Mike, Author at The Third Zone

Mar 19 2015

Part II – Managing … From A Distance

My last blog post addressed the issue related to being an employee in an organization who reports to or works with someone in another company location … many miles and time zones away.. The fact is that there are real challenges to juggling the demands of this kind of job while still working to have a balanced life.

Yet this is not a one sided situation. It is every bit as daunting to lead and manage in a geographically diverse organization. Let’s explore the challenges and find solutions that will make this … well … more manageable.

Successfully managing a geographically diverse group requires these sensitivities:

Building trust
Visiting the other locations on a predictable schedule
Encouraging communication
Creating impromptu interactions
Getting to know those you lead on a personal level
Making those remote from you feel like a part of the team
Considering the needs of all stakeholders

Easy, right? Except, what we hear our clients say about how often team members feel “others” are insensitive to their needs. It is the perception that, in spite of a leader’s best intentions, the employees’ expectations for a “normal” business day are not being honored. This is especially acute where multiple time zones are a part of the organizational structure.

The common complaint is that the leader appears to disregard time differences or even having the work day cross over to a weekend day. In doing so …

Meetings are scheduled for the manager’s time zone convenience. The impact is that the employee must be available regardless of how early or late in the day or even day or the week.
Work is often assigned with the request to have ‘in my email in-box’ by the first thing tomorrow morning … and the request takes an amount of time that will keep the employee working well beyond any semblance of a normal work day or week.

Over time, the result is an exhausted, demoralized and disgruntled employee. In spite of liking the job and the nature of the work, resentment builds as one becomes aware of the impact the added time has on one’s personal life. This directly affects weekend activities with family, solid nights of sleep and, in general, the ability to be a participatory parent and partner.

In speaking with managers who oversaw reports in remote locations we came to realize they were probably responsible for setting the level of perceived expectation because they always responded to email at night and on weekends. Their level of responsiveness set an implied expectation among the direct reports. Fortunately, some managers realize this was wrong and needed to be clarified.

Here in lies what we find is the cure for much of this challenge. Clarification of expectations and requirements. We encourage all of you who are in this situation of multiple time zones and/or locations to be clear in your own minds about what really is required and expected of those who report to you. Then, convey to them what you expect:

when there will be an a very early or late in the day meeting or call. Is there compensating time off … that day or week or month?
when one is expected to be available during the work day? Is it to start early to accommodate being closer to the time of the headquarters i.e. begin at 6am and leave early?
when there are special circumstances wherein one is expected to be available at an ‘out of norm’ hour and how often should they anticipate this need? Will accommodations be made?
of yourself in terms of conducting conference calls with any company locations in a different time zone? Will you adapt your schedule to that time zone and thus require nothing out of the norm for those involved?

We’ve found that once a leader takes the steps to clarify expectations and is willing to adapt themselves, so much of the frustration and resentment greatly dissipates. If you are reading this as one reporting to another in the company wherein you experience some of these challenging situations, what might be right in your forwarding this to those who might benefit from its’ message? Could their benefit be your benefit? And if you’re hesitant to do this, give me names and email addresses and I’ll be glad to it for you. 🙂

Mike

Mar 05 2015

Succeeding … from a Distance!

In moving among organizations today we are encountering one situation that is rearing its’ head more and more. It occurs in companies that operate from multiple national or international locations. It’s a situation that brings definite opportunities and some very real challenges that apply to both leadership and employee team members alike. Specifically, the execution of one’s job responsibilities with the added complexities related to distance, time zone variance, basic communication and other elements of their life calls for a master juggler. It’s pretty much a certainty that if you reading this blog you either work at such a company or know others who do. Here’s the good news … like most all challenges, making things better is possible.

First, however, it’s important that we all understand that companies establish such a wide-spread structure for the advantages that it offers. Attracting needed talent, ability to expand ones’ marketplace for distribution and the potential impact on costs are some.

As is often the case, with advantages come challenges and in this situation, their resolutions differ whether viewed from the perspective of the leader or the employee. As such, and I will address them separately in a two-part blog.

Part I …The Employee

You took the job because of many right reasons.

the challenge in general
the nature of the work that allowed you to apply your expertise in an exciting and rewarding manner
the ability to affiliate with a company that offered you a desired challenge
the value that you know you brought to the organization
the ability to have all of this and avoid uprooting your family and all this can bring
the compensation and other related realities that were offered to you as an employee

Great! And perhaps what you didn’t anticipate or did, and thought we could handle it, was the impact on you personally in your work and overall life. Here are some reported issues:

The need to juggle your hours to accommodate the expectation to be in remote meetings with those in the home office and in different time zones that can be many hours earlier or later than yours’. Often this requires that you contribute time that is potentially far outside of the willing and anticipated i.e. 10 hour work day
The need to sacrifice personal family time when not available to have the involvement that you consider important and desirable.
The loss of sleep due to the need to be available for calls and meetings that require your involvement beginning very early in the morning and again often very late at night.
With the above, a slow loss of enthusiasm for the job and the company as you build resentment for what is actually required as you see it.
An awareness of unhappiness that is permeating the entire family for what you are not available to do with them.

Clearly this is not a good situation and yet, there are things you can do about it.

First and foremost, maintain a real awareness of all the reasons that attracted you to the job initially as those reasons are most likely still valid. Make a list and post it where you can be reminded daily.

What have you encountered that you see as a job requirement that is different than what you anticipated or were told. Ask yourself if these requirements are clear expectations of the job or some that you presume go with the job? If you’re presuming, you have some clarifying to do.

What are the specific disappointments that you feel stuck with in your job? In identifying them you will also have identified what you want to change to make this continuing long-term feasible and positive.

What things do you find yourself involved in that perhaps, are not a requirement of your position? Rather, something you started doing that you have imposed on yourself … possibly, in the name of doing a good job and making a good impression? Meetings? Conference calls? Maybe it’s time to rethink these things as a means of getting greater control over your work day.

Knowing the nature of your organization, were you to design your position in a way that would allow you to still achieve your responsibilities yet be more ‘workable’ for you, how might you set that up? What would be the same and what would be different? What are your solutions to the very issues that are negatives as you experience them?

Once you have created your ideas of how to alter and improve the execution of your responsibilities you have the basis for making constructive suggestions to management that will probably be welcome … by management and co-workers alike. After all, why wait for others to make the needed changes. In seeing this as your responsibility, you have the opportunity to improve the current negatives of your job and along the way, show the potential you have for being sent up the success ladder as leader. How’s that as a reward for speaking up … even from a distance?

NOTE: I will view this situation as experienced by the company management soon. Stay tuned.
Mike Dorman

Feb 18 2015

So much to do and so little MOJO!

Very interesting. After several years of a very challenging economy that impacted so many industries, organizations and individuals … things are clearly on the upswing. Isn’t that great and exciting? I sure see this in going from company to company and from client to client. For many 2014 was the year that signaled “we’re back!!!”

But wait. Oddly enough what I’m experiencing as a coach isn’t matching this positive change. This year, for a noticeable number of folks, the starch to take themselves higher and maintain their motivation has diminished and noticeably. Why? Where did their ‘’mojo go? What took it away and what needs to happen to get it back?

One can dwell on the questions of where it went and what took it away however ultimately
the focus needs to be on getting it back for without it, we lost the starch that serves to drive
us positively. And losing one’s ‘mojo is not that rare or unusual for there are times when
we all hit a plateau after being excited and energized about what we’re doing. And when
we do, we feel stagnant and unproductive and there goes our motivation, compelling desire
and enthusiasm for the work at hand.

After reading some articles on this topic, two summed it up well. One in Forbes was written by contributor Josh Linkner and the other by Marshall Goldsmith in the WSJ. Here are suggested steps we can all take when we find ourselves trapped in the land of “nojo”.

Change your window – Where is it written that when we’re working that you must always be at your desk, your cubicle or even in the office? And if you think about it there are aspects of your job that can be accomplished elsewhere. By changing the view through which you see the task at hand it can reinvigorate us and our views. Doesn’t sitting on a bench at the beach or in a park or walking through a zoo with pad in hand sound potentially expansive? Try it even if only for an hour, just once or twice a week.
Change your attitude – When the mojo is gone, “I can do” often becomes “I can’t do”. As soon as we recognize this in ourselves, we are able to ask the likes of this: “When I am successful at this what will I have accomplished? What will I have learned that was necessary to complete the task?” With that vision of success, identify what you now know you need to learn that will enable to reach the envisioned goal and set out to do just that.
Break your ‘normal’ pattern – So often we approach each day in a set pattern. On one hand this is good because we can execute in an organized manner. And still, we can find ourselves bored with our own routine. The solution is simple. Change it. Maybe you now work out at the end of the day. Try doing that enroute to the office. Perhaps you work on spreadsheets, address emails, return phone calls in a certain pattern because that is what has worked for you previously. All good except that it’s not working now. Create a new routine and you are likely to find that mojo hiding among the tasks.
Change or simply find a mentor – There has never been a coaching client whom we work that hasn’t realized success in some way. And yet, a most compelling reason that they undertake the ‘coached approach’ as the tool of choice is because they recognize that the old ‘mojo’ has taken a hike and they want and need it back. Whether it’s a coach or a mentor you select in the form of a co-worker or friend, the value is that we recognize that we want and need the help to regain our advantage. Regardless of how or who, just making this decision is invigorating and a big step to taking your own reins again.

Losing one’s ‘mojo’ is nothing to be concerned about. The concern comes from realizing the absence and doing nothing about it. Are the above steps easy? Not necessarily because they all represent making a change. However, the initial step is … and that is recognizing it’s missing and refusing to settle for that. Mojo on!

Mike Dorman

Feb 03 2015

Dreaming … a complete waste of time or the path to making “it” happen?

A few days ago I met with a new client who had made a decision to use the coached approach to create the movement he wanted and needed to achieve the success he envisioned in his profession. But more specific than achieving just dollars, it was related to his wanting to make the dream for his life and that of his family, become reality. Wait a minute. Dreaming? Get real you say? Stop wasting time and just do it?

I get the questions and yet I got curious and googled around because I wanted to understand the value of dreaming in the first place … that is, if there really was one. Then, what could be the potential impact it actually could have on any and all aspects of our lives? My initial finding was this must see video that, in a brief TWO minutes I predict it will give you an exciting jolt regardless of where you are in your life. .

So what did you see? I know it was about life-long friends, obviously older and all suffering various ailments. Yet
hopefully, you also saw people who broke out of the box in which they found themselves … trapped … and resumed living by following their dream. But take this further and into your own life.

By acknowledging and honing in on your dreams, what becomes possible that perhaps … just perhaps … we had accepted as being out of reach?
Where are you stuck in your daily routines and rituals?
What is something you need to do that is really daring and takes you out of your comfort zone at the same time is allows you to bring life back into your living.

My google search also led me to several papers written on the subject and these summations of two of them express what others reinforced.

Elizabeth Larsen said “the idea of dreaming about the future may seem pointless and if that is or has been your perspective to date, maybe it’s time you retired it. The payoff of dreams doesn’t have to be decades into the future. They can inspire ambitions, galvanize your focus, rev up your energy supply and increase your life satisfaction starting right now.”

Author Richard J Leider expressed that “Dreaming puts our less authentic priorities to shame. Once we have our highest goal in sight, we want to simplify our days and free ourselves from distractions so that we can pursue our passion with even more clarity of purpose. In this context, sacrifices become less painful. Obstacles seem less daunting. Our best abilities are sharpened, and often our sense of higher purpose unfolds.”

My new client is using coaching to forge his path to fulfilling his dream within the work arena. And, regardless of what tool you want or need to employ to do the same for yourself, dream it and you have taken the initial step to doing it. A waste of time or the path of living fully? The answer seems obvious to me. You agree?

Mike Dorman

Jan 22 2015

SPEAK UP! … and valuable time is your reward!

Our recent blog posts have addressed topics related to creating your plan that will insure that your wish list of New Year’s resolutions a realistic resolve (HERE) and how you might want to ‘be’ as an employee who will be seen as a valuable asset to your organization (HERE). Several of your comments carried this message: ‘So big deal! I’m working to accomplish my plan to benefit myself and my company. And what about that company that seems unconcerned with how much of my time they waste through endless and unnecessary meetings? A GREAT question and one that is worthy of addressing.

As a coincidence, last Sunday’s NY Times had an editorial on this very subject. You think they read our posts? Probably not, however, this is an issue that seems to be rearing its’ head and appropriately getting attention. The article … “Why are some teams smarter than oth ers?” … says this: “ENDLESS meetings that do little but waste everyone’s time. Dysfunctional committees that take two steps back for every one forward. Project teams that engage in wishful group thinking rather than honest analysis. Everyone who is part of an organization — a company, a nonprofit, a condo board — has experienced these and other pathologies that can occur when human beings try to work together in groups.

But does teamwork have to be a lost cause? Nowadays, though we may still idolize the charismatic leader or creative genius, almost every decision of consequence is made by a group.” The authors identify three characteristics that distinguish the ‘smartest teams:

All team members contribute somewhat equally to the discussions as opposed to allowing one or two to dominate.
The team members are better able to read “complex emotional states” through being able to see the eyes of another in the group.
More women on a team enable it to outperform teams with more men. And the reason that explains this is that on the average women are better at mind reading than men. This means more than just reading facial expressions. Rather it has to do with a more general ability known as “Theory of Mind” … to consider and track what others feel, know and believe.

Because so many teams are together for long periods of time whether they are inner departmental, senior management or assembled to handle a special project, the fact remains that we all have the potential of spending many hours in working with our teams. So while you have resolve to accomplish your personal goals for this year, minimizing wasted time is certainly a reality worth addressing. That can be as simple as adjusting the way you and others are as team members. Do it and I think you’ve just found hours of valuable time that will enable you to accomplish all that you envision for yourself and your organization. SPEAK UP! It’s needed.

Mike Dorman

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