Management Craft

High Performance Model @greatleadership

Dan McCarthy has put an amusing spin on the usual 2-by-2 performance model.  Check it out here.

Which block do you fit in?  How about your coworkers?? I can swing to and from at least three of these boxes depending on the day/situation/caffeine level! My poor, poor, teammates.......

Silence Isn't Always Golden @drbret

It's never pleasant to give the boss bad news.  But he has to know about problems before he can fix them.  But some (a lot of?) organizations discourage employees from sharing bad news through managers' behavior.  Bret Simmons discusses three beliefs that managers have that cause employees to clam up.  Check out his post here.  You don't want to inadvertently send the wrong messages and then be faced with making decisions based on partial or bad information.

How to Keep Your Presentations Zombie Free @steveroesler

Have you ever given a presentation and thought you were speaking to a group of zombies?  You probably silently cursed their lack of attention and participation.  But was the fault 100% theirs?  Steve Roesler states in his blog that if you don't tell your audience what's expected of them, they'll just slip into passive mode.  Check out Steve's post to ensure the audience at your next presentation is paying attention.  Click here. It's a keeper!

The Purpose of an Organization

I find myself worrying about hurricane Irene. I don't live in its projected path, my worry is for those that will be inevitably affected. I takes a village to build and it will take an even bigger village to help rebuild. Whatever the impacts - people, property, communications, transportation, pride, businesses and jobs - we will need to pull together even if we are not directly affected.

I have no doubt that we will.

This kind of togetherness (together toward a goal) is what our organizations need every day. I love this line from a comment from David on a recent post. He wrote, "The purpose of any organization is to accomplish as a group what we cannot accomplish as individuals." Yes, the REASON organizations exist is to be great together in the service of goals. Our organizations require our full collaborative effort every day.

And so, too, will our friends and colleagues along the east coast. The skills we bring to the fore during a disaster are the same ones that catapult our organization's effectiveness forward.

"More" Employees with Bad Attitudes #Management

My google stats have been telling an interesting story. The most common search strings over the last few weeks have been:

#1: "Employees with Bad Attitudes" - which leads to this post by the same name.

And #2: "Managing up" - which leads to this post.

Hmmm.....

So why is it that so many people are seeking help on how to deal with attitude issues? Are we all a bit grumpy? Has economic instability left us feeling inflexible or vulnerable? Or are we just sick of adults who act like children? And why are so many looking for help on how to deal with their bosses?

Do you see the linkages between these two topics? It's all about how people act and get along.

And I have noticed that a lot of bloggers are writing about bad bosses today. Must be a theme.

What's going on? Are we lacking in basic civility? Can't we all just get along?

Follow along: "I have a dream." "All we need is love." "You're so beautiful to me." "Don't worry, be happy."

What Memoirs Can Teach Us About #Management

Here are a few stray thoughts that end up connecting....

Great memoirs are hot sellers in book stores because people love reading about interesting lives.

In the field of management we throw around words like engagement, enrollment, commitment, getting "on the bus." Is it necessary for us to love or connect to the mission of our organizations? It is ideal, but what about for those companies that don't HAVE a compelling mission? We want to be a profitable market share leader and preferred low-cost provider. Boring!

At the core of great management is a great narrative. Who are you? What's your story? You are amazing and fascinating - I know this - but do your team members know you in this way?

Great management requires that you participate in and share your own great story - your occupational memoir.

And what if your current story is not pleasing to you? I recommend parallel strategies - love something about the present and take steps to make a positive change. Do both and you might find that you can have a better experience while proactively designing the future.

I thought about this because I asked myself, "when do we tend to care about things?" My initial answer was, "when inflicted or affected." Like cancer. I car deeply about it now, but was pretty oblivious about it six months ago. I feel some guilt about this because, surely, some things deserve attention and care even before we are personally affected. But this is human nature, right? We become interested in education after we have kids, notice cars like ours on the freeway, and pay attention to what things cost when we are faced with financial challenges. We notice teeth are after we brighten ours and we read books about Turkey after learning our cruise ship will stop there.

And then I realized that there is another time when we get interested in things - when we are pulled in by a great story. We care about poor water conditions in places we will never visit and we smile when we read about happy endings experienced by people we will never meet. We fall in love with the talking dogs, the double rainbow guy, and the couple who had the courage to dance full out at their wedding. We cry with the family who lost a loved one at war and we cheer for the single dad who just got and sold a patent for his crazy idea.

Maybe you should not worry about whether your front line team members are honestly interested in your company's profits or profit motives (let's face it, most companies don't have a compelling mission or driving force). Maybe you would be better off making the workplace more inviting and interesting on a human experience level - let people find their own reasons for being and staying there. Let them choose to be a part of the daily narrative. What will the story of your monday be? What memory will you help your team create?

And let your team members tell their amazing stories and invite you and others to become supporting characters. After all, we tend to define ourselves by who we are to and with others - our relationships. Why not make the most of this!

There is a reason that well-written memoirs are popular. We love vivid real-life experiences. Great managers help all employees create and tell great workplace stories. Spend more time working well and less time selling someone else's vision.

Teaming IS a Core Job Task, Not Something Else

I was talking with a leader yesterday who has a team that is struggling. Many of the team members act like bullies and it is not uncommon to hear yelling, swearing, and gossip.

This leader mentioned that all his team members were good performers in terms of their job tasks. And then he said that they had a separate and slower process and way of dealing with people who did not live their values (which is where he classified the teaming  behaviors).

I suggested that he move teaming expectations into the category of basic job tasks - not as a nice to have separate category. Work is a team endeavor and yelling at someone is a failing of a fundamental performance expectation.

Are teaming expectations held to the same level of importance and accountability as technical job tasks in your workplace? I think they should be.

More teams fail to meet their goals due to teaming issues than they do because of poor technical skills. If you want to be goal oriented, you will be team development oriented.

And here is one more question/challenge. What kind of a team member are you? Would your employees see you as a role model of great teaming? We do employee engagement surveys and we always ask about this. It is very common to get results that tell us that managers are not playing well with each other and are not setting a good tone for their teams. You might not be a great team member if:

• You are over controlling.
• You avoid your peers because you don't want to deal with them.
• You talk unflatteringly about your peers.
• You impede progress during meetings or conversations (watch for people who check out).
• You are passive-agressive (say "yes" but mean "no").
• You are no fun to work with - for whatever reasons.

Be the bigger person. Extend the olive branch. Be a joy! Bring donuts without being asked. But mostly, enable progress and visibly support peers. You will live longer (less stress) and your peers will live longer (less stress) and your company will live longer (better results).

 

My Great Team Trumps Your Star Performer @fastcompany

Which would you rather have....5 great employees or 1,000 mediocre ones?  If you're Marc Andreessen, cofounder of Netscape, he'd take the 5 great employees.  In an interview last month, Mark Zuckerberg made a comment along the same lines.  But what if your 5 star performers don't play well together?  And what if those 5 are facing a team which works together exceptionally well?  William Taylor discusses the merits of the pretty good performer vs. the great performer on the Fast Company website.  Check out his very interesting article here.

William Taylor continues his discussion on whether great people are overrated in Part II here.

And here's another thing to think about. I have seen great people turn mediocre when not placed in the right system and role. I think a balance of high talent and high team is the goal and what we should endeavor to achieve. Stars who are also capacity builders will help everyone do their best work.

My definition of a "star" might be different, too. I do not consider a highly talented person who is a bad team member to be a star. I think that to be considered top or key talent, we have to be good at what we do AND how we work with others.

Is it passion or obsession? Energy or drama? @harvardbiz

I like this recent article on the HBR site called, Why your passion for work could ruin your career. Check it out. The author, Scott Barry Kaufman, writes about an important distinction between passion that is harmonious and passion that turns obsessive.

In the work that I do with teams, I often see obsessive passion turn into dysfunction, drama, and a fracturing of the team.

It is not enough to possess passion. What we do with our passion, how we channel it and whether it fuels adaptability or rigidity, is critical! As managers, we should seek to create team and workplace norms that build adaptable and productive engagement and help those struggling with obsessive tendencies.

What is "contribution?" #management

The primary purpose of management is to enable individuals and teams to do their best work. The contribution that great managers make looks like this:

• Facilitating beneficial conversations that won't happen without help.
• Taking the initiative to identify and blast through barriers.
• Making team members feel special, valued, and important.
• Providing an inspiring focus for the work.
• Defining excellence so that everyone can see it, feel it, and know when they are being it.

I could list more, but I think these are the essentials. Reflect on last week and self-assess how you did. Think about how you can offer all these types of contribution this week.