Management Craft

Ten Questions Every Leader Ought to Be Asking

If I read another article or post that starts with, “during these tough times,” I am going to scream. Let’s get with it, leaders, these times are why we exist.  The more we talk about how the times are tough, the greater the likelihood that we will approach our work as victims. 

We are at our best when we catalyze progress – when we create environments that help people, teams and processes do great work together. I invite all leaders – at all levels in the organization – to embrace the opportunity to be great like you never knew you could be or was possible. Here are ten questions you can ask yourself and your team to get catalytic juices flowing:

• What’s the new opportunity that we are not seeing? How might we learn from other organizations, both competitors and non-competitors?
• How might new trends in how people communicate and work open up new ways to improve our organization? What does the workplace look like when we are focused and in action?
• When a meeting feels flat and perfunctory, what’s going on? What’s on people minds that they are not saying? What question could I ask that would open the discussion back up? What’s possible if I had the courage to do this?
• What is “my best work” and how can I ensure I do that today? How can I enable my team to do their best work?
• If we were starting this organization from scratch, how would we design it? What would we do if resources were not an issue?
• What’s the craziest idea that just might work?
• What are the most irksome/damaging barriers facing me and my team right now and how can I reduce or obliterate them?
• What is my manifesto (driving philosophy and passion) as a leader and how can I ensure my team understands it? What is our team’s manifesto?
• What’s possible now that was not possible last year/month?
• Do I have my team focused on doing the work that matters most? How can I optimize how we spend our precious time?

Create your own list of questions and bring them into your next staff meeting or team huddle. Select one of these questions to drill down on with a small group of peers. Put a copy of this article in everyone’s inbox! Great questions help us generate productive conversations and conversations are our currency for getting things done.

We are leaders because we make things happen that would not happen without us. We are driven to create, model, and catalyze excellence. We do not maintain. We do not play the victim. We take the initiative to do whatever it takes to make a significant and positive difference and we have more opportunities to do this today than ever.

As the great Henry V said in Shakespeare’s play, “All things are ready if our minds be so.” And let’s not forget Westmorland’s response, “perish the man whose mind is backward now!”

Indeed.

The most effective leaders will shine bright now because they are ready to slog through any organizational muck that threatens to slow their team down. Let’s all be a part of the leadership revolution.

10 Leadership Lessons from Starbucker. A couple more from me.

I love this post from fellow blogger and pal Terry Starbucker called, My 10 Favorite Leadership Lessons. This post is brilliant and helpful, please go check it out now. Terry's day job is that of a senior leader and he walks his talk.

I think Terry covers a lot of great ground in this post - I agree with all his points. Two additional lessons of mine that come to mind are"

• We are dragon slayers. Dysfunction and disorder - the guck and muck of management - are the dragon.
• Anyone can be a great manager if he/she gets it why he/she exist. Managers must, everyday, seek to make things better for people, processes, and organizations.
• OK, one more. Being a manager is a privilege. We have been handed a piece of the organization to run and this is a tremendous burden and privilege. Even front line supervisors have this burden and should feel some sense of awe at what they have been handed in terms of opportunity.
• OK, one more. People join companies, leave managers. We create the culture and we can lead improvements or breakdowns in culture.

Check out Terry's post. What lessons would you add?

Cranky Middle Manager and Me - A discussion about relevancy. Others. Hip and sage, baby!

I had the pleasure of being a guest on the Cranky Middle Manager podcast - my 4th time. This time we talked about what it means to have a relevant mindset (hip and sage). It turned out quite well, I think, so please check it out here. Thanks, Wayne!

Thanks also to Dwayne over at Genuine Curiosity for his review of Hip and Sage. Here is a snippet:

If you work with younger people, being Hip can be a game changer (and becoming Hip can be fun).  Lisa provides a set of techniques and philosophies to help you enlist the help of younger mentors in a way that will tap into their knowledge and excitement, and (I believe) make them want to help you get up to speed.

And check out this interview I did with Vince Thompson on the SmartPlanet website. Here is a snippet:

Do Hip and Sage people fair better when in comes to facing layoffs?

If you are someone who has 20 years of experience you are a valuable person…but if you don’t come into an interview and demonstrate that you not only understand but also know how to use technology to power teams you’ll be at distinct disadvantage.

How do you demonstrate that?

You need to show in your resume....

Aahh, I am such a tease.

BTW - here are the cities I will be traveling to over the next couple of months. Let me know if you would like me to come speak to your company or organization, or do some management training magic (I do believe that the best training feels magical). You can send me an email at lhaneberg AT managementperformance DOT com.

Cleveland, OH
Chicago Area (Milwaukee, too)
LA, soCal
Portland
Seattle
Wash DC/Alexandria VA
Jacksonville, FL
Memphis/Nashville, TN area

Lead Big - Keynote - Your Thoughts?

I am working on a super-duper keynote talk about leading big and building the organization. Here are the main points. Your thoughts? I realize you cannot get the gist of it with bullet points, but do these seem like the right ones to you?

• What it looks like when leaders are actively building the organization. Painting the picture for what “build” and “lead big” look like in action and during normal business operations (critical thinking, collaboration, taking initiative, etc). Describing it with vivid specificity.
• Building the context for your leadership excellence. The importance of personal vision tied to your organization's vision and mission and how to align the context of your work place and department with your intentions.
• "Build" occurs when we make good, sometimes tough, choices about time, resources, priorities, risk. Putting discipline and rigor into your managerial regimens.
• Leadership at all levels - Building a build culture. Modeling the way, teaching others. Inspiring a build way of thinking.
• Building your reputation as leader – Four foundations for leading big for impact. Perseverance, humility, connectivity, and trust.
• Leading big together - How to build new approaches, solutions in a team environment. Best practices for teams approaching a business opportunity or challenge. Blue-sky thinking, fresh eyes, outside-in focus, the right questions, enrollment, invite a challenge, crossing the T’s, courage, leadership changes with the topic/situation.

This keynote is part of a larger program that will immediately put the participants into action working on a project that calls upon them to use these elements of leading big and building the organization. Should be very energizing and inspiring - with great visuals and reinforcements (no bullet points) on the screen.

If you were going to hear a keynote - what is the topic you would most want to listen to?

I enjoy keynotes because they are so dramatic and draining in a good way. I usually collapse in my hotel room afterward. :-)

Be the energy and go where the energy is.

I tweeted this: Go where the energy is. That's my motto.

And fellow blogger, coach, twittering pal Rosa Say responded with a link to this amazing article all about how managers can create energy at work and why they ought to called, 3 Ways Managers Create Energetic Workplaces. I love this article, please check it out and then give her suggestions a try. Here is a snippet:

If you are a manager (and all business owners are managers too) assume the role of energy creator in your company. Change the title on your business card to Energy Creator; come on, I dare you. Whatever you have there now is probably more normal, and normal is boring.

Your greatest resource in any workplace is NOT time (or financing), it IS the energy required to make the time and other resources you have available count for something worthwhile and meaningful.

What's At Your Leadership "Core?" - Colleen Barrett, Southwest Airlines

I put up a very cool piece of video from You Tube over on Management Central (my new Ning site). The video is an interview of Colleen Barrett (former President of Southwest Airlines, now President Emeritus) by the folks at Wharton. Colleen was Herb Kelleher's legal secretary and jumped ship from the law firm where they both worked to help Herb start the airline (nearly 40 years ago).

I love this piece of video because Colleen talks about her approach and the core leadership beliefs they used to build the SW brand. And she talks about what's at her core in an open and honest way that I think we could all learn from.

In the interview, Colleen also talks about co-leadership - when you have a strong, almost unstoppable partnership with someone. I have experienced this just a couple of times in my career, and I still think back on those expereinces fondly. Co-leadership works when the core is complementary but then you help fill in each other's gaps in other areas. Have you ever experienced that?

The video is 25 minutes long, but well worth it. And this might be something you want to pass along to your managers and leaders. And for those of you in the training ans development profession, this would make for a very cool and provocative pre-work assignment.

So click on over to Management Central and watch the video featuring Colleen Barrett. And while you are there, check out the discussion started by Leigh called, "Kicking and Screaming My Way Toward Management," and offer your 2 cents.

Leadership Flaws? Here are 10

I love this post by fellow blogger, Ning host and all-round great online colleague David Zinger called, Leadership Flaws and Disengagement. He shares and writes about how our bad habits, behaviors and choices can get in the way of productivity, retention, and the work culture. The shame of it is that the #1 flaw is TOTALLY in our control and easy to fix - really it is. Check it out.

If you are interested in employee engagement, be sure to check out David's Employee Engagement Network.

And please also check out and join my brand new network for managers and leaders called Management Central.

10 Worst Work Habits

Check out this article from Career Builder (courtesy of CNN) called The 10 Worst Work Habits. How many are you guilty of? What would the 10 Worst Management Habits looks like? Let's compile a list together in the comments, OK?

Ning Back Up - Join Management Central now!

As the previous post says, I started a new social network for managers and leaders. Ning was down, but now it is back up.

Join Management Central here - It's free to join, of course.

Join the Management Central Social Network

Blogs are great. I like when people comment because then it is like a mini conversation. Not a lot of people comment.

Podcasts are great - but they are onesided. No conversation.

Twitter is great - and twittering can lead to a good micro-conversation, but it has so many limits (not to mention the need to wade through all the non-conversational stuff).

Facebook and LinkedIn are great, and some conversations can occur, but only between those who have chosen to be connected. There is little chance for accidental meetings.

So I created a social network on Ning called Management Central and I would like you to join. My hope is to host a site where anyone interested in the topics of management and leadership can converse, meet, and share ideas. I like the egalitarian, and focused, nature of Ning versus the other tools.

Join Management Central here - It's free to join, of course.

And if you are a blogger or podcaster, join in and send me the link to your site and I will include it on the blogroll and podcast roll.

Feel free to share videos, post events, post discussion topics, post blog posts, create and/or join groups, etc.. You will see that I have started things off with only a wskeliton of sample content, because I don't want to dominate things (although I am a recovering control freak and would be happy to dominate).

I was inspired to start this Ning after playing with a few private Ning sites behind the scenes and by being a part of another Ning site, pal David Zonger's Employee Engagement Network.

I wrote a bit about Ning here.

Right now the site is in its beginning stages and I will make changes as we all get going. I don't yet have restrictions on posting content, and will only switch on the moderator function when we start getting hit by spam or people with ill intent. Which, is inevitable, unfortunately.

The thing I like about this Ning site is that it invites everyone to share their thoughts and contribute to the community. You can be an occasional blogger, share best practices, or offer provocative questions that make our hair curl. Or just lurk around if that's your thing. :-)