A farmer ploughs a new field. He knows that there are large rocks and tree stumps that are just under the surface but he just wants his crop in the ground. He wants to make money so he doesn’t want to spend time and effort finding and removing them believing he will deliver a great crop anyway. So he sets his blades on the plough just high enough to rip the soil surface and travel over the buried problems. He ploughs his paddock and plants his crop. No one will see.
Are you the farmer and is does your team have hidden matters just under the surface?
Have you a team that is unable to solve their problems causing you to intervene and come up with solutions. Is there blame, and defensiveness within parts or all of your team. Are there team members who are creating a toxic or unhappy environment?
What impact is there on you, your career, and the organisation when your team is not functioning as you expect them to?
I think that all leaders aspire to have a team of people who are honest, trustworthy and treat each other with genuine respect. What would your team look like if they were all committed to a shared cause and willing to question and challenge ideas and suggestions?
What would your job be like if you had a team that operated like a well oiled machine and not the farmer and his plough?
Sometimes people think that a healthy functioning team doesn’t experience conflict or disagreement. That to be a good team member it is better to agree rather than challenge. Some teams and their leaders may prefer people to become virtually invisible like minions and slaves to the norms of the team. On the surface these teams appear to be functioning and delivering, but at what cost?
I believe this mindset of how a team should operate is damaging the fabric of functioning high performance teams. The damage comes from the conversations that need to be had but lay silent. It comes from the people who assume so much but ask so few questions. Collaboration is also suffering from the absence of understanding and dealing only with the surface level.
Innovations and adaptations occur best when ideas are challenged and when people offer and debate different perspectives. When trust exists in a team the members feel safe to disagree and debate without fear of reprisal because the team recognises that this level of discussion is healthy and solution orientated.
In this blog I want to provide you an alternative to the commonplace saying “there’s no “I” in TEAM”. I want to explain why it is important for the “I’s” to be encouraged and promoted in teams and how you can ensure your team “I’s” have a voice.
Why are the “I’s” important.
People have a very strong need to feel included and this can be a powerful driver in the workplace, particularly where teamwork is an integral part of the culture. This need can drive team members to tend to agree to whatever the collective agrees upon in order to maintain their feelings of inclusiveness. They will put their need to belong ahead of rational decision making processes. This happens at the subconscious level of the brain so you are not even aware it is happening. Group think for example is an extreme case of where the need to belong overrides the desire to engage in healthy debate and disagreement.
A strong team culture can create situations where an individual may feel unsafe to question or challenge the ideas of others. They fear the loss of relationships, status, and/or credibility if they did so. As a result the decisions and solutions can lack sufficient consideration of factors and impacts such as costs, risk, and safety. They may lack clarity, responsibility, and/or strategy when there is a lack of debate and inquiry.
Team players who are loud or opinionated may demand that their ideas are listened to, yet have no desire to listen to or consider the ideas of others. This can lead to the decisions and solutions coming from just one or two people in the team. When people feel that they are not being heard they will eventually stop offering up ideas. Their motivation decreases and so do their aspirations.
Do you observe any of these behaviours in your team? What do you think the impact would be if they did exist?
Team engagement is significantly affected when individuals are hamstrung by a strong culture of “we”. To improve team engagement individuals need to feel safe to take a stand, to speak up, and to feel heard. Focusing on the “we” in a team and ignoring the “I” can have harmful effects on team cohesiveness and capability.
We are social animals and we are hardwired to connect. There is a part of our brain within the prefrontal cortex that seeks to form bonds with others. We have survived as a species and evolved to what we are today as a result of forming relationships, groups, and communities.
For example if you were to observe tribal communities you are likely to see that when decisions are to be made the elders in the tribe come together to discuss the issues and agree on a strategy to solve the problem. All the elders are given the chance to speak and be heard. The decisions may take days or weeks because where time is not an important factor, honest consensus is. The decisions made are the result of a collective of minds. It has enabled us to grow and create. I sometimes feel that we have lost our “collective of minds” in our teams.
In today’s workplace we seem to be so focused on the team that we have overlooked the interactions at play at an individual level and the effects this has on team engagement.
We often assume so much about people within the team, transferring team behaviours, expectations and beliefs to all members without ever knowing the truth. This causes silos to exist and it breeds misinformation and miscommunication. This all changes when we operate in a climate where we can trust, share, and engage.
I will give you an example
Imagine that you are a project manager and have brought together a project team consisting of project engineer, as well as representatives from finance, supply, operations, OHS and quality.
As the project manager what is your intention for the project? Your response might be “deliver the project on time & on budget”. The finance person may say the same thing and, so too the supply and quality people. In fact everyone on the team agrees that the intention is to deliver the project on time and on budget. On the surface it appears that you have great team engagement.
During the project however tension arises between quality and finance over costs, and between supply and operations over delivery. OHS feels ignored and their audits show several breaches of policy. The team members start to form alliances and blame one another for problems and errors. The project falls into disfunction. What has happened?
Let’s go back and look at it in more detail to show how you can improve team engagement through encouraging trust and openness.
- Intention
Intentions will always have underlying needs attached to them. Whilst everyone on the team can agree to the same stated intention “deliver on time and on budget”, the needs underneath this statement can vary for each person. For example the engineer may feel the need to boost their status in order to be considered for promotion, the finance person could have a need to demonstrate their recently implemented project costing software, whilst the supply people may feel the need to prove the benefits of their one stop shop supply process.
So while each of project team agree to the project intention they all have very different needs. It is the needs and not the intention that cause conflict and tension. If the needs of each of the stakeholder is assumed rather than shared, the team is setting themselves up for failure.
To overcome this problem identify the key words that will commonly be used as part of the project language and ask each member share what the terms mean to them and to do so without judgement. For example people will have very different meanings to words like collaboration, success, on budget, costs. Do not assume everyone on the team will have the same meaning. Once you have everyone’s own definitions create shared meanings for each of the terms and have these documented in the project scope.
- Set the rules of team engagement
Talk to the team about how they see the project operating. You want to move people into their creative mindset to get the best out of this session. Run activities that encourage sharing and opening up such as talking about their vision for the project and what they see as potential barriers. Use questions such as “what is possible”. These are great questions because no one will have the answer but by sharing and listening you will come up with a collective vision that is strong and enduring.
Create a shared set of rules that the team commits to follow covering off how to resolve a dispute, what are acceptable and non acceptable behaviours, how and when to catch up, and what to do if something falls off schedule. Follow this up with each member reflecting on and sharing what they will need to do differently in order to uphold these rules.
These types of activities will significantly increase team engagement by giving each member the permission to feel safe to speak up. You also remove the risks of assumptions leading to misunderstanding and miscommunication.
- Generating trust
A fully functioning team can only operate when there is genuine trust between each other. Without trust people will say only what they feel safe saying. They may decide not to speak up because they fear the consequences of doing so (real or perceived). When there is distrust people start blaming each other rather than seeking to solve the problem and move forward. Conversations to address issues become the elephants in the room not daring to be made visible.
You will need to take on a leadership role here and ensure that the team complies with their rules throughout the project life. Any actions, however small, that you condone will have a ripple effect on the success of the project. You need to be vigilant that the conversations that team members are having are about finding solutions and moving the project forward. You need to encourage the use of questions such as “what are our options?, or “what do you need to do next” that trigger the creative parts of our brain to think about how to move forward.
Finally, have a look at the way you run your meetings. Is the intention of the meeting just to confirm what everyone already knows (ie via reports, other meetings etc) or could they be used to explore questions that they haven’t yet an answer for? Some examples include “what should we do now? what are our options? what are your next steps? Questions like these are inclusive and encourage discovery and critical thinking that helps maintain team engagement.
What questions can you use to increase participation in your team?
Everyone who is part of a team needs to have a voice. When you silence the individual for the sake of the team you smother creativity, critical thinking and change. Don’t assume everyone in your team is satisfied and feels heard. As a leader you need to ensure the culture gives them permission to be authentic, to speak up and to have their say.
For the next three weeks I would like you to experiment with a different approach to your team meeting. I would like you to only ask questions and really listen without judging. I would love to hear your feedback on how your experiment went. Please send me an email at believeachievecoach@nullgmail.com
I am running a free workshop on how to improve team engagement one conversation at a time. I will present an understanding of how conversations trigger the brain to be either open or defensive and give you some tips on how to improve your conversations to build great team environments.
The webinar will be held at 10am WST on Tuesday 31 January. To register please click here. I look forward to you joining us.
Are people your biggest challenge? Do you believe that your job would be so much easier if it wasn’t for people? It’s not uncommon to think this way. Throughout my career I have heard statements like this on a very regular basis from leaders.
What is it that makes leaders think so poorly of them. To be honest I get it too. Some employees take up too much of the leader’s time. Some just can’t complete work without an error. Others don’t seem to apply the learning and your advice and expect you to find the solution. What can you do to improve employee engagement so that these issues hardly arise? In this article I will introduce the concept of values as being a key to engaging and motivating others.
It is still commonplace for great technical people to be promoted to a leadership role due to their technical expertise. After a career of learning and developing top rate and deep level expertise, all of a sudden they are promoted to a role looking after a team of people. In addition, as is often the case, they haven’t been too interested in developing skills in managing others such as communication, presence, influence etc. As a result they become frustrated because people do not operate the same as a computer program or a machine. They wish people were as predictable as machines.
What if a leader could predict the behaviours of their team members and thus be proactive and strategic in the way they manage and talk to them? What would that look like? You don’t need a magical power or have perfect employees in your team to have this. You need to understand their value set.
In 1960 G.W. Allport released his research on the core values which remains valid and relevant today. Allport found six core values that existed across all workplaces. These being
- Utilitarian – strong interest in the results and costs as well as outcomes focused for self and the bottom line
- Aesthetic – enjoys things to look and feel good
- Traditional – most comfortable working within structure, processes, and procedures
- Social – cares for the welfare of others, community, environment
- Theoretical – loves facts, figures and analysis
- Individualistic – loves to lead others and be involved in decisions
Allport found that employees, managers and organisations acted in accordance to their two top core values and do so at a subconscious level. Think about which are your two top values and how they express themselves in the work/job you do. What tasks align with your values and which don’t. How are your relationships with your team, your peers, direct manager affected by these values? What about the organisation? What do you feel are the core values here? Do they align with the value set that is published?
When the values between two people, within a team or between the indivual and the organisation are aligned then good things happen. People derive great satisfaction from the work they do. They feel a deep sense of connection and belonging with the company. They are motivated and productive, working with others in a supportive collaborative manner. Conflict and disfunction results when an individuals’ value set clashes with the organisation’s &/or their manager’s. The degree of disfunction is a measure of the length of time the problem has existed. I am sure you can think up people where this has been the case. The good news is that it can be turned around. What do you observe in your company? Is there harmony or disfunction. What impact does this have on profits and growth?
In addition to discovering that people act according to their top two values, Allport found that when people ranked Individualistic in their top three, it gave the other two values a greater boost. He found that people with the Individualistic value in their top three aspire to be a leader but is it their other two values that determine their actions. Think about a senior leader with high social consciousness vs a senior leader who acts with strong focus on the balance sheet, systems and processes. How would these two organisations operate? What would the culture be like? Which leader would be the most successful? We have seen countless “successful” organisations that suddenly disappear. Think Enron and Lehman Brothers. What value set do you think the senior executives had? What was missing?
On a local level, imagine that your values were strongly Social and Aesthetic, ie you gained satisfaction from helping others and working in a creative environment. However you worked in an organisation that had strong Traditional and Theoretical values. How successful would you be in getting your messages across? How comfortable and rewarding would it be for you working in such a structured and process driven organisation? What would be your frustrations? How would you behave?
There are many people who do not know their core value set. These people can work in jobs or organisations for years with little job satisfaction or motivation. These people are at great risk of having a value set decided by others and this does happen.
Imagine an employee in an organisation who is unaware of their core values. For the purpose of this exercise the employee has Social as their top value but doesn’t know it. The organisation is strongly Utilitarian and Traditional (think old school) and it expects everyone to follow the directives of the executive team without question. The executive rolls out a major change without consultation, appropriate training, and with an unreasonable time frame. The employee has worked in the company long enough to know that the process has been tried before and failed.
The employee may outwardly appear to accept the changes and say nothing, or they may become belligerent because inwardly they become very conflicted and don’t know how to deal with it. They don’t talk about their concerns because they know from past experience that no one listens. They are seeing and hearing the impact the changes are having on the people, particularly those in their team. With this unresolved conflict the employee will act out in a way that is negative. They either put their head in the sand or become highly visible. These are the people that cause leaders most grief. There is little employee engagement with the individual and probably with the team. The environment can become toxic and unmanageable for the leader.
On the other hand if the employee was aware of their values and felt that they could express them, they may find people to talk to about their concerns about the impact on others. They may try to put forward an alternate proposal that achieves the same outcome with less impact. That is not to say that things will change however they stand up for what they believe in and they are honouring their core values. In this case they may decide that the values of the organisation do not match theirs and look for another job.
As a values based leader you would work with your people to help them find a ways to move past the conflict. You would have conversations about values and what is happening in the person as a result of the situation. You would help them decide on a solution. It might be to leave the company but chances are they will find a way to work that gives them enough satisfaction to remain effective and productive.
Lets be honest no organisation operates perfectly and there will be conflict and challenges. How you and your team deal with them is a sign of the strength of the leader. Recognising the role of values in employee engagement means that you have a simple concept that you can easily use in your conversations and decisions.
Below is a process for you to introduce an awareness of values into your team. It really is simple but it does require you having the right mindset.
Firstly, you need to believe in the goodness and capability of your people rather than believe your job would be easier without them. You need to trust them to do good things. This sounds simple but it does require deep reflection on your own core values. You cannot expect others to change if you are unable to change. You cannot lead people if you have little value attached to them. People pick up on authenticity and quickly see incongruence between intent and action/words. This occurs at a sub conscious level both in you and the other person receiving your messages. Our brains are highly developed to pick up on nuances in other people incredibly quickly. We had to in order to survive. Research has found that we decide if someone is trustworthy in 0.07 seconds!
Next, observe your people to discover patterns between the sorts of work team members do, how they do it, and the satisfaction they derive. This will provide some indication as to what motivates them, or not and is usually easy to spot. For example someone who has high attention to detail may be this way because they like things to look and feel good (Aesthetic) or they could love structure and precision (Traditional). Someone who likes to have points backed up with facts and figures is likely to have Theoretical as a top value. Your 2-IC is likely to have individualistic as one of their top three core values.
Thirdly, talk to your team both individually and as a group. It is a fantastic conversation to have and you will notice a change in the energy levels when you ask about what they are passionate about inside & outside of work. This often provides you and them insights into what motivates them. Often when we are asked about our values we say we value honesty, hard work, family etc. These are not what are considered the core values that drive how we act in the workplace. Be courageous enough to dig deeper. Use the six core values listed and ask people to rank them in order from one (highest/strongest) to six (lowest/weakest). Ask about how they express their top values in their job and what barriers do they feel exist. Ask when and how they are able to be authentic to their values.
Finally, learn to talk and ask questions in ways that connect with each person’s top values. If its Social use words around people and feelings etc, if it is Traditional use words that relate to process, rules, etc. As there will normally be a range of value sets in your team learn to use a variety of words and questions so you engage everyone. There are no right or wrong value sets and no set is better than another. The important thing is to learn to appreciate the value sets of each person and use them to motivate and engage.
Creating a culture within the team where they feel safe expressing their values in what they do will open up and unleash a level of creativity and production you did not believe possible. Employee engagement is at an all time low globally. It seems we have lost our way in connecting at a deep level with others in the workplace. A great leader creates high levels of employee engagement. Becoming a values based leader is a great way to achieve this for you, your team and the organisation.
This blog highlights that employees can be predictable like machines. By knowing the value sets of your team members you will know who likes what, how to speak to them, how to motivate them. You can expect the the team to operate like a well oiled machine. When there are signs of damage or misalignment you can talk to your team to realign their values, maintain the balance, and keep them and the team in top condition.
If you need assistance in introducing a values based culture contact me via success@nullbelieveacheivecoach.com.au or download the free worksheet here
How was 2016 for you? Do you feel that you developed yourself in an area that will progress you in your career? Or were you so busy just trying to do your job that your career development took a back row seat?
Many professionals and leaders alike aspire to progress at least one level higher than they are today. To help this happen many organisations have a career development or career planning section in their annual performance appraisal paperwork. But how effective is this? No, really. How effective has this been for you?
You might have a boss who is snowed under and cannot spare the time to mentor and guide you. You might work for a company that has the right intentions around development of people but doesn’t seem to have the culture. There might also be someone at your level that senior management has taken a shine to and you don’t seem to be on their radar.
I had a client during the year who knew that his days at his organisation were numbered. On reflection he realised that during the five years that he had been employed there, he hadn’t focused on his career development. He hadn’t been promoted and he hadn’t completed any formal training. Sadly he feels that he hasn’t completed anything that was noteworthy on his resume. What had he been doing all this time? Believe it or not my client is ambitious and not lazy. He just took his eye off the game.
My client admitted that he had given full responsibility of his career to the organisation. He believed that the company saw the value in him and therefore would work to develop him because of this. As a result of this belief he didn’t enroll for formal education as he was waiting for the company of offer this. Whilst he was given approval to do some of the projects he proposed, he didn’t get the buy in and so the projects floundered and fell by the way side. He didn’t actively seek out opportunities as he expected the organisation to offer these to him. He knows now that the organisation didn’t see the value that my client believed he possessed.
The real tragedy in this story is that my client is applying for jobs at a level lower than he has worked for the past five years. The selection criteria for the jobs he really would like now contain requirements he doesn’t have.
I don’t think my client is alone in his dilemma. I have come across a number of supervisors, team leaders and managers who have strong beliefs in their own capabilities but haven’t taken the initiative to demonstrate these to their superiors. Competition for higher level roles is strong given the reduced number of them available today. It takes proactive effort and planning to make a career happen today. It will come down to you and what you are prepared to do. Here are some tips that you use to be proactive rather than reactive with your career development.
- Get qualified. What is the qualification most of you competitors are aiming for? It could be a degree, post graduate studies, specialist qualifications, &/or MBA. Do your research. You cannot compete if your competition has a higher level qualification than you. This is particularly so if you plan to go outside of your present company at some point. Not every company will cover the costs of formal studies so you need to decide on the importance of your career. Most career development strategies will include some formal education today.
- Learn to communicate. If you are not on the high potential list at your organisation it is most likely due to your communication style or lack thereof. To get anywhere you need to be impressive to those who make the promotion decisions. You need to influence and persuade in ways that are appealing and demonstrate your value. Its all about relationships and conversations. Yes qualifications and skills are important but if you are not known, trusted and respected by others, you won’t get noticed. Careers are built and destroyed on conversations so learn how to communicate well.
- Mind your language. Sometimes it pays to remember nanna’s saying “if you haven’t anything nice to say, say nothing at all”. Complaining and backstabbing are absolutely career limiting actions. Strong leadership is about taking the bad and the undesirable and working a way around to make it better. It doesn’t involve mouthing off and trying to convince others that your idea was better. Your career development must include opportunities to learn and master self management and self awareness. Learning about your triggers and being aware of your responses and reactions means that you can find ways to swallow hard and respond more appropriately.
- Doing great work. Most of our time at work is spent doing the work our bosses require us to do. But make time to do work that you know will add great value. It could be to streamline a process, cut out costs, make a system work more efficiently, improve safety, increase productivity. These are the pieces of work that get you noticed and can significantly improve your promotion opportunities.
- Network. You cannot rise to the top on your own. Your career development has to involve the support and guidance of others. Find yourself a great mentor, an advocate, and a confidante. Become active in your professional association. Be a volunteer for a not-for-profit. Great leaders actively seek support and advice as very few are born with all the credentials to be great. They are also generous with their time and offer it to others.
So which of these will you focus on this year as part of your career development? For more assistance in getting your career development back on track, contact me at success@nullbelieveachievecoach.com.au for some practical and results orientated guidance.
10 Signs that Your Organization Could Use a Collaboration Tune Up
Many organizations lose productivity, quality, morale, and customer satisfaction due to poor collaboration among teams, units, and employees. It can stifle decision making when their is a belief that everyone has a right to have input and they have to agree. When trust is low, collaboration isn’t able to penetrate the silos and the belief systems leading to discontent and frustration.
Teams don’t form naturally. Add to this that many teams today don’t work out of the same building let alone the same state. Our hierarchical organisation structures define functional boundaries and our comfort zones. We become protective of our turf. All these things work against effective cross functional collaboration.
To find out whether your organization might be suffering from the consequences of poor collaboration, take this simple assessment.
Circle any of the following statements that seem even a little bit true….
- There is a general sense that it is hard to get things done in your organization.
- Decisions are frequently delayed by the friction of working across units or silos.
- Projects are frequently over budget due to the friction of working across units or silos.
- Projects frequently don’t achieve their desired level of quality due to the friction of working across units or silos.
- Products or services sometimes do not go out with the desired level of quality, and this may be due to the way that teams or different units work together (or don’t).
- Managers and employees seem to lack the skills required to collaborate effectively.
- When a project misses a milestone, people point the finger at other teams or units.
- There is resentment or a dysfunctional working relationship among two or more business units/teams in your organization.
- There is resentment or a dysfunctional working relationship among two or more high-level executives in your organization, and this dysfunction ripples through the organization.
- Employees spend too much of their time on unproductive activities related to coping with the stress and hassle of pushing things forward, instead of the productive activities of creating things, making things, selling things, and serving customers.
If you circled even one of the above statements, we should have a 30 minute phone conversation. Remember: You get what you tolerate. Why tolerate the kind of hassles related to poor collaboration? Believe Achieve Coaching & Consulting might be able to help. Contact us today at success@nullbelieveachievecoach.com.au.
Many years ago I came to a realisation that some companies create the monsters in their employees. These are the difficult employees who have performance issues, &/or hold several warnings on their files, &/or cause others to walk on egg shells around them. They are seemingly unmanageable yet remain in the company year on year. Even more concerning is that some of these people manage to be promoted!
I am sure that these people did not apply for these jobs with the express intent of causing problems. I believe that they applied and accepted these jobs to earn a fair pay for a fair day’s work. There are many out there who go to work for the same reason. The only difference being that these people become a significant issue for their teams and their manager. What changed for them? What didn’t work for them?
When you have a difficult employee in your team how often have you, as the leader taken the time to step in their shoes and see their reality? How many times have you sought to understand and see things from their perspective without judgement? What has their experience been like?
As a leader you probably dislike having to manage a difficult employee. The situation makes you feel anxious and stressed. You know that the meeting will be tense and the employee is likely to be defensive and blame everything and everybody for their situation. The situation will be triggering your brain’s defensive mechanisms of fight or flight. It is uncomfortable for everyone involved.
What if you didn’t have to get to this point? What would that look like for you?
When we interact others, be they family, colleagues, customers, or employees, we do one of two things. We can cause them to become protective and defensive, or we can cause them to see us as trusting and empathetic. And this happens in 0.07 seconds! When we trust someone we are operating in our pre frontal cortex. We are open to understanding, sharing our ideas and bonding with others. All of which strengthens our relationships. If we feel threatened or fearful we shut down the pre frontal cortex and operate in our old brain where memories and past experience reside. We focus only on our own protection and will strongly defend and reconfirm our beliefs and perceptions. If you were having a performance management conversation with an employee with this occurring in their brain, you can now appreciate why nothing will change for them.
When someone approaches us our natural and first instinct is to decide if they are friend or foe, to be trusted or not. We pick up this information from the other person’s facial expression, body position, stance, & presence. (When we are on the phone the same reaction occurs but the message comes through our facial expression, tone, and pitch). There is an energy that connects us and it triggers neurochemical reactions in our brains when we stand within 3 metres of each other.
Are you aware of the energy you are emitting when you approach others? We are very highly tuned to picking up the energy of others. As an activity this week be aware of your thoughts and feelings when you are interacting with a range of people. See what emotions are triggered and try to figure out why. Who do you feel open and safe with and why. What does this feel like for you? Who is capable of triggeing your old brain? What is it that they do that triggers your reaction?
Remember learning that what we communicate consists of 7% words, 38% tone and 55% body language? It is the body language that we use to decide whether we open up to the conversation or shut down. When you are meeting with a difficult employee are you opening them or shutting them down? What about your own mind set? Are you open or closed?
If you want to experience a different outcome with a difficult employee you must gain their trust. You do this by genuinely respecting them, empathising with them, and understanding them. For this reason you cannot lead people you don’t like. There is no place for pretending or being inauthentic. In the face of incongruity, our brains will default to protection and close down the mind.
Here are some questions you can use for reflection. They will help you prepare how you present yourself to others.
- What is my intention? Do I want to be right or do I want to work with this person to get a great outcome?
- Am I fully present? Am i prepared to listen without judging?
- How is the other person feeling? What needs do they want met?
- What can I do to move us into trusting space?
- If we can have an open trusting conversation what will be possible?
I am running a free webinar on how to deal with a difficult employee on Wednesday 14 December 2016. You will gain a greater understanding of how you can improve the outcomes of these difficult conversations. To join the webinar please send me an email and I will send you an invitation. You can email me on success@nullbelieveachievecoach.com.au
Are you aware of your leadership profile? Are you a leader that has earned the trust and respect of others? If you are then you are to be congratulated. The truth is that having the title of leader does not mean that you are one. People may respect the role of leader but not you personally. They may have allegiance to the person at the helm of the organisation but have little faith in what they say.
Your leadership profile is about how you present. Its not about what you say as much as who you are. Its a judgement made by others and it goes deep into your beliefs and values. How you present on the outside is about what goes on unconsciously in your mind. People can read this through your actions and your words. if there is congruence between what they see and hear and what they feel they are likely to trust you and be open to you. Likewise if your leadership profile is incongruent then you present a threat and you are not to be trusted. This all happens at the unconscious level in both people.
Great leaders have a congruent leadership profile but to develop this would have been a long and sometimes tough ride. Research still confirms today that it takes about 10,000 hours of development to create a good leader. That’s about 5 years of full time effort. What conscious and planned development have you embarked on to be the best lead?
The business world today is a very different place then when you thinking about becoming a leader. Leadership used to be about knowledge, experience and clear strategic direction. It was about power, direction and a planned strategic path. Today there are no right answers. Your past experience and knowledge may not assist in resolving an issue. Leadership today is more about collaborating with others to find solutions that haven’t existed before, experimenting and taking calculated risks, being prepared to fail. Employees today expect to be developed, challenged and provide input. Leadership is less about power and presence and more about adapting and developing the team to deal with the changes.
Leader behaviours can limit their ability to perform effectively in times of high pressure and change. Our natural response is to revert back to what we know and how we acted before. They say that our true colours show under pressure. How do you react under pressure? Do you need to develop a better way to respond that is not impulsive? Below are a five ways for leaders to take on board and focus on in order to improve their leadership profile from the inside out.
1 – Take a look in the cupboard
Are you comfortable to trust others to work as well as you? Do you need perfection? Do you avoid conflict?
Knowing what is holding you back or making you act is imperative to becoming better. Deep beliefs and habits are enormously difficult to overcome but you must find ways to overcome these especially when they impact your effectiveness or that of others in your team. You cannot hold onto beliefs that cause frustration. I know of a manager who is well aware of the impact his need to be 110% perfect has on himself and others. Unfortunately he is not yet ready to change and so he will continue to work crazy hours and suffer high turnover in his team. When he speaks of his high need for perfection he seems proud to wear this badge. Crazy stuff
2 – What is your movie?
Have you ever suffered a brain fade, a blow up, or an out of character response? Do you sometimes wish you could just curl up in a ball and hide? Have you reached a point where you just want to give up? When we are highly stressed it is likely that our responses are going to be impulsive rather than considered. Our memories and our fears drive our behaviours. Its like watching a movie in our head and we know the ending before we’ve even got half way through.
Real or perceived threats cause the release cortisol and adrenaline which fires up our amygdala and our fight/ flight/ freeze/ appease reaction. We lose our ability to be rational and open to new ideas. Instead our negative self talk and our memories (always bad!!) take over.
A better response is to control our urge to trigger the amygdala through conscious awareness of what is going on. Through reflection of your emotions and feelings at various times of the day and during various situations you become aware of the signs and can put in place mitigating actions that stop the movie starting.
Great leaders suffer the same reactions as the rest of us. The difference is that they have learnt what their triggers are and have trained themselves to react in a certain way to ward off the impulsive response. They have learnt to breathe, to pause, and to seek to understand more, They also come into a situation as prepared as they can be. If they know that there is a chance the conversation is going to go bad, they prepare by thinking up effective responses before they have the conversation. All these actions can help you become more measured and relaxed in a tough situation. It takes awareness, insight and practice to change and become better. What would the impact be if you changed your responses?
3 – How’s your ego?
The ego gets a fair bit of bad press. Some of it is deserved. We have all had the experience of a leader with an ego the size of Mac Truck. You spend so much of your time stroking the ego becoming a servant to this master. If you don’t what your ego to get the better of you, you need to understand how you are perceived by others. Gaining honest feedback is the best way to assess how big your ego is and what impact it is having on you and others. You would not have gotten to where you are today without your ego so it does have a lot of benefit. The problem is when your ego becomes bigger than you.
What feedback is worthwhile? Finding out how you are perceived by your direct reports, your peers and your manager through skillful questioning. For example are you perceived as someone who takes the credit for other people’s work? Do you spend a lot of time in self promoting conversations? Are you someone who interrupts and takes over the conversation? Do you become sensitive to challenges to your opinions and seek to defend them?
An ego is a healthy part of us however you need to ensure that it isn’t turning you into a poor leader with a poor leadership profile. It is fine to enjoy the benefits of your role providing that you get a great sense of satisfaction from your achievements that better other people and the organisation. You can be proud of your achievements providing you are devoted to developing and recognising the efforts of others. If your ego is balanced with a passion for others you are worthy of recognition of your achievement.
4 – Learn and keep learning.
A few years back I spoke to the individual members of the leadership team at an organisation I once worked at. I was developing a leadership program and asked about their learning & development needs. To my surprise all these leaders felt that they had learnt all they needed to know about leadership and didn’t need any further opportunities to develop in this area. Unfortunately the people who worked for the company were very concerned about the disconnect between the leadership team and the realities in the organisation. They wanted the leaders to change and help the organisation progress and were frustrated by the reluctance to do so.
The rate of change in the business world is unprecedented. The levels of complexity will only continue to challenge even the brightest and most visionary. Leaders cannot accept that the learning and development that got them where they are today is going to enough to be effective into the future. Closing your mind and believing you know enough is the equivalent of closing your organisation down. Never stop learning.
5 – What is at your core?
What are your core values and how do you demonstrate these in your day to day work? Living and acting as close to your values is the best way to show up authentically in all situations. People are able to trust you because they understand the limits or boundaries of your operating style. Your ability to mentor others and create a vision rests on how deeply your hold your values. We all have heard that people are the organisations’ best asset. How many of us actually believe that this is the case where we work. If we don’t hold a core value about people being an asset then all you are doing is spruiking an empty saying and people quickly see through this. Your leadership profile will hold little substance.
Research has shown that people pass judgement on another person in less than 1 second. That is not a lot of time to speak so our judgments are based on other things that show up before we open our mouths. This is our profile and it is what we project for others to see and feel. When we are aware of our presence and its impact we can ensure that in that one second a person perceives us as a leader instead of a person who has a title of a leader. Which one are you?
