Number One Rule of Leadership: Everything is Your Fault

Poor Tony Hayward – he just wants his life back.  OK – that’s officially the stupidest comment of the year, but he’s apologized now, so it should all be OK.  Like most important life-lessons (whether it be business or personal), the fundamentals were taught to us in Kindergarten, we’ve just chosen to forget, or not apply them.

I was watching Disney/Pixar’s A Bug’s Life with my son the other day, when Hopper (the chief antagonist, and all-around bad ass) reminded Princess Atta that the number one rule of leadership is that “Everything is Your Fault”.  Apparently Mr. Hayward hasn’t watched any children’s programming lately, or he might have gotten some of this right.

If it’s any consolation, BP is not the only company to have reacted to a bad situation by making it exponentially worse.  Just a few months ago, we were watching Toyota come unglued like an Egyptian mummy in a swimming pool.  It seems that every organization to have screwed up (or just had plain bad luck) seems to go into ass-covering mode with the exception of Tylenol in the 1980s, and Maple Leaf foods just two years ago.

The big difference:  both the Tylenol and Maple Leaf disasters killed people, but instead of hiding behind their lawyers, the leaders of these companies made themselves front and centre, and took responsibility for the (in)actions of their organizations.

So what can the middle manager or front level supervisor learn from all the silliness?

First… go rent A Bug’s Life, and listen to Kevin Spacey’s line about leadership responsibility over and over again.  When you think you’ve learned it, go listen to it a bunch more times so that when the excrement hits the rotating air-circulation device, you won’t try to cover your ass, but rather step up and take your lumps.

Second… manage your little empire proactively.  In areas that could get you into big trouble (health & safety, violence in the workplace, harassment, discrimination, etc.) don’t ever settle for less than outstanding performance.  Executives at BP will not only oversee the loss of billions of dollars/pounds of shareholder value, but they may be held personally liable for sloppy process.  It’s not out of the question that one or more of them end up in jail/gaol.

Third… understand that taking responsibility is the burden of leadership.  This is what we pay you to do.  It’s what you signed up for in the first place.  If you’re unable to get your head around this, you should get yourself reassigned as an individual contributor.  Yep… that right:  If you “want your life back”, you should think about that before disaster strikes.

Create a Team Charter

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When creating a team charter, you will wan to include the following standard components (and might also include other sections):

  1. Purpose
  2. Accountabilities
  3. Operating Guidelines (Ground Rules)
  4. Goals and Actions

The Purpose, Accountabilities, and Goals sections establish what the team needs to achieve; the Operating Guidelines section lays out how the team is going to achieve them.

Team Charter: Purpose

The Purpose Statement in a team charter defines the focus of the team’s efforts by explaining why the team exists.  This section is less about the job description of things the team does and more about why the team might do these things … to what end?  What organizational goals does the team intend to impact?  Think in terms of being in business for yourself as though you are a team of consultants or contractors with skills and talent the organization needs for a specific purpose.  You might try using the “5 Why’s” or asking “SO WHAT” to help you drill down from actions or activities to what the teams purpose is.

Questions to prompt your thinking:

  • Why does this team exist?
  • What goals or objectives do we intend to impact in the broader business?
  • What will change for the better because of our team?
  • What problems or opportunities are we to address?

Team Charter: Accountabilities

The Accountabilities in a team charter are the team’s main deliverables.  Well-identified team accountabilities, provide a list of the team’s main responsibilities and outputs. Think outcomes not activities!

Questions to prompt your thinking:

  • What are the teams main job responsibilities?
  • What outputs, products, tools, services do we provide to fulfill our purpose?

Team Charter: Operating Guidelines

The Operating Guidelines in a team charter should be stated as behaviors so that all team members understand what is expected of them. It’s important that everyone on the team agrees to and supports the guiding principles.  They define the agreed-upon behaviors and expectations of the team and the individuals who make up the team.

Questions to prompt your thinking:

How will we approach the work?

  • Collaboratively, always working together
  • Divide the work to experts to work on separately
  • Will we involve others from outside the team .. who, how, when
  • How will we share information

How will we make decisions?

  • By consensus …how will we define consensus
  • Present our positions to the team lead who will make final call
  • Other

How will we run meetings?

  • How often will we meet, where
  • Who controls and distributes the agenda
  • How will we spend our meeting time

How will we treat one another?

Team Charter: Goals and Actions

The team’s Goals and Actions in a team charter need to have direct line of sight to the Team Purpose and Accountabilities.  Here you need to get more specific, with actions that include measurable targets that will lead to your team meeting its accountabilities and delivering on its purpose.  Think ‘SMART’ (Specific, Measurable, Agreed-upon, Realistic, Time-Bound).

Questions to prompt your thinking:

  • What are the first steps that we need to take in order to meet our accountabilities and delivering on our purpose?
  • Who will do What by When?
  • How will we measure our progress?

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Create a Team Charter

Learn how to create a team charter that establishes both WHAT a team needs to achieve and HOW the team is going to do this.

Listen to the ‘Create a Team Charter’ podcast:

: Download Podcast (MP3)


Team Charter Podcast Slides

Take a look at the ‘Create a Team Charter‘ Cheat Sheet

Why Command and Control is Underrated

It seems to me that Command and Control as a management style has gotten a bum rap.  You’ve heard the disparaging remarks, “She’s a complete command and control style manager” – implying there is something wrong with that.

I think such comments display a startling lack of understanding of what leaders are required to do in organizations.  Command and control is a very useful managerial tool for certain situations.

People love to use fire-fighting as an analogy to describe modern management practice.  I would challenge anyone to go find himself a Fire Chief and ask him/her if command and control is a bad idea.

When a building is burning and lives are at stake, the Fire Chief very much relies on command and control as the appropriate management tool for that situation.  Can you imagine the fire department showing up at an emergency, and the Fire Chief requesting that everyone break up in study groups, to hold hands and sing camp songs?

“OK – everyone brainstorm ideas for how we should tackle this, and I’ll give a special prize to the group that comes up with the best idea.  Make sure everyone participates equally, and remember that everyone’s feedback is valuable.  This is an excellent opportunity to reinforce how much we value each other, and I’ll float between the groups to help facilitate.”

Glad it’s not my house on fire.  I want the Fire Chief standing on top of chair barking out orders as fast as she can to get the situation under control.  I also want the Firefighters to listen carefully to the orders being dispatched, and execute as they’re being instructed to do.

When they are back at the Firehall, and practicing for such emergencies, or doing community outreach, then the Fire Chief would be well advised to pull a different tool out of his box, and to engage his people in a more collaborative style.

The problem for people that disparage command and control is that they confuse this very important managerial style with a lack of respect.  Lack of respect is never appropriate, but many times it is a leaders job to tell her direct reports in no uncertain terms what they are required to do.  Setting clear expectations, holding people to account for those expectations, and administering the appropriate consequences are what we pay managers to do.

Command and control is one legitimate tool to get this done.

Tell me your experiences – both good and bad – with command and control as a management style.

The Vision Statement

What is a Vision Statement? How does a Vision Statement fit into the bigger picture (vision/mission/strategy)? What is an example of a great vision statement versus one that is not so great?

Listen to the ‘Vision Statement’ podcast:

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Vision Statements Podcast Slides

Take a look at the ‘Vision Statement‘ Cheat Sheet

Root Cause Analysis

Coming Soon!

Scorecard Measures

Coming Soon!

The Performance Pie

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What is the Performance Pie?

The Performance Pie is a diagnostic tool that can help you analyze why a performance problem may exist. It does not offer specific solutions to performance problems but it does help you zero in on some of the more common reasons as to why performance may be suffering on a particular task, duty or responsibility.  Then you can target your solutions in the areas most likely to impact performance.

How Does it Work?

The performance analysis design primarily emphasized the individual, the job or process, the work environment and incentives or consequences. In other words, the design of the Performance Pie focuses on the following seven factors of performance:

  • Knowledge and Skill
  • Capacity
  • Standards
  • Measurement
  • Feedback
  • Conditions
  • Incentives

The Seven Factors of Performance

1. Knowledge and Skill

This means that the individuals performing the task must have the knowledge and skills necessary

2. Capacity

The right persons are to be selected for the right jobs and tasks. This means, for example, that the individuals are capable—physically, intellectually, socially, and emotionally.

3. Standards

Individuals must be clearly informed about what is expected of them. Supervisors, job descriptions, and performance appraisal objectives should clearly dictate the standards of performance, and these standards ought to be congruent with the expectations of the, supervisors, department and organization.

4. Measurement

Measurement clarifies standards, initiates goal orientation, provides data or information with which to give feedback and signals opportunities for rewards and recognition.  What gets measured gets done is not only a cliché but a truism as well.

5. Feedback

Individuals need to know how well they are doing in accordance with the standards and measures and how they can improve their performance. They must receive regular feedback on their performance from supervisors.

6. Conditions

Individuals need the resources necessary to perform their jobs according to expectation, standard, and measure.  They require the right facilities, equipment, tools, materials, supplies, time, and organizational climate—unhindered by conflicting goals or obstacles in work procedures—to perform effectively and efficiently.

7. Incentives/Consequences

Individuals do the things they are rewarded for doing and avoid negative consequences. Also, they must value the rewards and incentives.

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Book Review: ‘Managing’, by Henry Mintzberg

The thing that impresses me most about Henry is his ability to upset people. You will be at least mildly annoyed with Mintzberg if any of the following apply to you:

  • You are a manager
  • You have a business degree
  • You use email
  • You pay attention when Jack Welsh, or any other celebrity manager speaks
  • You believe that management is a profession
  • You think management can be taught

You should read this book simply because Mintzberg is very much a contrarian, and whether you agree with him or not, it is good to consider his arguments.  ‘Managing’ is easy to read (especially given it is written by an academic), and it raises fundamental questions that any leader of people should be asking. 

For normal students of management practice, you may find this book a series of punches in the face; my favorite one being on the limitations of email.  I have regularly made the point that email is an extremely limited media, and should be minimized by leaders wherever possible.

The response I get most often if the same look your dog gives you when you pretend to throw the ball, but then hide it behind your back.  “How could anyone possibly manage without email?”

I welcome your feedback on email, or about this book.

If you are disinclined to read the whole book, the book summary may be worth a look.

Why Your HR Department Probably Sucks

So… following a title like the above, I should probably fully disclose before going any further:  I have worked in HR, and have done a fair bit of consulting work with HR Business Areas.

Unlike the title may imply, I have met a number of smart, hardworking people in HR.  Like any other category of people, there are good, bad and ugly performers in HR.

So why would I suggest that HR probably sucks in your organization?

In many cases, it is because organizations don’t really know what it is that they should be asking HR to do for them, and HR professionals are notoriously poor at “selling” their wares.  Many companies want HR to administer the payroll, and arrange the Christmas party.  They then staff the HR group with people who are capable of doing those tasks, but do not have the experience or training to make a more strategic contribution to the business.

So, what should we look for in our HR department?

  1. “People Persons” are often the last people you should have in HR.  A good HR person knows that her job is to generate returns for shareholders.  The respectful treatment of people is a prerequisite to consistently generating those returns, but many “people persons” forget that some of their people may regularly need a kick in the ass.
  2. Your HR people need to have business training. I’m not suggesting you insist every one of them go out and get an MBA, but they need to have some understanding of the business you are in, and how it works.
  3. You need high potential, high achievers in HR.  I have worked with more than one organization that has used HR as a ghetto for people who could not make it in the operating part of the business.  These organizations have taken the easy way out, and put these poor performers where they perceive they can do the least amount of damage – in HR.  This is the opposite of what should be happening – your highest potential leaders should be cycled through HR.
  4. HR people need have well developed skills in sales and influencing.  The best managed companies know that the management of the Human Resource is NOT the responsibility of HR, but rather of every leader in the organization.  HR’s job is to influence those managers to do it well.  An HR professional, without the ability to influence organizational leaders is about as useful as a chocolate teapot.

Of course, I could go on and on, but I better get back to work before I get caught, and someone wants to send me to work in the HR group.  So now that I’ve offended every person who has ever known anyone in HR, I’d love to hear what you think about the HR group in your organization:  Are they good?  Are they bad?  Are they the highest potential employees?

It has been said that populations get the governments they deserve.  In organizations, we end up with the HR departments we deserve.

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