Well Managed

When Times are Tough, It’s Time to be King Henry (part 3)

Here are parts one and two of this series.

So how can we as managers use ideas from the St. Crispin’s Day speech to better lead our employees through tough times?

One thing we don’t need to do is make flowery or dramatic speeches. That works fine on stage or in a film but in the real world it’s rarely effective and can easily backfire. In reality, King Henry himself was very plain-spoken which was part of what made him such an effective leader. For example, when it came time to lead his soldiers in their seemingly doomed attack on the French army, he initiated the charge by saying, “Fellas, let’s go!”

So let’s see how we can translate Shakespeare’s brilliant oratory and insights into management techniques that are effective in the 21st Century workplace.

Let’s start by grouping together and discussing three points from the previous post:

• Don’t pretend everything’s fine.
• Don’t wish for things to be easier.
• Be a role model of strength and courage.

The single most effective thing you can do in this area is to develop a taste for tough challenges. If you can teach yourself to tackle difficult times with genuine enthusiasm you won’t be tempted to pretend everything’s fine or wish for things to be easier, and it will be natural for you to serve as a role model of strength and courage.

How exactly do you go about developing a taste for tough challenges? Well, that’s a big enough topic that I’ll cover it in greater detail in a future post. But the main thing is you need to make a conscious decision and commitment to become a person who thrives in difficult situations. It worked for me. At this point in my career, I get a little bored and restless when everything’s running smoothly and I really perk up and feel engaged when a big problem comes along. This was not at all the way I felt fifteen years ago; I’ve deliberately changed the way I respond to difficult situations.

You can also develop the habit of using effective words rather than ineffective words when talking about the tough problem you’re facing. Using ineffective words means either minimizing the problem or catastrophizing the problem. Trying to brush off a big problem with minimizing comments like, “it’s nothing” or “don’t worry about it” will only make your employees more worried because they’ll start to think you’re genuinely clueless about how serious the situation really is. On the other hand, catastrophizing phrases like “this is a disaster” or “we’re totally screwed” will undermine your status as a leader and fuel pessimism and panic.

Here are some examples of how to talk about a big problem using effective language that acknowledges the severity of the situation while instilling confidence:

• “This is a tough one, but we’ve tackled bigger problems than this before and we’ll beat this one, too.”
• “We’re facing a serious situation, but I know I can count on every one of you and we’ll get through it together.”

Unless the situation involves an element of tragedy, feel free to inject enthusiasm with comments like, “this is the fun part” or “I really love this kind of thing!” If you truly mean it, this attitude is contagious and can immediately transform the moods of everyone around you. I do this pretty often, because tricky problems get me energized and I tend to share my enthusiasm with those around me. But only say it if that’s the way you truly feel. False enthusiasm rubs everybody  the wrong way.

Now let’s address some of the other points from the previous post:

Focus on what you can do rather than dwelling on the problem. If you and your employees keep your attention focused on the huge problem you’re facing or the grim situation you’re experiencing, you won’t get good results because it tends to make people depressed or angry and diminishes motivation. You need to get them refocused on the positive outcome you’re hoping to achieve and what they can do to help achieve it. Here are two key ideas:

• “We can’t change the past so let’s focus on shaping the future.”
• “There’s no sense worrying or complaining about the things we can’t control so let’s focus on the things we can control.”

Earlier in my career, I was a manager during a very difficult situation and was dealing with quite a bit of negativity from some employees. I made a rule that the first ten minutes of meetings would be set aside to focus on the problem under discussion. We’d discuss what was wrong and people were free to complain and get their gripes off their chests. Then I'd announce that the ‘focus on the problem’ part of the meeting was over and that the rest of the meeting would be focused on solutions. After that if someone tried to start complaining or getting negative I’d jump in and remind him that part of the meeting was over. It was a simple rule and worked quite well.

Everyone pulls together in the face of a tough situation. In tough times, you’ll probably feel a strong impulse to withdraw from those around you. It’s a natural reaction. You might find yourself closing your office door more often or spending less time “out on the floor” with your employees.

It’s important to not only resist this impulse but to reverse it. In difficult times you should actually draw your people closer to you and to each other. Spend extra time with your employees and let them know you’re all in it together, whatever may come. This is your greatest opportunity to forge bonds of mutual loyalty and trust. Facing shared hardship and banding together to overcome them can turn a group of people into a real team.

One great way to do that is to tell stories about those shared experiences, which leads us to our final points…

Achievements will be remembered and it’s okay to turn stories into legends. All cultures are defined in part by their legends or folklore. You can build a strong culture in your organization by turning stories of achievement in the face of great difficulty into legends of your own. Stories like these are often referred to “war stories” for a reason. They have the same mythic and nostalgic quality of stories told among old soldiers of their shared hardships, adventures, misadventures, setbacks, and victories. Even while the difficult circumstances are continuing, you can plant the seed by predicting, “someday we’ll look back on all this and remember how we all got through this together.” Once the crisis has passed or the problem has been overcome, you should reminisce and tell tales about employees’ achievements and experiences. Go ahead and exaggerate a bit, help your employees feel like comrades and heroes for what they endured and accomplished.

Just the other day a group of us were in a meeting trying to figure out how to handle a tough new market. This is a big problem for us right now, and we’re struggling. At the end of the meeting I spontaneously turned to a long-time employee, grinned, and said, “Hey, it's just like the old days, isn’t it.” He got a big smile on his face and said, “It sure is.” There was an immediate warm sense of kinship between us and a surge of enthusiasm.  We were thinking back to a time years earlier when we were all working together to build the division from nothing, which was a lot like flying an airplane while we were still building it. I’ll sometimes instigate a little session of reminiscing about that time with the employees who were there with me. It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t always fun, but we triumphed in the end. Truly, those employees who weren’t there and didn’t go through those difficult days wish they’d been there with us, just as King Henry predicted.

Don’t miss this kind of an opportunity to create a bond of trust and loyalty between you and your employees. When talking about a past time of tribulation, don’t say, “You’re lucky you weren’t there, that sucked!” Instead say, “Man, you should have been there, those were the days; they were tough times but they were great times.” This is the way you can truly turn your staff into “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.”

When Times are Tough, it’s Time to be King Henry (part 2)

Here is part one of this series.

In the previous post we looked at a great example of a manager dealing with a tough situation: Henry V leading his ragtag English soldiers in a battle for their lives against a vastly superior French army. (By the way, if you want to prepare to be a successful CEO, read Agincourt, Henry V and the Battle that Made England by Juliet Barker and take notes on how Henry led not just his army but his nation.)

Let’s take a closer look at some of the leadership lessons we can gain from the famous scene in Shakespeare’s Henry V, the St. Crispin’s day speech, delivered by Henry to his troops on the morning of the battle of Agincourt.

• Don’t pretend everything’s fine. When Henry says “If we are marked to die, we are enough to do our country loss” he is acknowledging the grim reality they were facing, namely that they may all be killed in the next few hours. But he does it with a defiant lightheartedness, thereby earning points for honesty while serving as a role model for courage and good humor in the face of adversity.
• Don’t wish for things to be easier. Henry doesn’t waste time wishing that he had more men or that the French had fewer. Wishing your problems away is useless and makes you look and feel weak. So Henry does the opposite, expressing the wish they were facing even steeper odds so their victory would be even more glorious. The harder the challenge, the greater the sense of achievement.
• Everyone pulls together in the face of a tough situation. When Henry says “for he that shed his blood with me shall be my brother” he’s expressing a concept remarkable at the time, when royalty were considered to be fundamentally different than, and superior to, commoners. But solidarity in the face of adversity is crucial to success. This is the time for the troops to know their leader is standing with them rather than maintaining distance.
• It’s okay to turn stories into legends. In one of my favorite lines, Henry predicts that each soldier “will remember, with advantages, the feats he did that day.” He lets them know its fine to exaggerate a bit when recounting their great achievement, as the facts of the day are transformed into folklore for future generations.
• Focus on what you can do rather than dwelling on the problem. Did you notice that Henry doesn’t try to tell his men that the French are lousy soldiers, or cowards, or evil? In fact, he doesn’t refer to them at all, which is remarkable if you think about it. Rather, he focuses his soldiers on themselves and on a vision of their victory, giving them a new and more positive way to see their situation. This is good leadership, because the only things they have control over are their own thoughts, emotions, and actions.
  
• Achievements will be remembered. Henry names some of the leading noblemen and predicts they will be remembered: “Then shall our names, familiar in his mouth as household words – Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester – be in their flowing cups freshly remembered.” This lets them know that their individual efforts will be recognized and valued. It’s heartening for people to know they can earn individual renown by their achievements in difficult circumstances. At the same time, it’s a sobering reminder that those who fall short will likely be noticed and remembered as well.
• Be a role model of strength and courage. That his men overhear his courageous and defiant words  to the French envoy is as important as what he says directly to them. The best leadership is to behave as you want your followers to behave and let them see you doing it. In other words “Do as I say and as you see me do.”

In the next post in this series we’ll look at some practical ways we can use these same ideas when we have to lead our employees through tough times in our organizations.

Here is part three of this series.

When Times are Tough, It's Time to be King Henry (part 1)

As managers, we’ve all faced tough times. Some are tougher than others. When I first joined a company where I previously worked, we were facing tough times that included things like bomb threats and receiving correspondence sprinkled with blood. In fact, early in my time at that company I prevented a large group of protesters who had gathered in our parking lot from invading and occupying our headquarters building (which they had done on a previous occasion). Fortunately, we were able to turn things around and put experiences like that behind us.

That's perhaps an extreme example, but even "normal" tough times like budget cuts, competitive pressure, or the loss of key personnel create special challenges for managers.

They also provide a great opportunity. Times of great adversity shape the character of an organization for better or for worse. If you allow it, they can shatter trust and divide your employees. However, if you seize the opportunity you can use them as your greatest chance to forge deep bonds of trust and loyalty.

Let’s consider an example of a manager facing a really tough situation. The manager was King Henry V. The tough situation was that his little army was starving, clothed in rags, exhausted, dying of dysentery, and desperately trying to escape from northern France. Unfortunately their path to the coast was blocked by a huge, fresh, well-fed French army that was determined to kill them all. On the morning of October 25, 1415, the English army awoke, about to fight what we now know as the battle of Agincourt, facing hopeless odds and knowing they were all going to die.

That's probably a worse situation than anything you'll ever have to face as a manager. I certainly hope so!

If you want to read about the messy, fantastic, fascinating reality of what happened next and how the ragtag English army achieved a stunning victory, I highly recommend Agincourt, Henry V and the Battle  that Made England, by Juliet Barker.

However, for our purpose (learning how to be better managers) it's more useful to turn to Shakespeare’s version of the events. In his play Henry V the young king transforms the dire situation into an opportunity to build loyalty and enthusiasm. He rallies the spirits of his troops with the famous oration known as the St. Crispin’s day speech. This is a great example of inspired leadership, of the power of words to move hearts and minds, to fundamentally transform how people perceive their situation.

Take a few minutes now to watch this clip of Kenneth Branagh, as King Henry, rallying his troops with this brilliant rendition of the famous St. Crispin’s day speech in his acclaimed movie version of the play. Just before this clip begins, one of his noblemen had wished they had 10,000 more English soldiers with them, and Henry responds.

Isn’t that remarkable?

Did you see what he did? In this speech, Henry turns the wish for more soldiers on its head, convincing his men they're lucky to be in the battlefield and to be so few, while the many who are safely in their beds in England are the unlucky ones who will forever regret not having been there. By the end of the speech they see themselves, in his words, as, "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers." Rather than grumbling and fearful, they are now united and determined in the face of grim adversity.

We probably can’t achieve the oratorical magnificence of Branagh reciting Shakespeare, but that’s fine, we don’t have to. We can still use some of the same ideas that are used in this speech in our work as managers when we're facing tough times. In the next post, we’ll take a closer look at these ideas. There are a number of subtle and powerful insights to be gained. Then in the third and final post in the series, we’ll review some practical nuts and bolts techniques you can use as a manager to turn adversity into strength.

Her are parts two and three of this series.

Broken Glass

I just spent a few hours picking up broken glass.

I’m fortunate to live in a lovely home on a large lot. The yard is about the size and shape of a football field, 1.2 acres to be precise. It’s like living in a park that happens to be right in the middle of the city.

About a quarter of the backyard is a small forest. It was there when we moved in, a tangle of trees and brush. It had obviously been allowed to grow wild for years. I thought it was pretty cool and my son and his friends loved it. After I cleared out the dead wood they used the forest for playing "airsoft" which is kind of like paintball without the paint. They also used the huge back lawn to practice launching the competition catapults they built each year.

Well, the kids are in college now and suddenly a huge yard seems like a lot of work for no good reason. (Especially since now I’m the one who has to mow it!) It’s time for a smaller yard. We’re moving into our new house this week.

But before we move, I’m doing a final clean-up in the woods. Off in one corner, years ago, someone dumped some windows which, of course, broke into several thousand shards of glass. Over the years the shards have become imbedded in the soil. I’ve spent quite a few hours over the past several weeks picking them out.

My son thinks I’m a little nuts to be spending hours picking broken glass out of a yard we’re about to leave behind us, but it makes perfect sense to me.

People can be categorized in many ways, and here’s one of them: there are three kinds of people in the world: those who break glass, those who see broken glass and do nothing, and those who pick up broken glass.

Years ago, when my kids were toddlers, it struck me that just about the most pure and beautiful sight in the whole world is little kids running around barefoot, laughing and playing. It could be on a lush green lawn or on a warm soft beach or pretty much anywhere. It’s just sweet. Which means that just about the saddest and nastiest thing in the world is for some little kid to cut her soft, pudgy little foot on some broken glass. So I made up my mind that any time I had the opportunity, I would pick up broken glass. I’d do my part to make the world a safer place for bare little toddler feet.

I’ve noticed that it’s the same way with a lot of things in life, for example in the world of business management. Can you think of managers who are the "glass breaker" type? Picture the kind of person who gets a destructive, ugly thrill out of smashing glass, whether by throwing a beer bottle out the window of a car or by throwing a rock through a window. Now picture that person as a manager. Have you ever worked for one of those people? It’s not pleasant. What they leave behind them is worse than broken glass. What they leave behind them is broken people.

Early in the process of building my division, we went through a time when we were continually interviewing candidates from all across the country. The management horror stories we heard from many of those people were an education for us in how not to treat employees.

The truth is that we all have within us the capacity to be destructive, to be indifferent, or to be constructive. We have all felt the momentary rush that comes from smashing something just as we have all been guilty at some time in our lives of an unnecessary cruelty. But we can and should seek to turn away from those impulses and embrace the deeper rewards that come from building, creating, challenging, and encouraging. We all have choices to make about the kind of managers we’re going to be and the kind of lives we’re going to lead. So let’s make best ones we can.

Pull the Anti-Love Filter Out of Your Head

One day, years ago, when my children were very young, I walked by one of my daughters, who was playing on the floor, and felt an impulse to give her a kiss, but I didn’t kiss her, I just kept walking.

And then I thought, "What just happened there? I felt an impulse to kiss my little girl but I stifled it. Why?"

As I thought about it, I realized that we all have filters in our minds that sort out our impulses from our actions. We feel many impulses every day and of course we can’t act on all of them, so we have these subconscious filters that screen most of them out and turn a few of them into actions.

It’s a good thing we have those filters! After all, many of our impulses are foolish or malicious. But it bothered me that I had a filter in my mind restraining me from showing love to one of my own children. I resolved at that moment to remove that particular filter – the anti-love filter – so that every single time I felt an impulse to hug or kiss one of my children, or tell one of them "I love you," that I would do it. And that’s exactly what I did from that day on. Up until they reached the age where that sort of thing has to be restrained a bit in front of friends and so forth, of course.

But this is a blog about being a good manager, so why am I telling this story? Because of what happened at work the very next day.

I had just arrived at work and was walking down the hall toward my office. Coming toward me was an employee who was transferring from one position in our company to another. We had been interviewing candidates to fill her old job but couldn’t find anyone who would do the job nearly as well as she had.

Without thinking about it, as we approached each other I said, "You know, you’re a great employee and a wonderful person, and it’s going to be incredibly difficult to replace you." She smiled and maybe had time to say, "Thanks" before we passed each other.

I didn’t give it another thought until the end of the day. I’m generally one of the last people to leave so as I was in my office getting ready to go home the building was quiet and empty. That same employee suddenly appeared in my doorway. She didn’t look at me; she was staring at the floor with an intense expression. She said, "I don’t want to talk about it, but I want you to know this is a difficult time in my life. A really hard time. I’ve been feeling really bad about myself and I've been very depressed. And when you said that this morning, that was the first kind thing anyone has said to me in a long time, and this is the first happy day I’ve had for quite a while. Thank you." Tears had started to roll down her face as she spoke. As soon as she said, "Thank you" she darted away.

I respected her wishes. We never spoke about it.

But I’ve never forgotten that day. After she left I sat back down in my chair, emotions sweeping through me. At first, I was utterly perplexed. What was she even talking about? Then I remembered the little compliment I had given her that morning. My God, it had just been an impulse, it had just popped out of my mouth, I hadn’t given it any thought at all. I could just as easily have said nothing. In fact, why had I said anything? It wasn’t the sort of thing I normally did.

Then I remembered the day before and the filter I had removed from my mind.

Folks, each of us is a single individual. We are who we are at home and at work. Make a change in one part of your life and you will see the effects of that change everywhere in your life. Learn to be a great parent and you will be a better manager. Learn to be a great business partner and you will be a better spouse. Learn to show love to your children and by golly you will show love to your employees.

As for me, I’ve been darn sure that filter has never been reinstalled in my head. Life’s better without it. Every time I feel an impulse to express appreciation to an employee, or to pay a compliment, I do it. I think this has been one the main reasons for my success as a manager.

Plus, you just never know, do you, when one kind word might make all the difference for someone.

Set out to be the best

Six years ago I was hired by my company to create a new division. Work that was then being done by a number of external vendors would all be brought in-house. It meant recruiting employees, creating forms, designing software, outlining processes, mastering regulatory compliance, setting strategy, building a training program, defining our workplace culture, and so forth. The whole ball of wax.

I only had about ten employees to start with. Early on, I started telling everyone, "We're building the best operation in the industry, and not by a little but by a lot." It just sort of popped out of my mouth and I’ve been saying it ever since. Once I started saying it, of course, we had no choice but to make it true. I had painted us into a corner.

This turned out to have several good effects. First, of course, it was inspiring and energizing. It’s always exciting to strive for the top. It provides a sense of mission and commitment. Second, it turned out to be clarifying and, in a way, relaxing. We've never had to wonder what our quality standard is: at a minimum we have to do everything better than anyone else.

I recommend making this commitment with your staff. When you say, "We're building the best team in the department," or, "We're building the best company in the industry," you immediately put your organization in an elite class. Now you’re just competing with the few other managers who have decided they will be the best. The vast majority of managers simply don’t have the guts to make that commitment, so they're out of the running from day one.

If you're willing to go out on a limb and set this goal with your staff, you may make an interesting discovery: the other managers who are "competing" with you to be the best are as likely to become your friends as your enemies. After all, you have something rare and important in common: a true commitment to excellence. I’m aware of one other organization in my industry that appears to be operating at our level of quality. (In fact, they probably still have the edge on us, but we're the new kids on the block and we’re coming on strong!) I know the guy who runs it and we’re friends. We met each other a couple years ago at a conference. When I got home from the conference my wife asked how it was and I told her, "Mostly just the same old stuff, but I met this guy there who is really a standout." Recently his wife told my wife that she asked him the same question when he got home from that conference and he gave her the same answer about me. Everyone at that conference had essentially the same job title, but we spotted each other and recognized kindred spirits. It's a nice club to belong to. Wanna join? There's always room at the top!

Company, company on the wall...

What do you see when you look at the organization you manage? If you're the president or CEO,  think about your company as a whole. If you're not in charge of the whole company, think specifically about the part of the company that you manage, whether it's a team of ten employees or a division of 1,000 employees.

What is the character of your organization? Do you see suspicion, laziness, and resentment? Do you see trust, enthusiasm, and appreciation?

Do you have an image of your organization in your mind now? Do you have a feel for what it’s "personality" is like?

Now, here is the big news: you are looking in the mirror.

Any organization, whether it has ten employees or 10,000 employees, eventually takes on the true character of its leader. Over time, whoever you really are, whatever is truly within you, will come to be reflected in the organization you lead.

This is an amazingly accurate process. I have seen it in a number of companies, with the workplace culture revealing in surprising detail the leader’s strengths, quirks, and hidden weaknesses. As far as I can tell, you can’t "fool the system" by pretending to be different than who you really are. Your real self shines through in the end.

Whether this is good news or bad news depends on what you see when you look at your organization.

What it means is that if you don’t like what you see in your organization and you want to rebuild your workplace culture, you need to start with yourself, not with your staff. Identify the character traits in your organization that you are not happy with and then look at yourself to figure out where those traits are coming from. The good news is that this gives you enormous leverage: you can achieve dramatic culture changes in your organization in a surprisingly short time simply by making changes in your own beliefs, assumptions, or attitudes.

This also gives you a great opportunity to develop yourself as an individual. Since building a strong culture in your organization is an important part of your job, and since the best way for you to do so is to strengthen your own character, you are literally being paid to improve yourself.

Tennis lesson

I was playing tennis with a friend recently. There was a family of four playing doubles on the court next to us: father, mother, and two sons. It quickly became apparent that it was not a fun time for any of them. The father was a grim and silent presence, saying little other than occasional short, harsh criticisms of his sons' errors. The expression on his face was stuck somewhere between a scowl and sneer. The sons were tense. They bitterly criticized themselves and each other for mis-hit shots and quarreled over line calls. The mother gamely tried to salvage the outing, at one point noting that she was the only one paying anyone any compliments. The other three pointedly ignored her suggestion that a few positive comments might be in order.

This foursome generated an almost palpable zone of tension that took a lot of the fun out of the game for my friend and me. And that takes some doing. We take a very light-hearted approach to the game. We do our best to play well and on our good days play some pretty fine tennis. However, we have at least as much fun when we play poorly. One day we were tied 6-6 in a set that had featured a tragically impressive parade of creative unforced errors. Neither of us had won a single service game. As we prepared to begin the tie-breaker, my buddy intoned, with the dramatic seriousness of a sports announcer, "Now it all comes down to one question: Who wants it less?" I laughed so hard I could barely stand up.

But on this day, we were just hitting the ball back and forth and suffering from the grim tableau being enacted on the next court, serving as unwilling witnesses to a little slice of a family dynamic in which the father was systematically grinding his sons into grim anxiety, the sons were turning into younger versions of their wretched father, and the mother was being dragged along for the ride, her protests going for naught. When they left we experienced a great sense of relief and were able to enjoy the rest of our game.

In that family, the father was playing the role of manager. His intentions, I suspect, were good: he was attempting to make his sons into better tennis players. Unfortunately, he was doing so by adopting a harsh demeanor and attacking them for every error they made. This did motivate them to try to avoid errors but it also made them tense and miserable, and it is hard to play any sport well when you are tense and miserable. Plus, it sucks all the joy out of what should be a pleasurable experience.

Too many managers take this same approach. They create an atmosphere of anxiety and oppression that permeates their organization, seeking to gain efficiency by keeping everyone on edge. What an awful way to manage. Even when this approach to management is performed skillfully it can only generate moderately good results in terms of productivity and quality. People can perform competently when they are tense and fearful, but they cannot perform brilliantly. Brilliant work is generated only by enthusiasm and joy.

You can get decent results being a jerk boss but you can get even better results being a good boss. So why not shoot for generating brilliant success and creating a little corner of happiness and fulfillment in the world at the same time? Sounds like a good idea to me, and sharing ideas on how to do it is one of the goals of this blog.