Comments on: Partnership http://www.bretlsimmons.com/2009-08/partnership/ Leadership, followership, and purpose at work Sun, 05 Feb 2012 01:23:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Bret L. Simmons http://www.bretlsimmons.com/2009-08/partnership/comment-page-1/#comment-504 Bret L. Simmons Sat, 29 Aug 2009 16:29:40 +0000 http://www.bretlsimmons.com/?p=884#comment-504 Mark, I appreciate you following my blog, the kind words, and taking the time to share your thoughts. I think you are right on! I am in a B school, so I can tell you that people that teach in B school can be among the LEAST entrepreneurial thinkers - not to mention poor leaders and managers. But you are right, the B school SHOULD be a hub of this kind of thinking. Excellent observations. Thanks!!! Bret Mark, I appreciate you following my blog, the kind words, and taking the time to share your thoughts. I think you are right on! I am in a B school, so I can tell you that people that teach in B school can be among the LEAST entrepreneurial thinkers – not to mention poor leaders and managers. But you are right, the B school SHOULD be a hub of this kind of thinking.

Excellent observations. Thanks!!! Bret

]]> By: Mark Ohlstrom http://www.bretlsimmons.com/2009-08/partnership/comment-page-1/#comment-503 Mark Ohlstrom Sat, 29 Aug 2009 16:01:21 +0000 http://www.bretlsimmons.com/?p=884#comment-503 Bret, I've followed your blog over the last month or so, and find it refreshing and insightful. Keep it up! Three and a half years ago, I re-entered the corporate world after several years as a small-business entrepreneur (and have 20+ years in the workforce). What I observe today (and what I believe fits with your current threads on engagement) is that the majority of managers and employees are not Entrepreneurial-Thinkers (ET). The majority of employees and managers are content to be employed, may be great problem solvers and taskmasters, and bright people. They are just not engaged, empowered, or trained to be ET's. Rather, employees learn instead to be Corporate Thinkers (CT): people who may have the insight to know what is and isn't working in the organization, but learn to not make waves, say "yes" when they want to say "no", become proficient in their jobs, making the Performance Review process the Holy Grail on their Road to the Eternal City. As a result, you end up with the majority in lower and middle management who conformed their way up the ladder, and are not trained to think entrepreneurially. Therefore, they cannot perform in or pass on an OOB (Out Of the Box) culture (where all people embrace thinking OOB), and if their boss is also a CT'er, they are hesitant to go on many OOB experiences. Why no OOBE's? Managers are afraid! Maybe they don't want to really know what's going on. And maybe they are not able to channel the negative issues into positive solutions. So many OOB-type movements end up dying on the vine. What it really takes is raising ET managers up the ladder who can genuinely inspire and empower their employees, who know how to promote and conduct OOBE's in their sphere of influence, and who can take the Individualist and the CT'er, and mold them into ET'ers. B-schools should be important and essential cogs in the creation of ET'ers. More managers need to enroll in B-schools with strong ET components - and more schools need to place emphasis on the entrepreneurial side of management. Mark Bret, I’ve followed your blog over the last month or so, and find it refreshing and insightful. Keep it up!

Three and a half years ago, I re-entered the corporate world after several years as a small-business entrepreneur (and have 20+ years in the workforce). What I observe today (and what I believe fits with your current threads on engagement) is that the majority of managers and employees are not Entrepreneurial-Thinkers (ET).

The majority of employees and managers are content to be employed, may be great problem solvers and taskmasters, and bright people. They are just not engaged, empowered, or trained to be ET’s.

Rather, employees learn instead to be Corporate Thinkers (CT): people who may have the insight to know what is and isn’t working in the organization, but learn to not make waves, say “yes” when they want to say “no”, become proficient in their jobs, making the Performance Review process the Holy Grail on their Road to the Eternal City.

As a result, you end up with the majority in lower and middle management who conformed their way up the ladder, and are not trained to think entrepreneurially. Therefore, they cannot perform in or pass on an OOB (Out Of the Box) culture (where all people embrace thinking OOB), and if their boss is also a CT’er, they are hesitant to go on many OOB experiences.

Why no OOBE’s? Managers are afraid! Maybe they don’t want to really know what’s going on. And maybe they are not able to channel the negative issues into positive solutions. So many OOB-type movements end up dying on the vine.

What it really takes is raising ET managers up the ladder who can genuinely inspire and empower their employees, who know how to promote and conduct OOBE’s in their sphere of influence, and who can take the Individualist and the CT’er, and mold them into ET’ers.

B-schools should be important and essential cogs in the creation of ET’ers. More managers need to enroll in B-schools with strong ET components – and more schools need to place emphasis on the entrepreneurial side of management.

Mark

]]> By: Bret L. Simmons http://www.bretlsimmons.com/2009-08/partnership/comment-page-1/#comment-492 Bret L. Simmons Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:39:14 +0000 http://www.bretlsimmons.com/?p=884#comment-492 Wally, thanks for the excellent comment! The person you describe was a very wise leader. You make the key point that people were used to it, it was part of the culture and process. Great point also about how new team members can catch stuff we didn't even think of. Thanks!! Bret Wally, thanks for the excellent comment! The person you describe was a very wise leader. You make the key point that people were used to it, it was part of the culture and process. Great point also about how new team members can catch stuff we didn’t even think of. Thanks!! Bret

]]> By: Wally Bock http://www.bretlsimmons.com/2009-08/partnership/comment-page-1/#comment-491 Wally Bock Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:54:58 +0000 http://www.bretlsimmons.com/?p=884#comment-491 I really like the idea of "partner follower," Bret. You reminded me of an executive who hired me to work with his managers. One thing he did that I loved, was sit down with every new person who came into his unit. He would say something like, "Since you're new here, you're the person mostly likely to see the things we do that don't make sense. Be sure to tell your boss when you do." He said it created the kind of team environment he wanted. Bosses got used to being questioned, but new team members found out that there were good reasons for many of things they questioned, even while they developed the habit of speaking up. And, he said, almost every time someone new came on board, they identified something stupid that no one noticed before. I really like the idea of “partner follower,” Bret. You reminded me of an executive who hired me to work with his managers. One thing he did that I loved, was sit down with every new person who came into his unit. He would say something like, “Since you’re new here, you’re the person mostly likely to see the things we do that don’t make sense. Be sure to tell your boss when you do.”

He said it created the kind of team environment he wanted. Bosses got used to being questioned, but new team members found out that there were good reasons for many of things they questioned, even while they developed the habit of speaking up. And, he said, almost every time someone new came on board, they identified something stupid that no one noticed before.

]]> By: Bret L. Simmons http://www.bretlsimmons.com/2009-08/partnership/comment-page-1/#comment-478 Bret L. Simmons Wed, 26 Aug 2009 17:07:28 +0000 http://www.bretlsimmons.com/?p=884#comment-478 Mike, I appreciate your input and question. First, I think it is important to make partnership systemic. You need to hire, reward, and promote for partnership. If you hire, reward, and promote "yes" people you will send a mixed message to partners. As for folks already on board that are not developing as partners, look inside first. Is there anything you are doing to contribute to the behavior? If so, take responsibility to fix it. Then I think you need to keep your personal expectations high. Just because some is not behaving as a partner does not mean you should lower the bar. Be encouraging, but resolute. And avoid like a disease being paternal. Your job is to make sure problems get solved and systems get improved, but that does not mean YOU have to be the one doing it. Hope that helps! Thanks!! Bret Mike, I appreciate your input and question. First, I think it is important to make partnership systemic. You need to hire, reward, and promote for partnership. If you hire, reward, and promote “yes” people you will send a mixed message to partners. As for folks already on board that are not developing as partners, look inside first. Is there anything you are doing to contribute to the behavior? If so, take responsibility to fix it. Then I think you need to keep your personal expectations high. Just because some is not behaving as a partner does not mean you should lower the bar. Be encouraging, but resolute. And avoid like a disease being paternal. Your job is to make sure problems get solved and systems get improved, but that does not mean YOU have to be the one doing it. Hope that helps! Thanks!! Bret

]]> By: Mike Rogers http://www.bretlsimmons.com/2009-08/partnership/comment-page-1/#comment-475 Mike Rogers Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:51:38 +0000 http://www.bretlsimmons.com/?p=884#comment-475 Thanks for the post Bret, I agree with what you have said. Partnerships are built when leaders 1) create trust and 2) when leaders do what I call "mine for productive conflict." If people don't feel comfortable in sharing how they are feeling about a direction or decision, then you are lot more inefficient as a leader. My question is what do you do with employees that can't truly become partners? Thanks for the post Bret, I agree with what you have said. Partnerships are built when leaders 1) create trust and 2) when leaders do what I call “mine for productive conflict.” If people don’t feel comfortable in sharing how they are feeling about a direction or decision, then you are lot more inefficient as a leader.

My question is what do you do with employees that can’t truly become partners?

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