ITLP Tuesday Readings

It seems like every week I hear of universities planning for, going through, or having recently experienced layoffs, terminations, or position eliminations as a result of the economic crisis we are experiencing. Today's reading - "Ask the Expert: How Do Effective Leaders Handle Change?" -- is by Mark Hannum, Principle Consultant at Linkage and looks at practices that enable leaders to be more effective in such tough times. The article can be downloaded from here: PDF

Hannum talks in this short piece about many aspects of layoffs and offers a number of specific suggestions:

1. Prepare yourself, as well as your organization, for the change.
2. Treat people who are being laid off as human beings, with dignity.
3. Give people - both those leaving and those staying - time to say goodbye.
4. Look people in the eye when you deliver bad news.
5. Deliver clear messages - both with the words from your mouth and those from your body - that are short, human, and candid.
6. Have a plan for going forward that people have confidence in, that instills hope and optimism.
7. Make your plan known early and repeat often.

He also notes that how you deal with those being laid off are tremendous signals to those who are staying. "They look at your treatment of terminated employees as a bellwether of how they may be treated some day. Knowing that a layoff will be handled with dignity, respect, and community will go a long way to keeping survivors engaged and motivated."

For those of you who want to read more on this topic, I suggest a piece from the Harvard Business School's Newsletter, Working Knowledge: Conducting Layoffs: 'Necessary Evils' at Work. This article, which is an interview with Joshua Margolis, a professor at the Harvard Business School, and Andrew Molinsky, a professor at the Brandis University International Business School, focuses primarily on those individuals who are called upon to deliver the termination notice and their preparation for the conversation. I think that the three criteria for "success" that they identify are right on:

1. The task gets done. The individual grasps the message and the knows the process to follow.
2. The individual feels that he/she has been treated in a way that respects his/her dignity and - as important- lays the groundwork to allow him/her to rebound and move on in a constructive way.
3. The task is done in a way that enables the manager to sustain his/ her own well-being, ongoing effectiveness, and moral sensitivity.

You hope that you never are called on to layoff one of your staff. If you are, you'll find excellent advice in this reading (actually, these two readings), advice I urge you to follow.

. . . . . jim

Posted by Jim Hall at 8:18 AM | Permalink

This week's Tuesday Reading is an excerpt from John Kotter's book A Sense of Urgency which was made available via Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge Newsletter.

In the excerpt, Kotter argues that we should not just think of crises as big trouble. Rather that properly transformed, crises can serve as positive motivators creating a genuine sense of urgency that engages the hearts and minds of staff members.

Of course, the key are those two words "properly transformed." Read the entire piece for insight into the four big mistakes you can make -

1. assuming that crises inevitably will create the sense of urgency needed for better individual and organizational performance

2. creating a crisis as a strategy to improve performance

3. passively waiting for a crisis that may never come

4. underestimating the disaster that a crisis can bring

And eight principles, that if followed, can enable you to use a crisis to create true urgency:

1. always think of crises as potential opportunities

2. never forget that crises do not automatically reduce complacency

3. to use a crisis, make sure that it is visible, unambiguous, related to real problems, and significant

4. be proactive in assessing how people react, in developing plans, and in the rapid deployment of the plans

5. plans and actions should always focus on hearts as much or more than minds

6. act with urgency every day

7. if you are considering creating an urgency-raising crisis, take great care both because of the danger of losing control and because if people see you as manipulative, they will react very badly

8. if you are lower in the organization and see how a crisis can be used as an opportunity, identify and then work with a more powerful person who can take the lead.

Read Kotter's piece carefully and then even more carefully plan how to use the crises you encounter to move your organization forward.

. . . . . jim

Posted by Jim Hall at 9:31 AM | Permalink

Well-integrated, high-performing teams, teams that "click," is the subject of today's Tuesday Reading - How Leaders Get Their Teams To 'Click' by Phil Harken. Such teams never lose slight of their goals and are largely self-sustaining. They often seem to take on a life of their own. Studies by the European Centre for Organizational Research show that teams that "click" always have a "leader who creates the environment and establishes the operating principles and values that are conducive to high performance."

What do leaders do to lead their teams so that they "click"? Harkin lists four behaviors as most significant:

1. They create a clear vision and describe it in simple language.

2. They take the time to get people to subscribe to, to buy into, that vision.

3. They assess the current situation.

4. They get the right people involved and work through the courses of action which are likely to yield results.

It's the up-front work in getting to a clear end state that makes the process work. It's all about how the leader continually keeps the objectives in view.

Harken goes on to list ten techniques for building high-performance teams:

1. Define a very clear picture of the future - a vision for the team. "If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." If the team is not all on the same road, you won't reach your goals.

2. Be genuine.

3. Ask good questions. The 70-20-10 rule for conversations is often appropriate. (70% listening, 20% questions, 10% summarizing, synthesizing, providing possible courses of action.)

4. Talk about everything; especially the hard things. Problems do no go away by ignoring them.

5. Follow through on commitments.

6. Let others speak first. In high performing teams, everyone is equal in terms of communication.

7. Listen. Everyone on the team listens with respect, and values and engages ideas from all the team members.

8. Addresses any team member that is not performing.

9. Have fun, but never at anyone else's expense.

10. Are confident and dependable. They prepare their conversations and don't avoid or skim over real issues and problems, especially the difficult and confronting ones. They address btht the "What's so" and the "So whats."

So, today, think about your team and what you want to do today to improve it's performance.

. . . . . jim

Posted by Jim Hall at 10:29 AM | Permalink

This week, for the week's Tuesday Reading, I turn to a recent message from the ITLP IX Vision Team: "The Key to Getting Lucky: PRACTICE!!!"

The Key to Getting Lucky: PRACTICE!!!

A Golf Story

When the golfer Tom Watson chipped in on the 17th at Pebble Beach in 1982 and then birdied the final hole to win the US Open, some called it a LUCKY shot - a one-in-a-million shot. Well maybe it was and maybe it wasn't. Watson, in PRACTICE before the tournament, had dropped balls in the rough fringe and practiced chipping from that exact spot. He also had played literally thousands of shots in similar situations, even if the results were less crucial and less was as at stake.

The following year, Watson was asked to recreate the shot for a television promotion. Watson stepped to the edge of the green and threw down a ball in the heavy rough. Then he looked into the camera and smilingly spoke his line, "They say PRACTICE makes perfect." Without further delay, Watson took his wedge and hit the ball, bingo, straight in the hole! The only problem was that the camera wasn't running because the operator thought Watson was just warming up. It appeared they could all be in for a long afternoon of retakes but, undeterred, Watson threw down another ball and duplicated the result with his second attempt.

PRACTICE is the path to greatness.

You may remember from our very first ITLP lesson that leadership can be learned, and in fact, that it had to be learned because there are very few natural born leaders. Learning is really a change in behavior. But, you haven't learned a thing until you take action, and use it. As Wayne Gretzy once said, "you miss 100% of the shots you don't take".

Just as the complete golf swing must incorporate the proper grip, address, posture, alignment, backswing, downswing, impact and followthrough-to-finish, proper leadership involves the full cycle of strategic thinking, change management, building relationships, developing people, and delivering results.Are you practicing these key motions?

• Good Storytelling: "Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories"

• Strategically Planning: "Rally people to go to the future and develop strategies around leading change...The future is already here - it is just unevenly distributed."

• Building Relationships: "Go, listen, ask questions, take action...Relationships = Currency"

• Delegating: "Delegation is a process, not a single action."

• Getting Results: "If you are unable to hold people accountable, you are more interested in comfort than results."

• Coaching: "Coaching is not giving answers, it is giving suggestions"

• Motivating: "What do you like to do and how can I get you to do more of it?"

• Recruiting, Interviewing, On-boarding: "Each hire is a million dollar decision."

• Getting Feedback: "Everyday is an opportunity to get feedback"

Pick one today and get on the leaderboard. The more you practice, the "luckier" you will get.

Bobby - Authentic

We want to give a special Thanks to Bobby Brill for our message this week. Thank you Bobby for continuing to practice being authentic.

The Vision Team: Todd - Non-Judgment, Elease - Discipline, Randy - Trust, Tom - Cooperation, Beth-Anne - Mastery

Have a great week. . . . . jim

Posted by Jim Hall at 9:24 AM | Permalink