If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

If you’d like a copy of our latest white paper, “The 1 Thing That Will Make or Break Your Online Meetings” you can click here and register or just drop me an email and I’ll send it to you.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Today we’re talking to John Blackwell, who has shared his research with us before. If you’re interested in his research, sign up for his next webinar on March 20th and get the report for free.

1:50 The quote of the week is from Marcus Aurelius- the future shouldn’t be disturbing… I mean you hung in this long right? What are the odds you won’t? Kind of apropos for today’s topic in a number of ways.

2:50 John’ s new research report is “Meeting the Future of Work” but it’s not a futurist thing. If he could do that he’d be at the track making the really big bucks. Most research on the world of work is awfully self serving. I mean, what do you think Cisco is going to tell you?

6:57 But if futurism is useless, what’s the point of doing research? History helps, anything forward is prophecy and it’s notoriously unreliable. The first thing is that every support function needs to be working with the others. No more silos!

11:50 There are a lot of myths about what’s going on out there. Is Gen Y going to change the way things work? Not so much. Turns out that opportunity and career still matter more than technology, social responsibility or anything else. Gender will continue to be a huge deal. There are a lot more women workers than their percentage of management indicates. That’s gotta change.

21:50 So what? What does this mean if you can’t bank on the future? Well you have to have a context for making decisions and models that enable you to make informed decisions…knowing that you might have to change them at any moment. HR, for example, has to focus on cultivating creative leaders.  Leadership isn’t a position, it’s a way of behaving.

26:00 It needs to be able to measure and express the value of what they do to the business. This one ain’t easy but it’s vital. Same thing with property people. Does an office mean everyone has a desk?? Does it mean people can do what they need to do when the size of the project team shifts overnight?

32:00 In John’s opinion the biggest thing that will happen next will be successfully using analytics and metrics. Oh goody, more numbers.

36:00 This is the last Cranky Middle Manager podcast, at least as far as I can tell. After almost 160 hours of great conversations I’m pooped.  It’s time.

How can you stay in touch?

Drop me a contact message

Follow me on Twitter

Read www.theconnectedmanager.com blog

Check out our list of upcoming training workshops

Check out The Podcast Network and Cameron Reilly

Don’t let the weasels get you down!

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

If you’d like a copy of our latest white paper, “The 1 Thing That Will Make or Break Your Online Meetings” you can click here and register or just drop me an email and I’ll send it to you.

Show Notes

0:00  Welcome to show 315. No dedication this week, but Wayne explains his absence for the last couple of weeks and greets everyone.  Oh and a completely arbitrary Stephen Hawking reference, just to try and sound smart. Being busy is a mixed blessing and not much of an excuse.

4:15 The quote of the week comes from Benjamin (Ben to his friends and mistresses) Franklin. Are you driving your business or is it driving you? Knowing the basics will help, I promise.

5:00 Welcome Kevin Cope to the show. He’s the president of Acumen Learning and since Business Acumen is one of our four pillars of highly effective, leadership exhibiting, project nailing, cheese moving managers it seemed right to talk to him. Why is business acumen so important? If you don’t have that big picture, you might do right by your department but not effectively help the company. Oh, and it can stunt your career so listen up.

8:42 Politics is an ugly word but knowing what drives the business helps you understand what drives the people you work with. Ignoring it damages your credibility, sometimes irreparably.

10:00 What is the biggest knowledge gap for most functional or project managers? Turns out most people don’t have a sense of how their metrics impact the overall profit margins of the company. How does what you do impact your profit margin and stock price? Is there some magical equation (and notice my use of the word algorithm like I have the foggiest clue).

13:00 The five components of business acumen are: Cash, Profits, Assets, Growth and People. Let’s start with Cash… do you actually know what that means to the bean counters?

15:20 Growth is an interesting topic, and is often the cause of a disconnect between what’s good for the business and the shareholders. Kevin talks me off the ledge. I”m still never working for a publicly traded company again.

19:45 What does a manager do when they see that there’s a clash between business goals and reality or quality? The reality is that you need to describe your challenge or solution in financial terms or it will fall on deaf ears.

22:30 If the rest of this is all data driven, how do people fit in. This also takes us down a rabbit hole about productivity and Wayne gets on his soap box a bit…..

Acumen Learning’s website

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

Show Notes

0:00  Since this show is all about learning in as many ways as possible, we salute some of our fellow bloggers and podcasters: Dan McCarthy, Lisa Haneberg, Kevin Eikenberry, Guy Harris, The boys at Manager Tools and, of course Management-Issues.com and TheConnectedManager.com

5:18 The quote of the week is from Teddy Roosevelt. Always say yes, you can learn how as you go… just ask your sales people, they’ve been doing it for years.

6:00 Welcome my new buddy Todd Hudson to the show. Knowledge Transfer sounds geeky but it’s really simple- how do you learn what you need to know to do your job and how do you take what’s in others’ heads and capture that so others can get smarter too? It’s a process that can be leaner and better.

7:41 The whole concept of “on-boarding” people has changed from the way it’s been done in the past. People come and go, contractors and part timers join for a short time and leave… it’s not going to get any better.

11:30 The way training is done doesn’t work for most teams. Learning is built into the way we work. Todd explains the process and why it’s not so dependent on human beings. Learning is a delivery problem…not a content problem per se.

15:10 What’s the manager’s role in all this? You need to think about what people actually need to do to do their job.  Learning is also mostly self-guided.

20:20 Screen captures and demos are some of the most powerful tools at your disposal, and it’s mostly free.

21:25 Who do we learn most from, a peer or an “expert” from another department. People come to learning with their own beliefs…ignore that at your peril.

23:00 Most of us don’t suffer from a lack of information, how can you help people find what they need when you need it?

26:30 Of course, none of this matters if your best people don’t capture the information in the first place. Tips for having that conversation. The big tip- make it a performance expectation. Try to position it as useful…and if your’e asking people to train the people who want their job you’ll have a problem.

29:00 One of the best tools out there is your smartphone. Camtasia is also really cool, although not free.

Check out Todd’s blog

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Today we look at the first of our 4 Disciplines of Highly Effective, Leadership Exhibiting, Project Nailing, Cheese Moving Managers. In an effort to improve  our business acumen, we dedicate this episode to Ludwig von Rochau. He invented the term Realpolitik which should be a mandatory part of any leader’s education. The law of the strong is the same as the law of gravity….. it’s immutable and ignoring it leads to bumps and bruises.

5:00 The quote of the week is from James Russell Lowell, who understood that you can’t argue with the wind, you just have to button the hell up.

5:55 Welcome Jay Jamrog to the show. Whether you like the term “human capital” or not, it’s really important to understand what the people with the checkbook think is important. Turns out there are 5 of them:  Leadership development, managing/coping with change, talent management, managing organizational change, succession planning.

8:50 86% of companies say leadership development is critical, but only 26% actually do it very well.  What the heck is that about? Notice that low performing companies worry about things like getting people engaged and managing performance. Coincidence? Don’t think so….

14:27 Knowledge retention is a huge issue…if people are coming and going, how do you capture what they know so it doesn’t walk out the door with them? 43% of the civilian workforce in the US is ready to retire. Worried yet?

19:20 How has the move to virtual and remote workers impacted the approach to human capital? The biggest change is in how do you lead a virtual team? (Yes, we can help). People in the office don’t trust the people who are remote, and vice versa.

23:25 What about HR? Jay says they should be measuring effectiveness rather than efficiency. HUH??

26:09 Everyone is talking about innovation, but what are good companies doing about it? The better companies say it’s important and only getting moreso. It also usually doesn’t work. The 5 key things are: know what you mean by innovation (the type), you have to have leaders who will accept a creative workforce and take risks, you have to have the right talent, you have to have a culture that supports change and welcomes it, and you have to have an external focus to keep tabs on the customer.

Check out I4CP and their reports here  or drop me a line and ask for a copy of the report.

Follow us on Twitter!

Read TheConnectedManager.com blog

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show, ni hao and all that good stuff.  Today we are talking about the future of education, and so we dedicate this episode to Alexander Semyonovich Feklisov who ran the spy network out of New York after the second world war.  Training adults is hard enough, imagine when it’s literally life and death. Also, he got less than his reward for political reasons, a lesson for us all.

4:55 The quote of the week is from Denis Diderot. 200 years ago he worried there were too many books to find the good stuff in…. imagine how he’d feel with the internet.

5:45 Welcome Professor Ken Starkey to the show. We spoke on the old Working Week podcast (click the link to hear that discussion). What is the mood in business schools today? Sounds like a lot of navel gazing and analysis is going on ….except when they think they can go back to business as usual. Did the way MBAs are taught lead to some of the economic crisis and bad behavior?

8:47 Is business necessarily “red of tooth and claw?” What’s the alternative? It seems the information was limited to formulas and data, not to leadership and ethics.

11:10 Is this an Anglo-Saxon mindset that got us in trouble? Genghis Khan and the Medicis weren’t WASPS. Certainly the US and UK caused most of the damage and other cultures have weathered the storm better.

13:07 there are three schools of thought as to the direction of business education: 1) B School is a servant of business and is the way it’s been the last 30 years, 2) Bschool has to face the implications of the crisis and deal with leadership, ethics and values and 3) somewhere in the middle. Is part of the problem with the way it’s been is treating business as education, rather than a “soft science”?

18:43 Does the cost of an MBA impact how people react to it and what they do with it? Is there a change coming in the need for an MBA or even what’s covered so that it won’t be as expensive?

21:00 If Ken had the magic wand, what would he envision the graduate education experience focus on? He’d add philosophy, sustainability and law. Lots of law. Is the function of business to be the agent of shareholders? Art and design would also be part of the curriculum. What should you look for in a B School?

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. No dedication today because i’m pressed for time. I’m also scared because i step inside the classroom today as a learner for the first time since about 1982. Yes, I’m trying to learn Mandarin for no other reason than I’ve always wanted to learn it and it’s time I did something for my brain.

3:48 The quote of the week is from Eugene S Wilson. Education is both a quest and a requirement. The quest part is infinitely more intriguing.

4:15 Welcome McKinsey Director Claudio Feser to the show. He’s the author of “Serial Innovators- Firms That Change The World”. Innovation is a crucial part of business, but most businesses don’t do it very well. In fact, the average life cycle of a firm is only 15 years. why?

9:45 How do best practices and systems become rigid and kill innovation? How can so many smart people do such dumb things?

13:41 Hierarchies aren’t bad in and of themselves, but some are better than others. It turns out that product or niche teams work better than functional silos.

17:12 So what about our personal rigidity? Why aren’t people better innovators? Some of it is our mental models and biases (the dreaded paradigm word). Some of the problem is a lack of “self-efficacy” or confidence. Why do smart people freeze in their tracks when trying something new?

24:03 Becoming a role model for confidence and innovation isn’t easy. It requires giving and receiving constant feedback and recognition. Nobody said this would be easy. There’s also some brain science behind this, and you know how this show loves brain science.

27:35 The main thing people have to do to innovate is to take our mind, heart and guts to work. It’s amazing what people can do when they actually care about more than their personal execution.

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

If you manage remote teams, don’t forget to check out the TheConnectedManager.com blog. New content twice a week!

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Something a little different today. You’ll hear Byron the cockatiel in the background which leads to an assignment. Serious question for you: do people have different expectation of people who work from home than those in the office? Post to the blog, drop me an email or tweet me with your response.

5:45 From Eugene Delacroix-   what makes people geniuses isn’t necessarily saying something new, just trying to make what’s been said before make sense…..

6:45 Welcome Marshall Goldsmith back to the show. He was recently named to the Thinkers 50 as one of the top business thinkers in the world.  Modesty aside, he’s a pretty big deal in the field. What’s the connection between leadership and business? At the end of the day it’s about people and people are just people.

9:35  What was the idea of leadership when he entered the business and how did he get into coaching the most important people in the world? Oh, he gives a shoutout to Jim Kouzes who has been on this show before, most recently here.

12:15 Many of us think of “military leaders” but we don’t understand how the military really works. There’s a difference between the military and combat. The talk then turns to Peter Drucker. Do you know enough to tell your people what to do? Then wy do we do it?

14:30 Ever wonder how Marshall go to be “executive coach to the stars”? Here’s the story…And once again he explains why he’s not as surprised at their lunacy as the rest of us seem to be. He also explains why business does what business does and we ought to just get over it.

20:20 If people are going to be good leaders they need internal motivation, then they need a structure and process. We discuss what use training really is. This is worth a listen.

24:35 What’s the most useful structure or process we need to get ourselves in line? Marshall recommends just asking yourself active questions, instead of passive ones. this is also why Employee Engagement consulting is largely flawed and I agree wholeheartedly.

29:45 Shameless plug time. If you haven’t checked out his library of free resources do so . His Buddhism is a gift to you. He also says some very kind things about me and this show. Watch for this quote somewhere soon….

Resources

The Marshall Goldsmith Library

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

If you manage remote teams, don’t forget to check out the TheConnectedManager.com blog. New content twice a week!

Show Notes

0:00 Happy 2012 to you all and welcome to the Cranky Middle Manager Show. Today we’re going to take a look at re-energizing your leadership efforts and learning to love what you do again. To that end we dedicate the show to Luigi Aloyicis Lilius who proves that if he can create a calendar, so can you.

6:28 The quote of the week is from Alfred Lord Tennyson, and it’s a sappy but well-intentioned reminder that it’s all about starting fresh….on any day of the year. Seriously.

7:05 Welcome Steve Farber back to the show. Are you limping across the finish line? Let’s try to Re-Energize our attitudes. We need to occasionally take stock of where we are and what our real goals are. Just to remind you, LEAP stands for Love, Energy, Audacity and Proof.

11:05 Finding the love? Really? This blog post reminds us of how to find out, and remember, what we love about our jobs and our roles as leaders. No mushiness, just facts. Sometimes leading can be exhausting, but energy comes from within. Do you still have passion for your work and love for those you work with?

19:09 Try listing every aspect of your work…what do you like? What do you hate? Usually we’ll find one side outweighs the other. Steve puts on his Cranky hat and asks “can you be successful and still hate your job and what you do?” The answer is yes…. but it sucks.

22:00 Why are so many people fighting for the title of leader if they do it badly and aren’t happy doing it? There’s a difference between positional authority and leadership.

25:00 It might seem silly, but you might want to sign the Commitment to Extreme Leadership. And yes, I’ve signed it.  You can take control. Can you control the culture where you work? It’s a decision. Not an easy one, but a decision.

29:00 Steve is doing some interesting things to help the education system, particularly in the US. Do these principles apply only to business, or does it have implications in other areas as well? For every copy of the book that sells, a free copy will go to someone in education. So please buy a book.

Steve’s Resources

His Blog

The book

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

If you manage remote teams, don’t forget to check out the TheConnectedManager.com blog. New content twice a week!

Show Notes:

0:00 Today we’re talking presence- getting noticed so that you can actually get things done. To that end, no dedication, but I share with you a story that happened when I was 8… one that leads directly to this show.  Work on your dinosaur names, is all I can tell you here.

3:52 The quote of the week is from Albert Einstein. Short but sweet. The quote….not Einstein…..

4:15 Welcome Kristi Hedges to the show. Today we’re talking about presence…. why do some people have it and why don’t others have it? And what is it? Why does it matter at work?

7:00 Why is this so important? It’s all about influence… if you’re not noticed it’s hard to get anything done.

9:44 Is there a correlation between presence and being a natural extrovert? Can introverts learn to have an “executive presence”?

13:45 You can build your presence by being Intentional, Individual and Inspirational. Are you aware of what you’re doing or thinking at any given time? The thoughts and doubts we carry show up on our face and are obvious to others. What’s your attitude going in? What’s your “swing thought”?

16:00 Trust is key to building relationships. We form trust through crediblity, reliability, intimacy and self-0rientation. And then there’s being inspirational. Does that mean you have to be the shiny object at the front of the parade? Some of it is the language you use. Kristi gives us a great example.

19:25 Let’s face it, good looking people have an advantage in creating a positive presence. Seems patently unfair to me. Still, let’s work with what we have. Are you a Mitt Romney or a Ron Paul?

23:00 Can you establish presence when you’re not even presence? How can you establish an online presence? She gives some very concrete examples. Take notes.

Kristi’s Resources.

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

If you manage remote teams, don’t forget to check out the TheConnectedManager.com blog. New content twice a week!

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Today we talk to someone who used to be one of my biggest competitors when I was gainfully employed at Communispond, but he’s a very smart guy. Ben Decker puts out an annual list of the best and worst communicators of the year. To that end we dedicate this episode to Alexander the Great who managed to convince his soldiers to keep going, long past the time they should have headed home.

4:45 The quote of the week is from Francois de la Rochefoucauld, who we’ve discussed before here. The untrained speaker with passion will still beat the slick guy without it. Just saying.

5:45 If you want a list of The Best and Worst Communicators of 2011, you can get it here.  The top of the list is Steve Jobs, less for his style (which many try to copy, few successfully) but for his passion and ability to tell a story.

10:54 Another person on the list is Chris Anderson, the brains behind Ted Talks. Also included is Virginia Rometty, CEO of IBM for her ability to use her “SHARPS” (Stories,Humor, Analogies, References, Pictures).

14:34 Why do communication and presentation skills matter so much when we do less formal presenting. What if you never speak at a conference or to senior execs? And don’t tick Ben off …..

17:20 I reveal one of Ben’s secrets…. he’s flailing around as he talks to us. Oh, and lighten up while you’re at it.

19:15 What do the worst communicators on the list have in common? It has nothing to do with “presentation skills”, it has a lot to do with authenticity and trust. No matter how slick you are, do you believe what you’re saying? Why should we believe you?

23:40 Do you play defense when you present? Are you more worried about the possible response than you are about communicating your vision? Ben has some advice….

Ben’s Resources

The Decker Communications Blog

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

If you manage remote teams, don’t forget to check out the TheConnectedManager.com blog. New content twice a week!

Show Notes

0:00  Welcome to the show. Today we are talking about something that very few people outside of the training world talk about. I am talking , of course, about the training world which gets no love until someone needs them or they ask for things like budgets.  To this end we dedicate our show to someone who understood the thankless task, Nicolaus of Damascus. Being the tutor for Cleopatra’s kids must have been a pain in the asp. Yes I said it. Deal.

5:00 The quote of the week is from John Churton Collins. We all know it’s better to give than to receive but I’m not sure that applies to learning and advice.

5:50 Welcome back Ajay Pangarkar to the show. He’s the CEO of CentralKnowledge and someone who has been with us before. (Hear an earlier conversation here).  He’s asking some hard questions about how the effectiveness of training is measured. How is ROI measured as a rule? Warning…we geek out on financial terms but stick with us. It matters because it comes out of someone’s budget. Nothing good comes when you ask for a part of  someone’s budget.

9:33 How come you can invest in machinery and get a tax break but you can’t invest in people without getting arrested? The accounting gets real ugly, real quick. Training works the same way as marketing.

12:45 Training and HR people know this but we introduce you to Kirkpatrick’s 4 Levels of Evaluation.  Now you’ll know what the nice lady in HR is talking about….. you’re welcome. The point is, you can’t show dollar value as much as you can show alignment with your company’s strategy.

17:50 Here’s how to have a real conversation between line managers and training. Start with the end in mind instead of the name of a program. Maybe it’s time you knew some of the pressures training people are under. Be nice to them. Also, get out your calculators for some formulas.

26:00 Ajay and I will both be speaking at the ASTD TechKnowledge 2012 conference in Las Vegas in January. Will you be there? Let us know!

Ajay’s resources

Ajay’s blog

Order his books from Wiley.com and save 15% by using the code  TMW11

&

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

If you manage remote teams, don’t forget to check out the ConnectedManager.com blog. New content twice a week!

Show Notes

0:00 Hello and welcome to the 305th Cranky Middle Manager show. Scott Ginsberg’s new book is The Nametag Principle, Today we are talking with someone who took a silly gimmick and made it his life’s work. This might sound strange but have you ever done anything weird just to make a point? And THAT leads us to Lady Godiva. Trust me, it makes sense.

5:00 The quote of the week is actually from the Gospel of St Thomas…. which you may or may not have heard of… but have you ever written a report that didn’t make the final version? Do you bring forth what’s inside you? Can you help others bring forth what’s inside them? Just askin’

6:10 Welcome “Nametag” Scott Ginsberg to the program. What started as a desperate attempt to meet girls in college has turned into a decade-long social experiment. What can managers learn from some schlub wearing a nametag all day? Approachability matters.

8:13 Why are managers often seen as unapproachable even though we’re good human beings? It’s all in what people see and perceive and so much to do with the messages (tacit and explicit) that we send. What’s the first word out of your mouth?

11:32 Does being approachable mean you have to be available 24/7 and never get your own work done? How to set boundaries without cutting people off completely.

13:42 What’s the role of humor in being approachable? Why do so many of us fear being lighthearted about serious work? We also discuss Orthodoxy vs. Orthopraxy.Never say you don’t learn anything on this show.

15:46 Part of being an approachable leader is leaving people better than they were before they communicated with you. Do they feel smarter? More appreciated? Relieved? Beaten to a bloody pulp? Do you leave them disturbed? That might actually be a good thing.

18:44 It sounds like we’re doing all the giving. What do managers need to stop doing? We need to stop making people feel important, we need to make them feel essential. The difference matters. We also discuss the difference between empathy and owning other people’s feelings.

22:44 How do you help your team approach each other on meetings and at work? Why do you always hear from the same people, and how can you help your introverts and polite types get their point across? Why are the ones coming to you are the ones you least want to hear from?

25:10 The key to approachability is to be proactive, and it’s hard. What ritual can you build into your routine?

26:10 Believe it or not, the book, The Nametag Principle- 366 Daily Practices to Make Your Brand More Engaged, More Joinable, More Human and More Approachable is your COMPLETELY FREE. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE EBOOK AT NO COST TO YOU

Scott also suggests you check out Rajesh Setty’s blog

You can also check out Rajesh Setty on The Cranky Middle Manager

Show 200- staying upbeat

Show 44 Personal Branding

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

If you manage remote teams, don’t forget to check out the ConnectedManager.com blog. New content twice a week!

Show Notes

0:00 No matter how you say hello, howdy.Today we’re talking about being plugged in, which is more about human connections than technology. To that end we dedicate the show to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, warlord and spymaster, but not a samurai. He reminds us that every job that doesn’t end in voluntary retirement ends in firing or death. Just saying.

4:12 The quote of the week is from John Locke (who you can read about in my first book, A Philistine’s Journal). A tough read but a very smart guy. Who are you plugged into? Does it make you smarter?

5:02 Welcome Terri Griffith, author of “The Plugged-In Manager: Get in Tune With Your People, Technology and Organization to Thrive”. Aren’t we already over-connected and too plugged in? Connection and plugging in isn’t about technology alone.

8:09 How do you plug in to the organization? How can managers be properly connected to their employers?What about companies that don’t make it easy to connect to it?

13:20 The three practices of the plugged-in manager are: Stop- look- listen, Mixing, and Sharing. First of all, you have to take stock of where you, your company, your employees and your customers actually are. Be a little reflective before buying the latest toys. What are you trying to do, and what do you have at your disposal?

18:26 Most of us do a pretty bad job of gathering and sharing information. It’s not that we’re not willing to share, we just don’t do it proactively. Terri uses the concept of “thinking out loud”, and finding ways to share those thoughts. Terri shares the idea of the Management Innovation Exchange. Click here to learn more.

22:34 I learn about the concept of the “Hackathon”. The trick is that it uses technology but requires really good human facilitation. How are your skills in that area?

27:34  Terri’s Resources

Her blog www.thepluggedinmanager.com

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

If you manage remote teams, don’t forget to check out the ConnectedManager.com blog. New content twice a week!

Show notes:

0:00 Welcome to the show. I have to apologize for mangling the pronunciation of Yael’s name. It’s kind of a metaphor for the kind of thing that happens in this cross cultural, international, remote workplace so let’s make lemonade out of lemons and learn something.

3:12 The quote of the week is from Henri Poincare who was so smart it was just basically showing off. Doubt and belief are both a problem, especially when you’re remote from the evidence.

4:00 Forgive the mispronunciation. First, let’s start with.. how did we get so far down the road to virtual teams with organizations doing such a lousy job of preparing managers to work that way.

8:22 What are some of the challenges for managers? Much of it involves creating and defining context. It is also very difficult to establish trust and accountability.

11:00 Email is the least effective form of communication, and yet it’s the way we communicate most. What’s the alternative? Try actually , you know, talking. There’s also the whole “virtual-in-person” approach like web conferencing and video.

15:37 What do you do when team members don’t deal with each other well? They often connect to the manager but don’t work together. The role of the leader is not to do everything for everyone. You have to get the team to work for each other.

19:09 Asynchronous sharing is a great idea, but what do you do when you can’t get people to use the tools? Help the team set up protocols that they will build together. That helps build accountability and social interaction. These types of interactions don’t happen organically. You have to build it consciously. Don’t underestimate the power of birthdays.

25:34 What about conflict? How does working remotely impact conflict resolution? There are 4 different types of conflicts: performance conflict, identity conflict, data conflict, and social conflict. You need to understand what you’re dealing with in order to turn lemons into lemonade.

Yael’s Resources

Her blog is a great start

She’s also on Twitter and Facebook

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

If you manage remote teams, don’t forget to check out the ConnectedManager.com blog. New content twice a week!

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Today has me thinking all about all the wailing and gnashing of teeth we see when it comes to young people in the workforce. Do they have a different work ethic than we do? Whose fault is that? Forgive the lack of a dedication, but I’ve been doing some serious navel-gazing this week on this topic.

5:01 The quote of the week is from President Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt. Yes, hard work is rewarding, but is that idea driven entirely within ourselves? Are there external factors, and regardless of what the new hire looks like coming through the door, it’s our job to teach them.

6:10 Welcome Eric Chester to the show. What is he finding in the workplace that is so different from what we experienced entering the workforce?  How is this any different than every generation complaining about “those darned kids”? Here’s a question I should have asked and didn’t: maybe they just can’t be bothered training them properly- huh?

10:10 So what is it about the new workers that drives employers crazy? Time, appearance and professional behavior (whatever that is to you) lead the list. Here’s a typical example…if they call in sick, are they really sick or just can’t be bothered?

14:05 Here’s a great definition of “work ethic”: knowing what you’re supposed to do and doing it. There are 7 things that he calls “sandbox values” that are universal: Smile and be polite, be prompt, look your best, do your best, tell the truth, obey the rules, say please and thank you.

17:27 Okay, so we’ve inherited these people. What do we do now? As managers and leaders, what can we do to help develop these habits?  Anger is based on disappointed expectations. What do you expect? Do they know that?

21:00 It’s up to us to help teach, not just skills, but attitudes and behaviors.  Let’s just say (if you’re anal-retentive like me) promptness is a key virtue.  Chewing them out is not the best option. Help them understand why this attribute matters. Set the expectation and explain why it matters. It starts with the job interview.

25:20 I reveal my one shining moment in parenting on this topic. Ask your kid if they know why people are interested in hiring them? I can only hope Her Serene Highness believes me. Sometimes it takes more than that, though. Drat.

28:30 Don’t have time to go into them, but Eric has 5 strategies to help get the message across: 1) find your style 2) develop trust 3) value tact and timing 4) tell stories and 5) cast a vision. And the greatest of these is developing trust…

Eric’s Resources

Revivingworkethic.com

The book is available for Pre-Order at RevivingWorkEthic.com

Jim Collins site

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

If you manage remote teams, don’t forget to check out the ConnectedManager.com blog. New content twice a week!

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to another episode of The Cranky Middle Manager. Today we are talking about the need to make sure we’re okay in the midst of all the craziness. Today we come dangerously close to the old fashioned motivational speech. No dedication today, I go on a small rant about motivational speakers, and tell the very common story that actually motivates me, embarrassing as it is. Here’s hoping you can find a pony in the pile of….. piled stuff.

5:55  The quote of the week is from Peter Drucker…. yes, it sounds cliche but attitude is everything, because the facts remain the same. It’s all in how you adjust to it.

6:35 Thanks to last week’s guest, Bob Burg, we got a chance to interview one of the really big shots in the professional speaking world, Mark Sanborn. He’s the author of “Up, Down and Sideways- How to Succeed When Times are Good, Bad, or in Between”.  After years of experience, there’s one question people ask that usually fires him up: “What are the 3-4 things he does every day to ensure his success?”  This is probably something we need to talk about since it’s so weird out there.

9:46 You can’t tell if you’re successful unless you keep score, but who’s score card do you use. We talk about the “4 Rs” that most people use: Results, Rewards, Recreation and Relationships. And the greatest of these is ……

18:10 Is there a pony in your pile ? (See,this is why I told the story) How can you build optimism? It turns out there’s a great deal of neuroscience around this. Oh, and optimism is NOT denial. It’s being informed AND inspired.

21:45 If you’re listening to this, you probably are a firm believer in the “Learner’s Leverage”.  Are you learning all the time? And then, of course do you actually take action on what you’ve learned?

23:45 Do you know your value? Value is not just what you do but what it actually means to someone, whether it’s your boss or your spouse? Have you ever really asked?

Mark’s Resources

www.marksanborn.com

www.sallyhogshead.com

www.JoeCalloway.com

www.larrywinget.com

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

If you manage remote teams, don’t forget to check out the ConnectedManager.com blog. New content twice a week!

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the 300th edition of the show. If you can’t find something to like in 150 hours of interviews, well we’re both doing something wrong. Today we dedicate the show to Pandora. Despite delivering all manner of evil to the world, there’s always hope. Somewhere in there is a metaphor, people.

5:44 The quote of the week is from Oscar Wilde, who said it in a much snippier, snootier way than I do. Selfishness isn’t doing what you want….it’s assuming everyone else wants what you want. Did we mention it’s not about you?

6:30 Welcome Bob Burg back to the show. If you’re the boss, and you want to get stuff done, it’s about you….. or is it? This is not to say that you have to be a martyr or doormat. Putting others first is a good way to build relationships and hit your goals. Of course, you have to actually care.

9:40 We all have to persuade people, and being right has nothing to do with out arguing the other person and being right means nothing. What we’re talking about here is influencing skills.You need to make your reason, their reason.

11:14  The first thing to do is respond, rather than react. Then understand their motivation. Why do they think what they think? Why don’t they just get on board? You have to walk in their shoes.

13:03 We attribute people’s resistance to things and attitudes that might not be true. (Warning, use of paradigm occurs here).   This doesn’t mean you agree with them, only that you’ve heard them and respect their opinion.

16:00 Do you really know what you have to offer? Why should they do what you want? The overused acronym is WIIFM, What’s in it for me? Of course, what do you do when the only thing in it is “be glad you have a job”?

18:41  Bob’s five keys for legendary leadership:

• Hold the vision
• Build your people
• Do the work
• Stand for something
• Share the mantle

Bob’s resources

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

If you manage remote teams, don’t forget to check out the ConnectedManager.com blog. New content twice a week!

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome one and all. Today we’re talking about a book that uses piloting aircraft as its central metaphor. For that reason we salute Chesley Sullenberger. He’s the pilot that landed in the Hudson river. What’s so amazing is that everyone is so amazed by what he did….and he’s not. Nor should he be, and there’s a lesson there for all of us. When did competence and leadership become something besides our default position?

5:15  The quote of the week is from the over-rated but often right Antoine de Sainte-Exupery. Are you assigning tasks or painting a vision for your team?

6:00 Welcome Betty Shotton to the show. Pilot, entrepeneur, and author of “Liftoff Leadership, 10 Principles For Exceptional Leadership”.  Leaders have a significant influence on the lives of the people they lead. Feeling the pressure yet? Isn’t it enough to just get the work done?

12:00 There are a number of questions we have to ask ourselves before we can get on with the job of leading others. Who are you? What gives meaning to your work, your life and your actions? If you don’t know this, you have no basis for your actions going forward.

16:00 Betty has listed 10 components of leadership (as all consultants do), but the one that stands out is courage. Betty talks about why courage matters, but more importantly, how you can build and strengthen it. This is a new look.

18:20 Leading is fine, but what do you do when someone doesn’t want to follow? Courage is a big part. Betty is also a big believer in at some point telliing them to get on board or letting them go if they can’t.

25:52 One thing Betty wants you to take away is that who you are as a leader has great impact on those who follow you. People are watching and using you as an example..be aware of what they’re seeing.

Betty’s Resources

www.liftoffleadership.com

Marshall Goldsmith’s blog

John Maxwell’s blog

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

If you manage remote teams, don’t forget to check out the ConnectedManager.com blog. New content twice a week!

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show.  Today we are talking about the notion that the much-sought-after “worklife balance” is, in fact, a big honkin’ hoax. But if it doesn’t exist, what takes its place? For that we dedicate this episode to Abraham Lincoln  and his cottage. He understood that getting away is sometimes necessary, even if circumstances don’t work out so well in the long run.

3:36 the quote of the week is from DH Lawrence, who knew a thing or two about passion.

4:15 Jon Gordon is the author of The Seed, Finding Purpose and Happiness in Life and Work. We all seek work-life balance, but Jon claims it’s a myth. What’s that about? Turns out what you need is rhythm. There are times when you need to be flat-out involved in work, but there are seasons when things slow down and you need to grab those.

8:30 Okay, when you’re a farmer the seasons are pretty clearly defined. What about the modern workplace where there are no such things as “off-seasons”. How realistic is this?

11:15 The secret to being energized at work are passion and purpose. Without those, it just becomes a drain. With it, you can recognize the meaningful in the mundane.What’s your “why?”.  Do you sell mortgages or save marriages?

13:32 How does the move from individual contributor to manager impact your purpose and passion?

18:15 Why do managers, especially in North America, get trapped into not taking advantage of our vacation and down time. Do you stay out of guilt? Out of fear?

21:50 When you are passionate and purposeful about your work, you’ll actually enjoy the hard work. Do you put that much effort and passion into the non-work time? You’ll hear how Dancing With the Stars is a small sacrifice to keep my marriage alive.

Jon’s Resources

visit his blog at www.jongordon.com

Guy Kawasaki’s blog

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

Cranky listeners get a 10% discount on this webinar workshop: “How to Lead Effective Virtual Meetings”, September 29th. Register on the site or drop me a line for discounts and details.

Show notes

0:00 Today we attempt to answer the question: What’s going on in the brains of those who are often hardest to lead- the SLUGs. Psychological testing isn’t new, just ask our dedicatee Gideon.

4:02 The quote of the week is from John Milton. Reality is a construct, and we can choose to make it , fake it or break it.

4:46 Welcome my buddy Dr Ellen Weber back to the show. It’s hard sometimes to manage by the book when the other people haven’t read the same book. We often wonder what’s going on in the brains of those we struggle to work well with. These are the SLUGs…. and that stands for something very specific: Slow to change, Lack vision, Unaware of others and Gridlocked due to bad tone.

8:49 Today’s important term: Basal Ganglia. It’s where we store all our “baggage” and it doesn’t like things that don’t fit their view of the world. It’s why “best practices” can be  a vicious trap.

11:39 Now we’re looking at our Working Memory. Dopamine plays a big part in using this to drive change.

14:57 Getting specific examples can be a bit of work, but we talk about getting people to engage and help drive change in the Academic world.The trick seems to be identify what they hate about the status quo, and get them to change that one thing.  She also tells a story about a union shop that was full of tension.

19:56 “What the hell are you thinking?” shouldn’t be a rhetorical question. Serotonin plays a big part in forgiveness. Can you work differently with someone if you can’t forgive them? We talk mind-guiding.

22:20 The conversation takes an unexpected turn. Ellen discusses the suicide of social media guru Trey Pennington, and how depression impacts our brains and the way we work. Are you aware of what’s going on with your people?

24:35 Here’s the takeaway. Serotonin can be created and manipulated. As Milton said earlier in the show, the reality is what you make of it and help others create for themselves. Cynics relate cortisol which can be bad news.

27:09 How does working remotely impact our ability to create these positive relationships. Do you “speak and feel heard”? We also go back to Pennington’s death and question the ability to pick up signals remotely. You don’t have to be remote to be ignorant of what’s happening?

Ellen’s resources

Her past Cranky appearance

Brain Leaders and Learners Blog

Follow her on Twitter @ellenfweber

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

Cranky listeners get a 10% discount on this webinar workshop: “How to Lead Effective Virtual Meetings”, September 29th. Register on the site or drop me a line for discounts and details.

Show notes

0:00  Welcome to the show. No dedication this week, just too much going on. Still, if the way we normally get paid doesn’t work very well, what should replace it? Could the sales weasels actually be onto something? No answers, just lots of good questions this week.

4:12 The quote of the week is from Aristotle, a guy with maybe the most bulletproof resume ever. Are the rewards you’re earning reflective of your quality??? Well, chew on that for a while.

5:15 There’s a lot of talk these days about “pay for performance” (well, mostly from finance people). Why is it such a hot topic? Dave Wentworth from  I4CP.com is the author of a new report (you can download it here) on what works and what doesn’t. How is it different from Commissions or Profit Sharing?

7:55 The old models don’t work, but is pay for performance any better? The dance gets old and we’re just going through the motions of performance review and management.  A good pay for performance strategy gives people something to work for throughout the year.

11:00 The secret to a good pay for performance model is the metrics. What’s valuable to your company? How do you prove you can do it?

16:45 Many pay for performance schemes aren’t perfect, and some go horribly wrong. Are the goals even achievable? Are they within your control? If you can’t control it, can you be held accountable?

18:46 There are benefits if you can get this right. Engagement goes up, overall performance goes up and stays up. In high performing organizations, it’s seen as a reward and recognition effort. In low performing organizations, it’s seen as a financial measure. There’s a big difference.

21:00 What’s the line manager’s role in pay for performance vs traditional cultures? We are the key, I’m afraid.

26:00 How do you go about having the internal conversation about moving to a pay for performance model? It all starts with having your numbers ready. What are the metrics, outcomes and financials that make your case?

Dave’s Resources

Institute for Corporate Productivity (I4CP.com and I pronounced it wrong on the show, it’s an I not a number 1)

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

Cranky listeners get a 10% discount on this webinar workshop: “How to Lead Effective Virtual Meetings”, September 29th. Register on the site or drop me a line for discounts and details.

Show notes

0:00 Welcome to the Cranky Middle Manager Show, one and all. Today we dedicate this episode to Sir John Barrow who knew a thing or two about exploring new territory, managing projects and managing without WebEx. Also we look at a Greek stoic and why managing managers is a whole new ball game.

4:01 Our quote of the week is from Epictetus. I love this guy, I wrote about him in my first book A Philistine’s Journal-an Average Guy Tackles the Classics. Anyway, not specific to today’s topic, but if you’re so darned smart, why bother learning and growing?

5:00 Why don’t they hand you a better manual when you start a new gig? They’re real good at telling you about badge security, but not so much about being a leader. When leaders start, they tend to be a bit more confused than we like to cop to.

7:48 Most leaders get a honeymoon period, but how do you make the most of it? A great reason is to avoid jumping straight into the work and introduce yourself around to your peers, colleagues and employees. Don’t wait for a crisis to connect to the people you’ll depend on.

12:04 You often need to introduce yourself….or often RE-introduce yourself. Now’s the time to create your reputation before others do it for you. Oh, and we almost cause a stock market crisis.

14:06 How do you get started in a new role? What are the things we should do to get some quick wins? You need to find out the expectations of your team. What’s your group’s real earned reputation? Odds are it’s not what you were told during the interview.

17:55 We often inherit old metrics for new situations. How do you create a set of metrics that let you actually measure what’s important? What are the things you all agree on that are good signals to watch out for?

21:35 Without getting all paranoid, do you really understand the risks involved in this job? We are not talking obsessing, we are talking risk management.

24:54  As you get past your first project management or supervisor job, you start to manage managers. This is a different gig entirely. How do you measure and coach vaporware? Avoid “surrogate metrics” like activities and participation in meetings. You need to check on whether they set direction, take action and hit the mark. You want them doing leadership, not the actual individual contributor’s work.

Pam’s Resources

www.ideashape.com (her website)

Harvard Business Review
S+B Magazine

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

Cranky listeners get a 10% discount on this webinar workshop: “How to Lead Effective Virtual Meetings”, September 29th. Register on the site or drop me a line for discounts and details.

Show Notes

0:00  Today we dedicate this show to Kemankes Mustafa Pasha who knew a thing or two about building trust…and how hard that is to transfer to the next boss. If you’ve ever had absolute trust from one manager and none at all from the next you can identify. And even your worst boss hasn’t had you beheaded (yet).

4:07 The quote of the week is from Isaac Watts, a hymn writer who knew a thing or two about how hard it was to trust.  It ain’t easy, but according to today’s guest it can be done.

5:00 Welcome David Horsager to the show. He’s the author of “The Trust Edge-How top Leaders Gain Faster Results, Deeper Relationships, and a Stronger Bottom Line”   So what is trust, exactly? Maybe it’s not as soft and mushy as we thought.  Does the bottom line matter as much to managers as the human relationships do?

8:45 According to Horsager, there are 8 pillars of trust (and we won’t get to all of them)

1. Clarity
2. Competency
3. Compassion
4. Connection
5. Commitment
6. Contribution
7. Character
8. Consistency

12:37 Trust is measured by time and depth…it’s hard to get deep trust without exposure over time. He gives some great examples.

15:32 Are you a naturally trusting person or not? I’ve got scars to show it ain’t always the smart move, but says something good about me. I hope.

17:18 When you take over a new team, the first step to building trust is to be really clear about what you want, what people can expect and what you expect from them. Do you really know?

19:14 Working remotely hasn’t made trust any easier. How do we go about making that work better? (You can read more on www.theconnectedmanager.com).  In person still works best…. get the finance weasels to spring for it. You need to communicate even more than usual. This sometimes bumps up against our natural tendencies. Innocent actions can be misconstrued, just ask some of the people who used to work for me.

24:15 How do you rebuild trust once it’s broken? You’ll never rebuild trust unless you can make and keep a commitment.

David’s Resources

His blog

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

Cranky listeners get a 10% discount on this webinar workshop: “How to Lead Effective Virtual Meetings”, September 29th. Register on the site or drop me a line for discounts and details.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Today we’re talking about doing the best you can with the people you have on your team. As exhibit A, we present Wyatt Earp and the gunfight at the OK Corral. Let’s face it, if you were staring down the most dangerous people in town, would you choose your brothers and an alcoholic dentist with tuberculosis as backup? Probably not, but we make the most of the hand we’re dealt. That’s what being a manager is.

4:30 The Quote of the Week is from Marcus Aurelius.… you can be stoic, or you can recognize the reality of the situation. it seems like asking for both is a bit of an overreach.

5:43 Welcome Sean O’Neil to the show.  Why isn’t this a standard, politically correct , very polite management book? Because real life doesn’t work that way all the time.

8:15  The world is not a Harvard Business Review case study. We have to play the hand we’re dealt. Many managers don’t realize going in that not everyone has the same work ethic or skillset you did when you had that job.

11:24 We are told that if we did all the good employee engagement “stuff”, all will be well with the world. The reality is sometimes colder than that.

13:28 One of the heresies in the book is the idea that blanket one-size-fits-all rules just don’t work all that well.

16:00 When dealing with Superstars, it’s important that they understand everything you do for them. This is an interesting notion. The Badass might be a superstar or not…. they certainly act like one.

20:00  Every team has the “Steady Eddie”….not superstars, not problems, they just show up and get the work done. You have to realize what they bring to the party and use them as a stalking horse. The problem is that they aren’t spectacular and often get ignored.

22:00 I am an “ADHD Butterfly”…. Sean explains how he’d manage the likes of me. We also discuss how your personal style impacts your ability to work with others.

Sean’s Resources

The Bare Knuckle Blog

www.theconnectedmanager.com

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

Cranky listeners get a 10% discount on this webinar workshop: “How to Lead Effective Virtual Meetings”, September 29th. Register on the site or drop me aline for discounts and details.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to today’s show. Asking for what we want is complicated and messy. Sometimes we get it, sometimes we don’t and sometimes we get it but it’s way more trouble than it should be, which is why we dedicate this to the awful, spiteful Glinda the Good Witch of the North from the Wizard of Oz. Ahhhh, if only Dorothy had been clear about what she wanted.

2:46 Today is the launch of our new blog, www.theconnectedmanager.com. This continues the work we were doing over at BNET on managing remote teams, using technology to communicate and working virtually. Please take a read, subscribe and share it with your team and colleagues. Thanks to www.management-issues.com for giving us our new home.

3:59 Today’s quote of the week is from Mahatma Gandhi (who says we don’t have a higher calling here?). Ask for what you want and odds are the universe will be more cooperative than IT in granting it.

4:39 We’re talking to John Baker, creator of The Asking Formula. Yes, a formula…because we don’t do this very well when left to our own devices.  Why not? Turns out we’re human….who knew? Because we can’t rely on the brute force of threats to get what we want, discretionary mindshare is the key now. Influence over demands.

7:19 When does communication become information overload? Very often we give people information and assume they understand the call to action. It ain’t true. We need to keep it short and focused. Maybe we’re just playing defense. Don’t leave clues, give them answers.

11:55 When we fear rejection, our brains freak out. Learn the biology here.

14:02 You know that you have to ask for what you want. As a manager this is doubly true. So why don’t we just ask and why do we do it so badly? There is a three step formula for making requests.

• Define your goal or your “ask”. What one thing do you really want?
• Ask for it. Clearly, up front, just come out and ask for it. Start the conversation with the words, “I am asking for…”
• Understand their point of view and give them the three best reasons they should give you what they want.

18:32 Here’s a tricky part. Once you’ve told them what you want, end the sentence with a period, not a question mark. Then give them 3 reasons from their point of view. Quote them verbatim if possible. 3 is kind of a magic number.

23:40 You’ve asked for what you want, you’ve given people 3 reasons, now shut up! Stop talking and wait for their response.

24:50 So what if you ask and the answer’s no?

John’s resources

Theaskingformula.com blog and site.

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

Cranky listeners get a 10% discount on this webinar workshop: “How to Lead Effective Virtual Meetings”, September 29th. Register on the site or drop me aline for discounts and details.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to a different kind of Cranky show. All my listeners are competent terrific people, but we all have or will screw things up royally at some point. Does it have to be the end of your career? Not always. You can take heart…or forever despair depending on your attitude from the lesson of Sir Douglas Haig, leader of British forces in WWI and the Battle of Passchendaele. To this day this makes me furious but there are statues of Haig still standing which should kind of make the point of this show.

4:45  Join  us starting August 8 for our new blog, www.theconnectedmanager.com which will be twice a week hints, new and tips for managing remote teams, presenting online and keeping connected to your people no matter where they are in the world.

5:30The quote of the week is from silent screen actress Mary Pickford, so although she said it, odds are good you have never heard it. Failure is not in doing something wrong, it’s what happens afterwards that counts.

6:35 Welcome Larry Kelley to the show. He’s an advertising professor when he’s not listening to this show and this will be an honest and slightly uncomfortable conversation, to be sure.  There aren’t a lot of books out there that talk about how to recover from a horrible mess. It’s all about self preservation. Not terribly honorable, perhaps, but true nonetheless.

10:45 Is there a difference between an honest mistake and a screwup? It’s mostly a matter of scale and it’s your fault.

12:40 If you do mess up, either deny it or don’t. Vehemence may not be honorable but does buy you some time to get your feet back under you. Congressman Anthony Weiner is a great example of this. But can you deny something you know you did? Do you want to feel good about yourself or do you want to survive? That’s not a rhetorical question.

16:40 Weasels get a bad rap on this show, but they do serve a purpose. Deadlines and budgets are always unreasonable, make that work for you.

17:30 Let’s face it, the best thing to do is to come clean. This may be the first time in podcast  history that Richard Nixon has been used as a child-raising tool. Horrifying but true.

19:30 How would Larry deal with a mistake of biblical proportion? Listen and learn. We also discuss the difference between blame and responsibility? Sometimes just helping people learn who to blame (you!) is the most helpful thing you can do.

22:19 So how do you move forward? How do you tell your next employer that you messed up? We also discuss the options between sticking it out and taking the Japanese face-saving option. Odds are the sun will, in fact, rise.

27:50 What about the morning after? How do you rebuild trust in you? You screwed up, you are NOT a screwup. (Although you will forever be known as that guy).

Don’t forget our new The Connected Manager Blog starting August 8th!

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

Cranky listeners get a 10% discount on this webinar workshop: “How to Lead Effective Virtual Meetings”, September 29th. Register on the site or drop me aline for discounts and details.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome everyone to the show. Today we talk about why HR hates managers. What do we do that drive these nice people crazy? A lot of it has to do with unintended consequences which brings us to Lieutenant General Henry Shrapnel. Sometimes you solve one problem only to create another. Kind of like what HR does….

3:12 Watch for our new TheConnectedManager blog which will replace our BNET column starting next month. Please follow it and tell your friends.

5:29 Every once in a while you need a little Friedrich Nietzsche in your life. Madness is rare in individuals..but inlarge organizations it’s the rule. Live with it. Maybe even get a little evil.

6:15 Okay, why does HR hate us? Suzanne Lucas is better known to many as The Evil HR Lady.  Everyone talks about why we hate HR, but in the dark night of their souls, why does HR seem to hate managers?  Are you just a lawsuit waiting to happen?

10:10 Managers often make poor decisions that reflect on the company. We hear a couple of horror stories, including a pregant sales person whose main defense was: someone else is worse. Does it feel like everything you want to do seem to violate some other rule? Suzanne never wants to work in California, but then nobody works in California these days…

13:03 For international companies, HR is a swirling nightmare of regulations.

14:45 One of the big challenges for managers is hiring the right person. We make decisions that take 30 seconds and then suffer the consequences for years. Hell, if not for bad snap judgments I’d have never been hired. We talk hiring.

20:00  Okay, let’s get down to performance reviews and why they are painful for all involved. Suzanne defends them as the only way some managers (not you of course) give any kind of documented feedback. Beware of “malicious compliance”.

25:00 What about training and developing your people and yourselves? Companies tend to perform task experts to management jobs. Communication and coaching skills are critical. Can you actually create SMART objectives? How’s your project management skills?

29:20 How does remote working change how we think about management? Results Oriented Work Environments (ROWE) are the answer in her mind.

Suzanne’s Links

Her BNET Blog, The Evil HR Lady

Jon Hyman  Ohioemployerslawblog.com

Donna Ballman at screwyouguysimgoinghome

Allison Green Askamanager.org

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

Cranky listeners get a 10% discount on this webinar workshop: “How to Lead Effective Virtual Meetings”, September 29th. Register on the site or drop me aline for discounts and details.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Today we’re talking information overload, something every one of us suffers from. We dedicate this episode to someone who knew how to get his arms around all that information (Emperor Constantine 1 and the Council of Nicaea) as well as some of the unfortunate results of compromising on solutions (quick, when’s Easter?).

5:00 TS Eliot is our quote of the week, and he sums up the problem exactly. Too much information and not enough knowledge.

5:45 Do you know anyone who isn’t suffering from information overload?  Maybe it’s too much of a good thing, but it takes up to 25% of our day and costs companies in the US 997 Billion Dollars a year. If you can’t figure out what’s really in front of you, you can’t make decision or take good actions.

9:09 What are the kinds of things that result from overload? Wasted search time, interruptions, correcting mistakes, rework….the list is long and would be too much information.

11:30 The problem isn’t not enough information, it’s too much and no way to tell good from bad. How do you sort information effectively? We get tips for getting better search results.

16:50 People resort to some crazy solutions to handle the overload. One company actually removed the “reply all” button from its email…..

20:50 how the heck do we actually regain our ability to focus? We only leave ourselves 5% of our day to think and reflect.

23:00 What are some of the tips for overcoming information overload? Get a handle on your email and you’ll go a long way to getting some of your life back. Value your colleague’s time and think before sending anything.

27:35 If you want to contribute your own stories and tips, visit Jonathan at OverloadStories.com.

Try reading something that has nothing to do with work for once.

Watch a trailer for the book on YouTube

The Information Overload Research Group (which includes Dave Crenshaw.You can hear his cranky show here)

Do you like the quote of the week? Buy this book and support the show!

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to episode 288. Today we’re going to tackle an uncomfortable subject–why being the best at something doesn’t guarantee success. It takes a lot of work and things other than great execution. As proof we offer our dedication this week to Nikola Tesla. Being right and having the best product or solution doesn’t mean you’ll win. Edison won, even if it took executing kittens to do so.

4:45 Today’s quote is from the Roman poet Horace. We’re not saying excellent performance isn’t important, it’s just not the only thing. You still have to be kind of good at what you do.

5:15 Welcome Colin Price to the show. He and Scott Keller have written a book that says plenty of companies are good at what they do and still crash and burn. What’ probably more important is “organizational wellness” which includes things like Alignment, Execution (speed) and Renewal.

10:05 A good example of a company that was doing really well is Atari. Remember them?

11:23 Alignment is really tough. The problem , it would appear, is human beings.  Ask the people in your company the company’s 10 top priorities. The results might be enlightening….and terrifying.

13:22 When we talk about company “mindset”, exactly what the heck are we talking about. Some people call it belief, paradigms, culture. It’s just the way stuff works in your organization. They are both liberating and dangerous.

15:45 The 4 “levers” to adjust company mindset are: a compelling story, consistent systems and processes, skills and capabilities, and the behavior of the leaders.

19:45 It turns out that of those 4, the role modeling of desired behaviors has the strongest correlation to results. In other words, leaders have to walk the talk. If you do that, you’re well on your way. 3 times more likely to succeed in fact.

22:27 This might sound self-serving, but learning, development and training really matters to organizational success. Colin breaks it into two parts: “training” and things you learn on the job itself. On the job training and does it allow you to get smarter as you go has twice the impact of sitting in a classroom. Do both and you are 6X more likely to succeed.

25:24 This is a fascinating discussion about how organization health reflects stock price and long-term success.

Colin’s resources

Gary Hamel

Bob Sutton (you can hear his Cranky interview here)

If you’re going to use WebEx, GoToMeeting or any of those tools, don’t you want to use them well? At GreatWebMeetings.com we teach you the skills to present, sell, train or manage your team using web presentation tools. We offer programs in How to Create and Manage Remote Teams, Web Presentation Basics and Leading Effective Virtual Meetings. Drop us a line for pricing and more information.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome back after a brief hiatus! Thank you to everyone who responded to our survey about the show. Turns out you pretty much like us as we are. Here’s my challenge to you, tell someone! Our goal is to  listenership 50% by the end ofthe year. Looking for 30,000 downloads a month.

3:43 The quote of the week is on the topic of change,chaos and order.  Douglas Hofstadter tells us all about it.

4:55 Welcome Richard Bevan to the show.  He’s the author of Changemaking. Whenever we talk about managing change we tend to put a negative spin on it, but people aren’t naturally change resistant… they resist change they don’t understand, don’t like and haven’t been involved with.So what are some of the behaviors that tip you off when things aren’t going as well as they should.

8:05 We walk through a change on the team level. What’s the ideal way to communicate the change. There’s a 3-part framework  for successful change: clarity, engagement and communication. Clarity is important because ifyou don’t state things clearly, people will make stuff up, and it’s never the best case scenario.

11:15 The next step is engagement. People will adapt a change they’re part of, and resist one that’s imposed. You have to engage them to get input on how it should be done, and to understand the issues and questions in advance.

15:16 How do you manage a change that’s a fait a complit. Can you engage people and get buy in? People have to know what’s negotiable on what’s not.

18:00 Communication is critical (duh) but it’s a process, not a one-time event.  There needs to be interaction

21:30 As managers, we often have to communicate changes that we don’t understand or support ourselves. We talk pretty honestly about what happens when managers aren’t dialed in early.

27:15

Richard’s Resources

visit Changemakingthebook.com for tools and worksheets.

Meanwhile check out these upcoming webinar workshops. PDUs are available for PMI Members

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams June 24th

Web Presentation Basics June 27 and 29

Show Notes

0:00 This is not a drill! I need your help. We’ve been doing this show for 5 years and I need some feedback (As managers you know that, right?). I have 4 questions for you. Please answer them as fully as you can and you can either post them to this blog site or drop me an email.

Here are the questions:

1. What do you like about the show? Please be specific (guests, dedications, quotes, links to resources….basically why do you hang around listening to me?)
2. What do you NOT like about the program. Be as specific as you can. You can’t hurt my feelings.
3. What is your favorite episode or Cranky memory?
4. What can we do to make the show better? Do we need to change the format?  Guests and topics you’d like to hear? Should we change the format?

After 5 years, it’s time to do some navel gazing. I appreciate your wisdom.

5:45 The quote of the week is from Confucius. Change is part of both wisdom and happiness. Seriously.

7:17 Welcome Jeffrey Cohn to the show. He’s one of the authors of “Why Are We Bad at Picking Good Leaders”. Do we pick leaders? Aren’t they there and we just follow them? I love a book with a clear title, which apparently the publisher didn’t.

9:30 How can we pick leaders unless we look at past behavior? Here’s the paradox of the book… the past is NOT prologue. Just look at recent headlines to see the truth in this. Why are we so disappointed?

14:06 Why are so surprised at bad behavior, especially by those claiming to be so moral? Turns out it’s not moral we’re looking for, it’s integrity. The 7 qualities of leadership are: integrity, empathy, emotional intelligence,vision, judgment, courage and passion.

17:45 Emotional Intelligence is what derails most people when they reach general management. Discipline mastery isn’t as important as the ability to know yourself and others. Yes, you can be booksmart AND emotionally intelligent. You can also be a genius and an emotional moron.

21:45 Does vision mean you have to be the “visionary”or is it enough to help set the vision that others come up with.

24:50 How much does style matter in a leader? Barack Obama is a great example of a polarizing style…what does Jeff think? Turns out, not as much as you’d think.

28:20 Okay so what kind of changes do we followers have to make so we pick better leaders? Using the 7 attributes of leaders is a good start.

29:59

Visit pickingbetterleaders.com

Meanwhile check out these upcoming webinar workshops. PDUs are available for PMI Members

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams June 24th

Web Presentation Basics June 27 and 29

Show Notes:

0:00 Welcome back Stanley Bing to the show. In his honor we dedicate the show to Hori the Scribe, the first business satirist and author of the Papyrus Anastasi. A long and proud tradition we try to uphold.

4:25 The quote of the week is from George Bernard Shaw. If you’re going to tell people the truth,make them laugh or they’ll kill you.

5:30 Welcome Stanley Bing back to the show along with his alter-alter-ego Bingsop. His latest book is “Bingsop’s Fables: Little Morals For Big Business”. We look at the original Aesop and discuss if being funny in the workplace has its hazards. He talks about the day he was “outed” as Stanley Bing at work and whether it worked for him or against him.

10:34 Can you do good work and still be willing to make fun of corporate society? Does Stanley love or hate what’s known collectively as “Corporate America”? Turns out the answer is yes.  Here’s the important lesson: people are crazy whether at work or not.

13:36 Stanley and I share something of our backgrounds, so entering corporate America was a bit of a shock. Does he believe in corporate conspiracy theories? Nope, it requires excellence of execution that just ain’t there.

16:13 Many of his morals are obvious but no less amusing. Remember to always invite the finance guy to dinner as they tend to approve their own expense accounts. There’s also a reason some people make it to the top and others don’t and it’s Darwinian at best. Crazy, mean people are destined for greatness as well as ignominy.

21:00 Is Stanley Bing basically an optimist or a pessimist about human beings? It’s a bit of both. That being said, don’t discount paranoia as a world view. We discuss the difference between skepticism and cynicism. We discuss our mutual disrespect for Ayn Rand and the civilizing effect of society.

24:00 Here’s a discussion we’ve never had on this show: how the TV show Mad Men does or doesn’t reflect the real world. Alcohol and workplace affairs sounds like a pretty good day at work to him. Here’s another question: does booze in the workplace get a bad rap?

Check out StanleyBing.com

Meanwhile check out these upcoming webinar workshops. PDUs are available for PMI Members

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams June 24th

Web Presentation Basics June 27 and 29

And let me know if you will be at ASTD2011 May 23 and 24 in Orlando, FL. I’d love to meet you there!

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Today we are talking conflict, so we dedicate this show to King Solomon. Not only did he know a thing or two about resolving disputes, he was a badass negotiator at budget time.

3:45 The quote of the week is from Benjamin  Franklin, who knew a thing or two, despite the goofy hair. There’s always a reason for conflict….how good it is, well that’s an open question.

4:25 Welcome Susan Shearouse of Frameworksforagreement.com to the show.  The book was inspired by her work with so many managers who were great technically, and no one told them about the people part. Sound like any audiences we know? Conflict doesn’t always have to be negative, but that’s often our first thought.

7:44 Eliminating the problem doesn’t always solve the conflict.  she introduces the idea of the “Satisfaction Triangle”. It has 3 sides: Engagement, Explanation and Expectation clarity.

14:00 It’s all fine and good to say “listen with respect”, but what does that behavior actually look like? A big part is to be curious and appear curious to the other person. Ask lots of questions. Also think about how that person came to be there. He or she must be good at SOMETHING, right?

16:35 We’ve all heard the phrase, “forgive and forget”. Can you really do either? Depends on how you define it. Lily Tomlin offers some guidance here. Think about forgiveness as “refocusing”.

19:48 Apologies are something we’re universally bad at. Has anyone ever taught you the components of an apology? That’s what we’re here for.

22:49 Soft skills are hard to process map. It’s easy to say “don’t bear a grudge”, but how do you act if you’re not carrying a grudge? Sometimes you have to have an “after action” review.

25:25 Conflict is inevitable, it’s how you handle it that matters.

Susan’s resources

Are you looking to help your team run better Virtual Meetings? Want to plan, present and get results from online get-togethers? Check out our newest training program “Leading Effective Virtual Meetings”  from GreatWebMeetings.com.

Meanwhile check out these upcoming webinar workshops. PDUs are available for PMI Members

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams May 27th

Web Presentation Basics June 27 and 29

And let me know if you will be at ASTD2011 May 23 and 24 in Orlando, FL. I’d love to meet you there!

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Today we’re talking pressure, and how to handle it like a champ. You think you have pressure in your job? Try being Priam, the King of Troy. That, my friends, is pressure.

4:20 The quote of the week is from Bertrand Russell. Idiots aren’t better at their work than you are. They just think they are and don’t stress about it. Take comfort from that if you can or will.

5:00 Welcome Justin Menkes to the show. He does great research into how CEOs think and today we’re talking about why some leaders crack under pressure while others don’t.  What do CEOs wish we knew about their job that we might not? Turns out that they aren’t as numb to what’s going on around them as we like to think. I’m not sure that’s a comfort.

7:55 There are 3 catalysts for leadership: realistic optimism, subservience to purpose and finding order out of chaos. How is Realistic Optimism different from just wearing rose-colored glasses? It’s being optimistic while being perfectly aware of how bad things are.

9:00 Realistic optimism is the only real way to get buy-in and discretionary effort from your people. And there’s a case study. Be careful what you ask for, people.

11:52 Subservience to purpose is critical because how else do you know what’s really important or how to model the values of the organization? You have to have a “sense of agency”.  How is that different from a sense of urgency? It’s all about the feeling of being in control of the situation. Are you in charge of circumstances or are you its victim?

16:15 The third catalyst is the ability to find order in chaos. The world ain’t getting simpler,which may be the greatest understatement anyone has used on this show. There’s a good story about Proctor and Gamble’s CEO and soap bubbles. Take a listen.

19:00 Do CEOs always want to be leaders or is there an AHA moment? Turns out that most of them morphed into leaders, it  wasn’t necessarily an aspiration. That doesn’t mean they don’t fall prey to power once they have it. We talk the “dangers of grandiosity”.

22:00 What we don’t know about CEOs are the number of sacrifices that they make to achieve that level.

Resources

Don’t forget our world-class webinar workshops. Discounts available for Cranky Listeners.

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams May 27

Web Presentation Basics May 16 and 18

Are you a PMI Certified PMP looking for PDUs? Check this out.

Download our new white paper, 3 Reasons Virtual Teams Fail, and how to see it coming….

Show Notes:

0:00 Welcome to the show, gang. Today we’re taking a look at change. Personally, I like it for a number of dysfunctional reasons….most people don’t. One guy who understood change, Daniel Burnham who helped rebuild Chicago. He also understood that sometimes you gotta burn something to the ground to make the change happen.

3:30 Are you or someone from your organization going to the ASTD2011 Show in Orlando in May? I’ll be there May 23 and 24, speaking on the 24th about my book, 10 Steps to Successful Virtual Presentations, then hanging with Kevin Eikenberry the rest of the day in his booth.

5:24 the quote of the week is from Washington Irving, who understood that sometimes change feels good only to take bruises someplace new. Yeah, it’s setting the bar pretty low, but what are you gonna do?

6:00 Welcome Andy Stefanovich to the show. The book is “Look at More”. What’s the individual manager’s role in innovation? Isn’t that someone else’s problem? Basically, we’re responsible for doing stuff and that makes us important.

7:43 Corporate America is decidedly unprepared to deal with failure, which kills innovation. It’s hard to take a leap if you have to be responsible for quarterly earnings. How do you make sure that it’s controlled chaos? There are 5 Ms…

1. Mood
2. Mindset
3. Mechanisms
4. Measurement
5. Momentum

10:26 I hate acronyms, and there’s few worse than “LAMSTAIH” but it really means just Look at more stuff, Think about it harder.

12:30 Everything starts with the mood of the organization. Is there a climate and attitude that encourages creativity or is it all about maintaining order and reducing mistakes?

14:20 Mindset is basically the way individuals process information in your organization. What’s your risk tolerance? How much passion do you have for what you’re doing? Those two things will drive your mindset.What’s your tolerance for the grey?w

17:10 Mechanisms are important but how do you not put processes in place like Six Sigma that actually kill innovation. Without action, though, there is no real change.

20:00 How do you stop measurement from killing ideas? Measurement is almost always the way to drive change. Are you measuring the right things?

23:00 If there is only one thing to take away, it’s to appreciate the idea that inspiration is the fuel that drives change and it comes from CONSCIOUSLY looking at things with discipline.

Visit his blog and website at www.prophet.com

Monocle Magazine

Check out the BNET Connected Manager

Don’t forget our world-class webinar workshops. Discounts available for Cranky Listeners.

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams May 27

Web Presentation Basics May 16 and 18

Are you a PMI Certified PMP looking for PDUs? Check this out.

Download our new white paper, 3 Reasons Virtual Teams Fail, and how to see it coming….

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show for the 281st time. Today we’re talking why perfectly good, seemingly happy employees up and quit on us. For that reason we salute St Francis of Assisi.... seemed perfectly happy spending daddy’s money, fighting and whoring in France. Why did he quit to become a friar.?…and he wound up in management anyway. Sometimes there’s no escaping your fate.

3:50 The quote of the week is from Ralph Waldo Emerson.… when one thing changes, something else has to give. That applies to careers as well.

4:33 Welcome MaryAnn Masarech to the show. She’s at BlessingWhite. Why are we still talking engagement? Because it matters. But what is it? It’s not just employee satisfaction and it’s not just commitment. Are you coming to work enthused, proud of your work, and contributing to the max?

7:45 Why are the engagement numbers so different in different cultures? We look at India vs. China, for example. What explains the difference?

9:28 Is a 100% engaged workforce even realistic? It seems like if 1/3 are really into it that’s about what you can expect but i’m a cynic. It’s the actively disengaged that you need to worry about.

13:50 Her research shows that we’ve always thought managers were the biggest reason people stayed or left an organization, but it turns out that there’s something else at work….and it’s the work. If people dig it, they’ll stay. If they’re bored or looking to do something else they’re at risk.

17:05 How does this play out in a world where so many people are short-term or contract employees? What role does the manager play in getting them on board?

20:17 How do you create personal relationships without getting too personal? It’s amazing how many people think personal info has no place at all at work and get really freaked out about it. What are the concrete things a manager needs to do to ensure priorities are in alignment?

25:00 Have you actually checked in with your people about their priorities? Odds are you’re not on the same page.

27:02 If the future is so important to your employees, do you have the foggiest idea what they want? Just asking.

Click here to get the Employee Engagement report Mary ann is talking about

Check out the ContentedCows blog

Check out my new book #PresentationTweet01

Don’t forget our world-class webinar workshops. Discounts available for Cranky Listeners.

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams April 29

Web Presentation Basics April 25 and 27

Are you a PMI Certified PMP looking for PDUs? Check this out.

Download our new white paper, 3 Reasons Virtual Teams Fail, and how to see it coming….

Show notes

0:00 Welcome to the Cranky Middle Manager Show. Today we dedicate this episode to General  Leslie Groves, the project head on the Manhattan Project. If you think you have some picky stakeholders……

4:30 The quote of the week is from Winnie the Pooh (okay, AA Milne). The obvious is sometimes important to pay attention to.

5:21 Welcome Rich Maltzman and David Shirley to the show. We’re going to examine 5 tips to green project management but first, what is Green PM and why should we care? It’s actually about sustainability and the “triple bottom line” more than just do-gooderism.

8:44 The first tip is to accept that you are a change agent. Yes, you. Projects inherently change things, so you can do whatever you need to do.

11:08 tip 2 is to link your company’s environmental goals and policies to your project. Of course,that presumes your organization has one. You can find ideas at www.climatechallenge.org

15:55 Thing 3 is thinking beyond the scope of the project. But aren’t we supposed to limit scope???? Dave gives us a great example of Green Mountain Coffee and their single serve plans. Whooops.

20:00 Understanding the project sponsors is critical. Who is the real sponsor and what’s our responsibility? Isn’t our job to do as we’re asked?

22:55 The jargon can fly pretty thick. “Greenality” is one such word, although swapping it for “sustainability” sometimes makes it more palatable depending where you are on the Hummer vs Hugger debate.

26:49 How can one become certified in green project management? ISIS-PM is one such body . It helps to be politically correct by accident.

Resources

Don’t forget our world-class webinar workshops. Discounts available for Cranky Listeners.

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams April 29

Web Presentation Basics April 25 and 27

Are you a PMI Certified PMP looking for PDUs? Check this out.

Download our new white paper, 3 Reasons Virtual Teams Fail, and how to see it coming….

Show notes

0:00 Welcome to the show everyone. A long show today so no dedication. As you know, there are 4 competencies on this show. We call them the 4 Disciplines of Highly Effective, Leadership Exhibiting, Project Nailing, Cheese Moving Managers.

Too often,though, we are so busy doing the job we don’t stopand think about where we are going and why. That’s why today’s show is all about you and your career.

2:00 The quote of the week is from Mark Twain. The great want you to be great as well. The weasels want you to fail. Screw’em.

4:17 Welcome Patty Azzarello to the show and we ask the question: why doesn’t our work speak for itself? Shouldn’t it? Hardly seems fair. Still, nobody cares about your career but you.

7:32 She breaks her career advice into 3 categories: Do better, look better and connect better. Let’s start with the difference between working really hard and getting ahead? You have to decide where you burn up your time. How much value do you really add? You have to understand the business to get ahead in it. All those tasks you’re asked to do…do you know WHY they want you to do them?

12:00 Being knowledgable about your job is not the major thing in life. Every time you step up a level, you become knowingly less expert. Deal with it.

14:12 Looking better shouldn’t matter should it? I confess to having learned some very hard lessons in this department. The important thing is to be visible without being annoying. Where is the line between authenticity and fitting in?

20:45 Yes, I was once taken aside and chastised about how I dressed. What should it matter? It doesn’t make me any better or smarter than I ever was…. it was a hard lesson to learn.

23:45 Do eccentricities help or hurt you? As long as they don’t distract people from your message, they’re fine and sometimes add value. Does a beard really mean you can’t do a job?

26:30 Successful people know how to get help when they need it. You don’t have to do it all yourself, and frankly you shouldn’t try. Patty gives us her personal secrets. Just remember that networking has 2 parts: meet new people and reaching out to the people you already know. There’s a deep dark secret that Patty shares. It sounds simple, but it works. Our gift to you….

Visit Patty at AzzarelloGroup.com

Don’t forget our world-class webinar workshops. Discounts available for Cranky Listeners.

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams April 29

Web Presentation Basics April 25 and 27

Are you a PMI Certified PMP looking for PDUs? Check this out.

Download our new white paper, 3 Reasons Virtual Teams Fail, and how to see it coming….

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome everyone. Today we’re talking waking up one morning and finding yourself a middle manager. No, you can’t sue your guidance counselor for malpractice. We dedicate this episode to King George VI. For you Americans, that’s the guy Colin Firth played in The King’s Speech. A fine role model for all of us.

3:30 The quote of the week is from Samuel Johnson (allegedly, but we’ve had that discussion before). He basically said that you have to expect mistakes, and don’t assume that mistakes mean someone’s useless. Forgive yourself. Heck, forgive YOUR manager while you’re at it.

4:00 Welcome Hank Gilman to the show. He’s a bigshot at Fortune Magazine. Like so many of us, he was an Accidental Manager.

6:00 Writing is like coding and a lot of other jobs. The job is solitary and you’re pretty much left alone. Now you’re the boss and NOONE leaves you alone. Hank talks about managing his friends.

8:45 There’s a moment when we all appreciate our bosses more when we have the job ourselves. As hank points out, it helps when you aren’t too much of a jerk to start with.

11:18 What about the first time you have to fire someone…especially a former colleague? It’s important and unavoidable.

14:00 Does working at a business magazine attract a different type of writer and culture?

16:25 How does coaching work in a highly creative situation like a high-profile magazine? It’s mostly about putting the right people in the right position.

Don’t forget great webinar workshops available from GreatWebMeetings.com each month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams March 25

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams April 29

Web Presentation Basics April 25 and 27

Are you a PMI Certified PMP looking for PDUs? Check this out.

Download our new white paper, 3 Reasons Virtual Teams Fail, and how to see it coming….

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show, gang. Today we’re talking stress. For that reason we take a step over to the serious side of town and dedicate this show to the Fukishima 50. If you ever needed some perspective about the relative stress of your job, here’s that dose of reality you needed.

4:00 Today’s quote of the week is from Leonardo da Vinci. You can’t find someone smarter to listen to than that.

4:45 Welcome Sylvia Lafair to the show. No job is without stress, but what is it? There’s only so much we can take, despite what we tell ourselves.

6:45 Since the stress keeps on coming, we get to determine how to deal with it and how much to take. How we handled it as kids is pretty much how we handle it now. Do you stamp your feet? Go away and pout? Basically you head for Zombieland or Freakoutville.

10:38 What’s actually going on when we’re under stress? How do we make ourselves stop and see what’s going on with us? Small physical changes like standing up or moving seats actually help more than you’d think. It’s all neuroscience and stuff.

13:45 Okay, so stress happens. Once you give yourself permission to just pause and understand what’s going on, the next step is to consciously choose your next action. You can trick your brain… for some of us that’s easier than others. As long as you don’t “awfulize” things. Oh and I go into therapy for a few minutes.

19:41 The phrase “failure is not an option” is not helping. It’s always an option, just not the one you want. According to Sylvia, failure is just feedback from the universe.

24:00 When is venting healthy and when are you just perpetuating the cycle?

29:00 One of the reasons we struggle is because we don’t think emotions have anything to do with the workplace. They don’t belong there. Yeah, how’s that working for ya?

Don’t forget great webinar workshops available from GreatWebMeetings.com each month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams March 25

Web Presentation Basics March 28 and 30

Are you a PMI Certified PMP looking for PDUs? Check this out.

Download our new white paper, 3 Reasons Virtual Teams Fail, and how to see it coming….

Show Notes:

0:00 Welcome to the show, gang. Today we are talking gutsy leadership. Not ballsy- that term has always confused me. We dedicate this episode to King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem. Fending off Saladin, internal weasels and leprosy all at once takes some serious guts.

3:45 Are you interested in being part of a pilot webinar course on How to Run Great Virtual Meetings? If so, drop me a line and let me know you’re interested. No date’s been set yet.

4:05 The quote of the week is from Robert Louis Stevenson....why do I love hack Edwardian writers so? Anyway, he told us how to suck it up.

5:00 Welcome Bob Herbold to the show. His new book is all about gutsy leadership. Is this all some kind of crazy, macho nonsense? It’s not so much brave stands as on a daily basis not dodging tough questions and decisions. So why do we so often not make the gutsy decision?

6:50 When is conflict avoidance the right thing to do and when are you just being a whuss? The trick is not to pose tough issues as problems to be solved. Bob gives us specific language to use.

9:21 Let’s be honest, a lot of managers get pretty high in the organization by protecting turf and avoiding conflict. It’s not that you’d be like that, but your boss and colleagues might be and that, my friends, is a drag. Is there a process for deciding which hills to die on?

11:33 Bob has 10 steps to prove courage,but the first is to Confront Reality. Having a plan helps. Leadership is not a style issue, it’s a behavior issue.

14:45 Ahhh, managing our managers is one ofthe biggest challenges we face. When bringing something to them you need to explain the situation, why they should care and what you think they should do…. get a reading on their mood before going too far.

16:30 Courage is also something you want to develop in your people. You have to set expectations about proactivity, behavior, quality and all that good stuff. Just don’t forget that because you’re the boss your people have a healthy (or unhealthy) amount of fear about dealing with you. You need to model the skills and reach out to them.

19:50 Can you hire for guts? You have to look at their history, even as far back as high school. Really.He also tells a story about Bill Gates and a gutsy move.

Bob’s Resources

BobHerbold.com

Don’t forget great webinar workshops available from GreatWebMeetings.com each month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams March 25

Web Presentation Basics March 28 and 30

Are you a PMI Certified PMP looking for PDUs? Check this out.

Download our new white paper, 3 Reasons Virtual Teams Fail, and how to see it coming….

Show Notes:

0:00 Welcome to the show. Today we talk virtual teams and how distance makes a difference in how we work…or doe sit make as much difference as we think? As evidence we dedicate this show to Abram Petrovich Gannibal. Even distant, he was closer to Tsar Peter that Great than Peter’s own kid. What can we learn from that?

4:45 The quote of the week from Victor Hugo. Distance isn’t bad in and of itself… it has its  charms and its drawbacks, but we have to learn to cope with it.

5:20 Welcome Dr. Karen Sobel Lojeski to the show. She’s obsessed with what she calls “virtual distance” which can even happen when you’re at the next cubicle to someone. Always good to know there’s an actual term for something you know exists but didn’t know what to call it. Virtual Distance is a perception of remoteness due to reliance on electronic communication.

9:52 What is the impact of virtual distance on people and businesses?  You want numbers? She’s got your numbers…. Innovation suffers the most from virtual distance… a 90% drop. Don’t even get her started on project delivery

14:05 What are the components of “Virtual Distance”? It’s made up of 3 things: physical distance, operational distance and affinity distance.  The last 2 are the big problems because they create lack of context.

16:26 If you don’t have context, you make it up and we seldom make up the best case scenario. There’s a word for it- “same as me bias”. Never let it be said you don’t learn anything here, folks.

19:15 There are plenty of tools to help overcome physical distance, which leaves us up to the operational distance…which is using the right tools in the right way…. but also the affinity distance which is only overcome by trying really, really hard. Managers have to pay attention to the mix of technology they use.

26:01 There are plenty of unintended things that impact affinity distance. Time zone fatigue, for example, or feeling like you don’t matter because you’re not at home office is a great example. There’s a chilling example from the United Nations…. is any conference call worth taking a bullet for? Try asking THAT before scheduling.

29:21 Visit her website to see how you can measure Virtual Distance.

Karen’s Resources

Don’t forget great webinar workshops available from GreatWebMeetings.com each month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams March 25

Web Presentation Basics March 28 and 30

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Today we’re talking about the obvious, but often overlooked fact, that while “collaboration”  is one word there are plenty of ways to go about doing it. 8 of them, to be specific. As evidence, we offer Achaemenes, founder of the Persian Empire. When you don’t have Aliens helping you like the Egyptians, you have to forge your own path.

4:05 The quote of the week is from Antoine de Saint Exupery who said that regardless of individual talents or failings, it’s when everyone comes together good things happen. Of course, he said it in French and much better than I just did….

4:58 Mehrdad Baghai and James Quigley have written a very heft, gorgeous and impressive book called “As One: Individual Action, Collective Power”. How do you get an entire team or organization to pull in the same direction? How do you get them to behave “as one”?

6:33 What does it even mean when they’re working as one? Does it mean mindless lockstep? It really contains three elements: Who are they? What are they trying to do? What processes are in place to help them get there and how do they work together? Turns out there are about 8 ways to do that.

8:18 One group that they use as an example are the Dabbawalas,or lunch delivery people of Mumbai. A much cooler example than SouthWest airlines for the 300th time. They have a shared identity, a shared purpose and a real sense of pride in what they do.

10:43 Even though there are three components, there are 8 different organizing structures for teams. Each has a name, certain characteristics and behaviors that work (and don’t). When you know what you’re doing and how to make it work, you can all get on the same page.

12:50 While we studiously avoid the idea of sports as metaphor for business in general, actually “Captain and team” is a legitimate model for some teams. As are military models, or the idea of the conductor and orchestra. They all work under certain circumstances and certain types of work. They won’t apply universally.

16:58 People are surprised to find out that people on the same team might have different collaboration styles. You have to have one and work it.

20:45 When is like-mindedness a good thing and when do you want active dissent? Some teams, like “Producer/Creative Team” can’t survive without it. Other types require unity more than other traits. Of course, that assumes that you’re the right type of team in the right kind of culture. Maybe YOU’RE the one who needs to change or at least adapt your style.

28:13 At the core of it all, leaders have to ask what we’re doing that works and doesn’t. Do you understand the identity people need to have? Do you understand what people should actually commit to?

Resources

AsOne.org

Don’t forget great webinar workshops available from GreatWebMeetings.com each month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams February 25

March 25

Web Presentation Basics (2 parts) February 21 and 23

March 28 and 30

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Today we are joined by Chester Elton and Adrian Gostick who have been wtih us before. Since we’re talking teams that change things, we dedicate this episode to Lawrence of Arabia and his march on Aqaba. Unintended consequences aside, it was pretty amazing. Hopefully your team efforts don’t result in 75 years of bloodshed and confusion, but who can tell with some projects?

2:56 The quote of the week is also from TE Lawrence: do you just dream at night like everyone else or do you dream during the waking hours, which makes you more dangerous (and possibly delusional, but I’m not a shrink).

3:43 Welcome Chester Elton and Adrian Gostick to the show. Click the links to hear their previous visits. They’ve been here before but this time they’re together, which befits a show on teamwork. The show is based on some great research, so they share the origins with us.

7:10 What separates the teams and organizations that think they’re pretty good from those that actually are? Turns out it’s engagement driven by a noble cause.  Don’t laugh, it matters and it’s not easy to identify.

12:05 Can you dictate or enforce a culture? Engagement has to come from the bottom up and most of us have no idea how to inspire that. They sure don’t teach it in B School. Oh and we resort to SuperB owl references, especially the famous coach Vince Lombardi’s philosophy.

14:30 We make up for that with reference to the Australian Navy’s HMAS Descaineux brush with disaster.

15:34 Sometimes your best efforts at recognition and reward meet with disaster. American Express learned this the hard way. Gumby doesn’t always make the grade.

17:55 What about remote teams? How can you create that team spirit when you’re not together? They don’t even have to be on the other side of the world.  You need to build a sense of community and belonging. A simple thing like actually picking up the phone takes on more importance. Is a phone call “too intimate”? Social media can help as well but it doesn’t always happen spontaneously, managers need to noodge it.

24:26 Resources and stuff

Visit their blog

Carrots.com

Don’t forget great webinar workshops available from GreatWebMeetings.com each month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams February 25

Web Presentation Basics (2 parts) February 21 and 23

Show Notes

0:00 Hello faithful listeners and newbies (and there will be some). Today we talk about moving from “Bud to Boss”.. that moment when you leave your friends and competence behind to become management. We talked about this with Guy Harris earlier (listen to show 247 here). It’s a big deal. Therefore we dedicate this show to someone who had to pull off this transition like no one before them, John Tyler, 10th president of the United States.

4:47 The quote of the week is from Henri Bergson, who won a Nobel prize so he must be smarter than me. We do agree on growing and maturing, however.

5:29 My buddy Kevin Eikenberry joins us to talk about “From Bud to Boss: Secrets to a Successful Transition to Remarkable Leadership”. Everyone had that first moment when you woke up and realized the world had changed forever. How do you lead people that you had friendly, peer relationships with?

7:40 There are a number of challenges to making this change. The primary one is that the relationships you’ve depended on change. Also there are a number of new skills to learn. There is also the issue that many of us got promoted because we were good at something that we’re no longer allowed to do. Letting go is maybe the hardest part. Perspective changes.

9:50 Okay, let’s start with the first things you need to look at. What do you do on Day 1? You have to have honest conversations with everyone… including your friends and anyone who wanted the job that you still have to work with.

12:23 The worst nightmare for a lot of new leaders: someone you know…maybe even trained you…needs to have performance addressed. You have to step up. Here’s how. We also digress into “but” vs. “and” and other trite but true axioms.

18:40 What is it about the word “boss” that makes people crazy? It’s a loaded term but has a lot of emotional baggage. The fact is, no matter how enlightened you are you ARE their boss. Forget it at your peril.

23:00 One of the hardest changes is that you now have to hang with other managers and you’re not allowed to hang out with the people you used to be friends with. My wife is dealing with this. There’s a reason the army has a no-fraternization rule. Learn to love your new peers.

Kevin’s Resources

Kevin Eikenberry’s blog

He weasels out of naming names but you can find a lot of them at…..

The Bud to Boss community site

Don’t forget great webinar workshops available from GreatWebMeetings.com each month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams    February 25

Web Presentation Basics (2 parts) February 21 and 23

Welcome to the show….

Show Notes

0:00 Today we’re talking reading, and that leads us to our dedication, Demetrius of Phalerum who helped build the great library of Alexandria. Having the books is great, but do you read them? Books are awfully decorative, don’t you think?

3:50 The quote of the week is from Abraham Lincoln- who was a voracious reader and a pretty smart guy. Amazing that other people think like you, isn’t it?

4:24 Welcome back Todd Sattersten to the show. You can hear his last appearance with Jack Covert here.

Todd’s now out on his own at  www.bizzbooklab.com What did he think of last year’s crop of business books? If you want to read about the economic collapse,there are some good ones out there. There also was a focus on intrinsic motivation…because if we don’t motivate ourselves, nothing else will do it.

9:27 What does Todd look for in a business book? 3 things: accessibility, unexpectedness (enough with Southwest, Starbucks  and Zappos, already!) and utility.

13:31 Todd has a list of his top ten books. You can see his post here.

Todd has a lot to say about The Mesh.  We take a deep, geeky dive here.We also get into how Craigslist is changing the business world.


21:25 So what’s going on that business books aren’t telling us? The entrepeneurial approach to work is not accurately reflecting the way we work. You’ll be shocked to hear I have my own take on this

Todd has a couple of ebooks available on his site, or you can just drop him a line.

Don’t forget great webinar workshops available from GreatWebMeetings.com each month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams    February 25

Web Presentation Basics (2 parts) February 21 and 23

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome, everyone to the latest show. We dedicate this episode on crisis communication to a Canadian Heroine. Yes you’ll have to look it up so here’s the link to Laura Secord. Learn something about crisis communication, how everyone has to step up and the difference between Canadian heroes and US  heroes.

3:23 The quote of the week is from Winnie the Pooh. Really. Oh quit hugging me already.

4:45 Welcome Neil Chapman of AlphaVoice Communications. His humility aside, he was an important cog in BP’s machine during the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. Much to learn here today. What was it like in the belly of that beast?

7:05 What was that crisis like when the phone rang and he had to spring into action? He sounds so darned calm and sane but it had to be madness. Preparation helps and you need to be flexible and adapt. That’s where leadership comes in. He walks us through the logistics.

12:15 We know how this impacts the company, but what is the human cost of a long-term crisis? People can amaze you.

15:00 What happens when the corporate message meets values meets reality? You get the feeling Neil loved his team deeply.

23:00 Just when you think things are under control, the big bosses do something stupid. How do you keep your own team intact and positive?

25:30 What should managers be doing right now to prepare their team for a possible emergency?

28:02 As a manager you need to know the strengths of your people.Tasks need to go to the right people.

29:45 How much control can you have over people’s social media. Can you just let them tweetfacelinkblog at will?

Neil’s Resources

Don’t forget two great workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams on January 28

Web Presentation Basics January 24

Also a FREE white paper: Beating the Hype Cycle- how to get people to use web presentation tools you’ve already paid for!”

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Today we’re talking remote teams or virtual teams. A great example of someone who didn’t have the benefit of this show is Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca,who had to administer the Spanish Empire. Of course, he was a priest so taking orders without ever meeting the boss was nothing new for him…..

4:50 The quote of the week is from Francois de Rochefoucauld. Does absence from your team strengthen or extinguish your flame? Just asking….

5:30 Welcome Darleen DeRosa to the show. Her research shows that many companies throw virtual teams together without planning for their success. Harvard says 80% of remote teams don’t work? Why not?

9:00 Companies do this to save the visible costs, but what’s the cost of lost productivity or high turnover?  Most companies don’t – or can’t- prove the ROI here.  Do the same practices of co-located teams work? If you don’t invest in technology, how can people get the work done?

11:20 The four most common pitfalls of virtual teams are: lack of clear goals, conflicting priorities, lack of trust and lack of engagement.  One huge problem is divided management or matrixed organizations. Very often people don’t even know everyone on their team! This is particularly true for managers who tend to be on a bunch of committees or task forces on top of their “real” jobs.

14:24 The one thing that comes up all the time for me is that the manager and theindividual may be fine, but it’s getting team members to know, trust and reach out to each other. The cost of this not working is high. Trust is the top quality of high performing teams. Focusing on tasks alone sometimes ignores people problems that can derail your team.

17:28 It’s simple but not easy to get your remote team on task. Good (short) virtual meetings are critical. Prework will often shorten andfocus the meetings. Choose a team-building exercise that might have people meeting up front. Some real good ideas here, grab a pen. Fun is highly underrated.

20:00 You need to use all the technology at your disposal to create a “virtual water cooler”. Answering each others’ questions or offering assistance is a great way to build trust and teams. The big question is: how do you get people to use them? You need to be specific and offer training. Oh, and model it yourself. Suck it up and do it, managers. (check out the white paper we mentioned earlier for good advice on this!)

23:00 Watch out for performance peaks- very often teams come together well but performance starts to slip. You need to monitor the team as you go, don’t wait for the crisis.  What does a virtual leader do? The leader organizes the team, reports back to senior management and have to be great influencers andconflict managers. You have to help overcome the silos.

26:00 What are some of the signs that a virtual team might be in trouble? Quality slipping, increased conflict, or people just skipping meetings and making lame excuses.

Check out OnPoint consulting’s site.

Also check out Netage.com.

Don’t forget two great workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams on January 28

Web Presentation Basics January 24

Also a FREE white paper: Beating the Hype Cycle- how to get people to use web presentation tools you’ve already paid for.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Today we’re talking about starting a company with values in mind, which puts in mind the RCMP and its founder, George Arthur French. Standards and style either get determined on purpose or they happen in spite of you.

4:25 The quote of the week is from Henry David Thoreau- not one of my favorites but occasionally said something worth hanging onto and he’s a more impressive credit than quoting me….

5:10 Welcome Ann Rhoades to the show. She’s going to talk about building a company on values…but since she helped start Jet Blue she knows a bit about the topic. I’m a bit jaded on the topic so why should we care?

7:15 Ann left SouthWest and helped start JetBlue.How do you go about blue printing your values and the behaviors that exemplify them?

11:00 Hotels and airlines lead the league in complaints and bad experiences so how do you incorporate values into the business plan? Admittedly it doesn’t take much to exceed expectations but you have to try. What do you do when someone just doesn’t fit in?

14:45 What do you do as a manager with something like “safety” as a value. How do you manage to it? It’s all about identifying behaviors then keeping people accountable for it.

18:30 There are real bottom-line results to this theory…. and they’re impressive. What do you do when something bad happens to test the values? Can you recover? Here’s a case study you might not be familiar with but should be.

24:10 How do you identify people who will fit with your values during the interview process instead of getting surprised? It’s all about behavioral interviewing rather than skills interviewing. A players have skills, but that’s not how they get to be A Players.

Anns Resources

Don’t forget two great workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams on January 28

Web Presentation Basics January 24

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the 267th show. After this many shows and this many years I’m a bit skeptical about using the term Radical to describe management theory. Then it dawned on me that it’s not the theory that’s radical, it’s the notion that someone can actually pull it off. For that reason we dedicate this show to Alexander Kerensky, the poor SOB who tried to initiate radical change in Russia without changing the way he went about it. When you can tick off both Left and Right you’re not radical, but you’re probably on the right track.

4:27 The quote of the week is from Mark Twain. Today’s radical is tomorrow’s conservative…true in work as well as politics.

6:00 Welcome Steve Denning to the show.  What’s so radical about his ideas?  Management as it’s practiced, particularly in the Fortune 500, doesn’t work so well.  Rate of return on assets is about 1/4 of what it was and the average life span of a company is under 15 years. 4 out of 5 people aren’t engaged in their work. So what can we do and isn’t this a natural evolution?

9:50 All of this means huge (dare we say radical?) shiftsin the balance of power. The 7 principles of his book are:

1. Focus work on delighting the client
2. Do work through self-organizing teams
3. Do work in client-driven iterations
4. Deliver value to clients with each iteration
5. Be totally open about impediments to improvement
6. Create a context for continuous self-improvement within the team
7. Communicate interactively with stories, questions and conversations

12:18 What does “delighting the client” really mean? How delighted are people really expected to be? You need direct line of sight to the customers.

14:30 What does working in “client-driven iterations” really mean? It means short bursts of change and constant feedback as you go. The bigger the project the less line of sight you deliver and the easier it is to go horribly wrong.

18:53 How do you have the conversation with your boss about changing the metrics? The whole discussion needs to focus on the impact on the customer. Illustratrive stories are the best way to tell your side of the situation.

22:00 One of the deceptively simple ideas in the book is the concept of pointing out the barriers to improvement. He tells us a story about what happened at the World Bank(which didn’t go too well) as well as with Ford Motor Company (with much better results).

26:28 What does he mean by “creating context” that allows us to do good things AND stay on track with the organization?  It’s all about having clear goals and being able to tell the story.  What’s the velocity of your team?

Steve’s Resources

Don’t forget two great workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams on January 28

Web Presentation Basics January 24

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the last show of 2010. We’re talking childishness and so we salute the Chinese philosopher Liu Xiang, not to be confused with the hurdler of the same name. Raising children is tough, but the parallels in the workplace are many and disturbing.

2:55 The quote of the week is from George Bernard Shaw. Are you a role model or a warning. Really? Try again.

4:27 Welcome Nick McCormick back to the show. He’s been with us before. His new book is all about childish behavior in the workplace. Why do grownups act like kids at work and what’s a manager to do?

9:00 One childish behavior you see all the time can best be described as “lalalallala I’m not listening to you”. Why is listening so difficult?

12:54 The thing that drives me crazy is outright lying. You’ve heard people say “I didn’t know….” It makes me CRAZY. You need to probe without calling them a liar.

17:00 When this goes on for a long time it’s hard to address. You need to get proactive and not put up with it from the start.

19:38 Nick and I share our most childish behaviors. I’m a bragger, Nick tends to want to win at all costs. What’s yours?

22:38 Sometimes childish behavior is a sign of a real problem.  There’s also a difference between childish and child-like.

Nick’s Resources

The Carnival of Leadership is a rotating blog roundup of the best stuff out there. You have to Google to find the latest, though.

Wally Bock’s 3 Start Leadership

Phil Gerbyshak

Don’t forget two great workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams on January 28

Web Presentation Basics January 24

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome back for the 265th time. Today we talk employee engagement, a topic the world never seems to tire of (if occasionally I do). We dedicate this episode to someone who understood that a small group of dedicated, passionate folks beats a big army of slackers. We’re talking about Gideon. Forget the fleece, it’s the engagement piece I find interesting. And putting dew on the fleece is not a euphemism for anything dirty… although it sure could be.

3:18 Yes, engagement comes from the heart but you have to let the brain drive. Our quote of the week is from Benjamin Franklin.

4:15 Welcome Bob Kelleher to the show. I like practical tips and getting results is what this is all about so this is a bit different than a lot of what’s out there.  Bob doesn’t care if the employees are satisfied if they’re under performing. Engagement is not necessary to success.. .It’s a mutual agreement. There’s a quid pro quo. If you take someone’s money, you owe them something in return and vice versa.

7:15 Here’s a definition of engagement you haven’t heard before:  the unlocking of your employees’ potential to drive results.  You need engaged people AND results for everyone to win.

9:34 The step that’s perhaps most important to Bob is to communicate the vision. That means make sure the employees understand not only what they’ll do but the expectations of the employee. It’s all about creating “line of sight” between the employee and the goals of the company. If you can’t see how what you do impacts the company, why should you care?

14:04 According to Bob, good managers engage through the use of the acronym BEST: Behavior, Education, Skills, Traits. Behaviors are what you want them to DO. Traits are the internal components that make it likely they’ll do it. He shares a good example from Timberland.

19:55 90% of the time, engagement and performance depend less on skill than on motivation. You can train for skills, you can’t teach caring.

22:45 Step 6 is to create a motivational culture. Your job is not to motivate….it’s the culture’s job. One of the keys is the three circles: what are you really good at? What do you really love to do? What really needs to get done. If there’s overlap, you’ll have an engaged employee. If you don’t, people want to do something they’re not doing or they’re doing something that doesn’t help the company.

Bob’s Resources

Don’t forget two great workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams Dec 17 and again on January 28

Web Presentation Basics Dec 20th and January 24

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show all of you who were once good at something and now get to watch everyone else do it while you’re on conference calls. We dedicate this episode to John Loud and the invention of the ball point pen- a great hack if ever there was one.

3:13 the quote of the week is from Nikola Tesla, a very smart guy. Nothing feels better than coming up with and implementing a great new idea. Well, maybe if you’re a Serbian engineer…..

4:48 Welcome Bill Jensen to the show.  I spoke to him for a BNET article that caused all kinds of trouble. What is hacking work? It’s like hacking code or anything else- finding the short cuts in spite of the rules.  But are you a white hat hacker or a black hat hacker?

8:49 Believe it or not every rule was created to solve another problem… so how do you know what rules to break and which rules to follow?  Here’s the question: is it respectful of your time? Is it as beneficial to you as to the organization?

12:05 Okay, IT people, take a breath. We talk about common hacks to get around the fire wall. Whether you like it or not, people are doing it. How are you going to handle it?

16:16 There are 2 causes of work complexity:  infrastructure and poor communication. Information doubles atthe rate of 100% per year….we need to change our beliefs. We also talk about my conversation with The Lazy Project Manager on show 213.

21:49 How do you roll out an idea once you’ve discovered a hack that works. It ain’t always easy but it starts with proof of concept and the ability to point to the end result. Do it underground  and post it….anonymously. Some interesting issues here.

26:45 Bill’s favorite hack- a young guy who reworked his own performance review…… this is kinda cool.

Bill’s Resources

TED.com and TED Talks

Ignite.Oreilly.com

Timemanagementninja.com

Don’t forget to visit www.GreatWebMeetings.com for free downloadable resources and the best webinar-based training. We offer two workshops How to Create and Manage Remote Teams Dec 17 and Web Presentation Basics on December 20th. Act now and get 2 for 1 registration! Contact us for more details.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. My daughter graduates high school in less than 4 weeks, impossible as that seems so today we dedicate this show to young leaders including King Tut. You need to accept advice while having your own vision and THAT brings us to today’s guest, Aaron Levie, CEO of Box.net.

3:29 The quote of the week is from Friedrich Nietszche who warns against teaching young people to idolize conformists. What’s the difference between best practice and the same old stuff? I’m probably too old to ask.

Project Managers: get those precious PDUs by checking out The PDUCast.

4:36 Welcome Aaron Levie to the show. You’ve probably seen Box.net on someone’s LinkedIn page. He tells us  about how he manages and how he learned his lessons. We spoke earlier on BNET (read the article here).

6:50 Aaron tells us how he started Box.net and how the company came together. How does a kid develop into a CEO? Starting the company helps. At some point this turns into a real grownup company. How does the hotshot turn into a manager?

9:47 How did he feel about becoming a manager? The hard part is about implementing good systems is realizing you won’t have all the information all the time. What is called bureaucracy is often just layers of information.

13:22 What happens when someone that young has to bring in older workers? How did the employees respond andhow did Aaron address it. In Silicon Valley this is less unusual than it might be in your world. Making it a true meritocracy is the only goal that works there.

15:30 Okay, here’s the question we have to ask: a new generation comes along every 30 years or so but there’s always drama. Are there really that many differences?  The biggest difference is expectations around access to information- which is often confused with ADD. Wanting to share information requires an open, electronically connected, speed driven environment.

17:47 My biggest complaint is about appearing not to pay attention, especially in meetings or on the phone. What’s the line between efficiency and rudeness?  Assume good intentions until proven otherwise.

20:15 What does Aaron feel are the “best practices” at Box.net?  People are not afraid to be critical and the information flows fast and freely. Chaos is not a bad thing. Ask questions til they scream.

22:45 One of the big battles in business is consumer grade software vs. enterprise and big IT? It’s an ongoing battle to enable individuals and groups while having consistency and economies of scale.

Aaron’s Resources

Blogs

Tech Crunch

Harvard Business Review

The Connected Manager on BNET

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:

1. Define what and who you are
2. Identify the principles of how you work and what you do
3. Be faithful to your conscience and character
4. Develop instinctive achievements
5. 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:

1. Recognize and embrace your uniqueness
2. Acknowledge and celebrate your achievements
3. Write a life contract with yourself- give yourself direction and plan. Do  you have a personal policy statement?
4. Set goals using those policy guidelines
5. Apply it to your life

Tony’s Resources

A lot of Tony’s favorite development training comes from DDI

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

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

2 new webinar workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams November 19

Web Presentation Basics- for those who have to present online and want to learn how not to suck at it on November 22 and 23

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,

Download his white paper here.

2 new webinar workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams November 19

Web Presentation Basics- for those who have to present online and want to learn how not to suck at it on November 22 and 23

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,

Download his white paper here.

2 new webinar workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams November 19

Web Presentation Basics- for those who have to present online and want to learn how not to suck at it   on November 22 and 23

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. Today we dedicate our show to James Burbage, who ran the Theatre in London before Shakespeare moved to the Globe.  Anyone who can run a decent business with actors is capable of ruthless focus, indeed.

2:56 The quote of the week is from Alexander Graham Bell. Yes, the man who inventedthe telephone, which is often an interruption, is lecturing us about paying attention. At least it wasn’t the #@$%%^ who invented the Blackberry.

4:45 Welcome Wally Bock. (Listen to earlier conversations with him here and also here)  He’s co-author of “Ruthless Focus- how to use key core strategies to grow your business”. Why is this as important for managers as it is for CEOs? Well, it’s not as important what your strategy is, so much as whether you admit you have one. You have to stay with it until it doesn’t work any more.

8:04 What exactly is “focus” as they define it in the book? It’s about 1) One thing that’s most important to pay attention to and 2) Simplify all the stuff you have going on so you’re clear on what you’re doing.

10:10 It’s so easy to confuse action with achievement.  And what’s the difference between focus and tunnel vision?  Wally gives a great example.

13:31 How do you know when something isn’t working any more? The secret is to have an independent source of information. Most information managers get is filtered, first through the organization and your people will almost always tell you what they think you want to know.

16:30 Why does this focus need to be ruthless? Because you need to be relentless and you’ll be sick of your message long before it actually sinks in to the minds of your people. It’s exponentially annoying and therein lies the trap.

22:35 Just because it’s obvious doesn’t mean we do it. Boredom is one reason, the sheer volume of stuff coming at you is crippling. That’s why i’m a morning person….because when you let your day get away you get drawn off-focus.

25:18 How do you influence those above you when it looks like they’re getting off topic?  You have to remember that they are the boss. I offer the question that helps me…”help me understand how this new idea will help us achieve our strategic goal?”

Wally’s Resources

Blogs

Leadership Freak (Dan Rockwell)

N2Growth

2 new webinar workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams October 22

Web Presentation Basics- for those who have to present online and want to learn how not to suck at it   on October 25 and26

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 I am stunned that Bob Sutton is with us today. He’s a big deal and is here despite what I wrote 3 years ago in Management Issues…. We dedicate this episode to Luis Urzua, the foreman of that group of Chilean miners who spent 70 days underground. No whining about whatever project you’re on… ever.

4:00 the quote of the week is from Lao Tzu. Are you a wicked leader, a good one or a great one? In otherwords, are you a Good Boss or a Bad Boss?

5:24 Welcome Bob Sutton to the show. What’s the key idea of the book? It’s about the “toxic tandems”: on one hand, you’re being watched more closely than ever and on the other hand we become more oblivious to our surroundings.

8:34 We’re not often aware that we are often the major cause of employee stress. Yeah you have that kind of power for good or evil. You can actually double someone’s chance of heart attack….seriously.

10:45 It’s a pretty simple concept: emulate your good bosses and try not to be like the idiots. So why is it so difficult? We get the blame when things go wrong but we have to not take the credit when it goes well.

14:02 Andy Grove of Intel is a firm believer in “fake it til you make it”. Doesn’t that seem a little wierd coming from someone with such high standards? Confidence largely is a result of self-fulfilling prophecies.

16:25 One of the biggest pitfalls for new managers is to recognize that the quality of input and data changes. People are both sucking up and telling you what you want to hear to cover their own behinds.

21:22 The “Golden Rule” is not always good advice. It’s a recipe for disaster to treat others exactly as you wish to be managed.

23:00 Will Wright, the dean of video game programmers has an “audience centered approach”  to meetings. A toll booth on your email would be a good idea, don’t you think?

Bob’s Resources

His Work Matters Blog

Bret Simmons Blog

2 new webinar workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams October 22

Web Presentation Basics- for those who have to present online and want to learn how not to suck at it   on October 25 and26

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,the second in a series on living values at work. Sometimes it’s enough to know that it’s not just you.  We dedicate this show to Abraham Lincoln. You have to remember that he struggled constantly with his values and led the union because it was right, not because he actually was wildly enthusiastic about the abolition thing, but his values game him no choice.

3:23 The quote of the week is from Sir Francis Bacon ( our leading quote source as of this week). It’s not what you putin your mouth but what you digest that nourishes you , and it’s not what you say that determines your core values and integrity. Ponder that one ,if you will.

4:45 Welcome Mary Gentile to the show. Yeah, we’re talking values again, but it matters. “Speaking Your Mind When You Know What’s Right”,sounds deceptively simple. If we spoke up whenever anything annoyed us we wouldn’t stay employed very long. First you have to know your values and that those are pretty universal – “hypernorms” like fairness, honesty, integrity and compassion.

8:23 Speaking up doesn’t have to be that “Jerry McGuire” moment (although it does sometimes happen). It’s not about self-righteousness. The book is mostly case studies of real people in real constructive situations. Mostly it involves building a business case for the behavior you’re trying to encourage.

10:15 Who do you complain to about your company’s values? Who’s the audience?  The US Supreme Court’s opinion aside, companies aren’t people so you have to talk to someone. Do you have to talk to the CEO to act on your values?

14:49 “Fudging the numbers” is the most common values conflict. Does it really matter that much? When do you have to take a stand and can you be ideologically pure all the time?

17:03 Business ethics classes usually devolve into the exact definition of what’s right and wrong and that’s just practicing rationalization. What if you knew what was right and wrong …. what would you choose to do?

18:45 What are the practical steps to voice one’s values?  They involve principles such as “shared values”, “principled choice”, and “normalization”.

23:30 Loyalty sounds like a good thing, but being loyal to your peers can mean you do things you shouldn’t…

29:00 It’s amazing how often the person you bring the issue to is grateful for your input…often it didn’t sit right with them either.

Mary’s Resources

2 new webinar workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams October 22

Web Presentation Basics- for those who have to present online and want to learn how not to suck at it   on October 25 and26

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 However you say hello where you’re from, well right back at ya. Today we’re talking Values at Work, the flavor of the month but important none the less. (Read my Management Issues article on that).  We dedicate this show to someone who knew about that, Daniel and his den of lions. Knowing you’ll survive is one thing, having to go through it at all hardly seems right.

3:45 The quote of the week, rich with irony, is from George Eliot who lived her values, if not her wardrobe choices.

5:00 Welcome Stan Slap to the program. The title of the book comes from an incident where the US Government massacred Native Americans because they felt by living their traditions they’d be a threat to the government. Does your company get nervous about how you want to live your values? There’s no better way for the company to become the cause than to lighten the hell up and stop trying to BE the cause.  What makes you free to commit to an employer?

9:05 What exactly are values? They are your definition of what your life looks like. How much of that do you have to compromise just to hold a job? It’s over 50% of your waking hours.

10:50 Stated values and how things really work are often not the same thing. How can you tell what the values of a company really are? How can you tell when they are in conflict? When people live their individual values it all becomes moot.

13:20 Managers don’t tell employees what their values are, so they guess based on your behavior. Think about THAT for a minute. If you don’t know what’s true for you, everyone else has undue influence on you.

16:20 What do you do when there’s an inherent disconnect. Take “family” as a value. Do you really have that if you never see them because you’re working to feed them?Why do managers usually legislate against ourselves?

20:07 You will never realize working your values if a) you don’t sell it to your employees and b) sell it to your employer. You need to make a business case. You first have to recognize what your values are and take personal responsibility for them.

26:03 If you have an emotional reaction to this conversation and want to get back on track, what steps can you take to get ourselves where we want to go?  You have to recognize what your values are, promise yourself you’ll translate those to your people through your actions and behavior and then turn them into a “new story of performance”.

Stans’ Resources

Tim Sanders blog

Guy Kawasaki

Keith Ferrazzi

2 new webinar workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams October 22

Web Presentation Basics- for those who have to present online and want to learn how not to suck at it   on October 25 and26

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 once again to the show. Project Management is one of our Four     Disciplines of Highly Effective, Leadership Exhibiting, Project Nailing, Cheese Moving Managers, and a critical skill. Do you need to be fully certified, though? How has project management changed, especially internationally? Oh, and we dedicate this show to the Russian hackers who have been screwing up my life lately. I speak some Russian, get your father to tell you what it means.

3:13 The quote of the week is from Friedrich Nietzsche (and project management is all about constrained pessimism). You won’t learn everything before you start, but at least you’ll know it for next time.

3:54 Welcome Deasun Oconchuir back to the show. (You can hear his last interview with us here).  He’s written a new overview of the PMBOK guide. Yeah there’s a book and a test, but it’s still left to your judgment. Enjoy that.  What’s changed over the years?  One is there were no standards before, and second was everyone felt like they were on their own.  You’re not alone any more.

7:40 Things used to be done to completion then handed off. Now,thanks to technology, you can do things in iteration to check quality and assumptions. This is mostly a good thing, even when it’s annoying and seems like busy work.

10:30 Empowerment is one thing, but the role of a PM has changed. You are now responsible for the project, and that includes the people working on it.

13:00 When does PMP certification make sense for managers? If you’re working in an international environment, certification allows for a “universal language” that everyone working on the project can understand. At least that’s the theory.

16:00 If you manage projects all in one place with people who answer to you, you’re rarer than Panda poop. This matrixed organization makes it tough. According to Deasun’s research, there isn’t a single project at IBM where everyone works in the same room at the same time. It’s about “who can do it”?

18:46 How do PMs work with the boss of your teammates? You need to check alignment of the work environment. If there’s a problem, go through the sponsor of your project.

20:40 No big surprise,the hardest thing about project management is the people involved. Education and even PMBOK are now better at teaching this than it used to be back in the day.  Oh,and it might be in many languages,because it was so easy before.

2 new webinar workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams September  24

Web Presentation Basics- for those who have to present online and want to learn how not to suck at it   on September 26 and 29

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 dedicate this episode to James Puckle, inventor of the Puckle gun.  2 lessons learned: 1) documentation is the path to credibility 2) customization won’t get you the deal if your product sucks to start with you wind up with a custom product that still sucks.

3:58 The quote of the week is from Mary Wolstencroft Shelly. Invention doesn’t come out of a void,   it usually comes when you’re trying to make sense of the chaos. Sounds like as good  a description of this show as any…..

5:00 Welcome Charlie Bess back to the show (you can hear an earlier conversation with him here) along with Phil Simon. They’re here to discuss new technology trends that will make or break us managers. Things like Software as a Service (SaaS), Open Source, Cloud, Mobility and Social Media/Networks. Apparently the big trend will be edge computing, as well as data management. Mobility will replace the desktop if it hasn’t already. Is lack of data really the problem for most of us?

8:45  Pattern recognition will be a big deal- something needs to identify when a person needs to be involved and when can you just let the computer handle it?  Collaboration is going to be a much bigger deal as well and there’s no one right way. It’s going to be our challenge to identify HOW to respond to a piece of information (as in which tool) as it is what your response should be.

12:45 Do large and small companies work differently from each other? Well, they have the budget to actually get together for a while. One thing HP is doing is alot more video conferencing. What’s the middle ground between big Cisco type holodecks or down and dirty Skype? What’s emerging as the compromise? 

15:50 Small companies are much better at jumping into technology because they can jump out earlier. Why do so many big projects fail? Politics, resentment, lots of reasons that have nothing to do with whether something works.  It’s easier if you’re not tied into a 5-year license to call it quits. Perfection is the enemy of the good.

18:55 One paradox of technology- oftenwhat you buy it for is not what you use it for. Charlie walks us through an example of  webinars and webmeetings- they have to become different than live presentations to be effective.

20:00 It’s very easy to rag on big companies but what do larger companies do well when it comes to technology? For one thing they can actually budget and plan to complete projects with a longer view. Smaller companies tend to focus on immediate ROI.

21:30 What is the bare minimum technology that managers need to function? Mobility is key. Some form of instant messaging is critical. PLEASE NOTE: EMAIL IS NOT A SYNCHRONOUS TOOL! 

24:00 The consumerization of IT is a huge issue for companies and small companies do it better than large ones. The biggest complaint is the dreaded  VPN.  Overcoming security concerns is the biggest hurdle you’ll have to overcome.

28:36 What’s are some of the best practices for getting people to use technology. Phil says, don’t put a square peg in a round hole. Short-term agreementsare better than multi-year licenses.Be prepared to bail on what doesnt’ work. Charlie points out that you need to have company-wide expectations that people will use tools- wisely or not you need to be able to point out what should be happening.

Resources

Charlie’s Next Big Thing blog at HP

Phil’s Virtual Soapbox

Phil’s Book: The New Small  (it’s not at Amazon yet)

2 new webinar workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams September  24

Web Presentation Basics- for those who have to present online and want to learn how not to suck at it   on September 26 and 29

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

o:00 Welcome to the show, kids. One of the 4 Disciplines of Highly Effective, Leadership Exhibiting, Project Nailing, Cheese Moving Managers is Business Acument, that includes career savvy. We present today’s case study, Admiral Yi Sun-sin of the Korean navy. Sometimes a lateral move is the right move, especially when you have no choice in the matter.

Don’t forget to click the link and check out the PDUCast, we love our sponsors!

3:55 The quote of the week is from Oscar Wilde. Experience is another word for mistakes huh? Better intentional ones than unexpected ones, I say.

4:51 Welcome our guest Kathryn Ullrich to the show. A lot of us have gotten where we are by accident. Also, “the top” is hard to define. What’s the biggest challenge people have with career planning? Most of us have “career by happenstance”.

7:00 How do you know when to stay the course with your dream and when it legitimately needs to change? It all starts with “do you like what you’re doing or do you hate it?”. What are the key questions you need to ask yourself? It depends on your skills, values and interests.

10:33 Kathryn gives us an example of an engineer making some conscious choices.  Sometimes you can get promoted into a job that’s entirely wrong for you. Moving from “rewarded for doing” to “rewarded for getting it done” is a huge step. Communication skills and delegation are core skills.

13:00 When do you know you’ve taken a wrong promotion and how do you make a change that doesn’t kill your career? You have to figure out where you want to go long term, not just right now. Seek out mentors and role models in those areas you need to develop. Take classes (like webinar workshops for example…)

16:00 To really get to “the top” of an organization you will have to do sales at some point, and early in your career is better (the stakes are lower). Kathryn gives us some good examples of people moving out of their comfort zones. Still, our moves impact other people like spouses and families.

19:45 Does working remotely negatively impact your career? Can you still have a great career when you don’t work at headquarters? Get in front of important people, either be willing to travel or take high-profile projects that get you noticed. Relationships matter. Some of those internal projects are more crucial than you think.

24:00 What skills do most people need to develop? They fall into 5 buckets (strategic vision, customer perspective, communication skills, team leadership and master functional skills). How do you communicate and how is it perceived by others? Take some kind of assessment. Here’s a silly article about my own assessment.

Kathryn’s Resources

Welcome George Lucas, co-author of The One Minute Negotiator to the show.

2 new webinar workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams September  24

Web Presentation Basics- for those who have to present online and want to learn how not to suck at it   on September 26 and 29

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 251st edition of the show. Today we talk negotiating, which means that our show is dedicated to James Monroe and Robert Livingston, who negotiated the Louisiana Purchase. Trust me, your project team probably doesn’t have nearly as many hidden agendas or egos involved and they pulled it off, so you can too.

2:50 The quote of the week is from Adam Smith, who said that man is basically a bargaining animal. You don’t see dogs swapping bones do ya?

3:30 Welcome George Lucas, co-author of The One Minute Negotiator. We will define it as “the process through which two parties whose initial positions don’t match, work in an effort to reach an agreement. If you’ve ever tried to get extra time from your boss, you’re negotiating.

5:10 Many of us (okay, me) suffer from “Negotiaphobia”…we are terrified to engage in negotiation or just avoid it altogether. There is no one right way to do it. There are 4 styles of negotiation and you need to know how to use each properly:  accommodation, avoidance, competition and collaboration.  And don’t confuse collaboration with accommodation because you can bleed to death. You can’t accommodate someone who’s competing with you or you’ll be a doormat.

10:00 One of the biggest challenges for negotiaphobes is the concept of power and over/underestimating the balance of power between the parties. I use my landlord as an example.

14:06 You can negotiate with your boss if you know what is non-negotiable and where there’s wiggle room. Listen very carefully to their word choices, and be careful with your own.

17:00 Why are North Americans such lame negotiators?  George blames the scanner at the super market. When in doubt, blame the technology I guess. I think this has a lot to do with power…and you can’t negotiate with someone who has no authority.

21:54 The acronym for the One Minute Negotiator is EASY  Engage, Assess, Strategize,  YOUR One Minute system.

22:55 Good tip: when someone says “of course there’s an extra fee…”. That’s a clue that it’s negotiable. They’re trying to run you over.

George’s Resources

The One Minute Negotiator.com

Greatwebmeetings.com

As many of you know, we offer two proven effective programs, delivered by webinar so you can access it anywhere in the world. Here are the programs and the schedule through the end of the year. Click the link to register and learn more.

Please Note: We are open to delivery at a time convenient for Asia Pacific with two or more attendees. Please contact us at Greatwebmeetings if you are interested in scheduling a different session, or want a discount for having 3 or more attendees from the same company.

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams

If you manage a remote project team, or just a group of employees and want to learn tips and techniques for creating highly functioning, connected and productive teams, this 90 minute webinar is for you. Click the links and learn more.

September 24, 2010

October 22, 2010

November 19, 2010

December 17, 2010

Web Presentation Basics

Training without practice is wasted money. If you want to learn the basics of effective web presenting and facilitating to lead meetings, deliver training or do sales demos, this 2-part program is for you. Part 1 is delivered to a whole group, part 2 is scheduled individually or in small groups  to meet your demands.

Web Presentation Basics September 27 and 30

Web Presentation Basics October 25th and 27th

Web Presentation Basics November 22nd and 24th

Web Presentation Basics December 20 and 22

See the whole catalog of Greatwebmeetings.com Course Offerings

This young punk is the “Get it Done Guy”, Stever Robbins. He’s the author of “Get-It-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More”.

2 new webinar workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams September  24

Web Presentation Basics- for those who have to present online and want to learn how not to suck at it   on September 26 and 29

If you have questions about these workshops, group discounts or any Greatwebmeetings.com training program, contact me.

Don’t forget the Connected Manager Blog on BNET. 3 Posts a week on managing remote teams and staying connected.

Show notes

0:00 Welcome to our 250th episode. No splashy party, just another interesting conversation with someone way smarter than me. Since we’re talking about getting things done, we thought we’d introduce you to the term “eminence grise” and its namesake,  Francois Leclerc de Tremblay. My mother taught me early that power has nothing to do with the org chart.

3:40 The quote of the week is from Thomas Alva Edison who knew a thing or two about the difference between being busy and actually accomplishing anything.

4:15 Say hi to Stever Robbins, author of “9 Steps to Work Less and Do More”. He also has his own podcast  with quick and dirty productivity tips. Why do we struggle to get things done? The usual reason is we’re not sure what we’re supposed to get done. Task lists are a problem and have been since the cave man scribbled “hunt buffalo” on a cave wall. I never thought of “to do ” lists as impressing potential mates. Still doesn’t work that way.

8:16 The big problem with tasks is that we lose sight of the big picture. Stever also realized that people were getting things done before the computer. Don’t underestimate the power of the simple notebook.

11:07 What’s the problem with email? How did it turn from productivity tool to time sucker? Stever offers some great tips for managing the beast. The main thing is to treat it like a handwritten letter… is it really worth the effort? If so it’s worth taking your time and doing it right.

15:07 Are you aiming for “inbox zero?” Dream on. Stever has an unorthodox solution- delete them all, go in and save only the ones you can’t function without. Self-delusion is underrated as a tool.

21:00 Replying to email instinctively is a timekiller. Try actually thinking about what you want to accomplish and say about it.

23:45 Let’s assume you want to actually keep your job. Stever has great tips for working with your team- including modeling whatever behavior you want them to copy. Using actual messages as the subject line in your email is a great way to help them actually understand your message.

Stever’s Resources

The Lifehacker blog

43 Folders

The Quick and Dirty Tips podcast

Anything by Marshall Goldsmith including

Tommy Spaulding talks to us about making lifelong connections and how it’s NOT networking…well it kind of is. He’ll explain.

2 new webinar workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams August 27th

Web Presentation Basics- for those who have to present online and want to learn how not to suck at it   on August 23 and 26th

If you have questions about these workshops, group discounts or any Greatwebmeetings.com training program, contact me.

Don’t forget the Connected Manager Blog on BNET. 3 Posts a week on managing remote teams and staying connected.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. I’m back from vacation but just as cranky as ever. Today we’re talking networking, or at least taking count of the people around you and what they mean to you…and vice versa. That got me thinking about censuses, and that got me thinking about Hesham Abdel Malek ben Marwan, who in 600 AD started taking stock of people around him.

3:00 The quote of the week is from Samuel Johnson. Is it better to seek people out or accept those who come to you? Tommy might have something to say about this quote….

4:00 Welcome Tommy Spaulding. He first came to my attention in Steve’s book “Greater Than Yourself”. (hear the full interview with Steve here). Tommy’s story is proof that connections and human relationships are more important than technical skills.

6:11 What’s wrong with what we normally think of as “networking”. Tommy thinks it’s a curse word, which might be a bit strong, but it’s primarily about helping ourselves. That’s a limited view of how to create true relationships. he prefers “netgiving” which is a bit of a semantic twist but I’ll go with it. Much like The Go-Giver by Bob Burg (and you can hear that interview here too). Of course if you’re looking for books, it’s really “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie that got him started on this path.

10:25 There are levels of relationships- “5 Floors” as Tommy calls them. Level one is purely transactional. Level 2 you might share a little personal information (NSW- News Sports Weather) conversations. Level 3 is exposing a bit of yourself to the person and Levels 4 and 5 are very open and candid. It’s a little counterintuitive but work with him.

14:00 As he does in the book, Tommy shares an example of building a level 4 or 5 relationship. It’s all about working with and for other people without thinking of yourself first that it all comes together. The term Tommy uses is “relationship captial” which i’m not comfortable with but this whole conversation kinds weirds me out so there you have it.

21:02 Tommy gives us some practical tips, one of which he calls, “Pardon me while I talk to your wife…” which is all about including the spouses and others when you’re working with someone. Ignore the people around your folks at your peril.

24:50 More tips: on the back of everyone’s business card that you get, write something that came up during the conversation so you have something about them that will help you connect.

27:15

Tommy’s Resources

2 new webinar workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams August 27th

Web Presentation Basics- for those who have to present online and want to learn how not to suck at it   on August 23 and 26th

If you have questions about these workshops, group discounts or any Greatwebmeetings.com training program, contact me.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the Cranky Middle Manager. Today we are talking about the ABCs of Management, and thus we’re thinking about spelling and words and that brings us to today’s dedication. Robert Cawdrey not only invented the first English dictionary, but the credit then went to Samuel Johnson. Sounds about right. Also, he was worried that if we didn’t all define our terms we wouldn’t know what we were talking about…and he was right there too.

4:30 The quote of the week is from Mark Twain who knew a thing or two about choosing the right words…and when not to use them.

5:20 Welcome Bob Parkinson back to the show (you can hear his first interview here). Do we really need another book about becoming a manager? Apparently we do. The ABCs of management are: Attitude, Behavior and Culture.

7:20 Is becoming a manager any more difficult than it ever was? The biggest challenge is that the workplace may not be an actual place at all.  Working remotely has fundamentally changed the demands of the job.

10:45 How does a manager listen and pay attention to people he or she never sees. A big part of your job is NOT doing things, it’s helping them get it done.

15:13 How do you empower employees? They need 5 things to know exactly what’s expected:

• What needs to be done?
• When does it need to be done?
• Who is responsible for getting it done?
• Why does it need to be done?
• How will success be measured?

17:13 For this to work you have verification. The employee has to be able to show that they’ve done what they’ve been asked to do. The manager has to verify that he or she was heard correctly in the first place. Just because you said it, doesn’t mean they understood it. Make sure they can verbalize what the heck you wanted.

20:30 What’s the difference between getting to root cause and finding out what happened and putting people on the spot? For the record, Bob calls the question profound. This has never happened. Ever.

23:40 What is the one communication tool or skill managers would magically develop if Bob had his choice? They have to realize they are dealing with people first, employees second.  The gift of respect is often lacking.

Bob’s Resources

As of this morning, you can read The Connected Manager blog 3 times a week. You’ll find tips on managing remote teams, presenting over the web and leading across the ether. Don’t worry, we’ll still be cranking out Cranky shows (we’re not going anywhere) but this is yet another way to get the information, tips and support you need to get the job done every day.

Please check out the blog post for today and subscribe so you don’t miss a single post. Or you can just follow me on Twitter, where you’ll find out everything that’s going on at BNET, Management-Issues and the Cranky Middle Manager.

Thanks for all your support, and as I used to say when I was single, “don’t tell me, tell your friends”.

Don’t let the weasels get you down.

zinger

David Zinger joins us to talk about employee engagement, the EE network and making art with honeybees.

2 new webinar workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams July 3oth and August 27th

Web Presentation Basics- for those who have to present online and want to learn how not to suck at it. July 26th and 29th  and again on August 23 and 26th

If you have questions about these workshops, group discounts or any Greatwebmeetings.com training program, contact me.

Show Notes

0:00 Today we welcome David Zinger back to the show to talk about employee engagement and a free e-book written by some very smart people (myself included…in the writing, not the smart people part). We dedicate the show to Edward R Murrow who led Murrow’s Boys and say farewell to Daniel Schorr. Makes you wonder if a pizza party will do as much for team cohesion as falling V2 rockets…..

4:31 The quote of the week is from Samuel Goldwyn, renowned for saying what he meant even when he had no idea what he was saying…….

5:10 Welcome David Zinger back to the show (you can hear his first interview here). David is also the head of the Employee Engagement Network on Ning. check it out for a great network of people who care… After several years of people talking about employee engagement is anything getting better out there? Not so much.

7:18 A couple of cynical questions from Wayne… hasn’t worked always sucked? Isn’t it by nature a transaction?  If we spend 20-30% of our time at work shouldn’t we get something from it besides a paycheck? Oh and isn’t misery optional? What is the employee’s role in engagement?

11:00 David goes off on the whole idea of “confidential ” 360.  Apparently he’s not a fan…if you can’t be truthful about feedback you’re not sufficiently engaged and it’s time to start the conversation.

13:13 If you havne’t checked out The Employee Engagement Network, you probably should do so. Not only great people and thought leaders, but also just plain folks who are passionate about the topic. With that many people that passionate, what are the trends? One big area is managers not feeling engaged with Senior Leadership and if we’re not engaged, how can we offer energy and happy YouTube dances for our employees? David also uses a term I’ve been using for years…checking in without checking up.

19:07 How do we have these conversations with our own managers? You have to work up to them… don’t just parrot what you learn in class. Did you know the average person in north America complains about their boss or their company over 10 hours a month?

21:14 What does David recommend for keeping people engaged? Video, pictures of teammates,even (gasp) show up in person. Don’t underestimate taking time off the top of meetings to check in with each other. David studies honeybees and is doing artwork with the bees. David needs some time off methinks…. He also tells a chilling story of what happens when the bees want a new queen.  We’ve seen it happen in our workplace too. Are you getting cooked by your staff?

25:15 The Employee Engagement has created an E-book called “The Engagement Top Ten”, which is  a series of lists of 10 things managers can do to keep their people engaged. Participants include myself, David, Michael Lee Stallard, Ian Buckingham and many more. Click here to download for free

Chuck Martin, one of the co-authors of Work Your Strengths. This is a good one, folks.

2 new webinar workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams July 3oth and August 27th

Web Presentation Basics- for those who have to present online and want to learn how not to suck at it. July 26th and 29th  and again on August 23 and 26th

If you have questions about these workshops, group discounts or any Greatwebmeetings.com training program, contact me.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show, gang. Today we are talking playing to your strengths and what can happen when you don’t. As exhibit A we give you Raymond IV, Count of Toulouse, great general, lousy human being who fought in the First Crusade. Always wanted the one job he was completely unqualified to have and it didn’t go so swell for him.

4:10 Our quote of the week is from the Tao te Ching and it basically says, knowing yourself is the first step to real wisdom.  Obvious, maybe but are you making wise career choices?

4:50 Welcome Chuck Martin, co-author of “Work Your Strengths”. Lots more brain science today gang. Basically we’re born with certain cognitive functions (Executive Skills to be precise, even though many executives lack them).  These are things like Time Management, Response inhibition (guilty) Task Initiation, Flexibility and more.

10:15 Does the fact you’re weak in an area mean you can never learn to do that job? No, but it ain’t going to be easy. Successful people find out how to supplement their weaknesses by finding people who can fill in the gaps. That’s what assistants are for- if you’re lucky enough to have one.

12:15 Why don’t we naturally hire people different from us if it’s so smart?  It’s because we value our strengths over others. If you hire all big idea people and no execution skills you know what you’ll get…..

14:45 What’s the difference between a strength and a skill. You can take a course in PC assembly, but it doesn’t mean you’re going to be natural or easy for you. This , of course, leads to the big question: why bother training people?

19:48 What do sales managers have that good sales people don’t?  Why do good sales people not always make good managers and vice versa?

25:00 At what point does diagnosis become destiny? Can you screen people out of certain careers too early? This makes me very nervous.

28:47 Every team needs someone who is good at Jeopardy (the strength is working memory). I also reveal I was once a contestant on Jeopardy, even though I got stomped on the show. Men and women also have different strengths and executive skills. Men do tend to be higher in Metacognition, women tend to be stronger in Organization.

Chuck’s Resources

Chuck reads my BNET blog, believe it or not

Media Post

Guy Harris talks to us about moving from peer to leader. If you’re interested in his workshop, “Bud to Boss”, held July 26 and 27 in Chicago, click here to learn more.

2 new webinar workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams July 3oth

Web Presentation Basics- for those who have to present online and want to learn how not to suck at it. July 26th and 29th

If you have questions about these workshops, group discounts or any Greatwebmeetings.com training program, contact me.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Many of us got into management because we were complaining and basically got told to put up or shut up. Learn an object lesson from today’s dedicatee: the Greek God Momus. Complain too much and you’ll find yourself out of a pretty cushy gig. Of course as managers we need to deal with those situations. Good thing Mt Olympus didn’t have an HR department….

3:30 The quote of the week is from Ralph Waldo Emerson….. If you feel out of your depth and uncomfortable, well that’s a good thing. Really. Prepares you for management.

4:08 Okay, no one ever tells you that one of the biggest changes you’ll face in moving into leadership is managing people you used to work with and were your friends. That’s what Guy Harris is here to talk about. He’s partnered with Kevin Eikenberry well known to Cranky listeners (listen to Kevin’s last Cranky  interview here). In your new job, you not just change role, but also relationships and it’s the relationships that give people fits. Here’s a rule: don’t assume people will be mature and grownup about the whole process.

6:40 What does the conversation look like when you become the boss? These people know you so you can’t kid them. Approach it with humility and confidence. After some badgering he gives us some very specific language to use.

10:22 Often the biggest problem with this transition is the drama going on in our own heads- we assume problems that may or may not even exist.

12:20 Any time you take a new position, you need to create a transition plan. You have to analyze both the Role (the tasks of the new job) and the Relationships (who am I going to work with now?).

15:25 Planning is a good start but you can’t rely on it. One of the big changes is giving feedback. You have to remember that the power in the relationship has changed a great deal. Be careful of trying to be friends with the people you lead. But what if you’re already friends?

18:14 Relationships change when you’re the boss. Deal with it. There’s a reason the military has a “no fraternization” rule. You have a new “first team”- your leadership team is now the people you need to work best with and rely on.

24:21 the biggest concerns people have when they move into their first job involve communication and conflict resolution. As the manager you can’t just jump in and solve the problem. And no matter what you do you can’t solve the “thermostat in the office” argument by yourself.

Guy’s Resources

Tony Schwartz is today’s guest. You can also read my Management Issues column on this topic as well as my BNET blog.

2 new webinar workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams July 3oth

Web Presentation Basics- for those who have to present online and want to learn how not to suck at it. July 26th and 29th

If you have questions about these workshops, group discounts or any Greatwebmeetings.com training program, contact me.

Show Notes:

0:00 Is the way we’re expected to work today work for you? Me either but what can we do about it? Well we dedicate this show to someone who tried to change the way people worked and lived too…Moses.

4:34 The quote of the week is from Kurt Vonnegut who shares a similar attitude to yours truly but you can only laugh things off for so long. Are we there yet?

5:15 Welcome Tony Schwartz to the show. He’s the brains behind Take Back Your Lunch Day among other things. I urge you to join the movement… I have. What does he mean when he says the way we’re working doesn’t work? This is not hyperbole, it’s physically unsustainable. We aren’t made to stay connected 24/7.

7:55 Well we have 4 needs we need to create energy. They generally aren’t getting met: Physical, Emotional,Mental and Spiritual

9:13 At the top of the Physical Needs list is sleep, and most of us aren’t getting nearly enough. You need 7-8 hours a night on average. Most of us get less than 6. Is it the first thing you sacrifice? How’s that working for you? Research shows that great performers get lots of sleep, and often in 90 minutes cycles.

14:31 Sticking with something for long periods of times doesn’t always get you great results. After 90 minutes you get less return per minute. I can attest to the effectiveness of this while writing my new book.

17:55 The second set of needs is Emotional. If you’re not emotionally energetic and positive, it’s contagious. If you’re not, that is too. You can’t function when you’re miserable. Duh but what can you do about it? Adrenaline and Cortisol are not meant to be your steady diet.

21:04 Mental needs are about focus. Multitasking is largely a myth and we can only stay connected and functional for so long. When you substitute breadth for depth, you lose quality in your work.

22:58 What’s the manager’s role in keeping their people whole and functioning? Tony gives an example from Ernst and Young, which is a pretty high-profile, high pressure workplace.

24:20 Finally, we look at Spirituality, which is really about significance. Are you doing work that matters to you? Does it reflect your values? Managers undervalue the power of helping people discover what makes them tick?

27:00 I’m a big proponent of Take Back Your Lunch Day (here’s the BNET post on it). Join the movement!

Tony’s Resources

Check out Seth Godin’s Blog

Find us on Twitter

Sally Helgesen, author of The Female Vision

2 new webinar workshops this month!

How to Create and Manage Remote Teams July 3oth

Web Presentation Basics- for those who have to present online and want to learn how not to suck at it. July 26th and 29th

Show notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Today we have a very wide-ranging discussion about how men and women see the world differently, and why more female managers would be a good thing for the most part. Not that women are more perfect than men, they just see the world differently. We dedicate the show to Portia, the heroine of The Merchant of Venice and like most  managers I’ve had in my life, both male and female, a mix of talent and less desirable characteristics but possessing a world view different than most males.

3:20 The quote of the week is from Joseph Joubert and it sums up the philosophy of this show: debate and discussion are way better than not discussing something. Unless it involves video replay of World Cup goals and then there’s no reason for discussion.

4:20 Welcome Sally Helgesen to the show. With fans like Marshall Goldsmith and Frances Hesselbein she’s probably someone we should talk to. While tiptoeing between stereotype and observation, we plunge into The Female Vision and we start with the brain science.

7:20 I challenge the first stereotype by admitting I don’t rule the remote control in my house. This either makes me enlightened or henpecked depending on your point of view.  This issue aside, what are the objective, scientific differences between the male and female brain? There are basically 2- women’s brains tend to fire at multiple points (they multitask better than men do) and they have better peripheral vision, (they notice more stuff around them).

11:00 Women often find their ability to notice little environmental things is discounted by male leaders as “off topic” but those things matter. Does your organization reward laser-like focus? What’s the business impact of that kind of thinking and how is it different than Attention Deficit Disorder?

15:50 There are three things that separate how most women work – What women notice, what they value and how they put things together.  Here’s a big difference: more men are willing to put up with a dissatifactory work place than women are. Is that necessarily or a virtue or are things only improved by those willing to change them? Men also tend to be more focused on future outcomes (eyes on the prize) than women are.

20:57 We compare these gender differences with generational differences. Why don’t we think about ways to create a work experience that isn’t miserable short term as well as long term? Surely there’s a business issue here.

23:50 Do these findings reflect what’s going on in the younger generation? Women are outperforming men in academics, are outnumbering us in college and getting hired at a faster rate. How is this impacting younger generations of men and women?

28:50 How do women put information together in different ways than men? Women tend to look at a more complete picture in terms of impacts on people as well as on “business performance”. This means a big change in the focus and behavior of businesses. Is shareholder value the only guiding principle businesses should have?

Sally’s Resources

Zack Grossbart in what passes for the home office for many workers. You can read more in my BNET blog post

My obnoxious officemate, Byron de Prorok. He puts in an unexpected appearance.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. We dedicate this episode to Sir Francis Drake. He not only managed remote teams and people in cramped quarters, but he kept the stakeholders happy. Talk about ROI…

3:11 The quote of the week is from Francois de Rouchefoucauld. Does distance blow out your team’s candle or blow up their bonfire? No, that’s not a euphemism for anything.

4:20 We are talking about managing remote engineers today, and welcome to Zack Grossbart. As an engineer working remotely himself, he didn’t have a resource like this to work from. Who knew he’d have missed his coworkers so much. He probably just missed the cool software startup office with the pingpong table.

7:33 Many remote managers become micromanagers in order to avoid unpleasant surprises. One of the biggest mistakes managers make is figuring that people will know how to communicate effectively with each other.  The communication wall gets much bigger than it should be, and it’s not a technology problem.

10:30 People have to know how to get hold of you, and that includes both the obvious (phone, email, IM) and other tools like wikis and blogs that help span time zones. Also keep your statuses and messages up to date. Teammates need to trust and know each other, and those tools are great ways to do that. You can learn more in our “How to Create and Manage Remote Teams” workshops.

14:24 Written communication can make or break your remote team. It’s both the best way to communicate what you know to your teammates, but also a way to demonstrate what you have done. If you can’t write well, you won’t be trusted or understood and work takes a lot longer.

16:40 Just because we can communicate at the speed of light, does that mean we have to work that quickly?  How does a manager set expectations, or more to the point, help the team set norms and expectations. He’s a big fan of IRC which is a bit geeky but works nicely, especially for open source projects. Also, schedules are crucial- and stick to them.

21:49 Regular communication is an important factor in team communication. It can also save your sanity.

22:30 One of the biggest problems for remote workers is being able to turn things off and have some sort of life. You have to turn the computer and phone off. Yes, actually off. You can’t do your best work when your’e stressed. Try to make sure you eat lunch, for example. Really, when was the last time you really took lunch?

27:10 What are the signs of stress and strain in a team? How do you know when people are working too hard or not being effective? Use a 3-week plan to test and still get good grades.

Resources

The one minute commute blog in 15 chapters

WordPress Editorial Calendar project- an open source project

Aza Raskin’s blog

Bob Morison uses small words to explain Analytics to me without making my head explode.

June 28th’s workshop will be also be How to Create and Manage Remote Project Teams. Find out more here

As always, use the discount code cranky to save 10%!

Also, check out our new BNET blog on Managing Remote and Virtual Teams.

If you want a copy of our FREE white paper “3 Reasons Remote Teams Fail- And How to See It Coming” click here.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show, everyone. Today we are talking about analytics. Rumor has it you can actually make good decisions with this stuff called “data”. Crazy, right? Still, it’s an old idea and we dedicate this show to the father of English Demographics and actuarial tables John Graunt. Statistically, he should have seen the trouble he’d get into.

2:37 Our quote of the week is from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This is why you know what most people will do in any situation, but individuals will make you crazy. Are you an” insoluble puzzle”?

4:34 Welcome Bob Morison back to the show ( he was here in the early days, you can hear that interview here). He’s a numbers geek, which I decidedly am not. Why is good data so important and how can we use it intelligently?

8:30 Bob is a smart guy, besides his use of the word “informate”. When is it useful and when is it just paperwork? Turns out you actually have to ask. You have to create a culture where people can challenge numbers without it getting personal. Turns out he’s not a born geek, he’s had it thrust upon him.

11:57 He gives us an example of good data like finding patterns. Oh, so THAT’S what analytics are good for

13:18 How do you get the team excited about getting the numbers and using it to bring them all together. This involves actual conversation and stuff. Managers need to facilitate these discussions and help the introverts demonstrate value.

16:40 How do managers make it okay to challenge and question data? Bob is a big believer of assigning gadflies or instituting the equivalent of Question Period).  You have to challenge your assumptions on a regular basis.

21:30 According to research, analysts and geeks are happier with their work than the rest of us. Why? Turns out because they’re allowed to do the part of the job they really care about. Crazy notion. Also, if you just have them doing reports and not tackling the problems they’ll go running for the hills. They’re a lot like engineers , which makes sense, but they also want to work on the challenges that matter and that they’re appreciated. Oh good, that’s our challenge again.

25:00 Social networking is vital to these people, but a lot of companies try to lock them up because the data is proprietary. Companies need to figure that out. Connecting and sharing is vital. What are you keeping close to the vest that is worth more when you share it?

Bob’s Resources

Charlie Pellerin is the brains behind 4-D Systems and proof that sometimes, leadership really is Rocket Science.

June 28th’s workshop will be also be How to Create and Manage Remote Project Teams. Find out more here

As always, use the discount code cranky to save 10%!S

Also, check out our new BNET blog on Managing Remote and Virtual Teams.

Now you can get 3 of the best Cranky interviews on project management on one CD for $15 plus postage

• Green PM
• Lazy Project Management
• Managing Projects Across Distance

Click here to learn more and to purchase this CD. Contains a discount coupon for all Greatwebmeetings.com webinar workshops.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome everyone. Today we are talking leadership on the biggest of projects so it seems right to dedicate this show to Odysseus, who understood how hard it was to get a project adopted (really, a big wooden horse?) and that it’s not over til it’s over.

4:20 Today’s quote of the week is from Igor Stravinsky. Do you learn from founts of wisdom and knowledge or from your mistakes…and can’t it be both?

5:00 Okay, Charlie Hellerin was the head of Astrophysics at NASA when the Hubble Telescope launched. Here he tells us how things went wrong, and how this led to his research on leadership and teams. It gets a bit geeky but it’s worth the ride.

11:20 Give thanks to whatever gods you believe in that this was him and not you. The real issue was the culture at NASA. Who knew that beating the snot out of contractors wasn’t going to get good results?

13:41 No big surprise, but the biggest challenge in organizations like NASA was “context”. That’s the working environment. How do you do things where you work and how does that impact leadership? Charlie tells us how he developed his “4-D” system by using Cartesian physics, Carl Jung and a Dilbert cartoon. Yeah, it makes my head hurt but it’s really cool. It’s all based on how we make decisions (emotions and logic) and where we get information from (intuition and observation).

15:58 The 4 dimensions of leadership are:

1. Cultivation- do you care about growing people
2. Inclusion- do you include people and give them a sense of belonging
3. Visioning- innovation and big picture
4. Direction- processes and getting things done

17:45 Why don’t business books work? Change comes from behavior change, not recognizing the problem. Charlie walks us through how this works in the real world.

22:09 I ask him to speak slowly with small words. When you’re doing an assessment it’s amazing how just the act of being assessed can improve performance. As long as the assessment is followed up on and taken seriously it actually works. People will spend time on what gets measured. It’s pretty simple.

27:14 As managers, we spend a lot of time influencing and trying to persuade other people to do stuff. The term Charlie uses is “story lines”. Is your story line arguable or is it factual? He explains it better than I do but can you identify your story line and tell whether it’s arbitrary or factual.

30:00 The story line at NASA was about beating vendors til they scream, well why would they come forward with problems?

31:29 NASA is an engineering culture. Soft skills are often looked at skeptically, but the problems were largely with that culture.

Charlie’s Resources

Chris Martenson’s Crash Course Blog (not for the paranoid)

Jeff Rubin’s blog

All kinds of good stuff including free downloads and assessments from Charlie’s site

Sylvia Lafair will tell us how family dynamics impact how we work. A little therapy for your workday.

June 28th’s workshop will be also be How to Create and Manage Remote Project Teams. Find out more here

As always, use the discount code cranky to save 10%!S

Also, check out our new BNET blog on Managing Remote and Virtual Teams.

Now you can get 3 of the best Cranky interviews on project management on one CD for $15 plus postage

• Green PM
• Lazy Project Management
• Managing Projects Across Distance

Click here to learn more and to purchase this CD. Contains a discount coupon for all Greatwebmeetings.com webinar workshops.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Today we are talking family dynamics and how the way you work with your family is probably also your MO at work. As exhibit A we present Peter the Great who treated pretty much everyone like his dimwitted half-brother.

2:37 The quote of the week is from Helen Keller. Nothing like being deaf dumb and mute to make you appreciate your family. I find keeping them in another country works too.

4:07 Welcome Sylvia Lafair to discuss how family dynamics mirror work dynamics and vice versa. I wrote on her blog recently and it’s good to talk to her. It would be lovely to leave all the family drama at the door and not bring it to work….except that we do. Procrastination, for example, goes back to refusing to clean your room even when you know you should get it done. When stress hits, we all revert to patterns we learned as kids.

8:00 Yes, I just confessed that the amygdala is my favorite part of the body. Emotions are incredibly powerful and can’t just be ignored. It’s in the hard wiring. Yes, I blame my challenges with reward and recognition on my mother which is neither fair nor relevant to 2010. Oh, and apparently is a big ole Drama Queen.

11:49 I watch this play out with my kid at work. We can transform these patterns but we have to see them first.

12:42 Does this mean we have to psychoanalyze all our employees? How important is it we know their story? Not as important as knowing what patterns show up in their work.

15:00 Sylvia walks us through coaching a chronic procrastinator. She gives us very specific language for having the conversation. Two key things. You need to ask:  What do you want as an outcome?  and you need to shut up.

19:50 When giving feedback, it’s important that you expose yourself first (not in the bad HR way). This leads to mirror neurons firing in their brains and they relax. If you don’t come in as a friend, the threat response takes over.

21:00 Sylvia’s process is OUT- Observe, Understand and Transform. It takes a little work but we get her to talk more about transformation and how it happens.

25:00 Is this all Western Freudian nonsense or is it internationally relevant as well? Sylvia finds families are families. Only the terminology changes.

LINKS AND RESOURCES

Follow Wayne on Twitter

Follow Sylvia on Twitter

The Glass Hammer Blog

Wally Bock’s 3 Star Leadership

Sit down, shut up and listen to Harvey. He hasn’t been around this long without learning  a thing or two.

Don’t forget May’s How to Create and Manage Remote Project Teams webinar workshop. Click here to learn more and register.

June 28th’s workshop will be also be How to Create and Manage Remote Project Teams. Find out more here

As always, use the discount code cranky to save 10%!

Also, check out our new BNET blog on Managing Remote and Virtual Teams.

Now you can get 3 of the best Cranky interviews on project management on one CD for $15 plus postage

• Green PM
• Lazy Project Management
• Managing Projects Across Distance

Click here to learn more and to purchase this CD. Contains a discount coupon for all Greatwebmeetings.com webinar workshops.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Today since we’re talking about finding a job and being in charge of your own career we dedicate this episode to John Hawkwood, the Renaissance mercenary master of outsourcing and living on your own terms.

3:35 The quote of the week is from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Is your career a matter of luck or cause and effect?

5:07 Whether you’re currently employed or you’re out on the street, we all need to think about our careers and where the next job is coming from. Harvey gives us some hard numbers about how hard it is to find a gig. In your career you’ll have 10+ job changes and more than 3-5 full blown career changes in our lifetime.

10:50 The biggest challenge for a lot of us is the belief that our work will speak for itself. It doesn’t work that way, the competition is too strong. The only thing that will save you is your network. What shape is your network in?

13:30 What does a network look like today? Online social networks are an addendum, not a replacement for your own personal network. You have to put yourself out in the mix. Harvey has a radical solution if you get let go from a job… go volunteer. You’ll learn networking, sales and management skills plus meet lots of people.

18:11 No one wants to deal with you or hire you if you have a pout on. Harvey gives us some tough love (and a couple of cliches) about adjusting your attitude. We impact our own mood through the people we meet and the input (books, blogs and stuff) that we read.

22:49 You can’t reach out to your network when you’re out of a job if you haven’t been in touch before that. It takes a plan and some work. Informational interviews are a good way to do that.

25:58 What do we need to focus on when we go out on an interview? Do your homework and personalize the contact when you send out a resume or CV.

Harvey’s Resource

There’s a ton of stuff on his website , including his free book on networking

Susan Cramm joins us to talk about hating IT.

Don’t forget May’s How to Create and Manage Remote Project Teams webinar workshop. Click here to learn more and register.

June 28th’s workshop will be also be How to Create and Manage Remote Project Teams. Find out more here

As always, use the discount code cranky to save 10%!

Also, check out our new BNET blog on Managing Remote and Virtual Teams.

Now you can get 3 of the best Cranky interviews on project management on one CD for $15 plus postage

• Green PM
• Lazy Project Management
• Managing Projects Across Distance

Click here to learn more and to purchase this CD. Contains a discount coupon for all Greatwebmeetings.com webinar workshops.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to one of the more fun shows we’ve had in a while. We’ll talk about why we hate IT. This is tricky since so many of our listeners are IT but if anyone knows about self-loathing it’s middle managers. We dedicate this episode to Dionyisus the Elder of Syracuse- the model for evil IT directors everyone. A little technical knowledge and a lot of power is not a good mix.

3:40 The quote of the week is from Marshall McLuhan. If you’re in IT are you intelligent AND lighthearted? Didn’t think so.

4:50 Welcome Susan Cramm of Valuedance. You gotta love a book called 8 Things we Hate About IT. How did she limit it to that few? Okay why do we hate IT? It has a lot to do with how much money we spend and how little value we see. Too little, too late, for too much money is not a recipe for creating great relationships.

9:20 The real owner of IT should be the department heads, not IT and that’s the core of a problem- a disconnect between accountability and authority. I tell a story from a prospect I actually spoke to. Does your company have this same problem? (Call me if you do!)

13:37 The first thing on her list is “you need service and IT needs control”.  Are you waiting on the IT breadline?

15:49 There are cheap consumer grade products out there that project teams can use but IT often stops them. IT needs to help set boundaries and then get out of the way. I’m a big fan of the Skunk Works concept. Come out of the innovation closet!

19:15 There’s a natural tension between tactics that managers need to implement and the strategic alignment which is IT’s job. It helps if everyone understands the end goal. It would also help if we spoke a lingua franca (which is ironically in a language no one understands). The best way to make sure we’re talking about the same thing is smallscale examples instead of big projects.

26:00 How can you succeed where others have failed miserably? Make sure you understand the impact of your project on your external customers and have something worth doing and then pass that on to others. Get them excited and ask for a little bit of money and time and prove your concept before going big.

28:00 We use less than 28% of the functionality of our IT products and systems. You have way more capability than you think. Oh, and IT shouldn’t necessarily be doing the training. Do you want your sales demos taught by the same guy who fixes your hard drive? Oh and if you want your people to use technology, you have to be one of the first to adopt.

Susan’s Resources

Check out her blog

Ron Holohan is a very smart guy, and the host of the PM411.org blog.

You can hear my interview on PM411 Here

Don’t forget May’s How to Create and Manage Remote Project Teams webinar workshop. Click here to learn more and register.

June 28th’s workshop will be also be How to Create and Manage Remote Project Teams. Find out more here

As always, use the discount code cranky to save 10%!

Also, check out our new BNET blog on Managing Remote and Virtual Teams.

Now you can get 3 of the best Cranky interviews on project management on one CD for $15 plus postage

• Green PM
• Lazy Project Management
• Managing Projects Across Distance

Click here to learn more and to purchase this CD. Contains a discount coupon for all Greatwebmeetings.com webinar workshops.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. We dedicate this episode to a project manager who really let things slip- King Nimrod, the PM on the whole Tower of Babel fiasco.

3:45 The quote of the week is from Gustav Flaubert, and it’s cynical and counterproductive. Still, it made me feel better.

4:40 Welcome Ron Holohan.  If you haven’t checked out the PM411 podcast, (and you promise to keep listening to me) you really should. Ron recently gave a great presentation and you can get a copy of it by emailing me. “3 Reasons Projects Slip”. He explains that statistic that 70% or so of projects fail. Actually 44% come in late or over budget. The other 24% are cancelled or are never implemented. Sleep well.

8:44 Why the rush to PMP and other Certifications? Ron points out that even perfect plans are prone to slippage. Is a Zombie takeover a risk or a constraint? The 3 reasons projects slip are:

1. Student Syndrome
2. Parkinson’s Law
3. Bad Multitasking

10:03 What is Student Syndrome and why does it impact us? This is a fascinating look at why we screw up deadlines we impose on ourselves? The answer is to focus on duration not dates.

19:41 Parkinsons law is similar but basically we wait to turn in finished work but then spend time polishing the work and last minute snags arise. Turn it in when it’s done, not when it’s due.

22:08 The chance that something will go wrong on any task is high…the odds of something going wrong on every task is very low. The man is an optimist….

24:08 Multitasking is a myth but by golly we cling to it…. it’s like driving drunk only you put it on your resume.

30:00 Okay repeat after me: turn off the email and the phone, turn it on when you’re done. How hard can it be?

Ron’s Resources

Check out PM411 or drop him a line for a copy of his presentation

Cornelius Fitchner’s PMPodcast you can also hear my Cranky #163 interview with Cornelius here

PMStudent.com

Askaboutprojects.com

Our FREE Whitepaper: 3 Reasons Virtual Teams Fail and How To See It Coming

Sam Culbert says we should kill the performance review…. and I thought I was cranky………

Don’t forget May’s How to Create and Manage Remote Project Teams webinar workshop. Click here to learn more and register.

June 28th’s workshop will be also be How to Create and Manage Remote Project Teams. Find out more here

As always, use the discount code cranky to save 10%!

Also, check out our new BNET blog on Managing Remote and Virtual Teams.

You can also follow us on Twitter

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show all ye who labor and are sore weary…especially of doing performance reviews. Since these things are so often witch hunts, we dedicate this episode to a real witchfinder… Matthew Hopkins. Good news, you’re not a witch. Bad news, finding that out killed you. I’ve worked in companies like that…..

4:04 The quote of the week is from Lord Byron ….. are you the Boring or the Bored?

4:45 Welcome Dr Sam Culbert to the show. He’s crankier than I am, and mostly about performance reviews. So what’s wrong with them? He uses a word I have never used on this show…..although highly tempted from time to time. The problems include: they’re not objective, the standards are bogus and it kills the trust between managers and each employee.

7:30 Being a pessimistic historian, I am curious as to where the performance review came from. Turns out the real culprit is “management by objectives”- a flawed concept to start with. Astonishingly I find myself defending
HR and Sam will have none of it.

12:42 The HR department should be seeking alternatives instead of keeping the Kabuki theatre going. Sam claims it’s in their interests to keep these things alive. They get to keep the dirty little secrets.

14:28 Oh, and the notion that pay is tied to performance reviews is nonsense, it just ticks off the employee and frustrates us managers.

19:08 Don’t get him started on 360 degree feedback either. Anonymous sniping is not feedback.

22:02 There is a difference between a “job description” and describing the job- the unique way each person tackles the job to accomplish their results.

25:30 So what’s the alternative to the Review? Sam calls it the Performance Preview. Constant,candid conversation about the goals, how they’re doing all along the way and honest communication without fear.

30:30 How do companies do this preview without a paper trail? Sam doesn’t seem to understand the insane need for documentation in companies. Sam’s goal is to make work fit for human consumption….

Sam’s Resources

Erik Van Slyke of the Solleva Group joins us to talk about failure. So why is he smiling?

Don’t forget April’s How to Create and Manage Remote Teams webinar workshop. Click here to learn more and register.

May’s workshop will be How to Create and Manage Remote Project Teams. Find out more here

As always, use the discount code cranky to save 10%!

Also, check out our new BNET blog on Managing Remote and Virtual Teams.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show and the ultimate irony- you’re here to succeed, so why are we insisting you learn how to fail??? That’s today’s topic and we dedicate this show to Guy de Lusignan who succeeded in failing spectacularly yet wound up with not a bad gig. Something for us all to learn from.

3:35 The quote of the week is from John Keats…. romantics dig failure, even the successful ones.

4:30 Welcome Erik Van Slyke to the show to discuss the F word. Well not THE F word, but just about as shocking. Why should we enjoy failure? Because we’re so good at it.

7:00 An important semantic difference: accepting failure isn’t the same as expecting it and coping.  Expecting failure is a key component of project management. If you don’t think about what can go wrong, you’re not planning properly.

11:50 How can we get comfortable with failure when so many other people are connected and counting on us? Organizations are so complex we’re doomed to fail somewhere. It’s not being perfect, it’s being in the process of perfection.

14:20 Where is the line between striving for excellence and driving yourself crazy? Again, it’s in the process.You have to be collaboratvie- really collaborative.

16:24 Erik claims to have an actual case study where people do this without getting fired. Listen up.

19:23 A lot of people who live in the PMI world are amazed when projects go wrong. The problem isn’t planning, it’s communicating during the plan. How can we create an environment where people are comfortable talking about failure and getting into trouble? Make it safe for your team to screw up.

22:36 How do we communicate our teams’ failure to our bosses in  constructive way. The trick is to admit to the problem but also offer a solution. Don’t just say “00ps”.

25:20 There is a relationship between innovation and failure. You can’t innovate without stuff going wrong. The quest for perfection will kill real creativity.

Erik’s Resources

His blog

Walter Kiechel III talks to us about The Lords of Strategy and makes it so even I understand it.

Don’t forget April’s How to Create and Manage Remote Teams webinar workshop. Click here to learn more and register.

May’s workshop will be How to Create and Manage Remote Project Teams. Find out more here

As always, use the discount code cranky to save 10%!

Also, check out our new BNET blog on Managing Remote and Virtual Teams.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show middle managers- even if you refuse to accept the title. We all know what you are. Today’s show is dedicated to the Ottoman sultan Murad Bey who understood both outsourcing and the power of independent advice.

5:30 The quote of the week is from my boy Francis Bacon who knew a thing or two about being a consultant. Advice and example is what we’re looking for…and it helps if you have a cool model.

6:03 Welcome Walter Kiechel who will explain where consultants came from and what they’ve done to the business world- and it’s not all bad. Really.  Actually, you wouldn’t think strategy is new, but it’s only been around since the mid 1960s.

9:00 With no track record to run on, why were the big consulting companies so successful? The power of a practical tool like the Growth Share Matrix.  What has it wrought on us? Are we now driven only by stock performance?

14:00 Let’s be fair, the advantage of a consultant is the ability to offer objective insight…when it is objective.

15:45 One of the first consulting models that really took off was BCG’s Experience Curve.

18:15 What has been the impact on business overall of all this consulting? Walter maintains it’s an overall healthier competitive landscape. Competitive advantage only lasts 6 months if you don’t watch it.

20:35 Besides making sure you keep your job, what’s the best way to work with consultants? Volunteer for one thing to make sure you’re heard, and this is not the time to be shy. A great tip- ask to present with them instead of having them tell the story on your behalf.

23:21 Not that I want to kill new ideas, but there are consulting fads so as a service to you the new ones are “analytics” and innovation.

Walter’s Resources

adamalexander

Today’s guest Adam Alexander.

Don’t forget April’s How to Create and Manage Remote Teams webinar workshop. Click here to learn more and register.

May’s workshop will be How to Create and Manage Remote Project Teams. Find out more here

As always, use the discount code cranky to save 10%!

Also, check out our new BNET blog on Managing Remote and Virtual Teams.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Hopefully you’ve had the resilience to go to work yet another day. Today we dedicate the show to the Greek poet and playwright Sophocles and his two plays Ajax and Philocthetes. Some folks make it through the day, some fall on their swords.

4:27 The quote of the week is from Confucius, or so I’m told. How often do you get back up after getting knocked down?

5:03 Welcome Adam Alexander of Masteryworks. Resiliency is a combination of adaptability, flexibility and strength of purpose. No one said this was going to be easy.

7:47 It’s really hard to look at the busy work and drudgery as strength of purpose. How does your contribution fit into the big picture?

9:08 Resiliency comes from confidence- which is great if you have confidence to start with. What’s the difference between bravado and true internal confidence.

11:21 Confidence can be impacted by how old you are and what gender you are. Women are less confident than men but more resilient…which makes sense because they have to put up with men.

15:00 How can a manager tell who is truly resilient and who is just putting on a good show? They are usually less productive and really resistant to change.

17:49 Often we try to delegate to develop people and it backfires because they don’t succeed. You build resilience through failure and the ability to navigate that as well. You have to delegate effectively and let people know where to get help.

20:04 Finding help is more than just mentor/mentee. In fact reverse mentoring might help bridge gaps between generations as well.

Adam’s Resources

Follow us on Twitter as well
Join us at Greatwebmeetings.com

Don’t forget our How to Create and Manage Remote Teams webinar workshops. For March 22nd, click here to learn more and register

April 26th, Click here to learn more and register

Check out my new BNET column on Remote Team Management

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. We dedicate this show about doing great work to someone who created a Great Work (even if I hated it) John Milton. Creating a magnum opus with a quill requires a lot more work and thought than most of us can even dream of, but there’d be a lot less horrendous email if we had to do with with a goose feather.

3:47 The quote of the week is from Aristotle. Excellence is a habit and it’s not something you have it’s something you do- and do- and do. Wish I could tell you it was easy.

4:26 Welcome  Michael Bungay Stanier to the show. He’s going to tell us how to do more great work and stop the busy work. Of course, we’re both Canadians with different accents, living in different countries and still clinging to Canuckness. Work falls into 3 categories: Bad Work, Good Work and Great Work. Where do you spend your time?

6:24 We can’t avoid Bad Work entirely. Sometimes it’s just gotta be done, but how can you tell the difference and how much effort do you want to put into Bad Work? Good Work is never ending and we could spend all our working life here and never get to the end of it. Who has time for Great Work?

8:28 Sometimes it seems like we either have way too much work, or we’re unemployed. How do you find the middle ground? You need 3 things: Focus, Courage and Resilience .  Focus isn’t an easy thing to achieve and most of us don’t do it very well and your brain isn’t designed for it. Oh good.

12:37 There’s a really important point to be made here: We’re not just talking about doing our work great, we’re talking about doing Great Work. We are capable of delivering drivel at a very high standard. Great Work may not be done quite as well. Irony, thy name is middle management. Oh, and most of what we do needs to be done well but not perfectly. Deal with it.

16:36 Michael spends a lot of his time helping people be creative, because that’s where Great Work comes from. He gives us a couple of tips including a great question- “and what else?”.

21:14 It takes courage to do Great Work and keep going. Too many of us are too timid in the work that we do. Being beaten about the head and ears psychically will do that to you.

23:54 One of the contributors to Michael’s book is Tim Hurson and he share some great tips.

Michael’s Resources

TED.com a collection of 18 minute talks from brilliant people

Mike Greer helps us understand "Just Enough Project Management" to get the job done

Don’t forget our “How to Create and Manage Remote Teams” workshops for managers no matter where you are  in the world.

March 22nd Webinar Workshop  Click here to register and learn more.

April 26th Webinar Workshop. Click here to register and learn more

SPECIAL Get our e-book, The Four Disciplines of Highly Effective, Leadership Exhibiting, Project Nailing, Cheese Moving Managers” PLUS “100 FREE Web Resources for Managers” for $9.99

By the way, I’ll be speaking at the Northeast Indiana PMI Chapter meeting April 28th in Fort Wayne, IN and at the PMI Madison chapter annual conference in Madison, WI on May 21st.Will I see you there?

Oh, and check out my new BNET blog with articles like this one on Project Management for remote teams…..

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome all managers, whether project managers or just regular old managers. Today we look at Project Management and how much do you really need to know to be functional. As a result we dedicate this episode to the Chinese Emperor Qin Shih Huang a man who knew a thing or two about starting huge projects, although not a big fan of continuous learning and development.

4:51 The quote of the week is from Igor Stravinsky How do you view constraints? Are they barriers to success or opportunities to focus and excel? Just asking.

5:40 Please welcome Mike Greer to the show. The man actually listens to this show so I don’t know what kind of credibility hit he takes for that. Also, what kind of madman thinks we should learn just enough project management instead of becoming an expert? PM is not an end in itself, most of us do it to achieve what we really want to do. It can kill the fun, if you let it.

8:55 Most of us are not doing multi-million dollar projects with multiple parts. There are some basics you can learn to just get on with the job. Let the smart PMs develop the tools, and you can learn them without getting a degree.

12:45 The first thing you want to do is in fact make sure it’s a project. Define it, and find out who cares about it from upper Management. You want to get a “Project Charter” and find all the stakeholders.

15:00 How do you break the project down into the right task descriptions? You need to figure out who does what with which and to whom. You need a “high-res” project plan.

19:37 When you’re building in a timeline, don’t forget to build in time for input and people sticking their nose into your business. Be realistic, not overly optimistic. Stakeholders are like puppies in the yard- watch your roses.

22:00 How do you balance being a micromanager and just knowing what’s going on? Get the team’s participation and buyin into the communication plan to start with.

25:11 At what point does certification like PMI/PMP certification make sense? Does your career path depend mainly on doing projects, or your expertise in your area of focus? Do you want to do projects across fields, then you should look into certification.

Mike’s Resources

Check out Michaelgreer.biz for articles, podcasts and other stuff

Check out Scope Crepe

PM Hut

Download Michael’s EBook- The PM Minimalist

Joe Calloway

Kris Young

Don’t forget our “How to Create and Manage Remote Teams” webinar workshops.

For the March 22nd workshop click here to learn more and register

For April 26th, click here

To buy our e-book “Meet like you mean it- the Cranky Middle Manager’s Guide to Painless and Productive Meetings click here

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Today we are talking aligning people and strategy. That happens -or doesn’t- most often in meetings. We’re talking today about meetings: what works, what doesn’t. So we dedicate this show to Emperor Constantine who had to facilitate one of the toughest meetings in history, the Council of Nicaea. Trying to launch a religion without a scope of work from the project sponsor makes any problems you or I have seem pretty minor.

3:46 The quote of the week is from TE Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia. Do you dream at night or in the daytime? One of those is infinitely more dangerous.

4:30 Welcome to Joe and Kris. The book is Never by Chance…but that’s how many managers got their jobs. If you’re going to do the job, though, do it on purpose and do it like you mean it.

6:30 Do people really understand what the strategy they’re supposed to implement even is? Ask yourself a simple question: Is what we are doing at this moment acting on our strategy? Can you even begin to answer that one? If the manager doesn’t build strategy, do we have to do that so deliberately?

11:30 Oops, apparently we have no excuses because even on the team and project level you can do this.Oh, and asking “is everyone okay with this?” isn’t going to get the job done. These are tough conversations to have, but you have to have them. Leadership has a high discomfort level.

14:27 We talk about culture a lot…but do you and your team understand what that means? Do you have a culture of truly saying what you mean?

16:00 The biggest complaint people have about their work is meetings. Kris gets a word in edgewise to talk about common mistakes. No big surprise it’s holding a meeting when you don’t know what you’re meeting for. Seems a no-brainer so why does it happen so darned often? I take Joe to task for something that sounds too good to be true. I could be wrong…..it’s been known to happen.

21:00 The format and setup of a meeting is important. Play with different formats like panel discussions rather than speech after speech.

30:55 The most important skill for leading a meeting is not talking or presenting- it’s listening. You have to hear what’s said and especially what’s not said. Trust me, it makes sense.

Resources

Check out Bizbash.com

Ted Talks are worth checking out for sure
Corporateevent.com

Steve Farber (check out his latest Cranky Interview here)
Mark Sanborn

Don’t let the weasels get you down!

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith is with us again to talk about his book MOJO and to help ours a little…..

How’s the mojo of your virtual team? Get a FREE copy of our white paper: 3 Reasons Virtual Teams Fail and How to See it Coming

Join us March 22nd for our “How to Create and Manage Remote Teams” webinar workshop.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show once again. Today we talk about MOJO, and so we dedicate this to the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans- Marie Laveau who got her power less from dark powers than from actually listening and paying attention- lessons to the wise.

4:30 The quote of the week is from Henry David Thoreau. Whether you call it enthusiasm, mojo, flow or anything else without it you’re a dried husk of yourself.

5:20 Welcome back for the fourth time Dr. Marshall Goldsmith. He’s here to talk about Mojo, the subject of much discussion and blues songs. It’s the positive spirit towards what we’re doing now that starts inside and radiates outward. If any group needs to keep their mojo working it’s us.

7:20 We start out with good intentions, why do we lose our mojo? It’s because our default reaction is not to experience happiness or meaning…. it’s to stay in a state of inertia. We also find out that the world’s most famous executive coach has a coach- what’s your excuse?

11:15 Keeping your mojo in line is a discipline. Marshall talks about the Mojo Meter but it’s really two questions: 1) How happy was I (with what was going on) and 2) How meaningful was that (event, interaction)?  You can measure both your professional mojo and personal mojo. Very rarely is one in line separate from the other.

13:30 Employee engagement is way down. Instead of having the company try to do it, what can each of us do for ourselves? We have responsibility for the suckage  (my word, not Marshall’s).

15:10 Marshall takes a bit of a detour to the Checklist Manifesto and how a little humility would serve us well. He also tells a great story about the US Top Guns…. If it really WAS life and death, how humble would you be?

17:15 The four areas of mojo are Achievement, Identity, Reputation and Acceptance. Is your identity what you think it is and how does it impact your mojo? Your identity might be created, reflected or programmed? Bono is a great example.

20:00 A big part of all this is acceptance.  If you can’t accept how things are, you have two choices: Change “it” or change you.  Hard to get  your mojo working if you fight battles you know you can’t win. Marshall challenges me on my whole mission in life. One of us has a better grip on things than the other. Guess which one is whom.

23:15  One last piece of advice if you feel your mojo slipping: focus on now. Not next week or next year. What can you do to increase happiness at this moment?

Marshall’s Resources

MOJO The Book (includes an app for Blackberry and iPhone)

Other Marshall Goldsmith Cranky Middle Manager Interviews:

What Got You Here Won’t Get You There (Cranky #79)

Marshall Goldsmith on Influencing Upwards (Cranky #100)

Marshall Goldsmith on Succession Planning (Cranky #180)

Dr. Ken Eisold takes us on another brain-geek adventure into why people don’t do what we tell them to.

Don’t forget our FREE White Paper: 3 Reasons Virtual Teams Fail and How to See It Coming

Then help avoid trouble by signing up for “How to Create and Manage Remote Teams” February 22nd or March 22nd

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show everyone. Ever wonder why problems don’t magically solve themselves? Well we dedicate this show to Horace and the whole concept of the Deus Ex Machina … “God in the Machine” which is a lousy plot device (see the last 2o minutes of The Abyss if you don’t believe me) and makes no sense. The answer usually lies in the mind of the people we’re dealing with- hence our talk with a shrink today.

3:21 The quote of the week is also from Horace- adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would otherwise lay dormant. Cool thing to think about when adversity makes you want to freak out.

4:45 Welcome Dr Ken Eisold. What is the uncosncious and why should managers care about it? The answer to the question “what were you thinking” is more complicated than you think.

9:30 Remember that you (and they) are paying for the sins of whoever managed them before you got there. Don’t assume they work under the same assumptions you do. The way people think is not governed by rationality but by habit and past experience.

11:51 When we get data we often don’t process it, we just see how well it fits our mental picture of the world.

15:25 You have to check your assumptions. Married people know better than to take “fine” as an acceptable answer.

19:22 Three important concepts: Persona, Role and Identity. Everyone plays all 3…. it helps explain why we torture ourselves. I also get some free therapy, which is one of the perks of this show.

24:10 Guess what, not only do we have our own drama going on, but so does each person we work with. Do you understand their persona, role, etc? You have to work at questioning and understanding what they really think about what you’ve just told them.

27:30 Here’s a take-away: don’t take it personally. Resistance frequently has nothing to do with us personally…although EVERYTHING is about me personally, but that’s my drama to work with.

Ken’s Resources

Check out his blog
>

James Lawley and Penny Tomkins are all about using “clean language”. They were recommended by friend of the show Bob Selden (hear his Cranky interview here).

For a FREE copy of “3 Reasons Virtual Teams Fail- and How to See It Coming” click here

Don’t forget our “How to Create and Manage Remote Teams” webinar workshops

For more information and to register click on February 22nd or March 22nd

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show all you Middle Managers and Steeler’s Wheel fans. Today we are talking about the psychology of management communication and so we dedicate this episode to Prince Pyotr Ivanovitch Bagration, one of the heros of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Are you inspiring your team in the midst of chaos?

3:53 It seems only right that we quote Leo Tolstoy today, who knew a thing or two about human psychology even though he was mad as a hatter himself.  Is your truth like gold?

4:32 Welcome to the first of a couple of shows focusing on the psychology of communication. Yes, more brain geekiness but that’s part of our charm here. Welcome Penny and James, authors of Metaphors in Mind: Transformation Through Symbolic Modelling . There’s actual real world value here, don’t let the title fool you.

7:32 Why is Clean Language such an important concept for managers? If people don’t understand you and vice versa all kinds of havoc erupts. Clean Language is a way of asking questions to avoid misunderstanding and making assumptions.

9:45 What part do metaphors play in the way we speak to each other.  Research shows we use about 6 a minute… which works great if we all work from the same metaphor playbook- there’s another metaphor. Metaphors can be overt or more subtle.

13:22 Language is the constraint we have to work with, so what’s the problem? We don’t all interpret metaphors the same way. Rather than make assumptions- challenge them and ask questions.

17:55 The Psychological background of this is the work of David Grove and was used as a therapeutic technique. What kind of language and metaphors do you use? Military? Sports? Political? It’s not easy to get used to changing your language as I stupidly demonstrate during this conversation.  Also I dare you to find another business podcast that uses the word “etymology”.

21:40 As we work in languages other than English, what madness does metaphor cause? It’s important that we think about metaphors people use…  we discuss skinned teeth and hairy ears. Trust me, it’s relevant.

23:47 Bob Selden will be leading a workshop on Clean Language February 16th. Click here for more details.

25:30 check out their website at www.cleanlanguage.co.uk. There is lots of great information there including questions to ask. Among the best questions is:

• “and is there anything else?”
• “and what kind of _____ are you talking about”
• “and then what happened?”

This is not just active listening or paraphrasing. The purpose is not to demonstrate understanding but to help people understand themselves. Oh, and Star Trek is a teaching point on this. How’s THAT for geeky?

Resources and books

Look up Cognitive Linguistics for more…

Check out our White Paper: 3 Reasons Virtual Teams Fail-And How to See it Coming

Don’t forget our next “How to Create and Manage Remote Teams” workshop on February 22nd. Click here to learn more and to register. If you have new managers this would be a good piece of training to help them out.

Drop me a line to ask about discounts for Cranky listeners.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show, gang. Today we’re talking about those darned kids again, but it’s not how they work or who they are….it’s too late for that. We need them and they are going to be the leaders of tomorrow…. which is rapidly approaching since I’m feeling my mortality of late. The President of the US is younger than I am…. I’m officially out of excuses. And we have to mentor and teach them to lead or they might wind up like this week’s dedicatee King Henry the 6th of England. Take over too early without training and mentoring and it can get ugly.

4:44 The quote of the week is from someone with great parenting advice, although probably not the first person you’d think of…. Friedrich Nietzsche

5:40 Welcome Lisa Orrell, author of “Millennials Into Leadership”. This is not another show about how they want to start at the top, but some day we’ll get there and you can help. First we have to define the term, and it turns out I own one. They’re born between 1980 and 2000.

10:40 I look at my daughter and am really impressed by her energy and leadership skills. Their problem is they are too work-oriented and don’t have much use for timetables. They are loyal to people who actually earn it and are loyal to the work, not the company. If it doesn’t matter they won’t stay.

14:30 Virtual teams aren’t unusual for this group. Facebook is great training in a strange way. Allowing them to have the technology is the next step. By the way, the people surfing porn at work are NOT 22 years old….

17:00 A lot of young workers are getting promoted before they’re ready, so what challenges do they face?  A lack of training is a huge problem- and unlike Gen X, these kids want training….. if it’s relevant. The biggest challenge is that they are immature… no kidding. Communication skills are key.

22:00 One of the big things to consider is their personal “leadership brand”. What do you want people to think and say about you? How do you stand out as a leader? It’s made up of your Communication style, Philosophy, Social style,Intellectual style, Emotional style and Ethical style. You can read a blog post about it here

26:15 Who do millenials turn to for leadership examples? Turns out it’s you and me (if we do it right). They also aspire to those who change the world.

31:00 Unlike those of us who hide from our bosses and want to be left alone, Millennials can’t communicate enough which drives some managers crazy

Lisa’s Resources

The Personal Branding Blog

Millennial Marketing

David Noer, author of “Healing the Wounds”

Get a free copy of our FREE white paper: “3 Reasons Virtual Teams Fail and How to See it Coming”. Click here to download

Join us February 22nd for our How to Create and Manage Remote Teams Webinar Workshop. Drop us a line for more information and discounts.

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Pretty much all of us have been expected to manage a layoff, and come out the other side still getting work done. It’s not easy on our people or on us. We dedicate this show to  Balian of Ibelin, who knew a thing or two about trying to work after your team has been gutted…. in his case literally.

4:00 The quote of the week is from one of  my favorite but politically incorrect writers, Rudyard Kipling. Overwork has killed many people stronger than us. Take care of yourself my people……

4:50 Welcome David Noer to the show. One good thing about being the victim of a downsizing is you don’t have to manage people through it.  Middle managers are at risk if your social and emotional well being is tied to your job, you’re at risk.  Leadership makes a different, especially over distance.

6:50 Middle managers are particularly vulnerable because they are both laying people off and at risk themselves. Before you try to deal with your employees, get yourself together and handle your own emotions. David also suggests you break a couple of rules if only to save your sanity.

10:00 Why do companies so seldom get downsizing right? Do they let too many people go? Are they the right people? Proper or not, you’re the one stuck dealing with it. Layoffs never meet their financial goals because they don’t factor in survivor guilt and lost productivity.

12:15 How do you get your team back on track? Acknowledge the emotions and don’t try to just push through it. Being lucky to still have a job is not sufficient motivation for most humans. It’s okay to be lean, but mean is just unnecessary. The good news is if you focus on the customer and how to be efficient, you’ll find a lot of what was being done was useless to start with.

15:18 Companies whine about a lack of engagement, then do everything to get people disengaged. The contract has changed. Managers need to take responsibility for their own careers, learning and psychological well-being. We’re all temps, we just don’t all admit it.

19:00 How do you balance taking care of yourself with giving a fair effort to your employer? “Cautious loyalty” is the solution. And if you thought Gen X and the millenials had this figured out, don’t believe it. They’re getting sucked in too.

22:00 Even if you are employed, you need to act like an entrepeneur…. and that’s hard for a lot of people. Newer economies seem to get this better than we do.

David’s Resources

Dr Timothy Clark asks you to take The Leadership Test. Preferably before you become one.

Join us for How to Create and Manage Remote Teams

January 18th Details and Registration

February 22nd Details and Registration

Drop me a line for discounts and more information!

Show Notes

0:00 Welcome to the show. Today we’re talking leadership, and how  you know you have what it takes. We dedicate this show to Spartacus.…because  a real leader creates that kind of identification with a cause. I can’t even get folks to admit they were at the meeting.

4:00 Don’t forget to check out my latest piece on Management Issues: Why your virtual team chooses to suck. You can also follow everything we do on Twitter.

4:20 The quote of the week is from Geoffrey Chaucer.… whether schlepping to Canterbury or a staff meeting the rules are the same.

5:00 Welcome Tim Clark to the show. He has a unique definition of leadership…and involves getting people to volunteer, even if they’re being paid to be there. He also has a three part spectrum of influence… from Manipulation through Persuasion and on to Coercion.  Persuasion is better, trust me.

9:39 In Tim’s book, the character doesn’t necessarily jump at a management job. Why not?  Ask yourself, WHY do you want to be a leader? Is it all about you? What’s your “leadership intent”?

12:55 If you know why you want to be a leader (and it involves other things than the raise), then you have to take the Leadership Test. There are 5 areas to examine:

1. Fill your pack- are you willing to take on not only your load, but more than your share?
2. Sign your name- are you really willing to take responsibility for others?
3. Share the stage- are you willing to share the credit?
4. Take the oath- what’s your mission and what exactly are you signing on for? Do you have a commitment to honesty and integrity?
5. Pour your cup- can you take what you have and pour it into the lives of others? Mentoring and coaching is critical to leadership.

16:00 What does it mean to really own the results of you and your team? Real leaders don’t hide, even when it’s bad news. Much easier to do when you’re an individual contributor- but you might not be the one who screwed up!

19:00 Giving credit is not easy and you have to take care of your people first. Reward and recognition is a tough one when things aren’t going well.

23:00 There are only 2 things people remember when they leave an organization: their relationships with people, and their contribution to the company.

Tim’s Resources

you can take the test at www.theleadershiptest.com