The TEAM Approach

Under New Management

Today I passed a business with a sign prominently displaying the message: “under new management.” Whenever I see such a sign, I begin to wonder about its intended outcome. It seems to be reaching out to all who pass by to say, “we’ve changed…come in and try us again, see how we have improved, we are really worth another look…”

What a great idea for team leaders too: “under new management.” As managers, supervisors and team leaders, we can provide NEW management techniques and approaches to those we serve by making subtle changes (or not so subtle) to our management style. You may be one who boldly tries new approaches with your team regularly, or perhaps you are like most team leaders who a bit more cautious of changing their style and approach. Change is uncomfortable for anyone, but under the watchful eye of our team members we can let our imaginations get the best of us… “What will they think of me? Will it come off as planned?  What if it doesn’t work?”

Well, think of “under new management” as an opportunity to try out changes while allowing you to be open and upfront about what you are doing.  A perfect time to put up the under new management banner is right after you have attended some training, or read a new book. Use these situations as an 'excuse' to try new things. Get your team to support you. Openly announce that this is not comfortable or easy, but you believe it will make you more effective. Involve the team in a debriefing and get even greater level of support from them.  By showing your interest in their input and by allowing your direct reports to “coach” you, support and acceptance will come easier than expected.

Consider the benefits of taking the risk to try new behaviors and approaches and to involve your team in the process:

1. You are role modeling the importance of trying new behaviors for your team.

2. You are suggesting that improvement is always possible and that we can all work to be more effective.

3. You are involving your team and developing their observation skills and their ability to give feedback.

4. You are creating a learning culture.

5. And finally, you are growing and becoming more effective with each new skill you turn into a habit.

Are you the same team leader today that you were the day that you were given the title of mananger or supervisor? Or, is your team regularly under new management?

The Hidden Cost of Involvement

Organization #1

A team member notices an inefficient step in the production process and asks their supervisor if they can discuss this. Together, they plan to do a study of this process to gather data that can be taken to management.  They complete their analysis, prepare a proposal for a solution with input from the entire team and present the findings and recommendations to top management, who implements their ideas and reports the process saves the company over $100,000 per year.

Organization #2

An employee notices a step in the production cycle that has some obvious inefficiencies. After considering taking this discovery to the supervisor, the employee decides to keep quiet remembering the result the last time they made a suggestion. As the employee ponders the situation, they begin to feel frustration, which they voice to team members who happily add their own concerns. The employee decides to be sick on Friday to try to lift their spirits with a long weekend. Two other employees must have had the same idea. The company pays for temps to keep things going. Having such a high ratio of temps on this particular team leads to a bit of confusion around key work processes and results in some significant customer errors. When the team leader is held responsible, the relationship between the team and the leader deteriorates further…

The Lesson:

The impact of involving employees and seeing them a valued part of your team can be huge! Often, managers complain that employees do as little as possible and don't take responsibily or initiative. While there certainly are employees that have personal issues with motivation (why DO you hire and then keep these employees in the first place!?!) often the answer to this challange is the relationship with the manager. How does the manager value and involve the employees in decision making, goal setting and problem solving? The final skill taught in the Essential Skills of Leadership is just that, to involve your employees in these critical team functions as often as possible. It is good for them, it is good for the company and it is good for your customers. Check with your team today: what do they see that you do not? What opportunities, problems and ideas do they have that you can use to improve and grow your business?

Whales and Humans in Distress

I was mesmerized by a story in our newspaper today of a great whale swimming down the River Thames. This was quite a spectacle I am sure, drawing huge crowds of onlookers to view an enormous Bottle Nose whale normally only found in the deep Northern Atlantic ocean, and difficult to spot event there. The story then went on to explain that the whale was likely in distress causing it to exhibit this bizarre behavior with it’s surprising visit to London.

As you would hope and expect, elaborate plans were in the making to save this great creature. A whale in distress is something that touches our hearts and we want to do all that we possibly can.  But are not we humans, also magnificent creatures? How often do we see humans on the job exhibiting somewhat bizarre behavior only to be greeted with negative feedback, reprimands or worse yet, to be completely avoided and ignored?  How often do we take the time to try and see these employees as potentially “in distress” and try to rally around them to help them return to the safe waters again?

Seeing unusual behavior as a sign of distress rather than orneriness or incompetence is a first step in helping employees through what ever the crises may be and bringing them back to the team as a fully contributing member.  But, whatever we believe may the causing the behavior we need to remind out selves that this is only our opinion and all we really know for sure is the behavior we are observing. What we must focus our discussions on, as suggested in a course called the Essential Skills of Leadership published by Vital Learning, is the observed behavior, not the attitudes that we believe may be at the root of the problem. Attitudes are difficult to change, and even more difficult to identify because we can never really know what is happening inside another person, In fact most discussions about attitudes will usually result in defensiveness and bad feelings and not positive change.  In reaching out to engage your team members who may be in some kind of distress, highlight the behavior in question in a concerned and caring way and ask the employee for their opinion. Involve them in generating solutions and watch their commitment grow. Reel them back into the team and they will pay the team back with tremendous loyalty and quality efforts.

Are You Tethered to Your Work?

As I finish up my workday and settle in to compose this post at 10:12 PM I remind myself that I did arrive in the office a bit late today. It was almost 7:45 AM which helps me feel a little better about the hours worked today. And of course, there was that breakfast meeting that lasted almost two hours. Well, it did at least include food.

As I listen to my own rationalizations, sometimes I wonder if I have gone mad. Then as I look around, I think the whole world has gone mad with me! The increasing time investment in the workday seems to be a problem not only for the self-employed types, but for my internal colleagues too. Everyone today seems tethered by the technology that allows us to extend the workday to include our drive time, home time, even vacation time. There seems to be little true “down time.”

A recent post by Management Issues notes that even the French (one of the few civilizations that still knows how to really live) are concerned that they may not work enough!

Well, according to the “Take Back Your Time folks, we here in America work more than medieval peasants did, and more than the citizens of any other industrial country. In fact on average, we work nearly nine full weeks longer per year than our peers in Western Europe do!

Are you feeling tired lately? Or worse yet, do you feel guilty about feeling tired? Be honest. If so, you need to order a copy of the Take Back Your Time book and perhaps start a support group with your work friends who are probably feeling the same way. As one of my favorite speakers Jim Rohn says, “Life is not a practice session.” This is it friends; it is ours to choose how to spend it. But, when it is gone, it is gone.

Communication: A Team Exercise

Have you ever sat in a meeting and watched team members communicate without any awareness of a communication miss that was kind of obvious to you?

To sensitize team members on how easy it is to miscommunicate, try a short exercise with your team called Words, Words, Words. Whenever you see this problem croping up, remind the team of the exercise and try and rally the extra effort that good communication requires.

Performance: Federal Government Style

This was sent to me from a friend who works for the government and it was suggested that these are actual quotes taken from Federal Government employee performance evaluations....

1. "Since my last report, this employee has reached rock-bottom and has started to dig."

2. "I would not allow this employee to breed."

3. "This employee is really not so much of a has-been, but more of a definite won't be."

4. "Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap."

5. "When she opens her mouth, it seems that it is only to change feet."

6. "This young lady has delusions of adequacy."

7. "He sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them."

8. "This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot."

9. "This employee should go far, and the sooner he starts, the better."

10. "Got a full 6-pack, but lacks the plastic thingy to hold it all together."

11. "A gross ignoramus -- 144 times worse than an ordinary ignoramus."

12. "He doesn't have ulcers, but he's a carrier."

13. "He's been working with glue too much."

14. "He would argue with a signpost."

15. "He brings a lot of joy whenever he leaves the room."

16. "When his IQ reaches 50, he should sell."

17. "If you see two people talking and one looks bored, he's the other one."

18. "A photographic memory but with the lens cover glued on."

19. "A prime candidate for natural de-selection."

20. "Donated his brain to science before he was done using it."

21. "Gates are down, the lights are flashing, but the train isn't moving."

22. "He's got two brains cells, one is lost and the other is out looking for it."

23. "If he were any more stupid, he'd have to be watered twice a week."

24. "If you give him a penny for his thoughts, you'd get change."

25. "If you stand close enough to him, you can hear the ocean."

26. "It's hard to believe he beat out 1,000,000 other sperm."

27. "One neuron short of a synapse."

28. "Some drink from the fountain of knowledge; he only gargled."

29. "Takes him 2 hours to watch '60-minutes'."

30. "The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead

The Federal Goverment recently launched their own "best places to work" program to try and improve performance through their work culture. You can track how well agencies are doing through a special website they have set up for this purpose. It is interesting that the very top performing agency received only a 70% rating. It looks like the goverment has a way to go on this process.

Management: Why Relationships Matter

We facilitated a session this week for PENNDOT’S Leadership Academy for Managers for a group of excellent managers.  This group had been so engaged in the learning process that the experience was just as enriching for the facilitation team as it was for the participants.

One of the concluding activities had the managers meet in mentor groups to discuss ways of increasing their effectiveness in various categories contained in their 360-feedback report and one of these areas they looked at was delegating.  I listened in as a group took a critical look at this challenging skill and responsibility to see what kinds of ideas that they would share with each other.

In previous cohorts I sometimes heard frustration expressed over those few “problem employees” that just do not seem to want to work. Interestingly, when ever this would come up the focus was always on the employee who did not want to work, unless of course the focus would shift to PENNDOT for systemic problems that an employee would blame for all of their performance problems. But this discussion was quite different.

With quite a bit of passion, one manager shared his observations on the secret to delegation. He summed it up in one word: relationships. He shared personal stories of employees pulling their trucks in at 6:30 PM to get a job finished up (that absolutely had to be finished) and not even logging the time in because they new it would reflect badly upon the supervisor or manger. He discussed the loyalty that these employees had in getting the results for their managers directly in proportion to the relationship that existed between them.

As I listened, I could not help note that the emphasis that this manager placed upon what he did as being key to the successful motivation, team spirit and performance. This was a stark contrast to other managers and supervisors who often placed the blame entirely on their employees, or even the organization. It was never their fault that things were not going well.

I was reminded of an exercise in a program that will celebrate its 50th anniversary in the year 2007, called Adventures in Attitudes. In this particular exercise the author, Bob Conklin, sums up the key to all human relation problems in three possible choices.

1. Change the Situation- fire the employee, divorce you spouse, move to a new neighborhood, etc
2. Change the Person- make them stop the abusive behavior, make them work, etc
3. Change Yourself- find ways to change your behavior to adapt to the situation or person that is difficult

It was obvious that this manager instinctively understood what Bob Conklin has passed along to the 4 million graduates of the Adventures in Attitudes program  and that is, that what we need to work on, is really us. We are the key, our relationships determine our results.

No Excuse Team Development!

Occasionally, all teams benefit from the opportunity to step back and look at themselves as a whole and evaluate themselves as a team. They might ask how effectively they work to support each other, how well they communicate and share information and what improvements could make them even more effective. By providing such an opportunity, a team can become even more cohesive, enhance communication, adjust to changing roles and build greater trust and commitment to work together in accomplishing their goals.

The free Team Check-Up is a tool that allows a team to assess itself and its culture. Culture can impact turnover, morale and the level of engagement that any employee has on a given team. Culture is the glue that holds great teams together and it can be improved and refined by a team that is committed to such improvements. The commitment always begins through a process of stepping back to assess the situation.

Try the free team check-up today and see how energizing it is for the team to get issues out on the table and come up with their own plans to create positive change. You won’t be disappointed!

Dialog: The Path to Community

We recently hosted my daughters wedding shower in our home. I say host, because while it was in our home, I was not in charge- the bridesmaids were. Now before I go any further, I will preface this with the fact that I have occasionally gotten feedback that I have a problem with control.

So, I knew I needed to just get over it when my daughter’s maid of honor (and future sister-in-law) suggested games. I immediately remembered the painful details of the past three showers I’d attended with everyone being forced to play games and I said….”great!” It wasn’t exactly terrible, but the very idea of games just seems to annoy me at events like this. As I considered my feelings I wondered why this harmless playful activity bothered me so much. Certainly, as a person in the adult learning profession, I have used enough games in the classroom myself- wasn’t turnabout fair play?

Yet, it did not seem to be the same thing to me. It wasn’t the idea of the game itself; it was the fact that the games became the focus rather then conversation. Dialog was difficult because there was always a game. I remembered the showers of years back that just had lots of food and the chance to catch up with friends and relatives that you see far too infrequently and I wondered why just visiting was no longer sufficient?

I have felt for a long time, that we are loosing the art of visiting. Think about it, how many friends can you name that would actually think of dropping in for an unscheduled visit if they happened to be in the neighborhood? If you are like everyone else that I know, this is pretty unusual.

Today, we schedule visits, and our children play organized sports. We even have devices that allow us to answer phone calls only when it is convenient, which is practically never! The quick pick up game of football, baseball or basketball are long gone and kids sit on the school bus plugged into ipods so they don't have to talk to each other. In fact, in the summer it seems like someone has rolled up the kids. You rarely see kids outside playing like I remember from childhood- you could barely get us to come home for a meal. Today, kids are on their Xbox or computer game or "something" electronic. The new “dialog” is the instant message , which not only is not dialog at all, but is the most fragmented bits of communication possible to still get some meaning across.

We tend to have far too little time for meaningful dialog in our lives. Do you suppose we are we forgetting how? Is the need to have games at a shower a way to avoid something we are loosing touch with as a society? What about the workplace? How often does meaningful dialog happen there? How often do we get beyond “task talk” and really hear each other?

What can we do to begin connecting with each other and building communities in our homes, neighborhoods and workplaces? We cannot ever hope to have a world at peace if we cannot find time to hear each other and have conversations.

The Power of Feedback

Over the 20 some years I have spent growing up in the learning industry, it has been fun to watch the trends come and go. Really some of them whisked by so quickly I barely caught on in time before they disapppeared from the earth's atmosphere. Certainly, many things in the learning industry have also stuck around but I am willing to bet that a few decades from now, one of the winners will be the whole area of feedback. Yes, for many organizations, feedback got a rocky start. It was not done well in the beginning. Some people got hurt. Some organizations used it badly. But through all the challenges, feedback has continued to grow in its use and value in helping people reach their potential while also helping the organizations that they serve.

The real spirit of feedback is to help people achieve more, to move to a higher level of performance, and to grow personally and professionally. It is a powerful process if approached in this mind set. This means that the feedback is strictly developmental, and is "safe." The real power of feedback comes from using it. Taking the feedback and creating a developmental plan that is uniquely tailored to one's own needs and having a system for tracking one's progress brings the responsibility for performance to the individual level. We all need to be accountable for our performance. Feedback that is offered without a system to facilitate developmental goals and improvements is a wasted effort.

A feedback process can impact a number of positive changes. First there is the impact on efficiency and productivity. Performance feedback that is offered in the spirit of helping one improve is extremely motivational. When feedback is offered to truly contribute to the growth of another it provides motivation for creating performance improvements. Everyone wants and needs feedback in order to improve. When offered in the right spirit, feedback is the most powerful performance motivator available.

The very essence of providing and receiving feedback opens communication. Team members and customers will have a safe platform to share and receive their performance perceptions with each other. This structured communication process is the starting point for more face to face dialog that will follow, as specific verbal feedback is solicited by participants.

A key part of opening up communication is to uncover blind spots that may be problematic for some participants. In a feedback process, employees will experience and practice communication within a safe environment. In this environment the playing field is even because everyone is receiving feedback, and it is acknowledged that everyone has both areas of strength and opportunity.

Satisfaction is enhanced through a feedback process. This is important because it is a key attitude that contributes to greater levels of performance, increased commitment and higher levels of retention. External customers that are invited into a feedback process will feel stronger ties to organizations that solicit such feedback. The internal customers who are recipients of such pointed feedback will have an opportunity to make adjustments to increase the satisfaction of external customers.

Satisfaction can only be increased by letting one's needs be known. If needs are unmet this can contribute to frustration, poor performance, increased absenteeism, and turnover. A safe structured process such as that provided in a good feedback model is the best way to open the communication process and improve satisfaction.

Through the guidance of skilled facilitators and coaches, we can learn how to accept feedback and incorporate it into a plan for professional development. We can begin to apply new behaviors that will delight their internal and external customers.

Feedback is here to stay. We all need feedback for our development, it is the only way that we can discover more of who we are and initiate personal change. For organizations to be more effective, their employees need to continue to grow and respond to personal developmental needs.