Entries tagged as ‘Culture’
I just finished the revised and expanded edition of “The Extraordinary Leader – Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders” by John Zenger & Joseph Folkman. 
I found it to be a very worthwhile read and enjoyed it very much. For once I’ve found a management book that really doesn’t push one leadership style or behavior over others. What they found is that there is a set of competencies that are important. However, strangely enough, no one competency is more important than any of the others. Additionally a great leader doesn’t have to be good at all of them. A good leader just has to be exceptional at a few in order to be considered great. This determination wasn’t come about through “gut feeling” or their experiences, but through a very large study.
There were a number of takeaways for me. The first is that sometimes an organization will attempt to force fit leaders into a mold. If you don’t lead a certain way, no matter how good of a leader you are, you won’t be successful there. That is really a shame. “Rigidly defined competencies also may have the unintended consequence of creating cookie-cutter people inside the organization. If the competency system was implemented, would everyone appear to be cut from the same mold? How, then, does the organization attract and retain the maverick who is so valuable in challenging the status quo? Are the wild ducks killed just after they hatch? The concern is that, over time, sameness creates a homogeneity that becomes mind-numbing, and the culture devolves into one of anti-innovation.”
One organization that was studied that allowed leaders to find their own strengths and not be forced into a mold is one that most people would not expect to exhibit those characteristics. That organization was the US Marine Corp. I was completely impressed by the ways that the Marines cultivate leadership throughout their organization. Leadership training is something that everyone receives and it is ongoing. This is not an 8 hour seminar or a one week class like the corporate world provides. “Rather than being rigid and insisting that everyone perform in a similar style or process, the Marines understand that there are many effective leadership patterns. The Marines have discovered that some of their leaders succeed because of their technical expertise. Others are powerful team builders. Still others excel in their organizational skills. Some are extraordinary in their ability to see the potential in people and their ability to bring it out. Rather than force-fit their leaders ino any one mold, those responsible for leadership development observe the natural strengths and encourage the leader to magnify that quality.”
Categories: Book Reviews · Leadership
Tagged: Culture, Leadership Types, Team Building
Unshackling Employees from a Wall Street Journal Blog talks about ways that even staid industries like the banking industry can take advantage of empowering their employees.
“In most organizations, the decision-making freedoms of frontline employees are highly circumscribed. Sales reps, call center staff, office managers, and assembly line workers are usually trussed up in tangle of top-down policies, “best practices,” and standard operating procedures. Yet it’s impossible to build a highly adaptable organization without first expanding the scope of employee freedom. To create an organization that’s adaptable and innovative, people need the freedom to challenge precedent, to “waste” time, to go outside of channels, to experiment, to take risks and to follow their passions.”
Transparency with business information, the freedom to try new things even with the risk of failure, and a culture that doesn’t require top-down decision making is key to creativity.
Categories: Corporate Strategy · Leadership
Tagged: Creativity, Culture, Empowerment, Transparency
Recently I found the article “Distinguishing Yourself as a True Leader During Behavioral Competency Interviews” on the Korn Ferry website. This article is specifically geared toward senior leaders and executives, but there still is a lot of good information in there for anyone.
Back when I worked at Nortel Networks we made a point of using behavioral interviews for positions at all levels in our group. Frankly, I am surprised by how few organizations do this. As an interviewer you can get a much better view into how people really are, and how they will fit into your culture when you ask them to describe specific events in their career. It is crystal clear when people aren’t actually speaking from experience but are merely trying to spoon feed you what they think you want to hear. Personal and specific experiences are sometimes very difficult to talk about. Candidates who talk about them honestly come across with integrity.
Some of my favorite behavioral interview questions include:
- Tell me about the biggest disappointment that you have had in your career.
- Tell me about a time when you had to work with an unproductive person. How did you handle it?
- Tell me about a time when you had to put an employee on a performance improvement plan or had to terminate them.(for managers)
- Tell me about the project that you are most proud of. What do you consider your biggest career success?
It’s always great idea to ask followup questions. Some of mine are:
- What was the most important thing you learned from the situation?
- Were you happy with the result?
- If you had another chance, what would you have done differently?
As an interviewee I’ve found that even when your interviewer is not using the behavioral style of interviewing you can use behavioral responses to your advantage. Telling a story about your actual experiences allows the interview to better get to know you and how you actually work. It also allows them to see how you learn both from your successes and from your mistakes. Personally I have learned a lot more from my mistakes than I have from any successes that came easily.
Categories: Tactical
Tagged: Culture, Job Search, Learning
I’ve left a number of jobs. The excitement about what comes next is always electrifying and I’ve always been a person to look forward to the next thing. That is the fun part about leaving. Hopeful optimism as I step into the unknown. Good thing I am a “grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” person and not a “stick with the evil you know instead of the evil you don’t”.
One thing that has never changed for me is that it is always so hard to say goodbye to the good folks that will be sorely missed. Once someone isn’t a coworker anymore I tend to lose my “game face” and my emotions leak out. It’s hard not to feel sad when I get a big hug from someone I really liked seeing every day. When I leave I always try and say goodbye to every person I worked with. Every single one. It is a taxing day, and this time I didn’t quite manage it. There were a few folks (and some of you read this blog) that I missed. It wasn’t intentional, our timing was just off. Goodbye – it’s been fun – best wishes – may we meet again.
There are people from each and every company that I’ve worked at that I wish I could still work with. They are all different. Some are quiet. Some are loud. Some are always serious and business-like. Some are always looking at the funny side of work. Some really pushed my buttons but they made me a better person in times of confrontation. Some are sensitive and helped me to realize when I might be stepping on toes. I’ve tried to keep in touch with most of the people I developed a connection with. Sometimes it is difficult because work was the only common interest. Other times old coworker became lifetime friends. And, one of my favorites is when old coworkers become new coworkers under different circumstances. It’s so nice to see a friendly face that I know I can trust.
When my old coworkers and friends found out that I lost my job, I received a huge outpouring of support. Frankly, I was shocked. I got notes and phone calls from people all through the span of my career. I heard from people in CT at UTC where I worked fresh out of college, I heard from IBMers from 15 years ago that I haven’t seen since, I got great support from ex-Nortelers, those that went through the Caspian days, and of course from some ex-coworkers from my recent position. Thank you everyone – I hope to see you all again in another company someday!
Categories: Personal
Tagged: Culture, Job Search, Personality Types, Relationships
I’m sure that you have been reading a lot of articles lately about how people in general are acting a whole lot more frugal than they ever have before in their personal lives. I read that the savings rate for 2009 is now approaching 5% when just a few short years ago it was negative. This is a huge change in behavior and if it lasts and doesn’t revert immediately once things start getting better there will be long term impacts to our consumer driven economy. Now we are starting to see studies that show that if people focus too much on saving money and too little on enjoying some (it doesn’t have to be a lot) of it that they are more likely to be unhappy or even fall into depression.
In the world of small startup companies there also is a lot of creative frugality happening. I think the question remains are you being frugal or just plain cheap? There is a huge difference in the morale costs. Workplace morale is pretty low right now if you believe all of those articles about people wishing they had different jobs and there are a lot of smart ways to improve.
In general I think that most people understand the need to freeze salaries or lower them in order to keep a company in business in this environment. This behavior is smart business sense and it is frugal. That said, neglecting to promote and give raises to people who clearly have demonstrated that they are performing at a higher level than their current position is cheap. Not rewarding someone who is clearly going above and beyond is plain stupid. This is not a person that you want to have leave the company. Giving a promotion to a handful of people isn’t nearly as costly as finding the budget for a raise pool for the entire company.
A company also should celebrate significant achievements. There are a lot of simple ways to do this. Ostentatious displays are out – no dinner cruises for 150, no cross country golf outings. How about a pizza lunch? Nerf weapons for everyone? (just be careful – you can crack an LCD monitor with a poorly aimed nerf gun!) A beer bash on a Friday afternoon? Even just cupcakes or ice cream? You don’t have to spend a lot of money to say thank you as long as you make it fun. Don’t save so much money that you can’t have fun.
I’m also in favor of free coffee, sodas, and a supply of snacks. Yes, this isn’t cheap, BUT it is very much appreciated when people are working long hours and sometimes overnight. I’m sure there have been times when you are sitting at your desk and you need to stay and get some work done but you are so hungry that you can’t think. What happens? If you’re like most people you’ll leave to get a meal, and most times you won’t return to finish what you were working on. If you could grab a piece of fruit or a cheese stick or a cookie to get through you surely would. People care about these types of things. I’ve heard people say that they would look for a new job if we got rid of snacks. There is also a lot of anecdotal evidence that getting rid of cookies or sodas really causes a pretty steep morale hit. Go figure.
Places where you can cut costs – facilities. If you are looking for office space right now you can get quite a deal. You also don’t have to be in the best high rent place you can find. Fancy digs are out. I remember being in a startup in a former motorcycle garage. The cubes were old and tiny. We were packed on top of each other like sardines… BUT the amount of energy in that place and the desire to succeed was palpable. People enjoyed working there and the circumstances just helped cement the team. Nice offices only go so far, and when times are tough they can actually sap productivity and energy because they are an embarrassing display.
If you have the cash right now, it is a good time to overhaul your infrastructure. Vendors are looking to make deals and if you have the money or the good credit to upgrade, now is the time. There are other ways to save money – and making your employees more efficient is one of them. If you use a lot of computing power – make sure your key performers aren’t running on 5 year old technology. Cobbling together ancient equipment that is obsolete and out of warranty is a dangerous game. The cost to recover critical data in case of failure is likely higher than the cost of fixing the problem in advance.
Just remember, being frugal isn’t being cheap. If your employees understand the financial situation of the company they will be frugal with your money too.
Categories: Corporate Strategy
Tagged: Creativity, Culture, Financial Prudence, Motivation
This article from Business Week brought back a lot of memories for me about the dotcom bust. Jason Calacanis talks about a lot of very difficult decisions that he has made and that he suggests that CEOs of startups should be considering in this economic environment.
“A lot of CEOs with less than 12 months of capital left in the bank have been asking me for advice about what to do, given the massive economic turmoil we’re facing. I thought I would take the time put these various conversations into one place to help those who are “up against it,” as we say in Brooklyn. The result is intended for the entrepreneurs behind startup companies who know in their hearts that their investors have lost faith, and that Google (GOOG), Yahoo! (YHOO), or Microsoft (MSFT) aren’t going to pick them up on a magic M&A carpet ride.”
From 2000-2005 I worked for a now defunct networking equipment maker. During the heyday we grew to over 350 people with 3 engineering offices spread across the US plus sales offices in Europe and Asia. All told the company spent hundreds of millions of investment dollars trying to build some really amazing next generation networking technology. A lot of that cost was due to the sheer amount of resources required to build such a product, and the exorbitant cost of developing custom ASICs. There also were a lot of bad decisions made. We had the swankest office digs I have ever seen. We had a company car at each site. We had salt water fishtanks and water walls. We had massage chairs, espresso machines, foosball tables, and pool tables. We thought it would be wise to start working on a second product line before the first was even close to completion. All in all we were going through a lot more money that we should have, and I think some of the employees recognized it early on. Back then every company was doing it. You had to have all of the perks to keep people interested in working for you in Silicon Valley.
Once the dotcom bust settled in, the board switched out most of the executive team. We developed a fiscally conservative policy and things really changed. We went from 350 people down to a little less than 100. We closed one development site and subleased a significant portion of the other two. We looked for every way to reduce costs to the minimum to survive. Unfortunately we had blown through a huge cash cushion that could have helped us weather the path to profitability. I still admire the strength of the executive team and the hard decisions that they had to make back then. They didn’t run and hide from the problem. They attacked it head on. If that type of conservative management had been in place from the start I am sure that the company would have survived and been successful. Once the dotcom bust ended the company had gone to the well one too many times and the investors sold off the IP. I saw the writing on the wall well in advance of this event and I left about a year before it occurred.
This part of my work history is really sad for me. We built a great product. We had a terrific team – and it was a very tight knit one after the company shrank. We had clear corporate goals and priorities. The economy killed us, and I believe that happened because of the sheer amount of spending that occurred. We didn’t prepare for a rainy day.
I hope your company is ready to weather the worst and is planning for survival.
Categories: Corporate Strategy
Tagged: Culture, Financial Prudence, Priorities, Resilience
I recently read this blog post by the CEO of zappos.com Tony Hsieh talking about developing a brand based on your company’s culture.
“So what’s a company to do if you can’t just buy your way into building the brand you want? What’s the best way to build a brand for the long term?
In a word: culture.
At Zappos, our belief is that if you get the culture right, most of the other stuff — like great customer service, or building a great long-term brand, or passionate employees and customers — will happen naturally on its own.
We believe that your company’s culture and your company’s brand are really just two sides of the same coin. The brand may lag the culture at first, but eventually it will catch up.
Your culture is your brand.
So how do you build and maintain the culture that you want?”
I’ve always been a proponent that the culture of a company is what drives its success. Employees all need to be on the same page as to what the priorities of the company are, and they really need to stand behind those priorities instead of providing lip service to them. This is a time for strong leadership. If the top executives of the company aren’t aligned on these priorities, the rest of the company will also fracture along divisional or departmental boundaries. If the leadership team isn’t bought into the priorities it will be next to impossible for the rest of the organization to be excited and driven to support them.
Categories: Leadership
Tagged: Branding, Culture, Priorities
How do you make people want to come in and work the weekend? It is a dilemma that’s for sure. Nobody really wants to work the weekend. As a leader, I hate to ask people to do this, but occasionally it is required in order to meet business objectives. With the current state of the economy it has become more likely that it is required to just keep up with the competition.
Most times, people realize when they need to step up their effort and they’ll work the hours on their own. This is an individual choice based on work ethic and the drive to complete things on time with good quality. I’ve worked with people who will kill themselves because of their drive. On the other hand there are some folks who will only work the extra hours when pushed. In order to get everyone on the same page sometimes you need to issue a management directive. If you’re lucky, the peer pressure alone is enough to motivate everyone to step up. If the culture hasn’t supported that in the past, good luck, it is on the leadership team to instill a sense of urgency.
When I’m in this situation I’ve found that being firm and stating exactly what you are expecting is the best path. Even when you say exactly what you want someone will find a way to misinterpret it. Be very blunt. If you want Saturday to be just like a regular work day, say so. If you need people to work 4 hours or 8 hours, say so.
Now, from a management perspective there are a lot of things that you can do to make this a team effort.
- Set a goal. Make it somewhat audacious. Make it visible. I’ve seen white boards with lists of work items on them work as a rallying point. Find a way to “cross off” what has been done. Celebrate it!
- If possible find a way to get the entire team working on the problem. Yes, this may seem to be a little contrived, but if only a handful of people are working it isn’t the same thing as the full team coming in and conquering a problem.
- Add some fun. You might call it bribery, but food is a great motivator. Bring in bagels or donuts for breakfast. Bring in lunch. Have some beer for the end of the day.
- The leadership team must show up. Roll up your sleeves, pitch in anyway you can. If you ask people to work, you must work too.
- The leadership team must recognize the sacrifices the team has made. Don’t forget those 2 little words. “Thank you.”
Categories: Leadership
Tagged: Culture, Motivation, Taking Responsibility
This weekend I finally got around to reading a book that I have been meaning to spend some time with for a while now. It is “Knowledge Management” by Carl Frappaolo. 
This book can pretty easily be digested in an afternoon and it presents the reader with an overview of knowledge management concepts and some interesting case studies. Additionally different types of technology that foster knowledge exchange are considered and the use of web based portals for accessing information is discussed.
The most fascinating aspect of this book to me was related to how culture (corporate as well as geographic) drives the attitudes of the individuals involved in sharing information and knowledge. Subtle management behavior and attitudes can foster knowledge transfer or it can create a competitive environment in which knowledge is hoarded.
If you are looking for an in-depth guide to applying knowledge management to your organization I would not recommend this book. However, if you are interested in becoming conversant in the topic and are looking for a starting point to learn more this is a good book.
Categories: Book Reviews
Tagged: Attitude, Competition, Culture, Management
I’m back and boy do I have a lot of fodder for my blog. I spent the last 2 weeks in mainland Ecuador and on a small sailboat cruising the Galapagos Islands. During this time:
- I had no access to the internet
- My cell phone didn’t work
- Except for a couple of days there was no TV
It was HEAVEN! There are times when we all have to get away. Far, far, away. I have learned that I need to make myself completely unavailable during my vacations to really disconnect from work. If I can check e-mail, I will. If I can be reached by phone, someone *will* call me. I’ve received ship to shore phone calls when I’ve been on cruise ships. I’ve gotten late night wakeup calls when I’ve been in different timezones. Now, I make sure to avoid the possibility altogether. I try to fall off the face of the earth.
I think that we all know some people who refuse to get away. They just can’t fathom leaving their work behind, not even for an instant. They are worried that that work world will fall apart without them. The fact is that nobody is indispensible. It’s a fantasy to think that work can’t go on without you for a couple of days or weeks. It will. It might not be quite as efficient, but it will.
The other problem with refusing to let work go is that it becomes all consuming. Eventually it will burn you out. Without a break, you lose all ability to have perspective on what really is important in the world. Going out and connecting with people from different cultures who speak different languages and finding out that underneath all of the differences people essentially are the same provides me with the perspective that I need. Everyone wants to be loved, everyone wants to be respected, everyone wants to be heard. Those lessons can be applied to the work world as well.
So how do you get away and not worry about work? Well, first of all you need to be able to designate a backup. If you’re doing a good job of developing your team, this won’t be hard, you should have a few people in your organization that you can trust to take over when you’re gone. Determine who will back you up based on the company needs at the time. Sometimes when work is really going smoothly, you can choose a backup who is junior and needs to gain confidence. Other times, when things are fast and furious, you need to designate someone who can really take charge, someone that you trust to close the deal, press toward the milestone, or deliver the product.
The next step is to make sure the person you designate is prepared for the job. Give them a good description of what you need them to accomplish. Be very specific. Make sure they have a list of the items to really watch out for that concern you. Ensure that they have someone to turn to for help if they need it.
Get away. You know you need to. Don’t let your life pass you by without taking the time that you need to recharge your batteries, no matter what that entails for you. Nobody at the end of their life wishes that they worked more.
Categories: Personal
Tagged: Balance, Culture
