The Enlightened Manager

The SWOT Warrior - Smart Moves to Diffuse the "Threats" against your Business

A SWOT analysis is one of those analysis tools that helps you understand your business or team.  The idea is fairly simple, SWOT stands for "Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats."  The SWOT analysis encourages you to identify those four things as an aid to planning.

A Quick Overview of the SWOT

Strengths and Weaknesses are internal.  You might say that "our rapid turnaround time is a Strength, while our high quality control costs are a Weakness."  Strengths and Weaknesses live inside your organization.

Opportunities and Threats are external.  Opportunities are ... well, opportunities.  Threats come from outside your business.   For example, you might see an opportunity to expand in a new market, and you might find the weakness in demand for goods to be a Threat.

Managing Threats

I wanted to cover threats today, because they represent an area where people feel out of control.  Weak demand, government regulations, legal changes, and recessions are all examples of "threats."  Sometimes standing in the path of a threat is as effective as standing in the face of an oncoming train.  So what can you do?

When I think of threats, I think of the idea of facing off with an opponent in a person to person battle.  Just as a martial artist counters a punch, we too can counter the external threats to our business.

Strategy One: Stand Still

If you are strong, you can take a punch without flinching.  If your company is financially strong, you may be able to take a couple weak quarters without hurting yourself long term. 

Strategy Two: Fight Back

Once in a while, the best defense is a strong offense.  An example of fighting back against a threat would be sending a lobbyist to congress to try and block negative legislation against your industry.  You can't fight the economy though, so trading blows with your threat can only work in limited circumstances, and it may deplete your resources.

Strategy Three: Step to the Side

Just as a fighter might dodge a punch, your business might "dodge" a threat by stepping out of the line of fire.  One example of this would be switching to another set of customers when one customer group stops buying.  If you want to dodge a threat, you need to be agile, being ready to adjust before the need becomes obvious.

Strategy Four: Use your Opponent's Momentum

If an Aikido practitioner sees an opponent running at them full force, they don't resist.  Instead, they use the momentum of their attacker and flow with it.  Likewise, we can use the momentum of the threats against us to strengthen our businesses.

Consider the fact that spending is reduced during a recession.  This creates energy around bargain hunting.  Starbucks decided to "flow with" that force, offering inexpensive "breakfast + coffee" pairings to retain customers.  They used the momentum of the recession to drive business towards them, instead of trying to convince people that spending $4.00 on coffee was a good idea.

The worst thing about considering a SWOT is that the threats sometimes make people feel powerless.  Be a SWOT warrior, and you can put yourself back in control even when the forces aligned against you seem insurmountable.

Any other "moves" you'd like to suggest? :)

Strategic Planning as a Symphony - Reflections

I didn't always enjoy strategic planning.  I remember being a mid level manager when my company was doing strategic planning, and my role was to wait for the leadership team to tell me what the strategy was, then make something of it.  While this wasn't necessarily a bad thing, I do remember feeling disconnected from the process.  When the strategies would come down from upon high, they felt emotionless and cold, and I didn't feel much passion for them.  I did my duty, but didn't find it easy to feel it in my heart.

Now that I facilitate strategic planning for organizations, it feels different of course.  I am fully engaged, and I love that almost visceral "snap" that occurs when the many facets of a plan come together in a well organized whole.  When it works well you can see all the different levels of the plan cascading perfectly like images in a prism, the vision translating into more tangible goals translating into specific tasks. 

But of course it is easy to feel that way when you are in the middle, trying to orchestrate all of those elements into a cohesive song.  But what happens when you are not in that executive board room, and when you can only see the small piece of music that you've been asked to play?  It becomes harder to sustain the whole work.  The notes falter too easily when you feel like you're playing alone.

My goal (dilemma?) is to help each person find some passion and engagement in bringing the entire symphony together.  This usually occurs when everyone can see and feel the entirety of the strategic plan as an integrated unit.  We need everyone hearing the same song, so to speak, and it gets harder to do this as an organization becomes larger and more diverse.  Not impossible, but certainly more challenging.

I don't have any answers today.  Just thoughts swirling as I sit here with my conductors wand and blank pages, seeking as always that spark of magic that brings the best of many minds together.  If I do my job well, as I'm pledged to, I'll be helping an organization create a work that will ring in their ears for the next few years, strong and steady, a rallying cry to the work ahead.

So for now, I prepare.

Three Elements of Effective Training

When training doesn't work, it is usually because we have done only part of our job.  So what does the "whole job" look like?

When we train people in a new skill, we've only done one third of the work.  Changing behavior (what training is all about) consists of three parts:

1) Training the skill. (How to)
2) Motivating the change. (Why to)
3) Sustaining the change. (Support and reinforcement)

I can train people in how to offer constructive feedback until I am blue in the face, but if they are unwilling to use the skill, the training has been a waste.

I know that two more things need to happen.  I need to talk about "Will you use this new skill?  How does it feel?  What needs to happen before you're willing to give it a try?"  I need informed consent from the learner, not simply an assumption on my part that because they know how they are going to do it.

I also know that I need a good manager to step in and reinforce that skill in the tough moments.  A manager who can be supportive and firm, offering moral and technical support for the new skill.

Three parts.  Are you doing all of them?

5 Strategies that Won't Fix Your Dysfunctional Team

Hi Enlightened Managers,

Today I want to share with you a short segment of the speech I gave yesterday to the Seattle Rotary on Healing Dysfunctional Teams.  When it comes to healing a team of it's issues, there are some common strategies that do not work.  How do I know?  I've tried them, and seen that they have only a temporary effect in most cases.

Five Strategies that Don't Work:

1. Fire the Troublemaker - If you select one person to fire because they are the "ringleader" or the most obvious choice, it may create some improvement, but it probably won't fix the dysfunction in the team.  It's fine to fire problem employees, but don't count on it to magically restore a team to health.  Besides, a new troublemaker usually arises.

2. Clear the Air - When we all sit in a circle and share our feelings to "clear the air" we'll feel better for a while, but the relief is usually temporary.

3. Ignore It - A popular strategy.  But are you ignoring unwanted turnover, losses in productivity, and employee disengagement?

4. The Doughnut Solution- Having Doughnuts (or Bagels) weekly in the break room won't help your team get along better. Nice try, but no.

5. Blame the CEO - "Until my boss changes, we can't change."  This is a cop out and we know it.  We are each responsible for our own behavior.

The best solution of course is to identify the real causes of dysfunction and target the behaviors causing the problems.  More on that another time.

Cheri Baker is a consultant that helps organizations turn around dysfunctional teams.  If you are looking for help in turning a struggling team into a most admired team, give her a call to learn more.  By the way - this process can and should be fun!

How To Get Promoted

I've been thinking this morning about one of my recent projects, and a woman in her forties who was part of the team I was training.  She had been with the company for less than five years, was the sole breadwinner in her family, and was deeply bitter about her level of pay and position.  On the one hand, you couldn't fault her.  She was (and is) bright, capable, and had a lot of experience.  But her face was stuck in a perpetual look of disgust, and she was convinced that others had been continually elevated above her with no good reason.

I've met a lot of people in this situation, operating under the assumption that promotions and advancement are things that are "given" out by companies.  When you think this way, and you see others continue to pass you professionally, it feels terrible.  Why have others been chosen?  I often have people tell me that they were denied promotion because of thier gender, age, race, religion, weight, or simply because their boss doesn't like them.  While bigotry does exist, it's not usually what is at work here.

It's a matter of perspective, and here is a better one.  Promotions are not "given" they are "earned."  And even if you think you work hard, there are certain activities that will earn you a promotion, and they are not always obvious.

Here is how to get promoted:

1) Be a Star Performer

This isn't as hard as it sounds, at least in most positions.  You don't need to have a high IQ or a fancy degree.  You do need to work hard, apply yourself, continue to improve upon your weaknesses, and follow the company rules.  Please your boss and your customers.  Continue to improve your job performance until you can say that you are in the top 20% of your peer group.  Who decides if you are a star?  Your boss and his or her boss.

2) Stack the Deck in Your Favor

To get promoted, you need a strategy that addresses both skills and people.  Pick the job you want to be promoted into and get a copy of the description. 

SKILLS:

By volunteering for projects and asking for help from your boss, gradually build up experiences that will qualify you for that job.  Need management experience?  Ask to manage the temp.  Need budgeting experience?  Ask your boss to let you sit in on the budget meeting.  Build up the experience before the interview.

PEOPLE:

Find out who will influence the promotion decision.  The hiring manager is key, but HR, peers, and other managers may have a big say.  Get to know these people.  Be helpful to them.  Tell them about your goals for promotion someday.  Win them over before you ever interview.

3) Interview Effectively

By now, you are qualified for the job and you have some raving fans on the interview team.  Learn how to interview well, and go in prepared to knock it out of the park. 

These three things will eliminate most of your obstacles to promotion.  There are other factors, but 90% of the battle is going through these steps intentionally.  How do I know?  I used these tricks to advance in my own career faster than anyone thought possible, taking on jobs that used to go to people 7-10 years my senior.

So that's how to get promoted. Now that you know how, what's your next career move?

Why is Self-Motivation so Difficult?

I was a bit saddened a while back to see one of the managers I had worked with slipping back into an old and destructive pattern of behavior.  Something that we had worked on, struggled with, and eventually triumphed over has made an insidious comeback.  So I sighed internally, and I'm watching for the right moment to gently reflect back what I see.

It's got me thinking about this idea of behavior change, and how we can make productive behaviors stick.  Certainly we've all experienced it.  With me, it's the gym.  I have an on again-off again relationship with exercise, despite "knowing" deeply that it is so important.  That level of knowing is firmly embedded in my brain, but not in my heart and in my bones.  I suspect this is what happened with my manager friend too.  "Should not" isn't a terribly compelling motivator.

I know that the difference between superficial and deep changes in our behavior comes down to the difference between "shoulds" and "wants."  What I should do, I will find reasons to ignore, but what I want to do will happen.

So what makes us truly want something in a deep and lasting way?  Can we manufacture those wants, intentionally?

I suspect that support and community have a big part in the answer.  When a team gets momentum around an exciting future, those relationships seem to hold the new behaviors in place.  Ten people striving for the same thing seems more stable than one person.  When I coach leaders, it's easy to get the behaviors on track in the coaching relationship, but sustaining the changes is the harder part. 

Perhaps it comes down to the fact that we are better at being accountable to others than we are to ourselves.  We'll find the motivation to sustain a change in a relationship, but in the quiet of your own mind, it's hard to go against your own nature.

Anyway, that is what I find myself thinking about on this fine Thursday morning. :)  Do you have ideas for turning the "I shoulds" in your life into something more committed?  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

The Joy of Getting Whupped

Postcard from the Consulting Life....

I was competing for a project this week and completely got my tail kicked by another professional speaker.  It was for a keynote speaking engagement, and I got a chance to review the information of the speaker they selected.

His proposal was more detailed, better written, cleverly packaged, and expressed his personality better than mine did.  I looked at it, and I said to myself "Yes, this is why I lost this one."  Consultants typically worry about losing on cost, but the winner was more expensive than me too.

So I find myself completely motivated to learn from this and be the kicker, not the kickee next time.  Nothing like having your you-know-what handed to you to get jazzed about getting better, right?

So Enlightened Managers - have you been outsmarted or outcompeted recently?  Good!  Add that fuel to your fire and be ready to take on the world next time.

I know I am. :)

The Competitive Manager: Using the 80/20 Rule to Stand Out.

Good Morning Enlightened Managers,

One of the things I haven't talked about too much on this blog is the idea of competition in the management ranks.  Certainly there are some unhealthy aspects to competition, such as back stabbing, game playing, and behavior that makes people seem more shark than human.

But what about healthy competition?  It's everywhere.  You will compete for promotions, for resources, and for time.  There is nothing wrong with being competitive, unless you are resorting to the kind of underhanded tricks that compromise your values and long term effectiveness.

At the root of competition is the idea of being "better" than others.  While I reject the idea I am "better" than my peers as a human being, I can certainly strive to have skills, victories, and talents that put me above my peers, and so can you.

So how competitive should you be?  Here is my suggestion:

1. When it comes to sheer "performance" strive to exceed the 80th percentile.  This means that you are consistently in the top 20% when it comes to performance reviews and how you stack up against your peers.

2. Don't waste your time trying to get above the 80% mark.  Have you ever noticed how the world is full of CEOs who were never 4.0 (A) students in school?  Perfect performance is rarely an indicator of career success. 

3. Once you are in the top 20% of performers at your level, spend your time innovating.  Focus in areas where your competition doesn't, try new things, and look for new ways to make a difference in the company.

The trouble with most standards of performance is that they measure the status quo, not true excellence or innovation.  If you want to get ahead compared to your peers, don't strive for academic performance.  Strike out and create something new.  Use 80% of your energy meeting standards, and 20% of your energy to blaze a new path.

That's my version of the 80/20 rule anyway.  Let's get competitive!

Download eBook
 

Win-A-Book Contest on Facebook (Friday Only)

Well, after writing and re-writing, I finally finished "Advice for New Managers" - a great and concise booklet covering the basics of supervision and the common issues that new managers run into.  Woo-hoo! 

To celebrate the launch, I'm going to give two booklets away today.  Here is how to enter the contest:

1. Log onto Facebook

2. Search for the "Emergence Consulting" fan page.

3. Enter your own "advice for new managers" on the Wall.

I'll select two winners based upon the advice at the end of today.

Our Favorite Leadership Books (Survey Results)

The survey from last week produced a list of 14 books on leadership from our readers.  Click below to check them out and add them to your own reading list.

Download FavoriteLeadershipBooks

I know I'm looking forward to discovering something new. :)