There were two main topics covered in our work this week: Change and How Generations Affect Leadership.
The Change portion included "Who Moved My Cheese". I am very familiar with this book, since I first read it about 8 or 9 years ago. It also started a trend in business and leadership publishing, and I have read several similar books since. The formula is simple. Find an easy metaphor, then use it to explain how even though change is scary, good things can come out of it. Some other examples include "The Ring in the Rubble" and "Our Iceberg Is Melting". In all of these books the message is similar: Although Change can be difficult, it is through change that we grow and evolve as human beings, and many times the results of change are an improvement over where we started. However the reason so many books like this exist is that most people still do not like change. Once they are comfortable in a situation, they stop looking for alternatives. Any event that requires them to shift out of that situation is viewed as a threat. However these types of books can at least help them recognize this reaction in themselves, and hopefully get them to look beyond the immediate change.
Another part of our assignment was to read an article about generational differences. While I agree that generations grow up with similar experiences that will produce some similar traits, I am always worried that these articles will be taken as gospel. Even though a generation may have some similar experiences, the individuals in that generation will also have had many separate experiences. Leaders should be careful not to use to broad a brush when making generalizations about their teams. If you pay attention to the individuals, you will be able to spot their motivations and interests, regardless of what generation they come from.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Saturday, March 24, 2012
CEdO565 Week 2 - Data Based Analysis
This week's assignments all revolved around using data to evaluate the performance of your school or business. This is a key point, as if you do not have data, you might not even be looking at the right problem. One way I have heard it expressed is "The problem you name is the problem you solve". If you do not use data to correctly identify an issue that your school is experiencing, you might spend a lot of time working on the wrong issue.
I am very familiar with doing data based analysis from a project perspective, but since I am not a teacher, I did not have access to the same level of detailed data for the training in our business. That right there is a problem, and one that I will start looking to solve. We need to do a better job of measuring the effectiveness of the training we give, and measure that effectiveness over time. I know very specifically what we spent on training, but we have much less data on whether that training was worthwhile. Did we get our money's worth?
When it came time to do the Virtual Data Retreat, I decided to pretend I was a high school teacher from the Hamilton school district, which is where I live. Fortunately there is a wealth of data available about the performance of our public schools. I had never given much thought to how our school district performs, but thanks to the government websites provided in class, I was able to find many statistics. In fact my biggest problem was learning to comb through the pike of information and find the statistics that really apply to the questions. Once I had good data though it was easy to look through and find trends, such as the math and science proficiency scores are lagging behind the rest of the subjects, and had been for a number of years. With this information I could now "name the problem", specifically that we needed to improve our science and math scores. To this end I recommended that we visit other schools that have better records in this areas and learn from their success. Their ideas can help improve the function of our school.
I am very familiar with doing data based analysis from a project perspective, but since I am not a teacher, I did not have access to the same level of detailed data for the training in our business. That right there is a problem, and one that I will start looking to solve. We need to do a better job of measuring the effectiveness of the training we give, and measure that effectiveness over time. I know very specifically what we spent on training, but we have much less data on whether that training was worthwhile. Did we get our money's worth?
When it came time to do the Virtual Data Retreat, I decided to pretend I was a high school teacher from the Hamilton school district, which is where I live. Fortunately there is a wealth of data available about the performance of our public schools. I had never given much thought to how our school district performs, but thanks to the government websites provided in class, I was able to find many statistics. In fact my biggest problem was learning to comb through the pike of information and find the statistics that really apply to the questions. Once I had good data though it was easy to look through and find trends, such as the math and science proficiency scores are lagging behind the rest of the subjects, and had been for a number of years. With this information I could now "name the problem", specifically that we needed to improve our science and math scores. To this end I recommended that we visit other schools that have better records in this areas and learn from their success. Their ideas can help improve the function of our school.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Week 1 of 565: Leadership in our Current Role
This is a class where I already have some background, as I have been a manager in my current company for the last six years. I currently have a team of 6 people working for me, and in the past I have had as many as 10 direct reports. However it is important to not confuse management with leadership. Management is having direct authority over people, and being responsible for budgets, projects, and time lines. However everyone has known people who are good at managing these things and no good at leading people. Likewise there are many influential leaders who have no formal authority. The best managers are the ones who recognize both the formal and informal aspects of leadership, so they can take care of their people as well as the details of projects.
Since I have been in a managers role, I have had to work on many aspects of my own leadership style. One of the biggest challenges I have had is having the Difficult Conversation. This is when someone is not performing well, and you have to tell them that their performance needs to change or else there will be consequences. Too often those conversation start with "You know what you do wrong?" and go downhill from there. One of the best suggestions I have heard for this is from Len Leritz, who wrote "No Fault Negotiating." He suggested that you always have the conversation using the first person. After all, you are the individual who has made the observations and who is asking for the change. He then suggests that you use the following statements:
I See..... - State the facts about what you have observed, where has the performance been sub-optimal. No emotions at this point!
I Think..... - This is where you state why you think the behavior is occurring. You have probably made some assumptions about the employee. Make sure to state them and see if they are correct. You could very well be wrong.
I Feel..... - Since all conversations have some emotional subtext, this is the place to state it. Does the performance make you frustrated, irritated, embarrassed? State it here.
I Want..... - This is the part of the conversation where you describe your desired outcome. Give the person a picture of the future.
I Need..... - This is the meat of the conversation. This is where you tell the person the new behavior that you need to see, as well as the consequences if it does not change. The key here is to set some measurable goals for the person, and to provide the help they need to reach them. This has to come last, and if you have set the context with the previous statements, this should not be too difficult.
Hopefully some others will find some value in this approach, I know I have.
Since I have been in a managers role, I have had to work on many aspects of my own leadership style. One of the biggest challenges I have had is having the Difficult Conversation. This is when someone is not performing well, and you have to tell them that their performance needs to change or else there will be consequences. Too often those conversation start with "You know what you do wrong?" and go downhill from there. One of the best suggestions I have heard for this is from Len Leritz, who wrote "No Fault Negotiating." He suggested that you always have the conversation using the first person. After all, you are the individual who has made the observations and who is asking for the change. He then suggests that you use the following statements:
I See..... - State the facts about what you have observed, where has the performance been sub-optimal. No emotions at this point!
I Think..... - This is where you state why you think the behavior is occurring. You have probably made some assumptions about the employee. Make sure to state them and see if they are correct. You could very well be wrong.
I Feel..... - Since all conversations have some emotional subtext, this is the place to state it. Does the performance make you frustrated, irritated, embarrassed? State it here.
I Want..... - This is the part of the conversation where you describe your desired outcome. Give the person a picture of the future.
I Need..... - This is the meat of the conversation. This is where you tell the person the new behavior that you need to see, as well as the consequences if it does not change. The key here is to set some measurable goals for the person, and to provide the help they need to reach them. This has to come last, and if you have set the context with the previous statements, this should not be too difficult.
Hopefully some others will find some value in this approach, I know I have.
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