When we are young, we are a sponge for knowledge. We want to learn anything and everything. As children, we see the “big kids” around us playing ball, and we want to learn how. A sibling is reading a story out loud and it’s a skill we want for ourselves. A little girl goes to a dance recital and immediately wants to start taking ballet lessons.
At some point in time, perhaps when our thirst for knowledge is replaced by a structured learning environment, we lose that overwhelming desire for knowledge of any kind and find it replaced by much more discerning desires. We no longer want to know everything. In fact, many of us try and wall ourselves off from knowledge that, while useful, we see no need for. At this point in time, you are probably thinking about your teenagers. For many, High School represents a time of survival rather than real learning. We believe that we know everything and just focus on getting through each day. The point of High School appears to be about learning to take tests to prepare us for that next level - college.
For most of us college is again a time for learning. The style of teaching changes, as does our style of learning. We control our schedule of classes to an extent we never considered possible before and we find ourselves drawn to certain subjects that may appear to be the path for a future career. College is also a time for great personal growth as we learn about living life on our own, managing our personal finances, etc. College may or may not be followed by an advanced degree, depending upon our needs and desires. With our college diploma or MBA firmly in our hands we step into the business world, assured of instant success.
Or are we?
For the second time in our life, we believe that we know everything. Oh sure, it may take us a few months to get used to our new environment, but that’s just temporary. Before long we have been promoted, advanced into the world of management and conquered the business world!
Unfortunately, there is so much that we have not yet learned about business, or more importantly, about people. What college can never prepare us for is the complexity of human beings, the challenges of dealing with co-workers, and how to deal with the politics of the workplace. Working through the complex business scenarios presented to us in our class work is a breeze compared to dealing with the egos, political agendas, and hidden alliances in the office.
It’s a little bit like learning the theory of how to fly an airplane and then sitting in the cockpit and actually trying to do it. We know how things are supposed to work. But how they work in real life is often very different than we learned in our text books. On the one hand, it’s the same stuff. On the other hand, being at the controls brings in whole new levels of complications that you could only imagine while studying the theories of flight.
How does this tie back into personal development?
While we are young and adapting to our jobs, we find these human issues all around us and we learn to deal with them. But as we rise through the ranks, the issues become more complex, more subtle, and more challenging. What worked well for us as an individual contributor, does not work well when we achieve the level of Manager. What worked well for us as a Manager is not nearly as effective when we achieve the level of Sr. Manager. And the techniques we mastered at these levels are woefully inadequate for the challenges of being a Director, a Vice President, or a C-level executive. We must continue to grow our skills, specifically our people skills, as we progress through the ranks. Those who do adapt and grow find that success follows them. Those who fail to change, fail to learn, and fail to grow find that they quickly top out.
What are you doing to ensure your ongoing personal development?
And equally as important, what are you doing to ensure the ongoing personal development of your key team members? Without their continued growth, your own career may well be short-circuited.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Lessons Learned – Lessons Forgotten
A few years ago I worked with a client who was looking for more from his team. They weren’t bad he had said, but they weren’t performing at the level he would have liked them to. I did a quick analysis of his team and came back with 4 factors for us to work on together.
1. Providing a vision
2. Defining roles and responsibilities
3. Creating accountability
4. Matching talents with roles
He clearly had a vision for his organization and how it fit into the overall company vision, but his employees were not aware of that vision and, therefore, could not buy into it. He thought the vision was clear, but as is often the case, it was clear only to him. Once we spent some time clarifying his vision and communicating it to his team, there was immediate improvement. Of course, having a clear vision that the team all bought into made it relatively easy to work with the team members and define their specific roles and responsibilities. While they all had their roles established before we started working together, those roles were fluid and were based on what they thought the goal was, rather than the actual goal. Once the roles were identified, we put the measurements in place to ensure that things were progressing and, last but not least, we made sure that we had a good match between the talent on the team and the jobs that needed to be done. It took us a few months to work through all of the details, but it was time well spent. Productivity increased, morale improved, and he began to feel good about his team again.
Flash forward about 3 years and I received a call from this client, again looking for my assistance. He had been promoted and was in a new role. As is often the case with any new boss, he wanted to make some changes in his organization. His vision was somewhat different from his predecessor and he was having challenges bringing it all together. He’d been with his new team for a few months and it wasn’t coming together as quickly as he would have liked.
I spent some time with his team and then sat down with him to discuss the plan for moving forward. I told him it was a 4 step plan:
1. Providing a vision
2. Defining roles and responsibilities
3. Creating accountability
4. Matching talents with roles
It only took a few minutes of discussion for him to realize that these were the exact same 4 items we had worked on together a few years earlier. These were all things that he knew were important, but that he had not taken into account in his new organization.
These were lessons that he had once learned, but somehow forgotten.
And the truth is that this happens to all of us. We learn lessons over time, but somehow forget the things that we learned. And we make the same mistakes all over again. We hire someone really smart and learn a lesson about the value of surrounding ourselves with talent, but then, for our next hire, we look for skills and forget about talent.
We spend the time to plan our project out and it turns into a major success, but then we create the plan for our next project on the back of a napkin. Or worse, the plan is only created in our minds.
We provide someone with honest feedback, presented in a way which shows that we understand them and that we want to help them succeed, and we watch them blossom. Then we turn around and give the next person feedback that hurts their feelings and creates a low sense of self-esteem. And, we watch this person fall apart in front of us.
We all learn lessons in life and yet, somehow, we all forget the lessons we’ve learned and we make the same mistakes all over again. We do it as children, we do it as young adults, and we do it as seasoned professionals. Over time, existing ideas are replaced with newer ideas, and new thoughts replace old ones. And this happens even if the old thoughts are good thoughts, relevant thoughts, important thoughts.
How do you ensure that you’re not repeating your past mistakes?
How do keep those lessons that you’ve learned fresh in your mind?
How do you continue to grow as a person and as a leader?
Often this journey is not one that we take on our own but, rather, with a trusted advisor, mentor, or coach. Having someone to assist you is one of the surest ways to ensure your own success.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
1. Providing a vision
2. Defining roles and responsibilities
3. Creating accountability
4. Matching talents with roles
He clearly had a vision for his organization and how it fit into the overall company vision, but his employees were not aware of that vision and, therefore, could not buy into it. He thought the vision was clear, but as is often the case, it was clear only to him. Once we spent some time clarifying his vision and communicating it to his team, there was immediate improvement. Of course, having a clear vision that the team all bought into made it relatively easy to work with the team members and define their specific roles and responsibilities. While they all had their roles established before we started working together, those roles were fluid and were based on what they thought the goal was, rather than the actual goal. Once the roles were identified, we put the measurements in place to ensure that things were progressing and, last but not least, we made sure that we had a good match between the talent on the team and the jobs that needed to be done. It took us a few months to work through all of the details, but it was time well spent. Productivity increased, morale improved, and he began to feel good about his team again.
Flash forward about 3 years and I received a call from this client, again looking for my assistance. He had been promoted and was in a new role. As is often the case with any new boss, he wanted to make some changes in his organization. His vision was somewhat different from his predecessor and he was having challenges bringing it all together. He’d been with his new team for a few months and it wasn’t coming together as quickly as he would have liked.
I spent some time with his team and then sat down with him to discuss the plan for moving forward. I told him it was a 4 step plan:
1. Providing a vision
2. Defining roles and responsibilities
3. Creating accountability
4. Matching talents with roles
It only took a few minutes of discussion for him to realize that these were the exact same 4 items we had worked on together a few years earlier. These were all things that he knew were important, but that he had not taken into account in his new organization.
These were lessons that he had once learned, but somehow forgotten.
And the truth is that this happens to all of us. We learn lessons over time, but somehow forget the things that we learned. And we make the same mistakes all over again. We hire someone really smart and learn a lesson about the value of surrounding ourselves with talent, but then, for our next hire, we look for skills and forget about talent.
We spend the time to plan our project out and it turns into a major success, but then we create the plan for our next project on the back of a napkin. Or worse, the plan is only created in our minds.
We provide someone with honest feedback, presented in a way which shows that we understand them and that we want to help them succeed, and we watch them blossom. Then we turn around and give the next person feedback that hurts their feelings and creates a low sense of self-esteem. And, we watch this person fall apart in front of us.
We all learn lessons in life and yet, somehow, we all forget the lessons we’ve learned and we make the same mistakes all over again. We do it as children, we do it as young adults, and we do it as seasoned professionals. Over time, existing ideas are replaced with newer ideas, and new thoughts replace old ones. And this happens even if the old thoughts are good thoughts, relevant thoughts, important thoughts.
How do you ensure that you’re not repeating your past mistakes?
How do keep those lessons that you’ve learned fresh in your mind?
How do you continue to grow as a person and as a leader?
Often this journey is not one that we take on our own but, rather, with a trusted advisor, mentor, or coach. Having someone to assist you is one of the surest ways to ensure your own success.
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time.....
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
A Culture of Rules – Part II
Last week we talked about rules and how too much order can actually become a hindrance to your employees and impact the effectiveness of your entire organization.
The CEO I mentioned in last week’s post had become obsessed with creating and following rules in the organization. It had started with some restrictions about dealing with big orders, moved into the daily routine of the organization, spread into what the employees could and could not display on their desks, and now was restricting when they could and could not work.
“You should have been here last Friday,” my friend told me. “Sally has to complete the next day’s work schedule at the end of the day for the install crew to use the next morning. At 3:45 her phone rang. It was a customer with a problem. It took her some time, but Sally handled the problem then went back to work on the schedule, finishing it at 4:15. She is now on probation for working past 4:00.”
Personally, I’ve always believed that rules are our friends. They help bring order to chaos and provide us with structure. But, too many rules create restrictions that hamper our ability to get things done and stifle our creativity. Like the students at Hogwarts, I was watching the creativity and vitality being sucked right out of this organization. When I walked through the door at this organization in the past, I was greeted by a lot of smiling faces, enthusiastic greetings, and animated waves from people on the telephone. This time when I walked in, the mood was silent and somber.
The CEO had succeeded in creating order out of seeming chaos, but at what costs? I could see how it was impacting morale, but I wondered how it was impacting the customers.
While rules can certainly create structure in an organization, too many rules or rules of the wrong type can have a disastrous affect on morale and creativity. While you often hear people encouraged to “think outside of the box,” too many rules create boxes with thick walls that we can’t seem to get through. When I worked in Telecom, one of my favorite questions to ask was: “Do we have any stupid rules? Rules that are designed to help us, but, instead, actually hinder us from satisfying our customers?” The answer was often “yes” and so my first act was to remove any rules deemed “stupid” by my team.
What about your organization? Do your rules provide a sound structure for decision making or do they restrict your employees from doing what is right? Are your rules providing you guidance or are they restricting you from actually accomplishing something? Are your rules making it easier to meet your customer expectations or are they making it impossible for your employees to meet customer needs?
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time…..
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
The CEO I mentioned in last week’s post had become obsessed with creating and following rules in the organization. It had started with some restrictions about dealing with big orders, moved into the daily routine of the organization, spread into what the employees could and could not display on their desks, and now was restricting when they could and could not work.
“You should have been here last Friday,” my friend told me. “Sally has to complete the next day’s work schedule at the end of the day for the install crew to use the next morning. At 3:45 her phone rang. It was a customer with a problem. It took her some time, but Sally handled the problem then went back to work on the schedule, finishing it at 4:15. She is now on probation for working past 4:00.”
Personally, I’ve always believed that rules are our friends. They help bring order to chaos and provide us with structure. But, too many rules create restrictions that hamper our ability to get things done and stifle our creativity. Like the students at Hogwarts, I was watching the creativity and vitality being sucked right out of this organization. When I walked through the door at this organization in the past, I was greeted by a lot of smiling faces, enthusiastic greetings, and animated waves from people on the telephone. This time when I walked in, the mood was silent and somber.
The CEO had succeeded in creating order out of seeming chaos, but at what costs? I could see how it was impacting morale, but I wondered how it was impacting the customers.
“Hell, there are no rules here.
We’re trying to accomplish something”
– Thomas Alva Edison
While rules can certainly create structure in an organization, too many rules or rules of the wrong type can have a disastrous affect on morale and creativity. While you often hear people encouraged to “think outside of the box,” too many rules create boxes with thick walls that we can’t seem to get through. When I worked in Telecom, one of my favorite questions to ask was: “Do we have any stupid rules? Rules that are designed to help us, but, instead, actually hinder us from satisfying our customers?” The answer was often “yes” and so my first act was to remove any rules deemed “stupid” by my team.
What about your organization? Do your rules provide a sound structure for decision making or do they restrict your employees from doing what is right? Are your rules providing you guidance or are they restricting you from actually accomplishing something? Are your rules making it easier to meet your customer expectations or are they making it impossible for your employees to meet customer needs?
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time…..
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
A Culture of Rules – Part I
There is a fascinating scene in the book “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” by J.K. Rowling. A new headmistress (Delores Umbridge) is in charge of the Hogwarts School of Magic and she is laying down some new rules. In fact, it seems that each day she is posting more and more rules about what must be done and about what cannot be done. As each new rule is posted you can just feel the energy and enthusiasm being sucked out of the students there. In a place where creativity should be encouraged, the plethora of new rules placed more and more limits on the young minds.
I was reminded of this scene when talking with a friend this week. I stopped by her office to take her to lunch and as soon as I walked in the door she grabbed a piece of paper from her desk and thrust it out to me, almost knocking me down.
“I got another memo,” she chortled as she pushed the official looking document towards me. “And you are not going to believe this one!”
She was right. It was shocking. To summarize the memo, a new rule was being added. Work was to be done between 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM only. New software had been installed on their servers and any employee logging in before 7:55 AM or logging out after 4:05 PM would be in violation of the policy and was subject to disciplinary action. My first thought was that this had something to do with tracking hours and overtime in an attempt to control payroll from people adding 15 or 30 minutes to their day. But reading more closely I realized that this was directed at every employee, not just the salaried employees.
“What’s the reason for the change?” I asked, figuring that I was just missing the logic here. “Has someone been abusing the overtime policy?”
“You got me,” was the retort. “All I can tell you is that I was talking to the CEO at 7:55 one morning after this change went into affect, and she smiled when all of a sudden everyone started working. It was almost like she got some kind of a thrill from the fact that it was quiet one minute, and things were operating full tilt the next. Of course, this eliminates any flexibility we have to stagger our employees’ hours, have them start a little early one day so they can leave early for a family reason, and any other kind of variance. The memo is clear that there will be no exceptions.”
Of course this was just the latest memo issued by the CEO in the last 9 months. Each memo had imposed more and more order on the organization by restricting what could and could not be done in the office, between co-workers, and with the customers. Their ability to handle customer requests had been severely hampered by all of the new rules, which basically tied the hands of the employees.
Next week we’ll explore the implications for your employees and your customers when such rules hamper forward progress….
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time…..
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
I was reminded of this scene when talking with a friend this week. I stopped by her office to take her to lunch and as soon as I walked in the door she grabbed a piece of paper from her desk and thrust it out to me, almost knocking me down.
“I got another memo,” she chortled as she pushed the official looking document towards me. “And you are not going to believe this one!”
She was right. It was shocking. To summarize the memo, a new rule was being added. Work was to be done between 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM only. New software had been installed on their servers and any employee logging in before 7:55 AM or logging out after 4:05 PM would be in violation of the policy and was subject to disciplinary action. My first thought was that this had something to do with tracking hours and overtime in an attempt to control payroll from people adding 15 or 30 minutes to their day. But reading more closely I realized that this was directed at every employee, not just the salaried employees.
“What’s the reason for the change?” I asked, figuring that I was just missing the logic here. “Has someone been abusing the overtime policy?”
“You got me,” was the retort. “All I can tell you is that I was talking to the CEO at 7:55 one morning after this change went into affect, and she smiled when all of a sudden everyone started working. It was almost like she got some kind of a thrill from the fact that it was quiet one minute, and things were operating full tilt the next. Of course, this eliminates any flexibility we have to stagger our employees’ hours, have them start a little early one day so they can leave early for a family reason, and any other kind of variance. The memo is clear that there will be no exceptions.”
"Any fool can make a rule, and every fool will mind it."
– Henry David Thoreau
Of course this was just the latest memo issued by the CEO in the last 9 months. Each memo had imposed more and more order on the organization by restricting what could and could not be done in the office, between co-workers, and with the customers. Their ability to handle customer requests had been severely hampered by all of the new rules, which basically tied the hands of the employees.
Next week we’ll explore the implications for your employees and your customers when such rules hamper forward progress….
At ECI Learning Systems LLC, we are dedicated to helping companies get the greatest return from their most valuable asset: their employees. We work with you to align 3 key organizational factors:
• Your Company Culture
• The Leadership Styles of your key managers
• The Expectations of your Employees
When these 3 factors are aligned, you create an energy in your company that improves productivity, reduces absenteeism, increases creativity, and positively impacts your bottom line. Contact ECI Learning Systems LLC today to get your free Workplace Evaluation.
Until next time…..
Dave Meyer
ECI Learning Systems, LLC
http://www.ecilearning.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
