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Are you leading from the front?

leaderI was speaking with one of my clients last night and he was telling me about a problem he was having with one of his salespeople.  He was a great salesperson, but he had a way of alienating the people he worked with; the people he really needed to be on his side and assist him in servicing the customer.  My client wanted this salesperson to grow into a leadership role, but it seemed he couldn’t get out of his own way.  Customers loved him, but his co-workers hated him.  Does this sound familiar?

There are definitely people who are natural born leaders.  But does that mean that people who are not natural born leaders cannot become leaders?  Think about an athlete.  There are some that have that natural ability; it just comes easy to them.  But there are many others that with hard work and dedication become just as successful as the natural athlete.  It may be harder for them, and they may have to practice twice as much or study twice as hard, but they can do it; sometimes, even better because it means so much more to them.

So what are the areas leaders have to develop that will help them succeed?  David Maister, author of The Trusted Advisor, discusses what he calls the trust equation, a formula that is key to building relationships with others: Trust = C +R + I.

C – Credibility.  People have to believe your words and actions.  And they have to believe you know what you are talking about.  If you don’t have a proven track record of success, you have to start slowly and build on your successes.

R – Reliability.  People need to know they can count on you.  They want to know that you will live up to your commitments.  There has to be predictability.  If he/says it, it’s going to happen.

I – Intimacy.  This doesn’t mean you have to delve into people’s personal lives, but you do have to get personal about the things at work that they take personally.  Things like career development, promotions, compensation, hiring, firing, etc.  These things are very personal to people, and leaders are willing to have honest conversations about them.

So this salesperson was pushing his will on others instead of developing the trust he needed to have them follow.  Leaders don’t build relationships to advance their career, or to manipulate situations, or to have people to blame; they lead from the front and people follow.

Thoughts…….. Contact me at abbe@TECResourceCenter.com

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What do you expect?

The Alignment FactorAlignment is important whether you are leading a team or working on one.  Each one of us in the workforce is dependent on other people to get our work done.  The best way to align yourself with your coworkers or your customers is to understand what the expectation is, both ways. 

One of the things I hear people complain about all the time is responsiveness, particularly to email.  One person may think to get back to someone the next day is acceptable, while another may think they should be responded to within the hour.  Neither is right.  Neither is wrong.  The important thing is to know the expectation.

I had a coworker that used to email me 3 or 4 times in a day if I didn’t get back to her right away.  At first it used to aggravate me.  Not everyone is just sitting at their computer all day long reading emails.  But then it dawned on me.  She processed payroll and it was a very administrative position.  She also worked under many deadlines between payroll and her other duties.  If she didn’t get information in on time, the payroll could be late.  She literally was at her desk the entire day.  So to her, it was aggravating that it was taking me so long to get back to her.

It wasn’t until we sat down and openly discussed each other’s responsibilities that we learned how to collectively meet each other’s expectations.  As a manager, I needed to get her the information she needed by a certain time, on a certain day.  Now I made sure I had everything in to her before that date.

She, on the other hand, had to realize that I was not usually sitting at my desk and that if she needed something right away, email was not the best vehicle.   I communicated that leaving me a message on my phone worked well, because when I did return to my office, I would see the red light blinking and listen to my voicemail.  Alternatively, she could also page me if she needed an immediate response or I didn’t return her voicemail quick enough.  She thought it was rude for to page me, but I let her know I was totally ok with that and I would know it must be important for me to get back to her right away.

Once we cleared the air and set the expectations, things ran like a charm.  Very rarely did she have to page me because I understood the expectation.  If you feel like you are getting annoyed by your coworker’s responses or actions, take the time to set the expectation.  It really works!

Thoughts…….. Contact me at abbe@TECResourceCenter.com

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Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

DiSCIf you were to ask a group of extroverts to list the qualities of an introvert and extrovert, the list would probably sound something like this:

Extrovert – Out-going, talkative, friendly, asks questions, likes to work in groups, personable…

Introvert – Quiet, reserved, introspective, guarded, likes to work alone……

An introvert’s list might look something like this:

Extrovert – Aggressive, loud, verbose, speaks before thinking

Introvert – Soft-spoken, thoughtful, careful, thinks before speaking, likes all the facts

Put both lists together and you probably have a good list of qualities of introverts and extroverts.  In the workplace, what’s more important is how we relate and work with different types of personalities.  When we make broad generalizations like this, the tone and our behavior may seem angry.  There are a few things that can help introverts and extroverts work better together.

Extroverts need to slow down when communicating with introverts.  Providing them with as much information as you can prior to your conversation or meeting can help them prepare and feel more comfortable expressing themselves when you are together.  Particularly in big meetings when you are not one-to-one, don’t expect to get your feedback immediately from an introvert.  They like to take time to process their thoughts.  Unlike an extrovert, they don’t think out loud.  You may receive more significant feedback from introverts by allowing time for them to process their thoughts and providing a vehicle for communicating electronically, after the meeting. When decisions have to be made right away, though, Introverts must learn to assert themselves and speak up about insights they have even if they have not had a chance to flesh out the final version of the concept in their mind yet, or they risk the chance of missing out on having their ideas ever heard.

Introverts should understand that extroverts have a basic need to speak and sometimes their thoughts are not completely hashed out.  Introverts should feel confident asking questions because this actually helps the extrovert get his or her thoughts together and helps the team make better decisions.  If you are a manager or team leader, it’s important to recognize the contribution each team member brings to the table; and it’s your job to make sure each is heard.  Know who is who in the group and delegate assignments that each will excel in.  Let the extroverts lead when you have to communicate your needs and successes outside the team.  Let the introverts lead on projects that require real attention to detail.  If you want to see where you fall on the introvert-extrovert spectrum, check out this link from “Quite: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking,” by Susan Cain.

http://www.thepowerofintroverts.com/about-the-book/quiet-quiz-are-you-an-introvert/

Thoughts…….. Contact me at abbe@TECResourceCenter.com

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Do you know how good your people are?

knowing your staffI am working with a client on an Employee Development Program.  They are trying to figure out who their high potential employees are and how to put them on a path that will inspire them and keep them with the company.  Often times, we think about the open position we have and then try to mold the high potential employees into those roles.  Instead, we should find out what the critical edge strengths of our high performers are, and then decide how to develop them.  People will excel at the things they like, and are good at.  They will burn out quickly if we put them into roles that are not really suited to their critical edge strengths and we will end up losing our high potential employees.  A promotion alone is not good enough.

I once attended a company branding meeting.  The company wanted all their employees to be brand ambassadors.  I helped them put together a presentation on what their brand was and how each member of the company could live and breathe the brand based on their job.  The Sales and Marketing Department conducted the presentation and small groups from each department attended each session.

In one group, there was biomedical technician who kept interjecting about ways to make the branding better.  How they could increase the company visibility by changing up a few things.  At one point, he suggested a change to their logo.  Now the company had just spent a fortune on re-branding and the Marketing Department was very attached to the end result.  After the meeting, the presenters were commiserating about how annoying “that guy” was.  They had to keep corralling him back so that they could move on with the presentation.

Well, the president of the company was in that meeting, and he had a different take on “that guy.”  He pulled him aside after the meeting and asked him to elaborate on some of the things he said in the meeting.  What he discovered was that this biomedical technician had a real eye for marketing.  Having been out there in the field for so long, he had a bird’s eye view of what people noticed and what just blended into the woodwork.  It turns out, the guy had a marketing degree, but couldn’t find work when he graduated so he went back to school for biomedical engineering.  He was good at it, but he hated it.  The president was smart enough to know that “that guy” would not stay if he never had the opportunity to use his creative juices.

There was not opening in the marketing department, but there were always projects and the department could always use some help.  Before long, “that guy” was working alongside the Marketing department whenever they were in crunch mode, or needed some input from someone with both a technical and creative perspective.  They ended up loving “that guy” because he added real depth to the team.  Kudos to the company for giving the technician time to work on the marketing projects.  The tech was happier because even though he was good at his tech job, he found some aspects to be quite trying and quite boring.  At lease he knew there would be times where he could step out of his tech role and do something more in line with his critical edge strengths.  And the company reaped the benefits of those strengths as well.  Their Marketing Team grew even stronger.  So who’s in line for the next full time marketing position there?  You guessed it, “that guy!”

Thoughts…….. Contact me at abbe@TECResourceCenter.com

 

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Do you find we spend more time talking about problems than working on solutions?

Defining a problem is of course key to solving a problem.  Try defining it in writing.  Think about what went wrong and the impact it had on your business or your department.  When you read it back, the problem should be clear and it should be evident why it is important.  Be careful to describe just the problem, not what you will do to fix it.  Next, make sure you have your facts straight.  If you are working on a team, does everyone see it the same way?  Keep an open mind.  Simplify things as much as possible to get to the root cause of the problem.  Avoid the Band-Aid syndrome where we just fix the symptoms, but don’t really get to the heart of the problem.

Once you have a clear definition of the problem, ask yourself how you will know when the problem is solved.  If you don’t know what success will look like, it’s very hard to be successful.  If it’s too subjective, it will be difficult to work toward a true solution.

Before I get too far in the process, I always ask myself if I know an expert on the topic; someone who may have had the same or a similar problem.  Sometimes you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.  Consider consulting with them before setting out on what may be a long path.  If you find an answer, that’s great.  If not, maybe you at least have a good starting point, or know some pitfalls to watch out for.

If you still don’t have a satisfactory solution to your problem, it’s time to start coming up with potential solutions on your own.  For large problems, think about it as a project and use some project management skills such as identifying tasks, assigning ownership to people working with you, setting due dates for deliverable, etc.  Hold everyone including yourself to meeting your commitments.

Once you review your potential solutions, make the best decision and go with it.   Remember to thank those who assisted you and monitor your progress.  Sometimes, the first solution isn’t the best, and you may have to revisit it.  That’s okay.  Each step should bring you closer to the best solution.  It wouldn’t be called problem solving if it were completely smooth sailing!

Thoughts…….. Contact me at abbe@TECResourceCenter.com

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