The Fire Within

One of the biggest traps we fall into is needing to be told what to do. Managers like to create user manuals, employee training, and scripts on how to answer customer questions. This generally trains employees to follow the procedure and ask their manager when it deviates from the documented flow. What happens when it is a problem or question without a defined answer?  I was thinking about this with March Madness and how a basketball team draws up plays, yet great teams know how to stay within the framework of the play yet adapt to the needs of the current situation. Maybe the play is designed to drive to the lane but your opponent has a 7' tall center waiting to block your shot. Maybe the play is designed to hit your shooter beyond the three point line but he is having an off night. In football a running back has a play designed to hit a certain hole in the offensive line, but if the defense clogs that up they need to find another opening to gain yardage. Every sport has a playboo...

I will never deny being a manager of people is hard. When I say manager there are multiple jobs that fall into this category, not just the boss at work. Teachers, coaches, parents and mentors are all in the same group when it comes to overseeing, leading, guiding, and influencing other people. It is hard because every human being is unique and bring their own personality and baggage with them. But just because it is hard does not allow you to be a lazy when it comes to managing people. A lazy people manager does three things: They don't have the hard conversations with individuals - They would rather address a larger group, in a passive aggressive way. Broadly pointing out behaviors they expect to change. The problem is when you address a group the people that most need to listen to it are thinking to themselves they are fine, and you must be talking to someone else. You need to pull the individual aside and let them know specifically what the expectations are and why they aren...

We are all busy, so busy we miss opportunities to do the things that will really add value. We all have things filling our day which feel like the make our lives more hectic, and in reality most of them we likely don't need. But we do them anyway.  They are put there either by others or by ourselves. It is easy to complain about the things given to us by others. The report you have to write or the project you need to take care of. You often wonder if anyone actually looks at it, would anyone notice if you just didn't do it. Then there are the things we create for ourselves that make us busy. Nobody is forcing us to do them, but it is important for us to do them for whatever reason we believe. No matter the source of the task, the hard question always needs to be asked about the value of a task. Maybe it is a task that doesn't seem important but it is like pushing the button on Lost every 108 minutes, if you don't do it catastrophe could follow. But if there is no value ...

In my work there is a concept called the project management triangle, it deals with four main qualities you try to balance. Time - The total number of hours it is going to take and over how many days/weeks/months/years. Cost - What it is going to cost in dollars and cents Scope - What features are included Quality - How well put together the product is. There is a tradeoff with this so we typically say as the client you can pick two, but then those doing the work get to set the other two. If you want something fast and cheap, it is not going to have a lot of features and it likely won't be the best quality. If you want something fully featured really fast, it is going to cost you. It is a pretty simple concept, but not one many people probably talk about except maybe a handful of times in their life. I work in software development and it is a common conversation had almost every day. The interesting thing about it though is how much it applies to almost any area of our lives. If yo...

There are times when changes need to be made, as a leader this is one of your most critical times and it will probably define if you are successful or not. It doesn't matter what the change is. It could be having to lay off a bunch of workers, bench your player that has started all year, or implement a new process or policy. The way you handle communication during those moments of transition are vital. The most common mistake people make, they think they are clear. They explained it once, sent out a memo or told their direct reports and told them to pass along the information. Whatever method you used I guarantee you it wasn't enough. Change is hard and you need to repeat the message to make sure it is clear, consistent and everyone is actually on the same page. The other factor that most often gets overlooked is how much people will talk to each other. You can end every email, speech and memo with an invite to ask any questions, yet people will talk to each other more than...

Too often I see managers, or people in a leadership position, avoid having a hard conversation. I get it, it is hard to be the person to tell someone they aren't performing or behaving in way they should be. When you finally do address the problem, did you do it in a way that was clear to the person? Do they really understand what they need to be doing differently? If you feel like you've had the conversation with someone multiple times and it seems like they still aren't getting it, the problem isn't with them, it is with you. You might think you've had the conversation, but you aren't clearly communicating it. The longer you let things go the more difficult the conversation becomes. If there is a problem, deal with it. If you have a water leak in your house, the earlier you address it the less damage you actually have to deal with. You can mop up the excess water, run a de-humidifier and maybe not have to spend a dime. But ignore it, hope it goes away or h...

Do you ever have those moments where you hear a word, one you've heard many times before, and suddenly you realize you didn't really understand it till now? That word for me is empowerment. You hear it a lot, especially in business. People want their employees to feel empowered, they want them to feel like the have authority and control over things so they take action. Yet, we've all seen too often what it looks like in reality. When someone doesn't follow the exact process or they make a mistake, how do those same bosses react in those situations. Previous words now sound empty. When you get a sense of what true empowerment looks like, you quickly realize how wrong your view was. True empowerment looks like your manager telling you that you will make a mistake, and that is okay because everyone has done it, so we learn from it and move forward. True empowerment is your mentor telling you that the way you performed a task isn't how they would do it but it got th...

Heard an interesting quote recently by Jim Collins (author of Good to Great  and other titles) attempting to summarize Peter Drucker's life and work, who was probably the greatest management thinker and author of all time. He said that Drucker spent his life trying to answer the question, "How do we make our society both more productive (i.e. better management) and more humane?" As a manager this idea definitely hit me hard because it is something I struggle with, and I see most people in management positions struggle with. We have a very competitive nature in the business world and this need to either be successful or just hold on to our jobs over people that seems to have no morals. Where direction given is sometimes simply, "Just get the job done." I use a lot of sports analogies in my job, and most successful teams have a coach that has been strict, or pushed them to reach higher levels of performance. There is a balance there in so many places in life,...

There are many styles of management and leadership, just as no two people are alike, no two leaders do things the same. I've had managers that you would consider a micro-manager. They have to know every little detail of everything, basically making you feel like you are incompetent even though they say they value you. Worse than that are the managers that like to exert their power, frequently remind people that they are in charge and will lash out at anyone that challenges them even if it is a better idea. On the other side you have the managers that trust you completely, who are so hands off they have no real idea what you do every day, they just know and trust that it is getting done. On the surface this seems like a great thing, but eventually you run into challenges that you need help navigating and someone you can go to for advice. When there isn't anyone else that understands things it can leave you feeling isolated. What we really need is both. We need to have people...

We are busy. Life can get hectic and there always seems to be more to do than there are hours in the day. When you feel like you are overwhelmed and there is nothing that you can do to get out of the hole you are in, know that you have complete control over the situation. Whenever it feels like we don't have enough time to do something, to do the things we know are necessary to get the job done, we are wrong. There is always more time in the day than we think, we just need to decide what we are spending our time on. Before I had kids I thought I was busy, 15 years and 3 girls later I laugh at my younger self. Kids schedules, running them here and there takes time, yet I still can find time for the things I want to do, just maybe not as often. Work is no different. There are things that have to be done but if we continue to look at them the same way nothing ever changes. There are a limited number of hours at work to get things done. How much time do you spend talking about thin...

In being a manager, I've always said I have a lot less control than people think I do. Many people think that being in charge you get to just tell everyone what to do and you control everything that happens. That couldn't be further from the truth. Everyone that reports directly too me has many choices in what they do, even choosing to be employed by me. While I don't have control, what I do have is influence. Some managers use their influence to try to exert control, but people eventually will choose to not be influenced by a bad manager. They can differentiate between someone that uses their influence rightly and those that don't. You can imagine which type of person is more motivating to work for and do your best every day. This is why it is so important to understand what it means to be a leader. We need to ensure that our minds are focused every day, understanding the level of influence we do posses and to wield it properly when we walk in the door. Whether it is...

Mirrors are helpful in showing us what other people see. They can show us our flaws, our best features, when we look good or when we are a mess. There isn't a mirror though that reflects our qualities that you can't see. There isn't a mirror that shows us how others perceive our attitude, our tone or the words we use. We need people in our lives that hold up the mirror and are honest about what our reflection looks like. The best managers that build great teams are good at holding up the mirror. People that you trust that are brave enough to show us the good things and the flaws are priceless. When people give us feedback we need to hear what they are saying. Nothing changes though if we don't take the feedback and do something with it. Sometimes we don't agree with the feedback, to which my response is that perception becomes reality. Even if you don't think something is true if others perceive it as true it may as well be. Sometimes we don't like the fee...

As a manager it is the time of year that I get to go through the process of writing and completing performance reviews on those that I get the privileged to lead. I see far too many managers go through this process with dread and annoyance. If your attitude towards doing performance reviews sounds like that I think it is a reflection of you as a manager and you might want to consider why you are in a management position in the first place. As a manager of people you are entrusted with the development and support of the people that report to you. It is your job to do everything you can to help make them successful and achieve their goals. Their annual performance review is the time to do that. Make sure you set aside time and treat it as the most important task you have done all year, because it probably is. If you are an employee that feels you are subjected to the annual review process, you need to realize that you aren't helping the process. As a manager, it is so much easier a...

There are many days as a manager I feel like I'm a good manager, but a terrible leader. Managing to me is making sure the work gets done. Does everyone know their tasks and accomplish them? Is the paperwork done, the reports written and the performance evaluated? If I'm being honest it isn't that hard to be a manager. But leadership is so much more difficult. Leadership is inspiring people to work together to achieve a common goal. It is easy to have a goal, but a common goal? Too many people have their own goals or they really just don't care, they just want to do their job and collect their paycheck. That is where leadership comes in. It is one thing to know what the goal is, but to support it, care about it and do what is needed to help achieve the goal? It is so much harder. It is why I think there are a lot of people in management positions that aren't very good leaders. All managers aren't leaders, but you don't have to be a manager to be a leader. An...

All parents at some point tell their kids that they are proud of them. I've done it before, but it is something that I've consciously tried to remove from my conversations with them after reading a number of articles like this one in the Huffington Post . Saying "I'm proud of you." really becomes more about me rather than my kid, just look who is first mentioned in that sentence. If my kids accomplish anything it is really about them, yes I play a part in raising them but it should be about them. It is a similar stance I try really hard to take at work as a manager. Yes, my job is to lead a team of people, but what they accomplish isn't about what I've done. I try not to say "my team", instead it is "the team". Whenever I want to give praise or recognition to anyone, I think about the words that I use because there is power in them. The focus needs to be on them and what they accomplish.  Pride is something we all should avoid, a...

If you are in a leadership position of any kind you will eventually run across someone that doesn't believe in you. Maybe you got promoted from within and a former peer thinks they deserve the job more. Or you came into a leadership position from the outside and one on your team thinks the old boss was better. That you aren't even needed, they were getting along just fine without you. You are in this position for a reason. The person that hired you, or promoted you, did so for a reason. Romans 13:1 says "all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God." You have earned this, claim that. Everyone is going to have critics. Most people don't like change and you represent change that they are still trying to work through. Don't let what others say or feel distract you or change you. The person you are earned you the right to be in that position, don't adapt to try and please everyone because you won't. Ju...

A friend recently posted the following quote: A bad manager can take a good staff and destroy it, causing the best employees to flee and the remainder to lose all motivation.  As a manager, words like this scare me. One of my fears is letting down the team that I am supposed to be serving and leading. We have probably all been in a job where the boss is destroying the team; how do I know that I'm not one of those bad managers? How do I know if I'm doing the right things and pushing people to excel and not causing them to be defeated? If you are in a situation where you are responsible for employees do you think of these things too? I will often ask my employees at least once a year, where they see themselves going in their career, what their goals are. Inevitably there are people that say they want to get into management one day. When I ask why the responses vary but for the most part fall somewhere in the area of wanting to be the person in charge, making the decisions. M...

We've all heard that we need to be ourselves. God only made one you so be the best one you can be. Part of needing to understand who we are is being comfortable in who we are, but also consistent. Don't be the person who doesn't know who they are so they either copy others trying to do what they think is right, or they are they are Jekyll and Hyde. Being inconsistent is one of the cruelest things we can do to another person. If you let someone get away with something one day and bring the hammer down as hard as possible the next all you are doing is teaching people to be afraid of you. The fear and apprehension is very real because they are not sure who you are going to be. If you want to be a good manager, parent or leader, be consistent.

It is always hard when someone doesn't meet your expectations. You feel disappointed, annoyed, and angry, along with some other emotions I'm sure. It is always easy to blame the person that is falling short but I am finding as good a job as I think I'm doing communicating what my expectations are I probably wasn't as clear as I thought. When someone isn't meeting your expectations, here is a quick process to go through to have a better result the next time. Don't make them guess. If there is something you want but you never tell them, you can't expect them to just know. Did you actually say what your expectations are? Before you talk to them, make sure you know what it is you want for sure. You can't have your cake and eat it too. Ask the person why they aren't doing what you expect. Maybe there are some valid reasons that you haven't considered that is making it more difficult. Giving them a chance to express their view is important also, e...

Management is a word that is used so frequently in business today that I think we lose site of what it means to be a manager. There is project management, task management, financial management, server management, content management, the list goes on and on. These have much to do with managing things, in a sense we all do that, but a manager is in charge of people. Because of that we need to put a lot more emphasis on what those people do and the fact that it is so different then simply managing a list of things. One of the biggest gaps in business, and I would probably think this reaches into all areas of the world, is that we have a lot of very smart people, that get promoted because they are good at their jobs, and ultimately they become responsible for people. They have reported to people their entire career that are in the same boat, so we are perpetually identifying new managers and not teaching them how to manage people. When I first became a manager, that was me. I focused o...