May 1 2017
The Unrivaled Leader : Part 1 – Seek Feedback

This article is one entry in a multi-part series of articles that will ultimately be compiled into a compendium.  

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The Setup

As a normal course of employment, you are subject to formal feedback.  Annual reviews, periodic one-on-ones, and so on will force you to provide and receive feedback.  These official requirements are an attempt to reinforce how important it is to communicate up, down, and sideways across your organization.

Interestingly, both when you are at an entry-level and when you are at the senior-most levels (C-levels), you may not be as inclined to elicit information on your performance (or company performance) – and this is a big mistake.

As an entry-level employee, you most need to know how you’re being perceived, beyond the official channels.   This is a time when you’re establishing informal communication points and it’s key to establish these quickly.  Seeking such information shows others that you’re engaged and aware of how important perceptions are.  Informal channels may provide unforeseen opportunities.

But often, after a series of promotions, this need for feedback seems to diminish.  Why is this?  Sometimes this is because the workload increases as with career progression and there just isn’t enough time to search for out-of-band feedback.  In some organizations, senior management discussing performance with lowly staff is considered gauche and something that breaks the appearance of separation between executive management and staff.  After all, when you make it to the upper rungs of management, there must be something really special about you, right?

The Servant Leader

“Servant leadership is a philosophy and set of practices that enriches the lives of individuals, builds better organizations and ultimately creates a more just and caring world”

The modern servant leadership movement was created by Robert Greenleaf in his essay published in 1970 entitled “The Servant as a Leader” – but the idea is an ancient one.  This style is related to ethical leadership where leaders are governed by rules to make sure their actions are just and align with the corporate culture.

Many organizations want servant leaders.  The opposite would be leaders that practice autocracy, or command and control styles (authoritative).  Both servant leaders and authoritative leaders can be effective depending on the situation.   For example, during times of crisis where quick action is needed, autocratic decisions may be necessary.  Let’s assume for this article that you want (or your organization wants) you to be a servant leader.
Servant leaders need their staff to be satisfied and content with their jobs.  They want to make sure everyone is on board with the company’s direction and vision.  They constantly check in to make sure the organization at all levels is moving in the right direction and that concerns are addressed.   It encourages staff participation in decision making, also known as participative management.

This is sometimes confused with “leadership by democracy” where leaders move forward based on consulting and gaining consensus on the appropriate path.  That is not usually the case and not leadership at all!

The Directive

Regardless of whether you want to be a true servant leader or even if you would prefer to be more authoritative, the feedback loop is key.

►Next: Ways to get that feedback.

willrwills 0 Comments
Feb 23 2017
The Difficulty of Managing Mediocrity

There are few things in personnel management more challenging than managing mediocre performers. For this article, I’m defining mediocrity as people who ebb and flow – they do an okay job usually, often slipping into performing poorly but when approached the reset back to…below average (not meeting job requirements).

As we all know, high-performers are a pleasant problem to have and generally require little management.  And consistently low performers usually fall prey to detailed performance documentation, which leads to termination or the person moving on to another organization.

Beyond the management aspect, most organizations are saddled with very specific Human Resource policies that, at best, make it tedious to manage low performers out of the organization and at worst cultivates a culture of average-to-low performing, long-tenured employees.

If all that is not enough stress, you have to consider the impact that your middling performer is having on the staff that is performing well.  Quickly questions about favoritism or “why does he/she tolerate this?” will bubble up.

If you have a manager as a direct report who is having trouble managing a low performer, you’re faced with the question of whether it’s your manager that is the issue and not the staff member.   This is especially unnerving when the staff member approaches you about being poorly or unfairly coached by your direct-report manager.  We’ve all had an ineffective manager who may not have seen our potential, and you don’t want to be the person perpetuating that poor management.

Finally, pile this all on top of the workload you already have and it becomes truly unmanageable.  The inclination becomes to just shuffle people around and ignore the problem.

Keep in mind, managing organizational performance has two masters. 

First, you and your team are obliged to provide value to the organization in return for remuneration.   Not providing value or providing lackluster value is a breach of that contract.  At the same time, your organization wants to keep turnover low and develop staff members into solid contributors.  These two goals are sometimes at odds with each other but as a solid manager, you must fulfill both.

If you’re in this situation, there are some possibilities:

  1. Work with your Human Resources (HR) department to have a “nuclear option” where you or an executive can release a staff member who continues to be a low performer. Some may say this is a lazy option, but there are simply times when it’s far better for both parties to part ways without a protracted and often ineffective performance management process.  The option could include a modicum of severance to lessen the blow on the targeted staff member.
  2. If the person in question declines but once you write them up they improve enough to be off “written warning”, you must not start over the next time performance slips. This process should be looked at as a journey.  It should be simple to refer to the four write-ups the staff member had, and the fact that s/he slipped back again when processing their termination form.  “If you improve but return to poor performance, our next step will be termination.”
  3. Take time to plan six months of deliverables and layout your own plan to measure and document performance. In other words, don’t doll out one task at a time.  Have an overall plan where the deliverables are ultimately aggregated such that if 7 out of 9 deliverables were provided late or in poor quality, it should be sufficient to write-up that staff person.  Do the same for the “written warning” period.
  4. Try to separate your human nature feelings for this person from their performance. So often we’re dealing with someone who is pleasant or command sympathy.  But sympathy is a two-way street.  Your employees must sympathize with the impact they are having on you and your team.  Also, if your feelings are ones of resentment, you have to put that aside and be objective.  A protracted performance management engagement can be derailed if you lose your temper or make a snide remark during coaching sessions.
  5. If you have questions as to whether they are managed appropriately (as in, they report to one of your managers), you can switch the reporting structure to another manager that you have confidence in, or if you have the bandwidth, you can manage this person side-by-side with your direct report and use this as coaching for your manager.
  6. If this person has chronic health issues or is taking medication that is impacting their performance, you must make Human Resources aware immediately. The American Disabilities Act protects employees who health conditions that make it challenging or require additional assistance to complete one’s job.   HR can help chart a course that takes into account their disability or may decide to part ways under a transition plan that includes severance.  Either way, leveraging HR for assistance is key.

I tried something years ago that I would not necessarily recommend unless you have a very good relationship with this person.  I unofficially sat down with the low-performer and suggested that this organization is just not a good fit and that if this process were to continue, a) there likely was not a “happy ending” in order and b) the overall process will be stressful for everyone involved.  In this case, the staff member just did not have the programming chops to keep up with the workload.  Working at another organization where he could leverage other skills was likely a better fit.  In the end, they left and were actually much happier elsewhere.  Six months later I ran into this person at the grocery store and they thanked me for encouraging them to leave.

How do you manage mediocre employees?
(image courtesy of Lifehacker)

willrwills 1 Comments
Feb 20 2017
Trade 30 Minutes for Undivided Attention?

We’ve all noticed that in our digital lives we tend to be forever connected. Certainly, our phones are with us at all times now, as are our wearable’s, glasses, tablets, laptops.  Far too often our focus is on our devices and not what’s going on around us.  This can mean missing seeing a beautiful mountain vista or putting a severe strain on a relationship during dinner.
One area where this digital-fixation is having a significant impact is during business meetings.

It’s not uncommon anymore to find attendees lugging  a tablet or laptop to meetings to “take notes”.

As a result, presenters are finding it harder to hold their audiences’ attention.

At a recent work meeting, I had the opportunity to “work the lights” for a few minutes and in doing so, had a vantage point that was behind a whole row of people in attendance. During my time standing, none of the people I was spying on were paying attention to the speaker.  Every single attendee in front of me was busy responding to emails, reading documents, or even updating their Facebook accounts.  It was disappointing.  The poor speaker continued to do his best to engage everyone though no one (except me) was making eye contact with him.  It was waste of his time and a loss for the audience.

At another meeting a few years ago at a customer site, I was presenting information on our software with another colleague when I noticed my audience had their faces glued to their laptops.  As an experiment, I started comparing our software to Metamucil, explaining how it helped with difficult (hard) situations and often reduced the effort the consumer had to spend to complete their tasks.  Other than my co-working snickering, no one else reacted.

After much thought, I think I’ve come up with a workable solution.
In your next 1+ hour meeting, require that people put away their laptops during the meeting.  If they have tablets to take notes, that’s fine, but require that they stay in their note-taking application.  In return, you will agree to shorten the meeting by 30 minutes.  Maybe for thirty-minute meetings, reduce the length by 10 minutes.

This will give attendees time back to return to their desks (or stay put, I suppose) and answer their emails, update social media, or whatever else they need to do.

willrwills 0 Comments
Jan 9 2017
The Consumer Electronics Show In Less Than 400 Words

If you’ve ever been to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) you know that it’s overwhelming.  The CES floor fills up both the entire Las Vegas Convention Center and the Venetian/Sands Expo area.   It brings 20,000 people to the city, which makes traffic dandy. By now you’ve probably read the myriad of press releases about hot technology at the show, mergers, and acquisitions, and trends.

“While you can find technologies as diverse as dryers that automatically fold your clothes, to underwear that shields your private parts from radiation, a majority of the expo is more mainstream.”

Below, I’ve boiled down the CES to a pithy list of technologies and discussions:

  • 5G – it’s 4G plus one!  4G will be around for a long time, but plans are underway by all the major carriers to support an even faster, ubiquitous cellular network technology.
  • Amazon Alexa – over and over.  In your car, in your office, how to program it, what it does.
  • Artificial Intelligence – making machines smarter and smarter and until Skynet
  • 8K TV’s – you thought 4K was enough?  Nope!
  • Sensors – everywhere things are being monitored, from your clothes to your wrist, learn more about yourself than you ever cared to know, and unwittingly share it with Google, who will keep good care of that information.
  • Drones – still a thing.  Lighter, last longer on a charge, better camera.
  • Self-driving cars and bolt-on self-driving technology, along with sensors (see above) that detect other cars, pedestrians, small dogs.
  • Augmented and Virtual Reality – live a life away from your dreary actual life, plus overlay your glasses with all sorts of pertinent information about the things you are seeing.
  • Smart Homes – everything in your house will talk to everything else all the time and it will all do things that you want when you want it to.
  • Internet of Things (IoT) – now that this is out there, the main concern is how do we secure it?
  • Samsung – really wants to be a leader in all things technical, and even lead where Google is going.
  • Health – clothing that monitors you (see sensors), glasses that tell you how healthy your work out is (see Augmented Reality)
  • Robots – robots that watch your children, walk your dog, dance in unison, and serve your every need (see Skynet)

Those, to my best recollection, were the big items.  Anything else that caught your eye from the press releases that I missed?  Do let me know!

Will R Wills 0 Comments
Jan 8 2017
Are You Naked And Don’t Know It?

In the famous tale by Hans Christian Anderson, an Emperor who cares only about his appearance unwittingly hires two shysters who pretend to sew him fantastic new clothes at great cost, but in reality, produce nothing.  They convince the Emperor that only noble people can see such clothes.  The Emperor, despite not seeing the clothes himself, cannot admit as such and thus he walks around naked. When the Emperor shows his ministers, they are too afraid to say anything.  In fact, everyone is afraid to tell the Emporer the truth until he appears in a parade, naked, and a young child with no such pretenses calls out that the Emperor has no clothes!  This cry, taken up by others in the crowd, reaches the Emperor, who continues to walk down the street, still confident that such common people did not have the upbringing to appreciate his wonderful clothes. In scientific terms, this is known as pluralistic ignorance.

How does a 150-year-old tale apply to you and specifically to management?
During the normal course of business, but most notably during staff and departmental meetings and communique, you might find yourself preaching to your staff certain virtues or practices.  Common examples might be:

  • The importance of honest communication
  • Making sure you ask your staff for direct feedback
  • Suggesting that failures are okay as long as we learn something from them
  • Asking everyone to tighten up on expenses
  • Keeping an open door policy
  • Having the ability to publicly admit that you were wrong
  • Turning back an initiative that appears to be less fruitful (or more painful to your staff) than thought at the onset
  • Recognizing and addressing poor performance
  • The importance of avoiding cronyism, and acting impartially

…and so on.

These are all noble and supportable initiatives and can factor in improving the workplace culture and ratcheting up performance.  In the best case, it can socialize to your staff that you understand the importance of these behaviors.  At the same time, you are also suggesting that you (and your management team) will support the behaviors by participating in them.
But are you?
To find out,

you must ask yourself and others: am I adhering to these guidelines?  Most assuredly your staff and peers will know whether you are or are not.  

The only thing more destructive to culture than not establishing such guidelines is not adhering to them personally.
As a good manager, you can often avoid such dangers by following some basic practices:

  1. Keep an open communication channel down to the most junior staff person.  In fact, your newest recruits (much like the tale above) may be the most honest with you.  Longer-term employees may have been blunted by previous attempts to raise concerns.  Meet regularly with staff in a casual environment.
  2. No matter what feedback you receive, be receptive, take note of it, and later ask yourself “is this possibly true?”  It may not be true, but the perception exists so considering it a truth both reinforces that you are willing to take feedback and provides an opportunity to examine what may be causing this perception.
  3. Be careful not to constantly socialize a litany of best behaviors.  Pick certain key behaviors that you feel are key to the success of the organization and make sure you personally live by them.
  4. If you are in senior management, make sure your managers also live by the same behaviors you are suggesting.  Don’t rely on them to report to you whether they do or do not – meet with their staff periodically.
  5. Establish some sort of recurring survey to receive feedback on the culture, then keep an open mind of the feedback you receive.   Act upon the items that are of most concern.
  6. Make sure you treat your staff with the same respect as you treat your management team.  Do you joke and appear at ease with your management team and then tense up with you speak to staff?  If you’re preaching that we’re all in this together, then you need to treat everyone as part of the “we’re all”.

core-values-banks
If you create a culture of trust where everyone believes that management walks the walk, and acts in the best interest of the individual, and thus collectively of the firm, you will have established a high-trust, resilient and positive culture from top to bottom.
And you will be fully clothed.

Will R Wills 0 Comments
Nov 3 2016
The Fear of The Fear of Public Speaking

According to StatisticBrain.com, 75% of women and 73% of men suffer from speech anxiety or the fear of public speaking, also known as “glossophobia”. Borrowing from a Jerry Seinfeld routine, he noted that people are more afraid of public speaking than dying, such that “given the choice, people would prefer to be in the casket than delivering the eulogy for the person in the casket.”

About five years ago, I suddenly developed glossophobia. It happened as I approached my 40’s. It struck with horrifying consequences. Suddenly, in the middle of a presentation, I would experience a panic attack. I was unable to continue, my heart racing, and unable to catch my breath. I immediately forgot everything I was going to say. It really frightened me because I had not previously experienced such anxiety. And throughout my life, I’ve been very comfortable presenting in front of very large audiences. I’ve hosted entire IT Conferences, single-handedly, without a trace of serious nervousness. Worst yet, the panic attacks continued. I started dreading doing any presentations and then even conference calls with large audiences. Something had changed and I desperately needed to find out what – and correct it.

“Suddenly, in the middle of a presentation, I would experience a panic attack. I was unable to continue, my heart racing and unable to catch my breath.”

I started searching for examples of others who had experienced such problems and stumbled upon a number of very successful stars who were in a similar situation. Celebrities like Donny Osmond, Leann Rimes, and Paula Dean all struggled with social anxiety and panic attacks.

For me, Osmond was the most intriguing. At the same time, I was searching and coping, I actually happened upon a television special specifically about Osmond’s issues. As he described, in the mid-nineties in the middle of a run of starring in Jason and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, Donny Osmond started suffering panic attacks. The child star who had been performing in front of thousands since age five suddenly was calling in sick, or faking his way through performances. What had happened? He was Donny Osmond! How could he feel such anxiety? How would he correct this? In short, he ended up in lengthy therapy and taking all sorts of anxiety minimizing drugs.

Neither of those options seemed palatable but the idea that others had experienced the same onset of anxiety made me feel that there was hope.
The best part of the situation is that I had a boss that was quite supportive and would keep an eye out for my attacks, jumping in and taking over. He sat and listened to me, in astonishment, as he watched someone who had been so outgoing and confident now nervous about presenting information that I knew very well. I also had peers and direct reports that I confided in who would also rescue me if they noticed me faltering.

Now that I’ve generally been able to address my anxiety without therapy or medication, I want to pass along some tips and techniques that work for me – and some interesting information that I’ve found after speaking to other speakers that I consider dynamic and talented.

The Fear of the Fear
My first revelation was that I was starting to fear the feeling of fear. Having a panic attack is a horrible feeling – one that you don’t forget. After a few panic attacks during presenting, I started to worry well before my next presentation. I was feeling that panic feeling days and weeks before my presentation. It would come and go, but when I had it, it was as if I was presenting and panicking. My brain was making me relive the worst possible moment over and over, and it caused me to dread presenting. Was I having a mental breakdown? Was what I was feeling unique to me?

“My first revelation was that I was starting to fear the feeling of fear. “

I decided to find the answer by approaching my peers who I thought were very good speakers and asking them directly “do you get nervous before presenting?” The answers I received were interesting and reassuring. A summary of the most common answers included:

  • “Yes, I still get a little nervous but once I get going on stage I get over it very quickly.”
  • “Yes, but I would not describe it as nervousness. It’s actually more like adrenalin and I’ve learned to almost like that feeling.”
  • “Yes, I get very nervous, but then I realize that I’m totally prepared and so I talk myself to a more calm state.”
  • And from one speaker who always seems so confident and cool while presenting: “I’m nervous the whole time. I’m not panicked, but in the back of my head, I do get a little edgy. It keeps me on my toes.”

The message was most speakers still feel that twinge of nervousness prior to the limelight, but they are able to muscle through it. Some presenters do a good job of hiding it. Or, they change that nervousness into excitement. Now, this was a technique I could practice! It did feel good to know that even the best speakers have some derivative nervousness just like me. I’m not so special after all, and that was okay with me!

So given my research and my experience, I would like to present the ten things I did to basically overcome my panic attacks and push through the nervousness to present and present well.

1. Prepare
I used to speak completely off the cuff, with few notes. I knew what I wanted to say and was able to pivot quickly. But when nervousness set in I would often find myself completely lost on my next point or not recalling key information that I wanted to pass along.

So, to address this I started actually writing out word for word what I was going to say. I would write it out exactly how I wanted to present it, including pauses, colloquialisms, and interjections, and I would bring those notes to my podium. I didn’t read the notes word for word, but I did skim over them as I spoke. I used this technique early on, knowing that eventually, I would have to abandon this. Presenting while staring at notes standing behind a podium did not exude executive presence. But this gave me a crutch and, early on, helped me get back out in front of people. These days I don’t write out such detailed notes.

2. Improv
Since my early twenties, I had been interested in comedy and improv. I actually had performed some open-mic stand-up comedy while living in Jacksonville and generally enjoyed it. Now, twenty years later, I wondered if improv could help me with my nervousness. I signed up at the venerable SAK comedy theater in Orlando and proceeded to take and pass Levels 1 through 4. I stopped and did not proceed to their Conservatory Classes, something I might take up down the road.

Improv was an interesting experience. I had always thought (and received feedback) that I was quick, clever, and funny. So I had a high level of confidence. What I found was that there are a LOT of people who are funny – and it felt like most were funnier and quicker than I was. It was a unique experience, both enjoyable and humbling. I had a fantastic instructor in Level 1 named “Bob Kodzis” who was quite supportive. I made a number of friends that I still have today.

Through Improv, I found confidence in performing, especially since Levels 1 and 4 had a “showcase” at the end where we put on a real show in front of a live audience. It was nerve-wracking and exhilarating – and great fun.
What Improv taught me was that I could stand in front of a group and talk about anything without any preparation. I didn’t need notes and could come up with material without much effort. It was a great confidence booster.

I think of this when I find myself nervous. I say to myself “heck, I could get up there and get an offer from the audience and create a whole scene, so presenting material I already know will be a breeze!” This helped.

3. Reality Check
Sometimes as I’m about to present, I think to myself “in an hour I’ll be back at my desk and this will be behind me”. I practice “mindfulness” and try to take myself out of the “right now” and think about what is happening to me as if I was a spectator.

Mindfulness is a useful technique that I use even when I’m not presenting.

4. Break Up The Monotony
Having to present twenty PowerPoint slides full of material is not only boring to the audience but it is also stress-inducing. It’s just talking and talking, and it is difficult to allow for a few seconds of silence to catch your breath. So, now I try to add some multimedia. This accomplishes three things:

  • It allows me time to be “off-stage” and catch my breath
  • It provides for more a more interesting presentation
  • It breaks my presentation into thirds or quarters and this allows me to track my progress towards completion.

I’m not suggesting that you pepper your presentation with home movies or clips from South Park. Any multimedia needs to be pertinent and appropriate. Also, it cannot be too long. A few minutes tops. And you should introduce the clip and summarize it afterward.

Another technique I have is that I might find a co-presenter for materials or parts of the presentation. I introduce an expert to provide some additional insight. Again, this has to be well thought out and appropriate. And nowadays I don’t use this technique, though I found it helpful early on.

5. A Life Line
I found that having an outlet available takes away some of the anxiety. That is, I have one or more people who can answer any questions or elaborate on a particular point. This is like a co-presenter except that these individuals stay out in the audience. I may even let them know that “I might ask you to elaborate on this” so that they can be prepared.

If I became nervous, I could always say “hey Eric, what would you say is our potential list of customers” and let Eric expound on this. I would use this time to take a drink of water and gather myself.
But here’s the key, just knowing that I have that lifeline takes away a lot of anxiety. I rarely now have to use these lifelines.

6. Turn Anxiety into Excitement
Like one of the survey takers said to me, nervousness and excitement are closely related emotions. I practiced turning my nervousness into excitement. I’d say to myself “Hey! I’m getting the chance to present and many people will not get this chance!” I knew that I do present very well and always get great feedback, so this is yet another chance to spread this joy to more people. I talk myself into being excited about the upcoming presentation. And when it goes well, I congratulate myself privately on doing a good job.

7. Calm Down
When you are about to go on, your nervousness can often peak, causing your heart to race and your breathing to speed up. I’ve found that forcing yourself to breathe deeply and slowly, and paying attention to how you are controlling your heart rate can actually make yourself feel calmer. This gives you the ability to control your body and your reaction.

Some people may need a relaxant to prepare for a particularly stressful presentation. And while I do not, I know others who do and find this useful. The challenge is not to look “drugged up” unless you’re presenting in front of pharmaceutical companies.

8. Take Notes While Waiting to Present
One of the funniest things in comedy is called a “call back”, which in general is a reference to something that has already occurred. While waiting to go on, always have a notepad and pen with you. Take note of things the previous speaker said that you can emphasize as well. Also, sometimes things said can be used for humor. The current speaker may mention something that you can use as a light, personable attempt at humor. Have your presentation printed out and with you, and flip through it (quietly) as the current speaker speaks and annotate points that they made that you can make on the appropriate slide.

I recall one example where my boss’ boss presented something before me that was about the traits they are looking for to fill a particular position. The words he used included “never let you down”, “never give up”, “never lie” and to me, this sounded like the lyrics to the Rick Astley song “Never Gonna Give You Up”. I made a note, tried to remember and wrote down the various phrases in the song, and then suggested in my presentation that Rick Astley could be the right person. Got a solid laugh and put me at ease. In fact, as I read off the lyrics to the song, people quickly knew what I was doing, but I methodically went through the lyrics to the end before I announced Rick’s name as the best candidate.

By the way, taking notes has the added benefit of taking your mind off your presentation.

9. Rehearse
An easy technique to help with nerves. Rehearse and rehearse again. Driving to work, speak out loud to yourself, and pretend you are presenting. Time yourself. Record yourself. But in general, know your material and your speaking points. This helps stem a key facet of insecurity while presenting.

10. Stand on Stage Beforehand
A simple technique that helps me is to get up on the stage prior to the session being opened. Walk around the stage to every edge. Look out over the empty chairs. Imagine what it will be like when there are people in those seats. Get comfortable with the layout of the stage, the location of the podium, the controls you will need to flip through your slides.

Also note that in presentations on large stages with a sizable audience, you will likely have spotlights on you. This has two effects: it makes it quite warm on stage, so be prepared to sweat. And it makes it difficult to actually see the audience. It’s why performers ask for the house lights to be brought up when addressing the audience. But it can help you because if feels like you’re presenting to an empty room. Sometimes you can see a few rows upfront and that’s good because it gives you some feedback.

***

I can’t say that these techniques will work for you. Heck, you may need lengthy therapy and medication – and there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you’re like me, just knowing that others have similar problems can make you feel a little more confident that you, as well, can address the fear of public speaking. And maybe using some of these techniques you can get back to giving knock-out presentations.

willrwills 0 Comments