We all have encountered this type of person: someone who talks excessively, may repeat himself continually, and can’t get to the point.

In this age of sound bites, texting and tweets, it has become harder to tolerate the motormouth.  So how can you manage these individuals in a team meeting and also coach them in a one-on-one meeting to become more succinct in their communications?

In a team meeting

Set a tight agenda and use a countdown timer that is visible to everyone.  I use a free countdown timer that can be found at http://www.online-stopwatch.com.  If you have regular weekly meetings, then at the beginning of each meeting institute a time limit of 3-5 minutes for each team member to give their weekly update.  It is important when instituting this new process that you explain your purpose for doing so.  It may be that you want to decrease the time spent in meetings or that you want everyone to learn and experience how to become more concise in their verbal communications.

Give the rest of the team the job of actively listening to each individual’s update and noting information that could have been left out as well as information that might have been repeated.  Typically the motormouth on the team will continue to talk after the bell rings signaling that their time is up.  There will probably be others in the group that has some difficulty with limiting their remarks.  

For those who struggle with the time limit, suggest that they prepare their remarks in writing in advance of the meeting.  If team members frequently use texting to communicate, have them think of their presentation as short texts or tweets.  If team members don’t typically use texting, then perhaps they are more comfortable with the concept of short bullet points.

After each presenter’s 3-5 minutes are up, each team member has one minute to share their feedback with the presenter – what items were important to the team member and what could have been left out.  The presenter’s job is simply to listen to each team member’s feedback and then at the end of the feedback thank the person without further comment.

Using this methodology allows the team to focus on an effective team meeting and not any one individual’s presentation.  The process can benefit all team members’ listening and communication skills, and for you the manager, this process will free up some of your time as meetings become more focused and succinct.

In a one-on-one meeting

If you know of a nonstop talker who is a peer, what can you do?

Make the motormouth feel self-conscious by staying quiet while they speak.  Being quiet includes not uttering any words or sounds like, um or uh-huh.  The more sounds they hear the more they will talk.

When you do speak to the motormouth, speak slowly.  Since most nonstop talkers speak at a rapid rate, your slower rate of speaking will create a contrast for the motormouth and will hopefully get them to become more self-aware of how much they are talking.

In addition, don’t restate what you heard as it gives a nonstop talker the opportunity to repeat themselves.  Just let them know you understand and then say good-bye.  Later, send them an email confirming what you heard and ask them to respond back by way of email.

If none of these techniques work during the one-on-one meeting, take the time to coach them.  Share your observations with them about how much they talk, how it makes you feel, and how it impacts you.  They can’t say you are wrong about your feelings.  If you are their manager/leader, ask them how they think their behavior may impact others on the team who don’t have the opportunity to talk and share their ideas with others.  With all their talking, ask them what they think they may be missing from others, both in the office and at home?

In summary: whether in group or individual meetings, the value of managing and coaching motormouths is huge!  Your meetings will be shorter, you will be able to focus on the important aspects of your job, and the nonstop talker as well as other team members will become more effective communicators.

One Response to “Managing a Motormouth: How to Get Them to Talk Less”

Great humorous article on how to recognize the different IT personality types. The article even provides a self assessment. As someone who has had to lead and manage many of these types in the past, I would love to see a follow up article on the best management techniques to use with each particular personality.

I have provided the link to the article by Dan Tynan below, and look for my quote under No 5, The Ubergeek

http://bit.ly/9o2mTX

A recent article in Talent Management Magazine reports that the number of people quitting their jobs rose to 2.1 million in April. Skilled professionals are one of the fastest growing  segments of the workforce who are quiting.

According to the article, the level of effective leadership perceived by employees can impact whether an employee would consider leaving a job or not.

http://talentmgt.com/talent.php?pt=a&aid=1280

So what are you doing to become more effective in your leadership and how is your company developing leadership talent? If you don’t have answers to these questions, you may start losing key employees. Don’t wait, have a plan.

One of the definitions of a “leader” in Webster’s Dictionary is “a person who has commanding authority or influence”.  I would argue that in the 21^st century it’s all about influence, not authority. If a leader only has authority and is unable to influence others, then his leadership will be short lived.

Think about those leaders in your organization, whether for profit or not for profit, who may not have the title of VP, Director, or Manager yet they have followers because of their influence with others. These are the people who others listen to and respect but don’t have the title providing them with the authority to lead.

So what if you’re a leader with authority, you’ve got the title, how do you know whether or not you have influence with the people you are leading?  And if you don’t have influence, can you build it?

I am interested in your thoughts and suggestions.

We’ve all been there. You’re working on an important project and one of your team members, co-workers, or even manager is the eternal pessimist. I like to call people like this, Eeyore. You remember Eeyore, the gloomy donkey from Winnie the Pooh. The words and phrases you often hear from pessimists are things like, “it won’t work”, “I can’t”, “why?” Not only can these people de-motivate others they can also derail a project.

So what do you do to assist the Eeyores in your life? Ignoring them is not the right answer although many of us choose this as the solution, thinking that they can’t be helped.

You first have to remember that they didn’t start being a pessimist last week. They probably came out of the womb looking at the world in a negative light. So any change that does occur is going to be small and slow. So be very alert to the smallest positive change and praise them for it when you observe it!

When I work with leaders who are focused more on the negative, the challenge is to get them to open their eyes to more options then what they initially see. In fact often they see no options. I will also challenge their beliefs that often lead them to a negative conclusion. For instance, if I hear “I can’t” from someone, the next questions are: What makes you belief this? What proof do you have? How solid and reliable is the proof? The goal is to get them to start seeing things in a more balanced realistic way.

The other part to the process of managing the pessimist is to get them to see how they are impacting others around them. A good first question when someone claims “I can’t” is: If you can’t do it, how do you think it is going to impact others on the team? What resources or assistance do you need so you “can”?

It won’t happen overnight but if you take action and don’t ignore the pessimist you will start to see some positive changes.

One Response to “Managing the Eeyores, the Pessimists, in Your Life”

During the past six to nine months, many executives that I have worked with have had to let employees go in order to survive the economic downturn. They have also had to look at all of their discretionary expenses and cut many of these expenses as well.

The planning of such programs is not the difficult part. It is the actual implementation of these cost cutting programs that is the most difficult for both the manager and employees. How managers’ lead during the following months after the job and expense cuts have been made is critical to employee morale and productivity. Executives that are focused on the future after the economy recovers and display key behaviors prior to the recovery will be positioned for a robust recovery. Those executives who are stuck in today’s economy and aren’t taking care of their current employees will be rudely awakened when the economy bounces back.

So who are the executives that have companies that will survive and thrive? What are they doing on a consistent basis? What do they value?

What are the High Level Leaders Doing?

The leaders that I work with who are managing at a higher level, than those who aren’t, genuinely believe that the employees who remain after the reduction in workforce are their most valuable resource. How do I know this? I know it from both what they say AND what they do.

What are they saying that makes me believe they are a high level leader? I first listen for the actual words that they use. Leaders whose vocabulary is dominated with “we, us, the team, and the company” tell me that they make decisions which are best for the company and not themselves. Those leaders who when talking about their employees use words like “development, potential, valuable, encourage, coach, and mentor” tell me that employees are important, valuable, and should be invested in.

An example of this was a recent conversation I had with a business owner of a product distribution company that was rapidly growing until about six months ago. He had recently let go several employees and was sharing his concerns with me about the remaining employees. He lamented how difficult it was to let go of some very valuable employees and that he was concerned that those that remained were working even harder to fill in the gaps left from those who were let go. He went on to say that he wanted to encourage all of his employees so they would remain as committed and motivated as they were before the layoffs. He felt and believed that it was his mission to help all of his employees be engaged and motivated.

What do they do to display their concern for their employees? They are accessible to employees and often leave their office and walk around the office to observe their employees in action and answer any questions they may have. They constantly look for great performance by employees then praise them for their efforts. They create opportunities for employees to praise and recognize each other during project and team meetings. They celebrate small and large successes.

A great example of this is a technology company that I work with. The president gets out of his office each day and walks the halls and cubicles to visit with employees. This is something that he has been doing for years and with a recent reduction in workforce, these walks have become even more important to him. He is finely tuned into the interactions he observes and doesn’t miss the opportunity to offer his help and assistance. And recently he has added a very inexpensive benefit to all employees. Twice a week he has a trainer come in to provide group fitness classes to employees. They use the warehouse space as the training facility and he participates in the training. More importantly, he pays for this out of his own pocket and communicated this to his employees because he was concerned that if he didn’t share his donation there would be a mixed message—the company can afford a trainer twice a week but couldn’t afford the employees that were recently let go.

This leader demonstrated his commitment to his employees by being present both during times of work and play. And by being present he was able to assist individual employees when help was needed. Employees felt and believed that leadership was committed to supporting them through these difficult times.

When employees believe that their leaders care, support, and want to genuinely help them on a consistent basis, they are committed and become loyal and fully engaged with their employer. So when the economy rebounds, which it will, these employees will not be looking for the exit rather they will be rallying with their leader for success. And remember to continue to lead at a higher level even after you and your company gets through the downturn! Thee leadership practices will keep you competitive!

A recent article from HR Specialist lists 15 questions you should ask new employees after their first 60 days of employment. Click this link to read the article http://bit.ly/9RATuy

I would argue that leaders should be asking many of these questions on an ongoing basis and not just after the first 60 days on the job. Asking these questions in an environment of trust and openness can enhance the engagement of employees and ultimately lead to higher productivity. The more conversations you have with employees about their expectations the more they will feel that you care for them. Remember that as a manager/leader you are the number one reason why an employee remains engaged and productive OR whether she leaves. Make time to ask these questions as well as others, it is one way to show you care!

If you have other questions that have worked for you to keep employees engaged, please share them with our readers

I was recently facilitating one of my Vistage CEO groups in which the group was reviewing the way we had been operating looking for ways to improve our meetings.  One of the members shared a best practice with the group which reinforces mission vision and values within his company.  He thought the technique could be transferred to our Vistage meetings. As the discussion progressed, there was a little voice in the back of my head saying “Beth, don’t get sucked into adding onto your responsibilities”. Almost as quickly as I heard the silent message,  did I turn to the member and delegate the 5 minute exercise to him for all meetings moving forward.

What an empowering feeling it was.  It really was a great idea, but the member was the one who owned the idea, not me. He should be the one to execute it during the meetings.

This 5 minute discussion got me thinking of the many times that I had not delegated in similar situations and the impact delegating has on leaders, especially in real time situations.  So often when we are planning projects and major initiatives we have time to think about who and what to delegate BUT it is the times when we are in the middle of a meeting or conversation that we often don’t delegate because we either: 1. think we should do it or 2. want to help out.

Clearly in the situation I described in my Vistage meeting, the person was already doing the very same thing in his company, so he was qualified to have it delegated to him AND I didn’t feel like I should do it. And my help in this situation was not going to add any value to the process as it wasn’t something I had ever done, although I could do it if necessary.

So the next time someone has a great idea which is going to create work for you, are you going to delegate in real time?

Yes, it is a huge disaster and they have yet to find a solution but why has it taken so long? I believe it is lack of leadership. BP is a huge company with billions of dollars of resources and I am sure a huge risk management department and yet they seem to be making up solutions day to day.

As a leader what learnings can you take from their disaster which will make your company stronger and more resilient? How are decisions made in your organization? Can improvements be made to the decision making process that would eliminate the risk of potential disasters to your organization?

Somewhere along the way BP’s decision making and risk management processes failed. If you and your leadership team haven’t already analyzed these areas within your company now is the time.  Don’t wait for a disaster, plan for one, put contingency and multiple back up plans in place and be accountable for both the successes and disasters.

Here are some resources to kick start the process:

http://www.ready.gov/business/_downloads/sampleplan.pdf

http://www.sba.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/sba_homepage/serv_disprep_planningguide.pdf

We’ve all been there.  An annual sit down with our boss who proceeds to give us feedback on what we have done right and wrong over the past months or worse years! It is an exercise that never brings positive results unless it is paired with feedforward.  Feedforward is a term I first heard from Marshall Goldsmith the guru in executive coaching and author of “What got you here, Won’t get you there”.

Marshall’s point is that feedback focuses on the past which can’t be changed.  Why not focus on the future and what changes you can make that can alter future results for you both personally and professionally?

Here are some questions I use with my coaching clients that focus on the future that you can use the next time you are leading managing a person or team after identifying the past problem.  The example I am going to use is a case where the manager didn’t like to have meetings because they frustrated him. As we explored his frustration it was brought out that the meetings were focused on past results and many of the items reviewed could have been done by email or phone.

So here are some of the questions I asked:

How can the meeting be structured so that the discussions are focused on the future? What can you do before the meeting to keep it focused on the future? What behaviors do you have that can derail the process? How do you keep these behaviors in check during the meeting? How will you feel when you have a successful meeting? If you are unable to make this happen, what will be the impact to you and the organization moving forward?

So next time you are stuck in the past, switch gears and feedforward!