tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56242974753502141952024-02-20T01:10:44.953-08:00Hip-Pocket LeaderGreg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.comBlogger132125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-49057771464361451192016-06-30T04:03:00.001-07:002016-06-30T04:03:30.450-07:00Leading Through Transition<div>Change is constant, especially with your team. People leave, people come. Usually it’s not a big deal, but sometimes you have to transition a key person. Success then comes down to two things: training and expectations.</div><div><br></div><div>Training is more administrative than leadership, so it doesn’t need a lot of attention here. Suffice it to say the more training you can do with the outgoing person, the better.</div><div><br></div><div>Expectations, though, take some thought. Are they the same for the new person? Sometimes you end up with less experience and you want to lower expectations. Sometimes a new hire is a chance to up your game. No matter what you do, though, your team, and others, will expect the same things from the new person.</div><div><br></div><div>If you want transitions to succeed, and new people to acclimate quickly, you have to be very deliberate about thinking through what your expectations are, and then making sure your team has the same expectations. That way, the new guy or gal doesn’t get conflicting signals.</div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-63330850183375827472016-06-28T04:11:00.001-07:002016-06-28T04:11:52.718-07:00It May Be Your Fault They're Lazy<div>A colleague of mine is frustrated with the slackers on his team. Truth is, I have a couple too. But as we talked it through, we realized we were to blame.</div><div><br></div><div>First, we wondered where they got the idea that they can get away with slacking off. The answer: Us. We’re the ones who set the standards for our teams. If somewhere along the line slacking off got to be OK, it’s because we let the standard slip. </div><div><br></div><div>Second, we realized that sometimes they just don’t have anything to do. There’s no demand for their work. In that case, we don’t have work flow balanced very well. That’s our job too, to make sure there’s the right amount of labor to keep every step of the process moving. Not enough, and someone waits (and looks lazy). Too much, and someone stands around (and looks lazy).</div><div><br></div><div>There are a few people in the world who will actively try to evade work, but I don’t think there are many. Instead, the ones you think are lazy more likely fall into the two categories described above: the opportunists, who just don’t work any harder than you make them, and the ones who run out of work. Either way, you can fix it.</div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-7950569597875058112016-06-23T04:04:00.001-07:002016-06-23T04:04:10.406-07:00Get It Right<div>There’s a thing we say at the plant: If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?</div><div><br></div><div>That’s a good concept for almost any kind of work, but it has special significance for leaders. That’s because there are a lot more questions than just how to redo the work.</div><div><br></div><div>If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to retrain your team to the standard? Your example is their permission; when they see you compromise, that becomes the new standard. So think about it the next time you’re tempted to not go back and get your safety glasses, or to skip that call to the customer.</div><div><br></div><div>If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do the corrective action? When you’re the leader, your lowered standards can result in process lapses, and sometimes someone else catches it. In that case, you might be ordered to fix it, or required by a customer to document you fixed it. Or even pay a regulatory agency a fine and then still have to fix it.</div><div><br></div><div>The fastest, most effective and most efficient way to lead is to do the right thing, always. Any so-called short-cut will only require you to come back later on.</div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-28258249375488603142016-06-21T04:05:00.001-07:002016-06-21T04:05:18.507-07:00Leading When You Don't Feel It<div>Let’s be honest. Some days you just don’t feel like leading. The goal doesn’t inspire you, life outside work seems more engaging, you just don’t have the energy. Summertime especially we can all be vulnerable to days like that.</div><div><br></div><div>The first thing to do is remind yourself that you owe it to your team and your organization to lead. Now is the time for your discipline to take over; you have to do it no matter how you feel. That means you have to act as if. Do all the same things, even if you don’t feel the same passion.</div><div><br></div><div>It also can help just to focus on the next intermediate goal. Now is not the time for long-range planning, or recasting the vision. Trust the planning and vision-setting you did earlier, and just execute the next step. That will greatly simplify the mental part of leading.</div><div><br></div><div>Finally, cut yourself some slack. Instead of swinging for the fence, trying to connect on that home-run ball, just make solid contact and get a base hit. Someone once said, “Never try something vast with a half-vast attitude.” Some days, you need to give yourself permission just to tackle that one day as best you can.</div><div><br></div><div>The key, though: Don’t let yourself stay in this place very long. A few days while you cope with something else or regain your mental juice is OK. But if you’re thinking of mailing it in all summer, you need to do a gut check on whether you really want to lead at all.</div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-83678114946034546012016-06-09T04:03:00.001-07:002016-06-09T04:03:50.531-07:00You're Not Using Your Best Motivational Tool<div>Write down the name of every team member you thanked for something in the last two days. What percent of your team is on that list?</div><div><br></div><div>If you wrote more than half of them, you’re an unusual person. Most of us reserve “Thank you” for people we need to ask things from, not for those we have authority over. And that, my friends, is the biggest danger with authority.</div><div><br></div><div>Because you should never have to use your authority to get team members to do things. Any normal worker will do his or her job because it’s the right thing to do. And if you want them to go above and beyond, then you should ask, not order.</div><div><br></div><div>And say thank you. If a team member ever does something that makes a difference (and they all do, all the time, or you shouldn’t have them on the team) then you’re wrong if you don’t acknowledge that. </div><div><br></div><div>I struggle with this, because I’m old school. But the truth is that all of us just want someone to appreciate what we do.</div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-66981173886045771572016-06-07T04:03:00.001-07:002016-06-07T04:03:18.512-07:00Let Them Tell You<div>Here’s a technique that’s so simple leaders seldom use it: Let them say what they’ll do. Then hold them to it.</div><div><br></div><div>I use this in most disciplinary situations, but it works other places too. When I have to discipline, I first tell the person why we’re talking - for example, “Packaging Line Two was idle for most of the morning yesterday because you were absent from your mill.” Note that this is a simple statement of what the bad thing was and what I believe the cause to have been.</div><div><br></div><div>I then ask them to explain, and listen while they do so. I may ask a few questions to clarify my or their understanding. And then I ask what they’re going to do to prevent a recurrence. We agree on something that should work, and then I ask them to write it down and sign it.</div><div><br></div><div>Only then do I talk about consequences, for this occurrence and the next. Consequences are completely separate from solutions, and probably less important.</div><div><br></div><div>The reason I like this method is that in all future cases we talk about a commitment that person made, not orders I gave. It eliminates a lot of the conversation right from the start. </div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-33654121663418169362016-05-26T05:01:00.001-07:002016-05-26T05:01:15.096-07:00When Priorities Change<div>What’s the most critical thing your team has to get done today? If you haven’t thought about that question today, you probably don’t know. In that case, you’re still working a plan you made sometime in the past, and some factors may have changed. </div><div><br></div><div>Change is most likely to come from two kinds of things: opportunities and crises. The common characteristic of the two is they can pop up at any time, and they don’t care about your plans.</div><div><br></div><div>So you need to have a habit and a process to keep up with the pace of change in your organization. My habit is to spend the last 15 minutes of the day reviewing the plan for the rest of the week. To know if changes are needed, I look at new orders in the system, and communication from salesmen, owners or key managers. </div><div><br></div><div>It’s as simple as this: has demand (what we need to do) or capacity (the resources we have to do it) changed? If either has, you need to rethink tomorrow’s work, and likely someone’s number one thing is going to change.</div><div><br></div><div>If you don’t deliberately do this, some days your team is going to miss the most important thing.</div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-58695045061625923372016-05-24T04:03:00.001-07:002016-05-24T04:03:11.604-07:00Don't Clog Your Bandwidth<div>We’ve all had it - that moment when, in your impatience, you get too many things going over the Wifi and everything slows to a crawl. When that happens to me, I picture several large people all trying to push through a doorway simultaneously. That’s a good mental picture of what’s happening with my data stream.</div><div><br></div><div>Just like the Internet, leaders have only so much bandwidth. Just like the Internet, available bandwidth might depend on contextual factors. For that reason, you need to be selective in how you task your bandwidth.</div><div><br></div><div>There are some things only you can do. There are some things others could do, but you should. Those two kinds of things should get your first and best time and energy.</div><div><br></div><div>Then there are those things that anyone could do but you maybe like to do. Beware of those; they’ll suck your time away in a hurry. They’re the work equivalent of Twitter. And finally, there are things that you want to poke your nose into that really aren’t your job. Those not only waste your time, but damage your relationships as well.</div><div><br></div><div>My rule of thumb: I plan only for the first two, the things only I can do or the things that I should do instead of someone else. The other stuff will clamor for my attention, and get it if I don’t already have my time planned around the good stuff.</div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-27092131540119980102016-05-19T04:01:00.001-07:002016-05-19T04:01:45.731-07:00When Trust is Breached<div>I’m coaching a supervisor through a tough thing right now. He observed one of his team out fishing when he was supposed to be home sick. He didn’t say anything to the person, but came to me with his anger and frustration.</div><div><br></div><div>He’s angry because he trusted the guy. He’s frustrated because a missing team member affects the whole team. </div><div><br></div><div>I’m coaching him again about the basics of work relationships: honest communication, and accountability.</div><div><br></div><div>He needs first to talk it all out with his team member. He needs to tell him what he saw, how he came to see it, and how it was different that expected. He needs to be fair but explicit about how this person’s behavior affected the team, and how it makes it hard to trust. And then he needs to listen just as long as he talked, to give his team member a chance to explain, respond and, hopefully, agree to responsibility.</div><div><br></div><div>But here’s the hard part: after all that, if possible, he needs to motivate his team member to hold himself accountable. Accountability that comes from the boss will only be effective as long as the boss is watching. True accountability comes from a person’s own sense of how their behavior affects things they care about, things like their friends or their career. That kind of accountability comes from seeing clearly the consequences of losing trust.</div><div><br></div><div>If successful, my supervisor will end up with a team member who no longer wants to play hookie because he understands it isn’t worth the potential bad outcomes. </div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-64633480410881011952016-05-17T03:52:00.001-07:002016-05-17T03:52:06.978-07:00Option B<div>Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, is said to have a sign in her office that reads, “Let’s kick the s— out of option B.” That quote allegedly came from a friend whose life took an unexpected turn for the worse.</div><div><br></div><div>I like it for two reasons. First, it recognizes the reality that your plan A isn’t always going to work. Second, it focuses all the same energy and enthusiasm onto plan B. It says that we might have lost a battle, but we still intend to win the war.</div><div><br></div><div>We all want to take the direct, easy route to our goals, but sometimes life doesn’t let us do that. Sometimes we even get pushed past option B to C or even D. At those times we have a choice. We can get discouraged, or we can get to work.</div><div><br></div><div>As leaders, we can’t afford to get discouraged. If we do, we’ll drag our teams down, and it will take a lot of work to pep them back up again. So we need to do a couple of things for our teams. We need to always have an option B. And, when the time comes, we have to show just as much enthusiasm for that second choice as we did for our first. </div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-2763307311126925642016-05-12T04:13:00.001-07:002016-05-12T04:13:36.668-07:00Know Who You're Talking To<p dir="ltr">I used to think that it was dishonest to change my message as I interact with different people. I wanted to be myself and expected everyone to either like it or lump it.</p>
<p dir="ltr">With some gray in my hair, I’ve come to realize that the ability to adapt communication to other people is critical. In leadership, most conversations are about sharing ideas and encouraging behaviors. In both cases you really need to make it as easy as possible for people to get it.</p>
<p dir="ltr">That’s why you always have to think about who you’re talking to, and talk in the best way to be heard. That best way is based on what they value. People will always plug into their own values; only the most altruistic will go through the work of plugging into yours.</p>
<p dir="ltr">So when you’re talking to your boss, you talk about organizational goals. When you’re talking to your peers, you talk about helping them solve their problems. When you’re talking to your team, you appeal to what they want out of the work. For some that’s self-fulfillment. For others, it might be security in the status quo, or the excitement of change.</p>
<p dir="ltr">This isn’t cynical button-pushing. It’s recognition that everyone has different reasons for why they show up every day. All you’re doing is showing them all why doing the right thing is the right thing for everyone.</p>
Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-74285334008870583312016-05-05T04:06:00.001-07:002016-05-05T04:06:01.852-07:00Handling Drama<div>Interpersonal drama is one of my least favorite things, but my team is made up of people so sometimes I just have to deal with it. In fact, I just finished leading my team through a situation that, even though it seemed like middle-school stuff to me, could have become a hostile workplace complaint.</div><div><br></div><div>Here are a couple of things I was reminded of.</div><div><br></div><div>Don’t add fuel to the fire. I was tempted to do some venting of my own. That just adds to the drama, though. You kill a fire by removing fuel and oxygen; you end drama the same way. You need to be the consistent, calm weight that smothers the passion.</div><div><br></div><div>Don’t let them get historical. The people involved want to point out every negative thing the other guy ever did, going back to the start of time. There’s no purpose to that. I said, “Look, everyone has flaws. Let’s talk about today.” Keep the focus very tightly on the incident at hand.</div><div><br></div><div>Go back to commonly accepted values. In my case, I leaned heavily on the company’s respect policy. “Remember, everyone deserves to be treated with respect. You need to do that even when you’re hurt.”</div><div><br></div><div>Finally, give it some time. No one can keep up a full head of steam forever, so a cooling-off period can be a big help. I separated some folks for a few days, and reminded them of expectations and consequences before I put them back together.</div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-64768244917209477112016-05-03T04:03:00.001-07:002016-05-03T04:03:30.160-07:00Don't Give Unspoken Permission<div>I’m coaching through a problem today: some team members saw an executive walking a friend to his car. The man was smoking, and we have a no-smoking campus. And several of my team smoke.</div><div><br></div><div>The old saying “monkey see, monkey do” doesn’t really apply to employees except for this. If they ever observe you pushing the envelope as far as rules go, they’ll take that as permission. If they get called on it, after all, they can just point at you.</div><div><br></div><div>That’s why I hold myself to a much stricter standard as far as rules go than I do my team. I know that seems backward. After all, isn’t rank supposed to have its privileges? But the way I see it, I’d rather cut them some slack and have them see it as kindness, than have them see me do something I won’t permit them to do.</div><div><br></div><div>It’s about obligations. I have an obligation to my organization to see that rules are followed, at least in spirit. I also have an obligation to my team to treat them fairly. So I give them a break when I can, but they know it’s an exception because they never see me doing it. It builds trust, and leaders can’t lead without trust.</div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-4135171685845804072016-04-28T04:03:00.001-07:002016-04-28T04:03:22.373-07:00Crisis and Influence<div>Much like recessions, crises should never be allowed to go to waste. Both are negative, but offer the opportunity for positive growth. For leaders, a crisis is a chance to make huge strides in building influence.</div><div><br></div><div>The reason is simple: When everything falls apart, most people vapor-lock, at least to some extent. It takes a little time for the fear to ease and the shock to wear off. During that time, those emotions make people desperate for leadership. Whoever sounds like the voice of reason will immediately gain followers, meaning they gain influence.</div><div><br></div><div>So a couple of suggestions. First, know your immediate action drill. This is the first two or three things you’re going to do in a crisis. Have a plan to calm and reassure your team. Have some ideas to keep them busy while you figure out what’s going on, get guidance as needed, put a plan together.</div><div><br></div><div>But the other thing is, don’t freak out. Stay calm. Keep your voice down. Even if you don’t know what to do, don’t be scared of that fact. You’ll figure it out, but not if you’re not calm. Plus, seeing you calm will calm everyone else, and focus their eyes on you. And they’ll look for you the next time.</div><div><br></div><div>After 25 years of training and operations as a military officer, there are a few comments that I still treasure more than a decade later. One of them was on my efficiency report as a company commander: “I’ve never seen CPT Steggerda get excited. He keeps his cool.” Every time I did that, I gained influence.</div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-26199671613304050452016-04-26T04:01:00.001-07:002016-04-26T04:01:59.868-07:00Be True to Yourself<div>At my workplace our senior management group has all taken one of those strengths evaluations. This particular one uses an intensive questionnaire to identify your five greatest strengths out of an array of 30 or more.</div><div><br></div><div>Interestingly, the 20 of us who took it collectively cover almost all of those strengths. None of us had the same top five. The most any one strength was present was in half of us. The big takeaway for me: There is amazing variety in the kinds of people who can lead well.</div><div><br></div><div>I’ve touched on this before, but you’ll be the most effective for your team and the happiest in your work if you intentionally lead in your own way. Small forests of trees have gone into the pages written on the topic, but for you, it’s all just context. Read to get ideas, but listen to yourself when you lead. The more natural and enjoyable a technique feels, the closer you’re getting to the real you.</div><div><br></div><div>My wife is a natural leader; she doesn’t study it or even call herself a leader. She’s very empathetic and selfless, a great relationship builder and one of those encouragers who pulls the best out of everyone. I’m more of a strategist, planner, and overt coach. I lead from in front; she leads from the middle of the group. We’re both good at it, but she might be better.</div><div><br></div><div>To lead, you have to set a vision, get people to see it, and move them toward it. How you do that is a very personal thing, so be true to yourself, not an imitator of someone else.</div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-62608456232424181792016-04-21T04:03:00.001-07:002016-04-21T04:03:42.073-07:00Give Them a Mission<div>A veteran sergeant, tasked with teaching me how to lead as a young lieutenant, once said, “The thing that will solve most problems is a mission.”</div><div><br></div><div>Mission is Army-speak for a goal, a job that has to get done. And he was right. I discovered again and again that whenever there was drama in my team, whenever the energy level got low, whenever team members were worried about the future, I could fix it with work.</div><div><br></div><div>Work does some good things. It occupies minds and hands. It accomplishes things that can bring satisfaction. It gives a feeling of demand, meaning someone somewhere needs what you do. Beyond that, a mission focuses work on an immediate need. People set aside differences and their own concerns to respond. </div><div><br></div><div>So when you sense team unity is starting to fray, or focus is lapsing, find a mission. “Guys, if we want to avoid overtime this summer we have to build some inventory now. Here’s my targets.” “Team, one of our important customers will be out of product on Monday if we can’t somehow get them some.” “We can serve this new client need if we figure out X.” “We’ll be more environmentally friendly if we can change this process.”</div><div><br></div><div>Keep them focused and moving ahead, and you won’t have to deal with the drama.</div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-66293963359306157962016-04-19T04:02:00.001-07:002016-04-19T04:02:49.705-07:00Decide<div>I know these days we’re all about empowerment, but I still think one of the basic things every leader owes his or her team is a decision.</div><div><br></div><div>I’m not talking about things like when breaks are taken or what to work on first (if there’s not a required sequence). On those things you do want to step back and allow team members to mold their workdays the way they like them.</div><div><br></div><div>But someone has to decide what the goal is. Someone needs to set strategy. Someone needs to make the call when things don’t fit normal procedures. Those kinds of things set the context for your team to work.</div><div><br></div><div>Want your team to be effective? Then don’t hesitate to make the call when you come to a fork in the road. Sure, get some input. But empowerment is letting them choose how they move ahead. Part of empowerment is being clear about which direction to move.</div><div><br></div><div>Wondering what’s next is a key source of frustration or stress. You need to keep that period of uncertainty as short as possible. Don’t wait for a consensus or a sign from above. You decide. </div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-29998850058726671872016-04-14T04:07:00.001-07:002016-04-14T04:07:41.863-07:00Not Drawing Dot-to-Dots<div>I remember pushing my company commander for more guidance. I felt he hadn’t given me enough information that I knew what he expected from my platoon. When I asked what route he wanted us to take to our assigned position, he said, “I don’t care how you get there, just be there.”</div><div><br></div><div>These days I think of that incident whenever I get hung up on intermediate objectives. I’m a backwards planner: I plan the end state first, and then work from there to determine what will be needed. In the end, I have intermediate objectives, goals that, if accomplished in sequence, will bring my team to the result I want.</div><div><br></div><div>The thing is, though, we’re not drawing dot-to-dot diagrams. It doesn’t matter if our route to success goes through my objectives or not. The only point of the objectives is the end goal; they’re a useful guide to get us moving in the right direction.</div><div><br></div><div>So don’t worry too much if your team misses a progress report, or Googles a formula instead of doing research, or figures out they can skip a step or do a test later. Are they moving toward the goal? Then it’s all good. </div><div><br></div><div>My advice: present intermediate objectives or goals as one way to do it. Spend most of your time describing what you want in the end. If they find a different way there, what does it matter?</div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-62152118300289634182016-04-12T04:02:00.001-07:002016-04-12T04:02:59.726-07:00Focus Brings Clarity<div>Dan Rockwell, author of Leadership Freak (you can read it on WordPress and I recommend you do), wrote something that struck a cord this morning. “Control your focus because your focus controls you.”</div><div><br></div><div>He was writing about the impact what you focus on will have on how your team feels and reacts. I thought, though, of focus as a tool of clarity.</div><div><br></div><div>You see, your focus is visible. Your significant other, if you have one, can tell instantly where your focus is, and especially if it isn’t on him or her. Your team can tell, too, if you’ve left the building even if you’re still in your chair. Or worse yet, if you’re attention is jumping from one thing to another at work.</div><div><br></div><div>There is only one number-one thing. There are only a small handful of priorities - if you have more then nothing is really a priority. Don’t lose your focus. When your team starts seeing the alligators crawling out of the water, they need to see you still locked in on the objective of draining the swamp.</div><div><br></div><div>Clarity is that clear understanding of what the team is doing and why. They get it from you, partly from the words you say, but mostly from where they see you focused. So control your focus, as Mr. Rockwell says. It not only controls you, it controls your team.</div><div><br></div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-63324746665403250922016-04-07T04:58:00.001-07:002016-04-07T04:58:51.158-07:00How to Eliminate Whining<div>I call it whining. Our HR director says that’s insensitive. We’re both right.</div><div><br></div><div>I think people whine when they gripe but don’t do anything about it. He thinks they wouldn’t gripe if they didn’t have legitimate beefs. As I considered that, it led me to a solution that’s been working pretty well.</div><div><br></div><div>I wanted to set an expectation that recognizing a problem brings with it a responsibility to work toward a solution. Some people do that naturally, but not most. I realized that if that’s what I want my team to be like, they need a pretty robust problem-solving toolkit.</div><div><br></div><div>So I did two things. First, I made it as easy as possible for team members to log a problem and recommend a fix. There’s a drop box, an online form, an email address, and they can verbally tell me any time I walk through. I have the process down to two sentences, as short and sweet as they want to make it.</div><div><br></div><div>Next, I carved out a budget. If their proposed fix makes sense, they can go ahead and fix it. If not, we put a little work group together to find a better answer. Either way, there’s already resources available.</div><div><br></div><div>Whining just doesn’t happen around here anymore. Instead, a lot of problems get solved. And solved quickly.</div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-88540104631028985892016-04-05T04:01:00.001-07:002016-04-05T04:01:52.615-07:00The Truth Will Set You Free<div>To succeed as a leader, you have to be open to input. It’s critical that you make yourself approachable, and that you listen to feedback.</div><div><br></div><div>Why? It’s the only way to know the truth. The opposite is being convinced you’re right. But the problem with that is it keeps you from checking if you’re really right. </div><div><br></div><div>You will always react to the world as you perceive it and not as it really is. However, the more open you are to information, ideas and criticism, the closer your perception will be to the actual truth. And the closer those two things are, the better your decisions will be. Which will build credibility and trust with your team.</div><div><br></div><div>Here are a couple of good habits to follow. First, frequently ask people, “Where do I have it wrong?” Actually invite and encourage them to point out your errors. The earlier and more frequently you do this, the better.</div><div><br></div><div>Second, create a culture of fact-checking. “We believe X to be true, but someone check it.” How many widgets an hour does that line really make? Is that restaurant really open for lunch on Tuesdays? What is our turnover rate really?</div><div><br></div><div>These two things will go a long way toward turning your team from a bunch of yes-people into truth-hunters. And regardless of what you eventually do, it’s always best to know the truth.</div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-14252305391736494362016-03-31T04:04:00.001-07:002016-03-31T04:04:37.720-07:00Tolerance<div>I’m not a fan of the word tolerance, at least as it’s used socially and politically. When most people say that word, they want their thing tolerated but reserve the right not to tolerate an opposing viewpoint. But when you’re building a team, tolerance is not on a virtue, it’s a requirement.</div><div><br></div><div>As a leader, you need to tolerate almost any differences. Most of them don’t have any impact on the work or the team, so the workplace needs to be indifference to creed or lifestyle. Only what impacts other team members is in bounds for you to address.</div><div><br></div><div>But you also need to tolerate failure. Why? Because no one learns without it. A person who never fails is someone who never tries anything new. And because failure shows you where the weak places are in your processes. And also because if you don’t, people will stop confessing failure and you’ll never know why something went wrong.</div><div><br></div><div>Intolerance toward failure, often seen in the pursuit of so-called “zero-defect environments,” will, in my opinion, actually increase the frequency of failures. That happens because you don’t have a safe environment for people to explore what went wrong and how to get better. </div><div><br></div><div>Being tolerant in general will let you focus your coaching on things that really matter, things that make people better. And your team will work better too.</div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-51085127324520333452016-03-29T04:05:00.001-07:002016-03-29T04:05:29.642-07:00Less Preparation<div>I’m not a fan of sound bites - most of the time they’re too simplistic, and they often hide a lack of understanding of complex things. One example is something I hear frequently: “You’re either preparing or repairing.” </div><div><br></div><div>I disagree. I think the best leaders have a bias toward action, not prep. I think the best plan is the good one that’s acted on now, not the great one that will take another month to perfect. Too many leaders bog down in crafting the perfect vision statement, the best possible long-range goals, and the most intricately detailed plan. They become masters of project software and PowerPoint and budgets, while their teams trudge along doing the same old things.</div><div><br></div><div>My preference is to prepare enough to get started, and then reinforce success as I go. I plan the first phase in detail, shape the rest in broad brush strokes, and then identify the decision points that will arise. When I near those decision points, I plan what’s next based on real-world factors, not planning projections. The key is to prepare enough that we can go wherever we’re winning.</div><div><br></div><div>My rule of thumb is that doing should get at least 75% of my time. Anything less puts a burden on my team.</div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-38400949406548382492016-03-24T04:30:00.001-07:002016-03-24T04:30:21.710-07:00Leaders vs Others<div>Without thinking about it, state your role on your team in one simple sentence. </div><div><br></div><div>If you said, “My job is to make sure people are getting their work done,” you see yourself as a watchdog. That implies a lack of trust in the team, and little value-added in your role.</div><div><br></div><div>If you said, “My job is to allocate resources,” you see yourself as a manager, someone who gets the most out of the team. You’re going to automatically focus on efficiencies.</div><div><br></div><div>If you said, “My job is to make execute the policies my bosses have,” you’re an administrator, put on the team to perpetuate the status quo and follow the rules.</div><div> </div><div>Only if you said, “My job is to make my team better,” do you really see yourself first and foremost as a leader. It’s usually a self-identified role. Your bosses and management are going to talk to you about the first three tasks, and you’ll always have to do some of those. But as a leader your first love, best time and most energy has to be focused on growing people.</div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5624297475350214195.post-75626474050276627582016-03-22T04:04:00.001-07:002016-03-22T04:04:49.073-07:00Reasonable Choice<div>Everyone agrees that we need to empower our teams, but in practice it’s hard to do. Empowerment is mostly about choice, but freedom of choice actually won’t help most people. Research suggests that when we have too many choices, we delay choosing, make worse choices, and are less satisfied with our choices once we make them.</div><div><br></div><div>The key is to offer a reasonable array of reasonable choices. Reasonable array, meaning three or four, enough options to truly offer a choice but not so many they are hard to compare. Reasonable choices, meaning that they truly are distinct from each other and each offers some advantages. In other words, give them a handful of good options.</div><div><br></div><div>For example, if you tell a team member she can work whatever schedule she wants, that’s a hard choice with almost infinite possibilities. She’ll need a long time to evaluate everything and make a choice, and might just vapor-lock. But if you offer her a choice between five eight-hour days and four ten-hour days, you’ll probably have an answer quickly, and a more satisfied employee.</div><div><br></div><div>You’ll have happier employees if you keep choices to a manageable level.</div>Greg Steggerdahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00884458210406919528noreply@blogger.com0