business as i see it

image by csitscenter, flickr collection

i was in a meeting recently with a senior associate in my firm, and spent the vast amount of the 4 hours we had together furiously taking notes.  unfortunately i couldn’t write as fast as he was talking, so i ended up not capturing all of the information that was there for the taking.  for the most part, the vast majority of the time was spent discussing our earned value management capabilities at booz allen.  we did talk some about business in general and building capabilities that can grow and expand, and it was from this discussion that my largest, boldest, “even used a highlighter on it” note came from.  he said something to me that made a lot of sense:

always plan on success.

it’s a great quote.  you may mistakingly take it as an inspirational message, but that’s not at all what he intended.  it was actually meant to scare us, and remind us that we need to be prepared to succeed.  to be successful in business, it’s not enough to have a good idea.  even having passion and being a hard worker isn’t enough.  when you’re trying to stand up or start up something brand new, you have to have certain things in place to handle the change in environment.  nothing can kill a good idea quite like being unprepared to succeed.  if you aren’t ready to expand with the business, you’ll undoubtedly experience growing pains – much like wearing a shoe that’s two sizes too small.

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image from Crashmaster007, flickr artist

it’s easy to tell people what to do or what’s expected of them, but leading by example says a lot about who you are as a person, not just as a leader.

when you’re a leader, one thing you expect from your team or organization is accountability.  you expect your people to embrace their roles, take ownership of their tasks, and ensure that their work is done when it needs to be, at a level of quality that will positively represent your organization.  if you expect that from your people — shouldn’t you expect that from yourself as well?

everything that you expect from your people, you should be willing to do yourself.  work hard, and let people see you working hard.  be prepared for different situations, and let people see you prepare.  you should do what you expect the people following you to do, and you should let them see you do it.  it’s inspirational, it forges trust, it sets a good example.

you can’t tell your people, “stop working so hard and take time for yourself,” and send emails at 1:00a on a weekday or 9:30p on a weekend.  it seems more like a challenge to work harder than a sincere concern about work-life balance.

so as a leader — when you make a promise, or institute new rules, or try to change habits — it’s best if you start with yourself.

leading by example says a lot about who you are.  what are your actions saying about you?

image by Matheus Van Lobatos, flickr artist

as i see it (that sounds familiar [looks at blog title] oh yeah!…), there’s one rule of management which trumps them all. it’s what i like to call “the frank sinatra rule.” it’s very simple.  it says: “if you’re going to delegate, be sure that you delegate all the way.” many managers struggle with this key capability. people in power want to have all the power, but share the responsibility.

quite frank-ly (see what i did there?) — that situation is hardly ever going to work.

when you delegate, there has got to also be a delegation of authority as well as responsibility. if you don’t empower those folks underneath of you to make their own decisions, then you’ve only come half-way. not to mention, from a strictly business and financial perspective, you’re paying someone many thousands of dollars to be a “deputy project manager” or “functional lead” when you could have saved that money and gotten yourself an administrative professional or intern at a far lesser cost to handle things like scheduling meetings and organizing status reports.

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photo by tiarescott, flickr artist

i couldn’t tell you the number of times people have said to me, “i wish i wasn’t in meetings all day; i’d be able to get some actual work done for a change.” if i had a nickel for each time someone moaned or groaned about having to go to a meeting, i’d have easily paid my student loans off by now. it’s no secret: meetings suck.

but they don’t have to!

if a meeting you’re in is ever boring, or uninteresting, or leaves you totally disengaged — you’re doing it wrong. read through these 5 reasons your meetings suck, and learn from them. Read the rest of this entry »

the Pareto principle says that 80% of the effects of something come from only 20% of the causes. it’s certainly something that i have encountered in my work. as a consultant helping to analyze the business needs of particular resources, i see a lot of resources and how they affect an organization. i can say with a high level of conviction that this pareto principle holds true for the vast majority of instances.

i was reminded of this when i saw a tweet from a colleague with a link to a bit of research completed on twitter users. from the article, research shows that most twitter users are those, “hey, seeing what this twitter thing is all about,” people who never return to the service… however! the top 10% of twitter users (in terms of their number of tweets) account for 90% of the overall tweets on the service.

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we last talked about, when working in collaborative environments and managing people, those times when you need to speak up. this second part is to help show when you should bite your tongue and be quiet — which could be hard for many people!

knowing when not to talk is as important as knowing when to talk. but don’t get the wrong idea; silence isn’t just a passive way of communicating.  your use of silence can actually be quite active. you’ll find yourself wanting to keep hush:

• when you disagree with someone (i’ll explain)
• when someone is trying to teach you something
• when you’re trying to teach something to someone
• when people are telling a story

when you disagree with someone, state your case — or they may state theirs in contrary to yours — and then shut up. listen to what that person has to say in response, and rather than defend your position alone, differ to people who you know agree with you. understand what the opposition’s viewpoint is, and make intelligent decisions based off of that conversation. sometimes the best choice may be to agree to disagree. Read the rest of this entry »

photo by OMG its Shortiie ♥, flickr artist

when it comes to managing people and projects — when you work in a collaborative environment — there’s one thing that’s more important than anything else, and that’s communication.

you absolutely need to know when to keep talking, and when you need to shut up.  there are going to be a few times when you should speak your mind:

• when someone does something unsavory
• when you know something or how to do it
• when someone asks for a critique
• when someone asks for a volunteer

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photo by Imapix - Gaëtan Bourque, flickr artist

you might say: “wait, what do you mean?!  i thought this was a blog about good management?  pushing people beyond their limits sounds entirely contradictory.”  and to that i’ll reply: often times people set their limits before they know what those limits are.  by pushing them beyond their limits, you’re actually helping them find out their true capacity for great things.

in sociology, there’s a concept called a “breaching experiment.”  a beaching experiment is when you intentionally do something that may be considered taboo or otherwise go against — or breach — society’s generally accepted definition of what is ‘right’ or ‘proper’ behavior, with the intent to find out just how far someone (or some people) may allow you to push the envelope.  for example, funny hats.  it’s perfectly acceptable to go out in public on a regular basis with a baseball cap, or a beanie in the wintertime, even if that team is the oakland athletics or your beanie is a bright pink.  some may question your choice in team or color, but they won’t question your choice in hat.  if you, however, on a regular basis were to wear a baseball cap with clapping hands, or one of those hardhats with the beer cans on the side, people may begin to question your choice of hat.  that all depends on the company you keep.

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