Managing Up

I have been very fortunate in having some great supervisors in my relatively short career.  One thing that has plagued all of them is the bottleneck of an approval process.

There certainly needs to be a proofreading process, don't get me wrong, but it's necessary to reevaluate the process when that begins to inhibit creativity and prevent the team meeting deadlines.

It's tough to manage your responsibilities and workload, those of the junior employees on your team.  Now, many people also manage their supervisor who may miss timelines and goals and set entire projects behind schedule.

For that reason, it's imperative that all professionals learn the skillful art of managing up.

Staying Organized

People often ask me how I stay as organized as I do with the different projects I manage, our family schedule and everything in our extended families- which I will be the first to admit has been more challenging as of late. I suppose that wedding planning will do that to a person.

My answer is always the same - calendars! Believe me, I have many.  The wall calendar in our kitchen, the wall calendar in my office, my iCal that syncs between my computer and my Franklin Covey planner.

What is my favorite calendar? Hands down, my Franklin Covey planner. I swear by mine, it's a little black book that zips up to hold all my appointments, important notes and keeps me sane. I love being able to jot down quick reminders or take comprehensive notes in a client meetings. It's small enough for me to carry with me to work and back every day, or to bring on vacation, yet innocuous enough that it doesn't draw much attention in public settings.  Another bonus, it fits on any table, even those in coffee shops.

Lately I've also started syncing my iCal with my husbands so that we can keep major scheduling straight, but even that can be tough at times. But even with all the technology Apple has to offer, I will still never give up my planner!

You Have to Say No

I am very fortunate to work with a very talented group of people who are teaching me the value of no.  The value of no is having the resources to say YES to the really cool stuff.  This applies in life personally and professionally.

No is essential

If you believe that you must keep your promises, overdeliver and treat every commitment as though it's an opportunity for a transformation, the only way you can do this is to turn down most opportunities.

No I can't meet with you, no I can't sell it to you at this price, no I can't do this job justice, no I can't come to your party, no I can't help you. I'm sorry, but no, I can't. Not if I want to do the very things that people value my work for.

No is the foundation that we can build our yes on.

5 Invaluable Lessons from Bad Bosses

Most articles about bad bosses say that the best thing you can learn from them is how not to manage employees. Can't disagree with that.

Aside from that, there are other things you can learn from a bad boss that you can't learn from a good boss.

Tim Sackett wrote a post about some of them here at TLNT. Here's what he says:

Working at really great companies gives you an opportunity to work in "Utopia"-you get to see how things are supposed to work, how people are supposed to work, how in a perfect world it all fits together.

The reality is we don't work in "Utopia" (at least the majority of us don't). We work in organizations that are less than perfect, and some of us actually work in downright horrible companies. Those who work in horrible companies and survive tend to be better hires—they have battle scars and street smarts."

5 things you can learn

In a New York Times interview with Mark B. Templeton, president and CEO of Citrix, he talks about what he looks for in job candidates.

"I look for scars. You can call it wisdom, you can call it experience, or the things that went wrong in your life. That's where I think knowledge turns into wisdom. A lot of people will have facts and information. I'm looking for wisdom, and wisdom ends up being a measure of scars, and things that went wrong and what you did about them and how they shaped you as a person and your beliefs."

So, here are the five things you can learn from a bad boss:

1. You must do your best work—always. You don't have room for error—ever. You learn to check everything four, five, six, even seven times. You know that the penalty for screwing up is not pleasant. It's the stick versus the carrot, and you learn it quickly.

2. You learn how to be creative. You don't have enough time or information to do your job. You don't ask for help from your boss. You learn to "make do." You learn how to innovate and how to use your investigative skills to gather information any way you can. You learn that 80 percent of the information available is enough.

3. You learn how to protect yourself. You learn how to fly under the radar as much as possible. At the same time, you learn how to play politics, and you realize that you have no one to "watch your back." Your boss will not support you; he or she may join the others ready to have your head if you screw up. Be nice to his or her allies and friends—and walk the other way when you see his or her enemies.

4. You learn how to "read" people and situations. You learn to recognize your boss's moods—the good, bad, and the ugly—and to adjust your behavior accordingly. You learn to do the same in meetings with them. By correctly reading his or her moods, you are less likely to step on a landmine or trigger a temper tantrum. This ability to read situations actually turns out to be an asset in the long term. It will serve you well in your career to be able to read co-workers and situations and know how to work with people.

5. You learn the value of having close working relationships. Many times you form close relationships with your colleagues. You look out for help and commiserate with each other. Because of your shared experience, many of these relationships endure throughout your career. It's like having been a Marine. Semper fi.

Learning in spite of the abuse

OK, before you get all huffy and mutter, "She's crazy," let me say that I am absolutely not recommending that you seek out bad bosses so you can gain this knowledge. But if you happen to find yourself in this situation, understand that it is a personal decision as to whether you stay or go.

Ask yourself, "Are there enough positives and opportunities in this job/company that are worth my staying?" If not, leave.

If yes, tell yourself you are choosing to do this for now, and if you ever decide you can't take it any longer, then you can leave. You need to know yourself well enough to recognize when that time comes. You certainly don't want to stay until they carry you out of your office on a stretcher!

Remember the people who continued to work for Steve Jobs after he verbally abused them? There were many who left—but there were many others who chose to stay because they were learning something in spite of the abuse.

HR might not understand that reasoning, but it was their choice. Apparently it worked for them.

Paul Schoemaker once said, "The school of hard knocks is a great teacher, even if the tuition is very high, precisely because the lessons make such a deep imprint."Jacque Vilet, president of Vilet International, has more than 20 years of experience in international human resources. A version of this article first appeared on TLNT.

Taken from: Ragan.com  

Agency Update

It's been a little over a month since I signed on with a Marketing and Public Relations Agency and I thought I'd post a quick update about how things have been serving many Gods compared to being in-house with one brand.

On the upside, I love working on projects rather than ongoing initiatives.  I'm sure that will eventually stop being such a great thing, but for now I am fully believing that variety is the spice of life. 

I also really love having so many brands at my disposal.  The client voices are all different, which means I really get to stretch myself as a professional and utilize all of the tools in my toolbox.  I always did love a good challenge!

I love, love. love my teammates.  I honestly couldn't be happier about the dynamics in the office or the way we all work so well together.  Yes, we all have our individual strengths and weaknesses, but together our synergy is undeniable.

I am really excelling in project management, or so I tell myself.  I have already taken over as the lead project manager for one of our clients, and I really enjoy being on top of everything all the time.  It makes my life much easier when I have to interface with the client directly and I really hate the unknown so this is the perfect solution.

So far, the only downside (and it's pretty big) is that I have NO personal life.  I usually work through my lunch, and I can count the number of times I actually left after 9 hours at the office on 1 hand... which means I am regularly working 9+ hour days.  This week, it's been 10, but who's really counting?  I miss going to the gym during the week, spending quality time with Hunter, and not being so damn stressed.  I was less stressed when I was unemployed than I am now that I am employed - go figure!  

I keep hoping that this is partially just because I'm still new and getting the hang of everything, but a lot of our Account Directors are regularly pulling more than 9 hour days and they've all been there 2 years or longer.  I think it's definitely all about managing your clients well... I certainly think I'm still working that out.  If this week has taught me anything, it's do not schedule multiple deadlines for multiple clients over the span of three days.  It will drive you insane. 

Avoiding Project Apocalypse

Seth Godin's blog post today, The three toxic stooges of the project apocalypse, really resonated with me.  Seth names the three components that contribute to project failure: over promising, under sharing and lack of polish.

I cannot agree more with the first two components: over promising and under sharing or lack of communication are fatal to projects.

In my experience, people who excel at managing expectations and have strong communication skills tend to be good project managers because they minimize the chance for disappointment.

In my own career I have often been faced with the unpleasant task of bringing a team - or my boss - back to reality.  This is probably partly because I have been a part of companies that aren't well versed in digital and social media marketing, and so the constraining resources are less obvious to those around me.

It comes back to under promising and over delivering, which is an easy way to manage expectations.  When you under promise just a bit and communicate clearly what your objectives are, your clients are more likely to have realistic expectations for their project.  It also gives you just a bit of wiggle room to impress your clients, which tends to make them happy.  And happy clients are usual return customers who are more likely to refer you new business.

Difficult Clients

I have never voluntarily ended a business relationship with a client because they were too difficult from a project management standpoint.

I have heard stories that separating and discarding bad clients from your CRM, you will be able to focus more time and energy on maintaining the good clients that you have.

Seth Godin has some experience in this arena so I invite you to check out his blog post, Unreasonable Clients, to hear his story.

Tend Your Gardens

Too often life is about creating things by a deadline, handing in the project and walking away.  It doesn't matter what happens after you deliver, whether your work is solid or comes apart at the seems with time.  Seth Godin calls this method of thinking: buildings. 

But that's not really what life is about.  Seth says a better way of thinking about projects is to equate them to gardens.  

Gardens are living, breathing and changing.  They have to be tended and nurtured and we have to be willing to switch up our game plan and strategy to roll with the punches.  

Just like projects. 

So many brands start social media programs without realizing that they are taking on a life-long project that will need to be nurtured, managed and tended regularly.  It takes a real commitment, there is no set it and forget it option with social media.

Gardens, not buildings, is an amazing post by Seth Godin, and he has some real gems... I seriously suggest you subscribe to his blog.