Leading in Special Situations
Uplift Public Library Administration, 2013
Topics
 Leading Your Boss
 Leading Meetings
 How to Disagree Politely
 Hiring People
 Leading Teams
 Communicating
Leading Your Boss
 Know yourself.
 Know your boss.
 In both cases, know …
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Goals and objectives
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Pressures faced
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Strengths and weaknesses
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Style of working and thinking
 Creating an effective working relationship in your job as well as your boss’s.
 To some extent, you teach your boss how to treat you.
Leading Your Boss
 Clarity, cooperation, commitment
 Clarity
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Communicate clearly and precisely. Get to the point.
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Get your boss to be clear and up front with you.
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Respond positively to criticism.
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Be your own publicist.
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Communication is two-way. (“It isn’t a problem until I’ve been told about it.”)
 Cooperation
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Create win-win situations.
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How can you help the boss?
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Games People Play = “They’ll be glad they knew me.”
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If you disagree …
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Make sure that you understand the boss’s point of view.
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Express feelings positively.
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Facts, not emotions
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Offer alternatives.
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Allow both sides to save face.
 Commitment
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Help your boss be right.
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We all need strokes.
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Catch your boss doing something right.
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Be supportive. “If you can’t say something good …”
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Opportunity people vs problem people
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Job satisfaction = Giving more than you take
Leading Your Boss
 You are your own boss.
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Be self-directed.
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You are where you are because of choices you have made.
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Understand “ownership.”
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It creates freedom and responsibility.
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It's easier to change yourself than to change the boss.
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You are always in control of how you react to events – even if you aren't in
charge of events.
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What has been doesn't have to be what is or what will be.
Boss One on Ones
 Manager Tools
 Never ask your boss for a one on one.
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It may be perceived as you telling them how to manage or lead.
 Instead, every week, ask for a 30-minute update.
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Have your update already planned.
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Don’t ask for a recurring meeting.
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You’re more likely to be turned down.
 Finish your 30-minute meeting in 15 minutes.
 Ask questions …
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But accept a lack of answers graciously.
 Prepare a report based on the meeting.
 If your boss wants the report, you have it.
 If not, you have notes.
 If the meeting is cancelled, send your boss a written update.
Leading Meetings
 Manager Tools.
 Pre-publish an agenda.
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For each item: start time, action, owner
 Start on time.
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You have to be early.
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Don’t wait for anyone. Start.
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Ignore latecomers.
 Set some ground rules.
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Put setting ground rules on the agenda.
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Ask for input. Don’t just dictate.
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Write them down. Post them.
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E.g., one person speaks at a time. No phone calls unless you step out.
 Stick to your agenda.
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Be the respectful enforcer.
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Use reminders.
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“Bob, you’ve got one minute.”
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“Sorry, Bob, we have to move on. Let’s put this in the parking lot.”
 Use a “parking lot.”
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A place for issues not on the agenda
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Ideally posted.
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Last 5 minutes of the agenda = the parking lot
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Ignore, decide, table items in the parking lot.
 Fix responsibilities.
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Wrap up each agenda item.
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WHO is going to do WHAT by WHEN
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Ask, don’t tell, for a public commitment.
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“Bob, will you give us a report at the next meeting?”
Leading Meetings
 Finish on time.
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Unless you ask for an additional 5 to 10 minutes
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And you state a new end time and stick with it.
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And you don’t do this too often.
 Publish notes.
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As soon as possible
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Highlight actions and owners.
 Continuously improve
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Every 12 weeks or so, ask “How are these meetings working for us?”
Participating in Meetings
 Underappreciated way to enhance your career
 Be on time.
 Introduce yourself.
 Sit with someone you don’t know.
 Contribute. Speak up.
 If you agree with something, say so.
 No surprises.
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If you’re going to bring up something – especially if it’s controversial – prebrief people.
 No surprises. No ambushes.
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If someone sends you something in advance that you disagree with, meet
with him or her ahead of time.
 Be prepared to answer objections.
 Say goodbye to people. Shake hands.
 After the meeting …
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Read the minutes. Check for your commitments.
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Thank people for their support.
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If you disagreed with someone, talk with them.
How to Disagree Politely
 Productivity501
 State the other person’s position with empathy.
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“Seek first to understand …” (Covey)
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“I see why you think that this is important.”
 Stay focused on the issue – not the person.
 Wait to state your position.
 Address any hostility, even if it is minor.
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“I know that you feel strongly about this, and I appreciate that.”
 Plan ahead if possible.
 Follow up with people.
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Make sure that there are no hard feelings.
Disagreeing With Your Boss
 Manager Tools
 Never disagree with your boss in public.
 Never say, “I disagree,” even in private. Instead …
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Support and question
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“Okay, I have some questions.”
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Prepare both parts.
Or make a counterproposal
 Disagree early and not late.
 Disagree when planning and not when doing.
 Never disagree with your boss in private with others.
Hiring People
 Jim Collins, Good to Great
 Stage 1 = First Who, Then What
 “Get the right people on the bus.”
 “Get the right people in the right seats.”
 “Get the wrong people off the bus.”
 “Put who before what.”
Get the Right People on the Bus
 Have a rigorous selection process.
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Good leaders are always hiring (Manager Tools)
 Invest substantial time evaluating candidates.
 When in doubt, don’t put the person on the bus.
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An empty seat is better than having the wrong person on the bus.
 Keep the right people on the bus.
Get the Right People in the Right Seats
 100% of the key seats should be filled with the right people
 If you have a potential wrong person …
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Give him or her the benefit of the doubt that he or she is just in the wrong
seat.
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Give him or her a chance to prove himself or herself in a different seat.
Get the Wrong People Off the Bus
 When you know you have the wrong person, deal with it.
 Help people exit with dignity and grace.
 You want the majority of people who leave to still feel good about the
organization.
 “Autopsy” your mistake.
 Apply lessons to future hiring decisions.
People Decisions
 Spend a significant amount of time on people decisions
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Getting the right people on the bus
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Getting the right people in the right seats
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Getting the wrong people off the bus
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Developing people for bigger seats
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Succession planning
Leading Teams
 Remember the lessons of our earlier exercise.
 Take advantage of the advantages of a team.
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Quality = Correctness x Acceptance
 Mitigate against the disadvantages of a team.
 What and who are important
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What is the purpose of the team?
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Who needs to be on the team?
Leading Teams Through Creative Abrasion
 Conflict is essential to innovation.
 If managed properly, conflict can produce creative solutions.
 Hire diverse workers and get them to respect their differences.
 Understanding differences helps people communicate and collaborate.
 Create heterogeneous teams.
 Adopt a variety of problem solving approaches.
 Keep reminding the team why we are working together.
 Get team members to acknowledge their differences.
 Devise guidelines for working together.
 Specify the common goal.
 Include time for divergent and convergent discussion.
 Depersonalize conflict. (I statements vs You statements)
Communication
 Communication is what the listener does.
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Understand who your listeners are.
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Understand what resonates with them.
 Chip Heath and Dan Heath. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and
Others Die.
 SUCCES – Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Stories
 Simple
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Core + compact
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Example: “It’s the economy, stupid.”
 Unexpected
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Violate expectations. Break the pattern.
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Example: Enclave mini-van ad
 Concrete
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Human actions, sensory information
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Example: How big is an acre?
 Credible
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Honest, trustworthy, or high-status source
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Example: Ads that use doctors
 Emotional
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Make people feel something.
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Example: ChildFund
 Stories
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Stories tell people how to act and inspire them to act.
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Example: Subway and Jared