Monthly Archives: January 2016

A Primer on Leadership and Management

22 Friday Jan 2016

Posted by in Leadership, Management

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The synthesis of strategy, operations and tactics in leadership and management is perhaps unique for each individual. However, there are some basic tenants that are probably shared by many. As one example, I provide my approach and framework to outline real-world leadership and management. This begins with my leadership style.

People-Based, Results-Driven

First, what does it mean to be people-based? I have adopted the philosophy that: You lead people and manage things, but it us all about people. Jim Collins (Good to Great, Harper Business, 2011) has put a fine point on this by stating “first who, then what”. This reflects that what is most important in any organizations are its people, but not just any people. They must be the right people. Some of the elements of this are: select the right people, set the right expectations, provide the right tools and training, provide growth opportunities, help them succeed and develop them as leaders. My working premise is that the role of leadership is to develop more leaders to lead people and get results. If this is done well, they will take care of the customers and clients.

Some other elements of successful leadership and management include:

  • “feedback loops” and continuous improvement
  • trust
  • relationships
  • collaboration
  • engagement
  • alignment
  • humility
  • listening
  • common courtesy
  • consistent communication
  • have fun

At more senior levels the responsibilities include setting the vision, values, direction, culture, priorities, establishing a plan with specific and measurable performance measures and coaching within a framework where people can flourish.

There is an adage used in the Army: “people first, mission always”. There has been considerable discourse on how this is done, especially given that soldiers are trained to be sent into harms way in combat. James H. Zenger and Joseph R. Folkman (The Extraordinary Leader: Turning Good Managers into Great Leaders, The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009) studied two elements—results focus versus social skills—and found that great leaders find a way to shift and balance these two foci. A focus on results or social skills alone results in “mediocre leadership”. So, what does it mean to be results-driven? In simplest terms this means achieving specific and measurable goals. The coin of the realm in the private sector are profits while in the public sector it is serving the public good.

Daily Operations

  • “feedback loops” and continuous improvement
  • outreach to employees, clients, client’s-clients, stakeholders and partners
  • ensure trust/relationship
  • ensure collaboration
  • ensure engagement
  • ensure alignment
  • ensure results
  • identify issues, problems, obstacles and fix them
  • balance everything against risks
  • continuously assess employees, new and existing clients, stakeholders and partners
  • remain humble
  • listen first and foremost
  • extend simple courtesy and appreciation
  • communicate a lot
  • have fun

The world is changing and we must change with it. I hope this primer is useful.

“In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.”

—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Learning that Success=Preparation and Opportunity

22 Friday Jan 2016

Posted by in Learning and Success

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Who has not experienced failure and disappointment in their career and had to do some considerable soul-searching to recover? Regrettably, I have had my fair share. While humbling, there are a number of important life lessons, foremost among these is learning.

These lessons-learned, or re-learned, include two lists. One of don’t and the other of do.

Don’t

  1. Don’t spend time on pity, it serves no purpose.
  2. Don’t beat yourself up, it serves no purpose.
  3. Don’t blame anyone else, it serves no purpose.
  4. Do not burn relationship bridges, it serves no purpose.

Do

  1. Write a plan based on research—prepare, prepare, prepare and learn, learn, learn.
  2. Take responsibility and be objective.
  3. Remain humble and grateful.
  4. Maintain relationships—they rule the world—including thank you notes for opportunities won and lost.
  5. Get a trusted agent to vent your feelings and provide reality feedback.
  6. Think in the affirmative—stay positive
  7. Reflect and analyze what occurred.
  8. Write down your lessons-learned.
  9. Write an improvement plan, providing added focus and clarity.
  10. Practice and rehearse that improvement plan, including body language, eye contact, voice and clear thinking.
  11. Implement that improvement plan at every opportunity.

As a subset of this and when “interviewing”, formally or informally:

  1. Learn about the company, job or project description, including leaders, interviewers and panels.
  2. Develop mock interview questions and rehearse multiple times with a mock interviewer.
  3. Develop a list of questions to ask at the end of the interview.
  4. Develop a short list of simple, concise, clear and elegant stories/responses that describe you, your experience/accomplishments, and portend to what you will bring to the job, project or company. Write these down as this will help you focus and clarify your thoughts and avoid rambling. Writing blogs is one methodology.

There are many reasons we fail or are disappointed in life and inadequate preparation and learning are chief among them. I also believe those situations are rarely as bad, or good, as we think. These situations are opportunities to improve, succeed and be stronger in the future. In effect, one door closes and another opens.

We can all do better in our journey through life, certainly this is true for me. We have a lot to learn and a lot more to do.

Our lives and learning stand as a gateway to a new time, a new era and a new beginning, including in transportation and our global economy.

What I’ve learned over the years is to enjoy the process and the community you build around you. To be a great leader you must also be a great collaborator. You must know how to delegate and know where you need to intervene in the process. You cannot second guess. You must treat others as you would like to be treated—the Golden Rule. There is no magic formula to success except to keep learning.

Preparation plus opportunity will lead to success.

“Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.”

—Dale Carnegie

Traditional Engineering and Construction are not Enough—The Future

22 Friday Jan 2016

Posted by in Future, Transportation

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These are exciting and challenging times in transportation, with perhaps more changes in the next 10 years than in the previous 60, or even the previous 100. These changes include autonomous vehicles, connected vehicles, intelligent infrastructure, intelligent transportation systems, new sensors, new materials including from nanotechnology, new construction methodologies and designs via virtual reality, increasing use of big data, increasing use of artificial intelligence, increasing use of robotics etc.—our homes, offices, transportation and increasingly everything else will be connected as the “Internet of things”. These changes have already begun.

In the near-term the biggest issue facing transportation is a stable and reliable replacement for the fuel tax. In the long-term, mobility is the imperative, not infrastructure, vehicles or digital technology alone.

The two events that are driving this are rapidly evolving digital technology and increased demand for collaboration. It is about convenience, quality and affordability, using transportation to improve lives. Thus, we are at a watershed moment in time and this requires we change the way we think and act to build one seamless “transportation ecosystem” that will save lives, save costs, reduce congestion, reduce pollution and mitigate climate change, create jobs, grow the economy and increase customer service and satisfaction. However, we are stuck because connections (relationships, trust, roles, responsibilities, collaboration/partnerships and alignment) across relevant players are lacking.

So, how can we do this? We must:

  1. Develop a new public-private partnership model where government creates the vision, rules, and manages the transportation system while allowing private sector innovation to flourish and be brought to scale.
  2. Develop connections between relevant partners, be an open door to partnerships and find common, shared purpose in meeting the needs of people. This in itself may require a new business model since outcomes will be generated at the margins of these connections, and less organically in the traditional public and private sector sense. Moreover, these partnerships must be aligned quickly in a defensible market for the private sector to bring these to scale. This coalition of traditional and non-traditional partnerships may include IBM, vehicle manufacturers (GM, Ford, etc), Google, Uber, Lyft, Verizon, Apple, Volpe National Transportation Center, RideScout, Open Car Alliance, Oregon’s VMT, US and state dots, public transportation, railroads, trucking companies, architects and engineer companies, construction companies, logistics companies, airlines, water-born transportation, cyclists, pedestrians, emergency responders, and others.

The world is changing and we must change with it, including in the public, private and academia arenas. The latter producing graduates that will be employed by the public and private sectors and drive future changes.

“The reality about transportation is that it’s future-oriented. If we’re planning for what we have, we’re behind the curve.”

—Anthony Fox, US Secretary of Transportation