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May you live in interesting times….

May 27, 2012 By in Change management, Leadership, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

“May you live in interesting times” is supposed to be a Chinese curse from years gone by. The idea is the unfortunate victim of the curse will experience disorder and trouble in their life. It may not be a Chinese curse at all but the quote has captured many people’s imagination over the years. People struggle to deal with ever more complexity and relentless bad news these days from a variety of media. As the going gets increasingly difficult it seems to me that trust is breaking down at many levels of organizational life. This makes resolving the already challenging problems even more difficult. Let’s take a classic situation a CEO in a turnaround situation faces.

  1. The recent earnings report misses analyst expectations. The stock takes a beating. The pressure to act decisively and be soon to do so is enormous.
  2. The CEO promises big changes. Employees tremble knowing full well what this often means. It is usually very unpleasant in the short run. Surprisingly it often is worse for the employees left than those who leave.
  3. Partners are usually already unhappy at this stage. The company is making less money. Of course they are also. They can expect further pressure on their margins as the management team seek to restore the company to improved profitability.
  4. Many people are looking over their shoulder and living in fear. Who is going to lose their job? Who is going to have to lay off staff in their business? Few people want this.
  5. If the situation is really bad (and it often is if the problems have festered for years) a few people are actually hoping they will be laid off to get a generous severance payout. The work environment is fairly toxic at this stage.
  6. This negative feedback loop is hard to break with external and internal stakeholders reinforcing each other’s negative perceptions. Social media has really changed the game in this regard. Executives have far less ability to shield shareholders, analysts and employees from negative feedback. Twitter, LinkedIn, newsletters and blogs provide new forums for interested parties to hear the “word on the street”.

The situation I describe is surprisingly common due to the hugely competitive, rapidly changing and disruptive nature of the tech industry. If you don’t believe me check out the scathing commentary from employees in most large tech companies in retreat on glassdoor.com. Even wildly profitable firms like Microsoft have their challenges. How do once mighty companies lose their sense of purpose and loyalty of their staff? The reasons vary by organization. A couple of trends spring to mind though.

  1. Arrogance: Past success prevents execs from seeing the flaws in their business models or product portfolio. Look how quickly RIM has fallen from grace in the past few years after dominating the smart phone market originally.
  2. Politics: It is remarkable how executives with business units in constant decline or departments with huge amounts of waste are able to nominate others to take the fall for their mistakes. This breeds cynicism and a culture of form over substance. So much talking. So little results! So much destruction of shareholder value!  These leaders kill their organizations ability to rebound because employees don’t trust them.
  3. Executive turnover: Some companies seem  addicted to reorganizations. This can lead to a culture where employees follow instructions blindly. Survival versus excellence is the name of the game. Don’t rock the boat!  Pursuing strategies tried a couple of times already under different leadership really hurt morale as well.

It’s easy to identify and describe the problems. What about some solutions for CEO’s and their boards!

  1. Be decisive and patient: Make big changes and give them time to work. Organizations with small groups of employees “disappearing” on a regular basis kills morale and breeds fear. If big changes are required so be it. Make them and move on! You cannot get the best from people who work in fear.
  2. Listen: People understand that bad results require tough decisions. It is important that key stakeholders understand the reasons for change. It is even more helpful if people can see the long-term pay back from the tough decisions taken now for future growth.
  3. Communicate: Blogs, intranets, conference calls etc are all valuable. Even better is to develop a personal rapport with people through more intimate forums like town halls, walking the floor or partner road shows. Context is key to help people understand strategy and direction.
  4. Lead from the front: In Japanese culture senior leaders make larger sacrifices than employees to give leadership. Huge pay raises to a select few while the majority get a minimal raise (if any) undermines leaders standing with their shareholders and employees. The recent shareholder activism against outrageous bonuses to executives in London & Wall Street is here to stay given the projected financial challenges over the next few years.
  5. Play to win: It’s hard to rally the troops when you typically play defence.

It is hard for organizations to differentiate themselves through extraordinary customer experience if many key stakeholders are having a very unpleasant one. That said, the best things in life don’t come easily. No pain, no gain! For better or for worse (and probably both) life is going to get a lot more interesting for most of us as 2012 progresses……

Great Product Managers

May 19, 2012 By in Leadership, Management, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

My employer posted a Senior Product Manager position for Sage 300 & CRM this week. Product Management is an area of the business that has always fascinated me. Although Product Managers (PM) have a lot of influence at Sage they have very little power to make things happen. Expectations remain high though to deliver results! Their job is even more challenging due to the matrix organization at Sage. There are a lot of stakeholders to manage with different and often conflicting opinions in multiple locations. It can be challenging to make decisions in a timely manner. This can negatively impact performance in the product delivery teams.

I have read a few books on Product Management & Strategic Alliances in the past year. I am currently reading “Software Product Management Essentials”. It is above average of a fairly mediocre list of books on the topic. One section I found interesting was the authors thoughts on the 7 habits of highly effective product managers. The list is worth sharing.

  1. Great PM’s know their product but also their limits: I definitely agree with this one. PM’s who know the product have far more credibility with the folks in R&D if they know the product. That said nothing infuriates R&D more when PM’s are pontificating on something they know nothing about. It is important clearly communicate the requirements and market\customer needs. If PM’s have evidence\data to support their perspective it is important to share it. Then it is time to let the experts in their respective fields UCD\BA\DEV\QA\UA do what they do best. In a nutshell PM identifies the right product\feature for the market. The experts make sure the product is built right!
  2. A great PM listens first: Simon Covey’s timeless advice in the 7 habits of highly effective people comes to mind. Seek first to understand then be understood. It is important to understand your various stakeholders needs so you can ask good questions. PM’s message resonates far more when it is tailored to their respective audiences.
  3. Great PM’s are curious: The ability to continue to ask why to uncover the real issue is invaluable. The best PM’s I have seen never settle for the obvious answer and strive to truly understand the problem to be solved.
  4. Great PM’s are decisive: Strong PM’s are willing to defend and debate their decisions. PM’s are often challenged publicly. It is important to encourage people to share their ideas and opinions with you and remain assertive and confident at the same time. Sometimes data is available to help guide the decision. Many times (more often than most organizations care to admit) it is not. If new information comes along that justifies a course correction so be it. In the interests of time a decision is often required quickly.
  5. Great PM’s are responsive: Once a PM loses respect in an organization it is very challenging to regain it. The PM’s with the best reputations I know are very hard workers. They are diligent about managing expectations and actively engaged with stakeholders at all levels of the organization.
  6. Great PM’s are excellent communicators: The most credible PM’s are typically the best presenters. They tailor their message for their audience and simplify the data with easily understand graphs. PM’s need to inspire their colleagues to achieve their vision for the product. People want to believe their contribution counts in something important and tangible.
  7. Great PM’s are passionate: Marcus Buckingham often points out in his writings that your strengths maximized become a weakness. Passion is a great example of this. Why should their stakeholder’s care if the PM is not passionate about their product? That said the ability to get to win-win situations especially in a matrix organization requires a PM to keep a cool head while others resist or even block their initiatives.

Does anyone out there have other comments on what makes a great PM? If you are considering a switch to PM a friend of mine shared the following presentation. I highly recommend it. http://www.slideshare.net/guestfbb385/shreyas-doshi-how-to-get-that-next-pm-job-svpma-march-2010?from=share_email

The last 5 years

May 13, 2012 By in Motivation, Personal Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Life never quite works out as planned. This weekend I realized I have just spent 5 years in Canada. My life has changed a lot in this time frame. My personal life is going great. My career could be going better. The older I get I realize that a healthy personal life is more important. That said, I completed my MBA last year. My plan was that this would rapidly be a stepping stone to the next stage in my career. I appreciate that I have a good job but know I can do better. The epicentre of decision-making (and future career opportunities for management) has moved from the campus I work on for the mid-market portfolio back to the US. The major project I was working on was an epic failure by any standards. This was not the script I had anticipated after 4 years of academic endeavour to upgrade my professional skills. I was feeling a little sorry for myself until I considered what I had achieved in the past 5 years.

  1. I am a dad. My perspective on life has completely changed and for the better. I am less selfish. I live more in the present when I hang out with my little man.
  2.  I am a husband. The leader of the opposition (also known as my wonderful wife Min Chi) has grounded me in many ways. In my twenties I lived in Southern California for many years. I became more materialistic than I care to admit. Min Chi is very practical and very conservative. I am a dreamer and future oriented. We are an odd couple but a good couple! Our son Liam has brought us together even more than before. I trust her judgment and enjoy her company.  I am a LUCKY man!
  3. I completed an MBA focused on Technology. This was a lifetime ambition. I am proud that I completed the program. Opinions vary on the value of the MBA. I have written about my thoughts here.
  4. I transitioned from a career in Customer Support management to R&D management. Although development is not my true vocation I now have a solid understanding of the complexity involved in this side of the business. This will be invaluable later in my career especially as I transition to the commercial side of the business.
  5. I lived in another foreign country and broadened my perspective. (Country Number 3)

I hope I can say I have achieved as much in 5 years time. I would like to think that being a dad and husband remain top priorities. I am confident that I have created a solid foundation for future success. I wonder if my idea of success will have changed as much as it has in the last 5 years.

Time will tell!

Decisions, decisions….

May 2, 2012 By in Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

A friend of mine who runs a very successful boutique consulting firm sought my advice the other day. Although his business is going well he can see that the competition is heating up. He asked me for my thoughts. I am reminded of an excellent post from Seth Godin some time ago. In it, Godin points out people who are freelancers often need to choose if they want to remain free lancers or move their business to the next level and become entrepreneurs.

My friend has enjoyed incredible success to date for several reasons.
  1. He is extremely good at what he does
  2. His costs are low which allows him to charge lower rates than more established firms
  3. He has a small team hired carefully that he knows he can trust
  4. He has earned an excellent reputation with his customers and the vendor’s account management team
So what’s the problem? The problem or the HUGE OPPORTUNITY depending on your perspective is that the market he competes is in high growth mode. Naturally this is attracting many new entrants large and small.  Over time profits will shrink as more businesses compete for less business when the market matures. The weaker competition will be forced to exit the space. He has little reason to worry in the short term. It would be a good time to start devising a strategy though!
I would begin with the end in mind. What should his exit strategy be? Does he want to maximize profit as a freelancer and grow a small and loyal customer base who are willing to pay premium fees for his services? Alternatively he could build a lucrative consulting practise with sustainable profits and competitive advantage that is not particularly risky to run. There are major life style choices involved here! I am proud that a friend of mine has created this type of opportunity for himself.
I read an interesting article in the Sunday Business Post recently that highlighted some key considerations entrepreneurs need to consider if they hope to sell their business at a later date if he goes the entrepreneurial route.
  • He needs a strong management team to excite future buyers. If the founder makes all decisions and then leaves the business a lot of the equity in the business goes with them.
  • MIS (Management Information Systems) He needs to show quantifiable metrics to demonstrate his business is well run and profitable.
  • Robust processes ensure his business runs efficiently and consistently. If employees leave new hires can rapidly ramp up if the right processes are there to support them.
  • Control & Audit frameworks reduce buyers fear of fraud and other internal risks.
  • Legal & Tax issues should be in good order to maximize his sales price.

I highly doubt he has any plans to sell his business in the short run. Frankly he probably has no business to sell yet anyway because he has not developed the appropriate infrastructure yet to make it worthwhile for a future investor. That said I have encouraged my friend to implement the recommendations above as a priority. He needs to focus on honing his competitive advantage now to prepare for the greater competition anyway. If he does he might get a big payoff at the end to make it worth his while!

The positivity trap for leaders and followers

April 25, 2012 By in Uncategorized 1 Comment

If you have ever received feedback that you need to focus on more positive communications  I highly recommend Judith Humphrey’s book “Speaking as a leader”. The book gives a lot of excellent practical tips on how to be more effective in presentations and carry yourself as a leader. I will speak to several insights I learned from the book in future posts. In chapter 4 Judith focuses on what she calls the “negativity trap”. I agree with her central point that it is important to be positive. I think that many leaders I observe in politics and business take this advice too far though and lose credibility as a result.

The key reasons highlighted why people are unnecessarily negative in the book are:

  1. People are not political.
  2. People let their guard down and make inappropriate comments that come back to haunt them later.
  3. People lack confidence.
  4. They share fears which undermine their position.
  5. They know about negative situations and share them with others which unsettles their colleagues unnecessarily.
  6. They focus too much on problems.
I have made everyone one of these at various points in my career especially when I started in management. I have learned the hard way that these errors can be expensive from a personal and professional perspective. Comments acceptable in one organization are construed as very negative in others. To illustrate the point a friend back in Ireland shared his experience with me about a call he attended recently as a guest of the senior R&D leadership team. A (new) senior leader shared his opinion that the slides gave a false impression of the progress of the project following a presentation. He thought the project was vaporware (software jargon for functionality that does not really exist). He cautioned that the organization needed to manage expectations appropriately. This seemed like a fairly accurate assessment to many junior members listening in on the call. It was not an astute remark to make politically though. The presenter took offence. The senior leader hosting the call was unhappy and demanded his senior leaders be team players!
It was interesting to hear that leaders even at this level can make major mistakes with colleagues that can hurt their careers unintentionally. To address this challenge the author suggests the following tactics:
  1. Avoid unnecessary negatives
  2. Look to the positive in negative situations
  3. Focus on solutions not problems
  4. Spend more time on the positive
  5. Keep your language positive

This is easy to say but much harder to do in practice. I have noticed that my greatest success in energizing larger groups is when I have been able to follow these guidelines. The key to building your leadership brand is consistency. If you are perceived as negative you need to practice being positive  A LOT to change people’s perception of you. It is particularly difficult to be positive when the situation or project is clearly deteriorating. Cheerleading will energize the troops in good times but can make a leader appear completely removed from reality if a project is in big trouble.

A great example of this was a recent speech delivered by our Tanaiste (Deputy Prime Minister in Ireland) to his political party conference. A respected political and economic commentator Cormac Lucey wrote in a blog post “Gilmore’s delivery of his speech was a master class in how to give a speech. He was fluent, he engaged his audience and he came across as wholly authentic. But, while I have great admiration for the way in which Gilmore gave his speech, I have less admiration for the contents of that speech.”

Cormac’s analysis gets to the core of the leadership challenge when delivering speeches. He illustrates how our deputy Prime Minister selectively chooses statistics to support his argument and ignores more appropriate ones. As his blog post shows more suitable metrics demonstrate that the Irish situation is actually much worse than the speech suggests. If we evaluate the speech in terms of impact for the audience it appears to have been a major success. If we evaluate the speech for building trust in the politicians brand he has arguably diminished it. Many people are weary of leaders who paint an overly rosy picture of the situation when their experience is otherwise. As Judith points out in the book leaders can’t dwell on the negative either because that is not going to inspire action to turn things around though. It is tough to be a leader in such trying circumstances!

This segues nicely into a challenging leadership conundrum from my perspective. Many people (like me) are eager to follow authentic leaders we admire and trust. The challenge is that others (far more it seems to me) prefer to be told what they want to hear. This leads to form over substance in too many debates with predictable consequences in terms of performance. Positivity used inappropriately can have bad consequences. It can make it far harder to convince people that tough decisions are required to turn the situation around. My experience has been that the longer it takes to make the tough decisions in a bad situation the harder\more expensive it is for all concerned.

As long as we reward leaders who tell us what we want to hear rather than what we need to hear it will be more difficult to achieve our professional, personal and societal aspirations.

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Performance objectives – For your manager or you?

March 24, 2012 By in Building teams, Employees, Management, Motivation Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Reviews are often a painful process for all concerned. Managers and employees typically  hate them. HR spends a lot of time coercing people into doing them, while managers under huge pressure to deliver projects or results often write them at the last-minute with predictable consequences. When I recently asked my new team about their thoughts on the performance review process, here are some of their frustrations based on experiences in multiple organizations:

  • Goals are sometimes delivered too late
  • Goals sometimes did not make sense to them
  • Goals may not have always been realistic
  • Goals were something to keep their manager happy
  • There is very little value or insight from the process

What is the point of the performance management process? I believe there are several:

  • Align the team around the company’s strategy
  • Stretch employees to deliver more for the organization
  • Develop employees for future career opportunities
  • Identify roadblocks that impact organizational  & employee performance

Conversations like these with my team energize me. I love that members feel free to share what they really think. I have had painful first hand experience of the disasters that await when you ignore feedback from the team on what is achievable. We are revisiting the goals to make them more realistic. That said I am still pushy and require the team to stretch to deliver more for the business. If the team is not delivering higher performance or my people are not developing, why should the company pay my salary?

If you receive coaching on crafting good goals you will likely hear how important SMART goals are. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time bound. Every effort should be made to make goals SMART. In practice it is very hard to do. For example, crafting a meaningful goal for employees who need to work on their presence or decision-making is very difficult. How do you actually measure these things objectively? It is not impossible; it is difficult though! My thought is that you should still try.  The process of working with your staff through this process will enlighten both and uncover hidden assumptions and biases that can lead to better performance.

I recently assumed the responsibilities to manage a team of Business Analysts. My vision is to ensure we become more connected to our customers and partners so we can deliver products that delight them. I need the team to execute well to achieve this. Goals that are meaningful to employees and inspire them are essential to achieve our collective goal.

It is important to realize that setting the goals is not where most managers fail.  The fail when they do not check in with their employees on regular intervals to ensure that they are still on track to accomplish those goals. Updating the review system with employee’s accomplishments constructive and complimentary feedback throughout the year is essential to keep goals meaningful. The more effort you and your team put into this process the better the results will be!

If your manager does not take the process seriously, don’t sit back. You own your career. Invest time to write great goals that will help you achieve success. Managers will be glad to work with someone who does.

Is the MBA worth it?

October 9, 2011 By in mba, Motivation, QuakeAware Tags: , , , , , , , 5 Comments

I received an e-mail from the Dean of the Business school after our convocation ceremony yesterday. Here was the introduction….

“Congratulations on your graduation from the Beedie School of Business. This is a significant achievement and a major milestone for you in your life and career. You have succeeded in a program that combines academic rigor with practical application, has notably high standards, and most importantly, provided you with opportunities to meet new people and confront challenging ideas.” That is certainly what I hoped for when I joined the program. This was not quite my experience though but more on that later.

It seems to me that the benefits of an MBA depend a great deal on who you talk to. Many successful entrepreneurs consider the program a waste of time. They believe you are far better off to actually do\create a business or a product rather than learn from academics. Many professors are incredibly intelligent but lack real world commercial experience and\or have successfully run a business. From a corporate perspective an MBA can be an important “enabler” for more senior positions later in your career. Completing the program shows a drive to gain valuable experience and acquire new skills needed in executive life. I think there are merits to both points of view.

The MBA “gravy train” for major academic institutions is being disrupted by innovators like the University of Phoenix who are offering similar content delivered online for a fraction of the cost. I think business schools obsessed with their brand in light of this very stiff competition are misguided and have lost focus on their core mission. I thought Tony Hsieh of Zappos had a very profound insight when he said that brand is a lagging indicator of culture. His point was that organizations need to align their employee and customer experience to achieve outstanding results. Established universities need to deliver world-class education, foster an entrepreneurial culture and supportive ecosystem to truly differentiate their products and services from their online competition.

A couple of thoughts in terms of my personal experience as an MBA candidate:

1. If students choose not attend most lectures and rarely participate in group assignments how valuable can the MBA credential be?  This suggests to me that as long as you pay the “substantial fees” you earn the credential\brand. This is not rigorous or high standards. I think this is one of the reasons why MBA’s are not as held in as high regard as they used to because of perceived grade inflation. Obviously there are a lot more people with the credential now as well.

2. To charge higher prices established universities need to deliver premium instruction, preferably original research or at least the latest research from talented and engaged professors. The problem from a prospective student is you only find out how good the instruction is after you sign up for the program. My experience was that lecture quality was very inconsistent. It’s fine to tell me about the world-class academics on staff but if I am not taught by many of them frankly who cares? Some professors had little grasp of technology even though it was an MBA with a technology specialization!  One course had content was quite dated with examples that were relevant about 1o years ago. Fortunately many courses were excellent, taught by dynamic professors or incredibly experienced veterans with compelling stories and connections to boot! I would have paid a lot more for some courses and not at all for others had I known what I know now.

3. I was really impressed with the efforts the Beedie Business School make to provide a supportive eco-system for students to develop business ideas. They offer a variety of incubator programs for new ventures and provided free passes to the excellent BC New Venture Competition lecture series. I was fortunate to work with a great group of students that developed an iPhone app called QuakeAware as part of the program. A great way to make your MBA count is to apply the learnings to an endeavour as part of the program. Without a doubt working with this team on our pet project was the highlight of the program for me. I regret not making more of the incubator resources the University offered.

4. Burnout becomes a real issue the further you progress in the program. I became a father towards the end of the fourth semester which made a tough schedule occasionally unbearable. While my wife rapidly lost weight after the birth I continued to expand because I was eating junk food and drinking coffee late into the night on a regular basis. Needless to say this was bad for my health and not sustainable in the long run. Fortunately I was not alone. :) Many other members of my cohort joined me in the “pleasantly plump” brigade. My patience for “light lectures” of questionable value wore thin towards the end as the personal sacrifices I needed to make and the price I paid was not certainly not worth it far too often.

5. I really enjoyed the safe environment for students to share their perspectives on their professional challenges. Most lecturers made a point of encouraging discussion which was often insightful and thought-provoking. I learned that the challenges in my organization were not unique by any means and that in many instances Sage was ahead of the curve in our industry. I highly doubt I could have had these type of conversations over an e-learning or online course as it takes sometime for students to get comfortable with each other to share what they really think.

Was it worth it? All in all I think so. I have a broader perspective on business. I have a solid platform to move from the technical to the business side of my organization. The program has already proven beneficial to at least half the cohort. Many have moved up in their organizations or moved on to new employers already. The MBA is as much a test of endurance as it is a test of intelligence. I promised myself I would do this and now I have. I am pretty proud of myself actually!

My son won’t lick a glass door because he’s hungry

October 2, 2011 By in mba, Personal, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

I went out for a drink with a friend I worked with around eight years ago during the week. We have exchanged a few e-mails over the years but had not spoken since then. Our worlds have changed quite a bit in that time. We are both fathers now. Our outlook on life and career is quite different than we first met. We spoke about life in the US and Southern California in the good old days before the conversation turned to the challenges in today’s environment. He is on the road a lot now which is tough on his family. I know what it is like to make sacrifices having recently completed my MBA which had proven tough on my young family as well.

Although we live over a 1,000 miles away from each other our work environment is remarkably similar. Many people are working very hard. Many are not working very hard. Those that work more typically have very little to show for it in terms of the pay they bring back to their families for their extra effort. Keeping your job is an achievement in these tough economic conditions. It’s a lamentable state of affairs with little hope for improvement in the short run. As bad as it is in North America it is not nearly as painful as the situation back home in Ireland. My personal view is that the economic environment is going to get a lot worse fairly quickly. My friend complained that many of his colleagues were “checked out“, doing the minimum to get by and were miserable in their jobs. When the economy improves he predicts a mass exodus of employees from his employer.

I am not so sure. Here is the catch 22 for many people who feel this way. If they do not work hard how do they really improve their résumé to take advantage of new opportunities that open up at a later date? Will they be able to perform at higher levels when they move to an organization that demands more from their employees? Are they undermining their future employment prospects by not investing in new skills now? Perhaps people need to find a way to reconnect with their jobs and their employers? If they just hurt their career that would be bad. Many don’t realize they risk severely impacting their personal lives and loved one’s also.  I read an interesting book called “We” which highlighted the spillover and crossover effects of a bad job. Basically your emotions at work, good or bad, spillover to your personal life and cross over to those around you.

I know all these things are true but that does not stop me from becoming discouraged occasionally with my career as regular readers of my blog will know. {I actually have a few I promise! :) } If you work hard and get good results you hope your contribution is recognized or why bother? It’s hard to be upbeat if your colleagues are miserable as my friend pointed out earlier in the week. That said, I heard a sad story during the week that changed my perspective on my current situation. We have decided that Min Chi will stay at home to take care of Liam until he goes to school. It is a big financial hit to a young family. We believe it is worth it though. A young mother whose daughter plays with Liam a lot was telling her that has to leave her 9 month old daughter at an unofficial\illegal daycare so she can go back to work. Apparently the daycare centre takes care of 15 babies. The centre has 5 high chairs and 3 care takers. 10 babies get to watch the other 5 eat through a glass door until it is their turn to eat. She saw a young baby that looked really hungry start “licking” the glass door but still had to leave. Can you imagine how heartbreaking this must have been for the poor mother?

My initial reaction was rage, then despair as I thought about the young children in this daycare centre. Then I thought about how fortunate I am to have a great partner who is willing to stay at home and take care of our little terror. Then I thought work is tough but if I get to provide for my family my extra efforts are not in vain. Recognition and rewards for my hard work from my employer are nice. Providing a good life for my family is much more important even if my “tyrant” costs me a fortune and won’t say thank you until it’s his turn to be tormented!

Managing change fatigue

September 18, 2011 By in Change management, Leadership, Management 4 Comments

It has been many months since I have found the time to update my blog. My life has changed substantially in that time frame. I have completed my MBA. My son is almost 1. My marriage is getting better now that I have more time to put into it. I have started to lead a more healthy lifestyle again. I exercise more and eat good food. I have had a series of minor injuries as I try to get back in shape but these shall be overcome!

My professional life is another matter entirely as we undergo yet another transformation at work. Many executives have decided to leave. Others were pushed. I expect that further changes are around the corner. These changes no longer faze me which is a good and bad thing. I am suffering from change fatigue. I question is it really worth it to try to become an executive where I work. This was once my dream and I have invested heavily to achieve it!

It seems to me that political skill can often trump practical accomplishments in executive life. Many executives work 100+ hours per week. Many travel 2-3 weeks of the month. This incredible dedication counts for little if you are too closely associated with a former leader who has left the business. Other executives don’t align themselves correctly in the organizational warfare that is inevitable as part of radical transformation and lose out as a result. It’s tough at the top! I blogged before that excellent advice in a book called Career Warfare is to back as many horses as  you can. This is a skill that must be mastered in an organization addicted to re-organization.

The other challenge that I see for large organizations is that many have been unable to figure out a way to reward top performers in challenging economic conditions. What is the point of making huge extra effort when colleagues who barely put in a 40 hour work week and are checked out receive the same raise you do? Why not invest the extra time in a quality home life instead? It kills motivation and morale when low performers are rewarded the same as high performers who put in extra effort to really drive change in the organization.

That said with change comes opportunity. As my former mentor David van Toor tweeted recently “If you are not riding the wave of change you will be swept beneath it.” Our new CEO is very impressive. He has a very different way of looking at our business which is refreshing. It is intriguing to consider the possibilities with his vision. Every time I have heard him speak I have thought about the issue discussed in a new way afterwards. I really enjoy listening to his perspective even though I don’t agree with everything he says. No one has any doubt that Sage will be very different under his leadership.  There are plenty of opportunities to drive change for those who have the courage and energy to step forward. Is it worth it? Time will tell…..

In the meantime my focus on a more balanced life has proved very rewarding. By sharpening the saw I can watch events unfold confident that I am ready for the next challenge that comes my way next whatever it may be. Come to think about it I may just read Simon Covey’s classic the 7 habits of highly effective people again. If you have not read this book I highly recommend it. It’s a classic.

The ethics of job obsolescence & overtime

May 7, 2011 By in Employees, Leadership, Management, mba, Motivation Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

I aspire to bring out the best of the people I serve as a manager. I try to be supportive but I definitely want the teams that I work with to be the best they can be. Most team meetings I begin by celebrating the very real accomplishments made since our last meeting, identify any opportunities for improvement I see and then ask the team to aim even higher. For me to justify my salary as a non technical manager the team needs to demonstrate improved performance. My view is that if they don’t, the company should hire another developer or a manager that can help the team achieve their potential.

I was very unpleasantly surprised when a developer I work with advised me that I was the most demanding boss he has ever worked for earlier this week. I quickly conquered my initial reaction to justify my management style and realized this employee was doing exactly what I challenged the team to do, share feedback constructively! He had two points. The first was that he was grateful that I pushed the team and the team regularly received recognition for their accomplishments at various levels of the organization. By starting with the positive I was better able to receive the second piece of feedback. He then went on to say that the only way the team could possibly meet the request for even higher performance was to work extended amounts of overtime! In a nutshell, “Donal, your words come across as very reasonable but your requests suggest you are not. Which is right?”  (My language not the employee’s)

As we discussed the matter further to clarify his perspective I came to two conclusions. The first, was that if he had this concern the other developers probably did as well. I had not communicated my expectations clearly despite my best efforts. The second was that there was a key truth in their insight. Although I don’t necessarily expect employees to work more overtime to get the project completed faster I do believe they have a vested interest in spending time outside of their core work hours to upgrade their skills. Why? This segues nicely to the title of this post. I have attended an ethics course this weekend with Dr Mark Wexler. He suggests that employers of knowledge workers are only required to provide fair compensation, benefits and decent working conditions from an ethic‘s perspective. The onus is on employees entirely to ensure their skills remain relevant in the market place.

In the old days a manual laborer or factory worker received their pay and were rehired the next day. Although modern knowledge workers enjoy better employment conditions the reality is that we must continue to invest in our skills outside of work hours to continue to earn salaries comparable to those we earn today. Technological innovation demands we master new technologies faster than ever before. Although employers may not be ethically required to invest in their knowledge workers skills I explained in my previous post they have a powerful interest in doing so. Core capabilities become core rigidities in organizations with legacy skills which limits their ability to compete.

I decided to speak with the rest of the developers on the team after a very productive 1 on 1 with the employee. I wanted to communicate my perspective differently armed with the new insights from my previous conversation. Here is what I tried to say. At times in a software project there may be times when we need to do overtime to meet project deadlines. This should be the exception not the rule. Work-life balance is important and typically leads to better performance in the long run. My focus is not for the team to work harder on the project per se. I do ask everyone to foster a supportive, collaborative environment and to provide constructive feedback to colleagues. I truly believe building this higher level of trust is a powerful enabler of high performance. Our ability to improve is directly proportional to our ability to solicit and improve based on this feedback. People don’t like doing this because giving feedback that can be perceived as negative is incredibly hard. This is why (from my perspective) I originally thought I was not asking employees not to work harder.

The developers were right too though. I am requesting they take the time to upgrade their skills mostly on their own time. This is additional work. To me this is about employment security though. The best workers with the skills in the latest technologies in demand will continue to earn high salaries and have their pick of employers.  The reality is that development work for mature products that are increasingly becoming commodities will continue to face compelling cost pressures from outsourced development centers.

I believe I have no right to ask employees to work overtime to acquire new skills. I sincerely believe I am responsible though to identify the future technical trajectory of our products and the market. This gives employees the opportunity to align with them to maximize their professional success. Take control of your career. Why worry endlessly about outsourcing? Take the chance to become more valuable in the market. Then it’s up to employees. (It really is) We make a choice every day how we spend our time. Upgrade or obsolescence, the real choice for the knowledge worker with all the possibilities or consequences that comes with whatever choice we make eventually…….

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