"Well, what do you think you should do?"

When Dana, one of your team members, comes to you asking your help in solving a problem, you have several options, don't you?

You can:

1. tell Dana that he's on his own and he'd better come up with a good solution. After all, that's what you pay him for.

2. go ahead and tell Dana what should be done.

3. help Dana figure it out --

I like to say "well, what do you think you should do?"

Dana responds, "huh?"

I come back with "I know what I would do, but I'd like to know what you think you should do. Your idea might provide the best solution."

Dana says, "I don't know what to do. That's why I came to you."

Back to me, "OK, but you probably know more about this than you think. You probably have an idea about the problem. Let me ask it this way, 'if this were your company, what would you do'?"

#3 is my preferred approach (because you're so smart, you probably already knew that). Not only does it get Dana and the others thinking about solutions, he might have a better answer than mine like I mentioned above. After all, I don't have the corner on smarts, you know? If Dana doesn't provide the greatest possible solution, that's OK. At least he thought about it and I definitely want to encourage that behavior. Then I can gently help provide a possible answer or brainstorm with Dana to ensure he's involved in the solution.

Try responding this way the next time the opportunity arises. You can help empower your folks, help them start thinking more on their feet, and perhaps come up with a really great solution to the problem.

10 ways to know you're micromanaging

10. When you realize you're doing all the talking.

9. When your team stops having any initiative because they know you're going to do it your way anyway.

8. When you hear yourself say, "why do I always have to think of everything?"

7. You have to be involved in every meeting, even though your team members are capable.

6. When you do attend that same meeting and finish your team member's sentences for them.

5. All decisions have to come through you no matter how trivial.

4. You regularly say to yourself, "if I want it done right, I'm gonna have to do it myself."

3. If you're too busy to plan because you're so involved in putting out all the fires from today.

2. You never take a vacation because the place will fall apart if you're not around.

1. If you tell your people what you want them to do and then turn around and tell them how to do it, too.

I think most bosses micromanage at one time or another, but the point is to not do it constantly.

Ways to avoid being a micromanager (e.g. you get to feel comfortable about letting your people do their jobs without your constant involvement):

1. Hire the right people and put them in the right positions (Jim Collins: right people on the bus in the right seats)

2. Acknowledge there's more than one way to get things done.

3. Develop your people, give them goals and objectives, and then hold them accountable to the goals and objectives.

4. Focus on your own job because that doesn't go away when you're busy micromanaging your people's work.

Are there any signs of micromanagement not on the 10 above that you want to share and/or do you know of other ways to avoid being a micromanager?

How Do I Know That My People Are Really Working?

Have you ever hear bosses ask this question? I've heard it, but not very often because it's kind of an embarrassing question to ask. Still I think many leaders wonder this. Unless you're standing over your people, micromanaging everything they're doing (please tell me you're not doing that), there's no way you can really know, is there?

Sure, there is.

You set goals and you measure them. Sounds easy, but many leaders want their people to do the work and do it the way the boss would do it. Oh, please! You've heard the phrase, "there's more than one way to skin a cat", right? Well, that's true at work. As long as your folks get the tasks done on time and nothing illegal or immoral took place during the completion of the tasks, you should (within reason) be OK with how they chose to get it done (within reason).

Hence, the main point. Whether your people sit in the same room with you or they're spread all over the world, the answer is the same. Set goals and measure them.

Let's say that you have a project to complete by September 1 so since it's August 4, you have almost a month to get it done. You give Lisa the project as one of her tasks to complete (for the sake of the example, it's a one-person project). What are the steps that you might take to help Lisa successfully complete the project? Hmmm? Well, what are they?

Here are a list of possible steps:

1. Sit down with Lisa and let her know of the project with details and deadline.
2. Ask Lisa her initial thoughts on how to complete the project or brainstorm with her on that if she's willing.
3. Once Lisa has a clear understanding of the requirements and has no questions, send her on her way.

Are you done? No. There is one more step...and this is the one that bosses fail at most often...follow-up.

4. Since I know you'll be meeting with Lisa every week for your 1:1 sessions (because you're such a communicative, proactive boss), you'll be able to review the project with her (along with any other tasks she has) to see how she's doing, offer any guidance you feel needed, answer her questions and ensure she stays on the right track. With this example of a September 1 deadline, you should have 3 times already scheduled where you can follow-up with Lisa (add more meetings if you need to, but these are already set).

The regular 1:1 meetings are key to ensuring you know that your people are taking care of business. Like I said, not only can you ensure Lisa's project is completed successfully, but you can help your people prioritize based on current reality and guidance you receive from above.

It comes down to communication. People ask me about their team members working from home. I say, "more power to them". As long as you've set clear expectations, are available to support them, and check in on them periodically to ensure they're OK, then you should be good to go. Of course, every now and then you need to meet face-to-face with all your team members to reconnect, but you won't have to worry about the work getting done.

If you've got a good follow-up system in place, relax and focus on your own tasks. I'm sure you have plenty to do yourself.

"Service Monday"

Providing coaching is an integral component of leadership. And receiving coaching is an integral part of every employee's development.

Coaching is one of those ideas so many of us give lip service to. Most of us believe it's a good thing to do if we have time. The thing is, we've got to make the time for coaching and it's the responsibility of the coach and the coachee to make that time happen. Discipline, as with so many other areas of management and leadership, is key here.

How about this scenario? Set each day of the week (or at least several days of the week) as a specific day to focus on development for the staff. Here's an example:

"Service Monday": Since SERVICE is such a major piece of what we should be doing daily, have specific training, feedback, review of service with the team every Monday.

"1:1 Tuesday": Every Tuesday, meet with one or two of your staff and have a 1:1 meeting with them, providing them guidance, giving them uninterrupted time to share with you. This is critical to know what's going on with your team. The goal should be that you meet with every one of your direct reports AT LEAST once a month.

"Staff Meeting Wednesday": You've gotta have, you need to have regular staff meetings. Weekly staff meetings are preferable. You have stuff going on and you and your people need to discuss.

What else for the other days? Well, you don't have to do something like this every day of the week. What about M-W-F?

What's important is that you meet with your team, you provide opportunities for coaching, training, development, and communication. There are surely several ways of constructing these opportunities for your team. How about getting with them to see what they think might work?

Yeah, yeah, the whole "no I in Team" thing...

How many times have you heard the phrase, "there's no I in Team"? We've all heard it said, or you used to, so many times that it's like chalk on a blackboard.

Then, there's the phrase with the follow-up: "There's no I in Team, but there is ME".

Ok.

This last part of the phrase doesn't bother me at all. In fact, even though I've read others criticize it as saying the same thing as the first phrase, I kind of like the idea.

One of the points of Part I, if I may call it that, is that it's not about any one individual. It's the whole, "two heads are better than one" thing (here goes Bob's quoting again). Got it.

But when you look at your team, the one you're on or the one that you lead, YOU are in that team -- ME is there.

From participating in teams you know that there's rarely, if ever, total equity between team members. In fact, many of us can attest to be stuck with doing most of the work while other team members sit and watch.

So I leave you with this. There is ME in TEAM and as members of whatever team we're on, we need to bring our A game, be engaged and do our part. ME is there.

Work Smarter and Harder

The "quote of the day" on my site yesterday was "Nothing will work unless you do". I really like that simple statement from Maya Angelou. Simple, but powerful.

It got me thinking about another quote, "work smarter, not harder". I understand the point behind this one...if you use your brain and harness the power of the tools around you, it can make your life easier.

Do we need our lives easier?

I guess one can take that smarter and harder phrase, take it the way it was probably meant, and do great things.

Here's another question: do we need more productive lives?

In my life, I'm not looking for ways to make things easier; compared to a lot of folks in this country, and definitely around the world, I have an easy life already. What I want is for my hard work to be smartly performed. I want my smart work to be completed in an energetic, focused, diligent way always seeking out opportunities to be more productive. That's a good way for me to live. Smarter AND harder works for me.

What do you think? How do you interpret "smarter, not harder?"

"The Problem's at the Distant End"

This is the answer to the question, "what's the problem with the commo"?

"Commo" is slang for "communication" and the setting is the Army in the 1980s. Back then we used to run wire between positions in the field so soldiers and command posts could talk on antiquated hand-crank telephones (obviously, this was before the age of handheld computer devices -- the wire technology was pretty much from WWII). We also used antiquated FM radios for short-range tactical communications between units in the field.

When the radios broke or the crank phones couldn't talk, one of the soldiers would seek out the signal folks and ask "what's the problem with the commo?" You couldn't say "I don't know" so the obvious answer was "the problem's at the distant end". Of course, that answer was rarely allowed to stand and, if the problem was with a land line, the "wire dogs" would have to head out and figure out what was what.

When we talk about wire communications -- and that's wire hung on poles or in the trees, but more likely laying on the ground -- the first technique for troubleshooting the problem was to go about half way between the two parties, splice into the wire and see which way the commo was good and which way it wasn't. Then, you'd just keep dividing the offending part in half and repeat until the problem was found. This low-tech troubleshooting really does work and it's impartial...even though you say the problem's with the other end, this troubleshooting figures out for sure where the break lies.

How many times, when we're having trouble with personal communication between people, do we think the problem is at the distant end? How many times do we consider our end of the communication and if the problem could be with us?