Leading from the Middle

Caption: Homer NOT Stepping Up.

The title* suggests the complexities of motivation. Yes, most of us can speak louder. But, funnier?, that’s more of a challenge.
The funnier has to be there, waiting to be released. If not there, no matter the audience’s heckling, it’s not going to happen.
So it is with motivation in the workplace.
Telling someone to be funnier is like telling them to be more creative or more innovative.
We all know that fear will get some results but they are short term. For long term results, something other than fear has to be the trigger.
How does a manager/leader prepare her reports for “stepping up” – which, as illustrated, Homer is not doing so well.
We can hope to motivate others by example. Maybe.
We can try to motivate through exhortation. Maybe.
How we try to motivate depends on where we think motivation comes from. Is it external to the worker? Or is it internal? I believe it is always the latter and managers get to figure out ways to trigger that motivation and the talent in the individual.
My long-held view is that leaders can release creativity – if it is there – we cannot kick it out of someone.
We can and should prepare staff to “rise to the occasion”. How do we do that?
Well, for one thing, we make sure the tools and supports are in place. The worker is trained and able to do what is called for.
He is ready to step in and take on the challenge.
The permission to fail - tacit or explicit – is integral to my formula.
Pardon the sports analogy, but sports teams give us microscopic insight to preparing someone to step up.
Getting a player to the next level is not a “gut check” regardless of what sports writers tell you; it is putting or letting loose what you know (your skill and talent) and what you have learned from repetition in practice into the actual game.
In American football there are coaches for every position; players are divided into “rooms”, quarterbacks, running backs, receivers, defensive linesmen, offensive linesmen, kickers, etc. Each room has at least one full time coach!
Imagine the cost (and benefit) if we did that in the workplace.
Each coach is an expert and is exclusively focused on the individuals in that “room”, preparing each player to not only start but to be ready to step in and up.
At the elite level, the so-called “second string” is only a percentage point less capable than the starter.
In some programs, players are rotated in and out after so many “snaps” of the ball in a game. Not only does this assure less fatigue among starters but the practice creates elite substitutes; there’s no drop off when a back-up comes in for the starter.
Were you challenged?
The was my question to a recently returned staffer from a several-days training program.
She looked at me as if I were asking if she had endured survival training.
For her the training was all academic; it neither prepared her for a leadership role nor did it lead to self-reflection on leading.
Others in that meeting were just as puzzled as to my meaning about challenge. I was asking – however cryptically - what had changed about her; had she wrestled with the difficult concept of leading others, etc.
Had she emerged from the training crucible stronger than when she went in?
Seemingly, the “same old, same old” was good enough for her.
Training completed, she’d checked off that box.

*Louder and Funnier is the title of a collection of essays by P.G. Wodehouse published in 1932
The title derives from a nervous after-dinner speaker being asked to speak louder, then a voice pipes up, “Louder, please”, it observed. “and funnier.” Wodehouse concludes, “One is left to suppose the speaker did his best to oblige, as I have done (in this collection).”

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20% off Through December 31 2021
No supply-chain issues here! My books are all American, so when you buy my latest book of workplace fables you can expect speedy delivery. Something to keep in mind as the gift giving season arrives.
And, of course, there's no memory chip shortages for printed books :))

And, don’t forget my book on democratic workplaces, Leading from the Middle

© Copyright text by John Lubans 2021

Caption: Christmas ornament on wild apple-tree, July 2021

A SWARM of Bees settled and built their hive in the hollow trunk of a Wild Apple-Tree.
They soon filled the hollow with the treasures of their Honey, and the Wild Apple-Tree became so proud in consequence that it looked down contemptuously upon all its neighbours.
Hereupon a Rose-Bush thus addressed the Tree:
"Truly, yours is a poor sort of pride that bases itself upon borrowed sweetness!
Is your miserable fruit any the less bitter because the Bees have made their home in your hollow trunk?
Sweeten it then with their honey, if you can; for not until then will you be of any value to Mankind!"
____________
I’m reminded of some research library colleagues who worked in top-ranked universities.
Like the apple-tree, they were happy to be on campus, content to be on the rim of the bubbling crucible of innovation and scholarship, and to bask in the ambiance reflected from those inventing and innovating. Indeed, a "poor sort of (borrowed) pride."
However, what they contributed was more about maintaining than originating.
Change was reactive and imitative, usually following coercion external to the organization.
For me, regardless of the library’s rank it was important to do our own share of innovation and scholarship.
I was blessed that I had, for the most part, supportive bosses who gave me freedom and encouragement to do just that and to spread it far and wide.

*SOURCE: Lessing, Fables, Book II, No. 25. Translated by G. Moir Bussey.Excerpted From: Cooper, Frederic Taber, 1864-1937. “An argosy of fables; a representative selection from the fable literature of every age and land.” New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company. 1921.
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20% off Through December 31 2021
No supply-chain issues here! My books are all American, so when you buy my latest book of workplace fables you can expect speedy delivery. Something to keep in mind as the gift giving season looms.
And, of course, there's no memory chip shortages for printed books :))

And, don’t forget my book on democratic workplaces, Leading from the Middle

© Copyright photo and text by John Lubans 2021

Caption: Henny Penny 2018

A HEN who had lost her sight, and was accustomed to scratching up the earth in search of food, although blind, still continued to scratch away most diligently.
Of what use was it to the industrious fool?
Another sharp-sighted hen who spared her tender feet, never budged from her side, and enjoyed, without scratching, the fruit of the other's labour.
For as often as the Blind Hen scratched up a barleycorn, her watchful companion devoured it.

_________
Do you think Lessing, in this fable, is suggesting that the cunning hen is right in exploiting the blind hen?
Do you think he would extend this exploitation to humans?
For Lessing, the blind hen is an “industrious fool”; and what of the “sharp sighted” hen?
An enterprising fowl. The able taking advantage of the disabled.
Or, worse, not only taking advantage but speeding up the blind hen’s starvation.
With a bit of kindness – also known in evolutionary science as cooperation and collaboration – these two could become a tag team, sharing what’s found.
My blogs on Tom the Turkey and Henny Penny
depict the animal world’s pecking orders.
We like to think humans are above this dog-eat-dog mindset, but, each of us probably can identify how some humans are not far removed from animal level cruelty.
Routinely, the anti-social media erupts with fits of human hatred.
Social pathologues, while few in number, despise those with different world views and willingly seek to stifle and persecute the “other”.
Fortunately, many more humans tend to cooperate, collaborate and to exhibit kindness and fairness.

*SOURCE: Lessing, Fables, Book I, No. 30. Translated by G. Moir Bussey.
Excerpted From: Cooper, Frederic Taber, 1864-1937. “An argosy of fables; a representative selection from the fable literature of every age and land.” New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company. 1921.

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20% off Through December 31 2021
No supply-chain issues here! My books are all American, so when you buy my latest book of workplace fables you can expect speedy delivery. Something to keep in mind as the gift giving season looms.
And, of course, there's no memory chip shortages for printed books :))

And, don’t forget my book on democratic workplaces, Leading from the Middle

© Copyright text and photo John Lubans 2021

Recently, the WSJ featured an in-depth story on how the Cheesecake Factory restaurant chain survived the epidemic’s restrictions and shut downs.
What tweaked my interest even more than the survival aspect were the 42 suggestions from the Factory’s 500-page operations manual to describe its signature cheesecake deserts.
Words and phrases like “Amazing”, “Chewy”, “Extraordinary”, and “Out of this world” reminded me of the Beer Wheel at the Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon. There, the Beer Wheel is used to identify unique flavors in their several beers. I adapted the wheel, semi- facetiously, to performance appraisal (PA) systems which remain all the rage in corporate America.
(Parenthetically, how is PA going to be conducted for the millions working from home? After all, in some organizations PA is the one thing which elevates the manager above the worker.)
Now, I am not sure if the Factory requires performance appraisal for its workers but the door stopper of an operations manual suggests a strong probability.
The WSJ tells us that the operations manual includes “roughly a full page of rules for the handling of strawberries for its cakes and a 12-step breakdown for hot tea service.”
Whether they do or don’t, here are some of the 42 cheescake terms applied to the traditional and ubiquitous five category scale of corporate PA.
5. Exceptional: Unbelievable, Heavenly, Yum-a-licious
4. Exceeds Expectations: Tart, Mouthwatering, Layered
3. Meets Expectations: Baked, Drizzled, Full, Covered
2. Improvement Needed: Chunky, Dripping, Sinful, Oozing
1. Unsatisfactory: Crispy, Decadent, Gooey, Loaded
Yes, I know, just like in the bizness world some of these terms, like “gooey” and “oozing”, are interchangeable and could be used at either levels 1 or 2.
Or, if you are a boss who likes his workers gooey and oozing, you might want to save these terms for categories 5 and 4.
So, there you have a helpful guide, augmenting the Beer Wheel, for conducting your next appraisal.
If your use of the Factory’s terms gets you in trouble with the boss or the policy makers in your organization who love PA but exempt themselves from the dreaded ritual, console yourself at the nearest Cheesecake Factory store.
We have it from a very good source that their cheesecake is Yummy and Scrumptious, indeed, Fantastic.
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20% off Through December 31 2021
No supply-chain issues here! My books are printed and shipped in the USA, so when you buy my latest book of workplace fables you can expect speedy delivery. Something to keep in mind as the gift giving season looms.
And, of course, there's no memory chip shortages for printed books :))

And, don’t forget my book on democratic workplaces, Leading from the Middle

© Copyright all text John Lubans 2021

In a recent book, Spymaster Maxwell Knight (M*) advises a new agent to tread carefully around gossip.
M worries that the new agent (code named M/F**)is being tested by a recruiter for the British Union of Fascists (BUF). M/F has been working to infiltrate the BUF and to raise his participation to a volunteer worker thereby gaining access to BUF documents like a membership list.
The recruiter, a senior BUF member, befriends M/F. Soon after, he bad-mouths the current leadership, including the boss, Sir Oswald Mosley, and hopes to oust him; asking M/F to join in with him and his fellow dissidents.
What does M advise the agent to do?
In his written directions M spells out the conundrum:
“You must bear in mind the possibility that the whole of this business may have been staged for your benefit. It may be in the nature of a test to see whether or not you are reliable, whether you are addicted to listening to gossip, etc etc.
Therefore it is of the utmost importance that your attitude should be one of scrupulous loyalty to the Movement and to the senior officers.
While listening sympathetically to the criticism of your friends, you should under no circumstances allow yourself to be drawn into criticizing your seniors. Don’t utter a single word or phrase that could be used against you on some future occasion.
Express surprise – anything you like, but not agreement.”
As we find out later in the book, M was right, this was a loyalty test for M/F. Fortunately, M/F followed M’s wise counsel.
This brought to mind those dozens of times as a newbie in an organization when someone, a colleague or a client, would share gossip with me, as early as my first day on the job.
Our jobs may not be cloak and dagger (although some places I worked certainly had perfumed daggers drawn) but M’s advice applies to any and all gossip in the workplace.
Your new “friend” sharing gossip is not doing you any favors; what they are doing is to get you to commit to their viewpoint, faction, or clique.
The gossiper hopes to “turn” you – a bit of tradecraft lingo there - to their “side”.
This is entrapment, (I almost said "tender entrapment" but there's nothing tender about it; it's manipulative) so don’t get snared.
Follow the spymaster’s advice: listen sympathetically but don’t agree. Remain neutral, and change the topic.

*Agent M: The Lives and Spies of MI5's Maxwell Knight
by Henry Hemming NY: PublicAffairs, 2017 p.138
**Identified as Eric Roberts, a bank clerk.


20% off Through December 31 2021
No supply-chain issues here! My books are printed and shipped in the USA, so when you buy my latest book of workplace fables you can expect speedy delivery. Something to keep in mind as the gift giving season looms.
And, of course, there's no memory chip shortages for printed books :))

And, don’t forget my book on democratic workplaces, Leading from the Middle

© Copyright all text John Lubans 2021