It's been awhile since my last post. The instructional portion of Dan's executive coaching program has been completed and I've asked to take a break from our regular meeting schedule in order to 1) focus on some pressing projects at what is typically a very busy time in my industry and 2) incorporate what I've learned into some of my daily work.
I'm pleased to say that I've been able to take some things from the coaching program and implement them quickly into the reality of my work. To me, this isn't faint praise. I've had many courses and educational opportunities that, while useful in the theory of a class setting, failed to translate as practical once I got back to my desk and the 50 emails, 5 voicemails, 3 urgent questions and one partridge in a pear-tree. Whether these previous efforts lacked true substance or simply missed the teaching moment, I can't say. I'm happy that I've been able to implement a few things from our sessions and past that, I don't spend too much time questioning something that's working.
An additional positive is that my company's in the process of hiring for several positions. We're fortunate to be hiring as the jobless rate continues to inch upward and that got me thinking about the process a little more. Luck has played a role in our current position, but a lot of the credit also goes to a culture that plans methodically and holds individuals accountable for their actions. I am more firmly convinced that candidates for jobs within the company, any job, must be evaluated based on their ability to fit into and strengthen that culture. I am guilty of viewing candidates in the past too strictly through the lense of their skills at a particular job and largely ignoring how their presence while doing that job would/could impact all those around them. It's a mistake I believe many make and somewhat silly when you think about how much of your day is spent outside the lines of a specifically-written job description.
Fingers crossed and homework done, I'm confident we'll add some strong people to our company. Onward and upward from there!
Monday, September 7, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
China 2.0: Understanding what it takes to open doors in China | CRW • Corporate Report • Wisconsin's Business Magazine
Thursday, July 16, 2009
How we can succeed at setting our goals
Kyle pointed out something I often see. People become good at setting the goal, yet they stall out when trying to work through all the steps. Like here, the ownership of the goal is placed entirely on the individual writing it. I don't know of too many people who want to create more work for themselves so it's common nature to avoid creating action steps and timelines. That's a big commitment!
In order for us to succeed at our goals we must take a look at what we are currently doing on top of planning the goal. In other words, are we using time to the best of our ability? Are there other resources that can help us accomplish our goal? And are the thing I am working on producing the right results?
Here are some steps to help you accomplish your goals.
In order for us to succeed at our goals we must take a look at what we are currently doing on top of planning the goal. In other words, are we using time to the best of our ability? Are there other resources that can help us accomplish our goal? And are the thing I am working on producing the right results?
Here are some steps to help you accomplish your goals.
- List them out - Write down what you want to accomplish. Written goals already start becoming more real to us once they are put to paper.
- Prioritize - Work on the most important things first. Important doesn't mean the quickest to complete or the easiest. Know what is the number one thing you should be working on and why.
- Rewards vs. Consequences - In order for you to take action on your goal, the reward has to be great enough or the consequence has to be bad enough for you to want to make the change. These also become the prime motivators as you are working towards your goal.
- Possible Obstacles - What's in the way? Is there anything that has prevented you from achieving this goal already? Think of as many as you can, no matter how big or how small. Also consider that YOU may be one of the obstacles. Most often the beggest challenge to reaching our goals is ourselves.
- Possible solutions - How can you overcome these obstacles? Figure out what would remove them from your path.
- Plan out your action steps - Work on the steps that will eliminate the obstacles.
- Delegate and set completion dates - Who could be working on this besides you? Often there is someone who can help us get our goals accomplished.
- Make sure you are doing the right things - What brings value to you, your company, your employees and your customers? Often we do things because that is what we have always done. When we set goals we heap more on our plate of work thus our reluctance to set timelines. Part of a change process is eliminating obsolete processes. Rarely do we do this. If you are having trouble figuring out what to let go of, talk with your staff, they may have the answer. Need more help? Find someone outside the company who will ask the right questions and help you become more efficient.
- Incorporate others in the goal setting process. - Whenever possible, bring in advocates to assist with the change process. Overall, your goal setting and achieving will work better and you will have some people who can help implement the change.
- Accountability - Without accountability, little would get done. Get support from others to help you as you work towards your goal. Report your successes and where you are stuck. Have them keep you on task and on target. There will be a greater chance for success.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
The committee of one
I was fortunate to stumble upon an epiphany of sorts in my last session with Dan. As I mentioned in my last post, learning new techniques for developing staff, creating a positive atmosphere and planning is actually the easy part. The harder task is incorporating these new techniques into an already jam-packed day.
I specifically talked to Dan about planning. Looking at the formal process covered in the material, I wanted to understand where the possible points of variation could come into play. Simply put, I felt like I was good at identifying the objective, highlighting pros and cons, targeting a date and outlining obstacles and possible solutions. I was not so good when it came to identifying accountability and I wanted to know how the process could be customized to suit me as an individual.
Accountability, probably to no one's surprise, is the place where most planning breaks down. I know this had been my experience. That wasn't the epiphany. The epiphany for me was why.
Having taken the leadership index at the beginning of the sessions (as well as any number of DiSC and Myers-Briggs tests during my career), I know that I'm the type of person who likes possibilities more than absolutes. I felt like this might be my issue in taking the final steps of the planning process. Turns out, that's not all there is to it.
The bigger issue is that I tend to plan by myself. Anti-collaborative, I know. I just have always seen it as easier (and faster!) to spell out as much of the process as I could by myself and then share/implement it as a collaborative effort. In doing so, I always ended up assigning myself the lion's share of the tasks. Why? Because I was the only one in the room and since it was my plan in the first place, I felt like I was always in the best position to know what needed to be done. Repeat this process too many times, and suddenly you're drowning in work.
Sometimes the best revelations are the ones you don't intend to find. This certainly shed an entirely different light on my planning process and I'm anxious to try a different tact next time. Who knows, maybe I'll actually enjoy the process?
I specifically talked to Dan about planning. Looking at the formal process covered in the material, I wanted to understand where the possible points of variation could come into play. Simply put, I felt like I was good at identifying the objective, highlighting pros and cons, targeting a date and outlining obstacles and possible solutions. I was not so good when it came to identifying accountability and I wanted to know how the process could be customized to suit me as an individual.
Accountability, probably to no one's surprise, is the place where most planning breaks down. I know this had been my experience. That wasn't the epiphany. The epiphany for me was why.
Having taken the leadership index at the beginning of the sessions (as well as any number of DiSC and Myers-Briggs tests during my career), I know that I'm the type of person who likes possibilities more than absolutes. I felt like this might be my issue in taking the final steps of the planning process. Turns out, that's not all there is to it.
The bigger issue is that I tend to plan by myself. Anti-collaborative, I know. I just have always seen it as easier (and faster!) to spell out as much of the process as I could by myself and then share/implement it as a collaborative effort. In doing so, I always ended up assigning myself the lion's share of the tasks. Why? Because I was the only one in the room and since it was my plan in the first place, I felt like I was always in the best position to know what needed to be done. Repeat this process too many times, and suddenly you're drowning in work.
Sometimes the best revelations are the ones you don't intend to find. This certainly shed an entirely different light on my planning process and I'm anxious to try a different tact next time. Who knows, maybe I'll actually enjoy the process?
Sunday, June 21, 2009
The time-crunch dilemma
I had to admit that for the first time since we began the process I wasn't able to get to the assigned work between sessions. While I'm not the kind of person to simply let things slide, sometimes the demands of life (work projects, community commitments, children's activities and just the need to take a deep BREATH!) prevent you from getting to everything. There are only so many hours in the week, right?
This week highlighted the importance of habits. The need to translate theory into action through habit-forming has been been a consistent topic throughout much of the reading and subsequent discussions with Dan. A habit is a behavior repeated to the point that you demonstrate competence without much conscious thought. I recognized this week that I haven't managed to turn some of the things we've been working on into habits yet. As I get into my daily grind and the grind of deadlines seem to compress hours available in the day, practicing what I've learned here is still an extra time commitment. I've bought into the value of what I'm learning but I certainly don't have a unconscious competence.
Thankfully the new material is at an end (!) and the next few weeks are going to provide an opportunity to ingrain some of these lessons into habits. Is it bad that I want to do more things unconsciously? I wonder how long it will be before I can simply sleep all day and still get everything done...
This week highlighted the importance of habits. The need to translate theory into action through habit-forming has been been a consistent topic throughout much of the reading and subsequent discussions with Dan. A habit is a behavior repeated to the point that you demonstrate competence without much conscious thought. I recognized this week that I haven't managed to turn some of the things we've been working on into habits yet. As I get into my daily grind and the grind of deadlines seem to compress hours available in the day, practicing what I've learned here is still an extra time commitment. I've bought into the value of what I'm learning but I certainly don't have a unconscious competence.
Thankfully the new material is at an end (!) and the next few weeks are going to provide an opportunity to ingrain some of these lessons into habits. Is it bad that I want to do more things unconsciously? I wonder how long it will be before I can simply sleep all day and still get everything done...
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Empowerment is a four letter word
Can empowerment be evil? That depends on how it's defined. For some people, empowerment is a challenging concept because it is interpreted as lack of control and lack of discipline. The discussion I had with Kyle this week focused on this very topic.
Empowerment is a word that is used a lot today. It has become one of those cursed "Business Buzz Words" we hear often, but until someone creates another word/phrase that can be overused, I will continue to abuse this one. We read books on empowerment, attend speeches, and occasionally read blogs on the subject. I find leaders are often split on whether or not empowerment is a good thing. It all depends on the definition.
One group interprets empowerment as total freedom for employees to do whatever they want in their jobs. The responsibility is handed to the employee and we as leaders are left flying blind. By this definition, even I would be scared to let my staff steer the ship. If this becomes the predominant belief in the organization, then the outcome is the need for greater control because the leadership may not trust that the employee will do the right thing. After all, that is why we have leaders isn't it? They're here to tell people what to do. They make sure the work gets done. Right? In this model the value of the leader is placed on that leader's control and not on the ability to lead.
Here's an example: Think of a time where you worked in a job that had very strict procedures. In no way were you allowed to deviate from how you did your job because someone else already determined that the process implemented was the best way. You spend your days following the manual to the letter. Sounds fun doesn't it? No thinking needed. Just follow steps 1 through 10. While we all have times that we would like to turn off the gray matter, most of us want a little more stimulation in their jobs. In addition, we need to be active in what we do. Our brains are like a muscle. They require exercise to build creativity. The more structured the job is, the less you are required to think of new ways to get things done. Inevitably there will be a time when you will have to change what you are doing and it will be difficult to find that new solution.
The other challenge is we do not live in a black and white world. There are many different colors and many shades of gray. In virtually every situation, you will come up against a problem that doesn't work in the procedure manual. Now what? For some this means you need to create a new process. The new process will fix the loopholes in the old and make it more restrictive. This pattern continues until all the loopholes have been fixed. The problem is loopholes are often infinite.
The other definition of Empowerment has a different twist. It involves giving the employee the ability to make the correct decision for each situation by following the guidelines set by the Vision, Mission, and Values of the company. Here, instead of control we use discipline. This involves doing the right things the right way for the right reasons at the right time. Discipline is internal where control is external.
I would compare the proper use of empowerment to following a highway to your destination. As long as you stay on the road you will get to where you are going. But the highway has to be wide enough for you to safely maneuver past cars and around slower traffic. It also needs lines painted on it so you know which lanes you are in and where the edge of the pavement is. If the road is well thought out and well marked, anyone with the skills to drive a car and an understanding of the rules of the road can get where they want to go. In this case the destination is the company's Vision, the road is its Mission, and the lines on the highway are the Values. If you fail to follow the rules of the road or deviate to far from the center line, you will wreck.
Our challenge as leaders is understanding these differences, as Kyle does, and being able to lead and develop our people to know what they need to do through the results they need to meet. An even greater challenge is instilling these ideals in our people so we can get out of their way and help them be successful.
Empowerment is a word that is used a lot today. It has become one of those cursed "Business Buzz Words" we hear often, but until someone creates another word/phrase that can be overused, I will continue to abuse this one. We read books on empowerment, attend speeches, and occasionally read blogs on the subject. I find leaders are often split on whether or not empowerment is a good thing. It all depends on the definition.
One group interprets empowerment as total freedom for employees to do whatever they want in their jobs. The responsibility is handed to the employee and we as leaders are left flying blind. By this definition, even I would be scared to let my staff steer the ship. If this becomes the predominant belief in the organization, then the outcome is the need for greater control because the leadership may not trust that the employee will do the right thing. After all, that is why we have leaders isn't it? They're here to tell people what to do. They make sure the work gets done. Right? In this model the value of the leader is placed on that leader's control and not on the ability to lead.
Here's an example: Think of a time where you worked in a job that had very strict procedures. In no way were you allowed to deviate from how you did your job because someone else already determined that the process implemented was the best way. You spend your days following the manual to the letter. Sounds fun doesn't it? No thinking needed. Just follow steps 1 through 10. While we all have times that we would like to turn off the gray matter, most of us want a little more stimulation in their jobs. In addition, we need to be active in what we do. Our brains are like a muscle. They require exercise to build creativity. The more structured the job is, the less you are required to think of new ways to get things done. Inevitably there will be a time when you will have to change what you are doing and it will be difficult to find that new solution.
The other challenge is we do not live in a black and white world. There are many different colors and many shades of gray. In virtually every situation, you will come up against a problem that doesn't work in the procedure manual. Now what? For some this means you need to create a new process. The new process will fix the loopholes in the old and make it more restrictive. This pattern continues until all the loopholes have been fixed. The problem is loopholes are often infinite.
The other definition of Empowerment has a different twist. It involves giving the employee the ability to make the correct decision for each situation by following the guidelines set by the Vision, Mission, and Values of the company. Here, instead of control we use discipline. This involves doing the right things the right way for the right reasons at the right time. Discipline is internal where control is external.
I would compare the proper use of empowerment to following a highway to your destination. As long as you stay on the road you will get to where you are going. But the highway has to be wide enough for you to safely maneuver past cars and around slower traffic. It also needs lines painted on it so you know which lanes you are in and where the edge of the pavement is. If the road is well thought out and well marked, anyone with the skills to drive a car and an understanding of the rules of the road can get where they want to go. In this case the destination is the company's Vision, the road is its Mission, and the lines on the highway are the Values. If you fail to follow the rules of the road or deviate to far from the center line, you will wreck.
Our challenge as leaders is understanding these differences, as Kyle does, and being able to lead and develop our people to know what they need to do through the results they need to meet. An even greater challenge is instilling these ideals in our people so we can get out of their way and help them be successful.
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