Archive for the ‘Feature’ Category

Just how good of a job do you need to do to get recognized? Last weekend, the Washington Post ran a story about an experiment they conducted that might answer this question.

On the morning of January 12, the Washington Post sent the world-renowned violinist Joshua Bell into a Metro station to spend an hour playing for passers-by. During the hour-long performance, Bell performed a handful of the greatest classical pieces ever written. Their experiment: during the busy morning commute and far from normal context, would beauty transcend? Would the combined genius of Bell’s performance and some of the greatest compositions ever written be recognized by morning commuters? Would they stop and listen? Would they reach into their wallets and show recognition through financial contribution?

“The acoustics proved surprisingly kind. Though the arcade is of utilitarian design, a buffer between the Metro escalator and the outdoors, it somehow caught the sound and bounced it back round and resonant.”

The result: of the 1,097 people that passed by Bell during his performance, only a handful were drawn to his music. He received a total of $32.17 in tips. Ironically, every single child that passed by attempted to stop and listen, only to be hastened on by their parents.

“A middle-age man altered his gait for a split second, turning his head to notice that there seemed to be some guy playing music. Yes, the man kept walking, but it was something.”

So back to our question: Just how good of a job do you need to do to get recognized? If we look at Joshua Bell’s performance in the Metro station, we see that without the right promotion or in the wrong context, even genius can go completely unrecognized. We know that when performing in a concert hall, Bell gets the undivided attention of thousands. But left to stand on their own, without the support of proper promotion or the reinforcement of the right context, his skills went unnoticed.

Don’t let this happen to you. No matter how good a job you do, like Bell, if you do not position yourself correctly in your career, surround your skills with the right context, and promote yourself properly, you can expect your job to go virtually unnoticed.

“At a music hall, I’ll get upset if someone coughs or if someone’s cellphone goes off. But here, my expectations quickly diminished. I started to appreciate any acknowledgment, even a slight glance up.”

What do you need to do to make sure your talents get recognized?

Listen to Joshua Bell’s complete January 12 performance in the DC Metro Station.

Technorati Tags: recognition, joshua bell, leadership, promotion

Last Saturday LA Times ran an article on the “Return of the Glass Ceiling” or as they put it, the “female free management zone” of corporate business. This article calls attention to a subject many have been lulled into thinking is on the way to be solved: the common belief is that women are assuming more corporate management positions and directorships and that women have free choice in how and where they advance in their careers.

Statistics show that this is definitely not the case; in fact the situation is at best status quo or getting worse for women in corporations in spite the occasional standout exception like Indra Nooyi, the new CEO of Pepsi. There is a glaring dearth of women in the top executive suites of major corporations in the US in spite the fact that women have been getting over a third of the MBA’s since the 1980’s and that women comprise of over fifty percent of the managerial and professional workforce.

In 64 of the Fortune 500 companies, there are no women at all in the management team – house hold names like Owens-Illinois, Saks Inc. Borders, Newell Rubbermaid, Toll Brothers, and Whirlpool. These companies’ customers are predominantly female and yet they do not seem to recognize that having women on the leading team will add to the productivity and effectiveness of their organizations.

Women are starting businesses at twice the pace of men and their businesses are growing at twice the growth rate as all firms. Yet in corporations women earn only 75% of what men make in comparable positions, and they are assigned to be in staff position twice as often.

The issue of the Glass Ceiling for women is a particularly timely topic since the X and Y generations have grown up with less of an awareness/need of having to fight for their rights in education and sports. They are now just beginning to realize that the rise up the corporate hierarchy is fraught with barriers that they thought was dealt with and broken by their mothers and grandmothers.

The Glass Ceiling in corporate business is still very much in place and equally rigid are the Glass Walls, which the LA Times article also alluded to. Glass walls, the invisible obstructions that keep women from learning the range of skills that is required to rise up in a company is even more insidious. Why should everyone care? Because it is good for business. A study conducted by Catalyst , a nonprofit research and advisory organization, showed that companies with more women executives financially outpace those with fewer women executives.

Simply put, the reason that we all need to be concerned about breaking down the glass ceiling and glass walls is that in today’s world it is foolhardy to bypass half the available talent, especially since we are experiencing a skilled labor imbalance and shortage globally. It is good for business, to be in tune with our customers’ needs. With women holding over 80% of the purchasing power in the US, we need to know and understand our customer. To integrate the customer group into the business just makes good business sense.

Additionally we need to expand the issue of the glass ceiling and glass walls to all affected groups – all who are not similar in ways to the current management demographics. This concept of diversity expands past the gender issue and includes all ethnicity, national origin, regional differences and religious/sexual orientation. The time to address the Glass Ceiling and Glass Walls is upon us.

Interested in learning more? Attend Marilyn’s upcoming webinar, Glass Ceilings and Glass Walls, where she will discuss the tools and actions steps to help you remove these barriers to achieving your full potential.

Marilyn Tam is a Corporate Consultant, Speaker, Author, Executive Director and Co-founder of Us Foundation. Ms. Tam was formerly the President of Reebok Apparel and Retail Group; CEO of Aveda Corp. and Vice President of Nike Inc. She is also a successful entrepreneur, having developed and built companies in corporate consulting & training, a web portal company and a supply chain software company. Marilyn Tam’s international selling book, “How to Use What You’ve Got to Get What You Want”, combines her business acumen with her goal of giving back to show others how to achieve their dreams. www.HowToUseWhatYouveGot.com

Technorati Tags: diversity, glass ceilings, career, leadership, indra nooyi

Earlier this month, two University of Washington researchers released a study titled Rotten to the core: How workplace ‘bad apples’ spoil barrels of good employees. This interesting article validates what everyone experiences in the working world. “Bad apples” absolutely destroy trust and the performance of a team.

A negative atmosphere is contagious. People will react to a negative atmosphere in a number of ways, often unconscious, with a loss of trust and subsequently loss of high performance as the outcome. Because “bad apple” behavior is often not task related but more often subtly undermining of the team’s trust, it is very hard to identify and deal with especially in behavioral terms. It is hard to let someone go because they “make others feel bad”. Yet, this bad apple behavior is very costly for the functioning of a team. I once had two team members quit in the same week because they could no longer tolerate the “bad apple” of a senior, very talented team member.

So what can you do if you have a ”bad apple” on your team?

1. Pull the team together and as a group set “norms” for effective behaviors in the team. Discuss how you are going to hold each other accountable. This sets the baseline for what the “rules of engagement” for the team are. As a result, when those norms are violated (which is what “bad apples” are really doing), there is already an accountability mechanism set up. These norms also gives the boss concrete behaviors with which to coach the person.
2. Be careful not get caught in triangulation. The “Bad apple” can frustrate you so much that you commiserate with your other team mates. This kind of triangulation actually reduces trust even further and accomplishes nothing except allowing you to vent.
3. Try to understand where the person is coming from. Maybe there really is something you can do to help. Sometimes “bad apples” can act as a sort of “canary in the coal mine”, reacting to a real issues that should be dealt with.

If you boss is a bad apple, you still might try the norm setting technique. However, it is much harder for a team to hold a boss accountable for the “bad apple” behavior. Still, it is worth a try. No matter what, don’t get hooked into the bad apple behavior. Try to not respond or avoid it. Ultimately, you need to work for someone you trust. If your boss is a bad apple and you can’t trust that person you will need to find another job.

Technorati Tags: team-building, bad apples, leadership

We recently asked the Leader’s Studio team the following question: “In your experience, what is the most common mistake you see new leaders making?” Here are their responses:

Jodi Taylor’s response:
Not knowing how to delegate and build a team. New leaders are successful because they have performed well at their technical tasks. They are typically responsible and knowledgeable. However the minute, they become a leader, their real job changes. They need to learn how to get the task done by motivating, communicating and developing others. This is an entirely new set of skills that what has made them successful so far.

Not understanding that the role of a leader is different and their impact is different. Leaders need to learn how to put on the role of a leader, understand that their responses suddenly have a larger effect than when they were just a team member and that they have become a role model for the rest of the tram so that there are behaviors they can no longer engage in.

Fred Harburg’s response:
Failure to learn from mistakes and achievements. Most new leaders are so invested in appearing competent that they are blind to what they are doing that is just not working or that is working exceptionally well. It’s hard to overestimate the importance of learning from every experience and from every outcome, both good and bad. When learning stops so does growth.

Robert Ginnett’s response:
Jumping right into the task and not working on the team. Remember, most new leaders got selected for that position because they were good individual contributors at the task. But as a new leader, their job is not to do the work themselves. And this brings us to my definition of leadership: the leader’s job is to create the conditions for the team to be effective.

New leaders, often feeling anxious about their new position—and often without any organizational training or support—jump to the task because they know they are good at the task. But as a leader of others, it is their team’s job to get the task done and the leader’s job is to help them make that happen.

Marilyn Tam’s response:
Making decisions too quickly without the proper information - or - Not making decisions until it is too late. The common theme in this conundrum is that new leaders are not sure of how to deal with the elevated level of responsibility and they either jump to immediate conclusions based on insufficient data or wait until the issue becomes a crisis.

A way to move forward gracefully is to:

1. Ask Questions
2. Assess the situation
3. Gather information from the range of sources
4. Act and coordinate with all relevant parties.
5. Determine the right decision based on the mission and purpose of the company/division
6. Keep following up to ensure that the process is on track to attain the desired outcome

Most of all, new leaders should feel comfortable to know that every leader makes mistakes; just make sure that contingency plans are in place should a decision turns out to have undesired results and learn from your mistakes.

Technorati Tags: leadership mistakes, leadership, new leaders, teams

For many of us, the start of a new year marks the annual performance review and goal setting process. Given all of our tight schedules, it’s all-too-easy to just go through the motions, setting goals without really making sure they’re going to help us make 2007 the best year possible.

In order to help you make the most of your goal-setting time and of 2007, we’ve asked the Leader’s Studio team to give us their tips for setting better goals in the New Year. We’ve compiled all of the responses in a two-part series.

Marilyn Tam’s tips:

• Set goals that are aligned with your life purpose. First determine whether you are on track to achieving what it is you are truly after in life. Is it really a monetary figure or a certain position? Your mission is probably something much greater like the ability to make a significant impact on the world or to provide for your loved ones. Set your goals based on what you truly value instead of some media conditioned concept of what should be important to you.
• Review your 2006 goals before you set the 2007 ones. What happened to your goals for 2006? Learn from what you did in 2006. Were you successful in your plans? If so how can the strategy(ies) you employed serve you again? If you missed your mark in 2006, what can you learn from the experience? If you neglected to set goals in 2006, how has that inspired you in your plans for 2007?
• Enlist others in achieving your goal(s). When you recruit others in supporting your goals, it helps to articulate them in ways that benefits the common good. This will help you in clarifying the reasons and methods to accomplishing your goals. The support of others will also give you more resources and insights in attaining your goals.

Kimberly Bishop’s tip:

• Setting goals is not always about something new or something not done. It is also about preserving and recognizing what is going well and setting a goal to continue that behavior or initiative. Take time to think about what is working so you don’t lose that focus in the coming year.

Fred Harburg’s tips:

• Review your goals with your peers before you commit them to your boss. If you meaningfully involve your peers in goal setting it will allow you to set a collaborative rather than competitive environment for their attainment. You may also find out that you are working on the same thing and can divide and conquer or support each other in important ways. Your peers have ideas about how you can get things done in different ways. Their ideas are valuable.
• Make sure to read your boss’s goals before you set your own. Figure out how to support her/his goals with yours. This process is called goal alignment. When goals are clearly aligned at each level of an organization they have much more power and are much more valuable to your organization. By the way, you don’t have to have a goal for every one of your boss’s and in some cases you may have more than one for one of the boss’s. Do what makes sense.
• Stagger the end dates for your goals. If all of your goals are timed to be complete in the 4th quarter, life will be hectic at the end of the year. It make more sense to think about budgeting your time and your goal completions so there is a steady flow of effort and achievement throughout the year. This will also give you a chance to gain energy from some of the early completions to sustain your later efforts.

Coming tomorrow: Part 2: 8 More tips for setting goals in 2007

Technorati Tags: goals, goal setting, performance review

Before we talk about high performance teamwork, let’s talk about cars. I have always admired Mercedes-Benz automobiles. Mercedes provides an extraordinary driving experience. There is, however, a fairly significant obstacle to overcome in obtaining this extraordinary driving experience: cost. A Mercedes is expensive to buy and to maintain. But I really like the Mercedes driving experience.

So the other day, as I was driving through Motor City, I had an idea. Here’s what triggered my idea. At one of the used car lots, I noticed an ugly little car with a big SALE sign on it. Turns out the car was a Yugo. It wouldn’t start on its own, and when it did, it didn’t run well. It was uncomfortable to sit in and awkward to steer, and most of all it was horrible to drive. But it was really cheap. So I thought, “Here’s what I’ll do. I’ll buy this little Yugo for next to nothing and I’ll have so much capital left over that I can put some serious money into beefing up the suspension system. Probably the steering, too. Oh yes, and even get some new seats. That way I’ll get my “Mercedes ride” without having to pay for a Mercedes.”

At this point you must be thinking, why in the world am I even reading an article written by this guy? First of all, he’s writing about cars in an article about obtaining high performance teamwork. But more importantly, he is obviously deranged. There is no way you could ever get a Yugo to drive like a Mercedes, I don’t care how much fix-up money you put into it. It would be like pouring money into a hole in the earth for all the good it would do you. And you would be right, at least about the last sentence!

So let me confess. I didn’t buy a Yugo and I didn’t seriously even contemplate putting money into such a vehicle in order to get the drive of my dreams. But I did invent the story because it occurred to me that the same sort of weird logic seems to explain the rationale used by many organizations today in attempting to obtain high performance teamwork. Let me explain the similarities in these two different situations.

Most traditional organizational structures are designed to control the activities of individuals in the workplace. While some variations have occurred since the heyday of the industrial revolution, the organizational structures, based upon underlying assumptions about individual work, are still largely in place today.

And this is at the root of the problems we find in organizations that are struggling to implement high performance teams. While there is, in almost every case, a genuine desire to reap the benefits of high performance teamwork, there seems to be tremendous reluctance to go back and redesign the structures that might actually result in teamwork as the natural outcome. In other words, we really like that Mercedes ride, but we just don’t want to put out the time, effort, and money to buy that Mercedes design and engineering.

The outcomes are similar in both situations. Having decided that teamwork is the best strategy to help us achieve our goals in the current environment, but having made at least an unconscious decision to leave our current organizational structures and systems intact, we find that teamwork is not happening very well, if at all, in our organization. So while still wishing for that Mercedes ride, we’ve essentially invested in a Yugo organizational structure. It just doesn’t work.

Enter the team consultants who advocate the need for corporate-wide team building workshops (at a very substantial fee). These guys are good—and they have access to high-ropes courses and river rafting and survival experiences and a host of other “team building” experiences. So off you and your teams go for a week in the woods and everybody comes back feeling good about themselves and good about their teams. But after a month back in the workplace, the magic of the outdoor week is gone and everyone is back into the patterns of before: individualism and competition have won out yet again over the forces of teamwork and collaboration.

Sound familiar? If you have had this or similar experiences, then I believe you may have dumped a lot of money into your organizational “Yugo” in hopes of improving a system that was never properly designed or engineered to give you organizational “Mercedes” performance. It is unlikely that you will get high performance teamwork from an organizational structure and organizational systems designed to manage and control individual performance. And while team building exercises have their place, it is futile to expect them to overcome inherent organizational design deficiencies. So if you really want high performance teamwork, don’t just wish for it—design for it.

Technorati Tags: leadership, teamwork, management, performance, business