Author: djmcguire

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Like Your Job.

On hot and sunny day in the summer of 1981, I came home from work and my grandparents were visiting our family home. I was 18 years old and a recent high school graduate with my whole career ahead of me. I was sweaty and dirty from work when I greeted my grandparents that day on the patio of my parents’ home on Long Island. I said hi, hugged and kissed them and excused myself quickly to get a shower.

That summer I was working at Rickel Home Center, a long-vanished home store for do-it-yourselfers… a smaller, less ambitious (and less rectangular) predecessor of the Home Depot or Lowes stores today. On that day, I had spent several hours unloading rolls of unfaced fiberglass insulation from a 100+ degree trailer and I was hot, sticky, hopelessly itchy and experiencing discomfort in my eyes and throat. It was not my best day on the job.

When I arrived to see my parents and grandparents sipping lemonade on the patio of our home, I suppose I mumbled something about the kind of day I just had.

Later, after taking that shower, it was my turn to sit and enjoy the Long Island breeze on the patio. At some point I found myself enjoying a cold soda and the cool shade alone with my grandfather.

He looked over at me and said, “Like your job”.

I said, “Not really, Pop-pop, it’s pretty nasty sometimes. Today was bad, and it seemed to take forever.”

After a little time passed, he said to me, “That wasn’t a question.” I think my response was something like, “Huh?”.

“I said, I wasn’t asking you”, he replied, “I know too many people who constantly whine about jobs and their lives are miserable. Please don’t be that way. Don’t be one of those people. They whine and make everyone they work with, and even their families, unhappy. Their kids hear them complaining about their jobs and grow up thinking it is normal. Find something you like about your job and keep it in your mind. Just find things you like. If you really can’t stand it, then leave and find another one, but please don’t become a complainer.”

This conversation has come back to me numerous times. Over my 30-year career, I have been incredibly fortunate to have a series of challenging and extremely interesting and fulfilling jobs. I think I mostly took his advice (especially in front of my family) and maintained good humor and a positive perspective, but I definitely recall some occasions when I failed to. I am not proud of these times because it is clear that my grandfather, in his simple message, was right.

I often find myself in the company of the people my grandfather was referring to – who moan constantly (and almost unconsciously) about their work. On the job, they certainly impact the people around them, lowering energy and confidence. They are difficult to work with, and sometimes even hard to be with – as colleagues, friends, family members, employees, and customers. I feel kind of sorry for them and for the people around them. I wish they were all there with me on that summer afternoon with my grandfather. He would know what to say to them.

I still think his advice was pretty sound. I wish I could tell him.

So, what do you like about your job?

Some reflection Questions that I will be thinking on:

  • How do I improve the ‘feeling’ at work for myself and my colleagues?
  • What mechanisms can we put in place to keep us out of a ‘job complainer’ mindset?
  • Is there a type of support system that leads to a more positive approach to work? (both inside and outside the work environment)
  • How can we influence our colleagues (and even family members) when we encounter excess job negativity (without sounding self-righteous)?
  • How do we create a framework for young people so they can understand how to handle challenging employment situations and keep their perspective?
  • What happens when someone is truly stuck in a bad job and cannot leave due to personal circumstances? How can we spot this? How do we support them?
  • We see people in some truly ‘dirty’ jobs who seem to have a positive mindset. How do they approach their work?
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Do you want to be a top-performing leader? Congratulations! You just signed up for a career-long learning journey

It’s as simple as this.  The extent to which you deviate from this path, you will be putting your leadership and results objectives at risk.

Have you ever worked for a person who came to work every day, did their thing and went home? Perhaps someone who did not necessarily welcome new ideas and did things a certain way because that is the way they have always been done.  These were good people with families, hobbies and dreams … but trouble was coming for them.  The ones that tried to hang on to their familiar methods were usually unable to do so.  They developed problems retaining good people, getting along with colleagues or maintaining team performance.  We have all come across people like this.  Do some of these people survive over time in a company?  Yeah, it happens… but these are edge cases and I believe it calls the entire organization into question.

It may seem obvious that continuous learning is a critical element of success for leaders, but it has never been more pressing than it has in recent decades.  I graduated from college in the mid 80s (last century!) and I have identified over 25 transitional learning experiences that enabled me to adapt to evolving business conditions, technologies and roles in my journey from entry-level to C-level and, recently, executive advisor and coach.  I started a long time ago – heck, the first five years of my career went by without email, and seven more without the Web.  It is a completely different game for us now.

If you are graduating from college now, your choice of major is important for getting opportunities but, more importantly, you must prove to yourself and others that you have the sustained ability to learn and adapt.  When you know that you can adapt to circumstances and expand your portfolio of skills as needed, you will be able to take on new assignments with confidence and an open mind.  In the coming years, you can expect the business and technological environment to evolve so rapidly that you must be ready to career switch multiple times along the way. 

The journey will include developing yourself (and others) in the following areas:

  • Personal Development
    • The obvious ones: ethical behavior, workload management, using time effectively, sensing an audience, communicating effectively, etc.
  • Management Skills
    • Understanding your responsibilities, getting to know your people, communicating about performance, asking for more, pushing work down, working with business metrics to drive and measure performance, etc.  Read the book.
  • Leadership Skills
    • Handling stressful situations effectively, attracting and developing talent, generating organizational momentum, instilling confidence, succession planning, enterprise metrics for results, driving a positive culture, etc.
  • Keeping pace with Business and Workplace evolution
    • Studying your company, understating the market you are in, developing a good understanding of all aspects of the business and the customers, strategy, sales, marketing, product development, operations, supply chain, technology, finance, etc.
  • Keeping up with Technology and Innovation
    • Automation, globalized work force, the use of new technologies across all aspects of your business, your market and your customers, embracing experimentation and partnerships, etc.

Are you doing (or at least planning) some development in all of these areas and setting an example for the people you lead, or will lead? 

Let’s start on a plan.  More to come on this topic.  But a great conference is a good place to start.

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M Conference – Accelerated Executive Development – with Immediate Impact

Earlier this month, I flew to Dallas to attend and present at the inaugural M-Conference, a conference for the accelerated development of executives that is delivered by executives.  It is sponsored and professionally facilitated by Manager Tools. 

For a speaker at any conference, it is easiest just to focus on your segment, preparing mentally and then de-compressing afterward.  The M-Conference was not like this at all for me.  From the first session, I was hooked and over two days I was treated to a diverse and very relevant set of topics that had me fully engaged.  This conference was both a reminder of the critical importance of introspection and continuous learning for leaders and a two highly concentrated days of that exact type of learning.  It challenged me deeply and I have thought about parts of what I learned there every day since.

If you are an executive, or on the track to become one, I highly recommend attending one of these conferences.  It is impactful and an excellent use of time and will have you returning to work energized and armed with new ideas.

Aside from my topic, The M Conference 2019 covered a range of topics including:

  • How to maximize impact and relentlessly focus on the customer – Financial Services CEO
  • How to assess a company for possible investment – Chairman of a Health Sciences VC
  • Innovative metrics to use to evaluate your talent development – Senior Director of Development
  • China as a Technology Trading Partner – CEO Silicon Valley technology advisory firm
  • The most effective ways for executives to engage HR – Director of HR from top technology firm
  • An interactive discussion on career progression for executives – CEO of a top technology firm
  • How autonomous driving is changing the industry – Senior Automotive Industry Executive
  • A very interactive session on staying organized for executives – A Global HR Director
  • A fascinating view of the future of everything from mankind to food to learning in a talk on exponential thinking – Senior Executive in digital transformation
  • Lastly, Mark Horstman from Manager Tools drove an interactive discussion on the future of management (which no executive should miss).

The 2020 M Conference promises to be even better. 

Executives must carry a lot of weight, for their company, shareholders, customers, employees and the entire industry…not to mention, themselves and their families.  The pressure to perform is extremely high, so for goodness sake invest in yourself. 

A great way to do this is to attend the conference…express your interest in M Conference 2020. 

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How can it be leadership? When it feels so……

Alas, yet another paradox for leaders: If it feels uncomfortable, there is a good chance you might consider doing it. 

Over the past few years of working with teams and clients, I almost always give this kind of advice at some point. In fact, if the only thing I did were to put this idea into the heads of leaders all the time, I would add a little value for them every day. 

So please consider:

  • That obnoxious peer who constantly contradicts you in meetings?  Take him to coffee.
  • The difficult and/or unpopular task that you need to assign to a team member?  Just get up and delegate.
  • Two of your people are hoping for the same assignment or role?  Decide.  Then talk to each of them.  Inform the person who did not get the assignment and then tell the person who did get it.  Do it unambiguously and do it respectfully. 
  • The employee that you cut off in the last group meeting because she is too long-winded?  Apologize (properly) to her and hear what she has to say.
  • That team member who brings everyone down by seeing the negative in everything?  Take him to lunch (yes, it may be painful) and hear him out.  It will allow you to understand and work on the issue with him.
  • The weekly meeting that is so ineffective that you consider pulling the building fire alarm to make it stop?  Stay after and work with the organizers how to bring focus to the session.
  • The team member you want to avoid because they always put problems on your desk?  Set aside time with them, focus on their needs and then align your objectives.
  • The team member who is struggling on an assignment? Affirm them and listen to them. Do not take the assignment back, but re-focus the effort and push for more.
  • That meeting that you are great at running?  The one that everyone compliments you about?  Let someone else run it – coach them through it.  Time to grow!
  • The person everyone says is gunning for your job?  Build a relationship with them, understand their goals and be open with them.
  • And a scary one: Your manager is overwhelmed?  Ask what you can take off their desk and help with.  (Once you ask, you have to step up.) It will add to your workload and you will have to ask for more from your team.  It is a terrific way to grow as a leader. 
  • Do some of the above sound time consuming?  They are, but you are investing up front and it will pay dividends in the long run. 
  • Do some of the above sound painful or stressful?  Ok… well, then smile, because when you encounter these situations, it means you leading – alive and engaged.  Being positive through it all not only sets the tone for your organization and puts you more in control, but it brings real balance and openness to each situation. 

If you are leading and something seems out of your comfort zone, give some real thought to it.  It could be the thing you ought to be doing.  (Sorry about that.) 

I first came upon this concept years ago as it is exercised in the main story contained in the book:   The Unnatural Act of Management: When the Great Leader’s Work is Done, the People Say “We did it ourselves” – Suters – HarperBusiness – 1993

It has helped me ever since.

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SARIP (Stop and Read it Please) book for June 2019

The Effective Manager by Mark Horstman, Wiley, 2016.

In my work as an advisor and coach, when I am working through management problems with clients, this book is my gold standard.  It is the only book that I know that can fundamentally change results for a manager in under a week.  It is a quick read that lays out a simple framework for building relationships, talking about performance, asking for more and pushing work down.  It has made a difference for every manager I know who has read it and put the guidance to work.  I have purchased and gifted more copies of this book than any other and it has only been out since 2016. 

  • New managers:  Use this guidance and you will be effective immediately, it’s that simple.
  • Experienced managers:  Pick it up and re-read it every few years, mark it up too.  It will yield clear, noticeable results each time.
  • Executives:  Read it and put it into action.  It will resonate across the organization and amaze you as it takes hold and raises the bar of professionalism.  Once you make it your own, gift the book to the managers on your team and talk about it with them.  When you set the example, people will step up.
Horstman’s Book, The Effective Manager

Here’s the best part:  The book is supported by a massive foundation of free podcasts.  Thousands of free podcasts that are organized into logical business categories are to be found at http://www.manager-tools.com.  

Following the behavioral guidance from Manager Tools changed the trajectory of my career.  It was a tremendous gift and it is freakin’ free.  Michael Auzenne and Mark Horstman have given away training that would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.  I am not sure what this says about them as profiteers, but it speaks volumes about the type of people that they are.

Want results?  Buy and read The Effective Manager.  Want to fundamentally change your portfolio of management skills for the better?  Then dig into the Manager Tools podcast library as well. 

SARIP.