The Cranky Middle Manager Show #316 The Final Cranky Show and the Future of Work with John Blackwell
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #102 Framework for Team Success- Ed Oakley
Posted on 10. Jul, 2007 by Wayne in Podcast
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #102
Greetings fellow toilers. Today we talk to Ed Oakley, Author of Leadership Made Simple,Practical Solutions to your Greatest Management Challenges
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Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the show. You’re a middle manager if you’ve ever been caught in an email pincer movement….admit it, denial is futile. Today’s show is dedicated to Shabdrung Ngwang Namgyel, the Confucius of Bhutan. Having a systemic framework means things almost run themselves…. like for 57 years.
3:25 The quote of the week is from Aristotle who said you should watch something from its beginnings…but as our guest will point out you have to sometimes work backwards….doing that without making people crazy is the trick.
6:01 Welcome Ed Oakley of Enlightened Leadership Solutions. How did a geek at HP get hooked on management and leadership? Why do smart people not know what they’re getting into?
8:58 Is Leadership really that simple? (check out my article on small l and Big L Leadership) There’s a hard part (measurable metrics, numbers, data) and the soft part (people, basically). The hard stuff is management, the soft stuff is leadership. Ed starts by telling us his own “Aha” moment…
12:16 Ed tells the story about his buddy Zack, and how nitpicking cost a company a great employee. So how do you go wrong helping to make things better? It’s happened before and it’ll happen again. The problem is not acknowledging what’s right.
15:45 The framework for come from the positive and solve the problems by using people in the room is:
- Start with the positive- what’s already working now?
- What’s causing our successes?
- What are we trying to accomplish?
- What are the benefits of achieving those objectives
- What can we do more/better/differently to get closer to our objective?
It’s all about looking forward, not looking back and blaming. Then we get some case histories… gotta love real-world application.
27:45 We hear all the time about WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) but Ed suggests starting from the outside (Customers, Others) in.
32:40 Ed Oakley recommends “Made To Stick” by the Heath Brothers.
Thanks for listening everyone. Don’t forget to check out The Working Week podcast as well….. Don’t let the weasels get you down.
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #101 You Drive Your Boss Crazy- Anita Bruzzese
Posted on 03. Jul, 2007 by Wayne in Podcast
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #101 (MP3 13.1MB 32:34 Min)
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Welcome to our next 100 shows. Today we speak to Anita Bruzzese, the workplace columnist for Gannett newspapers and USA Today.com about her book “45 Things You Do That Drive Your Boss Crazy- and How To Avoid Them“.
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Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to show 101. This is the podcast dedicated to middle managers- too low on the food chain to claim omnipotence, too high to claim ignorance. This show is dedicated to King Lear. I got the idea from this article on Management-Issues about using Shakespeare to demonstrate business problems. Lear’s issue was poor succession planning, and of course his employees drove him literally crazy.
3:33 The quote of the week is from the Roman orator Seneca. The pressure of adversity does not affect the mind of the brave…. yeah right. I’d stab this guy myself for that one.
5:16 Welcome Anita Bruzzese, columnist and author. We don’t intend to drive our bosses crazy, for the most part, it just kinda works out that way. What kind of stuff drives your boss crazy? A lot of it has to do with communication- particularly email. If you want to impress your boss, learn to write a memo that people can actually decipher. Oh, and get a grip on the email as well.
10:46 Why do otherwise normal competent people not write like grownups? It’s a huge business issue. Pee in a cup and write me an email kid.Oh, and give some thought to using the telephone.
15:57 We are all working closely together- maybe too closely. Mind your ps and qs darn it. A little common decency here, people.
19:12 What is it with people not being able to use their heads. Dirty jokes, racist behavior and sex in the workplace (where are these people working????). If you’re offensive, someone will take offense.
24:00 Not getting to know your co-workers presents its own set of problems. We don’t operate in a vacuum. My wife doesn’t think I can operate a vacuum but that’s not your problem…..
25:00 At the end of the day, what really makes your boss crazy is not paying attention to the bottom line, and not helping your boss and co-workers make their numbers. Oh, and Anita confesses what she does to her poor boss.
28:00 Oh, Anita’s book has blurbs by Marshall Goldsmith and Judith Glaser, both past guests on this show. The universe is shrinking at an alarming rate. Check out her blog here.
Other resources she likes are
Seth Godin’s blog and his book The Dip.
“I Didn’t See It Coming”, a book about getting laid off unexpectedly and how to avoid it.
That’s all gang, don’t let the weasels get you down.
Webinar- The Cranky Middle Manager and Tech Training
Posted on 03. Jul, 2007 by Wayne in General
Hi everyone. Last week I was honored to be asked to speak on a webinar for the International Legal Technology Association, or ILTA (the IT geeks for law firms). Long time listener and friend of the show Tony Hartsfield was the host. You can view/hear the webinar by clicking here.
It’s free, just put your name in the box when they ask for it. You’ll also find a preview of something exciting in my world if you listen closely at the end.