Posts Tagged leadership
everyone is motivated to do something
what i think is one of the worst pre-conceptions about business and management is that workers need to be motivated. this notion that the workforce is this entity that needs to be incentivized into doing something.
i believe that everyone is motivated by something. i’d say that most accountants have a natural love of working with numbers. i’m sure that stock brokers get a special kind of high out of making the deal that nets their clients big returns. and i’m sure that if you spent even just a little time with three of my colleagues as they talked about solving linear programs and differential equations you’d be amazed at how much they can geek out over it. but when was the last time, as a manager or leader, that you had a discussion with your employees to find out what drives them?
some of you might answer — if you’re being honest with yourself — “the job interview”. how long ago was that? people change over time, and so you must be willing to spend the time to really watch and track how your people are changing and the kinds of people they’re changing into. you might have someone with a modeling and simulation background whom either suddenly or even gradually falls in love with data visualization. you might have a history teacher whom has a newfound love of english literature. but you’ll never know any of this unless you take the time to know your people.
do you have carrots (bonus structures, awards systems) or sticks (hard deadlines, performance reviews) in place because they actually work? or is it just because it makes your job simpler?
everyone is motivated to do something.
find out what that is. then have them do that.
don’t give them an excuse
bill mccreary image from nhl.com
some nights in hockey — especially if your team has a reputation — referees will blow the whistle a little more than usual. it just happens that other games are merely called tight with little room to interpret the rules. whatever the cause, you never want to have your players cutting ruts to the penalty box.
on the bench during those kinds of games, there’s a common saying that gets passed around among coaches and players: “don’t give them an excuse to put you in the box.” it’s a simple message. even if what would normally not be called an infraction earns you a 2 minute trip to the sin bin, as a player you have to be smarter than that and adapt. you can’t give the referees any excuse to call you for it. keep the sticks down, keep both hands on your stick, and watch the play along the boards.
business can be much the same with clients instead of referees. some might love everything you develop for them or the kinds of services you provide, but others may be insatiable still and find flaws with anything you bring to bear. if you know you’re dealing with the latter, follow the same simple rule: don’t give them an excuse.
don’t give your clients a reason to question the validity of your statements; be sure to practice each and every one of your presentations and always perform the proper amount of due diligence in defining answers to their questions.
don’t give your clients a reason to believe that your products are broken; test, retest, and test some more until you’re absolutely certain that your products or services are programmed properly, or mathematically sound, or have multiple research studies to support them.
don’t give your clients a reason to feel like they can go elsewhere and get the same service; go out of your way to prove your organization’s commitment to them by answering their phone calls promptly, replying to their emails the same day, and generally making them feel like you give a damn about them as customers.
if you’re dealing with a difficult client, don’t complain if they’re bitchy or a hard-ass or they’re calling bad penalties. just don’t give them an excuse to call one in the first place.
a little bit of vision, please
there’s a distinct difference between being flexible and adaptable, and being reactionary and lacking vision.
make sure you’re not caught on the wrong side of that line.
every team needs a superstar
image by vittonettophoto, flickr artist
it’s true. every team needs a superstar.
balance is important to a winning formula, and i think we all know that. people have to complement each other, make up for each others faults, and bring a certain set of skills to the table — even if those skills aren’t going to make many people stand up and take notice. you hear it many times, “someone has to do the work.”
but there is such a thing as having too much balance.
we’ve become enamored with utility players in our businesses. people that we feel we can take and throw into any situation and they’ll still produce dividends for us (and for our shareholders). we want everyone to be able to do everything. we’re even groomed as such, going all the way back into our childhoods and early adult lives.
answering the call
image by billy v, flickr artist
when you’re working on a project — of any scale — you’re going to have to accept risk at some point in time. the client is going to make demands that seem unreasonable. you’re going to burn through the wiggle room that you’ve built into your project schedules. you’re going to be doing work that no one has ever done before.
it’s in these times that leaders really need to answer the call.
“there’s only one outcome here: we’re going to succeed. that’s the bottom line. we’re absolutely going to get this done, and we’re going to do it the very best way we know how. i don’t care how difficult it is or how difficult it is going to be; look at everything we’ve accomplished to date. why would you believe in any other outcome? we’re going to do this.
“now… what do you need to knock this thing out of the park? because i’m going to go out and get it for you.”
the phone’s ringing. you might want to answer that one.
practice for your project teams: why don’t we do it?
image by NHLFlyers, official twitter handle of the philadelphia flyers
when your favorite sports team finds issues to work on, they spend more time on it in practice.
powerplay numbers down? you can bet that your favorite hockey team is going to spend more time in the umbrella during practice.
not winning the battles along the boards? eat your wheaties and have yourself a powerbar before you hit the ice, because we’re doing nothing but 2-on-2′s for a solid 15 minutes down in the corners.
sloppy line changes in the second period? get ready to play a lot of dump and chase and listen for your line to be called.
i think we’ve got the individual training down pretty well in industry. we have one day training events to introduce people to new concepts. we have 2 and 3 day seminars to teach solid fundamentals of what makes a good consultant. we have week long “boot camps” for certification training and exams. but what about the rest of your team?
making change happen
change is difficult. inertia is easy.
when going in one direction, it usually takes less effort to keep moving in that direction than it takes to make any adjustments. we all enjoy when our life is made easier, that’s a part of being human.
but that’s why, however, some people end up being more successful than others — they have an innate feeling that whatever is easy to do isn’t worth doing. we call these people adventurous. we call them troublemakers. we call them leaders. but whatever you call them, one thing remains true: these people get things done.
leadership in the innovation age
image by ortizmj12, flickr artist
one of the higher-ranking members at booz allen has an internal blog titled, “lead, or get out of the way!”
i certainly appreciate his willingness to to pass on the knowledge that he has learned over his distinguished career — and in such a contemporary form — but i have to say that i think it’s wrong.
at least in the innovation age it is.
i’d like to change my colleague’s statement to become “lead, then get out of the way!” and here’s why…
if you don’t motivate the elephants, your circus isn’t going anywhere
image by wolfsavard, flickr artist
elephants are extremely interesting creatures. they can grow up to weigh 15,000 lbs, but still be afraid of a mouse. they’re massive creatures, and anything that large — you’d imagine — can have quite a bit of influence. they’ll shape their surroundings and modify their environment to suit them. if the fruit is too high, they’ll knock over the tree. if the water’s gone, they’ll dig a hole to find some more.
circuses are interesting in their own right. a collection of sights, sounds, and smells that you can’t find any place else. and with so many different performance acts, everything has to be perfectly choreographed — and the ringmaster is in charge of it all.
what would you do with 8 hours a week?
image by steve.grosbois, flickr artist
you work for 32 hours from monday through thursday. you wake up on friday morning with an extra spring in your step, looking forward to the upcoming weekend. but today isn’t your ‘normal’ friday; today is different.
instead of working on client deliverables, or manning the grill at a local restaurant, or waiting tables down at the pub, you get 8 hours to do whatever you’d like to do.
what would you do with it?
would you start work on that big idea you’ve always had? would you enroll in a culinary course in your area? would you learn how to brew your own beer? … or would you play farmville on facebook? or sleep in until noon? or drink some free cold ones that your friends bring you out back behind the bar?
if you’re an employer, why not give your employees 8 hours a week and see what they do with it? trust me, you’ll recognize the ones who are worthwhile and the ones who aren’t very quickly.
then, invest heavily in the ones that are because they’re going to take your organization places. they’re natural born world-shakers.
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