2008 | Working With Others

Caveat Emptor…When it comes to considering a “Life Coach”

November 25, 2008 By John Drozdal 6 Comments

When my generation was in high school, one of the career opportunities that was not even on the radar screen was barista as in “one who makes expensive latte drinks at chain coffee shops”. Another is “life coach” as in “someone who helps one navigate life’s sea of change – be it career, personal or otherwise”. Back in those days, you made coffee on your stove top perculator and if you needed help with life’s vagaries, you talked to your friends at a diner or bar. Coaches stuck to the sport they knew.

Given the economy, and the fact that at least one national coffee house chain is closing outlets, baristas are no longer in the demand they once were. Life coaches seem to be multiplying exponentially, though – as are the certification programs to become one. My friend Bob recently emailed me that “there is not enough ‘life’ for all the coaches out there”. He may be right.

If you google “life coach certification programs” you will find a plethora of avenues to become a certified life coach. Here is what I observed when I did just a little bit of digging. First, the programs range from a day-long (or less) program to a several month course of study – and at the end of either extreme one becomes a “certified life coach”. The variability of the length and the content of the courses suggests that there is no agreement of what constitutes the preparation for a life coach.

Second, these certification programs can cost several thousand dollars – and for many it is hard to even find out how much the program costs. Again, a pretty suspect fact. Makes one think that the “certification process” itself was created by a few as simply a money-making proposition.

Finally, I found little evidence in my quick search of either a threshold for entry into the program – that is, an application process – or a demonstration of competency at completion of the program. What tends to be emphasized is the lucrative opportunity that waits for certified life coaches. My question is, does anyone ever wash out of these programs and if they do can they just try another?

Now that I have raised the above warning flags, I do know several executive coaches who are excellent. And there are probably some credible life coaches as well. However, in the absence of agreed upon standards of what makes a great life coach, my advice to all is that if you have exhausted your friends’ patience regarding your life issues and you really need a life coach, check references!

Filed Under: Jobs and Careers, Observations, Work place issues

Some Timely Thoughts on Leadership…

October 6, 2008 By John Drozdal Leave a Comment

“When it comes to establishing your worldview, I was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before you were tapped for this to stay informed and to understand the world?

This is the question that Katie Couric asked Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Media critics have labeled the question gotcha journalism. When I look at the current Presidential campaign through a leadership lens, I not only think it was a fair question, I think it was an essential one.

One of the characteristics that I value in leaders is the ability to think critically , that is, to be intellectually curious, to entertain opposing viewpoints, to see the big picture, and to be able to anticipate the second, third, and fourth order consequences of the actions they take and the decisions they make. One of the clues to how a leader thinks is found in what they read. In my coaching practice, I will often ask a leader, “What are you reading? And I must say I usually get a specific answer such as the “Wall Street Journal, Jim Collins “Good to Great, “The Harvard Business Review, etc. And I will suggest other possibilities for new readings that may challenge that leader’s viewpoint. And most are willing to try those suggestions.

And when I have the opportunity hear an executive speak, I will often ask that person what they read. And sometimes the answer surprises the audience , as in “I just finished reading Aristotle’s “Neomachean Ethics and now I am reading David McCullough’s “John Adams.
Every so often I come across a leader who tells me they don’t read anything other than memos or emails. That kind of answer makes me worry about that leader’s ability to think critically. So Katie’s question was a fair one when it comes to trying to get insights about one’s leadership.

Filed Under: Leadership

Let’s Try to Understand Millennials…

October 6, 2008 By John Drozdal Leave a Comment

A couple of weeks ago, I conducted a workshop on “How to Lead Different Generations of Volunteers for a Minneapolis nonprofit organization. A Gen X participant (aka “a thirty-something) shared how exasperated she has become with the twenty-something who reports to her. When she gave her direct report an assignment at 4PM with the expectation that the twenty-something would not leave work until she completed the assignment, the Gen X boss was shocked when the twenty-something told her that she was leaving right now to meet her friends for a beer and would get to the assignment after that.

Fortunately, there were two twenty-somethings in the training session. One responded: “For us work and play all run together and we don’t adhere to a rigid work schedule or work from 8 , 5 and then play. We have a work ethic , it’s just different from that of older workers. Just give us the assignment, tell us when it is due, and let us do the work.

This is exactly how Google works. They have a preponderance of young workers (20 and 30 somethings) and they make the workplace very fluid. And¦they hold people accountable.
Over the last few months, I hear a lot of older workers and even some Gen X’ers bashing the Millennials or twenty-somethings saying they don’t work the way we do and that they are not prepared for the world of work. That statement begs two questions.

The first is, who says that Millennials need the same attitudes toward work? Isn’t work about getting results on time? Why do we still need rigid, out-dated policies about when one has to work? Take the advice of the Millennial in my training session: give an assignment with clear expectations, tell the employee when it is due, let them do the work, and hold them accountable for the results.

The second question concerns why is the youngest generation in the workplace unprepared for the world of work? The answer is a seriously flawed education system that only permits positive feedback, rewards just showing up rather than results, and gives so much latitude to students about when assignments are due that they have very poor time management skills and no clue what a deadline is. It is time for revolutionary thinking in education to better prepare students not only for work but also for life.

Filed Under: Generational Issues, Generational Issues at Work, Work place issues

Reframing “Working and Playing Well With Others”

August 24, 2008 By John Drozdal Leave a Comment

I found zenhabits.net when I was googling (never thought I’d use that as a gerundive , or is it gerund, Chris?) to find websites that address minimalism. I also came across a couple of sites by a couple of minimalist twenty-somethings (http://www.lucasallmon.com and http://www.betterthanyourboyfriend.com.) A guy named Tynan authors the latter blog. His bio reads as follows: Hi! My Name is Tynan… I’m an egomaniac vegan pickup artist who sold everything and is traveling around the world. I generally do whatever I want whenever I want, even when I’m pretty sure it’s a bad idea. I like singing gangsta rap, writing, working out, working on my business, traveling, and finding adventure. I always wear a sequinned hat with stars on¦ OK, so maybe Tynan is a little non-mainstream kind of dude. However, I’m picking up that there is a trend emerging around earning a living , or at least making money to support oneself , in an unconventional manner that does not link one to a specific place. There are others who have decided to “sell everything, travel around and support themselves on the road and they are able to do it-or so they claim.

When more and more people opt for flexibility in work, which could be as simple as, working at home, I wonder what “working and playing well with others will look like in the future. In the good old days when everyone worked in the same location , or at least a finite number of multiple locations , you could actually see if people were, in fact, working (and playing well) with others. With situations like Lucas Allmon where he may never even meet a client face-to ,face, the only thing anyone will see are the results , not how they are produced. And that scenario may drive the control freaks of the world off the proverbial bridge. About a year ago, I wrote a blog about my first job. I had a boss who believed that if you are not sitting at your desk with your pencil poised, you were not working. That was a long time ago and that is a good thing because this example of control freak behavior would not work today.

I’m sure no one would be surprised that the management cognoscenti have coined a term for people who work together in multiple locations and who may never see each other but are accountable for a collaborative work product , that term is a “virtual team. Here’s the deal. A virtual team is no different than a traditional team. Apart from the fact that members of a virtual team may never meet face to face (they could teleconference or use SKYPE), they still need clear goals and expected results, defined roles and responsibilities, established systems and procedures (like how they will communicate and make decisions) and clear definition of the kind of relationship the team will have in working together , that is, its sense of community. As I think about it, the longing that some have for a different kind of relationship is not only possible, but there are a number of great practices for building effective and satisfying relationships that still apply. If only some managers could get over the control thing¦

Filed Under: Generational Issues at Work, Observations, Team Development, Work place issues

Collaborate and Improvise!

August 21, 2008 By John Drozdal Leave a Comment

“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed. – Charles Darwin

I came across this quote in a blog on zenhabits.net titled “12 New Rules of Working That You Should Embrace Today. Aside from the fact that article is a little judgmental and reductionist (why not 14 rules or even 20?), I think the themes of collaboration and improvisation are noteworthy , and are valued especially by the twenty-somethings of the millennial generation about whom I have commented in prior blogs.

First, let’s talk about collaboration. One of the characteristics of the baby boomer generation is its competitiveness. As my colleague on generational issues Wendy Shannon points out, boomers are competitive because there are so damn many of them! I had to try out for the baseball team, the orchestra, the play, and compete for a place in my entering class in college when there were way more applicants than spaces. And when I was in graduate school in the early ˜70′s the reality was that there were way more Ph.D.’s than open positions. My friend Tom Brady, who was a philosophy graduate student at the University of New Mexico at the time, told me that UNM had an opening for an assistant professor in philosophy and that there were over 500 applicants! So the boomers learned how to compete.

In organizations today, boomers hold the majority of leadership positions and therefore set the direction and policy for those organizations. Hence, most organizations are more competitive than they are collaborative. It is one thing to compete externally in the marketplace for customers and talented employees. However, competitiveness often gets out of control internally when employees on the same project or department are competing to get ahead in their careers because of the policy of “up or out that seems to dominate most organizations. Peter Senge in “The Fifth Discipline talked about how mental models or assumptions that people hold can shape the way people think and act. He emphasizes the importance of questioning assumptions to see if they have become outdated. I think the assumption that internal competition is a good thing for an organization needs such questioning. The idea that collaboration is the new productivity tool is worth examining. The twenty-somethings understand the value of collaboration. Maybe the Boomers can learn something from them – instead of seeing them as so different.

Second, let’s address improvising. In the context of the blog, improvising means adapting, changing ways of working, and utilizing technology most effectively. I know a lot of boomer leaders in organizations who find trying new methods, new ways of thinking, and new technology too scary and so they resist change. As a result, I think there is a possibility that large corporations may become casualties because of their failure to adapt. Rapid changes in markets and resource availability , especially non-renewable fuels- will force improvisation. And I see examples of corporations resisting change frequently. Here is a simple – almost trivial example. There is a readily available piece of software called Skype. It’s free and with a camera and microphone attached to your laptop , which is usually built in in newer machines, you can talk with and see people anywhere in the world there is Internet access. And yet, the norm is to hop on a plane, travel across country or continent in order to meet face to face. Just think how adapting new technology can aid collaboration.

The author of “12 New Rules of Working That You Should Embrace Today, Leo Babauta, ends by stating that the ideas he put forward in this article do not have main stream acceptance. So as I reflect on the quote that sparked this blog, I wonder how many corporations will prevail?

Filed Under: Generational Issues at Work, Leadership, Observations, Work place issues

Funsultants Need to Go Away!

August 17, 2008 By John Drozdal Leave a Comment

One of my realities, as a constant traveler is that it is sometimes difficult to get everything done when I want to. So things pile up , like things I want to read. This past weekend I took some time to catch up on the March-April 2008 issue of Utne Reader. I found an article by Matt Labash reprinted from the Weekly Standard titled, “Are We Having Fun Yet , The infantilization of corporate America. The gist of the article is that there is a new cadre of “consultants called “fun consultants or funsultants or funcilitators who have convinced corporations that the road to success is not about “industriousness, talent, and know-how¦[but] fun. Apparently, there is a body of literature that says that employee retention hinges on creating a fun workplace. Of course, Labash says that the word “literature is used loosely here to “mean a series of often ungrammatical double-spaced sentences put on paper, slapped between festively colored covers, and sold to mouth readers with too much discretionary income. (What a great turn of a phrase.) I would add that this “literature is not research-based, but instead is a case of “if enough people say something is true, then that makes it true, and we (the gullible) are certainly not going to question that.

As most of you know, since 1991, I have been an independent consultant who helps managers and teams get work done through and with others in a way that is both satisfying and effective. I advocate that a sense of humor in the workplace is a healthy thing and that at the end of day performance (that is, the result that we get) matters. I have found that what contributes to employee retention is when employees at any level know what is expected of them, how they are doing, how the boss will consistently relate to them, and what chance they will have for development.

When I have been in organizations (or conferences) where these funsultants put participants through bizarre activities that even the most sympathetic would be hard pressed to see as relevant to the business, I have a number of thoughts:

First, I am usually annoyed. Not everyone has the same idea of fun. The activities these funcilitators introduce are usually embarrassing to many and I do not think public humiliation is a good thing in any context.

Second, rarely if ever does the funsultant or the organization explain “why we are doing these humiliating activities. In other words, like the ropes courses of the 90′s they have no business relevance.

Third, I wonder what in the world the leadership of the organization is thinking. Are they covering something up?

Finally, part of the emphasis on fun is the fear that a lot of organizations have that they will not be a hip place for the twenty-somethings to work. The youngest generation tends to claim that school, work, and anything for that matter needs to be fun. In the last MBA class that I taught, the class ranged in age from 23 to 58. When we talked about expectations on day one, the four twenty somethings (out of a class of 15) told me that the class needed to be fun. When I asked what “fun would look like, they uniformly said no lectures, just games! Because of the well-documented talent shortage many , not all – corporations lack the guts to have the “here’s the deal talk with this youngest generation and explain work expectations. Instead, they opt for the “fun is good approach.

Now lest you think that I am a curmudgeon, I’ll end with a quote from the Southwest Airlines web site:

“More than 37 years ago, Rollin King and Herb Kelleher got together and decided to start a different kind of airline. They began with one simple notion: If you get your passengers to their destinations when they want to get there, on time, at the lowest possible fares, and make darn sure they have a good time doing it, people will fly your airline. And you know what? They were right.

Ah, what a refreshing idea, deliver results AND have fun!

Filed Under: Generational Issues at Work, Observations, Work place issues

Business and the Health Care Crisis

July 28, 2008 By John Drozdal Leave a Comment

It is no secret that one of the biggest fears that workers have with the prospect of losing their jobs in a tough economy is also losing their health care coverage. We are the only major industrial country where medical coverage is dependent for the most part on where one works. And not only is the health care payment system seriously flawed, but access to health care is a problem in many parts of the country. Since moving to the southwest, I have found that simply finding A doctor to be quite challenging – many doctors are simply not taking on new patients.

And then we have today’s New York Times article, “As Doctors Cater to Looks, Skin Patients Wait”. I think this article exactly illustrates that we have a health care system that is broken. The crux of the issue is that when faced with a choice of treating self-paying patients who want elective procedures like botox treatments and those who might have skin cancer and whose insurance company will reimburse doctors at a much lower level than wealthy patients are willing to pay for cosmetic procedures, dermatologists do botox treatments and people who really need medical care have to wait.

Large corporations have an opportunity to be a hero. These organizations have enough buying power to really effect change in health care in the United States. Things need to change and these organizations could lead it.

Filed Under: Work place issues

Inviting Commentary on the Impact of “Online Reading”…

July 27, 2008 By John Drozdal 1 Comment

Back in my first set of graduate school days in the early ’70′s, one of the books that seemed to be required reading almost everywhere was Thomas Kuhn’s, “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”. Kuhn coined the term, “paradigm shift”. Today’s New York Times has an interesting article that I think is about such a paradigm shift: “Literacy Debate: Online RU Really Reading?”

What is fascinating about this article is that it brings the use of the internet as primary source of reading material right up against the view of the importance of reading books. Before I contribute my two cents on this topic, I invite others to read the article and offer comments on this site. I eagerly await your insights…

Thanks!
JD

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Another Article About “Helicopter Parents”…

July 26, 2008 By John Drozdal Leave a Comment

A number of years ago, we sent our daughter to a two-week summer language camp in northern Minnesota. The first contact that we had with her after she left was not until the parent-child event on the last day of the program – which was part of the deal. While she thought we had banished her to Siberia, and while she complained about the absence of TV and not being able to use her hair dryer (NB there were no cell phones in those days otherwise that would have been part of her rant!), she is still in contact with some of the campers some twenty years later and is among one of the most independent and self-reliant thirty-somethings I know.

Then this article appears today in the NY TImes – “Dear Parents: Relax, It’s Just Camp”. MSNBC coined the term “helicopter parents” about eighteen months ago. These are parents who “hover” over their children’s every move. They call the school constantly to check on their kids, confront teachers if their child did not get an “A”, and show up at job interviews to negotiate compensation packages for their budding executive. Now we have these upper income parents – who obviously don’t have enough to do – calling residential summer camps multiple times a day to check on their child.

Here is what is wrong with this picture, as noted in a comment to “Another Frustrated Boomer”, the behavior of these helicopter parents is contributing mightily to producing a generation of self-absorbed people who cannot function or think independently, and who lack discipline. The NY Times article talks of parents who give their camper-children TWO cell phones (the use of which happens to be banned at these exclusive camps) and tell their kids “if they take away the first one you still have a back up to call me every day”. So we have parents who are condoning rule breaking and then we are surprised when this generation grows up, enters the work force, and ignores the policies and procedures that a company puts in place. Something is very wrong with this picture. How much of this ludicrous behavior are we willing to tolerate?

Filed Under: Generational Issues, Observations, Work place issues

Are “Private Sector Solutions” that Much Better?

July 25, 2008 By John Drozdal Leave a Comment

As I follow the 2008 Presidential, Congressional, and Senate campaigns, and listen to others talking about them, I hear a lot of criticism about “government. I hear words like inefficient, unresponsive, and incompetent when people talk about government-run services. In the same breath, these critics say that we need private sector solutions – particularly for health care.

Has anyone tried to get medical bills paid through a fragmented health care delivery and payment system lately? Have these critics tried to resolve issues with their credit card, cable or cell phone company only to find it to be a miracle when you can actually talk to a person.

Here is my favorite private sector stories for this week.

First, I ordered a product on the internet and paid for two day shipping with one of the main stream private sector shipping companies. I tracked the package online and discovered that it was not going to be delivered on time because of “an emergency situation beyond our control. After a phone call to the 800 number I learned that (a) people at the call desk and even at the local distribution center have no idea what the emergency actually was; (b) that designation is often used when the driver simply runs out of time to make the delivery; and (c) because it is “beyond the company’s control the consumer is not entitled to any refund! It is also curious that the local distribution centers cannot take incoming phone calls and can only be contacted by the central call center by E-MAIL! When I have mailed an express letter through the much maligned USPS, and it does not arrive by the promised time, I have gotten reimbursed for the cost of the postage.

Second, a couple of months ago I am embarrassed to say that I cut my thumb while preparing dinner. After a not so quick trip to the ER and several stitches later the “fun actually began. The hospital where I went staffs its ER with physicians from a non-hospital clinic. The billing department at this private hospital is supposed send the patient’s insurance data to the physician’s practice administrator, but routinely does not. While the hospital bill was paid without a glitch, I am still getting bills from the ER physician’s clinic – in spite of the fact that I personally sent them my insurance info.

Third, I recently got a new VISA business card – it only took THREE mailings of the new card until this company finally got my name spelled correctly!

So how about we change the discourse about incompetence to include these “private sector solutions as well?

Filed Under: Observations, Work place issues

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