Ever since our podcast on the Manager Tools Development Model, we’ve continued to receive a number of questions on a key component of the process — the coaching model. In particular, folks are having a difficult time on coaching employees on some of the “softer” skills. So for the next two shows, we’re revisiting our friend, the coaching model. In addition to getting into an example of a soft-skill coaching challenge, we also talk a bit about what we mean by “behavior” — what is it exactly (of course, we have a model for that as well), and how do we use it within the coaching model.

Remember: In addition to our normal feedback email address, you can now leave audio feedback for us on our new voice mailbox. You can reach us at (206) 202-7376. Please note on your message if you don’t want us to use your audio feedback “on air”!

Today, we continue our podcast on Strategic Thinking and Layoffs, picking right up where we left off on the November 14 Podcast.

Our focus today is on applying the “Environmental Scan” discussed last week to the particular concerns over a potential layoff and identifying specific actions you can take to both identify the potential of a layoff and, more importantly, prepare effectively in case it should actually occur.

Sites mentioned during the show:

• PubSub
• Gada.be

A better explanation of Gada.be

I’m starting my blog on management and leadership now for two reasons.

First, my partner Mike Auzenne believes this will be a great way for us to capture my voluminous thoughts on leadership and management. Mike and I share a common passion for the practice of leadership in organizations and in the world.

We’re both West Pointers, so we come by our interest genuinely. We’ve seen a lot of leadership - some of it good, much of it venial - and some of it so brilliant and inspirational that we learned from it even though we were too young to reproduce it ourselves.

With Manager Tools attracting thousands of daily downloads while only being a couple of months old, Mike believes - and I agree - that it is good stewardship to provide additional ways for our community to interact about leadership. He also thinks that lots of readers will like what I have to say - no, what he said was that they will like reading what I have to say. Well, at least he’s half right.

The second reason is that Peter Drucker died a week ago. If you didn’t know Drucker, and have been surprised by the caliber of people mourning his passing, I hope you have taken a moment to read the encomiums, and I pray that you have either bought, or committed to buying, one of his books.

Peter Drucker was the most brilliant and insightful thinker and writer on management in the history of mankind.

I have two searing recollections of Drucker, though neither are personal in nature - I regret never having met him. The first was reading the primary insight in The Effective Executive (the finest managment book of all time). Drucker says that the most precious resource an executive must husband is his or her own time. He recommended keeping a log, and determining what one’s priorities really are.

I believe this may be the single most powerful guidance ever written about the practice of management. I can attest to it being a dazzling light of truth and revelation for hundreds of executives I have coached. Confronted with the evidence, many confident, self-assured leaders have broken down and admitted to being scared that everyone would someday discover that they didn’t know what they were doing.

I have been reading recently that some management theorists do not believe Drucker could ever have made tenure because he did not approach his study with the rigor necessary in today’s academy. This is preposterous enough to cause apoplexy. The insight about an executive’s time could not have been learned with all the analytics in the world. Those who would have denied him tenure prove thereby that they aren’t smart enough to have figure it out for themselves.

When I read this slur, I was reminded of a lovely anecdote told about Einstein. He and his wife were visiting Mt. Wilson observatory, and Mrs. Einstein asked about the purpose of a particularly complex piece of equipment. The guide told her that it was used to determine the shape of the universe. “Oh,” replied Mrs. Einstein, “my husband uses the back of an old envelope to work that out.”

Analytics work well to determine weighting criteria for algorithmic analysis of supply chain queuing problems. If they’re giving out tenure for that, as opposed to the timeless insight of identifying every executive’s most precious resource and showing how it can be mastered… I hope they feel secure in their sinecure.

The second time Drucker stunned me was when he wrote, “…it is the recipient who communicates. The so-called communicator, the person who emits the communication, does not communicate. He utters.”

Understanding those 21 words will immediately make you a better “communicator”by a quantum factor. In some future blog post, I will talk about those words’ ramifications in marketing.

To be clear, the reason I cite Drucker is simply homage. Nothing I write will ever approach his caliber. But I commit to you that when I am in my office, his picture hanging on my wall will remind me that I should reach for the stars - because even if I don’t get one, I won’t end up with a handful of mud, either. (Thanks, Mr. Burnett)

So, Mike Auzenne and Peter Drucker are the proximate causes of this effort. I consider them in the same class of people - they make me burn to be my best, everyday.

Mark Horstman
18 November
Fredericksburg, TX

Part of being an Effective Manager is not just focusing on your day to day activities, but thinking STRATEGICALLY about your team, your role, your company, and your industry. We find that most managers are truly HORRENDOUS at this, and that’s why we address it in this week’s podcast. We understand why - there is often a great deal of pressure to get down in the weeds, and often senior managers are delegating out un-connected tasks versus giving perspective and scope.

What got us thinking this way was our recent cast on layoffs (Oct 23). Frankly, nobody likes to talk about it, but as a manager you not only need to be ready to deliver the news of a layoff for the organization, you need to be ready to be laid off yourself. Managers who are most ready to deal with being laid off are those who have good strategic vision, and they get that by regularly scanning their environment.

In this show, we’ll talk about what you should be looking at regularly. We use layoffs as a context, but strategic environmental scanning must be done irrespective of layoffs - this is a habit that highly effective managers take for granted.

We got a great email recently from a listener asking about how to develop one of the managers in their company. The mail went something like this: “hey guys, love manager tools, really like the usability of the recommendations. But need some help. One of our guys has some management responsibilities, and we’d like to help him get better. Wonder if you can recommend some sort of comprehensive coaching program, with some resources or books that we can get him involved in.”

Well, if you’ve ever thought that about one of your managers, or maybe even yourself, this cast is for you. What we’re going to do is present you an abbreviated version of the manager-tools development philosophy, and then give you some coaching examples that would fit within it. Now, we say the word “philosophy with great trepidation. It’s one of those big words that books on management fill themselves up with, but that don’t really help folks like you and us get any better at what we do. So maybe we ought to say this: we’re going to tell you exactly how we develop people, and give you one example to get you started. More examples in a future podcast, as well as the inclusion of development plans.