Everybody has a “tell” – that one, involuntary reaction that gives them away. Tells reveal themselves more readily in the face of crisis and stress. We may say that we hold to certain principles or beliefs. But when the fecal matter intersects with the air circulating device, an ugly truth may reveal itself.
A Test of Organizational Health
Pay attention to what happens when a mistake is made. What is the knee jerk reaction in the heat of anger or flash of embarrassment? If the first question is, “Who did it!?!,” you’ve got a problem. If that’s the go-to response, it is a sure sign of a sick culture. People in such organizations are motivated to stay under the radar. They fear sticking their neck out or owning up to mistakes- and for good reason! The culture fosters a fixed mindset that hinders the people and the organization from growing.
System or Performance?
Lazy leaders assume that every problem is a performance issue. The blame game is expedient, but it masks reality. When you fail to distinguish the difference between a performance problem, a system problem, or a combination of the two, you make false assumptions, ask the wrong questions, and get the wrong answers.
We’ve seen this play out in interesting ways. Sometimes the worst thing that can happen is having a superstar on the team for a long time. When they finally leave or retire, none of their replacements seem to make the grade. Only upon a more in-depth analysis of the situation does it become clear that one of the old superstar’s abilities was overcoming crummy systems. Their success masked the deficiency and set up their successors for failure.
Listen and Learn
If you listen to your organization…or yourself…and realize Bang & Blame (great song, by the way) has infected the culture, it’s time to change the game. How? By changing the question.
Organizations with healthy cultures react to errors and crisis with the following questions, in this order: • What? Determine precisely what happened. Make no assumptions. • Why? Was this a performance issue, a systems issue, or a combination? • How? What factors contributed to the issue? And only then…. • Who? Now you can address the matter, take the appropriate action, and help people grow and learn.
Reality and Success
Without mistakes and challenges, there is no innovation, no progress, and no growth. As Tom Peters would say, “Fail forward fast.” Indeed, if the answer to “Who?” shows a pattern of performance issues, a tough decision may be in order. More times than not, there is something more to be learned. Follow the disciplines of a healthy organization. Ask the right questions in the proper order. You will create a space for yourself and others to see reality and the way forward. Your organization will take appropriate and forward-thinking actions, benefitting everyone.
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As I reflect on CAI’s National Conference just completed, one word jumps out at me – ideas. I had the privilege of facilitating two sessions of TED-style talks and co-presenting on promoting professionalism for Chapter Executive Directors. In all three sessions, I found myself saying some version of “This is where great ideas happen!” In the first two instances, I was referring to the conference itself. The last time it fell out of my mouth, I was referring to local CAI Chapters. All three were from the gut and unscripted. By the time I heard CAI’s next president challenge attendees to share at least one thing during the conference I’d already received and shared many. I’ve learned to come to conferences ready to learn, notepad in hand, scribbling furiously during presentations, and jotting notes during conversations. After three days in Orlando, I’m energized and reminded of the power of ideas.
Shout Outs
I was primed before I even got to the event thanks to all
the session preparation. The
collaboration with all six Ted speakers was electric. Each of them gave away a piece of themselves
and packed a ton of value into their 18 minutes on stage. Our minds were stretched and challenged, and
we walked away with actionable ideas. I
want to recognize all of them here.
Thank you to Neda Nehouray, PCAM, of HOA Organizers, Brandon Page of
Specialized Pipe Technologies, Emily Schmidt of Speaki2i, Connor Doyle, PCAM,
of Giant Steps, LLC, Justin Davis of AppFolio, and the mystery man, Steve
Economou, of Rainscapes Environmental.
The audience and I are grateful for them all. I’m glad these talks were recorded. I am
looking forward to seeing them once they are posted online by CAI.
I am likewise grateful to my co-presented Jessica Towles,
CAI Trustee, and Lieberman Management Services.
Our industry is fortunate to have someone in a leadership position who
is so incredibly passionate and determined to advance the industry. The collaboration for our session on
promoting professionalism helped sharpen my focus and provided an outlet for
some ideas that have been swimming around in my head for a long time.
Ideas and Eggs
Ideas remind me of eggs waiting for fertilization –
potential waiting for a catalyst to become a new creation. We carry around
countless impressions, thoughts, and concepts just waiting to be connected and
energized into a fully formed idea. Our
existing ideas get connected to new ones and become something completely new. That’s why it’s so valuable to go where the
ideas are. Once you’re there, you never know where it may take you.
Idealand
Conferences can be a treasure trove for ideas. Presentations are an obvious source. There is a tendency to get energized by them,
but leave all the ideas at the door on the way out of the hotel. One way to make those ideas stick is the
oft-underutilized source of ideas – fellow attendees. Some of my best notes from last week came
from amazing conversations and meetings I had outside of the sessions. Talking about session content allows you to burn
them into your brain. Listen carefully
to how others share their perceptions of the ideas shared. It will broaden your understanding and the
collaboration might generate ideas.
Where Else Can You Go?
Read and Study:
Take in knowledge from books, blogs, research, or whatever pushes your
brain. Studying the material – highlighting
and making notes, pausing, and meditating on the content to let it sink in, is
even better for idea fertilization.
Lingering in a new thought can be a powerful thing. Re-reading material
you’ve read before can be an eye-opener.
If you are growing, you are a different person than you were the first
time. You’ve changed, things have
changed, and you might see things in a different light. If nothing else, you’ll
remind yourself of gems from the past.
Video:
No, not cat videos…. Nothing wrong with that from time to time, but we
are looking for ideas here. There are
some great talks captured online.
TED.com is a great place to start. If you are a visual learner, this is
a great place to go. TIP: Take notes!
Audio Learning:
Podcasts, talks, books, whatever floats your boat. I’ve found an
enormous benefit of using my driving time to take advantage of audio learning. Brandon threw out a terrific line in his talk
at CAI National, “Make your vehicle a temple of self-directed
learning.” As a side benefit, I’ve
found that I am a more relaxed driver.
Now when I hit a traffic jam, I think, “Cool! I can get another
chapter in! TIP: I find that if I listen to a book or an article first and then
read it, my retention increases and the ideas flow.
Non-Industry Specific Digital Learning: Follow interesting people on social media. Hint: Schedule a specific, limited time block for this so as not to get sucked in, only to land on those cat videos after 3 or 4 hours. You can get a ton of ideas from Udemy. I am currently enjoying a Seth Godin course now and have another one on tap when I’m done with this one. The ideas that have come out of it are worth far more than the nominal price I paid.
Do Industry Learning Face to Face: Whether you are pursuing industry-specific
designations or continuing education credits, avoid the webinars, and go live
whenever possible. It can be like a mini-conference. Live learning is a fuller experience. I’ve never taken a class where I didn’t walk
away with at least one new idea that was at least in part sparked by
participant interaction of some type.
Talk to People: Any of the seven people listed in this blog is a great place to start. They are all idea generators and great collaborators. Look for ideas in day-to-day interactions. Put the smartphone away for a while. Texting has limited idea generation capability, and if you are distracted by the phone, you’ll miss opportunities to talk and be fully engaged. Be interested in others. Ask questions. As an introvert in many social situations, I know this can be tough to do. I sometimes call to mind the words of my mother when she told a story about my Pop-Pop. If he jumped on a Baltimore trolley and no one was speaking, he made it his mission to start conversations and have the whole car buzzing by the time he got off. I’m not nearly as bold. But I figure if he could do that, I can at least strike up a conversation with one new person at a time. One thing can lead to another. Ideas may be the result. Seek out those who are different than you and can stretch you. Go beyond the usual chit-chat when you can, and avoid negative nonsense.
“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” Eleanor Roosevelt
Collaborating With Yourself: If you don’t schedule to invest in quiet,
reflective time, it might never happen.
Find things that stir awe inside of you.
Ponder the blessings in your life.
Allow yourself to be filled with gratitude and love, which connects you to
something larger outside of yourself. My
grand-daughter and I heard a talk about awe, and we came up with our three-word
description of the process: “Whoa! Wow! Thanks!” The process creates chemical changes in your
brain and allow your mind to connect dots that had been obscured in the
day-to-day.
Write:
There is something about composing that changes your brain. Getting your thoughts out of your head and
onto the paper or screen can also help you to clarify your ideas and trigger
new ones. An idea left unwritten can all
to easily become promise unfulfilled.
I Don’t Care Where You Go – Just Go!
Everyone has different learning styles, attention spans,
experiences, and inspirations. Everyone
is in a different place in their lives and careers. Yet, one thing is sure for all of us – ideas
create solutions and energy. Who doesn’t
benefit from those?
You may find your ideas in completely different places than I. Some of the fertilization techniques might be effective for you; others might not. Find what works for you and keep at it. The ideas are there for you. I don’t care where you go, just go and get them.
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I read a Linkedin post from Ursula Burgess the other day. I am quite sure I’ll never listen to the tune that inspired her thoughts. But her ponderings on opportunities, complacency and resilience got me thinking.
It is way too easy to stay busy yet get nowhere. Activity is fabulous at masquerading as productivity and progress. Opportunities get lost in the flood of information and other attention-grabbing stimuli, both internal and external.
Complacency
Knowing that there will likely be another opportunity tomorrow can cause complacency today. Once the pattern sets in, days become weeks, then months, then years, even decades. Goals, hopes, and dreams go unfulfilled.
It seems to me the key word in the last paragraph is “pattern.” Complacency is a passive pattern. It has the same effect as having a victim mentality in time management – the important stuff doesn’t get done. “Being intentional” is starting to feel a little like an overused cliché to me. But it is at the heart of establishing a pattern that breaks a cycle of complacency. While it should help in the effort to attain goals, intentionality starts with little things.
Little Things to Build Patterns
Here are just a few ideas for little daily actions that can help to build patterns that forge an intentional mindset and make a significant difference over time. They work because they feed both mind and heart. They work because they not only create opportunity, they make it easier to act on opportunities.
• Do a little more than you think you can do • Do a little more than you have to do • Do something for someone with zero expectation of return • Commit to 1% improvement (thank you James Clear) • Help someone who can do nothing for you • Learn something or remind yourself of something you already know • Stop and think for a minute to remember your Why • Find awe • Say thanks • Start a list of the things and people you are grateful for and add to it daily
Goals
Goals are useful for setting direction, but should never define us. They are a means to an end, not the other way around. As Jim Rohn said, “Choose a goal for what it makes of you.” Defining yourself by your goals limits you and may set you up for failure. You may not achieve your goal for reasons beyond your control. Or you may decide to change your goals along the way. Do either make you a failure? You are more than what you achieve. You are the product of the effort it took to get there, what you learned, and the relationships you built along the way.
“Success doesn’t lie in the achievement of a goal, although that’s what the world considers success; it lies on the journey toward the goal. We’re successful as long as we’re working towards something we want to bring about in our lives. That’s when the human being is at his or her best.”
– Earl Nightingale
Being myopically goal-oriented may be damaging. In sports, winning is a goal. In business, profit is a goal. Coaches and CEOs that focus only on those goals without regard to the work required to reach them may succeed for a while, but it is rarely sustainable. Sooner or later, they crash and burn. Coaches that help their teams focus on playing the game well build legacies of winning. Business leaders who build cultures that stress fundamentals and taking care of people are more likely to be profitable over time. The lesson? A goal, whether it is winning, profit, or any other worthy objective, is a natural byproduct of doing the things necessary to attain them.
Context
Values, processes, systems & habits are the key. They help to set and attain meaningful goals. They set the table for progress with daily, intentional actions and it all adds up. It becomes who you are, and you continue to grow. Some days you’ll fall down. It happens. That’s where resiliency comes in. My definition of resiliency: The ability to bounce instead of splatting when you fall. The deeper the pattern of intentional action, the quicker you’ll bounce back up.
If you have any items you would add to the list of little things that help build your intentional mindset, please share!
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The struggle to attract and keep talented employees and volunteers is universal. For businesses, the hard cost of employee turnover includes hiring and onboarding, initial training, ongoing development, and integration with the team. Finally, it includes the interim costs incurred while a position is unfilled. Yet, soft costs can be far more impactful. Turnover loads a burden on the backs of everyone in a company. These can turn into hard costs with loss of business due to poor performance.
Not-for-profit community associations have different metrics. On-site staff and volunteer turnover result in soft costs such as service gaps and overburdened remaining staff and volunteers. This, in turn, takes a toll on member satisfaction. Increased stress and pressure result. Over time, this can lead to increased turnover and lack of volunteer interest.
Another common and insidious cost of turnover can be an intentional or unintentional lack of investment in employees and volunteers, which inevitably leads to more turnover.
The vicious cycle of churn is costly. And it sucks – it sucks the life out of organizations of every sort.
Strategies
There are plenty of strategies out there to retain employees and volunteers. Google the subject and you’ll find scads of them. They range from simple recognition to the adoption of lofty ideals designed to motivate the troops. Volunteer retainage is its own animal because compensation is defined differently. In all cases, strategies are focused on showing appreciation and providing benefits that are designed to reward people and keep them in the fold. And they might not work.
Don’t get me wrong, many strategies can be beneficial. They may help keep some folks around for a while. But they cannot stand alone. Strategies need to be part of a broader context to have lasting value.
Want Retention? Engage
Retention is a useful metric, but it’s not a goal. It’s a byproduct. According to a 2018 Gallup poll, 53% of U.S. workers are not engaged. Gallup states, “They may be generally satisfied but are not cognitively and emotionally connected to their work and workplace; they will usually show up to work and do the minimum required but will quickly leave their company for a slightly better offer.” Another 13% were reported to be “actively disengaged.” Let that sink in. Two-thirds of American workers spend a significant part of their waking hours at a job they don’t really want to do. Yikes! If they don’t leave, they should.
In their seminal work The Leadership Challenge, Kouzes & Posner conclude that people tend to look at their jobs in one of 3 ways; as a job, as a career, or as a calling. The difference? Engagement. The higher the level of the synchronization between the work someone does and their values and goals, the deeper the engagement.
Want Engagement? Lead
“Engagement is not an HR issue. It is a leadership issue” – Simon Sinek, Author & Organizational Consultant
If the key to engagement is the connection of values and work, it begs a couple of questions. What does your organization stand for? What deeper connection does it offer? This is where many leaders fail. Kouzes and Posner offer an approach to address this. They boil it down to what they call “The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership:”
Model the Way
Inspire a Shared Vision
Challenge the Process
Enable Others to Act
Encourage the Heart
All five practices directly impact engagement. Leaders who are hypocritical, directionless, non-communicative, myopic, micromanagers with low EQ kill engagement. If there is a serious weakness in just one or two of these areas, you can count on good people walking out the door.
So then, effective leadership begets engagement and provides a context for strategy. Putting this all together, what are the leaders charged with doing? They must develop and nurture organizational culture.
Build an Intentional Culture – Defining the Organizational “We”
Culture is who we are, proven by what we repeatedly do. Its engine is the shared values of the organization. Shared values lead to aspirational vision. The vision drives goals, which sets the mission. Goals and mission drive strategies, which then dictate day-to-day tactics. We do what we do because we are who we are.
All organizations have a culture. Leaders are responsible for making it an intentional one. That includes community association volunteer leaders. It’s not easy, but it is always worth it. Leaving it to chance leads to disconnected strategies and tactics. And churn.
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” – Peter Drucker, Legendary Management Educator
As the stewards of intentional culture, leaders must make sure that what we do stays in line with who we are. They must walk the talk. Disconnects must be addressed. Few things cause disengagement more quickly than an organization that espouses values that are violated in the way things are done. A dedication to a values-driven culture draws like-minded persons and engages them. Engaged people not only tend to stay awhile, but they also draw others who will find a satisfying place in the culture.
“Culture is caught, not taught” – Rolf Crocker, CEO, OMNI Community Management, LLC
But They Won’t Let Me!
What if your boss doesn’t get it? What if you are an on-site manager with a board full of clueless non-leaders that make it difficult for you to lead your staff? What if you work for a soul-crushing CEO? You still create a culture with those within your sphere of influence. In fact, you must…or leave. That will be the subject of another blog. If a public high school department head can create a pocket of excellence despite deeply entrenched policies and bureaucracy, the odds are good that you can build a culture that makes a difference. Leaders don’t ask permission to lead. They may sometimes have to ask for forgiveness afterward. But results tend to take the heat off.
If You Want Them to Stay, Forget the Fence – Build a Fire
External rewards without engagement are like a fence. Engagement produces internal rewards. If you want to keep people in the fold, stop worrying so much about the fence. Instead, build a fire of culture at the center of the organization. That fire gives team members light so they can see the vision and the warmth of shared values and mission. Create a space where people are drawn and want to stay.
After you’ve lived enough life, you realize that money is
not your most valuable currency. Your
most valuable currencies are time and love.
Use endgame thinking and the logic makes the case. If you run out of money but have time, you
can likely get more money. But if you
run out of time, you likely won’t care too much about the money. And while money certainly has value, it can’t
buy love.
When it comes to money, we can choose to spend it with no long term return or invest it and earn interest. The same can be said of time. One of the biggest mistakes we can make is confusing a time investment for a time expense. Interestingly, the reasons for doing so are very similar to the reasons why many people fail to invest. It’s not logic that gets us, it’s emotion.
Opportunity Cost
Here’s how it works in business. You have a meeting with someone. You agree on next steps. Your schedule is tight. You know you should take three minutes to send
a confirmation email. But you’ve worked with this person before and you are
feeling the rush of the day. I don’t have time. Unfortunately, things go awry. A few details get lost, and the whole thing
blows up. Now you are stuck with an
emergency and have to take 30 minutes or maybe three hours fixing things. Why? All because you saw those three minutes
as a time expense. Not a good time
management strategy. You could have gotten
back far more than those three minutes had you invested up front.
Planning is always a time investment. A failure to invest that time up front will
result in an expense on the back end.
Opportunities Everywhere
Reaping the benefits of compounded interest doesn’t require
huge investments. Many small ones will
do the trick as well. Besides confirming
emails and proper preparation, examples of time investments can include:
Setting an email aside for a little while to
review and edit after you’ve calmed down
Having someone else review your work for
accuracy and effectiveness
Checking with someone before a project due date
to see if they are on track
Asking one more question before forming an
answer
Taking a moment to look someone in the eye and
encouraging them
Taking a moment to express praise for a job well
done
Taking a break to rest and reset
With the speed of life and business, it’s easy to miss
opportunities. In the moment, it’s easy
to lose focus and allow your emotion to fool you into thinking you don’t have
time. But once you start to practice
time investments, little by little you start to see the interest you’ve earned
in time.
Hard to Measure is Still Real
The interest on time investments may not be immediately
detectable. It may come in the form of
increased efficiency. You may realize that
you are dealing with fewer emergencies and getting more done. Sometimes earned interest pays back in
something even harder to measure. When
you add value to time in the way you work with others, you are partnering with
them for their success. Your
relationships deepen. Trust and
appreciation grow. And sometimes as a
byproduct, you get the bonus of time.
Others are more motivated to look out for you, to lend you a hand and to
help you get things done. You show them a little love and they are more
likely to reciprocate.
Real Life
The best part of all this is that it applies not just to
business but in all areas of life. Investing
time in important things always pays back one way or another, some time or
another. The key is to be clear on what
is most important and scheduling actions that work towards those things.
It’s not easy. Never
forget that urgencies are rarely important, and the important things are rarely
urgent. In our immediate gratification
culture and business atmosphere, everything seems urgent. Priority and context have gotten lost. Important things tend not to call your cell,
email you, or text you. But unless you
prioritize the important things, making them urgent, unimportant urgencies will
take over and consume your waking hours.
Figure out what’s important. Figure out what you love. Invest your time. Do the important things, do what you love, and preferably do it with those whom you love. That is the trifecta of life. When you invest your time wisely, you learn one of the core truths of this thing we call “time management.” It is not time that we manage, it is the value we add to our time.
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The next time you hear yourself saying “I don’t have time!” pay close attention. We all have the same 24 hours each day. You have the time. It would be more accurate to say that you are choosing to use your time to do something else.
Granted, that choice may have been made for you. It might be a deadline. Perhaps an emergency has raised its ugly head and thrown your best-laid plans into the circular file. In other cases, it’s the juggling of day to day activities. For certain, you’ll never be able to do everything you could do. Your success (and your sanity) will lie in the ability to do everything you must do, and then doing what you should do. Your challenge isn’t unmanageable time. It’s managing your priorities and somehow aligning your actions to meet them.
Stop, Drop and Roll
When the day catches fire, you have to stop and put it out. Failure to do so will only feed the flames and you’ll be toast soon enough. You may say you don’t have time to grab the extinguisher, but that might not be your brain talking. You cannot ignore the emotional side of decision-making and time management. A wise man said many centuries ago, “The heart is more treacherous than anything else and is desperate, who can know it?” Going with your gut has its place. But in times of stress, it’s a good idea to make sure the old noggin is fully engaged. How can you do it?
Start the day in a quiet place, where you can think clearly and make good decisions. Create a prioritized task list (NOT a “to do” list). You’ll have a clue as to what’s most important and have a legitimate shot at getting at least some of it done. It creates context and a basis for decisions during the day.
Plan breaks. Jim Fannin recommends quarters, like a football game. Plan time to disengage mentally and emotionally, even if only for a few moments. Then analyze how things are going. You plan might have imploded by 10AM. Adjust as needed. Take a deep breath and dive in.
If you need to make a few calls or send some emails to reschedule and manage expectations, do it. Fight the urge for procrastination or conflict avoidance. You might make someone upset, but how much angrier would they be if you don’t deliver and say nothing? It might work out better than you imagine!
To a large degree, you are managing your energy and attention, not your time. Those breaks become time investments. When you get your focus and productivity boost, you will find that you will get back far more time than you spent.
People under stress tend to make bad decisions. It’s not that they aren’t smart enough. Fear and anxiety goof up the decision making process. Don’t let your heart scare you into thinking you don’t have time. Deal with the emotional side first and then let your brain do its thing. Your heart will thank you later!
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If your email and social media feeds are like mine, they were jammed with encouragement and advice on how to make 2019 a great year. So many options and approaches can have the opposite effect, creating stress and frustration. I am always impressed with people who seem to have their stuff together and hit the ground running on January 1. I try to be one of them. Some years I do pretty well, some years not so much.
One week in, there’s a decent chance you fall into one of these categories to one degree or another:
Made resolutions. Already in the toilet.
Have goals in head. Didn’t write anything down.
Tried somebody’s approach. It seemed to make sense, but not really feeling it.
What’s the use? Resolutions are stupid. Life’s a train wreck.
Overwhelmed. Can’t decide how to plan for the year.
Haven’t decided and think it’s too late.
Anxious, guilty, or otherwise nagged with negative feelings about lack of focus.
If that’s you, it’s OK. Sometimes social media lies – you are only seeing a curated image of people, not reality. Don’t let the filters fool you; we all suck sometimes. (Here’s a suggestion for a worthwhile goal – trade 30 minutes a day of Facebook time for 30 minutes of reading time…you’d be amazed…) Maybe Arthur Ashe’s perspective will help soothe you as it does me from time to time.
“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe
Little Things Add Up
“Inch by inch, life’s a cinch. Yard by yard, it’s really hard” – Coach Morgan Wootten
If your mind explodes at the thought of some big master plan, can you start with just one thing? One thing you know would make a difference. One thing you really want. Imagine what a person who has accomplished that thing looks like. How do they act? What do they do from day to day? If you know anybody like that, ask them how they got there. Reverse engineer the goal and figure out what tiny steps you can take to eventually get there. Write it all down. Do those tiny, incremental things, one at a time. Track your progress. Celebrate your victories. Keep showing up. If you fall down…no, WHEN you fall down, re-read Arthur Ashe and get back up.
As with all things in life, the journey turns out to be more important than the achievement of a goal. The late Jim Rohn loved to remind his audiences, “Don’t choose a goal for what you will get. Choose a goal for what it will make of you.”
If you decide to make that reading for Facebook trade, you might want to pick up Atomic Habits by James Clear. He does a nice job explaining how to work with yourself to develop systems instead of fighting with yourself.
The whole idea is to move in a purposeful direction. I noticed more and more writers using specific words to help them. Here are three that might resonate.
If you want more, Jeffery Gitomer uses a four-word approach for two different areas. Sorry, I can’t share a link for this. I got it by email. If you are interested, shoot me an email and I would be happy to forward it to you.
“Success Requires a Bias For Action”
That is one of my favorite quotes from Tom Peters. It applies in so many ways. Doing something, almost anything, is better than nothing.
Most people I meet are what Zig Ziglar would have called “wandering generalities.” They have hopes and dreams, but they haven’t thought about how to move in a direction towards them. Or they are afraid to try and fail. Or they just don’t know how. Becoming a “meaningful specific” (Mr. Ziglar’s contrasting term) is a big deal.
Big things happen from taking small, manageable steps. Whatever works for you, pick a direction and start walking.
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Gratitude spreads through my thoughts as I stare out onto the ocean and ponder the year gone by. Of course, 2018 didn’t go as I thought it would, reminding me that having a purpose can be more useful than having a plan. My purpose of sharing content is to give away all the good things I’ve been fortunate enough to collect. This would not have happened without you blog readers and followers on our business social media platform. I am grateful to so many who have inspired me, supported me, pushed me, put up with me, corrected me, encouraged me, taught me, challenged me, put up with me some more, and set an example for me. One way or another, all of them made my work better and helped me grow as a person. Thank you one and all.
I also thought about the authors that influenced me most this year. Some books were read this year. Others were read years ago and keep showing up in my presentations, blogs, teaching, mentoring, and day-to-day conversations. They have shaped the way I do business. So as a way to thank those influencers who I’ve crammed into my cranium and possibly give you a few ideas for books that might make a difference for you, I offer this year end blog. It’s a long one, but I have a lot of people to thank (and value to give, hopefully)!
T-Rex’s Top Ten Influential Authors in 2018
Leaders-Strategies for Taking Charge by Warren Bennis & Burt Nanus – This was hugely influential when I first started studying leadership in the mid-’80s. The lessons are insightful and the fundamentals are rock solid. I also found his Organizing Genius, Geeks & Geezers, and Reinventing Leadership with Robert Townsend to be outstanding. Dr. Bennis is missed, but his work lives on. It’s woven into every board orientation/tune-up session we share with clients.
Little Golden Book of Yes! Attitude by Jeffrey Gitomer– It’s hokey (Gitomer says so himself), but it’s practical and very real. I keep coming back to it when I need a checkup from the neck up. A few years after studying this book, I did a co-presentation with Shannon Polly and became exposed to the discipline of positive psychology. It turns out the hokey stuff has a clinical backup!
Start With Why, by Simon Sinek – I’d been frustrated for a long time with managers, management companies and board members who seemed determined to stay in the weeds and miss the point. I was always encouraging folks to drill down and get to The Why. I stumbled across a Sinek TED Talk. I bought the book and immediately began stealing from him. His Leaders Eat Last is also very good.
Good to Great, by Jim Collins, including the monograph Good to Great and the Social Sectors– I find myself referring to “Level 5” leadership, the “hedgehog concept” and “pockets of greatness” with frequency. Pockets of greatness will be woven into our work with community associations and management companies in building intentional culture in 2019.
The Speed of Trust by Steven M.R. Covey – I’ll always be indebted to John Byers of Townside Management for introducing this one to me. The general concept plays out all the time in community associations: When trust is present, things go quickly and it’s less expensive. When trust is absent, things take forever and it costs more. I referenced the book at one board consulting session and was tickled to hear that the management company bought copies for all the board members as a gift afterward.
Driven to Delight, by Joseph Michelli – This book helped me to refine how I looked at and taught customer service for community associations. The story of how Mercedes Benz learned to morph from a product-centric to customer-centric mindset is fascinating and applicable to our work. Helping managers, volunteer leaders, and all front line team members, to get out from under their perspective (typically their version of “product-centric”) and think and feel like the members hey serve has been a game-changer.
To Sell is Human, by Daniel Pink – Great research as always by this author. All his work is very good, but this one is still my favorite. I’d known (from Zig Ziglar and others), that sales is essentially service when it’s done right. But I still held negative connotations. This book helped me to put the pieces together and get rid of some mental deadwood. Leaders sell. Salespeople lead. It’s all just part of the human experience.
The Leadership Challenge, by Jim Kouzes & Barry Posner– I have no idea why it took me so long to discover Kouzes & Posner. Model the way, inspire a shared vision, enable others to act, and encourage the heart. Simple in concept, brilliant in application. They are constantly fine-tuning their work based on one of the most impressive collections of data I’ve ever seen.
Who Do You Want Your Customer to Become? by Michael Schrage – Seth Godin mentioned this ebook on a podcast, so I looked it up. Great companies make change for a living. If Association Bridge ever stops making change, we’re quitting the business.
The Excellence Dividend – Meeting the Tech Tide with Work That Wows and Jobs That Last, by Tom Peters – I saved the best for last. Mr. Peters has been a major influence on my business thinking for a long time. Along with Bennis’ Leaders, Peters’ 1982 In Search of Excellence created a foundation for my thinking on organizational dynamics and leadership. The eight principles of In Search still hold up; a bias for action, close to the customer, autonomy & entrepreneurship, productivity through people, hands-on/value driven, stick to what the company knows best, simple form/lean staff, and simultaneous loose-tight properties. The 2018 edition to his long list of titles (most of which still also hold up) goes back to the well on these core principles and applies them to the realities of today and tomorrow. Dividend is packed with meaty content, the result of the author’s 30+ years of experience and incredibly voracious study habits. He’s done the work and he’s clearly trying to give it all away. Even if all you did was use this book to compile a reading list by culling the 7 quadrazillion books he references and quotes from, it would be worth it. I will be re-reading and studying this book well into 2019.
Plus One – A Special Place for Seth
I’ve enjoyed all of Seth Godin’s books. Tribes was particularly insightful in helping to see the context of humans, digital interactions, companies, and relationships. What Does it Sound Like When You Change Your Mind is still about the coolest gift anyone ever gave me.
If all you have is a few minutes to chew on something, you might want to try reading his daily blog. You have the time. Some of his blogs are two sentences. But they’ll get you thinking. I am also getting a lot out of his Akimbo podcast.
Honorable Mentions From the Past & Very Useful 2018 Reads
Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell – There is lots of debate about the validity of the 10,000 hours to mastery idea. Whether that’s a magic number or not, who cares? The principles of showing up and sticking with it work.
Team of Teams by Stanley McChrystal – Practical leadership models to deal with a lightning-fast, complex world, with some pretty insightful myth-busting to boot.
The Culture Engine by S. Chris Edmonds – Provides a useful framework to help organizations develop intentional culture. This is going to be a big theme for us in 2019.
The Advantage, by Patrick Lencioni – Another one recommended by Mr. Peters and also by my friend Jim Fisher. Good insights into organizational culture.
If You Made It This Far, You Are DA BOMB…Final Thoughts
Well, that’s it for 2018. I hope the T-Rex Blog has given you some ideas, perhaps even a little inspiration. Thank you for reading. Thank you even more for your input. And thanks even more than that for passing forward any great ideas that you collect from any source to benefit others.
Final ponderings (thanks for indulging me…). This is just a business blog. Though it’s easy to get things out of whack, please remember that business isn’t life, it’s just a part of it. As such, the way we decide to do our business matters. Be serious about how you do your business, but don’t take yourself too seriously. Care enough to make a difference. You can’t fix the world, but you can make a little difference in someone’s life every day. Sharing love can take many forms. Please share. Take care of others. Take care of yourself. Remember who, and what, is most important, and do your business in a way that honors that.
Sunrise 12/31/18
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It ain’t about you. How many times have we heard that? And yet, we silly old humans forget. It’s understandable. Things go wrong, we feel before we think (a biological fact), and we react. Those reactions are egocentric. The chemicals jetting through our bodies are some powerful stuff! Managing this process so that our outward manifestations take into consideration that we are not the center of the universe requires practice, self-awareness, and perhaps a ton of self-control. Mastering ourselves can be a huge factor in job satisfaction, not to mention peace of mind.
Me, Me, Me – Oops!
The word “context” keeps popping into my head. When our context is insular, it’s flawed. We miss things. We make mistakes. We hurt others. We create drama. There are serious consequences when we fail to recognize others’ experiences, ideas and cultures.
I recall my reaction once in dealing with a particularly egocentric community association member. After trying to appeal to reason in every way I could imagine, I gave up. I changed gears and said, “The thing is, there’s only one sun in the solar system for a reason. If a person tried to be the center of the system, all the gravitational fields would get messed up and the planets might crash. It just wouldn’t work!” It was so random she actually had to stop and think about it. I’m not so sure I would recommend such a facetious approach as one of the “magic beans” of communication, but it actually worked. At least I didn’t get fired.
Finding Context
One antidote? Slow down. See the context of things, events, people and the complicated intersections in between. Perhaps most importantly, find the underlying principles that can apply to the situation. If we want help to create solutions and have a ghost of a chance for happiness and peace, we have GOT to get outside of ourselves. The chart of the universe shown above makes us laugh. But unless we see ourselves, our experience and our attitudes in the context of the larger world, the chart is accurate to one degree or another.
“Sometimes you have to give yourself away to get yourself back.” – tw
Yes, the prospect can evoke fear. The impulse to react from our own standpoint is a form of self-defense. The willingness to release self-interest for a moment might make us feel vulnerable. I also see some irony here. The tighter we hold onto a myopic perspective in order to protect ourselves, the more we put ourselves at risk to our detriment. We are less likely to be effective in working with others, less likely to adjust our course to work with changing circumstances, and less likely to find a deeper satisfaction in work and in life. It is vital to develop and grow emotional intelligence.
As you see yourself and your circumstances more clearly in the greater context of what and who are around you, things start to click. And you grow. I love the way the late Jim Valvano put it, “A person doesn’t become whole until he becomes part of something bigger than himself.”
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I read yet another formulaic, extremely detailed performance evaluation the other day. It was everything I detest about human resource management these days. Oh sure, it had lots of buzzwords and high sounding aspirational phrases – pages and pages of them. And it was devoid of any substantive clarity…or hope. It did such a great job covering the supervisor’s butt that I suggested he write a book called Toasty Buns: How to Completely CYA by Managing Without Leading. It set up the organization to have the flexibility to take whatever action it wanted to without getting itself in legal hot water, while simultaneously leaving the employee confused and demotivated. In my opinion, it was a complete waste of a perfectly good tree.
Welcome to your annual review, Mr. Simpson…I’ve been asked to co-present with lawyers for the Community Association Institute on employment practices three times now. Before that, I thought insurance and risk management were the most challenging areas in community association management. Not anymore. Employment law is one of the most complicated and landmine-ridden areas in business. It can be intimidating and it is very easy to run afoul of the law with no malice whatsoever in our heart. Documentation of performance evaluations is a big deal. I get it.
Here’s the problem. Evaluations like the one I just puked through can easily become a vicious cycle and part of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The process breeds defensiveness, which kills motivation. It demoralizes team members. It reinforces bureaucracy and cripples leadership. It protects the organization against lawsuits while simultaneously protecting it against a workforce ever reaching its potential. It discourages staff from helping the organization to become wildly successful, which then requires more negative comments on evaluations, thus completing the cycle. Essentially, the process of evaluating and documenting performance can actually work against what the exercise was supposed to achieve in the first place – optimal performance! The lawyers are the ONLY ones who are happy.
Welcome to your annual review, Mr. Simpson…
Is it any wonder that, according to Gallup, upwards of 70% of American workers are classified as either “not engaged” or “actively disengaged”?
Evaluations, as we’ve known them, are EVIL. Hence, the title of this blog.
Can We Get This Right?
I think so. I think you can protect an organization and benefit it by setting the stage for team members to be at their best, thereby contributing to the success of that organization.
Here’s the Cliff’s Notes version of one way to accomplish the task:
Have an intentional culture.
Memorialize the values and the culture in writing. Make it the FIRST part of your butt-covering, legalese-saturated personnel manual. Explain The Why, and how it’s an awesome thing.
In the FIRST paragraph of every position description, memorialize how each team member contributes to those values and the culture, and ultimately to the success of the organization in a win-win paradigm.
Make sure every new hire has a goal list of time-sensitive and key ongoing deliverables that relate to values and culture in order to create a metric and mutual expectation. Help everyone to see what success looks like.
Engage in regular discussion about how things are going. Find people doing things right and reward it. Set dates in your calendar to make it happen. MBWA (look it up).
Plan to have a conversation about how team members are doing, based primarily on the stated values and culture, and highlighting goal list items or other specific, clearly communicated deliverables. Everybody writes down some talking points so they can remember them.
Have a conversation, NOT an EVILuation. Reach areas of agreement on areas of success and celebrate them. Note opportunities for improvement and set a new metric. The goal of the collaboration is agreement, a plan, and ownership. If there are disagreements in some part of the assessment, allow the team member’s dissent to be recorded. Just make sure the expectation moving forward is clear and included in the plan.
Type it up. Review it together for accuracy. Everyone signs off.
Execute the plan.
Rinse, repeat.
Performance evaluation by discussion and collaborative action plans make sense when it’s in the context of culture. It makes sense when that culture is founded in shared values with personal and group accountability. Culture and the other best practices that set the framework for this model will be the topic of other blogs. But you don’t have to wait to get those things lined up perfectly to change the way you think about and execute your evaluation process. Do that now. The process can help to kickstart an intentional culture.
This is NOT fluffy feel-good stuff. This is hard. And it works. As Tom Peters comments in The Excellence Dividend, “Effective evaluations emerge from a series of loosely structured, continuing conversations, not from filling out a form once every six months or year.” PREACH, Mr. Peters, PREACH!
It’s not a Pollyanna. It’s about getting things done and being grown-ups. You’ll still be able to figure out if people are working out or not. And the written part will keep the lawyers happy. Most importantly, the evaluation process will actually do what it is intended to do – make sure everyone is clear about the organization’s goals and their role in achieving them.
Let’s get this done!
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