Art Petty on Management

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Decision-Making and The Three Rules of Risk Management

Your decision-making style says a lot about you as a leader.  Some people make a lot of decisions with little more than a gut hunch to guide them and others spend a lot of time gathering insights and information to support their decision.  Others struggle to make decisions on anything and might still be considering what to order for breakfast when it’s time for dinner.  And still others avoid making decisions because taking a stand increases the odds that they will be held accountable for results.  

Our decision-making style is driven in large part by our tolerance of risk, something that can change based on many personal and professional circumstances.  An executive guiding a turn-around might operate with a high-degree of risk tolerance, while a project manager leading a construction project might have a much lower risk tolerance.  First-time leaders might not have formed a solid decision-making style and might process risk at a slightly more conservative level than how they perceive their direct manager dealing with it. 

A participant in a recent leadership workshop that I conducted offered up the Three Rules of Risk Management that she learned from her father (an engineer).  I am grateful that she shared and appreciative of the wisdom her father passed along in these simple but powerful rules.

The Three Rules of Risk Management

1. Don’t risk more than you can afford to lose.

Good advice for corporate leaders, mid-level managers and everyone in their personal lives.  Determining what you can “afford to lose” is of course the key issue here, and sometimes not so easy to calculate.  A patient requiring a heart-transplant to live has one definition and a single parent that needs a paycheck to feed his family has another.  It’s OK to agonize over this one a bit…it is the foundational data point of the Three Rules.

2. Never risk a lot for a little.

Common sense, yes, but I see this one violated everyday. People risk their credibility arguing over who’s right and who’s wrong on small issues.  Boards and executive teams pursue ill-conceived acquisitions based on questionable assumptions.  Marketing and development teams invest heavily in new products without a good understanding of the problem they are trying to solve for their prospective buyers. The operative issue here is defining whether the perceived end game or outcome is worth a lot (usually the assumption) or some fraction of a lot (usually reality).  Align risk with the true definition of the outcome.

3. In general, take the risk if you can affect the outcome.

In my opinion, this is the most profound of the three rules, and another point worth agonizing over as you formulate your decision.  Hoping that the dice roll your way is what helped build all of those grand palaces in Las Vegas.  You cannot control the dice…they have a mind of their own, and in a business environment, hoping for the market to move your way is a guarantee that you will make your better-prepared competitor rich.  You cannot affect the outcome of most situations at 100 percent, so once again, you are left to sort what you can control and what is beyond your control.  This rule guides you to accept risk if you can control a significant portion of the outcome. 

The Bottom-Line for Now:

Learning to think through your risk-environment can help you make the right calls on the tough issues.  The Three Rules are not a silver-bullet, but they do offer a simple framework for mentally processing the implications of a decision. 

In general, I’ve found that most people prefer working for leaders that make a lot of decisions and that make decisions quickly.  Certainly, a leader that is slow to make up her mind or that will never make a decision has an adverse impact on her team and her organization.  Alternatively, a leader that is too fast to decide or that decides more on a hunch than a good understanding of the facts, issues and risks, is prone to making significant mistakes as well.  The trick is finding the right balance, and balance is about understanding and measuring your risks against possible returns.  Use the Three Rules to find the right risk/return balance for your decisions. 

Inspirational Leadership: The Victim of the Balanced Scorecard?

Note from Art: Today's post is by Guest Blogger, Amy Meyer, a veteran technology marketing and product/project management professional, and an all around talented leader and wonderful person.  I hope that this post helps launch Amy's blogging career.  She has a lot to say worth listening to. (More Bio/Contact Info at end of post.)

My name is Amy Meyer and I have had the pleasure of working for and with Art for many years.  I look back on this time with gratitude, for the experience has rewarded me with life-long insights into how a company can achieve and maintain excellence.  But I can also tell you that this is truly a double-edged sword.  The experience has also made me less tolerant of poor leadership and as Art continually shares, there are plenty of examples from which to draw.

Today I’d like to cover what I believe to be a disturbing management trend.  In today’s world of the Balanced Scorecard, companies have never focused so much energy on alignment of results with strategy.  I applaud the approach.  In fact I recommend it.  But sadly it seems that for some organizations, results have become the sole focal point—the only thing that matters.  What they are losing touch with is the fact that results are driven, at least in most companies, by living, breathing human beings. 

It’s time these companies face the facts.  You can’t get results by placing a scorecard in front of a talented individual and say “Get this done or you won’t get a raise next year”, and then walk away.  This approach only works if your goal is to drive up your attrition rates and lose your best and brightest.

A balanced scorecard is not a replacement for leadership.  To blow your scorecards out of the water, you need to nurture those people who make the magic happen.  This requires more than management—it requires inspirational leadership.  It is great to have smart people as colleagues and friends, because they can help you out if you ever need to write a guest blog!  In this case I asked some of my most respected how they would define an inspirational leader.  Here’s what they had to say.

An Inspirational Leader is Someone Who...   

• Includes you in deciding the team’s direction rather than telling you what direction to go

• Picks up the shovel and digs with you rather than standing above you telling you to dig faster

• Makes other people feel important and appreciated, helps people believe in themselves

• Sets the pace, leading by example rather than decree

• Only assumes credit for providing his or her team the opportunity to succeed

• Motivates through personal performance examples and exemplifies the skills that he\she possesses through knowledge transfer and demonstration

• Knows when and how to encourage individual talents and maintains team integrity while respecting every individual

• Takes time to understand team members, creating bi-directional relationships that ensures the team that he/she has their best interests in mind

• Is proactive rather than reactive—two steps ahead, instead of one step behind

• Creates excitement in the workplace

• Builds efficient teams by trusting the occupational strengths of his or her subordinates and recognizes individual talents that balance one another

• Builds team morale by recognizing work-related achievements

• Provides opportunities for development on enjoyable and challenging projects rather than artificially inseminating the team with mandatory bonding events

• Sets a credible and ethical example to follow, has integrity

• Displays exceptional communication behavior, both as a speaker and listener, using well-educated inference as necessary

• Can either make or break a company

It’s time to wake up.  Scorecards are measurements.  To achieve and exceed your corporate goals requires the inspiration of confident leaders.  So, how are you doing?  Are you providing your team the support they need to achieve the results the organization requires?  Why don’t you ask them what you could change to make them more successful!  Being an inspirational leader requires a thick skin.  Have the courage and the self-confidence to learn from the team you serve.

--

Amy Meyer is a veteran technology professional with a broad spectrum of experience including strategic marketing, product and project management, software development and IT management.  Amy is currently focusing her efforts and research on the topic of enhancing technology project success through investment in talented individuals and collaboration with cross-functional stakeholders.  If you share Amy's passion for the topic, feel free to contact her via e-mail at amy.meyer@charter.net

From Imperial Court to Learning Organization

Today’s post was stimulated by a great article in the July/August 2008 Harvard Business Review, The Competitive Imperative of Learning, where Professor Amy Edmonson of Harvard Business School outlines the differences between organizations that focus on execution as efficiency—doing things better and faster than your competition versus execution as learning—focusing on learning and adapting faster.

In brief, Professor Edmonson compares and contrasts the approaches used in the traditional industrial age model of motivation and performance evaluation processes versus those required for today’s knowledge-worker dominated organizations.  The approaches required for success in the two models are dramatically different.

In the Execution as Efficiency model, Professor Edmonson indicates that leaders provide answers, employees follow directions and optimal work processes are designed and set up in advance.  In the Execution as Learning model, leaders set direction and articulate the mission, employees discover the answers and work processes are highly fluid, adapting at the speed of organizational learning.

Practical Applications: A lot of Executive Talk, but...

When it comes to driving change, words and actions must match. Few organizations are immune to the massive forces constantly reshaping the world around us, and few organizations can afford to live solely by the Execution as Efficiency model.  We live and work in a world increasingly dominated by knowledge workers, and while one part of an organization may be dominated by an efficiency orientation, other areas, marketing, sales, research and development, must move towards a learning approach or face dire consequences in the marketplace. 

In my own experience working with organizations that have grown up with an emphasis on efficiency but are talking about the need to become more flexible and adaptable, it is often the people doing the talking that are serving as the barriers to change by failing to revamp outmoded systems and processes.

Five Barriers that Get In the Way of Developing a Learning Organization:

1. The Imperial CEO and Royal Executives: A class system that puts undue weight on the import of executives.  Instead of the executives serving the organization, it seems like the organization exists to serve the executives.
2. Strategy by Edict and Set According to the Calendar: Every year at about the same time, the organization stops and waits while the royal court sits behind closed doors working out the new organizational structure and lofty statements that provide the masses inspiration to work hard until they receive fresh inspiration next year.
3. Strategy by Default: “We have a strategy, and it’s to sell more,” is a commonly heard phrase in this tuned-out environment.   Another is, “Strategy is for the big boys, and we’re too small to worry about anything other than doing our jobs.”
4. People as Expenses: the words coming from the mouths of executives might be saying “People are our most important asset,” but the systems supporting the identification, development and retention of talent are saying, “People are our biggest cost.”
5. The Functional Structure: specialization works in some areas, but in general, the silo structure of many/most orientations is the greatest impediment to shared learning.  While the phrase, “we’re all in sales” is commonly shouted by salespeople frustrated with the lack of organizational support, the fact is that, “marketing is truly too important to be left to just the marketing department.” 

What to Do If Your Organization Needs to Learn:

• Take the royalty out of the royal court.  This culture shift has to start at the top—the non-CEO Chairman of the Board and the other independent board members have to step up and overthrow the caste system and monarchy that pervades so many executive environments.

• Recognize and act on strategy as a process that involves everyone.  (I’ve posted on this one seemingly a thousand times, so I’ll spare you the details and direct you to the Strategy category on this blog.)

• A robust execution process with plenty of accountability and constant evaluation of performance and consideration of lessons learned is the fastest way to pump up organizational learning.

• Make the identification, development and retention of talent the job of every manager or supervisor in the organization.  Challenge HR to create systems to support these activities and start living up to the notion that people are your greatest assets.

• Break down the walls by at least moving towards a strong matrix or a project environment for major initiatives.  Cease and desist with throwing initiatives over silo walls, and build a project culture with the charter to execute and to educate the organization on lessons learned.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

It’s time to quit talking about becoming a learning organization and start knocking down the time worn conventions, institutions and processes that stand in your organization's way.  In an ideal world, this change starts at the top with an insightful leader or leadership team that understand what it takes to move from an efficiency orientation to a learning focus.  In reality, a lot of this change will need to be driven by leaders in the middle that clearly see what is happening in the external environment as well as what it takes to win in that environment.  If necessary, let the royals executives posture and play while you go about the business of changing the business one initiative at a time.

Capturing Talent and Creating Great Customer Experiences: They Go Together

The Poor Interviewing Habits of Many Managers

You would think that we would have this problem crossed off the list by now.  I wonder how organizations and leaders in good faith can let managers recruit talent without teaching them HOW to interview and holding them accountable for executing this task effectively. 

Most organizations offer some cursory training in the compliance and legal issues of interviewing, but I’m hearing from too many job seekers with hilarious (sad, but true) examples of miserable interviews.  Consider the slob that took two smoke breaks while interviewing a talented professional.  In-between breaks, his focus was on convincing the individual that he should come to work for the firm, even though they could not pay him what he was making now.  Great recruiting!  Impressive.  This person has no business interviewing. 

Questions to consider:

• Are the interviewing skills of your managers helping or hindering when it comes to recruiting talent?

• Do you know what your managers are saying in interviews?

•  What’s your organizational batting average on landing the top recruits (and then keeping them)?

Great Marketing: Building Value with The Complete Customer Experience. 

I received my new 24” Apple iMac yesterday and once again, marveled at how hard this company works at creating an incredible experience for the customer.  The unpack to on-the-internet time is about 4 minutes, but the experience transcends the simplicity of set-up.  My wife helped me with the unpacking she marveled at the detail and quality of the packaging materials.  “It feels like we are unwrapping something very special,” was her comment.

It’s hard not to be awestruck by the beautiful design and the spectacular display on your desk, and I’m going on five years with our stable of Macs growing as our two sons head to college.  The products always work and it’s still exciting to use one. 

Questions to Consider:

• Are your customers saying the same things about your offerings?

• Are your employees obsessed with creating great customer experiences?

The Bottom-Line: Talent Fuels Performance:

There’s no way that an organization that accommodates sloppy interviewing habits is landing and retaining the best and brightest.  As a business leader, you want your customers to constantly be surprised and delighted.  A manager that takes mid-interview smoke breaks and badgers a talented candidate about salary expectations is someone that I want working for my competitor. 

My suggestions:

• HR, get it in gear as the trustee of talent and create systems and tools to ensure best interviewing practices are developed and reinforced. 

• Leadership Team: It's not all HR's job.  Set high standards and demand excellence at all levels in the hiring process. 

• Managers at all levels: evaluate the interviewing habits and track records of your managers and supervisors. 

There are no excuses for getting this wrong and just one reason for getting it right: success. 

Help Wanted: Great Leaders to Solve Vexing World Problems

This is what I describe as a boil-over post—short on useful advice and long on observations about the obvious.  I usually shy away from commenting on the world scene, however, I'm breaking form today. 

As is my habit on gorgeous Mid-Western U.S. mornings (that's for all of you folks all over the globe that love to point out the temperature differentials to me in February!), I rise early, grab a quick cup of English Breakfast Tea, glance at the Wall Street Journal and then jump on my bicycle for my wake-up workout.  I suppose this morning's paper is not much different than every other paper for the last few months, but as I said, this is a boil-over post: it's been simmering for a while.  My positive spin on the over-abundance of miserable news is that this is a great time for leaders everywhere to ply their trade and show the world what they are made of.

Just a few of our very visible and very important "leadership" opportunities:

The Economy.  The Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke has perhaps the worst job on the planet right now.  In what is looking more and more like a perfect storm, the Chairman must simultaneously deal with the still-unfolding housing crash, the implosion in mortgage financing, the wholesale failure of some of the planet's alleged smartest financiers to do anything right (think Bear Sterns), record oil prices, a record low dollar value, the specter of inflation and general weakness in many U.S. and global markets.  Perhaps the only thing more complicated than the macroeconomic environment is the weather.  Oh yeah, if Chairman Bernanke's daily dilemmas aren't tough enough, spend a few minutes listening to the windbags in Congress posture while they attempt to blame him for everything, including the '29 crash.

U.S Auto Manufacturers.   The headline I want to see is: U.S. Auto Executives Fired En Masse for Arrogance, Idiocy and Forgetting to Diversify their Product Portfolios.  What is galling to me is that these executives had clear visibility into competitor strategies as well as the bigger picture of energy and oil.  Did they really expect to live on the profits from the SUVs and Trucks of the '90's forever?  Killing an industry should be a crime punishable by ample jail time.

U.S. Airlines (except for Southwest).  Most of my work is in the Chicago-area, so I've avoided flying for a while.  A good friend of mine described his recent experience on a major carrier as: "something out of a movie shot in a third-world country."  In a bold stroke, most major U.S. carriers (except Southwest) have decided to bet their survival on making an already lousy experience miserable.  I wonder what happened to the memo that said that if we serve our customers and give them great reasons to use our services, they will help us weather the storm.  Jail time for these execs as well.  It's time for some fresh approaches from new leaders interested in running businesses that serve customers.

Iraq.  Absolutely no joking here...U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians are losing their lives.  This situation has serious repercussions for the U.S. and for the Middle East for years to come.  The next President will be saddled with resolving (hopefully) this nightmare.  There are encouraging signs, but it is a complex situation.  Kudos to the military leaders on the ground and the brave citizens that are working towards a self-governing, democratic Iraq.

Iran.  Hmmm, if this situation wasn't complex enough, the leaders in this country seem to relish their ability to destabilize. 

I could keep going, but I won't.  It's time to stop, with just one other light by comparison leadership dilemma: Brett Favre.  As I'm writing this, my oldest son is listening to ESPN reporting on the Brett Favre saga.  Put yourself in the shoes of the Packer's GM, Ted Thompson, who has to decide whether to fire this remarkable Wisconsin (via Mississippi) hero or bring him back and let him play in spite of having moved on once Brett announced his retirement a few months ago. 

I do have some advice for Ted Thompson, and it is based on the track record of Jerry Krause, the former Chicago Bulls General Manager who once indicated that one of his major goals was to build a championship team without Michael Jordan.  How did that work out, Jerry?

The End of the Rave For Now:

Tough times and challenging circumstances provide outstanding opportunities for leaders at all levels to test their mettle and gain valuable experience.  There have been few times in recent history with this number of complex challenges staring at us in everything that we do.  As individuals, we cannot solve these issues alone, but we can hold our leaders from local politicians to congress and the next President accountable.  We can make good decisions with our finances, demand accountability from our elected officials and challenge the leaders in our businesses to do more than focus on the short-term.  We can support our troops even if we disagree with the policies, and we can cast our vote this November.  It's a great time for leaders everywhere to stand up and be counted.

The Art and Approach of Asking and Encouraging Great Questions

Learning how to ask compelling questions in a non-threatening manner is one of those unexciting but absolutely critical skills for an emerging leader to develop.  Questions are the leader's lifeblood of information, and like most skills, learning to ask great questions in the right manner is something best learned through repeated practice. 

I'm not certain if my perspective is widely shared by those that measure intelligence and assess people for leadership potential, but I place a premium on observing an individual's style and comfort in asking questions.  And while asking questions for clarification is a great habit, and something that every leader must encourage, the type of questions that I am looking for are those that I've not thought about before or that show that the individual is looking at a problem from different angles.  For lack of a better phrase, I will call these strategic questions.

Strategic questions tell me a lot about an individual's and a team's command of a complex topic.  When assessing new investments or new business directions, there will never be complete certainty for decision-making (and in fact, it may approach near-uncertainty).  In addition to understanding assumptions, I want to understand what it is that is not known...and what questions people wish they could answer with better clarity.  There is a great deal to learn in the unanswered questions as it relates to assessing risks and anticipating success or failure.

I've observed the questioning styles of many leaders, and some of them are...well, they are truly questionable.  These include: asking questions in rapid fire fashion, tagging on personal commentary and veiled insults, assuming a prosecutor-like pose where the receiver is certain that he or she is guilty of something, not waiting for an answer and many more.  Unfortunately, people learn from observing their leaders, and these bad habits and styles are passed on from generation to generation. 

The alternative is for you as the leader to develop and exhibit a positive style for asking questions and to reinforce this approach at every opportunity. 

Eight Suggestions for Developing Effective Questioning Skills (for you and your team):

• Manage your tone and your facial expressions.  Focus on being calm and thoughtful when asking questions and make certain that your face does not betray you.  Any hint of irritation or impatience in your voice and you've damaged the communications event.

• Ask open-ended questions and then be quiet until the answer is complete.  Sometimes it takes people a few seconds to form their thoughts or even to parse through your question to understand your request or intent.  Silence as the questioner is your best friend.

• Ask clarifying questions to the answers.  This is a great active-listening technique and shows the other party that you are working hard to pay attention.

• Summarize what you think you heard in the answer.  Another active-listening technique that allows the receiver a chance to clarify their answer.

• If someone offers "I need to think about it" as an answer, provide them that opportunity, but don't forget to close the loop.  Your willingness to not embarrass the individual into a spontaneous answer and your accountability in looping back for the follow-up will help strengthen your team's working environment. 

• Encourage people to ask you questions...and provide them opportunities to do just that.  This is not the "Any questions?" comment at the end of one of your meetings, but rather you creating opportunities for people to ask you compelling questions on key issues.  Of course, this only works more than once if people see that you are genuine.  Don't show irritation if you don't like the question or can't answer it, and don't judge the question.  The same rules apply for you..., you can think about a question, but make certain to loop back with an answer.

• Build on one person's questions in a group setting.  "Great question, Sarah.  Let's answer that one first and then I've got another that jumped to mind based on your question.."

• Encourage and reward intellectual curiosity that links to action.  Questions are great, and actions drive performance.  Turn great questions and subsequent ideas or directions into tangible actions as you pursue innovation or experimentation.  This will help fuel an innovation-oriented culture.

The Bottom-line for Now:

The right questions in the hands of a skilled practitioner yield new insights and new ideas.  It behooves you as a leader to develop your skill in this area, and it certainly behooves you to create a culture that encourages and rewards questions and ultimately actions.  We learn by asking, listening and doing, but it often starts with being smart enough to figure out the right questions.  Too many leaders are great talkers and lousy listeners.  How skillful are you at asking and learning from your own questions?

What to Do With a Lousy Boss

More often than not during a workshop, someone will raise their hand and ask, "All of this stuff about being a good leader is nice, but what do I do about my lousy boss?"  Being fairly fast on my feet, I resort to the facilitator's fail-safe of "asking the audience" before offering my own suggestions on this dicey issue.  Not surprisingly, there are few satisfying answers (that don't include jail-time for you as a possible outcome) to this dilemma shared by so many. 

Generally, the complaints fall into one of the following categories:

Doesn't support me

Offers plenty of criticism

Criticizes/berates in public

Contradicts himself/herself

Micromanages and then criticizes me for not making decisions

Takes credit and dispenses blame

Loves his ideas...won't listen to our suggestions

And so on...

The fact is that as the subordinate you don't have many good options unless you have grounds for complaint based on harassment, discrimination or other legal concerns.  For sake of discussion, let's limit the complaint list to the interactions and issues highlighted above.

What's An Emotionally Abused Employee to Do?

The responses back from other workshop participants fall into similar categories and reflect the limited number of options that the victimized employee truly has in this situation.  (My value-add in italics.)

Approach the manager and provide feedback on the disturbing behaviors.

I like this one, because it reflects that someone is thinking about applying the workshop content to a real situation.  Some well-intentioned managers are not aware of all of their bad habits, and the properly constructed feedback conversation can be a valuable coaching tip for the manager.  Less enlightened managers will respond with anger and/or retribution.  My advice...read the situation, read the manager and it might be worth a carefully constructed conversation to raise the topic.  If the manager views you as wanting to help him/her improve results/performance, you may pull this off.  If you start softly and the conversation quickly deteriorates, bail out.

Take your complaint(s) to HR

HR professionals everywhere may rankle, but I hate this suggestion.  Setting up HR to be the father and mother confessor and creating the expectation that HR can fix all of these issues is poor practice in my opinion.  I've worked with a few deft HR professionals that can help individuals and teams navigate this type of a situation, but they are in the minority. 

Leapfrog your boss

This is another risky proposition, and people employing it need to keep in mind that in a "he said/she said" debate between you and your boss, you lose. 

Approach the boss en masse

This, "safety in numbers" strategy has a high failure rate, because when push comes to shove everyone is more concerned about their job than trying to get the boss to change.  If you are leading this charge, be prepared to go it alone.

Transfer within the company

If you like and are committed to the organization, a transfer can be one way to potentially escape a lousy boss.  Follow your firm's posting rules, don't do anything behind your manager's back and hope that he/she doesn't make the process more difficult for you.  Also, if you apply for and don't get a job in another department, remember that you still have to work for the lousy boss. 

Leave the organization

This is often the path that good people take, and it certainly solves the immediate problem.  If you do not believe that you can escape the clutches of this lousy manager and if you are not committed to your organization for your near-future growth, exiting stage right is great.  However, look before you leap.  Choosing a job just to escape a boss is an emotionally charged situation that can have you making a bad and potentially career damaging choice.

The Bottom-line for Now:

I suspect like most of the workshop participants seeking wisdom from their peers, that you might leave this post feeling like you didn't find the answer you were looking for.  My polite rebuttal is that the easy answer you are seeking doesn't exist.  Most of us have worked for leaders that we've not respected and have probably tried some or all of the above approaches along with a "Wait and See" tactic.  Choosing your approach depends a lot upon your situation.  How badly do you need the job?  How comfortable are you in dealing with potential repercussions?  Is your organization's culture tolerant of aberrant leader behavior or are those types eventually flushed out and eliminated?

My guidance is to take personal stock of your situation, recognize the risks that you are taking in pursuing any line of action (or the psychic damage in doing nothing), prepare and act.  I offer polite, constructive feedback (I coach upwards) and if that doesn't work, transfer or leave.  Life is short and you should not let your career or your self-esteem be held hostage by some chuckle head of a leader.

Leader: What's Your Strategy for Managing Your 30 and 40-Somethings?

After too many conversations to count with talented individuals in their late thirties or early forties that are asking, "Is this it?" about their professional lives, I am compelled to offer some advice for their leaders.  I'll start with: "Wake Up and Pay Attention!"

Professionals in this age range are at a critical juncture in their careers.  They are experienced, hard working and confident in how to contribute.  They've made and learned from many of the mistakes of youth and they've begun to develop something so critical for organizational success: wisdom based on experience.  They've also generally decided what motivates them, what they like in a leader, the type of work that they are best at, and that life is too short to spend time in the wrong place or working for the wrong person. 

The common theme that I am hearing in my discussions with these talented and motivated professionals is frustration over the inability of their superiors to leverage their skills and experience.  It's not a whining theme...it's an "I am capable and experienced and want to be treated as such and contribute more" lament.  It is very different from the whining that many people engage in about the person that they work for. 

Comments include (paraphrased):

Instead of the challenges that we talked about when I interviewed, I jumped in to fill a gap in operations and now I can't get out of this mundane role.

The charisma of the CEO during the interview process is gone now that I'm an employee.  His general response to every idea or suggestion is anger.

They didn't need someone with my experience, they needed a college graduate or someone fresh out of the service that wouldn't know any better about constantly having orders barked at them. 

There's no reward in this work.

I've been doing the same basic things for 20 years...it's boring and I can't take it any more.

They need to decide if they are going to use me or they will lose me.

My life is racing past me but my career is stuck in futile mode.

I kept offering to help on the big issues and I was told I was overstepping my boundaries so I gave up.

And so on.

The Leader's Suggestion List for Managing 30 and 40-Somethings:

• Recognize and leverage the growing need of people in this age range to contribute at an increasing level.  Figure out how to do this and watch the accomplishment list grow.

• Design positions and assignments that are challenging and provide these professionals the latitude they need to succeed.

• I've noticed that after 15 years of working, many professionals develop a hunger for learning.  Feed this hunger through professional development and even better, feed the hunger and leverage the experience by asking these professionals to teach in the organization.

• Work on your self-awareness and emotional intelligence.  Frankly, you shouldn't treat anyone by typically responding with anger as was cited above, and especially don't treat experienced professionals like that and expect to keep them. 

• Provide opportunities for mid-career professionals to mentor younger employees.

• A few months after hiring an experienced professional, sit down and genuinely seek their input and perspectives on issues and improvements.  Let them take ownership of some of their ideas and drive the improvements.

• Use judo on the situation and let the individuals set their own stretch goals. 

• Tune in to an individual's mid-life career objectives and work together to develop a program that supports achievement of those objectives.

• Match mid-career professionals with both early-career and nearing retirement employees to collaborate on problem solving and project development.  The mixing of the generations is beneficial for all parties involved.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

As a leader, you cannot afford to allow the best, brightest and most-experienced employees to feel detached and unmotivated.  I suspect that more often than not, you as the leader have a hand in creating this problem, and you definitely can help solve it.  It's time to sit down, talk and most importantly, listen to what your thirty and forty-somethings have to say.  These are the leaders in your immediate future.  Don't come up short just when these talented professionals are ready to pay off. 

Teaching a Senior Team To Dance With Leadership Development

I am encouraged by the number and the quality of the discussions that I am having with top executives about "how" to create a more effective leadership development culture.  Moving beyond the "why" to the "how" is definitely progress in the right direction. 

There are a number of common themes and pain points that I hear and observe in organizations seeking to improve in this area:

• A recognition on the part of top management that realizing sustained growth over a period of time will require a consistent infusion of new talent, especially in leadership.

• The recognition that current ad hoc and silo approaches to leadership development have not worked, and in some cases have resulted in misfires, misplacements and damage to the business.

• Frustration on the part of the CEO over the lack of results on this topic from his or her senior leadership team.  (Note: this is often representative of a bigger communication, collaboration, team, trust issue than just leadership development.)

• Lack of clarity on how to get started on improving leadership development effectiveness.

My Suggestions: The First Eight Steps to Mastering the Leadership Development Dance:

1. Moving from poor to good or great at leadership development will take time and attention.  Be realistic in setting your expectations, as this is an evolutionary process.  If necessary, consider qualified outside counsel to help you structure your program and to help keep the team on track.

2. Leadership development is the CEO's priority...but everyone's job.  Identify leadership development as a strategic priority with your leadership team and develop your collective thoughts on this topic just as you would a potential new product development or a prospective acquisition.  It is imperative that the senior leadership team view this effort not as a task to be completed, but as an on-going process for all leaders at all levels.

3. Ensure that accountability for leadership development is spread across the leadership team...not just deposited in HR's lap. (Ram Charan, writing in Leaders at All Levels, suggests making HR the Trustee of leadership development, not the sole responsible party.  I like Ram's approach and his book is filled with great ideas for any leadership team moving down this path.) Accountability means ensuring that your senior leaders are aligned around leadership development objectives with clear performance metrics and compensation incentives.

4. Establish a baseline for current practices.  A good adviser will be able to help you identify and evaluate your current performance against key best practices.  The best practices are intuitive and focus on evaluating the existence and maturity of activities for identifying talent, providing developmental opportunities, evaluating progress and performance, delivering timely, candid feedback etc.  This baseline will help you monitor and reevaluate your organization's progress over time.

5. Establish your collective (not silo or functional) criteria for the type of leaders and the type of talent you expect to need in the future.  Easy to write...but a thought-provoking and challenging assignment.  Note: you will need to re-evaluate your criteria over time based on changing forces and strategies.

6. Based on your criteria, the leadership team will need to parse through all available talent to assess needs, gaps and the depth and breadth of the current talent pool.  Again, easy to describe, but a challenging task to complete.

7. Create developmental assignments for existing high-potential talent and begin the process of filling gaps through external recruiting.  Ensure that the senior leaders understand and act on their role as mentors, coaches and shepherds of the talent development process.

8. Constantly evaluate progress and performance and constantly reassess the performance of your high potential individuals.   You will need to redefine your criteria for evaluating progress based on how individuals perform in various roles, and you should definitely re-evaluate your talent pool based on the results.  A high potential at one level may struggle at another, and vice versa.

The Bottom-line for Now

With the intent of being redundant the steps above are easy to write and very challenging to implement.  There is no silver bullet for creating an effective leadership culture, but there is a straightforward formula: focus, time and discipline.  And of course, practice, practice and more practice.  How well does your senior team dance when it comes to leadership development?