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Dynamic Following April 6, 2008

Posted by Chuck Musciano in Leadership.
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I recently finished reading Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie.  An entertaining, quick read with many quirky illustrations by the author, the book recounts MacKenzie’s long career as a rebellious creator within the staid corporate world of Hallmark Cards.  He neatly summarizes the world of corporate conformity and suggests many ways to succeed and even thrive in spite of the pressure to conform.  Having spent 10 years in a rebellious R&D group within the confining structure of Harris Corporation, I immediately related to MacKenzie’s stories and advice.

Towards the end of his career at Hallmark, MacKenzie became something of a Dutch uncle to many employees who would come to vent and cry on his shoulder with their concerns.  He related one incident where a frustrated employee came to him, shared their problems, and concluded with “I wish we had some dynamic leadership around here!”  MacKenzie immediately replied with “I wish we had some dynamic following around here!”

Yes!  Absolutely!  His response perfectly summarizes the frustrations many of us have as leaders. Dynamic leaders don’t get very far without people who can creatively, aggressively, and enthusiastically solve all the problems that accompany any initiative, big or small.  It is the dynamic followers who get the job done, not the dynamic leader.

As leaders, we cannot possibly imagine everything that will come up on the long journey between where we are and where we need to be.  If our teams expect us to spell out every potential problem and solution, we’ll never get started, let alone finish.  If they wait for our direction with every new challenge that crops up, they’ll be waiting a long time. Instead, we need teams that can roll with the punches, find clever solutions, solve problems, and keep moving.

The military teaches this as a fundamental skill.  Every military operation begins breaking down moments after it starts.  Successful engagements are marked by soldiers who assess the problem, react accordingly, keep moving, and never lose sight of the goal.  While our day-to-day jobs don’t carry the life-and-death concerns of a military engagement, we can still encourage our people to behave in a similar way.

The key to this is clearly defining the goal.  When a team knows where it needs to go, they can quickly solve local problems in ways that keep them heading in the right direction.  When the goal is unclear, they may be unable to react or even worse, their local solutions may actually be counterproductive.  As leaders, we need to constantly communicate our vision and communicate with our people to make sure they understand it.

Except for those at the very bottom or top of the org chart, we are all leaders and followers. As leaders, we need to engage and coach our teams to be good followers.  As followers ourselves, we need to demonstrate dynamic following so that our people can see how it should be done.  Don’t make the mistake of demanding dynamic following from your people while you sit like a lump, waiting for your boss to tell you what to do.  Be a dynamic leader and a dynamic follower, and you’ll be well on your way to being a success.

Your Attitude Is A Choice March 25, 2008

Posted by Chuck Musciano in Leadership.
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As leaders, everything we do is scrutinized. How we do everything we do is cataloged and noted. Our demeanor is infectious and our whole organization will adopt our attitude, good or bad.

For passionate leaders, this is a problem. Passion usually cuts both ways: passionately optimistic, and passionately perturbed. We want our people to be passionate, but we want to infect them with the right kind of passion.

One of the coaching points I have with new managers is the concept that they must choose their attitude, every day. Their choice influences their people, whose ability to execute ultimately decides the fate of the manager.

At work (and in all of life) there is an ebb and flow of good and bad. Our natural emotions will oscillate as a result. As leaders, we must consciously choose to suppress the negative emotions and emphasize the positive, without regard to our personal feelings at the time. This is not to say that we must adopt a Pollyannish approach to every problem at work. Instead, we must project controlled optimism even in the face of difficult odds or troublesome problems. If you believe a problem can be solved (and you better, or you’ve got other issues to deal with), you need to dwell on the solution, not on the effects of the problem. This gets your people focusing on the solution instead of wallowing in self-pity and fear.

Some leaders love to wail about things in public, going on about the difficulties being faced and the unfairness of it all. These people aren’t leaders; they are whiners. They love the attention of being pitied and seek the sympathy of their audience. Pity and sympathy may make you feel good, but they never solved a problem.

If you really need to explore the negative aspects of a problem, do it in private with a few trusted peers. You must have an accurate handle on the challenges you face, and you can only do that by honestly assessing how deep a hole you may be in. That assessment is done behind closed doors. When the door opens, you choose how to carry yourself. Good leaders choose to be strong, optimistic, and positive.

In troubled times, the team looks to the leader for direction, both subtle and overt. Your chosen attitude will spell the difference between success and failure for you and your team. Choose wisely.

Enabling Career Innovation March 18, 2008

Posted by Chuck Musciano in Leadership.
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I’m a big believer in consistency and rules.  I like it when everything fits together nicely and a satisfying order arises.  I recognize that this isn’t always, or even often, possible, but I can dream.

I like consistent, orderly job descriptions.  By this, I mean a consistent way to define jobs within an organization along with the levels of those jobs.  While it certainly appeals to my desire for consistent order, I was recently reminded why it means so much to those whose jobs are caught up in those descriptions.

Whenever I’ve run an organization, we’ve used a simple job matrix, with skill sets across the bottom and experience levels up the side.  This is not uncommon in engineering and IT: a new hire comes in as a Thing, and with hard work and determination, becomes a Senior Thing, followed by a Lead Thing, and eventually, a Principal Thing.  Different companies have different naming conventions, but the model is similar.  Everywhere you go, you’ll find Lead Software Developers and Senior Systems Administrators milling about, and everyone knows where they stand.

I also make sure that there is a clear parallel management track that equates increasing management responsibility with peer levels on the technical track.  Thus, a Senior Thing that switches to the management track becomes a Team Lead.  If they like management, they can stay on that track and move up to a Senior Team Lead, Manager, and Director.

Here’s an important rule: if they don’t like management, they can switch back.

Over the past month or so, I’ve had several employees share with me how much they value the ability to switch back.  High-performing people will naturally want to try new things but won’t always succeed.  When they fail, they must be allowed a path back to try again.  With projects, that’s easy: go tackle a different project.  With career choices, that’s a lot harder (and scarier).

Too many organizations lock a person into management: once a manager, you leave the technical world behind.  As a result, some awful managers stay stuck in their job, much to the detriment of their people.  Moreover, some technical people who would make great managers never make the jump, fearful of what will happen if they fail. In many places, just asking to come back can result in career suicide.

When people have choices, coupled with recovery plans, they will try things and aspire to greatness.  If you take away the choices, or you fail to provide a path back, they will stagnate.  In a previous post, I addressed the need for innovation in our solutions; we also need to let our people innovate with their careers.  Foster both in your organization and you are well-positioned for success.

You Can Be Too Nice February 27, 2008

Posted by Chuck Musciano in Leadership.
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Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal had a good article on the perils of the too-nice boss: one who is reluctant to confront problems for fear that he or she will offend someone or hurt their feelings.  This is such a common problem among leaders at all levels that I thought it was worth addressing further.

One part of being an effective leader is that you must be able to confront people with bad news and negative feedback.  It is crucial to their success (and thus yours) that you be able to do this confidently and with the goal of correcting whatever is wrong.

No one likes to be the bearer of bad news, especially when it is personal and potentially hurtful.  As leaders, we must learn to be tactful and sensitive so that we can reach people and help them through the issue at hand.  Everyone has a different personal style, but we should all be careful to handle negative feedback delicately but consistently.

Many managers, for fear of being disliked or making people unhappy, will simply avoid an issue.  This is the worst possible approach, for several reasons:

  • The problem does not get solved.  More than likely, it gets worse when left unchecked.
  • The problem person may be blissfully unaware, but everyone else is not.  Teams are excruciatingly aware of problems among themselves.  If you fail to address a problem person, the rest of the team will lose respect for your leadership.
  • People will stop bringing issues to your attention, since you do nothing about them.  At some point, you’ll no longer even know what needs to be fixed, and your team (and you) will fail.

It has been my experience that almost every time I’ve approached someone about a problem, they have risen to the occasion, fixed the situation, and later come back to thank me for recognizing the issue and getting them to take action.  Many people often need a little prodding to see an issue, a little coaching to find a solution, and a little support to make the solution work.  As leaders, that’s our key role.  Don’t let your fear of confrontation undermine your ability to truly lead.

BASIC Leadership January 14, 2008

Posted by Chuck Musciano in Leadership.
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One of goals when I started this blog was to capture my thoughts on leadership, motivation, and coaching, which are crucial to my day job. I also wanted to capture my various random thoughts, some of which surround my endless fascination with old computers.

As these themes have been simmering in the back of my mind, I suddenly recalled an event from my high school years that serves both.

I first touched a computer in 1975, when I was a student at West Windsor Plainsboro High School. We punched in BASIC programs and watched the results chunk-chunk-chunk out on rolls of yellow paper. It was the coolest thing I had ever seen, and I was hooked for the rest of my life.

I was so enamored of computer programming that my math teacher, Mrs. Horvath, let me teach BASIC programming to the rest of the class. I took on this task with a vengeance, particularly on the grading of tests and programming assignments, where I ruled with an iron fist. I thought things were going along really well, until two of my “students” (Jeanne Haws and Carol Ryan) shared this sample program with me:

10 READ 20, N$
20 DATA "CHUCK MUSCIANO"
30 END

RUN

LINE 20: OUT OF FRIENDS

Ouch! Clearly there was more to this teaching stuff than I had first thought.

I’ve since learned that teaching and coaching is an art. One of the most important aspects of leadership, it also one of the most satisfying. I long ago left the predictable world of programming computers for the unpredictable world of managing and leading people. There are few things more innately satisfying than helping someone learn, seeing them absorb something new, and watching them apply it to their world.

Leaders must have a vision, a plan, a goal in mind. Their ability to explain that vision, convey it to others, and get them to absorb and embrace it is key to their success. Their is a vast difference between those who manage and those who lead. That gap is readily defined by a leader’s vision and his or her ability to communicate that vision.