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Text posted Thursday, February 2, 2012 When it comes to learning/practicing leadership OR followership, so much of what is missing in the real world is concrete solutions; real tactics; actionable best practices.
Tactics like scheduling phone calls, sending summarizing emails, and scheduling follow-up calls, sound so basic. But the basics are so often what’s missing!
If YOU are an employee working remotely from your manager, you need to talk with that manager about the ground rules for how you are going to stay in communication while working remotely.
Do not accept: ”If you have questions, just let me know.” That’s how you end up interrupting each other all the time.
Do not accept: ”Let’s just check in with each other from time to time.” That’s how you end up with pro-forma check-ins that accomplish nothing but false assurances.
Do not accept: ”I’m here if something goes wrong.” That’s how you end up interacting mostly when things are going wrong!
If YOU are managing employees working in remote locations, you need to work even harder to make sure that you are highly engaged. Make your expectations clear up front and every step of the way for how you want your remotely located employees to stay highly engaged with you. What are your ground rules for how you want your direct-reports to do their part to keep you informed of what they are doing and how they are doing it. What obstacles are getting in their way and what support and assistance do they need from you? What is changing and what is going as planned? What feedback, guidance and direction do they need from you?
When are you going to schedule the phone calls? Who is going to send the email in advance with the agenda for the call? Who is going to send the email afterward summarizing the call? How often will the follow-up calls be scheduled?
Text posted Tuesday, January 31, 2012 Whether you are in remote locations or working side-by-side in the same locations, maintaining ongoing structured dialogues is the key to success. Structured dialogue is the key to avoiding disorganized, incomplete, random conversations.
Without structure, most interactions between managers and employees who are remotely located from each other are ad hoc: (-) Managers and their direct-reports regularly interrupt each other throughout the day, disrupting each other’s concentration and calling upon each other to respond regularly without preparation. (-) Managers and their direct-reports check-in with each other periodically, but usually in a “pro-forma” manner (“How’s everything going?”) that yields little real information exchange and results mostly in false assurances. (-) Managers and their direct-reports contact each other with urgency and focus mostly when something is going wrong, which means that the most highly engaged conversations happen way too often under pressure when one or more parties to the conversation are likely to be rushed, frustrated and maybe even angry.
Of course, the irony is that all of this could be said of the communication dynamics in work relationships that are NOT remote as well. The number one problem in most workplace communication —remote or side-by-side— is lack of structure. Structure is the key. Structure is the strategy.
If you are a manager with employees in remote locations, you MUST TEACH THEM followership tactics for maintaining open channels of communication with you.
Follow best practices for leading/managing your employees in remote locations and teach them to follow best practices for helping you lead/manage them! Teach your employees how to help you remain engaged, to help you ask the right questions, and to help you provide the right guidance.
Video posted Monday, January 30, 2012 Transcript of video available by clicking here. NOTE:This is a SAMPLE LESSON from the It’s Okay to Manage Your Boss program in our forthcoming subscription based web site, talkaboutthework.com.
Text posted Thursday, January 26, 2012 TO EVERY LEADER/MANAGER I SAY, do not make the mistake of underestimating the importance of teaching followership as an aspect of effective leadership. If you know me, you know that I believe strongly that it is the manager/leader’s responsibility to make time —dedicated time— for structured dialogue with every single person who answers to you directly. Any person whom YOU purport to lead/manage needs your dedicated time once a week or at least every other week.
So…. if you, like so many leaders, are so time-constrained that you will not or cannot make that dedicated time for your direct-reports, then you need to teach your direct-reports HOW TO GET WHAT THEY NEED FROM YOU: #1 Clear expectations for their day to day performance, including talking through their tasks, responsibilities and projects with you on a regular enough basis to ensure that they really know WHAT TO DO AND HOW TO DO IT! #2 Regular course correcting feedback. #3 Meaningful resource planning or else planning to do without key resources. #4 Credit and reward for their hard work.
If you as a manager/leader are chronically unavailable to your direct-reports, establish clear ground rules with them for exactly what level of unavailability they can expect from you and exactly how you want them to deal with that lack of availability. Teach them which techniques will be most acceptable and effective with you.
Text posted Wednesday, January 25, 2012 This week’s sample video lesson is part of our “followership” curriculum. “Followership” is an issue I have been tuning into more and more as we work with organizations of all shapes and sizes to help improve the functioning of management relationships. Of course, helping leaders at all levels improve their basic management practices is the key ingredient for success—the most important variable in the equation. But FOLLOWERSHIP is a close runner up.
A huge and critical variable in the leadership culture in any organization is shaping expectations about followership, teaching people at all levels followership skills, and supporting excellence in followership.
Excellence in FOLLOWERSHIP —following with faith and discipline and focus and humility and diligence and energy —is so incredibly valuable. Every bit as much as leadership/management, followership is a skill worth practicing. Followership makes leadership so much easier! And it is not in sufficient supply in most organizations.
Think of the military. Without great leadership/management our military would be so much less effective. Of course! But imagine our great military without excellence in followership. Followership is a key ingredient. Teaching great followership is a very important aspect of great leadership, it is a huge service to followers, and it is a necessary precursor skill before one can truly learn leadership/management properly. How can one truly lead/manage if one has no meaningful experience as an excellent follower?
Tired of management and employee training that doesn't stick over time? Check out our new subscription based web site, talkaboutthework.com. Create secure learning groups for training programs delivered in short video lessons on a customized schedule for private, social-network-style discussion. All at a cost of $1/lesson.
Tired of management and employee training that doesn't stick over time? Check out our new subscription based web site, 
