Follow
Blog Featured
Archive for February, 2011
Secret Sauce for Performance – Knowing What Matters to Your People. A story . . .
Image via Wikipedia
A friend recently told me a great story. As part of a performance evaluation for one of his people who had worked hard this past year he gave all the things he was expected to provide – feedback in the form of an evaluation and a wage increase. But for this employee, he also handed tickets to a concert for he and his wife. The source of this gift was a conversation a couple of months earlier when it was shared that his wife loved this artist, but they could not justify the cost at that time. This third piece brought forth a response of passion and gratitude that way exceeded the response to the first two rewards. My friend hit the secret sauce of performance – knowing your people and giving them something REALLY special when they deserve it.
One question I love to ask people is What rewards mean the most to you? Too often Management 101 discussions neglect to tell the new leader that money is not a motivator. If that is not understood then you only have to sit in a room with 10 of your people and have someone like me ask that question. Money will be mentioned, but it is not at the top of the list.
Great rewards go deeper than just the standard list. The ability to connect family members, hobbies, or passions outside of work allows you to do two things:
- Show that you care about them as a person.
- Speak to other significant people in their lives with a message that you/your company cares. These friends/spouses are the people who encourage them after a day when maybe you are not so great a leader (we all have those days). They will also tell the story to other great people who might be looking to work for a great company/leader. The textbooks call these two things retention and attraction – and they are pretty important.
Interested in being this kind of leader? Here are two moves you can make:
- Keep a file with everyone’s name and their answer to the question What rewards mean the most to you?
- Keep notes in your file anytime they say I love to _________ or We would really like to see/go to _____________.
Then you just have to follow through when they do something great - but that is the easy part.
Lessons in Leadership – Learning delegation from a child
Last night my youngest daughter delivered these faithful words at 2am – “Daddy, my tummy hurts.” I turned on the light and asked her “Tell me about the hurt?” Her response was pretty simple “I think I am going to get sick. I need to go to the bathroom.” My response “Go ahead.” I will spare you the details of the next 20 minutes, but I judge the endings of these things based on how much work I end up having to do. In this case, I was just needed for comfort. Whew.
As I think about that event today, I realized that my daughter is growing up. She got up when she felt bad, came to tell me, and with very little help from me other than a slight nudge, she took care of herself. We have raised a child that is showing signs of maturity and independence. It feels good.
One of the big challenges of leaders is growing individuals and teams that show that kind of independence. I have always been struck by all the different ways people have created to measure the effectiveness of a leader. Too often we depend on a test or a psychologist to measure how well individuals and teams are developing into independent thinkers.
Here is a simple one to measure how independent your team is today. Take a piece of paper and every time someone on your team comes to you with a need for help today make a mark. If they bring the answer or you are able to get them to provide their own answer, circle that mark. At the end of the day what does the sheet say about your leadership style and their ability to solve their own problems?
Your development plan – more marks with circles tomorrow because you ask what they think the answer is more often.
When they leave with their own answer, you are becoming a developer of people . . and a leader. Trust me, it will feel good.
What keeps you up at night? A unique way to use this question
We have all heard this question. It is one of those What to ask a leader 101 questions. Yesterday I heard this question used in a way that surprised me.
I saw retired Brigadier General David Hall speak. He had many insights to share, but how he used this question was unique. In his years of leading he developed the habit gathering his staff together at the end of each month to have a drink and some social time. One of the things he would do during their time together was share the things that, as their leader, were keeping him up at night. He would end with the request for help from anyone who had an idea or perspective that would make that worry go away.
- Shouldn’t people ask the leader this question? Yes, but the military is not much different from business. Sometimes people are scared or nervous to ask a leader a tough question.
- Is it right for a leader to dump like that? It is sharing what you are thinking and asking for help. Dumping is this happening daily or weekly.
Not surprisingly, many of his problems went away over time.
Why wait for a question like this to be asked first?
Related Articles
- We are in this together . . TrustBUSTER#10 – Asks team to make sacrifices, but does not follow (trugroupscott.wordpress.com)
Developing Resilience – 4 Ways to Process Pain
Image via Wikipedia
The top three most stressful events in life are:
- Death
- Divorce
- Job Loss
Right Management, an outplacement company and division of Manpower tells those experiencing #3 to do three things right away:
- Exercise
- Get a schedule
- Journal
When I share this with people trying to process a career shift or a plan #3 often stands out and evokes the question “Why?”. The reason -pain needs to be processed to add to the tools/weapons that build resilience for future events. Are you dealing with some event below the top 3 above. Here are other ways to process pain/challenge:
- Executive coaching - A safe place to process, reset, and plan to move past it.
- Peer network - Few things are more comforting than knowing you are not alone in your challenges. ALL managers and above NEED to develop this for themselves. Don’t wait for your employer or HR team to do it for you.
- Read how others have done it - Like #2, finding a person with a good perspective can be comforting and will help you process things.
- Spouse/Best Friend - Having a ‘here is where I am’ discussion with someone who cares for and understands you is priceless.
Being alone with a challenge is not a good place to stay. Go find a friend.
Related Articles
- Resilience – 4 Steps to NOT make it another initiative (trugroupscott.wordpress.com)
- Silence and Resilience (trugroupscott.wordpress.com)
- Is Resilience The Right Message? Three things to consider before starting this discussion in your organization (trugroupscott.wordpress.com)
- Resilience – The discussion starts(and continues) with transparency (trugroupscott.wordpress.com)
- 5 Tips To Increase Resilience (psychologytoday.com)
The Law of Leadership Transparency – 3 ways to apply it
A business owner shared his survival story from the latest downturn. When I asked him “What is different about your business now versus three years ago?” his answer made me step back. He said “Now, my business comes before my people.” He went on to explain when he hires he tells people up front that he is doing everything he can to keep them busy, but if the business drops off he will have to send them home. He also makes it clear that his best people, regardless of tenure, will be kept on as long as he can.
He learned the law of transparency, which is Be open and honest about things you want to face with someone if you expect/need them to help.
Here are three ways to apply this law:
- Performance discussion - If this does not feel like a conversation the law is not being applied.
- Making a sacrifice to manage through a negative event - If people have to sacrifice then they need to know what is happening.
- Recruiting - What is broken that this role needs to be fixed? Say it and ask for the help before you offer the job.
Transparency can be taught, but it first has to be valued.
Leaders who use it effectively are rewarded with trust and respect.
Leadership and . . . Valentine’s Day?
Image via Wikipedia
In an informal poll of a half-dozen men over the last week I found that 100% of them were wishing this Hallmark holiday never existed. Based on the line at Walgreen’s last night at 9pm, I can say the world feels a responsibility to buy something red, sweet or shiny for someone today. Let me offer an alternative.
Valentine’s Day should be about emotionally connecting with someone you care about.
What if you put aside time on the couch, in front of a fire, or over a meal (in or out) and discussed these five questions:
- What were the high points of our past year together?
- What did we overcome?
- What are the things facing us that have me worried?
- What should we be doing more of and less of in the coming year?
- Why are you/this relationship so important to me?
Too often, both at work and at home, we don’t put enough value on giving our time and full focus.
Most of my life is spent helping leaders connect with and influence the people around them. As I look at this list it hits me that it would probably be a powerful conversation to have at work.
Sometimes I wonder if we think too much and don’t feel enough.
Lead? Yes. With Laughter? Absolutely! Here is one way . .
Image by Fonzie's cousin via Flickr
A friend of mine works in a startup focused on education. Lots to do. Lots of stress. One of those jobs where it would be easy to never go home and never be done.
Then along came the movie Waiting for Superman. The team went to see it, and as part of the event he challenged them to wear Superman capes around work all day for $20. Their response? Absolutely. All day, out to lunch, AND to the movie. They even made a cape for their leader. There was lots of work and lots of laughter that day, and in the days following.
When is your Waiting for Superman moment?
- Is there a festival going on outside your office? Go.
- Have a yo-yo expert on your team? How about a group lesson?
- Is there a park nearby? How about some frisbee golf for 45 minutes.
Its Friday – do something different. Are you leading? Maybe. Is there any laughter? If you are really leading there should be.
Oh, and a point of clarification. Just the cape, not the super shirt and super tights. That would not be funny. 
Silence and Resilience
Image via Wikipedia
People are often shocked when we review the results of their Birkman assessment and it identifies a need to recharge. Those with opposite results are often surprised people need quiet time. The really confused people work 15 hour days so they will be there when everyone leaves and they can have time to work without interruption.
- In swimming they call it tapering.
- In running it is called a recovery run.
- In Europe it is called holiday.
- In business it is too often called ‘something HR told me I have to do’.
Everyone needs time to step back and recover/reset their mind.
- The serial decision maker needs to review which decisions they made that should have gone to their team.
- The CFO needs to focus on a few items that the CEO graciously granted their request for more time, even if it only means an extra hour.
- The super achiever needs to think when they smiled last – and realize they answered four calls from customers with abrupt, matter of fact responses. At least one customer is offended.
Silence isn’t equal to doing nothing. Silence in resilience is about cleaning the lists off the mental whiteboard and only putting one or two things back on for a short time so they get attention.
Training for resilience requires recovery at some point.
Related Articles
- 5 Tips To Increase Resilience (psychologytoday.com)
Get a Valentine’s Day Win
Cover via Amazon
Each year billions of dollars are spent improving performance of individuals and teams at work. It is important for everyone to learn and grow, and the pressure to perform is higher now than at any point in the last 20 years.
On Monday it is Valentine’s Day in America, so the performance pressure increases ten fold for anyone who is in a relationship.
Let me rescue you. Especially you men. My only caveat is that this advice is coming from someone who gave an amazing set of knives and a classic cookbook to his wife (then girlfriend) for their first Christmas.
Just finished a book set by Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn – One for men to better understand how women think (For Men Only) and one for women to better understand how men think (For Women Only). Easy to read, <200 pages, entertaining, and amazingly accurate. A worthwhile read and it will start some great conversations. Include an IOU for a dinner/date night to talk about what you read and you are home free.
I just used those knives and cookbook tonight. Why after 20 years am I still not vindicated?
Development and growth is not just for work.