Category: leadership development

How To Deal With A Micromanager

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The dreaded micromanager.

We’ve all been under one, but the question is:

How do you deal with it?

Here are 3 ways to counter:

1) Results-focused – Micromanagers care about one thing: getting s**t done. That means “bulldozing” people in order to achieve more. Typically naive to people’s emotions, if under their leadership don’t take things personal. Micromanagers don’t have enough EQ to see the trail of blood left in their path. The way you feel after an encounter with them is how most people will describe an interaction. Focus on surpassing their lofty expectations by doing work. Accomplish that and you’ve earned favor.

2) Mirror – In most cases what you can dish is what you can take. This doesn’t mean treat your boss the same way he/she treats you, but be aware of their preferred style. They model what they expect to see in you. Ultimately you don’t have to copy them as long as you get #1 right (see above). Micromanagers view people as obstacles in their way. Don’t expect praise. No feedback is good feedback in their book.

3) Counterbalance – The first two points explain the makeup of a micromanager, but what you really need to know is how to compliment them. What you do different can make you stand out. For example, if your soft skills are strong you might be asked to put out fires. Micromanagers won’t admit their weaknesses out loud, but they’re aware of them. Position yourself as an ally to their cause and you automatically level up. Strategy is key here.

Micromanagers won’t change so you have to adjust your ways. Control issues stem from a sense of insecurity which means you must be grounded to combat them. No one likes to be micromanaged, but if you learn how to deal with them work can become much more tolerable.

What Networking Is And What It Isn’t

Scott Asai3 Comments

network

When I started my business almost 10 years ago I thought networking was something I had to do…so I did.

After joining my local Chamber of Commerce, attending two events feeling exhausted and unproductive I quit.

If this was what networking was, I didn’t want any part of it.

It wasn’t until 5 years ago I decided to create my own network event and quickly I learned the following:

What Networking Isn’t

Attending Events: Most networking events are focused around bars, loud music and free food. Not only is it hard to carry on a conversation in that setting, but you’ll find most people in two places – in small cliques with whom they came and/or near the free stuff. Last time I checked those aren’t ideal conditions for conversing.

Elevator pitch: Be prepared to tell someone what you do in 30 seconds or less. Even if you accomplish that feat, do you really believe someone is going to buy what you’re selling or hire you because of your answer? There’s no harm in professional clarity, but the result won’t end in a transaction.

Passing Out/Collecting Business Cards: Networking isn’t a competition. The distributor/collector of the most business cards loses. Contact information only comes in handy when a prospect is already looking for something you’re offering BEFORE they talk to you. Most attendees at networking events are looking/offering similar things. If you leave with less of your business cards or a collection of new ones, you haven’t accomplished much.

What Networking Is

Following Up: Networking is 10% the initial contact and 90% what you do after. Meeting someone is a lead, but following up makes them a potential connection. Marketing 101 says it takes the same message seen 7 times to sink in. No matter how charismatic you are, building a relationship takes time. If you’re not in it for the long-haul, you won’t get the results you desire.

Selling Yourself: A caveat a friend of mine said to me concerning networking is “if I like the way someone thinks, chances are I’ll keep in contact with him/her.” During a conversation you should be focused on selling you, not your product or service. Relationships have more to do with liking a person than any technical knowledge. Be likable. Share what you’re passionate about. Live with the results.

Connecting: The term networking has a negative connotation. It sounds like an exclusive club reserved for extraverts. In reality connecting is open to all. In fact, I’d argue that if done right introverts have an advantage because of their listening skills. Like dating, connecting happens over several interactions. My advice? Connect with as many people as possible and your odds start increasing in the numbers game.

Scott Asai is a speaker/coach that has been developing leaders for 20+ years – athletes, companies and individuals. His focus is helping people develop leadership skills to advance in their careers. Scott tends to attract a large audience of Millennials and Introverts to his programs/events. His professional background consists of: B.A. in Psychology, M.A. in Organizational Leadership, Certified Professional Coach and Certified Strengths Coach.

Why Support Gets Lost In Translation

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elephant-umbrella

Managers, friends, even spouses say they want to support you, but how come it goes horribly wrong?

Support is determined by the recipient, not the giver.

If the receiver doesn’t feel supported, it’s only a gesture.

Let me give you an example. Your manager tells you he/she is “hands off” in their management style, yet you feel micromanaged.

Translation: your manager wants things done a certain way and when it’s not, you’ll hear it. Hands off to them means “as long as you do things my way, I’ll be hands off.”

To someone who is self-motivated and innovative that’s a huge turn off.

In the workplace support it a term used loosely. The main problem is if the giver doesn’t know how the receiver defines support, it’s just talk.

Support gets miscommunicated as frequently as any generational difference.

If you truly want to support someone, ask them how they feel supported. It may be different than what you value, but if you truly care you’ll do it.

The #1 reason why employees leave their current job is because they feel undervalued, therefore support has an incredible ROI.

The root cause can be the difference between a leader and manager, but ultimately it starts with ego.

Support is meant to benefit the recipient so if the receiver doesn’t feel supported that falls on the giver.

It can be a tricky game to play, so first know the rules.

I feel supported when listened to. Answers aren’t necessary. Once I’m able to vent my frustration, I can enter problem solving mode. Offer me trust and I will give it back tenfold. That’s what helps me feel supported, how about you?

How To Be A Storyteller During Your Next Interview

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storybook

Applying for jobs sucks, but if you get to the interview process here’s a way to stand out:

Tell stories.

Since the beginning of time stories have always engaged us. During an interview, telling a story will calm your nerves while painting a memorable image in the mind of the interviewer.

In fact, if you can tell a story about a past experience accenting how you used personal strengths you’ve nailed it.

Past behavior questions tend to be the most accurate predictor of future prowess. It’s not 100%, but it’s proof you’ve done it before so you can do it again.

The easiest way to implement this strategy is planning ahead of time. Think of 3 stories that illustrate your strengths clearly and remember them. Most likely you’ll be asked a question like, “What are your strengths? or Why should we hire you?” Now it’s story time…

Interviews are perceived as intimidating, but similar to public speaking the only way to get better is through practice. You can easily simulate an interview by role playing. Anticipate the toughest questions ahead of time and you’ll be fine during the real thing.

Interviewing relies on self-awareness. Know your strengths and weaknesses and be able to communicate them clearly. For the question, “What is your biggest weakness?” always answer it in a positive way (otherwise you’ll shoot yourself in the foot). For example: “I’m impatient. I like to move at a fast pace. I care about efficiency because time is money. I like to push others to move with a sense of urgency.”

See what a did there? I took a potential weakness and flipped it into a strength.

Some interviewers play games, but most ask similar questions.

Do your research.

Practice.

And most of all…tell stories.

It makes you memorable.

Pitch Perfect: You

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pitch-perfect

Recently I read a great article, Founders: Pitch the Promised Land, and it got me thinking…

Why don’t we pitch what we do more aspirational?

Fear. Fraud. Failure. Those are the voices in our head, but aren’t dreams what motivate us?

Whether you’re an employee or entrepreneur: you’re offering a product or service right?

Pitch their dreams.

Take your elevator pitch as an example. Try selling yourself to a stranger in 30 seconds or less; it’s challenging to say the least. That doesn’t include the fact rarely does anyone buy anything on the first impression.

But if someone is “shopping,” your goal is to deliver an answer as clear as possible. Why?

Because without clarity (a.k.a. confusion), the answer to your sales pitch is “no.”

The best stories are the ones that get you thinking. In this case, it caused my own self-evaluation.

Here’s my answer to the question, “So what do you do?”

Before: “I help small to mid-sized companies retain and train their Millennials.”

After: “Millennial Mastery.”

My initial answer is clear and straight to the point, but the revised statement paints an image (or at least causes you to ponder for a moment).

It is possible? How’s it done? What’s the cost?

The goal of a pitch shouldn’t be to get an immediate answer. It should be to get customers to want more.

Engagement in the workplace is talked about constantly, but it should also be integrated with sales pitches too.

So the next time you’re asked the question, “what do you do?” Answer in future-tense.

Let’s Start A Workplace Revolution Together

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josh-allan-dykstra

Josh is a good friend I met for coffee over 6 years ago. We were both at different places then, but our similar views on leadership and work kept the conversation going. Since we connected both of us became authors and dads. Josh is someone I always bounce ideas off of because he’s such an insightful and bright human being. He’s always been supportive of me and I am a big fan of his. I hope you enjoy a peek into this thought leader’s mind:

1) You truly are a thought leader. What does that term mean to you & how does it influence your work?

To me, leadership (for anyone) is about one thing: doing something that’s worth following. To that end, I’m always trying to spread thoughts, ideas, and stories that help others envision a better future for work, and inspire them to come along on the journey. Right now, for the vast majority of people on the planet, work truly sucks. It doesn’t have to be this way. We have all the tools we need to fix this—it’s a desire and design problem, not a capability problem. I want us all to start believing we can create something better… because we can.

2) At the core of what you do lies in making organizations better. Explain your philosophy briefly.

Most of us optimize many different parts of our organizations: marketing, finance, operations, etc. What we typically don’t maximize as a business driver is our culture—the human size of our business. What I mean is, every person in your company has a choice at every moment: will they bring their best self to their work, or will it be something less than their peak performance? We create organizations where people choose peak performance as often as possible, improving results across the board.

3) When we first met, we were both “kidless,” but now as a parent how has that affected the way you view/do work?

Being a dad has made me acutely more aware of the opportunity cost of my time and the finite-ness of my energy. I’ve always had some vague understanding that choosing one thing makes something else impossible, but that notion is now technicolor. And, at the same time as we added kids to our family, I’ve also added more colleagues to my company. Both changes are amazing… and also extraordinarily challenging. I’m doing my best to leverage the benefits of both these things: learning to continually do the things that are the highest and best use of my time at work and to find partners on my team to help make all the other stuff happen, in order to maximize the time I get with my kids. It’s remarkably difficult, but I’m slowly getting better!

4) You recently picked up and moved to a new state, what has that transition to a new “home” been like?

We recently moved to Denver after being in Los Angeles for a decade. We’ve been here now for about 6 months, and I’m afraid I’d be lying if I said we were somehow “settled!” My job has changed very little—in fact, that part of my life has mostly been made better as I’m now closer to a better airport—but the rest of life was completely uprooted, of course. Starting over isn’t easy for anyone, far as I can tell (and moving to a cold climate in the middle of the winter was just a serious bummer), but I will say that the wonderful folks of Colorado have been very kind to us. I’m extremely optimistic that this will be an excellent home for us and our kiddos!

5) You and I are strong advocates of leveraging personal strengths, tell my readers about the Strengthscope and how it can benefit them and their companies!

Let me put this as simply as I can: if your organization doesn’t have a strengths-based culture, you are simply NOT getting peak performance out of your people. Period. Here’s what I’ve learned over the last decade: humans are physically incapable of producing sustained excellence if we’re not utilizing our strengths in our work. My consulting group utilizes an assessment called Strengthscope® to jumpstart these conversations and help people re-orient their mindsets towards a path that’s far more productive and positive! We love it.

The Future Of Leadership

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george-jetson

You may think this is about a new type of leadership, but it’s not.

The future of leadership has more to do with “where” than “how.”

It’s remote.

Flex-time or working from home is here to stay for many reasons: less distractions, no commute and becoming new parents. But the heart of remote leadership lies in trust.

Think about it. What people hate is being micromanaged. That usually happens when your boss is “looking over your shoulder” expecting you to do the work a certain way.

Working remotely completely diminishes that. Responsibility and self-discipline becomes a two-way street. Bosses need to be clear about what needs to be done. Workers need to make sure tasks are accomplished.

Being stuck to a location limits your talent community and allows for two extremes: micromanaging and hands-off leadership. Neither are beneficial for the company.

Not being in the same physical space forces both sides to focus on what matters: finishing the work while leaving out what doesn’t: how it’s being done.

A great way to test out remote leadership is at your office before you make the transition. Working remotely saves time and money, but most of all it provides what we all want more of: autonomy.

Are you a part of the future?

Retaining Millennials Is Expensive

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millennials_leaving

How much? 150% – 250% of someone annual salary.

That means the ROI in providing workshops, training & coaching completely outweighs firing someone.

Sounds good, but you don’t have the time, energy (or desire) to deal with it?

Get some ideas here or bring this program to your company!

How To Effectively Manage Millennials: A 6 Week Workshop

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generational-conflict

Starting Mid-June I’ll be hosting a 6-week workshop on: How to Effectively Manage Millennials.

Prior to that I plan to host a couple of free webinars with more information on the topics I’ll be covering, so stay tuned.

The workshops will be held in Santa Monica and geared towards anyone who manages Millennials.

The beauty of the in-person workshops will include the rich local network and collaboration of other professionals in the area. When it comes to leading effectively, there’s strength in numbers.