Archive for category Motivation
Us and Them
Posted by enrique s in Career, Motivation on July 14th, 2010
The division where I work was formed from the merger of two separate companies. Each company had a distinct product line, and there wasn’t much interaction between the two sides. This did not change when the people were co-located in the same building. In fact, I think the close proximity led to a polarization of the two groups. While the people all worked in the same area, there seemed to be an invisible wall between the groups. The cliques were out in full force.
With any consolidation comes the expectation of a cost take-out. For instance, you don’t need two managers for one department. Who stays in control is often determined by who wins the power struggle between the big shots to lead the new combined division. Directors like to surround themselves with their own “guys”; their own people provide a comfort zone in which to operate. My division was no exception; the losers either left on their own or were told not to let the door hit them on the ass on the way out.
As you can imagine, watching your old management team being unceremoniously shown the door can cause morale problems for the losing side. The have-nots start to watch their backs. With no champion in the director’s seat, they have to prove themselves all over again, like new hires. More resentment follows, and the chasm grows. But time heals many wounds, and new alliances are formed as needed. What follows is a period of peaceful apprehension. It’s like that scene in Independence Day, where you see the Israeli and Arab forces working side, fighting the aliens, all the while keeping an eye on each other.
But what can help a group of people to congeal? Is there a magic formula? I think there is, and I’ve seen it firsthand. It’s called a takeover. See, my division was reassigned to a new, larger superdivision. With that came changes to all of our familiar systems, and a shitload of new procedures. Months of mind-numbing training preceded the changeover. The patronizing attitude of the new management towards us made us seethe. It was us against them.
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” - Sun-tzu
So, united against a common enemy, the once-disfunctional division became one. We saw our differences as few, and the things we had in common more important. Like the former enemies in Independence Day, a greater “evil” forced us to work together. We were all “us” now; there wasn’t any “them” anymore.
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Showing Off
Posted by enrique s in Career, Motivation on June 11th, 2010
Photo by BobMacInnes
After the end of yet another weekend of powerwashing, I was treated to the aerobatics of a trio of red-tail hawks. I had just lit up my last Gurkha, and easing into a lounge chair, set to polishing off a Bass ale, when I heard the shrill cry from above. It was a windy Sunday, and a weather front was moving in (bad cigar-lighting weather). As the birds fought the gusts, it reminded me of kids showing off on their bikes.
I can remember, back in the day, when my friends and I would pop wheelies in the road, and see who could hold the wheelie the longest. There would come bragging rights for the afternoon, along with the skinned elbows and knees, and the occasional chipped tooth. We’d have other contests, like holding our breath under water, which I can see were just other ways of showing off, like a bunch of teenage gorillas beating on our chests. We were just showing off our skills.
It also brought to mind the ways that we show off at work. It might take the form of finishing before everyone else (guilty), or putting the most color slides in a PowerPoint presentation (not my strong point). Unfortunately, sometimes it might mean making someone else look bad, to show how diligent you are (are you reading this, Office Snitch?), because you have nothing else to bring to the plate. Funny how childhood habits follow us throughout our lives.
I guess showing off makes us better. We try to present our best attributes, to show how skillful we are. Does standing out make you a better leader? It worked for Patton. Maybe showing off brings out the qualities that are successful, and should be emulated. Though I doubt that I’ll be soaring like those hawks anytime soon.
I watched the hawks for a long time, long enough to wish that I’d took my time drinking that Bass. It was better than any air show that I’ve ever seen. After having my senses drowned out from the noisy powerwasher for two days, the hawk’s cry was a welcome tonic. I finished my cigar, and prepared for my next day at work.
I wonder what I can do to show off this week?
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Peer Pressure
Posted by enrique s in Career, Motivation on June 9th, 2010
Photo by satanoid
In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell talks about a study that was done with teen smoking. The study concluded that anti-smoking ads are largely ineffective, as they address adult concerns about smoking. Teens are influenced more by the behavior of their peers, the “cool” kids who smoke, than by the admonishments of their parents. Which got my demented brain thinking about a workplace correlation.
Everybody has a boss. You may look up to your supervisor, modeling yourself after their positive attributes. You may think he’s a real asshole, and curse the ground on which he walks. While your boss does have some influence over your behavior, who really drives the way you act when you’re in the office? Probably your coworkers. And I don’t mean that in a good way, either.
I can only offer up anecdotal evidence, but from what I’ve seen throughout my career, it’s the people you work with, rather than the person you work for, who have a greater influence over your actions. I can remember my first real job, where, after completing my assignments faster than my coworkers, I was told by one grizzled veteran that I’d better “slow down, if you know what’s good for you. You’re making everyone else look bad.” Here I was, a greenhorn, just out of college, making waves. I decided to conform, and downshifted to the speed of my slower colleagues, to the detriment of my company. Instead, I should have told him that he didn’t need me to make him look bad; that he was doing a good enough job on his own.
Or my first promotion, where I was taken under the wing of a shifty character, who showed me the secrets of disappearing and not getting caught. Vanishing into thin air, long enough to give one a jump at the free buffet at Happy Hour. No sense waiting until quitting time with the other suckers. Who’s going to miss me on a Friday afternoon, anyway?
What peer pressure causes you to do is to compromise. Not only are you compromising your principles, and your own standards of excellence, but also your career. Managers are looking for people who stand out in a crowd, not at the crowd itself. A couple of go-to guys make up for the rest of the run-of-the-mill mediocrity of the rest of the rank-and-file. Do you want to be another dull, conforming schlub, or do you want to keep improving?
Your peers, while they form a support system, also form the golden handcuffs that keep you from standing out. They’re the anchor that keeps you weighted down, preventing your rise to your level of excellence. So even though your boss might be an asshole, he’s an asshole that once stood out enough from his peers to get promoted.
Perhaps he’s the asshole that the sun shines out of.
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The Spittoon Polisher
Posted by enrique s in Career, Motivation, Productivity on June 7th, 2010
Parkinson’s Law - Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.
Truer words have never been written. Why does everything miraculously get finished at the deadline? Because that’s how much time is allotted to complete the assignment. People who have sat on their ass all week suddenly spring to action an hour before a deadline, going balls to the wall. Somehow, everything gets done on time.
I took Parkinson’s Law to the extreme every time that I had a college term paper due. I would never write a rough copy; I would type my final version straight from my notes, starting with the body of the report. Oh, and I started the night before it was due, downing much coffee and eating boxes of Entenmann’s cookies to fuel my madness. After a couple hours of sleep, I’d finish up the intro and conclusion, along with any works cited. It’s a good thing that I thrive under pressure; I graduated Magna Cum Laude.
What makes rational people act irrationally, procrastinating to the point of sheer lunacy? I once worked with a guy who always worked right up to deadlines. My boss called him the Spittoon Polisher. I can remember going to a VP’s meeting, re-stapling the presentations as we walked down the hallway, because the Spittoon Polisher had a last-minute change.
He was called the Spittoon Polisher after a story that my boss told us:
There once was a man who polished brass spittoons to a gleaming luster. When a customer asked the polisher, “How do you know when you are finished?”, the polisher answered, “When my boss physically pries the spittoon from my hands, and I can polish no more.”
People like the Spittoon Polisher will never finish early. They, like my college-aged self, are strict adherents to Parkinson’s Law. They will use every available minute before a deadline to complete a task. It puts a strain on those that are at their mercy. I know it drove me nuts!
My frustrations from my time with the Spittoon Polisher forced me to confront my own procrastination. I thought about how arrogant it was to make others wait on me, never knowing if I was going to come through. So I evolved. Rather than relying on a Hail Mary at the end of regulation, I learned how to work smarter. I forced myself to become more efficient. I wanted to become the go-to guy, the one who could be relied upon to hold up his end of the bargain.
So I jumped on my responsibilities. I became the guy that finished early. Like Tommy Henrich of the Yankees, Old Reliable himself, I came through in the clutch.
Parkinson’s Law my ass!
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Alibi Ike
Posted by enrique s in Career, Leadership, Motivation, Rants on May 18th, 2010
Alibi Ike was a character in a series of short stories written by Ring Lardner. They centered around a baseball player who was prone to making excuses for his shortcomings.
Several excuses are always less convincing than one. - Aldous Huxley
In the midst of the recent layoffs and reorganization at my place of business, my group inherited a company lifer from another area. While he has a finance background, and seems to be a decent guy, I think he’s going to have trouble lasting through the next layoff. The reason: he likes to make excuses. He’s our very own Alibi Ike.
Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anyone else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. - Henry Ward Beecher
Well, they sound innocent enough:
“I just took over this project, so you’ll have to bear with me.”
“We used to have a larger staff, but I’ve lost 40% of my people.”
“I thought so-and-so was handling that one.”
“Everyone’s morale is down due to the layoffs.”
“I wanted to stay late to help, but I had a doctor’s appointment last night.”
“I know it’s crunch time, but I had this vacation planned long before I was transferred into this department.”
On their own, they don’t sound like a big deal. But I sit within earshot of Ike, and I see a pattern developing. A pattern that makes me think that Ike’s a little full of shit.
Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure. - Don Wilder and Bill Rechin
If Ike only knew what our boss valued most: accountability. I once worked for a controller who was, err, let’s just say he was exacting. He looked like John Locke from Lost. When our computer system crashed the night before his flash numbers were due, he would accept no excuse for missing the deadline. “We have four hours. Get your ass and a calculator over to shipping and get me my sales numbers!” True, he was a prick, but he did get his flash numbers in on time.
Success is a tale of obstacles overcome, and for every obstacle overcome, an excuse not used. - Robert Brault
The controller taught me a lesson that day: any obstacle can be overcome if you perservere. So when you’re hit with a challenge, stop whining about how hard it is. Challenges are difficult in their design; that’s why they’re called challenges. Suck it up and find a way around it. Don’t let yourself off easy with an excuse.
The person who really wants to do something finds a way; the other person finds an excuse. ~Author Unknown
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Reshuffling at the Office
Posted by enrique s in Career, Leadership, Motivation on March 16th, 2010
Change it had to come
We knew it all along
-from The Who song “Won’t Get Fooled Again”
We had another reorganization at my company. That’s the second in about six months, for those keeping score at home. Divisions were consolidated, all in the name of enabling future growth. I’m a skeptic and a realist (and maybe a little paranoid), so I expected some announcement about cost-cutting.
But the world looks just the same
And history ain’t changed
Well, we didn’t have to wait long. Two days later brought an official release from our VP, who broke the bad news in an email. Layoffs would start in a month. Anyone who wished to be put on a voluntary list should stop by HR for the necessary paperwork. Happy Monday!
Meet the new boss
On a surprising note, the incumbent leaders in my area were all sacked. That there replacements were from a lower pay grade was merely a coincidence. Yeah, right. We had our first staff meeting with the new big cheese today.
Same as the old boss? Maybe not.
Well, I was pleasantly surprised by the new head honcho. He stated that the restructuring made little sense to him, too. He said to expect personnel cuts in our organization, and admitted that he had no idea in which direction the company was moving in regard to our division. A pretty candid admission for the first day. I think I’m going to like this guy.
As long as I’m not on his layoff list…
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Don’t Go Through Life Seeking Forgiveness
Posted by enrique s in Career, Motivation, Productivity, Rants on January 26th, 2010
Photo by spud murphy
We all run into the type of person who’s always sorry for disappointing you. They’re late for a holiday dinner. “I couldn’t find my car keys.” They forget to pick up milk on the way home. “I was in a rush, and forgot to write it down.” They don’t show up for an important meeting. “I was on a telecon with the rep from XYZ Corp, and couldn’t break away.” Sometimes, we might even do it ourselves, and we expect to be forgiven for our small indiscretion.
My dog ate my homework
But what happens when it becomes a pattern, a modus operandi? You’re always apologizing for something that you did or didn’t do. Your reputation suffers. People label you as a person that can’t be counted on, because your track record shows that you’ll eventually fail to come through in the clutch. If you can’t be relied upon, what value do you have to other people? I worked for a controller who fired a highly skilled worker because he called in sick too often on Mondays. How much was too often? Twice. I kid you not.
…but at least you’re here
I had a cousin who wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, if you get my point. But his boss absolutely loved him, no matter how many times he had to re-do his work. The secret: he always perservered, and left no job unfinished. He was a man of his word. He always showed up for work, too, and on time. The saying, “You ain’t worth a damn, but at least you’re here”, would apply in this case. His boss valued his reliability over his somewhat lacking ability.
Pull your weight
I had a discussion in this vein with my son the other day. We were talking about the remaining free agent pitchers, and Jon Garland’s name came up. I told him that I thought that Garland was just mediocre, but that he always ate up lots of innings. In other words, he wasn’t in the same class as John Lackey or Rich Harden, but that you could count on him for his consistency. He would win about 12 games and give the bullpen a break, just what you look for in a 5th starter. Harden and Ben Sheets, while possessing far more ability, are always coming up with sore arms. Garland will probably make about $4 million this year. Not too shabby for mediocrity.
Making the cut
Look around your office. It might be full of mediocre workers, but they probably share some of the same traits as my cousin and Jon Garland. They always show up, like cops to a loud party. They can be counted on, and their reliability may be the only thing keeping them employed. So when push comes to shove, and it’s time for downsizing, a worker who is more skilled but less reliable might be sacrificed instead of a less skilled worker who can always be counted on.
Think about that before you have to make an excuse. Like Jethro Gibbs says, don’t apologize. It’s a sign of weakness.
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Are You on “Lombardi Time”?
Posted by enrique s in Career, Motivation, Productivity, Rants on January 14th, 2010
Vince Lombardi, the all-time great football coach of the Green Bay Packers, epitomized preparation and hard work. He also operated on “Lombardi Time”, the principle that you should show up to a meeting, prepared, at least 10-15 minutes early. His winning record speaks to the success of his time management. Alas, Lombardi Time seems to be foreign to many of my coworkers, and they demonstrate their ignorance of this principle far too often.
“The individual who is habitually tardy in meeting and appointment, will never be respected or successful in life” - Rev. Willbur Fisk
Early this week, I was in two separate meetings where the start time was treated as a loose guideline. In one meeting, one late comer literally stood on a chair and turned the clock back to joke that he was early. Everyone laughed, except the guy running the meeting. In the second meeting, another late arrival disrupted the meeting by slamming the door shut, stepping on another person’s foot, and grunting his way out of his coat. I’m sure that Miss Manners would have been horrified. I know that Jake would have been fuming.
“He was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of time.” - Oscar Wilde
Jake, you ask? Jake was a big shot in the first company that I worked for. Jake also operated on Lombardi Time, which is where I first heard the expression. Jake expected all of his managers to be on time for his monthly staff meeting. I pity the fool who arrived late for Jake. See, Jake wouldn’t tolerate any Johnny-come-latelies who barged in and disrupted the proceedings. Jake was an old-school hardass. His remedy was locking the door at the scheduled start time, and then taking attendance! If your name didn’t show up on the attendance list, you were in for an ass-whoopin’. Needless to say, you were only late for Jake’s meeting once. The second lateness was your ticket out the door.
“The trouble with being punctual is that nobody’s there to appreciate it.” - Franklin P. Jones
I’m not saying you should show up for every meeting 15 minutes early. The cost of the time spent waiting for meetings to start over the course of a year would be staggering. I’m just saying that you should show up early. Let’s say two minutes early. That gives you enough time to pick out a choice seat and spread out your materials. Oh, yeah, and when your Outlook calendar reminder pops up 15 minutes before the meeting, this is not the time to start printing out the attachments for the meeting. If you follow my end-of-the-day system, the attachments should already be sitting on your desk when you walk in (you’ll have printed them the night before). If you are late, try to be a little less conspicuous. You’ll be a less disruptive force. And Jesus, don’t step on my feet!
I used to be arrogant, and felt that my time was more important than anyone else’s. Running a few of your own meetings makes you appreciate the punctual people. I’m not perfect; I’ll still occasionally find myself racing toward the closing door of a meeting. But I’m working on improving my on-time performance, especially after reading this quote:
Punctuality is the stern virtue of men of business, and the graceful courtesy of princes. ~ Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
Here’s some good reading from the coach:
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Deming’s Seven Deadly Diseases
Posted by enrique s in Career, Leadership, Motivation on December 17th, 2009
I’ve wrote about W. Edwards Deming and his 14 Points in a previous post. You can read it here. Today, I’d like to talk about his Seven Deadly Diseases. These were the ailments that Deming saw as reason for the decline of Western Management:
Lack of constancy of purpose to plan product and service that will have a market and keep the company in business and provide jobs.
General Motors, anyone? Remember the Hummer? As people were clamoring for hybrid vehicles, dealerships couldn’t give these beasts away.
Emphasis on short-term profits: short term thinking, fed by fear of unfriendly takeover, and by plush from bankers and owners, for dividends.
My company focuses on “key salients”, i.e. measurable targets such as new orders, sales, profit, etc. Bonuses for the directors are tied to achieving their numbers for the year. It gets real interesting at year-end, as contracts are accepted with less-than-optimal profit margins just to achieve the new orders target. If this isn’t short-term thinking, I don’t know what is.
Personal review system, or evaluation of performance, merit rating, annual review, or annual appraisal, by whatever name, for people in management, the effects of which are devastating. Management by fear would be better, than management by objective without a method for accomplishment.
Oh boy, a pet peeve of mine. Every year, we have to compile a list of our objectives. The achievement of many of these is out of my control, but they count towards my performance anyway. What everyone does is sandbag their objectives, making most of them easy to attain, so that there’s only good news at review time. Nobody wants to miss accomplishing an objective. The system as it exists is basically useless as a management tool.
Mobility of management: job hopping.
One of my former employers encouraged this practice. They felt that you were ready for a new assignment every 18 months, and encouraged job-hopping. The only problem with this, besides lack of continuity with your customers, is that someone could do a lousy job and get promoted out of it - the Peter Principle in practice. You wouldn’t even know what damage was done until the dust settled. These screw-ups were using company policy to run away from their own messes. People were changing jobs more often than Larry Brown.
Use of visible figures only for management, with little or no consideration of figures that are unknown or unknowable.
Our division has been tasked with an 8% annual CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate). Our division is in the defense industry. We’re in a recession. Guess what’s getting cut to help pay for all of last year’s bailouts? That’s right, new defense contracts. Rather than look at a dollar value, we should measure our success against market share. Market share might be harder to measure than new orders, but it is more accurate in determining effectiveness in a declining market.
Excessive medical costs.
My company has a health club on the premises. You pay a small amount as a “copayment”, and you can use the equipment on your own time. We also have free blood pressure screenings. If more companies would offer these preventative measures, maybe we could cut health care costs.
Excessive costs of warranty, fueled by lawyers that work contingency fees.
The product line that I support has a built-in level of expected failures. This leads to the purchase of excess material, which ties up working capital. For every dollar that could be saved, we could invest it back into the company. Think about that when your foreman wants a few extra pieces “just in case”. Improve the quality, and improve the profits.
I’ve pointed out where my company has “sinned”. How about yours? Do you see your own company in any of these examples? If so, have the problems been identified, and any corrective action taken? Let’s hear it in the comments!
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Deming’s 14 Points
Posted by enrique s in Leadership, Motivation, Productivity on November 30th, 2009
Back when I was working towards my MBA, I had a professor that was very passionate. Let’s call him Nick. One night, Nick polled the class, asking us who we thought was the epitome of a great leader, a person whose policies allowed for everyone to win. When one of my classmates offered Lee Iacocca, the then-chairman of Chrysler as an example, I swear that I could see steam pouring out of Nick’s ears. “LEE IACOCCA!” he bellowed. “Lee Iacocca is building his engines in Mexico! How does that help everybody win? He’s trying to solely increase the bottom line by costing Americans jobs!”
You’re kidding, right?
Rather than ague with Nick, lest he burst a blood vessel in his forehead, we let him rant on. When he finally calmed down, he gave us his example of a good leader: H. Ross Perot. Yup. This was before he ran for president, and just after he sold his business, EDS to General Motors. All that I knew about Ross Perot was that Richard Crenna played him in that movie about a hostage rescue in Iran. As part of this diatribe, Nick also managed to dismiss Peter Drucker and Management By Objectives (MBO), and introduced us to W. Edwards Deming.
Who?
W. Edwards Deming was a statistician by trade, who wound up in postwar Japan to work on the census. He was invited to teach statistical control and the concepts of quality to a group of engineers, managers, and scholars. His concepts were put into practice by Japanese industry, and the rest is history. Japanese goods became renowned for their quality and reliability. Couple that with the energy crisis in the 1970s, and you can understand why Japanese automakers took away market share from Ford, Chrysler, and GM.
Indelible mark
See, while American auto companies were giving us the Corvair and the Pinto, Japanese car companies were building a reputation for quality that trumps American car companies to this day. Maybe Iacocca should have listened to Deming. Anyway, here are his 14 Points:
1. Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive and stay in business, and to provide jobs.
2. Adopt the new philosophy. We are in a new economic age. Western management must awaken to the challenge, must learn their responsibilities, and take on leadership for change.
3. Cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.
4. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag. Instead, minimize total cost. Move towards a single supplier for any one item, on a long-term relationship of loyalty and trust.
5. Improve constantly and forever the system of production and service, to improve quality and productivity, and thus constantly decrease costs.
6. Institute training on the job.
7. Institute leadership. The aim of supervision should be to help people and machines and gadgets to do a better job. Supervision of management is in need of overhaul, as well as supervision of production workers.
8. Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.
9. Break down barriers between departments. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team, to foresee problems of production and in use that may be encountered with the product or service.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets for the work force asking for zero defects and new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.
11.a. Eliminate work standards (quotas) on the factory floor. Substitute leadership.
11.b. Eliminate management by objective. Eliminate management by numbers, numerical goals. Substitute leadership.
12.a. Remove barriers that rob the hourly worker of his right to pride of workmanship. The responsibility of supervisors must be changed from sheer numbers to quality.
12.b. Remove barriers that rob people in management and in engineering of their right to pride of workmanship. This means, inter alia, abolishment of the annual or merit rating and of management by objective.
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
14. Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everybody’s job.
It’s funny how these concepts are just being accepted now, more than 20 years after Deming wrote about them in his book Out of the Crisis. My company has started preaching the “factory without walls” concept to help our diverse divisions work together to bring in new business. Too bad they’re still stuck on slogans. Here’s a link to a Wikipedia entry that provides more background on Dr. Deming: W. Edwards Deming at Wikipedia
I’ll be revisiting Deming in the coming weeks, so stay tuned! Why not subscribe, so you don’t miss a new installment? Subscribe
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