We Should Certify Managers

Management is considered a profession.  One characteristic of a profession is that it certifies when its members have attained a particular level of proficiency.  So why don’t we certify managers?

Yesterday I met Marcia Reynolds, a former president of the International Coach Federation (ICF).  She was telling me that one of the concerns executives have in hiring coaches, either for themselves or other managers in their organizations, is getting someone who is qualified.  Lots of people call themselves coaches (e.g., life coach, leadership coach, executive coach, etc.) no matter what their background or capabilities.  So how does an executive know whether a coach is qualified?  One way is by getting a coach who is ICF certified.  As she was talking, it got me thinking “Why don’t we certify managers?”

Certification is not new.  Lawyers take the bar, physicians take boards, accountants take the CPA, and engineers take specialized exams.  Project managers are certified by the Project Management Institute, teachers are certified, and people can be certified in Six Sigma.  But there is no certification for “managers”.  We don’t have, for example, a “professional manager” or a “professional leader” certification. As a result, we have no independent way to determine whether someone who represents themselves as a manager is, in fact, a qualified manager.  Anyone, regardless of qualification or background, can be a manager. 

What about an MBA?  Doesn’t that certify something?  Yes, it certifies that the person completed a program of study, but it does not certify that they can manage or lead.  It would be nice if we had some way of knowing if people have some basic management capability.  If management is going to be a profession like law, medicine, accounting, etc.. we should certify managers.  And someone who is in a position to do that is the American Management Association.

My dad was a board certified pathologist, and when I told physicians, they were generally impressed.  They knew the exam was very tough and few people passed it.  Board cerfified meant something.  I don’t get the same reaction when I tell people a friend of mine is a manager.  It would be nice if I did.

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Making In-Class Management Education “Ready-to-Hand”

Next week I start teaching my MBA class on management. In preparation, I have been reading some new books, such as Animal Spirits and Nudge. What I have read has raised some interesting questions about how to get what students learn in the class to translate into their jobs. In short, how to make what is learned “ready to hand”. By ready to hand, I mean right there, available for use in the moment.

People have two modes of thinking: automatic and reflective. Automatic is what we do automatically, without thinking. Getting angry when we spill coffee, ducking when someone throws a shoe at our head, and yawning when someone elese yawns are all the product of automatic thinking. Thinking that is so ingrained, so “who we are” that it can happen without us even being aware. Reflective thinking is the kind you use when you are considering options, designing plans, or working things out. You have the opportunity to consider, to weigh, to contemplate options and possible consequences. Reflective thinking is the kind of thinking you do when you are given a problem and have to come up with a solution.

So here’s what I am looking at. Much of management appears to happen in automatic thinking in the day-to-day interactions that constitute work. When we are at a team meeting and tempers rise, most of us do not reflect “Hmmm, I notice I am getting bothered here. Perhaps I should….before I say anything.” Nope, it’s more likely we “just do it” and say or do what we do – automatically and without thinking. Then after the meeting, when our reflective thinking considers what happened, we may decide what we did was the right/wrong thing. How many times after an interaction with someone have you thought about what you should have said or done? That’s your reflective thinking commenting on your automatic thinking.

But in-class education is based mostly in reflective thinking. It’s talking about what we could, would, should do without the immediacy of the situation and our life impinging on us. It’s good that it’s removed from the “on-the-firing-line” nature of life so we can think about it and come to understand it. But therein lies the issue – reflective thinking isn’t automatic. Learning a new theory of leadership in reflective thinking doesn’t move it into automatic thinking where it is more likely to be used, “in the moment”.

I don’t have any answers, though I have some suspicions (like practice is required). And I don’t think everything we have in reflective thinking should become automatic, but some of it would probably be more helpful to managers if it were more “ready to hand”.

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A Game Changer – Showing Regard and Respect for Others

We have a new dean at the Fisher College of Business.  She is Christine Poon, former Vice Chairman for Johnson & Johnson.  She began on April 1^st and she is a game changer.  Why?  Because she is showing regard and respect for others.

I have had the opportunity to work for six different Deans at three different Universities – Christine is the seventh.  And you know, all six of the prior Deans had one thing in common.  If you were to meet with them, you met in their office when they were available.  Christine is different, and it’s a difference that people notice and talk about.

A couple of weeks after joining the college, Christine was walking past my office on the 7^th floor (her office is on the second) on her way to talk with a colleague.  Upon seeing her, I called out “Dean on the floor, Dean on the floor.”  She turned and, put her finger to her lips and said “sssshhh – don’t tell anyone”, and entered my office.  Whereupon several of my colleagues, having heard the “ruckus”, congregated in my office and we had a jam session with the Dean for about 10 minutes.

Now, this might not be remarkable in your organization, but none of my previous deans at any university ever did that.  People noticed.

Last week, I got an email from Christine’s secretary asking when I was available for a meeting with her.  We arranged the time at which time I was informed that Christine would be coming to my office.  It turns out, that she is meeting with all the faculty, and she is going to their office for the meeting.  Now, it might not be unusual for senior managers in your organization to come to your office or cube to meet, but this is not the norm most of the faculty are use to.

What makes all this a game changer is that it alters the relationship between dean and faculty.  It makes the dean more of a partner and a colleague rather than someone to whom you report.  And, it shows respect and regard for the faculty.  It’s one thing to say you respect and regard someone, it’s quite another to show it in your actions.  Christine is showing it in a small, but significant way.  Surprisingly, it is not the big things that frequently make or break leaders, it’s the small things – like going to their office.

What would happen if you were to suddenly start meeting in the offices and cubes of people you have come to you?  What would happen if “they” started coming to your office?  It would probably change the game for you – and them.

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Getting What I Scheduled at Spyglass (the golf course)

Laurie and I went to San Francisco for the annual Conference for Global Transformation.  Laurie is the Chairperson of the conference while I am accountable for the Journal and all the presentations at the conference.  What this means is that Laurie is my boss.

Each year, the day before the conference I play golf with Blair, a good friend of mine.  We play either Spyglass or Spanish Bay (when we can’t get on “Spy”).  Both are part of the Pebble Beach set of courses in Monterey, California, but Spyglass is better known because it is used on the PGA Tour.  This year, we played “Spy” along with two pilots from American Airlines, Ron and Blake.  We had a great time.

Number 12 at Spyglass

This is the third time I have played Spy with Blair.  The previous two times, the course embarrassed us.  But this time was different.  No, we didn’t bring the course to its knees, or anything like that.  We did, however, make fewer errors between tee and green than in previous years.  Our best hole was number 12, a downhill, 140 yard par 3 (see picture).  Blair was the first to hit, and made a great shot about 6 feet from the pin.  I hit next and ended up inside of him (see picture).  Unfortunately, Blair missed his putt, while mine went in for a birdie!  It was one of the few putts I made all day.

Before I left for the conference, I put the following goal in my schedule “I have had my best game ever at Spyglass and a GREAT time with Blair”.  While at lunch, I told Blair what I had written in my schedule.  We both agreed we had had a great time and that Ron and Blake had made it even more fun.  We also agreed that it was my best game ever at Spyglass – I got what I scheduled!

Close shots

But I didn’t get what I wanted.  I wanted to play my best game from tee to green and I wanted to make lots of putts and I wanted to have a great time.  In short, I wanted to play to my handicap and shoot in the upper 70’s (par is 72 and I shot 84).  And I would have had a few more putts dropped.  So, I got what I scheduled, not what I wanted.  Perhaps if I had been more specific in what I wanted and scheduled “I had my best game ever at Spyglass and shot in the upper 70’s while having a great time with Blair,” I might have putted better.

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Playing Isn’t the Same As Practicing

I played golf this morning – third time this year (I am ahead of last year’s pace).  On the third hole, I had a 20 yard shot to the green and mishit the shot.  Walt, a 76 year old gentleman I was playing with, commented on my shot, saying, “You did what I do, your head came up with your hands.”  That’s golf talk for “You looked up before you should have.”

Now, I have been playing golf a long time (almost 50 years) and have gotten pretty good at it.  I even played college golf.  I know I am supposed to keep my head down until after I hit the ball.  But in this case, knowing what to do and doing it were two different things.  Why?  One reason is because I don’t practice, I prefer to play.

Knowing how to do something intellectually or conceptually is not the same as being able to do it behaviorally.  Reading a book and understanding what it takes to hit a good chip shot, conduct a successful performance review, or lead a project successfully is not the same as actually doing each of those things or doing them well.  I don’t know about you, but when I don’t do something as well as I think I should, I get upset and frustrated.  I say things to myself like, “I should be able to do this by now”, “I can’t believe I did that”, and numerous other invalidating things.  And then, after I say those things, I often conclude, “I really need to practice that”.

But then I don’t practice, I play again (and the cycle continues).  I think the same thing happens to leaders and managers – they don’t get a chance to practice because they are always playing.  It is said that to be a master at something takes 10,000 hours of intentional practice.  The operative word in intentional, where you work on something over and over again until it becomes part of who you are.  How much is 10,000 hours?  It’s 5 years of doing nothing but practice for 40 hours a week – intentional and repeated practice to put your knowledge to work and testing to gain new knowledge of how it’s done.

When do managers and leaders get to practice the new ideas they learned in the latest book or training seminar?  Remember, playing is not the same as practicing, so using or trying out an idea isn’t practice, it’s playing.  And just because you play a lot does not mean you play well.

Could it be that one of the reasons managers and leaders aren’t as effective as we or they would like to be is because they have been playing instead of practicing?  I wonder what would happen if there was more practice or if managers and leaders approached more aspects of their jobs as practice?

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A Marriage of Theory and Practice

I met my wife Laurie at the ORSA-TIMS conference in St. Louis in October, 1987.  ORSA is the Operations Research Society of America and TIMS is The Institute of Management Science.  Sounds really exciting doesn’t it?  As a successful management consultant with a Ph.D. in operations research, Laurie was there to discover what was new in her profession.  As a professor, I was there presenting papers on organizational change and transformation.  What started out as a professional meeting turned personal and became a marriage of theory and practice – literally and figuratively.

Why tell you all this?  Because Laurie and I have a commitment to making management something that actually makes a difference for people.  There are volumes written on and about management and leadership.  Literally thousands of books and articles from both academics and practitioners. Some of them are very good, but many of them aren’t.  As a professor, I have the opportunity to read much of the academic literature on management, though I must admit, there is more there than I can or care to read.  Some of it simply doesn’t make any difference.  As a management professor who trains MBAs, I need to know what will work, not what might work or what sounds good theoretically.  Now, I like a good theory as much as the next professor, but my students and the mangers I train are more discriminating and want things that will help them today, as well as tomorrow.

The only way to determine if something really works is to put it into practice, and that’s where our marriage of practice and theory comes in handy.  Laurie says she practices what I preach.  I say I preach what she practices.  Working together, we have developed unique and powerful tools and ways of thinking about management that are theoretically rigorous, yet highly pragmatic and effective.  For years our clients and students have benefited from what we have learned about management and leadership and from our thoughts regarding existing theories and practices.

Now it’s time to expand our audience to include people who are not in our classes or meetings. By creating this blog, I am looking to expand what I can learn and provide about management and to learn from more people too.  In short, I want to expand our marriage of theory and practice to include you, so management becomes something that is both easy to apply and makes a difference for you.  Welcome to my blog, I look forward to learning with you.

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