To paraphrase (badly) Jane Austen, it is a truth universally acknowledged, that the end of the year brings introspection.
Let's not get into new year's resolutions, which almost always begin with enthusiasm and end in ignominy. But it may be salutary to assess what you have learned from the past year, and celebrate, recalibrate and plan for the following year.
Find some free time and ask yourself these questions - and write down your answers.
The past year:
What were my biggest successes in 2014? What were my biggest setbacks? (Keep both to a maximum of three.)
What are my biggest strengths? How can I leverage these strengths in order to overcome challenges?
What did I learn in 2014?
What did I lose track of in 2014? (These could be relationships or commitments.)
The coming year:
Looking forward for 2015, what will make it a successful year for you? (You need to define success in order to set goals and know when you've arrived.)
What needs to be cleared up?
What relationships require your focus?
Having answered honestly the above questions, you may wish to revisit your answers at least quarterly during the coming year to measure your progress. And remember, success means many things to different people.
Happy holidays!
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
Why do managers keep making the same mistakes? (Part 2)
In last week's blog, I related the story of my friend who over the last four years, has been bounced around like a Ping-Pong ball due to the actions of his company's executive team.
He went from a full-time employee to being outsourced, then called back into the fold of his original employer. The latest corporate decision, due to a change in CEOs, is that outsourcing is back on.
This all-too-familiar tale has led him to question upper management's strategy (which to be honest, has never been made clear to him).
So let's look at why managers appear to keep on making the same mistakes.
I call this Executive "Whiplash" Leadership. Its first cousin is, "I have a dream", followed by a direct decision bereft of a thought-through management implementation process. The result for employees is to be whiplashed from one extreme to the other, exacerbated by poor communication. This leads to a misunderstanding of why and what is happening to them.
The fundamental mistake made at the executive level is to ignore managerial accountability and process. Only with it can a CEO engage, explain and adjust the plan relative to feedback from their 'greatest asset': the employees.
Perhaps if the above had happened, my friend would be effectively working to help implement his CEO's plan. He would have been aligned, and understanding and accepting of tough decisions made in the interest of the employees' and company's survival and long-term prosperity.
He went from a full-time employee to being outsourced, then called back into the fold of his original employer. The latest corporate decision, due to a change in CEOs, is that outsourcing is back on.
This all-too-familiar tale has led him to question upper management's strategy (which to be honest, has never been made clear to him).
So let's look at why managers appear to keep on making the same mistakes.
I call this Executive "Whiplash" Leadership. Its first cousin is, "I have a dream", followed by a direct decision bereft of a thought-through management implementation process. The result for employees is to be whiplashed from one extreme to the other, exacerbated by poor communication. This leads to a misunderstanding of why and what is happening to them.
The fundamental mistake made at the executive level is to ignore managerial accountability and process. Only with it can a CEO engage, explain and adjust the plan relative to feedback from their 'greatest asset': the employees.
Perhaps if the above had happened, my friend would be effectively working to help implement his CEO's plan. He would have been aligned, and understanding and accepting of tough decisions made in the interest of the employees' and company's survival and long-term prosperity.
Monday, December 08, 2014
Why do we keep making the same mistakes?
A friend told me this story.
He heads the IT department for the Canadian division of an international telecommunications company that has more than 60,000 employees world-wide. Four years ago, in preparation for a proposed merger, the executive management decided to divest itself of several functions. Accordingly, IT, facilities management and a few other bits and pieces were all outsourced.
My friend found himself working for a company to whom he felt no loyalty, reporting to a invisible and practically unreachable manager at the other end of the globe. His benefits and salary were cut, but in these difficult times, he considered himself lucky to have a job. So he soldiered on.
Two years after the outsourcing move, the telecomm company reconsidered its decision. The merger had gone through, but the anticipated savings had never materialized. Worse still, due to the presence of a middle organization, IT projects proceeded at a glacial pace and duplications of work abounded in a confusing mishmash of divisions and functions. So the telecomm decided to rehire all (well, almost all) of its IT people. Naturally, the clock reset itself for these people in terms of seniority and other benefits.
This month, my friend has just been informed that with a new CEO at the helm, the decision has been made to - surprise! - outsource IT yet again. The message from the top is that this is being done "to promote efficiency".
If my friend still had hair (sorry, mate), he would have torn it out by now. Once again, the employees with the least amount of control over their working environments are having the stuffing kicked out of them.
My friend tells me, "Nick, I'm good at my job. I encourage innovation within my team. I bring projects in on time and on budget, with the resources that are allocated to me. But it often seems I do this despite hindrance from upper management. I know that they will do anything, absolutely anything, to save a buck. They don't care about their employees, even though their website states, 'Our people are our greatest asset'. They are disconnected from the reality of our business, and incapable of communicating with and supporting their employees. It's like working for morons! My resume is up to date and if I can get something elsewhere, I am gone."
Does this sound familiar? I'm sure many of you have heard versions of this sad tale. Maybe you have lived through something like it yourself. And I can't believe, that with all the knowledge that we have, with all the management books that have been written, that the same mistakes keep happening, over and over again.
Next week in Part II: I'll explore some of the reasons (and a different point of view) for this uncomfortable situation.
He heads the IT department for the Canadian division of an international telecommunications company that has more than 60,000 employees world-wide. Four years ago, in preparation for a proposed merger, the executive management decided to divest itself of several functions. Accordingly, IT, facilities management and a few other bits and pieces were all outsourced.
My friend found himself working for a company to whom he felt no loyalty, reporting to a invisible and practically unreachable manager at the other end of the globe. His benefits and salary were cut, but in these difficult times, he considered himself lucky to have a job. So he soldiered on.
Two years after the outsourcing move, the telecomm company reconsidered its decision. The merger had gone through, but the anticipated savings had never materialized. Worse still, due to the presence of a middle organization, IT projects proceeded at a glacial pace and duplications of work abounded in a confusing mishmash of divisions and functions. So the telecomm decided to rehire all (well, almost all) of its IT people. Naturally, the clock reset itself for these people in terms of seniority and other benefits.
This month, my friend has just been informed that with a new CEO at the helm, the decision has been made to - surprise! - outsource IT yet again. The message from the top is that this is being done "to promote efficiency".
If my friend still had hair (sorry, mate), he would have torn it out by now. Once again, the employees with the least amount of control over their working environments are having the stuffing kicked out of them.
My friend tells me, "Nick, I'm good at my job. I encourage innovation within my team. I bring projects in on time and on budget, with the resources that are allocated to me. But it often seems I do this despite hindrance from upper management. I know that they will do anything, absolutely anything, to save a buck. They don't care about their employees, even though their website states, 'Our people are our greatest asset'. They are disconnected from the reality of our business, and incapable of communicating with and supporting their employees. It's like working for morons! My resume is up to date and if I can get something elsewhere, I am gone."
Does this sound familiar? I'm sure many of you have heard versions of this sad tale. Maybe you have lived through something like it yourself. And I can't believe, that with all the knowledge that we have, with all the management books that have been written, that the same mistakes keep happening, over and over again.
Next week in Part II: I'll explore some of the reasons (and a different point of view) for this uncomfortable situation.
Tuesday, December 02, 2014
Where do you place employees on the balance sheet?
"It is easy for us to sit here and take potshots at CEOs who put their stock price and their shareholders before their employees.[...] But that's their fiduciary duty. They have a duty to their shareholders, legally, before almost anyone else, and certainly before the employees. The employees are just assets."
Reading David Berman's recent article, "Greed still works", in the Globe and Mail's Report on Business I was struck by how many CEOs still don't see the relationship they have with their employees as sacred. In the article, Berman interviews Bryan Burrough, the author of Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco, a seminal book that explores the backroom deals that featured so prominently (and infamously) in the late 1980s' leveraged buyouts.
It was a good read when first published, and it's still a great book - pick up a copy if you haven't already - but the above quote made me stop and think. Thirty years on the majority of CEOs still don't appreciate the importance of the relationship they have with their employees. CEOs have a duty to provide an environment where employees can do their best work, which, in turn, helps to deliver value for shareholders.
In my recent conversations with CEOs and senior executives of large companies, all of them were crystal clear in stating that businesses exist to make a profit - no-one disputes that. But perhaps the "greed still works" title of the piece is misleading. What shone forth with every word spoken by the executives I interviewed were the strong links everyone had with their employees. These are critical to the success of any organization.
I'd argue that while many see employees as liabilities on the balance sheet, effective CEOs see them as key to the fulfillment of their fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders. Without productive, well-managed employees it is impossible for the core function of a business to operate.
Each and every executive I spoke with recognizes this. Employees bring value to the business, and the person at the top is accountable for providing a work environment that engages every employee.
Reading David Berman's recent article, "Greed still works", in the Globe and Mail's Report on Business I was struck by how many CEOs still don't see the relationship they have with their employees as sacred. In the article, Berman interviews Bryan Burrough, the author of Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco, a seminal book that explores the backroom deals that featured so prominently (and infamously) in the late 1980s' leveraged buyouts.
It was a good read when first published, and it's still a great book - pick up a copy if you haven't already - but the above quote made me stop and think. Thirty years on the majority of CEOs still don't appreciate the importance of the relationship they have with their employees. CEOs have a duty to provide an environment where employees can do their best work, which, in turn, helps to deliver value for shareholders.
In my recent conversations with CEOs and senior executives of large companies, all of them were crystal clear in stating that businesses exist to make a profit - no-one disputes that. But perhaps the "greed still works" title of the piece is misleading. What shone forth with every word spoken by the executives I interviewed were the strong links everyone had with their employees. These are critical to the success of any organization.
I'd argue that while many see employees as liabilities on the balance sheet, effective CEOs see them as key to the fulfillment of their fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders. Without productive, well-managed employees it is impossible for the core function of a business to operate.
Each and every executive I spoke with recognizes this. Employees bring value to the business, and the person at the top is accountable for providing a work environment that engages every employee.
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Talking with CEOs
I had the honour of interviewing seven outstanding CEOs and senior executives this week. What an amazing group of people! Collectively, they have amassed hundreds of years' worth of experience in corporate business. Their skillsets and knowledge are impressive.
Even though they all work in different sectors and industries, several themes quickly became apparent:
They really like people. As one CEO said to me, when I asked him if he liked people, "I LOVE people!" These individuals deeply care about people; it's what energizes them. They know that the decisions they make affect their employees (and the communities in which they operate) and they feel the weight of those implications on their shoulders.
They never stop learning. The CEOs and senior executives with whom I spoke are humble enough to realize that the learning never stops. They actively seek out feedback, welcome best advice from their direct reports, enter into spirited dialogue with their peers, and read avidly. They know that their managerial path is a long one, and don't delude themselves into believing that they have reached the end of it.
They make fun an essential part of their life. There was a lot of humour, a lot of laughter during the interviews. These people like to have fun! And they know that their employees relish a great working environment, where their talents are valued and nourished, where their roles are clear and their authorities to do their work well established. But above all this, employees appreciate laughter. Successful CEOs and senior executives know and encourage this.
They understand the difference between leadership and management. One CEO said, "Leadership is like a Mars bar. It picks you up and you feel great. But then at 3 o'clock, the sugar rush is over." Management, on the other hand, makes things happen. And without great managers, there are no followers for leaders.
We will be releasing portions of these interviews in the upcoming months. Stay tuned by checking out www.howdareyoumanage.com for more information.
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