Management Leverage Blog

Here is a typical pattern….

We learn a ‘craft’ in school… marketing, finance, accounting, etc. And we receive positive feedback (good grades) when we effectively demonstrate our knowledge of this craft, and negative feedback (bad grades) when we don’t.

We then receive our first job and begin to practice our craft. Once again, rewards are based on demonstrating our knowledge of this craft. Eventually, however, we are asked to get things done through others (even in a matrix organization). When we run into difficulties, what do we do? Just like a mouse in a maze, we do what we always did for rewards, we get better at our craft. It only makes sense… this is what always worked in the past.

Only this time it won’t help us much.

Because what we are being asked to do is not something we were ever taught to do, or even thought was that important to learn, given that our reward system always revolved around our craft.

Getting things done through others isn’t something we come out of the womb knowing how to do. If you want to set your new supervisor up for success, train her. Mentor her. Set up regular meetings to work on difficulties she may be having.

And design her reward system around her ability to get things done through others.

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Do others’ perceptions become more important than results as you move up the corporate ladder?

I don’t think so.

Social capital becomes more important as you move up the ladder than it was at the beginning of your career.

Why? Because as your career progresses,
1) Your results are harder to measure, and
2) You are competing for promotions against others who produce results, and have taken the time to build social capital. In the beginning of your career this isn’t necessarily the case.

But even if perceptions are more important now than they were before, they’re not more important than results.

For the sake of simplicity, lets divide the corporate world into three buckets. In the first bucket, we’ll put the “results should speak for themselves” people. In the second bucket we’ll put the “it’s not what you know, but who you know” crowd.

Everyone in both of these buckets will hit a ceiling sooner or later.

The people in the first bucket are the best kept secrets in their organizations. They are the ghost people. We may know their name, or their face, but no one is really sure what it is they do.

In Texas we call the people in the second bucket “all sizzle and no steak”. They spend so much time working the crowd and promoting themselves, that it doesn’t take long before the perceptions of their abilities far exceed their actual abilities. They have spent more time worrying about what others think about them than actually developing themselves.

It won’t take long before they are put in charge of something and fail miserably, and very publicly.

Sure. We all know people who succeed in spite of themselves. But put these people in the same group with the 325 year old woman who has chain smoked for 324 years. Or the high school drop out who starts a
computer company and becomes a billionaire before turning 30.

If you want to work your way up, put yourself in the third bucket with those who manage  results AND others’ perceptions of them.

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Involving others in the decision making process is generally a good idea.

People tend to be more satisfied with the outcome when the process used to arrive at that outcome is fair. And, who knows?  You might come up with a better idea when others are involved.

But be careful…

Involving others in the decision making process takes time. Often managers have to make immediate decisions. If the production line stops, you might not have time to consult everyone on the floor as to the best course of action.

You could also look weak in times of crisis. If your building burns down, it may be much more effective to climb on top of the rubble with a megaphone and shout, “We will rebuild!” than, “Please be patient while we consult with each of you before we determine our best course of action.”

Finally, others may not be privy to the info needed to make an effective decision. Let’s face it, as manager you are privy to information  that those a few rungs down are not. You are much less likely to generate effective solutions when you supply decision makers with partial information and half-truths.

And what happens when you make a decision that runs counter to what the group comes up with (because you understand the problem better than they do)? By ignoring their suggestions, you generate more dissatisfaction than you would have if you never asked for them for their input in the first place.

There are many reasons to involve others in the decision making process. But it’s not a prescription for success. Ineffective managers and leaders use the same decision making process regardless of the circumstances.

Is your career growing along with your manager’s?
Why you should never trust a silent boss

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“What? You dream in four languages? You must be fluent! “

Not necessarily. If I don’t know the words in my dream, I make them up. I know what I am talking about.

Unfortunately, many of us approach management the same way. We make it up as we go along.

But scientists and practitioners have been studying management for many, many years now. We really know a lot about what works and what doesn’t.

The trick is to sort the facts from opinions. And then try on those that fit your personality and your company culture.

Of course very little will work if you haven’t learned to leverage your time, influence, and power.

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Don’t tell anyone, but a senior level manager recently told me that she heard from a very reliable source that one of her direct reports wanted her job.

I told her that it was her responsibility to help him get it.

Isn’t that career suicide?

Think about it. If you developed the reputation as a manager who effectively develops employees to reach their own potential and career goals, people would flock from everywhere to work for you.

And what kinds of people do you think you would attract?

But I don’t want to end up on the street

Of course, this is only a good strategy if you have developed your own career. If you haven’t, then maybe you want to surround yourself with unmotivated, passive people whose single career goal is to leave work on time. You won’t accomplish much, but hunker down and maybe no one will notice for a while.

If you haven’t done so already, a great first step is to ask your directs where they see their career in five years. Help them get there and you will notice an immediate difference in their enthusiasm, motivation, and quality of work.

And when you develop the luxury of delegating your work to your team, you free up your own time to take on your manager’s responsibilities.

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When we want to persuade, we often rely on facts and figures and ‘offers they can’t refuse’. Such techniques appeal to our minds. We like them, because they are logical. And the truth is, building a logical case is an important skill in a manager’s repertoire.

But it’s not enough.

Logical persuasion persuasion packs an even greater punch when combined with techniques that appeal to the heart, such as metaphors.

Metaphors connect two concepts that really have no business being together…”time is money” or ”business is war”. And when accepted and adopted by your team, metaphors will help guide their everyday actions.

Sean D’Souza of psychotactics.com has a great technique for coming up with metaphors. He uses Google.

Let’s say you want to inspire your team to cognizant of how they balance their responsibilities at work. If you simply search Google for ”balance”, you’ll have a difficult time weeding through all the information that is dumped back at you.

Instead, try using Google to search for images of ‘balance’ at http://images.google.com. Now you’ll find images of a balance sheet, a balance beam, yoga… all things you can use to paint a vivid metaphor of balance.

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I often receive invitations to connect with some of my LinkedIn contacts on a network other than LinkedIn. My immediate inclination is to drop these people from my network.

These people seem to have a different understanding of a network than I do.

Or am I missing something? Does asking a Linkedin contact to join a different social networking site reveal an underlying attitude about the purpose of networking?

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As a management educator, it pains me to tell you this. But an MBA won’t ensure you an enviable career. Neither will memorizing all the latest business books. At least that is what I told some of our incoming MBA students this week.

Careers are built on performance, which is made up of technical skills, management leverage (time, influence, power), social capital, and political capital. Period.

If you want to get an MBA, or memorize the latest business books, make sure you understand this formula