The Cranky Middle Manager Show #312 The Future of the MBA Ken Starkey
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #193 Hit the Ground Running- Jason Jennings
Posted on 27. May, 2009 by Wayne in Podcast
Today Wayne Turmel looks at something that makes managers cranky, taking over a new team. Jason Jennings is the author of Hit the Ground Running among other books and has some words of advice. Probably don’t want to follow the advice of the Ottoman Emperors though…. bad succession planning there.
Jason Jennings talks about hitting the ground running……
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Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the show. I start by groveling for forgiveness to Mike for jumping on him for his post when we WANT YOU TO POST. I was just grumpy. Not as grumpy as Ottoman Emperor Mehmed 1, though. Most brothers just give each other noogies.
3:28 The quote of the week is from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who compares new beginnings to a chess match. I’m a lousy chess player but checkers lacks a certain je ne sai quoi.
4:09 Jason Jennings was referred to us by Vince Thompson (hear his interview here) plus he’s a pretty famous guy even before he talked to us. With all the reorgs and chaos in our workplace, odds are you’re about to take over a new team (you didn’t get the memo yet?).What do most successful CEOS do first?
7:20 Here’s a bold statement- “conventional wisdom sucks”. I love when guests trash people by name, don’t you? Still, it’s a great example of companies that get it and companies that don’t.
12:00 How do leaders create connection and help their new team get engaged? Do you know what the strategy is and do you buy in? You’d better find out early- like when you interview for the job.
15:00 How do you help fix broken trust in a team and get them to overcome cynicism? A great story about the power of asking if they believe….
18:40 All great leaders are willing to put a stake in the ground and hold people (including themselves) accountable. It doesn’t matter if your’e the CEO or leading an Agile scrum.
21:10 Accountability is not designed to be a punishment- although taking your punishment can be part of it. Sepuku is not condoned….but it is understood.
Jason’s Resources
Wayne- Listened three times to make sure… at the 6:11-6:15 mark there are some random “fish bubble” sounds… Small fish big pond? Big pond small fish? Or…. Not the Big that eat the small but the fast that eat the slow?
Okay, I confess… it’s not so much bubbles or fish as it is “Wayne is a big fat idiot who forgot to turn skype off and someone called in the middle of the interview”…. a rare occurrence but I should have known I couldn’t slide anything past you folks. Just couldn’t remove the sound without losing what Jason was saying…. my humble apologies.
Wayne, well now you know how to get folks to listen to the show more than once. Hopefully retention rates (and comments) skyrocket if you just leave Skype on. Think of it more as a happy accident :)
Just found out about this show and it was the first Podcast I downloaded. I downloaded this episode and the previous for a longer car trip and quite enjoyed them – you have earned yourself a new subscriber!
I agree here with the lead people with questions, not answers. Once they come to a realization you just cannot stop them and it’s a great force to have working for you.
P.S. The skype sounds, I was listening in the car and thought ‘that really sounds like Skype!’. The fact that I picked that one up is very very sad.