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Posted on Monday, May 20, 2013 9:17 AM
"This started it all...The optimist says the glass is half full.The pessimist says the glass is half empty.The project manager says the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.The realist says the glass contains half the required amount of liquid for it to overflow.And the cynic... wonders who drank the other half." source: businessball.com
"Q" = Quality vs. Quantity This has been constantly discussed since cavemen started trading pretty rocks for bowls of grub. The "boss" or "typical manager" is a numbers cruncher. Get the work out is the mantra. He/she watches the clock and judges employees on their punctuality not their functionality. The product may be secondary as is the testimony of the giant number of returns to a big box store each day.
Recently in a fast food "restaurant" - I asked for the manager and he came from his confines with the look of "now what" on his face. I said, "I would like to compliment you on your service - your employees must be well trained because they are preparing food as if they had to eat it themselves." He beamed and said - "Would you call the 800 number and tell them that" - which I did.
And that's the secret of a successful business. To be in business for the long haul - one must pay attention to the quantity of sales and all that goes with it - but one must also offer a product that is intrinsically "good" - being proud of one's work is the payoff of a job well done for all concerned.
Tip: Take time to balance your Q's
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Posted on Monday, May 06, 2013 9:00 AM
“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” Milton Berle
"O" = Open Your Door: a simple act - just opening a door.
We do it countless times each day. But for some managers the door is a symbol of their power and office rather than a passage to help them learn, manage and explore. For some they shut the door to keep problems at bay or at least out of sight.
When I worked for a major corporation I reported to a Vice President whose office was on the top floor of a 30 floor building. All the doors on this floor were open - however beneath each desktop was a button and when pushed the door automatically shut. When this happened one knew they were going to the "woodshed for a corporate spanking" for some mistake or problem.
This open doors were not appreciated - they were feared.
When a business leader opens the door to their office this is a sign to all that they are welcome to come in and that the manager is also interested in what's happening on the floor of the business.
Recently, a new mayor was appointed to office in Hamilton Township, NJ. One of Mayor Yeade's first acts was to have the door removed from her office. This indeed was a sign that there would be no closed door deals and that her administration was going to be very transparent - extreme yes, but it seems to have worked - as this act has been discussed and reported by many of the town's employees and it was even mentioned in the local press.
Open your door! - who knows who or what may enter - it could just be a great opportunity! |
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Posted on Monday, April 22, 2013 10:08 AM
"A body can pretend to care, but a body can not pretend to be there!" Texas Bix Bender
"M" = MBWA -- Management by walking around is not new - but many "managers" don't use it or are afraid to use it. They shut their doors and divide themselves from their employees by the trappings of their office and only appear when there's a problem, shortage or trouble.
According to CNN Money - "This was how founders Bill Hewlett and David Packard ran their computer company. After Tom Peters and Robert Waterman wrote about it in their 1982 blockbuster bestseller In Search of Excellence, MBWA became a buzzword for up-close-and-personal management. Steve Jobs was the ultimate practitioner of this approach, taking it beyond Apple employees to customers, whose complaints or comments he often answered with a phone call."
Here are some the simple steps CNN suggests to get started:
1. Make MBWA part of your routine. 2. Don't bring an entourage. 3. Visit everybody. 4. Ask for suggestions, and recognize good ideas. 5. Follow up with answers. 6. Don't criticize.
Remember you are on a fact-finding mission and it doesn't hurt once in awhile to catch someone "doing something right" ! |
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Posted on Monday, April 01, 2013 1:22 PM
“You're going to come across people in your life who will say all the right words at all the right times. But in the end, it's always their actions you should judge them by. It's actions, not words, that matter.”
― Nicholas Sparks, The Rescue "J" = Judge...your team - but judge yourself first. And always judge with documented facts about both. Don't ever fear having your subordinates rate you and your work. When I teach a college Leadership class and talk about this judging, a basic management task - I would immediately ask the class to judge me.! "What should I keep doing? What should I stop doing? What should I start doing?" This always shocked the class - most of their teachers would never ask these questions? But feedback should be something that not only cascades down to the employee - but something that bubbles back up to the boss. That's the basis of true judgment and a building block of leadership |
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Posted on Friday, March 08, 2013 11:39 AM
"I think the big mistake in schools...using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce leaning on a scale compared to fear -- as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker" Stanley Kubrick “G” = Grades When you graduated from high school or college you thought that you were done with “grades”. Wrong! Business is about grades. Measurable results are the standard for most yearly performance reviews. And when you become a “leader” versus a “manager” of a staff the job becomes central to you work. The performance review can be about what one failed to do – or it can be based on a “constructive approach” to growth and learning about an employee’s work. Choose the latter. TIP: Grade yourself before you grade your staff. Are you asking folks to do something you couldn’t achieve? Are you fair or playing favorites? Do you really care about growth or just the numbers? Do your objectives just come down from the top or do you participate in the goal setting of you business? Grades are relative – they depend on who sets them and how one anticipates there own skills to get an “A”. |
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Posted on Tuesday, March 05, 2013 9:21 AM
E = Empower "The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it." --Theodore Roosevelt Empower is an action verb - empowerment is the result. A good leader/manager will empower by giving his associates not only the license to be creative about a task - but also the tools and the time to achieve the task. Many times managers brag about "empowering" their people - "Your are empowered to clean up that...but to truly empower they must also say: "Here are the containers, the tools, some instruction/help and sometimes some "incentives" to do this work." |
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Posted on Tuesday, February 26, 2013 4:34 PM
D is for delegate: Did you ever have a manager give you a job to do and then they stood and watched over your shoulder just waiting for you to make a "mistake"? Leaders delegate and detach, managers reluctantly give up a task and then worry and second guess themselves about the outcome -- failure many times becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy !
The Art of Delegation
1. If it takes longer to tell a person what-how-when you want a task done than it takes to do the task -- do it yourself. 2. If a job is so important that a failure will bring the company to its knees or the loss will be debilitating -- then the task probably shouldn't be delegated. And remember we learn just as much from our mistakes as we do from our successes 3. Make sure you are doing things at the level of your pay grade. If staff needs training - get it done. 4. Raise the bar - you will be surprised how clever people are about on the job solutions, if given the chance to think and suggest them. 5. When you do delegate - detach, walk away and let you person do the job. Be aware that it may take longer if the learning curve is severe and use immediate and constructive feedback, no matter what the outcome.
When you follow these step you will be a master at delegation and have more time to do well -- just what you getting paid for.
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