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One of the main mantras that prevail in the personal improvement/effectiveness movement is this idea of personal responsibility and ownership. The discourse tends to argue that you can improve yourself by “owning” your own destiny. Take on a new project, develop a “can-do” attitude or change how you see problems. The theory seems to state that we are all happier and more committed when we have a sense of meaning and a level of autonomy in our lives. Apparently, we are less stressed as a result.

Tips three and five in the Harvard Management Tips book builds on this idea by advising you to open your mind to new things and increase your desire to learn. Ask questions and find ways to apply your expertise to different situations. Adopt a learner’s approach. Tip eight advises you to stop making excuses for your bad behaviours and change! Think of the impact your character flaws have on others around you.

How to change your behaviour is outlined in Tip 33. Firstly, you should take ownership and believe you can change. Secondly, be patient and persist with your personal changes. Thirdly, accept any difficulties you encounter on the way. Fourthly, refuse to be distracted. Fifthly maintain your changes constantly. If you can persist with your changes you will find that you are a better leader, apparently!

I guess a good way to start improving yourself is to audit your behaviour and ask others for feedback. Feedback seems to be a key requirement in the self-improvement process. I would accept that it serves as a useful reality check, but only if someone is willing to accept other people’s criticisms of their conduct.

Although I do wonder sometimes, whether our character flaws are what make us human. If we change too many things about ourselves, do we deny the past experiences that brought us there in the first place? Who has the authority to change you? Why should you change if you get things done well? And when do we stop improving? How long does this process continue for? The phrase life-long learning is very popular, but can you really teach an old dog, new tricks? So many questions – I guess I must be opening up my mind!

References:
Harvard Business School, (2011) “Management Tips from Harvard Business Review”, Boston, Massachusetts, Harvard Business Review Press, p5, p7, p10, p43.

Feedback Flower (Photo credit: jonathanpberger)

One of the main ways to improve your “self” is to ask for feedback from friends, family and work colleagues. In theory, inviting feedback on your performance should help you understand what your strengths and weaknesses are. It’s also a way of clarifying your perceptions and ideas about your own performance. The Harvard Business Review Management Tips 4, 7 and 8 expand on this ideology.

For instance, there is a suggestion about meeting with former co-workers each month to keep in touch and well-informed about industry changes. And that you could use this session to invite feedback on your contributions to your industry’s space. Another tip suggests that you reflect on your annual work performance review to find ways of turning any highlighted weaknesses into strengths. Furthermore, you are encouraged to ask people who you are in continual contact with (such as direct reports, peers and customers) to critique your ideas and approaches.

But can we deal with this level of constant feedback? How much can one’s ego take? Is it possible that we could just develop a hard exterior shell to deflect so-called constructive criticism? Will our defensive mechanisms deep within our sub-conscious rise up to protect us? No doubt asking for feedback on our performance is a necessary activity from time-to-time, but could it end up being an exhaustive pursuit distracting us from actually getting things done?

The personal improvement industry is a very Americanised one. I sometimes wonder how well ideas developed by North American gurus translate in Europe or even the UK. Our cultural worldviews have been honed by differing socio-economic paradigms, language, and historical contexts. For example, Europe, including the UK, too a large extent has socialistic, liberal and secular leanings. The US in comparison seems to have a more individualistic culture emphasising personal autonomy and responsibility.

McCabe (2011) in his article Opening Pandora’s Box touches on these considerations in his analysis of the effectiveness of Stephen Covey’s ideas in a UK context.  He believes Covey’s ideas are entrenched in the American dream of freedom and self-determination (p186) and are therefore context-specific. McCabe’s main argument is that ideas are hard to implement as intended because interpretation, context and organisational make-up can markedly influence the end result.

I remember a time early in my career when 360-feedback was introduced as part of the annual performance review. It was a disaster. Senior members of staff, whom you would have liked feedback from, did not have time to respond to your requests, and personal agendas from colleagues surfaced in the feedback/criticism.

Maybe this situation occurred because it was an HR/senior staff implementation failure or because new American owners wanted to take charge. But I don’t think it was much of a coincidence that a quarter of the department left by the end of the year. I suspect that many people were not keen on the new working environment! Extensive organisational change I think can trigger unanticipated behaviour. After all, people make up organisations!

I am more of a fan of feedback with specific evidence. For example, “that was good/bad because of doing X and Y”.  It anchors people to unambiguous action. Daniel Pink’s book discusses how children respond to direct feedback and not generalities. Pink suggests praising effort and strategy as children are more likely to take on more difficult tasks that stretch and develop them.

Pink also implies that adults need meaningful achievement too. He believes that Type 1 behaviour (intrinsic satisfaction derived from a task) such as displayed by Warren Buffet or Mozart is made from circumstance, experience and context.  It stems from a human desire to improve and master something that matters to others. So maybe we can all become more effective as long as we are willing.

References:

Pink, D. H. (2009), “Drive: The Surprising Truth about what Motivates us”, Cannogate Press, Edinburgh, pp178-79.

McCabe, D. (2011). Opening Pandora’s Box: The Unintended Consequences of Stephen Covey’s Effectiveness Movement Management Learning, 42 (2), 183-197

Using the handy Harvard Management Tips booklet for guidance, I have decided to work through its advice to see whether I can improve my management perspective and self. Tip one advises you to clarify and refine your leadership vision by articulating your values and re-examining your goals for the future.  It says to find a few important episodes in your life that you think defines your values/you.

I guess one important value for me will be the achievement of my MBA in June 2012. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much I have enjoyed the course materials and the re-development of my analytical thought processes. It has left me wanting more, particularly now that I feel that I have mastered the art of writing merit-graded assignments! Maybe that’s a little self-absorbed, but it feels nice to gain academic validity from something that I have put a lot of effort into. I’m a better student, more careful and mature, than I was when I completed a BA in English in my early twenties.

Another rather important value for me is nurturing my family. It has taught me to be a little less self-absorbed and more considerate of others. I think I’m more ethical and interested in longer-term, more sustainable things because of it. Before marriage and children I was more hyper and impatience. I’ve learnt to temper some of that by listening more and trying harder to see beyond the right-now. Mind you, it’s not always easy!

After thinking of what these episodes mean, you then need to write a personal leadership statement explaining the type of leader you want to become and the contributions you want to make by 2025. I assume this means how you want to lead yourself and not others. In that context, I hope that I’ll be using my talents and expertise to keep myself busy! If I’m a little more specific I hope that I have a Ph.D. and a sustainable writing career. I hope I can keep myself motivated and open to new perspectives and ideas. If I manage to influence others and gain some sort of recognition for it in years to come then that would obviously be a bonus.

Tip 46 builds on this leadership vision by suggesting that you develop a leadership brand and articulate it in a statement. Mine is “I want to be known for good research skills so that I can deliver useful ideas and perspectives to others”. Once you have your leadership brand you should ask others for feedback on whether or not you are living up to your brand. Let’s see how the next few months pan out for me!

References:

Harvard Business School, (2011) “Management Tips from Harvard Business Review”, Boston, Massachusetts, Harvard Business Review Press, pp: 3, & 60.

Although I’m working on my last OUBS assignment ”What makes a Good Manager?”, I have been distracted by a handy little Harvard Management Tips book I picked up in WH Smith recently. The book is a compilation of the Harvard Business Review‘s Management Tip of the Day and suggests “useful”personal development, team and business advice. It has given me an idea. I fancy blogging my way through the advice and sharing my experience of it here. A sort of Julie and Julia approach (the American girl who blogged her way through a 1950s cookbook but I’d be doing it on management.).

The first tip is to Create a New Leadership Vision. I need to articulate my values and re-examine my goals for the future. I will then need to draft a statement illustrating what I hope to have achieved by 2025! I’m not sure I can even think that far ahead. It is already making me feel older than I am already. And what does it mean by leadership and major contributions? I assume it is about how I plan on leading myself to something big. But will I drink (you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink!) by the time I get there?  What if I change my mind? And what if my goals are not to win a Nobel Prize but rather more mundane?

Well, I suppose some of the things that might make my personal development list this week are: potential Ph.D study and my imput as a Professional Advisor to the OUBS’ Alumni Advisory Board. Although I didn’t make it to a seat on the board, I have been offered an expertise role, which is very exciting. I will hopefully find out more in the coming weeks.  My research into Ph.D. programmes continues too. At the moment, my research ideas are about blogging and reflection, the limitations of reflection, and entrepreneurship. All the research ideas are works-in-progress. Hopefully, I’ll have some further inspiration once I press “submit” on my last MBA assignment.

Networking is definitely a broad-church term encompassing online/offline; internal/external; work colleagues/friends; and acquaintances/family. But how do we grow our networks without looking narcissistic and shallow?

Ibarra and Hunter (2007) say that networking is about “creating a fabric of personal contacts that will provide support, feedback, insight, resources, and information”. But many managers, from their study of 30 managers, find networking insincere or manipulative and fail to utilise their contacts effectively. Being time-poor is also an issue.

Singleton and Tarnowska (2010) answer to this is that you should learn to cultivate your relationships whether they be from work, school, college, home or clubs. Probe, ask questions, be interested and share information. Keep in touch, and offer relevant information such as thought-provoking articles, and tips, as and when appropriate. There is no point just collecting more and more business cards and LinkedIn contacts if you are not willing to make an effort to build on your relationships.

There is also the issue of working out how to manage your networks. Ibarra and Hunter (2007) suggest that there are three main types of networking: operational, personal and strategic. Operational networking is about good working relationships both internal, such as peers and superiors, and external, such as suppliers and customers, to the organisation. These connections are relatively straight-forward in the sense that everyone is connected to the organisational network so there are obvious synergies in working with one another even if the relationships are not always easy.

Personal networking encompasses connections made through professional associations, clubs, personal interest groups and alumni. These connections are made out of choice. Ibarra and Hunter (2007) state that this group provides important referrals, information and development support. It can also create a good basis for strategic networking. The issues with personal networking are that you are most likely surrounded by like-minded people who you share personal interests with. Therefore it becomes difficult to work out how valuable this type of network is. It can also reinforce mind-sets.

Strategic networking, however, is about creating inside-outside links for future business and functional purposes. These types of connections can be political, but if you are not in touch with the “bigger picture” and aspire to leadership roles, you can often lose out to someone who is. Strategic networking also requires a lot of time and dedication. It is often one of the reasons given for why women rarely reach a board-level position in an organisation. Balancing the demands of family-life with organisational development is no easy task for anyone.

For the novice networker, Ibarra and Hunter (2007) suggest finding a networking role model and watch and learn. Maybe find an outside interest, say the cinema, and find ways of encouraging it within the organisation and with clients in order to find time to interact with them. Re-allocate your time and workload effectively to find time to network and connect. Nurture your connections. The benefits of networking take time and need constant gardening. In time, it will bloom.

References:

Ibarra H, & Hunter M (2007). How leaders create and use networks. Harvard business review, 85 (1) PMID: 17286073

Singleton, T., & Tarnowska, I. (2010). Take Networking to the Next Level Strategic Finance (February), 19-20

After being side-tracked by my last B821: Financial Strategy assignment last week, and life in general, I’m back on the personal EBI case. Following  on from Drucker’s ideas for managing oneself better, I turned to Herminia Ibarra for further guidance on framing my career-after-MBA direction.

Ibarra and Lineback (2005) in their article “What’s your Story?” have interesting points to make about trying to link up your past career/life to the new direction you seek. They point out that many people struggle to explain what they want to do next and why a change makes sense. People fear looking flaky, incoherent and indecisive. Because of this, people stick to a factual career narrative which does not explain their long-term goals or aspirations well enough for others to “Buy-in” to their desired change.

This is why Ibarra and Lineback say it’s important to craft a good story for each of the career avenues you wish to pursue. By linking your present and future goals to your past career history, you can help others to understand how you got to the juncture you are at today and where you want to journey onto now. Being able to make sense of the turning point that led you to want to change your career direction is an important step to convincing ourselves, and others, that the career change is meaningful and not fleeting.  Your story must be coherent and persuasive, if you hope to redirect your career trajectory.

Thankfully, Ibarra and Lineback do provide some useful action points that they believe can help a professional change career direction, those being:

• Link your change reasons to your skillset e.g “I found that I was good at X…”
• Mention multiple reasons (personal & professional) for why you want change;
• Make sure you have reasons for why you didn’t pursue your current goals in your past;
• Reframe your past in light of your current/future goals;
• Choose a story form that lends itself to your tale of reinvention such as a maturing view of the world or learning from self-reflection/educational insight;

They also suggest that in the early stages of your career transition, it is important to identify and actively consider multiple career pathways. This is something that I’ve already started doing. I’m trying to map my career options with a list of known pros and cons for each pathway.

Furthermore, once you have settled on the career routes that you wish to pursue, it is important to discuss them with different types of audiences such as friends, family, co-workers or acquaintances. The more feedback you get, the more likely you are to settle on the right career path for you and the one that is the most achievable.

Reference:

Ibarra H, & Lineback K (2005). What’s your story? Harvard business review, 83 (1), 64-71 PMID: 15697114

As part of the pre-residential school’s EBI preparatory work, I’ve been reading Ackerman and Eden’s (2003) speech on powerful and interested stakeholders. In general, they advise managers to assess in a group environment all stakeholders who they think could support or derail their strategic plans. By undertaking this type of analysis, it is suggested a more proactive style of stakeholder management could occur.

Ackerman and Eden (2003) advise using three techniques in the process of proactive stakeholder mapping. Firstly, create a power interest grid with all the perceived relevent stakeholders plotted on the matrix. Secondly, filter the list down to the most important few and create star diagrams to analyse the influential interconnectedness of your key stakeholders. Thirdly, role-think what these stakeholders may think of your strategic plans and develop ways of working with them to achieve your organisation’s strategic goals.

In principal, I think that analysing the environment your organisation operates in and the potential impact other organisations, not just competitors, can have on your strategic plans is obviously good practice. I recently experienced a situation whereby the Residents’ Association of a block of flats where I own a garage en bloc has decided to erect a keypad entry gate without prior warning or notification to non-flat owners.

This access point to the garages has been un-gated and open access since the estate was created in the late 1970s. My house deeds also state that I have access from this point of entry at any time despite not owning a flat in the block of flats where my en bloc garage is situated. My neighbour who owns the last garage, and is also a house owner, has had her garage damaged by the anchoring of the gate-frame to her property. She only found out a gate was being erected when she was parking her car in her garage the day they happened to be there working!

Obviously a lot of telephone calling has ensued over the last few weeks because of this poorly thought out action by the Residents’ Association. I was even visited by the Chairman herself, who crudely said that as they owned the freehold they could do what they liked and they were going to notify us after the keypad code went live anyway. When I pointed out that there were about 30 other householders that also own freehold garages on that plot and that they all needed to be notified of the code to the gate she seemed shocked.

Clearly at lot of aggravation could have been minimised if the Resident’s Association had taken the time to communicate to all garage owners that they wanted to erect a gate, and found out who legally owned them in the first place. A consultation process could have been followed and a case made to all the freehold garage owners about why it was necessary to erect a gate. This type of action would have avoided the clear breach of trust that has now occurred.

What I worry about, however, when undertaking stakeholder analysis, particularly as a group activity is that the wrong stakeholders are flagged up as the main “players”. Surely one would have to avoid groupthink and reinforcing each other’s biases during this process. In the OU B820 Strategy module, Monsanto, a US biotechnology firm, is used in unit four as a case study to illustrate just how badly you can underestimate the power of your stakeholders, despite undertaking this type of analysis. Monsanto believed that the clear benefits of GM crop-growing outweighed the negatives. Unfortunately the general public, the end customers and consumers of foodstuffs, made it quite clear that they would not buy or consume these products anytime soon in Europe.

No doubt the Monsanto case illustrates an extreme example of thinking that you have the main stakeholders on board (government, farmers and scientists in this case), but I think in this rapidly changing world, organisations need to anticipate changes in primary and secondary stakeholders regularly. The advent of social media can rapidly turn consumer sentiment against an organisation within a matter of days now; there is clearly little room to get things wrong.

References:

Ackerman, F. and Eden, C. (2003) “Powerful and Interested Stakeholders matter: Their Identification and Management”, Strathclyde University, Glasgow.

Open University, (2007) B820, Unit 4, “The Organisation: Stakeholders, Purpose and Responsibility” Milton Keynes, Open University, pp 29-31.