Management Matters Blog

Management Matters with Mike Myatt; Web 3.0

By: Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth

--As quickly as Web 2.0 arrived, it is being overcome by the next generation of digital applications and toolsets. Moreover, the need for broader understanding as to how to implement a more sophisticated internet strategy is becoming necessary in order to remain competitive in the market. In this week’s column I'll share my thoughts about why you can't afford not to jump on the social networking bandwagon.

So what's with all the buzz about social networking? As a CEO or entrepreneur, why should you care? With so much being written about the impact of social networking on business, and the numerous examples of companies that are capitalizing on its many benefits, I'm amazed at how few companies still just don't get it. Not only has social networking arrived but it is clearly here to stay. All you need to do is look at the tremendously successful companies that have been built upon the platform of social networking (MySpace, YouTube, Ryze, Linked-In, Twitter, FaceBook etc.) or the unprecedented growth of other forms of social media and you will quickly recognize that you better board the plane before it flies away...

Let's start with a bit of background…the term "Social Networking" in its most classic sense is best defined as the study of how people interact with one another. It studies the dynamics between nodes (people) and links (their relationships). Since the term was coined in 1954 by J.A. Barnes, its significance has leapt from the halls of academia to gain visibility in the boardrooms of global corporations. It has evolved from the study of human relations in sociological, anthropological and psychological settings to the study of professional relationships and organizational theory in business environments.

The difference between "old school" networking and the current form of social networking is the introduction of technology-based communities and user-driven content on the internet. The proper use of blogs, podcasts, video, webinars and other social media gives greater voice and brand extension to a broader base of constituencies than could have ever been addressed before. When all the buzzwords and techno-jargon are removed, social networking is about aligning interests and motivations to build relationships, and establish a sense of extended community and create influence.

There are intelligent and well-established business people with virtually non-existent networks and little true influence, and there are what would on the surface appear to be obscure individuals with huge networks who wield tremendous amounts of influence. Social networking analysis has shown that the greatest amounts of power and influence inside the corporation don't necessarily reside at the top of the org chart as one might think. Studies have concluded that the individuals who possess the most influence in a company are the most trusted people with the broadest base of connections, and not necessarily the person that has the highest rank or biggest title. Likewise, the same holds true for external networks It is about the quality (are the people in your network significant?), character (do the people in your network trust you and do you trust them?) and relevance (are the people in your network capable of wielding influence that is aligned with your needs?) of the people in your network that matter.

While social networking is clearly allowing major corporations to be more productive by extending their brand and having better communication throughout the entire value chain, it is its impact on small business that is perhaps most impressive. The ability of social networking to level the playing field for the individual practitioner and the small or medium enterprise is truly awesome. It was the Internet that established the global economy, but it is social networking that is making it a reality. Businesses who ignore social networking will regret it, those that venture in with a lack of understand will be eaten alive by it and those that properly leverage social networking will create tremendous competitive separation.

As a CEO or entrepreneur, if you are not leveraging social networking, you're wrong…Forget the excuses, the rationalizations and the justifications, as you don't have time not to embrace social media. If you are doing your job, you will aggressively move to leverage both your personal and corporate brand through social networking. If you're a CEO who doesn't blog, wake-up and start. Social networking will allow you to gain mind-share with your constituencies like never before, while improving customer loyalty and increasing both personal and corporate brand equity. Social networking will allow you better manage your reputation in the best of times, and when the inevitable corporate faux-pas occurs, it will allow you to stop the bleeding much faster. If you don't understand social media and social networking hire someone who does.

The old axioms "you'll reap what you sew" or "give and you shall receive" have never been more accurate than when applied to social networking. If you are truly motivated to provide value and benefit to those in your network then you will receive value in return. However if you are a user and abuser of your network, only taking from others and giving nothing in return, you will bleed your network dry only to watch it crumble before your eyes.

With proper motivation, careful construction and active management of your network there is no reason to assume that it won't be a success. Focus on leveraging the most important spheres of influence for the mutual benefit of those in your network. If you adopt the suggestions contained in this post and embrace social networking your personal network will grow with geometric progression while spanning industries, geographies and cultures. Moreover you'll extend your corporate brand, increase customer loyalty and create a broader sense of community both inside and outside the enterprise.

Management Matters with Mike Myatt: Teach Them to Fish

By: Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth

--Do you feed your employees, or do you teach them how to fish? Do you like to swoop in and save the day? Do you see yourself as the white knight that can solve any problem or challenge?

If you do, you have what I refer to as “hero leader syndrome.” Any leader’s belief that he or she can do everything better than anyone else (even if it’s true) is a root cause of inhibiting workforce productivity. Creating unnecessary dependencies between leaders and team members, while often unintentional and/or well-intended, is nonetheless a far too common practice for the “hero leader.” In this week’s column we’ll take a look at the myth of the hero leader…

Is your workforce comprised of independent, highly motivated and effective individuals, or is it built upon the limitations of employees completely dependent on you as their leader? Here’s a news flash…great leaders don’t create a state of dependency. In fact, they won’t allow dependencies to exist…rather they mandate independent thinking and decisioning.

If you’re overworked, tired, and feeling stretched so far that your rubber band is about to snap, it is likely because you're doing the work of your subordinates, rather than holding them accountable to perform their own duties. Your role as a leader is to develop talent to the highest levels of independent and autonomous thinking and execution. Great leaders don’t subscribe to a “Do-It-For-You” methodology of talent management, rather they lead, mentor, coach and develop team members by getting them to buy-into a “Do-It-Yourself” work ethic. Great leaders view each interaction, question or even conflict as a coaching opportunity. Don’t answer questions or solve problems just because you can, rather teach your employees how to do it for themselves. If you make it a habit of solving problems for people, you simply teach them to come to you for solutions at the first sign of a challenge. Great leaders don’t allow themselves to be placed in this position. They don’t allow employees to leverage them, they leverage the employee, and in doing so, it’s a win for the executive, the employee and the enterprise as a whole.

The trick is to meet questions, challenges, conflicts etc., with intelligent questions of your own. You need to meet questions with questions. Questions allow you to direct the conversation and not be sucked into it. By redirecting the flow of a conversation, you elicit critical information and show that you care about what the other person is thinking. The following 5 tips will allow you to ask effective questions:

1. Be sincere in your questioning. Forget about what’s in it for you, and think about how you can help the person you’re communicating with. Do not manipulate or control the other person, but make an honest effort to find out how you can help them achieve their objectives by coaching them and not just serving up a solution on a silver platter.

2. Learn to ask effective questions. Don’t ask questions that can be answered with a simple yes or no. Use questions that begin with who, what, where, when, why or how in an attempt to enable dialoging. If the other person is doing all the sharing of information, you will find yourself in the enviable position of being able to assess, evaluate and synthesize the information being shared. While the other party is talking…you are learning. Once you understand what the issues are, you’re now in a better position to coach and teach.

3. Use questions to stimulate and challenge. Ask questions that are insightful such that they require thought to be answered. Help people understand how bright they are and where their talents and gifts are by setting a high chinning bar. When you engage people with stimulating and probing conversation they learn and grow.

4. Get personal in your questioning. Use questions that encourage the other person to reveal their thoughts and emotions. These questions will help you truly get to know the other party and to build common ground and rapport. If you can move beyond the analytical to the personal, the other party is much more likely to reveal their bias or agenda.

5. Demonstrate your competency without giving the answer away. Ask questions that reveal your subject matter expertise, and that demonstrate your ability to provide meaningful solutions without actually doing so. These types of questions should engender credibility, and therefore provide the other party with confidence that you can handle the situation in a manner that is in alignment with their best interests. Force people to move beyond surface level discussions by taking them past their comfort zones with intelligent questioning. Never settle for the general, ambiguous, vague or standard answer. Continue probing until you are satisfied with the answer.

If you want to become a great leader, master the art of teaching and coaching through the application of skillful questioning. Work on developing a list of well thought out questions that are situational, industry specific, product specific, market specific, positionally specific etc., and use them to put you in a position to help others, not by feeding them, but by teaching them how to fish…

Management Matters with Mike Myatt: Good Employees Are Not Expendable

By: Mike Myatt, Chief Strategy Officer, N2growth

--Good employees are not expendable. As a CEO running a company during tough economic times, if your strategy to survive the economic downturn is to implement a slash and burn approach to cost cutting, I would suggest you reevaluate your thinking.

Regrettably, tough economic times are often the precursor for ushering in massive rounds of corporate downsizing, rightsizing, layoffs, corporate restructurings and the like. Reducing headcount in an economic downturn is almost a Pavlovian response for many executives. It’s as if workforce reduction is priority number one in some corporate operating rule book. Here’s a news flash…in the 212 pages of my book “Leadership Matters…The CEO Survival Manual,” nowhere do I espouse an unplanned mass reduction in labor as a brilliant business move.

Let me state this as simply as I can…a business should always be rightsized, or better yet, it should always be optimized. If you find yourself carrying too many employees such that you have to eliminate positions to manage cash flow, then your operating plan was flawed to begin with. Managing revenue risk through workforce reduction is simply a sign of poor executive leadership. If an employee is a valued asset one day, and somehow expendable the next day, then I question how valuable he or she was to begin with.

If you can lay off large groups of employees then I question your need for them in the first place. Irrational exuberance and optimism on the part of executive leadership is not viable justification to go on a hiring binge. The thought that people are simply expendable resources constitutes flawed business logic. Good hires should be sustainable hires.

The bottom line is that as a CEO, you never want to be too far ahead, nor too far behind the hiring curve. So the obvious question is this: how do you know if the size of your workforce is optimized? You rightsize all the time…My CEO clients have their CXOs justify headcount on a regular basis…They keep them on a short leash to avoid shortfalls or bulges in workforce size. I can already hear the naysayers complaining about not having time for this level of employee evaluation. Oddly enough, these are the same executives who find themselves making massive unplanned cuts in head count because they weren’t proactive in their approach to begin with.

There are any number of financial and non-financial metrics that can be assessed to evaluate whether or not the depth and breadth of your workforce is optimized. Each organization is different, and its not even so important which metrics are used, just that some logical standard is put in place. Whether it be something as simple as revenue per employee, or a complex formulaic approach to contribution margin, measurement needs to occur much more frequently than is the case in most corporations today.

The moral of the story is this…Any idiot can grow a workforce or shrink a workforce, but it takes great executive leadership to optimize a workforce.