Telling Stories

The way we think of our lives and how we fit into the world is in the form of stories. That’s why narrative is so powerful, it taps into the essence of how we think about being human. Most of us have a subconscious narrative that runs through our lives, whose power we may not even realize. If you can tap into that narrative, understand what your story is, then you have the power to change it! Its like lucid dreaming. The power of a lucid dream is that you suddenly realize you are sleeping and you have the power to modify the dream in ways you hadn't previously realized were possible. Likewise, if you are conscious of your internal story you have leverage to change your life in ways that may not have seemed possible before.

Once you understand your own narrative, what’s to stop you from learning others? If you can get a glimpse of someone else’s story then you can gain a deeper understanding of their perspectives, their priorities, and their motivations. People can be motivated by a wide variety of things (money, approval, achievement, etc). Understanding someone’s internal narrative can help you tap into their values and motivations in powerful ways!

Finally, you can use narrative and story to get your points across and share your perspective. Try this exercise sometime. Try to convince someone with plain facts and data and then try to convince them with a story that explains where you are coming from and how their decision or actions fit into that story. Which is more effective? By sharing stories not only can you get understanding you get the chance to modify your own understanding, your own story, as a result of the interaction.

Belief

Michael Michalko wrote an inspirational article on choice, how we can choose our attitudes deliberately and consciously.

I’ve been reflecting on the nature of belief lately. Belief in a God, or not. Belief in a caring Universe, or not. Belief in personal power to do good, or not. Belief in free will and the ability to change outcomes, or not.

It strikes me that many of these questions are unanswered and unanswerable. Nobody can prove to me that free will exists. Nobody can prove to me that there is a power in the universe that cares about my well being. Nobody can prove to me that consciousness is more than a set of electrical impulses in the mechanical system of my brain. Philosophy is the study of that which cannot be proven, we are unable to know truth in some areas, we have to cast about to find that which we believe in. Belief is a choice, is it not? And what you believe is the bedrock on which you form your attitudes and outlooks upon life. So if you have a choice, choose that which gives you the most happiness and allows you to be most effective in your life. Unexamined belief can lead to foolishness. Purposeful belief that improves effectiveness by shaping your lens on life can be very powerful. What do you want to accomplish and what beliefs would help you get there?

I saw a study in which people were given the choice to cheat or not in a simple game. The reward for cheating was a few extra dollars at the end of the game. The price of cheating depended on a personal belief system, on whether they could feel good about the choices they made. Before the game began, half of the people were given information that refuted the possibility of free will. Once they started playing, the people who had been told free will did not exist were much more likely to cheat. If they could not be responsible for their actions then why not make a little extra cash? This doesn’t prove anything about free will, and if you think about it you’ll understand why, but it illustrates how our beliefs and preconceptions influence our actions.

I choose to live in a universe in which I have free will, my actions matter, there is a loving force that cares about my well being and rewards that which is good (perhaps it's my wife :)). I believe I can make a lasting impact if I choose to.

Its worth asking yourself, what kind of a universe do you choose to live in?

How to Get Results

Inspired by the Zen of Results E-Book, the members of my team had a spirited discussion on personal productivity. The book contains great information but it didn't address a burning question on the mind of one of my team-mates:

Interesting --- but I think it's overly simplistic and misses the hard stuff.

To me the challenge is really: how to best manage the inevitable disruptions to my plans?
How do I balance working towards the objective against the immediacy of a 'crisis' -- and not just
poor planning on my part. I'm not abrogating my responsibilities, but I'm unwilling to accept that
failure to achieve an outcome is a negative. Is that excuse making?

I think the key insight from the Zen of Results is that you need to free yourself from your tasks, free yourself so you can focus all of your energy on the creation and delivery of real value.  I've seen many people create tasks with some goal in mind (the value) and then stick to those tasks through hell and high-water without realizing that the completion of the tasks is no longer leading them to the goal. I really like the workkflow in the Zen of Results because it reminds you to think about each week as a way of creating and delivering value and reminds you to reflect on your results each week to see how you can improve.

Here are the techniques I use to help me focus on results and avoid falling in the trap of becoming overly attached to my backlog of tasks:

• I keep a list of my strategic goals in Evernote. These are my large, long-term objectives that may span many months or even years.  I use these to remember what my big targets are.
• Every Monday I build a list of the outcomes I want to achieve for the week. These map to the strategic goals and are usually sub-goals that are achievable within a week's time.
• Every day I create a list of tasks I want to accomplish. These are short-term activities that I can accomplish within the next 48 hours. As I finish the tasks I delete them and then replenish them the next day.
• Every Friday I review the results I achieved and reflect on how they differ from what I set out to accomplish for the week.

When I, or my team, misses a planned outcome I do some investigation to figure out why. I don't look at the missed result as a failure, but rather an opportunity to improve planning and thinking for the future.  I've found missed outcomes are usually caused by one of the following:

• I misjudged scope and got less done than I hoped for.
• I was surprised by a new priority that I hadn’t planned for.
• The planned outcome was wrong and I needed to adjust mid-week.

If I understand the 'why' then I can plan more effectively in following weeks. Its important to remember that things don’t always go according to plan – you have to plan for that too. Outcomes are your target, like any marksman you will not always hit them 100%.

This led to a new question from the team:

I guess I'm balancing the incremental steps required to achieve a major objective (like iterations building to a release) with the 'crisis du jour' syndrome that can overwhelm. Sometimes (not often) there are more
unplanned activities than planned ones -- endangering the critical goals for sure!

so -- say you've had 2 weeks where you accomplish nothing that has meaning to you --
not one of your objectives -- what's your trick for trying again?

I think in a situation like that you need to first ask yourself what happened.  Were your planned outcomes interrupted by new outcomes that were truly of higher priority?  In other words did you sacrifice two weeks but in the end it added more value than if you had stuck to your planned outcomes? If so, it was the right choice.  On the other hand, it could have felt necessary but still wasn’t worth it – we get trapped in these kinds of binds from time to time due to randomization, poorly planned objectives, fuzzy priorities, etc.  Or it could be the work needs to be done but it should be done in parallel and you aren’t the right owner – delegate!

This is how I think about it:

• Reprioritize
• Delegate
• Defer

Reprioritization works if you really need to drop everything and the new work is critical path.  Delegation works if it is important but can be done in parallel by someone else.  Deferring the work is a good fit if the crisis is not really a crisis and it can be set aside to cool down. I found many times a crisis isn’t as big of an emergency as it seems and it can be slotted into the work queue to be deferred till later.  If there is an ongoing stream of unplanned crisis that continue to take top priority, thereby pushing back other important work, then there isn’t much point in planning, right? You need to understand root cause and attack that first so that the environment is conducive to planning again and is no longer anarchy and chaos. This is similar to the change frame I wrote about in an earlier post. 

Prioritization is critically important to make sure you are focused on the right tasks each day. Focusing on outcomes is a good technique, but there were a few other techniques discussed, for instance:

If too many things are “ultra high priority” I have a hard time prioritizing the things at the top of my list. When this happens I find that it becomes even more important for me to feel like I’m making progress, or I can spiral into a pit of despair. When this happens the best thing to do is to select something from your high-pri list that you know you can really sink your teeth into quickly. As they say, even the longest journeys begin with a single step, don’t focus on the how far away the destination is, focus on the steps.

Another technique I use is to walk away from my computer alone, or close my eyes, for 5 min. This gives me just enough time for the really urgent stuff to rise to the top, and the other stuff to fall away. It’s a short enough time that I can convince myself to do it, without feeling guilty for doing something else.

Once I’m back down to a manageable list of tasks I prioritize again, and group small tasks together in 30-60 min blocks, then prioritize those as one unit. I find that if I don’t group small tasks together that they’ll fall off my radar and won’t get done. This also reduces context switching which can be a killer.

At this point I have my über-list of tasks that need to get done, in the morning I look at my list, reprioritize, and take my first step.

Key Insights

• Focus on outcomes first, tasks second.
• Understand how what you are doing will help you or your team create and deliver value.
• Create a workflow that will help you stay focused on delivering value.
• If you are having trouble hitting your goals, understand why and then use a technique to improve your results - don't spiral into the pit of despair.
• Results build upon results - if you are losing effectiveness, find something you know you can sink your teeth into and get results quickly. Build on that momentum.

My Related Posts

• How to Get Things Done
• The Change Frame
• Anti-Pattern: Focus on the Solution Instead of the Goal

The Change Frame

Do you ever find yourself in a situation you don't like? Most of us find ourselves in difficult situations in our professional or personal lives from time to time.

In a tough situation you can adapt yourself to the situation, adjust the situation, or avoid the situation entirely. This 'change' frame is a great way to think about how to handle difficult situations when they occur.

Adapt. Adapt yourself to the situation by changing your approach or your mindset. If you are in a situation you cannot change but don't want to leave then this is your best choice.

Adjust. Adjust the situation to better suit you. Many times an intractable situation can be adjusted to become more bearable. If you are in a tough situation which would require you intolerable adaptation to make right and you see that there is a possibility of adjustment then this is your best choice.

Avoid. Sometimes the best choice is to run away. If the situation is intolerable, you cannot adapt to it, and you see no possibility of adjustment then this is your best choice.

Here is an example to make it more real:

Imagine a work situation in which your manager gives you incomplete or vague direction. When you follow this direction you often end up getting criticism that you completed the task incorrectly. As a result you end up repeating work in what feels like a wasteful cycle. You may feel that your manager is mistreating you and that you cannot succeed in the situation.

Here is how you could apply the 'change' frame:

Adapt. Change your work habits to ask for feedback more often so you can correct your course quickly and have more confidence in your work. Change your mindset to see the situation as an opportunity to learn how to be more effective at working with uncertainty.

Adjust. Speak with your manager and explain your need for more specific direction. Provide positive feedback to your manager when he provides you with the specifics you are looking for.

Avoid. Look for another job.

I think most people have a tendency to fall into one of these strategies by default. Some people tend to avoid too often, depriving themselves of opportunity. Others tend to adapt too easily, bending themselves when the situation should be changed instead. Others tend toward rigidity and will work hard to adjust a situation when a small adaptation on their part would have accomplished more.

I tend to adapt more often than I probably should. What do you do?

Special thanks to JD for teaching me the 'change' frame and blogging about it first.

What Makes an Achiever?

J.D. Meier asked me:

Do you see a pattern where some are “achievers” and some are not?
Achievers tend to produce, but just need coaching.
Some people (Non-achievers or whatever to call them), seem to need more than coaching -- it’s more like a bad fit for a job that produces results along the way.

That got me to thinking:

1. How can you tell when hiring someone that they will achieve the results you are looking for?
2. How can you tell when someone on your team is worth investing in and when you need to look for a replacement?

When interviewing I test for aptitude, attitude, knowledge and experience and I usually hire with pretty good results. There are times, however, when someone will slip through that interviewed very well but doesn't do well on the job. My conversation with JD reminded me of this problem and got me to thinking about what I could do to improve my interview 'hit' rate.

I think the best indicator of an achiever is where they focus their energy. Do they focus on process? Do they focus on theory? Or do they focus on results. If they don't focus on results they will not ever get those results. You get what you focus on. A lot of it has to do with how you are wired - what makes you excited? Some people truly get excited over theory. They make good scientists. Others get excited about results. They make good engineers!

What is Your Management Style?

I recently conducted an interview for a highly capable developer. I was the last person in the interview loop and I already knew I wanted to hire him, so I opened the time up to allow him to ask me as many questions as he wanted. Normally this translates into a few easy to answer questions. In this case I was asked a bunch that really made me think.

One of the more interesting questions was - "What is your management style?"

There are so many ways to answer this that at first I was stumped. Does my style even have a name? Should I talk about examples of what I've done to manage my team or talk more abstractly? In the end this is what I said and I think it rings true as a good, though not necessarily complete, answer:

1. I believe in treating people like professionals. From the start I believe in giving and expecting trust. You don’t have to earn trust when you join the team. You receive it automatically and keep it unless you do something to lose it.
2. I believe in delegating responsibility and authority. I want to give each person the chance to grown and reach for the stars, not be hobbled by low expectations or some ceiling I’ve put into place.
3. I believe in personal accountability. If you make a mistake, own up, learn and move on.
4. I believe in making mistakes. No one should be afraid to make a mistake. If you are going to fail, then fail fast.
5. I believe in results. I measure people on results not activity. Activity without impact is poison to me.
6. I believe in building a team. Each member of the team should be clear on their role, know where they fit in and feel they can depend on and lean upon others in the team to achieve group goals.
7. I believe in adapting my management style to the needs of the employee. Some people need a very directive approach, some just need goals and the freedom to achieve them.
8. I believe in real-time feedback. If you do something wrong you should know it immediately. If you do something right, you should hear about it right away. The further removed feedback is in time, the less effective it is.
9. I believe in continuous improvement. On a daily and weekly basis we look at what went right, what went wrong, what needs to be tuned to improve effectiveness.

When I was done talking I realized that I was the wrong person to ask. The best way to understand my management style is to ask my team - not me!

My Related Posts

• How to Be an Effective Manager
• How to Be an Effective Leader
• How to Get Things Done
• Priorities for Tough Decisions

How to Get Things Done - Colin Powell Version

My brother recently sent me a paraphrased list of Colin Powell's 'rules'. This is a man that has experienced the highest echelons of power, has been thoroughly tested, and knows how to get things done. I found his list doubly interesting. First, I think the rules are useful and insightful. Second, I was surprised by the fact that they overlap with my How to Get Things Done post. I like that some of what I've learned in the technology industry matches to lessons Colin Powell has learned in the military and in politics.

Colin Powell's Rules

1. Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.
2. The day employees stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.
3. Don't be buffaloed by experts and elites.
4. Don't be afraid to challenge the pros, even in their own backyard.
5. Never neglect details.
6. You don't know what you can get away with until you try.
7. Keep looking below surface appearances. Don't shrink from doing so (just) because you might not like what you find.
8. Organizations and plans don't really accomplish anything. Endeavors succeed or fail because of the people involved.
9. Organization charts and fancy titles count for next to nothing.
10. Never let your ego get so close to your position that when your position goes, your ego goes with it.
11. The situation dictates which approach best accomplishes the team's mission
12. Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.
13. Rules for Picking People: Look for intelligence and judgment, and most critically, a capacity to anticipate. Look for loyalty, integrity, a high energy drive, a balanced ego, and the drive to get things done.
14. Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.
15. Use your gut:
1. Part I: "Use the formula P=40 to 70, in which P stands for the probability of success and the numbers indicate the percentage of information acquired.
   
2. Part II: "Once the information is in the 40 to 70 range, go with your gut.

16. The man on the front line is always right and management is wrong, unless proved otherwise.
17. Surround yourself with people who take their work seriously, but not themselves, those who work hard and play hard.
18. Command is lonely.

My Related Posts

• How to be an Effective Manager
• How to Get Things Done
• Priorities for Tough Decisions
  
• How to be an Effective Leader

Focus on the Solution Instead of the Goal – Effectiveness Anti-Pattern

In my last post, I explained what effectiveness anti-patterns are and why they are useful. In this post I’ll give you an example of an anti-pattern that I’ve seen cause problems for a lot of people – including myself! If you are having trouble reaching your goals, perhaps you’ll recognize this anti-pattern in yourself and use the solution to become more effective.

Focus on the Solution Instead of the Goal

Problem

The anti-pattern occurs when you are more committed to the solution that you think will achieve your goal than to the goal itself. Once the solution has been found unworkable you assume the goal is unachievable, or you ignore the evidence and keep using the unworkable solution.

Context

• You are working toward a clearly defined goal. For example you want to get promoted, buy a new car, move to a new town, get a date, or become financially independent.
• You’ve identified a solution that you think will allow you to achieve your goal. For example, you think that if you work really hard you’ll get a promotion.
• You are committed to the solution; you’ve put time and energy into it.
• After time, evidence suggests that your solution is not working.

Forces

• You are having trouble letting go of the ‘sunk-cost’, all the time and energy you’ve already committed to the unworkable solution
• You are focusing on the current strategy instead of the larger goal
• You are having trouble thinking flexibly

Solution

• Define criteria for success. When you identify your goal, build a list of criteria that defines it. Instead of just saying you want a promotion, define the criteria you want to meet in order to feel the goal has been accomplished. Be precise so you know exactly what you are working for. For instance do you want more pay, a new title, more responsibilities and challenge, more recognition? Ask yourself lots of ‘why’ questions. Why do you want a new title? Why do you want more recognition? You may learn that a promotion isn’t the only way to achieve what you are looking for. This realization will give you more flexibility in meeting your goal.
• Create multiple strategies. After you define your goal, brainstorm multiple strategies and solutions. These strategies can serve as backup to the preferred solution if it doesn’t work.
• Measure progress. Measure your progress against the criteria you’ve defined. This will allow you to determine the effectiveness of the strategy you are using. By keeping the defined goal-criteria in the forefront of your mind you’ll stay focused on the goal and will be more willing to switch strategies as necessary.
• Plan for failure. Hope for success, but plan for failure. Do your best to achieve your goal, but make sure you have a contingency plan in the case of failure. Don’t ever put yourself in the position that you must achieve your goal and have no fallback position.
• Take risks. Encourage yourself to think creatively and don’t be afraid to take risks. If you punish yourself too severely for failure you'll tend to slip into a pattern of rigid thinking due to your increased fear. Unfortunately, this often results in additional failures and reduced effectiveness. If you can embrace your creativity and achieve a reasonable level of risk-taking you'll be more flexible and less likely to become stuck in this anti-pattern.

My Related Posts

• Effectiveness Anti-Patterns
• How to Get Things Done

Effectiveness Anti-patterns

As defined by Whatis.com, “An anti-pattern is a frequently used, but largely ineffective solution to a problem… Just as a viable pattern describes the way from a problem to a valid solution, an anti-pattern describes the way from a problem to a poor solution.”

An effectiveness anti-pattern is a common pattern of behavior that leads to reduced effectiveness. It’s useful, and fun, to identify these anti-patterns in myself and others and document them so that I can avoid them in the future.

I’ll write follow-up posts with some of the anti-patterns I’ve noticed. Each anti-pattern will contain following sections:

• Title – A descriptive name for the anti-pattern.
• Context –A description of the conditions in which this anti-pattern normally occurs.
• Problem – A description of the resulting problem, what goes wrong when you use this anti-pattern.
• Forces – A description of what leads people to use this anti-pattern.
  
• Solution – A description of how to break the anti-pattern and move to a workable solution.
• Example – An example of the anti-pattern in practice.

The neat thing about an anti-pattern is that it reduces the problem down to bare bones, making it easier to spot and fix.

If you've noticed any anti-patterns in your work or personal life, leave me a comment - I'd love to hear about them!

Mountain Bike Lessons – pt. 2

In my last post I discussed lessons I’d learned from racing mountain bikes. In this post I’ll show how some of these lessons have translated into improvements in my overall effectiveness.

• Get a good start. In a race the first minutes are critical. A poor start makes it twice as hard to make up for lost time later.
  
• When starting a new job or a new project I've found it is most effective to put forth maximum effort at the start and then settle into a more sustainable pace.
• Measure. When training for a race I measure my progress over time so I can see if I am on track to meet my goals.
  
• I focus my energy on areas that I can measure and see improvements on over time.
  
• I make it a point to understand how my manager will measure my success.
  
• When reviewing my goals I ensure they are aligned with the goals of my team and the goals of my company. I feel most motivated when I know my efforts are contributing measurably toward larger organizational success.
• Keep energy up. During a race I keep my body well fueled or I am unable to keep up the pace.
  
• I have found a sustainable pace for myself at work. Long hours may give me a short term productivity boost but if I'm not working at a sustainable pace my productivity suffers in the long term.
  
• I pay attention to the areas of my life that fuel me. If I don’t make time for family, friends and exercise I lose the driving energy that keeps me engaged at work.
• Recovery. During post-race recovery I give my body everything it asks for. If I’m hungry, I eat till I am full. If I am tired I sleep.
• I listen to my body and give it what it needs. I focus on intuitive eating, intuitive sleeping, and daily exercise. The combination keeps me mentally sharp.
• Frequency. The more often you show up at the starting line the more likely you are to improve and win.
  
• Success can be as simple as showing up each day and doing my best.

My Related Posts

• Mountain Bike Lessons - pt. 1
• How to Get Things Done
  

Mountain Bike Lessons – pt. 1

I've taken up moutain bike racing over the past couple of years. Though I'm not an expert, I've realized that the lessons I’ve learned from racing have made me more effective in other areas of my life. For those of you who are interested in learning more about bike racing, I’ll list what I’ve learned. For those of you with no interest in racing I’ll use my next post to explain how these lessons can be used to improve effectiveness in other areas so you can reap the rewards without all the physical exertion.

Training

• Intense Training. I train at an intense race pace at least once a week so my body adapts to high exertion levels and learns how to recover quickly.
• Moderate Training. I ride at a moderate pace for distances that are further than a normal race at least once per week in order to train my heart, lungs, and legs for endurance.
• Easy Training. I spin easily at least once a week to improve my recovery time.
• Supplemental Exercises. I perform squats and lunges at least once a week to build power for rapid acceleration and sprinting. I use no weights, just my body weight and do three sets of each exercise with enough repetitions so that my legs are tired the next day.
• Measure. I measure my progress over time so I can learn what works well for me and what doesn’t. I simply use a stop watch and an excel spreadsheet to track my time on weekly bike rides. Later I may use a heart monitor and GPS to get more data and more accuracy.

Racing

• Warm up. I warm up for 10 minutes prior to the race. During warm up I ride at 50-60% of my maximum pace to make sure I am thoroughly warmed up. I try not to time it too early or else I will cool down before the race starts. I also try not to time it too late so I don't miss the start. I've found it can be scary to warm up for so long, it feels like I am using up energy that should go toward racing. However, I've learned if I jump into a race cold I put my body into a state of shock and then spend a good portion of time just recovering from the hard start.
• Get a good start. I ride as fast as I can at the start in order to secure a good position. Passing areas are at a premium and it is bad to get stuck behind someone while the front-runners gain a commanding lead. On the other hand i've learned that I don’t want to get so far ahead that I run out of steam and burn out early.
• Use psychology. I want the riders behind me to feel I am unbeatable even when I am suffering and pushing myself to the very limit. I try not to let other racers see me suffer. If I am in twisty terrain I give little bursts of speed when the riders behind me can't se me and and then settle back into the saddle again, this makes my pace look faster than it really is.
• Keep energy up. I consume electrolytes before and during the race to reduce the risk of cramps. Endurolytes from Hammer Nutrition have worked well for me both before and after a race. An energy drink, such as Cytomax, helps keep energy up during the race.
• Recovery. I eat well, drink lots of water, and stretch after the race so I feel ok the next day.
• Frequency. I go to as many races as I can, nothing teaches how to race better than getting out there and doing it.

How to Be an Effective Manager

I’ve learned that there are four distinct styles of management: Directing, Supporting, Coaching, and Delegating. Each can be effective when applied in the right context.

One of the most intriguing aspects of management is that each person requires a slightly different approach to realize their full potential. A management approach that yields spectacular results with one person may result in abject failure with another. Even using the same approach on the same person for different tasks on different days may give significantly different results. I think that one of the great challenges of people management is the ability to recognize the skills and motivation of an individual and match your management style so that they are primed for success.

This seemingly simple goal – match your style to the individual you are managing – is very difficult to do well. It is hard to recognize an individual’s skill, confidence and motivation, especially as levels will vary from day to day and task to task. It’s challenging to pick the right management style for each situation. And it’s very hard to become comfortable with the wide variety of styles and approaches you’ll need to handle each situation.

Over the years, I’ve used a framework to make this task easier, and I believe it has made me a better manager. I use categories for individual development levels (competence, confidence, and motivation) and categories of management style that match to each. These are not hard and fast rules, but they help to take the mystery out of things.

The first step I take is to identify the level of development of the individual I am managing. I take into account their experience, training, past performance on similar tasks, confidence, personality, and level of excitement they have regarding the present task. I use this information to determine their competence and commitment. Competence is derived from experience, training and past performance. Commitment is derived from confidence, excitement, and individual personality characteristics. Using this information I categorize into one of four mental buckets. These don’t cover every scenario but they are what I’ve found to be the most common combinations:

1. Low competence, high commitment. This bucket tends to contain inexperienced or new team members. They often lack the training and experience to be highly competent, but they make up for it in enthusiasm and commitment to the job at hand.

2. Low to moderate competence, low commitment. This bucket contains poor performers as well as good performers who are temporarily frustrated. Frustration is usually caused by someone who wants to do a good job but doesn’t yet have the expertise to perform to their expectations. Here are some statements I’ve heard that indicate a person is in this bucket:

• The task is harder than I thought
• No one appreciates what I do
• I’m not getting the help I need
• The more I learn the more I realize how much more I need to know
• The task is boring
• I don’t like my job

The big difference between poor performers and good performers is the time they spend in this bucket. I always assume an individual wants to do well and will transition out of this bucket as quickly as they can. The longer they stay, the less optimistic I am that they will ever leave.

3. Moderate to high competence, moderate commitment. This bucket contains solid performers who are consistent contributors of high value. These are people who have good skills, but are held back by variable confidence or motivation. This bucket may contain potential superstars, but only a few are able to put it all together to make it to the next level. Most good contributors peak in this bucket and never leave.

4. High competence, high commitment. These are the superstars on any team. They are masters at what they do, they are confident, and they are highly motivated.

Keep in mind that someone can be a level 4 while working on one task and then move to a level 1 when working on something different that requires different skills. For instance, imagine a brilliant software engineer who decides he wants to become a lawyer. He may have the potential and the commitment, but he doesn’t yet have the skills. It’s also useful to recognize that people can bounce between levels from day to day based on personal circumstance and other events that impact motivation and confidence.

Once I identify the level of development, I match my style of management to it. Bucket 1 matches to style 1, bucket 2 to style 2, etc.:

1. Directing. This style requires a lot of hands on work. I spend time explaining the task, sometimes step-by-step. I show examples of success and failure. I identify clear goals, timelines and outcomes. I make the decisions. I provide a large amount of feedback both positive and constructive in order to accelerate their personal development.

2. Coaching. This style is more interactive than the directing style. I spend more time explaining my reasoning and the decision making processes. I give more access to behind-the-scenes thinking and start training the individual to make good decisions on their own. Although I involve the person in the decision making process, I still make the decisions. Goal setting in particular is more interactive as the individual is able to start taking ownership of their career and future success.

3. Supporting. In this style I give increasing amounts of responsibility to the individual. I’ll often ask them to take the lead tasks, planning or goal setting. I become more of a sounding board and resource rather than a force driving actions and success. Rather than telling the individual what to do, I’ll take the time to explain how to make the decision themselves. I spend more time asking questions, even if I know the answer. The thought process and learning experience is as important as the end decision. At this point, my focus is to remove road blocks, answer questions, provide support and encouragement, and help them continue to develop their skills and confidence.

4. Delegating. In this style I am primarily focused on empowerment. I help define the problem and then work with the individual to set goals and outcomes. I give encouragement and support so that the individual can take the lead in problem solving and decision making. A large portion of time goes toward recognizing and rewarding the individual’s contributions to the team. I am outspoken about the value they bring to the team, my high degree of trust, and then I challenge them to reach higher levels of contribution.

I’ve realized that some of these styles are more challenging for me than others. I’ve found that delegating and supporting come pretty natural to me, I tend to trust people until proven otherwise and these styles are primarily about trust and encouragement. Coaching is the most difficult for me. I sometimes find myself feeling that I am spending so much time explaining rationale and reasoning that it would be easier to do the job myself. However, coaching is an important style, everyone needs it at some point and if not given the proper guidance and management they can stagnate. I have found that the more time I spend on coaching the more competent I am in its use. I regularly challenge myself to become a better coach!

There are many ways I measure myself as a people manager, but these are the two that I think are most important:

• Am I able to consistently move members of my team from low levels of development to high? Ideally everyone would move from bucket 1 to bucket 4 over time. I realize not everyone can make it to level 4, but I don’t want to be the one holding them back.
• How effective is my team when I am gone? This is really a measure of the overall development level of my team. The more directing they require, the more impact my absence will make. If I return from a vacation and things have proceeded as if I had never left – I know I’ve been successful!

My Related Posts

• How to Get Things Done
• Priorities for Tough Decisions
• How to Be an Effective Leader

How to Get Things Done

A couple of years ago I tried the following excercise - In 30 minutes, write down as many things as I could about how to get things done.

This is far from a complete list, just what I could complete during my self imposed time limit, but I think it is pretty useful. I won't go into details in this post, but will probably follow up with additional posts in areas I think warrant it. In fact, one of my previous posts is an expansion on one of the items in this list - Priorities for Tough Decisions.


How to Get Things Done

• Know your values, be consistent
• Do you want to manage or do you want to do?
• How much influence and responsibility do you want?
• How much time are you willing to devote to work?
• What makes you excited to come to work in the morning?
• What do you expect from the people around you?
• Know your strengths and play to them
• Know your weaknesses and pick what needs to be improved and leverage the strengths of people around you
• Know how you react when under pressure – what does ‘unbalanced’ feel like?
• Recognize when it is happening so you can adjust your thinking and become effective again
• Don’t build technology for the sake of technology
• Solve real problems, don’t treat work like a hobby
• When making tradeoffs use the following priority stack
• Company
• Customer
• Product
• Team
• You
• Don’t take it personally – focus on getting the job done, not bruises to your ego
• Set up for success
• Yourself
• Those working for you
• If you know a task is going to fail, change the conditions or abort
• Don’t just hope for success, have a plan that you know will get you there
• If you are in trouble, ask for help
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions
• Even very smart people don’t know everything, those who don’t ask questions are usually scared, not all-knowing
• Beware of experts
• Don’t rely on experts to give you all the answers, do your own searching
• Don’t be a bottleneck
• This is done out of fear of losing control – allow yourself to trust
• Before delegating a task, know the task.
• Do you know how it can be done?
• Do you know what success looks like?
• Do you know level of effort and level of skill required?
• Trailblaze (related to previous)
• Push the limits, learn how to do something, then let others follow behind
• Take risks, don’t be afraid to fail
• Sharpen the axe
• Don’t spend so much time getting things done that you never have time to improve process, tools, methodology, education, etc.
• Postmortem
• At the end of a project/milestone step back and ask how you did, what could go better, what should continue
• Give feedback in real-time
• People respond best to quick feedback – otherwise the connection is lost
• Ask for feedback
• If you aren’t getting feedback ask and ask and ask
• Appreciate praise but seek out criticism
• Be careful of friendships at work
• Do you value the friend or the goal more highly?
• Be honest about your limitations
• If asked to do something you are ill-suited for, explain to your team why you may not be the best choice
  
• But, don’t be afraid to jump in and do it anyway
• Set expectations
• Describe to your manager what you'll be able to accomplish
  
• Describe to those working for you, what you expect from them
• Be explicit about what makes you satisfied, happy, upset, etc. so they know what to expect
  
• Hire for a role not for a personality
• Don’t hire someone and then try to fit that person in to your organization.
• Instead perform a gap analysis – know what you need, define a position, then look for the individual who represents the best fit.
• Know how others see you
• Are you a leader?
• Are you effective?
• Are you valued on the team?
• Know your manager's priorities and how he is being evaluated for success
  
• If your priorities misalign with management then:
• Change your priorities
  
• Or influence your manager to change their priorities
• Or leave for a position that aligns better
• Bring something to the table
• In any relationship – team, coworker, company – know what value you bring
• Dig into cracks
• Look for signs of a problem in results or assumptions
• Dig into the problem until you fully understand it
• Know your long-term goals
• Know where you want to be in 5 years so your current decisions have a long-term purpose.
• Keep your options open
• When making a decision that balances short term gain for long term flexibility lean toward long term flexibility
• Know who your friends and enemies are
• Who can you trust, who is competing with you, who wants you dead
• Understand the root cause of objections raised by others
  
• Are they based in reality?
  
• Are they based on perceived threat?
  
• Are they based on misinformation?
• Reality vs. perception
• Know what is real
• Know what is the common perception
• Know that perception will win over reality in group opinion
• Be pragmatic
• Do what it takes to achieve your goals without conflicting with your values.
• Don’t be too idealistic or rigid in your approach

My Related Posts

• How To Be an Effective Leader
• Priorities for Tough Decisions

Are Good Decisions Based on Luck?

I've noticed that some people consistently make good decisions while others make terrible choices that leave them miserable. Is the difference based on luck, skill, or some mix of the two? My colleague Prashant posted his thoughts last night on the subject. He believes that skill is the most important factor and luck is something you create. He also shares his thoughts on how to become a better decision maker.

You can see his post here: Are you lucky?

If you are interested in seeing the project Prashant and I are working on for Microsoft, you can see it here: Visual Studio 2005 Team System Guidance


My Related Posts

• Priorities for Tough Decisions
• How To Be an Effective Leader
• Don't Focus on the Rocks
  

Priorities for Tough Decisions

Tough decisions, by their nature, involve difficult tradeoffs. I’ve found that defining a framework of priorities up front, before being confronted with a tough decision, can make the decision-making task much easier. Brian Valentine, then a Senior Vice President at Microsoft and now at Amazon, taught me a priorities framework that has worked very well for me in the corporate world.

First priority is the Business. In the end, every decision needs to map to the success of the business.

Next priority is your Customers. All of your decisions should be in the best interest of your customers, unless it is in direct conflict with the success of your business. For instance, you probably wouldn’t sell a product at a loss – it may make your customer happy, but it’s not good for the business.

Next priority is the Product or Service you are selling. Your decision should ensure the success of what you are selling, but not at the expense of the customer or the business. For instance you may be selling a service that you want to be successful. However, if the service is a distraction from the success of your business or isn’t in the best interest of your customers, it shouldn’t be pursued.

Next priority is your Team. Your decision should keep your team happy, motivated and productive, unless it is damaging to your product, customers or business. For instance, you may need your team to work long hours to develop a product. It may not be what the team would like to be doing with their spare time, but it’s the right thing for your customers and business.

Final priority is your Self. If you focus on the other priorities first, success will come naturally. If you focus first on yourself, you are likely to hurt your team, your customers and your business – depriving yourself of the success you wanted.

Tip: Be careful not to do overdue it, keep long term consequences in mind when you make your decision. For instance, a few weeks of long hours may be a good tradeoff for a successful product launch, but a year of long hours may hurt your team badly enough that it will impact your customers and your business in the long run.

I think it’s beneficial to build a set of priorities for your personal, financial, emotional and spiritual life as well. As soon as I acknowledged that tough decisions require tradeoffs between various areas of my life that I care about, it was clear to me that I should build a priorities framework that mapped to my values and life circumstances. Once I had this framework in place I’ve found that I can make more consistent decisions that align with what I care about most.

How would you list your priorities?

What’s more important:

• Career or family?
• Emotional comfort or thrilling risks?
• Material success or physical well being?
• Connection with others or time alone?

Do the decisions you make support these priorities?

How To Be an Effective Leader

I’ve spent the last 10 years leading teams of software developers, testers, and ethical hackers on a wide variety of highly technical projects in challenging conditions. I don’t think of myself as a natural leader. However, I have learned over the years how to be an effective leader, able to guide teams toward consistent success and the occasional heroic achievement. What makes for good leadership? What is it that allows some people to motivate teams and influence people while others spend just as much effort and are not able to accomplish these goals? I don’t believe there are many natural leaders; I think most effective leaders have to work hard at it. Leadership is a science as much as it is an art and there are principles that anyone can apply to become a more effective leader of people.

I think you could measure two things and accurately predict an individual’s ability to lead:

• Differentiation. The ability to separate the emotional process from the intellectual process.
• Clarity of Vision. An awareness of internal values as well as consistency and clarity in communicating those values as a compelling vision for change.

I first learned of these concepts through the research of Joan Fiore, Murray Bowen and Daniel Goleman. Fiore is an organizational consultant and leadership coach I met while at Microsoft. Goleman you’ve probably heard of, he wrote the book on Emotional Intelligence. Bowen may be a new name to you, he was a Psychotherapist with a focus on family therapy. Unsurprisingly, the principle of differentiation is as useful when looking for dysfunction in a family as it is when looking for dysfunction in any other type of organization. Differentiation, once I learned how to look for it, is a trait I’ve seen in every exceptional leader I’ve met. Being differentiated doesn’t mean ignoring your emotions; it means you are capable of taking your emotions as a source of input rather than as an always-accurate reflection of reality. Differentiation, at its core, is a measure of how well you are able to maintain your own individuality while simultaneously maintaining connection with others. Bowen developed a scale to measure differentiation:

• 75 – 100: This person is principle oriented and goal driven. He is capable of evaluating other people’s viewpoints and is flexible in his thinking. He is able to take responsibility for himself and understands his responsibilities to others. He is able to tolerate intense emotions.
• 50 – 75: This person’s intellectual and emotional processes are able to form a cooperative team. His intellect may overrule his emotions when it is in his best interest. He has a solid sense of self and is able to follow independent life goals. This person does not blame others for his failures nor does he feel that he has to give credit to others for his own successes.
• 25 – 50: This person’s life is driven primarily by emotional responses, though there may be some flexibility. When he has low anxiety he can function as if he were more differentiated. As anxiety levels increase the emotional processes quickly overrun the intellectual processes. He spends a lot of energy on what other people think of him and toward winning the approval of others. His self esteem is dependent upon others, and his point of view may vary depending on the people he is in connection with.
• 0 – 25: This person lives in a world dominated by feeling, in which they find it difficult to distinguish feeling from fact. He spends so much energy seeking approval and keeping harmony in his relationships that there is little energy left for productivity. Important decisions are based upon what feels right. Specific long term goals are very difficult to make.

The more differentiated an individual is, the more effective he will be when leading others.

Clarity of vision is an interesting concept. It turns out that the moral substance of the values behind the vision is less important than the ability to communicate the vision consistently and clearly. This is the reason leadership has no moral bounds – Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, and Hitler were all effective leaders though their moral systems varied widely. Individuals who know their values, can communicate them, and are consistent in acting on them are effective leaders.

Based on these principles I've discovered that the following traits result in the type of leadership that I am most interested in following and emulating:

• Self Awareness. You are aware of your impact on others. You are aware of your own weaknesses and work toward mitigating them.
• Self Regulation. You think before you act. You consistently act out of your value system. The people around you know what to expect from you.
• Empathy. You are willing to trust and eager to empower. You are interested in listening and understanding other’s experiences.
• Social Skills. You are able to connect with others and communicate well.
• Motivation. You have a passion to lead, you desire to excel, and you actively want the best for your team and yourself.

It’s interesting to note that each of these is an internal trait. You don’t need to be in a leadership position to start improving them.

Don't Focus on the Rocks

Have you ever noticed that the things you spend the most time and energy on avoiding are the very things that trip you up the hardest? I think it’s a common trap that is excruciatingly difficult to see when you are inside it. The fear feeds on itself and you can be caught in a vicious cycle of making your problems real through the very act of fearing and avoiding them.

I learned this pattern of behavior when I learned how to whitewater kayak. As a beginner kayaker I was presented with a large assortment of obstacles in the form of rocks, currents, and eddies. I didn’t have enough experience to turn these individual pieces into a pattern that I could paddled through unscathed. There was no flow. Instead I had to deal with each obstacle only to be quickly presented with the next one in turn. I kept running into rocks, hitting currents wrong and, in general, doing exactly the opposite of what I should be doing if I wanted to stay in my boat, dry, and uninjured. The harder I tried the worse it got. After a lot of hard knocks, and some good advice from more experienced boaters, I learned a secret to success. Instead of focusing on the obstacles, focus on the space between. The river is more powerful than you are, go with the flow, focus on the areas that will provide safe passage, and stop focusing on the rocks! Amazingly, all it took to become a decent kayaker was a willingness to relax, trust the water, and stop focusing so hard on all the parts of the river I didn’t want to go.

Wow, talk about a revelation. Once I recognized the pattern I started seeing it everywhere. First in mountain biking and skiing – don’t focus on the trees! Then in life in general: relationships, career, family, flying, public speaking. Almost every area of my life was affected. I stopped worrying so much about risks and problems and instead I focused on positive outcomes.

I’ve started to build an innate feel for when I’m in the flow. Sometimes life feels easy and I can tell I’m in the flow. Other times life is hard and it feels like my struggles are just making it worse – I’m out of the flow. Just like on a river, the difference between easy sailing and a rocky struggle can be a couple of small decisions that place you in the right current. In life, just as in kayaking, it is critical to see the larger patterns and know what small moves will have a large positive impact. When I can’t figure that out I am consigned to struggling with each crisis one at a time, only to have the next one rear its ugly head.

I have some thoughts about what it takes to recognize and stay in the flow but I’ll save that for another post.