Are the people you manage productive? Are they innovative? Do they outperform comparable teams?

Do you struggle to learn the latest leadership and employee engagement techniques only to find they have little or no real effect?

Steve Roesler did a great post on the subject of focusing and directing people’s passion in which he says,

“Employee engagement implies that there are vast numbers of workers malingering on the job–and we have to “get them engaged.”

I would suggest that there are vast numbers of managers who don’t know their people well enough to orchestrate work in ways that lift people’s desire to engage.”

The italics are Steve’s, the bold is mine.

The great difference between learning management, leadership and employee engagement techniques and learning about your people is in the focus—’I’ vs. ‘them’.

Too many managers focus on improving ‘I’ instead of knowing ‘them’.

Managers guilty of this are either blindly unaware of the consequences, haven’t learned that there is nothing they can learn or do as a manager that will offset an under-performing team or a combination thereof.

All that studying may bulk up their resumes, provide great talking points when interviewing and may even help land them their next job, but it’s unlikely to increase their retention rate, salaries and promotions in the current one.

Image credit: raichinger on sxc.hu

Today is all about opening your mouth, what happens and what should happen when you do. Although the most of the links are directed at CEOs the information and lessens apply to all levels in or out of management.

Communicating is everyone’s responsibility.

First is a post by Steve Roseler at All Things Workplace who cites four critical reasons to open your mouth and speak instead of wondering if you should. Here they are,

• Never assume that anyone knows anything.
• The larger the group, the more attention needs to be given to communicating.
• When left in the dark, people will fantasize their own reality. Do you want their fantasy to trump your reality?
• Effective leaders are obsessed with accurate, frequent communication.

Next, Mike Chitty weighs in on what’s changed in communication and why changing from “being told” to “finding out” stimulates a wide range of good stuff.

Third is a light look considering whether voice mail is going the way of the dodo bird; the shift seems to be along generational lines…

Finally, phenomenal advice from readers to a question asked by Jim Haskett, Baker Foundation Professor, Emeritus at Harvard Business School. The question was “How Frank or Deceptive Should Leaders Be?” I’m not a big believer that leadership is just the function of the guy at the top and honestly believe that although most of the responses refer to the actions of positional leaders it’s just as applicable to anyone who ever has or will take the initiative to make something happen.

Happy reading and try and remember that real communicating requires more than your thumbs—in fact, that’s why you have a mouth.

Image credit: flickr

Although I read a lot of article and blogs, I’m very particular about what I pass on to you. I often link to a particular post, but have a much more limited list to share when people write and ask what to read daily when they have very limited time.

I find the topics relevant, but there are a multitude of similar topics every day, so what sets the ones I choose apart? Synergistic MAP and the writing.

I admit that I’m a writing snob. Quantity doesn’t equal quality; reading through dense prose bores me, so the ones I like are clearly and concisely written. This doesn’t mean other don’t have merit, it just means that they don’t do it for me.

The point being that you need to find sources that resonate and work for you, not for whoever recommends it.

That said, here are my four favorites.

Jim Stroup is responsible for Managing Leadership. Jim is who you read when you want to stimulate your brain and dig into the philosophical, strategic and tactical ramifications of business and politics. He’s also one of the most charismatic, brilliant writers I’ve found.

Steve Roesler writes All Things Workplace. Steve draws his topics from the situations he deals with every day in his work. His advice is practical, down-to-earth, common sense-based and, most importantly, immediately useable.

Phil Gerbyshak over at Slacker Manager is the guy for whom everyone wants to work. He provides great input, especially for less experienced managers—although I know a lot of executives who could benefit by following it.

Mark Jabo at Biz Levity fills my laugh bucket and helps me keep my perspective. His posts are my way of remembering that in the great scheme of things none of this really matters—except to the archeologists when they dig though our digital trash.

Your comments—priceless

Don’t miss a post, subscribe via RSS or EMAIL

Image credit: flickr

Great post by Steve Roesler over at All Things Workplace on How Age Impacts Your View of Life. It focuses on satisfaction and expectations at various stages of life. Click over, it’s well worth reading.

But what I wanted to discuss here today appeared near the end of the post.

“During the past few years we’ve seen the headlines for Talent Wars, Saving Institutional Knowledge and Learning, and Diversity. My experience so far with recent layoffs has been that workers nearing retirement are being offered packages to accelerate their decisions…I wonder if the decision-making maturity and collective knowledge of these newly “retired” workers will be irreplaceable and actually prompt a lengthening of the recovery process.”

Steve’s got a point about the recovery, but what if this mess hadn’t happened?

What if a normal down cycle had occurred? One that didn’t go global with the same vengeance; one that required only spotty realignment as opposed to wholesale layoffs.

Worker demographics have been a global concern for over a decade, but the MAP (mindset, attitude, philosophy™) and the corresponding skills needed to manage a multigenerational workforce haven’t improved nearly as much as was hoped.

Why? Is there a root to the problem (challenge, if you prefer) that should be addressed, but isn’t?

I have an idea about the root, tell me what you think.

I believe that one large piece of this problem stems from the relationship of parents and children and the difficulty of letting go and changing the paradigms.

Notice that ‘paradigm’ is plural, since there are several going on simultaneously; the major ones are

• older (parent), younger (child);
• peer (siblings/relatives) to peer;
• older (sibling/relative), younger (sibling/relative) and vice versa,

but there are multiple other minor configurations.

What I’ve found is that although there is no family involved, for many people the interaction styles are habitual, unconscious and happen across all ages with no discernible pattern.

If, in fact, this is a root problem how do we fix it? Other than a one-at-a-time approach I have no idea.

What are your thoughts regarding the validity of my hypothesis? What ideas do you have to address it?

Image credit: flickr