Apr

28

Time Will Trick You- Fight Back!

Filed Under All Posts | 8 Comments

Time plays funny games on you sometimes. Last week I picked up our oldest daughter Kate at the conclusion of her first year in college.  Even though I had seen her — perhaps 10 times at intervals during this academic year — it still felt as though I had dropped her off a month ago, or okay, maybe two months at the most.  Then, when I was doing our “man on the street” interviews for my radio show this week, I asked a fellow about receiving recognition, and he said: “well it’s been about 20 years since I was recognized at work.” Holy smokes, time sure can get away from you.

Consider one implication from each of these stories.  The story about Kate offers this lesson: Although things may seem so much the same, things are changing all the time.  Our customers, context, employees, and technology — just to name a few factors — are always changing, and arguably changing at a faster rate than ever before.  So taking time out to note those changes and adapt is essential.  I was consulting to a management team at a great company, and I was asking them how they could radically heighten their workers’ sense of ownership.  I thought there was an awful lot of merit in one gentleman’s suggestion.  He said he was thinking of taking a hiatus for a week from his management meetings and instead getting completely immersed in the work of the teams that reported to him.  He sensed quite well that things have surely changed since he was in their positions.  (In much the same way I plan on just listening and observing how my “new” daughter has evolved.)

When the “man on the street” said it had been 20 years since he was (formally) recognized at work, my first instinct was to laugh, then to cry, and finally to say “it’s really just not so surprising that 20 years could pass with no one keeping score. Time flies.”  But the obvious moral of the story is this: People need to be told what they’re doing well and told often.  Time can slip away on you (as can taken-for-granted employees).  You assume they know that they’re playing a great role.  You think you told them last week, or was it last month.  “What?” you say.  “It wasn’t last year?  It was some time in the 20th century that they received that recognition from the CEO?”  So before this day ticks away on you, look for some people to recognize, appreciate, and encourage for their good work.  Maybe order those plaques or rings or cheesecakes or Tigers tickets or movie passes, or something fun to recognize a job well done.  (By the way, in chapter 7 of Adrian Gostick’s new book The Levity Effect: Why it Pays to Lighten up At Work, you can find 142 ways to have fun at work.)

Time, like rust, never sleeps.  Stay alert and alive

To lead with your best self!

Apr

21

Your Responses Last Week Were Like Dynamite

Filed Under All Posts | 8 Comments

Friends,

Last week I wondered aloud with you why no one had addressed the issues in the prior week’s Reading for Leading, about managing up. Among the huge number of terrifically intriguing responses, came this one from Tony in Kalamazoo: “Looking at the number of responses this week vs. last week puts me in mind of Robert Redford’s line as the Sundance Kid: ‘Think ya’ used enough dynamite there, Butch?’” LOL as they say.

Consider this analogy. In some respects, I am in a position of relative authority with respect to the reader. Like a boss, it falls to me to set the tone or agenda, at least in this small virtual space that I occupy. Like “real” authority figures, I know that my work is much more effective when more people weigh in, sharing their views, their thoughts and feelings. And like authority figures at work I proceed in a routine fashion. From time to time, I ask — more or less explicitly — for your feedback. Two weeks ago I received virtually none. But then look what happened when I went out of my way through multiple links to the blog in the text and through repeated requests for your input: it blew up like dynamite!

Which one of us as a boss, parent, teacher, principal, pastor… does not think in their own mind that they are open to, no, seek, no, thrive upon, no need input and feedback? Yet which one of us hasn’t fallen into certain routines that make it almost inevitable that we will receive next to no feedback in the routine of our days and weeks?

Perhaps the greatest truism in sales and in development work is, “you won’t get the sale unless you ask for the order!” Managing’s the same. So if you feel like you are bearing the load, or just not engaging and involving your teams, you should step outside the routine and quite explicitly, emphatically and repeatedly seek input. If you don’t believe me, spend a few minutes reading some of the comments in last week’s blog, for they make it so abundantly clear that many people find huge obstacles when it comes to managing up. Many find it useless if not downright dangerous. If you want their input, you better systematically remove barriers and plow open routes for input. You’ve got to go out of your way to bring them into your way, and thereby

Lead with your best self!

Dan

Apr

14

Your Unusual Silence on Managing Up

Filed Under All Posts, Reading for Leading | 96 Comments

Friends,

Friends,
Do you make anything of this? Last Monday I wrote about “managing up.” I got only 4 blog comments, three of which were random attacks on the Governor that were unrelated to my column. Typically 15-20 people weigh in. Then on my radio show this week the topic in the call-in hour was the same: how to manage up. And not a single call! I don’t think it’s accidental. I’ll tell you what I think, and I hope to hear what you think.
First, “managing up” can be a scary proposition. I imagine there were people who would have loved to call in and get some advice on handling a challenging boss, but those same people might have understandably been afraid to talk about it publicly. What if the boss heard?! I also suspect that people feel rather hopeless when it comes to this topic. “Geez,” I imagine them saying, “It’s hard enough to manage down, to manage your kids or your team, let alone to manage your boss or your parents!”
I’d love to hear whether you think this is true (you can blog with a pseudonym or anonymously). Do you aspire to managing up? Or do you think it’s too dangerous? Do you think you should try to manage up – i.e., is it the job of all us who wish to lead, to lead those who are the formal leaders? I suspect this could be a robust exchange, especially if we drop the gloves of abstraction and actually write honestly about how we approach leading up. Do you manage up? Why, or why not? What holds you back? And what works? I fervently invite you to contribute to this week’s blog and read what others have to say.
Here’s my take on it. I think managing up is risky. And I think there are genuine limits to how much you can get a manager to change his or her practices. But I think most of the time it’s worth the risk. If you lead with your best self, you will almost inevitably engage the formal leader(s) to share information, question assumptions, offer ideas, and otherwise act with ownership. I hope you might take a little ownership of this important conversation, and comment this week, as you
Lead with your best self,

Friends,

Do you make anything of this? Last Monday I wrote about “managing up.” I got only 4 blog comments, three of which were random attacks on the Governor that were unrelated to my column. Typically 15-20 people weigh in. Then on my radio show this week the topic in the call-in hour was the same: how to manage up. And not a single call! I don’t think it’s accidental. I’ll tell you what I think, and I hope to hear what you think.

First, “managing up” can be a scary proposition. I imagine there were people who would have loved to call in and get some advice on handling a challenging boss, but those same people might have understandably been afraid to talk about it publicly. What if the boss heard?! I also suspect that people feel rather hopeless when it comes to this topic. “Geez,” I imagine them saying, “It’s hard enough to manage down, to manage your kids or your team, let alone to manage your boss or your parents!”

I’d love to hear whether you think this is true (you can blog with a pseudonym or anonymously). Do you aspire to managing up? Or do you think it’s too dangerous? Do you think you should try to manage up – i.e., is it the job of all us who wish to lead, to lead those who are the formal leaders? I suspect this could be a robust exchange, especially if we drop the gloves of abstraction and actually write honestly about how we approach leading up. Do you manage up? Why, or why not? What holds you back? And what works? I fervently invite you to contribute to this week’s blog and read what others have to say.

Here’s my take on it. I think managing up is risky. And I think there are genuine limits to how much you can get a manager to change his or her practices. But I think most of the time it’s worth the risk. If you lead with your best self, you will almost inevitably engage the formal leader(s) to share information, question assumptions, offer ideas, and otherwise act with ownership. I hope you might take a little ownership of this important conversation, and comment this week, as you

Lead with your best self

Apr

10

This is not a blog about politics

Filed Under All Posts | 5 Comments

John P, Dave, and Mark B.,

For the first time since I turned “Reading for Leading” into a blog I have chosen to “moderate” it - in this case to remove  your coments from my blogspace.  I’m sure you expect that I don’t agree with your political views, but that’s not why I am turning you out.  This is a place for people to discuss how THEY are attempting to lead.  It’s a place for discussion and even for self reflection.  If you read through the archives you will find lots of people disagree with me, question me, complement my views (or compliment me) and together, I hope, we are learning to lead more effectively.  Your comments just don’t fit here.

Your messages barely even attempt (John P tries with one feeble opening line) to be relevant to the topic of “managing up.”   Managing up is vastly different than “complaining up,” which is what 99% of political blogtalk is.  And this is not a site for political blogtalk.  Kindly find another place to “complain up,” or even fashion compelling rational arguments about my wife’s policies or leadership.

I will continue to engage RELEVANT discussions about her leadership; I am both open and intrigued by that.  But this site is devoted to people interested in “leading with their best self,” not fundamentally ”complaining that Jennifer isn’t leading with her self.”

Thanks for understanding. 

Apr

7

A Fun Take on Whether Managers Are Manageable

Filed Under All Posts, frontpage | 6 Comments

Friends,

Fifteen minutes before we went on the air on Saturday morning, I said to Frank, my technical producer: “Hey, do you think you can find an audio clip of Tony the Tiger saying ‘they’re G-r-r-r-r-eat?’” I explained that it would be fun to play it to introduce Kathi Elster and Katherine Crowley, who were joining me to give advice to listeners on workplace issues. Frank said, “It’s kind of last minute, but I’ll see if I can.” What do you do when your supervisor makes a stretch – if not totally unreasonable – request of you? Dan and Chip Heath in an article in this month’s Fast Company magazine offered some fun and effective thoughts on how to deal with situations like this in their article “Your Boss is a Monkey.”*
The Heath brothers offer that you would do well to think about “managing your boss” in the same way that exotic animal trainers alter the behavior of their charges. The Heaths offer 3 rules: ignore bad behavior (instead of getting manipulated by it); realize that all interactions matter; and reward good behavior! So, if I were a habitual last-minute manager, and you wanted to have some impact with me, you would first, ignore my bad behavior, i.e., don’t get all bent out of shape by it. Don’t let the monkey, elephant, lion, or manager think you’re flustered by his insolence, irreverence, etc. Neither cower nor shriek nor, for gosh sake, run away! Stay in control.
Second, realize that your behavior will always teach the animal a lesson. So, if you bail me out again at the last minute, I’ll learn: “I can do this last-minute stuff, and it’ll all work out. Sweet! Or, as the teenagers say, ‘Solid!’” Frank did a good job with me. He told me it was last minute and he’d see if he could. In this case, he couldn’t, so this monkey, me will feed into my mental model: I may need to ask Frank sooner than the last minute next time I need something from him.
Third, the Heaths say: reward good behavior. So, for example, when I actually give “Reading for Leading” to my team to format before midnight on Sunday, commend me on my thoughtfulness, promptness, etc. And don’t forget: it takes a LONG time to train a monkey! So you have to patiently seize and celebrate all the small wins along the way.
The ‘boss as monkey” theory raises plenty of questions, but in two short pages the Heaths offer an intriguing idea for managing your manager. It’s also an interesting mirror to hold up to yourself as the monkey-manager! I thought it was good enough to distribute the article to my team. I hope they’ll all keep training me, because the better I am for them, the better we’ll produce together. You need that kind of input to
Lead with your best self!
Dan
* You can find the Heath’s article entitled “Your Boss Is a Monkey.” at http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/124/your-boss-is-a-monkey.htmFriends,

Fifteen minutes before we went on the air on Saturday morning, I said to Frank, my technical producer: “Hey, do you think you can find an audio clip of Tony the Tiger saying ‘they’re G-r-r-r-r-eat?’” I explained that it would be fun to play it to introduce Kathi Elster and Katherine Crowley, who were joining me to give advice to listeners on workplace issues. Frank said, “It’s kind of last minute, but I’ll see if I can.” What do you do when your supervisor makes a stretch – if not totally unreasonable – request of you? Dan and Chip Heath in an article in this month’s Fast Company magazine offered some fun and effective thoughts on how to deal with situations like this in their article “Your Boss is a Monkey.”*

The Heath brothers offer that you would do well to think about “managing your boss” in the same way that exotic animal trainers alter the behavior of their charges. The Heaths offer 3 rules: ignore bad behavior (instead of getting manipulated by it); realize that all interactions matter; and reward good behavior! So, if I were a habitual last-minute manager, and you wanted to have some impact with me, you would first, ignore my bad behavior, i.e., don’t get all bent out of shape by it. Don’t let the monkey, elephant, lion, or manager think you’re flustered by his insolence, irreverence, etc. Neither cower nor shriek nor, for gosh sake, run away! Stay in control.

Second, realize that your behavior will always teach the animal a lesson. So, if you bail me out again at the last minute, I’ll learn: “I can do this last-minute stuff, and it’ll all work out. Sweet! Or, as the teenagers say, ‘Solid!’” Frank did a good job with me. He told me it was last minute and he’d see if he could. In this case, he couldn’t, so this monkey, me will feed into my mental model: I may need to ask Frank sooner than the last minute next time I need something from him.

Third, the Heaths say: reward good behavior. So, for example, when I actually give “Reading for Leading” to my team to format before midnight on Sunday, commend me on my thoughtfulness, promptness, etc. And don’t forget: it takes a LONG time to train a monkey! So you have to patiently seize and celebrate all the small wins along the way.

The ‘boss as monkey” theory raises plenty of questions, but in two short pages the Heaths offer an intriguing idea for managing your manager. It’s also an interesting mirror to hold up to yourself as the monkey-manager! I thought it was good enough to distribute the article to my team. I hope they’ll all keep training me, because the better I am for them, the better we’ll produce together. You need that kind of input to

Lead with your best self!

Dan

* You can find the Heath’s article entitled “Your Boss Is a Monkey.” at http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/124/your-boss-is-a-monkey.html.

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