Leading people — Page 14

It’s a Jungle Out There

I found this clip on YouTube that is a hilarious/sad commentary on many workplaces. Happy Viewing.

You’re Fired! How to Fire an Employee

Before You Fire

Have you done everything reasonably possible to have the employee succeed?
Has the employee been warned that their poor behavior or performance will lead to termination if not corrected? Are these warnings in writing?
Consult with your legal council and HR to determine whether the termination is ‘with just cause’ or ‘without just cause’
In cases of ‘with cause’ have you completed an investigation and got the employees side of the story?
With the help of Legal or HR prepare the letter or ‘separation agreement’

Be Respectful

Have the conversation as soon as possible after making the decision to terminate
Select neutral territory, preferably where you can be as discreet as possible
Plan to allow the employee to depart with as much dignity as possible
Provide appropriate transitional support

Doing the Deed

Have someone with you to witness the conversation, preferably HR or another manager
Keep the discussion quick and to the point
Don’t defend or debate the decision

Other than questioning someone’s parentage, is there a faster way to insult someone than calling him an introvert? Isn’t introversion something that we need to cure people of by sending them to the Dale Carnegie Course?

Many organizations have invested in some form of psychometric instrument that indicates whether people have a preference for introverted or extroverted behaviour, but that hasn’t stopped the vast majority of people from throwing around these terms without actually having a clue as to what they mean.

People hear “extrovert”, and they think: outgoing, friendly, social, capable, productive, normal.

People hear “introvert”, and they think: shy, withdrawn, anti-social, illusive, dysfunctional, wall-flower.

The problem with these descriptions is that neither is particularly accurate, and it infers that people are capable of only one set of behaviours exclusively. There is also a connotation that Extroverts will excel in business to a much higher degree than Introverts.

In Good to Great, Jim Collins reveals the qualities that his research has shown as effective in running great organizations. Interestingly, many of the qualities of “Level Five Leadership”, are found more naturally in people with Introverted preferences.

You might also be surprised who may be a closet-introvert: High-profile leaders, television personalities, sports stars, maybe even one of your friends, neighbours, or family are introverted. They’re everywhere, so beware – you never know when they’ll want to slink into the back corner of a meeting room, and silently wish everyone would stop talking at once. Or perhaps pray that someone will listen to them for 20 seconds before interrupting them. Worse yet, they may think about something before responding to a question creating that awkward few seconds silence.

So you may be wondering where I fit on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Grid.

As someone who spends a lot of time talking to groups of people, and a person who worked in television (for a short and spectacularly unsuccessful period of time), I am rarely accused of being an Introvert.

I prefer to label myself as a Recovering-Extrovert. We might need to create a new scale for measurement.

ABC’s of Performance Management

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People do what gets reinforced (this is both a good news and a bad news story)! Here’s how you can use consequences to manage performance.

The ABC’s of Performance Management

For more information, take a look at ‘Bringing Out the Best in People: How to Apply the Astonishing Power of Positive Reinforcement’, by Aubrey C. Daniels

Activator (or antecedent)

Something that comes before a behaviour or activity which sets the occasion for that behaviour
Most often over-used by managers
Have only short-term effects
Cause a behaviour to happen a limited number of times
Must be paired with a consequence to be effective

Behavior

What a person does
Performance
Action
Event
Decision

Consequences

The result of a behavior
A response to an action
What is said or done about someone’s work or an activity
An event that occurs after a given behavior
What happens to the performer as a result of the given behavior

Leaders often overuse activators and underuse consequences.

Types of Consequences

There are four types of consequences:

Positive reinforcement – Makes me feel good about something I’ve done
Negative reinforcement – I do something because it will allow me to avoid something negative
Punishment – Makes me feel bad about something I’ve done
Extinction – Being ignored for something I’ve done

Positive and negative reinforcement are consequences that will increase behavior, while punishment and extinction are consequences that will decrease behavior.

Consequences That Drive Performance

Consequences can be:

Positive OR Negative
Immediate OR Future
Certain OR Uncertain

The consequences that will drive performance are positive, immediate, and certain.

High Impact Development

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The most significant development for managers and executives takes place ON THE JOB (i.e. not through training or coaching/mentoring). However training is what is most commonly offered.

Why most training is useless:

86% of people who attend training do nothing to apply what they have learned
Typically only 10% of non-customized course content is relevant to an organization

Don’t default to training activities for yourself or your directs when building development plans! If you do use training, think about what you are going to do to ensure that what is taught is actually applied.

High impact development activities include:

Special project/Task force: Discrete project assignment aimed at a specific outcome.
Fix-it: Turn around, restructure and stabilize a failed operation, project, or organization, or customer relationships.
Start-up: Building something from nothing or almost nothing.
Small strategic assignment: Examples include doing a competitive analysis; writing a proposal for a new product, system, etc.; writing a speech for someone higher up; writing a policy statement or summarizing a new trend/technique and presenting it to others.
Deepening functional skills: Changing from a generalist type assignment to a more specialized job/role that requires/builds very deep functional expertise.
Stretch job beyond ‘hip pocket’ functional skills: Changing job/role/career to a functional discipline fundamentally different from previous work experiences; may include a cross-functional assignment.
Significant change leadership: Leading the efforts to design and implement major change to the company’s key business processes and core capabilities.
Mentoring: Receiving personal coaching, counsel and perspective from a valued/trusted and influential leader. Being a mentor for someone else.
Build a team: Assembling & aligning a team of unique talent and skill sets to achieve a stated vision and strategy. Maybe a project team.
Coaching assignments: Teach someone how to do something they are not expert in; design a training course.

Tools to Lead Change

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Three important things to remember when you are leading change

1. As individuals experience change, each one will deal with change differently. In general though, people move through three predictable phases when confronted with change:

Stage One: ‘Endings’ – anger, denial, resistance, mourning

Stage Two: ‘Exploration’ – chaos, turmoil, hope

Stage Three: ‘New beginnings’ – new routines/methods, optimism, stability

You should expect employees to move through various emotions….even when things are going well!

2. Resistance arises when people realize that change is difficult

3. Your role is to keep people on track despite obstacles

Communicating to different personality types

We are each a ‘creature of habit’ and tend to act consistently over time and in different situations.

Various measurement systems can help you understand preferred styles of behavior – both your own, and those of others. For example:

Myers Briggs Type Indicator
DiSC
Insights

These personality profiles categorize how an individual prefers to:

Direct their energy
Process information
Make decisions
Manage himself in the world
Deal with conflict
Communicate
Work in a team environment

To communicate effectively during change, it is critical to tailor your messages to the personality preferences of the individuals you are dealing with.

Dealing with Resistance to Change

You should expect resistance to change – this is normal! As a leader, you can minimize resistance to change if you:

Provide focus
Proactively share information
Acknowledge resistance when it occurs
Tow the line
Involve employees where possible
Repeat key messages over and over
Listen
Validate good work done in the past

Sometimes, however, you will encounter continued resistance to change. When confronted with difficult behavior, you can manage it if you:

Be aware of the impact of the other person’s behavior on you
Identify the type of behavior, and strategize a response before reacting
Understand the root cause
Determine if the conversation can continue right now
Avoid public showdowns
Focus on the behavior, not the person
Don’t make excuses for the person
Do something! – Don’t ignore the behavior

Chicken$hits Can’t Be Effective Leaders

Far smarter people than me have written about what is required for effective leadership, but this week I have been reflecting upon the most necessary ingredient: courage.

I have had the pleasure of interacting with many leaders of varying quality over many years, and all of them have at least a few obvious strengths, but the common denominator in the truly outstanding leaders, are those who handle awkward, difficult or downright scary situations head-on. They don’t always get it right the first time, but the outstanding leader does not back down because she fears reprisal from her boss, peers, direct reports or some other stakeholder.

It is amazing how many people have a strong need to liked by those who report through to them. The relationship between a boss and his/her employees should always be respectful, but it does not need to be friendly. Many leaders hate to deliver bad news, or say “no” to people. Other leaders won’t deal with performance issues because it might involve a difficult conversation, or let an employee who should have been fired years ago get away with perpetual sub-par performance.

This is exquisite BS.

It is a form of dishonesty, and certainly demonstrates a lack of integrity when leaders fail to engage in difficult conversations. Progressive organizations have figured this out, and gotten rid of managers who are afraid to get rid of people.

The right thing to do is rarely the easy thing to do, but it is the burden of leadership. If you are too chicken$hit to do the right thing, then you should either grow a pair, or wait to be fired. The choice is yours

Giving Quality Feedback

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Why should you give feedback?

To confirm a course of action, performance or behavior
To correct specific behavior or performance
To have a behavior or performance carry on
Use as a performance management tool to enhance performance

There are 5 steps for giving quality feedback:

Step 1: Context Tell them what you’re going to tell them

Tell them what’s coming – don’t leave them guessing
Don’t just start talking, and leave them to figure it out on their own
“I’d like to offer some feedback on…”

Step 2: Clarify Describe in specific, measurable and observable terms and tell them why it’s important

Generalities don’t work
Have your facts straight
Describe observable behaviors
Use measures wherever possible
Tell them why this is important
What is the impact on you and on others?
How does it relate to high level goals and objectives

Step 3: Create Ask for feedback on the feedback and brainstorm actions to improve or do better

Ask lots of questions
Guide them through the feedback
Give an opportunity to respond
Brainstorm actions to improve or do better

Step 4: Confirm Agree on action steps forward, and determine exactly what will happen next

Make sure you agree on what will happen next, even if it is to maintain the status quo
Reinforce continued good performance
Describe what future outcomes you’d like to see

Step 5: Close Express confidence and support

Everyone should leave the meeting with a clear idea of what they need to do next
Reinforce your confidence in the recipients ability to be successful
Describe how you will support them in their efforts to improve

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.

It’s a Jungle Out There

You’re Fired! How to Fire an Employee

Is There Hope for Introverts?

ABC’s of Performance Management

High Impact Development

Tools to Lead Change

Chicken$hits Can’t Be Effective Leaders

Giving Quality Feedback

Number One Rule of Leadership: Everything is Your Fault

Why Command and Control is Underrated

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