The sentence I hear from YOUR people in YOUR workplace classroom

MY MANA‘O ~ ~ ~ If you are new to MWAC, Sunday Mālama is when we mix it up here. I may offer an extreme tangent to our current value of the month (for April: Mellow Maintenance Mālama), or write about something completely different. My very first Sunday Mālama was this one: A Beginning and this click gives you the full index to page through. I call Sunday Mālama my mana‘o meaning that it shares a deeper view of my thoughts, beliefs, and convictions with you, my Ho‘ohana Community. Thus, Sunday Mālama is also an invitation to share your mana‘o if you wish to.

The scenario usually plays out like this:

You hire me with a fairly passionate story on why you would like to have Managing with Aloha taught in your workplace.

We get to know each other fairly well in our planning of the workshop I will deliver for you, for if I am to deliver on your expectations, I need to learn what they are.

I always arrive to teach and coach at least a half hour before the workshop is to start, for I am hoping to make some conversation in which I can learn more about all of you informally. Sometimes people come early enough for that to happen (especially when there’s food!) however usually they aren’t let off shift early enough. That tells me they won’t be sticking around afterwards either.

You’ve been there to greet me and to make sure I have everything I will need, and most of the time (not always) you will introduce me, with something shared with your staff about why I am there.

Then, to my great dismay, which I have gotten very good at hiding, you quietly slip out as I get started.

What I will hear from your staff at some point during the workshop, and sometimes with alarming repetition as they take turns saying it, is this:

“I wish my boss were here too.”

So do I.

What in the world were you thinking, hiring me for a training that will now be impossible for you to follow-up on with any sensibility or credibility whatsoever?

You cannot follow up with teaching that you never hear in the first place

No matter how inspirational they are, no hired trainer or motivational speaker will ever be able to give you a return on the investment you have made, greater than that you can secure on your own.

Training has to be talked about, and agreements have to be made on what follow-up will happen in the workplace, and what will not, and why.

Your people need to hear from you directly as to whether or not you agree with a trainer, why or why not, and what your new expectations are now that the workshop has been presented.

Even if you have heard me speak before, you are missing out on the fabulous questions your staff will ask, and the discussions which create learning excitement for them. You miss seeing the opportunities you will have to turn learning into action which makes a difference in your workplace or with someone who has gotten thoroughly engaged with something we have talked about.

Your absence speaks with a loud voice

To me, yes. Frankly, I do think less of you. I am so disappointed.

However it speaks in greater volumes to your people.

When you are not there, you send your staff a message that you are not interested, or that you think you are better than they are and above it all, or worse, that you hired someone to whip them into shape and fix them for you.

Next time, show up and STAY. Learn WITH your staff. ENGAGE with your people. Make a commitment to convert learning into action.

Then I can help you with the follow-up which grows you into the leader you are supposed to be.

If workplace training is considered the new flavor of the month, unlikely to last and get integrated into the workplace culture, chances are you didn’t sit long enough to partake of the meal. Leadership never even made it to the table.

From the archives:

• How to Capture an Expert’s Value: 12 Tips (at Talking Story)
• Homework for the Workplace (at Managing with Aloha)
• Be Fiercely Selfish With Your Time to Learn (at Joyful Jubilant Learning)
• Managers: Are You Teaching? Know Can Do!
• The 1 List That Every Manager Must Work With
• Coaching Debrief: Do with, not for, not instead

Comments

[Sara]

And then there are organizations which run a special course for management (so they don't have to mix with the workers?). Part of my job involves implementing new software applications and I find it is useful to sit in on ALL training given to ANY employee in using new applications simply to see what their reactions to it are as this is useful in adding future enhancements or simply in preparing for potential problem areas.

[Rosa Say]

Aloha Sara, welcome to MWAC and thank you for your comment, for you have added two great points to this. I so agree with you that mixed audiences in workplace training sessions always turn out best, for we cover all the bases and most "what if?" scenario questions that way - discussions are thoughtful AND thorough. Everyone gets the same messages at the same time, and collaborative synergy replaces divide and conquer confusion. If management presence in a room inhibits conversation there is a bigger problem there to be dealt with, and as a coach I prefer being aware of it. Sensitive or confidential training for managers should be rare, and is best done one-on-one versus in the classroom anyway.

[Karen Swim]

I believe that this is the difference between management and leadership. Managers have a position by title. Leaders may or may not have the title. A leader would want to be in the room, to engage in the conversation and to hear what team members are thinking. A leader understands that for change to be permanent it must become part of the culture and that involves everyone. A leader is always open to learning and hearing different perspectives as they are secure in their position. Managers see their team as employees, and may gain their ear but not their respect. It is so sad to work with organizations that have that attitude.

[Rosa Say]

Karen what you describe is sad indeed, and it is much too prevalent in today's workplaces.

I think that managers can be everything you describe in a leader: Part of our MWAC mission is to embrace the day that positions and titles in an organization have very little to do with everything else, thus we often start with reinventing the role of the manager (I will add the link to my name in this comment). Otherwise, organizational hierarchies can really mess with our human capacity to rise above them.

[Roland Hesz]

I think I would disagree a bit with you Karen.
What you say about managers is true in a sense - for the "title" managers. But a real manager will be a bit different.
I think it is pretty well summed up in a quote from Peopleware - a book I really like.

In my early days as a developer, I was privileged to work on a project managed by Sharon Weinberg, now president of Codd and Date Consulting Group. She was a walking example of much of what I now think of enlightened management. One snowy day, I dragged myself out of a sickbed to pull together our shaky system for a user demo. Sharon came in and found me propped up at the console. She disappeared and came back a few minutes later with a container of soup. After she'd poured it into me and buoyed up my spirits, I asked her how she found time for such things with all the management work she had to do. She gave me her patented grin and said, "Tom, this is management."

Tom DeMarco - Peopleware

We always say that managers are not leaders and usually are not really useful. But is leading and managing the same, and - if done well - is one better than the others?
(Actually, we have a saying for leaders too: "There are two kind of leaders. One shouts 'Forward!' the other 'After me!' ")

If I think about the meaning of the word, it is like:
1) to succeed in accomplishing
2) to achieve one's purpose
3) to handle or direct with a degree of skill

Yes, they are other meaning in Webster, but I think the original meaning was closer to this three.

If I think about these meaning, and put the manager and the leader beside each other, it will be something like in the folk tales and legends and such.
There is the Leader, the Hero who inspires the people to do something amazing. And just a little to the right, there is the side-kick, the quiet guy, who is not famous really, can't kill the Gorgon or the Dragon, he just... well, manages to replace and clean the weapons and armour of the Hero, after it got stolen by the fairies, manages to plan a good escape plan when the Hero falls into a tight spot, he manages to do all the non-heroic stuff (like food and drink and shelter) that makes the Heroic stuff possible to happen.

Of course, I am just thinking out loud. And I know that today, most of the managers are not really good with the management stuff. The reasons are many - like, if you have a brilliant developer what do you do? You promote him to some management position as a reward. This way you can get an incompetent, sad manager, who does not like his work, and lose a brilliant, talented developer.
But I don't think it's the position's fault, or that the positions are unnecessary. It's just implemented by people, that's all.

[Rosa Say]

Roland, I like the way you "just" think out loud! Such good stuff in your comment for us.

I'm one of the biggest advocates for managers you will encounter, for management does right DOES MATTER. Like you, I defer to those classic word-driven (and thus language-accurate) descriptions, and so I personally think of the difference this way:

Managers are more focused on the present, and the Great Managers optimize our day-to-day realities by working 70% of the time with their people compared to 30% of the time with process and system design.

Leaders are more focused on the future, and creating a compelling picture for the rest of us to subscribe to their vision. Where managers will seek to invigorate, leaders will seek to provoke and inspire.

When managers and leaders work together, the results can be magnificent.

Can the same person do both? I think so, and that is one reason titles get in the way of it happening.

[Roland Hesz]

I don't know if you can be an inspiring visionary and a down to earth, lets make it possible to happen kind of person at the same time.
A leader will say : I want every noble to build a castle! And I will build 10! - and then will promptly roll up his sleaves, spit in his hand and starts to chop away on the trees.
The manager will say: oh, ok, now lets see we need a trillion tons of wood and a gazillion tons of stone, and who was that famous stonecutter, right, lets just send him a pigeon, and then we will need about a 100 peasants, and the food...

If the leader started to think about the trivial, like food, resources and stuff, he would likely say : oh, well, lets make it then 4 castles for me, and every three noble to build one.

Of course, it can happen, there was Alexander, and Gengis Khan, and Mathias Rex and all the great figures of history, but I think most of the time it will take two individuals.

But I can be wrong, not sure about this take on the roles. Maybe, you can be both, once a leader, an other time the manager type. Or always both.

I will have to think and experience on it :)

[Rosa Say]

Roland I think the question of one role (or function) or both is relevant to the scope of work to be done, and as that scope gets bigger, having people playing separate roles helps because they remain in management-focus or in leader-focus. This is the way I will coach brand new supervisors on a very basic level:

When you start the workday with a pre-shift huddle (or one-on-one conversation) with your people, you fulfill the role of the leader, who is describing the best possible future for them, with that "future" simply being the end of the shift. If you are both inspirational and clear, sharing your vision of what fulfilling, meaningful work will end up to be for all of you, people will buy-in, engage with you, and be self-motivated to deliver as need be.

Then, as the day kicks into gear, you largely assume the focus of the manager who coaches, teaches, removes all/any hurdles or obstacles and encourages, so that you are continually providing the support needed to get that best possible future to happen by the time the end of that shift does come.

To bring this back to my posting; leadership vision can be articulated and set extremely well in a training seminar because everyone can see their workplace with fresh new perspective. Best of all, they can co-author it!

In essence, the teacher or facilitator is asking, "What if?" Participants - leaders, managers, worker-bees alike - are in effect answering via their participation, "Well in our workplace, it could happen this way." Seminar over, the managers who were in the room seize their responsibility for the follow-up that will make that positive expectancy of newness possible.

[Rosa Say]

By the way Roland, I checked out Tom DeMarco's book Peopleware at Amazon.com - thank you for the recommendation! I have added it to my wishlist for my next purchase there.