Category Archives: Be a good manager

Communication Lessons Learned

I always thought communication skills were a no brainer. Obvious. What’s the big deal?

Then I had the benefit of working with someone who I call “Yoda” who taught me that communications has best practices. So a couple of things he taught me:

1. Communication in companies has changed. It used to be more like a newspaper: you’d report on what happened. Now, communication is more akin to a political campaign headquarters. The information coming in is constant, and you’re continually refining what you communicate out in response to what your voters are telling you.

2. When you develop your key strategic messages, they need to be simple, meaningful, and take into account what you want people to know, think, do and feel. They shouldn’t change significantly year over year. What you choose to emphasize may change.

3. Framing the message is critical….meaning context is key. A memo sent out “we’re closing down stores” feels different than a CEO getting in front of everyone and saying:  “As you all know, our company has had some financial challenges. While we have reduced our expenses where we can, the senior team has decided that we will need to close stores in the Midwest region this year.  We haven’t yet decided which ones. We will communicate to those impacted people as soon as possible, and we appreciate your support while this is going on.”

Be honest about what you know will happen, what may happen, what won’t happen. That way you’re always telling the truth, but you’re not waiting until you know all the facts before communicating. Remember, in the absence of information, people will make up their own version of the truth to fill in the gap. Make sure you involve human resources and legal if the situation needs it. I find HR to be a great group to run ideas by.

4. What you say means nothing if your behavior doesn’t support it. You can’t say you care about people if your behavior suggests the contrary. People look for the symbols that indicate the message is real. So if you say people are important, and then you spend more time in all hands meetings, improving benefits, refurbishing the cafeteria, you will be much more credible.

5. Optics matter. You may not necessarily be doing anything wrong, but the optics don’t work. Remember the three big automakers who asked Congress for billions of dollars? Later it was found out that they flew in on private jets.

15. When things go wrong….

Want to know the best way to handle a mistake, error, or problem?

Tell people immediately and take accountability.

That’s it. No matter what the problem is, big or small, this is what I observe works. Time is of the essence: the longer you wait, the worse the problem usually gets. You run out of options…or worse, it looks like you were hiding the problem.

When mistakes happen, we tend to want to blame someone.  Blame is often a waste of time.  Focus instead on the process and what the source/cause of the problem, because the goal is to fix and remediate so that you manage the risk. The clock is ticking.

Mistakes People Make About Mistakes

1. You try to get perfect information before informing anyone. You need to know enough to explain the situation, but don’t chase unnecessary details at the expense of time. The hospital doesn’t need to run 100 tests on you to know that they have to stop the bleeding.

2. You blame others

  • Nope, all you’re showing is that you’re not a leader or a team player.

3. You use voicemail or email to notify folks.

  • If it’s really important, you need voice on voice action. Live. Interrupt your manager. Escalate. Would you rely on email or voicemail if a family member was in an accident?
  • When you do send the debrief emails, you need to include everyone. Otherwise, those who are involved feel excluded….you need everyone’s help to solve the problem. Things to include: problem explanation, impact analysis, what you don’t know yet, what you know for sure.  And continue to update.

4. You don’t fix the problem fast.

  • Yes, ideally automation is a better way to fix problems. In the meantime, put the manual processes in place so you know you’ve stopped the bleeding. Figure out what’s needed to remediate what went wrong. What was the impact? Keep communicating to the necessary parties so they know what’s going on. Make sure that one problem isn’t an indicator of 50 more. Don’t forget to develop the plan for the industrial strength solution. The sneaker brigade is only a short term fix.

5. There is no post mortem (otherwise known as:What could we have done differently?)

  • I have found two valuable tools on doing a post mortem: 1) a chronology of events, and 2) a detailed description of the process. That’s what will show you what went wrong. Often it’s the process that’s flawed, not the person.
  • Your post mortem often turns into the project update for your strategic solution implementation.

Finally: move on. Things will go wrong. The key is your ability to react quickly and ensure we don’t make the same mistake again…creating a stronger organization than what existed yesterday. Then you’ve done your job.

 

Women I love – Dr Christina Yang

For those of you who watch Grey’s Anatomy, you know who I mean.

Christina Yang is a character played by Sandra Oh: a cardiothoracic surgeon at the hospital. Meredith Grey is her best friend: another top surgeon. They have rituals: “dancing it out”, being “each other’s person”, and not going to that “dark and twisty place”. Two women passionate about professional excellence and their friendship.

Doctor Yang  is competitive, ambitious, intelligent, and at the same time, brutally honest, insensitive, aggressive and tactless.  While I’m not recommending that all her manager behaviors be emulated (how she handles the new residents…and how they love it), she is inspiring because she is who she is and is unapologetic about it.  How refreshing is that?

This past May, Dr Yang left Grey’s Anatomy.  Thank you Sandra Oh for giving us a female Asian television character as authentic and brave as Dr Yang.

 

 

 

28. Learn how to say no.

How many times have you heard this? So, there are right ways and wrong ways.

You can’t say no because you have too much to do. You can’t say no because you have no resources. You can’t say no when it’s the business or your client. You can’t say no when it’s your boss. You can’t say no because you think it’s not important. You can’t say no because your boss told you to say no. Continue reading →

2. Say thank you.

My first summer job when I was in business school was working for a consulting practice at a big accounting firm. My first day, I was nervous and as I entered my newly furnished office that I was sharing with another intern, I spilled my entire grande cup of coffee on the pristine beige rug. I was sure I was going to be fired. Or known as the intern who spilled the coffee.

My boss came by, introduced himself, took a look and laughed…”Boy, that’s a rough start!”. He called someone to make arrangements to clean it up and couldn’t have been nicer. I knew he was going to be someone I learned a lot from.

What I learned from him wasn’t subject matter. Not that he wasn’t brilliant: he was ex-McKinsey, had lots of degrees. There are a lot of people like that. But he was also an example of someone who was kind and really good at his job. Respected as a partner. Liked by everyone. Even the janitor.

Every night, he’d poke his head in before he left (as the lowest people on the food chain, we would be working late). He’d always say “Thanks a lot for your help today.” Every day. To interns.

I try to remember this at work. Saying thank you, sending an email, ordering pizza….all of it goes a long way to affecting people’s day to day. In general, work is hard, frustrating, infuriating, and exhausting. It can also be rewarding, inspiring, and satisfying. But when you work in an environment where you feel appreciated, and you’re thanked, it refuels you for the next day.

So say thank you.

 

21. Is it a skill or will issue?

f someone is faltering, ask yourself  “Is it a skill or will issue?”  Skill you can change, will you can’t.

This is something I learned to use as a manager as a helpful way to assess people. So think of the x and y axis: one representing “will” and  the other “skill”. Will is the desire to do whatever it takes in the job to be successful, skill represents the technical aspects of the job, and on both, one can score from low to high. Continue reading →

31. Provide feedback quickly and frequently.

I’ve always disliked getting performance reviews. Not because they were necessarily bad…I just didn’t really get the point of them. They always seemed to be very carefully worded and somewhat arbitrary. They told me what I already knew, and seemed to hint at what I needed to work on….but lightly. Plus, it seemed like everything got stored up for the big reveal: first hint at midyear, then the big discussion at year end…when it seemed too late to really do anything.

As a manager, you need to give feedback quickly and frequently, good and bad. You want people to make mid-course corrections and to learn. Similar to advice on disciplining children, you should focus on the behavior, not the person. I think this applies as well here. Feedback should be about every day performance. And eventually, all that feedback helps someone answer the bigger questions such as promotion and potential. But first, the day to day. Continue reading →