photo by mrpattersonsir
Work is draining. For many, rare are the days when we leave the office feeling energized.
As a manager you have to recognize that people are going through this. Chances are you are too. But change has to start somewhere.
Sure, technically your job is to make sure the ball is being advanced down the field. But if your team is too exhausted (or detached) to run the plays how far is the ball going to move?
Your real job is to make deposits into the emotional bank so that when the inevitable time comes when the team needs to hunker down and everything has gone sideways that people are present, engaged and have the persistence to get through the rough patches.
From the employees perspective, they have gone out of their way to make the relationship work. They started in their role excited and ready to roll up their sleeves and make a real difference. But every slight along the way has made a withdrawal on their emotional involvement with you, the team and with the company.
It all adds up and you may be responsible for making many of those emotional withdrawals. If you expect them to dig in then you need to exert the energy to refill that account.
Focus on your people. Feed them the projects that keep them energized. Recognize they’re all different and build those relationships accordingly. People do want to be treated differently. They’re not all the same and not universally motivated by the same things.
Start today. Hold one on ones that don’t focus on tasks but rather the individual. The work will still get done.
photo by elevate printing
John Maeda’s recent post on the Harvard Business blogs discusses the value of being critiqued. Two things stood out to me. First, how the concept of feedback (aka crits) is entrenched in the supposedly emotionally-based art world and yet the supposedly emotionless, fact-based business world does everything possible to avoid annual reviews. Second, was the fact that the business world has no idea how to constructively give feedback. (The latter likely follows from the former, of course.)
So…a few thoughts on how to start turning that ship.
Feedback often fails to motivate because we unintentionally make the conversation human. Seriously. We make evaluative judgments about the other individual rather than framing the conversation around their goals. Though the content of the conversation is about the individual and their actions you want to be able to disassociate the individual from the process as much as possible. You also need to make it apparent that you’re working to the same end point without placating or making unproductive comments in order to ’soften the blow.’
It’s far easier to be critiqued by others when you know they have your interests in mind. This is the subtle difference between being a coach and being a manager.
Know what motivates (why one works). Know each individual’s goals (where they want to be). And know how to talk to them in a way that gets heard (what springs them to action).
Not knowing these will likely lead to a brilliant failure. It may not be immediately apparent, but the individual will likely shut down in the short-term and need time to bounce back. That process can be long and if not properly managed, irreparable. If you don’t already know the answers to the above a good starting point for giving feedback would be to start the conversation with the first two questions. If you know the answers, start by reiterating them.
Giving feedback is incredibly hard. Nobody wants to be the bearer of bad news. Yet, most people want to be able to take some credit for helping others succeed. Mentally shift how you think about this activity and it will get a little easier. And your team should become more productive.
We all want to hire people who are going to make a difference. Who will drive our businesses forward.
We want people who will remain engaged long after the honeymoon period.
The circle of engagement is pretty clear. An employee likes her job so she works hard and does well which in turn produces rewards that matter to her so she tries harder still.
But where is the on-ramp? What fuels this virtuous cycle?
photo by robotography
It’s easy to put the onus on the employee by saying you’re paying well, you have free yoga classes and M&Ms. But none of those spin the wheel. Despite what you may think those are only ‘nice to haves’ for most people. People who are intrinsically motivated to do something amazing.
You’ve spent a lot of time and money to bring the new employee on-board. So why not suck up your pride and take that first step? Do everything in your power to ensure the people you hire succeed?
Engagement is a two-way street. There is give and take on both sides, but we far too often neglect the new employee and trust them to ‘quickly get up to speed.’
Take the lead in engaging your employees and that lead will be followed.
photo by annadriel
A recent Towers Perrin post reveals a conversation the author had with former NFL coach Tony Dungy. Football is known for its gruff, abrupt, in-your-face style of ‘leadership,’ but Tony Dungy was far from that. He succinctly states his philosophy to leading and getting the best from his players three points (from the post):
- His parents were both teachers and they believed that it was their responsibility to make every student an “A” student. But not every student learns the same way, so you have to tailor your style to each individual to bring out the best in them.
- You have to make each player on the team understand that the good of the team is greater than that of any individual, and that you can only be successful as a team.
- You have to earn your players’ trust — this is foundational to the first two. They have to trust that your coaching and advice is what is best for them and for the collective team.
I like this for several reasons:
First, if your leadership style is inflexible and you see people as cogs in the wheel then you dramatically limit the field of potential individuals who could excel in the job. Finding good people is hard, why should we further constrain ourselves?
Secondly, you are limited by the boundaries of your own imagination and thought process. If you only know one way to go about things then you won’t be open-minded to new, potentially better approaches.
Further, by acknowledging that people are unique you are connecting with them on a very personal level. In order to motivate you have to know them. That connection is usually a two-way street. By taking the time to understand someone you’re proving you care about them. Reciprocation is then difficult not to grant. You wind up getting a lot more effort in return.
Finally, you don’t want your people to compete with each other too much. That devolves into a race to the bottom. It is far easier to push another down than it is to lift oneself up. Putting the team first means that you won’t reward pushing others down in order to shine.
This has been sitting in the queue for a little while, but I wanted to point to a great post by Fred Wilson on making all big decisions only after a face to face interaction.
His context is checking references, but I’d like to expand upon it further. This post was a screaming reminder of how important our physical presence is and how it changes the tenor of our conversations.
Leading teams requires face to face communication. Leadership is about more than the content of the communication. A well crafted email or IM is great. But that rarely inspires someone to go the extra mile.
photo by seite-3
Leadership is bequeathed based on how you make the other person feel. It’s far easier to show appreciation, respect and interest in another when you’re communicating with both your actions and your words.
Our communication patterns have changed. It’s way too easy to use email or IM out of a misguided sense of efficiency. But…
Don’t forget your shoes. They are the most important weapon in your leadership toolkit. Wear them out.
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