Kenny Rogers Was on to Something: How to Decide when Persistence is Worth the Effort

Kenny Rogers sang a song in the 1970s that gave some great advice: “You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, and know when to run.” The song was about a gambler but you can apply this to leadership as well. Major projects usually produce change and change can bring resistance that makes you question your efforts. Some projects just take a long time to see results. How do you know when a project isn’t working out and should be scrapped or when it just needs some persistence to get through to the payoff? Rosabeth Moss Kanter provides us with 12 ways to know when to persist and when to give up on a hopeless project. The entire article is worth reading but here are her 12:

1. Are the initial reasons for the effort still valid? 
2. Do the needs for which this is a solution remain unmet, or are competing solutions still unproven or inadequate? 
3. Would the situation get worse if this effort stopped? 
4. Is it more cost-effective to continue than to pay the costs of restarting? 
5. Is the vision attracting more adherents?
6. Are leaders still enthusiastic, committed, and focused on the effort? 
7. Are resources available for continuing investment and adjustments? 
8. Is skepticism and resistance declining? 
9. Is the working team motivated to keep going? 
10. Have critical deadlines and key milestones been met? 
11. Are there signs of progress, in that some problems have been solved, new activities are underway, and trends are positive?
12. Is there a concrete achievement – a successful demonstration, prototype, or proof of concept? 

After thinking through these points, as well as anything else relevant for your particular setting, you will likely be clearer on whether to “hold ‘em or fold ‘em.”

Your Turn

This blog is dedicated to providing you with information about leadership and management in a brief format suitable to busy people.  But this week, I’d like to hear from you. 

What leadership or management topics would you like to know more about?

What leadership problems or barriers would you like solutions for?

Do you see yourself as a leader, whether at work or in your personal life?

If not, what keeps you from seeing yourself that way?

Thanks in advance for your input in the comments section below.  The feedback will be put to good use to bring you information that you can use!

Your Morning "Ritual"

I recently listened to an interesting podcast called “Become More Productive by Reengineering Your Morning Ritual” by Michael Hyatt.  Michael’s point was that everyone has a morning ritual or routine that influences what comes later and intentionally creating this foundation will enable you to get what you want out of your day.  He recommends seven steps that I’d like to summarize for you here.  His entire 40-minute podcast is worth a listen because he provides more detail and answers to some very good questions that will flesh out what I’m providing.   (Full disclosure:  Michael is a Christian and discusses his faith practices when describing his personal morning routine, but he doesn’t proselytize or dictate that this be part of your routine.)

Step one: Acknowledge that you have a ritual and be intentional about it.

The first step in changing anything is becoming aware of what you do currently.  It’s the first step in becoming more intentional about the connection between what you do to start your day and what comes after that beginning.

Step two: Document your ritual. 

Write down the things you do every morning.  Be honest about the positive parts and the not-as-positive parts, so write down, for example, that you eat breakfast every morning and also that you hit the snooze button three times before getting up.  This will help you see and understand what you currently do.

Step three: Evaluate whether your ritual is getting you what you want.

Take some time to think about the rest of your typical day and see if you can see connections.  Do you commonly feel rushed and stressed as you get to work?  Could it be because you only allow enough time to do the bare minimum of preparation and allow no time for unexpected realities?

Step four: Determine what you want and what you don’t want.

This step corresponds to Stephen Covey’s Second Habit, “Begin with the end in mind.”  Think about what you do (or don’t) want to get out of the beginning of your day before you make changes to what you're currently doing.  So, do you want to feel relaxed or connected spiritually?  Do you want to have a clear idea of the priorities for the day or be organized? 

Step five:  Reengineer your current ritual.

Once you see what you’re currently doing and what you’d like to be getting, brainstorm a list of alternative activities that help you get there.  So, if you want to feel calm and centered, you could add ideas to your list about taking time to be still, meditate, listen to calming music or sounds, etc.  Next, you will need to identify how much time each part will take and then arrange the order of the parts, so that they make sense – you don’t want to shower before you work out, right? -- and flow naturally.

Step six:  Implement the ritual.

In the words of the iconic Nike ads, “Just do it.”  You will need to practice the new routine for awhile in order to give it a chance to work and overcome the initial resistance to change that many of us feel. 

Step seven: Tweak the ritual as necessary.

Your life will change depending on your life stage and other realities.  Don’t get stuck in something if it is not working the way you thought it would or has stopped working for you over time.  Add new practices, delete old ones, rearrange the order, expand some parts or shorten others, and make other tweaks to change what you do to get the results that you want.  

In the podcast, Michael answers questions about what to do if you are a night owl, get distracted by other things, experience a disruption, and so on.  I encourage you to take some time to look at how you set up your day to get more of what you want from it.  

Five Leadership Lessons from James T. Kirk

Most of us in leadership positions, or aspiring to them, take leadership pretty seriously.  It’s also important, however, to have fun and today I want to point you to a witty blog post that teaches some good leadership lessons:  Five Leadership Lessons from James T. Kirk.  Trekkies will, of course, enjoy this but the author provides good food for thought -- including why you should play poker instead of chess in leadership terms, the importance of being a part of the "away team" -- whether you like Star Trek or not.  Enjoy!

Good Boss/Bad Boss

You may have heard of a book published several years ago called Rich Dad, Poor Dad, about how differences among people in how they think about money, and the choices that flow from those mindsets, can make an impact on financial success and independence.  I can’t say if this book is true or not, but I do know that supervision, like money management, is largely dependent on the mindset of the supervisor and the choices she makes as a result of that point of view, so today, I want to summarize some of the recent supervision tips I’ve seen and provide you with links if you’d like to know more.  Think of it as the supervision version of Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

First, let’s talk about the things bad supervisors do:

They call too many meetings and then show up late while others wait.  This is according to a leader who regularly surveyed his staff but it is often true in many places.  It’s a small thing but it sends the message that their team’s time isn’t important, and no one works well where they think they aren’t respected.

They actively or passively stymie progress on work projects.  These roadblocks can be created in innumerable ways:  supervisors not understanding the actual duties of their teams and the time it takes to accomplish certain tasks, not providing clear vision or guidance, giving conflicting goals, and not responding to requests in a timely way.   The feeling that their boss is creating roadblocks kills an employee’s desire to work hard and accomplish things.

They lack self-awareness and are clueless about how their actions influence their teams.  Bad supervisors do a lot of things to get in the way and, when the team reacts to this, bad bosses blame them instead of looking in the mirror.  That’s not to say that individual employees who are ineffective don’t exist, but…if a supervisor thinks his entire team is ineffective or dysfunctional, the first step is to figure out how the supervisor is contributing to it.

They blame or retaliate against those who try to speak up about problems.  Shakespeare told us not to “shoot the messenger,” and some supervisors have missed this important lesson.  This punishment of anyone delivering bad news stops the flow of any constructive information and what organization can survive with it?

Now that we’ve seen some of the “don’ts” of effective supervision, let’s talk about the things good supervisors do:

They understand the power of relationships.  They know that the work world is more of an ecosystem, with partnerships and collaborations, than a war that needs to be won.  This approach increases flexibility and information flow, which leads to better decisions.

They treat employees as colleagues, not robots or naughty children.  They set high standards – and, yes, that means holding people accountable – but they understand that every person is important, from the person who empties the trash to the CEO.  They set a vision and direction, hire and train good people, and inspire their teams, not crush them with rigid processes and excessive control.

They help their teams understand change.  They neither worship the status quo, nor change things just for the sake of change.  They preserve effective practices and change the ineffective….and they know the difference between the two.  The also involve people in the change process where possible and explain the changes to make people more comfortable.

They do what they can to make work satisfying.  Work is going to have at least some drudgery or administrivia as part of the day – otherwise it would be called “vacation” -- but good bosses want their teams to be happy and satisfied and they work hard to make that happen.

What other “good boss” or “bad boss” beliefs or practices have you observed?

Want to know more?  Here are the resource pieces for this post.

Four Ways Supervisors Frustrate Their Employees—Are  You Guilty?

How to Completely, Utterly Destroy an Employee’s Work Life

Eight Core Beliefs of Extraordinary Bosses

Whining, Venting, or Problem-Solving?

All of us encounter a stressful or perplexing situation now and again.  Friends, family, and colleagues may bring theirs to us to discuss, and we do the same.  Over years of participating in these conversations, both as the listener and as the speaker, I have observed something that, once I got it, had saved me some time and frustration and I want to share that with you.  That lesson is to consciously categorize your conversations, and only spend time with those that are constructive.

The first step is identifying the conversation.  When a negative or stressful situation is being discussed, the conversation generally falls into three main types: 

1. Venting:  This involves describing the negative circumstance and voicing complaints about it.  Its main purpose, however, is to discharge negative feelings in a safe environment before moving on to more constructive solutions, either in the conversation or outside of it.  It can be positive if it allows the speaker to get out her frustrations, preventing them from blowing up in an inappropriate way or time.
2. Problem-solving:  This conversation acknowledges the concern and then quickly moves toward solutions.  The bulk of this conversation is about making the negative situation right, seeking greater understanding, or reframing the circumstance from negative to positive.  In situations where the speaker doesn’t have much power to affect change, the problem-solving focuses on how he can alter his perception of the situation, create a work-around, accept the situation, or plan an exit strategy.
3. Whining:  This involves describing the negative circumstance and voicing complaints, but the conversation never moves to possible solutions.  When constructive actions or remedies are suggested, the speaker usually shoots down all of them and resists any attempt to brainstorm solutions.  He may even disparage the person trying to help, saying things like, “You just don’t get it.”  Whining’s main purpose is often to reinforce the speaker’s perceived powerlessness, regardless of the reality.

Understanding these types of conversations has saved me a good bit of time and frustration.  It’s helped me focus my energy on problem-solving conversations and prevented me from expending energy attempting to help people who didn’t want it, at least at the time I was offering it. 

Take a moment or ten this week to notice the types of discussions you have.  Whether you are the speaker or listener, set a “no whining” goal and nudge your conversations toward support and problem-solving.  You’ll get more done and feel better about it, too.

How to be a Good Boss in Tough Times

The purpose of this blog is to provide you with leadership knowledge that is useful, whether it’s through summarizing information and experiences for you, or pointing you to powerful resources that don’t take a lot of time to absorb.  Robert Sutton is one of my favorite management resources because his work is based in research and he presents it in a very practical, if earthy, way.  This week, I want to point you to another good piece from him:  a 10-minute video about how to be a good boss in bad times (there is also a transcript of the conversation at this link, if you prefer that format).  There are many good points, but the two to watch for in particular are his discussion of “the toxic tandem” of power and the recipe for being a good boss in bad times.  (Teaser: The ingredients include prediction, understanding, control, and compassion.)

Those two pieces, along with several other points he makes, are immediately useful, whether your organization is experiencing layoffs, budget cuts, reorganization, or any of the other forms of workplace change and stress.  If somehow you have escaped any of these workplace realities recently, hang on, because they are inevitable over the course of a career.  I hope you’ll enjoy the video.