Lessons in Corporate Leadership - Culture Building

Training is one of the topics that receives serious lip service but little real support in many corporate environments. Research shows over and over that people rate "sense of achievement" and "meaningful work" very highly in their overall job satisfaction. Then, how do employers make the everyday tasks meaningful? How do they ensure that the tasks lead to successes and achievements? I will argue that training is a significant and important component of providing a work environment that supports job satisfaction.

Let me give you an example: All top-level executives were present in the room that was going to be the home for a number of new employees for the next couple of days. The company provided an onboarding training session to all (and, I mean all) of its office employees. The company was going through significant change and a large number of employees were being hired across its global locations. And, every few weeks, a training session would be set up for the new hires.

The sessions started with one of the top-level executives introducing the management team to the new employees and they would ask the new employees to introduce themselves to the rest of the class. The executives did not simply appear and disappear from the sessions. They were present a significant portion of the sessions, socializing with the employees during breaks and evenings.

The training sessions were seen as a way to introduce the company to the new hires, show them the culture being created and ensure that they participated in building that culture. It took serious commitment from the top and they demonstrated their commitment clearly and regularly.

The sessions had two major effects on the employees:
1) A coherent understanding of the vision of the executive management,
2) Belonging to a closely connected team and professional connections among new employees.

Needless to say, the morale and motivation of the newly hired employees were very high during and at the end of these training sessions. They returned to their offices across the globe and got to work.

I hope you find this posting helpful. I welcome your thoughts and comments on the topic.

Lessons in Corporate Leadership - Open Communications

Clear, honest, open communication... Everyone strongly stands behind the need for it in a corporate environment. In fact, in any environment. Then, why is it so difficult to do it properly and in a timely fashion?

Communication is a two-way process and it must have a purpose. I suggest taking the following steps in any communication:

1) Determine the purpose of the communication,
2) Identify the best method and environment for it,
3) Prepare the communication,
4) Deliver it,
5) Check results. If necessary, repeat from (1).

Here is an example, where open communication was seriously hampered. And, it is easy to see why.

It was the very first corporate-wide senior managers meeting, where attendance was solid. Many flew in from globally distributed locations because it was made very clear by the top guy that missing these meetings was not an option. "Very nice" I thought to myself. A CEO, who does not just deliver lip service but bites the bullet and brings all his senior staff together regularly.

Before the start of the meeting, there was a lot of hand-shaking, catching-up over morning coffee, old-timers and newcomers mixing and mingling. Anticipation about this meeting was particularly high because of the new direction the company was preparing to take in the coming months.

With this, the meeting time arrived and everyone took their chairs. The noise of the conversations muted a bit but continued. Then, the COO walked into the area in the middle of the U-shaped table and walked over to one particular director. What followed in the next few minutes killed all the chances for having a high-energy, high-participation discussion. The COO yelled and cursed (yes, using profanity) to the director for not doing something he and the president asked the director to do. The president joined the monologue (the director did not open his mouth). After about five minutes, which felt like hours, of yelling and cursing, they were done.

And, this was done to "encourage" sincere and open discussions on mistakes as well as successes.

I can only guess the purpose of the president and the COO in the above example. However, if it was to improve and make progress, it did not happen. I am not arguing that communication should be sugar-coated or distorted to protect the recipient. On the contrary, that would come across as insincere and inaccurate. Instead, use the five steps mentioned above and do it in a systematic manner.

I hope you find this article helpful and useful. I welcome comments and thoughts on this topic.

Lessons in Corporate Leadership - Delegation

Delegation comes with increased responsibility, as one’s job description shifts from “doing” to “getting it done.” While it is common knowledge that delegation is required in management, few perform it well. First, let’s review some of the basics of delegation.

Delegation is an act the supervisor does to get things done through others. Delegation does not change the ultimately responsible person for the task, i.e, the supervisor. Therefore, it requires trust between the delegator and the delegate. Further, it requires a clear understanding of the desired outcome. What happens between understanding the task and delivering the results is where things may get thorny. While the supervisor is responsible for the end-result, he willingly gives away the control over the methodology to achieve the end-result to his delegate.

Egan (Egan, 2005) describes the five steps of delegation as follows:
1) Define task,
2) Select delegate,
3) Communicate task,
4) Monitor progress,
5) Review results.

Now, let me share with you an experience I observed, where almost all of the above steps were violated.

"Wow!" exclaimed the president of the company. The words that followed showed his level of excitement and appreciation for the work that was being presented to him.

Earlier that month, he had asked one of his senior directors to find a place that would be the future corporate headquarters. He wanted to create a refined, sophisticated and elegant image for the company and the headquarters had to fit the image.

While the space we were touring looked prime, the location did not exactly fit what the president desired. We all knew this but were surprised by his articulate show of excitement and support. I thought to myself that economics had won over a trendy location in the city. The director showing off his find was proud and happy. So, he went on to finalize the deal and sign a long-term lease.

I learned about the president's real feelings on the way back to our interim headquarters. He hated the location and did not feel that the director was up to the job. He thought, the director did not understand the president's vision for the company and, therefore, had failed to find the right place.

Now, what is wrong with this story? Or, maybe I should ask, "what is right in it?" Basically, four out of five steps of proper delegation was violated.

The only step the president did correctly was to define the task. His senior circle knew his vision. However, he chose a delegate who was more concerned about the cost of the place and did not appreciate the president's no-holds-barred approach to the headquarters. Having chosen such a delegate, the president should have made his task clear to the director. Instead, he assumed that everyone in the organization knew and understood his vision. Therefore, no further communication was held between the president and the director.

Finally, the president failed to monitor the progress as the director continued on with his search. Although he made attempts to obtain feedback, the final one being the facility tour I mentioned above, the president chose not to do so.

The end result was a mistake that cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars and the senior director his job.

How could it be avoided? Easily, in my opinion. I already shared my thoughts on how the president could have avoided a costly mistake on his part. The director, on the other hand, could have taken a few steps to better perform in the task:
1) Discuss the task with the president frequently and in specific terms. Discussing specifics engages both stakeholders and prompts real feedback.
2) Update the stakeholder in private before making a public display. It is much more likely to attract critical feedback in a private discussion, where specifics are discussed.
3) Request a final review of the results before committing to it.

I hope you find this article helpful and useful. I welcome comments and thoughts on this topic.

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Egan, B.D., 2005, "Delegate or Suffocate - the Art of Working Through Others," www.globalknowledge.com.

Teaching a Course on Product Development

Product development is a multi-disciplinary task. However, the skills universities teach typically are limited to the students' discipline area. In many cases, students graduate with little or no exposure to other disciplines and without any knowledge of how to operate in teams with different skills. My course idea was born to help fill this gap and introduce engineering students to the real-life experiences of product development.

I did some research on similar courses but I was surprised to find very few examples of such offerings. While a few courses exist, they are far from common.

With this, I approached my alma mater, where I received my M.Sc. degree, Bogazici University in Istanbul, Turkey, and proposed to deliver a course on product development. I received a very warm welcome and my course is approved for the summer term.

Now, the real work starts on my part. That is, preparation of the course materials, textbook selection, case studies & guest speakers, so on so forth. I am both excited and scared of the upcoming summer. My excitement comes from the opportunity to share my learnings of the years I spent in product development. I am scared of the challenges in keeping the topic interesting and engaging during a summer term.

I am looking for any input from current educators. All advice and suggestions are welcome to make the course more effective.

Thanks.