The Cranky Middle Manager Show #311 Serial Innovators Claudio Feser
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #262 Self Confidence for Managers Tony Richards
Posted on 28. Nov, 2010 by Wayne in General, Podcast
You can’t inspire confidence in your team if you lack confidence in yourself. But we all have moments of doubt. Today Australian author Tony Richards will talk to us about self confidence,and how critical it is for managers. We’ll also talk about St Benedict, Buckminster Fuller and my new website so a lot going on in today’s show.
Hey, the new GreatWebMeetings.com website is finally complete! Check us out and see the dozens of free resources, easy to use event registration and a code for 2 for 1 webinar registration through the end of March if you act now.
Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the show, gang. Today we are talking about self-confidence and how critical and fragile it is. A great example is Saint Benedict of Nursia, whose self confidence was such he couldn’t get away and escape his followers as much as he tried.
3:56 The quote of the week is from Buckminster Fuller, the very picture of self confidence. Are others trying to “degenius” you? Don’t let them!
6:35 Welcome Tony Richards to the show. He’s the author of Self Confidence For Managing People At Work among other books and a real self-made success story. We become managers because we have self confidence but we often getit beaten out of us. Basically it’s trust in, respect for, and reliance on your own judgment and abilities. Sounds simple, right?
7:55 What’s the difference between self confidence (which is good) and arrogance (which is bad, at least in everyone but yourself)? Arrogance is “a demonstration with disdain of a supposed superiority”. It doesn’t show respect for others and undermines your own.
10:25 The very act of becoming a manager can shoot your self confidence down because you’re no longer doing the very thing you were so good at. Tony uses his own story as an example. The streets and mines of Australia are a long way from business school.
14:00 Tony combined his own innate abilities with actual training (mostly job related and relevant it should be noted, not formal “education”).
16:20 Do some people have self confidence innately and how do you develop it? Instinctive growth from achievement is what builds confidence in ourselves. We all learned some things instinctively so we all have achievements to build from. There’s a difference between internal and external providers of confidence. External providers are fleeting and out of our control. 3 killers of self confidence are: 1) Conflict of conscience, 2) Guilt and 3)Arrogance
19:00 There are 5 principles to developing selfconfidence:
- Define what and who you are
- Identify the principles of how you work and what you do
- Be faithful to your conscience and character
- Develop instinctive achievements
- Those achievements confirm your self confidence
23:00 What do you do when you the feedback you get doesn’t reinforce the good things you do? Some people handle that better than others.
25:00 The 5 critical steps to developing selfconfidence are:
- Recognize and embrace your uniqueness
- Acknowledge and celebrate your achievements
- Write a life contract with yourself- give yourself direction and plan. Do you have a personal policy statement?
- Set goals using those policy guidelines
- Apply it to your life
Tony’s Resources
A lot of Tony’s favorite development training comes from DDI
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #261 The Truth About Leadership Jim Kouzes
Posted on 21. Nov, 2010 by Wayne in General, Podcast
Brush aside all the smoke and jargon, what is leadership? Jim Kouzes has been studying this topic for years and he’s here to talk to Wayne Turmel about his new book, “The Truth About Leadership- The No-fads Heart of the Matter Facts You Need to Know”. We also discuss Robin Hood and Aldous Huxley. That’s a full day at work, gang.
Visit our brand new Greatwebmeetings.com site and get 2 for1 registration for all webinars through Q1 of2011if you sign up before the end of the year!
Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the show. We dedicate this episode on leadership to Robin Hood- at least the Errol Flynn version. How fluent is your treason?
3:46 The quote of the week is from Aldous Huxley and it might sound like the hard part of leadership, but it comes with the gig. If you’re derided as a fool or mad man you might be on the right track.
5:43 Jim Kouzes is back for more. He’s talking about The Truth About Leadership- The NoFads Heart-of-the-Matter Facts You Need to Know. I”m up to my ears in new leadership books so I could use some no-fads talk. Why? There’s a new generation coming up who haven’t had this discussion. Remember, every job that doesn’t end in retirement ends in death.
8:48 Does the younger generation have different expectations of leadership? Not so much…..
12:15 While that hasn’t changed,the way we work has changed. How does remote and dispersed working impact how leaders are perceived? Social media makes it easier to hear from more people in less time than ever before. We actually will get more information if we remember that technology is for LISTENING as well as TALKING. That is a shift.
19:38 Jim has a good racket going…years of research and never having to change the conclusions…. but he has boiled leadership down to 10 truths.. and the first one is “you make a difference”. Simple but powerful.
22:30 The second truth is that “credibility is the foundation of leadership”. Is credibility the same as expertise or subject matter knowledge? It really boils down to “do you do what you say you’ll do and do they believe it”.
26:02 “Challenge is the crucible for greatness” is more than a killer catchphrase. You don’t know if you’re a real leader until you help people through tough times and seismic change. He gives us some great examples from the book.
29:00 “You can’t do it alone”. The good news is that you don’t have to. The biggest factor is, do you use the word “we” often enough? Leaders use it all the time. Check your language.
Jim’s Resources
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #260 Management Isn’t What You Thought Henry Mintzberg
Posted on 12. Nov, 2010 by Wayne in General, Podcast
Henry Mintzberg is one of the most important names in the leadership business today. Still, he took time to talk to us about his new book, “Management: It’s Not What You Think”. If it’s not what we think, what the heck is it? We talk some heresy and have some fun. Also an Aztec emperor and a quote to inspire the unexpected.
Big news for me: November 15th (or so, you know how these projects are) we launch a new www.greatwebmeetings.com website which includes:
- More downloadable articles
- More video and recorded webinars
- Easy one-stop registration for Greatwebmeetings.com workshops like How to Create and Manage Remote Teams and Web Presentation Basics with a calendar that extends through April, 2011
Drop me a line to learn about 2 For 1 Registration through the end of 2010.
Show notes
0:00 Welcome to the show, one and all. Today we talk about why MBAs don’t teach you much that is useful and that management isn’t what we’re often told it is. Some managers don’t even know they’re doing it, they just get on with the job like today’s dedicatee. We celebrate the Aztec emperor Acamapitchli. Except forthe whole polygamy thing. That I don’t get and I tell you why.
5:01 the quote of the week is from William Cowper. Is security an insipid thing? If we knew what management really was would any of us sign up for it?
5:45 Welcome Henry Mintzberg to the show to talk a little heresy and be cranky himself. If management isn’t what we think, what is it we go to work every day and actually do. He claims it’s common sense. What madness is that?
7:56 The aura and mystery doesn’t seem to be about management so much as the buzzwords surrounding “Leadership”. According to Henry Mintzberg and MBA doesn’t help you manage. It usually gets in the way. Management is a CRAFT not a SCIENCE.
10:27 Mintzberg goes off on how useless most MBAs are in the real world. In fact, a big part of the world’s problems are due to MBAs and economists think they can theorize their ways out of trouble. He also talks about the difference between American businesses and Canadian businesses. Oh and throw out the quarterly earnings while you’re at it.
14:15 So what is it about productivity as a metric that causes problems? it’s the wrong thing to measure. And apparently Henry’s granddaughter is a strategic genius.
17:00 We talk productivity and working remotely. Management is about being in touch, though. The skills you need today aren’t that different than what you ever needed. Listening, reflecting, and taking time between listening and reacting. His theory is that the problem isn’t micromanagement, it’s macro leading.
20:50 What am I doing arguing with someone so much smarter than me???? Anyway, what is he seeing the business schools doing differently overseas than they do in the US. Hint: don’t send your kid to Wharton.
26:00 Henry sees less brilliant work coming from writers and academics than from communities,which leads to coachingourselves.com
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #259 The Skills and Employment Crisis Ed Gordon
Posted on 03. Nov, 2010 by Administrator in Podcast
If you’ve seen the movie “Waiting for Superman”, you’ve heard of this week’s guest. Ed Gordon talks to Wayne Turmel about the skills gap in US Education as well as the worldwide picture for employment. Controversial and more than a little disturbing today. We also celebrate Pythagoras and quote The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Another day in the Cranky universe.
2 new webinar workshops this month!
How to Create and Manage Remote Teams November 19
If you have questions about these workshops, group discounts or any Greatwebmeetings.com training program, contact me.
Get the schedule for the rest of 2010 by clicking here.
Show Notes
0:00 Welcome to the show. We’re talking today about education and how most country’s leaders are not servingthe needs of tomorrow-or even today’s- economy. That’s why we dedicate this episode to Pythagoras and his theorem. Not only did he invent a theorem people still use today, but he was a strong supporter of lifelong learning…. just like this show which may be the only time my show and a Greek genius are used in the same sentence.
2:28 The quote of the week is from Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. We are capable of learning….we just don’t take advantage of the opportunity nearly enough. Hopefully that changes with today’s show.
4:45 Welcome to the show. Ed Gordon is a real thought leader in the area of workplace preparedness and the author of two books, Winning the Global Talent Showdown and The 2010 Meltdown. We have entered the cyber-mental age where critical thinking and math and science are core competencies. Only 20% of the US population is set for this economy. The numbers are more than a little disturbing.
8:52 The traditional university path is no guarantee of a job, and in fact may be hindering our kids. Vocational training, tech training and apprenticeships need to be embraced. The jobs are there but people don’t have the skills.
13:52 Does our culture value learning, especially engineering? Our view of technology as socially inferior has left us behind and it’s not just us…. Japan, Germany and Korea have the same problem with “the flight from science”.
17:47 We hear all about how the Chinese are doing so much better at this than the West, but the quality is suspect. Only 64,000 graduates in China will actually possess the necessary skills to start working.
21:15 There is a financial component here. Everyone agrees that training is necessary, but no one seems to be clear on how to pay for it. Does your company have a strategic plan? We also talk about accounting practices and why they work against developing the workforce. I wrote an article on Management-Issues along time ago on this.
25:00 Does this mean that companies need to stop investing in “soft skills” training? All of the skills are critical…we just need more and continuous skill development. Without figuring out how to figure out ROI, it won’t happen. Here’s a link to Ed’s ROI Calculator,