The Cranky Middle Manager Show #312 The Future of the MBA Ken Starkey
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #189 The Trouble With Leadership Training- Kevin Eikenberry
Posted on 30. Apr, 2009 by Wayne in Podcast
Today Wayne Turmel and Kevin Eikenberry talk about why perfectly good leadership training often doesn’t work… and how managers can help make it stick. We also look at Babylonian documentation, a new Cranky Middle Manager Webinar and a free offer for listeners.
Kevin Eikenberry. You can get a month of his teleseminars FREE by using this link to register! Who loves you like we do?
We are holding another webinar class on “How to Create and Manage Remote Teams”. For information and to register no matter where you are in the world we make it easy:
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Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the show, gang. We tell truth to power, because let’s face it, Power will never find us here. We dedicate this show to Hamurabi, king of Babylon and model for all of us to document, document, document.
3:40 our quote of the week is from Machiavelli, but having a bad reputation doesn’t make it wrong. Do you surround yourself with smart people?
4:30 Welcome back Kevin Eikenberry, author of Remarkable Leadership and a good egg. This is an on the record version of conversations we’ve had off line for a while. Why doesn’t leadership development training seem to work? Okay, one more time… training is an event. Learning is a process.
9:00 There’s nothing necessarily wrong with your training or your trainer, it’s about linking it and using it your real world. It’s hard to show you’re now better than you were when you came in. How do we turn it into a process?
11:21 How do we turn learning into action? Kevin holds us accountable. Oh thanks, we need more of THAT. He does give me a good tip about giving yourself processing time.
14:33 Despite what they tell us in consultant school, this will never happen on an organizational basis. it starts with us.
17:30 Leadership is made up of a bunch of competencies (pick your own model at your leisure) but one big one is be a learner, and encourage learning on your team. Are you helping them apply what they learn when they learn it? Are you even sharing THIS show with your team and why the heck not?
25:00 Kevin tells us about his teleseminars. You can get the month of May for free by signing up and using the link here. or you can reach him at www.kevineikenberry.com
Kevin’s Resources
Erika Andersen’s new book ( she’s an upcoming guest!)
How the States Got Their Shapes
Don't let the weasels get you down
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #188 Undress for Success- Kate Lister
Posted on 19. Apr, 2009 by Wayne in General, Podcast
Today Wayne Turmel talks about how telecommuting and telework has changed the role of the middle manager with Kate Lister, co-author of Undress for Success- The Naked Truth About Making Money At Home. Oh and Marcel Proust and Ethiopian Falashas get a mention too. The usual eclectic mess that is this podcast.
Author Kate Lister emerges from her teleworking hibernation long enough for this picture. She saw her shadow so it’s 6 more weeks of project work.
Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the show. Misery loves company, we’ll provide the love and the company, your misery is your responsibility. Today we talk Teleworking with Kate Lister, and since distance makes communication tough even when you try to do what you should, we present as proof, Menelik I, king of the Falashas, Emperor of Ethiopia and more Jewish than many Jews if separated by time and distance.
3:00 I bring you the quote of the week from Marcel Proust, which I shouldn’t have done since no one can give you wisdom, you have to get it on your own.
4:14 Today we’re talking to Kate Lister, co author of Undress for Success. How is working from home making things easier or more difficult for managers and companies? Well the world is changing and US companies could save over half a BILLION dollars a year if more people teleworked. How do you determine whether your job could be done at home?
6:54 Federal employees in the US are mandated now to work at home if they can…which is no big surprise, a lot of them have been phoning it in for years….. the cost of setting up a telecommuter can be $300-$2500 dollars versus the costs of keeping an office for them.
10:30 If you’re not crazy about the idea of being out of the office, here’s a question for you- Do you see your boss everyday now? Probably not. There are real concerns though. What are the things companies and individuals need to think about. Fundamental to this is very precise metrics for success. Once you’ve set the metrics, get the heck out of their way.
14:00 Home Shopping Network learned they can increase customer satisfaction and reduce turnover by having people work from home.
15:50 Okay, if you are a people person, it’s hard to work from home. Kate is a nice person but apparently highly anti-social…. some of us need to get out of our 4 walls. MySQL is an amazing example of the entire company working remotely. I also feel better about going to Caribou Coffee just to sip coffee and stare at my laptop even though that’s what I do at home. I’m still around people.
21:40 Developing a routine is important. What works for you works for you. I need to put on my big boy clothes…. others don’t. You also need to manage the family- Kate tells a story about a mom and a tiara that will leave some serious scars on those kids.
23:48 The dark side of working from home is overworking. How do you set limits and what’s the role of the manager in helping their people set limits that make sense, even while benefitting from the extra work? And what are the legalities?
27:40 It takes planning for a company to put together a teleworking program. Security is frequently over-analyzed but it’s important…. remember, if you’re a moron at work, you’re not going to get smarter working from home.
Kate’s Resources
Her book
Managing Telework by Jack Nilles
Free Agent Nation Daniel Pink
The Future of Work- Thomas Malone
Don't let the weasels get you down!
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #187 Greater Than Yourself with Steve Farber
Posted on 10. Apr, 2009 by Wayne in General, Podcast
Today Wayne Turmel talks mentoring, growing employees and helping your team become “Greater Than Yourself” with author Steve Farber. Also we talk about the world’s greatest mentoring streak, and a bad writer gives good advice.
The one and only Steve Farber makes his return visit to the show.
Don’t forget to visit www.crankymiddlemanager.com and sign up for our newsletter and www.greatwebmeetings.com to help your team use web presentations more effectively.
Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the 187th episode of the show. Today we talk about the part of the job we all appreciated from our managers and seldom get to do for our folks…. mentoring and helping them become “greater than ourselves”. We dedicate this show to an amazing streak, Socrates to Plato to Aristotle to Alexander the Great and then it all comes to a screeching halt.
3:05 The quote of the week is from Edward Bulwer Lytton, godawful novelist but a smart guy. How are you inspiring your team to learn and excel???
4:00 Welcome Steve Farber back to the show. (Hear his first interview here) His new book “Greater Than Yourself” is a good excuse to have him back. Check out the website to see how fact and fiction blend, but the deal is that coaching is not nearly enough. Can we help people be greater than we are? Why don’t we spend more time on mentoring and coaching? Our job is to help people be better at whatever they do than we are.
8:10 The system is called GTY…. which is not GTD but it’s pretty darned good on its own. The system has three tenets:
- Expand yourself
- Give yourself
- Replicate yourself
10:30 What do we have that others want to surpass? When we tell ourselves that we aren’t worthy, it’s a convenient lie to relieve us of responsibility. This whole process starts with taking stock of your resources. What do you do better than most people…and be honest.
14:40 Your ability to grow and expand your knowledge is critical to helping others. The more resources you have, the greater your competitive advantage. The purpose of expanding your knowledge is to give it away.
17:43 “Replicate yourself”, does not mean creating clones and make everyone do things the way you do. Everyone should have a GTY project and they should have one and so on and so on.
20:07 You can watch Steve’s GTY project in real time on his website, which is very cool. The beneficiary is Tommy Spaulding. Pat Lencioni (hear his Cranky interview here) and Matthew Kelly (his show is here) are part of this process as well.
24:30 How is this different than traditional mentoring? Mentoring has limitations built in since it’s a “program” or “system”. It’s also more than the Golden Rule.
Don’t let the weasels get you down!!
The April Leadership Carnival
Posted on 07. Apr, 2009 by Wayne in General
I’m constantly amazed at the quality of bloggers out there who tackle the subject of leadership. Each couple of months, Dan McCarthy posts a carnival of the best, and we’re honored to be part of the festivities. If you need inspiration, motivation or a good swift kick in the pants this is a great place to find it.