Management via Panic

I knew a manager once who liked to start the day with her team by saying “What’s on fire!?!”  It was said enthusiastically, expectantly – almost hopefully.

There is a certain “jazz” that some people get from addressing an “emergency” situation.  But trying to “motivate” your team on a regular basis by inflicting panic on them is not a winning management style.

Unless you work in a real ER, then your “normal” days should not be filled with managing one panic situation after another.  If there is too much panic in your work life, then here are some possible causes and solutions:

*Over-reacting to non-urgent issues.  People will bring you issues that they think are urgent.  Don’t fall for this every time.  Take a few minutes to carefully evaluate the situation.  Many times the best response is “I understand, but this can wait.”  Sometimes these issues actually resolve themselves in time.

*Poor systems & SOPs.  This is such a common problem and takes discipline to fix.  Budget time to create Standard Operating Procedures and train staff on them.  Common breakdowns in the system need to be studied and addressed with new procedures.  The causes of constant panic are often systemic.

*Panicy Bosses.  You need to learn how to manage your boss.  The first step is having an agreement with your boss on the most important priorities that you should be working on.  When your boss brings you an “urgent” issue, then make sure to respond positively.  But then make sure that she/he understands the tradeoff involved and how it will impact the other work that the two of you agreed was a high priority.  Let’s face it, sometimes you can negotiate this and sometimes you cannot.

The problem with constant “fire drills” is that it does not give us time to give the thoughtful consideration needed to successfully address the significant, thorny challenges that face organizations today.  And it certainly does not provide time for any strategic thinking.

To learn more, a great book on how to devote more of your time to important issues (vs. regular “panic”) is Steven Covey’s First Things First.

Good luck devoting more time to important matters and less to panic!  As you do this you will definitely be making more of a Mission Impact.

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.

Leadership is Fragile

I am blogging today from Columbus, OH, home of one of my alma maters, The Ohio State University.  Later today I will be doing a one day workshop based on the Mission Impact book entitled “Clearing Hurdles to Innovation & Strategy” for about sixty-five nonprofit executives from Central Ohio.

 Usually when I visit here, the buzz is about football or basketball.  But not today.  The buzz is all about the recent announcement of the retirement of the incredibly popular Ohio State President Dr. E. Gordon Gee.  In case you are one of the few people on the planet who have not heard about the recent controversy surrounding Dr. Gee, negative comments he made about other universities at a meeting of Big Ten presidents and athletic directors back in December recently became public.  Depending on your perspective, the comments were either “unfortunate attempts at humor” or “mean spirited.”  Regardless, they factored into his decision to retire.

Dr. Gee is an incredible leader.  I had the opportunity to meet him when he first became President in September 1990 and I was a Ph.D. student at Ohio State – he is an amazing, charismatic leader.  He has led the university impressively and with impact.  He has thousands of fans in the Buckeye world.  TIME magazine named him the most outstanding President of a university in 2010.

And yet, these comments helped to bring him down.  What can we learn from this?

Leadership is fragile.

I recently read where someone said:

“Every time you do something good as a leader, it’s like you put a pebble in your pocket.  And when you do something bad, you take a pebble out.  As a leader, you need to keep pebbles in your pocket, so people will follow you.”

This advice is incorrect in one important way.  Doing something good, does “give you a pebble.”  But doing something bad can cut your pocket open and all the pebbles will fall out.  We have certainly seen this with other public leaders (e.g., Eliot Spitzer among many others) whose acts are far, far, more egregious than Dr. Gee’s.

If we want to lead others – or causes – we need to be ever vigilant to monitor our behaviors and censor actions which can cause the loss of our credibility.  Otherwise, we will be unable to help make the Mission Impact to which we are committed.  Leadership is fragile.

For more ideas on how you can lead breakthroughs in your organization, follow this blog and check out my web site at www.SheehanNonprofitConsulting.com   You will find free resources you can download, including a Breakthrough Strategy Workbook that you can download at no cost.  You can also check out my book, Mission Impact:  Breakthrough Strategies for Nonprofits, and buy it if you are interested.  And you can follow Sheehan Nonprofit Consulting on Facebook.