Blog Posts — Page 16

Airport Security Screening and Employee Performance

Something happens in an airport or on an airplane every few months that makes us collectively lose our minds. In the past year, restrictions have been put on air travelers that are only slightly less obtrusive than being bound in straight-jacket while in transit.

At any given time there are literally hundreds of thousands of people in the air. Of all of those people, some tiny fraction of one percent want to do harm. Regardless of how small that deviant population is, all air travelers are subject to slow, invasive, and somewhat ineffective security measures.

Many workplaces manage their employees the same way. They put restrictive policies in place to thwart the occasional employee that may abuse a corporate directive. One example was a client of ours who had a proposal to put people on a per diem expense when they were travelling, and thus eliminating the need for the collection and auditing of hundreds of $10 lunch receipts.

Ultimately the proposal was turned down because there was some history of one or two employees abusing their expense accounts. Rather than properly discipline the offending employees, it was decided to stack policy on top of policy to eliminate any chance anyone could abuse their expense account.

In the process, they created an abundance of unnecessary work for countless employees, cost the shareholders more in compliance-related costs, damaged any atmosphere of trust in the organization, and ultimately didn’t stop dishonest employees from taking advantage of the situation. Not a very smart decision.

In the airports, we don’t have much choice; in the workplace we do. Managers need to be accountable for managing. If an employee behaves poorly, then address the behavior – don’t write a policy. In the example above, the offending employees should have been fired. They then could have instituted an expense allowance that is easier to administer and saves everyone time and money.

I can already hear the HR and Finance people objecting, but at some point pragmatic common sense must prevail.

Number One Rule of Leadership: Everything is Your Fault

Poor Tony Hayward – he just wants his life back. OK – that’s officially the stupidest comment of the year, but he’s apologized now, so it should all be OK. Like most important life-lessons (whether it be business or personal), the fundamentals were taught to us in Kindergarten, we’ve just chosen to forget, or not apply them.

I was watching Disney/Pixar’s A Bug’s Life with my son the other day, when Hopper (the chief antagonist, and all-around bad ass) reminded Princess Atta that the number one rule of leadership is that “Everything is Your Fault”. Apparently Mr. Hayward hasn’t watched any children’s programming lately, or he might have gotten some of this right.

If it’s any consolation, BP is not the only company to have reacted to a bad situation by making it exponentially worse. Just a few months ago, we were watching Toyota come unglued like an Egyptian mummy in a swimming pool. It seems that every organization to have screwed up (or just had plain bad luck) seems to go into ass-covering mode with the exception of Tylenol in the 1980s, and Maple Leaf foods just two years ago.

The big difference: both the Tylenol and Maple Leaf disasters killed people, but instead of hiding behind their lawyers, the leaders of these companies made themselves front and centre, and took responsibility for the (in)actions of their organizations.

So what can the middle manager or front level supervisor learn from all the silliness?

First… go rent A Bug’s Life, and listen to Kevin Spacey’s line about leadership responsibility over and over again. When you think you’ve learned it, go listen to it a bunch more times so that when the excrement hits the rotating air-circulation device, you won’t try to cover your ass, but rather step up and take your lumps.

Second… manage your little empire proactively. In areas that could get you into big trouble (health & safety, violence in the workplace, harassment, discrimination, etc.) don’t ever settle for less than outstanding performance. Executives at BP will not only oversee the loss of billions of dollars/pounds of shareholder value, but they may be held personally liable for sloppy process. It’s not out of the question that one or more of them end up in jail/gaol.

Third… understand that taking responsibility is the burden of leadership. This is what we pay you to do. It’s what you signed up for in the first place. If you’re unable to get your head around this, you should get yourself reassigned as an individual contributor. Yep… that right: If you “want your life back”, you should think about that before disaster strikes.

Why Command and Control is Underrated

It seems to me that Command and Control as a management style has gotten a bum rap. You’ve heard the disparaging remarks, “She’s a complete command and control style manager” – implying there is something wrong with that.

I think such comments display a startling lack of understanding of what leaders are required to do in organizations. Command and control is a very useful managerial tool for certain situations.

People love to use fire-fighting as an analogy to describe modern management practice. I would challenge anyone to go find himself a Fire Chief and ask him/her if command and control is a bad idea.

When a building is burning and lives are at stake, the Fire Chief very much relies on command and control as the appropriate management tool for that situation. Can you imagine the fire department showing up at an emergency, and the Fire Chief requesting that everyone break up in study groups, to hold hands and sing camp songs?

“OK – everyone brainstorm ideas for how we should tackle this, and I’ll give a special prize to the group that comes up with the best idea. Make sure everyone participates equally, and remember that everyone’s feedback is valuable. This is an excellent opportunity to reinforce how much we value each other, and I’ll float between the groups to help facilitate.”

Glad it’s not my house on fire. I want the Fire Chief standing on top of chair barking out orders as fast as she can to get the situation under control. I also want the Firefighters to listen carefully to the orders being dispatched, and execute as they’re being instructed to do.

When they are back at the Firehall, and practicing for such emergencies, or doing community outreach, then the Fire Chief would be well advised to pull a different tool out of his box, and to engage his people in a more collaborative style.

The problem for people that disparage command and control is that they confuse this very important managerial style with a lack of respect. Lack of respect is never appropriate, but many times it is a leaders job to tell her direct reports in no uncertain terms what they are required to do. Setting clear expectations, holding people to account for those expectations, and administering the appropriate consequences are what we pay managers to do.

Command and control is one legitimate tool to get this done.

Tell me your experiences – both good and bad – with command and control as a management style.

Book Review: ‘Managing’, by Henry Mintzberg

The thing that impresses me most about Henry is his ability to upset people. You will be at least mildly annoyed with Mintzberg if any of the following apply to you:

You are a manager
You have a business degree
You use email
You pay attention when Jack Welsh, or any other celebrity manager speaks
You believe that management is a profession
You think management can be taught

You should read this book simply because Mintzberg is very much a contrarian, and whether you agree with him or not, it is good to consider his arguments. ‘Managing’ is easy to read (especially given it is written by an academic), and it raises fundamental questions that any leader of people should be asking.

For normal students of management practice, you may find this book a series of punches in the face; my favorite one being on the limitations of email. I have regularly made the point that email is an extremely limited media, and should be minimized by leaders wherever possible.

The response I get most often if the same look your dog gives you when you pretend to throw the ball, but then hide it behind your back. “How could anyone possibly manage without email?”

I welcome your feedback on email, or about this book.

If you are disinclined to read the whole book, the book summary may be worth a look.

Why Your HR Department Probably Sucks

So… following a title like the above, I should probably fully disclose before going any further: I have worked in HR, and have done a fair bit of consulting work with HR Business Areas.

Unlike the title may imply, I have met a number of smart, hardworking people in HR. Like any other category of people, there are good, bad and ugly performers in HR.

So why would I suggest that HR probably sucks in your organization?

In many cases, it is because organizations don’t really know what it is that they should be asking HR to do for them, and HR professionals are notoriously poor at “selling” their wares. Many companies want HR to administer the payroll, and arrange the Christmas party. They then staff the HR group with people who are capable of doing those tasks, but do not have the experience or training to make a more strategic contribution to the business.

So, what should we look for in our HR department?

“People Persons” are often the last people you should have in HR. A good HR person knows that her job is to generate returns for shareholders. The respectful treatment of people is a prerequisite to consistently generating those returns, but many “people persons” forget that some of their people may regularly need a kick in the ass.
Your HR people need to have business training. I’m not suggesting you insist every one of them go out and get an MBA, but they need to have some understanding of the business you are in, and how it works.
You need high potential, high achievers in HR. I have worked with more than one organization that has used HR as a ghetto for people who could not make it in the operating part of the business. These organizations have taken the easy way out, and put these poor performers where they perceive they can do the least amount of damage – in HR. This is the opposite of what should be happening – your highest potential leaders should be cycled through HR.
HR people need have well developed skills in sales and influencing. The best managed companies know that the management of the Human Resource is NOT the responsibility of HR, but rather of every leader in the organization. HR’s job is to influence those managers to do it well. An HR professional, without the ability to influence organizational leaders is about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

Of course, I could go on and on, but I better get back to work before I get caught, and someone wants to send me to work in the HR group. So now that I’ve offended every person who has ever known anyone in HR, I’d love to hear what you think about the HR group in your organization: Are they good? Are they bad? Are they the highest potential employees?

It has been said that populations get the governments they deserve. In organizations, we end up with the HR departments we deserve.

High Potential Leadership – Accelerated Development Programs

So it’s time to select who will participate in your Accelerated Development Program and your thinking about your team and who might be the best of the best to put forward, who deserves the opportunity. You start looking through your teams performance reviews and 360 results, you start planning for the talent review meetings … HOLD ON! I love the enthusiasm you have for developing people but I need to ask you to back it up.

Contrary to common practice, do not start with a process aimed at identifying the high potential talent in your organization. Start by determining the leadership requirements that exist for the organization; start with the identifying your Business Requirements.

What competencies (knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviors) are going to be required in order to successfully execute your strategy over the next 3–5 years?
Where is your bench weaker/stronger?
Where is the company growth going to come from that will require new leadership?
Where are the likely future vacancies going to be?

When you are considering who will be selected to participate in your Accelerated Development Program ….. start with an organizational assessment rather than a talent assessment.

If you’re like most companies there is a limited amount of resources of time and money that you can spend on Accelerated Development Programs. In a larger organization leveraging traditional identification process will still likely lead to a large number of candidates who are labeled as High Potential. Don’t misunderstand, everyone should have development plans and be supported in their development, however the truth of the matter is that organizations should be proactive in allocating additional development resources against those individuals who are most likely to meet the leadership requirements of the organization. You need to make sure you are getting the biggest benefit from your development efforts.

Leverage your organizational analysis in determining some of the criteria for selection. If your bench strength is weak in the sales department and really strong in operations then concentrate your selection to the program by choosing individuals interested in building a career in sales. YES, even at the expense of not including a high potential individual from Operations. If your business requirements for leadership are heavily weighted in a specific geography you may consider not including some individuals that have indicate that they are not willing to relocate, in favour of some who are. The goal of accelerated development programs is to accelerate the development of selected individuals to meet the needs of the business. Don’t invest more money and time where it’s not needed at the expense of where it is needed.

What Toyota can learn from OJ and Barack Obama

There hasn’t been a fall from grace like this since the OJ trial. Ok… maybe this recent Tiger Woods thing, or the fact that people set the expectations for Barack Obama way too high could be close seconds, but the fact that Toyota isn’t absolutely perfect seems to be disturbing a lot of people.

Toyota is a well run company – despite their recent setbacks. What separates well run organizations from those not so well run is the ability to respond to challenges, not the absence of any troubles.

I have no doubt the marketing people at Toyota are freaking out, but they do have some credibility they can spend on this issue. What they shouldn’t do, is announce to the world there isn’t really a problem, and carry on with business as usual. This is the corporate equivalent of OJ going out on his own to look for the “real” killer.

Toyota needs to step-up, acknowledge what went wrong, tell everyone how they intend to fix it, and then get back to completely dominating the global automobile industry. Too much spin, and they’ll lose even more credibility.

And while we’re talking about supposedly world class companies, can we have a reality check? I have studied and held up organizations like Southwest Airlines, General Electric, and Disney myself as examples for managers to look to. In many cases I would stand by this advice. However, we need to realize that even the best run entities are not going to do everything right all the time. In fact, it is probably closer to the truth that these companies really only do things right marginally more than every other organization out there.

Don’t get me wrong… much like I find President Obama to be an impressive guy, watching people’s unrealistic expectations of him be constantly deflated, people need to look to the Toyotas of the world in the proper context. They are not perfect, and they will make mistakes. They also can’t be all things to all people.

I bought Southwest Airlines stock about 8 years ago, because they were such an impressive company. So impressive, that I would lose my shirt if I sold those same stocks today. I also bought Southwest stock before ever flying with them. I have no doubt they serve their niche well – I’m just clearly not one of their target customers: “What do you mean you won’t assign me a seat?”

Leaders in big organizations and small should watch Toyota very carefully in the coming weeks and months. They will either come through this stronger than ever, or crash and burn horribly. Either way it will be instructive.

How do you think this will end? Will Toyota recover like Tylenol did after the poisonings, or will Mr. Toyota end up driving down an LA freeway with a gun to his head?

Management Lessons from NBC Late Night Programming

What a debacle.

Of course, the whole situation becomes exaggerated when you add in multi-million dollar severance packages, and inflated celebrity egos. But when you look at the situation purely from a management perspective what is to be learned?

Here’s what we know:

NBC didn’t want O’Brien to leave, so they made a deal with Leno to retain O’Brien
NBC didn’t want to offend Leno to a point that he might shop his talent elsewhere
As a result, they shuffled all the deck chairs, and when it was clear it wasn’t working, they again tried to split the difference and come out with a compromise that would placate all concerned. Wrong again.

What Jeff Zucker and the kids at NBC management failed to realize is that sometimes you don’t get to pick a good option. Sometimes, as managers, we are called upon to determine which option sucks the least.

Back in 1993, NBC had a similar management choice to make when replacing Johnny Carson. Their managerial decision making at the time caused them to lose David Letterman to CBS, which likely guided their decisions a decade later. In retrospect, say “no” to O’Brien, and potentially losing him, as they lost Letterman, may very well have been the option that sucked the least.

There are thousands of managers out there right now facing decisions where there may not be a best option. These decisions won’t make the news, and there probably won’t be a $45m severance expense, but making difficult decisions is a burden of leadership.

So do the right thing… if you can’t figure out an option that will work best, determine the one that will suck the least, and get on with it.

Either that, or follow the example of Jimmy Fallon, and just stay quiet and below the radar until the whole thing blows over.

The Roadrunner Story

Beep-Beep

There is much to be learned from cartoons – they often reflect or satirize our society in very clever ways.

Jed spent over 15 years with a Fortune 100 company in positions in Sales, Operations and Human Resources. During that time, he learned first hand how world-class organizations manage their businesses and lead their people. I also spent over 10 years working with a large multi-national, before transitioning to Management Consulting about 15 years ago. Throughout both these careers I have learned from what companies do well, and often what they don’t do well.

So… what does working with and advising companies have to do with Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner?

Jed and I were chatting about one of our client organizations one day when one of us made the comment that it seemed as though many of the leaders we were coaching were constantly fighting a seemingly futile battle, and were actually making things harder for themselves. “It’s like the Coyote, finding increasingly complicated and convoluted ways to try to catch the Road Runner”.

We pursued the metaphor further and wondered about what kind of arrangement Wile E. Coyote has with ACME Inc. He apparently has an unlimited account with which to purchase rocket launchers, catapults, explosives and all the various accessories. It would seem that ACME carries everything a Coyote could ever want. Then we asked if ACME might carry Canned Road Runner. Even with a healthy respect for “love of the hunt”, surely the Coyote should have settled for canned roadrunner by now.

The people who run modern organizations are not so different from the Coyote. I have worked in grocery stores and nuclear power plants, and the businesses are conceptually very easy. Layers of managers, and well intentioned others then set out to diffuse energy away from the core business drivers and to a litany of “flavor of the month” projects and initiatives that no human could ever keep straight.

This happens to smart and hard-working leaders that are trying to do their best to satisfy all the various stakeholders they work with. Often times external consultants and Human Resource professionals make it that much more difficult by adding more dimensions to a manager’s workday. What modern organizational leaders need to do is to put down the proverbial rocket launcher, and move one aisle over at the ACME store, and buy some canned roadrunner.

What Jed and I want to offer here is a number of cans of different types of roadrunner to suite your taste. Different businesses have different issues at different times in their life cycles, but there are many similarities. Likewise, managers in different parts of the same business may have different requirements that cannot be met by the normal approach to organizational development.

Each “can” that we offer gives easy to understand and actionable advice for whatever concerns leaders most. In a few minutes you can understand core concepts and tools, and put them to work right away in your business. There are easy to understand explanations that are augmented by podcasts for each specific topic area. Each “can” contains examples, checklists, evaluations and sometimes case studies to make a manager competent in the subject area quickly.

For leaders that want more detailed information than what we provide, there is a resources section for each topic area that will direct you to some books, articles or other resources that Jed and I have found useful during our careers.

We don’t claim to have all the answers to every one of your problems, but many of the most common managerial challenges that we’ve come across are addressed here.

Don’t be the Coyote…be a Wily Manager.

Book Review: ‘How the Mighty Fall’, by Jim Collins

Why we like this book:

Jim Collins always writes his books based on quality research as opposed to the cheerleading that we see in many management books. He also has a very conversational tone, which makes it very easy to read and retain his key ideas. How the Mighty Fall is not a book about the Global Financial Collapse, although its timing was almost perfect, and the lessons to be learned from the book and the research certainly may have helped some of the organizations. Probably those who need to read this book most are those that are running companies (or departments within companies) that are doing particularly well. As Collins points out, organizations that convince themselves they are doing very well often self-delude themselves into ignoring blind spots that become all too evident after the fact.

We think this is an easy, informative read, and worth the time to do so. What about you – what do you think?

Jed & Bob