Leadership + Management Training and Tips » Change

The Cancer of Corporate America…Do you have it?

rkhoss — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 04:00:07 +0000

Wherever there are people, the disease lurks; waiting to ‘eat at’ it’s next victim.

…I can’t believe that THEY were promoted, everyone knows that THEY are incompetent…

…It’s clear now what is needed to advance in this organization, certainly not drive, dependability, and producing results…

…those were my ideas and presentations that got THEM promoted. It should have been ME…

…of all the Leadership styles to reward, I would have never picked THAT one, Not only do THEY lack Leadership, THEY are a terrible Manager…

I can’t remember where I heard these quotes, but it certainly wasn’t from my experience…

So when this happens to you; what are you feeling?

Jealousy typically refers to the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that occur when a person believes a valued relationship is being threatened by a rival. This rival may or may not know that he or she is perceived as a threat.
Envy is a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another’s advantages, success, possessions, etc.
or BOTH

Knowing what your feeling, is the first step in protecting yourself from the Corporate Cancer that can destroy even the best leaders.

Just like any other corporate problem you have faced in your past, you have to break it down in order to find the root cause so you can begin to apply treatments to the source…

Have I reached my Peter Principle?
Am I not as valuable as I thought I was?
Or was your Boss just Gracious to a Peer, and I’m just Envious?

Driving in the Fast Lane…or taking the Exit Ramp?

rkhoss — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 04:00:38 +0000

Do you ever ask yourself what you are doing and where are you going? Or have you been asked by others:

What do you want to do when you grow up?
What do you see yourself doing in 5 years?
How do you plan to get there?

The list can go on and on… I know I have heard these all my life. For me it’s difficult to answer because I have always enjoyed where I was at the time. Maybe because I look to be content no matter where I am, or to look at life as a journey, not a destination.

If you’re like me, you’re handling your career like Driving in the Fast Lane. I’m going no where special, but I’m getting there fast… But ask any expert and you’ll see they all agree on one thing…

Yep!!! You have to have Specific Written Goals.

“The greatest thing in life is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving.” Oliver Wendall Holmes

“Before you can score, you must first have a goal.” Anonymous

“If you don’t know where you are going in life, you’re liable to wind up someplace else.” Yogi Berra

“Aim at nothing and you’ll probably hit it.” Anonymous

“I really don’t know what I want from life, but I’m pretty sure it ain’t what I’ve got.” Alfred E. Newman

After 32 years of business experience you’d think I would have lived what I learned more consistently. Well, you’re wrong. At times even the best Leaders out there are JUST LIKE YOU. That’s because you have the potential to be a Great Leader. Just take some of the simple advice of Great Leaders of the past.

Step 1 – Get a GOAL!

You’re probably telling yourself that you have tried to do this in the past and can’t seem to get it done. Check this out if you’re having trouble Getting Started.

Step 2 – Do Step 1 until you Get a Goal.

Here are some simple steps to help make your Goal Setting More Successful:

Start easy and small, just start
Make your goals Achievable and Measurable
Find someone else to help keep you accountable
Don’t plan too far out. Just get pointed in the Right Direction.

Well it’s been almost 6 months since our last post… Why? You ask?

That’s right, it wasn’t a Goal and it Fell off our Radar Screen since Life is Busy!!!

“There are Always REASONS for not meeting your Goals or Deadlines, just NO EXCUSE!!!”.

Today I created written goals and I’m off to my Destination again. Have you ever tried to Google Directions without putting in a Starting Address and Destination… you get my point.

If you need some help with writing your goals, let me suggest identifying these categories:

Business/Financial
Family
Social
Physical
Spiritual
Mental

Keep in mind that you ‘Balance’ your goals across the 6 categories. The goals need to compliment each other not compete.

Like I said before, don’t worry about looking too far out. As you progress and meet your mini-goals, new opportunities will appear giving you many options to change your course; often options you didn’t know were possible.

So take an exit ramp, not for the purpose of quitting, but to redirect your direction to ‘Stay on Course’. Don’t just go through the motions and ‘Drive Along’. Plot your course and don’t miss your Exit Ramp.

You can Do it. You Are Born To WIN!

When do you stop being Told what to DO?

rkhoss — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 04:00:29 +0000

Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. –Peter Drucker

Who tells your boss what to do?

It has always amazed me that in every position I have worked in my past, employees always have the same response to that question – Who tells your boss what to do? Their boss!

When I ask the same question up the Table of Organization, they give the Ouroborosish like response all the way up -

Position in Organization	Who Tells them What to Do
Subject Matter Expert (SME) or Technician	Lead or Manager
Lead	Manager
Manager	Director
Director	Vice President (VP)
Vice President (VP)	Chief Executive Office (CEO)
Chief Executive Office (CEO)	Board of Directors
Board of Directors	Stock Holders / Consumers / Customers

Nobody tells Leaders what to do

I love to see the shock on their faces when I tell them that Leaders are not told what to do! Leaders see (and work with others to find) efficiencies, problems, and solutions before they become fires. They spread their leadership. They know what their bosses are looking for and provide it before they are asked for it because they understand the vision.

So if your working your way into Management/Leadership, when do you stop being told what to do and change from being an Employee to becoming a LEADER?

You don’t become a Director, and then start becoming a Leader. Just like any job, you get a job only because your skills and experience will ensure that you will be successful in that Job. Once you’re in your new job, you should begin to work on learning the next level There is no better time to begin than now, when being a leader sticks out even more.

Leadership is the fast track to being promotable

Position in Organization	Skill Set
Chief Executive Office (CEO)	Leader
Vice President (VP)	Leader
Board of Directors	Leader
Director	Leader
Manager	Manager
Lead	Manager
Subject Matter Expert (SME) or Technician	Have to Decide if you want to be a Manager or remain in a Technical Role

As you can see, Leaders rise higher than Managers in an organization. So the sooner you develop Leadership Skills the more promotable you become. Managers usually can only Manage people in their technical area. Leaders have skill sets that make them successful in any area, because those skills are transferable.

Remember, Managers are EVERYWHERE! But leaders are hard to come by. Great Leaders are even more scarce, so keep on developing yourself and you will stand out in a crowd!

Supervisors are HISTORY; Are Managers next on the extinction list?

rkhoss — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 04:00:13 +0000

Remember Supervisors? People tasked to “watch” others work… They have almost completely faded away or at least for most industries have… and for good reason. How unproductive!

Just as Supervisors have been replaced in the last decade by either Managers or empowering Employees, I believe Managers are next to go…

Managers will always be needed, but Leaders will be what organizations, like yours, are LOOKING FOR! If your company is hiring people from outside, it’s because they can’t find LEADERSHIP from within…

Take a look at how skill sets change as you progress up a ‘Chain of Command’ or ‘Table of Organization (T.O.)’. Where are you in your Organization and where do you desire to go to? Do you have the proper Skill Set ratio, and if not, what are you doing to change that?

Position in Organization	Skill set Spread
Chief Executive Office (CEO)	Leadership: 100 % Technical: 0 %
Vice President (VP)	Leadership: 80 % Technical: 20 %
Director	Leadership: 60 % Technical: 40 %
Manager	Leadership: 40 % Technical: 60 %
Lead	Leadership: 20 % Technical: 80 %
Subject Matter Expert (SME) or Technician	Leadership: 0 % Technical: 100 %

Everyone may want to rise to the ‘TOP’, but remember somewhere in your career, the Peter Principle may step in.

Here is a simple and quick Test from Leadership IQ, to help you see how you measure up. Take the Test

So, when do you begin to CHANGE from a Manager to a Leader?

Meet the LEADER of LEADERS!

rkhoss — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 04:00:26 +0000

Somethings are hard to describe.

But S.M. Lockridge doesn’t seem to have that problem describing the Leader of Leaders. Do you KNOW HIM?

Remember the Reason for the Season.

Have a Very Merry Christmas!

BEWARE – Are You the Weakest Link on Your Team?

rkhoss — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 04:00:42 +0000

This year I have worked hard to build a strong team of Leaders at my work. Growing a team of people to becoming “Their Best” is what drives and motivates me, everyday.

Usually, the results are enough to keep your team motivated, and encouraged. All of the members don’t need to see personal results, sometimes team results or positive results of another team member can be enough to keep growing themselves or challenging each other.

But what do you do when the results aren’t there? or you, as the Leader, start to feel demotivated? Check out some previous tips to ensure that you, THE LEADER, are ALWAYS on your Game:

So this year was a good year, but the REAL question is, “How do we, as a team, continue to improve year over year”? Before I answer this, let me tell you a funny story about helping your Boss put things into perspective.

It all started with a simple lock, just like this one.

As I remember the story, I heard my General Manager (I was a Director of Housekeeping at a hotel at the time), call me on the two way radio… “You need to come meet me at the Store Room in the East Tower” (it was not really a store room but what I called the ‘Museum’). You see it was 5 Star hotel and when we stored things in the storeroom, we weren’t talking about old mop buckets and busted up computers etc… but hundreds of items from $30,000 pieces of artwork to antique chairs, or original statues etc… you get the picture. “Come up here right away, I need to see you” was the call… It sounded SO urgent so I dropped everything to respond. When I got there, I was frustrated to find that he only wanted to SHOW OFF his new IMPERVIOUS PADLOCK. As I was burning inside, frustrated that my idiot Boss just called me away from SERIOUS work; I began to ponder all the FACTS he was throwing at me:

This lock cost me…(can’t remember exactly but it was definately WAY TOO MUCH)

It’s Bullet Proof, at any distance (blah blah blah)

Same lock they used at Fort Knox…(oh sure)

I think it weighed like 8 lbs or something (it WAS Big, I’ll give him that)

All I remember is that he went ON and ON… like this was his FIRSTBORN. Telling me how this will be the perfect solution to protecting all our valuables in “The Museum”. I was thinking frantically how I could get out of this scenario and what I could do to bring my Boss ‘Back to Reality’, when just then my Chief Engineer walked up to see what all the ‘hub bub’ was on the radio. Then it came to me, Find The Weakest Link…

I asked my Chief for his tin snips from his tool belt and with two quick snips I cut the ‘$2.00 hasp’ holding the expensive lock and all 8 lbs came crashing to the floor (I was lucky it did not break the marble floor, that was not the impact I was trying to make) saying, “that is what I think of your Lock”, as I walked away…

You may think I purposefully tried to embarrass my boss (and maybe I did) but I did ask my Chief to see if he could remedy that for me and he said yes as he tried to keep from laughing out loud at the scene.

In order to continually grow a strong team, you need to continually find the ‘weakest link’ and improve it or replace it. Help your team find and correct the weakest links themselves, then your ready to move on to other opportunities. With these newly developed skills and perspective, they will be UNSTOPABLE.

When you’re NO LONGER NEEDED, consider it a JOB WELL DONE and leave with Pride.

Now Go Out There and find another opportunity to add value to.

Good Luck, and may this year be another good one for you as well. Thank you to Darren Rowse for the topic + group writing project.

Ever feel like things will never Change?

rkhoss — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 04:00:11 +0000

If you work in a large organization, like I do, you may sometimes wonder if Change will EVER occur.

There are basically two main areas that need to be influenced in order to effect Change:

1. Things outside your circle of influence and
2. Things INSIDE your circle of influence.

One area you can’t control, the other area you have TOTAL control. So let’s focus on what you CAN control.

Things inside your Circle of Influence:

Your Attitude (Learn more on how to Look at Your Job)
Your Time (More on this…coming soon…)
Your Behavior
Your Perspective (Learn more on Leadership Perspectives)
Your Beliefs
Your Actions
Your Schedule
Your Goals
Your Boss (Learn more on how to Control Your Boss)
Your Team or Direct Reports…

The list could go on and on. As you review the above list, you may start asking yourself, If these are all things I CAN change, then what CAN’T I change.

Good question.

Actually, there are probably portions of each of the above, that you can’t control. But I would argue, if you work at it, I believe you can control MUCH MORE then you currently do now.

I believe, we WILL CHANGE, when one of these three things occur:

Hurt enough, or so much you HAVE to
Learn enough, or so much you WANT to
Receive enough, or so much you NEED to

Let us know if anything on this site is helping you on your Leadership Journey. We are only doing this to help other new managers become better Leaders. We have many more things to share, but we would like to address topics that you need most. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to share.

What’s a Leader to do when THEY have the BLAHs?

rkhoss — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 04:00:12 +0000

Aren’t Leaders supposed to always be positive, cheerful, never frustrated?

How can they successfully Lead the Team if they are down or discouraged?

The answers are simple. Yes. and they can’t.

So what do you do when your the Leader and you have the BLAHs?

…my wife says… try an anti-deppressant…. but the real answer is Check your Balance!!!

Depending on how ‘out of balance’ you are, will determine the extent of your remedy.

Rate yourself, or better yet listen to others around you.

My wife often tells me I work too much, I guess I always have. But when you start hearing that from your employees or your team members want to know why your so down… You better do something quick to CHANGE…

It doesn’t matter what you do, just DO SOMETHING to change.

Get Some Sleep, go to bed early
Get some MORE Sleep, take a long NAP, your Body and Mind needs the rest
Spend more time with Family and Friends (Holidays don’t count)
Find some ME time. Read, excersise, go fishing, work on a hobby (whatever works for you)
Serve others by Volunteering
Hang with POSITIVE people, it is definately contagious
Go to Church, Seeking God always helps to put things into Perspective
sometimes JUST DO NOTHING (Give yourself permission to be UNPRODUCTIVE)

Hope this helps. Let me know what works for you?

Go out there and make a difference. Tomorrow your attitude can Make or Break someone else’s day!