THE PROBLEM WITH CONSULTANTS

I recently emailed my client, a president of a global corporation, that I ASAP needed to sit down with him to establish measurable outcomes for each of his direct reports I am working with. We both recognize that a focus on top priorities is critical...but that those may differ in reality or interpretation. As important is helping him meet the expectations of his manager (and I am not yet privy to those details...but should be).

Here is his response:

"Just great, Alan. Glad you are engaged at your usual high
standard. I agree that measurable outcomes are necessary. My axe
with management consultants in the past is they never follow up with us to keep
us honest."

What never surprises me is the lack of clarity of expectations down the chain of command in most organizations. So my role frequently becomes one of helping executives articulate expectations, communicate them effectively and create an owner mindset to achieve.

LEADERS ARE LIKE PHYSICIANS

Bill (COO) is in the first 6 months of implementing a new product launch and speed is critical to maintaining a critical edge before his competition figures out how the market will shift significantly.

But not everyone is stepping up: deadlines are being missed, meetings are becoming a fertile field for conflict (spoken and unspoken) and IT needs to rearrange their priorities and staffing.

What is the best strategy at this point? Act like a physician to diagnose what is getting in the way.

For every mission critical action there are numerous reasons why people don't make things happen as planned. There is no time for guessing. Here are some examples of what I have encountered:

• They don't know how to do what the task demands - but think they do
• They don't understand why they should do something [a significant motivation factor]
• They think something else is more important
• They think their way is better
• They lack confidence and become risk averse
• They think they are already doing it
• You have not listened to their suggestions for doing it more effectively

Without the right diagnosis, the prescription for moving forward is flawed and the prognosis is not where it needs to be!

"WE ARE WORKING MANAGERS YOU KNOW..."

This is what I frequently hear from those reporting to C-level executives and wonder why. It could be:

• "Managing people" takes too much time with less ROI
• We hire competent people who should not need managing
• We don't know how to effectively manage certain people or situations
• I am unwilling to change

The more I explore this mindset the more I find that this is a matter of habit and familiarity; i.e. a syndrome of managers promoted or hired for technical/functional expertise. Those people naturally hold on to what they have done best and have gain satisfaction in doing. But that is not the realm of managing people!

The second explanation is one of modeling how they are and have been managed. This is the predominate means of how one learns how to manage (before any coaching, I might add!).

So how does one receive coaching that is not perceived as taking time away from very busy schedules? Goal setting-observation of actual job functions-debrief-repeat cycle.

BEST INTERVIEW QUESTION

I was challenged this morning from a Tweet I encountered...to reflect on the most important interview question one can ask. Just one! OK, perhaps the one that you can then follow up with other questions to learn more.

"Tell me about yourself."

That's it. Simple maybe but try it on yourself by having your friends ask you. What do you say? How do you choose what to say?

I can still remember that question when I was being interviewed for a sales position over 25 years ago. My future manager and his manager were in the room. I had no clue where to start so used the "resume format": start from the beginning of my career, cover highlights of each position and and look for a response when to end.

Well, I could not pick up any clues on how my talking was being received, their faces were stone cold frozen. And at the end, I had just one response as one manager said to the other: "He certainly talks a lot but possibly he is trainable and we can fix that."

So was the length of my talk important? Yes, but there was more I learned later as my new manager/mentor taught me:

• Can the story tell us about his character?
• How does he make decisions?
• What is important to him?
• Why has he been successful?

At events where I am meeting important prospective clients, I use that question with slight variation. At the Greenwich Leadership Forum, I usually ask, "What attracts you to this event?' or "What do you find is valuable enough at these meetings to bring you out for 6:30 am coffee and discussion?"

The point is to start a conversation where I am not the focus, the other person is. So when I am asked at these type meetings, "what do you do?" I answer with one short sentence and then ask a simple question to engage them.

"I advise and sometimes coach leaders on their most pressing dilemmas; my challenge is getting executives to be vulnerable enough to tell me what keeps them up at night. How might you respond?"

The higher the title of people in transition I help, the more difficulty they seem to have is engaging others. It's the old elevator speech but no personable technique to engage in conversation.

In the formalized atmosphere of being interviewed, the answer then must be short, and compelling enough that the interviewer asks you to continue. That's the challenge.

As an interviewer, I greatly respect the candidate when they talk only for a moment, allowing me to refocus where they are going. "When you talked about your last position, I sensed this was not your most favorite job..." The response can be very telling!

Oh! By the way, to really learn about someone enough to predict their future success working for you: drop the habit of referring to the resume or notes. Look the candidate in the eye and listen well enough to read between the lines to formulate your next series of questions.

THE C.E.O. OF SOMETHING?

Mark Pincus, chief executive of Zynga, tells the New York Times [Corner Office, January 31, 2010] that he found himself challenged by how to effectively touch everyone in an organization once the growth of his employees exceeded 150.

It was easy to keep everyone informed and going in the same direction with 50 people but when the size grew, it was physically impossible to efficiently communicate with everyone. Adding middle management did not seem the best solution.

So he experimented [successfully] by having everyone charged with figuring out what they wanted to be C.E.O. of. This technique essentially was an act of delegation with accountability.

He said to his people, "By the end of the week, everybody needs to write what you're C.E.O. of, and it needs to be something really meaningful." This then was published so everyone knew who was in charge of what.

He talks about the receptionist who kept talking about needing a new phone system as the company got larger. By putting her in charge of that project, "I don't want to hear about it. Just go buy it. Go figure it out", she was so motivated that no one could have done a better job of solving this need.

From my own experience with clients, whenever we can put people at any level in charge of a meaningful project, they rise to their true level of ability and with a sense of owner mindset.

Read more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/business/31corner.html?scp=1&sq=corner%20office%20pincus&st=cse

CEO’s LESSONS ON LISTENING

I was fortunate to have met Jim Young, Chairman and CEO of Union Pacific Corporation, in December where he spoke to the Greenwich Leadership Forum. "The most important lesson I have learned is how to effectively listen - and learned the hard way during the chlorine tank explosion in Louisiana, during our last recession when we needed to rethink our whole model of business and during union negotiations."

Listening skills are the foundation to building trust, creating a culture of innovation and increasing productivity; not to mention better customer loyalty by acting on their feedback. Jim actually makes sure that everyone of his 45,000 employees have his email address!

Then comes along Teresa Taylor, COO at Qwest who says she could not believe it when she heard from people that she was a not a good listener. Her lesson learned ? "Biting my lip, slowing down and then really focusing on what people were saying." [New York Times, Corner Office, 12/27/09]

Doing that better, she learned the technique of listening for better interviewing - by observing candidates over dinner; how they interact with service staff and their decision making when ordering -not to mention the value of a more relaxed environment.

The bottom line: really effective listening is hard to achieve because it involves unlearning behaviors such as impatience, making assumptions about what people are saying (or interpreting their body language and tone). The goal might be re-framed to learning "intuitiveness"; collecting enough dots to connect accurately.

The goal: creating genuine open-mindedness that causes others to offer more of their talent. Without that people get defensive and hold back their best ideas.

A QUESTION YOUR MANAGER NEVER ASKS

Based on the 146 responses to my LinkedIn question to corporate managers I surveyed on October 8, 2009, I have only one suggesion: managers would greatly benefit from asking a similar question of their people.

The question: What one thing do you need from your manager (not currently getting) to be more effective at your job?

Results:

87% Greater Engagement
.......[44%] More time to be mentored, coached, solve problems, strategize
.......[25%] Regulary feedback
.......[18%] Recognition - "It matters more than $$$ sometimes"
13 % Clear expections and goals - greater focus on priorities

This is really not new information. However, it certainly reinforces the need for leaders to make time for what their people need to be successful!

Having that dialogue can be challenging - doing it as part of one's leadership style takes time.