Management Craft

Top Management Challanges

2009-07-13T05:50:00-07:00

I love this post from Professor Ford's blog called, Top Management Challenges, Are We Being Victims? Jeffrey zooms in on, with the help of his graduate students, the most common causes of management challenges. Here is a snippet:

What is interesting is that the students believe they have these problems because of “them” (e.g., other people). It is because of “their” lack of motivation, commitment, accountability, etc., that the issue persists. The difficulty with this belief is that it makes students victims.

Check the post out!

VERY cool leadership, management, or personal success posts I found while on Twitter

2009-07-12T04:46:42-07:00

This last week was a good one for catching my tweeps online when they post good links (my timing is not always go good). Right now, I follow about 1650 people and have about 1550 who follow me. Here are some very good posts/articles to check out courtesy of my tweeps.

Click on over to all of these, you will not regret it!

From @ChrisPRodgers Excellent, complexity-based provocations on leadership by Stephen Billing at http://bit.ly/16Ayz5. #complexity #leadership

From @senia @gretchenrubin The Secret is Not to Care (http://adjix.com/gedx) & @peterbregman Two Lists You Should Look at Every Morning (http://adjix.com/gedz)

From @artpetty New Post: "Leadership Lessons Learned on Vacation: Leading by Letting Go" http://bit.ly/w8O87

From @lisabeth60 @DrJennifer: How To Know If You Are Settling for a Mediocre Life http://budurl.com/b9qf

Phil's 10 Commandments for Social Media

2009-07-10T17:37:01-07:00

I love this post from pal Phil Gerbyshak called, 10 Commandments of Social Media. Check it out. Here is a snippet:

4 - Thou shalt not act like a stuck up jerk, no matter how many folks are following you on any/every platform. In fact, I would say ESPECIALLY if you have a million folks who follow you. Seth Godin is a very friendly guy who responds to email, blog posts, and other things directed at him. If Seth Godin can make time to reply to email, so can you!

I think many of these are good habits for in-person communication, too. This is an awesome list, thanks, Phil!

Ten Questions Every Leader Ought to Be Asking

2009-07-09T12:37:41-07:00

If I read another article or post that starts with, “during these tough times,” I am going to scream. Let’s get with it, leaders, these times are why we exist. The more we talk about how the times are tough, the greater the likelihood that we will approach our work as victims.

We are at our best when we catalyze progress – when we create environments that help people, teams and processes do great work together. I invite all leaders – at all levels in the organization – to embrace the opportunity to be great like you never knew you could be or was possible. Here are ten questions you can ask yourself and your team to get catalytic juices flowing:

What’s the new opportunity that we are not seeing? How might we learn from other organizations, both competitors and non-competitors?
How might new trends in how people communicate and work open up new ways to improve our organization? What does the workplace look like when we are focused and in action?
When a meeting feels flat and perfunctory, what’s going on? What’s on people minds that they are not saying? What question could I ask that would open the discussion back up? What’s possible if I had the courage to do this?
What is “my best work” and how can I ensure I do that today? How can I enable my team to do their best work?
If we were starting this organization from scratch, how would we design it? What would we do if resources were not an issue?
What’s the craziest idea that just might work?
What are the most irksome/damaging barriers facing me and my team right now and how can I reduce or obliterate them?
What is my manifesto (driving philosophy and passion) as a leader and how can I ensure my team understands it? What is our team’s manifesto?
What’s possible now that was not possible last year/month?
Do I have my team focused on doing the work that matters most? How can I optimize how we spend our precious time?

Create your own list of questions and bring them into your next staff meeting or team huddle. Select one of these questions to drill down on with a small group of peers. Put a copy of this article in everyone’s inbox! Great questions help us generate productive conversations and conversations are our currency for getting things done.

We are leaders because we make things happen that would not happen without us. We are driven to create, model, and catalyze excellence. We do not maintain. We do not play the victim. We take the initiative to do whatever it takes to make a significant and positive difference and we have more opportunities to do this today than ever.

As the great Henry V said in Shakespeare’s play, “All things are ready if our minds be so.” And let’s not forget Westmorland’s response, “perish the man whose mind is backward now!”

Indeed.

The most effective leaders will shine bright now because they are ready to slog through any organizational muck that threatens to slow their team down. Let’s all be a part of the leadership revolution.

10 Leadership Lessons from Starbucker. A couple more from me.

2009-07-07T19:26:47-07:00

I love this post from fellow blogger and pal Terry Starbucker called, My 10 Favorite Leadership Lessons. This post is brilliant and helpful, please go check it out now. Terry's day job is that of a senior leader and he walks his talk.

I think Terry covers a lot of great ground in this post - I agree with all his points. Two additional lessons of mine that come to mind are"

We are dragon slayers. Dysfunction and disorder - the guck and muck of management - are the dragon.
Anyone can be a great manager if he/she gets it why he/she exist. Managers must, everyday, seek to make things better for people, processes, and organizations.
OK, one more. Being a manager is a privilege. We have been handed a piece of the organization to run and this is a tremendous burden and privilege. Even front line supervisors have this burden and should feel some sense of awe at what they have been handed in terms of opportunity.
OK, one more. People join companies, leave managers. We create the culture and we can lead improvements or breakdowns in culture.

Check out Terry's post. What lessons would you add?

Cranky Middle Manager and Me - A discussion about relevancy. Others. Hip and sage, baby!

2009-07-05T18:58:29-07:00

I had the pleasure of being a guest on the Cranky Middle Manager podcast - my 4th time. This time we talked about what it means to have a relevant mindset (hip and sage). It turned out quite well, I think, so please check it out here. Thanks, Wayne!

Thanks also to Dwayne over at Genuine Curiosity for his review of Hip and Sage. Here is a snippet:

If you work with younger people, being Hip can be a game changer (and becoming Hip can be fun). Lisa provides a set of techniques and philosophies to help you enlist the help of younger mentors in a way that will tap into their knowledge and excitement, and (I believe) make them want to help you get up to speed.

And check out this interview I did with Vince Thompson on the SmartPlanet website. Here is a snippet:

Do Hip and Sage people fair better when in comes to facing layoffs?

If you are someone who has 20 years of experience you are a valuable person…but if you don’t come into an interview and demonstrate that you not only understand but also know how to use technology to power teams you’ll be at distinct disadvantage.

How do you demonstrate that?

You need to show in your resume....

Aahh, I am such a tease.

BTW - here are the cities I will be traveling to over the next couple of months. Let me know if you would like me to come speak to your company or organization, or do some management training magic (I do believe that the best training feels magical). You can send me an email at lhaneberg AT managementperformance DOT com.

Cleveland, OH
Chicago Area (Milwaukee, too)
LA, soCal
Portland
Seattle
Wash DC/Alexandria VA
Jacksonville, FL
Memphis/Nashville, TN area

How to be a change agent.

2009-06-29T19:25:30-07:00

No THERE's a cliche phrase - change agent. Like most middle managers feel like AGENTS of change. Sure, we all instigate/catalyze changes from time to time. Some of us more than others. But most of the time, we are needing to pick up the ball - someone else's ball - and make it work.

That's the nature of management - we make things work and we execute a vision, goal, strategy or change - many of them - that comes our way from somewhere else. The best middle managers get this and embrace this. It is what we do (and yes, we need to initiate changes, too)

So I might reword change agent to be called - change baker. Like that? We put the ingredients together and bake a change. Are your changes fully baked?

In any event, check out this post from Eric Brown called, So You Want to Be a Change Agent. Good tips for both change agents and change bakers.

Lead Big - Keynote - Your Thoughts?

2009-06-29T13:58:34-07:00

I am working on a super-duper keynote talk about leading big and building the organization. Here are the main points. Your thoughts? I realize you cannot get the gist of it with bullet points, but do these seem like the right ones to you?

What it looks like when leaders are actively building the organization. Painting the picture for what “build” and “lead big” look like in action and during normal business operations (critical thinking, collaboration, taking initiative, etc). Describing it with vivid specificity.
Building the context for your leadership excellence. The importance of personal vision tied to your organization's vision and mission and how to align the context of your work place and department with your intentions.
"Build" occurs when we make good, sometimes tough, choices about time, resources, priorities, risk. Putting discipline and rigor into your managerial regimens.
Leadership at all levels - Building a build culture. Modeling the way, teaching others. Inspiring a build way of thinking.
Building your reputation as leader – Four foundations for leading big for impact. Perseverance, humility, connectivity, and trust.
Leading big together - How to build new approaches, solutions in a team environment. Best practices for teams approaching a business opportunity or challenge. Blue-sky thinking, fresh eyes, outside-in focus, the right questions, enrollment, invite a challenge, crossing the T’s, courage, leadership changes with the topic/situation.

This keynote is part of a larger program that will immediately put the participants into action working on a project that calls upon them to use these elements of leading big and building the organization. Should be very energizing and inspiring - with great visuals and reinforcements (no bullet points) on the screen.

If you were going to hear a keynote - what is the topic you would most want to listen to?

I enjoy keynotes because they are so dramatic and draining in a good way. I usually collapse in my hotel room afterward. :-)

How to Launch an Idea

2009-06-28T18:53:04-07:00

I love this post from Raj Setty called, The Three Stages of and Idea. Check it out. I would add a fourth potential stage called "stalled" (doubting, overplanning, false urgency) and it could go anywhere in the process.

Be the energy and go where the energy is.

2009-06-26T18:27:30-07:00

I tweeted this: Go where the energy is. That's my motto.

And fellow blogger, coach, twittering pal Rosa Say responded with a link to this amazing article all about how managers can create energy at work and why they ought to called, 3 Ways Managers Create Energetic Workplaces. I love this article, please check it out and then give her suggestions a try. Here is a snippet:

If you are a manager (and all business owners are managers too) assume the role of energy creator in your company. Change the title on your business card to Energy Creator; come on, I dare you. Whatever you have there now is probably more normal, and normal is boring.

Your greatest resource in any workplace is NOT time (or financing), it IS the energy required to make the time and other resources you have available count for something worthwhile and meaningful.

Face to Face Interviews - Apparently we don't pick the best people and meeting them in person does not help our odds of selection. Fast Company article.

2009-06-21T10:45:21-07:00

I was reading the latest issue of Fast Company on the plane on Saturday and found this article very interesting. It is called, It May be Wiser to Hire People Without Meeting Them. Hmmm. The gist of this piece is that, while we think that meeting a person in person will help us collect more information from which we can be MORE objective and make a better selection, this may not be the case. The article offers some fascinating research that showed that meeting someone in person did not improve selection in terms of job fit and success. Here is a snippet:

Here's the reality: Interviews are less predictive of job performance than work samples, job-knowledge tests, and peer ratings of past job performance. Even a simple intelligence test is dramatically more useful.

What do you think. Check out the article and then come back here and make your argument. How ought this thinking change how we hire (if it should at all)?

Is that prized in-person chemistry important? Or more important than other notions of job fit?

I would like to see better culture fit assessments, too.

Your thoughts?

Raj Setty's Th!nkTweet Book - Very Cool, Very Now

2009-06-17T20:26:55-07:00

Fellow blogger and writer Raj Sett has a new book out called Th!nkTweet: Bite Sized Lessons for a Fast Paced World. This is a great read and written in a very cool way - you see, the book is made up of 140 wonderfully saturated and salient points - just the essence, just the best stuff.

Even the Foreword by Guy Kawasaki is written in a 140 character Th!nkTweet.

I like the concept for this book and it would make for a wonderful pre-meeting team read. Or a great summer reading club book at work. You can pick up a copy of the book here (use discount code "ADD12" to get a great deal).

I love Raj's Blog and link to it often. And I regard Raj as a brilliant thinker - these Th!nkTweets are very provocative and helpful. Check it out.

Ground Rules for a Leadership Team Health Discussion

2009-06-15T05:31:50-07:00

I am doing an all-day team discussion with a leadership team today. Here are the ground rules I am proposing for this particular group. I know I could have had many more, but I like to focus on those promises that I think will make the greatest difference to the conversation. Let me know what you think!

Ground Rules:

Show respect by having the courage to be candid.
Show care by sharing information in a constructive manner.
Trust the process.
Own your role in the team’s successes and disappointments.
Take the feedback and conversation seriously, but not as a personal affront. Feedback is always a gift, even if it is tough to hear.
Believe in the capacity for people to grow and develop – to get better where needed. I have seen it happen.
Communication = heard as intended (hold yourself to the standard of communicating in a way that will be heard as you intend it).

What's your social media policy at work?

2009-06-13T07:53:00-07:00

Here's a nice post from the HR Bartender called, 10- Must Haves for Your Social Media Policy. Check it out. I think the policy should be clear, but not so prescribed that it prevents employees from using social media for good reasons - like development. We want to encourage people to engage in informal learning that will help them do their jobs. And I agree with Sharlyn that to write a good policy, you need to understand the nature of social media - someone who has never/rarely participated in using social media should not be the one driving the creation and use of the policy. In other words, HR and training people ought to be practitioners of social media. Totally.

What's At Your Leadership "Core?" - Colleen Barrett, Southwest Airlines

2009-06-12T04:49:10-07:00

I put up a very cool piece of video from You Tube over on Management Central (my new Ning site). The video is an interview of Colleen Barrett (former President of Southwest Airlines, now President Emeritus) by the folks at Wharton. Colleen was Herb Kelleher's legal secretary and jumped ship from the law firm where they both worked to help Herb start the airline (nearly 40 years ago).

I love this piece of video because Colleen talks about her approach and the core leadership beliefs they used to build the SW brand. And she talks about what's at her core in an open and honest way that I think we could all learn from.

In the interview, Colleen also talks about co-leadership - when you have a strong, almost unstoppable partnership with someone. I have experienced this just a couple of times in my career, and I still think back on those expereinces fondly. Co-leadership works when the core is complementary but then you help fill in each other's gaps in other areas. Have you ever experienced that?

The video is 25 minutes long, but well worth it. And this might be something you want to pass along to your managers and leaders. And for those of you in the training ans development profession, this would make for a very cool and provocative pre-work assignment.

So click on over to Management Central and watch the video featuring Colleen Barrett. And while you are there, check out the discussion started by Leigh called, "Kicking and Screaming My Way Toward Management," and offer your 2 cents.

My Interview on Spark Radio - Breakthroughs, Management, Hip and Sage

2009-06-11T04:40:28-07:00

I had the pleasure of being Melanie's guest on her radio talk show called Spark Radio last night. We talk about a lot of things including management, staying competitive in the workplace, and generating breakthroughs. You can check it out here.