MAKING MESSES

Ask any kid, making messes in the pursuit of creativity and play is fun! Waaaaaaay more fun than cleaning up afterwards.

"Moooooooom," our 11 year old yells down the stairs. "Can Jake and I build a foooooort in the living roooooom? Please? Mooooooom?"

"Only if you clean everything up before your father gets home from work."

"Ugh, forget it."

The fort is the fun. Pulling out every blanket in the house and flipping over the chairs and draping the furniture to create an awesome hidey-hole in which to act out stories and play is the fun.

Folding the blankets and replacing the furniture and making sure everything is back in order after the mess isn't "fun" but it is the responsible thing to do.  On that particular day, our son decided that the fun of building the fort wasn't worth the price of cleaning up afterwards.

Kids gleefully paint and splash and build forts and pull every outfit out of the closet playing dress-up. Which is as it should be. When creating, it is important to play freely and enjoy the art of the playing.

The next step is cleaning the mess. (If a baby can pull a toy OUT of a bin, they can be coached to put it BACK.)

Ooooh, that makes a lot of kids mad, doesn't it? Have you ever seen it?

But, good parents, teachers and leaders don't care if the kid gets mad. These adults realize that, in the improv of life, playing and making messes is worthwhile fun but the other half of creation lives in that space AFTER the fun.

Integrity lies in owning the "mess" and accepting the responsibility for what we've created.

Managing Up

In the improv of life, sometimes a long-held belief or behavior needs to be shaken up so something completely different can occur.

How many times have you looked at a situation and thought, "How did we get HERE?"

While reading some really negative reviews of a company where I used to work -with most of the comments being focused on the leadership- I started thinking about business and work and how things get to the state where they are untenable.

Then, I had an epiphany.

MOST CORPORATE TRAINING PROGRAMS ARE BEING DELIVERED TO THE WRONG GROUP OF PEOPLE!

Thinking back on my corporate days. A lot of time and money is spent on training "leaders" and honestly, I've seen it make good leaders better but I've never seen it make any difference with leaders who behave badly.

The most extreme example I experienced was a situation where a C-level leader was under pressure to get his disjointed team some management training. So, he requested a very specific training for the team but insisted on meeting with the facilitator prior to the training so it could be "customized" for the group. This exec proceed to bully the facilitator and pick the training apart, until it suited him. The training then lost it's meaning and focus. Even worse, because this exec hadn't allowed the training to be delivered in the manner it is typically delivered, a lot got lost in translation. Instead of becoming a positive tool for change, it became a weapon -until it was dropped entirely because it was "ineffective".

I've seen lots of bad-behaving leaders go through expensive training with no demonstrable positive effects, and get promoted time after time but, I've never seen those bad-behaving leaders get better at leading others.

I even went with one such leader to a 3-day offsite training. This leader was belligerent in class, sometimes even snorting in derision at the facilitator, he skipped out on about 3 hours on the last afternoon and didn't change one behavior. Yet, he was promoted. Because he'd "made an effort" (to attend the class).

So, leaders like this learn very quickly that if they "endure" the training they can continue with their bad behavior and, in fact, will get rewarded for that behavior with more money, prestige and power.

So, what incentive is there to change?

WE NEED TO FLIP THAT SCENARIO.

Face it, most training that is delivered to the front-line employees is pretty much Code of Conduct and Preventing Harassment classes. That's about it.

But, in my experience, most code of conduct violations, sexual harassment, bullying, etc comes not from front-line employees, but from the people who supervise front-line employees.

I'll never forget facilitating a Preventing Harassment session; a new VP  grudgingly slumped into the mandatory class -late- and proceeded to make fun of the material. This VP then said something so absolutely offensive that I felt like I had to report it to my boss!

Guess what my boss did? Laughed, and said. "Oh, that's just the way he is. We can't say anything because the CEO loves him. You'll get used to him."

And that's a sadly common story of how a leader gets away with bad behavior.

THAT'S WHY I THINK IT'S TIME WE GET RID OF ALL THE MANAGEMENT TRAINING.

Good managers, good leaders are going to get better no matter what. They will read and learn and seek out what they need on their own. Bad leaders don't care, so why waste money trying to get them to care?

Instead let's spend the money on recruiting more ethical leaders. I think it's time to start creating an environment where it becomes uncomfortable to be a leader who uses bad behavior. I think it is time to focus all training dollars on front-line employees.

I think these employees need coaching and training that teaches them how to work ethically and gives them genuine skills (and corporate support) to navigate unethical leaders.

Imagine a nation of front-line employees who know how to effectively "manage up" and deflect and call out unethical behavior in a leader!

Imagine a nation of businesses (large and small) who support all employees by rewarding good employees (and good leaders) and by not accepting bad behavior from anyone!

Within a generation, we'd have amazing leaders!

What's the worst behavior you've experienced from a "leader"?

What's the best behavior you've seen in a leader?

The Worst Boss Ever

Some people are better off NOT being in charge.

Sadly, decision-makers in MOST organizations in this improv of life, haven't realized this. They haven't yet moved to a place where they have figured out HOW to honor talent and seniority WITHOUT placing that person in charge of other living, breathing human beings. (I'm talking the entire spectrum of organizations: businesses, non-profits, churches, clubs - any organized group of folks.)

This is especially true in the business world where it is unusual to give someone a SIGNIFICANT raise WITHOUT promoting them to management. If you're getting ready to hit "send" on that application for a manager job within your organization, or you've just been offered a promotion to a leadership position after years of faithful service I ask you to please think about the JOB, not the MONEY.

That's a difficult challenge, I know.

If you are wildly creative type and never follow the rules, I applaud you! I want to work on a team with you. That's a great recipe for being self-employed (or an employee of a wonderful leader) but its a lousy recipe for being in charge of other creative, feeling humans UNLESS, you also posses the special sauce - an extremely practical side. Those creatives that have that practical, organized swirl in their personality seem to be able to handle managing others just fine.

If you've been offered a position of leading others,  I'm going to give you the fine print. I'm sharing the stuff that you must be WILLING to do if you AGREE to the money and the authority. This is the stuff HR probably won't tell you before you sign on the dotted line.

To be in charge of other people, you have to be willing to . . .

1. Ask other people to do things . . . and be willing to do them yourself if they don't get it done. 
2. Hold other people accountable  . . . and hold yourself to an even higher standard.
3. Behave in the way you expect your team to behave.
4. Take all the blame and give all the credit.
5. Assume all the risk. 
6. Have the tough conversations . . . which may include telling someone they have a noticeable body odor or are wearing something inappropriate.
7. Follow the rules (and sometimes laws) of the organization in which you're involved . . . even if you privately disagree.
8. Treat your team equally . . . even those folks who rub you the wrong way.
9. Do the paperwork . . . all of it.
10. Run the meetings . . . and keep everyone on task.
11. Listen to your team but make the final decisions . . . even the unpopular ones.
12. Let your team do things THEIR way . . . even if it isn't the way YOU would do it.
13. Spend individual time with each member of your team on a regular basis . . . especially when you are busy.
14. Take the time to give complete, specific and direct instruction . . . especially when training someone on how to do something new.

If you want to be an effective leader there's really no gaming it. Either you can do what the job requires, or you can't. 

That doesn't mean you cannot do all those things in your own UNIQUE and CREATIVE way. In fact, your team will love you if you can do all of those things in your own way and not mimic a cookie-cutter style of leadership. But, be warned if you ignore -or dismiss as unimportant- any of the items on the list above, you will create a MESS. 

Here's a true story. Max (name changed to protect the innocent) was an eccentric, acerbic, innovative and creative designer. Max was a prickly pear, but, charming in his own unique way. Max was able to take all the specifications of a job and turn them into something unique and original so others forgave him his peculiar habits. However, he had been with the organization for years and hadn't had a significant pay increase because the arbitrary pay-scale folks determined he was already being paid higher than what his job title allowed. Max was feeling unappreciated because his paycheck didn't reflect his contribution to the organization.

Rather than do something unique and create a new job title (with a higher maximum pay rate), the powers-that-be decided that Max should be a MANAGER! To his credit, Max was leery, but he wanted the money he (rightly) deserved. So, he became a manager. It was a disaster.

Honestly, he was one of the worst bosses I've ever encountered. He never talked to his team. He never listened to his team. He resented the administrative paperwork so he didn't do it, which meant his team's performance reviews were turned in late and it affected their bonuses and raises. He didn't get to create amazing anymore, he just SUPERVISED the creation of things and loudly complained that his team wasn't making things as amazing as HE would make them -even to the point of insulting his staff. Obviously, quality suffered. The team was in shambles.

Max took his frustration out on anyone who would listen. Hours were spent in HR trying to deal with the problem. Everyone involved was miserable. The employees who reported to Max and who actually stayed with the company requested transfers to another team. Finally, he was DEMOTED back to the job he loved.

But nothing was ever quite right again.

Are you ready to lead others?

Have I left anything off the list that you think is crucial to leading others?