Newsletter #2 Next Week & Art’s Writings Last Week

February 11, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Issue #2 of The Leadership Caffeine Newsletter Next Week.

This newly designed publication includes subscriber-only leadership and professional content. The emphasis is on providing ideas to energize development and strengthen performance for you and your teams. Subscribe on my home page at http://artpetty.com or use the form at the bottom of this post. Your e-mail information privacy is of paramount importance, and I use only double opt-in practices. Last and not least, subscribers gain access to the archived issues for on-going reference. I look forward to serving you in this format.

In Case You Missed It-Art’s Writings Last Week:

Leadership Caffeine-Teach Your Team’s Smarter Decision Processes

This is the latest in my growing series of essays on improving personal and group decision-making processes and results. The post focuses on five key questions to ask your teams before they decide, and offers ideas for improving discussion quality based on those questions. I include links to other relevant posts on strengthening group and individual decision-making as well.

Lessons in Management-Innovation from Main Street

Many of the global giants are rethinking their traditional approaches to managing and leading in these fast-changing and challenging times.  If you and your firm are being challenged to carve out a fresh position and build a new competitive advantage, you might just focus on what’s happening a few blocks from your home.

Career Focus: Invest in Your Professional Survival Skills

Too many good professionals have been caught by surprise with a job loss after many years of loyal service. For many of these, the problem is compounded by simply not investing much time in some critical areas to strengthen their professional brands, networks and skills. A great time to start is today!

Another Great Resource-In Case You Missed It:

The February, 2012 Leadership Development Carnival-a great source to check out what some of deep thinkers have to say about leadership!

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

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

 


 

 

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Filed Under: "To Do" List, Career, Decision-Making, Leadership, Marketing Yourself Tagged With: , ,

Weekend Career Focus-Invest in Your Professional Survival Skills

February 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Too many people are caught seemingly by surprise (for some odd reason) that all bets are off on promises of on-going employment. I regularly hear from people who must have missed the memo that employer loyalty expires every pay period.

These good people wake up, learn their employment is ending and wonder what to do next with their out-dated skills, weak networks and limited professional brands. Lack of preparation for this unfortunate but very real and all-too-common occurrence, makes a bad day worse. 

The time is now to start taking steps to strengthen your skills, network and professional brand.   

5 Must Do’s that Might Just Save the Day (and your career):   

1. Regularly Reassess the Marketability of Your Marketable Skills.  If what you know and what you’ve done don’t readily translate to something that helps solve a burning problem for someone else, it’s time for help. A good acid test: “If I had to make a living on my own doing what I know, would anyone pay me for my services?” If you can’t come up with a resounding yes, it’s time to invest in yourself.

2. Get Current. If you earn a pass on question #1, but the last time you took a refresher program was during the Reagan era, it’s time to get back into learning mode.  Find professional associations, your Alma Mater or any organization that can help bring you up to date.  And then do it.

3. Jump-Start Your Network. Make a list of the ten people you believe can help you immediately if you are in job trouble. If you’ve not kept up with these contacts and if you’ve not been giving (contacts, leads) along the way, it’s time to recognize that your network is your lifeline and that your line may not be there when you most need it. Reach out, reconnect, share something of value/interest. Establish dialogue and offer support long before you need it.

4. Use LinkedIn as your professional networking tool. Build a professional profile and keep it fresh as you expand your skills and add to your portfolio of professional content (#5). And here’s a piece of advice you will thank me for later: NEVER use the generic invitation when reaching out to connect. Always personalize your invitation when asking other to connect. The generic invite is a sure sign that the user is clueless. A tailored message shows respect and offers important context for the recipient.

5. Google Yourself and Get to Work. If nothing comes up, or, if things you don’t want your prospective employer to see are visible, it’s time to get to work. Read blogs in your profession or industry, and offer comments on leading blogs in your industry. Author a white paper.  Start your own blog. Join an industry organization. Volunteer to speak at industry events. Do things that get you out of your office and into the world where other influencers and potentially valuable networking partners can be found.  Content builds brand in this world.

And while you are doing all of this, remember to lock up your own domain name. Yes, your name. That’s “must have” professional real estate for this era.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

All of us should be working on the above items every day.  Nothing beats having current skills, fresh and valuable network contacts and a strong professional brand when you need it. Priceless.

Filed Under: "To Do" List, Career Tagged With: , , ,

Leadership Caffeine: Frame Carefully to Improve Discussion Quality

July 25, 2011 By 6 Comments

Decisions propel people, teams and organizations forward. Get more right than wrong…especially the big ones, and the only thing standing in the way of success is the critical issue of execution. And of course, most decisions start with a discussion.

One of your important jobs as a leader is to ensure that your team is engaging in the right discussions prior to offering a solution. Paying attention to how an issue is framed is an important part of monitoring discussion quality.

Framing-Beware of Splinters:

One of the constant contributors to less than ideal discussion processes comes from how leaders or team members frame a situation.  Whether it’s described as a positive or a negative…a crisis or an opportunity…and the assumptions that are made, all serve as part of the frame for a situation.  Framing drives the discussion and importantly, it steers and biases solution set development. 

If the boss describes a situation as a problem in need of immediate repair, the discussion and solution set will focus on fire-drill type repairs. That’s OK if it’s a fire drill, but perhaps there are bigger issues that might be solved by reframing the situation as an opportunity to solve a systemic problem.

Management teams frame their strategic environment by assessing the current state and making assumption about the future. Consider:

Americans don’t care about quality..they are focused on style and will buy a new car every two to three years and, the threat from foreign automobile manufacturers is relatively small.  (GM in the 1970’s)

Our biggest threat will be from a well-armed nation-state. (The U.S. Government up until 9/11, as they used the framing of the Cold War to drive thinking and preparation.)

Managers bias a decision discussion as soon as they open their mouths and offer their characterization of an issue and/or their perceived best solution. Again, that might be appropriate in some circumstances, but in others, it will preclude alternative idea development.

One of the most common issues many firms struggle with today is how to determine the role of social media in their business. I’ve participated in a number of these discussion with clients, and observed repeatedly that the managers and teams who view social media as a threat (a waste of time and a potential liability) develop restrictive policies, while those who see it as an opportunity (new way to engage clients and promote) develop policies that encourage experimentation.  

Frames are powerful…and we offer them without thinking about the impact they have on others we’re looking to for input. However, with a bit of discretion and some deliberate practice developing good framing habits, managers can improve discussion quality surrounding decisions almost immediately.

Six Ideas for Improving Discussion Quality through Better Framing:

1. Manager Hold Back: ask others for their description of a problem/situation before you offer your perspective.

2. Frame like Switzerland: offer only neutral descriptions…neither positive or negative, and see how the discussion develops.

3. Develop Dueling Frames: for every situation, encourage team members to develop two completely different description (frames) of a situation. For the serious issues, frame the situation as both a crisis for one discussion and an opportunity for the other.

4. Prior Planning Prevents Poor Framing: teach your teams to frame first before solving. Their discussions should lead off with a description of the issue (the frame) and people should be encouraged to challenge these frames for validity.

5. Stop, Look and Clarify the Frame! Many discussions take on a life of their own and the frame gets lost in the emotions and politics. Regularly stop discussions to reaffirm or challenge the original frame.

6. Beware of Perfect Frames: things aren’t always neat and clean, especially when talking about strategic options in this fast-changing world. If your assumptions begin to sound GMish and too overwhelmingly supportive of your direction or investment, it’s time to look harder at your situation.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

For relatively little effort, you can achieve significant improvement in discussion clarity and decision quality. Starting today, watch how you and others frame issues and encourage everyone to put the time in early in the discussion to ensure good solution set development.  Measure twice, cut once.

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About Art Petty:

Art Petty is a Leadership & Career Coach helping motivated professionals of all levels achieve their potential. In addition to working with highly motivated professionals, Art frequently works with project teams in pursuit of high performance. Art’s second book, Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development, will be published in September of 2011.

Contact Art via e-mail to discuss a coaching, workshop or speaking engagement. Check out Art’s on-line “Professional Development Sprints,” designed for the busy professional.

Filed Under: "To Do" List, Decision-Making, Leadership, Leadership Caffeine Tagged With: , ,

Leadership Caffeine: Assessing the View on You

July 18, 2011 By 2 Comments

Just about all of us have had that experience where we’ve heard our voice on an audio recording or viewed ourselves on a video recording. “Aack, who is that?” or, “Do I really look/sound like that?” are frequent reactions.

Yes, you do.

The stranger on the recording or the weirdo who clearly needs to drop a few pounds, update the wardrobe and get a new hairstylist might be foreign to you, but it’s who and what everyone else hears and sees every day.

And by the way, the perception of you by others, as a professional, as a leader or manager and as a team member are likely different from the cape and tight wearing Superhero image you carry around of yourself.

It’s either a brilliant defense mechanism or a cruel twist of fate that almost guarantees that we walk around with one (idealized) view of ourselves locked in our craniums, while everyone else in the world perceives something different.

Mind the Gap:

Understanding how big your “perception gap” is and working to close this gap is an important part of your professional development program, regardless of your role.  And like everything else in life worth pursuing, measuring and managing your “perception gap” takes time, effort and the willingness to do something about the problem-areas.  Oh, and don’t forget the need for a helping of humility.

11 Actions to Help You Measure and Manage Your Perception Gap in the Workplace:

1. Ask. Subordinates aren’t likely to give you a straight answer but peers and managers might get you a few degrees closer to the truth. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of noise in feedback, and all sources aren’t created equal.

2. Dig. Written performance evaluations and 360 feedback programs are minefields of frequently vague and often non-behavioral feedback lacking supporting examples, but you are duty bound to comb these documents like you’re an archeologist hot on the trail of King Tut’s brother’s tomb.  There’s something valuable there somewhere, and you are going to be the one to unearth it.

3. Measure.  Create an anonymous survey asking very specific questions and looking for specific examples in the answers, and request those you come in contact with regularly to complete and return the survey with their frank input.

4. Form: I’m a tremendous fan of recruiting a small group of trusted advisors (a peer group) to work together on measuring and managing perception gaps. Draft a charter and rules of engagement that define the purpose of the group/initiative and that clearly defines expectations for participation and privacy. Much like a project team, these peer groups are temporary in nature, and the focus is on helping each other strengthen good behaviors and reduce the behaviors that detract from your performance.   Ideally, your peer group members are individuals who see you in a number of different settings.

5. Watch and Listen. Find as many opportunities as possible to record yourself. With the permission of your firm’s various powers and involved members, consider recording yourself in a number of different situations, including presentations and meetings.  Work with your peer group to assess your involvement. Turn of the audio and watch your non-verbal behaviors. Ignore yourself and watch how people react to you.  Take notes…and swallow another humility pill.

6. Write. Keep a journal. Seriously. Use your ipad or your pda or plunk down a couple of bucks for a moleskin notebook, but start documenting the feedback you receive, the efforts you are making to change, the reactions you are eliciting from others….and the areas where you struggle and stumble.

7-11: Plan, Do, Measure, Reflect and Refine. Learning and continuous improvement are essential to measuring and managing your “perception gap.” Understanding the size of the gap in different areas is important…taking action to improve (and monitoring your progress) is priceless.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

It’s unlikely that your self-image exactly matches the perception that others have of you, especially in circumstances where you are leading, coaching, selling, motivating or debating. It’s essential to your effectiveness as a professional and for your development throughout your career that you work hard to understand and manage these gaps. If you don’t, you might just fall in.  The key question is, will anyone be there to pull you out?

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About Art Petty:

Art Petty is a Leadership & Career Coach helping motivated professionals of all levels achieve their potential. In addition to working with highly motivated professionals, Art frequently works with project teams in pursuit of high performance. Art’s second book, Leadership Caffeine-Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development, will be published in September of 2011.

Contact Art via e-mail to discuss a coaching, workshop or speaking engagement. Check out Art’s on-line “Professional Development Sprints,” designed for the busy professional. 

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

Introducing: Professional Development Sprints

July 12, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Note from Art: today’s post is promotional in nature. Back to our regularly scheduled programming soon!

Professional Development Sprints: Practical, powerful coaching guidance and skills development plus a series of activities to apply immediately in the workplace, delivered on-line in 4 modules of 15 minutes or less.  Review the programs as often as you desire during the 30-day subscription period, and use the suggestions in the downloadable Action Guide to keep on improving beyond the program.

Cost: $100.  Return: Your professional development-priceless!

You Own Your Professional Development:

Long-time readers, customers (training and coaching) and my many management students well understand my conviction that you need to own your professional development over the course of your career. If you don’t take care of it, no one will.   In this era of rapid change, ignoring your own development is a subscription to becoming global road kill.

You’ve got to take care of yourself!

Wanted in Professional Development-Convenience, Accessibility, Practicality and Cost-Effectiveness:

In the spirit of Peter Drucker’s classic article, “Managing Oneself,” I’m consistently asked by motivated professionals on guidance for continuing professional development beyond the classroom, training room or coaching engagement.  I happily offer my ideas, from books to blogs to actions over time, and for some that’s fine. For others however, I appreciate that they’ve asked for something that goes beyond good reading, but doesn’t demand the time or cost of formal training or coaching.

Based on client demand for tools that energize and help sustain professional development in a convenient (translation: on-demand), practical and low cost way, I’m pleased to introduce my latest Building Better Leaders offering: Professional Development Sprints. 

What a Professional Development Sprint Offers:

  • On-demand access to Art (30 days per sprint). Listen/watch for 15 minutes and apply immediately.
  • Skills development…exposure to new tools and approaches to solve problems
  • Real world examples and experiences
  • High Intensity encouragement and a bit of professional prodding from Art to get it in gear and start applying the concepts.
  • Ideas/activities to put the new tools into play immediately!
  • Actions to support your development beyond the program.
  • Ideas and motivation to jump-start or sustain a professional development program.

What It’s Not:

  • They’re not outrageously pretty….just practical and filled with ideas, examples, approaches and tools.
  • They’re not a full blown substitute for in-depth skills training or comprehensive coaching

The First Sprint-Learning to Deliver Constructive Feedback with Confidence.  

In slightly less than 60-minutes, I work with you to:

  • identify and overcome fears/barriers to delivering feedback
  • Identify and explain the 6 “must have” components for every constructive feedback discussion
  • Teach you the importance of ensuring that your feedback is both behavioral in nature and must have a business rationale at its core.
  • Offer you a process for properly planning and then delivering the toughest of discussions.
  • Offer you a number of ideas to apply the concepts in each module in the workplace…and on how to sustain your on-going development and mastery of the art of delivering constructive feedback.

Your Return on Investment:

  • Improved personal performance as a leader
  • Increased confidence for tackling the important and difficult conversations
  • Improved performance of your team members
  • Improved unit and firm performance
  • The increased respect for you from your team members…good professionals want and need feedback
  • Confidence begets more confidence.

Enroll, Pay and Get Started Here!

Questions?

An Offer You Can’t Refuse:

The first 10 registrants will receive free, signed copies of my forthcoming book: “Leadership Caffeine: Ideas to Energize Your Professional Development” (expected publication: September, 2011)

But Wait, There’s More:

OK, actually, that’s it for the offers. However, alumni gain a 20% discount on future Sprints. And for you Managers, Trainers and HR Pros, please know that group rates are available. Drop me a note to discuss your needs. 

Future Sprints:

  • Next: Improving Your Decision Making Effectiveness
  • And then: Getting Started Successfully with Your New Team
  • And right after that: For Experienced Leaders: How to Re-energize and Strengthen Your Leadership Approach and Results.
  • Future Sprints based on your input.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

There’s no one magical approach to developing yourself, other than investing the time and deliberately striving to learn, improve and grow. I’m excited for my clients to offer one approach that will help energize and sustain any professional’s development efforts. The on-demand convenience and low-cost access are frosting on the cake. I’m looking forward to serving you in our first and in many more Professional Development Sprints to come.

Filed Under: "To Do" List, Career, Leadership Tagged With: , , ,
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