Archive for October, 2006

Looking Ahead

Tuesday, October 24th, 2006

Welcome to the first edition of SOM@Work! This newsletter is a new resource for faculty and staff produced by the SOM Department of Organization Effectiveness (formerly the SOM Training Department).

In response to your answers in the survey we sent out earlier this year, we will be making several changes to benefit you.

New Name/More to Offer
In order to more fully serve you, the SOM Training Department is broadening its focus…and changing its name to reflect that broader focus. We are now the Department of Organization Effectiveness. We think this name better expresses our mission – to serve as the School of Medicine’s primary gateway to training, development, and consulting resources that enable staff and their organizations to work at their fullest potential.

We have identified the following four objectives to serve as a guide for new initiatives we will be implementing for you over the coming months.

  1. Make it easier for you to access training resources. We want to utilize our website as a clearinghouse of information and resources so that, when it comes to training and development, people can find what they need quickly. In addition, we want to expand the amount of online learning we offer through KnowledgeLink to compliment the classroom training we offer.
  2. Provide additional tools for professional development. We are making available a variety of assessment tools to support individuals, teams and departments achieve professional growth and increase their effectiveness.
  3. Develop supervisory/leadership training. We are creating a menu of supervisory skills programs with the opportunity for participants to earn a Supervisory Skills Certificate. Looking ahead, we are making plans for additional programs targeted to leadership development.
  4. Introduce executive coaching and consultative services. We are beginning to provide customized solutions that address specific needs within departments. Initial services include individual coaching, team building, meeting design and facilitation, and consulting on other organizational issues.

Look for more details on these initiatives in future editions of SOM@Work. We appreciate any feedback you may have for us as we move ahead. Feel free contact us at 215-573-0682 or somtrain@mail.med.upenn.edu with your input.

Welcome to Organization Effectiveness - we’re here to help!

Posted in 3. Resource Spotlight | No Comments »

How to Manage Your Manager

Tuesday, October 24th, 2006

How skilled are you at “managing up?” And why is this important to your success?

No matter which step of the ladder you find yourself on, you need to know how to deal strategically with those on the rungs above you. Effectively influencing your supervisor, manager, or Principle Investigator (PI) is critical to your career success. This is called “managing up.”

Managing up requires understanding the needs, motivations, challenges, and behavioral style of the person you report to. While it is not always easy to develop an effective relationship with your supervisor, there are five steps you can take today to help pave the way to a successful relationship that will help you reach your career goals.

Step 1: Know Their Style
Understanding your supervisor’s personal communication and behavioral style can provide key insights into how best to manage her.

  • Does she dislike hearing the details? Communicate via “executive summaries.”
  • Is he an extrovert? Be ready to engage in some social chit-chat before launching into your agenda.
  • Is she habitually late? Try creating “artificial deadlines” to give her the cushion she needs without sending you into a panic.
  • Does he like to communicate via e-mail? Put your business in an e-mail that he can electronically respond to.

While you need not mirror your supervisor’s office behavior precisely, understanding how he operates can help you tailor your interactions and get the results you want.

Step 2: Adapt to Their Agenda
What is your supervisor’s agenda? How does it connect with your own? When you are hoping to persuade her regarding one of your agenda items, ask yourself, “Why should she care? What’s in it for her?” Then frame your message in such a way as to show her how agreeing to your agenda item will help her meet her goals.

Step 3: Save Them Time
If you can organize your interactions in an efficient manner in order to save him time, your supervisor will be more likely listen to you when you do have his ear.

Think of it: every time you interrupt your manager to sign a form, answer a question, or discuss upcoming plans, it takes him time to switch gears to deal with the interruption, then switch gears back to the issue he was dealing with before the interruptions. One way around this is to schedule a brief, one-on-one meeting with your supervisor each week. You’ll save him time wasted in interruptions; you’ll save yourself time wasted in having to track them down.

Regularly scheduled departmental meetings can have the same benefit. Lisa Douglas, Project Manager with the Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Department, suggested this to the multiple PIs she serves as a way to save time, coordinate efforts and cross-fertilize ideas and resources. She keeps things efficient with a pre-set agenda. (Click HERE for a sample agenda you can use)

Another way to buy them time is to present them with solutions instead of just problems. In other words, if you hit a problem that needs your manager’s input, do some pre-work and come up with a list of potential solutions and the pros and cons of each. This will give your manager a starting point to work through the problem, save them time in doing background work, and put you in a position of influencing outcome.

Step 4: Push Back
No matter how brilliant a scientist or savvy a manager you work for, they can’t know it all. They have blind spots like anyone else. Know their blind spots, and diplomatically push back when you see them headed for trouble. Don’t underestimate the knowledge and wisdom you bring to the table. You may well keep them from going off a cliff, and win respect for your insight and courage.

When you can, enlist the help from allies in your push-back efforts. Lisa Douglas’ team meetings serve this purpose. Part of the SOM’s success is due to our PIs applying aggressively for grants. However, in a department with multiple PIs, if they are not aware of each other’s applications, a high volume of applications could result in overtaxing the staff if all the grants are awarded. Rather than Lisa having to push back at her PIs about this, when the plans are shared openly in the departmental meetings, the PIs recognize any unrealistic plans as a group and push back on each other.

Step 5: Persist
Because of how busy your manager is, she may not be able to get to things when you need her to. Keep at it. Pleasantly and persistently remind her of deadlines or outstanding issues. You can even do this on “auto-pilot” via email: some email programs give you the ability to prepare emails ahead of time and then schedule their delivery at a later date for “set-it-and-forget-it” reminders.

Though it doesn’t happen overnight, developing your “managing up” skills can help you forge a stronger working relationship and win more influence with your supervisor.

Posted in 1. Professional Development | No Comments »

Improving Employee Performance - NOW

Tuesday, October 24th, 2006

Have you ever given a staff member a better performance review than they really deserved?

Have you ever had a hard time implementing the performance management process with an employee because of a series of positive (albeit undeserved) reviews you’ve given them in the past?

There are many reasons why this happens, such as a desire to avoid confrontation or wishful thinking that the employee will spontaneously improve. One reason, however, is that you may have been so busy and distracted through the year that when review time rolls around, you realize that you never let them know that a “Does-Not-Meet-Expectations” review was coming. That seems unfair, so you just (once again) give them a pass.

That’s why NOW is the time to start having conversations with your staff about their performance.

Look at your staff honestly. Do you have someone who is struggling with their performance? Now is the time to notify them that you are concerned about this, and offer your support. That will give them the opportunity to improve by the time performance reviews roll around – or will give them fair notice that if things don’t change, a poor review may be coming.

Here are six steps you can use to structure this conversation:

1.      State the constructive purpose of your feedback.

“Susan, I’d like for us to have a conversation about the XYZ project you’ve been working on.”

2.      Using specifics, discuss the situation as you see it.

“You successfully collected all the required data on each patient group in accordance with the prescribed timetable.  Your excellent rapport with patients and flexibility in scheduling them has contributed to your success in this area.  As you know this was a very complex protocol and you are commended for your outstanding work in documenting every vital aspect of this study.   Your patient binders were always complete, organized, accurate and up-to-date.

I understand that there may be a problem with compiling the necessary information for the sponsor’s interim report by the due date.”

3.      Explain the effect their performance has had or can have.

“Because of your efforts, we were able to complete the comprehensive analysis of the data two weeks ahead of schedule. However, if we miss the deadline to deliver the interim report we may jeopardize our credibility with the sponsor. This could have a negative impact when they are making decisions about outsourcing new projects to us for next year.”

4.      Allow them a chance to express their view of the situation. 

“What is your view of the situation? What do you think?”

5.      Ask for their ideas on how to solve the situation.

“What do you think you could do and what resources would you need for us to make the deadline?

What needs to happen in the future in order for you to be able to both continue the excellent work you’ve done on this protocol, and also reach the other deadlines you have?”

6.      Summarize and express your support.

“So let’s make sure we’re on the same page: you’ve done excellent work with the protocol, but the potential of not making our report deadline is a serious concern. I understand that you were confused about when the deadline was, and uncertain about some of the steps you needed to take in order to compile the report.  We’ve agreed that I will assign additional support to you two half-days a week for the next three weeks and that you will have a draft report to me by November 15th. 

To prevent this from happening again, I will remind staff about upcoming report deadlines at staff meetings. You will make sure you put them on your calendar, and also put in a tickler reminding you when to start working on them. In addition, you will feel free to ask for help when you are confused about the report format and process.

Does that sound right? Do you have any questions?  You have been carrying out your research work very well and I am confident that the report aspect of your work will be equally impressive. 

Let’s get together in a month to check in and see how things are going.”

Our thanks to Sharon Harris of Human Resources for providing information for this article.

Posted in 2. Managing Effectively | No Comments »

Need to Hire?

Tuesday, October 24th, 2006

The Five Steps to Hiring at the SOM website will walk you through the process step-by-step. It will give you clear instructions, along with the forms and contact information you need - all in one place!

Learn how to:

  1. Post the Job
  2. Get Candidates
  3. Interview & Select
  4. Make an Offer
  5. Finish Hire

This online resource gives you information on how to discuss salary, how to make an authorized offer of employment, and makes available links to sample letters and other resources you’ll need when hiring.

For all this information and more, visit Five Steps to Hiring at the SOM.

Posted in 2. Managing Effectively | No Comments »

Workplace Q & A

Monday, October 23rd, 2006

Have you ever wished you had a resource to provide you with some practical insights into dealing with difficult workplace issues?

Send your questions to somtrain@mail.med.upenn.edu with subject line Workplace Q&A. You may see your questions answered here!

Posted in 5. Workplace Q & A | No Comments »