Archive for the 'from the CEO' Category
Posted on December 21, 2009
It is true that what once was old is now new again. The business buzz these days is about setting office hours.
You remember when you were in college. The professors had certain hours that they committed to being in their office and available for you to stop by. If you needed to talk to a professor, your best chance came during his office hours.
Now company execs are setting office hours for when they will be available for employees and office hours for when they are available for their customers.
The topic is hot enough that Harvard Business Review featured it in a guest blog by Bill Taylor, cofounder of Fast Company magazine.
Jason Fried, founder of Chicago productivity software firm 37 signals, is available for two hours on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. He sits in his office and takes calls from customers.
One person asked him how he handled the crush of calls. Fried replied that he took the calls as they came in and didn’t rely on call waiting.
Seems simple enough.
How old is this “new” idea?
George Goethals was one of the chief engineers on the Panama Canal, which opened in 1914. Supposedly, each Sunday Goethals would meet with anyone involved with the construction of the canal. He would sometimes see upwards of 100 people in a day.
As a footnote, the Canal was finished more than a year ahead of its target date. Let’s hear it for open communication.
Posted on November 5, 2009
This week I got sucker-punched. One of my client’s rising stars-Randy, who we expected to move into a leadership position–quit.
I was stunned. My client, I’m sure, was much more so.
We had talked about how Randy had such great potential and what we saw in his future with the firm.
Problem was, apparently, Randy didn’t get the message. At least that’s what Randy told me.
I know people are often negligent in telling someone they’ve done a good job or that we appreciate them. In fact, the number one reason people give for leaving a job is that “my manager doesn’t appreciate me.”
That’s followed by “I don’t know what my future is with this firm” and “my manager doesn’t communicate with me.” Rarely is money the true reason someone leaves a job.
So, what are you doing to communicate to your future leaders what you see for them? Are you at risk of getting sucker-punched when one of your rising stars leaves?
Posted on April 15, 2009
During tough times, people tend to hunker down, pray for the best, and expect the worst. That’s where you, as a manager, come in.
People look to you for information and guidance. Therefore, you should be communicating with your people more often and more effectively.
When our brains lack information, such as the status of a project, our brains make the information up. And it’s always negative.
Nobody’s uninformed brain is thinking, “Boy, Tom is on top of things with our project. I will just sit back and relax and not worry.” It’s not going to happen.
Here are some steps you can take to make communication more successful in your projects. These ideas will also help build morale and foster teamwork.
1. Communicate with your team members and clients often and regularly. Address any rumors immediately. Get a grip on the gossip grapevine. Address their fears before they have even voiced them.
2. Communicate face-to-face. Face-to-face is the most effective way to communicate. That allows each participant to read body language, hear vocal inflection, ask questions and get immediate responses. Use free internet services such as Skype to go face-to-face with someone not in your office.
The next option is to call people. Don’t communicate more by sending more emails. You need to use the telephone and hear what their concerns are. Remember that email is the least effective way to communicate.
3. Ask your staff to identify stupid communication practices. In one company I worked with, twice a year we had to fill out a form telling how many miles we lived from the office. No one did it on time, and it was a costly, administrative nightmare.
After some digging, we learned the form was created 30 years earlier to deal with a problem employee. The form was eliminated.
Make this task a game. Get groups to compete to find inefficient communication practices. Reward the winner with gasoline or restaurant cards or some free time off.
4. Collect success stories from your staff. Have people interview individuals about something they accomplished on the job-how they handled an irate client, how they resolved a dispute among fellow employees, how they created a new product or service to satisfy a client.
The idea is to get people talking about the good experiences and to share those experiences so others can learn from them. These success stories can also be used in marketing and recruiting. Play them up in your internal newsletter or intranet.
Posted on March 10, 2008
I was meeting with Ming, CEO of a firm with 120 engineers and architects. Ming shared his dismay about staff’s perceptions about recent changes in the business. “We’ve had to make some cutbacks, due to a slowdown in the market. Some of those changes included cutting back on our training costs and requiring staff to strategically plan their trips to minimize travel costs and time away from the office.”
“As always, my staff engineers are questioning the changes. Their target is the business development folks. ‘You’re asking us to make cutbacks, but Don and Janet still play golf, go to ballgames, and more. They’re never in the office. Why are they so special?’
“I don’t know what to do to help the engineers understand why the business development (BD) staff do what they do.”
The situation
Ming’s dilemma is common to all businesses, regardless of size. The troops have tunnel vision. Each employee only knows his or her small piece of the business. They don’t understand that doing business is a long process, and they are each one little point in the process.
Let’s use the alphabet as a simple example. As you know, there are 26 letters that go from A to Z. Say your name begins with S. Then for you, S is the focus of your alphabet. As S, you don’t focus on the other 25 letters. If your name begins with C, C is your focus. As C, you don’t pay much attention to the other 25 letters.
Translating the alphabet into business processes
Staff in any business, not just engineering, only understand their individual role in the business cycle. BD folks don’t focus on the fact that project managers need to deliver on the promises the BD people make. The project managers don’t focus on the BD folks’ need to get repeat business with their clients. I hear it all the time.
We used to experience this in the newspaper business every day. If a reporter didn’t turn his story in on time to the city desk, it caused problems and delays all the way through the production and delivery process. A delay on the front end could easily lead to making the newspaper delivery guy late on his end.
What’s a boss to do?
You have to educate all employees on the entire business process, from the cold calls to get business, to getting the work done on time, to getting paid on time, to doing repeat work for each client. It doesn’t have to be in great detail, just give them an overview. One client has put together a timeline of the entire process and added names to key points in the process to give staff a better understanding of who the players are and where they function in the process.
Get your graphics person to create such a timeline and educate staff in a Lunch and Learn. Include the information in your company newsletter. Post it on a bulletin board that staff will see.
Key Data on This
Studies show that when employees have line of sight—an understanding of how their job fits in with the company’s strategic direction—financial returns are four times higher than otherwise. Sounds to me like it’s worth the cost of a few pizzas.
Posted on February 2, 2008
To recap from last week: Glenn, CEO of a midsize engineering firm, is frustrated because he thinks he is communicating his annual state of the company message clearly, but the troops never seem to get it. What can he do?
The Challenges
When you are addressing a large, diverse group of people, you have multiple needs to meet.
1. Some listeners/readers want a history of how we got to where we are. This is a favored approach for many engineers. So, you tell your story from a chronological standpoint. “In 2006, we were here… In 2007, we…”
2. Upon hearing that, other folks will think, “Here we go again. Same old, same old.” And they will stop listening. These are likely the folks who want the big picture: “Where are we going in 2008? What new markets are we looking at? What new and exciting opportunities do we expect to find?” They are looking to the future and new possibilities.
3. You have the group that wants to hear the logic behind these plans. This group can come across as challenging you and your thinking. Consider who we are talking about—engineers. They are natural problem solvers who are going to find problems even when you think you’ve taken care of all the problems. For this group, you have to enlighten them on the thinking behind your decisions.
4. Then there are the folks who always want to know about the impact on the people.
What’s a CEO to do?
Sit back and think about your audience and your message. Start with what you want the outcomes to be from your speech or presentation. Some call this reverse engineering; I think of it as starting from the end and working backwards.
To begin your message, set the framework for what you are going to talk about. For example, “I want to take the next 20 minutes to recap where we’ve been, where we are going this year, and what we expect a couple years down the road.” I’m being very loose in my wording. You would be more specific in terms of “couple years.”
Set the tone of the message. “Last year was a mediocre year. We’re expecting similar outcomes this year. However, we are putting things in place to ensure the firm grows in the next couple of years.” Keep it simple. Be specific. But this is not the place to quote your P&L.
Then tell them the story.
A. Since you have given a framework for your comments, which makes the folks in No. 2 above happy, you can go to No. 1 and give the history and financials.
B. Tell more now about the future and expectations. Remember to convey the logic behind your decisions to keep the folks in No. 3 above at bay.
C. Focus on the impact on your people, point No. 4 above. What opportunities do you expect? What new education can they take advantage of?
D. You’ve heard it before: Tell them what you told them. Recap, highlighting the points you most want them to remember. Listeners and readers always remember the last point they heard before they remember anything else you said. If you want to downplay information, put it in the middle of your speech.
You as Storyteller
You are the Chief Storyteller. Take time to craft a story that conveys your message in a way that your staff can understand.
Remember: Numbers may drive the business, but people drive the numbers.®
Pam
P.S.: We are launching an e-mail newsletter in February. Stay tuned for more great information. We promise to take the mystery out of what they didn’t teach you in engineering school. www.weknowengineers.com
