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• Much of the stuff on your to be delegated to someone else list should simply go away. Don’t push your garbage to someone else on your team.
• Make sure everyone on your team understands the answers to these 3 questions:

1. What is our organization trying to accomplish?

2. What are the top 3 components of my role that best moves our organization to its goals?

3. What’s on my plate now that doesn’t have any effect on these top 3 components?

• Most people on your team will need help in knowing what to stop doing and pruning their activities. Schedule a meeting with your team members to review their top 10 tasks and bring out the hatchet.
• Sometimes the boss or owner is the biggest problem. People tend to “drop everything” when the owner speaks, your managers/owners may need some coaching on how they communicate their needs. (Yep, tread carefully…)
• Good employees are artists at keeping (or looking) busy. Pull the plug, chop the list, and refocus the bullseye.

The Employee Junk Drawer: Busy activities that seem to be important, often delegated by others, but simply cause drag to your organization.

In a perfect world:

• I know the goals and purpose of my organization
• I know my role and how it fits within my organization
• Based on the organization goals, I collaborate with my team to create my initiatives
• I identify the tasks, calendar scheduling, and priorities to carry out these initiatives
• While keeping these initiatives visible to myself, I execute my objectives
• These newly completed projects are made public to key stakeholders within my organization
• I’m updated with other initiatives completed by my team
• I realign with the goals and purpose of my organization and leadership and repeat the process

In the real world

• Organizations don’t have clear goals or a concrete vision of who they are and why they exist
• People are operating without a clear job description or clear measurable objectives of how they fit in the big picture
• Their team doesn’t have defined roles either, so people really focus only on what they do
• People fill their days with tasks that keep them busy and they feel as if they are productive
• People continue to react to the day to day demands and feel like they are doing a great job because of how busy they are
• When asked what was accomplished, managers don’t understand why “nothing is getting done” and why things take so long
• Edicts come down from management, people are frustrated and hate their jobs, organizations spin their wheels, there is no growth
• People realign with what perception they need to maintain to keep their jobs, get a paycheck, and wish they had other options

No matter what character you are in the story, as leaders, we must do better. We can lead up, lead down, lead across, and lead ourselves. How are you doing?

If I did this, I would have a completely different look on my face.

There are times when our roles may shift at work… If done too early or without the right process, you or people on your team can end up in this position…

Have you ever felt this way at your organization? Here are some observations of doing the “splits” at work:

• If you begin doing a role at work before you have any authority to do the role, you may feel some pain for taking it on too early.
• You can fake it for only so long… this guy has a determined look on his face now… I’d like to see him in an hour…
• With growth comes change. With change comes some pain.
• Not everyone can do the splits at your organization, there comes a need to have people that are flexible for a short period of time.
• Leaders, managers… are you doing this to anyone on your team? If so, don’t leave them “exposed” too long.
• Are you doing the splits currently? It’s better to have a conversation with the decision maker(s) and manage one post well than to drown trying to hold on to both…
• Clarity is important as roles shift- those impacted need to understand the changes and what adjustments they may need to make.
• Leaders, when you have done all the analysis of the changes, commit to it, support it, and keep casting the vision to your team. When you’re the one doing the “splits”, it just confuses your people and well, let’s just say you don’t look like this guy…
• Have both feet in with change, don’t keep one foot in the past.

Brad Anderson, Vice-Chairman/CEO Best Buy

“An Uncompromising Focus on People”

• He worked in one of the stores for 2 days last year- he’s willing to get on the front lines
• At one point, they told employees what to do and told stores how to operate- they hoped they were actually doing it-
• Feedback, 11-12 questions, twice a year from employees- they’re able to measure engagement level- typically this produces a direct correlation to store sales and profitability…
• How do you increase engagement? Leaders are needed to raise the engagement levels of their team/employees for the store to increase profitability/sales-
• People are looking for affirmation of themselves- True leaders get a true, higher level of achievement by seeing others grow/succeed than out of their own personal success….
• Human capital- Are we building people or destroying people? It’s one or the other-
• Geek Squad- They took the stereotype over-the-top… they knew, “Yeah, we’re nerdy..but you need us…” They brought in their own culture into Best Buy…
• Much of what he does is simply working on the relationships within the company and with clients- he gets complex puzzles- (human beings) scheduled every day- So much of what he does it building into the people around him, handling their needs, pains, frustrations…
• He sees problems/issues in the eyes of his leaders usually well before it starts hitting the bottom line…. He tries to spend his time with the people with the biggest need/impact.
• 85% of his time is leading down, 15% up (to the board)…. self admitted problem…
• Many times there aren’t “villians” in the problems at hand…it’s simply driven by the realities in the work at hand…
• To motivate: How are they “coding” what they’re doing- helping them find the motivation with the reminder of the “why” behind what they’re doing….
• Financial incentives work to an extent but they are “thin”, they’re not complete…
• ROWE- Result Oriented Work Environment…. You get the work done, you can have the flexibility you want…. currently, they’re seeing better results from those who have more freedom-
• He feels he can share faith when given “permission” with employees/colleagues-

Thoughts:

• How often do we work so hard to be cool when we’d progress much better being the unique geek we really are?
• How difficult it seems to balance how to share faith in the position of leadership like Brad’s and trying to measure and listen to the Holy Spirit-

Since the inception of the technology firm I’m part of, we’ve experienced an amazing 35% growth year over year. As the company continues to expand, maintaining that type of growth clip is going to be an increasing challenge with several dynamics at play. While the future is always an unknown, I hope to be able to capture the progress of our growth at our current number of 50 employees (actually 54 as we just brought on four more developers over the past few weeks) to 100 employees. It would be great to hear your stories and comments of similar challenges you face in your companies and organizations as we press in together….

Some key challenges as I see them today:

• As the project manager (and also involved in some operations), my drive has been to raise the bar in our customer experience and processes within our projects and company. Our ability to continue to improve in this area while growing with new people will be an interesting dynamic.
• Currently we have three Sr. Managers each overseeing one of our 3 groups (ERP, Developement, and IT). They are extremely gifted technology gurus who will have to learn to grow into more management function or reshape the structure of their teams. (Either shift from be a do-er to a leader or find some alternatives). This goes for me too, I need to be preparing for what 100 team members looks like…
• Our internal processes for leveraging information (task coordination, emails, budgets, scope, proposals, etc…) need to make critical improvements. Implementing and syncing the functionality of SharePoint, MS CRM 4.0, and Outlook with other tools will be essential. Gaps in communication will only grow without continual tightening of our systems…
• Outside leaders are going to have to be able to succeed and assimilate into our group. We’ll be able to pull some up from within our team, however, most are talented “do-ers” that should stay exactly where they’re at…already adding huge value…
• Management is going to have to look at the number of direct reports they currently have- typically 6-8 is the max- currently we’re exceeding this in all three groups…
• Without acquisition, finding top calibur talent to come to South Bend/Elkhart, Indiana will continue to be a hurdle. We may need to stretch our boundaries and be creative with work locations, mobility, and communications to bring on new team members…
• We will need to have a plan to help each individual grow in their expertise’, feel connected to the team, know how what they do makes a difference, and that they matter and are cared for…
• Our service needs to be at a level that’s remarkable… something worth talking about as Seth Godin would say….

I love this team. I look forward to this run. While I’ll be limited in some of what I can share, I hope to be able to report the core of the experience along the way… stay tuned….

Today I picked up a penny that was on the ground. It made me wonder, is it really even worth it? It takes a moment to notice the penny…then, I have to process the thought of whether I should pick up the coin… I wonder, “do I look like a dork picking up a penny? ” Finally, I think, who’s filming me picking this thing up later to be shown on You Tube as the dude who will actually pick up a penny?… It’s a Ben Stiller moment to slyly act like you’re tying your shoe when you’re actually picking the penny off the ground. If it takes me 6 seconds to finally pick the penny up, I’m paying myself a whopping $6 per hour to pick up the Lincoln-laden coin…

At $6 an hour….maybe it’s simply best to leave the penny on the ground…

What’s your time worth? What penny-picking up activities are in your workday or your ministry?

• Over a 4-day period I averaged 29 emails “sent”… at 5 minutes an email, it’s 2 hours and 25 minutes out of an 8 hour workday….
• If I’m not saving, creating, or preserving revenue in our business, am I picking up pennies?
• If I’m not doing only what I can do, I’m probably collecting pennies.
• When’s the last time you measured some of your regular activities to understand the cost is it to your organization or team?
• What job, hobby, or habit are you stuck in that is paying you pennies?

What you do needs to makes cents. The next time I see a penny on the ground, I hope I can delegate it to one of my kids or I have the focus to leave it on the ground.

My core role in my day to day job is project management- over the years from the construction industry and now in technology, I filter and measure our performance based on four pillars/criteria:

Budget:

• Is the budget on track?
• Are we experiencing any changes in the scope of work that need to be added to the budget?
• Is the client comfortable with our progress and billing?

Timeline:

• Are we going to be on time with our original targets?
• What critical items could affect the timeline, are these clearly established with the team?
• Is the client comfortable with our current timeline and plan?

Quality/Scope of Work:

• Are we addressing our clients “pain points” with quality direction and solutions?
• Have we eliminated any “grey area” out of the project scope- are there any items that need to be addressed?
• Have we identified any items that are potential problems? Is there anything that needs to be presented to the client for positive alternatives?

Create a Fan/Communication (most critical):

• Is this client/will this client be a fan of ours when this project is complete?
• Will they talk about us, recommend us to others?
• Are we “wowing” them? Are we communicating the “wins” and the elimination of the “pain points” throughout the project?
• Are we communicating well throughout the project and building into our long-term relationship?

There are several other bullets that could be added under each of these four items- these are simply a start. Taking the time to run these through my head with any given project and with our team has served me well over the years…. what about you?

OK… I’m a geek, but this is how I roll…

After being gone from vacation, it took me a few days to get my feet under me again and I felt overwhelmed by the volume of emails, tasks, and unknowns in my to-do list. After spinning for a few days, I decided to map out some time chunks of the most important items in that day.

I have a lot questions asked of me throughout the day, meetings, quick emails that need responses that currently are simply part of my job. However, my “task work” would start piling up and when I’m not getting enough sleep, I feel buried and very little gets done. I took a stab at my typical day, I guessed I had four hours a day for the most important tasks I had to get done and listed them in 15 min chunks:

Example:

Update Vision/Technology Plan for ARI 30 min

Project Meeting and Update to ABC Inc 15 min

Get initial notes together for Fri Conf call 30 min

Follow up on billing issues with DEF Inc. 15 min

Update and send Sr Manager Update 30 min

Work on 12-month Communication plan 45 min

Review Proposal for Billy Bob Hot Dogs 15 min

Update Vision/Tech plan for Badabing 30 min

Update Help Desk next steps and goals 30 min

Throughout the day I crossed these off as the emails and conversations would take place as time clipped away… Over the last four days, I averaged just over 3 hours of real task time per day actually completed, my email total went down 40%, and I feel more on top on my duties than ever over the past few months… Measuring what I actually do helps me plan for what I actually want to get done…

What works for you?

The Three Signs of a Miserable Job by Patrick Lencioni

I need books like this for great reminders of how to keep it simple. Have you experienced or are you experiencing any of these 3 things in your workplace?

Anonymity: Do you feel like your manager doesn’t know squat about you? Your co-workers? If you feel like a number or no one cares anything beyond what you get done at work…. you might be miserable.

Irrelevant: Do you feel like you’re simply digging holes and filling them up again? Is what you’re doing making a difference? Who are you impacting? Do you have “Office Space” moments on a regular basis? If you don’t understand who, how, and what you’re doing that is making an impact, easing a load, etc… you too might be miserable.

Immeasurable: Do you know what success looks like in your position? Do you know when you’re knocking the ball out of the park or is it simply “subjective” to your boss or manager? Working for extended periods of time and not knowing if you’re winning or not can be extremely unsettling… Are you measured? How?

Here were a few quick takaways from this easy-to-read, quickie:

• I want to genuinely get to know my team, not in a lame, fake way- but truly listen and do life with my team- for many of our consultants, it’s as if they’re self-employed… they do there work (remote many days) log their time and roll-up billing…. But what do we really know about their families, hobbies, or other interests or beliefs?
• I guess I’ve missed this, but the way that people help “me”, take the load off, etc.. can be expressed better than a simple “thank you”. Telling my team “how” they are actually making it easier for me to do my job and impact my life actually brings some relevance to what they do. Every day I want to find ways to remind people how they’re making an impact either for me directly or for our company/team…
• Generally our consultants are easily measured in billable time and sales is measured by specific targets. However, our admin team, customer service manager, and myself aren’t measured as well. This will be a good topic of discussion for our management team to brainstorm about… How do you measure success for your admin team? I’d love to hear some ideas…

As a manager, these three nuggets are easy and actionable to keep in front of us- If you’re not a manager and simply find your job miserable, think of the reverse of these three items… can you engage with people on your team to get to know them? Can you find ways your position makes an impact and how you can measure yourself? If you have a poor manager, sometimes taking control of what you can control can make a difference in your own perspectives…

For those of you dealing with strategic thinking, brainstorming, project planning, etc.. this is a quick 10 minute braindump I did on questions that came to mind when I was asked- it’s a little rough and in no particular order- but maybe it is helpful- any that you would add?

1. What are we trying to accomplish? What’s the problem/un-met need?

2. Who are we doing this for? Do they really care about what we’re setting out to do? Is there really a customer base for this? Is it a large enough need that justifies our investment of time, money, people?

3. Is this realistic, can this actually work, or is it “idealistic”, looks good on paper but people won’t respond to this or it just isn’t practical?

4. Who on our team will be needed? Are they excited about it? What will they have to let go to take this on?

5. What additional resources/people/staff will we need to make this happen? Is the implementation team set?

6. Who is running point? At the end of the day, someone has to drive this and make the calls- who is it? Do they understand the target objectives, are they energized by it?

7. How will we measure success, what are the benchmarks along the way to know we’re on track or need to change course?

8. Can we “test” our strategy in any way before launching fully into the plan?

9. What are the unknowns? Do we know what we don’t know?

10. What other support will be needed/leveraged from the company/ministry? (Communications, marketing, legal, sales)

11. Has a timeline been established with tasks for each phase of the timeline? Who is the point person running the task/project management…. is that person in place to have specific deliverable steps identified, scheduled, executed, tested, and approved?

12. What are potential curve balls, deal-breakers to watch for? What are the IF this, THEN that scenarios to be aware of… initial Plan A’s or Plan B’s?

13. How long can we financially afford to carry out this plan? What is the payback?

14. What are the quality objectives? Is the standard of excellence being met? How will we know?

15. How will we measure our customer’s response? What is the win? What adds value? What could/will that look like? Are we creating fans?

16. Is everyone on the team aware of their specific roles, priorities, timelines, and who they need to be communicating with?