A good lesson I learned as a kid.
One day an older cousin of mine, who was one of my role models, took me hunting in Kawaihae, on the sunny side of the Big Island so that I could get some bird hunting experience – he had also taken me wild pig hunting way up mauka in the Panaewa Rainforest. On this dove trip, a bird flew by so he tracked it and fired. He missed, but the pellet spray arched down and apparently fell on another hunter who was farther away but out of view. He didn’t get hurt, but got pissed-off, stood up and yelled out “eh, who shot that?!” We now could see him, but he couldn’t see us, and my cousin could have simply not said anything, but he stood up, waved to the guy saying “over here” until he saw us, then said “sorry!”
The guy gruffly said OK and sat back down, and we couldn’t see him again, but that was a huge lesson to me on owning up and taking responsibility, even if you couldn’t be seen and could have gotten away with it.
_____________________________________________________________________
Individual Performer:
Make sure your manager never gets “blindsided.”
Among the worst things to happen to a manager is to be blind-sided, like being among the last to know about a huge problem in her/his organization. Make sure to give your manager the heads-up of any problem that you may have created, or that has come to your attention – even the hint of a potential problem. It’s your responsibility to keep your manager from being caught flat-footed with some big customer problem or organizational issue. The intent is to allow your manager time to get up to speed on the problem, develop solutions, and have a plan of action which he/she can convey to anyone who may be pressing for answers.
Example: Your manager gets a call from your customer saying that he heard from someone on your team that the project deadline was in jeopardy of being missed.
Scenario 1: Your manager was blindsided and is forced to say something like: “When did you hear that and would you know from whom? Sorry, but I’ll have to investigate further. I’ll get back to you asap.”
Scenario 2: You responsibly gave your manager the heads up, so she’s now better prepared: “Yes, sorry I wasn’t able to get ahead of this and inform you sooner. I’ve been gathering information so I could apprise you of the situation. I’ve identified the source of this concern, and I’m working on adding an additional resource to ensure that we stay on schedule. The pace is picking up on the project so starting tomorrow, I’ve established daily touch-point meetings to make sure we stay on schedule, to address any issues, and to ensure everyone is on the same page. I’ll call you and give you an update tomorrow, close of business your time.”
_____________________________________________________________________
Always take on your assignments with a sense of urgency.
Don’t be rushed, or rude to your co-workers, or be bouncing off the walls, but don’t always casually stand around shooting the breeze either. You need to be absorbed in your assignment, researching, asking questions, working with purpose, moving sharply, and always focused on getting results.
You need to keep your leader apprised by providing your manager/supervisor/team leader with updates and progress reports without always having to be asked – the greater the importance, the greater the frequency. This will demonstrate that you are taking your assignment seriously and want to do it well.
_____________________________________________________________________
Hustle.
Don’t walk around like you have all the time in the world. It looks like you don’t have enough to do. Hustle. Move sharply, briskly, not rushing, but like you have a purpose.
_____________________________________________________________________
Do your homework to always be prepared for meetings.
This is where your visibility to the entire team and your leadership starts. It generally begins with providing a status report on your assigned tasks.
Always be respectful of people’s time and provide a concise summary (so write it down) on what you’re doing, what you’ve accomplished, what problems or concerns you are having, and what actions you are taking to address them. This means you’ve already done some research on the problem, starting with asking your teammates, on how to resolve the problem.
Maybe you want to present it to the group to ask if anyone has seen this before and might have a solution or some ideas, where you can then take it “offline” and get together after the meeting. I was always motivated to be prepared because I hated to be seen as being unprepared, or being caught flat-footed, and unable to answer some basic questions about my assignments.
If I had a problem, I wanted to be able to lay out what I was already doing or what plans I had to work through the roadblock. Again, be concise, which means you took some time to prepare, and never meander, unless you like to see, or maybe not see, people rolling their eyes behind you.
_____________________________________________________________________
Be "low maintenance."
In-other-words, don’t be a constant complainer. I spent more time getting my work done, or trying to resolve problems, rather than creating problems or complaining to my manager. If you see problems, don’t go running to your manager to point them out, thinking you’re a hero for discovering it, unless of course, it’s urgent or an emergency.
_____________________________________________________________________
Don’t bad-mouth people, especially your manager.
Some people get a kick from getting laughs or attention by criticizing or bad-mouthing others. But remember, if they like to bad-mouth people, they’re probably bad-mouthing you when you’re not around.
_____________________________________________________________________
Anticipate what your manager needs.
Always try to anticipate what your manager might need. It might be providing an update on some pressing project or issue. Make sure you’ve done your homework and can be brief and concise.
This is important: think of questions that will likely be asked of you, and either have the answers ready or proactively provide that info as part of your update. Don’t pop in all the time and be a nuisance, but if something is on their top 5 list of priorities, updates would probably be appreciated.
Just make sure your manager or leader doesn’t have to keep asking you for updates.
_____________________________________________________________________
Be willing to take on tough assignments.
Tell your manager you’re willing to take on a difficult and challenging task or project, or one with a tough schedule. Although this was during the latter part of my career, and as a formal project manager, I finally had the self-confidence to tell my manager that I’d be more than willing to take on his most difficult projects, and or, ones with the most difficult customers.
You have to be willing to work extremely hard, be prepared to sacrifice some personal and family time, be ready to make some difficult decisions, and face harsh challenges but someone has to do the job. Your manager won’t give you something she/he knows you are not prepared to handle – their credibility is also on the line – but if you get the assignment, in most cases, you immediately get credibility and leverage to get the resources you need, as well as receive the help and guidance that you’ll need to make the project a success.
Just make sure you keep your manager apprised of the good and bad, and tap whomever you need for advice or help. When you are a manager faced with a multitude of priority things that need to get done, you will feel extremely fortunate and grateful to have your people pulling together to help, and especially those who step up to take some tough ones off your plate.
_____________________________________________________________________
Manager:
If your main concern is for people to always “like” you, then you will never be a respected and successful leader.
When people are not performing satisfactorily, when they are behaving in a manner that does not meet your or the company’s standards, you must have the courage to confront people one-on-one to make sure they understand from you directly, that they are not meeting your expectations – that their performance needs to improve, or a certain behavior needs to stop.
If you don’t take any action, or send someone else to do it, you will undermine and diminish people’s respect for you.
If you avoid addressing the issue completely, you’ll be allowing and possibly encouraging this level of performance or type of behavior. You’ll get what you tolerate – which was another lesson from early EDS leadership training.
When addressing poor performance or behavior, however, never go in upset with guns blazing. Seek first to understand as there may be some underlying explanation or the information you received may have been a biased view, whether intentional or not.
You would never look in only one direction before crossing the street with your children correct? There could be regretful consequences if you do – even on a one-way street where it’s so obvious from which direction cars will be coming. I assure you, there will be situations where you’ll be glad that you did not jump to a premature conclusion. Then when handling the issue, if coaching is required, always address the specific performance or behavior, not the person.
_____________________________________________________________________
Holding your people accountable.
Holding yourself accountable is essential, but one of the most important and toughest parts of your job will be to hold your people accountable if they don’t meet your expectations, or for demonstrating undesirable actions or behaviors. You are responsible for affecting people’s actions and behaviors, so they are in line with company standards and your expectations. It’s very important to remember that your success in holding people accountable and changing undesirable behaviors, is dependent upon whether you deliver immediate and certain consequences, or delayed and uncertain consequences, or no consequences at all.
Don't put off having a needed discussion with your employee, or wait for a six month or annual performance review. Again, you will get what you tolerate.
I believe that many people falter or fail in leadership because they choose the avoidance path in these situations. The only way to overcome this challenge is to push through and just do it. Being nervous, or terrified with cold and shaking hands, and a shaky voice even, is secondary. If you have to, write down what needs to be corrected and why, so you don’t blank out, but deliver your message to the person one-on-one, or on the phone one-on-one if they are remote.
_____________________________________________________________________
Never overlook or pass up an opportunity to pat people on the back for their good work, and as importantly for good behaviors.
As a leader, you should acknowledge your people when deserved in your day-to-day interactions with them, not once a month, or during a six-month or annual review. You should seek out and always give credit where credit is due, never take credit when it belongs elsewhere, and never take credit alone for something you should be sharing with others.
_____________________________________________________________________
Getting serious push-back when assigning work.
You need to be fair and balanced when assigning work. You’ll have people who are always willing to take on work, or always agreeable, or at least show that they are. Then you’ll also have people who are not so willing, or show some displeasure, or even give you push-back on certain assignments or type of work they basically don’t like to do.
When important but less desirable work needs to get done, do you avoid assigning work to some people primarily because you want to avoid their push-back or even a confrontation? To be a respected leader, and to do what’s best and fair for your team, you need to step up and do what you know needs to be done. People notice – they can see what’s going on and word gets around.
_____________________________________________________________________
Get used to being criticized.
The higher you move up in management, the greater the likelihood that you will be open to criticism. This can create disappointment, hurt, and even fear of making mistakes. This is another aspect of management and leadership that you’ll have to deal with very personally.
If you perform your work, take actions, and make decisions based primarily upon how you’ll be perceived or possibly criticized, you will not be successful as a leader, because you’ll then eventually and repeatedly make decisions to avoid criticism, at the expense of what is best for the project, customer, or organization.
_____________________________________________________________________
Establish and communicate your expectations.
It is also important to ensure that everyone on your staff understands your expectations, so you need to write it down, communicate and discuss it, and adjust as you deem necessary. To illustrate, “MY BELIEFS AND EXPECTATIONS” in the section below is something I sent out to all my leaders and discussed in a leadership meeting in 1999.
At the time I had seven managers reporting to me, with a total staff of 115. It’s important to note that my leaders were already experienced, people caring, motivated, strong leaders with whom I depended upon every day, and with whom I would trust with my life.
_____________________________________________________________________
(There is a sizable section on Employee Rankings and it gets a bit technical, but whether you use it as a management tool or not, it should give you, as an individual performer, a much better understanding as to how your performance and contributions are being continuously measured and judged by your management, and hopefully provide you with concrete ideas on how to increase your value in the eyes of your leaders.)
Employee rankings.
It is important to rank or rate your employees, according to the value that they bring to your business or organization. This may not be as important if you have a small company or team where you may work in the same office or facility every day, but you should still have some level of work performance and expectations of your employees, with some assessment on how your people are measuring up to these expectations.
As the number of employees increases, for example from 10 to 20, or 20 to 40, and greater, rankings become more important to fairly and equitably reward your people for their contributions. As discussed earlier, rewards may be as simple but meaningful as thank-yous and pats-on-the-back, to salary increases and bonuses, to new opportunities and promotions.
If you are not doing this fairly and systematically, then you could be missing opportunities to recognize your deserving employees, or demotivating your top performers, and possibly openly tolerating poor performance. If you are not in some way ranking your people, you may not be consistently rewarding them fairly. Furthermore, you will not, in the long run, be getting the very best from your employees, you could be perpetuating low or mediocre performance, and you may eventually lose your best people.
_____________________________________________________________________
As the owner or head of a business or organization, you establish the business and operational culture and how you are perceived by your customers.
This section focusses on you as the manager of your own business, or office, or facility. This topic has more to do with you being responsible for the work environment – the day-to-day workings within your office, where you may have to exert more influence and even control on how things are done.
As an example, when you manage a team or organization within a larger office, you are not necessarily responsible for how the phones are answered, or how your customers or visitors are greeted at the reception desk, or have to deal with people who dress a little too casually, etc.
When you are responsible for the entire office, everything becomes a reflection on you as the head of the office and your expectations as the manager. If you do not personally correct rude behavior in the workplace, for example, you are indirectly encouraging it, and there will be more instances of this behavior.
If you don’t point out to people that they are over the line relative to the dress code, say goodbye to your dress code.
If the person at the top is always a nice person and would never be rude to anyone, but people in his front office are unfriendly to customers and visitors, he is responsible for allowing this to occur. He either doesn’t care, or doesn’t have the nerve to confront his employees and get them to change their behaviors, so they probably also consider him a push-over.
The unfriendly behavior by his staff may not be a reflection of him the person, but it is definitely a reflection of him as the owner, or manager, or leader.
_____________________________________________________________________
One day an older cousin of mine, who was one of my role models, took me hunting in Kawaihae, on the sunny side of the Big Island so that I could get some bird hunting experience – he had also taken me wild pig hunting way up mauka in the Panaewa Rainforest. On this dove trip, a bird flew by so he tracked it and fired. He missed, but the pellet spray arched down and apparently fell on another hunter who was farther away but out of view. He didn’t get hurt, but got pissed-off, stood up and yelled out “eh, who shot that?!” We now could see him, but he couldn’t see us, and my cousin could have simply not said anything, but he stood up, waved to the guy saying “over here” until he saw us, then said “sorry!”
The guy gruffly said OK and sat back down, and we couldn’t see him again, but that was a huge lesson to me on owning up and taking responsibility, even if you couldn’t be seen and could have gotten away with it.
_____________________________________________________________________
Individual Performer:
Make sure your manager never gets “blindsided.”
Among the worst things to happen to a manager is to be blind-sided, like being among the last to know about a huge problem in her/his organization. Make sure to give your manager the heads-up of any problem that you may have created, or that has come to your attention – even the hint of a potential problem. It’s your responsibility to keep your manager from being caught flat-footed with some big customer problem or organizational issue. The intent is to allow your manager time to get up to speed on the problem, develop solutions, and have a plan of action which he/she can convey to anyone who may be pressing for answers.
Example: Your manager gets a call from your customer saying that he heard from someone on your team that the project deadline was in jeopardy of being missed.
Scenario 1: Your manager was blindsided and is forced to say something like: “When did you hear that and would you know from whom? Sorry, but I’ll have to investigate further. I’ll get back to you asap.”
Scenario 2: You responsibly gave your manager the heads up, so she’s now better prepared: “Yes, sorry I wasn’t able to get ahead of this and inform you sooner. I’ve been gathering information so I could apprise you of the situation. I’ve identified the source of this concern, and I’m working on adding an additional resource to ensure that we stay on schedule. The pace is picking up on the project so starting tomorrow, I’ve established daily touch-point meetings to make sure we stay on schedule, to address any issues, and to ensure everyone is on the same page. I’ll call you and give you an update tomorrow, close of business your time.”
_____________________________________________________________________
Always take on your assignments with a sense of urgency.
Don’t be rushed, or rude to your co-workers, or be bouncing off the walls, but don’t always casually stand around shooting the breeze either. You need to be absorbed in your assignment, researching, asking questions, working with purpose, moving sharply, and always focused on getting results.
You need to keep your leader apprised by providing your manager/supervisor/team leader with updates and progress reports without always having to be asked – the greater the importance, the greater the frequency. This will demonstrate that you are taking your assignment seriously and want to do it well.
_____________________________________________________________________
Hustle.
Don’t walk around like you have all the time in the world. It looks like you don’t have enough to do. Hustle. Move sharply, briskly, not rushing, but like you have a purpose.
_____________________________________________________________________
Do your homework to always be prepared for meetings.
This is where your visibility to the entire team and your leadership starts. It generally begins with providing a status report on your assigned tasks.
Always be respectful of people’s time and provide a concise summary (so write it down) on what you’re doing, what you’ve accomplished, what problems or concerns you are having, and what actions you are taking to address them. This means you’ve already done some research on the problem, starting with asking your teammates, on how to resolve the problem.
Maybe you want to present it to the group to ask if anyone has seen this before and might have a solution or some ideas, where you can then take it “offline” and get together after the meeting. I was always motivated to be prepared because I hated to be seen as being unprepared, or being caught flat-footed, and unable to answer some basic questions about my assignments.
If I had a problem, I wanted to be able to lay out what I was already doing or what plans I had to work through the roadblock. Again, be concise, which means you took some time to prepare, and never meander, unless you like to see, or maybe not see, people rolling their eyes behind you.
_____________________________________________________________________
Be "low maintenance."
In-other-words, don’t be a constant complainer. I spent more time getting my work done, or trying to resolve problems, rather than creating problems or complaining to my manager. If you see problems, don’t go running to your manager to point them out, thinking you’re a hero for discovering it, unless of course, it’s urgent or an emergency.
_____________________________________________________________________
Don’t bad-mouth people, especially your manager.
Some people get a kick from getting laughs or attention by criticizing or bad-mouthing others. But remember, if they like to bad-mouth people, they’re probably bad-mouthing you when you’re not around.
_____________________________________________________________________
Anticipate what your manager needs.
Always try to anticipate what your manager might need. It might be providing an update on some pressing project or issue. Make sure you’ve done your homework and can be brief and concise.
This is important: think of questions that will likely be asked of you, and either have the answers ready or proactively provide that info as part of your update. Don’t pop in all the time and be a nuisance, but if something is on their top 5 list of priorities, updates would probably be appreciated.
Just make sure your manager or leader doesn’t have to keep asking you for updates.
_____________________________________________________________________
Be willing to take on tough assignments.
Tell your manager you’re willing to take on a difficult and challenging task or project, or one with a tough schedule. Although this was during the latter part of my career, and as a formal project manager, I finally had the self-confidence to tell my manager that I’d be more than willing to take on his most difficult projects, and or, ones with the most difficult customers.
You have to be willing to work extremely hard, be prepared to sacrifice some personal and family time, be ready to make some difficult decisions, and face harsh challenges but someone has to do the job. Your manager won’t give you something she/he knows you are not prepared to handle – their credibility is also on the line – but if you get the assignment, in most cases, you immediately get credibility and leverage to get the resources you need, as well as receive the help and guidance that you’ll need to make the project a success.
Just make sure you keep your manager apprised of the good and bad, and tap whomever you need for advice or help. When you are a manager faced with a multitude of priority things that need to get done, you will feel extremely fortunate and grateful to have your people pulling together to help, and especially those who step up to take some tough ones off your plate.
_____________________________________________________________________
Manager:
If your main concern is for people to always “like” you, then you will never be a respected and successful leader.
When people are not performing satisfactorily, when they are behaving in a manner that does not meet your or the company’s standards, you must have the courage to confront people one-on-one to make sure they understand from you directly, that they are not meeting your expectations – that their performance needs to improve, or a certain behavior needs to stop.
If you don’t take any action, or send someone else to do it, you will undermine and diminish people’s respect for you.
If you avoid addressing the issue completely, you’ll be allowing and possibly encouraging this level of performance or type of behavior. You’ll get what you tolerate – which was another lesson from early EDS leadership training.
When addressing poor performance or behavior, however, never go in upset with guns blazing. Seek first to understand as there may be some underlying explanation or the information you received may have been a biased view, whether intentional or not.
You would never look in only one direction before crossing the street with your children correct? There could be regretful consequences if you do – even on a one-way street where it’s so obvious from which direction cars will be coming. I assure you, there will be situations where you’ll be glad that you did not jump to a premature conclusion. Then when handling the issue, if coaching is required, always address the specific performance or behavior, not the person.
_____________________________________________________________________
Holding your people accountable.
Holding yourself accountable is essential, but one of the most important and toughest parts of your job will be to hold your people accountable if they don’t meet your expectations, or for demonstrating undesirable actions or behaviors. You are responsible for affecting people’s actions and behaviors, so they are in line with company standards and your expectations. It’s very important to remember that your success in holding people accountable and changing undesirable behaviors, is dependent upon whether you deliver immediate and certain consequences, or delayed and uncertain consequences, or no consequences at all.
Don't put off having a needed discussion with your employee, or wait for a six month or annual performance review. Again, you will get what you tolerate.
I believe that many people falter or fail in leadership because they choose the avoidance path in these situations. The only way to overcome this challenge is to push through and just do it. Being nervous, or terrified with cold and shaking hands, and a shaky voice even, is secondary. If you have to, write down what needs to be corrected and why, so you don’t blank out, but deliver your message to the person one-on-one, or on the phone one-on-one if they are remote.
_____________________________________________________________________
Never overlook or pass up an opportunity to pat people on the back for their good work, and as importantly for good behaviors.
As a leader, you should acknowledge your people when deserved in your day-to-day interactions with them, not once a month, or during a six-month or annual review. You should seek out and always give credit where credit is due, never take credit when it belongs elsewhere, and never take credit alone for something you should be sharing with others.
_____________________________________________________________________
Getting serious push-back when assigning work.
You need to be fair and balanced when assigning work. You’ll have people who are always willing to take on work, or always agreeable, or at least show that they are. Then you’ll also have people who are not so willing, or show some displeasure, or even give you push-back on certain assignments or type of work they basically don’t like to do.
When important but less desirable work needs to get done, do you avoid assigning work to some people primarily because you want to avoid their push-back or even a confrontation? To be a respected leader, and to do what’s best and fair for your team, you need to step up and do what you know needs to be done. People notice – they can see what’s going on and word gets around.
_____________________________________________________________________
Get used to being criticized.
The higher you move up in management, the greater the likelihood that you will be open to criticism. This can create disappointment, hurt, and even fear of making mistakes. This is another aspect of management and leadership that you’ll have to deal with very personally.
If you perform your work, take actions, and make decisions based primarily upon how you’ll be perceived or possibly criticized, you will not be successful as a leader, because you’ll then eventually and repeatedly make decisions to avoid criticism, at the expense of what is best for the project, customer, or organization.
_____________________________________________________________________
Establish and communicate your expectations.
It is also important to ensure that everyone on your staff understands your expectations, so you need to write it down, communicate and discuss it, and adjust as you deem necessary. To illustrate, “MY BELIEFS AND EXPECTATIONS” in the section below is something I sent out to all my leaders and discussed in a leadership meeting in 1999.
At the time I had seven managers reporting to me, with a total staff of 115. It’s important to note that my leaders were already experienced, people caring, motivated, strong leaders with whom I depended upon every day, and with whom I would trust with my life.
_____________________________________________________________________
(There is a sizable section on Employee Rankings and it gets a bit technical, but whether you use it as a management tool or not, it should give you, as an individual performer, a much better understanding as to how your performance and contributions are being continuously measured and judged by your management, and hopefully provide you with concrete ideas on how to increase your value in the eyes of your leaders.)
Employee rankings.
It is important to rank or rate your employees, according to the value that they bring to your business or organization. This may not be as important if you have a small company or team where you may work in the same office or facility every day, but you should still have some level of work performance and expectations of your employees, with some assessment on how your people are measuring up to these expectations.
As the number of employees increases, for example from 10 to 20, or 20 to 40, and greater, rankings become more important to fairly and equitably reward your people for their contributions. As discussed earlier, rewards may be as simple but meaningful as thank-yous and pats-on-the-back, to salary increases and bonuses, to new opportunities and promotions.
If you are not doing this fairly and systematically, then you could be missing opportunities to recognize your deserving employees, or demotivating your top performers, and possibly openly tolerating poor performance. If you are not in some way ranking your people, you may not be consistently rewarding them fairly. Furthermore, you will not, in the long run, be getting the very best from your employees, you could be perpetuating low or mediocre performance, and you may eventually lose your best people.
_____________________________________________________________________
As the owner or head of a business or organization, you establish the business and operational culture and how you are perceived by your customers.
This section focusses on you as the manager of your own business, or office, or facility. This topic has more to do with you being responsible for the work environment – the day-to-day workings within your office, where you may have to exert more influence and even control on how things are done.
As an example, when you manage a team or organization within a larger office, you are not necessarily responsible for how the phones are answered, or how your customers or visitors are greeted at the reception desk, or have to deal with people who dress a little too casually, etc.
When you are responsible for the entire office, everything becomes a reflection on you as the head of the office and your expectations as the manager. If you do not personally correct rude behavior in the workplace, for example, you are indirectly encouraging it, and there will be more instances of this behavior.
If you don’t point out to people that they are over the line relative to the dress code, say goodbye to your dress code.
If the person at the top is always a nice person and would never be rude to anyone, but people in his front office are unfriendly to customers and visitors, he is responsible for allowing this to occur. He either doesn’t care, or doesn’t have the nerve to confront his employees and get them to change their behaviors, so they probably also consider him a push-over.
The unfriendly behavior by his staff may not be a reflection of him the person, but it is definitely a reflection of him as the owner, or manager, or leader.
_____________________________________________________________________