Dan Erwin

21st Century Managing: Coordinate and Cultivate

Yesterday's post focused on the shift from command and control to coordinate and cultivate.  Making change ain't easy for any of us, so it's important to make certain that you really want to make the change.  Jeff Pfeffer has a recent post on not making change unless it's really necessary.  Coordinate and cultivate easily passes the smell test for change, and to a great degree many of my clients have been moving in that direction for some time.  They've been working at it in bits and pieces, the small wins approach, which gives them a far better batting average rather than trying to hit a home run in one fell swoop.

Then too, one of the drivers of this change is that my conversations reveal that 90% of subordinates really like it.  It gives them more responsibility, but it also gives them opportunities to grow and add to their toolkit.  Plainly, in some companies if you don't grow and add to your competency base, you'll be on the streets.  

Still, the old command and control exerts a powerful influence on our thinking.  It creeps up in the oddest ways.  Watch how often when a problem pops up in an organization the solution is to centralize control so it won't happen again.  I've watched the push and pull between managers and the boss over a single termination go on for months.  "Who's going to make this decision?  Do we really need to make it?  What'll happen if . . .?"  The smart senior exec still kept pushing the decision down, so the managers would learn how to make the right call.  But it was caught in the old command and control world for a long time.

Why is change so difficult? 

My white paper on that subject reveals 10 reasons why it's difficult to make change.  But the biggest may well be that we try to make the change without unfreezing the old behaviors.  Kurt Lewin, the grandfather of change theory, found that unfreezing must take place before change can occur.  So when you decide to make a change and unfreeze an old practice, begin by asking yourself questions:   What are the weaknesses of this practice?  Why does it really need to change?  What has changed to make this practice ineffective?  What will happen if I continue to use the old practice?

Tom Malone describes coordinate and cultivate this way:  A cultivation approach recognizes that sometimes you need to control people carefully, sometimes you need to just nudge them in the right direction, and sometimes you need to accept and encourage the direction they're already moving in--even if it isn't the precise direction you'd prefer.

Bottom line:  Every manager will need to learn to coach.  Better companies are making coaching a key skill for all managers and executives.

What experience have you had with coordinate and cultivate?

How Will Companies Manage in the 21st Century

Major crises drive not only business changes, but also management changes.  Since the early 1980's successful managers, especially in IT, have been moving away from the old "command and control" of GE and other major industrial giants of the 20th century.  If command and control goes away, what will be the model for the 21st century? 

A recent issue of the Economist uses the example of Cisco to answer the question and points to the works of Rosabeth Kanter and Tom Malone as the best interpreters of the 21st century management model.  They argue that the new model will be oriented to "coordinate and cultivate," an approach, I believe, that has been in the works for nearly 20 years with those companies that intend to use the intelligence and creativity of their people.

In his book, Malone tells of his speaking experiences:

When I give talks about new organizations, I often take a little poll to see how well the audience thinks today's companies take advantage of people's abilities.  I ask them this quesiton:  What percentage of the intelligence and creativity of the people in your own organization do you think your oganization actually uses?  . . . . The average answer I hear is from 30 percent to 40 percent.  In the old world of large-scale, mostly routine production, taking maximum advantage of everyone's intelligence and creativity wasn't critical, and the top-down, command-and-control management style was usually quite effective.  But as organizations become more decentralized, as knowledge work comes to dominate the economy, and as innovation becomes increasingly important, taking advantage of people's true intelligence and creativity will become one of the most critical capabilities of successful businesses.

Then, Malone goes on to describe the new style of management and chooses the metaphor of cultivation to best describe the 21st century's needs.

Rather than just telling people what to do, managers will increasingly cultivate their organizations and the people in them.  To cultivate something successfully--whether it's your farm, your garden, your child, or your organization--you need to understand and respect its natural tendencies at hte same time that you try to shape it in ways you value.  More specifically, you try to discover and encourage its positive potential and limit the harm cuased by its negative tendencies.  Rather than just trying to impose your will on the system, you try to balance the right kinds of control with the right kinds of letting go.

This is an important topic and I feel I don't understand it as well as I should.  Let me know what you think about the new model, and let me also know the percentage of your intelligence and creativity that you believe is being used by your organization.  Please either leave a comment below, or send me an email by clicking on the "Email me" link in the upper right hand corner below my picture if you prefer.  I won't publish names without your permission. 

Get Out of My Sandbox!

In an enlightening interview in Sunday's New York Times, Deborah Dunsire, chief of a biopharmaceutical concern in Massachusetts, weighed in smartly on a fundamental issue of leadership.  Her revelation is not unusual, but it's highly important for all leaders:

When you desperately want to do well, and I am a person who’s typically worked hard and done well, sometimes that desire translated into overdoing it on the leadership side. If something went wrong, I would get too anxious about it or think I had to fix it personally.

As I’ve stepped further and further outside my comfort zone to the job I’m in now, I’ve had to focus more on the work of leadership and not focus on being the person who solved the details of the problem.

She went on to say that she had learned to step away and allow the person to "stub their toe." 

Research shows that one of the most difficult tasks for a new manager is letting go--delegating the work, and getting out of your subordinate's sandbox.  Here's great input from a CEO who really understands that issue.

 

Gen-Y and X Skill: What Coaching Does for the Coach

Last week I was invited to teach an MBA class on leadership at a local college.  One question that I've never heard so directly was asked by a young woman who managed a number of clerks:  "Why should I coach beyond the basics when they'll just take their new learning and move on?  That means I'll have to take the time to coach someone else."

It's a question deserving of an answer.

For one thing when you coach, inevitably you'll gain better insight into that skill.  Research shows that one of the best ways to develop depth-expertise of a skill is to teach it to someone else.  Training forces you to analyze a skill in depth, to thoughtfully deal with the questions and concerns of others and even to recognize uses of a skill that you may have not seen as a part of your own development and use of that competency.

Coaching also teaches you how to understand and work more effectively with people.  When someone has difficulty or even fails to learn, you'll find yourself asking questions about that person as well as about your own processes of working with people.  You can't go through experiences like that without developing your skills of diagnosing, relating and problem solving.  The thinking required to work with people is far different than that required for technology.  Coaching people is never garbage in, garbage out.  Managing the variables and complexities of an individual is far different than managing the complexities of a software program.  It's another valuable process that's grown, not innate.

Finally, and this is no small thing, coaching builds your reputation.  Managers and execs take notice of capable coaches.  After all, developing people is at least a third of many execs' responsibility.  Not only would your reputation for coaching get around your organization, but it also provides one of the most basic rationales for a promotion.  In a recession, it's not the coaches who work well with people that get let go, but the chronically poor performers who make little contribution beyond their daily work responsibility. 

If you're new to the workforce, you may think that coaching is for the higher-ups, but that's false.  Don't wait until you have subordinates before you think about coaching.  When you notice someone having difficulty with a job that you've mastered, ask if you can help.  You might say something like this:  "I don't want to be pushy, but I've worked with that too.  Would you be willing to let me share what insights I have?"  A little bit of self-deprecation followed by an offer can be the path to recognition.

Here's the rule:  Effective coaching teaches the coach as much as it teaches the learner.

New Manager Interpersonal Skills: Gaining Personal Commitment

One of the on-going tasks of new managers is gaining the kind of buy-in and commitment to projects that will result in high productivity.  It’s a common scenario for the new manager.  She focuses on project objectives, making certain they’re well understood by her team, creates a schedule, talks through the issues that she believes may create difficulty for her team, and sets them free.

She checks in with a team member the next day, only to find out that little has moved off the dime.  Why does this happen?

One reason is that new managers often ignore a simple fact:  commitment happens at an emotional level rather than at a rational level.  For assignments to gain the kind of support from individuals that results in success, managers will need to understand the commitment process.

As a hands-on consultant who does a lot more than develop plans or advise, I have to gain the personal commitment necessary to achieve agreed-upon objectives.  I’ve found that the commitment process has three distinct stages.

Understanding:  This stage is about making certain through explanation and clarification that the information has moved from my mind to the receiver’s gray matter and that she understands it.  Often, managers seem to assume that understanding or talking about something is all that’s necessary to achieve the desired results. 

Buy-in:  The second stage focuses on the beliefs of the individual.  Here, you’ll want to make certain that the individual understands the personal implications of this task, and believes it will benefit both the organization and herself.  Beliefs, in contrast to information and mere understanding, are about emotions. 

Ownership:  This is the ultimate stage, the point where the individual accepts personal responsibility for helping you achieve your objectives.  Typically, this is where the team member starts talking about timelines and asking about the processes of achievement.  In effect, the team member says that she is taking personal responsibility for implementation.  I typically close off the conversation with, “Let me double-check.  What are the next two or three steps you’re going to take?”

Managers need emotional commitment, not just the compliance of their team members.  You can’t get that without highly focused interpersonal communication. 

Careeers: How to Get Smarter Every Day

In a previous post, I laid out the basic debriefing format in three simple questions:

• What's going well?
• What needs to go better?
• What have I learned from this?

It takes a while to make debriefing an essential part of your repertoire, but those wanting to go up the ladder, be able to take advantage of opportunities, and get the jobs they want will take the necessary steps to insert this into their front brain lobes.  Successful career development is a systematic process, and debriefing shouldn't be overlooked. 

Once you get familiar with my basic model, the fast-trackers will want to do more with debriefing.  The payoff can be immense.  You can turn your work learning into continual on-the-job behavior. 

A Harvard Management Update, has an intriguing idea about why many business people don't use debriefing:  The reason is that old news is considered irrelevant.  Most professionals are forward-looking:  they tend to forget that they can make what happens next week far more efficient if they spend some time debriefing the past.

In that same issue, the writer lays out a more detailed debriefing process for teams and organizations.  Although I've used it when consulting with teams, I find it especially helpful when I'm working on a more complex skill for myself, or having difficulty gaining a new competency.  (Yeah.  Some competencies are more difficult to learn than others.)

Here's the four step debriefing process from that same Update, which I've adapted for personal use.  You'll notice that it's not rocket science, and it can be applied in absolutely any setting.

• What did you set out to do?  Define the purpose of the action and, in specific terms, the expectations for its successful execution.
• What actually happened?  While the event is fresh in your mind, reconstruct what occurred and figure out the most accurate account of the results.
• What were the differences between the desired and actual results, and why did they occur?  Diagnose any discrepancies, establish cuases and effects, and be ruthlessly honest.
• What are you going to do next time?  Specify and implement actions for the future, including successful steps to be repeated and improvements to be made.

I'm well aware that many business people see systematic processes as a pain in the ass.  I come from that same world, but I've learned that if I want to succeed I'll need to roll over and learn the processes.  There is some very good news about processes aside from their long term value:  the more we learn them, the faster we can learn them and the more useful they become. 

When a Gen-Yer Manages Gen-Yers

A recent post on Brazen Careerist discussed one of the first issues every new Gen-Y manager faces: how do you manage someone your own age or someone who is a friend?  

The insightful comments that followed the post reveal the kind of motivation and commitment every executive wants in his/her managers.  They demonstrate the kind of personal wrestling with new responsibility that makes for success.  Taken together, the comments read like the frustrations of a new manager from any generation.  But here's what Gen-Yers have to say:

• We're not used to having someone our own age being in charge of us.
• Gen-Yers don't take work as seriously as they should.  Too often deadlines are missed or opportunities are not taken because Gen-Yers don't have the drive they should.
• It's great that many Gen-Yers approach me as a friend.  Befriending one another makes the boss more approachable and more respected.
• Maybe a little formality between boss and report is necessary.
• How do you think Gen Y will do managing Gen X or Boomers?
• I don't believe in looking down at your employees and I also don't like to be strongly authoritative.
• It's hard to tell someone your own age he needs to be a little more responsible and proactive with his job issues.

When I analyzed these comments, I found that they are all focused on one issue: what relationship between manager and subordinate will be most productive? 

The best way to deal with these issues is through the use of a "relationship format."  Most Gen-Yers are familiar with digital formats on which you store, discover or deliver information.  Excel, for example, is a format that enables users to plug in information and come up with specific outcomes.  A relationship format builds on the same principle.    

The objective of this work-relationship format is to enable a manager and subordinate to work together most effectively.  Although a manager can initiate the process, it works better when the subordinate initiates and manages the format.  That way the conversation becomes an act of self-advocacy and tells the manager that he or she intends to make the relationship work.  The process was spelled out by Ed Schein of MIT more than twenty-five years ago.  (It's a tragedy that it has not been widely disseminated.) 

Remember that the basic task between manager and subordinate is to build a relationship and establish an emotional climate that facilitates getting things done effectively, and provides a set of agreed-upon relationships that support decision making and business.  The questions asked by Gen-Yers need to be answered by each manager.  The answers may change over the years, but the answers need to be mutually agreed upon.  The conversational format normally includes answers to the following:

• How will we set mutually shared goals?
• How will we go about solving problems?
• How will we make decisions?
• How will we ensure follow-through and completion of tasks?
• How will we keep our lines of communication open?
• How will we manage our differences?

If you don't know each other very well, you may want to begin with a conversation about the first question.  Set up a 45 minute appointment and start talking.  It might sound like this: "I've not worked with you as a manager, and I'd like for our relationship to be a success.  Can we talk about project goals?  Do you prefer to talk big picture, or are you more analytical and prefer to start out our relationship with work tactics?  I'm comfortable either way." 

Make certain that over the next few weeks you consider all of the issues. . . take notes, and follow through on the decisions.  Managers consistently love the process.  One of the most typical comments from both both subordinates and managers is, "Wow, is that useful.  It saves hours and hours and prevents all kinds of breakdowns.  I can work with this guy."  

This format, supported by protocols and scripts, is a proven step-by-step strategy for gaining a particular response--techniques that can be used to resolve recurring issues.  In the near future, I'll lay out some of the typical issues that come up and provide you with actual protocols and scripts to deal with them.

FYI:  Brain scientists have recently researched the actual impact of such techniques as protocols and scripts on brain development.  They've found that every technique or skill we develop exists as a circuit in the brain.  In the language of scientists, "experience-expectant processes" are teed up and waiting to create skill circuits.  A "skill has to be formed and optimized," but circuits are available and waiting to lock onto those skills that are in the development stage.  Technique development, the practicing and repeating of a skill initiates an expertise circuit.  The effect is further development of your brainpower and your work expertise.

 

Financial Rewards: Gen-Y and Boomers

The July/August Harvard Business Review has a  fascinating comparison between Gen-Yers and Boomers, by Sylvia Ann Hewlett and colleagues.  Hewlett is an economist and president of the Center for Work-Life Policy in New York.  Both generations agree that financial reward is not the driving issue for them in the workplace.  They rate other rewards as important as money.  Here are the key types of rewards that are at least as important as compensation, in order of priority.

            Generation Y   

1. High-quality colleagues
2. Flexible work arrangements
3. Prospects for advancement
4. Recognition from one's company or boss
5. A steady rate of advancement and promotion
6. Access to new experiences and challenges

Boomers are the parents of Gen-Yers, so it's not surprising that there are a remarkable number of similarities in the workplace preferences between Baby Boomers and Generation Y.  The two generational cohorts are approximately the same size, while Generation X is half the size of Gen-Y or the Boomers.

The similarities between Boomers and Gen-Y are striking.  Boomers rate seven types of rewards as important as cash.  Again, they are in order.

            Boomers

1. High-quality colleagues
2. An intellectually stimulating workplace
3. Autonomy regarding work tasks
4. Flexible work arrangements
5. Access to new experiences and challenges
6. Giving back to the world through work
7. Recognition from one's company or boss

I wonder, do these lists sound right to you?  I'd appreciate any comments on how managers and organizations can find ways to make work meaningful on these terms.

--from Sylvia Ann Hewlett, How Gen Y and Boomers Will Reshape Your Agenda, Harvard Business Review, V87, 7/8, p. 76.

Jobless? Only the Employed Need Apply

The WSJournal says that many employers want to hire only the employed.  With the jobless rate at 9.4% many employers are bypassing the jobless to hire the employed, thinking that they represent the top performers.  Recruiting firms indicate that the bias extends from front-line employees to execs and explain:

If they’re employed in today’s economy, they have to be first string,” says Ryan Ross, a partner with Kaye/Bassman International Corp., an executive recruiting firm in Dallas. Mr. Ross says more clients recently have indicated that they would prefer to fill positions with “passive candidates” who are working elsewhere and not actively seeking a job.

In the New York area a survey by Infinity Consulting found that 59% out of 417 job hunters agreed that employers gave preference to candidates who are currently employed.

Can job searchers get around this hurdle?  Dana Mattioli of the WSJ encourages job-seekers to do everything possible to assure an employer that your termination was not the result of poor performance.  Arm yourself with strong letters from your former employer, indicating you were laid off for economic reasons and that you're eligible for rehire.  She says that if you can't get formal letters, get references from senior-level employees at your previous company.  If only half of your group was let go and you're in the losing half, recruiters antennas are up.

If you're fortunate, have a job now and want to keep it, this is a reminder that there are number of essential skills necessary for success in the new world.  It's still another reason to make certain you're managing up, have learned how to avoid a pink slip and can think like your employer.   

"HOW TO BE A GOOD BOSS IN A BAD ECONOMY"

Some of you know that I have a great admiration for two profs at Stanford, Bob Sutton and Jeff Pfeffer.  The latest Harvard Business Review contains a lead article by Bob with the same title as this post.

As a management consultant, there are a number of things I appreciate about the essay. For one, he moves the focus off the manager's personal problems to the people.  Tough times like these, with continuing lay-offs, added responsibilities and higher expectations, create uncertainty and stress for the majority of workers.  It's good to read a writer who recognizes the depth of these fears in the workplace.  A little over a week ago, I had a telling conversation with the wife of a close friend, an executive who had laid off nearly 500 employees in the past few weeks.  Without slighting his employees, she told me in detail how painful the experience was for him.  None of the organizations I work with have avoided these workforce reductions, actions that severely impact both executives and their people..

In confronting these issues, Bob emphasizes the necessity of rethinking managerial relationships in terms of what people "may lack most in unsettling times:  predictability, understanding, control and compassion."  He lays out very specific recommendations with in-depth examples to show you how to give meaningful support to employees, even when you're dealing with your own demons.

Aside from his penchant for thoughtful and accurate human insight, Sutton always supports his proposals with illuminating research, information that both details the human condition and provides a rationale for managerial interventions.  It's a work for now, as well as for the uncertain future.

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Sutton had a number of free articles available here, if they're not already taken.  Otherwise, you can pick up the June HBR at your local B&N.   Hint:  Many public libraries make it possible for members to download HBR copies online (the library pays for their EBSCO subscription through your taxes).  HBR articles are usually available a week or two after publication.  Furthermore, I live six miles from a major university library which makes downloading available to the public at no charge, and I can download at the med-school library just about anytime of the day or nite. I like an occasional change of venue from my study to the university library.  The private universities are not as amenable to the public.