Managers: How to Lead Under Fire

If you’re not periodically under fire by your management and peers then your career’s probably not going anywhere. It’s sort of like “no pain no gain.” If you push the envelope and take risks, then you’re going to get mercilessly grilled from time to time. That’s just the way it works. And if you seriously want to get promoted and make something of yourself, you have to learn to handle it.
No, I’m not talking about growing thick skin and becoming a human punching bag. I’m talking about learning to handle getting fired upon like a true leader. Everyone will walk out of the room thinking you’re the next Lou Gerstner or Jack Welch. Okay, maybe not, but they’ll definitely think more of you and will more readily accept your ideas, proposals, and most importantly, promotions.
How’d I learn this stuff? By spending much of my career selling innovative strategies to risk averse CEOs, CFOs, and management teams. Sure, I probably came across as whiny and defensive in the early days, but in time I learned the ropes. Here they are:
How to Lead Under Fire

1. Don’t get emotionally attached to your ideas. It’s good to be passionate about your ideas, but if you’re emotionally attached to them, it’ll come through when you’re getting grilled. And managers are incredibly distrustful of ideologues trying to shove things down their throats. It’s all about positioning. In your mind, you have to be willing to walk away. That little separation will give you the appearance of perspective and poise under fire.
2. Learn to embrace alternative views. The best way to respond to most objections is by first embracing them, then explaining why your plan is better or at least equivalent. Again, it’s a positioning game. But there’s a subtle but significant difference between, “My approach is better and here’s why,” and “That’s an interesting idea; here’s why I think this might be a better approach.”
3. Master the art of zinger retorts. When you’re getting grilled there will inevitably be some real zingers. Well, there’s only one way to beat a zinger and that’s with a zinger retort. How do you get good at zinger retorts? By getting good at thinking on your feet, which is really equal parts knowledge, experience, preparation, and of course, self confidence. Also, it’s essential to maintain a sense of humor under fire.
4. Know your stakeholders. Of course you need to know your material cold and expect the worst. Unfortunately, that’s not even close to good enough. You also have to know the stakeholders, aka your audience, and have a pretty good idea of their likely objections. A few one-on-one premeetings are a good idea. Then you’ll be ready to counter effortlessly.
5. Never, ever lose control of the meeting. It’s your meeting, or at least your time to present, so you’re in charge and you need to act like it. I don’t care if the CEO and CFO start going down a rat hole on some mindlessly trivial point. You have to be adept at all the usual techniques for keeping meetings on track, on topic, and on time. Come to think of it, that’s probably a topic of its own.

AT&T, Verizon Should Tell Waxman to Shove His Hearing

AT&T, Verizon Should Tell Waxman to Shove His Hearing

, Steve Tobak, Henry Waxman, Randall Stephenson, Caterpillar, Deere

What if self-appointed health-care nazi Henry Waxman (pictured) had an inquisition and nobody came? Seriously, what would happen if the all-powerful chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee summoned the CEOs of some of America’s most prominent companies to Washington, for no other reason than to brow beat them for filing an accounting write-down per SEC rules, and the CEOs of Verizon, AT&T, Caterpillar, and Deere decided not to show up.
I think Waxman’s head would explode. Seriously.
Memo to Waxman: when a public company determines there will be an extraordinary material impact to its operating results - and $1 billion is surely material to AT&T, as is $100 million to Caterpillar - and its accountants decide its appropriate to take a non-cash charge in a specific quarter, the SEC requires that it be disclosed. Ever heard of Reg FD, Henry? Just in case you haven’t, you can find the form here at sec.gov.
But wait; maybe that’s not what Waxman’s upset about. Maybe it’s that AT&T warned it “will be evaluating prospective changes to the active and retiree health care benefits offered by the company.” Um, does Henry really not get that all those clever new taxes that congress hoisted on corporate America to pay for the health care bill are going to flow right down to employees and customers faster than an accountant can update a spreadsheet?
I bet AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson would rather spend the day preparing for a colonoscopy than getting grilled by Waxman and his cronies. Actually, a lobotomy might be more effective. Just to get a feeling for the kind of brainless bureaucratic BS Stephenson and his fellow chiefs are in for, here are some excerpts from the letter Waxman and henchman Bart Simpson … I mean Bart Stupak sent him at AT&T:

After the President signed the health care reform bill into law, your company announced that provisions in the law could adversely affect your ability to provide health insurance. AT&T stated in its March 26,2010, filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it intends to take a charge of approximately $1 billion in the first quarter of 2010. As a result of the legislation, the company says it “will be evaluating prospective changes to the active and retiree health care benefits offered by the company.”
The new law is designed to expand coverage and bring down costs, so your assertions are a matter of concern. They also appear to conflict with independent analyses. The Congressional Budget Office has reported that companies that insure more than 50 employees would see a decrease of up to 3% in average premium costs per person by 2016. The Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers from leading U.S. companies, asserted in November 2009 that health care reform could reduce predicted health insurance cost trends for businesses by more than $3,000 per employee over the next ten years.
The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a hearing on April 21, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. … We request your personal testimony at this hearing.
To assist the Committee with its preparation for the hearing, we request that you provide the following [9 trillion] documents … by April 9, 2010.

I bet Stephenson’s meeting with his physician right now to schedule that lobotomy.
The condemned CEOs should tell Henry what to do with his hearing, but that’s not going to happen, so instead, I’ll just say this: “Give as good as you get, fellas. Give ‘em hell!”

 

Surviving a Workplace Bully - Don't Be a Victim

One of the most challenging problems in life is a workplace bully. They affect managers and executives just as they affect workers. My guess is that the percentage of employees that are bullies goes up as you climb the corporate ladder, but that’s just me. 
There’s a lot of content on the subject, but much of it is what I call “victim talk” - whining, complaining, storytelling - and not much in the way of pragmatic advise. Well, this aims to be different. You see, I’ve been a victim and I’ve been a bully. That’s right; I recognize it and admit it. As a result, I think I can provide a unique viewpoint on the subject.
Now, before a lynch mob begins to form, let me explain. I’ve seen bullies that literally target other’s destruction. I was not one of those. I was, however, an intimidating manager and, sometimes, verbally abusive. I regret that.
That said, some very successful leaders like Bill Gates, Andy Grove, Steve Jobs, and Larry Ellison also fit that description. No excuses or comparisons, I’m just saying.
Anyway, keep one thing in mind: this is a nuanced subject. There is no quick fix or one-size-fits-all remedy. And frankly, the solution lies mostly with you, which, if you don’t have that “victim” mentality, is the best place for it to be.
What doesn’t work:

• Change them. You’re not going to change them or how your company or business handles them, so don’t try. You’ll just waste your time, get more frustrated, drive yourself crazy, or even get yourself fired.
• Go head to head. Taking them on, on their terms, is a very bad idea. You’ll lose. However you describe them - narcissistic, antisocial, abusive, manipulative, political, dysfunctional, whatever - they’ve likely been that way their entire lives, they’re very good at it, and they will win. Period. 
• Suck it up and “handle it.” In a sense, that is one aspect of a solution, but only to the extent that you can indeed “handle it.” Once you start seeing a shrink, drinking, taking antidepressants, or taking it out on loved ones, that solution has run its course and it’s time to do something different.

What does work:

• Step 1: Look Inside yourself. No, I’m not saying blame the victim, but your choices are limited and this is where to start. There were times when I was bullied, as it turns out, in reaction to my own bullying. I didn’t even realize it. Or I tried to go head-to-head and then it just escalated. Or I enabled the bully by allowing myself to be bullied, a sort of codependent type of thing. Just think about it. 
• Step 2: Outlast them. The next step is to go about your business, keep your interactions about business, settle in for the long haul, try to treat yourself well outside of work, and hopefully, the bully will self-destruct, as they often do, before you lose it completely. This is a limited version of “suck it up.” The point being that, these days, some of us can’t afford to just up and quit. But once you start to see the danger signs, you need to take the next step. 
• Step 3: Quit. As I said, before you start to burn out, freak out, abuse yourself and others, or go postal, you need to cut your losses and find another place to work.

If all this seems short, oversimplified, or even no help at all, well, then you’re looking for something that isn’t there. This is how it works in the real world, like it or not. In fact, you can help your fellow readers by sharing your workplace bully stories. Go ahead, it’ll help you and others.

An Open Letter to Toyota President Akio Toyoda

To: Akio Toyoda, President, Toyota Motor Co.
From: Steve Tobak, The Corner Office blog, BNET
Re: Your upcoming visit to the U.S. Congress

Dear Mr. Toyoda,
You’ve been Toyota’s chief for all of eight months and already you’re facing the biggest crisis in the company’s history. I guess what they say is true: timing really is everything. Anyway, you’re stepping up to the plate and confronting U.S. congressional leaders this coming Wednesday. A loaded situation if there ever was one.

Say the right stuff that resonates with the American people, and you can stop worrying about “perception” and focus on Toyota’s internal issues. Everyone wins. Say the wrong stuff, and you could conceivably make matters worse … if that’s even possible.
While I’m sure you have an army of capable advisors and crisis management people, I wonder if any of them are willing to hit you right between the eyes with the truth, unfiltered and unrefined. That’s one of the problems with leadership — it’s sometimes hard to get the straight story out of people who are always trying to impress you.

Well, you don’t have that problem with me. I’m not out to impress anybody.
Speaking of which, I realize you don’t know beans about me. I’m a management consultant who sometimes advises companies on matters concerning strategy and crises. I’m also a former senior executive of the technology industry who’s done a lot of business in Japan.

My motivation is simple. I’m a fan of great business stories. And Toyota is a great business story, having risen to the top of a large, brutally competitive market. Personally, I don’t want to see it fall. And certainly not like this.

Now let’s get down to business. I liked your letter in the Washington Post. It was a bit late for a crisis of this magnitude, but better late than never. Also, instead of “Toyota’s plan to repair its public image,” I would have called it “Toyota’s plan to repair Toyota.” It’s more accurate.



In any case, you talked about launching a top-to-bottom review of global operations to ensure this kind of thing never happens again; convening a blue-ribbon safety advisory group; and the need to more aggressively investigate complaints and move more quickly to address safety issues. You covered what Toyota has to do going forward rather nicely, I think. But you missed something.

Indeed, you apologized, but you never really explained what you were apologizing for. You sort of put the cart before the horse, because you still haven’t told American consumers what actually happened. And the sooner you do that — tell folks the truth about what happened — the sooner we can all move on. That’s just how this sort of thing works.

Specifically, there are three things about the “acceleration problem” that American consumers need to know, and they need to hear it from you:

1. Your company’s complete and total understanding of the problem. First it was the floor mat, then it was the accelerator pedal, then a software problem. You need to clear all that up. What really was the problem — or problems?

2. The chain of events. Who (among Toyota’s executives) knew what (about the problem)? When exactly did they know it? How did they come to know it (internally, from customers, from a U.S. agency, for example)? And why did they choose to do nothing for so long?

3. What action you’ve taken at the top. We need to hear that you’ve identified and terminated the executives responsible — not for the problem’s occurrence but, much more importantly, for not addressing it aggressively and immediately, especially if there was a cover up. Not that I’m implying there was.
It’s a lot, I know. But you know what? The customers who made Toyota the top-selling brand in America, not to mention billions in profits, have also been through a lot lately. All things considered, this doesn’t seem like too much to ask.

Best of luck on Wednesday.
Sincerely,
Steve Tobak
The Corner Office blog, BNET

 

10 Breakthrough PR Techniques from a Master

Forget trade shows, advertising, even direct marketing - the best bang for the corporate marketing buck is public relations, but only if you know what you’re doing. Unfortunately, most companies don’t have the secret PR sauce and, frankly, the same is true of far too many agencies.
Fortunately, I hooked up with the right agency back in the mid-90s and, together with a modest marketing budget, we managed to put a tiny company on the map in a big way. It was a microprocessor company named Cyrix and we competed with Intel, a company roughly 100 times our size. But you wouldn’t know that from the press we got.
I still marvel at the results. One product launch had over 100 million impressions. You don’t get results like that from trade publications. We’re talking front page Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and live interviews with CNBC and CNN. And this wasn’t a one-shot deal either; we launched product after product for years and years.
I recently spent some time chatting with Lou Hoffman - president and CEO of the Hoffman Agency, a global PR firm based in Silicon Valley, and the brains behind that breakout success. From that discussion, here are 10 techniques that were so effective back then that the agency still uses them today. 

1. Humanize the story. How do you humanize a semiconductor chip? We took the lead designer on the press tour with us. Storytelling is even more relevant today - you need content rich in flavor and texture to get over the Internet noise level.
2. Let necessity be the mother of invention. Because of our lightweight budget, Lou says I inspired the agency to take risks and deviate from the norm. But frankly, we were a second tier player who wanted first tier visibility; traditional strategies and tactics just weren’t going to cut it.
3. Pitch David versus Goliath. A classic. Everybody loves a David vs. Goliath story.
4. Internal leadership. This is a requirement. A top exec has to be willing to stick his neck out, sell up, fight for resources, and take the heat. 
5. Set aggressive goals. The best way to get the management team on board is to set aggressive goals and metrics and then meet them. And if you fall a bit short, trust me, nobody will complain. 
6. Commit exec resources. Successful PR requires executive commitment to drive internal strategy and planning, do press tours, and to build media relationships by dropping everything and be a resource when the press calls.  
7. Skip the Kool-Aid. Too many executives breathe their own fumes and expect the media to just rollover and write big stories about their products. Always start with a strong dose of objective reality.  
8. Lead with the Wall Street Journal. Cultivate relationships and break big news with the WSJ, then sit back and man the phones when everyone else picks up the story.
9. Let customers and analysts tell the story. Especially true for tech or B2B, line up analysts and customers to bring credibility to a big launch.
10. No events, just one-one-one interviews. We never did a PR event, just one-on-one interviews. Big time investment, big payoff. 

I know; I left out how we were able to create a groundswell / buzz using all these techniques. So, if you like this sort of stuff, click the recommend button or retweet it and we’ll keep it coming.

, Home Entertainment, Steve Tobak

'Undercover Boss':

On Sunday, something happened that I wouldn’t have thought possible. After the Super Bowl and its super ads, I actually watched the premier of Undercover Boss, a surprisingly creative reality show where, each week, the top boss at a big company poses as an entry-level employee.
Don’t watch reality TV? Me neither. This is different. Have you ever cursed corporate’s dumb policies? Ranted that the mucky mucks never listen? Wished the boss would work a week in your shoes? Well, be careful what you wish for; it’s really happening.
Now, my initial impression of the concept was “nice idea on paper, train wreck in practice.” I’ve seen CEOs in the trenches; it’s not a pretty sight. Trained in problem-solving, they tend to hone in on what’s wrong: incompetent employees, their “good intentions” botched by middle management, their grandiose plans failing in practice.
Then there’s the loose cannon factor: Who knows what they might say or do? Conventional wisdom says be careful when you put a CEO in front of customers because whatever he promises, the company has to deliver. Well, the same thing applies here.
So, as a management strategy, it’s definitely high risk. At least, that was my initial impression. Having watched the show, I’d say the concept has merit — with some serious caveats. Here’s my take on what went down:
The show begins with Larry O’Donnell (pictured), president and COO of Waste Management — a $13 billion company — telling his senior leadership team that he’s going undercover to find out what effect their aggressive cost-cutting and restructuring is actually having in the field. One exec looks over at his peers and says, “Is he serious?” That seems to represent the collective feeling in the room.
Larry takes on a different job each day: cleaning out portable toilets at a carnival, picking up trash at a landfill, even doing the garbage collection rounds. Along the way, he picks up more than just dirt and recycling. He learns that one supervisor (Kevin) docks his employees two minutes pay for every minute they’re late, that one woman (Jaclyn) is doing the job of three because of budget cuts, and that a female trash collector has to pee in a can to stay on schedule.
When it’s all over, Larry shaves and returns to his corner office with a new perspective on the plight of his workers. He seems to have learned a valuable lesson: His relentless drive toward cost-cutting and productivity improvement may be backfiring. After all, if his employees are miserable, how well can they serve their customers?
That’s a big step. As we discussed recently, admitting mistakes is indeed a key to  leadership success.
That said, Waste Management is not a “growth” company. The way to grow shareholder value at a company with flat revenues is to improve operating margins by, that’s right, improving productivity and cutting costs. And that’s exactly what Larry’s done since he took over operations in 2004.
So, should shareholders be concerned if Larry goes soft on cost-cutting — or is a happy company a productive company? Only time will tell. But from a management perspective, I’d say that Larry needed this experience to offset his natural proclivity to cut, cut, cut.
Larry also made some changes that I think were more about showmanship than solid management practice:

• Jaclyn was promoted and got to hire two people. That’s great, but how does that make all the other overworked and underappreciated “Jaclyns” in the company feel?
• Kevin got chewed out by the big boss. Sure, he deserved it, but in private. Getting thrown under the bus on national television is a bit much for screwing up at work.
• Then there’s Larry’s leadership team, who may feel that their authority was undermined, if not justifiably so.

Bottom line: Some CEOs, like Verizon’s Ivan Seidenberg, who began his career 40 years ago as a cable splicer’s assistant, have a visceral feel for the customer and the rank-and-file employee. Those who lack that perspective should get out once in a while. But the cost of that education shouldn’t include the undermining of an otherwise healthy management and organizational structure.

Greenpeace

Hi ,

Our government is churning out one hazardous bill after another. This time it is a bill called the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage, and it's coming up for a vote in a couple of days.

The bill lets U.S. corporations off the hook for any nuclear accidents they cause on Indian soil. They'd only have to pay a meagre amount, and Indian taxpayers would be stuck paying crores for the nuclear clean up and to compensate the victims.

Without any public debate, the Prime Minister is appeasing American interests and ignoring our safety.

Greenpeace is launching a petition asking the PM to hold a public consultation before introducing the bill.

I have already signed this petition. Can you join me?

http://www.greenpeace.org/india/stop-the-vote

Thanks!

Saikumar V
E-mail : skfrens@gmail.com