(This is Part 3 of Leadership Principles)

I like keeping my “to do” list on a big whiteboard so I can have all the work I haven’t done staring me in the face. Constantly. Shaming me into doing more. I’m odd that way.

My boss walked in one day and stood facing me (with his back to my whiteboard). He started rattling off (endlessly) all the things I should be thinking about. All the projects I should be doing. All the analyses I should be conducting.

After he got to about the twentieth item I should be thinking about or doing, I calmly picked up my briefcase, put it on my desk, put my portfolio in it, closed it and shut off the light on my desk.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going home. You’re doing my job so you don’t need me and should take the cost savings.”

High risk? Yes. A possible career-limiting move? Definitely. A pointed way to define boundaries, responsibilities and preferred management styles? Absolutely.

We all take some measure of satisfaction from being competent at our jobs. None of us enjoy being micromanaged. One good way to prevent that from happening is to clearly articulate and agree upon responsibilities and boundaries with your manager. Second, understand your manager’s “update frequency” (how often they want to know what’s going on in your world and what level of detail they want on those topics). Establishing boundaries and adhering to a regular update frequency will help your manager be comfortable with your competence (i.e., they’ll stay out of your hair and have less of a tendency to micromanage). In some companies, they call this “managing up.” Read more

(This is Part 10 of Leadership Principles)

As I walked past Evan’s office (he was my SVP – my boss’ boss), I couldn’t help but overhear a terse and pointed telephone conversation. He was being quite belligerent and direct in telling the individual on the other end of the phone how screwed up things were and how he expected them to be fixed in a reasonably short time. Evan emphasized the point that failure to do so was unacceptable because that failure would have a detrimental impact on the people in his organization.

I timidly poked my head in his door after he hung up and asked “How’s it going chief?”

“Fine. Stupid stupid stupid decisions. I abhor stupidity.”

“Who’s being stupid?”

“Frank. The guy has no clue how much trouble some of his knee-jerk decisions can cause.”

“Yeah. I know. So who were you chewing out on the phone?”

“Frank. Don’t you listen?”

I listen. Evan’s answer began causing some cognitive dissonance for me. Frank was Evan’s boss – the Executive Vice President in charge of our entire division.

“Wait a minute. You were talking to Frank? Like that?”

“Yeah. Kick up. Kiss down.”

“What do you mean?” Read more

(This is Part 2 of Leadership Principles)

My platoon was out in the field on training exercises. We had been out there for about two weeks so we all smelled kind of “ripe” at that point. One of the more senior officers in my battalion came to my unit’s area to see how things were going. This “gentleman” personified the term – he was an “officer’s officer” (versus being a “soldier’s officer” which we’ll explore in a moment).

He sauntered up to my 18 year old driver (a brand new buck private – the lowest ranking man in the Army) and said “Where’s Lieutenant Figliuolo?”

My driver pointed toward our tank. A pair of boots was sticking out from underneath the vehicle. The officer in question became irked.

“No. Maybe you didn’t understand my question private. Where is LIEUTENANT Figliuolo?”

“He’s under the tank, sir.”

“Excuse me?”

“I said he’s under the tank, sir.”

The senior officer barked “Lieutenant Figliuolo!” I almost smacked my head on the underside of the tank because I was startled by his call. I quickly scrambled from below my tank and stood at attention before my superior.

“What were you doing under that tank?” Read more

(This is Part 6 of Leadership Principles)

Now that I’ve touched on some basic principles for thinking about how you view yourself and move through the world, it’s time to switch gears and look at ways to interact (or not interact) with the folks in your organizations.

I hate the use of the word “just” in front of anyone’s title.

“He’s just an analyst.”

“She’s just a cafeteria worker.”

“I’m just an administrative assistant.”

No one is just anything. The phrase is demeaning and pejorative. We’re all people – we happen to have different responsibilities. The connotation of just is that someone is worth less than someone else. As if that just someone has a defect. One of the most powerful leadership skills I’ve seen and used is valuing everyone’s contributions equally. How do you do that? Simple – treat everyone like a person and an equal first and foremost. The work sorts itself out in the end.

For example, I walked by a Senior Vice President’s office one day. I knew his assistant – she was a wonderful lady. We got to talking and she mentioned a problem she saw regarding how assistants were paid. I told her “You see it, you own it. Raise the issue and see if you can get it fixed.”

“But I’m just an admin.” Read more