• newsletter
  • toolbox
  • bluemegaphone

April 16, 2009

Having a Heart Attack and Not Slowing Down

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , — Admin @ 8:52 am

It was tough making a choice about my blog topic this week. Do I write about what we are seeing in leadership in the world today or what we are not seeing; do I provide more tips on thriving in a tough economy; do I offer guidance or a checklist on engaging your employees and yourself to win…? or do I write about what my week was really all about?

On March 10th at approximately 7:30am I had a massive heart attack. Now to set the stage, I am a 46 year old female in pretty good shape. I eat right, work out and generally take care of myself (although some would say I work too much and too hard). I don’t have a lot of stress in my life other than the normal stuff most of us are dealing with on a daily basis. I am a Type I diabetic (which means I am insulin dependent) and have been for 30+ years. Heart attacks are always a concern for long term diabetics but you still don’t believe it will ever happen to you.

The ‘massive’ heart attack happened when I was walking up the stairs at a client site Tuesday morning. I got out of breath and felt a sharp but quick pain in my chest. As soon as I walked into the conference room I sat down for a few minutes and the pain as well as the shortness of breath went away. I just thought I was really out of shape since my travel has taken me away from consistent exercise for six months or so. I proceeded to deliver a three hour presentation and then have lunch with the group of executives. I felt fine and had plenty of energy.

I left the meeting, drove 30 minutes to a hotel, checked in, participated in conference calls and worked on client projects until dinner. I had a lovely dinner, a good glass of wine and went to bed early (about 9:30pm). I was tired but I had gotten up at 5am to drive to my earlier client site so it did not seem unusual to me.

At 11pm I sat straight up in bed and was hit with excruciating upper back pain. The muscles between my shoulder blades ached with a deep, dull feeling. I had been having the back pain on and off for three months but thought I had just injured some muscles working out. No sharp pains anywhere so I took ibuprofen and went back to sleep…until 1am when I awoke in almost unbearable discomfort again. Now I knew I could not just keep taking 2 ibuprofen every 2 hours, but I did take one more, pace around the room a lot because it hurt much worse to lie down and finally ended up sitting in a chair and falling asleep until 2am…when I was wide awake again with massive, but dull upper back pain and then… the vomiting started. I literally crawled into the hotel bathroom and stayed there for an hour or so…this lovely cycle continued until about 7am. At that point I called my client for the day and mentioned I would not make it. I showered, washed and dried my hair, ate a bowl of oatmeal and packed up. I departed the hotel at 9am and drove about 1 ½ hours back to San Diego straight to urgent care.

You may be wondering, “Why in the heck didn’t she call 911 during the night?” Well, back pain is generally not a life threatening condition. I was out of town and certainly did not want to get stuck in a hospital away from home. I stay in darn good health so could not imagine this was anything more than strained muscles that were just getting worse.

Upon arrival in San Diego, urgent care admitted me immediately, did an EKG and the doctor called 911 to transport me to the hospital. Within about three minutes of the doctor calling 911, my small room at urgent care was filled with nine or ten young, buff firemen ready to whisk me away. For a moment I thought I had died and actually gone to fireman calendar heaven. Ah, but my dream was short lived as I was whisked into the ER at the hospital, given nitroglycerine, hooked up to every machine available all while all my blood was sucked from me. I hung out in ER in between having dye shot in my veins, medications administered, more blood sucked out, etc. for about eight hours and then I was transported to the Cath Lab where three shiny new stents were inserted into my heart.

Then off to recovery and a flirtation with the ICU since my heart would not stabilize. Six long days later I was released with enough medication to kill a horse or to keep me around a few more years! The sharp pain with shortness of breath was my ‘biggie’. The three months of nagging upper back pain, multiple small heart attacks.

It has been a roller coaster ride filled with emotional and physical ups and downs. One thing so many people have said is “slow down.” But you know, this whole experience does not make me want to slow down. It does make me want to get more focused on what I contribute to who and when so I can do my darnedest to make it happen with whatever time I have left. It makes me want to suck everything I can out of what this world has to offer so I can give as much back as possible. It makes me want to make sure I am living in a way that my children will remember and be proud of. It makes me want to love my friends and family even more so there are no questions when I am gone.

I don’t think I’ll be slowing down, but I will treasure the moments more along the way and I will stay even more focused on doing what I love to do – supporting others in their success – because that is what keeps my spirits high and able to ride whatever roller coaster comes my way!

So, if you had a ‘biggie’, what would you do differently the next day? Anything?
What is it you keep putting off? What are you waiting for?
If you were gone tomorrow, what would you most regret? Can you do something about it now?

…and most importantly, what are you so passionate about that even a massive heart attack is not going to keep you away and what are you doing to make sure your life is filled with that passion?

Thank you for the cards, flowers, twitters, notes and other ways you have reached out over the past week or so. I deeply appreciate the incredible people I am fortunate to know and although I probably won’t stop running most of the time, I might just power walk every now and then so I can continue to support you and your success in whatever small ways I can for a little longer! Thanks for letting me!

March 23, 2009

Key Leadership and Management Messages

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , — Admin @ 8:45 am

What are you saying and who are you saying it to?

Remember that, in a void, employees will fill in the blanks with meaning and interpretation typically much worse than the truth! They will MSU (make stuff up). We are all quite good at it; interpreting body language, tone and inflection and often jumping straight to conclusions based in very little data! Right now, all of us are surrounded by negative messages. They dominate the news, breakroom conversations and radio waves. Almost everyone has a friend, family member or neighbor who has been laid off or will be soon. It is critical leaders over communicate and constantly state where you are going and why you can still win.

Employee ponderings are likely to include:

  • Is leadership clued in to what is going on?
  • Is the company responding quickly enough or will we be the next one to fall apart?
  • Is my project still important?
  • Am I still important?

Whether you are directly hearing these things are not, it is highly likely they are common thought bubbles among employees. Quite simply, almost everyone is at least a little worried about their job these days (according to a recent workplace poll by Gallup of US workers, more than 80% of all employees are ‘deeply concerned about the success of their organization’). This is a dramatic increase from one year ago when numbers averaged in the 20% range!

Remember, as leaders, we have been in countless meetings looking at the current environment and exploring how and why we can still win in the future. However, employees have not been privy to these conversations. They do, however, see messages and are impacted by cuts in travel and other expense reductions. They hear stories, typically with little data to back them up, about competition and what is going on in the market. After living in tough times for several months (and even longer for some organizations and industries) and with employees already feeling a bit worn down, it is more important than ever to over communicate!

Setting the stage and leadership responsibility:
What are the key messages you should communicate right now and what do you want all managers communicating throughout the organization? How can you keep this in front of managers and employees?

  • What are the significant forces at play in our markets?
  • How is our company positioned to win?
  • What is leadership concerned about AND addressing?
  • What is staying the same despite all these changes?
  • What are the top three most important business priorities for the next 3 months? …next 6 months?
  • What are some personal feelings about the current situation (what does it mean to leaders to navigate through this with a strong team, how are individual leaders keeping themselves focused, etc.)?

Following is a template to assist you in communicating effectively:

  • Develop the story
    • What has happened
      • honest and candid, providing as much information as possible (remember that employees will always fill in the blanks with negative stories so give as much detail as possible while focusing on the positive)
    • What’s next
      • where the organization needs to go & why
        • business justification
        • customer needs
        • industry demands/trends
        • internal efficiencies
        • what will it look like when we get there (as best as you can tell today)
      • what are the advantages/benefits of getting there
      • address implementation specifics for any changes
        • timing
        • how people will be kept informed throughout the process
        • employee responsibilities
          • employee next steps and “to do’s”
          • describe the support (e.g. people, technology, assistance) that will be provided
    • What it means to me
      • speak to both what it means to the leader(s) as well as what it means to each audience member
      • identify key things that will not be changing (what could provide a sense of stability, continuity, and identity to the group?)

You cannot communicate too much in tough times and there is little that is more important. Take the time each month to develop your message and make sure it gets shared throughout your organization.

March 17, 2009

Leading Effectively In Uncertainty

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , — Admin @ 9:39 am

Tips for being aware, asking the right questions, and making timely decisions

One of the few commonalities of almost every article, study or book about leadership is an agreement that self awareness is critical to be a great leader. Today, more than ever, it is important to understand what is driving you – what is influencing your behaviors, your decisions, the data you gather and the choices you make? What mental models, assumptions and beliefs do you have about the world, the economy, your company, your competitors, your employees, etc?

Following are a few questions to ask yourself to indicate how you are performing as a leader in tough and uncertain times:

  • Are you delaying important decisions?
    • There is nothing worse for employees than uncertainty right now. Make tough decisions even if you don’t have all the data you would like to have. You can almost always change them later, but not making them causes tremendous anxiety and a real lack of focus in your organization, draining energy and productivity.
  • Are you spending too much time in your office, avoiding communicating?
    • Even if you don’t have all the answers and there are things you cannot communicate, talk about what you can. Tell employees as much as you can – the good and the not so good. They are making up much worse in the breakroom, so fill in the blanks with more accurate information.
  • Are you ignoring the input and insight of the market, competitors, customers, employees, others?
    • Those closest to the customer often know the most about what you should and could change quickly to retain customers, market share, etc. Ask them! And if ideas are offered, even those that seem like a stretch, consider them seriously.
  • Have you considered multiple ways of winning?
    • If you are still trying to do the same things you were six or seven months ago, wake up and smell the burnt coffee. Things have changed and you must adapt your strategies and actions to adapt to the new realities.

Following are a few tips for continuing to be a great leader in tough and uncertain times:

  • Spend time evaluating what is and what isn’t possible.
    • Take stock of what you do know about your industry and the economic climate. Be cautious to check your understanding – just because you knew it a year ago, does not mean it is still accurate. Invest in getting better business intelligence right now. It will serve you well.
    • Do scenario planning to expand your brain’s ability to see multiple alternatives and course of action. Ask yourself and others “What if…?” You’ll be amazed at what people can come up with if you give them a target and then ask questions to help them see it and believe it is possible.
    • Examining and considering multiple possibilities will help you be prepared to take action if an opportunity presents itself.
  • Prioritize so that you and others remain focused on the right things.
    • Once you have reset your strategies and tactics, make sure everyone in your organization knows what they are. Most people are working incredibly hard today. The problem is, some are working on the wrong things – projects and initiatives that are now unimportant or less important to success. But no one told them! Constantly communicate priorities and the ‘why’ behind them.
  • Deepen customer relationships.
    • Make sure you have a senior executive assigned to connect with significant customers on a regular basis. Customers are making tough decisions on where to spend limited dollars, so make sure your name is front and center because you have built a good relationship.
  • Work on building as much resilience in your organization as possible.
    • Things are changing at a pace that is almost impossible for us to absorb and assimilate. Resilient organizations are focused, proactive, positive, flexible and organized. Don’t assume your employees can constantly adapt to all that is going on. Make it one of your areas of focus and invest the energy to build the capability to deal with the accelerating pace of change.
  • Examine everything!
    • Just because something served the organization well a year ago, does not mean it is the best approach today. Pause and consider all the things that are ‘set in stone’ and consider changing them to adapt to the current environment.

Someone will win. Will it be you and your organization?

March 9, 2009

Trust

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Admin @ 9:24 am

What creates it & how do you maintain it today?

Trust is the state of readiness for unguarded interaction with someone or something. Trust is built and maintained by many small actions over time. Trust is telling the truth, even when it is difficult, and being honest, authentic, and reliable in your dealings with customers and employees. Trust exists on many levels in an organization: with the direct manager, with the leadership, with the team and with the company.

Individuals must have a capacity for trust based on his/her experiences (with the current manager and company as well as with previous employers). The experiences we each have develop or diminish the capacity and willingness to risk trusting others. In the current business environment, there is a continuing decline of trust in companies and leadership overall. Employees watch the news, hear stories and wonder constantly if “it” (being laid off, denied a promotion or raise, having their project stopped, shutting down the company, etc.) is going to happen to them.

Individuals must perceive and believe in the ability of others they work with to perform competently at whatever is needed. During tough times, this belief in others tends to erode especially when communications are lacking concerning how changes impact the organization and success. Couple that with the increasing amount of communication about all the problems in the economy and you quickly have a lopsided equation with the negative far outweighing the positive. Employees are deeply concerned about who is going to be the next company or ‘leader’ exposed in some sort of scandal or unethical behavior.

Lastly, but incredibly important to trust, is a belief that the actions, words, direction, mission, and/or decisions are motivated by mutually-serving rather than self-serving motives. Employees have to know you care about them and are considering their best interests as well as the company’s. During tough times, there is an even greater likelihood that employees will fill in the blanks with negative intentions if they are not getting constant communication about what is going on, how the company will still win and what is in it for them to stay, work hard and remain productive. In almost every breakroom around the country today, employees are wondering how some leaders and senior managers are asking for and getting multi-million dollar bonuses as they are laying off employees and their businesses are failing by every measure. What kind of beliefs does an individual have to justify that sort of behavior and why would you expect that they will ever consider your interests?

There are critical leadership & management behaviors to build and grow trust in today’s environment:

Read the whole post here

February 23, 2009

How Do You Keep Up as a Leader or Manager Today?

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , — Admin @ 2:42 pm

Focus on continual learning and unlearning. There are almost no jobs left that will remain the same over time and the demands of leaders and managers are continuing to evolve. Pause and think about the changes in the past year alone. Leaders and managers that are successful today are constantly learning and developing themselves. The problem with successful adults is that our brains are constructed to help us prove ourselves right. And the more successful we are, the more energy we spend on doing this. But the things that served us well last year or even last week, might not be the best approach anymore based on all the change around us.

Really great leaders and managers today have the following characteristics in common. They:

  • Like to master things
    • They are motivated and driven to constantly get better, knowing full well that they will not, and should not, be perfect
  • Are observant and flexible
    • They can consider multiple perspectives to create general guidelines that help them make sense of what is around them
  • Focus on problem solving
    • They consider current issues from the perspective of making things better versus blaming or worrying
    • Their thinking is characterized by a balance of the ability to visualize what might or could be, and an effective day to day approach to get the right things done
    • They can distill complexity
  • Are self aware…

Read the whole post here

February 12, 2009

Innovating Every Day

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , — Admin @ 10:11 am

Who doesn’t recognize the need to constantly innovate today? After all, just look around at all that is new in our world in the past few years. Are you twittering? 1 million+ others are. Do you have a product or service video up on YouTube? 25 million+ people do. And are you LinkedIn or participating in SecondLife? These are just a few of the new social media innovations that are dramatically changing how people connect and get work done. Now think about other areas that are changing just as rapidly: technology, diversity, competition, products, etc. It can be a bit mind boggling and certainly intimidating to ponder how to keep up these days.

What does innovation look like at work today and do you need to spend millions for a research and development department to come up with the next great product or service? How can you more actively incorporate new thinking, new products, and new options including getting more done with less into your day to day activities?

Today innovation needs to be about:

  • Challenging the way we do things even when it has always worked well
  • Continually creating new products, services and ideas that have value for stakeholders
  • Trying different and novel ways to deal with ongoing challenges
  • Constantly seeking and implementing new and better ways to achieve results

Innovation is more than brainstorming or idea generation. To be truly innovative, you have to DO something different. And for businesses, whatever it is you do must have value for at least one of your stakeholder groups (employees, customers, suppliers, partners, etc.).

Key actions you can take to be more innovative include:

Read the whole post here

February 8, 2009

Using Performance Management to Create a Culture of Excellence

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , — Admin @ 11:41 am

We are pleased to have another guest blog, this time by Amy Rasdal, founder of Rasdal Associates, Inc. and Billable at the BeachTM.

Have you ever attended a meeting where people promised important deliverables but never followed through? Conversely, have you ever committed to a deadline knowing full well that you couldn’t meet it but that no one would hold you accountable for it?

According to recent research, 78% of all company leaders identify “getting the right things done” as a significant problem in their companies. It’s not surprising, then, that accountability has become a critical competency missing in many companies.

Some of this is due to the fast-paced nature of today’s business environment. With so many demands on our time and attention, we can barely keep up with the never-ending crises of the day; much less accomplish everything we have committed to doing. But a lack of accountability also stems from the absence of a (formal and informal) performance management system. Without such a system in place, clearly connected to strategic goals and objectives, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to engage people in following through on doing the right things in a timely manner.

A structured performance management process can strongly support ongoing efforts to build accountability into the organizational culture. It helps to keep everyone aligned with the strategic goals, and it focuses people’s attention on what needs to get done, by when. Without it, management can easily get off track and forget to measure and reward what we have told everyone is important.

Specifically, an effective performance management system:

  • Communicates how individuals contribute to business success and how they will be evaluated.
  • Aligns individual goals with key business priorities, resulting in greater focus, more efficient use of resources, and less time wasted on non-value added activities.
  • Provides a comprehensive system for recognizing what gets done and reinforcing how it is achieved.
  • Creates a discipline of measuring progress against specific goals and making adjustments as necessary.

In most companies, performance management consists of a once-a-year performance review session that is dreaded by manager and employee alike. To achieve the desired results (i.e., improved accountability), performance management needs to be an ongoing activity, not a one-time event. It requires two-way conversations between manager and employee so that both are working from the same page in terms of what is being managed and how it is being managed.

A good performance management process involves five key steps:

Read the whole post here

Talking to the laid-off

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , — Admin @ 11:37 am

Keep the person positive and looking to what could happen in future

Almost all of us know someone well who has been laid off recently. So what do you do to be most supportive? Do you give them advice at a cocktail party? Tell them it will all be okay as they’re walking out of their office or plant with box in hand? Should you text them words of encouragement? Or should you just leave them alone?

The main challenge many of us face is that we worry for the other person and project how we might feel if it happened to us. We tend to see those laid off as helpless victims. We don’t know exactly what to say, but we desperately want to say and/or do something. In our rush to be supportive, it is easy to say or do the wrong thing.

Sometimes we also feel bad for our own good fortune in not being laid off as well. What may be at play in this situation is something called survivor syndrome. Sometimes people who still have jobs feel guilty and also worry that they could be next. Those feelings could negatively impact your relationships with unemployed friends. Suddenly you’re just two sad sacks wallowing in bad vibes, and that helps no one.

You don’t want to wallow in pity, but don’t go overboard raving about how great your life is when you meet up with a friend at a networking event and discover he or she has lost their job. You can share the fact that you’re going on a vacation or just got a promotion but also acknowledge what they’re going through. “Say ‘I’m sorry.’ Offer them support, and be specific.”

If your laid-off friend likes to communicate on a social networking site, it’s OK to use that technology. Although some believe the phone is preferable, e-mail also is acceptable. Understand that your friend might have a lot going on, and might even prefer to deal with some of the emotions she is feeling via email versus in person. Don’t take it personally if he or she doesn’t respond right away…

Read the whole post here

January 20, 2009

Getting It Done

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Admin @ 2:54 pm

What Great Leaders and Managers DO

There are many books about strategy and in recent years there have been some about execution. After all, CEOs globally are incredibly concerned about being able to execute within their organization. In tough times, it becomes even more critical to get the right things done within your organization. Leaders and managers today have to not only determine which race to run (strategy), they must also figure out how to run the chosen race faster, better, and stronger than anyone else (operational planning and implementation). Both are necessary to stay in business today.

To keep up today, a leader and manager has to DO well at the following:

Get back to basics when everything around you diverts you into complexity

  • Make strategic planning a way of life in your organization.
  • Use a strategic planning framework to drive what you do and where you focus your energies.
  • Embed ongoing strategic planning in your processes. Constantly check for internal and external forces that may impact where you are going, what you need to do and how you need to do it.
  • Organize your day around achieving your destination as well as informing, inspiring and engaging others in getting there.

Communicate constantly about your strategic planning framework

  • Inform employees of where you are going, where you are today and keep them updated.
  • Set clear expectations of what excellence looks like.
  • Expose the why behind your decisions.
  • Establish individual goals linked to the company’s strategic planning framework.
  • Inspire employees by presenting a compelling picture of what the future looks like.
  • Engage employees continuously by asking about progress and highlighting accomplishments.

Read the whole post here

December 23, 2008

Celebrating the End & Preparing for the New Year

Filed under: Uncategorized — Admin @ 9:13 am

This week, sending sincere wishes for joyful holidays and hoping you find some time to wrap up the year and rejuvenate.

It’s a great time to refocus your energies and determine what is truly important to you in 2009.

What are you most proud of for 2008?

  • When did you have the most energy?
  • What big surprises came your way?
  • Who supported you through it all?
  • What are the most significant learnings you had?

and for 2009 and beyond…

  • What does winning look like in the new year?
  • Where will you invest your energy?
  • What three to five core strategies will most support you?
  • What should you continue to focus on, stop doing and what new things should you start?
  • How can you create more energy in reaching your destination by involving and engaging others in supporting you to achieve your goals and objectives?
  • Is there anything in your way that needs to be moved, eliminated or minimized?
  • How can you find the learning in all you do?

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »

© 2012, The Human Factor, Inc.