RadioBack

Listening

I am a manager.  I manage one person (a responsibility that I share with Rosemary).  Myself.   I do not like the word manager.  I wish it could be replaced with the word enabler - forever.  In my role of manager of me, I learned an invaluable lesson this past week while attending a convention.

I am reading the book Influencer.  In chapter one the authors talk about Albert Bandura.  Actually if you substitute the word revere for talk you'll get a more accurate picture.  Bandura, a renowned professor, researcher and doctor of psychology, is cited for his classic work on how powerfully our behavior is shaped by observing others.  With the art of observation so acutely on my mind, please join in on a recent experience.

I was in a conversation with a fellow enabler who I will call Pete and a higher level executive who I will refer to as Will.  Really I was listening.  The two were talking about a third party that Pete and I deal with on one level and Will deals with on another.  The relationships are complicated and full of political strife and stress.  Pete has been burned by the third party many times over the years.  The salt in his open wound is the result of our company standing behind the third party over Pete - even when there is no ground for the company to stand upon.  Will's job is to maximize production from this third party company and is the direct liaison between each organization. 

Although Will's territory covers the southeastern region of the United States, his home office is in Tampa and I have the privilege of seeing him frequently.  Will, who is a couple of years older than I, is a polished businessman.  One of his strengths is the ability to analyze a conflict and guide each party towards a best outcome resolution.  So when Pete and Will's conversation turned toward conflict, I moved to the edge of my seat and watched Will. 

Will wants Pete and myself to forget past relationships and move towards a more favorable partnership with this company.  Pete's wounds run deep.  It's hard for Pete to move forward when the wolf of the past is ripping flesh from his behind.  You cannot only hear it in his words, you can feel it as well.  Pete was dwelling on this and not actually listening to Will.  Will spoke sensibly.  But Pete kept bringing up old history.  Will became infuriated.  His only physical reactions were a slight increase of volume in voice and a squinting of his eyes.  I thought at that point, Will's eyes could bench press five-hundred pounds.  In my mind, Will's eyes seared home the message.  I certainly would not forget it.  After Will told Pete for the ninth time that he wasn't listening, he refused to continue the discussion.  I quickly jumped in and took the conversation in another direction and the three of us spoke for a few more minutes.

Listening is fun.  A person like Will obtained a position like his for a reason.  Why not join me and together we can read folks like Will's book and learn volumes.

No More Reviews!

On February 12, 2008, we officially banned the word "review" from our company.  I am not sure there isn't a more vile word in the business world. 

Lisa Haneberg calls this ritual performance appraisal and Rosa Say calls it performance review.  Both management coaches agree, it's so 1960's.

I should check myself and relate the word vile to my own experience.  Twenty-four years in one industry and I have never heard this poisonous dance referred to as anything but The Review.  Lisa says, "It is a remnant of obsolescence which clings like a parasite, draining energy from our organization."  And in most cases that I can remember, energy was drained throughout the time leading to the event and most definitely following the event.  Here is a snapshot from my memory.

Prior to the event, the manager gathers ammunition from managers who work under him and also from the employee's file.  The manager concentrates on the evidence that could potentially convict the employee of poor performance.  During this time the employee tries to remember all the good things he did in the last year.

Now we are in the manager's lair.  He sits on one side of his desk and the employee on the other.  I've seen cases when a manager who normally wouldn't wear a tie, wear one on review day - a red one.  Having properly prepped for battle, both sides dig in.  At this point I see a dollar bill laying on the desk.  Each side picks one half of the bill up.  The dance is now a tug-of-war.  The manager brings up negative points about the employee and the bill comes his way.  The employee brings up positive points about himself and the bill comes his way.  Finally the bill breaks in the end and neither party got what they wanted.

Rosa says, "Great managers don't wait for an annual review to creep up on them; they work with their employees all along the way."  This is the direction that we are heading.  My intent is to sit down each quarter with team members and have a conversation.  Officially this is what we are calling the event: a conversation.

You might ask, "But Dave, you have conversations all year long.  What's up with this?"

Every breath I take, every step I move forward, every pen stroke I stroke, every keyboard I click and every verb I pronounce, must all tie back into our vision:

To use our place of work as a vehicle to enhance you and your family's quality of life.

The intent is to continually improve our character, skills and performance, with the end vision in mind.  This is what we'll converse about in our scheduled conversations.

Quick juicy tidbit link that contains the key to making this type of conversation successful: Juicy Tidbit Link

Our Vision Hits Home

I was having a conversation with one of our technicians this past week.  We were going over my company vision.

To use our place of work as a vehicle to enhance you and your family's quality of life.

I think he was having difficulty seeing how this could work.  I told him, "Imagine that you are in a knock down, heated argument with one of your teammates.  This is someone who you've always gotten along with.  All of a sudden a light bulb goes off.  You think to yourself, maybe his point of view has merit.  You pause and your demeanor deescalates like air from a punctured balloon.  In your mind you know that we do not have an argumentative environment at work.  We always try to reason things out."

He gets me.  He pauses and is thinking when I say, "Now, imagine your five-year old has done something to really piss you off.   You breathe in deep, you're working up a lather and you are about to let him have it.  But you remember how we do things at work.  And in that second you pause.  You exhale.  And you think, this is my son."  Then he really got me!

Tears began to well up in my technician's eyes, but they did not spill over.  As he checked himself, the look in his eyes nearly caused me to choke up myself.  I think we both clenched our stomachs and tried to sit there like two guys holding a hot iron while trying to pretend that we weren't.

I could only dream that this does play out one day but for now it was really rewarding to see our vision hit home.

Dave's Vision For The Business Unit

While it is true, Dave's life philosophy is: Oz is the Yellow Brick Road, Dave has always believed that the Road is leading somewhere.

When I made the decision to begin a chronicle of my adventures as a manager, I wasn't quite sure how it was going to play out.  I didn't have a script.  Another one of my life philosophies is way leads on to way.  (From the Frost poem The Road Not Taken).  So once under way here, I began to feel the need to interject some personal stuff.  The chronicles will not be a course on how to be a manager.  They will simply be observations of my experiences with good size doses of feeling and emotion.

I have had two recurring dreams.  One for my entire life and the other since I left the grocery business in 1979.  I will not be discussing the grocery business part of my life here.  Never once has either dream been the same.  But they have maintained a consistent theme.  In my life long dream I am leading people out of danger.  Realistically these dreams began while I was in high school and they continue to this day.  I guess this explains my career as a jet fighter pilot.

For my present business unit, I do not feel like I am leading them out of danger.  I do believe though, that where we are going and how we will get there, will prepare them to handle danger on their own.  Here is my vision as launched to my team on February 7, 2008.

To use our place of work as a vehicle to enhance you and your family's quality of life.

"Our place of work will become a sanctuary from the outside world.  We will come to work to get better at life.  We will feel good about coming to work and we will feel better when we go home. 

How are we going to make this happen?  By engaging with each of the four entities that make up you as a whole person.  We will pay attention to, listen to, nurture, develop and cultivate your heart, body, mind and spirit.  And we will do this one small step forward at a time"

Well, needless to say, the team looked at me with a HUH?  No one in their lives had ever asked them to come down this road.  But they felt my passion, so they continued to listen.

"By heart I mean your relationships.  Intend to build caring relationships with the folks you deal with every day.  Do you have a sound way to keep track of your contacts?  Note- 98% of the business unit consists of field technicians.  If I were addressing a room full of salesmen I'd take a different approach.

Your body is necessary for your survival.  Your safety falls into this category.  As does your health and how you are compensated.

When we talk about your mind, we want to develop your imagination, your curiosity and your intellectual capacity.

And by your spirit, we'll be paying attention to how you find meaning in work and how we can continue to support and guide your efforts."

Though I spoke about this at our meeting, I am following it up in one on one conversations with the entire team.

If you want to continue to work here, you must care about and be active in your own personal development.

The formulation of my vision and the above statement did not follow any democratic process.  I will not waiver on this proclamation.  For I believe as we develop and grow the quality of life will improve for our families and ourselves.

Influence for these beliefs:

1. The 8th Habit by Stephen Covey
2. Managing with Aloha by Rosa Say

Up Next: The Vision pierces the soul of one team member.

The Perfect Storm

While part of my intention here is to tell stories, inspire, guide and connect, another part is to document my career journey for future reflection.  Over the last twelve years of writing, I have belabored the my-job-sucks point.  I take the entire blame for being in this position.  So that when I am pointing the blame to the person in the mirror, not only are three fingers on each hand pointing at me, the two in the mirror are as well. 

Why did my job suck?  Because I could never channel close to what I learned into my work.  It is true, I pursued education to escape from my work.  I would revel, fantasize and dream of an organization (or manager) that took Marcus Buckingham's twelve point question survey on workplace strength serious.  I would melt if they actually deployed it.  This is where I was at... here is me.  Here is me with education on the brain:

I am a steam-fired train setting on a wide open set of tracks.  Fuel is constantly being packed into my firebox but my boiler cannot produce one more ounce of steam.  You see, I am not allowed to move forward on the tracks.

Fortunately things have changed for me...before the train exploded.  A set of circumstances have allowed my throttle to open and I am moving forward.  These are the influences behind this perfect storm.

• I came aboard my present company in 2006
• At that same time, a much larger international company purchased my international company
• We are now the second largest manufacturer of its kind in the world
• Ownership possess a healthy obsession to be number one and I do mean obsession
• Resources are being infused into our national division
• Our Tampa office lost the country's # 1 salesman, an extremely talented inside support person and three senior level field personnel in the last year and a half
• We have now assembled the right team in Tampa to move forward with
• Our team is painfully inexperienced; but passionate to learn
• We are receiving unprecedented resources at the local level
• We have a regional trainer based in my office
• We have the overall best supervisor that I've ever worked with
• Our sales personnel are the right people to move forward with
• A recent restructuring of our national division
• A recent senior field personnel hire
• Off the chart leadership from our most inexperienced technician
• Special connections to every corporate tentacle
• A very motivated Dave

A Motivated Dave

In 2006, my office won the most prestigious award given within our national company.  It's based on growth and profitability.   Although I accepted the award, it was earned prior to my coming on board .  There are many routes to winning an award of this magnitude.  In this case, the method did not include laying a foundation for the future.  Our office lost about six senior level technicians during this period.

I do not want to go into detail as to what has transpired since we won this award, but we've lost significant revenue, gone through tumultuous turmoil and are now on the uppermost brass's radar as a problem location to keep an eye on.

As a by-product of our recent national restructuring, seven-eights of the folks in my position were given an elevation in title.  I wasn't.  Heck, I probably am lucky to even have a title at all, considering my office's performance.  But the regional executive who is my handler, knows the true story.

The bottom line here is that no one at this company knows the real Dave.  Dave does.  And he knows that his name doesn't belong under its present title.  Given all of the coordinates above, Dave is steaming towards the perfect storm along with his crew, and more than anything else, grateful to be at the helm.

Up Next - Dave unveils his vision to the team.

RadioBack Signals

RadioBack is evolving.  (There is no Bob).  I am leaving RadioBack's genesis on this site along with notes from an even earlier mission involving the Starship Cruiser.  The Starship and her make-believe missions liberated my mind from real life management positions that nearly destroyed my soul.  In order to survive, I turned the dial down on my leadership and management skills.  I could no longer evolve my division at work so I turned into a jet fighter pilot strafing management and protecting my people from ownership.  Punch in, disconnect the conduit between my brain and company and connect it to my staff.  Throughout this twelve year period, I found meaning with industry trade associations, business support communities, business books, writing and people I met online.  I left this organization nearly three years ago when we moved to Florida.

For the last two years I have run a branch of an international company that has around thirty state-side offices.  I have been employed since 1972; this is the best company that I've ever worked for.  About where I work:

I cannot mention my company's name nor will I reveal vendors, customers or any associates names.  My company manufactures large equipment that is packed with complicated electronics, computers and mechanical components.  I am responsible for a team of technicians, sales and support personnel who service and maintain this equipment. 

Although this has been my most favorite company, for various reasons I couldn't be me at work.  I have always known that when the time came when I was allowed to be me, I would want to write about that experience.  Well, for the first time in fifty-one plus years on this planet, that time is now.  You see, I now have the opportunity to be me.

Moving forward I intend to RadioBack signals to you from my position as a manager.  I am going to try and base my stories upon real life circumstances.  And, because I am connected to a large group of business leaders, coaches and consultants who also happen to be my friends, I will attempt to tie their influence into my management adventures.

In order to gain the most impact from my signals, you need to know where I am coming from.  You need to understand the Dave filter.  Please do not interpret what I am about to tell you as brash and egotistical.  I am not a manager.  I can't remember the last time I was a manager.  I am a leader.

I do not organize and staff;  I align people with a vision.

I do not control;  I enhance motivation.

I do not maintain;  I develop.

I do not focus on things;  I focus on people.

I do not focus on doing things right;  I focus on doing the right things.

I do not instruct;  I inspire.

I do not seek compliance;  I seek commitment.

I do not plan and budget;  I establish a vision.

Why is it important for me to tell you this?  To my staff I am a manager.  To my boss and his boss, the president, I am a manager.  To my customers and vendors I am a manager.  The fact is, to the world outside of my heart and soul, I am a middle manager.  But to me, I am a leader.  I am just wired this way.  An understanding of my primary filter will help you to decode my signals.

Up next - The Perfect Storm.  How Dave's opportunity to be himself aligns with an unprecedented set of circumstances.