The Cranky Middle Manager Show #316 The Final Cranky Show and the Future of Work with John Blackwell
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #311 Serial Innovators Claudio Feser
Posted on 25. Jan, 2012 by Wayne in General, Podcast
Today Wayne Turmel talks to author Claudio Feser about why some companies innovate, some die and take their managers with them. We also talk learning Mandarin in the face of sheer terror.
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.
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #309 Re-Energizing Your Leadership Attitude Steve Farber
Posted on 03. Jan, 2012 by Wayne in General, Podcast
Today Wayne Turmel talks to Steve Farber about his book The Radical Leap Re-Energized. We also discuss creating calendars, sappy new year’s wishes and learning to love your job again. Seriously.
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
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #308 The Power of Presence Kristi Hedges
Posted on 23. Dec, 2011 by Wayne in General, Podcast
Ever wonder why some people just get more positive attention than others? Wayne Turmel speaks to Kristi Hedges, author of “The Power of Presence- Unlock Your Potential to Influence and Engage Others” about who has “it”, what “it” is and how to get “it”. We also discuss dinosaur dioramas and how they can impact your career and Wayne quotes Albert Einstein…just because to see his name in the same sentence as Einstein is kind of a kick.
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.
The Cranky Middle Manager Show # 306 Can You Prove Training ROI? Ajay Pangarkar
Posted on 09. Dec, 2011 by Wayne in General, Podcast
Today Wayne Turmel talks to Ajay Pangarkar about kind of a touchy subject–at least it’s touchy for those of us who actually stop to think about it. Can you really prove Return on Investment for training…and should you even bother? That’s only one topic, along with wondering what you would tell Cleopatra’s kids, wondering if it’s smarter to teach or learn, and what Wayne will be doing in Vegas on January 27th. Just another eclectic Cranky Middle Manager 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.
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
Order his books from Wiley.com and save 15% by using the code TMW11
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