Liz Weber, CMC Leadership Blog » Succession Planning

Who’s Got the Power?

Liz Weber, CMC — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:14:43 +0000

Michael Segalla shares great insights into who really has power within an organization. In the May 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review (Find the Real Power in Your Organization) he shares his intriguing, visual mapping tool to determine where the true seats of power reside in an organization — AND — what to do about them.

Segalla encourages organizational leaders to access the untapped potential in their young, highly committed managers and to assess and connect with – as he calls them – the dangerous high-level deadwood who have the title but not the drive to take action.

As I tell my clients, “Just because you have the title manager or leader, doesn’t mean you can lead.” Leadership potential and power often reside in the most unexpected places.

Are You the Kind of Organization You Need to Be?

Liz Weber, CMC — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:14:40 +0000

One of my favorite thoughts for inspiration is by Jim Cathcart: “How would the person I’d like to be do the thing I’m about to do?” Whenever I ask myself that question, I usually ratchet up what I’m going to do a notch or two – and the result is usually much better than if I’d done “just enough” to get by.
I recently worked with a client I’ve supported on and off for years. They’ve always been a great client to work with because I invariably learn something from them. I am also routinely impressed with their willingness to push themselves to expect more of themselves than their competitors. However, during this most recent project, things were different. A few people have left and a few people have joined the team and things are different. Longer term managers behaved differently than I’d ever seen them behave before. New managers behaved in ways different from what had ever been demonstrated before. And “different” in each of these cases wasn’t good. Different was tactical not strategic. Different was many of the managers saying, “We can’t do anything.” Different was more in line with what their competitors do.
In talking with the executive team about the differences, I was told cash flow is tight, they’re being asked to do more with less, and the future is a big question mark. My not-so-diplomatic response was: “Join the club. We’re all under pressure. We all have cash flow concerns, need to do more with less, and face an uncertain future. However, we won’t have a future if we no longer provide the level of service, anticipate our customers’ needs, and extend the quality of products our customers expect and deserve. If we start operating below our own standards, why do we deserve our customers’ business?” The answer is obviously, “We don’t.”
That’s much easier to say than to do when our current business models are being challenged. However, we need to remember what allowed us to earn our customers’ trust and business in the first place. Why did they choose us before and what will it take for them to continue to choose us in the future? If we are without a doubt an organization they will want to continue or start to do business with going forward, we’ll be able to meet their needs and ours as well. But we need to live up to our own standards in tough times as well as in the good times to provide this assurance to our customers.
So, are you the kind of organization you need to be? If not, why not? Your customers are waiting for your answer.

Develop Your Next Generation of Leaders: Share Lessons Learned

Liz Weber, CMC — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:24:37 +0000

We’ve been working with several clients lately on developing
their next generation of leaders. Without fail, every client
grouping of senior managers talks of the weak or under-
developed personnel management, delegation, strategic
thinking, and personal accountability skills in their
direct-report managers. The really interesting thing is:
Almost all of these senior managers are individuals
who themselves had these same weak skills just a few
short years ago. Huh. I wonder how they gained them…

They gained them by being coached and mentored, by reading,
by gaining exposure and experience, by leading difficult projects,
by attending training programs, and by focusing differently
when at work. They gained many of these skills by being
held accountable by me or others like me and “forced” to learn,
to try, and to ultimately “naturally” do the things
effective managers and leaders do. The key is: They
were taught. Someone with the experience shared insights and
lessons learned with them. Now it’s their turn to share
what they’ve learned with their next generation of leaders.

One of the fundamental responsibilities in management is to
develop the people for whom we are responsible. We’re supposed
to help them continuously develop enhanced or new skills
to ensure they’re capable of performing at a level our
company will need them to perform one, two, three or more
years from now. We wouldn’t expect a computer to be able to
support software programs one, two, or three years from
now without enhancing its capabilities, but we hold that expectation
of our employees. We naively assume they’ll just figure
things out.

More often than not, the most often studied trainer in your
company is you. You’re the one most staff pay attention to every day.
You’re the one they model, take their cues from, and develop
their skills because of. You’re it. So it’s time to
conscientiously analyze how you to what you do and segment
it so others can learn in bite-sized pieces, just as you did.
Your managers won’t need to learn everything in the same order
or even many of the things you did – because your organization
is different now than it was when you learned select skills.
However, your managers will need to learn many of the same
people skills you’ve struggled to master. Let’s face
it – people are people and that’s the most difficult challenge
any of us face in our lives: Dealing with people.

Most importantly, remember: It wasn’t all that long ago
that you too had weak management and leadership skills.
So the next time you are frustrated with one of your staff,
take a mental step back and ask yourself, “Did I ever do
something like this? If so, what lesson did I learn that
helped me through it? How can I share that lesson now?”
So don’t get frustrated. Teach. It’s the way you will
develop your next generation of leaders. Share your
lessons learned.