Creative Reaction

Whitney Johnson blogs at Harvard Business Publishing about the perceptions and prejudices toward women in the workplace, and gives us much to think about.

She cites a few academic studies which confirm her own experiences in which she stood for something she clearly deserved and wasn’t treated the same way as her male colleagues.

My experience and this study indicate there can be a social cost when women negotiate. A cost that is consistent with the findings of psychiatrist Anna Fels: when we are giving something to someone else, we are feminine; when we are asking for something from someone, we are not.

A similar lesson is also presented in the excellent book Brain Rules by researcher John Medina. Both women and men have what seems to be an innate tendency to think that women who ask for something are pushy, yet men who ask for the same exact thing are not perceived that way.

Simply being aware of such perceptions and being conscious of them in our own decision-making and communication can make a big difference in our workplaces.

David Rock’s Your Brain at Work blog explores the importance of dopamine levels in having a positive attitude and staying inspired. Managers and creatives can find a number of simple, practical suggestions, but since you probably do not want to spend your time wading through a bog of psychological wonkdom, I’ll do my best to make a pithy summary here.

Rock explains the tendency for moods to either spiral upward positively or downward negatively, and dopamine levels play a key role. Managers should pay attention to this for two reasons:

1. Higher dopamine levels correlate to positive, cheerful attitudes and
2. Higher dopamine levels are necessary for clear thinking.

According to Rock, dopamine is created in three ways;

1. Novelty – taking delight in new, often “small” things
2. Social Connections – at work and especially outside of work
3. Positive Expectations – being part of some bigger than oneself

Moods and attitudes are heavily influenced by those of others around us, so it is of utmost importance for managers to carefully guard their own attitudes and take time to be inspired. In addition, we should take a look at the above list, ensuring that our management skills and workplaces are conducive to positive, inspirational experiences.

I love this recent TED Video, which compares the leadership styles of various orchestra conductors, offering lessons for us all.

“After a decade-long conducting career in his native Israel, Itay Talgam has reinvented himself as a conductor of people in business.”  (from his Bio)

Talgam’s enthusiasm and passion are contagious. Set aside 20 minutes to watch this during your lunch break. It will be good for your soul.

This sobering Harvard Business Review article discusses the link between management and employee health, contrasting good and bad bosses, and the implications are startling.

Poor management practices can adversely affect otherwise healthy employees, raising blood pressure and increasing the level of stress hormones, setting the stage for heart attacks and strokes.

On the other hand, “a present and active manager, providing structure, information and support, counteracts destructive processes in work groups, thereby promoting regenerative rather than stress-related physiological processes in employees.”

There are  three specific behaviors you can exhibit to both reduce stress and lower the risk of heart disease in your employees:

1. giving information and sufficient control to employees in relation to their responsibilities
2. thoroughly explaining goals and subgoals and
3. effectively pushing through and carrying out changes

Read these carefully. Your management skills quite literally make a life or death difference.

Marshall Goldsmith offers some excellent advice over at Harvard Business Publishing, and while the post focuses on CEO transitions both good and bad, the broader message is one of successful transitions at every level within a business.

Small businesses may write this off as a concern only for large corporations, which would be a mistake. The continuation of vision is an important issue for businesses of all sizes.

Quoting Marshall, “You have a vision for the company. After putting in years to make this vision a reality, you find it important that your vision continue after you leave. By developing an internal successor, you can be assured your vision will be carried out after you depart.”

I would argue that succession planning is most important for a business in which success is largely dependent upon its culture or in which all the employees are working for a goal greater than themselves. If your company meets one or both of theses criteria, you certainly have something worth preserving!

Mike Myatt of Blogging Innovation has heard way too much about Equality & Team Building, the idea “that for teams to be productive, employees have to feel ‘empowered’ by having an equal voice”. In fact, he calls this “ridiculous”.

“Whether you look at athletic teams, military teams, executive teams, management teams, technical teams, design teams, functional teams, or any other team, you’ll find that the best of the best have structure, a hierarchy of leadership, a clear understanding of roles, responsibilities and expectations, clear and open lines of communication, well established decisioning protocol, and many other key principals, but nowhere is equality found as a key success metric for teams.”

“Great leaders and highly productive organizations always focus on team building as a key priority”, says Myatt. If you want to be an effective leader of a productive company, read his post.

Much has been written about the transformation from an industrial/manufacturing economy to one of knowledge-based work, and yet many of our management practices cling to the past, especially in the way employees are motivated and compensated. In this TED Video, Daniel Pink discusses the “mismatch between what science knows and what business does”.

As it turns out, financial incentives are OK for mechanical and methodical tasks, but for for jobs where creativity and cognitive skills are required, such “extrinsic” motivators can actually dull creativity. For jobs where there are no clear methods and where every task requires a creative approach, the only worthwhile motivations are those that are intrinsic. Unless your employees understand their purpose, and work for a cause larger than themselves, it doesn’t matter how much money you pay for their talent; you won’t get their best.

(And boy did I grin when Pink mentioned “Results-Only Work Environments” and Google’s “20% Time”, both of which have been covered here at Creative Reaction.)

Managers and owners, your business’ survival depends upon you watching this 18:36 presentation. Schedule a time and a place to watch it. You’ll be glad you did.

Management-Issues summarizes and adds some insightful commentary to a one-page article by Mitch McCrimmon entitled Smart Management. 

The essence of both articles is that the best managers are not doers, but enablers; they give employees the encouragement, tools, and the (business) environment to do their best work. They delegate, yet take charge of situations.

This reminds me of another post I just read at Lean Startups.

So we have some things to keep in mind when we are tempted to micro-manage or jump in and do the (once-delegated) task ourselves.

Braden Kelly of Blogging Innovation puts to rest the notion that innovation is “expensive” and is therefore something to be avoided in a tough economy.

“I can’t afford” is a cop-out; a Dead End. The question to ask is “how can I afford?”, which then causes you to prioritize and think creatively about your resources. So it’s great the see Kelly guide readers through exactly such a process, as he divides various innovation activities into categories in terms of resources needed, then proposes a mix of how and when each should be done in a strategic manner.

Matt Heinz at Blogging Innovation condenses what he heard at a conference into 10 Rules for Small Business Success. Great stuff!

Believe, and help others see why they should, too on the Management-Issues blog offers some excellent advice on creating a passionate, self-motivated team.

Quoting the article, “effective managers and leaders know what they believe and why they believe it”, though success lies beyond confidence and a positive attitude. The key is hiring the right people for the job, showing that you have confidence in them, and helping them find their own motivations to follow the leader’s vision. Good stuff.

If you are looking for breakthrough creativity/innovation/customer service/marketing, the last thing you need is employees who merely want “a job“. Meaning, any job where they show up, put in their time, get paid. What you need are team members, together on a mission.

Go read Four Simple Ways to Make Your Employees Happier.

(Ignore the word “Happiness” here; it seems a bit shallow. Think “fulfillment”.)

(Peaceniks, bear with this; there’s some excellent advice!)

I was a bit surprised to see this at Harvard Business Publishing, yet it makes perfect sense.

Why the Military Produces Great Leaders makes a case for “servant leadership“, a concept which I imagine appeals to those of us who cringe every time a CEO  grinds a company into the ground for personal gain, then seemingly gets away with it.

Quoting Colonel Tom Kolditz, author of the post, “military leadership is based on a concept of duty, service, and self-sacrifice”.

“When serving in crisis conditions… transactional sources of motivation (e.g. pay, rewards, or threat of punishment) become insufficient… When followers have trust and confidence in a charismatic leader, they are transformed into willing, rather than merely compliant, agents”.

This is called “transformational leadership” – the kind of leadership that inspires everyone in a company to give his best.

Go read the article. It has additional insights and asks some thought-provoking questions. You’ll be a better leader for it.

Some excellent advice from 37Signals, which compares workplace hiring to parties.

If you have a roomful of strangers, “the conversation is dull and stiff. You make small talk about the weather, sports, TV shows, etc. You shy away from serious conversations and controversial opinions.”

A company like this generates bland ideas and bland service. Read to find out how to avoid this.

Excellent, quick post over at Harvard Business Publishing and without giving too much away, having passionate employees starts with owners/managers/CEOs themselves.

(The attitudes of leaders have a huge impact on employees, so there are quite a few posts related to this topic. See The Power of Happiness Part I and Part II,  Attitude Adjustment, the Day-to-Day Management Affects Creativity series, Part I, Part II and Part III  and Negativity is Poison!)