Pulling a dead horse
Changing the culture of a company, business unit, department or team is one of the most challenging aspects of a manager’s life. Trying to change the behaviour, mindset and attitude of people who do not see why they need to do so (and why would they?), will certainly make any leader feel like s/he is pulling a dead horse.
I found some great insights on how to turn a dead horse into a feather on Peter Bregman’s blog post A Good Way to Change A Corporate Culture:
To start a culture change all we need to do is two simple things:
- Do dramatic story-worthy things that represent the culture we want to create. Then let other people tell stories about it.
- Find other people who do story-worthy things that represent the culture we want to create. Then tell stories about them.
Add comment 17 July 2009
The art of communication
Communication is an art. Good managers don’t underestimate the value of good communication. Great managers constantly and relentlessly Communicate with a capital C and put it at the heart of what they do. (You decide what bad managers do…).
Great managers are two-way communicators: they not only talk but they listen just as much. They value discussion, they are not afraid to discuss the undiscussables. They are also not afraid to say “I don’t know” or “I am not perfect”. They use modern technologies to communicate, but they also know the value of communicating symbolic messages. Above all, they are aware of the grapevine and the concept “by word of mouth” and they are not afraid to use it just as they use Townhall meetings, shareholder updates, end-of-year messages, blogs or You Tube. And they realize the value and influence of stories.
A little story about a new CEO that recently joined a large multinational company: the previous CEO was rather aloof and formal, hidden in his office in headquarters (and by the way far from unsuccessful where the results of his company were concerned!). Seeing the old CEO anywhere near the coffee machine in the pantry was unthinkable. Cups of coffee would always mysteriously show up on the old CEO’s desk. A member of staff at headquarters was therefore quite shocked to find the new CEO not only near the coffee machine, but even more so to see him actually press the buttons to make himself a cup of coffee. She told me she almost fainted when the new CEO turned to her and asked her whether he could make her a cup of coffee as well.
The new CEO certainly communicated a message about himself there. And certainly one that is now making its way through the grapevine in that company. And I can assure you it’s a positive message. It had nothing to do though with a carefully planned communication strategy. Or modern technology. He is just the kind of guy who doesn’t mind getting his own coffee. And gets his staff a cup while he’s at it. By doing so he does however send a very strong message about who he is.
What do you prefer? A CEO who magically makes cups of coffee appear on his desk? Or a CEO who makes you a cup of coffee?
Are you aware of the messages you communicate just by doing the things the way you do them?
1 comment 25 May 2009
a-leader-on-leading
In modern management thinking you’ll often find reference to the distinction between being a manager and being a leader. A few observations I found through a quick Google search:
The difference between being a manager and being a leader is simple. Management is a career. Leadership is a calling (more here)
A manager basically directs resources to complete predetermined goals or projects. For example, a manager may engage in hiring, training, and scheduling employees in order to accomplish work in the most efficient and cost effective manner possible. A manager is considered a failure if he/she is not able to complete the project or goals with efficiency or when the cost becomes too high. On the other hand, a leader within a company develops individuals in order to complete predetermined goals and projects. A leader develops relationships with his/her employees by building communication, evoking images of success, and by eliciting loyalty (more here)
Managers are often not seen as leaders but as administrators (more here)
I might as well refer you to the Google results page directly as it gave me more than 40 million results for the search “manager leader”.
For the sake of this blog I will not really get into the difference. For me the difference is just semantics anyway. More important I find that as you follow your management path, you continuously focus on developing yourself. And if you look back after a while you may find yourself doing things differently, finding things easier to handle, taking different approaches. In other words, through active development (and that takes effort, constant reflection and actively seeking feedback) you may find that one day you suddenly realize you are a leader, at least according to the definitions found through Google.
I will therefore continue to call this blog a-manager-on-managing, but it might well have been called a-leader-on-leading.
By the way, Susan Boyle (more than 90 million search results on Google) now has attracted more than 55 million views already…
Oh, and I don’t agree with the first quote: I think I am a leader by now, but I never considered it a calling. Nor do I think of management as a career. I have a career, and I am a leader (is that semantics, or what?).
Add comment 13 May 2009
Boylesque
If you happen to be a manager and one of those more than 29 million You Tube viewers who watched this video, have you asked yourself the following questions yet:
Do I have a Susan Boyle in my team?
Do I always recognise the hidden gems?
Do I look beyond the obvious high potentials for talent that is less obvious and outspoken but equally valuable to the team, the organisation, the business? Talent that may require some extra nurturing and nudging (and hence extra effort from my side) to come to full bloom?
Susan Boyle has one huge extraordinary talent, but somehow that fact remained hidden from the world for almost 48 years. I think that’s quite remarkable since in her case she only had to sing a few words (in front of a camera that is) to make the obvious clear to everybody: here’s a lady who can sing.
Talent development should be one of your top priorities as a manager (along with all those other million things, I know), and you need to be on the lookout for extraordinary and less-extraordinary-but-equally-valuable talent constantly. Sit down once or twice a year and review everyone on your team and their talents and development progress. Make this a team exercise with HR, your peers and/or your management team, so it isn’t just your view that’s on the table. Get different perspectives on people’s talent: you may not see how someone performs in a project when you are not part of the project team, but others will. And do not just include your high potentials in this review.
And who knows, you may find some Susan Boyles on your team.
Add comment 19 April 2009
Perfection
Have you ever met the perfect manager? I don’t think I have, and I know for sure I am not a perfect manager myself. Even after more than a decade I still make mistakes from time to time, and the least I can do is to try to learn from my mistakes and imperfections. I have also learned to build on and exploit my strenghts, rather than focus solely on my weaknesses (an interesting lesson once explained to me by Joe Folkman, I can recommend his book The Extraordinary Leader).
Recently a colleague pointed out to me why he liked the way the new CEO of our company had introduced himself. Our new CEO told his life story not just by stating his successes (and there were plenty!) but he also shared how he once did not get a job he really wanted, and how he coped with his disappointment. My colleague felt this “imperfection” made our new CEO more “human” than any of the successes he described. And my colleague liked him even more because of it.
And I agree with my colleague: for me the perfect manager is the imperfect manager. The human manager.
I am not a huge fan of Madonna, but I do like Nobody’s Perfect
Add comment 16 April 2009
Hello world!
I didn’t have to give any thought to what the title of my first blog post would have to be: it was already waiting for me when I created my a-manager-on-managing blog. I wonder if all the other musings on management I envisage for this blog will appear that easily as well…
Motto for the day: dare to be different (mentioned in Why should anyone be led by you?)
Add comment 15 April 2009
