Management Craft

Great posts to kick off the week.

I am overdue for sharing a bit of link love for the recent posts that have made me think. Check these out and get the week started with a bang.

Steve Roesler offers a great post called Character and Persistence Trump Adversity. This is a short but highly compelling post.

Check out this episode of the Cranky Middle Manager with Raj Setty. Raj is an amazing thinker and human being. This podcast is about his book called, Upbeat - which is very insightful and inspiring.

I love this post from Zen Habits called Accept What Is - Don't Judge as Good or Bad. I also recommend Leo's new e-book called The Essential Motivation Handbook.

Check out this great post from Wally over at Three Star Leadership called Caring for People: Part of the Boss's Job. Totally agree with Wally. Interestingly, the topic of demonstrating care has come up a lot with my consulting clients and has been shown as a big need in many of the employee engagement surveys we have administered this year. Why is this such a need? It is such a fundamental requirement for managers.

Stephen over at Changing Organizations offers this post called Six Characteristics of the Corporate Culture Construct. A good primer on organizational culture.

Big thanks go to Kevin Eikenberry for this post about my latest book, Hip and Sage. Cool! 

Check out this post from Bruce Rosenstein called The Privilege of Writing a Book About Peter Drucker. I always like the "behind the scenes" type posts from authors, and this is one. Bruce has written a very unique book about Drucker - it is a self-development book called Living in More Than One World. I have the book in my stack and will write more about it soon. Looks fascinating.

There are more posts I should share, but, alas, I have run out of time. Next time!

P.S. If you, or if you have friends who, enjoy reading creative nonfiction essays (like David Sedaris, Diane Ackerman, David Foster Wallace) please check out this collection I recently self-published.  100% of the proceeds go to support the Humane Society/SPCA. You can see more here - the collection is called, The Kiwi Bird Walks Like a Man. This is not at all related to management, I know, but I care so deeply about this cause and want the fundraiser to be a big success. I would appreciate your support.

10 Ways to Handle Complaints

First a poem, then the list of 10 ways:

What is a complaint?

What’s a complaint, if not a cry for help

A signal that communicates a wish or hope

Complaints can be useful to bosses

Who are interested in preventing future losses

Of people, processes, time, and harmony

What’s a complaint, if not an idea cloaked

A bit of creativity waiting to be evoked

Complaints can become positive

For they mean communication is active

And it takes a conversation to change the world.

10 Ways to Handle Complaints - For Managers
Do you struggle to respond to complaints? Complaints are not all treated equally. Most managers welcome and can deal with a complaint that is valid and objectively expressed. Complaints that seem trite, invalid, or resemble whining are more difficult to handle.

Don’t be defensive
When dealing with complaints, we are often our own worst enemies! Taking complaints personally makes it more difficult to resolve the matter and move on. Managers who can focus on the information and the resolution without getting defensive will find complaints less disruptive and cumbersome.

Understand the facts
The person is complaining for a reason. Before jumping to any conclusions, learn the facts of the situation. Look at the issue from all sides and ask the person to explain his or her view.

Listen fully
When a person complains, he or she wants to feel as though you have listened and understand. Ask clarifying questions to ensure you understand the situation and to show you are listening. Empathize when appropriate and apologize for mistakes. Listen for what the person wants to happen next, because it is often reasonable and easy to accommodate requests.

Acknowledge the person’s feelings
You do not have to agree with the person to recognize how they are feeling. Saying things like, “I can see you are frustrated,” or “I understand this ordeal has been annoying to you,” will go a long way toward diffusing the complainer’s anger.

Try to solve the problem or offer alternatives
The quickest way to take care of complaints is to solve the issue. This may seem like common sense, but many managers allow complaints to linger and go unresolved. If a solution is not possible, it is important to offer an alternative to resolve the complaint.

Thank people for constructive complaints
Receiving complaints can be a good thing because it signals that communication lines are open. Constructive complaints can help managers identify problems and address barriers. Listening to and thanking others for sharing complaints will strengthen relationships.

Involve the right people
You may not be the best person to resolve a complaint and will want to bring in others to address the concern. This does not mean that you can wash your hands of the complaint! As the “complaint receiver” you are responsible for ensuring the person gets a response.

Provide the facts
Team members are more likely to gripe and groan about a decision they do not understand. You can resolve many complaints by clarifying team members’ questions and concerns. Managers who take the time to explain decisions upfront prevent many complaints from occurring.

Run and hide
Just kidding! Don’t try this at work or home.

Ask for complaints
Managers who ask for complaints will find that team members express their concerns more objectively and openly. Inviting complaints reduces the likelihood the person will be upset and emotional. It is a way to nip problems in the bud and solve problems before they are able to fester and grow. Try setting aside the last 15 minutes of each staff meeting to discuss complaints.

Prevent complaints
Active MBWA and open communication can go a long way toward preventing team member and peer complaints. Often, a complaint is really a second or third attempt to share and be heard. Managers should recognize and respect diverse points of view and areas of disagreement.

Try, Untry, Do, Undo, Just Don't Come Undone

I like this post from Dwayne, writing on Rosa's Joyful Jubilant Learning blog called, Early Abandonment and Boomerangs. It is a great post for those of us who often try and untry new things and struggle to decide which new methods are worth your attention.

And the title of this post is somewhat inspired by the short, irreverent book I did with a couple of my pals called Undo Become You Become Undone.

Part of living a hip and sage life is about fluidity and nimbleness. How flexible a person are you? How fussy are you? How strident in your ways are you? Are you willing to revisit things you abandoned last year and abandon things that no longer make sense?

I will be the first to admit that I am learning how to do this better every day. It is tough to give up on something in which you invested passion, effort and resources. A good example of this is my Two Weeks to a Breakthrough book. Relative to all my books, it is the poorest sellers. And, as Murphy's Law would have it, it is my favorite. I can get all wrapped up inside about this book because it is so personal to me - it is about how to generate breakthroughs, and I can't imagine anything more fabulous than this. But for whatever reason - title, cover, timing, PR, the work itself, it has not done well. I get emails from people saying how the book has helped them, and I relish these. But the book is over two years old and its window of opportunity may be closed. I don't want to believe that, but this is what my publisher, agent, and others have suggested. I don't want to abandon the project.

But I have to wonder what might be possible if I did let it go - could I create something even more fabulous? This is the same struggle we all have - how can we best direct our precious energies? All these new technologies offer something and we could easily fill our hours checking it all out.

What to abandon and when to abandon are two important skills/arts we learn as we sage up. As we begin a new week, think about what you should be abandoning and what might deserve a second look.

10 Ways to Handle Your Mistakes

We’re not perfect, although some of us act like we are! The ways in which we handle our goof-ups, guffaws, screw-ups, bad decisions, miscalculations, and blunders are critical - our reputations are at stake. And as managers, we should role model the behaviors we seek in others. In High Impact Middle Management, I wrote about "Harry," a manager who was defensive and quick to throw his employees under the bus. Don't be like Harry. Here are 10 ideas for how to react to and recover from mistakes.

Admit it before anyone knows about the mistake. In his classic book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie suggests that the best way to handle mistakes is to admit them as soon as they occur and before others begin to react. Carnegie recommends we admit our mistakes with some energy and certainty like, “I’ve just made the following mistake: ____.  I really messed it up! Here is what I am going to do to fix it. So sorry everyone!” By being the first to notice and admit the mistake, you will diffuse peoples‘ reaction and turn their attention to helping you solve the problem.

Don’t try to hide mistakes! It drives people, especially bosses, crazy when we deny or try to cover up our mistakes. Like Poe’s “Tell-Tale Heart”, nobody wants an undiscovered mistake looming in his or her career. This is surely a recipe for disaster, because eventually these things come to light. Mistakes can be corrected, but it is difficult to repair a spoiled reputation.

Apologize Sincerely. Mistakes will cause some inconvenience and create a waste of time, costs, or effort. Let people know that you sincerely regret the inconvenience your mistake has caused.

Ask questions that show you care. Unless we learn from our mistakes, history will likely repeat itself. Take the time to better understand how to prevent similar errors in the future.

Let team members help you to recover. Once you have admitted your error, your team members will want to help turn the situation around. Accept their help! Sometimes we are neurotic about allowing others to help us, which, ironically, hurts those around us. Our team members are there for us, just like we will be there for them when they need it.

Move quickly into problem solving. The only thing that drives people crazier than someone denying a mistake is when he or she are slow to fix it! It’s true, this happens all the time. A quick recovery is particularly important when mistakes inconvenience others.

Reverse the mistake if possible. If you have made a bad decision, don’t stick with it and suck the whole team down with you. Undo it if possible.

Treat yourself consistently. The ways in which you handle your mistakes should look and feel similar to the ways in which you handle mistakes made by others. We should neither be tougher nor more tolerant of ourselves. A mistake is just a preventable problem looking for a quick solution.

Clear your head if needed. Frustrated by your mistakes? Before you act, take a walk around the block. It is in moments of great stress and frustration that we do stupid things, so don’t compound the problem by sending an email you will likely regret later! If you need to, vent with a trusted friend.

Update others on the progress of the fix. Once a blunder is out in the open, follow up a couple of times so they know all is under control. This will instill confidence and create closure.

Rosa Says to Stop Micromanaging - Amen!

Check out this post by Rosa Say called, Stop Micromanaging, Part 1. Check it out. I think A LOT of manager micromanage, many more than realize it. So ASSUME that you are one of these managers and read Rosa's post. If you are not a micromanager, it will be clear to you but if you are, but didn't realize it, then Rosa's post might be a catalyst for positive change. Here is a snippet from the post:

Feelings have immense validity. Alaka‘i managers bring the discomforts in any workplace back into a circle of comfort so that the workplace will feel healthy again. Discomfort stifles growth, and discomfort drains energy, and as we’ve spoken of before, the lack of energy and cessation of growth leads to complacency, then boredom, and then that biggest sin of mediocrity.

A lot of people think micromanagement is about power and to some degree it is. But let me challenge the common notion: the power is with the employee. Micromanagers often lack confidence and lack the strengths to develop an accountable work environment. Often, a micromanager lacks the courage to have candid and direct conversations. So, while you might think that when a manager micromanages you that it is about YOU, it often has nothing to do with you. Micromanagers can benefit from coaching and development in how to BE a manager, how to set and hold people to expectations.

Top Management Challanges

I love this post from Professor Ford's blog called, Top Management Challenges, Are We Being Victims? Jeffrey zooms in on, with the help of his graduate students, the most common causes of management challenges. Here is a snippet:

What is interesting is that the students believe they have these problems because of “them” (e.g., other people).  It is because of “their” lack of motivation, commitment, accountability, etc., that the issue persists.  The difficulty with this belief is that it makes students victims.

Check the post out!

VERY cool leadership, management, or personal success posts I found while on Twitter

This last week was a good one for catching my tweeps online when they post good links (my timing is not always go good). Right now, I follow about 1650 people and have about 1550 who follow me. Here are some very good posts/articles to check out courtesy of my tweeps.

Click on over to all of these, you will not regret it!

From @ChrisPRodgers Excellent, complexity-based provocations on leadership by Stephen Billing at http://bit.ly/16Ayz5. #complexity #leadership

From @senia @gretchenrubin The Secret is Not to Care (http://adjix.com/gedx) & @peterbregman Two Lists You Should Look at Every Morning (http://adjix.com/gedz)

From @artpetty New Post: "Leadership Lessons Learned on Vacation: Leading by Letting Go" http://bit.ly/w8O87 

From @lisabeth60  @DrJennifer: How To Know If You Are Settling for a Mediocre Life http://budurl.com/b9qf

Phil's 10 Commandments for Social Media

I love this post from pal Phil Gerbyshak called, 10 Commandments of Social Media. Check it out. Here is a snippet:

4 - Thou shalt not act like a stuck up jerk, no matter how many folks are following you on any/every platform.  In fact, I would say ESPECIALLY if you have a million folks who follow you. Seth Godin is a very friendly guy who responds to email, blog posts, and other things directed at him. If Seth Godin can make time to reply to email, so can you!

I think many of these are good habits for in-person communication, too. This is an awesome list, thanks, Phil!

Ten Questions Every Leader Ought to Be Asking

If I read another article or post that starts with, “during these tough times,” I am going to scream. Let’s get with it, leaders, these times are why we exist.  The more we talk about how the times are tough, the greater the likelihood that we will approach our work as victims. 

We are at our best when we catalyze progress – when we create environments that help people, teams and processes do great work together. I invite all leaders – at all levels in the organization – to embrace the opportunity to be great like you never knew you could be or was possible. Here are ten questions you can ask yourself and your team to get catalytic juices flowing:

• What’s the new opportunity that we are not seeing? How might we learn from other organizations, both competitors and non-competitors?
• How might new trends in how people communicate and work open up new ways to improve our organization? What does the workplace look like when we are focused and in action?
• When a meeting feels flat and perfunctory, what’s going on? What’s on people minds that they are not saying? What question could I ask that would open the discussion back up? What’s possible if I had the courage to do this?
• What is “my best work” and how can I ensure I do that today? How can I enable my team to do their best work?
• If we were starting this organization from scratch, how would we design it? What would we do if resources were not an issue?
• What’s the craziest idea that just might work?
• What are the most irksome/damaging barriers facing me and my team right now and how can I reduce or obliterate them?
• What is my manifesto (driving philosophy and passion) as a leader and how can I ensure my team understands it? What is our team’s manifesto?
• What’s possible now that was not possible last year/month?
• Do I have my team focused on doing the work that matters most? How can I optimize how we spend our precious time?

Create your own list of questions and bring them into your next staff meeting or team huddle. Select one of these questions to drill down on with a small group of peers. Put a copy of this article in everyone’s inbox! Great questions help us generate productive conversations and conversations are our currency for getting things done.

We are leaders because we make things happen that would not happen without us. We are driven to create, model, and catalyze excellence. We do not maintain. We do not play the victim. We take the initiative to do whatever it takes to make a significant and positive difference and we have more opportunities to do this today than ever.

As the great Henry V said in Shakespeare’s play, “All things are ready if our minds be so.” And let’s not forget Westmorland’s response, “perish the man whose mind is backward now!”

Indeed.

The most effective leaders will shine bright now because they are ready to slog through any organizational muck that threatens to slow their team down. Let’s all be a part of the leadership revolution.

10 Leadership Lessons from Starbucker. A couple more from me.

I love this post from fellow blogger and pal Terry Starbucker called, My 10 Favorite Leadership Lessons. This post is brilliant and helpful, please go check it out now. Terry's day job is that of a senior leader and he walks his talk.

I think Terry covers a lot of great ground in this post - I agree with all his points. Two additional lessons of mine that come to mind are"

• We are dragon slayers. Dysfunction and disorder - the guck and muck of management - are the dragon.
• Anyone can be a great manager if he/she gets it why he/she exist. Managers must, everyday, seek to make things better for people, processes, and organizations.
• OK, one more. Being a manager is a privilege. We have been handed a piece of the organization to run and this is a tremendous burden and privilege. Even front line supervisors have this burden and should feel some sense of awe at what they have been handed in terms of opportunity.
• OK, one more. People join companies, leave managers. We create the culture and we can lead improvements or breakdowns in culture.

Check out Terry's post. What lessons would you add?