The Manager - Edition 31 - from Rob Lambert
Cultivated Management Newsletter
Hi,
Hope you've had a nice weekend and are all set for the week ahead.
Last week I was lucky enough to be the program chair for The Poland Cup 2018. It was brilliant if I say so myself :)
What was fascinating though was the many conversations with leaders, managers, consultants, trainers and testers about the age old topic of "influencing upwards". In a nutshell it is common for people to feel trapped in the hierarchy and feel unable to influence or change it. They are doing great work, or they have problem, and the people in the "chain of command" aren't listening.
Here's what we chatted about when people asked me what I would do:
Ask questions of the hierarchy in a neutral, inquisitive way. Ask whether it is working. Are they getting what they want from you and the team? (And if not, what could you do about it?). Is information flowing as well as it could do? Could we (as a team) do anything to make it better?
When you ask questions you get people thinking. If you ask the right people the right questions, you can make dramatic opportunities for change appear
Build relationships with people of influence. It's pretty easy to spot who is a leader and who just has a title in most organisations. Find those in influential positions - and they don't always have high flying titles - and get to know them. Find out how you can help them. Or ask them for advice on a problem that you have right now. You'd be surprised at how this can open doors.
Make changes yourself - under the "radar". Just go ahead and start doing things differently - use caution though - not all organisations like people going off track and changing things. Be sure to measure your improvements and ensure you are indeed making the business better.
Keep your head down and accept the way it is - and therefore stop complaining about it. Harsh, but fair.
Move to another team or company where your preferences are already in place, or at least in progress.
I prefer the first two. Then option 3. Then option 5. But I meet too many people who cannot or will not make changes. I suggest to them they choose option 4 :)
Over the next few weeks you'll start seeing videos roll out to my Facebook and LinkedIn pages, with a summary blog post each week. I'll also include the videos here in this newsletter in case you miss them. The videos will be tactical level ideas about becoming a cultivated manager. It's pretty frightening doing videos, but it was the same with blogging - so if I keep doing it and just keep getting better - I might grow to really like it:)
I hope you'll enjoy the videos too.
Until next time.
Rob
Here's what's I've been reading that I think will be interesting for you :
1 - Do temporary incentives improve performance. Apparently so. Knew it. I don't like long term financial incentives tied to performance - in fact - I think they often destroy any potential to create a great team. But I have always tried to use short term incentives to encourage people to pull extra work for short periods of time. We can all always do more - but not over the long term - that path leads to burnout. Research seems to suggest short term incentives kind of work. More research needed.
2 - We try to define leaders, mostly so we can teach it (I don't agree that leadership can be taught to everyone - and not everyone wants it. Ever seen someone with zero leadership inclination being encouraged to act like a leader....gold).
Leaders emerge. People choose to follow a leader. And leadership in one place might not work in another. It's hard to describe. Or at least I thought it was until I read this. Bravo.
"Think of leadership as more of a disposition – the ability to step into a situation to learn about the history of the enterprise, the opportunities that it faces, the culture that exists and the people who are served by it. To look at all of that, to listen to stakeholders and then to think about how that enterprise or institution should best be served. "
3 - The role of a trainer is changing. I agree.
4 - Difficult article for me to read given my utter belief in feedback. But actually, the authors point out that feedback without listening can harm. But feedback from managers who are great listeners is powerful. Phew. That's exactly why I teach Active Listening on my management 101 courses. Listening is the greatest compliment after all.
5 - When I talk about Employee Engagement with leaders I often get asked if things like slides, cereal, table tennis and food make a difference. My response is always - maybe. If you have strong foundations they can, and do, make a difference. If people don't feel valued, cared for, supported, considered or worthwhile then food makes no difference at all. This article seems suggest my advice is ok. I just need to start advocate healthy food only :)
6 - I love this short post from Seth Godin because it sums up everything a Cultivated Managemer should be asking about all intitiaves, changes and the behaviours they see in the work place.
"What do I get?" is a question we should remind ourselves that are people are asking all of the time, just like managers are.
When we roll out a new initiative - how will it affect people and what will they get from it? Or we see behaviour we think is not good - there will be some value in doing it otherwise people wouldn't do it. When we make any change we need to see the upsides and downsides from our people - the more we can do this, the better placed we are to deal with objections, challenges, fall out and positive gains too.
It may make it sound like we are all selfish - to some extent we are, but it's more about balancing the needs we have with the needs of the business.
Thanks for reading this week's edition of The Manager.
Stay in touch on social media at the links below. Have a great week.
Thanks
Rob..