Management Craft

Beautiful Condo in Cape Coral

My mother's condo when on the market. When she bought it (just after her husband died) she completely redid it. Spared no expense. And the renovations were complete just a few months before her death.

This place is drop dead gorgeous and a wonderful haven for the right person/couple.

If you know of anyone looking in the Cape Coral, Florida area, please pass along. The listing with pics is here. Thanks.

Zen Presentation - Simple Beauty

I love this post from Presentation Zen called Zen: Obento, Zen Gardens, and Presentations. I really like the Presentation Zen blog. I do a lot of presentations and have increasingly become a big fan of the simple and compelling style (versus cluttered and tiresome).

It is a beautiful post - well composed and with appealing pictures. A good model for communication that is simple and compelling. Do you have a meeting coming up? Take another look at that PowerPoint before you deliver it. What does it say?

The design is important. Sometimes we don't get how even internal presentations need to be compelling to communicate what we intend. I was looking at a brief PPT that a client of mine created for an internal meeting. It had about 10 slides and created to communicate the essential elements of the company's brand to an internal team of people.

The ten slides were made up entirely of bullets. The first nine slides were just a white background with black type (And not in an interesting way - plain, blah, vanilla. Actually, vanilla is more interesting.). The tenth slide had a couple photos and some color, but was still a page filled with bullets.

The presentation told me this about their brand:

1. The presenter does not get the brand yet.
2. He/she did not communicate the brand to this internal team - his/her message was not received as hoped.
3. He/she does get what being brand consistent means. (Most don't.)

I wondered: Are current customers and prospects seeing a white background with black bullets when they talk to company employees?

I wondered: The company is pretty successful right now. What would happen if the employees got it? What if they communicated  - everywhere - in compelling and simple terms?

Looking for an Illustrator

I am looking for an illustrator who can create a royalty free drawing(s) for me. Drop me a line if you know someone I should consider. I can't tell you the application/details, cuz I'd have to kill you, but I can say that the artist will get full credit and lots of online eyeballs.

lhaneberg AT gmail DOT com

Thanks! :-)

Reinvention and More

Here are a few great posts from fellow biz bloggers:

First is Rosa's reinvention extravaganza over at Talking Story. Rosa collected many great posts, all around the theme of reinvention. Be sure to check out the excellent posts by Rosa, I really love the one on reinventing HR.

Here is a review of Leadership Coaching in the Workplace from Fran's Powerful Conversations blog. She recommends the book for all managers and tells you why.

Don over at Leadership Now offers this short and sweet posts called Memo Replaces Spine. Don also gets the award for best blog post title for the week! I can see this leading to a who new series of posts:

Krispy Kremes Replace Spine
Performance Evaluation Replaces Spine
Reorganization Replaces Spine
Job Redesign Replaces Spine
Layoffs Replace Spine
HR Manager Replaces Spine
Training Class Replaces Spine
Quality Control Replaces Spine
Staff Meeting Replaces Spine

You know I could go on all day..... The list of things we do instead of courageously managing is miles long! :-)

Goals - Invaluable or the Enemy?

I must tell you that I have mixed feelings about the value of goals. Goals are vital to success because they provide inspiration and a place on which to focus. The formula for peak performance is a combination of high focus and unstoppable action. How can you make sure you focus in the right direction if you don’t have goals that move and energize you? You can’t. Creating and manifesting great goals fuels achievement and makes life fulfilling.

Goals are also the enemy. You cannot predict what is going to happen in the next year, two years, or five years. Even so, some people create goals with very narrow pass/fail criteria. If they don’t achieve exactly what they thought they wanted, they have failed. Lots of people give up on goals because things don’t go as planned.

Here’s a key point and important lesson: THINGS DON’T GO AS PLANNED.

Reality is always different. But here’s the thing. If you perceive every deviation as undesirable or a problem, then guess what? Your results will be disappointing. If, on the other hand, you see deviations as part of the adventure, then you set yourself up to realize a future better than that for which you could have planned.

Another problem I have with goals is that many people set goals that aren’t inspiring or interesting. Why would you do that? Why shoot for something that fails to stir your insides or make the hair on the back of your neck tingle? Most goals are simply not good enough for you and don’t deserve your attention and passion. Before I coach people or they begin the 2 Weeks to a Breakthrough Program, I help them clarify, shape, and define their goal(s). The majority of the time they start with a goal that is either A) not really their goal and B) not crisp, clear, and inspiring. I believe that goals are important tools to produce breakthroughs AND they will also be a barrier to your success if not well defined.

To get the most benefit out of your work and life, select a goal that is inspiring and important to you. Be careful not to aim too high or too low. Goals are too high when you cannot achieve them with awesome performance. Goals are too low when they don’t require you to stretch or grow in order for them to be completed. Here are several characteristics of great goals:

• Goals should be meaningful and inspiring! This is not the time to wimp out or get conservative. Achieving a goal takes work, so it should be something that you can get excited about and which will make a big difference in your life.
• Your goal should apply to YOU.  For example, a parent might adopt a goal for her son to improve his grades in school. This is not a desirable goal because it is not clear who should be taking action. A better way to express this goal would be this: I want to provide the coaching, support, and ideas that will help my son willingly achieve excellent grades and do his best in school. 
• Your goal should be something you want to achieve even if the work will be hard, uncomfortable, or require life changes. More money or promotions are rarely compelling enough on their own. Most people want achievement and more money but this rarely creates a fire within us. What drives you to be at your best? Focus on the work you love doing and tie that into your desire for prosperity and accomplishment.
• Your goal should be challenging, but achievable. Going from GED to PhD in a year is unrealistic. Going from no business to comfortable retirement in one year is also unrealistic (unless Oprah features your product!). Your goal should define what a metaphorical home run would look like. A home run is great performance but it is still in the realm of possibility.
• The best goals will provide your life with greater meaning while allowing you to contribute to others more fully.
• You should be able to explain your goal in a sentence or two. What’s your elevator speech? Can you explain your goal to a perfect stranger in one minute or less?
• Your goal needs to be measurable. It does not have to be something that you can attached exact numbers to, life is not that precise. It is critical that you be able to define success. How will you know when your goal has been achieved or exceeded? What does success look like? Remember, you cannot determine the exact outcome, so it is best to define success in a way that allows for wonderful surprises and slight changes in direction.

What’s your goal? Describe it to a few friends or family members. Say it aloud to yourself five times. Is your goal clear and compelling? Are you tingling inside? Do your friends and family understand what you are trying to accomplish? If you are having a hard time explaining your goal, you likely do not have it adequately defined. Start by describing what success looks like. Be specific and determine how will you know when you have achieved your goal. Test your goal against the above criteria and tweak it if necessary.

Want more feedback? Post your goal in a comment or email and I will let you know what I think.

Much Talk about Multitasking

Can't pass up the opportunity to share another post that's getting in on the "multitasking versus no multitasking" debate.

Check out this post from Dan Bobinski over at Management Issues. He received a comment challenging his opinion and he does a good job sorting through all the pros and cons. Dan offers up some great links to research, too.

Love this part...

After a little investigation it's little wonder these people view e-mail as a monster. When I visit their office I watch their thought processes get interrupted by the incessant little "ding" of Microsoft Outlook telling them a new e-mail has arrived. Even more amazing is how often these people actually stop what they're doing and open the e-mail, even if it's low priority and has nothing to do with their task at hand.

Essentially, instead of being proactive and responsible using e-mail as a tool, they've become like Pavlov's dog, salivating every time they hear their e-mail bell.

How to handle the e-mail monster? Unless your job is similar to that of a stockbroker in which the timeliness of getting information is paramount, turn off the e-mail program and get some work done that makes money for your company. If something is so urgent that we can't wait two or three hours for a response, we all know how to pick up the phone.

I agree! I have to turn off my email when I need to write, otherwise my mind gets sidetracked each time my Mac goes "ding!" Even if I turn the speakers down, the corner of my eye catches the little red circle on the email shortcut that tells me I have new mail.

• What if it is the President?
• What if it's an email from Tom Peters saying he loves my new book?
• What if I have just won $4,000,000,000,000 and all I have to do is wire a few thousand bucks to a foriegn bank account to claim it?
• What if I am outbid for the purple motorcycle tank bag on eBay?

Gotta turn the email off........

There has been a lot of blog space dedicated to the topic of multitasking lately and I am wondering if it has changed anyone's habits or daily practices.... Let me know with a comment or email.

Pandora is Addictive Music!

I don't know whether to curse or thank him.....

I was talking with Wayne Turmel a couple days ago, recording a podcast for an upcoming Cranky Middle Manager show (congrats on 1 year and 48 shows so far!) and mentioned I was keen on Fiona Apple for mood music for a particular type of writing.

He told me about Pandora and warned me that if I gave it a try, I would become addicted. Yep! Addicted within 20 minutes. Super addicted. Listening to it right now.

What is Pandora? Well, it is musical magic. You tell them a song or artist that you like a lot and they create a radio station with great stuff like that. Pandora creates customized radio stations with very little effort on my part (I love that). They match up tones, styles, artists, and genres. It's cool what they connect, but it caught me off guard at first. I got a little creeped out because they were connecting seemingly unconnected stuff that I loved (on my Fiona Apple station, they played Depeche Mode - how did they know that I like both? Why were they connected? I'm curious now..). It gave me the feeling that I am way too predictable. Then I got over it and enjoyed the music.

You gotta check out Pandora.

This is a brilliant advancement. What's next? What's next in your industry and what part will you play in offering up new magic? I love this kind of stuff and think about how your employees will feel when they know they are part of something cool and cutting edge. I would guess that it is a blast to work for Pandora.

Control Freaks Coaching

I wrote an article for the OD/Leadership Network News May Issue. My topic was about how our tendency to control gets in the way of our ability to provide great coaching. Check my article, and several other great coaching articles, out here. My favorite quote from the article:

It’s not easy to resist the allure of elocution when a senior executive looks at you with eager eyes and asks a question. Many of us love to stand up, talk extemporaneously, and draw impressive diagrams on whiteboards while getting high on the attention and the marker fumes.

When things work properly - Dyson

I was thinking about management as I vacuumed today. Crazy, I know. (Some of you are likely thinking, "Hey, Lisa, get a life!") Stick with me....

We have 4 dogs and a cat. Hair, hair, everywhere. One of the dogs has a husky's double coat, so that's five dogs worth of hair. Ten seconds after we vacuum we are covered in hair again.

The vacuum is important. Up until about a week ago we had an Oreck. It had done a pretty good job for three years but finally died. Pretty good performance given our unique circumstances. We thought about getting another Oreck, but something deep down inside of me longed for more suction.

I wondered if the stories could possibly be true. Might the Dyson commercials starring the exotic geek man (a sexy combination) have even a fraction of truth? Bill and I discussed the options and decided to give the Dyson a try.

Even though it is considerably larger and clunkier than our Oreck, the Dyson is an engineering and design marvel. I had to empty the spacious canister twice after doing the living room. This told me two things. One: The Dyson sucks. Two: The Oreck didn't. My skin got itchy just thinking about all the dirt, hair, dander, and microorganisms that the Oreck never picked up.

Today I vacuumed my office. I should mention that the Dyson runs relatively quiet for a vacuum and whispers in relation to its power. The cat freaked less than she used to when I powered up the Oreck. Today while cleaning my office, I accidentally sucked up a rope. That's right, a rope. It is about 1/3 inch wide, 5 feet long, with knots on either end. I use it to play with the cat. When I sucked it up I screamed because I was sure that it would clog and perhaps blow up the Dyson.

I turned it off and surveyed the damage. There was no damage. In fact, the rope was collected at the top of the canister near an opening. I did not even need to empty the canister to get it out. There's a trap door for just these things. Dyson knew I was going to suck up the rope and designed for it. Every vacuum I have ever owned would have smoked and melted with that rope inside.

It just works properly.

Here's where my thoughts shifted to management. Yes - I thought - this is the way things ought to work. Same thing at the office. If it is working properly and you accidentally suck up a rope, there is a plan and everything is fine.

The Dyson also has a handy thingamajig for doing corners and furniture and lots of other design and engineering features that makes it worth the extra cash. One more thing - a longer cord. Just smart stuff. I was in the presence of greatness today when I vacuumed.

What would work be like if you felt that way about your manager? If your employees felt that way about you? There's a sense of peace, confidence, and yes, even awe. Great managers are mystical magical beings. Like the Dyson, they work properly.

How did the Dyson get to be so good and can we learn something from them about how to be a great manager? What questions did their engineers and designers explore that lead to end product? One thing that is apparent is that they held themselves to a high standard.

Come hell or high water this is going to be a great place to work that produces amazing results. Period. What if you started there? How would that change your decisions, actions, and conversations?

Is your manager a Dyson? Are you a Dyson? What if you were so good that you had an exotic geek man spinning your praises on TV? I would think I had died and gone to heaven.....

I just think things should work properly.

Manifesting Possibility over at 2W2BK

I have written a meaty post about manifesting possibility over on my Breakthrough Blog. Check it out!