Sunday, May 11, 2014

What to do in your last 30 days

I have recently accepted a new position as Chief Information Officer at Chapman University. Lots of friends and colleagues reached out to me with congratulations, and with links to articles and books on the subject of what to do in your first 30/90/180 days on a new job. But nobody gives you advice on what to do in your last 30 days on the job. Having just left a job, here's my advice.

celebrate, and be gracious about it - lots of people will congratulate you on your new role and will generally laud you for what you've done in your current role. The right response is "thank you" or "I have really enjoyed working here, working with you". Allow yourself to be celebrated, that's important for your colleagues, and good closure for you. 

reflect, but let go - we learn something from every experience we have. Moving on from a job is a good time to look back and reflect on what you've learned.  While much of what we learn is from positive experiences, some of it is from negative experiences. Sometimes we carry anger and resentment around those negative experiences. This is the time to let go of that resentment, and just keep the lesson.

take care of your staff - losing a manager is a traumatic experience for anyone. People have anxiety about having to build a relationship with a new manager, and at the time that you are leaving, they may not even know who that manager is, so they are likely to be fairly stressed.  Tie up all loose ends on personnel issues if possible. Specifically, do evaluations for all your staff.  It's not fair to your staff or their new manager to leave them without a current evaluation on file. In general, use the phrase "I'll leave that for the new person" sparingly when it comes to HR issues. 

if possible, give things up gradually - I gave six weeks' notice at my current job, and I immediately began withdrawing from projects and responsibilities. As a senior manager, I was engaged in lots of projects and operations, so that length of time felt about right. During those six weeks, I shifted my focus and started to think of myself as being in more of a consulting role than a leadership role.  Keep in mind that you will quickly move into a "lame duck" status and taking a consultant approach is a good way to deal with that. Finally, don't stay too long, as a lame duck doesn't get better with age. 

give honest but measured feedback to your boss - in every job I've left, my boss has asked me for feedback on them or advice as to what to do going forward.  This is not the time to tell your boss all his or her faults!  Obviously, there's a little self preservation going on there, after all, that person will be called as a reference for you some day. But on the advice as to what to do going forward, take on that consulting approach. You will have some unique insights that are very valuable to the organization. 

stay connected - make sure that your boss, staff and coworkers have contact information for you. Connect on LinkedIn. A former boss or colleague is a wonderful resource for advice and coaching. Make sure your colleagues know you're available to them. I assure you that you will find any coaching or mentoring you do after you leave to be mutually beneficial. Not to mention that this helps you maintain your network, which is hugely important going forward. 

Friday, May 9, 2014

Leadership Lessons from the Golden State Warriors

I lived in the East Bay for twelve years, and during that time I was a fan of the Golden State Warriors NBA team. Since I've moved, I've become a fan of the Sacramento Kings; but I still have a soft spot for the Warriors, and not being far away, I've been able to follow their progress pretty closely. Three years ago, team owner Joe Lacob took a huge risk in hiring Mark Jackson, a man with no coaching experience, as the team's head coach. To say that the risk paid off is a huge understatement. Under Jackson's leadership, the Warriors have performed better than they have in a quarter century, making it to the playoffs two straight years, and posting their highest number of wins in decades last year. Jackson was enormously popular with his team and the fans, but apparently not with the front office and ownership. Yesterday, in spite of his success, Jackson was handed his walking papers by the team. Here's the story from ESPN.

There are lessons in all of this for us as leaders, both from the perspective of Jackson and Lacob. From Jackson's perspective, for all his success and popularity with the team and the fans, who I think of as stakeholders, he got fired partially because he didn't do a good job of managing up. The ESPN article talks about his "boisterous personality" not meshing well with management, and some clashes with management over how to manage his assistant coaches. There's a lesson in there for all of us. As leaders, our jobs are all about managing relationships, with our staff, our stakeholders, but also with *our* managers. It's important to work on developing a trusting and respectful relationship with your manager. I obviously can't comment on what went wrong between Jackson and Lacob, but I know from my own experience that you have to invest a lot of time in that relationship. It's also important to be honest, and when you disagree with your boss to tell him or her. But it is really important to do that carefully and respectfully. Finally, it's important as a leader that you don't bring drama into the organization.

What about Lacob? This move is a risky move for him, firing a popular and successful coach. To move beyond it, he has to bring in someone who will be at least as successful as Jackson, no matter what it costs. The other thing I'd advise Lacob is to figure out how to integrate a personality like Jackson's into the organization. I noted this sentence in the ESPN article "Jackson's demeanor, which bordered on confidence and cockiness, might have ultimately cost him his job." Really? I'd make the argument that his confidence and cockiness contributed to his success as a coach. In the workplace, sometimes we have high performers who are, for want of a better word, divas. And the diva personality has to be handled carefully. It is true that sometimes it's not worth the effort. I've seen the diva personality on good, but not great, performers. That's not worth the cost. But when you have a great leader with a diva personality, figure out how to make it work.