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?
Thursday 28 February 2008
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’.
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?
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?
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?
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?
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