Bloom where you're planted

A long, long time ago...in a far away place...I was given some very sage advice. I was a young Army officer who wasn't getting the breaks like I had hoped or expected. I could give you a list, but I won't bore you with the details. Suffice it to say that I never got my first choice of anything...and that was frustrating when I'd see some folks around me who got theirs.

OK...the advice. I was sharing my above frustration with a very kind soul who I really didn't know and have only a vague memory of today. He was some Major or Colonel and he was listening. What I do remember was that he quietly heard what I had to say and then said something like, "Let me give you some advice. Life's too short and most of us never get all the breaks we're looking for. Bloom where you're planted. That's what you can do. That's what you can control."

Bloom where you're planted.

You may have heard this saying before. I hadn't ever heard it before this gentleman shared it with me. I guess, to me, it means we can't control everything. We can't always get everything we want. We can't always end up with the job or position that we would like or think we deserve. Decisions like these typically belong to someone else.

What we can do is be our VERY BEST with whatever job we have, in whatever place we are, working with whatever people are on our team. For some of us, it means quitting our whining and bellyaching and just doing what needs to be done.

This is what we can control and this is where we can excel.

Is it your honor?

Do you consider it your honor to be a leader? Is it your honor to be a boss?

When your people come to you for guidance or advice, do you consider it an honor that they ask or are they being pests?

When one of your team members is messing up, do you consider it a pain to have to coach them or do you see it as an honor that you're entrusted to help him or her grow?

When you have customers who are unhappy, does it upset you to have deal with them or do you consider it an honor to be able to perform great service recovery and help them be even more loyal patrons?

Sometimes I think that, as bosses and leaders, we forget that we have been chosen and entrusted to help grow our organizations, develop our teams, and make fanatic fans of our customers.

It IS our honor.

A knot yanked in your tail

I once had a young lieutenant working for me who was an outstanding officer. He was one of those few people who really was a natural leader.

One day, though, he ran afoul of me. He made an inappropriate comment to me in front of other people. Needless to say, I took him aside and, in private, chewed off a pound of his behind.

Somehow, a few hours later, the subject came up between him and me again. Maybe I said I hoped I hadn't been too harsh (must have been a moment of weakness on my part). His response was, "No sweat, sir. Everyone needs a knot yanked in his tail from time to time."

Even though exchange happened almost 20 years ago, I still remember it. Once or twice since then, I have even said the exact thing to a boss after I got chewed out.

Sometimes, for whatever reason, we do things that are inappropriate. It's our boss's job; no, it's our boss's responsibility to yank a knot in our tails and help get us back on track.

Has anyone ever needed to yank a knot in your tail?

Do You Have A Mentor?

What do I mean by "mentor"? Well, the definition of a mentor is: a trusted friend, counselor, or teacher, usually a more experienced person. Back in July, I wrote a post called "No Leader Is Perfect" where I touched on the need for a mentor (you can read that post through this link). I'd like to expand on the whole idea of a mentor today.

I believe we all should have a mentor figure in our lives, someone who we can count on us to give good solid advice and be there when we need them. Here are a few questions and my thoughts regarding each:

1. What are the main duties of the mentor toward the person being mentored (let's call that person the "mentee")?

• TRUST (if this isn't present, the relationship should not exist)
• Honesty
• Empathy
• Strong, active listening
• Guidance
• Coaching

2. What are NOT duties of mentors?

• Fixing problems
• Inserting themselves in the mentee's chain of command
• Being a spy for the mentee's boss

3. Is it possible for two individuals to positively mentor each other? I think so, especially if each of the individual's strengths are a little different. In fact, there are some distinct advantages to two people mentoring each other in that they can build a strong bond of trust and really understand how each other ticks.

4. Should a boss be a mentor? No, no, no. Was I clear enough? NO. I know there are people who would disagree with me here and I've had bosses who thought they should be my mentor. It's just that bosses are supposed to help fix problems whereas mentors should help their mentees see how to fix problems themselves. Plus, there may be times when the mentee needs advice on a conflict or issue with the boss. That can't really happen when the boss is the mentor. Additionally, when you have a great boss and a great mentor, then you have two really good sources of guidance instead of the one.

5. Should a subordinate ever mentor a boss? What? Are you kidding me? This is a real question, though. Team members can definitely give their bosses their opinions and their advice, but it is totally inappropriate and unprofessional for team members to mentor their bosses.

6. Can I have more than one mentor? I believe individuals can have several advisers especially if the individuals are managers or leaders, because they probably have varying responsibilities that different experienced people could help with. Mentors are different than advisers, though. Mentors build deeper relationships with their mentees. There's an element of openness, trust, and honesty that mentors should garner and that advisers probably cannot. So I think, that individuals should limit the number of mentors they have to one or two, as a rule of thumb. There's no problem at all with mentors having more than one person who they mentor, though.

7. Should the mentor be older than the mentee? The mentor should be more experienced and, in most cases, that makes the mentor an older person, but not necessarily.

What other questions are there regarding the mentor relationship? Is there anything to add? Do you have a mentor? Do you think having a mentor is valuable?

Passive-Aggressives

There are a certain number of people we deal with, whether in our personal or professional lives, who deal with most situations in a passive-aggressive way. There is another segment of the population who occasionally deal with problems in a passive-aggressive way.

What do I mean by this behavior? It's passive resistance or covert obstructionism. It's behavior that consciously on unconsciously fights demands for adequate performance in work or social situations. It can be caused by people feeling they're being judged or by generally fighting authority. It's just not overt, either because the person doesn't feel he or she is free to express feelings or because the person is uncomfortable with confrontation. It can definitely get in the way of progress.

Some examples are:

1. Procrastination
2. Stubbornness
3. Sullenness
4. Inefficiency

We can't escape it. It's present in our teammates, in our employees, in our bosses, and in our families. So, what do we do?

1. First, we respectfully address it with the other individuals. How direct we are depends on the person and our relationship with them (this is tricky with bosses and may never work or even be worth trying to fix when we have no leverage). It's critical that we focus on the behavior, not the self-worth of the individual. It's not the person we are having difficulty with, it's the behavior.
2. We share our perceptions and solicit theirs. We try to understand their viewpoint and hopefully get them to see ours. We have to be willing to suspend our beliefs during the perception-gathering phase.
3. We should think about our potential role in the behavior. Are we being so heavy-handed in the relationship that the only way the person believes he or she can deal with us is to respond in a passive-aggressive way?
4. Once we have shared our thoughts, if the other person agrees that the behavior exists, we should be willing to help them as they try to fight it, perhaps by reminding them when it is occurring. If the person is a direct report at work, we can revisit the behavior as we periodically meet for our 1:1 sessions. We can also support them if they seek professional help to overcome the behavior.
5. If the person cannot see the behavior (and we still believe it exists) or acknowledges it, but is unwilling to make any behavior modifications, then we either need to learn to live with the behavior (only in personal, boss, or peer situations) or take steps to remove the person from our team or from our interactions.
6. The one thing I don't think we can afford to do, especially in a work environment, is overlook the behavior.

Passive-aggressive behavior is totally unproductive. It's our responsibility to wisely work to address the behavior so it will not impede our responsibilities.

How do you deal with passive-aggressive behavior? It is as big a problem as I appear to see it?

I'll work on my procrastination when I get around to it.

There's never a better time than now. It's just that procrastinators are likely to put off trying to fix their problems with procrastination.

We know it's a bad habit. We know we shouldn't do it. We know we need to be more productive. So how can we master the procrastination problem?

Perhaps the first step we could take is to figure out what is causing the procrastination. Is it just that we lack self-discipline, in general? If so, that's a way bigger issue than procrastination regarding a particular task. For self-discipline issues, I recommend you read Steve Pavlina's blog series on developing self-discipline. Let's take a look at other reasons we may be putting off handling a task or tasks:

Stress: When we're stressed, we often have a tough time focusing on the tasks we need to accomplish. We need to figure out what's stressing us out so we can remove the stress and get back on track.

Overwhelmed: Similarly to stress, when we have too much to do, we don't keep our eyes on the ball very well. We need to take a breath, step back, and prioritize. Every task hopefully doesn't have to be completed today. We can also take a look to see what tasks we might be able to share with others (you know, teamwork).

Don't understand: Often we procrastinate when we don't know how to do the task and are afraid to ask. Intimidation can get in the way, for sure. We don't want to look stupid. I advise others that you don't look stupid when you ask questions. It's when you don't ask questions and then can't get the job done that you look stupid.

People Issues: Sometimes we procrastinate because whoever we have to partner or coordinate with is someone we don't like, someone we have trouble relating to, or someone who makes us feel uncomfortable. Regardless, someone else is in the way. There's no rule that says we get to like who we work with. Often, dislike or discomfort stems from lack of communication. We need to act like mature professionals and put aside our biases because the other person is probably not going away and the task definitely isn't going away.

Are there other reasons that cause us to fall into the procrastination trap? What do you have to overcome to get tasks completed on time?

3 "People" in the conversation

Yesterday, I was providing some coaching advice specific to how to best communicate with a team member who is not doing what the boss wants. I was explaining that it's very important for the person being coached not to think he or she is being attacked.

The key is to look at such a coaching situation like there are 3 people in the conversation:

• Boss
• Team member
• Action (offense)

During the session, the boss must ensure he or she addresses the "offense" separate from the "offender". Therefore, Suzie is not bad. Instead, what Suzie did or failed to do was bad. When the boss and team member are able to focus on the offense, hopefully, the team member will be able to interact more objectively and progress can be made.

For more information on both situational and ongoing coaching, follow this link to my 5-part series.

Team Members or Customers...who comes first?

Conventional wisdom in business is that customers come first. Let's face it; if you didn't have customers, you wouldn't have a business, right? Therefore, we make statements like "the customer is always right." I've even told team members that the only "unforgivable" sin, as far as I was concerned...the action that would get them fired immediately, was being rude to a customer.

Lately, I've read that a few organizations out in the business world put their employees ahead of their customers. Now, I have heard about instances in just about any business where really horrible customers were encouraged or invited to find a new store or business to visit. This "putting the employees first" idea is more proactive than letting a customer move on. It sounds like a strategy or basic tenet of that organization.

The justification is that, if you hire properly and have the right culture, along with training, encouraging, challenging, and rewarding your team members, an almost automatic by-product will be an unparalleled customer experience. If companies ensure they have the best teams in the world, then customers will stand in line to do business with them.

That's an interesting thought. I guess I can see that. It's kind of a tangent off what I've always said, "if you take care of your people, then the projects, tasks, and mission take care of themselves."

What do you think? Who comes first: customers or employees?

Purposeful management

I like to share with managers who I've trained that they need to manage, do their jobs, and lead people on purpose, not by accident.

I teach about thoughtful management instead of thoughtless doing. I even say I'd rather break the rules on purpose any day, with thought behind my decisions, than just go about my daily routine in a thoughtless manner. I want the managers and their teams to be successful because of their actions, not to just squeak by because of thoughtlessness.

How can one be a purposeful manager?

• Think before you act: Do a quick, cost-benefit analysis and weigh your options, but don't linger. Purposeful managers are decisive.
• Plan: As they say, "failing to plan is the same thing as planning to fail" (sorry, couldn't help myself...had to share it).
• Train and Execute: Ensure you and your team know what they're doing and and then that they follow their training.
• Review: Go back periodically and look at what you and your team has done and not done so you can make corrections moving forward.

I never want to be known as someone who flies by the seat of his pants. As Charles Emerson Winchester, a character from the TV show M*A*S*H, said during one episode: "I do one thing, I do it very well, and then I move on." Ditto to that, Charles, except that we often don't have the luxury of focusing on only one thing at a time. Still, I hope you get the gist of what I'm trying to convey here.

What other ways do you know of to manage purposefully?

Servant Leadership...in Reverse

There are those who consider themselves servant leaders. These are leaders who work to help ensure their people flourish and succeed; not the other way around. I definitely subscribe to this type of leadership. If we empower our folks to exceed expectations in the pursuit of the mission, then it will help ensure we succeed, as well.

There is a temptation for some servant leaders to try to be all things to all people, to be larger than life, and to show they can handle anything. This temptation is a dangerous one because no one can do everything. Working with this mindset can overload even the best managers and leaders, potentially causing failure for the individual and the entire team. Teamwork can suffer when service only flows one way.

To be a true servant leader, sometimes you have to let others help you. Sometimes you have to let your aura of power and strength drop and show you are human. When you are in need, whatever that need may be, it's your duty to give others the opportunity to help you. Two-way support, just like two-way communication, is a sign of a healthy relationship between two or more people.

If you're a strong servant leader, then you've modeled what selfless service looks like. Now, give your people the opportunity to practice what they've learned from you, not only on their customers, but on their fellow team members, too...including you.

Where does world-class service come from?

I've been reading a great book on service called "What's The Secret?" by John DiJulius. His writing has stirred a lot of my thoughts for me and has caused me to reflect a lot on what I believe regarding service. It has also caused me to remember my own experiences with service.

The quote I'm pondering today is "World-class service is not something you deliver. It's a result of something you are."

When I think of this quote, it takes me right back to thinking about the foundation of any organization, good or bad: culture.

OK, so you know that outstanding service is a key component of any successful business. Let's say that you've received feedback from multiple sources that your organization's customer service is sincerely lacking. You're not happy learning about your poor service level and you know it needs to get better right away. What do you do? As a boss or leader, you can't go to your team one day and say, “Listen up, people. Customer Service needs to tighten up right now. You need to start treating our customers better.” Well, you can, but there’s a good chance that your words will fall flat and fail to cause any significant changes to happen. Come on; your service levels probably didn’t become what they are overnight.

So how do you get your people facing the right direction? You need to start by asking yourself where they learned or failed to learn how to provide the outstanding service. You have to start at the beginning. You need to revisit what? You need to revisit the culture.

What is the culture of your team? Take a look at some of the primary components that make up a business culture and you can better answer the question:

Management Style -– Are you a micromanager or a heavy-handed boss? Or do you foster an environment where your people feel empowered to develop new ideas and to “do it their way” (within reason) as they work to fulfill the mission?

Respect -- Do you provide world-class customer service for your employees? Do you treat them with respect? Do they know you value them and their ideas? Do they treat each other with respect? People aren’t going to provide your customers what they’re not receiving, themselves.

Training -- Do your people know your expectations? Can they envision the customer service you seek? Do you have programs in place to teach them how to do their jobs well and provide the level of service that you want?

If you ask yourself the status of any of the above areas for your team, find them wanting and then respond with “I don’t have time to do that or build that”, you’ve already lost. You’re never going to move your team ahead toward providing the world-class service that you want and your customers deserve. Instead, you need to commit to living the culture you want with your people, modeling it just as parents model behavior for their children.

Are there other ways to help ensure your people are providing world-class service to your customers?

Check those personal problems at the door

Personal problems are something that every person has to deal with. Everyone has issues in his or her personal lives that can take up some or all of our free time: kids, relationships, money, health, etc. The rub comes when people start bringing their baggage to work.

For managers, what do you do when your people start bringing their personal problems to work? Your team members are paid to come to work...AND WORK, not sit around whining and complaining about the problems in their lives. They are supposed to focus and be productive. You've seen what it can do to an office or organization:

• Distract from work
• Depress the whole office
• Suck other people into the problems

As bosses, you have every right to expect your folks to focus on their duties while you're paying them. What can you do to keep personal problems from changing the atmosphere at work? You're not a heartless beast who cares nothing for those around you, so what do you do? Some suggestions I've heard are to:

• Set expectations up front (leave your problems at the door)
• Listen (like during 1:1 sessions)
• Help find counseling
• Provide time off, if necessary, to deal with the issues

I have two questions for you:

What other issues are caused by people bringing their personal problems to work?

What ways can bosses help their people while still completing the mission and ensuring customer care doesn't slip?

Step away from your people's work

I had someone mention to me that where she works, when people complete a project, the boss often redoes the work. Why would that be?

• Perhaps it is because the work produced is not up to the boss's standards. Perhaps the expectations were not totally clear so the boss had to change content.
• On the other hand, perhaps the boss likes work to be a certain way and the product has to look exactly like what the boss prefers.
• Finally, maybe the boss only trusts the work that he or she cranks out and anyone else's is just going to be less than suitable.

One of the examples above is about substance. The other two examples are about style and preference. If the quality of work turned into us, as bosses, is of substandard quality, we need to help our people understand what's wrong and give them the chance to correct the material. If the work is styled in a manner that isn't "us", we need to let it go. As the old saying goes, "there's more than one way to skin a cat". Our way is probably different than that of our team and it may not even be as good.

Either way, redoing our people's work is a sure way of stifling creativity and helping our folks become disengaged...two things we just can't afford.

So, I say again, "step away."

Why Doesn't Coaching Work?

Coaching works. Sure it does, if it's done correctly. So why is it that so many managers say that they coach their people, but it doesn't seem to improve their performance more than for a short time? It appears that we need to explore whether or not we're coaching correctly. This post isn't about the mechanics of coaching, although you can find info about that right here.

We all have deadlines, don't we? We're expected to be more efficient and effective than ever before...get more done with less. Along with all our own tasks and duties we, as managers, have to help our people be better, too. It's all about continuous improvement, right?

We're told we need to shadow and coach our folks. Our answer is "we teach and coach our people regularly...at LEAST twice a year...and since we only have to evaluate them once a year, that's twice as much as we're required to do." OKaaaaay. That's a problem. We often see coaching as an event instead of a process. We look at coaching as "See one, Do one, Teach one" and that leaves the CRITICAL component out: follow-up. Maybe we should modify that adage to "See one, Do one, Teach one, Follow-up regularly". I don't know. It just doesn't have a "ring" to it anymore.

It's true, however. Coaching often succeeds or fails based on our team members internalizing what we teach. One of the best ways to help our people integrate our teaching into their work habits is to make follow-up and feedback regular components of our group's schedule.

Yes, it in an investment on our part and we may have to realign priorities and scrutinize our task lists to ensure we're focusing on the right opportunities. I submit to you that regular coaching that includes follow-up and feedback are right opportunities.

Do you think coaching is all I've cracked it up to be? If so, how do you ensure it happens along with everything else you have to do?

Encouraging A "Slacker" Teammate

I was recently asked, "How do you 'bring along' a slacker teammate?" That's a pretty broad question. What is meant by "slacker" -- someone who doesn't do his or her work? In this case, I think the question had to do more with people who are part of work or project teams outside their own normal duties. You've probably experienced it before. You are a member of a team where everyone may not be as engaged as they could be. Some people are pulling their weight and others are just marking time.

The answer is that you definitely DO NOT sweep the problem under the rug and pretend it doesn't exist. Obviously, the work or project team leader should be ensuring all members are doing there fair share. Still, work group team members have both the responsibility and the opportunity to help fellow team members be the best they can be, and in a way that supervisors may not be able to achieve:

Responsibility -- When we are team members, we all have the responsibility to help that team succeed even though being a team member is not part of our normal job duties. It's not just the boss or team leader's responsibility. True professionals look for ways to help the organization and those around them be better.

Opportunity -- Team members are not bosses...duh. Team members are peers and co-workers. We all have different levels of influence and experience. We have "horizontal" relationships that can hopefully allow our thoughts, suggestions, and ideas to be less threatening to others on our team.

Now that we've determined we want to try and help another team member with engagement issues, what do we do? Below are a few possibilities:

• Broach the issue of engagement. Sometimes others are not aware that they are not considered engaged or are willing to put in more effort when they realize their poor efforts are evident.
• Ask questions about how the "errant" team member feels about the work the team is doing. Talk through the feelings. Maybe the team member has negative feelings about the team and what the group is supposed to be accomplishing. Perhaps the team member doesn't understand what he or she is supposed to do.
• Challenge the team member to step up and support the rest of the team, even if being a team member is not something the other person really wants to be. We all do things from time to time that we don't LOVE. It's part of being a contributing member of society, let alone a team member at work.

Are there other ways to help peers become more engaged in work or project teams? Should you go to the team leader about the issues? If so, when should this occur?

The Reluctant Delegator

You're a busy boss or project manager. You've got tons of work on your plate. You don't have enough hours in the day to get all your work done. What will you do?

If you're a boss or in charge of a project, one thing you've probably got going for you is a team and team members. That should mean that there are people who may have similar knowledge as you and can hopefully complete tasks with a level of quality you deem appropriate.

So why don't you delegate? It's amazing, but many bosses out in the work world just don't do it. Some reasons leaders are reluctant to delegate are:

1. You've been burned before and so the only person you trust to get work done and done well is YOU.
2. All your people have work of their own to complete. You feel guilty "dumping" work on others.
3. You're not quite sure how to effectively delegate.

Here are four excellent reasons to delegate:

1. So you don't die from overwork.
2. To showcase your team members.
3. Development for your people.
4. Your team members may actually come up with a better outcome than you would have on your own (and that's OK).

How much should I give out to others? Look at:

1. Your peoples' strengths.
2. Their work load from your perspective (and you may need to ask them, too).
3. The attributes of different team members who you want to develop.

How do I delegate?

1. Let each team member know what you need done (show examples, if needed).
2. Provide the deadline.
3. Set up review or check-in times so you can gauge progress and provide guidance or assistance, as needed.
4. Review the work (don't assume it's the way you want it automatically)

Delegation doesn't have to be painful. It can even be rewarding experience for both you and your team if you use the opportunity to help your people grow and develop. Don't underestimate what others can do. Sometimes, when you let people own a task, they can surprise you with the great results.

Be Approachable

Leaders each have a persona. Leaders can be cocky and boisterous or quiet and unassuming. Regardless of the type of leader you are, to be effective you need to be approachable. Your people need to be able to go to you with problems or issues that are work-related and sometimes personal.

"I've told my people that I'm always available for them." Great. Glad to hear it.

"I have an Open-door policy." Wonderful.

These are great things to say. Do your words match your actions? Sometimes leaders send their team members multiple messages. Primarily, there's the message of availability, like above. The subtle (or not so subtle) secondary message(s) could be one or several of the following:

1. Door always closed, even with signs like "do not disturb."
2. Talking down to employees like they're stupid idiots when they come with problems, especially if the solutions seem simple to us. Sometimes we even say, "why do I have to think of everything?"
3. Killing the messenger (an oldie, but a goodie) when the message isn't as positive as we'd like.
4. The stare ("don't even think of talking to me right now").
5. Acting put out when asked to turn our attention away from what we're doing to talk to team members.
6. I'm a martyr and that's OK. "Go ahead and lay your troubles on an already overworked boss. Don't feel bad."

Sure, why would anybody have trouble approaching a boss who communicates mixed messages? It can be very troubling to employees and perhaps cause them to give up ever trying to connect with you.

I'm not trying to beat up on leaders too much today. It's just that, to be successful leaders, we need to have empathetic spirits (being able to walk in oure employees' shoes). We need to be able to relate and to be able to help lift the crap off our people, whatever they're dealing with (within limits, of course), so they can be efficient and effective. To do that, we have to be approachable.

We all want to be strong, positive leaders and bosses and I'm sure we are a lot of the time. However, like I've mentioned several times, leaders are on constant display and we're sending out messages to our people all the time. We just need to ensure the messages we want to send are the ones that are being transmitted.

This is a great coaching point for your younger leaders, too. When you're working with your less experienced managers and coaching them, help them understand how their words and actions need to fit together so their people will come to them with the issues weighing them down. Model this behavior for your younger leaders and your coaching will ring true.

Bottom Line: "a song is 10% lyrics and 90% music" (lyrics = words & music = actions) and a lot of time people remember the music much more easily than the words. Let's do our best to ensure our lyrics and music fit together harmoniously.

EMAIL: If There's Conflict, Pick Up The Phone

Helloooo!

What am I talking about, you ask? Why, I'm talking about keeping you out of trouble.

Specifically, I'm talking about email conversations that start getting out of hand. We've all experienced them. Sometimes, it's merely an email that goes back and forth between parties more than 2 or 3 times. That's a waste of time that a phone call can probably take care of quickly.

More importantly, though, I'm talking about disagreements or tensions being shared over email. You know, email is a great tool and most of us wouldn't want to go back to the early 90s when emails were some weird thing and email addresses were 45 characters long. Most of the time it's quick and easy and efficient. However, email has a difficult (if not almost impossible) time expressing proper inflection or emotion which are much more apparent in telephone or face-to-face conversations.

Because of email's "sterility" so to speak, innocent emails can sometimes erupt into full conflicts because people misread what is being written by the other party. One of the parties makes a bad joke or a sarcastic remark and the other party takes it wrong...then, boom! Conflict. Even telephone conversations, which I'm advocating over email in tense situations, have their limitations that only face-to-face conversations can overcome (hopefully) because phone calls can't show body language and facial expressions.

Now, I know that email provides a form of insulation that can be very comforting at times. People who want to avoid conflict can use email instead of getting in someone's face or having to step out of their comfort zone to get stuff done. This insulation can actually help make things worse.

My advice to you, if you're in an email conversation that starts going south, is to stop the madness, pick up the phone and get things sorted out before they blow up in your face.

You'll be glad you did.

"Helicopter Management"

It sounds similar to another term used in our society today, doesn't it? That phrase is "helicopter parenting" and it refers to parents who hover over their kids to protect them and to solve all their problems.

"Helicopter management" connotes the same type of hovering that some bosses do when they try so hard to help make their people happy and protect them, etc. Some equate it with "taking care of your people." I couldn't disagree more. To me, it's a lot more about trying to make to employees like you or maybe trying to do things yourself because you don't trust your team not to mess up and make you look bad.

"Taking care of your people" means other things to me. It means teaching them to be productive (time management and organization skills, for example), coaching them about how to solve their own problems, challenging them to use their brains (see the post, "Well, What do you think you should do?" for more info), and nudging them out of their comfort zones to try new things (like getting up in front of an audience to present a book review or article or idea).

"Helicopter management" is a form of micromanagement, isn't it?

Think about how you interact with your team and look hard at the idea of "helicopter management". Does that describe you?

If you look bad, you are bad

Actually, this is only 1/2 of the phrase I tell people on my teams or leaders I've trained. The entire saying is "If you look good, you may or may not be good, but if you look bad, you are bad." Sentence structure-wise, it's not that great, but hopefully it conveys my meaning.

Let's expand a little. Perception is huge in life, isn't it? We judge and are judged constantly. We often make snap decisions regarding people by just the smallest thing or things we see. By "thing" I mean, neatness, vocabulary, writing, spelling, dress standards, etc.

In business, our credibility is everything (read more here). Because of that, we have to be aware of the "things" we are showing others. It shouldn't have to be that way, but it is. Perceptions, especially negative ones, are hard to overcome.

Here are a few "if you look bad" examples:

• Misspellings on a letter (especially on a resume or cover letter)
• Grammar and sentence structure issues in emails and documents (professionals really ought to be able to write...and so many cannot)
• Chomping your gum (or even chewing it in certain situations)
• Sloppy dress (unless that's the look you're going for...please say it isn't) and poor grooming
• Poor posture

There are lots of ways to present ourselves poorly, and there are ways to present ourselves positively. In the Army, the saying goes, "If it doesn't work, paint it", meaning at least it will look good and, on the surface, people may have a positive first glance.

Now, I'm not at all advocating fluff over substance, but let's face it. The judgments are real and are happening as I write. You can have the best ideas and best products in the world, but if people have anything less than positive thoughts regarding any of the reasons above or any others you might think of, your credibility will be hurt. Take a look at yourself and ensure your "fluff" matches your substance.

Take-away: Look good and BE good.