It's been a while since I posted an entry, so I have decided to turn over a new leaf and be more regular!

Middle Managers
Just back from a week in Australia where I facilitated on a program for middle managers.  It was interesting to talk with people who are in the real "engine room" of the organisation at the moment. 

Middle managers have always been squeezed - from above to achieve more and from below by people who want their voice heard "upstairs".   And now it's no different.  My participants told me that they are certainly being asked to do more with less since the recession hit - some have even been asked to take on more responsibilities when a colleague's role has been abolished.

But my people were still very upbeat and positive about the future, so it was a pleasure working with them.

On the subject of middle managers, there's a new book out called "The Truth About Middle Managers" by Paul Osterman, although the UK Financial Times gave it a pretty harsh review.  I'll have to wait and see

Decision Making
Speaking of books, there's a new book "Think Again:  Why Good Leaders Make Bad Decisions and How to Keep it Happening to You" which I've been asked to review.   

Authors Finkelstein, Whitehead, and Campbell, suggest that for many of us the fault lies not so much in our own errors of judgment, but rather in the brain's processes that help create these errors of judgment.

They quote many famous cases (including the US auto makers) of managers and leaders who have made poor decisions.  They attribute these to the brain's;

• agility in linking the current situation to previous misleading experiences,
• ability to relate current situations to our pre-judgments of similar situations,
• inability to separate the situation from personal self-interests,
• tendency to draw an inappropriate emotional link between current stakeholders and those for whom we have strong personal feelings.

Could be an interesting read.

The "Die-Hard" old manager
Had an interesting call from a colleague looking for suggestions on how to handle "older, technical (male) managers who are not good at people management and not interested in learning".  You may be interested in my response - if you have other suggestions, please let me know:

• Rather than train the managers (at least not initially) why not train their people in "How to manage their boss"?  i.e.. what style of upward communication works best with these people?  Their people will probably be more receptive to training anyway.
• These type of managers only relate to analysis and logic, so any "touchy feely" stuff does not work.  Stop training!  However, they do like certain types of training.
• What are their most pressing challenges?  I recently worked with a group of scientists (who had become managers) and found that the things they related to were:
  • My concept of analysing how they spend their time in terms of Leading, Managing, Operating (first two chapters of my book).  I got them to do a one week time log prior to the workshop to see how much they spent on each of LMO and then looked at what changes they could make to the ratio and then of course, what they needed to do to make these changes (kinda touchy/feely via the back door)
  • They also responded well to the model of structured decision making by Phil Yetton - this then led to discussions about the management of groups vs. teams and which one they had.  This then led to discussions around the style of leadership needed for each and the types of meetings they should run etc.
  • I also used the Team Management Profile, which is another structured approach to the make-up, management and leadership of teams.
  • Your people would also probably respond well to Project Management training with the emphasis on structure, but also how to get the best results (outputs) from their project teams (inputs).  It is important to talk in their language!

All target learners must see "what's in it for me" irrespective of their management style, so that should be the starting point.  Secondly, what style of learner are they?  Any training must be built on this style and preferably (although not essential) be delivered by a similar type.