Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Category: Working Matters

  • Loving Monday: If Only Everyone Else Would Change

    loving_mondayIf only my boss would stop changing his mind at the last minute. If only my partner wouldn’t yell when frustrated. If only she were more organized, he more accurate, they more creative, more patient, more timely, etc. etc. etc.

    If only.

    If only everyone else would change.

    Even though each complaint seems valid enough on its own, when listed together they give one pause. Can it really be that everyone else is holding me back, tripping me up, or getting in my way all of the time?

    I call this syndrome the “If Only” approach to life. “If only people and circumstances were different, I would be able to accompish what I know I am capable of doing and become who I know I have the potential to become.”

    The problem with the “If Only” approach to life is that it ignores the fact that I am the main player in my own life. To assume that I am not somehow a contributor to the challenges, complications, and/or set-backs in my own life is naive.

    In fact, such turning a blind eye to my own involvement in my own life is both irresponsible and outright negligent.

    Most importantly, though, this willful ignorance is foolhardy. It is foolhardy because our best opportunity for effecting change is in those matters over which we have some control. Like our own behavior. Our own attitude. Our own values, plans and choices.

    Even in contending with all that is outside of our control, our best opportunity is to focus on our reactions and responses instead of wishing the others would somehow change.

    It’s not that others’ foul choices should not be addressed or confronted. It’s that the passive hope that my life will get easier if and only when “they” somehow become different is as effective as hoping to win the lottery instead of saving a portion of every paycheck.

    Hence the need to turn my attention to my own involvement in my life. My choices. My reactions. My fears. My next steps.

    “In only they…” Scratch it from your vocabulary. Let’s all start using, “When I…”

  • Listen In -> Performance Management with Jeff Hunt #4: Rewarding

    Everyone loves rewards. I more than most.

    This week we conclude our excellent series with Jeff Hunt of Goalspan with a look at the fourth key component of performance management: Rewards.

    In this week’s show we explore four types of rewards:

    1. Recognition and praise
    2. Pay for performance
    3. Pay for contribution
    4. Pay for potential

    Do you know what reward most managers think that employees want? “Good wages.”

    Do you know what reward most employees actually say they want? “Full appreciation for work done.”

    Wages rank #5 on employees’ lists.

    Rewarding people is not the booby-trap of fueling spiraling expectations that many leaders fear.

    Are you overlooking a powerful tool at your disposal?

    Listen in.

  • Stop By and Say Hi

    This week we’re asking those of you listening to our podcast to stop by and say hi.

    Many of you are listening via an iTunes subscription or a feed reader, and we haven’t had a chance to meet.

    Leave a comment on this post letting us know who you are and where you’re located.

    We’d love to acknowledge you and greet you in return. We appreciate your participation in the Working Matters community.

    On your side,

    The Working Matters team

    – Karl, Claudia and Jorge

  • Teddy Roosevelt on Getting Off the Sidelines

    quote-to-consider“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the sidelinesgreat enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

    Theodore Roosevelt

  • I’m Putting Yellers On Notice

    boss-yellingIt’s over. We’re done. No more.

    Labor Day 2009. The day leaders stopped yelling.

    Yelling as a “tool” for leaders is one of the great excuses and abuses that persists in the workplace.

    It’s an excuse, because yelling is a cover for one’s own inability to either control one’s temper or come up with effective communication alternatives. While occasionally necessary to communicate seriousness, dissatisfaction, and/or anger about work-related dynamics, it is positively never necessary to use yelling to do so.

    It’s an abuse because yelling uses the cover of power to get away with a behavior that would not be tolerated from those with less power than you. Because the cover of power is yelling’s only outlet, it is a form of bullying and therefore cowardice.

    It’s over.

    I‘m putting yellers on notice. Your day is over. Get help or get out. Muster the courage to learn effective alternatives or make way for those who can.

    We’re done.

    I’m putting anyone who makes excuses for these verbally violent leaders on notice. These are not our great leaders, and those who lionize them as such must stop. You are intentionally ignoring the evidence. While publishing books that claim short term results, you ignore the long term costs and consequences of the high turnover, low morale, bare minimum work efforts, self-protective resistances, retaliatory subterfuges, and antagonistic cultures that spread like cancers throughout these organizations.

    No more.

    It’s a new day. It will be a day characterized by mutual respect, lofty aspirations, meaningful accountability, shared commitments, trust-based collaborations, and concrete results that outperform anything we’ve ever seen before.

    What sort of leader will you be? Not one who yells, I trust.

  • Listen In -> Performance Management with Jeff Hunt #3: Assessing

    Surprise!

    Not the feeling you want to experience during your performance review.

    “What do you mean, you don’t think I’m pulling my weight?” exclaims the dumbfounded employee who thought his supervisor was actually quite pleased with his work.

    “What do you mean, you want to expand your responsibilities?” mutters the astonished supervisor who can’t believe such mediocre work would warrant a promotion.

    In this week’s conversation with Jeff Hunt of Goalspan, we look at the third component of the Performance Management process: Assessing.

    Did you know there are four elements to an effective assessment process?

    1. They are two-way. Both the supervisor and the employee do the assessing.
    2. They take place frequently. Issues need to be addressed closer to when they happen.
    3. They have both quantitative and qualitative components.
    4. They assess for future potential. Which employees are keepers? Future leaders?

    Remove the unnecessary surprises from your performance reviews.

    Listen in.

  • The Most Astounding Failure in Modern Business History

    Invisible PersonAs you know, one of my favorite questions for leaders is, “Does it matters who’s sitting in the chair?”

    The question helps tease out how well a leader knows who is on the team and what each person brings to the table.

    Most leaders look to their organizational charts and each specific job description to describe the make-up of their team. But such a view is only half the picture.

    Less than half the picture actually.

    How would you evaluate an employee who understood less than half of the issues related to their job? Who didn’t have an in depth knowledge of their firm’s assets?

    Negligent? Incompetent? A failure?

    Sadly, many leaders not only don’t know who is on their team, but boast of the fact. They call such intentional blindness “maintaining objectivity” and “staying focused on the bottom line.”

    It is, in fact, negligence. The most astounding failure in modern business history.

    These leaders are making decisions of huge significance without (more…)

  • When To Play Your Weaker Players: The Leader’s Conundrum

    weaklingDoes anyone really play their weaker players when serious about winning the game?

    It’s a nice sentiment. But if victory is at stake, rare (probably non-existent) is the coach who decides to extend an opportunity for challenge to anyone other than their best.

    But how do your weaker players become stronger players when they get no game time?

    Experience is a vital and irreplaceable form of training.

    So do you risk the game on building a stronger future? Do you even have a future if you don’t build your weaker players?

    But will you have a future if you don’t play to win now? What if the game ends early because you bet on the future and lost in the present?

    I don’t know that there’s a definitive answer to these questions.

    And that’s the point. The conundrum. The choice every leader faces. The risk every leader must take. Does take. Takes whether he or she knows it or not.

    What are you doing to develop your weaker players? Is it worth it? How do you decide how much of the present game to risk on the future game?

    How do you deal with this leader’s conundrum?

    On your side,

    – Karl

  • Listen In -> Performance Management with Jeff Hunt #2: Managing

    Has it been an entire year since you’ve talked with anyone on your team about their job performance?

    Does it feel a bit awkward to bring up that negative encounter nine months ago?

    Did you miss an opportunity to provide needed resources simply because you didn’t know about the need at the time?

    We are in week 2 of our conversation with Jeff Hunt of Goalspan about performance management, and our topic this week is “managing.”

    After establishing expectations for results having planned, our next step is to establish an on-going conversation about how we work together. Instead of performance management being a single annual event, we are going to make it a process.

    Don’t miss Jeff’s insights into the three components of managing job performance:

    1. Coaching and feedback – Establishing the ongoing conversation.
    2. Supporting learning and development – Providing the resources and training.
    3. Proactively addressing issues as they arise instead of waiting 10 months to the next evaluation.

    What is your process? Do you engage early and often? Do your performance evaluations increase or decrease employee morale, motivation and engagement?

    Listen in.

  • Loving Monday: You Forgot What I Was Angry About?!

    loving_mondaySome of us never miss an opportunity to resent.

    Given that it’s Monday, we’ve already lost a good portion of our weekend re-living the crime. “How could he be so cut-throat?” “She knew I wanted that assignment.” “Why doesn’t he pull his weight on this project?”

    As real and as wrong as the underlying offenses probably are, some other dynamic is going on that authorizes us to stew within ourselves as the selected available option.

    Given that it’s Monday, we would be better served if we don’t let our week begin with such a bitter taste in our mouths. It’s going to color everything we do. It might even poison our attitude in unrelated conversations and collaborations.

    We need to come up with some alternatives.

    We might just need to let the slight go. Put it behind us so that we can free up our hearts and minds to focus on the task at hand. Write if off for the sake of moving forward.

    We might need to talk directly to the person involved. Instead of exploding all over them after we’ve reached our breaking point, we attempt a calm, fact-based conversation about the perceived offense.

    We need to get creative. While we didn’t get ourselves into this situation, we are simply wasting time and energy waiting for the blind to see. We need to do something for ourselves. We need to set ourselves free to get back to work. Launch a new week. Enjoy loving what we do.

    If you’re catching yourself seizing another opportunity to resent, take a step back. Take a look around. Find a better way forward.