http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/front/Federer_embodies_Swiss_virtues_say_newspapers.html?siteSect=105&sid=10919656&rss=true&ty=st&ref=ti_spa

 

This article is about Roger Federer winning the Wimbledon and breaking the record of winning 15 grand slam titles, but I like very much the way it is written.  I talks about Federer as a “top manager” who is capable of doing great planning and this is why he wins.

Quoting the article:

“The Tages-Anzeiger hyped Federer as a “top manager”. “From zero to 15 in six years. He achieved a record number of Grand Slam titles in a stunningly short period of time”

In only six years because of good planning he was able to achieve a record.

“That shows that there is a lot more behind all of his successes than a phenomenal talent. He is also a passionate fighter, and he is masterly at managing his talent, and better than his opponents at making a game plan.”

I like very much the expression “managing his talent” – Yes, we need to manage ourselves, our talents and our time to reach our goals.  Also good planning is needed.  You can’t achieve if you don’t know your strengths and weaknesses and work on both and associate this with a good plan.

The title I used for this article is a saying or sort of a proverb.  I thought it best fits for this post because I will speak about managers who do not see the obvious and continue adopting the same strategies which proved ineffective.

A manager should be able to see his faults before seeing the faults of his employees.  If he adopts a certain strategy at work for a long time and it proved ineffective, then he should CHANGE it.  I know a manager for example who adopted a technique for 10 years now and the result was people keep resigning.  He has a very high turn over rate and people hate him around the office.  Employees join the company motivated and hard-workers and gradually they lose their talent, lose their enthusiasm and even lose their interest to work.  Their quality of work degrades and their mistakes keep increasing.  In spite of all that; he always blames it on someone else and never wants to admit that it is his own fault.

 

 

Part of being a good manager is evaluating your strategies and leadership skills.  You have to be able to motivate your people and bring the best out of them.  

 

 

 

I read a good quotation that says:

“if you command wisely, you’ll be obeyed cheerfully.” – Thomas Fuller

This is very true, be reasonable if you want to be obeyed.  Show people that you trust them, because if they feel that you don’t trust them they will not strive to achieve. 

Also if you want to be followed and obeyed, then you have to be a role model.  Don’t ask them to do things that you yourself fail to do.  For example, if you come in late, you can’t ask them to be punctual.  If you forget certain matters, do mistakes and miss deadlines, you can’t ask them to be perfect. 

To succeed as a manager work on yourself first…See your own mistakes and resolve them and you will find people naturally following your steps.

Motivational conference keynote speaker – speech by Patrick Dixon

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kZl15houUc

he is making too much of a show but the speech is definitely useful

Reference my last two posts, another example of how the lack of execution culture can harm or even shut down an organization as mentioned in the book is:

At Lucent and in 1996 they hired a new CEO – Richard McGinn- and they had high hopes that he will deliver good results. He promised investors great growth in revenues and earnings. Lucent focused on telecommunication equipment market from consumer telephones to network switching.  And with Bell Labs they had an R&D resource no one else in the market could compete with.

The new CEO though could not get things done.  

1- Lucent structure was bulky and unmanageable.  

2- The financial system used was inadequate.  They could not get information about profit by customer or product line and hence they could not make appropriate decisions based on figures.

3- McGinn failed to confront and replace executives and managers who did not perform well and did not act up to the standards.  As a result Lucent missed the best emerging market opportunities.

4- Lucent spent a fortune installing SAP but did not change the way they execute their business processes and hence they did not benefit from it at all.

5- Some Lucent engineers were trying to convince senior management to let them develop fiber optic products.  But senior management did not agree because their main biggest customers were not interested.  

Because of all the above Lucent was near bankruptcy.  

I will comment on each of the points above, and in the same order, to highlight the importance of getting things done and having the culture of execution.

1- Hiring should be done wisely.  It is not appropriate to hire before you know exactly what the new comers will do and have a detailed job description. 

2- Without accurate and relevant figures you cannot take any decisions.  And if you do they will definitely be wrong decisions.

3- Having the right people in the right place is the key to success.  Anyone who does not perform up to the standards should be fired and replaced immediately or else problems will keep growing until they become unmanageable.

4- Needles to say of course that to start using a new system you have to define new business processes and you have to accept and adopt the needed changes.  Otherwise it will be money thrown down the drain.

5- It is good to have an eye on your biggest customers and focus on their needs.  But along with that you have to have an eye on the future and do whatever is needed to grasp emerging opportunities.

My next and last post related to this subject will be to summarize the three main building blocks of execution as stated in the book……

Stay tuned……

Reference my last two posts, another example of how the lack of execution culture can harm or even shut down an organization as mentioned in the book is:

At Lucent and in 1996 they hired a new CEO – Richard McGinn- and they had high hopes that he will deliver good results. He promised investors great growth in revenues and earnings. Lucent focused on telecommunication equipment market from consumer telephones to network switching.  And with Bell Labs they had an R&D resource no one else in the market could compete with.

The new CEO though could not get things done.  

1. Lucent structure was bulky and unmanageable.  
2. The financial system used was inadequate.  They could not get information about profit by customer or product line and hence they could not make appropriate decisions based on figures.
3. McGinn failed to confront and replace executives and managers who did not perform well and did not act up to the standards.  As a result Lucent missed the best emerging market opportunities.
4. Lucent spent a fortune installing SAP but did not change the way they execute their business processes and hence they did not benefit from it at all.
5. Some Lucent engineers were trying to convince senior management to let them develop fiber optic products.  But senior management did not agree because their main biggest customers were not interested.  

Because of all the above Lucent was near bankruptcy.  

I will comment on each of the points above, and in the same order, to highlight the importance of getting things done and having the culture of execution.

1. Hiring should be done wisely.  It is not appropriate to hire before you know exactly what the new comers will do and have a detailed job description. 
2. Without accurate and relevant figures you cannot take any decisions.  And if you do they will definitely be wrong decisions.
3. Having the right people in the right place is the key to success.  Anyone who does not perform up to the standards should be fired and replaced immediately or else problems will keep growing until they become unmanageable.
4. Needles to say of course that to start using a new system you have to define new business processes and you have to accept and adopt the needed changes.  Otherwise it will be money thrown down the drain.
5. It is good to have an eye on your biggest customers and focus on their needs.  But along with that you have to have an eye on the future and do whatever is needed to grasp emerging opportunities.

 

My next and last post related to this subject will be to summarize the three main building blocks of execution as stated in the book.

Stay tuned……

Reference my last post on the culture of execution, today I continue my second episode on the subject.

As I mentioned before, one of the interesting parts in the book is where they mentioned real life examples on how lack of execution culture kills the operation. You’ll be amazed to see how big names failed to achieve their targets.

The first example I’ll summarize here is Xerox.  It is mentioned in the book that in 1997 a new COO was hired at Xerox, who was later promoted to CEO in 1999.  What he started by doing is transform Xerox from a products and services company into a solution provider.  So he added the software side along with the hardware side. He did two things that really harmed the organization.  First, he cut down the 90-something administration centers, handling accounting, billing and customer services to only FOUR!

Second, he shifted the focus of all 30,000 salesmen from hardware to solution providing and from geographical focus to industrial focus.

Launching those two big changes together at the same time was as mentioned in the book “Execution error”. He was not directly connected to the people, hence he did not notice that his two new shifts caused:

1. The loss of orders
2. Service calls unanswered
3. Invoices extremely delayed and stacked-up
4. Sales representatives spent most of their time trying to adapt to the new strategy and clear out the mess caused by reducing the customer service centers.
5. Morale dropped
6. Cash flow was extremely affected
7. Investors began to worry

He did not either make sure that the operation and core process of the organization were strong enough to handle the change, and he did not make sure that he appointed the right people in the right place to execute the change.

This is an obvious example of how lack of the true culture of execution can be harmful.  The good thing is he was fired.  Something that we never hear in Egypt, Firing the CEO! Usually what happens here is decision makers go to the smallest employee in the hierarchy and lay the blame on him for not executing properly.  But what big organizations do is fire the CEO who failed to carry his plans to success.

………… TO BE CONTINUED

I am currently reading a book titled:  Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan and Charles Burck.

The book is great; it talks about the culture of getting things done “Execution”.  I loved the book because it is very practical and includes real life examples.  It is not like other management books where they speak very theoretical and ask you to follow techniques that can not really be applied in real life.  The way they explained some real life examples and why people failed or succeeded is wonderful. 

I am still reading the book and I will be writing more posts on it as I complete reading.  Today I want to share with you one of the points mentioned:  

They say that a manager or leader can not just simply meet with his staff and discuss goals and tell them to do certain tasks.  You have to assign! i.e. you have to set deadlines and distribute responsibilities.  Someone has to take charge of the task you are assigning so that you can get back to him when things go wrong. And this is not enough either, you have to get involved. You have to know what is going on.  If you do not get involved and help out when needed, you will wait until the deadline comes and discover a disaster.  Being a manager does not mean to be out of the picture or do not know what your staff is doing.  You have to make sure they are on the right track.  This is the execution culture, to know how to get things done.  Not just boss around and order your staff and then not to know anything about real life execution and the possible obstacles. 

Larry Bossidy said something very wise in the book: “Many people regard execution as detail work that is beneath the dignity of a business leader. That is wrong, to the contrary, it is a leader’s most important job.” 

We have this defect in Egypt.  Most managers think they are too important to get involved in the execution.  They pretend to be busy all the time and their staff can not meet with them to discuss their daily challenges.  This does not mean of course that a manager will leave his responsibilities to do the work himself, but he has to be the coach.  And to be the coach you have to know what is going on to be able to lead.

In my coming posts I will mention some of the real life examples they included in the book and will continue highlighting the important points they mentioned to clarify how we can have the culture of execution…….so stay tuned!

People tend to use the two terms “manager” and “Leader” interchangeably, but in reality they are two very different attributes.  “Managers do the right things, leaders do the things right”, I read this statement once and it really summarizes the difference. Managers’ main aim is to maximize output of the organization and to achieve this they must: Plan, Organize, Staff, Direct and Control.  Leadership is the most important quality to be able to direct.

How to become a leader?

 

It is partly a personal trait and partly acquired.  Some people are inspiring by nature, if you see someone and you find yourself following his steps and eager to become like him, then you found a leader. To be able to train yourself to become a leader you must:

 

 

1. Make people trust you and make them know that you are someone they can depend on.
2. Set an example, do everything you want others to do.  If you want your employees to come to office early, be the first one to arrive. If you want them to manage their time efficiently, set an example in time management and utilize your time to the best.
3. Be approachable and accessible.  No one is too important to listen to his team and help them out when needed.  You must be available to be able to set the direction and lead.
4. Praise on due time and criticize on due time.  And do not take credit for your team’s work.  Acknowledge their work with your customers and your managers.
5. Know your team well and use the right way of communication with each member.  A leader always knows how to reach to every member of his team and use the right way to communicate with him and get things done.
6. Focus on achieving your goals.  Do not force a way of working on your staff.  Focus on getting things done in whatever way they choose.  A leader cares for results not for the means used to reach those results.
7. Make sure that every member of your team feels important.  A leader makes every team member feel that he is very important to get things done.  This way they become more motivated to exert more effort and excel.
8. Take initiative to get things done. A leader inspires his team. By seeing him take initiative, they will start taking responsibility and getting things done.
9. A leader has vision.  You have to know your vision and share it with your team to be able to achieve results. 

Just saw a video on BNET for Ed Muzio, CEO of Group Harmonics, saying that there is a simple recipe for every employee to make sure his managers do not make his life miserable. On the whole I liked it because it is very true but I suspect it works. 

To summarize what he said, “you need to follow the ICE model”.  ICE stands for Identify, Connect and Explain.  Which means:

1. Identify who are the people who have expectations out of you. Not only your direct manager but maybe his manager, a customer, another manager in another department whom you are involved with in a project. Anyone who has expectations out of you and maybe authority to directly or indirectly reward or punish you.
2. Connect with those people, open a clear communication channel with them and make them know you and know them well.
3. Explain to all of them what you do exactly and let them all know the other pressures on you that they do not know.

He also said that you need to be:

1. Predictable.  Your managers have to be able to know what to expect when they ask you to do something. 
2. Reliable, so they know that if you say you will do something, you will do it.
3. Responsible, which means they know that you are working even when they are not looking or checking on you.   

He says that if you are Predictable, Reliable and Responsible then they will trust you and once you build the trust they will not give you a hard time.

Here is the link fo those who are interested in seeing it:

http://www.bnet.com/2422-13731_23-265802.html?promo=713&tag=nl.e713

———————-

I totally agree with what he said and in a perfect world it is very true.  But thinking about it sometimes you build the trust and you are Predictable, Reliable and Responsible and still your managers turn your life into hell.  And sometimes you connect and explain very well but they simply do not care!

So theoretically, if you follow the recipe above then your life will be great and your managers will not give you a hard time, which Ed Muzio called it “Managing people who manage you”

Unfortunately in our world there are a lot of sick people who take authority and no matter what you do they are never satisfied. 

I just thought I share this video with you because it is definitely useful and it will work well with you if your manager is not a psychopath or a control freak.

I received the email below, describing a very obvious example of terrible customer service:

“Hi Everyone,

 I’d like to share a story that happened to me yesterday with you:

 Yesterday, me and a few friends decided that we want to go out today & wanted to go to Sequoia .. My friend called to reserve a table for today & they told her it’s all booked out. My other friend decides to give it a shot, and they tell her it’s all booked out on Thursday AND on Friday. I thought something wasn’t right, so I called (I used to live in the USA), spoke using my fluent American English and asked to reserve .. to my shock, they gave me a reservation!! My friends who spoke Arabic were told that there are no tables, but when they thought I was a foreigner they gave me a reservation for 6 people!! Looks like they favor foreigners over Egyptians!! I’m infuriated!! Why does an EGYPTIAN restaurant decline reservations from Egyptians only to give the tables to foreigners?!?!? Are we THAT worthless in their eyes????

 I will be boycotting this restaurant! I’m going there today to raise hell with the manager.

 Note: My friend was with me in the car when they told her they are all booked out, and I called as soon as she hung up so I’m sure no one had cancelled their reservation!!

 My contact details are as follows if anyone would like to contact me directly about this:

Omar M. Elkalla
Business Intelligence Developer
ITWorx
Tel: (+2) 011-555-5373
Personal email: omar.elkalla@gmail.com
“

——————————

The worst thing anyone can do is to apply discrimination among his customer base for any reason.  If you do, it will easily spread in the market and you will lose more customers everyday.  Sequoia might be surprised to lose even foreigner customers if they find out what they did, because once I as a customer know that you are capable of lying in one thing then you could lie in several other things.  How do I know then that you have a clean kitchen, that you offer me trusted food and drinks and not cheap alternatives, and … and

It is a well known fact that bad words travel faster than good ones.  One angry customer told all his friends and acquaintances about the Sequoia incident and definitely it will cost the restaurant.

Looking at it from a business point of view, you are a restaurant in Egypt where most of the inhabitants are Egyptians and you do not want Egyptians as your customers….Sounds odd?  How many foreigners will visit you everyday compared to Egyptians? Their attitude seems like people who do not want to make money or reputation in the market.
They might defend themselves by saying “Egyptians reserve by phone and I keep the place reserved for them and then they do not show up”.  Well, it is simple make the reservation and put a policy that if you do not show on the exact time of your reservation, it will be automatically cancelled.  So simple and pleases everyone, instead of lying and favoritism.

Just another bad example of DON’TS in customer service.  And I have to blame the restaurant manager.  If he did a good job managing the place and setting policies straight, his employees would never have dared to do that. SO I could say it is an example of bad managerial skills as well.

It is appraisal time…Once a year employees see for the first and last time comments and feedback about their performance!!

Performance appraisal is supposed to be an ongoing process throughout the year.  If you as a manager really want your company and your employees to benefit the most from their appraisal, then you have to have regular meetings throughout the year. Those meetings are intended to discuss the employees’ performance, achievements, plusses and minuses, and you have to:

1. Take care not to be too positive nor too negative.  Do not praise too much to the extent that could make the employee stop trying to become better.  And do not be too critical and show him as an all negative person.  Balance between encouraging and motivating to do better.
2. Always keep track of all the tasks handled by your team and how they handled it with all your notes on them.  You must use those notes in your regular meetings to discuss all positives and negatives on due time.
3. If you have a recurring comment on the performance of one of your team you have to discuss it with him and help him resolve it.  Do not wait for the appraisal to tell him/her that he has a weakness.
4. You have to listen as well.  Do not just spend the meetings talking; listen to be able to help if needed.
5. When you criticize you have to explain how you can help.  Or give hints and tips of how this employee can help himself enhance his performance.  If you criticize only, your meetings will be pointless.  Have an objective in mind and work to achieve it out of those meetings.
6. Establish and explain clearly a full Policy for reward and punishment.
7. Establish and explain clearly a full policy of performance level expectations.  Explain clearly to your staff how they will be evaluated and what is expected out of them to give them a chance to perform well.

If you succeed in doing all the above, then you can really execute a true performance appraisal system that is both fair and a true reflection of performance.

Without all the above your appraisal is just an act that you put to fake that you are executing your work in a professional way!