July 19, 2011

 

Employee Development Systems, Inc.
The Personal Accountability Company

7308 South Alton Way, Suite 2J
Dry Creek Business Park
Centennial, Colorado 80112 
800.282.3374  

  

Are you the boss that you wouldn’t want to work for? How do your decisions and behaviors affect your workplace? In Good Boss, Bad Boss (Business Plus, 2012), by Bob Sutton, readers are given a glimpse into what kind of person creates a positive, productive workplace.

 

 

 

 

 

What action can you take now that will leave the biggest footprint on your career? 

 

We all want to get traction in our career, regardless of outside economic conditions. Here are some of the tactics that leaders use, as they make their way to becoming executives and CEOs.

 

So you have finally garnered the corner office--or its equivalent in your company. Now it is time to get out of it. Really.

 

Leading requires getting your hands into everything, so you should be on the floor or around the office for part of each day, seeing for yourself how things are running in the organization. Strategy is critical, but it is important to keep it real by staying in touch with what is happening around you.

 

Break the preconceptions that people have about someone in your position by being visible and engaged during the business day.

Have a concrete way of conveying big ideas. Use real examples. Take Jim Donalds, former CEO of Starbucks. He has what he calls his "fish story." When talking about the company to large groups, whether they are investors, vendors, or internal managers, he brings a fresh salmon out of a Styrofoam chest to exemplify his point about resilience.

 

In his words, " I want to be the fish like the salmon that swims upstream when others are coming down, meaning that if we can catch our competition resting on their laurels as we make our way upstream, we'll end up winning. I want to be the fish that jumps over these hurdles and obstacles called debt that get in the way, you know, like a salmon jumps over stones and boulders."

 

Jim Donald's fish story gives him a concrete and unexpected way to convey his vision. Come up with your own fish story. Do you have one for the current initiatives of your job? How about a fish story that you use for yourself, to keep focused on where you are going in your career?

 

Have you ever heard the saying that "A turtle only moves forward when it sticks its neck out?" It has been attributed to James Bryant Conant, onetime president of Harvard. If you stay in touch with people on the front lines and give them the power to take some risks –and possibly fail– they will likely stick their necks out, and make some movement.

 

Decision making should be second nature by now, right? You’ve had years of practice, and yet, there are some ‘Yield’ signs that we all miss sometimes along the way. Watch out for these decision crossroads. 

 

In many cases, our prevailing instinct is to be galvanized by the options and data set before us. Do you have enough information to make a decision? Have you conferred with the right people or teams? Have you massaged the data and reached perfect certainty? We often get afflicted with what Susan Heathfield, human resources expert, refers to as analysis paralysis.

 

How do you get past analysis paralysis? The Marine Core battles this syndrome with the “70 percent solution.” If you have 70 percent of the information, have done 70 percent of the analysis, and feel 70 percent confident, then move.

 

Teach yourself to place importance on “fast enough” – decision making based on sufficient information, not perfect data. Moreover, in reaching a decision, rarely are all the data available to be sure of its outcome.

 

So gather all of the information that you have available, then make a move. You will be glad that you have moved the team to the next step in your process or project.

 

Responsibility is not typically bestowed; it is actively sought. If you readily embrace more responsibility, you will find that eventually you are given the leeway to make decisions. Yes, it is more risk for you, but you will also have more power to effect change in your environment. Always work toward greater responsibility.

 

This increases your decision-making ability through practice (being faced with repeated decisions) and placement (being put in a position that requires more decision making on a daily basis).

 

Finally, let’s talk about post-decision triage. Let’s face it, some decisions take us in the wrong direction, and it is worth taking time to learn from them. Routinely looking back on decision processes keeps you (and your team or department) learning, and therefore, being jettisoned forward in content and process knowledge.

 

In your post-decision review meeting, ask questions such as, what did we think would happen? How did the situation actually play out? If there was a divergence, ask yourselves possible points where those deviations occurred.

 

Sharon was recently promoted to branch manager at a well-respected, local insurance company.  She has worked hard to reach this level; she knows the insurance business inside and out.  However, as the manager of over 30 employees in her office, she has found that much of her position does not relate to what she knows about the industry.  To her surprise, she spends most of her time handling conflict and morale issues. 

 

Today, she has to confront Jim, an angry account manager.  He is disgruntled, because a client who was originally his account has moved her business to another account rep.  Although she did so because she didn't receive the service she wanted from Jim, he feels cheated, and is, of course, bitter about losing the commission on a long-standing customer account.  The situation between the two agents is causing tension at the office, and it even seems like they are about to blow up at each other. 

 

Sharon has been putting off this confrontation, in hopes that it would go away. The result is that the tension is now much worse than it was two weeks ago. She has to handle the situation with savvy, but her strengths do not lie in the realm of emotional intelligence.