4qtr2005 - Not Just Talk! Newsletter

4qtr2005 - Feature Article – Helping Bosses Help

Much has been written about the dysfunction of bosses – and rightly so. But this is not an article about that. Instead, it's an article about how bosses really DO help, the tools they have at their disposal TO help, and what that all might mean to you.

In its simplest sense, there are only four things that bosses can do for you. But the BIG FOUR are incredibly powerful tools that can dramatically help you work through almost any problem you may be grappling with. And even more importantly, bosses have surprising discretion in using the BIG FOUR when they feel it’s appropriate to do so.

So what are the BIG FOUR? What is it that bosses can provide that so many others in your organization cannot? Let’s take a look:

1. Bosses can provide you with ADDITIONAL TIME - Notwithstanding your best efforts, your project/report/whatever is running late and the consequences are untenable - unless, of course, your boss grants you an extension.
2. Bosses can provide you with ADDITIONAL MONIES - In many organizations, budgets are considered sacred. It doesn’t matter that you see a particular piece of equipment, or software, or some other potential purchase, as essential. If it’s not in the budget, you’re probably not getting it – unless, of course, your boss approves an overage.
3. Bosses can provide you with ADDITIONAL NON-MONETARY RESOURCES - Who doesn't have too much to do with too few resources? A temp, consultant, coworker, etc., would be a welcomed addition to your work effort if only they were available. But they’re usually not – unless, of course, your boss approves the temporary (or dare I say permanent) assistance.
4. Bosses can provide you with ADDITIONAL INFORMATION - Sometimes, decisions don’t make sense because, well, they’re lousy decisions! More often than not, though, they don’t make sense because there are pieces of the story you just don’t know. The same could be said for certain planning efforts, as well – unless, of course, your boss provides you with some added insights and information to help put things in a broader/more relevant context.

So now that you know WHAT the BIG FOUR are, how can you get your boss to utilize them in support of your work efforts?

Step 1 – On a clean piece of paper, list each specific open work item that you are struggling, or could use some help, with.

Step 2 – For each assignment, ask yourself the following operative questions:

• How could ADDITIONAL TIME, MONIES, NON-MONETARY RESOURCES, and/or INFORMATION make this assignment significantly easier to successfully complete?


• Precisely how much ADDITIONAL TIME, MONIES, NON-MONETARY RESOURCES, and/or INFORMATION would be needed?


• How would you put this ADDITIONAL TIME, MONIES, NON-MONETARY RESOURCES, and/or INFORMATION to use?


• If you were given the ADDITIONAL TIME, MONIES, NON-MONETARY RESOURCES, and/or INFORMATION you feel you need, would that be all you’d need to successfully complete this assignment?

Step 3 – Complete the following template for each work item:

Step 4 – Meet with your boss to explain your situation clearly and succinctly in terms of the BIG FOUR. By doing so, you’ll not only articulate exactly what it is that your boss can do to help, but you’ll also frame your conversation in a way that will make it easier for your boss to agree with your request(s).

Note: Many people have a tendency to ask for less than they really need, not wanting to look too needy or greedy. But this is not a time for that. While there’s never any guarantee that you’ll actually get what you ask for, there is no quicker way to lose your boss’s trust than to have him/her authorize what you asked for only to later learn that it wasn’t enough to appropriately address the situation.

Lastly, be sure to complete – and bring with – whatever paperwork your boss will need to sign to approve your request (e.g. purchase order, requisition, approval memo, etc.). It will save time AND make you look really good to be able to offer it up as soon as your boss agrees to help.

4qtr2005 - Book Review - Crisis Management

Title: Crisis Management: Planning for the Inevitable
Author: Steven Fink

Sometimes the best books are the ones you've already read. Re-reading them gives you another chance to see what you missed the first time through, confirm what you know, and further deepen your learning on a particular topic.

So, given the impact Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, I thought it a good time to review a book about dealing with crises.

According to Fink, there are four distinct stages to a crisis:

Stage 1 - The Prodromal Stage - This is the "early warning" period. Sometimes referred to as the "pre-crisis" stage, it's when you get first glimpse of the potential of the crisis-to-come. The reasons why the Prodromal Stage is so important is that it's just so much easier to manage a crisis before it begins.

Stage 2 - The Acute Crisis Stage - This is the crisis per se. It begins once the damage has begun. How long it continues is a matter of how much additional damage occurs. The key, of course, is to minimize the amount of that subsequent damage, although that's not always possible.

Stage 3 - The Chronic Stage - Some call this the "post-mortem" phase. The damage has subsided, clean-up has begun, and now it's time to investigate what happened and what did not. It's a period of analysis, mea culpas, Lessons Learned, and recovery, and can sometimes last an extraordinary amount of time.

Stage 4 - The Crisis Resolution Stage - This is when things finally return back to normal (whatever that means!) or in Fink's words, "when the patient is well and whole again."

Fink goes on to explain that as bad as the physical damage of a crisis can get, the emotional damage is often more troubling. Emotionally-speaking, here's what we'd rather see than the 4-stage model:

But when it doesn't happen that way - and it rarely does - we can quickly find ourselves spiraling on an emotional roller coaster that looks more like this:

One of the recurring themes of the book is that crises, as bad as they can be, provide us with important opportunities to show how well we can handle the "decisive moments" inherent in them. In fact, once the chronic stage starts, the spotlight increasingly focuses on how well we do that ... or not. Former FEMA director, Michael Brown, experienced this phenomenon first-hand. So did former NYC mayor Rudy Guliani a few years ago, though, so you see it really does cut both ways.

Another of the author's keen insights is what he labels the crisis impact value (CIV). The questions to ask in assessing the CIV are as follows:

1. Is there a good chance that this situation will, if left unattended, escalate in intensity?
2. Might this situation foster unwanted attention by outsiders?
3. Is it likely that the situation might interfere with normal business operations in some manner?
4. Could it make you look bad or cause some people to lose confidence?
5. How is it going to affect your bottom line?

Simply stated, the more objectively - and accurately - you can answer these questions, the better you will be able to manage the crisis around you.

There's more good stuff in this book, including detailed reviews of what happened at Three-Mile Island, with the Tylenol tampering situation, during the Savings & Loan crisis, and around Union Carbide's Bhopal debacle. Clearly, if the book were to be updated today, it'd have much to say about our recent hurricanes, and probably something about the earthquake in Pakistan, too.

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If you've read this book and would like to share your thoughts on it - or have a book recommendation that you'd like to make - please post your comments. To that end, a great article on crisis management is "Managing the Crisis You Tried to Prevent," by Norman R. Augustine, HBR, November 1995.

4qtr2005 - Great Things I Didn't Say!

• "I always view problems as opportunities in work clothes." - Henry Kaiser
• "It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something." - Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• "Before trouble comes, obtain advice; after it comes, advice is useless." - Ibn Zabara
• "To be without stress entirely is to be dead." - Hans Selye, M.D.
• "It is only when you are pursued that you become swift." - Kahil Gibran
• "Everything has been thought of before, but the problem is to think of it again." - Goethe

4qtr2005 - What's News at GottaGettaCoach!?

• The Three Phases (and Songs) of Success, an article by Barry Zweibel, is to be published by TheLadders.com. (If you follow the link, scroll down - the 3rd article is mine.)
• Barry Zweibel is quoted in the Career Track column of the Washington Post about helping young workers find their Ideal Job.
• GottaGettaCoach! is now an affiliate for TheLadders.com, the most comprehensive source for $100k+ jobs, all in one convenient and easy-to-use Web site.
• Barry Zweibel is asked to share his perspectives about coaching for an upcoming book being written by Lisa Haneberg called, Coaching Basics, (ASTD Press) that will be available in March 2006.
• GottaGettaCoach!, Inc. expands its international stature by retaining a coaching client in Singapore.
• Barry Zweibel was interviewed by the Washington Post for a short piece on executives dealing with crises.
• GottaGettaCoach! celebrated its 5-year anniversary on July 4th - Independence Day! (Read press release.)
• Not Just Talk! the quarterly newsletter from GottaGettaCoach! was converted to a blog format to enable a cleaner look and reader comments. While the waaay back archives can still be retrieved, the new home for Not Just Talk! is: http://www.ggci.com/NotJustTalk/.
• information from the GGCI career coach page

4qtr2005 - New Product Notice: TheLadders.com

GottaGettaCoach! is now an affiliate for TheLadders.com, the most comprehensive source for $100k+ jobs, all in one convenient and easy-to-use Web site.Executive-level Jobs ONLY. No low-level fluff. All real, open, $100k+ jobs. Jobs at companies of all sizes. From Fortune 500s to startups, they've got all the high-level jobs. Join now and put your job search in gear.Their targeted sites list more than 20,000 new jobs each month across every industry and sector. Each month, they screen hundreds of thousands of job listings and hand select only those that meet their strict criteria. They then list exclusively jobs that pay more than $100,000/year, including many C-level, VP, Director and Manager jobs. If you're in the market for this type of job, you won't find a better resource anywhere.Sign up now by clicking here! There are several pricing options to choose from, including one for as little as $25.

4qtr2005 - GottaGettaBlog! Weblog Highlights

I've been using GottaGettaBlog! as a vehicle to capture news, notes, and musings about coaching, mentoring, and getting more from YOUR Untapped Potential - along with whatever other stuff I happen to find amusing and/or thought-provoking - since June of 2003. Highlighted postings from last quarter include:

From July 2005

• Planning, Precision ... Crash and Burn
• "I see," said the blind man, as he picked up his hammer and saw.
• "Does E-mail Make You Dumber?"

From August 2005

• Get out of jail free ... or not!
• "The Marketing Gods Must be Crazy"
• You're failing to appreciate MY attention span

From September 2005

• Do you have a recognizable smile?
• When are you at your Absolute Best?
• Capable of Doing versus Paid to Do
• "You Faker!"

Your on-line comments at GottaGettaBlog! are both welcomed and encouraged. If you'd like to receive notification of new postings at GottaGettaBlog!, update your subscription here.

4qtr2005 - 3-Click Challenge

Congratulations goes to William J. Houghton. He's won the 3-Click Challenge for 3qtr2005 and one month of coaching at no charge to him!

4qtr2005 - Administrivia

This edition of Not Just Talk! was written and created by Barry Zweibel, executive coach, leadership consultant, and president of GottaGettaCoach!, Incorporated.

GGCI specializes in helping executives - and managers aspiring to leadership positions - to:

• think more strategically more of the time
• communicate more effectively, up, down, and across the organization
• better leverage their time, effort, and personnel resources
• adopt a more coach-like attitude with staff and vendor personnel
• be ready willing, and able to have difficult conversations, when needed
• drive key business results without being a jerk!

GGCI also provides life coaching and career coaching services to those looking to make good things happen sooner in their lives and careers.

For information on how GottaGettaCoach! can help you - or those in your organization - please contact Barry directly at 847.291.9735, bz@ggci.com, or via www.ggci.com.

PRIVACY POLICY: GottaGettaCoach!, Incorporated values your subscription and respects your privacy. As such GGCI will not rent, sell, or lend, any subscriber information to any 3rd party without your express permission – permission we are NOT asking for at this time. GGCI is proud to be a member in good standing with The Better Business Bureau.

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