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Archive for June, 2010

Leadership Stupidity

Monday, June 21st, 2010

leadership-stupidity

Leadership has become a catchword, a panacea, a supposed solution to whatever ails us as a nation and a world. It is what people get degrees in, strive to be and worry that they are failures if they aren’t recognizes as leaders.

There is a fantasy that positive leadership is an integral trait of positional leaders no matter how many times that has proved to be a false assumption.

Another assumption about positional leaders is their ability to see the big picture; also proven to be untrue. Here are two excellent examples of narrow, short-term thinking—one stupidity that just happened in a small biz and the other from a corporate titan 56 years ago.

The former is another stupidity from Subway, the company best know for $5 foot longs and a bullet-ridden foot. The most recent foot shot happened in Dartmouth, NS when a worker was fired for giving her own lunch to two fellow apartment dwellers after a fire left them homeless (she also offered them lodging in her own apartment which wasn’t damaged in the fire); Quiznos, being more publicity-wise, hired her.

The older stupidity was perpetrated by the original Bell Labs, one of the most prolific research organizations that ever existed, and is a story that has been repeated in one way or another by companies large and small ever since.

Executives recognized that many of those moving up the management ladder lacked the broad thinking skills that would enable them to function as leaders in the future, so they set out to provide an intense program to remedy the situation. The remedy succeeded beyond their expectations in that the attendees learned to thing for themselves and those thoughts didn’t dovetail with the slavish corporate mentality the executives desired the program was shut down, … executives came out of the program more confident and more intellectually engaged, they were also less interested in putting the company’s bottom line ahead of their commitments to their families and communities. (I hope you take a moment to read this fascinating story.)

It should be noted that authoritarian leaders, whether of companies or countries, have always known that education and strong positive values are anathema to their continued power.

How do you define leadership?

Join me tomorrow for a look at this question.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/4192572927/

mY generation: Productivity Mill

Sunday, June 20th, 2010

See all mY generation posts here.

prodoctivitymill

Quotable Quotes: Father’s Day

Sunday, June 20th, 2010

fathers-day

Well, what did you expect today, if not quotes about fathers? I did try and find some that weren’t too common and made good points with wit and a touch of irreverence, since I don’t easily digest saccharine.

I think Louis Adamic hits the nail on the head with this bit of wisdom, “My grandfather always said that living is like licking honey off a thorn.”

More than century ago Wilhelm Busch made an excellent point that is even truer today than it was then, “Becoming a father is easy enough, but being one can be very rough.”

I always get a laugh out of watching my male friends’ reactions when their daughters start dating; they rightly assume that every guy who comes around is thinking the same thing that they thought when they were the same age. Enid Bagnold summed it up neatly when she said, “A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again.”

Obviously, the movers, shakers and wannabes of Wall Street never heard the same advice from their fathers that Dexter Scott King heard from his, “My father said, ‘Politics asks the question: Is it expedient? Vanity asks: Is it popular? But conscience asks: Is it right?'”

Finally, all you dads struggling to find the right words to connect and communicate with your kids (it applies just as much to daughters) would do well to factor in this final quote from the sage Anon, “Every father should remember that one day his son will follow his example instead of his advice”

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/archibaldjude/170208626/

Expand Your Mind: Culture Makes It Happen

Saturday, June 19th, 2010

expand-your-mindMore proof that culture is the difference between winning, losing and turning around.

What can culture make happen? Just about anything.

What do Apple, McDonalds, IBM, Continental Air Lines and ABB have in common with Western Digital, U.S. Steel, Waste Management, Nutrisystem and Orbital Sciences? They all came back from near death experiences or brushes with irrelevance.

Culture drives everything that happens in a company.

Steve Jobs says that Apple has a startup culture and it was the culture he focused on when he came back to bring the company back from the brink.

When it comes to culture Jim Goodnight’s 30 year-old SAS is at the top of the heap and likely to stay there. Goodnight decided not go public because he “didn’t want analysts on Wall Street telling him how to run his business and forcing him to cut out the elements of SAS’s culture that give it an edge” and what an edge that is.

Finally, there is no way today’s column can end without a reference to Zappos.

You’ve probably already seen it, but the article in Inc. Magazine on why Zappos was sold to Amazon is actually an excerpt from Tony Hsieh’s new book Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose.

In his column about Zappos Chris O’Brien supplies a great close to today’s post.

If you treat employees like they’re just a bottom-line expense, they’re bound to act like one, delivering the very least performance possible. And if you treat customers like they’re a problem, then they’ll eventually get the message and go away.

Image credit: pedroCarvalho on flickr

Miki’s Rules to Live By: Laughter for Life

Friday, June 18th, 2010

Like you, I’ve been through some pretty rough times. Inevitably, at some point during those dark days, several someones would ask what in the world I found amusing about the situation.

Little did they know I was unconsciously following one of my favorite rules.

Blessed are they that can laugh at themselves for they shall be forever amused.

laughing

Just a little FYI; if you’ve read many of my rules you might wonder how I remember them all. The answer is I don’t. What I do is practice them consciously long enough that they are my unconscious response to the appropriate stimulation.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/morphomir/676605480/

Leadership’s Future: Give Kids a Chance

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

You know the old saying, ‘damned if you do and damned if you don’t’; for kids it’s more like ‘damned when they do and damned when others don’t’.

mediocrity-is-a-sinKids stand less chance of developing into strong, balanced, ethical adults now than in past decades; not just in the US, but globally—they are heading for mediocrity.

If you think I’m being overly pessimistic consider the following.

In yet another nod to the protection of fledgling self-esteem, an Ottawa children’s soccer league has introduced a rule that says any team that wins a game by more than five points will lose by default. …

“The new rule, suggested by “involved parents,” is a temporary measure that will be replaced by a pre-season skill assessment to make fair teams.” (Hat tip to Elliot Ross for leading me to this article.)

Great lesson to teach our future leaders—don’t excel, don’t try too hard, don’t strive too much, don’t field a winning team and, whatever you do, don’t follow in the footsteps of Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Magic Johnson, Dr. Jonas Salk or any of those who surpassed their peers by a wide margin.

Helicopter parents are nothing new, but their actions are getting more outlandish. And whoever said that life is fair?

Meanwhile, here in the land No Child Left Behind, the pressures have gotten so great that some teachers and administrators have turned to a repellent solution.

Experts who consult with school systems estimated that 1 percent to 3 percent of teachers — thousands annually — cross the line between accepted ways of boosting scores, like using old tests to prep students, and actual cheating.

Cheating ranges from accessing current tests and using the questions in test prep classes to tampering with tests by correcting incorrect answers.

Cheating seems to be a fact of life these days and not just the US; when you add the pressure of funding and paychecks people have been known to make rotten decisions.

People rant on about what teachers are paid, but, in fact, they make far less than your average teen babysitter.

The average teacher’s salary (nation-wide) is $50,000. $50,000/180 days = $277.77/per day/30 students=$9.25/6.5 hours = $1.42 per hour.

Keep in mind that the 6.5 hours doesn’t count meetings, preparation, study, admin or any of the other things teachers have to do.

And that $1.42 is to educate, not babysit, them.

Try hiring a neighbor kid for that and you’ll get laughed off the block

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thost/170369652/

Wordless Wednesday: Life Goal for Your Kids?

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

mediocrity

(Read tomorrow’s post to see why it’s not that farfetched.)

Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/phil_g/490870123/

Ducks in a Row: Managing is Like Parenting

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

ducks_in_a_rowAsk anyone if it’s easy to accomplish a task through others and be prepared for eye rolls and laughter.

In a post at Managing Salespeople, Dr. Jim Sellner talks about why managing is so difficult.

Management is not something you do once then sit back and enjoy your work. It’s a never-ending, unfolding story with many subplots. It is a mindset, a viewpoint, not only of work, or people, but of one’s worldview. It’s about making unique, often seemingly disconnected associations, connecting the interactions no one else sees. It is ongoing curiosity, questioning, searching for something new, different, better — posing the uncomfortable questions like “What if?” or “Why not?” That is the stuff of managing people.

Sounds a lot like a description of parenting, doesn’t it?

No, your team members aren’t children or crazy hormonal teenagers, although at times they may act that way, but even when they are acting like responsible adults they still need you.

  • They need you to share the vision, so they know and understand why they are doing the work they do. They need you to provide all the information to do that work efficiently.
  • They need you to challenge them, so they can grow to and beyond what they think is possible.
  • They need you to trust them enough to let them make their own mistakes so they can learn from them.
  • They need you to believe in them, encourage them and cheer them on.

So the next time one of your team comes to you, whether at work or at home, don’t short-change them with a brush-off response.

Remember that it was your choice; nobody put a gun to your head and forced you—you chose to be a manager, you wanted to have kids.

Now is the time to be the best that you can be—even if your manger/parent isn’t/wasn’t.

Image credit: Svadilfari on flickr

How to Improve Your Management Skill

Monday, June 14th, 2010

What do you do when you want to improve your management skills?

expertsMany people take a class, get another degree, and attend leadership school, all with the hope of finding management Tao. They crave a methodology, a set of actions they can do that assures management success.

But as the old adage says, it ain’t gonna happen.

Or to quote Bob Sutton, “I’ve come to conclude that all the technique and behavior coaching in the world won’t make a boss great if that boss doesn’t also have a certain mindset.”

So when you face new and challenging situations go ahead and

  • access expert information, but don’t stop there.
  • Discuss it with friends/colleagues,
  • think about both what you read and what they said and
  • watch the magic happen when you synthesize the input, tweaking it so it fits your MAP and the situation.

It is this process that makes it an approach you truly own.

Try the process with Sutton’s 12 Things Good Bosses Believe at the link above.

Management skills evolve, both personally and on a wider front, as they are shared with other managers, who also use the process, adding and subtracting based on their situation, experience and MAP.

Stop trying to use the whole cloth from just one source as seems to be happening more often these days.

Yes, the demands on your time are greater than ever, but there  is a crazy idea floating around that most, if not all, solutions are available on the Net if one searches long enough and, worse, that a better-than-50% fit can be used as is.

While this beats the “do first, think later” school of management, it’s not something that will win praise from your bosses or kudos from your team.

The way to become a great manager is to think, mull, accept, reject, evolve and even change your MAP as you digest and apply the information around you.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/4192571173/

mY generation: Power(less)Points

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

See all mY generation posts here.

powerlesspoint

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