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

Conversations worth having

(L to R) Rachel Valdez, Beto Yarce, Murthy Kalkura, and Gil Gido

Last night at Tutta Bella on Stone way NAAAP Seattle and the National Society of Hispanic MBA's (NSHMBA) hosted a conversation with local entrepreneurs and members sharing the Secrets of Success.  I had a front row seat since I  had the priviledge of moderating.  On the panel were business owners: Beto Yarce of Cintli; Rachel Valdez of 16 Copenhagen; and Murthy Kalkura of 4AM Corp.
 
My overall experience from walking in the door to leaving can only be described as time well spent. Many who came either had a business or had an interest in knowing what it takes to start and run a business and this brings me to why I am writing - conversations. Conversations, I believe are key ingredients when it comes to running a business and even more so, leadership. Conversations can either be worth having or not having.  For me, those not worth having don't convey action. In fact, conversations lead to some result in business; for example, starting a business. They can end in no, maybe or what we would all like to hear, YES! It seems simple enough, but yeses move businesses; so as an entrepreneur, it's important to know when you are having a conversation that will lead to a yes. For example, yes, to a sale; yes, to accepting a new contract; and yes, to opportunity.
 
So what else can lead to a yes?  Well, I overheard and was engaged in many conversations last night and each had an element of authenticity, passion and free exchange of thought. There seemed to be no judgements or disinterest that I heard. As an entrepreneur, you get skilled in being authentic, passionate and inclusive and you start listening for opportunities that you can yourself use or pass onto your friends, clients and collegues. For me, it surely is a different experience when hearing, no, right?
 
Great! Since I want to provide you with short and timely information that you can use now, I'm going to end here. I know that I can't cover everything in this post. So, if you want to know more on having conversations that lead to yes, then you'll want to hear what Jack Canfield, a well-respected success coach, says, "it all starts with asking." http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=403944388995


With that, I want to give a special thanks to Christine Chen Velazquez of Chen Communications, Geraldine Rodriguez of NSHMBA and Hang Chen of NAAAP Seattle for organizing the event and giving folks an opportunity to have conversations worth having.
 
Regards,
Gil Gido
NAAAP Seattle
President

Leadership on the Colorado River

In the Fall of 2007, I flew down with 12 of my friends to Prescott, Arizona for a 21-day rafting and kayaking trip down the Colorado river through Grand Canyon National Park. The off-peak timing of our trip ensured privacy and solitude. We were alone. And unlike any other place on earth, cliff bands surrounded the banks and turns of the Colorado river.

We rented four inflatable rafts and two kayaks and packed them full with our gear as well as a 21-day supply of food and water. Knowing the raft could be subject to turbulence, each piece was tied down securely. The safety of the crew was a priority, so my friend Randy Johnson, a certified swift water rescue instructor, took a leadership role in the event one of our rafts flipped. Our ages ranged from the youngest being twenty-five to the oldest being sixty. In our midst we had qualified raft guides but equally we had novices and recreationalists, like me, on the trip.

With paddles in hand and our life jackets on, we set out in the early afternoon. Our two kayakers led the way scouting for rapids. In the first part of our trip, the waters lay still, so we paddled hard to move our rafts and took in the beauty and peacefulness of our surroundings. It was when we bonded. We laughed and made jokes, even about the unmentionables, like flipping the raft and if we flipped who would we save if we couldn’t save everyone? Seriously, everyone agreed that saving everyone was of utmost importance. Besides, the waters were cold measuring 50 degrees Celsius and dying a cold death and drowning was not anyone’s first choice of going out.

We passed Deer Creek and Black tail Canyons, where the rocks jutted out casting shadows along the river and then we passed Cosmic Chair Canyon, where it gets its name from a rock with Indian engravings.

A few hours had gone by before we even hit our first rapid. The Bedrock rapid as this one was called was 30 feet at its widest and about 200 feet long and categorized as a Class 3 (medium) rapid. A rapid is a shallow section of river where the water takes a steep decline on bedrock increasing in velocity and speed. This bedrock is resistant to erosion and large rocks litter the pathway. If the speed of the rapid is fast enough it can create white-colored caps on the water called whitecaps. At the top of a rapid, there is usually a stopping point and this is what we did. At the bottom of a rapid, there is usually a pool of water, deeper and still.

Getting through a rapid is strategic. A plan must first be created to ensure everyone’s safety. Randy, one of our kayakers, was chosen to be the first to go through since the kayaks are more maneuverable and since he had a lot of experience. He and our other kayaker made several runs to make sure the path chosen was the right one. As soon as we chose an appropriate path, the rafts, one-by-one, took their turn going down the rapid with the kayakers at the bottom and flank of the river. Since there were four rafts, the more experienced rafters were placed in 1 and 4 positions going through and the less experienced rafters in positions 2 and 3.

I was in the 2nd raft and paid full attention to how raft 1 went through. I studied how well the 1st raft paid attention to the recommendations the kayakers made. The plan was to bank left and then right and right again. At the last 40 feet, they should turn left and then straight avoiding any rocks in their way. There was a 5 foot drop where the water was the fastest and that scared me a bit. It would be the spot where a flip would most likely happen if it should.

There was a silence of concentration within the first raft. It didn’t take much paddling from the crew as the rapids took over. They used their paddles to steer and control their speed. They used their body weights shifting them within the raft to aide in their maneuvering. In less than a minute, the 1st raft made the left bank and quickly following to make two right turns. They took the 5 foot drop with ease. Cold water splashed all over the raft and they made their last turn at the 40 ft mark and eased into the still pool at the bottom. From the top of the rapids, I could hear a yelling of elation and victory. The first raft made it safely and with paddles in the air.

Our turn was next. We had four people in our raft, which gave us more weight. Yang, our raft’s leader, shouted, “GO! Go now! Go to the left!”

“Great! Now Gil, at the two right turns, lean your body out over the edge and stick your paddle into the water so we can make the two right turns. Ok?” He asked. I nodded. “Good. Do it now!” At that moment I did and we made both right turns leading to our drop. Yang shouted, “At this drop, I want everyone to lean forward ready to put your paddles back into the water!”

“Ready?”

“Lean forward! Now! “

The drop left my stomach up five feet up but we did it and were close to the finish. We stuck our paddles back into the water and paddled to the bottom of the rapid. With the same exuberance as the first raft, we yelled and screamed for victory. But the victory wasn’t complete – it wouldn’t be until rafts three and four came through the chute, so we sat at the bottom and waited.

I knew what they were thinking though. The thoughts came through my head just moments before. Shouts and laughter came with each raft meeting at the bottom. The last kayaker, having already gone through the chute ran through one last time as if to claim victory over the rapid. We welcomed him back to the group to continue with our journey.

We set up camp that evening at a place natives called the Sun because in the morning the sun will come out gloriously than the day before. We sat in front of our campfire celebrating today’s rapids and looking forward for more. We laughed and shared a most celebratory toast to victory on the Colorado.

Regards,
Gil Gido
NAAAP Seattle
President

Listening

Listening is that part of communication where the message is received and understood.  Many people would say that they listen, but do they really?  It's really different than hearing. Hearing is just when the sounds enter the ear canal and make vibrations.

I've been asked a few times about the best way to listen and I've come up with really one that answers the question. It's a simple test.

You're on a plane sitting comfortably on your way to someplace adventurous and then all of a sudden the pilot comes up on the intercom system to say, "Hello, everyone. I'm sorry to inform you that the we've lost both of our engines and that we'll be making an emergency landing in the next city."  You sit at alert anticipating the next few seconds and what's to come - Yes, instructions to save your life! 

Can you see the difference this would make on your professional life? Listening to every conversation like your life depended on it?

Here are a couple more examples. You're now at a sales meeting and your client states the conditions you and your company could stand to gain their business tripling your commissions.... Or your CIO states that your company has decided to reduce headcount and that you will be impacted ... Or your CFO states that your company has exceeded their financial goals and will be handing out bonuses.

In all of these situations and others, you're required to listen. I won't go into the details of the techniques of listening, but if your life depended on it, you'd be listening.

Regards,
Gil Gido
NAAAP Seattle
President

NAAAP Natl Webinar Series: NING

If you missed my webinar on social media, yesterday, I presented a walkthrough of NING, a new-age social networking tool, and showed how it helps businesses and associations set up a community for collaboration and to nurture relationships. I illustrated two examples, one of my clients (Vibrant Teams) and another for our own Women in NAAAP (WIN) program.

It was very exciting.  In preparing for the webinar, I had the opportunity of working with great people: Seattle Chapter members as well as the International Board Committee for the Women In NAAAP Program, most importantly with Judi Rhee Alloway, the National Chairwoman of WIN. Their support and their creative ideas led us to creating a NING network for the program as what’s evident to make the WIN program successful was to create a supportive network and moreso, using social media.

This network is in BETA though so we can gather feedback to make improvements to the network. Throughout this year, Women In NAAAP will continue to build this network for local and National participants in WIN to discuss topics related to women in the workforce, re-entering the workforce, community and family matters and much, much more.

To sum up, I'm super energized about the NING platform and the Women In NAAAP Program.  If you would like to help us test and grow this network, you're invited to sign up on NING and check it out.

Regards,

Gil Gido

NAAAP Seattle

President

Links:

 Join these social networks to join the conversation.

• Women In NAAAP on NING: http://winaaap.ning.com/
• Vibrant Teams on NING: http://vibrantteams.ning.com/

Precision Questioning & Answering (Vervago)

In this video, CJ (Allison Janney) is the Press Secretary in NBC's hit show the West Wing. She's prepping for a news briefing.  As you'll soon see, she's using precision questioning to speed up decision making and to have a deeper understanding of issues. 

Pretty amazing, huh? Now ask yourself, "What would your workplace be if you interacted with precision questioning and answers?" Also, "what would it be like in your 1:1's with your managers or direct reports, in meetings, and in presentations?"

If you're interested in knowing more and where to get training, you can visit these links.

• Vervago: http://www.vervago.com/video_precisionqa.html  
• Vervago Skill Sharpener: http://www.vervago.com/resources.html  
• History: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precision_questioning  

Regards,
Gil Gido
NAAAP Seattle
President