Tough times call for tough actions. So, ease up on your team. That's right, dispel tension and help your people focus on work, not distractions.
John Baldoni is an internationally recognized leadership development consultant, executive coach, author, and speaker. In 2009, Top Leadership Gurus named John one of the world's top 25 leadership experts. His newest book is Lead Your Boss: The Subtle Art of Managing Up (Amacom 2009).
It is one thing to think strategically, that is, look at the world and your company as your CEO might do so.The ability, as I explained in a previous post, to think strategically is a positive trait for middle managers to possess.
But if you want have real impact, you need to act on your ideas. Your idea, which you will translate into an initiative or a project, must contain three elements before you proceed.
One, your idea must complement the strategic direction of your company. If you are an engineering firm, your initiative should complement the engineering services your firm provides. That is, do not propose buying a restaurant or opening a spa. Those might be fun to do, but they do not complement engineering.
Two, your idea must have a strong business case. What you want to do must add value to the company, that is, it must do one or more of the following: increase revenue, reduce costs, improve quality, or improve customer satisfaction. Business case rules!
Three, your idea must be blessed by your boss, or at least by someone higher up. Many bosses will welcome your initiative as long as you involve them in the process, and of course share credit with them. Also, once your boss is on board, you can advocate the support of more senior people. That is, do not go around your boss; go with your boss. [Note: if your boss is a bully, do not to do anything without permission. Doing so could jeopardize your career.]
If you do proceed, follow your project through till the end. Make certain you are shepherding it through to conclusion. However, if you are asked to hand over to a peer or colleague, make it known that you are available to help manage, if the need arises.
Acting strategically will position you as a person of influence as well as one of action.
John Baldoni is an internationally recognized leadership development consultant, executive coach, author, and speaker. In 2009, Top Leadership Gurus named John one of the world's top 25 leadership experts. This article draws upon themes expressed in John's newest book, Lead Your Boss: The Subtle Art of Managing Up (Amacom 2009).
I have the privilege of coaching a lot of talented men and women who are on their way to securing senior leadership positions. They have been identified as up and comers and so their company provides them with coaching to help them learn to become more effective leaders.
These are smart and talented people, and work diligently in their careers. One thing, however, throws them: the challenge to think strategically. Often this challenge comes from their boss in the form of a performance review, but all too often the boss is unclear what he or she expects by “thinking strategically.”
So let me offer some insight into how to think strategically. Put simply it means adopting the perspective of the CEO. Imagine how the top person in your organization views the world and your company’s role in it. What is he or she thinking about? Customers? Shareholders? Competitors? Likely these and a whole lot more. We call this “big picture thinking.”
The advantage is that you step away from your role as a middle manager and adopt lens of a more senior leader. That’s step one.
What you do next defines your abilities to think strategically as it relates to your job. That is, if you work in marketing, what marketing initiatives should you be promoting that will position not only your product line, but the entire company, in more positive light? Or if you work in purchasing, how might you develop ways to reduce commodity costs without sacrificing quality? In short, you are thinking about your job and function, but how your job and function complement the whole company.
Learning to think strategically is a good way to become noticed, as well as to demonstrate that you have what it takes to lead at a more senior level.
John Baldoni is an internationally recognized leadership development consultant, executive coach, author, and speaker. In 2009, Top Leadership Gurus named John one of the world's top 25 leadership experts. This article draws upon themes expressed in John's newest book, Lead Your Boss: The Subtle Art of Managing Up (Amacom 2009).
Here’s a story I like to tell audiences about keeping your composure. Imagine a five-alarm fire, a really big one that involves an entire city block.
If you happen to arrive at one, you will see people scurrying about. Civilians will be fleeing the scene or standing back watching. It’s also very hot, really hot when an entire building is ablaze. Sirens are ringing and there is a lot of noise – shouting, machines churning, and fire hoses spraying. Firemen will be running toward the fire, and to a layman the scene may seem chaotic but trust me, skilled first responders know their jobs. If you are lucky, you might come across the fire battalion chief.
Talk about calm. You could stroll up to him or her, and ask about the weather. Yet their eyes are always in motion, scanning this way and that, watching for signs of trouble. But their voice is calm, perhaps even low and very calming. Whatever they might be feeling inside does not show outside.
Why?
Because their responsibility is to direct the response, and by remaining cool and collected they are able to keep everyone else at ease. This is vital to a crisis. If the leader comes unglued, then people become frightened.
So what does that means for us in management? Keep it together. If you are tense and upset, keep it to yourself. Never show fear. Your people need someone who is in control, or at least seems that way.
Of course leaders become afraid. “We are taught to understand, correctly, that courage is not the absence of fear,” writes Senator John McCain, “but the capacity for action despite our fears” Fear therefore requires the management of it through courage. An outward manifestation of courage is composure. So when you are responsible for the fates and careers of others, you need to control your fear so that you can maintain control of the situation. Just as a fire battalion chief does.
John Baldoni is an internationally recognized leadership development consultant, executive coach, author, and speaker. In 2009, Top Leadership Gurus named John one of the world's top 25 leadership experts. This article draws upon themes expressed in John's newest book, Lead Your Boss: The Subtle Art of Managing Up (Amacom 2009).
Great recessions can provide great opportunities especially for those who want to jump start their careers. Many might think this is heresy; after all in tough times, isn't it better to keep my head down and wait for good times again? This may work for some folks but for those savvy managers seeking to effective positive change, and make good things happen, now is an opportune time to assert leadership.
The real strength and resilience, not to mention creativity and energy, of an organization lies with the people who make things work. These are often managers in the middle. So now is a time for those in middle management to consider ways to help their organizations succeed in these troubled times. We call this "leading up."
Leading up and from the middle requires two things: influence and action. Influence is necessary to open doors so you can be heard. Action is necessary to implement your plan. "Leading up," a term I borrowed from Wharton professor and author Michael Useem who pioneered the concept, is the process of leading your organization from the middle. That means you lead the organization from the perspective of a CEO but with the authority of a less senior leader. And it's the topic of my book, Lead Your Boss, The Subtle Art of Managing Up.
Leading from the middle requires a good balance of two distinct disciplines: management and leadership. Managers provide administration and direction. Managing up is the process of handling things for your boss, that is, when he gets too busy. Leaders provide guidance and inspiration. Therefore, leading up is a proactive process, seeing the big picture and seeking to do something that benefits the entire organization.
Those who succeed at leading from the middle are artful and adept managers. They utilize their management skills to establish goals, plan projects, organize people, and execute projects on time and on budget.
Three things essential to leading up are:
Make certain what you want to do complements the mission and strategies of your company.
Leverage your credibility as one who can get things done.
Act for the benefit of the company--not simply yourself.
The business case for leading from the middle is significant. A survey conducted in January 2007 (well before the recent recession) from the consulting firm, Watson Wyatt, revealed that only 49% of employees have "trust and confidence" in their senior managers, and just 53% believed that senior management made "the right changes to stay competitive." Worse, senior executives surveyed by Booz & Co. in December 2008 revealed that 46% doubted the ability of their CEOs' to execute a recovery plan.
To succeed, organizations will need to leverage the talents and abilities of their middle managers. Those who lead from the middle are problem solvers. They see things and they want to fix them. They seek to make positive change. And while they are not in charge of everything, the way a CEO is, they are in charge of some things. They manage their teams and their resources.
For example, if you are in middle management and you believe that your company should introduce a new product, you find ways of making your case for it. You position yourself as speaking on behalf of customers and employees, rather than simply yourself.
Understand this: leading up is not mandatory. Not every boss can be lead or managed, especially ones who like to bully others. What's more, if you feel it safer to lie low, do so. Now may not be the right time for you to lead from the middle.
At the same time, understand there can be big rewards for those who lead up. By leading up you demonstrate initiative. You show that you have what it takes to get things done. And as a result you position yourself to assume greater levels of authority and responsibility. What you do as a leader in the middle positions you to one day become a leader at the very top.
John Baldoni is an internationally recognized leadership development consultant, executive coach, author, and speaker. In 2009, Top Leadership Gurus named John one of the world's top 25 leadership experts. This article is adapted from John's newest book, Lead Your Boss: The Subtle Art of Managing Up (Amacom 2009).
Robert Montgomery Knight, nicknamed the General not only for his stint as coach at Army, but also for the discipline and control he exacted at Indiana and Texas Tech, has abruptly resigned. Saying he was tired after 42 years of coaching, Bobby Knight is handing the reins of this team to his designated successor and son, Pat Knight.
Let the dissection of his career begin. For some Bob Knight represented everything good and wholesome about intercollegiate athletics. His teams played as a unit. His kids graduated, most often within four years. He played by the rules. And he won -- 902 games, more than any other Division I coach. At Indiana, the Hoosiers won three national championships and he also coached the U.S. Olympic team to a gold medal. By any standard, Knight was, and is, a true champion, in the purest and most authentic sense.
But then there is the other side of Bob Knight. Mercurial, irrational, heated, arrogant and down right mean spirited. Bob Knight once threw a chair across the court during a game in Puerto Rico. He repeated bumped heads and thumped his players’ heads and chests with his hands. He was caught on videotape grabbing the neck (and possibly choking) one of his own players at practices. He insulted deans and university presidents and threw tantrums in his office as well as in press conferences.
So which is it? Good Bobby. Bad Bobby. The truth is both coexist within his persona. We see his virtues. We feel his flaws. And I suspect that many, if not everyone, in the workplace have worked with bosses like Bobby. Sweet as ice tea one moment, and scalding as hot coffee the next. That inconsistency keeps people on edge and makes for a volatile work environment.
Inconsistency in behavior, and in particular in mood swings, demeans workers. The boss who alternates so quickly is one who thinks only of himself. Such behavior may be clinical and require treatment, but the manifestation of it is pure selfishness. The boss lives by his own hubris; he is saying by his action that only what he thinks and feels is what counts. No one else, especially those who report to him, matters. Ultimately people get tired of the boss and they do the one thing that such bosses fear the most; they tune them out. They simply stop listening and stop following. Oh yes, they comply in order to get the work done, but they fail to commit to excellence. In a sense that likely occurred to Knight’s teams; his last national championship came in 1987. Highly recruited high school players refused to play for him; and his own recruits never lived up to his own lofty expectations.
John Wooden, the legendary Wizard of Westwood who won 10 NCAA titles at UCLA, is quoted as saying that he did not approve of Knight’s methods but he appreciated his accomplishments. Wooden admired the fact that so many of Knight’s players, respected him and praised him for making better men. That ultimately may be Bob Knight’s legacy. On the other hand, Knight’s temper, his meanness and his arrogance will color the debate for years to come.
The General has left the arena.
Source:Steve Inskeep “Interview with John Feinstein” Morning Edition NPR, 2.05.07
“I’ve got holes in my game.” That’s one of the first things Tiger Woods told the media after his first victory of the 2008 PGA season in the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines. “If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse” was also part of his reflective soliloquy on his play in his first tourney of the year in which he nearly lapped the field, winning by eight strokes.
So is Tiger playing mind games with us? Is he indulging in the de rigueur self-deprecation that we like to see in good athletes? Or was he giving us a peek inside his psyche, a glimpse at what makes him so great? I opt for the later. Quite simply, at 32 years old with $76 million in winnings and 62 PGA titles, including 13 Majors, he is the very best golfer of his time and perhaps and very likely the best there has ever been.
The media drools over Tiger’s prowess typically falling over themselves to come up with new superlatives to define his performance. Hyperbole, sure! But it doesn’t make the compliments less true. Despite the drooling from an admiring broadcast crew, Tiger isn’t buying it. Golf is a fickle game; and humbling one, but one perfectly suited for a man who knows himself, his strengths and his weaknesses, and his desire to dominate. What accounts for Tiger’s ability is not his swing, which for the record does produce errant shots. It is his tenacity, his desire, his resilience, and quite simply his dream to get better and better. So what can we learn from Tiger’s dominance?
Know your roots. Earl Woods, Tiger’s father, taught him the game. A rough and tough ex ¬Green Beret Vietnam vet, Earl shaped Tiger’s early game. He also provided lessons in toughness by taking him out to play with his friends and then razzing Tiger to see if he could rattle him. The two were very close and Earl’s death in 2006 hit Tiger hard. But as Tiger confessed in a 60 Minutes interview, his father was the softie; his mother, Tida, a Thai immigrant who married Earl, was the taskmaster. Unlike parents who push their kids in sports, the Woods held Tiger back, especially Tida. Golf was a treat, a reward for doing his homework, playing piano, and being a well-behaved kid.
Know your game. Look at a professional golfer’s irons; you will find a dime size indentation in the center of the club face typically right in the sweet spot. That means a professional is striking the ball “perfect” every single time. Only for them it’s not perfect; most pros figure they make good contact three in ten times, akin to a .300 hitter in baseball. But here’s the difference. Their misses are most often better than any amateur’s best and their misses are recoverable. That is the struck ball does not always land where intended but the pro can play from that spot. In this aspect, Tiger excels. No one gets up and down a course (making pars) better than Tiger. So often his drives are wide of the fairway. No matter, he hits from the rough and onto the green. That’s resilience
Know your desire. When he was a kid, just competing in junior golf (and winning), he had a poster in his room of Jack Nicklaus, the player who has won more majors – professional golf’s measure of greatness – than anyone. Eighteen. Tiger, so the story goes, was determined to break that record. He won three titles in junior golf, three in amateur and now with 13 majors as a professional he is well on his way. Odds on he will do it. But he won’t stop at the record; he’ll keep pushing himself because he loves the game, the competition, and the desire to win, win, win.
Tiger may be humble in his work ethic, but he not humble in his ambition. He admitted on his website that a Grand Slam – winning all four of pro golf’s majors – is possible. He also told reporters at Torrey Pines that his best years are ahead of him. His mindset, complete with his skill set, make him the most formidable athlete of his era. The gap between him and the next best golfer – be it Phil Mickelson, V.J. Singh or Ernie Els – often seems as deep and wide as the Grand Canyon. Yet Tiger plays with the realization that anyone on the tour that day can beat him. And some do, but not the same guy nor even the same few. Tiger dominates.
For those you don’t know golf or even like it – and you are the majority – give yourself a treat. Some Sunday afternoon this year, tune into a tournament when Tiger is playing. You will see history in the making. You will be watching a man at the peak of his powers, someone like a Picasso with a brush, Nureyev in flight, a Horowitz at the keyboard, or a Pavarotti in voice. Tiger Woods is the best there is. Enjoy it. Talent and skills like his do not come around even once a generation.
Some time ago I listened to a national sales manager exhorting his sales team to take critical look at the appearance of facilities within their franchise network. While some facilities were in tip-top shape; others were sub-par. Getting the franchisees to upgrade, or at least, maintain their facilities properly was the job of the sales team. In talking to his team, the national sales manager urged his people to take a “fresh-eyes” approach to examining franchise facilities. The executive was asking his folks to adopt the mindset of customers. That is, if you were a customer would you do business in a place that was run-down, shabby, and in need of paint? Probably not, especially if you could go elsewhere and find a similar product in a better facility!
Adopting the customer perspective means adopting the mindset of someone who needs to be persuaded. To be persuaded you need to believe that what you are hearing or seeing is credible. Sales people work on credibility by making certain they understand their customers as well as linking their offerings features and benefits to customer explicit and perceived needs. Good sales people in fact adopt the customer viewpoint in their sales process; they see what the customer sees.
Adopting the customer perspective applies not only to sales people; it applies to management. For example, if you walked into a restaurant and saw a mouse run across the floor, you might think twice about sitting down and ordering. On the other hand, if you were in a lumber yard and saw a mouse, you might not think twice. You eat food, but you don’t eat wood. The customer perspective enables you to see things as they are rather than as you wish them to be. Easy to say, but hard to implement. So here are some suggestions
Open your eyes. Imagine you are a visitor to your department. What’s the first thing you notice? Furniture or people? Some of the most impressive looking office spaces that I have visited have the most withdrawn people. It is as if you are tip toeing through museum or library and must hold conversation to a minimum. On the other hand, down-at-the-heels office spaces sometimes contain the most cheery and enthused people. If you are a manager you need to pay more attention to people than décor.
Open your ears. What do people talk about? Is small talk the only talk? That is, do people avoid talking about their work because they find it boring or uninteresting? If you were a first-time visitor would you find people focused and attentive to their work, or would they seem distracted and preoccupied with non-work matters. If so, you may be managing a work force that is disengaged.
Listen to the walls. Consider the walls as metaphors for imagination in play. Places with lots of “walls” constraint behavior. Places with “no walls” spark interactivity. Furthermore, observe how do people treat one another? Is there a sense of collegiality? Do people work cooperatively? Or do they avoid contact with each other? Efficiently run departments need not be chummy places but there needs to be a sense of coordination so people can share ideas as well as try new things.
As novel as the adoption of the outsiders perspective may be, you cannot maintain it for long. And that’s not a bad thing. As a manager you need to represent the mission and values of your organization as well as stand up for the people you lead. You understand their point of view as well as how they they think and act. That understanding is critical for two reasons. One, you can understand why things are the way they are. Two, you can use this understanding to shape and frame your argument for adopting some new ideas that may emerge from your “fresh eyes” perspective.
The first time he got the ball, he fumbled it and the other team scored. The third time he got the ball, he did the same and the team scored. It was running back Ryan Grant’s first playoff game and his two mistakes had put his team, the Green Bay Packers, down 0-14. It was not an auspicious start, but his on field boss, no other than the legendary quarterback himself, Brett Favre, told him to shake it off and do what he did best: run the ball. Grant took Favre’s message to heart and had a career day, running for three touchdowns and 201 yards, many of them gained in driving snow in last Saturday’s NFC divisional playoff game on the “frozen tundra” of Lambeau Field.
While Grant deserves credit for keeping his head in the game, it was Favre’s leadership that opened the door for him to clear his mind. Favre, himself a gambling sort of player, reminded Grant that he had once thrown six interceptions in a single game. Favre’s message should resonate with any manager facing adversity. Keep it loose. When the leader gets uptight, the team tightens up. When the boss loses him composure, the team starts bickering. And when the boss walks around in a sulk, the team clams up. The result is that nothing gets done. Here are some things we can learn from Favre’s example.
Stay focused. When adversity strikes, people will look to look to their leaders for cues on how to respond. When the leader remains calm, but focused, it makes it easier for the people to do their work. Favre is a master of shaking off a bad play and remaining attentive to what must be done next. The leader should be visible and present, speaking frequently to the team, offering encouragement when necessary but also talking about the challenges ahead and what it expected of them.
Make plays. Few are better at making big plays in games when it counts than Favre. During this game, in trying to elude a tackler he slipped on the slick turf, but before he fell, he underhanded the ball to a receiver who snatched it and ran for a touchdown. That play naturally uplifted the whole team, and gave them the confidence that they could play and win. Managers sometimes make plays themselves, but more often they encourage their team to execute by providing time, resources, and support to succeed.
Throw snowballs. After one successful touchdown drive, Favre scooped up some snow and make a snowball which he threw playfully at one of his players. If that does not keep a team loose, nothing will. Yes, the Packers were ahead and appeared headed for victory, but Favre was reminding his teammates that work (the game) should be fun, despite the weather. Managers can keep things light by maintain an air of playfulness – making sur smiling, posting cartoons, providing snacks. Doing so does not diminish the seriousness of the challenges facing the team, but it does remind people that as serious as conditions may be, we can still enjoy what we do.
No matter how loose you keep it, you need to compete. That is, you maintain the expectation of achieving good results. Honestly speaking, if the Packers had not won this playoff game, Grant would have ended up the goat and few people would have been talking about Favre’s performance in this game. Results matter. And so when times are tough, the boss must lead by example. He must exhort the team to keep doing what they do best. He must not give them a break when it comes to expectations. Reassurance of their abilities is one thing; slacking off is another. By keeping the team focused on what is possible and even probable, the team keeps their eyes on the goal and in turn on the road ahead.
While Favre’s on-field pursuits are well documented, the other side of his leadership is perhaps just as important. Favre, the smiling, easy-going man from Mississippi, leads by keeping his team loose as well as providing exceptional personal play when the game is on the line.
“We change when it hurts too much not to change.” That statement is attributed to Harvard professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter, the author of many books on change and its effect on organizations. This sentiment certainly applied to both Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney in the wake of their resounding setbacks in the Iowa caucuses; both were trumped by avowed candidates of change, Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee respectively. The next day both Clinton and Romney were framing their campaigns as ones of change; neither seemed convincing because both candidates are clearly establishment candidates. While both are still very much alive in the presidential primaries, if they do win, it will not be because of their recently adopted change messages.
Change is the buzz word of presidential politics. It is not surprising given the unpopularity of the current president and the significant challenges facing the nation in terms of an unpopular war, a weakening economy, and a general sense that things are not going so well for our country. So a when candidate has built his message on change, as Obama and Huckabee have done, he finds people willing to listen.
Most times change is not a popular topic, chiefly because it is unsettling to those in power. However when their power is eroding, as it certainly does when things are going poorly, then change becomes an imperative. However, if you are going to push for change, there are some fundamentals to observe.
Be credible. If you push for change, you better know of what you speak and why. Change is rooted in turmoil and discomfort. It takes a special breed of leader to handle and manage. Being an outsider helps. For example, Obama began his career as a community organizer; he grew up challenging the status-quo. Same applies to Mike Huckabee. He’s a poor boy made good, first as a minister and later as governor. Those who reside in the corridors of power often do not make good change agents. Hillary Clinton is a child of the establishment and has spent the last 15 years in the White House and later the Senate. Mitt Romney grew up in wealth, and after Harvard Law and Business schools joined Bain and Company where he made a name (and fortune) for himself as a mergers and acquisitions specialist. So if you push for change, it is good if you know of what you speak.
Be realistic. Corporate leaders excel at making things better for the company (and by extension senior managers), but less good at improving the lot of employees. Case in point would be a merger. Those at the top get new jobs or golden parachutes; those in the middle or below may be on the streets. On the other hand, politicians do well at convincing individuals that things will be better for themselves and their families but less good at convincing the populace that things will be better for the nation. For example, the Bush Administration pushed for lower taxes which are popular with individuals. But those cuts, coupled with wasteful spending, exacted a toll in the form of huge deficits that resulted from wars on terror and as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you push for change, you must explain the consequences to the whole as well as to individuals.
Be hopeful. Change is scary. A leader is asking people to give up what they know and find comfortable for something that is unknown and less comfortable. The leader must portray the change, either political or corporate, as something that will benefit not only the organization but also individuals. It is essential that the leader draw a clear picture of what life will be like when things change. Make that picture tangible to everyone.
Regardless of whether a candidate or a corporate leader espouses change, change is inevitable. The most successful companies are those that continually change; we call it innovation. Innovation is the application of creative ideas to the organization and what it does. Famously General Electric has changed throughout its 120 year-plus history, even after its terrifically successful run under legendary CEO, Jack Welch. The GE under Jeff Immelt is significantly different in its business model as well as innovation drives the company as does a quest to capitalize on green technology.
The fact is whatever your business unless you change you die. Or as Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald’s put it, “When you are ripe, you rot.” That statement summed up his philosophy of trying new and different ideas not simply product wise but also in his relationship to franchisees. You listen, learn, and implement the best of the best ideas. Change is ever with us. It simply becomes more palatable or even fashionable during times of turbulence or crisis when the alternative, as Dr. Kanter observed, is less painful.
[Note: The change message did not help Romney in New Hampshire. He placed second to John McCain. However, one form of change did seem to work for Hillary Clinton. Despite poll predictions, she placed first. One might argue that voters may not have believed her change in message, but instead liked her change of tactics. Voters in New Hampshire witnessed a Hillary who took questions from her audiences, demonstrated more give-and-take with the media, and even exhibited some vulnerability. This was certainly a change from her buttoned-up professional exterior that she has perfected over her many decades in public life.]
John Baldoni is an internationally recognized leadership development consultant, executive coach, author, and speaker. In 2009, Top Leadership Gurus named John one of the world's top 25 leadership experts. This article draws upon themes expressed in John's newest book, Lead Your Boss: The Subtle Art of Managing Up (Amacom 2009). 
Great recessions can provide great opportunities especially for those who want to jump start their careers. Many might think this is heresy; after all in tough times, isn't it better to keep my head down and wait for good times again? This may work for some folks but for those savvy managers seeking to effective positive change, and make good things happen, now is an opportune time to assert leadership. 
