Provide Context, Not Control

photo by pattyequalsawesome

Sometimes you run across derivatives of the same idea from multiple sources and it gets you to stop and listen.

Two recent examples have come from Netflix and Miles Davis.

Ultimately, it’s about how best to maintain a leadership position by enabling those around you to explore new boundaries.  Leading and corralling rather than managing.

Netflix has posted a rather lengthy, but worthwhile slide show about their culture and how they work.  They put it best by asking their managers to provide ‘context, not control’ (slides 76 – 84).  In essence, describe where you want to go, not how you want to get there.

And The Miles Davis Story (as relayed by a friend) explored Miles’ proclivity to assemble talented musicians, set the mood for the evening and then walk around the stage as they do their thing.  His job was to capture each individual’s wandering explorations and create something cohesive out of it.  Sometimes it worked brilliantly.  Often it didn’t.  But his purpose was to create something that hadn’t been felt before.  To do that you have to be willing to try things that don’t pan out.

It takes a unique type of person to be able to lead in this manner.

• You must be able to inspire.  Start by focusing on the destination and challenge people to find creative ways to get there.  Ask questions rather than provide answers (except for additional context).
• You have to be able to communicate.  You can’t over-communicate.  Make sure everyone knows where you’re going and what’s on the landscape ahead.  Everything is need to know.  Everything.  Find your preferred method, but most importantly…
• …You must be consistent.  While you may start getting self-conscious about saying the same thing twenty times – it will sink in.  Also recognize that one action counter to what you say completely undermines the foundation you’re trying to build.
• You have to be confident enough in your abilities to be able to let go.  More cattle herder less prison guard.  Your job is to recognize good ideas not to necessarily to create them.   Trust in yourself to be able to find the pearls of wisdom in disparate ideas.

It’s no wonder that people who are at the top of their game are attracted by this environment.  If you’re looking to set the direction for your industry then it’s a leadership style worth considering.

Deposit: Emotional Capital

photo by mrpattersonsir

Work is draining.  For many, rare are the days when we leave the office feeling energized.

• It drains us to work with people who communicate differently
• It drains us to combat the petty political games
• It drains us to try and adopt the company’s and our manager’s values in order to ‘get ahead’
• It drains us to figure out what is meant rather than what is said
• It drains us to just be told what to do
• It drains us to continually give ourselves pep talks in order to get our heads back in the game
• It drains us to repeatedly convince ourselves that what we’re working on is really important

As a manager you have to recognize that people are going through this.  Chances are you are too.  But change has to start somewhere.

Sure, technically your job is to make sure the ball is being advanced down the field.  But if your team is too exhausted (or detached) to run the plays how far is the ball going to move?

Your real job is to make deposits into the emotional bank so that when the inevitable time comes when the team needs to hunker down and everything has gone sideways that people are present, engaged and have the persistence to get through the rough patches.

From the employees perspective, they have gone out of their way to make the relationship work.  They started in their role excited and ready to roll up their sleeves and make a real difference.  But every slight along the way has made a withdrawal on their emotional involvement with you, the team and with the company.

• Seemingly innocuous statements may have reinforced how little you know them.
• Decisions may have been made that seemingly flew in the face of the stated company values.  That inconsistency gets noticed.
• Ideas may have been squashed prematurely.
• A teammate may have been rewarded ‘unfairly’

It all adds up and you may be responsible for making many of those emotional withdrawals.  If you expect them to dig in then you need to exert the energy to refill that account.

Focus on your people.  Feed them the projects that keep them energized.  Recognize they’re all different and build those relationships accordingly.  People do want to be treated differently.  They’re not all the same and not universally motivated by the same things.

Start today.  Hold one on ones that don’t focus on tasks but rather the individual.  The work will still get done.

When ‘A’ Players Make ‘B’ Teams

photo by .mw

A few days ago we saw what it means to be the leader of a team and Alberto Contador clearly wasn’t it.

Today provided us another good lesson, compliments of Messr. Contador.  He was riding comfortably behind two rival challengers and one of his teammates who also happened to be contending for a podium finish.  In the next frame, Contador stands on his pedals and tries to break away.  The two rival contenders chased him down, but his teammate did not.

Ultimately, Contador may have knocked his teammate out of a top three result and may have cost his team a chance at sweeping the podium for the first time in 85 years.  All for a shot at proving his strength (though he was chased down) or to gain an additional ten seconds, at best, on his rivals over the course of the final of the mile climb (this would have been easily made up downhill).

There was no point.

This is a clear example of when having an ‘A’ player on your team actually makes your team weaker. In a business setting this may be the star who doesn’t communicate, doesn’t allow others the opportunity to shine or throws his teammates under the bus in external situations.

His results may be stellar, but the team’s cumulative results decrease when he’s added to the team.

Don’t get so blinded by the seemingly shooting star that you lose sight of your collective team’s performance.  We often start to blame the others for being inferior.  In reality, we’re promoting bad behaviors, poor values and deteriorating the morale on our team.

‘Stars’ are great and we should all be so lucky to have them, but if they don’t play well with others then what good are they?

—

Note: I believe we oversimplify when we see business people in a caste view.  The rankings are fluid.   ‘A’ players don’t exist independently of an organization.  And who you’d view as a ‘B’ or a ‘C’ player on paper could be enormously valuable and raise a level or two on your team. More on that here.

Engagement: Take the First Step

We all want to hire people who are going to make a difference.  Who will drive our businesses forward.

We want people who will remain engaged long after the honeymoon period.

The circle of engagement is pretty clear.  An employee likes her job so she works hard and does well which in turn produces rewards that matter to her so she tries harder still.

But where is the on-ramp?  What fuels this virtuous cycle?

photo by robotography

It’s easy to put the onus on the employee by saying you’re paying well, you have free yoga classes and M&Ms.  But none of those spin the wheel.  Despite what you may think those are only ‘nice to haves’ for most people.  People who are intrinsically motivated to do something amazing.

You’ve spent a lot of time and money to bring the new employee on-board.   So why not suck up your pride and take that first step?  Do everything in your power to ensure the people you hire succeed?

• Give your time liberally. Yes, you’re busy.  But every minute you give to properly on-board someone will give you several in return in the long run.  The new employee will appreciate it even if you don’t hear about it.  You’ll be rewarded with more and more focused effort.  Your team scales, you don’t.
• Praise early initiative. It’s tough for someone to come aboard, figure out how everything works and pay immediate dividends.  Rather than being ‘constructive’ and honing output, focus on input.  Few will be more motivated to put in solid efforts than when making the first impression.  Do your part to encourage that same level of effort in the future.
• Listen. Find out what where they loving pouring their efforts.  Ask for an honest assessment of their strengths and weaknesses.  Their weaknesses will be the areas where they put forth less effort.  Minimize those occasions.  Similarly, find out what they want to get out of a job, what skills they want to pick up and what motivates them.  They may have thought about it, but be persistent.

Engagement is a two-way street.  There is give and take on both sides, but we far too often neglect the new employee and trust them to ‘quickly get up to speed.’

Take the lead in engaging your employees and that lead will be followed.

Return on Brain Waves (ROBW)

We’re all in the same business.

We may produce different things, but that doesn’t change anything.  With off-shoring and 100-years to optimize the process, production is a commodity.  Everyone can tap into efficient, quality production (lead-laden toys notwithstanding).

In fact, we’ve been in this business for a half-century and we aren’t getting any better at it.

We are all in the people business, of course.

Your job is to turn brain waves into cash (hat tip).  If you thought you’d misplaced your competitive advantage, you’ll find it there.

photo by gilles chiroleu

In 1957 the U.S. hit the inflection point whereby we started thinking more than producing.  White-collar workers outnumbered blue-collar workers for the first time.  Since then the spread has only increased, but we haven’t changed our mindset about how we work.

We are still trying to get more from less by using the same approaches we used 100-years ago.  Basically, work longer then work smarter then finally give up and off-shore everything.

But we’re left with an economy and business scenario that is entirely different.  The job today is to optimize people’s thoughts.

Optimizing people is far different than optimizing people operating machines.

A couple starting points to keep in mind to make the transition from acting like a production line manager to a brain wave herder.

1. How, not what. Anyone you’ll consider hiring is going to be smart.  The difference in a few IQ points at the top end of the spectrum isn’t going to make a damn bit of difference in accomplishing your goals.  The difference is how they put those smarts to use, not what they know.  Is it in a way that aligns with how your company does business?  Does it inspire conversation and even more brain waves?
2. People aren’t independent. Our working systems are so intermingled that the lone wolf is indeed an endangered breed.  When assembling your team look at it holistically.  You don’t just need a marketer who has previously hawked your competitors product.  You need a markter who knows how to communicate with the prima donna sales guy and knows how to extract good ideas from the introverted engineer.  You need a marketer that raises the game of everyone on the team.
3. Redefine ‘management.’ You’re job is to take seemingly disconnected thoughts and focus them in a way that a) makes money and b) doesn’t shut down future thinking.  You’re job is actually far harder than you thought.  You have to keep energy high, focus it, be able to recognize great ideas and keep the momentum going when conflict arises.  You’re less a manager than you are a cowboy / cheerleader / psychologist.
4. Rethink your relationship. Stop thinking that people are cogs in the wheel and are easily replaceable.  Though it’s easy in this economy and it could be argued that it’s partially true (see above: there isn’t much difference in knowledge and skill levels between smart people), there is no faster way to shut down the brain waves you need to harness than to not appreciate what one brings to the table.  You may not agree with what they’re bringing, but if you want the spigot of knowledge to continue to flow you don’t gum up the pipes with your archaic, century-old thinking that people a natural resource to continue to be exploited.

I could go on, but then I’d have nothing left to write about.  Please add your own or challenge me on any of these.  My thinking is always a work in process and it’s hard to do alone.