Getting The Attention of a 
Drive-by Boss

by Cynthia Clay, President, NetSpeed Learning Solutions

Drive-by bosses come in many shapes and forms. What they have in common is the neglect of their employees' needs. One drive-by boss might run poorly planned meetings that waste everyone's time. Another might neglect to complete performance evaluations, convinced that his other tasks have priority. A third might be juggling so many competing priorities that she often cancels meetings with the individuals on her team.  

A Drive-by Boss' Story 

Meet Beng, a high-energy, fast-moving sales manager. Beng is on the fast track, having been rapidly promoted from account manager to sales specialist to senior sales specialist in the past two years. His track record as a salesperson is stellar--he's one of the highest producers in the division. At the end of last year, Beng received a promotion and is now the manager of a team of ten sales reps. His days are a blur of management team meetings, marketing sessions, sales forecasting meetings, and conferences with the senior executive committee. He often travels globally to Singapore, Russia, Denmark, and Portugal to meet with corporate clients. 

When team members try to schedule time with Beng, he often tells them, "Have my assistant book time on my calendar. " However, these meetings, while scheduled on Beng's calendar, often never happen. Something else always surfaces that drags Beng away. Denise, a new sales rep on the team, is particularly frustrated by her lack of communication with Beng. She has challenging sales goals but she doesn't have the depth of product knowledge she needs to meet them. Denise has set up three meetings with Beng and he has cancelled all of them due to other priorities that have surfaced.  

Let's look at a few clues that identify the drive-by boss. He may often:

• Miss meetings or hold them infrequently or without planning
• Fail to provide you with clear expectations or assignments
• Pay very little attention to or have unrealistic expectations about your work or workload
• Fail to respond to messages
• Avoid conducting performance appraisals or providing regular feedback
• Fail to keep you informed on important developments
• Provide insufficient resources
• Ignore performance problems and team conflicts
• Seem stressed and harried
• Lack the respect of his colleagues

Drive-by Bosses may lack key management skills, may be overwhelmed by competing priorities, may expect their team to sink or swim, or may not enjoy the requirements of managing others.  To hear a drive-by boss in action, watch this short video at NetSpeed Fast Tracks.  

There are three principles that can help you work with drive-by bosses to encourage greater engagement: Take Responsibility, Extend Respect, and Be Real.

Take Responsibility

• Look at your contribution to the situation.
• Focus on what you can do about the drive-by boss. Help him and educate him.
• Communicate. Keep your boss informed.
• Perform well (so your boss will want to help you).

Extend Respect

• Listen carefully to his reasons for delaying actions.
• Respect the organization's structure and culture.
• Honor differences in style or work method.

Be Real

• Bring up issues that are on your mind.

Many drive-by bosses need their employees to organize their requests, carefully plan their interactions, and focus on reducing how much time is required to present situations, questions, and recommendations. Rather than complaining about the boss, you will work more constructively by taking responsibility for getting what you need from him.

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Trainer Tips:  Technology-Proof Your
Web Conference Learning Events

by Cynthia Clay

We've delivered a gazillion online learning experiences using platforms such as WebEx, Adobe Connect, Citrix Go to Webinar, and Microsoft Live Meeting. So I know what I'm saying when I observe: what can go wrong will go wrong.

Here are some suggestions to bullet proof your online learning:

#1: ALWAYS conduct a Dry Run prior to the actual web conference training session. Why?

• Get the presenter and host on the same page regarding their roles
• Reset the training room polls and chats
• Ensure no system gremlins have emerged
• Discover changes to the web conference platform before your next event
• Practice handoffs and transitions between presenter and host
• Double-check the PowerPoint slides to be sure they're current
• Play and test video (if necessary)
• Open your webcam to check lighting and placement

#2: ALWAYS test break-out rooms with real people. Why? 

• Ensure that practice participants experience a smooth  transition to the break-out room
• Ensure that they also make it back to the main room smoothly
• Test the audio/teleconference bridge
• Make sure that break-out room whiteboards and chats can be brought back to the main room
• Practice the series of steps required to set up, launch and end break-out rooms professionally

#3: ALWAYS have a contingency plan. How? 

• Print out your slides in case the platform crashes but you are still on the teleconference bridge
• Practice passing the controls to the host, if the presenter's computer crashes
• Have a cell phone ready to dial the teleconference bridge if your phone lines go down
• Make sure the host has the technical support number, just in case the unthinkable happens

I recently was asked to lead a 60-minute webinar in an unfamiliar platform for a major HR/Training organization. The week before my session, I learned that this organization doesn't provide dry runs for their speakers. Instead they do a 30-minute speaker training and call it good. Granted, most speakers probably just show a slide deck from their desktop and open a poll or two,  but my session was much more complicated: I had a presentation with eight polls and a one-minute video. No way was I going to be able to do this in a new platform without practicing. To make this session bullet-proof, I signed up for a 30-day trial of the software, set up my own dry run, invited a few participants, and practiced the whole presentation with all of the interaction tools I had planned. The result? A professional webinar in which I felt completely confident throughout.  

(The content in this Trainer Tips is based on Cynthia Clay's book, Great Webinars: How to Create Interactive Learning that is Captivating, Informative and Fun.)