The Newsletter

Issue no. 30|January 4, 2011

Here's Why We're Doing This

In a recent Manager Tools cast, we shared that managers are never communicated to, they're always communicated THROUGH. Too many managers hear something, and don't realize that what THEY are told is really just being given to them to be PASSED THROUGH to their directs. If you've ever felt like you didn't know what was going on, this is likely why. Your boss thought "the buck stops here" meant that he was the last stop for all information. ;-)

In the cast, we recommended managers of course pass along virtually everything. AND, we recommended adding something: "this is what this means for US." Directs need that.

But there's an additional bit of guidance for those things that we as managers create for our teams ourselves. We've got to learn to tell our teams WHY we're doing what we're doing. It's NOT ENOUGH to simply tell them what to do.

When we tell folks WHAT to do, in a prescriptive way, we limit them to only what we told them. But we all know that, as they say in boxing, everybody has a plan until they get hit. When you start on stuff, things change. [Sometimes we even straggle after ripe blackberries ;-)]. And if we don't understand the WHY, we get stuck.

In the army, the WHY is sometimes called the "Commander's INTENT." In other words, it's not enough to communicate the mission, you've got to tell folks the bigger picture, so that when Murphy's Law hits, they know how to respond to the changes while still getting where we need them to be.

Next time you give guidance, remember to tell your folks why. It'll help them make decisions when you can't be there to help.

Premium Member Conference Call

We've recently held two conference calls - the first for our charter members and the second for our premium members. Each lasted an hour and consisted of Mark answering questions sent in by the participants.

Here's an example of the feedback we got from Michael: I really enjoyed the call. It was especially refreshing hearing a broad array of advice consistent with what's offered in the podcasts in a new format (not that I've grown tired of the podcasts - still absolutely love them). I also liked the approach of soliciting real-world questions in advance and distributing them to the participants before the call. I was able to first answer the questions on my own before the call and then hear from Mark to get his much more experienced perspective. For me, someone who has listened to well over 150 casts, this format helped reinforce the areas where I've had success in learning and implementing the MT recommendations, and also highlighted opportunities for my continued development.

You can listen to a snippet and read more feedback here.

We're hoping to do more calls in 2011. To be eligible, you'll need to become a premium member. Sign up here.

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