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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