Tag Archive for Vision

| January 15, 2013
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Survey Says…

Over the past year with working with different organizations and industries, I used those contacts to run a survey of the employee base. It was one to help me with understanding what employees did not like that their managers were doing. This is not a scientific survey, just me asking people questions about their experiences with the direct manager. It is always easier to look at the bad in a situation to help learn.  Here are top five items (with some quick fixes) from my experiences.

  1. Surprises.  This should come as no surprise, but this was highlighted in almost 95% of the folks surveyed. Highlighted in the comments were simply, “I like to know what is happening and not guess what daily change or mood swing is coming.” Very telling! What can you do: Make sure that you have a daily dialogue with your team. Insure that you are being transparent with them. Don’t make surprises the norm.
  2. Unfair. 94% responded about managers playing favorites or treating someone different that the rest. With many companies still using a performance appraisal system, this time of year is very telling with unfairness. What can you do: The simplest of items is probably the most difficult for managers, be a role model for your team. Be consistent in how you follow the rules and delivering consequences for not following the rules.
  3. Missing Leader. There are two particular items that stood out with this one. The first one was, folks felt like the manager was not around or sat in their office. Coming out when they felt like they had too. The other one was the leader that was out of touch with their team. Either way, the manager is not there. What you can do: My favorite term here is management by walking around. As the manager, you get to see, hear and discuss with the team what is happening. Being a part of the team will make you more successful in the long run.
  4. Empty talk or action. Personally, I would have thought this one would have been higher (I guess managers are getting much better at this one). The comments here were all around leaders that don’t do what they say they are going to do. Nothing frustrates them more than having critical matters sit undecided because of the manager hasn’t gotten to it yet. What can you do: Be accountable! If you say you are going to do something, then you better do it. Step up and lead your team. I know that sounds harsh, but that is the easiest thing you can do.
  5. Unclear goals. There are two ways to look at unclear goals – there are none or they are so grand. Either way, it is hard for the team to understand what is expected of them. What you can do: I have written a lot about goal setting. The simplest way to make sure that the goals are clear and the team knows what is expected is to involve them. This will help them understand the goal and how best to contribute in achieving them.

Learning from mistakes is easier than learning from your success. Using a critical filter can always help. Managing your team is difficult. The best piece of advice I received was to spend time with your team. Get to know them. Work along side of them. Listen and watch – you will learn lots.

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Category: Leadership, New To Management | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
| December 5, 2012
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You Are Only As Good As Your People

One important item that a US Army Colonel told me when I was just a newbie second lieutenant, “you are only as good as your people.” My first assignment was a platoon leader in an engineering company. He made it very clear that my success would be directly tied to the overall success of my platoon. I can think back over my career and remember managers that frankly never understood that principle. Their success was probably at the expense of their team. I can safely say that that the Colonel’s one piece of advice I have carried with me for many years.

The Colonel went on deeper to give me a basic understanding of what that meant. He shared that my platoon has experiences that I don’t have. I need to learn to listen before acting. Lastly, never forget that you are here for them. Over my years of experience, I have learned to hone in on what I believe should go into that one principle.

  • Train Them Well: Provide every one of your people with the necessary training to be able to do their job in an outstanding manner. Average is not good enough. Many times we see situations or outcomes that look like they just go by. That is because we are okay with accepting just getting by or average work. I am competitive and average is not good enough. The military taught me that average could get someone killed. Be outstanding and your mission will be successful (and everyone will come home!).
  • Coach Them Up: Ensuring that they are prepared 100%. Giving them your expectations, the schedule and following up along the way. Recently I posted about coaching 3 and 4 year olds in soccer. Those players wanted to be win (even though we did not keep score) and they wanted their parents (and my) approval. Giving them the expectations and helping coach them before, during and after the game helped them to improve and do some pretty amazing things. This by no means is an easy task, but one that you need to really develop.
  • Listen To Them: It is so easy for managers and leaders to do all the talking. I think it is expected. A great leader listens more than they speak. As a newbie second lieutenant or a newbie manager, you don’t know everything. In fact, you probably don’t know much. Those eyes that are looking at you, do. Ask questions and make sure that you truly listen. The information you get could insure that you get it right.
  • Have Fun: Some of you are thinking, why is having fun in with you are only as good as your people? Well, that is simple. Think about how much time you spend at work. Quite a bit right? Think about your best job or activity that quickly comes to your mind. What is some thing that made that stand out in your head? For me, it is we worked hard and played hard together and accomplished some pretty incredible things. We had fun doing it!

If you are in a leadership position and don’t think your success is dependent upon your team’s success – you are going to fail.

Category: Leadership, New To Management | Tags: , , , , , ,
| October 3, 2012
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Is It Hard For Large Companies To Innovate?

After spending most of my working adult life inside a large company, you get to witness many things. Some would probably call them the good, bad and ugly. How many articles, blog posts and conversations have you been a part of that talks about “you must innovate” to continue to succeed? Can you really innovate in a large company?  If you are in a large company or have worked in a large company, think about that for a minute.  Pause… What is your definition of truly innovating? Take out the tweaks to what you are already doing. I would like you to think about those innovations that transform what the company is doing. Now, is there innovation happening?

I think it can happen, but it must be stressed and discussed at almost every turn. From my experience, many large companies have put in a lot of “systems” to insure that decisions or budget or product changes or whatever are following some version of “red” tape. Necessary? Yes, to a point. I feel that those “systems” cause many of the employee base to shy away from innovating. Why?

  • Fear of making a mistake. We all are told to “think outside of the box” or take a risk, but with many in a large company, make a mistake and you could be the person that is at the bottom of the performance curve. Taking risks and making mistakes can not be punished. All you have to think about is the mistake that invented the post-it note (the glue that just did not stick as well as it should have). I don’t want to tell you how many times I witnessed  that risk taker get singled out for not performing like the others. The first time it happens in a department, risk taking goes straight out the window. No words can bring it back.
  • Setting up “innovation programs” don’t work. Let me clarify the “program” a bit. These are those programs that have a sponsor, list of ideas, committees that review the ideas, approval processes, tracking approved projects and rewarding those “successful” innovators. Placing red tape completely around innovation. That does not really get innovation or does it? From  my experience it just gives you tweaks to what you already have. Usually those that are administering the “innovation system” are not entrepreneurial spirits but process certified folks. I would argue that many employees  will shy away from “red” tape.
  • Actions speak louder than words. Ever sit in a department update meeting and count the number of times the word “innovation” was used? Try it in your next large department meeting. Makes you want to get going on innovating. Then off you go! Once down that path. How did it go? With most large companies, it was a painful process. If you “really” wanted to fight city hall all the way – you would be exhausted and tell your co-workers about your experience. Actions are real (and in most cases shared with the rest).

What does it take for a large company to innovate? Right off the top there truly needs to be within the culture of the organization of entrepreneurial spirit. Thinking and acting like an entrepreneur. Time must be given within the daily order of business. If the “day job” is all time consuming, how in the world will people get to be thinking or working on something innovative. If you must have a process, make sure that it is very lean. Take out the many review committees, long templates and death by data analysis. Keep it simple (stupid). Lastly, reward every for their attempts at innovation. There is success in failure (you just have to look). I would say, it is better to focus on those that don’t or are not working on innovation. Make that a priority in their professional development plan. If you want that organization to be innovative… You must innovate your organization away from what they are doing today.

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Category: Leadership, Observations | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,
| September 7, 2012
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Who and What Do You Follow?

What question could be more closer in people’s minds than right now? We are now in the last legs of our US political race for many very important seats. In the past, I have been very critical of using the term leadership with political candidates. Leadership is a term that I really have a hard time with placing with our political candidates. They really have a hard time with the basics of true leadership. Here are the basic traits that I like to see in any leader… When you read these – think about what you are going to do in November.. Think about what you will see and hear over the next couple of months..

  •  Must have a vision. You have to stand for something, or you will fall for everything. It is simple for us to listen to someone speak! Do the words you are hearing, actually match the actions of the past. I say past, because that is actually the only way to actually validate the words to actions. I really think if a person has follow through in the past, they will usually continue that trend in the future. If the position changes like the political landscape, I think that candidate is going to be falling for everything.
  •  You must have a passion. Passion is something that I can really get behind. Let’s face it, with political folks, they have been schooled in speak making. What you have to really look and listen for – is a true passion. Speaking well is not always a sign of passion. Look at their facial expressions, look for signs of real feelings that match the face to the words that are spoken.
  •  Must be a good decision maker. How are decisions made? Almost every leader has “their” process for how decision are going to be made. Do they share that process with us? Transparency is key! We all know that decision making is something that can be extremely difficult with our political system that we have today. Especially now. The test is to look at what the past has to offer. Another item to look at is – if the decision is not working, can the leader step up and make a change. Really we need some pretty tough decisions to be made..
  •  You must be a team builder. Getting everyone to work together in tough times is very difficult. Our political system definitely adds layer of difficulty that is not seen in most businesses. Our party system is not working well.. In fact, I would say that it is making it almost impossible to actually get anything done for the better of our future. I don’t mean that we have to elect “yes” folks but we do need to elect people that are actually willing to work together. To find common ground to make improvements. Doing what we have done in the past, is a recipe for disaster in the future. No one is always right!
  •  You must have character. We all have character. We have been shaped, molded and have developed our character as we have grown up. Do our candidates demonstrate character? Are they proud of their upbringing and what shaped them in who they are today? Do they hide some of who and what they are? Without character – the above other traits are plain useless..

We have some very difficult decisions to make.. We all have our own set of filters that we apply to our decisions. Our character, so to speak. What we have to watch out for is the words that haven’t match the past actions. We have to demand that our political folks – work together in order to move forward. Enough of this party rhetoric and start thinking what is best for our children’s children. We have to make sure that we stop the petty stuff (hiding the grey hair, what color tie to wear, the cost of the clothes you wear, where you went to school – just to name a few) that has no bearing on what is really going on.

I hope that people will actually make the best decision that they can when it comes to voting for the candidate that you think will do the best job. Time to stop listening to other tell you what you should do.. Time for you to get educated, make an informed decision without the help of the news media (especially those that are one sided on their reporting), or TV ads that don’t tie to facts. Time for us to listen to their words, think about what they are actually saying and what they are attempting to do. Review their public history. Do some fact checking on your own.

Look at one example… Balancing the budget. Both sides have pointed out that balancing the budget is important. We all have to balance our “own” budget.. We know that there is only few options to balance the budget. Reduce spending and increasing revenues… For us at home, we have to increase our salaries or get a second/third jobs to increase revenue. For the government – they can increase taxes on individuals and/or businesses. Reduce spending at home is not going out to dinner as often or making a purchase that you just can not pay for. For the government – they can look for ways to reduce spending – reduce budget for services or find more efficient ways to provide those services. Reduce overall salaries and/or jobs within the government. Simple arithmetic works.. With the debt the way it is, you have no choice but to do both (increase revenue, reduce spending).

Get educated, please…

 

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Category: Observations | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
| July 20, 2012
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Volunteering – A Real Thrill

Since my retirement, I have been doing some volunteering (working without pay) for some great organizations (Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arizona and Az4Education). The work that I have done for both vary as much as their missions do. It has been a total thrill and fun to be part of them.

With Big Brothers Big Sisters, BBBS, I help out in two ways. The first is my helping with orientation every month or so. This allows me to see the “new” potential “Bigs” go through their first look at BBBS. The programs that BBBS offers and how the Bigs can help. It is great to see their faces light up when they see how they can help a child out. My other role was to facilitate running the first cultural survey for the organization. Over 90% of the organization participated by responding. There were many thoughtful comments from the organizations members. The cool part for me was rolling up the data and providing my initial thoughts from the data. This allowed me to use my leadership skills to read between the lines (and comments). I was able to present the information to a number of different layers within the organization. What I really enjoy is watching the transformation that is started within the organization. The executive team still talks about the results when they are looking ahead. Awesome stuff.

I started volunteering for Az4Education over a year and a half. My passion for seeing our future be brighter drove me to wanting to help out. I had never really done my outside marketing and with this organization, I get my chance. I get to use my love of social media, education and leading teams to good use. I don’t want to use my personal blog to sell you on the Az4Education mission, but please check it out… What we were able to do this past month was truly a thrill. We got to award scholarships to students. I wrote on Az4Education this “This year we received over 200% more scholarship applications than 2011. As a board member and volunteer for Az4Education it makes me proud to award as many scholarships to deserving students and families as possible.” This was my second time awarding scholarships, it made all of the work well worth it!

Volunteering can be a real thrill. When I discuss this with others, they sometimes point out the negatives to volunteering. Some folks get discouraged due to the starts/stops or the standing around or the feeling that the organization really does not know what to do with volunteers. For me, those a pains in almost everything. I look past that. I put myself in and what I get out is so much more!

The folks at BBBS, thanked me for the culture survey with a polo shirt. I will be wearing that shirt with pride every time I wear it!

Category: Leadership, Observations | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
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