I found this clip on YouTube that is a hilarious/sad commentary on many workplaces. Happy Viewing.
Is There Hope for Introverts?
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People hear “introvert”, and they think: shy, withdrawn, anti-social, illusive, dysfunctional, wall-flower.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.
High Impact Development
Members Click Here for Additional Tools
Get Instant Access to 200+ Cheat Sheets, Videos, and Other Immediately Usable Tools for Busy Managers – Try Out a Wily Manager Membership Today!
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.
Get Instant Access to 200+ Cheat Sheets, Videos, and Other Immediately Usable Tools for Busy Managers – Try Out a Wily Manager Membership Today!
Your Smart Phone Could Get You Fired
There’s lots of media coverage this week of smart phones – iPhone for the continuing saga of the iPhone 4, and Blackberry for the UAE’s refusal to use them based on security concerns.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should come-clean now on the fact that I came late to the smart phone party. I had a perfectly good cell phone, and no one was able to convince me that a smart phone would make my life any easier. In fact – quite the opposite:
“You need a smart phone so you can get your email anywhere, and always be connected. The only thing I don’t like is that my phone reception is not very good.”
Sorry – that’s at least two strikes against the smart phone
1) I don’t want to always be connected. In fact I look to actively be disconnected
2) Why would I buy a phone with the limiting function being the telephone itself? It might make a mean frappuccino, but I would prefer it to make phone calls.
I finally relented and bought an iPhone because it effectively condensed four devices I regularly carried on business trips into one (phone, iPod, Palm Pilot & GPS). The bonus feature was that as a middle-aged white guy, I instantly felt cooler with a gadget from Apple.
So once I had the new smart phone was I perpetually connected, as I feared? No.
Not because the technology limited me in any way from staying connected, but because I often either ignored it or turned it off. I am able to do so because I’m not part of a big corporate food-chain where I would be lead to believe that my very existence on the planet is contingent upon me being absolutely indispensible to my employer.
As a contractor of services, I am generally exempt from things like anxiety about job security (because I don’t have any). But it got me thinking about why people feel they need to be connected all the time. It is nothing more than illusions of grandeur if you think that no one else can do what you do. If you are one of the few that has made yourself indispensible then your business is not sustainable, and we should probably fire you anyway.
Either way, if you’re one of those managers that is constantly connected to your workplace, you should work to wean yourself off this addiction. Work, like all other recreational drugs, should be used only in moderation.
Selecting Managers
Some kids grow up wanting to be a fire-fighter, a police officer, teacher or doctor. I wanted to be Mr. Rogers. No eight-year-old will tell you she wants to be a manager when she grows up (and if she does, get her into therapy top speed). Yet there are more managers than there are fire-fighters, police officers, teachers and doctors combined by a factor of ten or more.
So how does this happen?
If management were a profession like others, someone would go to school to study the vocation of management, apprentice for some period of time, and then be deemed fully capable of executing as a manager. MBA schools have failed to do this effectively, and the vast majority of companies develop their managers in a haphazard fashion.
Most people end up as managers by going into to some line of work for which they show some aptitude, and then are promoted to oversee others doing similar work. Somewhere along the line, they might take a course or two, and some companies may even send their high potential new managers to business school.
Most organizations make the critical mistake of assuming that because someone is a proficient practitioner of a certain trade that she will be a good manager. Organizations need to change their focus away from the technical aspects of a particular function (or group of functions), and instead focus on what skills a manager will need to be successful in that environment.
If more than half that list of competencies is focused on technical aspects of the industry or job, then it has been done wrong.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not a big fan of pulling people with no industry experience, and placing them in key management positions. I don’t think this approach has worked very often. If organizations are serious about having great management, then they need to select people for management positions with the core competencies required to manage in that environment, and then continually develop them.
Either that, or select tall guys with brown hair, who wear blue shirts. That works too.
Summer and Pretending to Work
One of my favourite work assignments was a project based in Philadelphia that was a joint venture between an American Company and a British one. One would think the similarities between these two countries would keep cross-cultural issues to a minimum, but as anyone who has worked in both countries will tell you, the differences are more than merely adjusting to funny accents.
One of the first wrinkles that needed to ironed out was the fact that Americans take about 3 weeks vacation a year in increments of no longer than 5 days, and their British counterparts have two or three times that holiday entitlement.
While the Brits would jet off to Southern Europe for 3 weeks at a time during the summer, the Americans would be at the office working the same excessive hours as always. Interestingly, the productivity of the two groups was about the same.
This got me to thinking about how we work in North America, and how much of the time we are pretending to work. Lots of people will take offence to the notion that they are not really working, but in reality the bulk of the work at many organizations takes place in just a few weeks per year.
January through May are good production months, except for a few days around Easter and Spring Break. June through August, many people are not at work at all, and those that are working show up, but really have one eye to the outdoors and their next BBQ. September and October are usually about budgeting and planning, and while some will argue they are critical to the business, it distracts from the actual running of the business, and often adds far less value than it costs in time and effort. Finally November and December work gets done, but with the distractions of Christmas and (for the Americans) Thanksgiving.
So as a manager, how do you reconcile that the few people that do show up in July and August are probably just pretending to work? You don’t. It’s part of the deal, and most organizations don’t fall apart as a result. The real question to ask is whether the work being done the rest of the year, when the entire staff complement is in place and working at capacity has any value.
Anyway, I better take a quick lap around the office floor (holding a piece of paper, and walking quickly) so as to maintain the appearance of work, before someone figures out I’m part of the masses pretending to work during the summer months.
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.
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?
Improve Your Public Speaking and Presentation Skills
Members Click Here for Additional Tools
Get Instant Access to 200+ Cheat Sheets, Videos, and Other Immediately Usable Tools for Busy Managers – Try Out a Wily Manager Membership Today!
The ability to deliver great presentations is a core business skill that very few people ever try to improve. By following a few simple guidelines, most people can significantly boost their presentation performance. There are four key things you can do to improve your presentations:
Prepare
-
Know your subject matter. If this element is missing, you are destined for failure
-
Organize your thoughts in advance. For some, this will mean writing a presentation or speech out long hand; for others it will be in point form
-
Try to keep the tone conversational
-
Recognize the difference between written and spoken language. The use of run-on sentences and contractions is not permitted in written language. It is commonplace in spoken language, so beware of writing a ‘script’ in proper written English.
-
Use visual language and images – a picture paints a thousand words
-
Contain your presentation to a few key concepts
Target your audience
-
Who will be in your audience, and what is their level of understanding of your subject?
-
How many people will be there?
-
Which media will be most effective. Is it Powerpoint? Is it audio-visual? Is it just you talking?
-
What is an appropriate presentation length for the audience? Just because you’ve been allocated an hour, doesn’t mean you have to use it!
-
What questions will the audience likely have? Anticipate and be prepared
Practise
-
Visualize: repeatedly imagine yourself giving an outstanding presentation.
-
Practice in front of a mirror. This is extremely uncomfortable for some people but if you can move past the discomfort, it can be very helpful. Rehearse language and actions
-
Some people attempt to memorize their presentation or speech. This usually doesn’t work, and makes the tone less conversational. However, you may want to memorize a few key concepts to which you will speak
Manage the room
-
Try to visit the room a day or two before your presentation so you know what to expect and can incorporate it into your visualization process
-
Ensure the all equipment and audio-visual aids are functioning in advance. Nothing ruins a presentation faster than asking 200 people to wait for a powerpoint presentation to load!
-
How to manage your nervousness:
-
Remember to breathe
-
Follow all of the steps above to minimize the unknowns
- Remember that your audience wants you to succeed
Get Instant Access to 200+ Cheat Sheets, Videos, and Other Immediately Usable Tools for Busy Managers – Try Out a Wily Manager Membership Today!