Management Craft

Internal Branding, External Branding and Our Multicultural Strategy

Check out this thought provoking blog post from John Hawkins called The Business Case and Key Success Factors for a Holistic Multicultural Strategy (BTW, John is the new owner of my consulting firm, MPI Consulting).

John makes some great points about how we could and should think about building multicultural companies for a multicultural customer base (that is growing more diverse). I could not help but put on my OD and management hat and think about the ramifications of his recommendations for how we build and cultivate teams and the work environment.The external efforts affect internal practices - or they should.

This post offers a great example for how our external branding and business building efforts ought to link up and be supported by corresponding internal branding and organization building efforts. Do your strategies and practices help managers and employees develop a multicultural mindset? - Are your diversity intentions baked into your strategies, plans, goals, actions, and processes?

This could be a great discussion starter as you prepare to take a fresh crack at the new year. Encourage a generative debate on what might be possible if you created and implemented a multicultural strategy to support your external and internal brands. It's the perfect time! New Years realignment discussions can catalyze the energy and engagement needed to make things better every day.

Check out John's post and tell me what you think.

Happy Turkey Day!

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!

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.

Have Courage to Share Bad News #management @hrbartender

I hate being the bearer of bad news.  I'm sure most people do.  Are you ever tempted to pawn the task of delivering bad news off on someone else?  Well, don't.  Sharlyn Lauby on her HR Bartender blog makes a strong case for making sure the right person delivers the bad news.  If someone is laid-off, the news needs to come from the manager not someone else and especially not an outplacement firm (can you say, impersonal?).  So it's not just important what we say and how we say it but also who actually does the talking.

Read Sharyln's great post here. 

Did you see the movie "Up in the Air" with George Clooney? That movie showed the highest high of bad practices for letting people go. But as Sharlyn points out, this idea translates to every day stuff too. I was recently as a client's office and talked to a supervisor who did not know how to talk with team members about errors they were making. So she did two things: 1) sent emails, and 2) asked her bossed to do the verbal review. No, no, no. I empathize that she did not feel comfortable (who does?) but she needs to be trained and then do it, not pass it off on technology and bosses. Her employees, predictably, felt uncared for.

One other point: As managers, we want to develop a reputation for being open and real. We can't do that and be fair-weather leaders. Also, we should make sure that we sing out the great news, too. Be a great source for all types of information, guidance, and support.

When to Decide If You Should Make A Change @steveroesler

How do you know when it's time to make a change?  A big neon arrow that stops you in your tracks and points you in a new direction would be so helpful but I haven't seen any of those lately.  What I have seen is Steve Roesler's blog about the 5 signs that you should make a change.  One sure sign....when the people who have your back are telling you it's time.  Read Steve's great post here.

One more thing to think about. If it is time for a change, how open will you be with your current employer? Over the years, I have always been candid with my boss and it helped the transition process. I realize there are risks, but often the risks are not as high as our fears about the risks. And it feels SOOOOO good to be discussing things openly and honestly.

As bosses, we should expect that all our employees are weighing their options and rethinking what they want to be when they grow up. Every twist and turn of life is an opportunity to regenerate our goals and dreams. Encourage employees to talk about their goals and help them make win/win transitions if working for you is no longer a fit for them.

Individual Ownership the Key to Interdependence? @drbret

Did you ever wish you could just wave a magic wand and improve how well you do your job?  Well, I don't have a magic wand for you but I do want to pass along 10 keys to real responsibility courtesy of Bret Simmons.  Bret discusses how to fully take responsibility for your job performance and suggests that when we demostrate this higher level of ownership, we can build stronger relationships (our true vehicle for getting things done).  Take a look at Bret's list and see what the keys can unlock for you. I love #8:

8. Be trustworthy as well as trusting of others.

I find that many people remain stuck on this one. And all the media stories about slime balls and scoundrels does not help. I was telling my husband that if aliens watched our new programs to determine what kind of a species we were, they would conclude that we were idiots! Which is not true, but the new often highlights the lowlights of humanity.

Even so, we cannot do our best work without mutually trusting relationships.

I Promise I Won't Forget My Promise @professorford

We all have a To Do list but what about a "Due" list?  This is a list of promises we've made.  I've broken promises.  I fully intended to do what I said I would but I let other things go first and the promise got pushed back and ultimately forgotten.  The mental garbage associated with these dangling commitment is bad enough, never mind that it means we have let someone down. Ugh. Jeffrey Ford discusses in his blog about how our integrity is tied to keeping our word.  Check out his post here and share it.  Creating a due list is a great idea - so much more useful than a to-do list!

When a vacation is not. a.k.a. I need to get away from my gadgets!

With Summer finally here, many of us are thinking about a vacation and planning trips to the beach, sight-seeing, and visiting relatives.  But are these going to be true vacations where you unplug from your work and focus on family and fun?  Peter Vajda on the Management-Issues blog discusses the reasons so many people no longer leave work behind when they go on vacation.  Some are afraid their job won't be there when they get back and that's understandable.  But really, is there anything more sad than someone missing an incredible sunset in an exotic land because they're busy yakking on their phone about this month's financial report? No. Been there, done that, and I cry when I see the shirt.

I agree with Peter when he says that "The upsetting fallout of living in a "vacation is work" world is sacrificing one's personal sense of independence and the abdication of precious healthy, rejuvenating, soulful and relaxing time."

Click here for Peter's post and leave your work behind the next time you're on vacation.

I have started taking baby steps toward a real vacation by leaving the iPhone, iPad, and iBook off and in my home office for one day of the weekend. Feels quite strange and I like it.