Bitts Blog Has Moved!

Bitts Blog has moved to a new location.  I am thrilled to announce (although about 5 months late) that theopenpivot.com is the location of my blog and consulting business.

This 3 year journey is in a new season and my new content will be featured on that site.  I look forward to seeing you there.

Thank you for reading and following me to the next season.

Your Bench Strength

I am a college basketball junkie. I cannot wait until November, when college hoops begins and this time of sports exile ends.  I just finished reading a great article on the Top 20 college bench players for 2012.  It is located at this link Bench.  I love thinking about the importance of the "bench" in business.

You had better be prepared with an exceptional bench because at any time that talented, seasoned and tenured "starter" could up and retire or move onto a new opportunity. The amount of time and money it takes to pull from that bench is significant.

Here are 5 questions to test the health of your business bench:

1. Do you have a plan for the succession of your leadership team?
2. What are you doing to develop your bench? I am not just talking about an annual performance review, which by the way is just one piece of the bigger picture.
3. What type of leaders are on your bench? Self-aware, well differentiated and strong.
4. Have you affirmed your "bench" by indicating to them that they are the future? Because if they are not a part of yours or don't think they are, you can bet that they are thinking about being on someone else's bench.
5.  Are you recruiting players to "backfill" that bench? If you are not, then you will have to recruit a transfer player or spend a bunch of time training someone else to understand your culture and processes.

Develop your bench because your starters will graduate and suddenly you are using walk-ons to win the national championship.

Engagement

The word feels so clinical to me.  It is a big word, which is really means people in work that they find meaningful, purposeful and matched with their skill.  Certainly, results will come, but in my opinion you do what you love and the results will follow.

Dr. Hogan says that engagement has four components:

1. Engaged employees like their jobs
2. Engaged employees like themselves when they are at their jobs
3. Engaged employees work hard at their jobs
4. Engaged employees derive a sense of meaning and purpose from their jobs

Check out some interesting statistics regarding engaged workers from my friends at Hogan:

• 71% of Americans aren't engaged in their jobs. Yes 71% or 7 out of 10.  
• 52% of bosses in the survey were described as Arrogant
• 50% of the bosses in the survey were described as Manipulative
• 49% were described as Emotionally Volatile

You will note that there is a partnership with engagement.  The employee must navigate toward meaningful work and the boss must be supportive of that endeavor.  Are you doing your part?

Top 5 Career Books

 

I did not like to read when I was younger.  I was involved in sports, gathering the neighborhood kids to play a game in the back yard, traveling with my parents and going to school.  Today though, I really enjoy sitting on the back porch and reading.  I am not a big fan of fiction.  So you will not find any fiction here, but I did want to give you my Top 5 Career Books Of All Time:

1) Getting Unstuck by Timothy Butler is exceptional.  This book came to me at just the right time and provided the practical tips to get me unstuck and moving forward. 

2) What Color Is Your Parachute? by Richard Bolles.  This book takes you through reflective exercises, provides perspective on job seeking skills and provides exercises to help you gain clarity on your job search. 

3) The Adventures of Johnny Bunko by Dan Pink. This book is a cartoon and reads like a comic book.  There are some terrific nuggets in this book and provides nice perspective.

4) Man's Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl.  A holocaust survivor's perspective on a meaningful life and has great application for work.  

5) Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.  Don't worry about the name, just read the book.  You have hopefully experienced Flow in your work and life.  This uncovers the science of it all and helps you go there more frequently. 

What are your favorite career books? 

The First Three Phases Of A Career Change

As I have read, researched and executed my career / job change, I have discovered that there are six phases to the process.  I will only give you three of six here to get you to come back for more.

The amount of time in each phase depends on a great deal of factors, many of which you really cannot control.  It is helpful to have a map of the phases to give you an idea of where you stand in the process.

The first three phases are reflection, exploration and experimentation.  Here is a brief overview of each:

1.) During the reflection phase, you are in the mode of introspection.  This is a very internally focused period of time.  You are evaluating your career, your accomplishments, your emotions and begin to think about the preferred future.

2.) The exploration phase includes others in the process.  This is a great time to go through an informal 360.  You do not need an online test, just some good questions you would like to have answered by peers, friends and family members.  In many ways, you are looking to others to affirm what you know is true.  The caution here is to properly weight that input and not lose yourself in the process.

3.) The experimentation phase is "trying on" the role or job before buying.  It could include a job shadow, exploratory interviews and research.  It is critical that you ask the right questions to outline all that you can know about the role or job prior to jumping in.

The more thorough you are on each phase, the more clarity the next phase will offer.  They really build on themselves and all lead to the ultimate goal, which is meaningful and purposeful work.

Thoughts From William James

William James wrote: "In the dim background of our mind we know meanwhile what we ought to be doing...But somehow we cannot start...Every moment we expect the spell to break...but it does continue, pulse after pulse, and we float with it..."

For 7 years, I heard that voice in background, late at night, in the quiet of the evening or when I was in my office doing the work.  I sometimes caught myself saying "What am I doing here?"  I even heard my 5 year old daughter tell me that I was grouchy in the evening.

What are the main factors of resistance? There are three critical factors:

• Pragmatism Rules Our Culture:  It is easier to stay the course and enjoy the routine and security of life.
• Opinions Of Others: It could be that voice of a parent or mentor that dissuades you from moving into uncertainty and into passionate life / work.
• Your Thoughts: The ego dominated portion of your mind is telling you to stay, play it safe and not  explore the "spell" that William James mentions. 

It takes courage to start again, push against the "well intentioned opinions of others" and move into a new phase of work.

How do you break the spell? What do you do?

Well defined, strong and clear...

This defines what Edwin H. Friedman calls a well differentiated leader.  A well differentiated leader has the following key characteristics:

• Capacity to take a stand in an intense emotional system
• Saying "I" when others say "We"
• Maintaining a low anxious presence when others are in an anxious state
• Understanding where "I" ends and where "you" begins
• Focus on strength of presence vs. reaction to others

This is a great challenge for today's leaders.  I know in my various leadership roles staying well differentiated is difficult when consensus is the most valued outcome of meetings.  It takes knowing who you are and anticipating the potential triggers that may take you away from being differentiated. 

What practices do you utilize to stay well differentiated?