Tag Archive for manager

6 Things Great Teammates Say

March 19, 2013 Uncategorized 5 comments

More_Talk_Logo_SquareHuman and team dynamics are complex, but not necessarily all that complicated sometimes. Building a positive team and organizational environment isn’t like decoding the Rosetta Stone. Much of it boils down to normal people like you and me saying and doing simple things every day. It’s those things that contribute to that positive environment.

Here are a few things great teammates say on a regular basis. Obviously the point isn’t that you’re saying these things verbatim, or that you’re regurgitating them a certain number of times per day; but rather that we’re communicating these sorts of things to our teammates.

1. I was wrong.

You’re not perfect. You know it. Your team knows it. So why go to such great lengths to hide it? Some part of our brain tells us that admitting we’re wrong will cause people to lose respect for us, when in reality the opposite usually occurs. It builds trust. It shows humility, maturity, self-awareness, vulnerability, and humanness.

2. I’m sorry.

If you do dumb stuff as often as I do (and I hope for your sake you don’t), you’re cringing like I am at this one. I don’t know why it is, but some part of our brain (maybe the same one from above) will find any excuse not to apologize to someone for something. And on the off-chance that doesn’t work, that brain of yours will concoct an apology that’s also some sort of accusation at the same time, just more subtle. Like, “I’m sorry I screamed at you, insulted your family, threw spaghetti at you, and kicked over your potted plant; but you really upset me when you….”

Stop it. Don’t blame. Don’t equivocate. Just apologize and move on.

3. Here’s the situation I’m thinking through…

Just because you’re in leadership doesn’t mean you’re any smarter than everyone else on your team or in your organization. So as much as you’re able to, find ways to bring your team in on the decision-making process. Engage them with scenarios your team is facing. You want legit collaboration here though–not the whole I’m-going-to-ask-your-opinion-so-I-can-say-we-collaborated-when-really-I’m-just-going-through-the-motions-and-don’t-actually-care-what-you-think thing. Ask their opinion. Then listen. Repeat.

4. I trust you.

And then act like it.

5. Oh thanks, So-and-So, but I gotta be honest–Susan and Belinda are the real heroes here.

Your teammates won’t always hear this one or even know it happened, but then again you’re not saying these things just so they can hear you. At least I hope not. If you are, you’ve missed the entire point of this post.

But when your team does great work, don’t let yourself fall into the trap of thinking it was somehow mostly due to your leadership brilliance. It’s more likely that in spite of your imperfections, your team used their collective awesomeness to do fantastic work. At least that’s true in my case.

It’s important to make a concerted effort to deflect praise toward where it rightly belongs: your team.

6. do i look fat

Yep. Don’t say anything. I have this stupid problem where some idea pops in my head while someone is talking. It’s usually because they’ve said something cool that’s sparked something in my brain, and before I know it, I’m so excited that out it comes. But that’s what the grown-ups call interrupting.

We all get caught up in those really great brainstorming sessions where we’re throwing around ideas, but we’ve got to be careful that we’re not talking over the top of folks.

What about you? What things do your teammates or leaders say that have a positive impact? What sorts of things do you think teams need to say more?

15 Myths About Being a Manager

February 22, 2013 Uncategorized 8 comments

Mythbusters1It’s a good goal. An admirable one, even.

One of the top comments that seems to come up, both in casual conversation as well as in coaching conversations with young professionals, is that they want to be a manager, or a higher level manager, or an executive; and I think that’s a good thing. It’s good to want more responsibility. It’s good to want to serve others. It’s good to be motivated and have goals. It’s good to want to have a positive impact on people and organizations. Wanting those things is good.

But let’s not kid ourselves. There are some things people think are true of management positions, but they’re really not. Like, “If I could just be a manager, then [insert the good thing that is believed to naturally follow a person's ascension to a management position here]….” Or, “Being an executive sounds awesome because then I’d get to [insert those real or imagined perks here].” What are some of those things some folks believe–those myths–about being a manager or executive?

1. It means you can sit in your office and surf the web all day.

2. You just get to tell everyone else what to do.

3. It’d be way easier than what you’re doing now.

4. Since you don’t have set hours, you get to make your own schedule.

5. Such a thing as free time during the day exists.

6. You’re the one person who will finally be able to crack the leadership code and lead in such a way that your team is always performing at a high level.

7. You get to leave early whenever you want.

8. You get to roll in about 9:00 AM most mornings, gourmet cup of coffee in hand.

9. You’ve read lots of leadership books, so you’ve got this.

10. It’ll be nice having a 40-hour work week.

11. Your team will always like you.

12. There’s never a time when #11 will not be true.

13. You get along well with people at the office, so the human dynamics part of management will be easy.

14. You’re going to teach your team more than they’re going to teach you.

15. Terminating people won’t be that hard.

Look, we’ve all probably had at least a couple of these thoughts at some point. I smile to myself now as I think back several years to when quite a handful of the above ran through my mind at least a time or two. If only I had stumbled across a blog post…

8 Suggestions for Fast Recruiting

February 11, 2013 Uncategorized 5 comments

runningrecruiterMy thought is that leaders and hiring managers need to hire slowly, taking their time to ensure they’re selecting team members that are not a match from a technical perspective, but also a cultural one. What that doesn’t mean, however, is that we recruit slowly. In fact, in an organization where the recruitment is slow, the result is that hiring almost can’t be, because as soon as hiring managers see candidates that look like they’re in the ballpark, they’re hiring them.

We have to embrace a mindset that might seem, at least on the surface, a bit paradoxical. We want to hire slowly, but recruit faster. But wait a minute, you might be thinking, why should we recruit fast if we’re not going to hire fast?

Somewhere along the way, some recruiters and recruitment departments got into the habit of recruiting when there’s a job opening. It’s such a normal mindset that some of you might not have thought twice about the previous sentence. The four letter word in that sentence is the word when. Instead of when there’s a job opening, it should read before there’s a job opening, or all the time regardless of whether there’s a job opening or not. We’re definitely not always going to get it right, even when we are recruiting our little hears out, but we’ve just got to keep working toward doing a better job at being proactive, roll-up-our-sleeves, pound-the-pavement recruiters so that we put our organizations in a better position to hire slowly.

With that in mind, here are some suggestions for faster recruiting.

1. Try not to act like HR all the time. Don’t take this the wrong way. I’m in HR myself. But if we take the mindset of an HR generalist all the time, we won’t really be able to kill it on the recruiting trail. Recruiting can’t be an afterthought. Attracting and keeping talent is one of the biggest, most important ongoing battles in the business world.

2. Recruiting has to move more quickly. Sometimes much more quickly. In a way, many HR departments and recruitment functions are too comfortable. If you’re not feeling a sense of urgency in some respect as a recruiter, something’s off. Our organizations depend on us to do what we do at a high level.

3. Have a plan. How many recruiting contacts were in your plan to make this week? How many did you make this week? What’s your goal in regards to the number of pre-qualified candidates for each position? What do you have planned for social media? Any community outreach? Anything with the local colleges and universities? Are you just crossing your fingers and hoping the CareerBuilder gods smile upon you?

4. Play both the long and short games. There should be a variety of strategies you use, some focused on quick return on recruitment effort–like a job fair, for example–and others focused on developing employment brand recognition or positioning for future activity.

5. If you’re not using social media, you’re not recruiting. Am I saying that everyone has to tweet X number of times per day and post X number of things on LinkedIn per week? Of course not. But there’s no denying that social media is an avenue for a huge number of professionals to do a wide spectrum of things, whether you’re there or not. Why wouldn’t you use whatever tools you have at your disposal to connect with folks?

6. Like I mentioned above, our recruitment is often waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy to reactive. HR Person (holding phone): “What? You have someone whose last day is today? Guess I should start really shifting recruitment into gear then.”

No, no, no. If that’s how you reply when a hiring manager tells you something like that, you’re missing the boat. It should be more like, “Oh really? Let’s circle back later on when and how we communicate when we have an employee give his or her notice, but after we hang up I’m going to send several pre-qualified candidates your way. We’ve already confirmed they meet the minimum qualifications as described in your job description….” It’s not the wording itself that’s the big deal; it’s that the latter wording indicates a recruiter or recruitment department that’s been proactively recruiting and anticipating the organization’s needs.

7. You should have a pool in the office. Not that kind of pool. No one wants to see Larry from Accounting and Marge from Quality Assurance in their speedos. I mean an applicant pool. It’s that aforementioned group of pre-qualified applicants that you have ready to go when a position opens up. Keep track of them. Talk about them. Report on them. Make them a big deal.

8. Use culture-based recruiting strategies. Understanding an organization’s unique culture is a key–but too often overlooked–component of recruiting exempt and non-exempt positions. The best recruiting strategies are the ones that will help your organization find individuals who are not only a fit from a technical perspective, but also a cultural one.

So if we want our organizations to be able to hire slowly, we have to recruit fast. What separates good recruiters from exceptional ones is that exceptional recruiters know the right balance between speed and quality. They know that getting people who are going to stay in those seats is just as important as getting people in the seats in the first place.

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