Category Archives: Developing as a leader

Are you shying away from addressing under-performance in your team?

Developing as a leader

A funny thing has been happening in my office in recent days.  It’s taken me a few days to work out what’s going on.

It all started when I caught the faintest whiff of something, well… a little unpleasant.  It made me check my clothes to make sure I wasn’t wearing something which should have gone into the laundry (and feel rather foolish when I realised that everything was freshly laundered).  Could it have been a lingering gift from the BT engineer who sorted out my broadband connection recently?  No, surely not!  But it did smell, well, a little sweaty.

After a few days, I put two and two together and remembered the mouse I saw running across my lounge when I had my kitchen done last winter.  In truth, I know that some of the little fellas have been hanging out at my place:  recently I had Gary (who did the kitchen for me) block their points of entry.  But I hadn’t gone that extra step and set traps.  I realised that this faint and persistent odour is a sign that one of them has died. As I sit and write I am aware that, unless I set traps or lay poison (which I am rather loath to do) this may happen again.

When your staff aren’t performing

Now, it may be a little bit of a mental leap and still, the mouse in my study reminded me of an experience I had some years ago, when I was part of an assessment team conducting an audit of leadership capability for a client organisation.  One member of the team was markedly less able than his colleagues and – guess what! – it was me who got to conduct his assessment and to give him feedback.  I remember outlining the key findings from his assessment and he agreed with them all.  Still, there was a moment when he realised that, taken all together, the picture wasn’t good.

What was most striking to me was that the commissioning client had been re-shaping this person’s job over some time, taking away an area of responsibility here and replacing it with the odd project.  Gradually business-critical responsibilities had been stripped away until my candidate had a portfolio of do-no-harm projects that couldn’t possibly damage the business.  All this had happened without any conversation taking place between my candidate and his boss about the fact that this man wasn’t performing.

What’s the connection?  For me, it’s the pervading odour of a task which has not yet been done – noticing and addressing the performance failings of a member of the team because, let’s be clear, the approach of this manager leaves behind it a trail of clues which is increasingly obvious to anyone who cares to look.  It’s not just that tasks have been visibly reallocated amongst different members of the team leaving someone with a non-portfolio of not very important projects.  It’s also that the boss is seen to have ducked an important issue.  It’s also that other members of the team start to invest their energies into (at best) working out how to maintain the fantasy that this is a useful member of the team or (at worst) plotting for the individual’s downfall, or that of their boss, or… or… or…

The truth is, if you don’t address the issue of under-performance, it doesn’t go away.

You need to address under-performance

Over the years, I’ve found that whilst leaders may say they don’t know how to address under-performance, it’s often something else that keeps them from taking action.  They find it hard to square a head-on disciplinary approach with their aspirations for compassion or they fear a loss of popularity.  Even at the most senior levels, people have been known to say “no, I won’t let it happen – it will ruin his (or her) career”.  At a moment like this, it’s important to understand why it matters to the individual who is not performing as much as it does for the team and the organisation.

The truth is, when we don’t address under-performance, we open the road to increasingly difficult circumstances for the employee concerned.  At first, with a little flattery as we allocate new projects, we may be able to persuade the individual that we’re giving them an opportunity worth having – at least for a while.  More likely, though, is the creeping self-doubt that comes with their growing awareness that they’re struggling to do their jobs.  This is compounded by their concern that perhaps they’re not capable of doing any job.  And it could get worse and worse as colleagues increasingly express their growing resentment as they have to work a little bit harder to compensate for the weaknesses of the under-performer, or listen to more unworkable suggestions or “no, I haven’t done that yet” updates in meetings.  The under-performer loses dignity, self respect, confidence and esteem, and the respect of his or her colleagues.

Equally, when we don’t address under-performance in our team, we fail to open up avenues to a happier and more productive life for the individuals concerned.  Of course, some people may initially be shocked to hear that they are not performing well (though most people know this already).  Either way, we need to give support as part of addressing the issues involved.  Handled successfully, addressing under-performance helps people to connect more fully with what they do want and where their skills lie.  Perhaps we’ll be able to support them bridging a key skills gap.  Perhaps we’ll help them to find a role in our organisation in which they really thrive.  Perhaps we’ll able to help them with some half-forgotten dream.  If you have any doubts about this, listen to the stories of people who have found deep levels of satisfaction in their lives and careers.  Many of them, at some point in their career, have experienced the challenges of doing a role to which they have not been well-suited.

Look for the gifts your staff do have, as well as the ones they don’t

Observing leaders who handle under-performance effectively (as I have done over the years – by interviewing leaders for research purposes, assessing them for more senior roles and working one-to-one in coaching partnership) one thing I notice is this:  that they do not confuse the person with his or her behaviour.  The under-performer is under-performing but s/he’s not “useless”, “lacking in potential” or any other negative description you might care to shape around the individual.  S/he’s simply someone who hasn’t yet learnt skills he or she has the potential to acquire or someone who is in a role to which s/he’s not well-suited.  The task is to find out which and to support the individual in bridging the skills gap or in finding a more suitable role.

So, I want to ask you, are you shying away from addressing the under-performance of a member of your team?  And if you are, or even if you’re reflecting on the way you’ve handled such issues in the past, what do you take from reading this article?

The trouble with (audience) participation

Developing as a leader, Emotional Intelligence, ,

Autumn is here with its traditional themes.  I have been enjoying bursts of deep reds, yellows and oranges as well as indulging my fascination for various kinds of fungi – I find so much beauty in this season, even as it takes us towards long nights and increasingly low temperatures.

I confess, the autumn is also a season for cosying up in front of the television – maybe even a little more often than I care to admit.  My nephew and I have been enjoying Young Apprentice and Dragon’s Den, usually exchanging observations if we haven’t watched it together.  You’ll also find it hard to get me out on a Saturday evening at this time of year – at least, you would have done until now.

On Sunday, I was shocked and disappointed when Ella Henderson and James Arthur, surely favourites to win this year’s X Factor, were pitted against each other in the ‘sing off’ following the audience vote.  That’s the trouble with audience participation:  give people a vote and just look what they do with it!  (And for any X Factor fans – who is voting for Christopher Maloney?!)

I have to say that, in the Young Apprentice, I see a different problem arising, with project managers failing conspicuously to draw on the input of their team.  Patrick McDowell struggled valiantly last week to convey the point that the team’s planning needed to take into account where they were starting from and needed to get back to at the end of the day.  I wondered what other ideas might have helped the teams to succeed if only the project managers had been listening.  Didn’t it make sense, for example, to make it a priority to phone round and get some prices for what looked like the largest purchase – a German car, taxed and ready to drive away?  And wouldn’t it have helped to engage in a conversation about how best to organise the task before getting stuck in?

I wonder if, as a leader, you struggle with both sides of this coin.  After all, the theory says that engaging people’s ideas through a participative style of management increases engagement and motivation.  Daniel Goleman and his colleagues, in The New Leaders:  Transforming the Art of Leadership into the Science of Results, describe how using what they call the democratic style helps to build buy-in or consensus, or to get valuable input from employees.  But this style does have its limitations.  Sunday’s X Factor results show one of them – you don’t always get the outcome you want from inviting ideas from your staff.

This style also has its limitations in the eyes of staff.  There’s nothing worse than being asked for ideas and then told that, actually, it’s the bosses ideas that are going to be taken forward, especially if it’s always the bosses ideas that are taken forward (or you think it is).  This can undermine the confidence of your staff or their respect for you.

So are there any things you can do if you want to use this style effectively?  Here are a few ideas:

  • Don’t invite input from staff when you already know what you’re going to do:  It may seem obvious, but if you set about appearing to use this style but are not sincere, staff will soon sniff you out.  NEVER use this style to give the impression that staff have been consulted when you know full well you have already made your decision;
  • Separate out consulting staff from the decision-making process.  There may be times when it’s appropriate to make a decision democratically but there are also times when it’s appropriate for you to make a decision yourself.  Be clear in your own mind which is which – and be rigorously honest with your staff about the likely decision-making process.  This way, team members know from the beginning how their ideas may or may not be used;
  • Be honest with yourself about the current level of capability of your staff and use this to inform your decisions about consulting your staff.  Invite their input in areas where you know they have something to offer so that they can add real value by their contributions and you can show how you have taken their ideas on board;
  • Combine your use of this participative style with other leadership styles.  Goleman and his colleagues point in particular to the need to provide clarity of expectations and to coach members of your team.  Helping your team to understand your overall vision and how they can contribute to it and providing coaching to develop their skills both play a role in increasing the likely quality of their contributions and ideas in team discussions;
  • Invite team member’s ideas at their growing edge.  With effective coaching support from you, the quality of team members’ contributions will constantly improve.  Keep inviting ideas at team members’ growing edge to stretch them and so that you both know how much progress they’re making;
  • Respond constructively.  The minute you dismiss an idea as stupid or worthless you send a powerful message to the whole team which makes it less likely that they will want to contribute in future.  Quite quickly, you’ll be saying that your team members have no ideas to offer.  Say thank you for all the ideas team members contribute no matter what you think of them.  If you can’t see how an idea will work in practice, test it with your team and ask them to test it with others if appropriate.  You may find a hidden gem and if you don’t, you may still all have learned something;
  • Be prepared to be surprised.  Engaging your staff in team discussions may be a stretch for you as much as for your staff.  Be ready to examine ideas that you might initially find strange and to find the ones that really might work.  Be prepared to try some knowing that they might work and they might fail as part of expanding your own thinking and showing your support for your team.

I’d love to know how you get on.

Avoiding an office affair

Developing as a leader, Emotional Intelligence,

After quite a long spell of writing two or three blog postings a week, I have gone a whole month without publishing anything.  In truth, I have been running to catch up for months now – and something had to give.  It’s become clear to me that I want to write fewer blog postings going forward – perhaps one a week or two at most.  At the same time, I want to add depth to my postings.  You can expect them to be longer in future.

I thought I’d come back with a bit of a bang – a term I may come to regret given the topic of my posting.  I was drawn last week by a posting on LinkedIn entitled Six Tips for Avoiding an Office Affair.  If the early responses (mine was one) are anything to go by, this is a highly contentious subject.  It’s also a taboo subject – I know that I was drawn to read the posting precisely because I have seen any number of office affairs take place and yet this subject is rarely addressed in public.

Facing up to sexual attraction in the workplace

No matter what we consider to be ‘professional’, we all of us – at times – are attracted to colleagues.  The workplace is one of the key places in which people meet their life partners – a place where people see each other often and get to know each other well.

But what if you’re already in a relationship?  It doesn’t stop you feeling attracted to people and you may even spend more time with your colleagues in the workplace than you do with your partner at home.  Once you become a parent your opportunities to really connect with your partner may be even fewer.  Perhaps your work with a colleague brings you close together or maybe it’s your work colleagues who hear and understand just how challenging life is for you when your spouse is unsympathetic (or maybe the source – in your mind – of your woes).  In the heat of the moment you may find it hard to resist the temptation of embarking on one relationship (an “affair”) whilst still being committed in another.  You may even be surprised to realise that you have embarked on an affair before you even realised it – the writer of the article I mentioned above uses the term “work spouse” to describe a special friend of the attractive sex.

Perhaps you have no problem with having a workplace affair.  If so, this article is not for you.  Perhaps, though, you are feeling the heat of the attraction and struggling to know what to do.  Or maybe, right now, you have lost sight of the potential consequences of following a path that can lead to the breakdown of your marriage, to disruption in your relationships with any number of loved ones, to the loss of respect from your colleagues, to the loss of your own respect for yourself.  It’s not that relationships don’t break down – they do, and at times this is clearly for the best.  Even so, embarking on a workplace affair has a raft of consequences that you may not be ready to choose or face up to.

Avoiding an office affair – a different set of tips

Author Gretchen Rubin gives one set of tips in her article Six Tips for Avoiding an Office Affair.  I offer my own, below:

  • Get clear on your values ahead of time:  It may seem obvious, but getting clear on the values you want to live by helps you to make choices in the moment with the long-term view in mind.  Take time to think about the values you want to live by in your intimate relationships so that you can make decisions in the moment in the full awareness of your highest aspirations;
  • When you feel attracted to someone, talk about it:  Rather than denying that you feel attracted to someone, talk about it.  Whilst denial can stoke the flames of an attraction, talking about it can help you to acknowledge it and begin to engage with it.  It also provides the basis for making decisions.  Choose carefully who you talk to.  Perhaps you have a coach or therapist who can help you to step back from the attraction and to think things through.  Perhaps you have friends.  It may even help you to name it to your spouse or the object of your affection – though this takes maturity on your part and may not be the best place to start;
  • Ask yourself why the attraction is so compelling:  Perhaps it’s meeting your needs just to feel the attraction (or to know that someone is attracted to you).  Perhaps you imagine that an affair will meet some as yet unmet needs.  Understanding what those needs are opens up the possibility of meeting those needs in different ways.  This may be about addressing needs in the context of your intimate relationship, but not always – if you find that your need is for empathy and understanding, for example, you can choose to seek support from friends and reduce the risk of an affair;
  • Address issues in your intimate relationships:  Perhaps you’ll discover that you’re unhappy in your marriage or intimate relationship.  If you do, don’t ignore it.  Perhaps it’s time to address the balance in your life between work and family, or to discuss with your partner issues that are troubling you.  You may even want to seek professional help.  This is a critical moment in your marriage:  it’s a moment when you could save your marriage.  It’s also a moment when you could handle a break-up with dignity and without falling into the first pair of arms you find;
  • Finish one intimate relationship before you start another:  It may seem simplistic and still, if you set yourself the rule that you won’t embark on one relationship before you’ve finished another, you will think hard before embarking on an office affair.  This could help you to realise how important your marriage is to you before it’s too late.  It could also help you handle a break-up with dignity and compassion and to enter a new relationship knowing you have honoured values of honesty and integrity.
I sign off with both compassion and curiosity – I look forward to your comments.  And if you’re struggling to avoid a work-placed affair, please know that you are not alone.

Handling a knotty discussion with a member of your team – can (s)he make it as a line manager?

Developing as a leader, Emotional Intelligence,

Recently, a member of the Training Journal’s discussion forum raised a knotty question – how to handle discussions about the potential for promotion to a line management role with an employee who, whilst technically competent, lacked the “people skills” for the role.  The individual concerned had asked for the opportunity to step up.  His manager wasn’t convinced he could succeed and had told him so.  Still the staff member wanted to further his career in a line management role.

Maybe you’ve encountered this kind of thing before – fielding this kind of request can be a heart-sinking moment.  Even with all the HR wizardry in the world (a clear description of the behaviours needed to succeed as a manager in your organisation, 360 degree feedback which shows where this individual’s strengths and areas for development are and so on), you face the prospect of spending more time than you really want to trying to explain why you aren’t willing to promote him.  Secretly, you may have a concern that his reasons for requesting a promotion have more to do with increasing his pay packet (or status, or some other thing) than with a real desire to manage others.  This can be a real problem when time is already at a premium.

Worse still, the pressure to promote can lead to people taking on roles for which they really don’t have the skill.  This can undermine the morale of those being managed and may have disastrous consequences for the person who has been promoted.

How do you move forward in this kind of situation?

It’s all in the framing

As long as you’re thinking “I have to persuade him he’s not suited to a line management role” and “he doesn’t understand his limitations”, you’re at risk of setting up an impasse – you persuade, he resists, you persuade some more… until you’re both frustrated and exhausted.

There is another way.  A second approach is to take a more open view – to acknowledge your view that your team member is not ready for (and even may never be suited to) a line management role, whilst agreeing to work with him to explore this as a possibility and to do this in a way which keeps the business on track, and keeps his dignity intact – whatever you both discover.

Against this backdrop, you can take a number of steps on a path of exploration:

A step-by-step approach

Here are some of the steps I recommend you take on this path of exploration:

  • Explore his motivations for wanting to follow this path:  It may be obvious and still, the more you can understand his reasons for wanting to become a line manager, the more you can explore with him what ways he can meet his needs whether or not he gets the promotion he desires.  If he says he wants to have more influence in the business, for example, you may discover he’s quite happy to have coaching support to increase his ability to influence – and less concerned about promotion once he has this support;
  • Let him know that promotion is not guaranteed:  Most organisations promote people when a vacancy becomes available.  If this is your policy, you need to explain this from the beginning.  Your team member needs to know the nature of the journey so that (s)he can decide whether or not (s)he wants to go ahead;   
  • Let him know what you’re looking for in your line managers:  You may have a competency model or something similar to help you and even if you don’t, you still need to let your team member know what behaviours you need to see him demonstrate before (yes, before) you’re likely to support a promotion into a line management role.  The more you can help him to understand your expectations, the more he can work towards them as well as to assess, “is this really me?”;
  • Seek feedback from the business:  Whether you have a fancy 360-degree questionnaire or simply time to ask people for their views, ensure that you gather feedback early on in the process about your team member’s strengths for the role and areas in which (s)he will need to develop.  This helps to “keep it real”.  Use this information as the basis for a discussion with your team member:  let him know what people are saying and explore the implications;
  • Test and explore “hard truths”:  One of the most difficult aspects of this kind of exploration is when you see difficulties that your team member doesn’t appreciate – it’s easy to run away from this aspect of the discussion by telling yourself “he just doesn’t get it”.  It’s important to test your understanding with your team member and to speak honestly about your concerns, whilst also leaving ownership with him for his own choices (for example, “John, it sounds as though you believe you have the listening skills you need – is that right?  I think the feedback is telling us staff want more empathy from you, even though you think they should be able to work effectively without your understanding.  I think there’s a risk for you that, because the business can see you don’t see empathy as important (which we do), senior managers may be reluctant to promote you into a line management role.  I can help you to develop in this area but I will only do this on the basis that you understand the importance for your staff of showing them understanding”);
  • Agree a development plan:  A development plan for your team member needs to highlight key strengths and how these can be leveraged to make progress (or how they may limit progress if they are used as the basis for a people management approach).  It also needs to highlight key areas for development – those areas in which your team member needs to make progress in order to be an attractive candidate for promotion;
  • Give support in the form of assignments and coaching:  You can do a great deal to support your team member by giving him assignments which help him to develop in key areas, coupled with effective supervision and coaching.  Is it influencing he wants to develop?  Talk to him about the need to get buy-in from your project steering committee for an increase in funding – discuss tactics, explain why you propose certain actions, allocate actions to him.  A key to your overall success is to take a step-by-step approach, building the skills of your team member over time and making sure that any failures are relatively minor and leave his dignity as well as your business results intact;
  • Include a “get out of jail free card”:  This suggestion takes us right back to the beginning –  you think your team member may not be cut out for a line management role and you may be right.  Still, using persuasion and only persuasion is unlikely to succeed.  At the same time, it’s possible that the more your team member is exposed to the responsibilities of line management the more (s)he will understand this for himself.  However, if (s)he has the faintest sense that you might be waiting to tell him “I told you so” (s)he may be reluctant to share this insight.

The return on your investment

It’s possible that the outcome from this process is that you will be surprised – discovering that, despite your worst fears, your team member slowly develops the skills needed to become a valuable member of your management team.  Going into this process with a willingness to be surprised greatly increases the chances that this may happen.

It’s possible that your worst fears will be confirmed – not only does your team member fail to make any progress towards developing the skills (s)he needs, but (s)he also fails to develop any insight into his need to develop in order to manage others effectively.  This can be frustrating for you and everyone concerned though it does seem unlikely.  I have found that it’s rare for this to happen when so much support has been given.

Finally, it’s possible that your team member will come to understand that, no, this isn’t for me.  If you’ve included the “get out jail free card” I described above, it’s also easy for him to say so.

Perhaps there’s a larger context to consider.  Hopefully, all the actions outlined above will gain the loyalty of the team member concerned – you may well become the manager he remembers with gratitude in years to come.  And if this is the experience of one team member, it’s likely also to impact the experience of your wider team.  You don’t have to spread the word (and nor does your team member) for staff to recognise something special about the organisation they work for.

What are you taking from this posting?  I look forward to your questions and comments below.

Miserable meetings

Developing as a leader

It’s Thursday as I write.  Sitting at my desk this evening and in conversation with my fellow students with Mark Silver at the Heart of Business, I realised how much my mind has been racing this week – trying to keep up with all the commitments I have made and under extra pressure to get things done because I am away next week.  I shall be enjoying 10 days with my mother in Scotland and I’m looking forward to it immensely.  At the same time, my attention in the last few days has been focused on everything that needs to be done before I go away – how crazy to feel so much added pressure because I’m due to go on holiday.

It has been a bit of a mad week.  Last week, I conducted two assessments and I needed to follow up this week.  On Monday, between calls, I started to write my first assessment report which I completed and sent off for peer review on Tuesday in time for an afternoon call (four hours of afternoon call – that’s a long meeting, especially by conference call!).  By the time the meeting finished my assessment report had been returned with comments for my consideration in time for feedback meetings on Thursday.  First, though, I had to write my second report.  To this I devoted the whole of Wednesday, with the exception of a lunchtime call with a completely different client, returning to my final amendments of Report One first thing this (Thursday) morning.  I did this, sent them off to be forwarded to the client, spoke with the assessee’s line manager and then with the person I had assessed.  Tomorrow I shall do the same again with Report Two.  Oh!  And in between I had calls with a colleague about a third client and, yes, I shall be speaking with that third client tomorrow.

All my meetings have been by phone this week and counting them, I have had ten scheduled meetings varying from 30 minutes to four and a half hours in duration.  All this in addition to chunks of work, keeping on top of e-mails and dealing with the kind of surprises that crop up constantly in between.  I want to be clear – I’m not complaining!  I love my work – every bit of it!  I feel so privileged to support the progress of men and women into increasingly senior roles.  (And I also enjoyed – immensely – helping my niece to make ginger-bread men when she came to see me on Wednesday evening, but that’s another story).

Nonetheless, this week reminded me forcefully of one aspect of my clients’ lives which is both challenging and relentlessly ongoing – meetings.  How often do you feel as if your calendar is running you and not the other way around?  Even at the most senior levels, many people find they are called to meetings which they feel they can’t refuse.  And yes, it’s also true that the same people are inviting others to meetings which those others feel they can’t refuse.  And amongst those meetings some seem pointless and others downright painful.

Funny then, that in the same week that I have been running to keep up in between meetings, Mark Silver (whom I mention above) wrote a posting on his blog entitled Beets, miserable meetings and your micro-business.  Mark’s clients are micropreneurs like me and his posting is written with this in mind.  Still, it contains a thread of gold which is of equal value no matter what your business.  Follow this link if you want to read it – at the very least, you’ll find a book recommendation that may be of interest.

And yes, I look forward to meeting you again when I return from my holiday.

Reflecting on my gardening year

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Summer is drawing to a close – and what a summer!  Predictions of a drought to knock 1976 into a cocked hat became the subject of ridicule as the rain poured and poured and, well, poured… breaking one record and then another.  Sitting in my garden recently, I found myself reflecting on my gardening year.

This is the first year I have sown anything from seed and I have had a good number of successes.  I have grown broad beans, runner beans, French beans – the runner beans from beans harvested from last year’s crop.  I have grown Swiss chard, and three different types of courgettes – green courgettes, yellow courgettes and summer squash.  I have grown butternut squash, potatoes and tomatoes.  I have grown marigolds and nasturtium.  I have grown aubergine and cucumbers, lettuce, fennel – even cauliflowers.  Recently, visiting my local farmer’s garden, I noticed how many of the vegetables I most admired were ones I have in abundance in my own garden.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing.  The tomatoes have suffered terribly in the rain and I have had to pull out and dispose of tomatoes with blight.  Of those that remain, I have only had ripe tomatoes in the last two or three weeks and even then, very few – what a wash-out!  I have discovered that some plants really do need to be in a green house – the aubergines and cucumbers in particular.  I don’t (yet) have a greenhouse, though I have started to ponder what size greenhouse I need and where I might put it in my garden which is spacious by urban standards and nonetheless modest in size.

I really celebrate my learning.  I can grow things from seed and they are naturally inclined to grow.  In this less-than-sunny year my vegetables have grown much better on one side of the garden than the other.  I’ve learnt a few more ways to reduce the number of slugs and snails in my garden.  I’ve learnt – after upwards of 40 years without eating a broad bean – that I can eat broad beans and (in some dishes at least) enjoy them.  And as I learn more about my garden I am also slowly developing a plan for it.  I know where I want to grow vegetables, taking into account the position of the garden and where the sun shines.  I know where I want to have a seating area for breakfast and another shady seating area for lunch at midday.  I have learnt that I experience an unbelievable amount of pleasure – a deep, deep joy – from sowing and tending and planting my own seeds.  I have been reminded of nature’s abundance and the joy of giving away my excess harvest.

After a while I realised that my reflections were like the annual reviews that are carried out in many organisations.  I also realised that my reflection in hindsight were rather different from my reflections at certain moments during the year, when my focus was overwhelmingly on the challenges of my garden – the blight on my tomatoes, the impossibility of staying on top of the weeds and the slugs and snails in what seemed like interminable rain.  For me, this ‘annual review’ of my gardening year, seated with a cup of tea in the midst of the harvest of my labours brought nothing but joy, pure joy.  I was able to embrace my successes and to notice areas where I still have much to learn.  I was able to look ahead and to begin to plan for the year(s) ahead without any sense of being somehow in ‘deficit’.  I was able to differentiate between gaps in my learning and the impact of circumstances beyond my control.

If only the workplace annual review could be a joyous event, too.  I wonder, what would this take in your organisation?

Not being heard? Time to do something differently

Developing as a leader, Emotional Intelligence, ,

Recently a friend sent a card by (if I remember rightly) Daily Telegraph cartoonist, Matt.  The card depicted a boardroom scene and the caption was along the lines of “That’s an excellent idea, Miss Smith.  Would one of the men like to put it forward?”  It must have spoken to some real or perceived truth – it made me laugh out loud.

As to that “truth”, it may have been about sexism in the workplace or it may, equally, have been about influencing others – whether you’re a man or a woman, and whether you are seeking to communicate with your seniors, your peers, or those you lead, there will be times when your message isn’t being heard.  When this is the case, what do you do next?

All too often, the key reason our message isn’t being heard is this:  we are expressing it in our own language (be that logical persuasion, using facts and data or by some other means) and assuming others will think about the same issue in the same way.  So, a good place to start is by putting ourselves in the shoes of our audience.  How do those we want to influence think about these things?  This can be hard – if all your boss ever thinks about is how to catch people out who are doing things wrong, you may be reluctant to speak his or her language.  Still, to speak the language of your audience may be enough to transform the conversation into one in which you get heard.  More than this, it may be enough to transform an important relationship, so that you are heard with ease again and again and again.

The Matt cartoon also speaks to a deeper truth – that sometimes you’re just not the person to put forward a message or idea.  If your agenda is to attract approval or appreciation, you may find it hard to stand to one side and still, letting someone else deliver an important message can be an effective way to be heard.  This is one reason why organisations (or rather, people in organisations) commission outside consultants to do research and then deliver a message which isn’t easily heard from people inside the organisation.  It’s hard to speak up as an individual and say “you ask for our ideas but you always shoot them down so we’ve stopped putting them forward”.  It can be more compelling to hear that “members of your board expressed the widespread view that whilst you ask for ideas, you are highly critical of ideas such that people feel it’s not worth offering ideas”.

There are ways to promote an idea without going to the expense of hiring in external consultants (which is, in any case, a rather hit or miss affair).  Savvy leaders know that ‘socialising’ an idea before making a formal presentation is an important part of gaining support for a proposal.  If you’re going into a meeting wondering if your proposal will be approved, you probably haven’t done your homework.

Sometimes, effective leaders make some dramatic gesture to get their message across, like the leader who, after several months of seeking unsuccessfully to engage staff in dialogue about the need to turn their part of the business into profit, announced the closure of the department.  Suddenly staff were ready to talk and, what’s more, to contribute ideas to enable a radical re-shaping of their department and, in this way, to secure its future.

Why is influencing important?  Because the more senior you are, the more you need to work with and through others.  And the more you need to work with and through others, the more you need to be able to gain support for ideas, proposals and plans of action.

I wonder, how does this idea land with you?  It could be that you understand the need to influence and still, you don’t know how – for you, the challenge is in turning this intention into effective action.  Equally, it could be that you find the ideas above uncomfortable and even repulsive – for you, the challenge is squaring the need to influence with values around openness and honesty or even with your preference for getting the work done.

I’d love to hear from you in via the comments box below – how does the idea of influencing others land with you?  What has worked for you?  And where are you stuck and still needing to make progress?

What successful people do with the first hour of their working day

Developing as a leader,

Kevin Purdy wrote a great article a few days back entitled What successful people do with the first hour of their working day.

The article offers a variety of inputs from diverse and successful people.  They don’t all start their day in the same way but they do have one thing in common – they’ve thought about how best to start their working day.  Have you?

In case you’re looking for ideas, follow this link.

How to be an outstanding leader whilst also being yourself

Developing as a leader, Emotional Intelligence, ,

A few days ago as I walked through my local supermarket I caught a glimpse of an interview quote, inviting the reader to buy a magazine in order to learn more.  The quote was something along the lines of “I won’t cut my hair, because it’s who I am”.  It could equally have said “I won’t change my clothes/ adapt my accent/ take the ear-ring out of my nose…” and many more things besides.  I found myself thinking “No, these things are not who you are.  They’re ways you choose to express yourself”.  Several days after I walked past this magazine, I realised that the headline was pointing me to an important truth for those of us in leadership positions:  we can be outstanding leaders AND be ourselves.  At the same time, we need to be clear on who we really are.

Why is this important?  At one level it’s about fashion in the world of leadership:  it’s so fashionable to be “authentic”.  If you pop the words “authentic leadership” into your search engine you’ll find all sorts of scholarly articles and theory.  A number of authors have written books on the subject.  It’s in vogue on the discussion groups on LinkedIn.  At another level, authentic leadership draws our attention because the challenge of being an outstanding leader whilst also being true to ourselves is one that exercises people in leadership roles – many people at some point in their leadership career find themselves grappling with what appears, on the surface, to be an irreconcilable dichotomy.

Take Jurgen, for example.  Promoted at a young age into a senior leadership role, Jurgen looked around him and formed a view of what it meant to be a leader in his organisation.  He started to adopt the behaviours of his peers, especially those he admired.  In his tough-talking, fast-paced organisation he started to adjust his style to make sure his staff were in no doubt what was expected of them and what the consequences would be if they didn’t deliver the results expected of them.  He reduced his focus on people and increased his emphasis on results, identifying key projects, making plans for each project, allocating work amongst members of his team and tracking results.

Jurgen thought he was doing the right thing but he quickly discovered it wasn’t working.  It wasn’t working because his colleagues – previously his peers and now members of his team – seemed to be offering less cooperation than before so that achieving results was getting more and more difficult.  He didn’t know it but it wasn’t working in the eyes of those who had recruited him either, who expected he would bring a softer approach than other members of the senior management team, in line with their aspirations for a less “macho” and more emotionally intelligent leadership style.  Above all, it wasn’t working for Jurgen because it felt deeply uncomfortable – it just “wasn’t him”.  Jurgen felt like an imposter in the role, because he didn’t feel comfortable doing it the way others were doing it and he thought this was the way it needed to be done.

Jurgen took the initiative to organise a coach, who helped him to understand that he could be himself and still be an outstanding leader.  He developed a statement of values in which authenticity was key.  He dropped the persona he had adopted when he first stepped into his role in favour of an approach that was more natural to him.  It seemed like he was on track.  At the same time, when I met Jurgen a few months later, I noticed that I had a suspicion about some of Jurgen’s behaviours – it seemed possible to me that some of the behaviours he identified with as an expression of his authentic self dated back to a time in his early life and had not been examined since.  He thought he was the person who was always kind to people and he was – but he didn’t know why or even what kindness meant to him.  In moving away from the leadership persona he had adopted to a more “authentic” way of being, Jurgen had stepped into a set of unconscious behaviours which, in turn, were not always effective or even truly him.

Meeting Jurgen prompted me to identify and share some of the things I have seen leaders do who have learnt to be highly effective whilst also remaining true to themselves.  Here are just a few of them along with a few words about how Jurgen has applied them:

First, set your intentions

Jurgen set an intention to be authentic in his role as a leader and, following our conversation, added his intention to continue to develop as an outstanding leader.  This set up what you might call an inner dialogue as he started to explore what it meant to be both.

This was coupled with being clear about his intentions in specific situations, for example when he had to address a performance shortfall in a member of his team.  He sensed that being an outstanding leader in this situation meant addressing the issue and bringing it to a resolution – to an improvement in performance or to the recognition that his team member wasn’t in the right job.  At the same time, he also wanted to embody his core value of kindness and compassion.  He set the intention to explore how he could address the issue with kindness and compassion whilst still bringing it to a clear resolution.

Then, discern between your intentions and the means by which you achieve them

Jurgen realised that in attempting to be kind to his team member, he had been holding back on addressing the issue at all.  He’d let his team member flounder and he’d stood back and watched as colleagues became increasingly frustrated at the levels of performance they witnessed.  As the annual appraisals season approached, Jurgen knew he would be basing his year-end performance rating on behaviours he witnessed but not discussed with his team member.  The more he looked at his approach, the more he realised that it was anything but kind, even though kindness was at the heart of his intentions.

Once he had examined the effects of his existing approach, Jurgen was in a better position to explore what different approach he might take.  At this point, it made sense to him to ask more experienced colleagues how they handled this kind of issue.  He discovered that those he most admired were most likely to address the issue head on.  He also discovered that they were the most skilful in the way they framed the issue.  This gave him the basis for a different approach which was still consistent with his core value of kindness.

Ask yourself, “is this really me?”

Jurgen went one step further, and took time to examine why kindness was so important to him.  In doing so, he became aware of the extent to which he’d taken on a value of his mother’s – sometimes even at his own expense.  Examining his value in this way helped him to decide both to keep this value and to re-frame it.  He decided he needed to include kindness towards himself as an essential part of this value.  He likened it to the oxygen mask in the plane – realising he had to put on his own oxygen mask before helping others.

Jurgen started to develop the habit of examining his beliefs about himself and found that, sometimes, the outcomes surprised him.  He discovered some beliefs he decided to let go, realising he had thought they were his own and finding they were not.  As a result and, over time, he developed a stronger and deeper understanding of himself and greater confidence and self belief.  It seemed paradoxical to him at first and still, alongside this greater sense of self, he found he was less attached to doing things in particular ways – he became more flexible in his approach.  And as he became more flexible in his approach, consciously adapting his behaviour to meet the needs of the situation as well as thinking about what it meant to be authentic, he found his effectiveness as a leader improved.

How about you?  To what extent is it an aspiration you hold:  to be both authentic and effective in your role as a leader?  And how consciously do you explore what it means to be you?  How open are you to new insights about yourself – how conscious are you?  Please share what comes up for you in the comments.

It’s official: compassion by leaders increases productivity

Developing as a leader, ,

In case you haven’t already signed up to Harvard Business Review’s Morning Advantage, here’s another sign they have come up trumps again – a link to an article on the role played by compassion by leaders in boosting productivity and business results.  Morning Advantage puts it this way:

What separates great companies from the rest of herd is the compassion of its leaders, according to one new study detailed by Knowledge@Australian School of Business.  Many of us will readily agree that the best managers tend to be great motivators and promoters of success. But compassion may have a bigger impact than we think. In the 77 organizations studied, researchers saw a direct relationship between compassion and productivity — and profits. 

But being compassionate doesn’t mean avoiding difficult situations. As leadership expert Geoff Aigner found in his own research, the biggest road block managers must overcome is their reluctance to engage in tough conversations for fear of being unkind. This is a common mistake, confusing compassion with kindness, says Aigner. Leaders who truly care about the development and growth of their employees are able to push through the awkwardness, and tell it straight. 

I was surprised by the definitions of compassion offered by two thought leaders in the area and still, it does not surprise me that research supports the idea that compassion boosts productivity.  As a student of Marshall Rosenberg’s Nonviolent (or Compassionate) Communication my own experience is that compassion is an essential ingredient in forging strong relationships and provides a basis for some of the essentials of leadership, including effective coaching and the kind of ‘tough’ conversations to which Morning Adantage refers.  For this reason, I regularly reference Rosenberg’s teachings here on my blog.

But back to the article I mentioned above, do read it – whether you have doubts about such a claim or want to learn more.

There is one claim made in the article which challenges my thinking – it certainly merits further investigation.  The writer says:

A surprising outcome of Boedker’s research is the finding that, out of four levels of leadership from the executive level through middle management to frontline managers, it’s the lowest level of leaders that drives a company’s profitability. Perhaps, Boedker surmises, this is because frontline managers are more customer-facing than others and therefore have a lot more impact.

I wonder, what’s the truth of this assertion…