Wacky Wednesday

I try to avoid Dilbert Comics, but sometimes I wonder why I fight it. Scott Adams is adept at finding the little things in leadership and office life that make you roll your eyes, groan, or slap your forehead. Here's one that I find particularly interesting:

Overall, we have too many experiences like this. We pretend to know what the future will be, and produce a monstrous plan that has no grounding in reality, only to have it disrupted in 5 minutes. We as leaders can and should do better. Look at the facts, and create a realistic plan. Address issues, and make forward progress, before somebody else comes and takes the room...

When the Rules Change...

Back in 2003, I was a fresh-faced Lieutenant in the United States Army, and I recently arrived at Fort Hood for my first "real" duty assignment. We were scheduled to deploy to Iraq, and I was told that I had 2-3 weeks before I would be jumping into (not out of) a plane. With this knowledge in hand, I planned out my next 2 weeks, so that I could find a storage center for my stuff (only about 1 bedroom of stuff), set-up a power of attorney, and pack my bags for the trip (which was only supposed to be 6 months, should have known better on that one...).

Unfortunately, the rules changed on me. Thursday morning my commanding officer came to me and said "Matt, we need you on the advance team. Your flight leaves Saturday morning. Take the next 2 days to get what you need done."

Have you ever tried to pack 2 weeks worth of activities into a 2 day period? Thankfully, my first thought (after reaching for a cold bucket of water to put out my hair) was to sit down and revise my plan. I called the JAG office for an immediate appointment, and while waiting in the JAG office for my power of attorney, I called around to the storage centers to reserve a lot; called my buddies in Austin and told them where they could find car keys and pick-up my Jeep, set-up a rental U-haul to move my stuff, and enlisted a couple of soldiers to help me move my stuff (with the offer of beer and pizza; which seems to be a universally accepted payment for young men all over America).

That night, I called my girlfriend (now my wife) and had a long conversation about my impending deployment to a combat zone. Then I called my mother, and told her to check her email for a copy of my power of attorney (no, I didn't make my girlfriend my power of attorney, too many soldier horror stories to do that).

The next day, I ran around to all the pawn and military surplus stores that surround a military base, looking for equipment I knew I would need (extra TA-50, a better Ruc Sac, flashlights, batteries, a portable DVD player, you know the essentials). After the mad dash for supplies I spent Friday night stenciling my info and packing my duffel, Ruc Sac, and tanker ruc. BTW, a personal note, if your bags are going to be one of 300 of the same style bag, find a way to differentiate it (I ran yellow electrical tape around the outside, and spray painted one of the bottom corners of each bag a fluorescent orange, both easy to spot in a sea of olive drab).

Needless to say, I made the flight, and in April of 2003, I arrived in Kuwait (in point of fact, if I remember correctly, my commander told me on April Fools Day that he needed me for the advance team... huh, I guess he did have a sense of humor). But why share this story?

As a leader, I think we all know that rules can change, and that the best laid plans never last. However, when the rules change, let your team know about it, as soon as possible. In fact, if it even looks like the rules MIGHT change, let your team know. If I knew that I had ANY chance of being on the advanced team (which the rest of the advance team knew 2 weeks before I did), I probably would have moved earlier to get my "To Do" list done. Instead, I thought I had weeks to spare, so I planned accordingly. That isn't a good way to treat your people. It causes undue stress and frustration.

I would say that this "rule" (ha ha) needs to go beyond simple scheduling. If requirements, compensation, vacation, overtime, ANYTHING changes, then the team has a right to know it changed; preferably before the impact (In other words, don't tell them Friday afternoon at 4:55 PM that they need to come in on Saturday at their regular time). I know that in some cases the change is immediate, and there is no way to "warn" them in advance; but I've found this to be the exception rather than the rule.

Don't make your people run around with their hair on fire because you had to play with a blow torch. It's not good for moral, and not god for retention (even more so in the civilian sector). Be a strong leader, own the change and COMMUNICATE it to the team, so that everyone can adjust accordingly.

If You Don't Schedule Your Time...

I had lunch with a new acquaintance recently. It was interesting. He was curious about my experiences as a PM and how he might move from a BA position to a more Project Manager style role. I shared some stories, some guidance, and a couple of "tasks" that were meant to get the ball rolling (if he chooses to follow them, yet another blog entry for the future).

Towards the end of the meal, my new friend told me he found this blog from my LinkedIn account, and wanted to know why I wasn't writing anymore. He liked some of my previous blog entries, in particular, this one; where I could have been a hero, but ended up a zero...

Anyway. I think the last thing I told him at lunch was "If you don't schedule your time, somebody else will." It is actually the last line in a speech I give on multitasking, which has proven very popular at Project Management Institute events. In fact, it's gone beyond that, because I will be presenting the speech again at the Toastmasters International District 56 Fall Conference next month. If you are in Houston, I think it will be worth showing up, not just for me, but for the Humorous Speech Contest. I've been to several Area Contests, and some of the speeches are hysterical...

Back on topic, later this same gentleman emailed me back and said he printed out my tag line and posted it on his wall. Why?

Well the answer is because our days are often filled with little fires that literally only eat up a couple of minutes. The problem is that as you allow those minutes to be eaten, you lose the time to complete your own goals. You blink and it's 5 o'clock, your exhausted and your "to-do" list isn't any shorter. You leave for the day, come back the next, and the exact same thing happens; so you are even farther behind. Before you know it you are sacrificing personal time (vacation, family, sick days) to catch-up, or at least not fall further behind. Sound familiar?

So, how do you combat this? My recommendation is to take a long hard look at your calender (in Outlook, probably). Each week, schedule time to get specific things done (project proposal, evaluations, whatever). Then STICK TO THE SCHEDULE. When people come bursting in with their hair on fire (as always seems to happen), point them to a bucket of cold water (figuratively) and tell them you are busy for the next (however many hours you are scheduled) and YOU will FIND THEM when your schedule is open. Ask them to have solutions prepared by the time you get there.

In my limited experience, I've found this to be a very useful tool for development (as well as my own sanity). The reason is that by the time I go find them (and that is the important part), they usually not only have a solution suggested, but are executing said solution. That transfers command to your staff, and gives them more pride in their work.  It is EMPOWERMENT. If the solution is wrong, then usually it is easy to backtrack, because they only just started down that path.

There are several other tricks that I talk about in the presentation, but I won't share them here (if I did, why would you need to come to the conference?). I am hoping to tape this one, so if you are lucky, you might actually get to watch my presentation. Stay tuned for more.


P.S. thank you, my new friend, for getting me to write again.

Leadership Evaluation - Setting Goals

On of my more popular entries is regarding Blue and Yellow Cards, and how the military effectively evaluates their young officers. I also mentioned during the blog that young officers are required to determine their goals and hand them to their supervisor at the beginning of each evaluation cycle. In point of the young officer was often given his/her boss's goals in advance so that the officer could set goals that support the mission of the unit. Sounds like a novel concept that might work?

This goes back to the principle of Communication. Thing about it, in any organization, how often is it that the middle managers and employees are kept in the dark about the true goals of their boss? When that happens, how often will everyone be pulling in the same direction? Will the group be effective? The answer to that for  the most part is almost always NO.

The DA-67-9-1 is the Officer Evaluation Support Form and is the required document previously mentioned. This form is yet another reason why the military does well at developing officers. Imagine an environment where your duties and responsibilities are spelled out for you at the beginning, and you help determine your own major performance objectives at the beginning of the cycle. This form is then shared with your boss for counseling and coaching in a one-on-one session. At the end of the cycle, you fill out the section on the significant contributions you've achieved. This form is again handed over to the boss, who uses it to help formulate his/her evaluation of the leader's performance. The final section involves the raters comments, a perfect opportunity for coaching.

John Maxwell constantly states that leaders need encouragement and guidance. If there aren't goals, how do you coach and encourage? It is a great concept, the problem (as almost always seems to be the case) is the execution.

Many people ignore the form completely. Others used it to set unattainable goals for their subordinates, thinking it would provide a valuable lesson, but instead only served to discourage the leader he/she was supposed to develop.

In the long run it is just a piece of paper. The concept is what's important. Sit with your leaders, develop goals and coach them through the process. The leaders will grow and perform beyond your expectations. Be fair to them, but be tough. Get you team to stretch beyond the comfortable and they will grow. Remember that this is a small (but important) part of the process of growing leaders. Communicate with them to set goals that move the organization closer to its' goals, and everybody wins

Wacky Wednesday - I'm My Own Grandpa

A long time ago, Mark Twain published a list an anecdotes. Within that list was a way a man could LEGITIMATELY become his own grandfather. I imagine at the time it was mildly amusing, and then largely forgotten. Later in the 70s a band created a song with that anecdote as the baseline. Again, funny at the time (it even made it to Season 1 of the Muppets, way back when), but largely forgotten. Then I get an email from my wife...

Animated Video - Own Grandpa

Of course, I just had to share. So unless you are a fan of Futurama and travel back in time like Fry did (if you don't know, don't ask), here is a legal way to become your own grandpa. I guess all things are possible once you put your mind to it...

Hunney, I'm Home!

Well, it has been a long time. Months even. I can thank the kind people at Google for this one. They locked out my Blogger account because I used the same email address as the web-administrator on a current Google site. The system took the accounts to mean 2 different accounts and locked out Blogger. What fun!

I finally got this settled out, needless to say, Google needs a help desk and not a "help forum" that is useless unless you know exactly what you are looking for. So look for my next Wacky Wednesday Clip, and I will continue with the Colin Powell analysis. Thanks for being patient and welcome back to the show!

Wacky Wednesday - Sense of Humor

As a leader I've found that you need to have a sense of humor. People will poke fun at you, mock you, mimic you. Honestly, just look at Saturday Night Live. The one character that you can count on to appear several times each season is the President of the United States. Who in this world is more mocked, mimicked and poked fun at then the Leader of the Free World? Now I do not want to talk about politics, but I ran across this spoof the other day and just had to share!

President Obama on the Death of Osama Bin Laden

So remember, as a leader you are not only someone that people look up to, but also a target. Have a sense of humor, because if you can't laugh at yourself, you won't keep your team's trust and goodwill.