The Disruptor @Work A Tip From The Manager’s Answer Book

“Engaging in virtuous practice is as hard as pulling a tired donkey up the hill, but engaging in negative, destructive activities is as easy as rolling a boulder down a steep slope.” A Tibetan saying. 

My yoga instructor starts and ends each practice with an inspirational reading or intention for the practice. When she read this one, it struck a sensitivity about workplace behavior. 

Manager’s Tip:  Managers are often confronted with destructive behavior at work and we ask in The Manager’s Answer Book:  “What can I (any manager) do to keep such behavior to a minimum?”  Don't act in kind by rolling those boulders down a steep slope and engaging in joking and teasing that could be disruptive or worse discriminatory. Even if the behavior is not discriminatory or harassment just yet, you could be heading in that direction. 

What to do? Pull that tired donkey up the hill.  In other words, be proactive in order to prevent inappropriate behavior from growing worse. Talk about disruptive behavior of all types in meetings with your staff. Let them know that such behavior – joking and teasing about personal characteristics or groups of people, for example – won’t be tolerated.  Explain the organization’s values and how those values are exhibited through everyone’s positive behavior. Yes, this may be harder than ignoring it – which is just as destructive – but the results are well worth it. 

To read our full answer about managing disruptive behavior, see page 121 in The Manager’s Answer Book.

When You Need Help at Work

Unfortunately, it happens to most of us. A personal crisis impacts us at work – our ability to focus and our ability to do quality work.  We don’t quite know what to do about it. We know this Does it make sense to ask for help or should we try to hide it and muddle through?

We all want to protect our privacy at work but if you find yourself in a personal situation, talk with your manager first. You don’t have to share everything but you should feel comfortable in letting your manager know that you have a personal issue that may require you to be gone from the workplace and also take your focus away from work even when you’re there. 

Hopefully, you’ve been a dependable employee who does good work so that you’ve built up a reserve of good will with your manager. I had a manager who said it’s like a bank account. You deposit money and then, when you need it, you can withdraw it.  Work, he said is the same—you do good work and contribute to the organization’s success and then, if you need time off or whatever, you’ve built up a reserve to draw upon.

Be clear about what you will need. It may be you need to work from home a day or two a week or some assistance with a deliverable with a tight deadline. Let your manager know what you think will be the most helpful and work it out so that the work gets done especially if you need to be away from work.

Do the same thing with trusted colleagues—you don’t have to share all the details but if you need help on a project, ask for it and of course, let your colleagues know how much you appreciate their support and that when you’re back to full capacity at work, you will be there for them. And support them if they need your help at some time!

Yes, we’re employees but we’re also human beings who need help from time to time.

Present & Accountable

Several months ago I was in the midst of buying one house and selling another – preparing to relocate to a new area. As you can imagine, there were so many details that needed attention – details about both transactions, utilities on both ends, forwarding mail, notifying creditors – the list was endless. There were so many balls were in the air at one time, so many errors we caught, and so many bizarre requests and suggestions we received.  There is one favorite, and every trainer or facilitator reading this, I dedicate this blog to you. 

Working with the escrow officer handling the purchase of our new home was becoming exceptionally challenging –I’ll spare the details. She sent us documents to review and asked us for other information that we’d already sent. The odd thing was that she could not have prepared the documents she wanted us to review had she not had the information we sent. Her request was a real oxymoron. Nevertheless, I sent it again.

Next day I was speaking to her on the phone and asked if she’d received the information. She profusely apologized and explained, “I was in a training session all yesterday afternoon when I sent you the e-mail. I was trying to remember if I’d received the information or not. I guess I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry you had to send it again.” 

I had my opening. I couldn’t resist to tell her, in a lighthearted fashion, that I often conduct training and yes, she shouldn’t have sent me the e-mail while sitting in a training session. She should have been paying attention to the training, after all, “you were in the training for a reason.” 

• She likely missed some important information in the training session while she was busy sending e-mails
• She created additional work and frustration for me, a client for whom she was responsible who was in a transaction 
• Her actions (requesting information she’d obviously received) reflected poorly on her credibility and her ability to pay attention to details – an important part of her job

All of this reminded me of a presentation I once attended where the speaker spoke about three important qualities to cultivate: presence, acceptance and trust.  

• Presence – the ability to be here and now and focus one’s thinking in order to move toward a goal.    
• Acceptance – the ability to deal with reality as it is rather than as we’d like it to be.  
• Trust –  the ability to be reliable and project confidence while remaining open to unforeseen outcomes

Too often when I’m in meetings or leading one I observe is people looking down at devices and missing everything. Take the time to look up from that devise.  Look around you.  Get involved and engaged in the experience at hand.  Be present and draw from the environment.  

Critical Conversations

Critical conversations occur when we talk about things that really matter and can make a difference. Critical conversations happen best in a comfortable place and space. When critical conversations happen there is a higher probability for conflicts to be resolved, harmony to be established and for many other good things to happen.

Some of my best management consulting and coaching experiences have been when a client is ready, willing and able to deal with a strategic issue. Strategic issues are topics, situations and dynamics that we typically want to ignore, dismiss, hide or forget about. They are those “things going on” that are uncomfortable to talk about and require us to be vulnerable. How many of those types of issues are haunting you, your family or your business right now?

To move toward and actually have a critical conversation is a matter of time, truth, trust and willingness to touch where it hurts the most. Let’s think through this carefully:

Take the time: Now is the time to take adequate time to deal with the matter(s) at hand. We too easily let time be an excuse. When we deal with the strategic issue, we will save time and here is why. Strategic issues are road blocks that stand in the way of important things getting done. They zap time and create inefficiency.

Tell the truth: The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth – so help yourself.

Trust: It is trusting yourself and the other person(s) involved to handle what needs to happen to the extent that things can get unstuck and move forward freely. The time must be taken. The truth will set you free to say what must be said and to do what must be done. Be competent, confident and consistent with each other.

Touch where it hurts:  I mean this sincerely and literally. Act with words and a physical touch. Speak with specifics and touch the real pain. It may well be an actual thing or symbolic. We may need to touch our head pointing to our mind, our heart meaning a deep heartache or it may be a hug of care, love, support or forgiveness. Talk about the issue openly and touch what needs to be faced and healed.

Barbara and Cornelia encourage us to ask direct, open-ended questions and ask for concrete information. Here are examples from The Big Book of HR:

·       Tell me more.

·       Help me better understand.

·       Tell me why this is important.

·       What leads you to say that?

·       Give me an example.

·       How would that work?

·       Can you say a little more about how you see things?

Also: Be an active listener:

·       Be patient. Avoid interrupting

·       Resist the urge to formulate a response until after the speaker is finished

·       Listen for feelings as well as facts.

Find many more ideas in chapter 26 of The Big Book of HR.

At home and at work, critical conversations can change lives. If you don’t take the opportunity, maybe no one else in the world ever will.

Bernie Linnartz, of Empowerment Experts, consultant, coach and facilitator

This article originally appeared in the Taos News on May 5, 2016

It's All About Relationships!

I recently read a post on LinkedIn Pulse written by a former colleague and current entrepreneur. Entitled "It's All about Showing Up," Karen Fields talked about her experiences, or lack thereof, of attempting to contact companies via their websites. She said that over a period of months "I personally filled out contact forms on thirty-five web sites and received zero responses." Voice messages received the same lack of response. Go figure. Why the lack of response to potential customers?

My frustration often comes from the other end of the spectrum – cold contacts and/or cold calls.  Nary a day goes by that I'm not interrupted from getting the business of my business accomplished. Emails litter my inbox offering services guaranteed to grow my business ten-fold -- solutions from organizations who nothing about the nature of my business.  At a minimum, I've got to waste time deleting them or take some action to get removed from their mailing list. And don't ask me why!  Cold calls – I try to ignore those, but when I see the same number constantly reoccurring, sometimes with minutes, I'll answer and try to explain that they are taking me away from my work. Occasionally, the caller gets it. Usually, they hang up on me! Is this a good business strategy? Does this develop a positive image of their firm? I don't think so.

Todd Cohen, author and consultant, works with companies who want to create a sales culture. He's written a book entitled "Everyone's In Sales." While the book's target audience is sales professionals, there's a good message for leaders in all organizations. Just as Zappos' CEO Tony Hsieh emphasizes that customer service is at the core of their company – it doesn't happen in a silo – Cohen's message is sales doesn't happen in silos either.  Think about it. Team members in all organizations need basic sales skills. Even if you're not directly involved in selling the goods and services of an organization, or supporting the sales team, all team members represent the organization's interests and values. Even non-profits have to sell its mission to others.

Cohen offers three skills that are essential to sales, all of which build on each other.

First is strong personal skills including qualities such as passion, energy, self-motivation, integrity, and the ability to work across the organization to understand and serve the customers, clients, or members in the case of non-profits or member-based organization.

Next is strong relationship skills including qualities such as humility, ego control, confidence, and personal responsibility.  Don't forget these related skills of building collaboration and listening.  Relationship building has to occur within the organization as well as with external stakeholders.  Just as team members want to work with other great team members, potential customers want to do business with people, not with an impersonal organization.  Are you listening cold callers?

Finally is excellent business acumen including an awareness of the total business environment.  When Cohen talks of this, he's referring to the selling organization and the ability to understand the needs throughout that organization. I'd add that understanding the needs of the potential customer's organization is equally important.  If you’re scraping the Internet and gathering web addresses, you're not demonstrating business acumen. You're engaging in a hit and miss approach. If you miss, you move on. A hit results in a quick sale, but not a relationship.

When you build relationships, you build trust. It's a message no leader can ignore.

Leading from Any Chair

I recently attended a concert performed by the Academy of St. Martin-in-the Fields with the very talented violinist Joshua Bell. As the orchestra was warming up, I noticed that there was no podium for the conductor and when Joshua came out, he sat in the chair where the first violinist usually sits in the orchestra.  From time to time, he would use his bow to conduct but mostly he was playing as a member of the orchestra.  He did stand up to play a memorable solo but for most of the time he was seated as a member of the orchestra.  It was obvious that the musicians knew what they were supposed to do and did it with amazing perfection.  Joshua Bell got them started but it was obvious that each member of the orchestra knew his or her part and the result was beautiful music!

This performance reminded me of another conductor I’d heard speak several years ago at a conference—Benjamin Zander.   He and his wife, Rosamund Stone Zander wrote a book titled, “The Art of Possibility—Transforming Professional and Personal Life.”  One chapter is titled, Leading from Any Chair, and in it, Benjamin Zander says, “I had been conducting for nearly twenty years when it suddenly dawned on me that the conductor of an orchestra does not make a sound. His picture may appear on the cover of the CD in various dramatic poses, but his true power derives from his ability to make others powerful.”

This got me to thinking about what would happen in our businesses if leaders realized that they are not the ones who, in and of themselves, make everything happen. So many leaders I encounter in my consulting practice feel as if they have to be all knowing and all powerful to their people.  They miss the benefits that come from sitting down or stepping back and letting one of their employees take the lead.

Of course, to do this takes courage and strength—it is certainly not a sign of weakness to let someone on the team take the lead on a project but it seems to me that many leaders don’t give their employees the chance to take the lead from time to time.  How do we expect our people to learn and grow if we’re always telling them what to do and how to do it?  What results could we expect to see if we adopted a “lead from any chair” philosophy?

In order to have a “conductorless ensemble,” you’ll need to have talented and empowered employees.  You’ll need to trust that when you sit down or step back that they’ll know what’s expected of them to succeed.  Benjamin Zander thinks the idea of leading from any chair is a way to practice the art of possibility and I saw this in action on the stage with Joshua Bell and the orchestra.

I challenge you to give this a try in your organization and let us know how it works for you!

Are Your Expectations Clear?

A common dilemma for many CEOs is whether their team members and the firm’s associates are giving them honest feedback or merely telling them what they want to hear. Are major problems being covered up? Are major problems being solved without making the CEO aware that there was a problem? Are major problems being brought to his attention, and if not, why not?

Masking or hiding issues from a leader can be the cause of embarrassment for her at the very least, or result in a major conflict. Yes, associates should be empowered to take on tough issues and solve them on their own, but they should also be held accountable for letting the leaders know what’s going on. The best way to avoid this dilemma – foster a culture of open communication. In organizations where the leadership is courageous, it’s not unusual to have a “speak-up” culture where everyone embrace accountability – holding themselves and each other accountable for actions or inactions that are counterproductive to the team and the organization.

Consider the CEO who is very approachable. He walks around, talks with people in all departments and asks “What can I do better?” He’s vulnerable and invites feedback. He expects that his leadership team members do the same. There are no formal 360 evaluations. Rather there is honest feedback and dialogue that is listened to and acted upon.

How does this CEO foster courageous leadership in his organization? First, and most importantly, he builds trust. One way he accomplishes this is to take the feedback he receives seriously. If it’s something that can be acted upon, he does so quickly. If a team member makes a suggestion that can’t be implemented, he’ll explain why. He never dismisses suggestions nor makes other people feel vulnerable.

He also communicates early and often. He lets people know what their roles entail, how each role supports the organization’s goals and values, what successful performance looks like including outputs and results, and how successful performance positively impacts the organization.

This CEO’s communication style is direct. When he discusses expectations, he describes exactly what needs to happen and why. “Our goal is to increase sales by 30% in the coming fiscal year with 15% coming from existing markets and an additional 15% from new markets. Sales will have to work closely with marketing to develop a plan for expansion. That plan must be in place 45 days before the fiscal year begins.” His expectations are precise and realistic. The deadline is clear and the actions are essential and manageable. People know where they stand and what they have to do.

When expectations are clear, the likelihood of conflict arising diminishes. Rather than waste time and energy being confused and frustrated, employees have a clear path to follow. They know that they can and are expected to bring unforeseen issues to anyone in management as early as possible so adjustments can be made. Embedded in the organization’s values are trust and respect for all. They achieve this by expecting active employee participation in issues, mutual problem solving and goal setting, and transparency. People are not afraid to engage in dialogue, question goals, tasks or expectations, nor ask for clarification.

Our CEO’s open attitude fosters an environment of continued improvement for the employees and for the organization. An open culture that encourages feedback and accountability will engage, motivate and retain good talent – a goal every organization should strive to achieve.

This article originally appeared in the CEO Magazine on October 22, 2015

Empowerment and Recognition

I flew on Southwest Airlines recently and, as always, was impressed with the friendly service provided by everyone I met.  During my short flight from Washington, DC to Atlanta I skimmed the in-flight magazine and learned a lot about how Southwest values its employees.

Near the front of the magazine were pages (yes, I said pages) of letters from happy customers describing the excellent service they’d received from Southwest employees around the country. There was a letter from a customer who was traveling home from her father’s funeral. She was carrying the flag that had been presented to her to honor his service in World War II.  The pilot saw her carrying the flag and asked her the name of the person who had died and during the flight, he announced to the plane that he wanted to honor her father’s service to our country and shared his name with the passengers who applauded.  As you can imagine, the grieving daughter was touched and grateful.

There was another story of a mother who young son was traveling by himself.  After he boarded and the plane was about to taxi out to the runway, she realized her car keys were in his backpack. She begged the gate agent who quickly got on the phone and stopped the plane so that the keys could be returned.

 While some may think that sharing these letters may seem a little self serving, I think it demonstrates two very important things—

1.     Southwest employees are empowered to “go the extra mile” for customers!

2.     Southwest management knows the importance of recognizing outstanding service!

This is a very powerful combination—when we empower our employees to take care of customers and reward them for acting; it is a classic “win/win”.  Employees feel valued and customers are treated with care and respect!  Who doesn’t want that? 

The mere fact that I am writing about this tells me that there are not very many organizations that get the importance of employee empowerment and even fewer do a good job of recognizing outstanding performance.  I think many managers are afraid of giving too much power to employees—in other words, they don’t trust their employees to do the right thing.

Yes, it is a bit frightening for managers to allow employees to make decisions but if you hire the right people and train them to do their jobs and instill in them the values your organization lives by-- then they should be able to be trusted with making good decisions.

We talk a lot about getting employees to trust their leaders and their organizations but maybe there should be some discussion about how leaders can learn to trust their valued employees!

Building Healthy Organizations and Leadership Teams

The facilitator at a recent breakfast meeting brought the topic of healthy teams for the group to discuss. He framed his presentation and subsequent group exercise around Patrick Lencioni’s 2012 book, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business.

A smart organization is one that has a defined strategy and has teams and processes in place for marketing, sales, financial health and technological resources. A healthy organization has minimal politics – the focus is on the team; clarity throughout the organization – everyone knows where the firm is going, how they are going to get there, and what their roles are; high morale – employee engagement is strong; consistent productivity; and finally, low employee and customer turnover. So how do you get there?

Randy Taussig, our facilitator shared Lencioni’s five-step process. It begins with trust, vulnerability-based trust that is authentic. When a leader can be vulnerable and show his or her humanity, it sends a powerful message. If trust is absence, well pack your bags and leave.

The second element or step, once trust has been established, is healthy conflict – Don’t forget The Essential Workplace Conflict Handbook!  Too often, conflict is perceived as negative, but the ability to have passionate, positive debate moves the organization forward. It’s not about personal gain or winning an argument. Rather it’s about giving everyone the opportunity to have their say so ideas and issues can be presented, decisions made, and then allow everyone to move on. When there’s fear of conflict or unhealthy conflict, the result is the avoidance of issues, passive-aggressive behavior, and lack of engagement.

Healthy conflict leads to the next step – true commitment. Healthy conflict provides input. When all team members know and understand all opposing points of view, they will be able to commit to team decisions and buy into them. It avoids those situations that we’ve all witness in organizations, where everyone shakes their heads in agreement, then leave the meeting and voice discontent or just don’t stand behind and support the decisions.

When true commitment exists, accountability can be embraced – that is the willingness not just to be accountable as an individual, but to hold others on the team including the leader accountable. If accountability is avoided, feedback does not take place. It’s the old adage of telling the boss (or anyone on the team) what you think he wants to hear rather than what he needs to hear – withholding vital information.

This leads to the final step – results – collective team results that supersede any departmental or personal objectives or pursuits. If there is inattention to results, the team loses track and misses what was possible.

Test if your team is a healthy one. You can do this exercise alone, but it’s more powerful to do it with others:

1.     Describe a time when you were part of a team that exhibited some or all of these behaviors. What stands out about the experience?

2.     Then, describe a time when you were you were part of a team that did not exhibited these behaviors. What stands out about the experience on this team?

3.     Generally, how good were the outcomes and results in both of the above?

4.     Looking back, how important was the “health” of your team in achieving the overall results you expected in the scenarios you described.