Posts Tagged ‘feedback’

Over the years, I have worked with hundreds of leaders many who have displayed specific leadership shortfalls, that when improved, have had a positive impact on the effectiveness and profitability of the organization. Both new and experienced manager/leaders can make these top five mistakes, which one is your Achilles heel? And what is your plan to improve?

1. Focusing on the Urgent and not the Important

How much time are you spending on activities that lead to your goals versus those that are urgent and unexpected?  You would be surprised how many leaders fall into this trap. And it is a trap. In fact, I have worked with some leaders who get their “energy” from working in crisis mode.

The key is to set aside time on the calendar that is only for the important activities, and have the activities clearly prioritized so that when an urgent item is screaming at you, you can logically decide what important task can be set aside.

We all have crises, yet more often than not we move right into crisis mode before thinking through what can be moved off our plate of “importants”. Create a process that works for you in which you can smoothly move from the urgent and then back to the important.  Don’t get stuck in the urgent.

2. Lack of Consistent Communication

As far as I can tell, there is no such thing as over communication in the work place. If I had a nickel for every time a leader said to me “I told the company our (project, goal, etc), yet two weeks later they have totally forgotten the conversation”, I’d be a very wealthy person.

In this age of information overload, employees have a lot to file away and process. Communications should be implemented frequently and consistently using a variety of methods since people have different learning styles.  With the huge menu of communication technologies available to companies, messages should be delivered in person, electronically in written, audio, and video, as well as the old fashioned way, printed hard copy. For more on this topic from Harvard Business Review http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6629.html

3. Ineffective Feedback

This is a result of providing delayed and unclear feedback. It often starts by ignoring the “small stuff” with the hope that the behavior won’t happen again. More often than not, the behavior is repeated, and becomes tolerated. And it can lead to conflict avoidance by a manager.

The best time to provide feedback is immediately after the behavior is observed. Be clear about what you observed, how it impacted you, and ask for ideas from your employee about how they could approach it in the future. And then get their commitment to make the change. This process focuses more on the future as the past can’t be changed, only the future. For more thoughts on this visit http://www.executivevelocityblog.com/feedback-is-not-a-help/

And for innovative ideas on moving away from the traditional performance review feedback, read an article from Daniel Pink http://bit.ly/lJdmJk

4. Failing to Define Clear Goals

Employees need to understand how they will be measured and evaluated. Defining clear goals provides a roadmap for the employee. And more importantly, when an employee is part of her goal setting process, she has more ownership in successfully attaining her goals. Without goals, employees will not meet your performance expectations because they don’t know what they are.

For additional information on creating clear goals visit http://www.executive-velocity.com/free-tools/

5. Misunderstanding Motivation

After reading, Daniel Pink’s recent book Drive, I am convinced that leaders really need to rethink how they operate and create an environment that provides the foundation for employees to be intrinsically motivated. Too often managers think that changing the extrinsic motivators will lead to a change in behavior, and they can.  The problem is that the change is not long term and sustainable.

Once you have met an employee’s baseline extrinsic motivators, salary and benefits, you should focus on creating a foundation that encourages, autonomy, mastery, and purpose. As Pink describes in his book, all humans are driven by these three attributes.

Autonomy is all about control of tasks, time, technique, and team. Mastery is providing an opportunity to get very good at something and to continue the process and understanding that you will never be perfect.  It is the pursuit of perfection that motivates. And finally purpose, working for some greater good and not just profit.  Profit provides a means for a company’s purpose.  It is this final attribute that is found more often in smaller, entrepreneurial companies who are lead by younger leaders.

So which of these leadership mistakes would your team members say you exhibit?  And what is your plan of action to develop a way of avoiding these mistakes in the future?

Do you often wonder why you get information late and when you do,  are you surprised by it?  Or during meetings, you seem to be the only person talking? What is happening to cause these communication breakdowns?

Recently I was working with an executive who was frustrated that the information flow in his organization was often slow and/or incomplete. As we explored potential reasons, it became evident to me that the environment was one of distrust and fear.  Historically, when an employee had bad news to be delivered, the consequences for the person delivering the message were less than desirable. In addition, the leader went into a micro-managing mode as a defense mechanism to eliminate any future bad news. So what’s the message to the employee?  Bad news leads to bad consequences.

In addition when team members were asked for their suggestions and opinions, the leadership often ignored or dismissed them. No wonder communications were ineffective. 

The article , “Ruthlessly Realistic: How CEO’s Must Overcome Denial”, in HBS Working Knowledge March 29, 2010, points to CEO leading to a breakdown in communications as well. Middle managers are generally the leaders who will initially identify a problem. Yet when the bad news finally makes it up to the CEO who chooses not to acknowledge the reality because it doesn’t fit with his “reality”, guess who looses her job?  It is the middle manager who dared to speak the truth.

If you want to increase the flow of communication here are some tips:

1. If in fact you have an unsafe environment for communications, you need to be transparent with your team and share with them your desire to change the environment and ask them for to help you with the change process. How do you find out if they believe it to be unsafe? You can measure the level of communications safety by way of a 360 degree feedback tool or interview process using an outside resource to insure anonymity. This process will give you a benchmark of communications safety which you can then re-measure after a significant time period to see how you have progressed.

2. When in meetings where it is important to get many ideas and opinions out on the table, don’t dismiss an individual’s comments.  A great technique to use is the “yes, and” technique.  This is opposite to “yes, but”, which people use when they don’t like a person’s idea or opinion. Commit to this technique and see how the volume of ideas increases.  Also, others will notice and start to adopt the technique as well.

3. There are always individuals on a team that you can count on to speak up and voice their opinions and then there are the extreme introverts that need to be invited to share their thoughts.  Make sure that all voices are heard during a meeting. If you have someone who may be uncomfortable sharing their ideas, let them know in advance that you will be asking for their opinion during the meeting so they aren’t caught off guard.

So the next time you are having a meeting, listen and observe. Are people not sharing their ideas or revealing problems in a timely manner because of a behavior that  you are displaying or not displaying? Don’t be a victim of denial and take the steps to change the dynamics of communications within your team or organization.

So after several years of proving yourself, your company finally recognizes your potential as a future leader. The opportunity for promotion, however, comes with a risk.  You have made a number of friends at work during the past few years and now you will have to manage them. I was recently reminded of this dilemma when working with a leader who had recently been promoted from an individual contributor as a lead programmer to a manager of a team of eight technicians. She was struggling with her transition from friend to manager since three of her employees were friends.

How can you make a transition from friend to manager and at the same time not loose your friends? Here are seven tips on making this transition a success:

1. Once your promotion has been announced, schedule time with each of your friends at work and outline the future guidelines for your relationship with them. No longer will you be equals in the workplace. Define what will change in your relationship with them and what won’t change.

Some of the changes should include: no coffees, breaks, or lunches with work friends unless other team members are included. Potential disciplinary action if policies, procedures, or standards aren’t adhered to at work. And, you will be asking for their feedback of you as a leader, not as a friend.

Things that should remain the same will include: respect for each other and what you bring to the team, and caring about each other as an employee and a friend.

2. Schedule a meeting with your new team and be transparent and honest about your friendships with co-workers.  Share with the team that your work friends understand their relationship with you at work has changed and that they will be treated just like the rest of the team members

3. It will be important to demonstrate fairness and equality for all who report to you. All policies and procedures, as well as work standards, will be adhered to by all employees and the consequences for non conformity will be the same for all. Be careful with this and don’t over compensate by interpreting the guidelines more strictly for your friends than for others on your team. This can lead to your friend quitting or asking for a transfer.

4. There will be situations such as new policies and guidelines that will cause frustration for you in your new role.  You should not share your frustrations with your employee friend.  Your company has seen potential in you as a leader and leaders don’t gripe to employees about company policy or direction. Leaders do bring their concerns to their managers by communicating the potential implications changes could have for the company.

5. Confidential company situations must stay confidential even if it impacts your friends at work. The ability to keep confidences is important in building trust and respect in an organization. How do you think team members will view you if you’re breaking company confidences? It certainly won’t make them feel comfortable in bringing their own confidential situations to you in fear that you will share them with others.

6. Be careful about your behavior in social situations where other employees are observing your behavior.  Remember you are no longer an equal but a role model. You are now a leader and having executive presence will be important to your success.

7. Ask for feedback from your friends about your ability as a leader.  The questions you should ask them should be focused on your behaviors as a leader such as communications, fairness, motivation, praise and recognition, listening etc.

All these steps require great communication skills. Focus your efforts on honing your skills in the following areas: listening, questioning, and story telling.  All of these must be performed skillfully and in a timely manner for a leader to be successful especially when managing friends.

Most of us know that communication is made up of words, tone, and body language . In addition, these three components are not equal in their impact.  Words make up only 7% of a message’s meaning. while tone accounts for 38% and body language tops the list at 55%.

So why is it that many crucial communications continue to be by way of email? If we are using words only, we are creating the potential for a huge disconnect between ourselves and others. So why not pick up the phone? My theory is that email is easier and is favored by those who want to avoid a potential conflict. Yet, what generally happens is the conflict becomes much larger than what it would have been if a phone had been used in the first place. And in turn takes more time to resolve than if you had chosen a more effective means to communicate such as a phone call. Or better yet, have a face to face conversation.

So before you have to communicate by email think about how it will impact an employee’s:

1. perception by other employees
2. performance
3. understanding of their performance
4. role in the organization

If the communication will impact any of the above, then pick up the phone or have a personal meeting with the employee

Remember that manager you had that when he said “I need to talk to you” you got a deep sinking feeling which wound up at the pit of your stomach. What was it that made you react to those words?

There are any number of reasons that you reacted many of which were based on the experiences you had following the statement “ I need to talk to you”. The first was that your manager never gave you any positive feedback, all you heard were the things you weren’t doing right. And for those of you who did get positive feedback, the feedback given to you which was focused on changing behavior wasn’t given clearly and you often walked away wondering what exactly you needed to do.

So that was then and now you’re the manager. What are you doing differently from that dreaded manager who couldn’t give you feedback effectively so you finally got frustrated and left for greener pastures?

Here are some steps to feedback that, if done correctly and consistently, will move your team members to a higher level of productivity and effectiveness. The key is you need to be consistent or you won’t get these results. Interpreted: You won’t see changes over night. Change generally happens incrementally and not all of a sudden.

As a general rule, during the steps 1-3 of the conversation make your statements using the pronoun “I” vs “You”. And during steps 4-6 statements will transition to “You”.

1. At the very beginning of the meeting, make sure that you clearly state why you are meeting with the person who is getting feedback .
2. State facts or observations you have made and your concern around this behavior
   

   Example: “At the meeting yesterday, I saw you cut off Jim five times while he was speaking which is a concern”

3. Explain the impact that the negative behavior has on you
   

   Example: “The reason I am concerned is that when you cut people off such as Jim, I and the other team members maybe missing some good ideas that he hasn’t been able to share with us. And since one of our key values is innovation, this behavior does not align with our values”

4. Ask for the employee’s view of the situation and use as many questions as possible to get their perspective
   

   Example: “ I’d like to understand what caused you to cut Jim off so many times” “Tell me more…” “How do you think it made Jim feel?”

5. Coach the person to their own solution, once they understand the impact their behavior has on their performance and others around them.
   

   Example: “So what technique could you use that will stop you from interrupting?” “What else?”

6. Get commitment on a SMART Goal from the employee
   

   Example: “Which solution are you committed to trying?” “When will you try it?” “ How will you know that you’ve been successful?”

7. Set up specific time for follow up

Now that you know the steps, who are you going to start the process with? The sooner you start, the sooner your employees will become more productive and effective. And as a manager or business leader, this means greater profits and a more engaged workforce.