Michael Vandergriff

Change the word "drive" to "deliver" and know the elements offered in most responses by others are on target and timeless, regardless of culture change. The greater task of the leader is to shield the employees from the down side of culture change. TWA was one of the finest, customer focused carriers in aviation history. American Airlines took over and their culture triumphed, causing pain to TWA employees. US Air took over American (and their name). With an operations focus culture over customer service, American employees suffered. Of course "culture change" covers a wide range and both feedback and shielding are often constricted, sometimes inappropriately.

My oldest stepdaughter had a paid coach (20 years experience) helping her prep her resume for a law school application. The stepdaughter asked for my advice & help. I reformatted her resume. I created a column on the left side of the page, a little less than an inch wide. The detailed content was to the right. In the left column, I placed high-impact words (single words) presenting knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) mastered in the detailed right column. The reviewer's eyes are drawn to the left column and, if interested, they read the supporting experiences. The coach said she had never seen such a format... but liked it. It opened the preferred law school door. Tailoring? Research the words (KSAs) the employer desires.

Much depends on context. Track record? Readiness of the follower? Group vs individual? Simple tasks or mission critical? Make expectations clear, specific, observable. Move through them one-by-one. Do not carpet bomb. Get feedback and agreement along the way. Establish dates for interim meetings with the employee based on their skill level. Lower = more updates. Be prepared for the perception of micromanagement by frontloading clarifying and supportive scripts. In difficult situations, I like the approach of the Corps of Engineers. On flipcharts, they list major points and, when finished, they all sign the paper.

1. Go by their psychological profiles (assessments). Using Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI) as an example. Altrusitic/nurturing (blues) types will come together over baking cookies. Analytic/autonomizing types (greens) will eat the cookies but tell you the activity is stupid. 2. Take into account what you can learn about their workplace. You may be able to select an activity that has more relevance and delivers more and better insights. 3. Track record. Inquire about activities that have work best in the past. 4. Always have backup activities with different time requirements. This copes with unexpected changes in session timing.

Split the compound question. The approaches differ greatly between customers and coworkers. The customer is NOT always right but must be handled diplomatically and tactfully. Coworkers and employees can be addressed more directly, depending on context of the disagreement and their level.of openness/defensiveness. Always begin with the assumption the recipient(s) of your message are hypersensitive. "Ramping up" is doable; "dialing back" is like the old saying, "one can't uncrack an egg."

I was lead trainer for that Presidential Management Fellows Program for eleven years, coordinating all graduation training sessions for seven years. Across all events, delegation to the individual speakers was total. In situational leadership terms, if I had downshifted into the elements of Consulting, Participating, or (worst) Directing, the root cause of doing so would have been speaker selection failure. Never select less than the best for a premiere event.