The Enlightened Manager

Kicking off 2009 with Pictures

There is something exhilarating about a new year.  It's that same kind of feeling I get when looking at a blank journal or when packing the car for a weekend adventure.  Life is an adventure, right?  And while technically one day is just the same as another, there is definitely something fresh and full of possibility about starting a new year.

One of the things I'm currently exploring is the connection between art and change.  There is a great new book out by the authors of the Skilled Facilitator called "Facilitative Coaching" with is worth the fifty dollar cover price.  It expands upon some ideas I've been dabbling with on my own, using visual art (drawings, doodles) and metaphors to spark growth and development.

I pulled out a fresh piece of paper (full of possibility, like the new year) and doodled my start to 2009.  My 2009 looked like a walking path, with a wide comfortable expanse of road meandering up and down gently sloping hills.    A small female figure was already at the top of the first crest, and there was a celebratory sign waiting at the end of the path.  It was titled "A Good Start"

If you are so inclined this week, pull out a sheet of paper and doodle yourself a start to 2009.  Then, if you don't like what you see, change the picture to something more empowering.   If you're caught in a puddle of quicksand in your picture, draw yourself a rope to pull out of the quagmire.

Doodle or no Doodle, the images we hold of the new year to come will influence what our path will be like.  At least I think so.

What do you think?

Preparing for Difficult Conversations, a Checklist

Greetings friends of the blogsphere.  Some of you I know well, and others I don't, but wherever you are I hope you're having a good Monday.  It's Sunday night as I'm writing this, sitting in on the beanbag in my dark bedroom.  It's been a good weekend.  I turned 30, had a great murder mystery party, and laughed myself silly. 

Today I wanted to write about how to prepare for difficult conversations.  I don't know about you, but occasionally I have to plan for a conversation with someone who I have difficulty communicating with.  We each have our own definition of difficult people, and when you need to talk to someone that you find difficult, it can be helpful to do some prep work first.

Here is the checklist that I use to prepare for my most challenging conversations.  For me, the most challenging conversations are the ones where I fear I will be attacked verbally, or where I have a high degree of uncertainty as to what will be thrown at me.

1. Write down why you are worried about the conversation.   Is is that you don't want to be foolish?  Or you are afraid of making a mistake?  Perhaps you worry that your reputation is on the line. Get clear on what your worries are.

2. Write down your goals for the conversation.  What do you want to achieve?  On the flip side, what do you think the other person wants to achieve?

3. Write down what you are worried they might say.  For example "I'm worried she will cry."  "I'm worried he will attack my work"  I think of this as my "worst case scenario" list.   Write it down!

4. For each of those scenarios, write down a good response.  For example "If she cries, I will say I'm sorry that this upsets you, but it's important that we move forward."

5. If possible, talk your plan through with someone you trust.  Do they feel your worries are reasonable, and that your planned responses are fair and strong?  Does your plan address your goals and respect the goals of the other person?

6.  Say your planned responses out loud a few times.  The idea is to develop some "anchor phrases" that you can pull out of your head if your "worst case scenarios" come to life.  

7.  Just prior to the conversation, re-read your goal.  This will freshen it in your mind.

8.  Enter the conversation with your goal in mind, and with a commitment to listen.  Know that if your "worries" come true, you've prepared some phrases and responses to get you through the tough moments.  Instead of focusing on those phrases, focus on listening to the other person.

There probably isn't a perfect way to prepare for difficult conversations.  I like this one, because it takes the hysterical worries in the back of my mind and quiets them.  By preparing for the worst, I am prepared to relax and be a better listener.  I rarely have to use my pre-planned responses.

I hope this was helpful.  If you have suggestions for preparing for difficult conversations, leave a comment for the rest of us!

Looking for Leverage Points

A leverage point is a place where you can provide a small amount of focused energy and get an even bigger and better result in return.  Have you identified the leverage points in your sphere of influence?

I'm delivering a presentation next week on "Coaching Skills" for a local HR association.  The reason for this is that HR coaching managers represents a giant leverage point in organizations.  If one talented HR manager can help make one manager more effective, that HR manager has in fact reached not only the manager but every employee he or she works with.  It's about leverage.

A great tip about leverage points (I believe it comes from Donetta Meadows) is that usually everyone knows where they leverage points are in an organization, except that they are trying to push them very hard in the opposite direction they need to go!   

A good example of this is an overly strong focus on corporate policies and heirarchical control.  I've known CEOs who try to build organizational excellence by clamping down so tightly on rules and regulations that people need three signatures to purchase a box of paper clips.   (OK, a slight exaggeration).  Rather than building excellence, this kind of tight control tends to lead to less accountable workforces, people who say "no" to customers because of "rules" and inflexible approaches.  (Not to mention it also makes managers feel like they're being treated like five year olds - which is never good for retention.)

Where are the leverage points in your work?  Where can you expend focused effort to get a bigger payoff than many might expect?   Food for thought today.

The Search for Inspiration

How do you find inspiration?  Do you listen to uplifting music, look to a particular inspirational leader, or think aspirationally about the future?   

Inspiration is that little emotional "charge" that can give us a kick in the pants to help us thrive at work and in life.  Inspiration tells us "Yes, this is something to reach for."  Painters often find inspiration in nature or in a particular beautiful human being, their muse.  Can we have a muse for leadership? 

I am greatly inspired by the stories of leaders and entrepreneurs who have climbed from obscurity to greatness.  At the moment I'm reading "Pour Your Heart Into It" by Howard Schultz of Starbucks Coffee.  Reading about his early struggles which include taking huge personal risks, his hopes and fears clashing on a regular basis, and his many small successes all make me feel charged up to work harder and better than before.  I think there is something in me which looks at those huge success stories in the business world and says "Ah, they were human too.  They struggled too.  They went through much of what I am experiencing now.  So why can't I be just as successful?"

A leader doesn't have to be the CEO of Starbucks to impress me however.  I also look to my friends and mentors in the local consulting community, those who have been in the business for 10 or 20 or even 30 years, and I smile to see at how far they've come.  They also inspire me.

And my family, especially my husband, also inspire me.  His support of me is consistent and unconditional, and I want to knock his socks off by surpassing the world's expectations for what one emerging consultant-entrepreneur can do.

So my friends - what inspires you?  The next time you come up against a barrier or feel too tired to go on, what is going to give you strength to push on to your next success point?  Think it over.  Make a list.  And then keep that list close to your heart.  There is good stuff in there.

Planning for Complexity: What the Airlines have to Teach Us

The last week or so, you can practically hear the ground thudding as airline after airline has collapsed in the U.S.  Airbus, the latest casualty, raised over a hundred million dollars in funding before falling spectacularly to earth this week under the dual weights of a lagging economy and heavy fuel costs.  Money, jobs, dreams, all gone bust.

So what can we learn from this? 

We all build our lives (and our businesses) on a platform of assumptions.  These assumptions may be so basic to our thinking that we are not even aware they are there.  The kind of assumptions that never ask an airline to think: "What happens if the economy sinks at the same time fuel prices double?"

Airbus's business model was very attractive - in a time when the economy was thriving and when fuel prices appeared stable.  When the conditions changed, the stresses became too large to bear.  Should we fear the same outcomes for our own lives and work?

Why fear when you can plan instead?  There is a tool out there that can give us remarkable insight into how we can adapt in the face of overwhelming change.  It is called Scenario Planning.

In it's simplest form, Scenario Planning is about identifying the main drivers that influence your business.  (For an airline, the economy and fuel prices would be right up there.)  By taking those drivers and forecasting a set of diverse future scenarios, an organization or team can identify a group of potential futures.  Then for each of them ask:  Is our business model still sustainable?  How could we thrive in this environment?

Wikipedia actually has a good overview of the Scenario Planning process.  If you're interested in how it works, you can check it out here.

The economy is a bit turbulent now.  This has happened before and it will undoubtedly happen again.  What we can do with this is observe the world and learn all that we can.  Conditions change.  Our world is complex and at times unpredictable.  This does not mean we are powerless, unless we choose not to plan for the unexpected.

Do you have any information to share on this topic?  Leave a comment so your peers can benefit from your input.

Spring has Sprung, Cultivate Daffodils and Big Dreams

Today is a good day.  I just got home from a luncheon talk I gave at the South King County HR Association and I had an absolutely fabulous time with the group.  The Seattle sun is shining, and it finally feels like Spring is on the cusp.  After a long and cold winter, it's nice to lean back into a spot of sunshine and feel like a plant ready to stretch upwards and bloom.

Spring is a time of growth and opportunity.  As the world explodes around us in color (my apologies to my friends in the Southern Hemisphere who are on a different schedule) we too can take up the charge and explode into new areas of personal and professional growth.  To use the well-worn saying: What would you do if you knew you could not fail?

My challenge for you this week is to pick one of life's big questions to ponder.  The question above is one of those big questions, but here are a few more.

Describe a time when you felt completely fulfilled and full of energy.  What made those feelings possible?  What would it be like if you lived your life that way every day?

What gift(s) do you have to offer the world?

If you were to be diagnosed with a terminal disease tomorrow, what would your regrets be?  What unfulfilled dreams would haunt you?  What is one action you could take today to erase those regrets and make your dreams reality?

You get the picture.  The world is coming back to life after a long winter sleep.  Don't we owe it to ourselves to do the same?  Take a little time this week to ponder a big question or two.  Enjoy yourself.  Dream big.

And I hope wherever you are right now, that you too are having a mighty good day.

Do you have a "big question" to add the ones I suggested?  If so, leave a comment so we can all enjoy it.

Year End Reflections

The year 2007 is drawing to a close, and as usual I find myself surprised at the speed at which time seems to fly by faster each year.  Wasn't it just 2002 last week?  My friends, we are getting older.  And while aging certainly isn't all fun and games, one of the best benefits out of getting older is that thing called experience.  But experience only benefits us when we take the time to reflect upon what has happened and what it means to us.

So as this holiday season moves into full swing, I encourage you to take the time to pause in your gift wrapping or carol singing to spend a little bit of time reflecting on 2007.  What happened?  What did you learn? What dreams did you fulfill or abandon? How are you different than you were a year ago?  Take a moment to jot down a few notes and save them for future reference.

One of the follies of human perspective is that we so quickly forget where we used to be and fixate on what we have yet to accomplish.   Tracking our past can give us a more objective sense of our progress, as well as provide additional opportunities for growth.  Another way to look at this is: I put in a lot of effort getting through 2007, why shouldn't I get maximum learning out of it?

Here are some of the things that I learned (or relearned) in 2007.

1.  When you love what you do, work really does feel like play.

2.  Inevitably, the biggest successes seem to come shortly after I've gone through a rough patch.  Staying productive and positive during times of stress and worry is one of the most powerful things I can do.

3.  Sometimes the conventional wisdom is just plain wrong. Keep questioning.

4.  The best way for insecurities to become problems is to pay attention to them.  Stomp on them like they are rabies infected cockroaches!

5.  You never know where the next project is coming from.  Sometimes it is the tiniest of seeds that bear fruit.

6.  When I take the time to exercise, eat well, and sleep adequately, I perform better.  When I sacrifice any of these in the interest of "time" my work suffers.

7.  I continue to talk too much and listen too little.  More listening required!

8.  Consulting is best when it is built on shared values.  For this reason I should avoid working with Theory X managers - we simply won't see eye to eye.

9.  Contracting always takes three times longer than I think it should.  When one project is simmering on the back burner, go out and find others.  Like the watched pot that never boils, a watched contract never gets signed.

10.  Relax!  If you continue to work hard, learn, and have fun, everything will be just fine.

As you probably noticed, a end-of-year debrief need not be particularly deep or wordy.  And if you are anything like me, you'll probably notice some repeat "learnings" from year to year.  Some lessons we need to take in regularly in order to live by them.  That's OK too.

Did you have any year-end insights you'd like to share?  If so, post a comment below.

You'll probably see just one or two more posts from me through New Years.  After the holiday craziness has subsided in January things will be back to normal volume-wise.  In the mean time, happy holidays.

    

Company Values: An Asset You Already Have!

I've been thinking a lot lately about organizational values, and how they can drive an organization towards success or failure.  Today I'm going to talk about some of my experiences in working with leaders and value systems in business.

I was at a recent luncheon where another consultant talked about an organization that had a new president come in and put in place a new set of values. He wrote out the new values and put them on a plaque in every office and told the staff "these are your new values." What happened? He watched his company go through an incredible turnover of staff, lowered productivity, and drops in morale.  This fallout has lasted for years.

I am familiar with another organization that has suffered this same problem.  In the midst of a turnaround, a new executive team came on board.  The CEO established new values, placed them on the wall, and integrated them into performance standards.  What happened?  Almost continuous turnover, failed change initiatives, and some serious morale and productivity issues.

I mention these stories because they weigh heavily on me. They bother me because I suspect that at the core of all of these problems is a very simple error: leaders who believe that they can institute new values as as if they were simply ordering a new brand of coffee for the break room. Heck, many leaders have been brought up to believe that the establishment of values is a key leadership responsibility! This belief stems from the idea that values are leader-driven, and that people can change what they value if they are told to do so.  I think this belief is incorrect, and that much of the pain these two organizations experienced comes from it.

Bringing in a new set of top-down values is so damaging because it is akin to telling other human beings that what they value most in the world no longer matters, and that you have replaced those inner values with something different.  People naturally balk at this hubris.

Values are more than a list of words on a wall.  They are more than a set of strategic initiatives.  Values are a compass!  When an organization is going through the long muddy path in search of whatever they are in search of, the values provide direction on both tactics and behavior.  When faced with the complexity of our business environments, it is our values that can best point the way.  When the espoused values differ from the true values of an organization, resistance and conflict can break out.  Imagine a CEO asking an organization of orthodox Jews to eat pork because it is good for business.  This example may seem silly, but it is how these clashes can feel to the members of an organization. 

When espoused and real values conflict the results are damning.  Productivity will slow as resistance emerges.  Turnover will spike as people realize that what they value is no longer accepted.  Changes will halt or evaporate as people move forward on the basis of being forced to, rather than wanting to. 

So how can organizations prevent these mistakes?  It begins with leaders realizing that values are part of the pre-existing landscape of the organization you work for.  Your job is not to quash them, but to uncover them and help them become true organizational strengths.  All values have a bright side and a shadow side.  The value of Loyalty may reduce turnover at the same time it increases stubbornness.  The point isn't to quash loyalty if that is what your organization values.  The idea is that once you know that loyalty is a value, look for ways to bring out the best in that value and use it's advantages mercilessly.

Leadership is hard.  So often we feel like we are forging an unbroken path.  Values are like a secret bonus.  They already exist!  They are ready for your use!  So next time, instead of writing clever wall plaques about values, take the time to uncover the wonderful things your organization values right now.  then take those values out, polish them, and let them really shine.

One time, years ago, I was working with a CEO who was in the process of designing his company's values.  He showed me the list and asked me what I thought.  I gave him a minor suggestion, which he adopted, but I regret now that I didn't know enough at the time to advise him to take another approach.  Next time I'm asked a similar question, I resolve to do better. 

Do you?

There are a number of good approaches that can help uncover your organization's values while simultaneously strengthening them.  To learn about mission/vision/values consulting feel free to drop me an email.

Metrics Mania! (It's about credibility)

Do you hate metrics?  I'll let you in on a secret.  Metrics often bore me to death.  I'm a word-person, not a numbers person. But that doesn't mean that metrics are not important.  In fact when it comes to being an effective manager, metrics can save your career.  Ignore them at your peril.  Use them to your advantage.

From an Enlightened Manager perspective, what do metrics do?
- They tell us if our plans have been effective.
- They give us clues on how to improve.
- They provide us with some defense to nasty organizational politics.
- They give us some "evidence" to counter so much of the B.S. we deal with in organizational life.

I'll illustrate these points with a story.  I was once with a client who was explaining one of her strategic initiatives to a peer of hers.  The peer was senior to her, and was trying to block my client from taking action.  The discussion was contentious and icky.

The client stuck to her guns, and came back afterwards with some metrics that demonstrated her strategy worked quite well.  So the next time she wants to take action she can expect her peer to give her less trouble.  Even more important than the political stuff is the fact that these metrics enabled the manager to prove to herself that her plan had worked.  The metrics told her what the measurable impact of her project was. So it was good to have them.

Have you ever noticed that most of the organizational politicking and back biting we see as managers is driven by emotion, not evidence?  Rise above the fray by backing up your position with data, and inviting others to share additional data.  I realize that management at it's best is about collaboration, not "winning", but when you swim with the sharks it's helpful to have some teeth.  Metrics are sharp and effective organizational defense.

So often we can face resistance from our peers or our superiors when it comes to making organizational changes.  For my clients, it often takes the form of "We shouldn't waste our time on employee empowerment - employees should just do what they're told for crying out loud.  Stop indulging them.  This touchy-feely crap gets us nowhere."

My response: Don't worry, we'll show them the numbers.  They'll either come around eventually or will be revealed as irrelevant when they refuse to see the data.  By the way, if you ever hire a consultant you should be asking them how they measure the success of the project.  They should be working with you to set up measurement systems.   Don't leave it up to guesses.

When we don't take the time to decide in advance how we will measure the success of our programs, we lose out on a lot of learning.  We also lose our ability to find out if we are brilliant or dim.  And trust me, if you are brilliant you want to know.  If you're dim you want to fix it.  Otherwise we are simply subject to the (often emotional) interpretations of others.  And in corporate culture, these interpretations often have more to do with limited resources and turf battles than reality.  I wish it weren't so, but we can speak plainly here.

Even some surveys out there demonstrate the terrible lack of metrics in the management community.  A recent SHRM study on change management said that a high percentage of HR managers said that HR involvement in change management lead to more successful outcomes, however only a tiny fraction of HR managers said they measured the success of change efforts. This makes me wonder how the HR people knew in fact they were "helping."  Perhaps they called the psychic friends network?  I suspect it is just a guess, and a sloppy one at that.  We can do better.

Some companies measure lots of metrics out of some thought that "metrics are important" but they never use them for anything.  Why measure turnover if you aren't going to use the data strategically?  Why measure cost per hire if you have no interest in improving it?  Metrics take time to gather, so they should be purposeful.

Metrics can be either quantitative (numbers) or qualitative (words & ideas).  Not every metric is a formula or percentage.  Here is an example of a qualitative project metric. 

"At the conclusion of this project, our managers will feel comfortable with the new billing system.  They will understand how to use it and won't have any serious concerns."

You could test this metric by calling up the managers at the conclusion of the project and asking them how comfortable are they with the new billing system.  Ask them if they have any concerns.  Track responses.

Here is another example:

"After this executive retreat our leaders will have a clearly articulated set of values, and they will feel comfortable holding each other accountable for upholding those values."

You could test this metric by seeing if the values are clear and articulated, and if the leaders are speaking up about upholding the values with each other.

The numerical examples are simpler:

"After this employee effectiveness tuneup, we expect our employee satisfaction scores to improve to an average of 3.5/4"

You can check this against the number.

A sound approach to metrics is to enter any project or work plan with the question "How will I know if this project is successful?"  Write it down.  It may be a number, it may be a series of accomplishments, or it may even be a set of behavioral observations ("People will communicate in a respectful way"). But you absolutely should know what success is.

If you don't define success, others may define it for you, and give you a failing grade.  Metrics are your friend.  Pay close attention and prosper.

Enlightened Homework:  Look at any project work or workplans you are currently involved in.  Do you know what "success" looks like for each of them?  Do you know how to measure that success in ways that go beyond your own mental perception? If not, get to work on it.

Enlightened Tip:  Employee Satisfaction Surveys are powerful barometers of employee attitudes.   Doing a survey both before and after a project can provide important data.  Not working with employees?  The same kind of "sanity check" can be done by surveying customers, peers, or other managers pre and post project.  Keep in mind attitude/behavioral changes tend to manifest over months or years, not days.  Give yourself enough time to see results.

Enlightened Tip2:  Share your measures with others.   Tell your boss what you think success is and see if he or she agrees.  Tell your employees what success is so they can meet it.  Don't keep them a secret!

Company Values: Who decides?

I think that establishing company values without the input of the broader organization is one of the biggest mistakes an executive can ever make.

A strong statement, but from my perspective it is an eminently true one.  Having one person, or even a small group of people bust open the doors from the executive offices and announce that "the company now has values" is one of my biggest organizational pet peeves.  I think it murders your organizational mission and I'll tell you why.

Here are a few reasons why I believe executive-defined values are a bad idea:

1.  Values, when real, are deeply held.  They are personal.  When someone tells you that "these are our values" they are also telling you "I think this is what you must value."  It's morally equivalent to telling someone who they should love.  It doesn't work.

2.  This kind of behavior turns Values into a "marketing tool" to be "sold to the organization."  This makes the concept of organizational values meaningless.  The fact is that your organization actually has values!  There are values that the people in your company already share!  By imposing a set of values you may have a clever placard on the wall, but it doesn't mean anything to anyone.

3. By not asking your organization to participate in identifying values, you are missing an incredibly rich opportunity to connect people in a personal way to the mission of the organization.  Even if the values you defined are ultimately the same as the ones the group would define, the sheer act of asking "what matters?" is what connects people to the mission.  It is the process, not the outcome, that changes things.

4.  By not asking your organization to participate in sending values, you are sending a strong message that you don't think the answer is worthy of your consideration.  More than anything else, your actions indicate "I don't care what you value.  I'm going to tell you what matters."

Here is the heart of the matter.  Your organization already has values.  They exist, unexplored.  By uncovering them together, you make them vibrant and real.   They become useful strategically.  Go find them.

A caveat here.  Once you have defined the values for your organization together, obviously you're not going to revisit them constantly.  If you've done a good job of finding the real values inside your company, they then become a beacon to attract new hires who resonate with those values.  You tell the world "here is what we value.  If you value these things too, come join us!"  Revisiting your values on a broad scale can be an infrequent (every 5-10 years barring significant cultural shifts) process.

Even if you don't agree with me on this subject, I'm betting a fair number of your employees do.  Think about it.  Be prepared to live with the consequences.