In a speech to company managers, reprinted in The HP Way, Dave Packard perfectly summed up what makes Jane or Johnny run.

“People work to make a contribution and they do this best when they have a real objective, when they know what they are trying to achieve and are able to use their own capabilities to the greatest extent.”

I would add that “their own capabilities” means

• being given full information and authority to get the job done, as opposed to
• being forced to return again and again for clarification or having to constantly run to the boss to get something authorized.

The first approach is the one chosen by managers so confident and powerful that they work to hire people smarter than themselves, empower them and spend their energy developing them—knowing that they will either be promoted or leave.

The second approach is the choice of mangers who are weak and insecure.

Which are you?

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Do you manage like Microsoft?

When Microsoft, the company know for its ferocious attitude when protecting its own turf and simultaneously stomping on everyone else’s, released Kinect it unleashed a frenzy of innovative development among the great unwashed, AKA the open source community.

Rather than embracing their out-of-the-box thinking Microsoft started stomping, but when the rabble attacked, Microsoft backed down—part way.

In statements, Microsoft said it “does not condone the modification of its products” and vowed to work with law enforcement “to keep Kinect tamper-resistant.” After geek outrage spilled onto the Web, Microsoft spent the next day clarifying its position. It stressed that it objected to miscreants who might, say, use Kinect’s camera to peer into living rooms. It would not, however, sue well-intentioned tinkerers. After that peace gesture, Microsoft stopped discussing Open Kinect publicly.

Do you (or your manager) act like this?

Do you freak out when faced with innovation outside of the expected and difficult to control?

Do you threaten the instigators and/or your team to bring them back in line with your narrow vision?

Or do you cheer them on, embracing ideas that didn’t originate with you and weren’t planned, but open up new paths and even new worlds to conquer?

The world has changed and you need to change with it. Years ago someone said that Microsoft shouldn’t try and act like a scrappy startup when it was a 500 pound canary, but now that canary is merely obese.

Doctors faced the same dilemma, going from a world where their word was law to one in which patients research and demand a say in their treatment—and vote with their feet if they don’t get it.

And before you see this as an age-related problem look around. It’s not hard to find Microsoft-styled managers and doctors of all ages.

The Microsoft vs. open source is a good analogy for two different types of management MAP and you need to choose which you want to be.

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Last week Craig, a senior manager I know, referred one of his direct reports to me.

During the annual review Craig had warned “Jim” his department’s turnover was unacceptably high and that he was tying 15% of Jim’s annual bonus to his hitting the retention numbers they discussed and agreed upon during the meeting.

Jim asked Craig if the company would be willing to pay for a coach, because he was unsure exactly how to improve retention and hadn’t found books on the subject of much use.

Craig said the company wouldn’t, but he knew someone affordable and called me.

I agreed to have an exploratory conversation to be sure that we could work together and that I could help.

When I talked with Jim he said he believed that in order to do what Craig wants he needed to “get rid of more dead wood and bring on people who will jump on his ideas, aren’t afraid of hard work and understand loyalty.”

However, doing so would preclude any chance of his meeting the retention numbers, especially since, based on past experience, he would be forced to turn several of the new hires, too.

After hearing a good deal more about what he had tried that didn’t work, I explained how I work, costs, etc.,

I warned him that I’m pretty blunt and suggested he check out this blog for a window on how I think and my approaches and that we both think about it to decide whether we could create a productive relationship that would achieve what he wanted.

Jim called yesterday and the upshot is we will be working together to solve his retention problems and I have his permission to share parts of that with you over the next few months.

It should be interesting.

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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.

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I frequently get calls similar to the following. (If I’ve told this story in the past forgive me, but it illustrates my point with great clarity.)

A CEO I know called to rant about having to terminate her marketing VP.

When I asked why she said that in addition to being dissatisfied with his work she’d found out that his degree was in history, not marketing, as he claimed. She said that if she’d known about the degree she would never have hired him.

This was strange, since I know the VP, his resume simply says “BA University of X” and he has over ten years of experience.

When I asked why she did hire him she said that he’d been in marketing his whole career, had a reputation for doing very creative work, knew her industry and market and his references were fantastic. She ended the description by saying that if she’d know his BA was in history, not marketing, she never would have hired him.

When I suggested that maybe something else was going on, she vehemently told me that if he had a marketing degree he would know what he was doing.

Think about it, here’s a guy known for his creativity, with a great reputation in marketing, excellent references, knows the industry and market, but can’t perform because his ten-year-old degree wasn’t in marketing—I don’t think so.

The key change here is one of culture and management—the culture the CEO created and her management of him—not a decade-old college major fudged by omission. And note that she didn’t think it important enough to explore in the interviews.

Managers at all levels often call dismayed that a supposedly top performer isn’t living up to advanced billing and wondering what they should do.

My response is almost always the same, what differs is how I say it based on what I think that person can hear.

Bluntly or subtly I suggest they learn what they can about the environments where the person performed so well and how he was managed, then consult the mirror to find the differences.

Sometimes they even listen.

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A new study at Harvard talks about “power posing.”

New research shows that it’s possible to control those feelings a bit more, to be able to summon an extra surge of power and sense of well-being when it’s needed: for example, during a job interview or for a key presentation to a group of skeptical customers.

It ties in with a post I did a few years ago that’s worth sharing again.

Defined by action—or thought?

As studies on corporate culture and the psychology of managers and workers proliferate, people spend more time and energy tracking themselves in an effort to “know their place” than ever before.

You are what you eat; you are what you wear, and now, you are where you sit. Far be it for me to pooh-pooh any of these findings, I’ve been around long enough to see them in action.

However, I have a passionate belief that you are what you think and an equally passionate belief that you can change what you think if you so choose.

My attitude towards, and development of, MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy)™ throughout my working years has it’s underpinnings in the writings (sans the religious parts) of Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich, to which I was introduced in my late teens.

His writings predate, and are supported by, much of the current research, so if you want a synopsis of great thoughts on which to build your MAP and guide your organization, here are ten of Hill’s greatest (and best known) quotes.

• “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”
• “What you think, so you will become.”
• “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.”
• “Your big opportunity may be right where you are now.”
• “Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.”
• “A goal is a dream with a deadline.”
• “Thoughts mixed with definiteness of purpose, persistence, and a burning desire are powerful things.”
• “Perseverance: The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those that fail.”
• “Every adversity carries with it the seed of an equivalent or greater benefit.”
• “Lack of loyalty is one of the major causes of failure in every walk in life.”

Print them out; share them with your people; discuss them; embrace them; practice them; and watch the benefits roll in for your company your people and you.

Hill and Harvard agree—it really is all in your mind.

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I have said in the past that, based on my experience, the workforce breaks down into three segments.

• • • At the top you have the 10% who succeed on their own no matter what;
    • at the other end are the 3% I call destroyers—because that’s how they get their kicks; the other
    • 87% are neither stars nor destroyers on their own, but can become either based on the way they are managed.

Hold that thought.

I recently read about a large cat that mimics its prey as part of its mealtime strategy.

And then Dr. Calleia saw, to his astonishment, that the cries weren’t coming from a tamarin pup, but rather from a margay, an ocelotlike cat with large eyes, large paws and a large appetite for monkey meat.

Back to the thought you are holding.

The action of the margay reminded me how some destroyers (see above) will mimic good management or team attitudes to attract their pray.

But how can you tell? Work is difficult enough without wondering if your team members or managers are part of the 3%.

It’s not as difficult as you might think, because you can feel them.

Destroyers feel hollow, the same difference between tapping a wall on the stud vs. on the sheetrock. The difference is that you feel with all five senses, not just your ears.

You pick up on a delay factor—their smiles don’t hit their lips and eyes at the same time, laughter is always a second or two late, as are their congratulations.

Most of us have met destroyers at some point in your life, whether at work or elsewhere.

You don’t have to focus on looking for these signs, you just need to be open to your feelings and not ignore them when they happen.

You may get an occasional false positive, but that’s better than ignoring your feelings and getting walloped.

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Do you work at fostering a culture of innovation? Encourage your people to think creatively? Do you want them to come up with ideas, large and small, to improve products and processes?

Most managers do.

Do you unintentionally stomp on their creative efforts?

That happens more often than you might think.

How many times has a member of your team (at any level) had an idea or made a suggestion and your initial response was along the lines of, “I know…,” “we tried that already…,” or “Jill already…”

Such reactions dump ice water on the creative process and if it happens several times most people won’t bother mentioning their next idea. Employees understand ideas may not be used, but that’s different from feeling you don’t want to hear about them unless they are perfect.

This happens most frequently with new employees, because they have no history to guide them, but new or not, the result is to kill creativity, instead of nurturing it.

I frequently hear from clients and others about their exciting breakthroughs/ideas for motivating their people, for their culture, or whatever, and it’s often simply their rephrasing of ideas we’ve been discussing or that I, or others, have written about, sometimes for years.

It doesn’t matter; and I make sure not to say anything that detracts from their breakthrough—causing them to feel that it’s not a big deal and that they merely reinvented an old wheel.

You see, the big deal is that they thought of it independently and that’s what I want to encourage—ideas, creative thinking, thinking beyond their knowledge, not necessarily historical knowledge.

To nurture the thinking that leads to creativity you need to acknowledge it, you don’t need to convince them that no one ever thought of it before, they’ll figure that out for themselves or a peer will tell them, what you focus on is the accomplishment.

The critical point is that they came to it on their own, and, because it came from inside, they own it.

And that makes the idea far more potent than anything you or I or anybody can say from the outside.

So when that old idea comes up yet again acknowledge the creativity of the thought first, then gently explain its history, being sure the person understands that the value is in the creativity it took to think of it and that you are looking forward to more creativity in the future.

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Rumors are the fastest way to destroy trust and culture, not to mention your team’s morale, productivity, longevity—the list goes on and on.

Managers who stick their head in the sand in the hopes that the rumor will die a natural death are in for a rude awakening.

The only way to deal with rumors is head on and publicly.

Call your group together, state the rumor and tell them the truth. If something in the rumor response is confidential level with them and explain why it is.

For example, if there is a layoff rumor it’s either true or false. If true, admit it and explain as much as possible. If you can identify specifics—when, which departments, who, etc.,—and be honest! Or tell them when you don’t have information or that you can’t share it.

People aren’t stupid, if you say there is no layoff coming and it happens two days later they will know you lied and lies cast a long shadow. People will understand that you can’t give details, but lies are something else.

The only way to deal with the rumor mongers is privately and only if you are positive that you have the right person.

If you are sure start by asking why they said what they said.

You may find that it was innocent and actually started in another group or department. In that case make them feel safe in coming to you first if they hear something in the future.

If they deny it and you are still absolutely sure thank them and then watch them like a hawk. If they are real rumor mongers they do it for kicks; thinking they got away with it usually makes them careless and you will catch them the next time.

You need proof to act and that may take time, but the more confident they are the easier it is to catch them; just remember to document everything.

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Most people hear ‘Triple A’ and assume that it is the best something can be, but it depends on what “A” stands for.

In this case they stand for anger, aggression and apathy.

Most managers create AAA cultures by accident and there are those who’s standard management style fosters it, but unintentional or not, the result is the same.

This post isn’t about those who intentionally rely on AAA culture to run their organization, they are destroyers (you can learn more about them here and here, although this one can also be unintentional) and the best thing people who work for them can do is leave.

But for the unintentional it works like this.

• Something happens that makes you angry; it may not even be work related but you are angry.

• Whether simmering or roiling, it drives you to act out with some kind of aggression making you short-tempered and abrupt or it can show as impatience, sarcasm, contempt, disgust, obnoxiousness, etc.

• When your management style becomes erratic the team becomes unsure on how to interact, not just with you, but with each other. Since people don’t know what will set someone off they start keeping their head down and getting the hell out there, breathing a sign of relief if they made it through the day safely.

As time goes by the trepidation settles into apathy—a Triple A culture has formed.

As to the cure, that should be apparent from the cause.

Please join me next Tuesday to see why RAT culture is so great, not to mention a lot more fun and profitable to build.

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