are developed in an iterative fashion. A compelling strategy on the surface still requires deep thinking about the assumptions and the practicalities of implementing the strategy. Don’t let the pretty pictures and great words keep you from digging deeper and throwing some mud at the ideas.

5. Learn to stimulate thinking through re-framing. Just recently, I talked through a strategy program with the head of sales and we shifted frames 4 or 5 times on how we might build a go-to-market. Every time we got one side of the multi-colored  cube right, we would look at another side and something didn’t line up. This told us to keep thinking and talking.

6. Keep talking until the discussion exposes the real issues and the honest assumptions, opinions, biases, excitement and fears. If you never hit the fears, you’ve not thought and talked deeply enough.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Remember, being busy doesn’t mean you’re working hard. Call the time-out and create time for you and your colleagues to think deeply on the big issues. And then act.

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More Professional Development Reads from Art Petty:book cover: shows title Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development by Art Petty. Includes image of a coffee cup.

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

For more ideas on professional development-one sound bite at a time, check out Art’s latest book: Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development.

New to leading or responsible for first time leader’s on your team? Subscribe to Art’s New Leader’s e-News.

An ideal book for anyone starting out in leadership: Practical Lessons in Leadership by Art Petty and Rich Petro.

Filed Under: Art of Managing, Management Innovation, Performance, Strategy Tagged With: , ,

New Leader Tuesday-Job One is to Strengthen Others

May 21, 2013 by Leave a Comment

newleadertuesdaygraphic“Long before empowerment was written into the popular vocabulary, exemplary leaders understood how important it was that that their constituents felt strong, capable and efficacious.” Kouzes & Posner, The Leadership Challenge

Strengthen others.

It’s the advice no one gives you on day one.  Or, day 1000.

It’s more than advice. It’s your mission.

Early in our career our focus is on the individual staring back at us in the mirror. We’re preoccupied with engineering our own success.

And then at some point, some boss decides to make us responsible for the work (and career steps) of others. Everything has changed, yet all too often, we continue to smile back at the increasingly successful person in the mirror. 

It’s time to shift the view.

It’s not easy to move from a self-focused professional to someone who suddenly is measured by the success and growth of his or her team members.

Recognition is the first step. Too bad it’s a step that many team leaders and functional managers never make. The urgent and the urgent unimportant distract them from their rarely or never-discussed mission of strengthening others. People become tools to make numbers and complete tasks.

In reality, people are the instruments of creativity, innovation and sustainable success.

6 Helpful Reminders for Your Mission to Strengthen Others

1. You must break the mirror you’ve been staring into looking for signs of success. It’s not about you. It’s what you can do to support the learning and growth of those around you.

2. You need to change your measure of success. You will be successful if your team members feel “strong, capable and efficacious” as Kouzes and Posner share in the quote above.

3. “Strengthening Others” isn’t code for being soft. On the contrary, it comes through holding people accountable, pushing them beyond their perception of their capabilities and providing experiences that lead to experimentation, occasional failure and frequent learning.

4. Remember: teach, don’t tell. The leaders who get this right are teachers first and bosses second.

5. If you fail today, you can fix it tomorrow. There’s no expiration date on this mission.

 6. See number 5. You will fail many times. This is hard work.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

At different points in your life, you’ll shift your own personal definition of success. The day you gain responsibility for the work of others is one of those points.

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More Professional Development Reads from Art Petty:book cover: shows title Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development by Art Petty. Includes image of a coffee cup.

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

For more ideas on professional development-one sound bite at a time, check out Art’s latest book: Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development.

New to leading or responsible for first time leader’s on your team? Subscribe to Art’s New Leader’s e-News.

An ideal book for anyone starting out in leadership: Practical Lessons in Leadership by Art Petty and Rich Petro.

Filed Under: Leadership, New Leader Tuesday Tagged With: ,

Leadership Caffeine-Coping with Critics in the Workplace

May 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment

image of a coffee cupIf the flak is heavy, you’re near the target. (No flak, no target) –Eric Lieberman and Paul Byrne “Lessons from the Memphis Belle”

A retired senior executive offered to me that the biggest accomplishments of his teams during his career were preceded by the loudest and often personal gibes of his critics:

“It was surprising and disappointing that supposedly rational people and colleagues would work so hard to attack me as a means of attacking my ideas and the programs of my teams. I turned that disappointment into anger and then finally resolve to push forward. The critics provided the fuel for our ultimate success.”

Actors, writers and artists aren’t the only ones who have to cope with the slings and arrows of outrage or superficial praise from those looking in from the outside. As a business or function manager and someone responsible for leading others, those ready to offer their thoughts on what you’re doing wrong are never far away.

Push beyond the edge of the status quo and the critics multiply. Propose something unique and the background chatter heats up.  Hire talent that doesn’t fit the culture’s preconceived notion of “normal” and you’ll fuel the gossip fires.

While the volume and severity of the flak varies from organization to organization, it’s always there…sometimes a bit more stealth-like and at other times visible as a full-scale onslaught of criticism. When the flak gets heavy, it’s important to have a good coping strategy.

7 Ideas to Help You Deal with the Flak and Keep on Flying Towards Your Target:

1. Recognize that workplace criticism is often about fear of change and less about alternative ideas.  Never discount the gravitational pull of the status quo. When you threaten this force with change, fear promotes a variety of reactions, including criticism.

2. Beware cultivating a sense of creeping self-doubt when faced with criticism. Critics are great at making us doubt ourselves. Remember the benefits you are chasing and just focus on executing your mission.

3. Resist the urge to immediately fire back after receiving a barrage of criticism. If you perceive you must engage with a critic, choose a time and place when you’re not emotionally agitated. Above all, back away from the keyboard and avoid crafting that angry e-mail response you’ll regret as soon as you hit send.

4. Respect constructive criticism and alternative ideas from your stakeholders. Seek out the critics offering this form of input and strive to understand and where appropriate, incorporate their perspectives. Dialogue reduces friction.

5. Don’t be naïve and tune out the critics with political heft. These individuals merit attention and engagement. Start face-to-face and focus on uncovering interests, not arguing over positions.

6. Know that some critics just want to be involved. In your best Art of War approach, bring a critic on to the project team and give him or her an opportunity to contribute.

7. Resist bowing to the tyranny of consensus to silence the critics. Too many managers respond to criticism by conceding on their vision and diluting their ideas to the point of uselessness. No one gains in this situation.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Change of any form is difficult to realize in most organizational settings. It takes courage of conviction and a strong dose of self-confidence to absorb the flak from the naysayers. Cultivate an active coping strategy to dodge, deflect or counter the flak as the situation merits.  And remember the target of your mission. If you’re taking flak, you must be getting close!

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More Professional Development Reads from Art Petty:book cover: shows title Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development by Art Petty. Includes image of a coffee cup.

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

For more ideas on professional development-one sound bite at a time, check out Art’s latest book: Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development.

New to leading or responsible for first time leader’s on your team? Subscribe to Art’s New Leader’s e-News.

An ideal book for anyone starting out in leadership: Practical Lessons in Leadership by Art Petty and Rich Petro.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Getting Ahead, Leadership, Leadership Caffeine, Leading Change Tagged With: , ,

It’s Your Career-7 Key Do’s and Don’ts for the Newly Minted MBA

May 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment

It'sYourCareerIt’s graduation season again in the U.S. and for most newly minted MBA graduates, it’s time for a reality check. Here are some hard-won words of wisdom on how to navigate the steps immediately following your graduation.

All over the U.S., there’s a fresh new crop of MBA candidates preparing to say goodbye to their classmates as they wrap up what will be for many, the final phase of their academic careers. A key question on their minds is, “What’s next?”

For the graduates, there’s an expectation that the degree will reasonably and quickly translate into new opportunities, fresh promotions and improved earning power. While those who graduate from the top-tier schools may find themselves on a fast or at least faster track towards opportunities and increased earnings, many (read: most) MBA graduates face a reality that looks an awful lot like more of the same, albeit, with a bit more free time.

There will be ceremonies and speeches and parties, and rounds of drinks offered up by coworkers at local watering holes.  Bosses will congratulate the new graduates, and then June will melt into July, and in many cases, not much will change for the now former students.

For those who find themselves facing a post-school return to corporate or professional normalcy, without the hoped-for “pop” from the degree, here are some thoughts on coping and capitalizing:

7 Key Do’s and Don’ts for Newly Minted MBAs:

1. Do accept that your boss views you the same on the Monday after graduation as she did last Friday. Nothing has fundamentally changed about you in her mind. Sorry, but there’s no immediate mantle of legitimacy or wisdom bestowed upon you as you shake hands and grab the diploma. You’re a work-in-process, just like the rest of us.

2. Do congratulate yourself for having the intestinal fortitude it takes to complete your degree while working, balancing family responsibilities and all of the other challenges of life. Believe it or not, your current and many future bosses will view your accomplishment not so much as remarkable or rare, but rather as a sign of your tenacity and ability to stay-the-course.

3. Don’t expect a promotion just because of the degree. It happens, but it’s not as common as you might have anticipated. The almost immediate post-MBA promotions are most often an outcome of a development program already in-place coupled with the recognition that the timing is right to task you with more. Every boss knows that the new MBA will toy with the idea of moving to greener ($) pastures, however, if you weren’t on the high-potential or fast-tack list prior to the degree, the sheepskin won’t make much of a difference in the current environment. Translation, you’ll have to navigate your own way up or out.

4. Do use the milestone as an opportunity to work with your boss and refresh your professional development plan.  It’s a great time to sit down with your boss and update or create a professional development plan. There’s every reason for you to assert that you can and want to do more for the firm, and every civilized boss will recognize the need to start feeding this fresh appetite or risk losing you.

5. Don’t even remotely hint that unless you are promoted you are gone. It’s time to show what you can do, not show that after 3 years and $150,000, you’ve grown arrogant.

6. Do accept that the completion of your MBA is the beginning of your next apprenticeship as a leader and a professional. Grad school doesn’t teach you how to lead, nor does it turn you into a great strategist, a future CEO or a management innovator.  You’ve apprenticed on the tools…mostly the science of management (hey, no jokes about the dismal science, please!), and you’ve got a license to begin applying them.  The real work of learning to lead and learning how to create value for your stakeholders has just begun.

7. Do recognize that your primary task is how to make yourself more valuable to everyone around you. Now that you are no longer distracted by school, it’s time to answer, “What have you done for us lately?” Accomplishments are the currency of the realm, not degrees!

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Congratulations! I’ll buy the first round and then tomorrow, we’ve got to figure out how to thump competitors and survive and thrive in this incredibly complex and fast-moving world. Sure hope you paid attention. Now show me what you’ve learned!

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More Professional Development Reads from Art Petty:book cover: shows title Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development by Art Petty. Includes image of a coffee cup.

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

For more ideas on professional development-one sound bite at a time, check out Art’s latest book: Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development.

New to leading or responsible for first time leader’s on your team? Subscribe to Art’s New Leader’s e-News.

An ideal book for anyone starting out in leadership: Practical Lessons in Leadership by Art Petty and Rich Petro.

 

Filed Under: "To Do" List, Career, Getting Ahead, It's Your Career!, Marketing Yourself, Professional Growth Tagged With: , ,

Just One Thing: How to Defuse Difficult Workplace Discussions

May 16, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Just One ThingAlmost all of us get this wrong in the professional environment at some time or another. Myself included.

We find ourselves in a tense situation with someone or some group who is attempting to assert a direction or insert themselves into the area we perceive as our domain, and we react by aggressively defending our position and by challenging or attacking their position.

In this situation, the part of our brain that says “fight” has won, and by dealing with the situation as a turf battle or a battle over “how” we’ve given up the chance to learn, advance and importantly, help our team or our firm.

The opportunity and the challenge is for us to take a step back and focus on uncovering the interests of our colleague (the Why) and to reconcile his or her interests with our own core thinking on the issue.

5 Ideas to Help Derail Arguments by Uncovering Interests:

1. Learn to recognize and tame your “fight” response when approached with a position-based assertion or encroachment from a co-worker. Your natural inclination is to react in kind. The right inclination is to pause and recognize the situation as an opportunity to move towards interest clarity.

2. Use “Why?” questions to uncover interests. One of the tools popularized in the Toyota Production System,  the “5 Whys Method,” is an example of this at work. When someone presents you with an idea or need, a series of “why-focused” questions will help you move from position to the essence or interest behind the idea. While it can be obnoxious to respond to every utterance of your co-worker with “Why?” you can creatively adapt this technique to fit your situation.

3. Lead the conversation by example and share your own interests. Effective resolution requires a dialog and it’s fine to be the first one to open up on the drivers behind the issue at hand. You immediately change the tone and tenor of the conversation by moving off of position and on to the motives and intentions for your approach. Your counterpart will typically respond in kind.

4. Seize and single out convergent interests. Too many people end up arguing points they already agree upon. Capture points of alignment, acknowledge the agreement and move on to identifying and discussing any divergent interests.

5. Add an objective third party to the discussion on remaining divergent interests. The objective 3rd party can listen and probe and help whittle down points of seeming divergence to their base level. Unless you’re faced with a world-domination versus let’s all live peacefully set of opposed interests, most workplace topics share a common set of interests around one or more of: improve, learn, reduce, strengthen, move faster etc, and this third party can help both of you zero in on the points of alignment.

 The Bottom-Line for Now:

Like it or not, our world of work is held hostage to our ability to communicate effectively with each other. Focusing on interests and eliminating the arguments over positions is a great way to improve communication effectiveness and gain better alignment in your organization.

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More Professional Development Reads from Art Petty:book cover: shows title Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development by Art Petty. Includes image of a coffee cup.

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

For more ideas on professional development-one sound bite at a time, check out Art’s latest book: Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development.

New to leading or responsible for first time leader’s on your team? Subscribe to Art’s New Leader’s e-News.

An ideal book for anyone starting out in leadership: Practical Lessons in Leadership by Art Petty and Rich Petro.

 

 

Filed Under: Career, Getting Ahead, Just One Thing, Professional Growth Tagged With: , , ,

Leadership Caffeine: 5 Ideas to Bring Strategy to Life on Your Team

May 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment

image of a coffee cupFew concepts in business generate more consternation for managers operating below the C-level, than strategy. Poll your team members or peers, and I’m confident that in most organizations, at least one (or more) of the themes will emerge:

We don’t have a strategy.

The executives talk about strategy, but I don’t see how it connects to my job.

The executives are working on strategy.

It seems like we have conflicting strategies. Everything’s important.

Our strategy is to grow. That’s how we get paid.

Quite often, the cause of the comments above isn’t the absence of a strategy, but rather the absence of a clear communication and execution link between the strategy framework developed by the executives and the organizational game plan required to implement strategy.

Regardless of your level in the organization, you have a responsibility to find ways to create a direct link between your team’s priorities and your firm’s ability to make money, create and satisfy customers and beat competitors. Here are a few ideas to help you span this gap.

5 Ideas to Help Bring Strategy into Focus for Your Team:

1. Create opportunities for executives to meet with your team about marketplace trends. While calendars might be tight at the top of the pyramid, any executive worth his/her salt loves to spend time with teams talking about customers, competitors and improving and growing the business. Make certain your team is prepared with an ample supply of great questions about market trends, customer needs and competitor actions. (See my short-list of thought-prompters below.) Run a debrief session where you and your team members connect the dots to your own work.

2. Bring customer-facing colleagues into your operating meetings. No executives to be found. No worries. Invite a customer-facing colleague to share insights and updates from the field at your regular team meeting. Once again, encourage your team members to be prepped with an ample supply of questions.

3. Don’t forget your boss! Redouble your efforts to understand the boss’s goals and performance indicators. While this still might leave you one degree of separation from your firm’s actual strategy, knowing your boss’s goals and connecting them to your team’s goals and metrics will improve alignment and support more effective execution on key activities.

4. Put a filter on it. Put a strategy filter on investment or new project requests from your team members. Encourage and challenge your team members to connect the ask to the customer, corporate goals or beating competitors. Encourage your team to actively prioritize their investment needs, and make certain that those that are selected have a clear connection to the firm’s goals.

5. Make ad hoc marketplace monitoring a regular part of your team’s activities. Regardless of where you and your group operate inside the organization, there are no rules that say you can’t become and remain market savvy.  Make competitor, customer and marketplace monitoring a part of your team’s activities and meet regularly to talk about what you are hearing and seeing. Make certain that everyone connects their observations to, “What I think this means for our firm is… .”  Importantly, find opportunities to reflect this discussion and debate in decisions and prioritization.

The Bottom-line for Now:

If there’s a solid strategy lurking somewhere in the C-Suite waiting to be set free, your job is to help make that happen. If you’re operating in a strategy desert, your job is to help bring some market and customer focused context to your team’s work. Regardless of your firm’s situation, the work of connecting activities to meaningful actions falls on your shoulders.

A Short-List of Thought-Starter Strategy Questions for Your Team:

  • How do we make money as an organization?
  • What’s happening with our customers/competitors that will impact our business? How will we be impacted and what can we do to leverage this situation?
  • What are the key business problems our customers are trying to solve and how can we help them?
  • What have we done in the marketplace to disrupt competitors?
  • What moves have our competitors made to disrupt us?
  • Do we sound and look the same as our competitors? (Can our customers describe why they like us versus our competitors?)
  • What can we do more of that will help us better serve customers and beat competitors?
  • What can we do less of without hurting our position in the marketplace?
  • How are we going to measure our progress in the market?

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More Professional Development Reads from Art Petty:book cover: shows title Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development by Art Petty. Includes image of a coffee cup.

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

For more ideas on professional development-one sound bite at a time, check out Art’s latest book: Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development.

New to leading or responsible for first time leader’s on your team? Subscribe to Art’s New Leader’s e-News.

An ideal book for anyone starting out in leadership: Practical Lessons in Leadership by Art Petty and Rich Petro.

 

 

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

New Leader Tuesday-10 Things I Learned the Hard Way About Leading

May 7, 2013 by 2 Comments

newleadertuesdaygraphicExperience is clearly the best teacher when it comes to learning to lead. However, there are a few items that I wish someone would have pointed out before I tripped all over myself earlier in my career. Forewarned is forearmed!

At Least 10 Things I Discovered the Hard Way About Leading:

1. This job would be easy if it weren’t for the people. People are all that we have. You need to truly like working and helping others to develop as a leader. If you don’t, stick to your role as individual contributor.

2. It’s easy to spend too much time with the wrong people. The high potentials merit the bulk of our time, yet the ratio often gets flipped as we spend much of our time chasing the poor performers.

3. Hire slow, promote fast and fire fair and fast. When it’s your turn to select talent, you can’t afford to misfire. (Everyone does at some point.) When you do make a bad selection, fix the problem. Fast. And when you get it right, run, don’t walk to put good people into growth roles.

4. People fundamentally don’t change. Regardless of your leadership magic, you can’t change a person’s core values, beliefs and behaviors. You might gain momentary compliance, but long-term, sustainable change must come from within an individual. Don’t count on it happening at the speed you need.

5. Feedback is the most powerful performance tool in your toolkit. Too few of us are trained on how to get it right. Invest in yourself and cultivate your feedback skills early in your career.

6. Recognize that everyone on your team is watching and judging you. If the “do doesn’t match the tell,” you’ll lose credibility. Credibility is key when it comes to leading, and it’s incredibly hard to build and nearly impossible to regain once it’s lost.

7. Clear expectations matched with accountability equals high performance rocket fuel. It’s your job to set clear and challenging expectations and promote accountability on your team. Fairly, equitably and always.

8. Paying attention to a person…showing interest in their work and their activities is a high form of showing respect. You’re never too busy to stop and talk and listen. People thrive when they are respected.

9. For too many leaders, the tendency is to talk, when it should be to listen. When you’re talking, you’re not really communicating…you’re just making noise.

10. Questions are more powerful than commands. Skilled leaders wield questions like a surgeon wields a scalpel. Learn to use questions as teaching tools instead of offering answers or barking commands.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

No list, book or course will serve as a substitute for good old-fashioned tripping all over yourself. However, a few pointers along the way might just minimize your time spent digging out from some of these character building experiences! Happy leading!

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More Professional Development Reads from Art Petty:book cover: shows title Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development by Art Petty. Includes image of a coffee cup.

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

For more ideas on professional development-one sound bite at a time, check out Art’s latest book: Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development.

New to leading or responsible for first time leader’s on your team? Subscribe to Art’s New Leader’s e-News.

An ideal book for anyone starting out in leadership: Practical Lessons in Leadership by Art Petty and Rich Petro.

 

 

Filed Under: Leadership, New Leader Tuesday

Art of Managing-Kick Mediocrity to the Curb in Pursuit of Extraordinary

May 6, 2013 by 6 Comments

ArtofManagingMediocre is on display daily in too many areas of our society and in too many of our businesses. From the boss who just doesn’t care to our government seemingly barely functioning to the miserable help-lines of too many firms to the slow gait…the shuffle of retail workers at organizations that definitely don’t care, ordinary and average are epidemic.

Mediocrity has a way of numbing our senses and taking the fight out of us. It impacts everyone at all levels of leadership and all employee groups. Individually and collectively, we reduce our standards to the lowest accepted level and then shuffle along dispensing the ordinary until something shocks our system. Often, the shock comes too late.

As a manager, you play a critical part in either perpetuating mediocrity or helping your team break free in pursuit of extraordinary. The latter is a lot more fun and rewarding for all involved.

8 Ideas to Kick Mediocrity to the Curb in Pursuit of Extraordinary:

1. Start with the belief that your attitude and your actions will make a difference. In a world where mediocre is the norm, your extraordinary effort to help, serve, lead, please, thank, teach, manage, fix and engage will all be noticed. Not by everyone, but by many of us.

2. If your team works on the phone, teach them to lead with their smiles. Customers hear smiles over the phone and that helps us forget that we just navigated a 42-step phone-tree and a 36-minute wait seeking someone who could explain how to work a feature on the device in our hand that has more technology than the entire Apollo program which sent humans to the moon and successfully retrieved all of them.

3. If your team works in front of customers teach them to lead with direct eye contact and a smile. I don’t care if you are the manager at XYZ Big Box or the Shift Supervisor at the Driver’s License Bureau, the only downside of your employees smiling and making eye contact will be the fainting and momentary loss of equilibrium of your customers. They’ll recover and you’ll have changed the world in your own small way. (Note: in some cultures, direct eye contact is frowned upon. Let’s assume a U.S. based business.)

4. Extraordinary starts with the behaviors you model you set as a manager. Define “extraordinary” in your environment and then teach and model the behaviors. If you don’t, who will?

5. Set expectations for performance that is extraordinary.  Create a culture that enforces accountability for the right results and reward those who deliver.

6. Remember, extraordinary isn’t just for external customers. Model extraordinary across employee groups and watch it grow.

7. Eliminate those who don’t really care. Not everyone will respond to your guidance and teaching. Not everyone aspires to extraordinary. Encourage those who are comfortable with mediocrity to practice this approach by working for your competitors.

8. Make hiring for extraordinary a religion. Not everyone is suited to extraordinary in every environment. Your challenge is to identify those underlying values and behaviors that are so critical to transcending mediocrity in your world and then recruit and hire for those items. Few of us would pass Southwest Airlines’ rigorous filters for fun and love of people and Zappos is so committed to getting just the right people, the firm offers new employees a cash incentive to leave once they’ve completed the firm’s training program. In Zappos’ case, it’s cheaper and more productive to pay someone who isn’t feeling the firm’s definition of “extraordinary” to leave than to retain them and have them poison the well.)

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Kicking mediocrity to the curb doesn’t require expensive consultants, confusing restructuring or an epiphany around strategy. It’s common sense coupled with a strong sense of personal accountability to teach, model and reward the behaviors that promote extraordinary in your organization.

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More Professional Development Reads from Art Petty:book cover: shows title Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development by Art Petty. Includes image of a coffee cup.

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

For more ideas on professional development-one sound bite at a time, check out Art’s latest book: Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development.

New to leading or responsible for first time leader’s on your team? Subscribe to Art’s New Leader’s e-News.

An ideal book for anyone starting out in leadership: Practical Lessons in Leadership by Art Petty and Rich Petro.

 

 

Filed Under: Art of Managing, Leading Change, Management Innovation, Performance, Values Tagged With: , ,

New Leader Tuesday: Dealing with the Personal Problems of Your Team Members

April 30, 2013 by Leave a Comment

newleadertuesdaygraphicBe kind, for everyone you meet is waging a great battle. -unknown

One of the occupational challenges of your role as a manager or supervisor is learning how to navigate the personal issues of your team members that seep (or rush) into the workplace.

While many of your coworkers will do a good job maintaining a separation of professional and personal issues, some people seek out sympathetic listeners anywhere they can find them, and you as boss are fair game.  That’s OK, to a point.

Displaying empathy shows that you care. Ensuring that people who are struggling have access to the right help through counseling or the firm’s private support line are all part of your responsibilities as a manager and to maintaining your membership in good standing in the human race. Providing a break for someone to see a doctor, lawyer, counselor is fine as well.

However, beware those individuals who use their personal problems as recurring excuses for chronic poor performance. While they are in the gross minority, it’s a safe bet that you will encounter people who attempt to manipulate you by using their personal issues as a lever.

Your early exceptions and acceptance of misfires and mistakes are capable of snowballing into a different standard for Bob due to his impending divorce or for Mary because of the stress of her son’s arrest, or for Alex because of his mother’s illness.

Over time, performance issues will become blurred by the personal challenges, and your continued accommodation will turn someone’s problem into one that’s now yours.  Not only will you have an employee who is in essence gaming the system, you will have everyone else watching and judging how you handle this situation. Your own credibility as a manager is at stake.

5 Ideas for Navigating the Sticky Personal Problems of Your Employees:

1. Displaying empathy is admirable and encouraged. If someone approaches you with an issue, listen and show genuine understanding and concern.

 2. Don’t practice counseling, law or medicine (or any other profession) without a license! Direct people to company resources (if available) or, encourage them to seek appropriate outside help.

 3. We all need a break once in awhile. Provide reasonable flexibility for people to gain outside help or to attend outside appointments. Encourage the use of vacation and personal days as appropriate.  Beware of this moving from exception to norm, however.

4. Warning! Don’t let personal problems become excuses for sub-par performance. If you see a pattern of poor performance or chronic tardiness developing, don’t hesitate to tackle this issue. Keep it focused on the business and don’t allow the conversation around performance to be redirected back to the personal issues.  Empathy is good. You also have a business to run.

5. Don’t become part of the problem by making excuses for the individual. Everyone is watching. Create one double-standard and your credibility is shot.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Navigating this particularly sticky obstacle requires you to apply the same balanced, fair approach consistently across all team members in all circumstances involving personal issues. Your entire team is watching and judging.

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More Professional Development Reads from Art Petty:book cover: shows title Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development by Art Petty. Includes image of a coffee cup.

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

For more ideas on professional development-one sound bite at a time, check out Art’s latest book: Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development.

New to leading or responsible for first time leader’s on your team? Subscribe to Art’s New Leader’s e-News.

An ideal book for anyone starting out in leadership: Practical Lessons in Leadership by Art Petty and Rich Petro.

 

 

Filed Under: Decision-Making, Leadership, New Leader Tuesday, Performance, Values Tagged With: , ,

Leadership Caffeine: A Note for the Boss Who Talks Too Much

April 29, 2013 by 8 Comments

image of a coffee cupIf aliens were to secretly visit our planet to observe our advanced leadership and management techniques, they might reasonably conclude that the “right to talk” in most situations, was reserved for the individual in charge.

Play leadership anthropologist in your own organization and chances are you’ll find a good number of these en-titled characters who are compelled to consume every possible molecule of oxygen and every moment of air-time to share their self-defined pearls of wisdom and precious nuggets of managerial and inspirational gold.

Much like that last sentence, the word count of these overly talkative leaders quickly spirals out of control similar to the runaway reaction in a Lithium-Ion battery (sorry Boeing) leaving people desperate to pull the escape hatch and sprint or slide for better air.

If you happen to work for someone who clearly consumes verbal diuretics and suffers an excessive outflow of spoken waste, consider “sharing” the guidance below. While I would never advocate sending this from your co-worker’s computer, unless you really don’t like her, consider printing it, clipping the letter below and casually taping it to the boss’s computer screen. Wear gloves.

A Letter to Our Overly Talkative Boss:

Dear Boss,

You talk too much, say too little and you don’t listen at all

Just for today, please shut-up and listen harder to what we have to say. You might hear some good ideas.

Quit trying to prove that you’re smarter than everyone in the room. It’s not a contest. You’re in charge. We get it.

Ask us questions instead of barking commands. You would be surprised at our thoughtfulness on supporting this business.

Ask us our opinions. Yes, we all have them, but given your communication style, it’s unlikely that you’ve heard our views on problems or opportunities.  And by the way, asking our opinions is a sign of respect.

Show us that you’re interested in our opinions and ideas by asking more questions.

Recognize that my pause before answering your question doesn’t require you to fill it with the words you want to hear from me. I’m collecting my thoughts.

Use your ears and mouth in direct proportion. (That’s 2:1).

Sincerely,

Your Speech and Oxygen Deprived Team Members.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Seriously, shut-up and listen. Ask questions and listen. And then do something with what you heard. You’ll love the results.

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More Professional Development Reads from Art Petty:book cover: shows title Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development by Art Petty. Includes image of a coffee cup.

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

For more ideas on professional development-one sound bite at a time, check out Art’s latest book: Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development.

New to leading or responsible for first time leader’s on your team? Subscribe to Art’s New Leader’s e-News.

An ideal book for anyone starting out in leadership: Practical Lessons in Leadership by Art Petty and Rich Petro.

 

 

Filed Under: Leadership, Leadership Caffeine, Surviving Lousy Leaders Tagged With: ,
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