Management Excellence News, Updates & Coming Attractions

August 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Note from Art: While I’m remarkably sensitive to not creating an infomercial out of my blog, I am involved in a number of exciting activities that I’ve shared with some of you personally.  Here’s a bit broader update and a call for speakers and interview subjects.

-Coming Soon: The Management Excellence Interview Series

I truly enjoy some of the blogs that push the envelope on mixing media to provide audio and video posts, podcasts and events, and I’m moving in that direction as well. I experimented earlier this year with some podcasts and got tired of talking with myself and haven’t come back to that medium yet.

That’s changing over the next few weeks as I embark on what I hope will be a regular feature here at Management Excellence in the form of brief audio interviews with some fascinating professionals.

I’m on tap to record the first one on Monday (for posting later that week) with Mike Mulcahy, a scrappy, no-nonsense executive that has held the hot seat in large and small organizations, and has some great insights on “The CEO’s Perspective on Product Management.”

As an aside, I conducted yet another experiment on Twitter yesterday and asked the product management community #prodmgmt what they want to hear from Mike. Their list of great questions might just help define the outline for a book! If you’re not using Twitter to tap into the many great minds out there, you are missing a great opportunity.

I am interested in building on my list of interview subjects and would love to chat with executives and professionals that have something to say about leadership, strategy, sales and marketing and performance excellence and any of the other topics that I cover here at Management Excellence.  Drop me a note and I will get in touch with you.

-Where Distance Learning Meets Professional Mentoring to Support Professional Growth

During the past few years, I challenged myself to do something way out of my comfort zone and that is to learn to teach on-line. I’m a huge advocate of face to face learning, but the world is changing.  I now teach distance classes here in my community and actually managed to gain permission from DePaul to teach an elective MBA course (Project Management) in a hybrid fashion…one week face to face and the next on-line. The experience has been fascinating and enlightening for me and the students have voted with stellar reviews.

It’s time for the next step.

I am putting the finishing touches on my initial distance learning meets professional mentoring programs and will launch a new website for this in September.

The first program is focused on early career professionals, and is entitled: “Considering Leadership: What to Do and How to Prepare,” and will be quickly followed with, “Congratulations You’re a First-Time Leader, What Next?” (There are another 6 on tap for more experienced professionals and audiences in product and project management, marketing and on topics ranging from leadership to strategy and execution to developing executive presence.)

What I’m excited about is that the programs are designed to offer a blend of distance learning with personal mentoring time (telephone or skype) to deliver complete schedule flexibility while integrating person to person involvement. I’ve designed the lessons to communicate core concepts and tools in short audio and video segments, supported by synced slides, and then the pdf Action Guide documents for each lesson outline the very important developmental exercises.

I engage with the participants in up-front and back-end personal calls, as well as via live teleseminars during the program. Of course, they get unlimited e-mail access to me. Programs will run 45 to 60 days and will be priced extremely aggressively to allow individuals as well as corporations to get involved.

I’m working hard to help fill some gaps in the market with these programs. People need schedule flexibility and affordability, and they need tools and programs that don’t just talk but that challenge and guide them on taking action. After all, you can no longer count on your company to support your own development and there’s little else in the market that blends flexibility with affordability with pragmatism and quality.

Step one is a quality check and I’ll be putting several early career professionals through the “Considering Program” prior to launch. More soon.

-News Sound Bites:

Practical Lessons in Leadership will be used as a text at yet another school…this time for a program on Creative Leadership at McHenry Community College here in Illinois. I’ve been invited to guest speak and I can’t wait. Nothing beats walking into a classroom and seeing your book in front of everyone with post-its sticking out and pages bent. Prior talks and Q/A sessions in these settings have been great! That’s what it was meant for!

-Speaking of Guest Speakers: I am teaching Business Plan Development at DePaul University on Monday nights this fall and would love to hear from any Chicago-area professionals with experience in venture financing and business planning interested in a guest speaking opportunity. I can talk with you about specifics. Drop me an e-mail and I’ll get in touch with you.

-More Speaking:

Creating a High Performance Culture on a Foundation of Leadership Excellence is one of my keynote topics and I’m looking forward to delivering it at a CEO Conference at the Sawmill Cree Resort in Huron, OH on September 1.

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That’s it for now, although there is some “Marketing” news in the works, but more about that later. Back to more Management Excellence content with a new Leadership Caffeine post on Monday!

Enjoy your weekend!

Filed Under: "To Do" List, Career, Leadership, Product Management, Professional Growth, Project Management Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Want a Great Primer in Leadership? Work for a Bastard and Take Notes

August 18, 2009 By 6 Comments

(And then do the opposite!)

Note from Art: I’m hoping (a bad strategy) that the popularization of the “B” word by director Quentin Tarantino and his forthcoming movie “Inglorious Basterds” (with an e?) has desensitized most of us to that harsh term and label.  Apologies if I’ve offended anyone and/or drawn the wrath of your IT spam filter.

Another Note from Art: since several of my former bosses read my posts, please rest assured that none of you are the subjects of or the inspiration for this post! Really!

OK, I am serious about the topic. While I wouldn’t counsel you to seek out and work for a b@st@rd as part of your formal mentoring experience, given the ratio of these characters to good leaders in the workplace, chances are you’ll trip across one or more in your career. When you do, take in the experience as a powerful education in how not to lead.

The Public Executioner!

I still recall the moment earlier in my career when a leader who clearly reveled in leading public executions, used his power and a great command of words to humiliate an individual who had drawn his ire by asking a question about one of his policies. This was at a sales meeting, and the verbal execution continued for two days, sometimes spontaneously generating to fill dead air.

While the boss seemed to gain strength over time, the subject of his attention, a young and in my opinion, a sharp and inquisitive rep, melted into a puddle of human goo. I can’t tell you how many lessons we all drew from that experience. I literally recall vowing to never do that to another human being when it was my day to be in charge.

Most of Us Have Had Close Encounters with Lousy Leaders

I’ve long since concluded that I’m not alone in gaining some great insights on what not to do from lousy leaders. When interviewing for Practical Lessons in Leadership, we were surprised at the number of examples of miserable leaders that served as a kind of opposite inspiration for people.

The result for us in the book was a section devoted to “The Really Bad Habits of Ineffective Leaders,” where we attempted to name and describe the personas of some of these characters.

Perhaps you’ve met them:

  • The All Talk, No Action Leader-loves the sound of his/her voice, babble, babble
  • The Never-Make-A-Decision Leader-holds everyone hostage out of fear of being wrong.
  • The Game-Playing, Fork-Tongued Boss-always screwing with you and will lie to save his hide
  • The Public Humiliator-there’s more than one of these characters…they eviscerate the working environment as well as people.
  • The I’m Your Best Buddy Manager-until he’s not. It’s just a matter of time.
  • The Micro-Manager-not quite evil, but very destructive and debilitating

And my favorite,

  • The Assassin. This one is the most dangerous. He/she plots the corporate kills with cold-hearted thoroughness, pulling the trigger and then slipping back into the office culture without being noticed. They are master politicians and manage to often stay above suspicion while plying their trade. Others know and sense it, but often the higher-ups don’t see this side of the person.  Beware.

The Bottom-Line:

OK, aside from the cathartic benefits of railing at some bad leaders and bad leader archetypes, there is a point here. You can turn a truly bad and hopefully temporary experience into a positive learning situation.

At some point you won’t work for or next to this person, so pay close attention to the impact that his/her odious behaviors have on individuals, groups, overall morale and of course performance, and then silently vow never to do it that way.

When it’s your day at the head of the line, remember that vow.

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

Nine Power Techniques for Building Your Leadership Credibility

April 24, 2009 By 5 Comments

Whether you are a first-time leader, an experienced manager taking over a new team or an informal leader such as a project or product manager, you will be as successful as you are credible.  Your credibility is your professional bedrock.  Build on it carefully and constantly. 

In my book as co-author with Rich Petro, Practical Lessons in Leadership, I compare credibility to a bank account.  Credibility deposits are hard earned and the balance builds slowly over time as you prove yourself to be an effective, honest leader focused on developing and supporting your team and organization. 

Most leaders (including informal leaders) are unaware of the fact that they are being watched and judged constantly. People naturally look for clues to a leader’s character.  They compare words and actions and if those two don’t match, the verdict is fast and fair: not credible.  They look for signs of hidden agendas, favoritism and gamesmanship.

For even the craftiest of politicians, people are perceptive and will base their commitment and support based on “blink” assessments.

You are on trial every day.  Don’t forget it.

 Nine Power Techniques to Help Build Leadership Credibility:

1.    Serve & Support.  While it sounds like the logo on the side of a police cruiser, the effective leader understands that he/she is working for his/her team and constantly reinforces this philosophy in both words and actions.

2.    Create a Positive Working Environment.  This includes working with team members to set behavioral expectations for performance, accountability, decision-making and resolving problems and then reinforcing those values and behaviors with consistent actions.  

3.    Teach.  The best leaders are aware that their ultimate goal is to help develop others.  They are teachers that use developmental opportunities and feedback as their primary educational tools.   

4.    Insulate & Showcase.  These seemingly conflicting actions are part of the leader’s balancing act.  The leader must learn how to insulate the team members from destructive interference while ensuring that they receive the visibility and support that they require.  In particular, ensuring the right visibility for teams and members is a powerful motivational tool.

5.    Facilitate & Make Decisions.  More conflicting issues.  As a teacher, the leader must learn to facilitate solution development and idea generation.  However, when conditions require, he/she has no qualms about making and communicating decisions.

6.    Communicate at Just the Right Volume.  It’s easy to whiff on this one.  Bombard your team with low-value communiques and you are a distraction.  Offer too little and you’ll be accused of everything including the Lindbergh kidnapping.  The best leaders work with teams and members to define needs and evaluate and improve communications effectiveness.

7.    Anchor Communications in Goals.  Just like a CEO works to constantly integrate strategies and actions in pursuit of creating value for customers, the leader ensures that team and individual goals are front and center and linked to the firm’s goals.  

8.    Dispense Accountability Fairly.  Play favorites or let under-performers slide and not only will you destroy the team environment, you’ll eviscerate your own credibility as a leader.  Remember, everyone is watching.

9.    Live by the Coach’s Credo.  If the team succeeds, it is because of the team.  If it fails, it is because of the coach.  Seriously, effective leaders don’t look for scapegoats.

Without credibility, your effectiveness is nil.  Most people and most leaders are woefully ignorant of their perceived credibility.  Walk in the door everyday with the goal of strengthening yours.  Remember, you are being watched.  Closely.

Filed Under: "To Do" List, Career, Decision-Making, Leadership, Product Management, Professional Growth, Project Management Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

New Leaders, Twitter and the Volunteer Management Conundrum

April 2, 2009 By 2 Comments

A collection of sound bites and developmental suggestions for busy professionals: 

The Challenges of New Leaders: Feedback on Practical Lessons In Leadership:

Thanks to Dan McCarthy at Great Leadership for featuring my book with Rich Petro, Practical Lessons in Leadership, on his blog today.  Dan features material from the book focusing on: The Top Ten Challenges of the New Leader.  Please click over to Dan’s site to remind yourself of these challenges and importantly, check out his consistently outstanding blog content.

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Networking, Collaborating & My Twitter Experience

What started out as a bit of marketing curiosity has turned into a great and productive networking experience for me on Twitter.  I continue to meet new and talented professionals on a daily basis and to share ideas and even identify opportunities to collaborate.  Share a good idea or thought and watch it spread like wildfire.  Have something new to offer in your business, as long as you are genuine and credible, watch the community jump on your idea and spread the news.

I know a number of marketers that I really respect that don’t have a seat at the Twitter Table yet.  Fair warning, that this is a potent tool for professional networking, research and brand building.  It’s time to pull up a chair and join the discussion.

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Managing Volunteers: A Non Profit Management Conundrum

One of the more rewarding activities that I am involved with, includes working with a great group of professionals to help change the shape of volunteering in our community. 

Volunteerism is certainly popular in our culture thanks to the encouragement of our leaders in Washington and in response to the many societal challenges that we face.  The fact that more people have time on their hands due to a sudden outbreak of unemployment is a factor as well.

A paradox that I find fascinating is the fact that so many nonprofits truly need the help of volunteers in pursuit of their mission, yet it is fairly common for volunteers to report having had a poor experience.  It seems that many non profit organizations struggle to create the processes and infrastructure that allow for effective selection, on-boarding and management of volunteers. 

In a Fast Company article titled: Why Volunteers Don’t Come Back, the author highlights research suggesting that as many as one-third of the volunteers from a prior year don’t return—a loss of labor worth an equivalent of $40 billion.  The biggest competitor to volunteering?  According to the author, studies indicate that watching television is the number one alternative use of time.  

At a high level, it seems like there are two issues.  As part of our local community efforts, we need to help our community nonprofits develop efficient and effective systems for managing the volunteer process and improving the overall experience and outcome for all parties. This is an eminently solvable management task!

The second issue is a fundamental reality check on how we prioritize our time.  The advent of low cost DVRs makes it pretty hard to explain why people need to sit at home at night glued to the tv screen.  It’s time to get out into the community and help solve some problems.  

The Bottom-Line for Now:

I’ve offered three suggestions here for you to help make a difference. No charge!  

1. Pay attention to the developmental needs of new leaders

2. Get started on Twitter and figure out what it can mean to you and your organization

3. Become part of the solution in your community and volunteer. 

In particular on the last point, let’s put our heads together and help our non profits do a better job managing their talented and enthusiastic volunteer resources, before they lose them to the latest episode of Lost.

 

 

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