Posts tagged Vision

Change… Really?

Jan20
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

I have listened to many a sermon (well, maybe just a call to action) from the leader of an organization that started out the year with a “New year, need for change – an organizational change…” How many times have you seen the new organizational charts come out with some shuffling of the decks, or “new” folks coming in? The call is for organizational change… Can that really happen? My honest opinion is “no!” No matter what you do to shuffle the deck or add a new person to the organizational chart will do nothing. What does it take for “real” organization change? Think about that for  a minute. I think we all have ideas about that. Well, here is my take…

Look at yourself: If you want change you have to be the first one to step up and make the change that you want. How many times have you watched the leader say, “we need to change and here is where I think we need to go”? This is the one area that we can learn from those that have failed in the past. I really feel that the change starts at the top. I used to tell my team, “hold me totally accountable. If I am failing, tell me!” Step up and lead.

It is a two way street: Make sure that you are making it more than just a powerpoint presentation. Have open and honest communications with your team. I know we all have seen the nice slides and gotten some charge out of them, but when you want to go deeper, there was nothing deeper. Make sure you have open lines of communications.

Make that change – obtainable: It is easy to look at something that is so far out there. We all like to have visions of grandeur, but please be realistic. Make sure that everything that you want is something that CAN happen…

Get the troops involved: If you really want change, you better figure out how to include your team. Setting expectations is something we all have to do. There is no question about that. It is important how you include your team in that process. The most successful changes that I have witnessed have one thing in common, everyone was standing together around the vision. Start small and encourage them. The rest will follow, especially if you have done the first 3…

Don’t rush the troops: It is always easy to push for results. Be patient, please. Take your time and encourage your folks. Failure is always just around the corner, especially if you rush everyone. Stand firm, but remember that patient is a virtue.

I bet there is always more that one can do to make sure that the change that they want, will happen. From my experience, these are the things that I need to have to look at. Do you have anything to add?

Photo… Copyright (c) 123RF Stock Photos

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What To Look For – Next Opportunity

Jan10
2012 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

Copyright (c) <a href='http://www.123rf.com'>123RF Stock Photos</a>

As many know, I have been looking for a “second” career. I heard someone use the term that I was semi-retired. I guess that is true. I really am not ready for “real” retirement. I have way too much to give and learn. Not finished by no means. So, I was thinking about what I would be looking for in that next organization or company. Here are my top three things I hope to encounter on my search.

Organizational Culture: Is it defined? Can I get a sense of what the culture is from looking at the organizations website, social media presence or networking with employee’s both present and past? I really want to understand the culture of the organization. It is extremely important to me that I find something that matches up to my skills and passions when I looking for that second career. When I am being interviewed, I also sit and learn from the interviewer. Get a sense of the teams culture within the larger organizations culture. Is it the same? Gives you some questions later on.

Reviewing the hiring process: There is much to be learned from experiencing the hiring process from the beginning. How difficult was it for you to get into the job req system and apply. Nothing worse than getting in and almost submitting to have the system just fail at the end. I know many companies use an automated system for this work. The question that comes to my mind is, “did they pick one that is user friendly, or just not?” Many larger companies may outsource their recruiting process and only pass on the reqs that they feel fit. This sometimes will frustrate job applicants because everything seems to go into cyberspace. When I get passed all that, I usually am observing how everything goes. Is it smooth? Organized? All of the process is the organizations audition for you. Bad experience there, may kick off a bad experience later on.

Respected Leadership: In this day and age, we get information from many different sources. Finding out about the organizations leadership and how they train their future leaders is pretty simple to find. Do some simple searches. What I am looking for is an organization that has some respected leaders in their industry. Look at the vision of the organization, the people that work there and training for those leaders.

Finding information is easy – you just have to look. Using that information and what you know about yourself – well, that is where you can put yourself in the best situation. When I am sitting down doing my due diligence, I am looking at those three factors. It starts with organization research on culture (fit me, go to apply). Apply and the hiring process should allow you the opportunity to audition the organization. Basically answering #2 and #3. Hopefully all works out…

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Best Week of the Year, Productivity Wise

Dec26
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

When I was working for a large enterprise, I used to love coming into work the week after Christmas. Why? Simply put, there were very few folks around. Seems like everyone loves to take that last week off to spend time with the family or just relax. Me, I went into the office for one thing… To get stuff done! Why? Far fewer distractions. With most of the office staff off, the cube farm was extremely quiet. With most of my team out, I had less to keep up on. Giving more time for me to get manager stuff done. No due dates were ever place on the last week of the year. Sounds silly, but review almost all of the stuff that you ever had to get done. Did it ever fall on the last week of the year? Again, more “free” time to get the other stuff done.

What I used to focus on that last week of the year!

  • Employee performance appraisals. If your company uses a review system, this is the week to really sit down and focus on the overall performance of your employees. Quiet time in the office – is a wonderful time to sit and think, jot down some notes on each employee (accomplishments, strengths and areas to work on).
  • Next years plan in more detail. I used to have to submit my yearly plan around Oct of the year before. Usually by the end of the year, you would receive your budget and such. Use this week to really lay out the upcoming years plans, expectations and goals in a rev. 0 fashion. Once everyone is back, go over the rev 0 plan and firm it up with your teams inputs.
  • Reflect back on the past year. Write done the accomplishments and successes that your team and you have done. Share it with the team with a nice thank-you note (it should be in their inbox when they come in).  I would send off this to my manager, to share what the team has done. Most managers, would copy all and add their thanks to the team as well!

What would you do with this week?

I truly enjoyed going into the office! The stuff that I got done was important to me and my team.

Posted in Leadership, New To Management - Tagged , , , , , ,

Keys to Empowering Your Staff

Mar28
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

Plenty of what I have written have been how to really help you, as a manager or leader, in the area of getting a good working relationship with your staff. One area that I have not really called out, but have written about some of the principles around, empowering your staff. Employee empowerment is something that every manager or leader wants for his staff. Do you believe that you truly empower your staff? Have you asked them? Did you see their body language when they answered. Look at how you feel empowered by your manager. Is that empowerment that you want for your staff? We truly want to have our staff feel empowered to do their work. What does it take to set that stage for empowerment? Here are some of the keys that I believe are necessary:

  • Value your people – in all that you communicate and do for them. If you do this, your staff will “see” it. They will appreciate your words and actions…
  • Share your vision – with your team. No one likes to be left out in the dark. If you have plans, share and ask them their opinion. Keep that vision where they can find it!
  • Share goals – I know I have written a lot about expectations and goals. To me that is key to helping each of my staff to understand what and why.. They make sure the how to is theirs. They get it done…
  • Trust your people – again another topic that I feel is very important. Trust is a two way street – insure that you trust your staff. Earn their trust by setting strong expectations, do what you say you will do and remove roadblocks.
  • Insure all information is available – this one is making sure that the “why” is communicated freely with the what. Issue that your staff has access to everything they need to help them get their job done.
  • Delegate to your staff – for me, this one is making sure that the people getting the work done have the power to make decisions (when appropriate), get help when necessary and give them opportunities to shine. It is so easy for most managers to delegate the crap work… Don’t do that, your staff reads right through that stuff.
  • Provide feedback often – nothing says you value them than providing positive or constructive feedback. Do it timely.  Do it in the right setting..
  • Listen to your staff – it is all to easy for managers to do all the talking. You staff is “doing” the work, they do know what is truly happening. Listen… Problems may come up and if you listen – you maybe able to help solve the problem with them. Don’t listen – you will miss what is really happening.
  • Reward your staff – recognize good work and let the staff know. They will feel that you do value them.. That their work means something and they will continue to do some amazing stuff.

Those are the keys that I strive for with my staff. Many have communicated over the years, that they had some of their best times working with me and in my teams. I truly enjoyed that feedback.. I believe it is because I empowered them to do their best work.

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Get Connected!

Jan31
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

Effective Leadership, to me, requires a true commitment to serve both the organization’s mission/vision and the people that you are responsible for leading. Both are needed and essential. Individuals who don’t demonstrate that they care about the people will never be true leaders. Frankly, they should not be in a position of leadership. I have seen many in my career. I bet, you reading this – you are thinking of the leaders or managers that you have and thinking – that is someone you can remember. When you are thinking of this person – you can almost pinpoint their mistakes. Either not caring about the organization’s mission/vision (which is rare) or the people they are supposed to be leading (usually the case). For those people, they may have short term success, but over time they fail.

There is a way to correct this… It takes leaders at the top of the organizations to do some work. Having a way to measure their managers on employee engagement (I mean their ability to connect) and hold each other accountable. Many companies may survey the managers people within a set of “management” questions. That could work, if the questions were designed to measure connectedness of the manager. For me, there is no substitution to getting out and listening to the managers people. Truly listening with deep understanding.. When it has become apparent that the leader is failing to meet the standard, help them with coaching, mentoring and development. The problem that I see almost all the time is improvement plans start but never finish. Identifying the problem is only part of the solution. All to often change rarely happens. That is where accountability has to come in. If then, they prove to be unable to connect with the people they manager, they should NOT be in leadership roles.

For individuals and organizations to be successful, everyone must be firm on balancing their time that is spent on managing task and connecting with the people (each other). If too much time spent on either side is unhealthy and frankly leads to poor performance. I have seen this work.. A leader investing time connecting with people, the people give their best efforts, focus on what is needed and help each other. The team will be more open to sharing their knowledge and opinions. The team will start to fuel more ideas, innovate and make breakthroughs. A much better place to be (as a leader and member of the organization).

Posted in Leadership, New To Management - Tagged , , , , , , ,

Tailor or Force Your Approach

Jan25
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

I woke up this morning to see an email from one of my past new managers at Intel. Nice surprise! He was looking for an answer to a question that had been burning at him for awhile. He asked his current manager, “should managers tailor their approach to fit the personalities of the team that they have?” He remembered that I touched on that subject during “New to Management: Managing Teams to Higher Performance.” Just could not remember exactly what I said. His manager told him that he should do what comes best to him. In short, do what has made you successful and get the team to follow you. Very simple and not very helpful answer I thought. What I liked about the answer was the get the team to follow… Or provide leadership! 

So, here is what I wrote back:

Great question! I think your manager was a bit vague in his answer.. I did like his part on getting the team to follow. So, building on that… Leadership is based in helping others succeed, having a vision, and the capability to utilize the knowledge, skills and abilities of your team to fulfill it. I truly believe a leader must adapt to the personalities of the team. When we discussed this in the class, everything was situational. If you have ever taken situational leadership or anything like that – key to success is in communication. Learning how to get through to each person and best motivate them is the leader’s job. By doing so creates a team of loyal, hard working team of individuals committed to the cause. That will follow you! Trying to have the team adopt to you would be like an old sports coach that only knows how to lead by bullying with a “heart” or setting up competition for the few scarce prizes. Those two ways may get results when you are around, but leave and so do the results. I have had those coaches and managers over the years, maybe good for short term results but no one every really wanted to follow them anywhere.  I hope that answered your question, if not we can always discuss further.

What do you think? Did I answer that question?

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A Tale of a “Bad” Boss

Feb27
2010 2 Comments Written by Steve

Ever have one of the “those” bosses? Hate to go to work? See how you used to work, change (not for the better)?  How about when you are talking with others and you hear them complain about their work situation? There usually is one common theme – they work for a terrible boss. I have my internal blog and write many of the same topics I do here. When I write about management, I usually get quite a few comments that center on the bad supervisor. I would like to relate this to a story. For anyone that thinks they know the players because they know me – think again. This is a made up situation (but, I have a feeling this will probably hits close to home).

Company Z is a small company made up of about 200 folks. Enough to have some senior, mid level and front line folks. Got to have some bosses… Debbie is a new employee to Company Z, she is a project manager with a pretty impressive resume. She comes with experience and a passion for her work. Debbie starts out fast and really does good work. Her immediate supervisor, Brenda, finds that she does really well and starts to give her more of the meaty assignments. Over time, Debbie has proven that she is definitely a strong performer. What happen next? She gets promoted! This promotion moves her to a different team and now she reports to Bob, VP of product development.

Bob has been with Company Z since it started. He was in that first wave of friends that sat around the bar stools during college discussing an idea. He is best friends with the CEO. That friendship is his biggest claim to fame! Bob still tells the stories of that evening when Company Z was drawn on napkins over many beers. He definitely views himself as a visionary. Dreams up plenty of ideas and delivers on none. Many of Bob’s employees are very happy to see a new manager on his staff, as the last one was just a nightmare to work for. Debbie starts out well, she is working with her team and overall things are better.

As time goes by, Bob and his visionary style has an effect on Debbie. Bob likes to drum up the idea’s and dump them onto Debbie. There are no expectations, no reasonable understand of goals and just plain minimal thought put in. Bob’s way of dealing with not seeing enough progress is to belittle Debbie. He is short with Debbie and spends more time yelling and belittling at her. Debbie feeling the pressure starts to pass on same to her team. She is expecting them to pick up the pieces she is dropping. The team has seen this behavior before. This goes on for a couple of years, until Bob decides that he wants to leave.

A new VP is hired and Debbie decides to ask that she go back to project management where she has done a good job for the company. This management gig was just not her passion. Everyone thought that would be a great move. Debbie was extremely successful as a project manager. Problem was Debbie has not returned to the past. Her time with Bob, had changed Debbie – forever. Debbie thought she would be happier, but that just is not the case and decides to leave the company.

I think we all have seen some scenario similar to this one. Fact is, a bad boss can damage your spirit, career and passion. Everyday we all look into the mirror – do you like what you see? No, I don’t mean the visual aspects – just the work part… Are you true to yourself? Are you happy with your job? Are you doing your best? Are you Bob? Are you the early Debbie that is turning into the promoted Debbie?

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Transitions Happen All The Time, So Why Do They Go Badly?

Jan25
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

Over the years, I have been involved in many transitions; as a leader coming into a new situation; as a member for a team getting dissolved; as a member of an existing team getting a dissolved team. There is one thing that is definite, they cause all sorts of churn. In these types of transitions, we are dealing with people. From the years of experience, I have come up with a list of items that I feel are must haves in order to make everything seem okay.

  • Communicate, Communicate and Communicate – When communication is timely and real, most folks will move forward quickly and not worry too much about what is happening. It is also, the first thing that breaks down or never is established fast enough. Set up immediately the communications channels, set aside time in your calendar to be more open, never miss an opportunity to just walk around and be visible.
  • Get the top folks together, quickly – With all organization transitions, there are the top folks that must come together and get to know each other quickly. Getting the “A” team in place and moving forward together – will help greatly with the rest of the organization. There will be people on either side that carry the leader role in folks minds, you need to tap into those folks. If there are people that are not going to workout together, time to make changes. Don’t be afraid to change the overall structure at this time. Don’t just fill a gap with a strong person. You need to put the right folks in the right places.
  • Start small and start fast – What I mean here is really get some wins under your belt. Those wins could be as simple as removing roadblocks or changing the way things always have been done – that people complained about. It is important to demonstrate to the new organization that hitting the ground running and winning is first! The longer times goes by and the shape and form has not been clearly set – the longer it will take folks to move forward as well.
  • Shape “your” vision with the new team – As a leader, the vision is critical for setting the path that the team will be going on. Using your “old” vision from the old team may work, but frankly the new members will just not see why the transition needed to happen. Revisit your vision, tweak it if necessary and really get that vision out to all of the team.
  • Build your support network- there are always folks that you can lean on for real information. Those folks that just tell it like it is. Some from within the organization are nice, but make sure you are getting some of the key partners, support and customers. Need to have a complete 360 view. Nothing worse than having some blind-spots.

There is no perfect solution to any transition. Remember the majority of the churn comes from people, be aware and stay connected. I have witnessed many that had the leader go underground to work out all of the details, by themselves. Come up with the magic sauce and pass it out to all. Then later asks, what is so difficult, I did all the hard stuff…. Well, the magic sauce maybe good, but you forgot that people were out there.

Anyone else have anything that they do that eases transitions?

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Predictions – What I would like to see!

Dec29
2009 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

The days for 2009 are going fast.. By the time some have read this post – we are in 2010 already. I am not one for predicting the future – as if I could I would be independently worthy and enjoying myself on my own island somewhere.  In the spirit of the this time of year, I want to put my top ten list of predictions for the upcoming year. These are in no particular order or category…

  1. The economy will rebound not once but 3 times. We all have heard that the corner has turned, but I predict that we will be turning that corner more than a few times. When will we really see a true turn around?
  2. Role models will not be celebrities or sports figures in the future. Mass media will stop painting them as role models – we don’t need the disappoint. Go back to really showing the true role models. This means – local area news will have to feature ordinary folks doing extra-ordinary stuff for no reason at all. Just because is good enough.
  3. Human interaction has gone more on-line everyday. I predict that dinner time conversations will make a comeback. Verbally discussing the day activities rather than texting, emailing, wall to wall or twittering updates. I am an empty nester now, so – for me that maybe a bit tougher to do, but every chance I get – I want the discussion verbally..
  4. Electronic gadgets will continue to spring up all over the place. My hope is that Intel chips are everywhere.. Which could have an impact on the stock! The only downside – too many gadgets, so little time.
  5.  Arguments around social computing (Enterprise 2.0) technologies internally will move from what and why to implementation of more agile capabilities that do not tie to one size fits all philosophy I see with most companies. I do want my cake and eat it too… Why can’t I have both?
  6. After years of complaints, software vendors will insure that upgrading or their new releases – will not require hours of work to insure that what I already have will work in the new. Seems that every upgrade has me spending hours to relearn, migrate my content or reset up permissions. Enough already – using your stuff was supposed to save me time.
  7. Decisions that I have been putting off – will move to the forefront of my to do list. We all have stuff that we should do, know we should do; but put off due to too many other reasons. I am saying no more excuses… Time to do something for me.
  8. There are way too many overly serious folks in the world. Fun, should not be something that you have to schedule, force or demand. Fun should just happen. Smile more, laugh more. Surprising how better you feel.
  9. Educating the future will become a reality. Budgets will match the expectations of what we want to happen. Time to prioritize the future – and stop living in the past…
  10. I will get to know my neighbors. It is amazing how when I was growing up in the 70′s – every house had a front porch and neighbors used to talk with each other. Today, how many front porches do you see? How many of your neighbors do you really know? For me, I know I have to do better…
Posted in Observations - Tagged , , ,

Motivating Employees

Dec22
2009 Leave a Comment Written by Steve

Last week, I was meeting with a brand new manager. On his request, he wanted to ask a few questions. His first questions took up all of our time together. “How do I motivate my employees?” Wonderful question – one that I first told him to step back and look at the overall work situations and his employee’s.

  • Make sure that their work is meaningful. When the work is meaningful it is much easier to be passionate about what you are doing. Meaning motivation sometimes is truly internal. Helping your employee’s understand how the work contributes to the organization goals helps. Remember, even though you can do that – it does not mean that the employee sees the work as meaningful. Manager role is to help set that vision.
  • For most places I have worked – pay for performance is how employee appraisal system works. Pay is a short term motivating factor in my opinion. If you have regular performance discussions and tie the employee’s goals and work – this should help to motivate.
  • As a manager you need to get to know your employees. Helps to understand what makes your employees tick. Once you get a better understanding, you can insure that you are helping them to achieve their goals or what truly is important to them.
  • Invest in your people. This can be done through coaching, sending them to conferences or training and maybe something as simple as providing them a book on a topic that will help them in the future. You have to make their growth as important as the business goals.
  • Lastly, no matter what – never throw away work. Priorities and business goals change; but the work that was done to a point was important at one time. Throwing it out just demotivates the person. They see all of their work is wasted. Nothing is truly wasted. Wrap the work up with putting some additional cycles documenting where it is, where it could go in the future – and put it on a shelf. You may have to come back to it. Best not to start completely over. I always reward that work, just as I do any other project.

Our decision went into the what next factor… I tried to level set with the new manager – that this is a time consuming effort, if done right. Please do it right. Your employees will see right through you if you are just giving this lip service. The next steps are simple – you will see them just like a map to the other distances in take. Grounding and level setting – help to set the stage for what is next. If you don’t see the next steps – then call me. Or better yet, double check the stuff above.

Any other ideas on how to help motivate employees?

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