01Feb/14

Why Ask Why?

February 1, 2014BlogCritical Thinking, Growth, Planning ChangeVictoria

There’s a story about a mother and daughter making pot roast for dinner. As they prepared the dish, the mother cut off on both ends and placed them on top of the roast. The young girl looked at her mother and asked “Why do we always cut the ends off of the meat and put them on top?” Mom thought about it for a minute and finally said; “I don’t know that’s just how my mother taught me.” A moment later, she picked up the phone and called her mother. “Mom, why do we cut the ends of the pot roast and place them on top of the meat?” She heard a chuckle on the other end of the line right before her mother replied, “I don’t know why you do it but I did it because the pan was too small”.

This is an old story but it proves a point. How many times do you simply accept the way things are done is because they’ve always been done that way? If you don’t question the status quo things stagnate. Growth requires change; however, not all change results in growth. Before change can be meaningful you must know what needs changing and one of the best ways to understand the” what” is to understand the “why”.

I’m talking here about a deep down understanding. Don’t ask why one time and think you’re done. Take a look at these examples to see what I mean:

Example 1 [incomplete understanding]:

Person A: We need to schedule 3 hours to rearrange the supply room
Person B: Why?
Person A: Because the boss wants us to.
Person B: OK

Example 2 [complete understanding]:

Person A: We need to rearrange the supply room
Person B: Why?
Person A: Because the boss wants us to.
Person B: Why?
Person A: Because people are complaining that they can’t find things so we just keep reordering them. The boss is concerned that we are overspending our supply budget every month to buy things we already have. We need to make things more accessible to fix this. The supplies are here, they’re just stowed away in the cabinets and no one can find them easily so he wants us to rearrange things.
Person B: Maybe we need to take the doors off of the cabinets instead of rearranging the whole supply room. That should take about 20 minutes instead of 3 hours.
Person A: Great idea – We can try that first and see if we really need to rearrange everything. I’ll see what the boss thinks about doing that first.

This is a very simplistic scenario but the first example happens every day in organizations. I suggest that you answer each “why” with a “because” and question each “because” with a “why”. Eventually, your critical thinking skills will lead you to a “because” that (a) you can no longer question, or (b) leads you back to the original “why”. At that point you will have reached the AHA moment that drives the lasting, meaningful change you seek. Then, and only then, can you answer other questions that allow you to plan the change: Who will do it? When will it get done? What do you need? Where will it happen? How will it happen? But it all starts with “Why”.

03Jan/14

Permission to Fail

January 3, 2014BlogCritical Thinking, Decisions, Failure, Knowledge, Problem SolvingVictoria

When we don’t accomplish an intended objective we say that we failed. Everyone knows that failure is a part of life; however, we’re still terrified when it happens. So why are people so afraid of it? Simple – that same “everyone” wants to be a winner and by definition we can’t win if we fail. But are all failures really bad for us? Not necessarily – it depends on the circumstances. It depends not only on how but why we fail. Since this is a blog about good management practices you can bet that I believe some failure is necessary. If it moves us and/or the organization forward, the occasional failure can be a good thing.
Here’s why:

•Failure forces us to be better. In other words, without failure there is no growth. Without growth people no longer feel challenged which can lead to dissatisfaction and boredom with the job. Now, I’m not talking about an “up or out” kind of growth but personal growth. The kind that satisfies the challenge to build a better mousetrap. Thomas Edison once said that he did not fail 1000 times while inventing the light bulb but that the light bulb had 1000 steps.

•Failure forces us to re-evaluate our objectives. We must remember not only to look at the things that went wrong but also what went right. All too often we only see the mistakes and not the lessons. Remember Edison – failure is just research in progress

•Failure proves that we’re only human. For managers, especially new ones, this may be difficult to grasp but it is important. As the boss, you may believe that you have to be perfect but guess what? Everyone and I mean everyone knows that you aren’t. Not only do they know you’re not perfect, they are waiting for you to screw up. Here’s the thing – if you didn’t blow it once in a while no one would trust you. As odd as it sounds, employees not only want but need to humanize the boss – especially ones that have promoted from their peer group. The occasional foible proves not only that you don’t know everything but that you can be taught. You immediately become easier to work for. More importantly, it gives them permission to fail and as we have seen above, that can often make us better.

Remember failure does have its place in an organization. When we understand the cause and nature of the small failures, we can engage creativity and problem solving that will help avoid the catastrophic ones in the long run. I challenge you to embrace your failures and use them as a catalyst for improvement. I hereby give you “permission to fail”

11Dec/13

The Road to Leadership 3: Action – Getting on the Road

December 11, 2013BlogCoaching, Delegation, Directing, Leadership, Management, Self-awareness, SupportVictoria

The Road so far:
Part One: Vision Defining the Dream
Part Two: Inspiration Moving from “Me to We”

Your Action plan: Lead, Follow or Get out of the way

When it comes to action, we’ve all heard the saying. Guess what? It’s not just a saying. To be a good leader you have to knows when to lead, follow or get out of people’s way and let them do the things you need them to do. Theoretically, if you’ve got the right people in the right spot they’ll do their jobs with little advice from you. But that’s not always the case because as human beings, we bring all kinds of variables to the table and those variables can change in an instant. A contributing factor might be something as simple as not getting a good night’s sleep and being unable to concentrate on the task at hand. As the boss, it’s your job to recognize who needs what and then supply it.

How do you do it? It depends. It depends not only on the skill set but on the competency and maturity of your people. It depends on their work and life experiences and if they’ve ever been in a particular situation before. It depends on if they have the confidence to do what you need. In short it depends on you being able to recognize those variables that come with being human and being able to adapt to the situation at hand.

Once you are able to identify the situation and know what your people can do, you can move within a range of leadership techniques to get the best out of them. If you can’t (or won’t) adapt your job will be that much more difficult.

Let’s look at a new staff member who orders supplies for your department.

First week: Direct

Take her to the supply room and show her what supplies she needs to keep in stock
Tell her what suppliers she has to use and how much she can spend each month
Set a monthly due date to submit orders to you for approval
Review and approve all requisitions before she makes the purchase

Three months: Delegate

Give her the monthly budget for orders
Review and approve all requisitions before she submits the order
Periodically walk through the supply room to see that the correct supplies are on hand
Discuss the need to add or discontinue items

Six months: Coach

Teach her how to analyze supply orders for the past year to spot trends in use and expenditures; ask for a monthly analysis
Recommend that she develop a user survey to understand stock flow; review and recommend changes as needed before she distributes it
Help prepare staff for possible changes

Nine months: Support

Give her the responsibility, the tools , and authority to run the program as she sees fit
Check in routinely to see if she needs help

The thing to remember is that as the leader, you still have overall responsibility for her performance. Don’t be afraid to move back and forth between the levels as needed. If she blows her budget two months in a row, retrain her until she gets it right. In the interim – start reviewing and approving purchases again. You can release the funds again when she can come in under budget (side note: don’t forget to document the need to retrain if it becomes a performance issue).

This example is pretty simple but it demonstrates how to progress through the levels of a situation and lead an employee from dependence to independence. Notice that the leader moves from telling the staff member what and how to do things to helping her meet her goals her way. As a leader, this is what you want – to get results without getting stuck in the details. After all, if you stay down in the weeds with her, you may as well be doing the job yourself.

Previous: The Road to Leadership 2: Inspiration

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