Too many managers (of all ages and at all levels) tell me they are using texting, Twitter and email to manage their people. They’re even using them for performance reviews, layoffs and terminations.
When I ask why they use them I’m told some variation of ‘saves time’, ‘more immediate’, ‘modern way to manage’, ‘cool’ or the worst one, ‘lets me focus on what’s important.’
I may be a digital dinosaur, but I’m here to tell them (and you if you are on the receiving end) that that isn’t managing; it’s avoidance pure and simple.
It’s having the title while avoiding every single action required to lead a high-performing organization. It trashes careers and shows enormous disrespect for people.
In short, it’s a total copout; unfair to the team, the company and the investors.
What’s important are the people, because without the people there is no company and if there is no company you have no job.
I read a great post by Jennifer Miller on the ubiquity of ‘perfect’ in descriptions and the dangers of embedding perfection as a goal in corporate culture.
It reminded me that ‘perfect’ and ‘perfection’ are right up there with ‘leader’ and ‘leadership’ on the overused/abused scale—more, actually, since they represent a condition beyond human abilities.
Humans don’t do absolutes particularly well.
They do better on a strictly personal level when they have absolute control over all parts of the equation, but even then their score leaves much to be desired—just consider the infidelity statistics.
Add to that the fact that the standards themselves are a moving target. Even those that seem to be absolute, like murder, have a definition that changes with societal attitudes towards what constitutes a victim.
Since humans so often fall short of perfection, society and corporations codify the definitions to make it easier to adhere to them. That’s especially important when it comes to ethical stances, which is why condoning deviations, as described yesterday, is so devastating to the organization.
The take-away is simple: never establish goals that set you or your people up for failure.
If you are prone to talking in absolutes, “we will always…” here is a simple rule to guide you.
“We will always” is acceptable if you are discussing well defined intangibles, such as ethics and values that apply equally to everyone in the organization, but isn’t applicable in setting tangible goals, such as quality rules for defects.
This week has been about communications, so I thought it apropos to include some good quotes about communications.
I love communications and communicating, whether it’s a good book, a stimulating conversation or when something I write really clicks. I think Anne Lindbergh summed my feelings up best when she said, “Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.”
Do you ever feel that real communications is a dying art; and if not dying, severely incapacitated? Well over a hundred years ago Charles Dickens said, “Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.”
Before Dickens was even born Joseph Priestley said, “The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate.” I guess he was prescient.
Erma Bombeck said, “It seemed rather incongruous that in a society of supersophisticated communication, we often suffer from a shortage of listeners.” That’s because so many people are enamored with their own voice.
Effective communications requires real effort; as Russell Hoban warns, “After all, when you come right down to it, how many people speak the same language even when they speak the same language?”
Sadly, we live in an era that proves the truth of Josh Billings words, “Most men had rather say a smart thing than do a good one.”
Changing this paradigm can only happen if each individual makes a conscious choice to do it; not through promises posted on a Facebook wall or tweeted to a mass of followers, but one person to one person.
Let’s get everyone as hooked on good communications as they are on coffee.
Sxc.hu photo credit to: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/547050
This week has been about communications, both corporate and personal, and what they tell the world beyond their words. Today is about basic ways to improve them.
Way back in 2006 I wrote Good writing fast—an oxymoron and in those four years only two things seem to have changed—writers care less and readers complain more.
It’s actually easy to make basic improvements on your writing using tools you already have. Yes, they take an extra minute or two, but consider the negative impression your writing can make will last for years.
Your writing will improve significantly just by using three simple tools
In Word (or what ever word processing program you use) and turn on spell checker and grammar checker (skip style checker) and use them.
Write blog comments, etc., in word and paste them where you want them.
Set your email to spell check automatically before sending.
But the most important tool to improve your writing is your MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™). You may find that you need to adjust all of them and this is as true for corporations as for individuals.
Foremost, you must think, not only about what you want to say, but also about the effect you want to have and the image you want to project.
You need to care; you need to own the idea that the stuff you write on the web really is people’s first impression of you and consciously decide what you want that impression to be.
Understand that jargon, rambling or complex sentences and multi-syllabic words will not make you sound more knowledgeable or your pitch more impressive.
You must be willing to spend the extra few minutes it takes to implement the six points; once it becomes your new norm and you see the effect you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner.
Flickr photo credit to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/karola/3623768629/
We are talking about communications this week; Tuesday we looked at a sample of opaque corporate communications; today we’ll consider personal communications.
I will skip the idiocy of the tell-all approach so popular on Facebook, MySpace, etc. and focus instead on the trail of poor communications so may people leave behind as they comment their way around the Net, whether it’s a review on Yelp, comment on a business/professional/”straight” blog, profile or some other form of “personal branding.”
Let me say this in words of one syllable: How you write tells people who you are.
As I’ve written before, this isn’t just about Millennials, it applies to anybody still concerned about the impression they make.
I came across a perfect example completely by accident.
Granted it is an extreme example; the comment was left on a blog post discussing social judging skills citing research showing that children as young as three months demonstrate them. (I’m not including a link to the post because I have no interest in embarrassing the writer who used her own name.)
well i think that people say they an change a baby if they are rude or like bad you know but really the baby knows what there trying to pull on them:) i think that people say they can change peope and if they think they changed someone there wrong cause deep deep down your still that mean cruel un hearted person or caring person:)
Lots of people write all lower case, so perhaps we should ignore that. And there are many words that sound alike with totally different meanings—there and their—so should we give that a pass? Can you make sense of what the writer is saying?
What is your impression of the writer?
Would you hire her or want her on your team?
Now consider that it was written by an adult, native English speaker, who has a college degree and works in a professional capacity.
If she was a candidate you were considering and you googled her name and saw this would you hire her?
It’s unlikely she writes like this all the time, because if she did she couldn’t do her job, but when it comes to the web the usual attitude is ‘who cares’?
Your writing is like breadcrumbs left along your route on the web; they enable the world to follow you and get to know you; it is their first impression of you.
It’s up to you to decide what that impression will be.
Join me tomorrow for the basics of good breadcrumbs.
Flickr photo credit to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeanbaptisteparis/224566560/
This week is about the effects written communications have on people’s perceptions of both companies and individuals. Today we are looking at company communications, Thursday we’ll look at the effects of communications on a more personal level and Friday discuss what can be done to improve both.
Websites are critical means of communications. Experts say that you have about two-four seconds to capture a visitor’s attention or they will leave the site.
That being the case, why in the world do companies use prose so opaque that the message is incomprehensible?
Here’s a great example from the landing page of nsoro. (I have no connection with the company and just happened to run across the site.)
nsoro is a worldwide service and solutions provider. We take great pride in supplying, designing, and supporting technology solutions to the commercial and government verticals. nsoro remains aggressive in pursuing ways to develop our expertise and improve performance. read more
Do you have any idea what they do?
The graphic indicates it is some kind of communications company.
You would expect that by clicking the “read more” link you would find out; instead, the link takes you to the “About” page that restates the above paragraph along with the following links,
A Message from Our CEO
Executive Team
Core Values
MBE Certifications
Do you know any more about what they do?
How much time/effort do you spend when you are greeted with something similar? Please take a moment to share your answer in comments.
As Dan points out it is probably the hardest step of all.
Reading that post reminded me of a post I did based on an article I read ten years ago about research on incompetence.
“Most incompetent people do not know that they are incompetent. … One reason that the ignorant also tend to be the blissfully self-assured, the researchers believe, is that the skills required for competence often are the same skills necessary to recognize competence.”
Admitting you may be incompetent is far worse than admitting a lack of common sense and so even less likely to happen.
Which is why you need feedback from a variety of sources; the larger the variety the more accurate the picture.
There is a major disconnect for many managers between what they think others do, what they say they do and what actually happens. It is a disconnect that affects not just their own teams, but spreads like ripples in a pond when a stone is tossed.
Most managers are unaware of it and are horrified when it’s brought to their attention—once they stop trying to rationalize it.
‘It’ refers to deeds and actions they condemn in others, but practice themselves.
It the idea that when ‘they’ do it it is unfair, immoral, or illegal, but if ‘we’ do it it’s OK—and it’s happening everywhere.
We see it in
political and religious leaders who preach high moral codes while practicing immorality;
parents who demand better education and then condemn any teacher that doesn’t give their child a good grade;
business leaders who preach ethics and practice them only as long as it’s convenient;
colleagues we condemn for filching company supplies even as we use company time to shop, update Facebook and Twitter; and
friends who, much to our dismay, share our private information even as we share someone else’s.
When managers do it it can damage, even destroy, the team, because it is a form of hypocrisy; hypocrisy kills trust and without trust there is no team.
A vicious circle that only the manager can break by listening carefully to the feedback she doesn’t want to hear.
Successful communications go a long way to sustaining successful relationships.
Relationships are a function of human interaction and whether they are short or long you need to communicate.
When those involved are peers, as in a marriage, good communication is a responsibility of both.
But when one person is subordinate to the other, such as parent and child, it is up to the parent to make sure that whatever is being communicated is understood.
Human interactions in companies are also relationships and follow the same rules.
If you are a manager how do you make sure you are heard?
It’s pretty simple as long as you remember to do it every time, no exceptions.
Did you know that all people have a mental model through which they hear?
That means their understanding of the words you use may have little-to-nothing to do with what you meant when you said them.
It’s a grave tactical error to assume anything else
There are 3 actions you must do to assure that you are heard correctly.
Start by carefully explaining your model and your assumptions when giving direction;
give your people clear, complete information on the subject. This includes what you want done, project outlines, deadlines, everything—you do not want them to have to keep coming back and asking for more—getting information should not be like pulling teeth; and then
check by having them explain it back to you; it’s the only way to be sure that they have actually heard and understood your information, rather than their version of it;
Too many managers (of all ages and at all levels) tell me they are using texting, Twitter and email to manage their people. They’re even using them for performance reviews, layoffs and terminations.
I read a great 
I love communications and communicating, whether it’s a good book, a stimulating conversation or when something I write really clicks. I think Anne Lindbergh summed my feelings up best when she said, “Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.”
But the most important tool to improve your writing is your MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™). You may find that you need to adjust all of them and this is as true for corporations as for individuals.
We are talking about communications this week; Tuesday we looked at a sample of 
Which is why you need feedback from a variety of sources; the larger the variety the more accurate the picture.
Successful communications go a long way to sustaining successful relationships.
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