Contrary to popular legend, subordinates do not, as a rule, rise to position and prominence over the prostrate bodies of incompetent bosses. If their boss is not promoted, they will tend to be bottled up behind him. And if their boss is relieved for incompetence or failure, the successor is rarely the bright, young man next in line. He usually is brought in from the outside and brings with him his own bright, young men. Conversely, there is nothing quite as conducive to success, as a successful and rapidly promoted superior.

Peter Drucker ‘The Effective Executive’

How to increase your chances for a promotion:

1. Learn how to coach your manager

2. Find what your manager is good at; determine what you are good at. Then build both of your skill sets for improvement

3. Your manager is the most relevant customer of your work…determine how to meet their needs.

4. Make your manager look good in the eyes of his/her manager.

5. If all else fails, apply for a transfer.

Articles Mentioned in the Video:

• Are you a “Big Enough” Manager?
• 9 Indicators That a Manager is NOT Able to Handle the Complexity of the Work & some ideas of what to do about it.
• Before the Promotion he was nice & had potential
• How can we avoid poor team performance? Don’t Promote People who Can’t do The Work.

What do you think?

Do you have any stories of you being passed over for a promotion because your boss was incompetent?

What advice can you share on how to make your manager more successful?

michael cardus is create-learning

Enjoying a good discussion and when writing “Why should anyone be led by you? That’s a dumb question.”  there was hope that someone would respond, challenging the assertion that it is a dumb question.

Below is what was shared on the Organization Development of Western New York LinkedIn page.

The other person will be kept anonymous (unless I get their permission to share their name on the blog)

Other Person

• in response to the original blog post

Hi Mike! I found your comments to be interesting. A question: If “Why should anyone be lead by you?” is such a stupid question, why does it stump most leaders? You need competence as well as the ability to connect to be an effective leader. 47% of senior managers believe they are inspirational leaders, but only 8% of their followers agree!
Research also suggests that higher ratings of personal connection are more predictive of a high performing leader than competence alone. Leaders need to excite employees to extraordinary performance and without a connection, this is impossible (source: BlessingWhite).

My Response

Responses. - ‘Why does it stump most leaders?’

As stated in my title, it’s a stupid question. That has no basis in reality. "Leadership" of what? to where? in what context? If If I am sports team captain, then I am exercising leadership through my competence of the sport I am playing. You cannot take an excellent Soccer-Leader and place him/her into a corporate board room and expect their "leadership" skills to transfer.

The issue to rise is that all these character traits inspiration, good-listener, caring,etc… are only seen as positive character traits of Managerial-Leaders who have competence in their work. Once we notice competence in the work, then the mis-attribution of quality traits happens. You can most likely take this same person who is "inspirational" put them in front of a different audience that this person has no competence in, and they will not be seen as inspirational.

Additionally…leading people and Managerial-Leaders to believe that they must be inspirational only goes to further inflate the demagogue CEO problem. People are inspired by making progress on work that is meaningful to them. People are inspired when their manager sets broad enough goals to allow for a certain level of autonomy BUT not so broad to leave them confused; are supplied with the adequate resources to complete the goals; have confidence in understanding their role-accountability and authority within the team + organization; and have metrics to measure progress and regress on the their work.

An "inspirational" leader can inspire until blue in the face…if the manager does not have the competence to add value to someone’s work, they will not be seen as inspirational…

Now to your research…Having a connection with employees is part of every competent managers job…adding value to the work of subordinates. Managerial Leadership as I defined in the article – "Managerial accountability includes the use of leadership within the role of manager. you cannot be an effective manager without getting those you manage to move along with collaboration and enthusiasm with the Goals of your manager and you as a manager."

No one needs to excite employees through magical thinking and connection…if a manager is doing their work, they are held accountable for the output of subordinates plus responsible for the development of a team that work along with each other, the manager, the managers-manager and the organization to achieve the goals of the organization. The excitement ought to come from the person working to their full capacity, within the roles they can complete this in.

Returning to my original point…Why should anyone be led by you? is a dumb question because it creates a deeper disconnect between the supposed Leaders and the others. This will only work to achieve the opposite of what it seems you wish to achieve.

What do you think?

Alright, agreed it is a good question that all Managerial-Leaders should consider – Why should anyone be led by you?

Although is it enough to bring out competence in managers?

michael cardus is create-learning

image by Sim, youn jin

We all have, a one time in our careers, had a manger who has less capable or as capable as us. While having a manager who has the same capability may sound nice, it creates tension.

Tension between the Manager and you, because the manager knows that s/he cannot offer and add any value to your work.

Tension between You and the manager, because you feel constrained and frustrated that you can out-think, out-plan, and out-value your own manager plus they are getting paid more than you.

It’s rarer, unfortunately, to have a manager who is “Big Enough” to fill the role of being your manager. This manager is able to truly attract trust and unleash the team and your creativity and best work.

This happens because, the manager who is “Big Enough” is comfortable doing their own work (as a manager) and is able to let you do your best, by setting the proper context of the goals, and leaving you to do your work.  

The importance of having a “Big Enough” Manager

• Inspired by Elliott Jaques ‘Executive Leadership’

What do you think?

Have you had a manager who was “Big Enough” to fill the needed level of work? What about your work was improved because of this? Have you ever had a manager who was “Too Small” to fill the level of work? What about your work was impeded because of this? If you are a manager…how do you know that you have the necessary Managerial-Competence to be “Big Enough”?

People join companies, and leave managers…

Be the reason people stay with your company

Contact Mike today to develop, recruit or train managers that are “Big Enough” to add value to your Organization, and work with each other to move the company and people to achieve their potential.

michael cardus is create-learning

image by Mohd Khomaini Bin Mohd Sidik

The ASQ Statistics Division, some sharing on the ASQ Team Excellence Awards from the Quality Education Division, and a closing talk by Richard Kyte and Thomas Thibodeau of Viterbro Universities Servant Leadership Masters Program, made the conference amazing.

Here are some photos from the Conference.

The Demystification of Quality Leadership

In this highly interactive workshop we will demystify what is takes to be a Quality-Leader. You will leave with a clear and distinct understanding of what Quality-Leadership within your work and life is, and how to maximize the talent you already have to continually improve the quality of your organization, team and people.

Plus these Leadership skills;

• Create an Organization and Team that attracts trust and talent.
• Use the ‘Cascade-of-Leadership’ to increase the quality and throughput of your organizations work.
• Steps to develop high performance quality teams.
• Steps to lead high performance quality teams.
• A formula that can be used to match the right person to the right work. Ensuring the task is completed on time and within quality standards.
• Knowing your Quality-Leadership Strengths.
• How to determine strengths and constraints in other leaders and what to do about it.
• Improve the problem solving and decision making of yourself and others

If you are interested in learning more and offering this workshop to your team and leadership CONTACT MIKE

michael cardus is create-learning

If you can’t make it, and interested in learning more and offering this workshop to your team and leadership CONTACT MIKE

An interactive examination of what Quality-Leadership is and how you can leverage existing knowledge, competencies, Quality Practices, tools and initiatives to improve your organization, team and self.

Resulting in enhanced accomplishment of goals on-time within quality specifications and within budget, capitalizing upon the innovation and motivation of the people who work along with you to complete the work.

Overview:

Great leadership is one of the most valued of all human activities. Within every part of our lives from work to family to friends to be known as a good leader is a great accolade. It signifies the talent of bringing people together and getting them to effectively work towards a common goal, to co-operate with each other, to rely upon each other, to trust each other. It evokes the warm and gratifying prospect of being part of a successful team or organization. Everyone LOVES being on a Winning Quality team, they LOVE the leader who led them to winning even more!

But good leadership within quality teams is also seen as one of the most mysterious things to achieve.

In this highly interactive workshop we will demystify what is takes to be a Quality-Leader. You will leave with a clear and distinct understanding of what Quality-Leadership within your work and life is, and how to maximize the talent you already have to continually improve the quality of your organization, team and people.

Plus these Leadership skills;

• Create an Organization and Team that attracts trust and talent.
• Use the ‘Cascade-of-Leadership’ to increase the quality and throughput of your organizations work.
• Steps to develop high performance quality teams.
• Steps to lead high performance quality teams.
• A formula that can be used to match the right person to the right work. Ensuring the task is completed on time and within quality standards.
• Knowing your Quality-Leadership Strengths.
• How to determine strengths and constraints in other leaders and what to do about it.
• Improve the problem solving and decision making of yourself and others

If you are in Wisconsin area it would be great to meet you and learn with you. To register and learn more CLICK HERE

If you can’t make it, and interested in learning more and offering this workshop to your team and leadership CONTACT MIKE

michael cardus is create-learning

I was with a group of 8 managers. They hired me to coach and develop along with them what they called “techniques and systems to motivate their teams”.  What I called The productivity of our people is dropping and we have punished them, yelled at them, offered $$ incentives, and created a Thunderdome process. Holy shit more of the same is not working…we need help! And help is what I do.

The day was like like most, we opened with I2U2ME2WE, developed objectives, cleared up when the bathroom and snack breaks would be perhaps the most important part, and started.

What?

I shared with the group;

Adair’s Eight Rules in Motivating People

1. Be motivated yourself
2. Select people who are highly motivated
3. Treat each person as an individual
4. Set realistic and challenging targets
5. Remember that progress motivates
6. Create a motivating environment
7. Provide fair rewards
8. Give recognition

When I shared the above 8 rules, you would have thought that Jesus himself popped out of that screen. They reacted very positively to the 8 rules and quickly wrote them down.

It was as if they were looking for these 8 Rules their entire managerial careers, and I just showed them the light!

So What?

We were able to choose 2 that the team did really well.

• Give recognition
• Be motivated yourself

Armed with the above successes, and some time sharing examples of how those 2 are done well within their teams, we created some amazing steps for progress.

We finished with the team choosing JUST 1 area to focus on within their team over the next week, all the managers chose to focus on the same area – Treat each person as an individual.

The next 3 hours were spent discussing what that meant in their work and how to achieve the goal. I offered some coaching and understanding of self-directed behavior, treating people like adults, and managers responsibility for focus on the individual for team performance.

Now What?

Every time you speak with, interact with, or intervene with someone you never know the possible outcomes of that interaction. The 8 managers develop their own action plans and methods for Treating each person as an individual. And with their thinking and knowledge, plus existing motivation some changes will occur.

What do you think?

Looking at the 8 rules in motivating people, which does your manager or you do really well? How do you know that it is done well? Ultimately who is responsible for motivating employees or you to do the work? Do you have any examples of what motivates you?

michael cardus is create-learning

Thunderdome image from Makes Me Smile