Step Change - The Bob Beamon Effect

I recently had a very interesting conversation with a fellow HR professional about the necessity for organizations to embrace step change in order to remain competitive.  During the course of this discussion we talked about the Bob Beamon effect.

For those who are not familiar with Bob Beamon, he was responsible for a step change event within non-professional sports in Mexico at the 1968 Olympics.

By way of background, going into the 1968 Olympics, the world long jump record was 27 feet, 4¾ inches, shared by American Ralph Boston and Soviet Igor Ter-Ovanesyan. Over the years there were incremental improvements to previous records however, all of that changed in 1968 when in six seconds, Bob Beamon, a 22-year-old New Yorker took exactly 19 loping strides and hit the sand in the pit at 29 feet, 2½ inches!

Not only was he the the first long jumper in history to reach 28 feet, he also became the first to reach 29 feet, he shattered the world record by an unbelievable 21 ¾ inches which went unchallenged for almost 23 years.

Bob had barely qualified for the Olympic long jump finals after fouling in two of his qualifying runs and only through sch ere determination, perseverance and an unfettered desire to win, he set a new world record.

Some people would say "so what", I would suggest, it takes someone like a"Bob Beamon" to smash through the status quo, crush current records, paradigms, cultures and thinking in order to establish the new bench mark and standards for which all others will be measured.  If you lack the passion to win, you might as well surrender to the competition now because you have become redundant and will be left behind.

The Bob Beamon's of the world need to stand up and declare themselves and, smart organizations need to embrace them because, "you can't do today's job with yesterday's methods and expect to be in business tomorrow".

Leadership Development: Leading from the Middle -- Spare Tire or Protective Padding

Are the middle ranks in an organization a "spare tire" or are they "protective padding"?  (I define the middle ranks as Manager and Director level roles which have people management and budget responsibilities.)  In today's volatile economic times, headlines are dominated by stories of doom and gloom.  The story often involves the mass lay-off of middle management as a means to find savings and "trim the fat" in times when revenues fall short and profitability seems elusive.  This strategy is often carried out to drive short-term savings, have the appearance of a healthy balance sheet and deliver the optics that dramatic change is afoot.  While this strategy may achieve these short-term goals, I often wonder how well an organization will function in the long-term.  This begs the question: are the middle ranks simply a "spare tire" or are they essential "protective padding"?

In exploring this question, I happened upon an interesting article written by Vince Thompson appearing in the November 11, 2008 edition of CBS money watch titled, "10 Reasons Why You -- Managing in the Middle -- Are More Valuable Than Your Company's CEO", which is reproduced below:


"(MoneyWatch)  Yes, that's right. Peter Drucker said, "the purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer", and much of that work happens smack-dab in the middle of companies.

Sorry CEO's. We know the last few years have been tough with all of the scandals and talk about excessive pay. Now, just when you're starting to feel good again, we're throwing this at you. While it doesn't seem fair, stick with us for a minute and you'll see how we can all benefit. And don't worry--nobody is suggesting that you can't keep the town car or fly the corporate jet.

Now, ten solid reasons why You -- Managing in the Middle -- Are More Valuable than Your Company's CEO:

You know how stuff really gets done. Let's face it, process maps mean very little when you know that to get your PC up and running again, the fastest route is to buy a muffin for Oscar in IT.

You know what motivates individuals. You're with them every day. Sometimes it's cash, time off for a kid's event, or just some simple recognition. Whatever the case, you're in a position to help motivate both in- and extrinsically more than anyone else.

You know the customer well enough to get to the truth. You are them, they are you, and there's a symbiotic bond. More than anyone, the customer will tell you exactly what they need and how to sell to them.

You know the vendors as well as the competitive landscape. All that shooting the bull with Marvin, who supplies the whole industry, really pays off when he tells you that your biggest competitor is never going to get that new launch off the line. With some tweaks, your firm can make a killing!

You don't have to defend the original strategy. This is BIG! Since you didn't devise the strategy, you aren't obligated to defend it. Instead you can speak openly and tell it like it is. Do tell brothers and sisters--do tell!

You have the skills to get people of diverse backgrounds and in cross functional groups to work together. That's because you live with them every day. There's a big difference between telling people what to do and really working it out. You know how to work it out.

You know exactly what point your company is in the movie. You've been living it with the team, and more than anyone else you know if the team is ready to take the hill or go back and lick its wounds.

You know the believers. When the team needs to get motivated, you know who they turn to, and more importantly, you know what gets them fired up.

You can motivate with humor. You've got their trust; therefore you can joke a bit and have some fun. Fun is a great motivator, and you're the one best positioned to get them laughing.

You have the power to heal. When things go wrong you're best positioned to get people on the path to recovery with a vision for the future.

So why do we need you, Mr. CEO?  Well--you've done one heck of a job getting people and money in the right place. Hats off to you for that! When it comes down to it, dealing with regulations, reporting issues and testifying before congress doesn't seem like much fun either-- so thanks for that as well.

In a business world where everything is changing overnight and entire industries are being reshaped: from Manufacturing to Music, Transportation to Telecom, it's quite likely that the next great business model won't come from you but rather from us, the middle person.

So let's make a deal right now. You CEO's keep doing what you're doing and we'll be out of your hair, but when it comes to strategy, policy, employee recognition, and benefits we'd like to be in on that conversation. Deal?"

While this is not the definitive answer to the question I posed, Mr. Thompson does raise some very interesting points.  Although he pokes fun at CEO's, I think most smart CEO's do get it.  For those that don't, they too may one day find that some antsy shareholder views them as "dead weight".  


________________

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Career De-Railers - Hero To Zero Before You Know It

Most professionals over the course of their career will encounter people that are brilliant and seem to have all the qualities to become high-fliers with the potential of reaching the upper echelons of senior management. On occasion, these seemingly talented people find their careers crashing and burning and after the dust has settled, they wonder what has happened that caused them to go from hero to zero in no time flat.

In many of these cases there are some clear reasons why this happens and indicators if paid attention to early enough and addressed, would have potentially led to a different career outcome.  I will outline some of the most common career de-railers, that if diagnosed early, can in most cases be overcome:

1. Being Inflexible - some indicators of this de-railer are being too vocal about their disagreement with senior management, having difficulty adapting to changes in strategy, organizational structure or new leadership.  These people may be seen as arrogant, perfectionists, defensive or too invested in their own points of view.
2. Failure to Build Trust or Betrayal of One's Trust - some indicators of this de-railer are not "walking the talk" or inconsistent or unpredictability in their behaviours or actions.  These people can be seen as overly ambitious, devious or conflict avoiders.
3. One Trick Ponies - some indicators of this de-railer are relying heavily on one single strength only, being too comfortable in their role or having a very narrow perspective.  These people can be seen as  inexperienced, lazy or overvaluing a skill they personally possess.
4. The Water-Walker - some indicators of this are people who are fast-tracked through a number of critical roles and do not work through complete business cycles or choose only to build a superficial understanding of these roles.  These people can be seen as not valuing the experiential opportunity, having an advocate who doesn't understand the importance of hands-on learning or just naive, or worse, just plain arrogant.

The remedy for these de-railers are early diagnosis, acknowledgement, acceptance and a willingness to seek coaching and support to take material steps to address them.  If people choose to manage through these detailers, there is a strong possibility they will be able to retain the title of hero and avoid being labeled as a zero after what is usually a very public fall from grace.

Talent Matters can support organizations and professionals alike to diagnose these and other career de-railers and provide coaching, and realistic development strategies to keep you on track.

What Do Your Employee's Really Want From Their Boss

As a follow-up to my last blog "What Your Boss Really Wants From You - The Six Golden Rules", I am writing this blog from the perspective of the employee.  


If you manage people you have most likely had many occasion to ponder this question, what do my employee's really want from me?  After twenty-two years of coaching both employees and managers alike, I have found that there are some fairly consistent answers to this question.

In my experience the vast majority of employees I have interacted with consistently identify the following four things that they want from their boss:

1. Have A Basic Interest In Me As A Person- most employees want to know that their boss actually has some basic level of genuine interest in their working and home lives e.g. what type of work motivates them, what employees do on their down time and what their interests or hobbies are.
2. Have My Back - employees would like to know their boss is loyal to them and will go to bat for them if the circumstance requires it.
3. Acknowledge My Contributions - employees do like to receive praise and positive feedback as it validates their sense of self worth and contribution to organizational successes.
4. Treat Me Fairly - they expect their manager to be fair in their delegation of workload, access to opportunities for advancement and allocation of annual pay/merit increases.

So if you have direct reports, you will want to ensure these fundamentals are in place as they provide the basis for a respectful and healthy working relationship.  So to use an analogy, just like a chair, all four legs need to be firmly in place and planted on the ground in order for you to have strength and stability so should you choose to follow these four simple but impactful tips, you should have the building blocks for a healthy and successfully working relationship with your employees that will pay dividends.

What Does Your Boss Really Want From You - The Six Golden Rules

Have you ever wondered what your boss really wants from you?
After twenty-two years of coaching both employees and managers alike, I have found that there are some fairly consistent answers to this question.

In my experience the vast majority of managers I have interacted with consistently identify the following six basic tips/rules:

1. Make Me Look Good - yes that is right, every boss expects their subordinates to help them look good across all levels of the organization.
2. Display Loyalty - they expect you to openly display loyalty to them.
3. Be An Enabler - they expect you to find ways to further their agenda and help them succeed within the organization.
4. Don't Patronize Me - they expect their subordinates to challenge their ideas and decision however, this needs to be done respectfully and remember, no one likes push back for the sake of push back.
5. Be A Low Maintenance Employee - bosses appreciate a self reliant employee as this will enabler your boss to focus on delivering key functional or business priorities versus being required to micro manage issues.
6. Be Honest With Them - let them know what your career expectations are so they can find ways to support your development.

So if you have a fairly typical boss it would benefit you to understand their motives and follow these six basic rules for successfully managing your relationship with them.  If you do this it will ultimately pay dividends for both your career and relationship with your boss.

Be sure to check out my next blog where, I will write about "What Do Employees Really Want From Their Boss?"

Cheers
Neale

Maximize the Success of Your Project and Cross-functional Teams

While standing in line at the local Starbucks the other day, I was in the all too familiar and unlucky position of standing behind a couple of bright-eyed neophytes with their noses pressed into a detailed list that read like War and Peace.  You know the types I'm talking about!  I overheard them saying the order was for their team.  It then dawned on me that more thought likely went into creating the list for the local coffee run than in bringing the team itself together.  I've seen this common mistake time and time again where very little thought goes into bringing organizational talent together to manage a highly strategic business project. 

Over the years, I have had significant experience with project work involving cross-functional teams.  Talent is brought together from across the organization to play a critical role on projects of strategic business importance.  Too often, however, little to no attention is paid to the dynamics of the team and how this can impact on productivity and team success. 

In my experience, effective project leaders typically do the following in order to maximize project and cross-functional teams success:

1. Talent: they have a clear and unbiased view of who their top talent is across each function within their organization.
2. Scope: they clearly define the key deliverables, timelines/milestones and success measures associated with the project while ensuring they have been vetted and validated with all key stakeholders.
3. Champion: they ensure there is overt support for the project and its team across all levels of the organization and they also remove any potential roadblocks the team may encounter.
4. Communication: they typically take the approach of utilizing many mediums to over communicate their key messages to all affected parties.
5. Resources: they assemble all required resources (e.g., internal talent, external consultants, equipment, etc.) to ensure the project's success.
6. Recognition: they make sure that celebrations for achieving key milestones are planned along with additional team/individual recognition events.
7. Debrief/Post Mortem: they ensure that time is allotted for the completion and documentation of project debriefing session(s) that include the identification of key successes and key learnings/failures.

Most project leaders fall short in effectively planning for the integration of team members so as to maximize their full potential and reduce the amount of potential conflict that arises when groups of talented professionals get placed together on a project team, particularly where they have little or no previous working relationships together.

My proposed solution is to "access style preferences".   This approach enables team members to have visibility and an understanding of their own and fellow team members' style preferences relating to how they gather information, make decisions and interact with others.   Ultimately, this will enable teams to maximize their effectiveness. 

The tool of choice with over 2 million assessments administered last year alone is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) psychometric assessment. This assessment can be facilitated in a supportive, expedient and cost-effective manner by a certified practitioner.  MBTI has proven to be extremely effective in supporting individual and team dynamics, as well as providing a platform for life long learning, personal growth and development.

If you or your organization is interested in learning more about the variety of applications of the MBTI tool or would like to schedule an individual or team assessment, please contact Neale Harrison of Talent Matters Inc. at talentmatterscanada@gmail.com. 

... I finally did get my grande, non-fat, decaf, sugar-free vanilla latte.

Workplace Conflict - Just Like Having Kids or An Opportunity

When most people go to work their focus is usually on doing a good job not having to mediate unproductive and sometimes personal/morale damaging conflict. Some people would suggest they get lots of opportunity to mediate relationships at home with their children or sometimes at those crazy family functions and therefore want to avoid/minimize having to mediate relationships in the workplace.

Well there is a solution that exists which can proactively minimize the amount of workplace conflict that arises i.e. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).  This versatile assessment of personality type aids in accessing people’s preferences for interacting with others, gathering information, making decisions and organizing their  lives. Widely used for individual, group and organizational development, MBTI can help people make business, career, personal decisions and reduce workplace conflicts. Over two million people gained valuable insight about themselves and others by undergoing a MBTI assessment last year.

Some of the many applications of the MBTI are as follows:

Conflict Resolution: Workplace conflicts reduce innovation, productivity and job satisfaction. Company leaders, coaches, managers and human resource professionals can rely on MBTI assessments, reports and support tools to help individuals deal more effectively with clashes between co-workers, communication breakdowns, power struggles and to learn how to constructively work through disagreements.

Team Building: Organizations depend on teams that work together effectively. Our team building solutions cover team development from start to finish, helping individuals learn how to minimize conflict, adjust to change, and improve communication. 

Leadership Development: Leaders need specific developmental strategies based on who they are and what they are capable of achieving. MBTI can help them to identify their preferences for dealing with stress and change, explore their personal leadership style and assist in their development of effective interpersonal relationships at work. 

If you want to increase your business performance, enhance communication, reduce workplace conflict and support your leaders' development, you should consider having your talent undergo an MBTI assessment.