Management Craft

Link love - Management Fundamentals

I like this post by Brian on the Employee Engagement Network called Money's Nice, But a Good Boss is Better, which summarizes a recent Washington Post piece. This is all so true. If you are a manager, please READ.

My pal and fellow management expert and educator, Michael Kroth, has come out with a book called Career Development Basics. This is a great book for managers, trainers, and HR professionals who know they should be helping employees build their careers, but are not quite sure how to best use scarce resources or establish who own which aspects of career development. Check it out.

Within this book you’ll find a sound, no-nonsense framework for implementing a career development focus, supplemented by an array of easy-to-understand materials including worksheets, comparison charts, case studies, flowcharts, and specific forms for turnover cost calculation and a sample performance review.

My pal Phil, writing as the Slacker Manager, was kind enough to include this blog among his top five must reads. Very kind indeed. But, I want to make sure you check out the other four he has on the top of his list as they are all great blogs. And, of course, Slacker Manager should be on your list. Phil has an active readership and posts often and always has great things to offer. Like this one on the big impact of small acts.

Here is a great business poem from David Zinger called The ReOrg. I love it.

Futurist Glen Hiemstra offers this interesting post called At the Beginning of the Beginning, inspired by seeing Peter Senge speak. My favorite line, "The time to waste, has been." I did an interesting podcast with Glen here.

I love this post from Dwayne over at Genuine Curiosity called, Complaint to Request. Very good discussion and results oriented relationship building method.

Kevin Eikenberry recommends the book, Pop! Create the Perfect Pitch, Title and Tagline for Anything By Sam Horn. It is just a short piece, but pops enough that I intend to pick up the book, too.

Wally Bock offers this great post called, Boss's Work: Management, Leadership and Supervision. I agree with Wally that anyone in managing people role need to be good a at all three of these types of work and each will use all three in their work - or they should. For those of you who think all you want to do is lead, you might want to become a keynote speaker and reduce the risk that you might mess up a company or, and worse yet, people's lives (no slam on speakers, I do that too, but it is a relatively safe place for people who don't want to get their hands dirty).

And last but not least, a moment of deja vu. About 16 years ago, I worked with a consultant while I was at Black & Decker named Charlie Jacobs - I really enjoyed the project. And guess what? The Cranky Middle Manager just interviewed a guy named Charlie Jacobs. AND they are the same Charlies. He has a new book out about the brain operations behind management called, Management Rewired: Why Feedback Doesn't Work and Other Surprising Lessons from the Latest Brain Science. Check out the podcast here.

Quarterly Newsletter - Next One Coming Out Next Week

If you do not currently get my quarterly newsletter called, Lead Well, please use the link below to sign up. It is free and you don't have to worry about getting spammed all the time. The newsletter comes out every three months.

The content is not a duplication of what's on this blog (although I sometimes revive topics from older posts or build on topics with a new twist). For example, in next week's newsletter, I offer a 45-60 minute exercise you can do to help your managers and leaders see the actions and behaviors they need to take on the build the desired organizational culture. It is a great little tool and you will get it all, including a downloadable handout and facilitation instructions, if you get the newsletter.

Other features of the newsletter include five great questions (that change each time) and a quote of the quarter. This coming issue will also has an article about reputations.

You can sign up here. Select "OD and the Lead Well Newsletter."

What is Communication - Wee Snippet from Hip and Sage

Although my latest book, Hip and Sage: How to Staying Smart, Cool, and Competitive in the Workplace is generally targeted at professionals and entrepreneurs 40-something and older, there are many parts that I think apply to everyone. This snippet shares a bit from one of these sections - it is about communication, or rather how we define communication and what our standard ought to be.

COMMUNICATE

An overused term if there ever was one, the word communicate can mean many different things. At work, inadequate communication gets blamed for cultural ills and project failures. Managers attend $99 one-day training sessions touted as teaching communication skills. Communication is included on many performance evaluation forms, although the definition of what communication is varies on these forms and is often absent and left up to each manager and subordinate to figure out.

We could declare that communication is any message we impart—in any medium (verbal, e-mail, signs, books, you name it). Using this definition, a leader who sends out lots of messages, talks a lot at meetings, and buys and hands out flavor-of-the-month management books like candy canes at Christmas would be considered a big communicator. And with this general definition, managers could call themselves hip if they sent lots of e-mails to younger workers. Don’t scoff, this is a common strategy in organizations—send more e-mail messages! Fill the inboxes! I don’t favor this definition of communication because it focuses solely on the act of sending information out and does not address how messages ought to be received. This is 50-yard-line communication, to use a football metaphor, because while you might have taken your message down your side of the field, you have not penetrated into the other person’s territory and you are only halfway to your goal.

I hold communication to a higher standard and assert that it does not exist unless and until the message is received by receiving party as it is intended by the sender. Using this definition, e-mail is only communication if the person reading it understands the information and interprets the tone and tenor as the author intended. If you send a vague message, it’s not communication. If you send a message written in the wrong language for the receiver, it is not communication. If you write a ten-page report that no one reads or comprehends, you have not communicated. If you send an e-mail that ruffles a few feathers because the receiver thought you were angry when you were not, you have not communicated. Using this definition of communication, how many of the messages you send are received as communication?

Compound this communication hurdle by adding a thirty-year difference in age between the sender and receiver, and communication becomes more challenging to accomplish because preferred methods and natural language patterns are likely dissimilar. As it relates to hipness, then, we communicate when messages are received by younger professionals in ways that they understand—when we come across as we intend to. This is an important distinction, and one that places the onus on us to find and use the best communication methods for our audience. Communication is the first of the three Cs of hipness and it is the bare minimum we should expect of ourselves in the work-place or in any professional setting.

Your thoughts?

Potluck - Guest Post from Lisa Edwards

Here is another great guest post and story from Lisa Edwards called Potluck. Funny with a great point - I love Lisa E's stories. You can also check out her book here. She makes a great point about how a bad experience or misfire can create a whole new opportunity.

How can you use this story to further your goals this week?

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Potluck

 “Mama always said, life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get'. - Forrest Gump

Several years ago and in my mid-thirties, I decided it was time to pack up my little Ford Escort and head west.  I’d lived in Iowa for many more years than I had ever planned, and I had decided it was time to make something special of my life.  So, I packed up some boxes of my stuff and moved to the biggest city I’d never been to before: Portland, Oregon.  

Portland was a big, huge city to me at the time.  Lots of fast moving cars, busy roads and super busy people always looking at their blackberries and talking on their cell phones.  I knew I had moved to an important city and I felt important just to be there witnessing it all.

It took a while to make friends in Portland.  I hadn’t really appreciated the long-standing friends I had in Iowa, so it was a bit of a shock to realize that I had absolutely nothing to do on the weekends.  No friends to go for walks with.  No mom to watch TV with.  No Grandma who needed an errand run.  There wasn’t even an Applebee’s or Burger King nearby.   Just one not-so-busy DQ.  To treat myself, on a Sunday afternoons, I’d go through the DQ drive-thru and order a hot fudge Sunday with whipped cream and nuts on top, pull into the parking lot and eat it in my car before I’d drive home.  It really took me a while to fit in.

After living there for about nine months with just about 10 boxes of all of my stuff, my mom who lives in Iowa, called to tell me that she’d met  a possible friend for me.  My mom is a realtor and she was showing houses to a woman who had a daughter-in-law living in PORTLAND OREGON!!!  What luck!

Here was a woman with connections to my hometown, who was living in my new town and just possibly, open to a new friend.  

I was so excited.

Within days, my possible-new-friend had called to invite me  to a potluck at her home.  I was elated driving over to her house.  A just-out-of-the-oven TaterTot casserole sitting in the passenger seat beside me, I realized that I hadn’t been to a potluck since living in Iowa.

I love potlucks.  Everyone brings one of their favorite dishes.  Some people bring a fun snack like cream cheese with raspberry jam on top, served up with Wheat Thins.  Someone always brings green bean casserole, though everyone’s got their own unique twist to that dish.  And, there’s usually some kind of chocolate dessert with lots of chocolate goo inside.  You never know what everyone’s going to bring, so it’s always a surprise and there’s lots of recipe-sharing after the evening is over.

After arriving at my new friend’s house, it didn’t take me more than 3 minutes to recognize that the TaterTot casserole was not a sophisticated west coast dish.   People had brought things like spreadable roasted garlic cloves and grilled salmon with capers.   There I stood, TatorTot casserole in hand, embarrassed to take the tin foil cover off the top to reveal what I had brought to the fancy party.

But, the hostess, my new friend, was gracious and smiled as she slipped my casserole into the oven to be warmed up.

While I was waiting for my dish to be warmed up and served to the guests, I tried to make small talk with my new Portland party friends and noticed that they started to disappear.  Soon, there was only one person left in the living room.   I asked my new conversation companion where everyone went and he nodded to gesture that I follow him.  So, I did.  And, in I walked into a smoke-filled second bedroom where all of the guests were inhaling from large (okay, huge) pipes with bubbling water at the bottom of the pipe.  It suddenly dawned on me that this was not the potluck I thought I was going to get!

Not wanting to be rude, I went back to the kitchen to take my casserole out of the oven, and served up huge helpings of my TaterTot casserole to my new red-eyed friends.   I should have looked at my watch, because they ate my casserole in record time;  and, I went home that evening with an empty casserole dish.  A good sign at most potlucks.

Disappointed that the new friendship didn’t work out, I went in to work on Monday and told my new co-workers about the potluck.  They all roared with laughter, except one of them, the one who I thought was the ‘coolest girl in school’ and who surely would never be my friend.  Yet, within a couple of weeks, that cool-girl invited me to a party at her house-- a party without the potluck.

That simple invitation began a long and dear friendship between me and that cool-girl.  Since her party-without-the-potluck, she and I have each moved to different cities, not once but a couple of times.  And, in spite of the distance, our friendship has grown stronger through career changes, lay-offs, new jobs, boyfriends and break-ups.  

Yep, sometimes you don’t get exactly what you think you’re going to get, but if you are lucky, you will get something even better.

© 2009 Lisa Edwards - www.BloomWhereYouArePlanted.com

Find me on Kindle!

I just loaded up all three of my blogs:

Management Craft
Hip and Sage
2 Weeks to a Breakthrough

to be available on Kindle, so you can read me there. Kindle is so cool and I still love my now ancient first-gen model.

Amazon is now shipping Hip and Sage - Yippee!

Pick yours up here - I think you will like it! Thanks for your support. Amazon still lists the old cover and subtitle, but no worries, it is the same book. Groovy cover, eh?

Upbeat by Raj Setty

Raj Setty, who I have mentioned and linked to several times on this blog, has a great new book out called Upbeat: Cultivating the Right Attitude to Thrive in Tough Times. It is exactly the right message at the right time and Raj is the perfect person to share it with you because he is an excellent role model of what he writes. Even if things are hunky-dory with you right now, Raj's powerful perspective and suggestions will help propel you further.

Raj is a successful serial entrepreneur - he knows how to get things going and muster the perseverance to make things work. He excels at making things happen - something we all would love to get better at, I am sure. Raj blogs at Life Beyond Code and his posts are provocative, helpful and wise.

Upbeat is organized into the following sections: The Trap, The Discipline, The Network, The Strategy, and The Action. Each section is short and to the point. I would call this book elegantly simple. It is no longer than it needs to be, but long enough to offer clear and salient points.

The vibe of this book is what I love the most. It is warm and direct - gentle and hard hitting - it is the most pleasant knock on the head you will receive this year.

Pick up a copy of Upbeat for you and your team members.

Great Stuff from My Online Pals - Dwayne, Deb, Dan, Sharlyn and Wally

It is time for a little link love. Here are several posts or updates worth checking out!

My pal Dwayne over at Geniune Curiosity offers this post called, Two Good Discussion Tools. I love the first set of 2 questions, and I think we should all ask our boss/peer these questions this week. I am not so keen on the second suggestion - I think it is weasel language that people will see through right away. Thoughts?

This sounds fun and helpful: My online pal [and fellow coach and trainer] Deb Owen is offering a cool new course called "Creative Pathways", ideal for thoughtful do-ers who are unclear of what their ideal life looks like – or what steps to take to get there.  If you are ready to figure out what you really want and GO for it, check it out here. She has a great blog called 8 hours and a lunch, too.

Dan, over at Great Leadership offers this post called, The Leader of the Future: 10 Skills to Begin Developing Now. I would bring #10 and put it at the top of the list - this will be what separates the good from the great (now and in the future).

Sharlyn, the HR Bartender, offers this post called Left Behind about what HR types should know and be doing with social media - she also offers several great links. I think we all struggle with how to use these great tools and not get sucked into creating permanent and expanding butt divots on our couches as real life passes us by.

And last but not least, Wally over at 3-Star Leadership offers this dead on provocative post called More Leaders VS Managers Nonsense. You, go, Wally. Wally blasts Warren Bennis and Bennis deserves it. I agree so much with you, Wally, are we twins who were separated at birth?

Those are some tasty tidbits - go read and enjoy. Have a great week.

Managerial Moments of Truth

I have had the phrase, "they are all moments of truth," stuck in my head this week. Directed at myself, for the most part, I have been using this mantra to improve my focus and action.

It started this Sunday at the Flying Pig Marathon. I walked the half-marathon and there were many moments of truth where I had to summons the stronger Lisa, the more persistent Lisa and the pain-resistant Lisa.

Same thing at work yesterday and today. The impact that my work has is important. I don't want to shoot for "fine," "acceptable," or "good job." Heck, I charge too much to set the results bar so low. I am striving for, "wow, I had no idea we could get there," or "I have a completely different  - and more helpful - view of things."

You are the same, too, right? No one gets into the hard and thankless (or thank-challenged) job of being a manager to do a fine job, an OK job, a perfectly average (oxymoron?) job.

To do our best work - extraordinary work - we need to recognize moments of truth and then bring our A-game. And each situation - each moment of truth - might call for a different extraordinary you.

Moments of truth - moments that reveals the truth about who we are, what we care about and how committed we are to results.

Managerial moments of truth - moments that reveal the truth about who we are, what we care about as managers, and how committed we are to being the catalyst for propelling results and performance forward.

Have you seen the movie Slumdog Millionaire? This movie showed so many moments of truth and each character chose his or her path with varying results - some altered their lives for the good or bad, some affected life or death. Most of our moments of truth aren't quite so important but each day there are moments that - depending on what we do - will alter our lives forever.

I think I am more of a sprinter than a marathoner. Patience is tough. The LONG distance endeavor is harder, I think, and calls for more courage, perseverance and faith in self. In business, many of our projects are akin to the long walk of a half-marathon or marathon. Management - being a craft - is definitely a long term endeavor.

And yet there are these moments of truth each day. Daily tests to see if we are really interested in doing something amazing at work. Daily tests that we must pass to stay on path. It's a big responsibility and the moments of truth are sometimes unwelcome - we would prefer an easy-breezy day. But then we are reminded that people's lives - their livelihoods - are in our hands and the tests seem appropriate and necessary.

We would not want to let a drunk worker into the nuclear plant control booth or in the air traffic control tower. And we should not allow managers asleep/numb at the managerial wheel operate something so fragile and precious as a team.