Manage to Lead now available as interactive, digital content powered by the leading provider for higher education textbooks.

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Peter DiGiammarino

Manage to Lead: Seven Truths to Help You Change the World is now available as an interactive digital workbook at inkling.com.

Click on the book cover icon to access its catalog entry on inkling.com. Download the free chapter to try it out on any iPad, any iPhone, or on any Mac or PC using the Chrome browser.

Manage to Lead will soon also be available in print and as an e-book at Amazon. Access from Android devices is slated for later in 2013

The interactive, digital workbook has:

Work problems,
Templates,
Animations,
Assessments,
Videos,
Graphics, and
Executive team exercises and meeting agendas.

Continue reading →

How leaders of successful start-ups can bolster morale among those concerned that the organization may some day be sold.

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Peter DiGiammarino

Being part of a start-up organization can be a most invigorating experience. Even for those with no equity stake, the energy and excitement is contagious and makes it easy to work hard for the good of the whole.

In the face of growth and strong performance, some may begin to wonder if the good times will soon end as founders, owners, and investors look to pocket the value that has been created through a sale of the organization to larger firm. Leaders sometimes struggle to keep up employee morale in such circumstances.

It can help for leaders to remind everyone in such circumstances that the best thing, in all scenarios, is to build the best possible business because doing so leads to:

Making the most positive impact in the market served,
Creating the most value for owners, and
Creating the most opportunity for employees to assume new responsibilities, earn increased compensation, learn new skills, and be in position to take on attractive roles upon an acquisition. Continue reading →

How to set up and run an Executive Incentive Compensation Program.

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Peter DiGiammarino

Each year, a well-run organization’s leadership completes a planning and budgeting process. Achievement of the resulting annual business plan is dependent on each organizational unit meeting or exceeding its established goals as part of that plan. This requires that individual leaders take ownership of their part of the plan.

The objective of the Executive Incentive Compensation Program (EICP) is to allow executives who meet or exceed annual performance goals, both financial and non-financial, to participate in the organization’s overall success. The more a given individual or group is responsible for the organization’s success, the greater their share of participation in the rewards. Participation in the program is an important career milestone.

Participants

Executives with significant scope and scale of responsibility for achieving an identifiable portion of the organization’s financial plan and who are, and who are expected to continue to be, employees in good standing are eligible to participate in the program. All staff proposed for inclusion are reviewed and approved by the Core Leadership Group.

Participation is not required. Continue reading →

How to administer annual salary actions in a fair and rational manner.

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Peter DiGiammarino

Labor costs are the largest expense for many organizations and so should be carefully and responsibly managed; every salary action should be taken seriously. Nothing affects organization culture more than how people are paid.

Less experienced managers and leaders may use salary actions as a way to keep staff happy thinking, perhaps, that they are doing someone a favor or following an easier path. It turns out, though, that the easy way out can leave employees confused, just as dissatisfied, and questioning management motives and decisions.

Figure-1 Performance Appraisal and Salary Action Processes

A good strategy is to use salary actions to communicate important information to employees and to help supervisors and unit managers become better leaders. It takes significant time and effort to design, develop, implement, and institutionalize an effective salary administration process (see Figure 1) but is well worth it. This post presents steps responsible leaders can take to administer a fair and rational salary action process (see Figure 2).

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How to give employees feedback while also showing they are known and appreciated.

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Peter DiGiammarino

In order for an organization to grow, it is important for each person who works there to get and stay on track to career success. Towards that end, an annual appraisal process evaluates each employee’s performance and growth and provides feedback, guidance, and direction for development.

Less experienced leaders may count on managers to prepare and administer appraisals for those they supervise. Self-imposed pressure to “get the review right” can cause writer’s block and so it may be put off and eventually hastily pulled together with whatever comes to the manager’s mind at the time. Upon receiving such a review, employees may feel frustrated, confused, adrift, and not not at all known, appreciated, and guided towards success and career growth.

An effective appraisal process engages those who know and care about each employee on the subject of his/her strengths, contributions, growth, and areas for improvement. The reviewer identifies and works with reviewee stakeholders to collect input, consolidate, present to peers, iterate, and finalize a communication from the organization (not just from the reviewer) to the employee being reviewed.

Such an approach is Continue reading →

Why growth is good and money matters even in non-profit organizations and in support roles sought to avoid the seamy side of business.

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Peter DiGiammarino

Some students preparing to enter the work force and some early-stage professionals launching their career seek lines of pursuit that steer clear of what they believe to be the seamy, cut-throat, greedy world of business.

A course of study in, for example, Organization Development that leads to a career in Human Resources for a non-profit, government, education, or health organization seems like a path in which one might earn a living and have a positive impact on the world while avoiding matters related to money and growth. Even for those in support roles and for organizations not known for profit, however, growth is good and money matters!

Figure 1: Growth is Good

With growth (see Figure-1) an organization that does good can do it on a larger scale and have even greater impact; offer employees opportunities to do new and different things often with greater scope and scale of responsibility and so also at higher levels of compensation; and generate societal lift from the new jobs it creates, Continue reading →

How to decide what problem to solve.

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Peter DiGiammarino

An organization exists to solve a problem for people that have that problem. Organizations that seek to perform and grow are wise to be thoughtful about what problem they choose to solve.

Specifically, it is easiest for an organization to grow if the problem it solves is Important, Pervasive, and Persistent. It also helps if the solution addresses a problem that is Nearby to other problems and/or that is a Small part of Bigger Problems. Finally, the solution needs to drive a price that is Rational given its Costs and the Value it drives.

Figure 1: The Best Problems to Solve are Important, Strategic, and Persistent

Every customer likely has many problems but is constrained in how many can be addressed at once by limited resources such as: time, money, and manpower. The best practice is to sort problems in priority order based on the lift in performance that comes with a solution and the drag on performance if not solved. Resources are then focused almost exclusively on the top few leaving others to be addressed down the road.
Continue reading →

Six Ps to peak meeting performance.

Posted on October 27, 2012 by Peter DiGiammarino

When participants follow the Six Ps, Board sessions, reviews, operations meetings, design and code walkthroughs, All Hands meetings, interviews, and literally every forum where people convene to discuss a topic, both their individual performance and performance of the group as a whole is greatly enhanced:

Prepare: Read materials sent in advance with enough lead-time to reflect on their content. If you are the meeting owner, make it easy for attendees to prepare, and for you and your team to step-back and develop perspective, by distributing background materials at least two days ahead.

Show uP: Attend! You cannot contribute if you do not attend both physically (even if electronically, e.g. by phone or Skype) and mentally. Continue reading →

How organization leaders can make important changes while also developing the next generation of leaders.

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Peter DiGiammarino

Every organization has room to improve. Most organization leaders know improvement is needed as well as how specifically they would like to evolve but do not have the time or energy to bring their clear ideas to fruition because they are short on leadership capacity.

There is almost always a great deal of untapped capacity right under their noses embodied in those in their organization who are itching for a way to make a difference and who are ready to step up and lead the way to making things better.

Action Committees are a great way to both develop future leaders and to implement needed change. Below are listed key elements that if embraced will put Action Committees on track to success. Continue reading →

How emerging executives can achieve high-impact with key players more senior than themselves.

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Peter DiGiammarino

An up-and-coming executive engages with an important sales prospect, client, supplier, partner, or colleague on par with his or her degree of comfort and security with the other party. The more seniority the other is perceived to have relative to his/her own, the more anxiety and insecurity is induced, the less is said, and the less impact results from the interaction. Pushing to the highest possible level of engagement drives the best results and accelerates career progression.

It makes sense for the up-and-coming executive to think of it as climbing a staircase. The first step is the most basic level of engagement, is easy enough to do, but adds little-to-no value. Each step is easier than otherwise when it builds off of the last but is progressively more difficult and riskier to take. Continue reading →

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