Make Yourself Irrelevant

I am currently reading Jason Seiden’s book How to Self-Destruct: Making the Least of What’s Left of Your Career. It’s a hoot! And, what’s more, it’s filled with lots of not-so-obvious morsels of what you might be doing wrong. Like Jason’s blog says, it’s smart, practical advice and I’m looking forward to more.

One of my favorite morsels is “Make Yourself Indispensable.”

Of course, the best way to avoid unwanted promotions in the first place is to convince everyone how important you are in your current position. Clearly articulate all the problems that will beset the organization should you be removed from your role for any reason.

Of course, this isn’t really Jason’s advice. (this book certainly keeps you on your toes). In fact, his real advice is to make yourself dispensable. By hiring, training, and depending on quality people, you are putting yourself in line to take on broader responsibility and eventually a higher role.

I recently practiced self-irrelevancy and it felt great. Though I haven’t been tapped to be CEO, I’m sure I’m on the short list, so I know it was effective. What did I do? I left town. Going on vacation is an excellent way to show everyone how dispensable you are. By releasing any control and letting others shine, I showed how much my team can do and how much more we can do (boy, is my team thanking me now ).

Don’t get me wrong. I haven’t always practiced self-irrelevancy. I used to think I was really important. I am thankful that I got a taste of how well it works and sure appreciate Jason putting it all into perspective.

Time to get moving

Recently my team and I have taken the Strengths Finder test and are getting more familiar with our strengths and how to best leverage them.  Well one of my unique strengths is something called “Activator” which is essentially about inspiring others to get going.

A strong desire to see progress is hard wired into me and it is exactly for this reason I’m so passionate about goal setting.  It is very important to me to be working on things that matter.

Goals help me make sure I’m making progress on the right things vs. just making random progress on what comes into my path.

I was recently reminded by some smart people that there are other good reasons to start moving.

Penelope Trunk makes an excellent case about how making progress on something helps you actually make progress on a lot of things.  The success of accomplishment is something that helps you get down the path of success, and as most of us know good things come from good things.

Jason Seiden also made a great case for not being a quitter.  I especially like his final comment that:

A life of abundance begins with abundant action. Action is the antithesis of quitting. Action is the Energizer bunny.

Want to win? Take action.

So if you are wondering what to do, I suggest you find a passion, set a goal and get moving.  You’ll be happy you did.

Deliberate Practice in the Pursuit of Excellence

Tiger Woods at the driving range at Augusta National

Many years ago a neighbor’s son, whom I shall call he-who-shall-remain-nameless, was frequently the butt of jokes within my family for being phenomenally ‘bright’ (academically-speaking) and stupendously useless, at one and the same time. His parents delighted in boasting that his IQ was off the charts, yet he was socially and practically inept. Although he sailed through exams in his early years, he did not live up to his potential, and turned out to be [pause to select a suitably charitable phrase] somewhat of a disappointment.

There have been plenty of studies regarding the correlation between IQ and job performance. However, while IQ is evidently a helpful predictor of future achievements, it does not negate the need for commitment, motivation, and application.

I feel rather sorry for he-who-shall-remain-nameless; I believe he was done a great disservice by his parents, as he felt he was so intelligent he didn’t need to apply himself to anything. However, as individuals we ultimately own responsibility for whether we make use of the abilities we are given, and seize the opportunity to practice them.

So, I was interested to read an article in this month’s issue of Talent Management magazine highlighting the achievements of certain high school students, and the schedule of study and practice that prepares them to compete in California’s Academic Decathlon. The article Human Performance discusses the ‘value of deliberate practice’ and also the implications for the workplace.

This may not be radical new thinking, but it provides talent management personnel with some persuasive arguments when seeking executive support for, say, providing a stimulating environment, creating increasingly challenging opportunities, reinforcing deliberate practice, and “rewarding successes until the successes become their own rewards”. Organizations that provide environments and opportunities that both challenge and interest their workers, and encourage deliberate practice, will be rewarded by increased commitment and motivation, as well as a higher level of expertise.

Sadly, this comes too late for he-who-shall-remain-nameless, who continues to meander aimlessly through life having wasted a superior level of natural ability that I freely acknowledge I never had, and very much envied.

Quit burying the lead

Here we go, another rant.  Those who are not interested I recommend you bail out now.

I’m just beyond tired of sitting in meetings and presentations for 45 minutes before you get to your point.  I know that is terrible to admit, but there you have it.  If you are presenting something you have a point, please make it right away.

I’m not suggesting I don’t want to hear you talk for an hour, I do.  I just want to use that hour productively to get on board with your idea/suggestion/topic and waiting until I’ve quit paying attention, puts me at risk of missing it.

Conventional wisdom

Most people think that they should give you a lot of background on a topic and then give you their opinion.  I get a sense that people see that as more respectful to the audience.  I’m pretty sure the thinking is that they want to take you on the journey with them and get your buy in before putting themselves out there with an opinion. 

Here’s the problem

You’ve probably already put your opinion in writing as the last slide or two — you can’t take that back even if your audience is going to disagree.  All you are doing is putting additional risk in place that your intended audience might get to a different conclusion than you.  Now you’ve bored them and they still have an option to voice their disagreement and make you both look stupid mid-meeting – ouch!

 Suggestion

Instead take the leap and jump right in with the first slide or two expressing an opinion.  Then use the next part of the meeting to support your conclusion and get the group on board with the thinking. 

Yes, this strategy feels more risky but I believe it doesn’t actually have more risk.  It does, however, have upsides

• It shows you as having done the hard work of coming to a conclusion and giving a suggestion (+1 for you — you are decisive and helpful)
• It makes it clear you are confident in your views
• It makes sure your point is heard (this is two fold — if people have to leave early they can’t miss the main point and for those who start to get distracted after 20 minutes, you have still gotten through)

One senior leader here at ORCL avoids this problem by making people send him their slides before the meeting.  I’m starting to think that person is even smarter than I thought [which is saying a lot].

hat tip to Amy who gave me the feedback to include an Executive Summary on enough presentations that I got the hint.

Why should we hire you?

Today’s article by CNN 43 weird things to say in job interviews was pretty funny. Here are some of my favorites:

“I would be a great asset to the events team because I party all the time.” – Bill McGowan, founder, Clarity Media Group

“I get angry easily and I went to jail for domestic violence. But I won’t get mad at you.” - Pechstein

Last week I interviewed an experienced software developer who made a long lasting impression on me.

First Impression

Me: What do you know about this position?

Mr. XYZ: Nothing. I spent no more than 3 minutes looking at the job description when I applied.

Are you a people person?

Five minutes later, sensing that Mr. XYZ may be difficult to work with:

Me: Have you ever had conflicts with others at work?

Mr. XYZ: Oh yeah. You can call them conflicts or disagreements – same thing.

Me:  Can you please give me an example? How did you resolve the issue?

Mr. XYZ: (shrug) They wouldn’t do what I said and I told them their designs were wrong. They were stubborn.

Collaborating in a Global Environment

Me: How do you feel about working with a global team?

Mr. XYZ:  There is just nothing good about working with teams in India. It takes twice as much time to communicate to get stuff done and then they are never done right. We have to deal with them. We have no choice.

Closing the deal

Me: Hmmm… Actually we have teams in India and we enjoy working with them. They can bring a lot of value to our projects….

Mr. XYZ: You are not hearing me right. You are just being an idealist. What I said is that it takes so much time to communicate with them and then you have to wait a long time for things to turn around and they don’t give you what you need. Global teams just don’t work.

At this point, I thanked him for his time and ended the interview. Frankly, I’d rather hire someone with no technical skills but has the “right” attitude and willing to learn than the other way round. It’s much easier to learn hard skills than soft skills.

Later when I compared my notes with other interviewers on my team,  it was clear that Mr. XYZ was most outspoken and least respectful to me. (We wondered whether he simply treated me differently because I was the only female interviewer?)

What were some of your most memorable experiences either as an interviewer or interviewee?

Power in words

Did you know?

That people research the exact words that they should use to explain the US Healthcare debate to sway your opinion?

Is it a public option or a government option that is being proposed?  Turns out, that while the definition of the option is the same the word you hear used to explain it will be different, depending upon the bias of the person talking.  Polling data suggests that you feel differently when you hear the word public, than you do when you hear the word government.

Did you know?

That words from you can impact the entire day of others?  For example, saying something nice to someone can make them feel better about themselves, can make them feel appreciated and can even impact their behavior.

If you knew that saying something nice would have a positive impact on someone would that change what you say?

Would it cause you to say something nice?

What about if you knew that it would impact something positive for you?  If you knew that saying something nice to someone else would make your day better would you do it?

Words matter.  Use them wisely.

And for the person who said something especially nice to me today — thank you — it made all the difference.

The new Carnival of HR is up!

Time again for another HR Carnival, this one hosted by Mick at InfoHRM. Mick has assembled 27 informative posts from a wide variety of excellent blogs, *and* has sorted them into categories by topic!

This provides you a great opportunity to first, focus your time on what the bloggers have themselves thought were good posts to read and second, sample blogs that you did not know about before.

Our own Amy’s post on rewarding talent developers is featured as well. Be sure to check out the carnival!

Photo by bazzmann

Simple, but not Simplistic

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon. Whatever one’s feelings are about the expenditure involved in that endeavor, it stands as one of the most incredible feats accomplished in modern history. As we reflect on it, JFK’s speech to Congress on May 25, 1961 setting forth the challenge always comes to mind:

“…I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”

As “Made to Stick” and several other books have pointed out, that sentence is an excellent example of expressing a compelling vision in a very simple way that can be easily remembered for both what it is setting out to accomplish as well as how. In fact, it conveys a little story in just a few words in a concrete way. Those attributes have made it a long enduring message and well-remembered speech, albeit more just a fragment of a speech.

It also helped that the goal was achieved, which was not a foregone conclusion by any means. Through the lens of history and hindsight, it’s easy to get carried away by the events that actually occurred and think that it was all inevitable. The speech and the landing make fine bookends to an amazing story in our minds because our minds are attuned to stories; we like to find meaning and reason for why things happen, particularly when it resonates with our emotions such as fear, tragedy, bravery, joy, and hope, which all played significant roles in the history of the moon landing. But the history as we know it was not a foregone conclusion.

JFK’s full speech reflects that. Yes, he captured the vision quite well in a way that would serve to help keep a huge number of people, agencies, companies, and a whole nation at least somewhat connected to a unified purpose. But if you look over the rest of the speech, you see that unlike the snippet we see, where it sounds like a leader is saying, “This is what we should do – now make it so!” it’s a leader basically saying, “Here’s what’s been going on lately. We’ve had some shocks to our confidence with the Soviets’ accomplishments. Well, we’ve shown we can put a man in space too, and if we are willing to put our energies wholeheartedly into it, I think we can accomplish this pretty amazing feat and it will show the world what a free nation can do. However, it will be hard and it will cost a huge amount of money and if this nation isn’t willing to commit itself completely, then we shouldn’t waste our time or resources on half-measures.”

Yes, there was a simple message there, but it in no way was simplistic. In a world awash as it were in, to use the cliché, “sound bites” and easy answers, it’s important to remember that.

Photos: Aldrin Apollo 11 Original, JFK Speech

Do you reward your Talent Developers?

Talent Developer: a leader who develops and shares talent for the good of the organization as opposed to hoarding talent (and under-developing them as a result).

Talent Developers are talented people that produce the most important results a leader can bring to an organization – more people that produce results. They work hard at maximizing people’s careers by tailoring experiences, providing guidance, and opening doors and opportunities to gain broader insight into the organization.

Because of the benefits they bring to their staff, people follow Talent Developers. They follow them from job to job and company to company. The Talent Developers continue to get great results and the talent that follows them are pleased with their career progression. It is hard to let go of someone who does so much for you.

And here is where the Talent Developer Dichotomy kicks in. You see, a true Talent Developer has to share talent, not keep it. As good as the results are, they will be multiplied by sharing and “cross-pollinating” effective people.

An organization must play a strong role in ensuring a) Talent Developers can operate most effectively, b) other leaders strive to become Talent Developers, and c) talented people seek out opportunities with many leaders.

The behavior of both developing talent and letting go of talent needs to be rewarded for this to work. Most organizations don’t even reward talent development let alone talent sharing, so there is a long way to go. That said, many organizations are working on it and here are some of the practices they are experimenting with:

• Tracking and identification of leaders that promote mobility of their strongest people
• Public recognition for promoting/transferring top people
• A percentage of bonus that is reserved for talent development results
• Mentoring programs that provide consistency and incentive to top performers as they move through the organization

Does your organization do any of these things? Is it making a difference?

Are you incented to be a Talent Developer in your organization?

picture source: thetvaddict.com

SMART goals just aren’t enough

"Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" -Michael Jackson, 1979

There are all sorts of reminders out there about how to write good goals – from wikipedia to the For Dummies folks, we are told to be SMART. To set goals that are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-bound

And this is great advice for individuals. It’s an excellent checklist to ensure you’re spending your energy on something that might get you paid. For awhile this was enough, when cascading goals (from individual to individual) were all the rage. But, as we saw with James Harvey’s enlightening paper on goal alignment in 2006 in which, among other things, he identified the limitations of cascading individual goals and the more practical promise of an organization-centric alignment model in driving business success … setting smart individual goals isn’t enough. We must set smart organizational goals as well.

The recent Talent Management magazine article “Link Individual Performance to Organizational Goals” delves into this topic, recommending a checklist for the process of connecting individual goals to organizational goals (the 7 C’s). It’s a great article written by “Performance Conversations” guru Dr. Christopher Lee and Sean Conrad of Halogen.

But I still feel like there is something missing … what makes a good organizational goal? What is actually going to get people to line up and do it?

And this is when I turn to the a-ha book Made to Stick that uses yet another acronym to describe ideas that succeed (yes, it is SUCCESs). Sticky examples include the urban myth “If you flash your brights at a car whose headlights are off, you will be shot by a gang member” and JFK’s famous proposal “of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth [before the decade is out].”

What do these “goals” have that SMART ones don’t? They’re compelling. They’re emotional. They make you feel. The above checklists do not make you feel.

We spend so much time in business trying to remove emotion, that we forget how powerful it is.  How important it is and how much people need to feel it in order to act.

And so, to the 7 C’s of connecting individuals to organizational goals, I propose adding Compelling. And, to make a smart individual goal into a smart organizational goal, let’s make it a smartE. A smartE with Emotion.