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: ,

Leadership Caffeine: How to Survive a Sudden Promotion Into Leadership

February 24, 2013 by 5 Comments

A Cup of Leadership CaffeineOne of the oddities of organizational life is the fairly frequent and sudden promotion of individuals from competent individual contributor to someone responsible for the work of others…supervisor or manager, without any visible sign of mentoring or support for the newly in-charge individual. “Congratulations…go get ‘em Tiger.”

Without support, a likely outcome includes a loss of a great individual contributor and the fallout that comes from the introduction of a crappy (inexperienced) manager into a team environment. This problem is epidemic on sales and technical teams, however, no area of the business is immune.

In case you find yourself on the receiving end of one of these “Welcome to Management” roles where your boss and her boss are nowhere to be found and your team is deciding between supporting you or leaving your for road-kill, consider the following ideas.

6 Ideas to Help You Survive a Sudden Promotion into Your First Leadership Role:

1. Understand and Accept Your New Situation. Realistically, no one was hoping to be reporting to you. While you may have technical credibility, you don’t have management credibility and the fact that you are now a decision-maker for work allocation and  hire, promote, fire scenarios just pisses some people off. Oh, and lunch will never be the same. You’re the boss now…not one of the gang. Get over all of the above and get on with your new reality. You need to earn credibility by doing your job fairly and openly.

2. Work Hard to Become Sympatico with Your Boss’s Goals. Whether she is there to help coach or guide you through some of the rough spots of dealing with others, you have to understand what she is on the hook for…and by default what you and your team are accountable for. Push politely to understand your priorities and importantly, how you will be evaluated. Last and not least, share and reinforce these goals and metrics with your team early and often.

3. Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Developmental Support. Explore options for formal training with your boss and the HR department. While training doesn’t make the leader, it can only help anyone thrust into the world of needing to conduct performance discussions, run productive meetings and deal with group and individual issues. If you get some help here, make certain to be the world’s greatest participant. If you don’t have access to formal resources, recognize that you are immersed in a very challenging self-study course. The good news is that there are an incredible number of great resources available to help via blogs, podcasts and books…you just have to go find them.

4. Ask Your Team. Your team knows more about working together than you might give them credit for. They’ll resent you if you start telling them what to do. Resist your urge to tell, and instead, focus on asking for ideas and input. Then focus on letting people and groups run with their ideas. Put time and effort into knocking down obstacles and watch your credibility grow in real time!

5. Create Risk-Free Opportunities for the Boss to Coach. Most managers have less than a clear idea how to support their first-time leaders. Just because his proactive coaching skills are lacking, you can deftly turn the tables by asking the right questions. Approach the boss with scenarios and ideas and appeal to wisdom and experience in handling similar situations. Almost everyone appreciates an appeal to ego. Fair warning, avoid the following words: “What should I do?”  Those 4 words formed in a question are universally annoying to bosses. They want to hear your ideas.

6. Resist the Urge to Be a Lone Wolf. While the boss might not be engaged daily, she’s watching and judging. Give her ample opportunities to see what you and your team members are doing. You need to be an aggressive but not obnoxious self and team-promoter. Your boss and your team members will appreciate you for it as long as it’s handled properly.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

If you’re suddenly thrust into the turbulent seas of being responsible for the work of others without a visible lifeboat, recognize that it’s up to you to sink or swim. Too many first-timers flail and fail in this circumstance. Take a deep breath of humility and carefully and deliberately focus on helping those above and below.

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More Professional Development Reads from Art Petty:

Don’t miss the next Leadership Caffeine-Newsletter! Register herebook cover: shows title Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development by Art Petty. Includes image of a coffee cup.

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. 

Download a free excerpt of Leadership Caffeine (the book) at Art’s facebook page.

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.

Need help with Feedback? Art’s new online program: Learning to Master Feedback

 Note: for volume orders of one or both books, drop Art a note for pricing information.

 

 

Filed Under: Career, Leadership, Leadership Caffeine, Performance, Professional Growth, Surviving Lousy Leaders Tagged With: ,

Just One Thing-A Lousy Boss is No Excuse to Let the Fires Burn

October 19, 2012 by 2 Comments
Image of an elevator button with the number 1 and the braile equivalent

Just One Thing

Overheard in an Office Near You:

First person: “Hey, the trash can is on fire.”

Second person: “Yep, that looks bad. It could spread.”

Third person: “Someone should put that fire out.”

First person: “I told them not to put the trash can over there. I saw this coming.”

Second person: “I wasn’t invited to the meeting…not sure who made that decision, but they should be fired.”

Third person: “Clearly someone screwed up.”

First person: “Well, I’ve got to get back to work. Hope that fire burns out.”

Second person: “I’m late for a meeting. Let me know if we need to evacuate.”

Third person: “Wonder if we should call someone.”

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Chances are that no one would truly ignore the fire in the trash can, however, some organizations seem to perpetuate a culture that generates talk and hand wringing and teeth gnashing on issues, but little constructive action.

Poor senior leadership is always the root cause, and while most of us can’t impact a change at that level, we can rally our troops to build a bucket brigade and solve most of those flare-ups without asking permission.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Don’t let a lousy senior leader stifle your propensity to act. While you might take some heat  for your initiative, it’s better than the heat from 1,000 little fires slowly baking you and your team to a point of indecision and inactivity. And while you’re at it, don’t spend much time working for a boss like that if you can help it.

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

For more ideas on professional development-one sound bite at a time, check our Art’s latest book: Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Enebook cover: shows title Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development by Art Petty. Includes image of a coffee cup.rgize Your Professional Development. 

Download a free excerpt of Leadership Caffeine (the book) at Art’s facebook page.

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 our in leadership: Practical Lessons in Leadership by Art Petty and Rich Petro.

Need help with Feedback? Art’s new online program: Learning to Master Feedback

 

Filed Under: Career, Crisis Leadership, Decision-Making, Just One Thing, Leadership, Performance, Surviving Lousy Leaders Tagged With: , , ,

New Leader Tuesday-7 Ideas to Help You Survive Your Sink or Swim Leadership Lessons

July 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment

New Leader Tuesday at Management Excellence

Just slightly tongue-in-cheek and all too true.

There was a time when prevailing wisdom for teaching people to swim involved chucking them in the water and letting them flail and flounder. This Sink or Swim (S. o. S.) method of teaching is likely responsible for more than a few really bad moments for the unwitting victims and a lifetime of terror-inducing flashbacks for many. 

Oddly, we subject a good number of first time supervisors and managers to a similar rite of passage in what I describe as S. o. S. Leadership Development. It’s quite similar to the swimming lessons above, except in this case, the naïve victim/first-time leader is chucked into the middle of a team and instead of waiting around to see if swim prevails over sink, the promoting manager is off to his/her next challenge with not much more than a “Congratulations and Good Luck.”

You’re on your own. Start paddling and kicking!

7 Ideas to Help You Survive Your Sink or Swim Leadership Lesson:

1. Try and get a handle on your mission from your elusive boss. There’s something he wants from you beyond not screwing things up. Figure it out. Numbers? Reports? Keeping the Peace? Track him down, thank him for the support and extract information on the mission.

2. Assess your situation, part 1.  If the team is generally performing well, your first activity is to not muck things up. No one asked you to breakdown and rebuild the team in your image. You’re there because someone said the group needed a supervisor, which might involve signing vacation requests and expense reports. Check your ego…and save your organizational design ideas for your next decade in management.

3. Assess your situation, part 2. Does your team look like they’ve been in a pitched battle for months with no rations, no support and no hope of survival? If yes, figure out the battle is and go in search of reinforcements. Your team needs help…they need advocacy and they need some relief. They don’t need yet another chucklehead issuing orders and kicking back while they fight the good fight. Earn your stripes and help the team through a crisis. When the crisis passes, step back and start doing your own work.

4. Gain some much needed ground intelligence. Meet with your team members and use my almost magical 3 questions: What’s Working? What’s Not? What do you need from me?  Reinforce the things that are working, ask for help from your team members investigating what’s not working and work like hell to respond to reasonable requests for help.

5. Trust but verify. People sense whether you naturally trust or distrust them. Start on the positive side of this ledger with your team. If someone loses your trust, it’s time to engage.

6. Use the boss test to see if you are on the right path. Tell the boss what you are doing and if the response resembles, “Why the #$%^ are you doing that?” it’s a good time for some clarifying questions. If the response is more like, “Great, now get out of here,” you know  you’re on a path that is either right or at least not annoyingly wrong.

7. Learn everything you can about delivering effective constructive and positive feedback and then do it! If you only have one tool in your leader’s kit, this is the one you need. Dispense positive and constructive behaviorally focused feedback linked to business implications early and often. Feedback is the one thing most teams and individuals don’t get enough of.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

File this in your memory banks under, Dumb Ass Approaches to Leadership Development, and vow to not do it this way when it’s your turn.

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

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

Download a free excerpt of Leadership Caffeine (the book) at Art’s facebook page.

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

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

To talk about a workshop or speaking need, contact Art at via e-mail at art.petty@artpetty.com

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Filed Under: Leadership, New Leader Tuesday, Surviving Lousy Leaders Tagged With: , ,

New Leader Tuesday-How to Be Viewed as a Jerk from Day One

June 26, 2012 by 6 Comments

New Leader Tuesday at Management Excellence

The New Leader Tuesday series is dedicated to the proposition that one of the most critical tasks we have is developing the next generation of leaders. If you are new to leading or if you are charged with the development of new leaders on your team, please join the discussion, ask questions and share your insights!  And I would love to have you join our mailing list for our forthcoming New-Leaders e-News.

Note from Art: Warning…today’s post is highly sarcastic.

The bookshelves and blog posts are filled with great advice on how to lead effectively, yet, mostly what I hear in workshops and classrooms are the stories of the lousy habits of Grade A Jerks. Since there are clearly many people who aspire to this lofty level in the world of Jerks, I thought I would make your job just a bit easier by offering up this starter list.

14 Ideas to Help Establish Yourself as a Grade A Jerk of a Boss:

1. Show up 10 minutes late to your first team meeting. After all, they work for you. They’ll wait.

2. Introduce yourself to the team and talk mostly about what makes you special enough to be in charge.

3. Offer: “There’s a new sheriff in town and starting today I’m the law.”

4. Indicate that you’ll be meeting with everyone to “assess their situation.”

5. Start giving people nicknames because you think they’ll enjoy that.

6. When someone asks you a question, answer: “That’s important, and we should talk about it at the right time.” (This one works for a few months until they catch on that it’s never the right time.)

7. Cut people off in mid-sentence to make certain you get your point across. People are waiting for your words of wisdom and don’t mind if you interject.

8. Announce an “open door” policy, and then make certain to keep your door closed most of the time.

9. Single out the superstars and shower them with public praise and attention. They love it and everyone enjoys basking in their greatness.

10. Show your extreme displeasure for someone in public. This shows everyone you have a temper and aren’t afraid to use it.

11. Plan to give a motivational speech every week.  Groups love those from their managers.

12. Immediately assume that most of what is going on is wrong…and make people prove the value of their priorities. After all, people like face-time with the boss.

13. When things go wrong, make certain to sacrifice to someone. Your bold action to “solve the problem” will be appreciated by your boss.

14. Success is clearly an outcome of your deft leadership and super-normal management skills. Don’t be shy about guiding the spotlight to shine on you. Your team will enjoy the glow from their great leader.

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Master just a few of these habits and you’ll surely succeed in quickly establishing yourself as a Grade A Jerk. If your aspirations run towards the other end of the spectrum, these might be good behaviors to avoid!

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

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

Download a free excerpt of Leadership Caffeine (the book) at Art’s facebook page.

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

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

To talk about a workshop or speaking need, contact Art at via e-mail at art.petty@artpetty.com

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Filed Under: Leadership, New Leader Tuesday, Professional Growth, Surviving Lousy Leaders Tagged With: , ,
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