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My very first post how exciting…. Not that I’m a newbie to forums or blogs, but have to shamelessly admit I don’t participate and just read, lurk and gain benefit from such media’s….

First I have to say hat’s off to you at MT, and words could never express the valuable information I have found here. I have listened to all the podcasts now some several times and now starting over and implementing the trinity, starting with obviously one on ones. So with my O3’s playlist at my side I’m on my way and yes it is awesome, and day one seen benefit. Now I wait with great anticipation to continue applying your methods and the success that will come to me and my people. So once again THANX, and greatly appreciate all your hard work….

Here’s my question though, I recognize the value MT has and your methods would go a long ways in the organization I’m in. This is where I have some internal conflict and almost feel guilty that I don’t share my findings with my peers and even my boss. I guess I feel it’s not really my job to develop my organizations management skill level and may even be some what career suicide to approach such a subject. Also lets face it, it’s a competitive world and I’m a competitive person and feel I would be giving up an advantage point. As my peers are very intelligent people and armed with this same guidance I would think out perform me to the limited career paths available. So I guess you can say you’re my feather in my cap, but in the same token I’m a very passionate person that above all wishes to see my organization succeed greatly…

So am I wrong or right to hold back such information? Any feedback would be appreciated as it would surely help me put this struggle to rest and let me sleep at night…

Thanx,
Scott

TomW's picture
Training Badge

If the other people are going to outperform you, it's up to you to make yourself better, not hope that they don't get better (they'll get better whether you show them MT or not).

You could be the guy who made MT happen throughout your department and made huge improvements. Or, you could like the magician who hopes no one ever finds out his methods.

This is 2008. You can't "hold back information" from people. You can just leave the door open for them to find out from someone else. Maybe one of those other people you're so worried about outperforming you.

US41's picture

LOL!

Telling other people about MT is not going to harm your competitive advantage. Almost none of them will acknowledge their problems are the result of their own lack of management ability, experience, and knowledge. They will say "Good for you!" and will never listen to a podcast.

It has been my experience that I can tell people about it for YEARS and they can even meet Mike and Mark in private company seminars, and yet I am the only one who will maintain the discipline of the Trinity over time. Giving feedback using the model is too uncomfortable, 1x1's become too time consuming during peak work times, delegation model is too canned (they prefer email), and coaching involves feedback so they skip on that too.

Never be afraid to spread the word. The few who do pick up on what you are doing will need an important quality of self-awareness to be willing to use it to their own advantage. They will also have to be disciplined in their approach and humble enough to actually do something with it.

That's what makes the people who post here so special - not that they know something - but that they knew that they didn't and were willing to listen and try something else to replace their previous failed methods.

You can tell your directs about the podcasts - almost none of them will bother to listen to them. You can try to force the managers that work for you to listen to them - almost none will. They will even try to claim they did, but when you do skips and ask, "Finish this sentence, 'May I give you some..." they will stare back at you blankly because they have never heard the feedback model.

Trust me - you have nothing to worry about. Spread the word.

stephenbooth_uk's picture

[quote="kingrux"]I guess I feel it’s not really my job to develop my organizations management skill level and may even be some what career suicide to approach such a subject. [/quote]

I disagree. I think it is your job, as a manager, to develop the management skill level in your organisation, both generally and specifically in [b]your[/b] organisation (i.e. those who report to you and below). As a manager your responsibility is to make the organisation as effective as possible.

Some parts you might have no realistic way to control so must just lead by example. Ideally peers of your manager and above are saying "Wow, that Scott is going great guns and really delivering. I wanna get some of that in my people, how's he doing it?"

With your peers you can lead by example and recommend resources like MT. Some will get it and succeed, some will try it and give up and some will just not bother. Yes those who get it could be competition, or they could be allies. It depends how you cultivate them. Listen to the cast on [url=http://www.manager-tools.com/2006/05/building-a-network/]building a network[/url], "Rule 2: Give, Give, Give". At some point either you will be promoted and will have directs with great management skills who (hopefully) have positive feelings about you or one of them will be promoted and you'll have a boss with great management skills and (hopefully) positive feelings towards you. Three things that are likely to help your advancement are great skills yourself, a boss with great skills who wants to pull you up with them and directs who can push you up from below (and include at least one natural candidate to take your place when you move up).

With your directs you can coach them to be good managers, even if they're not managers at the moment. Lead by example, direct them to MT and other resources then delegate to them. The more they can do, the more you can delegate and the more time you'll have to deal with the really big items that will get you noticed and marked as someone ready for promotion. Having good, well developed, directs can help your promotion prospects in another way as well, I'm pretty sure that M&M mentioned this in a cast but I can't remember which one. When your boss starts talking to you about promotion a really strong position to be in is to be able to say something like"Great, thank you. Out of my team I think Bob and Farah are ready to step up, Greg needs a bit of seasoning but is a possibility. Sue could step up but I know she's interested in that role on project XYZ." so your boss knows that moving you up won't leave a hole at your level and that there's people ready to hit the ground running who already know what's going on, the corporate/departmental culture and who is who.

Stephen

AManagerTool's picture

I have had the same experience as 41. I tell everyone about MT. I get the dull cow eyes and a "thats nice" :roll: . At that pont my obligation to help them is satisfied.

kingrux's picture

Yes…

I have no qualms of being humbled here, as great advice from great people, and my perspective is clear now. The good of the many far outweigh the good of me…but yes, these aren’t babies I’m working with and you can’t force feed…

Wow I gotta get that Premium membership happenin’, as getting this level of content for free… Feels like stealin’….

Thanx all…

stephenbooth_uk's picture

We have an eLearning site (based around Moodle), at the company I work for, that includes a section on external sites that might be useful to people. I got MT linked to from there (along with a number of other sites like PMBA, Gantthead &c, actually over half the links in the management section are ones suggested by me). I don't know if anyone actually bothered to click the link, no-one has mentioned visiting any of the sites, but I'm hopeful.

Stephen

ctomasi's picture

I recommend continuing to tell people about MT. It can't hurt. It's no different than someone recommending a book or DVD to you - which happens just about every day. Do you run out and grab every book or movie that someone recommends? Only if you respect their opinion and they have proven results from it.

Continue to use it and prove that MT works and they'll be more likely to respect your opinion.

Also look for opportunities at work to volunteer (there's the GIVE again) for talent management committes, have lunch with someone in the training/development department and see what they're up to and how you might contribute. You never know, MT could end up as a recommended resource for an internal leadership training program.

jhack's picture

Tell them about MT. . There's a powerful surprise here:

When you and a colleague (or boss, etc) both use MT, the result is even more than the sum of the parts. The whole organization gets even better. You are all more effective. So you and your colleague both know DiSC. Great! You communicate even better with each other.

It's not a competition. It is a virtuous circle.

John

rgbiv99's picture

Just to echo what 41 and Tool have said, I talk about MT non-stop at my company and no one has taken the initiative to listen to the casts.

I even put the DISC casts on a travel drive for one of my directs for coaching on interpersonal skills and she loved it, but hasn't gone any deeper than that on her own. You can lead a horse to water and so on and so forth ...

BJ_Marshall's picture
Licensee BadgeTraining Badge

I was recently surprised when I discovered someone I know listens to MT indirectly because of me. BLUF: You never know how influential you can be.

I told one of my directs about MT during our O3s. Running meetings well was something we worked on during our O3s, and we started out by running through training options - free ones first. She came up with some resources, and I also gave her some links including the MT 'casts on running effective meetings.

She told me she listened to them, but I never got the impression that she did any more than that.

Then I ran into a mutual friend. This friend told me that my direct had shared MT with her! Now, I don't know whether the friend still listens, but it's that pay-it-forward mentality that really struck me!!

You just never know.

BJ

terrih's picture

I'm a little shy about recommending MT to my peers here... I think it's partly because I'm the newest manager -- don't want to seem like I think I know more than they do. And partly because I'm not implementing fully. :oops:

And partly because if I do, I find myself trying to explain what a podcast is! :? Which annoys me and them both.

MsSunshine's picture

One thing I did was send a few people links to the podcast about one-on-ones first. I had a little comment about how I had found this and found it useful for me. So, I thought I'd pass it on. Now, I have done this before with different articles and such so it wasn't out of left field for me. Some people were open to it and others weren't. Then I just started doing the things from MT. I got more questions about what I was doing and how I figured out to do them. So, I pointed them to the MT podcasts that were appropriate.

I guess I have a few over arching principles.
1. I feel that people learn best by having me set a good example.
2. People are so busy and many read lots of things. So, they pay more attention to a specific article than a general comment about something being good. If they like one, they may come back for more
3. I focus on improving myself first. I agree that I have a responsibility to try to make my company better by sharing things I know. But I'm also not their boss.

dennis_sherman's picture
Licensee Badge

[quote="terrih"]I'm a little shy about recommending MT to my peers here... I think it's partly because I'm the newest manager -- don't want to seem like I think I know more than they do. [/quote]

I'm the "newest manager" too. I make that work for me in recommending MT -- "Hey, look at this cool thing I found that's helping me do my new job better!" A bit of excitement at sharing the New Thing goes a long way toward preventing the perception of know-it-all. Not that I can tell anyone else has picked up listening yet, but at least they nod their heads when I start with 'Well, at Manager-Tools, they say..." :D