Managing with Integrity - How to survive and thrive as a manager in a large organization

January 30th, 2008

Speaking from 28 years within a large corporate structure that has changed hands and flavors multiple times. These are my top tips for people who manage others directly.

  • Play by the rules - or don’t expect your employees to play by yours. Top management communicates a vision via complex and obscure sets of rules that they really don’t have the lower organizational structure to implement or track properly. It may seem to you that your own manager is OK with your filling in the corp-speak blanks after the fact, because your “real” job is taking care of the monthly bottom line. Fall into this routine and you’re certain to alienate your direct reports and loose their respect. You can’t play a different game, the game of trying to appear that you’re on the workers side and acting as a buffer between them and upper management’s wacky incomprehensible vision. Your job is to understand that vision and translate it meaningfully to your workers in a way that communicates your absolute buy in. This doesn’t mean that you endlessly regurgitate ridiculous buzzwords and acronyms. Rather, you make it obvious to your workers that you’ve taken the time to understand them yourself and you’re set to enable everyone to succeed.
  • Make setting aside regular time to meet one on one with your direct reports your top priority. These are the people that are buttering your bread, the people who make you look good or bad, the people who make or break success, the bottom line. Doing this will enable you to maintain a real understanding of the state of your business processes from everyones perspective and is the equivalent of routine maintenance, an oil change for your business. It also tunes up attitudes and fosters continual improvement. Meet in a quiet place free from interruption. Take notes, keep them, action them, follow up at each meeting. If you’ve got fewer than a dozen direct reports you should spend at least a half hour per month meeting with each one. If you’ve got more than a dozen and less than fifty make that a half hour per quarter (yes that’s up to 6 hours of your time each week talking directly with each of your 50 people). If you’ve got more than fifty you must fight the good fight with your own manager. Mileage may vary depending on your business. At my spouses workplace the rule is a maximum of fifteen employees per manager (who meets one hour every two weeks with each front line employee).
  • Don’t assume that anyone is happy with a daily grind - “they just want to be left alone to do their job” is a false assumption. People by nature want change for the good. They only fall into the daily grind after they’ve been exposed repeatedly to managers who aren’t working for them. Even experienced workers who have risen to the top of their pay grade years ago appreciate professional growth. It’s your job to give them a line of sight to growth possibilities and encourage them. Mentor, motivate, monitor, and continually ask those workers to do the same for their less experienced peers.
  • Don’t speak to the lowest common denominator during group meetings. Speaking down tells everyone that you’ve made assumptions about them all and it’s not likely that you’ll really listen to any of them. Instead, speak as though they are all top performers who have your ultimate respect, even when the employee you’re about to fire for poor performance is in the audience.
  • Continually and publicly reward and praise. Teach your workers by example how to do the same. Don’t less this falter as it typically does during the busiest and most stressful times, when sincere praise is needed most. Praise in front of the employees friends and family if you can.
  • Hold your fellow managers accountable as equal team members. It’s not a competition. You’re all in it together. Listen to each other and consider the impact of each others decisions. Don’t toss the ball over the wall, you know it’ll be tossed back and that game of catch continues until the ball is dropped and the organization suffers.
  • Gruntle that disgruntled worker. Yeah, I know gruntle isn’t a word, but it should be. If someone seems continually unhappy with work take the time to find out why. Maybe they’re experiencing trying times with life outside of work, having health issues etc. but you’ve got to investigate and not simply write them off. Are there wrongs to be righted? Why? Does the person feel like they’re not being listened to? Why? It’s often said that people don’t quit their jobs, they quit their managers. Give that person a sincere effort to understand and resolve whatever work issues are going on and you’ll likely earn loyalty and respect while salvaging an investment in time and experience shared by company and employee.
  • Don’t divvy up the merit pool before the reviews are written. There’s no objectivity without up front documentation of the facts. No one can possibly know or remember what every employee did nine months ago. Involve employees in the process throughout the year or merit is reduced to a personality/popularity contest. See “Playing by the rules” above.
  • Communicate, communicate, communicate. Don’t allow employee satisfaction surveys be the only path that a worker has to your ears. Don’t assume that your front line workers aren’t interested in town halls etc. from corporate leadership. Some of your people want to know what’s going on outside of the immediate world so that they can advance. Listen, listen, listen.

    • First draft. To be continued…

    Posted in Work | 2 Comments »

    Free Super Bowl Pool Template

    January 27th, 2008

    Quick and dirty in Excel and PDF format, prints in landscape on letter paper.
    Had to throw this together for next weeks Super Bowl XLII neighborhood party, wanted something simple and legible that can be filled out without digital intervention. The logo is just for kicks of course, the NFL certainly doesn’t endorse gambling or sponsor our little low budget neighborhood get together, even if we are just 11 miles north of University of Phoenix Stadium.
    :-)
    Click here to download PDF
    Click here to download XLS
    UOP from Google Earth

    Posted in General | 7 Comments »

    Top Ten Russian River Wineries

    January 13th, 2008

    Last years Russian River Barrel Tasting came and went without a single photo or post about our annual trip. So what better way to toast the new layout than with a post about wine. Here, in no particular order, are my favorite wineries to visit and buy from during the spring barrel tasting event.

    Siduri
    There’s really no better way to begin a barrel tasting weekend morning than here! Siduri is in an industrial strip warehouse so you’re not here for the froo froo vineyard atmosphere, you’re here for a gigantic selection of top notch California Pinot Noir and Syrah at great prices. The employees are wonderful and there’s always some tasty food to nibble as you go. Expect to spend a good hour or more and to leave with a very pleasant glow.

    Another traditional 1st stop is Martenelli. Great munchies, cool gift shop, nice selection of well made wines. I like the humongous Giuseppe & Luisa Zinfandel. Good to hit early to avoid the crowd.

    Joseph Swan Fantastic affordable Zinfandel, Pinot Noir, Syrah.
    Christopher Creek Up the hill for more great quality affordable Zins, Pinots, Syrah and Petite Syrah. Very friendly and helpful staff. As you go back down the hill look to see if the doors are open at Mietz! You’ll find excellent Sangiovese, Claret, Petite Verdot among the mix.

    One rainy morning during the 2006 barrel tasting we discovered Hook & Ladder. We were the first group of the day and spent a good while tasting and talking about the winery with the staff, again great folk. Their wines are a bargain and can be found here in Phoenix.

    Gotta visit Talty Just Zin, but some of the most delicious I’ve ever had!

    In 2007 kids waving signs steered us to a relative newcomer, Zichichi. Small, family run, a couple of very yummy Zinfandels and an equally tasty Petite Syrah. Beautiful view of the vineyard off of the tasting room.

    Woodenhead. Wow. Buena Tierra Vineyard Zinfandel. Say no more!

    Ridge. Wow wow. Deep variety, everything exceptional. Wish more of the 02 Lytton Estate Petite Syrah was available!

    Did I say 10? Here’s a bonus. Not part of the barrel tasting event, it’s been our good fortune to party with the great folk at Brogan Cellars. The water coolers in Heaven must flow with My Father’s Vineyard Anderson Valley Pinot Noir and Buena Tierra “Helio Doro Block” Pinot Noir.

    Note: Starting a day at Siduri and finishing it at Brogan Cellars can make the following day “a little rough”!

    Hope you enjoyed this read, and hope you’ll be able to get out there and lick some barrels! To close, here’s a laugh from the last trip. One of those what the hell happened events caught by the camera…


    Posted in Wine | No Comments »

    orange & blue

    January 7th, 2008

    Just testing the new layout after updating Wordpress and switching from JAlbum to ZenPhoto (links to both at bottom of respective pages). I almost threw away this test render when I did it last year but now I’m glad I didn’t. Digging the colors and combination of cartoony with caustic lighting effects…
    frez

    Posted in Digital Art | 1 Comment »

    Rest In Peace Uma

    December 3rd, 2007

    So hard to believe. Uma, namesake for binkydognose, has moved on. Seizures began the day after Thanksgiving. She was almost back to her usual self, but yesterday afternoon we returned from grocery shopping to find her in her bed having more troubles. Canceled a birthday dinner for Nick, watched over her for less than an hour, and by 4 pm we were at the vets and she was gone.
    I love you. I miss you. I wish you were still with us being the daily pain in the ass and cutie you were.
    dognap

    Posted in General | No Comments »

    2007 one post update

    December 3rd, 2007

    A few friends are wondering…. why no posts? site dead? something wrong?
    What a long/short/busy/strange year. First half was consumed by long work hours, finishing up an SAP implementation that went live in July. Any free time I had after work/family was spent beta testing trueSpace. One son moved out, another back in. The son who moved back in married, he and his wife enlisted in the USAF, moved out. We’ve been re-arranging, painting, making the home what we envisioned when we moved into it 3 years ago. So looking forward to having everyone back for the holidays.
    Work/-/Deja vu all over again, working SAP support, ambiguous job status. Health/-/went on meds for stage2 hypertension and high cholesterol. Need to take time away to get back into shape and clear my mind. Play/-/still fascinated by 3D, beta testing, photography, digital works in general - still love the outdoors and it’s creatures - hope to return to active creativity very soon, clean the digital house over the holidays.

    Posted in General | No Comments »

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