Employee RecognitionWednesday, May 31, 2006Have you ever been in a meeting where managers try to tackle the issue of employee recognition? About five minutes into the discussion I always come to the same conclusion. Managers do not really understand their employees. Managers, in general do not understand people. As a manager I must look at recognition from an employee's perspective. Since I am an employee as well, why shouldn?t I consider what recognition means to me? If I can understand my own need for recognition, then maybe I will have a chance at giving someone else in the organization meaningful recognition. What do I like? I like financial recognition. When it comes to business, time is money. If I really make a difference to the profitability of the company, I want to share in the financial success ? personally. I like to be recognized as someone who is committed to a mission and does what it takes (within reason) to accomplish goals. I like to know that I am appreciated. I like to feel like I am making a difference every day. I like when my strengths are being utilized. There is nothing unique about how I like to be recognized. Not all people are the same and so the list may vary. However, the list is based on fundamental needs that people have. If we recognize people, don?t we recognize employees? There is nothing artificial about people?s needs. They are real. Why do we try so hard to develop the right recognition program and often fail? Are we really willing to recognize people? posted at 5/31/2006 07:40:00 AM | 5 comments links to this post |
Find Opportunities Despite The StormsSunday, May 28, 2006 It is Memorial Day Weekend and the thunder is rolling in the distance. I was planning on taking the kids to the pool after church and just relaxing. The first crack of lightning reduced the chances that we will be floating on a raft by an order of magnitude. Thunderstorms are popping up all over our county and it is just a little after 12:00.My youngest son began prattling on about how God didn't want us to have a good day, because he made it rain. What an interesting perspective for a seven year old. His assumption was that things were not turning out as he had planned and he was not supposed to have a good day. I told him that God didn't make it rain to ruin his day. How many times do we buy into this kind of thinking? Things in your business are not going as well as you planned this week and so you are questioning if you are in the right business. You did not accomplish a goal you set, so you start questioning if it was valid. Something happens to change our plans, and we are faced with one of two decisions. You can soak in the disappointment assuming you have missed a great opportunity or... You can do what my son just did. He put on his swimming trunks, blew up his inner tube and yelled down the stairs to let me know the sun was back out and we all could go swimming now. He quickly recovered from the disappointment of the moment and cranked up his optimistic engine. He sees a new opportunity quickly. I see the sun, but I still hear the thunder in the distance... posted at 5/28/2006 12:40:00 PM | 6 comments links to this post |
Encouragement?Thursday, May 25, 2006I saw a sign in front of a church on the way home from work today. It read: Hard Habit to Break? Drop It. Wow! How encouraging. First of all, if you are wrestling with a hard habit, rarely can you just get rid of it. Poof! If we all believe that it takes 21 days for something new to become a habit, then why should we believe that it would take any less to get rid of a bad habit. Despite the shallowness of the message, I thought of some examples to test it. Here are some examples: Procrastination - Just Stop Ineffective Time Management - Become a Good Time Manager Always Late - Just be on Time Can't Multi-task - Start Multi-tasking I am not sure what these people are trying to tell us. It seems a bit self-righteous to me. I have to share David Maister's latest post over on his excellent blog. If you have never visited David?s blog, you need to get over there and absorb what this guy has say. The Disproportionality Principle Tomorrow starts the Memorial Day Weekend. Take some time off and leave your work at work. trackback/permalink: http://www.beatyourowndrum.com/ career/2006/05/encouragement.html posted at 5/25/2006 07:14:00 PM | 3 comments links to this post |
The Cost of MeetingsTuesday, May 23, 2006There are classes, courses, seminars, and books that teach us how to run an effective meeting. I know people who can run a great meeting. The agenda is distributed and the facilitator keeps the group focused, free of costly tangents. They have perfected the art, but they really like to schedule meetings. They like to schedule many meetings. Communication is important! There are group meetings and sub-group meetings. There are domain meetings and technical meetings to help support the overall group meetings and ultimately the project. Most participants are in a sub-group and a group meeting. Someone can be in a sub-group to support the project technically. Someone else can be in a domain sub-group because they have the business knowledge. If someone has both domain and technical knowledge, they are really lucky. They qualify to be an attendee in the group meeting, the technical sub-group meeting and the domain sub-group meeting. Often they will participate in informal meetings spawned from one of the sub-group meetings. What about the person who participates in several projects? They could have domain knowledge in each project. If they are technically savvy they can attend group, domain sub-group and technical sub-group meetings for each project. Sound familiar? Now try to figure out the cost of all of the meetings for just one project. Should we not consider what the ROI is for a meeting? Isn't it a part of the overall ROI of the project? I think most companies never consider the cost of all these meetings. Who would figure this out? Would it be the project manager? The analyst who did the ROI? How much do meetings cost, even if they are well run? posted at 5/23/2006 09:11:00 PM | 1 comments links to this post |
Not Going To Pay OvertimeSunday, May 21, 2006My faithful readers know that I was in San Francisco this past week. I attended a software conference and as usual, I learned more about human nature and people than software development. I am a people watcher. As a manager you need to be a people watcher. There seemed to be an underlying issue for me at the conference - customer service. Roughly 15,000 software geeks descended upon the conference center, including moi. There is a phenomenon in the software industry that has been seemingly immutable over time. The ratio between men and women software developers is not balanced. I would venture to say that 90% of the attendees at this conference were men. There was a bash the last full evening of the conference and an "all-girl" band was brought in as part of the entertainment. This group was billed as an "ACDC tribute band." Hmmm... Needless to say, it is not easy controlling a large crowd of testosteronic software developers. The conference center really did a great job of crowd control. Moving thousands of people throughout the complex was no trivial task. They had an army of people stationed at every turn to keep us moving in the right direction. They were all very friendly and courteous - well most of the time. The men and women who had the formidable task of ensuring the 15,000 attendees could get to lunch everyday were well trained. They had it down to a science. However, science and customer service do not always mix very well. Lunch was served from 11:00 until 1:00. There were technical sessions going on during this time as well. That kept them from being hit with the full force of hungry men (and a few women). Around 12:55 on Tuesday, I got a call on my cell phone from one of the developers in our group. He told me that I better head towards the lunch hall. "They are giving 'last call' for lunch" he said. "I got into the hall, but they are starting to yell at people and telling them that lunch is over." I was hungry. I immediately ran towards the lunch hall and saw my colleague standing there. "They are not letting anyone in." he said. I looked at the time and saw that it was indeed 1:01. As we started to move towards the door that led to the huge lunch hall, we were accosted by one of the members of the crowd police. "Lunch is over" she said abruptly. There was no expression on her face. The guy beside me pleaded with her "It is only one minute after 1:00." I smiled. "Sorry lunch is over, we are closed" she snapped. Lunch was over and so was their shift. Ahhh. I figured out why things became so militant. There was not going to be one cent of overtime paid and they knew it. When the clock struck one, they shed their cordial hospitality and replaced it with cold and even somewhat nasty behavior. They started to yell at those they were serving so pleasantly and professionally just seconds before. I certainly understood that they had to stop lunch at the designated time. There were too many of us to bend the rules. Management was well trained at getting the lunch staff off of the clock before overtime would kick in. The problem I had with the experience was that there was no transitional time figured into the equation. Within seconds there was not even the appearance of genuine customer service. The end result - the final perception of their service was not favorable. Actually I was quite annoyed. I have a great appreciation for controlling costs. I also think managing perception is critical to your ability to be successful at anything in life. It almost appeared as if these people were trained to turn on the crowd like a nasty dog when their "time" was up. I shook my head as I watched and then turned towards the exit of the conference center. The two of us headed down the road to Mel's Diner and had an excellent lunch. We were both glad that we missed "last call." posted at 5/21/2006 08:00:00 AM | 5 comments links to this post |
Customer Service?Saturday, May 20, 2006It is calm in the blogosphere, though. After spending the last five days at a software conference, I am glad to be heading home. Even though I love to travel, I am still a homebody. Nothing like being with your wife and kids - nothing. I am sitting here reflecting on the past week. For some reason I always remember the funny experiences. Perhaps it is because a software conference filled with 15,000 geeks is fertile ground for the ridiculous. As software professionals, we develop in languages that computers understand. We also speak to each other in another technically driven language. When I arrived at the convention center, I needed to find the alumni lounge. This is a room that is set up for those of us geeky enough to have attended more than one of the eleven conferences held over the years. I was riding up the escalator and saw a booth as I reached the top.Information Booth "Sure, honey," she said. "It is in room 300." I guess it wasn't obvious to her that I was a visitor to the convention hall and didn't have the million square feet of conference space exactly mapped out in my mind yet. It was the first bloody day of the conference! "Where is room 300?" I asked slightly annoyed. She reached for the map and started to scowl a bit. She looked up at me and pointed to the map. "Here, can you find it? I don't have my glasses on and I can?t read the map." As I started to study this convoluted graphical representation of the convention hall, it struck me. Why didn't she have her glasses on? She is working at the main information booth and can't even read the map. I did not share with her the thoughts that were going through my mind as I tried to find Room 300. After I found the room and figured out how to get there (without her assistance mind you), I politely thanked her with a smirk firmly planted on my face. I could not help it. I wear contacts. posted at 5/20/2006 08:00:00 AM | 0 comments links to this post |
The Future of American Education is Failure Part IIIThursday, May 18, 2006Denial is rampant. It is not surprising that 33 states are in denial and say they have quality teachers. These states say that 90-99 percent of their classes have "highly qualified" teachers. The lowest range is around 70% in the remaining more self-aware states. Scott Palmer, a consultant for the Council of Chief State School Officers was quoted as saying "I know the states have made great efforts in trying to meet all the prongs of the highly qualified teacher requirement, I've got to believe there are some that are very close." Why? This guy must think we are all idiots. The failure of educational system makes this an overwhelming if not an impossible task. When are we going to wake up as a country and face the fact that we have a system that does not work and never will? Businesses fail when their basic model is flawed. They are forced out of business because they are not making money. If we looked at the educational system as a business, it should have declared bankruptcy within the first year. Study the history of education in this country and you will find that it has been an experiment that has been failing since its inception. The business model is flawed. Trying to fix a system that has never been really successful seems incredibly stupid to me. The bottom-line is simple. The less educated we get, the worse our workforce becomes. As our workforce gets worse we lose our competitive edge. Our workforce is degrading; just take a look around your office. It is harder to find qualified workers than it was just ten years ago. I work in a profession that is rated one of the top five. Bill Gates didn't fight for bringing people into the workforce from other countries because we had a shortage of American workers. He realized, like most top CEOs in this country, that we have a shortage of qualified American workers. Sound familiar? Why do we have a shortage of qualified workers? Why do we have a shortage of qualified teachers? Hmmm. Several years ago I read something that really concerned me. The number one concern CEOs had about their businesses was the lack of a "quality workforce." This problem has not been quite as acute recently because of the tech fallout. Focus has been on getting businesses healthier financially. I was reading on the plane on Sunday as I headed to San Francisco for a conference. I read an article in Business 2.0 about The Next Job Boom. The magazine cover headlines read "New Studies Say Everyone's Out Looking" and "The Latest Data Says Everyone's Hiring." Hype, hype, hype. Ughhh... On page 88 of this month's issue the author of the article attempted to tell me what workers and their bosses needed to know. If there is such a boom coming, where am I going to find the qualified workers? posted at 5/18/2006 08:00:00 AM | 0 comments links to this post |
The Future of American Education is Failure Part IIWednesday, May 17, 2006If you did not get to read Part 1, go read it now. The Future of American Education is Failure Part I. I am comforted to hear that federal aid will be pulled from the states that could not even comply on such a basic level. This is not good for the students that live in these states and parents, you should be concerned. There are alternatives. For instance, a parent can home school their children in every state with varying degrees of federal inference. This is not an article about home schooling, so I will move on. My state is not on the list of noncompliant states, yet my state ranks very low in quality of education when compared to all of the other states. It makes me wonder how some of these states rank higher than my state if they cannot even explain how they are going to ensure that their students will get teachers that can teach. Let's be honest. Of the teachers that the federal government deems as "qualified", some percentage of them are not qualified to teach regardless. A piece of paper and four years in one of our higher learning institutions does not guarantee the state that they have qualified teachers. Don?t get me wrong. There are many very good teachers that are more than "qualified." I chose to change careers early because I lacked the passion to teach primarily because of the limited salary potential. I had no business teaching children. Why? I was not willing to give it my all and I knew it. If you live in Alaska, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Washington, or the District of Columbia, your state could not figure out how to ensure that your kids will get qualified teachers. You are getting less federal aid as well. Henry Johnson, the Assistant Secretary over elementary and secondary education would not give specifics, but did say "In some cases, we?re talking about large amounts of money." He also commented on the results so far. "At some point there was, I suspect, a little bit of notion that 'This too shall pass.' Well, the day of reckoning is here, and it's not going to pass." Washington is getting tough? These states did not report accurate or complete data about the quality of their teachers. The No Child Left Behind law requires that a teacher must have a bachelors degree, a state license and proven competency in every subject they teach. These subjects are math, history and any other core classes. 29 states have made what the Department of Education calls substantial progress and will not lose funding. Yet these states are not close to a solution. Twelve other states are still under review. So if you live in Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin you have no verdict yet. Your federal aid may be becoming substantially less. So let?s do the math. 10 + 29 + 12 = 51 (including the District of Columbia). This report accounts for all states. 20% are in trouble. 24% do not know their fate. 56% are improving. Am I the only one who finds this totally disturbing? All states must submit a new plan of action. That is just a plan on how they will try to tackle the issue. We are far away from solving the core of the problem. Look for my final installment on this crisis tomorrow. posted at 5/17/2006 08:00:00 AM | 2 comments links to this post |
The Future of American Education is Failure Part ITuesday, May 16, 2006This is not a politically correct statement. It is not intended to be. My hope is that parents will become more educated about how their kids are being educated. I have never been impressed with George Bush?s education law. I don't like what he did with education in Texas and his national efforts have been abysmal. How does this relate to your career? I will get there, but first I need to update you on the latest report coming from the Department of Education. This week, the department charged with setting the course for the future of American education reported that not one of the states will have a "highly qualified" (their term) teacher in every core class this year. This is something President Bush has been promising for four years now. I am not writing a political rant on the Bush administration, so let's get that settled up front. I stay away from the political scene on The Blogging Boss and for good reason. I am writing for all people who are employed in this country (Republican, Democratic or any other political persuasion). This is Bush?s legislation. I really wouldn?t care if it was John Kerry?s legislation. What bothers me is what I am learning about the state of our educational system. It is not a political problem. I believe neither party can adequately address the grave concerns many of us have about our educational system. I am not a fan of the public school system, so I am jaded. Even if I loved public education as we know it today, the facts speak for themselves. Nine states, plus the District of Columbia are going to face penalties because they did not do what was minimally required to comply with the law. On Friday the Department of Education ordered each state to explain how they will get to 100% of core classes taught by someone qualified. This is reality and it is frightening. Shouldn't I assume that my hard earned tax dollars are paying the salaries of qualified (on paper) teachers? I have a Bachelors degree in education and I taught in the public school system for a very short period of time. To be a substitute teacher I had to have a college degree in Education. I guess that was a requirement in the state where I lived at the time. These states are going to pay for their lack of compliance - more on that tomorrow. posted at 5/16/2006 09:19:00 AM | 5 comments links to this post |
No One Was ListeningThursday, May 11, 2006Thursday, May 11th 2006 I was sitting in a meeting the other day and was becoming increasingly annoyed. At first I could not pinpoint the source of my growing angst. Then it hit me. Everyone was talking and no one was listening. I knew little was being accomplished and I caught myself watching the clock. I wanted to get out of that room. I had enough and I would be willing to bet that the other people in the room who were silent were right with me mentally. First of all, I have no idea why I was part of the meeting. The topic danced all around my area of expertise. The issues were presented by less than half of the participants. The leader of the meeting kept interrupting those who were actually doing the talking. I didn?t roll my eyes and I kept my professional fa�ade intact. No one even knew that I was ready to explode - or maybe implode? No one probably cared. I wondered at one point if anyone knew I was in the room. Those of us who had no contribution, just listened. Those who contributed never stopped talking. So the people who were talking were not listening to each other and those who were supposed to be listening were bored out of our minds. I tuned out early in the meeting. I surmised that the topic required no input from me. Get the picture? Have you been there? I am always estimating the cost of meetings. We do ROIs on everything in business. Rarely does someone think about the ROI of a meeting. There were high dollar people in that room, so the cost was substantial. I certainly contributed to the cost and the overall lost opportunity cost. So why do we attend such meetings? I have no good answer. I have no rational explanation. In fact as I write about this I feel incredibly stupid. I should have walked out once I realized that I was really not needed. I let a little of that disease called "self-importance" creep into my brain and it kept me there for 90 bloody long minutes. My lesson learned was simple and so now I must put it into practice. I need to be a revenue source, not cost. I challenge you to do the same thing. Next time you and I are stuck in a meeting where we are just cost, we need to leave. No dramatic exit - just simply slip out quietly like you are headed to the restroom. You know what? No one will even know you never came back. Think of what I could have accomplished in 90 minutes. I could have read 90 irrelevant emails! posted at 5/11/2006 08:00:00 PM | 1 comments links to this post |
Find Your OpportunityMonday, May 08, 2006When someone tells me they are at a dead end in their career, I usually ask questions. There are many reasons why someone may feel that they no longer have new opportunities. Rarely do I find that they are actually at a dead end. Here are some reasons why you might feel that you have reached the end of the road in your career. 1. You are tired of your career or burned out. 2. You have hit the salary ceiling. 3. You see no opportunity for advancement. 4. Others are being promoted, but you are not. 5. Advancing requires you to make a much larger personal sacrifice. Whatever the reason, you need to identify it and then validate it. Next you must take action. If you feel that you are in a rut, you probably are. Are you responsible? If you feel like you are burned out, you probably are. How did you get there? If you have truly discovered that you have lost your passion for career, you must start addressing the issue today! You need to put a plan in action to change it. You are never too old to go back to school. People change careers. Most are glad that they did it. Others find their real passion in the process. If you have hit the ceiling with your salary, you must ask yourself two questions. 1. Do you still love what you do? 2. How can you become more valuable? If you love what you do, you have a homework assignment. Find someone in your field who is successful and start picking their brains. Start looking for opportunities to become more valuable to your employer. Good employers recognize employees that are valuable to the organization. They are also willing to pay more for employees that are technical experts, but also have strong business skills. If you understand the business, learn something more technical. It is critical that you start a pattern of thinking outside of the box. If you see no opportunity for advancement start applying for internal positions that you feel you may not be totally qualified for. Many times hiring managers look for employees within the company with a good track record and that have potential to move to the next level. Potential sometimes outweighs experience. There are times when you have reached your potential within one organization and you need to find another company where you can fly higher. Consider your options wisely. The grass is rarely greener on the other side; however, the opportunities may be just what you need to propel your career to the next level. If co-workers are being promoted and you are passed by repeatedly, you must figure out why you are not being chosen. If you do not get the job, go back to the hiring manager and ask for honest feedback. Most good managers will tell you why they did not select you. Learn and take action. Have you demonstrated your true worth? Perhaps you are not perceived as a top performer even though you are a great performer. Why? Start observing what the top performers do. How are they perceived? What makes them stand out? Good companies promote their best performers. It is expensive for organizations to lose their top performers. You need to be willing to be vulnerable and ask your manager, your peers and those who report to you how you can do better. Finally if you are in a situation where you are being asked explicitly or implicitly to put your family on the altar to advance, DO NOT DO IT! No career, job, or opportunity is worth sacrificing precious time with your family. If you are looking for a new job, look for opportunities that give you more flexibility in your schedule. Explore home-based businesses or other entrepreneurial opportunities. If you find yourself at a dead end, turn around and find your opportunity. posted at 5/08/2006 08:00:00 AM | 0 comments links to this post |
Managing Up When You Are Not Being Managed?Monday, May 01, 2006The art of managing up and down is not widely understood by managers and employees alike. Managing down is actually not the best way to describe how managers relate to their employees. Managing down put simply means managing employees. It requires that a manager apply all of the appropriate management techniques. It also requires that the manager respects each employee. The art of managing up is a bit more difficult for employees with little or no management experience. It requires that the employee appropriately disagree with their boss and voice their concern. Since managers are human beings (at least most) they make mistakes or miscalculations. They do not see everything they need to see in every situation. The employee often has a better grasp of the tasks at hand. If the employee sees their boss moving in the wrong direction, they should point this out to their manager. Done professionally married with a good relationship between manager and employee, everyone wins. If an employee has little or no input from their manager, they are not being managed (managed down). Often in this case, they are not being guided when they veer off course. The employee is stranded on an island with no feedback. If feedback does come it is often negative and that is abysmal management. So when this reader told me that they were told they needed to ?manage up? more, I asked several key questions. I learned that this employee was on the island and all of the feedback they received for the entire year was during the annual evaluation. I told this reader that you cannot be expected to manage up if you are not managed. It is so frustrating for me to see employees poorly managed and left defenseless at the end of the year during their performance evaluation. There should never be any surprises at an annual evaluation. Managers, if you are not meeting with your employees regularly and telling them the good, bad and the ugly throughout the year how can you dump all the negative stuff at the end of the year? Would you like it? Employees, why don?t you schedule meetings with your managers several times? Ask them for feedback, both positive and negative. Document the date you met with your boss and what was discussed. Communication between a manager and employee is primarily the manager?s responsibility. However, since managers often do not do a good job with thi it requires the employee take charge of his or her destiny. You can have more of an impact than you think. posted at 5/01/2006 07:00:00 PM | 0 comments links to this post |
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