Ron’s Short Review: Avoiding the pitfall of choking. It happens and it’s real.
Image Source: Biking Nikon SFO, Creative Commons
It takes as much work to build great teams as it does to build or become a great leader.
I believe that if you were to ask my family (wife and two daughters) they would tell you that I’m the most patient man in the world…. until I’m not! I seem to have a great deal of patience for most situations but when I run out of patience I don’t come down gradually. Nor do I stair step down one level at a time. My patience ends like a rock being kicked off a 1,000 foot cliff that plummets with the acceleration of gravity until it smashes on the floor of the canyon. My girls actually developed into an early warning system for me. When I would see them quickly jump up and bolt from the room in unison, I began to understand that my patience was approaching the cliff and they had picked up the warning signs.
One of my clients currently has a similar trait. He has a great deal of desire and compassion to grow and develop his team and constantly pushes them to become better then they were the year before. He will start a project that is going to challenge and grow them over time and then gives them enough time to accomplish the task. But, if he is not seeing sufficient progress as critical deadlines approach, his rock will eventually get kicked over the cliff and then he jumps in with great fury and gets the task completed.
Why do we reach this cliff where things go bad in a hurry? A couple of reasons are very obvious to me.
1. Leaders mistakenly assume that members of their team will “see it” (understand all that needs to be figured out in order for the growth spurt to take place) or will figure it out along the way in their effort to complete the task or project
2. A basic misunderstanding of good project management
By definition, a growth experience can’t necessarily be figured out ahead of time. It’s a new experience. You’re figuring out something that you’ve never seen or experienced before. You’ll either not see it at all or if you do you may not execute in a very efficient or effective manner. Leaders often forget their own learning curve experiences. They made these same mistakes years ago or even if it was only recently that they figured it out, they now only remember the end state of the new knowledge, not what they went through to learn the new behavior or understanding.
Leaders must work harder then they expect to help people understand the new expectations, learn the processes it will take to get there, and have a vision of the new normal. Develop patience for the sake of your teams.
Image Source: Dwayne Bent, Creative Commons
Blogging is easy.
Writing is difficult.
I started blogging for two reasons. The main was that many of my clients were asking for some regular input and reminders of the many things we talk about during our consulting and coaching engagements. The second reason was that I wanted to experience the technology of this relative new media form and for the discipline of writing. Well, I’ve experienced it and found myself to be lacking in the skill and discipline of writing.
I’m surrounded by writers. My wife has that wonderful ability to write well. She can finely craft the written word in ways that just amaze me and has at times done professional writing. Both of my daughters are also talented writers. One of them could make a living as a professional writer and the other one writes very witty blog posts. Because I’ve “written” a book, one of my clients asked me where I learned my skill because he wanted to upgrade the writing skills of his team. I had to admit that I had not learned the skill but rely on my writing partner, Wayne Hastings, for our published materials.
Blogging is easy. Writing is difficult.
But, when I take the time and make the effort, I enjoy the practice of writing. I’m concerned that through texting, email and powerpoint presentations we are losing the art of well written documents. We recently discovered a newspaper published by my great grandfather (another writer in the family) in Colorado in 1892. That newspaper was written for the common man in a small town west of Denver. The vocabulary and writing structure was well above what we receive today in the few papers that even put out a printed edition anymore.
Consider doing more writing. It forces you to organize your thoughts more than texting, emailing or powerpoint presentations.
Image Source: Ricardo Bernardo, Creative Commons
I know, I know, I haven’t posted a blog in forever. While that issue has been nagging at me for weeks it took the gentle reminder of a close friend that I had neglected this duty (thanks Armin).
Several things strike me about this situation:
1) I actually needed the reminder from a friend to respond to the nagging
2) For me, blogging is a difficult task that requires discipline to accomplish
3) I’m reminded almost every day from clients that time management is an issue
4) Even if doing something is enjoyable, you may not be good at it
Many years ago I was attending a professional golf tournament. At the time Tom Watson was at the peak of his career (which is interesting to say when he recently came within a stroke of winning the British Open (THE Open) even though he’s in his sixties). But, at that moment in time there was probably no one in the world who knew more about the game of golf and in particular his ability to play the game. However, as I watched Tom play that day, he began to have problems with his drive on the last several holes. He developed a draw which turned into a nasty hook. After his round I watched as he gathered his coach and headed for the practice range. Although I was out of hearing range, you could tell by the body language what was going on between Tom and his coach. Tom was animated and angry while his coach was trying to both listen and calm Tom down at the same time. Finally the coach asked Tom to hit a few balls while he watched. Tom’s first attempt delivered a severe hook that nearly missed the driving range on the left. Tom immediately reacted with animation and anger. Once again the coach tried to calm him down and asked him to make minor change in his stance. Tom acquiesced and addressed another ball. This time while the ball still faded to the left, it did not follow the path of the severe hook. Tom nodded and hit a few more balls which all followed the same path. The coach then suggested another slight change to Tom’s grip. The next shot was magnificent. The ball boomed off the club face, started out low and true and slowly climbed into the sky almost reaching the limits of sight. Tom simply turned and smiled at his coach. For the next half hour Tom launched ball after ball true and straight down the driving range.
Even the best in the world sometimes need that outside observer to slightly adjust their already plentiful skills to keep them tuned up and on the right path.
Do you have that trusted confident that will give you the feedback to keep your shots flying true and straight? We all need them.
Why are so many feeling that our Work-Life Balance is out of whack? In this series, I will explore four categories of issues that contribute to the feeling (and actuality):
Several years ago I learned some very interesting lessons about time management. I was working with a high level leadership team, all vice-presidents and above. While we were offsite spending time on leadership development issues one of the VP’s on the team finally stopped the process and said something like the following:
“Ron, we think all of these leadership issues you’re trying to teach us are wonderful and important, but until you help us with our time management problems, we can’t even think about putting more effort into improving our leadership skills. We’re all working at least 60 hours a week as it is. We’re destroying our health and our families. Help us with our time management first and then we’ll be ready to learn new leadership skills from you.”
He was right. They were worn out and suffering. I turned to a time management model put forth by Steven Covey in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change
His premise was that once we fulfill all of the tasks in Quadrant I (both urgent and important) we tend to go on to tasks that fall primarily in Quadrant III (Urgent but not necessarily important).
I sent the team off to record where all of their time went over the next two weeks. When they returned with the record of approximately 120 hours each had expended over the last two weeks, we listed every activity for each participant on a flip chart and posted it on the wall. Then we went through a very interesting exercise. Line-item by line-item we went through each chart and identified into which quadrant it should be placed. A very interesting pattern began to emerge. On several of the line-items, the owner of the sheet would say that he/she had spend a number of hours producing a particular report (as an example) that was urgent but not important and they intended to stop performing that task in the future. However, once stated, there always seemed to be a challenge from the room. Someone would say, “If you don’t produce that report, I can’t get my job done. It must be placed in the important row.”
But, when we began to look into what data in the report was required, there often seemed to be a simple solution to the second persons needs that still eliminated the effort needed to produce the report (it’s on the web site, a quick email, it can be found in another location, etc.) The problem was solved and the bulk of the work eliminated.
Once we completed all of the “negotiations” around the room and everyone had agreed on the quadrants into which all work had been placed, a horrifying statistic emerged. Only 20% of all the work fell into the “Important” row. One VP hung his head and said:
“Do you mean to tell me that I just spend 24 hours of meaningful work over the last two weeks and all the rest was just thrashing?”
I’m afraid so.
The lessons that I have learned from this experience (conducted now several times) include:
- It’s difficult (impossible) to determine on your own how much of your work falls into which quadrants. There is always someone else that needs to be brought into the negotiations.
- It takes team support to stick with the decisions. Even after everyone agrees that you have some quadrant III work that can be dropped, there will be those who still want you to do it. It takes a team to help you say “no”.
- If more than 70% of your work falls into quadrant I (both urgent and important), you’re headed for burn out and failure somewhere down the line because you are not doing enough important but not urgent work (prevention, production capability, relationship building, big picture thinking, etc.)
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Ron’s Short Review: A great model for education, both in the classroom and in the corporation. Fascinating discussion on how our public education system has failed to produce the leaders that we need.
Image Source: Carol Schaffer, Creative Commons
Are you bored? I know that if I were to ask any of my clients (or even myself) that question the answer would certainly be, “Are you kidding? I’ve never been busier in my life!”
But, the opposite of bored is not busy, the opposite of bored is purposeful and focused. We can be very busy but without purpose and focus. That’s boring.
We mentioned the seven deadly sins a few blogs ago. Isn’t it interesting that one of the seven deadly sins is sloth. What’s sloth? Most of us think of it as lazy. It’s actually a close match to the definition of bored. Being bored (busy or otherwise) is being slothful. It’s a sin. It does you and no one else any good.
Years ago when I was in the engineering/construction business, there was a person on one of our job sites who would head for the equipment shed every morning, pick up a bucket and a mop and head off in a particular direction with a very purposeful stride. And then an hour or so later, we would see him heading in another direction, bucket in hand, mop over his shoulder with that same purposeful stride. However, after a few days of observation we began to understand that he wasn’t heading any place in particular. He had just figured out a cleaver way of avoiding any work other than walking around. We fired him. He was being slothful.
Most bored activity is not that visible. People start early with a steady pace and go home at night having been active all day. Unfortunately, they are also going home bored. It’s the job of leadership to help people connect their daily activity with the overall purpose and focus of the company (division or function). One of the signs of a great corporate culture is that people understand the connection between their personal goals and objectives with the vision, mission and strategic direction of their work group.
Have you provided purpose and focus for each individual on the team you’re leading?
Have you figured out your own purpose and focus?
Or are you just busily bored?
Thanks to Pastor Bob Lynn for his thoughts and teachings on the concept of Boredom.
Ron’s Short Review: We assume irrational behavior is just that. It’s not; it’s predictable.
Ron’s Short Review: The Jesuits were formed at a time of new world markets, links between American, Europe and Asia and increased media systems. Amazing transferable values contributed to their success.
Ron’s Short Review: The whole concept of innovation is driving much of what companies are talking about. Good view of what real innovation is and how to achieve it.
Image Source: Peetje2, Creative Commons
I remember reading an editorial written in a very prominent newspaper about the loss of manufacturing jobs. The editorial was well written and was very fact based. It was questioning the wisdom of allowing another country to dismantle the very equipment required to support the local textile industry, ship it to another country where they paid a much lower wage and then ship the finished goods back at a much cheaper price than could be produced locally. The author was wondering if it were wise to let our desire for cheap goods supplied through a large retailer destroy the very manufacturing that was the base for much of the country’s economy.
In the news recently was the fact that the local textile industry lost a half-million jobs in 2007 and is expected to lose another half-million jobs in 2008.
The first editorial was written in England in the late 1700’s about the textile industry setting up shop in New England, America. The recent news article was written about the job loss in India as the textile industry moves on to cheaper parts of the world like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Has the textile industry been the early indicator of manufacturing shifts around the world since the time of the early Egyptian empire? Maybe all of the hand wringing about the loss of our manufacturing base is simply a natural evolution of global manufacturing cycles that have been in place for hundreds or thousands of years.
There are a couple of things I find fascinating about this shift and loss of jobs. I live in Ann Arbor, Michigan so I’m very close to the US Auto industry. At the same time that we are experiencing this loss, General Motors and other manufacturers are searching for highly skilled engineers and innovative mechanical minded people to keep up with the complex design and manufacturing end of their business. And with the adjusting of the US dollar on the world markets, it is now becoming cheaper to do complex manufacturing in the US than it is in other parts of the world. What I worry most about all of this is the complete failure of our public education system and the diminishing numbers of US students attending our higher education systems. In an era when graduating from High School, going to work in the manufacturing sector and experiencing a nice middle-class livelihood has just come to a crashing halt, we need to be fixing our education system so that we can better compete in a rapidly changing global economy.
More on “The Concept Economy” next time.
Ron’s Short Review: Looks at the other side of consulting, being able to take advice wisely.