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

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…

Continue reading ‘Supervisors are HISTORY; Are Managers next on the extinction list?…’

January 12, 2007 Speedlinking

The first two from this weeks links are all about “tricking” yourself into doing what you really want. Some great techniques on how to accomplish what you set out to do from these great blogs -

• Steve Pavlina gives some great ways to achieve your goals by improving your character. The simple technique he writes about can really help to get past problems. What would a person with more X do in my situation?
• Small things matter more than you think. Carmine from Slow Leadership shows how lots of little decisions are “often the key to acting on the bigger choices you want to make about your life.”
• A particular favorite of mine, because so many in the tech world fall into this trap and avoiding it is a great way to stand out by avoiding it - In Oh why won’t they ever learn? Mike Schaffner talks about the trap of becoming annoyed at users because they fail to learn the “obvious.” (Love the new name of your blog!)
• And Business Week wraps it up with some more great ideas about running effective meetings. I love the idea of projecting the meeting notes on a wall during the meeting. But, as Penelope Trunk pointed out in our effective meeting ideas, the trick isn’t how to run a great meeting - it’s getting people to use the “great meeting” techniques in the meetings!

Are Your Employees Giving You Problems or Solutions?

I’ve been reading Skunk Works(Affiliate) by Ben Rich over the last week. Skunk Works is a super-secret Lockheed division where great minds work on advanced aerospace and defense contracts. Ben Rich was the leader of this operation from 1975 to 1991, and worked on projects like the first stealth bomber.

One of the reasons that Skunk Works is so successful is the great leadership structure that is setup. Smart people are allowed to get work done, and are involved in the project all the way through. Unfortunately, the government isn’t setup the same way.

From Skunk Works -

One that particularly sticks in my craw occurred when President Johnson first announced in 1964 the existence of the RS-71, the Air Force two-seater Blackbird. That’s right, RS-71 was its official designation, but Johnson accidentally turned it around and called it the “SR-71.” Instead of putting out a brief correction, the Air Force decided not to call attention to a very minor mistake by the commander in chief and ordered us to change about twenty-nine thousand blueprints and drawings at a cost of thousands of dollars so that they would read “SR-71″ and not “RS-71.”

I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating again and again - Do your employees come to you with mistakes as they happen with possible solutions already laid out, or do they work to keep you insulated from the mistakes because of a culture of fear?

Don’t waste MY TIME (or anyone else’s either)

Most Meetings are a Waste of Time… But yours DON’T HAVE TO BE.

YOU will stand out as an Effective Leader if your meetings are different. It is easier than you may think.

1. Have a Clear Purpose. Never meet without an Agenda or a planned outcome.
2. Ensure all the Right People are there and not just the decision makers. Get input from all the best resources, remember to look outside of the obvious ones. Take advantage of all available diversity and listen closely to the people in the trenches; they know more than you give them credit for.
3. Don’t waste people’s time, their time is as valuable to them as yours is to you. Plan enough Time and Start and End on time or sooner. I never schedule a meeting for LESS THAN 1 Hour. It is always better to be done in 30 minutes for a 1 hour scheduled meeting than to be finished in 45 min for a 30 minute scheduled meeting. People will be glad if you “GIVE BACK” some very valuable time to them, and they will be “FRUSTRATED” if you make them late for their next meeting by running your meeting late.

   In some cases, the meeting could be cut short if key people have to leave, making the meeting a total waste.

   Don’t worry if people react when you schedule a 3 hour meeting. If you are well prepared, and the meeting is effective, you can achieve the outcome and save everyone from several more meetings. They will definitely appreciate that and respect you for it.

   This doesn’t mean to rush things, make sure everyone gets a chance to provide input. Remember, that not all participants will be comfortable talking or sharing their thoughts and ideas. You may have to lead and encourage them to share.

4. Communicate results and follow up Action Items quickly. Don’t you hate it when you get meeting minutes weeks after the meeting (usually the day before the follow up meeting). Meeting Notes are supposed to help clarify the outcome of the meeting and help remind participants what follow up Action Items they are responsible for.

You may be saying, I have heard this all before, but knowing what to do and actually applying it are two different things. Here are some more tips for Effective Meetings that will save you LOTS of TIME and impress your Peers and Leadership.

Continue reading ‘Don’t waste MY TIME (or anyone else’s either)…’

January 05, 2007 Speedlinking

Happy new year! I hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday. Now, on to the links -

• Do hardworking employees make their lazy colleagues more productive? Slate is Watching you, slacker
• Who’s afraid of the big bad boss? - An interesting study by FSU about what employees think of their bosses
• Another excellent post on Brazen Careerist giving us 10 tips for time management in a multitasking world
• Steve Pavlina talks about using battlefield triage techniques in your life and in projects for more efficient time management

A NEW and SIMPLE look at Time Management.

…there is so much to do, with so little time… but each year new technology comes out that is supposed to HELP US…

QUESTION: Why do all these TOOLS seem ineffective?

ANSWER: You have to be able to apply it, consistently. Can you?

My tip to you for the NEW YEAR is simple and it really works; at least for me it has.

Continue reading ‘A NEW and SIMPLE look at Time Management….’