Archive for the ‘Change’ Category

You don’t know what you don’t know

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

“Awareness requires a rupture with the world we take for granted.” Shoshana Zuboff

High performance leaders recognize the need to constantly improve their organization and its people, and above all, themselves. To become better leaders, they continually expand their self-awareness, even if this means confronting aspects of their personalities, habits and performance that they’d rather not see. Self-awareness requires a dedicated effort to uncover the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Here are some steps to get you started.

Accept that others may know you better than you know yourself. It is far easier to have wisdom about others than it is to truly know ourselves. Recognize that you have a biased perspective or that you don’t comprehend the whole picture of your behavior and its impact.

Examine your world view. There’s an old saying that a fish doesn’t know it’s swimming in water until it is thrown upon the riverbank. Up until that moment, that fish thinks that he understands all about the world and how it works. Your world view is a framework that allows you to understand individuals, groups and your “reality.” A world view is like a lens through which you see yourself and others. It is dangerous to assume that your world view is the right one or the same as other people.  To explore your world view, ask yourself, What are my beliefs? and What assumptions do I make about myself and others?

Find a new perspective. Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” To get a different perspective, look at an unrelated industry, ask for feedback from a new source or methodically toss out all of your assumptions and start fresh.

Explore the unknown unknowns. You’re probably pretty comfortable with not knowing every answer. What if you didn’t even know the right questions to be asking? According to an article by Errol Morris in the New York Times Opinionator, known unknowns are the problems you can list and prepare for. The unknown unknowns are problems about which you are completely unaware. Giant leaps in self-awareness and performance can be achieved by not only adding to your list of solutions, but uncovering previously unexplored questions.

You would never accept mediocre performance from yourself. Likewise, don’t accept that you have complete self-awareness, without a consistent and disciplined effort to uncover the real you.

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Posted in Change, Courage, Diversity, Emotional Intelligence, Flexibility, Judgment, Leadership, Personality | No Comments »

Live your legacy

Tuesday, July 27th, 2010

In an age of unemployment and downsizing, many people are thanking their lucky stars that they have a job at all, even if it’s more busy and stressful than ever. Few people have the luxury of wondering, Is this job helping me to fulfill my purpose in life?

The unexpected death of a colleague can cause us to examine how we’re spending our lives. We ponder our mortality and envision the legacy we hope to leave for the future. Our conclusion is that the most important thing you can do is live your legacy every day. That is, don’t wait until tomorrow to live your values and focus your energies on your life’s purpose. Start with these questions:

What would people say about you at your funeral? If your life ended today, how would you be eulogized? Is it something you’d be proud to hear?

Are your actions and decisions today consistent with how you’d like to be remembered? Not only do you follow the defined rules, but how do you respond in the gray areas – when the ethical boundaries are not as well-defined? As Albert Camus said, “Integrity has no need of rules.”

Are you happy now, or waiting to be happy when…?” The Center for Creative Leadership’s article titled Your Leadership Mojo: Wisdom from Marshall Goldsmith explores the advice that your 95-year-old self might give to you today. Goldsmith’s friend actually asked elderly people who were approaching death to reflect on what is truly important in life. The number one theme that emerged was be happy now. Don’t wait for that big promotion or retirement. Don’t get so caught up in the rat race that you don’t notice the sun is shining today.

Are people your priority? The Leadership Mojo article points out that when the end of life approaches, it isn’t our co-workers who hang out at the hospital. It’s our friends and family, if we’re lucky enough to have both. And doing things today to nurture relationship with people isn’t just important to ensure that you have hospital visitors. It’s the right thing to do, and your 95-year-old-self would tell you so.

Are you accomplishing something meaningful? It can be easy to amass a collection of accomplishments or life experiences, but if they don’t fulfill some aspect of your life’s purpose, they won’t matter much to you in the end. And if you accomplished them at the expense of others, you may not have those hospital visitors after all.

One thing is certain. We’ll all come to the end of our mortal lives. We hope it doesn’t happen soon. George Carlin used to say, “I’m always relieved when someone is delivering a eulogy and I realize I’m listening to it.” The good news is that if you live your values today, your legacy will take care of itself.

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Posted in Change, Courage, Emotional Intelligence, Judgment, Leadership, Uncategorized, Work/Life Balance | 3 Comments »

Performance is improving, but not fast enough

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

You’re piloting an airplane. You take off from the airport and head west towards the mountains. Your altitude is gradually increasing, but not at a fast enough rate. Without the right maneuvers now, the plane will crash into the side of the mountain.

A nightmare, right? Yes, but it’s also a great analogy for a problem we’re seeing in many organizations. Teams and individuals are working hard and seeing improvements in their performance. However, the business realities require them to get better at their jobs faster. Without a steeper trajectory, individuals and the organization will crash.

As an individual performer, how can you maneuver quickly to amp up the rate of your performance improvement?

Prioritize. What are the highest value things you can  do to improve results and make a big impact? Not the good uses of your time – only the critical few. Make those your priorities. Keep them uppermost in your mind, on your calendar and in your daily activity. When you know where you’re going and what it will take to get there, communicate this widely so that others in the organization also redirect their efforts.

Focus. This can be hard, but something’s got to go. It takes courage to dump projects and readjust activity to align with just a few priorities. The key is to focus relentlessly on the drivers of success. Don’t do the other stuff.  If there is not a direct relationship between the project or initiative and your highest value priorities, stop!

Be consistent. One of the most maddening dynamics in organizations is when the boss says A, B and C are our only priorities. Then something cool – unrelated to A, B and C – comes along. When opportunity knocks, don’t waffle; figure out if it aligns with your top 1, 2 or 3. If not, just say no. A compelling distraction is still a distraction.

Many of the strategies above work for teams too. Also consider the following:

Assign sufficient resources. As James W. Frick said, “Don’t tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you  spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are.” Clearly articulate a business case for what you’re doing. Then negotiate with your superiors to assign more time or employ new technologies to get the job done.

Feed your people. You’re leading a team that’s failing. Your first impulse might be to point out all the things that are going wrong. Instead, identify what’s working (Feed) and reinforce those behaviors. Then decide what you must achieve (Need) and fill in the gaps with new actions (SEED) that need to happen. Only after Feed, Need and Seed do you eliminate practices that aren’t working (Weed).

Quit bickering. When the going gets rough, back-biting and blame find fertile ground. Model and enforce a climate of open communication and respect. Help people to say what they need to say in a factual manner. After the crisis has passed, there will be plenty of time to dissect what happened and how it might be prevented in the future.

A Chinese proverb states, “A crisis is an opportunity riding the dangerous wind.” Face the reality of your impending collision, so that you can maneuver to make the most of the opportunity.

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Posted in Change, Courage, Customers, Judgment, Leadership, Strategic, crisis | 1 Comment »

Think achieve, then do

Monday, April 5th, 2010

If you don’t know where you’re going, you can never get lost. Herb Cohen

When vacationing, the lack of a defined destination can set the stage for a grand adventure. In our work lives, however, not knowing where you’re going usually spells disaster. How can you best meet your goals and avoid the aimless wandering that wastes everyone’s time and money?

Think achieve, then do. Before you get down to action, focus on what it is you want to achieve. Don’t think about what you want to do, define what you want to accomplish. Ask yourself these questions:

  • Why are we doing this? What is our purpose for doing this work?
  • What result are we trying to achieve? What will change, and how? What will be created or eliminated?
  • When this is done, what will success look like? What impact will it have? On whom and on what?

Think achieve, then do may not come naturally. There are some common barriers to focusing first on what we want to accomplish, including:

Task orientation. You arrive at work and immediately get busy. You check things off your to-do list. It is all too easy to get through an entire work day without thinking about what you are trying to achieve. Don’t take for granted that you know what results and impact you’re striving for. Take some time each day, preferably first thing, to zero in on “think achieve.”

Fuzzy goals. You may think you know what you’re trying to accomplish and why. But do others share the same picture? Talk about it to ensure that you and your teammates have a common vision around what will be achieved -  a shared definition of success. Pretend you’re traveling to the future and that you’ve accomplished your mission. What does the world look like? Who or what has changed? What spin-off effects can you imagine?

I “should.” Think achieve, then do requires focus and a direct connection between what you want to accomplish and what you think and do each day. When you say, “I really should…(exercise daily, call my customers more frequently, take my son to dinner…), do you really have any intention of doing it? If so, do it. If not, “I should” is a distraction from a laser-like focus on what you really want to get done.

Lack of realism. If your picture of success is complex, break it into discrete, manageable chunks that you can accomplish over time.

Lost focus. Use reminders that help you keep your eye on the ball.  Post a list of what you want to achieve in a spot where you’ll see it regularly. Find a meaningful picture that represents what you want to accomplish. Create a theme song. Set up automated reminders on your phone or computer. The key is to put your desired results front and center to keep you on track.

Not doing. It’s one thing to get pumped up about what you want to achieve. It’s another to hunker down and get it done. Resist the urge to do it all yourself. Assemble others with a vested interest and divide duties. Decide how you’ll move forward, monitor progress and hold one another accountable.

Charting a course to a future reality can be exhilarating. It also requires a tolerance for risk, since the journey to your ultimate destination will include some surprises. Mark Twain said to succeed in life you need two things – ignorance and confidence. You may not know exactly what lies ahead, but start your trip today by figuring out what is you really want to achieve. Then get packing and enjoy the ride.

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A former peer is your new boss!

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

You always knew she had talent and was hard-working. Now the person who used to sit in the next cubicle is moving to a corner office. How do you manage the transition and the issues that will arise?

Discuss roles and expectations. Hopefully the new boss will initiate a conversation. If not, ask for a time to discuss expectations and priorities. Share what you’re working on and align on goals.

Address the relationship issues. Talk about what might change now that your former peer is your boss. If you’re friends, discuss how you’ll deal with others’ perceptions or concerns. Will your peers be on the alert for favoritism? Probably. Understand that your boss will need to curtail the social aspects, at least for a while; she may also not be able to assign you that coveted project right away.

Manage your mindset. It may not be comfortable to admit that you’re a little jealous; if you are, admit it and work through it so you can perform in a way that will put you in line for the next promotion. If you balk at having a former peer having control over your work life, recognize that it is a normal initial reaction. You just need to get over it, and hopefully make the best of it as well.

Support the new boss, but don’t be a guard dog. Colleagues will look to you to assess how you’re handling this change, especially if you were tight as peers. You don’t have to defend her every move or tell her everything that’s being said.  Stay positive, encourage open communication and support everyone in achieving the team’s goals.

Keep the focus on work. In spite of this upheaval, there is work to be done. You’ll weather the storm favorably if you maintain focus and advance the organization’s mission.

Having a former peer as your new boss not only means that the priorities at work will likely change; relationships will change too. You can see that as a negative or as an opportunity to forge a partnership that works for everyone. It starts with the right attitude. As author Carlos Castaneda said, We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.

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Posted in Change, Leadership, Supervision, Transition | 1 Comment »

Make the best of a bad situation

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

storm-clouds1Your boss is a tyrant. The team is dysfunctional. Other departments are uncooperative. Customers are rude and demanding. Any of this sound familiar?

It is true that life can be hard, and sometimes it isn’t possible to escape your bad situation right away. (Feel like job searching in this economy?) How do you keep your sanity when it’s a dog-eat-dog world and you feel like you’re wearing Milk-Bone* underwear?

Stop whining. Just don’t do it. It doesn’t change anything and brings everyone else down. Others whining around you? Enforce a “whine-free zone.” If you feel the urge to complain, ask yourself, “What can I control, influence or manage for in this situation?” Take action on those things. Let the other stuff go.

Communicate bugs and wishes. Sometimes when we’re mired in negativity, we become irritated by behavior, but don’t confront it.  Then every subsequent slight just adds to the slow boil. Try “bugs and wishes,” something we learned from a first grader. It bugs me when you X, and I wish you would Y. For example, a more professional approach might be, I didn’t appreciate it when you interrupted me, and I wish you would allow me to express my thought before you speak.

Figure out how you are contributing to the problem. Even if you didn’t create it, are your reactions making the situation worse? Keep your thinking and actions on the high road, even if it seems like you’re there all alone.

Be realistic, but hopeful. It’s the old Stockdale Paradox again. Be aware of the brutal facts of the reality you’re facing AND stay positive that things will turn around. You may not be able to create instant paradise at work, but you can take action every day to make things better.

Learn from others. Yes, your boss is a tyrant. What lessons can you learn from that? How will your department model cooperation and a win-win approach, even if others aren’t there yet? Even rude customers can teach you something if you’re willing to learn.

Make a plan. Maybe it’s an escape plan. Or perhaps a “make-things-better” plan. Regardless, make sure you are taking steps today for a better tomorrow.

There’s an old saying that goes, life is hard and then you die. We prefer life is hard and so you learn.

* Milk-Bone is a registered trademark of Del Monte Foods, and we’re pretty sure they don’t come in underwear form.


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Enjoying change

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

changing-leafWe’re constantly being told that we should embrace change, even love it. But constant change can be unnerving and stressful. It reminds us of a bumper sticker that reads “Every time I find the meaning of life, they change it.”

How do you roll with what feels like daily change and even find joy in riding the waves?

Stay true to the principles and values that ground you. These will keep you sane  and help you make sound decisions in keeping with what is really important. Post your core principles where you’ll see them regularly and make them your compass.

Plan for the future, but not rigidly. You must think about what’s coming down the road, but don’t rely on guessing exactly how the future will play out. Your strategies must be robust enough to work in multiple scenarios.

Tolerate risk. If you play it safe, a more courageous competitor will most likely win. Analyze decisions from multiple viewpoints and remember that there are very few, if any, no-risk moves.

Be a constant learner. Don’t be a dinosaur. Make a point of staying abreast with new ideas and innovations in your field. Keep yourself in touch with the latest technologies that will help you work faster and smarter.

Never, never take the current state for granted. Relationships of today will vanish if they are not nurtured. Business assumptions need to be revisited in light of new information. Regular, disciplined review of your business climate and key stakeholders is a must.

Some changes can be difficult and even painful.  Embracing and enjoying change requires that you see it as an opportunity, not something to be avoided. Some think that in the olden days, the pace was slower and change wasn’t an issue. But Benjamin Franklin had it right even then when he said, “When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.”

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