Better Management

Lessons I’ve Learned: The Management Recipe

~ Mike Schwiebert ~ Leave a comment

To be effective over the long haul, you must fill your tank and fuel your passions. Overload and burnout are always waiting. Some of my long distance mentors are Jack Welch and Mark Horstman and Mike Auzenne.
I am a strong proponent of Jack Welch’s core principles: being a winning organization, mission and vision, candor, differentiation, and voice and dignity. In his books and now discontinued podcast, he offers specific guidance on how to instill these attributes in your team.
I can camp out on philosophy, but management is about execution, not ideas.
I am a strong proponent of Mark and Mike’s Manager Tools podcast for practical, actionable advice: How to run a staff meeting, How to coach a direct report, How to write a thank you note, etc.
Get a coach (even through a book or podcast) and establish core principles (even if you borrow them from Jack Welch) that you can filter ideas and situations through.

Candor is mission critical. Pay attention to your temperature. If you are upset over an issue or person, then you need to have the difficult conversation. The best ideas flow out of a culture of candor. When we can challenge each other, and aggressively pursue good ideas, we are giving ourselves the opportunity to be effective.

Even though teams can be a great tool, we manage people not teams. Management repositions you from the realm of task efficiency to organizational effectiveness. Management is leveraging the hours and strengths of your people to accomplish a set goal. The best way to do that is through relationships. This is where the Managers Tool’s Trinity (one on ones or O3’s, coaching, and feedback) is practical and useful. My experience has proven Mike and Mark’s advice that O3’s are the most effective tool a manager has. O3’s help you build relationships and keep your fingers on the pulse of your department. More often than not, the O3 helps me provide what my direct reports need and helps me remove any roadblocks that are slowing them down. It’s not them serving me, but me supporting them. You cannot do that well if you don’t know what’s going on.

Understanding we manage people and not teams underscores the need for differentiation. If someone is struggling (or doing well), they should know that you know. Differentiation also applies to the things we do and not just our people. Keep your eye on the prize. If something does not add value, put your effort somewhere else, with your strongest assets–people and time–where it matters most. Although value takes different forms, value is not money, but Kingdom building.

Make an effort to build bridges with others. Have concrete plans that put something on the calendar–whether it is lunch or a quick face-to-face office meeting. Building a bridge is not a thought you have, but a thing you do. To be successful, you need a lot of bridges. They don’t build themselves.

Don’t forget that you are also the lead marketer for your team. Protect your team’s reputation. This isn’t about shaving the truth. This is about managing the perception of others. You influence that. How you say what you say to others, and when you say it, is key. If someone’s behavior is hurting the team, call them to account and explain the unintended effects and expect a change.

Management is like baking a cake. You follow the recipe and you get specific results. It is not an art that few possess. It is a skill with definable actions. Do them, and work hard at it, and you will achieve great results.

Lessons I’ve Learned: Get Organized

~ Mike Schwiebert ~ 2 Comments

“You can fool everyone else, but you can’t fool your own mind.” David Allen

Next to ownership, the most important job a knowledge worker does is organization. I thought I was good at managing my to do list until I had a huge annual conference added to my plate. I needed help. I was struggling to remember all of my commitments. As one of my favorite proverbs goes, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

My teacher was David Allen and the GTD (Getting Things Done) system. I was listening to the 43 folders podcast by Merlin Mann and he interviewed David Allen about GTD. It had such a profound affect on me, I still remember where I was: my wife, Rose, was shopping at a bead and jewelry expo in San Antonio and I was pacing around the parking lot, smoking my pipe, devouring the podcasts. (It’s a good memory!)

GTD is a systematic process of capturing all of the variety of things you need to do (from other people and your own ideas), making a decision about what those things mean to you, planning how you are going to accomplish them, and reviewing everything until it is done. David calls these steps: collect, process, organize, review, do.

Here are some of my favorite ideas from GTD I’ve come to think of as my own:

  1. Your mind is great for creative brainstorming and generating ideas. Your mind is like a drunken uncle when it comes to remembering those ideas. Free your mind and write ideas down so you don’t have to remember them.
  2. Almost everything you do is a project (most tasks are actually a series of tasks). Outcome based thinking will help you be more productive. Defining the finished project will help you figure out the details that get you there. No one can do a “project”, you can only do smaller tasks that lead to the outcome you defined.
  3. Dividing your work by contexts removes stress. A context is a noun–a person, place, or thing. At work is not the place to think about something I have to discuss with my wife, just like driving in the car is the wrong time to think about the phone calls I have to make. That is how our minds work, but putting those tasks into the proper context, and following through, trains your mind to stop obsessing at the wrong time and place and trust the system.

Although it is common sense, GTD breaks down the barrier between what you know you should do and what you are actually doing. Like any skill, it takes discipline. It is easy to fall off the wagon, but it is easy to get back up and keep going, too.

It can be helpful for everyone on your team to have the same system, but it is not necessary. You need a system to keep track of all of your commitments. You cannot be successful if you are not executing your responsibilities. To do that well, you must be organized.

Here is a short summary of GTD by David Allen with some helpful links on the side.

Here is the Productive Talk Compilation podcast with Merlin Mann and David Allen.

Lessons I’ve Learned: Take Ownership

~ Mike Schwiebert ~ 1 Comment

If you could design the perfect environment for you to work in, what would it look like?

This isn’t really a hypothetical question if you are in any kind of leadership position. I believe one of the most important attributes of success is taking ownership. I know it may sound selfish, but I think it is the core of leadership–you have to take ownership. It is a privilege but also a responsibility.

I like the idea of working at a place where we really work, but also have fun.
I like controlling my work load and the flow of work. I hate surprises, so I make preparation a priority.
I like a clean and clutter free environment.
I like good communication and, if we have to have them, purposeful meetings.
I want everyone to have a voice and dignity and a seat at the table.

I don’t always get even my own preferences right, but I know instinctively when something’s wrong.

Lee Cockerel, in his excellent book, Creating Magic, makes the point that management competence is about control. He illustrates this with the relatable example of a restaurant where the manager is present but not in control (We’ve all been there and it isn’t a good experience).

I know the “control” word is not en vogue. Too bad. If you want to sit in the big chair it comes with responsibility. Your task is to not only define reality, but own it. I’m not talking about controlling people, but understanding that things are the way they are because of your decisions.

Taking ownership is something you do on purpose.

If you are a technical director, create the kind of team where you would volunteer.
If you are a Pastor, create a church that you would attend.
If you own a restaurant, create a place where you would spend your hard earned money. It doesn’t matter if that is an upscale place with live chamber music or a karaoke bar. What matters is that it is your place.

If you are in leadership, push for your stamp, your style, your preferences.

Complementary Teams: Introverts and Extroverts

~ Mike Schwiebert ~ 2 Comments

The Situation

The extroverted worship leader (WL) is running late. Although he is personally frustrated at all the stuff he is juggling, he’s not too worried about it because he is good friends with the technical director (TD) and the rest of the team.  After all, friends give each other the benefit of the doubt. The day has been horrible and he’s actually looking forward to practice and the comfort of the team and the environment. He comes into practice happy that the mess is behind him and ready to be with his friends. Probably someone will ask him if everything is OK and he’ll have to tell them the story.

The introverted Technical Director is frustrated. Promptness is a sub rule under the major rule grouping titled Respect. Relationships only work when people obey the rules. If the WL keeps breaking these rules, he is proving to the TD that they really are not friends. He is grumpy and feels abused. He even arrived early to make sure everything was ready since he was having a bad day but dutifully doing his part. That ship has sailed. If being late isn’t bad enough, now the whole team is on the stage talking and laughing. Ugh!

By coming into practice happy, the WL’s behavior is opposite of what the TD expected (where’s the apology?).
By being sullen, the TD’s behavior is opposite of what the WL expected (why the attitude?).

My Perspective

Our personalities shape everything we do. I find it a fascinating subject.

I’ve been chewing on an idea I have about the differences between introverts and extroverts. There’s no way to succinctly talk about this without making some sweeping generalities. Forgive me.

I think introverts have a highly developed, internal set of life rules by which they judge the outside world. If something or someone breaks those rules, the introvert rejects that thing or person, not their rules. Their rules are a safe refuge and the circumstances of life swirl around them.

Extroverts, however, seem to judge themselves by their external stimulus. They don’t seem to develop intrinsic rules, but live in a fluid relationship with their world. Inherent in the external world are rules that they observe and measure themselves against. Those external rules are dangerous. The extrovert swirls around things and people looking for a place to anchor and define themselves.

In a nutshell, this:

  • Introverts stand inside the rules they curate, looking out with judgement.
  • Extroverts stand outside the rules they observe, looking in for validation.

Tech people are often introverts that fall into this description, and worship leaders can be extroverts with this behavior.

This relationship to rules is why the stereotypes of the introvert as the grumpy and angry loner, and the extrovert as the wishy-washy people pleaser, each have a kernel of truth. After all, a stereotype, like a joke, only works if there is a seed of truth present.

Both are adapting themselves to their rules, just one is basing it on their internal world and one on their external world. Interesting, right?

What’s the take away?

Within these differences lie the opportunity for a very powerful team dynamic. Perhaps the most powerful team dynamic. That is why I am excited about this challenge. At the core level of who we are, introverts and extroverts have a God-given uniqueness that allows His glory to be manifested for the betterment of the whole.

How have you seen this team dynamic working well? Any examples?