Champion Leadership Tip #39 - 3 Reasons Why Your Employees Are Not Taking Initiative In Their Roles!
Happy August!
One of the biggest issues my clients and prospects express greatest frustration about regarding the motivation of their employees, is that they feel their employees are not proactive enough, and that they do not take initiative in their roles.
I believe there are 3 reasons why this is happening.
Below are three areas to look at regarding how you and your managers are communicating to them (and with them) and to identify what type of messages you are sending, and/or they are receiving (sometimes communication from managers and leaders in organizations sends mixed signals, causing confusion for employees keeping them from being more motivated and proactive in their roles. In some organizations the mixed signals equate to a labyrinth):
1) They don't know you want them to (I know you think you've probably told them you want them to, but...leaders need to understand that "the meaning of any communication is the response you get." So, if the response you get is counter to your intended and desired response, you need to review your communication, your style and ask for clarification and understanding);
2) They are unmotivated and don't care enough (this is a performance management issue. I would recommend having more frequent performance discussions and asking what is getting in the way of an individual failing to take initiative and responsibility in their roles. The response you get, if you ask, may surprise you!) ;
3) There are de-motivators in the environment that are preventing them from doing so (e.g., they've tried in the past and have gotten negative feedback just for doing so from either a supervisor or peer who felt they were not authorized to do so, they've done so in the past, made a mistake and were given reprimanded for it.
A great resource for understanding and addressing the manifold scenarios that may be causing the performance problem is the book:
Champion Leadership Tip #38 - Champion Leaders Get the Facts Before Making Decisions
I know what you're thinking.
This is common sense.
But, like they say, "common sense isn't all that common."
Last week the news was overwhelmed by the story of U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack demanding the resignation of Shirley Sherrod, the head of the USDA Rural Development office in Georgia.
It seems now with all the facts released, the furor which caused the incident, came from an edited video of a presentation Sherrod made back in March.
Vilsack, it seems, made a decision without having all the facts from which to make it. And, violated Sherrod's basic constitutional rights of being innocent until proven guilty.
This is just one example of how people in leadership positions often jump the gun and make decisions without having all the facts. And, often times, even failing to consider the source of the information.
Back in the spring my wife sent me an e-mail from someone who just took over running a division where she works. This new leader unilaterally changed a policy based on his desire to save money across the entire division.
His decision was going to force public employees to pay for a licensing certification, for which their only use of it would be on the job, out of their own pocket and they would no longer be entitled to reimbursement.
The decision was sent via broadcast e-mail to every person who had responsibility for this area, and at no point leading up to the decision were department heads surveyed to discuss the decision's impact on overall operations.
After significant pushback by department heads and reasonable arguments being made, the decision was rescinded two weeks later.
David Brooks, NY Times Columnist speaking on NBC TV's "Meet the Press" on Sunday made a great comment about reporters and fact checking, "when I was a young reporter my boss in Chicago told us, 'if your mother tells you she loves you, you better get sources for confirmation.' "
Organizational leaders desirous of maintaining high morale and motivation of their employees, should invest time in doing the same.
Get the facts before jumping to conclusions and making decisions that can have adverse affects on your people and organization.
Common sense, I know, but a good reminder in the heat of battle.
A great resource for leaders looking to improve their leadership skills in making decisions and communicating more effectively is "The Leadership Series."
"The Leadership Series" offers 7 lessons in leadership with assessments and worksheets that equate to a mini-masters degree in leadership. It offers practical and specific strategies and tactics to get the most out of those you lead while creating a high-morale work environment.
You can learn more about it at www.YourLeadershipSeries.com" href="http://www.YourLeadershipSeries.com" target="_blank">www.YourLeadershipSeries.com
'tl next time, make it a great week!
p.s. - on Wednesday I will be featuring a guest blog post with a great article on how "not" to motivate your employees! Look for it!
3 Primary Reasons President Obama Had to Relieve General McChrystal
From the on-going BP Oil spill fiasco in the Gulf of Mexico to this week's Rolling Stone article on U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal current events never fail to give us fodder to teach leadership. Which, I guess, in my field is a good thing.
After reading the Rolling Stone article last night for myself I believe the General McChrystal situation gives us an opportunity to look at these 3 leadership issues:
- Leadership Traits
- Leadership Decision-Making
- Creating/Undermining Trust in the Workplace
I will address those in future blog posts but first want to address what I believe there are three key reasons why President Obama made the right decision.
From a leadership perspective (not political, in writing this I am making no political statement about whether I agree or disagree with the political direction of the country at the moment). I'm also pleased President Obama did it rapidly and decisively, which has been counter to his decision-making approach in the past.
The three reasons for the prompt dismissal of General McChrystal include:
- He aired the disagreements and personality conflicts he had with both his superiors and peers in public. Comments directly attributed to him about the President were relatively innocuous. But his comments, and those of his team members, about their other superiors (Vice President Biden) and his peers were inappropriate, undermined their authority and destroyed whatever trust may have been left between them.
- He allowed an outsider (and a media professional, to boot) to participate in what should have been closed, staff/team activities (at best! In my estimation the type of activities engaged in were completely inappropriate for a leader of his stature. You don't go partying to the point of intoxication with your subordinates, ever!).
- He showed total lack of respect for his position as leader and representative of the U.S. and the U.S. Military while in a foreign country and spoke, or allowed his team members to speak, in derogatory language about one of our few remaining allies in this initiative.
Although most of the quotes in the article were attributed to members of McChrystal's team, individuals at that level do not and will not speak publicly in that manner without the leader setting a tone previously.
It's my belief that although McChrystal wasn't quoted directly much of the derogatory comments about his superiors and peers came from others and most likely were not the first time those opinions had been expressed. Thus, McChrystal had to have known about those attitudes and opinions from those in his inner circle and may have even expressed them himself at times.
By doing so it created a culture where his team members felt it was appropriate to speak openly in that manner (and then the alcohol kicked in and inhibitions dropped causing a perfect storm for reporter Michael Hastings).
The situation is really a shame as the article pointed out other very positive leadership traits we can also attribute to McChrystal.
The one I was particularly impressed with was his direct response to soldiers in the field regarding the application of the counter-insurgency strategy and the guidelines he set forth that the soldiers felt were hurting their chances for success and putting them in harm's way.
McChrystal didn't hide behind a desk, he addressed their concerns directly and even met, and marched, with them in their world. At the end of the day the soldiers may not have agreed with his policies but at least they were allowed to address him directly and get their questions and concerns answered.
Only time will tell how this military action in the middle east will play itself out. Unfortunately for the U.
S., its allies and the innocent civilians of Afghanistan and Iraq it will not be resolved any time soon. Good luck and Godspeed to General David Petraeus.
For other resources in positive and powerful leadership traits you may want to read this article "The 5 Traits of CHAMP Leader."
And for specific lessons, techniques and strategies to become a more effective leader I recommend visiting this page which explains how "The Leadership Series" can make you a better leader.
'Til next time, make it a great day!
Champion Leadership Tip #33 - Two Resources to Help Leaders Develop the Habit of Humility
Those of you who have followed these Champion Leadership Tips over the past 33 weeks know I believe that one of the 5 Traits of a Champion Leader is "humility." (see Champion Leaderships Tip #11).
When I coach business leaders this is one of the most challenging transformations I have to help them make, as it is initiailly mis-understood. They often see it as being soft. But as I argue in Tip #11 it is actually a sign of strength.
Because I believe it is so important for leaders to develop and nurture the habit of humility I thought I would take this week's post to offer two resources to help.
The resources are two excellent books I've recently read that are outstanding at reinforcing the fact that leaders often are the cause of their team members failing to meet performance, behavior and attitude expectations.
The two books are:
"What Got You Here, Won't Get You There" by Marshall Goldsmith - this book provides case studies of Goldsmith's work with his high-level CEO clients as well as personal anecdotes of how he has applied the strategies to improve his own business and family relationships. In the book Goldsmith offers specific communication exercises that leaders can practice to improve the relationships with those they work with to transform the results they get through other people.
"Leadership & Self-Deception" by The Arbinger Institute -I was very impressed with this book. It offers tremendous insight into how our own internal thought process and communication style often times creates a belief system that causes us to see others through a filter. It is this filter which gets in the way of our perception of others to create a self-fulfilling prophecy of how we expect them to be.
The premise of the book is that leaders often times decieve themselves because of this filtered perception and communicate with people as if they are objects and not "people." In failing to see people as "people" with thoughts, feelings, and desires much like ourselves we dehmanize them, and then communicate at them in a way that causes them to behave in a way that supports our perception of them. This creates a downward and recurring spiral of behavior that reinforces our belief and destroys a relationship and a potentially high quality contributor to our life and business.
Read and apply the strategies in both books and you will significantly improve the results and satisfaction you get from both your personal and professional relationships.
These two books are great resources for leaders who are ready to embrace humility and look inside themselves so they can elevate their approach to truly become a Champion Leader.
'Til next time, make it a great week!
Champion Leadership Tip #31 - The 3 Critical Conversations Leaders Use to Manage Performance
Business leaders must become more like athletic coaches in terms of performance management.
With two new clients and two prospective clients this week my discussions with all four evolved into a serious discussion around performance management.
In my 9 years of helping business leaders improve the motivation and performance of their employees I have found few that do it well enough to get results and build a high-morale, high-trust and highly-motivated work environment.
My clients have found great success in transitioning away from their annual performance review process.
A more effective performance management process is to begin tracking the three distinct types of discussions they have with their individual team members:
- Issue Based Discussions
- Performance Based Discussions
- Career/Future Based Discussions
- Issue Based Discussions
These are discussions that only take place as specific issues arise in the general work environment or between individuals in the work environment. They are usually related to problems or decisions that have to be made, or have been made in the very recent past that are impacting the work environment or the team or company results.
- Performance Based Discussions
These are discussions that are primarily centered around the actual job performance of an individual, including the results they help achieve in relation to the expectations, how they contribute to the overall company results and the results of the teams they work on. These discussions, in most organizations are the annual or bi-annual performance appraisal/review.
Sometimes, in high-performing organizations, these discussions also occur as debriefing sessions after projects for evaluation purposes.
- Career/Future Based Discussions
These are the frank discussions between the leader and their team member, during which future aspirations and opportunities are discussed along with the professional and personal development needs the individual needs to focus on to move towards those aspirations. These should be taking place at different levels no less than once per year and ideally, twice per year.
LEADERSHIP EXERCISE:
This week, do this self-evaluation:
- Take a look at how effective your performance appraisal/review process is functioning in doing two things, 1) consistently improving individual and organizational performance, and 2) developing your people for career evolution and succession planning.
- Identify the percentage of time you invest in each of the three type of employee performance discussions. If you are like most leaders, you spend a significant amount of time in "Issue Based," a limited time, like 1-2 times per year in "Performance Based," and virtually no time in "Career Based" discussions.
- Commit to investing more time in Performance Based and Career/Future Based discussions.
Providing frequent feedback, and how to do it more effectively to improve overall individual and organizational performance, is just one of six steps in the "Secret Formula for Creating a High-Performing Business Team that Gets Champion Level Results." At this link you will learn more about, and be able to download, a free white paper report that outlines the "Secret Formula."
Champion Leadership Tip #28 - Build Trust to Improve Teamwork, Pt. 4
The fourth and final piece in this series to help build trust to improve teamwork is going to focus on creating a culture of accountability.
The reason why teamwork in athletics works is because athletics at every level offers a culture of accountability.
Every athlete is consistently evaluated on their production and performance against the specific performance expectated of them.
The reason why a culture of accountability builds trust is that all team members know that each is charged with specific performance expectations and will have to answer for their individual production.
This approach works to create equilibrium throughout an organization because without it performance is uncertain and thus the equilibrium goes out of balance as it is difficult to know whom to trust to follow through and get the job done.
At last Friday's "How To Create and Lead a Championship Team" workshop we talked a lot about accountability and how for a lot of default leaders (leaders who have to lead a team because of the job they have but are not experienced leaders and whom did not aspire to lead others, per se), holding others accountable is challenging.
To hold others accountable a leader must have high levels of self-esteems and self-confidence, and be a strong communicator.
A culture of accountability begins with a leader setting specific performance expectations for each individual team member and providing feedback, both positive and constructive.
That's it 'til next time...
P.S. - To review the first two parts of the "Building Trust to Improve Teamwork" series, check out these two links:
Part 1 - "Build Trust to Improve Teamwork"
Part 2 - "Build Trust to Improve Teamwork"
Part 3 - "Build Trust to Improve Teamwork"
Champion Leadership Tip #25 -Build Trust to Improve Teamwork, Pt. 1
This weekend I've begun putting together the details for my May 14th full-day workshop titled, "How to Create and Lead a Championship Team."
Putting the outline together I've been reminded about how important "trust" is to building a successful team. (To learn more about that program and to get an early registration discount visit www.ChampionBusinessTeams.com)
As a leader of others it is vital that you are able to influence them in a positive manner so that your team can move consistently towards its goals. In order to influence your team members in this way, your team must be built on trust and a high-trust environment mut be in place.
The breakdown of trust is the downfall of athletic teams over the course of a long season as a team experiences more losses than wins.
The breakdown of trust also is preventing most teams, and individually employees, in both the business and non-profit world from performing at higher levels.
Therefore, the next couple of Champion Leadership Tips will be focused on building trust in the workplace.
The first step is to define it. I think its important to define trust in two ways, and both must be present in order for trust to be present:
1) Having the belief that the person with whom I am working will do what they say they are going to do and is capable of doing what they say they can do at a level that meets or exceeds expected performance standards, and
2) Having the belief that the person with whom I am working has the absolute best interests of myself and our organization at heart when taking action and making decisions in fulfilling their organizational role.
Team Trust Exercise:
Identify the members of your team and write their initials down the left margin of a sheet of paper. Then grade your level of trust on a 1-10 scale (10 = extremely high trust) with each team member based on the above two definitions.
Next time we'll discuss ways to begin increasing the trust between you and your team members, and between team members themselves.
'Til next time, make it a great week,
p.s. - For Part 2 of "Building Trust to Improve Teamwork" go here