Leadership Caffeine for the Week of March 30, 2009

March 29, 2009 By 3 Comments

A healthy spring snowstorm blanketed the northwest suburbs of Chicago overnight, making the morning cup of coffee particularly relevant as a source of both warmth and energy. 

I’m back with a fresh pound of my favorite fair trade Mexican Roast from a great local roaster aptly named Conscious Cup.  My first contribution to stimulating the economy today is to let you know that these great people ship.

My second contribution is to encourage a renewed sense of personal professional accountability.  Yep, I’m striking a blow against Boss-Blame…that world class sport that so many engage in as part of rationalizing why their own results might just be falling short of something resembling excellence.

Quit Grousing…It’s Wasted Energy!

It’s common for me to hear quite a bit of grousing about the people we work for from attendees at workshops, at client sites or in classes.  And while I don’t doubt that there’s a fair amount of truth in much of the talk about lousy managers and do-nothing exec teams, I truly don’t care and neither should you. 

Do not let the chucklehead that you work for hold you back!  Do not blame the management team for your inability to hit your targets, develop professionally or create a high performance team.  The only one in charge of you is you.

I’ve long since concluded that in spite of our best intentions we have a low probability of fixing most of the bad bosses. Our best bet and your best bet is to develop a multi-pronged approach to the situation.

Suggestions for Overcoming Bad Boss Syndrome:

1. Mitigation.  Sometimes “Bad Boss” syndrome can be mitigated by changing your own behavior.  I’ve observed many situations where the boss has issues and the individuals that report to him or her have no qualms publicly depicting their lack of respect. While that might in some perverted way feel good, it is wrong. 

Try using judo on the situation and increase your efforts to be respectful and helpful and to portray a genuine sense of empathy for the burdens that this individuals bears as a leader and as a person. Hey, no guarantees here, but you’ll be the better person for trying, and it might be you some latitude in the workplace.

2.  Partnering. I work with many different project teams in IT and new product development, and I can predict with near certainty the top reasons that will surface in the post-mortem on failed projects.  You know the issues as well, and yes, most of them have to do with people and leadership.  (An oft-quoted E&Y study indicates that 80% of the reasons associated with poor project performance are tied to people.)

Work on a few project teams, and you can predict the problems like clockwork.  Estimates will be off…people sandbag or play politics.  The matrix gets in the way…people have multiple priorities and are not linked to one team.  The sponsor spends her time jetting around Asia and is never present at critical times to do what a sponsor is supposed to do.  And so on.

What is stopping you from working with your peers to focus your collective energies on eradicating the mostly controllable and predictable problems that bedevil so many teams? Nothing!  If the project manager lacks the leadership savvy to broker resolutions and build a performance culture, jump in along with your peers and help out. Have an ineffective sponsor?  Either educate him or her on the role or seek out a new one.  There are few problems that arise that are dependent upon those upstream. 

3. Your Personal Pursuit of Excellence:

In the final leg of my bad-boss mitigation & you must develop your own sense of accountability rant, this is for all of you first-time or mid-level leaders that are not getting the support and coaching that you genuinely should receive.  Get over it, and make certain that you go to extraordinary lengths to give to your colleagues in spades what you are not receiving from your manager.

Boss not talked to you about career development?  Well, you are in charge of your own career, and oh by the way, nothing is precluding you from working with your team members on their own personal development plans.

Don’t get much feedback on your performance?  That’s unfortunate, but it is not an excuse for you not recognizing that feedback is your most powerful performance tool and practicing it constantly.

Does the boss work hard to protect turf and strengthen silo walls?  Don’t fall into that shortsighted trap.  Become a network broker across organizational boundaries.  Learn and apply the art of lateral leadership and diplomacy. 

The bottom-line

Just as it is common in life for people to hitch their sense of well-being and happiness to the actions and opinions of others, it is common for people to wallow in business misery because of the shortcomings of our leaders.  It’s time to unhitch that wagon and take responsibility for your own business happiness and health.  Get started this week!

 

 

Filed Under: "To Do" List, Career, Leadership Caffeine, Performance, Professional Growth, Project Management, Surviving Lousy Leaders Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Marketing Yourself: The Irreverent Opinions of a Resume Hobbyist

December 17, 2008 By 4 Comments

In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a resume hobbyist.  I am not an HR professional and I am most definitely not a professional resume writer.  I also consciously leave the accent mark off of the word Resume, so get over it.

After reviewing untold number of these fascinating documents over two decades as a hiring manager, as well as working with many former colleagues to help put their best foot forward, I’ve developed a few opinions about what works what doesn’t when it comes to crafting your personal marketing materials.  I’ve also discovered that there are a lot of so-called experts out there with conflicting opinions of their own.  And of course…we all know that is advice is worth what you pay for it, so remember that this is free.

I should highlight that I share my “hobby” with a good friend.  Over the years, we’ve both made it a habit to study the current-state of resume writing while sharing samples of what we found to be effective and ineffective.  I suspect that many of the opinions that follow have their genesis in those discussions with my colleague.

Resume Approaches that Don’t Work (in my book) and What to Do About Them:

  • Accomplishment oriented resumes with no chronological order.  Give me the accomplishments but don’t make me solve your own personal chronology puzzle.  I don’t have time and your resume goes into the discard pile with a satisfying thud.
  • Resumes that read like job descriptions.  This is the single most common gaffe that I see in these documents.  It’s good to communicate the scope and accountability of your positions, but please focus on how you created value (accomplishments), not on just listing your duties.
  • Accomplishment listings that make you out to be (insert your favorite superhero character here).  You must be able to substantiate your accomplishments, and I know that you didn’t do it all yourself. I once had a recruiter criticize my resume for reflecting the role that others (team members, direct reports) had in my successes.  He felt that it showed weakness to distribute attribution.  My response…a not so polite, “go jump.”  It’s a team-oriented, project focused world and while there are real opportunities for individual heroics, I would much rather understand how someone worked with others (led, motivated, learned from) to create success.
  • Lack of a personal value proposition.  I have to grasp in a hurry what makes you unique.  Many resumes are dry two-dimensional statements of career progression with no clear thesis about the individual as valuable professional that I would want on my team.  Crafting your personal value proposition is hard work, but absolutely essential for success.  The bulk of your resume creation time should focus on this component.  Remember to test your value proposition by seeking feedback from people who are not your wife/mother/husband.
  • Length. Size counts, but of course, it is truly a matter of personal perspective.  I will read a good resume regardless of length.  Recruiters have their own opinions, and few of them are consistent.  I’ve had recruiters absolutely love my 3-page format (the long form), and others question my reason for existence after sharing this “onerous” document.  Cover your bases…create a short-form that indicates the availability of a long-form.
  • Narrative versus bullet format.  One expert suggests a long-form narrative for executives, with total disregard for length.  Another emphasizes using short bullets that are generally incomplete sentences.  Frankly, I like to see a narrative intro for each major position or company change and supporting bullets, but that’s just me.  I’ll read either one if they effectively communicate who you are and what value you’ve brought to your positions.
  • Tense. I cannot intuit from your total past-tense focus how you will help me going forward.  It’s your job to make certain that the personal value proposition is clearly stated as what you can do for me now and in the future.  This is a subtle but important issue.
  • Format.  Keep it clean and simple with ample white-space, even if you are using the narrative format.  You don’t want to fail the first-glance test.
  • Video resumes. Still not interested.  I may have to get over this one sometime soon.  If you are an executive or someone that is engaged in public speaking, I will look at your YouTube link if your resume passes through my filters.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Marketing yourself is a tough job and one of the most important jobs that you will ever undertake.  And then undertake again.  And again.  I have no claims on “expert” status when it comes to personal marketing materials, but I do have claims on hiring expert talent to grow businesses.  Somewhere out there is a hiring executive hoping that the next superstar is in that pile of paper or e-mail messages.  A little common-sense advice might just help you stand out and show this executive why you are the answer.

Filed Under: "To Do" List, Marketing, Marketing Yourself Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

October 29th Carnival of HR (and much more)

October 29, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Readers interested in some divergent thinking and great ideas should take a look at the menu of authors and content at the latest Carnival of HR.  And don't let the HR headline trick you.  This Halloween collection of articles covers diverse topics in leadership, communication, execution, talent development and priceless career advice.  Oh, and of course, Dan McCarthy, the host, was nice enough to include my recent attempt to place a quantifiable value on leadership development activities.  Check it out, it's definitely a treat. 

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

HR Has Yet to Establish Credibility As Weapon in War for Talent

August 22, 2008 By 2 Comments

The August, 2008 Issue of the McKinsey Quarterly Chart Focus Newsletter includes an interesting article highlighting the expanding perception gap between HR Professionals and Line Managers over HR’s role in Talent Management. 

The article: Realigning the HR Function to Manage Talent, identifies three major challenges in the continuing war for talent:

  1. Minimal collaboration and talent sharing among business units
  2. Ineffective line management
  3. Confusion about the role of HR. 

Additionally, the article offers up the latest survey results on what McKinsey describes as the declining influence of the human-resources function. Line Managers significantly differ with their HR counterparts over:

  •  HR’s capabilities to develop talent strategies aligned with business objectives (33 percentage point gap)
  • HR’s accountability for success or failure of talent-management initiatives (28 point gap)
  •  Whether Talent Management is the responsibility of HR (22 point gap). 

None of the gaps are favorable towards HR.

Art’s Quick-Take:

I’ve observed a few great HR leaders that really understand that they are key enablers of a firm’s talent management success and key participants in the strategy process.  However, many others and many HR departments remain pigeonholed as compliance police and benefits administrators.  An enlightened management team and CEO recognize the strategic value of HR.  They also recognize that talent development and management is the responsibility of all of a firm’s leaders and not just HR.

As an aside, there are no excuses for the perception gaps highlighted above.  Twenty lashes for the leadership groups that allow those gaps to emerge and sustain.

One suggestion if you are a manager or leader in a firm with a generally tactical HR function: ask for help.  You might be surprised how anxious your HR professionals are to engage in something outside the normal bounds of compliance or benefits.

While not quick to throw stones as my own functional counterparts (sales and marketing) have plenty of their own challenges, it is time for HR to stand-up and be counted on as a key enabler of strategy. They can start by helping their firm institutionalize talent identification, recruitment, retention and development.

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

Some Great Insights at the Latest Carnival of Human Resources

June 12, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Check out Jon Ingham's Strategic Human Capital blog for the latest Carnival of Human Resources and some global perspectives on on compelling issues in managing and leading.  Thanks to Jon for featuring one of my recent posts.  

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: , , , ,