Google Research Confirms Basics of Management

 


 

The New York Times recently ran a nice article about how Google–in its usual highly-analytic, data-driven way–measured the results of different management behaviors amongst its own workforce. The recommendations that emerged from this research will be familiar to readers of this blog.

I wish these were practiced as often as I preach them!

 


 

 

Google’s Project Oxygen

Eight Good Behaviors



Be a good coach
Provide specific, constructive feedback, balancing the negative and the positive.
Have regular (more…)

Performance Review Process: Needs Improvement

 


 

Revolution is in the air around the world. People everywhere are fed up with having arbitrary power exercised over them, with impractical limits placed on their everyday actions, with living in constant fear that someone in power will frown at them and destroy their livelihood without warning or objective justification. This global revolution differs from the Marxist model of the dispossessed and disaffected rising up from poverty to overthrow the business class. This time, educated professionals are actively engaged in the resistance. As a result, people long accustomed to wielding authority and position are rapidly changing the way they run things. Suddenly, leaders in many countries are peacefully giving up some of their power in hopes of participating in a new, more prosperous and humane community.

 

I am not talking about foreign countries. I am talking about where you work.

 

For as long as I have been in the business world employees have been mystified and upset by the performance review process. The managers conducting the reviews find them arbitrary, uncomfortable, and (more…)

Plain talk on good management from US government

 


 

I just OPM's John Berryread a talk by the head of the US government’s Office of Personnel Management, John Berry.  He provides a concise and cogent summary of the new management thinking that I hope will become a major influence in organizations around the world. This shift in management is, I believe, the result of two major trends. First, the crash of 2008 made it very clear that we had been placing too much emphasis and confidence in our top leaders while day-to-day quality of life for the rank-and-file stagnated or declined. Second, a huge wave of research in behavioral economics and positive psychology is shifting management practice toward methods that are tested and proven rather than anecdotal and heuristic.

Below are excerpts from the speech that illustrate some of my favorite points, the practices I emphasize with my own CEO executive coaching clients.

But don’t read my excerpts.

I recommend that leaders of organizations, particularly chief executives, read his entire speech by clicking here. Try to forget that he is speaking about government employees. Ignore references to the President and Congress. Imagine, instead, that you made this speech to your managers and employees. What would the impact be of making these changes in your own leadership style, in your company’s performance review process, in your day-to-day life?

 


 

Selected remarks of OPM Director John Berry
Interagency Resource Management Conference
Kellogg Conference Center


What if, when setting performance standards, we engaged our employees and got clear about expectations? What if we made sure performance standards were detailed, objective, aligned to agency mission and goals, and had employee buy-in – that they weren’t just dictated from on high?



Consider the four essential pieces of how we currently manage performance: (more…)

Are Extroverts or Introverts Better Leaders?




Click here for the original article at WhartonWhat personality type is more likely to succeed in a leadership position? If you go by popular culture — television, movies, and books written by hero CEOs — you might think extroverts are natural leaders. Research summarized in an excellent article published by Wharton suggests a more nuanced answer.

Employees who are proactive and eager to have their ideas considered will be more productive with an introverted leader, who has the humility and patience to accept employee feedback. Extroverted leaders seem able to get more from passive, less group-oriented employees. This may explain part of a common business mistake, promoting a top salesperson into management. The extroversion that made the salesperson so successful may make her an inappropriate leader of other extroverts.

As a leader, know thyself and select followers that complement your style. As a business executive, consider the personalities of the people to be led when selecting their supervisor. If you already have an extrovert in charge of a group of proactive employees consider some executive coaching to help the extrovert become a better listener and more receptive to the ideas of others. If you have an introvert in charge of a department full of passive people you may need to find some other ways to motivate them to exert themselves and bring useful new ideas forward.




Improved Goal Thermometer

 


 

Thermometer
I frequently encourage my top executive coaching clients to set specific measurable goals and to chart their progress visually. For example, my free trailing twelve month Excel template is very popular. Download it by clicking here.

Here is an even simpler and more visually striking graphic you can use. Enter your own title, goal amount and current status and get a one-page, printable thermometer to display your progress for yourself or the entire team. This is similar to my earlier goal thermometer with the added feature of showing the time elapsed since the project was started.

Click here to download your free copy now. No registration required.

Feel free to share this with your friends and colleagues. Please do not remove my name or web address from the Excel spreadsheet.

 


 

Keep me informed about Tony’s webinars, in-person coaching sessions, and free Life Planning & Goal Setting tools.


 






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See also Tony’s complete goal setting kit, with audio and workbook,
free on this blog.

 


 

003 A conversation with executive coaching client Ron Dimon. Part 3 • PODCAST

 


 

Click here for Tony Mayo's podcastThis latest podcast is part three of a funny and useful conversation between top executive coach Tony Mayo and his longtime client Ron Dimon. Ron is an expert on the use of information by executives of large organizations. Listen as two experienced business people play with useful ideas in this episode including:

  • Tony’s motivation to shift from management to executive coaching
    • Early days at MCI
    • Toxic leaders
    • Arthur Andersen & Co.
    • There has got to be a better way
  • Dangers of emulating “genius managers”
  • Meditation and yoga for business people
  • Beyond money, jobs are about relationship
  • Performance velocity
  • Being counter-cultural instead of a “leaf on the breeze”
  • Brain science
  • Amygdala, limbic system, and forebrain
  • Reasons and responsibility
  • Transforming habits
  • Breath, CO2, and stress

Just click here to listen now or subscribe on your device using Apple’s TunesAndroid, and other podcatchers to have this and all new episodes placed on your device as they become available.

 


Thanks to MusicOpen for providing public domain recordings of Beethoven.

Turning Your Goals into Habits

 


 

The number one problem with business books, self-improvement programs, and even executive coaching is the excess of insights and ideas that could help, that would help, but do not help because the ideas do not produce action.

Here are the two most important methods that I, as a top executive coach, use with clients to help them get results with new ideas.

First, we have a detailed, concrete conversation about their daily habits and history of abandoned “good ideas.” We explore together and define simple, specific changes to their routine that will help integrate the new practice into their lives. For example, a client with a well-established habit of using his home gym immediately after arising in the morning hung a sign on the TV over his treadmill to remind him to meditate first.

For a simple trick to help you establish beneficial new habits click here.

Second, and even more powerful, is (more…)

Get smarter by asking “dumb” questions




Mine was the Depression generation of journalists. Many of the best people were not educated. When I went to London as a sportswriter, I didn’t even know the difference between the Baltic states and the Balkans. But I learned the advantage of the dumb-boy technique. I found that people love to talk about themselves. You get more news by trust than by tricks.

But that is not a very popular idea with this generation. Because they went to college, they think that they know more than the guys who run the joint, and that’s a pretense that doesn’t work. Also they like big shots. I always felt that the way to gather news in Washington is at the periphery not at the center. You get it from the people who tell the big shots what to say.

 

James Reston
interviewed by Alvin P. Sanoff
US News and World Report

 




002 A conversation with executive coaching client Ron Dimon. Part 2 • PODCAST

 


 

Click here for Tony Mayo's podcastThis podcast is part two of a funny and useful conversation between top executive coach Tony Mayo and his longtime client Ron Dimon. Ron is an expert on the use of information by executives of large organizations. Listen as two experienced business people play with useful ideas in this episode including;

  • Importance of feedback to effective communication
  • “Holding a Space” or “Building a Deer Park”
    • Big Meadow
    • Core hours
  • Danger of imposing “consequences”
  • Workplaces of Humanity & Prosperity
  • Self-directed, self-selecting teams at WT Gore and Semco
  • Over time, you get what you tolerate
  • Children, like employees, are humans, too

Just click here to listen now or subscribe on your device using Apple’s TunesAndroid, and other podcatchers to have this and all new episodes placed on your device as they become available.


 

Guidelines for Communication that Supports “Team”




Guidelines for Communication that Supports “Team”

  • Speak for yourself about yourself. Starting sentences with “I” is a powerful shortcut to this skill. You can state facts, opinions, emotions, concerns, requests, suggestions—whatever—if and only if you take ownership of them.
    It is okay to carry a message or speak for someone else; just be clear about what you are doing. Label it.
  • Communicate to cause a result.
    Stay in every conversation—whether in person, by email, telephone, whatever—long enough to learn how your communication lands with the other person and be responsible for their response. How they feel or act is your business and you should be ready to respond.
  • Include the whole team in team conversations. Avoid having conversations about any person not participating in that conversation. This guideline also includes those conversations you have inside your head.




Tony Mayo
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