Management Craft

Defining the Grand Slam Home Run

Grand slam home run is a term from baseball. When a batter hits the ball out of the park (and not in foul territory), this is called a home run. The batter then gets to run the bases and collect a run, or one point. If there are any players already on a base (first, second, and/or third base), they get to run to home base too and collect a run. When a batter hits a home run and the bases are loaded (all three bases have runners), this is called a grand slam home run because it results in the highest possible number of points - four runs or four points. The grand slam home run makes the most out of the team’s efforts and has an added benefit of creating a feeling of success throughout the organization.

I like using the grand slam home run as a benchmark for managerial results because everything we do ought to have a positive and additive affect on our teams, peers, and the organization. If you are going to do something, make it a grand slam! If we are going to engage people in meaningful work, let’s do work that makes everyone feel like a winner.

Sounds nice, I know, but let’s take this metaphor and put it to work. To do this, you should start by having a conversation with your manager. Ask your manager to clarify the results you and your team need to product over the next year. For each key result, ask him or her what a grand slam home run would look like.  For example, if a key result is to successfully implement the new accounting system within budget by August 1st, a grand slam home run might be to:

• Complete the implementation by July 1, before the busy season
• Involve the accounting team in the project such that ownership and acceptance is high
• Implement the project while improving accountant computer skills (so they can better use the new system’s features)
• Develop robust contingency plans to cover any potential project setbacks
• Find a way to do all this and reduce the costs spent on the project – harness the creativity of the group to find the best way to transition to the new system

There’s getting a project done and then there’s doing a project such that many other aspects of the work are improved as well – that’s great planning and management. As a driven and talented manager, you want to know what excellence looks like. Define and strive for the grand slam home run to have the deepest and broadest positive impact on the organization.

Some of you might be thinking that talking about grand slams will set you up for failure because the boss will then expect nothing but grand slams. Sure, I will admit that openly discussing grand slams changes expectations – yours and your boss’s. But, BUT, this is a good thing. My goal with this step is to help set you and your team up for amazing contribution. Identifying what great looks like is an important part of this. Think about the above example. If you don’t identify what a grand slam looks like, what are the chances that you will go for this higher level of performance? The chances are low because we get what we focus on.

Take some time to go over your major projects and tasks with your manager and define what a grand slam home run would look like for each and every one.

Batter up!

Heading to New Zealand

Tomorrow Bill and I head to New Zealand for 21 days. I have a few blog posts loaded up to share with you while I am gone, but I will not be answering comments - chat with each other! I will have very limited access to internet cafes and I am not bringing a laptop, a blackberry, or a cell phone.

It's time to unplug.

I have picked up a fresh Moleskine to record a few thoughts

No worries.

Enjoy the holiday season!

Fireside Chat with Mark Wayland

Escape the sheep dip! - Chat with Mark Wayland

In this 31 minute chat, I chat with Australian learning and development strategy expert, Mark Wayland. We talk about the world of training and development from three perspectives - the senior manager, the manager, and the management trainer. Misery loves company and together, we rant about the often broken systems and practices found in traditional training departments and then offer our thoughts on what companies and training professionals ought to doing to best meet their organizations' development needs.

Want to know what Lisa and Mark think is full of bunk? Listen to this podcast!

You can listen to my podcast with Mark Wayland by clicking here:

You can also download an MP3 version of the podcast here: MP3 Download

And just a reminder.....

Here is the Podcast Feed for the entire Fireside Chat podcast series:

You can also find this series on iTunes (and several other podcast sites), just search under my last name for Fireside Chat.

Thanksgiving Poem

Here's a sonnet of thanks I posted back on this blog two years ago for Thanksgiving. Wow, looking back on this makes me realize I have been writing this blog for a long time (in blog years, that is). Thanks for tuning in!

Rain Haiku

Seattle has had record rain this month and the Seattle Times asked people to submit haiku poems about rain. Here's mine.

Green and yellow blob
Slinks northeast, swallows the sky
And the rain comes down

If you're going to quit, go out with some style!

Here’s a pet peeve of mine. I start a new job, get into my new office, look around, and check out the desk and file cabinets. And there’s junk everywhere! Unused ketchup packets in the top right-hand drawer, tons of stuff filling the In Box, and what looks like a open bag of roasted peanuts in the top drawer commingling with 85 half used pens, 23 bitten on pencils, and 13 opened bottles of dried up White Out. How many of you have started a new job and had this same experience? How many of you have left offices in this shape? Come on, be honest! Please don’t do this to the next person. Leave your workspace in great condition – better than when you got it. I bet some people never bother to clean out the peanuts and end up passing them on to manager after manager after manager like a Christmas Fruitcake.

Show the organization how to leave with style and grace – leave your department and office in better shape than you received it.

Show pride in the work you have done and help pave the way for the next person’s success. Even if you are leaving because you can’t stand the job any longer – take the high road.

My example only went so far as to describe the desk (but it’s an excellent visual, no?). You need to do the same with projects, initiatives, personnel challenges, and uncompleted tasks. Leave them all in better shape than when you took over the job. I once took over a job and the woman before me did not even take the time to delete her personal emails. Her emails were transferred to me so that I would have the vendor contacts, but I also got lots of creepy messages about her dates and shopping habits – yuck! That’s just plain lazy, and these days dangerous because you never know what’s going to end up on some blog or written in a management book as a “don’t do this,” example.

Take the last two weeks to clean things up in general and have fun going out with a glorious bang.

Here's a fun idea. Pretend you are leaving and clean out the peanuts today - it will feel like you started a new job. :-)

Oh, one more thing. My husband says ketchup in a packet is good forever, but I don't think so. He also thinks it's OK to eat warm yogurt because it is pasteurized. Toss the ketchup packets.

What do they expect?

Another wee snippet from my current book project, 10 Steps to Better Management.

Do you know how your manager, peers, and team members would answer these questions relative to their expectations of you? In what ways would their answers differ?

You may think that some of these questions are too basic to be asked, but they generate some really great and eye opening conversations. Give it a try!

Oh, one more thing. For those of you with people who report to you - do your team members know how you would answer these questions for them?

Tell me how you define quality of work? What are your expectations regarding deadlines and communication of work status? What does being prepared mean?

What is your expectation of me regarding making and communicating decisions? What types of decisions would you like me to include you in making?

Describe the work environment you expect me to build and reinforce? In what ways would you like to see the company’s culture change and what role do you believe I should play in creating that transformation? Is there anything about the department’s current culture that you think ought to change or improve?

Describe what is means to be creative? How important is creativity and innovation and what are your expectations of me regarding creativity and innovation? In what ways would you like my group and me to generate new ideas and improve results?

Describe for me your vision of how a well functioning team looks and feels? What expectations do you have regarding team developing and productivity? What are your expectations regarding how I will manage and correct poor performance? How much time do you think I ought to spend coaching others?

What does effective communication look like in your eyes? What are your expectations of me regarding communication? What are your expectations of me regarding attending and conducting meetings?

Everyone needs to continue to grow. In what two ways would you most like to see me to grow and develop over the next year?

What does it mean to be results oriented? What are your expectations of me regarding getting results and being results oriented?

How important is partnership and collaboration? What are your expectations of me regarding our level of partnership and collaboration? In what ways would you like to see partnership and collaboration improve?

What does it mean to represent the company well? What are your expectations for how managers will conduct themselves and represent the company?

What questions would you ask?

Leadership is Not a Job

Another wee snippet from the book I am working on, 10 Steps to Better Management. Thoughts? Agree? Disagree?

I want to address a common question - what’s the difference between management and leadership? My perspective on this is likely different than what you have heard before or read in leadership books. First, I don’t believe that management and leadership are different positions or jobs. Many companies distinguish managers and leaders based on their pecking order in the organization. That seems like nonsense. We see and experience leadership at all levels of the organization. Some people believe that leadership is something you do when you move beyond management – that leadership is a set of tasks that are somehow higher in level and that it takes more skill to be a leader than it does to be a manager. This belief does not make sense. We see people with all ranges of education and sophistication demonstrate leadership.

What is leadership? Management is a set of methods and practices – a regimen – that allows us to run a business or a piece of the business. Management is a job. Leadership is not a job; it’s the way we do our jobs. Imagine four peer managers sitting in a meeting together discussing the progress of a major project. The discussion could be considered part of management. Having update meetings about major initiatives is one task or function of management. Let’s say that one of those managers, you, demonstrates courage and takes the initiative to openly discuss concerns that the others are too chicken to bring up. At your prompting, the discussion opens up and important concerns are defined and addressed. In fact, the discussion has left the group questioning whether the project is still viable and a good use of time and resources. During that display of courage – in that moment – you demonstrated leadership.

We ought to be managers all the time and show leadership when it’s needed. This is the case will all jobs. If you are a controller, you ought to be a great controller all the time and demonstrate leadership when needed. If you are a front line worker on an assembly line, you ought to be a great screw gun operator all the time and lead when necessary.

Alfie Kohn Interview on Building Innovation

Here's a quick link to an interesting  and brief interview of one of my favorite thinkers, Alfie Kohn. Posted on the Business Innovation Insider.

The Art of Partnering

Free books, read below. - One left!    All the books have been spoken for, I look forward to seeing the reviews and will post them on this blog in January.

Hello - wanna do a book report? Well, not a book report, but a book review? Just 4 paragraphs is all I need (unless you want to do more, you can write as much as you want).

If you have been reading lately, you know that I am up to my eyeballs in alligators and then heading out of the country and Internet range (yippee!) for a month until the new year.

Well, I have several books waiting to be looked at and reviewed. You wanna do them for me? Here's the deal:

The first person to offer in a comment to this post (so people know which books are taken) and an email to me (with your mailing address) gets to participate for each book. One book per person.

Email me at lhaneberg AT gmail DOT com

I will mail you the book (I am sorry, but I need to limit this to people living in the US and Canada just because of mail timing and cost). And I would like to have your review by email by January 1. I will post it on my blog, giving you full credit, and only ask that it be written for all audiences and not offensive. You can say whatever you want about the book - I encourage you to be truthful about how you feel - the good, the bad, and the ugly (and the pretty).

You keep the book or pass it along.

PLEASE don't volunteer and then NOT do the review. I would feel really bad about that and the copy I am sending you is my only copy of the book.

Here are the choices - some cool stuff!!!!

The Anatomy of Peace: Resolving the Heart of Conflict by The Arbinger Institute

Lightning in a Bottle: The Proven System to Create New Ideas and Products That Work by David Minter and Michael Reid

The Go Point: When It's Time to Decide by Michael Useem

And I have the galley (prepress version) of Ram Charan's next book, Know-How: The 8 Skills that Separate People Who Perform from Those That Don't.

Thanks for your help!