Want to solve the leadership puzzle?

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 by Martha Forlines & Thad Green

 

Recap of this week’s  Leader Quick Tip: There are three critical pieces to the leadership puzzle… confidence, courage and compassion.

It ain’t easy, this thing called leadership!

You can read or hear or talk about leadership, and it sounds simple. But when you come face to face with a tough decision, or difficult employee, easy it’s not!

Have you ever asked yourself why?

Leadership is complicated for most of us. That’s a fact. There are pieces of the puzzle that we don’t know about, or forget about, or don’t quite know how to go about making them fit into our own leadership style.

Maybe you need to get a better handle on the critical pieces of the leadership puzzle: confidence, courage, and compassion.

Confidence is the belief that you can do what needs to be done. Confidence is required to move swiftly as a leader. Being unsure causes you to question yourself, to have second thoughts, to hesitate. Those you lead see your every move. They sense your uncertainty. Everyone finds it easier to follow a leader who is sure of herself.

Courage is doing what must be done. For example, you may have the confidence that you can tell an underperforming employee there will be no pay raise, and to do so in an appropriate way. However, if your courage is not strong, you may many not give this person what his performance deserves. Instead, you decide a modest pay raise is appropriate. You make him happy, and in doing so, you tick off your high performers. Go ahead and face it. Leadership requires courage. When a leader has courage, people want to follow her.

Compassion means showing kindness, consideration, and respect. Can you sense its importance in this example? You can give constructive feedback harshly, or you can give it with compassion. Which works better? Compassion always wins out. People want to follow a leader when she shows compassion.

The bottom line is this: those you lead will gladly follow . . . when you lead with confidence, courage, and compassion. It’s a truism!

Where do YOU stand on these three pieces of the leadership puzzle?

Let us know your thoughts about this week’s BLOG by leaving a comment.  To leave a comment, click on the title of the blog post (above), scroll down and you will see the comment section.

Tags: compassion, confidence, courage, leadership
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Recap from this week’s Leader Quick Tip:

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 by Martha Forlines & Thad Green

 

Do people pursue only personal payoffs? …

Belief 3: Satisfaction . . .”The things I get from my job are satisfying.”

Here’s a quick-review glance at the three conditions for motivation and performance:

1. Belief-1—Confidence—“I believe I can do what is expected of me.”
2. Belief-2—Trust—“I believe my manager will give what my performance deserves.”
3. Belief-3—Satisfaction—“I believe the things I get from my job will be satisfying.”

If all of these beliefs are not solidly held, motivation and performance will suffer.

People are pursuing payoffs. Payoffs are satisfying. This is a satisfaction issue that can be a tough one.

Not clearly knowing what is satisfying to each person you lead is a problem. Not knowing is understandable. What is satisfying varies    from one person to another.

Why?  Because everybody is different.

One of our clients said, “As a leader I’ve always believed in fairness. I thought that if I didn’t treat everybody the same, they would think I was being unfair.”

Then she says, “Now you’re telling me everybody is different, which I understand. So how do I respond to individual differences and at the same time be fair to everyone?”

Good question. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Consider this example. You challenge one person openly in a meeting. She likes it because she finds this kind of sparring to be intellectual stimulating.

Another person on your team cringes at the thought of being challenged in front of others. With this person you gently raise questions and explore options, preferably in a meeting with just the two of you.

Now, will these two people say you treated them differently? Yes.

Will either of them feel you have treated them unfairly?  Absolutely not.

And why…because you gave each what they wanted, what was satisfying to them.

When you give people what they want, they’ll give you want you want—more engagement, more effort and better business results.

Refer your management team to our Quick Tips for a FREE weekly leadership “reminder”!

Tags: beliefs, confidence, motivation, performance, satisfaction, trust
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Recap from this week’s Leader Quick Tip:

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 by Martha Forlines & Thad Green

 

What’s THE biggest problem leaders cause concerning trust with their employees…

Belief 2:  Trust…”my manager gives me what my performance deserves”

We always pay a price when our actions as leaders don’t back up our words about the importance of performance.

The leader mentioned in today’s Quick Tip paints a dreadful picture of consequences as she continues her story:

When people believe they don’t get what their performance deserves, they say, “What’s the use?” and just give up.

And the dominos start to fall.

Our high performers are looking to get out. The loyal tenured ones whose performance really has never been up to par, there’re pleased as punch. And the steady performers are so stressed out from the fear of being “next to go” that they aren’t getting the job done.

We as leaders did this to ourselves. I’m sure there’s a way to turn this situation around. I don’t know what it is, but I’m going to find out!

The solution is the same as the prevention—actions must match words about the importance of performance. Except now it’s more important than ever.

Why more important now?

Many have seen and felt evidence that other things (namely, loyalty, tenure, relationships) are more important than performance.

Actions have contradicted words, and that puts you in a turnaround situation. 

So, what do you do now?

It boils down to this: you have to make a statement! In actions, not just words.

How? You have to show that everyone gets what their performance deserves.

Do something special for your high performers. Not just one time either. Find out what they want, and give them the things you can. Not just one time either.

Avoid guessing what they want. Ask them! There’s nothing worse than giving something they don’t want. It’ll be simple things though, like more feedback, greater access to you, help when they need it, and a show of appreciation for their accomplishments.  Make it clear that whatever you give is because their performance deserves it.

Do something special for those who are not meeting your expectations, too, but a different something. Take a compassionate approach and help them clearly see where their performance needs to be, and by when. Talk about what will happen if they perform as you expect, and the consequences if they don’t. Remember, show compassion in this discussion!

Keep in mind, this discussion is all talk. It must be backed up with action. Do something, like have weekly reviews on their progress. Recognize improvement. If progress falls short, withhold any approval, and have them tell you what they are going to do to get things back on track.

With this overall approach, they can choose to improve, or not. Either way the ball is in their court. Their future is in their hands.

This will work. It always works. You just have to find the courage to let your actions back up your words.

The key is to do the right thing now. It will pay off. Things will turn around!

You may be saying things to yourself now. ”This isn’t realistic. You can’t always give people what their performance deserves.”

True, not always. But you can find a substitute that will make the performers happy, and different ways of holding others accountable to ratchet up their performance.

It’s a simple matter of wanting to do what is right, and reaping the rewards for your efforts!

For more information, go to our website. 

You can also This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it us with questions or comments, too, if you want to.

Tags: actions, believe, evidence, performance, trust, words
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Recap from this week’s Leader Quick Tip:

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 by Martha Forlines & Thad Green

 

Why “I can’t” is so pervasive… the workforce is trimmed, jobs are combined, and workloads break the scales.

THE FIRST BELIEF-CONFIDENCE

“Can I Do It?”

Wouldn’t you like to prevent the negative consequences of “I can’t” in the people you lead?  It all begins with having a clear picture of what “I can’t” really means and understanding the consequences that follow.

The first belief (confidence) deals with the relationship between effort and performance.  Employees must believe their effort will lead to performance.  Without this belief, there is a motivation problem, usually a big one.  Consciously or not, people always ask themselves, “If I give it my best, can I perform?”
 
Suppose a person is offered something desirable but concludes, “I really want that, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t perform well enough to get it.”  What happens to motivation?  Obviously, it suffers.
  
All of us bring a confidence history to work. Listen to Juanita and Gary give an interesting insight into confidence and the impact it has on motivation and performance.

Juanita: “All of my life when there was any mention of me doing something new, my mother always said, ‘You’ll never be able to do it.’  Eventually I believed her.  So when I’m faced with doing something new here at work, fear overwhelms me.  My first reaction always is ‘I can’t do it,’ so I resist.  I’m 61 years old, my mother is in her eighties, and she’s still telling me I can’t.”

Gary: “I got my self-confidence from my grandfather.  Anytime I doubted myself he’d say, ‘Just remember, you’re as good as the best and better than the rest.’  I believed him. So I’m willing to tackle most anything.”

Unfortunately, “I can’t” problems usually go undetected, mainly because people find them hard to discuss.  Generally we don’t like to confess our shortcomings.  It’s human nature.  Feelings of inadequacy and weakness often are attached to such admissions.  So we cover up our “I can’t” problems.
 
Not only do employees tend to cover up confidence problems, they may even deny their existence. Why?  It usually boils down to a fear of the consequences.  “If the boss thinks I can’t do the job, he’ll find someone who can,” or “It will hold back my career.”   
 
The irony in the cover-up is that “I can’t” problems tend to be relatively easy to remedy, especially compared to the problems they cause. 

Clear up confidence problems and you open the way for motivation to wield its power on performance; allow the problems to fester, and motivation doesn’t get out of the starting gate. Individual performance and overall business results hang lower than they should.
 
If you want to avoid the negative consequences of “I can’t” problems, all you have to do is get in tune with the people you lead. Find out what they are thinking and believing. You can’t take action if you don’t know there is a problem.

Tags: believe, effort, I can't, performance
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Recap from this week’s Quick Tip…

Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 by Martha Forlines & Thad Green

 

Wonder why pressure backfires?  Pressure is not a sound leadership principle.

Leader Is As Leader Does

The life of a leader is not black and white, like an old-time picture show.  But it has a clearer, sharper focus when we remember all that we already know about how to lead.  Here is a story to flesh out the meaning of this point and give you a good feel for where you stand.

Preston Turner skipped lunch as usual and hurried to make a 1:30 appointment.  It had been a long day already.  “Why did I volunteer for this interview?” he muttered to himself as he re-tied his tie. 

Alice Johnson stood, smiling, hand out.  “Thanks for granting me this interview, Mr. Turner. This is my last paper and in a few weeks I’ll have my journalism degree.” she said, but he did not hear her. 

“My dad said to tell you hello.”

He frowned and cocked his head to the left.  “Do I know your dad?”

“Bill Johnson.  You played high school football together.  He’s kept up with you over the years.”

“Book-worm Bill?  Second string quarterback?  Married the homecoming queen?”

“That’s him, and my mom.  Still in love.”

He was already saying, “Well, I’ll be darned.  Your dad was smart.  I guess he’s successful now.”

“Not by most standards.  He could have been.  He’s a writer.  Had a chance to go to Hollywood as a screenwriter, but he wasn’t willing to move the family out there and wasn’t willing to be away from us.  In my book he’s the most successful person I know.  He’s comfortable with himself, likes his work, loves his family, has balance in his life.  How about you?  Are you successful?”

He shifted in his chair, took his eyes off her and said “By conventional standards I suppose I am.”

“I understand that you are one of the key players running the company now.  What’s been the secret in getting to the top?”

“There is so much pressure in corporate America now.  And not enough time to really manage anymore.   The pressure comes down on me and I pass it on to others.  I communicate the goals and expect the cream to rise to the top.  Good people step forward and get the job done.  It seems like the greater the pressure, the better people perform.”

“So what you’re saying is that you got to the top because you put pressure on people?”

“That’s not exactly the way I’d put it, but you’ve summed up the basic approach.”

“Doesn’t that eventually take its toll on people?”

“Sure, but that’s just the way things are now.”

“Who is the best leader you’ve ever been around?”

“That’s easy.  My high school football coach, Coach . . .”

“Mason.  That’s what my dad says, too.  Why was he so good?”

“After the end of the year, he called all the seniors in, reminded us why we’d had a championship season, and gave us words of wisdom for the future.  He said three things mattered.  First, you have to help people believe in themselves.  Second, they have to trust you to give them what they deserve.  Third . . .”

“Third, remember that everybody’s different, that what’s satisfying to one may not be to another.” 

Preston Turner was taken aback.  These were Coach Mason’s exact words. 

“My dad lives those three principles every day, at home and at work.”

She flipped back through her notepad, and said, “Mr. Turner, do you live them, too?”

He did not answer, and yet he knew he had answered by his silence.

Tags: leader, leadership, pressure
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