I have likened [...]]]> We were saddened to learn of the passing of Dr. C.K. Prahalad on Friday. C.K. was an intellectual giant in the corporate strategy arena who, nevertheless, focused much of his work on the “bottom of the pyramid.” He was also kind, generous, and modest. In the Art and Practice of Leadership Coaching, he said:

I have likened my role as [strategy] coach to the drop of water on the lily leaf. The water droplet has a distinct identity, and at the same time it is part of the leaf. A strategy coach must be self-aware enough that he or she can maintain a distinct identity while fully engaged at an intellectual level. The coach succeeds by seeing the client succeed while never putting his or her personality ahead of the players.

Our thoughts and condolences are with his family. His life and work should be celebrated.

World-renowned management thinker Dr. Coimbatore Krishnarao (CK) Prahalad passed away on April 16, 2010 in San Diego, CA.  He was 68.  Prahalad was Distinguished University Professor of Corporate Strategy and taught at the University of Michigan since 1977.  A prolific author, Prahalad contributed to fundamental business concepts such as strategic intent, core competence, and co-creation arising from his work with multinational companies.  His most ambitious work, the Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, outlined a model for large firms to engage with the poor.  The recipient of many honors and awards, Prahalad’s most recent accolades included a 2009 Padma Bhushan, one of India’ highest civilian honors, and he was voted the world’s leading Management Thinker by Thinkers50 in 2009.  He is survived by his devoted wife of 40 years, Gayatri, his children, Murali Krishna and Deepa, their spouses and three grandchildren.  Communications are welcome at prahalad.family@gmail.com

When our self-concept is under attack, we feel the [...]]]> The problem in life is not making mistakes, but not learning from mistakes. Whenever we don’t learn from our mistakes it’s usually because we are attacked personally from those mistakes. We are called names like “idiot” or “stupid” and generally downgraded by other people who discover our mistake.

When our self-concept is under attack, we feel the need to defend ourselves and our actions, even to the extent of distorting the facts. When people become defensive, they never hear the feedback they are getting. As a result, little learning takes place. The effective use of the One-Minute Reprimand with someone who makes a mistake will hopefully eliminate this defensive behavior.

When I teach managers about the One-Minute Reprimand, I tell them there are four keys to remember about a reprimand. First, reprimand as soon as possible after an incident. Don’t save up for a holiday. If you “gunnysack” and store up your feelings, when you finally let go of them, they are usually out of proportion and make the mistake seem so much worse than it was. This is when personality attacks usually take place.

My wife, Margie, and I clearly learned about the problem of gunnysacking one summer when we lived on Cape Cod with good friends of ours, David and Linda. We used to think there was something wrong with us because we didn’t fight. I can’t remember ever going to bed angry in 22 years of marriage. Now my mother, who is German, used to say to me, “You’re going to get an ulcer! You don’t fight enough. A good fight once in a while is good for you!”

If my mother’s analysis was right, David and Linda were in good shape. They were notorious fighters. In the spring and summer, neighbors would get the lawn chairs out while David and Linda screamed and yelled, threw things At each other, and slammed doors. You might ask, “Why would you vacation with people who fought like that?”

They were really fun people, and besides they only fought once in a while. It was interesting to observe and learn how differently we dealt with things as couples. David and Linda noticed that if I came down in the morning and said to Margie, “Where the hell is breakfast?” she would stop everything she was doing and say to me, “What happened? Did you fall out of bed, stub your toe or something? Why are you acting like this?”

Linda would say, “Margie, you’re starting a fight.”

“No, I’m not,” Margie would say. “Ken normally doesn’t behave this way. I just wanted to find out what happened.”

As a result, Margie and I never let things build up. If either of us did something to hurt the other, we would speak up right away.

This was not the case with David and Linda. If David came down in the morning and said to Linda, “Where the hell is breakfast?” Linda would not say anything to David. She would just say to herself, “Who does he think he’s talking to? I don’t deserve that kind of treatment.” And then she’d put an angry feeling in the “gunnysack” she kept on her back to store her negative feelings about David.

Then Linda would take David a burned egg. He’d be sitting at the kitchen table and say to himself, “Who does she think I am? I don’t deserve a burned egg like that.” But David wouldn’t say anything to Linda. Instead, he’d throw an angry feeling into his gunnysack without sharing his feelings.

We noticed it took David and Linda about two weeks to fill their sacks and then almost on signal they would dump them, usually over some minor event. David might say, “How are you, honey?” Then Linda would yell, “Let me tell you . . .” and dump her sack. Once Linda would dump, David would follow suit. They would get at opposite ends of the living room and let fly. They would go back to the burned egg incident and if they really got going, David would always yell, “And let me tell you about when I first met your mother . . .” Then they wouldn’t talk to each other for a couple of days.

You see, the longer you wait to give someone negative feedback, the more emotional it becomes. If Margie had waited a week to confront me about saying, “Where the hell is breakfast?” I would have said, “Me! I’d never say anything like that.” Then we would be into, “Yes, you did!” “No, I didn’t,” and on and on. So give negative feedback as soon as possible—it causes fewer problems.

Second, be specific. Tell the person specifically what he or she did wrong. For example, “John, you didn’t get your report in on time on Friday.” Or, “I notice your sales were down 20 percent this quarter,” or whatever.

Third, share your feelings about what was done. “Let me tell you how I feel about the late report, John. I’m angry because everyone else got their report in on time and not having your report delayed my analysis of our market position. It really frustrated me!”

The fourth key of the One-Minute Reprimand is probably the most important of all—reaffirming the person. In the late report example, you might say, “Let me tell you one other thing. You’re good. You’re one of my best people. That’s why I was angry about your late report. It’s so unlike you. I count on you to set an example for others. That’s why I’m not going to let you get away with that late report behavior. You’re better than that.”

Many people can’t understand why you would praise someone just after you have reprimanded them. You do it for two very important reasons. First of all, you want to separate people’s behavior from them as individuals. You want to keep people but get rid of their poor behavior. Remember: People are Okay. It’s just their behavior that’s a problem—sometimes.

By reaffirming people after you have reprimanded them, you focus on their behavior without attacking their personality.

The second reason for praising at the end of a reprimand has to do with what happens after a reprimand. When you walk away after reprimanding, do you want people thinking about what they did wrong or about how you treated them? Of course, you want them thinking about what they did wrong. And yet most of the time, people who are reprimanded direct their energy back to you the reprimander. Why? Because of the way they are treated.

When you reprimand someone, you not only don’t end with a praising, but usually say, “And let me tell you one other thing . . .” and then you give the person one last “shot in the head.” “If you think you’re going to get promoted you have another think coming.”

Then when you walk away, the person you have reprimanded often turns to a co-worker and instead of discussing the late report, talks about your leadership style and how typical of you that behavior was. Now that person is psychologically “off the hook” with the late report, and you are the “bad guy.” But if you end a reprimand with a praising, the person you reprimand won’t turn to a co-worker and “bad mouth’ you when you walk away because you just told that person how good he or she was. Now the person has to think about what he or she did wrong, not about your leadership style.

If you believe in this concept of the One-Minute Manager, share it with everybody at home, at work, and in your social community. I emphasize the One-Minute Reprimand here because for many of us, giving negative feedback is the most difficult management behavior.

Another reason for sharing the One-Minute Reprimand concept with others is that they will help you to be a good One-Minute Manager if you get off-course. An incident with our son, Scott, illustrates this point.

Scott, 19, is a frequent water skier. He has a big truck that he uses to tow our boat around San Diego. He docks it at several different locations depending on the wind. At two or three of these places, he has to drive right out on the beach to get the boat into the water. To get through the sand, he has huge tires on the truck. These almost force you to stand on a ladder to get into the truck. The rule about this truck is that Scott should not park it in the driveway. If he does, he blocks the driveway.

One day I came home to find Scott’s truck parked in the middle of the driveway. He was gone with his friends, and no one could find his keys. I could not get my car in the garage, and Margie couldn’t get hers out. I was furious. When Scott returned home about two hours later, I went right out to the street to greet him. Boy, did I tell him what he had done wrong and how I felt about it. Then I stormed back into the house.

Scott jumped out of his friend’s car and chased me into the house. He followed me right into the bedroom and said, “Dad, you forgot the last part of the reprimand. I’m a good kid. You love me, and this is so unlike me.”

All I could do was laugh and give him a big hug. And, I didn’t have to deal with that big truck in the driveway anymore.

Remember, people are okay. It’s just their behavior that’s a problem sometimes. The proper use of the One-Minute Reprimand will help them make some corrections. It will also keep you on track and “trucking” right along in your relationships.

by Ken Blanchard

This article originally appeared in Leadership Excellence in October 1984, an example of 25 years of leadership insights, lessons, and strategies. Leadership Excellence is published monthly, and available in digital and print formats. To subscribe visit here. To access 3000 articles by the greatest leaders and thought-leaders of our time, register for Instant Consultation here, or call 1-877-250-1983.

As Brooks writes:

This isn’t the old story of a career woman trying to balance work and family. This is the story of pressures that affect men as well as [...]]]> Just in time for Tony Smith’s lunch-time talk on work-life balance, we have this article from David Brooks about the life of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

As Brooks writes:

This isn’t the old story of a career woman trying to balance work and family. This is the story of pressures that affect men as well as women (men are just more likely to make fools of themselves in response, as the news of the last few years indicates). It’s the story of people in a meritocracy that gets more purified and competitive by the year, with the time demands growing more and more insistent.

Sounds painfully real… and yet, who can argue with her success and the impact of her life?

As David notes, In the last few decades, [...]]]> David Cohen will be giving a 30-minute talk tomorrow on a thorny topic in the HR world. Can and should the ROI of HR activities be measured just like any other business process? Registration is free, and David is working feverishly to polish a white paper for the event.

As David notes, In the last few decades, ROI has been applied to a range of business activities: from asset purchase decisions (computer systems or a fleet of vehicles, for example), to “go/no-go” decisions for programs for marketing programs, recruiting programs, and training programs, etc., to more traditional investment decisions such as the management of stock portfolios or the use of venture capital.

ROI analysis is one of several approaches HR leaders use to build a financial business case for their programs. David is going to shine a bright light on that idea, examine its rationale, see if it stands up to scrutiny, and make some tough-minded suggestions.

We hope you’ll join the conversation. And please let us know if you have other topics in HR you’d like us to address.

In David Allen’s own words, his presentation was a seminar in Advanced Common Sense. Of course, common sense is neither very common nor always obvious; and [...]]]> Along with Howard Morgan, we hosted a terrific session with David Allen on July 8. Thanks to the magic of streaming recording, it’s not too late to access that discussion.

In David Allen’s own words, his presentation was a seminar in Advanced Common Sense. Of course, common sense is neither very common nor always obvious; and David’s observations and insights were frequently eye-opening and extremely helpful.

Essentially, David articulated the mechanics of how we get busy, what we typically do to manage our work and lives, and how to employ better strategies to improve our productivity, creativity and openness to opportunity – something he called, “the freedom to make a mess.” The best practices he discussed work not only for individuals but at the organizational level, too.

David likened the ideal state of mind to the experience of being an advanced martial arts practitioner. You cannot be prepared for every crisis or surprise in life, but if you have a clear mind – a mind like water – then you can react quickly and appropriately to new events.

To give us a sense of where people are at, mentally, with regards to daily affairs, David introduced the GTDIQ grid. People with no control or perspective feel like victims. But that’s a negative word for a state everyone finds themselves in at least several times a day. When we’re in victim state, we’re essentially being responsive to everything that happens. Sometimes, David said, we’re just being responsive to our previous Great Ideas. (That’s the kind of insight into the human condition that makes David’s work so thoughtful.)

A victim’s instinct is to gain control. And to do so we are inclined to become micro-managers. But that mode is too structured to allow much flexibility or creativity.

Organizations stuck in micro-management mode are usually inclined to bring a visionary. But a visionary without control is a “Crazy-maker” – someone who causes others to scramble in their wake and take care of details.

When you have the appropriate amount of control and perspective, you are, what David calls, a Master and Commander – someone who has their eye on the horizon, their hand on the helm, and has a gut-feel sensitivity for what needs more immediate and personal attention.

So how do we get there? David’s long-term research has distilled the issues of control and perspective to their simplest requirements, and he outlined them for us.

There are five stages of control. First, we Identify current reality; then we Clarify “stuff” into categories; then we Organize those categories into appropriate levels of urgency; Reflect on what needs to be done to manage them; and Engage with them in a timely and appropriate way.

As David noted, most people and organizations start with Organize and don’t develop a system for what to do with the “stuff” that bombards them. He also explained that “Stuff” is not bad – but it needs to be captured and clarified to be organized and managed.

Next, David explained how perspective works, and he offered a hierarchy of focus. It starts with Purpose and Principles, through which people and organizations determine what’s important for them to focus on; next comes Vision which is the 5-year horizon that matters to them; followed by Goals which are typically achievable within a year. Responsibilities must also be taken into account – and these are activities that help us maintain, ranging from keeping on track of the merger, to watching our health or checking account balance. Next we have Projects which are things we need to finish to achieve goals and vision; and in support of projects are “Actions” or the tasks we must perform to accomplish projects.

None of this is easy. David noted that the typical executive has 40 to 100 projects on the go, and each of us has about 100 to 200 actions they need to accomplish all the time. The challenge is determining what is important to take on, while recognizing that it’s difficult to ignore anything. Nevertheless, the more control and focus you can achieve, the more productive and creative you can be.

David left us with a final message: Start paying attention to what has your attention. If you don’t, those things will start taking more of your attention than they deserve.

Howard Morgan fielded a lively Q&A session at the end of David’s presentation. Over the coming months, we’ll post excerpts from that discussion on our site.

We thank David Allen for his insights and words. His work continues to advance and make a real difference for people in these busy and confusing times.

Tony Smith’s free webinar tomorrow is on the Double Standard, another taboo topic, but next month he’s going to raise the very issue Jack Welch mentioned, and give a thoughtful and realistic reply.

Former General Electric Co. [...]]]> Jack Welch lived up to the name of his book today in the Wall Street Journal when he spoke about work-life balance.

Tony Smith’s free webinar tomorrow is on the Double Standard, another taboo topic, but next month he’s going to raise the very issue Jack Welch mentioned, and give a thoughtful and realistic reply.

Former General Electric Co. Chief Executive Jack Welch has some blunt words for women climbing the corporate ladder: you may have to choose between taking time off to raise children and reaching the corner office.

“There’s no such thing as work-life balance,” Mr. Welch told the Society for Human Resource Management’s annual conference in New Orleans on June 28. “There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences.”

Mr. Welch said those who take time off for family could be passed over for promotions if “you’re not there in the clutch.”

In the words of productivity guru David Allen: Self management is all about perspective (focus on the right things) and control (the ability to effectively manage all the things coming at you).

David is going to discuss [...]]]>

How is your personal productivity level today? What has your attention? Do you know what you are committed to, and why?

In the words of productivity guru David Allen: Self management is all about perspective (focus on the right things) and control (the ability to effectively manage all the things coming at you).

David is going to discuss productivity principles and behaviors during his presentation on Wednesday, July 8. He invites you to take this brief survey to instantly determine your GTD IQ and receive some suggested behavior prescriptions. You can read this article for more information on the behavior quadrants, and there are other links to free articles on that page as well.

Editor’s Note: Personal score — Visionary / Crazy Maker. See desk and wall for supportive evidence.

If you missed this valuable event, or would like to listen to it again, you can still register for a streaming feed of the recording.

Al’s [...]]]> Dr. Al Vicere had an outstanding webinar last week. And the dialogue with Howard Morgan was fascinating. (We’re planning to post some of those questions and answers in weeks to come.)

If you missed this valuable event, or would like to listen to it again, you can still register for a streaming feed of the recording.

Al’s presentation began with a discussion of the incredible amount of societal change and economic pressure we’re encountering today. Socially, we’ve entered an era of frugality. Households, governments, and organizations are spending less. The US share of GDP is going to fall in the future. All of this has tremendous implications for business.

At most organizations, leaders are tightening the belts, focusing on efficiency, trying to stabilize during terrible conditions, and also, preparing for the upswing to come.

For leaders, it can be incredibly difficult to straddle those two directions at once. A theme emerged, one that would be emphasized over the next 90 minutes.

Leaders need to look out and see what’s happening in the world around them – the demographic trends, the market forces, the competition – in order to make good decisions about what the organization should do internally.

To explain the mechanics of that difficulty, Al laid out his DNA model – Direction and Alignment. Like the genome, an organization’s growth and operating instructions can also be decoded. The double helix structure of organizational DNA is composed of the twin strands – Roots (history and operations) and Wings (change and innovation.) The code that defines a particular organization is found in its components of Strategy (future state), Leadership (momentum towards future state) and Culture (the forces sustaining that momentum.) Together, these connect the organization’s past to its future.

Drawing on his survey of 12,000 leaders, Al stated that most organizations define themselves as follower-perfectors with aggressive take-charge people, backed up by competent technology supporters. Those leaders are trying to work in teams but are often stuck in silos. They’re focused on extracting maximum value from the current asset base and moving into related markets. They feel passionate for the organization and challenged in their jobs, bu they’re increasingly conflicted about loyalty and long-term commitment.

The question becomes, will such organizations, with leaders who are incredibly focused internally, be able to see dramatic new opportunities, let alone act on them? Al’s research shows that the average organization is doing little in that regard, despite any rhetoric about leading the way, and that spells big trouble at a time when survivors must also be innovators.