Shifting your view

I think you'll appreciate this next post since we all have had the experience of learning Newton's laws in Physics class. Steve Zaffron and Dave Logan, authors of the Three Laws of Performance, identify and define laws, like gravity, pertaining to the world of performance. They get to the bottom of why you can only get certain results. In a nutshell, your view of a particular situation or circumstance is associated with a specific outcome or result.

Said another way, your view gives you the actions to take to get results specific to that view. For example, if your view of life is that it’s hard. Typically that view is constrained with certain moods, feelings and thoughts. Your only actions you could take really is to complain or not do anything. And the result is obvious…no result near to what you want. Yes, you’ll get a result…just not the result you want.

On the other hand, if your view of life is that it’s easy (or rich or fun). What actions could you now take? The possibilities are endless and they’d be very consistent with your view that life is easy. You’d certainly get a result consistent with that view.

Don't believe me? Try it on with any view you have. You'll see that this works with just about anything. Again, like gravity, its a law.

Once you realize that certain views can only generate outcomes specific to that view, you'll need to shift your view to come up with different outcomes.

If you're interested in reading more about the 3 laws of performance, you can read it from the cannon of Warren Bennis' management and leadership series.

Regards,
Gil Gido
NAAAP Seattle
President

Toot your horn

Toot your horn. Photo by Ev0073

We were for the most part instilled by our parents to work hard. And when it comes to acknowledgement and recognition we are humble and do not want to take recognition for our hard work. Do you agree?

In your workplaces, you will need to take credit and toot your horn. No one is going to do this for you. The benefits of this are many. For example, groups are always on the search for talent and they'll admit that it's hard to find the right person. They're on the search for people that get the job done. If they run into a person who can share about their accomplishments, they are very interested in continuing the conversation. If they run into a person who can't share about their accomplishments, then they move on to the next person. If you're currently searching for a job, then this is very important. You need to show your value to a potential company and you show this through your past accomplishments. If you don't have a history of past accomplishments and successes, then it becomes very simple and that's to go out and accomplish something.

As people, we can't read minds and to communicate we need tools.  Two fundamental tools I will talk about is the status report and the other one is sharing through conversations.

Weekly Status Reports
This tool is a weekly summary of the activities on a project. It includes what's been accomplished in the last week and what is the plan for the next week. It also identifies milestones, deliverables, risks and issues. It also provides a sense of the cost of the project. From the perspective of the manager, they get visibility into the entire project. From the perspective of the team, they get visibility into other areas that can potential have an impact on them.  They also feel included and part of a team.  From the perspective of the project manager, it's your best friend.  You not only toot your own horn, but you toot the team for their accomplishments. If you're the manager, you can toot the project team's accomplishment to their manager and up the chain giving you and the project team visibility. The CEO can see your accomplishments.  You might be asking, "what if I'm not the project manager?"  The answer to that is to send your status to the project manager in time for the project manager to update the entire project.  You'll get some added bonus points from the project manager because now s/he doesn't have to ask you for it.

I am a fan of the weekly status report as you can tell. By review time, you have a year's worth of accomplishments. In a sense you are actually building content for your performance review throughout the year.

Sharing
Have you been in a conversation with people and they don't share at all? You might as well be stuck by yourself or talking to a wall.  It's as if they don't trust you to share anything with you. You might think that they've got something to hide. Now, if you've been in this situation in either position, what could you do to ensure that people know what you're up to? Hmm. Share? Yes, share everything, not just the good but also the bad. You could get insight into what you did that helped you have a great result or insight into what you could have done better.

I'll leave it at this for now. Thanks for reading and hope to have you back here soon.

Regards,
Gil Gido
NAAAP Seattle
President

So you want to be a manager, eh?

Organization chart



Shuffling through my desk of old papers this weekend, I discovered an old manager feedback form I wrote for a previous manager and decided I should write about what it takes to be a manager and what it looks like for those of you interested in becoming one and being skilled and successful in the role. You might be wondering and thinking to yourself, "I can do that." And that's a good place to start - by inquiring. As a start, a manager sits within an organization having direct reports and itself being managed by another manager. They have a responsibility to get results of the organization through the work of others, namely their direct reports. They not only have their own projects, but also the projects of their direct reports. In general, they have a greater span of control and need additional skills not required by being an individual contributor, one with no direct reports.

As you think about your plan for becoming a manager, keep these areas in mind and find opportunities in your current role to build your skill and gain experience. (Also, see last month's post on Stretch Projects.) If they don't exist, then you can find opportunities in other organizations and activities, such as volunteering.

The areas I want to focus on are Communications, Development, Diversity, Team Building, Goal Setting, Customer focus, and Values. I'll stray away from the why for now and focus more on the definitions. The why's is such a larger topic of discussion and can lead to discussions regarding legal issues. If you keep your context of being a manager to someone committed to the success of their organization, you'll avoid most issues related to poor people management.

As a manager your communications become very important as you want to encourage discussions that are open and productive. For example, when issues arise within your team, are you open to listening? Or do you blame the messenger? Can you see a deeper commitment of the message and not just the message itself? Are you able to share information that your direct reports need to do their jobs and help them to understand how your division or group contribute to the company's overall success? Do you avoid sharing unpopular news?

As a manager, you become the advocate and supporter of your team's development. This aids not only in achieving your immediate team goals, but also in providing the company a talent pipeline such that your team can move on to other roles that the company needs and provides your team a pathway for career success and their potential. You will want to show sincere interest in your direct's career by not only creating opportunities within their current role, but giving them challenging opportunities. If a training and development opportunities comes up like a conference or an outside program, can you support your direct's time away from work?

As a manager, you will definitely work with different cultures, backgrounds, and perspectives. Respecting diversity will only help to make you a better manager and ambassador for your group. What it looks like is you considering points of view that are contrary to your own and leveraging those strengths and differences. When you have a diverse group of people working for you, then you have additional skills and inputs to get your job done.

As a manager, you are not only concerned for yourself, but for your group and so team building becomes more of your focus. You'll need to be vigilant on the status of your group's integrity and morale. You'll be now seen as a leader. (Of course, you can lead also as an individual contributor.) You'll be required to inspire your team to achieve business results, effectively as opposed to burning out your team. You'll also be asked to remove obstacles and roadblocks while placing your own needs after the groups.

As a manager, you are setting the bar for your organization. This is called goal setting. Can you set, prioritize and communicate realistic and achievable goals? Do you have conversations with your group on where they are at on meeting their goals?

As a manager, you get customers as part of your added responsibilities so you'll need to take action on customer feedback demonstrating your focus on keeping your relationships positive. Sharing customer feedback with your team is also something you need to take into consideration.

Last, but not least, as a manager, whether it's integrity, operational excellence, and customer focus you are responsible for having your team be aligned to the values set at your company.

In summary, being a manager takes alot of preparation and people skills and developing these skills takes time and investment on your part.

Having read this, do you see actions you can take today that tomorrow will lead you one step closer to being a manager?

And if you're wondering about what happened to my manager who I gave feedback. Today, she is now a Sr. Executive and is very successful.

Regards,
Gil Gido
NAAAP Seattle
President