Category: Leadership Skills

Everyone in management has gone through the transition from individual contributor to manager. Each person finds his/her own way to “survive.” The following guidelines will help you to keep your perspective and your health.

1. Monitor your work hours.

The first visible, undeniable sign that things are out of hand is that you are working far too many hours. Note how many hours you are working per week. Set a limit and stick to that limit. Ask your peers or boss for help.

2. Recognize your own signs of stress.

Different people show their stress in different ways. Some people have “blow ups.” Some people get very forgetful. Some people lose concentration. For many people, they excel at their jobs, but their home life falls apart. Know your signs of stress. Tell someone else what they are. Ask them to check in with you every two weeks to see how you are doing. Every two weeks, write down how you are doing – if only for a minute. Stick in it a file marked “%*#)%&!!#$.”

3. Get a mentor or a coach.

Ideally, your supervisor is a very good mentor and coach. Many other people have “been there, done that” and can also serve as great mentors to you.

4. Learn to delegate.

Delegating is giving others the responsibility and authority to carry out tasks. You maintain the accountability to get them done, but you let others decide how they will carry out the tasks themselves. Delegation is a skill to learn. Start learning it.

5. Communicate as much as you can.

Consider the following guidelines:

a. Have at least one person in your life with whom you are completely honest.

b. Hold regular meetings with employees – all of them in one meeting at least once a month, and meet at least once every two weeks with each of your direct reports. A common problem among new managers and supervisors (or among experienced, but ineffective ones) is not meeting unless there is something to say. There is always something to communicate, even if to say that things are going well and then share the health of your pets.

c. Err on the side of too much communication, rather than not enough. New managers and supervisors often assume that their employees know as much as they do. One of the first signs of an organization in trouble is that communications break down.

6. Distinguish between what is important and what is urgent.

One of the major lessons that experienced leaders have learned is to respond to what is important, rather than what is urgent. Phone calls, sick employees, lost paperwork, disagreements between employees all seem to suddenly crop up and demand immediate attention. It can seem like your day is responding to one crisis after another. As you gain experience, you quit responding to the crisis. You get an answering machine or someone else to answer the phone. You plan for employees being gone for the day – and you accept that people get sick. You develop a filing system to keep track of your paperwork. You learn basic skills in conflict management. Most important, you recognize that management is a process – you never really “finish” your to-do list – your list is there to help you keep track of details. Over time, you learn to relax.

7. Recognize accomplishments.

Our society promotes problem solvers. We solve one problem and quickly move on to the next. The culture of many organizations rewards problem solvers. Once a problem is solved, we quickly move on to the next one to solve. Pretty soon we feel empty. We feel as if we are not making a difference. Our subordinates do, too. So in all your plans, include time to acknowledge accomplishments – if only by having a good laugh by the coffee machine. Do take time to note that something useful was done.

————————————————————————-

Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD – Authenticity Consulting, LLC – 800-971-2250
Read my weekly blogs: Boards, Consulting and OD, Nonprofits and Strategic Planning.

Self limiting beliefs are a group of thought processes and feelings that hold us back and cause us to maintain the status quo. They are normal – the key is to be aware of them so you can be at choice.

Here are some terms related to Self Limiting Beliefs:

• Negative self talk
• Inner critic
• Noise
• Distraction
• Comfort zone
• Lack of confidence

How to determine when Self Limiting Beliefs are present:

• There is a lot of struggle – “this will be hard”
• You are stuck
• The same issue presents itself over and over
• You use words such as “I can’t”, “I need to”, or “I have to” vs. “I can” ,“I will”, or I want to”
• There is a fear of failure or “What will people think?”

Here are some ways to deal with Self Limiting Beliefs:

• Identify it – realize that a self limiting belief is present. Then choose to move past it
• Antidote using a prior positive experience – such as “I ran a marathon – I can certainly do this”
• Challenge yourself – “I am bigger than this barrier”; “I have it within me to move beyond this doubt”
• Future pull – “My vision is really important to me – when I focus on it, I will find a way”
• Different perspective – Look at the situation through the eyes of success. “Act as if” what you intend to do is already a reality.

For more resources, see the Library topic Personal and Professional Coaching.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pam Solberg-Tapper MHSA, PCC – I spark entrepreneurial business leaders to set strategy, take action, and get results. How can I help you? Contact me at CoachPam@cpinternet.com ~ Linkedin ~ 218-340-3330

When I facilitated the PDCP Change Process (Blog March 2, Leading Adaptive Change) I was neither leading nor managing the actual work – the joy and frustration of being a facilitator. Observing leaders and managers who were at the working surface (the point where things actually happen) I realized the following:

During times of Adaptive Change every meeting, conversation, report, and process is an opportunity to move the organization toward their vision of the future. Rolling out the PDCP gave the whole organization a chance to look at everything we did with fresh eyes. This generated numerous spin-off change initiatives that contributed to our overall success. To ensure you get the most out of this opportunity change leadership must become distributed.

Before you get apoplexy, let’s explore this idea and see what it means for improving the success of change. By distributed change leadership I don’t mean that the org chart changes or that power and authority suddenly shift or are diluted. I do mean that many people in the organization understand and can perform the role of Adaptive Change Leader in the appropriate situation. I use the term role to mean a set of accountabilities that can be assumed by any individual given the proper knowledge and situation.

Take, for example, Woodside Manufacturing (fictitious name) a company bringing together three diverse teams into a new 150 person operating unit. The executive team kicked off an intentional change cycle to create an integrated culture. They shared the visioning process and everyone was on board, except nothing happened. On paper the boxes and lines made total sense, but after nearly a year things are slow to gel, performance is lagging, and the executive team feels like they are “herding cats.” Behaviors and habits are hard to change when culture (or in this case, three cultures) continues to support them.

To begin the executive team came together to understand what accountabilities they were assigning to this role. Then, they sought out change agents (identified by their actions rather than volunteerism) and worked with them to learn the role of Adaptive Change Leader so they could perform it during their daily work. For Woodside Manufacturing introducing the role of Adaptive Change Leader gave people a chance to get some skin in the game. It established people throughout the organization who fully understand what change the executive team was trying to achieve (Vision) and why it mattered (alignment to Purpose). This role differs from the role of Manager, who focuses on how the change will be accomplished and who will do what.

Key to the success of distributed leadership for Adaptive Change is the adoption of a new perspective. In this case that meant the individual change leaders held themselves accountable for keeping the cultural change moving forward through experimentation and integration of diverse ideas, processes, and ways of getting things done. During meetings, conversations, and activities Adaptive Change Leaders used inquiry to encourage their colleagues to experience the transactional, transitional, and transformational aspects of change. For example:

• Are there others we could engage in this process who would benefit from what we’re doing?
• Is there something we need to let go of to move this forward?
• Is there another way to do this that aligns better with our vision?

Notice that they are not expected have the answers, in fact, this role was one of provocateur.

As formal leaders within the organization managed the “who and how” of culture change, the actions of these distributed leaders reduced the transactional costs and encouraged cross-pollination between the three groups. Their leadership was particularly important as teams and individuals went through the cauldron, pulled by the red line of emotional transition and unsure of the way forward. An example of this was the introduction of patient flow modeling during the PDCP. Four people actively assumed the role of Adaptive Change Leader for this process and it took every one of them to make it happen. This informal group evaluated available products, presented their findings to management, learned how to correctly use the product chosen, and began implementing its use across the Therapeutic Areas. Where did they come from? Finance, Market Research, Global Marketing, and Project Management – you couldn’t have picked these people, they were self-selected and in an environment of open experimentation changed the way we did business by assuming the role of Adaptive Change Leader.

“I don’t think I know anyone who can honestly say that he or she doesn’t want to be a success. Do you?” asks June Melvin Mickens, J.D. of Executive Advantage, LLC, in her E. A. INSIGHT newsletter article, The Good Boss: How to Be (or Recognize) One.

“What’s interesting, though, is that usually many of us talk about wanting to achieve success, but we often spend little, if any, time really figuring out how success in a role looks and how we match up against that externally or self-imposed standard.”

So we have to ask if we are looking at training: “What qualities do people value and respect in superiors, peers, or other leaders?” Again, Mickens has the right idea, and this time I think it can be applied in how we train our leaders and managers.

In my Federal agency’s national training center, I developed, managed and trained courses in leadership, management development, train-the-trainer, and customer service. Obviously the most complicated is the Leadership training. It encompasses a variety of techniques and theories, but unlike the other courses mentioned above that can be trained using in a mostly how-to fashion, training leadership is different. But it was the established training so we taught them all. Were these various techniques helpful? Perhaps. More, I think, they were helpful in teaching what leaders should be, and what theories are used to describe leaders than to actually train them to be leaders themselves.

As talked about in various leadership theories, we hear about the The Big Five, referring to the five traits that make a good leader. Let’s see if we can’t take the five points that Mickens refers to that helps identify “The Good Boss” and see how they stack up against the The Big Five. I’m sure there are similarities and differences, but ultimately I think you’ll see yet another way to look at training leaders, bosses, creative management, etc.

1. “Good bosses are productive,” she says. Most bosses wouldn’t be there if they weren’t productive, but as Mickens maintains, it must be in a good way. Productivity should not go over budget, and should not be without acknowledging the work of others in the process. At work here is intelligence and conscientiousness of The Big Five. Intelligence in the masterminding achieving results and the Conscientiousness, the caring for others.
2. “Good bosses communicate well.” Leadership theory does reflect that the effective leader must be able to communicate the plan, enlist and motivate others in the execution of the plan. Not only that, as a good communicator, he or she knows that communication goes both ways. So, a good leader listens as much as he or she talks. Good communicators are also observant and know their audience as a good leader should know his or her people.
3. The fact that good bosses nurture relationships makes sense; it is the way to get work done efficiently and profitably. More importantly, a solid relationship bonds the employee to the company through its leadership. Although some may not agree, I think the long term commitment to company well-being should trump immediate productivity profits.
4. The idea of personal growth and professional development of not only the leader/boss and his or her employees does, too. As people we all seek growth both inside and outside the organization, and it is important for the leader to model that behavior. “People work diligently for and rally behind leaders whom they know desire, and are helping, to make them stronger,” she says. Although it could be controversial, leaders should seek out opportunities from inside and outside the company for their people as well as themselves in order to grow. The company is not always going to be exactly as it is today. Professional development and personal growth demonstrate forward thinking, a positive for any company.
5. Mickens’ final factor is leadership, a descriptive profile:

“They are responsible, having learned first to lead themselves effectively and consistently before seeking or accepting the role of leading others. They are good followers, understanding that the respect and effort they afford those who lead them provides a model of respect and effort for those whom they lead. They are accountable, taking seriously the trust placed in them by the organization and by the team, and doing their best to steward that trust well. They are confident, acknowledging the gifts and talents they have been given and, in an assured manner, using those strengths to enhance the organization and its people. They are authentic, not shying away from letting people know the real them — as appropriate, laughing, crying, getting angry, being concerned…being a real person and not a cardboard cutout or an aloof persona. They are thermostats, setting the environment in their teams (and sometimes beyond) rather than thermometers, simply reflecting the temperature of what’s happening around them.”

Taking these factors and looking at them in terms of training leadership may change the way we look at leadership in general. It means we can forget some of the theories and history, or at least de-emphasize them. Focus our training on developing those characteristics that reflect the company image and motivation.

No longer can we think of Leadership training as merely advanced management development with superior communication skills thrown in, or advanced training for a really smart manager whose ideas in the past have proven profitable, or advanced training for the experienced manager.

Are we looking at leadership training programs through professional development, meditation to help them create and innovate, exercises for the brain, muses and mentors? Perhaps, a little, but more than anything we need to simplify and focus on what we want as an outcome. Outcome based training: Isn’t that what we’re after?

What we want to create as an outcome deserves a repeat of what June Mickens says earlier: Leaders that “are thermostats, setting the environment in their teams (and sometimes beyond) rather than thermometers, simply reflecting the temperature of what’s happening around them.”

There is something to be said for learning that comes from other leaders and mentors. However, does that learning in itself develop creative leadership in others, or mimicry of the status quo?

And is there really a difference in a regular leader and a creative leader if we use this current definition. Aren’t all leaders by this definition creative? Independent problem-solving and decision-making, by any expert’s reckoning seem to rank at the top of the traits a leader must exhibit–period. We always say “creative” leaders should think “outside the box” enough to drive a cliché over the cliff, but I’ve yet to come up with a better term. “Outside of the box” thinking is what I expect of any leader, and to do it effectively.

The simplified definition by Wikipedia says a leader is someone who has the ability to organize others to accomplish a common task. There is the debate between the age-old situational leadership, where a leader could be a leader in some instance and not in others, with the more current individual traits theory that looks to certain traits we will find in the people who accomplish great things. Through this observation, we say leaders must have certain traits to succeed.

With current technology and statistical trends we can develop that further. The times make the man–a throwback to situational theory, but remains true when times are tough, and when there is pressure to survive, some leaders emerge. Certain traits not seen before appear and are applied successfully. The emergent leader that is often seen in the corporate or business world based on perceived performance and dedication to the team effort or company effort is the same emergent leader that is favored in military training. The corporate leader who emerges during a crisis can have the same faults, flaws or imperfections when times change.

In military officer training, regardless of service, field exercise problems are used to observe the behavior of others to see who will lead the group to a solution. Here we are dependent on one theory and leaders may emerge, so may those who are bullies or intimidaters, fierce competitors who yell down others to be center stage. There are also the ones who know the leadership theory and do their best to demonstrate it the observers, natural to their nature or not. Then there are the quiet leaders who wait to be asked for their opinion. If they are appointed the leader, they will emerge as leaders, often better than the ones angling for attention.

In training programs where we look for emergent leaders it seems mistakes can be made easily. However, in all fairness, the military model, not including the “emergent leader” exercise, has many assets to recommend it, most of which have to do with developing character.

The military leadership training program to train its officers provides a vehicle for it students to learn to follow before leading. It also teaches the potential leaders:

• the acceptance of responsibility,
• respect in general, respect for peers, superiors, the uniform, service and country (as well as practice it on a daily basis), and
• the art of being their country’s ambassadors and protectors.

These potential leaders also

• hold unit positions for which they are held accountable,
• learn the art of problem solving,
• decision making and
• cultivating relationships with others–their employees, peers and superiors, as well as
• the expectations to go to war, and
• to be confident and proud.

There is also the expectation that they will continue their professional development training. Promotions are available only when those development goals are reached. I should also point out that not all officers turn out the same, nor maintain an acceptable level of competency or leadership ability. Those who do not get promoted in a certain amount of time are not allowed to remain or may be allowed to retire if they have enough time. This allows for younger, more capable to move up in the workforce.

Obviously not all corporate organizations could follow such an intense model or on a scale equal to the military but it could incorporate training modules that promote behavior desired by the company–behavior that works, but perhaps on an abbreviated scale or as I have written previously about Why Isn’t All Training Like Training for Your Black Belt.

All the elements are there. Am I advocating a leadership training boot camp to accomplish the same goal? They do exist. By the hundreds. Usually they are three- to five-day training retreats offered by a training company. Perhaps it is a good idea to invest in creating your own organizational boot camp. Another idea would be use the Black Belt model I’ve mentioned before to train leaders in a gradual way, rewarding them for each step of the training they successfully complete.

I’ve gone on long enough. Leadership is such a complicated issue it has taken me several articles to cover a small portion of the information and speculation that is available. These are just my thoughts on the subject, and I haven’t been everywhere or done everything. Perspectives and opinions being what they are, I have tried my best to fair and even handed. I am always looking for guest bloggers to give another point of view or provide new information. Be sure to check out my book, The Cave Man’s Guide to Training And Development now available.

—

For more resources about training, see the Training library.

Every year thousands of change initiatives are undertaken globally in the form of reorganization, structural and procedural change, new product and service launches, and the setting of strategy, goals, and objectives. Yet, according to Harvard Business Review, 70% of all change initiatives fail. The financial cost of failed change to organizations, the economy, and society is enormous. The human cost – measured by employee disengagement, lack of trust, apathy, turn-over, sick days, depression, and burnout – is even higher.

Why is change so hard to successfully implement? Change has a dynamic and logic all its own – the more you try to control it, mandate the timeline, or predict the outcomes the sooner you become part of the 70% failure rate. Success lies in implementing a new model of change rather than repeating the same model better and faster. What we need today is a change model that addresses all three critical aspects of organizational change: transactional, transitional, and transformational. Ideally, we want a model that embeds adaptive change into the culture, thereby, creating resilience and agility in a world that is volatile and unpredictable.

The most commonly implemented change models, for example that of John Kotter, focus on the transactional aspects of change – the things we do during the change initiative, new structures, processes, and functional outputs and results. Change initiatives that focus primarily on transactional aspects are not designed to incorporate latent or tacit organizational knowledge into the process of creating their future. Instead they rely on a “powerful guiding coalition” (Kotter) to set the vision and plan the journey, often operating in a top down fashion and having little or no knowledge of local (geographic, team, or individual) challenges.

Transactional change models work well in cases of complicated change, for example, model changeover on an assembly line, but do not support the emotional and psychological components of complex change, such as new product development. Complex change requires that all three aspects of change be addressed simultaneously – transactional, transitional, and transformational – in order to make the most of the interdependencies and connectivity within the organization.

The Adaptive Change model describes a cycle that occurs when organizations encounter or design intentional destabilizing events that have the potential to move the whole system to a higher level of performance. Discontinuities initiate the change cycle, challenging the Status Quo and requiring that leaders establish a new vision for the future. As discontinuities arise the organization experiences an Adaptive Strain, like the tension created by pulling apart a rubber band.

While the overarching vision is often Transactional (a project, new technology, or restructuring), each part of the organization needs to understand the local destabilizing events it creates that are unique to their situation. This requires every team, division, or function to create a vision of the future that addresses their unique transitional needs (Letting Go-Neutral Presence-Letting Come) and creates the potential for transformation (changes in behavior, ideology, or organizational identity) to occur. In this way the whole organization moves toward higher performance and lasting change that is both global and local, aligning all parts yet preserving their unique characteristics.

Adaptive Change Model

The model captures five key aspects of change:

1 – Transactional Aspects arise from destabilizing events that create organizational volatility and the need for vision. This is represented by the green line – solid during times of stability and broken when uncertainty or unpredictability are present.

2 – Transitional Aspects arise from the initiation of transactional change and the emotionally generated red line of change. It is essential to manage this aspect as it determines the shape of the dip (the cauldron) in the transactional journey. Management of the red line is a three stage process of Letting Go-Neutral Presence-Letting Come, which follows the arc of the cauldron.

3 – Transformational Aspects arise when complexity gives way to clarity and opportunity emerges. Transformation during change occurs at many different levels: from “Oh, I get it!” to Ah-ha moments, to revolutionary ideas. Some form of transformation occurs to cause the transactional line to begin the movement up and toward vision.

4 – At all stages the organization is learning and not following a straight line: what to conserve and what to let go – the Fall, imagining opportunity and innovating ideas – the Cauldron, and rapid prototyping and cross-pollination with others – the Road Back.

5 – The journey is defined by the people and the tasks that they have willingly taken on to achieve their vision. Leaders of change have a portfolio of Adaptive Change journeys to juggle, not a single initiative to lead.

DR. CAROL MASE challenges leaders and their organizations to think differently about the world and how they can achieve their fullest potential in it. Her unique background unites business and biology, psychology and physics, bringing them into creative tension and generating tools and applications for all levels of the organization – from the C-Suite to the manufacturing floor. Carol has worked as an entrepreneur and an executive in Fortune 500 companies, always introducing fresh ideas that produce innovation and change, locally and organization-wide. She holds a degree in Psychology/Education, a Masters in Human Ecology/Interpersonal Relations, and a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine.

We don’t often think about staff meetings as a training ground, but they are. Granted, they exist at a very basic level (only lower level would be OJT, or on-the-job training, considered one of the best training environments), but few situations allow you to have so many company subject matter experts and leaders in the same location at the same time. But the problem isn’t whether you agree with my training definition; it’s about maximizing the use of this management “training” tool.

“Management requires us to attend regular staff meetings on weekly basis with an objective to discuss the routine matters of the office. These meetings apparently turn out to be boring and fruitless.”

The comment above sounds a little like, “War! What is it good for?” Unfortunately staff meetings are necessary, just not life threatening, unless you die from boredom. Of course, ensuring “what’s in it for me” will help, but you need to make it more reciprocal and establish an “all for one and one for all” meeting format.

Staff meetings can serve a very useful multipurpose existence. To make them work the way you want them to, you may just have to train staff in meeting design and handling of subordinate staff in a corporate setting.

I know it sounds boring put that way, but doesn’t have to be. A staff meeting can have order, provide vital and useful information, and be interesting and interactive.

Staff meetings still may take up some of your valuable time, but they can be transformed, with a little planning, into meetings that give back, that pack information you need from the rest of the staff to know, identify training needs or inform others of training that is being offered in the organization elsewhere, provide collaborative opportunities, and ways to focus your efforts so you may best be rewarded for them. Need a list of what effective staff meetings can accomplish? Just to show I don’t have the lock on ideas, here’s a list from the Career Post Team on the Virgin Islands:

“Improving collective performance, encouraging greater productivity and boosting profits
• Strengthening a sense of togetherness, brand-awareness and corporate identity
• Developing good communication skills within internal teams – a valuable skill which will be translated into customer or client interaction
• Motivating staff to help each other succeed, reinforcing their commitment to working towards a common goal
• Teaching managers and senior staff the crucial arts of communication, delegation and leadership
• Discussing matters concerning changes in office routine, such as: change in lunch periods, hours, vacation time, etc.
• Announcing weekly office statistics
• Open discussion on ideas for generating referrals
• Contributing to a sense of oneness among co-workers
• Discouraging feelings of isolation that can develop when staff members are given routine work assignments that allow only minimal interpersonal communication during the day
• Stimulating useful ideas about how to deal with problems and how to improve the handling of routine situations
• Reducing friction by giving staff members an appropriate forum to air their differences and seek resolution
• Ensuring regular and effective communication”

Now, the trick is making the staff meeting work for you as the manager, supervisor or staff member. First, focus on one or two items of particular importance. Don’t try to combine too many items–especially combining the important and not-so-important administrivia (sorry administrators). The key is to keep the meeting short and relevant. The longer the meeting, the less will be remembered, and it will be the least motivating. People are truly motivated over one or two important items at time. Any more will overwhelm.

We don’t have regular staff meetings in my office; instead we have individual management meetings–a one-on-one with the supervisor. We are all mid-level management ourselves, but I still feel regular staff meetings are important. The best staff meetings I remember having were during my time in the military. All the players knew their parts well and the result was a meeting no longer than it needed to be, everyone was heard, and any additional information that was required could be run down after the meeting.

A staff meeting, or any meeting for that matter, should be a precise communication of what is intended. “There he goes again–the communicator.” Actually, this time I’m talking more about organization and planning, but focused as you would in creating a single-minded event–with multiple disciplines involved.

The purpose of the meeting is really about bringing people to together for a single purpose–the company’s purpose. So, a staff meeting is a way to bring “all for one, and one for all” like the The Three (or four) Musketeers. Too bad we feel we just got stuck.

How can you avoid being “stuck?” You can’t unless you’re the boss, but there’s help for him, too.

Approach the meeting as you would a production. You can’t have wildly differing elements or the meeting loses the cohesiveness of meeting tied together topically. Chaos will ensue, people stop paying attention. You know this happens on conference calls because those on the other end can mute their end and you’ll never know unless you ask a question. In a meeting, everyone can just stay mute and the meeting will end after your lecture. Not very productive.

You should do the following every time you have a meeting, but you would be surprised who doesn’t. Plan it like an event you want people to want to attend.

This is how it usually happens: you are so busy that you jot down a few things you want to talk about and call everyone together or schedule a meeting, but often you only say a few words about what it is going to be about. While you’re just saying a few words, how about adding an acknowledgment of how busy everyone is and a short sentence that you expect or hope attendees might get out of the meeting?

In larger organizations where you would have section heads, vice presidents, sitting around a table–each is immersed in a world of work totally different from one another, but I will assume each is equally important to the company (or at least he or she thinks that is the case). The president, CEO, boss-whoever is sitting at the head of the table, wants to see how all your efforts come together. Purpose of the meeting: an update from each of the attendees. Basically, a show-and-tell of the work going on right now. Or, a focused piece on one aspect, one strategic component everyone is doing their part. This meeting is important for everyone to know what the others are doing; it might spur ideas, questions and concerns. Now’s the time to address them.

How do you get everyone on the same clock? Giving them time to work with is too fluid. People rarely stay on time. Either they break off early because they don’t have time to cover everything-so why bother (not good for morale either); or they go over–sometimes long enough to be stopped by the boss. Also, not a morale booster.

Instead, create one standardized presentation and give responsibility to each participant to do two or three (make it the same for all) slides. On each slide they “own” they can use bullets (done the same way), charts or examples. One good reason for standardizing the presentation is that it puts everyone on the same page and using the same rules. No PowerPoint or similar type of presentation? Use one or two flip charts, or limit the number of points to discuss on the white board. If you have an executive officer or special projects officer, he or she can put it all together and “manage” the terms under which each member participates in the meeting.

In the end, participants will have equal amounts of information and be able to focus on the information they need, know where to get additional information, and participate equally in the discussion or Q and As. You will have a presentation or handout to take back to your office. What could be more fair than “one for all and all for one?” And, you’ll have a model staff meeting format to take back to your office and your staff.

—

For more resources about training, see the Training library.

These are my words and opinions. Please feel free to disagree and comment, or contact me. If you’re interested in more of my points of view–my Cave Man way of looking at things, I have a website where you can find other items I have written. For more information on my peculiar take on training, check out my best selling The Cave Man Guide To Training and Development, and for a look at a world that truly needs a reality check, see my novel about the near future, Harry’s Reality! Meanwhile, Happy Training.

Is it time to strengthen your supervisory muscles?

Here are insights from years of working with managers, teams, and new leaders on the realities of supervision. For some of you it may be “old hat”; for others an “ah’ha”. In either case, know that the moment you start taking things for granted, you stop being effective. So what can you learn from these seven supervisory principles.

1. There is no routine to management work.
Changes are that your old job came with a familiar routine. You performed the tasks assigned to you and you did them in a prescribed order. Some things had to be done by noon, while others had to be completed before you left for the day. As a rule, when the day’s work was done, your day was over. But for managers, there’s no such thing as “the day’s work,” so bid a fond farewell to routine.

2. People and issues arrive un-prioritized.
As a manager, you now have more people and issues to deal with. It’s your job to filter them for urgency and importance, and help employees stay focused by doing the same.

3. People start acting differently towards you.
You’re still the same person, but you’re in a different role. Some people withdraw from you; others want to get closer. Ultimately, your employees are dealing with managerial change in their own way and trying to figure out what kind of manager you really are.

4. You have to give up your old job.
You have a new job so don’t hang on to your old one. This can be hard. After all, it’s because of your previous success that you’ve been promoted. But failure to let go of your old job causes more problems for first-time managers than anything else.

5. Guard against the perception that certain people are your favorites.
Yesterday you had co-workers; today you have employees. While it’s only natural to like some individuals more than others you no longer have that luxury as manager. Employees are keenly aware of who has direct access to you. In the past, you had coffee or lunch with the same people every day, but if you keep this up, your employees will earmark these people as “your favorites.”

6. Employees want their manager to manage them.
Friendly behavior is great, but it shouldn’t be a substitute for good managing. Your employees expect you to deal with poor performers at work. You need to demonstrate that you won’t tolerate poor performance. If you’re fair and decisive, your good performers will give you their hard-earned respect and best effort.

7. Don’t hold on to information, rather communicate, communicate, communicate.
When you’re on an airplane and it encounters turbulence or the flight is delayed, you want to know what’s happening. Not knowing makes you nervous. Employees also want to know what’s happening — what’s causing the bumpy ride. If people don’t understand, then anxiety mounts, trust declines and rumors fly. The next thing you see is morale plummeting and work not getting done. That’s why ongoing communication is so important.

Management Success Tip

Understand your role had changed. You are now in charge tasked with getting work done through others. You must move from doing to delegating; from being liked to being respected; from holding on to letting go; from knowing all the answers to getting input from others.

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

• Build your skills with The Effective Manager.
• Sign up for Quick Wins: 101 Management Tips.
• Find performance boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
• Fast track your leadership. Be part of a Success Team.
• Need a speaker? Get the Edge keynotes-webinars-workshops.
• Copyright © 2012 Marcia Zidle business and leadership coach.

You know that when change is upon you, you will be letting go of ideas, behavior, perhaps functions, structures, roles, authority, and even titles. Poised on the brink of change we are overcome by loss and the uncertainty of what we might be asked to give up. At this moment leaders need to focus the organization on what must be conserved. Without getting trapped on our history: What preserves who we are and must come with us into the future?

Unit of Work

When we plan transactional change we assume the unit of work is the task, or the set of tasks, performed by individuals, teams, or functions. A focus that conserves tasks is past orientated and only able to incrementally improve the system and its performance. In this case there is little room for imagination which generates innovation and, potentially, transformation.

Shifting to a systems perspective, the unit of work becomes the relationship – interdependencies between the parts of the system, whether people, functions, processes, tasks, or groups. When relationships are managed during change, i.e. managing the red line, everything else becomes available for change and/or re-organization. For leaders this means trusting the organization (i.e. people you don’t know) to be imaginative, creative, and to conserve those relationships and parts that define the company and culture at its best. This puts leaders in a VUCA Prime position, where things are unknown (complex) and perhaps even a bit unknowable (chaotic). It also unleashes the greatest potential of the organization.

Unleashing Organizational Potential

Put yourself in this newly promoted team leader’s situation. The original team leader has just been fired. He was disliked, not trusted, and had created a culture of fear within the team. Across the organization he was seen as building a kingdom and protecting his turf, arrogant, and unwilling to collaborate or compromise. You have spent your time in this team as a director, focused on your work and busy creating diverse relationships across internal functions and with external partners – interdependencies that are foundational to the success of your projects.

Knock, knock…we want you to take over the team leadership role.

After much hand wringing you say yes. Your first move is to have a one day team meeting to address the HUGE change that everyone is expecting to take place with internal and external partners, and to manage the GIGANTIC red line that everyone is experiencing (including yourself). All 25 team members are ready for an emotional download so you set up a “burning box” to collect all their issues, fears, and frustrations. But do you start with that? This leader began the meeting with a conversation about what the team wanted to conserve: Who are we at our best? How do we move forward from that position?

When the “burning box” was finally opened and the questions pulled out and answered, one by one, the emotional energy in the room was intense, and the team was ready to confront what they now saw as the past and move toward what they had just identified as their future. Coming out of the meeting the new team leader confessed to being “a wreck” but also recognized that without having identified what was good in the system, in particular acknowledging how people had been helping each other, the “burning box” could have been far worse.

Appreciating the Past

When a whole organization sits on the brink of change, leaders can (dare I say should) look to Appreciative Inquiry to begin the journey. This process identifies strengths and positive aspects of the company and culture that need to be conserved to achieve their future Vision. The participatory nature of this process brings out unseen potential, unknown change agents, and generates alignment and cohesion as the red line pulls transactional plans into a VUCA cauldron.

“…adaptation is a process of conservation as well as loss. The question is not only, “Of all that we care about, what must be given up to survive and thrive going forward? but also, “Of all that we care about, what elements are essential and must be preserved into the future, or we will lose precious values, core competencies, and lose who we are?” As in nature, a successful adaptation enables an organization or community to take the best from its traditions, identity, and history into the future.”

Heifetz, Grashow, and Linsky, in Adaptive Leadership

Effective supervisors have more than a title on their doors. They also have the trust and confidence of those on their team.

Personal credibility is the working asset in every relationship, both personal and business. People have credibility with each other or they don’t. When they do, work gets done, goals are met, and extraordinary things happen. When they don’t you know what occurs…work does not get done or gets done poorly; goals are not met or get changed constantly; and sadly, people just get by putting out minimum effort.

However, credibility does not happen over night. Rather, it’s the day-by-day actions that influence whether your team will not only follow you but also go that extra mile. These day-by-day actions create a Credibility Account that, like a bank account, generates both deposits and withdrawals.

Each supervisor begins with a certain amount of credits in his or her account. That amount varies based on the leader’s qualifications, reputation and personal style. Every day, deposits (positive experiences) and withdrawals (disappointments) are made into this account.

Five strategies to manage your credibility account with your team.

1. Understand others.
What might be a deposit to you may not be perceived by someone else as a deposit at all. It might be perceived as a withdrawal, if it does not touch the person’s deep interests or needs.

2. Attend to the little things.
The little kindnesses and courtesies are important and make deposits. Small discourtesies can make large withdrawals. In relationships, the little things are the big things.

3. Clarify expectations.
Whether we are dealing with the question of who does what at work or who feeds the fish and takes out the garbage, unclear or ambiguous expectations leads to misunderstanding and withdrawal of trust.

4. Don’t play favorites.
People make judgments about what they see in the workplace. Are promotions fair? Is low performance dealt with quickly? Is their equal treatment for everyone? If the answer is no in your team’s eyes (regardless of the truth of the matter – it’s their perspective) then this perceived unfairness will stand in the way of their giving of themselves fully to the job or project.

5. Do what you say you’re going to do.
Credible supervisors remember the promises they make, take the appropriate course of action, and let their tem know what’s been done. If you tell Mary that you are going to check on something for her, do it. And if you don’t intend to do something, never say you will.

Management Success Tip

Do a credibility check. To stay on track, ask yourself questions, like, “What could potentially jeopardize my credibility?” “What steps can I take to improve my credibility?” “What can I do each day to ensure that my credibility is maintained?” The more aware you are, the better equipped you are to increase the balance in your credibility account.

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

• Build your skills with The Effective Manager.
• Sign up for Quick Wins: 101 Management Tips.
• Find performance boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
• Fast track your leadership. Be part of a Success Team.
• Need a speaker? Get the Edge keynotes-webinars-workshops.
• Copyright © 2012 Marcia Zidle business and leadership coach.