Management Craft

Great Performers - What's the Manager's Responsibility?

I like this post from John Kotter on his Forbes blog called, How to Retain the Heroes Within Your Workforce. Check it out. The suggestions, as you might imagine, focus on how to engage and USE your team's talents and that we need to actively do so.

And this begs a question - if you are a manager, does this mean that you should change things, manufacture challenges, adjust work tasks, to ensure that your top talent does not get bored or feeling like their work is not meaty enough?

Yep.

I am not suggesting that you manufacture tasks that are not useful or in alignment with the organization's goals. That would be irresponsible. But it is also irresponsible to lose high performers because they were not challenged. Your organization needs their best work. They want to do their best work.

Check out Kotter's post and think about the ways you can better engage your best performers.

 

Good Boss, Bad Boss, Bosses with Smiles Behind Their Hollow Eyes

So much of our happiness is about how we define things and the meaning we attach to what occurs. For example, imagine your boss forgets to inform you of a decision and this lapse causes you stress and a lot of do-over work. Meaning? He does not care about whether I waste my time. She thinks we are mind readers. He thinks his time is more valuable than ours. There she goes again, leaving her team in the dark.

We are meaning making machines but often the meaning we attribute and assign is either incorrect or does not serve our goals. This is very apparent in how we think about our bosses. Like us, our bosses are highly flawed, highly talented, and likely too busy to read our minds or spend quality time with us. Some will be annoying, unprofessional, unfriendly, etc....Most care deeply even if they do not know how to show it. Most want to be great bosses although many have no idea what this means of looks like in action.

Here is my point. We can only control one person - ourselves. We should be mindful of the meaning we attach to the things that occur to and around us. Want a new reality? What a different kind of experience? Adopt the most positive and engaging meaning possible that will fit each situation. I am not talking about being oblivious to the obvious or being naive.

I have had this conversation with many of my coaching clients and there is almost always a way to adjust meaning so that it serves the situation and their needs better. For example, I once worked for a boss who had a one track mind and saw everything through a vary narrow filter. At first I made him wrong, inept, and undeserving of his role. Then I changed how I saw it. I saw him as having a strong and predictable POV, but someone who did want to do the rights things and help me succeed. Whether he changes or expands his ideas is his challenge, opportunity, and choice - how I interact with him and whether I let his style drive me bananas is mine.

But I Don't Like Following the Rules! @drbret

Never has there been a blog post title that I more represented than the one above. My parents would have diplomatically called me "a spirited child," one boss early in my career told me I was a pain in the #$%&#. :-)

Do we really need rules in the workplace?  Aren't we all adults who know what we should or shouldn't do?  Of course we know.  But should and do can be very far apart.  Bret Simmons discusses that while rules should be kept to a minimum, good rules do serve a purpose.  He also discusses how NOT to use rules.  My favorite line from his blog is "Always stand behind, but never hide behind, your rules."  And when a rule becomes non-productive and ineffective, be merciless in getting rid of it.

Read Bret's post here.

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.

"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."

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.

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.

Talent Management Malleability? #hci2011engage

I will be part of a panel discussion at the HCI conference in Chicago next week (my surgery is 7/13) and will be talking talent management. One of the thoughts that I hope to banter about with the participants is how we balance the needs for simplicity and consistency with the need to be flexible and agile. Are they mutually exclusive? No, of course, not. But these ideas can be in conflict depending on how we use them.

For example, I make the argument that an effective talent management system needs to initially cast a wider net in terms of understanding the many reasons people are staying, leaving, and growing or stagnating. Taking the time to collect, understand, and consider more information when designing and realigning (at least yearly) the system pays off big. Once we do this, however, we will need to choose a finite set of practices and initiatives that we think will make the biggest difference. And as long as we are open to the idea of having to adjust or change these periodically, having a focused system of actions is practical and can be more easily proliferated across a wide enterprise.

This can apply to any large HR or OD system but is especially important for talent management. You want to be able to say that your talent management initiatives and efforts are affecting the most important impacts to retention and growth/bench strength.

I look forward to the panel next week and ongoing on this blog and other talks.