Archive for December, 2010

As 2010 draws to a snowy close I reflect on the completion of my third year in business and I ask myself “What have I learned?”

Quite a lot really…

There is abundant opportunity…

I never really “got” this. But now I do. Life really isn’t a zero sum game at any level. It’s just that sometimes it can seem that way if we set low goals and miss them, do the wrong things, fail to do enough of the right things, target the wrong markets, and go about our business fearfully and defensively. Then it’s a struggle.

But with clarity, focus, confidence, real personal productivity and a laser like focus on what we need, it comes to us, once we know what it looks like.

We’ve got to love what we do…

This is about values. If we spend huge amounts of time doing stuff that doesn’t accord tightly with our values we’re running on the wrong fuel. Values drive behaviour and behaviour drives results.

I finally realised my one core value that isn’t banal is that I believe the greatest thing on earth is human potential and I will do what I can do make sure more of it is realised. This has been hugely clarifying for me. I guess I kind of knew it, but sitting down in a darkened room and homing in on my one core value has really helped me. I now do more of the right stuff and I have cut out a lot of the stuff that was not value-driven. Relief! It’s like being let out of jail.

We have everything we need…

It’s all here. Centuries of human endeavour, experience, knowledge. And all the people around us right now. Here’s a great question to ask someone. It gets a positive and valuable response 95 times out of a hundred. “Can you help me with……?” Try it.

If you boil a kettle it boils at a hundred degrees. Every time. If you do the things that people have done before you will get their results. This is not weird. It would be weird if it was not so.

The past is gone…

Good and bad. To relive it is a choice. Not a destiny. We are all conditioned to an almost frightening extent. But the conditioning process is not over. We are alive to conditioning now…right now. And we can do it to ourselves. And it doesn’t take long. Some people say 21 days to recondition ourselves in any area. I think that’s about right.

Our future is unwritten…

But it will be written. We can write it. We should write it. Because if we don’t someone else will. If we don’t have our own plan, we will be a part of someone else’s plan. Stark choice.

Our brain is beyond fantastic…

But it isn’t user friendly and it doesn’t come with a manual. We need to manage ourselves first and foremost, before we try to manage anything else. Deal with fear.  Change the level of fear attributed to an action. As Jim Rohn said “we are destined to suffer from one of two pains – the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.” Learn to fear regret with a vengeance. As a child fears monsters. Then the fear of discipline seems trivial. And procrastination and all the other stuff that hold us back are revealed to be just mice wearing monster suits.

We need to sharpen the saw…

I am amazed at how the people I consider to be successful switch off all the screens and take the time out to reflect on what they’ve done, to plan, to spend really good time with their families and come back renewed, refreshed, sharper than before, ready for the next chapter.

And so, to that end, I shall disappear for the first week in January to sharpen my saw. All being well with the weather, I shall be back with your next Pearl on 10^th January.

I wish you a merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.

Call it what you will – Management Team, Leadership Team, Senior Team, Business Team. You name it.

If there’s two or more of you in your organisation, division, department etc, you need to be having a regular meeting to manage and lead.

That’s what you’re there for, right?

Here’s what to do –

1. Meet for at least one day, and preferably two days, every quarter, or better still every two months. Get out of the office. Stay over at least for one night. Have dinner and drinks. You are in a senior position and you need the time be a team. This is not a luxury. It is a necessity. Yes, it costs money, but not nearly as much as it costs when you don’t have these meetings. That costs real money.

2. Have a standing agenda. It might look like this –

• Review minutes and actions of last meeting – led by Boss, 30 minutes.

You need to agree that the minutes are a fair reflection of what went on. Then you review the actions agreed at the meeting. Failure to complete an action should be such a rarity that when it does occur it’s actually slightly shocking. And the failure should not be a surprise to the boss, as the reason for failure should have been communicated to the boss beforehand. The reason must be genuine – things may have changed, it may not have been possible to achieve the goal for external reasons. Maybe something else has to happen first. These are good reasons.

“I didn’t get round to it” or “I’ve been really busy” are bad reasons. They are thinly veiled code for “I don’t respect my colleagues or my boss. I make promises that I don’t keep. I cannot manage myself and I suspect I’m probably not really a senior manager.”

• Operational Review – led by Operations Managers – 60 minutes each.

Operations are what turn your strategy into results. So you may have a few operations that matter – marketing, selling, R&D, various projects, manufacturing, logistics etc. This part of the meeting is, in the case of manufacturing, about how many blue widgets you said you’d make, how many you made, an explanation of the difference if there is one, and a heads up on any looming issues.

• Strategic Issues – led by X – 2 hours

You may need to discuss something strategic. For example, a capital expenditure proposal. Or a change to strategy. Or a competitive issue. Or just some great idea you’ve had.

• HR Issues – led by X – 60 minutes.

Take some time out to discuss those pesky people that work in the organisation. How’s the management development programme coming along? Who’s a star? Who’s struggling? Who needs a free transfer to Accrington Stanley?

• Any Other Business (AOB)

Like it says – anything else you need to discuss.

Also, notice each agenda item has a nominated lead and a time slot.

3. The boss should get the agenda out two weeks beforehand. Some agenda items, e.g. the strategic issues, may merit a pre-meeting paper to be written and circulated. The boss should make this clear when the agenda is circulated and the papers should be made available by the nominated author at least one week before the meeting.

4. During the meeting, have a scribe – someone to take the minutes. This is not onerous. It’s a brief note of key points, decisions and actions (what is to be done, by whom, by when). Minutes should be circulated within 24 hours of the meeting closing.

5. These Management Team meetings should be scheduled 12 months in advance. They are NEVER cancelled. EVER. If you’re on the senior team you attend. You do NOT take your holiday when a Management Meeting is scheduled unless you are either a) psychotically passive aggressive and/or b) this is your non-verbal way of saying “I want out”.

These meetings are mission critical. The Management Team steers the ship. Does the thinking. Takes the plaudits. And the rap. It’s leadership at the end of the day.

We’re talking about maybe 8 days a year. Three to four percent of the working days. In this time your team will develop the trust it needs. You will get over your fear of conflict so that you can genuinely commit to action and accept real accountability for your actions. Then, and only then, will you really perform.

I have spent probably far too much of my life in meetings. It’s very much how we live in organisations. Whether it’s a client meeting, a supplier meeting or an internal meeting (which come in many flavours: one-to-one, small groups, large groups, one hour, one day, three day conference with 300 people). We spend a lot of time doing this.

It’s essential – teams do more than individuals ever can. But the opportunities for massive time wasting, partial brain atrophy and pins and needles in the bum are legion. Plus all that bad food. Don’t these people know sausage rolls should be WARM.

So, how to make sure you always have a worthwhile meeting?

Firstly, define what it is you want to learn. Maybe it’s an update from a colleague, or a subordinate. Maybe it’s understanding a new piece of technology in your marketplace. Or how the competitors are getting on. How the boss feels about something. Or a chance to get to someone who is hard to get to.

If there is not sufficient learning to be had from the meeting that merits the time involved don’t go, or go for a portion of the meeting.

Secondly, be clear on what you will contribute. And then contribute it. At the right time. And in the right forum. A few concise, well crafted words at the right time will stand you apart from the hesitators, repeaters and deviators that come out of the woodwork for most meetings.

Again, if you cannot contribute, ask yourself if you should be going to the meeting at all.

Thirdly, if you do go to the meeting, make sure there is an output, an action plan. Learning and contributing are good, but these need to lead to action – for you and those you interact with. There needs to be a new course of action coming out of the meeting.

Consider the three elements above in the context of your agenda. That’s right – your agenda. The meeting organiser may have her own agenda, but you don’t need to play. Certainly you must not be disruptive, or try to take over, unless you are the boss and a bad one at that. More subtly, simply prosecute your own agenda quietly but with purpose. No one else need know you came to the meeting with your own list of objectives.

And the bigger and longer the meeting the better. Because the meeting is the whole event – including the breaks, lunch, maybe dinner and the bar afterwards if it’s that sort of do.

What will you learn? Maybe from a coffee break chat with a targeted individual?

What will you contribute? Your contribution doesn’t have to be in open forum in front of everyone. It could be a well honed viewpoint given to a more senior person, again, maybe at lunch. Avoid talking for talking’s sake. Choose your targets.

What actions do you want others to leave with? Pretty much depends on your contribution. Is it compelling enough to merit action? How good are your influencing skills? Are you approaching your target in the right way?

It is quite possible that 299 people out of the 300 that attend a three day conference on the blue widget market at an airport hotel in Nordwestupperholtensteinburg will leave feeling frustrated and bored.

But not you.

If you have learned what you set out to learn, contributed well and appropriately, and have a few actions in place with key people, you will probably have been the most productive person there. You will not feel frustrated and bored. You will have made progress. And the numb bum will wear off, eventually.