What Managers Should Do - A Few Thoughts About Practical Wisdom
February 22, 2009 by eladsherf
Filed under B-School Experiences, Business
I have to admit that after seeing so many recommendations about it around the web I was really eager to see the above video of Barry Schwartz’s talk at TED. They say that high expectations begets disappointment. Well, this maybe a good example of an expectation. This is one of the most inspiring and appealing speeches I have seen.
The speech contains so many themes that are worthy of a discussion that I can develop a whole blog around them. However, I will only elaborate on one of them and let you think of the rest. Listening to Barry talk about the fact that some janitors describe their jobs differently than the formal job description that entails a only a list of what he must clean, by talking about the way they interact with people, reminded me what Markus Buckingham talks about in “First, breaking all the rules” about how great managers treat their employees. If I try to summarise both of their ideas and incorporate my own it will sound something like this:
- Find the right people - People have different talents. Many times, in order to be great at a job - yes, even that of a janitor - you need more than the basic skills for actually doing the job. In this case, a janitor in a hospital needs empathy. How many hiring for janitors include that in their list of demands? But it is true in many other jobs. There is always the extra passion or talent that transforms good employees to great ones. Find a candidate with such a passion or talent and your chances of hiring a great employee increases.
- Let them to the job - People work differently. They produce the same outcomes differently. Don’t interfere. Don’t make up rules. Maybe, as Barry says, don’t even create incentives (I am not sure I totally agree with that one). Don’t try to make them do the job the way you would have done it. Give them the intellectual and mental space to work it on their own. Provide support and training but don’t create rules about the specific job. If phase one was done correctly, they will find the way to produce the outcomes you required.
- Actively look for results - this seems like an obvious stage, but it is not. And when I talk about results, I don’t mean only if the job is done, but how is it done; what is the joy the employee derives from doing it; what are the ripple effects of his work. You can’t do that by looking only on the products. You have to talk to the employee. You have to walk around in his area. You have to assess his work from different perspectives.
- Replace or retain - if someone is not fit for the job, if the only results you see at level three are the “formal” ones, than it is wiser to let go. Off course, this should not be done lightly and not before you are absolutely sure that there is no match. But it is better to lead an employee to directions where he can produce those results. Where he can put his “practical wisdom” that Barry talks about in his speech for good use. Because as I said in point one, each of us has different “practical wisdom” or talent. On the other hand, those who do create result should be recognized. Or as Barry calls it: “celebrate moral exemplars“. This is the guy you want to spend most of your time with. This is the guy, you want to learn and frame step one according to. This is the one you should try to do everything to retain, because these are the people who truly excel and drive your organization forward.
Note: This article has been reproduced with explicit permission from the author. Check the original post here.
Obama in Class - Dissecting The Qualities Of A Leader
February 16, 2009 by theagsmblogger
Filed under B-School Experiences, Business
21st January, 2009(Sydney Time) was a historic day for the United States of America and for world in general. It was the day when Barack Hussein Obama stepped in to become the country’s first ever Black President. His road to victory in itself was quite remarkable and very few people in the world could have ever predicted that such a man would ever become POTUS.
Over here at the Australian Graduate School Of Management a bunch of 65 odd global citizens and future global leaders were busy dissecting the Obama speech to discover the qualities of a good Manager/Leader. Obama without a doubt is an excellent orator and speaker and packs such a force when he speaks that it’s hard not to feel emotional at the end. We watched the 15 minutes + of his acceptance speech and came up with the following qualities that must be present in a global leader,
- The ability to communicate effectively.
- The ability to set goals and make decisions.
- To be able to stay calm and still be fair.
- To be culturally sensitive.
- To be charismatic and pragmatic.
- To have a positive attitude.
- The ability to motivate and work under pressure.
- To be able to listen and ask good questions. Many a times asking the right questions is all it takes to solve even the most complicated problems.
The above are just a small subset of the numerous qualities that the class came up with and it’s amazing to see that while Obama does not have a lot of political experience, people still expect him to have most of the qualities mentioned above, just because he is able to portray some of them effectively. What do you think are some of the essential qualities that a global leader must have ? Share them with us.
The Right Side Of The Graph
February 2, 2009 by eladsherf
Filed under B-School Experiences, BusinessIn the last few days in class(at the Australian Graduate School Of Management in Sydney), we have been going through a phase of self reflection. This phase included surveys, inventories and questioners, as well as group discussions and self reflection, both written and mental.
The last day, our facilitator presented us with the following graph:
The basic idea is to think about our parts in teams and later about our jobs and pinpoint actions we employ daily to their respective places on the graph. I think this is a very simple but usable tool in order to self reflect.
But looking at it, made me think about how managers can use this. Because of this simplicity, managers can use this simple tool to know a lot more about their employees.
I believe good managers should focus almost all their efforts on helping people find their strengths and concentrate on them, because this is the way to help people truly excel. Thus, great managers should focus their time on their employees’ strengths instead of focusing it on their weaknesses and areas of improvement. That said it is important to understand that there are different kinds of weakness and different kinds of strengths.
If the weakness is a result of insufficient knowledge or skill, then the manager role is to supply the knowledge, teach the skill or get the employee to learn the skill from an outside source. This is true in a limited number of cases. Sometime people feel incompetent and dislike certain actions, because they don’t know enough about them and never had proper training although they truly have a talent for it. In addition, most skills can be learned to a certain degree.
But in order to excel in certain skills you need talent. And different people have different talents. And with talent I mean not only to quality of being good at something, but actually having the right mental state and the natural inclination for certain skills. And most of time, this talent, if used correctly, can help overcome any weakness much more efficiently then dealing directly with the weakness. Therefore, when a manager recognizes a weakness he should explore which kind of weakness it is and if training or knowledge will help the employee overcome it.
On the other hand, many times as managers, we perceive strengths of people but forget to ask them an important question: do you enjoy doing that role/action? Because some people are really good at something, but they hate doing it. if they don’t feel good when they are doing it, when they don’t reach a state of flow, than they would not be able to that for a long time and they would not be able to truly excel. And what great managers do is find ways to make their employees excel.
The MBA so far has been a really enriching experience and there is still such a long way to go. As leaders in the making it is important for us to have the right vision of the future and this was explained by an excellent quote by John Scharr,
The future is not some place we are going to but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination.
Note: This article has been reproduced with explicit permission from the author. Check the original post here.
