Management Craft

Do Bad Bosses Know They Are Bad?

Jory offers this interesting post called, The Price of Arrogance: Bully Bosses Pay It Eventually.

She says,
"I can't imagine there are too many bad bosses who go home at night proud to have made their employees' lives miserable. I've had bad bosses talk about the horrible bosses they had. They were like juvenile delinquents who hadn't yet mapped their abusive past to their current behavior. Maybe YOU are a bad boss and haven't admitted it to yourself yet."

Jory, I hate to say it, but I think most bad bosses go home proud of what they accomplished that day. I have worked with, for, and around several really bad bosses and I think that most don't think the way we expect them to think. It does not even occur to them that the way they are managing is wrong and often they will think their methods are right.

Does this make it OK to be a bad boss? No, that's not what I am saying. But I do think it makes change more difficult. And really, this is just an exaggeration of the behavioral style and tendency differences we all have. Every day we do things that others cannot believe we would even consider and visa versa. (For example, I knew a manager that allowed a group of his employees to get shirts made up that said, "Future employees of ______ (the competition)." Not only did he expense these shirts (the company paid for them), he let them wear the shirts on the job. I could not fathom the mindset that rationalized this, but this manager thought nothing of it and thought it was funny)

I have been with a group of CEOs for small companies and listened to them talk together. I would have sworn I was on Candid Camera, because what they were saying seemed so off the wall to me.

I know one VP who is such a turd. Nobody wants to deal with him. Nobody wants to work for him. And I honestly believe he thinks there is nothing wrong with his approach. He should have some awareness now, because enough people have told him, but I think he thinks they are weak and too sensitive. It would be very hard to get him to change.

I once worked for a smart guy who was a politicking weasel. I was at the company first, and resented the fact that he was mucking up my experience. I eventually left.

The remedy? It is sad, but vote with your feet - don't work for bad bosses. Life is too short. Sure, we can hope that their bosses will counsel them and perhaps they will get help. But most don't want help and view help as a waste of their time.

Sometimes these bad bosses get worked out of the system, but often they do OK. Why? In part because we tolerate them.

Note: If you do need to stay at your job and work for a bad boss, then you need to get over the fact they are a bad boss or this will eat you alive. Perhaps knowing that he/she is likely oblivious to the obvious will help. See my post about redefining your experience.

Managing Outside The Box

There's a powerful pull, like a gravitational pull, that keeps many managers from making a difference. It's the management box.

Here's what's inside the box:

• Meetings
• Administrivia
• To-do lists and piles
• Routine tasks
• Handling daily brush fires
• Taking care of people's problems
• Monitoring performance

These things in the box can fill our days, but we can't let them. This is not why we became managers and it is not what our companies most need from us.

Outside the box:

• Breakthroughs in alignment
• Dialogue that enlivens the workplace
• Seizing opportunity
• Collaboration that improves the business
• Barrier obliteration

It may seem hard to step outside the box because bosses and employees reinforce in-box management. That's ironic, because they seek the results and feeling of out-of-box management. They just don't know, and this creates a vicious circle of reinforcement of the wrong things.

How to step outside the box:

Step outside the box one foot at a time. Align the workplace, change what you do on a daily basis and improve dialogue. Say NO to sucky meetings. Say NO to sucky meetings. Say NO to sucky meetings. Until you do, the pull of the box will be tough to overcome.

Are you a senior leader? Talk to your management team today, in the next hour. Tell them about the box and give them your blessing to step outside. Better yet, realign your expectations such that you do not reinforce in-box management.

Not sure how to begin? Print out this post, take it to your OD department and ask them to help drive the migration. If they do not know what to do, get a new OD department, this is basic stuff.

Yeah, let's not make this complicated, this is simple. The pull is strong but as soon as you get away from the force, managing outside the box is very simple.

 

You are NOT a leader when....

Tony Morgan offered this interesting post called, 10 Easy Ways to Know you are Not a Leader. Check it out. Here are my favorites:

    1     You're waiting on a bigger staff and more money to accomplish your vision.
    9     Your dreams are so small, people think they can be achieved.
   10     No one is following you.

The problem is that most clueless leaders (or shall we call them Pleaders, like Krab is imitation crab) don't recognize that no one is following them. Here are a few more signs that your are a PLEADER:

• People who leave your organization say they left for some very polite reason, like "for my health." Or, "I want to try something new." Translation - your are killing me and I can't stand working for you. If you were a leader, your people would feel comfortable telling you the truth.
• People do not challenge you in meetings. This is a sure sign you are a pleader, because you have trained people that offering their ideas and concerns is met with negative consequences of some sort. Pleaders are often defensive and woefully lacking in self-confidence. They may try to make up for this by being bold and showy, but everyone knows the difference between a pleader and a leader.
• I think Tony is right that pleaders lack vision. You know you are a pleader if you wait for your boss to hand you your vision. Grab the reigns, man/woman!
• You know you are a pleader when all you do is give good news. How much do you talk - I mean serious dialogue - about business, what needs to happen, what's keeping you up at night?
• You are a pleader if your daily and weekly routine has not changed much over the last year. Companies need leaders who will make a significant difference, and the activities that produce these results change. If your to-do list and major projects have not changed, you are an implementer, not a leader.

This all sounds pretty harsh, but pleaders are over paid paper weights and our organizations are in need of real leadership. If you are a pleader (some of you surely are) you can change this. All is not lost. If you see the opportunity to lead and get some good coaching, I think most anyone can lead. I have seen a few great turnaround stories.

Don't plead, lead. Insist on the real thing.

 

 

 

Business Book Awards

The 2005 Book Awards were announced from www.usabooks.com. My book, High Impact Middle Management, made it to the list of finalists in the business book category (over 50 business books were entered). I am assuming by the list that these awards are focused on small to medium sized publishers, and independent publishers. I like that, because the big guys get a disproportionate amount of attention. Here is the complete list with the winner and finalists in the business category.

As a mega hit, Dan Pink's book seems a bit out of place, but hey, I like being on the same list as Dan!

Does anybody know what a green weenie is? That's business jargon I have not heard. Please, only PG13 comments. :-)

Business

Winner: The Leadership Integrity Challenge: How to Assess and Facilitate Emotional Maturity by Edward E. Morler, M.B.A., Ph.D, Sanai Publishing, ISBN: 0976864304

Finalist: Thinking Clockwise: A Field Guide for the Innovative Leader by Dennis Stauffer, MinneApplePress, ISBN: 0964042932

Finalist: A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age by Daniel H. Pink, Riverhead Books, ISBN: 1573223085

Finalist: High Impact Middle Management: Solutions for Today's Busy Managers by Lisa Haneberg, Adams Media, ISBN: 1593371586

Finalist: Green Weenies and Due Diligence: Insider Business Jargon - Raw, Serious and Sometimes Funny by Ron Sturgeon, Mike French Publishing, ISBN: 0971703116

Finalist: Kick the Dealer...Not the Tires by Mark Marine, MOTOM Publishing, ISBN: 0976887819

Finalist: 501+ Great Interview Questions for Employers and the Best Answers for Prospective Employees by Dianna Podmoroff, MBA, CHRP, Atlantic Publishing Group, ISBN: 0910627509

Article in Leader to Leader

If you read Leader to Leader (a great mag), I have an article in the Fall edition just on news stands now. Unfortunately, the article is not available online. Fellow author and blogger/podcaster Laurence Haughton also has an article in the same issue:

My article:
Reinventing Middle Management: People in the middle are the ones who make or break companies.

Laurence's Article:
Creating Hot Teams: Teamwork is a choice people make based on how they feel.

Goal Setting Software

I was doing some research for a book I am working on called Coaching Basics (just shipped it to the publisher, yeah!) and came across several interesting software programs that help you set and monitor goals.

Ace Project software: www.aceproject.com
Goal Maker Software: www.goalmaker.com
GoalPro Software: www.goalpro.com
Life Plan Writer Software: www.lifeplanwriter.com
ManagePro Team Planning Software: www.managepro.com
Plan Plus Software: www.franklincovey.com
Single-Step Motivational Software: www.single-step.com

I have not used these myself but a few look pretty interesting. Let me know if you know of these or recommend others. I think the trick for goals setting is to accomplish two things:

• Goals that inspire and move you (yes, even at work)
• Goals that are specific enough to be highly actionable and measureable

Mosts goals can accomplish one or the other, but few people really nail both. Action planning will play a large role during my next 2 Weeks 2 a Breakthrough Program. Right now, I am planning on offering this beginning the second or thrid week of January. If you think you might be interested, drop me a line at lhaneberg AT gmail DOT com. I'd like to have an idea whether I should run one session or two. If you want more information about the program, check out the 2 Weeks 2 a Breakthrough blog. I have not been posting there much lately, but will pick up on the activity soon.

Sneak Peek of Focus Survey

Thanks to everyone who completed my survey about focus. about 125 people participated, which is great.

Wondering who the winners of the two Amazon.com gift certificate are? Congratulations to Charles A. and Kim M. - You will be receiving your gift certificates in the next couple days.

For those of you who asked for the results by email, I should be able to get this out in the next couple weeks.

Here is a sneak peek at the responses to one question. Very interesting I think.

Fill in the blank: If only I could ___________ , I would be more focused.

• clearly see the finished product
• have more control of my environment
• ditch certain projects AND/OR stop second guessing myself AND/OR do the less important stuff with just a little less perfectionism and leave mysef more time AND/OR occasionally banish the "helper" in me who takes on the takes no one else wants to do but need to get done whoich disctract from my main projects
• If only I could find one outcome I want more than anything, I could be more focused.
• Automate the things I need to keep tabs on: Define some rules and have the obvious action happen automatically and unusual things notify me. Then I could stick to big projects without having to skip around.
• be seen as a strategic partner instead of a "necessary evil"
• have a private office
• have a private office
• Say no more often! Influence others to accept a slower pace!
• control my interest in doing more things in less time,
• if only i could have fewer demands on my time and more assurance of some success in my work, i would be more focused fear of failure is a great big de-focuser
• Work from a single office (I am a RoadWarrior).
• sustain desires and goals throughout day to day living
• If only I could totally integrated, I would be more focused.
• ... turn off the bureaucratic noise that constantly bombards me from corporate staff....
• have a real office instead of a cube
• Get rid of the 100 emails I have to respond to on a daily bases from head office and senior staff
• get an assistant to handle the minutia
• close my door
• build a clone
• handle multiple projects more effieciently
• have more meaningful work
• be more clear about what I'm after
• organized at times
• Get an office with a door.
• only have more sex (sex frees up the mind of other potential problems)
• eliminate family problems
• re-establish clear business process
• ignore my supervisor
• get more excited about what I am doing
• Prioritise
• find more time to exercise
• find some quiet time
• Do one thing,
• work alone
• see the results faster
• have more uninterrupted time
• Read more history.
• Nothing!! I look at a statement like this as being an excuse. THere is nothing special about focus than just doing it when the time and task requires it.
• take off some very diverse hats...
• have more time
• be more disciplined
• work less
• hear myself think
• Have an office with a door.
• If only I could be less anxious I would be more focused.
• get some alone time
• Prioritize
• Resist blog reading and blogging (that is the distraction of the day for me right now- it changes)
• have enough resources
• pay my debt off
• find my passion
• say no
• concentrate more - be more quiet - meditate every day
• quit procrastinating
• Have a more settled job situation
• quit procrastinating
• Help the folks I work with to relax. They are very excitable.
• outsource the more mundane aspects of operating my business
• stop fighting fires
• concentrate
• Develop more rigor about doing written project plans and setting fewer, more crisp objectives.
• If only I could be more fearless, I would be more focused. (Why I say this is because it's in chasing after business and potential "opportunities" that aren't custom tailored, a perfect fit, that mainly distracts me. If I can stay centered like a lighthouse beacon without fear of "missing out" on work than I can also stay focused.
• If I could only give a heck about my job, I would be more focused.
• I think I am already focused
• ...find time to move my organization to a rational multi-project pipeline process... or ...just say "No" or at least "Whoa" sometimes...
• "keep more organized and have a planned daily, weekly and monthly schedule"
• define what I really want in life more succinctly
• If only I could be bold, I would be focused.
• resist my temptations
• Delegate
• turn off the distractions (other people, irrelevant thoughts, other things to do)
• resolve which of my company's multiple foci is most important
• Just say "no" more often!
• get my boss to be more focused
• get half a day at a stretch without meetings
• Work from home nude
• Stop being human
• stop my boss from constantly interrupting with his fire drill of the minute
• have the time and support to figure out what I want to do
• just work on things I enjoy
• Be in a more functional organization, with clear goals that do not change every quarter.
• "Have a company strategic plan". We have strategic planning at the department level, but it needs to start from the top down. If the company's top leaders have more focus, others will have more focus. It all starts and ends there.
• "If only" wastes time and energy. Just do it.
• be rested and relaxed
• Work somewhere without people, phones, and email. It would be kinda lonely, though.
• Turn off the phone.
• stop procrastinating
• Understand and stay aligned with the organization's strategy

How to Enjoy your Work

Yesterday I wrote about knowing when it is time to leave your job. After all, life is too short to be frustrated about what you do. That said, I think we can improve our experience.

Today I am going to talk about how to stay in your job and have more fun.

Why is it - how is it - that in one company - one department - one team, there can be people who are happy, people who are unhappy, people who are engaged, and those who are not engaged?

Why are we content one moment and not the next?

It comes from what we give meaning to and how we define contribution and success.

I knew this woman who was so sensitive that unless she worked for and around people who were fun, fun loving, and positive, she was bothered and miserable. She found the situation intolerable. Here's the thing, most of us will work for many companies and in these companies we are likely to encounter a wide range of behavioral styles. Some will be fun loving and flexible, others will be reserved and analytical. Many will have a combination of styles. So if you LOVE the work you do one day, but then decide that you cannot work there any longer because the boss changed and she is not your type, then you are giving that boss WAY TOO MUCH POWER over how you define your work experience.

• Yes, there are jerks.
• Yes, there are micromanagers.
• Yes, there are absent managers.
• Yes, there is dysfunction.

You will encounter these conditions in most companies, some more than others. But here's the thing: Do you need to let this mucky muck define your experience? No!

I am not suggesting that you stay in a situation that is not a good fit for you. What I am suggesting is that you can enjoy your work where ever you are. First step: notice whether you are taking the work environment too seriously.

Years ago worked for a fairly immature and dysfunctional organization. At this dysfunctional organization, I held a role that was responsible for presenting new ideas. That's a pretty cool kind of gig. At this company, however, 90 % of the ideas got shot down because the company was extremely change averse. I would do the work, present my recommendations, get good feedback and reinforcement but nothing would change. I can recall someone asking me, after a particularly difficult meeting, how I was able to cope doing great work and then having it be wasted.

• 10% of the ideas were implemented. I was able to have some impact and more than others had before me. For this dysfunctional organization, this was pretty good.
• The work was the right work to do, even if the ideas were not used at that time. As a department head, I was responsible for making sure that the creative work got done and the decision makers had good information from which to choose their actions.
• I did not take the process personally and did not let it define my experience.

You may think that I was selling out, but in this case, I was able to have impact and drive change. It was slower and more cumbersome to make change occur, but I take pride in the wins I produced.

I see a lot of people who get so upset over stuff and I just want to tell them to lighten up. And if they were to respond that this is just the way they are, I would say that's hooey. We choose our response - our reaction - to things at work.

If it is time for you to move on, then move on. But I am betting that many of you could improve your situation by chilling out. And even if it is time to move one, don't waste another day being upset or frustrated.

Don't waste your time and contribution - your time and energy are precious.

• Focus on what you can do.
• Focus on developing your skills.
• Focus on the legacy you can leave.
• Focus on developing your team.
• Focus on improving business performance.
• Focus on what you can do, not what you cannot do.
• Don't drag others into your cesspool of negativity - that would make you a mucky muck generator.
• Focus on building relationships with diverse styles - especially those that are different than yours (you will learn more from them). If other people are not being cooperative, don't sink to their level - again, this is giving them too much power over you.

It is so much more enjoyable to work when you are not crippling yourself with emotions about what's wrong, what's bothersome, what's frustrating, or how people are annoying or upsetting you.

• Solve problems when you can.
• Create and implement new ideas when you can.
• Help reduce mucky muck and dysfunction.

Let the negativity go. Do whatever you need to to relax and chill out. By doing so, you can be a more powerful force for the company and your team. If you need to develop ways to release and relax, try yoga (I wrote about this on the Thirdage blog this week). But really, just taking a few moments to breath, relax and think about what you are doing before you do it will go a long way.

Sorry, I know this sounds a bit preachy, I don't believe I am above this challenge and I need to remind myself of this stuff all the time. I am emotive and a recovering control freak. And I know I am MUCH happier and effective when I don't let the crud and goop get in my way.

In the scheme of things, most of the stuff we worry about is small potatoes.

 

When is it time to move on?

A friend of mine is contemplating whether she should start looking for a different job. She wonders if now is the right time to move on? She is second guessing herself about whether her uneasiness is real, valid, or perhaps premature.

This is a tough decision, particularly if you have a family to support and a need for security. But here's the thing:

1. We all have bad days and maybe even a day week. Perhaps a bad month. But when you are feeling uninspired and unengaged for a period of time, your mind and heart have already decided. It is just up to you to recognize this and act on it.

2. Acting on your need for a change might mean taking another job within your current company or seeking a position with another company. In my friend's case, she has nowhere to go internally, so she will begin her search for a job with another company.

3. It is important to differentiate the need to move on from a false view that the grass is greener somewhere else.

Need to move on:

• You do not feel like you are growing.
• You do not see that this will change in the near future.
• You do not feel that you work is challenging.
• You have interests that cannot be explored with your current work.
• You want to make a career change.

Grass is greener:

• If you leave, you would seek the same job at a different company.
• Your complaints and frustrations are pretty common. You have felt the same way at other companies.
• You are drawn to an idealistic picture of a different company. If your desire to move is more about the company than the work, I would urge caution.
• You have been in your position less than two years.

My friend has been at her job several years, she is no longer learning or growing, and there are no major projects or initiatives that excite her coming down the pike. It is time for her to move on.

If you have a an OK (albeit unfulfilling) job and you have determined that it is time to move on, you owe it to yourself to be picky and completely honest. When we NEED a particular job we might fail to scrutinize the company and the position. We focus on getting an offer and are thrilled to accept it. But when you are proactively moving on, you need to ensure that you are looking out for your interests and needs.

1. What are you really looking for? What kind of work flips your trigger? Do you want to manage programs or people or both?
2. What kind of organization would you most enjoy? Do you like big and competitive companies or smaller and more laid back companies?
3. What kind of boss best suits your style?

Ask yourself the questions that will help you narrow your search. Clarify in your mind why it is time for you to move on and be at peace with your decision.

One more thing. We have all heard of short-timers, right? That's what happens when we give notice or are actively looking for a job. Our brain suffers from premature disengagement. Our heads are only half in the game. You can't help it, you will experience some short-timers. A technique I have used that has helped has been to resolve to leave my job in the best and most classy way possible. Get focused on tieing up loose ends and leaving the department in better shape than when you inherited it. This is stuff you should be doing anyway.

At one job, I told my manager, the VP of HR, that I was going to begin looking for another job so that he could begin looking for my replacement. I knew that it would take longer than two weeks to find someone and wanted to help the company train the new person. I know this approach carries risk, but I had a very open relationship and it ended up working out beautifully. I was upfront about the interviews I was taking and kept him abreast of my job search the whole way. What a relief it was not to have to sneak around and request vacation days to interview! I don't recommend that for everyone, it is just a thought. The added bonus to this approach is that once I decided it was time to move on, sharing this with my then manager cemented the decision - no going back! This is good, because we often compromise and settle for what's comfortable and safe (ironically, it is often less comfortable and more risky to stay).

How do you know when it is time to move on?

I have been working for myself, part-time or full-time, for some time now and have thought about whether I would ever want another full-time position. The answer is, it depends. I have resolved to ONLY consider positions that are amazing and that would seriously flip my trigger. It is not so much about money (but money is good), as it is about challenge. I am so at peace with this decision, too. There might be a few ups and downs and maybe even some lean times every now and then. I would much rather endure this than consider a job that does not thrill me.

Learning, Change, To-Do Lists and Aloha

Here are a few great posts that stacked up while I was in Vancouver last week:

Todd, over at A penny For offered a couple good posts:

This one is called 8 Principles for Learning. From an old issue of Fast Company. I like #2:

2. Cracking the whip stifles learning. "If you are a supervisor and you see two people talking in the hallway, don't say, `Get back to work.' Recognize that this interaction creates a community of practice that stimulates learning -- and it may be precisely what they need.

This post is interesting too. 9 Tips for Change Agents (again from an old Fast Company). Here's my favorite:

4. Take senior management along. Turner's own education included benchmarking trips to Saturn, Texas Instruments, Motorola, General Electric, and other companies known for their innovative approaches to learning. "Some of the people in the senior group were very skeptical," Turner says. "It helped to take them on these benchmarking trips to show them other companies that were actually doing some of the same learning practices."

I have had great success getting senior managers enthused about a potential change by immersing them with the experience.

The always smart and entertaining Rosa Say was a guest in the latest installment of the Cranky Middle Manager podcast. Check it out!

Most of you know that I am not a fan of people be reliant on to-do lists. That said, 99% of you use them. Here is a two-part post from 43 Folders about building a smarter to-do list.

Part 1
Part 2

In part 1, the author acknowledges that many items on to-do list don't belong. Here's an excerpt:

Anatomy of a To-do

The primary idea of a to-do is that it's a task that can and should be done--a point that might seem obvious until you start uncovering how many of the items on your to-do list may not belong there (or, conversely, how many uncaptured items do). The best and most useful to-dos share common qualities:
    •      it's a physical action
    •      it can be accomplished at a sitting
    •      it supports valuable progress toward a recognized goal
    •      it's something for which you are the most appropriate person for the job

Glancing at your own to-do list, do you see any potential troublemakers? Notice any items that make you squeamish? Any mystery meat tasks that seem "un-doable" as is? Don't sweat it. We're going to have you shaped up in no time.

And here's a nice snippet from part 2:

Why Am I Doing This Task?

This is important. When compiling a list of all the stuff that's on your mind (and on your plate), it's crucial to unpack how each task you accept or assign to yourself will support your projects, your roles, and the goals you've set for yourself. Before adding a new item, reflect on the value that each chunk of work brings to your world.
    •      Is this the best use of my time right now?
    •      Am I the best person to do this task?
    •      Is this something that must be done now? Why now?
    •      What happens if I don't do this at all?