Many (many) summers ago, when I was in training to be a lifeguard on New York’s Lake George, the first principle I learned was how to safely approach a swimmer in distress. A safe approach included talking to them, letting them know I was there to help them, and giving them instructions.
The second principle I learned was how to get out of harm’s way if I didn’t successfully execute the first principle. Good to know. If the victim locked his arms around my neck, my automatic moves were: my right arm over his arms, right hand under right side of his chin, strongly Continue reading » »
Sports blogs are read 100 times more than leadership blogs. So I’m going with Mark McGwire’s apology to raise a leadership point. During the Bob Costa interview, McGwire admitted to his steroid use http://tinyurl.com/yhxqb87 — use he’d been denying for years, even under oath to Congress. I’ll let you call McGwire’s apology a ball or a strike in the zone of authenticity.
First, let’s all get off our high horses – give me a moment to dismount – and move beyond the ball park and into cubical land where most of us work. The mistake is not the point. The point is, when we make them, what do we do next? What’s the leadership move? What’s the impact
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Huge topic. Let’s start with a situation: An employee who doesn’t report to you asks that you keep the following in confidence. Their performance review is overdue by 4 months. The employee anticipates a pay raise which is needed due to their spouse’s working hours reduced due to forced furloughs. They also want to know if they are doing Ok or not. If not, what to improve. They think they are performing well, but without feedback, doubt is being to creep in. A pending lawsuit has resurfaced with newspaper visibility puling leader, their manager, into many meetings with different constituents; the organization’s board chair recently resigned; lack of funds may close organization within 6 months. The employee asked for the review 2 months ago and now does not how to approach manager. The employee does not want to show up as greedy, self-serving or add stress to manager; they love their job and how they are managed.
Your move. Will you advise them to have a transactional or the transformational conversation? The transactional track is easy, here’s what you say to the employee: Email boss with dates, facts and say you will forward this email to HR if review doesn’t happen within 5 days. Steve Roesler gives us these distinctions: Transactional conversations keep things as they are. Transformational conversations Continue reading » »
OK class, time for a cross-generational test. Do you remember:
1. When Atari’s “Pong” was a state-of-the-art video game?
2. Watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon?
3. The Brooklyn Dodgers moving to LA?
4. Alf?
5. Popping an 8 track into the deck on a summer night?
6. What Willis was “talking about?”
7. Beating your best score in Pac Man?
8. How amazing color TV was?
9. Your favorite pair of Wonderwoman or Superman Underoos?
10.Discovering Bob Dylan?
Depending on your answers (see the end of this article), you will be classified as either a Baby Boomer or Generation X/Y.
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Whether CEO, CFO, employee, spouse, spouse-ette, baker man, thief – we all want to know: How can I make him/her/them behave differently, the way I want them behave? The answer: You can’t, they must. OK, you saw that coming.
So, let’s rephrase the FAQ: How do you influence someone to change their behavior?
Answer: Obey the First Law of Performance, articulated by my past colleague Steve and Dave. Continue reading » »
