How many times are you going to slam your hand in the door?

Posted on 1. August 2017 by David Cegelski

Many years ago my VP asked me “So David, how many times are you going to slam your hand in your car door?”

He went on to add “Before you realize you’re causing your own pain!”

Pretty vivid, huh?!

It made such an impression on me that I’ve used this line repeatedly for the past 18 years since Wayne first said it to me.

See what he was saying is that I was causing the pain I was feeling on the job. Others, while contributing to the pain, were actually not the cause. I was.

How was this happening?

Simple. I was doing nothing. Yep, nothing.

The scenario was this:

I had empowered my team to come up with a new process for training customers on how and why we were changing our data collection process. This was an important piece of a major process re-engineering.

I thought I was a good manager–one who set directions and goals and then trusted the team to work on the details before implementation.

Well, the team took the bull by the horns and sent invitations to our customers for an online training session.

Good empowerment, right?

Wrong. In doing so, they had forgotten to include several important details. On top of this, they scheduled the meeting in conflict with a sales meeting for all customers. My VP was getting blasted by Sales VPs around the world.

Ouch. Ouch indeed.

So how was I causing my own pain? Well, because this wasn’t the first time I failed to appropriately oversee progress. I had forgotten an important lesson–that when you ask your team for something don’t forget to follow-up. Always communicate. No, it doesn’t stifle them. No, it’s not micro-management. It’s appropriate management.

What I learned that day was that difference between hands-on and hands-off management.

Because I had taken a hands-off approach (thinking that I was empowering them and letting them creatively work on a project), I failed to understand that my role was to work alongside them. Instead, I had abandoned them.

I had put my own hand in that door and slammed it.

Recently, I’ve seen this same phenomenon in two instances with clients.

In one, a CTO was frustrated with one of his engineer’s design for a new feature. Yet, he was hesitant to provide initial feedback for fear it would stifle creativity. A few weeks into the design, the engineer had changed gears and was now working on a new project entirely. Unfortunately this was now going to cost the company both a loss in time and money. The CTO was furious and ready to fire the engineer. Yet, I remarked that the engineer wasn’t the problem–the CTO was himself the problem. Not only did he take a hands-off approach but he also knew the history of this engineer was to miss deadlines.

The CTO caused his own problem, not the engineer.

And I saw it again in working with a VP regarding employee issues–particularly in confronting problem employees. Recently, he received strong feedback from colleagues that a particular employee was making some fairly costly mistakes. These mistakes were so drastic that the company lost two customers over a period of six months. And while not all could be attributed to the same employee, all could be linked to the VP’s inability to address the mistakes the employee was making.

During my discussion with the VP, he kept saying that he really thought that he needed to give people space to do their work. He went on to insist that this was an isolated incident. He felt that the feedback from his colleagues was not something he needed to address but, rather, isolated.

The VP caused his own problems, not the employee (and not his colleagues).

Both the CTO and the VP were slamming their own hands in their car door. No one else was doing it. This was self-inflicted.

I know, I did it many years ago.

So, how do you know when you’re slamming your hand?

If you’re making the choice to not intervene before a problem spirals, you could be the culprit.

If you’re not giving enough direction up-front on the vision, goals, and schedule, you may be the one slamming the door.

If you fail to give parameters and milestones, your fingerprints are on the door.

If you think they will figure it out on their own, you are the one causing the pain.

If you think doing nothing is an option, then learn to live with the pain.

‘Soft Skills’ Leadership

Posted on 6. June 2016 by David Cegelski

It’s quite common to hear ‘soft skills’ when people talk about managing people, leadership, conflicts, giving direction, listening, speaking…

But are they really ‘soft’? Let me tell a story I experienced over a dozen years ago while working with a client, Texas Instruments.

I was brought in to design and deliver a 5-month program for first-time managers. As you can imagine, it included things like leadership, performance management, DiSC®, teams, etc. It was interactive driven by case studies and group discussions. It was a half-day program each month for a group of 12-15 managers who went through the 5-months together.

Most significantly, it was introduced by the VP of the division (this was a production group in TI).

He attended the kickoff morning session and posed the following question:

“Let’s say that you return to your desk this afternoon and you’re immediately presented with 2 problems.

You only have time, however, to adequately solve 1 of the problems. You know that based on experience.

The first problem is that you have two employees who are arguing and fighting. Not coming to blows, but it is escalating. Words are being exchanged both aggressively and passive-aggressively.

The second problem is that the line has gone down because of the system failure.”

He then went on to ask:

“Which problem would you solve first?”

Invariably, everyone answered the second problem–the line is down. In all the sessions, this was the unanimous answer.

He then asked:

“Why did you choose that one?”

And they would say something like “it’s easier”, “we know how to solve it”, “it’s simpler”, “it has bigger implications for the company and customer”.

He then would say, especially to the responses about it being easier, knowing how to solve it, simpler:

“So it’s easy, ok. What’s the opposite of ‘easy’ or ‘simpler’?”

At this point, someone would say “hard”.

“Bingo”, he would exclaim. “Solving the technical problems is easy.”

“Solving the people problems are ‘hard'”, he would add. Heads would shake around the room in agreement.

And he would then add:

“So why do we say classes like this are ‘soft skills’ when by your own admission, they are harder? Why do we call issues dealing with people ‘soft’ when in fact they are ‘hard’?”

From that moment on, we never used the term ‘soft skills’ in the program. And working with this group was always rewarding–they really wanted to understand people, teams, and especially how they can successfully lead, manage, and coach.

I often use this story in working with clients. It’s an example I’ve found resonates with every client I have–from production and operations to sales and marketing to administration. I’ve found that it applies to my for-profit and my non-profit clients.

Soft skills are hard skills. Sometimes labeling them ‘soft’ implies fuzzy bunny, rainbows, and candy–, trivial, less important, secondary.

Rather, what makes them hard is that people are not machines. People have good days and bad days. People have emotions. Often as this example was debriefed in the program, that’s exactly what the participants said. They would also add that they had more confidence and ease in dealing with the system–they could count on it to react as expected.

So keep this in mind you use the term ‘soft skills’. For all these years, this has been an example which is both instructive and a useful reminder.

Revisiting: Putting Vacate Back into Vacation

Posted on 10. June 2015 by David Cegelski

Some six years ago I blogged about the need for putting vacate back into vacation. In other words, why you should unplug from the workplace while on vacation.

To read the original blogpost, click here.

Almost immediately this got me into trouble. I had several clients scoff at it. I even had a prospect call and say he wanted to cancel our next meeting and would never hire me because of what I wrote.

Wow, I thought. Either I hit a nerve or maybe I was wrong.

In either case, this particular post has continued to be one of my most popular. While it wasn’t meant to be controversial, it was meant to make people think.

To think about the linkage between being a leader, trust, and technology.

However since publishing, I’ve also had a number of clients and people in general say that they resonated with it and, in particular, it’s message. That’s reassuring. I always I try to reinforce that I’m not advocating reckless leadership. Rather, responsible leadership.

Yet, I think it’s time to update the original posting with a few practical tips. These, in particular, are due to our ever-connectedness world and continual-advancing technology.

Tips for wisely staying connected on vacation:

Remember why you are on vacation–family, friends, experiences. You’ve taken time off and probably fronted money to enjoy the time off. So strive to do so.
Make it clear before you leave how you can be contacted. Do so with only a select few who may need to contact you. Set parameters on when, how, and frequency. I know one executive who only lets his assistant know and she then acts a gatekeeper (and I’m thrilled he came up with this idea after reading my blog.)
When possible, delegate your signing authority via passwords or company policy. That’s why such policies exist! And train your delegate on what to review.
If you will receive calls, screen judiciously. You pay for voicemail; use it.
If you will check emails, consider doing so late at night when most likely the kids are asleep and you are winding down from the day.
If there are systems you need to routinely check (and which can’t be monitored by your delegate), likewise do these at night.
Strive to keep any night work to a maximum of 30 minutes. Consider doing it only every other night.
If appropriate and possible, use out-of-office autoreplies for email and change your phone greeting.
Don’t take paperwork with you. At best, take a WOTR (Work On The Road) folder with you. Keep the folder small including only critical documents or summaries. I know of one CEO who always does this whether on a business or pleasure trip–she’s learned that it forces her to prioritize and summarize information even during non-travel times.
If in doubt or confused, go to #1.

Look, I’m practical. I realize the advancement and availability of technology. I see how it integrates into our lives. I’ll admit that at a family reunion last year it was handy to text people in order to find them. I get it.

But, I stand beside the main point of my original blog post. That is:

A leader must train their team so that they become self-sufficient. Doing so not only allows for greater commitment, creativity, and loyalty from the team but it also frees up the leader to concentrate on further developing the organization (including their own development).

Avoid the temptation to stay in-touch with your office while on vacation.

Put vacate back into vacation.

National Ethics Report: Have we turned a corner?

Posted on 8. April 2014 by David Cegelski

Every two years, the Ethics Resource Center releases their latest national survey on the state of ethics in the US. There are indications that we may have permanently turned the corner on misconduct related to unethical behavior. Yet, there is still work to be done on retaliation as it remains at a high level.

Perhaps the message is simple: Continue to focus on ethical behavior while increasing efforts on creating ways for people to report ethical issues in an environment free from retaliation.

Or, even better yet as a client put it: “Don’t let up on the gas pedal. And watch your dashboard more often–trusting warning lights when they light.”

I encourage you to read the entire report. The following are highlights:

Misconduct witnessed by U.S. workers is now at historic lows (41% report observing some form of ethical misconduct), and it is down in all categories including the pressure to compromise standards.

2000: 55%
2003: 46%
2005: 52%
2007: 57%
2009: 49%
2011: 45%
2013: 41%

24% report misdeeds are committed by senior management (C-level, VP)

63% report some form of questionable misconduct, boarding on unethical behavior (slightly down from past surveys):

26% report misconduct is ongoing in their organization—is routine
12% report wrongdoing is essentially company-wide and known

Retaliation against employee whistleblowers continues to be high at 22%–that equates to 6.2 Americans (based on Bureau of Labor Statistics population numbers)

69% supervisor intentionally ignored or treated differently (new this survey; all others were down)
59% got ‘cold shoulder’ from other employees
54% were excluded by manager/supervisor from decisions/discussions
49% were verbally abused by manager/supervisor
47% promotion or raise was not given
43% were verbally abused by co-workers
38% almost lost their job
33% experience some form of harassment either online or at their home
29% hours or pay were cut

Training and awareness seem to work (these percentages are at their highest)

81% provide ethics training
67% include it in performance measurements
74% communicate wrongdoing internally
2/3 have positive ethics cultures with strong policies, enforcement, and communication and there is a 60-percentage point difference in companies with weak-to-strong cultures

Top 5 observable misconduct (all represent a decrease from previous surveys):

Abusive or intimidating behavior 18%
Lying 17%
Conflict of interest 12%
Violating company internet use policies 12%
Discrimination 12%
One area was new to the report: falsifying invoices, books, records at 4% reporting it

What gets reported varies from the above list. These represent those ethical issues which actually get reported formally in the organization. Note that the first 4 represent a decrease while the last two represent an increase from previous surveys:

Inappropriate gifts or kickbacks 36%
Violating company internet use policies 37%
Lying 38%
Improper hiring procedures 39%
Falsifying invoice, books, records 40%
Violating contract terms with customers or suppliers 59%

The majority of reporting is done through internal channels. Only 20% report through an external channel such as a third-party agency or department–usually a governmental or regulatory agency. Internally, people report to:

Person’s supervisor 82%
Upper management 52%
HR 32%
Ethics office 15%
Legal 11%

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Tag Archives: management

How many times are you going to slam your hand in the door?

‘Soft Skills’ Leadership

National Ethics Report: Have we turned a corner?