The Cranky Middle Manager Show #312 The Future of the MBA Ken Starkey
Posted on 09. Feb, 2012 by Wayne in General, Podcast
Today we look at the top five Human Capital Issues of 2012- in other words, what keeps companies up at night when it comes to their people. We talk to Jay Jamrog of I4CP about his latest research on the top Human Capital issues for 2012. We also discuss the meaning of Realpolitik, who invented it and why you should care. You have to know what the boss is thinking or you’re in for some ugly surprises. Just sayin’….
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.
Read TheConnectedManager.com blog
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #312 The Future of the MBA Ken Starkey
Posted on 31. Jan, 2012 by Wayne in General, Podcast
Today Wayne Turmel talks to Ken Starkey of Nottingham University Business School about the future of the MBA and what business schools think is the next big thing for leaders. We also discuss the biggest problem with learning a new language, whether the old soviet spies could have benefitted from WebEx, and the usual collection of snarkiness and good conversation.
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?
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #305 The Approachable Manager Nametag Scott Ginsburg
Posted on 01. Dec, 2011 by Wayne in General, Podcast
Today Wayne Turmel talks to the odd but very smart “Nametag” Scott Ginsberg about being more approachable as a manager and why it matters. We also discuss Lady Godiva, the Gospel of St Thomas and other things you won’t hear on any other management podcast. That’s a promise.
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
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #304 Plugged-In Managers Terri Griffith
Posted on 23. Nov, 2011 by Wayne in General, Podcast
Today Wayne Turmel talks to Terri Griffith about her book, “The Plugged-In Manager”. How plugged in are you to your organization, your team and your customers? We also discuss Samurai spy masters and the pain of reading John Locke, even if he is a smart guy. Just another eclectic day at the office here in Crankyland.
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