Be an Amazing Manager

It’s my mission to grow leaders and galvanize my passion for lifelong learning. It is what I’ve dedicated my professional career to, and it is the purpose of this newsletter.

In my work with?#CEOs, running “think tanks” in Manhattan for?#Vistage?International, I am in meetings with some of the world’s most influential?#business?executives, all committed to becoming better #leaders and optimizing their businesses. Vistage facilitates these goals through personalized workshops and a safe space to ask specific confidential questions and learn from the top thinkers in their respective fields.

I firmly believe that learning from the best and participating in a strong peer support group that provides unbiased feedback can help leaders make the decision that will most benefit their organizations, families, and communities. I also believe that even those who don’t participate in Vistage can benefit greatly from what I’ve learned from over 40 years of actively studying the best leadership practices, which is why I’ve spent the past few weeks writing about the lessons and words of Chalmers Brothers. I’ve known him for over a decade and had him speak on ten different occasions with the CEOs of my Vistage groups.

Previously, I shared how his teachings are relevant to leadership and shared his guidance on content, context, and how to have difficult conversations. Today, I’m sharing important distinctions about requests, offers, promises, and tools for accountability.

“Every organization, large or small, gets done whatever it gets done by virtue of the ways in which the people in the organization coordinate action – do things, work together – with one another. You can do this well, or you can do this poorly... but you can’t not do this. This coordination of action is based in language, in specific conversations (that consist of) Requests, Offers, Promises. Underneath every physical process and information process lie ‘commitment processes’. The primary way of understanding an organization is to see it as a network of commitments. Typically, the responsibility of managers is to initiate, manage and facilitate these conversations of requests, offers, and promises.”

-- Chalmers Brothers

Coordinating action begins with language in the form of a conversation, one that contains a request or an offer and should always begin with context (why the conversation is occurring). The only cost of including context—why you are making the request and/or offer—is time, and the benefits are priceless.

The content of the conversation that contains a request and/or offer should fulfill at least three basic criteria:?

1. Non-trivial; in some way, the request is important to you.
2. ?Action-oriented; you request that someone do something... not tell you what time it is.
3. ? Either workplace or personal in nature.

?Regardless of which response, they are all definitive. No conversation should end with “maybe” or “I’ll let you know” (without a definitive timeframe).

“Managers engage in conversations in which they create, take care of, and initiate new commitments within an organization.”

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--Dr. Fernando Flores, Understanding Computers and Cognition

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In an effective and accountable culture, the priority is managing commitments, not managing time. Managing commitments is the competency, and 100% success (in managing) is the standard. Managing is not completion; it is honoring the commitment and fully engaging in monitoring the process and communicating what is happening throughout the timeframe.

Self-assessment: Consider the degree to which your 1) leadership team and 2) organization have created your version of a “culture of accountability.”

• How well do you – personally – make effective requests, use valid responses, and manage your commitments?
• How well do others you work with?
• Are there pockets of excellence as well as areas to improve?
• Are misunderstandings and things “falling thru the cracks” nonexistent? Rare? Common?

The way to address commitments that aren’t managed is through responsible complaints, not complaining or gossiping. A responsible complaint is a conversational competency required to sustain healthy accountability. When people make effective requests and use valid responses, but commitments and promises aren’t kept or managed, there must be a mechanism to investigate breakdowns and introduce sincere apologies and gain commitment to use when commitments are not fulfilled and not managed.?

Evaluate: when your organization fails to keep commitments…

• Do your people make responsible complaints?
• Do they engage in recreational character assassination?
• Do they sulk in silence and become resentful?
• What is the norm?
• Are people aware of the difference between broken promises and silent expectations un-met?
• To what degree are requests and commitments, as opposed to assumptions and expectations, used as the basis for doing things?
• Do you model responsible complaints and sincere apologies?

?Learning is “a process, not a destination. Keep practicing.

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