Janet Britcher was interviewed by Steve Bowers on the Blue Suede Forever radio show in Jackson, TN. Below is a Facebook video of the live broadcast, with a transcript of the discussion.
Steve: Hi I’m Steve Bowers and this is Blue Suede Forever. Today our guest is Janet Britcher, author of Zoom Leadership: Change Your Focus, Change Your Insights. The name of her business is Transformation Management. Tell me Janet, that’s a great name. How did you come up with it.
Janet: I named it that because I work with managers to not only help them transform the way that they lead, but because often, if you’re a good manager, you transform your group, your department, your company and you are a success. I really believe in that. I liked your introduction; the beginning of the year is as good as any time, to have that kind of resolve, to improve the quality of leadership and management and companies.
Steve: How did you get into this work, Janet.
Janet: I did spend a couple of decades in Human Resources, and in that role I did what I could to improve quality of benefits, have compensation be more competitive, and when I started my business 15 years ago I thought, what have I learned all these years, what are the complaints that come in to the HR department. In the morning would be a manager all agitated that their employee didn’t do what they asked, and in the afternoon there would be the employee saying, my manager is not competent.
Steve: [Laughter]
Janet: I realized the issue really is, people get promoted and they don’t get enough support to be a good manager.
Steve: OK. Going from HR to jumping out there and being on your own is a big step.
Janet: Yes it is a big step and I thought a lot about, what did I love, what is my sense of mission. My sense of mission about having a workplace be more compassionate and humane really began when I started my working career. I looked around at grown ups. And wondered how come so many people are miserable. Work can be interesting, work can be fun, but there are a lot of people that are unhappy. My passion about developing good leaders started a long long time ago.
Steve: Yup. I went to a gathering of employees one time and the only applause and enthusiasm at that gathering was when they announced the employees that were retiring.
Janet: When you think about it, we’re at work most of our day. I often think, work is our neighborhood more than our neighborhood.
Steve: Yes, it is. It was really interesting, everyone was applauding the people that were retiring. Let’s get out of here. Amazing stuff. Janet Britcher is with us, and Transformation Management is her company, her book is called Zoom Leadership: Change Your Focus, Change Your Insights.
Steve: So what is going on here in this book then, Janet?
Janet: Everybody knows about zooming because we have it on maps and we have it on cameras, and what I found over the years working with leaders and I’m often working with them when they get promoted. Their boss brings me in, because their boss who just promoted them wants them to be successful. Very often leaders are grappling with, should I do A or should I do B, and all of us can get stuck when faced with a decision. We can get a loop in our own mind, and what I found is if I zoomed in a little closer to whatever that issue was, let’s say if it was budget. A manager might say, oh I can’t possibly ask for a new hire. It’s not in my budget. But if we zoom out and think about, what would be the benefit if you hired that person, how would it help the company, not only your group, what would be the return to the company. So zooming out on that one lens, that would be the Think lens, maybe you could look at things a little differently and make your case a little differently. So that’s that idea of zooming in to the details or zooming out to the big picture.
Steve: Is this designed then for the employee, or for the manager, or for both?
Janet: It really could be used by anybody, because it’s a decision tool. Let’s say you’re thinking about should I get a new roof or should I get a new car? You can use this approach for any decision you’re grappling with.
Steve: We’re talking to Janet Britcher, author of Zoom Leadership: Change Your Focus, Change Your Insights. I guess in listening to you and having work experience, we do spend the majority of our time there in this society at least. Those are the relationships sometimes that carry over. There are day to day tasks that can consume us. Sometime we lose that focus on where we’re headed and the overall picture in all of this. And I guess that’s up to management to help instill that, right?
Janet: Yes that’s right. I propose that there are four lenses, the first one is the logic, the Think lens, the analytic lens. You could use that as an employee or as a manager or even as an employee managing up. A lot of people never get that skill, how to manage up. It doesn’t mean manipulating. It means communicating your point of view in a way that could be heard and understood. That first lens is the logic lens, I call Think. The second lens is Act, what are you going to do? If you wanted to make a case managing up, you might do research or comparison. That third one is Feel and a lot of people think oh we can’t do that at work but I think there’s a lot of information in our emotions.
Steve: OK. That’s interesting.
Janet: We can explore that further, for example if we’re excited or enthused about something we’re doing, that’s information. We can convey that to others, either to those we manage, or up to our manager. If we’re frustrated or angry or think something is happening over and over, you don’t really want to brush that under the rug, you want to think about can I propose an improvement.
Steve: [laughing] That’s what we talk about in the employee lounge. I can’t believe this is happening, you know what I mean. A lot of our communication is not productive because it’s directed at the wrong sources. We all get together as employees and gripe about what’s going on but that doesn’t resolve anything. The mechanisms to do that sometimes are a challenge.
Janet: That’s a good point. That’s that zoom in. So when zoom out and say, upper management should do this or that. Zoo in, and think about what is in my sphere of influence. What can I propose, what can I recommend, can I build alliances? Zoom into what’s doable.
Steve: Janet Britcher, Zoom Leadership: Change Your Focus, Change Your Insights. What’s that fourth lens after Feel?
Janet: That fourth lens is Witness. Some people might call that Mindfulness, some people might call that Presence. It’s the ability to suspend taking actions. Maybe someone comes in your office, all agitated they’ve got a problem and you want jump in and solve it. But very often people don’t really don’t want you to solve it yet. They want you to really deeply listen. It’s that idea of being deeply present and not taking action, just listening to what’s going on zoomed in. Or zoomed out you might think, if you’re a company, should we partner with a high school, we need better skills, we need to help young people. Zoom out, be witness to what is going on in the broader society as it relates to your company.
Steve: Janet Britcher, says this approach is applicable to any decision we make in life, families, churches, any community organization with which we’re involved. When a company calls you Janet, what are they looking to you to do?
Janet: Very often they are looking to make some changes. Let’s say a manager gets promoted. At one end of the spectrum they may be really really nice. And you want a manager who is really nice, but they might be so nice they’re not really clear about what they want, or not really clear that it has to be done by a certain deadline. Or conversely a manager might be really demanding and want excellence and want outstanding work, but they might say that in a way that is hurtful or discouraging or demotivating to their staff. So it’s finding the places that are the opposite end of the strength. And developing a little awareness, not that we can all be everything, but an awareness, that if I’m usually nice, is this a moment where I may need to be more direct – not rude, just a little more exacting about what I expect.
Steve: Thank you very much Janet. I wanted to talk to you as we head into a new year. It is very interesting. Organizations – there’s communication going on all the time. It may not be productive, it can be flawed. There is a culture there. This can help improve it. Real pleasure to have the opportunity to talk with you. I wish you the best, I hope things continue to go well, and I’m real pleased we had the opportunity to share this time.
Janet: Thank you so much. You take care too.