“Just Stop It,” Rarely Works
May 30, 2011
Recently Harvard Business Review (subscription required) had an article by a former CEO explaining that he used to be a micro-manager.
He’s retired now, but the executive said that he didn’t realize what he was doing until one of his senior employees told him to “back off,” because he was “driving them all crazy.” Of course the CEO did and the the company has gone on to reach great heights. Everyone lived happily ever after.
While the whole premise of a CEO pointing out his or her own failures (in the magazine’s Failure Chronicles section) is a bit self serving, I have to admit I find it a bit disconnected from reality. The point was brought home recently when a new client of mine, called to ask for some career help.
We talked about why she might be leaving her current job, and she made the same point. ‘My boss is driving me crazy, with her micro-managing,” she said. My client has been with the company for almost 10 years and her boss has been there even longer, so she’s no rookie, and she admits her boss has always had the same problem.
She’s a senior manager and told me she’s tried to confront her boss, but that her boss just did not see the issue the same way. As an example she told me that in 2010 they had decided to update their logo, and marketing materials. The project was supposed to be completed by January 1 of 2011, but as of mid-May they are still awaiting decisions on a host of minor issues that the CEO insists on making.
It would be fine, except the CEO travels extensively and will not let anyone make decisions in her absence.
My client says she has tried to talk to the CEO about micro-managing but the boss just sees it as her job and refuses to acknowledge that anyone else could make the decisions.
In my experience, this is closer to reality. CEO’s, particularly those who have come up through the company ranks, have a tough time letting go of decision-making, especially in areas where they feel comfortable. They may take on new responsibilities but they have a tough time letting subordinates make decisions.
There are other factors leading my client to look for a new opportunity, but micro-managing executives are an all too common problem in most companies – and a simple “stop it, you’re driving us crazy,” very rarely works.
It’s like psychotherapy the “stop it” approach may not be the best technique. If you don’t believe me, watch this.
A Coach for Your Boss
April 27, 2011
A friend of mine recently asked me if I would coach his boss saying, “He really needs help, because he’s making everyone miserable.”
Of course, my initial reaction was positive but I decided to ask a few questions first. Since I usually encounter a boss getting a coach for an employee – the situation was bound to be awkward.
For example, does your boss want a coach? Does he know he’s making his employees miserable? Is ‘everyone’ really everyone, or just you? Maybe there’s a method to his madness.
My friend admitted he didn’t know the answers to all my questions, but he was adamant that his coworker needed help. I should note that the man in question is his boss in title, but really a co-manager on pretty much equal footing at the company.
According to my friend he doesn’t see the problems he’s creating, and worse, sees coaching as an admission the he’s doing something wrong and needs to be fixed.
Fortunately my friend has a bit more enlightened view of my profession – if he didn’t I guess we wouldn’t be having the discussion.
I suggested several ways (some slightly tongue in cheek) we might be able to make it easier for his co-worker to see the light.
o I could visit the company and give a management presentation for the whole staff, or just to managers since the company is relatively small.
o I could just give him a brochure, to drop surreptitiously on his co-worker’s desk.
o I could sign on as my friend’s coach in the hope that his fellow-employee would at least ask “who’s the new guy?”
o He could approach their board of directors with a coaching proposal for all their managers – starting at the top.
o He could just ask his co-worker if he would talk to me about what coaching was help him get through his misconceptions.
I don’t know what my friend will decide but my hope is that he will let me just talk to his co-worker about coaching and let him decide for himself. It’s almost impossible to be an effective coach if your client is not committed to the process, since you have to get past that fact that he was pushed into coaching before you can address any management issues.
Insurance Idiocy
April 21, 2011
An errant rock, thrown up by a truck on Route 80 in Berkeley , broke my windshield and has launched me into the Alice and Wonderland world of auto insurance.
Replacing the windshield at the local Toyota dealership will cost about $1,000. Replacing it with non-factory parts will cost about $300.
With a $250 comprehensive deductible, the obvious choice would be to make the claim, and let my insurer, State Farm, pay. So when I call my local agent, where I have done business for over 15 years and never had a claim on my house or either car, I explain the economic incentive, and ask if there’s anything he can do to at least reward me for for doing the right thing and having the glass replaced at the lower cost.
The reaction: silence, … and more silence.
“I’m saving you $750 and there is absolutely nothing you can do about the $2500 in premiums I pay every year for two cars and a home?” I ask.
“No, nothing,” is the only response.
If you wonder, why people are frustrated with insurance companies, and banks, there’s your answer. I don’t have time to to add more I’m off to the Toyota dealership.
JaMarcus Russell’s Coach
April 15, 2011
I read with some interest this week that personal coach John Lucas has quit as an advisor to former NFL quarterback Jamarcus Russell.
- JaMarcus Russell
What interested me was not the actual facts of the situation but more the online reaction. For you non-sports fans, I would point out that Mr. Russell was talented college football player drafted to the NFL and signed to a $40 million contract by the Oakland Raiders. After four unsuccessful seasons, where he was accused of being out of shape, unprepared and a poor leader, he was released and has not played since.
John Lucas is a former NBA player, and drug addict who has turned his life around and now, as a personal coach, helps young athletes get their careers back on track. Lucas had been working with Russell in Texas.
Apparently, Lucas ‘fired’ Russell this week and has told the young man to leave Texas where Lucas is based.
Of the 60 or so comments I read, many focused on the sad state of Russell’s career, but more than a few reacted to the coaching relationship. Things such as, “If he needed a personal coach, he must have been in bad shape,” or ” Only losers would need a coach.”
I can’t vouch for Mr. Lucas’s skill, although he has a pretty good track record, but it was a bit dismaying to hear that view of coaching. Does the general public feel that only people in tough situations need help or that coaches are a last-ditch method to get things turned around?
Personal coaches can help anyone with decision making – even coaches need a coach. The list of ways that a personal coach can help a client is endless.
Usually my reaction to situations like this is simply “any publicity is good publicity,” but it would seem that the coaching profession needs a little PR help.
Most of my clients don’t feel they are losers, but that’s not a particularly good sample, since they obviously are already using a coach. But maybe one of the large international coaching organizations needs to do some research to find out what people think about the profession.
How Steve Jobs Saved My Dad
April 10, 2011
By now, the blogosphere is filled with stories about senior citizens who are using iPads or iPhones to keep up with their grandchildren.
But I can say truthfully that they saved my Dad’s life. No, he didn’t fall and use his iPhone to call for help and he wasn’t rescued from the bottom of some deep ravine while completing his ‘Bucket list.’
My Dad will be 91 later this year. He’s survived the death of his father on the eve of the Great Depression, and three shrapnel wounds in the War to End All Wars, to send three children through college during 62 years of marriage to a woman he met on a blind date.
Maybe the depression he entered three years ago when my mother died was predictable but when it didn’t seem to dissipate and his eyesight deteriorated every phone call seemed to involve something about death and how he wanted to be with his wife.
But in 2010, Steve Jobs, introduced the iPad and several months later the iPhone 3.
My brother, who does technical support for living, is always an early adopter of technology, especially anything Apple related. So, when the new products came out, it allowed him to get a spiffy new phone and the ‘magical and revolutionary’ iPad.
He recycled his old phone to dad – who already had a cell-phone which he never used - and on more than one occasion he brought his iPad to Dad’s house.
As you might expect, technology is a bit of a challenge to a 90 year old and in most cases when my brother brings over a new gadget, Dad gets frustrated and just gives up.
This time, he never gave either of them back. He pointedly refused to give the iPad back.
For the first time in years, since his eyesight began to fail, he could read the Boston Globe every day. Better yet, he’s learned how to download e-books and, as he notes, “I’ve read more books in one month than I did in the previous 89 years including school.” Both of them are better than large print books since he can make the type as large as he wants.
It’s not unusual to get a text from him when he’s visiting family in New York or Florida and one particularly memorable trip with me, and my sister we were all sitting a lunch, deeply engrossed in texting messages to my brother rather than enjoying each other’s company. I’m not proud of my actions but the fact that Dad had joined right in, brought a smile to my face.
Now he can keep up with what’s happening with his my sister in San Jose by reading the Mercury News, and with the latest catastrophe in San Francisco, by looking up SFGate. He’s a regular on the New York Times website and reads the latest financial news at the Wall Street Journal.
He devoured all the Robert Parker, Spenser mysteries (mainly because Parker was from my home town and the books are all set in New England) and today he informed me that he’s on to Arthur Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes.
We no longer have discussions about how his misses my mom, although he surely does, and he’s never bored or depressed as long as his iPad and iPhone are fully charged.
Thanks, Steve, Dad will text you when he has a minute.
Tsunami’s Big Winner on Big Island
March 30, 2011
At the risk of sounding a bit callous, it’s not too early to count Michael Dell as a potentially big winner from the Japanese disaster.
Four Seasons at Hualalai
Mr. Dell owns the Hualalai resort complex on the Big Island of Hawaii and while his two major resort hotels suffered significant damage and are now closed, it looks like the long-term impact will be positive – for him.
Both hotels, The Four Season’s Resort and Kona Village have loyal fans – albeit on distinct end of the resort spectrum. Kona Village offers a kid-friendly, family oriented, no-frills package which is popular with a wide variety of customers including Apple Computer’s Steve Jobs.
The Four Seasons caters to the upper end of the income scale and the Hualalai location has long had the highest occupancy rate of any Four-Season’s run facility.
Both resorts are currently closed - the Four Seasons until April 30 and Kona Village permanently.
But don’t shed a tear for Mr. Dell, insurance will cover most if not all his losses and will also allow him to complete some much needed renovations that were planned, but he would have had to finance on his own. Don’t look for construction photos anywhere though, the resort is keeping a tight lid on any information and employees who have been called in to work have to sign a non-disclosure agreement promising not to reveal the extent of the damage to the resort.
Workers are racing to meet the April 30 deadline when the insurance coverage for employee wages runs out and many locals have doubts about an on-time completion. Several island fund-raisers, including the annual Cancer society’s Cattle Baron’s Ball, April 16th, have already had to find new homes, but the events will be held.
Workers at the Four Seasons who have been impertinent enough to post, what they thought were innocuous pictures of storm damage, have faced disciplinary action, including firing.
Guests who were not able to be accommodated in the adjoining Hualalai condo/home complex, were shifted to nearby hotels, providing a bonanza for the Mauna Kea, Hapuna Prince, Mauna Lani and Fairmont Orchid properties – although they certainly are not getting the ‘Four Seasons Experience.’
As for neighboring Kona Village, many of the small homes, or hales, were knocked off their ocean-front foundations and a number were destroyed. Rebuilding would require permits under new building regulations with much larger setbacks, so Mr. Dell has decided just to convert the property into an extension of the Four Seasons.
Kona Village has always had the better beach, but if the county approves, that beachfront will now be surrounded by several hundred new rooms at $800-$3000 per night, in place of the $3,000 per week package plans that Kona Village featured.
Sounds like a win-win situation if you are Michael Dell. He wins on both ends. We’ll see what happens when the actual applications get filed – the natives are already upset.
Re-inventing the Wheel at Google
March 19, 2011
A week ago the New York Times, featured an article on a lengthy study done by Google on management practices.
I’ve been stewing about it ever since.
Despite Google’s protestations, it seems to me that they spent a year re-inventing the wheel so that their “data-driven employees” will understand their rationale in trying to improve the performances of the managers.
The study uncovered 8 secrets to better management and Google then ranked the ‘secrets’ and began implementing them. I’ll let you read the list and their implementation on your own, but any executive coach or organizational development consultant, or even any good manager could have created the list and developed a blueprint for implementation.
Yes, having data being behind your plans adds credibility, but so would successful implementation by a professional. What Google really found out what something that every other business discovers: technical expertise does not make you a good manager. Or put another way the skills that you need as an employee are not the same as those that you need as a manager.
I guess in all their vaunted testing they never realized that while logic and test-taking skills may be able to predict employee success, they do not translate directly to the ‘soft skills’ that managers need to make their employees better. Now, as competition grows and other businesses are stealing their employees, they have discovered that managing a staff takes some skill and actually translates to the bottom line.
I worked with first-time managers in a variety of industries and the one unanimous concern they have is that the technical skills that got them noticed as a potential manager have nothing to do with the skills they need once they are promoted. I guess it’s good to know that a year of research by Google has led to the same conclusion.
If that’s not re-inventing the wheel I don’t know what is.
Google has been in the fore
Numbers 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,
February 26, 2011
If you have ever wondered where the numbers we use came from…take a look. It’s really quite elegant.
Journalism-Back to Basics
January 31, 2011
I’ve been thinking a lot about where journalism is headed and I think I found the answer this week. Meet Emilie Raguso, the Albany, CA editor of Patch.com.
Emilie Raguso
Patch.com is a collection of web-only news websites which is trying to focus on the kind of hyper-local news-gathering that has been the staple of community newspapers for the last 200 years. Give people news about what’s going on in their schools, little league and community and they will actually support your product.
I’m proud to say that I’ve worked for a number of newspapers which were based on this remarkable theory and I know it works. Patch.com, which is owned by AOL, is just doing it without a printing press. You can read the New York Times take on the process but don’t be thrown off by the “looking-down their noses” attitude of the piece. The Times, like other large metros and many journalists, just can’t seem to grasp that people care more about what’s going on in their community than they do about the rest of the world.
I’ve been following the Albany Patch.com site with some interest, even though it doesn’t cover the town where I live. I happened to meet Emilee at a local coffee shop.
I have to admit that I had lost faith that journalism would ever be the same with the internet, but as Emilie sat down – camera draped around her neck – and began talking about all the stories she was trying to cover and how much fun she was having, my hope was renewed.Her dedication to trying to cover meetings, plus doing features and working with freelancers, and being unbiased and getting reaction from the community was refreshing.
She’s only been on the job here for six months, but as we sat at a table outside the small restaurant, we overheard two women talking about a recent Patch.com article, a man walked by with a Patch.com tote bag and several folks stopped by to say hi. That is community journalism.
Maybe we are not all doomed to getting our news from left or right leaning blogs and there is still a place for the kind of journalism I was taught - way back when.
Let’s hope so. And I hope that there’s a Patch.com site that c0vers your community. With any luck the folks at AOL won’t screw things up by trying to control each site from a central location. Only time will tell, but at least they’re off to a good start with Emilie.
Time to Re-Assess?
December 13, 2010
At some point in your job search you need to assess or re-assess your basic assumptions.
These are issues that effect your whole family but whether you are working and looking for something new or unemployed and frustrated that you haven’t found anything, you need to consider your options.
These assumptions are often the toughest to change, particularly as you get older.
For example, are you in the right field. Yes, you may have been working in an area for many years, but is it a growth area. Is it really the best option for new jobs. Is your chosen field expanding or it it the modern version of the buggy whip maker?
It might be tough to leave your field but you need to consider the skills you have and how they might be applied to another job. That’s why your resume needs to reflect your skills, not just your experience.
It’s also good to consider moving to another part of the country or at least expanding your search to areas which might require more of a commute. It’s no secret that not every part of the country has suffered equally in the recession. Maybe you should consider moving.
For example, Silicon Valley, south of San Francisco has been hurt just as badly as other parts of the country. But a recent Justice Department agreement on employee poaching, along with the maturing of major firms such as Google and Facebook, has created a lot more openings. Many people are openly shopping themselves and the resulting turnover will make 2011 a hiring hotbed in the area.
Do you need more training to switch fields or just improve your skills. You may not need to consider an advanced degree – although it’s not a bad idea if you can afford it – but certification programs and community college courses can introduce you to new careers or add skills to your resume.
These decisions should not be made in a vacuum since they impact the whole family, but you’d be surprised how many people don’t even consider talking things over before charting a new course.
Perhaps an even more serious issue, which I’ve touched on in previous posts, is assuming your family would be opposed to an alternative – like moving – before you even bring the idea up. Just don’t wait until you’ve gotten an interview opportunity from a company two states away, to talk about the issue.
That’s just not fair and is a recipe for disaster on a personal level.
Regardless of what stage of your job search you are in, it’s always a good time to re-assess.