Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom

How to Enact Change in a Bureaucracy

Have you ever tried to drive in Los Angeles?

For those of us who have, changes to the notoriously frustrating transportation infrastructure have been a long time coming, but how do you enact change in a government entity that seems like the very definition of bureaucracy?

Gayla Kraetsch Hartsough and her firm, KH Consulting Group, recently worked with Los Angeles City Controller Wendy Greuel to review the city’s transportation structures and recommend reforms. The ultimate goal was to reduce congestion by building highways, promoting alternative transportation, implementing traffic management technology and facilitating the use of bicycles.

For all of the details on how Gayla's team navigated the bureaucratic waters of LADOT and how you can enact change in your own bureaucracy, check out my Culture Beat column at the AMEX OPEN Forum.

How to Be an Effective Spy

Increasingly, managers and recruiters are being encouraged to assess cultural fit during the hiring process in order to ensure that candidates will assimilate well.

If you’re a job seeker, though, there are things you can do to determine whether you are a good match and help the company out. After all, it's just as important for you as it is for them; you will not be satisfied or productive in an environment that doesn’t support your values and vice versa.

The best way to do this is to spy...but how?  Check out my post at the AMEX OPEN Forum for the particulars.

How to Survive a Scandal

While writing my recent book Blind Spots, I had the opportunity to meet Patrick Rodgers.  Patrick was a lawyer who had been a notable member of his community since he was young, participating in the Kiwanis Club and his local Chamber of Commerce.  But one year, when Patrick’s brothers both passed away from cancer, Patrick neglected some important client paperwork and was disbarred.

It took him four hard years to regain his credibility and return to public service.  Patrick can’t change what happened in the past, but he now strives to remember his mistakes and incorporate the values of honesty and trustworthiness into his job as a mediator every day.  At the end of the day, Patrick is a survivor.

At some point in your career, you may find yourself embroiled in a scandal.  This is obviously not a great thing to have happen, but if it does, all is not lost.  Check out my post on Intuit's Quickbase blog for how to cope productively and come out on top in this situation.

How to Save Your Culture from a Merger

I recently attended a networking meeting in downtown Chicago, and a mergers & acquisitions attorney told me that his business was booming.  It seems that in 2012, consolidation is king. Given that I write this column, however, I immediately thought about the impact of all of these mergers on organizational cultures.

A merger usually goes through because it looks great on paper.  All of the numbers line up, and it makes sense from a business perspective.  Unfortunately, many M&A teams fail to take into account how well or poorly two companies with legitimate cultural differences will integrate.

How can you save your culture from an impending merger or acquisition?  Check out my advice over at the AMEX OPEN Forum.

Can Your Boss Count on You?

You know what I've realized in my tenure as a manager? The number one quality I appreciate most in a direct report is reliability.  By reliable, I mean a person who says she is going to do something, and then actually does it in the agreed-upon manner.

You’d think this one would be kind of a no brainer for employees, especially when it comes to the boss who hands out the paychecks. But time and time again, in both my personal and professional life, I come across people who nod and smile when I ask them to help out with something, make promises they never intend to keep, or volunteer to assist with projects because it makes them look good.

As a result, I develop the dangerous expectation that I can stop worrying about that particular aspect of the project, that I can count on this person to take care of it. And imagine how disheartened I am when the deadline approaches (or worse, passes), and I either have to nag my report to complete the task and put it back on my own plate. I’ve fallen victim to my mother’s old warning: “if you let someone else’s lack of planning become your emergency, you’re a fool.”

A lot of the time, people who don’t keep their word aren’t doing it maliciously. They fully intend to get the task done, but they forget, get distracted with something else, or keep telling themselves they’ll get to it eventually. Nevertheless, it’s exactly these types of situations that make me a manager who delegates reluctantly. I know that if a project is in my hands, I can control how and when it gets done.  But if I have to trust another person, it’s a different situation entirely.

I know that I’m not alone in this. If you want to be the kind of employee bosses love, do your job without being prodded, and once you agree to a task, don’t let it slide. Always meet your deadlines, and if something comes up that makes that impossible, give your manager plenty of heads up. Never underestimate the importance of being the person who brings peace of mind to the team, the person who makes it possible for the boss to ask once and then walk away confidently, knowing that the task in good, capable hands.

Premature Escalation?

A few years ago, I was finishing up a project at the agency where I worked part time. My colleague and I had been working closely with another internal team on this initiative for a while and fortunately, things were going relatively smoothly.

As the vice president overseeing the project, I always tried to be responsive to the internal team’s needs, knowing that they represented the best interests of the client. My colleague and I talked to members of this team at least every other day, and sometimes multiple times in one day. They had my cell phone number.  If I was not in the office, they knew where to find me.

Just after we launched the initiative, the vice president on the other internal team discovered that something was wrong.  Normally, he or someone on his team would have called my colleague or me on our cell phones. Instead, he called my boss.

It was my role on projects like this to provide my boss with information on a “need to know” basis. He was unprepared for a call like this and caught off guard, and understandably reacted with a bit of panic. I was fortunate that I didn’t get in trouble, because my boss trusted me and wasn't quick to place blame just because someone expressed displeasure.

I hate corporate hierarchies as much as the next person, but it burned me that someone I’d been working with blatantly went over my head.  My friend calls the phenomena “premature escalation” – referring to the fact that those who use it don’t even give the rightful people they’re working with a chance to respond appropriately.

In my opinion, you should reserve going to someone’s boss for cases in which that someone is not giving you what you need, and has been forewarned. Even then, you should be careful.  Behavior like this is not going to endear you to your co-workers, so you should make sure it’s necessary and that you have no other choice.

What is Your Advantage Really?

You probably already know that I am a huge fan of Pat Lencioni. I first met Pat when I wrote about him in the WSJ in 2009 and have devoured his various fables about executives jockeying for key positions and striving for self-actualization in fictional American companies. 

This week, Pat has released his first nonfiction business book, The Advantage.  In it, he argues that the difference between successful companies and mediocre ones has little to do with what they know and how smart they are and more to do with how healthy they are.

Organizations are healthy when they are whole, consistent and complete and when their management, operations and culture are unified.  Healthy organizations outperform their counterparts, are free of politics and confusion and provide an environment where star performers never want to leave.

In the book, Pat shares dozens of stories of his many years in the consulting world, along with advice for how we can conduct business in a new way that aligns the organization around a common set of principles and maximizes individual potential.  It's a must-read for established executives and up-and-coming large and small business leaders who recognize that the business world has shifted and want to build an empire based on traditional values like open communication, ethical behavior, trust, and teamwork. 

 

7 Traits of Stellar Project Managers

Many of us manage large projects on a regular basis.  No doubt this is one of the more complex and stressful aspects of our jobs, so I’ve asked some of the best PMs I know about the traits that are essential to their success.  According to my sources, great PMs:

Possess unofficial authority

Often, the best PMs do not have formal authority over those working on their teams.  Instead, their natural charisma and infectious enthusiasm motivates people to follow and listen to them, and helps them develop an organization-wide reputation as a popular leader.

Are networking stars

The best PMs understand who they need to go to to get things done, and they develop strong relationships with those individuals so that cross-functional projects run more smoothly.  Also, should the project run into a snag, great PMs can rely on their network to find and implement a workaround.

Communicate constantly

A project cannot succeed without a PM who seeks and listens to the advice of experienced partners, and then puts processes in place for soliciting feedback on a regular basis.  They are clear in what needs to be done, by whom, and by what deadline, and they intuitively understand the questions to ask to ensure a project is moving in the right direction.

Have an obsessive attention to detail

When you’re leading a large project with thousands of components, it’s easy for small but critical pieces to get lost in the shuffle.  The best PMs use technology and frequent team communication to keep track of these details so that red flags are dealt with immediately – before they become deal-breaking issues.

Understand the big picture

At the same time, though, talented PMs can pick the areas to focus on by always keeping the end result in mind.  They align the goals of the project with the overall goals of the organization, and if a project element doesn’t further the big picture or impact the project in a significant way, it can be tossed out or at least back-burnered in favor of more pressing concerns.

Have a thick skin

In order to be able to sustain a complicated effort that places stress on all parties, PMs must be able to let harsh criticism roll off them.  They are able to take the brunt of the fallout when a client or higher-up is upset about a delay, and put themselves in the line of fire if the project does not deliver in some way.  They keep their cool and view failures as intriguing challenges rather than soul-crushing setbacks.  They can make decisions quickly, without worrying about what every individual on the team is going to think.

Are amateur psychologists

Great PMs are able to read between the lines when team members aren’t getting along, or when someone is underperforming.  They are able to effectively manage the expectations of internal and external stakeholders by intuitively understanding what’s important to each person.  They speak to others empathetically – as fellow human beings – and diplomatically resolve conflicts when they occur.

This post was originally published on Intuit's Quickbase blog.

Nobody Cares About Titles - Or Do They?

Corporate hierarchies are out. Organizations are flatter than ever. Entrepreneurialism is the new best practice. The newest college grads are railing against the establishment, saying they don’t want to “pay their dues” in order to climb the corporate ladder rung by rung, and that they want to do meaningful work right away. And the business world is listening to them. It seems as if the entry-level grunt is a thing of the past.

Given these changes, the tendency is to think that titles, even when you’re working within the context of a large organization, don’t really matter so much anymore. I myself believed this, until a few years ago when I received a promotion to vice president. I had been doing the work associated with this role for quite a while, so when I started using the new title, it was really more of a formality.

But subtly, little things around the office began to change. I noticed that more people actually answered the phone when I called, instead of letting me go straight into voicemail. Executives would communicate with me themselves instead of sending their assistants to find me. I started getting to sit in on planning meetings no one had considered inviting me to before. And when I’d walk into my colleagues’ cube area, someone would jokingly say, “okay, everyone, back to work, the boss is here.”

It then occurred to me that a title like vice president still carries a great deal of weight. Despite what we might like to think, people have a certain perception of us, and treat us a certain way, based on our level. No matter how much we know and contribute, to some extent our value and importance will always be tied to our rank – a rank which is sometimes well-deserved, and sometimes not so well-deserved. In much of today’s business world, a higher title means not only more money and a bigger office, but the ability and influence to get your job done more efficiently, and with less agida.

So next time you’re thinking of blowing off your performance review because you can’t see the point in advancing to the next level, maybe try looking a bit harder. The point is there.

5 Ways to Become More Disciplined

Self-discipline is the internal drive to make things happen.  Some might argue that it is a trait that you either have or you don’t, but I believe that anyone can increase their self-discipline with a little effort.  Here are some suggestions to implement during your work day.

Create a Daily Schedule

One key to self-discipline is to adhere to a strict daily schedule.  Set aside a block of time to accomplish each task, and when that period is up, move on.  If it’s not time to check e-mail or surf the Internet, don’t do it.

Turn One Task into Many

Sometimes, a task can seem so big that it’s overwhelming, and because you don’t even know how or where to start, you become paralyzed.  Therefore, you will need to take a complicated endeavor and break it down into short, manageable tasks. Once you’ve finished one component, you’ll gain momentum and enthusiasm.  Start small.

Do Tasks You Enjoy

Self-discipline comes more effortlessly when you’re genuinely enjoying what you’re doing.  While there will inevitably be parts of any job that you don’t like as much, try to find a way to outsource tasks that you find very unpleasant so that they don’t wreak havoc with your motivation.

Don’t Insist on Perfection

You should also realize that perfection will hinder your efforts to be more disciplined.  If you decide not to take action until conditions are 100percent ideal, or one part of a project is 100percent completed, you’ll never get anywhere.  Instead, it’s most important to keep moving, even if it means doing a job that’s just good enough, or returning later to a problematic issue.

Reward Yourself

No matter how pressed for time you are, don’t forget to reward yourself when you finish each task.  Instead of immediately moving on to the next activity, plan to spend an hour doing something rejuvenating, like getting a massage or playing your favorite video game. Self-discipline will be easier to sustain if you can anticipate something fun at the end of long working hours.

This post was originally published on Intuit's Quickbase blog.