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Helping Groups Make Decisions - Facilitation Skills Part 4 of 4

Kaye Sullivan — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 16:27:09 +0000

Rather than write about specific decision making processes, I’m going to describe five categories of decision making. These categories offer a framework within which specific processes can be applied.

Convenience – A convenience decision is one that is expedient with the least effort spent making the decision. For example, lunch arrangements for your meeting. If a caterer has a good reputation with your client, stick with what works and don’t sweat the details.

What are some topics you group can handle readily? Sometimes it helps to load up the front end of a session with simpler decisions to help a group see that it is already making progress. Use convenience decisions to avoid bogging down a group’s progress.

Consult – Sometimes groups need advice before they can move forward. They may lack knowledge, technical expertise, awareness of past practices, or input from a trusted source. Consultative decisions also mean that advice will be listened to, but not necessary followed. In the end, the group will make its own decision after weighing input from other sources.

Be sure to ask your group if they have all the information and authority they need to make a decision. Suggest the option of consulting with an expert and reviewing additional information.

Control – This “C” means the final decision is in someone else’s authority, not the group. Your group may need to accept that they do not have the authority to make a decision. A group may decide to present information or advice to another party while realizing the final outcome is up to someone else.

Don’t allow groups to waste time on decisions where they do not have control. Help them accept these limitations and move on to topics where they can make decisions.

Consensus – In its simplest application, consensus means broad agreement among a group. Often this comes down to a practical outcome that is supported by the majority, but not necessarily one’s first choice. In its strictest application, full consent means 100% of the members are in full agreement. This second definition requires in depth, open, and honest discussion to assure that everyone truly agrees and does not feel coerced into agreeing.

As a facilitator, be cautious that seeming agreement is true agreement. This is especially true if subordinates feel they must conform to their bosses’ point of view. Pent up feelings of coercion will work against the final decision over time. If you choose to use consensus, be sure your group defines what this approach means to them.

Counting – Majority rules is a fundamental rule of governance in our country and it can be an effective approach for any group. Consider taking tentative votes to discern how close or far apart a group is on issues. Or, ask each individual, “if you had to vote right now, how would you lean?” to get a grasp of member’s position. If issues are highly sensitive, use a confidential process to vote.

Don’t rush to the voting process when topics require thoughtful debate. Conversely, when time is up, participants are frazzled, or discussion is repetitive, move to a decisive ending and conduct a vote.

If a group’s ground rules have identified how they will make decisions, they will not be surprised by the process. Keep in mind that if the decisions were obvious, neither the group nor you, the facilitator, would be attending this meeting. Expect different opinions and be prepared with many options to resolve differences.

On April 16, I’ll be speaking about handling the challenge of being a facilitator at the Northern Rockies ASTD meeting. Anyone can attend and the fee includes a great lunch along with a friendly crowd of trainers. ASTD is the American Society of Training and Development. Click the link for more information and registration astd northern rockies chapter.

Kaye Sullivan is a trainer, coach, and consultant who works with teams of all kinds. Contact her for assistance with your facilitation needs.

Teamwork in the work place

dequanngordon — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 06:30:08 +0000

Collaboration

Conflict resolution

Roles and Responsibilities

Different View Points

The Importance Of Ground Rules - Part 3 of 4

Kaye Sullivan — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 13:04:00 +0000

I just cannot say enough about the importance of establishing ground rules for every group. Group rules define the processes by which groups will make decisions, communicate with each other, and the general decorum of everyone’s behavior while working together.

For smoothly functioning groups, the rules may simply confirm common practices. “Everyone has an equal vote.” “We will start and end on time.” For dysfunctional groups, the ground rules need to address issues of respectful communication and how disagreements will be handled. “No interrupting others.” “Consider everyone’s input before making a final decision.

Ground rules help keep overly talkative or pushy people under control and create a presence for quieter members. Setting ground rules is also a way of being expedient. “Remember, we already agreed that we would handle differences this way.” Do not wait for a volcano to erupt before the group decides how it wants to handle complex issues. Establish a norm and reinforce it.

Setting ground rules in the beginning teaches a group that they can handle and resolve disagreements. This modeling of success can be very useful when larger problems emerge. The complexity of the rules and the time invested to develop them should reflect the nature and goals of the group.

When a group develops its own rules, it is more likely to follow them plus take responsibility for enforcing them. To get things rolling, sometimes a facilitator can start with some sample rules, then have the group expand and add their own ideas.

Investing time up front to wrangle through these issues will eliminate many downstream problems. In part, the discussion about ground rules reveals how similar or far apart are member’s approach to solving problems. In part, it is getting the cards out on the table where concerns are openly identified and discussed. Be alert to resistors, minority members, novice workers and manage their roles appropriately.

Even when ground rules seem implicit because the group is already established, it is worth the time to review their agreements. Just because things are written in some manual or contract doesn’t mean the group read them or that they will be helpful to this group.

Reminding people of what they have already agreed to sets a tone for collaboration, respect, and inclusion.Finally, “rules” are not meant to be punishing. They are meant to establish norms that allow groups to function smoothly. They avoid getting derailed about process when significant items are at hand.

Don’t skimp on defining the ground rules. They will serve you well!

Kaye Sullivan can help your team, group, or organization move ahead. Contact her for facilitation, training, or coaching.

Preparing Yourself - Facilitation Skills 2 of 4

Kaye Sullivan — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 14:57:42 +0000

As my parents used to advise me before a big test, the best thing you can do is get a good night of sleep before the sessions you facilitate. You need to be mentally at ease concerning your own problems, mentally tough about the session’s goals and agenda, and mentally ready to attend to the emotions of a full group of people.

Facilitating is not about YOU. Your presence, your words, your guidance are vehicles to help others accomplish something. You want to be 100% other oriented. Put your stressors aside and get ready to concentrate on the people in front of you. (Actually it can be stress relieving to focus on other people’s problems instead of your own!)

To get to a state of serenity, I encourage you to spend the day before doing some things that relax you. This might be doing mundane work chores that don’t drain your brain. You might seek some alone time where you can be quiet with yourself. Don’t forget the importance of your daily routines including proper exercise and diet.

Know your agenda items and schedule cold. Keep that agenda in front of you at all times so you can refer to it and remind the group about it, as necessary. Have a game plan of what the group should be doing at each point in the session. Take a small clock with you to keep track of the time if your watch or cell phone don’t display the time in a useable way.

Put on a mental arm band of neutrality. Don’t take sides. Don’t speak up for one decision versus another. Do not display allegiance to one participant over another. Your role is an unbiased guide that concentrates on the “process” of helping people move forward, not the results. In other words, you don’t care what they decide, as long as they make a thoughtful, well-informed decision!

Create a “what if” or Plan B that provides you with handy process alternatives. If one decision making approach doesn’t work, what else will you try? If you have to sacrifice any agenda item, what would it be? Identify your group leaders that are your “go to” people to make adjustments to the agenda or schedule, if needed.

Realize in advance, that no one can please all the people all the time. In your facilitator role, it is not about making friends or even pleasing people, but accomplishing some task. In the end, if some people are less satisfied with your approach than others, that is life. Arrive at the meeting with confidence in your capabilities.

Be prepared to let go. Most groups need to become self-directed or managed by their own members. Your goal is to enable and encourage this capacity. When the group is ready or when time is up, be ready to walk away. Dis-engage thoughtfully and know when it is time for you to move on.

Kaye Sullivan facilitates teams, groups, and training sessions. Contact her for assistance with your tough learners and dysfunctional teams. 30 years experience and still loving it!

How To Motivate Unmotivated People

CEO Leadership Skills — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 00:08:00 +0000

All it takes is an understanding of the appropriate steps to take and a willingness to do them. This article contains the steps. The willingness is up to you.

If you walk around a Walt Disney World resort or theme park, you are likely to witness something that in most other settings would seem bizarre. Not the presence of a large animated character, although you may witness that also. Rather, at any given moment, a person in dress clothes will be walking from one destination to another and will stop, pick up a piece of paper, a cup, or other piece of trash someone dropped, and throw it in a trash can. Executives do it, front line managers do it, hourly employees do it, everybody does it.

There is no special monetary compensation for this behavior. No point system exists where $5 bonuses are given out for every fifteen pieces of trash that someone picks up. There is also no special monitoring system in place which watches for people who don’t do it and then issues penalty points or demerits. Yet, people are motivated to do it anyway.

Now picking up trash may not be your top concern, but are there other things in your department, division, or company that you would like your employees to do? Are you looking for ways to motivate your people?

The answer is not pixie dust or magic. The key is being very good at employing five essential motivation steps.

To some leaders these steps can seem intimidating. First time managers in particular, who were promoted because of their individual skills are often uncomfortable with these ideas. Many times they feel people should just do what needs to be done “because that is what they get paid for”. Or they believe the only way to motivate people is to give them more money.

Successful motivators don’t think that way. They know that by following the five steps, people can be motivated far beyond what they get paid for, and far more effectively than when money is the only incentive.

Step #1 – Clearly articulate what needs to be accomplished and why

Often the problem with getting people to accomplish things is not that they are unmotivated, it is that they are uninformed. Leaders discuss goals with their peers and superiors on a regular basis and are therefore intimately familiar with them. Because of this familiarity, they mistakenly assume all of their employees also know them. Usually this is not the case.

Take time to explain to all of your employees exactly what needs to be accomplished and the reasons why. Don’t forget the “why?” Knowing that enables people to make educated choices in their day to day decisions. For example, the output from a team at a market research company whose goal is to launch three new products, will vary greatly, depending on if they know that the “why?” is because the company is losing market share to competitors with products that can be downloaded from the Internet.

Goals should always include specific numeric objectives and timelines. A goal of “Improve Customer Service” is nebulous and people won’t know how they are doing in their efforts to achieve it. However, “Decrease customer wait times to 10 seconds by June 1st” is something people can visualise and work towards.

Step #2 – Involve people in finding the solutions

People are more motivated to succeed at something if they personally choose to attempt it. Therefore, managers should involve their people in choosing the goals the group needs to accomplish. If this is not possible, then involving people in the creation of how to achieve the goals is the next best thing. Their involvement will generate buy-in and also opens up the opportunity for an optimal solution.

Successful coaches use this technique on a regular basis. While it is true they watch hours and hours of game films looking for weaknesses in their own team as well as their competitors, they also involve their players in finding the best way to win. They do it because no matter how much film they watch, or how close they are to the game, they aren’t in the game. The perspectives of players or employees who are in the midst of the action can be drastically different from a coach or a manager who is near the action.

If those perspectives aren’t incorporated into the solution, two things will happen. First, those in the midst of the action will feel that no-one is listening to them, and they will become unmotivated. Second, decisions will be made without incorporating all the relevant data. Both of these will negatively impact progress toward the goals.

Step #3 – Explain the rules of the game

Have you ever played a new sport or game against people who are experienced players? In the early stages of learning how to play, every few minutes you do something which you think is correct only to be told that it is illegal, or against the rules. It can be exceptionally frustrating.

This scenario often plays out in the workplace. Employees are given a task, but are not told all the parameters or rules. Weeks into a project they present their work to someone, only to be informed that they need to change direction because of something they were never told about.

This is particularly demoralising and should be avoided at all costs. People can find solutions to almost any problem, but they need to know the rules of the game.

Step #4 – Link people’s personal goals with the organisations goals

There is a reason that each employee goes to work. Successful motivators know what that reason is for every person who works for them. Each day they help their employees fulfill those reasons. Really successful motivators understand not only the reason, but how the reason ties into the person’s bigger life goals. When necessary, they help their people think about and articulate those bigger life goals. When a person no longer thinks “I work so that I can make money,” and instead thinks “I work so that I can enable my daughter to attend a school that will give her a chance to go do what she wants in life,” there is a significant mental and motivational shift that occurs.

Understanding that someone comes to work because they thrive on personal interaction, are trying to gain experience so they can run their own corner deli, or whatever is their personal goal, enables a manager to talk in that person’s language. It also enables the manager to assign responsibilities in that person’s area of interest, and remind them how what they are doing is tied to their bigger goals.

Managers who enable people to fulfill their life goals through work never have to worry about how to motivate their people. The act of fulfilling their life goals is enough to keep them motivated. All the manager has to do is find the links between those goals, and the organisation’s needs, and match the two up.

Step #5 – Move negative people off the team

Nothing can halt progress like someone who is discontent simply for the sake of being discontent. It is demoralising to others and it draws energy and time from the tasks being attempted. That doesn’t mean you don’t want good “counter-point” people on your team. Someone who says “Look, I know what we are all trying to do, and I think there is a better way,” can be a valuable resource to help make sure the team is on the right track. However, someone who just regularly says “We’ll never get there,” will just hold everyone back. Move them off the team, and bring in someone who will assist and support the group’s efforts.

Whether you are trying to motivate people to help create a clean environment for guests, or something more pertinent to your organisation, remember that anyone can be a great motivator. Now that you know the steps, all you need is the willingness.

Guest Author

John P. Strelecky is the international best selling author of ‘The Why Café’ and a highly sought after inspirational speaker on; ‘How to Achieve Maximum Success with Minimal Effort.’ His CD series of the same name has received rave reviews from listeners. A graduate of Northwestern University’s MBA program, John has served as a business strategist for numerous Fortune 500 companies. Through his book, CDs, articles, and appearances on television and radio, he has positively impacted the lives of millions of people. John can be reached through his website at http://www.whycafe.com, or by calling 407-342-4181.

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30 Year Anniversary Reflections of a Small Business Owner

Kaye Sullivan — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:30:05 +0000

February 28, 2013 marks the official thirty year celebration of the incorporation of our management consulting business, Performance Training Corporation. Little did we know the adventures ahead when we signed the legal documents way back then.

Over the years we have conducted hundreds of training workshops, consulted with teams in crises, facilitated construction partnering, coached folks with communication challenges, designed over thirty original workshops, and managed the day-to-day operations of a small business. Whew!

People become entrepreneurs thinking they will focus on their expertise, such as training in our case. While this is accurate, you also discover that you better become competent in marketing, sales, website development, supply ordering, customer service, accounting, taxes, and more. There’s no IT department to call when your computer doesn’t work. Being a small business owner is a continuous learning challenge.

The greatest joy in our business are the people we meet. Often, these are folks who have problems. Some can’t get along with their teammates. Some have been sent to us by HR. Fortunately, some clients just want to learn and improve their skill set.

It is our job to help them find a way through these problems. When they make progress, we rejoice in their growth. Our clients have also taught us many things. In some cases, they have become colleagues and friends who care about us as much as we care about them.

We are the classic American mom and pop shop, just two of us doing everything. I am proud to report that we are a rare couple who has been married and managed our consulting company together for thirty years now. Most people tell us they couldn’t work with their spouse. Do we have our disagreements? Of course. But underlying all the years of work is respect, trust and endless support. It’s not such a bad business model!

30 YEARS! WHEE HA!

6 Tips To Manage Conflict Between Staff Members

CEO Leadership Skills — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 23:19:39 +0000

Contrary to the popular phrase “ignorance is bliss”, it’s not – especially if you’re the manager of two workers who genuinely don’t get along. When two employees hate each other, their animosity can turn a healthy working environment into a cancer ward. Whatever the reason, it is in everyone’s best interest to address and resolve the matter as quickly as possible.

Co-worker conflict will always come up; no-one can be everyone’s best friend. But co-workers need to be civil and able to work together. The longer the dislike endures, the more likely it is that it will hurt their productivity and that of those around them.

Some would argue that creative tension among peers and co-workers can yield superior results due to the competition and rivalry that is formed. While this might be true in some situations on a project basis, in a day-to-day sense, it can easily establish a permanent us-versus-them culture that devolves into conflict.

If the conflict is among hourly workers, you might be inclined to ignore the spat, or perhaps discipline the employees if it has affected their performance. You may even just let one or both of them go to avoid the drama. However, when the feud is between professional staff, the situation becomes more complicated. And when the conflict is between peers who are vying for an upcoming vacancy due to executive succession planning, emotions and ambitions can get the best of us.

Dislike among workers can stem from any number of work- or nonwork-related issues. Perhaps they’re from different social circles or have differing backgrounds; it could be the way they do (or don’t do) their work; or something trivial such as the sound of their voice or malodorous lunch they eat in your vicinity. No matter the reason, you need to address it – and fast.

You’ve probably encountered people in your personal or professional lives who always seem to be mired in drama and have a knack for dragging others into their issues. If you think “Here we go again” regarding one of the employees involved in the conflict, then that’s probably a sign that the person needs to change their attitude or be sacrificed.
Here’s another thought: if you allow co-worker conflict to linger without addressing it, one of the workers (or both, or an uninvolved third worker) could go around you to your boss, making an uncomfortable situation worse. The implications will be clear: “This was brought to the manager’s attention, and they either chose to ignore it, or didn’t know how to deal with it. They’re incompetent”. This could backfire on them, but the damage to your reputation will be done.

6 outcomes of co-worker conflict

Once you’ve been made aware of your employees not getting along, here are 6 possible outcomes of resolving conflict among co-workers:

Both parties work out their differences, rise above, and move on
Both parties agree to disagree, but get past it and move on
Both parties say they’ve moved on, but one or both secretly harbor continued ill will. Negativity lurks and performance soon begins to dip
One party sucks it up and acquiesces while the other seemingly “wins”. Conflict could continue
The “wrong” party won’t budge and needs to be removed from the department and possibly let go
The situation damages both workers and both leave

Tips for resolving and avoiding co-worker conflict

Each situation will be different, but here are some ways to deal with feuding employees and try to avoid it in the future:

Meet with the feuding co-workers to see if you can remedy the situation. Do this quickly to avoid letting it fester and spiral out of control.
Alert your boss to the situation so that they’re not blindsided by any necessary disciplinary actions now or in the future.
Involve HR as necessary, which could be as an independent mediator, to put difficult employees on notice or probation, or to begin the process of transferring the troublemakers to another department or location.
Advocate an environment of respect, tolerance, and civility in the office.
Maintain an open dialogue with your employees. Freely sharing information and updates on the company and department will quell the need for gossip and rumours.
Review your policies on use of company email and social media sites. Some disgruntled employees will take their rants online either within or outside of the company. Know your company’s electronic media policies and communicate them with all employees.

Guest Author
Profiles International is the world leader in selecting and developing high-performance workforces through innovative human resource management solutions and a comprehensive suite of employment assessments that help companies gain competitive advantage by selecting, hiring, retaining and developing great talent. For further information Phone: (800) 960-9612; or visit the Website: http://www.profilesinternational.com

Building Teams And Fostering Teamwork

CEO Leadership Skills — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 22:48:43 +0000

Members of a fully functional team can be neither dependent nor independent; they must be interdependent within the context of a team relationship.

Each member is to be mutually submitted to the other team members so they can be a part of fulfilling the goal of building the entire team. The overall organisation is diversified, but conducts itself as an entity. The very existence of the organisation comes from its sense of wholeness; which is NOT found in individual members. The organisation does, however, depend and exist because of its inter and intra relationships.

Formula for a Team

Is Position + Function + Power + Placement

Position in the team is determined by team structure
Function in the team defines our specific roles
Power of the team is that which has been delegated to each of its members
Placement is the differing (but complimentary) skills available from each member of the team

Good teams

Good teams depend upon both proper leadership and organisational structure. A leadership team that shows corporate leadership is better than a single leader. Well skilled leaders generate confidence. Experienced leaders are the best sources to identify new and upcoming leaders. The members themselves can help identify those who possess the most dominant leadership qualities. A newly appointed leader should always be on probation.

Suggestions for team leaders

Do not use people to promote yourself
Be willing to pay the price
Speak up
Do your homework
Make personal sacrifices
Raise the status of other team members
Build group cohesiveness

The team structure should promote good communication. Team organisation should encourage maximum participation from each member. The team structure needs to be reviewed and evaluated regularly and changed if need dictate. For the team to be and continually remain effective, unity and cohesiveness are paramount ingredients.

Building team unity and cohesion

Discuss each others expectations
Develop an ‘open’ accepting atmosphere within the team
Identify the group as an ‘entity’
Build upon a sense of group history
Set aside time for social activities
Set clear attainable goals
Treat team members as people and not machines
Use the strengths of the team to impart confidence and vision to any member who might be growing “cold”
Encourage the group to be open, honest, trusting and vulnerable
Every team needs to have an ongoing mentoring program both for the individual and team development

Team member qualifications

There is no such thing as partial commitment to a team. Every individual must have the appropriate qualifications in order to work in a team.

Every team member must have the proper motivation and must take the attitude of being helpful to other members. Understanding one’s self, skills and limitations is vital. This includes knowing one’s temperament, character and personality type. A growing team must reproduce effective members within itself.

Emotional maturity

Every team member must be emotionally mature. Being emotionally mature means having the ability to deal constructively with reality. It means having the capacity to adapt and change. It means having a freedom from symptoms that are produced by tensions and anxiety. It means having the capacity to sublimate and to direct one’s instinctive hostile energy into creative and constructive forms. It means having the capacity to relate to other people in a consistent manner with mutual satisfaction. Each team member should be accepting of other members (respectful) and be a good listener. Team members should be able to handle frustration, stress and recognise “burnout”.

Leaders of teams must possess and practice wisdom, ability to praise where appropriate and have gratitude. Leaders must always have an instructive goal in mind when dealing with team members. If admonishment is required then the leader should not “shame” the team member but re-direct, train and be a mentor.

Criticism from within the team

Mature and informed criticism may be positive, negative or both. It is not gossip nor is it slanderous. Negativism, gossip and destructive criticism spread like cancer. Complainers use their time and energy thinking about negative issues rather than edifying things.

How to deal with constructive criticism

Delivering Constructive Criticism

Go directly to the person and discuss with them in private
Start with something positive
Ask questions that help open up the person
Be certain your own motives are correct
Put truth and facts together
Be objective, not just subjective
Be ready with an answer

Receiving Constructive Criticism

Do not react defensively
Do not interrupt – let your critic finish
Ask for evidence and clarification
Check and establish what motivates your critic
Check if the critic is projecting their problems on you
Check if other team members can objectify the criticism

Guest Author:

Paul McLoughlin of Intellectual Dynamics.

DiSC Training for Teams - Learn Together

Kaye Sullivan — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 18:06:00 +0000

Does your team need to re-unite its efforts? Do team members feel disconnected? Have new employees recently joined your team? Are you struggling with communication among team members? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, consider how DiSC® training and individual assessments can move your team forward.

What is the DiSC* model? DiSC represents four personality types: D = Dominance, I = Influence, S = Steadiness, C = Conscientiousness. The DiSC profiles help employees understand their own personality and how to effectively relate to others.

Who are you again?

Invariably when I work with teams, even folks who have worked together for many years discover new insights about each other. Expedite sound relationships with training that focuses on giving team members the opportunity to connect in person. Learning each member’s communication tendencies and preferences provides an underpinning for accomplishing all other team tasks.

Personality assessments provide tangible answers

The DiSC profiles provide a black and white, there it is in writing, reflection in the mirror feedback about people’s personalities. Although my clients may not like everything they read, the vast majority agree with it. (and say they’ve heard this before from spouse, boss, and friends!)

Look at the whole

One of the best aspects of team training is the opportunity to view a team’s composite DiSC results. Whatever the distribution of Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness types, tremendous learning can be gained by analyzing how the group interacts from a DiSC perspective.

Focus on a team’s specific challenges

Training a team together means getting down to the real issues and establishing a specific action plan for moving ahead. The DiSC model provides a sound baseline for open communications, mutual respect, collaboration, and ways to monitor behaviors that detract from team effectiveness. Working on these issues together is the most effective and expedient way to conquer them.

Time for a review?

Many employees have previously completed some type of personality assessment which means they are less shocked by the results and more accepting of diagnostic feedback. A current profile yields the benefits of gaining a fresh view of oneself, moving more quickly to action steps, and increasing the opportunity to pay attention to other people’s style.

Use a third party facilitator

An unbiased facilitator won’t get sucked into past team issues, be prejudice, or intimidate participants. External facilitators can keep a team on the established agenda, say things that need to be said, listen for the unspoken messages, and provide support as needed. Further using an expert DiSC trainer will assure your team is applying the model correctly.

Get Going Teams! Learn and Grow Together!

Kaye Sullivan trains teams of all kinds using the DiSC assessments as pivotal learning resources. With thirty years training and consulting experience, Kaye can readily adapt the DiSC concepts to clients’ specific learning goals . The new state of the art DiSC product line offers specific assessments for leaders, managers, sales staff, and employees in any position. Kaye Sullivan is an authorized distributor of DiSC assessments from Inscape Publishing. Read more at www.ptcteam.com.

*DiSC is a registered trademark of Inscape Publishing, Inc.

Teamwork For 2013 –Get Going on Your Team’s Effectiveness

Kaye Sullivan — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 22:01:53 +0000

Great teams never stop improving. So, even if you are lucky enough to work on a good team and certainly if your team is struggling, now when the new year is fresh is the perfect time to move your team’s capabilities forward.

Teamwork takes a lot of continuous work. It’s not simply one off-site, an all hands meeting, or revamping your mission statement. Those actions are important, but just a few of the steps on the path to great teamwork.

Ramp up your team’s effectiveness with these initiatives:

Think strategically

What’s the big picture for your team? Are you solidly connected to your organization’s long term strategy? Can you envision a picture of what you will be doing once your current projects are finished? Have you looked outside the box recently?

Of course you are swamped with your current priorities. Everyone is. But great teams develop underlying strength by thinking and planning ahead. Don’t get stuck in the swamp of short sighted thinking. Be strategic.

Get Your Goals Aligned

While team leaders tend to feel the goals are crystal clear (which they should since that is a critical aspect of their position), team members often do not 1) understand the goals as they related to specific tasks, 2) agree with the goals, or 3) work on the official team goals.

Every team member needs to be able to answer these questions:

How does my work contribute to our team’s goals?

Why are we doing this work/project/task?

How can I accomplish job X when I’m overwhelmed with job Y?

Be Responsible

Great teams don’t waste a lot of time back tracking to determine who is supposed to do what as in “I thought you were handling that.” They don’t fix blame, they concentrate on fixing problems.

Up front, they define assignments, interfaces, connections, processes, and resources – all those understandings that minimize duplication, lost time, missed assignments, and similar inefficiencies. How is your team handling its responsibilities?

Apply Effective Communications

Marginal communications will undermine all the good work invested in the prior topics. Because high performing teams are open to feedback and continual improvement, they nip communication gaps before they become caverns.

Great teams are aware of member’s preferences and adapt their communications in various ways to build inclusive, collaborative approaches. Periodically, they assess the effectiveness of internal and external communications and then they adjust accordingly. (If your team needs a communication assessment tool, be sure you look at the new DiSC profiles.)

Be Powerful

Teamwork provides creativity and capability beyond that of any single person or work group functioning in silos. That belief in the team’s strength in turn provides security and recognition to each team member. Powerful teams can tackle the unknown, overcome mistakes, fight off stressors, learn continuously, and keep growing together.

Get Going

What will your team accomplish in 2013? Grasp the opportunities of the New Year and turn your team into an awesome team. Kaye Sullivan is a trainer and facilitator of teamwork in the work place.

With 30 years of consulting experience, her firm, Performance Training Corporation has helped hundreds of teams improve their performance. Find out more on the company website at www.ptcteam.com

Expedition Leadership in the Wild

crisscrossingindia — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:58:12 +0000

The lessons about leadership learned in the crucible of the backcountry environment — unpredictable,

Renok Adventures Outbound Training

crisscrossingindia — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 14:44:58 +0000

Renok Adventures Outbound Training from Jai Meena 26.917000 75.817000

4 Essential Leadership Skills

CEO Leadership Skills — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:14:02 +0000

It’s impossible to pinpoint every skill a leader must have to be successful. Different organisations and businesses require different skills and traits. That said, the following four leadership skills are necessary in any corporate culture.

Sincerity

Fake greetings, forced smiles, and feigned attention are the tools a poor leader employs daily. It’s easy to be fake – however it’s even easier to notice when someone, smiling at you with set teeth, is pretending. A good leader must always try to be sincere and earnestly believe in what they say and do. Anything less and people will begin to pick up on their lack of respect for the team and the project at hand.The only way a leader can become sincere, or work towards sincerity, is by speaking the truth and acting in accordance with their true feelings at all times. However, we live in the real world, and sometimes people can’t afford to be completely forthright with their ideas and thoughts.In other words, a leader is forced to be plastic and fake on occasion. Fine. Just make sure you know when you’re doing it, why you’re doing it, and know when to turn it off. Faking understanding and listening can be easy but it will only lead to bigger problems down the road. So the next time someone asks how you’re feeling, don’t be afraid to say, “Not good”.

Empathy

Face it. As a leader you wake up, get dressed, and commute to work with a unique set of problems revolving around your head. No one else on the team has your identical problems – but that doesn’t mean they don’t have their own universe of difficulties and troubles. As a busy manager, it can be hard to pick-up on the problems your staff are having. However, as a leader, it’s your lot to try to understand every angle.In some retail organisations, corporate managers are forced to work on the sales floor for a week or two before they are allowed to sit behind their new desks. This practice is repeated throughout various organisations, because it’s supposed to force managers to be empathetic toward the problems a regular staff member confronts daily. It works.A leader should know the nuts and bolts of every job that is being performed by their staff, in order to relate to its difficulty or recognise when an employee is incapable of their duties. Empathy can only come from understanding the true nature of the work and the difficulties it creates. Next time you get upset with your employee for taking his time keying in 100 pages of email addresses – ask yourself, “How long would that take me?”.

Loyalty

Leaders aren’t worth anything without their team. For that statement to make sense in reverse, leaders must be loyal to their staff. Loyalty comes in different sizes. When managers are told to be loyal to their staff, they aren’t expected to dramatically take bullets for their co-workers. Instead, leaders should protect their team from other departments and companies with vigour. Such loyalty will breed a sense of importance within the staff and compel employees to work harder for a larger good. Loyalty creates an irreplaceable bond that will, in most situations, ensure the reciprocation of loyalty.Loyalty forces, in a way, a manager to look at their team as a condensed family. The mental analogy works on many levels - but it should be used with caution. Slow team members must be cut and others must be trained rigorously. Don’t force your loyalty on to a team that doesn’t yet deserve it. Loyalty doesn’t mean letting people off easy - loyalty has to be earned and should only come after time, hard work, and patience.

Follow-though

The act of following-through sounds easier than it really is. Everyone has solid ideas, plans, and goals that they want to implement professionally. The truth is, only a handful of people actually follow-through on their agendas.A good leader needs the ability to follow-through on ideas in order to add value to their organisation or team. A leader incapable of following-through - continually - won’t be able to enlist support from their team or chase after bigger, more interesting, projects.Follow-through is the one ability that makes leaders, leaders. It’s a leader’s true skill, because it requires the organisation of many different elements, and the ability to get them all on your side in order to complete a goal. A leader who can’t follow-through is like a tennis player without a racket. It’s crucial that you are able to hit an idea home so that everyone on your team can feel a sense of accomplishment and success.

Guest Author:Samuel Bacharach is the Professor of Labor Management at Cornell University’s ILR School. He is the Director of ILR’s New York City-based Institute for Workplace Studies and the director of the New York City-based Master of Professional Studies. He blogs at: http://bacharachblog.com/

Generation Y: Are They Even Worth The Hassle?

CEO Leadership Skills — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 23:50:10 +0000

“That’s it. I’m only going to hire Baby Boomers from now on… Gen Y are just too much hard work”.

It seems that many managers and business owners have reached breaking point with Gen Y. This younger generation, after all, rarely hangs around in a job for long enough to warrant the financial and time investment of training. What’s more, they have a sense of entitlement and a brash self-confidence that is less than endearing to many older managers.

Gen Y: they have been the topic of countless articles, research papers and books in recent years. Workplaces and employers in every sector are finding this group a great challenge to recruit, motivate and retain. This younger generation seems to operate by a different set of rules. Their concept of patience, respect and work ethic can seem bewildering at best and insulting at worst. Is it any wonder then that many managers are asking if Gen Y are really worth the hassle?

Sure Gen Y may pose some challenges to work with. Sure they may have an approach to the real world that can sometimes seem less than realistic. And yet, this group is a generation of confident, well-educated natural networkers. They are innovative, flexible, tech-savvy and most important of all, at home in the modern era. It is, after all, the only era they have ever known.

Clever managers are recognising that Gen Y are indeed an excellent source of creativity, innovation and a competitive edge. Rather than seeing this group as a challenge or a source of frustration, these managers are seeing the potential of engaging a generation who have a fresh perspective, boundless energy and a keen desire to get runs on the board as quickly as possible.

If you are keen to join the ranks of those that are engaging rather than estranging Gen Y, the following three keys should help:

Put relationship before role
Gen Y are a connected generation. Community, relationships and a sense of belonging are at the core of both their online and offline identities. They have typified the old phrase ‘I don’t care how much you know, till I know how much you care’. Managers that can build a strong relationship and genuine rapport with their Gen Y staff will find that this will indeed be the key to gaining commitment and loyalty from this group. They will not be loyal to companies or corporate mission statements, but they are loyal to people and relationships. A far cry from the power and control days of management, those in authority can no longer rely on creating a separation between themselves and those they lead. If you want to build rapport with Gen Y, two tips; be authentic, and be interested. They don’t want you to be like them, they want you to be you. Walk your talk, be transparent, have some fun at your own expense and Gen Y will love you for it.
Focus on outcomes not process
If outcomes are all about why we do what we do, then perhaps process could best be described as how we do what we do. Of course, while both the why and the how are necessary for organisational performance, many organisations fall into the trap of focussing on process over outcomes. They become so obsessed with structure, lines of authority, rules, policies, benchmarks and KPIs, that they lose sight of the reason these processes were put there in the first place. Process itself is not the enemy, but process that seems disconnected to outcomes is. The biggest turn-offs at work for Gen Y are unnecessary structure, excessive bureaucracy and suffocating red tape.
Give regular positive feedback
Recognition is that all powerful motivator. It’s the one thing that babies will cry for, grown men will die for… and Gen Y will work for. Positive reinforcement is the best and perhaps the only way to bring out the best in the people we lead. Look for and ‘catch’ employees doing the right thing and then reward it, rather than ‘catching’ people doing the wrong thing and then punishing it. This principle is certainly a key to engaging Gen Y.Use positive affirmation, recognition and encouragement with this younger generation and watch them thrive. Two quick tips when doing this; recognise them in person (don’t just send an email), and recognise them in public (they love to be singled out in front of their peers and colleagues).

Engaging Gen Y employees may seem like a lot of hard work. It will certainly require an investment of time and energy and a willingness to change and adapt. However, those managers that can embrace the challenges of working with this group will reap the benefits of a younger workforce that is energetic, switched on and hungry to get ahead.

Guest Author:
Michael McQueen is a leading authority and sought-after presenter on the topic of Understanding & Engaging Generation Y.

Moving From Conflict To A Win / Win Outcome

CEO Leadership Skills — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 01:02:51 +0000

Conflict comes about when two or more people hold different views, and one or more have to be right or get their own way. The result is often heated arguments, with someone saying things they may later regret. Conflict is going to arise in your life, whether you like or not. If you’d like to avoid conflict – and achieve a win / win outcome – it’s important to develop the skills needed to negotiate this.

The destructive power of arguments

While most people hate arguing, it’s something everyone does. The problem is, they often become heated and can have devastating results.

Voices are raised and bad things are said. There can be name-calling and degrading the other person – both of which are later regretted or remembered for life. The ones who say they don’t argue are the ones who hate arguing or will do anything to avoid conflict. They suffer in silence.

So, if arguments are so destructive …

Why do people argue?

Arguments occur when two or more people hold different opinions and they both hold the belief they are right and the other person is wrong. Let’s go back a step. When you have a different opinion with another, there are four possible outcomes:

Win / Win

You both win. You are both happy. You do things for yourself and for others.
Win / Lose You win and the other person loses. You are happy and they aren’t. You do things for yourself only and care little about others (even though you may say you do).
Lose / Win
You lose and the other person wins. They are happy and you’re not. You do things for others and don’t consider yourself.
Lose / Lose
You are both unhappy. Nothing happens for you or the other person.

Obviously, the best outcome is Win / Win.

When you argue, you are doing three things:

Defending what you know
While you are doing this you are not listening to what the other person is saying.
Trying to prove you are right And the other person is wrong.
Being selfish
First, you are saying you are right and the other person is wrong (Win / Lose). Second, you are trying to change the other person into believing what you believe. You are not allowing them to have their own beliefs and this is selfish and produces a Win / Lose.

When you argue, you are hoping for a Win / Win (provided they agree with you) yet are selecting a Win / Lose when they fail to agree with you.

One of the biggest needs people have is the need to be right. When you are right, not only do you feel good, you unconsciously think others will also feel good about you.

The whole function of arguing is to convince another person to agree with you. What can often begin as a disagreement can lead to raised voices, which, if a result is not found, often leads to yelling and can even lead to verbal abuse and physical violence. Throw in some stubbornness and this really generates some heat.

When two stubborn people argue, it’s often “a battle to the death” as neither will give in. Stubborn people have to be right at all costs so are selfish when in an argument. Sometimes one is stubborn and the other not. The person who isn’t stubborn will give in (producing a Lose / Win) as “it’s not worth arguing” and will feel resentful they are not being heard.

Which begs the question …

Who wins an argument?

The answer is “no-one” or “the strongest” – with the most common outcome being a Lose / Lose.

Think of times when you argue. What is the result? And what effect does this have on either yourself or the person you are arguing with?

You may be a person that has to win at all costs or a person who hates confrontation and refuses to argue. You may give in to keep the peace and hold resentment because your thoughts are not valued. All of these produce a detrimental result.

So, what is the solution?

When two people hold different opinions, who is right?

They both are. You only have to ask them. Each will say they are right for what they believe and the reasons why.

Attempting to convince them to change may not work (as they think they are right).

How to achieve a win / win

Understand - they are rightWhen someone holds a different point of view to you, they are right. You simply have to ask them. Attempting to prove you are right and they are wrong is only going to fuel the conflict.They are right for them. They are right for the knowledge they have. That doesn’t mean they are going to be right for you.
Identify why the other person thinks the way they do and ask questions to discover why this is so
Questions like “Why do you think this would work better than that?” and “That’s a good point. Can I ask what caused you to come to that conclusion?”.

Here’s some points to keep in mind:
- Place a positive statement before the enquiry
  
  “That’s a good point. Can I ask …”, “I can partially see how that can work. Can you please explain to me …” and “I can see the need for …”.This helps validate what the other person is saying. It helps get them on side.
- Ask questions with an enquiring tone
  
  Most ask, especially if they are trying to win the argument, in a sarcastic or degrading tone. For example, ask out loud “Why would that work?” in a degrading way, emphasising the “why” and “that”. What’s it sound like?Now ask in an enquiring way: “That’s a good point. Can I please ask why you think that would work?”The second one is more likely to gain a good response. If you listen to the way people respond to your question, it often gives you feedback on the way you have asked it.
- You are attempting to get the other person to enter into conversation so the nicer you are, the more likely they are to reciprocateAttempting to convince them to change may not work (as they think they are right). To get them to see another perspective, ask questions like “Do you think … (this) … could work or is a possibility?”. By asking the right questions, you get them to discover there could be another possibility.When people come up with the answer (as against you telling them), they feel good.
Be willing to move on
If you ask the question “Could something different work?” and they emphatically say “No”, there is a good possibility they are stuck with what they think and are not prepared to look beyond that (stubborn). Accept this and:
- Be prepared to move on by changing the topic of conversation
  
  Trying to convince them they are wrong may only lead to more arguing.
- Know that you have some valid points
  
  If they fail to agree, it does not mean you are wrong. You have not lost the argument. Keep your self worth up by knowing you can help, you do have something to contribute.
- Ask “If your way fails to work, would you be happy to look at my way?”
  
  Nearly everyone will say “Yes”.
Brainstorm possible solutionsThis is particularly so when you are looking for a solution that is best for your relationship, group or business.What’s right for the relationship, group or business is more important than what is right for you.
For example, in a relationship, if you want to be right all the time, your partner will hold resentment towards you. If you have to always be right, go live all by yourself, because then you can do whatever you like, whenever you like, for as long as you like to whoever you like and no-one cares. You only have to consider yourself.

Once you bring another person on board, you now have to consider them. Failure to do so will often mean they won’t be around for long.

To brainstorm, ask questions like “What are all the possibilities here?”.

Write them down and pick one that best suits the relationship, group or business. Leave your ego out of it. It’s the part that says you have to be right (selfish).

I’m amazed at how many businesses I consult with who do what’s best for them personally rather than identify what is best for the business. After all, if the business succeeds, so does the individual. If the relationship succeeds, so does the individual.

Guest Author:

Clive Murphy is the Principal of the Clive Murphy Self Empowerment Centre, a product, coaching and seminar business that empowers people to achieve their life potential. He is the author of four books relating to confidence, self esteem, relationships, motivation to lose weight and controlling how you feel.

Building On The Strengths Of Your Team

CEO Leadership Skills — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 03:22:34 +0000

Outstanding managers spend more time developing the strengths of individual team members than they do in correcting weaknesses. They encourage team members to continue to learn and grow rather than just settle for mediocrity. So how can you build on the strengths in your team?

Firstly, consider how you can give them variety in their work. The longer people keep doing the same thing, the less satisfied and engaged they become at work. But here it is important to give them new experiences that they want to experience.

Most people will respond well to new experiences that are consistent with their strengths and interests. Look out for strengths in your team members and ask them about what parts of their work they most enjoy or would like to develop. Sure, with some problem staff, you may need to look very hard to find their strengths, but I assure you they are there. It is just that their strengths are being used in an evil way.

Some people also respond well to challenge, where they are stretching themselves. The research says that about 40% of people generally would like more challenge in their work, but it needs to be challenges they want to take on. How do you find out? You simply ask them. Great managers regularly have discussions with their staff about how they are going at work, strengths and interests they would like to develop, and challenges they would like.

Mentoring is also a great way to help team members to develop. In every team, there are star performers and experienced staff who would be more than happy to mentor others. This not only gives them the feel-goods in helping others but also variety in their work. There are also some advantages to using mentors outside your workplace.

Training programs can also help to build on the strengths in your team. Team members will always benefit more from training in areas they themselves have identified as a need. So consider asking your team what they would like to learn or what challenges they are having that could be addressed in a training program.

So that’s it. Start talking with your team members – offer them variety, encourage their strengths and interests, give them a challenge, and offer mentoring and training opportunities.

Ultimately, your team is only as good as the time and investment you put into them.

Guest Author:

Ken Warren is Australia’s leading speaker on Dealing with Demanding, Aggressive and Unmotivated People. With his engaging, interactive and positive approach, Ken has shown thousands how to turn difficult people around and bring out their best.

Leadership Strategies To Address Common Team Building Problems

CEO Leadership Skills — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 02:31:31 +0000

Many CEOs are good business strategists; yet when it comes to integrating team approaches in the organisation, there’s no real strategy.

With multiple teams operating within large organisations, team success is often based on the capability of their respective team leaders. Each leader needs some basic skills, strategy and support to help his or her team succeed.

With teams that are floundering, a common reaction is to resort to some kind of team building exercise. After all, many leaders find it difficult to point a finger at themselves when teams aren’t working well.

Despite best team building efforts, many organisations are still operating on low power when it comes to producing desired results. They’ve invested time and dollars in events that supposedly help team members bond and function coherently, yet results are short term at best.

So what’s the problem? Every situation is unique, but here are a few possibilities:

Some or all members don’t want to function as a team. They’ve become accustomed to operating independently and don’t see the value of operating as a whole. This can be especially common at senior executive levels where egos get in the way.
Team building isn’t linked to business results. Instead the team experienced artificial feel good exercises. Although the team has learned about each other’s behavioral styles, motivational profiles, individual strengths, etc., they have failed to connect their efforts to desired business outcomes.
There’s no follow-up beyond a one-time event. A successful team building process should be approached strategically, not as a one-time event hoping for the best. It should result in actionable ideas to help the team and organisation achieve their goals. Continued learning, action and reinforcement are critical.

Of all of the potential issues that can negatively affect team building, here are some of the most common impediments to team success in my experience and ways to overcome them.

Team building impediment #1: Fuzzy focus

In this situation, the team doesn’t really know how to function. Either the team has lost focus on results or members have never been clear of their goals in the first place. Instead, they’ve become too internally fixated on other team members – judging what they’re doing, making assumptions, speculating, back stabbing, finger pointing, etc. Without a clear focus, team members frequently react to events in their immediate environment. They become distracted by other team members or simply respond to whatever issue lands in their lap. There’s no strategic team focus or energy to move forward.

Leadership suggestion:

As the leader, you must step in and clarify big picture goals and expectations. In order to complete this task effectively, you must communicate the goals in a number of ways that appeal to a variety of team members. Some may need a visual representation (e.g., a roadmap); others may need to know the “why” behind the goals to buy in. Check for clarity. Ask the team to articulate their understanding of the overall goals in their own words. Then clarify or correct as needed.

Team building impediment #2: Lack of leadership

Leadership is critical to help the team succeed. Without it, team members will resort to their own methods. Some will run as far and fast as they can to prove themselves, pushing boundaries and taking on too much risk. Others will sit idle for as long as they can, performing as little as possible, yet complaining about how much work needs to get done. Some leaders are too busy concentrating on their own political or career agenda. Other leaders just don’t understand their role or possess good leadership skills.

Leadership suggestion:

Conduct regular strategic focus sessions. Strong leaders will help the team focus on the goal (the what) and key strategies (the how). Hold consistent informal one-on-one development meetings with direct reports to gain feedback, uncover trouble spots and leverage opportunities. If you need to build leadership skills yourself, make that a priority. If you value your career, find a coach or mentor to help you. Remember, in order to develop others - you must first develop yourself.

Team building impediment #3: Stuck in sameness

The team is stuck in practices that may have been established years ago. They’ve gotten lazy or stopped trying new approaches. New team members may be frustrated by the apparent lack of openness to new ideas or ways of operating. Experienced team members defend the way things have always been done.

Leadership suggestion:

Identify one aspect of the team that you would be excited to see change come about. Talk with your team to make sure everyone agrees it would be worth it to affect change in that area. Determine what the best possible outcome could be if the team made the change, adopted a new procedure, tried a new approach or do whatever it is you’re suggesting. Then call for ideas from the team on how to make it happen. Generating excitement about new possibilities makes it easier for the team to get unstuck.

The most effective teams can maintain best practices while adapting to new environments or organisational changes. They are not content with sameness or status quo. Their best practices include constantly seeking new and better ways to perform their job. They are not content with going through the motions or frivolous exercises that may help increase awareness, but stop there.

Final thoughts

Self awareness is critical at the CEO level, the executive team level as well as other levels within the organisation. However, if individuals can’t connect self awareness to business results, you’re not maximising productivity. Team members may find it interesting to learn more about team members, but be sure to help translate learning into results.

Great team leaders spend time clarifying goals, cultivating their own leadership skills and identifying new ways to achieve great results. Not to be confused with micromanaging, an effective leader will check in from time to time to make sure the organisation’s goals and strategies remain clear. At the same time, they help build capability of individual team members versus taking on the work of the team themselves.

Simply opening productive and constructive communication to a greater degree will help leaders increase their effectiveness and their teams function most effectively. Leaders often feel unnecessary pressure to tell everyone on the team what to do. Focus on influencing versus doing.

Team building is a means to an end, not an end in itself. What do you want your team to achieve?

Guest Author:

Gayle Lantz, President of WorkMatters, has helped hundreds of companies and organisations just like yours improve performance and drive real results.

Moving Goalposts And The Role Of The Leader

CEO Leadership Skills — Tue, 29 May 2012 01:12:24 +0000

We often hear people being frustrated because they believe that they have worked hard only to discover that the ‘goalposts have been moved’.

In other words, the direction or objective has been moved either before we get to it or once we have arrived.

We are living in an age when we are very achievement orientated. We want outcomes, we want successes and we want people to achieve goals. So we set people goals or objectives and most people work hard to achieve them. So why do we get the situation where the goal posts get moved?

Of course it may simply be that the person misheard the objective and so that miscommunication creates the perception of having moved the goalposts.

There are really only two legitimate reasons that the goalposts seem to have been moved.

It may simply be that the goalposts needed to be moved because the game had changed. In other words, the objective is no longer the objective or the objective is not enough and more is needed. In these cases there is normally a rational reason that can be explained and, even though people may not like the change, or the rationale, they understand what the situation is and deal with it accordingly.
The other occasion when the goalposts may get moved centres around greed or subversive activities that are designed to undermine the person or organisation or both.

Let us look at these and also examine what the role of the leader is in this situation:

First of all the change needs to be communicated as early as possible so that people can make the necessary adjustments. This is particularly important if the moving of the goalposts is in a different direction. If the goalposts have simply been raised, then the direction may remain the same, but the effort and speed may need to be adjusted. However, if the goalposts have moved to a new location in a different direction, then this may mean stopping and starting again in the new direction or re-adjusting the compass to steer the activities in a new way.

As well as making sure that the information is passed on as soon as is practical, there is also the need to ensure that the communication is clear with as much background and rationale to ensure that people appreciate the situation.

When goalposts have to be moved or extended, it is important how the communication process takes place. If people are left to imagine why the goalposts have moved, they will most likely think the worst. They will imagine anything from conspiracy to a leadership that does not know what it is doing. At a time when goalposts have to be moved, it is probably important to have people motivated as much as possible to make the change and not de-motivated and wasting energy on thinking the worst of the situation.

The communication needs to include the rationale or thinking behind the decision. If people don’t understand the reason why the change is taking place, then they will find it hard to commit to the new goal or objective.

So, clear and concise communication is the key to motivating people towards the new objective. Communication is also important to make sure that everyone knows what has happened and not just some of the people. There is no point in some people knowing that the goalposts have moved and not others. Everyone needs to get the information and understand what they need to do in relation to the changes. It is also important to ensure that people are clear about what support is available to assist in making the changes.

The role of the leader is to ensure that the communication is clear and gets out to all people in a manner that allows people to get refocused and motivated to achieve. The visibility of the leader at this time is important, as people want to be able to hear it from the “horses mouth”. How this information is communicated is as important as making sure it is communicated. A leader brings credibility to the message and allows people to weigh up how genuine the leader is.

Our second situation is where goalposts are moved out of greed or in a desire to undermine another party. We see political parties doing this to each other in an attempt to undermine the opposition. However, there are also some employers that think that the goals they set their people were just too easy and so raise the objective to make them do more.

In this case, the role of the leader is even more at stake. Greed and subversion are traits that undermine leaders and devalue the relationship with their people in a way that creates distrust and breeds resentment. This is not an environment that ensures future commitment and achievement.

Yet for some reason we see the spectacle of the moving goalposts happening in organisations and in politics and people slowly losing trust in their leadership. In the political arena the spectacle is normally taking place by the opposition or the media who delight in creating perceptions that may undermine the credibility of the opposition or (in the case of the media) sells newspapers!

But even here it is not always a good step to be taking. The opposition can be seen as being negative or being seen as subversive in a way that does them no favours. The same applies to the media who can be in danger of turning their readers against them.

The secret to ensuring that the perception of “moving goalposts” is not allowed to develop into mistrust and a breakdown of relationships that undermine the leaders ability to lead, is in the way changes are communicated.

So I ask you to consider how you are managing people’s perceptions relating to ‘moving goalposts’. Are you even aware that people have this perception of you or your organisation? It is so easy for this perception to be generated without you realising it.

Are you aware of how your managers are being perceived and how good they are at managing the perceptions of people at all levels? If you don’t manage people’s perceptions about moving goalposts, then your management team and you as the leader may well be undermined without you knowing it.

Guest Author:

Paul Bridle is a Past Global President of the International Federation for Professional Speakers. The author of ‘Leadership – the never-ending story’, Paul has a personal background in running businesses and leading people and works with leaders and their organisations helping them improve the performance through their people – starting at the top.

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Building A Culture Of Accountability

CEO Leadership Skills — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:55:47 +0000

The key to building a culture of accountability, is to find a way to lead people without ruling them.

What is culture?

Culture is embodied in the phrase “this is the way we do things around here”. More precisely, “what people perceive they have to do to fit in, be accepted and rewarded around here”. Culture is the sum of the behavioural norms of the workgroup, team, division or organisation.

It is relatively common to have different cultures between teams or divisions within the one organisation. These are referred to as sub-cultures, and they can range from being marginally different from the culture of the overall organisation, to being quite radically different. This has implications, for not only understanding an organisation’s culture, but also for managing it effectively.

Why is culture important?

Have you ever tried to stay within the speed limit when everyone around you is driving at speeds well over the speed limit? The behavioural norms of a group can strongly influence the behaviour of the individual.

Culture defines the behavioural norms (accepted behaviour) in a group, team, division or organisation. In turn, behaviour underpins the performance (what gets done, when it gets done and how it gets done) of the organisation and perceptions (reputation) of that organisation.

A framework for managing culture

While managing culture requires a range of approaches and cannot simply be managed by dictating the culture you want, it is essentially about managing messages. The objective is to ensure messages are consistently conveyed through aligned behaviours (especially of key people), systems and symbols.

What is accountability?

The key concept is the notion of having a sense of ‘responsibility’ and a willingness to be ‘answerable’ to others and is the difference between a group and a team.

In our experience, the most important factor in developing accountability is the quality of leadership and management (and this is the only aspect leaders or managers are really in ‘control’ of). Good leaders and managers generate high levels of accountability in their people.

Whilst organisations should plan to recruit the right people, in terms of their willingness to be team players and be accountable, recruitment is only the starting point. The real key is what leaders and organisations do from that point onwards. Good recruits can be ‘lost’ in poorly lead organisations with unsupportive cultures.

Many managers see accountability as being attributed to an individual’s values, therefore they blame the individual and underestimate their own role in creating an accountability culture. In doing this, a great opportunity to build a high performance organisation is missed.

Responsibility is not blame!

It is important not to mistake responsibility for blame as they are diametrically opposed concepts. Where one exists the other will not remain.

Responsibility is the ability to make a response – it is future and action focused.
Blame is past focused and is more about the ego – isolating people, teaching them a lesson, point scoring or making them feel guilty/bad – than it is about accountability. Guilt and fear is not a good basis for developing accountability.

A framework for building an accountability culture

We see the steps in building an accountability culture as being:

Building trust as the foundation - The four key elements of trust are:
1. Openness/transparency – Giving and accepting feedback, transparency in decision making
2. Reliability – Doing what you say you are going to do
3. Congruence – Saying what you mean
4. Acceptance – Acceptance of others and acceptance of differences
Engage your people - Meaningful involvement with alignment. Remember you can’t truly and sustainably motivate another person but you can engage them. It is through engagement that motivation will grow.
Ownership – Once the first two elements are in place people start to ‘take’ ownership – they start to think and act like owners. As this happens, the future possibility for selling down equity, as part of the firm’s succession plan, becomes a reality.

The level of accountability is directly related to the level of trust, engagement and ownership that exists within an organisation.

Certainly work at improving all levels simultaneously; however remember higher levels in the pyramid cannot progress any faster than the base they are built on – there are no short-cuts.

Without trust and engagement, no performance measures and rewards will be particularly effective over the medium to long-term – you cannot buy accountability.

Guest Author:

Warwick Cavell, Linnergy. Warwick is a Management Consultant who works with the leadership and management of small and medium sized organisations to develop a wholistic and integrated approach to business performance improvement.

Giving Engaging Feedback

CEO Leadership Skills — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:17:32 +0000

People are reluctant to give each other feedback in the workplace. On the one hand, some people hold back on giving constructive feedback as they worry about how the other person will respond. But on the other hand, inaction leaves staff performance problems going unaddressed and building over time.

Even when constructive feedback is given, it is not always done well. People are not giving enough positive feedback either – due to either not appreciating the importance of recognition or getting stuck in unnecessary paperwork.

Here are five keys you can use to get a better result from any staff feedback you give.

Feedback is always better received from those with whom we have a good relationship. So get to really know your co-workers and manager and let them get to know you. Chat with them, tease them, laugh with them, and be human. You are effectively placing deposits in the emotional bank account of that relationship which increases the likelihood of your feedback being well-received.
Feedback also needs to be occurring regularly, not just out-of-the blue. A yearly performance review is nowhere near good enough. Touch base with your workmates at least on a weekly basis, letting them know what you are happy about. Some staff with a strong need for connection or recognition need feedback even more frequently. When you are giving positive feedback, you have to mean what you say, of course. If people sense you are not being genuine they will simply feel patronized. Positive feedback also has to be specific and targeted towards those things the individual values about themselves. Positive feedback that is specific and meaningful to the person is always better received.
Constructive feedback is always easier to give when it is asked for. But you will find constructive comments are better received when they are outweighed by five times more positive feedback. This does not mean that when you give feedback there needs to be five compliments followed by one criticism.
Of course, constructive feedback needs to be given in ways seen as respectfulby the person receiving it. So although your intentions may be respectful, it is important to monitor how your feedback is being received and to adjust yourself for the individual. For most people, simply sounding respectful and speaking to them privately will be sufficient. For the sensitive types, you can allow them to save face by criticising yourself first – perhaps you weren’t clear in what you were expecting from them. If you are going to criticise, keep this to their behaviour and not them as a person. You can soften the blow by using the ‘kiss, kick, kiss’ approach, where you start and finish on a positive note.You can also say what you would prefer to see rather than what you dislike. There is a difference between saying, ‘You’re a self-centred, control-freak!’ and saying, ‘I really would like to have more say in how I do things.’ But you are allowed to think the former.
Feedback is also better received if you are open to feedback yourself. Sometimes feedback will be uninvited, given poorly, and you may be feeling defensive. But remind yourself that it is only feedback. You won’t die from it and it is good that any frustrations are coming out. Apologise and agree where you can before offering something for the future. For example, ‘I’m sorry if I came across that way. And I agree you do need to have some say in how you do your work. How would you like to do your work differently?’

If you are in management, make it easy for others to give you feedback. Staff surveys are one option, but you can also do so by routinely asking, ‘What can I do to better support you in your role?’ You can also let them know you know you are not perfect and will be OK if they give you constructive comments. You could say,‘I know I have been caught up in my paperwork and haven’t touched base with you much of late. What do you need from me so you can feel better about your work?’

So, that’s it. You can give engaging feedback by:

Having a good relationship with that person
Being frequent, genuine, and specific with your feedback
Giving five times more positive feedback than constructive feedback overall
Monitoring how the other person is responding and adjusting your approach
Being open to feedback yourself

Guest Author:

The key to tackling the skills gap is to develop your company’s most valuable resources – its people.

Focus training on the areas that require skill development You must be able to identify a job-relevant skill deficiency for the individual or team. This often means measuring current skill levels, determining where skill gaps exist and prescribing the training solution.
Focus training on individuals and teams Teamwork is here to stay in today’s interdependent workplace. There’s no point in developing the skills of individuals if they are unable to apply these skills in a team situation.
Clearly state the objectives of training and relate it to competent job performance Research shows that learning improves when there are objectives stating what the employees will be able to do as a result of the training. Learners must know how their performance will be evaluated and what success will look like.
Measure the results of the training If you can’t see evidence of the effectiveness of the training, can you justify the investment? As the saying goes, if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Make sure you can evaluate the effectiveness of training and the ongoing development of individuals and teams.

Guest Author:

Priority Management is an international training organisation which provides techniques, tools and training to enhance productivity. There are more than 100 offices worldwide, with branches in all capital cities in Australia.

Republished from CEO Online – your online business resource – www.ceoonline.com. Get valuable business tips and easy-to-read articles delivered direct to your email inbox every week. REGISTER NOW for your copy of CEO Online’s FREE e-newsletter: http://www.ceoonline.com.au/subscribe/

Five Factors That Disconnect Your Team

CEO Leadership Skills — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 00:06:11 +0000

Dealing with these will improve synergy and stability within your company, freeing up your staff’s energy to move the business ahead.

“What’s wrong with my team? Why don’t they co-operate more? Where’s their team spirit? Why do they seem surly so much of the time? Why don’t they speak up at staff meetings? Why do we have such a high turnover of staff? Why do people seem to operate in their own little world and not care about the ‘Big Picture’?”

Often we fail to get the best from our staff simply because we haven’t yet made ways for each member of the team to actually live in a healthy relational connection with the rest of the team. In fact the word team is a misnomer for many workplaces which are staffing a bunch of individuals doing their own thing in ways that merely keep them employed.

Is your workplace a place where people compete for resources rather than collaborating toward outcomes? Where self-protective behaviour prevents innovation and synergy?

While your staff can quote the mission statement, do their daily activities actually seem to work against it?

If you’ve answered YES to any of these questions, perhaps some of the following disconnecting factors are affecting your team.

Napoleonic wars
There are some individuals who – while occupying “small” positions in context with the wider organisation – pursue their own grandiose dreams with a super-sized passion. Effectively they wage a war of attrition on your resources, your time, the morale of the team, even your relationship with your customers. At the very least, they annoy and distract some of your most talented and loyal people.At the same time, there is an upside to this Napoleonic lust for conquest and expansion. You may have in your midst some true mover and shakers, pioneering go-getters. If treated correctly, these people can be an asset rather than a pain in the assets – a force for the up-turn rather than the stagnation of your business.Rather than blocking and crushing them, negotiate with them to find the way in which their “vision” can serve your vision. Debrief and rebrief them regularly. Make them go through management to access resources so that they don’t play people off against each other. Keep them on a tight (not necessarily short) leash through clear direction and consistent accountability. Empower them fully to the limit that you set. Remind them constantly of their place in the team.
No relational space

When there are no rhythms that place us across the lunch-table or pool-table from each other, then misunderstandings and offences can take root and fester far more easily. When there are no shared spaces where team-mates can laugh, debate and commiserate, workplace relations can be colourless and superficial. You don’t need to program relationships; it’s our default setting. We just need the opportunity.Make a physical space which invites your team to chat, to spend time together without a productivity-focus. Create traditions where your team can “break bread”. Give your staff the chance to do life together, to ask “What’s up?” or “Have I done something to offend you?”, to dig through their differences and find common ground.
Faddish cycles of change

Personality profiling tells us that up to 70% of the general population actually dislike and resist change. If that’s true, then when you are initiating change in the workplace, you better make sure it’s worth the hard work of helping these people adopt it.If your workplace has a proven track-record of adopting the latest business or marketing idea, it’s possible it also has a track-record of alienating over half its staffers in the process. While this might contribute to those staffers banding together to form passive-aggressive resistance movements, I think you’d agree that’s not the kind of teamworkyou’re looking for. You now have a disconnect between management and staff.Long-term team-members watch the fashionable initiatives come and go, slowly losing their passion and commitment, finding their own ruts to stay in, regardless of what the latest memo says. Change for change’s sake can be easily justified with flashy charts and jingoistic phrases, but its nature is unhealthy and unhelpful.When considering any major change to the organisation’s environment, methodology or other systems, think long and hard about old adages like “If it ain’t broke…” and “reinventing the wheel”!
Fear

Nothing causes people to hunker down and keep to themselves like this “f”-word!Where staffers seem reticent to share their thoughts, where they avoid contact with management, where they lash out in completely irrational ways – these may be indications that these people are scared.Spend some time discerning what could be causing the fear. Is there an air of uncertainty in the air? Are disciplinary issues dealt with harshly?I love the story I heard about an Australian CEO and one of his new admin staff. When it turned out the young lady had made an enormous error in regards to printing promotional material – an error which would cost the organisation over $16000 – she reported it to the senior manager.

She ended her confession with: “I suppose that’s the end for me?” The CEO replied “Why would I sack you? I’ve just spent $16000 training you.” While she was left in no doubt as to the seriousness of her mistake, the grace that was shown this young woman resulted in her fast-paced professional development and deep loyalty toward her employer.

It also worked wonders for the morale of other team members.

What can you do about anxiety and uncertainty in your company?
The Talk Monopoly

Who holds the floor in the staff meeting? Can you pick the small group of individuals who do most of the talking, who freeze out others’ contributions opinions and ideas?Try finding ways to acknowledge the monopolisers while giving other team members equal time. (“Ralph, thanks for that perspective. I’m really interested in what Betty sees as the issue here.”)Remember that some people won’t speak without being asked, yet they could hold the very idea your group needs. Others need help focussing their thoughts so you will have to ask them a specific question to elicit a response (“Graham, what would you do in my position?” rather than “Graham, what do you think?”).

Guest Author:

Peter Aldin is founder of Great Circle Life Coaching. In a complex world, instinct and habit often drive us off course rather than steering us toward success and satisfaction. Great Circle is about re-learning and re-thinking our approach to family and business dynamics and relationships.

Republished from CEO Online – your online business resource – www.ceoonline.com. Get valuable business tips and easy-to-read articles delivered FREE to your email inbox every week. REGISTER NOW for your copy of CEO Online’s FREE e-newsletter: http://www.ceoonline.com.au/subscribe/

Resolving Workplace Conflict

CEO Leadership Skills — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:41:53 +0000

Work relationships are never conflict free. Indeed, I would say that HEALTHY relationships are never conflict free BUT they are conflict resolving. Here are some practical insights for your workplace conflicts that ensure your relationship wins.

The problem is, we fight for victories instead of fighting for solutions. The result is one wins, one loses, and the relationship suffers. Instead, utilise these tactics:

Understand the nature of conflict

Conflicts are inevitable. They’re inevitable because work relationships bring different people together who see things differently. As marriage counselor Gary Smalley puts it, “During those first years of marriage, what one partner finds an absolute necessity, the other views as an unnecessary luxury”.

Conflicts are normal. They’re normal because all relationships, even great ones, experience them.

Conflicts are potentially beneficial. They’re potentially beneficial because when they’re handled effectively, better solutions are found and relationships are strengthened.

Choose the right “style” of conflict resolution

You’ve got three choices: avoid, attack, or approach. Choose the “correct” approach style.

The “avoid” conflict resolution approach

In the “avoid” style, you “don’t want to rock the boat”. You want to “let sleeping dogs lie”. You fear confrontation, so you bury your feelings, not realising your feelings will eventually come out somewhere … somehow. You clam up, letting your negative feelings build up, until you blow up, hurting yourself or the other person physically or emotionally. Meanwhile, the offenses accumulate, unaddressed issues multiply, and the unfinished business erodes your relationship.
The “attack” conflict resolution approach

In the “attack” style, you do your best to “get them before they get you”. You are a ruthless fighter who refuses to give in. You attack the other person, which more often than not invites counterattack. Both sides dig in and nothing gets resolved.
The “approach” conflict resolution approach

In the “approach” style, you are assertive. You confront the issue without blaming the other person. Indeed, you’re sensitive to the other person’s feelings, and you invite them to join you in solving the problem and saving the relationship. In almost all cases, I recommend the “approach” style.

And with that style in hand, you need to match up your particular “type” of conflict resolution with the “strategy” that works best with that “type”.

“Types” of conflict you experience

With “simple” conflict, use fact finding

The first of four types is called “simple” conflict – because two or more people want different things. That’s pretty basic when you think about it. It may be that the boss wants to implement a new procedure, but the staff thinks the old way is good enough.

In simple conflict, focus on fact finding. Propose a straightforward statement of the problem that quickly, clearly, and concisely summarises the issue. A straightforward statement might sound like this: “So you want a compensation system that recognises merit, and I want the system to be based on seniority? Is that the issue?” Once you agree on the definition of the problem, get all the relevant facts and all the pros and cons out on the table. And then keep on talking until you find a solution that both of you can feel pretty good about.
With “false” conflict, eliminate your assumptions

In “false” conflict, two or more people “think” they have a disagreement when they really don’t. They just misunderstand each other. For example, I remember a manager who said she would “get right back to” her colleague, but the colleague became rather angry when the manager got back to her the next day.

Well, what does “get right back to you” mean? An hour? A day? Or a week?

False conflict should be the easiest kind of conflict to resolve because there really isn’t anything to resolve. It’s just a matter of clarifying a situation, and everything is okay. The problem lies in the fact that people assume they understand each other.

Stop assuming! If the other person says something that sounds a little vague, that could be misconstrued, that sounds “off” or confusing, check it out. Say “I’m not sure I understand” or “I’d like to know more about that”. Ask for clarification. Use active listening. Play back what you think the other person is saying, and you’ll find these kinds of conflicts magically disappearing.
With “ego” conflict, show empathy

An “ego” conflict exists when someone feels attacked, slighted, or put down. Somehow their self-esteem has been diminished by another person’s words or actions, and now they feel the need to defend themself or counterattack. For example, a team member might label another team member’s idea as “just plain ridiculous”, to which they are told, “You never respect anybody’s ideas except your own”.

In ego conflict, you need to diminish the defensiveness. After all, when a person feels disrespected, they’re going to get somewhat defensive until they are once again reassured of their value. And you do that by showing empathy. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes. Try to see the world from their perspective. Try to understand their pressures, responsibilities, expectations, and demands. The more empathy you show, the less defensive the other person will be.

Structure some conflict resolution time. Structure it where one person speaks, sharing what they think, feel, and want – without any interruption - while the other person just listens respectfully. And then repeat the same structure with the second person.

If that seems too difficult, if there’s too much “heat” in the room, take a cooling-off period. Put your discussion “on hold” for an hour, a day, or a week - whatever you need so you can calm down, gain some perspective, and prevent yourself from saying anything else that might enrage the other person or damage your relationship.
With “value” conflict, look for common ground

A “value” conflict exists when there are sharp disagreements over what is considered to be good or bad. At work, there may be a value conflict between what you think is “financially right” and what the company is doing to “cut corners”.

Value conflicts are very difficult to resolve. After all, compromise is somewhat ridiculous. On the corporate finance issue, you can’t “afford everything”.

Your best choice, in the beginning stages of value conflict resolution, is to stop trying to convince the other person that you’re right and they’re wrong. Instead, spend your energy on trying to understand how the other person came to their value conclusions. Explore their reasoning. Behind every value is a set of thoughts and feelings that are the underpinnings of that value.

In so doing, you reduce the emotional acid in your communication and in your relationship. You open the door to finding some common ground. You may find that both sides want to be profitable. When you re-frame your conflict in those ways, your disagreement becomes one of methodology rather than morality.

Bottom Line: There are only two ways you can go in conflict. If you’re going in the direction of “who’s right and who’s wrong”, your outcome will probably be destructive. If you’re focused on “what are we going to do about it”, you’ll be on your way to constructive conflict resolution.

Make this week the week you decide to give up the “avoid” and the “attack” styles of conflict resolution. Decide to use the “approach” style.

Guest Author:

As a best-selling author and Hall of Fame professional speaker, Dr. Alan Zimmerman has worked with more than a million people, helping them become more effective communicators on and off the job.

How to Perform Better in Life Through Better Team Play: Six Starting Points

PerformAYB — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 02:17:49 +0000

How does the average person improve his or her day-to-day performance as a team member at work, school, home and in life? Now more than ever, people need help in learning how to become better at what they do in life. Most people are not the leaders in their respective organizations, and in these difficult economic times, it is even more important for people to be able to hold onto their jobs and make the most of them. Virtually every one of us can learn to perform better and achieve increased fulfillment in our current jobs and roles.

There has been much societal focus on developing great leaders and managers, to the exclusion of developing great individuals and team members. The prevailing thought has been, make better leaders and managers and everyone will be better off. However, this covers only part of the picture. The realities are that without individuals and teams to execute and achieve, there is no need for leaders and managers, and while some people may be the best leaders or managers, most people are at their best in their positions as team members.

There is also the pervading, but unstated thought that if you are not a leader or manager or making your way toward these roles, you are a lesser person. Things could not be further from the truth. While all of us can provide leadership in our roles, we cannot all be the team leader, division head, company president, or chairman of the “bored” (okay, let’s make that “board”). It is the individuals and team members who get things done; execute the plans. Life is full, as it should be, of individuals with high levels of talent, skills, experience, wisdom, and motivation who have the desire to play their team roles at the highest levels. They do not necessarily function as the team leader or manager.

The bottom line is we need great team members, leaders, and managers, working together to achieve great things whether at work, play, or other pursuits. So, in addition to developing great leaders and managers, we must develop great individuals and team members to consistently achieve great things. It would be difficult to become a successful leader or manager, without first becoming a successful team member.

Almost all of us have, do, or will belong to teams. Most of our accomplishments and fulfillment result from being part of teams, where success is shared, but achieved both individually and together. In my book , Perform at Your Best: By Getting Your Head in the Game, the following six starting points to perform at your best in life are discussed.

Clear your slate of life’s can and can’t do’s. Nobody can tell you what you can and can’t achieve in this life. Forget the voices and comments of friends, family, and others who may have planted bad or discouraging mental seeds regarding your abilities. Life should include discovering what your true strengths and aptitudes are, and using them to reach new heights in your achievements for the benefit of both yourself and others.
Accept that you are the essential ingredient necessary to maximize your performance in whatever you choose to do.
Acknowledge that you are a “CWIP”—a continual work in progress and continually work to improve your abilities and team play.
Expect to achieve what you earn on your own merit based on your hard work and commitment to a worthy purpose. You are not entitled to anything. Anything that you are given, beyond what you earn, is truly a gift and should be appreciated and not taken for granted or wasted.
Know that being part of a performance-oriented team is incredibly rewarding and will elevate your performance because of the synergies that develop among the team. You will affect your teammates’ performances, just as they will affect your performance.
Whatever else you may believe, and accept this: it is never too late to perform at your best in your chosen life endeavors. Life is full of examples of people who have achieved great success not only at early ages, but later in life as well: think Dara Torres, Tom Watson, and Ronald Reagan to name a few.

In the end, it is up to each one of us to make the difference in own lives as well as in those of people we share time with, or influence, during our lives. There is much more to performing at your best so if you want to explore this topic further, click on the link for my book, Perform at Your Best: By Getting Your Head in the Game and visit my web site at www.PerformAYB.com. I’d love to hear you thoughts on this article.

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Helping Groups Make Decisions - Facilitation Skills Part 4 of 4

Teamwork in the work place

The Importance Of Ground Rules - Part 3 of 4

Preparing Yourself - Facilitation Skills 2 of 4

How To Motivate Unmotivated People

All it takes is an understanding of the appropriate steps to take and a willingness to do them. This article contains the steps. The willingness is up to you.

Step #1 – Clearly articulate what needs to be accomplished and why

Step #2 – Involve people in finding the solutions

Step #3 – Explain the rules of the game

Step #4 – Link people’s personal goals with the organisations goals

Step #5 – Move negative people off the team

Guest Author

30 Year Anniversary Reflections of a Small Business Owner

6 Tips To Manage Conflict Between Staff Members

Building Teams And Fostering Teamwork

Formula for a Team

Good teams

Suggestions for team leaders

Building team unity and cohesion

Team member qualifications

Emotional maturity

Criticism from within the team

How to deal with constructive criticism

Guest Author:

DiSC Training for Teams - Learn Together

Teamwork For 2013 –Get Going on Your Team’s Effectiveness

Think strategically

Get Your Goals Aligned

Be Responsible

Apply Effective Communications

Be Powerful

Get Going

With 30 years of consulting experience, her firm, Performance Training Corporation has helped hundreds of teams improve their performance. Find out more on the company website at www.ptcteam.com

Expedition Leadership in the Wild

Renok Adventures Outbound Training

4 Essential Leadership Skills

Generation Y: Are They Even Worth The Hassle?

Moving From Conflict To A Win / Win Outcome

The destructive power of arguments

Why do people argue?

Who wins an argument?

When two people hold different opinions, who is right?

How to achieve a win / win

Building On The Strengths Of Your Team

Leadership Strategies To Address Common Team Building Problems

Moving Goalposts And The Role Of The Leader

Building A Culture Of Accountability

Giving Engaging Feedback

Top Tips For Delivering Authentic Presentations

Top tips for delivering authentic presentations

How To Bridge The Skills Gap

Five Factors That Disconnect Your Team

Resolving Workplace Conflict

Understand the nature of conflict

Choose the right “style” of conflict resolution

“Types” of conflict you experience

How to Perform Better in Life Through Better Team Play: Six Starting Points