Lonnie Pacelli's Blog, page 73

Get Them To Solve Problems Not Just Raise Concerns

Some time back one of my managers sent out an email announcing that we had just won an account.  Several of us responded to the email expressing our excitement over the new account.  One of my managers responded with "I've got concerns" and listed off a series of issues with servicing the account.  All of the issues that the manager brought up were valid issues; the problem is that I didn't know who was expected to do what regarding the issues.
I asked the manager that raised the issues to get in a room with a couple of other managers and put some resolution to the issues.  About an hour later the manager responded with a solid approach that would be taken which worked for everyone and addressed all of the concerns raised.

We've all experienced the person who had no problem at all saying "I've got concerns" to just about anything but offered nothing constructive in terms of suggested resolutions.  The culprit wants to be the one to raise the issue and wants someone else to take ownership to resolve the problem.  That dog don't hunt with me.
Amazon.com Widgets When situations like this happen with me, I like to have the one that raises the issue get with a small subset of interested parties to come up with a resolution to the issue, and hold the person who raised the issue accountable for reporting back to the rest of the team as to the resolution.  What I've found in doing this is that the quality of the solution is much better than a solution that any one person could have come up with because the interested stakeholders have all put their thumb-print on the resolution. 

Next time one of your team members raises an issue, consider putting the issue back to a few of your team members, asking the person who raised the issue to drive resolution to the issue, and reporting back to the team the proposed resolution.  You'll get a better quality resolution and you’ll reduce churn with the team. 

Giving An Inch Is A Privilege Not A Right

Some time back I had a situation where two employees of mine were looking for me to cut them some slack on a commitment that they made but didn’t deliver upon.   They threw every lame excuse in the book at me; it was one excuse of “my dog ate my homework” after another.  After their lobbying me I decided to not cut them any slack; they didn’t meet a commitment because they didn’t perform.  In both situations, I am pretty sure that both of these employees wanted to chuck me out of the highest window they could find.   Well, I guess I'll just need to stay away from tall buildings, because I did the right thing.
Allowing an employee or team member to miss a commitment can very quickly become a slippery slope.  Sure, the occasional miss can be OK  due to circumstances beyond his or her control, but I've been burned more than once where an employee has taken advantage of the inch I gave him or her and would chronically miss meeting commitments.  I have learned to be careful about who I give an inch to and under what situations I give an inch versus staying steadfast . 
Amazon.com Widgets Sure, most people like to be accommodating and cut an employee or team member some slack on a commitment.  Just remember that giving an inch is a privilege and that if you start getting taken advantage of then stop giving the inch.   Sure, someone may get torqued at you but at the end of the day you’ll be able to look at yourself in the mirror knowing you’ve done the right thing.

Doing Things Right Versus Doing The Right Thing

In an earlier leadership role I had been striving to create focus and accountability within each of our major work areas.  The team responded beautifully with doing their best to adjust to roles, to stay focused on their areas, and to minimize confusion by stepping across boundaries.  They did exactly as I asked.

We were in a team meeting and I could see that there was erupting confusion around contacting customers in an effort to close some sales.  There was a lot of respect for my sales & marketing manager in not stepping in on her turf when it came to customers. Where the problem arose, though, was in the fact that the team was confused as to who was supposed to be following up on some key sales activity that had begun prior to our organizational re-alignment.
I had failed to place better focus on ensuring there was a clear transition of responsibilities for these key customers.   As a result, the team was doing things right, but because of my direction the team wasn't doing the right thing in closing sales.  In the end, we got things straightened out but not without some regrouping and after-the-fact clarity definition.

Too many times in organizations we get hyper focused on following the rules:  enter an order this way, follow up on an incident like this, fill out a form like so.
Amazon.com Widgets Following rules are good, but when we allow following the rules to take precedence over common-sense business judgment we are more apt to do the wrong thing even though we followed the rules.  Take this to an extreme and now you're a walking, talking organizational robot who allows business judgment to atrophy just like an unused muscle.   

Be keen to the rules, but if you see you're about to do the wrong thing then put the rule to question.  You may not do something the right way, but at least you'll have done the right thing, which I'll take any day of the year.

Delegate Problems, Not Tasks

On one of my consulting assignments I worked with one of the client's young rising stars who I'll call Buddy.  Buddy was an incredibly hard worker, could take on a number of projects at one time, and managed to deliver results on a very timely basis.  Buddy was also brilliant and had a very practical and keen business sense.  Great raw materials for a great future leader. 
In working with Buddy I noticed something about his delegation style; Buddy was very good at delegating tasks to others.  He outlined the task to be done, communicated a due date for the task, and ensured the delegatee knew what the deliverable needed to look like.  What I noticed, though, was that Buddy retained control of the problem and rarely empowered others to solve problems.  While he was good at delegating tasks, he was very lacking at empowering others to solve problems. 
As leaders, it is easy to send employees on "errands"; produce a report, gather data.  Great leaders don't send employees on errands; they ask employees to solve problems.  This not only makes the employee feel more valued because they are being entrusted with something big, it also makes life easier on you because you'll have less on your plate.  Aside from the fact that you're helping your employee grow by stretching him or her to perform at a higher level.

Next time you think delegation, think about whether you're delegating a task or a problem.  If it is a task, try to take a step back and articulate a problem to be solved then let your employee have a rip at solving the problem. 

Data! I Need More Data!

In a prior life I was having a discussion with two of our managers on deciding between which of two food shows we should have a booth.  As the discussion went on, one of our managers said, "well, we just need to do more research on what the best food show is for us to attend."  While it is true we didn't have enough information to make a good decision, what we were missing was the decision criteria in which to make the  right  decision.  Once we focused the discussion on what our decision criteria was (buyer attendance, breadth of product line which we can show, and cost), our data gathering became much more purposeful and focused and yielded a better-informed decision.
Some people just can't have enough data and are very reluctant to make decisions under less-than-optimal conditions.  As leaders, it is a very rare day that we have perfect information at our disposal in which to make decisions.  Maybe the information doesn't exist or the time taken to gather all of the information is cost-prohibitive.  What is important for us as leaders is to be very precise with the decision criteria and then gather must-need information to support the decision criteria.  Just setting out on a data-gathering expedition is not only frustrating for the person doing the research, it is also more expensive than basing information gathering on decision criteria.  
Next time you’re faced with deciding between multiple alternatives, take the time up front to define specific decision criteria then do your data gathering based on the criteria.  You'll make a high-quality decision which costs less in terms of time and money.

Accompany Delegated Problems with Guiding Principles

Recently I ran across a situation that reminded me of leaders needing to delegate responsibility while remaining engaged with what the team is doing.  At one of my former employers we had a particularly thorny issue which required multiple groups to work together to address.  It was important that I delegate resolution of the issue to the team, but it was also important that the team had a glimpse into some of my thinking on the issue.  When I delegated the issue to one of my managers for resolution, I also articulated some guiding principles that the team needed to keep in mind while resolving the issue.  What this allowed me to do was not only provide some considerations for the team to noodle over while coming up with a resolution to the issue but also empower the team to make the decision as to what to do about the issue.
This approach works out great for a few reasons:  
The leader gets to set some direction on the resolution without dictating the resolution
The team is empowered to make decisions while understanding the leader's point-of-view on the issue
The team is more likely to come up with a resolution which won't have to be reworked because it falls outside of the leader's expectations
Amazon.com Widgets As a leader, make sure you empower your team to solve problems and make decisions; just don't be hesitant to express some guiding principles or points of view that the team needs to consider in making the decision.

12 Pieces of Advice for Young Dads

Patty and I have successfully launched two wonderful children from the nest and we're now enjoying all the benefits of having a great relationship with our kids while at the same time living a very fulfilling life as empty nesters.  Through the years of raising our kids both Patty and I grew by leaps and bounds in how we parented both together as a team as well as separately as father and mother.  I can point to a number of things we did well while there were a few things we could have done things better.  As a father, I learned some very important lessons which I feel are crucial for any dad to be aware of when traveling the child-rearing journey.   So, for all my young dad readers (or someone who knows a young dad), here's my 12 pieces of advice for young dads: Sit down to dinner together at the same time every night with no TV, phones, or other distractions Let your kids see how you love your wife through words and actions Tell your kids you love them just because Put your wife and kids first in what you do - believe me they notice Just like you don't drink and drive, don't discipline when angry Don't use work as an excuse for missing an important event more than 10% of the time When teenagers want to talk, drop everything to listen Take tons of pictures with your kids having fun and being totally goofy.   They love it when you make a fool of yourself and the moment can be preserved forever. Have high expectations, but be their greatest cheerleader Let them know your passions and dreams, but give them the freedom and encouragement to develop their own Create and keep family traditions Don't abdicate your role as leader of the family

Crucial Skills for Today's PM

Project management is changing….it's becoming more strategic, more mainstream, and not just synonymous with technology implementations. Today's PM needs to be more than technically adept or be able to whip out a gantt chart.  Get a read on some of these crucial skills the everyday PM will need to succeed:
Communication - PM's need to be very adept at communicating to the project team, stakeholders, sponsors, and executives. You could have the best project in the world but if you can't communicate what you're doing you're going to have a difficult time getting others to buy in.

Risk and Issue Management - PM's need to be diligent at identifying material project risks and knowing what mitigation strategies they are going to use to try to avert the risks. Also PM's need to be able to monitor project issues closely and avoid a small issue growing into a massive one that can torpedo the project.
Planning - PM's need to pave the way for the project team and need to design the work in such a way that the team understands what needs to be done, when it needs to be done, who needs to do it, and what dependencies exist among the tasks.

Ability to work virtually - Today's PM's need to be able to work with project teams spread across town, across the country, or across the world. The PM needs to understand how to keep a project team together when the project team can span the globe or cross organizations and ensure that everyone is working out of the same playbook.

Being a Good Businessperson Doesn't Mean You Have to be a Horse's Hind

Some time back I spent about three hours writing and doing emails at one of our local malls.  I love this place because there are lots of tables to sit at and the mall has free wireless access so I can be online all the time.  As I was exiting the mall I noticed a woman about 20 feet away from the entrance heading into the mall.  As I walked out the door I held the door open for this woman for a few seconds.  As she walked by me into the mall she said "WOW!"  She was surprised that I actually took three seconds out of my life to hold a door open for a complete stranger.  Imagine what I could have done with those three seconds that I wasted :-). 
This got me to thinking a lot about how we do business.  I remember back to one of my college jobs selling clothes a sweet elderly salesperson telling me "you know, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar!"  Her simple words of advice really stuck with me.  To get things done in business you don't always have to be a horse's ass.  Sure, there are times where being firm is necessary but to be someone that suppliers, partners, colleagues, and customers avoid because you're going to wreck their day just doesn't need to happen.
Amazon.com Widgets I must admit to you that there were plenty of times that I was a horse's hind and had people cursing me under their breath.  I can also probably say that it will probably happen in the future.  However, I firmly believe that being aware of how you come off to other people will help you be more conscious of the behavior and will reduce the number of horse's ass incidents.  I guess you could call me a recovering horse's hind…

Right-Size Passion: Cultivate it, Don't Squelch It

Some years back one of my sales directors had been diligently working with online retailers to partner to get our retail product on their websites.  During a one week period she had several very promising phone calls which in turn generated lots of excitement on her part.  The term exuberant couldn't quite capture how she was truly feeling.  She was absolutely giddy with excitement.  More importantly, she landed several very profitable accounts.  Love it!
This situation reminded me about the importance of cultivating passion.  Lots of times an individual or a team can get so taken up with small victories that good sound business logic can take a back seat to passion.  As a leader, it is important that you direct and channel the passion in your team to ensure that your business objectives can still be met.  Let passion run amok and you run the risk of poor decisions being made; squelch passion, and you're likely to sap the energy from your team and not achieve the best possible results.   
Amazon.com Widgets Be a voice of reason with your team but do so in an encouraging and positive manner.   Squelch passion and you'll squelch results.