How to Create Clarity Amidst Uncertainty

Companies have the right to demand that employees pay attention to their jobs — it is a base requirement for performance. However, as the recent incident involving two Northwest Airlines pilots illustrates, when other issues are pressing, employees lose focus.

As the story goes, the pilots were trying to figure out the new Delta scheduling system that now governs what flights they’re assigned. (Delta acquired Northwest last fall.) In doing so, they overshot their destination by 150 miles and did not respond to repeated queries from flight controllers. As reported in the New York Times, pilots’ lifestyles are affected by what schedules they work; every pilot works diligently to sign up for a schedule that best suits his or her needs.

Earlier this year, Northwest was correct in telling pilots to “Leave distractions about personal, corporate or other external issues outside of the flight deck.” But this overlooks a basic element of human behavior; it is not easy for people, even trained professionals, to turn off issues that are bothering them.

Pending mergers, suspected layoffs, or even management changes at the top cause employees to focus more on the unknown than what they know — their jobs. I have seen far too many organizations paralyzed for weeks, even months, when uncertainty hangs in the air. It is management’s job to get employees back to work. Here are some suggestions.

1. Raise the issue. Ignoring significant issues, like mergers or layoff rumors, is foolhardy. Employees think about these things, so you as a manager need to address them. Very often, rumors are rumors and can be punctured. That’s the easy part, but when rumors are reality and organizational changes are pending, unease sets in. Understand that as a manager you cannot make the issue go away, but you can be front and center explaining what you know. You also must assure people that you will be the first to announce changes as soon as you know them (and are permitted to disclose them).

2. Allow people to digest the issue. Big changes, like a re-organization, affect people’s lives. The prospect of change, or changing work styles and assuming new responsibilities, can be daunting. You need to give employees time to process the pending change. When possible, give them input into how they will do their jobs. This is not always possible, but dialogue is always an option. Very importantly, do not sugarcoat the situation; change may be painful for some.

3. Get people back to work. Now that you have discussed the issue, it’s up to you as a manager to get people re-focused on the work. Conversation is not enough, you need to continue following up with people to ensure that they are performing as required. Some employees will re-focus in a heartbeat, others will require more persuasion as well as reassurance. That’s when you need to shift into leadership mode and patiently listen, but firmly insist on productivity.

These steps do not overlook the fact that employees have to do their part. Their responsibility while at work is to do what management asks them to do. Issues affecting the fate of the company and their jobs may weigh heavily, but employees need to work as best they can. Only two of the thousands of Northwest pilots affected by the Delta scheduling system were caught being negligent; the overwhelming majority are figuring out the system while not flying. That is a testament to their professionalism as well as their ability to focus on the job at hand.

The Roadmap

In the world of Project Portfolio Management, we rarely suffer from a lack of complexity. There are so many forces colliding and vying for priority, resources, and actual movement that we look for ways to simplify. Everyone has their own perspective on what is critical and demanding. We take the middle ground and look for ways to create a common vision, a common perspective, a common plan. I have said this before and I’ll say it here again: the only true expression of priority is the alloc

Developing Your Leadership Presence

What about when you are pushed in front of the microphone or given very little prep time for something like an introduction of a guest speaker?

This question came from Tonya in response to my previous post on developing your leadership pitch.

Here’s the quick answer, you walk to the microphone and you smile. You take a moment to size up the audience and then you say what you have to say briefly and to the point. Most importantly, as they advise running backs who score touchdowns, act like you have been there before. The great ones hand the ball back the referee; the wannabes whoop and holler.

At the microphone, remain calm. Why? Because you are in control! Your stomach may be churning and your palms may be sweaty, but you must realize the microphone is in your hands. This is a little secret that I share with people I coach: people have to listen to you. Whether you croon or wax eloquent, the audience is at your mercy.

You are the master of your destiny, or at least the next five minutes. When you keep that thought in mind, you will realize that yes, you can do this. You can speak in front of an audience and you will be okay.

Such behavior is how you cultivate your leadership presence, a topic I address in, Lead Your Boss, The Subtle Art of Managing Up. I define leadership presence as earned authority. You may have a title, but you need to earn the respect and trust of your coworkers. Presence is rooted in fundamental competence, and for anyone who aspires to lead, presence is essential. Developing this is a long process that goes far beyond speaking in public.

Some people confuse presence with charisma, but the two are not the same. The former is developed over time; the latter is what you are born with and is a matter of looks, charm, personality, and appeal. Charisma adds to presence, but you do not need to have movie-star looks to be a person of presence. An example of this was Mother Theresa.

Picture this petite woman in her white sari trimmed in blue. Old and wrinkled, Mother Theresa was never mistaken for royalty. Yet because of her lifetime of work in creating a religious order to care for the “poorest of the poor” in India, she had a radiant presence around her. Her conviction about her work was so strong that she could approach heads of state for funds to run her mission. She also had a wonderful sense of humor which added to her personal warmth.

No matter your looks or body type, you can have presence if you work on your ability to connect with others, from behind a microphone or otherwise. And don’t worry if you flub a word, or mispronounce a name. Correct yourself, smile, and keep moving. The audience is yours. So leverage your presence, and be the confident speaker you have always wanted to be.

Project Manager – Should You Really BE THE CHANGE?

Situation: You’ve been thinking about the big picture.Over the last couple of years, I’ve listened to PMI’s CEO, Greg Balestrero talk A LOT about sustainability at PMI Global Congresses and other venues. In fact, I believe it gets more air time than any other topic he speaks on. While I’m a big pr…

The Smart Way to Influence Your Boss

How can I sell this idea to my boss?

This is something that executive coaches hear regularly. It usually comes from someone seeking to lead from the middle. To begin to answer this question, let me tell you a story.

Ronald Reagan is credited with hastening the end of Cold War between the USSR and the USA. While he had long preached nuclear disarmament, his argument gained personal impetus after watching the made-for-TV movie, The Day After, which depicted the destruction of Lawrence, Kansas, after a nuclear blast. The movie, according to The Dead Hand, a recent history of the Cold War era by David Hoffman, left Reagan depressed for days and gave him even more resolve to seek nuclear banishment. Skeptics may scoff that it took a movie to influence the president, but as Hoffman explained on NPR’s Fresh Air, movies helped to shape Reagan’s world view.

Few managers who seek to influence upward have the resources to make a motion picture, but many managers have the cleverness and street smarts to craft an argument to win their cases. As I illustrate in my new book, Lead Your Boss, The Subtle Art of Managing Up, critical to developing a strong case is first and foremost to frame your argument according to the business case: why is it good sense for the organization to pursue your idea? Without a foundation based on either improving or saving the business, your idea has no chance; with it, you can begin.

To build upon your business case, you must frame your argument, in effect your sales pitch, in ways which appeal to the person with authority. Here’s how.

1. Adopt your boss’ point of view. Marshall Goldsmith taught me that if you want to influence the CEO then you need to see the world as he or she sees it. CEOs take a corporate-wide view of performance, of course, but each of them has hot button issues around products and services, employee morale, or their legacies. If you have a boss who’s a cost-cutter, frame your pitch as a means of cutting costs, or at least reducing expenses. Likewise if you have a boss who is focused on customer issues — frame your pitch as a way to improve customer service or product benefits. The angle of your pitch depends upon the boss’ interest.

2. Paint a picture. We saw how movies affected Reagan. Consider how your boss likes information. It may a straightforward spreadsheet or a narrative business plan. Do what makes sense but don’t stop there. If your idea is big and bold, make it so by producing a video or using photographs. These options are effective when demonstrating customer concerns. A video of a customer expressing a desire or a concern about a product improvement or deficiency can be a powerful persuasive tool. If your initiative is about an internal improvement, interview end-users who will benefit from the adoption of your idea.

3. Make it come alive. When Eleanor Roosevelt was being courted by Franklin, she took him to the Lower East Side of New York City where she was doing relief work with the poor, chiefly immigrants. Taking the patrician Franklin in and out of decaying tenements opened his eyes to the fact that there was real poverty in the world. So to make your case, take your boss to the heart of the action. For example, if you are pushing for an improvement on the factory floor, bring him to the line and show him what you intend to do. Or if you want to demonstrate a customer need, invite the boss to a focus group with customers. There is nothing like real world examples to demonstrate your argument.

These steps to make your argument come alive do work, but they need something else — your credibility. If you want to lead up, you need to be perceived as competent. Therefore, it is more difficult to sell upward if you are brand new to your job, unless you were hired to do so (that is, shake things up with new ideas). Credibility is earned through example, especially by doing your job well over a period of time. Also, critical for those who manage in the middle, credibility is enhanced by the ability to collaborate with peers.

Pitching ideas upward and acting on them is essential to the process of leading up, which by nature is something that demands an ability to balance the big picture of what the organization needs with the day-to-day reality of what you do. When selling an idea to your superiors, even to the CEO, it is important to believe in your ability to effect positive change. Transformation may be sanctioned from on high, but it is men and women in the middle who make it become reality, and that is a persuasive case in itself.

In the Talent War, the Ceasefire Is Over

With so many companies focused on simple survival during the downturn, with so much job loss and anxiety among those who survived, it was easy to forget about the war for top talent. But the downturn was just a temporary truce; the battle is about to erupt again in full force. And ironically the companies are the most at risk of losing their best leaders are ones that responded most vigorously (but often misguidedly) during the recession.

Why? Because there is tremendous pent-up demand for new opportunities and advancement among high-potential leaders. According to a recent study just 10% of high-potential leaders lost their jobs during the recession (with many quickly securing new opportunities). But fewer than usual received promotions or moved to new companies. So at the first sign that the job market is heating up, many will be dusting off their resumes and seeking greener pastures.

Companies that did a clumsy job of managing cost-cutting and restructuring during the downturn are particularly at risk of losing their best talent as conditions improve. Given plummeting revenues and the need to get costs under control, many firms rightly went into crisis mode. But the way they went about making the reductions varied greatly. For some, it was a process akin to taking a meat cleaver to the organization, with rapid, often indiscriminate cuts, and the attitude that virtually anything could be demanded of the survivors (longer hours, reduced salaries) because things were so dire.

These same survivors, especially the most talented of them, understandably feel absolutely no loyalty to their current employers; they will jump ship the instant they feel it’s safe to do so. In fact it’s a wonderful time for strong companies to consolidate their positions and accelerate out of the downturn by cherry-picking the very best talent out of competitors who have (probably irreparably) damaged their corporate cultures. Some attention to effective on-boarding is also warranted as it will help you to retain the talent you hire.

If you are leading a company that fell into this trap, what can you do? If you aren’t already highly focused on how you will retain your best talent in the next couple of years, you should be. In part, this means launching immediate efforts to rebuild the culture and restore trust. This may, unfortunately, require that you bring new top leadership that hasn’t been tainted by what was done while the business was in survival mode. Beyond that, you should be looking hard for any sign that the job market is heating up and anticipate what you need to do to rapidly adjust compensation and benefits. Above all, you should have a clear view about who your top talent is, be communicating actively with them about their potential, and charting attractive pathways for them within your organization. And you should be doing these things now, because if you wait six months, it most likely will be too late.

What about companies that did a good job of managing talent during the recession? Are they in the clear? Well yes and no. One very fine company that I work with, a Fortune 100 firm, is a case in point. It did virtually all the right things during the downturn by moving quickly but deftly to reduce costs. Executives took the lead in pay cuts, job losses were managed through attrition to the greatest extent possible and then via merit. Alternatives were offered to displaced workers where possible. Above all, the company did a wonderful job of communicating through the whole organization why it needed to do what it was doing. And it continued to invest scarce resources in the development of its best leaders despite enormous pressure not to do so. The net result has been minimal damage to a people-focused culture, and the company is beautifully positioned to accelerate out of the recession.

So the good news is that this company’s high-potential leaders harbor strong loyalty and are inclined to stay. The bad news for the company, and others like it, is that they will be very attractive recruiting grounds for firms that didn’t do such a good job during the dark times. And the desperate need for those firms to recruit leaders to replace the ones they’ve lost — or are about to lose — is going to rapidly bid up compensation and benefits. As is usually the case when it comes to talent, no good deed goes unpunished.

Michael Watkins is the author of, most recently, Your Next Move.

Making Time for Screw Ups

How much of your project portfolio has a relatively high chance of failure? What would you consider a high chance of failure? 10% 50%? 75% 90%? In projects that have a fairly high degree of uncertainty, there is a reasonably good chance that the project will not deliver the hoped-for outcome. You might choose to call that a failure. Then again, you might not. Most innovation projects fall into this category. If you are trying to do something new, something really and truly new, then you

You Are SO HOT Right Now!

Situation: You need a little “pick me up”.This morning, CNN Money announced the top 50 jobs in America – IT Project Manager was #5! How great is that?Give yourself a pat on the back for choosing a great profession to be a part of.

Three Questions to Remove Ego from Decision Making

As President Barack Obama wrestles with the issue of what to do next in Afghanistan, there is absolutely one thing he cannot do: Make it personal. That is precisely the mistake that his predecessor, Lyndon Johnson made when escalating the war in Vietnam.

Again and again, as is made clear by listening to tapes of him in the Oval Office, Johnson personalized the war not as the United States versus North Vietnam (or Russia and China), but as LBJ against the world, be it the enemy abroad or those inside his administration and throughout the nation who protested the war.

Let us be clear, personalization is not the same as passion. Leaders need to have conviction about what they do; they need to love their work and the people who do it. That’s passion. By contrast, personalization is the conflation of ego and hubris; it causes a loss of focus because the executive puts what he wants to do ahead of what the company should do. Personalization is the enemy of the business case, and for that reason you should avoid it. So here are three questions that every leader must ask when making a decision that will have significant consequence on the organization.

1. How will this decision make things better for the organization? Consider how the decision will affect the organization’s ability to fulfill its mission. Managers who push their teams to achieve “stretch goals” without providing adequate support and resources may be seeking to get noticed by their bosses rather than helping the company serve its customers. Such behavior will have another side effect — talent will exit. The answer to this question must enhance the organization, not simply the resume of the manager.

2. How will this decision affect employees? The business case for your decision should factor in the people quotient and affects on headcount, training, and development. Employees must execute what leaders decide, so if employees perceive that their boss is only doing something to make himself look good, they’ll be reluctant to embrace the change. They may comply, but they may never commit unless they determine the benefit for themselves.

3. How will this decision affect me? When you are involved in a project, it is easy to entangle ego with outcome. Healthy ego is necessary, but when too much ego makes you blind to obvious problems such as lack of resources, customer disinterest, and employee morale, problems arise. As we have seen with corporate executives in the financial sector, it isn’t positive when personal interest comes before corporate and public interest. So if the answer to this question is more in favor of you rather than the company, the issue may be over-personalized and need more deliberation.

There is one aspect of personality leaders should possess, and that is compassion. Lyndon Johnson was personally heartsick at the heavy loss of life that “his” war in Vietnam caused. No president can ever forget that his decisions result in putting men and women in harm’s way. He must feel for the people under his command, just as every CEO must care about the people who work in the company he leads. Compassion is an emotion directed toward others; personalization is selfish because it focuses only on ego.

Too much personalization can be deadly, and keeping a check on it will help you navigate over treacherous issues with a clear and open mind, rather than one clouded by arrogance.

Linkage

How do we connect our projects to the business imperatives? This might be the one key question that any Project Portfolio Management (PPM) initiative must answer. This is what the business wants to know. It’s what management wants to know. It’s what the staff wants to know. It’s been asked and answered many different ways. Here are three questions once again: 1. What are the right things to work on?
2. Are we actually working on them?
3. Are we doing them well? What we need is a me

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