GET REAL
Donna's blog on coaching, leadership, and lifeAn effective and cool ice breaker for your next team meeting.
Thought you might appreciate hearing about this great exercise that you can use as part of a staff meeting, or to kick off a morning or afternoon session with a working team. All you need is 15 to 30 minutes (depending on the size of the team), and a simple worksheet with this partial sentence printed on it: Everyone (on my team) may want to know…..
Participants will have the opportunity to complete the sentence with just one specific piece of information that may help their co-workers communicate or collaborate more effectively with them. Or, the tidbit they offer may simply help their teammates understand them better. For example: Everyone may want to know …..that I’m not a morning person, so if possible, it’s best to approach me after I’ve had an hour in the office; or Everyone may want to know …..that I strongly prefer email over voice mail; or Everyone may want to know ……that when I get busy I sometimes get very focused on what I’m doing and may appear as though I don’t want to be bothered, so please approach me anyway if you need me!
If you’re facilitating the exercise, you may want to follow these—or a variation on these—steps:
- Give people a few minutes to complete the sentence about themselves. Again, they’re sharing information that may help their teammates better communicate or collaborate with, or understand them. You may want to offer a couple of examples (like the ones mentioned above) to get them started.
- Once people have had sufficient time to write their sentence, you may want to break the team up into triads so that people can share their statements conversationally within a smaller group, to start.
- Then, debrief the larger group: Before going around the room so that each person could very briefly state/share their sentence (encourage people to take notes about their teammates), you may want to ask the large group a few quick questions such as: Did anyone hear something from a teammate that they weren’t already aware of? Or: How many of you were already aware of what your teammates shared with you in your small group? Or: How many of you feel that what you learned about your teammate will help you work better with them, and how?
This simple exercise will offer an opportunity to actively engage participants during a meeting, while giving team members a great opportunity to learn more about one another and how they can work better together. And, it may generate some interesting conversations well-beyond the meeting.
If you decide to give this exercise a try, I hope you’ll share your comments/feedback about your and your team’s experience with it. Everyone may want to know……that I’ll appreciate your taking the time to comment!
The power of choice
This past week, I had a great opportunity to be the luncheon speaker for the 2012 Spouses Program of the Council of Independent Colleges’ Annual Presidents Institute. The conference was held in Marco Island, Florida, so in addition to meeting interesting professionals from yet another walk of life, I enjoyed a very brief and surrealistic summer break from the NY winter weather, on the Gulf shore. Other than having a sandwich snatched from my hand by a seagull on the beach, and then being chased by his fellow gulls overhead, it was a treat.
The luncheon topic was Choosing or Re-Choosing Your Role. In preparing and presenting, I was reminded that there are choices to be made regardless of the situation or role we find ourselves in. And reflecting on our choices, in wonderful or tough situations, can be validating and empowering.
Whether you’re contemplating a new role or situation, faced with a conflict, hoping to breathe some life into an existing role or situation, or you’re simply interested in tapping into your gratitude, these guidelines may help you explore your choices:
- Note what you enjoy about—or how you most benefit from—your job or the situation you’re in, or contemplating. Whether it be a volunteer role, or a paid position, revisiting the good stuff can be invigorating and can generate your gratitude even in challenging times.
- Note those things that you find or anticipate as tough or unfulfilling about the role or situation. Being realistic about your challenges is just as important as reflecting on the positive. It helps to clarify the full scope of what you’re choosing.
- Ask yourself what choices you have at the moment. For example, you may not have a choice about the task that needs to be fulfilled, yet you may have a menu of choices about the mindset you might choose as you approach the task. Or, you may be experiencing an unresolved conflict with an individual or a difference of opinion with your manager or colleagues, yet you may have the choice to address the conflict more directly while recommending a collaborative solution.
This exercise may help you re-choose what you’re currently doing because it fits well into your family plan at the moment, or allows you some other enjoyment outside of the job that outshines the challenges. You may clarify that the challenges outweigh the joys or satisfaction, which may guide you choose to explore other options. Or you may simply choose to shift your approach.
Regardless of limitations or requirements, there are choices to be made with every experience, and the great news is that many of those choices are yours.
Happy New Year!
Some of you may still be in “fried” mode after the holiday rush, celebrations, and obligations. Hopefully, you also enjoyed celebrating with family and/or friends. Next week starts a new year and an opportunity to take a new look at your hopes and goals, and plans and strategies. Every success to you as you review the past year, and plan for the new in 2012!
I’ll be back again and writing in a couple of weeks. Until then, my thanks for reading, warm regards, and wishes for a smooth transition to 2012.
Do exhausted employees reflect a lack of leadership strategy?
The following brief article was published in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, on November 29th. Thought I’d share it with you. What’s your experience with current trends relating to employee well-being?
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Prioritize to Relieve Stressed Workers
by Donna Rawady
Overtired employees may be an understandable sign of the times. Yet prolonged exhaustion among employees could reflect a lack of strategy and/or a dysfunctional organizational culture that may threaten sustainable success.
When organizations downsized to meet economic challenges in recent years, many were left with a streamlined structure. As businesses experience a minimal or robust increase in sales, they may be finding themselves less than equipped to meet demands.
Other factors also increase stress on a workforce. Globalization generates new and threatening competitive challenges, and working across many time zones requires late hours and middle-of-the-night meetings. Telecommunications in the new millennium allows (and often requires) 24-hour accessibility.
As long as everyone understands the clear short-term and long-term vision, and sound business strategies are in place, most loyal employees will do whatever it takes — temporarily — to bridge the organization into better times. That is successful only as a short-term strategy. Long-term, it can lead to a decrease in morale.
Values that leaders strive to integrate into their organizations are contradicted when longer hours leave little time for family, community or spiritual activities that offer life balance.
I offer three simple strategies to these complex challenges. Stop, assess and re-prioritize your current initiatives. Establish your most immediate goals, and set future targets for remaining initiatives. Set and communicate a course that’s manageable.
It is tempting to dismiss these recommendations based on short-term productivity challenges. Yet these strategies will increase odds for sustainable profitability. Reintroduce and demonstrate the values that help people thrive. Thriving employees build thriving businesses.
When is the FIRST time I need to think about this?
It’s 9:30 pm, and I’m working in my office, thankful that I have a really tight daily and monthly planning system to keep me on track. I’m one of those people who plans well. In turn, my system takes good care of me. Even during times like this week, when I have a high volume of work on my plate, I have a handle on what’s done, and what needs to be done. I may feel stress because there’s so much to do, but I’m still feeling in control, instead of my workload spinning inside my head.
Here’s one quick and powerful planning tool I use, that you can use immediately! Keep in mind I said “planning” tool. So it’s used when you have some time to plan ahead. Seriously, nothing saves time and increases effectiveness like good planning. So here’s the tool. Simply ask yourself: When is the FIRST time I need to think about this? Then make a note in your system to prompt you to act when the time comes.
Some preparation is brief and simple. For example, you may need to attend a meeting, with no to little preparation needed. So, when’s the first time you need to think about it? Probably the day before the meeting, just to offer yourself a heads up or to gather your materials.
Other meetings, events, presentations, or travel may require a great deal of preparation. When you ask yourself, “When’s the first time I need to think about this,” the answer could be one week, two weeks, or even a month or several months before an event. For complex preparations or projects, you may even break down your project plan and begin asking yourself this planning question for each specific project component in order to best manage or implement the project.
Most likely, when you come across the note in your planning system or calendar for the first time, you may not be in a position to take action immediately. So whenever possible, answer the question with time to spare. Never set yourself up to discover an urgent note or task in your system without any flexibility to deliver.
To recap this quick tool, as you plan your month— look at each event, meeting or deadline, and ask yourself: When is the first time I need to think about this? Place a note/reminder in your system on that day. Then relax. Let go of it. Your system will remind you with time to spare.
A beneficial approach: What if obstacles didn’t exist?
When we’re exploring a new goal, or a creative or strategic initiative, it’s not unusual to lose steam as we feel a wall go up with anticipated obstacles written on it. That wall—or thinking about possible obstacles—will sometimes stop us in our tracks.
I want to share this cool and simple exercise that has helped me and many of my clients eliminate the wall of obstacles, in order to more fully explore the feasibility of an approach or solution. I call it the “What if??” exercise. It helps us explore further by simply asking: What if the obstacle didn’t exist?
Here are a few examples of obstacles that may come to mind in the following scenarios: a possible reorganization, a costly yet important purchase, or a recommendation for change to a less-than-open manager.
- We couldn’t possibly structure the department that way, because it will affect our most seasoned employee.
- This software purchase isn’t worth recommending, because we don’t have the budget to support it now.
- That would never happen because my boss doesn’t like change.
Watch what happens when the “What if?” is applied to the above anticipated obstacles. Notice the questions that might be generated by this approach.
- What if the affect on your seasoned employee was not an obstacle? What might the new departmental structure you were considering, look like? How will this structure contribute to your departmental objectives?
- What if money was not an issue? Who might be involved in researching the benefits and costs of the software you’re considering? Based on your experience, how do you see the purchase increasing efficiencies?
- What if my boss was open to exploring the idea further? What would he/she have to hear to consider the idea seriously? How will this change benefit my manager and our team?
Instead of asking: What if the obstacle presents itself? Ask: What if the obstacle didn’t exist? Explore further by eliminating the wall of obstacles and visualizing a clear path. Generate more questions, or a need for more data, and take action. Explore the business case, clarify the feasibility for success, and make informed decisions.
Too many initiatives may hinder success.
I wrote the following entry two years ago, and unfortunately, I’m not seeing any progress as it relates to the topic. I’m in the midst of writing an article for our local newspaper about the trend of exhaustion that’s hitting our workforce. With that in mind, along with the volatile availability of new technology, and fierce competition, I was compelled to repost. I’m observing this becoming a more acute problem in today’s Western work environment. What can be done?
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Too many initiatives may hinder success.
November 16, 2009 at 11:15 pm · Filed under Uncategorized · Edit
Both locally and globally, organizations are currently being called upon to compete and survive during economic uncertainty and risk. Organizations are launching multiple new “raising the bar” initiatives to upgrade products and services—all designed to differentiate a company’s or agency’s ability to compete and survive now, in order to thrive in the future.
But here’s the rub. Employees only have a finite amount of energy and strategies that they can offer their organizations, above the day-to-day demands of their jobs. It’s not uncommon to see stress levels high, and morale low, due to additional job responsibilities put upon employees who have survived a downsizing. For leaders, the ability to effectively activate accountability and sustainability around multiple initiatives becomes a challenge as—like their employees—they find themselves stretched to the limit.
So if you’re a leader, my recommendation is to consider the feasibility of slowing down just long enough to assess the number and complexity of the new “raising the bar” initiatives in progress in your organization. More importantly, assess the progress to date on each initiative. If you find that one or more of the assigned projects are significantly lagging, you may want to establish a top priority and offer the vision, the plan, and incentive to succeed at one initiative at a time.
When feasible, realigning your organization’s goals based on realistic timeframes and a regard for your employees’ bandwidth will create a more motivating and engaging environment. Motivated and engaged employees are what’s really going to help an organization survive now and thrive in the future.
Feedback is about perceptions and perceptions matter.
If you’re fortunate enough to receive genuine feedback from your manager, employees, colleagues, or customers, you’ll probably agree that seeking and/or receiving feedback can take us out of our comfort zone. Interestingly, although positive feedback offers validation and good feelings, less than positive feedback can be more beneficial, as it may cause us to explore a need for change or development.
Here’s the thing about feedback from others—What they’re really sharing is their experience with us. Based on what we think we know about ourselves, there may be times when we feel compelled to challenge their opinion of us. But we’re going to be hard-pressed to challenge their personal experience with us.
An individual’s or a group’s experience with us, also generates perceptions. And accurate or not, perceptions matter—big time. Perceptions can generate or stifle opportunities for growth, attract or repel new business, and help build, or break down, a reputation.
It’s important to remember that although perceptions can be inaccurate, they are often tied to some thread of truth. Our ability to willingly step up to the mirror to check out the reflection that others are seeing or experiencing, takes a great deal of courage. In addition, it sets the stage for development that can result in better relationships and more effective leadership.
Empathy and its impact on business.
With our plates so full at work, and with myriad responsibilities to deliver on technical and operational levels, we perhaps need to be reminded that our ability to be genuinely emphathetic has a significant impact on our, and our employees’, success.
If you’re leading—or collaborating with—others, the following points may be helpful as you consider the business case for demonstrating empathy in the workplace:
- Genuine empathy is easy to recognize—people know and feel when it’s offered, and they know and feel when it’s missing.
- Thoughtfully seeking and considering the feelings and emotional reactions of others will add to your ability to make sound business decisions.
- Leaders who have empathy have a deeper understanding of the cultural, generational, and ethnic differences that can enhance or divide a team.
- Being able to calmly listen to—versus judge—the feelings of others, provides an opportunity for leaders to understand how to best respond (which opens dialogue) versus react (which often stifles communication).
- Acknowledgment of your employees’ or customers’ expressed fears or apprehensions, opens the door for further discussion, and provides a better opportunity to respond to their true needs.
- A leader’s ability to genuinely demonstrate empathy, can have a powerful impact on employee morale and customer retention, both of which are crucial for organizational success.
For some, empathy is an innate ability. For others, it presents a development opportunity. Either way, empathy remains a crucial component of effective leadership and business success.
Confidence and Composure—Key Success Factors
Hi all. Thought for my post today, I’d share the following article, that I had published in the business section of our local paper this week. We know it’s the soft skills that sometimes delivers the hardest punch—in a good way.
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Published in Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, NY, Tues, Sept 13, 2011:
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As leaders, when we possess and demonstrate confidence and composure, others are more likely to trust, engage, and follow.
Although there are physical aspects (i.e., posture and body language, strength of voice and presentation, effective written communications, etc.) that demonstrate confidence, the most significant factor is our own belief in the direction we are providing.
It’s not uncommon to have our confidence shaken. We may become overwhelmed with the responsibilities associated with making crucial decisions and creating strategies that carry risk, even when the risk is well-measured. However, as leaders, we have a responsibility to navigate through uncertainties in order to confidently and promptly come to a decision, communicate the goal, and guide others toward it. We can do this through our own resources, knowledge, and experience and/or collaboratively through the resources, knowledge, and experience of others.
Also crucial is our ability to maintain composure in tough situations. A cool and confident demeanor helps to minimize anxiety in others. There are special circumstances that may call for a genuine and appropriate level of emotion. However, in general, our ability to remain calm and focus on the business impact maximizes the influence we have on overall morale and employee effectiveness.
Being self-aware is especially important in difficult circumstances. When we’re aware of ourselves becoming emotional we may be able to shift our vantage point to calmly consider all available data and parties. Ultimately, our ability to calmly respond versus emotionally react will generate more opportunities to engage others instead of alienating them.
Although maintaining confidence and composure is not always easy, the ability to demonstrate both, in any situation, creates invaluable opportunities to have a significant and positive impact as a leader, coach, facilitator, and role model.
