Wednesday 19 November 2008

For a change....

A book review. First in an occasional series and all that. I have to admit that I am not a great reader of non-fiction - I do like my books to have a good story - but there are a few that I have read that have hit the mark for me. The key is always whether I might read it again.

This one is of Good to Great by Jim Collins, Random House Business Books, 2001isbn 7126 76090 . You have probably all heard of this and maybe even read it, but it feels like a perfect opportunity to revisit a classic.

Collins and his team set out to identify what it takes to turn a good company into a great one - defined as significantly out performing their direct competitors for 15 years from the transition point. (OK, so one of the 'great' companies was Fannie Mae, but no one ever said they would be great forever!)

Two concepts have stayed with me since first reading this book some years ago. Firstly, Level 5 Leadership - "a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will" which is summed up by the Harry Truman quote on the opening page of the chapter "You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit."

Secondly, the need to 'confront the brutal facts, yet never lose faith' - that combination of discipline and discerning optimism which allow leaders to hear the truth about the situation and enables them to engender trust that they will prevail.

It's an entertaining, instructive and easy read. Best of all, everything is summarised in Chapter 1 so if you are really pushed for time you can just read that.

Wednesday 12 November 2008

Fighting Talk

Other people can really hamper productivity and cohesion at work. If only everyone would come round to our point of view everything would be fine, wouldn't it? But it is inevitable the they will sometime feel that their priorities, beliefs or values are more important than ours, I suppose.

Clashes and disagreements happen. Apparently, the average UK employee spends over two hours a week dealing with conflict, (CIPD/OPP). When handled well they can clear the air, generate new ideas and check the robustness of current thinking. Top tips for handling them well include:
  • Consider the conflict from others’ perspectives - you never know, they might just have a point. How can you respond to them at the same time as disagreeing with them?
  • Identify the positive intention
  • Flex your behaviour for others -
  • Don’t assume – check for meaning and don't fill in the gaps in your understanding on your own
  • Listen to yourself - scary eh?
  • Build bridges
  • Listen for underlying feelings

The best one, I think, is to continue to bear in mind that there might be a solution to the problem that neither of you has thought of yet.

But what happens if the conflict seems to be without solution. If both parties are intent on winning rather than resolution?

One of the most challenging (and fun) approaches to this can be to try Timed Talk. All you need is a quite place, a timer and to agree that you are going to try this as an approach. Then.....

  • Set the timer for 3 minutes
  • Take turns talking for 3 minutes each for as long as necessary
  • Stop talking the instant the timer goes off, even if you are in the middle of a word. If you should happen to run out of things to say before the end of your 3 minutes then save the time left for your next go
  • Do not interrupt each other, sigh, sneer or tut whilst the other person is talking
  • Pay them respectful attention
  • If possible, have a referee
  • Breath (regularly)

No doubt, for the first few turns, it will seem as if you are speaking different languages. But anger and resentment will be dissipating and the equality of the structure prevents any irrelevant tension being created.

Eventually you will begin to hear each other, despite all efforts to the contrary. In spite of yourself you might notice that the other person has made a good point. You will both begin to think instead of react.

It might seem a strange, time consuming approach. But how long can a really good disagreement last?

Tuesday 4 November 2008

Continuing the theme of independent speaking....

Is there something happening in the political environment right now? My hopes for change are getting stronger, reinforced by a story recently told at a global summit by Gordon Brown.

Looking round the room with 15 heads of state and their tribes of staffers and security men, he recalled the occasion when Maynard Keynes, the economist, went to Washington for discussions with the US Secretary of State for the Treasury. He travelled alone and on arrival at the Treasury Building his host asked, 'So where is your entourage?' 'No entourage' said Keynes. 'But what about your lawyer?', said the Treasury Secretary. 'No', replied the economist, 'It's just me. I travelled alone.' The Treasury Secretary looked puzzled, ' But who is going to do your thinking for you?' he asked.

So, who is doing your thinking for you?

Think Again and Again

I am not sure when the American election actually starts, as millions of people seem to have voted already, but the thoughts around this began to merge with the threads of my previous post on independent thinking and that of July 29th.

I have copied that one in here so you don't have to try and find it.

I had the strange experience of being very reassured by a small piece in the Sunday Telegraph this weekend.

It was a report on a part of the conversation between David Cameron and Barack Obama in which they were discussing diary management (don't we all). We all think our diaries are out of control but imagine what it is like for these guys. Everyone wants a piece of them and their diaries are filled up in 15 minute increments. David Cameron referred to it as the 'dentist's waiting room'.

What was so refreshing was that they both agreed that the most important thing to do was 'to have big chunks of time during the day when all you're doing is thinking' in order to keep a sense of the big picture and not lose your 'feeling' or the judgement you need to use to make decisions.

It is easy to think that what we need from our leaders is the ability to make snap decisions, under pressure all the time. True, we do need some of that, but we also are in desperate need of them having time to think.


Last week's post was about the impact on short-term, conformist thinking within organisations and the knock on effect on the economy. But this cannot be untangled from the same type of thinking at a governmental level. Worldwide it would seem.

Let's have the suggestion of a change in thinking style, rather than just policy and personality, be our reason to be hopeful for today.

Wednesday 15 October 2008

What do you think?

We are in a mess, aren't we?

"The crisis is a direct result of poor, short-term, conformist, in-denial thinking, rife with untrue, limiting assumptions. For organisations and individuals to emerge from the crisis and into an era that produces unprecedented sustainable well-being, they will have to generate the best, freshest independent thinking from everyone. " Nancy Kline, October 2008.


Short-term - I am only here for a few years so got to make a big impact and lots of money before my next job.
Conformist - everyone else it doing it, they must have thought it through, surely, so I don't need to bother.
In-denial - la la la la la. Fingers in ears.
Untrue, limiting assumptions - Got to do what everything else it doing. They've thought it all out. I can't buck the system. Making money is everything.

I am sure you can think of lots more.

But why is it that the thought of fresh, independent thinking can be so terrifying? Is it because we are scared to be thinking things that no one else is - how helpful would some new ideas be right now? Is it because we are scared of what we might have to do once we have had these new thoughts - got to be better than what we are doing now, hasn't it?

How can we make new thinking the exciting, refreshing, life and world changing experience it can be? What do we need to do to create an environment where we can all do our best thinking?

Most importantly, what do you need to do to free your own thinking?

Tuesday 7 October 2008

The average recession lasts 11 months

It is not often that I start with a fact but that one was a real eye opener.

It is so easy in times like this to cut staff and squeeze suppliers dry. But by remaining visionary, innovative and brave and by going against the conventional approaches your competitors are taking, you stand a chance of not only weathering the storm but coming out of it stronger and more capable.

The short term boost that a reduced wage bill can create hides longer term costs. Most directly the cost of rehiring and retraining employees is often greater than the saving of cutting numbers initially. What is difficult to calculate is the cost of how the job cuts are handled on those who lose their job and those who remain.

It has also been shown that even where redundancies are necessary, how they are handled makes all the difference. In organisations where leaders make the announcement and then head for the safety of their offices for the duration, there are more claims of unfair dismissal than when they make themselves available to answer questions about job losses and the reasons behind them. In addition, the staff left behind remain more positive and productive where redundancies have been managed effectively.

And a downturn can be a great time to focus on staff development - within reason of course. At times like this, re-engaging staff behind the bigger vision for the company, helping them to manage their stress levels and, at the same time, learn skills which will be vital to the continued growth of the business takes courage. Most competitors will be hunkering down, cutting spending on people development.

If you really do need to cut jobs, what do you need to do to protect the relationships with all staff for the long term?

What are your brutal facts?

OK, I can avoid it no longer. I will reference the CC but I can't bring myself to type it.

This is a moment to remind myself of one of the ideas from Good to Great (Jim Collins) that has always stuck with me. The need to confront the brutal facts (yet never lose faith).

Few people within an organisation will not have any questions about how it might be affected by global events. Sometimes it feels easier and more reassuring to respond to these questions with reasons why it won't affect this organisation directly, what makes this company different etc. No doubt generating bemused expressions and mistrust from staff who are clearly capably of reading the paper or watching the news.

Facing the reality of the implications of the situation, no matter how frightening for the leadership and the rest of the staff, is more likely to protect the business.

There is nothing as confidence inspiring as a plan that starts with the facts.

Thursday 18 September 2008

Generation Diddly Squat?

There must have been a new research project done as I have been picking up lots of bits and pieces about Generation Y.

Apparently , they are the generation of younger workers generally described as ambitious and demanding, wanting a high degree of work-life balance at the same time as challenging and interesting work. They are also considered to value corporate and social responsibility, a positive employer brand, and a well-designed and technologically advanced workplace.

I think I might be becoming cynical but I am not sure how their first group of demands differs from any generation just coming into work - certainly in the post-war era. And there is conflicting evidence that corporate and social responsibility become more important with age which is counter to Generation Y theory.

But maybe what is making me cynical about the whole area is that there is already a move to describe Generation Z - despite the fact that some of them are yet to be born!

Ah, if only we could be lumped together so conveniently. But them how many of us would be out of a job?

Wednesday 17 September 2008

I feel happy, oh so happy!

Blimey, it is all doom and gloom at the moment isn't it?

Martin Seliman, psychologist and Positive Psychology guru, believes (and he is far from alone in this) that ‘Optimism and hope cause better resistance to depression when bad events strike, better performance at work, particularly in challenging jobs, and better physical health’

But can you learn to be more optimistic? Do you actually want to or it is more satisfying to hide under the duvet right now? Are we all just 'getting real' (see previous posts for how much I hate that expression).

Despite acknowledging his own inate grumpiness, Seligman believes that we can all learn to become 'attentive optimists' rather than blank eyed shiny, happy people.

It is a question of discernement. Taking credit where it is due for good events, not seeing them as proof of your own brilliance or never-ending good fortune. Accepting responsibility when things go wrong and seeing what can be learnt.

Research consistantly shows that optimists live longer than pesimists. In a long, happy life this current turmoil will be nothing more than a minor blip.

And if you need a daily fix of good news then there is no better place than Eazibee's blog http://reasonstobehopeful.blogspot.com/ and I think there is still time to vote for it in the Blogger's Choice awards.

Thursday 11 September 2008

Sensitive Little Flower

Business culture has long thrived on cultivating toughness and rewarding those who are outgoing and gregarious. (Of course, these are not always the qualities that are obvious in my favourite Level 5 leader type, but more on that below and, no doubt, above).

Qualities of sensitivity are generally regarded as negative, limiting an individual's potential and having a detrimental effect on their sociability.

But what are we missing here? It is estimated that around 1 in 5 of us have highly sensitive traits. Their sensitivity can make them highly aware of subtleties in their environment, of changes that the less sensitive do not notice and of possibilities that can easily be overlooked. It can be an asset if used..and protected.

Who are the sensitive little flowers in your organisation and how can you unlock their potential.

Just because it made me laugh

I am sharing this for the above reason only. Cheering up a miserable Thursday morning is no mean feat.

It is from an article in this month's Coaching at Work on dealing with clients with an 'impress me then' attitude to coaching. The first tip is:

Breath:
Breathing prevents you from dying in this scenario. By expiring you will only allow a power differential to take hold that may be difficult to tackle later.

Tuesday 9 September 2008

You what?!

This post might appear to run counter to my last one, but I think the principle is the same.

A new report from leadership consultancy PDI suggests that the key areas that a coach should focus on with an aspiring CEO are macromanagement (big surprise there, hey?) and their ability to express discontent and disagreement openly and directly.

The reason that I believe this is in line with the previous post is that what will make the difference to how your expressions of discontent are received will be how you are treating the people you are discontent with. Whether you are treating them as people with ambitions and desires just as important as your own, or treating them as inferior objects in need of correction and exact direction from the superior being that is you.

This also chimes with TA concepts - a disagreement with someone you treat as an equal adult will be conducted differently from one with someone you regard as a child.

So, you must be dissatisfied about something right now - how are you going to express that?

Thursday 4 September 2008

Nicey, nicey

My joy at being back in the fray after the summer was enriched by an article I picked up in the Harvard Business Review which argued that one of the best ways to survive the downsizing sword was to be good to be around. Being realistic yet positive and forward looking rather than a David Brent type joker are what we are talking about here.

The key for me is how to do this authentically. A sudden switch from office cynic to office Samaritan is going to raise more suspicion than warm glow.

What is essential is to treat your colleagues as people. Does that sound too obvious? Maybe I think that you work with a bunch or chimpanzies, or maybe you do. But we all recognise when someone is being nice to us for their own end - because they need us or something we can do for them.

The work of The Arbinger Institute calls this being resistant to others. Seeing them as objects that are useful, a barrier or irrelevant to you and whose needs and desires are less important than your own.

If you truely saw your colleagues as people what could you do for them today?

Tuesday 12 August 2008

Coffee Culture Clash

It was not without a touch of unpleasant glee that I heard that Starbucks were pretty much beating a retreat from Australia. It seems that the savvy Aussies are more keen on their independent coffee shops than one-size fits all Seatle-style coffee culture.

Am I being unfair? You have got to admit that Starbucks are good at what they do, whether you like what they do is another thing. And you could hardly say that they are inconsistent with their brand message.

But it seems to me that this is another example of 'stuck on' culture. Every Starbucks I have been to would seem to be interchangable with every other one, and of course Starbucks is not the only company guilty of this. The lack of connection with, and adapation for, the local area suggests something inauthentic and shallow with no true wish to understand what the customers of that particular outlet want.

Where I find this most grating is in the attitude of the staff - almost automaton like in their responses. I don't regard myself as cynical but it is hard not to suspect that the friendliness is not genuine! And it doesn't have to be this way.

High Culture?

Everyone thinks that they know what the culture of their organisation is - surely it is articulated in the vision and beliefs of the company? But how often is there a mis-match between the explicit culture and the implicit culture i.e. what everyone actually does and what people get rewarded for?

It is rare nowadays that I go into a client company that does not have its visions and values displayed prominently, at least in reception. But it is also a common complaint that the values and associated behaviours as stated are not the ones that the company actually lives. 'Innovation' is the classic example of this - new products and services are inherently risky, it doesn't matter if you have researched the back of them or not, but this risk is at odds with a company's need to deliver steady and consisitent performance for its shareholders.

The problem does not lie with the company's desire to manage risk but with the mis-match between what it says and what it does. The values become superficial, just something that 'people' expect and having no real meaning.

If your organisation's values were the ones that it actually lives and had credibility for its people, what would they be?

Monday 4 August 2008

What price failure?

Last month, J K Rowling made the commencement speech at Harvard. Her theme was The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination (you can read the whole thing by following the link).

The companies I have worked for and with have had different attitudes to failure. In one, some time ago I may add, a swift kick was not an unknown consequence at least in the production department. More recently, I more often hear of 'blame cultures' or their converse 'if you don't make any mistakes you haven't tried'.

But how true are either of these. In 'blame cultures' no one ever actually takes the blame. It just circles round until it runs out of energy and everyone moves on. In companies that claim to be learning from their mistakes ,when you ask how they do this learning you get met with a lot of blank faces.

But the personal and business learnings available from our mistakes are immense. Not least in demonstrating the emotional maturity to understand that you can succeed despite (or because) of your failures. Did I ever tell you about the time I forgot to get approval for the covers of a print run of several hundred thousand books? Never did that again

Who in your organisation has failure and wisdom to share?

Tuesday 29 July 2008

Think Big

Reinforcing Dave and Bar's (as I call them) view that a leader needs to have time to do nothing but think (what a luxury that sounds) in order to keep the big picture in mind, is a recent report by Personnel Decision International.

The Pulse on Leaders was a study of senior executives and CEOs and found a knack for avoiding micro-managing, as well as a lack of passive-aggressive tendencies, distinguished future CEOs from other leaders.

Future CEOs can be recognised by their high energy levels, a desire to be in charge, and the ability to cut through complexity.

So, they have got to really want to do it, be able to identify what is truly important from the mass of information thrown at them and not need regular holidays.

It is easier to survive without a traditional break if your mind is given chance to do what it does best - think. The opportunity to think clearly and without interruption can be as refreshing and invigorating as a holiday.

Are your senior executives driven by the need to be seen to be busy, busy, busy? How do you give your them chance to think and deliver the value they are truly capable of?

Just think

I had the strange experience of being very reassured by a small piece in the Sunday Telegraph this weekend.

It was a report on a part of the conversation between David Cameron and Barack Obama in which they were discussing diary management (don't we all!). We all think our diaries are out of control but imagine what it is like for these guys. Everyone wants a piece of them and their diaries are filled up in 15 minute increments. David Cameron referred to it as the 'dentist's waiting room'.

What was so refreshing was that they both agreed that the most important thing to do was 'to have big chunks of time during the day when all you're doing is thinking' in order to keep a sense of the big picture and not lose your 'feeling' or the judgement you need to use to make decisions.

It is easy to think that what we need from our leaders is the ability to make snap decisions, under pressure all the time. True, we do need some of that, but we also are in desperate need of them having time to think.

Wednesday 23 July 2008

We're all going on a summer holiday

Visiting a client's offices today I could tell that the summer was upon us by the fact of having a choice of parking spaces in their normally packed out car park.

It is lovely, isn't it, when things slow down, things sometimes even have to wait! Extraordinary. I trained as a Thinking Environment coach, in which the component of 'ease' is critical, so I revel in these moments to pause and reflect.

What is amazing is how generative ease can be. Feed of the need for urgency, to be seen to be busy, to be doing, our minds can allow new ideas to take root and begin to flourish. Bringing up new opportunities and approaches to the issues we face.

How can this time of relative ease be a period of renewal and fresh thinking for you rather than a stage that puts you back?

They are already here

In my last post I spoke about Level 5 leaders, as defined by Jim Collins - a combination of professional will and personal humility - who guided their respective companies to sustained market beating performances.

What was fascinating about them was that they were the opposite of the larger-than-life, egocentric leader that boards often feel they need to bring in to make their company great. Of course, that kind of appointment is high profile, usually applauded and helps to make the board feel that they are 'doing something'.

Ten out of eleven of the good-to-great CEOs, however, came from inside the company. WOW!

What this means is that it is possible that the potentially great leaders for your company are already with you. They are just not as easy to spot as the ego-driving, shouting loudest celebrity leader.

What can you do to identity them?

Tuesday 22 July 2008

Who's in charge here?

It seems that everyone is looking to build\improve\introduce leadership into their senior management teams. But how many of us have actually define what we mean by that; how it differs from management, how to spot it, who is doing it already in our company, what we need to be doing differently.

If you ask most people what are the characteristics of a great leader, whether it be in business, politics or other, you will get the usual replies - dynamism, hard driving, ego-centric, larger than life. Nowadays we would see them as your classic celebrity leader.

Jim Collins, in his wonderful book Good To Great, identified a style of leadership in successful companies as pretty much the opposite of this. He called them Level 5 Leaders:

'Level 5 leaders channel their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company....they are incredibly ambitious - but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves.'

Who are the Level 5 leaders in your organisation?

Thursday 17 July 2008

The Old Ones are the Best

Research overload at the moment, but this one is fascinating.

The BBC website recently ran a feature on a piece of research which suggests that older workers (those over 50 - surely just middle ages!) are happier and more fulfilled in thier work. Link here is you want to read the full thing - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7511205.stm

All well and good. Those in their 30's, however, were most likely to have a negative view of their work. Just a guess, but I expect you see more people in their 30s than 50s when you look around your office.

So what can you do to help these struggling, insecure careerists who are, after all, likely to be relatively highly paid, expensive to replace and the future leaders of your business? Empathising and understanding of those facing mid-career disillusionment can only really be done at an individual level which would suggest mentoring and one to one coaching as the best options.

Do you have the opportunity to use those fulfilled 50 year olds as mentors to give hope and direction to the potential drops out?

Friday 11 July 2008

Burn, baby, burn

Recent research* surprisingly suggests that burnout occurs largely to those in the early (first 10 years) of their careers. Not the 40-something, 'work has been my life for 20 years' executive of popular imagination.

Whilst it is undoubtedly the individual - whether through the choices they make or the way they handle challenges - who determines whether they burn out or not, it is organisations who create the conditions for it to happen.

The potential cost to an organisation is staggering. Up to £1,000,000 if the person reaches the final stage and leaves the organisation, and hundreds of thousands as performance declines.

The younger they are the more they had the potential to contribute.

Burnout can't always be avoided, but coaching through it can benefit the individual and the organisation by enabling them to develop wisdom, perspective, gounded decision making and a highened sense of service. Priceless.

*T. Casserley & D. Megginson

Thursday 10 July 2008

Let's do diaries

Although the HR department often bear the brunt of it, pretty much anyone who works at a senior level in an organisation know the difficulties of getting people, usually across functions and locations, together for hours at a time.

So how inspired was I to read that Norman Jardine, head of learning and development at the European Commission, managed to get a group of 16 Commission Leaders together for a half day team coaching session! That's 16 different nationalities in one place at the same time. Can you imagine the logistical and linguistic complexities of this? Can you imagine the characters involved? And I am sure time zones had some sort of impact.

Appartently it took him about 3 years of 'toe dipping' exercises to encourage the change from clasical training to self-directed learning.

So, if you are stuggling to encourage a coaching approach in your organisation, take heart! If Norman can do it.....

Wednesday 7 May 2008

Discipline, boy!

I am shocked to see that it has been over a month since my last post. I generally point the finger of blame at my friends in the telecoms industry - it has all been so distracting, can't get on with things etc etc.



Of course, that is all just so much flannel.



And it brought back memories of starting a new job myself. How I would get distracted by seemingly endless induction programmes and catch-up reading. Some of this was created by the people I was now working for, who were 'just to busy' to find me something I could actually get on with in my newby state. But some of it was driven by fear that I might finally have bitten off more than I could chew and if I kept my head down no one would find out.



Finding something - one thing - you can do everyday, not matter how new you are, that contributes to the team (or business in my case) and just do it. Next time you turn round you will find you are busy, involved, contributing and well in the swing.

Where can you 'stick with it'?

Thursday 27 March 2008

Select Option 111 to get back in the virtual world

I felt I had to post this otherwise it would have been a whole month without one.

I seem to have spent the last month in single handed combat with various large corporations after my office phone and broadband were mistakenly disconnected. I have been trapped in a nightmare world of 8-level phone menus and telling the same story over and over again.

It is behind me now, thankfully. But reflecting on it I wonder whether there were times when I was actually addicted to the fight. I definitely got lots of energy, well rage, out of it and of course have hours of funny stories to relate. But I know that there were times when I went into battle knowing that the person on the other end of the phone was as helpless as I felt. I even tried to recruit them into my battle - although strangely that never worked!

All that energy - and to what end? What else could I have achieved with that level of commitment?

Time to redirect it, I think.

Thursday 28 February 2008

Talk to me

I have recently been working with a client who is taking on a new team, and one of the key things she identified that she needed to do for them was to let them know how she likes to be communicated with.

Sounds obvious doesn't it. But so often we concentrate on learning how our new team needs use to communicate with them we sometimes forget to help them to communicate with us.

I once has a manager who I really struggled to communicate with for a long time. We were both very willing to understand each other but often sat together with slightly puzzled looks on our faces. It was only when I realised that he was a big fan of mind maps and got myself the software that we had a breakthrough and never looked back.

Do you know how you like to be communicated with and have you let your team know?

Tuesday 26 February 2008

JDI

I have been feeling like a complete newby myself recently as I have been starting to work out how to create a newsletter for my business. Sorting out what technology to use (have you got any idea how many options there are?!), what to write and, not least, who to send it too have been time consuming and stretching in a way that I have not experienced for a while.

One of the big things I noticed was how much resistance I had to putting my first fledgling efforts out there for others to see. How much time I spent crafting and playing. How many times I decided to do a bit more ‘research’ rather than commit myself to actually publishing something. In the end I had to have a severe word with myself and click ‘send’ with my eye closed.

Fear of getting it wrong, striking the wrong note, or worrying about people sniggering at our feeble efforts (OK, maybe that one is just me) is a big problem when we are new to something.

But this also stops us developing our own voice in an organisation and getting feedback when we still have the flexibility to make changes. Who really cares if your first report was not the best. Better to learn that now than when you have been doing it the same way for a year.

If you strived for completion rather than perfection today, where would you just click ‘send’.

Wednesday 13 February 2008

Is it a bird?

When we have just started a new job out newness is like a vast, shiny halo, surrounding us and making us feel very visible to everyone we now work with. They all seem so confident of their place and what we are doing while we stumble about trying to find out feet.

After getting the really important basics out of the way – where are the toilets, which way to the coffee machine and what is the done thing – we can sometimes use our newness to ask the obvious questions but mainly we want to rub it off as quickly as possible.

But the shine from our own newness can blind us to the fact that there is something new going on for everyone else too. They are having to get used to us.

Peers, team, superiors….the dynamics of many groups are affected by the arrival of someone new. New relationships are being built and developed and at least some of the old order is crumbling.

If you asked yourself ‘How can my arrival encourage new connections among the people around me?’ what would you learn that could help you build these new relationships?

Tuesday 12 February 2008

One of us?

It is so easy when recruiting, to look for ‘one of us’. I have worked in companies before when it was a real compliment to be called an ‘X Company’ person’. There certainly were lots of excellent things about this company and its reputation in developing people and being a great place to work was well justified.

On the downside, this brought a pressure to conform. In particular, to question the received wisdom of the position that the company’s products held in the hearts of the people who bought them.

When you had just been promoted or just got a new job, it is tempting to try a get to grips quickly with those unspoken and unwritten rules that help you to fit it. You want to reassure the people who hired you that they did not make a mistake, and you want to feel at home quickly.

Not many of us naturally strive to be out of step with our surroundings. Often subconsciously we find out which departments and who are in and who is out.

What we can end up assuming is that people outside our groups or departments are less able to think than we are.

Now that you are 3 months into your new job, what assumptions are you making about other people in your organisation that you were not making when you first started?

Thursday 7 February 2008

Should I stay or should I go.....'look at me!'

Last week I facilitated a meeting for a team who worked in an organisation where, in the past, the predominant culture had been one of bullying and mistrust, and where there had been a rapid turnover in senior managers.

When the new director arrived, 12 months ago, she asked the team, one by one, what they needed from her most. To her shock, the answer she got most often was ‘to stay’. No more.

She has done more than just stay. But she has never lost sight of the need her team had at that moment for consistence and some stability. Now that they trust that she is in it for the long haul with them, ideas for change come from the team themselves, and reaction to proposed changes are much more constructive than previously.

How often, when we are new to a role, do we think that everyone wants and expects us to make dramatic changes to show we have arrived. Look everyone – here I am. We spend our first weeks and months looking for the things that need changing and planning the change.

And how often do we stop to consider where our teams need consistence and stability for a while in order to regain their energy to implement change?

What is the single most important thing that your team need from you right now?

Thursday 31 January 2008

Is that a fact?

Having just got a new job there is lots of information you need, isn’t there. And it is really important to show how keen, challenging and curious you are by asking lots of questions, isn’t it.

Even better if you can leap in with some information when someone has got it wrong. Gives you a reason for being there.

But how and when do you give information without stopping the other person thinking for themselves? Or is that something you want to actively discourage anyway. Do you always really need to understand what someone is talking about……enough to interrupt them? What will your interruption do to their thinking? It is highly possible that things will become clear to you as they continue to speak, and if not, could you restrain yourself until they have finished before you ask for or give information?

What are your motives for giving information immediately – to deflect attention towards yourself, to show off, to be one up, to prove you need to be there?

On the other hand, how often have you not asked for fear of being thought stupid or just in case you had not been listening properly.

Ever withheld information from someone because ‘they never tell me what I need to know’ or because they are annoying. Just me, eh.

Accurate, complete and timely information is crucial to us all, but only at the right time.

Ask yourself, does this person need to know this right now?

Wednesday 30 January 2008

Got a Feeling....

Ever felt so angry or upset that you thought your head was about to explode? It’s hard to think straight isn’t it? But which is the best option – to let your feelings out, get them out of the way, or to stuff them back down inside to simmer and fester. How much energy do each of these options take?

At work, especially, we are trained to find emotions somehow weak or distasteful or unprofessional (even though we all have them). We think it is indulgent to let people express their feelings, worry that we have lost control if we or they do, or that it takes too long to allow for this.

We have mixed up the release of pain with the cause of pain. But when we repress out feelings we muddle our minds and we are unable to think clearly. If we could just let someone be sad, angry or afraid for a short while and pay attention to them while they did this, these feelings would soon pass and clear thinking return. Could you do this if someone was angry at you? Of course, if they are so angry they look as if they might turn violent it is wise to beat a hasty retreat.

If you knew that if feelings are expressed just enough, then thinking restarts, how differently would you react next time one of your team is upset?

Thursday 24 January 2008

No competition

You have just got a new job and it would be good to get a few early wins under your belt, right? Get your ideas out and make sure they are the ones taken up.

Trouble is, in presentations and meetings it can seem as if to express a new idea it to expose it to ridicule and almost certain death from envy and competition.

And you don't want to have to sit and listen to praise for someone else's idea because that somehow feels as if you have lost.

Competition, combativeness..apparently good for business but in reality they keep your attention on your 'rivals' and not on the result. Generate comparative success not necessarily excellence.

If it was really more important to you that the right solutions are implemented rather than that you be right, how many more of their ideas would people tell you?

Wednesday 23 January 2008

Get real

'Get real', 'take a reality check' etc. It is not just at work, but in our culture as a whole, that being 'realistic' means to take a negative view, as if anything good is somehow not real. To see the positive is to be naive, vulnerable and childish, whist to see only the negative is realistic, grown up and informed.

I once worked for a director who motivated his team by generating a culture of 'relentless dissatisfaction'. I am sure you can imagine how motivated we were by continually hearing that nothing we did was good enough.

In truth, what this approach gives us is an incomplete view of reality and stifles thinking. Consider how it affected you the last time someone told you that you had done some specific thing well. Not just a general 'you're great' but specfic, sincere appreciation of something you had done or some quality in you. Did you feel more confident about tackling problems? Could you think better for a while afterwards? Did you manage to avoid turning into a raging egomaniac? Thought so.

What difference would it make to your team if you told them, specifically, what you had noticed them doing well before you asked them what they thought needed to be done differently?

P.S. Once you have started to see the good close to you, get some inspiration for the good in the world from http://reasonstobehopeful.blogspot.com/

Tuesday 22 January 2008

Easy, now.

When you have just been promoted a sense of ease is often the last thing you are feeling, or,in fact, think would be useful. It seems much more important to rush to get up to speed, to be seen to be on top of things, to be doing something...and quickly.

If you are in a hurry there must be lots going on and you must be really important, right?

In reality, urgency is destructive. It creates anxiety, quick, rather than correct, solutions and a general inability to think straight in most of us.

Ease, on the other hand, is a deceptively gentle catalyst. It allows the mind to broaden and reach for new and better solutions and to see those imagined emergencies for what they really are.

In your new role, how much more clearly could you see what needs to be done, and hear what people are really saying to you if you were at ease?

Wednesday 16 January 2008

We are all equals here (aren't we?)

In Time to Think, Nancy Kline points out that we are often intimidated in to thinking that 'the higher up in an organization you are, the better you can think'.

In your new role, do you think that it would make you look incompetent to seek out ideas from junior members of staff, or even from yours peers. Did you not get promoted because you had so many good ideas of your own?

Or are you sitting quietly at the back, not sure how you ended up in a room with all the big thinkers of the company and dreading least they should all suddenly look your way and ask 'what do you think?'

If you knew that your thinking was equal to that of anyone else in your organisation, how much more might you learn and contribute?

Tuesday 15 January 2008

Are you paying attention at the back?

How marvelous. You have just been promoted to a senior mangement role in your company. So, what are you going to do now? Carry on doing what you were doing before - well, they obviously liked it as they promoted you. Do what the person in the job before you was doing - that must have been OK because they got a good job somewhere else. Start afresh - can't do that as they know you and you are supposed to know a lot having been with the company for several years. They have set up a bit of an induction programme but is is really just form as you should know all of it already, shouldn't you?

How would it be if you went into that induction process ready to truly pay attention to what people were telling you? What, you are a good listener are you? Well, what else might you be thinking about while they are talking to you?
  • What question to ask to make yourself look great;
  • How you will do things differently in the future
  • Everything you know and assume about them from your previous contact
  • Guessing what they are going to say next so that you can finish their sentence and demonstrate how much in tune you are
  • What is for lunch

So how much of your attention is left for what they are telling you and how interested are you in what they actually think.

What does giving someone attention mean? It means listening with palpable respect and fascination. It is much more than active listening, which for most of us means little more than nodding and making enough 'uh huh's. When you are listening to someone, much of what you are hearing is your effect on them. Given someone your full attention is in itself generative of good thinking - freeing them from what they ought to say, or think you want to hear or believe you want want to listen to.

What might you learn that would help you in your new role if you gave your colleagues your full attention?