Three Things to Improve Your Executive Presence

“You need more executive presence…”  I have found this comment highly prevalent in performance reviews for technical staff who have transitioned into management and haven’t figured out how to present themselves to the more senior staff. These people are referred to as missing “gravitas” or “executive presence” when dealing with other executives or clients. Here are three things you can do that will improve how others perceive you.

1. When you’re talking, look people in the eyes. So often I see staff looking down at their notes, looking at their own slides, or simply looking off into space. If you’re in a meeting and you’re talking, you’re talking to the people in the meeting. You can’t look them all in the eyes at once, so you pick someone and look at them directly. You switch to others if you’re talking for long enough that it would be odd to just look at one person.

Pro tip: if you’re looking at someone, and they’re engaged in what you’re saying - engage them more with something like “do you agree, Tom?"

2. Avoid distractions - computers, phones, doodling - all of these send a signal that you’re checked out. You may not be, but it doesn’t stop people in the meeting from assuming you are and thinking less of you for it. Put you phone away, close your laptop, and engage in the topic. Listen to what people are saying.

Pro tip: I pretend that I’m always about to be called upon to add to the conversation, so I’m always thinking “what would I say in response to that?” I’m always prepared to add my perspective.

3. Restate and clarify something that is being said. This tactic is tricky, because if you do it constantly you’ll come across as uselessly saying the same thing as others. At least once or twice in any reasonable sized meeting it can be very valuable to restate the goal, the problem, the decision, or the next steps. If you’re listening and you hear something that would help the overall meeting go better if everyone agreed, you can slow down the meeting a bit.

Pro tip: Try using the words “so let me say that again - the problem we’re trying to solve today is …. does everyone agree?” 

Bonus: Know when to stop talking. You may love this topic and know it in depth. You can talk for days on it. Talking too much can give the wrong impression. If others see you going far into the details that aren’t relevant to the goal at hand, you can give the impression you’re not an executive. If you have value to add, add it and stop. If the conversation leverages that information, great. If not, don’t keep explaining it because you think folks don’t get it. It might not matter. 

Embrace Your Culture (Why Good Initiatives Fail Redux)

Today I was listening to HBR Ideacast and the interview with David Krantz, CEO of YP. In the interview David is incredibly thoughtful in describing how he manages his organization. He focuses on communication to his team and using skip-level meetings with his staff. I recommend listening as it highlights much of my thoughts in Why Good Initiatives Fail.

I encourage you to listen to the Krantz interview. Listen for the communication tactics he describes and how important they are to him in his job. He talks about a number of tools that he uses; he also discusses the importance of having a clear mission and a narrow set of priorities. David Krantz clearly understands how to be an effective executive. 

A former colleague Dan Murphy commented that “leadership approach needs to align closely with the organizational culture” in order to be effective. I agree. Choosing a leadership approach is more difficult when you’re trying to change the culture in your organization.

I’ve stepped into leadership positions in a number of different organizations - each with their own culture. In one case, a small start-up. In another, a recently acquired company. In a third, a larger organization with 30 years of strong organizational history. In each, I’ve taken the time to understand the organization and the culture as I decide what tactics will be most effective in leading my organization.

How does one define the culture of an organization? The best way I’ve heard company culture described is: the standards and norms that are imposed and expected of the people within the organization.  Once could say it is the values of the company, or the mission. In the end, I see it as the actions consistently taken throughout the organization. 

These standards and norms can change over time. For example, I was in a company that was acquired by a larger company. The company culture was set by the owners of the company - it was small and influenced heavily by these two leaders. As the original owners transitioned out of the organization, the culture began to reflect the standards and norms of the new leadership coming from the acquiring company. Over the course of three years, the culture had shifted to reflect much more of the parent company than of the original owners.

In a comparable fashion, I became responsible for a larger software development organization that was having trouble finding an identity and culture inside a non-technical organization. I worked to reinforce habits that I believed would create an identity of a world-class software development organization. We prioritized implementing best practices, setting and meeting goals, and celebrated value delivered to clients. We emphasized the value of the team by celebrating team achievements over individual successes.

As a technical leader, your role is bridging the gap between the culture of the non-technical organization around you and your own software development organization. Spend as much time understanding the culture of the rest of the organization. Translate the value of the technical organization into the standards and norms of other departments (such as sales, account management or research).  

Your Team Hates Your Meetings

As a leader in any organizations, you have meetings. You’re probably responsible for your fair share of those meetings. Your job relies on communication as a leader, and you are out there pushing to communicate using all the means at your disposal (please tell me you’re not just relying on e-mail). If your organization falls into the fat part of the bell curve, your team hates your meetings.

Let’s start with the meeting request. Before you schedule a meeting, are you clear about what you want to accomplish with the meeting and do you communicate it to everyone you invite? Without a clear goal, your team is attending your meeting because of your authority not because they care about the objective of the meeting. They’ll come unprepared and maybe late, because something else they’re doing is more important than a nebulous subject like “Tech project update”.

Once the meeting time comes, do you actually start on time? For those folks who have shown up when you invited them, are you respecting their time by starting - or are you waiting for everyone to show up and penalizing the prompt people by wasting the first ten minutes? I’ve been in organizations that have meetings start a full 30 minutes after the scheduled time when the most senior people finally show up.

During the meeting, are you clear about the topics that need to be covered over the time you scheduled? You scheduled an hour and started a little late to wait for everyone, so if you haven’t outlined what you want to cover in the remaining 50 minutes the meeting time wanders through the general subject. Are you accomplishing what you need to accomplish, and will you be done in time for folks to get to the next meeting on their schedule? 

My friend Sam reminded me that so many of our meetings these days are with remote participants. Are you forgetting about the remote participants that are dialing in to your meeting? Are you making sure they don’t feel like second class attendees by including a dial-in, dialing in on-time and checking in with folks on the phone to be sure they can hear and are following the meeting? It’s more and more possible these days to use video conferencing to create a sense of presence in the room for these remote folks, work ahead of time to be sure you have the equipment ready to project their video and show folks in the room with a wide-angle camera.

As you try and accomplish something during the meeting, are you clear about what the various participants’ roles are? Is everyone in the room decision maker, or are some folks coming with recommendations? I’ve been in meetings where it seemed like everyone believed they were decision makers. I’ve also participated in meetings where there didn’t appear to be a decision maker in sight. In both circumstances, no decisions were made.

When the meeting finally ends, are you ending the meeting with confidence? Or are you ending it when you lose steam and people simply start leaving? I’ve seen meetings go on well past the end-time with no clear end in sight, and people just start leaving because they are very late for the next obligation. Are you ending the meeting by fixing responsibilities and decisions in order to be clear who is doing what by when? 

Are you communicating key decisions to those who couldn’t make the meeting? One of your staff was home taking care of his sick child - do you send out the key decisions and action items to everyone who was invited? Are the folks who couldn’t make the meeting for a valid reason now left out in the cold because they have no way to know what happened?

Take a moment and consider one or two key things you can do to improve your meetings. It’s one of the three things that will set you apart. You’ll be shocked how much improved meetings can improve employee engagement and productivity. Stop wasting time and sucking the energy from your organization through ineffective meetings. 

Why Good Initiatives Fail

Almost everyone has experienced an initiative started by someone high up in an organization, with good intentions to make the place better, fail miserably to make a dent in the problem at-hand. I’ve seen this outcome more than I can count. Good ideas. Good tactics. Failing to make an impact. Failing to make any kind of change. Why?

As an organization gets bigger, it becomes significantly harder to act with a single agenda. There are writings that talk about the magic number of 150 people. An organization of this size (give or take) is impossible to influence through sheer force of will of a single person. One leader cannot reach this volume of people and share a single message in a consistent way. Larger organizations begin to rely on intermediate managers to convey the message of the organization. 

I experienced this first hand when I moved from running a division of approximately sixty people to a division of over one-hundred. My team grew from there, and the tactics I was used to no longer were effective. It is even harder when the organization grows around you - as in the boiling frog metaphor. I see leaders fail to realize that the organization has changed, and their tactics need to change to get the results they desire. Some leaders are crippled with the experience that they were successful in the smaller organization using tactics that no longer are effective.

I recall a leader that observed the organization going off track in decision making. She chose to start an initiative that could save the day - using a tool called RACI. RACI brings clarity to who is responsible, accountable, consulted and informed on projects. This tool is fantastic to help drive clarity in organizations on what different roles exist to get work done for the organization. This leader didn’t have the intermediate managers in place to fully implement RACI and change the organization, and it ultimately fell by the wayside as a good idea not implemented.

My eyes were opened in my larger organization only through establishing feedback mechanisms from my staff. The most effective was “skip level” meetings, where I talked directly with staff at least one level down in the organization (thus “skipping levels”). I began to hold these meetings quarterly and I learned what parts of my organization were getting the right messages, and what parts seemed confused or off mission. Without meetings such as these, I had to assume the leaders I relied on were communicating effectively and that turned out to be an unreasonable assumption.

As a leader, the first real question is whether your organization can adequately change. Regardless of what the new initiative is, you may need to tackle communication before assuming you can tackle what you see as the highest priority to delivering results. Does your organization have the communication tools necessary to propagate a new message? Do you have the feedback loop to know that the communication is happening? If not, what success will the organization have taking a new idea from the outside and applying it effectively? 

Resolve to Set a Goal

This time of year there are lots of articles about making new year’s resolutions. It’s a good catalyst to think of the new year as an opportunity to resolve to make a change. I propose you take the opportunity to set a goal for the next three months. And make a resolution to do that for yourself every quarter.

Quarterly goal setting can help you stay on track with progress that might otherwise feel overwhelming. Setting an annual goal may just be too much to wrap your head around. And setting goals for the week or the month are too small.

If you feel out of touch with your network, set a goal to talk to a certain number of people in your network over the next three months. Maybe set monthly or weekly interim goals. Measure and hold yourself accountable.

If you haven’t learned a new skill lately, set a goal for you to learn something new. Perhaps a programming language. Not just learn it, but put it in practice. Set a goal to publish a simple project with basic functionality on GitHub in that language.

Perhaps you don’t feel like you’re on the upward trajectory you want at work. Set a goal to volunteer for a new responsibility. Set a goal to ask for feedback from three people on how you can improve. You could even ask them specifically how you could improve to be perceived in the way you want to be at work.

Resolve to do quarterly goal setting with yourself and set achievable goals that will help you get where you want to be. Write them down and measure your progress against them. Revise them as your situation changes, and at least every three months to keep them fresh. You’ll be surprised how much you can accomplish this year. 

Caring Honesty Beats "Radical Candor"

My friend John shared with me this article that describes “Radical Candor” - an idea by Kim Scott about feedback. I appreciate the spirit of the article (for some reason found in the third paragraph) that “The single most important thing a boss can do…is focus on guidance.” I find myself disagreeing with the label she’s chosen to use, “radical candor”, as it sounds like she was looking for a title for a book or workshop series. I do agree, as a leader you need to give constant guidance to your staff.

You can call it what you like. The folks at Manager Tools feel strongly about calling it “feedback”. This term isn’t used, according to the article, because “feedback is screechy.” I found that line in the article particularly simple minded. People can be screechy. People can seem insincere because of the words they use or how they say them. It seems like focusing on the word “feedback” is missing the point about delivering good insights to your staff.

I empathize with the negative reaction that folk have to the word “feedback”. I found that I was in an environment in one of my last jobs where “feedback” was given a bad name by some bad manager behavior. I experienced managers who used the annual review cycle to give “feedback” that was mostly criticism that was too little and too late. So I began to use the word “observations”. I’m not overly attached to it now that I’m not in that job anymore. It was just how I needed to adapt to provide feedback to my staff.

The heart of the “radical candor” idea appears to be a two-by-two matrix that she plots “care personally” against “challenge directly”. The upshot is that the best guidance is given when you care the most and are challenging the person directly. I agree here that empathy (caring directly) is key to providing good feedback. I don’t agree that you need to “challenge directly”. Boy that sounds like you’re caring about someone while you get into the octagon with them. 

For my money, I think the second axis is really just honesty. Think about when you get caring, honest feedback from someone. It’s really helpful. You don’t need to be challenged. Maybe you do. There are lots of people with behavior styles that don’t want to be challenged. They would still value honesty.

It gets worse when the article creates an attention grabbing insight "I would argue that criticizing your employees when they screw up is not just your job, it's actually your moral obligation.” Seriously, we need to give guidance. Make observations. Help folks improve. This article not only focuses solely on the negative feedback, it’s happy to say “let’s criticism them.” If you just criticize them all the time (no matter how much your staff thinks you care deeply about them), they’ll leave. No question. Oh, and the article concludes if you can’t care "the second best thing is to be an asshole.” Seriously, you’ll be someone who understands feedback and has nobody to give it to because they hate you and they’ll all go work somewhere else.

In the end, you need to make observations of behavior you see in your staff. Both behavior you want to see more from your staff, and those you don’t. If your staff is largely doing well, there are lots of things you want to see over and over. Give them “caring honesty.” Do it often. You can keep your staff and keep them improving.

Slow down, pay attention and be curious

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I went running on Sunday and I discovered something new that I had never noticed before. Along the path I run every week, there is a box on a post painted with the words “read every day.” I had assumed before this box held newspapers, although I had never seen a newspaper box so far away from a main road. Today I stopped and took a closer look and realized this little box was a little library. 

I had actually been talking to my family about these little libraries over Thanksgiving. It was a new concept to me. I had been running by one every week for over a year. I usually see more when I’m running compared to riding a bike or driving a car.  Even in this case, I needed to slow down, pay attention and be curious.

In our everyday work lives, we feel the pressure to do more. Sometimes we respond by trying to do more things concurrently. We go fast and skim over the details. We half-listen to conference calls while checking e-mail and shopping online. It takes deliberate effort to slow down and pay attention when there are so many things vying for our time.

An effective leader realizes that those things we decide to participate in deserve our full attention, not just a sliver. She modulates her pace depending on the situation. Sure, there are urgent tasks for which moving fast is the right answer. However, not everything benefits from rushing. I can be one to rush through things that benefit from more time and attention. 

I recall a large-scale rewrite project where I was the executive sponsor, and I didn’t follow this advice. I trusted the people who were running this project so my oversight was fast and shallow. I knew our rewrite was going to be tricky, and it was important to the business that we succeed. I didn’t modulate my pace at all during the first four months of the project. I didn’t slow down and start asking hard questions until it was too late. We had invested too much time in the wrong direction and had to pull the plug on the project. ["Rewriting an existing system" is a big topic, and probably worth one or more additional posts.]

I practice this mantra when I’m on conference calls and I’m being briefed on something. It’s easy to be quiet and not ask questions. One tactic I used just last week is active listening, to recap what was said for clarity. For example, “So what I heard you just say is…” In order to do this, I have to slow down and pay attention. And very often I find that when I recap I’m saying something that isn’t quite right and it sparks my curiosity. You can get through almost any call by being quiet. So slow down, pay attention and ask questions. You contribute more, and get more back, when you do.

Motivation

Sometimes you hear that as a leader, your job is to motivate people. I believe that’s the wrong way to look at the challenge. People are constantly motivated. We are in constant motion. These words, motivation and motion, are similar. We always have motivation to do something, whether it’s work hard or call in sick.

We do things all the time. For all different reasons. Sometimes we do work for money. Or the challenge. Or the recognition. Or the other employees. The people on your team are constantly doing things. It may feel like sometimes they do what you want, and sometimes they don’t. Your team always has a motivation, the question is whether you understand it.

In one of my first senior roles leading people - leading other leaders - I failed miserably at finding someone’s motivation. I managed a director of application development. When he quit, he said clearly “you can’t make me stay.” I had pushed him with directives to do things he didn’t want to do. I didn’t understand his motivation. He had enough one day, and he quit feeling that I didn’t understand him.

I’ve come to a place in my leadership where I work to understand a person’s motivation. I work to map my own goals onto the motivation that is within each person. There are times when the two don’t match. I find it’s no good to force someone to do something - over time it will only get you so far. And then that person will leave. 

You can rely on a person when you understand the motivation behind their actions. You can inspire someone when their motivations mesh with your goals to achieve superior results.  

Working Remotely

Working with staff that are in a different physical location is hard. Remote can mean you and another coworker are in a different floor, office or city. Staying connected isn’t complicated, and it isn’t easy. As a leader, you will need to work with others that are remote and doing it effectively will make a big difference in your results.

My friend Sam shared with me a story that is simple and brilliant. He says a developer he was managing this last year told him he “...was the best manager he’d ever had. I asked him why. He said it was because I sent him a birthday card with a gift card for dinner.” First thing, Sam shows us not only that the best managers are seeking feedback. Isn’t it awesome that he asked why, and didn’t just get a big head that he was something special? And then he shows us that it isn’t that complicated to make a connection with someone that works remotely.

Sam’s observation is “I feel remote workers crave connection.” And the big insight from him is "It isn’t really that hard to get to know someone.” It takes the intention to connect. Take action to follow-up on your intention.

I distinctly recall an experience working with my colleague Cher who worked in a different office. I found that I wasn’t effectively building a relationship with her based on the frequency of conversations we had (once or twice a week). Her peers were in my same office, and it was easier for me to walk over to their desks than reach out to her.

I decided I needed to change my behavior. I prioritized picking up the phone every morning and saying “good morning” to her in order to remove the barrier that she might not want to bother me. I even told her explicitly “I’m doing this new thing, so I can do a better job staying in touch with you.” It resulted in a better and more effective working relationship.

My experience working on remote projects has armed me with some easy tips:

• Let people know how to reach you (e-mail, phone, text, Skype, IM)
• Learn how other people like to be reached (e-mail, phone, text, Skype, IM)
• Proactively communicate what you have going on
• Reach out to people via their preferred means and ask if they need help from you
• Over communicate expectations (when you’ll get something done, when you won’t, when you're running late for a call, etc.)
• For those people who are remote and enjoy people connections (see more below) reach out and say hello even if you don’t have an explicit reason

How do you know who enjoys people connections? Pay attention to some simple signs. In their e-mail, they will start with a salutation (“Hello Dan!”), they will ask how you are, they will sign-off with many ways for you to contact them. In meetings, they make small talk before leaping into the subject at-hand. In individual conversations, they they ask how you are, ask about your family, your weekend, etc. These people enjoy people connections and will love that you called to just say “hello”. 

Check Your Ego

The best technical leaders are confident without letting their ego get in the way of actually leading. When you’re good at something, you don’t need to beat people up with that fact. As a leader, it can be hard to slow down and teach others. The best leaders check their ego to be sure they are acting in support of the team first, and not focusing on themselves.

I was reminded of how this can come across when my friend Nicole shared a news release by Vox Media. They just made the news themselves by banning micro aggressions as a part of their code of conduct. It is somewhat humorous take on this sort of behavior (can you ban someone from being subconsciously condescending). I see it as a reflection of unchecked ego; that anyone feels they must over explain or dominate a meeting. The most helpful line in the code of conduct is “…listen at least as much as you speak.”

Jim Collins talks about this as level 5 leadership in his book Good to Great. I know not everyone is a fan of Collins’ books (I’m looking at you Shelby). I personally find this insight useful as it helps debunk the myth of egocentric celebrity. I see lots of attention focused on newsworthy (read controversial) leaders. The insights from Collins’ book are that many of the most effective leaders work hard to stay out of the limelight. They put the organization ahead of their own ego.

I learned the lesson of “proportional contribution” from Steve McConnell as he facilitated a discussion at one of his software executive summits. I was in a small group discussion on a topic we were all passionate about, and we were each used to being the “expert” on these types of topics in our organization. Steve instructed us to be aware of how often we were contributing to the discussion, and to expect that we would each contribute only about one-fifth of the comments because there were five of us in the group. It was a great way to realize that some participants in the group might have a tendency to talk half the time, and that would not support everyone contributing to the discussion.

Check your own behavior as it relates to your ego. Become an observer of your actions. Pay attention. Are you subconsciously serving your own ego? Are you telling more than asking? Are you talking more than listening? Are you lifting others up, or knocking them down? Ask yourself if your contribution helps the organization, or helps your own ego. 

How Hard Can That Be?

An important aspect of being a leader is understanding the difference between inherent and artificial complexity. The problems you’re solving are full of complexity. Much of it is the complexity that we as humans bring to the problem. Only some is the actual complexity of the problem. Which leads to the dreaded words “how hard can that be?"

When you understand the core of the inherent complexity of a problem, you begin to have an answer to anyone who doesn’t understand why what you’re doing is hard. If you’ve been doing software development for any length of time, you’ve worked with someone who asked you “how hard can that be?” So many times, this simple phrase captures the essence of artificial complexity.

Problems are often like icebergs, with more hidden beneath the surface than visible to the naked eye. If we can distinguish the pieces that make a problem hard - for example, data from many different systems in different formats. We can start to ask ourselves “does it have to be that way, or can we simplify that complexity?” Even better, we can explain to others why the problem is hard.

I recall once talking to my boss about his desire to pull procedure-level statistics from a system we built to manage a hospital operating room. It sounded straightforward; a query no harder than other queries we had run. However, we had pulled the data from the source systems and aggregated it. We no longer had the original procedure level data. Suddenly the problem was much harder because we would have to re-acquire the data at a different granularity. And I could explain why it was so much harder to my boss.

Anyone looking at the problem from the outside is going to assume the best-case-scenario. The outside person isn’t going to invent roadblocks. They have the benefit of no artificial barriers. They don’t have legacy systems, teams with different points of view, technical decisions made prior to our joining the problem. When we become masters of understanding the complexity, we can become communicators of why things are hard. We can become problem solvers by eliminating complexity.

Take a moment to look at the problem and ask yourself why is it hard? Because of the tools I’m choosing to use? Because of decisions made prior to me? Because of the people involved? Because it has uncertainty? Separate yourself from the lens you’re viewing the problem and consider all angles. Sometimes playing the devil’s advocate and saying “why isn’t this easy” is one of the best ways to strip out complexity that isn’t inherent. 

I have found when designing systems, decisions made in order to simplify the coding and maintenance translate into unexpected performance problems. I recall a system that used a framework to quickly take care of the CRUD operations translating in easy maintenance of the code. It performed fine in test. In a production environment with high volumes of data, suddenly performance was a problem. We’ve added artificial complexity.

I recall building a page on a web application. The user expected the page to load in under a second. Sure, it’s only their account information. It’s not actively calculating anything. It’s not performing a transaction like payment processing. Why does it take a long time? The page checked for new messages from the messaging system that lived outside the account information system, and the response time was poor. This hidden complexity stopped me from meeting the user expectation that this was a simple page. 

When you ask yourself the question “how hard can that be?” you are taking up the outside point of view that others - your boss, your customers - will undoubtedly have as a starting point. If you understand that point of view, you have an opportunity to simplify or translate more effectively. 

Be Awesome at These Three Things

Steve Martin’s advice is to be so good they can’t ignore you. I can imagine it still leaves some folks at a loss. Where do you focus on being good? And does it matter where you focus? Can everyone be an award winning banjo player like Martin? Be awesome at a few basics and you will stand out.

I got a wonderful note from a friend and former colleague Kelsey who let me know she just got a job at Apple and is moving to Cupertino. Although I didn’t know she was applying to Apple, her success is no surprise. She’s a star who continues to impress me as someone who embodies the “keep moving forward” attitude. She has the natural talent to eventually dominate anything she puts her mind to. Kelsey reminded me of advice I gave her long ago that stuck with her on where to focus on getting better: running a meeting, managing a project and speaking to an audience.

It seems like you should need to be awesome in something unique to stand out. Which is where this advice may seem strange. I don’t recommend finding some obscure unique skill. Nor do I think you have to have some innate talent as a starting point. I propose you focus on those things that everyone must do, and do them so well they can’t ignore you

Run a Meeting

Meetings are an unavoidable way of life in the work world. Running a meeting well will get you respect from everyone who attends it. Word will get around that your meetings are worth attending.

The basics here are simple and do not require any special skill. Here’s a short-list:

• Be explicit about the purpose of the meeting in the invite
• Send an agenda in advance (with topics, times and presenters)
• Start and end on-time (for each agenda item, too)
• Use a parking lot for off-topic subjects (and put time at the end of the agenda to review)
• Distribute decisions and action items after (who is doing what by when)

I improved my meetings using these basic rules in an organization that was truly terrible at meetings. Across the organization meetings started late, ran over and had no purpose. As I followed these rules, my meetings got better. And after other leaders attended my meetings - my peers - I earned not only their attendance, but also their respect.

Manage a Project

Projects are any collection of tasks with an intended result. You don’t need to be a “project manager” to be responsible for managing projects. Whether they’re your own, or someone has asked you to coordinate a group of people to some deliverable. You need to know how to manage a project.

The basics here are based on organization and communication. It’s not difficult and it requires continuous vigilance. Here are the fundamentals:

• Write down the stakeholders of the project (who is participating, who is depending on the results)
• Write down the goal of the project (with as much of a SMART goal as possible)
• Write down tasks that need to be done - be explicit about observable deliverables (more on that below)
• Write down who is responsible for what task (assign individual names, not groups or departments)
• Communicate to stakeholders the plan and the status of the plan (and each task)
• Communicate to stakeholders before, during and after the project
• When a deadline is missed (for a given task), set a new deadline (don’t leave missed deadlines on the plan)

Some keys to success here seem basic. Make sure you know the goal of the project. Know the stakeholders. Make sure all the stakeholders also know the goal. Write down these key facts and share them. As you’re tracking a project and things slip (they will), adjust and set new deadlines. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen projects with past-due deadlines that have become meaningless.

Be explicit about observable deliverables. Don’t let your tasks be abstract. I had a revelation when I had a project with tasks like “research new technology.” I found that I couldn’t know whether the task was complete. I found it much more effective to translate these tasks into something concrete. I changed that task to “E-mail the results of research on new technology to the stakeholders.” I knew it was done when I received the e-mail. Observe the completion of the task and you will avoid getting into a semantic discussion about whether it’s done or not.

Speak to an Audience

You will need to talk to an audience at some point in your career. You will need to share your ideas, your work, or your results. In business, we’re paid for results. It’s important to be able to share the impact of your results on the business in an effective presentation. You need to be be able to organize your thoughts and share them verbally to others so they understand.

One of the keys to an effective presentation is to become comfortable speaking in front of people. Skills and tips abound from all corners. Toastmasters is a national organization that is wonderful at helping folks speak to an audience. What Toastmasters knows and helps organize is that practice makes perfect. This organization creates a forum and progression for people to make speeches, get feedback and move forward. The more you speak to an audience, the more comfortable you become.

I had the benefit of of being in public speaking when I was in high school. I didn’t see myself as a particularly good speaker. I felt I was good at arguing, and I enjoyed debate. I decided to try its partner high-school forensics. After trying many individual events, I discovered extemporaneous speaking - an event that gave me 30 minutes to go from topic to delivering a 7-minute speech. I practiced. Every Saturday I competed. I eventually won first place in the final tournament of my high-school career.  I give credit to doing it over and over.

While these three areas aren’t unique skills, they’re sorely lacking in most organizations. When you excel in these areas, you’ll stand-out. Just ask Kelsey. 

Lost in Translation

A technical leader translates technical solutions into a business context. Translation is very different from explanation.  Your business doesn’t want to know how your software works. Non technical leaders want to know what impact technology has on the goals of the organization. An effective technical leader provides that translation.

Translation allows the business to make good choices by understanding the impact of those choices. The higher up in an organization you go, the less likely someone will need to understand the technical underpinning of the work you do. Technical translation isn’t about helping someone understand a technology. Many technical leaders struggle because they assume their role is to explain the technology. Non-technical leaders will conclude you don’t speak the language of business.

Your job as a technical leader is to bridge the gap between business priorities and technical choices. Or technical challenges. You help the business understand the impact of the choice. Cost. Performance. Time to market. User adoption. Liability. These are examples of business needs that have technical dependency.

In order to effectively translate, a technical leader must understand the business needs. Only then can you start asking yourself if the choices you’re making will impact those needs. Many of the choices you’re making simply don’t. When you decide what language to write an application in, the language itself isn’t what matters. What may matter is how hard it is to recruit talent. Or the cost of the production platform. Or the exposure of relying on open source software. You’re effectively translating when you can say “We’ve chosen Ruby on Rails because there is a big talent base, it’s supported well in the open source community and the cost to run it in production is reasonable."

I recall working with a colleague and trying to explain that our test coverage was bad. Dismal. We weren’t doing enough testing. "Are you saying the product quality is poor?" No, we don’t have enough tests covering enough of the application. Who cares? I had to translate into what mattered; “We have uncertainty in our product quality. We don't know if our customer will find a big problem with our application because we aren't testing enough of it." We had to decide to accept this liability that we didn’t know if our product was performing as expected.

Perhaps user design is an important aspect in customer retention. Perhaps customer service is also. You may find that the CEO is comparing investment in user design against staffing costs for service. It is hard to compare these things when you are technical. A business leader must. We can make a more effective argument if we understand how they’re being compared; an investment in user design is a one-time investment in ongoing customer retention. Adding service staff is an ongoing cost proportional to the customer base. "Let’s choose the investment that scales better as we grow."

Think of the technical decisions you’re involved. Use the lens of how it matters to the core of your business. What’s the business objectives? Growth? Sales? Margin? Customer retention? How do your technical choices impact those goals. Now consider how they impact relative to other nontechnical factors. You’ll start to understand how your CEO puts on your world, and how not to get lost in translation. 

Keep Moving Forward

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things…” - Walt Disney

This last weekend Michigan football had a particularly heartbreaking loss to Michigan State. It’s been a long time since Michigan has done well in that rivalry. This year with a new coach, Michigan was winning the entire game. Until it ended with the most unexpected turn, and Michigan State won with 0:00 left on the clock.

“We played winning football and didn’t get the result.” - Coach Harbaugh, Michigan Football

It’s hard not to be sad for the unexpected loss. I see other fans angry at the decisions made by the coach. Some even blaming the punter who bobbled the snap. Get a grip (let's remember these are college kids). The reality of the situation is that the entire team played hard and in the end the team lost. 

It’s an important lesson. You can make the best decisions as a leader and still end up with an unexpected (and undesired) result. How do you respond to failure? Leadership requires that we keep moving forward. That we don’t look to blame. We examine the situation to be sure we learn whatever is useful for next time. And keep moving forward.

We are all human, and we all can make mistakes. Your job as a leader involves other humans that can make mistakes. The only response is to keep moving forward. Ask yourself, what good is assigning blame? Yelling at your team? Quitting? Will any of that get you what you really want? Perhaps the mistake was not yours. Someday you will make a mistake. How will you want to be treated at that moment?

There is only one way to ensure victory: be better. It reminds me of the quote from Steve Martin “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” Be so much better that it's undeniable. How do you do that? Not through blame. Not by scaring your team, letting them believe that you might fire them. Not by giving up. 

Focus on what you really care about - results. And work to be better next time. Encourage your team to be better. Demonstrate resilience through challenges. Practice empathy and grace. These are qualities of a leader. Keep moving forward in the most positive way. Others will follow you.

The Power of Reliability

Routinely meeting others’ expectations. Doing what you’ve said. Saying what you’ll do for someone. We value reliability. Companies are rewarded for reliably reporting earnings. Heaven knows we value reliability in the Metro. We like to know what to expect. A leader works to be reliable for others.

One of the best compliments I get is that I’m reliable. On occasion, someone will say “when Dan says it’s true, it’s true.” I have had folks comment that they appreciate that I do what I’ve said. It isn’t flashy, and it is so important. I am inclined to remember those things I say to others. And follow through. Unless I’m unable. I will follow-up either way.

I was talking to my friend Matthew and he asked me what I saw in his work that makes me know he’s a special talent. I’ve known him for five years. He’s consistently striving to get better. Every time we talk, he is always trying to improve himself and his team. I think of him as a reliable leader.

Being reliable will make you stand out. It’s not an impossible skill to learn. Work to build habits that serve your core purpose. Keep track of what you’ve committed to others.  Follow-through and stay the course. I find it to be a special attribute. 

Being reliable is highlighted in the Jim Collins book “Great by Choice” where he talks about the 20-mile march. Consistently doing what you you know you must to be successful. It is about being reliable and consistent; not just to others. Also to yourself.

I work to run regularly to stay fit. When I run, I try and be reliable for myself. I run a certain amount each week. I build up to a total mileage for the month. The habit helps me achieve my goals for running for the year. I can’t do it all at once, so I make it a habit.

Being reliable doesn’t mean being superhuman. You can’t do everything. There will be things others want from you that you cannot deliver. You can communicate what you can and can’t do. Setting expectations is as much a part of reliability as is execution.

Another way to think of reliability is to think of your habits - what do you do so routinely that it’s nearly subconscious? One of the seven habits from Steven Covey is to sharpen the saw. Continue to invest in yourself and your development. Do this for yourself in a reliable way, you will not let yourself down in your own growth.

How reliable are you? Set expectations and communicate to others. Increase your own reliability. Stand out from the crowd as a leader that others rely on. 

You Had Me At Hello

I admitted to my cousin Laura the other day that I was watching the movie Jerry Maguire and loved it. Sure, I’m a sucker for a romantic comedy with a happy ending. This movie has even more appeal to me. The premise of the movie is a great leadership lesson captured by Jerry’s manifesto in the very beginning. In particular, “The answer is fewer clients.” More focus on personal relationships.

I’m not a sports agent, and this still applies to me. I think of each of my direct reports as clients. I work to get to know them and help them succeed. You may not have direct reports, and you still may have people that you feel responsible to help develop. They are your clients. And I believe in limiting the number of clients I have to allow myself to focus on them. I don’t believe you can have the same depth of relationship with twenty direct reports as you can with five.

In the movie, Jerry gets his wish as his world comes crashing down upon distributing his manifesto to everyone in his firm. He is fired, loses all but one of his clients. He is forced to survive by focusing his entire attention on just one client, American football player Rod Tidwell. I would argue this movie is both a romance AND bromance; following the evolution of the relationship between Jerry and Dorothy and also Jerry and his client, Rod.

Jerry is forced to evolve and get to know Rod and his family in a way he lost as a high-volume agent in a large agency. Jerry gets to know Rod’s wife and kids. They play together. They weather ups and down. And when Rod is injured on the field, it is Jerry that comforts Rod’s wife. Imagine having a relationship with someone you work with that would result in YOU being called on for comfort in a life or death situation.

Maybe that makes you uncomfortable. Because you see work and personal lives as separate. You feel like you’re prying when you ask about personal details, or you are shy to divulge them yourself. I certainly have not alway been comfortable sharing my love of the romantic comedy with the world. It can result in feeling vulnerable and exposed.

I’ve come to realize that trying to hold on to work separate from personal is a losing battle. We spend lots of time with people we work with. When we try and hold back pieces of ourselves we can be perceived as less than the human beings we are. When we avoid showing empathy, or compassion, or vulnerability. We can be difficult to relate to in situations where relating is our job, and our results rely on working together.

In the movie, the context is clearly the sports agent and his relationships. We all rely on others in our work, especially as leaders.

"The cause is caring about each other. The secret to this job is personal relationships.”

You had me at "hello”.

Respond, Don't React

You are more effective as a leader when you see the world around you for all the variation, and choose how to respond. Our world is a constant roller coaster ride. We have ups and downs that can feel like we’re being whipped around. It’s natural to move through the world simply reacting to stimulation. Reacting to other people. Reacting to unexpected situations. Reacting to new opportunities. Not truly taking the moment to think about what you will do next. Leaders don’t simply react. Take a moment and respond. 

It isn’t easy to insert that pause between stimulus and response. It takes practice to develop such a habit. For me, I’ve spend most of my adult life simply reacting. I honk my horn at the car ahead of me that takes too long at the stoplight. I send a fiery e-mail to chastise a coworker. I scold my child for disobeying. I am better when I see the stimulus, consider my feelings and choose to respond (or not respond). I have much more success.

I was reading a book called “10% Happier” by Dan Harris at the recommendation of my good friend Ryan. He set my expectations well that it was an interesting story of this news anchor who melted down on-air and went on a journey to explore meditation to understand how to deal with what he calls “the voice in his head.” Ryan also nailed that by about two-thirds through the book you feel like you have the basic story, and finishing it was much harder than starting it.

I relate to the words Harris uses to describe himself. He talked about being driven, at times obsessive about planning, and direct to a point of being jarring to others. He discusses his practice of meditation and mindfulness as his way to develop the habit to avoid mindless reaction. I appreciated the way he described his own skepticism about the process. I share much of that skepticism. 

One of the messages that “10% Happier” articulates is meditation can be training to control your attention, and provide tools to avoid reflexive reactions. I walked away with the understanding of the difference between reacting (an unconscious reflex) and responding. Dan Harris walks through his own personal story of managing to tone down his reflexive reactions and be more mindful.

Harris comes across as self aggrandizing in way that might be off-putting for some folks. The whole title is “10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice In My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, And Found Self-Help That Actually Works - A True Story.” It feels like a warning to anyone that picks up the book that he’s a little narcissistic. 

In my own life, I find that when I can effectively be present in the moment and respond rather than react I am much happier. I am allowing myself to be happy. There are similar lessons in Chade-Meng Tan’s book on Google’s mindfulness program “Search Inside Yourself”.

I am side-stepping some of my first reactions that don’t support my desired end-goal. Harris calls out advice he got from an instructor to ask of any response “Is it useful?” Let your response go if it isn’t useful. You will be a better leader. You will be happier. And everyone else around you will appreciate your apparent calm. 

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Leaders spend a lot of time communicating. In fact, it was a hard lesson for me to realize that communicating was one of my major job responsibilities as a leader of a large organization. It’s important for any leader to realize that communication is many things, including your actions. In many cases your actions can render your words meaningless. As a leader, it’s that much more important to be sure your actions represent the words you say to reinforce your message.

This lesson couldn’t have been made any more clear to me than during the current teacher strike in my kids’ school district. The teachers in our school say they don’t feel respected by the board of education. The board of education has said they respect and appreciate the teachers. The negotiations have been slow and tense with both sides accusing the other of mistreatment. The negotiating tactics have left the parties feeling disrespected. The words say the exact opposite.

As a leader, your actions are always under scrutiny. Your team is looking to see if your words are backed up by your actions. There are plenty of times when you may not realize the message your actions are sending. For example, when you say that you don’t expect your staff to respond to e-mails over the weekend and you still e-mail your staff on Saturday. If you aren’t very explicit that you don’t expect them to read or respond, it is likely the reader will assume some kind of urgency to work on it over the weekend.

We can be more effective by being extra aware that others may misinterpret our actions. Your team will ascribe a motivation for your actions that suits them. They may be totally wrong. We all naturally go through an exercise the looks like “If I did that I’d have to feel like this…” Once you’re aware you can take action.

Plan to communicate around your actions. Be explicit and share your motivation so people don’t have to interpret it for themselves. Practice looking at your actions from another person’s point of view, and explain a bit more around your actions and your intentions.

Change your behavior in a way that supports your message more directly. In our example above on e-mail, perhaps include in the message “I don’t want to forget this for Monday, so I’m sending the e-mail on Saturday. Please know I don’t intend you to have to work on it over the weekend.” Or perhaps you schedule your e-mail to send on Monday morning even though you wrote it Saturday night.

Actions speak louder than words. And your actions as a leader are always on display and open for judgement.

Live a Life True to Yourself

You may immediately think of this as just another inspiring statement you see on social media - “be true to yourself!” There’s depth beyond the clever Facebook postings you see every day. I was reading an article on Slow Hustle, a web-site on slowing down and enjoying life, called “The Top 5 Regrets of the Dying”. It sounds dark, and there’s real wisdom in the words. 

The top 5 regrets come from the experience of a nurse who provided care for people in their last 12 weeks of life. The number one regret is “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” It seems straightforward. I really I think we can all relate to this concept. We don’t live in a bubble; we shape our decisions by the way we think other will perceive us. 

It isn’t reasonable to think we won’t adjust our lives based on what others think. Many people don’t push the bounds enough. Or challenge the assumptions they make. I recall a provocative question that has stuck with me: “what have you done today that scares you?” I would say often we don’t live the life true to ourselves because we’re afraid of the consequences. And that keeps us safe. It also keeps us from pushing boundaries that should be pushed.

Number two of the regrets is “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.” I find this regret hard to relate to personally. I understand not letting work run your life. Perhaps this is where many people struggle. I am one that values hard work. If I’m working, I want to work hard. If I’m playing, I want to play hard. It reminds me of the Jim Harbaugh quote “Attacking this day with Enthusiasm Unknown to Mankind.” I prefer to interpret this regret as wishing I had chosen work less often. I very much agree we should all know where to draw the line. And we all need to prioritize our self and family.

Another of the top five regrets is not staying in touch with friends. I can totally relate. My friend Alex recently pointed out that although I’ve written many blog posts, I’ve never once mentioned him. And I want to publicly appreciate him for reaching out to me. I’ve done a better job in the last few years of being aware of my friendships and working to stay in touch. I find that staying in touch is hard for me, and I am always glad to hear from a friend. So thanks, Alex, for e-mailing.

The last regret of the top five simply states “I wish that I had let myself be happier.” Here’s the big reveal of the top five regrets. Folks on their deathbed recognize what so many of us have missed. Over the last three years I’ve worked much harder at allowing myself to be happy.

We have the power to allow ourselves to be happy. It may seem easier when Michigan football is winning. Regardless of outside circumstances, we are in control of our own happiness. So take control. Live a life true to yourself. Be happy.

Listen Fiercely

Listening is a lost art in modern life. So many things contend for your attention. Consider your day today. How often have you been distracted and not totally listening? Leaders connect with others. Notice when you’re in a conversation. Work to listen fiercely to the person speaking and you’ll connect on an entirely new level.

It is understandable that you have many priorities pulling at you. Maybe you’re getting ready for your day, checking your e-mail, trying to meet a looming deadline. In these circumstances, it’s tempting to allow a conversation to proceed even though we are preoccupied. Especially if we’re on the phone and pulled to multitask. Even when we’re standing in front of someone, we feel justified in checking our phone because we feel we can do both.

I have made the mistake in the past of assuming listening is a passive activity. I have assumed that listening is something that I can do while doing other more active things. What I have realized is that even in the best of circumstances, I give the impression that I don’t care about the conversation. At worst, I miss key points in the conversation. I always miss developing real empathy for the other person in the conversation. 

I continue to have experiences that reinforce the value in focusing on the conversation. When I’m driving, I’m not giving the conversation 100%. I have found I am much more effective when I decide to pull over. When I’m in front of my computer, I must resist my tendency to scan my e-mail. These distractions will pull you away from fiercely listening.

I make it a practice to set aside other distractions when I’m listening. When I’m standing and the other person is sitting, I will sit. If I have something in my hands (phone, papers, whatever) I will put it down. I will make eye contact. I will acknowledge the speaker, affirm the points made and often allow moments of silence to see what develops. When I’m on the phone, I often take handwritten notes of the words spoken. It helps me resist the temptation to do something else.

Not every person immediately appreciates this fierce listening. When I’m in a conversation with someone who is distracted, this level of intense focus is uncomfortable. Often when I’m in a conversation with someone where they clearly are preoccupied; I will offer to come back another time. Sometimes this offer is just the jolt my companion needs. Together we can decide if now is the time to give the conversation entire focus.

I find that I often receive focused attention back in response. Sometimes the other person simply accepts my invitation to be left alone. Many times my conversation partner simply doesn’t realize they are dividing their attention. This is a kind way to highlight that the conversation may not be as effective if your partner isn’t focused on you. 

Leaders make connections with others. It is possible to get through your day without actively listening. You’ll pass the time. You may avoid leaving a bad impression. You will not make deep connections with people. You will miss adding value through these connections.