I will be posting from airport lounges this week, but before I head out, I wanted to relate a lesson about decision-making that I learned (the hard way) a number of years ago. This was prompted by a discussion with a promising early career product management professional, "Bob," that had expressed frustration at the way decisions were reached in his company. I think that the lesson still holds today.
The Meeting is Never for Decision-Making: A Product Management Lesson I Learned at Matsushita
March 18, 2008 By Leave a Comment
Improving The Executive and Project Manager Relationship
March 16, 2008 By 2 Comments
I’ve recently become immersed in developing a much better understanding of the role, challenges and contributions of Project Management to an organization’s success, and I cringe when recalling the many examples I observed of executives strong-arming the project process to fit their objectives. In the spirit of candor, I recall one or two instances where I might have asserted executive will to try and change the forces of the universe and get a new product out the door faster than my project manager said was humanly possible. I also recall that the Project Manager ended up being right.
As professional project management practices (and project managers) grow in importance to a firm’s success (see my post: Struggling With Strategy? Think Project Management), it is critical that top leaders learn how to support the process rather than beat it into submission. And because as the saying goes, "it takes two to tango," Project Managers need to learn how to "manage" their executives to minimize unproductive involvement or outright interference.
Grace Under Pressure: A Great Leadership Opportunity
March 10, 2008 By 1 Comment
In the spirit of full disclosure, I’m currently off on a holiday with my oldest son. We escaped the frozen, snow covered Midwest for some sun and fun. We attended the finals of a tennis tournament yesterday, played a few hours of tennis today and got a bit too much sun. Tomorrow we are off on a mountain hiking adventure. Great time together with my son and my brother and his family.
Unfortunately, our home away from home has internet connectivity, so while my 19 year old is napping after beating up on me on the tennis court, I couldn’t resist taking a few minutes to jot a quick post about my observations on some of the behavior under pressure that I observed from the pros at the tournament that we attended. There are at least a few observations applicable for leaders everywhere.
Leader-It’s Time to Act on That Poor Performer
January 29, 2008 By 2 Comments
One of the most common mistakes of leaders of all experience levels is failing to act in a timely manner on poor performers. This is certainly consistent with our firm’s findings in interviews and surveys over the past two years, where the winner for number one self-described weakness was delivering constructive feedback. (Choose your label: constructive feedback=the tough performance discussion, robust dialog or candid conversation.)
Apparently, many of us are wired with a naive sense of optimism and a willingness to continue throwing good time and money after bad in the never-ending hope that the poor performer will see the light, make adjustments and turn things around. And it does happen. Rarely. In fact, so infrequently, that in my opinion, the leader is better served operating with the parable of the scorpion and the frog in mind. In case you don’t recall, the scorpion convinces the frog that he has changed and should the frog kindly agree to transporting the scorpion across the pond, the scorpion promises not to sting him. Needless to say, they don’t make it across the pond. With their last gasps, the frog asks why and the scorpion responds with, "It’s my nature."
Leader, are you the problem with your team’s performance?
December 12, 2007 By Leave a Comment
Your leadership tactics just might be at the root of your team’s less than stellar performance
As a leader looking for ways to improve the performance of your team, it is important to spend some time examining the impact that you have on the working environment and productivity of your associates. Effective self-examination might just help identify some opportunities for your own development that will spur the performance of those around you.
In case you are reading and thinking, "It’s not me, It’s… ," think again. I’ve often been invited to work with executives and managers on team performance issues, where it quickly becomes clear to everyone that many (not all) of the issues reside at the top of the food chain. Some great leaders that I’ve worked with or for have embraced the reality that they have culpability for poor team performance, made the necessary changes and subsequently jumped back on the high-performance track. Of course, some leaders are in perpetual denial about their own faults–there is only one solution in this case.
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