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.

When someone asks you for clarity about a new initiative, your level of confidence is projected through your credibility, physical posture, preparedness to respond succinctly to inquiries, and ability to reassure, rather than convince.

Let’s say you’re a leader preparing for an initial presentation relating to organizational changes or new initiatives, which will include a Q&A session. If you’re not completely confident, or you’re not yet ready to share details, then ask yourself these questions as you prepare for the presentation: What are you confident about? Are you confident that regardless of what the final solution may be, you absolutely trust your team to recommend the solution that will best impact your employees and the business? Are you confident that you’ll be holding meetings over the next couple of weeks to keep yourself well-informed of the status of the initiative? Can you guarantee that you’ll keep people well-informed as you solidify strategies moving forward?

Whether you have every “i” dotted, or you’re still in the midst of creating strategies, be sure, when asked, that you’re prepared to genuinely reassure—versus convince—others of pending successes.

We live in the city, and when we take a quiet walk at night, the glimpse of flickering lights and movement in each house window profoundly reminds me of the simultaneous realities taking place only 50 feet apart from one another.

I see this as a metaphor for how simultaneous realities may also reside among the people we meet or associate with at work.

When experiencing frustrations, conflict, or a lack of clear communications, we often make assumptions and judge others based on how we see the situation within our own reality.

Reaching out to others for clarification, and probing to understand someone else’s reality, can be very powerful in breaking down barriers, building relationships, and minimizing conflict at work.

If we continue to remind ourselves that our reality or world-view may not be that of our neighbors or our co-workers, perhaps we’ll continue to see the benefit of sharing ours and learning more about theirs.

Whether you’re an executive, a manager, or an individual contributor—if you want to increase your odds for gaining support and/or approval towards a change strategy, be sure that your recommendation is presented as a full-blown solution versus a complaint.

Problem-centered complainers bring a problem to the table, and offer verbal criticism about what isn’t getting done, or “should” be done. They seldom generate results while the problem remains a problem.

Effective professionals prepare and document a recommended plan of action, and include a role for themselves as part of their proposed solution. This approach generates respect and maximizes a person’s or team’s ability to be heard, and impact change.

You’re probably well aware of the amount of time and effort it will take to prepare and propose a full-blown solution to an existing problem or issue that you know needs attention. You may have a choice as to whether you get involved in the process. Or, it may be a requirement of your role. Either way, are you ready to take on the challenge of truly making a difference?

In my opinion and experience, consistent superb performance or consistent poor performance from an individual employee or a team—over time—serves as a mirror to our performance as a leader.

Although high performers tend to excel regardless of their environment, an effective leader can have a significant affect on creating a motivating environment where individuals or teams choose to thrive over time. Remembering to offer a consistent level of attention and resources to your top contributors, as well as those who may be struggling, is essential.

The first steps towards leadership effectiveness when performance has been consistently poor, is taking responsibility, briefly acknowledging it with the individual and/or the team, moving forward to set and maintain clear expectations (standards) for performance, and providing the tools, resources, and coaching that every employee deserves. Then follow through with the appropriate kudos for their successes, or consequences for their lack of performance.

That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it!

I recently saw a question on a discussion board where people were asked to share how they prepare for a professional networking event. It was interesting to read just how many different strategies and preparations are used by those who commented. Some say they review guest lists and zero in on 3-5 people (prospects) and commit to meeting them before the event’s end. One job seeker reflects on what competencies most people may be seeking in an employee, in order to be well prepared to mention his value as it relates to those competencies. Others prepare specific probing questions in the event they find themselves in a stalled conversation. And, of course, we’ve all heard of the preparation of one’s elevator speech, allowing an individual to state “what he/she does” in brief, benefit-centered language.

Although I’m a seasoned networker, after reading these I realized the things I tend to do before a networking event, in comparison, may be much less strategic, but they work for me. So I thought I’d share them in the event they might work for you.

The first thing I do is wear something I feel good in. If I like how I look, I tend to carry myself more confidently. Then I mentally approach the event as a social event—get into a state of mind where I’m looking forward to meeting, connecting with, and learning about others. If the day of the event arrives, and I can’t get into that head space, I don’t attend. But when I decide I’m going to genuinely enjoy seeing colleagues and/or meeting new people, I generally do. And I believe if I’m enjoying myself, chances increase that others will enjoy meeting, and remember, me. Frankly, the people I remember most often from a networking event make some impression on me that has little to do with their profession.

Professional networking events simply offer a forum where you can meet others who you might later have collaborative business relationships with. And it’s through those relationships that the true mutually beneficial networking takes place.

It still amazes me how the workplace provides such fertile ground for miscommunications, misunderstandings, and indirect conversations. One of the most unfortunate and damaging elements of poor communication between two people at work (or between organizations and their employees) is the baggage that builds up over time, which in turn, affects trust and the ability to have or accept effective exchanges moving forward.

Once someone feels that they’ve been misinterpreted or ignored, natural defenses rise against the other individual or organization. And that defense mechanism becomes a significant factor in the failing working relationship, which of course makes everyone part of the problem.

In my work, I often have the unique opportunity to hear all sides of a problem or conflict. With that in mind, I’m confident in saying that 9 times out of 10, even in the center of a conflict, people are not calculating or untrustworthy. They’re simply centered on their personal perspective of the problem and how it affects their own experience. Once someone is upset, they seldom are equipped to openly listen to the other side of the problem or more importantly accept how they may have a hand in it. And even with that, it’s generally not a matter of being untrustworthy or malicious, it’s a matter of being upset and reactively self-centered about the issue at hand. These aren’t helpful workplace behaviors but they’re definitely typical.

So here’s my tidbit today. In the best of circumstances, and more importantly in the midst of conflict—be it covert or overt—try entering a conversation assuming good intentions on the part of the other person or your organization. Although it may be tough, it’s one thing you can do to begin to move the relationship in a better direction.

Are you charged with facilitating a team meeting where participants need to come together to problem-solve toward an interim or final solution? Follow this simple 4-step process to minimize unproductive discussions and help move the team to action.

Be sure to scribe output from each of the following components for all to see.

1) As a team, agree on the goal and objective for the meeting—not the long-term objective, just what you hope to accomplish during this 60/90 minutes. Remain flexible to adjust the meeting objectives as you move through the discussion. Keep it realistic.
2) Allow all participants to offer their perspectives of the current reality/issues. The good news? The team need not agree on the current reality.
3) Facilitate a true brainstorming session about what they might do as individuals and/or as a team to make the situation better or help the team succeed. —The more ideas the better.
4) As a group, agree on just 2-5 doable action items from the list of ideas. For the best results, all need to agree on next steps and actions—whether individual or collaborative—that are specifically assigned, with specific target and follow up dates.

Whether a team is coming together to troubleshoot, manage a project, launch a new initiative, or resolve conflict, this process is designed to generate results.

Whether it be a brand new business initiative or an effort to transition a long-standing culture, most leaders and managers understand the importance of well-defined business goals and communicating them clearly to employees. In addition, we know how important it is to communicate specifically what’s expected of them in their roles. We understand that if that communication is lacking, strategic growth may be stunted.

What I find interesting, is how many leaders fail to assess whether their management team and their employees know HOW to do what’s asked of them. Employees may be very willing to embrace a change and help make it happen. A manager may be eager to lead his or her team toward the stated goal. But if they don’t have the skills and/or acumen to contribute to the implementation of the new or shifted strategy, they will not be equipped to perform. And if they’re not made accountable through measurable outcomes, and well-coached through the process, the risk for failure increases.

So if you find yourself frustrated because you’ve repeatedly told someone or a team what needs to be done, and you’re thinking they’re just not getting it—perhaps they get it, but they just don’t know how to do it!

Stay tuned for future entries on HOW to uncover, and respond to, the continuous learning, development, and coaching needs of our employees!

I posted this entry a couple of years ago and thought I’d share it again as many of us here in Upstate NY are experiencing short summer fever (i.e., I’d rather be………outside!). We then beat ourselves up for being less than productive, when in reality, we’re simply being human. More examples of what I find to be common behaviors affecting productivity follow in this entry. Enjoy.
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I thought it might be interesting to publish just a few behaviors—relating to productivity—that over the years, I’ve observed as very common among professionals, regardless of their work style, title, or responsibilities. Perhaps reading these will offer you some comfort.
Many of us. . . .
- fail at being creative or extremely productive when we have plenty of time to do so. In fact, many of us find that we are most effective and productive when we’re close to a deadline.
- make very little productive use of our first day back from vacation. And during our first week back, we’re more likely to find ourselves pondering what we want to do with the rest of our lives.
- plan to accomplish all kinds of things on that one day when we actually don’t have any meetings, or deadlines, then proceed to waste most of the day because we can.
- tend to experience an unproductive day or two immediately following a run of highly-stressful or highly productive days. The length of down time needed to re-energize tends to relate closely to how long we’ve been overworked.
- get much more done after we’ve taken some quiet time to do some planning, organizing, and strategizing.
And finally, many of us like to know we’re not alone!