Tuesday, August 10, 2010
SmartBrief on Leadership: Make "Sound" Decisions - Not "Sound Bite" Decisions
Aspiring Managers: Learn to Think Past the Sound Bite
By Steve Tobak | August 9, 2010
We live and work in a fast-paced, media-overload, high-stress world. And while the Internet offers almost limitless viewpoints and data points on pretty much everything you can think of, who’s got time to wade through all those gigabytes and terabytes? So, like it or not, we’re adapting by basing more and more decisions on sound bites and summaries and less and less on deep analysis.
That’s all well and good for your average everyday employee, but for managers and leaders that customers and investors count on to make smart, well-informed decisions, it’s not so good. So if your sites are set on moving up the corporate ladder, as opposed to hanging around the ground floor forever, listen up.
Come to think of it, I’m not all that concerned about those who’ve been around a while. Sure, you’re learning to adapt to this brave new world of quick fixes and instant gratification, but you’re probably set enough in your ways to avoid succumbing to what I like to call ADD decision-making.
I am concerned, however, with the up-and-comers, mostly Generation Yers, who not only grew up in that environment but whose brains are more or less wired that way. I’m concerned that they’re not going to be very effective decision-makers. I’m concerned about their ability to become the managers and leaders of tomorrow.
Now, when I talk about decisions, I’m not talking about the garden variety, like what color background to use in a Powerpoint pitch or when to phase in a new product design. I’m talking about critical management decisions that can affect the success of a product, a key customer relationship, perhaps even the future of a company, not to mention the livelihood and wealth of thousands of employees and shareholders.
Because when you’re in the hot seat, you can’t be making those kinds of calls by skimming the surface. Sure, a gut feel here and there isn’t just okay; it’s a gift and a big part of business success. But most critical business decisions do call for in-depth analysis of some sort, and you’ve got to have a reasonable attention span to pull it off.
In fact, I’ve often noted that a key attribute of successful executives is their ability to digest large amounts of data from lots of sources and use that to formulate new ideas and make smart decisions that aren’t just unique, but oftentimes fly in the face of conventional wisdom. And they don’t do that by listening to the short version of the story.
Look at it this way. Have you noticed that lately our views are becoming more and more bifurcated? Left versus right, Wall Street versus Main Street, capitalism is the American way or greed incarnate. Even Stanford researchers - you know, those really smart innovative folks - post right here on BNET about what it means to be a good boss versus a bad boss. What the heck does that even mean?
That sort of sound-bite thinking is all well and good for riling up comments and page views on a blog, selling books, or getting TV ratings. But the more that way of thinking becomes the way you think and behave at work, the more of an ADD decision-maker you become. And if you’re up for a management job or promotion against someone who doesn’t suffer from that deficiency, you’re going to lose.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Harvard Business Review: Is Your Office Too Cold To Be Productive?
| Chilly Offices Limit Productivity |
| Raising the temperature of an insurance company's offices from68 degrees to 77 degrees Fahrenheit (20 to 25 C) reduced typing errors by 44% and boosted typing output by150%, according to a monthlong study by Alan Hedge of Cornell. The higher, more comfortable temperature resulted in a savings for the employer of about $2 per worker per hour, Hedge says. |
Saturday, August 7, 2010
SmartBrief on Leadership: 7 Ways To Create A Fear Based Culture | Scott Eblin
Original Post: http://scotteblin.typepad.com/blog/2010/07/seven-simple-rules-to-create-a-fear-based-culture.html
By Scott Eblin
Seven Simple Rules to Create a Fear Based Culture
Thanks to the readers of this blog, I've collected a really excellent list of things to do if you're a leader who wants to create a culture of fear in your organization. Not that the readers and commenters are suggesting that you actually do these things. Unfortunately, though, a lot of them have been on the receiving end of these behaviors and have witnessed the negative results. Sometimes these results are, as I wrote in a recent post, Fear Kills, matters of life and death. Most of the time they're not. (At least not immediately. Working in a stress inducing, soul sucking environment is never good for one's life expectancy over the long haul.)
So, with the idea in mind that a good way to learn leadership is to do the opposite of what really crappy leaders do, here is an edited list of readers' suggestions for seven simple rules for creating a fear based culture:
1. Kill the messenger. When someone brings you bad news, let them know through your spoken language, your body language, your tone of voice that you can't handle the truth.
2. Thank the messenger and then ignore them. Give them a figurative pat on the head when they point out a problem and then go right ahead and do what you were going to do anyway. In no time, people will learn that you really don't want to hear it.
3. Ignore the people on the front line. Better yet, make it impossible for them to get the real story to you. After all, they're only the ones that are closest to the customers and the competition.
4. Let your insecurity run rampant. The troops love it when you do. Show them how insecure you are by micromanaging their every decision or move. Explode in rage when they do something without checking with you first. Pretty soon, they'll be paralyzed with fear and nothing will happen without your personal involvement.
5. Defend yourself no matter what. If someone has the temerity to offer you some constructive feedback, give them at least three reasons why they're wrong. Let's get real; they don't know what it's like to be you and deal with the pressure you're under.
6. Tease them until they cry. Well, maybe not until they cry, but what's wrong with them if they can't take a joke? Your position of power makes you even funnier than you were before you were a boss. If you really want them rolling in the aisles, make jokes about job security. They love that.
7. Keep them guessing. Create an air of mystery about what mood you're going to be in today. Benevolent dictator or ruthless tyrant? Only your lackeys will know for sure. Everyone else will be on pins and needles about how to act around you until you spring the mood of the day on them.
I know what you're thinking - only seven rules? There are way more than seven. These are just the ones that were inspired by reader comments. (Thanks everyone.) We all have our favorite rules for creating a fear based culture. What's your favorite?
SmartBrief on Leadership: In A Rut?!!! Get Yourself Out of Average | Debbie Robins
With a combined 30 years in the field of executive and leadership coaching (plus five books), Stephen Miles (a Vice Chairman at Heidrick & Struggles) and I are challenging all CEO's to kick mediocrity in the pants and make the cultural changes that will allow your people to be exceptional.
To achieve outstanding results, it is important to understand what in psychology is called "the pull to equilibrium." The "pull to equilibrium" is that place inside all of us that doesn't want to change and would prefer to stay where we are (because it is "known") -- even if we are unhappy and/or not getting the results we want. (Examples: GM didn't change things until it was too late versus Ford Motor Company, under the leadership of Alan Mulally, who made the necessary changes immediately. They took no TARP money and have come through the global crisis as a leader worldwide).
The "pull to equilibrium" is the nemesis -- the Darth Vader if you will -- of innovation, courage and speedy execution. And these are the three keys to winning unlimited market share in today's global economy.
Like a dangerous undercurrent along the coast, the "pull" convinces you to do more of the same thing you've done before -- rather than charting new ground or setting new goals. It deceives you into believing there is safety in staying the course because it's known territory and can seemingly be controlled. It argues for the comfort in repetition and the merit in not rushing forward. Your end product: average results.
What can you do to avoid the "pull to equilibrium" in an organization as well as in yourself?
The "pull" can be dismantled when your company has an internal operating structure designed specifically to catalyze innovation. It is the energy of new incentives, new ideas, new services, new products, new models, new partnerships and new technologies that override the illusionary reassurance of sameness. Individuals can tap into this kind of energy as well. Always have a new, exciting goal you're working on. The constant, consistent growth that comes along with working toward a new goal will deflate the "pull" as quickly as puncturing a balloon.
Specifically....
TIP#1: Set the bar high -- we mean very high -- for yourself and the people who work for you.
If your legacy is defining your market share, kill it quickly and reinvent yourself. If you receive a work product that is crap, send it back until it is better. If an ideation session limps along, schedule another one for the next day and don't leave until something fresh has been put on the table. Start raising the bar today at every level of your organization that you can engage or inspire. Don't get pulled down by generating results the way you've fueled them before. Make sure there are a lot of NEW ideas being sourced and analyzed for how you can do things even better.
TIP#2: Encourage your teams strengths, rather than letting them be OKAY at a bunch of things.
Help your people identify their power alley (the "pull" likes to stay in its comfort zone) and take it to the limit. For example, if you know someone wants to be a general manager, becoming an expert in finance really matters. Companies are run off of numbers, and their ability to deeply understand the levers of the business allows them to make the trade-offs others don't know. But the caveat to this piece of advice is to not let them become perceived as simply a functional or technical specialist. When you let your executives get stuck in an expertise, you diminish their confidence to leverage it to become a leader. More leaders are what you want. This is a win-win for all involved.
TIP#3: Trust AND verify!
Having a high performance team or organization means that you need to delegate and verify where you tension the organization and individuals. Constructive tension ensures that your life energy will not be sucked out of you by the "pull." The "pull" prefers depression because depressed people make their peace with insufficient results.
In our coaching of executives, we always ask people what their "ideal" boss looks like. Most people will say that this boss is someone who delegates to them and "sets them free in the green pastures." But then we ask the same person, "When you reflect on all your bosses, who did you learn the most from?" Guess what? It is not the person who set them free blindly! It was the committed leader who cared enough about them to ask Socratic question after question after question. The leader who truly assigned work that made sense for that individual instead of just dumping work on them --A the "I need this by Tuesday" approach. We encourage you to start showing up in this way!
As a leader, if you use innovative management processes that help you inspect what you expect, it often gets done the way you want it. It allows you to add scale and capacity to your own responsibilities while making your team feel like a million bucks. Which will be certain to kick the pull's you-know-what because happy people are the ones most likely to come up with the next great idea!
TIP#4: Excite your team to go beyond their capacity to just "pass muster" with your organization.
To use the basic math analogy, we have observed through our extensive coaching of the most senior executives that there are "N" executives out there (most people), and then there are the "N+ 1" executives.
"N+1"s are the people who always get it done no matter how busy they are; they are solutions-oriented, and they are ahead of you by proactively anticipating what is coming down the pike. These are the people that pull the mean off of average on teams and inside organizations.
In our last blog we talked about the importance of having a mentor three, four or even five levels above you in an organization. Guess what? These executives aren't looking for and don't really need another mentee. In fact, you can't choose them -- they choose you. So how do you get chosen? You have to get noticed, how you do this is by becoming an "N+1" executive! N + 1 people are never pulled back to average. They wouldn't know how to spell the word. CEO's, identify who your N+1's are then grow, nurture and reward them. They are your hope for the future. Then turn your attention to your N's. They simply may be lacking the support they need to excel too.
TIP#5: Sacrifice the old for what's new!
Perpetually ask yourself and your organization: how can I/we do something better? Don't be the CEO/executive that accepts that,because you have always done something "that way," you should continue to and never challenge "why." Instead, be the leader who continually challenges the organization and its processes to make them better, faster, smarter and moving away from average to high performance. When you see a broken process, do you get angry and begin assigning blame? Or do you accept responsibility, rally your team to solve the problem, and stay committed to the innovation process until a resolution surfaces? We pray the latter.
Bottom line, regardless of your position in the company or regardless of your standing in life, stop dodging bullets and start firing on all cylinders. Innovation will take you boldly into your future and leave the pull to equilibrium in the dust.
To reach Debbie and Stephen:
deb@scorebig.org
www.debbierobins.com
smiles@heidrick.com
www.yourcareergame.com
